Crossover between the MCU and the His Dark Materials trilogy. No HDM characters appear or are mentioned.

No warnings.

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Unorthodox, to be Sure

Kenna had not seen her true skin since she first whimpering into being. She almost missed the hard ice of her true skin, chilled from within by the ice in Loki's blood. She supposed that she should be thankful that Odin had not covered - could not cover - her eyes with the same illusion that he had woven around her skin. Her eyes still smoldered with the fires of chaos and the cores of planets.

She knew that Loki had realized something was different about her as soon as he first discovered his magics and wove his first illusion. She felt his surprise at the complexity of the working around her, and his puzzlement as he realized that he could not undo it.

She felt him begin to question as he looked around and truly saw for the first time. He watched Thor's daemon, Magnhildr, shed bolts of lightning and rend the sky with her thunderous cries. He saw Hugin and Munin, Odin's inseparable twin daemons, trail fiery strands through the sky from their wings as they took flight.

The Æsir and their daemons, almost to a man, were made of lightning and fire: dynamic, destructive elements for a destructive people. The Vanir and their daemons, like the elves of Álfheim, had souls of greenery and life, living constructs of the verdant worlds from which they came. The dwarves of Niðavellir were accompanied by daemons of rock and mineral. Even the dark elves of Svartalfheim, what few still remained, had daemons of shadow and dark matter. She, Kenna, was the only daemon on any of the Nine but Midgard to have the appearance of a common beast. But Loki took note of her fiery eyes, and was calmed. He assumed that he was the bastard child of Odin and a Midgardian, as did the others who were close to him.

Kenna knew that his assumption was false, but she did not say a word. She had heard the whispers in the darkness, unhappy Æsir already wary of the dark-haired, pale-skinned young man with the strange daemon with eyes of embers in their midst. She had listened as they demonized the world of ice on which her soul had been forged, and she had become afraid for her other half. Loki, dear Loki, already lingered on the outskirts of his chosen Pack, driven out by his proficiency in magics and illusion. He would not last without the other Æsir upon whom he depended for Pack. And Odin, old Odin Allfather, ignorant in his wisdom, did not see it.

So Kenna allowed her skin to be hidden, performed her part in the elaborate illusion that Loki was at the center of. Or rather, she played her part until the ill-advised invasion of Jötunheim, when a Jötunn with an eagle daemon of ice and embers clawed her and the giant grabbed Loki. Then she screamed as her illusion peeled away and Loki's skin blued. And she felt the turmoil within her other half, and the horror, and could do nothing but follow him as he ran into the wastes of the icy world.

She followed him onto the secret paths, followed him as he stumbled blindly along the branches of Yggdrasil, fought off the foul beasts of the abyss that meant to take Loki as he was weakened. When Loki finally halted, she looked around to see that he had led them to Midgard. All around them, humans and daemons eyed them with trepidation – the blue-skinned giant and daemon of ice and fire. Loki wove a working and the humans all looked away, forgetting about ever seeing something out of the ordinary.

Then Kenna spoke, finally breaking the silence that had enveloped them since Loki first stepped onto Jötunheim behind Thor and Magnhildr. Loki, she queried, why did you take us here?

Loki slumped against the wall, slowly weaving an illusion to hide his true form once again, although he did not hide her icy visage. "You see, Kenna, I would not be accepted on any other realm as I am. I am Jötunn, a beast of ice. Midgard is the only realm that does not know to fear me."

Kenna sighed, Heimdall will soon find you and drag us both back to Asgard. Running will be seen as cowardice and treachery, you know this.

Loki growled, "Heimdall will not see me, nor you. You know this, Kenna."

Well, yes. Even so, eventually you will give yourself away, Loki, other half. You need your Pack, and Midgard is not your den. Kenna tilted her head, still formed of ice.

Loki shook his head, muttering, "I need no one. I do not require companions simply because you, my other soul, are a wolf. I am a wanderer; I require no pack nor den."

Kenna huffed, You say that now, but soon you will feel the emptiness that Pack filled. Is there no way that I can convince you to return to our den?

"No."

The two of them wandered Midgard for a month before Loki – or rather, Kenna – drew attention. A nondescript man in a suit approached them after they had sat on a convenient bench in a place the humans had dubbed "Central Park," according to the sign.

"Excuse me," the man asked, "Would it be possible for me to talk with you over coffee, Mr.?"

Loki answered, intrigued by not only this man's boldness but the many weapons present on his person, "I am Loki. I would not be adverse to a small conversation. May I inquire as to your name?"

"Call me Coulson." Kenna watched his daemon, some type of common Midgardian bird that she believed was known as a "pigeon," as she cocked her head on Coulson's shoulder. Kenna also saw Coulson's eyes stay on her, the wolf seemingly made of ice, almost seeming as if he was assessing a threat, not marveling at an oddity. Oh yes, he was intriguing.

She and Loki were following Coulson to a coffeeshop nearby when movement from above caught her eyes. She glanced around, seeing nothing, but the caution she felt from Loki meant that her eyes weren't deceiving her. Someone was above them, with a weapon trained on their heads.

As they sat, orders placed and retrieved, Loki asked with a small smile, "So, Coulson, if this is simply a friendly conversation, why, pray tell, is someone perched above us prepared to dispose of us?"

Coulson covered his surprise well, Kenna noted. All that moved were his eyebrows and his daemon's ruffled neck feathers. He replied, "So you noticed Barton."

Kenna growled as Loki nodded with his sharpest grin. "That we did. Now, why take such…precautions, Coulson?"

He sighed. "I work for an agency known as SHIELD. The Strategic Homeland Intervention and Enforcement Logistics Division. My job is to identify possible threats to our planet, and decide whether they are friend or foe. So let me ask you, Mr. Loki, are you friend? Or are you foe?"

Loki tilted his head. "So you wish to know whether I will wreak destruction upon this weak world?" Coulson and his daemon stiffened. Loki laughed. "Nay, Agent Coulson, I will not wage war upon this puny realm. All I ask in return is that you do not threaten me."

Kenna stiffened at Coulson's next words. "Is telling Thor of your location a threat? He has attempted to enlist us many times in an effort to regain his 'brother.' So far, we have not revealed your location, even though we knew where you were from the moment you appeared in Shanghai. So I ask again, and perhaps I didn't word my inquiry quite right, will you work with us, or against us, Loki Silvertongue?"

She growled, hating the corner Coulson had just backed them into. Oh, that bastard child of a goat. Her hackles rose, spiny hairs of everfrozen ice as hard as rock chiming like wineglasses as they rubbed against each other. Coulson's daemon puffed its feathers, eyes suddenly focused. Loki calmed her with a hand on her head, as he soothed, "Shush, Kenna. It is not too much of a hardship. I would wish to learn of the workings that allowed this SHIELD to follow me across continents while I hidden from even Heimdall."

Coulson rubbed his daemon's head as well, his eyes focused on her. "I must admit that even I do not understand Mr. Stark's methods; the science goes over my head. But if you want to meet him, all you have to do is ask. You'll more than likely be working with him." At that, Coulson pressed some device that was imbedded in his ear. Seconds later, two other humans appeared from outside the shop. "Meet Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton. If all goes well, you will be working with them as well."

Kenna watched as the woman – Natasha – allowed a small animal, what seemed to be a mouse, to scurry up her shoulder. The animal perched on her shoulder and promptly shifted forms into some kind of very small, fast-moving bird, which she believed was known in Midgard as a "hummingbird." Kenna huffed in surprise – she thought that daemons on Midgard were frozen in their shapes as they were in the other realms.

The other daemon, a "spider monkey," according to Loki, clung to the man's head. She noticed Kenna's attention and hissed at her, teeth bared. Kenna bared hers back, but Loki's hand on her head calmed her. These would apparently be their new compatriots; it would not do to antagonize them.

Loki followed the humans as they walked away, and Kenna followed him. It seemed that maybe they had had found the makings of a new pack, if they could learn to get along. Even a group as distrustful as they could learn to lower their barriers.

She hoped that time could ease the tension in the other humans' shoulders. She longed, deep within her heart, for the comfort of Pack again.

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So, even though I only wrote in 5 of them, I found daemons for everyone on the Avengers:

Tony-coyote (Sitala)
Steve-lesser bilby (Carlyn)
Natasha-changeable but likes hummingbird (Koldan - Artyom)
Clint-spider monkey (Diana)
Bruce-koala (Belle)
Thor-thunderbird (Magnhildr)
Loki-ice wolf with eyes of embers, Odin used his powers to hide the ice, making her appear normal-furred (but he can't hide the eyes) (Kenna)

The lesser bilby - Steve's daemon - actually went extinct in the 1960s. I honestly thought that something to illustrate how separated Steve really was from the modern world would be best. Also, the lesser bilby was "aggressive and tenacious," attributes that followed Steve as his outer appearance was changed irrevocably.
In all honestly, all of the names have meaning - I just didn't write it down. Some of them are more obvious - Diana is the Roman huntress-goddess, and Belle is from Beauty and the Beast. (Bruce always liked that story because even when he was a kid he knew something was different inside of him.) Natasha's daemon never settled due to experimentation in the Red Room - after all, if your daemon can shift, it can be more useful in more ways. She changed his name after they made it to SHIELD - from Koldan (sting) to Artyom (safe and sound) - as if to reassure herself that maybe she could escape from the blood of her previous life.

Also, I haven't actually read the HDM books in...years. I hope I did daemons justice.

(I love comments so much; they make my heart burst in adoration.)