I don't own Avengers or anything Marvel related!

An agent onboard the Helicarrier had hacked into the security cameras at the Museum and the abandoned news camera across the street, left behind when the news crew fled after seeing Loki kill two security guards. Everyone on the Bridge was focused on the video, holding their breath and hoping Loki would be stopped sooner rather than later. Evelyn had left Bruce's lab to join Maria to see how Captain America handled the situation.

Evelyn watched in horror as Loki created multiples of himself to surround the crowd. Innocent people dressed in evening gowns and tuxedos were screaming in terror in the pavilion, the dead bodies of two armed guards lay crumpled behind Loki. He lifted his scepter and pointed it at an approaching police car, violently flipping the car over and eliciting a fresh burst of terror from his victims.

Loki's gold horns gleamed in the dim light as he walked to the top of the steps and grandly spread his arms as if he was a benevolent savior.

"Kneel before me."He proclaimed loudly, narrowing his gaze when the crowd hesitated. "I said- KNEEL!"

The people in front of him dropped to their knees, hoping he would spare them. Nearly all of them had also averted their gaze, trying to blend into the crowd and not appear as if they were challenging his authority.

He swept down the stairs, his cape rippling behind him in a stream of green.

"Is not this simpler?" He began as he paced in front of the kneeling men and women. "Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end- you will always kneel."

The tense silence was deafening, broken by an unsteady voice.

"Not to men like you." An elderly man stood up, hunched with age, but brave enough to look Loki in the eyes.

Evelyn's eyes widened in fear, hoping Natasha would arrive in time to stop Loki from killing the man.

"There are no men like me." Loki responded, his fingers tightening around his scepter as he turned toward the man.

"There are always men like you." The old man stood straighter.

Loki's smile was cold and vicious. "Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example."

He swung up his scepter and aimed it at the old man, who clenched his fists and directed his proud gaze on Loki's face rather than his weapon. Evelyn gasped as beam of bright white light filled the screen, making it impossible to see what Loki had done.

As the light and smoke cleared, Evelyn could see the red and blue of Captain America's shield. He had placed himself in front of the elderly man without hesitation. Loki, across the pavilion, had fallen to the ground, his shoulder had been singed by the deflected beam.

Captain America stood up and stepped toward Loki. "You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing."

Loki pushed himself to an elbow, "Ah. The Soldier." He said mockingly as he rose to his feet. "The man out of time."

"I'm not the one who's out of time." Captain America replied, as the quinjet came into view behind him with Black Widow at the controls. Two large guns unfolded and honed in on Loki, ready to shoot if he made a move.

Natasha's voice came over the speaker, "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down."

Loki fired at the jet with another beam of blueish-white light, setting off a flurry of motion. The quinjet banked hard, avoiding the blast but losing sight of Loki. Captain America jumped into motion, attacking with his shield but Loki dodged and knocked it aside. He pushed the sharp blade of his scepter into Captain America's neck.

"Kneel!" He commanded again.

Captain America jumped and kicked Loki across his chest, as they continued to fight, the guns on the quinjet swerved back and forth, unable to lock onto Loki's position. From the angle of the cameras, it seemed to Evelyn that Captain America was taking some pretty bad hits-of course he kept getting up to fight back but she wondered how long he could hold his own against Loki's magic.

Her eyes shot back to the quinjet hovering in the corner of the screen when AC/DC began to blast over the jet's speakers. Evelyn shot a glance at Maria, trying to figure out if this was part of the plan. Maria's eyes narrowed at the screen in confusion at the sudden music as she pressed two fingers to her ear, listening to Natasha's voice over the comms.

"It's Stark," Maria said to Evelyn unnecessarily as they both watched the bright red and gold metal suit drop from the sky shooting repulsor blasts to knock Loki down.

Captain America grabbed his shield off the ground where it had landed and walked toward Iron Man, who was aiming multiple blasters at Loki.

As Evelyn watched in amazement, Loki's horned helmet and cape melted away, leaving him in a simple black suit, carefully holding his hands up in surrender.

Maria tapped on her comms again to speak to Captain America, "Bring him back ASAP, Captain."

Both women turned away from the screen when it became evident that Loki was securely in their custody.

Maria raised her eyebrows and shot Evelyn a sarcastic look, "Aren't you glad you joined this circus?"

Evelyn signed in relief as Captain America and Natasha walked in, the former bore faint marks from his earlier fight with Loki, while the latter looked put together as ever. She had been waiting for them at the Bridge with Maria, hoping to find out what happened when Thor suddenly ambushed the quinjet and took Loki.

"Thor's making sure our guys get Loki's scepter to Dr. Banner's Lab safely and Loki's being taken to the cage." Natasha informed them as she took a seat at the large conference table across from Evelyn. She gestured toward the seat in front of a monitor, indicating to Steve to sit there, and took the tablet Maria held out for her.

"You ok, Captain?" Evelyn asked quietly, leaning toward where Steve was seated, two chairs away from her and trying not to be overheard.

He nodded and said, "I didn't take any direct hits from Loki or Thor. Stark's probably a little more banged up though. He went up against Thor for a few minutes."

"Were we expecting him?" Evelyn turned to Maria in confusion. "I mean Thor. Were we expecting Thor?"

"No, but Loki's his brother. Thor might know what he wants."Maria responded to her before turning to Natasha, "Fury's down there, waiting for Loki. He might need you later."

Natasha nodded and glanced down at the screen where the cameras on board were tracking Loki's movements. As she threw herself into observing Loki for future reference, Bruce quietly snuck in through the door behind her. He seemed to not know where to stand or what to do with his hands, eventually settling on leaning against the wall next to Captain Rogers and sliding his glasses off to play with them. Both Bruce and Evelyn could see the monitor in front of Steve flicker on.

As she spoke, Thor entered, following behind an another agent who showed him to a computer.

Evelyn surveyed him carefully as he listened to the agent who pointed at a map and photographs on the computer screen. She had seen footage of him from New Mexico but it paled in comparison to the real man, or rather the real God. She shot Maria an incredulous look, silently conveying asking, how can he even be real? She was completely blown over but tried to control her thoughts, You're a doctor for gods' sake! He's just another possible patient. BE PROFESSIONAL! Sitting up again, she glanced toward Natasha, who had rested her face on her fists as she watched the tablet screen with narrowed eyes.

Evelyn could hear Loki's cruel taunts emanating from the monitor in front of Steve, "…How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?"

Evelyn considered Loki's words, lost creatures. That wasn't far from what she had said to Phil about the Avengers Initiative. What had she called them? Oh yeah, A frozen guy, a Jekyll-and-Hyde type scientist, and a man with an ego like Naomi Campbell's. She didn't know yet whether her words were right or wrong but felt uneasy that her thoughts were so close to Loki's taunts.

She considered Captain America and Bruce Banner. They seemed to be nice, relatively well-adjusted guys, all things considered- but somehow Loki cut to the center of it when he called them lost. Captain America was lost in time; Bruce wanted nothing more than to be lost and forgotten by the world; and Tony Stark, from what she'd heard, was slowly spiraling down, getting lost in his own self-destruction. As Loki had said, they were all lost and desperate for something, but it seemed that he was the only one who had found what he needed.

Fury's sarcastic voice interrupted her thoughts, "Well, let me know if 'real power wants a magazine or something."

The monitor on Steve's side of the table switched off and everyone sat in stunned silence for a moment.

Bruce, still twirling his glasses around his fingers spoke sarcastically, "He really grows on you doesn't he?"

Steve looked toward Thor in response, his tactical mind racing as he asked, "Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?"

Thor had approached the table while Evelyn was lost in her thoughts, "He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard nor any world known. He means to lead the against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

Steve, desperately trying to wrap his head around the events of the past few days, responded slowly, "An army, from outer space?"

Bruce considered Thor's words, "So, he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

Thor's gaze shot to Bruce, "Selvig?"

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend." Thor said with a furrowed brow, disturbed by the news.

Natasha responded to Thor, reading the concern for Eric Selvig in his eyes, "Loki has them under some kind of spell- along with one of ours."

Steve spoke up again, clearly still bothered by Loki's quick surrender, "I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here."

Banner shook his head and slid his glasses back on, "No, I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you can small crazy on him."

Evelyn's eyes slid to Thor, trying to gauge what he was thinking about the situation. He had barely moved from where he was standing, not to sit down or even to watch Loki and Fury's conversation. His back was stiff and his ams were crossed across his chest, making him look even more imposing.

Thor's voice grew defensive at Bruce's insult, "Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother."

Natasha shot a look at Thor," He killed eighty people in two days."

Thor seemed uncomfortable but not surprised by the fact, "He's… adopted."

Bruce ignored them and turned the conversation back to Loki's plan. Shaking his head he took a few steps forward, "I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium, what do they need the Iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony cut in from the entrance of the Bridge. He sauntered toward them, quietly carrying on a second conversation with Phil. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD."

He broke off from Phil's side and headed to the center of the Helicarrier where Fury usually stood.

As Tony quickly took over the conversation, Evelyn got up and rounded the table to where Natasha had abandoned the tablet. She tuned out the voices around and stared at Loki on the screen. He stood completely still, his hands folded behind his back and his eyes focused on the air in front of him. She was disturbed by the idea that he seemed to know much more about them, their desires, their goals, their weaknesses, than they knew about him. Even Thor, who knew Loki more than any of them, was unable to find a reasonable answer to Loki's motivation.

Even through the small screen, Evelyn could see the faint bruising under Loki's eyes, a thin scratch from where Captain Rogers had hit him with his shield and an overall gauntness in his face and body. Loki looked unhealthy but didn't seem to show any pain at all, rather, he looked oddly gleeful at his confinement in the glass prison. Her eyes shot toward Thor and Fury, who had joined them a few minutes ago. They seemed to be in deep conversation, the expression of grim determination on Fury's face sent a flood of uneasiness through Evelyn. Evelyn could only assume Fury wanted Thor to get information from Loki, using any means necessary. She couldn't imagine Fury having any strong reservations against torturing a prisoner and war criminal. She approached them carefully with the tablet in hand.

As she went closer, she heard Fury's voice take on a threatening tone, "A lot of guys think that, until the pain starts."

Thor clearly knew what Fury was implying, "What are you asking me to do?"

Fury continued, undeterred, "I'm asking, what are you prepared to do?"

"Loki is a prisoner." Thor ended the conversation. Evelyn felt a rush of relief at his staunch opposition to Fury's suggestion. She had briefly worried that she would have to fight both of them.

"I want to see him." She spoke quietly to them, making sure no one else heard. "There's something that's not right about him."

Thor and Fury's conversation came to a complete halt at their words.

"Dr. Clark, you are not qualified to speak to a terrorist." Fury dismissed her request without hesitation.

"You're right," She agreed, "However, I am qualified to speak to a prisoner and a patient who might be hurt. That's why you wanted me." she reminded him.

Fury looked toward Maria, who had been standing close enough to listen. She lifted one shoulder in quiet agreement with Evelyn. "You get 10 minutes. Do not open the doors. Do not converse more than absolutely necessary. Take-" Fury glanced around at the people on the Bridge, "Take Captain Roge-"

"I'll go," Thor interrupted. "He won't be expecting me to speak with him."

"Fine." Fury nodded once at Thor and Evelyn, obviously displeased by the turn of events. He turned away to speak with Tony and Bruce, who were discussing how Loki wanted to use the irridium to open the portal.

Hello All!

1. As always, ask me questions, send me suggestions or just say hi! I'd love to hear from you :)

2. Just an FYI, I know this chapter sucks! It's really only a filler chapter to lay the real groundwork between how Evelyn, Thor and Loki interact. I promise next chapter will be better!

3. I just posted another story called I Love the Way You Lie, it's Evelyn/Brock Rumlow and takes place right before Captain America-Winter Soldier.

Please review with any critiques, input or ideas about this story or any others!

-Mo-