"It is just so satisfying to have the best ideas ever." Mila gloated as the real sceptre was taken out of her bag and the medic who had just finished looking over her, glared. Sure he'd told her not to speak because it would aggravate her throat which was ringed in red and blue from being strangled but how could she possibly not gloat? "Was I right or was I right?"

Stark sighed and rolled his eyes. "Yes, you were right but I did all the hard work."

"The only reason you had time to do all the hard work was because I pointed out that you could use the tag for tracking."

"That's not fair, it's not like I'm a nuclear scientist." He whined and glared at Dr Banner.

"SHIELD's the one who brought me in, blame them."Bruce rubbed his head and the bit of green passing over his face passed quickly much to Natasha's relief. Apparently they'd ended up fighting for a bit before the Helicarrier had stabilised. In the scuffle the rogue agent, Barton something, had been knocked out by the Hulk and was recuperating nicely and informing them of all of Loki's plans.

"I'm just sayin-"

"Children, can we have order please." Fury glared down at them. "The portal is still set to go off on Stark towers and our agents haven't managed to break through the energy barrier surrounding it."

"What have you tried?" Captain America asked coldly. He wasn't a lot like the dancing poster boy Mila remembered from the old videos. He'd been nicer before but then again, he'd just had to work with Stark to get the Helicarrier up and running again. That would test anyone's patience.

"I could strike it with Mjolnir." Thor offered but Fury shook his head.

"Let's keep Tall, Dark and Crazy contained with it for now. No form of electric shocks penetrated the barrier and Erik Selvig has yet to wake up from his concussion."

"What if we just moved it?" Mila said and Fury fixed his one eye on her.

"Like I said, nothing penetrates the barrier."

"So just cut around it then."

"And then what?"

"No, no that could work." Stark had that lost look on his face that meant that he was off doing calculations again. "Stark tower is equipped with a fuck ton of weapons, we send them out into the portal before that army even comes in after moving it to an isolated place."

"Got anything nuclear?" Mila asked and ignored the perturbed looks that were sent her way for her enthusiasm.

"Nah, just Arc reactor fuelled bombs and stuff."

"Also one of the associate professor at Culver, Leroy, was doing some work on restrictive barriers, maybe I could contact him."

"You really think he could figure out how to break the barrier?" Fury asked.

"He could try and even if he doesn't we could set up a barrier to restrict the damage."

"Get on it."

Stark nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe some tracking devices, I'd like to know exactly where in space the alien army is coming from."

"That's it?" Steve said, looking rather put out, something echoed in Thor's expression.

Mila waved her hand flippantly intensely typing away into her phone with the other, her attention not wavering from it. "The thing in Stuttgart was enough publicity and heroics, now we just use rationality and science to solve the problem instead bludgeoning it and hoping that works. Finesse is more important than raw power anyway."

"Rhodey's on his way to the old PEGASUS site with the device." Stark announced. "The portal should be operational in four hours so we have till then to plan everything and move our arsenal."

"So, from what Leroy sent me, we might be able to penetrate the barrier with something that has the same energy signature." Mila said, still typing away. "Or it might end up strengthening it, do we take the chance?"

"Wait, Leroy? Lucas Leroy? He said that?" Stark's mouth dropped.

"God no, that man doesn't exactly talk does he?" It was an inside joke, one that Banner and Stark got immediately but the rest didn't and she tried to clear it up for the rest. "Leroy answers with equations, never words. Bastard."

"So we use the sceptre to break through the barrier?"

We could take it.

The stray thought had a frown settling on Mila's face as her fingers slowed down. There was an idea. She could go with the sceptre and try to break the barrier. It only made sense really, who else had as much experience wielding it except for her? She deserved it, after all the trouble they'd cost her and she'd get to get off this fucking flying ship and-

"You okay?" Steve's face was closer than she'd realised and he looked over her, concerned.

"Yeah, fine. Just looking forward to all of this finally getting over." She answered, a bit subdued and shook it off and went back to talking to Leroy.

"Would work. I'd nominate Banner to do that, he wouldn't be that affected by the gamma ray emissions of the Tesseract." Stark said.

"I'm afraid that wouldn't be such a good idea," Banner protested in his usual self -deprecating way. "It...tests my control."

Fury looked over the room, his eye coming to rest upon Natasha. "Agent Romanov."

"Yes sir." She nodded sharply and slid out the room.

It didn't take long for it all to end. The Quinjet landed Natasha at the site a half hour later and by that time Selvig had woken up and confirmed that there he'd built in a safety, they could cut it off right at the power source. They waited, let the portal open up just long enough to send a tracking device in and then shut it off.

And for some strange reason, as Mila watched it form the safety of the Helicarrier, she got angry.

Very, very angry.

But now that things were finally calm, maybe she could finally go to sleep.

She was in that little passageway that lead to the cage Loki was being held in. Odd that, she doesn't quite remember getting there, doesn't even remember entering any of the passwords needed to open those doors. Why did she do that? Why did she walk all the way there in her bare feet especially when the medic had told her to stay off her feet as far as possible because of the cuts. How exhausting and yet she didn't really feel that tired. It was a bit distant, the ache and she was glad for it.

"Mila, what are you doing there?" Natasha's voice echoed over the speakers. She must be the one watching over the cell.

"Hello Natalya."

"What did you call me?"

"I think I got your name confused." Mila said only that didn't make sense either, how could she have gotten her name confused when it was so obviously Natasha. For a moment something loosened inside of her, something relaxed and as the tension drained out it reappeared because all that distant pain wasn't quite so distant anymore and- Oh, was everything always this blue? So lost in her pondering was she that Mila didn't even realise when her hands started flying over keys and Natasha's worried voice died off. What had she been saying anyway? Mila couldn't quite remember.

The doors to the chamber opened and there Loki was, still and silent under Mjolnir. How the mighty had fallen, so pitiful was the godling. He tried and tried but he kept on failing didn't he? How pathetic.

Her fingers deliberated before pressing the dial that would open the doors. It was so very tempting to just press the red and let the cell drop out and take the godling with it. But that wouldn't be enough.

She stepped into his cell on silent feet and knelt near his head. He woke suddenly and snarled.

"You." He spat out and she felt her lips stretch into a grin she didn't really feel.

"You were told weren't you little godling that there would no place for you to hide in if you failed."

She'd never said that to him. Why would she ever say that to him? She'd wanted him to fail, this was her world he was trying to take over why would she want him to succeed?

What was going on?

Loki paled, his eyes widening. She laughed but it did not sound like her laugh. No, none of this seemed like her.

"It would be most poetic justice indeed if the little traitor was to die at the hands of his own weapon don't you think?" She said and her hysteria grew. She was trapped inside her mind while someone, something pulled her strings. Her hand drew a knife from Loki's sleeve, manoeuvring away from the cuffs carefully and held it to his neck. "How fitting that you were to bleed out to nothing under the ministrations of your coming of age gift. That One-Eyed fool spared no expense to get these Nidavellir daggers. Such pretty little things." Lightly she drew it over his cheek and watched the deep red flow out from that gash. "Did you think Thanos would be so kind as to let you go so easy?"

"It was your sceptre that failed me." Loki said and as the blood flowed into his mouth she could only watch as his skin flickered between its usual pale and a deep blue, eyes flashing green and blue and red. It was as unsettling to watch as was her lack of control over herself.

"Foolish Asgardian. So easily tricked and yet you call yourself the God of Lies!" Such anger in her voice but she didn't feel it. No it was hers. The only thing that belonged to her was the panic, nothing else. "You shall be slaughtered. A fitting tribute to my Master's love."

Her hand moved down now, holding the dagger against his neck and slowly began to press. The creature possessing her meant to kill Loki and do so slowly, painfully and Mila refused to be used for such a despicable thing. No, no one was going to use her body to murder anyone while she wasn't in the driver's seat. The flash of anger did something, something strange. Her grip on the dagger relaxed and for a brief second she could feel it's weight in her hand before control was wrenched from her.

"Pipe down fool! This must be done." Her voice said and she knew that creature was talking to her not Loki. Her head ached as he intruded on her again and she used it, used the pain to fuel her anger again and drove the dagger into the floor beside Loki's head. The more she fought the presence the more it hurt, the more aware she grew of all her aches and pains but she didn't stop.

"Get. Out. OF MY HEAD!" She screamed and dug her nails down into the floor so hard they broke, blood streaming from her fingers. With what little freedom he had Loki moved and head butted her hard. It loosened the hold the creature had on her enough for her to move back far enough from him. The little she could sense told her that the door to her cell had been opened and pain bloomed in her temple as the world went dark.