Third Person POV:

"You let her go?!"

The Avengers had just explained to Nick Fury what they'd done with Lexis and he was not pleased. "We had no choice," Natasha pointed out. "We can't kidnap her. That would make us just as bad as the kidnappers we try to stop."

"But if she's able to help us, it's better to get her on our side rather than leave her for our enemies to make use of," Fury sighed. "Do you at least know where she went?"

"She went back to her home in a bear infested forest," Steve muttered, head down, annoyed with himself for allowing it. "We don't even know if she made it back there. Even if she did, she could've been killed by some wild animal."

"She said she had some kind of defence mechanism for the bears," Natasha said, hoping to calm Steve down a little. "And she's still got that weapon of hers. I think she'll be fine."

"I guess we can only hope that she'll come back when she realises we can take her swimming," Tony shrugged. "She won't, she said she swam every day, so she has her own way of swimming," Natasha pointed out. "She's got her life all planned out for herself and she says she's happy with it."

"Well if you see her again, I want to speak with her," Fury stated, walking out. The Avengers watched the door as though he was still there.

"I'm heading out," Natasha said after a while, standing up. "Don't wait up for me." "Where are you going?" Bruce asked instantly, watching her as she started walking. "Nowhere specifically, just feel like getting out of here," she replied. "Need to think. Can't do that when Stark is here, you all know he's prone to interrupting."

"Not arguing with that," Tony shrugged. "Jarvis is gonna close up at three, make sure you're back here before then or you're sleeping outside for what's left of the night."

"Noted," Natasha sighed. "I'll see you guys tomorrow, then."

The others spent their time playing video games, reading, playing around with their gadgets and chatting, but half an hour later they put it all down due to the surge of lightning that crackled through the skies. There wasn't a cloud in the darkening sky, meaning only one thing.

"I have returned!" Thor's booming voice announced as he stepped inside. "The predicament of Loki has been discussed!"

"What's the deal with Reindeer Games, then?" Tony asked. "Father approved of Lady Grey's suggestion of a trial period on Midgard," Thor replied. "He wished that Loki would learn the value of human life."

Thor looked around. "Where is the Lady, anyway?" He asked. "She left," Steve replied. "The girls wouldn't let us keep her here for a while longer after we took her swimming."

"You took her to swim?" Thor was confused. "Why?" "She said she loved swimming, so we figured we'd try to get on her good side," Sam shrugged. "Clearly it was wasted efforts, in that sense, but at least we got some time in a pool out of it."

"Why do you care so much?" Thor asked. "We were hoping to get her on the team," Wanda answered. "Lexis has other powers, we're just not sure what yet. She could help us a lot."

"Well I won't argue to having her around," Thor shrugged. "Neither will I," Steve sighed. "She'd better be okay."

~•~

Natasha ordered two coffees from a café near the tower, then took a seat by the window, looking out with a blank face. She wanted to make sure she hadn't been followed, but thankfully she seemed to be in the clear when she couldn't spot anyone after ten minutes.

She headed out again, checking the tracking device in her hand. A few lights bleeped at the tower, but one lone light was far off. The one in the bikini she'd loaned Lexis was transmitting it's signal just as it was supposed to.

She started following the signal. It wasn't moving, so it wasn't too difficult. Finally she reached a forest and smiled to herself, glad that at least Lexis might have found her home alright. She was about to head into the wilderness when something tugged at her jeans.

"Miss, you cant go in the forest!" A nervous little boy warned her. "Why not?" Natasha asked. "There are bears and wolves and the statue in there!" The boy looked at the forest, anxious to not let the redheaded woman go in.

"The statue? What's so bad about a statue?"

"It comes to life!" The boy insisted. "My older sister went in there once and she screamed and then when she ran back out she kept saying about someone in her head screaming at her and that it was a statue doing it and my dad went in and it was the same!"

"Hm... well I'm not scared of a statue," Natasha said. "Though I don't think it was just a statue. I'll see what I can do, okay?"

Without waiting for a reply, Natasha left to head into the forest, certain Lexis was in there. She passed ferns and nettles and all kinds of other plants. A woodpecker was making quick work of a tree somewhere and an owl was hooting.

Natasha assumed she'd been wandering aimlessly for about ten to fifteen minutes when she heard a howl. Several howls joined in, then the thundering of quick, agile paws pounding against the forest floor alerted Natasha to the fact that there was a pack of wolves after her.

She started running, hoping to hide from the wolves, but they were too quick for her and they had the home field advantage. One wolf leapt at her back, pinning her down, while the others pounced after her.

Natasha felt the pain of a wolf biting her arm and held back a scream as best she could, but before it got too deep the fangs stopped grinding deeper, instead they hesitated. All the wolves did the same.

After a moment or two the wolves backed away from Natasha, careful not to harm her further, then trotted off peacefully. You are lucky I heard your thoughts or you would be... what do you call it these days? Doggy chow, a familiar voice entered her head, causing her to smirk very slightly.