APPROXIMATLY ONE AND A HALF WEEKS AGO

"Who the hell took my jet!" Tony stormed into the common room where Steve, Clint, and Jane were gathered. He was flustered and red in the face.

"I'm sorry?" Jane asked, not sure if she heard Tony correctly.

"My jet, records indicate that it left hours ago!" Pissed did not even begin to describe what he was feeling right now.

"Tony, calm down," Steve said as he got up from his place on the couch, followed by Clint. "I'm sure there is a logical explanation for this."

"Jarvis!" Tony yelled at his AI system as he ignored Steve.

"I am here, sir," the unit replied.

"You know what I want Jarvis."

"Of course, I know you so well. Ms. Romanoff took your jet approximately 4 hours ago. Flight records indicate that it is located a few hundred miles from here, I'm sending the coordinates to your phone as we speak."

Tony was fuming. No one was allowed to take his jet, it was his jet and his baby. Noticing Jane in the room, he asked Jarvis where Darcy was.

"Ms. Lewis left the building not too long after Ms. Romanoff. I presume to follow her."

After many choice words were said, Tony grabbed Steve and Clint and took off in the helicopter to where his jet was located. Jane was left behind as she had no field training and they weren't fully sure as to what was going on.

Why would they leave without telling us? Tony wondered as he piloted his chopper. I thought we were passed all of this.

When they found the jet, it was abandoned. They climbed into the small space and found the note that Natasha had written. 'sorry guys, I had to. Please don't follow me.'

"What did she have to do?" Steve asked Tony, knowing he didn't really have the answer.

"I don't know Steve, but we are about to find out, she left her phone." Tony had found the phone Natasha left in the pilot's seat. He knew that she would expect it to be traced, but maybe Darcy would pick up if he called her from Nat's phone, assuming they were already together. He went through the contacts and then pressed on Darcy's name. It rang only a few times before it was answered by the spunky brunette.

"Nat! Thank god you called, where are you? Are you okay?" As soon as she answered, he had Clint start tracing her phones location.

"Hello Darcy, care to explain what the hell is going on? And kindly tell me why my jet is sitting here at some random airport with Nat's phone sitting in the pilot's seat?" Dread filled Tony when he realized that even Darcy didn't know where Natasha was.

"Um, hello Tony, I can't talk right now. I'm kind of busy with some stuff here at the tower so I'll talk to you when you get back okay?" Clint finished the trace and held up his device to show Tony.

"Since when did my tower move to a little motel parking lot in the middle of nowhere?"

"Tony I'm sorry. Nat has to do something and I'm helping her whether she likes it or not." From the tone of her voice, she sounded worried, and when Darcy was worried about someone, it was for good reason and usually led to trouble.

"Well since you answered with asking where she was, how is that going for you?" Tony didn't bother waiting for an answer, he needed to know that they were safe. "We are on our way, stay there Darcy."

Tony hung up and cursed himself. "Well at least we know where Darcy is. Let's go."

The team then left the empty and out of fuel jet alone once again and loaded into the helicopter. The phones signal they had traced suddenly disappeared. "Shit," Tony said and received a glare from a very unhappy Steve.

Clint huffed, "smart girl, she knows she's been traced. She probably destroyed the phone."

They left anyways and set a course to the phones last known location. They would have to hurry though, Darcy had been trained by Natasha, and Natasha knew not to stick around once her cover had been blown.

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A week had passed since their search for Darcy and Natasha led them to a shattered phone. The team was back at the tower and hadn't stopped trying to locate the rest of their team.

"No, Clint, I still don't have any leads so quit asking me!" Tony was seriously annoyed at everyone at the moment. Just because he was smart with computers didn't mean he could use them to find someone who didn't want to be found. He had been digging for days and just when he thought he had something, the trail would just disappear. Trying to find Natasha and Darcy had been his top priority ever since they disappeared. His team was already down from Thor still gone in Asgard for who knows what and Bruce still recovering. All that was left was him, Clint, Steve, and Jane if you could even count her.

Director Fury still didn't have his full trust in the fact that Natasha was herself again, and frankly with the disappearance of the two women, he didn't either. Tony just knew though that it had to be something else.

"Tony, you said you had something yesterday." Clint could have sworn that Tony was excited about something he came across on the dark web yesterday.

"I did! I mean, I think I did, it could have been a hallucination. I haven't really slept in a while and this coffee Cap keeps making is weak as crap." Tony glared into his coffee cup and grimaced before downing what was left.

Clint rolled his eyes at Tony before reaching over to take the cup from his hand. "Go sleep Tony. You can't help much if you are half awake."

Tony battled with himself for a moment before agreeing with Clint. He had found nothing since tracing Darcy's cell phone. There just had be a clue somewhere. It was almost as if someone was covering up their tracks, but Tony couldn't be sure.

Many miles away, agent Maria Hill sat stressfully at her desk. While trying to do her normal work, she was also trying to keep SHIELD off the tracks of Natasha Romanoff. As soon as Tony Stark contacted SHIELD with the disappearance of Natasha Romanoff and Darcy Lewis, she just knew she had to help Natasha. Fury had agents working overtime with the Avengers in trying to locate the assassin and her new sidekick as Tony was calling her. She had received a video message from Natasha herself not too long after she started covering her trail and used it to convince Fury that they were okay. She also sent the message to Tony Stark, hoping that it would ease up the search, but of course it didn't. Maria knew that Natasha reached out to her not because she was close with Fury, but because Natasha trusted her with her life, and she vice versa. Not being able to do it all alone, she reached out to a newer agent and gave her the necessary info to keep Natasha off the radar. She signed off on it and with her being second in command in the SHIELD ranks, she knew the agent wouldn't break the secrecy. The agent surprisingly took the mission well and was going above and beyond her expectations. With the hacking skill she was displaying, Maria thought to herself that she would need to keep an eye on this agent Skye in the future.

Everyone seemed to be battling their own demons within SHIELD and the Avengers Tower. They were not the only ones though, as worlds away another battle was taking place. As soon as Thor made it to Lady Sifs side, he joined her ranks and helped turn the tides against their enemy. Lady Sif was surprised to see him show up so unannounced but with the way things had been going, she was grateful. She learned that he had led another small army to her location and with the help of the new soldiers, they defeated the invaders within days instead of weeks. It was only after the chaos that he told her the real reason he was there.

The battle had just died down and her army was helping the townspeople of the area recover. Thor led her to a private area out of earshot and then explained to her why he had left Midgard and come all this way.

"Lady Sif, I am glad to see that you and our people are safe, but I have come here for another reason."

Sif looked confused and then began to worry that something had happened back at Asgard. "Is Odin okay? Has something happened in my absence?"

"No, no," he assured her, "nothing like that." He fretted over his words for a few moments, not sure really what to say. "Do you remember years ago when I pulled you through my window after I saw you climbing down the tower walls from the guards? They were after you because..."

"...I had that human child?" She interrupted as she remembered. She remembered it like it was yesterday, the baby had remarkable lilac colored eyes.

"Yes, the baby. Well, do you remember Natasha Romanoff? She also goes by the alias of Black Widow."

Sif did know of the woman. From her times working with SHIELD and visiting Midgard, she had heard stories. Also, all Thor could talk about when he visited was his Avengers team, of which Natasha was a part of. "Of course, but what does she have to do with the child, Ksenia I think was her name."

"Ksenia! Yes! Then it is her!" Thor was relieved, this was the first time Sif had ever said the child's name, and it was the same name Natasha had told him. This couldn't be a coincidence so his doubt about the relationship was pushed away and he felt more confident with asking Sif to go to Natasha.

"Thor what's going on? Loki threatened me to never speak of that child again, what brought it up?"

The mention of Loki sent a pang of worry through him for his brother. "Something happened a while ago to my friend Natasha and it brought some memories back that Loki had stolen from her, stolen many years ago. It was the memory of Ksenia. Sif... Natasha is her mother, and she is desperately trying to find some answers. She needs your help."

Lady Sif couldn't speak. She remembered Loki coming to her one night sick with worry over the child and the child's mother. Loki cared deeply for this woman and to bend the rules to bring the baby to Asgard just to keep it safe while he went back to her broke her heart. When the baby had died and she visited its grave, that's when she saw the change in Loki. She couldn't help but wonder if she had done more to help Loki that things could be different.

"But how?" she asked.

"You need to ask Natasha. I do not have the whole story but I do know Loki is on the loose and is dangerous. He attacked Natasha and somehow affected her with his ice powers. I fear that if we do not help Natasha find answers and somehow help Loki find closure as well...we will lose him, for good this time. Natasha thinks that she is the reason he is evil now and after all I have seen since she got her memory back, it has me convinced."

Lady Sif agreed with him. "Give me an hour and we shall leave." With that, Lady Sif hurried away to check on her men and to establish a second in command while she was gone. She gave her orders and then was ready to go.

Now that the battle was over, they were able to summon a portal directly back to Earth. They weren't sure of exactly where to go, so Sif suggested the old Red Room compound. Once their feet crunched into the frozen snow on Midgard though, a sense of dread overcame the two. The compound they arrived at looked abandoned and the wind whipping through the snow in the dark night made shapes like ghosts. The way the wind whistled around the sharp edges of the building was haunting and it made Thor want to leave right away. He couldn't though, so they pushed on and entered the charred and burnt building.

They were hardly there for two minutes when they sensed a presence. They went into defensive mode, Lady Sif wielded her sword while Thor gripped his hammer tighter. Before they could see who was in the darkness, the figure spoke.

"You must know Ms. Romanoff," Dove said as he inspected the two. He saw the portal come down and just knew it had to be the Lady Sif she was waiting for. He didn't expect the infamous Thor to be with her.

The body language of the two newcomers relaxed slightly at the mention of their friend but they still had no idea if this stranger before them was a friend or foe.

"And who are you might I ask?" Lady Sif was still tense beside Thor as she tried to figure this man out.

"I'm sorry," Dove said as he stepped from the shadows and into the moonlit hallway, "my name is Dove. Natasha Romanoff and Darcy... well Darcy, asked me to look out for a Lady Sif."

There was no way a stranger would connect Natasha Romanoff, Darcy, and Lady Sif together. Sif gave Thor a nod and the two relaxed more, with Sif lowering her sword.

"I am Sif of Asgard, and I presume you know who Thor is. I hear he is famous in this world."

"I do know of Thor, it's nice to meet you two." Dove extended his hand and Thor shook it very strongly. His fingers almost went numb but got the feeling back when he went to shake Lady Sif's hand. Her grip actually made them numb and he had to shake his hand to get the pinprick feeling to go away.

"I apologize," she said. "I am not used to the weak beings on this world."

Dove laughed as he brushed off the insult, knowing she didn't really mean it. "Come on, I'll take you to my room where there is more light as well as a warm fire.

He started to walk away when he noticed the hesitation from his two new friends. "Unless you want to stay here and freeze in this hallway until Natasha shows back up hours from now."

"Let's go with this Dove fellow," Thor said quickly. This whole place was setting his nerves on edge. He had seen what this place had done to Natasha as he watched the screen she was hooked up to; this place was evil.

Once in the room, Dove explained to them that Natasha would be back in the morning. He told them that she assumed Lady Sif would come here first to try and find her. When Thor asked how he knew her, he retold the story of how he noticed her when she first got there and how he covered for them when HYDRA attacked. When agent Bobbie Morse came up, Thor recognized the name from when the Winter Soldier kidnapped Natasha and had to be taken to the SHIELD team that Bobbie was a part of. He was surprised to hear that she was working with her since Natasha was hard to get along with.

"So," Dove began again a while later, "what is all of this about?" He was insanely curious. To bring someone from another world couldn't have been easy and what could Lady Sif know that Natasha needed to know?

"You do not know?" Lady Sif asked. She wasn't sure if she should say anything to this stranger. "Im sure Ms. Romanoff hasn't told you for a reason, so I am not at liberty to say."

"I understand." Dove was bummed but completely understood why. He looked into the tired faces of his new guests and then found his manners. Please..." he said as he gestured over to a couple of couches and blankets by the fire, "make yourselves comfortable and get some rest; Romanoff should be back in the morning."

Lady Sif smiled at the gesture and followed Thor over to the fireplace. "Thank you Dove, you are kind."

"It's no problem. It's a big place, I'll just be over in the next room if you need me."

With that, Dove left the room and Thor and Sif made themselves comfortable. They both fell asleep within minutes after being so exhausted from battle. Tomorrow was going to be a big day and they needed all the sleep they could get.