"Santa's Reindeer aren't welcome here," I growled, glaring, standing in front of Gale protectively. Loki's face twisted into a smirk as his eyes flashed back and forth between us, coming to a realisation. I suppressed a shudder, he found us amusing, someone else who just wants to toy with us. My eyes narrowed into slits and my fingers curled defensively. He wore the most formal armor I'd seen him in the photos, minus the reindeer helmet. Gale was quiet behind me, I spared a glance and his face was paler than normal and mouth open in shock.

"Can I not see my son? As you mortals say, it's a free world to take, or is it country?" Loki toyed. I could hear Gale have a sharp intake of breath. I gritted my teeth and my eyes narrowed into slits.

"You won't be taking anything from us," I scowled, my hands clenched, in the background the mist began to stir, picking up on my fury. "And I believe it's a free country, not one to take,"

"Well,," Loki smirked, twirling one of his silver daggers, that had appeared in his hands, sauntering a few steps forwards, "aren't you defensive?"

     "That's my job, but back to the point, you're not taking him,"

     "No," Loki smirked, "he will come voluntarily,"

I laughed, a short chuckle, then stopped and glared, "Wake up Rudolph, he's staying with us," I took a step towards Loki until we were nose to nose, he was a few inches taller than me so I had to glare up in his eyes.

Loki laughed quietly in my face, "Stark's daughter, I presume. This is interesting I must say, you have dark and powerful magic within you. Which is also interesting because magic is only hereditary."

"As if I'd even think for-."

"Loki!" SHIELD agents burst into the room, aiming their weapons at us in a pyramid formation. I took a step away from Loki and closer to Gale. He took his hand in mine and squeezed it, a fraction of worry lessened.

"Why can I not speak with my son?" Loki spoke sarcastically. He took a couple of steps back, raising his hands out in a way that I wasn't sure if it was dramatic or surrendering.

"Because you're supposed to be dead?" I offered.

"Because he's a genocidalist?" Gale said under his breath.

"How 'bout we make a deal?" Fury's voice vibrated around the room as he entered. I glared at Fury, seeing the cold resemblance from the vision and in his face now. I tensed even more, almost everyone in this room was a threat to me in some way.

"I'm all ears," Loki replied in a mocking tone.

"You give us the information that you know, we don't kill you and you can have an hour to speak to Agent Gale,"

It took a few moments for Loki to reply, "I accept," he agreed in his mocking tone that was really beginning to get on my nerves.

I opened my mouth in protest that SHIELD couldn't just use Gale as a bargaining chip without asking him and that Loki will probably kill us when he has the chance; however Gale pulled me away from the scene, into a separate hallway and wrapped me in a tight hug before I could voice my thoughts.

...

It took a little while, but all of the Offspring assembled at the table. The most reluctant of them was me. Fury was there, Loki was there, and in the end, it took Gale dragging me along the ground to attend. I slammed down into the chair that Gale had pulled up for me. I began to lean back on the legs of the chair and put my mismatched socked feet onto the table

All the other Offspring became conscious right about the time Fury struck the deal with Loki. It still took some explaining to get everyone on the same page. All of them were shaken from their individual experiences from the Mist. I tapped on the table, not listening as Fury debriefed them on the advancements in the search.

"And that's how we can confirm that they're not on Earth," one of Fury's sidekicks concluded. "The only problem is, we don't know how to continue our search since they aren't in this realm,"

"I'll have one soon," I added flippantly, speaking for the first time. I decided to piss Fury off, even at my expense.

"What did you say?" Fury glared at me. A few other heads turned my way and I began to count to the eyebrows before Fury repeated himself.

"A location, y'know, what people use to know where each other are? The thing that you've been searching for?"

"Where are you getting this information?" Fury leaned forwards and glared at me.

"My biz to know and yours to never find out," I said, taking my feet off the table. Fury and I then commenced in a staring competition, my arms folded over myself.

"Where is this information?" Fury repeated, leaning further over the table.

Unaffected by his new glares (I had withstood Michelle's many times, I had this) I rolled my eyes and stood. In a slow voice, I spoke, "You said that I'd be a fool to remember, remember that I swore against working with you, seems you are still foolish, because I remember, all of it," My voice became raspy and dark. Suddenly the sun didn't seem as bright, the air was silent and cold. I could feel the Dark Mist swell up behind me. If the others could see it, they'd see the trickle of mist fall from my hands and it drop to the ground, pooling around my ankles.

I blinked and I spun on my heel, storming to the exit. I walked to the door too fast for FRIDAY to open it. However I stumbled into my room, completely intact, if not for a small pang in the head..

Wait...

Did I just teleport?