The Legacy of Meisal Mendadaughter~ Avengers fanfiction

Meisal, not Menda

Okay, I guess I should explain sort of where this falls on the Marvel timeline. So this is basically after Ragnarok, except it's like what would have happened if Thanos had never attacked their ship and all that good stuff. The Asgardians are just living life normally on earth, Thor and Loki are both heroes and are also living on earth, whatever. Any other questions about this, ask in the comments.

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Loki liked Menda. He liked her clever ways of putting things and her subdued yet sassy personality and her ability to hold her own, even when the Avengers were all gathered around her, treating her like a criminal. Loki liked watching them struggle with her, not because he disliked the Avengers, but because he liked watching Menda win. For some reason, he felt like she was the good guy.

Like she was a hero.

That was why he was going to free her from her prison cell.

He waited a few hours before he put his plan into action. The others didn't suspect a thing-- they all thought he was beyond his trickster stage, and nobody would think that he was planning on releasing Menda, a strange alien girl who he'd literally just met. But of course, Loki didn't operate based on what was predictable-- if he did, he would have been killed by some enemy or another long ago. No, it made much more sense to make moves that were unexpected-- that way, you always had the upper hand, and you always won.

Loki was left alone in the meeting room after Bucky (along with Falcon and Hawkeye, as it turned out) had arrived in Wakanda. The Avengers had gathered briefly in the meeting room to fill the three newest guests in on the details and to establish a plan, and then they had broken up to do their own thing for a bit. Bucky had said that since nobody else knew what had happened in this girl's past, and since she seemed to be regaining memories on her own easily enough, it would be best just to leave her alone for a bit and casually check in on her every now and again to see what new developments had been made. Had Loki not been counting on Menda being left alone for his plan to work, he would have spoken up and pointed out that the more time she had alone, the more time she had to decide, uninfluenced by the knowledge of what the Avengers really stood for, if she wanted to be their friend or foe.

Loki sat at the long table, his chin resting in his hand, putting on a show of being in deep thought when really, he was just waiting for everyone to be far enough away for him to put his plan into action. He knew for a fact that Steve, Bucky and Falcon (or Sam Wilson, as everyone on the team called him) would be off together, having childish fun like boys at camp. Natasha might be with them, or she could hang around with Hawkeye (Clint Barton), which was more likely. Those two were good friends-- as Loki remembered, with more than a tinge of guilt, about his first long-term visit to earth. He had come to invade earth in the name of the Chitauri, trying to gain earth for his own, making a deal with Thanos, who wanted the Infinity stones all for his own. Loki had very nearly succeeded, but looking back on it all, he was relived that the newly-formed Avengers had managed to stop him and his army. Loki had done his fair share of horrible things, including using the Tesseract to possess Clint's mind and force him to fight against his friends. He had been imprisoned in Asgard once the whole thing was over, however, and after a long time, many years of fighting, ruling, redoing things over and over, he and Thor trying so hard to be brothers again, and finally, finally becoming a family once more, he was happy.

But anyways. Back to his original plan.

Loki casually got up and left the room striding through the hallways without making eye contact with anyone, as per custom. Despite having been forgiven by the Avengers, e still didn't feel fully accepted-- which, in his mind, was totally understandable. Why should they welcome Loki, the god of mischief, a lowly trickster, a criminal who had tried to kill them, take over the world, and destroy everything they held dear, with open arms? It didn't make sense. Loki knew for a fact that he wouldn't do it.

Loki walked around in confusing circles for a while, just to make sure that he wouldn't be studied on the security cameras, before striding right up to the prison entrance and announcing that he was with the Avengers. He was let in immediately, and from there, he had only to walk down the hallway in order to free Menda from her cell.

** ** **

Menda remembered snow.

Lots and lots of snow. It was surrounding her like a thick white blanket, clouding her vision and blocking her senses. She could see it wafting slowly down above her head, floating gently towards her face, landing on her exposed skin and collecting in her hair, on her eyelashes, and on her clothes. She was hardly wearing anything, but she was wrapped in a ratty blanket, and she wasn't cold at all. She was in the snow, half naked, but she wasn't cold. Menda had never been cold. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been cold.

She had remembered when she saw her reflection in the glass-- a small, abstracted reflection that had yielded her small, abstracted memories. It had been the same when she had looked into Nakia's eyes and saw her own face reflected in her brown pupils-- a small reflection, yielding small memories. She would need a mirror, and would need to gaze into it for a long time, in order to recover all of her past.

Menda closed her eyes and though deeply. She tried to think of what she looked like, tried to create a reflection of her own within her mind, but it didn't work. She wanted so badly just to know what her past was, and she could almost feel it pushing at the back of her mind, but no matter how hard she tried, Menda couldn't think of it. She couldn't remember who she was, what she was, or where she'd come from-- in fact, she had started believing that her name really was Menda, started calling herself that, and had nearly forgotten that she was Meisal.

Maybe that was why she couldn't remember-- she had been calling herself by the wrong name. Meisal tried again, this time with the name Meisal pinned firmly in her mind, but she still couldn't conjure up her memories. It was frustrating, and she wanted nothing more than to scream and let everyone know how horrible it was, to not even know who you were, and to have everyone refusing to help you, but she didn't.

Instead, she waited for Loki to come and get her.

** ** **

"Something's coming," Shuri informed T'challa as he hurried into her lab. She had called him in, saying it was urgent (and not a prank, as it had been last week) and T'challa had recognized his sister's seriousness and come running. As it turned out, a massive ship had been spotted, coming straight for Wakanda and showing no signs of stopping.

"It'll come right through our shield," Shuri explained, fear playing in her normally confidant and upbeat tone. "It's makeup it similar to that of our technology, and it's housing a large crew-- it's definitely not of earth, brother." Shuri bit her lip. "What do you suggest we do about this?"

"Contact the other Avengers," T'challa said, "and prepare ourselves for a fight. If it is what these uninvited guests want, then it is what they'll get."