LOYALTY || T. ODINSON

✴ SEVEN ✴

Kalli ran down the halls of the Helicarrier, her mind running a million miles an hour. In her attempt to find Fury, Kalli sent a fire message, a traditional form of communication in the Shadow World, to Counsul Penhallow, informing her of the identification of the thief. Many thoughts was swirling around her head as she dashed past other agents in the halls, said agents giving her wierd glances as Kalli went past. She just couldn't believe it.

In the fresh, clean air of the countryside of Idris, little Khloe Morgenstern ran as fast as her legs could carry her. She was being chased by her neighbour and best friend Collin Branwell, who had insisted on playing the Mundane game of Tag. The two were the descendants of two most powerful Shadowhunter families in history, both families gaining a very high level of respect throughout Idris.

Khloe laughed as she ran, the plains stretching for as far as the eye could see. This was a child's playground, so much freedom within her reach and Khloe was going to take it. "Come on, Collin," Khloe whined, "you're so slow."

Collin sucked in a breath of crisp air. "No everyone is as fast as you, Khloe," Collin panted. The Branwell child wasn't anywhere near as quick as the Morgenstern child, however, he never backed down from one of his own challenges.

Khloe laughed as Collin finally caught up with her, her dark hair whipping around her face in the wind. "You'll never escape the demons at that pace," she said, "you'll be dead before you make it to you fifteenth. Wait, I don't even think you'll make it to your rune ceremony."

"Ha, ha, ha," Collin mocked. He never like Khloe's teasing, but she was in fact telling the truth. Collin didn't want to fight on the front line, he'd much rather work in forensics instead. "Very funny."

"Come on," Khloe said, walking back down the hill, "your mother will be wanting us home shortly."

And the two walked back, messing around and joking the whole way down the valley.

If life was even that simple.

They had changed drastically. Kalli didn't want to relive her past life, the life she wanted left dead and burried underneath years of new memories, however, that wouldn't be the case. With Collin Branwell being one of the ghosts from her past now coming back to haunt her, Kalli knew that there would be no going back. She had lived many different lives, shed many layers of personalities before finding one that she felt comfortable in. Oh, how naive she was when she thought she could leave it all behind.

Kalli ran into the lab a couple of minutes after Natasha and Thor, barely out of breath. Natasha shot Kalli a confused look, which Kalli simply brushed off and focused on the conversation that started without her moments before.

"I'm not leaving because you suddenly get a little twitchy," Bruce defended, not seeing Kalli who stood behind Thor quietly. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Excuse me?" Kalli piped up. Everyone visibly flinched at Kalli's dangerous tone. Thor moved aside so the Shadowhunter was visible to everyone in the room. She then turned to Director Fury. "After everything I told you about The Clave's plans to use nuclear warfare to wipe out almost the entire population of Idris and then you do this?" Kalli was fuled with a rage she had never felt before, directed at someone she never thought she'd hate with a sudden buring passion.

Fury felt a sudden pang of guilt at Kalli's words. She was right and he realised that when others around him widened their eyes at Kalli's confession to the group. "Because of him," Fury accused Thor, trying to dodge Kallie. Fury knew Kalli's game; she wouldn't leave it to rest until she got the answer she wanted.

Thor looked perplexed as Kalli gave Fury a harsh glare. "Me?" Thor questioned.

After everything Kalli read about Thor's arrival to Earth, Mjölnir, the Destroyer and every ounce of intellect, the dark-haired woman came to the conclusion that everything that had happened wasn't all down to Thor, it was Loki as well.

"Last year Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that levelled a small town," Fury explained, trying to get out of the situation he found himself in. "We learned that are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor defended.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury spat. "And, you're not the only threat. The world is filling up who can't be matched, they can't be controlled. Much like the Shadowhunters."

Natasha tensed up as the room fell silent. Kalli then let out a bitter laugh and clapped in a sarcastic manner, causing everyone to look at her weirdly. "Wow," Kalli chuckled, her face falling to a deathly gaze, "like you controlled the cube? That statement is very rich for the man who can't seem to crack foreign technology."

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Thor continued, Kalli nodding in agreement. "It is a signal to all the realms that Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?" Steve questioned.

"And if you're not careful, Idris will get involved," Kalli informed. "We already have an Nephilim national in the Mundane field and The Clave have already threatened to engage in this fiasco. It's me who's forced them to stop, that hasn't been done by their own accord."

"You forced our hand," Fury fired back at the Asgardian and the Shadowhunter. "We had to come up with something."

Tony was astonished at what had come to light from Kalli and Thor, mainly Kalli. He didn't know much about the Shadowhunter and in the past few minutes, Tony realised just how much Kalli had kept burried and out of light to protect those around her. "Nuclear deterrent," Tony said, in the hope of taking some of the pressure off Kalli. "'Cause that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury spat back.

"By the Angel," Kalli muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose. Her patients was coming to a boil, becoming more dangerous by the second. It wasn't good for her or those around her. Kalli already had The Clave breathing down her neck, readying themselves for battle and Penhallow was awaiting a response from Kalli.

"You okay?" Natasha whispered, just loud enough for Kalli to hear.

Kalli sighed and looked at her best friend in the eye, the woman who quickly became like family to Kalli and Kalli becoming the little sister that Natasha never had. "Why wouldn't I be?" Kalli shrugged. "It's just war at the end of the day, right?"

Collin Branwell is portrayed by Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief)