Location: [redacted]

The Director of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division stared through the one-way observation mirror at the young woman on the other side. His singular eye watched her intently, his eyebrow creased as if his thoughts unsettled him – which they often did.

Nick Fury did not turn when the door behind him slid open, and Agent Hill strode confidently into the room to stand beside him, crossing her arms as she also stared at the prisoner contained within.

After several seconds of drawn-out silence in which Fury seemed to be too deeply buried in his thoughts to speak, Hill remarked, “Three puzzles left behind by the mad Asgardian, and I’m not sure which one is the weirdest.”

“Hmm.” The Director slowly came out of his reverie. “Toss-up. Has the medical team finished their initial analysis?”

“They have,” Hill answered, handing him a manila envelope with a SHIELD emblem and the words LEVEL EIGHT ACCESS ONLY written in bold type across the face. Fury took the envelope without looking, and opened it while his single, intense eye stared at the woman beyond the glass.

The Director finally glanced down at the sheets of papers in his hand, followed by a spectrometer analysis, several X-ray copies, and a lengthy, complicated DNA analysis profile.
“Give me the Cliffs Notes’ version,” he commanded gruffly, staring with interest at the composite material analysis chart.

“Well… her scales are unlike any material on Earth, though they are confirmed to be biological and carbon-based. Similar in texture and composition of a reptile’s scale, but the molecular structure is far more complicated than anything the team has ever seen – though none of them are exactly zoologists.”

“Bring some of those in, we’ll need them,” the man instructed, though he still appeared distracted.

“…sir?” Hill prodded, intimately familiar with that offhand tone of voice which meant the Director was actively dissecting an enigma in his head.

“I want to know more about how she was able to hold on to the Tesseract without going up like tinder, and how she managed to play Loki for the fool with his own staff.”

“We… aren’t sure yet. But… you may want to see this,” Hill added, pulling out a particular sheet of paper from the thick stack in Fury’s hand, placing it on top. It showed a headshot of the woman, as well as a brief biography, places of education, and any notable affiliations. It also had an additional entry that was so odd it caused the Director to do a double-take.

“You’ve found her,” the Director stated, pulling the certificate closer as he peered at it. “Is this what I think it is?”

“Yes it is, sir.”

“Trinity Frost” had been born Sakura Tsukino on July 1st, 1985 and her last place of residence was in Sacramento, California. What was unusual was the additional date underneath.

It was an estimated Date of Death. And it was only four days previous to the current date, right around the time when the Tesseract was activated and Loki had stepped through the original portal to wreak havoc on the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility.

Despite the bizarre nature of the information, it went a long way towards explaining why they could not find the woman’s identity despite having the largest information gathering system in the world. None of that had been worth a damn because they had been searching the living, not the dead.

“Missing and presumed dead by drowning? You verified this?”

“Tsukino slipped and fell from a boat she and her friends had rented on Lake Tahoe. Her body is still missing, and the County Coroner signed the Death Certificate in absentia.”

“It’s a lake. How do you lose a body in a lake?”

“Apparently it’s a really big lake.” Fury gave her an intense look that was his way of sifting through bullshit. “Agent Sitwell confirmed that the body was never recovered,” Agent Hill continued, ignoring his vexing look. “Though the county sheriff Search and Rescue personnel said they saw something strange in the water-”

Director Fury appeared to no longer be listening as he began shuffling through the papers again, setting them down on the table as he searched through them quickly. It was highly inconvenient to keep paper records instead of an electronic format, but it was even more inconvenient for the information to be stolen by various hacker groups.

The Director soon found the one he wanted.

Agent Barton had been very thorough in his initial debriefing, as well as his follow-up report which documented every moment he had been under Loki’s compulsion – everything from the classified information the mad god had forced him to reveal, to mannerisms and habits that could give some insight into why he wanted the Tesseract. From the information gathered thus far, it was possible that the Asgardian had not been the top predator on the food chain.

His single eye narrowed in examination as he quickly skimmed the typed words, bracing his weight against the table.

“I’ll be damned.”

“What is it, sir?”

“Tell me – the strange thing the SAR employees witnessed. Was it a flash of blue light in the water?”

“How did you-“

“From what we have witnessed in the last few days, the Tesseract isn’t just an endless source of energy – it can instantly transport matter across vast quantities of space. Correct?”

“Correct,” the agent slowly nodded, wondering where the Director was headed with this line of thought. “With you so far.”

“And look at Agent Barton’s report. Immediately after this woman’s “birth”, she coughed up copious amounts of water.”

“As if she had been drowning…”

“Or had already drowned,” the Director finished, one troubled eye fixated on his second-in-command.

Agent Hill furrowed her brows, unable to keep up with the rapid-fire connections the Director was making with the pieces of information presented. Or rather, she didn’t want to put the pieces together, as the implications were too disturbing.

“’I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.’”

Agent Hill gave him a skeptical look. “The Bible?”

“The Gospel of John. It seems we have a genuine miracle on our hands.”

Hill glanced at him sharply – they both knew bringing someone back from the dead was not as impossible a task as it sounded.

“But… how? What is she?” Hill asked, still looking dubious and more than a little troubled as she indicated the strange woman on the other side of the glass.

“I don’t know the what, but I think I know the how. Barton stated Loki created her in some kind of mad experiment with the sceptre and Tesseract. But… what if we’ve been looking at this all wrong?”

The Director watched her closely with his singular eye, pausing as if for dramatic effect as he revealed his final conclusion.

“I think Tsukino’s corpse was transported from the lakeusing the Tesseract, and the sceptre was used to put an alien entity into the now-empty vessel.”

“Sir… that’s…”

“Crazy?”

“I was going to say complicated.”

“Complicated happens when an insane god has powerful toys,” Fury answered with a creased eyebrow. “Barton stated that Loki had claimed he had summoned some kind of ‘celestial spirit’. Who knows? Maybe he did.” The Director paused as he crossed his arms over his chest, fixing his singular eye on the woman, causing Agent Hill to also look in that direction. “Even Dr. Selvig says he doesn’t understand what the Asgardian instructed him to do or how to replicate it. The equations were nonsensical to him, and Loki refused to say a word before Thor took him back to Asgard. Thor wasn’t much help either – said the equations weren’t of Asgardian origin, but I can’t help but think Thor isn’t exactly a quantum physics mathematician.”

“Still… it does make a sort of sense,” Agent Hill added, looking through the observation window at the still form of the girl as she sat cross-legged on the bed. “A recently drowned body would have sustained minimal damage and could be revived. It would have been a conveniently empty host for an alien consciousness.”

“So we’re looking at an “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” type scenario, only with corpses. As if I didn’t have enough paperwork with one alien invader,” the Director remarked with a wry smile that lacked any kind of humor.

“Technically, the aliens duplicated the bodies of those they wanted to supplant.”

“What?” Fury asked, glaring sideways at the agent.

“Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Sir.”

“The point, Agent Hill, is the body of a human being has been invaded by an extraterrestrial consciousness.” The agent nodded and did not respond verbally, knowing full well that Fury was not amused with her in-depth knowledge of science fiction/horror movie trivia.

“That still doesn’t answer the question of how she could handle the alien artifacts, and why it caused those reptilian aspects to manifest. There is no record of Tsukino being a mutant or an Enhanced, is there?”

“No sir, and there were no markers for altered DNA or the X-gene.”

“So… the question now remains, Agent Hill, who – or what – now resides inside of that body?” the Director inquired as he turned his singular eye on Agent Hill. The woman slightly tilted her head, her arms remaining crossed as she gave her superior a wry smile.

“I take it Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. is to be re-activated?”

The Director fixed his dark gaze on his most trusted agent and returned the dry expression.

“Keep it small and tight. No NASA, no DARPA, no outside agency of any kind. This is strictly in-house and off-books. Vetted personnel only.”

“Yes sir,” Agent Hill responded curtly, giving Fury a crisp nod before turning on her heels and exiting the room, a finger pressed to her ear as she began to carry out the Director’s instructions.

Fury turned back to the prisoner and his hardened expression relaxed the smallest amount, his tone almost regretful in its gentleness.

“I wish there was another option, but you’ve left me in a difficult position… whoever you are.”

The Director carefully re-stacked the loose sheaves of paper and placed them back in the envelope, tucking the parcel into his jacket. Without a backwards glance, he turned off the lights and left the room.

There was work to be done.
______________________________________________________________________

The soft, flimsy cloth coverings on its feet allowed it to pace soundlessly in its perfectly square cell, unable to escape from the bright lights shining from the ceiling.

Grey walls and grey ceiling and grey blankets and metal furniture. It had been assured this was not a punishment, but as protection from some vague danger with equally vague platitudes.

“We must run tests to be sure you weren’t permanently harmed…”

“We are going to take a few samples…”

“Please remain still during the imaging process. I promise it will be painless…”

The fact remained that it was not free to leave, and it did not know what was happening outside of its confinement. It did not know what had happened to Loki, or what they had planned for the imprisoned spirit.

It did not even know its location, as it had been removed from the Helicarrier soon after it had arrived, transported by Quinjet to another facility where the humans had proceeded to examine it to an uncomfortable degree.

After Agent Romanoff departed from the rooftop, the forgotten wound in its shoulder had begun to make its presence remembered. But when it had looked at the wound, it had looked different. No longer bleeding, it was scabbed over and appeared to be well on its way to healing, and the humans who had checked it over for injury had found they could do nothing that its body was not already achieving.

The greatest relief came when its gnarled, armored arms and hands had slowly reverted to what it believed was “normal”, leaving its skin whole and smooth and unmarked, fingernails blunted and harmless with palms smooth and soft.

Unfortunately, this was not before the humans had decided to take several samples of its armor, sawing off pieces of hardened scales with electrical, buzzing tools. The procedures had been painless but uncomfortable, and it did not like the way the humans would only approach it wearing bulky, protective suits. Nor the way it had been restrained and attached to various machinery, even long after its scales and tapered claws had faded away, its human features returning.

It paused in its pacing and returned to the small, square mirror above its sink, checking for the seventh time that hour that its face had not changed, and its skin was as smooth and defenseless as before. That there was no hardening or roughening, no black scales or sharp points. Nothing out of the ordinary. Even its previous facial wound had been reduced to nothing but a shadow and a soft pink line across its cheek bone, though there was a new shadow across its neck to match the width of the sceptre’s handle.

Staring into its own still-unfamiliar eyes, it was reminded of the way Loki had glared when they had briefly crossed paths in the aftermath of the battle. Unable to be transported by air vessel since the tower’s landing pad had been cut in half (and from their pointed expressions, the agents knew how it came to be in that condition), Loki’s brother had transported the spirit from the tower to the Helicarrier which hovered above the ocean near the human metropolis. The spirit had clung to him in trepidation as he had leapt from the roof, one hand stretched outward holding the massive hammer as the other held it tight, and its alarm had transformed into unexpected joy.

The brief elation it had experienced from the flight was cut short when the Asgardian landed on the flying base and it saw Loki’s cold expression as he was pulled from the ramp of a nearby Quinjet. The shield-warrior, battered from the effects of war, held him by the arm. The Jotun-Asgardian had glared between his brother and the spirit with eyes the color of ice, a tight, unhappy frown upon his face.

The feelings of bliss from flying through the air had been wiped away at the sight of his expression, as well as the chains around his wrists and ankles.

When it had attempted to approach Loki, a heavy hand clamped over its unwounded shoulder, fingers as hard as steel preventing it from moving further.

It had turned to the yellow-haired Asgardian and pleaded with him, begged even, to understand that Loki had been under the dark influence of a monster. Its words, for all their sincerity, seemed to fall on deaf ears as Thor walked away – standing next to his brother as he roughly grabbed his other arm. It remembered the way Loki’s piercing eyes had stared at the spirit in an accusatory manner, his expression hard as his brother pulled him forward, escorting him into the Helicarrier.

Its own movements were restrained by the several heavily-armored SHIELD agents who blocked its path, and it could not ignore how the humans stared at its blackened scaly arms and hands. As well-trained and disciplined as they were, they did not bother to hide the disgust and aversion they apparently felt towards its mutated skin.

It had felt a pang in its chest at Loki’s glare, not understanding the source of his expression. What had caused him to give the spirit that hostile glare? Something had fundamentally changed between this moment and when he had previously touched its torn shoulder, his eyes worried and gentle.

The spirit did not know what had happened to the Jotun-Asgardian, but it would. And it would find a way out of this captivity. It had grown weary of being a constant prisoner. Every moment spent in this fleshy entombment had been confining enough – now it could not go beyond the grey walls and bask in the glow of this system’s star, or smell the air of the planet’s atmosphere, or feel the raw soil under its feet. It had barely seen the planet it was imprisoned upon, and never under its own willpower.

It set its jaw and stared into the mirror, fixing its dark eyes on its own reflection as it made a solemn vow.

No matter how long and no matter the effort, it… no, she would find Loki again. She had made a promise, unspoken but implicit, to hold his safety and well-being prominently in her thoughts.

This goal, once formed in the spirit’s mind, was a source of relief. If she was focused on seeking out and protecting the Jotun-Asgardian, she would not have to face the question that every sentient being eventually had to answer.

Who am I?

______________________________________________________________________

Across the multi-dimensional universe, past swirling galaxies and gaseous nebulas, through the whirlpools of black emptiness, beyond the branches of everlasting Yggdrasil to the Realm Eternal watched a single sentry with eyes of luminous amber, fixed on one particular being who had garnered his attention for some time now.

His lips parted and a deep, baritone voice uttered a single word:

“Intriguing.”

Notes

Thus concludes Madness of the Serpent! Trinity and Loki will return for Trial of the Dragon. Thank you for sticking with me until the end and for trusting me on this wild ride.

Now for some wordiness by the author:

If you’re worried everything will be wonderful and blissful between Trinity and Loki, don’t be. Conflict will be a defining feature of their relationship, mostly because Loki is a complicated cat. As he’s stated before, satisfaction is not in his nature. If he was presented with the opportunity to experience real happiness, I don’t think he would know what to do. My poor little Trin is going to have a rough time, that’s for sure.

I hope I was able to effectively explain how the Mind and Space Stones were used to “create” Trinity. Her “spiritual” origins are going to be revealed very gradually over the entire course of the series.

The Dragon and the Serpent stories will mostly be told from Trinity and Loki’s POV, so I hope that is something you find interesting (or at the very least, not too irritating). I haven’t mentioned any sort of romantic intentions on purpose, as I’m unsure whether readers want that kind of thing spoiled. As you can probably tell, I enjoy mystery and surprise.

I’m in the process of moving across several states at the moment, so Part Two may not appear for a while. It will cover the events of Thor: The Dark World. Not much will change from the ending of the movie, but how we arrive there will be a bit different (and include many scenes I wish had been in the movie).

If my AU versions of the movies with Trinity inserted are annoying, then I hope you stick around for Part Three which will be free-form Trinity/Loki fun (and show the consequences of Loki’s reign in Asgard). Plenty of Avengers interactions will also be provided.

Part Four and Five are just outlines right now, and they will be my version of Ragnarok and the Infinity War. I realize this is overly ambitious and will either be an incredible journey or everything will go up in flames. Possibly a bit of both.

Things to come: Possible Star Wars fanfic. Also a fun little fic on what would have happened if Loki had escaped after losing the Battle of New York. Is that something y'all would be interested in reading? Warning: It would be filled with sexiness.

Lastly, I cannot thank you enough for reading Madness of the Serpent. And thank you so much to my beta reader, Tigh, for catching everything my brain glosses over even after five re-reads. If you ever want to reach me, my Tumblr username is Wolveria. I hope my writing has begun to improve as this is the first full-fledged story I’ve ever finished. I absolutely love writing Trinity and Loki, but knowing others found it entertaining gives me more happiness than I can describe.

Until we meet again.

~Laura~