Sif sat patiently waiting, absentmindedly kicking her heels in the dusty gravel of the car park.
She wasn't exactly sure of how long she waited, nor did she know what to expect when the S.H.I.E.L.D agents arrived. She actually hoped that one of their aircrafts would appear in the sky above and land without any qualms in the middle of the heath, though she knew this seemed highly unlikely.

Eventually though after waiting for what felt like an eternity, a cherry red 1962 Chevrolet Corvette turned into the car park.
Instantly recognising the driver, Sif leaped to her feet and bounded over in order to greet him, rounding on him before he barely had chance to open the door.

Slipping on his sunglasses despite the overcast skies, agent Coulson regarded her warmly.
"Hello again, so am I to assume you never made it home, right?"
He remarked quizzically.

Not knowing where to begin, she shook her head dismissively,
"I'm afraid not. And now I urgently require your assistance..."
Looking passed him now, awaiting the arrival of further agents she shifted from one foot to another impatiently,
"...where are the others? Your men? Are they on route?"

Much to her dismay, the agent shook his head,
"I'm afraid not. You see, after we picked up on your presence here I suspected that maybe you've not been entirely honest with us."

Although she did her upmost to keep her expression steady and unreadable, it appeared she wasn't as adept to trickery as her new lover, and the guilt she felt, along with the alarm due to being found out, was clearly visible on her face. She could sense it just as he could see it.

"So...until I had the opportunity to question you personally, I thought discretion would be the best policy..."
He continued, his voice very matter-of-fact as usual,
"...obviously I have my team positioned at a nearby location, but firstly do you mind telling me what all this is about?"

Sucking her cheeks in, Sif did her best to stress the urgency of the situation, whilst attempting to omit certain details....namely the ones she found most awkward to explain. But Coulson was very perceptive, and a stickler for details.

"Loki is in danger, Lorelei has him...I've no idea where they are. But you must be able to track them somehow..."
She babbled, desperately trying not to squirm under his scrutinising eyes as he removed his shades in order to make eye contact.

"You found Loki, how?"

"He...he actually found me...but none of that is important now, we must hurry before she causes him any harm. She's dangerous-"

"I would've thought Loki would be more than capable of taking care of himself. Even Captain Rogers himself claims the guy packs a wallop.. and I've witnessed him in action more than once."
Phil pointed out, seeming non too concerned about the god of mischief's well being.

"You don't understand, Lorelei is able to control him now. She has found access to precious gems forged from the mind stone itself!"

"The same stone which was used to power Loki's sceptre during his attack on New York?"
He was walking around to the passenger side of the car now, whereby he opened the door for her to get in.

"Yes the very same. She must be stopped, and he must be rescued."
She replied, wasting no time in jumping into the classic automobile.

"How did you find out about these gems, and her mind-controlling Loki?"

"He, well he briefly explained the workings of them to me, and she abducted him as I was about to return him to Asgard."

"No kidding?"
He remarked, looking somewhat skeptical,
"You just found him and he surrendered without so much as a struggle?"

Sif didn't respond, and instead attempted to form a plan,
"We must find them somehow...he hinted at clues for me to follow, he spoke cryptically..."

"I don't suppose either of them will be traceable via satellite, they're bound to have some magical hocus pocus thing going on, right?"
He stated rather than asked, as he turned the ignition and fired up the engine.

"Yes, but there must be some other way of finding them....I can take you to where he resided, I'm sure we will find answers hidden there. We just need to know where to look."

"You know where he's been living?"

She hesitated briefly, whilst secretly hoping he wouldn't push this line of questioning further,
"Yes."
She admitted finally in a small voice.

Switching on the inbuilt GPS, Coulson typed Loki's address in and soon they were heading back towards the South end of London.
As he drove, he called one of his team members and had them run the address through the system. The results came back as the apartment being leased to a Mr Luke De Ville.

"That has to be him, he goes by the name of Luke here."
Sif explained.

"Subtle."
Phil commented on the trickster's choice of surname,
"Mr De Ville, he's like literally announcing to the world that he's the devil. De-vil. Cunningly hiding in plain sight."

Choosing to hold her tongue, Sif refrained from commenting. She understood that the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D had more than enough reasons to dislike Loki, Coulson more so than many of them. But it was difficult for her. As much as it grieved her to admit it, she cared for the sly one very deeply.

At last they reached the Wharf after having battled through the midday traffic, and just as Coulson was devising a way of gaining entry into the building, to his astonishment and slight horror, Sif was off; scaling the balconies around the back as he looked on in stunned awe.

There was no time for subtlety, and once she reached Loki's balcony, she raised her leg and kicked the glass pane through with her boot.
The sound of shattering glass reached Phil's ears and he groaned.

Asgardians certainly always knew how to make an entrance.

Still, however unconventional her methods were, there was no denying their effectiveness.
Soon the pair of them were in the apartment and Phil was unplugging Loki's computer, whilst simultaneously making several hurried phone calls on his mobile cell phone.
Much to his relief, Sif was able to recall the registration of Loki's car, which he informed her, meant that his team should be able to trace it's current location.

She was pretty sure that is what her lover had been referring to when he'd said his 'number' was up, being as it was a personalised number plate; LDV 1UP.
Now all she had to do was decipher the rest of what he had been saying.
He'd spoke of an 'Achilles' heel' and emphasised how anyone could be distracted....and the more she thought it over the more she was convinced that he'd been hinting about distracting Lorelei. But how would that be possible when she had her crystal ball on hand?

Whilst rifling through yet another drawer in search of any information on Loki's affairs, Phil was becoming visibly frustrated. Which was out of character for him.
"I've got to hand it to the guy he's meticulous. There's no paper trail, no personal documentation, no contacts...nothing. Which leads me to believe that he mustn't have been up to any good."

Biting back the urge to jump to Loki's defence, she was almost relieved when there came a knock at the door.

"I'll get that.."
Phil responded before she had chance,
"..it'll be our back up."

Pacing back and forth nervously, Sif listened as Phil opened the door, and a female voice greeted him. Then they began conversing in hushed tones, which Sif concluded could only mean that they did not wish for her to know what they were speaking about.

Moments later, a petite woman with wavy shoulder-length red hair appeared, and introduced herself to Sif as Agent Romanoff.
Phil went on to explain that she was by far one of their best agents, and confessed that he'd insisted on her being brought in, being as Loki was involved.

"I've had dealings with him before..."
She informed Sif, her face deadpan,
"...I'd like to say it was a pleasure but it'd be a complete lie."

Not knowing how to respond, Sif turned the conversation to Lorelei,
"The only way Lorelei can be stopped is by disabling her ability to control Loki. As long as she has a hold over him he is both a danger to himself and to everyone else-"

"From what I remember he seems pretty damn destructive without any influence.."
Natasha remarked bluntly,
"...perhaps if she does order him to put a bullet in his skull it'll be doing us all a favour."

"Have a care how you speak..."
Sif snapped, unable to prevent the words from tumbling out of her mouth,
"...Loki may have acted recklessly in the past and I know his behaviour in New York was abhorrent, but he is still a son of Asgard."

"Yeah we know, Thor reminded us of that last time."

"Um, I need someone to take a look at this..."
Phil cut in quickly, eager to prevent an argument from starting between the two women,
"...I want to see what we can lift from it."
He indicated to the PC.

Natasha pulled her own phone from her pocket and nodded,
"I'll get one of the team on it, hacking might be my forte but I'd rather stick around in case I'm needed in a more hands-on capacity.....in the meantime you might want to make your way out, there's a chopper on it's way."

"Oh?"
Phil responded quizzically.

"Yeah. We traced Loki's Jag and got a hit on it at a gas station up North. If we take the chopper it'll be easier for us to catch up and hopefully get a visual."

Eyes widening, Sif did little to contain her relief,
"We must leave then at once, we must find him..."
Oblivious to Phil and Natasha's curious looks, she rushed for the door eagerly,
"....but we must have a care. If Lorelei detects our presence then I cannot vouch for what she may do."

"Why has she even kidnapped him anyway?"
Natasha was asking now,
"What is he to her?"

"Nothing."
Sif responded flatly,
"That is, she is nothing to him. I do not understand why she is so determined to keep him here on Midgard with her."

Exchanging glances, the two agents began to follow Sif out of the apartment, passing two other agents on the stairs as they went; who had arrived to collect Loki's PC.

"Well, there may be something that'll come in handy in relation to Lorelei..."
Phil turned to Natasha with a wry smile,
"...you did bring it didn't you?"

"The collar?"
She replied,
"Sure did."

*******************

"You've had long enough now sly one, get back into the vehicle and stop stalling."
Lorelei commanded, pressing the barrel of the concealed gun into Loki's ribs.

Hovering by the drivers door, he stretched and cracked his back for the umpteenth time in several minutes,
"I am not stalling..."
He replied, the last word dissolving into a yawn,
"...my joints are stiff, my legs aching, and my arse is numb!"

"So you keep telling me, I grow weary of your complaining."

"I am tired, woman!"
He snapped,
"I've been driving for almost five hours and I've had enough, so shoot me if you so wish. I no longer give a damn."

"Do not tempt me, Loki."
She warned, and gave him a sharp jab with the gun in order to spur him on.

Exasperated, he climbed back into the car begrudgingly,
"Do not mistake my compliance for apathy Lorelei, I'm heading for the nearest town and I'm going to rest."

Joining him in the car, she now aimed the gun at him,
"I told you we are not to stop until we're over the border."

"We are perfectly safe now, they're three hundred miles behind..."
He pointed out as he turned the key in the ignition,
"...we can lay low in a hotel for tonight, I'll cast an illusion to change our appearance, then we can journey on to Scotland tomorrow."

"Well let's hope the hotel is not too expensive, we're running low on funds after having spent so much on fuel."
She grumbled, still keeping the gun trained on his head.

"Do you still not have a credit card?"

"Certainly not, you know I deal only in cash. Cards are traceable."

"You're paranoid..."
He exclaimed,
"..and we're buggered, being as I neglected to bring my wallet."

Lorelei leaned closer towards him,
"Do you expect me to believe that, master of deception?"

Loki's expression did not falter, his face now a mask of stoic indifference,
"You may please yourself whether you choose to believe me or not, that does not alter the fact that I left it lying on the dining table."
He lied.

Lorelei's eyes narrowed,
"Then perhaps we should drive through the night, I can make a cash withdrawal from the account first thing in the morning-"

"I think not, unless you do the driving, wench!"
He slid her a brief sideways glance,
"We can just share a hotel room. Keep costs down."

"I don't think your warrior maiden would take too kindly to you making such a suggestion..."
She taunted vindictively,
"...you wouldn't want to risk upsetting the love of your life now, would you?"

"I do what I want."
He proclaimed,
"Besides, that chapter is most definitely closed."

Frowning at him, the sorceress lowered the gun in apparent surprise,
"Do not try to deceive me sly one, you have all but pledged yourself to her."

Shrugging nonchalantly whilst staring blankly ahead, his response only served to confuse her further,
"That was just a bit of fun that got out of hand really...perhaps you could help me move on? I'd soon forget her."

"Huh! You'd have to prove it in order for me to believe your empty words and false flattery."

"Fine..."
He replied, and smiled sinfully at her,
"....once we find a place to spend the night, I will prove it by thoroughly and utterly breaking Sif's heart......and some bed springs with you whilst in the process."