"We're testing you here because this is highly confidential. You're still a secret from the world, even from most of SHIELD," Steve reminded Anna as they walked into the gym; "That's also why Banner and Stark will be in charge of the testing itself. I am here to assist and oversee, and Loki is here because he has knowledge that could prove beneficial. Agents Barton and Romanoff are here to assist as subjects."

Anna nodded slightly, looking around at the setup. They were in the private gym, however most of it was cleared. Two chairs were placed side by side, and a camera was placed in front of them. Next to one of the chairs were various machines that looked like they belonged in the hospital wing.

"Sit, I'm gonna hook you up," Tony ordered, pointing at the chair Anna had been looking at.

"Tony," Bruce interjected, making Tony roll his eyes.

"Fine, sit down, Bruce will be hooking you up," he agreed, stepping away.

"Tony doesn't have the education or training to do medical examinations in any way on official records," Steve explained while Bruce placed electrodes on Anna.

"Steve is kind of old, he forgets things, like how I'm a genius," Tony told, watching Bruce finish up.

"And Tony is kind of narcissistic, he forgets he's a glorified mechanic while Bruce is a literal doctor," Natasha butted in, seemingly inpatient; "Can we get started?"

"How exactly is this going to work?" Anna questioned; "Who am I supposed to heal?"

"Me," Natasha explained, sitting down in the second chair.

"You're not injured," Anna reminded her, Natasha responded by quickly grabbing a knife from one of the probably countless hidden ones and jamming it a few centimeters into her thigh, an expression of pain reaching her face.

"Natasha!" Anna exclaimed, shocked, Bruce immediately turned on the camera.

"This was supposed to be a controlled experiment, Natasha!" he complained.

"How is this in any way ethical?!" Anna cried; "We just stabbed Natasha!"

"To be fair, Natasha stabbed herself," Tony pointed out.

"Tony, this is not the time! Natasha is wounded!" she shot back.

"That's why she's here, it's only temporary," Tony reminded her.

"Anna, heal her," Steve ordered, his arms folded over his chest. Anna looked at Natasha's thigh, the red blood already heavily staining the denim jeans.

"Oh, god," she muttered to herself before planning her hands over the wound, only a few centimeters of air separating her from the blood.

She closed her eyes and welcomed the feeling of warmth that spread throughout her chest before reaching down to her hands and creating a bond between herself and Natasha.

As she felt the wound pull less on her energy, she slowly let go before opening her eyes. The bleeding had stopped, but the state of the wound was impossible to tell when it was so well hidden under both denim and blood.

"Are you done?" Steve asked.

"I - I think so," Anna told, looking at the group. The headache she recognised so well began to hug her brain softly.

"We need to measure collagen and white fibers," Bruce mentioned to Tony.

"It doesn't hurt anymore," Natasha told flatly, nodding her head slightly to the side.

"And the level of inflammatory cytokines and proteases, mitogenic activity and how close the cells are to senescence," Tony replied to Bruce before looking at Natasha; "Oh wait, forgot I only know how to fix the brakes of a car. Never mind."

"I'll do it," Bruce decided, ignoring Tony's last comment; "You'll overlook the next injury with Cap."

"Wait, next injury?" Anna interjection.

"We need to keep going so we can tell how much each kind of injury takes out of you, we need to know what it is about the injuries that tire you out," Bruce explained to her, gesturing for Natasha to go with him as he left.

"What, so we're going to cut off someone's head next?" Anna interjected.

"I hope not," Clint pointed out; "I'm next."

"Begin the healing now, Anna. Then we'll injure him," Tony decided, clearly taking Bruce's orders pretty lightly and checked if the camera was angled properly.

"I can't heal him when he's not injured," Anna claimed.

"We don't know until we try," Tony pointed out.

"No, you don't know until I try," Anna corrected; "What if I say no?"

"He could have a point," Loki mentioned; "You focus your magic on the person and the injury and let their body take what energy they need, correct? Imagine if you could begin the connection before battle, you would be able to keep them unbeatable for however long you could hold it."

"Is that a possibility?" Clint asked, impressed, all of them looking at Loki.

"In theory, it could be. It would take someone... Unusually strong, though," he mentioned, looking sayingly at Anna, who in return looked down. She knew exactly what he was talking about.

"What do you say, Anna, wanna give it a try?" Tony offered.

"No! No, this is unethical, I'm not going to let you just hurt Clint for the fun of it!"

"We're not doing it because it's fun," Tony reminded; "Well, we're not only doing it because it's fun."

"Hey!" Clint interjected.

"How about we do it like this then?" Loki suggested before grabbing onto Tony's hair and pulling him closer, a knife in front of his neck.

"You're strong, but you can't cure death," Loki reminded Anna darkly; "A slit throat will be a death quicker than you can work against. Either you heal him immediately as he is injured, or he is dead."

"Loki," Anna breathed out, standing up.

"Think about what you're doing, Loki," Clint warned, having stood up too.

"I know exactly what I'm doing," Loki hissed; "I am threatening this pathetic man. In fact, I am going to be killing him. You can save him or you can let him die."

"Anna," Tony groaned softly.

"What do you get out of this, Loki?! You have nothing to gain!" Clint reasoned.

"Either I manage to make Anna prove herself, or I rid my life of a nuisance. Either way, I am to benefit from this situation."

"What if I can't save him?" Anna challenged, taking a step closer to him.

"No matter what, we'll know the limitations of your powers when I am done," Loki pointed out.

"If I refuse to heal him?"

"Then he's dead."

"And you are ready to face the consequences of killing Tony Stark? To what, force me to test my powers?" Anna questioned, slowly focusing her healing powers on her father figure as she neared the two furtherly.

"A mortal life means very little to me," Loki reminded Anna slickly.

"I trust you," Anna stated as she took the last step before standing right in front of Tony, who in return was being held in front of Loki like a hostage. As a hostage.

"Bad decision," Loki informed.

"I know you," Anna stated, reaching her hand up before placing it on top of Loki's. She took a deep breath before pushing it slightly into Tony's neck - not enough to kill him, but enough to prove that no harm came out of it. The wound closed as well as it could with the knife still there until it was removed and it immediately closed behind it. It was like watching a video of a cut happening in reverse; the skin simply bounced back as it was.

Loki let go of the knife and Anna tossed it aside, stepping back as she cut the energetic tie with Tony.

"You," Tony warned, turning around and pointing at Loki; "Are on thin fucking ice!"

"For what?" Loki questioned curiously.

"How about trying to slice my neck?" Tony suggested angrily.

"In all fairness, I was the one who cut you," Anna mentioned; "Loki was never going to do anything."

"You don't know that," Tony reminded Anna seriously.

"I do know that," Anna shot back; "Loki, would you have hurt Tony?"

Loki looked between them before rolling his eyes.

"That was never the intention, no," he admitted.

"Well, you did a hell of a job hiding the intention!" Tony yelled.

"He was trying to show me why I needed to know my capabilities, he wanted to show me a situation where I could have a need for it!" Anna argued.

"That is... Well figured out, Anna," Loki admitted, impressed.

"Don't even, I'm still mad at you," she warned, not bothering to look at him.

"That is fair," he admitted with a small shrug.

"How do you know he wouldn't hurt me, Anna? What exactly are you basing that on?" Tony challenged.

"I... I just know, okay? Everybody keeps acting like he's this huge mystery, but he's pretty transparent for a god of lies!" Anna stated; "He might claim to not care about any of us, but I can tell he's lying when he says it, and he's doing everything he can to redeem himself! I've seen how he regrets what happened, and that's in spite of the fact that it wasn't his fault, and I don't believe for one second that he would have done it, because he was lying every time he threatened you!"

"How do you know that, Anna?!" Tony asked; "What exactly are you basing that on?"

"I don't know, I just... I can tell, okay? I can tell when he's lying and he was lying then," Anna stated before running a hand through her hair.

"We're done for today," she decided before leaving the room. Her entire body felt much warmer than it ever healthily would, and the second she was outside the door to the gym she sat down on the floor with closed eyes, waiting for her vision impairment to disappear.

"You were not asking me about the side effects just to make conversation with me, were you?" a voice asked coolly.

"Loki," Anna noted, opening her eyes and ignoring the black spots dancing before them; "I, this is just a migraine."

"Aha," Loki commented; "How curious."

"I'm sorry I tricked you, I don't want Tony finding out and I didn't realise it wasn't normal and-"

"Anna, darling," Loki interrupted softly, bending his knees to be more equal in height to her. "I do not blame you. It was a very well-meaning lie, as all coming from you are, I expect. Furthermore, you are talking to the god of trickery; if anything, I see this as an act of worship," he teased.

"May I escort you to your room?" he asked, standing up and reaching a hand to her.

"I... It's fine, I'm just gonna sit here for a minute," Anna informed lightly, blinking dramatically.

"You are unable to walk," Loki stated flatly.

"No, I-"

"Will you allow me to carry you?"

"You don't have to, I-"

Anna didn't get further into her sentence before Loki's arms had quickly reached beneath her knees and her back, only with slight effort picking her up from the floor. In a mix of surprise and instinct, her hands reached around his neck, making him smile almost unnoticeable.

"I didn't say yes," Anna noted, closing her eyes to avoid the dizziness as much as possible.

"You did not say yes out of courtesy. I know you well enough to know that had you actually been against it, you would have found a plain no sufficient, not making excuses thinking you would get me out of some... Chore," Loki decided was the right word, however still frowning at it.

"'It's rotten work,'" Anna remembered softly, her eyes still closed. Loki looked at her face, admiring the way her every feature worked together to create the very thing he loved about her; her very self.

"'Not to me'," Loki hummed; "Not if it's you."