╔═══*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*═══╗

╚═══*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*═══╝

The Great Laurel hadn't had any visits from anyone but her daughter and her wolf protector in nearly three hundred years. Being cut off from the humanity that she once adored giving gifts to was hard, but as their species grew she understood that she had to put herself and the safety of her wolf son first. Attempts at his life would never be traced back to the Great Laurel, the guilt was too much for the woman to handle.

    Now that they stood in front of her, both Pandora and Klaus, she knew that her daughter and son had brought to her two Asgardians. Loki, who she'd known before, and now his older adopted brother. She adored the former, whose soul he'd bared to her multiple times over a thousand years ago. It was he she feared for. His distance, his lackluster appearance that was not what she knew him as. Change was not something the Great Laurel appreciated in nonhumans, as their evolutions are supposed to come over great masses of time. Though, even when she knew that it had been a thousand years, Loki felt dangerously close to collapse, both magically and physically.

    After the great lapse of time between the last time they'd met, the Great Laurel had been hidden to him for the past year. Often would the tree check up on him, no matter how far off into the vast universe he was. Recently when she tried to grasp at his magic, there was too little for her to find him, contact him, or attempt to save him from whatever magic had been cloaking his own.

    But her daughter, her wolf, and the two Asgardians were now in front of her, ready to commune with her magic. They'd travelled far enough, she knew that her daughter was last located in New York, and before that Asgard and New Orleans. Nowhere near her, though she didn't expect much otherwise. Her daughter and her wolf were free spirits, after all, and couldn't be tied to one part of the planet if she tried to chain them to it. The same cannot be be said for dear Loki. How tied to her he must be now. I can only hope that she cares for him the same way she cared for her wolf all the times he has been injured.

    She wasn't going to get into the change in ties between Pandora and Loki, the way the latter clinged onto the former, never daring to leave her sight. Or it could be that he couldn't stand for her daughter to roam too far, linger other places for too long. Their reunion had brought about what the Great Laurel had suspected but never confirmed a thousand years prior. Even then, Loki had eyes for nobody but Pandora, even if she knew he was oblivious to it. Just as he was oblivious to the countless warnings about her daughter's ability to crush him, or the dangers of staying on the planet too long. The punishment he would have received from his father if he found out Loki was on the Earth without his proper permission. Odin would have raised Hel. It would have been a tragedy to see the young man locked in the famous Asgardian castle at such an age. Barely a hundred years of age, appearing to be around eighteen or nineteen.

    Grasping her daughter's hand with an outstretched root, the Great Laurel hummed in relief as Pandora's magic signature intertwined with her own, a sign of acceptance and familiarity the mother desired with her one true heir. "You have many things you wish to ask me, my daughter," the Great Laurel predicted, "You have come to my grotto for a purpose you are afraid of speaking of with your tongue. You need not be afraid, it will not fall off if you confide in me."

    "I am my own worst enemy, you see," Pandora started with a great frown on her face, "and I have no idea what I am supposed to do in this new chapter of my life. I have always been an independant child, able of making her own decisions with little input from my beloved mother, but I find myself worried that without your council I may become what I fear of becoming to this universe."

    Damned what Fury said and damned what anyone else said, Pandora wanted her mother right now to tell her what to do in this situation she's found herself in. I am not the same as I used to be. Not so small and mightier than any who may have challenged me in the past, but what haunts me is the challenger I did not know existed until Loki came to Earth, she thought solemnly, I have always found the villain. I have found the next person that needs to be destroyed. A witch, a vampire, a doppleganger, it doesn't matter. I've always sensed it and now my senses have failed me. I have failed me.

    She didn't say those words out loud, though she desperately wanted to. The harmed look on her face was enough to give her away to the woman who loved and raised her. There was no way to hide from her.

    Pandora's love ran deeper than her mother could have dreamed it did. Her soft, almost gentle cry for help was worse than any words her little one could have ever used to hurt her, though. Too many times did anxieties crawl back to haunt the young immortal, and her mother was pained to see it happen this time around. There was absolutely nothing that could have been done by her mother, as she didn't understand what hurt her daughter so deeply. No God or Goddess in this given universe could have been willed to allow her what she wanted, which was to hug her daughter at this vulnerable moment.

    "You could never be the villain of our story, my daughter," the Great Laurel assured, "You have a heart worth more than many of the women who have begged for my health, and courage that doubles the men that have fought for your heart. What disturbs you so, Pandora? What could disturb you so much that you would interrupt your life and your destiny to come back to me?"

    There was no smile from her daughter, a change that was not welcomed with open arms. There had always been a playfulness to their dynamic, but now anxiety clouded the once carefree young woman that her daughter was. When they spoke in their language, no trill to her voice filled the Great Laurel's ear. While her magic accepted her as family, her mind was as distant as Loki's once powerful magical aura. Her faded smile covered up something brewing within that the Great Laurel vowed then and there to stop. Her daughter deserved happiness.

    "You travelled to New York from New Orleans. A change in scenery was overdue, in my eyes. The witches will always envy your power and influence, and that doubles over into unwanted conflict every chance you attempt to teach them your ways." In other words, the humans could never fathom the limitless channels of Asgardian Magic. But the Great Laurel wasn't going to bring up Asgard right now. "I know you are thinking about joining a group, becoming more than a two-player team. People with conflicting views, challenging pasts, and interesting powers should not frighten you as much as it does now. You've been an open-minded girl your whole life."

    A pause erupted between the two, one that gave the elder tree a chance to observe the changes in the men around her daughter. Thor, God of Thunder, waited as patiently as he could, glancing at his brother as often as he could without being caught. The younger Asgardian, her beloved Loki, could barely handle being near her again. His hands shook with each word that boomed from her being. How uncommon of him, he who once said he would listen to her for hours if allowed, just to hear the sweet tone of her unidentifiable language. Klaus, never patient and often waiting for the next thing to watch, didn't look at his best friend as often as he should.

    They had all noticed the change in their own ways, none willing to admit it.

    Admitting it meant guilt for what they could have done to prevent destruction.

    "I could have found a way to save him from some of it, you know, if I had known. Ignorance makes you weaker, not stronger. How can I join a team meant for saving people when I've allowed myself to be happy when someone I love is going through the most unspeakable torment in the galaxy? Where is the logic in that? I am unable to fathom how I am supposed to keep him safe when those on this soil, in New York, would wish him imprisonment. They do not let go of things easily, mother, and while two of the teammates do understand and don't hold ill will against him, I fear the other three will. They will expect too much from me, and from Klaus, while we try and get him to a place where he can feel safe," Pandora held a steady tone as she glanced between her mother and Loki.

    "Not even I could get a hold on his magic, Pandora. If I could not, a young celestial like yourself wouldn't have gotten close." The vines stretched all around her waist and back. "I did not know what was happening to him. While there was something wrong, that darkness that surrounded him was impenetrable by magic at a distance. If you could not find his location, you could not have saved him." Her whole being shook slightly as she spoke, "It shouldn't have happened, but he will recover with time and energy placed on him repairing the damage done to himself. His magic can only save his body, but you can save his mind.

    "Go to New York and be an Avenger. You wish you could have protected Loki, then protect people from the type of monsters that did whatever they did to him. Destroy evil at its root on this planet. That is my advice, since you are willing to hear it. My love is with you, my Pandora, wear it on your heart."

---

"Should we expect a detailed report of what happened in Mystic Falls, or are your mysteries going to stay between you and a being nobody in our time has seen before." Fury's face was down in his various documents, most of them filled with black ink -- classified, even to the man up at the top. "This is an agency that relies on its records, Ms. Laureldottir, and documentation of the first time anyone under S.H.I.E.L.D's roof making contact with a being of legend is both terrifying and remarkable for the future of humanity."

    "What happens between me and my mother will not be important for humanity's future. Not yours, and certainly not any human on this team's. Wanting some advice on how I should handle my life is something you go to a mother for and it is an invasion of my and her privacy to expect that I detail what we discussed. It was short, and you can have some faith that any secrets of yours will stay under wraps as long as she doesn't decide to go poking around. And no, I won't tell her you don't want that because Director Fury, that will make her curious. Plus, she's a grown tree and can do as she pleases so long as it doesn't disrupt her magical flow," Pandora retorted as the man took a deep breath in his swivel office chair.

    Getting a grilling about something Director Fury couldn't control had tipped him over the edge. The Council had decided that Pandora wouldn't go with Loki anywhere, yet she'd decided that the Council's decision was a stupid ass one and went along with doing whatever she pleased. Fury didn't believe she would go against a Council's decision when she'd already been threatened with potential imprisonment for killing a member of his agency already. Hindsight is 20/20, and now Director Fury should have known that his opinion or anyone else's but that tree's mattered to her. He thought she was childish, and if he had to be reprimanded for her foolish decision, she would be as well.

    "Your actions reflect badly on your team, they reflect badly on me, but most importantly they reflect badly on you. When someone gives you an order around here, you listen. You may be used to the times of old but things don't fly around here like they did a thousand years ago," Fury said as he stared directly into her mystic and cold eyes. "Now, you may not care what I think, but the Council is about one decision away from trying to lock you up in a prison so that you don't disrupt what's happening on the ground here. Your freedom comes at a cost, just like anything, and you don't have any idea how high that cost could be for you and your new and old friend. My one vote isn't going to be enough to save you."

    "Glad to know that you'd vote for me," Pandora snarked, entirely done with this meeting already. Who was anyone, let alone a Council of people that she's never met before, to say she can't bring her mate to see her mother.

    "I'm not voting for you, I'm voting for the team I've created. You're an entity now, a combination of skills and behaviors that you can use in order to benefit people who can't help themselves. Not having you means potentially capsizing our ship." Fury let out another sigh as he set forth a stack of papers. "If I'm going to fully let you in, have you be able to use all of the facilities of this tower, you need to sign these agreements. No destroying things with magic, no getting pregnant within these walls, and absolutely no hard drugs that could land you jail time. You may not be able to die from them but half of  my staff members are mandated reporters and will have to report you to the NYPD if they start smelling coke in the locker room after hours."

    The woman took the papers and left.

---

Pandora had been pacing in her room for hours at this point. While Loki was being checked up on by Banner, who to be fair was a doctor of some kind, she had nothing to do. With the absence came a trail of thoughts she couldn't shake. They lingered with the memories of what her mother had told her. Loki was gone, or his magic was, for over a year without her knowledge. All the time she'd spent in Mystic Falls attempting to help Nik could have been diverted to Loki, who was in deeper waters than Klaus had ever been. Her best friend would have understood, would have dropped his plans of becoming a hybrid for one year just to be able to help her. It felt like a missed opportunity for good that had a disastrous outcome.

    It wasn't enough that Loki and her mother did not blame her for her lack of action, the guilt permeated throughout every muscle of her body as she paced. Any apologies she made to Loki would bring back the horrors, and any reassurance from her mother created doubt of her own intuition. There truly was no way to win.

    On top of a well needed adjustment period to their new environment, Pandora did have paperwork to fill out. After a grilling from Fury she felt like doing none of it, willing to procrastinate until the very end to just be able to think on her problems for another minute. She had to rationalize instead of becoming guilty and emotional. That is what a good teammate would do, or so she believes it is. To be fair, she hadn't had to be more than a duo or perhaps trio in more than a thousand years, and has never had to work with anyone so intimately outside her small group of friends in her entire life. Pandora knew she needed to prove herself to those around her, but not to any Council looming in the distance.

    If they wanted to show their faces and grill Pandora on whatever they saw fit, so be in. Cowards gaze from afar, and only someone with courage would dare say what people said behind the woman's back to her face.

    Pandora wasn't expecting Loki back for another hour or two. She knew everything had to be measured in human terms, and Loki would likely have to state what his limitations were when it came to their future training. As any Asgardian, Loki could put up a fight, but he was never really trained with blunt objects or any type of gun here on Earth. Magic was what he used. Magic could break your bones, it could get inside your head, but best of all it had no affect on your physical stamina if you were gifted and careful, both of which Loki is. Training him in physicality, helping him gain back his muscle mass, and help him find his physical strengths would be key to making him hit his peak of potential as a teammate and enemy.

    A quick knock at the door startled Pandora into forgetting her thoughts. She rushed over to the door, expecting it to be Banner or Stark telling her that Loki was ready to be picked up and taken back to their shared room (as Loki had been unable to sleep without someone he loved by his side since his return). To her surprise, Thor stood outside, looking ready to talk about something serious.

    "Can I help you?" Pandora asked shyly, still not used to the hulking Asgardian's presence and magic around her. "Loki isn't back from Banner's lab yet, just so you know."

    "That's better, I wanted to talk to you personally. Not that I don't want Loki around. He's just not who I wanted to talk to about this." Thor awkwardly put his hand behind his neck as he had to look down to meet Pandora's gaze. "Can I come into your bedchambers, Lady Pandora?"

    The redhead nodded and allowed the man in, carefully watching to make sure that he didn't knock over any of the magical objects in the room. While Pandora did like to keep things as clean as possible, it was impossible to miss the relics littered around her desks and on her nightstand. Dating them with modern technology would take time, but Pandora believed that if anyone were to ask her she could tell them the exact time of year, year, and place she bought each item, as well as when she enchanted it to suit her needs. Most weren't omens or things that did much. When it came down to over half of them, they were little things that Pandora stored extra magic into whenever she felt herself overwhelmed with how much she was carrying in her human form.

    Thor took a cushioned chair by the fireplace while Pandora opted a comfortable seat on her new bed, placing herself between pillows and blankets to keep warm during that night's evening hours.

    "What is it that you wanted to talk about with me?" The woman asked, trying to appear less awkward than she felt. She'd never had a one-on-one conversation with this Asgardian Prince, and her knowledge of his true behavior was hidden between strings of tales Loki would tell a thousand years ago to her when they took walks by the beach and in the forest that led to her mother. "Is it about your brother?"

    "Yes and no, it's more about The Great Laurel," Thor said in a low voice, like he didn't think it was right to ask about her in the first place. Pandora let him have time to formulate his question, as she knew he was trying to filter through every single word to see if it was acceptable. Finally he asked what he wanted to know, "When you spoke with your mother, did you tell her about your bond between you and Loki?"

    They both sat there for a moment, staring at each other but neither saying another word.

    ...What bond?

    "Loki was my tutor, yes, and I suppose in that way we are bonded to one another for life. He was the one to teach me everything he knows and more. He has been a faithful friend to me, even if I have not seen him until recently," Pandora tried to say but couldn't help shutting at some points, trying to let the words rush out all at once. "He was with us for about five to six years, I would say, and my mother has known him since then. After all, he had to gain her trust in order for him to be left alone with Nik and I. The Great Laurel was still unsure of how much magical damage I can take, and as Asgardian could've killed Nik in a heartbeat a thousand years ago. Wait, what does any of this have to do with anything?"

    Thor's cheeks flushed slightly in embarrassment, realizing that he'd revealed something that the lady had yet to find out for herself. He'd been told so many years ago that beings who had bondmates knew the moment they met each other. When he'd foolishly led his brother and his friends into his unknowing brother's home planet, he'd figured out how to distinguish their magic and bond magic. Bond magic was strong, and it would take a fool not to recognize it in another if they'd known or seen someone around their bondmate before. Ever since Loki woke up from his trance his older brother knew he and Pandora were bondmates, which was why he insisted on accompanying them on their trip. His brother didn't seem ready for that kind of bond to be completed and Thor knew he needed other magic around him to distract him from it.

    Now he felt like an idiot.

    Thor allowed himself time to stare at the floor before saying, "I have little magic other than that of any Asgardian Prince, but I can sense bond magic forming around the two of you similar to that of many I sensed over a year ago on Jotunnheim. They are supposed to be bonds stronger than that of marriage."

The feeling of idiocy was becoming stronger.

    "I am sorry for barging in here to discuss something you seem to not understand is happening to you and Loki, I simply was curious as to whether or not you'd discussed something vital like that bond with the Great Laurel. My brother will be a good bondmate, I assume, and I do hope that you accept that bond and help him be happy again. If that is all, my lady, I will take my leave--" Pandora quickly cut him off, still halfway into shock.

    "Don't leave. You don't need to leave. You haven't offended me." It would be more accurate to say that he startled her to her core and made her metaphorically piss herself, but Pandora wasn't going to put that thought into words. Then she knew she was going to say something completely and unequivocally stupid; it should have stayed inside her head where nobody could've heard it. "What does our bond magic feel like, Thor? Can he feel it now?" Pandora felt like a child again, asking Thor questions he didn't know the exact answer to like she would her mother. But she couldn't shake the feeling of stress that came with knowing this new thing about her and Loki. It would change everything she's ever known and been. "Please, I need to know."

    Thor was fumbling around in his seat, trying to get comfortable discussing a topic that was just the opposite. He was never the right person to talk to about emotional things. He'd been known his whole life as a ruffian who wields his hammer the same way he does his heart, smashing into things like there's no tomorrow. His heart-smashing ways wouldn't work with something so delicate as a bondmate. Even if she wasn't his mate, she was his brother's, and with how Loki was struggling he didn't want this to go badly. He would never forgive himself if his loud mouth was the reason his brother got pushed over the edge.

    "It's... calm, like a peace that will never end. It catches people off guard when they sense it. People may know that you two feel things for each other even if there are no normal signals for it. That's all I know about bonds like these, Pandora, and I cannot explain to you what my brother does or does not feel for you. All I know is the bond, the magic, and how it's affecting things. Not badly, bonds can help people." Thor worried he was doing more harm than good, so he cut himself off then and there. He damned himself and his rambling mouth.
    Pandora could barely hold onto what he was saying, even if she'd asked him those questions in the first place.

    In all honesty she felt like a disheveled sunflower, her seeds being picked out of her one by one. The pollen being flown around like her mortification, being microscopic yet having such an effect on her mental state. Pandora hadn't guessed she'd be here today, discussing a mating bond she didn't know could have happened between her and Loki, the man who she'd trusted would come back for a thousand years. To her this was like a dream that suddenly shifted into being a nightmare, lucid enough to move around and remember what's happening yet unable to fix what she'd done to get herself here. Then there was Thor, who'd done nothing but be good to her. Now he had to sit here and watch her almost burst into tears with terror at the very idea of handling this properly.

    "That's good," Pandora mumbled as she searched the room for a way out of this. "I have paperwork I need to get to doing. Fury is insistent about the stupid work we do around here. Document everything." It was a fair excuse, one that she'd used many times already to get out of things with Nik and others. Work, work, work... who would know if she did or didn't do any of it?

    "Of course, Lady Pandora, I shall leave you to your important papers," Thor said with grace as he lifted himself up from the place he'd sat upon. "If you wish to know anything more, you know where my room is."

    She didn't want to know.