As she predicted, the preparations took about two hours. For Natasha most of that was compiling everyone's evidence and doing what none of the Avengers other than Clint had figured out yet: talking to Hill first.
Hill was Fury's right hand, his direct subordinate and major influence on every decision he made, and that had been the case long before Natasha worked at SHIELD.
But the guys -- Tony and Cap and infrequently Bruce -- always went straight to Fury, right to the top, assuming that was the best way of doing things. Man-to-man, big guy to big guy. It was so predictable.
Hill had a neatly-kept office she was never in, and Natasha tracked her to the aerospace engineering department and politely loitered while Hill finished browbeating the lead scientist with budget concerns.
"Nat." Restrained as usual, but she was happy to see her. It was mutual. She fell into step, Hill taking a short call on her comm as they walked. "What's the problem?"
"That you can assume there is one, for starters." Natasha waited for Hill's brief smile before continuing. "I've come across some delicate information, shortly to be confirmed, that'll change how we deal with our guest. And one of our team may be compromised."
Hill gave her a narrow look. Natasha knew what it meant and nodded.
Within three minutes they were in the most secure office on base -- Coulson's -- and Hill was breathing steam from a massive mug of coffee labelled Aperture Laboratories, waving Natasha to sit down opposite her. "Compromised?"
"If he confirms the information we have, yes. Careful handling at the very least."
"Which one? Please not Stark. He's unbearable."
Natasha shook her head. "Thor. Like I said, it's to do with Loki. This information was a team effort over the last day and a half, and as yet unconfirmed, but we believe from circumstantial and medical evidence that Loki may have been a child soldier exploited by the Asgard regime."
She chose her phrasing carefully, more suited to describing her own history than a planet of gods, and knew it wouldn't be ignored. There were connotations.
Hill sat back abruptly in Phil's chair, eyebrows high. "I'm listening. What do you have?"
"The Avengers believe Loki has the physical indications of being roughly fourteen years old, physically tortured at least once given stress patterns on several of his bones, and has experienced at least one pregnancy. Given that he is a shapeshifter, this evidence may be contrived. I'd not be surprised if it was a ploy. However, his scans also indicate he is hermaphroditic or close to, and Thor has said himself that he does not consider Loki to be entirely adult or entirely male by the standards of his culture. There might be some truth to that." She waited for Maria's nod and went on. "Thor said the severity of his punishment will be decided as if he is both. There is some ambiguity of interpretation."
"Meaning?"
Natasha paused, testing the thread of her thoughts. "This is my opinion."
Hill leaned her elbows on the table, mug still cradled in her hands. "I value it. Go on."
"I believe Thor's implications were that Asgard would treat Loki's living return as a slur on the adult men of his culture. For some reason they've refrained from killing him, or he's just been too hard to kill, but public attempts at genocide are hard to hide. It would be easy to justify severe penalties with an appeal to vengeance."
Natasha knew Hill could picture the likely results as well as she could.
A hermaphroditic boy with enough of a functioning female reproductive system to be pregnant, with no existing doubt of his wrongdoing and unable to escape, punished by men who were deeply offended by his ambiguity and reinforcing one another, continuously under pressure to squash even the littlest doubt? Throwing him into a pit of poisonous snakes would be kinder. Murdering him themselves would be mercy.
