– łł CHAPTER TWO łł –
Raine stared through the one-way glass, hands behind her back, standing at parade rest. Her white hair lay coiled in a tight braid at the back of her head. Her clean back uniform fit her like a glove, jacked un-zipped half way down her belly, exposing the black S.H.I.E.L.D-issued fatigues beneath. Raine looked down at the toes of her boots for a moment and then raised her eyes again.
On the other side of the glass, Loki lay on the floor of a nine-by-sixteen foot concrete-and-steel-reinforced cell, hands folded over his diaphragm, feet together, like a corpse laid out. Slowly, his chest rose and fell. He still wore his battered and bloodied armor from the invasion.
When last she had entered it, Loki's mind felt wary, dazed, uncomfortable—as if he were reacquainting himself with it. He pawed doggedly through memories, growling that something was wrong as he searched them with a violence akin to what he had exhibited in Stark's penthouse. She didn't miss the bright specks of turmoil—like flares on the sun that exploded and then vanished. A sense of drifting loss shrouded most of his feelings, so he was numb—jealousy and hatred a shiny veneer over the great amalgam of emotions and thoughts.
Loki breathed, held it. Subconsciously, Raine did likewise.
His lashes fluttered, and he gazed without seeing it at the ceiling.
He exhaled in a rush.
He'd been interrogated by the Director himself, along with Thor and several other key S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but he'd said nothing—nothing, except cheap laughter and snarls of absolute rage. He only one time spoke, as his interrogator was departing, and that was to condemn them all and to curse them.
Raine canted her head when Loki shifted his right shoulder stiffly. For a moment he winced, his fingers lifted as if to move, but then he stilled.
She came back to the wall of blue—she'd seen fringes of the wicked color lingering, and one night when she'd come down and he seemed to be sleeping, she'd traced them and routed them. Broken as they were, she felt them touch on her own mind—they'd magnified her anger, her uncertainty, her desire to succeed, and she'd nearly felt a compulsion to kneel, but with one snap of her violet power, the thoughts were snuffed out and the blue trails destroyed.
Raine reached out, pressed her palm to the glass. Her hand left white clouds on the cold glass, outlining her fingers. She'd had a good deal of time to think about it in the month he had been locked here, waiting for his fate.
She'd been able to inspect the scepter for a moment before it vanished into some high-security vault. She'd studied his mind from a safe distance. She thought she knew but could she be certain? She'd addressed the theory to the Asgardian and he had rebuffed it as impossible for someone as powerful as Loki, though she'd sworn the thunder-god's eyes had clouded with thought for a moment.
Raine held her arms out in front of her. Her sleeves pulled back with her movement, exposing the bracelets around her wrists; the little blue lights glowed. Her eyes flickered to Loki.
He didn't need bracelets.
Of course, he had them now because he was a terrorist. But that aside. Raine stared intently at Loki through the glass.
He'd seen her once since he'd been imprisoned. He'd looked at her impassively, yet respect had been in his eyes—at least she thought—He'd nodded minutely, and his voice had been clipped when he'd spoken. He'd called her "Fetterer". She wasn't sure if he meant this as derogatory or complimentary—Raine wondered if with Loki it was both and also neither?
Raine felt the resolve in her solidify, become steel-firm. She looked at the keypad beside the armored cell door. With fingers that shook from adrenaline and the rush of doing something dangerous, she ripped off her bracelets. They beeped shrilly and then were quiet.
Summoning her power, Raine hurled a sound-wave at the door. The noise of it shattering the alarm into silence and cracking the lock was only a soft whisper down the metal hall.
Raine stepped up to the door brusquely, braced one shoulder against it, and shoved.
It slid open with groaning ease.
Loki turned his head to look at her, and then gracefully came to his feet. The chains cracked against one another.
Raine forged deeper into the room.
Three feet from him, Loki lunged at her.
Raine winced when the back of her head struck the concrete wall. He pressed the chains on his wrists against her neck.
Her fingers flew to it, wrapping around the links nervously. But she kept her breath even.
"To what honor, Fetterer?" He rasped, green eyes intense, stance threatening and wary.
"I refuse to be stupid; I'm not going to willfully ignore whatever it is you have to say—vague as you preached it." Her fingers clenched the chains tighter. She pressed back against them, leaning forward into his face; he pulled back warily, looking down his nose at her.
Fear hovered on the edges of his eyes and he gazed at her as if longing to speak and afraid to open his mouth— He looked as if he might cry.
Loki drew away from her, and as he did his expression smoothed over into a cool mask of indifferent amusement. He smiled and bowed his head as if acknowledging she had bested him at chess.
"Well, Fetterer, is this an attempt at cleverness or more brazen foolishness like what you exhibited in the tower fortress?"
"Stop it, Loki; I saw that wall—I know what happened and I know you're not insane!" She took five steps toward him. With a hiss he recoiled, chains rattling loudly.
"You saw nothing, Fetterer—NOTHING!" He tossed his head, glance darting toward the cell door, then her, and lastly, to his binds.
Raine outstretched her hand, palm flat, fingers spread. The cuffs cracked like the door.
Loki lifted dark eyes to her face. Raine met the intense gaze equally. She still had him fettered, they both knew it—at least, most of his power had been locked away.
"Violation, degradation, groveling, loathing—you felt all of those things when you woke in the tower. I felt it. Tell me why, Loki; maybe we can do something about it before it's too late."
He stared, reluctance filling his eyes, though his expression remained impassive. Roughly he turned away, his back to her. Loki drew his arms up, she could hear him rubbing his hands, thumb to palms, making dry circles, massaging. His head remained bent.
"I cannot lie to you..." his voice faded down into a whisper, "because of the fettering."
"But you can still mislead me, play word games—be evasive." She knew how fettering worked, she'd done it enough. Rory had helped her learn that even the truth-bind of her ability to fetter had rules that could be skirted if one was clever enough to look for loopholes. And Loki was nothing if not extremely clever. She knew with certainty that he would try to outwit the bind.
Loki's dark head nodded slowly. He turned profile and looked at her. A small smile and a cunning glitter in his eyes remade his tense countenance. "Yes."
Anger made her squeeze her fingers into fists, arms pressed against her side. They hadn't time to dance around one another in verbal war, Raine knew they were short on time—soon enough someone would notice that she wasn't wearing her bracelets. She rubbed her left arm, looked at him squarely. He froze, eyes locked on some spot of floor in front of him.
"Be true."
He stared and stared—his expression changed, the greens of his irises lightened, darkened, the gold and amber flecks shone. He swallowed. "I swear I shall try."
His words sounded strangely genuine, and it made her uneasy.
"Good, make it your priority—I can kill by taking too much power; I've done it before."
Raine turned, striding out the door. Sirens sounded, he followed after her, steps ringing against concrete, metal on his uniform jangling.
The sirens continued to shriek overhead, and Loki canted his head, drawing himself up as they moved.
Raine turned, stopping when the sound of many feet on concrete came from around a corner ahead of them.
Loki glanced at her, something dark lit his eyes. She felt a nervous thrill as she raised her arms.
The agents careened around the corner in formation— Raine called a sound-wave. Then, suddenly, in her mind she felt the mauve chains shudder, the emerald and gold flared.
A blast of something wickedly-cold shattered outward from Loki, knocking men and women off their feet. Raine glanced at him in confusion, but Loki did not even look back at her, he only carried himself forward in a lithe, recoiled motion; a serpent waiting to strike.
Fifteen more armored agents rounded the corner of the hall ahead of them; blocking their exit. They looked at her; Raine saw incredulity and shock in the expressions and heard it in their souls for a fleeting instant.
Gunfire sprang to life.
Raine dodged a bullet, distracted by their numerous and loud thoughts as she scrabbled for control of herself—
Loki slammed her into a wall and stood in front of her; something ricocheted off his armor. He smiled, it was cold. "Please, do not die before unfettering me, Fetterer."
He whirled, something sang from his hand.
Arcing through the air the projectiles embedded themselves into the throats and chests of five agents.
Daggers.
Raine bit back a cry, lunging toward the fallen people. Loki's left arm dug into her waist, pinning her to his side. She scratched against the leather and metal armor. But then as her fingers began to hurt from her actions, sanity came back to her; they were the enemy now; she no longer cared for them or fought with them as allies.
She was moved forcefully down the hallway, pinioned firmly against the god's side. All at once Loki's forehead pressed against her hair, his lips brushing the shell of her ear. For a moment she jolted, caught off-guard. Loki hurled another clutch of daggers with his free hand. "You are not one of them now—don't let the lines blur."
Someone grabbed at her from behind. She winced when the agent pulled hard. Loki danced around in a tight circle, grabbed the agent's collar and flung him backward. With a snarl twisting his features, Loki conjured a thick blade to his palm and threw it with all his strength at the stumbling agent.
His expression shifted, and Loki grinned with a sort of terrifying mirth, skirting a gun, only to whirl around and grab the barrel, shoving it in the agent's face and knocking the woman down.
Raine pushed against his bracer, but Loki kept hold of her, only drawing her nearer, his arm around her like a band of steel.
Another wave of agents—The Director's voice over the intercom a dull buzz in the back of her mind.
Loki maimed scores, then moved over them as if they were stones in a field.
At last Raine clutched an unsteady hold on her power and managed to wield it with almost as much dexterity as Loki materialized an endless supply of weapons. On level five someone threw a grenade at them. She hastily drew up a thin sound-wave.
Loki turned his back on the explosion, wrapped his arm around her waist, and his other hand—despite holding a dagger—pressed her head against his chestpiece. He watched over his shoulder as the sound-wave held off the blast radius of the grenade.
Raine felt her nerves fraying at the edges. Her fingers shook when she dissipated the sound-wave and they strode onward, Loki as confident and certain of every step as he'd been on the helicarrier—and during his invasion of Manhattan.
Raine turned away from the long stretch of grey hallway in a moment of respite from the fighting, drawing inward, to the blackness of her subconscious. She studied the mauve netting. Carefully, looking at the magic from every angle, she latched a collar and chain on it, and flung off the net.
Loki's arm steeled at her waist, and for a fraction of an instant his fingers curled painfully into her uniform, digging into her skin. He relaxed the next moment, raised his free hand as they arrived at a thickly barricaded door.
The door to level nine – the lobby of S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.
Raine felt her pulse skyrocket.
She could feel Loki's heart pounding with adrenaline and anticipation even through his thick armor.
Beyond the heavy doors, thoughts and emotions tangled—she shook her head violently, the pain in her head drowning out her violet power like a tsunami engulfing the shore. Loki said something, but she couldn't hear it. She pulled back, toward the mauve chain, clung to it, stole strength from the emerald and gold well of power there beside her.
"Enough! Stop!" Loki's voice, shouting in her head. She forced her eyes open when she was released and a rough hand clutched at her upper arm, dragging her along.
"You—you're draining me, I cannot possibly..."
Wildly, he flung green light toward the doors, it ricocheted weakly off the metal. Loki clutched her up to him in hasty protection when the magic flared out, a soft explosion.
"I'm sorry—the—the voices, the power, I'm sorry," Raine attempted feebly as Loki lurched forward toward the still-barred doors.
Distantly behind them they could hear heavy boots pounding the corridor.
Loki drew up, looked down at her with an imperious expression that made her feel as if she were seven years old. "What... voices?" he rasped, eyes darting to look toward the door and then back as they'd come.
"I can hear it... the power, spirits, magic, whatever you'd call it—I can hear it, all of it—every single one."
Loki wrapped his arm around her waist again, as if afraid she'd run off and leave his magic curbed. He moved toward the doors.
Then, abruptly, she could feel his consciousness wresting its way into hers, not attempting finesse, though not unrefined in talent.
Something bright lit up the plains of velvety darkness in her mind, then something flared bright—a violet strand twisted with gold, and emerald bound around it tight, like a tourniquet. Raine gasped in awe when the voices beyond the door faded to a soft buzzing.
"Better, woman?" As he spoke Loki drew himself up and slammed a brilliant flare of magic against the doors. She could hear his teeth snap together with the force of his exertion.
Raine's vision dazzled at the great light.
A heavy boom reverberated.
Beyond the doorway, people screamed in fright—but she could hardly hear their thoughts. Raine had no time to think about her respite.
Loki stepped forward, and she was forced to take shuffling skip-steps at his side to keep up with his swift pace.
Raine pulled at her power, and the violet came to her. With a sound-wave, she cleared a path through the people, pushing them aside as Loki advanced, so that he needn't kill them as he seemed so fond of doing.
Loki laughed, blasted a green flare at some strange weapon on wheels that several agents attempted to wield against them.
Raine looked up at him. He exhaled, glanced down at her.
His mad laughter died on his lips. He stared intently, and a shadow like remorse crossed his eyes.
All at once, something grazed his face, flinging his head back, shattering the moment.
Raine scrabbled for support, fingers curling through the strap across Loki's chestpiece, the gold plate digging into her skin, as he listed to the right.
Loki hissed as he recovered himself, turning in a defensive half-circle. A gash of crimson slashed his cheek, blood beading on the edges of the cut, sliding in scarlet drops down his face like blood tears.
Raine felt a soundless terror claw up her throat—he'd never had blood drawn from any of their weapons before.
She tossed her head, looked behind them, her cheek pressed against the designs in the metal on Loki's upper arm.
Phase II weapons.
Wildly she wrenched her arm from Loki's hold, raised her hand toward the threatening black weapon that pulsated a cold blue light. Her sound-wave tore through the alien-looking gun, pieces curled down the barrel of it like pencil shavings. The blue light shrieked. Agents shouted and ran for cover.
The blast growled like an ominous thunderhead.
The explosion rocked the building.
Loki threw up an arm to shield his face as the heat swept through level nine.
Raine gasped, it was so hot.
Loki's jaw bumped her head, she felt the bridge of his nose press through her hair; he twined both of his arms around her as the explosion rolled over them steadily.
His breath blew cold down one side of her face, catching under her collar. He felt cold.
Raine opened her eyes as Loki jerked smoothly back into action, spinning out, leather coattails slapping her calves. She nearly fell, the circle he spun as he flung daggers and ice making her dizzy.
He slammed his forearm into the chest of an agent, cutting a path; the man went flying.
Raine recovered her equilibrium and managed to summon a sizable sound-wave, sending a dozen people off their feet. A woman with flaming red hair fell down hard against a concrete pillar. Raine tried to look back at her to see if she'd been hurt, but couldn't see around Loki's shoulder.
Loki growled, and it reverberated in his chest; she could feel it in her own, he'd drawn her so close to his side.
Raine kept one hand on the strap crossing his chestpiece as they stumbled toward the glass doors.
They reached the door, as one slammed their hands against it.
They were thrown up against the barricade when it refused to give beneath their combined weight.
Locked.
"By the Norns..." A grating howl tore from Loki.
Raine whirled back as they'd come.
Agents were regrouping themselves, a new pack coming down the wide stairs at the far end of the building.
Raine turned back around, slapped her palms against the metal handle, but it was a futile exertion. She grit her teeth.
"We don't have any time for this!"
"Correct, Fetterer." Loki snared her around the waist once again and angled his shoulder-plate against the glass. It cracked, lines streaking through it. Slivers flew off, Loki pressed his shoulder against the glass with renewed vigor, teeth bared. A dull roar tore from his throat as he jerked back on his feet and then slammed his body against the glass.
The door trembled, the glass cracked loudly. Lines spidered through it.
Then they went stumbling through as the glass broke, shards coating them, clattering against the concrete as Loki forced his way outside.
Jeeps and other vehicles marked with the S.H.I.E.L.D. insignia screeched toward them. From around the corner of a building Raine thought she saw Rogers dart among the black-clad agents, dressed down in civilian clothes. She looked back at Loki.
He panted, lifted his chin, staring hard at the oncoming assault, and then crushed her against his side, nearly running as he turned in the opposite direction and fled.
– łłłł –
They hid among outbuildings, training facilities, storage bunkers, lab buildings.
Raine braced her hands on her knees when they stopped yet again, dodging behind a grey slab of concrete retaining wall.
Loki lifted his head, scanning their surroundings.
The cut on his cheek had dried a dark crimson-black, crusting over. But whenever he set his jaw the injury smarted, and Loki's head twitched with the sting of it. Now, standing still, he worked his fingers against the palms of his hands, scratching his nails against his skin agitatedly. Black strands of hair fell over his forehead, and he'd pressed his mouth into a thin line—perhaps in contemplation, perhaps from pain.
Raine caught her breath, pressed her hand flush against the throbbing stitch in her side just under her ribs. She straightened slowly, shoulders hunched.
"We could get a jeep from the garage… it's two blocks that direction." She tossed her head; white strands of hair, tugged loose from her braid, brushed against her nose.
Loki canted his head, looking at her severely. "That did work exceptionally well on my last departure from one of these reviling compounds," he agreed with a decided nod.
Faint shouting reached their ears. Radios crackled, a siren on a nearby tactile training center wailed the warning for a rogue operative.
"Good, let's go." Raine wrinkled her nose as she rose fully, turning and sprinting toward the garage. Loki followed easily.
She slammed through the rear-exit door, Loki close on her heels, and they began bounding down six flights of stairs to the ground floor of the garage. Loki stared at the steps they had yet to take. Impatience flickered over his angular face.
Raine shouted in surprise when Loki grabbed her and vaulted over the railing. He landed neatly, and she never hit the floor. He released her. Raine tugged on her collar, feeling shaken.
"Now what?" he murmured, raising a dark brow as he regarded her.
Raine inhaled, nodding. She looked through the vehicles. A navy truck without any agency markings on it stood out. She pointed. "That one."
Loki stood motionless. His green eyes flickered to her.
"Right." Wearily, Raine jogged to the driver's side.
Loki followed and watched her over the roof of the truck. She sent a faint sound-wave through the lock, tested for an alarm, broke it, and tugged the door open. Loki followed suit, and with a well-honed vibration on Raine's part, the truck's engine flooded to life.
Raine flung the gears in reverse and the tires squealed against the concrete as she back out.
Loki's fingers clenched the dash as he stared through the windshield warily, eyeing the skies.
"You totaled about seventy-five quin-jets last month; the operable ones are at another base—I think there are only two here, for transport." Raine spun the steering wheel, and the truck fishtailed around a corner as they left the garage behind.
"I see." A horn blared, Loki turned his head sharply.
A S.H.I.E.L.D. jeep careened down a ramp and skid across the road behind them, fender barely missing their bumper. It slammed into the sidewall on the left and remained still. A bullet cracked the mirror on Raine's side of the truck.
– łłłł –
The Director stalked through two glass doors as Agent Hill came toward him at a hurried clip. "Did they get out?"
"They breached the gate, sir."
Fury folded his arms and bent his head, staring out the window at the facility campus in an uproar. Vehicles rushed around and agents swarmed like so many insects.
Hill came abreast of him on his left. She was unhappy, it showed in the purse of her lips and the width of her stance. She was preparing to say something unpleasant. "You know Fording isn't a hostage, sir."
He turned. That was very unpleasant information. "And you can verify that, Hill?"
She looked down and then back up. Presented a curt nod. "Rogers saw them, sir. He – doesn't lie." She swallowed, nodding with certainty as she spoke. Fury glared out his good eye, gritting his teeth.
"Sir, how to we proceed without sending the country into a panic?"
Fury. Uncrossed his arms. "Get me Stark."
"Sir, he's in Miami, I don't think—"
"Just get it done, Hill!"
"Sir." She walked away, picked up a touchscreen, and keyed in the pass-code. Hill turned profile, nodding to the director to let him know the call was coming through on his comm.
"You are live with Tony Stark – this had better be important, Director. I gave up mimosas on the terrace for you," Stark quipped, his voice mildly pleasant.
"Can you locate any of your prosthesis remotely?"
"Wow, not even a little foreplay— I am surprised; don't tell me I have to save the world again, I just clocked out on consulting for the day."
"Stark, Agent Fording's gone off base, I need to locate her. Now tell me what I need to know; can you do it?"
"Sure, but why? I thought Fording was the whipped topping on the cherry pie of agents—second to Romanoff, naturally."
Fury inhaled, stared at a medic team as they bandaged three of his agents sitting on a wall just outside of the building. "Fording went rogue, and she took Loki with her."
"The unbelievable bastard." Incredulity laced Stark's voice. "I thought he tried to kill her? What does she want him for? Never mind, skip that– Let me fire up my suit, I'll be there in forty." Stark hung up, and Fury nodded to himself. He glanced at his hand, disclosing the bracelet in his palm.
– łłłł –
"I hope this is worth the cost," Loki remarked in the silence as they exited the S.H.I.E.L.D. compound, broke through a barrier, and managed to spin out of a spiral after a black SUV slammed into Loki's side of the truck.
Raine glanced at him and then looked back at the road. She swallowed. "You're dangerous, but you're not insane. There was a reason Dr. Banner picked up that staff of yours in the helicarrier, and I don't think people who jump off bridges mean to come out alive on the other side."
"What?" Loki's hand lashed out. His fingers curled around the steering wheel, iron-hard. He jerked it hard toward himself. Raine attempted to wrench it back from him, narrowing avoiding a collision with a silver Camry in the far-right lane. The driver blared her horn as they sailed passed.
"You heard me, now let go!" Raine closed her fingers around his wrist. She jumped into the black plain in her mind and did something she always hated. Clenching her teeth, she twisted the fetter until it nearly snapped the emerald and gold in half.
Loki gasped to her right, and his hand dropped heavily from the wheel.
A horn sounded to her left.
Raine jerked her eyes open, wrenching the steering to the right before she slammed into the side barrier as they went into a tunnel.
She glanced at Loki.
He'd braced his elbows on his knees, head pressed into his hands. The tunnel's lights made blue streaks in his raven hair. He breathed, it whistled out his mouth. He coughed wetly.
"I'm sorry—I hate when I have to do that." She felt tears blur her eyes in sympathy. She'd killed people doing that to them, choking out their power.
Loki hissed through his teeth. "Certainly, woman, certainly," he panted.
They flashed out of the tunnel and back into daylight.
Loki drew himself back up, his left hand curled into a tight fist on his knee, knuckles going white. His other hand ran across his mouth. His fingers grazed the cut on his face. He snarled, eyes closing as the injury smarted.
Raine eyed it, looking off the road for a moment. "Can't you heal that?"
"Can't you suppose I've tried?" Loki retorted, gingerly brushing a fingertip against the wound. He smeared a bead of blood across his cheekbone.
"Stop touching it before you give yourself warpaint," Raine scolded, feeling as if Rory had taken manifest of her body. She wasn't usually so sharp. All at once she missed her partner. Rory would have been a good brain in the backseat giving her suggestions and laying ground plans. Better than the snapping terrorist from another world sitting in the passenger seat beside her.
"Silence, Midgardian."
Raine wanted to tell him to shut up because it was all her doing that he was on the loose and chaotic lam, but she thought better of it. Flexing her fingers on the steering wheel, she checked the rear-view mirror for pursuing S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicles. But for the moment they seemed in the clear. She flicked the signal and glided into the left lane, barreling passed a Tahoe going an unbearable sixty.
"Why won't it heal?" She tried to filter the worry from her voice, but she couldn't remove it entirely.
"The weapon was created using the tesseract, was it not?" Loki's voice sounded detached, almost with a scholarly air.
"I think so." Raine frowned, moved into another lane, took an exit, merged onto another highway. She nodded. "It must have been, it had a similar power signature to your staff."
"Very well, that is the reason." He swallowed, lifted his chin. "That, and your fetter." Loki became silent. His color returned slowly.
"Will it heal at all?"
Loki peered through the windshield. He stared as they came up abreast of a car. They pulled away, Loki looked back at the driver of the other vehicle for a moment. His tongue caught on the corner of his mouth as he straightened in his seat.
"Oh, I imagine so," he replied dryly.
"I'll clean it up when we get somewhere safe."
"I do not like being touched."
"Okay." Raine tried not to think about how free he was with picking other people up or throwing them around and ignoring their personal space. She fell silent and Loki did likewise.
A/N:
As always, please review! I'll answer any and all questions with a PM!
WH
