Swords and Arrows by Maddyson Ruby

Characters: Clint/OC

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I own nothing and make no profit. All recognisable characters belong to Marvel.

Chapter 3

Rayne watched as Loki stood before the humans with a superior look upon his gaunt face, "Kneel before me." When the humans showed no recognition that he had even spoken, his face contorted into an angry snarl.

"I said, kneel!" he yelled, his face tinged with madness. They uncertainly fell to their knees, sharing wide eyed looks between themselves as Rayne watched on, twin samurai swords drawn and ready to slice at the slightest provocation. Her mahogany coloured hair had fallen from its sleek up do during the chaos of the evening leaving her face framed by the wayward strands.

"Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state?" Loki asked, walking through the kneeling humans like Moses through the Red Sea. "It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power for identity. You were made to be ruled." He paused dramatically, his face automatically forming that crazy grin whilst Rayne watched on, alert and ready for anything, like her father had taught her. "In the end, you will always kneel."

All was silent until an old man stood amongst the crowd, directly in Loki's sight, "Not to men like you." Rayne had to admit that she begrudgingly respected that one man, even if she wasn't able to physically express it. It took bravery to stand up to a man as maniacal as Loki and not flinch away.

"There are no men like me," Loki sneered, his face still drawn into an expression of amiability despite his hard eyes.

"There are always men like you," the man replied, seemingly undaunted.

Loki's expression froze almost imperceptibly, too slight a movement for the untrained human populace to notice but Rayne saw it all and knew instinctively that only a miracle could save that foolhardy old man.

Loki's face shifted back to its cordial expression in an instant as he smiled at the people condescendingly, "Look to your elder, people." He paused for a moment, his face fluctuating back to one of cruel malice, "Let him be an example."

Rayne watched on impassively as the man's pupils dilated, his breath quickened harshly and his face morphed to show pure fear as Loki raised his sceptre towards him and released a bolt of pure ice blue energy, the exact shade of Rayne's eyes at that moment.

A clank sounded throughout the immediate area as the energy was propelled backwards into Loki, sending him falling to the ground instantly.

Captain America stood up from the epicentre of the impact, smoking slightly. He hefted his shield, calmly walking forwards to face down Loki, "You know, the last time I was in Germany, and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing." Rayne crept forward with all the grace of a dancer, trying not to alert the newcomer of her presence, the Tesseract forcing her to Loki's aid.

"The soldier," Loki spat viciously. "The man out of time."

"I'm not the one who's out of time," Captain America remarked, a Quinjet appearing over his shoulder out of the gloom of the night.

"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down," came a female voice from the jet's speakers, attempting to reason with the almost demonic looking god. This proved to be futile.

A ball of energy was fired at the jet, making the pilot swerve in a desperate effort to stay in the air. It all descended quickly into total anarchy from then as the Captain hurled his shield only for it to bounce straight off the god's chest plate harmlessly. He caught in, simultaneously throwing a punch at the God of Mischief.

Loki's head snapped to the left at the force of the blow and that was when the Tesseract ordered Rayne forwards, internally forcing her to submit and fight the Captain in an effort to protect Loki, her master.

Shield and sceptre clashed spectacularly in a flurry of sparks as the two men fought. When Loki knocked his opponent to the side with a well-placed hit to the stomach, Rayne paused to see if she was really needed to intervene.

When the soldier rolled and regained his footing Rayne began her run forwards once more. He threw his shield again only for Loki to flick it away with his sceptre like a pro baseball player as the soldier ran at him to fight once more.

They exchanged punches, the Captain arching back to avoid a hit to the face before recovering and going back to fighting with Rayne's self-appointed master. She watched on as the world's first superhero was flicked away once more. Loki slammed the butt of his sceptre onto the war veteran's head, "Kneel."

Steve Rodgers strung to his feet grunting out, "Not today!" He spun a high kick to Loki's head with his enhanced super soldier reflexes. The two battled on, oblivious to the running mortals. The Captain go a punch in on Loki and Rayne decided that enough was enough and threw her last resort knife straight at the captain with a practised flick of her wrist and it met its mark with yet another satisfying thunk, embedding into the muscle of his arm. The super soldier let out a sharp his of surprise, his momentary distraction allowing the god to get an advantage as he threw him across the concrete they battled on.

Out of nowhere rock music blared threw the sound system of the Quinjet that hovered above them, startling the two fighting males and Rayne out of their delirium. A blur of red and gold surged onto the scene, shooting off a bolt of yellow light from metal hands. The blast hit Loki dead on as he flew up into the air, sailing into the ground with a crash as the pavement shattered under his more durable form. The blur crashed to the ground, landing in a dramatic crouch allowing onlookers to identify the new figure as the man of metal. One Rayne was familiar with as she'd seen him on the news and her father had mentioned him at times – Iron Man, Tony Stark.

Iron Man got to his feet and approached where Loki sat tense on the stone stairs, various weaponry shifted out of his suit, revealing an impressive arsenal of weapons.

"Make your move, Reindeer Games," he announced, solely focussed on his target. Rayne ran forwards to her master with all the loyalty of a retriever and stood tense beside the god. He glanced at her and shook his head slightly and she stood down begrudgingly. Loki began to lower his hands and his golden armoured blinked out of view. "Good move."

Captain America nodded to him, "Mr Stark."

The man of metal cocked his head to the side, "Captain."

Their eyes turned to Rayne where she stood stock still, her muscles tensed as she watched the goings on warily.

"Now, who might you be?" Tony Stark crooned through his suits speakers.

Rayne looked him over instinctively, search for immediate threats, her ice blue eyes disconcerting to any and all watching the proceedings, "None of your business, Stark."

"Ooh, feisty."

Without another sound from anybody the jet lowered and everybody climbed in mechanically. Rayne took one last look at the carnage she had caused or helped cause and her real side shuddered in disgust at the death. She caught sight of the Captain's cut and still bleeding arm and whimpered internally – her emotions reeling from the shock and horror of the night.

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"Is he saying anything?" the voice of Fury buzzed through the speakers to Romanoff in the cockpit of the jet.

"Not a word," she paused pursing her red lips in thought. "He's not the only one we picked up."

It was a tense silence for a moment as the line went silent and Agent Natasha Romanoff held her breath.

"Who?" came the Director's gruff response.

"Don't know. Average height – about five foot seven. Brown longish hair, creepy blue eyes. Olive skin. Ringing any bells, sir?" the Black Widow described, her face taut with tension as the situation weighed heavily upon her.

"Just one. It doesn't matter, just get them here. We're low on time." The Director cut the call leaving the redheaded agent to mull over his words in the silence.

"I don't like it," Steve Rodgers mumbled to the son of Howard Stark in a low aside, his pitiful attempt at covert behaviour setting Rayne's teeth on edge.

"What, Rock of Ages and the amateur knife thrower giving up so easily?" Tony mocked, his face serious but his eyes were revelling in the Captain's ignorant behaviour.

Steve looked at him openly, "I don't remember it being that easy. This guy packs a wallop. And her, she's like a ninja or something."

"Huh… Ninja…" Tony muttered, rolling the words on his tongue, before turning to look at Steve once more in thought, "Still, you are pretty spry for an older fellow. What's your thing? Pilates?"

The Captain's face screwed up in both annoyance and confusion at the modern references, "What?"

"It's like calisthenics," came a clear feminine voice. The two men turned to look at the woman they had picked up with Loki. They watched as her eyes that had momentarily blinked grey before with a wince of pain and a grunt, they blurred back to the icy blue they had first seen.

They paused watching as the woman's behaviour shifted and she turned away from them in something closely resembling disgust.

"You might have missed a couple things doing time as a Capsicle," Tony carried on as though the woman's interruption had never happened despite how much both of the men's thoughts lingered on it.

"Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in," Steve said in a vague effort to change the subject away from himself.

Tony's face darkened as he spoke, "Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you."

A surge of thunder in the distance and the sudden turbulence knocked the passengers of the Quinjet off balance and those who were standing stumbled slightly to right themselves.

"Where's this coming from?" Natasha asked from her position in the jet's cockpit as she flipped switches, always watching the growing storm that surrounded them.

Steve watched as Loki blanched when the thunder rolled and the lighting cracked, "What's the matter? Are you scared of a little lightning?" his voice laced with dark amusement and mocking.

Loki just looked at him with the wide, faux innocent eyes of a child as he remarked with a glance up at the sky, "I'm not overly fond of what follows."

A crash sounded from above them, on the roof of the SHIELD owned jet causing all its occupants, super or otherwise, to stare upwards warily, looking for any threats. The Iron Man slipped his mask on, donning the super suit confidently and in a way that showed he meant business. Captain America followed suit under the watchful eyes of Rayne Wilson, her naturally observant nature getting the better of her and her stare reminded everyone of a predator and it's soon to be prey with her shrewd gaze.

Tony Stark pressed a button on the wall control panel and the plane opened up at the back showing nothing but heavy rain and lightning.

"What are you doing?" Steve demanded but he got no answer. A sudden crash came from the rear of the plane and its occupants watched in shock as Thor, the Norse legend in the flesh swung into the Quinjet and pulled Loki from the seats, seatbelts and all before diving out of the jet, swinging his hammer as he leapt.

"And know there's that guy," the man in the iron suit grumbled in exasperation.

"Another Asgardian?" the Black Widow yelled from the cockpit of the jet, her mind calculating the threat he possessed. Rayne's eyes were locked on the spot her master had just been kidnapped from. Her hands squirmed subtly against her restraints as she worked to free herself and help the God of Mischief and Lies in his plight.

"That guy's a friendly?" Captain America yelled, fighting to be heard over the wind that rushed through the aircraft.

The billionaire spoke up, striding towards the rear opening of the Quinjet with confident strides in his metal boots, "Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost."

"Stark, we need a plan of attack!" Steve argued, yelling at the ex-playboy.

"I have a plan. Attack." With that he dove out of the plane, using his thrusters in his hands and feet to stop his fall to his death.

As soon as the metal man disappeared Steve grabbed up his shield and ran for the parachutes that every aircraft had to have.

"I'd sit this one out, Cap." The famous and deadly assassin advised, piloting the jet calmly in the face of all the paranormal and science fiction related events that had occurred within that fateful ten minute time gap.

"I don't see how I can," he argued with her. The only other people on board silent, this was because of crippling fear in regard to the co-pilot but Rayne was single-mindedly focussed on her task of freeing herself from the handcuffs. Normally it would have been a cinch but the Tesseract was convoluting her sense of self and every instinct she possessed as either a mercenary or human was going haywire. Rayne was shrieking inside, clawing with her self-control to gain freedom from her internal prison.

"These guys come from legend. They're basically gods." She informed him, eyes wide as she tried to get him to back down but, like every other hard headed male on the planet, he barely even stopped to listen.

"There's only one god, ma'am," he argued strapping himself into the parachute. "And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that."

The captain took a running leap from the jet just as Rayne Wilson wiggled her hands free from the handcuffs.

She was free.

And she was dangerous.

Incredibly sorry for the wait but a lot of things came up in my life. Thanks to all those who have favourited, followed or reviewed this story. Your response has kept me writing. So, can I get some reviews? This is my most successful story ever and it's only just beginning! Help keep me motivated and review this!