Chapter 3: Devil's Advocate

(Author's Note: I never thought that I'd be using my degree for writing fanfiction, but I have to admit that it's been fun using it for SOMETHING. My degree is in history with a minor in English, but I also took a good bit of political science. So, Darcy and I share a lot of the same knowledge.

Also, HOLY MOTHER OF GOD the responses to this story. I'm so happy that I could cry! Thank you everyone who has reviewed, favorited, and followed this story already. I've lost count of the favorites and follows. I'm so overwhelmed, but in a good way!

One more thing! I have a new, dynamite beta in the form of Sietha of ! Everyone give her many thanks for being awesome enough to be willing to beta me!)

Thor and Loki's next visit took a little while longer, since they had spent time helping out in India, but both Jane and Darcy ended up meeting them at SHIELD headquarters when all of the Avengers flew back. They had both switched to regular clothes, and Darcy couldn't help but think that it was odd finally to see Loki in something other than his Asgardian leather. When everyone arrived back, Loki was just in a pair of black jeans and a green button up, with the sleeves rolled up to his wrists. OK, he looked odd but delicious.

This was getting bad, wasn't it?

While Jane ran up to Thor when he came out of the quinjet, jumping on him and being spun around in his arms like something out of a movie, Darcy hung back and simply gave a wave to Loki. He smiled and waved in return, looking a little surprised to see her. When he made his way over to her, she simply said, "India huh?" to him. When he nodded, she smiled. "Good choice."

"I only chose to react," Loki explained to her. She didn't know exactly how far away he could get from Thor, but she knew that she'd like to be alone with him to talk again. Preferably, not at SHIELD's headquarters. This whole place was full of bugs. "I am amazed that SHIELD does not already have some sort of response to natural disasters."

"Not that I agree, but I bet they think that what they do is more than enough for the world," Darcy explained to him. "They really should have something set up, though. I'm guessing that you suggested to Thor that you guys do something and it went from there?"

Loki nodded. "My idea was just originally for Thor and myself to go, but he wanted to bring along his comrades in arms." Darcy almost laughed at the verbal eye roll when he said 'comrades in arms.' "I suppose the more help, the better, though."

"Did they give you too much shit over in India?" Darcy asked, nodding toward the other Avengers as they slowly made their way off the quinjet.

"Some, although it's not like I didn't earn it," Loki conceded. "Barton actually asked me if I caused the floods so that I could get good publicity."

Darcy snorted. That idea HAD actually crossed her mind, but that seemed cold, even for Loki. Then again, he had been willing to flatten most of Manhattan with those alien troops. She assumed that New York was supposed to be some sort of show of force, hoping to cower people into submission. If you have a weapon, you show it off, after all. She had to admit that she had no idea the true capabilities of Loki's powers. Maybe he could cause flooding in India. She certainly hoped that he just seized an opportunity when it was given, though. The idea of him killing hundreds of thousands of people just to show off left a bit of a bad taste in her mouth.

She also figured that that much magic would be traceable, and SHIELD would have done just that, traced it, if they really thought that Loki was behind it. "Well, it's going to take more than one trip to India to really turn their opinions," she said to him.

"Aye, I understand that," Loki agreed, and she had to fight back a giggle when he said 'aye.' She had to admit that she dug it when he and Thor slipped into anachronisms like that. Thor said them A LOT more than Loki, though. "I haven't finished the books that you lent me, though."

"Well you've been busy!" she told him with a smile. "There's not a timetable on books being lent out, though, so don't worry. Have you gotten to read any of them yet?" She was just more curious than anything else.

"I have actually mostly finished the one on the French Revolution," he told her. "It's...horrific what people did to one another, there." He actually did look a little horrified. Maybe he was living up to his name of 'God of Lies,' with that look, but she knew that the more she thought about it, the more she would just cause herself a headache. Figuring out what was truly going on in Loki's head was pretty much impossible.

"Humanity is capable of both great and horrible things," she told him. "The French Revolution had lofty ideals, but things very quickly got carried away. I don't think that the masses of France were quite ready for that much freedom yet. They broke into jails and massacred people just because they were a different class. That really didn't make them any better than the aristocrats, worse even. It's amazing what a little bit of freedom and the right placed words will do to people when they aren't ready."

Everyone but Jane and Thor had headed off inside, and the couple were cuddling up with one another. Darcy wasn't sure how far away Loki could be from Thor with the collar, so they had stayed outside as well. "Are you sure that humanity still isn't quite ready for that amount of freedom?" Loki asked her pointedly.

"We shouldn't have our political discussions here," Darcy told him. "SHIELD agents might get the wrong idea and lock both of us up." She was still at least phrasing this as if it was an intellectual exercise. Part of her REALLY wanted to pretend that it was, but she supposed that she should find out soon enough. "How far away can you be from Thor without you turning into a lightening rod?"

"Enough for privacy, but I cannot really go anywhere without him being nearby," Loki explained to her.

"Then let's see if we can get Jane and Thor to leave here and get coffee or something," Darcy suggested. Before she thought about it, she took Loki's hand and led him over to Jane and Thor. She had always been a bit touchy feely with her friends. At college, she was known as a personal bubble invader. She hadn't even thought that Loki might not like to be touched when she grabbed his hand. "Hey guys!" she called to Thor and Jane. When they looked up at her, Jane's eyes flickered to her hand and Darcy realized what she had done, but to jerk away now would make it look like she had done a bad thing, so she didn't. "You guys up for coffee or something?"

Jane's eyes were still on her hand, but Thor, bless his oblivious self, was already nodding enthusiastically. "Yes, I think that's a very good idea. It has been a long time since I have had the pleasure of coffee."

"Yeah, they don't exactly 'do' coffee in India, I would think." OK, Darcy really had no idea, but she assumed that there wasn't much in the way of spare coffee to drink in India. You know, they probably had the bad water and stuff, or was that Mexico?

They headed inside, since they had to go through the building to get back to the parking lot, and Darcy only let go of Loki's hand when they entered the building, but couldn't resist giving it a quick squeeze before doing so. She was terrible.

Thankfully, when they got to the coffee shop, Thor and Jane wanted more alone time, so Darcy picked a table a bit away from them so that they could have some privacy. Loki had ended up picking out some kind of tea drink, but if Darcy was anywhere near a coffee shop, she was going to be guzzling tons of coffee. She ended up picking out a mocha Frappuccino, because it was somewhat hot outside and it was full of icy, chocolatey goodness. "So! People, freedom, you asked if they could still handle it?" Darcy reminded him, and he nodded, motioning for her to continue.

"The argument could be made for either side," she admitted to him. "I mean, it's like some people, you give them a little freedom and responsibility, and they go insane. Lots of people really do better with some sort of…rules and control going on for them." She took another sip of her drink. "I mean, I'm human and I kind of hate to dog on my species like that, but you only have to look at any real point in history to understand that. It's just…you know, you have to pick the right person to follow. No one wants to find out that they were following a Hitler or something."

"I was compared to him when I was in Germany once," Loki admitted, and Darcy couldn't stop herself from watching his fingers as he lightly drummed them on the tabletop. "I didn't understand who I was being equated to at the time, though. I did a little research afterward."

"Wow, that's harsh. I mean, you weren't exactly picking out one race of humans to destroy, or just one to protect. That was more Hitler's style. That, and usually people get Hitler comparisons during Internet arguments," Darcy told him, making a face as she did so. "Did you get all genocidal with anyone?"

"Not that that human knew of," Loki said quickly. She arched an eyebrow at him when he said that. "It wasn't here. I sent an attack against the frost giants of Jotunheim. It was not my greatest moment."

"Seems like you have a lot of those," Darcy said quickly. When he narrowed his eyes at her, she held up her hands in defense. "Don't get mad when I speak the truth. Is there ever a good time to get all genocidal on someone?"

"I was raised to despise them," Loki explained to her. "Thor, I, and everyone in Asgard was taught from an early age that they were monsters." He cleared his throat. "That and…I had received some very bad news at the time. I wasn't exactly in my right mind."

"I totally understand, I really do," she told him, smiling at him. "Just…if you're gonna take over the world again, might want to keep that on the down low." Talking about this was obviously bothering him, whatever it was that he had found out. She didn't want him to dwell at the moment. She wanted to keep things light right now. Plus, she was pretty sure he might bite her head off for asking how serious of a personal issue he could have that would make him want to destroy a planet. She wasn't touching that with a ten foot pole. Not right now, anyway.

"I suppose you have a point there," he confessed with a small smile. "My past indiscretions should be kept from the limelight."

"Or you should eventually acknowledge them," she offered. "I know it sounds crazy, but, before someone tries to pull this stuff out on you, you should reveal it, own up to it, and move on. Ask David Letterman, it always works out better that way." She sipped her drink again. "Oh! David Letterman is a TV personality who, when someone wanted to blackmail him because he was having an affair with some chick who worked for him, he instead went on television and told the world exactly what was going on: the fact that he had slept around on his wife, that someone was trying an extortion thing on him, the whole shebang.

"If you want a political example, there was a guy a few years ago who had a real shot at being the American president, John Edwards. He looked like the clean cut, American family man with the pretty wife and kids. Well, it came out that someone that worked on one of his political campaigns had an affair with him, and to top it off, his wife was undergoing treatments for cancer. Bad timing, right? He tried to deny it forever, but finally he admitted to it, and it came out that he fathered a child with her, too. He even tried to get one of his male aides to claim the affair and the child for a little while to deflect attention from him, but it just made him look worse. His political career is like, beyond over now. John Edwards is like, exactly what you DON'T do when confronted with something about your past," she told him.

She watched Loki's fingers wrap around his glass and bring it up to his lips, taking another sip of his own drink while he was in thought. "So, if I am asked about any past deeds, I should admit to them and admit contrition for those actions," he said slowly, as if working on it in his mind as well.

Darcy nodded. "Yeah, you don't necessarily need to bring them up out of the blue nowhere, but if it's about to come to light anyway or if someone asks you about them, don't deny. If you deny, it's just going to come back and bite you in the ass."

"This is a very delicate situation, isn't it?" Loki asked her, the hint of a smile playing on his face.

"If you want to become the benevolent dictator of the free world, definitely," Darcy said to him with a nod. "I mean, you want to be the guy that the majority of the populace wouldn't dream of overthrowing, and would fight for you if a fringe group tried to do just that."

"Then I suppose I will have to work on this image so that people would not want to rebel," Loki mused, his emerald green eyes looking directly into hers.

Darcy felt her mouth go dry and she cleared her throat. Loki definitely had one of those stares that could both freeze a girl in place and make her melt at the same time, even though such a thing felt like it should be impossible. She finally made herself nod, not wanting to look like a girlish fool even though every time he turned those eyes on her she felt like she was just that.

OoOoOoOo

Darcy was right to worry that SHIELD had bugs on the base inside and out. What Darcy may not have realized was that SHIELD also had plenty of bugs around the city, at least in the closest businesses to their home base.

Director Nick Fury himself had listened to the conversation that Darcy Lewis and Loki had in the coffee shop over and over, wondering if this girl knew what sort of situation she was getting herself into. Did she really think that she was just having innocent conversations? If she did, then she was every bit the idiot that people assumed her to be.

Fury did not believe that Darcy Lewis was an idiot, though. What Darcy had to gain from the possibility of Loki actually fulfilling his despotic desires and ruling over the planet, he didn't understand, but he doubted highly that it was some girlish fantasy to be a queen at his side. She didn't come across as someone who wanted to wear a tiara and carry a scepter.

He believed that she may have had ambitions toward being some kind of advisor or 'kingmaker.' The idea of cultivating a ruler was a heady one. He wondered if this young woman really understood whom she was messing with, though.

"Sir?" Agent Hill had come up behind him. "Do you want us to bring the Lewis woman in for questioning?"

Fury shook his head. "Have her followed, and have her apartment bugged. I want to make sure that she's really a threat first. To bring her in now might just piss someone off and tip our hand too early." He wanted to make sure that this was a real threat and not two people who were simply having discussions. He wasn't sure how to find that out without something bad happening, but the last thing he needed was an incident of some sort from Loki because they had snatched away his buddy.

OoOoOoOo

It didn't take long for Darcy to realize that she was being followed. She knew that SHIELD was supposed to be an organization full of superspies, but either the training wasn't as up to snuff as she would have thought, or maybe they wanted her to know that she was being followed.

She knew all the regulars at the places that she frequented, like the coffee shop and the little bistro that she sometimes got lunch at, and SHIELD agents stuck out like sore thumbs. Did they really think that this was the right way to go? Then again, she supposed that having them follow her was better than the alternative, which was snatching her away and locking her up in an interrogation room for an indeterminate amount of time.

She wondered what would happen if they had tried something like that. Would anyone come to get her? She had no idea. Jane would complain and demand that they give her back because she was needed for work, as she was the only one who could stand to work with Jane for any real amount of time without going insane. She really wondered if Loki would vouch for her or even realize that she was gone. She thought that they were friends, but were they? Other than Jane, he was the one that she talked to the most now. She wasn't sure if that was sad or what.

She tried to push the whole 'being watched' thing to the back of her mind, even though it pissed her off royally. SHIELD didn't own her. They had no right to think that it was perfectly OK to have her spied on. Until she could do something about it, she couldn't do much more than go about her business like everything was hunky-dory.

She happened to be getting coffee at a shop near Stark Tower when Loki appeared outside beside her, making her nearly jump out of her skin. She hadn't been expecting a visit at all, much less for him to do the 'popping' act that she had heard about but hadn't seen up until this point. Without so much as a hello, he laid a gentle but firm hand on her arm and led her down an alley, out of direct sight from the street.

"You are being followed," he said to her, his eyes flickering back toward the street.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure ever since you guys got back from India," she grumbled. "How are you here? Where's Thor?"

He pointed idly toward Stark Tower. "He's having a meeting with his fellow Avengers. Something about Doom causing trouble, I believe. He's arguing for me to come along. I would be up there with him, but I sensed you nearby."

"You can sense me?" That was something interesting.

"Every person has their own signature. I only have to meet them once to be able hone in on them," he explained to her. "Why are you being followed?"

"I'm fraternizing with the enemy," she said with a huffy sigh. "I don't consider you the enemy, but I think SHIELD still does. This whole following bullshit is starting to really get on my nerves."

"You don't consider me the enemy?" he asked, actually sounding…a little surprised at that.

"No, right now I'm more pissed off at my employers than I think I could ever be at you," she grumbled. "At least you're up front about what you want." That came out wrong, actually, but there it was, out in the open.

"And what do you mean by that?" He sounded more amused now than anything.

"You actually want a second chance, right?" she asked him, point blank. She wasn't stupid. Just because they both seemed to enjoy each other's company didn't mean that he wasn't also getting information from her. When he nodded, she continued. "They might say that they want to protect the world, but sometimes I think they want to control it, too. They certainly try to control all of the information that comes out about them. And I REALLY don't like being spied on like this."

"I don't like you being spied on, either," he remarked. "Do you think they have put any listening devices in your apartment?"

She grimaced when he asked that. "GOD, they probably have," she said with another sigh. "Can you do something about those when you and Thor come by again?" she asked him.

He nodded. "Do not worry about that. The next time I come by your apartment I will have them taken care of and SHIELD will not guess the difference." He reached up and tucked one of the loose strands of her hair behind her ear.

She looked up at him and smiled, even as she felt heat creep into her cheeks. "Good, because it's hard to talk to your political advisor when she's afraid that anything she might say will get her locked up," she told him. So, this was becoming more official then. She really was a part of this now. She still felt conflicted about the whole idea of helping someone take over the planet, really conflicted, even. However, she also felt that, if this worked, she knew whose side she wanted to be on. She also thought that Loki could be a good leader, given the right guidance. Darcy knew everything that a world leader should and shouldn't do, so why shouldn't it be her that gave him advice?

Darcy figured that Loki was likely eventually going to succeed eventually, or tear the world apart trying. She supposed that what she hoped to accomplish here was maybe steering him in the right direction. He had shown some severe handicaps before, mainly in that he saw at least most of humanity as 'ants,' if the reports she had been reading were correct. She needed to make him like and form some respect for humanity if he was going to work out for this. She was also hoping that her influence on him would make him less...well, crazy. She wondered when he had last talked to anyone for any real period of time? That may have made him kinda crazy. She knew that she would go nuts if she didn't talk to anyone.

Hopefully, their talks would have some real influence on him besides the ideas he got from them.