**Wow! Thank you so much to everyone who is following this story and a special shout out to OWK77 for your awesome review! I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the last. Much love!**

**As always, Marvel is not mine.**

Chapter 3

It was complete confirmation of the end of my life. I turned the light off and curled up in a corner, my arms wrapped around my pillow. I just rocked back and forth. I didn't ask for this life. I certainly didn't ask for my death.

"It is interesting that he would fear you so much to threaten your termination."

I didn't acknowledge his hologram. Maybe if I ignored him, he would just go away. He knelt beside me, his face carefully blank, but reached out and took my hand in his. His warm and very real hand. Somehow, he had broken out of his cell and into mine. I let the question show across my face.

"I am not entirely heartless. Now, tell me… why would they keep such a beautiful and talented creature locked away?"

"Because I'm dangerous." I took a deep breath. I was still in pain, but I figured it wouldn't matter if someone else knew the truth. I was going to die. Someone should know.

"I was sixteen when S.H.I.E.L.D. came for me. I had hit their radar at some point in my childhood so they had been watching me for years. I had taught myself how to make people do what I wanted. I could see their thoughts as my own, like I was living inside of their memories. I manipulated them and always got my way. Then someone got hurt because I probed too far with my 'inexperience and lack of training'. Someone important… or so I was told."

"I liked that power, too much actually. I got bolder with my invasions and took what I wanted so they came for me and locked me up. It was a cell. A real cell, with bars and no privacy. I had a cot and a toilet. It was always cold and there was nothing to do but sit and think."

"I spent a year in that prison, alone. The first month or so, I was sure my father would come for me. I hoped and I even prayed to a God that I knew didn't exist for help. No one came. Then the experiments started. I wasn't human, but that was the best they could do. One day, I got angry. I had had enough of the needles and shocks and torture. I went nuts, just started screaming. That's how they figured out that I was also a minor telekinetic. I destroyed everything that was in reach."

"Director Fury compiled all of the information they had learned about me and about mind control and had some military quack of a doctor create a drug to keep my abilities at bay. Occasionally, I could still make someone walk into a wall or get the remote without getting up but I was tamed enough that I was given an apartment upstairs and a babysitter so I could go outside and do normal things like shopping or buying a cup of coffee. That lasted all of three months before my babysitter was killed. You were the one behind that I was told."

I didn't want an apology for Phil Coulsen's death and he wasn't going to give me one. I just wanted acknowledgement that the death was on his shoulders. The look on his face was my confirmation.

"But I wasn't the only thing the Director was studying. He had his eyes on everything that wasn't what the public in general would call normal. Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Captain freaking America: he watched them all. New York happened and the world knew that people like them, people like me… and gods like you truly existed. I thought it was my chance, that they would let me go, but instead I got locked back inside of a cell… for my protection."

"The last year has been the worst of my life. At least before New York, people were interested in me. Now they have greater problems to conquer and greater riches to reap. I am just here until they kill me. The few hours here and there out of this hell hole aren't enough anymore."

I allowed him to drape a blanket over my shoulders. I hadn't realized how cold I was. "I'm not an evil person, Loki. I crave power just as much as the next person, but after all this time, I would give up all of the power I have just to disappear from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar permanently."

He was thoughtful. "What if you could?"

"Give up my powers?"

He shook his head. "No… disappear."

He was crazy. He was certifiably insane. There was no escaping. There was no disappearing. He touched my cheek with his hand. "I am not the evil people see me to be, either. And if I say there is a way to get away, there is. I will not lie to you if you concede to trust me on this."

I thought about what he was offering me. I was going to die if I stayed. I would probably die if I tried to flee, but at least running meant that I had a chance to die as a free woman. I found myself nodding slowly.

"I trust you. Please don't make me regret it."

He stood, pulling me up with him. "No regrets will be necessary. And if the chance should not arise later," he said, pressing his lips to mine. Astonished, I let him take brief control as explored my mouth thoroughly with his tongue, leaving me breathless and speechless. He released his hold on me and, as much as I hate to admit it, I staggered backwards a step. "Now come. Time is of the dwindling."

I couldn't take the time to process the kiss but inwardly I was jumping around like a teenager. I had just enjoyed an intimate moment with one sexy god and from the look of hunger that followed me, it would not be the last.

I glanced around my space. There was only one item that I felt the need to take with me. It was a book of poetry that had been my mother's favorite. It was small, very old and worn, leather bound with a ribbon for a bookmark. She had written her thoughts in the margins like a journal. The only picture that existed of her I had stolen from my father's room as a child and taped it into the back cover. I grabbed it and stuffed it into the back pocket of my jeans. I threw on a hoodie and my only pair of sneakers.

Loki was waiting for me in the hallway, both guards knock unconscious but breathing. I was grateful he hadn't killed them. They were good men with families. We made it as far as the second sublevel before anyone figured out what was going on.

"When the doors open at the lobby level, they will have guns ready to fire. We'll never clear the building," I said.

He handed me a pair of handcuffs, probably swiped from downstairs. "Put these on." I looked at him and was shocked to find that he had altered his appearance. He looked like any other guard in the building.

"I'm impressed." And I really was.

The doors opened and as expected, the guns were out, but the people behind them were fooled. Loki called for a car to be made ready as I was being taken to a secondary location. He wasn't questioned. We made it outside to the car without being recognized. I climbed into the backseat and gasped as I recognized the driver.

"Will the two of you get in here and close the door? It's fucking cold."

Loki got in beside me and dropped his glamour. "Agent Romanov. I could say that it was a pleasure to be in your presence again but we both know that it is not."

I covered his mouth with my hand. "Natasha, please. We have to get out of here."

"I know." She started the car and floored it. There were shouts from behind us as someone figured out our ruse.

"Why are you helping us? Last I was aware, you wanted to kill me."

"Don't tempt me. I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for her."

For me? I was confused and more than a little agitated. "Fury is going to have your head for this!" I yelped as she hit a curve doing ninety miles an hour.

We were driving in the dead of night in away from one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s facilities located in the southern part of Colorado. There was nothing around for miles. We had no real plan, or rather a plan that I was part of.

"I don't like red in my ledger, remember? I should have protected you, Nora. What they did to you was beyond anything that could be considered humane. I'm sorry. I can't save you now, but I can give you a chance. In about three minutes, we are going to crest a hill with a valley to the left side. Be prepared to jump out and run for it. Then it's all on you, Loki."

So she was in on this crazy ass plan. Holy shit, my thoughts were spinning out of control. We hit the curve and she pulled over. She reached into the back seat and gave me a hug. She then, in true Black Widow fashion, pulled a knife and held it to Loki's throat.

"Take care of her. If anything happens to her, I will hunt you down. Understood?"

He swallowed, but kept the cocky grin on his face. "Completely."

We got out and she was gone. We heard the helicopter overhead searching for us. I grabbed for his hand and down into the ravine we went.

"So what's the plan?" I yelled as the wind shrieked around us.

He didn't answer me until we were at the bottom. He pulled me behind a rock and knelt down. From his robe he pulled a small clicker. He pressed the button and waited.

"Whatever you see, whatever you hear, stay put."

I was glad for the warning because the wind turned out to be one very pissed off God of Thunder. He landed a fair distance away, shaking the ground all the way back to my rock. I watched as Loki approached him. I couldn't really hear anything and the only light was from a full moon and the glow of Mjölnir. Evidentally, things weren't going Loki's way and from the look of rage on his face, this couldn't end well.

I ignored the warning and raced from my hiding place, praying that I would reach them before either of them did something we would all regret later. I watched in horror as Thor began to swing his hammer around. He was going to kill his brother. I raced as fast as I could, throwing myself in front of Loki, shielding his body with my own.

"Thor, no!" I cried, wrapping my arms around the man I had begun to care for.

I felt the hammer hit the ground, the electricity surging into me. I collapsed, the light fading.