Disclaimer: I own nothing but Willow.
A/N: The characters list will be changed with each chapter depending upon which ones are the most involved in each one.
Green is for chlorophyll
by Arasinyah
Chapter 4
Loki smoothed a hand down the scarf's silken surface, mentally uncomfortable without his armour and yet quite comfortable at the same time now that its weight was temporarily gone. Shifting the disguised sceptre from one hand to the other he looked out over the banister searching for his victim. He spotted the man in the crowd, a smirk taking over his face. Finally his plans could be put into motion and the chitauri would take this world by storm.
Within seconds he bounded down the stairs. He could smell his victory in the air, along with another sweet scent, one that reminded him of his mother.
Frigga, he corrected himself pausing in his walk towards destiny, not mother. He shook his head at the wayward thought, confused at how clear his mind had felt with that thought. The Tesseract provided clarity, it provided answers so why did his mind feel so clouded all of a sudden?
He began to resume his course when a mortal woman bumped into him spilling her drink on his suit.
"Oops, I'm so sorry, I'm not usually this clumsy!" She said with a lilting voice, like she had laughter hidden in it and he was suddenly very aware of the pressure in the back of his head.
"That's quite alright." He said instead of smiting her like he should have, the pressure moving to the back of his eyes and becoming more painful by the second. Images of the chitauri grinning down at him while the weight of a metal whip dug into his back filled his mind and he stumbled.
"No really, I'll help you clear this up." He heard her say and with a shuddering breath he closed his eyes, the lights now hurting his eyes with their intensity. "You don't look so good."
She was steering him away from his victim, and he did not even care to stop her. Loki felt weakened for some reason, unable to keep his eyes open even though he had been through worse, much worse at the hands of Thanos' right hand man.
He clutched his head at the insurgence of memories, of being held captive as they tried to break his mind and body. Why was he trying to help them? They had done him no less harm than Odin so why was he not taking his revenge on them as well? Why was he letting them use him like that?
The pain was growing, moving from his head to the rest of him and his muscles clenched at the ache. He staggered and was wholly dependent on her to keep him from falling, leaning his weight entirely on her as his feet gave way under the pain.
She led him away, an arm curled around his waist as if holding him in a hug and his knees buckled once again at the warmth she emanated. She cooed soothing words into his hair, "Shh, shh, it'll be okay", were the last words he heard before darkness took over his mind.
Willow folded under his weight when he lost consciousness and fell upon her. Luckily she had managed to manoeuvre them into an alcove behind a pillar so no one in the party could see them which was excellent because the minute he had lost consciousness the suit had morphed back into heavy armour and the glowing cane turned into a sceptre.
She took out the cell phone from her pocket and called a S.H.I.E.L.D. number and was soon redirected to Natasha's communicator.
"Natasha, I've got Loki, he's unconscious and I can't really move him, could you please send someone to help me?"
"On it."
She dragged him further into the shadows as a pair of dancers came too close and sat there waiting. Eventually the music died down and the man of the hour, Heinrich Schaffer, began to make a long speech in German. Ignoring the discourse going on as he thanked investors and gave a nice little speech punctuated with laughter at all the right moments, she looked at the man in her lap.
From the stories Huginn and Muninn had told her she had expected someone a great deal different especially when compounded by the frankly terrifying things she had seen him do in the video of his arrival. At least now the bruises under his eyes were fading, he had been physically weak yet didn't seem too injured but now that she was there next to him, now that she had felt what he was feeling she wondered how he was standing at all.
His mind was so clouded she wasn't sure if he realised anything he had done, if he was aware of what was happening. That sceptre in his hand was giving out an odd vibe, amplifying all negative emotions so that even now as he lay there dead to the world she could feel his agitation growing. His eyes flicked under his eyelids, distressed and she ran a hand over his forehead in hopes that it would calm him down and as it worked she realised how young he looked.
She needed to get him away from that sceptre, as far away as possible but wasn't really brave enough to take it herself. It fed on anger and even though she hadn't been angry in a very long time she still feared the feeling.
Just as he began to calm down and stopped shaking, a loud noise was heard. The people at the gala were panicking and many of them began moving outside. There was a sense of pandemonium in the air and Willow shrunk into herself as the sceptre fed on the chaos, glowing brighter.
"Natasha?" She dialled a number hoping to catch the Black Widow and see where they were on the back up but even as she did Steve came striding in, in full Captain America regalia.
"Need some help with that Ma'am?" Steve asked politely even as a crooked grin played on his lips and she smiled back at him.
"Yes please, he's surprisingly heavy."
They both shouldered the weight of the God and carried him out. As soon as they stepped out many eyes fell upon them, the guests of the gala still milling about outside the venue, glossing over Willow to look carefully at the superhero and man in odd armour instead. One of the guests got out a camera and took a picture of them and even as Willow went to stop him the flash went off, awakening the previously unconscious God.
Loki, now awake and angry, pointed the sceptre at Steve and blew him away, the blow coming at such close quarters with such force that even Captain America went flying, landing on a building roof a whole block away.
Willow teleported away before Loki could even turn to her and reappeared on the roof where Steve lay coughing up dust and pushing away the debris of the parapet he had punched through.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, just a bit banged up." He stood up quickly brushing the dust off his uniform.
The sound of screams rang through the air and sirens blared for a full three seconds before stopping abruptly. the two raced to the edge of the roof to see what was happening. From where they stood they could see clones of Loki rounding people up and even though they couldn't' hear what he was saying, they knew it couldn't be much good as the entire crowd knelt in front of him.
"I need to stop him." Steve said and leapt down the length of the building landing easily on his feet before sprinting off to the square where Loki and the crowd was. He got there just in time to save an old men from feeling the force of the sceptre with his shield.
As he walked up to Loki the people in the crowd began standing up as well, gaining confidence now that he was there to set an example. Willow stayed where she was, dithering. She didn't know what part she could play now, she wasn't and never would be a fighter and this was most definitely a fight.
A quinjet commandeered by Natasha swooped down onto the city skyline and the Agent's voice rang out over the speakers.
"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down."
He fired a shot at the quinjet with his sceptre but it nimbly avoided it, swerving to the side and the fight turned to fisticuffs as Steve and Loki engaged each other in battle, sceptre and shield meeting in loud clangs that Willow heard all the way up on the roof but the fight turned one sided as Loki left Steve devoid of his shield in one simple move and Steve was soon being thrown around by Loki with ease.
A song that Willow vaguely identified as something by AC/DC began blaring over the PA system of the quinjet, distracting the two players in the fight and a blast of a repulsor beam threw Loki into the steps behind him before Iron man swooped down in a graceful arc, landing on the cobbled path dramatically.
From where she was watching Willow clapped at the display. Tony Stark would make a good magician considering his wonderful sense of flair, she thought to herself now calm in the knowledge that these two together could probably handle Loki.
The quinjet landed on the ground and before long Willow, Iron Man, Captain America and Loki were on it as it made its way to the helicarrier. Willow sat on one of the seats across form Loki who was doing his damndest to avoid her eyes and Stark and Steve conversed a bit away from them. She couldn't quite make out what they were saying as they whispered but it seemed to be personal and so she kept her distance. A sudden bout of thunder broke them from their conversation and Loki looked up with something that seemed an awful lot like fear.
"What's the matter, scared of lightning?" Steve said and Loki's face relaxed into a more blank expression.
"I'm not overly fond of what follows." He drawled.
The quinjet jolted as a heavy weight seemed to settle itself on onto its roof and both the heroes got into their battle ready positions, Steve putting on the cowl and grabbing his shield while Stark put on his helmet.
Tony strode ahead, pressing a button on the board at the side and the ramp opened up. A tall blonde man that Willow recognised as Thor from the files she had read settled onto it heavily rocking the quinjet further. Tony stepped forward to stop him but was hit with a hammer instead and before he could recover, Thor grabbed Loki by the neck and swinging his hammer around like a flail he jumped out into the sky.
"And now there's that guy." Tony said in his digitalised voice as Natasha and her co-pilot struggled with the quinjet.
"Another Asgardian?!" Natasha said, shouting to be heard over the sound of the wind and Willow nodded.
"He's Thor." She said for everyone's benefit.
"That guy's a friendly?" Steve asked but before Willow could affirm this Tony spoke up.
"Doesn't matter, if he frees Loki or kills him the Tesseract's lost."
"Stark we need a plan of attack." Steve said, cautious.
"I have a plan. Attack."
Stark took off behind Thor and Steve unstrapped a parachute bag and began pulling it up his torso.
"I'd sit this one out, Cap" Natasha said, turning back to the control panel to flick a couple of switches.
"I don't see how I can."
"These guys come from legends, they're basically gods."
"There's only one God, ma'am and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." Securing the shield on his arm he took a flying leap off the ramp and only three were left on the jet.
Willow sighed. "Should I follow them?" She asked Natasha who had now managed to get the jet to stabilise. The ramp closed up and slowly but surely the alarms stopped flashing.
"Keep an eye on Loki." Natasha said and taking it as an affirmative Willow disappeared again with a crack, reappearing on the cliff side where Loki sat easily, watching the fight below.
Loki watched as Thor summoned lightning and laughed. It was surprising to think that Agent Barton found them to be threats. All he had to do was wait and they would end up killing each other without any interference from him.
The voice he had heard before he lost consciousness broke him out of his thoughts. "Enjoying the show?" It was rare for people to sneak up on him, even rarer for them to do so when only seconds prior they'd been in a flying contraption. The chit wasn't even looking at him instead keeping her eyes trained on the fight unfolding on the ground below them. She sat down on a rock next to him trying to keep her full skirts from touching the dirt. "It's a beautiful night." She smiled and took a deep, content breath looking up at the sky for a moment before her eyes returned to the fight.
He tried hard to control his fast breaths as he watched her, angry. She had managed to do something that many other had failed to; she had gotten inside his mind and done so easily. It was only curiosity as to what magic she had used that kept him from breaking her in two. For a mere mortal to wield control over a former king of Asgard was intriguing albeit humiliating.
A cawing sound took his attention away from her and his father's ravens swooped down upon them, settling down on either side of the girl.
"A new favourite? Huginn, Muninn, I'm hurt. Did you replace me that easily?" He drawled.
"Yes." The trio watching the fight downstairs chorused.
"Well isn't that rude."
"I'd say it's not that rude, at least we didn't use a sceptre and try to take over your mind. Off the top of my head that seems much worse."
"So you didn't go poking about in my mind?" He said sarcastically.
"No, I just tried to calm you, how your mind interpreted those actions is entirely on you."
She crossed her ankles daintily and looked over the precipice while he in turn watched her. She had somehow gotten into his mind, made him question things and feel a surge of conflicting emotions that drove him mad and he was not happy about it. The sceptre could not even control him, why then did this child have so much power over him?
The fight continued in the forest and the groaning sounds of trees bending and breaking reached them on their perch.
"It's alright, I'll watch from here." She said and he looked at her like she was crazy.
"I didn't say anything." Loki said and grew more confused when she just giggled at him.
"I'm not talking to you!" She said softly and went back to holding what appeared to be a conversation with the wind. "It's fine, I don't want to trouble you."
"Who is she talking to?" Loki asked Huginn as he swept lower.
"The trees." Muninn answered for his twin.
"If you're sure." She said into the air before stepping off the cliff as if simply climbing down a staircase and with a sharp intake of breath Loki moved from his spot, expecting to see her plastered all over the ground. Instead the trees bent towards her lovingly, the rustle of their leaves mixing with her laughter to reach his ears. He watched the tree sway, bending over its middle and depositing her on the ground before standing upright again.
He had seen his mo- Frigga command the plants on many occasions but this was different. This girl did not ask anything of them and yet they gave it freely, that they would nearly break themselves in two just to afford her a better view was unheard of.
Even stranger then that Barton knew nothing about her. What he knew came from the files S.H.I.E.L.D. kept on her and the files appeared to be very sparse. Barton hadn't even considered her a threat and yet here she was, knocking Loki unconscious, talking to the trees and being vouched for by Huginn and Muninn.
He'd have keep an eye on her once he figured out how to be around her without reliving painful memories and questioning his own actions. Hopefully it wouldn't take too long.