Natasha was in shock. She looked down at the small droplets of blood that had seeped through Thor's pants and onto the tile floor. He had been standing there a moment ago. She was having trouble processing any of what just happened. She shut her eyes trying to forget it all.
"Get up." Loki commanded.
She barely heard him.
He became impatient and pulled her up by the arm.
"We must leave." Before she could pull away he had transported them back to her apartment.
"Grab whatever you need, you can't stay here."
"What the hell did you do?" She cried out.
"Why are you angry, you knew I was planning something. And might I add, you did a fine job." He said sarcastically.
"I did what you asked, I kept him busy long enough for you to steal that thing again and doom us all."
"You're not one of them anymore. You're above them. You've always been above them." Loki's voice was so serious she took a step back.
"Yea, that's right, now I'm your puppet."
He took a deep breath in trying to maintain his anger. She was so close to his level of rage, he could feel it. He wanted her to join him there, unite in the common enemy. She just needed a little push.
"You want to know something? When I dove into your friend, Barton's, mind, I saw what he thinks of you. He loves you, he truly does, but he so fears you he cannot get close to you. In you he sees this mangled human being whose sole purpose is to kill. And he decided long ago that he could never be with someone so broken."
"I don't believe you." She said without any emotion in her voice.
"You can choose not to believe me, but I want to tell you this. Humans will never understand you, they will always fear you, they will judge you and make you feel guilty for the life you have had. I know this because I have watched them for so many centuries. You have to lie and pretend to be someone else to seem normal. You have to essentially become someone else to be accepted. Even Thor, the high and mighty thinks you a heartless killer. Yes, I heard that part. But I will never hold you accountable for your past, if anything, I relish in it. I think you are a divine creature, in fact, if I were human I would find you irresistible and fascinating. Hell, even as a god I find you interesting. I find all the things you hate about yourself to be your best qualities, including that seething rage I can feel forming under your skin. I will never hold you back from your true greatness. I will only enhance it. That is why I have asked you to join me. Forget the Avengers; forget those measly humans you work for. You are greater than they are, and I want to show you your true potential. For all the people who have hurt you, for all the pain you have suffered, will you join me?"
He held out his hand to her. She stared at it for a while. Her mind was telling her to say no, to walk away, go back to S.H.E.I.L.D., tell them what happened, try to find Thor, make things right. But her heart was telling her to take that crazy god's hand and see where it took her. She already knew what her answer was, long before she placed her hand gently in his open palm, before he could transport them out of her apartment, before the world below her fell away and before she was standing in an unknown world to her gazing up at impossibly high towers.
"This is Asgard." He whispered to her as she stood in awe of this foreign world.
The first order of business was letting Asgard know it was under siege. Loki did this easily by walking up to the throne, claiming he had killed Thor, and was by legal right, taking the throne. With the tesseract in his hands no one stopped him. Gods did not fear much, but they did fear the prospect of being obliterated to death. Odin was in his Odin sleep, this one presumably forever, since Thor had been named king and his services no longer needed. His mother had joined him in their restful state, so there was really no one to stop him from taking over.
"I thought you said you no longer desired this position." Natasha said, standing by his throne in her new uniform, a more breathable silk ensemble of a black top with tight dark green pants and boots. She also carried a gilded staff with a blade at the end. She was his second in command, a glorified bodyguard, secretary, errand runner.
"This is only the first stop. Take Asgard, take the rest of the worlds."
"So now you want to conquer all the worlds. Ambitious." She smirked. "How long do I have to be your slave until you give me what I want."
He gave her a petulant look.
"When I say you're ready."
She realized working for him was really no different than working for a mob boss. If anything he was pushier, more opinionated, more irrational. Being in Asgard was almost worth it all though. When she had a few spare moments she would walk around the palace, stare at all the magnificent things. On top of that the food was absolutely marvelous. She often wondered what it had been like to grow up here, how different it must be.
But at the moment, she stood by him, as people came to pledge their allegiance to him, most out of fear. She dozed off now and again.
He broke for a moment from the groveling to say, "I need you to go to Midgard for me."
"What do you want me to do?"
"People have been wondering where you've gone. I need you to act like nothing is wrong, and convince Fury that I have been a little angel up here and there is nothing to worry about."
She walked over to his throne, touched the tesseract, waited for him to make it work, and she reappeared in her apartment. She had only been gone a day or two since her fight with Thor. She thought no one would really notice her gone, however, her voicemail on her cell phone read twenty-six messages. Most of them were from Clint asking where the hell she was, and the other half were Fury telling her to report as soon as she got this message.
She went to headquarters. Both Clint and Fury were there, debriefing after their latest mission.
"Where the hell have you been, Agent Romanoff?" Fury said sternly.
"I was having some personal time. I think you were all right. I think Loki jangled me up a bit and I freaked out. I think I imagined seeing him, and it was all just me having a little mental break down."
"I think in that case, you need some more time off. I think you should really get away. I can't have my agents seeing things that aren't really there. Maybe you need to speak to somebody?"
"No, I think I'll be fine. But you may be right, I may need more time off. Also, Thor came to visit me this morning. He told me he's been watching Loki, and everything is under control. He said we might not see him for a while because he's so busy as king nowadays."
"Hmm, well all right then. All is good in the world." Fury smiled and patted her on the back. "Now go home and recover."
"Thanks." She smiled and waved goodbye.
She had just barely walked back into her apartment to grab a few things when she heard a knock.
"Clint, hey, what are you doing here?"
"I was just concerned. You went missing for two days and didn't tell anyone where you were."
"Clint.."
"I know you don't like talking about emotions and all that, but you know you can talk to me." Clint's eyes wandered to the wall behind her, where he noticed the plaster had cracked, like something or someone had been thrown into it.
"What happened to your wall, Natasha?"
"What?"
"That wall over there. Looks like something happened."
"Oh, sometimes I just get angry and kick it."
"That doesn't look like a wall you've kicked. When you kick a wall you kick through it. And the scuff marks on the floor. Did someone attack you here? Oh Jesus, was it Loki? He did get out, didn't he?"
"You're jumping to crazy conclusions, Clint. Nothing happened here."
"There's something you're not telling me." He looked coldly into her eyes.
He started to take his phone out of his pocket.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Her gun was pointed at his chest.
"Tasha? Why?"
"Because I want a new life, because I'm tired of being the cold-blooded killer you all know me as."
"No one thinks that of you."
"You do. It's why you can never love me as more than a friend. Because I scare you."
"That's not true, he's feeding you lies, Natasha. He's telling you whatever he has to so you'll do what he tells you to. He's a great manipulator. I should know."
"And Fury? Like he's never lied to us? With Loki I don't have to pretend to be someone else, I don't have to pretend to be good. I'm not a good person, and I never have been."
"That's not true-"
"Shut up, Clint."
"I know I promised you I would kill you if you went off the deep end, but I won't do it. I won't give you that satisfaction."
"I can't let you go, you know too much."
"So kill me, add that to your list of people you've murdered."
She slapped him across the face with her pistol. His mouth was bleeding, but he stood there, unmoving.
He went to go for the door but before he could, she pulled out her staff from her pocket, watching it grow to full size, tapped the edge of the blade onto his heart. Once again he was under Loki's spell. This was not what she wanted but it was either that or kill him. This would at least provide some time to figure out what to do with him.
She held his arm and said, "I'm ready." And from a world away, the tesseract reacted and brought them to stand in front of Loki's throne.
He looked bored sitting there. "You should have just killed him."
She said nothing as he stepped off the throne and walked over to her. He slapped her across the face. She readjusted her face, touching her chin.
"Where has all the fire gone!" He screamed in her face. "I want the Black Widow who fears nothing, who kills without remorse. You are disappointing. Are you having doubts?"
"Of course I am. I'm starting to hurt people I care about. You said I wouldn't have to kill them. I wanted to just disappear, I wanted them to just think I was dead and move on."
"I said you would not have to kill them unless you had to. This was one such case where killing would have been most affective. And you know as well as I do someone of your status cannot simply disappear."
"There's always a silver lining with you bad guys. Doesn't matter if you're human or god." She said.
"I believe at this point you would classify as a 'bad guy'. And you should embrace it, you'll feel less guilt that way." He smiled.
Her lips turned up for a moment, almost enjoying his sense of humor.
He sighed and said, "You are far too serious. I know something we could do for fun. Come, we are going to Alfheim."
They landed in the world of elves, a sort of uncivilized bunch. Mostly living in the woods, in small huts made from tall grass. They appeared peaceful, but in reality they were vicious creatures, cannibalistic, full of violent rituals. They landed in the middle of a small village. The elves were confused, they looked out of their huts at them. They started to come out, started eyeing them suspiciously. These elves were not short such as in the story books, but were tall, thin creatures, with pointed ears, slanted eyes, and long limbs and fingers.
"Good evening, residents of Alfheim, I am the king of Asgard, coming to speak with your leader."
"We don't want your kind here." Said one elf.
"Leave our world at once." Said another.
"We know the destruction you Asgardians bring." Another elf chimed in. They began circling around them, getting closer. One snapped out and tried to catch Loki's staff. He instinctively turned and hit the elf with the sharp end of his staff, slicing the elf's neck in half. Then they all descended.
Natasha was instantly in the thick of things, killing elves left and right, indiscriminately. One latched onto her arm and she sliced the creature's arm off, hearing it howling as she threw the detached arm off her. The fighting seemed to go on for a long time, but she had never felt so alive. Not since her last kill, not since the last time she held a sniper rifle in her hand, pulled the trigger, and watched the body of her hit slump against his chair. She was exuberated. Her pulse was racing and she felt powerful.
When all the elves were finally dispatched, she wiped the green slime for blood they had from her face. She looked over at Loki, still breathing heavy as she was.
"Damn elves, never learn how to be civilized." He laughed.
She stared at him as he looked around, checking for more elves. In the soft green glow of this forest his eyes sparkled. There was something majestic in his stature, his hair was blowing softly in the breeze, it blew past her and she faintly smelled his sent. It was dark and musky, yet had a hint of flowers. She wiped the blood from her arms, but had trouble getting the blood on her face.
"That was exhilarating, was it not?" He exclaimed. "Nothing like killing rotten elves. Foul creatures, all of them. They eat the flesh of their dead, you know."
He glanced over at her trying to wipe the slime from her face.
"Here, let me get that." He pulled a dark green handkerchief from his pocket and rubbed it across her forehead.
She looked up into his eyes, he stopped rubbing her forehead for a moment, and looked down at her, holding her chin in his other hand.
"I've never felt so alive. Why do I feel most alive when I'm killing people?"
"Because it's what you were made to do." He said, bringing his voice down to a whisper, "It's the only time you feel at home."
She looked away, backing off, realizing what he said was true, but he grabbed her arms and pulled her back in and brought his lips to meet hers.
She separated their lips for a moment, shock written plainly on her face, but then she wrapped her fingers around his thin neck and reconnected them.
He lifted her up gently, and placed her on the soft grass beneath them. He followed her down, holding onto her as if for dear life, as if the two of them needed each other more than any other two beings in the universe. At first it was soft, but their kisses grew hungry, he began tearing her seams trying to touch the smooth skin beneath these obnoxious clothes. She ripped his clothes off and soon both of them were naked, rolling around in the grass, a few stone throws away from where they had just murdered an entire elf village. None of that bothered them, there was nothing else in the world but them. Something about the way she looked when she was killing those elves made a deep burn form in his loins. He wanted to conquer that power, wanted to control it, wanted it to be his. And now she was lying beneath his frame, and pulling her nails across his back, begging him to enter her body. He had never felt this way about anyone before, especially not a mortal. No one had ever seemed his equal until now, no one had understood him. She felt like a missing piece in the puzzle. And as for her, she felt like she was safe in his arms. She felt like she could let go and not worry anymore.
He felt himself move within her, each thrust making her back arch in a way that drove him even crazier. He wrapped his hand in her hair, and tried to pull her as close to him as possible. She moaned softly.
"No one can hear you here, my spider." He whispered into her ear.
Instantly she started to moan louder, started to grab at him in a hungry, lustful manner. He bit into her neck, and in that moment a surge of energy rushed between them and nothing else mattered for that brief period of time.
Afterwards, he was lying on his back, looking up at last breath of sun, as she was lying with her back turned to him. She was confused. She felt dirty, yet satisfied. Ashamed, yet fulfilled. She wanted more, but had no idea how he felt about her. Until she felt his fingers trace the curve of her hip. Felt the brush of his chest against her back. She turned her face and his lips descended on her.
She rolled over onto her back and looked up at the same sky.
"Do you think we're mistakes?"
"No." he answered without hesitation. "There are no mistakes. This was fate. I could never love an immortal because none of them could ever see past my brother."
"This isn't love. I'm not sure what it is." She turned back onto her side, facing away from him. He started kissing her shoulder, sweetly, in a way she would have never thought possible for him, who was always so full of hate and angst. He made his way to her neck, the lobe of her ear, her breath started to quicken, and his hand wrapped around her neck, and she could feel his hardness against her. She gave in and let him take her again. As far as she was concerned, he could do with her whatever he pleased. She had already come this far, had already betrayed her friends. She might as well let him take over.
As they gathered their shredded clothing, she regretted having to leave this beautiful place, minus the elf corpses lying around. She was at peace here. Now it was time to face reality.
He came up behind her, strung the tesseract around her with his arms, she touched the box and they disappeared.
