Part IV

"I don't want to go!" Colleen all but screamed in protest as Romanov wrestled with the girl after her talk with Loki.

"He means to unleash the Hulk; perhaps you should remove yourself from this stressful situation." She said as she locked her arms firmly around the girl's waist and wrenched her from Bruce's side.

"Stressful situation?!" He exclaimed. "Where am I supposed to go? You rented my room!" He gave what he hoped was a calming look to Colleen who was the one who seemed the most worked up by the whole event, mostly because Romanov was manhandling her.

"That was just…" Fury began but Bruce cut him off.

"In case you need to kill me, I know," Bruce snarled. "You can't. I've tried!"

Everyone went quiet and looked at him in awe. Romanov's arms loosened enough that Colleen could push past them and she collided with Bruce. His arms wrapped her in a tight embrace. He nuzzled his face in her hair. "I was in a dark place," He meant to snarl the words at them, but they came out more like a whisper. The girl's arms wrapped around him in an almost protective manner, as if she was trying to keep him from falling part. "I put a bullet in my head and the other guy spit it back out."

Romanov moved towards him slowly and grabbed ahold of Colleen, yanking her from Bruce's grasp and despite her cry of protest, tossing her from the room and locking the door. Bruce glared at Romanov with such a look that if looks could kill, she would nothing but a puddle on the carpet. "Exactly what was that supposed to achieve?" He snarled, "You took the one and only person who actually calms me and threw her out of the room. How is that supposed to keep me from becoming angry, Agent Romanov?"

She returned his glare with an equal one of her own. "I don't want her around when you go nuclear." She snapped. "She means a great deal to me."

"And she doesn't to me?" Bruce growled. "I…"

He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before a loud explosion blew them all apart, the floor collapsing on him and Romanov and knocking them down to a metal staircase beneath. The fall sent Bruce on his way to a meltdown; he attempted to fight the anger bubbling up in his chest, threatening to take control of him. The next sound he heard didn't help him fight it at all.

Colleen's scream was high pitched and almost full of more fear than she'd had the night before. It sounded as if her nightmares had manifested in front of her. "Colleen," He grunted as he turned onto his back to see if he couldn't see who was hurting her.

Loki had a fistful of Colleen's hair as he looked down upon them. "I've got your precious music box, Banner." He snarled at him as he yanked the girl's hair rather violently, making her cry out again. There was blood trickling from a wound in her head. The sight was making the anger grow bigger; it was close to consuming him. "She is mine now, how does that make you feel? I'll take her just far enough that you can still hear her pathetic screams as I take all that she is for my own."

"Bruce, it's okay," Colleen said in a soothing tone as she dug her nails into Loki's hand, holding her hair. Was she seriously trying to comfort him while her wellbeing was at stake? This girl, this god damned girl.

"SILENCE, YOU INSOLENT WENCH" Loki snapped and used his free hand to backhand her, making her neck jerk in a way that could likely give her whiplash.

That sight was enough to send Bruce over the edge. How dare he strike a woman? How dare he strike his woman? The anger took over him and his skin took on a green tint as he began to transform. Muscles began to double and triple in size, clothes split as the Hulk took over. Before he could get to her though, Loki had already disappeared, along with the girl. They may not have even been there at all.

Hulk was out.

And he was pissed.

…

Loki tossed the girl roughly to the floor in front of the glass fortress that he now had Thor trapped in. "You will not try to run or I will cause such atrocities to your body that even your own drug ridden, flea infested mother wouldn't recognize you." He snarled at her before he looked up to his brother.

"What in Valhalla do you need her for, Loki?" Thor pleaded. "Leave the girl alone, she is of no threat to you!"

"I never said she was, as if something so tiny and weak could even think to threaten me," Loki said with a sinister smile. "The idea is laughable to say the least, dear brother."

"I'm full of more surprises than you think, Loki." Colleen said, her voice tinged with fear. "I know there's more reason behind taking me than just pissing off Bruce." She pushed herself to her feet. "Also, insulting my birth mother isn't going to cause me any pain. I hate her more than anyone else possibly could. She is not my mother. Natasha is."

Loki pushed her back to the floor. "I have not given you permission to speak you pathetic excuse for a mortal." He snarled.

Colleen swung her leg out, knocking the god to the floor. She stood up again. "Funny, I didn't remember asking for it either." She spat at him. "This is America, Loki. Freedom of fucking speech."

"Colleen, you should stand down, you are not aware of who you are dealing with." Thor cautioned her, watching the scene with wide eyes. He had no way to protect her and it was driving him mad that the small girl was almost begging Loki to harm her. "He will not hesitate to kill you!"

Colleen on some kind of adrenaline rush, aimed another kick to the god's side as he was still in a state of shock that the "pathetic" mortal had dared strike him. "He won't kill me." She hissed with a knowing smile on her face as she brought back her leg again.

Loki grabbed said leg and wrenched the girl violently to the floor. "Don't you make play that you have any idea of my plans, you foolish child." He snarled as he pushed himself to his feet. "Now, I told you to stay still." He snarled as his skin turned a bright shade of blue and his eyes transformed to a violent shade of red. He gripped both of her wrists in his one hand and ice froze them together. He pulled her to her feet and brought her face very close to his own. "You better start behaving or that will be your entire body next time, have I made myself understood?"

"SO DO IT, KILL ME," She screamed at him. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR, LOKI? A DAMN INVITATION? KILL ME."

The God slapped the girl across the face hard enough to knock her out. He rolled his neck against his shoulders. "Her voice is so unnerving." He snarled as he walked back to the control panel. "Now, where were we?" His hand hovered over the button that would drop the cage to the earth in what would be a fatal fall. "Shall we test our immortality, brother?"

Colleen was stirring slowly but to neither of the two gods notice, as she slowly worked her way to Loki's side again. "You do not have to do this, brother." Thor said seriously.

"He's not going to." Colleen took her frozen wrists and struck them with all the force she had against Loki's legs, knocking the god to his knees once again. The girl was clearly insane and suicidal, that was the only reason Thor had for her bravery. Before Loki could react, she struck her frozen wrists against his shoulder. "You stay still." She snarled.

Loki laughed in such an evil way that if there were a Satan, he would be shaking in his boots. He grabbed the girl and willed his energy into her, putting her to sleep. "You will be paying for that later, mortal." He hissed at her. Without further interruption he hit the button that sent the cage plummeting to the earth. He picked up the girl from the ground as two of his followers entered the room. He shoved her into the closest ones arms. "Carry this." He ordered.

….

Bruce hated being this thing, being unable to calm down, becoming a complete rage machine without an off button. He highly doubted that even Colleen could bring him back from this. "BANNER, I NEED YOU TO RELAX." Romanov shouted at him, pleading with him. "Loki has taken the girl, I'm just as angry as you are, but if we have any chance at finding her you need to be of sound mind!"

Colleen. Colleen. Colleen. He held onto her name in his head. He called upon her face, the deep blue eyes that he could be lost in for hours if time would allow it, the waves of chestnut hair that framed her face perfectly. The naturally ruby lips with the pouting curve to them that begged to be kissed, a pleading that Bruce had always fought to ignore. He called upon the feeling she gave him when she wrapped those small arms around him. He let the sound of her melodic voice fill his head. One word. His name. "Bruce." He felt himself calming, the muscles began to shrink back to their original size, and the green began to fade from his skin. His breath came in ragged gasps as he looked at his hands in a disbelieving way. They had gone back to their original tan color. He looked at Romanov who still had a gun pointed at him.

"How did you do that?" She asked him as she lowered her weapon.

"Shooting him would have just angered him more, you do know that right?" Bruce said as he ran shaky hands through his. "I didn't do that… she did. I remembered the way Colleen makes me feel. I just focused on that." He placed a hand on his chest. "She's a part of me. I can feel her, here."

Romanov smiled in a strained way at him. "Most call that love, Doctor." She said quietly.

Bruce narrowed his eyes at her. Love? Was that the name of what Colleen did to him? Was that the name of the feelings she gave him, the warmth in his chest every time she looked his way? "I want her back. I don't care if I can calm down on my own." He snarled. "I don't care. I want to find Loki and rip him limb from limb for daring to lay a finger on her."

"Well, then, we're going to need you to suit up." Tony's voice came from behind him. Bruce turned to look at him. "I placed a tracking device on her when she was asleep, a small sensor attached to one of the belt loops on her jeans."

Bruce narrowed his eyes. Why was Tony that close to her while she was sleeping in the first place? He shook the thought from his head, because of Tony's quick thinking; they now had a way to find her. He needed to keep his attitude in check until the proper moment. The moment when he would tear Loki apart and scatter every damn piece so he couldn't even hope to regenerate again.

...

Loki eyed his prisoner that he had chained to the wall as she came to very slowly. He had hung her arms high above her without any slack. He was going to make her scream for her beast to come save her so that he got the chance to make him watch as he murdered her slowly, painfully. "I have ways to break you, Colleen." He hissed. "I can invade your every thought, your dreams, and your very soul even. Every waking moment where that no matter who you are looking at, you will be haunted with images of me." Moving forward, he traced a long finger down her jawline, causing her to flinch, which he delighted in. He spoke in a hushed voice, as if to a long lost lover. He brought his lips very close to her own. "Tell me, Colleen, should I take you now before your beloved green beast does?" His finger traced her bottom lip. "Shall I remove that innocence you cling to and implant my being inside yours?" She was turning her face away from him. He drove his hand back into the chestnut waves and yanked her to face him. "Look into my eyes, Colleen! How would you like it if I made you mine? I can strip away your control until you are but a ghost of the woman who was so idiotically brave back on the ship. I can make you bear my child. Cooperate with me and I won't have to do any of those things. All I ask is that you call your green pet to me." The blue eyes had filled with tears, but they were full of something else, a stubborn defiance. He pulled her hair so that her neck was almost craning too far. "I could put you to sleep, you know. You would be unable to fight me and you would never know then, if I had taken your body or not. Yet you will always know that you are mine."

Loki was the product of nightmares. Colleen had to be the same brave woman she had been on the ship. She would not call for Bruce. She would not call for anyone. She would have to be the only person who died if someone had to in order to please this God of Mischief. "I will not call him!" Colleen cried. Her voice was strangled with fear and it was far from the brave yell she was attempting to muster. "You are not this person, Loki." She needed to call upon her talent for words, this was a much more intense situation than any she'd attempted to talk herself out of before, but she had faith in herself. She had faith in Loki. "You are misunderstood, Loki. You are not this person. You are misunderstood and hurt, seeking the love and approval you were never given in your life. You were raised in the shadow of your brother. I know how you are feeling, Loki!"

Raised in the shadow of his brother? How dare this pathetic mortal act like she knew him? As though she knew exactly what made him so 'misunderstood'. He let an animalistic snarl escape his lips as the back of his hand flying reflexively to meet with her face. "YOU SHALL NOT SPEAK OF ME AS THOUGH YOU KNOW ME, MORTAL! YOU ARE MINE AND YOU SHALL CALL TO HIM BECAUSE I DEMAND IT OF YOU!" He gripped her hair roughly once more and he forcibly took her lips with his own for a violent and unloving kiss. He pulled away from her and growled savagely. "You couldn't even pleasure the drunken scum that sleep within the piss filled streets that you have raised yourself in. What would make you think that you could ever please me enough to make me feel this emotion of love that I desire?" He took her face in both of his hands. "I will take you until you can no longer stand, I can continue to strike you until you can no longer see. You will never see your precious Banner again."

Tears fell from her eyes but no whimpers escaped her. "Why do you even claim me as your own then?" She snarled. "You could have killed me on the vessel, but you didn't and you do not now." She glared into the green eyes of the hurting god. "Out of all the women on that damned ship you could have had, you singled me out, the girl who gives love to the one you refer to as a beast, an animal, a creature, not a man. You crave that unwavering love I give Bruce. If I can love him, what would stop me from loving you?" Loki was not the only one in this godforsaken room with a silver tongue. She could hurt him too and she would. "YOU MAKE PLAY THAT YOU ARE ABOVE HIM BUT INSIDE YOU THINK YOURSELF JUST AS MUCH OF A MONSTER IF NOT MORE OF ONE THAN YOU CLAIM HE IS." She had found her voice now. "I. WILL. NOT. CALL. HIM."

"I took you because you are their weakness, woman!"

"Yet you call me your own, you don't have to do that, you don't have to stake your claim."

"IF YOU WANT A MONSTER FROM ME THEN I SHALL SHOW YOU A TRUE MONSTER!" His hands gripped her wrist as ice started to creep from them and coat her hands all the way down the length of her arms where they stopped. His skin had become the blue color that matches her eyes and his eyes that violent red. "I want them to hear your screams. For them to know just how vulnerable they are for keeping a wretched little pet like you!" His voice was a snarl as he brought his hands away and struck her face again. "Do not pretend you know my story." Another slap. "Do not pretend you understand me!" Another smack was once more brought to her face. The god was determined to be relentless until she gave in. "Scream his name you stubborn girl! Are you not hurting? You think yourself so brave and pure! Scream for them, Colleen! I am above them! I shall rule them and show them how wrong they are about the world!"

Colleen coughed, blood trickled from a bruised and beaten open cheek. Tears escaped, but only tears, she would not make a noise. "I will not call him." She said weakly. "I'm not pretending to understand you, Loki. You're just a boy desperate for love hiding inside a man. This is a cry for help. I do understand you, Loki." Her words were hitting home, she could tell as she watched him break inside through his eyes. "This is why you are hurting, my words are grabbing enflamed nerves and tangling them with others until they are a knot of pain. This is not how things have to be and you see that." Tears quickened as the cold began to bite her skin. "You have yet to find a single weakness in my love for Banner. You crave it so bad you can taste it. You want someone to love you this way, to take such abuse without a cry if it meant you were safe."

She was tearing away at him, ripping away each layer more violently than the next. He slapped her again. "YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING. I AM NOT DESPERATE NOR A BOY!" Another smack. "I want nothing of what that beast has! He is frail and must support himself on another like the weak disgusting mortal he is." His smacks were losing strength. "Scream for him, Colleen. Cry for him. Sob for him. Call for your murderous wretch!"

"STOP IT, LOKI!" That was the closest to screaming he was going to get. She was in so much pain, she wanted desperately to give in and call Banner to her, to come and beat the ever living fuck out of this God but she needed to be brave. "STOP! YOU ARE NOT THIS PERSON. YOU ARE NOT. And you must know by now that no matter what tortures you bestow upon me I will not call him." For the first time since he'd stolen her, she let out a small sob, a peace offering, a show of weakness in herself. "I care for you, Loki. You're a strong, pure soul stuck in an aching shell." Her voice was soft; she was verbally hugging the man. "Everything is going to be okay."

His hand rose in frustration and she shut her eyes against the pain that she was sure would come. His eyes glassed over with tears from all the emotions she had ignited inside him. Instead of hitting her, he shattered the ice around her arms. It fell to the floor in chunks. His breathing was heavy as he tried to fight the war raging in his chest. What had this woman done to him? How had he let her infect him with her words? "Why do you care about me?! After all that I have put you through? How can you tell me in that soft, sweet voice that everything will be alright? If I lose this war, I shall be condemned to a fate worse than anything you could ever imagine. If I win, I can rebuild the world and rid myself of this ache. You could live there. I would never allow you to be homeless again." Inside, Loki was crumpling and he didn't understand why as tears escaped his eyes.

Misunderstood, good call. Colleen thought to herself. "Loki, look at me. See what you've done to me?" She knew her once referred to 'angelic' face was bruised and bleeding. "This is what you are doing to New York! We were fine and you're breaking us. Freedom is not a bad thing, Loki." She winced as her arms were bitten once more by the chains. "I can care for whoever I please, that is one of the beauties of freedom." She said softly. "Everything will be okay, Loki Laufeyson."

The god brought his eyes to her face and instantly felt as though he had trampled on the only flower in a garden of weeds. He ran his fingers over the chains holding her and released them. "It…perhaps you are right. They are playing hero though and I am the villain. I do not come out of this on top, Colleen." Her arms fell and she began trying to rub feeling back into them, blood appeared where the chains had broken the skin. The feeling his chest became more constricting. He watched her for a long moment. "Go, Colleen, run. Run back to your monster and leave this one to reap what he has sown."

Colleen closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around the hurting god. "Banner is not a monster." She said, hands even caressed his back in a soothing manner. "Neither are you." She held onto the god with tenderness she usually reserved for Bruce. Loki needed this, Bruce would forgive her. "You're like a bird with broken wings, it's not about how high you fly, it's about the song you sing."

Loki moved to return her embrace as he completely crumpled on the inside. Complete shock was written into his features as he looked down at her. "How… how are you capable of so much kindness?" It was an honest question as he found himself melting into her embrace.

"Call it my super power." She said as she pulled back to look up into his eyes. "Not all heroes can fly or run through walls. Some heroes are simply heroes for knowing when enough is enough and putting a stop to the bad things happening. I believe that there are angels among us, they come to us in our darkest hours."

He was overwhelmed by all the feelings she was making him feel. He tipped her chin up, with gentle fingers this time. "Then you are one of them, the most beautiful of them all. Might I kiss you, Colleen?" He asked softly, he ran one finger across the abused cheek. "Right here? I will not kiss your lips again."

Colleen nodded. "Yes." Was the only word she could squeak out.

He bent down and placed gentle lips upon the same cheek he had abused. One hand sought hers on its own accord and he threaded their fingers together. His lips traveled from her cheek to her ear, his voice was as gentle as he could make it. "I am sorry for everything that I have done to you."

The moment was shattered along with the glass beside them and Loki released her as he looked upon the face of his brother. Thor looked from Loki to Colleen's battered and bruised face. This was not going to end well. Thor grabbed the girl and threw her over his shoulder. "Do you have a death wish, dear Colleen?" He asked. "I must get you away from him."

"Bring her back to me, Thor. Hasn't your father ever taught you to take things that aren't yours?" Loki snarled.

Colleen could almost hear the gears turning in Thor's head. "Don't you dare," She hissed at him.

"You feel for her."