Chapter 6: Taikatalvi and Space Continuum
"Stop that this instant," Loki hissed as he passed by the small area where Darcy sat at work in front of a large computer. It had been hours since Dr. Selvig had experienced failure with one of the cooling units and the work with the Tesseract had practically ground to a halt, bringing the trickster into a fouler disposition than ever before. Darcy frowned at him and the humming faded away into the sounds of the rest of the subterranean complex. He had been watching her angrily, waiting. She could only guess that he was waiting for some reason to lash out at her. Clearly her humming wasn't enough to elicit that, but he was waiting for the opportunity. She shook her head and continued working. After a few moments he growled loudly enough for anyone nearby to hear him and shouted for Agent Barton to watch over her work while he saw to other matters. Darcy watched carefully as he slipped away. She sighed and watched Agent Barton took his place. She glanced back at the screen. She had made excellent progress although it had become clear to her in the process that Loki had no intention of releasing Selvig or even killing him . . . he wanted to watch suffering or humiliation or preferably both.
Barton glanced at the rest of the complex and Darcy gauged his position cautiously. Hawkeye was still in there, somewhere. If Dr. Selvig had responded to her being incapacitated the way he had then Hawkeye would surely respond to something powerful that kept the real archer in him. She turned back to the screen and smirked as she converted another set of symbols breaking down another set of defenses that would make any enemy of her nation jealous. She began the tune again that she had been humming, this time singing it instead. Being a political sciences major Darcy had been prodded with the notion of being multi-lingual repeatedly and she had fallen deeply in love with the Slavic tongues, which she knew the archer would respond to. He was rumored to have been a complete mystery to everyone at the facility save for one fact that was whispered when he was not nearby; that he and the infamous Natasha Romanoff, or Black Widow as her reputation stated, were blood brother and sister. If that was true to any degree, she could test her theory that part of these two men, the good parts of them, were still as reachable as the mainframe for S.H.I.E.L.D. and their firewalls could be broken with powerful memories.
"Lapsistan rakkan tai taa nayattmo on, Mis kuutamo kujillan kulkee," she sang, keeping the tune soft enough to evade the trickster's senses, she hoped, but loud enough for Barton to hear. "Taipunut havut, kesa hoivassa sen. Valkomeren niin aavan, Joka aavekuum siivin." She turned, still singing softly and noticed that Barton had shifted and his attention was fully on her with a look of curiosity instead of blank observation. She grinned with the last few words. "Saapuu mut kotiin noutamaan."
"The stage is my most precious child, moonlight dancing on its avenues," Barton muttered, translating from somewhere in his mind he had been absent for quite some time. Darcy watched him approached as he continued up to the last line and the terrifying white to his eyes faded ever so slightly into large black orbs. "With the wings of a ghost moon, it comes to take me home." He stood behind her more closely and, to her delight, the black began to turn brown, the deep hazel his eyes had naturally. "You speak Russian?"
"No," Darcy replied with a smirk. "That was Finnish."
"Kesa, it means the same thing in both languages, then," he said, the strange connection clearly an attempt by the proper archer to force his way back to the surface. Darcy nodded and reiterated that it meant 'kitten' in both Finnish and Russian. He nodded a little, a spark of humanity fighting its way free from the spell over him. "Kitten . . . kesa . . . Natasha . . ."
"What about her?" Darcy asked carefully. She stood slowly and walked towards him, keeping their gazes locked though Barton's seemed simultaneously inwardly and outwardly affixed on everything but Darcy's stare. "Do you miss her?" He turned away for a moment, drawing in a deep breath. She grinned brightly. Hacking entire systems of databases wasn't nearly as difficult as hacking the human brain. She stepped a pace closer as he turned his head away. "Agent Barton?"
He turned back to her, the gleam of his natural eyes struggling beneath the blank surface, the cell in which Loki had imprisoned his mind. She stared at him and wondered what it would take to break the enchantment entirely. Loki had mentioned the heart. As he stared back at her, breathing heavily, the brown began to fade a little behind the emptiness. She quickly reached out and tried to place her hand over his heart where the scepter had done its work. She froze and let out a small cry as a flash of gold interrupted her movement. The scepter's tip was once again firmly pressed against Barton's chest and Darcy felt the trickster's hand grasp her shoulder tightly, painfully. Despite the panic, Darcy noted that the scepter's gem didn't force any power into him as it had done before, Loki simply pushed the man backwards with it and as Barton stepped away, the blank stare returned. Barton looked back at Loki with a frown.
"I lost my concentration, sir," he said emotionlessly.
"And I have found it for you, go back to watching the others," Loki ordered sternly. Barton nodded and turned away, heading back towards where the Tesseract still lay waiting for more complete study. Darcy remained perfectly still. She knew why the trickster was angry; the distraction made three victories on her part over him: the uselessness of the scepter, the mildest of tasings, and now she had almost destroyed the hold he had over one of his prized minions. He tightened his grip on her shoulder and began to walk away, dragging her with him. Darcy protested, reaching back towards the monitors and processors at which she promised to remain silent. "No," he said angrily. "You are dangerous while you are so intact; that must change at once. You're far too unpredictable and easily taken from your promised tasks."
"You can't afford to not know what they're doing, you still need me," Darcy protested. She knew that he could find something of a replacement for her, but that it would take time and he would have lost permanently to her those three battles. At least with her alive and serving he had a sporting chance of undoing her victories. He whirled around and glared down at her. "It's the truth. And besides, even if you do kill me now, it won't change the fact I evaded your little mind-control stick and there logically have to be others like me which means you'd lose the opportunity to learn how to deal with . . ."
"Silence!" he shouted. She froze and stared back at him uncomfortably. She shuddered a little as he reached out with his other hand and grasped her head at her chin. "You are most unfortunate to be burdened with such a strength."
"You mean the techno-savvy or the immunity to your . . . Ow!" Darcy exclaimed as he quickly released her chin, summoned the scepter, and forced the tip painfully into her sternum. "That hurts!"
"Then you are not entirely immune, are you?" he replied, unyielding in tone or posture. Darcy grunted in pain and tried to shift and release some of the pressure on her. "You are proving more of a nuisance than you claim to be worth in keeping," he said, pressing the scepter more firmly into her and causing her to cry out louder. Darcy wasn't sure the metal had cut her, but she knew she was going to have a large bruise there when he was finished. "And you have yet to complete the first part of our bargain."
"I was working on it," she whined, still trying to pull away from the item. "I'd still be working on it if we weren't going in the opposite direction."
"Not nearly fast enough," he corrected. "My allies must perform to their utmost at all times and time is of the essence in a mortal realm." She looked up at him almost pleadingly as he leaned closer. "That's an awful lot of pressure for an unfocused creature."
"It wouldn't be if you'd back up," she said, lifting a brow at him to signal two meanings not the most important of which was the fact that he was making it difficult for her to breathe past the pain in her chest. "That really hurts!"
"You cannot be easily trained," he mused as he pulled the scepter away slightly. "You will have to learn obedience . . . the hard way."
"The hard way isn't the dead way, is it?" she asked uncomfortably.
"Make one more remark and I will muzzle you again, permanently," he warned. She froze and looked away, clearly terrified at that prospect. He smiled triumphantly and led her further into the tunnels behind the main hub of activity. She glanced around the walls in terror as it became more difficult to see. As he had expected, he heard her heart begin to race and her breath grow labored as they moved further into the darkness. Fear, it was the most useful tool in controlling a crowd, but even more effectual on a singular individual. Before they strayed too far and before she began to physically fight him, he halted. She stopped beside him now clinging to his side, clutching the leather and fabric as they stood in the deep shadows. "Kneel," he ordered. Darcy looked from one side to another and then up at him, though she couldn't get a look at him well enough at all without the light. She trembled, still clinging to him. A measure of pity moved through him as the memory of being trapped in the void came to him. He reached down and placed a hand gently on her shoulder. "Go on, you won't fall this time."
"But I can't see," she said.
Blue light filled the tunnel from the end of the scepter. Darcy turned and stared around the cavernous hovel in wonderment. The blue light didn't change where they were or who she was with, but it was stunning, beautiful. She knelt without turning to him, glancing around in the light and taking in its presence. He watched her; irritated that she hadn't given any other defiance, a suitable reason to continue with any violence against her. She breathed deeply and watched the light slowly fade back into the gem. His senses penetrated the darkness, watching her movements as the light disappeared and she was surrounded by deafening blackness once more. Again, her heartbeat quickened as did her breathing, but she didn't seem to be as terrified now, clutching the edge of his tunic. He frowned and moved away, watching her as he took a few paces forward and left her behind. She started to stand, to move forward.
"I didn't tell you to stand," he corrected. She froze and he heard the pace in her chest quicken all the more at the thought of not only being engulfed in the darkness, but being alone. He knew he couldn't leave her alone entirely. Eventually fear would give way to survivalist instinct in a mortal and she would force her way through the darkness to escape. As long as he remained a reminder of her circumstances, she was trapped. He smirked and reveled in this power. It was more satisfying than the expressions on the agents he had taken into his service.
"You're losing time, time I could be spending getting into their system," she offered in an effort to mask her own fear.
"Time is a funny thing," he remarked, allowing a small orb of light to form on the scepter and watching as her gaze instantly turned to fixate on it entirely. He smiled at the predictable nature of this unusual human. "It can be manipulated just as easily as the mind."
"Your disco-stick does that, too?" she asked.
He laughed. "Oh, no," he replied. "I do that." He sent the orb out from the scepter a few inches, allowing it to hover motionlessly as he watched her gaze following it carefully. Humans were drawn to light, the ones worth sparing were, anyway, the ones worth ruling. The rest, those curious enough to venture into the dark, would be destroyed. After a moment, he noticed that Darcy wasn't watching the orb anymore, she had affixed her gaze on what she could of him and she had somehow managed to move closer without his knowledge, not much further, but a fraction without his permission was too great. She was still defiant, even afraid. This was unsettling for him and frustrating all at once. He sat down a few feet away from the orb and watched her a few moments more. Time he had learned to manipulate, and space as well, but somehow this one human still managed to elude him. Once he was sure that her gaze was fixed on him, he left an image of himself in that position and transported himself to standing several paces behind her. She settled back, noting that he wasn't moving. She's trying to manipulate you, to see how she can crawl into your plans and destroy them, that is what they do, humans, they destroy when they aren't controlled. He breathed deeply and decided to try a deeper look at her while distracted. She has to be subdued soon, even if it means feigning sentiment. His reflection began what he had considered to be small-talk from his observations with the rest of the humans about the work she claimed to be doing for him. He knelt behind her, appraising her yet again.
"So why is it so important for you to be a king, anyway? If you've got all this power you can do anything . . . like anything," Darcy asked. He chuckled, still projecting his voice from the reflection. "Why don't you just use your powers to have fun? It's not like anyone's forcing you to take responsibility for a whole planet."
He noted a change in her voice and posture as she spoke the last few words. They were more interrogative in their tone and she had a decidedly inquisitive look in her eyes as she said them. Darcy did in fact mean them more as a question still wanting to know who had caused him so much pain and distress in the trance that he had been in before he had attacked her and thrown her down into the shelter. He frowned at her and glanced over the reflection of the scepter itself. "Your people need protecting, there are those that have sensed the Tesseract's presence long before I," he explained. She straightened her glasses and folded her legs up into a 'bound angle' pose with her soles touching as she folded her hands around her ankles to sit comfortably and forget any fear for the time being. "Thor believes he protects your realm by idly watching for other enemies while allowing you to destroy one another. I will protect your people from both and in exchange I ask only for what is in your nature, allegiance to a higher, nobler being."
"As a political sciences major I should probably go ahead and tell you I agree with that premise on paper, but when you put in the human factor it starts to get complicated and that even if you manage to succeed, you'll have rebellions before long since we've gotten used to our freedoms," she offered.
"Freedom is an illusion. Surely as a prisoner you understand that," he mused through the reflection. He scooted a little closer to her as she straightened her glasses once more. "You were a prisoner at the compound where I . . . discovered you. You did not come and go as you pleased nor did you have liberty to do whatever pleased you at your own leisure without fear of punishment or repercussion."
"I see what you're saying, total freedom doesn't exist. That's true," she said with a shrug. He slowly settled to sitting down behind her a few inches and continued to watch silently. She suddenly whirled around and quickly situated herself into the same position, but now facing his true image. He stared at her in amazement. "You know I can hear you breathing, right? You make noise when you breathe and even though you're careful, you're not silent when you move, either."
He narrowed his eyes at her and summoned another orb of light above them. "When did you realize the other was false?" he asked. She grinned and rocked back and forth ever so slightly, suppressing the urge to giggle at getting the better of him yet again.
"A little before you asked me what 'prompted me to work with advanced sciences instead of bearing children and feeding them as I was clearly shaped to do' and you confirmed it a little after I answered," she admitted. He stared at her more closely; anger subsided entirely in the name of curiosity. "You make a weird, whispering sound breathing when the other version of you is speaking."
"And yet you remained speaking to me without letting on," he remarked. "That was clever of you."
"I've really stumped you, haven't I?" she laughed. He didn't seem as menacing when he wasn't angry. In fact, like this, in the few quiet moments she had seen him at ease, he was charming. "It just eats at you that can't understand me. I bet you have been completely frustrated by women in general. You probably didn't have a girlfriend until you were in your, um, thousands or something."
"An unfair observation given that you know nothing of my lifespan or courtship habits," he replied. "You know that you will not escape, and that you will not live through thoroughly infuriating me and yet you see nothing wrong with some provocation."
"You pushed, I pushed back," she said with a shrug. "You liked it or you would've killed me so I know I can do that as long as I stop just shy of you popping my head like a grape."
"And you'll always be able to know when that is?" he asked with a grin.
"I'm pretty good at reading people, like you are only without any super powers," she said. He shook his head and looked away, the stillness of time making him far more at ease with her. "You know, you're a lot more, um," she said, moving both hands around as she tried to complete the sentence most effectively. "More, um, intellectual than your brother."
"That is an egregious understatement," he replied.
"I was the smart one in my family, too," she replied proudly. "Four sisters, all beauty queens and cheer-leaders married in their 20's and driving mini-vans full of kids."
He laughed and held the time around them more still. He could only do this for so long with a mortal, but perhaps while she had a false sense of companionship with him she might be more easily understood and then unmade. "You have no intention of merely completing the task you promised do you?"
"I never claimed to be just at one task," she said. "You have no intention of letting Dr. Selvig go, do you?"
He looked back at her indignantly placing a hand at his chest. "I made a bargain with you, he will be free to go if he chooses," Loki replied, sounding hurt by the remark. "I vow to you to permit him to leave the very moment you complete your task."
Darcy lifted a brow at him. "But you think choice is a lie," she countered.
"No, I believe freedom is a lie," he replied. "And you never asked for me to release him from the Tesseract's power, only my own."
"That's true," Darcy admitted, now thinking that if she had been able to get so far with Agent Barton, then she might be able to do the same with Dr. Selvig or even Barton if she got another chance. "That is what I asked for."
"Do you know yet how you plan to force an escape after you're finished? I might not have full sway over you, but you are easy to predict and read as most humans, and most females, are," he replied with a charming grin. "Planning to distract me, wound me, or wait until I fall asleep?"
"You sleep?" Darcy asked, pretending to sound surprised. The two laughed, hiding their thoughts and real frustrations and fears from the other with this simple banter and forced close proximity. "So is time back to normal yet or what's happening that's made you more easy to talk to?"
"Time stands where I hold it," he replied. "For now, it will return to its proper place, and so will you, in a matter of hours."
"If you could hold onto time long enough I could probably get you into the entire security system for the department of defense in at least half the developed world," she offered, wondering if using this kind of power would weaken him enough to allow her time and presence to escape. He smirked, sensing that this was her motivation as well.
"It is unwise to disrupt such things for very long with small exceptions like you aware of it," he said flatly. Loki glanced over at the girl and smirked. He glanced over at the orb and felt a strange sense of exhaustion moving through him with the slower passing of time. He could sleep without losing much time now. "I need to rest before I can act further, the journey was tiring enough and having to watch after you all the more trying," he announced. She shrugged once more. Loki gauged her thoughts for the moment and she was gauging whether or not he was earnestly weakened and tired. She was far too much work to allow out of his sight for the time being, but she was still a fairly challenging puzzle that infuriated him enough to be amusing. He smirked and gestured towards her. "You look weary, child. You will sleep a while as well," he said. Darcy frowned at him, replying that she was fine after the vitamin boost she had been given. He sighed and reached for her. "I'm afraid that wasn't a suggestion. We will speak further as you dream," Darcy scooted backwards as he leaned for her. He gave her a look of confusion still reaching for her. "I'm not going to hurt you, little one. Hold still and this won't hurt," he commanded.
"Could you at least wait until I'm comfortable?" she complained, pulling away from his hand and sighing. "Honestly, it's like you think I already know how to get out and take your stuff with me."
"You think yourself trustworthy or do you think me that naïve? Whether or not you know where you are going, a desperate mortal will bolt regardless of direction," he replied as she leaned back against the wall. "Very much like a spooked horse."
"I'm not that desperate," she replied. "Besides, you've got powers that would still be able to find me and bring me back for whatever it is you want me for after you've figured me out."
"Well, then," he mused. "You are indeed intelligent." She allowed his hand to softly touch the side of her head and she felt overwhelmed. Her eyes fluttered as she leaned back and gave in to a sound sleep. "Even for a human. Now let us discover what creates that in a more natural setting." He closed his eyes and reached down for her right hand, grasping it gently as he drew in a breath. He concentrated all his energy on slipping fully into her subconscious. This would prove most amusing given the simplicity and yet diverting imagery humans kept around them at all times even in the poorest of settings. Perhaps, he thought to himself as he slipped into a sound sleep and moved his consciousness into hers, that kind of innovative nature protects her.