Natasha didn't recognize the room she'd been put in when she finally came to, and though she was alone she stayed still for some time, eyes searching through the room. It was quiet, though there was the faint noise of activity just outside. Work, it sounded like, voice thrumming in the far-off distance. Even with her enhanced hearing she couldn't make out the words, so the walls around her must've been thick. She didn't recognize the material they were made from as well, leaving her completely in the dark as to where to begin at guessing her location. The bed she'd been laid on was flat, solid and not very comfortable according to her aching bones. It was only then that her headache caught up with her, making her gasp and clasp her head in her hands. God almighty that hurt. The lights seemed to ripple as the pain washed over her, and only after she focused on her breathing, on the steady expanding and compressing of her lungs did her world right itself again.

Just in time for it to be bolted upside down with a man's voice from just behind her. "I never thought I'd see you again."

She nearly fell off her bed in shock as she turned around. An older, taller, and much, much more disheveled Loki than she remembered sat in a chair just behind her bed, his gaze lifting to meet her eyes, lips slightly agape and one hand reaching out to her. She longed to lean into it, to feel him as she had so many evenings in her dreams, but instead recoiled.

No. She had a mission, or rather a set of tasks. Get out. Get to Shield. Get this mess of everything figured out.

"Do you remember me?" He asked.

"Of course I do," she said finally, the words finding their way through her mouth even though she had no roadmap for speaking, no way of being sure what words were and weren't right for the moment. What did one say to the man she'd been almost convinced she'd somehow dreamed up? "You're Loki. We met the night that I managed to get out of the Red Room, and you helped me escape. You can do magic and you told me you weren't from this world, and then you disappeared. You left me." She couldn't help the biting edge from creeping into her words, or the way her hands fisted at her sides as she bit down hard on her tongue to keep from yelling at him further.

"I did not," he was on the defensive immediately. She'd been planning on it, sure that he was not nearly as cool and collected as he appeared. He was all fire and passion hidden just behind the thinest veneer of ice. He liked to pretend that he was unfeeling, she could see in the way he barely held himself back, but just a little more prodding and he'd show himself.

"You certainly weren't anywhere I could find you," she told him, forcing her body to relax as though the memory pained her. In a way it did; she always wondered why he'd gone, why he'd decided to leave her on her own after transporting her to England. Not that she had much room to complain, if only because she met Peggy there. She owed the woman her life. "And you're not back here for me. You wouldn't have seemed so surprised when you saw me working for SHIELD if you had been, though you knew my employers from the last time you visted and said nothing to me."

She watched as his emotions made a playground of his features, his brow going from furrowed to apologetic, lips pursing and relaxing in the same fashion, while he took slow, deep breaths to keep himself calm. 'Just a little more,' she thought, standing up to walk towards him. "You left me, Loki. You promised you'd take care of me and you left-."

His lips crashed against hers, cutting off the rest of her accusation as he pressed himself hard to her, crowding her back until the back of her knees hit the table she'd been laying on before. There was the fire she'd seen, warming her bones and melting her resolve to get out, making her victim to her own passion and desire. She pulled away only when she had to breathe, and it didn't seem to be enough for Loki. He growled and kissed his way down her throat, nipping at the soft skin just over her jugular so she gasped and the skin burned and turned hot beneath his touch.

"I never meant to." His chest rumbled with the words, the vibrations making her shiver as he glanced up at her from where he'd been kissing down her throat, stopping only when his lips hit the skin connecting her throat and shoulder. There he bit hard, just hard enough to leave indentations and bring a shout from her lips. "It wasn't my fault, and I never, for one second, forgot about you."

"Why'd you leave me, then?" She demanded, head tipped back and mouth falling open, finding it easier to play him like this anyway. If he thought she surrendered to her passions then he'd find her weak, he'd think she'd stay. He wouldn't have been half wrong if he'd found her years ago, maybe, but now? She owed SHIELD everything now, owed it to Peggy to see this through. This was not the Loki she'd known; age had turned him into a stranger, volatile, and crafty. He picked up on her hesitance and yanked himself away from her, lips swollen from where he'd kissed her. She was sure her own were as well.

"Odin forbid me from seeking you out after he brought me back to Asgard, he said that he'd taken care of you to make sure that you were safe but I was never to interfere in your life again. He suppressed my powers from traveling to Midgard, until he fell into the Odinsleep. After that I snuck onto Earth but by the time I caught sight of you-."

"You'd gone to see Thor."

"Yes."

"So you didn't come back for me," she said, playing up that he'd hurt her that way more than anything else. She pulled away from him and crossed her arms over her chest. He fell for it, his eyes widening by the smallest fractions.

"That wasn't what I'd said at all," he countered, stepping back towards her, not daring to tear his gaze from hers as he tried to continue. Natasha cut him off, not daring to let him get a word in otherwise.

"Then why are you here?" She snarled, pushing past him as though she couldn't get far enough away from him. The firmness of his body made her stomach flop, though, a reminder that she wasn't hallucinating. That he was real. She fought hard against the indecision of her mind, glad he wasn't looking at her face.

"I came . . . I came to retrieve the Tesseract."

"And you have it," she spat, looking over her shoulder at him to glare. "Thanks for killing the agents that I worked with, as well. Many of them were my friends."

"They were no way as talented as you were or else they would have survived. I simply rid the world of dead weight." His voice was cold, unfamiliar. She barely suppressed a shudder. Where the hell had that come from?

"Not like I was exactly talented when you first rescued me," she countered, lowering her voice to a murmur before he grabbed her shoulder. Hard. She'd have bruises in an hour.

"You were talented enough to run away."

"I was stupid enough-just as I was idiotic, it seems, to have trusted you. Now let me go; we're done here."

She knew he wouldn't be content with that, not after he'd waxed poetic about how he's waited to be able to find her, but what she hadn't anticipated was the slow smile that crept over his lips when she'd checked over her shoulder, uncomfortable in his silence. "No we're not, Natasha. I have much to show you. Come with me." It wasn't a request, and as he made to leave the room Nat felt her legs being tugged, as though attached at the ankles and knees to wherever he was going. Before she could be tripped up by it, however, she followed, resolving to share everything with Fury if she had to. He was only ensuring his own failure.


The pool of water was still for a moment, Nat looking from its clear surface to Loki, one eyebrow raised as though to say "This was what you brought me out here for?" He really thought that a pool of water he'd conjured would be enough to impress her? She'd seen him teleport between countries and-what the hell was that? Movement caught the corner of her eye as she turned sharply to look at the once reflective surface, now turned deepest blue and black, small hints of bright, Tesseract blue poking at the seams of the dark. A large something passed the pool and nearly made her jump, especially as she got a sight of what was on its back and sides. Thin, almost skeletal creatures with reflective armor and bony fingers clung to the monster's fins and jagged edges, riding it as comfortably as one might ride a horse.

"What the hell is that?" She demanded, pure shock radiating through her body and weakening her strength. She watched it sail through the inky sky behind it with ease, gliding silently. Or perhaps there was no sound able to be filtered through . . . Whatever it was they were using to spy this.

"That is a leviathan. It will help me win your planet for my own, and you need never fear it."

"As long as I come with you." She completed his thought. There was a quiet, confirming chuckle from beside her. His hand met her shoulder and massaged it gently, loosening her muscles but doing nothing against the fear that stuck in the pit of her stomach. He was crazy.

"You'll destroy the earth with those things. There won't be anything left to rule."

"Then I'll make anew."

It wasn't that simple. She turned to glare at him, mouth opened to counter that. He didn't let her. His hand had tipped her chin back to show her the rest of his army, the Chitauri he called them. He explained to her that they were gifted to him in exchange for the Tesseract, and she was silent as she contemplated it. If he was to give over the tesseract wouldn't that make whoever wanted it more powerful? That was stupid of him, and judging by the way he kept looking at her from the corners of his eyes he was waiting for a response, a reaction. Something. But she couldn't give him what he wanted. The recognition he yearned for, the approval-he was going to kill himself trying to win over the world.

"You'll never be able to do it. The Avengers are too strong," she murmured. "And you've given me everything I need to know about them." Except how to kill them, she supposed. Oh well. She could improvise. "We'll beat you."

He was quiet, so much so that it took her off guard and forced her to look over. For the first time he looked drawn, exhausted, the circles under his eyes darkening and his face looking more gaunt than ever.

"If you do that I'll die. They'll come after me to take it out for failing them. Would you put me through that?" He asked, turning to face her. She'd dreamed about those eyes far too many nights to be comfortable seeing them so raw, so weak. Vulnerable. Just as she'd been when he'd saved her.

A lump rose in her throat and she tore her eyes away from him. "I can't help you. I have a team now."

"A team that you don't need. Help me win this war and you'll be a queen. My queen." He murmured, tipping her chin back up so she had to look at him. "Natasha." He breathed her name. "Please." He was moving closer now, his lips nearly on hers when she finally pulled away.

"Your father can help you deal with those who are trying to kill you if you tell him." She countered, mind whirling. There was no possible way she could get away with this. She owed it to Peggy, to everyone who'd given her a chance.

But wouldn't it be more beneficial to take the winning side?

"You're asking me to betray the team that I've given my life to be on, the people I've been working with to cope with you leaving me and the skill set that I'd been forced to learn from the Red Room. You want me to just throw that all away?" She asked, her eyes hard and unyielding, though inside her stomach churned. Could she do it if she had to?

"Wouldn't it be better, for them and for you, to preserve their safety by isolating and detaining each and every one of them, rather than forcing them to fight against me and lose?"

"You don't know they'll lose."

"But are you willing to take the chance? You've already disassociated yourself from them."

The air left her lungs in a soft gasp, realization slamming into her harder than any fist could ever hope to. For half a second the room seemed to spin, vertigo making her close her eyes as she forced herself to breathe deep through her nose, trying to ground herself in the now. In what was happening, where she was. The hand sliding across to hold the back of her head and tip it upwards so a feather-soft kiss could be pressed to her lips wasn't helping any.

"Be my queen Natasha. Save your friends and rule beside me. You deserve nothing less than the absolute best, and I'm in a position to give you that and more. Please."

There it was again, the word she didn't often hear out of the job. She never got anything near it from Fury, Clint, or even Phil, unless he knew she was in a foul mood. No one ever asked for her help; they'd demanded it. Expected her compliance because she knew what was going to follow if she didn't. Her resolve cracked as he drew his other hand around her waist, holding her closer, forcing her to remember that he was real, strong, and in front of her. She parted her lips at his request and felt her knees buckle a little as he deepened the kiss. She'd never felt so weak, and yet when she responded and felt him moan and shudder beneath her a new feeling of power surged within her. What the hell was he doing to her?

I'm sorry, Peggy.


"Agent Romanov, where the hell have you been?"

The whole team had been assembled in the short time it had taken Natasha to get back to the Helicarrier, having put in a call to Coulson's private number when she'd finally gotten away. She was scratched up, nursing a bruise over her right eye, and smiling faintly when Fury saw her. No 'How've you been' or 'Oh my God what happened to your face?' No, their relationship wasn't that caring. The others, the faces the recognized-Steve, fresh from the ice and looking just as handsome as he had in the pictures Peggy kept near her heart every day, Tony, who she'd seen grown up while she worked with Howard from time to time, Bruce, who she hadn't met, Clint, and Thor, who'd she'd only ever heard about from his brother. It was the latter whose eyes stuck on her the most, his own widening in horror.

"My brother is the one who did this to you?"

"You should see the other guy," Natasha said, dry wit making even Tony crack the smallest of smiles, though he still looked concerned. "I'm fine. Just healing. Carry on, please." She said, hiding the slight limp of her left leg as she moved to take a seat on the opposite side, surrounded by empty chairs. She liked it that way. Fury's good eye didn't look ready to give her up just yet, but he left it at that. He'd get her story eventually.

"I take it you don't know where he hid you?"

"Not a clue. By the time I came to he likely transported me hundreds of miles away, near Kansas City where you picked me up."

"Right." He sighed heavily and fell silent for the quickest of minutes. "We were just getting the run down from Thor about the army and cube that Loki seems to be after, and why. Any intel?"

"Nothing. I refused to tell him what he wanted, he played the same hard game. The man's good, I'll give him that," she admitted, sounding more angry than anything else. No one ever got the best of her when it came to lying and deciet, but she had to hand it to him; he did a damn good job. She looked over at Thor, whose gaze still oozed concern, and shot him the quickest smile. "So, you're both the real deal, huh?"

A pause. "You know this to be a fact already. You've met my brother."

"I thought I hallucinated him all those years ago. A child alone, trying to get away from a desperate situation. You can understand why I imagined my thoughts had run away with me. That he actually exists is a lot more . . . complicated. Besides, he's not exactly the child I remember."

Thor opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something, to agree or disagree Nat couldn't be sure as he thought better of it and shut his mouth. Good. If Loki was to be believed then it was their father's fault he'd turned down this path.

"Anything else you can tell us, Agent Romanov?" Fury asked, pulling the conversation back. Nat shook her head.

"No, he didn't tell me anything, kept me in a dark room isolated from whatever else he was doing. Soundproofed it." She winced a little. "He preferred to focus on trying to get information himself. Asked a lot about the team. What we were, what we could do. I didn't give him anything, but he knows Thor and I already."

"We'll be sure to keep him surprised, then."

A sudden shock jolted them all out of their seats, the carrier suddenly dipping severely to the left. Over the com systems it was announced that one of the engines had been damaged, the shot having come from a rogue jet.

"Unless he gets us first," Nat muttered to herself as Tony struggled to scramble out of the room, followed quickly by Steve and Thor, each going to try and fix the engine. Clint and Phil moved to the engine room, trying to assist from the inside, while beside Natasha Bruce was groaning and putting his hands over his head. Her heart sped up. If she was going to do this she had to do it now. Fury had crashed against one of the other walls, and had started pulling himself back up when he heard the click of a gun's safety being taken off. He turned just in time to see the barrel aimed at his head. He growled.

"Once a double agent, always a double agent. I should've never listened to Peggy-."

The shot rang out, hitting him straight in between the eyes and exiting through the back of his head, splattering blood on the wall. Nat bit down hard on her tongue, forcing herself to breathe. No going back now.


A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! I think I've finally got a better idea where I'm going with this [fingers crossed] so ideally I'll be updating more often. Again, fingers crossed. Thanks for reading!