Victoria sat at the high table, laughing as Thor told her a story. Thor suddenly stopped talking and looked down at her plate. She followed his gaze and gasped as her food erupted into snakes.
"Loki!"
He pointed to the floor. The snakes had arranged themselves into words.
"Happy Birthday… Is it my birthday today?"
Victoria felt herself flush slightly as people chuckled.
"You've been in that library too long, Victoria! This is your party." Odin smiled.
"I arranged it for you." Loki appeared at her side. "Dance with me?"
Victoria took Loki's hand and let him lead her to the floor. "You arranged all of this for me?"
He smiled at her and waved his hand. The ceiling shimmered into nothing, exposing the sky. "Do you like it?"
Victoria gasped. "Loki, it's beautiful!"
He smiled and spun her. "I have a present for you, Father helped me to make it, given that I had to go to Jotunheim to find most of it." A box floated from the table into his hand. He opened it and presented it to her.
"Is that -?"
"An ice diamond, created by the King of the Frost Giants himself. What do you think?"
Victoria looked around at the hall. It looked beautiful, and Loki looked exhausted. He had done all this for her. She leaned upwards and pressed her lips to his gently. "I think it's amazing and that you need to sleep."
Loki looked pleased. He pulled her closer and continued their dance, the necklace winding it's way around her neck. "Always trying to take care of me, aren't you?"
"Well, someone has to, and all Nine Realms know that you don't listen to Thor." she teased him.
Victoria walked up to Fury. "Thor told me he made a deal with you, I'd like to cash it in."
Fury nodded. "Agent Romanoff's with him now, but you can take him as soon as she's done."
…...
"Regimes fall every day. I tend not to weep over that, I'm Russian. Or I was." Victoria heard Natasha say.
"And what are you now?"
"It's really not that complicated. I've got red in my ledger, and I'd like to wipe it out."
"Can you?" Loki almost whispered. "Can you wipe out that much red? Drakopf's daughter? Sao Paulo? The hospital fire?"
Natasha gasped.
"Barton told me everything." Loki continued. "Your ledger is dripping, it's gushing red and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality, this is a child, a prayer. Pathetic!" He spat.
Victoria knew that Natasha was trembling, she could feel her anger and rising fear.
"You lie, you kill, in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors, but they are part of you and they will never go away. I won't touch Barton, not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work and when he screams I'll split his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!"
Victoria shuddered in horror and tears came to her eyes as she heard Natasha's sobs, however fake they were.
"You're a monster!" Natasha whispered in horror.
"Oh no," Loki chuckled. "You brought the monster."
Victoria heard Natasha stop crying and turn around. "So, Banner? That's your play?"
"What?"
Victoria heard her comm. link flare up and knew Natasha was talking to everyone. "Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Send Thor as well." she turned to Loki. "Thank you, for your cooperation."
Victoria slipped in past Natasha, barely hearing the faint 'good luck' the assassin whispered to her. "Natasha's right. You are a monster."
Loki whirled around. "Victoria," he breathed.
She walked up to the glass. She knew that she was close enough now that Loki would see the tears in her eyes. "Why, Loki? Why are you doing this? It's a clichéd question, I know, but there isn't anything else I can ask you."
"I deserve this. I deserve a kingdom of my own."
"So you take one that doesn't belong to you by force?" Victoria shook her head. "You didn't used to be like that on Asgard."
"Did you mourn?"
"You know the answer to that."
Loki chuckled. "Did you spend all day at my graveside, weeping, wishing for it all to be a trick?"
Victoria slammed her fists on the glass next to Loki's face. "You know I did! And you know that you would have done the same!"
His face grew serious. "Perhaps back then. Now I am not so weak as I was. You have obviously not outgrown that weakness."
"I'm not the one trapped in a cage. I don't think I'm the weak one at the moment, Loki."
He chuckled. "Perhaps not."
Victoria sighed. "Tell me, Loki, do I mean anything to you? Did you ever love me at all?"
A tear slipped from her eye when he didn't answer her. As she walked away, he pressed his hands to the glass. "Don't! Don't leave!"
"Why shouldn't I?"
"Because I do care for you, Victoria. I have tried, believe me, but I cannot douse my love for you. I have loved you from the moment you appeared at Heimdall's feet, angry and terrified. I saw something in you that captured my gaze, that made it unable for me to ignore you."
Turning back to face him, Victoria angrily swiped away the tear. "Don't try and use that silver tongue on me!"
"I speak the truth, Victoria." he said earnestly. "You are the one person I would end all this for."
"Then end it!"
He looked away from her. "I cannot. The betrayal I have suffered will not allow me to walk away having had no revenge."
"You have suffered nothing, Loki! So you're adopted! Odin is still your father! Thor is still your brother!"
"THEY ARE NOT!" Loki screamed. "They are not my family!"
"I didn't see Laufey's sons running to pick you up when you fell from your horse, I didn't see you running to the rooms of Laufey's sons when you'd had a nightmare. I didn't see you trying your hardest to make Laufey proud and being overjoyed when Laufey praised you."
Loki growled and turned away from her. "You cannot persuade me to stop this. The Chutari will come, and they will bring war."
Victoria sighed. "Then I hope you're still locked in this cell when they do."
She walked to the door, holding back tears.
"Why?" he asked warily.
"Because," she whispered, knowing he could still hear her. "I will be fighting, and the only way you will stop me fighting is by killing me. You say Natasha can't wipe away the red in her ledger, how will you wipe away the red that I make in yours?"
"Victoria -" Loki choked.
"Goodbye, Loki. I hope you'll be happy with your glorious war."
She shut the door behind her, then leaned against it, taking deep breaths. "Oh, who am I kidding?" She said, bursting into tears.
…...
(Steve's P.O.V.)
Stark looked up as the computer beeped. "Ah, it's done!"
Steve walked in and placed what he had found on the desk. "I found that, along with notes on the Tesseract. Has your decryption file finished yet?"
"Yup!" Stark said proudly. "Now, let's see…Lab experiments….Ah, there…Now, Victoria Stark…Found it!"
"Your looking for information on your sister? Could you be any more selfish? What about the Tesseract?"
"Hey, Capsicle, I've been trying to worm this info out of Torie for nearly 4 years. Shut up and sit down."
Steve sat down and raised his eyebrows at Banner, who shrugged. Stark moved the file to a screen they could all see and opened it. All Steve saw was white, and he realised it was a lab.
"Now, put the camera over the creature." a slightly oily voice said.
The camera moved to focus on Victoria, who was strapped to a table.
"Let me go! Please!" she struggled against the restraints.
The man who had spoken earlier came into focus. "Do it!" he hissed. "I want to find out what Stark did!"
"Which test are we initiating first, Director?" a scientist said.
Steve saw Stark's eyes narrowing. "Don't test her like she's some kind of animal!"
The director grinned. "Robotics test. Let's see how mechanical she is under that soft pretty skin."
Steve's view of Victoria was blocked, but his mouth dropped open as he heard agonised screaming. After a while, the view of Victoria was clear, and both Steve and Banner gasped. She lay limply on the table, covered in blood and whimpering, her skin flayed open.
Stark stood up. Steve saw he was trembling and leaned back slightly. Good thing too, as Stark grabbed the screen and flung it across the lab so it shattered on the far wall.
"Tony!" Bruce cried. He ran to Stark and pulled him around. Steve was shocked to see tears pouring down the man's face.
"She - she - they nearly killed her! They did -" He sank to the floor, weeping, and Steve felt a rush of pity, that he quickly quelled. The man was arrogant and, quite frankly, Steve couldn't find anything in him to like.
"Tony, she's alright. That director isn't even alive anymore. When he retired Fury was granted access to all the files, and when he found that one he personally put a bullet through his predecessor's head." Bruce comforted Stark, who suddenly straightened, wiping the tears from his face.
"She's coming, so's Fury. He knows."
Steve looked up. Stark had got up, and was fiddling with another screen, this time showing a file called 'Phase Two'. Steve recognised some of the weapon prototypes he had seen, and it suddenly clicked in his head.
"Stark -"
The door crashed open.
A.N. - Cliff-hanger, I know, I'm sorry! But please let me know what you think!