Author's note: As usual, I wanted to thank all the new favs and follows! It made my day, really! :)

I hope you'll enjoy this new chapter and stick around with me. I feel this story is getting terrible, but I'll try my best to make it better. Let me know what you think ! xx

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Chapter 9: The turning point

Skye was certain she was about to die, used as a living shield to protect Loki from the bullets targeted right at him. Waiting for the bullet to strike, she had closed her eyes, expecting her deliverance with angst. But the only thing she felt was a very awkward feeling of behind outside of her body, as if her soul was actually floating around the room away from this chaos.

When she opened her eyes to see why she had not felt anything pierce through her heart yet, she jumped a little as she realized that she had indeed moved from a spot to another. She was now in a dark corner of the room with Loki, hidden from sight, watching SHIELD's agents pointing their weapons in the other direction.

*What the hell are they doing* she wondered, confused. *Who else is in the building?*

Narrowing her eyes to try and figure it out, her mouth suddenly dropped open when she realized that the soldiers were targeting them… well, what they thought was them. And considering how deeply concentrated the God of Mischief was behind her, she clearly figured out that he had been creating a projection all along to lure their enemies. And that it had worked. Well… until that bullet reached its aim and pierced through nothing but thin air.

The deception had last long enough for Loki to realize that their escape was doomed to fail. They only had seconds to react before the agents would turn around and see them, and with no weapon and no decent magic to rely upon, their fate was bond to SHIELD's orders. Convinced that their orders probably were "shoot to kill" – since they had barely hesitated before shooting through the girl to get to him – Loki didn't waste any second before jumping on the closest agent, relying on his last resort: his fighting skills and his superior strength.

The first three men revealed to be as easily knocked down as he had expected, taken by surprise after the God's illusion and too weak to face his strength. The other ones, however, reacted quickly upon the attack, shooting towards him as much as they could, while Loki tried his best to progress swiftly towards them to avoid the bullets. Judging by the few stings he felt on his arms and stomach, some projectiles seemed to have reached their aim despite his efforts.

He was feeling gradually more confident about the issue of this confrontation, taking out his opponents one by one methodically, agile as a cat, focused on his sole purpose: getting out of this trap alive. But as he was reaching for his next target, he suddenly found himself face to face with an imposing barrel, at least 4 inches wide, pointed straight at his forehead. That was no good. Even for a god.

The man holding it was staring at him menacingly, implying in silence that he'd better drop the fight on that instant if he didn't want the room to be repainted with his brain.

*And here is my ticket right back to the cells* thought the God of Mischief bitterly, biting his lip to prevent any sarcasm to get out of his mouth and risk a fatal bloodshed.

He started to lift his hands slowly in the air without taking his eyes away from the gun barrel, before realizing that something odd was happening. It was very subtle at first, but Loki could have sworn that the walls around them were shaking and that the sun was setting down faster than it should. As the sensation gradually grew stronger, Loki understood that he had not been imagining any of it, with the remaining SHIELD agents looking around them puzzled, tightening their grip on their weapons and targeting Loki with fear, convinced that he was the cause of this disturbance.

Loki couldn't help but to grin at them, bobbing his head to one side with an innocent pout "Don't look at me, gentlemen. I'm unarmed and I surrendered… this had nothing to do with me I'm afraid…"

He saw them exchanging doubtful looks before they finally resolved into looking around for another threat, cautious. It didn't take them long to find the origin of the sudden quakes and darkness, since Skye had been there all along in the corner of the room where Loki had left her when the fight had started.

But she wasn't hiding any longer. She was standing tall and fierce in front of them, with so much anger and wrath in her eyes than even Loki wouldn't have flinched if he had looked at her at that moment. Her arms were sprawled her around her, palms up, as if she was praying silently to some kind of god up in the clouds. But if she had been praying, it probably would not have been to a benevolent god: the darkness in her eyes and the power that seemed to rush out of her made sure that her enemies had gathered that fact pretty quickly.

Her anger was so overwhelming that she felt that no words could come out of her mouth without breathing fire out at the same time.

"You…" she managed to snarl between her teeth "… shot me?" before jumping onto them with a fierceness she had never experienced before, taking their weapons away with a few well-aimed blows to force them into hand-to-hand combat. As the shaking and the darkness intensified, she threw herself into the fight with all her might, kicking, clawing and biting like a wild animal, forgetting on the occasion everything she had been taught about 'fair fights' to combine her combat skills with her incontrollable rage. She didn't know if it was her survival instinct that I taken over, but it was damn efficient for sure.

Luckily for her, she was not alone in the fight, since the God of Mischief had seized the occasion to get free from the threatening gun and knock out his carrier, doing his best to keep the remaining agents at bay while getting closer to the obvious source of magic that was calling out to him.

When he was sure that the escape route was clear, he reached out to her with a firm grip on her shoulder, forcing her silently to turn to him and understand in a glance that the time had come to flee. Out of the twenty-or-so agents that had been circling them just a few minutes before, only three of them were still standing, but they remained sufficiently armed and trained to hurt them if Skye's current state of magical trance were to faint abruptly. And considering the amount of energy that filled the room, he was pretty confident that the girl would run out of it soon.

She must have been aware of it too since she immediately stepped back towards him to follow him into the staircase, jumping the steps two by two behind Loki to get out of the warehouse before any SHIELD backup could join them.

When Loki opened the back-door in a kick, he was blinded by the sun that had come back to its natural brightness and felt dizzy for a second, not sure about the direction to keeping running to. That was only when he felt a hand on his forearm that he remembered about the girl that had been right behind her, and that was now forcing him to face her.

He lowered his eyes and met hers in silence, surprisingly fierce and confident. Her hand was still on his left wrist, in a firm but gentle grip, whilst the other one lain on the shaft of the scepter. Her eyes never left his before he felt his entire self being dragged into the darkness towards their next destination, accepting reluctantly to let the staff guide her in their journey out of there, in the hope that he could once more seize this opportunity to reach for her magic, desperate to feel powerful again.

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"Who the hell were these people?!" she started as soon as they landed on their new spot, not bothering to check around before throwing her questions at Loki.

Taking his time to recover from the journey and check their surroundings, the God of Mischief finally turned to her, dusting his jacket absentmindedly. "Agents of SHIELD, as I told you before"

"And that's supposed to mean something to me? Who are they?"

Loki frowned pensively for a second, before venturing with an unconvinced wince "Good guys, I suppose?"

His teasing was certainly not going to help ease her anger and her incomprehension "Good guys? Who shot a hostage without hesitation?"

Loki kept dusting his suit, bobbing his head to either side while answering casually:

"Well… not that I want to defend any of them whatsoever, but that depends on your perspective I imagine…" he started while taking of his jacket and pulling his sleeves up to check on his wounds. He continued with a thin smile "I might have irritated them a bit before, on another encounter…"

Skye was about to yell, infuriated by his flippancy, but realized that she was too tired for that, and that it wouldn't get anything more out of him anyway. She let herself drop onto the floor with exasperation, conscious for the first time that they had landed right into some kind of sewers, damp and gloomy, but conveniently hidden from sight underground.

She breathed in a little to clear her head, before pushing her luck further to try and get some information out of the man, using another angle... more poised, perhaps?

"What did you do to them to piss them off like this?"

Loki smiled. "Remember this wreckage we appeared in last week? The place in which you tried to fight me and miserably failed… well, the first time I mean…?"

His smirk was only answered with a silent pout and rolling eyes.

"Well… " he continued "that used to be their quarters I believe…"

Skye raised an eyebrow, dubious. "You mean, you destroyed that place on your own?"

"Not exactly. I only meant to break in to retrieve something of mine… if they were so keen on preserving their quarters, they wouldn't have launched a self-destruction program just to stop me from doing so… I am firmly declining any responsibility for making that place a ruin… but they must think otherwise…"

"And did you?... Manage to retrieve it, I mean?" tried Skye calmly, hoping to get some details out of him without him noticing. "What you were looking for?"

He glanced back up at her, calm but resolved not to let anything slip involuntarily. "I did", he simply answered, before getting back to his business.

They remained silent for a while, both checking on their wounds and recovering some strength from the strain of their last confrontation.

Skye got lost in her thoughts for some time, confused between the excitement of her last magical surge, her anger towards the men that had tried to shoot her instead of helping her, and the unreadable feelings that were rushing through her about the man she was currently running away with: was it fear? Anger? Curiosity? She was no longer so sure about what to do and what to think about him…. He remained such a mystery, despite the week she had had to observe and try to figure him out…

That was when she remembered something.

"Loki?" she called softly, as if she was trying to wake him up gently from a long nap.

"What?" he replied automatically with annoyance, lifting his head towards her before he realized that something was off. "Why are you calling me that name?"

"That's your name isn't it?" she simply answered innocently, brushing her leg softly to get rid of some dried blood, her eyes avoiding his burning gaze. "I heard one of the men calling you that…"

Mixed between anger and puzzlement, Loki chose not to respond, hoping that if he remained silent, she would forget about it and return to her usual questions. But that was too much to ask for.

"That's a nice name…I think, in a weird way though…. Where is it from?"

*As if you did not know, you stupid…* Loki grumbled internally.

"From Asgard" he replied clearly and coldly to show her that he knew pretty well what kind of game she was playing. Judging by her face, these two words had been like a neat slap, which should keep her quiet for a little while this time, for her brain to accept and process it.

*That's what you gain for asking…*

But the silence did not last as long as he had expected. As he was finishing checking on his injuries – most of them rather superficial – he was soon forced out of his stillness by her next question, blurted out calmly without even a glance, as if they were just exchanging trivia in a beauty parlour.

"If you are looking for your brother, I think he went back home a while ago already" she ventured, her eyes still fixed on her injured legs.

*HE IS NOT MY…* he was about to spit, swallowing back with anger this refrain that he was tired of repeating again and again, even if it had been mostly to himself.

"I thank you for the update", he replied evenly "but I am fairly aware of that fact, and I did not come here seeking for Thor… on the contrary"

Skye simply frowned casually, aware that she had stroke a chord "Hum…trouble on Asgard then?… Seems like there is some truth to our dear old myths after all! Fraternal feuds and all…"

Loki sighted with annoyance, resolved to put an end to this awkward midgardian conversation "Enough with this! The purpose of my crossing to Midgard has nothing to do with any of this… and it does not has anything to do with you either by the way!"

"Really?" she finally lifted her eyes to him, a raised eyebrow and a teasing smile on her face.

That silly girl had just been playing with fire just for fun. He relaxed a bit and got back to his body check-up, before stopping again upon one realization.

"I just told you that I am basically one of the gods described and worshipped in one of your oldest myths, and you just nod and believe me without any further question but your insignificant chat? What is wrong with you, child?"

Skye raised her shoulders with a pout.

"Well, firstly, I grew up myself surrounded by magic and found out early enough that Merlin – a mythological sorcerer himself - was not a myth but an actual part of sorcery history…which was already something weird to accept…, and then after that I witnessed the rise and fall of a despotic evil sorcerer that lived and died several times over seventy years… this being one of the many really weird stuff that I saw during my very short life… so with all of these twisted stories that I heard of or that I lived through, when I heard last year that the God of Thunder had been seen in America, I thought at the time that these legends might have been real too… "

The God of Mischief remained silent, scanning her intensely, waiting for her to look at him in the eyes and check if she was actually as comfortable with his assertions as she pretended to be.

She finally lifted her eyes back to him to conclude: "… and when I saw what you can do and how you behave… despite your 'momentary power issues'… you being the God of Mischief and Lies made surprisingly more sense to me when I heard your name than I thought it would!"

Her conclusion left them both wordless for a few seconds that seemed to last for minutes, staring into each other eyes with a bizarre mixture of suspicion and fatigue. If this moment had supposed to be the moment when they would gauge each other until one of them buckled and bent, none of them had the strength nor the will to seize the opportunity.

Instead, Loki simply rose up slowly and signaled Skye to do the same, waiting for her to be back on her two feet to break the silence that had settled in the deserted sewers.

"I believe that our resting time is now over. It is time to move on to the next stage…" he hesitated a little, and continued. "If the scepter as led us to this place, it was no accident: we are getting closer now to the item I was looking for in the first place, one that could unleash enough power for me to open a gate and go back where I came from…"

He stopped for a moment, scanning her face for any trace of panic, fear, and simple incomprehension. Instead, all he could see was serious attention, and an unmistakable determination to understand what was going on.

He kept on: "This item – called the Tesseract – is currently held by SHIELD, which means that if I am to retrieve it, I need either to steal it, or to fight them once more… probably both actually… and for that, I believe that it is relatively obvious to both of us now that I will require your assistance… and your magic..."

That was a new approach for Loki. Since the threats didn't seem to have any effect any longer on her cooperation, he had decided to switch tactics and go back to his first plan: use her curiosity and fascination for the scepter to lure her into helping him once more. And with the hatred that she had recently developed towards SHIELD agents, he was pretty confident that she wouldn't require any more convincing to join him in his suicidal plan… well, she had to. Otherwise he would have to find other ways to convince her… she was central to his plans… even if he loathed the thought of being bound to a mortal, even if it was just for a little while longer.

He was waiting now for her answer, for a minute that seemed very long. Her face was surprisingly unreadable as she kept staring at him in silence, processing the information that she had finally succeeded to obtain after days in the dark.

She was fully aware that this plan was completely nuts. And she knew as well that her best option would have been to try and escape again before all of this could turn into a nightmare. But as she kept looking at him, now informed on who he was and what he was fighting for, she could feel her curiosity grow faster than a straw-fire.

She was curious about him, about his longevity, his knowledge… but also about what he was about to do: opening a passage to another part of the universe… How many people on Earth ever had the opportunity to witness such a thing?

And there was the scepter. That god damn scepter. That she kept eyeing with fascination and interest, even more since she had touched it and merged with it to transport them into the sewers. She had experienced only a fraction of its power and its singularity, and longed to get a chance to experience some more. And what about this 'Tesseract'? This seemed equally as fascinating as everything she had discovered since she had met the God of Mischief. There were definitely as many pros than cons about joining forced with Loki. But after everything that had happened at the Ministry and the warehouse, did she have actually anything to lose?

Her mind was made up, but she didn't want to appear too eager, and felt obliged to ask, faking indifference: "And why should I assist you?... How does this plan of yours benefit me, exactly?"

Loki couldn't help but to smile slightly at her question, conscious now that she was already won over to his cause.

"Well…" he replied formally "apart from avoiding the risk of angering me and wearing off my patience… I am pretty sure that we can find the right motivation for you… something that you desire that I could eventually provide you with, perhaps?"

Skye's eyes didn't leave Loki's as she considered his 'offer', even though she had already in mind just the thing that had been troubling her for the past hours.

"There might be something actually…" she started, forcing herself to sound confident about it, even though the very idea scared the hell out of her. "… with my wand gone and you magic running low, I think there is something that needs to be done and that is pretty obvious to both of us: I'd like you to teach me how to control my magic… beyond the boundaries that I grew up with, I mean…"

When she finished her sentence, she felt her stomach knot, waiting for the sarcasm and contempt that she had grow used to. But instead, she was bewildered to discover that the creepy God of Mischief and Lies could actually… smile. A real smile. Wide, clear, and deprived of any mockery.

"Finally!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands together suddenly as if he had just won the lottery and was ready to pay his round of celebrating drinks. "Honestly…" he added with exaggerated relief, "I thought you would never ask!"