It's been a while but this is my longest chapter yet. As always any comments or questions are welcome!
Steve Rogers woke to the sound of Jarvis' voice at 3 in the morning.
"Mr. Rogers, there is a situation on the roof that requires your attention." The A.I. even managed to sound apologetic for waking him. However, Steve had been living in the tower long enough to know that a "situation" usually involved one of three scenarios. One, someone was trying to kill an Avenger. Two, an Avenger was trying to kill someone else. Or his personal favorite, at least two Avengers were trying to kill each other.
Out of bed in a matter of moments, Steve threw on a shirt that had been discarded on the floor and began to run to the elevator. It immediately opened, making Steve once again thank God that Tony had invented the AI. JARVIS was Steve's favorite invention in the future, not that he would ever admit that to Tony. Tony was already full of himself, and Steve had no intentions of adding to the inventors ego.
Reaching the roof, the elevator's doors opened. The scene before him took Steve a moment to comprehend. First both Clint and Tony were suited up and had their weapons drawn at the three newcomers. Normally this would have been enough to help Steve understand what side of the situation he was on, however the person standing between the two Avengers and their target was Thor. It appeared all three of the possible situations were taking place, because as Steve hesitated a girl stepped out from behind Thor brandishing her own sword.
Steve had to admit that she was beautiful. Her hair seemed to almost cast its own light in the darkness. Steve immediately thought that she had an almost angelic quality about her. This idea was crushed when the girl raised her sword at Tony and made an animalistic snarl. It was easy to see this situation was about to explode.
"Stop!" Steve rushed forward and put himself between the two sides. "What the Hell is going on here?"
"Thor's lost his mind!" Tony's fail to comment on the soldiers language alarmed Steve more than seeing three members of his team about to come to blows.
"He brought Loki back!" Clint spoke up gesturing behind Thor.
Sure enough as Steve's eyes adjusted to the night, he realized one of the shapes behind Thor was Loki. The would-be king looked much less intimidating now. He clearly had lost some weight and didn't appear aggressive, even with Tony's gun a few feet way. Instead Loki grimaced, raised his hand in a half wave, and muttered a awkward "Hi".
This only served to reignite Clint who drew back the string on his bow, "Start talking now Thor or I am going to do us all a favor and shoot down your brother."
"Calm down! We need sanctuary, and medical attention. You know I wouldn't have come here with him if it wasn't important."
"I wasn't overly fond of the idea myself," Loki spoke up from behind Thor.
"You weren't 'overly fond'! You don't get an opinion. You should be rotting in a jail cell right now." Clint began turning more and more red. Before Steve could do anything, Clint let loose his arrow directly at Loki's head. It never made is farther than a foot from the bow. The arrow stopped, hovered for a second, then burst into flames forcing Clint to jump back to avoid being burned.
Everything stopped for a moment as the men realized what had just happened. Steve looked at Loki expecting that he was the one who preformed the magic. However, Loki was looking at the girl and Steve realized she burnt the arrow.
"This went about as well as I thought it would. But I think its time for someone to call Dr. Banner." The girl was clearly mad, because the last thing this situation needed was the Hulk. But as she took a step forward Steve realized she didn't want Bruce here for the Hulk, she wanted Bruce here to be a doctor. There was a dark stain that covered most of her side and was slowly growing.
The girl collapsed, but Loki was there in an instant to catch her.
Eve woke up in a white room. Sitting up she looked around. There was nothing else in the room besides the bed she was currently laying on and a camera blinking in the corner. The Avengers had decided she was a big enough threat to be locked up apparently, even when she was unconscious.
Her side still throbbed with every movement, but it was thankfully rapped and appeared clean. Someone had changed her clothes because she was currently wearing sweats and a thin shirt that allowed easy access to her side. Eve didn't expect that any doctor's from Earth would be able to treat her kind, but she was willing to bet a mutate genius with rage issues was able to figure out the basic concepts carried over from one species to the next. Loosing enough blood was almost universally a guaranteed death sentence. The only place that didn't apply was on a hidden moon where its reclusive population had no form of blood in their system. Instead they relied completely on electrical pulses to live.
The door opened with a hiss and both Dr. Banner and Steve Rogers came into Eve's room.
"You're awake," Dr. Banner said with a small smile. He made his way across the room and stopped right in front of Eve. "I need to check your wounds."
Eve nodded to show her consent, moving her arm so that the doctor had room to peal off her bandages. She wasn't surprised at the hand sized slash running across her torso, but it had been a long time since she had been unable to heal her own wound with magic. Eve found it sad that a man with his temperament became a force of nature when angry. Then again maybe the only reason he had any control of the Hulk was because of who he was as Bruce.
"We need to talk about what you are doing here," Steve broke Eve's train of thought.
"I should have kept sleeping," Eve said with a half smile to Bruce. Looking at Bruce's questioning face Eve continued, "People are so much easier to deal with when you aren't awake."
"Then you aren't facing anything." Steve had positioned himself with his back to the wall by the door.
Eve looked over giving him a half smile, "I think everyone in the room knows dreams reveal your darkest secrets. It's the world we face everyday that's a lie."
"It's only a lie if you make it one."
"Captain, you're not naïve enough to believe that you really have any control over this world. Are you?" Steve's face darkened toward Eve. Clearly she was not making friends here.
Bruce sensed the growing tension, quickly finishing re-bandaged Eve's side and backed away to join his friend by the door. Eve may be his patient at the moment, but she was also a stranger with magic powers and unknown intentions.
Eve let out a long sigh laying back down to stare out the ceiling. She was vaguely aware that Steve had begun to talk again. Looking into the whiteness Eve realized she had a choice, run or stay. It would be so easy to run. Eve had become very good at it. Running from her problems. Running from her past. Running from any hope at having a future. But she was so tired of running and fighting alone.
"-protect the entire Earth." Eve heard Steve finished his speech with all the patriot glory she would expect from Captain America. Standing up to face the two men Eve took a deep breath, and stopped being able to breath.
Despite her wounded side Eve found herself bent over trying to cough the liquid out of her lungs. Bruce was at her side in an instant, but was unable to do anything other than hold her hair. There is a special type of panic Eve always felt when she was in water. To her people large bodies of water were avoided at all costs. Slowly Eve calmed down and was faced with her white sheets being stained with a black liquid. There was no hiding this from the two Avengers.
"Is it from your side?" Bruce questioned.
"No, no this is... is nothing serious." Eve was aware that no one believed her. What she wouldn't give for Loki's silver tongue at this moment. If only she had met Loki under different circumstances, they would have been able to do anything. Taking a careful measured breath Eve stood back up and faced Steve. "I have no plans to hurt anyone. I would leave now if I thought that was an option and never return. But it isn't anymore. I want to make a deal. I have information about someone who will invade this planet. This isn't another Loki. He isn't driven by emotion that will lead to his end. I will tell you everything I know about him, and in return I want sanctuary."
Steve gave a slow nod, "We will need to know who you are. I won't force you to share anything that you don't wish to, but we need to understand who we are going into business with.
"I was going to have to anyway. I didn't expect the idiot princes to let me have my privacy for much longer, but-" Eve nodded toward the stained sheets "that stays between us for now."
"Very well, but let me try to help." Bruce said as he examined the black liquid. It didn't match the color of Eve's blood. He was leaning toward either a poison or magic as the source.
"I know what ails me."
"Then we have a deal-" Steve was interrupted by Eve.
"I want Loki pardoned on Earth."
Both Steve and Bruce began to give cries of objection, and Eve raised her hand to stop them. "My information is good enough to buy that."
"We'll see." All three turned to see Black Widow who had been silently observing from the other side of the door.
"Clint isn't going to like it," Bruce said.
Natasha nodded, "I'll talk to him. If it's a choice between the end of the world and putting up with Loki. We can deal with another over sized ego in the tower for now."
"So we have a deal," Eve was quick to put on her normal facade of energy. "But I'm only doing this once so get everyone together. We have a lot to talk about."