CHAPTER TEN

Rebel souls

Her head was pounding –that was the first thing she was aware of as she began to stir from the cold blackness that'd held her mind captive. For the first few minutes as she regained consciousness, she was extremely confused as to where she was. From where she was laying, she could tell that she was on an extremely hard and cold surface. Blinking once or twice she tried to bring the blurry world into focus. Finally, she managed to clear her vision and though still slightly confused about how she'd gotten where she was, she realized now that she was in the lab. Had she fallen asleep? She would have thought that if she'd curled up to the side of the computers for a nap someone would have already come and gotten her already. Warily raising her wrist she looked at the time but realized that her watch was no longer working. Frowning she sat up and found herself face to face with a shimmering blue wall of energy that made her hair stand on end from being so close to it. A familiar drawling voice off to the corner of the observatory brought everything back. Finally, she remembered what'd happened and her heart sunk to her knees. Scurrying to the back of her 'cell' she curled her knees to her chest and brought a shocked hand to her mouth as she looked at the lifeless bodies of her dead colleagues.

She remembered everything now. It'd started out as a normal work day; they had been so unaware of the happenings in the rest of the U.S., they had been going about their work without a hitch. No one had told them what was going on, and no one certainly prepared them to have the god of mischief himself to descend upon them and destroy everything that was near and dear to them. She didn't even look at the gold and green clad god; instead her brown eyes gazed at the destroyed room. Her heart broke in half to think how three years hard work had been so easily obliterated by the angry god. She had heard of bad things about Loki from Thor, but he'd always seemed to speak about his adopted brother with a remaining twinge of respect and would never take any ill-words said about the lanky Asgardian from anyone else but him. She'd tried to give her opinion on the unruly brother of Thor once, and he had cut her off quickly; telling her that she didn't know Loki and that she didn't have much right to speak of him. Though Jane felt like she had a fairly good grasp on who Loki was after being in the same room as him (while conscious) for only fifteen minutes. He was an injured child with no way to get attention except to throw a big fit and take his brother's things. He was hurt beyond repair and so entrenched in his own madness that he did not see the lack of reason behind his own actions.

For that, Jane pitied him. Though as she remembered the flat of his weapon coming down and colliding with her face, any residual pity washed away and was soon replaced with a burning annoyance. Tentatively she pulled her hand from her mouth and began to explore her swollen face. She could tell through careful prodding that she probably had a mark on her face shaped a lot like the blade of his weapon. The top of the mark started at just below her hairline above her left eye and came straight down across her nose and ended just below her chin. Feeling the crusty blood beneath her nose she realized that he'd probably fractured it from the force of his swing, and there was no doubt in her mind that she had a black eye, or maybe even two black eyes. It hurt to blink, actually every part of her body hurt –but that was no surprise to her, as she'd probably fallen to the ground without anyone bothering to catch her.

The area that Loki had put her in was large enough for her to lay out across and not touch either shimmering barrier. While she didn't think he'd give her anything more, she was still surprised that she had as much room as she did, even if she could barely stretch her arms out without her finger tips threatening to brush the walls. Finally, she struggled to stand. At first, her legs felt like jelly and she was afraid that without support or anything to hold onto, she was going to fall over. Thankfully she'd been put up against a wall with a half-exploded filing cabinet. She used this as a crutch to pull herself up. The blood that rushed to her head after having been down for so long was almost enough to send her crashing back down to the ground. Her ears were ringing loudly and all she wanted was an aspirin, but considering it didn't even look like Loki cared if she needed something she doubted she'd get what she wanted.

His words of her just being a tool for trade should the time come kept bouncing around in her mind. What did that mean? Did he plan on dragging her along with him wherever he went like a trophy deer? The menacing tone in his voice was enough to send a shudder down her spine. There was no doubt in her mind that he didn't care if S.H.I.E.L.D chose to leave her to her own fate should Loki put a price on her head that they were not willing to match, but she had an undying faith that Thor would see to it that they got her back regardless of what was said. Thor wasn't exactly the kind of guy to sit back and let other people barter for him; he usually had no problem with bargaining with his fists and hammer. Finally the ringing in her ears passed and she brought herself to look over at Loki. He was sitting on the dashboard of one of the many destroyed computers, the way he held himself you'd think that he was sitting back against a golden throne in Asgard. He looked so at ease and so…regal (though to think the word in reference to Loki, Jane thought she was going to gag). She finally realized that he was talking to someone. The thing in front of him was more human than what she'd had been expecting his army to be. He had broad shoulders and was dressed in an extravagantly engraved metal armor. An arm guard was missing, but she wasn't sure if it'd ever been there to begin with. Willing her heart to quit its thundering in her chest and in her ears she listened in to what was being said. Loki's pleased crooning made her sick to her stomach,

"I'm glad to hear that the armies are making such good progress."

The soldier he was speaking to had a rather deep voice and was almost not what Jane would have expected to come out from someone that looked like him, but his response almost matched the pride in Loki's own voice, "yes, King Loki. You have done well in uniting the Operi armies. We had lived so long under weak rulers that it seems we forgot what it was like to have real strength at the head of our race."

Loki smiled a sick, delighted smile at this and spoke in a way a master would his well trained dog, "all it took was a little push. Of course, I can understand that you were all wary at first to follow me –but you made the right choice to follow and fight with me than rebel and fight against me. Am I right Athu?"

Athu nodded but did not look his King directly in the eye, "yes, my lord you are."

Loki reached down and patted the soldier on the head, "I know." He straightened up and drew Vildir across his lap, looking down fondly at the golden weapon and rubbed off a spot of blood from it and asked, "so now that we have all the major cities in this continent under control, might I ask you something, Athu?"

The soldier looked at his leader and said meekly, "of course."

"Why are the Operi forces focusing on smaller towns? Did I not give orders that once the cities here were secure without any chance of the humans taking back control that all remaining squadrons were to leave behind enough forces to keep control in the cities and to report back to me?"

Athu did not answer Loki right away, but after a few moments of tense silence –as if sensing the fury welling up in Loki's stomach like a wave rising from the ocean- he finally offered Loki a simple nod. Loki looked down at his obedient warrior for a moment, his expression blank. Jane watched with curiosity from her desolate corner of the lab –forgotten like a lost sock. She couldn't hold her gasp back when Loki brought the back of his down across the soldier's face. Athu's head snapped to the side and for a moment their eyes connected. In the alien's burning golden eyes she could see hate for everything that was Loki in his stare, but for whatever reason he did not rise back up against his abusive King. Instead he stood up and began to back away, apologizing to Loki, "I am sorry, King Loki. I will see to it that your orders are heard and followed."

Loki shook his head and held up a hand in a motion asking the retreating subject to stop and said, "no, we're just wasting precious time if they all come back to me for their orders. I trust you can tell them all to leave enough warriors behind in the cities to keep the populations under control and then take the remaining soldiers and proceed to the major cities across the ocean. Do what you have done here; take down whoever you need to in order to gain complete control. If it is someone of power or someone simply standing in your way, take them down. All I want is control, understood?"

The soldier nodded and finally left the observatory. Jane suddenly realized that she was alone in the room with Loki. Whatever had happened to the guards he'd had when he first arrived, she wasn't sure. She just hoped that they were at least still alive for the sake of their families if they had any. She didn't even realize that Loki was approaching her until she finally looked back at him. Her heart leapt up into her throat and she quickly backed away from him as far as he could. He stood at the front of her make-shift cell with a small smirk on his face. Finally, Loki pulled up a stray chair and sat down in it, he removed his helmet and smoothed down his ruffled black hair and set the gold horned battle helmet down to the side of him. Leaning forward on his knees he asked,

"Do you like my plan?"

Jane, defensive as ever, narrowed her eyes and remained pinned to the back wall of her cage and spat, "I didn't even hear your plan."

Loki laughed, "of course you did. I know you were."

Jane shook her head and realized how tired she was all of a sudden. Her head was still pounding. Closing her eyes, she leaned hard against the jagged edges of the file cabinet, not even caring that the sharp metal was cutting into her skin. Sagging down she asked quietly, "what do you want with the world, Loki?"

She was expecting a rather legitimate answer from him, but instead he sat up and shrugged and smiled at her, "I don't quite know yet, Jane Foster. But what does it matter if I have what I want and I just don't know what to do with it?"

It was weird to hear him speak so vaguely of what he wanted to do with the earth. She would have thought that with all the stops it seemed he was pulling out to get the job of world domination done, he would have had a fairly strong plan. Finally, after a few minutes of quiet pondering she managed to bring herself to ask, "what do you want with me?"

She was certain that this time she'd get a straight answer, and while she did, the answer that Loki gave her was hardly what she wanted to hear as he leaned close to the barrier that separated them, "you are the only thing close to Thor's heart that I haven't taken yet –well, that I hadn't taken yet, since I clearly have you now."

"Like an animal on display?"

"No, more like an disposable pawn –please don't forget that you're my bartering tool for if S.H.I.E.L.D comes knocking at my door trying to ruin my plans."

Jane studied him for a moment and for the first time realized that his nose was slightly swollen and purple, he must have already had a run-in with the Avengers. Lifting her chin defiantly she said, "it looks like you've already come face to face with them."

At the reminder of this, Loki smirked and brought his hand up to touch his bruised nose before saying, "yes, but considering I'm here and you're where you are, you can only guess how well our 'meeting' went."

Jane's heart began to race as she thought of Thor and she was almost hesitant to ask but did anyway, "what did you do to Thor?"

A slight look of surprise and maybe even irritation at her question flickered across Loki's face. But it was gone before she could really take note of it as he shrugged, "I don't know."

"How don't you know where your own brother is?" Jane demanded.

"First off," Loki growled, "he is not my brother. Secondly, I left him in Asgard last. We didn't even exchange blows. It was a rather anti-climactic escape for me. Not that I'm complaining. He really would have just messed a lot of things up if he got involved."

Already tired of standing, Jane sunk down to the ground and asked, "you mean he didn't do anything to stop you?"

Loki grinned at her, "I might have a few more bumps and bruises if he did."

Jane seemed to have a bit of a hard time grasping this as she reached up a shaky hand to run through her blood encrusted hair, "so, you…so, he didn't even try?"

Loki chuckled at this. Twisting her emotions was going to be a lot easier and a lot more fun than he'd originally thought. Leaning back in the chair he nonchalantly explained, "well not really. He was preoccupied when I made my farewell speech." He grinned at the memory of the look of horror that'd crossed Thor's face as the thin blade of Vildir slipped easily between Sif's ribs. Jane looked white as a ghost as she stuttered,

"Bu-but, I-I-I don't understand, I don't understand why he…why he didn't?"

"I do," came the smug reply. Jane leveled her gaze with him and whispered,

"Why didn't he?"

Loki simply shrugged and offered her a knowing smile as he reached down and put his helmet back on. Standing up he turned his back and began to walk away. Not entirely on board with the idea of being left alone, Jane squeaked, "wait! Where are you going? Am I going to get any food or…or be allowed to go to the bathroom?" Her captor looked over his shoulder at her for a long moment before shrugging,

"I don't know. Maybe I'll look into the food and water situation. As for your needs? You'll figure something out, I'm sure. You are an astrophysicist, am I right?" Jane nodded at this and he continued on but in a slightly colder tone, "then you'll think of something brilliant." He left it at that and continued to walk out. On the verge of a panic attack, Jane barely managed to pull herself together to spit out angrily,

"Thor will come for me, you know."

This seemed to stop Loki's retreat. He froze in his spot and slowly turned to look at her. For a moment she worried she had said the wrong thing, but she stood her ground and hardly backed away as he strode back over to her cage. He looked at her for a long, suspenseful moment before chuckling and saying, "no he won't."

Leaving Jane speechless, Loki turned and finally walked out.

Author's Notes: Woo, first interaction between Jane and Loki! There'll be quite a few more chapters with this as Loki begins to figure Jane out and plays her. He's going to play her so hard. Why? Because why the hell not. I feel kind of bad for Jane though. She's got a killer headache and Loki won't even let her go to the bathroom. What a dick. Anyway! Thanks to all of you adding this story to your alerts and everyone that's been reading, I always look forward to seeing all the adds the story's getting and I also love feedback!

I do not own any Marvel characters, only the ideas and story are mine.

Story title/chapter titles (c) Five Finger Death Punch (Bad Company)