Nobody could believe it, how could it be possible that it had happened. The plan had been the best they could come up with and it had failed, both Loki and Jess captured by the Chitauri who had managed to get away before the Avengers had got to them. There was shock, dread and anger; surprised by the suddenness of the Chitauri's appearance, and dreading what would happen to Jess now that she was prisoner somewhere they couldn't find her, and anger at Tony since he was closest to her… and at themselves for not getting there fast enough.
They were all sitting in the lunge, the room where only moments ago Tony and Jess had been acting like drunk idiots, as they saw on the security footage, Natasha had come back from her mission early and she and Fury had joined them. Not a word was said until Loki vanished, not captured, he'd just vanished and left Jess to the Chitauri who were quick about taking her down and dragging her through the portal.
"That son of a bitch," was the first comment to be said, unsurprisingly my Tony who had sobered up fast when he'd realised what had happened.
"They didn't even look for Loki," commented Bruce, rubbing at his chin. "I think we've found the reason why Loki was so eager to go through with the plan."
"Loki was working for the Chitauri?" asked Steve, furrowing his brow.
"It's not surprising," said Clint, staring at the now frozen footage. "He's a traitor born."
Thor looked like he wanted to disagree with Clint, but wisely chose to remain silent- this was not the moment for that.
"No, I mean if he's working for the Chitauri then why would they come here?" asked the super soldier. "Wouldn't he be better off getting the Tesseract than Jess?"
"Maybe they already have the Tesseract?" suggested Tony with a wave of his arm. "How are we supposed to know how they think."
"To me, it looks like their target was Miss Attwater," commented Fury, and they all turned to look at him. "Given her… unique origins it wouldn't be surprising if they thought she could be of use to them."
"But she doesn't know anything past the last invasion," pointed out Natasha. "She said that was as far as it went at the moment."
"If the Chitauri are after information they may kill her when they find out she does not possess it," exclaimed Thor. "We must help her!"
"How?" asked Clint. "We don't having that could take us to wherever she is."
"Don't you Asgardians have teleportation?" Tony asked Thor.
"We do," replied the Thunderer. "But unless we know where we are going then it is useless."
There was a long pause, filled with nothing but silence as they tried to think of a way to get to the Chitauri, if not to rescue Jess then at least to stop them from coming back. If they had the Tesseract it needed to be taken bak before they could mount an invasion on a higher scale than the last one.
"We need Loki back," Tony said finally.
/
It's not a nice feeling waking up in a different place than the one you went to sleep in- although I can't say I remember where I went to sleep…. Did I even go to sleep? Instead of a comfy pillow below my head I could only feel something that reminded me of marble- smooth, tough and cool. I opened my eyes quickly and bolted up right, eyes adjusting to the somewhat dark room.
It appeared to be made out of black marble, mixed with a silver metal and had a high up window (hole) which showed space- stars, planets and even that red cloudy stuff. It would have been amazing if I wasn't stuck somewhere with no way of getting home.
That made me pause. Home? Where was that for me? Was it back on my own Earth… or with the Avengers?
"Ah, good- you are awake," I heard a voice say with a chuckle. "I was beginning to think that the Chitauri had killed you."
Chitauri? With a flash it all came back to me- I had been taken by the Chitauri after I let Tony get me drunk. I hope he was the world's worst hangover for that- I'm safe since I don't get them, although that didn't stop my head from throbbing and I reached up to fill a warm, sticky fluid.
"Where am I?" I asked, feeling a little foolish- the man probably didn't have a much of an idea either, only that we were now stuck as prisoners for these aliens.
"I can't say I have much of an idea either," replied the man, moving out of the shadows to come and sit by me. As I healed my cut I almost jumped in surprised as I realised that I recognised the style of clothes he was wearing.
"Are you an Asgardian?" I asked, shocked to see him here. He looked surprised as well that I recognised him and as he opened his mouth the answer, the door (I swear their hadn't been one their before) swung open and a group of Chitauri entered, pointing their weapons at me as they made weird noises I assumed meant to come with them.
I got slowly to my feet, ignoring the weapons being practically shoved in my face and walked out of the room with the Chitauri surrounded me. As soon as we were outside I looked around and almost gasped in amazement, for like where The Other was we were just on floating mounds in space. The cell I was in part of a fairly large building with a long, narrow pathway up to stairs which led up to…
I think it was obvious where those stairs led and I swallowed nervously as we approached the stairs. The Chitauri pointed me in front of them, weapons jabbing in my back as they made me go up the stairs, only two following me as the others went back to the building. My heart in my throat as I slowly climbed the stairs and hoped that the others could find a way to reach me soon.
"Welcome, human," said a familiar voice as I reached the top, the hooded figure standing behind a podium with a ragged cloth covering it- I recognised it as Loki's tattered and torn cape. "How nice of you to join us."
I didn't say anything, just stared defiantly at The Other to let him know that I had no intention of joining his side or betraying any of my friends. He seemed to get the message and chuckled, walking around the podium, his hand trailing over the cloth (I never noticed he had lots of thumbs) before he came to stand in front of me.
"I guess you must be wondering why you are here," he continued, dismissing the other two Chitauri. "Why we brought you here?"
"I'm guessing it has something to do with Loki being a traitor," I said, more a guess than anything and was only half-surprised when The Other confirmed it with a nod.
"You were one half of what was given to us, a fair deal for forgiveness of his earlier mistakes."
"What was the other half?" I dared to ask.
It looked like that was what he had wanted me to ask because he went back over to the podium and with a flourish lifted the cloth, revealing the item.
I was astonished and frightened, looking at it made me truly panic at the thought of what they could do with that.
With the Tesseract.
"Indeed, Loki brought back our prize to us, and as soon as we are ready we will wreak revenge on both Earth and Asgard, said The Other with a chuckle. "But we will make no mistakes this time and the whole force of the Chitauri will be used- this is no longer about any petty grudge that the Trickster may have. This is about honour… and revenge."
I somehow doubted that revenge was high on their list of reasons, probably more to do with the fact that they didn't want the universe knowing they had their butt's handed to them on a silver platter my a handful of humans (Plus one Asgardian).
"In a few days Earth will burn." The Other covered the Tesseract back up. "And there is nothing your pitiful planet can do about it- not when their heroes will be stuck on the other side of space."
It all fell into place in that moment.
It was a trap.
A/N: Happy Halloween everyone! Thanks for the reviews last time, they motivated me to update fast *hint hint nudge nudge* ;). It's nice to know that you think the story is good, but still feel free to tell me if you think it goes bad. :P