"What are you doing!" the Other roared as he entered the main chamber to find Loki once again tampering with things. "Have you forgotten your place here, touching things that are not meant to be touched?" He bellowed as he held some sort of alien weapon to Loki's throat.
"It was a harmless test, Other. Have you forgotten the state of your army? They are in no position to be released just yet, last I laid eyes on them. To open the Tesseract would be foolish, and yet you claim I have no knowledge of what I am doing?" Loki snarled back with equal anger. "It was a simple test, also considered a warning to the humans that they are about to see its true power. Do not come blundering into this hall and question me!" he yelled back, practically spitting on the Other's face.
"Silence." Thanos had returned from his own seclusion once again, and both Loki and the Other drew quiet rather quickly.
"Ah, master, you have come to punish this outsider for his imbecilic infractions," the Other bowed to the floor, automatically assuming what Thanos would say to him.
"Quiet! You know not what this one brings to us, you foolish whelp!" Thanos snapped at his second in command. He looked to Loki as he approached the two of them slowly. "Can you not see it? Feel it? Tell me, Other, what is it that you see before you."
The Other looked into the eyes of Thanos, almost reading his mind verbatim.
"The Tesseract has awakened. It is on a little world: a human world. They wield its power, but our ally knows its workings as they never will. He is ready to lead, and our force, our Chitauri, will follow. The world will be his; The universe yours. And the humans, what can they do but burn?"
Loki smirked widely. The Other, however, looked as though he wanted to rip Loki's face clean off.
"You. Come with me," Thanos snapped at Loki, who immediately dropped his smirk. He followed the Worshipper of Death down to the area where he had secluded himself for so long.
"You are ready, Loki of Asgard," Thanos grumbled as he pushed a button in the center of the room. Parts in the floor started moving and a display like case rose from the floor, revealing a golden and silver scepter with a glowing ball of energy locked inside what looked to be a jewel just inside the claw. "This staff has the power to do whatever it is you wish it to. It can control the minds of those around you, it can cause destruction beyond imagination," he carefully took the scepter from its stand with both hands. "With this, you will have control over our Chitauri. It is time for us to go to war. You must not show mercy with this at your side, Asgardian."
He went to give Loki the scepter but then took it back as he reached out for it.
"If you fail us, you will not live long enough to see the light of day," Thanos threatened, making Loki drop the arm he had reached out to grab the magnificent looking staff.
"I will not fail you."
He was finally handed the scepter in approval. "They will follow when you are ready."
Loki let his infamous smirk curl across his lips. "Soon. Very soon."
Orthani headed back to her living quarters at the station, absolutely exhausted after her watch with the Cube. She was to head back, take a quick shower and get a little caffeine in her veins so that she could take over while Clint went to do the same thing. She hurried through her short, yet unfortunately very cold shower and then forced down an energy drink so that she would stay awake until she got a chance to catch a quick nap, and then she glanced at the clock on her bedside table.
20 minutes. She had 20 minutes to spare.
She exhaled and went to sit on the edge of her bed, also removing the daggers she had strapped to her belt off so she could lay down. She closed her eyes briefly before snapping them open again, knowing very well that if she fell asleep now and missed the time she had to be back in the lab, she'd surely have Nick at her throat. She sighed and sat back up and held her head in her hands.
Why can't I just leave and never come back she started thinking to herself. She knew thinking like this would probably land her in trouble but she couldn't help it. I don't want to be a part of this anymore. I just want to go back to my little remote house and stay away from this all like I should have in the first place.
She shook her head. That was a bad thought to begin with. She couldn't regret her past decisions due to the fact she had met a man who had shown her more than what she could've ever dreamed of, and on top of that gave her a special position at his side because she managed to exceed his expectations of her. She sighed. Dammit, Loki. I'm not ready for this.
Suddenly, her mirror placed over the dresser near the back wall shattered, making her jump and swirl around to face it at the sudden loud noise it made. She stared at it in terror, not knowing exactly what had caused it to break so violently and how. It didn't actually break like she thought it did at first; it only had cracks that all led to a certain spot in the upper right hand corner. She slowly got up off her bed and approached it, catching a flicker of green disappear in the far corner.
She froze. She didn't know what to think, seeing as though she wasn't even really aware of what she just saw.
I think…that I'm going to go and relieve Clint of duty a bit earlier than expected…
With that thought, she quickly grabbed her daggers and rushed out of her room, quickly clipping them to her belt as she swiftly walked out the door. She walked briskly towards the lab, her still somewhat damp hair hanging in strands in her face, most of the ones in her face being shorter than the rest, and the longer strands never escaped from behind her shoulders.
"Clint, buzz me in, will you," she spoke over her earpiece to her partner as she neared the metal doors.
"Why? You still have 15 minutes on your break?" his voice crackled in her ear.
"I've got to talk to you. Now, preferably, than later."
She heard him pause. "Alright. Come on in."
The metal double doors gave an audible buzzing sound as she was let inside. Her key card wouldn't have worked since the system was programmed to only let certain people in at certain times. Since she was on break and not allowed to be let in for another 15 minutes, it wouldn't have allowed her entry until those 15 remaining minutes were up.
All thanks to Nick Fury. Top notch security and little room to spare. She was thankful Nick had given Hawkeye the privilege to buzz people inside should they need to be let in as a way around the system.
She quickly climbed her way up to the Hawk's Nest, not even bothering to take the stairs this time. She simply just effortlessly climbed using pipes, metal grating, wires, anything that was in her reach to make her way up to Clint's location. He was focused on the Tesseract with an intense look, he not wanting to let something slip past him like it did the last time.
"You look spooked, Ghost" he said, not even bothering to look at her.
Ah ha, very funny, Clint. Spooking the Ghost; clever. "Well, I just had my mirror crack on its own without warning and without anything even near it, so yeah. Call me spooked," she rolled her eyes and kneeled down beside him. She was talking with a low and quiet voice to avoid drawing attention to herself, seeing as though most people here still knew her as the quiet and suspicious bad-girl-turned-good that never spoke to anyone. Clint's name of Ghost had caught on like wildfire to the point when Director Fury caught wind of it, he started using the name himself.
She saw Clint's brow furrow, but his eyes never left the Tesseract. "Strange…" he trailed off while scratching his lower lip with his thumb, absolutely puzzled.
"Yeah. It kinda freaked me out a bit so I decided I could come in here and relieve you to your break early if you wanted," she offered, giving him a pat on the shoulder.
"Nah, I'll leave when your time's up. I'll probably be back quicker than you were, so you'll need to buzz me in as well," he forewarned her. "I can't let this thing out of my sight for too long. I let something slip by me the last time, and I refuse to let it do so again," he told her.
She nodded. "Alright then. Suit yourself." She went to go and swing herself to her own perch where she had claimed like Hawkeye did, but she felt a firm hand grasp onto her wrist to stop her.
"Watch yourself, Orthani," Clint said, tearing his eyes away from the Cosmic Cube just to speak to her this one time. "It won't be too long now. Everything's gone restless, people are getting short tempered, everyone is tired," he started explaining. "If you can't feel that something is up in the air, then maybe I've just gone crazy from looking at this thing for too long, but if you just stay still long enough and you can feel it too?" he gave her a look that gave her a nervous feeling in her stomach. "Then we know it won't be too long before we see something or someone walk through that thing. So watch yourself," he gave her a quick squeeze on her wrist before letting go of her and returning his gaze to the Tesseract.
"Yessss brother Clint," she pretended to huff like a 5 year old being lectured by their mother and rolled her eyes.
He chuckled. "Seriously though, all kidding aside, just keep a close eye out for anything and everything that might seem out of place or out of the ordinary. Ok?"
She nodded. "I always do," she ruffled his hair. "Now will you go? Take a few extra minutes on break. I'll hold down the fort here for you. You look as if your eyes are about to burst out of your skull," she playfully taunted him.
He exhaled. "Alright. If you insist. Just do me a favor and hang out up here. Don't go running up into the rafters again like you always do. Stay up here," he said as he stood up to stretch out his stiff muscles.
"Ok, but why?"
"Well one, so you can buzz me in when I get back in 10 minutes, two, so you can watch both the Tesseract, the door, and Selvig without having to move around so much," he explained to her.
"Can do, Hawk," she nodded and sat down where he was once sitting.
"Oh, and keep a very very close eye on that thing," he said as he threw a rope down over the edge of the metal rail and tied it off. "It can do anything at any second without warning, so don't keep your eyes off it for too long." With that, he slid down the rope to the ground and went to start his early break, though Orthani knew he'd probably be back before he was supposed to be leaving in the first place anyways.
She let out a close to inaudible sigh and rested her arms on the railing right at neck height and rested her chin on her arms. She went to doing Hawkeye's job, which was watching everything and anything that moved, let alone breathed at that point.
Loki had done his little magic trick on the same glass once again, trying to get a glimpse of how his loyal assistant was doing. That was all he asked for, was to ease his mind and possibly give him time to rest a little easier.
He had pulled it off this time, better than the last. He could actually make out a little detail in the room set before him, he just couldn't really distinguish that the person he was looking at was who he had been searching for.
Humans and their vanity, you would think they would clean these things every once in a given set of time, he grumbled to himself, keeping his hand on the glass window.
Suddenly, he felt his skull meet the glass as someone pushed him from behind. The connection between the world he was in and the human world was shattered the moment he heard his skull crack against the hard surface. He crumpled to the ground from the impact.
"You think we overlook you, Asgardian, but you are mistaken," the Other's voice growled behind him.
"I have never thought you for once gave me any time to myself, Other," Loki snapped, slowly picking himself up off the floor. "I wouldn't dare do something against your approval, as you know." He gingerly rubbed is forehead where he had been hit. He hadn't actually been injured, just probably a slight bruise, but the hit was enough to make him go a little fuzzy.
"Then why do you not ask for it?" the Other snarled at him. "You cannot go around making bridges between two worlds so carelessly. This is a delicate operation, and in doing such things, you have the potential to collapse our entire purpose!" he roared at the puny Asgardian who stood before him.
"Will you silence yourself?" Loki rolled his eyes and suddenly started glowing gold as he replaced his normal attire with his full armor, cape and helmet included. "I am aware of what I am doing. It is harmless and not to be worried about, let alone important enough to have to ask permission for it," he spoke calmly, walking towards the exit and onto the grounds of the realm itself. He firmly grasped at the scepter in his hand, knowing that it was now the only thing that gave him power in this realm now.
"Do you not see what is happening around you here?" the Other followed him, so close in fact that he almost stepped on Loki's cape with every stride, which he would have been delighted to see him be so suddenly yanked back by the throat.
"You question my ability to observe, Other? How kind of you," Loki replied, a little bit of snark to his voice.
"The Chitauri grow restless," the Other hissed as Loki began to pace back and forth slowly in front of him.
"Let them go at themselves," Loki brushed off the comment, "I will lead them into glorious battle." He smirked smugly to himself.
"Battle? Against the meager might of Earth?" The Other seemed to be scoffing at his determination.
"Glorious, not lengthy," Loki hastily corrected him. "If your force is as formidable as you claim." He dared to taunt his torturer, a light smirk on his face.
The Other growled. "You question us? You question HIM? He, who put the scepter in your hand, who gave you ancient knowledge and new purpose when you were cast out, defeated?"
"I was a king!" Loki snapped. The Other had gone too far with that comment. "The rightful king of Asgard! Betrayed!"
"Your ambition is little, born of childish need. We look beyond the Earth to greater worlds the Tesseract will unveil."
"You don't have the Tesseract yet," Loki said bravely, knowing very well he shouldn't have. The Other raised his hand to claw at his face as he quickly moved towards him. "I don't threaten, but until I open the doors, until your force is mine to command, you are but words."
The Other slowly put down his raised arm. "You will have your war, Asgardian," he gave in this little verbal argument as Loki turned his back to him. "If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he can't find you. You think you know pain?" Loki could hear him getting closer to him from behind his back. He didn't move, in fear of whatever the Other would do to him this time. "He will make you long for something as sweet as pain!"
He suddenly felt the Other's hand snap to the side of his head and throw him to the side quickly. The scepter fell from his grasps. He reached an arm out for it, only to have the Other step on his wrists painfully.
"You will not escape your fate shall you fail," the Other crouched down and got so close to Loki's face that their noses were almost touching. "Let this be your final warning, Asgardian," the Other spoke gruffly. "Do not step out of line again. For it will be your last." With a hiss, the Other let him go and trudged back to the giant ship, now landed on some godforsaken barren rock.
Loki slowly brought himself to his feet. He readjusted his helmet on his head to where it sat straight, brushed himself off to rid him of the dust and dirt that had gotten on his elegant Asgardian garb when he had been so rudely slammed into the ground. He picked up the scepter and slowly followed the Other back inside, rubbing his neck slightly. He had been so sharply shoved to the ground that his neck had popped and it now left him with an uncomfortable feeling in the side of his neck.
"Do not be mistaken," the Other paused his walking in order for Loki to catch up to him, "we have seen the woman you have searched for, Asgardian."
"And you will not dare lay a finger on her," Loki snapped before the Other even had a chance to finish his statement.
The Other smirked. "Ah, so you have gone soft," he chuckled his taunt. "Do not fret, we have no plans for her," he disregarded the curse that Loki muttered under his breath. "HE believes that she is shrouding your judgment, with all this petty magic and deception for the only purpose of watching her sleep."
"You twist my intentions, Other. Don't dare test me with this, or are you the fool to do so?" Loki growled dangerously.
"Stop your petty threatening!" the Other turned around so quick to roar in his face that Loki flinched. "You have no power here. Not yet! Not over us!" His voice was so loud it echoed off the walls. "You are forbidden to test your experimental magic HERE to where it involved a connection between realms just to catch glimpses of your own mistakes, Asgardian. Know your place here!" And with that, the Other swirled back around to continue walking to his throne.
"Ironic how you treat someone who can bring to you, and has offered to bring to you your own precious objects with such dishonor and insolence," Loki muttered under his breath as he walked in a different direction.
He suddenly felt something grab him by his throat.
"Watch that silver tongue of yours, Asgardian," the Other snarled in his ear. "You walk a very thin line that you do not want to be crossing," he hissed before shoving him away and walking to his throne.
The scepter made a loud clattering noise as it hit the ground and bounced slightly from the impact. Loki again had to pick himself up and dust himself off, almost half humiliated that he would ever put up with such horrible treatment. He knew if he retaliated though, he wouldn't even live long enough to make it back to the Midgardian Earth at all. He gave a small humph of disagreement, but didn't say a word as he continued to his chambers.
"You are not a fool, Loki of Asgard," the Other clicked as he sat down in his seat. "Do not go and make a fool's mistake."
A/N: Just another chapter here, lovelies. Don't be a stranger, and I'd love to hear from you guys! Reviews aren't mandatory (duh), but I'd love to hear some feedback from time to time! I don't bite, I promise. We're almost back to the point where Loki returns, so hang on in there!