Disclaimer: I own nothing, nada, not a thing. I just like pulling the strings while the real owners are not looking ^_^
A/N: Thank you once again for the support shown to me. I know not many of you read these notes so to the few that do I thank you. I've been trying to keep myself busy due to what's been happening lately, and that is why I have been able to constantly stay updated on this story. As you read you will see bits of things that have come before, and things that will come after come together. We are getting very close to the scene at the beginning of this story and I thank all those who have stuck with it, and been here through all of my times of absence. I've tried not to let what's going on behind the scenes effect the story and I hope it shows. Anyway, please enjoy this new chapter.
Harriet Coulson: Avenger
Chapter 25
Loki was having a bad day. He knew he was having a bad day, the voice in his head knew he was having a bad day, but it was a good day to be bad. He was dazed after that blast of energy had hit him, and so he lay on the ground catching his breath as pulses of energy from the Tesseract created the door the Chitauri needed to come through.
He once again turned his mind inside to the voice he could hear telling him to stop, to end this madness, to give up this poisonous dream. It sounded like Thor, but he knew the voice to be of a younger him, during a time when he'd looked up to his brother. He sneered; Thor was no brother of his. Thor was not burdened with the glorious purpose that he was, he had an army to control a world to dominate.
"No, this is not what we want. We just want a place to belong"
"I will belong, once I am King!" He snarled back as he sat, grabbing hold of the sceptre the voice quietened and then disappeared. He had no time for childish reasoning; he had a world to conquer.
The smoke became thicker and his older self, the one that controlled their body, moved out of the room that they had been in; he could see the destruction that he was causing and felt the glee of the one who he'd managed to get through to for but a moment. His skin turned blue as he hurled his body at the screen, he needed to break free of this control. He needed to make sure that the girl was fine, that her father was fine. He wanted to make it right.
~~^v^~~
"Loki!" Thor landed on the man of iron's tower and saw his brother, he mentally shook his head. Loki was no brother of his, not after the destruction of the people who he'd sworn to protect. "Turn off the Tesseract, or I'll destroy it."
"You can't. There is no stopping it." Thor felt his blood run cold, no stopping it? There had to be a way, everything could be stopped in one way or another. "There is only the war."
Thor felt his calm, he knew how to fight, and he would fight his brother even if it pained him to hurt such a twisted being, "So be it."
Loki lunged from his position and Thor tilted his body to the side, the sceptre had a longer reach that his Hammer and so he had to try and get close, but his brother had been trained with a spear and so knew moves which he did not. A blast of energy headed towards his face as he brought Mjolnir up, the magic disperse and they came apart, Loki moving forward once more with a swing meant to decapitate, Thor dislodged his aim with a single hit and the edge of the tower fell to the street below.
~~^v^~~
"Stark, we're on your three, headed northeast." Harriet had felt the pulse of magic as the portal had opened and if Clint hadn't taken control when he did they would have crashed. She felt Captain Roger's hand on her forehead and pushed it aside as she sat, there was no way the Magical America hadn't felt that.
"We need to get that portal closed." She muttered distractedly as she watched the two figures on the balcony of Stark Tower. Steve hovered like the old fashioned gentleman that he was as Tony's snarky comment came through the Comm. Link.
"What? Did you stop for drive-through? Swing up Park. I'm going to lay them out for you."
Clint handled the craft with ease through the buildings and got into position, Natasha was already at the controls to open fire as Tony blasted past with a tail of over ten bogies.
"I need you to fly to the top of the tower." Clint nodded at Harriet's words.
"Are you sure?" Natasha asked even as they continued at her command.
"I'm sure. Thor can't take him out on his own; it has to be magic on magic. If Banner was here I'd ask him to do it, but we don't even know if he survived the fall." Steve looked from one agent to the next.
"You can't be thinking what I think you're thinking, right?" He watched Harriet smile at him as the latch behind them opened.
"Please don't worry Sir, when this is all over we'll go to that dance." She saluted as she stepped off the edge, a twist in her step. Steve was a little stunned as he stepped towards the edge not seeing where Agent Coulson had fallen.
"Nat?"
"I see him." Natasha started to open fire before one of the engines went down from a blast of magic sent by Loki. The hatch was closed and Steve held on for dear life as the craft spiralled slightly out of control to the ground. They struggled out of their harnesses as they left the craft and turned to Stark tower.
"We've got to get back up there. We can't leave Agent Coulson alone." Natasha nodded as they ran along the road towards Grand Central Station; there was complete chaos as civilians ran past them in panic. The stared at the portal as a Leviathan came out, they hall had the same thought. This just got complicated.
~~^v^~~
Harriet Coulson landed softly on the platform above the fighting brothers, with silent feet she ran inside and passed the bar to the open area across from them. She watched at tug of war they had while fighting and took in the sceptre, she could feel it try to get past her Occlumency shields and narrowed her eyes. That was how it worked; it slowly infected the mind until you couldn't tell you were being controlled. Another pulse from the portal had her on her knees before a blast of energy from the sceptre took off her head, this close she could feel every pulse and flux of the Tesseract and knew it needed to be shut off before things got any worse, but first she had to deal with Loki. She trusted the others to keep the streets safe and if Loki was still like the little boy she encountered he'd use all the tricks of his magic to stay as far from the main fighting as possible.
"Look at this! Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?" Harriet stayed low as Thor spoke; the brothers had seemed to have come to an impasse.
"It's too late. It's too late to stop it."
"No. We can, together."
"You still believe he can be redeemed?" Harriet called, Loki paused with a small dagger in his hand to face her, Thor stepping backwards and doing the same. Neither had noticed the woman come, neither had noticed how far she had reached them.
"All can be redeemed." Thor spoke with conviction as Loki laughed, once again moving towards Thor to stab him with his hidden blade. Suddenly the woman was there, knocking his hand to the side before Thor pulled her backwards and out of harm's way. Loki's dagger fell off the edge and he snarled.
"Who are you to stop me? You were made to be ruled you pathetic mortal!"
"Pathetic now am I? I thought you wanted me to be your Queen, to rule by your side?" Thor looked between the two, confusion on his face. Loki mirrored his look as he felt something break in the back of his mind, he knew her, he didn't know how but he knew her. Probably more than he knew himself, but how?
"I need no one to rule beside me!" Thor had had enough, he punched his brother in the face, and Loki smashed the glass as Thor once again raised him above his head and slammed him to the ground. Loki rolled off the edge as Harriet made a mad grab for his sceptre.
"Lady Coulson, I am sorry for your loss." Harriet looked over the edge as she watched Loki get away, before turning to the god behind her.
"Thank you, but we need to stop him. We need to save Midgard." Thor nodded as he picked up his Hammer; the Lady Coulson was a smart woman indeed.
~~^v^~~
"Well we got his attention. What the hell was step two?" Tony turned and sped away, the big hunk of alien fish thing following him through the air, not caring that it was taking buildings away at the same time. "Please tell me you found its soft spot." He turned a corner and spotted the chaos going on below him, it seemed as if Natasha and Clint were having the time of their lives, he couldn't see the Captain though. Or his gopher.
~~^v^~~
Natasha used one of her signature moves and her Widow's bite to take out the Chitauri that had gotten too close for comfort, he guns had become useless ages ago and she knew Clint was running out of arrows. She inwardly smiled, it did remind her of Budapest and, yeah, Clint probably remembered the down time more than the work, but to her down time was work.
They were being swamped and it didn't take long for her to figure out how to use the enemies' weapons against them, she shut off the part of her that was appalled by the complete disintegration of the Chitauri from a single blast. So it was lucky that Captain America chose that time to region them, even if she believed that both her and Clint could of handled it, they were a team after all and a well-oiled one at that.
Thor landed in great style as always and Natasha was a little shocked to see Harriet cradled in his arm, she moved forward at the same time that Clint did, glad for the reprieve to check both of her friends over.
"This isn't going to go to plan." Harriet spoke quietly as the Captain spoke to Thor, she absentmindedly ran her hand over Clint's quiver and arrows filling it to the brim once more, he nodded in thanks his eyes taking stock of the fact she didn't appear to have been in any sort of battle for the moment.
"What do you mean?" Harriet looked at him and ran her hand through her dark hair in a nervous habit that she'd tried to stop years ago, it was a tell and Agents weren't meant to have them.
"He's being controlled much like you were. We need to separate and recalibrate to fix it, if we can. He's had extensive work done and I've only seen it once before." Natasha felt them both look at her.
"That bad?" Harriet nodded as the sound of a motorbike disrupted the slight calm that they had. She turned to see a man, a little worse for wear start walking towards them.
"So, this all seems horrible." Harriet couldn't help but laugh and the man looked towards her sharply.
"Sorry, I'm Agent Harriet Coulson. It's nice to finally meet you Dr. Banner. I'm a great fan of The Other Guy." Bruce looked a little stunned as Steve called his arrival through to Stark.
"Thanks, I think. And Agent Romanoff, I'm sorry about earlier."
"It's fine. We could really use his help." Banner nodded as Harriet gentle placed her hand on the small of Natasha's back and rubbed a continuous circle with her thumb.
"…I'm bringing the party to you." Harriet frowned as she watched Tony appear at the other end of the street, the Leviathan right behind him.
"I don't see how this is a party." She muttered at the same time Natasha spoke and they looked at each other with a grin before Bruce turned to face the new threat.
"Dr. Banner. Now might be a good time for you to get angry."
"That's my secret, Captain." Bruce smiled and felt The Other Guy grin, "I'm always angry." As Bruce began to shift in front of them, Harriet squealed in delight, making Steve and Thor jump, as she stepped between them and stood at a safe distance from The Hulk. Her wand was in her hand and she erected a shield as the Leviathan started to tip over the top of them, pieces of its armour falling to the ground around them. Natasha and Clint watched the spark of happiness on Harriet's face and smiled while Tony blasted the body back the way it had come with a few of his rockets.
They formed a loose circle, finally a team as the Chitauri reacted to their taking down one of their own with such ease. The Hulk roared back at them, Harriet twirled her wand through her fingers with a sneer, Tony landed safely, Clint cocked his bow, Thor readied his Hammer, Natasha reloaded her guns and Steve began issuing instructions.
It was time to go to work.
~~^v^~~
Loki looked from his bloodied hands to the smears on the barrier in front, for a moment he had broken it, regained control only to have it ripped from him a second later. He could see no way out of this, the barrier was stronger now, no cracks marred its perfection, and he looked to the darkened corner beside him. He had a different kind of company now, one that laughed at his failures, which sneered and undermined him.
He didn't know how long he could wait for her to help him.
~~^v^~~
"Cap, call it."
"Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment." Steve didn't turn, he just watched as more came from the portal. "Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything, call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything that gets more than three blocks out, turn it back or turn it to ash." Steve turned pointing the locations out, he wasn't messing around. This was the guy that had saved the world before. Clint nodded his understanding as Harriet moved towards him and whispered a spell under her breath, he tilted his head at her and she smiled.
"Can't have you running out, now can we? Stay safe Clint, I can't lose anyone else." He nodded and squeezed her hand before turning to Tony.
"Can you give me a lift?"
"Right. Better clench up, Legolas." Harriet watched them go as she turned back to the leader of their group.
"Thor, you got to try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning, light the bastards up." Thor was gone with a twirl of his Hammer, "Widow and me, we stay here on the ground. We keep the fighting here. Coulson, you got the magic. Curse those bastards; let them know we are not one to back down from a fight. Hulk…" Steve faced the green guy, "Smash."
Hulk gave a grin before roaring once more and jumping towards the building beside them, where the Chitauri clung like monkeys. Harriet nodded and with a pop of displaced air disappeared from their line of vision, though Steve could see flashes of different coloured beams on the level below them. He turned to Natasha, now was the time to see how well they could all work as a team.
"For Philip Coulson." He spoke thorough the Comm. Link.
"For Coulson."
"For Phil."
"For dad."
~~^v^~~
Thor loved his control over lighting, it was a dangerous power and only those of a strong disposition could handle it. He knew he'd only just gained a firm control over it and knew that using it for too long could be harmful, as the power built up and left the conductor that he'd chosen he knew it was only a matter of time before he'd be too weak to use it. Magic wasn't his strong point, all knew that, and lightning was a drain on the magic of all Asgardians, that's why he was shocked when he felt a small source of magic flow into him to help him control more of the lightning that usual, he was even more shocked when he felt where the magic was originating from to begin with.
~~^v^~~
Harriet's mind was filed with different spells, there was no pause as beam after beam burst from her wand, as bullet after bullet was shot from her gun that would never empty. Her magical core was still stabilising, and using this much magic at once wasn't going to be good for her but she had to do it. She had to work, she had to prove that what her father died for, the hope of mankind, would not fail. Sweat broke out on her forehead as she dodged behind a car, the mantra of spells paused as she took a breath, silent casting was a speciality of hers and one she was proud of.
She rolled as the Chitauri found her position and she sent a couple of blasting hex's towards them as she stood, three rounds of her gun and she disapperated to the bridge above where Steve and Natasha were fighting back to back. She felt a wave of dizziness as Thor sent his lightning to the portal, barely managing to twist out of the way of an energy blast. Her pulse raced as she ducked and weaved along with Natasha and Steve, all three working together to fight the oncoming enemy, even being joined by Tony for a brief second before he too was gone in the melee.
She could hear Clint call out from his perch and briefly glanced to see him still safe, the lightning had stopped and the dizziness was fading, she saw Natasha get smacked over the head and sent a pulse of magic at the Chitauri surrounding her, "We need to close that portal!"
"I'm on it!" Harriet called back, sending a severing curse at the nearest Chitauri before running to the edge and landing on one of the enemies hovering ships, it was easy to take out the Chitauri and after sending her magic into the craft it was easy to then control. She needed to get up there; if guns couldn't get the portal to close then maybe her magic could instead.
~~^v^~~
"The council have made their decision."
"I understand you have made a decision, but being as it's a stupid-ass decision I've elected to ignore it." Fury glared with his one eye at the screen in front of him.
"Director, you're closer than any of our subs. You scramble that jet…"
"That is the island of Manhattan, Councilman. Until I'm certain my team can't hold it, I will not order a nuclear strike against a civilian population." Maria could see Fury's anger rise and carefully tapped her Comm. Link.
"Emerald, we may have a nuke heading your way."
"Roger that Hill. Anything else." Maria heard a blast of static before the line went dead; she closed her eyes as she turned back to Fury.
~~^v^~~
"Shit." Harriet felt her Comm. Link spark in her ear as she dodged a blast from the craft that Loki controlled, time for Plan B. She tapped the S.H.I.E.L.D. panel on her suit, "Hawkeye!"
Clint jumped slightly as his S.H.I.E.L.D. panel glowed green, "Emerald?" he turned and spotted her quickly followed by Loki, "What the hell are you doing? Isn't that more Nat's thing?"
"I haven't got time to explain… Shit! Son of a Troll! A little help would be nice."
Clint shook his head and grinned already having an exploding arrow aimed, "I got him." He released the arrow and watched the bastard of a god get blasted onto the balcony of Stark tower. Clint watched Harriet fly higher and then make an emergency landing near the Tesseract. "Thanks Hawkeye. I owe you a beer." Clint smiled, something's never changed, and he'd always be looking out for his girls.
~~^v^~~
Cognitive recalibration, remember, that's what the magic lady told us. Hulk huffed as he took the last leap he needed to reach the top of the tower where the Puny God once more resided; he couldn't remember being told anything but His Bruce had said that was what he'd been told. Hulk didn't know what cognitive recalibration was so he'd just smash, after all that was how he'd dealt with all the others that had tried to harm His Bruce. If Puny God was anything like Stupid God then he'd even get a new toy.
"Enough!"
Oh, Loki wants to talk. Hulk huffed and banged his fists against the floor, who cared he just wanted to smash.
"You are, all of you, beneath me! I am a god, you dull creature. And I will not be bullied by…" Hulk reached out and swung the Puny God around, he wanted silence and his toy would shut up. He could hear His Bruce laughing and continued to swing the Puny God until he became bored, he snorted as the god stayed down, and at least his toy knew his place.
"Puny God." He muttered as he left to smash some more. All that Loki could do was breath a high pitched sigh of pain.
~~^v^~~
It was a shock to see the barrier shatter and break as it did, it was also painful to hear the roaring of the entity that had scorned him and made him feel like a child again. He was quick to leave, and even quicker to banish all of the darkness and what felt wrong from his mind. He wanted to see her again, the girl who'd helped him, and for he was sure it had been her to tell the green thing to do this. To free him from an imprisonment that he'd never rightfully earned.
We need to atone for this, he face his older self, the one who was battered and bruised, the one who had caused all this destruction. As a child who kept things simple he had come to accept his heritage that he'd never truly rule a kingdom, but at least he'd been raised as a child of his station should be, and he never knew. Maybe in his next life he would get the kingdom that was rightfully his, and the love of a family that was his own.
Loki stared at the child, so full of hope and wonder, a child so full of understanding and acceptance of all that he'd been, all that he'd become. He felt a tear of remorse fall down his cheek; he was a monster, a heathen. How would anyone look at him now? How would he face his mother? His student?
She's already forgiven you. She knew before I did that what you was doing was not you. Loki looked again and knew the child was right, they'd shared minds; she knew he wasn't the one behind all of this.
"I need to help them. I need to apologise." The child smiled, its eyes red and skin of blue, it ran towards him and he embraced it, accepted it. A bright light shone from his body as he finally understood what it meant to be Loki, son of Laufey, adopted son on Odin and Frigga, brother of Thor, friend of Harriet Potter.
~~^v^~~
"The sceptre…"
Harriet turned her gun raised, safety off ready to pull the trigger at a moment notice before she saw who was behind her. Dr. Selvig looked a little worse for wear but okay, he was also shocked and had his hands in the universal sign for 'don't shoot'.
"Loki's sceptre. The energy. The Tesseract can't fight, you can't protect against yourself." Harriet lowered her weapon as she looked at the machine behind her.
"It's not your fault. The power behind the Tesseract was controlling you. It was controlling all of you." Selvig shook his head as he lowered his hands.
"I was aware enough." He turned to face the edge, "I built in a safety to cut their power source."
"Loki's sceptre." Harriet faced him her eyes wide as she took the three necessary steps to meet him on the edge.
"It may be enough to close the portal."
"And we're looking right at it." She muttered, looking down to see the sceptre in all its mind controlling glory below, lying innocently on the balcony of Stark tower. She tapped her badge again, "Avengers this is Coulson and I have a way to shut to portal. Unfortunately there may also be a nuke heading our way."
"Heading? Already inbound." Harriet froze as Tony came across the line.
"Don't even think about it Boss."
"It's got to go somewhere gopher. Just make sure you have my coffee ready for when I get back." She felt the blast of heat from the Ironman's jets in the boots and watched as Tony sped towards the portal, a large white rocket on his back. She summoned the sceptre and stood by the portal as Selvig ran to the equipment and started to go through diagnostics.
"Right at the crown." Harriet nodded as she prayed with all her might that they didn't lose Tony, or anyone, she got into position and took deep breaths. Her mental shields where holding but she didn't know how long for, she placed the sceptre through the first shield on the Tesseract.
"C'mon Tony." She muttered, her eyes glued to the portal, she couldn't lose anyone else.
"Close it." Harriet closed her eyes, a tear escaping as she put her energy and her body behind pushing the sceptre into the Tesseract. She felt dizziness as the energy flow stopped, and let go of the sceptre to look up at the closing portal, her keen eyes looking out for Tony.
"Son of a gun." Harriet grinned before realising he wasn't stopping.
"Someone get him. He's not slowing down. I repeat he's not slowing down!" She grabbed a hold of Selvig's arm and disapperated to the place where Tony's decent would drop him that was if no one got to him in time.
~~^v^~~
Must save Science buddy. That was all Hulk was thinking as he ran across buildings, he needed to save His Bruce's Science Buddy, even if Magic Lady hadn't called it. He grabbed the red and gold object and cradled him in his arms as they skidded across the ground, when they stopped he pushed Science Buddy off him and looked towards the pop he'd heard.
Magic Lady was there with an unknown who was already retching, Dr. Selvig, His Bruce supplied as he stood to face Magic Lady. She wasn't looking at him though, she was looking at Science Buddy and Hulk didn't mind that. Magic Lady was nice to him; she'd wrapped him in something to protect his skin from the Bugs magic. He wasn't just a nerve now.
Hulk watched as Stupid God arrived with Old Man and Spider, Stupid God ripped off Science Buddy's mask as Magic Lady waved something over his body.
"He's not breathing." Hulk huffed, as Old Man and Stupid God looked away, Magic Lady was still muttering to herself waving her hand in different positions, "No, Stark don't you dare. Don't you dare leave us."
Hulk roared he wanted Science Buddy to keep His Bruce happy.
~~^v^~~
"What the hell?" Tony looked to see everyone gathered around him, he frowned where was his visor? "Gopher did you kiss me? Because if you did that was a major breach of your contract and you could have told me earlier." He noticed Harriet smile, though there were tear marks on her dirty face that she tried to wipe off before he could notice.
"We won." Tony turned his eyes to Steve and breathed.
"All right, yay! Hurray! Good job guys and ladies. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day off." Tony turned his head towards The Hulk, "Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is but I want to try it."
Steve grinned, Tony would never change, he looked over to Agent Coulson to see she'd stood and was being comforted by Natasha, who was whispering in her ear. He looked back down at Tony, "That sounds good, but we've got a few loose ends to tie up."
"Right." Tony nodded as he was helped to stand by Steve and Thor, Natasha nodded to him over Harriet head and they all began the slow walk to Stark Tower, they were met by Clint, who looked a little worse for wear. Tony watched the three agents interact, they kept Harriet in the middle, protected as if they wanted to reassure themselves that she was alright, and he had to admit if he wasn't just recovering from a near death experience he'd be reassuring himself that she was fine too. As it was she did keep looking over her shoulder to make sure that he was still there, that he was still alive and he took a little comfort in the fact his gopher cared about him too.
~~^v^~~
He was in pain. Harriet knew he was in pain, as she could feel it like her own. She stepped in front of the rest of the Avenger's, and ignored the protest the Natasha made and the strange look she got from Steve.
"Hello, Mr. Asgard." She spoke softly; undoubtedly he'd have a headache.
"Miss. Coulson, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"
"Are you back to your normal senses?" Loki turned his face towards her and she saw the green eyes much like her own, a part of her became less tense as she smiled and crouched in front of him. "The healers are on their way, but I need to place these on your wrists. For safety of course, we wouldn't want this to be another trick."
Loki didn't look as if he understood but he allowed her to place the magic suppressing restraints on him, as he looked to the people behind her. They all had their weapons pointed at him, or in Hulks case looked menacing.
"Who are they?" He asked and Harriet carefully leaned back.
"They are my team. You appeared to have had your mind controlled after you fell into the Yggdrasil." Loki looked back to her and looked thoughtful.
"I wanted to show the people of Asgard that my brother wasn't yet ready to rule, that neither of us were." Harriet nodded and hummed in a positive way, "I can't remember anything after the war with Jotunheim, other than the fact that Laufey is my father and I know you. Your magic if familiar to me, but I do not know why."
"All will be answered once you return with us." Harriet stood, "Do not fear, Loki, son of Laufey, adopted son of Odin and Frigga, brother of Thor. You are under my protection." Loki nodded before the darkness over took once more.
"What the hell are you thinking?" Harriet turned cold emerald eyes towards her team.
"He has been put through hell thanks to Thanos and that bloody glow stick; I refuse to see a good soul treated like a criminal for something that was not his fault!"
"Thanos?" Thor asked and Harriet sighed.
"I will explain once we get back to base. It will take a while and I feel like there is something else I need to do." She frowned and rubbed at her head, Natasha came forwards and helped to massage her headache away.
"Okay, Emerald, okay." She and Clint had never questioned her instincts before, they weren't about to now.