Tex:
Running, she was always running, but this time she ran with something more precious then any scientific research on Hulk, she ran with her son. He had woken on the jet on their way to Australia and she had explained that they were going on a holiday, but he knew that she was lying. Her hair had been cut to hang just below her ears and was now dyed a deep red, green contacts covered the normal crystal blue of her eyes and her clothing had changed from jeans and a shirt to a dress and sandals. Loki's hair had been cut shorter as well and now spiked up with some sparkly gel, which he delighted in when ever he spotted the sparkles in the mirror.
Getting off the jet at Essendon she was instantly wrapped up in a hug from her mother, who had brought Loki a small gift (which was a kids size bow and arrow). "The safe house won't work this time." Director Ice said, turning to look at Tex, who had put Loki on her hip. She had made sure to wear a scarf around her neck to cover the bruises that were developing after her very physical fight with Bruce, which had turned in to some rough love making on the bench, she was still feeling slightly ill from the amount of Gamma radiation she had got from him, but the tablets were working to fix that. A little part of her mind wondered if he had managed to heal the cut down his chest from her blade, he always forgot about the blade in her sock.
"I know, I do not wish Loki to be taken away from society.' Tex said when she realised her mother was staring at her and waiting for a reply. "We'll have to stick to the smaller areas, just in case. There is to much risk if we stay in Melbourne, I was thinking going to stay with Tylor will be the best option..."
"In Ballarat? No, no you won't be able to live there, they are digging up some more remains. You could always go to Castlemaine you know Helen would love to have you back there..."
"No, Loki wouldn't get along with the twins... I'm not taking him to Coober Pedy, the town is to small and he'd stick out like a sore thumb." Tex chewed on her lower lip as she thought, before staring at her mother. "No! No I am not going there! I swear I will get in that plane and vanish if you suggest it."
"Dianne, it's for the best!"
"Really? Are you bloody sure it's for the best? Or do you just want to put him and I back in the same room once more?"
"I know that ship has sailed, so don't worry. But he will protect you with his life..."
Tex let out a huff and glared at her mother, before hugging Loki closer to her as they walked across the tarmac in to the waiting car. "Let's start our adventure, hey buddy?" She smiled as Loki grinned at her, excitement shining in his eyes as he tried to take everything in.
"Where are we going, mama?" He asked, snuggling down in the seat happily and frowning as they started to drive on the wrong side of the road. "Mama we are gonna crash! Make him drive properly!"
"Oh no honey, this is how we drive over here." Tex said, laughing softly at his panicked expression. "It's ok sweetie, we won't crash. And we are going to a town called Bargo It's a lovely place with an animal sanctuary and all, we'll be staying with one of mama's friends, his name is Henry."
"Will daddy be there?"
"No honey, daddy will be working..." Tex whispered, pulling Loki closer and pressing a kiss to his forehead, hoping that Thor would hurry up with the binding potion.
It was two am when they arrived in Bargo, Loki had fallen asleep against Tex half an hour ago, her heart broke when he mumbled Plod. Getting out of the car once it had pulled up, she stretched and stared as a tall man with bright red hair walked down the drive to meet her, a Dingo at his heels.
"Dianne, when your mother rang to tell me you were coming, I thought she was pulling my leg..." He said, smiling warmly at the glaring woman. "I know, I know, you never wanted to see me again, but I can protect you..."
"Henry, you haven't lost your accent I see." Tex said, turning away from him to pull Loki out of the car as the man pulled the bags from the boot. "I packed light, as you can see..."
"Don't you always, Dianne? And whose the little fella?"
"My son, Loki." She cradled Loki against her as she followed Henry in to the house, trying to ignore the way the Dingo sniffed at her. "How many years have you lived here, and they still have not gotten suspicious?"
"A Faery can live where ever he likes, Dianne. And I 'die' and change my appearance every eighty or so years, then a relative who I left the farm to in my will shows up! I'm a red head again as you can see!" Henry ruffled his hair before pointing to a small bed. "That will be for the little fella, your room is next door, unless you want to sleep in here... Of course you do. You can use the camp stretcher for tonight then, I'll bring the bed in here tomorrow."
"We should be getting a visitor soon, to bring a potion for Loki to bind his powers for a month, until we can catch who is after him." Tex said, placing Loki in the bed and tucking him in, frowning when she saw the Dingo already stretched out on the foot of his bed. She paused as she noted the Dingo had blue eyes, before rolling her eyes and staring at Henry. "Your sister is a Dingo?"
"Punishment, she decided to turn all the Dingos in the sanctuary pink for a day. Now she's stuck as a Dingo for a year." Henry said, patting the Dingo happily before walking out. "No doubt I shall see you in the morning, Claire here!"
Tex waited until the Dingo left the room before she shut the door and sunk down on to the camping stretcher, tears falling down her cheeks as she brought her legs up to her chest and hugged her knees. Why did you ask this of me, Odin? Why did you not put him under Natasha's care? Or anyone else's care? I'm in love with a man who contains a beast, we just got in to a physical fight, we are not the right people to raise Loki! I'm not a mother, I'm an agent of SHIELD! My best friend is a cold hearted killer! She sobbed softly before quickly drying her tears, she needed to remain strong for Loki. No matter what, she needed to make sure that he was safe and well protected.
That night she fell asleep with her dagger in her hand, ready to strike anything that came in to the room.
Bruce:
"So... Finger marks around her neck..." Tony's voice sounded like he was shouting as he walked in to the lab, making Bruce tense up and grip the eye dropper a little harder. "So I went on the security tape to see what had happened... Boy oh boy did I get a surprise! Remind me to order a new bench in, this one might need to be burnt..."
"My private life is private Tony." Bruce said, trying his hardest to keep his voice calm and low, instead of snarling like an animal. He moved to the other end of the lab, a slide in his hand as he slid it under the microscope. "This is impossible!" He snapped, slamming his hands on the table. "Every time I try and recreate the signal his blood gives off it just dies! It's like the only way I can get a signal is to have him alive next to me!"
"Have you tried replicating everything including the DNA?" Tony asked, walking to stand next to Bruce and frowning down at the slide.
"No, why would I do something as intelligent as that? Of course I tried that, it was the first thing I tried! I've also tried to take the gene that carries the signal and put it in to something else living, everything just dies! The longest something has held it is five minutes."
"You mean in order to get the signal, we need another Frost Giant, or Loki?" Tony asked, staring at Bruce who nodded, before taking his glasses off and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Which means when Loki drinks that potion, the signal will vanish..."
"And without drinking the potion, they will find him instantly..." Bruce whispered, staring at Tony with worry in his brown eyes. "Which means both he and Dianne are in trouble!"
"Put the gene in me..." Tony said, making Bruce stare at him like he was insane. "The Arc Reactor keeps me alive, I'm not a normal living thing. Put the goddamn gene in me now! I can give off the signal, they won't have to know!"
"No, it wouldn't work Tony. Our biology is not made to hold this type of gene..." Bruce said, pausing as his mind started to race. "Radiation... It might just be the key!" Shoving past Tony he hurried to the end of the lab and started to get things ready to draw some blood from himself. "The radiation in my blood might be enough to stabilise the gene, meaning then I can implant my blood and the gene in to subject..."
"How long will it give it?" Tony asked, rushing to his side to help him when he realised how hard Bruce was shaking. "The radiation will destroy its body, how long will it live for?"
"A week, probably a little more if I can keep it stabilised with medication. But it won't be longer then two weeks, Tony we need to find them quickly, this will be the last attempt I can do."
"We'll find them, Bruce. Don't worry, we'll keep your family safe."
"There not my family..."
"Keep telling yourself that, big guy."
Fi:
"Any luck Natasha?" Fi asked, pulling her top on with a shudder as she stared down at the sleeping man. She pressed the phone back to her ear as she picked her high heels up and walked out of the room, shutting the door quietly as she listened to the Russian speak.
"Same as you, Fi. Man in a long robe who always hides his face going around asking for machine parts and workers. Blue eyes and mind control, just like what happened with Clint. It seems that Loki was not the one controlling them, but the staff with the Tesseract. Which means that they must have another one with the same power... I also may have accidentally killed this birdie..."
"Natasha! Fury said not to kill them." Fi said with a loud sigh. "You know what, that doesn't matter. We are getting the same story from all of them, and I'm sick of using my body to gather information, I just want to go home and scrub myself and crawl in to Clint's bed." She hung up after Natasha agreed and threw her heels in to the back of the car, before driving back to the tower.
Instead of hiding under Clint's covers for the rest of the night, she sat with him on the roof of the tower, a cup of coffee in her hands and a bow resting on her lap. "Clint, i'm scared." She said, looking at him when he glanced at her. "I can cope with killing someone, I can cope with sleeping with someone to get information if it's for the best interest of the world, but... Aliens..." She shuddered a little and took a sip of the coffee, smiling softly when Clint wrapped an arm around her and brought her closer to him. "What if they get you again?"
"They won't..." Clint whispered, bringing her in for a quick kiss before pulling away. "It was Loki who did that, not these guys. These guys just want to fulfil the promise he made them, and instead he ran away and got changed in to a child... Is it wrong for me to want to actually hand Loki over to them?"
"No Clint, I am sure most of the people in this tower feel the same way after what Loki has done. But Fury does not want to anger the Asgardians..."
"Fuck the Asgardians, I don't want to anger Tex!"
Fi let out a small laugh and brought the coffee cup to her lips once again, before handing the rest to Clint. "Remind me when this is over to teach you how to play Strip Mario Kart..."
"And that is why I'm still married to you!"
Ok, as you can see this chapter is split in to the different parts for the people it pertains to. Is it easy to read, or do you guys want me to find a different way to do it? And yes I know Tex's is huge, and then it ends on Fi and there is only a little bit of Bruce, but I wanted to show what this does to each of those girls. It has taken someone as strong as Tex and broken her down to questioning why this has happened to her and it has forced Fi to do the thing that she hates to do the most, use her body in order to get information.
I guess I just wanted to show how a battle affects people differently, even if they are after the one goal. I hope that came across easily in this chapter, otherwise I failed and thank gosh I explained it in this authors note xD
Next chapter will feature Catarina and Steve once again and also Tony being a pain in the ass to Bruce.
Thank you for all your reviews, they mean so much to me!
Jabberwocky.
