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A Friendly Turn

Before I knew it, I was surrounded by agents once more, questioned, dragged along and this time, no one was there to speak on my behalf. I did not speak up, either. There was nothing left to say.
At least we survived, for their aeroplane did not drop from the sky. People were throwing around Tony's name in awe and praised Captain America once more, even as they escorted me through their flying fortress.

As it turned out, they did not only have vitreous cells but had also installed the dark, dusty type of cells. Considering the cot and the small desk, though, they might have used it as regular rooms for the agents. It was not like the poor men and women would complain about it to Fury's face.

Every surface in the room apart from the thin, worn out mattress on the cot was made of a cold, hard metal. My back hurt within the first five minutes of sitting down and after ten, my eyes were hurting due to the neon lighting.
After a quarter of an hour, I started pacing up and down. Four steps up, turn sharp on your heel, four steps down. Another half step and one could press their nose against the door.

Twenty minutes, and I could not take it anymore. I was clearly not suited for imprisonment.
My mind was on overdrive. I could be sure that Loki was alive. There was no doubt in my mind that I would feel it if his power suddenly left me. About Thor I could not be so certain.

It seemed unimaginable that the mighty Thor might succumb, no matter what the challenge, but I had seen the drop myself. If he had not freed himself from the cage before it hit bottom, he would shattered along with it. The thought made my stomach turn and the bile rise in my throat.

That Loki had dropped him so unceremoniously - as if he did not care at all - was beyond my comprehension. It was enough to make me want to pull my hair out. I could not understand how he could be like this, how he could kill without flinching, even his own brother - it boggled my mind, how detached he had to be from himself right now.
For I knew he cared about Thor, about me. Whatever had happened to him this past year, it could not possibly have erased all of his heart.

The door flew open when I was just two steps down towards the back wall. It was Stark, scratched and bleeding once more. The agent thad had opened the door for him looked mildly terrified.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"Didn't heed your advice and got in Fury's way," I said.

"They say Coulson is dead and Loki killed him-" I nodded when he searched my face for confirmation. He looked almost disappointed. "They say you helped him."

"Not true," I said. "I wanted to help the man, I did, but Loki did not let me."

Stark crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Is that right?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Would I lie to you?" I shot back.

He cracked a grin at that. "Hell if I know," he said. "Listen, about Thor, we haven't heard anything yet-"

I nodded. "If you can get me a map, I can try and find him. And a knife," I added as an afterthought.

Stark's eyebrows pulled together at that. "How?"

"We share the same blood," I explained with a strained smile. After seeing him fall, I had very little hope that I would find anything even if I did get the chance to search. "As long as his heart is beating, I can locate him. If you get me a map, I'll show you where you can pick him up."

He pulled a face, but nodded. He was already halfway out the door when he stopped once more. "And Loki?"

I let out a hissing breath between my teeth. "Can we take care of the brother in lethal danger before we talk of the one who is the lethal danger?"

Another nod and I was left alone once more. My knees had gone weak and I sat heavily down on the cot. It was a hard landing and my bruised leg hurt like Hel with the impact.
My heart was throbbing heavily, so much that I could feel the throbbing in my throat. I did not want to see the blood blotting over that map. I did not want to see the confirmation that my brother was dead. It was almost as if I was to kill him myself, as if the attempt to locate him would somehow deliver the deadly blow.

So Tony found me, shaking from head to toe, when he returned almost an hour later and brought the American soldier and the female agent in command with him. It was this brown haired woman that held the knife and map I had requested.

"Hey Princess, you all right?"

My eyes flitted from Stark to his companions. "Did you get my supplies?"

"Yeah, we're not giving you a knife," the agent said.

"What Agent Hill is trying to say," the soldier said quickly. "Is that we're a little worried."

I leant forward. My hands were splayed on my upper legs and my elbows shook trying to support the weight put on them. I hoped that they would not notice. "About what? I can assure you that if I wanted to attack, I would not do it with that pesky knife."

Stark laughed, but the others did not seem amused. Agent Hill crossed her arms and glared, a trait she had no doubt learnt from her boss, and Captain Rogers shifted nervously in his stance.

I wondered if he had ever seen real magic. My fingertips prickled with the desire to show just how little need I had of that knife.

"Come on," Tony said. "Just give her her things."

"One wrong move," the agent warned and put both map and knife on the small table across from me.

I rose and she stepped slightly to her side, but her eyes remained glued to my every move. I knew because she flinched slightly when I picked up the blade. My own eyes moved over the map - I recognized but a few of the big names, but hardly knew where north or south was, let alone where we were.

"Someone show me where we're at," I demanded.

They exchanged glances once more and then the soldier stepped forward and pointed at a location quite in the middle of the map. He had to pull his finger away mere seconds later with a surprised little squeak. Blood sprinkled in a clear line along the are he had pointed out, staining the material, probably forever. I felt the sting of the cut in my palm only when it was already done.

"What the heck?" the soldier breathed.

"I need something to transmit the energy on the map," I said without glancing at him. "Easiest to use a part of what I am already searching for. My own blood."

I splayed my hands on the edges of the table, ignoring the sting of my left hand. I inhaled deeply once, twice, a third time and then closed my eyes.
The blood on the map had left my body, but I could still feel it, the energy inherent in it even now. I could feel it pulsing, almost bouncing with eagerness to fulfill its purpose.

When I opened my eyes again, it had pooled at one spot, right where I had sprinkled it on. My stomach dropped and my breath started coming in shorter gasps.
They were whispering behind me, but I did not hear the words. My fingers wrapped tightly around the edges of the desk. My knuckles turned white and the tabletop started shaking.

Then it started moving. My eyes widened and my arms sagged so that I bent down over the map. A thin line dragged over the map, halfway across a part labelled 'West Virginia'.

I let out an incredulous laugh. "He's alive," I said, my voice shaking helplessly. "He's still alive."

"Mark the spot," Agent Hill ordered.

I rolled my eyes at the demanding tone. I had every respect for those humans and their democratic tendencies, but teaching this woman some respect for royalty did seem very tempting. I did not give in to that desire. Instead, I took up the knife again and cut an 'x' at the ending point of my trace.

"Now Loki," she said.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "I thought I was collaborating with him - why again do you assume I'll help?"

"Stark said you would try and find him after locating Thor," the soldier said gently.

"That's because I trust Tony, even with a matter as delicate as my brother's life." Stark seemed to swell a little with the compliment and I berated myself internally for feeding his ego. With a nod to the agent, I said, "I don't trust these people."

"Neither do I!" Captain Rogers said, clearly offended. "Fury's got the same blood on his hand - right now, we've got to put that aside and get this done."

I bit my lip and looked back at Stark, who nodded slightly at me. My lip curled in disgust, but I did turn back towards the map. The blood was still running when I moved the paper. I spread my hands again and let the magic build - and felt like I was slammed head-first into a brick wall.

I gritted my teeth, straining with the effort, but the invisible wall would not budge and meanwhile, the blood started to pool around my own fingers instead of going anywhere else.

"What's happening?" Stark asked.

"He's blocking me," I concluded. "He doesn't want me to find him, or a least he doesn't want to make it as easy."
Or, I added in my mind, it was whatever power that controlled Loki, the power of the scepter or the Tesseract, that made it so I could not find him.

"And what do we do now?" the agent asked.

I pursed my lips. Instead of answering, I grabbed the map - it crumpled in my hand - and shoved it at her. She took it before it fell but blinked at me in obvious confusion. When she looked down on it, her face wrinkled in obvious disgust. She had laid her fingers right on a puddle of blood.

"Go pick up my brother, why don't you?" I said. Stark chuckled and even the captain was smiling slightly when I glanced in his direction.

Agent Hill rolled her eyes but nodded a me. "Captain, you watch her."

"I can watch her too!" Tony was not honoured with an answer and he shook his head when the door closed behind the agent. "You'd think I'm a loose cannon."

"I saw your suit on TV, you kind of are," I said.

Pacing got increasingly difficult with three people in the small room, especially with three people who felt the need to move when they got nervous - and we were all nervous.

Loki was out there and if I was being blocked, it meant that his plan - whatever it was - was ready to be put in action. Without a device to track him, it was hardly possible to locate Loki, though. He could be anywhere on the world by now and it was not like he had any favourite spots or hiding places that we would know of.

"Look," Steve said after I voiced those thought. "If we'd just figure out what Loki needed-"

"He wants to bring in an alien army," Stark added and then turned to me. "So, my dear alien, what would he need?"

I scoffed at his calling me an alien. "He'd need an additional power source," I said. "He would have to open a portal, but last time he did it, with just the Tesseract, the connection did not hold."

The captain rubbed a hand across his face and Tony plopped down heavily on the cot. "I thought the Tesseract had unlimited power."

"Nothing's unlimited," I shot back. "And portal's are tricky. It costs a lot to build them and even more to pass through. Loki would have added his own power to the mix, but it was not enough to make the portal stable for longer than just his passing - now imagine he'd want to pass a whole army through."

"So Loki needs a power source," the captain said. "If we can put together a list-"

"He made it personal," Tony suddenly said.

The captain sighed heavily and crossed his arms in front of his chest. I wondered what might have been happening between the two of them. The American soldier seemed awfully exasperated with the other man.

"That's not the point."

Stark shook his head. "That is the point - that's Loki's point. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it, he wants an audience."

I hated to admit it, but he was probably very right with his assessment. "So a very public power source?" I said. "That should narrow it down."

"I'm not wrong, am I?" Tony asked me. "He's the kinda guy who wants flowers, parades, monuments built in the skies with his name plastered-"

He realized it the same moment that I did, too. It truly was the perfect spot, Stark Tower: very public, very powerful, a splendid place to control the action from above and keep a clear view of everything. It took away something that was dear to his enemies, too.
Once more, I had to salute Loki's ability to scheme. I had not thought that I would ever have to stand against him like this - and I did not like it at all. He was a dangerous opponent.

"Sonofabitch!" Stark hissed. "That's my baby."

Despite the seriousness of the situation, I could not hold in my laugh. "It's a tower."

"You're right," he said. "It's better. I can take 88% of the credit for it, I couldn't do that with a baby." I mouthed 'eighty-eight?' to the captain, who shrugged noncommittally. "All right," he continued. "Let's go."

"She's not supposed to leave," the captain said, earning two sets of raised eyebrows.

"Right," Tony said. "Feel free to stop her if you can."

The Captain did not stop me; he did not even try.

Getting out was still a bit of an adventure. No one was very suspicious of Captain America, not even when he walked the corridors with someone who should be in detainment. People were, however, very much suspicious of Tony Stark walking around with someone who should be in detainment and we had therefore be shuffled into a room off the main way which was even smaller than the previous cell - indeed, it could barely be called a broom cupboard, while the good soldier went off to organize both aeroplane and pilot.

He did not only return with a pilot - a guy with a face as if he was constantly grumpy and who also kept rubbing the back of his head - but with the red-headed agent from before who had to be talked into taking me along for five minutes until she sighed demonstratively and ordered me to call her Natasha.

We practically had to move through the whole helicarrier as an entirely too large group of five, including Tony who was unable to keep his voice down for longer than a minute at a time.
We nearly got caught more times than I could count, but ran into trouble only once and that was directly in front of the jets. It was a good thing Natasha was so intimidating, too, because when she claimed that she had orders and would sent everyone onto the ground who tried to stop her, even the toughest agents cowered before her. It was a magnificent sight.

Tony called his suit right before we boarded and his metallic hand wrapped around my arm for a last second. "See you on the other side of the war, Princess," he said.

"We'll see each other sooner than that," I prophesied.

He cracked a grin at that. "I should hope so."

Then he was gone as a fleck of red and gold and I climbed the stairs into the jet. I wondered if I would see my brothers equally soon.

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