A/N: First off, I own only my plot and OCs. Secondly, THANK YOU to everyone following/favorting. I can't believe I have 39 favorites and 66 followers! Blows me away. Also thank you to everyone who has reviewed! Up to 77 so far! Speaking of reviews:
Fairyfinder: Thank you my friend! If that chapter had you shivering you may want a blanket for this one. Thanks for also answering my question/ I'm glad you enjoyed Thors POV.
PiratePrincess16: Thank you! Always glad to have a fan.
Trigger Warning for Torture/Violence. I am pretty serious about this warning everyone. This is as bad as the torture is going to get. There will be more violence in later chapters, but this is the last of the flat out physical torture. If you don't want to read it, skip the first section (with Anya's focus); what happens will be summarized later in the chapter. In positive news you will get to find out about the Avenger's plan.
Enjoy reading and be sure to follow/favorite/review.
Chapter 36: He Knows
***DSB: 8 – Late Evening in NYC -AF***
Silent tears falling down her face were the only sign she gave of the agony in her heart. When Loki had given the men permission to increase her torture she had been overcome with fear. She had managed to push that down. The fear was now easy to keep down because agony was the only thing that filled her. They had discussed, in front of her, what would be the most effective way to break her. Apparently they were getting tired of this and wanted to return to their regular work. She had almost told them that she would be happy for them to be done as well.
Deciding that physical pain alone wasn't enough, they decided to do something different. One of the brutes took a small cylindrical strip of metal, only about a foot long and not even the width of her pinky finger, from one of the work stations in the basement. Then the darkest-hair brute brought over the blow torch.
"Do you know what your problem is?" the dark haired man asked.
"You?" Anya sarcastically responded.
"No, it's that you haven't fully acknowledged the reality of your situation. You still have hope that this is going to end. That someday you will be free. That everything will return to normal."
With that he used the blow torch to light one end of the rod until it was burning bright red. Anya was wondering how he was not getting burned, but then realized that he was wearing a glove. "This will teach you otherwise." He told her after he shut off the blow torch. Beginning to understand his intent Anya tried to push herself out of the chair. The other men were instantly by her side clamping her down to the seat. "Hold her," he ordered them. He pressed the rod to the underside of her right forearm. Never had she known such pain.
Seventy-five – that was the number of times he used the rod to burn her skin. He reheated it every time. The pain was constant. However, it wasn't just the throbbing from the burns that was causing tears to fall. It was what he had written – "Property." Now everyone would know. She wasn't Loki's PA. She was his property. The thought crushed her she allowed the tears to fall from her face onto the concrete floor.
As the last letter was burned into her skin had passed out. The pain was too great. She woke up to Jack bandaging her arm with the others nowhere in sight. She thought she heard him mumbling something about infection, but she quickly passed out again. This time, she awoke on the concrete. Her burning arm was pressed against the cold cement ground giving her slight reprieve. She honestly didn't know how much more pain she could endure. She was beginning to lose hope.
Closing her eyes she fell into a fitful and painful sleep.
Smoke filled the room. She could barely see the couch in front of her. Coughing, barley able to breathe, she tried crawling on the floor towards the door. The flames licked at her arm causing her to scream. She propelled herself forward. She did not want to die. Looking ahead to get her bearings, she saw a large dark shape. Moving towards it she found it was a body. It was Tony. She tried shaking him. Her gently calling his name quickly became loud shouting. No! He couldn't die on her! Not him! NO! TONY! NOT MY BROTHER!TONY!
(End of Trigger Warning)***DSB: 9 – early morning in NYC- LF***
Loki was deep in study of the Tesseract when he heard a beeping sound. Realizing it was his communication ear piece, he put it in. "What?" he testily asked. Whoever was bothering him better have a good reason.
"Sir, you need to come to the security room. We may have found something."
"Fine." They better have found something important.
A moment later he was at the security office. The fools reeked of fear. It disgusted him. Always afraid.
"Report," he commanded the weaklings, wanting to get back to work.
"Sir," one man sitting in front of a computer closest to the door began, "As you are aware we monitor the video feeds for the entire tower."
"Get to the point."
"This is the feed from the garage," the man pointed to the screen in front of him. The video was of his slave, Anya Marvel, lying on the floor of the garage. She was curled up on the floor crying.
"What of it?"
"Let me rewind the time footage," the man said nervously before doing so. The video blurred slightly as it went backwards and the clock on the bottom of the screen changed. He only rewound it for a few minutes. Loki watched bored and disinterested as she simply lay there, twitching, obviously dreaming. Then she started speaking, mumbling at first to then full-on yelling, "No! Tony! Not my brother!" were her words. Loki's curiosity was piqued.
"What do we know about her family?"
"According to records, she is a single child, adopted as a baby by Lydia and Jim Marvel who live in Iowa."
That information reminded him of one of his first conversations with her. He questioned her about her connection with SHIELD. She said she was searching for her brother, whom he had killed. What did she say his name was? After a moment he remembered, "Search SHIELD records for an Agent Coulson."
The man quickly did as Loki asked. After a few moments he answered, "There was an Agent Phil Coulson, killed nine days ago in action, sir." A photo of the man appeared on the screen. Oh yes, Loki remembered him. The Agent tried to interfere with his plans and was killed for it. He told Loki, before he died, that Loki would lose because he lacked conviction. How wrong he was. Mind reeling, Loki realized that that did not answer the question of who Anya's brother Tony was. Tony…the name sounds familiar. No, it wasn't possible, was it? Loki wondered. Could they be related? "Pull up Anya Marvel's birth certificate." A moment later the worker had it on the screen. It listed father unknown but mother as Maria Stark. A smile began to form on Loki's face. "Search for information about Maria Stark."
"Maria Stark, married to Howard Stark, mother of Tony Stark – "
" – that is enough," Loki cut off the report. So there was no need to find Jane Foster after all. He had something much better. After all, what was a lover compared to family? he thought darkly to himself.
***ATST at SHIELD Base in PENN. – TF***
"Tell me some good news," Coulson demanded, abruptly entering the lab where Tony and Bruce had been working for the past two days.
"It's done," Bruce answered, clearly exhausted. He and Tony had just finished the device when Coulson came in
"Good, pack it up and be ready to leave in twenty," Coulson told them before leaving as swiftly as he came.
"Yes, sir!" Tony gave a mock salute once Coulson was already gone, causing Bruce to chuckle. Then they both got to work packing a few tools they may need in the field as well as their device. Within ten minutes everyone else was inside the lab. Everyone looked almost the same as when they had arrived at the base two days before, but with more supplies on hand.
"Before we leave," Coulson started, "Stark will explain the device and how to use it. That way if any of us have an open shot we can take it."
"This," Tony held up a small cube like shape, "is the transmitter blocker. It is magnetized so all you have to do is get it within a few inches of Loki's scepter and it will attach itself. As soon as it makes contact it will block the Tesseract's energy and end Loki's Jedi powers."
"How does it work?" Capsicle asked, "And what do you mean by Jedi powers?"
Tony scoffed, "It's a reference grandpa. It will stop the mind control. Also the science would take too long to explain to you." Tony realized he was being offensive and slightly ridiculous. He knew it wouldn't hurt him to be nicer, but considering the circumstances he didn't feel like playing nice.
"What does that mean?" Capsicle asked angrily.
Bruce quickly interjected, "Captain, it is just very complicated." Seeing that the man still wanted an explanation Bruce quickly thought of a good comparison, "Consider radio waves and radio towers. The Tesseract is the main tower that communicates through the scepter, almost like radio waves. Each time Loki touches the scepter to someone and takes control, it is the equivalent of a radio tower being built. Once that connection is established the scepter continuously transmits the waves of energy to the person, controlling them. This blocker, placed on the scepter directly, will block the power."
"Why not put it on the Tesseract directly?" Agent Barton asked.
"The Tesseract would burn through the device. It's too strong for our materials to withstand. The Scepter, however, is merely a conductor of its power. It can be stopped."
"What would stop Loki from removing the device from the scepter?" Agent Barton questioned.
Tony took point, "We designed it to merge with the scepter once it touches it. Also," Tony looked at Bruce, "Well said," Tony told his sciencebro before handing the device over to Coulson. He knew the agent would want to keep hold of it. That and Tony didn't have pocket room in his Iron Man suit.
So Coulson would carry the device. Sure, on some level Tony trusted the rest of the team, but they didn't have such a high personal investment in this. He and Coulson did.
"Sir," a voice came out of nowhere startling everyone. Recognizing it as JARVIS, Tony quickly took out the cell phone.
"What is it?"
"Sir, Loki has found out that Ms. Marvel is related to both you and Agent Coulson."
With those words he felt like his world had fallen apart.
"Is she alive?" he asked hesitantly.
"Yes, sir. She is currently in the guest bedroom on the upper level lying unconscious."
"How did he find out?" Coulson asked.
"According to my surveillance, after falling unconscious from torture Ms. Marvel cried out Mr. Stark's name, Sir, in her sleep. A guard caught it on video and informed Loki. They proceeded to pull up her birth certificate and identified her mother as Maria Stark. They used SHIELD databases to verify the information and connect her to Tony Stark."
"DAMN IT!" Tony yelled kicking over the chair beside him. He was shaking in anger. She was in danger again because of him.
"Stark!" Coulson yelled causing Tony to freeze; the man almost never raised his voice. "That will help no one. JARVIS, you said she passed out from the torture. Are her injuries life threatening?"
"No, sir, besides her previous injuries she has two broken ribs, numerous bruises to her upper body, and burns on her right forearm."
"Burns?" Coulson repeated, almost to himself.
"Yes, sir, there are 75 small burns on the underside of Ms. Marvel's right forearm. The burns are arranged to spell out the work 'property'. It was the last burn that caused her to lose unconsciousness."
Tony had heard the expression "seeing red" before, in relation to a person being furious and losing control. He had never experienced it until that moment.
"Friend Bruce," Thor called out in warning, bringing Tony back to the present. Shit, was Tony's only thought. Bruce's skin was turning green. Before anyone could react, Romanoff ran forward and stuck a syringe in Bruce's neck. The man yelled in pain and a second later hit the floor unconscious.
"Someone care to explain just what happened?" Coulson asked.
"Dr. Banner gave me this," Romanoff held up the now empty syringe, "yesterday when I was in the cafeteria. He had been working on a theoretical sedation drug for a while. He rendered it yesterday. It would only work if injected before he completely changed. He gave it to me trusting that I could move fast enough to inject it."
Tony was about to object, wondering when Banner had had the time to make the drug, before recalling the past few days. Tony recalled seeing some formulas on Bruce's computer unrelated to the transmitter and him leaving the room for stretches of when Tony didn't need his help. Tony had just figured the man needed to pace.
"Well it worked," Coulson spoke, "Did he say how long the drug would last?"
"No, sir."
Coulson sighed, "Thor, could you carry Bruce, please. We need to get going."
"Great another walk through the woods," Tony muttered
"Who said anything about walking?" was Coulson's reply as he headed out of the room.
A/N: So there was a lot in that chapter. First off, I am well aware it is the Mind Gem inside the scepter that gives the scepter its mind controlling powers; however, I wrote awhile back before I knew all that...so...I'm ignoring it. Call it a writers privilege.
Secondly, I did not know about the whole Natasha/Banner thing that was going to happen in Avengers 2 when I wrote this. That was just a coincidence. This story is still shipping Clintasha. I am still undecided on if I'll have AnyaXSteve or AnyaXBruce in this though.
Speaking of Avengers 2 - go see it! It was awesome! Any AoS fans will have a ton of fun with it. Also I will not be having A2 effect my current story line or sequel because that would majorly mess with my ships/plans. Of course I am nowhere near that point yet. I plan on writing Thor 2 in next.
Please review/favorite/follow.