Author's Note:

****WARNING****

This chapter contains a potential trigger scene featuring an attempted m/f rape. Read on at your own risk. This is the start of the "finale" of the storyline.

Chapter Forty-Four – The Trickster

"What the fu…" was all Clint managed before Loki touched him, a cold fingertip pressing against his throat, and suddenly he couldn't make a sound. The coldness spread with lightning speed through his body, stiffening his limbs. He fought it, trying frantically to throw a punch, pull away, do anything, but he couldn't move. Just stood there frozen.

"Very good," Loki purred. "Without the sceptre, I can't make you serve me, Barton. But I can make you wish for death. I'm about to steal your mate, you see. Foolish, foolish Hawk. Leaving her before you'd completed her transformation, but after finishing your own. You've bound yourself to her for all eternity, but the reverse isn't yet true."

Clint couldn't move. Could barely breathe. But his eyes showed his rage as he glared at the Trickster.

"And now I'm about to steal her for my own. Your soul will never be complete, Barton. You'll spend all your lives forever searching, desperate to find your mate, knowing deep inside you that she's out there somewhere, but you'll never have her. Because I'm going to bind her to me."

"Jen will never love you," Clint managed to get a very faint whisper out, and Loki, still standing close, obviously heard him, because he smiled wickedly.

"Of course she will. Because she will see you." He glanced at the mirror. Clint could just turn his eyes that far – and oh, God, no, there were two images of himself in the reflection. "She will see you right up until the point I give her the best orgasm of her life. And then I will show her who is really fucking her."

"How you gonna do that? Virgin," if all Clint could do was give Loki performance anxiety, then that's what he'd do. The Asgardian's green eyes flashed with rage, and then he looked around. He grabbed Clint with brutally strong hands and lifted him, pulling him into the bedroom roughly and standing him stiffly in the corner, with a full view of the bed. He touched Clint's eyelids with those horrible cold fingertips and to Clint's fury he realised his eyes were now frozen open. Oh hell no, he was gonna have to watch!

Loki stepped back, nodded and then moved his hands slowly in a criss-cross pattern through the air in front of him, murmuring something under his breath. The air shimmered, and Clint suspected Loki had just put up something like an invisible one-way mirror. Clint could see out, but Jen wouldn't be able to see him. Loki smirked in satisfaction and turned away.

Clint strained every muscle in his body as Loki walked away to the bathroom. He felt as though he was going to rip apart, he was struggling so hard, but it was no use. He couldn't move. His lips had been slightly parted speaking when Loki had touched him, and his tongue still seemed to work, but he couldn't make a sound louder than a breath come out.

Loki walked back out of the bathroom, dressed in only a towel just as Clint was, and smiled at him. "She should be here any moment. Ah."

They both heard the outer door opening, and Jen's voice saying exasperatedly; "Tasha, he's back, Bruce said he's fine, and if I let you in this apartment right now you're going to tell me later you want eye bleach. Go away."

No, let her in! Clint screamed mentally. Surely Tasha would notice there was something off about Loki; she knew Clint too well to be fooled. But the outer door slammed and Jen came running into the bedroom – she too was wearing a towel, and she dropped it as she ran to reveal a stunning turquoise-blue bikini that at any other time would have made Clint's tongue hang out with the way she filled it.

"Hawk!" and she threw herself into Loki's waiting arms. Loki turned smoothly to deposit her on the bed – of course, he was taller than Clint and that might not be so easy to obscure with illusions as facial features – and came down on top of her. Jen clutched at him and they started kissing.

Clint felt bile rising in his throat. Loki glanced over him, smirking, as Jen grabbed his towel and pulled it away.

"Did you miss me, babe?" Loki murmured in a perfect imitation of Clint's voice.

"Of course – are you okay?" She reached up to touch his face gently, smiling when he nodded. "Let's talk later – make love to me now. Please. I need you."

"Anything you want, babe," and Loki was deftly removing her bikini, his hands light on her skin. Clint wished desperately he could close his eyes as he watched Loki smile and begin kissing across Jen's stomach, watched Jen writhe and gasp under the Trickster's touch. Clint had seen and done and suffered some terrible things in his life, but this – this was worse than any torture. Because Jen was quite clearly enjoying herself.

"Ohhh, Hawk," she sighed.

"You feel so good, babe," Loki muttered in a choked voice. He was kneeling between Jen's legs, looking down at her breasts and his hands caressing them, not looking at her face.

Only Clint saw Jen's eyes widen, and she looked suddenly curious.

"Clint?"

"You're so beautiful, babe – I missed you too," Loki kissed her again hungrily, not noticing that her hand had slipped down into the small gap between the mattress and headboard.

"What did you call me?"

"What?" Loki lifted his head – and Jen put the muzzle of the pistol between his eyes.

"I said, what did you call me?"

"Jen, what the hell is this? What's wrong with you? Should I call Bruce – you need a doctor…"

"I need you to tell me something." Jen's finger was tightening on the trigger, and Loki moved slowly backwards, lifting his hands up.

"Anything, what is it? I love you, you know that. Why are you doing this?"

"I need you to tell me what I said to Stark when he offered me a job."

Clint was both inwardly cheering and terrified for Jen at the same time. He wasn't sure what had made her pick up on Loki's deception, but the Asgardian was dangerous. He could very well kill them both yet. Or rape Jen and force her to his will by magic – Clint had all too much knowledge of what the bastard was capable of.

Loki glanced quickly at the corner where Clint stood. "I – don't remember right now, Jen. Look at you, you're so beautiful you drive everything else out of my head…"

"Shut. The. Fuck. Up. JARVIS!" Jen yelled it at the top of her lungs. "I need reinforcements in here, right now!"

"Right away, Miss Svendson," JARVIS replied, and if an AI could sound surprised, then he did. Loki must have worked out a way to fool the tech with doppelgangers and illusions, Clint figured.

"Jen, this is ridiculous." Loki made a sudden grab for the gun, and Jen pulled the trigger.

A/N Soundtrack for this chapter:

Paralysed: Finger Eleven

Escape: Enrique Iglesias

Joker And The Thief: Wolfmother

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