Welcome to the story! There's a lot packed into this intro, and I've been DYING to write something with this kind of character plot for a while. The story will begin during and immediately following 'The Avengers', but the 2nd chapter is going to pick up post-Infinity War, operating under the guise that Loki survived Thanos's attack on the Asgardian ship and the snap.
I hope you have as much fun reading as I did writing! (:
2012 - THE AVENGERS
Weapon fire rained down around them as if the sky were crumbling on the city, leaving smoking damage in its wake and place. EMTs and police personnel alike worked to keep the train of injured civilians moving and protected as they were escorted and carted onto the apache. The military men who normally inhabited the seats of its passenger bay were gone, and instead the aircraft was lined with gurneys, bodies, and the air was filled with the metallic stench of blood.
Her weapon in her hands felt ice cold compared to the heat of her skin as her body worked overtime to keep her on high alert. The Chitauri creatures and their bloodcurdling screeches were the only things that caused her calm facade to waver. She had never witnessed creatures on Earth with such an intent to kill, to destroy, and to cause chaos. The kind of hellish anarchy that was being brought down on New York City was nothing she believed she would ever encounter during her time there.
"I've got eyes on Verdandi. You good down there?" A voice came clear as day through her earpiece, and she peered up as the shining golden-and-red figure cut a line through the sky overhead. The monstrous hole that was the source of the alien creatures caught her sight before she brought it back down to the task at hand.
"Copy, almost done down here." She replied. The heat coming off the pavement of the rooftop beneath her feet couldn't penetrate the combat boots she wore as part of her uniform, but the dry air caused her parted lips to crack and sting. Clouds of dust were disturbed with every impact of a bullet, every blast, every explosion.
Her team had been ordered to escort injured civilians to the landing zone on top of the building - no easy task, given the maze of death that was the city streets below.
"Get down!" A blast to her left followed the words without hesitation, and she was blown off her feet, thrown into the concrete structure that the door from the building to the rooftop jutted out of. Her ears rang and her hands formed claws on the ground, cringing as she made her way to her knees then feet.
The door burst open and out spilled one Chitauri assailant after another, making a beeline straight for the aircraft housing the wounded and the medics keeping them alive.
Without hesitation, she whipped her rifle up to her shoulder and fired off an array of bullets, downing the creatures before they could reach their targets. The police and two others on her team who were working on the escort waved frantically for the final rescuees to board.
"Clear!" One of the other SHIELD agents shouted towards her.
"Delta six you are cleared for takeoff. I repeat, clear for takeoff." She said into her earpiece, focusing through her rifle sights at the rooftop door as she backed up to meet up with the remainder of the team. The apache took off behind them.
"Hold tight, the next group is on its way." Another voice said through the earpiece, and she dropped her rifle back to her hip as she replied.
"Copy-"
"GET DOWN!" One of the officers next to her shouted, and she saw the threat instantly. A bolt of light aimed directly at them grew in size as it flew through the air.
Rez raised her hands in the air, staring directly at the threat. As she did so, a wall made of what seemed like glass with a purple glow materialized in the air before them like a bubble. The blast made contact with its surface and travelled for a moment before dissipating. She lowered her hands and before she could gain her bearings, she saw him.
Loki.
The golden horns were a striking symbol. The emerald cape whipped back and forth as he moved through the air on the Chitauri vehicle, his gaze focused directly on her. And she knew he had seen every moment of her defensive display just based on the way his eyes lingered, a vicious look taking over his expression.
"This is Verdandi. We're too vulnerable up here. Heading down to street level ASAP." Rez said, and she ground her teeth together as she watched the trickster God disappear behind another building.
"Copy, rendezvous at rally point Echo in twenty." Her earpiece said back, and she looked to the rest of the team.
The wide eyes that stared back at her seemed nothing short of shocked by the display from moments ago, and Rez could feel her insides coil.
Very few times before in her time serving SHIELD had she been forced to resort to the abilities that the Allfather had been so clear, so many years ago, could not be revealed. They were detrimental to the success of the mission - a mission that had long since been unclear to her, but nevertheless a commitment she had made to many more than just herself and Odin.
"Davids, Cortez, we'll take the Northern stairwell. Snake down and pick up any stragglers on the floors below. The rest of you, take the Southern. We'll meet up in the lobby." She said, deciding to dismiss any questions that might follow as she turned heel and headed back towards the building entrance.
TWO WEEKS POST-AVENGERS
"That was good work you did in New York," Steve said, standing next to her in the elevator as it carried them up the many levels of the New York SHIELD base. His combat attire had then since been replaced with something similar, but more navy-toned than previous.
"I appreciate it, Captain." She said, her own combat attire just the same as what she had donned during the time in question; Black combat boots, and a black military uniform, the matte SHIELD special forces logo printed across the left breast. "What are you in for?" She added, after a couple of moments of silence.
Steve suppressed a chuckle and she met his gaze with raised brows as he glanced at her. "Duty calls."
Rez tipped her head in a nod and returned to watching the floor numbers over the elevator doors increase.
FOUR WEEKS POST-AVENGERS
Her hair was not unruly, but it fell to her mid-back in curls that just barely fit the description of a style. She had been up late working through emails, and then everything else that fit her complicated job description.
The windbreaker she wore was navy and the collar raised up to just below her chin, black tights and boots allowing her the mobility she would need if need be. Steve Rogers sat across from her in the diner as a blonde waitress refilled their mugs, and he gave her a warm smile and a 'thank you' as she blushed and walked away.
Rez used her fingertips to slowly move a spoon around her mug, looking out the window for the words that would not come to her.
"You seem distracted," Steve said, and her attention snapped back to him.
"I'm sorry, really I don-"
"Hey, I get it. Strange times, right?" He said.
"Something like that." She nodded and took a sip from her mug.
"Where does Rez come from? If you don't mind me asking." He said, his expression open and friendly, and she could immediately tell - as if it wasn't already obvious enough - that he was being genuine. If there was anything she had learned about the Captain during her intermittent contact with him, it was that he very scarcely had ill intent, and he had shown her nothing but grace in their work together. So when he had proposed a chat over coffee after seeing her in a state of slight disarray, Rez could not find it in herself a reason not to accept.
"My full name, Resvetoria." She said, biting her lip and letting out a small laugh. "A mouthful I know."
"Resvetoria Verdandi," Steve said, nodding. "You must have had a lot of fun growing up here."
Here. New York.
She smiled. "Nothing but."
"Your folks still around here?" He asked.
"No, not for a while." She said, placing the spoon next to her mug and leaning back in the chair. "Probably for the best."
"In times like these, I might have to agree with you," Steve said, nodding solemnly.
SIX WEEKS POST-AVENGERS
The aftermath following Loki's attack on New York was intensive. Rez had from the beginning of the battle been designated as the leader of one of the many emergency response teams, a position that deviated a great deal from the work she usually did for SHIELD.
Such work traversed across a spectrum that began at solo search-and-destroy ops, to multi-phase infiltrate-and-eliminate plans. SHIELD special forces was a small branch of agents hand-selected by the governing powers-that-be at SHIELD, and Rez had dedicated years of her time to the pursuit of becoming one of their top-ranking operatives.
It was only after the attack that she realized how truly in the dark she was from all angles. The lack of tangible information she was given access to at SHIELD was next to nil, a roadblock that she and her governing superiors had not anticipated when she had first been sent to the agency. The Allfather himself had been one of the royals who attended her graduation ceremony on Asgard, where she and a team of four others like herself had been sent to Midgard to fulfill their positions as trained Asgardian sleeper cells. They were tasked with reporting back to Asgardian royalty whenever called upon, relaying whatever information might be beneficial or necessary to the Asgardian war machine's position as authority over the nine realms.
She could never have anticipated seeing one of the princes of her home realm on Midgard, let alone attacking the very planet she was supposed to be closely monitoring for potential threats and waiting for future orders. But perhaps she should have anticipated it after the dark prince's fall from grace just shortly before. When he had been dropped off the edge of the Bifrost after a raging battle with Thor, Rez never heard from Odin or his messengers again.
Part of her wondered if the reasoning for the cut off of contact with the sleeper cells was that one of them had been compromised. But deep down she knew that Odin's hand had been forced, and the reason she and the other Asgardians on the team had been cut off was that the King realized Asgard was more of a threat to Midgard than the reverse. So the Asgardian sleeper cell mission had been effectively terminated, and Rez found herself in the midst of a career as a SHIELD special operative, in a constant state of limbo. She had formed relationships on the planet, most notably with the likes of Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers. She was slowly working towards fully assuming her earthly identity, leaving behind her the life of a double-agent. Her King, her home - they had abandoned her, after all.
Rez stood up from where she lay in her bed and approached the double doors of the balcony, sliding them shut behind her as she was met with the crisp air of autumn in New York City. She picked up a pack of cigarettes from the table and lit one that dangled from her lip.
Loki's face lingered in her mind like a parasite. That very image stuck out to her more than any other from the attack. The way that he looked at her more so like he was looking through her, to the rooftop, to the group of men and women assigned to her, the ones that were thwarting his plans for domination one bullet at a time. Rez took another deep drag from the cigarette.
Loki was not the kind to give anyone the time of day, let alone a lowly mortal. But that she was not, and with her vision she had even been able to see the moment of delayed realization when Loki saw that she had capabilities beyond that of her human counterparts. She had grown up almost in unison with the god, after all, so why should he not recognize someone from his own past?
"This seat taken?" A male voice from behind her said.
Hmm.
Rez shook her head without turning.
"You're troubled." The man sat on the balcony furniture and retrieved his own cigarette, inhaling and speaking through a cloud of smoke as he continued. "You want to talk about it?"
"I'm not sure we have a mutual understanding of your position here, friend." She said, turning around to lean against the bannister and face him.
"What, just a booty call?" He grinned and leaned against the perimeter wall of the balcony. "Ouch."
Rez cocked her head and narrowed her eyes, lifting her cigarette to her lips.
"Your words, Rez, use them." He said.
"I'm thinking." She said.
"Aren't we always?" He stood up, crossing the short steps between them and leaning down to kiss the top of her head. "I'll leave you be. Talk tomorrow," as he slid open the door, he flicked his half-burned cigarette into the ashtray and glanced back, "and get some rest."
SIX WEEKS POST-AVENGERS
Loki found himself with plenty of time to think in his new cell. The pristine walls smelled of nothing, but the sourness of the prisoner ward's darkest inhabitants wafted through the air and translucent walls of his domain. He found himself travelling from thought-to-thought to drown out the weight of his circumstances, and this process only stopped when the engraved image of her came to mind.
There were many things about her that he couldn't quite place his finger on. There was the odd feeling of familiarity, accompanied by the rage he felt when she stopped his attack, and the shock he felt at how she had done so - with powers unheard of on Midgard. The woman had conjured a sort of forcefield, a relatively complex defensive trick that Loki knew very well.
However, his mind had not been in the soundest of places during the attack on New York. His focus had been elsewhere, the concentrated rage he felt had been alien but clouded every aspect of his judgment up until the point that the Avengers had conducted his arrest.
But still, the woman from the rooftop, with her silver hair and black uniform and eyes that followed him through the battlefield with a calculating stare, haunted his mind. He knew with closer inspection he would have been able to pinpoint her origin, to destroy her if she was found to be an enemy, but for the time being his curiosity around the supposed Midgardian would have to be stifled. He had much larger concerns with which to occupy his conscious mind.
Odin's sentence of his imprisonment had not only been catastrophic to him but to his mother, Frigga, whom he had not watched but heard the racing heartbeat of as the Allfather's guards had paraded him away. The shackles on his throat and wrists could not do anything to filter out the sound of his Mother's upset at the news.
Loki had failed in every shape and form. He couldn't even begin to imagine the kind of punishment that awaited him should he ever escape the confines of his so-called Asgardian 'punishment' that were the cell's four walls.
The kind of darkness that resided in the deepest reaches of the universe was unbeknownst to most, but him no longer. He had been at their mercy from the moment of his fall from the Bifrost, and they had shaped Loki into the monster that most of those around him believed him to be. He had lost everything. A fallen prince, god, brother, son, no longer anything but a burdening prisoner.
Loki felt less so that his time would be spent practicing patience, and more so that his time would be spent attempting to recover himself from the pure defeat he felt. He felt hatred for Odin, and the Chitauri forces that had failed him, and the grim look on Thor's face as he brought him before the Allfather was nothing short of devastating. It both made him feel the familiarity of fury and the pain of another loss.
So he would bide his time and allow himself to continue to think, as if thinking himself out of the situation was a realistic possibility. This was one of the only thoughts he had left that he felt he could hold on to, in order to hold on to his sanity.
That's our introduction! A lot of information, I know. More story to come in the next chapter, but for now, drop a review if you can and stay tuned! (;