"Dead?" Natasha said in an empty voice. "What do you mean?" Fury always seemed to her like one of those people who could survive anything. Like a statue made of brass. Or a cockroach.
"Are there alternative meanings of the word I'm not aware of?" Stark sneered and returned to the article on his screen. "Great loss, yadda, yadda, car accident on route one-sixty-eight near Fresno, California, five-hour-long procedure, sustained injuries… Oh, here it is, 'no foul play suspected.'"
"Mhm," Natasha murmured. "Do they mean the same car crash we saw him walk away from with just a couple of scratches?"
Stark shrugged. "That or Fury's just the most reckless driver in the universe. Even I didn't get into two accidents in the same day. And I drove one hundred fifty on that road before. You'd have to be completely blind to crash there, it runs straight for miles..."
"That's beyond the point," Clint interjected. "We all know it wasn't an accident."
"What do the SHIELD internal comms say?" Natasha asked.
"It's all chaos, for now. The new director hasn't been appointed yet, most are not even sure whose jurisdiction that is," Clint said, "since Fury's been in position before the Council took control and it wasn't tenure-based…"
"It should be Ellis, if SHIELD is still a government agency, but the definition's not that clear anymore," Stark said and tapped away on his keyboard, then narrowed his eyes. "Well, if the internal circular letter I just found is telling the truth, the decisive body responsible for appointing the new director would be… Yep, the current Secretary of the World Security Council."
Clint cursed.
"Pierce," Natasha groaned. "Of course, it had to be him."
"It looks like SHIELD is getting a new direction then, along with their new director, today. There's been an assembly call for later today, coming out of the Council, the contents are encoded, but it's not hard to guess what it is for," Stark judged. "I really hoped we will have more time to deal with…" He looked at Loki. "Stuff."
Loki shifted where he sat, and she placed her hand on his knee.
"Okay," Clint said and started pacing. He was trying very hard not to look in her direction in general and at her hand on Loki's leg in particular. Their talk from the previous evening went well, all things considered, but he still needed time to process it. "So, what's the plan?"
Stark shrugged without looking up from his monitor. "The same as it ever was. The part where I go to Fury and wriggle myself into their super-secret Helicarrier project obviously flies straight to the trash though."
"This is ridiculous," Clint judged. "How can we tell which agency is compromised and which is not? We know the Council is in, so is SHIELD, and all the way in now, with some lapdog of Pierce's instead of Fury at the steering wheel. Who else?"
"DHS," Stark supplied. "CIA, most likely, for how much their interest is intertwined with the Council. I would be surprised if the Department of Defense were completely clean, too."
"So, what, you want to go to go down the list of the agencies and just blindly pick one that might be out of it?"
Stark's keyboard clanked. "Department of Agriculture seems pretty harmless," he said.
"You'd be surprised," Natasha uttered under her breath, then added, louder, "Besides, that's not what Stark meant when he said we are going public."
Barton stopped, leaned against the bar, and folded his arms. "No?"
"Nope. We are dumping it all online," Stark announced. "Every single piece of data, for all to see, on multiple servers at once. There's no way to sweep that under the rug."
"What!?" Clint leapt and was now hovering above Stark, his finger inches from Stark's chest. "Do you have any idea what that means?! For me, for Nat, hell, for every goddamned SHIELD agent that ever worked in the field!"
Stark flashed a crafty smile and rolled his shoulders carelessly. "Chill, Robin. It wasn't even my idea."
"No? Then whose?"
"Mine," Natasha said.
There was a moment of silence.
Clint turned to her with a frown. "Don't you know what that…"
"I know exactly what that means, Clint. I just don't care."
"You won't be able to ever go back into the field."
"I don't care," she repeated. "I'm done. And this has to stop. They are hurting people, Clint. You expect me to care less about that and more about some shitty job?"
He sighed. "What about me? What about Laura? What about my kids, Nat? How are they to blame for what Hydra is doing? It's all in the files, Nat! Hell, what about thousands of people in the witness protection program? Are they responsible for what Pierce and his piece of thrash of a party did to your date?!" He snarled the last word like a curse and his eyes were narrowed to slits.
Loki's eyes were firmly on Clint, his brows furrowed, but his hands stayed in his lap. Her fingers squeezed his thigh, in (what she hoped was) reassurance.
"It's not about Loki, Clint," she said.
"No? Then why is he here and all the people you claim to care so much about are still in some Nazi prison camp?"
"Barton…" Stark said. "Be reasonable."
"I'm being very reasonable! You're the ones who can't take the truth!" He turned back to Stark. "You have your ivory tower to sit in and enough money to last you five lifetimes, even if your company goes down the drain. Which it would not, because your legion of lawyers will keep you out of it, cleanly. You have nothing to lose!"
"Don't tell me what I can and cannot lose, Barton," Stark said. His voice was calm and even, but his tone carried a distinct warning.
Clint rolled his eyes. "Fine! You want to ruin it all? Be my guests, but I'm out. I'm not going to stand inside the building when it comes down!" He started towards the elevator bank.
"Excuse my interruption, Mr. Stark," Jarvis' voice sounded from the speakers, "but I have just blocked two breach attempts on your security network access point. I have also allowed myself to connect to SHIELD's server array that was the source and there seems to be a strike team bound for the Tower."
"How long?" Stark asked.
"Approximately fifteen minutes, sir."
"We leave in ten." He sprung up and started towards the workshop. "Full lockdown, just after we're gone, Jay."
Jarvis said his confirmations and Natasha scrambled to her feet. "Go grab our stuff," she told Loki, needlessly, because he was already halfway up himself. He still nodded and headed to their room.
Clint's hand on Stark's arm stopped him in his steps. "Wait! Why leave? This could be the chance; they will lose all credibility by attacking you in your home!"
"Look around!" Stark snarled with a broad gesture. "What happens if they find the alien who attacked New York and a wanted ex-assassin in my living room while we still have zero concrete proof to show up for? You think we can spin that to our advantage?"
"Where are you going then?"
"Back to Bruce's."
"I'm going with you," Clint exclaimed.
"No," Stark said sternly, then balked under Clint's adamant glower. "Think about it. We are already burned, but you're not. There's no point in throwing that away."
"What do you want me to do then?"
"Go to DC," Natasha said, stepping closer. "Be our guy on the inside. Lurk around. See what you can find out."
Clint nodded an agreement "I'm gonna need another one of your cars then," he said.
"Wait them out in the server room in the basement and take the Quinjet. There's no way we're flying it out of here right now. Maybe you can lure them away."
He nodded again. "Uhm, Tony? I'm not exactly liquid on cash right now, so…"
Stark grunted. "Wait here."
"So, you and Loki, huh?" Clint said casually when they were alone in the hallway. He wasn't looking at her and stashed his hands in his pockets. "I wouldn't peg him as your type."
"I don't have a type."
"You do," Clint chortled. "So?"
"I… I don't know. Maybe? Maybe after all this blows over and we're both alive at the end something might come out of it. But as it stands?" she said quietly. "I just… don't know. I don't think Loki knows, either. And the last thing I want, is to put the pressure of figuring that out on him right now."
"He seems like a nice guy," Clint said and almost kept a straight face. Almost.
"You're pushing it, Clint" she warned but couldn't help the small smile that crept up to her lips.
"Ten minutes," Jarvis warned. "I recalled two elevators to your floor and blocked them for your use only."
Clint sighed and didn't say anything more until Stark returned.
He handed Clint a credit card and a phone. "The card is prepaid for two hundred k; hit me up if you need more. The phone has my number in it. The connection should be secure."
Clint nodded and took a deep breath. The elevator arrived. He bumped Natasha's arm with his fist. "See you around, I guess."
She pulled him into a hug. "It's not over till it is," she breathed into his shoulder.
He huffed out a laugh right into her ear. "I don't know how I lived without your pep talks."
He pulled away, went into the elevator, and pushed the basement button. He saluted them, just as the door slid close. Stark stood by her side, silent and thoughtful, for a change.
Natasha sighed. "You're not taking anything?"
He patted the small bag he had slung over his shoulder. "I have everything I need here, and the armor is reassembling after I modified it. How about you?"
"I travel light these days."
Stark was wearing his cocky smirk, but he was anxious, and it showed. She should say something, she thought. But there was nothing left to say, and she was so done with talking instead of acting. They both knew what they were dealing with here. Loki knew too; he might not have said anything, but she was sure he listened to every single word and filed it accordingly.
Loki returned, carrying a small, plaid suitcase. He put on a long coat with a hood and had a scarf wrapped around his neck, but he was still barefoot. She pursed her lips and Stark cringed, violently.
"Uhm… I assume there's a story here?" she said carefully.
Stark waved his hand for "later". Yep, definitely a story.
"Five minutes," Jarvis prompted, but Stark didn't move.
"We're waiting for something?" she asked.
Stark put his index finger up and held it like that for a couple of seconds. There was a rumble and armor pieces flew into the room and arranged into a neat package at Stark's feet. He grabbed it by the handle and dragged it into the elevator. "No, let's go."
They rode down in silence, the numbers counting down rapidly. There was a certain stillness in the air, the one that comes before the battle, like a calm before the storm, but she bit down the comment about it. It was just an illusion. They would make it out without a fight. They would be long gone before SHIELD got there.
Stark led them down the aisle, towards the old Volvo.
"Really? You want to use the same car?"
"You think we'll make it out in any of those shiny things with my name on it?" Stark said and heaved his armor into the trunk. Loki helped him, put his bag in too, then closed the hatch.
[May I drive?] Loki asked.
"Uhm, what?" she mumbled.
"Yeah, sure," Stark said with a roll of his shoulders and headed for the passenger's side.
"Wait, what?!"
"Get in, Romanoff, we'll explain later," Stark said nonchalantly. "I call shotgun!"
They made it two crossroads from Stark's tower before a column of black vehicles passed them on the opposite lane, without slowing down.
"SHIELD's SUVs," Stark remarked.
"Just the backup, meant to keep us inside. The main force will land on the roof, if they haven't already," Natasha said.
Stark cranked his neck and looked out of the window. Loki kept his eyes on the road. His hood was safely up, but he adjusted the scarf that was threatening to slip down. If any of the mortals in the vehicles around recognized him, or even just took a good look at the metal sealed to his face, it could mean trouble.
The system of easy-to-read signals within the city made following the ridiculously complicated set of regulations humans thought up for moving their cars around a bit simpler. But there were also a lot more vehicles and Stark was adamant that veering around them was not the proper way to do it, even if there was an opening. That seemed even less advisable now, when they had to keep attention away from themselves. So, when the lights changed to red, he stopped at the intersection.
"Okay, when did you learn to drive?" Natasha asked.
Loki turned, so she could see his hands from the back seat.
[Yesterday,] he said. He had experience in operating various vehicles before, but it was safe to assume she meant mortal automobiles, not similar machines in general.
"Mhm," she murmured. "Stark?"
"Yesterday morning, if it makes it easier to swallow," Stark chuckled.
Natasha let out a breath. Loki turned back to the road and watched in the rear-view mirror as she sat back and faced the window. "It's safer than if Stark were driving," she judged. Stark scoffed, feigning offense. "You're doing great, by the way."
Loki nodded in acknowledgment. It wasn't any sort of achievement to be proud of, yet the praise still tickled pleasantly, no matter how undeserved it felt. He was fully aware he was but a burden now, for both Natasha and Stark. He didn't know enough about the intricacies of Midgardian politics to offer any input or advice on the obstacles they were facing and would be useless in a fight, once it came to that. This was at least something he still could do, then lie to himself that he was being helpful.
"Am I not going to get any credit here?" Stark demanded, halfheartedly. It seemed like one of those things the human tended to say when he meant something completely opposite. "Turn right at the next lights. East River Drive should be passable at this hour."
Loki pointed at the sign with a crossed-out, right-facing arrow, which was rather easy to interpret.
Natasha snorted and Stark rolled his eyes. "The next one then," he said, "Jesus, do I really need to tell you everything?"
They drove away, undisturbed, and – after they left the city proper. and got on the freeway in Union Port – she allowed herself to relax a little. They got away. For now.
Stark went on at length about the modifications he made to his armor, apparently unable to take the silence for more than five minutes straight. She filtered him out and turned to the news feeds she opened on her phone. The net was buzzing with theories about Director's Fury demise, but it was mostly just idle banter with a side of conspiracy theories. Well, wrong kind of conspiracy theories.
"Pierce's going to give a public statement at six," she said and read out the post from Council's official twitter account. "Then there will be a press conference."
"Do we know what he will be talking about?"
"It only says here he is to address the current situation, but my bet is they are going to officially announce the next director of SHIELD."
"Yeah," Stark agreed. "Any news from Clint?"
"No, and I don't want to reach out to him. If he is going through a screening right now it would only make things worse. He will make the contact once he is in the clear and has anything useful for us."
Stark hummed in agreement.
"Also, we got far enough from the city, we should leave the interstate," she said.
"Why?" Stark asked with a frown. He might be the smartest guy in the room, but he lacked experience in covert operations, and it showed.
"Too many traffic cameras, too many patrols. They will find out, sooner or later, what our mode of transportation is, and we are making it too easy for them to recreate our route and follow it straight to our doorstep. If we don't want to switch cars, we should at least avoid main roads."
Stark turned to Loki. "Heard the lady?"
Loki nodded, then pointed at the fuel gauge, with the reserve zone warning already lit up.
"Yeah, that too. How far to the next exit?"
[Six miles,] Loki's hand spelled.
"Great. Take it."
"You want to swap?" Natasha asked Loki when Stark went to pay. He was the more recognizable one of the two of them, but also not an officially wanted criminal, so even if the risk of someone knowing his face was higher, the chance it would end in a nine-one-one call was lower.
Loki shook his head. [It's…] His brows furrowed. [Enjoyable,] he said. [It gives me something to focus on.] He really didn't need to specify what it was that the activity took his mind off.
"Wait till you get the chance to try out the fancy ones," she said with a smile. "Just let us know when you're tired, okay?"
[I will,] Loki said, and his expression made her sure that he wouldn't.
She knew he had learned to trust her – and even Stark and Banner, to some extent – but that was the line even the trusting version of Loki wouldn't cross. So, she just rested her hand on his shoulder and reveled in the way he slowly relaxed under her touch.
The door of the gas station building opened and Stark rushed out. He wasn't running, not exactly, but his steps were hurried and tense. Loki started the engine.
"Go!" Stark barked as he got in, before even closing the door fully.
The tires spun and the car rolled on.
"What happened?"
"The nosy chick at the register recognized me."
"So what? We talked about it. No one calls the police because they think they saw Tony Stark at the gas station."
"I haven't finished yet, have I? She checked the camera and she started to act weirdly, asking me if I'm okay and if I need assistance."
"She thought this is a kidnapping scenario," Natasha said, numbly. Hell, they could've anticipated that. Stark acted jittery and the events took their toll on him physically as well – his goatee was now a full-on beard, there were bags under his eyes from too little sleep and too much caffeine and he was still wearing his workshop clothes. Then the first thing that girl saw on the feed was a masked, hooded person sitting in a banged-up car, waiting for Stark to come back. "Damn."
"I should be mad, but to be honest, that's a proper civic attitude," Stark said with an unhappy smile. "Which doesn't mean a goddamned thing if we get cops on our asses."
"We need to swap cars," she said.
Stark let out a low, annoyed whine.
"What?"
"Bruce really loves this car."
"Well, I hope he values our lives more, 'cause we are sooo abandoning it." She pulled out her phone and checked the map. "There's a mall half a mile ahead. There should be something on the parking lot that we can use."
"What do you intend to do?"
"I intend to steal us a new ride, what else did you think was going to happen?"
Stark hummed out something non-committal. He didn't seem that big on the idea.
"You can send the owner a gift card or something if you're alive once this is over."
"Okay, fine," he grunted.
She got them an old Land Rover Freelander. The owner was just parking it as she got there, so it gave them at least half an hour before the disappearance was noticed.
"If you had to steal, couldn't you take something fancier?" Stark complained, but still got in without making a fuss.
"Something fancier would be way too easy to notice," she said and got of the car. "You have a lot to learn about spy work. You still want to drive?" she asked Loki.
Loki nodded.
"I don't want to be a spy. I want to return to being the billionaire playboy, like, right now," Stark complained with a pout. He wasn't entirely serious, that was a given, but it was clear the situation wasn't doing anything good for his sanity. It wasn't something he could solve by flying in in his armor and blowing bad guys to bits and he seemed to lack proper mental tools to deal with that, for now at least.
Loki studied the automatic transmission gear selector for a moment. He tried the R setting first, then, when that didn't work as he intended, went to D and the car moved forth, just to stop a few feet further, as Loki tested the brakes. [I liked the old one better,] he decided and the wide, prideful grin on Stark's face made Natasha chuckle.
"Turn on the radio, Stark," she said. "Pierce's address has just started, maybe some station is airing it?"
Stark did, going through a couple of stations, before landing on some news broadcast.
The tires screeched and the car veered to the side of the road, stopping with a jolt. Loki opened the door and stumbled out, then fell to his knees, his arms pressed to his ears.
"Turn it off," she snarled and jumped out.
Loki's hands were now over his face. He was taking in torn, ragged gasps.
"Hey," she said softly, kneeling next to him, her hands on his arms. "I'm here."
He shuddered and a silent sob rocked his body. His arms dropped and he huddled his face into her shoulder, his hands around her waist. She pulled him closer and stroked his back soothingly. "It's all right," she whispered. "No one here will hurt you."
His breathing slowly returned to normal and the shivers that ran through his frame subsided. He pulled away and looked up at her.
She ran her thumbs under his eyes. "What happened?" she asked.
He took in a long breath. [That voice…] he showed, and his gestures were terse and frantic. [I will always recognize it. He was down there. He ordered them to do… things to me. He put the shackles on, forced the kid to enchant them...]
"I'm so sorry," she murmured and hugged him again.
"Guys!" Stark's voice came, alarmed. "I don't mean to interrupt, but we have a situation!"
Just as Stark finished talking multiple sets of wheels screeched on the gravel. Three unmarked SUVs pulled over, one in front, one behind and one blocking the car from the side of the road, surrendering them.
Men in suits spilled out, at least two from every vehicle, guns in their hands, but aimed at the sky, for now. Loki's hand closed around her arm and he pulled her behind the car door. She yanked her gun free.
"Here," she said, handing it to Loki. She didn't have a spare, but he had better aim anyway.
He shook his head and a blade gleamed in his hand.
"You're surrounded," one of the agents yelled. "Get out with your hands in the air now and we will make sure you're treated fairly!"
"Yeah, right!" came from inside of the car. The vehicle rocked behind her. Stark was trying to get his armor from the trunk. Good thing she didn't steal them a sedan. "That would work immensely better if I didn't see how your fair treatment looks like."
"We don't need anything from you, Stark," another agent said. They were taking positions, getting ready for the fight. "Or from you, agent Romanoff. Hand over our prisoner and you'll be allowed to leave."
"That's funny!" Stark yelled back, his voice strained. The car rocked again. "You make it sound like…"
There was a gunshot and the rear window shattered.
"Stand down! Step away from the vehicle!"
"Fuck that," Stark snarled and there was a blast. Someone shouted and there were footsteps, on all sides, then one more gunshot. She leaned out and fired, getting one of the agents in the shoulder.
Loki leapt, then rolled to avoid a bullet. In milliseconds, he was at the closest agent. The man swung his weapon at him. Loki fell into a crouch and his blade got the man in the femoral artery. The man collapsed and raised his weapon to fire. Natasha shot him in the head.
At the other side of the car, another agent crumbled to the ground when the beam of Stark's propulsor hit him in the chest.
An arm grabbed her by the throat. She twisted around and swung her elbow. It connected with the attacker's nose and the man reeled. In the corner of her eye, she saw Loki, still low on his feet as he rammed into another agent, pinning him to the hood of the car. The blade blinked and blood gushed from the sliced throat.
Her attacker yanked away and fired at her. She dodged, and the bullet only grazed the side of her head. A blast swept the guy off his legs and Natasha finished the job with a bullet between his eyes.
Loki was at the last attacker. He already knocked the gun out of his hands and the man was now holding a knife as well. He lurched at Loki and Loki ducked, his own blade aimed at the opponent's stomach, but his hand faltered and he missed. There was blood dripping down his fingers. The agent charged again, and Loki grabbed his wrist and yanked, changing the trajectory of the attack. The man stumbled, but immediately jumped back to his feet and charged again, with his shoulder this time, trying to knock Loki down.
She held her gun up and circled, hesitant to fire. She didn't want to get Loki with the bullet. Stark circled on the other side. He only had one arm and the chest piece of the armor on.
It was unexpected to see that Loki's fighting style had so much in common with her own. He was keener on avoiding blows and using the rival's strength against them than on frontal, open attacks. An approach for someone who learned to fight from a losing position against stronger opponents.
The man's fist was aimed at Loki's ribs. Loki dodged again and swung his leg at the agent's shins, knocking him over. He threw himself on the man, bodily pinning him to the ground. His hand lost purchase on the weapon, the knife slipped from his bloodied fingers and clattered to the ground. The man used the opening and brought his own blade up.
A laser ray got him across the throat.
And that was it.
Damn.
Loki got up to his feet and swayed. Natasha jumped, but Stark was quicker.
"You could've left someone for us, you know," Stark quipped.
Loki huffed out a laugh and leaned against the car. His right arm was dangling at his side uselessly. He tried moving his fingers and his face twisted in pain, as more blood dripped down and seeped into the dirt.
"That's what you get for attacking three Avengers on a field trip," Stark said and bent over, picking Loki's abandoned blade, completely unaware of Loki's utterly confused glare. "Is that my cheese knife?"
Loki rolled his left shoulder.
She reached for her own blade and cut through Loki's coat, then his shirt. There was a gunshot wound, right through his shoulder joint. "Shit," she hissed.
"How bad is it?" asked Stark.
"I'm not sure," she admitted, inspecting the wound. She pressed on it and Loki's breath wavered. "It's not fatal. Yet. But it needs medical attention, immediately."
"We can't exactly barge into the nearest hospital."
"I'm aware. What about Bruce?"
"We are still hours away. And, even if I gave Loki the armor, he won't be able to fly that far on the backup power. Or steer with only one arm functional."
[It's fine,] Loki showed, using his left hand. [I can make it home.]
"Unconscious, maybe, and that's only if you're lucky," she judged. He was losing blood and the location of the injury made it hard to stop the bleeding using field methods. "Stark, find me something to…"
"Can't you use your magical mumbo-jumbo to fix it?" Stark asked instead.
"I…" she bit her lip, considering. "The gizmo works, right?"
Loki nodded.
"It still leaves the physical effects," Stark warned.
"Is it worse than how the wound hurts, now?" she asked, turning to Loki.
He shook his head, then his brows furrowed. [You will tire.]
"I've healed worse. You two can keep me safe if I pass out. Which I won't."
She waited for the answer. There was hesitation in Loki's eyes, and she wasn't going to do it without his explicit consent.
"Come on!" Stark urged. "We are like targets on a shooting range here. Decision time!"
[Okay,] Loki surrendered with a sigh.
She closed her eyes and brought forth her core, then let the energy flow. Even left untouched for days, it still welcomed her warmly, buzzing in her hands and vibrating in her bones, shining like stars in the void of space. She let it seep into Loki's flesh and it obeyed eagerly.
She found the obstacle – the bullet still stuck in the wound, lodged between the bones – and forced it out. Loki's muscles strained under her fingers, but he didn't move, not even an inch.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, "I had to get it out."
The power streamed freely now, swirling and surging, glittering with streaks of brilliant light, and Loki's flesh drank every drop, mending and pulling itself together, the dark spots in his aura lighting back up, one by one, until none was left. She brushed her fingers over his skin, still sticky with blood but now smooth as new.
"Here," she said and pried her eyes open.
Loki's eyes were on her, wide and shocked. He rolled his shoulder and blinked a couple of times.
[When did you learn to do this?]
"Uhm, what do you mean? You taught me."
[Not this.]
He pulled the scarf free.
She stared. The broad, half-healed wound that marred the skin of his neck just a few hours ago was gone. So were the cuts on his face and hands, even the old bruises around the gag. Then she realized she wasn't tired. Not at all.
"Okay," Stark said. "I have literally zero idea what's going on right now, but we need to get the fuck out of here."
"Come on!" Stark grumbled and banged one of the plates he had scattered around on the backseat. Apparently, something didn't work the way he intended and it categorically – according to the man himself – couldn't wait till they got home. "Work with me, you piece of junk!"
Natasha was driving, which was hard to focus on when Loki's hands kept on moving.
"For the umpteenth time, I have no idea how I did it."
[It's not something that just happens.]
"I know, but… The last time I used my magic was when I reached out to you and after that…"
[That was truly you?]
"Uhm… Yeah?"
[I thought…] He took a deep breath and looked out of the window. [I thought it was just a dream.]
She chuckled and immediately realized how unfunny it really was. He believed the promise of escape she brought him was only a figment of his own imagination. For days.
She sighed. He was here, and it was in the past. Now they had to make sure it stayed there.
[You had to travel the secret paths to reach me that far,] he said. [You found your way. On your own.]
"So, I'm awesome after all?"
[Yes.]
She bumped his shoulder. "Thanks, space boy."
They took back roads and avoided all settlements they could for the rest of the way, so it was already well into the night when they reached the forest house.
Banner went out of the patio door the moment their car rolled into the driveway.
"Hi, Bruce," Stark greeted him with a grin. "You won't believe what happened."
Banner's face was solemn. "SHIELD's gone," he said.
They watched the recording in the living room. Loki sat hunched over, with his hands around his knees, his face a poorly manufactured impression of indifference, but he vehemently refused suggestions to skip it and bore the entirety of the twenty-minute-long address with unflinching stubbornness.
Pierce spent ten minutes at praising Fury's accomplishments and valor and there was not an ounce of honesty to any of his words. He fawned and pulled anecdotes of their shared past from his sleeve and the gathered press ate it up like a pack of ravished hyenas. When that buttering up was done, his face turned solemn and he went for the main attack.
"As much as we are all deeply bereaved by the untimely passing of Director Nicolas Fury, we must look to the future with hopeful eyes, but also fully prepared for the threats that await us as humanity. It is my duty to guarantee that no more enemy takes us by surprise.
"The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division was established to protect us from those threats, act against them, be the vigil in the dark while we sleep peacefully. Sadly, the events of last year and the infamous Battle of New York proved it failed in that regard.
"SHIELD's prime team of heroes failed to prevent widespread destruction," Pierce said from the screen and Natasha's hands curled to fists. "The project cost the national reserve two billion in dotation and another three in funds from the joint ventures of the World Council, yet the internal indecisiveness led to substantial losses, both in terms of human life and monetary expenditures."
"Fuck this guy, really," Stark muttered.
"Over the course of the last fifteen months, the World Council has dedicated many deliberations to solving the pressing issues within the organization and came to alarming conclusions. The lack of oversight on this scale was an effect of years of negligence from the previous administration and drastic measures must be taken to ensure we will not find ourselves in a similar situation in the future.
Thus, with a heavy heart, I announce a complete dissolution of SHIELD, effective immediately."
The room burst into an uproar and Pierce waited for it to settle down before he carried on.
"As an alternative is still within the works and the tragic death of Director Fury forced us to advance with the plan sooner than intended, all the active missions, objective and field units are going to remain under the World Council's full oversight, until further notice. Any questions?"
Another storm rolled over the gathered audience as every single reporter in the room tried to get their question heard first.
Stark turned the TV off.
"Any conclusions?" he prompted.
"Pierce is a piece of shit," Natasha said. "But that we knew already. Other than that? Now he has unrestricted access to every single asset Fury might have been keeping from him. He can do what he wants."
"And we still don't know what that is," Stark summed up.
[They want to permanently eliminate all potential threats on Earth,] Loki said, his eyes fixed at some unspecified point in the darkness beyond the windows. [Everything that's not normal. Every abomination. Like me.]
There was a moment of very uncomfortable silence. Banner shifted in his seat and took in a sharp breath as if he wanted to say something, but then changed his mind and remained silent.
"Is it just me, or is the use of 'potential' in that sentence really disturbing?" Stark said finally. "How do you know?"
[They gloated.] Loki said simply.
"Do you know, uhm, how they are going to do that?"
Loki shook his head. [If the guards knew how, they never made me privy to it.]
"So, what, Hydra's ultimate ploy is… a mass extermination?" Banner asked. His voice was unstable, and he seemed pale.
"I don't know what else I expected from a bunch of Nazis," Stark uttered aloofly.
"But how? And of whom exactly?"
"Well, that's what we need to find out."
A/N: Again, thank you for all the comments and favs, I appreciate every single one, even if ffn doesn't allow for answering to each separately.
I'm here to inform you that the story has been finished. It wrapped up in 60 chapters (some multi-part, co closer to 70 after posting) and will be posted over the next weeks.