Pt5
A/N: I am so sorry for the lateness, I did not have Wi-Fi-ed computer time over the weekend. I am posting this today, and by Wednesday, if you saw it, I have another Omake ready to post. It is also going to be posted as pt 4.5 but separate as well. Enjoy this chapter with some little kid genius!
Clint Barton needed to know more. But first, he didn't have any missions today, so should be able to leave inconspicuously to go home to Laura, Cooper, and Lila.
He entered the house, having texted Laura on the way that he was home, so she knew to expect him and to know that it wasn't anyone else coming. He smiled as he saw Laura when he entered the farmstead's kitchen. His face relaxed, the tension melting out of his body as he hugged his wife.
She gave him a mug of hot chocolate, as he sat down at the dinner table, Laura called, "Kids, your father's home"
"Daddy!" Lila yelled as she toddled up to hug Clint. Cooper rushed in right behind his younger sister.
That evening, Clint relaxed in the presence of his family, laughing at the antics of three-year-old Lila, as well as seven-year-old Copper's recollection of the events.
After the kids went to bed, Clint fell back on the couch. Laura came over to the couch, seeing Clint seemed to have a lot on his mind. "What is it this time? Are you getting sent on another mission on the other side of the world again?"
"Worse. Remember when I was out for a few days right before Loki tried to conquer New York?"
"Like I could forget. Are you going to tell me what actually happened?"
"I was… compromised."
"How?"
"I'd never betray SHIELD or you, but he had, well, what Stark called the glowstick of destiny, a staff with some sort of power that allowed him to take over minds, ONly Stark was immune with his Arc Reactor. I was like his personal flying monkey for those few days, ended up killing a couple of dozen SHIELD agents, and nearly took out the helicarrier before Nat managed to get me back." he shivered. "And the thing is, I still felt like myself, there was something I forgot, but I felt like I should, like it was the right thing to do, to serve Loki."
"No!" Laura gasped. No wonder Clint hadn't wanted to talk about it.
"Cognitive restart, kicking me out, solved the problem, Nat managed to get me, but that isn't even the worst part."
"What else did Loki do?"
"That's the thing. It isn't Loki."
"Then who? SHIELD is good, but a lot of things usually leak out of their coverups. Who is it, so soon after Loki?"
"Well, this morning, Cap brought in a friend, a girl he said he's been jogging with in the morning for a few months. They boxed for a bit, Nat said she seemed not to break a sweat beating him. Took him out for a few minutes. They bet, he promised her a tour of the tower. Completely ignored when Nat pressed a pistol to her head. Then Stark decided he liked her, she brought in another friend of hers, Stark's new science buddy."
"So where do the problems start?"
"Not yet. So then she told Stark she could teach him how to break gravity and then was literally flying. Sat on a vent I was in, I fell out."
"You and your air vents. So you're mad someone got you out of an air vent?"
"No, that was kind of hilarious. She flew a bit like a calmer, slow-motion Thor. So then Fury came in and was going to yell at Stark and Cap for bringing in a couple of civilians, but then it turned out she had some shape-shifting space cat she called a Flerken that Fury was insanely scared of. Like Fury, scared! So then Thor came in, hearing his name, she nearly challenged him to some kind of Asgardian honor duel, then took Stark and Cap with her to Stark's personal Candyland lab. Her friend explained something about her hating Thor because, remember when I told you about him landing in Puente Antiguo, New Mexico a few years back?" Laura nodded. "Well, turns out her half-sister was there as well for some reason, don't know what her name is, nearly got killed a few times around Thor, and there's something about her claiming it's Thor's dad's fault that her dad ended possessed around the same time Loki was taking over New York."
"So Fury doesn't like her? If that's true, she has a pretty legitimate reason for hating Thor. Just like do you think that when the kids grow up enough that we tell them about the battle of New York with Loki, they'll like him either?"
"No, of course not. But then in his lab, she did something to Stark, next thing I know, we're rushing up to Stark's roof because Stark was screeching in fear, to see her jumping off the roof with him, flying back up, and dropping him from a hundred feet up."
"Is Stark alright?"
"Whatever she did to him, he froze and was just floating fifty feet up. So, I shot an arrow at her before she could successfully kill Stark. I mean, it was point-blank range, she didn't move, but when it was less than a foot away from her, her hand just snapped up and she stopped it by the shaft, just like Loki did back at the battle. Like from her posture down to the look on her face and her grip on the arrow. It was like Loki in a different form."
"But was it Loki? You said Thor said something about him knowing how to shapeshift."
"Fuck, I forgot that. When Thor goes back to Asgard he'll need to check whether Lokis still there. At least we know it's not one of his duplicates because those can't touch and she's done that."
"So the possibility of Loki being back. No wonder."
"There's more. First of all, she seemed to also be in a debate with Stark. Told him Loki was obeying some sort of moral code when trying to conquer the world, and that he was holding back and that it wasn't his fault. That giant black panther of hers can also teleport her."
"Loki did not have that."
"Neither was he an honorary citizen of Wakanda with an established gold for vibranium trade with them for several years. Neither was he able to sneak onto the SHIELD helicarrier, nor was he able to contain Banner and then get rid of the Hulk, nor was he able to get all of us to not touch her when she attacked Banner and bound him with solid Vibranium. Neither could Loki get away without even a yell from Fury when she attacked a new agent she seemed to already know and have enmity with."
"Some things are not adding up."
"I know. No, the worst part was when her back was turned, I saw Coulson, who is alive by the way, signing over to Fury that he was compromised, with legitimate threats but also some sort of powers-based bribery. Then she got her panther to hold Coulson down while she said she got Coulson, Phil Coulson, to betray SHIELD of his own free will. No mental tweaking, nothing. It was the real Agent Phil Coulson, who betrayed SHIELD and held out on telling Fury for 5 hours. I don't even know what to do at this point. Something is seriously off."
"Clint, I have an idea. Do you have a video or at least a photo of her?"
"Yeah, let me bring up SHIELDs security footage." He got a copy of the footage of her capturing Banner, zooming in on the frames with a clear shot of her.
"Wait, go back a few frames," Laura told Clint. "There, you see it?" She motioned to a few frames. In the first one, Rose Potter's Hazel eyes had a hint of green, her hair had a centimeter of inky black over the tips of her braid. But as she moved, her hand passed right over her eyes and hair, they went back to their previous color, and her skin became slightly more tanned.
"That looks disturbingly like Loki's type of magic fixing a disguising enchantment."
"This is all disturbing. But I have a feeling that's not Loki, either way."
"No, it's not. She's similar to Loki, but Thor would be able to tell him apart in a split second. That and Loki is too much of a dive to go this far for a disguise, neither would he share power or be able to convincingly befriend Stark or Cap."
"But the similarity is so striking and considering she has so many of the same mannerisms, talks practically the same, there has got to be a connection. They know each other, that's for sure."
"Possibly she's a student or something."
"Or he could be her daddy!" Cooper exclaimed from where he was failing to hide.
Clint and Laura exchanged looks. "Cooper, my little absolute genius, it's time to go to bed."
After putting Cooper back to bed and making sure he'd stay there, Laura and Clint looked over what they knew again. "It fits."
"Absurdly well."
"Fuck, if this is true, the Director needs to know, yesterday."
"True. Laura, I'm sorry,"
"It's alright Clint. I get it. I would rather not see a second attempted world conquest. Be back soon."
"I'll do my best."