Chapter Seven
Arianna jolted awake when she heard the alarm signaling that someone had broken into the tower. She looked around her room, relieved to see that no one had broken in there, at least, before hopping out of bed.
SHIELD training involved having to learn to wake up under any and all circumstances, so Arianna was alert within seconds. She crept to her door, still in her pajamas, and opened the door slightly.
There was nothing in the hallway her room was located in, but it seemed that Loki had been alerted by the alarm too, because he was also peeking through a crack in his doorway.
"What's happening?" he whispered.
"I don't know. Someone's here. The others will be looking as well."
Arianna went past Loki's room and was surprised when he grabbed her wrist. She looked at him and was shocked to see the concern on his face.
"What?"
"I'll come with you," he said. "I can fight. You said that you don't know how."
"No, but someone might get hurt, and I can help with that."
"Then maybe you should wait. You do not want to be caught in the crossfire."
Loki's logic made sense. She would probably only get in the way. She didn't know how to fight at all, and she didn't have a weapon. Logically, she knew she should go back into her room and lock the door behind her, let the others deal with whatever this was, but she couldn't.
"Loki, they're my friends. I have to go."
She gently withdrew her wrist from his grip and continued down the hallway towards the main room. When she got there, she noticed nothing out of place aside from the fact that Natasha, Clint, and Steve were in the middle of the room. They were all in their pajamas, but they each had a weapon: Natasha a dagger; Clint his bow and a quiver full of arrows; Steve his shield.
"Jarvis? What's going on?" Arianna asked.
When she didn't get an answer, she looked to the three Avengers in the middle of the room.
"What's going on?"
"Jarvis is offline," Natasha said. "Has been since we tried contacting Tony a few minutes ago."
"Where is Tony?"
"In the lab with Banner."
"We have to get to them," Steve said. "Right now we're divided and they're only two people."
"One is not technically just a person," Loki said. "Banner is more than capable of protecting himself and Stark."
"Hate to say it," Clint said. "But he's right."
"You'd be surprised how often that happens."
Arianna would've smiled at how open Loki was being at the moment, but it just so happened that that was the moment that the window looking out over the balcony was broken into as several people crashed through it. There were about six people in all, dressed in black, with guns. One of them launched a smoke bomb into the middle of the room, and the Avengers plus Loki covered their mouths as smoke filled the room.
Arianna dropped to the floor and began crawling in the direction of what she hoped was the hallway where her bedroom was located. She'd lost sight of the others, but she could hear them coughing and moving around. She was coughing too, dizzy from the lack of oxygen.
Before Arianna could get far someone grabbed her ankle and dragged her backwards. She let out a small yelp of surprise and then an even bigger scream as she felt whoever it was grasp her shoulders and yank her to her feet.
A gloved hand covered her mouth and she tensed as her mind filled with panic. Who was this person? What did he or she want? Why had they gone to so much trouble to get in here?
The room was slowly clearing of the smoke and she was still being dragged backwards, towards the shattered window. She could see outlines of the other people now. Most of the people in black had been disarmed by Natasha and Steve, and now they were fighting along with Clint and Loki.
Arianna would have to find a way to free herself, as the others were busy. She did the only thing she knew to do: She lifted herself up and made herself become dead weight in her captor's arms. It threw her captor off balance, and she dropped to her knees to try and scamper away.
She was grabbed by the ankle again, only this time she was able to turn and kick out. The kick landed on the person's abdomen, and a male grunt reached her ears. Then she kicked again just for good measure, but he was ready for her this time and was able to block and catch her leg.
That was when she became aware of the shining silver dagger he was holding and fast arcing towards her thigh. She jerked away enough for his aim not to be completely true, but the blade still sliced through her pajama bottoms and over her skin deep enough for her to feel like fainting from the pain.
Instead, she screamed.
This seemed to cause the man to become angry. He slammed his fist down towards her and she clenched her eyes shut, anticipating the pain she was about to feel. She'd been hit before on missions – and during training – so she knew she could take it even if she would black out for a few seconds.
The blow never landed. In fact, the man's weight had been lifted completely off of her. When she opened her eyes she found out why.
The man that had been about to hit her had been tackled by Loki and they were grappling for the knife now. Loki looked dangerous and angry, but there was none of the insanity he'd displayed a month ago when she'd first seen him.
He knew exactly what he was doing when he finally got the knife and plunged it into the man's side, twisting and yanking it up to insure the man's death.
"I think you'll find the mistake you made was, in fact, hurting her," Loki said, knowing that all who heard it would hear the possessiveness he'd used while speaking.
He watched as the man went limp and stopped breathing. Loki stayed the way he was for a good fifteen seconds before checking for a pulse, and then turned to face Arianna, who had let out another scream, this one of pain.
Natasha and Clint had come to her, and Steve was on his way. The people that had broken in had been killed with arrows or by broken necks. Loki wouldn't be punished then, for killing the one that had hurt Arianna.
Loki went over to the others and knelt beside Arianna, who was not bleeding profusely from the gash in her right thigh. Her usually tan skin was pale now, and her face held an expression of pain.
"Why does she not heal herself?" he wondered out loud.
"She needs a source of energy and she refuses to take it from a human," Natasha said.
Loki, always quick on his feet, said, "The lab. There's plenty of energy down there."
Once the others realized that what he'd said actually made sense, Steve, who Loki still mentally called The Patriotic One, carefully picked Arianna up and they all went to the elevator, Natasha holding the shield now.
"Why did the intruders not cut the power?" Loki asked. "That would've been the smart thing to do."
"Jarvis was cut off," Natasha said. "That's the main security. Whoever broke in first . . . it wasn't the guys we fought or the alarm wouldn't have sounded until they smashed through the window."
"Maybe they hit the lab first," Clint suggested as they all stepped into the elevator.
Loki was surprised that no one said anything against him accompanying them. Then again, everyone was preoccupied with the crying girl in Steve's arms. Arianna didn't seem to be aware of her tears. She was more worried about not jostling her injured leg too much.
Loki wanted to ask if she thought she would be okay, but he also didn't want to do so in front of anyone else.
He would wait until he could get her alone.
Once they reached the lab, they found both Tony and Bruce unconscious. Tony had a tranquillizer dart sticking out of his neck; Bruce had several in many places on his body.
Arianna hadn't known Bruce could be tranquillized, but there he was on the floor, completely knocked out.
Steve gently sat her down on one of the many tables there, and then he went towards the two scientists on the floor. Natasha and Clint followed him, but Loki stayed with her.
"Are you going to be okay?" he asked quietly.
She nodded even as she swayed from the pain she was feeling. Arianna usually didn't have any negative wishes for anyone, but she was glad the one who had hurt her was dead. He wouldn't be able to hurt her or anyone else again.
"Thanks for saving my life."
"You've saved mine countless times," Loki said. "Consider it a returned favor."
Arianna tried to smile, but her expression quickly turned into a grimace instead.
"Or it could be that you consider me a friend and you were looking out for me."
"Perhaps. Just don't tell anyone. I've got a reputation to keep up as a heartless monster."
"I think that ship has sailed," she said, swaying again.
"Maybe you should lie down. Just don't go to sleep."
"What I need is for Tony to wake up. Or for Jarvis to be put back on."
Arianna knew Tony had been working on finding a source of sustainable energy for Earth. He was trying to create something much like the Tesseract, only not as volatile. If she could get her hands on it, she could heal herself easily.
"May I see?" Loki asked. "The wound, I mean. We need to stop the bleeding. You've lost a lot of blood, and I'm not sure what the limit is for a Midgardian."
"I'm – okay. Yeah."
Arianna wasn't sure what her limits were either. She knew she was dizzy and fading fast. She needed to stop the bleeding until Tony woke up.
"You will have to lie down for this."
She did as she was told even though she didn't really want to lie down. What if she passed out?
Loki drew out the knife he'd used to kill her attacker and used it to rip through the right leg of her pajama pants.
Loki was very clinical about it, focused on stemming the blood flow more than anything else. After he'd ripped the pantleg enough to reach the wound, he tore a strip off so he could tie it around her thigh and keep the blood from coming out too fast.
"Done," he said, "but keep still and do not sit back up."
Arianna relaxed as much as she could and did as she'd been told. She probably shouldn't have been upright to begin with. It had only helped the blood flow out more quickly.
Natasha ended up by Arianna's side once she'd done everything possible to help Tony and Banner. They were fine, but she didn't know how long they would be out. They had no clue how much of the tranquillizer had been used or how strong it had been.
Arianna was set, though, and Natasha had a hard time admitting to herself that Loki was the one responsible for that. He'd also been the one responsible for saving Arianna's life earlier.
Everyone else had been too busy with the other attackers. Even though Natasha knew Arianna couldn't fight to save her life, she'd still taken her eyes off of her friend and had left her to her own devices.
"Are you okay? We still have to wait for Tony and Banner to wake up."
Arianna nodded weakly.
Steve and Clint came over as soon as they were able, and they all formed a circle around where Arianna was lying.
"I still think you should take energy from us," Loki said. "All of us. You won't hurt anyone that way."
Arianna shook her head, but she didn't seem certain anymore. Natasha wondered if Arianna had ever thought about channeling from a group. It made sense, and she was all for it if it would close the wound on her friend's leg.
"I'll do it," Natasha said.
Clint nodded, as did Steve, but Arianna still shook her head.
"Why not?" Loki asked, a note of impatience in his voice. "You do realize if the two over there don't wake up soon, you could die?"
"I don't know how!" she exclaimed, putting more energy into her response than she probably should have.
Natasha noticed that her answer seemed to placate Loki, however, because he no longer seemed impatient. In fact, Natasha saw understanding flash over his face.
"If forget they don't train you in the art of magic on Midgard," he said and put a hand on Arianna's leg. "Everyone put a hand on her. We will all be connected while she does this. If it works, you'll feel your energy draining into her."
"And what do I do?" Arianna asked.
"Start with one of us," Loki said. "Focus on one touch at a time until you've reached us all."
As it turned out, Natasha was the one Arianna reached out to first. They were best friends, so it made sense. Natasha had found Arianna when she'd been at her lowest point and when Arianna had only just found out about her ability to manipulate energy. Natasha had tried to help her and had somewhere succeeded by offering her a job with SHIELD.
As Natasha's mind connected with Arianna's the red head almost flinched. She'd never had her mind invaded before, and she didn't want anyone seeing what was there.
"Sorry," Arianna muttered. "I've never done this when I was so weak."
Natasha relaxed when she felt the other's presence leave her brain. She could still feel Arianna's energy, but not Arianna's thoughts. That was better.
She eventually felt Clint's and Steve's presence as well, which made her feel oddly vulnerable, but it got much worse when Loki's energy merged with theirs.
It was worse because she could feel Loki's emotions. She realized that Arianna was naturally connected with the former Asgardian. She'd formed a bond with him when she'd brought him out of his mind prison. Through Arianna, Natasha could tell that even though Loki was all the things Natasha thought him to be, he was also what Arianna thought him to be.
He was a victim as much as he was a villain, and Natasha knew that meant that Loki might be redeemable. He'd already found someone he wanted to protect. Whether he'd done it because he cared for her or because he felt he owed her it, it showed that Loki did have a code of ethics, even if that code was unique to him.
Natasha had reason to believe that Loki wouldn't hurt Arianna. She wasn't sure about anyone else.
Arianna tried to keep her mind out of everyone else's, but it was hard because she was so weak she could hardly focus. In the end, she got flashes of memories from everyone.
From Natasha she'd gotten glimpses of some school for girls, though it must've been more than that because Natasha had been angry at and scared of the memory of the place. Natasha never spoke about her past, so Arianna wasn't sure exactly what she'd seen.
Clint had been thinking about a family – his family. A farm house with acres of land. A wife, children. Arianna hadn't known that Clint had any family.
Steve had only one thing on his mind: A woman named Peggy Carter. Arianna already knew that story, but she hadn't known that it still filled Steve's thoughts.
Finally, there was Loki. She saw more from him because she'd been in his mind a few times before. It was much easier to connect with him because of that.
In Loki's mind now, Arianna could feel that no matter what Loki showed to the outside world, he was still plagued with memories from his year of torture. Why wouldn't he be? One didn't just get over something like that. Thanos had made Loki believe that no one had ever, could ever care for him.
Since he'd been on Earth – or Midgard, as he still called it – he'd found someone who did care. He didn't want to admit it out loud, but he knew Arianna didn't take time out of her day to check on him and keep him company just because he was her responsibility.
He was still waiting for the moment that Arianna realized that she was dealing with a lost cause and would give up on him. Loki had been alone and tortured for so long that, until he'd met Arianna, comfort from an actual person had seemed a thing of mere fantasy.
Loki had believed that no one could ever understand why he'd done what he'd done in coming to Midgard and trying to conquer, but Arianna did. Because of her ability to see what had happened and feel some of it, she did understand and she didn't hate him.
'Of course I don't hate you,' Arianna sent the thought to Loki only.
She had blocked Loki's thoughts and feelings from everyone else. In fact, since she was acting as a sort of filter, nobody had felt anybody else's feelings once she'd figured out what she was doing, which hadn't taken long.
After Arianna was healed – healed but still weak – the room fell silent. No one really knew what to say, it seemed. Arianna wanted to talk to Loki but knew he would not be open to conversation with everyone else around.
There was movement where Bruce and Tony had been lying. Bruce was waking up now, hands over his eyes, as if his head was aching. Side effect of the tranquillizer, maybe. His hands began roaming over the rest of his body – probably checking for the darts he'd been shot with, but they had already been removed.
The room was tense as they all waited to see if Bruce was going to turn green and angry, but he seemed fine even if he was moving slower than normal.
Tony came to not long after that and he was the first one to speak by asking what had happened.
"Someone broke in," Natasha said. "They were trained fighters and they were after Aries. There are a few bodies upstairs."
"She was hurt, but we helped heal her," Clint said.
"Bet that was awesome," Tony said. "The healing, not the hurting."
"I know what you meant." Arianna looked around the lab. "Was anything taken?"
Tony went rigid before stumbling to his feet. He hurriedly went through all the tables around him, searching for something.
"We were testing your blood. It's gone."
"Three guesses as to who has it," Loki muttered.
"SHIELD," Arianna said.
"No," Natasha said. "No way would Fury –"
"He did threaten me," Arianna reminded her. "But I wasn't talking about him. The council – or someone about Fury's authority. If they knew about me . . ."
"Are you in danger?" Loki asked.
Arianna didn't want to believe her own people would go against her just because of how different she was, but it was more than possible for that to happen.
"If they believe me to be a threat . . . yes."
"We can protect you, though," Steve said. "We'll take turns watching over you."
Tony nodded. "Absolutely."
Natasha nodded as well. Arianna knew how hard this would be for her. Natasha looked to Fury as a father figure – to actively go against him would tear her apart inside.
Bruce would do whatever he thought was right.
Clint would protect whoever he considered to be innocent.
"Loki?"
The black-haired man shrugged. "I've already killed once to protect you. Nothing more needs to be said on where my loyalty lies in this situation."
"Thank you."
A few seconds later, Tony lightened the mood by opening his mouth.
"So . . . who's picking up the cleaning bill?"
Arianna threw her hands up in a gesture of backing away from the responsibility.
"You're the billionaire here, so . . . you."
Back upstairs now, the whole group was sitting around Tony's living room. None of them felt like sleeping, not even Arianna, who was definitely in need of rest.
When they had reached the living room, the first thing Tony had done was call someone to get rid of the bodies there. He'd take care of the cleaning crew in the morning – or later that morning.
"I think I need to teach each of you how to override a system shutdown," Tony said. "I was hacked into tonight, so I'll have to create a whole new program to work with."
"Yeah, um . . . the problem is that you and Bruce are the only ones smart enough here to pick up your technology quickly," Arianna said.
"Agent Romanoff does okay," Tony said, earning a smirk from Natasha.
"We should start sparring again," Natasha said. "I know you hate fighting, Aries, but you need to learn. You could've been killed tonight."
"They didn't want me dead. They just didn't expect such a fight to keep me here."
The people who had broken in had indeed been SHIELD agents. The outfits they'd been wearing had told them as much.
"Sometimes, Arianna, death is a kindness," Loki said and got up from his spot on the couch.
He'd been thinking about how he'd almost lost the only friend he had on Midgard. Maybe anywhere, to be honest. He hadn't even really thought about what he'd been doing when he'd killed that guy. He'd just known that Arianna had been in trouble and that he'd been the closest one available to help her.
He quickly went to his room and sat on his bed. He became lost in his own mind at once. So much had happened to him in the last year, most of it more than not good. Pain, so much pain. He had become something he'd never wanted to be, something monstrous. He'd become a killer.
Hundreds of people had died because of his actions. He'd been in battle before, of course, but killing just to kill . . . that wasn't him. He'd brought death and destruction to Midgard.
"Please stop," Arianna's voice came from his doorway. "I can feel you thinking all the way in the living room."
Loki looked her way. She was leaning against the wall. He could tell she was tired even though she was fighting against it.
"You feel my thoughts?"
"Yeah. It happens after I connect with someone a few times. It'll fade eventually."
"And I . . . heard your thoughts earlier?"
She nodded. "That doesn't happen often, but I thought you needed to hear it. I don't hate you. If I didn't know what happened, I might. But after everything how can you not see that I do care?"
Loki stood up. "But why?" He hadn't meant to yell and he definitely hadn't meant to make her flinch. He didn't want her to be afraid of him. "Why care about me? What could you possibly gain?"
Arianna shook her head and seemed infinitely sad.
"You don't need a reason to care, Loki. And you don't care for someone just so you can get something from them. I don't know where you learned that, but it's wrong."
He knew that – within his whole being he knew he'd always wanted someone like Arianna. He didn't deserve someone like her, but oh gods, how he wanted. She gave and never expected anything, didn't even want anything in return. She cared about him and only ever wanted him to be who he'd been before he'd found out who he really was.
"And who are you?" she moved forward. "And does it really matter? You've been given a new start."
This girl could ruin him.
"I agreed to help you because I know you're better than you let yourself be. You don't believe me because you think you're unlovable. But that's not true. If you didn't have good in you, you wouldn't have saved me tonight."
Every fiber of Loki's being wanted to believe her, wanted to look into Arianna's green eyes and get lost in the naïve faith she seemed to have, but he wouldn't allow himself that pleasure.
"Are you really so foolish as to accept a monster? You know no one outside of this building will ever understand why I did what I did. They will never be able to forgive. And SHIELD will never forgive you for siding with me."
Arianna scoffed and Loki saw a determination there that he'd never seen before.
"They are not my friends. They tried to kidnap me tonight. I know what will happen to me if they get their hands on me and I refuse to do what they want. You know what will happen."
'Pain,' Loki thought, shuddering. Kind Arianna in so much pain, being used for someone else's gain. He wouldn't allow that. Not ever. Even if he had to burn SHIELD to the ground.
"Not everyone is a problem."
"Get out of my head," he said, no real malice in his voice.
"Then stop thinking so loudly."