Chapter 17.
At the very last second, I jumped. Appearing again and hitting the ground hard with my ass just outside the Washington Athletic Club. I looked around at the chaos and mentally cursed myself for not making the landing this time. But I was at least still on the right planet and in the right state, so I had that going for me.
I groaned and stood up, looking at my now torn shirt as I limped down the street when I saw the redhead and a guy with a bow and arrow firing on a group of six Kree as they proceeded down 7th Avenue. I took in a breath and ducked as the brickwork facade exploded above my head and jumped across the street toward Union Square to avoid another shot. I ran through the open park and ducked around benches, concrete pounding under my boots as I ran toward the two, hoping to get to them and use them to help Thor and the rest.
"I survived assholes!" I screamed at the Kree. "I freaking love it when I do that!"
I built up a blast of energy and threw it out to help the two as they were a bit outnumbered, knocking three of the combatants down and the red head pointed her guns at me as a look of recognition crossed her face. I threw my hands up and she glared down at me, my knees feeling wobbly as I stared her down.
"Hands up and don't move!" She screamed at me and I waved my hands higher in the air scarcastically in case she didn't notice that I had already beat her on the draw. Behind her, another Kree aimed at her and was going to fire when I let go of a pulse and he flew back through a window before he could attack the woman.
"I'm cool Big Red, I need to get to Thor!" I yelled and Robin Hood turned and looked at me as he walked over to her.
"Nat, she just saved your life." He said but she kept her gun trained on me, as her eyes tracked me from head to toe. I tried to stay completely non threatening as I stood in the street in front of her and I groaned in frustation, I needed them and they needed me.
"Yeah Nat, listen to Robin Hood there, I need to get to Thor and Loki because they probably think I am dead. You know Thor? Blonde piece of muscle with a hammer?" I said, trying to reason with the woman and she squinted at me, she not fully trusting me after our earlier run in in the freeway.
"Oh come on, I have had a really shitty week! Can you just trust me for a few minutes and believe that I am not a bad guy or an alien?"
"How do you know Thor?" She asked me and I shrugged.
"I'm cool with the big lug. Straight outta Asgard with him and the rest of his merry band of warriors, now can I start running toward where I left them last before they really do something dumb because they think I am dead?" I shouted and Robin Hood gave me an odd look as I groaned.
"Natasha." She said as she lowered her gun as I walked forward with my hands still in the air.
"Lilliana," I said and extended one of my hands toward her, the other nice and visible over my head as I stepped forward carefully, trying not to trip over debris as I walked. In the distance, an explosion echoed off the buildings around us and I ducked on instinct alone.
"I just blew up the ship. Can I put my hands down now, my arms are getting tired." I finished and smiled. They both looked at me incredulously and I shrugged my shoulders and smiled wider.
"Yeah kid, put your hands down and come on, we can give you a ride to Thor." Robin Hood said and I followed them to a Black SUV, climbing into the drivers seat before anyone could argue with me.
"I know these streets, and the fastest way there. Thor and Loki are probably loosing their minds right now." I said as almost on queue a Mjolinr Propelled Blonde Cruise Missile flew past us, I pointed at him and looked back at Natasha. I slammed the engine in gear and gave pursuit, trying my best to stay on his tail but lost him as he banked at the last minute and I kept going straight.
"Clint," Robin Hood said as I drove. "What do you mean Loki is here, on Earth?"
I skidded the huge car around a corner near the Jail and blew through an intersection, swerving around a blockade of police cars. Bumping over the sidewalk and clipped the corner of a building with the rear of the monster vehicle as the tires protested, and the vehicle lurched.
"It's cool." I said and found Thor again flying between two buildings an intersection over. "Loki is a bit of an asshole, but her grows on you. His being here is a long story, can I tell you it later?"
Natasha looked at me and laughed a bit in shock as I turned again down another street where I saw some police fighting against the Kree, I shifted into a lower gear as I swerved around abandoned cars and up onto the sidewalk as a cop shot into a group of four combatants. Natasha braced herself on the dashboard as I floored the accelerator and slammed into two of the heavily armored warriors and they flew backwards into the street and lay very still.
"Good job. What is Loki doing here?" Clint demanded, and I skidded to a halt, inches from hitting Volstagg and nailing the aggressor he was struggling with causing him to fly into the air like a rag doll.
"Well, helping apparently." I said and got out of the vehicle and ducked as masonry exploded overhead somewhere.
"We thought ya was dead Lady!" He shouted and I laughed and threw my arms around his neck as he bear hugged me again, lifting me up off my feet in the middle of the battle. He set me back down on my feet and I gave him a crooked smile.
"Oh ye of little faith,"I said. "I always survive, it is a weird hobby of mine."
I cocked my thumb over my shoulder at Clint and Natasha and grinned at him proudly, he looked the both of them as they immediately joined in the battle. He pulled me to safety as a window fell from high above us and before the huge shards of glass could cut me in half. They shattered in the street loudly, and I jumped in fear as somewhere else another explosion rocked the buildings around us.
"I found help, they are Thor's friends! Which way did the Norse Guided Missile go? I have to find Loki!" I shouted, pulling Volstagg's attention from Natasha, who impressed him as she shot a Kree center mass, causing the soldier to fall lifelessly in the street.
"Dude, you may not be her type and I think she is with the other guy." I said as he winked at her and raised his battle ax to her in a salute. He smiled at me and looked back at her as he swung me around behind him, hitting a Kree with the weapon as he moved smoothly and dropping the man in a single strong swing.
"A man can admire a fellow warriors skill." He said and Thor flew past again with Iron Man in tow, the both of them landing in the street a block from me and taking on the army ahead of them.
"You are so admiring more than her skills!" I said accusingly as Thor swung his hammer into the ground and knocked even me off my feet, not expecting the shock wave that followed the strike. Volstagg caught me and I ran into the fray, a Kree fighter ship hovered above us as Sif ran into the street out of a building shouting about people being trapped with no escape. I gathered up some energy, releasing it in a pulse that pushed the vehicle into a building, causing it to explode on impact and rain debris down onto the street around us.
I shifted my gravity and ran up the side of the Seattle Library quickly as fiery debris fell where I was standing, and continued to run along the building. Shifting my gravity again to fall across the street and along the side of the building as a Kree shot at me from his position on the street. I sent out another pulse and knocked him into the ground as I ran. His shot going wild and shattering glass above us as I jumped and landed behind Thor using fire to drop another soldier only to jump again, reappearing and grabbing a piece of re-bar as I moved fast. Slamming the makeshift club into the middle of the back of a soldier before he could raise his weapon and fire it on Tony Stark. He turned on me and I jumped out of reach and shifted my center of gravity again, falling toward the building on the side of the street and looked down to see Thor make eye contact at me. His face a mask of shock and I stood on the side of the building, using a pulse to knock the Kree into the building across the street where he slammed into a Starbucks and crashed through the window.
"Well this ability is just cool." I said and jumped again to appear near Thor, a ball of fire in my hand and used it to drop the Kree as he emerged from the Starbucks dazed but attack ready.
"It is a felony to damage a Starbucks in Seattle!" I screamed as Sif turned and looked at me in shock, her mouth a perfect circle of surprise as she ran toward me.
"You are alive!" She screamed and Tony turned, his visor flipping up as he looked at me and the warrior woman grabbed me in a hug. Thor ran in and wrapped his arms around me from behind and I looked to Tony for help. But he smiled, amused at the Lilliana Sandwich with a side of Viking I had become.
"This just got super awkward." I said and patted a muscular arm after freeing one of mine. "Good to see you too Thor, but I am about to scream 'creepy touching.' Just a warning there."
They both released me and looked at me as Natasha and Clint ran down the street toward us, we ducked as she shot another soldier who had come around the corner of a building. He screamed and fell as I groaned and rearranged my spine again, leaning against the fender of another abandoned car. I rubbed my face with my hands, looking up at my friends and smiled crookedly.
"How?" Thor asked as he grabbed and pushed me behind him, toward Tony to swing at another Kree who was advancing, I ducked behind my Norse Shield as he fought. With the soldier, and threw the man back, slamming him into the hood of a car.
"Very long, very weird story!" I shouted and frowned as I looked around us. "Where is Loki?"
"There was a tall column made of wood with faces." He said and I smiled up at him.
"Was it near the water, or near a bunch of buildings, one building shaped like a triangle?" I asked and he turned toward me and put a hand on my stomach to keep me back from the fight and to guide me back behind him.
"The building shaped as a wedge, no water." He said and I let out a pulse toward a Kree who was advancing toward us.
"Wait, Reindeer Games is here? What the hell?" Tony said and I looked and shrugged up at him in his suit as he fired on another ship.
"Yeah, and he is in Poineer Square!" I said to Tony and turned to Thor.
"Is he in the brick paved park or on the street?" I asked Thor again, and he looked down at me and concentrated on the Park near the Totem Poles.
"I believe it was the park." Thor said and I jumped and shouted, knowing he was still alive. I stopped suddenly in worry that he may not be for much longer and looked at everyone in panic.
"Is anyone going to tell me what the hell that guy is doing here?" Tony asked and I turned.
"He is helping!" I screamed and Tony looked at me and rolled his eyes.
"Did you hit your head princess? Because that guy probably started all this!" He said and I groaned.
"Actually, Lady Lilliana is correct. He is helping." Thor said and he turned with me still behind him and I nearly tripped over a rock, having to reach around his stomach to brace myself before I went crashing to the pavement. I crossed my arms and gave Tony a sheepish grin as he looked at me in shock.
"I just woke up in the Twilight Zone." Tony said and I shrugged.
"Welcome to my world. Also, don't feel bad, I think I broke a City Ordinance by fucking up a Starbucks with a bad guy." I said and I heard Tony laugh.
"Loki believes you dead!" Sif shouted, and I jerked around to look at her, remembering my biggest reason for finding everyone. I cursed myself internally and thought of the fastest way to get to him.
"I have to get to him, but I am weakening fast!" I shouted and looked around. "It may also be bad for me to jump at this point, I could wind up in an even worse situation."
I looked at Tony and raised my eyebrow, and pointed down the street as he looked at me.
"Can I hitch a ride?" I asked him and he turned his back to me and cocked a thumb over his shoulder, and I jumped up onto his suit in a piggyback, and he took off down the street.
"I charge by the second for my taxi service, and you have so much explaining to do young lady." He said and I rolled my eyes.
"Left up ahead, and I will tell you all about it after I get a beer and a nap!" I shouted as we turned the corner and I held on tighter as I felt myself slip down his back a bit.
"Good thing you don't get motion sickness." He said and I pointed right and he banked around the corner of a building.
"Slow down! I am going to jump and copy myself!" I screamed and he slowed and I vanished from his back, making a double of myself and appeared behind Loki. He had his back to me as he struggled with a Kree in the shadow of the Totem, completely missing my sudden appearance. I started thinking of how to get his attention when I saw an advancing Kree out of the corner of my eye. I ducked back and rolled on the ground as I avoided getting hit with his weapon.
Another Kree lowered his weapon and shot my double, as another advanced. Above me, masonry exploded and I ran as fast as I could, diving down the stairs to the Underground Tour Gift Shop for shelter, a window exploding to my left as the Kree fired again. I rolled down the stairs and screamed in pain as I looked down at my leg to see a large sliver of glass in my thigh. I quickly ripped the shemaugh off of my neck as a blonde man with a sword charged down the stairs and looked directly at me in shock.
"We thought you dead!" Fandral shouted, and grabbed me in a hug as I groaned at the pain in my leg as he crushed me to him.
"I am getting that a lot today!" I shouted at him as the building above me shook, causing the people hiding in the store to cry out and pushed him off me and began pulling the glass shard out of my leg and rolled the shemaugh in a makeshift bandage to staunch the blood as I stood up and began heading back up the stairs, favoring the leg and feeling drained.
"Lady, you are wounded. It is not wise for you to go back." Fandral said and I turned and glared at him. "You risk yourself going back into the battle."
"I'm the damn Illendrial." I said and he looked at me. "I am the battle."
I limped up the stairs, and made a ball of fire in my hand and used it to burn a Kree as he started toward me, and I screamed as another tried to shoot me where I stood. My muscles started to ache with a deep, tired pain and I knew that I had to start being more careful or I would pass out.
"The weapon!" One shouted and gestured toward me as I turned and used a pulse of energy to knock him back, and I turned and used fire on another.
"You are damn right!" I shouted, and turned using more energy to knock another through the window of the toy store across the street. I groaned and shook my head as dizziness started taking over, and I could feel the blood running down my leg as the bandage came loose. I had to ignore it though, I had to stay upright and not get distracted.
I was about to use another pulse to knock another soldier back when a flash of green and gold lifted me up off my feet and ran with me, the next thing I knew I was sheltered in a doorway and Loki was looking at me from head to toe in total shock. His hands on my face as he studied me carefully, he looked like he was struggling for something to say and I looked back at him. His eyes searched mine again, and he pushed me back against the door and kissed me so deeply, I felt everything in me break loose as I became a part of him and never wanted to let go. I wrapped my arm around the back of his neck and pulled him closer and breathed heavily as my heart bounced off my rib cage, and never wanted to stop pounding for him.
He pulled back after an eternity, and I smiled at him and blushed, my head swimming with the contact.
"I thought you..." He said and I stopped him with my finger.
"Everyone has been saying that to me, can you not?" I asked him and let my finger trail down his chin as he pulled me back to him and I kissed him again, his hand reached down to my leg and he pushed back as he looked at the blood in his fingers from the wound on my leg.
"You are bleeding." He said and frowned as he knelt down to unwrap the makeshift bandage on my leg to check the wound. Another Kree rounded the corner and aimed at us, I used a pulse of energy to knock him back as Fandral found us and finished off what I started. He turned and looked a Loki kneeling in front of me, and then up at me in confusion.
"Bad news Magic Dance, I think I am going to live." I said and groaned as Loki re wrapped the leg tightly and stood back up, I turned to see Fandral walking toward us. Loki did not notice him and looked back at me and stared into my eyes.
"Don't ever do that to me again Little Mouse. I do not wish to mistakenly mourn you again." He scolded me and pulled me close to him as I laughed into his neck.
"I'm glad to see you too Magic Dance." I said as the battle wound down and Fandral still looked at the two of us, confused as Loki helped me out of the doorway. He wrapped an arm around my waist and I stumbled and nearly fell in exhaustion but he caught me and lifted me again as I took in a breath to clear away the dizziness.
"You Asgardians sure throw a wild party." I said as a Jet flew over us and circled for a moment before setting down in the street, I shivered a bit as cold began to set into me and I felt the arms tighten around me. The back of the jet opened and Clint and Thor exited it as I began to feel dizzy again from the exhaustion and I waved at the two of them as I rested my head against Loki's shoulder. I closed my eyes and started falling asleep involuntarily, but he jerked me into alertness as he set me down and pushed me behind him
"Get behind me." Loki said and I rolled my eyes and limped back around him.
"It's cool Loki, I drove them here. They know you are on their side right now." I said and limped forward, nearly falling as my bad leg decided to give up as I walked.
"Our car got crushed." Clint said and I laughed as Loki steadied me and my head spun as the ground shifted under me, he glared at Loki and I could feel the tension building between he two men.
"Yeah, meter maids in Seattle do not mess around. I think they eat their young too." I said and Clint gave me a quick smile. "Can we please hitch a ride, and I need a better bandage if you have one please."
"Can he behave himself?" He asked and jutted his chin out at Loki, I sighed as I nearly went over onto the sidewalk and he looked at me concerned.
"I'm too tired and too bleeding to make any promises at this point." I groaned out as Clint looked at my pants leg, soaked in blood that still oozed from the wound and he uncrossed his arms and gestured for Loki to bring me aboard. I could not figure out why it was not healing and I groaned at the pain that started radiating from the leg.
"Nice Tattoo." Clint said as Fandral cane running up and looked at the jet cautiously.
"Get on Fandral, before United Airlines decide they are overbooked and have to accommodate you elsewhere." I said and I nearly fell backwards as I groaned again, Clint ran forward and grabbed my other arm to further steady me and guided me onto the jet as the rotation of the planet became too much motion for me. They guided me onto the craft, and helped me move up the ramp before Clint closed it and looked at me again. I must have been a mess.
I collapsed into a jump seat as everyone took in my leg and Thor came forward to tear the hole in my jeans wider to inspect the wound. Natasha strapped me into the seat carefully using the harness, and I groaned in pain as Clint returned with a field medical kit and began working on my leg as my eyes closed. A sharp pain snapped my eyes open again as a second piece of glass was carefully extracted from my leg and I looked down at the four inch cut that immediately began healing under Clint's work, and shrugged back as he began wrapping my thigh in gauze.
"Fucking hell." I groaned and an arm came up around my shoulders as he tied off the bandage and dug in the med kit for something else. "I just bought these jeans today."
"We will get you a new pair, and a new shirt too." He said as he worked, and Thor hovered over him like a worried mother hen. The rest of the group watched him carefully. I was pretty sure if he did anything stupid, someone would rip him a new one.
"Next time Lady Lilliana." Thor said seriously to me and I looked up. "Kindly inform us of your plans before you act on them."
I gave him a thumbs up and a sheepish smile as something dug into my hip and pulled my phone out of my pocket and groaned as I looked down at the two halves of the once awesome device.
"Right now, my plans include a shower, then a long nap, followed by a funeral for my once great cell phone." I groaned and Clint looked up at me.
"We can get you a new one of those too." He said and Sif walked over and sat down on the other side of me as I leaned over onto Loki and felt sick to my stomach. I took in some deep breaths and refused to vomit in front of everyone.
"I can approve of your current plan." She said as I breathed in slowly, my stomach threatening to reject its contents all over the place. I dropped the phone into the bag Clint had put the torn bits of my clothing into and I sighed and saw Clint begin to load a syringe with something and I shot forward to stop him.
"I'm allergic to Opiates." I said and he looked up at me and dropped the syringe back into the kit and I leaned back. I looked down at him as everyone eyed Loki and I rested my head back against his arm, and I closed my eyes as we flew off to who knows where.
"Pain is only temporary anyways." I sighed and fell blissfully asleep.
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Eric frowned more and chewed the now dead pen as he looked at the seismograph and tried desperately to will the damn thing to move. Every minute he sat in the room and waited was another minute he wished he had chosen a different career path. He shifted and looked down at his phone, debating if he should just take Terry's advice and start heading toward the Mid West with her.
He chose this job though, and he tried to keep the scream that edged into his brain at bay. Fault lines had never in the history of Geology gone completely silent like this one, this entire event was completely different and he wanted answers yesterday. He checked recorded geologic history for any thing that may have resembled this recent Seismic Event, but nothing came to light.
The White House was ignoring his memo, calling it alarmist and that he should just check or replace his equipment. He wanted to fly to Washington and smack the hell out of the current administration for not paying attention to what he said. Instead he sat and debated leaving the stated for a minimum safe distance of Montana.
"Move you son of a bitch." He said to the still needle, and willed it to move the tiniest of twitches, but it stayed painfully and terrifyingly still.
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I rubbed a towel in my hair and sighed, feeling more human than I had before the shower. I looked at my thigh where the cut was in the mirror and found not even a scar from the glass and smiled at the sight, relieved that I was lucky to not have to live with that memory in my skin. I slipped on the pair of over sized sweatpants that Natasha gave me, and pulled the Hoodie over my head as I picked up the new phone that was a gift from Tony Stark to replace my old one. Another six hours, and I would have all my music back and in another ten minutes I would have all my pictures back from The Cloud. I left it plugged into the computer on the desk and laid it back on the table next to the machine as both of them worked, turning toward the king sized bed and rubbed my face, tired from everything that had happened over the last few hours.
Current events had me more than worried at the moment.
That creepy fucker with the black eyes was still out there somewhere, and Thor was struggling to get Heimdal to open the Bifrost to get us out of here. I did my best to not cry and instead I crawled up the side of the bed, hearing the borderline erotic siren song of sleep as I pulled the blanket from the edge over me as I rolled my body to the right, effectively turning myself into a human burrito.
I closed my eyes and buried my face into a pillow, so deep in my dozing, I didn't hear the door open and shut. My eyes snapped open as I felt the mattress behind me depress and I groaned at the disturbance. Fandral had been hovering around, and it was getting beyond annoying.
"If this is Fandral, you have five seconds to piss off. Like piss all the way off." I said and turned my head, wiggling my body around to come nose to nose with Loki.
"And if it is not?" He teased me and smiled.
"You can stay, but please let me sleep." I sighed and inched a hand out of my cocoon and touched his face gently. He put an arm around me and buried his nose in my hair, and I sighed as he pulled the warm bundle of me close to him and I smiled a bit, thankful that I was unable to escape the burrito.
"I cannot begin to say how I feel seeing you alive and here." He said and I traced his jaw with my fingertips and looked at him.
"I'm sorry, I had to do something or people would have died." I said and he smiled back at me and kissed my forehead above my eyebrow,
"Go to sleep, and don't dream." He said as he tightened his arm around me and I kissed his warm lips and he let me, my eyes closed as he rolled the bundle that was me over onto my back and put his arm around me and his mouth made me sigh as he trailed down my neck with his lips. I let out a soft sound, trying to free my arms from the blanket as the door opened suddenly, my eyes popping open to see Tony, Clint, and Thor standing in the doorway.
"Cock blocked by The Avengers." I groaned and let my head drop back against the pillow.
I turned bright red and hid in my burrito of blankets as the three men looked into the room in uncomfortable silence, Thor looking at Loki who had rested back on his arm and rolled his eyes at the group in the hall. My heart stopped hammering in my chest, and I tried to scoot down further into the blanket tortilla.
"Out!" Tony said to Loki, and I groaned and tried not to cry in embarrassment and exhaustion. "And for the record, you are never allowed to play 'Hide the Evil Salami' with her. You knock her up and I am so off the galaxy!"
"What exactly does that mean?" Loki asked. Looking at me and I groaned.
"I am not explaining either one of those." I said and rolled over onto my stomach to hide my face I the pillow. "Tony, the only erotic adventure I really want to have right now, is one with sleep. I say he can stay, the rest of you have to leave."
"Don't be crude Stark." Loki said and I felt the fingers of exhaustion creep back into my brain, and I closed my eyes that felt like they were lined with sand.
"Brother, perhaps we should talk..." Thor began still in a bit of shock, and Tony cut him off.
"I'm currently not the one who wanted to make whoopie with the Pretty Reckless there." Tony shot back, and I put an hand up into my hair and lifted the pillow to hide from the irritating sound of the voices in the room and wanted to scream. Instead I settled for reaching my arm out and picking up the battery powered alarm clock in the table next to me and closing my hand around it.
"It is so lovely to see you have matured since we last met." Loki replied coolly and I tightened my grip on the clock.
"Can I just sleep please?" I groaned out again, and I saw Clint shift uncomfortably as he tried to ignore the entire thing he had just seen.
"Do you even hear what I am saying?" Stark said.
"Perhaps she will rest better alone?" Thor suggested and I rolled aggressively onto my back and sat up and threw the alarm clock, missing everyone completely. It bounced off the wall and broke, the pieces clattered against the floor, breaking apart further and I growled in frustration.
"Oh my God!" I shouted. "I am twenty years old, and allowed to make decisions for myself, now everyone just shut the hell up and let me sleep."
Natasha walked into the room and looked at the scene and she sighed as she saw Loki and I on the bed, she then looked down at the broken alarm clock and raised an eyebrow at all of us. She shrugged as Tony crossed his arms, and I flopped back on the pillow.
"I heard yelling, this must be what you meant by him growing on you." She said calmly, and I rooted back into my blanket and I shifted around, extricating myself from the quilt and sitting back up.
"I give up," I said and pulled the quilt up and nearly tripping over it in my anger. "Now that this is Party Central, and no one thinks I am allowed to make decisions for myself, I am going somewhere else to sleep."
I pushed past everyone in anger and padded down the hall toward the front room, where Sif looked up from a tablet she was studying as she sat in a chair and looked at me concerned. I collapsed onto the couch and leaned over, pulling my knees up to my chest and put the blanket over my face, tucking the rest of it around me and closed my eyes.
"Why are you out here?" Sif asked and I pulled the blanket down from my face and looked at her with one eye.
"The bedroom got too crowded." I said and she looked toward the hall to see Loki turn the corner into the room, following me and she pulled her sword and held it to his neck. I jumped up and dove over the back of the couch and put myself between the two of them. I was getting tired of everyone threatening him with swords or beating him up.
"Sif! No!" I shouted and put my hands out to stop her from killing him, she looked at me with a shocked expression and she lowered her sword as Fandral looked at the three of us and put two and two together, he glared at Loki silently.
"Please tell me, you are not going to tell me that I am not allowed to make decisions for myself too." I said to her and I walked out from between the two of them as Sif put her sword away and I sat heavily in a chair and buried my face in my hands and groaned. A warm cup was put into my hands and I took a deep breath from the cup of tea, smelling the warm earthy blend. I took a careful sip and looked at Natasha gratefully and sighed, feeling detached from my body as the cat I was not ready to be let out of its bag was freed, hissing and screaming into public view.
The rest of the group filed into the room, and I sighed, pressing the cup against my forehead and looked up at everyone. My head was starting to pound from lack of sleep, and I was aching all over. My eyes fought to close, and I groaned as I sipped more of the warm liquid and the room became overly tense. I took another sip of the tea, and sighed as my back slouched forward and I stood up slowly.
"This is good." I said to Natasha, and I walked over to the picture window that over looked Snoqualmie Ridge and sipped more tea as I watched it start to rain.
"Can we all address what we saw?" Tony said and I continued to look out the window, not caring about what they thought at the moment.
"Can you all just shut the hell up about it?" I asked and Loki nodded his agreement about it as I drained the last of the mug and walked over to Loki and handed Tony the mug. Natasha took it and she sighed in the awkwardness.
"You are probably the most powerful being in the entire room, and we may not want this going on too far." Tony replied and I turned and walked back over to Loki and sighed and I shifted.
"And your point about that?" I asked, feeling extra bitchy.
"You are the most hunted person in the universe, you are scared maybe you have not made the best life choices right now?" Tony said and I rolled my eyes and groaned at him.
"I am twenty years old, and still a human being the last time I checked." I said and walked over to the couch and grabbed the quilt off of it and struggled to wrap it around my shoulders, Loki took it from me and draped it over me as I stood staring at Tony and everyone else in the room in defiance.
"God damn, chicks sure do dig jerks." Tony said and looked up exasperated.
"I am allowed to choose what I want or do not want in my life!" I screamed at the room, Loki put his hands on my shoulders to calm me and I sighed. "It is my life, and I can do what I want with it."
"Perhaps anger is not a good thing from you right now." Loki suggested and I took in several deep breaths.
"You know a situation is really bad when he becomes the voice of reason." Clint said and I felt dizzy and nearly fell backwards, Loki catching me and I took several more deep breaths to reclaim myself from the vertigo.
Everyone looked at me with concern, and I shook my head as my feet gave out and I started falling toward the ground and felt Loki's arms wrap around me to guide me down, a hand cradled my head and I groaned. Clint ran forward and took my pulse as I leaned back against Loki, he stood up next to the two of us and left the room quickly to get something. My head was spinning and I couldn't find the floor with both hands as I lay back and tried not to loose my mind and self control at that moment.
"You always have options Lady, and you..." Thor started as I glared up at him in anger, his voice trailed off and he shifted from one foot to the other.
"And I'm what Thor?" I said letting all my frustrations out as I stood back up on shaky feet.
"A bullet in the chamber of a gun waiting for someone to pull the goddamn trigger? A foolish little girl with starry eyes? Which is it?" I said and pointed at him as I stepped toward him. "I became painfully aware of what I was when you kidnapped me and forced me to give up my humanity two weeks ago, and guess who gave it back to me the whole time I was stuck with all of you! He was the first person to actually treat me like I was someone instead of something, where were you through all that? Where were you when I had no idea how to protect myself and vulnerable on a beach? So don't be surprised how this worked out the way it did, I am so tired of being treated like I am nothing more than a weapon and damn novelty! I do not regret anything that has happened over the last few days and I refuse to allow anyone to convince me that it is a mistake."
Clint returned to the room as everyone looked at me, I wrapped the blanket tighter around myself, holding up a syringe and approaching with caution. I looked at him cautiously, and at the meds in his hand as I stepped back.
"Your heart rate is all over the place, it is a mild sedative to help you sleep." He said and I looked down at the floor.
"I don't want to be this monster anymore." I said and I let Clint roll up my sleeve and start cleaning the inside of my arm with an alcohol soaked pad.
"This will help you sleep, you need it more than anything else right now." He said and I laughed sardonically at him, and he winked at me as he inserted the needle and pulled the plunger back pulling in some blood before he pressed on it slowly. He put his thumb over a gauze pad and removed the needle and bent my elbow back as he disposed of everything.
"You do not make a fair assessment of yourself." Loki said and I turned my head toward him. "You are so much more than you perceive, your brilliance is one of the better qualities you possess, your wisdom has guided you, and you have a strength to stand behind your convictions that few possess. You are brave, and are quick to learn, but wise enough to allow yourself to be guided in the decisions you make. Not many beings would sacrifice themselves for a city of strangers that once rejected them, you have risen as I have watched you. From a feral, frightened creature to a wonderful woman, you have within you the power to shape and create a future that is far more brilliant than the one we are currently in. I am proud to be the one who has guided you in your learning, and helped you to take the first steps to control the power in you."
"You never were a weapon, you are a true Goddess in your own right, and any being who dares to challenge that will have to answer to me." He said and I blinked at him as I stood quietly, staring at the gathered people.
Loki crossed his arms and looked at Thor and Tony and the rest of the room looked back at him in disbelief as I looked down at the tile, the sedative working toward my brain.
"Wow." Tony said and I looked at him. "You have it really bad for her."
I rolled my eyes and Thor laughed in a deep, throaty chuckle.
"We may not be of blood, but I still call you sister." Thor said. "And I am honored to call you that, as is Sif."
I smiled as Sif came forward and put an arm around me, and she hugged me.
"No offense," I said and laughed a bit as I felt high from the sedative. "But we are so one messed up family, but that may just be the best part. You guys are the dysfunctional family I always wanted. What do we do next about the guy hunting me, this other half of the soul that made me?"
"You are going to have to face him and kill him." Loki said and looked openly sad at the words he had uttered. "It will be the only way to reclaim the other half of your being, and your powers will become complete. You will also be able to live without fear of him coming for you one day. My fear however, is you facing him alone and weakened."
"We are all here." Volstagg said, and I smiled at him.
"Want to be an Avenger kid?" Clint asked me and I laughed at the offer, looking at Loki.
"Sure," I replied. "Can Loki join the band too? I hear he is pretty damn good on guitar."
"This is about to get interesting, I knew I should have just stayed in bed today." Tony said and the whole room laughed, Loki included and I sighed and smiled up at him.
"We are all going to stop this being, one way or another." Thor said and We all looked at him as I yawned openly and rubbed my eyes with the quilt.
"You need rest." Sif said, and guided me toward the hall, Loki following us and I saw Tony and Thor look at the parade as we walked by.
"Wait, him?" Tony said and I rolled my eyes at him.
"Yes, him." I said and looped my arm through Loki's. "He at least has more goals than the last guy I dated."
"Let it go Stark." Thor said and looked at his friend. "Sif will kill him if he breaks her heart."
I laughed as Sif nodded and guided me down the hall, I sighed as we walked Loki put his hand on my shoulder and I looked up at him and smiled as my eyes fought to stay open.
"Yes Stark, I will be a gentleman." He said over his shoulder and I wrapped myself in the blanket.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
She had fallen asleep as soon as she had laid her head on the pillow, and stayed in that state for approximately three hours now. Loki glanced up at her from the book he was idly reading, pausing as she shifted on the bed and settled her body into a different position. He returned to the book and had read another four pages about the fall of the Empire of Rome when he looked up to see Natasha standing in the doorway, holding some clothes in her hands.
"I managed to dig these up." She said and he regarded her with indifference as he closed the book and set it up on the desk.
"I will show them to her when she wakes up." He replied calmly as Lilliana shifted and moaned on the bed again as she settled back into sleep, her foot poking out from under the quilt as she pulled the blanket up over her in her sleep. Loki stood and leaned over the bed on one hand to pull the quilt back over her foot as Natasha smiled amused at him, he straightened and stretched himself.
"She is pretty far out, the sedative Clint gave her will help her stay out at least until morning." She said and folded the shirt and pants up, setting them both on the table as she turned to him.
"I can break you for a bit if you want to go get something to eat." She said and glanced down at the sleeping girl.
Loki deliberated leaving her, and shifted a bit on his feet as Natasha looked at him and she pulled a folded magazine out of her back pocket. He sighed, and looked at her coolly and she motioned for him to go eat. He walked to the door as she sat down on the couch and relaxed back into the cushions as she flipped through the magazine. She glanced back up at him and sighed, and set the book in her lap.
"Go eat, I will get you if anything changes. I doubt it though, she is going to sleep better than any of us." She said and picked the glossy paged book and began reading quietly.
"We could have a massive earthquake and she would not notice." Natasha said and glanced up at him as he turned from the woman and walked down the hall with his hands behind his back to the front room. Everyone stopped talking among themselves and looked up at him as he approached the table where a buffet of food was spread out and Volstagg looked up at him as he looked at the spread.
Some things on the platters and in the trays, he recognized immediately and other things he inwardly wished he had Lilliana with him to guide him through selecting. He picked up a few of the small round tomatoes and looked around at everyone, aware that he was being watched.
"The ribs are rather good, there is a wonderful sauce on them tha' Clint made." Volstagg said and belched to himself as Clint walked into the house through a glass door carrying another tray of meat from outside.
"It is called Barbecue Sauce, and that is a secret family recipe." Clint said and piled the plate of meat in the tray on the table. "I'm going to put a plate together for your friend Loki, she is probably going to be hungry when she wakes up. Can you tell her it will be in the refrigerator when she wakes up?"
"I shall, and I am sure she will appreciate it greatly." Loki replied as he ate a tomato and motioned for a can of Coke from the ice filled bucket on the table. Clint handed it to him and he nodded his thanks.
"She get you to like those?" Clint asked and smiled, trying to make conversation.
"Among a few other things." Loki replied as the doors to a lab off the main room opened and Tony walked in and picked up some carrots from the tray and bit off of one.
"How is Sleeping Beauty?" Tony asked as he chewed and glanced at the open can of Coke in his hand with a look of surprise.
"Still asleep." Loki replied and narrowed his eyes at Stark as he ate the last tomato in his hand and took a drink from the can. "She will most likely be asleep until morning, she exhausted herself and needs to recover from the strain she put on herself. The Sedative you gave he worked well Barton."
"Glad to help her, her heart rate get like that after she runs out of steam?" Clint asked and Loki nodded to him.
"Good, good." Tony said as Thor approached the trio and stood off to the side. Tony crossed his arms and looked at everyone in the immediate area and sighed.
"Because I had Friday run a search on Little Miss. Sunshine in there, and wow, is she ever a powder keg waiting to explode." He said waving his hands as he talked.
"What do you mean?" Thor asked and crossed his arms, obviously not liking what was being said about Lilliana.
"Yes Stark, what are you getting at?" Loki said and looked from Thor to him sighing.
"Well, for one, her juvenile record is a mile long, court mandated psychologists can't give her one set diagnosis at all because she refused to cooperate. Placed in and out of Foster Homes throughout the years. Not one but three suicide attempts, that least one ending with her attacking a ER Doctor as they tried to pump her stomach, and to add a very morbid touch to her life, her ex boyfriend was found slaughtered with two other men in his apartment today." Tony said and took a breath as Thor stepped forward.
"She would argue that she is not her past now." Thor said and Loki agreed with the oaf in that statement. He was angry that she would make an attempt against her own life, and was hopeful that it would never happen again.
"If you are suggesting locking her away, you should know that I doubt any prison could hold her." Loki added, and glared at Stark.
"That I am well aware of, which is why I am going to ask you to get her off the planet as fast as you can. As a precaution, to prevent someone or another government entity from trying to take her out." Tony said and Loki started pacing.
"I will agree with you there, she is safest in Asgard. However, something or someone is preventing us from reaching out to Heimdal Stark." Loki pointed out and looked at Thor. "And between you and I, should any being in this universe try to harm a single hair on her head, I will personally see that the offending person gets no rest from the Hel I have planned for them."
"That I believe." Thor said, and looked around the room at everyone as Natasha walked down the hall toward them, Loki looking at her as she walked over to the table and grabbed a few things onto a plate and looked at the men.
"I'm hungry, and she is still asleep." She said as she stood in the loose circle. "I don't think she needs a keeper every minute of the day."
Everyone looked at him in the quiet and he sighed, ashamed for what he allowed them to see of him as he looked at the people around him quietly, the only person in this small building worth his attention for that matter was the sleeping girl down the hall.
"It still does not solve the problem of this person who wants to kill her." Sif said and walked over to join the circle and everyone regarded her with a nod.
"We don't even know where this guy is, could he be the reason all of you can't jump planet?" Tony asked and Loki knotted his eyebrows in thought.
"It is possible, and he will know she is still not strong enough to take all of us back to Asgard with her. For the time, I took the liberty of using some of my gifts to conceal us all from his sight." Loki said and Thor nodded appreciatively at him.
"Very wise for now Brother." He said and Loki nodded, not showing his arrogance.
"Yeah," Clint said. "The last thing we need is to put up a flag to show this guy where we are while she is helpless."
"Now for the big problem," Tony said. "Do we tell Fury about her or no."
"I say later, after they leave." Clint said and Natasha nodded as she looked at everyone else.
"Keeping her here is like ringing a giant dinner bell into the cosmos, and she is still learning how to control her abilities. She will be safer, and we will be safer as well if we waited. Fury will try to keep here here." Natasha said and took in a deep breath as the group stood in silence for a long time. They all knew that something was coming, but did not know what.
"Here is something else that Friday found that I did omit." Tony said and looked around the room. "She is hyper intelligent, like way smarter than me. If she did not have the record she currently has, any school would pay her for the honor of her attending their institution. I don't say people are smarter than me often, but she is, by far. Her SAT scores were perfect, and her papers she wrote for scientific journals in High School were brilliant, beyond brilliant in fact."
"Her thesis she wrote at fifteen on the historical impacts of Volcanic Eruptions, using a period of History called the Little Ice Age, was mind blowing for someone that age to make such a strong connection. She should be studying and developing new technology. No one should be studying her, she deserves a lab and unlimited funding to play with. Loki is right when he says she could change the world if she wanted. I am still reading all of her reports and papers, and she is definitely someone we should all watch." Tony said and leaned against the wall behind him. Everyone in the room went quiet, and Loki looked at all the faces around him as they studied Stark for his motive.
"What do you want with her Stark?" Loki asked the question everyone was thinking and understood the excitement that Stark felt after learning about her genius, but still felt concern for Lilliana's well being.
"I want to see her go to the best school in the world, her record is what holds her back from finishing her education. Get her in full control of her powers, and I will pay for everything she needs to finish her education." Tony urged, waving his hands as he talked again.
Loki looked at Stark and thought about the offer, all her dreams in one package to be handed to her, and he looked at the group as Natasha blinked at the arrogant man.
"That is quite generous Stark." Loki said and Thor nodded as well as Sif who smiled a bit. Loki turned down to hall to return to his watch, pausing briefly to think as he looked at the wall.
"Make your offer to her when she can control her gifts." He said and took in a breath. "But let her choose the path she sees fit for her."
Loki returned to the room thinking, and saw her still sleeping. The quilt pooled around her waist and he carefully pulled it up over her, dimming the lights before returning to his post on the couch. Looking out the window at the darkened sky beyond, he thought of her happiness at hearing the offer Stark was going to hand her. He smiled thinking of her bent over books and reading all she could, her mind being filled with the wisdom of the men who also sought to expand their knowledge, her nurtured mind exploring and creating as she furthered herself toward her goals.
He sighed at the thought and watched her as she shifted quietly and rubbed his own eyes wearily, sinking back into the cushions of the couch and closed his eyes.