A/N: I need to wrap up The Avengers and move onto Iron Man 3 but instead I'm just making things more complicated. By the way, I keep naming chapters 'Thor' because I need more people to appreciate him.

Chapter 10 — Thor III

"Where's the line, Fury?" Antonia Stark demands, and Natasha almost shares a knowing look with her boss. Director Fury just rolls his eyes at the heiress's tirade. Romanoff commends the woman for her work, though. It's just the right combination of righteous fury and sexy female passion to get everyone's attention when she needs it.

Even Natasha's a little starstruck. In the time she took her eyes off of the demigod and Banner to look at Stark, Thor's done something, and Natasha wants to know what.

She sees no reason to stop Stark from leaving the Helicarrier. Whether or not Stark cooperates is of little consequence at this point. They still have Banner and a team of relatively competent scientists to work with—and speaking of Banner, he does not look as green as Natasha anticipated.

That makes her prickle. She shouldn't have put so much stock in Loki's smug words. Just because the megalomaniac believes he can set loose the beast doesn't mean Banner will lose control. Coulson and Fury agreed with her on this, actually: of all the members being recruited for the Avengers Initiative, it's Stark, not Banner, that seemed the most likely to break rank.

Though only Clint would've known Stark would break this quickly, over something as trivial as weapons. Natasha disregards most of what Stark says, even as she charges past Fury and out of the Helicarrier.

Natasha fully believes that Stark's not out, not in the way she might claim. The woman may be difficult, but she has a sense of duty like the rest of them do. The difficult part is piecing together what she's doing. Toni Stark takes great pleasure in leaving SHIELD out of the loop.

Stark herself is unimportant. What intrigues Natasha right now—besides Loki, who's far too happy in his cell at the moment—is still Thor.

He's done something. Natasha can see it in every tense movement he makes. Banner drifts to the far corner of the room and Thor follows like a giant protective shadow. As far as Natasha knows, the two of them haven't spoken more than two words to each other. With Stark's exit, the shouting has all stopped, and Banner isn't nearly as likely to lose control now. And yet the Norse God is two feet from the doctor, speaking to him in a quiet, calm tone.

Natasha turns her attention back to Steve, who is understandably lost. He frowns at her, and she raises her eyebrows at him, then looks to Thor and Bruce on the other side of the room.

Rogers frowns even more, confused, but follows her gaze. As the Captain's expression shifts from confused to suspicious, Natasha strides out of the lab. While Steve figures out what Stark's done to the alien and the scientist, she needs to take a closer look at their prisoner.

"Back so soon?" The demigod's eyes glimmer in amusement. "Your tactics don't work twice, so I wonder what you'll try this time?"

This time, Natasha needs no pretenses. She drags a folded metal chair to the edge of the railing and sinks into the seat without a word. Loki paces in his cell, trying and failing to pretend he's not interested in what she has to say.

She lets him simmer, leaning back in her chair, leaving her fingers laced together and resting on her waist. His eyes flicker over her figure a few times, sometimes in suspicion, sometimes in appreciation. Natasha lets it go on.

He cracks after fifteen minutes.

"What is it you want from me?" He erupts, striding towards her.

Natasha stands as well, swiftly walking over to the control panel. Loki stops short as she activates the doors without preamble, letting in a great gust of wind and frigid air.

He looks down at the drop below him, nostrils flaring in anger as he backs off.

When he's in the center of his cell again, Natasha shuts the doors and returns to her seat.

"So I've gained a personal guard, is that it?" Loki asks after a moment, his voice cool and collected once more. "I suppose I prefer this view to the alternative." Green eyes slide over her figure. It's supposed to be insulting, slimy, but oddly, she doesn't think he's putting enough effort into it.

Romanoff arches one perfect eyebrow. "An hour ago you were calling me a mewling quim." She won't be forgetting that one for a while. But where is that vitriol now?

Loki shrugs. "What's your people's saying? 'I contain… multitudes.'"

"You also said my people were insects to you," Natasha states blandly.

"Are you looking for an explanation?" Loki demands suddenly, his mouth twisting unhappily. "You'll find none here. So sorry to disappoint, but I do not answer to anyone, certainly not some silly little mortal like you."

Natasha only raises her eyebrow again, tilting her head to the side. "I didn't ask anything."

Loki's face falls for a millisecond before he scowls and turns away. "Be silent, woman."

"But you wanted to talk in the first place."

"Silence!" He sneers, looking around the room. But then he asks, "Have they truly tasked you with minding me? How curious, that you would be reduced to this."

Natasha sees no point in feigning offense. Loki is obviously trying to needle her again, but he isn't very good at it. What's more interesting is that he's attempting to provoke her at all.

She tilts her head to one side and ruminates, "You want me to leave. I think that means I should stay."

Loki's eyes gleam in anger, and he opens his mouth to respond when the entire ship shudders abruptly, and alarms begin to blare around them. Natasha stands and presses on her communicator.

"Hill?"

"Agent Romanoff, we have hostiles entering in sector four, five and seven, they are arms and trained—they're ours, they're—we need to keep this contained—"

"You know who they're here for," Natasha reminded Agent Hill smoothly, though she does not look at Loki.

"They'll damage the ship enough to ground us before they reach the prisoner. We need to stop them now before they go after a second turbine. If they knock us out of the air, we're done. You have your orders, Romanoff." Hill says tersely, and Natasha leaves without sparing Loki another glance.

Taking ownership of the freaky weapon is the worst decision ever. Why did he agree to this? He doesn't have a plan. No one told Steve there even was a plan until the last minute.

Damn you, Stark. Steve thinks irritably, but he also understands the logic. Part of it, at least. She's probably right to keep the scepter away from Loki, it has the same look and feel of those HYDRA weapons he encounters so many years ago, but Stark shouldn't have gone off to find the Cube on her own. Regret stirs in his gut. Stark went off on her own for a reason. I should've said something when she confronted Director Fury about his weapons program. Maybe she would've trusted me to help her.

Steve should be on the ground with Ms. Stark, stopping Selvig from activating that portal—not playing hide and seek with brainwashed agents. This feels more like a Black Widow assignment. How the hell is he supposed to hide a giant box, his brightly-colored shield, and six feet of super-soldier?

At least SHIELD has an endless supply of—well, supply closets. Steve's currently sequestered in a particularly tiny one in sector four, and he can hear a lot of heavy fire just down the hall.

Where do I even go? Steve wonders to himself. Who can I contact? Toni's gone, Banner's compromised, Thor's trying to contain him—Natasha.

He presses carefully on his comm. "Agent Romanoff, where are you?"

He hears a lot of noise and screams in the background, and then the distinctive sound of a body dropping to the floor. "Where are you? I'm in your sector, why am I the only one fighting? This seems like your sort of thing."

Steve grimaces at the package in his arms. "I had a feeling you'd say that."

The penthouse is quiet. Not eerily quiet, but empty and echo-y just enough so Toni can't relax. Her helmet stays in place, her HUD is up and running, and Selvig is on the floor below her.

She goes down the stairs in full armor and scans the room with every step.

Selvig has moved the device inside by the time she arrives. She can see, even from across the room, that his eyes are bright blue like Barton's. Toni can only assume he's still under the influence of the scepter.

I don't know how to bring him back, Toni realizes in dismay. She'd hoped that distancing Loki from the scepter would weaken his control, but that wasn't the case with Clint, and Selvig looks happy to be here.

"Selvig, you need to disable that thing," Toni says quietly. Erik's not a fighter. Loki might not have given him the same orders as Clint. This could end without Selvig getting hurt. Her mind flashes back to Clint, looking beaten and exhausted beyond his years, as he draws another arrow from his quiver and she raises her repulsor. This is all so wrong.

Toni takes a deep, calming breath. "I don't want to hurt you. Just step back and I'll do it, okay?"

Erik Selvig blinks a few times, but the bright blue is still there. He cocks his head to the side and frowns. He looks crazy, half from the scepter and half from the science bender he's been on. She imagines Selvig hasn't slept in a week. "I know you, Ms. Stark. You should help us," he says simply. There's nothing sinister in his tone, just frankness.

"Uh, yeah, no." Toni scoffs, but she lets her faceplate drop as she speaks. "I'm not too eager for our alien overlords to arrive, actually. Not sure I'd fit in with Loki's crowd."

Erik seems to relax as she speaks. "You're a talented person. Fury should've brought you in on our research. You're wasted as this—" he gestures to her suit, "as this Avenger thing."

She raises a skeptical eyebrow. "Right now this Avenger is the only thing standing in the way of, y'know, alien invaders. Speaking of which—"

"No, Stark, you're not," Erik interrupts her, and then he shifts his stance to stand taller. Toni waits patiently. "You're not in the way."

Oh.

"JARVIS—"

An arrow whizzes through the open terrace windows and rips between the metal plates covering her shoulder.

An arrow. "...Clint?"

The pain doesn't register at first. The blow jerks her back, twisting her sideways and leaving her open to the window, but she doesn't feel it. Maybe it's shock, or adrenaline, or exhaustion. She doesn't feel the armor-piercing arrow buried next to her collarbone. She just looks at it, and thinks, Clint.

Another arrow flashes by, pinning her other arm, and then, finally, her mind catches up and Toni screams.

Natasha listens in silence as Steve gives her the rundown. She was right to have him investigate, rather than pursue this herself. Stark's paranoia is strong, and with the way Thor and Bruce acted around her, they wouldn't have entrusted the scepter to Natasha.

Steve, on the other hand.

"Give the scepter to me. You'll need to stop Loki from getting off the ship."

"Right," Steve nods, and then Natasha is alone among fallen agents, holding the large, rectangular containment unit in her arms.

She gets to the hangar with little trouble. The Hulk and Thor are on the far side of the ship, bashing each other into walls. She inputs coordinates and then the quinjet is off—the ship takes a few hits from enemy jets, but they stop abruptly. When she looks at the cameras the Hulk is there, tearing jets apart for hitting him too. The green monster turns and roars at her plane, but she's out of his range, and her heartbeat slows as she realizes this.

The Helicarrier is almost out of sight when Natasha checks the cameras again—just in time to see a huge container drop out from the ship, hurling towards the earth.

She hopes that it's Loki. She knows it isn't.

He's falling. Oh God, he's falling.

The world spins wildly out his control, and he can't get the angle right to smash the glass. He's not sure he even can. Steve grunts as he crashes into the floor again, but he can't bring the shield around the hit anything. He can't steady himself.

He can see the ground in flashes of green and brown.

"Can—can anyone hear me?!" He shouts, but he can barely listen for an answer with the sound of his heart pounding against his ribcage. Just a month ago, he'd been ready to die for his country, and then he did but now he's going to do it all over again, isn't he?

He smashes against another wall, rattling his helmet. Steve bites back a curse. What use is having a team if they're scattered like this? What use is Steve if he dies like this, and then the Earth is invaded?

"Fuck!" He shouts, and then the container flips, revealing a blur of red as it shatters through the glass.

Romanoff finally accesses the live feed from the Helicarrier, remotely hacking into the servers. The containment room is empty, but she doesn't have time to look through footage to see who fell.

She catches the tail-end of Loki's demands. The Director being held by the throat. Agents Coulson and Hill, beaten and bloodied. The Helicarrier hasn't been lost, but if they take any more damage…

Romanoff makes the only choice she can.

Her voice is smooth, smug, all the things she doesn't feel right cuts in before Loki's hand crushes Fury's throat.

"Hey there Loki. I hear you're looking for your stick."

And then he gazes at the screen, through the screen, and Natasha knows, at least, that she has neutralized the threat on the Helicarrier. This battle is over, and though SHIELD took heavy losses, they're still in the air, and they'll be useful in the next fight.

Now, the threat is coming to New York.

Stark's going to kill her.

When Toni wakes up—but when did I fall asleep?—she is flat on her back, and there's something heavy pressing on her chest. She jerks, trying to dislodge it, and is reminded of the two arrows lodged in her shoulders. She swears, and sense movement to her right.

"Erik," Toni exhales shakily, eyeing the physicist. "Erik, what did you do?"

"I'm sorry, Ms. Stark. I really am. It's such a waste!" Erik shakes his head, fiddling with a large connecting cable. She knows that device. She made those cables. "You're more useful as a scientist than a battery."

No, no, no.

"Selvig," Toni's eyes grow wide with horror. "Selvig, you can't," she tries to explain it logically, but what comes out is a plea. "It won't work. You can't. You can't use this one, it's—it's not enough to activate your portal."

"Hm," Selvig tilts his head to the side. "You know, you might survive. I didn't get to finish the calculations."

"Then don't test it out now!" She snaps desperately. "Damn it, damn it, where's Hawkeye? I know you're here, you bird fucker! Your intel is wrong, my reactor isn't the same as the tower's! Get over here!"

She hears the heavy steps of combat boots approaching. Toni cranes her head up to look at him. Clint's covered in bruises and seemed to be in the middle of wrapping his injuries. He gives her a plain, uninterested look.

Toni takes a moment to stop herself from screaming and sobbing in frustration because her stupid agent friend looks half dead and it's not just Loki that's done this, it's her, she just beat him up and it accomplished nothing.

"Barton… Clint, it's not going to work," Toni explains softly. She isn't sure of this yet, but she has to stall at least. "I built all this, and I know it won't work. If you turn on that thing I'm gonna die, and that's it."

Hawkeye's expression doesn't change.

Toni feels like exploding. "Okay, fine! I'll get fried, but at least you'll all look like idiots in front of your fuckin' alien overlord!" Seriously, what did that scepter do to them? How were they still under its influence?

A horrible thought comes to mind. Loki got the scepter back. Which can only happen if Thor and Banner lost it? The two heaviest hitters on this farce of a team couldn't hold on to one measly magic wand?

No, that's not it. Toni's brow furrows in thought. Either the scepter was already back in Loki's grubby mitts, or the scepter continues to compel its victims until they are released from its control, or the compulsion can only be altered by entering new instructions via scepter.

Option three is probably the worst conclusion since none of them have a clue how to operate magic wands, so Toni puts that theory on the backburner.

Maybe Loki does have his magic stick again. Maybe… Toni's eyes flicker around the room. There are only a few other people around, helpers for Selvig. Loki compelled a lot more agents than this, so maybe there's another division tasked with something else.

Such as breaking Loki out of jail, and keeping the rest of SHIELD and the "team" occupied. They would certainly have the skillset to do it, as rogue field agents.

She should've taken Banner off the Helicarrier. If they were ambushed in the air, the Hulk was enough to take out the rest of them.

Damn it, damn it, damn it. Toni was wrong to come here. She was right about the whole Stark Tower strategy, but yeah. Dumb move, Stark.

Clint looks down on her vacantly. "Boss contacted me. They're en route, so we're on standby 'till then."

Toni blinks. "Fuck, wait, the horned frog is already out of the cage?" Of course, all she gets are blank stares in response. "Aw, come on. You know that's funny, Selvig. You've seen Loki's antlers. And all the green, it's hideous." She insists.

"You know, we could just test out the machine now," Erik replies cheerfully, tapping a screwdriver against the metal framework. "Without access to your designs, I don't know the exact power conversion I need. I might need to do a few tests."

Toni squints at Selvig. "Wait. Are you threatening me, or is that just your professional opinion?"

Selvig chuckles and shrugs. "I don't know!"

"...Well, you see, that is part of the problem," Thor is explaining to Bruce as the two of them exit the crater made in an old warehouse. The Asgardian lifts his head to Steve, waiting by a pickup truck. "We do not have the scepter anymore."

"Steve," Bruce greets him, surprised. Steve pushes off from the old truck he's leaning heavily on. "You look worse than me," the doctor blurts out and then looks apologetic. "I mean, well—"

Steve holds up a tired hand. "I get it. And the scepter's with Romanoff now, unless Loki caught her. We should head to Manhattan, meet up with Stark."

Bruce eyes him. "Are you… Are you alright, Steve? How'd you end up out here?"

A whirlwind of sky and earth. Screaming into the comms, with no answer. Steve grimaces, and pushes down the memory, same as the ice. "I fell off the ship." Steve glances at Thor gratefully. "I'm glad we have you around, Thor."

The Norse God offers him an understanding smile and gives Steve a hard pat on the back. It reminds Steve abruptly of Bucky, back when they were kids and Steve was the skinny one. "I'm sure you will return the favor on the battlefield, Captain. Now, I think our shield-sisters need us."

Steve lifts his head, lightened by Thor's steady presence. Bruce nods as well, a new look of resolution in his eyes. "Let's go, gentlemen."