Mind control is a tricky thing. Not that Clint had a lot of experience with actual swear-to-Thor mind control, but he'd seen his fair share of manipulation and conditioning in action to know that it's not as simple to overthrow as comic books and action movies make it seem. Battling mind control, he's found, was a lot like battling a bad panic attack.

When one is trapped in their mind the best thing to guide themselves out of it logically. So, Clint did just that, battling Loki's hold on him by grasping anything his senses could pick up and grounding himself into the physical space rather than the mental. He focused on the biting chill of the metal chair where his shirt had ridden up just enough for it to make contact with his skin; the texture of the constraints around his wrists that tightened along with his clenching fists; the slight breeze the brushed an out of place hair against his temple; even the near silent breathing of his red-headed companion. He tallied in his head each exhale of breath, and mentally went through each part of his body and relaxed the individual muscles there.

It was a long process, one that he was sure felt longer than it actually was, but eventually his body and mind responded and it was like his consciousness finally settled back into his own skin. He could see through the haze of blue that had clouded his vision. He felt safer, well as safe as one could get tied to a chair. His mind, while acutely aware of his surroundings, was less active with energy that had focus rather than no place to go.

Natasha silently watched over her partner as he struggled to shake Loki's mind control. He pulled against the restrained, but his efforts waned along with the the cloudiness of his eyes. It wasn't until she could see Clint again that she chose to speak.

"You're gonna be alright."

He bristled, seeming offended at her assurances. "You know that? Is that what you know?" He grit his teeth in noiseless growl, his breath still heavy despite its evenness. "I've got… I've got to go in though. I've got to flush him out."

"We don't have that long. It's going to take time."

"I don't understand." This time there was an audible growl. "Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Pull you out and send someone else in? Do you know what it's like to be unmade?"

Her eyes tightened. "You know that I do."

He shook his head, mentally dusting the cobwebs even farther. "Why am I back? How did you get him out?"

"Cognitive recalibration." A pause. "I hit you really hard in the head."

"Thanks." He let out a huff that might have been a laugh, and she stood to unfasten his wrists now that he appeared to be more himself. "Tasha…" He trailed off before continuing. "How many agents?"

She stopped mid buckle. "Don't." She stared him head in the eye. "Don't do that to yourself, Clint. This is Loki. This is monsters and magic and nothing we were ever trained for."

She could tell he wasn't about to let himself off the hook but he dropped it for now. "Loki, he got away?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I don't suppose that you know where?"

"I didn't need to know," he bit out, frustrated at himself once again. "I didn't ask. He's gonna make his play soon though. Today."

"We have to stop him."

"Yeah?" Clint raised an eyebrow at her as she finished with the last of the restraints, rubbing his wrists. "Who's we?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "Whoever's left."

"Well, if I put an arrow in Loki's eye socket, I'd sleep better I suppose."

Natasha smirked. "Now you sound like you." She sat down next to him as he pulled his legs over the side of the chair.

"But you don't," he argued lightly. "You're a spy, not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?"

"He didn't, I just…"

"Natasha." He was prodding. He knew it, and she knew it, but she decided to give him a little bit anyway as a sign of trust between the two - something that was desperately needed to let him know that she was still on his side in all of this.

"I've been compromised," she admitted. "I've got red in my ledger, and I'd like to wipe it out." She let out her version of a sigh and stood, offering her partner a hand and cutting off that line of thought before he could ask further. "Come on. Let's go see who's all left."

A set of blood-stained Captain America trading cards hit the table with a small but resounding slap. Every person seated around the room flinched, even if not all of them did so externally.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket," Director Fury said with little emotion. "Guess he never did get you to sign them."

Steve was the first to move, reaching forward to pick them up with a look of numb shock. The devastation was evident in his eyes, and it matched that of his companions.

Natasha, having just sat down with Clint, put a hand on her partners knee in support. She knew that he had a deep history with the man and could feel his tension over the sudden knowledge of his death so soon after coming out of Loki's control.

Thor, who'd fought to calm the Hulk before returning to Jane, offered his female companion a body to lean on. She'd never been a fan of the agent, but had never wished death upon him. His demise made the situation that much more real for her and everyone else seated with them.

"We're dead in the air up here," Fury said, pacing in front of the glass windows looking down upon the main bridge. "Our communications, location of the cube, Banner. I've got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming." The implication of his words sunk itself deep into everyone's gut. He stared out at the other people scurrying about on the opposite side of the glass and let a contemplative silence surround the group before continuing.

"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes."

Tony stood suddenly, and everyone thought he was going to leave for a moment before his shoulders sunk in defeat. "What do you need us to do?"

Nick fury simply shrugged. "Whatever it is that you need to do." He exited, leaving the group in silence.

Some stared off into space, some looked around at the others, Tony still stood - his shaking hands clenched on the glass table - but it was Steve who broke the hush of contemplation, his eyes still on the bloody cards in his hands.

"Was he married?"

The spell broke and Tony sat back down, his hands rubbing down his face with a sigh. "No, There was a, uh, cellist I think."

"There was," Clint agreed with a sad smile.

"The Son of Col was a good man and a brave warrior," Thor's normally booming voice was subdued and quiet.

"He was an idiot," Tony grumbled.

Natasha sent him a dower look said nothing.

"Why?" Steve questioned. "For believing?"

"For taking on Loki alone."

"He was doing his job."

"He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have-" Tony stopped, feeling the emotions well up in his throat. There was no way he was going to cry over this. "Romanov, where'd Fury take Darcy?" he asked, changing the subject.

"He would have had her taken to one of the holding cells to get her out of the way and keep her from getting into something she wasn't supposed to," she responded, though given the spontaneity of her expellment from the room at the time it was really only a best guess based on standard procedures.

"He put her in a cell?!" Jane shrieked, Tony's livid expression reflecting her outrage.

"All things considered, it's the safest place she could have been," Natasha argued, crossing her arms and not giving an inch.

"Wait," Clint's forehead crinkled in confusion. "Who the hell is Darcy?"

"My assistant," Jane supplied.

"My Shield Sister," Thor grinned.

"My-" Tony cut himself off.

"You know, I'm not 100% sure anymore," Steve shrugged.

Natasha glanced at Tony with a suspiciously knowing look before turning to her partner and explaining, "She was at the Stuttengard Gala with Dr. Foster when we picked Loki up, hence their presence on the helicarrier."

"Romanov. Chop chop." The only thing that kept her from ignoring Tony was the slight desperation in his voice and her knowledge of the circumstances surrounding it. She stood and stepped off to the side, pressing the communicator in her ear and requesting contact with whoever was currently stationed to guard to cell blocks to escort Ms. Lewis to her location.

"Wait a minute," Clint's face distorted in deep thought as he dug through his hazy memories. "This Darcy wouldn't happen to have long dark hair and look really great in a little black dress, would she?"

Tony's eyes narrowed while Jane's widened.

"You know her?" Jane asked, shocked.

"I remember running into her," he admitted, his face contorting as he dug around some more. "She tripped on the stairs and I helped her up."

"That certainly sounds like Darcy," Jane laughed, though it was a much more subdued sound than she usually produced.

"Should you really be laughing right now, Galileo?" Tony sneered, catching everyone off guard. "He could have hurt her."

"I wouldn't have," Clint argued, though he looked guiltily down as he did so. "She wasn't a part of the mission."

"And if she got in the way?" Tony prodded then scoffed when the archer remained silent and refused to meet his eyes.

"It would not have been his fault, Man of Iron," Thor held his chin high with the grace of a prince as the glower was turned on him. "He was not of his own mind at the time."

"Be honest, Maybelline. If he had hurt Darcy, whether is was of his own mind or not, would you have been able to forgive him?"

"No," Thor said with no hesitation. "But Lady Darcy would have."

They were at a stalemate, neither backing down until their hard gazes were drawn away by Natasha's return.

Only Clint could detect the nervousness in her stance.

"We don't know where Darcy is," she said simply.

"What?!" Tony, Jane, and Thor all jumped up from the table, leaving Clint and Steve the only ones left sitting, though they were soon to follow as the tension in the room dramatically increased.

"I just spoke with the Agents stationed at the cells. Darcy never arrived. Hill sent someone to check the route from the lab and we found the deceased body of her escort, assumed dead as a result of the blast from the attack, but no Darcy."

Tony was shaking, his vision narrowing as panic made it feel like the shrapnel in his chest had somehow managed to finally pierce his heart. "Find her."

"We're working on it," the redhead assured him. "Hill already has a team reviewing any and all surveillance footage from the moment she left the lab until the moment we discovered the body, But Tony-" She caught his eye, hesitating because she knew it was going to be like the moment Coulson told her the Barton had been compromised. "We don't think she's aboard the helicarrier."

There wasn't a person in the room who didn't see the despair cloud Tony's eyes, a look so unfamiliar that each was taken aback by the intensity of it. There was only one time Tony could recall feeling this way - after the death of his parents. Darcy wasn't dead though. She couldn't be, but it was the fear that she might be that gripped his heart and froze his body.

Steve placed a hand on his shoulder, bringing him back and making him achingly aware of the situation at hand. "Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?"

"SHE WAS NOT A SOLDIER!" He lashed out, pulling away from his well-meaning but out-of-place comrade. "None of us are! I am not a part of Fury's private little avenging army!"

"Neither am I!" Steve argued. "He's got the same blood on his hands as Loki does. Right now we've got to put that aside and get this done. Now, Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list..."

Tony stared at the cards still in Steve's hand, not hearing anything he was saying, but everyone knew that it wasn't just Coulson he was thinking of. "He made it personal," He cut Steve off from whatever it was he was saying.

"That's not the point."

"That is the point!" Tony growled. He made eye contact with everyone in the room as understanding washed over him. When he met Agent Romanov's - Natasha's - eyes he knew that she knew, and it killed him but he needed to say the words out loud; he needed everyone to understand just what it all meant, what Loki was trying to do. Natasha gave a slight nod, and he took that as he agreement. "She's my daughter. Darcy… Darcy, is my daughter."

No one spoke. Their shock was palpable and Tony took the chance to continue before they could question him, twisting the knife that had already buried itself deep in his gut.

"That's Loki's point. He took her, we all know he did, because he has to hit us all right where it hurts. Why?"

"To tear us apart," Steve mumbled, still processing this new information.

Tony's despair began to morph into determination. "He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

"Right," Steve nodded. "I caught his act at Stuttengard.

"Yeah. That's just a preview, this is opening night." Tony started pacing the length of the room. "Loki's a full-tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered-" Tony stopped, his eyes widening. "Sonofabitch! Stark Tower."

Everyone in the room tensed, understanding what he was implying. Loki would attack, and we would do so from the heart of one of the largest cities in the world.

Thor shifted suddenly, pulling to his full height and stepping in front of Jane. "I pledge my allegiance so long as Loki faces Asgardian justice. His crimes span more than just this realm, and he must face judgement for all of them in the hall of the All-Father."

Steve cut in before Tony could argue. "We accept." He looked over the the millionaire and said in explanation. "Whether we like it or not, we need his help, and he has just as much invested in Loki's downfall as any of us."

"I want to help," Jane piped up.

"You're a civilian," Agent Romanov argued.

"I also understand the most about the Tesseract out of anyone in this room, sans Tony and he'll be too busy kicking ass. I can working on shutting down whatever it is Loki has thrown together while the rest of you work on shutting him down." There was a brief quiet as her words sunk in.

"Lady Jane, I must implore you-"

"Thor, you may be over a 1000 years old, but in this realm I am still considered an adult woman and can make my own decisions." She almost missed the spark of pride in his eyes before he solemnly nodded his head and the conversation moved on.

"Agent Romanov," Steve spoke. "Can you fly one of those jets."

"I can," Barton answered for her. Steve looked at her and she nodded her head in confirmation of Barton's ability and allegiance.

"You got a suit?" he asked the archer.

"Yeah."

"Then suit up."

Darcy's head was killing her. The light was too bright against her closed eyelids, and the distant sound of the city grated her ears. Every inch of her body throbbed like that one time back in middle school when she'd gotten him by a soccer mom's minivan, though this time she woke up cushioned against something much more comfortable than a hospital bed. She let out a groan as she shifted and slowly blinked her eyes open despite the discomfort. There was none of that disorientation she'd read about before. She knew that she remembered the helicarrier and the feeling of forever as something threw her against the wall, and her best guess was that she'd been unconscious. She didn't think that she had a concussion, but couldn't quite explain why she was on a couch instead of a cot.

Is this… Tony's penthouse?

It was, but how she'd gotten there she had no clue. Whelp, there's the disorientation.

Very carefully, she sat up and looked around. She seemed to be alone, but something out the window moved and caught her attention.

Selvig?!

She watched as he moved around on the balcony. He appeared to be working on one of those unfamiliar Science! Machines that she was, in fact, so familiar with, and she began to understand just how precarious the situation she found herself in was. Selvig, the last she knew, was with Loki, and with no other evidence suggesting that he had been rescued in her time down under, that meant that the most logical conclusion was that -

"Ah, You're finally awake."

...she had been captured by Mr. dour, dark, and deranged himself. Loki.