Over the next few weeks, everything went smoothly within the compound. Almost too smoothly, if Selene was honest with herself. She watched as Steve and Bucky repaired their rocky relationship, even offering to get to know Steve herself if that would help quiet the storm behind his eyes, and even helped Tony advance some of his workings. In doing so, she helped him and Bruce design a bracelet that would help control her sinister cravings. Without much answers from the tests he had run on her blood, even going as far as to escort her to Wakanda to have Shuri perform X-rays and scans on her, she didn't have much choice. She confessed to Bruce that while she adored the way her soldier pined for her, she didn't want him to feel guilty if he ever felt the need to leave her. She didn't want him staying because he was trapped babysitting her and this hellish need of hers. She hoped that with its success, she'd be able to prolong the strength each feeding gave her between sessions so he wouldn't have to worry anymore.
"And I'm assuming feeding from the only person who can heal like you that we have trapped like a rat is out of the question?" Sam asks innocently, motioning toward the cameras. Natasha agreed, but ultimately stayed quiet as Bucky refused to let her near Loki again.
"He's not wrong, my love. I just wouldn't take his pain like I do you." She shrugs slightly, leaving the final answer in his lap knowing he was weary of the intimacy that would spur from the moment of weakness.
"No, sweetheart. I don't trust him with you, especially in your most vulnerable moments." He hums softly, tucking hair behind her ear as he leans in to kiss her forehead. Although she understood his reasoning and respected his wishes, she decided to keep the idea tucked away for emergencies.
Alongside this, she took the opportunity to advance their floor. She understood the safety measures needed to stay, but she wanted to ensure there were measures in place that kept him safe and comfortable when she wasn't around.
"These controls will allow you to sleep peacefully in my absence." She smiles proudly, demonstrating how the floor was now soundproof and noise canceling through FRIDAY. Obviously, should the need ever arise, Tony could override the system to snoop, but the changes were more so for Bucky's benefit so he could sleep and not have to worry about his nightmares waking up the entire compound. These could be activated and deactivated by means of a switch in the control paneling on the wall, or voice recognition through the coms system for the floor. Kissing his temple as he takes in what all she had done for him, she smiles and whispers "I will stop these nightmares for you someday, my love." She promises him, weary of using her gifts much more on his fragile mind than she already was. She was afraid of hurting him or causing harm to his memory so for the time being, her nightly routine would have to suffice.
Unfortunately the peace never lasts. After another successful mission, the boys came home fighting again. She could tell by the look on Steve's face, regardless of the yelling that echoed through the long halls, that this argument had been happening for quite some time. Putting her ear piece into the charging box, she pushes back from her desk to collect the rest from the team as they hang up their gear.
"She'd be of more use on the field. You can't tell me I'm wrong." Bucky huffs as he hangs up his coms piece to charge, dismantling his handguns to clean on the towel he laid over the exam table.
"You're wrong and I'll tell you in layman terms why." Tony gestures toward the agitated assassin as he steps free from his opened suit. Questioningly, she looks at Natasha to find out who it is they're referencing. Without much surprise, she nods toward her with a sympathetic smile.
"Alright alright." Sam huffs first, earning a warning glare from Bucky as Tony steps up to him. Before either could start again, she steps closer.
"Hey, easy, he's right. You two need to quit." She watches her smoky shadows gently wrap around Tony's slender waist and end him out of what she knew was Bucky's personal bubble.
"Love, please. You're a team. We all are. Don't argue." She tried to smile, hoping it'd help him feel better, but it didn't work.
"You'd be of more help out there with us. He's so scared you'll run off that he won't let you come with us." He tries to reason with her.
"James," She starts, tilting her head when he cuts her off. He takes her hand and pulls her into him. "No, you don't need to be stuck behind a desk. You're my partner for a reason." He hums into her hair, groaning as her presence causes his otherwise sore muscles to finally relax. She nods, rubbing his back.
"I'll join you someday, but you have to let me prove myself. I brought their distrust onto myself. You shouldn't be punished because of it." She kisses his shoulder.
Eventually, her exhausted mind could take no more. Forever racing with plans, trying to stay five steps ahead of any threat opposing her better half while he and his teammates fought out of her reach and struggling to understand the actions of others. While the others tried to wind down from their time out in the field, as Fury so gracefully put it, she excused herself from the decompressing ceremonies to relax. James ran her a bath, combing her hair back into a messy bun with his fingers before leaving her to pick out what she'd wear for pajamas that night. With the promise of a blanket fort, dinner and a movie, he left her to relax on her own.
"Starlight?" The familiar soft spoken voice hums faintly from around the corner of the bathroom, forcing her back from the edge of a much needed nap. Ignoring the call, she gets out of the bath to get ready for bed. Part of her felt bad for wanting to sleep under the weight of the promise of plans with her love, but she knew he'd understand. Smiling to herself, she wondered if she'd awaken in his arms under the warm tent of blankets masterfully tied and hung together around the room.
"Darling?" His voice called to her again, this time accompanied by the sound of a knock as she adjusted the way Bucky's shirt hung on her. The uncomfortable intrusion of an otherwise unwelcome presence in the room with her made her shiver as she made her way to their bed.
"Enough games. I'm far too tired to care to entertain them." She sighs, pulling back the blankets and sheets before climbing under them. As she struggles to get comfortable, Loki's apparition materializes next to her, tucking her in as he once had all those years ago. She shudders, his touch seemingly burning her skin with the memory of how he manipulated her. The war within her made her nauseous. While a small portion of her was still struggling with the notion that the familiar sensation of his touch was what she craved for so long, the vast majority of her psyche screamed for her to shove him out of her personal space. She couldn't bear to be that close to him again without her soldier in the room. She needed her guardian to protect her heart again and all Loki did was remind her of her mistakes.
"Unless you've come to make amends, understand I do not wish to bear witness to any more of your foolish tricks. Leave me alone." She exhales, wrapping the linen sheets around her fingers to tuck up under her chin as the scent of Bucky's cologne fills her lungs.
"My sweet, sweet little Starlight. When will you see you belong with a God?" He hums, trailing his slender fingers down the length of her bicep over the sheet.
"Probably around the same time you'll get it through your thick skull that I want nothing more to do with you." She groans, shrugging out of his touch. "Why do you even care? I want my husband." She blurts out, shoving him from the bed with a wave of smoke.
He shifts fluidly back into place, laughing at her mistake as he lifts her chin, "Can you honestly say you miss nothing of what we once shared, my love?"
"Don't call me that. You're nothing to me." She rolls her eyes, straining to listen for the elevator doors.
"Am I now?" He leans into her ear. "I can hear your heart racing, little Olympian. Tell me, does your soldier make your pulse race with little more than words?" It was stupid of him to taunt her with her reaction to James. He found out first hand how she melted into his palm like putty. For a moment, she studied him, wondering how how delusional he must've gone to think he could ever compare to James again.
"If you don't leave me alone, I'll let him kill you." She snaps, sitting up with a long drawn out sigh of irritation. Her shadows wrap tightly around his limbs, shoving him back from the bed and into the hall roughly.
"Ooh, I do love the fire in you, sweet girl, but if he tries I'll make you watch me strangle the life from his breast." He taunts her, struggling to hold on to the frame of her doorway as she stands.
"If you touch him I will tell the entire team that the arrogant Prince was too weak to save himself from the manipulation of a giant grape and how it haunts you that you killed those people." She smirks, nodding as if his words meant nothing.
"These people were born to be ruled." He bit back quickly, watching as she slowly pushed him back into the main room with each step she took.
"Just as you were born to die, right, my Prince." She hisses, her tone cold as she quotes the devastating words Odin had once used when describing his true birthplace. Truthfully, it broke her heart to have to be so brutal with him, but she felt he wouldn't let her go otherwise. It wasn't fair. She had to hurt him to free herself from his torment. At that moment, she realized what she had to do. Shoving his apparition back into the cell he inhabited below, she allowed her shadows to redress her in her usual black training gear before making her way to the holding chambers.
"Mister Stark, there's been an unidentified presence detected entering in cell 1." FRIDAY alerted the team, interrupting their movie. No one was really watching the movie besides Scott and Thor, and yet the mention of the motion detection made everyone uneasy. While Bucky and Natasha share a look of concern, wondering if their deity had had enough of her alone time and decided to torment her ex again, Steve and Tony rushed to the monitors. What has the idiot done now, Bucky wondered to himself just moments before the memory of just how far he had gone weeks ago replays, forcing a deadly shiver to rack through him as he stands.
Within the cell, Selene waves her hand to create a throne from her shadows to sit in. The cotton clung to her curves tauntingly, leaving little to the imagination, much more so now that Loki knew some of the changes she had made to herself in his absence. It almost made her laugh in a delusional rage as she watched the emotions flash in his eyes behind the thin veil of sheer ice.
"You were made for the throne, my love." He chuckles, standing from his bed to meet her.
"How observant of you. Was it my birthright or the fact that my shadows built this illusion that gave it away?" She tilts her head, watching him saunter closer in that tacky green leather suit. He laces his fingers together behind his back as he had when pacing in deep contemplation and yet the smug smirk that refused to leave his features made her roll her eyes once more.
"A soldier…" He begins, stiffening when the same ancient language she had hissed at him weeks ago cuts his chastising words short.
"A new observation would be greatly appreciated, your highness. I'm quite bored of this repetitive loop you've found yourself in." She exhales, throwing her legs over the right armrest lazily.
"So you admit he is below you?" He hums as if she had satisfied whatever sick itch he had.
"In terms of my status, everyone in this building is. What's your point?" She fakes a yawn, biding her time as he continues to step closer.
"You belong…" He begins again when her shadows force him to his knees with a loud thud. She laughs, letting her voice echo through the room as she stands.
"Yes yes, we all know what you believe as of late, and yet I'd rather die than give up what I have with my lovely little assassin." She smirks, tracing his jaw with her talon like nails. She grips his jaw tight and pulls him close just to gain enough momentum to throw him back across the room in one simple motion.
"I am the daughter of Titans. I am the embodiment of the moon. I am the Winter's Angel and you, my littlest Frost Giant, are nothing but a nuisance to me and your brother's kingdom. It's time you free us all from your idiocy." She huffs in an even, eerie monotone, her eyes flashing within her power. Watching him stand, even within the monitors, Tony stiffened with the shift of the energy within the compound.
"Get down stairs." He commands, shoving the super soldiers out of his way so he could type in the command codes needed to shut down the level.
"What? Why?" Steve questions, watching Bucky rush to strap on his holstered guns and slide his favorite knife into his boot.
"They're going to fight and I don't think the cells are equipped for a brawl amongst Gods." He explains. "Thor!" He calls as he straightens, his eyes jumping around the room to find the one man caught between them.
"Free yourself, little Olympian." Loki smirks, offering her his hand. "Be honest with yourself." He hums just above a whisper.
"Tell me, do any of these costumed imbeciles actually know you? Truly?" He begins to chuckle as he paces closer toward her. "Would your beloved Brooklyn boy still love you if he knew the hand you had in some of the world's most bloody battles?" With that, she stood, her eyes betraying her icy exterior by begging him to stop. "Does he know why you joined the war?" With one final step, he grips her throat and pulls her into him. This time, his frost bit her skin with a vengeance as if reminding her just how dangerous he could be. Shivering, she steps into him to balance herself.
"You don't know what you're talking about." She struggles to speak as he lifts her from the floor.
"Your history is bloody, my Queen. Are you sure you're what's best for a recovering assassin?" He taunts her. His eyes devoured her frame greedily. It broke his heart he had to be so cruel with her, and yet watching her many layers melt away in his palm felt extraordinary.
"I wanted to die." She blurts out as the realization stung, explaining simply as she throws what momentum she could behind a punch to his jaw. It didn't manage to do much more than baffle him at her attempt, but the moment of stunted concentration was all she needed to get free.
"He knows I have more blood on my hands than anyone in this facility." She grits her teeth, the anger within her shifting to the familiar deep, blistering burn of her own agony.
"But he doesn't know how desperate you've been to find someone strong enough to put an end to your torment that you'd level an entire army if their generals proved to be too weak?" He forces a smirk to his lips despite it wounding him to watch her so broken. He could see her reliving the bloodshed, the wars, battles and petty squabbles she put herself at the forefront of in hopes that someone would be able to walk her to the afterlife so she could reunite with her precious daughter.
"I wouldn't be this monster if you had just saved her!" She finally snaps, tears betraying her facade. She charges him, pinning him to the wall by his leather chest piece as she had during their sparring matches. "I didn't ask for this!"
"I was preoccupied trying to save her mother!" He roars over the sound her shadows hiss as they whip around the room, slamming into him before shoving through him to strangle the breath from his lungs.
"I don't care what happens to me." She whimpers, releasing him as his own green mist forces her back from him.
"Don't you see? That's the problem. I do." He huffs breathlessly, kneeling to her as she falls. His power forced her to acknowledge what his life and even that of her beloved soldier would've been reduced to had she not been a part of it and yet, she was left clutching her stomach as the dead language pleads with anything that'd listen to give her her baby back. Forcing the door to the chambers to lock, he cradled her into his chest as she wept.
"Please understand, I can give you more children, my love, but I need you." He whispers, tucking hair from her face as he gently wipes the tears from her cheeks. "I can protect you this time. I just need you to trust me." He pleads with her, humming a soft lullaby in hopes of calming her anguish. She whines in aggravated agony, pulling from him and slapping him across the face.
"How dare you brush her off as if she was nothing. Say her name!" She hisses.
"Regina." He nods, keeping his voice low submissively.
"You pride yourself on putting Falcon in my path, even the people who came to tear me apart in Europe saying that Odin's magic twisted their ideology of me." She begins, pointing a knife at his jugular. "Tell me about James. Tell me you regret putting him in my path now that I'm finally safe and happy." He grabs her wrist and shoves her to the ground, forcing the knife away from her.
"James is not of my doing, Selene. I never would've allowed you to be captured by those men. Don't you understand that I tried to put someone in my place to keep you safe?! The war, Hydra, this idiotic facility….none of it is safe for you and you are not happy. You may be when you're with him, but look at you. You're falling apart." He explains, pinning her below him to hold her still, giving her no choice but to listen to him.
"So you hate him because he was an accident that finally worked in my favor?" She struggles against his hold, far too weak to fight back much more.
"I hate him because he is where I want to be! He has what I want! How in the Nine Realms do you not see how much I still love you?!" He growls, shaking her shoulders as if it'd rattle something within her to see his struggle. Her eyes widened at his confession, forcing her to stiffen as she searched his features with any sign of regret. She found none and instead of pulling away as he had so many times before after his true feelings arose during an argument, he leaned down to kiss her. At the contact, he forced every ounce of love, passion and sorrow he had left for her through her. Just as she had the night she entered his mind, he opened himself up to her so she could see how much he had changed upon leaving her. She was his beacon of hope, love and light and being forced to watch her tormented because he dared to defy the man who stole him from his throne was maddening. He only ever showed true emotion for her. He had heard her prayers and wishes that her darling Regina would've been his, but he made the mistake of speaking aloud to Thor of the child. He vowed to protect her and child, swearing that the suffering she had endured in Europe would be her last. Odin had caught word from his guards and once again saw to it she was torn to pieces while Loki watched. Amazed by her resilience, his last straw was taking Falcon and Regina from her and thus forcing her deadly hunger forward. The self hatred she harbored deep within herself would never truly be quelled, but it was close when she was in James' arms. It was the only place she came close to being as happy as she once was in Loki's. While he hates James for occupying his rightful place, he could feel her calming down as her mind fought to remind her of the more beautiful moments she shared with him while they were chained to that Hellhole.
Pulling away from her, he touches her cheek gently to steady her back onto this plane of existence before speaking once more. "I will always love you, my sweet Starlight. My Queen of the Stars. You are my heart." He nods, backing away from her in an effort to give her the space she needed to adjust. Just as she sat up, wondering what it was that brought out her Prince in this shadow she thought she had long since lost, loud explosions rattled the tower. The lights flicker as the power stutters to life, causing alarms to trigger and shut down all the exits around his power. Quickly, he helps her up and pushes her to the back wall of the cell. Letting his magic consume her, cloaking her in hope of keeping her hidden, an explosion caves in the far wall of the holding chambers.
"Brother!" Thor's thunderous tone reverberates behind the doors as his hammer pounds on the door. Loki shifts to create a false sense of eerie calm, leaving the illusion of an otherwise empty cell as figures march in through the thick fog produced by the explosion.
"The further we move within the facility, the more obstacles we face, Sir." A footman clears his throat into the walkie he held in his hand, eyeing Loki as he lounged in his throne.
"Take who you can and don't disappoint me." The deep Russian accent chastises the soldier as others join him along the dilapidated wall, holding what appeared to be cattle prods and thickly reinforced chains. Loki recognized the emblem sewn into their uniforms from her traumatic visions and stood tall.
"Looking for someone?" He chuckles idly as if this were normal.
"He's not the Goddess, Mac." One of the armed soldiers groans.
"How observant and yet, I am quite close to the girl and just so happen to be looking for a way out of this cage." He smirks wickedly, stepping in front of where he kept her hidden within his power with his hands held out to humor the idiots.
"Something is better than nothing, Jack. We can't go back without something that could draw her attention." Another stated shakily, clasping the cuffs around his wrists. Luckily, he was able to keep his illusions up long enough for the lane to board and evacuate the premises. He only hoped it'd be enough for her to get home before they sent others.