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"This is ridiculous."
"It's for your safety Miss Foster."
"Oh yes, because this is as safe it gets." Jane waved her arms as she gestured to the empty room that surrounded her to Coulson who just stared back at her with the same small smile that he always wore when he talked to her.
Not even an hour ago, Coulson and a handful of agents had escorted her out of the lab that she had been assigned at SHIELD's main base and brought her into an abandoned building somewhere in Queens. She didn't have a clue what was going on and none of the agents were answering her questions.
While Coulson had turned his attention from her towards one of the agents, she kicked at the floor and shot up a thick layer of dust into the air which soon disappeared out the single window that no longer bared a window pane.
The room was dusty from the floorboards to the cobwebbed corners on the ceilings. There was a white plastic table standing off to the side of the room with a matching chair that was overturned on it's side and in the far right corner, were two broken wooden crates.
She turned her gaze back to Coulson who murmured something and then nodded to an agent before all of the black suited men disappeared from the room leaving just the two of them.
Jane let out an exasperated breath. "Why am I here Coulson?"
His eyes darted at the walkie-talkie that was in his left hand before they flew back to meet hers. His face portrayed conflict, not entirely sure if he should finally answer the questions that she had been asking or not.
"A month ago, you pulled me from New Mexico, away from my friends, and brought me here to the city and told me that it was for my protection but no explanation. When I believe that being inside of a SHIELD base is as safe as you can get, you take me from there and put me inside of a building that is most likely condemned and tell me that it's safe." She gave him a pleading look. "What is going on?
Coulson sighed in defeat. "We pulled you from New Mexico because there had been a theory that Loki would be after any of the scientists that worked on the cube." He held up a hand to silence Jane when she opened her mouth to interrupt. "It was only a theory until earlier when Stark informed us how Loki showed up in his office, demanding that we hand you over, before throwing Stark out of the forty-second floor window."
"He threw him out-"
Coulson gave her a look that cut her off mid-sentence.
"For the last three hours large number of Skrulls have been appearing in the city and we've been busy trying to destroy them. Only it was too late that we realized that they were a distraction to keep the Avengers from the base while Loki began to infiltrate our defenses." Coulson looked around his shoulder as if expecting something. "We have no idea how he found our location, but Fury made a direct order to get you out without his notice and to take you to a secluded and safe place until we can escort you to another SHIELD location."
"What about my friends, and all of the other scientists that worked with me?" Jane questioned. "Why aren't any of them here with me?"
"They've all been moved to their own separate locations." He answered swiftly, but she could hear the lie in his tone.
Coulson's gaze moved from her, to the window and her eyes followed suit to see that two large black vehicles that resembled to S.W.A.T. were driving in the direction of the building they were standing inside of from up the street.
"If you would excuse me Miss Foster," He nodded before turning to walk out the door. "I need to go downstairs and set up the perimeters."
Before Jane could get her next string of words out, the door had quietly shut with a small 'click'.
Her eyes lingered on the door for a moment longer before she walked to the window and leaned her shoulder against the frame and stared out into the street. She hadn't seen the armored vans leave yet. It was either they left in an opposite direction after dropping off possibly geared up agents or they just didn't leave at all.
Jane rolled her eyes. An abandoned building with two large brand new looking vehicles in the front of it. Who would ever think that there would be people inside?
Either way, the very thought that Loki was after her specifically was preposterous. There weren't a lot of scientists that worked on the cube, but the ones that did study it alongside her were surely at much of a risk as she was.
Like Eric and Darcy.
She mentally cursed herself, knowing that she left her cell phone back on her desk in the lab. She was unable to warn them.
Jane decided that she needed to at least confront Coulson and demand that they be put in as much 'care' as SHIELD was putting her in.
Marching towards the door, she decided that she was going to do just that. If she had to throw a tantrum to get him to agree then she was willing to go to that level.
Before her hand could rest on the door handle, something halted her from making any further movement.
Gun fire.
Jane remained glued to the floor as her ears stretched to listen.
Rapid gun fire kept going and every few seconds she could hear a pause.
Then there were screams.
The gun shots were growing louder and so were the screams.
It was all coming from the floor below the one she was on.
Jane swallowed and cracked the door open to peak down the hall to see that over a dozen of heavily armed SHIELD agents were facing the end of the hall with their guns pointed. In the middle of the hall she could see Coulson.
As if he felt her eyes on him, his head turned; his eyes lit up and his arm moved in a swift motion for her to go back into the room.
"Coulson-" She whispered.
"Get back in that room now!" He hissed through his teeth.
Neither of them could argue with the other because something at the end of the hall caused him to snap his head back forward.
Guns cocked and Jane whipped her head back inside and closed the door with more force than she intended to use. She backed away from the door with one step at a time as she prepared herself to hear the much louder gun fire this time.
Only there was no gun fire.
Jane listened closely but could barely make anything out over the sound of her own heartbeat.
Then, everything went cold.
Her arms wrapped themselves around her body to help warm herself and she was beginning to see her own frantic breaths. How had it gotten this cold all of the sudden?
It was only then that Jane noticed that there was absolutely no sounds coming from outside of the door. It was the worse silence she had ever heard as her mind began to race with worry. What happened to Coulson? Did he get whoever it was that had invaded the building that was supposed to be her temporary sanctuary?
She prayed that it was only a couple of Skrulls.
A part of her wanted to take a look for herself but was stopped as she could hear slow footsteps coming from the other side of the thin wall that separated the room from the hall. Her eyes followed down the wall as the footsteps kept walking along until they were in front of her door.
Then they stopped.
"Coulson?" Jane's voice quivered, taking a single step forward.
The door knob turned slowly.
Jane's heart was beating so quickly that she was afraid that it would fly out of her chest at any second.
The door finally opened and it wasn't Coulson.
This man stood at a towering height. He was dressed in dark, embroidered black and green fabrics with armor forged out of some metallic material. He had black hair that hung to his shoulders, a pale narrow face, and dark green eyes that looked at her mischievously as he closed the door behind him. If he had been someone else, and this being a different situation, she'd think of him as handsome.
There was a threatening atmosphere that surged around him and Jane had suddenly forgotten how to swallow.
She recognized him from the security footage and very rare satellite images.
Loki.
His steps were painstakingly slow as he advanced towards her; she mimicked them by stepping backwards.
"Jane Foster…" a dark grin blossomed on his face. "You were much harder to get a hold of than I had originally anticipated."
She swallowed as he was now halfway across the room.
In the distance, she could hear something that sounded like a jet flying by but she ignored it as her eyes were unable to move from the approaching Jotun.
Loki extended his hand outwards to her. "Let's make this easy shall we?"
Suddenly, his grin was wiped from his face and his footsteps faltered as his head jerked in the direction of the window.
Jane saw his eyes widen by a fraction and before she knew it, debris flew everywhere and she could only catch a glimpse of red and gold and then there was no longer a god of mischief standing before her.
The air was consumed in dust and pieces of wood and brick lain all over the place. There was also a large gaping hole through the wall opposite of where there was once a window. Jane peered through it to see that it continued on until she could see the rest of the street through the opened spaces.
Booming echoes of explosions and thundering cracks were heard off in the distance.
It finally dawned on her that Iron Man had flown through and took Loki with him.
Stark had given her a window of opportunity to get out and run.
Jane had managed to run and eventually slow into a fast-paced walk through five city blocks until she finally halted to catch her breath by leaning against an abandoned car.
She had to keep her tears at bay as she remembered how the hall outside of the room that she was previously in had been frozen solid, including all of the agents that occupied it.
Including Coulson.
The guilt was unbearable.
Swallowing down another gulp of air, Jane surveyed her surroundings.
Smoke was rolled in the streets, all of the traffic had stopped, and the people had fled, leaving all of the roads and alleys empty. There were fires that were crackling inside of buildings and overturned vehicles that had the misfortune of being in the way of some destructive force. In the distance she could hear sirens wailing, but she doubted that they would come near here when they were most likely alerted that it was too dangerous to come to an area that was empty and held a battle between to powerful beings.
Her ears pricked at the tiny sound of what sounded like someone coughing and gasping for breath.
Carefully, she stepped around craters in the street and behind cars to keep herself hidden just in case there was still danger near.
The wheezing grew louder and Jane had come up behind an old ford truck to see that in a small crater in the road just a few yards ahead was Iron Man - no - Tony Stark.
The face of his suit looked as if it had been torn off and there were large chunks of metal missing from his suit. Stark had a gaping wound on his forehead that had dark crimson liquid oozing out of it and down the side of his face, completely covering his left eye. She realized that he was barely conscious, and clearly unable to get up.
She merely blinked and jumped with fright as Loki suddenly appeared out of nowhere and stood in front of Stark, baring a few wounds of his own, but weren't as severe as Stark's. His outfit was dirtied and torn in different places, and his once perfectly slicked back hair was falling into his face.
Jane clamped a hand over her mouth to keep herself from making any noise. She needed to get as far away from there as possible but with all of the millions of pieces of debris scattered all over the ground, she doubted that she'd be able to walk five feet without being noticed. She could only pray that he wouldn't discover her there.
"I was this close to having my hands on the woman." She saw Loki hiss throw his teeth as he gestured his words with his thumb and index finger that were just a mere inch apart. "After weeks of searching, she was within my grasp!"
"I was in a sympathetic mood when I threw you out that building of yours and decided to let you live and this is the favor I get in return?" He waved his hand and a couple of boulders of pavement flew and hit Stark that caused him to groan out painfully.
"None the less, I don't believe she has gotten far on foot. I'll find her soon." Loki breathed as he ran his hand threw his messy hair in attempt to push it back. "As for you…I'm afraid, I have no further patience for you."
Loki's hands hovered over each other before making a circular motion, and a long staff in his right hand appeared with a curve at the end and a shimmering blue light. He pointed it down at the direction of a now, unconscious Stark, and Jane could only watch in horror as the light was becoming seemingly brighter.
"Farewell, Anthony Stark." He said almost robotically.
"STOP!" Jane screamed as she ran out from behind the truck and out in the open.
The light died back down and Loki had turned to look at her with a look of pure surprise before his lips curved into a smile. "Ah, I knew you hadn't run off too far."
"Please, don't kill him." Her tone pleading.
"Oh?" Loki's brow raised questioningly. "What are you willing to give me in return?"
"Anything you want." She breathed. "I'll leave with you, that's what you want right?"
A thoughtful look fell on his face and he lowered his staff so that it stood at his side. "You will leave with me, without a fight, and neither will you try to escape from me after we take our leave?"
"Yes." She answered without hesitation.
"And you will give yourself to me fully, and obey my every word?"
Jane's breath hitched with and doubt punctured her thoughts before answering with a slow nod. "…I will."
"Excellent." Loki smirked and with another circular gesture of his hands, the staff disappeared.
Jane glanced to Stark to see that he had he was still unconscious and could only hope that someone would come to his aid soon.
Her gaze went back to where Loki was to see that his hand had extended itself out to here once more. "Come here to me then, my sweet Jane." He purred.
The steps she took as she walked towards the very man who threaten to kill all of her friends and to rule over Earth, were the longest ones that she ever took. His smirk grew with each passing step, to her at least it did.
Finally, she stood so close that she had to look up at him.
Taking a deep breath, she slipped her hand inside of his and felt her insides curl as his fingers snapped around her hand like a bear trap and he jerked her forward so that her body was up against his and her head rested on his chest.
"Sweet dreams, my prize."
Her expression twisted into confusion right before she felt a sharp pain in the space between her neck and shoulder.
Everything went black.
A/N: I hope that this chapter pleases you, and I apologize if you spot any errors. It's three o'clock in the morning and I'm really tired. So I'll check over this chapter and fix up any errors if spotted. I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I can. Also, I hope that I didn't lead any of you on to believe that Loki was giving Jane a choice. It's obvious that he'd take her whether she wanted him to or not, just thought I'd point that out - haha. He's just being "gentleman-like" by letting her think that she has a choice.
Have a wonderful day!