Chapter Thirteen
"Woah, Captain America wants my help?"
"Yeah, if you're up for it,"
"Am I?! Dude, this is so cool. What are we gonna be up against?! Aliens? A shadow organization? What do you need me to do?"
"We're going to break into a high security prison, and release a dangerous prisoner." Clint answered.
"Well, you came to the right guy. Breaking into places is kinda my thing."
Scott was already stuffing his suit into a duffel bag.
"Don't you… I mean, aren't you curious as to why we're going to break a dangerous assassin out of prison?" Steve asked.
"Um, you're Captain America, it's probably for a good reason, right?"
Clint grinned at Steve. Pretty convenient being THE Captain America . He seemed to say.
Steve smiled back uncomfortably. It was convenient that his judgment was trusted so completely, even by strangers. It also made Steve uneasy. It gave him the overwhelming responsibility to always do the right thing.
"ROGER that ;)"
Alessia checked the phone under the table and read the text. Loki was sitting across from her, devouring the pancakes and bacon he'd ordered, and didn't notice Alessia taking the phone out of her pocket.
Outside the diner, icy rain was plummeting from the sky. It was so overcast it almost looked like nighttime. Alessia was wearing the black corduroy pants and grey turtleneck from the thrift store she and Loki had stopped at after the gas station. She was eating hash browns and eggs and sausage and drinking coffee in the booth of the diner.
The atmosphere was comfortable. It felt cozy. The smell of breakfast food and the sound of rain tempted Alessia's senses, produced a nostalgic feeling of contentment, of safety. It contrasted with what Alessia knew she should be feeling. But as much as she tried to remind herself that she couldn't trust Loki and that danger was lurking around every corner, she just didn't feel it in her gut.
"Thank you, for earlier." Alessia said.
"Don't mention it," Loki said. He smiled at her, seemed sincere.
Don't trust him. She tried to tell herself. He's probably planning to trade you with the aliens or something. Her rational mind said. Alessia smiled back at him. But at least he's good company...
"Uh, excuse me," Wanda knocked on the open door. Everyone had dispersed after the meeting in Tony's living room. Wanda had been loitering in the kitchenette trying to talk herself out of being nervous for almost ten minutes, and she still felt kind of sick.
"Yeah?" Jane turned around and smiled kindly at the younger woman. Thor dropped the hand that had been resting around Jane's shoulders. The two of them had apparently been admiring the view of the city that Tony's den offered.
"I um, didn't mean to interrupt." Wanda said, already kicking herself for barging in.
"Oh, no, you're not" Jane assured her.
"What is it?" Thor asked. He didn't seem annoyed with her. Just say it and get it over with. Wanda told herself.
"I-uh-I wanted to…" She was trying very hard to look Thor in the eye while she spoke, but she just couldn't seem to keep it up for very long. She was twisting one of her rings around and around her finger without even realizing it. "Well, I just never got the chance-ah, to apologize, for um," For giving you visions of your worst fears. She couldn't say it.
"Thank you." Thor said. He wasn't mad- in fact he smiled kindly at her. "Be at ease; all is forgiven. You acted as you thought was right." Wanda felt a huge wave of relief wash over her. She smiled and made a small nervous laugh before she said: "Thanks… ah that was all."
Jane was still standing beside Thor, puzzled, glancing from Thor to Wanda looking for context for the exchange she was watching. Wanda backed out of the doorway quickly, before she had a chance to make herself feel more awkward.
"Where have you been?!" Tony exclaimed. "I've been trying to call you. Did you get my texts? It turns out Thor was right about the aliens thing."
"Yeah, I saw that," Natasha replied. She had just walked into Tony's workshop, still wet from the rain outside. "So what's the plan? Do we know what they're going to do?"
"Well, these are the same guys that kidnapped Pepper and the rest of them, and they wanted us to disable our weapons. I'm hoping that means they're going to bring the fight directly to us. The best we can hope for is to be prepared when they do."
"That's all?" Natasha asked. "What does Thor think? How are we going to fight them? Have you been able to get in touch with Bruce?"
"I've tried everything I can think of to find Bruce," Tony replied. "And I'm working on fireproof gear for everyone. Other than that I don't know what to do. According to Thor, they're called Muspelians, and besides being pyros, they're not too different from Asgardians."
"About that," Natasha said. "I was thinking. Doesn't that sound… I mean, doesn't Alessia fit that description?"
Tony was sitting in front of his chemistry set, dipping strips of cloth into different vials of liquid. A few strips were draped over a rack to dry. "I don't know," He said. "I thought she might be one of Killian's creations. Clint never said anything about her being extra strong though, so wouldn't that rule both out?" He picked up one of the pieces of fabric from the rack and lit it with a lighter. The material didn't flame up, but the edges sparked and a greenish smoke swirled off of it.
"Just a thought I had…" Natasha said. "Maybe we should ask Thor about it, could be Muspelian females aren't strong like the males."
"Hmm" Tony had moved onto another piece of fabric. Instead of burning, it melted rapidly, causing him to drop it onto the desk. "Ouch. Yeah, we might as well, but I don't know if it will help at all, since we can't even find her."
Natasha had just opened her mouth to speak, when Friday's voice broke into the conversation.
"Excuse the interruption Mr. Stark, but it appears that there has been a security breach in the secure holding division."
Doctor Benson had only been on break for five minutes when the alarm went off. He was confused when his assistant skittered into the break room, seconds after the alarm sounded. The young man shut the door frantically behind him, locking it with shaking hands and turning to face the room, his face a visibly paler than usual.
"Whats going on?" Doctor Benson asked.
His assistant shook his head. "A guy… he just.. He just appeared."
"What, did he have a gun?" Doctor Benson asked, trying to make sense of the younger man's panic.
"Nonono. You don't get it." His assistant said. "He appeared. sprang up out of thin air. I don't know how… but… that's what I saw."
Steve had the van idling in the narrow alleyway two blocks from stark tower. Clint and Scott had only been gone for about twenty minutes, and already a few armored, yet unmarked cars had driven past the opening of the alley. He tensed slightly behind the wheel. They had tripped the alarm system.
Steve hated being in the getaway car, but had agreed that Clint and Scott were better choices for maneuvering covertly through a security system. It looks like that hadn't mattered anyway. All Steve could do now was sit and wait and hope that everything was going okay.
He didn't have to wait too much longer after the cars passed. Clint and Sam appeared around the corner, walking calmly and casually toward the van. Somehow they'd managed to walk right past security. That means that Scott and Bucky are the one's who set off security. He thought, the knot in his stomach that had relaxed slightly tightening right back up.
"They're still not back I see," Clint said, opening the back of the van.
"No." Steve replied.
"I'm sure they're fine," Sam said, climbing in the back of the van. "Tiny dude knows what he's about."
"Hey, where's um.." Steve paused, searching his memory "Alissa?" Steve asked.
"Alessia," Clint corrected, turning to lean his back on the van and watch the alleyway.
"I don't know." Sam said. He was looking down.
"Well, maybe that's why it's taking Scott so long," Steve said. "He and Bucky are probably looki-"
"No- she's not here." Sam interrupted. "She wasn't with me and Bucky when we were captured. They don't know where she is."
Clint was still staring out at the alley. Steve glanced his way, then back at Sam. "Well, what happened to her?"
"Here they are," Clint said suddenly. Steve jerked his neck forward, searching the street ahead for Scott and Bucky. Instead a loud metal clank rang from the somewhere high up, and Steve turned to see Bucky and Scott dropping from the fire escape. Clint was already stepping into the passenger side, and Bucky and Scott were climbing into the back with Sam. Steve pulled the gear shift into drive, and the van lurched into motion.
Alessia was supposed to be listening to Loki's plan, but she had tuned out after only a few words. They were waiting at a bus stop, because Alessia had said that she didn't want to steal another car. They had generously been given a ride to it by a sweet young couple at the diner who had overheard them saying they had no transportation. Alessia was pretty sure they had heard the bit about Loki wanting to steal a car, too, because the woman of the couple had managed to grab her for a word after Loki had gotten into their car and before Alessia had followed him.
"He's not hurting you, is he?" She'd asked. "Making you do things you don't want?"
Alessia had laughed. "Don't worry about me," She'd said. The woman had only seemed more worried. She asked Alessia her age next, and didn't seem to believe her when she answered twenty.
"You look a lot younger than that," She had said.
Alessia had just laughed again. She'd shaken off the woman's gentle hand on her shoulder and climbed into the back of the car with Loki, somehow feeling anxious. Was it because the woman had obviously thought Loki was taking advantage of her? Was it because Alessia knew that he probably was taking advantage of her? Of course, not the way that the woman might have thought, but Alessia was more or less completely at Loki's mercy. And being reminded of that made her feel helpless and full of doubt.
Now they sat at the bus stop, sheltered under the filthy plastic awning from the grey rain that was pelting down. Having eaten, Alessia was indifferent to the cold, and being a frost Giant, Loki was quite comfortable. It meant that neither of them were dressed warmly, despite the fact that passersby were wrapped in raincoats, shivering against the frigid wind and rain. It didn't exactly help them go unnoticed.
"... and since the field soldiers have done such a sloppy job looking for you so far, I don't think we'll have to worry about running into them accidentally. They'll probably burn down another three neighborhoods before they try a different tactic, so we'll have some time to get to their-"
"Burn through a neighborhood?" Alessia cut him off. "What?"
But before he explained himself, she remembered. When she, Bucky and Sam had stayed in the motel, that was what was on the news. "You mean, people's houses are being burned down because of me?" A fragment surfaced in her memory, delivered in the unemotional speech that newscasters used ... death toll … thirty-seven victims…
"People are dead because of me?"
"No, Darling you mustn't think that way." Loki said. Alessia had stood up, stomach churning. She felt Loki's cold, smooth fingers reach up to take her hand. "This isn't your fault; none of this is your doing."
She felt her phone buzz again. Angrily ripping her hand from Loki's grasp and plunging it into her pocket, she tore it out. It was the notification saying the battery was finally low.
"Where did you get that?" Loki asked, surprised. But Alessia didn't say anything. She had lifted the phone, poised to throw it as hard as she could against the sidewalk. Her eyes were watering. eighteen of which children the newscaster voice said. Children.
The phone buzzed again and she let is slip out of her hand, not throwing it, merely dropping it, and falling to her knees beside it, hands covering her face now.
Children are dead because of you.
She was crying, and she knew she was making a scene, but she couldn't help it.
eighteen children. Plus however many adults that is now. Dead. gone forever because of you.
Loki was trying to pull her up, being insufferably gentle, putting his hands on her shoulders, saying sweet comforting words to her. "Come now pet, don't cry. You mustn't blame yourself for this, love."
She swatted one of his hands away before she could stop herself. So far she had tried to play along with his intimate, if strangely forced, touches and words. She didn't want to offend him and then be stuck with him. She wanted him to believe she trusted him completely. But did he have to touch her so softly?
Undeterred, Loki merely joined her on the ground, restricting his touch to her hands.
"Please don't cry dearest, please don't be sad. This isn't your fault. Don't be sad."
"L-loki," She choked out, grasping his hands tightly, glad to be holding someone's hands, sad that she couldn't trust the person to whom they belonged. "Loki, stop trying to make me feel better."
Loki didn't say anything else, but he kept his hands clasping hers.
"If that's what's happening," Alessia said. "If people are dying because they're looking for me…" She looked up to Loki's face. "Then I have to give them what they want."