Merciful

Chapter 2: The Intergalactic Criminal

Last Chapter:

"Agent Liao," Fury said. His hands were folded behind his back as he looked out the window. "Would you mind looking to my desk?"

I did so, and immediately pulled out my bow. "Sir. There is an intergalactic criminal sitting in your chair."

Now:

"Ouch. You know, that hurts right here," Loki said, tapping his chest sarcastically.

"You mean that part of your body that's missing an important internal organ?" I said cruely.

"Again. That is cold."

"Stand down, Agent," Fury sighed. I reluctantly lowered my bow, though left the arrow sitting on the string. "Agent Liao, you know who Loki is. Loki, this is Agent Jaida Liao."

"If I may ask, why is he here?" I asked suspiciously.

Fury almost smirked. "Loki's decided he is no longer the evil villain."

"That is not quite how I would state it," Loki muttered. I raised my eyebrows.

"How would you state it?"

"I got bored and decided annoying Thor is more fun than being beaten up by his friends," Loki muttered. "And I was threatened by his friends. Three times."

I frowned. "So there is no reliability at all. Fury?"

"Thor asked."

"And what do I have to do with this?"

"I put together a list of people I believed were capable of… babysitting Loki," Fury began. "The people on it were Coulson, May, Barton, Romanoff, and you. Coulson and May, while good agents, are not in any way superpowered, and also are extremely busy. Barton is too biased on the situation, as is Romanoff, and that leaves you, our little bird."

I studied Loki disbelievingly. He crossed his arms, fully aloof as he sat regally in the Director's chair. However, I could see something hiding in his eyes, behind the annoyed detachment. I couldn't quite figure it out, but I would.

I could see the way people around S.H.I.E.L.D. would look at me when they didn't know I was watching. I was obvious on base, constantly following Natasha - my S.O. - around, with black hair that looked like ruffled feathers and irony grey eyes that flashed red when I was mad. Besides that, everyone had been told to be on alert for me. I was a hardened criminal with superpowers, trained since I was five.

It would take ten years for anyone besides Nat, Clint, Coulson, and Fury to trust me, while sone still didn't.

"What do I need to do?" I sighed.

Fury smirked; he knew I would agree. "Twenty-four hour surveillance. You have new quarters here on base. Besides that, teach him about modern society and how S.H.I.E.L.D. works."

I nodded. "Do I have a budget?"

"Why would you-"

"He can't just walk around in a cape and armor," I interrupted. Fury sighed.

"Fine. I will give you your raise."

"I have magic," Loki said as we left Fury's office. "I can change my clothes at will."

"I know," I replied. "I just wanted a raise. Fury knew, too."

"Then why did he comply?"

I shrugged. "Maybe he feels bad for putting one of his best agents on babysitting duty. Now, why are you really here?"

"You know why," Loki said before turning to walk backwards and look at me. "Why did Fury call you his bird? Is that not Barton?"

"My field name is Owl-Wing," I replied.

"Every cool field agent has a field name," Coulson said with a smirk. "Hawk-Eye? Black Widow?"

"I can't believe she kept Black Widow," I said. "I refuse to just be called Avian or Avian Nine. If I'm making a change in my life, I'm going to start with my name."

"Well then, what is an aspect of your training that you pride yourself on?"

I smirked; not many people knew of my special power. Soon I had taken the form of an owl, and Coulson blinked.

"That's not something you see every day."

I regained my human form, rolling my eyes. "So what did you get from that?"

"Well, I understand why you were titled Avian now," Coulson said. "Can Natasha turn into a spider?"

"She defected too early in her training," I replied.

"She was with them for quite a while."

"I was there for thirty-three years, and had only just begun learning this. Black Widows were set to start morphing much later in their training; the smaller, the harder."

Coulson smiled. "Well then. What do you think of Owl-Wing?"

"I was trained in the Avian program," I continued explaining. Loki smirked.

"That explains why you smell like -"

Snap. I spun around at the noise, surprised someone had snuck up on us, twenty-five feet away or not. My eyes widened; Clint was staring at Loki, face twisted in shock and hate. The worst part was his bow, snapped in two.

Almost immediately, Clint pulled out a gun. Just as quickly, I plucked it from his hands as an owl and returned to my original form, standing in front of Clint with his gun in my hand.

"Clint." I said. "Clint. It's fine. He isn't doing any harm."

"He tried to take over the world," Clint growled. "For crying out loud, he mind controlled me."

I glanced around quickly, spotting Natasha a short distance away, her own weapon trained on Loki, who was standing there observing his fingernails. I trusted she wouldn't make any irrational moves.

"Alright, listen. Loki helped save the universe during the London fiasco. In return, Thor wants us to help him basically fit in here. Clint, look at me. All three of us used to be criminals, villains, even. Fury isn't being irrational, he's being merciful. The second Loki and Thor showed up, he could have attacked him, but he heard him out and took a chance, just like with us. Clint, calm down."

Clint glared at me. "Jaida, I'm not sure you know who that guy is; that's Loki, god of mischief and Thor's adopted brother, not to mention how many people he killed during the New York fiasco. Remember Coulson?"

"I remember," I growled. "But that is in the past. No harm done, right?"

I could see Clint was grasping for straws now that his initial fury had passed. "Tony? He's been messed up ever since the wormhole thing."

"But he's getting better. Didn't he just get his Arc reactor taken out? See, none of this is lasting damage."

Clint rose an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? Tell that to the families of the dead civilians and agents."

I winced at that; he got me. "That doesn't mean we can't be merciful to Loki. Clint, we were in almost the same situation. Remember? Nat was dying, shot by Russian operatives. You were both wanted criminals, and S.H.I.E.L.D. would have been happy to get rid of you. Instead, when you asked for help, they helped, and now you're two of the most trusted S.H.I.E.L.D. agents."

"You can't seriously believe that he's going to change," Clint sneered. "We chose S.H.I.E.L.D. His brother chose S.H.I.E.L.D. for him."

"Clint. I didn't choose S.H.I.E.L.D., either," Natasha said, walking up behind us. I glanced back to make sure Loki was still behaving. "You chose S.H.I.E.L.D. for me, and I just chose to agree. Trust Jaida; she'll keep him out of trouble."

"And away from me," Clint said, glaring into my eyes. I got the message, and nodded sadly.

"Come on," Natasha said. "Ops mission, remember?"

"Why did you defend me?" Loki asked when we were once again striding through the cold night to the barracks. Of course he couldn't say thank you or anything.

"I wasn't defending you," I said shortly. "I was defending myself. If Clint shot at you while you were under my supervision, even if you were unarmed, I can only imagine how Thor would react. Even if he didn't find out, Fury would know. When he puts someone on babysitting duty, it works to protect two groups."

Loki raised an eyebrow as if genuinely surprised. "What you are saying is that even though I killed a hundred Midgardians, you still have to protect me from S.H.I.E.L.D.? No matter what?"

"Not no matter what," I corrected. "Only as long as you haven't reverted back to your original sadistic and murderous ways."

"Which means I could say, steal what I wanted and you would have to defend me?" Loki said. I pursed my lips.

"Would you like me to write out a list of what specifically you can and can't do?" I said sarcastically. "Let me tell you, the first would be considerably shorter than the latter."

Loki was silent, and I looked wistfully up into the sky as snow began to fall. Snowy nights like tonight were my favorite times to fly.

I was thirty, and had just learned to fly. For five long years, I had been waiting for this moment. Now, in the chilly winter air, I was soaring among the stars.

"Nine! On the ground!" If I had a human face, I would have pouted. Perhaps I could pretend I couldn't understand them? After all, I was the first successful test. All the others hadn't been able to fully turn.

I wouldn't be able to, though. If this test were considered failed, my sisters, my fellow Avians, would be unable to even attempt this. Keeping this in mind, I swerved around and landed, returning to human form.

"I would call that a success," I said breathlessly.

"I do not believe that is the look of a mortal wishing she knew the sky," Loki said, jolting me out of my thoughts. "That is the look of one who has met the sky first-hand and cannot wait to visit again."

"What are you talking about?" I asked warily.

Loki smirked. I watched, stunned, as he turned into a mist that vaporized. Before I could call in his magical disappearance, I heard a chirp. Then a tiny sparrow flew up from the ground, and I frowned.

"So you want to play this game." I pulled out my bow and took aim, but the bird wouldn't slow enough for me accurately bring him bak down to Earth. Resorting to manual retrieval, I leapt into the air. I'm sure that was what he had wanted as the wind ruffled my feathers. I was temporarily distracted by the familiar feel and it took me a moment to orient myself and pinpoint Loki. I flew after him at bullet speed and screeched to a halt as I went right through the tiny bird. There was a disturbance in the air behind me, and I whipped around, catching Loki in my talons. He began dispersing into mist again, but I tightened my grip. The sparrow squealed and solidified as I rocketed to the ground.

"That hurt," Loki said as he took on his original form.

"Did you expect me to be gentle?" I hissed.

"I expect you to at least not kill me while I am not your enemy!"

I quieted before grumbling, "Come on. I'll show you where you're sleeping."

I couldn't help but think that there was something off. Yes, Loki was being cynical and sarcastic, but this was Loki, for crying out loud, the evil god of mischief who betrayed even his own brother.

When I woke to my alarm the next morning, I kept my eyes closed, hoping I would be back in my familiar apartment. No such luck, though; it was the empty room reserved for the agents on-call 24/7 who didn't have means of extremely fast transportation.

Disappointed, I took my time getting ready for the day before taking off all of the locks and anti-magic wards on Loki's room before finally releasing him. His glare was unsurprising, but his outfit was enough to make me stare. After all, it wasn't every day that I saw an evil god dressed in jeans and a jacket.

"Like I said," Loki muttered. "Magic."

"Right," I said, shaking off my shock. "I need to report to Fury. Come with me."

"Do not order me around, mortal," Loki suddenly snapped. I jolted slightly in surprise. This was more like the Loki I had been told about, the Loki I had seen destroying New York. I could only assume that he had earlier been in shock, still trying to comprehend what had happened. I could also honestly say that I was feeling the same way.

"I will," I hissed in return. "I am the one keeping you from being torn to shreds, am I not?"

Loki scowled. "I am perfectly capable of defending myself. These mewling mortals would be kneeling before me and begging for mercy if they had the audacity to try and rise against me."

I knew he was perfectly capable of destroying any one of us. Though I wondered why he was restraining himself, that wasn't my job, and I took a deep breath. "Would you care to come along with me, Loki?" I muttered through gritted teeth. Loki smirked as of he had own something. In a way, he had.

"No thank you," he replied, and promptly turned on his heel, heading towards the training arena. I could hear the sounds of a spar echoing over the snow. I stared after the god for a moment before sighing and following him. When he stopped at the fence to watch the two agents, I took the opportunity to type out a short message to Fury.

Of course, I wasn't allowed any peace. As the spar ended, those both watching and participating realized that Loki stood beside me and cautiously rose their weapons. I sighed in exasperation.

"You pesky Midgardians," Loki muttered. "Always with your loud weapons."

"Yeah, well, we can't all be magical gods," I replied before hopping up on a fence post. "Agents! Hey, yeah, up here! Lower your weapons, Loki presents no immediate threat!"

Several of them scoffed. "Yeah? Isn't he the one who tried to take over the universe? The one who killed Coulson?"

"He helped Thor save the universe during the London Christmas fiasco," I reasoned.

"Are you siding with him, little birdie?" a voice said condescendingly. I sighed slightly; Ward. He was one of those who still refused to trust me, even though I was a senior special agent.

"Are you going against Fury's direct orders?" I shot back. "You don't truly think Loki could be here without his consent?"

Ward scowled. "Do you think we don't know what you are? A special agent, please. You probably hypnotized Fury or something to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Hypnotism?" I said incredulously, trying not to watch Loki's poor attempts not to snicker at the scene. "Really? That's low, Ward. Just because I can turn into a bird, you're suddenly bitter. Is this perhaps a bit of jealousy?"

A few agents laughed. "Oh, just kiss and move on!" one shouted.

"Yes! Warao for ever!"

I was still a new agent. Thing was, I had already had more training than all of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents - minus Natasha and Clint. The Academy was out of the question. Therefore, Natasha was assigned as my S.O. Thing was, no one knew what I was yet, so I didn't hesitate to yes when another new agent, Agent Grant Ward, asked me to dinner. Natasha warned me against it; she knew how he would react when my history was revealed, and it would be revealed. Natasha was right.

I glared at said agents before turning back to Ward. "I've been given direct orders to watch Loki. If any of you have a problem with that, take it up with Fury."

They grumbled their consent and I took a couple minutes to stare Ward down until he finally nodded stiffly in consent.

"Good," I said, leaping over the fence again and going over near Loki. "Alright. Come on."

"Hm, that was rather amusing. Perhaps-"

"No," I growled. "I'm getting annoyed, alright? Now come. On!" I grabbed Loki's freezing wrist and tugged furiously. I actually managed to pull the surprised god several steps before he ripped his arm away and growled, eyes quite literally red.

"Do not touch me, mortal," he hissed. I sighed; this was going to be an extremely long day, and I wasn't certain if I would be coming out of it alive.

A/N: Hey, y'all! Updating this during Physical Science after the test. I think I actually did okay on it… i just wanted to say thank you to all of my wonderful readers the past three days and thanks to my new favorite and follower, serbian broski. Also, I apologize for not updating earlier; I was busy with a concert and church. See you all later! And I may have a surprise that has to do with a POV change next time...