A/N:

I'm baaa~aacck with a spooky update for Valentine's Day! One filled with an irate Jane, a wrongfully accused Darcy, and a kinda, sorta regretful Loki(but shhhh don't tell the other Big Bads). I talk a bit more about Loki's troublesome destiny too, but not too much in depth as I'm saving that more for later ;)

The Covenant

Chapter VI

"It's never the differences between people that surprise us. It's the things that, against all odds, we have in common."

~ Jodi Picoult, House Rules

She felt sick.

Slouched in an upholstered chair Darcy Lewis tried to stomach her food as best she could as she brought her fork timidly to her mouth. While she had lost track of time in the living room Jane and her agent chaperone Wilson had returned with a ton of groceries from the marketplace. Her boss lady had even been chivalrous enough to insist on cooking right after they had gotten back. Too bad none of them had ever tasted Jane's cuisine before; her boss had a knack for butchering meals.

Darcy's nose scrunched up in distaste at what she had just chewed and swallowed.

It was supposed to be the Cornish hen Jane claimed to have bought at half price.

It tasted more like rubber.

At least Jane wasn't capable of altering the wine. Darcy thought now swigging down a large portion from her glass to numb her already agitated nerves, because it wasn't the bland taste of Jane's cooking that made her feel ill at ease but a particular group of field agents she'd been trying her best not to make eye contact with. And it was becoming increasingly difficult, considering how much she wanted to go into full Jack Bauer mode and interrogate them one by one.

Dugan, Black, Matthews, Clay… this time round they've really gone too far, especially going through my personal belongings like...like my shaving cream.

Darcy gripped her fist into the table cloth and tried to keep her hands far away from any sharp pointed objects.

Was nothing sacred anymore?

But what had the intern truly bothered was the why they had done it. Why they would have gone to so much effort just to set her up. Surely, the high of framing her rather than scaring her couldn't have been all that great.

It really made no sense.

But then, aside from Matthews, she never really had put much thought into what the others were really like, because apart from their names, what else was there to know?

Matthews had been right about her only seeing them as a bunch of anonymous suits.

And you're just 'the intern' to them, she thought sullenly.

Darcy did her best not to search out the guiltiest looking of the bunch as she finally brought herself to look up from her plate. Aside from not touching their food much, Agents Black, Dugan, and Matthews seemed quite content to chat and drink like the chummiest of chums, as though nothing had happened. Well, all of them except for Clay, who, just as Matthews had said, looked pretty shaken up, cringing at each loud sound the others made like a shrinking violet. Purcell and Wilson, the oldest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, seemed too preoccupied discussing the local customs to join in their fun. And Jane... well Jane was a real space cadet, too busy sighing and staring down at her notes to pay much attention to anyone, least of all her intern.

None of them really seemed to take any notice of her in her own little corner of the long table.

Is this the cold shoulder treatment? Darcy wondered, or have I just never really bothered to notice this behavior on their part as normal towards me? Not feeling up to answering that question tonight Darcy got up from her furnished seat and collected her dirty dishes.

"Uh, it's getting kinda late, guess I'll just head off to bed now." The intern said as she scooted past their uncomfortable sideway glances to make her way towards the kitchen. Now emptying the rest of her 'hearty' meal into a nearby garbage container Darcy let a huge sigh of relief to finally be away from them.

It'd been so damn… alienating.

"What exactly has gotten into you?" Jane's trill voice piped up from behind her as the kitchen door slammed shut.

"I leave for like six hours and suddenly you've got trained S.H.I.E.L.D. personal fearful of the boogeyman? Whatever 'prank wars' you've all suddenly decided to start playing at has got to stop now. You know how much this expedition means to me and-,"Jane's throat caught as she became more distraught, "and leaving my research notes like that scattered all over the foyer floor-"

Oh, no they didn't. Darcy's eyebrow twitched as the look on Jane's disapproving face said it all. Her academic champion had honestly thought she'd been the one to do all that, and the fact that it was Jane who was jumping on the 'blame Darcy train,' well, that's what made it that much worse.

Et Tu, Jane? Darcy glumly thought. You couldn't have taken my side over theirs?

"Well, for starters, it wasn't me," the intern spat, "someone's setting me up."

Quick to return her boss's USB drive with her edited article Darcy began to tell her side of the story and, for a while, it seemed as though Jane was willing to listen until-

"You were in his attic?" Jane looked faint.

Ok, so she probably should have left that part out.

"Never mind, I don't want to hear it." Jane said with a shake of her head.

"Listen, Darcy, I know you might not have a filter on the things you say, but at least in the things you do-, Jane paused as if looking for the right words, "at least try to restrain yourself."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Darcy snapped.

"You know exactly what that means!" Jane snapped back, "I might have played along with your spying on S.H.I.E.L.D. for Erik's sake back in Puente Antiguo, but this is different, and I am not okay with it. Whatever reasons Carl Strange had for keeping that information from us is none of our business. And as your employer I am not having this conversation with you again." Jane said her lack of interest crystal clear.

Darcy couldn't believe it.

Not even the scientist who had chased after Norse Thunder Gods and enjoyed quoting from the X Files was going to believe her? Whatever happened to: 'the truth is out there Darcy we just can't explain it yet?'

Darcy sighed.

It wasn't like she wanted to look like she was grasping at straws when it came to their nefarious host, but after all the incriminating evidence she had found, when said aloud to Matthews and Jane, the truth about Strange really did sound stranger than fiction. And that was what bothered her more than anything else because she knew there was no easy way to prove there was something rotten going on in this house.

"On a more positive note," Jane said swiftly changing the topic, "Agent Purcell has agreed to drive us over to the Bluehenge campsite tomorrow morning. From now on we can spend the rest of our three days off getting a head start on detecting the low level gravitational waves the site keeps transmitting."

Oh, joy, Darcy thought, because that's what you do on days off. Work.

"Best get some sleep; we've got ourselves a big day tomorrow."

And with that said Jane was gone, probably returning to her room to meticulously go over her notes until she passed out and, no doubt, dreamt of Thor.

Exhausted from the day's less than stellar events, Darcy Lewis had somehow managed to drag herself up the stairs and back to her dingy sleeping quarters.

Wearily shoving her replacement mirror the agents had lent her into her room the intern flipped on the lights.

"Typical," She muttered when they timidly flickered on rather than off as they had this afternoon.

"Now you decide to work."

Stupid lights, she thought as she sat down on the quaint children's bed, flinging her notebook and Matthews garbage bag onto the rocking chair, stupid mirror, stupid agents, stupid dolls, stupid Strange, stupid house, stupid gho- The intern's eyes widened in pain as she stubbed her foot on a jagged pieces of glass from the previous mirror. Inhaling sharply she recoiled as she ripped it out of her sock. Now holding back a growing lump in her throat Darcy closed her eyes and pursed her lips into a miserable smile.

Stupid me.

"What am I even doing here?" She asked her empty room.

She'd taken on this internship like someone pulling a piece of paper out of a hat; at random and without a care to consequence. Oh, she remembered the reasons why she'd done it; she'd been so desperate at the time to avoid the mediocrity of academic limbo that she'd been willing to take on anything that had come here way. But now, she wasn't so sure just how worth it this little adventure of an internship was anymore, and she only had herself to blame for remaining here pro bono.

It was just that…

She didn't want to give up her position here. Though she might have stood out like a sore thumb among top secret agents and scientists, she knew she belonged here. She'd worked too hard, come too far to just return to a boring hometown in Virginia with an unfinished degree and two very disappointed parents.

Squeezing the small bed's blanket into her fists Darcy ignored the stinging sensation in her foot with a sigh.

There was something fishy going on. She knew she wasn't being delusional. Jane might have been able to ignore the signs but she couldn't, because it was more than just a case of bad coincidences, and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

A familiar chill passed through Darcy Lewis, it began at the nape of her neck and stretched all the way down to her toes, like someone had been whispering into her ear, glaring daggers into her back, and slithering ever closer. But rather than give the creepy sensations any consideration, the intern chose instead to openly stew in her anger, glaring at the messy room before her. The place looked like a war zone with her luggage left zipped wide open and her clothes left crumpled on the ground.

You'd think whoever had set her up could have at least had the common sense to be more discreet.

And that's when she noticed the trickle of pink "blood" from her shaving cream on the floor. Darcy's blood boiled as she gravitated towards the telltale spots.

"Who the hell uses pink blood?" She said with her usual eye roll.

Jumping off the small mattress Darcy searched through her luggage, now completely hell bent on finding something, anything to scrub those ridiculous stains out of the carpet, even if it took her all God damn night to get them out.

"People always want someone to blame, don't they?" With a sympathetic nod Loki situated his incorporeal body next to Darcy on the mattress. "And that mistress of yours," he said with a nonchalant wave his hand, "-she assumed the worst of you from the start."

With a tilt of his head Loki closely observed his little friend for any indication that hinted to her hypersensitivity to him, but the unresponsive girl simply glared straight through him, and Loki frowned.

Darcy Lewis had been looking dejectedly off into space for some time now, her long dark lashes hanging like two melancholy crescents; her lips drawn together in a rigid line, even that golden aura that floated all around her seemed to be dimming.

His close proximity to her now had him hungrily sucking up her energy in waves, causing the Ghostly God to feel, and feel the unwanted aftereffects of her human emotions.

Loki gritted his teeth, doing his utmost to ignore the ridiculous assault on his incorporeal senses he turned to the girl, "Enough with the long face, my dear. It would be in your best interests to get accustomed to having a reputation that precedes you."

I know I have.

"What am I even doing here?" She muttered into the empty room.

Now that's what he'd like to know.

Though he could no longer gander into the minds of fragile mortals, Loki could still guess at their thoughts, and Darcy's somber eyes had spoken volumes in the way they had so desperately searched Jane Foster's for what he'd had stolen from her: her employer's undivided trust. His charming little chatterer had looked so lost then, her cheerful demeanor completely deflated by the scientist's unintentionally cruel words, and it had annoyed Loki at how uneasy it made him.

The whole thing had struck an unwanted chord within the God.

Watching the little assistant unravel had been an unwelcome call to mind of all the times in his youth when his own word, the word of a prince, had often meant little more than nothing. When the one person whose praise and trust he had craved the most, the one person who should have known him better than anyone, had often turned nonchalant whenever he so desperately needed to be believed.

But then my character was always on trial with him.

Even in our last moments spent together in the Chitauri's iron grip Thor had chosen to believe the damning lies of the Other, he thought as he recalled back to how Thor's face had contorted with betrayal for every one of his supposed slights against Asgard.

Loki shuffled his nonexistent weight uneasily as the mortal's energies now fueled the enraged image of Thor to replay itself in his mind.

Its best now not to give him much thought, considering how he'll be no bother to me anymore, Loki reassured himself in an attempt to set his mind at ease, but with a heavy brow the God lowered his eyes to find that his hands were shaking, and shaking uncontrollably.

Once upon a time his 'brother' had been his entire world and he had hated him for that. But now that Thor was gone, truly gone, the weight that Loki had once thought lifted from his shoulders had instead weighed heavily down on his mind. Thor had been a constant in his life, something he could depend upon being there and now…

It's no use thinking of him, he thought, best to accept that Tho- that the Asgardian's as good as dead…probably dragged off to some backwater dimension to be tortured by the Chitauri. Odin's golden boy left to wallow away in whatever dreary prison cell Thanos has seen fit to place him in, or worse, presented up on a platter for Lady Death's consumption...

Loki's head spun in a fit of nausea just ruminating over what would soon befall Asgard's beloved son, and all because of him. With a fierce shake of his head he willed the wretched sentiment his incorporeal body leeched off Darcy Lewis to go away. He'd much rather all his memories of Thor be kept buried and buried permanently. Even the ache of nothingness that came from being dead was more preferable than, than this. And the last thing he needed were those images haunting his incorporeal mind like the ones of the Titan he'd discovered etched all over Darcy's subconscious. Loki shook at the memory of that exquisite torture, of being held down and forced to peer into a shimmering pool, an abyss filled with all his past and future wrongdoings, his many pitfalls, his inevitable role in Asgard's many ends.

The Ragnarok.

A septic fear gripped Loki just thinking of it and he recoiled at the route his thoughts had finally taken him, at the grim certainty of what lay ahead for him and the place he had once called home.

There's still a chance, the God feverishly reminded himself, biting back the torrent of anxiety that swelled at the back of his throat.

A chance that I can still break the chain of death and horror and blood…

That I can still break away from my fate.

He'd seen it when he had taken the Tesseract, when she had sung to him her hymn of power and whispered secrets, when she had promised him that power and glory could all be his, that a new start could all be his, that Asgard could all be his. It was she who had helped him to cloak his astral correspondents on Earth with none other than Amora, shielding their conversations and his plans while the Other had routinely bombarded his mind. And, if the Enchantress could be trusted to follow his orders properly, then the Infinity Gauntlet soon awaited him, along with a way to create his own destiny just as the Cube had promised.

That pool Thanos had shown him of his many pasts, his many selves… it wasn't his reality, not yet anyway. Even the Death Goddess Hela had claimed that what the Mad Titan had shown him had been lies, lies that he had come too far to believe in now that it wasn't possible to change the course of his plans. There was too much at stake for him to just wallow away in some personal purgatory leeching off the emotions of another. Right now, what he needed to do, and needed to do more than anything else in this worthless weakened state, was focus on a way of binding Darcy Lewis to him body and mind, in a covenant, one that would make her his willing vassal.

With a swift and sudden motion Loki took a hold of Darcy's chin to look the woman dead in the face, his transparent fingers slipping straight through her. "What would it take to convince you to aid me little one? What would it take to hear that oath from those pretty little lips?" He asked shifting ever closer to her side.

"What if I told you a secret? That we've both foolishly sweat and strained to prove ourselves in front of our heroes only for it to all have been for naught when they finally reveal what they truly are, what they all are-"

"Liars."

Darcy froze at his touch, at the sudden heightened pitch of his voice, her eyes narrowing as if she'd heard him, and Loki thrilled at the eye contact they now made.

"Our loyalty… it meant little more than ash to them, didn't it? And our affections, they always seemed to end up somehow-," Loki stopped his features softening as he fixed his gaze on Darcy's tight-lipped mouth, "-left unrequited."

Though he knew she felt his presence Darcy made no further attempt to acknowledge him, instead she hunched her back and continued to stare dejectedly at the wall ahead.

Loki's jaw tensed; her reaction was causing that useless inkling of mortal sentiment to rise up in him again and he hated it.

It had no place within him.

"You brought this on yourself, you know," the God coolly reminded her as he placed his hands atop her shoulders and languorously leaned his body into her line of vision. "Had you only listened to me in your dream none of this would have happened to you or to them, had you only-," Loki's green eyes searched Darcy's with a strange fervor as his mouth inched close enough to tickle hers, "-had you only pledged your loyalty to me."

Hidden under thick lashes Darcy's eyes widened and craning her neck to look up at the Trickster God she finally spoke, "Who the hell uses pink blood?" She asked.

Taken aback by the brash question Loki stared dumbfounded as the woman leapt forward from her place on the mattress to shuffle through her belongings until finally, with a crow of delight, she took out an orange pen with the words TIDE TO GO. Loki could only assume it was some sort of mortal cleaning agent because Darcy Lewis was now pushing it directly into the stained crevices of the carpet.

"Stubborn girl," He murmured bemused at the comical sight she made diligently scrubbing away at what he'd left behind, "wiping out those stains out won't clear the smear I've left on your good name nor will it change how they'll now perceive you.

"That's the thing about labels, love... they stick."

As though to prove him wrong Darcy looked up at Loki with a triumphant cry.

"Ha!" She spat, "gets the stains right out or money back guaranteed!"

The God furrowed his brow at the woman's ludicrous statement.

Insufferable little chit that doesn't prove anything.

Standing listlessly by Loki watched as Darcy went about in an amusing fit of rage, cleaning up the entirety of her poorly decorated room, cleaning up the debris left behind from all his hard work spent setting her up, until finally she had tuckered herself out.

Now resting fitfully sprawled atop her mattress Darcy Lewis had fallen asleep with a small mortal contraption nestled in between her ears, one that loudly blared music even as she slept.

Loki cringed at its loud racket.

If that noise is meant to be "music" then Midgardians must clearly be hard of hearing, he thought as he now hovered over the motionless woman.

The moonlight from the window was bathing her profile in a soft, warm light. It made her chaotic appearance almost peaceful, illuminating every detail of her tousled dark hair and small body sprawled out across the expanse of an even smaller bed, her dainty feet peeking out from under the blankets. It certainly painted a most intriguing picture for the God, perhaps because he wasn't used to seeing her at her most relaxed. He much preferred her like this. There was softness in her expression, a glow that he couldn't help but gravitate towards.

"Mmmmmnn," Darcy murmured as a troubled grimace crossed over her face like an involuntarily twitch and without thinking Loki reached out to soothe her sweaty brow.

"Sympathy?" A familiar voice rang out from behind him, "from you? Now that's rather rich, don't you think? A little twisted on your part though, considering how you did just frame her."

Loki eyes narrowed at the intruder.

"Leah."

So she's been watching me this entire time has she? The God grimly thought.

In the shining reflection of Miss Lewis's new mirror stood Hela's handmaiden with a smug smile stretched across her hollowed cheekbones. Her crows appeared to be absent this time round, her appearance now different with her pale face hidden behind dark oblong bangs that mimicked the thin mask her mistress wore.

"You're smitten."

With her hands on her hips Leah coolly smirked at the close proximity between him and the girl, "I can tell by the way you look at her," she continued, "I don't think I've ever seen you so obsessed with a mortal before."

Her child like voice was as biting as a wasp's sting and just as aggravating for the God as he bristled from her allegations. Though he knew the little fool no doubt meant to push his buttons it was still a discomfiting thought. He had been drinking in Darcy's humanity like a sweet fruit ever since he had arrived here, her emotions leading him astray and distracting him from his purpose.

"It's merely the residue of her humanity rubbing off on me against my will, that's all," was his stoic reply, "I am above such creature comforts."

"Creature comforts or not," tsked Leah as her heart shaped lips puckered in distaste, "you should know better than to interfere in the mundane lives of mortals," with a flip of her hair Leah nodded towards Darcy, "it's not your fate to mix with hers."

"Then do be so kind as to remind me, child-," Loki snidely said as he lumbered towards the girl's reflection, "what exactly is my fate then? Because you and your so called mistress have both been very secretive on that subject."

Startled by his sudden push over the edge Leah retreated further into the mirror, "It's not my place to say," the handmaiden said abstaining from looking him in the eye, "only Hela knows."

With a sudden jolt Loki slammed his fist against the glass, "My fate is not for that witch to decide you little brat!" he seethed, "I make my own fate and I will not rot in this sepia-toned purgatory for some Death Goddess's hidden agenda."

Underneath her dark tresses of hair Leah returned Loki's scowl, "Ungrateful swine," she sniffed seemingly hurt by his outburst, "that hidden agenda is the only reason you still, unfortunately, stand. Hela has sacrificed much for you, not even her dead get second chances like tha-" with a quick intake of breath Leah paled at her own words only to quickly hide it under a harsh laugh.

"You're more trouble than your worth," she muttered folding her arms, "get closer to the woman then, see if I care, go ahead and blow your cover, but when Death finds her way to you Loki Laufeyson-," Leah paused her green eyes aglow with otherworldly light as a sinister smile licked the corners of her lips, "don't say I didn't warn you."

The girl's juvenile attempt at menace only made Loki chuckle.

"Don't think that I don't recognize your death threats for the meager scare tactics that they are brat. You play a fool's errand if you think your words could possibly trick me, me into staying in my confinement much less convince me that that little Midgardian isn't my ticket out of here."

But there was no reply, for Leah had left, her reflection having dissipated into a dark pool of smoke, her words an echo in Loki's head, leaving him alone to gnash his teeth at an empty mirror that did not reflect him.

"I know you're still there," Loki bellowed, "and we both know you cannot stop me!"

Still there were no signs of movement from within the mirror, the return to mind numbing silence now leaving Loki ill at ease and desperate for any kind of verbal interaction.

"It won't be long 'til she's under my thumb and I'm able to bend her will to mine," he baited waiting for any kind of response, but still Leah did not reply, "when I regain my body back, and I will regain it, I'll take those mundane mortals you feel so inclined to protect and use their bones to grind my teeth with, I'll-."

"No!" a voice finally shouted out breaking the silence.

No?

Startled Loki turned his head to stare wide eyed at Darcy Lewis. She was tossing and turning more profusely since he had last stood by her side, her breathing heavy, her body caked in sweat.

Had he startled her with his shouting or was she actually capable of understanding what had he had just said?

No, Loki thought, my mind is merely playing tricks on me. It isn't possibly for her to have understood all that, she's most likely dreaming about something childish again.

"I-," Darcy gasped out her eyes still tightly drawn shut as she gripped the frilly trim of her bed sheets, "I won't let you!"

"I...belong to me!"

Incredible! The God thought.

Gone was the warm comforting glow that had engulfed her impish form, instead in its place was an aura coated in slick flames that seemed to be generating from the willful creature's heart. They burned so brightly that it was actually causing shadows to flicker against the walls.

It was like staring directly into a fire!

What is this phenomenon? The God wondered. Where was this small self-assured creature getting all this energy from?

Was this…was this the human's spirit? Was that even possible?

No, Loki decided, no this was no accident. This was a sign that his spell that had bound her to silence was weakening and quite possibly backfiring in ways he still had yet to understand.

Loki frowned.

As her aura continued to flicker his ghostly form was soaking up her life force at an alarming rate, so much so, that he wondered if he now even had the will power to fight its thrall. Like a moth to the flame he couldn't help but draw closer to her, entranced by the rise and fall of her uneven breaths.

Darcy's aura was pulling him in, beckoning to be touched, her dreams explored.

With an outstretched hand Loki combed back Darcy's brown tresses of hair from her face and knelt down beside her. "Oh, my dear Miss Lewis," he whispered softly against the crook of her ear, "There is no stopping me. Soon I'll break free of this prison cell and you, sweet girl, soon you will be the willing subject of a king."

Ancient words flew forth from Loki's mouth and a vortex appeared over Darcy's slumbering head, one he descended into, escaping into her fantasies.

But as he disappeared into a sea of white light he never did see Leah's smiling face take form in Darcy Lewis's mirror or hear how her morose laughter echoed throughout the bedroom.

A/N:

That went a little darker than I expected. :O and that Leah is definitely up to something.

Basically telling Loki not to do the thing means he'll do the thing and well…you get the picture.

Also, Amora the Enchantress was mentioned! And a glimpse into what's going on with all this Ragnarok business :O What's she doing helping Loki I wonder...

And yaaay up next is the dream sequence*throws confetti in the air* I finally made it to the dream sequence!*breaks out the kazoo* Dancing and bad romancing and smexy tension oh, my!

theme-i-ness of the day:

I chose to emphasize a lot of the similarities I keep finding in my Loki and Darcy, their feelings of loneliness and being left out from the herd, neither of them like being labeled and put into a box, both feel the constant need to have to prove themselves, or prove their "worthiness" so to speak. But, most importantly, I think what they share in common is a stubborn resilience. Neither want to fall into a pit of despair and hopelessness, though they both feel this way for very different reasons. Darcy w/ her mystery solving and Loki with his fighting his nasty fate.

So…will our favourite mischief maker be able to pull the wool over our plucky heroine's eyes and play his hand at seduction? Well I guess you'll just have to wait for the next installment to find out!

Feed my insanity and tell me your thoughts! ;)