Chapter 8: Suddenly

When Natasha awoke again she was more alert than ever. She had guessed, by the huge explosion earlier, that Loki had used the Tesseract to summon whatever beast he wanted. She jumped off her mattress and started looking for things to use to break out of her cell. All she found was an old rusty pipe, jutting from the wall. With one swift kick she sent it clattering to the ground. She picked it up from one end, the other side cragged and sharp. She walked over to the door, going to attempt to pry it right off the hinges. She held it up to start when the door swung open, cold hands appearing from the other side grabbing her wrists.

"Oh you were expecting me! How delightful," chimed a smug Loki. He brought his face close to hers, so much that she could feel his cool breath land on her cheeks. Natasha knew that she had to act now, and she did. Using her right hand she plunged the metal pipe into his leg. Loki gasped and let go of Natasha, more out of shock then pain. She followed up by sending an agile kick to his head. Loki took a few steps back and pulled the pipe of his leg. The wound seemed to instantly heal. "You think this is all it will take to stop me!?" he hissed shaking the pipe, bits of rust flaking off and fluttering to the ground. Her muscles seemed to freeze as he walked towards her. As hard as she tried she couldn't move. He walked up to her and grasped her face in his hands. "No, nothing you do will stop me; you will be helping me instead." Out of nowhere he moved his face to hers, forcing his lips upon hers. Natasha's eyes widened in shock, out of all the situations she pictured, all the moves she thought up to deflect his, she did not expect this.

It took her a few moments for the shock to wear off before she pried her lips from him. There was a brief moment after they were separated where the two looked into each other eyes, breathing heavy, where the feud between them was temporality forgotten. This lasted a few seconds before everything sped up into the normal pace, Loki grabbing her wrists dragging her behind him. There was silence as they walked down the corridor, their breath echoing off the metallic walls. They had almost got to the large metal doors Natasha had seen before when Loki pushed her against the wall. His forearm securely pressing her against the metal.

"Now you listen to me," he growled, his mood seemed to suddenly cloud over. "You are no longer on the other team, you are against them!"

"You really expect to give in that easily," Natasha spat back, her jaw clenched, her eyes shooting darts at his. Loki snickered as he moved his face slightly closer.

"You didn't seem to protest as much down the hallway." He whispered, almost flirtatiously. She responded by spitting at him. A look of disgust appeared on his face and he moved back a little before speaking.

"I, at first thought of using Barton to hurt you, and him, but I realised that I could use something much better, you! You are something to be feared, you were a spy, a killer, if people even thought you were not fully on the side of the Avengers they would hate you! Be terrified of you!" Each word stung her like hundreds of needles being stabbed into her, slowly. But she would not let it show. "You and I are similar, no one really liked you, wanted you, the children run around shouting 'we love you Iron man', people playing with plastic Captain America shields, not mentioning you. No one wants you, not even your Barton."

"No." Was all she said, looking Loki straight in the eyes. "You and I are nothing alike. You need power, people following you, I do not." Her glare was cold, his, equally frigid.

"Well then," Loki continued, his voice back to a whisper, "you need some motivation then, how about this, you help me on my conditions or yours. You can willing fight them and death will not be necessary, however, not willingly, death may occur." His lips curled upwards, like they always do when he knows he'll get his way. "To add to that you try to help them and I will command my army to kill or capture every single innocent creature of New York." Natasha's removed her glare from his eyes, looking now at his boots, firmly planted on the ground. "Choose now Natasha." She cringed at the use of her name, and the fact that she had to go along with Loki's plan for now. She nodded and he once again grabbed her wrists. He pulled her up a ladder and opened a hatch revealing the landscape of New York.

No people were in sight, cars were smashed, and the sounds of explosions rang through Natasha's ears. Loki pushed her away and flew up, most likely to look for his brother, Thor.

"Remember," he said before he left, "don't forget our agreement." She nodded and walked away. That's when she saw her first frost giant. Her eyes widened but she didn't shoot at it. It stared at her then ran away; Loki must have informed his army about her. She decided to look for one of the other Avengers, even if Loki did use his scepter on her, she thought, one of her team knock her out of it. She rounded a corner and standing there was Hawkeye and Captain America.

"Natasha!" Barton yelled, but she raised her gun up, pointing right at him. "No…" he sighed, thinking she was under Loki's control.

"Clint," she yelled back, "stay there, I'm not under his control, he said…" She lurched forward falling to her knees, the ground seeming to disappear beneath her. She faintly heard Clint and Steve running towards her yelling, talking, whispering. The world seemed to grow fuzzy, her thoughts hazy. It felt as if she couldn't get up but she did, her blue eyes glinting in the sun.