Loki's a prisoner of S.H.I.E.L.D. now but trust me it won't last long, please review/comment and remember more than 5 reviews means a preview of the next chapter on Wednesdays!
I also understand that I've made some people hate Natasha and Clint for this or do not like the way the story is going, I feel the need to explain why I made them do this and I hope you'll understand. Of course it is still your opinion and you have the right to stick to it, just please, read the next (long) explanation.
SPOILERS FOR CAPTAIN AMERICA THE WINTER SOLDIER)
I based the fact that she obeys S.H.I.E.L.D. like this on the events in the movie, when Hydra is revealed to be a parasite that has been growing into S.H.I.E.L.D. and that the Black Widow was actually working for Hydra she says (I could not find the quote but it comes down to this) that she thought she was doing good, working for .H.I.E.L.D. after all the bad things she's done, I like to believe that before the events of the Winter Soldier she obeyed S.H.I.E.L.D. almost BLINDLY (Fury says: Agent Romanoff is comfortable with anything) that she'll do anything for S.H.I.E.L.D. because she believes it's her redemption.
For Clint: I've read many ifferent fics and one in particular was one that described him as being very emotionally traumatized, his MIND was taken away from him, he'd been a puppet in the hands of a madman and I believe that no one can just get over that and pretend they don't want the man who hurt to pay, I wanted to make him more real by showing that he can't forgive Loki yet and he needs some closure before he ever will.
(MINOR SPOILERS TO THE FIC!)
they'll both realize what they've done and they'll both question S.H.I.E.L.D. I just think this arc was needed especially for Clint, he's going to play a major role later (much later) and he needs to either find closure or see that REVENGE isn't always the solution.
Two days and in those two days absolutely nothing has happened. Clint doesn't know how to feel about that. He's sitting in the control room, a window gives him clear view of their prisoner. Loki is wearing the a smaller model of the cuffs he wore back in New York when they had defeated them, they're built to keep his magic at bay and they're not long term solution but no one has any better ideas so the cuffs stay on. They've kept him sedated for the whole two days because no one knows what to do when he wakes up. That the prisoner hasn't eaten since is a problem they have thought about of course but do not know a solution for yet. His mouth is covered with a smaller version of the gag they used on him also after they defeated him in New York. Honestly, nobody really knows how to restrain him otherwise.
They are in a secret base built to confine non-human prisoners yet the doors creak like it is an old haunted house. He doesn't even look up, it's Natasha of course, they' haven't really spoken much since they brought Loki in, both had been busy and Clint must admit that he had been irritable the last two days. His mood seems to worsen by every passing minute.
They both look at Loki, silence reigns over them, it's not the awkward silence you have when no one really knows how to start the conversation and every minute just makes the silence more awkward, it's like an understanding, they both need some time to think. This is one of the prime reasons they're such a formidable team.
This silence cannot last forever though, Clint wants it too but he too knows it can't.
"I thought you would feel better once Loki was locked up but you don't act like you're happy about this."
She leans forward on the controls, looking at Loki. Some other agents pass the window that looks like a mirror from the outside. Loki's cage or room or whatever is in the middle of the base, glass wall to keep an eye on him and cameras and automatic guns everywhere pointed at him, tracking his every movement even in his sleep.
"I thought so too."
"Then what's wrong?" She turns her head around for a moment to look at him. Outside the room there's a woman bringing everyone coffee and Clint would really like some coffee right now.
""I don't know." She's almost at the control room. Her hair is tied in a bun, glasses on, she looks like a secretary. Come to think of it, Clint's never seen this woman around. Well it is a very big base.
"You don't know what? What's wrong or how you're feeling right now?"
An agent comes in Loki's cell and injects more sedative. The demi-god doesn't react, lying still unless when dreams or nightmares cause him to move. The agent obviously doesn't want to stay inside the cell for too long, he hurries out the moment he's done. Nobody really likes to be close to the cell or even look at it. Nobody's saying it everyone can see it though. This might be Loki he still looks like a kid. It makes all of this seem so wrong, against their principles and their purpose. Protect, not lock up and sedate because you don't know what to do otherwise.
"Both," It's silent again but something urges Barton to continue. Maybe it's because the coffee lady is gone to get more coffee and he wants something to fill the time until she comes back and gives him that coffee he so dearly wants.
"Look 'Tasha, I never expected that by seeing him locked up like this would make me feel so much better, that it would chase away the nightmares and the memories and the horror, but this, this isn't…" he sighs, what can he say? He doesn't really know himself for sure. His hate for Loki still burns but all of this doesn't seem right.
"What you want?" Natasha suggests. Clint nods.
"I thought I wanted him to suffer for what he did to me and too all the people who have lost someone in the battle of New York, why don't I feel glad? Why am I not relieved or feel better?"
"Locking up an enemy is one thing," She answers, "sedating him like this, locking him up in a cell for everyone to see, not even giving him food because we're afraid of what he might do. We're not equipped for this S.H.I. isn't- earth isn't equipped for this, this isn't a way to treat anyone, friend or foe." Natasha has doubts about this too, Clint knows because honestly almost everyone in this base has.
"Nobody ever told us it was going to be like this, alien invasions, de-aged gods, mad titans… This whole mess, we weren't trained or prepared for this."
"And," Clint manages to smile although it's a grim one. The sight of Loki lying there, helpless and restrained even though unconscious makes it almost impossible to act normal, "Thor will never forgive us for this."
Tasha doesn't laugh or scoff she just stares at Barton for a moment.
"It surprises me that they're not here yet, Stark hasn't figured where this base is?" She searches for a chair and pushes it next to Clint.
It's been quiet outside for a long time and where is that coffee lady? Clint stands up and looks through the window. Some scientists stand before computer screens and keep writing notes even though Clint's fairly sure you can't actually make that many notes about a mini-god sleeping. Where is everyone else, not that this base has ever been really crowded it has many floors and agents are always running about never staying on one floor very long. The man the coffee lady had talked to is out of Clint's sight.
A frown forms on the agent's forehead. Where is everybody?
Clint schools his expression of one of curiosity rather than caution. He turns around casually and leans back on the control panel as if he's just making conversation like any other given day.
One of the reason he really likes Natasha is the fact that they somehow are able to understand each other without having to talk to each other. They have done so many missions together they know it when something's off.
She suddenly starts laughing and so does Clint, pretending to have had some inside joke she rubs her eyes as if her eyes are watering from all the laughing. Barton starts talking about something anything, he starts about his arrows, that Fury's given him a new kind one that can virtually cut through anything including Asgardian armor while Tasha occasionally nods and smiles, answering weird words that so it looks like she's engaging in the conversation.
Her eyes scan the entire floor and Clint knows that she's wearing a contact lens, made by Stark, (at least he's good for something other than destroying building and monuments and all of that) and infrared scanner he instinctively knows because that's what he would use. In the report she had made he had read that via infra-red you can distinguish human from Chitauri shape shifters.
She blinks a few times rapidly and looks up to Clint. And then it feel like the world has exploded and everything goes dark for a moment.
XxXxXxXxXx
Loki's drifting in and out of consciousness, he doesn't know how much time has passed but he's been hoarding his magic as much as he can. The cuffs might prevent him from using it on for spells, putting it to work on his body is still possible. They've been trying to keep him completely sedated but mortals are truly stupid. They somehow managed to convince themselves that this would work. They forget he's a god.
He feels the heat of the lamps shining down on him and the hard cement floor. Really they couldn't at least give him a bed? Huh mortals and manners do not mix apparently.
He's been saving his magic, normally it would have fought the sedative already but he keeps it from doing just that, he knows he'll need all the magic he can get, sometimes it surprises him how much magic he has, he would have sworn he didn't have so much a few days ago but he can only be grateful and not question it too much, there are other more important things that are asking his attention right now.
It's only been a day and he can already feel them, they certainly couldn't have acted more quickly, they had already infiltrated them in only a matter of hours. Loki knew then he did not have much time and of course he had been right, sometimes he wanted to be wrong in situations like this.
The door opens and Loki keeps still, the needle is pressed in his arm and he almost smirk but he doesn't. A little magic here and whatever is in that syringe turns harmless. He can feel the threat, he knows they'll act any moment now so he focusses all his magic on fighting the sedative, it's out of his system in no time at all and he swears he'll never question the amount of magic inside him because it's a lifesaver, quite literally.
An explosion rocks the entire base, he can feel the walls of his cell shaking, around the cell giant debris lands on the ground, some shatter and others just crush some moral who are not able to jump out of the way in time. The scientists next to his cage are reduced to pools of blood under giant pieces of the ceiling. People are screaming and guns are shooting, there smoke and dust everywhere and all the while explosions keep on rocking the base.
Loki jumps up, hindered by those stupid cuffs, another explosion makes the walls of his cell crack and he hopes another explosion will create a whole big enough for him to get through. He doesn't know who has the keys but he has a fairly good idea. He shuffles to the middle of the cell, if one of the walls collapses he doesn't want to be squashed. Outside his cage it's eerily quiet, the mirror a few feet away from the cage is cracked, the next explosion shatter the glass, pieces fly everywhere and Loki can see the people he had hoped to see: Eye of Hawk and Black Widow.
He can't celebrate his good fortune because another explosion makes two wall collapse, he can barely dodge both of them and then he sprints out of this damned cell.
An arrow almost takes his eye out and bullets almost skewer him. He duck but keep running, mortals by the Norns, how stupid are they?
He reaches the room that had been hidden by the mirror and kicks in the door when another explosion makes him stumble.
Of course there's an arrow pointing at his head and so is a gun oh how Loki wants to mock them but he's gagged so he just stares at them with the same glare he does when Thor's being an idiot.
The woman lowers her weapon first and the mortals exchange a glance.
"One wrong move reindeer and we shoot you Tesseract energy my arse" Clint grits while his partner moves to remove the cuffs and gag from their now former prisoner.
When the gag is finally removed, Loki spits out the blood that's been bothering him. And looks up to the mortals trying and failing to not look too smug about all of this.
He opens his mouth to speak, the archers cuts him off though.
"Don't you dare say I told you so I will end you!"
So Loki closes his mouth and offers his hands to the woman with the key.
XxXxXxXxXx
Fuck this, fuck aliens and their stupid war fetish, fuck Asgardians with brother complexes., seriously, Fury wants to go back to the old times, without this superhero villain crap that keeps popping up in random places and at random times, like seriously if there's a real god up there he might want to consider sending Fury a heads up next time some alien freak decides he wants to court death and kill everyone to do it. In what kind of world are they living in, Jesus, or whatever other Messiah God wants to send because a messiah would be real handy right now, not some unstable team of freaks with super powers.
Fury's thinking lovely thoughts when the alarm goes off and agent Maria Hill comes running to his office once more, is anyone seeing a pattern here because Fury is and he doesn't like it at all. There are not many things Fury likes to begin with anyway.
"Sir, we have a problem, level 10! The base we locked prisoner 221 in is being attacked at this very moment, sir. We don't know what's going on all systems there are offline and no one's responding what shall we do sir?"
"Get me a damn helicopter right now and ready a team, as many as you can, we gotta leave NOW!"
XxXxXxXxXx
"What are you doing?" they've been cornered, Chitauri warriors everywhere and it won't be long before the ammunition runs out. Before the one thing that's been keeping them from getting killed is gone and then they'll probably have mere minutes considering the number. They have one advantage though, the Chiaturi are not risking getting any closer because they can harm the Tesseract energy, no bombs are thrown and they're at some kind of impasse right now. The Chitauri stay where they are and so do the agents and Loki.
All of them know this isn't going to last. The sounds of buttons being pressed rapidly is drowned out by the sound of aliens shooting at them, it still annoy Natasha though. Since Loki has ignored Clint's question she crawls forward and puts a hand on his shoulder turning him around with a gun to his face.
"What are you doing?" she hisses through her teeth, she can hear more Chitauri entering the room, how many can fit in on this floor anyway?
He looks at her with spite and annoyance, swatting her hand away he turns back around.
"I am signaling the Man or Iron, we will not survive without my brother's help, I had hoped you had already come to this conclusion but your mortal brain and mind are obviously not capable of coming to a logical conclusion like this." He snaps, fingers moving like crazy.
"This isn't a communication panel you idiot, it's a control panel for the prison cell you were supposed to be in!"
"Indeed it is, but it has the capabilities to send out a signal, if modified in the right way." Natasha doesn't like the smugness in his voice.
"Yeah, how are you going to do that?"
"Your technology is primitive, this is the reason why I was so unfamiliar with it, this is ancient but I'll manage, we only need a bit more time."
"We don't have time!" Natasha yells, when the Chitauri open fire once again and she's forced to shoot back or be Swiss cheese.
"It will only take a few minutes!" Loki growls back, it doesn't sound very impressive since his voice is of a twelve-year-old.
Natasha is right of course, they don't have time. But a few minutes, she turns around to look at Clint who's been following the conversation with narrowed eyes. They both come to an agreement.
"Five minutes, it's all we can give you." Natasha states, she crawls back, the infrared scanner in her eyes shows her the enemies that are hidden from them by walls.
"Five minutes will suffice," is the only answer she gets, she can just see Loki use some kind of magic and open up the insides of the machine, making the wires disconnect from each other and connect to others, electricity sparks from the cables and lights flicker on the control panel, there probably is noise but she can't hear it because of all the shooting.
Clint reaches in his belt a grenade lands in his hands. He only has the one and even that one is a liability if Clint makes it go off at a weak pillar the whole place can collapse right on top of them, all the explosions the Chitauri had caused earlier had made the whole base unstable.
They exchange a glance, Natasha grabs her extra gun, locked and loaded and her eyes keep scanning the enemy's movements.
When the shooting stops for a moment neither of them hesitate, Clint throws the grenade making it blow as fast as he can without causing the control room too much damage. The explosion makes the whole floor quake, piles of rubble starts falling down crushing several unfortunate Chitauri warriors and knocking other out, they come from their hiding place, almost entirely hidden with all the smoke and dust everywhere.
With a swift movement she kicks the weapon out of the hands (or whatever these things have) of a the alien closest to her and shoots it with its own gun, his comrades immediately start shooting and turn their attention her way, that's when Barton starts shooting too and in the confusion Natasha creeps forwards again, shooting two other enemies while they're distracted by Clint and knock another out who had turned around to fight her.
More come and now that the dust has settled a bit they've lost that advantage too, the Chitauri can see them better now and hiding is no longer an option. From the corner of her left eye she sees Clint fire his last arrows before dropping his bow and picking up an enemy weapon, shooting with deadly precision.
And then the roof just caves in, for a moment both her and Clint are blinded. But the infrared scanner shows her what she doesn't want to see.
The Other and standing next to him are S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, with eyes as blue as Clint's were back in the battle of New York.
It's raining cliffhangers! Hallelujah, it's raining cliffhangers
please review and tell me what you think!
XxTheAlgea