Disclaimer: This chapter is rated T for action/violence and mild language
Eir felt that she was being swallowed up by the black night, as she fell through the sky. She could barely make out anything using her eyesight alone, and she had no idea how long she had until she hit the ground. Eir had to think fast. Her only source of light were the brief flashes of lightning that danced around her. She managed to catch a glimpse of Thor's red cape flying in the distance. Now having the knowledge of which direction she had to go in, she positioned her body aerodynamically, so she would be propelled towards her destination.
After what seemed like an eternity of falling through the darkness, she caught the outline of trees and a large rock formation that she was coming up on fast. Eir's hands scrambled to find the tab on her harness before it would be too late. She managed to find it, then pulled it with all of her strength. Seconds after she pulled the tab, a red parachute flew out from a pack on the back of her harness and unfolded. Eir was jerked back from the force of the wind filling the parachute, then began the slow descent to the ground. Throughout the darkness of the night she saw flashes of light and the forms of trees falling below her.
"What in helheim is going on down there?" she said to herself.
Eir eventually landed at the base of a large rock formation. It took her a while to untangle herself from the cords of the parachute. After freeing herself from the cords, Eir turned to the thunderous booms and crashing sounds in the distance. She was making her way towards the sounds until she caught a glimpse of a figure on the rock above her. Ignoring the echoing sounds, Eir quickly teleported herself up onto the ledge where she had seen the figure. She looked around, seeing nothing but dark barren rock all around her. Suddenly she sensed a presence behind her, and whirled around to face it. There was nothing there. Eir relaxed a little then turned around, to come face to face with Loki. She gasped, and stumbled back a little.
"Did I frighten you?" he asked snidely.
"Damn it Loki, you've got to cut that out!" Eir replied crossly, her hand clutching her chest.
"I'll take that as a yes." Loki replied smugly.
"Loki, I'm going to have to take you back to base." Eir said seriously.
"Are you now? All by yourself?" he replied haughtily.
"I'm not by myself, I brought my teammates and where is Thor?" Eir asked.
"He's busy fighting your 'teammates' as we speak." Loki replied.
"What?" Eir asked, confused by his reply.
"Look for yourself, we have a wonderful view from here." he said, referring to the chaos below.
Eir looked down to see Thor and Tony fighting each other fiercely.
"Why would you join that pathetic group? Why waste your talents on an assemblage of lost beings? Is this some act of spite against me for my actions?" Loki asked.
"An act of spite? No. This is my decision. My decision to stop your plans for this world. That act at the gala was just a preview of your full plan?" she said.
"And what if it is? Neither you nor your new friends have the power to stop me or my army." he replied complacently.
"So I'm one of them now? An enemy." Eir asked, a somber look on her face.
"… no." Loki said, slightly surprised at her retort.
"Then what am I? At times you act as if we're still together and now you talk to me as if I'm your enemy. So which is it?" she asked.
"What am I to you?" he asked.
"Excuse me, I believe I asked you firs-" Eir started.
"What am I to you?" Loki asked, repeating his question.
"… I'm not sure anymore." she replied solemnly.
"…" he looked at her with silent shock.
"You were a man I fell in love with whom I lost. Then when I found you again you were not the same. Now I find you bent on enslaving a world, witnessing you trying to kill innocent people and acting like a revenge-driven mad man, blind to all reason. Now answer my question." Eir said.
…
"Eir!" she heard a strong voice say.
Eir looked to see Thor standing a distance away from her, waving his hammer as if it were his hand, to get her attention.
"Are you alright? Where is Loki?" Steve said, standing next to Thor and Tony.
"I'm fine, and he's here!" she shouted back.
Though I have no idea why… she thought, as she turned back to face Loki.
"So, are you going to try to escape now?" Eir asked, prepared to stop him if she had to.
"No. I believe I am outmatched, and I do not have my scepter." Loki replied calmly.
"Then I guess you'll be coming with us." Eir said as she waited for Tony, Steve and Thor to arrive.
"I will tell you something, before they come." Loki said.
"What?" she asked curiously.
"Now, Thor and your friends might seem to have the upper hand in this, but I will not be your team's downfall." he said bluntly.
"And who will?" Eir asked.
"Themselves. They will destroy themselves all on their own. That is my truth for you." Loki said, finishing just in time before Thor flew up onto the cliff.
Eir stood silently as she tried to understand the full meaning of what Loki said. Thor grabbed Loki by his shoulder and held him in place.
"Are you okay?"
Eir was surprised to hear another voice behind her. She turned around to see Steve standing there.
"Oh, Steve. Yes I'm fine. I - wait did you climb up here?" she asked.
"Oh yeah. Well it wasn't that hard really. Just wanted to make sure you were - Loki was restrained properly." Steve said uneasily.
"Thank you Steve for your concern, but I'm fine." Eir replied kindly.
"Nice job keeping him under control." Steve added.
"Yeah, it wasn't that hard really." she replied uneasily.
On that note, Natasha flew the S.H.I.E.L.D. hovercraft and placed it at the edge of a rock ledge. The hatch door was lowered and Thor led Loki onto the hovercraft. Steve, Eir and Tony followed after then closed the hatch door and began the trip back to S.H.I.E.L.D. base.
When they arrived at S.H.I.E.L.D. base, the moment the door was opened there was a group of armed S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel waiting. Agent Coulson was standing to the side of them and gave Thor an encouraging "we've got this" nod, and with that, Thor handed off Loki to them. Eir watched briefly as Loki was led away in restraints through the hallways of the hellicarrier, she then decided to retire to her room. She was stopped by a hand grabbed her arm.
"We could use you in the rec room. I'm sure a few of us would like to know how you kept Loki under control back there." Tony said with an obnoxious smirk on his face.
Bugged by Tony, Eir was now sitting in a chair around the S.H.I.E.L.D. table in the rec room. Thor was pacing around, deep in thought, Steve was sitting down, Natasha was sitting next to her, Bruce was standing by one of the chairs and Tony was standing across from Bruce. Everyone was now watching live footage of Nick Fury interrogate Loki through a monitor.
"Ant." Fury said, then pointed at a red button which releases the cage, "Boot." he said, pointing back to Loki.
Loki let out an amused laugh.
"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me." Loki said.
"Built for something a lot stronger than you." Fury replied.
"Oh, I've heard." Loki said, looking into the camera which everyone was watching.
"The mindless beast, makes play to be the man." he continued smugly.
Eir looked at Bruce consolingly, then her gaze dropped to the floor. She did not want to look anymore. After a few more minutes of interrogation, Fury left the room and the monitor shut itself off.
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce said sarcastically.
"Loki's gonna drag this out. So what's his play Thor?" Steve asked.
"He has an army." Eir said.
Everyone looked at her with intrigue.
"Yes, called the Chitauri, that none of Asgard know nor any other world know. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. Return, I suspect, for the Tesseract." Thor said.
"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here." Steve asked, the question jarring Eir's memory.
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him." Bruce said.
Should she tell them what Loki had said to her? Or would that knowledge begin the process, if what Loki said was true? She thought.
"I don't care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother." Thor said defensively.
"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha said frankly.
That many? she thought.
"He's adopted." Thor replied.
"Considering what the Captain said, Eir, how did you manage to keep Loki from escaping? Or did he even try to escape? What exactly went on while Point Break, the Captain and I settled our differences?" Tony asked.
Eir took a deep breath.
"No, Loki did not try to escape." Eir said.
"What? Did he try to romance you then?" Tony asked obnoxiously.
"Shut up Stark." Steve barked.
"No. I tried to find out more about his plans, to no avail I'm afraid. You could say it was a standoff, I didn't get anything from him." Eir lied.
"You know what I think? I think you're lying." Tony said complacently.
"What? You doubt me again?" she snapped.
"Just saying I'm sure he told you at least something. Something, that you're holding back from us." Tony said snidely.
All eyes in the room were on her now.
"He told me - he told me that the avengers, myself not included, would be its own undoing. That you all will destroy yourselves." Eir said solemnly.
Everyone was silent with shock.
"He means to bring us down from within then?" Steve asked.
"I assume." Eir replied.
"You assume? Hey you know when you assume, you make an A.S.S. out of you and me." Tony replied nauseatingly.
"Shut up!" everyone shouted in unison.
"Just saying." Tony replied quietly.
After the meeting was over, Eir left the room to gather her thoughts. She wandered the hallways for a while, eventually passing by Bruce's laboratory. She saw Tony, Bruce, and Nick Fury in there all at once discussing something. Feeling that something was wrong, she went inside, coming in on Fury and Tony's argument. They seemed to be discussing something about Phase 2. What that was she had no idea.
She stood closer to the back of the room, not wanting to become involved in this argument. She saw Steve come into the room and place a bulky metal weapon on a laboratory table.
"Phase 2 is SHIELD used the cube to make weapons." he said to Tony.
"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're…" Nick Fury started to say.
"I'm sorry, Nick. What were you lying?" Tony interrupted, turning a monitor towards Fury showing weapon designs on it.
"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit." Steve said.
Thor and Natasha walked into the room.
"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked, pointing towards Natasha.
"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?" she replied.
"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed." he responded.
"Loki's manipulating you." Natasha said.
"And you've been doing what exactly?" Bruce replied uneasily.
"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you." she continued.
"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." Bruce replied.
It's starting. Eir thought.
"Why shouldn't they guy let off a little steam?" Tony asked, placing a hand on Steve's shoulder.
"You know damn well why! Back off!" Steve shouted, jerking his arm away from Tony.
"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." Tony said, getting closer to Steve.
"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?" Steve said looking down at Tony sternly.
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." Tony replied smugly.
"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you." Steve said, becoming seriously angry now.
"I think I would just cut the wire." Tony retorted.
"Put on the suite, let's go a few rounds." Steve said threateningly.
"Everyone we all need to…" Eir tried to say but was cut off.
…
"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his…"Fury began to say.
"Where? You're renting my room." Bruce asked sarcastically.
"The cell was just.." Nick Fury started.
"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't! I know, I tried. I got low, I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on, I focused on helping other people. I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?" Bruce said.
Eir froze along with everyone else as Bruce picked up the scepter.
"Dr. Banner, put down the scepter." Steve said.
…
The Tesseract locator began sounding off, defusing the tension in the room.
"Sorry kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all." Bruce said, placing down the scepter and hurrying over to the locator.
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it." Thor said.
Tony began to make his way out of the room but was stopped by Steve."You're not going alone!" Steve shouted.
"You gonna stop me?" Tony asked fearlessly.
"Put on the suit, let's find out." Steve said, stepping closer to Tony.
"I'm not afraid to hit an old man." Tony retorted.
"Put on the suit." Steve replied.
Eir looked over at Bruce, who seemed to notice something about the Tesseract.
"Um, everyone?" she said, hoping to get their attention.
"Oh, my God!" Bruce said aloud, removing his glasses.
Suddenly a large explosion occurred in the room, spreading everyone, including Eir, apart in different directions. Eir was thrown against the back wall along with Steve and Tony. Steve was the first up and quickly rushed over to help Eir onto her feet. She was stunned, but okay.
"You alright?" Steve asked.
"Yes, I'm fine. Now go!" Eir said, shooing him away with her hands.
"Put on the suit!" Steve said to Tony as he helped him to his feet, then both ran out the door with Eir.
"What is all this?" she said to herself as she ran through the hallways.
It then donned on her what was happening. Loki was causing a distraction! She immediately started to run to where Loki was being held prisoner. This was his plan all along, she had to stop him from escaping. All she could do for the others was hope they could handle things.
She hoped.