Disclaimer: This chapter is rated T for I don't know, it just is. This chapter's title, "Wide Awake" is off of Katy Perry's new song. I felt that it describes Eir's emotions pretty well for this chapter.
Everyone in the hellicarrier was in a state of despair. Tony, Steve and Eir were sitting at the table in the rec room. Expressions of despair were written all over their faces. Loki's plan had been a success. He had torn the Avengers apart, crushed their spirits. None of them were more miserable than Eir, who sat away from both Tony and Steve. She was despondent, a blank expression on her face, her normally bright amber eyes seemed a duller shade then usual. Nick Fury slowly walked over to the table, holding a bunch of Captain America trading cards in his hands.
"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them." he said, tossing the blood smeared cards onto the table.
The sight of the blood smeared cards only depressed Eir further. Yet another reminder of her failure.
"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming." Fury said, then paused for a moment before speaking again.
"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, called The Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes." Fury said, his words echoing throughout her mind.
Suddenly, Tony stood up out of his chair and walked out of the room as if spurred into action. Everyone looked at him in surprise as he left the room.
"Well, it's an old fashioned notion." Fury said glumly.
Fury left the room a few minutes after, leaving Eir and Steve alone. Eir sat in her chair silently, sorrow still fresh in her heart. Steve's eyes glanced over to Eir. She was a pitiful sight to behold, her blatant grief painful to the eye. Steve, being the kind person he was, couldn't stand seeing her in this state. But what could he do? He knew her pain. Being unable to save someone. He had lost his best friend, he couldn't save him. But he had never comforted a woman before. This would take all of his inner strength to accomplish. Steve slowly stood up from his chair and walked over to Eir, who barely noticed. He awkwardly sat in the seat next to her and tried to find the words to speak to her.
"Uh, um. Eir, are you okay?" he said, stammering his words.
"Hmm? What?" she asked, being shaken out of her daze.
"I, I wanted to ask you how you're coping with, with Coulson's death."
"Oh. That. Well Steve, I'm -" Eir began.
She couldn't hold in her emotions anymore. It was too much. Eir snapped. She began sobbing and fell into Steve, pressing her face against his chest. Steve was shocked at her action, but he slowly began to understand. He comfortingly wrapped his arms around her, trying to be as gentle as possible as Eir continued to sob.
"Whoa. Take it easy, it's uh, it's okay." he said, cradling her in his arms.
"How?" she sniveled, looking up at him, "I failed Coulson. I couldn't save him. I couldn't save Thor."
"Well, if there's one thing I know about Thor it's that he packs a punch, and I'm pretty sure he managed to survive that drop." Steve replied comfortingly.
"But you don't know for sure." she replied, pulling away slightly from Steve.
"You're right. I don't. But that won't stop me from believing, from hoping. It won't stop me from finding Loki and stopping him, and it won't stop me from believing in you." Steve said, his and Eir's face's just inches from each other.
"Look. You did what you could to save Coulson. He died trying to stop Loki. He died trying, and I don't think he would of wanted you or anyone else to give up and stop trying." he said, gazing into Eir's eyes.
There was a brief silence in the room.
"You're right. I won't stop trying. I will help defeat Loki, I will give up." she said, standing back up on her feet.
"Thank you. For not giving up on me." Eir said.
"No problem." Steve replied.
"And for rescuing me back there, from Loki." she added.
Eir smiled slightly at Steve, then proceeded to walk out of the room, leaving Steve all by himself. He was a little dazed at what had just occurred. He was so close to Eir, so intimate. Were these feelings real or was it just a crush?
When Eir walked out of the rec room she felt a little better, she now had the strength to walk with confidence down the halls. She was going to do whatever she could to help defeat Loki, and avenge Coulson. Eir walked into the command room and walked towards Nick Fury, who was conversing with the staff running around the room trying to get the systems back on line.
"Fury." Eir said, stopping a few feet from him.
Fury turned around to look at her, "Yes Eir?"
"I'd like to help in any way I can. I do not wish to stand around doing nothing as Loki continues to go through with his plans as we speak. Is there anything I can do now to help?" she asked.
"Well, unless you've become an expert in technology and can get our systems back on line any faster, I don't think we need you in this area. But agent Romanoff has contained agent Barton who was under Loki's mind control, and helping him recover in medical room five in the west hall. She could use your healing abilities to help him recover faster." Fury replied.
"I will do my best." Eir said, then turned to walk out of the room.
Eir walked through the halls and eventually found the recovery room where agent Barton and Natasha were. She entered the room to see agent Barton, or Hawkeye (his code name) as Tony had mentioned earlier, strapped down to a table. Natasha turned to look at Eir quickly, but relaxed when she learned it was Eir. Eir looked at Barton then back at Natasha, with an expression that said 'may I help?' Natasha nodded then stood to the side to observe Eir as she made her way over to agent Barton.
"How long has he been under the mind control?" Eir asked.
"Clint's been under the mind control for almost a week. Can you break the mind control?" Natasha asked.
"I'm not sure. I've never dealt with something like this before, but I'll try." Eir replied.
Eir placed her hands on both of Clint's temples and focused her energy on using her magic to find what was wrong. A small shock was sent through her mind, as she briefly sensed Loki's magic, causing her to pull away.
"Well?" Natasha asked, a hint of concern in her voice.
"I felt a prick of Loki's magic in his mind, but it's fading fast and all of it will be out of agent Barton's mind soon. Did you do anything in particular while capturing agent Barton? Anything that seemed to shake him out of the mind control?" Eir asked.
"I slammed his head against a metal railing post. Why?" Natasha replied.
"Oh, that's why." Eir said.
"Excuse me?" Natasha asked.
"Cognitive recalibration. Hitting the mind control victims in the head very hard must snap them out of it." Eir replied.
"You learn that on Asgard?" Natasha asked curiously.
"No. From Bruce. He mentioned it in one of our conversations we had. Seeing as we're both 'doctors' as your people put it, he decided to share some of his medical knowledge with me. Speaking of which, where is Bruce?" Eir said.
"Uh, he turned into the Hulk and destroyed some of the Hellicarrier, then fell to the ground after trying to take out a jet." Natasha said, not sugar-coating the truth at all.
"Is he alright! Or is he…" Eir asked, concern clearly in her voice.
"Well, we're sure he survived because the Hulk is kind of indestructible." Natasha replied.
"Oh good. Wait, Bruce turned into the Hulk, which is a giant green monster right? Will he change back?" Eir asked.
"Eventually. But our priority now is to find Loki and stop him, however we can." Natasha said.
"Yes, find Loki… Well agent Barton should snap out of the mind control soon, so I'll leave now. Be sure to contact me when he recovers so I can make sure he is fully well again." Eir said, walking over to the door.
"I will." Natasha said, "And you don't need him."
"Come again?" Eir asked, stopping in her tracks and looking back at her.
"You don't have to keep stressing over Loki. You can get over him, you're strong." Natasha said, an expression of empathy on her face.
Eir couldn't believe the words that just came out of Natasha's mouth. She didn't think she cared. She was always so cold and serious, supportive advice was the last thing she expected from her. Eir looked at her with a surprised face.
"The key is that the next time you see him, punch him in the face. It works every time." Natasha said, a slight grin creeping on her face.
Eir smiled back, "Thank you. For caring."
"Just don't tell anyone that I did okay?" Natasha asked.
Eir nodded, then left the room. About fifteen minutes later, Natasha called Eir into the room again. Eir was surprised to see Clint sitting next to Natasha on the gurney. Both Natasha and Clint looked at Eir as she stood there. Eir's eyes met with Clint's. His eyes no longer had the eerie blue glaze to them that was present before.
"Clint, this is Eir. She's an -" Natasha started but was cut off by Clint.
"An Asgardian. I know." Clint said.
"How would you know that?" Natasha asked.
"Loki." Clint replied.
Eir stared at Clint, eager to hear more.
"Yeah, he talks to himself a lot. He talked about you quite a bit." he said.
"What did he say?" Eir asked.
"Well, before he was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. he would go on about how surprised he was that you were here, and how it would be you and him ruling the Earth and what not." Clint said in a cutting tone.
"I guess he's still not over you." Natasha said.
"Yeah, that's apparent. He tried to kidnap me. Eir said.
"Well then. I'm just going to wash up, so you two can have your girl-talk." Clint said sarcastically, standing up then walking into the washroom, leaving Eir and Natasha by themselves.
"So how do you do it?" Eir asked.
"Do what?" Natasha asked, surprised by Eir's question.
"Have a relationship with Clint." Eir replied.
"What? A relationship? Love isn't for me." Natasha replied.
"Uh huh… I see the way you look at Clint and the way he looks at you. You may not have declared it openly, but you are both in love with each other." Eir said, a slight smirk creeping onto her face.
"I am not discussing this." Natasha said bluntly.
"Very well." Eir said.
Eir heard someone enter the room. She turned to see Steve walk into the room.
"Time to go." Steve said, looking at Natasha and Eir.
"Go where?" Eir and Natasha said in unison.
"I'll tell you and the way. Can you fly one of those jets?" he asked Natasha.
"I can." Clint said, exiting from the washroom.
Steve looked at Natasha inquisitively and she nodded her head to confirm that Clint was on their side.
"You got a suit?" Steve asked him.
"Yeah." Clint replied, drying his hands with a cloth.
"Then suit up." Steve said.
Eir had a pretty good idea what Steve meant. They were going to stop Loki.
…
Eir, Steve, Natasha and Clint walked through the jet hangar to the jet they planned to commandeer. As they walked onto the jet they were stopped by a young pilot.
"You're not authorized to be in here." he said.
"Son, just don't." Steve said, a hint of irritation in his tone.
Eir had to admit Steve was pretty intimidating if you got on his bad side. The young pilot immediately stepped aside and let them board the jet.
Eir realized this was it. This would be the final confrontation. They were going to stop Loki, hopefully before his army came. If not, they were in for the fight of their lives.