After six months with the Avengers, she was beginning to feel anxious again. She was sitting up and watching outside the window, her skin fairly tingled with awareness like something was about to happen. She brushed back her wayward hair, which was not so flat, with her tossing and turning. It had been a while since they last saw Clint, too. Director Fury had called him for a solo mission, and while the information was classified it wasn't supposed to be all that dangerous. She stood up and walked over to the balcony doors and opened them. The cool breeze hit her face and Alexis took a deep breath as her eyes closed. The others hadn't seemed all that concerned about Clint going off on his own, a testament to his skills. Natasha went off on her own, but she did sense a bit of apprehension from the Captain over it. A small smile tilted her lips upwards, if other people had bonded they would have been a pair.
It was quiet and Alexis was beginning to relax into it and head to bed when there was a formal knock on the door. Briefly Alexis glanced down to reassure herself that her clothes were good enough to answer the door. Kurt would have just popped in and Elsie would have used the spare key. That meant it was Steve. If Steve was knocking, she glanced at her digital clock and grimaced at the bright two a.m. Her hands gripped the doorknob tightly and twisted, opening to see Steve already in his uniform. "Steve?" Her eyes surveyed the surrounding area to see if there was anyone else with him. "What's going on Steve?"
"Barton's been compromised," Steve was in soldier mode, something that Alexis had seen once or twice. When he was in that mode, however, that meant things were bad. "Can you meet me downstairs after you get ready? I'll get the others." He barely waited for her to nod before padding over to Elsie's door. Alexis quickly shut the door and hurried down her small hallway to throw open her closet. She gripped the uniform Tony Stark had made her, it was like Black Widows but a bit more enhanced. It was more durable after her complaint that everything seemed to rip too easily. She did make a pit stop to freshen up in the bathroom and deciding her hair was a lost cause threw it up in a bun. She met the other two in the hallway, Kurt and Elsie looking alarmed. They had begun to think of the others as their own, and now one of their own was down.
Steve was waiting in a car when they arrived together. He was adjusting the straps of his gloves before giving them a wan smile. "Stark sent us a car," He opened the door and allowed the three to enter first. "He was basically security detail," Steve started, handing out three files to them. "They were... Experimenting on the tesseract."
Kurt looked up at Steve wide-eyed as he opened the file to look through it. "The tesseract? Isn't that what... Didn't you take that with you when you crashed into the ocean?" Alexis grimaced at Kurt's less-than-tactful approach to the subject. Steve didn't seem to like to remember or talk about his past. Everyone but one was dead and she knew he struggled with that knowledge.
Steve took a deep breath and gave a curt nod. "Howard Stark fished it out of the ocean while he was trying to find me," they hadn't found him but they had found that blasted cube. "Director Fury took it into custody and had it in a secret location. Someone appeared, he said his name is Loki-" He paused as Elsie made an alarmed noise, he tilted his head at the woman. Elsie flushed a bit.
"Loki... As in Loki from Asgard?" She met a blank look and took a deep breath shifting in her seat. "In mythology, he's basically a god. While until recently he wasn't really thought of as a god, he was a brother to Odin. Seeing as this is... I only know what I've studied but if he's real I have no idea what my knowledge could help with." Steve tilted his head to show he was listening, nodding his appreciation to her added detail.
"My father wasn't from this world," Alexis interjected softly, taking a deep breath as she clenched her fists together. "His people have what they call bonded. His people have been known to travel worlds to find the one they're meant to be with. So I guess, what I'm saying is, it shouldn't be all that surprising to us." Her father was an otherworldly being but her mother was human, and her doctors had no idea how to treat a woman giving birth to a child with wings.
"That's a fair assessment," Steve added gently to her explanation. Alexis had told him a little bit of what she knew about her people. It was one of the many nights that neither of them could sleep and happened to be walking the streets. "In either case, this Loki has the Tesseract and Clint. He also took a few of the scientists so he's up to something. He doesn't have everybody that he needs so he's building what he needs." Once they pulled up to the docks Steve got out first, keeping the door open as the other three filed out a bit more slowly. The Avengers generally met with Tony never on the carrier. He could see the wariness in Kurt's eyes at the sight of all the people milling about.
"You're safe here, I promise," Steve spoke as he tilted his head toward what looked like to be a giant boat. A type of boat that the Navy used for months on the sea, that was enough to make Alexis feel a little nauseous. She was a land person, or flying, but Alexis would be the first to admit that boating terrified her. Elsie stepped forward following Steve, glancing back to offer a nervous smile before they walked up the gangway trying not to acknowledge that it bowed a bit with their weight. By the time they made it to the central control room, Alexis was overwhelmed.
"What is all this?" Kurt moved forward but noticed some of the looks he was receiving from the Agents and stepped back.
"This is where the super spy keeps all his toys," Tony Stark announced entering the room, he wasn't wearing his suit but there was no doubt it was somewhere close by. "Where are we at on finding Barton and the tesseract?"
"Nowhere," Maria Hill interjected, folding her arms as she surveyed the growing group. "We can't seem to find the signal and the world is a big place."
"I can help with that," Bruce spoke up also looking like he was just rudely woke up. He began to explain what they needed the others to do in order to pick up the signal. "Do you have a lab I can work in?" Natasha who had been silent stood up and offered Bruce a smile.
"They all the toys here," she told him and began to lead him to the lab. Alexis noted that Tony was turning at a platform.
"How do you see all this?" Tony asked, his tone made Kurt snicker and Elsie look off to the side to hide her smirk.
"He turns," Maria Hill said back, clearly annoyed at the sudden intrusion of the group.
"That's exhausting," Tony moved away from the monitors after that and raised an eyebrow. "Maybe I'll find Dr. Banner, I can help him until you need the big guns." He sauntered out of the room like he hadn't just brought a whirlwind of chaos. Alexis had seen him slip something under the monitors but she wasn't going to say anything.
"We caught him! Suit up!" Alexis looked to her three friends who grinned a bit. Kurt was relieved he'd be getting away from the stares, and Elsie looked strangely uncomfortable in the Helicarrier in general.
The landing was easy, while Steve parachuted out of the jet, Natasha got close enough to the ground that Kurt was able to take Alexis and Elsie to the ground. Natasha stayed in the air with the jet guns aimed and ready to go, but there were too many people. She risked hitting civilians.
"Grab the civilians and get them out of the way," Alexis said, turning to Kurt knowing he was much more comfortable with that. She turned to Elsie and noticed she was already running for Steve's shield. It had been knocked out of the way, and the Captain couldn't get to it. She held her breath as her friend slid under a kick grabbed the shield and tossed it back to Steve. Elsie couldn't fully avoid the kick to her ribs, causing her to gasp and get on her elbows. Alexis pulled out her staff and blocked the blow from his staff, inches from her head. She met the eyes of Loki, the threat, and a gasp escaped as heat flooded her. Alexis could feel her heartbeat racing inside her chest, threatening to jump out as her body tingled with awareness. "My bonded." Her breathless words became a gasp as he wrapped his fist in the fabric of her uniform and dragged her forward.
"Who are you?" Loki demanded, his eyes staring hard into hers but she noted that there was a sheen of blue. Alexis brought her hands up to cup his, shivering as she came into contact with his skin for the first time. "What spell are you trying to weave?" He shook her a bit, and relief flooded her briefly realizing he also felt the soul bond that had linked them. Before she could answer Kurt arrived beside her and grabbed her arm and vanished away. Seconds later Tony had blasted Loki to the side.
"Hands off reindeer games," Tony said, as Steve came up beside him. Loki looked between them and held his hands up in defeat. Elsie was picking herself up, grimacing knowing that god or not Loki was much stronger than a normal human. Once back on the jet Kurt was holding Alexis' face in his hands, she knew she was scaring him. She hadn't said more than two words since his timely save as she processed the information. He was her bonded, this man, this... Asgardian. Yet he sought what? World domination? What kind of sick joke was that?
"Did he touch her with his staff?" Came a distant voice off to her left, there was a negative somewhere else. "Is it shock?"
"Lexi, come on Lexi," Kurt whispered, running his hand over her head. "Talk to me. What happened?"
"Kurt," Alexis finally managed to make herself croak out. Her dark eyes watering a bit as her best friend was kneeling down in front of her. "I think I'm in trouble." She watched his spine straighten as he looked her over and then over at the enemy over in the corner. Kurt got the connection immediately and only brought Alexis into a hug. Alexis allowed her eyes to close as the tears leaked out. Her arms came around the man and clutched him tightly until a huge clap of thunder sounded overhead.
"This came out of nowhere," Steve commented, looking up at the sky before turning to look at Loki who glanced nervously. He nudged Tony so he'd look too, and they frowned. "Afraid of a little lightning?"
"I'm not overly fond of what follows," Loki shifted uncomfortably in his seat, causing the entire group on the jet to go still and turn to look at him. Alexis pulled away from Kurt to look at the man alarmed, if Loki wasn't fond of what was causing it then was it another foe? Something landed on top of the jet with a heavy thud, causing her to gasp. She looked up before following the steps with her eyes until they got to the back hatch. Alexis felt her stomach drop into her stomach when the hatch was ripped off completely, and there stood Thor, the god from mythology. Elsie pulled herself to a standing position ready to try and fight if it was required. Thor merely grabbed Loki and went right back out of the hole he'd created.
Tony immediately put his helmet on and headed to what was left of the platform and dropped off after them. Alexis was rigid with fear. She didn't understand everything that was going on, but if Loki died so did she. "If he dies, so do I," voicing it didn't help her escape the icy grip of fear, it seemed to settle herself more firmly in its grasp.
Steve looked over at her concerned hoping he was wrong as to why that would be but by the tense look of the three he wasn't. Grabbing a parachute he strapped himself in one despite Natasha's attempt to stop him. Alexis could only hope he grasped just how dire the situation was for her, not only would they lose the tesseract but she would die if he did. Her emotions were swinging wildly, leaving her stomach to churn in protest. This wasn't something Logan or Storm could protect her from, they couldn't protect her from what fate had decided.
The group was standing in the lab when they marched Loki through the halls. Alexis felt herself shudder and sidle closer to Kurt. She didn't know what the look in his eyes meant, her heart screamed that there was something drastically wrong.
"So he's a psycho killer," Bruce said, he was especially unsettled having someone who could alter thoughts on board while they were in the air.
"Take care in how you speak, that's my brother," Thor said, glancing over at Natasha when she mentioned his death toll in the days he'd been there. He looked startled but stood his ground. Alexis blinked blearily when a styrofoam cup was handed to her filled with hot chocolate. She looked up as she clutched the cup and smiled.
"Coulson, when did you get in?" He was a friend, a dear one from years of visiting the Institute.
"Not that long ago, little one," he spoke softly, watching the others debate about Loki. "I heard we caught a god, and was curious about our celebrity. You're pale." Alexis let out a breathy laugh, followed by a long drawn-out sigh.
"Would you believe me if I told you it was because the fight was hard?" Alexis let out a genuine laugh with Coulson merely raising an eyebrow in disbelief. "It was hard. It's just... There's... He's.."
"Your bonded," Coulson finished easily, looking as Thor began to sound irate. "That's the only way this guy could rattle you like this." Alexis let out a sound of distress before bringing the hot liquid to her lips. She sipped and let it warm her insides, stomach twisting a bit at the intrusion of something entering her system.
"You do not understand. We were attacked on Asgard, it began in my absence," Thor spoke, catching Alexis' attention. He was talking over everyone else, trying to get someone to listen.
"Hey! Listen to him, would you?" Elsie spoke loudly, clearly annoyed that they were ignoring the one man who knew their prisoner well. Thor looked over and nodded appreciatively.
"The frost giants of Jotunheim had attacked while we were the most vulnerable. My brother and I fought side by side to protect Asgard but he was pushed off the Bifrost and I could not reach him in time. We thought him lost forever. My brother is mischievous but this is not him, he would never purposely cause harm to Midgardians," Thor stressed, leaving Elsie to stand up and walk over to the table.
"Okay, so you searched for him, right?" Alexis felt a smidge of pride as her friend took control of the situation. "What did you find out? Anything?"
"Just that he has an army, called the Chitauri. They're not from Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people, they will win him Midgard," Thor let out a sigh as he was obviously trying to figure out what was going on with his brother.
"So we don't know much about the Chitauri, and he fell into their territory. He controls people with that staff," Elsie pointed and peered closely at it for a second before biting her lip. Alexis realized she was trying to gather the courage to continue. Their eyes met and her heart nearly exploded as she realized her friend was trying for her benefit. "Thor, you keep saying that this isn't something he would do. Is it possible that they are controlling him too?" That made the room fall silent.
"Do you think you can help him?" Alexis asked, her voice sounding more desperate than she would have liked. She wasn't sure what was worst-case scenario was. If he was being controlled, that meant more leniency but what if he wasn't? Would she be able to live with the fact her bonded was a galaxy criminal?
"I would have to be in the same room with him. I also have to be able to touch him," Elsie said, she was neither promising one result nor the other. Just merely stating she was willing to try.
"No, absolutely not," Tony said, jumping in and moving closer to Elsie. His eyes were ablaze with concern. "Do you know what reindeer games can do to you? Even without his staff, he's still stronger than you are."
"I'm aware, Tony," Elsie said, tempering her irritation and looking around the room. "It's worth giving it a try. He won't talk otherwise and if it turns out he's not being controlled this gives me a reason to rifle through his emotions to find the answers we need. You always said you wanted to see these powers in full. Now's as good a time as any." Alexis held her breath as she gazed between the other Avengers and her friend who was ready to defy them anyways.
"Fine."