It was a long walk to get to Dr. Foster's flat. Even more so when Clint and Natalia made them weave through dark alleys. Rose caught sight of Jake's, from Torchwood, flat. The lights were all off, which made Rose wonder what time it was. Jake didn't typically sleep until three A.M. Natalia shoved Rose forwards, her hands were free, Natalia had determined that Rose wasn't a threat, sure she had gotten the upper hand at one point, but the pair had easily regained control, something that worried Natalia. Rose could tell by the way Natalia's eyes were flicking around them, her eyes always paused to make sure Rose was doing nothing with her hands. Clint on the otherhand had been rough with Loki, allowing him to bang into garbage bins and trip over holes. Rose knew Loki was faking the bruises at this point, she had thought about it, and no matter how broken Clint's bow was, Loki is fine. They went under a street lamp for a moment, and Rose knew exactly where they were. She could find her way back to the flat in five minutes flat. Loki's eyes stayed carefully blank as he surveyed the area. Natalia was shoving her up stairs then. Clint was practically yanking Loki up three steps at a time, pulling him upwards when he was about to fall.
"Knock it off, Clint. What will Thor think when he sees what you did to his brother?" Natalia snapped, brushing red hair out of her eyes. Natalia's hair was short and curly, much different than the long hair and bangs she had during Red Room. Loki coughed and Rose's head shot up, her eyes widening, she recognized this place and the flat they were entering, this was a Torchwood safe house. She could contact Rex, despite how much Rose and Loki disliked him. Natalia easily picked the lock. She pushed the door open, letting Rose and then Loki enter first.
Thor was snoring on the couch, Rose could tell by the back of his blonde head and Mjolnir sitting on the table, someone was leaning against him, she couldn't tell who. And then there was Captain America standing in front of the couch, blocking any other heads. He had this disproving look on his face Rose had never seen in the pictures she had found when googling him after he came off the ice, the headline: Man Out of Time, has Captain America been found? had caught Rose's attention. There was no Captain America in her universe, expect for maybe the odd comic back in the forties that had never taken off. Mickey mentioned those once when they were younger.
"What do you think you're doing?" The Captain demanded. "Taking off like that in the middle of the day. Tony had to cancel his business trip and fly everyone else down here. No note, no message with JARVIS, no nothing. I am beyond mad." At some point in his spill, Captain America had thrown his hands into the air, turning away from the spies and muttering angrily. Loki looked at Rose, the TV in the background brightly flashing at that moment so Rose could see his grin. Was it wrong to say Rose was more than a little excited to see what was about to happen, she missed this, the running, the fighting, everything if she was being honest with herself. Torchwood could only do so much for her, and hopefully this wouldn't require paperwork.
Clint opened and closed his mouth, floundering for a reply. Natalia seemed calmer, simply shoving past Rose to speak with the Captain. After a while Captain America moved towards Rose, extending his hand.
"Captain Steve Rogers, Miss..?" Steve waited for Rose to reply, say something but she couldn't force the words out, her throat hurt too bad. She made a choking motion with her hands around her neck, her eyes on Natalia as she did this. Steve straightened his back, Rose had realized he seemed to be making himself be smaller as he talked with her. He spun around to Natalia, glaring at her.
"I believe I can heal her, if you take these off." Loki said, rattling the cuffs. Rose knew he was trying to be difficult. Those handcuffs were something Loki could simply make disappear with his magic. Steve pointedly looked at Clint, who groaned quite loudly, causing one of the heads on the couch to pop up. He undid the handcuffs, not bothering about being gentle. Loki smiled at him, something that had scared Rose the first time he did it around her. He moved towards Rose, placing both hands on her neck. He stared into her eyes, taking a deep breath. The burning in her neck began to cool, even more so in the spots his fingers touched. Loki had always been just slightly too cold. He closed his eyes, focusing on Rose, by the way he frowned, she knew something was off. Loki removed his hands, the bruises on his own skin fading away, he would pretend the spell was too strong and had healed him as well. But the effort of the magic had drained him, he had said before to her that if he didn't practice magic everyday it would fade away over time, never quite be as strong. Rose assumed he would do simple tricks at home while babysitting Tony, but apparently not.
"Rose Tyler," She said as she turned away from Loki. completely missing the fact that Loki was still staring at her. He dropped his hands and faced Clint, raising them in the air as a sign of surrender. Steve smiled charmingly at her, shaking her hand before turning back to Natalia, obviously yelling at her.
"Rose!" Someone shouted so loudly that Thor stopped snoring, his hand reaching out to grab his hammer. He whipped around, the blanket and whoever was sleeping on him falling off. He stood there, his mouth agape, staring at Loki, Thor was naked. Rose froze, she surprisingly had never seen a naked alien before, her dead husband didn't count, he was human. The girl shooting past Thor barely stopped to stare, instead rushing over and lifting Rose into a hug.
"Why didn't you tell me you were coming over?" she demanded. Rose realized this was Darcy, one of the few Americans she knew. Darcy Lewis had worked with Torchwood as an intern for a few months, but not before latching on to Rose, thinking she was the coolest thing. Rose showed her around London and had, on behalf of Torchwood, given her this flat to use, on the condition that she helps out any Torchwood agent that comes along. Then Darcy left Torchwood, saying she found another 'really cool job' in the states. Apparently the really cool job had led her back to this flat.
"I hadn't planned on stopping by. I thought you were still in New Mexico. That's when you last texted."
"My iPod got stolen by Shield! And then I lost all my contacts after they gave it back and Jane dropped my phone in a cup of coffee." Darcy glared at Jane while she said this, even though her voice was full of humor. Jane must have been the woman standing next to Thor, her face bright red as she shoved clothes at him, desperately trying to get him to cover up. Next to them was someone Rose thought was Tony Stark, he was saying something to Steve, his mouth quite close to his friend's ear.
"Yeah?" Rose said, she was tired, pretty sure her chili had been drugged by Natalia and Clint, and just wanted to go home and sleep it off, the adrenaline from earlier was already wearing off. Darcy shifted her weight excitedly, brushing a mess of brown hair from her face. The analog clock by the TV said it was five A.M. Rose was definitely too tired to deal with this. Darcy pulled Rose towards Jane, it was just then she realized that Dr. Jane Foster was the scientist Rose had been meaning to visit and offer a job as soon as they figured out where she was currently living. Darcy never mentioned either of them had moved back here. Rose hoped Torchwood wouldn't mind.
"Hi," Jane said, she had smiled at Rose, though it faded when her eyes landed on Loki. "What is he doing in my apartment?" She moved towards Loki before Rose could stop her. She put both hands on her chest and pushed him against the wall, rattling the china cabinet next to him. Loki groaned, more of annoyance than of pain. Thor moved towards Loki, he had only bothered to put on a pair of jeans, a look of concern on his face.
"We thought you dead. Again." Thor hissed. Side by side in these human clothes, they could easily be passed off as regular humans, someone people would barely look twice at. Perhaps that was a good thing, like the Doctor had once said, humans don't notice much easily, or at least the majority didn't.
"You didn't mourn me this time, did you Thor? Our mother is dead, she would have been the only one to care. You left me there on Svartalfheim to rot, not caring enough to bring me back to Asgard for a proper burial. I waited, Thor. I gave up and left, Odin was in Odinsleep, it would have been easy for me to take his form and pretend to be him, I could have been king. I decided to go back to Earth. It was safer for me here than on that planet."
"Safer? Loki, what do you mean?" Thor stepped back, moving Jane away so Loki wouldn't feel so threatened and cornered. If Rose didn't know better, she would have thought Thor looked guilty. Before Loki could say anything Natalia stepped forwards, she wrapped her arm around Loki's back, escorting him to the set of chairs in the kitchen. Rose followed, moving the other chair and sitting as close to Loki as possible. She reached out, and grabbed his hand. She expected Loki not to take it, simply brush it away, but he grabbed it, squeezing it reassuringly. If Loki had a plan, then Rose would follow him.
"Thor, earlier he mentioned something about Thanos." Natalia reported. She moved to stand next to Clint, who was watching from a distance, just at the right angle for him to be able to read Thor and Loki's lips. But not her, they seemed to underestimate Rose, thinking Loki was their real threat. Thor's eyes widened and his face fell, he rushed towards Loki, checking him up and down, trying to see something. A few months ago Loki had told Rose that Thanos had two daughters, he modified them to become the best assassins in the universe. Thanos had told Loki that if he successfully took over Earth and brought back the Tesseract, then Loki would have had that privilege as well. One of Loki's reasons for throwing the battle of New York.
"Now you're worried for me?" Loki said, he halfheartedly shoved Thor off him. Looking at Rose for help. He then flinched, his entire body contracted, his muscles seizing up. Rose felt the eletrictiy flow through her too. She froze, her mouth opened slightly. It was a lot worse than being shocked while working on the Dimension Cannon a few years back. Thor pressed his hand against Loki's cheek, he frowned while the current faded. "It's a small chip like device on the nape of my neck." Loki told Thor.
"What just happened?" Steve asked, he grabbed his shield off the ground and strapped it to his back. Rose ignored him and brushed aside Loki's hair, trying to figure out where it was, there was a slight lump and a scar, Thanos must have left that there as a mark for him to remove it in the future, there was no way he could have been that careless. She grabbed the sonic from her pocket, scanning it. She used Loki's flinches to determine when it was disabled. All of the Avengers, sans Thor, were staring at them, confusion and shock evident on their face.
"Thanos used that to listen in whenever there was a mention of his name, to make sure I told no one. Usually I could block Thanos from listening in, but I didn't realize you were going to mention him until it was too late, I fear he has already sent Nebula." Loki whispered in Rose's ear. She frowned, the Avengers weren't going to let them run and Rose didn't want them to have to go up against Nebula. So she started talking, perhaps to buy time for whatever plan Loki had.
"'m Rose Tyler, Earth's Defender, I work with an agency that keeps alien threats at bay. The Chitauri mishap was due to SHIELD closing down all flights and not letting any of our agents to America. There's been a lot more aliens on Earth than those Chitauri. Which is surprising because Earth is a Level 5 planet and there's laws against that kind of stuff. The Chitauri really messed things up because the general population wasn't supposed to know about any of that stuff for at least another ten more years. It's really messing with the time streams."
Darcy grinned, motioning for Rose to go on. "Tell them about the Doctor." Thor stiffened at the name.
"I, uh, traveled with a Time Lord for a while, don't bother lookin' them up, they don't exist here. I saw the universe. Around a hundred different planets I think over the course of two universes. Which means 'm quite qualified to babysit Loki and make sure he doesn't cause anymore trouble. Natalia and Clint, he is under Torchwood protection, and if I see fit I could have you both arrested for injuring me, the leader of the main team in Torchwood One."
Natalia frowned, her eyebrows pinching together, she looked at Clint, signing something. Clint's eyes widened and he frowned too. Steve looked back at the spies and then at Tony, who seemed hungover. Jane moved to stand by Thor, resting a hand on his arm. This went unnoticed by all but Loki, who squeezed Rose's hand tighter, definitely trying to tell her something but she wasn't sure what. Clint coughed, the Avengers all moved into a huddle. Kinda cute, Rose supposed.
"Do you have a plan? I can't quite figure one out." Loki hissed. Perhaps Darcy heard from the way she smiled at the two of them. Then she was pulling out her phone, the flash went off, Clint's head poked up from the huddle at the flash before looking back down. Rose's eyes widened and she shook her head desperately at Darcy. Rose didn't agree with a lot of the polices Torchwood had, for example they so strictly monitored social media that if a candid picture of any of their agents was posted from Tumblr to My Space, they would delete it and probably come to the location of the shot. So Rose shook her head, hoping Darcy wouldn't post it anywhere, last thing they needed was Torchwood coming down on them. Darcy would get in serious trouble for using the apartment without telling them.
"Why did you call me Natalia?" She asked, breaking away from the huddle. Clint followed her, standing protectively behind her. Steve shook his head, grabbing Thor and Tony, heading off into the living room, talking to them about something, though he did seem to keep glancing up at the kitchen. If Loki had had a plan this would have been the perfect time to put it into motion, the Avengers were separated.
"I met you, Russia '71." Rose said, smiling at her. She had barely aged since their last encounter, a side effect of the serum they had injected her with. "I couldn't have saved you from Red Room then. It would have messed up the time lines."
"Explain what the time lines are." Natalia demanded, a knife sliding from the sleeve of her black hoodie.
"Natasha!" Steve snapped, darting towards the spies. He grabbed the knife from Natasha (Natalia? Rose wasn't sure anymore). Clint stepped back, never taking his eyes off Loki. Of course, that's when a bright light shined in the window and Rose's first thought was that it was an alien invasion. She wasn't far off. She darted towards the window, not worrying about the 'no sudden moves or they'll shoot rule', she kinda felt like this made that rule not apply. She flung it open, the Avengers crowding behind her. She looked upwards, seeing a large orange ship that was not human made. Her phone started going off, probably Rex. She answered it, trying to push her way back through the crowd. She grabbed Loki and ran.
Yay! another chapter in a week! this is like amazing for me. Anyways, thank you to everyone who favorited, followed, and my awesome reviewer! it means a lot to me. See you next time and I'll try to update this as much as possible. If i don't post something at least once a week, feel free to yell at me!
(I have at least three more chapters written, though i think one is like three times the length of my 2,000-3,000 words that i try to do chapters. so i may break that one apart. It depends how i feel.)