Hello again! I'm here with a bit short chapter sixteen, hope that's alright ^^ Enjoy!

I don't own the Avengers, only Emma and the alterations made to the original story.

Release the Monster

Sixteenth day

(Loki's POV)

"Agent Barton was sent to kill me. He made a different call," Romanoff says.

I smirk. "And what will you do if I vow to spare him?"

She raises an eyebrow. "Not let you out."

I chuckle softly, evil. "No, but I like this. Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man." This is actually interesting. Emma didn't take the offer, why would Romanoff? What is she thinking? I doubt she's actually considering this.

She shrugs. "Regimes fall every day. I tend not to weep over that. I'm Russian," she shrugs again, "or I was." It must be an act, she cannot be serious.

"And what are you now?" I ask calmly, trying to read her.

"It's really not that complicated. I got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out."

"Can you? Can you wipe out that much red? Dreykov's daughter, Sao Paulo, the hospital fire?" I ask, like I'm really questioning her. I pretend not to see her surprise at my knowledge about her. "Barton told me everything." I stand and walk closer to her slowly. "Your ledger is dripping. It's gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything?" I wonder if that wasn't exactly what I was trying to do myself; save Emma and everything else is forgiven.

"This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer. Pathetic! You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are part of you. And they will never go away," I sneer, refusing to acknowledge that I might as well be speaking to myself. If you think about it I'm not much different from Romanoff.

I remember to appear evil, mad, and not swallow in self-pity. "I won't touch Barton, not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull." I pause before ending with a sneer, "This is my bargain, you mewling quim."

She's now standing with her back towards me, she sniffles. Did I go too far? I'm not sure; either way they think I'm evil, so what does it really matter? "You're a monster," she says.

Don't call me that! voices whisper in my head. But then I see my chance to help them; to give them a chance to stop me. "Oh, no. You brought the monster." Come on, figure it out.

She looks up at me, suddenly with no sad look on her face. "So, Banner. That's your play."

I fight the urge to smirk, glad that my plan worked out. "What?" I say as if I don't understand how she figured that out.

She walks towards the door outside, speaking in a device, "Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab. I'm on my way. Send Thor as well." As she reaches the door, she turns towards me. "Thank you for your cooperation." She smirks slightly before leaving.

As soon as she's gone I smirk too. Now they at least have a chance to stop the plan; they have a chance to stop me. Because I'm fairly sure that if it comes to battle, they will die. And as strange as it sounds, even to me, I don't want them to. I've realized that I care for Emma and for her friends. And well, I do have things in common with them. Even though they probably wouldn't acknowledge it.

That doesn't change the fact that I have to carry out the plan, though. It isn't my plan after all. I'm only a player in this game; a player on the wrong side of the board.

(Emma's POV)

I'm standing just outside of the lab, I can hear them talking. More precisely, I can hear Natasha talking, about Loki's plan.

"He's going to release the Hulk, that's his plan. He is going to make us fight against our own and then he will strike."

I frown. She can't be serious. He wouldn't do that. Would he? Maybe he would, he's not the man I thought I knew. I turn around and hurry to the cage.

"Loki!" That makes him stand up.

"Emma! Please listen to me!" he pleads me. But I tune him out.

"Seriously, Loki?! No, you listen to me! How can you do this? Are you seriously going to use Bruce as a weapon against us? Don't you care how much that hurts? You know, what it's like being looked at as a monster." I look judging at him, expecting him to defend himself.

"I told you, Emma. There is a plan, and that plan is being carried out! Nothing can change that. Not even you." Is it me or does he actually sound a bit sad? It must be me.

"I can't believe you, Loki. I thought you had changed, maybe you were just playing me! But know this, you won't win! My father will win, and your stupid plan won't work. They're friends, they won't split up or fight. Because that's what friends do! They stick together." With that I turn around and march back to the lab, pretending not to notice the now very noticeable sad expression on Loki's face.

I wish he would stop confusing me so much. Why can't he just say what he means? He says one thing, but then he expresses another. I don't get why he can't just stop this stupid plan, if he really wants to. It doesn't make sense. Except if he was just pretending to be sad, but that doesn't make sense either. I'd like to think that I can tell when he's lying and when he's not, anyway. But maybe he's been lying all this time? No, that can't be it either. At least all the stories were true. I don't know anymore. I really don't.

Suddenly it's like there's an earth quake on the Helicarrier; the whole thing shakes and I lose my balance. I'm alone in me and my father's room, so I have no one to ask about what just happened. To me it feels like the Helicarrier is unstable, and since we're very high up in the air, that doesn't seem very good. And that's the thought, which makes me run out of the room to find someone who knows something.

As I run towards the meeting room, where I'm guessing at least some of them are at or they will be soon, I suddenly see my father coming towards me. He looks surprised and scared to see me; not that he's scared of me, he's scared for me, I think. He grabs my arm and makes me run back to the room with him.

Once I'm in, he stops and quickly speaks, "You stay here, Emma. It's dangerous to go outside. If something happens I will come get you, you don't go out on your own, understand?" He looks at me until I nod. "I love you, and I will come find you as soon as this is over." Then he runs towards the room where his suit is.

It's only then that I realize that I still don't know what's going on. I consider yelling at him, but vote against it. He seemed serious, so whatever it is, I better do as he said. With that I close the door to the room, and sit down.

Even though I'm sat down and the Helicarrier isn't shaking that much anymore, I still can't relax. Not knowing what's going on, is kind of driving me crazy. What if my dad gets hurt? Or any of the others get hurt?

I wonder if it has something to do with Loki. It must have, but going down that road only makes me angry again, and I don't want that right now. So I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Nothing is going to happen, they're all going to be fine, I think to myself. That's what I have to believe. I must admit that Loki is among the people I actually care about, the ones I don't want to get hurt. And he definitely shouldn't be. Definitely not.

I guess spending almost ten days with someone without they're trying to kill you or harm you in any way, makes an impact on you. It's hard to look at him the same way now as I did in the beginning.

At first he was the evil guy trying to make the whole world, as I know it, his. And he was the guy from the myths, I couldn't believe was real. And now I know so much more about him, not the Loki from the myths, but the real deal. And he has become some sort of friend to me. I haven't forgotten what he has done, what he's still doing or what he's probably the mind behind right now, and I'm not forgiving him. At least I don't think I am. But now that I know him, it just doesn't seem like him. I guess I'm making friends with the enemy now.

It's weird actually. Because of course I'm still rooting for my father and the others; I don't exactly crave subjugation myself. But I also don't want Loki to get hurt. I want to be able to talk to him like I have been for the last nine days. And it seems surreal that that's probably over now. Plus the last two times we were fighting, so that wasn't really that much fun. It's sad, I think, but that's just yet another thing I shouldn't be thinking. I've been doing that a lot lately; thinking or feeling something I really shouldn't be doing.

The thing is before the two last conversations I've had with him, things were actually going quite well. I mean he comforted me when I learnt about my mother and he was gentle the whole time. He was protecting me. That small crush I've been having on him is really starting to turn into me falling in love with him. And it doesn't help that he genuinely seemed to care for me that day. It just makes it all the more confusing.

I know I shouldn't be in love with him, and I'm not a hundred percent sure I am either. However, I'm pretty sure I'm getting there. Well, this attack might slow things down a bit, I think sarcastically. But I really need to stop these feelings, and I don't know how. The Loki I have seen has been so much more interesting than the Loki from the myths. He's kind of playful, he's gentle, he's caring when he wants to be and so much more I don't even know. Not to mention he's not exactly bad looking, quite the opposite actually.

In a way I wish I could go back to before I met Loki, back to the person I was back then. But then again, then I wouldn't have experienced all these things. I wouldn't have met all these people, I wouldn't have met Loki. And I have to admit that that thought kind of kills me inside.

My father suddenly bursts through the door. "Are you okay, Emma?" he asks frantically.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that, Dad?" I ask worried as I see the state his suit is in. "I wasn't involved in the fight or anything."

He shrugs with a grin when he sees that I'm fine. "I guess. I'm fine, the suit's not though," he says before taking it off.

"So what happened?" I ask hesitantly, hoping that he'll tell me.

He turns to me with a serious look in his eyes, that I can't quite figure out what means. "Barton attacked the Helicarrier with some men." He pauses before apparently deciding to tell me, "Loki's free."

I frown. "What do you mean he's free? What happened?"

My father sighs. "He escaped, he… um…" There's pain evident in his eyes, when he asks me to sit down and sits down next to me. "He killed Coulson, sweetie."

My mouth falls open in shock. "What..? How..? Why..?"

He places a hand on my shoulder comfortingly. "Phil was trying to prevent him from escaping, unfortunately it didn't work."

There's tears in my eyes. It wasn't that I was very close to Phil Coulson, but I liked him. And the times I've actually talked to him he seemed like a good guy, someone to trust.

My father's arm is now around my shoulder, pulling me into a hug, while tears stream down my cheeks. His voice is strained when he says, "You should also know that we've lost Thor and Bruce."

"What?" I squeak. "They're de… gone too?" I'm not sure how to cope if they are.

"No, they fell from the Helicarrier. But I'm positive they're fine. We'll probably see them again soon. Don't worry."

"Good, I'm holding you to that," I say into his shirt.

I feel the vibrations in his chest as he chuckles softly, "You do that, darling."

For a while we just sit like that; me pulled into his chest with his arms around me. We sit like that till the tears stop coming and they start to dry on my cheeks and my father's shirt. In the middle of all the horrible things that has happened, it's like a safe haven, here in my father's arms.

So what did you think? Please review, favourite and follow, it makes my day ^^ Thank you to everyone who has already done that. The dialogue from the scene between Loki and Natasha is taken directly from the movie, sorry if that bothers you. Oh, and please feel free to tell me if anything doesn't make sense or something, I'll try to improve it then ;) Only four chapters to go now, I will be back with chapter 17 on next monday!