Chapter EIGHT

Another New BEGINNING

Loki almost screamed.

He sat down on the couch, hands curled into fists. A deep new meaning of self-hatred rooted itself within Loki. He should've thought of something that wouldn't surprise Natasha. He should've thought of something that wouldn't drive her away.

He wanted to say that he trusted her, but the words caught in his throat and refused to come out like an annoyingly stubborn child unwilling to have a dentist appointment. His lips moved but said nothing.

Five hours were up.

Natasha walked out again and gave Loki a curt nod, her face a mask of steely determination and impassiveness, when she ushered Loki out of the abandoned house, she almost looked like none of the things happened earlier. Trusting the overgrown greenery to hide them, they got inside the mini-van, and slowly emerged from the emptiness, and out into the real world.

The sun was bright and the afternoon had already started. They drove up a highway.

Loki kept berating himself, as he sat, huddled underneath the backseat. Mutters often slipped from his lips but he was careful not to make them too loud.

Finally, an hour passed, and Natasha announced that they were going to make a slight detour to an off-road convenience store in the small town. Loki barely responded.

The tension in the air was so thick it could be felt. It was almost like a state of being.

Finally, Loki started, "Natasha, for what I—"

BANG

The side-mirror shattered and in it was a bullet. Natasha cursed as she saw cars veer away and bystanders walking down the sidewalk screaming and running away. "This is SHIELD and we have been alerted that one of our most wanted war criminals have escaped along with an agent," a strong female voice said through speakers, and several gunshots pattered against the mini-van, making dents.

So Fury forgot one minor detail. He said there would be some fights.

He didn't say that they weren't fake. He didn't say that they would be real and actually armed.

"Loki, whatever you do, just stay low," Natasha warned, and ducked down and unzipped her bag. She got a small planting chip from deep down, and plugged it near the car's steering wheel. She took her gun, and made a small sorry in her head, and leaned out the window and shot back. The chip made the car drive automatically, the route and possible detours implanted into its system. A Stark property, actually. The agent ducked back in, and stronger shots pelted the trunk of the car.

Loki bit his lip. He was ordered to stay low. His heart wormed its way to his throat at the sight of blood trailing down the side of Natasha's jaw, and she ducked out again, shooting. Loki wanted to help but he realized he couldn't. No magic, no weapons. Besides, he might even endanger the whole escape.

BANG!

That wasn't an ordinary bullet.

Sharp, stunning pain spiked from his spine to the top of his head and the ends of his toes. A garbled cry escaped Loki's mouth as he doubled over, blood rapidly spreading his shirt and dribbling down his skin. Natasha ducked back in, and got her bag again, her eyes wild with panic as she caught sight of Loki, and she got out a small grenade. Twisting the top off, she threw it behind her, and got back in, hastily ripping off the chip and driving on her own, going in speeds that seemed inhumane.

The world around the both of them blurred into a mix of colors and sounds and senses.

"You'll be alright Loki, you'll be alright," came the panicked assurance of Natasha.

"Hell, I don't even know if the both of us can get out alive because this isn't the last. SHIELD will just keep on coming and coming and eventually the Avengers will," Natasha said, her tone grave.

Loki groaned. Pain took over his intelligent thoughts and his eyes were close to shutting. A weak murmur escaped him, and he remembers feeling pathetic. Injured by a mere bullet mortals created. Teardrops collected by his eyelids, reminding him of how truly mortal he had become, and how his punishment was so fitting.

"Don't die on me or I swear, I'll sever your tongue and sew your lips. I swear I'll kill you and find a way to bring you back. Two can play that game, huh? Damn it, STAY AWAKE"

It was the last thing he heard.

Panic raced throughout Natasha's body.

She just said some pretty sentimental –if you don't like Natasha's way of expressing sentiment, pretend she said something utterly heartfelt and moving and not at all threatening—things. Finally, she made it to one of the detours. This one was pretty handy. It had some supplies in there that Fury left off, saying that hurting Loki would mean Natasha was bound to get hurt too. Those supplies were for her, supposedly.

Not anymore she thought.

The agent slammed the door shut and hauled an unconscious Loki and her bag into the house that seemed more sterile and hospitable. She barely shut the door before getting to work immediately. The ex-god lost a lot of blood, and she finally knew why. The bullet had been made up of titanium, shot from a special gun that doused it in fire so it melted certain surfaces. But by the time it breaks through, the bullet cools down, so when it hits flesh, it's hot and lethal. It doesn't burn the skin, but that's not a really happy thought considering the extent of the injury.

It hit Loki dangerously close to his spine, but thankfully, his spine was left uninjured. Natasha dug around for her dagger and thanked her lucky stars that Loki was unconscious because it made the situation hurt less. For the both of them, I suppose. She dug out the titanium bullet as quickly as possible, and fixed the wound in an hour. By then, the sun was starting to go down.

Natasha cursed in her mind as she watched Loki's slow –almost serene—breathing. The adrenaline coursing through her veins died down, and without thinking, she climbed onto the bed Loki was lying on, and snuggled closer to the ex-god without hurting him.

"The things I do for you," Natasha muttered darkly. Before falling asleep.

Colors and pictures and vast scents and sounds melded together in Natasha's dream. She was transported to a place she'd rather forget. It was the place where she was trained. Trained to become an agent in a service of liars and killers, trained to be that liar and killer. The dream jolted Natasha awake.

Loki was still thankfully asleep.

If the story is too misguided, almost out of focus even, then you understand how Natasha feels. Muddled with emotions beyond her control, struggling to keep the ex-god alive for SHIELD's little experiment, her conflicted feelings…all of this has got the story spiralling out of control.

A constant:

Natasha doesn't know whether to save Loki or give him a good punch in the eye. That's how conflicted Natasha's feelings were.

A change:

She realizes just how much she's fallen for Loki.

The agent stands up, gun in her right hand, about to pull the trigger. She could, you know. End this madness. End Loki's life without having to test that experiment that's even beyond Fury's control.

Then Loki starts to stir.

Natasha puts away the gun. Everything's out of focused now.

But somehow, it was yet another new beginning.

Author's Note: Not my best chapter I know :-( I'm sorry I haven't been updating. I recently went to Tokyo and well…SCHOOL AS USUAL, the ruiner of all things. Oh so ruiner isn't a word. Okay. Ugh, I know, a really, really bad chapter. HEY HAVE YOU GUYS SEEN THOR: THE DARK WORLD :-D