Thanks for reading guys. So the fluffy times are over now. Things are not so happy for our heroes just to warn you, this story is about to take on a decidedly more tragic turn.
The story will go on, you'll have to keep reading and reviewing to find out what happens!
Loki walked into their view, a cold smile on his face as he stopped in front of their cell. "Well, if it isn't the two Master assassins, where's the bravado you so ruthlessly displayed last time we were together?"
Natasha narrowed her eyes, "How did you do this?"
"You'd be surprised how many allies you get when you try to invade the Earth. Some have very specialized skills in helping one escape from prison."
"So you escaped from prison in Asgard and then captured us? Seems a little anti-climatic doesn't it." Natasha said. Clint still hadn't spoken. He couldn't move, he could barely breath; flashes of his last meeting with Loki were running through his head.
"Revenge is hardly a lesser act," Loki said, stepping closer to their cell.
"Revenge? Against us?" Natasha said, looking up through her eyelashes as she stared at the demi-god and said in a low voice, "We had a little help in defeating you."
"That you did, your little crew of Avengers," Loki said sarcastically, "Including my dear brother."
Clint wondered where Thor was, surely Loki's escape from prison had caused chaos on the blond titan's home planet. A glimmer of hope passed through his mind as he thought that there could be some chance of rescue if the rest of team was alerted. But he had no idea where they were, if they were even still on Earth, still on the same plane of reality. The thought was dizzying.
Loki's stare remained on Natasha as he continued, "I seem to remember it was you, Agent Romanoff, that closed the portal created by the Tesseract. In fact, you were also the one who released Agent Barton from my control. You've been quite the thorn in my side." He smiled after that, a grin so cold and calculated that Clint could have sworn he felt Natasha shiver.
"What are you going to do with us?" Natasha asked, more quietly this time, Clint could feel her resolve leaving.
Loki's smile remained fixed as he spoke, "You'll find out in due time." And he spun on his heel, walking out of the room.
"Hey wait, you have to tell us why we're here-" Natasha started as they heard a familiar hissing sound. The cell filled with gas and then blackness.
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When Clint next came to he was no longer in the stone cell but in a stark, white room with his hands were still bound but hung on something from the ceiling.
He looked up and tried standing on tiptoes as he tried to gain leverage to try once again to slip the cuffs but nothing was working. He tried to speak but found his mouth was covered in some kind of cloth so all he could do was grunt. His eyes searched wildly for Natasha but all he saw was two men standing in the corner, guards?
A door opened and Loki walked in followed by another guard and then Natasha. Her hands were still bound in front of her and another guard was behind her, pushing her in. She looked about as pissed off as Clint felt. She was kicking and grunting against her restraints, he could practically see the waves of anger radiating off her body. The men, they were men as far as he could tell, were struggling to bring her in and he noted with satisfaction that one was sporting a busted lip. Good girl, he thought. But he could see in her eyes that Natasha was also terrified, she hated not being in control. She let him dominate her in bed but that had come from the trust that had built up as their relationship had bloomed. He tried to talk again but the rag was pushed far into his mouth, so he just fixed an angry glare on Loki as the god grabbed Natasha by her elbow and pulled her to him and stopped in front of Clint. She fought Loki, jerking and kicking as hard as she could but he pulled her close.
"Why so angry Natasha, you should love this," Loki whispered into Natasha's ear but stared at Clint as he went on, "Or at least that was how your dear husband described it."
Clint's movements stopped as his mouth went dry, his memories. Loki had Natasha bound in exactly the way Clint would tie her up during their sex play. He was using it against them. Bile rose up in his throat, as Clint felt sick at the thought of their most intimate and private moments being brought into the public. Their relationship and all that went on in it was far from normal but it was theirs, it worked for them and they had worked at it together. Clint began to see red crawl into his vision.
Natasha's eyes squished shut as she recoiled away from Loki's touch, his breath ghosting on her ear. He breathed her in for a moment than pushed her down and walked up to Clint.
"You pledged your absolute loyalty to me, you came up with brilliant plans for us and carried through an almost perfect take over of the helicarrier to release me from SHIELD." Clint gagged on the rag in his mouth as he tried to scream that he was brainwashed, Loki's puppet, willingly carrying out any command given to him. "Then you pointed an arrow at my head and smiled as I was carried to my prison."
Clint's mind went back to that day. He had wanted so bad to release that arrow he had pointed at Loki's head, to end it all and take his revenge for having his mind stolen from him. He remembered the scene in Central Park as Thor prepared to return Loki to their home planet. Natasha had leaned in to whisper into his ear, what she said, he couldn't remember. He had smiled though, almost grinned at the comment. Clint didn't know if it was his fatigue from the day or his panic at the moment but something was blocking his memory.
"So, Agent Barton, I would take some joy in revenge. In torturing you until you felt the utter humiliation that I did on that day. My time spent in Asgardian prison gave me plenty of opportunities to decide what would be the perfect way to make you pay." Loki began circling Clint, "My first thought was to take your eyes. You would be useless to SHIELD without your skillset. Then I thought I could remove a hand, or even just a finger. The little archer would hardly be able to release an arrow into someone missing an appendage."
Natasha made a noise then, struggling to get up off the floor but the guards pushed her back down by her shoulders. Her eyes flashed with anger. Clint's stomach dropped, the thought of not being able to shoot his bow, to use his eyes terrified him. He pushed his nervous thoughts to the back of his mind as he focused his gaze back at Loki, staring at him head on, eyes flashing with anger as he dared the God of Mischief to bring on all he had.
Loki met his stare and began to circle around him.
He stopped in front of Clint and made a motion to one of his guards who stepped into Clint's view and delivered a swift punch to the side of Clint's face. His mouth swirled with blood as he gagged on the rag. He had been a part of this type of situation before, usually involving an interrogation for some kind of information. Clint Barton could take a punch and although his smart mouth usually angered his attackers into more retaliation, he began to laugh at the familiarity of this situation. Natasha stared at him like he was crazy and a flash of annoyance passed through Loki's face.
Then he turned the tables on Clint.
"Just as I imagined, that wouldn't be enough, you wouldn't feel quite enough pain to satisfy me. So I though that just as you helped take away my freedom, there had to be something just was valuable I could take from you." Loki looked down at Natasha as he said this. Clint stopped smiling and shook his head violently, making as much noise as he could.
"What's the matter Barton, do you agree with my reasoning?" Loki pulled down the rag covering Clint's mouth, "I want to hear you beg for her," he hissed.
"Don't.."Clint panted, spitting out blood as he struggled to gain his breath, "Do whatever you want to me..just don't hurt her." He looked down at Natasha, she was shaking her head at him. She hated when he acted chivalrous, she would probably hate him for offering himself up like this but it didn't matter now, he couldn't imagine a world without her and he was desperate right now. Clint looked back up at Loki, straight into his eyes, "You can do anything to me, "he repeated his offering, "Just let her go."
Loki smiled again. "Always the self-sacrificing one."
Clint chuckled in spite of himself. Although Loki's strategy was a little backward, he was supposed to start with the threats then beat him up, he had gotten exactly the reaction he wanted out of Clint. He remembered his earlier assumption about Loki's feelings for Natasha, would the demi-god be willing to sacrifice her or was entire situation about her? Clint began to feel like a pawn.
Loki looked ticked off but went on, "It would be a pity to destroy someone so lovely" Clint licked blood off his teeth and smiled, resisting the urge to spit at him.
"I take it that you agree Agent Barton?"
He walked over to where Natasha was crouched between the two guards. "Stand her up," he commanded, then he turned back to Clint.
"You see, I knew that the threat to her life would elicit the kind of reaction you just gave. As much as you're trying to disguise it, it would quite painful for you to watch me kill her. That was my plan as I captured you two from the quinjet. But then when you two came here I realized something very profound and unexpected, that absolutely changed my mind about the course of events." He slid a finger down Natasha's face as he said this and brushed away a lock of red hair that had fallen into her eyes. She closed them and her nostrils flared as she tried to turn away but his hand traveled down her body, slowing at her breasts but continuing until it came to rest on her stomach. Natasha's eyes flew open as she stared at Loki in shock, then they flicked to Clint's, tears glistening from them. Loki smiled and ripped the rag from her mouth, "Quite an interesting development, isn't it?"
"Clint, I'm sorry.." she cried out once her mouth was free, "I was going to tell you…"
"What?" his brazen attitude switched off, his mind was still processing everything.
"Oh, Agent Barton," Loki said, his voice dripping with false concern, "You didn't know?"
Realization dawned on him, "You're…you're pregnant?" Clint stammered.
She nodded. "I just found out, before we got captured…Bruce confirmed it" Clint remembered lunch that day and her visit with Dr. Banner, her distraction on the quinjet before they left the hellicarrier. It seemed like years ago.
"I'm sorry," she said again.
"Don't be," he whispered, and he felt his lips turn up into a smile, an honest one, their dire situation forgotten as he thought of her, belly swollen with his child; a green-eyed boy or girl running around with a nerf bow and arrow, a future together as a family. She smiled back at him, her eyes shining with tears.
"How sweet," Loki's voice brought him back to reality. Natasha's smile faded at the same time Clint's did. "But it is lovely that this new bit of information has provided me with just the right amount of ammunition to make both of you feel the pain I want. Luckily I made some new friends who gave me some new powers to help carry out any punishments I wanted." What that his hand took on a blue glow as he pressed it to Natasha's stomach and her eyes closed shut as she screamed and doubled over in pain.
"Nooooo!" Clint screamed as he saw the red blood spreading on Natasha's pants. He twisted and jerked, desperate to get out of the restraints. He felt like a caged animal, like if he could, he would gnaw his own hand off just to get to free.
Loki dropped her to the floor and smiled as he walked away.
Clint shut his eyes at Natasha's screams, he felt his consciousness explode, a burst of sensations as he tried to block out the awful sound of her agony. When he opened his eyes he saw that Natasha had stopped screaming and it was the sounds of his own cries he had been trying to block.
There was more noise, explosions and crumbling and Clint briefly wondered if he was going crazy. Then the wall next to him crumbled and a flash of green appeared before his field of vision.
The Hulk.
Help had finally come.
Deep breath out. That was so hard to write. I had to post it to keep from rewriting it over and over again!