Over the next two days I separated myself from the scientists who were busy coming up with blueprints and schematics for the machine that would hold the Tesseract. It seemed that they weren't just trying to build a replication of it. They were trying to build something else. Something bigger.
Physically and mentally, I suffered. I haven't had anything to eat or drink in two days. My stomach no longer rumbled with hunger but instead I felt a lingering, dull ache, and my mouth was dry. My limbs were sore and tired, and my wrist hadn't healed. I kept my mouth shut because I could barely open it.
This abandoned base was smaller than headquarters, or P.E.G.A.S.U.S., but it was quiet and made for a good walk. The room I was in earlier must have been a lab during its prime. Once you exited the long stretch of tunnel, you found yourself in an abandoned hanger. To my surprise, there were still some old aircraft, covered with cobwebs and dust. Toolboxes and outdated electronics lay on the floor, along with some rubble, and I began to wonder if this base had been attacked, leading to its abandonment.
My stomach growled loudly as I approached two sets of large doors, and I winced, rubbing my abdomen.
I wondered if I might be able to get them open and escape this temporary prison, but the controls were broken, split in two with one part hanging to the ground. It looked like it had been done years ago, so I assumed Loki hadn't broken it with his scepter.
If anything, this base has to have units, I surmised, looking between two hallways, one on the left, and one on the right. I glanced over my shoulder to make sure I wasn't being followed, and then I walked to the right.
The lightbulbs above my head still functioned, but they flickered every now and then, giving the hallway an eerie effect. I absently stuck my hands in my gun holster and felt the interior where my gun used to be.
The electricity is working, which means that is food here, it should be eatable. I knew that they only gave us food that would last a very long time, because our stays at bases never lasted a week.
My thoughts were correct, as I stumbled upon an old living unit with an open door, and found packages of food that still had ten years to expire. The microwave in the room looked it belonged to the 1980s, but it still warmed a frozen sandwich to perfection.
I sat down on a creaky bar stool in front of the kitchen counter and looked around the room. These living units were more spacious than ours; there was a couch resting in front of a broken TV, and two rooms, one of which was a bathroom and the other a bedroom.
"Lucky bastards," I muttered through a piece of ham. "Four by four bedrooms...not acceptable." I sighed and stuffed another piece of the sandwich in my mouth. It was plain ham and cheese, but it tasted like a gourmet burger to me. I reached for a cup of water and drained it in two gulps.
This living unit was old, out of date, but it was acceptable, and I decided to temporarily make it mine. I hadn't slept in two days, or eaten for that matter.
I wonder where Loki is, I thought for a moment, becoming motionless. For a moment, I smiled, hoping that he was suffering some kind of emotional agony. Hopefully storming around, trying to locate me. It would've been his fault. No one really keeps an eye on me.
Stupid alien, I thought angrily. Ruined everything. Everything was going okay until you showed up and killed everyone and took the Tesseract. No one was yelling at me at work, no one was dying across the world, my sister typically hated me, and I got to eat as much food as I wanted. Like things should be.
Interrupting my thoughts was the feeling that there was someone in the room, and my heart dropped into my stomach.
"I would very much appreciate it if you joined us in the lab, Elliot," Loki's seductive voice crooned behind me. "We need your help."
His voice didn't sound like he'd been through any agony. I chewed my lip derisively.
"How did you find me?" I asked quietly, toying with the last remains of my ham sandwich.
"Simple magic, mortal, beyond your comprehension. It's time to do what you were brought here to do."
"And that is what, exactly?" I stated, gathering my courage and standing to face the Asgardian. He looked different. He wore more armor than before, and-
A giggle escaped my mouth before I could stop it, and his eyes temporarily lost their steely glare and became confused. "What?" he growled.
For the first time in a long time, a wide grin spread to my face and I stared at the new piece of armor he was wearing: a golden helmet that settled against his prominent cheekbones, that rose to form a v-shape between his eyebrows. Attached to it were two curved, golden horns the length of my forearm.
It looked absolutely ridiculous. It was literally the dumbest thing I'd ever seen anyone wear.
"The helmet make you look like an idiot," I managed between chortles. "What is that? Do all Asgardians wear it?" I wiped my eyes, unable to stop laughing. "Feeling horny?"
Loki didn't respond and let me chuckle a little while longer before speaking.
"At this current moment, I'm not sexually aroused." His voice dropped to just above a whisper. "Although, the sight of you kneeling before me might change that."
The words were so eloquently spoken and rather simple, but they were enough to silent my giggles completely and sent my heart racing as he stared at me with those glittering green eyes, his face partially hidden by the shadow of the door. I gripped the edge of the chair I sat on tightly as he stepped forward, his eyes dropping to stare at something. I followed his eyes and saw that my knuckles were turning white with the force I gripped the chair with.
Heavy lidded eyes bore into mine and for a moment, I wondered if he was going to follow through with another one of his promises. Instead, he straightened up and tilted his head curiously.
"Have I scared you, little one?"
In the span of time that I'd left the lab, work had been done. Computer stations and monitors, panels and experiments had been set up and the cables connected to provide electricity and a little more illumination. Like I was back in New York, people ran around holding tablets, arguing with each other.
A heavy hand clasped on my right shoulder reminded me that I wasn't at home.
Loki was maneuvering me towards an illuminated room and my eyes widened when I saw Dr. Selvig working on the Tesseract behind see-through drapes. A similar machine was being built, but it looked like it was going to become more.
"Agent Barton," Loki's voice said quietly, as a man wearing a black sleeveless jacket, dark pants and boots, slid into my line of vision. His hair was closely cropped short, his face rough and lacking emotion, and his Tesseract blue eyes judged me harshly as they slid up and down my body. "Elliot."
"It's bad enough that you use my name like you've known me for years but it's worse that you use my full name," I mumbled under my breath.
"She has the disk?" Barton assumed, pursing his lips with distaste.
"Yes. And..." the Asgardian added, his breath tickling my ear. I froze with revulsion as his free hand slid leisurely across my collarbone to unzip my jacket yet again. "She is so willing to help us." Barton eyes locked onto my necklace and a smirk curled on his lips.
"Take the disk and extract all information," Loki barked, pushing me towards Barton. "And don't let her out of your sight, she likes to wander like a lost child," he spat. Swiftly, Barton stepped behind me and prodded me forward and I began the walk towards a single computer resting on one of the silver tables.
"Disk," he commanded roughly, holding out his hand for it. A thousand butterflies erupted in my stomach, and I found myself frozen to the spot as I stared at the computer in front of me. Sometimes I think of computers like humans. And this computer before me was so incredibly innocent, unable to fathom what information it was about to process.
"Disk," Barton repeated through his teeth. I squeezed my eyes tight again and exhaled, reaching behind my neck to unclasp the necklace. The disk slid cleanly into my hand and I held it out to Barton.
He snatched it from me quickly and placed it into the disk drive. Seconds later, the computer accepted the disk and began humming, sending light vibrations through the table.
"It's locked," Barton said after a few minutes, turning to face me. "Open it." I pressed my lips in a tight line and stepped in front of him, resting my hands on the keyboard. If there was some possible way to subdue Barton and escape, I would. I hated how easy this was for him. Reluctantly, I typed the password that would reveal all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s information to Loki. The password I had chosen was Megan's birthday: 07182005.
On the screen, the password was accepted and my heart sunk into my stomach yet again. I hoped something would go horribly wrong, anything to prevent my mistake from following through.
Well, something did. When Agent Barton clicked on the folder that contained remnants of the hard drive, the only thing that displayed on the screen was an animated graphic of an exploding folder.