Okay, wow. Thank you. Seriously, I actually cried reading your reviews for that last chapter. Just, thank you so much!
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Wow! New chapter already! A shorter one this one, but intense! And a warning: it starts off pretty dark! Not sure how you'll feel about that, but (although I sound really mean saying it) I actually loved writing it! Dark and intense things just feel really good to write. I'm not a sadist, I promise!
Disclaimer: The quotes from Doctor Who, Finding Nemo and the names of Pokémon, all belong to their rightful owners and not me!
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Chapter Fifteen:
What Must Not Come To Pass
Efanna races out of the Helicarrier's control deck, a gun clenched in her fist. Before anyone can follow her there is a large explosion and smoke and dust fills the room. Efanna sprints through corridors, darting past S.H.E.I.L.D. Agents and the attacking soldiers until she reaches the largest of the labs. Within is a man she knows only too well.
The scene shifts, Efanna is now tied to a chair, sweat dripping from her forehead and a steady stream of blood flowing from her temple. There is a tall, dark haired man sitting nonchalantly before her, toying with a vicious-looking knife.
"We know you are the one with the information," he tells her calmly, "I'd like you to tell us where you got it."
Efanna raises her head to look him in the eye.
" 'People assume time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey, stuff'," she replies at high speed.
At first the man looks interested, but by the time she's finished her sentence he is scowling. He leans forward, grabs her hand and breaks her little finger. Efanna can't help but scream from the pain.
"Now you see what happens when you take the piss," the man growls at her as her head flops to her chest, "So tell me what I want to know."
Efanna starts to whisper, " 'Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim-' "
The man cuts her off with a slap around the face and brings his knife to her throat.
"Where do you get your information?" he repeats.
"Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, Venusaur-" Efanna begins to list before the man reaches down and breaks another of her fingers. She screams again.
"How much do S.H.E.I.L.D. know?"
"Charmander, Charmeleon, Charizard-"
She is interrupted again as the man slides the knife's jagged edge across her cheek to the corner of her mouth, almost lovingly. Another scream escapes her lips as pain shoots through her and the warm taste of her own blood overcomes her senses.
"What are 'The Avengers' plans?"
Efanna breathes heavily for a moment as pressure is exerted on another of her fingers and the tip of the knife tugs at the already gaping cut across her face. She locks her white eyes onto the brown ones of her captor. They are filled with hate and contempt for him.
"Squirtle," she spits derisively, "Wartortle, Blastoise-"
Another scream echoes through the dark room and Efanna's head slumps forward once more. There is an angry growl from above her and a rough hand grasps her neck, forcing her took look into her captor's face. He leans over her, and brings his other hand, still holding the knife to roughly prise apart her legs. Efanna's eyes fill with horror and she uses every bit of energy she has left to thrash and struggle, to do anything to escape this vile man's touch.
"Tell me," he whispers into her ear, the feel of his hot breath making Efanna's skin crawl.
She looks deep into his pitiless eyes, knowing full well what will come next. She summons the last vestiges of her courage and mimics an action she wonders if he will recognise. Then she abandons all hope and resigns herself to her fate.
She spits in his face.
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A loud scream caused Loki's head to jerk up from the book he was reading. Efanna, who had been lying still on the sofa within the grasps of a Vision now sat curled in a ball in the middle and desperately trying to calm the anguished cries echoing from her mouth.
"Efa?"
She didn't answer him and instead ran her hands across her body, particularly her fingers and the left side of her face. Her breathing was heavy and fast, her eyes wide and her body shaking violently. Her dog leapt up next to her and began to lick her face but she seemed to ignore even him, still whimpering lightly under her breath. Loki frowned. He had never seen her wake from a Vision like this before.
"Efanna," he said sternly, crossing the room to her and turning her shaking form to face him as he knelt before her, "Efanna, look at me."
Gradually her white eyes seemed to focus on his and he saw the horror in them fade slightly.
"L-Loki?" she stammered.
Then she let herself collapse into his chest and burst into terrified sobs. Loki looked to her dog as if he might be able to provide some explanation of what he was supposed to do, but the creature looked just as perplexed as he felt.
"Efanna, what did you See?" he asked, wondering what on Asgard could have brought this on.
He couldn't get any response from her however, no matter how hard he tried. Eventually he simply shifted her shivering form so that he could sit on the sofa next to her and let her cry in his arms. Her dog whined and shoved his head into her lap, but even this could not turn her head from his chest, nor prise her hands from where they gripped his shirt with such force that her knuckles turned white. Loki had no idea what was expected of him so he simply sat still and silent as the fabric against his chest grew gradually more and more damp and Efa's shaking grew slowly calmer.
It took well over a hour for her to finally release the grip on his shirt and let her trembling hand reach down to gently stroke her anxious dog's ears. Loki tried once more to try and prise from her some idea of what had caused this collapse. She still refused to talk however, and just shook her head against his chest, not even looking up at him. Loki returned to silence once more. Once again he had absolutely no knowledge of what to do. Nothing in his long life had prepared him for situations like this.
As the hour grew steadily later, Loki decided that the most sensible thing to do would be to get the shivering redhead in his arms to her bed. Perhaps sleep would provide the comfort he was incapable of? Efanna remained impassive, but allowed herself to be steered up the stairs and into her room. Loki left her with her dog and firm instructions to go to sleep before closing the door on her and retreating to his own bed with a troubled mind. What could she have Seen that would have disturbed her so much?
As he undressed, leaving his undergarments on as Efanna had a habit of waking him should she feel he had slept too long, he listened intently to any sounds that escaped her room. Although she herself was quiet, there will still gentle thuds and scrapes that suggested she had not yet gone to sleep. Roughly half an hour later he heard her door open and close, her feet pad down the stairs and moments later the tap in the kitchen run. He wondered whether he should go to her, but decided against it. As long as she wasn't screaming or crying she was probably alright. It wasn't long before her footsteps once again passed his door and he heard the toilet flush and the bathroom door close. Then there was silence. Loki closed his eyes and wondered why he was so concerned about her behaviour.
There was a small creak then, which almost made him jump, and he looked across to see Efanna silhouetted in the dark at his door. He could make out few details in the dimness, but her stance seemed hunched and timid.
"Loki?" she whispered, coming further into the room. When he made no response she shocked him by tentatively climbing into his bed and pressing her head against his shoulder.
"He's not going to do that to me," she whispered against his skin, "I'm not going to let him. Promise me he's not going to do that to me?"
"Efanna…?" he asked, questioning what she meant, what she had Seen and what in Valhalla she was doing in his bed.
She raised her white eyes to his and Loki noticed they almost seemed to glow.
"I don't want to be alone, not tonight, not after that," she explained, her tone pleading.
Loki considered her for a moment but she seemed so helpless that eventually he relented. He turned away from her, moving himself across the bed so she had a little more room.
"Thank you," she whispered as he felt her curl herself into a ball against his back and bury her head between his shoulder blades. Then the mattress shifted again and Loki realised her dog had jumped up to sleep on her other side. He was about to protest but the memory of the tremor in her voice quietened him. It would only be one night.
Gradually her breathing deepened and slowed into a steady rhythm. Occasionally Loki felt her thumb trace little circles across his skin and he wondered if she was aware that she was doing so or if she was already asleep. Every now and then she would mumble and writhe lightly, but Loki could never make out the words. Once or twice she screamed, yet she never woke. It was not until the final hours of darkness that Loki was able to drift off. The presence of a woman in his bed, let alone one so closely pressed against him was an alien thing to him. The last time he had shared his sleep with another seemed as though it was a lifetime ago and the massive beds of the Palace of Asgard meant that they had never touched when he had. The fact that Efanna was choosing to sleep by him for no other reason than that she seemed to find comfort in his presence unnerved him. Such a thing was something he had never expected to experience.
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Efanna woke to the furry warmth of her dog at her back and the warmth of smooth skin to her front. For a moment she was unsettled before the memories of the night before descended on her. At this point she marvelled that Loki had ever allowed her to sleep next to him. As she firmly pushed away the echoes of her dreams however, she was very glad that he had. She did not know how else she would have survived the night.
It then dawned on her that she had just spent the night in a bed that was not her own. That she had shared that bed with a man. That she was no longer the child she had been the last time she had sought comfort from another to help her sleep. That she was resting against the bare skin of Loki's back. And lastly, perhaps most troublingly, that Loki was hardly innocent when it came to sleeping with others. She felt her cheeks flush and wriggled slightly, trying to create some space between them without pushing Pip off behind her and hoping he hadn't got the wrong impression. Not that he would have. She was human for pity's sake and… She shook her head. Her cheeks were now burning and she mentally turned and fled from where her thoughts were taking her. Perhaps she should have thought this through a little further last night.
The thought of last night however, instantly sobered her as she remembered why she had sought Loki's comfort in the first place. Her forehead screwed up and she once again pressed it against his skin, hoping that might distract her.
"Are you awake then?" Loki's voice asked from the other side of his shoulder.
"Mm-hm," she mumbled, hoping he wouldn't chuck her out. She wasn't ready to be alone again quite yet.
He shifted awkwardly, turning over until he lay facing her, propped up on one arm, his green eyes looking deep into hers. Efa shrunk back against Pip slightly. Her mother's old bed wasn't really big enough for two people and a dog.
"Are you going to tell me what that was all about?" he asked, one eyebrow raised slightly. Efanna looked down at the covers.
"No…" she whispered.
She wasn't ready to talk about it. Last night she had drawn her pictures to try and sort her mind out as best she could and then burnt them in the grate downstairs. That was one particular future she was not going to let come to pass.
Loki considered her for a moment and then flopped down onto his back with a huff. Efanna wriggled until she lay on her back too and shoulder to shoulder they stared up through the skylight, watching the grey clouds scud across the sky.
"It's Samhain," she told him quietly, "At midnight tonight I'll be twenty-two."
Okay, I just hope I have managed to keep this going well enough after all the incredible praise you gave me for the last chapter!
Please let me know what you think!