Theme song: "In for the Kill" by La Roux. "Faithful Reader" - there's a reply to your fabulous review at the bottom. ^.~
Chapter 62: Desperate Times
The next morning, Natasha waited patiently for everyone to arrive at the meeting. Fury had been there even before her, and Loki had come with her, so she was forced to endure both of their inquisitive glares while the others filtered in.
Steve and Maria came at the same time, chatting animatedly. Tony and Bruce also showed up about ten minutes early, still deep in discussion about whatever they had been doing in the lab. Dr. Bryardie drifted in without comment a few moments later. Clint came next, alone, and nodded to Natasha before sitting. Lastly, Thor walked in, looking a bit rushed.
"Am I late?" he asked apologetically.
Natasha glanced up at the clock. "No, actually you are right on time, so we can get started."
He nodded and took a seat next to Loki, who gave him a half-hearted glare. Thor looked a little sheepish, and they could all guess the reason he was late.
Typing a series of commands into the in-table console, Natasha brought up the same information in front of each person. It showed a summary of the info they had gathered about each of the five girls, along with their pictures at the top.
"We have spent two weeks doing an in-depth investigation of each of the primary victims," she explained. "We are labeling them victims because none of their backgrounds indicate they were likely to be intentionally involved. They were each from good families, had good academic standing, and had bright futures ahead of them."
Steve sighed at the waste of it, and Tony shook his head.
"However, each of them experienced the same event in the weeks leading up to the attack." She swiped her hand over the console and short interview transcripts appeared in each column. "Each of them had someone they knew attempt to sexually assault them. Only one of them filed a police report, or we would have noticed it earlier. Most of them didn't bother."
"You said 'attempted,' I'm guessing that's why they didn't file reports?" Rowena asked.
"Yes. In each case, the assault was stopped by a stranger, a young man who introduced himself as Trent Ashburn," she replied. "None of them knew him previously or had any contact with him afterwards. He simply seemed to be at the right place at the right time, stopped the assault, offered the girl a ride home in a fancy car, and then disappeared."
"Have you found this Mr. Ashburn?" Steve asked, sounding like he would like to shake the guy's hand.
"No. No such person exists, as far as we can tell. We've had a sketch artist make a profile, but all of the descriptions are second-hand, so we don't know how accurate it is." She tapped a few keys, and a sketch appeared on their screens.
"Looks like you, Cap," Tony teased. In fact, the sketch looked a lot like Steve. The man was young, blonde, and had a strong, handsome jaw. They all studied the image, except for Loki, who was still carefully reading the interview transcripts.
"You said the girls came from good families. Did you mean socio-economically well off, or morally conservative?" he asked, as if he suspected something.
"Morally conservative," Natasha answered, wondering where he was going.
He looked up from the screen. "So it would be reasonable to assume that they were virgins?"
There were uncomfortable murmurs around the table, but Thor turned to peer at his brother questioningly, as if he knew where the conversation were headed.
"I would wager they were," she agreed, "since the nature of the sexual assaults were fairly minor-the men in question were friends or boyfriends of the victims who took physical liberties the girls objected to. The one case where it was reported to the police, it was only because the girl's father was outraged."
Loki nodded, and sat back with a scowl on his face.
"You wanna share with the class?" Fury drawled.
He glanced up, hesitated, glanced over at Thor, and then spoke. "There is a form of magic, called blood magic, which uses a living thing as its focus."
Thor swore under his breath, as if his worst fear was confirmed.
"Most of the spells require animal sacrifice, but a few of the more... potent ones use sentient creatures," Loki went on.
"Wait, human sacrifice?" Clint looked skeptical.
"Humans will suffice, but an Aesir or one of the Light Elves would be especially effective. You see, the spell is powered by the life force of the subject. The purity of the vessel is especially important," Loki sounded like he was reciting from a textbook. Looking at Thor, Natasha guessed that he probably was, and that Thor had heard the same lesson.
"So... virgin human sacrifice." Clint's voice held less suspicion, and more dread as even he could see the pieces fall together.
"Precisely. And what better way to find such a victim in this modern world where morals are almost a thing of the past?" he asked cynically.
"Find someone who puts up a fight," Maria said softly. "Son of a bitch."
Loki tapped the sketch. "This man, this 'Ashburn,' is your criminal."
"How do we know he's not just working for someone else?" Tony asked.
He shook his head. "To find the victims, he would have set up a summoning rune. It would be limited by area-a few square miles at most-and he would need to get there quickly since it would be activated at the first cry for help."
"Summoning rune?" Rowena asked.
Loki turned to face her. "Less like the ones you use, more like the one Agent Romanoff and I used in our mission to Poland. When triggered, the rune, or whatever device used, causes a sensation in the caster which draws them to the site of activation."
"Like a spider in a web," Natasha murmured. A few people sent uncomfortable glances her way, but Loki just smiled.
"The important questions are, why did he do it, and will he do it again?" Fury asked.
"Hard to say," Loki sighed. "If we knew more about the caster, what his real identity is, we might find that he had something to do with each of the attack sites. My guess is it was motivated personally, since these kinds of spells involve a lot of preparation and work." More uncomfortable stares as the others caught the implication that Loki knew this from personal experience.
"Then I would guess he will do it again," Dr. Bryardie suggested. "Especially since he got away with it the first time. His sense of victory will wear off, and he'll be driven to top himself. These places: a hardware store, a shoe store, grocery store... they're all retail locations. He may have been turned down for jobs at these locations. Now that he has his revenge on them, he may try to use the next attack for some other personal gain."
"Like robbing a bank?" Steve suggested, and Rowena nodded.
"How do we know when he'll attack?" Maria asked.
"Blood magic is highly influenced by astrological factors..." Loki turned to Rowena, who quickly pulled up a website and searched for what might have been involved.
"Looks like Mars was rising, and-Oh! It was a full moon," she realized aloud. Loki gave her a questioning look. "We've only got the one moon, and it has a lot of influence over natural cycles and magic here," she explained.
He nodded. "That would do it, then. I would say the next attack would happen on the next full moon."
"That's only two weeks away," Thor blurted. Everyone glanced at him, surprised at his enthusiasm. He just smiled. "Jane has been teaching me the constellations you can see from this realm, and the patterns they follow."
Loki gave him a thoughtful look, but turned his attention back to the subject at hand. "Then he will have already started collecting new victims," he reasoned.
This was met with silence.
Bruce, who had yet to say anything, asked the question they were all thinking. "So what are we going to do to stop him?"
"We could have the police be on the lookout for similar incidents," Maria suggested half-heartedly.
Natasha shook her head. "Most women don't report this sort of thing, especially if there's no physical proof."
"We could do a manhunt," Clint argued.
"He probably doesn't really look like this," Rowena argued. "Glamour, right?" she asked Loki, who nodded. "Well-off people don't typically commit this kind of crime, so he's just posing."
There was another long silence as everyone brainstormed.
"We could set a trap for him," Loki said quietly, and something in his voice was chilling. Natasha recognized the look on his face, remembered their conversation before the mission in Poland. Loki wanted-needed-to hunt.
"How?" Fury asked, sounding suspicious.
Loki looked to Natasha, thinking. "Do we know where the assaults occurred?"
She typed in a few commands, and a map of upper Manhattan appeared, with five red dots no more than ten blocks apart.
"Then we know his hunting grounds. We go there, and stage an assault. See if he shows up," Loki tried to sound casual.
"You want someone to... to pretend to..." Steve couldn't manage to actually say it.
"Would it still work if it was faked?" Rowena asked, glossing right over the uncomfortable question.
"Yes. It's probably a cry for help that activates the spell, otherwise he would be summoned to every illicit back-alley tryst," Loki reasoned.
"Who would run a mission like that?" Maria asked, obviously as disgusted at the idea as Steve was.
Loki looked to Natasha, eyebrows raised.
"I will," Natasha volunteered, and she saw the look of approval in his eyes.
"What?" Clint turned to her.
"Not with you," Natasha tried to hide a smile. "With Loki. We will go undercover, trigger the spell, and then I will be able to fill in the blanks in this story."
Clint glanced at Loki, then back at her like they were both crazy. "Wait. You're talking about getting yourself kidnapped by some freaky wizard, and getting sacrificed-"
"It won't work," Natasha interrupted.
"Of course it won't-" he started.
"No, I mean the spell. The sacrifice spell. It won't have any effect on me, right?" she looked to Loki, who nodded.
"You don't know that," Clint insisted. "Natasha, this is magic we're talking about. You might be invulnerable to poison and drugs and-"
"Because I'm not a suitable focus," she glared at him, slightly frustrated that she had to spell it out.
Clint blinked at her a moment. "Oh. Yeah."
Steve cleared his throat uncomfortably, and Thor was shaking his head but smiling.
"As much as I dislike the sound of this," Fury spoke up, "it appears to be our only working plan. Unless someone else has an idea?" He looked around the table, but everyone shook their heads regretfully. "Fine. This meeting is dismissed, then. Romanoff, Loki, Stark, I'd like you to plan this quickly. We need as much info as we can on this guy, so I'd prefer if she went in wired."
Tony nodded. "We can bug the spider," he joked. "I've got some free time this afternoon."
With that, Fury stood, effectively ending the meeting. Everyone else stood to go, chatting about inconsequential things in an effort to lift the mood. Only Loki and Natasha remained sitting, at near-opposite ends of the table.
When the rest had gone, Loki spoke. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
Natasha pressed her lips together for a moment. "This is what I do," she reminded him.
"That's not what I mean." He stood, and walked until he came to a stop next to her chair, tilting her chin up with a finger. "I mean the ruse."
She shrugged. "It's just pretend, Loki. I went on at least a dozen missions where I pretended to be married to Clint. It didn't mean we were going to do it for real."
Loki stared down at her and resisted the urge to point out that this was different. Pretending to be married was hardly the same thing. "I have one condition," he said instead.
She raised one eyebrow, surprised.
"You must wear my rune again, just in case," he pleaded.
"Okay..." she gave him an odd look. She had planned on asking for it anyway. "It's no big deal, right?"
Loki looked at his shoes a moment. "I will have to switch, for Her to do it."
She nodded. "I'm sure She won't object."
He smiled a little, but then frowned. "Don't... tell her the nature of our mission, please?"
Now Natasha was really confused. "Alright. If you like."
"Thank you." Loki kissed her on the forehead and left.
Hmm, Natasha thought. What is going on here that I don't know about? Perhaps it was time for her to track down Thor again.
A/N: Looooong chapter, the first of several. The story keeps running away from me, and I have to write scenes that weren't in the original outline lol. I'm anxious to get this story finished, though, so I'm not splitting up the chapters as much. Hopefully you guys won't mind, right?
"Faithful Reader" left a very thoughtful guest review, so I'd like to respond to it here. It may be slightly spoilerish, so you've been warned:
It tickles me that you're still reading this. You always leave such thoughtful reviews, and they really make me think about the story and where it's going.
The issue of whether Loki should actually hit Natasha or not was a HUGE debate for me. I knew that plotwise, he needed to cross a line there, but actually hitting her seemed like it crossed the moral event horizon. Fortunately, my husband convinced me of this, and I re-wrote it so he almost hits her. I like it much better this way, too.
The way I write Loki, he doesn't get jealous of Natasha's marks. He enjoys watching her work (and he's told her so several times) because he knows it's all an act, a deception, and she's just so damn good at it. He does, however, get intensely jealous of anyone she might have a genuine emotional attachment to. Which I think is rather telling.
I agree, the idea of Natasha being a mindless sex slave is so OOC that it's almost laughable. Early on in the story, Dr. Bryardie tells Loki straight up that Natasha isn't a sub and never will be, unless she is completely broken (which would be difficult to do). So it's more about compromise and her learning to temporarily give up control for the sake of fun and Loki's benefit. Right now the relationship is a little unbalanced in Loki's favor, which is why she's taking it out on Femme Lokita. And yes, Femme Loki is getting the short end of the stick at the moment. But that's the source of conflict at this point in the story.
I genuinely hope you will enjoy the way everything is resolved, and keep reading 'till the end.
