Theme song: "Titanium" by Rihanna.


Chapter 66: In A Pinch

"Augh! What did I say about switching during missions?!" Loki demanded. She turned around, saw Natasha on the floor, and blanched. "Oh, shit," she breathed. She licked her lips, and then touched them, staring at the blood on her fingertips in horror.

Natasha gave her a weary smile. "That was pretty much His reaction, too," she joked.

Loki blinked. "Then... He didn't..."

She scowled. "Oh, hell no. I would have kicked his ass long before it got to that," she reassured her.

She was about to ask why she hadn't kicked the ass of whoever had done it, when the door visibly dented under a resounding strike. "Ok, first things first," Loki said, rushing over to the door and putting her hands against it. It changed in color, darkening to the rough black of wrought iron. "That should hold them for a while," she nodded to herself. Turning, she gave Natasha a sympathetic look and snapped her fingers.

Natasha looked down to find herself dressed in her combat uniform, armed and fully loaded. She instantly felt far better. "You're the best, Loki," she said gratefully.

Loki smiled. "I try." She walked up to the altar, studying it carefully. "Looks like he's already found another two victims," she said, picking up the red stones.

"Can you undo the spell?" Natasha asked, taking comfort in the habitual action of checking all her weapons.

"Possibly." She tucked the stones into a pocket carefully. "He can't do anything to them without these, at least."

Natasha nodded. "Ok, then we need an escape route." She looked up for ventilation shafts, but they were all too small to crawl through.

Meanwhile, Loki had been staring through the door with a confused expression. She closed her eyes and muttered a few words. When she opened them again, she looked surprised. "We are the only humans in this building," she said, surprised.

"Then who's trying to knock down the door?"

Loki walked to it, and frowned. "Golem. They've found something to use as a battering ram. There are over five dozen in the building, and they're smarter than I would expect." She narrowed her eyes. "Whoever did this has a lot of power and resources."

Once again, Natasha's suspected that Pierce was not working alone. "What are their weaknesses?" she asked.

"Fire, decapitation, blunt weapons and lightning," Loki listed off, and shook her head. "Too bad Thor's not here," she lamented.

Natasha fished a couple silver disks out of her band of pouches. "Will taser disks do?" she suggested.

Loki's face lit up. "Yes! But..." she sobered, "We're going to need a lot of them." She took the disks and began the laborious process of duplicating them.

"Where's Barton?" Natasha asked, restless without a task, the continuing sound from the door rattling her already frayed nerves.

"Last I'd heard from him, he'd seen someone leave the building, and was going to follow them. He'd already called for backup," she rattled off, and then froze, looking up at Natasha. "How do I know that?" she asked.

Natasha stared at her a moment, and shook her head. "I don't know," she lied. "Maybe because you need to." Or maybe Thor was right, she added silently.

Loki shook her head as if to clear it, and finished duplicating the disks. "Ok, here's what we're going to do." She handed the disks back to Natasha, and a diagram of the warehouse appeared over her open palm. She indicated the shortest route out. "I can knock out this lot behind the door," she explained, "But then I'm done for magic."

"I can get us the rest of the way," Natasha said, her voice sounding far more confident than she felt.

"Ok, when you're ready, open the door," she instructed, standing a few paces back from it, "and get behind it."

She nodded, and positioned herself at the doorknob. She heard it unlock, and yanked it open. The golem, surprised by this turn of events, froze for a moment. It was all the advantage Loki needed. She held up her hands, and a torrent of yellow-green fire blazed forth from them, incinerating the entire group that had clustered around the door. When it ended, there was nothing left but smoking clumps of charred dirt.

Natasha darted out from behind the door, taser disks at the ready. As she ran into the hallway, checking corners, Loki followed wearily. They met with several groups of golem—fortunately, their tendency to travel together made them easier targets for the tasers, which had a decent area of affect. Still, she had nearly run out when they finally reached the exit.

As they emerged, they heard a curse and a small explosion went off not twenty feet from them.

"Thank God you're a redhead, Tasha, I nearly killed you both!" Clint called. He was standing in the jeep. "Hop in, backup has an ETA of 30 seconds, we can let them take care of the rest of it!"

By the time they reached the jeep, they could hear the sounds of the cavalry arriving. A few more golem came out of the building, and Clint fired another explosive arrow at them.

"I see you figured out they're weak to fire," Natasha complimented.

Clint smiled wryly, "Wasted an arrow in the process, but I figure if it works on Loki, it'll work on anything. No offense," he turned to look at her.

She nodded, clearly exhausted. "Tell them that concussive rounds and tasers will also work," she gasped.

"Sure thing," Clint radioed her information, started the car, and peeled out just as the first response vehicles rushed into the parking lot.

"Well," Loki sighed as the wind whipped her hair around her face, "that was fun," she smiled.

The smile was quickly replaced by her counterpart's frown. He turned to Natasha and looked her over with a mixture of concern and disapproval. "Barton, go to the nearest medical facility," he ordered.

Clint was about to remind Loki who gave the orders here, when Natasha spoke up. "That's not necessary, Loki. I'm half-healed already," she said wearily.

Loki caught Clint's eye in the rear-view mirror, his expression communicating what he thought of Natasha's protests.

"You ok, 'Tasha?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Natasha said curtly. She did not like to be fussed over.

That decided it for Clint. He gave Loki a subtle nod, and changed course for the SHIELD medical center.

To distract her, Loki confronted her. Normally he would have waited until they were alone, but he sensed that Clint would be his ally in this, if nothing else. "What happened?" he demanded. "Why would you allow it to go that far?"

Natasha shifted uncomfortably. "I was compromised. The drink he gave me had something in it I'm not immune to."

Loki slowly took hold of her shoulders and shook her, albeit gently. "What the devil were you thinking, woman? Alchemy is not like poison, it works on your essence, not your physical form!"

"I didn't know that!" She nearly shouted. Her expression remained stubborn, but he could see how fragile the mask of it was. She was equally shaken by the experience.

He pulled her against him, tightly but carefully. "Don't ever do that to me again," he growled.

Natasha sighed and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Ok, I promise to try not to get captured by some crazy wizard and made part of a sacrificial ritual," she joked.

Loki was not amused, and only held her tighter.

In the front seat, Clint regarded Loki's reflection with new-found respect. If he had tried to tell off Natasha, she would have told him to mind is own fucking business and let her do her job. It galled him a little that she would listen to Loki and not him, but if she listened at all he was happy.


After a brief stop at the medical center—where the doctors announced that given her advanced healing abilities, Natasha would recover fine on her own—Natasha had given Clint and Loki the slip under the pretense of filing all the necessary paperwork. Loki had tried to object, but Clint gave him a warning look. When she had left, he explained that she always needed a little privacy after missions to sort things out. Since Loki had similar tendencies, he let it go.

He did not see her again until the debriefing meeting the next day. Loki was shocked to find that the mission was considered "successful."

"All agents survived with only minor injury, new information was acquired, hostile plots were averted, an enemy base was captured, and the target is now on the run. What part of that is a failure?" Fury asked in a tone that dared Loki to contradict him.

Loki ground his teeth and said nothing.

"There are a few aspects of the mission I wish to discuss here, which are included in my report, in order to consult Acting Agent Loki's expertise on the subject," Natasha stated. She was all business, every bit the Black Widow, and Loki wondered if that were good or bad.

Fury gestured for her to continue, and Natasha turned to Loki. "During my interrogation," she insisted on referring to her torture as such, "the subject seemed to consult something outside of my view. It sounded like a book. I believe he was hallucinating, as he seemed to be conversing with it. Does this fit anything magical that you know of?" she asked.

Loki's eyes narrowed, but he nodded. "It's entirely possible he has a grimoire in his possession," he theorized. "They are rare, but it would explain the amount of power and resources he displayed. Grimoires are very powerful magical items, and the extended use of one by someone lacking a suitable will could very well damage his mental state."

"So we're dealing with a mentally damaged sorcerer with a very powerful magical weapon?" Fury asked, sounding less than thrilled.

"It sounds that way," Natasha agreed.

Fury's one eye flicked to Loki. "Well, at least we're on familiar ground then," he drawled.

The corner of Natasha's lips twitched, but Loki just scowled. "There was one other thing, although it's more a matter of curiosity, but it might be important, I don't know," she added. "In his ramblings, Pierce mentioned something about sexual activity being detrimental to magical ability," she gave Loki an amused and questioning look. "Do you know anything about that?"

Loki sat back in his seat, thinking. "It is true that the sexual act drains a small amount of energy from a man. It's not the sort of thing I've ever had to worry about, as it's an inconsequential percentage of my normal reserves. However, if my counterpart's limited capacity is indicative of humans in general, then yes, it would likely be a concern for him."

Natasha tilted her head. "You said it has this affect on a man. Women are exempt from it?" she asked. She didn't like to think she was damaging Femme Loki's abilities in any way.

He smiled. "Where do you think the energy goes?" he asked. "There is a specific school of magic, practiced only by women, which draws on this energy as it's source. Which is one of the many reasons I have always avoided The Enchantress, Amora. It's one of her specialties."

"Sex magic?" Natasha sounded intrigued. She remembered where she had heard Amora's name before. "Was Lorelei a practitioner as well?"

"No, she hadn't devoted as much efforts to her education as her sister. But she could have, with training," Loki said thoughtfully.

Clint cleared his throat noisily. "Did the back-up team recover anything important not covered in Agent Romanoff's report?" he asked Fury directly. It was the first he had spoken in the meeting.

Fury seemed relieved to get back on topic. "No. The facility was entirely run by the magical constructs. There were personal quarters as well, but they were devoid of anything telling. The contents of the building have been catalogued and put in secure storage."

"How long do we have before he's able to strike again?" Clint asked.

Loki spoke up. "It will take him a month or two to replace the material components of the spell, as well as set up new hunting grounds. Then an additional month to collect new victims and trigger the spell."

Fury nodded. "That gives us some time. Dr. Bryardie's profile analysis suggests that Pierce will go underground rather than flee, so we won't need to expand our search area much. We will release Pierce's identity and a sketch of his Glamourie to the press, naming him and Troy Ashburn as suspected accomplices in the bombing. We'll also run a PSA reminding girls not to accept drinks from strangers unless they are directly handed to them by a state-licensed bartender."

Natasha ignored the looks all three of them gave her, staring straight on.

"Agents Barton and Romanoff, you will investigate Kyle Pierce's background, see if you can locate the other twelve businesses he applied to and use our resources to augment their security," he ordered, and they nodded. "Acting Agent Loki, you have been given clearance to examine the items recovered from the warehouse, to ascertain if they contain any pertinent information we have missed, as long as you bring along another agent with the proper clearance."

Loki pursed his lips a little. "I believe I will leave that to my counterpart, as she will be better able to detect any magical resonances in the items."

"Of course," Fury agreed. "She has the same clearance and privileges as you. If there are no more questions?" he paused, "Then you are dismissed."

Everyone got up from the table and headed towards the door. Loki waited until Clint and Fury had left, catching Natasha's arm to hold her back.

"If you ask me how I'm feeling, I swear to god I will punch you," Natasha warned.

Loki lifted an eyebrow. "That's a bit of a double-standard, isn't it?"

She smiled tightly. "Not if we're sparring," she argued.

He let his eyes roam over her in a look that was both appreciative and assessing. Every single muscle in her body was held taut. "Do you want to spar?" he suggested lightly. "You look a little tense." He slid his hands up her arms to knead her shoulders a little. "Or maybe something else?" he smiled seductively.

Natasha sighed heavily, her eyes closing at the exquisite sensation his deft fingers elicited. Then suddenly, she snapped them back open, looking at him carefully. "Okay. Sparring, then sex, then I have work to do," she said stubbornly.

Loki raised his eyebrows. "Do you want to go back to the apartment, or...?"

She smiled. "The gym showers have locks on them," she said suggestively.

He smiled back. "Well then." He gestured for her to lead the way.


A/N: Well, ladies and gents, I have finally run out of buffer chapters. Unless I write another chapter by Wednesday (which is highly doubtful, because I take a huge exam on Tuesday and start a new job on Wednesday) there will be no update then. I will do my damnedest to get you a new chapter by next Saturday, though. I apologize for the interruption, but sometimes all the preparation in the world is not enough.

I've gotten a lot of great reviews lately, and they have really kept me going. I have a lot of inspiration built up, and when I get the time I think I'll probably crank out the rest of this story pretty quickly. It's just finding that time that's difficult at the moment. I hope you all understand.