So I was able to update twice in one week! That's amazing! But this chapter is super short because I wanted there to be a break between this chapter and the next. I hope you enjoy the seeds I'm planting for what's coming next. Tell me what you think!
When I woke up, I felt my head turn harshly to the side after a blow to my left cheek. I spit out blood and realized this probably wasn't the first time I'd been hit. "Oh, is Sleeping Beauty awake?" asked a masculine voice. I coughed and bent over myself, tasting blood in my mouth.
I was tied to a chair with plastic box grips. Even my feet couldn't move. I strained against the bonds but I knew it was futile. I curled my fingers around the end of the chair arms and waited. The room had been relatively dark and I shuddered when someone turned on harsh florescent lights. Being bright didn't really help me. I still couldn't figure out where I was. I could have been in S.H.I.E.L.D. for all I knew. My eyes scanned the room quickly. Three men. Two had been touched by the scepter, one hadn't. My head was hurting too badly for me to run through the scrapbook in my mind of every S.H.I.E.L.D. agent to figure out who they were. In the corner of the room, I could barely make out a blinking red light and slowly I thought of security cameras. As groggy as I was, I hoped that that's what I was seeing.
The man who was acting of his own free will was still standing close to me and I yelped when I felt my hair get pulled back, forcing me to look upwards. I stared my assailant in the eye. I recognized him. What was his name? He laughed when I didn't say anything and released me. I coughed again in response.
I didn't think he had a gun on him, although the other two men did. I looked down at my lap quickly and saw that I still had on my tool belt that contained all of my knives. They must have been positive that I wouldn't be able to free myself.
"Oh, Charlotte Kent, I must say I'm disappointed," said the man who wasn't brainwashed. "I heard you were clever."
"You heard right," I muttered back. "Who are you?"
"How about I ask the questions?" I nodded. I would remember him soon enough and this guy knew it. It was finally beginning to sink in that S.H.I.E.L.D. had had a real traitor in their midst this whole time. This was the other agents' leader. He had probably been the one to use the spear on them. "We've got a lot of talking to do so let's cut to the chase, Ms. Kent. Where is the tesseract?" I only gave him a look.
"Why would you ever think I'd answer that?" I groaned.
"Well, I really didn't. You see, I've been spending quite a bit of time learning everything I can about you, Ms. Kent, the way that you seem to learn everything about all the other agents. I'll ask you again. Where is the cosmic cube?" I looked up at the ceiling like it was going to give me answers.
"It's a damn shame, really," I said, "that you passed it over when you stole the scepter from HQ." The man began to laugh and eerily the other two men had yet to do anything. I hadn't even seen them blink.
"Ms. Kent, have you remembered my name yet?" he asked after he'd laughed at my preposterous answer. My head was still pounding but I began to think. I needed his name anyway, for the off chance that I got out of here alive.
"McKenna," I said. "You're Paul McKenna." I gripped the arms of the chair even harder to keep my hands from shaking. Paul McKenna was an agent that worked largely behind the scenes and he was absolutely ruthless. Sometimes when ordered to bring an opponent in, he would kill them anyway.
"Bingo," he responded. He got closer to me again and I tried to sink into the chair to get farther away from him. I felt his hand on my hip as he pulled out one of my knives. I clenched my teeth. "Since you happen to know everything about everyone, Charlotte, do you know what I'm best at?"
"You're an interrogator," I murmured.
"You don't have to sugarcoat it, Ms. Kent, because we're about to get a lot more acquainted."
"You're a torturer." My hands gripped the chair handles harder so that they wouldn't shake and I almost started crying. I've been scared in the past, make no mistake, but I have only feared for my life like this once before; when I fell through the glass fence surrounding Stark Tower's balcony.
"If you're aware of that then you know that I will get you to answer any question I ask." McKenna bent down to eye level and I grimaced. He pressed the knife that he had stolen from me between my knuckles and I felt it draw blood. "How good of a knife thrower can you be, Charlotte, if I cut the nerve endings in your hands?"
"I was never that good to begin with," I said. The blade pressed down harder and I grit my teeth.
"Not her hands," said a new voice. Vaguely, I realized that one of the brainwashed men had finally spoken. McKenna groaned and pulled the knife away from me. I didn't stop to wonder why the guy had said it or how he had even known to say it. I was just grateful that my hands weren't going to be opened up like a frog on a dissection table.
"I figured you weren't the head of this snake," I said slyly.
"No, I'm technically not," McKenna responded, "but I think you know who is." It felt like my heart had stopped. "Besides, there are other tender places that I can cut into with this and if you're not careful, I'll cut that silver tongue right out of your mouth." I clenched my teeth together. "You've got one last chance." I shook my head. I closed my eyes when I heard him move. The knife slowly dug into my right forearm and he dragged it until it was close to a vein. I hadn't screamed so that was good, that was really good. But the cut was deep and I knew it needed stitches. "What about now?" Scared out of my mind, I meekly shook my head again. This time he opened a slit on the top of my left thigh and when I felt the blood begin pouring out of the wound, he twisted the knife. That's when I screamed.
Then like every stupid captive in every stupid movie ever, I asked the question everyone always asks. "Why are you doing this?" My voice sounded like a whisper and I knew it was because I was still groggy, I was still exhausted from being tranqed. Blood was staining my uniform and McKenna looked like he wanted to rip one of my fingernails out.
"You say that like you're disgusted with me, as though you're any better." I made to say something but I froze when one of the brainwashed agents walked forward with something that I'll admit, looked a lot like vodka. I barely had time to think before he had opened the bottle and poured over both of my wounds. I strained against the box ties in agony but eventually, the burning subsided. I tried to slow my breathing down.
"Why- Why did you clean my cuts?"
"Don't be stupid. I can't kill you just yet. Oh, don't think you're getting off easy. You'll die, just probably not by my hand."
"I don't plan on dying anytime soon." He laughed again.
"I'm sure you don't."
"I just want a reason," I muttered. "Just one reason for why you turned on everyone."
"It's simple really. I plan on being on the winning side of the war that's coming." I felt confused and I'm sure that was his intent, to get me thinking, to say something that might break me. At any rate, I needed to keep him talking. I needed to give S.H.I.E.L.D. some time to actually look for me.
"With Thanos? You're working for Thanos?"
"I can see that you took whatever warning Loki gave you to heart." I wanted to ask what Loki had to do with this but it was a question I knew the answer to and clearly, this agent knew that. "Well, we'd better get back to work, shouldn't we? I can see that the training actually stuck with you, surprising as that may be." I made a face. "So I'm going to cut to the chase. Now I know that you're not one to play the hero. You've got a little mean streak to you."
"It's not that little," I replied.
"Oh, I'm aware of that." McKenna bent down to my eyelevel again, knife still in hand. "And see, what that tells me is that you'll answer my question for a price." I started to smile. This guy was one of the ones at the agency that straight up did not trust me, that did not like me, that did not believe I had any good in me at all. He still saw me as a traitor and he clearly thought of me as selfish. And maybe he was right.
Before I could respond, I heard somebody let loose a terrible scream. It was a man and for some reason, I was positive that I knew who he was. I knew that whoever it was was in the same predicament that I'm in. I looked around, trying to figure out where the scream had come from. McKenna grabbed hold of my chin and only made me look at him. "What the hell is going on here?" I demanded. He kept hold of my chin and only smirked.
"And your new neighbor had been doing so well. I'm sorry he disrupted us."
"Who is that?" I groaned. "Who is it?" It had never occurred to me that they might've managed to grab someone other than myself. But the rest of the team that had gone out with me was faster than I was and better agents than I was. Who could they have possibly gotten hold of?
"That would be Captain Rogers." I froze and the agent in front of me knew he'd hit a nerve. He knew he already had me terrified but that this would make me say anything. "We can't really torture him the way we can you. He's got a better body and all that. But you're the one we wanted anyway and he's not exactly been talkative." This wasn't right. There is literally no way Steve would have been affected by a tranquilizer dart the way I had been, right? Oh shit, I don't know. I don't know. My wrists moved against their restraints and I think they finally broke skin. "Now if you answer my question correctly, I'll just get him with the scepter." That was still bad. I couldn't let that happen. McKenna was clearly watching my wheels spinning and I think he could tell that I was close to a breakdown. "If you lie, I'll tell one of my associates that Captain Rogers is ready to take a bullet to the brain. You and I both know he couldn't survive it. Now where is the cosmic cube?" I felt my eyes welling up and I almost screamed, 'ASGARD, it's in Asgard!' but instead I shook my head.
"You don't have him," I rationalized. "You're not dumb. If you really had him, you'd have made that play immediately." McKenna finally let go of me and smiled.
"Bravo, Charlotte. You're right. It's not Rogers… it's Barton." I felt like I might be sick. I had been correct in knowing that Steve wasn't affected by tranquilizers or that he could break loose of these box ties pretty easily… but Clint was hindered by both.
"Clint!" I yelled. "Clint!" I hoped he could hear me and know he wasn't the only one who'd been taken. But I knew he had heard me scream earlier.
"Clint is not going to respond to you, Charlotte." I almost asked him why when it hit me why the both of us were here. McKenna had mentioned that I was the one they really wanted, he'd talked about using the scepter on Steve, he'd told me that he wasn't allowed to kill me… yet. They wanted to brainwash me. They wanted to use Clint and I against our own team… against Loki.
"You son of a bitch!" I exclaimed. "You're stupid if you think for a second that some alien like Thanos will take care of you when he ruins Earth! He'll kill you!" I'll kill you, I wanted to say.
"Who said anything about ruining Earth? Thanos just wants to finish what Loki started. In fact, he had no interest in this realm whatsoever until Loki demanded it as recompense. The world might be better off if he had just succeeded but by his own weakness and you and your friends, he didn't."
"And that's why I'm the one you wanted." I closed my eyes for a second, practically going out of my mind with fear. Loki had been absolutely right. I was going to die. It might not be tonight and I might not even know what's going on but I was going to die.
"Everybody always told you that you'd regret getting involved with him, didn't they? And you just didn't bother to listen because you happen to always get what you want." He was right. I couldn't deny it. I didn't necessarily always get what I want but I knew what I wanted and I didn't give it up. "It's a shame, really, that you've got to pay for another person's mistakes but you've made some of the same mistakes. At this point, the two of you should know that betrayal won't get you very far."
"That doesn't mean I deserve to be brainwashed. Clint certainly doesn't."
"Pretending that you're a good person isn't going to make me feel sorry for you." I made a face.
"Look, I may not be a typical good guy but I'm not evil. I'm not bad. And you have to know what will happen to you if you do anything to me." He smirked at me.
"You know, I've learned a lot from Thanos about Loki." I started to question where Thanos was in all this. Why was he making a lackey handle me? "So I happen to know that when the time is right, after you and Barton have wreaked some havoc on your friends, that Thanos will have you killed in a pretty gruesome way in front of him. He may lash out and he may take some people down with him but ultimately, he'll just make it easier for Thanos to finish him off. From there, it'll make it easier for Thanos to annihilate Thor and Asgard, which is where the tesseract is, I'm guessing, since you've refused to say it. And if they aren't dead already, by your hand, the Avengers will be slaughtered." I wanted to ask what Thanos wanted with the cube, with Asgard, but I knew it didn't matter. This was a plausible situation unless someone saved Clint and I. "What's that line that all of us agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have to repeat like a mantra?"
"Love is for children," I groaned, still trying to futilely break my bonds.
"That's right. 'Love is for children.' I bet you're wishing now that Loki had heard that line and listened to it." I shook my head. This was crazy.
"He'll kill you," I muttered. "One of them will kill you."
"I don't think so."
The door to the room opened and I saw the blue light of the scepter as it was given to McKenna. My heart started pounding and I tried to sink back into the chair again to get away from it.
"I really don't know why you're so bothered by this, Ms. Kent. This spear is going to give you the push you need to become the best agent that you can be. It will belong to you now. You will command these men." He gestured at the brainwashed agents that had been standing by the door this entire time.
"Go to Hell," I said. He laughed and I saw the scepter pulse with energy, like it knew it was going back into action. McKenna pointed it at my chest. "Loki will flay the flesh from your bones and if I come back from this, I'll help him." McKenna only laughed.
The curved end of the staff extended towards me and I felt that bad sensation from being near it that I'd always felt. It touched my chest and I vaguely felt myself get filled with that darkness that I associated with the scepter.