Explaining what had happened, as it turned out, was far more difficult and complicated than Loki liked or thought it ought to be, especially now that Natasha-or Natalia, he supposed she wanted to be called now-was on the loose. They didn't have much time to waste, not that Barton seemed to understand that, or care. He questioned Loki over and over about why the hell Natasha had blown a hole through the wall, how did she have that power (a question Loki wanted to know as well), and just what Loki had done to piss her off when things had at least been progressing.

"Look, Barton," Loki interrupted, face contorting into a snarl as he cut off the archer as they got nowhere with his idiotic questions. "You need to believe me when I tell you I didn't do anything wrong! Right now we ought to be focusing on-."

"Hey, guys?" Stark asked and Loki nearly lost it at being interrupted again. Tony pointed to the television. "Should we be worried or doing something about this?"

The television's channel had switched to show a series of car accidents close the hotel, so many in such a short span of time that the police weren't able to respond quickly enough. They led out of the city, towards the freeway, some involving civilians, others enormous, multi-car pileups that kept traffic at a complete standstill. Loki's heart thudded heavily in his chest. She'd wanted chaos, hadn't she? Well, she'd certainly gotten it, and something told him that this was only the beginning of it.

Something else, a deeper, darker part of him, cried to join with her. He was the prince of mayhem, the god of discord and destruction after all, and this madness? It called to him. Sang siren songs that filled and heated his blood as he caught sight of a flash of red hair in one of the videos.

He swore.

"Where are they leading?" He demanded, moving to snag Tony's phone. He tried tracking them, tracing where they'd hit and where she'd likely be going based on where she'd been. Closer and closer to the airport. If she got away-.

"We have to stop her. She's possessed by something-something that might have been there before I was. I was right in assuming that whatever had taken her memories was related to magic, and they imprinted something else into her mind that was being activated by her memories coming back." He said, his words coming out far quicker than he'd meant. Oh well, they had to learn to catch up with him. Honestly, if they'd just listened to him to begin with. "Now, if she makes it to the airport then we'll be out of luck to try and find her, so we have to get there first."

"That's your plan?" Barton asked, eyes narrowed.

"You have a better one?"

"Maybe."

Fair enough.

Tony managed to make a few calls and shut the airport down while the others suited up, Loki's fingers tapping nervously on his side as Clint called in the nearest Shield station, dispatching their agents to hold her off as best they could. Once they found her. The way she'd looked at him before blasting him as though she'd expected he would follow her. Perhaps in his youth he would have. Whatever it was Natalia had become, had he not been similar before? Had he not called chaos and destruction his own bedfellows? He'd attempted to level a planet, destroy a town without any provocation. What Natalia was doing felt like child's play.

And she knew it.

Whatever had been planted within her, he guessed from the description she'd given him-the black eyes, bloody mouth, the exhaustion that followed her every day that it was old. Dormant. And now that it was free, well the first thing he would do was-.

"She's luring us there," he finally said, catching at least Steve and Thor's attentions. "She knows if we all go we'll cause the maximum amount of damage. It's in her best interest to round us all up."

Steve paused. "Yes, but it's also in ours. She threw you through a wall-."

"When I wasn't expecting it."

"Vanity shouldn't get in the way of doing what needs to be done." Steve's voice deepened, plainly used to giving orders and not taking them.

"It's not-look. Let me go ahead. I can get there fastest."

"No, we do this as a team."

Loki's jaw tightened. Now who was vain? Did the supposed Captain not listen to anyone else's council other than his own? Idiot. Thor stepped closer to Loki, one enormous hand clapping the slighter man on the shoulder. It only incensed Loki further, his fists growing tight. Did Thor think he was a boy again? Think of him only as a child, one who would be so easily quieted and subdued?

"Fuck it."

He disappeared from beneath Thor's grip, reappearing just within the walls of the airport parking garage. His fingers itched for his staff, but before he considered an attack he would take stock, take a breath. He knew that already the Shield agents were being brought in, shutting and cancelling flights, rerouting those that were supposed to come in. Good, Containment would at least lessen the damage he knew was to come, green eyes searching the lot before heading to the enormous building. If he were the one coming to wreak pain and havoc, where would be start?

His eyes lighted on the security guards. Though they were not equipped with guns, the men and women checking them over from Shield were Quickest way to cause panic?

The gun went off as soon as he flexed his wrist, and though it missed a target by a scant few inches, the noise was enough to set off a panic, the Shield officers shouting at the agent whose gun had discharged into the wall.

She would enter herself in the panic, the shouting of the aircraft employees and would be passengers screaming and shouting as they tried to escape. The second shooting begun without his knowing, this time peppering the soldier whose gun it was with bullets from his own weapon. The agents shouted, even Loki turned, disbelief making his face grow pale. He caught sight of her then, sitting atop one of the counters, fingers clutching the hair of a trembling woman, her eyes a far darker hue than he was familiar with. Her lips grew in a terrifying slash, tugging harder as the agent scratched and scrambled to escape.

"It was stupid coming to me alone, Loki."

"As if I could resist this." He countered. It was true. The only reason he'd taken the police job, become Magnus, was the adrenaline rush. The thrill of the hunt, the chase. The kill, when it came to it. Natalia knew that, and slid from her place on the counter, dragging the woman behind her, ignoring the shouts of pain and pleas for help. They'd finally attracted the attention she wanted, but with a flick of her pinky finger each of the soldier turned on one another, throwing their weapons to the ground to rip at one another with bare hands.

"What is it you want, Natalia?"

She dragged the woman up to her feet, placing her in front of her own body, a clear shield against the attack she anticipating coming. Her lips grazed the flesh of the woman's neck, eyes flashing as the woman trembled beneath her, eyes red and watering. "Chaos. The same as you." Her words were hardly loud enough, but the meaning was plain behind her not-Natasha eyes. "You're loving this, Loki. The same as I." Without warning she bit into the woman's flesh, ripping at the pulse point until her face was smeared with blood. Rather than drop as Loki expected after the loss of blood, once released the woman ran and launched herself at one of the fleeing figures. Loki could all but taste the fear, the discord, sweet as any grapes form Vanaheim, rich as the gold mines of the dwarven mountains, honeying his tongue and dulling his will to fight. Dammit all.

"What are you?" He asked, stepping forward. Focus, Loki. Focus. "You wear the skin of another with great familiarity yet we've not met. How is it we entertain the same desires without knowing each other?"

"You think you alone embody a spirit that desires no master?" She asked, smirking and taking a step closer. The look on her face was too severe, too sharp to ever be Natasha. "You are a fool. There are many of us. Thousands. Looking for hosts as we are not all fortunate to be born in a permanent body such as yourself. You have so much opportunity, Loki. How is it you've thrown it all away?" She looked furious for a moment, livid at his supposed opportunities and freedoms, and a pang of pain filled his chest, as though her anger was affecting him. Perhaps it was, but then he could do the very same back to her. And oh, did he have anger to spare.

"You don't know the first fucking thing about me!" He snarled, and this time it was his turn to step forward, wishing this spirit had picked someone, anyone else's skin to wear. He couldn't strike Natasha, not knowing whether any pain inflicted on her body would be felt by her or not. Natalia stared up at him, bloody mouthed and dry eyed and this. This was what had drained Natasha of energy, had scared her so. He wished to throw his fist into its face and never stop, not until it was gasping and gushing blood and pus and bile beneath him. Instead he grabbed her by the collar, watched her glee grow. "And you don't know what I am capable of doing, what I will do to you if you do not surrender Natasha to me. I will offer to let you go so long as you release her. Refuse and I will draw you from her and make you pay a thousand years for every second you are within her."

"Why should I? Growing jealous that I have such a fun body to play with?" Natalia asked, running her hands up and down her sides, cupping her breasts and licking her lips as she stared up at him. In a move she must've learned from Nat's memories, she wrapped her legs around Loki's middle, flipped him to his back, and leaned over to draw her tongue over his cheek, hips rocking. "Come now, Loki." She crooned and he hated how arousal hit him strong as a punch to the gut, stealing his breath and his sanity for the moment. "You only got to explore the basic pleasures she can give you. I'm a thousand years old with the experience to match. Be my partner. My mate," she moaned the word into his ear. "The world could be ours in a matter of days." She bit his earlobe and he shuddered. She laughed and ground down on his already hard cock, making him gasp.

The memories of Natasha he'd seen with her flashed through his mind: her growing up in the Red Room, being trained by the man known as Winter Soldier, the spiral of pain at her husband's death that led her to become the spy she was. The fear and vulnerability in her eyes, though her body remained battle ready, as the archer extended a hand of friendship rather than one of his arrows into her chest.

He summoned what strength he could and flipped her over, pinning her hands beneath one of his as his extra hands covered her eyes, pinning her hips down with his own to keep her from lashing out. Containment. He had to contain her. She shrieked, a real, Natasha noise that made his heart ache.

Or maybe that was the arrow that just notched itself in his left pectoral,.

"Clint!" Natasha's voice was trembling, raw and terrified. "Clint don't let him kill me, please! That's been his plan all along!"

Oh, clever. He hated to admit it, shouting for the archer not to listen while the not-Natasha cried and screamed for him to shoot the demigod down. With the other Avengers working on containing the chaos around them, Loki watched as Clint notched another arrow and pointed it at him.

"Do it!" Nat screamed.

'No.'

The next arrow took Loki in the gut, his spell to protect himself coming too late to do him any good.

A/N: Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!