TWENTY-ONE

This is the end

Hold your breath and count to ten

Feel the earth move and then

Hear my heart burst again

For this is the end

I've drowned and dreamt this moment

So overdue I owe them

Swept away, I'm stolen

Let the sky fall

When it crumbles

We will stand tall

Face it all together

Let the sky fall

When it crumbles

We will stand tall

Face it all together

At skyfall

- "Skyfall," Adele

They had arrived without a fuss. Loki was actually an incredible actor, putting a look of disdain and boredom on his face as easily as it could possibly be. When the guard had waved their car through the gate, he dropped the façade and winked at her, but when Alana rolled down the window again his face changed in the blink of an eye.

They were escorted out the car after parking, and Loki had mockingly held out his hands to one of the guards for handcuffs. They looked like they would have liked to cuff him, but a stern glance from Alana quelled that.

They were shown into a wide hallway with many doors. "Tenth door on the right," an agent said, ushering them inside, and closing the doors behind them.

"Something's wrong," Alana whispered. "I can feel it. I think there's someone - "

And hordes of armored S.H.I.E.L.D. agents poured out of the doors on either side, plowing towards them, yanking them in opposite directions from each other.

"Alana!" Loki yelled, all pretense dropping, his hand stretching out for hers. "Let go of me!" he hissed at the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents pulling him from her. His magic was plentiful, and incapacitated some, but the agents were many, and he couldn't, he couldn't grab her.

"Loki!" Alana cried, lashing out with her mind, knocking agents off their feet, pushing away her assailants telekinetically, throwing them down the hallway, but scores more were flooding into the hallway, and she was being overwhelmed too.

The long, pale fingers of Loki's hand reached for her, stretching, straining, and her fingers strained back. They were so close, so close, so close…

And then a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent whipped out a syringe from his pocket, shooting it into Alana's neck.

"No!" Loki screamed. But it was too late. He could see her eyes fluttering, her body swaying and finally slumping back into the arms of two agents, who lifted her up and carried her away.

"No! No, you can't – "

And then a needle sunk its way into his neck, too, and he struggled to hold on to reality, but it slowly slipped away, ceiling swimming, leaving nothing but darkness.

After about an hour, Loki came to, in a small room, bare except for a cot and an exposed fluorescent light.

His head was pounding, and he couldn't remember where he was or what had happened to him.

A scream rang out from down the hallway, and his memories came flooding back.

"Alana!" he yelled, and rushed to the door, but it was locked.

She screamed again, and he tried to magic the door open, but in his rage and terror he was unable to.

How dare they hurt her? She was a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., damn it! She was his, and once they let him out –

The door opened and Coulson walked in, calm and collected.

"Hello, Loki," he said.

If Loki had had a dagger, Coulson would have been dead before he could take his idiotic sunglasses off of his head.

Since he didn't, he decided to stare daggers at him instead.

"How dare you hurt her. How dare you. She was defenseless, she was only trying – "

Coulson cut him off, saying, "I don't believe telekinesis counts as ever being defenseless."

"Why is she screaming?" Loki spat out. "What are you doing to her?"

Coulson said, "Nothing."

Loki glared at him.

"I don't believe you."

"It's true. She's only sedated, she should be asleep. But she keeps screaming. We have a pain indicator, and it's showing a zero. But her brain waves are off the charts. She's not in pain. Just screaming."

"Oh, just screaming," Loki spat.

"We're getting some of her friends in to try and calm her down."

He listened to someone speaking in his earpiece.

"Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton are in there now."

Silence filled the room until Loki spoke again.

"What do you plan to do with her?"

Coulson sighed. "She is too dangerous to continue on in the way she has. Especially with you."

Loki's eyes narrowed, his hands clenched.

"We're going to wipe her memory. It will be wiped of her powers and of… you."

Loki's silence was more dangerous than his outright fury.

Another scream rang out, echoing down the corridors.

Coulson left.

Inside a hospital room, Agents Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton stood beside a bed.

Natasha sighed. They had tried everything they could think of, but Alana still screamed. She was angry, and upset.

She had felt the foreboding, deep in her gut, when Alana had been assigned to watch the prisoner; she was so new. It was her first real assignment. And it was a dangerous one too. But Alana had called Natasha, told her that Loki didn't seem to be a bad person, that he just needed a friend.

And look where she was now, where he had gotten her, in a hospital bed, screaming, attached to consoles with so many wires, so many wires, and her mind would be wiped of everything and –

She took a deep breath, detaching herself from the moment. It was something she was good at.

Beside her, Clint rubbed his neck. "I can't stay here," he murmured. Natasha glanced at him, briefly. "Go," she said.

Clint took one last glance at Alana, and then left. Natasha knew that Alana was like a little sister to him.

She would never admit it, but she didn't want to stay either.

Loki pressed his head against the cold concrete wall. It was his fault. All his fault. And she wouldn't remember, she wouldn't remember anything.

Anything.

It seemed so long ago that they had been watching movies on the couch, carefree and at ease. So long ago that night under the stars. So long ago.

Alana screamed again and he shuddered.

Coulson reentered the room silently.

"What do you want now?" Loki hissed. "What more will you do? How can you bring me lower?"

Coulson cleared his throat. "We need you."

"I refuse," he said, his head still pressed to the wall.

Coulson said, "I don't think you quite understand – "

"But I do," said Loki, and he turned towards Coulson, pure anger and pain filling his eyes. "You want me to hold her while she screams, to reassure her that it will be alright, that everything will be fine. And then she will forget me. You expect me to help you? While you do this? While you kill her? No."

Coulson closed his eyes, briefly. "Loki, the way she's struggling right now, if we don't get her calmed down, her whole mind will die if we attempt to wipe it."

"So let her go."

"We can't."

"Can't or won't?"

"Can't."

The word was simple, balding. You didn't need to be god of lies to see their truth.

And Loki knew that he couldn't leave her now, couldn't let her go at this alone.

"Fine."

A/N: Whaaat? Another update, so soon? It's the next day, for crying out loud! I never do that! I make you wait for ages...

But... thanks to some very lovely reviews (kudos to Fantasy-Mania31 and kadrules2014!) one of which requested an update ASAP... here you are!

And I know, it is in no way a good chapter. At all. Sorry. (Believe me, it actually killed me to write the next chapter.)

Sorry again.

Poor Alana.

Drop a review and tell me how much you hate me. ;D (More reviews=faster updates!)

- masterofthefall