Six
I was aware of warmth, when I finally woke up. I lay on a soft bed, with even softer duvet laid over me, while I stared blankly at the ceiling. Something cold hesitantly touched my hand, and images rushed through my mind. Blood, ice, and death.
I twisted away, and scrambled to get as far from the cold as possible. In the process I managed to fall off the bed, landing with a loud thump on the floor, snarled in the bedclothes. I cursed and flailed, trying unsuccessfully to get out of the fluffy white cover. The same cold hands were present on my skin again, carefully helping me free of the duvet.
As soon as I was free, I was on my feet and backing away from him. I hit the wall, and stayed there, eyes locked on his emerald ones, hands clenching into fits at my sides. He stayed where he was, hands outstretched, palms forwards in a peaceful gesture. Loki's eyes were full of sad acceptance, and I knew that he had seen.
"Evie," he began in a broken whisper. "I would never..." He stopped speaking as I closed my eyes, covering my face with my hands. I stayed like that for a minute, firmly convincing myself that none of it happened, that it wasn't real.
"I'm sorry." I breathed from between my hands. "I know you wouldn't... couldn't..." I sighed in exasperation, and let my hands drop from my face, eyes still firmly closed, trying to banish the distressing images from my memory. "That Russian bitch fucked with my head, so hard."
"Not Russian."
My head snapped up, and I saw Natasha and Bruce standing in the doorway, looking at me worriedly. I didn't need to feel their mental state: I knew they were both about as jacked up as I was. Yet here they stood, trying to ascertain whether or not I was alright. I smiled at Nat's comment, and walked forwards, to stand in front of Loki.
He watched me approach, careful not to make a move. I reached out slowly, and smoothed away the frown lines on his brow. I traced down his temple, and rested my hand deliberately against the side of his face, trying push away the feeling I got to run and hide.
"I'm okay." I said evenly, and then opened my arms. He pulled me close to him, tucking my head against his neck in a protective gesture.
"I'm sorry." he whispered to me, and his cool breath made me shiver, for two very conflicting reasons. We pulled away after a while, smiling softly, and more at ease. I looked over his shoulder at the two still in the hall, and I beckoned them in.
I hugged Natasha first, using the time of close contact to reach out, and smooth over some mental stress and injuries. I was certain Natasha knew what I was trying to do, but didn't draw any attention to it. I pulled away from Nat, and then urged Bruce into a hug. I noticed Loki cringe when Bruce walked past him, automatically reaching for his ribs. I frowned, but decided to follow it up later.
When our little hug session was through with, I decided it would be nice to be up to speed.
"So... Where in fuck's name are we?"
"Auntie Evie, where's Grandpa Tony?"
"Not sure kiddo. I'll find out for you in a minute."
Laci giggled and ran off, and I turned to look incredulously at Clint.
"What?"
"Grandpa Tony? I'm sure he was fucking chuffed to hear that!"
"Language!" Clint hissed, flapping his hands and looking around for the kids.
"You're worse than Cap," I mumbled. Even though I wasn't personally on the raid, I already knew what had happened. Sure, word-of-mouth was good enough, but sometimes it paid off to have Jarvis record the footage from Avengers' missions.
"Tony was pretty upset. He went outside to sulk, and take out his frustrations on some trees," Clint said, abruptly switching subject.
"But what was he-?"
"ARGH!"
Clint and I shot to our feet, and raced into the next room to find both of his children climbing all over Loki, who was vigorously rubbing his scalp.
"What happened?" I asked, panicking while my eyes darted over everything.
"The little wen-!"
I cut him off with a look, and he cleared his throat, glaring at me, and then Laci.
"The little woman pulled my hair. Extremely hard!"
"His hair's pretty!" she giggled, shimmying down his leg and landing hard on the floor. "It's longer than Auntie Nat's!"
"It's not pretty," Loki griped, placing Dylan on the floor next to his sister. "It's luxurious! Perfect! Glorious! Magnifi-!"
"It's pretty," I interrupted, agreeing with Laci as I scooped her up and stuck my tongue out at Loki. "Now, how about you go upstairs, and go read a book with Dylan?"
"Okay!" she agreed, and I put her down, after pressing a quick kiss to her forehead. "Auntie Evie, can Daddy come too?"
"Of course he can!" I said brightly, ignoring Clint's look of plea. The children squealed in delight, before quickly grabbing Clint's hands, and pulling him out of the room, and somewhere upstairs. "Whew!"
"You're good with them," Loki noted casually, sitting down on the soft couch. I plopped down next to him, and leaned back into the sofa.
"I guess," I shrugged, and squeaked lightly when Loki lifted me up, and curled me up against him.
"Don't." he pled fervently. I frowned, and lifted my head to look at him.
"Don't what?"
"Don't distance yourself from me," he explained softly. "I've been without your touch for a full two years. Don't deny me this when I finally have you back. Alright?"
"Alright," I whispered, shocked by the note of desperation in his voice. So we just cuddled on the couch, eyes closed, just lost in the feel of each other. There was still a quiet nudging in the back of my mind, flashing everything the vision had showed me, and telling me that he was bad news; that I should get away while I had the chance.
But that part was fading more every minute I was in his soothing presence. There was a sacred familiarity in the feel of his flawless skin on mine, his wintry breath racing through my hair. So I just relaxed, and let myself feel the most at home I had in a lifetime.
"What's this about, Dad?" I asked, while I paced nervously up and down the kitchen. Nobody answered me, and I huffed, my pacing picking up speed. Loki quickly reached out, and spun me into him, his arms wrapping around my middle, and keeping me still.
"Love-"
When a man we all thought was dead walked into the room, I tore out of Loki's arms, and dashed over to hug the man.
"NICHOLAS FURY YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I whisper-yelled, so as not to wake the kids upstairs. I hugged Nick for a full minute, before letting him go. "So how have you been, Patches? I like the new look: leather always looked too intimidating on you. I-!"
Loki waved his hand, and I fell silent. I glared, and removed the spell, stalking over to him, and lightly punching his arm. This brought Fury's attention to Loki, and everyone in the room tensed. They shared a loaded look, before taking a few steps towards each other. They suddenly grasped hands, and had a firm, friendly handshake. I stood there, mouth gaping while they grinned at each other.
"Director Fury, nice to see you again. Under much different circumstances, might I add," Loki said, nodding his head graciously.
"You too, Mr Odinson. Then again, world domination does put a dampener on most things."
"Laufeyson. But indeed it does."
I still just stood there, looking between the two as they finally parted. Seeing that I wouldn't receive an explanation, I just shut my mouth, shook my head, and took a seat in a kitchen chair.
"Down to business," Nick started, seating himself in a chair at the kitchen table. "Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time. My contacts all say he's building something. The amount of Vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing."
"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked, looking intently at his former Director.
"Ah. He's easy to track," Fury said snidely, face full of dislike for the rogue A.I. "He's everywhere. Guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though."
"He still going after launch codes?" my dad asked, crossing his arms while his brows tightened slightly.
"Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway." Fury informed us.
"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare. This guy's a noob." I scoffed, rolling my eyes.
"Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that."
"NEXUS?" Steve asked at large, looking completely flummoxed. Sometimes him being so out of touch with the modern era was infuriating. Still, most people today still wouldn't have clue what the NEXUS was.
"It's the world Internet hub in Oslo, every byte of data flows through there: fastest access on Earth." Bruce explained, rubbing at his left temple as though he had a headache. He probably did to be honest. God knew I had a raging migraine right now.
"So what'd they say?" Clint asked.
"He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed."
"By who?" I asked, suddenly sitting up straight.
"Parties unknown."
I deflated at Nick's answer, and began picking at my fingernails again.
"Do we have an ally?" Natasha wondered quietly, her posture as perfect as always. I was slightly jealous, but realised that my back would probably ache something awful after sitting so straight for so long.
"Ultron's got an enemy, that's not the same thing. Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is." Fury divulged, meeting every one of our gazes.
"I might need to visit Oslo, find our 'unknown'." Dad mused, running a hand through his messy hair.
"Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that." Natasha said quietly, looking intently at Patches.
"I do; I have you. Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream of. Here we all are, back on earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard."
"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk." Natasha teased, grinning slyly at Steve.
"You know what, Romanoff?!"
"So what does he want?" Loki asked, speaking up for the first time since greeting Fury.
"To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies." Steve said, looking evenly at Loki. It amazed me how calm the rest of the Avengers were around Loki, seeing as how he tried to take over the world only a few years ago.
"Person bodies. The human form is inefficient: biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it." my dad added, looking between Steve, Loki, then around at all of us.
"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed." Natasha snarked, and I sniggered, agreeing with her.
"They don't need to be protected, they need to evolve," Bruce said slowly, a resigned awareness dawning on his face. "Ultron's going to evolve."
"How?" Fury wondered, looking blankly between Bruce and my dad. I cursed loudly, and smacked my forehead lightly on the dinner table. I sat up again, and then looked worriedly at Dad.
"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"