*Author's Note: So, a few things I need to say. Firstly, this is my second attempt at chapter twenty, so if you thought you were crazy at thinking there was a previous version, you're not crazy. I realized five hours after I posted it (and right before I fell asleep) there was a HUGE, glaring inconsistency/plot hole that needed fixing. Also, I added another scene to this chapter that justifies the next chapter (which is the chapter that spurred this fic to begin with). Secondly, if you're reading this for the first time, I apologize for the amount of time it took me to upload again. Thirdly, I apologize for the several chapters I made exactly like the movie. I've been restructuring my life a lot this past year, and mimicking the movie allowed for more frequent content. Which is another reason why it took me so long to get this chapter out. It wasn't necessarily that the other content was bad, but it wasn't what I wanted. Now I've had a chance to reassess my story and hopefully get it back on track. Assuming I don't keep making obvious mistakes and have to take down chapters for revision. Which should be done before posting...the only thing I'm good at in life is making mistakes, so I'm not really surprised at myself. Anyhoo, thank you to everyone who's been patient and understanding and giving me tips along the way! I'm always open to constructive criticism. Thanks, again!*
Earth: Providence [Location Remains Undisclosed by Director Fury]
Sixty three days passed since Thor eliminated the Destroyer and returned to Asgard.
Sixty three days passed since Aura had a chance to be rescued.
The Asgardian sat stiffly on a pile of ashes, cold air filtering through the vent above her. Her deep blue eyes stared at a smaller pile of ash by the door. It was all that remained of the silk flowers.
Ash was the only thing that remained in her room. Aside from the cracked glass of the mirror.
Aside from her cracked view of her life.
Frozen tears clung to her cheeks, even though she hadn't cried in days. Her fingers were blue, and she saw her breath every time she exhaled. The only sound was the frigid air moving through the vent. Her only friends the voices inside her head.
Director Fury relocated Agent Koeing several weeks ago. It had been for "everyone's best interest."
She didn't even get to say goodbye.
Aura exhaled through her mouth. She didn't want to cry. It hurt to cry. And she honestly didn't think she had any tears left to shed.
A team of five men in full body gear and large guns now monitored the base. None of them were polite. They constantly slandered her with words. All of them treated her as if she was nothing more than an asset. That was what they called her.
Asset.
She didn't quite understand what the word meant for her, but her routine returned to only being allowed out of her room for restroom breaks. They delivered food to her door. When she was let out, at least two of them escorted her at all times.
None of them bore individual markings. Their faces remained covered with black masks, and their uniforms matched all the way down to the stitching. They spoke through devices which made their voices sound the same. They could be machines for all she knew.
Director Fury hadn't shown his face since he asked about Thor and Mjolnir.
Aura's frame trembled with a myriad of suppressed emotions. She hadn't meant to hurt L—Agent Koeing. It was an accident. The night terrors became too real. She didn't know how to separate the dreams from reality; the two blended together. She didn't know what to do. She had been scared, desperate.
No one informed her if Agent Koeing survived the raging fire demon's wrath.
Something triggered an emotional response from her on that fateful day. She didn't even remember what it was. Didn't recall what set her repressed side off. She only remembered the warmth the ball of fire provided in the back of her mind and how much she wanted to take it.
She remembered how much she wanted to feel powerful again.
Agent Koeing's only crime was trying to calm her down. But she had also been in the way of an uncontrollable monster.
Aura startled as the bedroom door slammed open. It wasn't time for a bathroom break yet. She learned to count the seconds to make up the minutes of the hours of time passing by. It kept her brain occupied.
Two of the masked soldiers waited for her.
Swallowing, she silently rose, her body aching with every movement. Kept her eyes down. She didn't want to know what happened if she stared at them for too long. Didn't want to know what happened if she questioned their spontaneous arrival.
"Hurry it up, asset. We're taking you to the lab."
Her eyes lifted, and she paused. The lab? Why were they taking her to a lab? She didn't know this base had a lab. It made sense, but it honestly didn't occur to her one would be here.
She should've kept moving.
The pair grabbed her. One on each arm, they violently wrenched her from her room.
"Move it. We don't have all day. There's tests we're ordered to run."
Aura's feet refused cooperating. Why did she have to be tested? Was this for more experimentation? The last time it happened, it was with the Colonel, and it didn't end very well for her.
The soldiers dragged her limp body down various halls, deeper into the snow-covered mountain. Speaking as if she was too dumb to understand their words.
"What do you think these experiments will be for? How hot the asset can make fire?"
"No, that's too simple. From what I understood, I think they're going to reverse engineer her. Make a weapon from her like they're doing with that robot."
"Which one?"
"The one from New Mexico. The one Agent Coulson's team brought in."
"Interesting. Do you think they'll try making a new super soldier serum? One with her abilities? Do you know how easy wars could be won if we could turn all our soldiers into fire monsters?"
"Now that's a thought I can get behind. Only question is: would we become invulnerable? What good is having abilities if we still go down by a gunshot wound?"
Aura swallowed. She didn't want any of these things to happen. Make more of her fire demon side? Wars on Midgard wouldn't just be won, populations would be destroyed. Whole civilizations could become extinct. Why did the Midgardians view everything as a weapon? Were they this desperate to wipe themselves of the face of their own Realm?
"I heard they're going to use the asset as Earth's defense against the aliens. We are supposed to test a control serum. If it works, they can use her to destroy unwanted visitors, other nationalities or alien."
"In case that Thor character returns again?"
"I don't see why not. Depending on how powerful the asset is, she could be used to take out even bigger threats if need be."
Her heart pounded in her chest. She didn't mind being the servant girl on Asgard. She didn't mind being S.H.I.E.L.D.'s interrogation victim. But she would not become someone's puppet. They would provoke her until her other side emerged. They would use her for nefarious purposes. Then they would find a way to keep her in her demon form to be their plaything.
The soldiers already admitted to it.
Warmth flooded the back of her head once more.
She shook her head. If she gave in to violence now, she would most certainly die. These men and their large guns meant business.
But wasn't death a better option than this life? This life that left her as nothing more than a cold husk?
Everyone she cared about had been taken from her or forgotten about her. She still didn't know if Director Fury could be trusted. Thor returned to Asgard. Regardless, he didn't know of her existence. Queen Frigga was too busy with royal duties to worry about a servant. Loki….
Her breath caught in the back of her throat.
Loki wasn't coming for her. She long gave up on expecting for his rescue. Even if the return of the cold brought back her delusions. He didn't know where she was, this much she knew. She assumed he thought her dead. He wouldn't hold out hope for a mere slave girl such as herself.
It would be better if she turned against these masked men and allowed them to kill her. Then she couldn't be questioned. Couldn't be experimented on and made into an aggressive slave of whoever held the highest position. Couldn't be tortured for information on Loki or anyone else in Asgard.
A little flame flickered to life in the darkest regions of her mind.
Take it.
Her eyes fluttered as they entered a laboratory room filled with all kinds of scientific tools. She never feared death. She feared killing others, but she was not afraid to die. It was part of her birthright as slave to be killed at any time.
Valhalla always sounded nice. Although, the only way to enter was a warrior's death, and she had never been a warrior in her meager life.
The soldiers threw her into an observation room off the lab.
Aura tumbled onto the floor. She looked up at the panes of glass, her tri-colored hair falling around her shoulders. This was all too familiar. The equipment may be more advanced, and the location may be different, but all she could picture was the Colonel.
Her fists clenched on the cement. She couldn't allow this to happen. Not again. She needed to stop whatever these soldiers had planned. She needed to desire power once more.
"We need you alive for these tests, so try not to die on us. Got it, asset?"
Both of the men laughed.
She pushed herself to her feet, fully embracing the dancing flame. Her voice wavered, but she remained determined. "During my entire stay on Midgard, I've been treated like a weapon. I will not be used for evil gains any longer."
The pair looked at her then continued laughing. The soldier in the observation doorway stopped first. "What are you going to do about it? You're just a weak little girl."
An uncharacteristic grin overcame her. "I forgot I haven't shown you the other half of me yet."
His hand moved to the gun on his back. He was too late.
Aura's trembling fists encompassed with fire. A fire spreading across her pale skin. Her eyes swirled to pure darkness. Laughing, her ulterior form emerged with a fiery explosion. An ability she gained when she took out Agent Koeing.
The soldier in the doorway flew back, the glass in the observation room shattering. The other rose and called on his walkie as he frantically typed commands in a console.
Providence erupted into alarms, the lockdown sequence initiated.
She rushed out of the door. Not wanting to give them time to prepare a retaliation. The flames licked her entire being, creating a force field of rippling heat. A smile formed on her black lips. The tone of her voice changed. "Would you like to see what this weak little girl is truly capable of?"
The knocked down soldier rose to a shooting position, and the pair fired semi-automatic rifles.
The bullets pierced her aura of fire but not her crimson skin. They didn't bounce off, either. They stuck to her. Melted down her shoulders and chest, leaving trails of molten metal.
She glanced down. "I applaud you providing me with pretty adornments, but I'm afraid it's a lost cause. You will not have me." Ash floated off her charcoal hair that became ethereal. With a battle cry, she unleashed another explosion.
The pair slammed into the nearest walls. The shockwave of fire scattering.
"You will either kill me, or I will kill you, but you will not have me." Her arms lifted, and she produced streams of fire at each of them. Her upper lip curled. Heat steadily rising. Ignoring their screams, she baked them alive in their armor.
Two bodies dropped to the floor.
Her lips pursed. She would die a warrior's death, indeed. Confident strides carried her down a hallway flashing red with alarm lights. Semi-spaded tail swishing back and forth. "I know you can hear me, Heimdall. I want you to know you won't be hearing from me any longer, even though I begged to you like a coward all these years. I'm making my own way to Valhalla."
A third soldier rounded a corner. His weapon rapidly firing bullets.
Aura didn't break her pace. The bullets melting onto her skin as the others had.
He threw aside the rifle and revealed a .50 caliber handgun. Shot her in between the eyes.
Her head jerked back with a grunt, and her gait stopped. However, she pulled her head forward. Liquid metal streaking down the bridge of her nose onto the left side of her face. A broad smile spread. "Now that was interesting. Still not enough, I'm afraid."
He fired until he ran out of ammunition.
She took each bullet in stride. Laughing with every step.
The soldier brandished a combat knife. Stabbed.
Eyebrows lifting, she watched the weapon liquefy on her flesh as he pressed it down farther. "Is this really the best you can do?" Grabbing his helmet, she snapped his neck. Watched his body crumple. "Idiotic Midgardians."
Aura cocked a hip and continued on her quest toward the main entrance. Paused upon entering the expansive eating hall.
The fourth soldier knelt with a rocket launcher on the other side of the room. "If I have to bring this whole place down on you, I will."
"I'd like to see you try."
With a grunt, he squeezed the trigger. A plume of smoke billowed behind him.
The whole bunker shook with the blast. The boom's echo faded away. Lights flickering until they turned off and fire illuminated the mess hall. The smoke coiled, dissipated. Any tables and chairs caught in the wake were destroyed.
The fire demon stood in the middle of the impact zone. Black residue streaked across her. She rolled her neck. "Did you honestly believe launching an explosion at me, me, would be effective?" She turned to the flames closest to her, stroking them as her hair became ethereal once again.
He dropped the empty rocket launcher.
"But I thank you for giving me something to play with." Sweeping both of her arms, she added to the existing fire and set the entire room ablaze, the flames consuming everything it touched. She strutted through the fire as it made a path for her.
The flames reached out to their master.
A wicked grin passed her face, and she coyly tucked a strand of floating hair in between an ebony horn and pointed ear. "If you want to impress me, you need to have something…" she looked him up and down, "bigger."
The soldier stayed on both knees.
She removed his helmet.
A man in his mid-twenties stared up at her, sweat rolling down his face. His mouth tight with resolution. "If you're going to kill me, grant me a death worthy for a soldier."
Aura placed a hand on her hip and bent forward. Her face inches from his. "Oh, I will. But would you like to tell me what the last of you has in store for me? Or is it going to be another surprise?"
"So you killed the other three of us?"
"Indeed, I did. Does this alarm you?"
"When we signed up for this job, none of us expected to make it out alive. We were all prepared to die by your hands."
"My reputation proceeds me? How fascinating." She ran a black nail up his jawline. "What would be a soldier's death to you? I burned the first two and snapped the neck of the third. Does one of those causes suit you, or did you have something else in mind?"
He swallowed. "Burn me alive. I want to feel pain before I die. I want to atone for my sins in a way being a soldier never could."
She searched him. "I can make that happen. Die in peace." Reaching out a hand, a strand of raging fire came to her. She merged it with some of her own and transferred it to the soldier. Observed the tears on his face as he fought every urge to scream.
Locking her jaw, she straightened. Walked through the flames toward the door. She stopped in the doorway and placed a hand on the frame. Glanced back over her shoulder.
The unmasked soldier audibly wept at the ceiling until he collapsed.
The fire demon's eyes flickered forward. She continued. Striding through the rest of the base with flame-covered fists.
She eventually faced the main entrance and stopped. Her head held high at the sudden obstacle.
"Aura, what have you done?"
Her confidence didn't fade. "So you arrive when your precious bunker is threatened? Did you Midgardians finally discover teleportation for you to get here so quickly?"
Nick Fury stood in front of the main doors with his hands behind his back. "I knew it was a mistake leaving you here, and I can assure you, I will not make it again."
"No. You won't. Because I will kill you, too. I've already murdered four of the five. Don't think you'll be the one to stop me."
"I was already on my way here to talk to you when I received the distress call. I've been working on a project, and I was going to see what your preference would be. However, I now know I'm putting you on that boat whether you agree or not because I'm not leaving you this far out of my reach."
She snarled. "I'm only tapping the surface of my true potential. You think your 'project' can contain me?"
"Oh, I know it will. I've secretly included a safe room for you that could freeze ten nuclear bombs and withstand the beating of a monster ten times your size. I didn't want to be forced to take such extreme measures, but I'm afraid you've left me no choice."
"I'd like to see you try and take me down first."
Fury didn't move. "I won't. But he will."
Her eyes slightly widened. Before she could turn around, two projectiles entered her back, and electricity coursed through her body. She fell as her she overcame to muscular seizures.
He held eye contact with her soulless orbs. "A defensive weapon I've been saving for a rainy day. One I honestly didn't know would work. Those are specialized tank piercing projectiles in your back, comprised of an experimental metal made with the help with the thing called Destroyer. An expensive metal, but its melting point is ridiculously high. You Asgardians are tough."
She glared at him through facial convulsions.
"I hated taking a page from the Colonel's findings, but electricity is the only known thing to knock you out." He gave a nod.
The last soldier standing nodded in turn.
Aura jerked and cried out as more voltage flowed into her. Her flames died. Her fire demon form desperately fighting the transformation. She finally relented, assuming her natural state. Her vision faded. The last thing she remembered seeing were Director Fury's black boots.
"How are you feeling?"
Aura groaned as she slowly sat up. "Not well." She looked around the small cabin. "Where are we?"
Fury sat back in his chair. "Another isolated hideout. You don't need to worry about the modified Taser. That was the only one I had. It was hard enough getting my hands on what little Destroyer material I could. And I'm the director of S.H.I.E.L.D."
Her head whipped to him, hands over her mouth. "I didn't mean to kill those men. I'm so—"
He held up a hand. "Don't apologize. I watched the security footage of the base. They tried scrubbing it, but they didn't expect me to arrive so quickly. You had every right to do what you did. I didn't authorize anyone to experiment on you."
She slowly nodded, but her eyes shone with unshed tears.
"I also didn't order them to keep you locked in your room. You were supposed to have free reign of the place. They were supposed to be nothing but body guards."
"What does this all mean?"
Fury exhaled through his nose. "It means they were following someone else's orders. Someone with a lot of power to hide from me like that. Did you know I'm the world's greatest spy? It's why they chose me for director."
Aura hugged herself. "So those men were evil?"
"So it seems."
"What happened to the last soldier?"
"He killed himself before I could get any information from him. Shame. I wanted the satisfaction of firing a bullet in him myself."
"What do we do now?"
Leaning forward, he propped himself up on his knees. "We're building a ship called the helicarrier. I'm putting you on it. There's a few ways we can go about this. I was thinking—"
"What about that cold room you mentioned?"
He paused. "That's a worst-case scenario chamber. Despite what you might think, we're not there yet."
Her eyes lifted. "Why can't I go there?"
"I'm offering you a chance at more freedom, and you're choosing worse isolation? Am I correct on this?"
"Every time I change, I discover more abilities." She played with her fingers in her lap. "Worse abilities. I have no control over myself."
"How can you make a decision when you haven't heard my offer? We can change your appearance, give you a new identity. Which would be easy since you don't already have one in the system. You could have a new life. Under my intense scrutiny, of course."
She shook her head. "I'm not taking that chance. I can't handle hurting anyone else, whether they deserve it or not. I don't think I age here, so someone will be bound to notice, and we can't trust anybody. Those soldiers proved that."
Fury sat back again. "You're right in that regard. Something bigger is at play, and I could potentially be looking at an organization infestation. But that's worst-case scenario, as well. I'm hoping they're an isolated cell. So what is it you want?"
"I…" Aura inhaled a deep breath and closed her eyes. "I want to go in the cold cell. I want you to be the only person who knows about me. I want to be restrained and blindfolded."
He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "There's a lot that could be said about your statement. But don't you think that's a heavy reaction to what happened?"
Her voice softened. "I don't think so. I was ready to die at the hands of those soldiers if it meant my fire powers couldn't be harnessed in any way." She hugged herself again. "I can't be used for evil gains. I won't allow it."
"Do you understand I haven't used you for any ill intentions? Nor plan on it?"
"Honestly, I didn't at first, but I have come to realize you're a good man. I also know you have to do what's best for protecting Midgard. Keeping me in the chamber is the best way."
His jaw set. "No."
"Please?" Her tone filled with desperation. "I can't live otherwise."
"Staying in that chamber is not a life. You know the cold drives you insane. I refuse to be the villain here."
Aura clasped her hands against her chest. "What if we tried it for a little while? If it's as cold as you say, maybe I can, maybe I can re-suppress my fire demon side. I don't know. And then maybe I can be fine."
"You're asking me to agree torturing you, essentially? I don't think so. I know a good man who might be able to help you. His situation is different, but he is a scientist. He could know of a few things."
"No. I'm begging you to let me try my way first. We could…we could only keep me in there for only a year."
"How about a month?"
"A year."
"Three months."
"I refuse to agree to anything less than six."
Fury released a long sigh. "I can't believe I'm going to say yes to this."
Rising off the couch, she took one of his hands. "I promise if my way doesn't work, I'll talk to the good scientist man."
He stood and stared at her for a long time. "I'm only doing this because it's what you want, and I'm afraid you'll do something drastic to yourself if I don't, but understand I don't agree with it at all."
She nodded. "I understand. This is my decision."
"Do you really want to be restrained and blindfolded?"
More nodding. "I think it'll help."
"I don't see how but okay. Let's get going."
Aura followed with due diligence. If she was honest with herself, her insistence terrified her. Her assertiveness startled her. She should've accepted Director Fury's denial and moved on. Yet, she knew she made the right decision. If she kept herself frozen and isolated, she could deal with her fire demon side. If she stifled it for good, no one would have reason to use her as a weapon.
She hated the cold. The thought of being trapped in it scared her, as well, but she needed to face her fears. It was the only thing she knew to do. Director Fury could give her a new identity all he wanted. However, she was an honest soul. She didn't think she could pretend to be someone else.
Her fingers found the pendant Mr. Stark gave her all those years ago. She was amazed it survived her transformations, but she passed it off as the magic because she survived them, too. Another thing that amazed her every time. Her normal form was so fragile and easily wounded. She filled her lungs with a deep breath.
Maybe it wasn't the best plan in the Nine Realms, but it was the best plan she could muster on short notice. Hopefully, this plan of hers wouldn't backfire.