They were fighting, their angry emotions blowing everything out of proportion. But it was controlled. There was no need for them to start throwing punches just yet, but the time was coming. Sigyn's smile grew as the group of people's emotions started to burn completely red with anger. Just like she planned.

Sigyn stood and quickly walked to the door, reaching another strand of her mind to the two guards that were standing just outside. It wasn't time yet, she still had a minute or two before she knew everything was going to start, but she wanted to be sure that they didn't panic at the first sign of trouble, that they didn't leave her stuck in the room, alone, while destruction would reign. She needed to be sure that someone with the passcode for her door was there when everything started.

She could try to blast the door apart with her power, but there was no guarantee that it would work. Sigyn was sure there was probably an alarm on the door too. Any disturbance would cause it to go off, bringing any person in the vicinity racing towards her. Even if there wasn't an alarm, the sound of bending metal would sure bring people to investigate.

And then the whole room shuddered, and Sigyn triggered the thought she had planted in the guard's minds. Only a second later, before the ship had truly stopped shaking, the door slid open and one of the guards said, "Follow me."

Without a second of hesitation Sigyn followed the man, not exactly sure where they were going, but happy none the less that she wasn't stuck in that room after all.

The halls were full of people running back and forth, shouting to each other and into their radios as the loud sirens went off across the whole ship. The second that no one else was around them, Sigyn dug in their minds deep, closing her eyes, and forcing sleep to overtake them.

She had only used her control over emotions so forcefully once, and that had been to kill the doctor that had been responsible for her torture. Sigyn wasn't sure what damage, if any, had been done to the two men, but at that moment she didn't care. They worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. and that was enough. Really, they were lucky she hadn't killed them outright.

Sigyn didn't bother to try to hide the two men, or even conceal herself. Instead, she pulled on her inner emotions, allowing fear to surface and take over just enough. She ran through the halls, her face pale and scared, her movements jerky and frantic.

She followed that thread in her mind, reaching closer to it to make sure she was going in the right direction. Groups of agents and soldiers passed her, some giving her weird looks, but most just passing her to get to their stations without a second glance.

From above, Sigyn could feel a group of men, who didn't belong to S.H.I.E.L.D., make their way through corridors. With the group was Clint Barton, a man Sigyn had become familiar with despite being under Loki's control. They had their mission, and Sigyn knew that not all of them would be making it off the ship alive.

But Sigyn's mind shifted to an area with more emotion. The monster within the brilliant scientist's mind had been released, now located on the same level Sigyn was on. He was in a part of the ship that didn't have main corridors, but as Sigyn felt him get closer, she veered in another direction. She was good at manipulating emotions, at helping people become calm and angry, but that beast was out of her control. There was so much rage there, too much emotion for Sigyn to safely try and control. That kind of emotion could completely consume her.

In the same area, she felt the woman that had been in the cockpit of the aircraft that had brought her in. The woman, while terrified, was acting very calm. She was desperate to stay away from the beast, but training and muscle memory helped keep her safe. There was a moment in which both the woman and Sigyn feared that the monster would claim her life, but Thor, approaching the area quickly, knocked the monster away before any real harm could come to her. Sigyn was sure the fight between the monster and Thor would be a good one, but her focus was once again drawn elsewhere.

Above, where Sigyn could only assume was the control center with the amount of people and concentration, the team that had come to cause a distraction finally made their way inside. As she predicted, Sigyn felt the life quickly drained from several men. Sigyn could mourn and feel guilty all she wanted soon, but right now, there were bigger problems.

She felt the monster that had been ripping through the ship quickly falling away from it. That was good news, the danger to everyone on this aircraft had diminished, but that also meant the primary distraction was gone as well.

Sigyn had been half focused on what was going on around the other places of the ship and half focused on where she was walking. All her attention was back to her surroundings as the entire aircraft started to tip and panic took over almost every mind on the ship. That, in turn, started to affect Sigyn's emotions.

While she had allowed the fear to show through enough to make her panic look believable, this was a whole different emotion. There were only a few that Sigyn couldn't control, one of those being panic. Feeling it around her, from every person aboard the aircraft, allowed her own feelings of panic, once small and locked away in a tight little box, to be suddenly shoved into the front of her brain, full force.

Tears prickled her eyes as she started running as quickly as she could towards Loki, surprised to find him not far. She ran into the room, finding Loki just stepping out from the glass prison. She rushed up to him, and his face morphed from quiet amusement to worry. When Sigyn stopped in front of him, Loki reached forward and gently held her face between his hands.

"What's wrong?" He asked quickly.

"It's too much," Sigyn said as tears flowed down her face and between Loki's fingers. She reached up and gripped each of Loki's wrists. "It's pressing in, I can't control it."

"Deep breath," Loki said after a moment, taking a deep breath himself. "Three deep breaths then use your might to push it all away."

Sigyn, seeing no other way to help, did as Loki suggested. On her first breath, she looked Loki directly in the eye, seeing only himself and none of that control she hoped was finally gone. On her second breath, Sigyn closed her eyes, feeling Loki's hands on her face, his wrists beneath her hands, the slight movement of the aircraft around her. On her third breath, Sigyn let go of her control, let go of the emotions that surrounded her and pushed back. By her fourth breath, the panic was gone but Thor was coming.

"He's almost here," Sigyn whispered into the silence.

Loki, knowing exactly what she meant let go of her face and took her hand, leading her to a large platform with a control panel. They had just stepped onto the platform when Thor's footsteps rounded the corner and Sigyn turned to see a second Loki being released from the glass cell.

"NO!" Yelled Thor, rushing forward to tackle Loki back into the cell. But Thor fell right through Loki's illusion, falling to the floor. One of Loki's agents quickly closed the door as soon as Thor was inside.

Thor turned to look at Loki, obviously standing outside the cell. Loki stared at Thor calmly, his hands neatly folded behind his back, Sigyn's hand resting in the bend of his left elbow. She still looked a mess, her large clothes hanging from her body, dried tear tracks on her reddened face, and hair falling out of the up-do it had been in.

"Are you ever not going to fall for that?" Loki asked, a tone of brotherly affection hinted in his voice.

Thor, angered at his brother's words, rushed towards the glass wall and swung Mjolnir at it. It cracked immediately, causing the cell the shake. Loki and Sigyn both braced themselves as they watched the contraptions that held the cell in place begin to falter. After a moment, Loki smiled, then laughed.

Loki turned as Sigyn stepped away from the cell and approached the control panel. "The humans think us immortal. Should we test that?"

The sound of a man in pain, then a body dropping to the ground drew the attention of the three. Sigyn backed away from the man who was holding a rather large gun, and instinctively threw up a wide invisible shield. She was surprised at it, all her shields having been colored in some way, but she chalked it up to practice.

"Move away please," said the man as Sigyn reached her mind out to his. He felt familiar, though she couldn't tell how. If she had to guess, Sigyn would say that she had encountered him during the time she had been delirious with starvation.

Loki backed away slowly as the man walked closer. Sigyn adjusted her shield so the man would not collide with it. There was no reason for this man to know that they were all protected.

"Like this?" the man said, walking closer and closer. "We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does. Do you want to find out?" With those last words, the man activated the gun to warm up, causing the barrel to glow with an orange color.

But before the man could do anything, another Loki, the real Loki and not the illusion that had taken his place the moment everyone was looking away from him, pushed his spear through the man's heart.

"NO!" Screamed Thor and Sigyn at the same time. Immediately Sigyn dropped her barrier, confused at how Loki had gotten past her senses, and in shock at what she had just seen him do. Loki walked forward, back to the control panel and lifted the covering for the button that would drop the cell.

"Loki," Sigyn said weakly, her eyes darting quickly to Thor than back to Loki. "Please don't."

But Loki only glanced at her for a second before his eyes found Thor's. The metal beneath the cell retracted and Sigyn rushed forward to grab Loki's hand. But Loki pressed the button faster than Sigyn anticipated, dropping the cell, and Thor, from the airship.

"Loki," Sigyn whispered, her heart and voice broken.

"You're going to lose," said a slightly slurred voice from behind them. Loki and Sigyn turned to look. It was the man Loki had stabbed.

"Am I?"

"It's in your nature," the man explained.

"Your heroes are scattered. Your floating fortress falls from the sky. Where is my disadvantage?"

"You lack conviction."

"I don't think I'm-," Loki started, but was interrupted from a blast from the man's gun.

"Loki!" Sigyn screamed, rushing to the wall Loki had been slammed through.

"So, that's what it does," Sigyn just barely heard the man say as she climbed through the hole into the wall and onto a grated platform.

"We must hurry," said Loki as he stood, climbing back out of the hole and to the entrance of the room Sigyn was right beside him, happy to see a man waiting to guide them to a shuttle for their escape.

They were led up to the flight deck, then to an aircraft exactly like they had arrived in. Loki took a second to make sure Sigyn was strapped into a seat before telling the pilot to go.

Sigyn, while impressed by how well he had taken being shot by that energy gun, was already over the macho man display, glaring at Loki as he buckled her harness.

"I can take care of myself you know," Sigyn said, her voice hard and unwavering.

Loki took a seat beside her, watching out of the closing door as the aircraft took off. "Is that why you ran to me like a blubbering child?"

Sigyn was taken aback by the harshness in his tone. At the time, her mind had been overrun by panic, fear, and pain. She had never been able to stop panic, especially in large masses, only able to shove her own into a bottle that could be opened when it was safe. She had avoided riots and large gatherings for that reason. Protests rarely turned out to be peaceful, and law enforcement would come out by the hundreds. When things started getting bad there was always panic and fear. It had overwhelmed her because she had let her barriers down. Both to make her fear look real, and to find Loki easier.

"Go to hell," Sigyn said, turning her head to look straight in front of her, not acknowledging Loki when he looked at her, nor when he tried to speak to her. The rest of the flight was filled with only the sounds of the engine.

Everything had seemed weird for a while. Clint Barton could tell for sure that whatever mind control he had been under had messed with his mind. Things had shifted just slightly to the left. He wasn't in control of his body, yet he was. The thoughts he had weren't his own, except they were. Loki had put a spin on his mind.

When he woke up, most of the control was already gone. But there was still a little there, just enough to drive him insane. He fought it, knowing that Natasha was sitting there, next to him.

"Clint. You're going to be alright."

"You know that? Is that what you know?" He asked, a chuckle in his voice as Natasha moved to the sink beside Clint. "I've got no window. I have to flush him out." As he said that, the world started becoming normal, back into place, though it was a struggle to get it there.

"You got to level out. It's going to take time."

"You don't understand." He took a breath. "Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Pull you out and stuff something else in? Do you know what it's like to be unmade?

Natasha looked at Clint. "You know that I do."

At that, Clint paused, really thinking about what was happening. What she said had snapped him out of the brainwashing he had been subjected to. "Why am I back? How did you get him out?"

"Cognitive recalibration." Natasha moved to sit at the foot of Clint's bed. "I hit you really hard on the head."

"Thanks." Natasha reached down to start unstrapping Clint's hands, seeing that he was no longer fighting to be in control of himself. "Natasha, how many agents did I-,"

"Don't do that to yourself, Clint. This is Loki. This is monsters and magic, and nothing we were ever trained for."

"Loki, Sigyn, did they get away?"

"Yeah. I don't suppose you know where."

"I didn't need to know." Natasha stands and sits back in the chair she was occupying previously. "I didn't ask, but something tells me New York. He's going to make his play soon though. Today." He turned in the bed, reaching for the cup of water on the sink beside the bed.

"We got to stop him."

"Yeah? Who's we?"

"I don't know. Whoever's left."

"Well, if I put an arrow through Loki's eye socket, I would sleep better I suppose."

"Now you sound like you." She sat next to him on the bed, looking at him, happy to have her friend back.

"But you don't. You're a spy, not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?"

"He didn't. I just-," she stopped, looking down.

"Natasha," Clint whispered, seeing that she was truly struggling with something.

"I've been compromised. I got red in my ledger. I'd like to wipe it out." There was a pause. "What was it like? Being under his control? What was he like?"

"It was weird. I was myself, yet I wasn't. I still had my personality, but everything I wanted to do was whatever Loki wanted. A lot of it is hard to remember. The girl was there, Sigyn. Fury told me that she was dangerous, that she had to be watched. She wasn't what I expected and Loki was calmer when she was around. It just doesn't make sense."

"Sense or not, it'll all have to end."