AN: Hello :) We reached 50 chapters, how crazy is that? Thank you all for the support and for reading and accepting this story, you rock. On behalf of MegaDiary123 and myself, I wish everyone Merry Christmas and happy holidays. I will see you next week.

All rights go to Marvel

Clint's POV

Loki was eventually located in Stuttgart, Germany, as he made his appearance in a gala hosted in the area. A team of ours was sent to retrieve him, which consisted of Nat and myself in a Quinjet and Captain Rogers on the ground. And boy was he taking a good hit from the alien. This guy was all over the place, not being able to land a solid punch and was taking hit after hit without evading anything.

Natasha and I were unable to help from the Quinjet and as I was about to take my bow and arrows and head to the ground to try and provide some short of assistance to the Captain, our control system was overriden and Tony Stark's voice came through our comm system.

"Agent Romanoff. Did you miss me?", he asked as he came in the plaza where the fighting was taking place and shot a beam to the alien.

"Seems like I won't be needing those" I said, placing my equipment back where I found them and sat on the co-pilot's seat.

"I guess not" I heard Nat say under her breath with clenched teeth as she focused on what was going on in front of us.

Only moments after the Iron Man came in the picture, Loki surrendered and was willingly taken in the jet as we headed back to the Helicarrier. I had not forgotten what Natasha had told me the same morning, about getting a grip and completely focusing onto finding Skye. So, though I was annoyed as hell that Skye had escaped us and her location remained unknown, I had all my focus on the prisoner that we had and safely transporting him back to base to get the information we needed out of him.

Task that I had initially thought to be pretty simple but turned out to be way more complicated. True, we had Rogers and Stark arguing in the back, but this was not what worried me. When the cloudy sky suddenly was filled with lighting, I knew that something was up.

"Where is this coming from?" I faintly heard Natasha ask, looking up in the dark clouds that were buzzing with energy.

My head snapped back, to Loki's direction, when Rogers asked him if he's afraid of a little lighting. So when he replied, "I'm not overly fond of what follows" and soon after something landed on top of the Quinjet I knew that we were about to be met with someone who I was, honestly, in no mood to meet again.

"Stark, don't!" I said to the playboy who, of course, did not listen to me and opened the back of the plane while in his suit. No sooner had the door fully opened, than Thor marched in, hammered Stark and flew away with his brother.

"Now there is that guy" Stark said as he started walking towards the back of the jet.

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha asked about the same time when Captain's voice echoed, "Think guy's a friendly?"

Before I even had the time to open my mouth and reply Stark claimed that it didn't matter and that we had to get Loki back. I could see his point of view, I really did, but after my experience in New Mexico I knew that Thor was not an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D. and that he could be reasoned with. But before I knew it both the billionaire and the World War II hero had jumped off the plane as to follow the prince of Asgard.

"Fuck" I exclaimed. "Turn back around. I need to go there before they do something stupid" I said to Natasha who piloted the jet as I got up to get my bow, which I hoped I wouldn't have to use.

"I would sit this one out Hawk" she said though she did start turning around. "These guys come from legend. They are basically Gods"

"Come on Black. I know this guy and I know if I talk to him he will stand down. It's our safest bet to get Loki back with the minimum casualties possible. That is if I manage to get there before smart-boy and living-museum-exhibition do anything that will piss the freaking God of Thunder". I could sense the questions coming from Natasha's side, since she didn't know any of the details of my mission with Phil, but she refrained from asking them. Instead she focused on the task at hand so that we would get to the place where the four men disappeared to as soon as possible.

We were almost there when a blue beam generated from the area, making the trees all around fall over and the Quinjet to fall in turbulence. "Be right back" I yelled over the sound of the wind as I jumped off the jet and started falling.

I landed a bit off target and run to where the three men who were previously fighting had stopped dead at their tracks looking at all the destruction they created.

"Are you done?" I yelled at them, not daring lifting my bow in case they perceived it as a threat.

"I know you" Thor spoke, looking in my direction, his voice holding a question as he had never truly met me during the New Mexico events.

I jumped off the rock that I was currently on top of and made my way to the crate that was created from the blast that occurred only moments ago. "You do, though I never got to introduce myself. I am agent Clint Barton, with S.H.I.E.L.D.. We come in peace and will gladly hand Loki to you, but he has a very dangerous weapon in his possession. Also he has a few agents of ours and Dr. Selvig under his control. Once we get our hands back on the Tesseract and our people you are free to take him wherever you wish"

"How do I know that you will keep your word?", the Asgardian asked.

I thought about it for a few seconds before I replied. "Even if you may not trust me, there is someone you do. Phil Coulson"

His eyes light up at the name. "Son of Coul is here?"

"He is at our base, where we were taking your brother. Let us take you to him and he can verify everything that I told you" I knew right after I said Coulson's name that he would come willingly.

Natasha's POV

After Clint brought everyone back on board the Quinjet, I set the course to the Helicarrier and we all rode in silence until we reached our destination. We watched as Fury took Loki to his cell and the two of them spoke. The Asgardian was clearly making puns for Bruce, or rather the Hulk, and I could see the uneasiness coming off from the Doc in waves.

As we sat on a round table, discussing Loki's goals and what our next move would be, nothing stood out that was too important for me to pay serious attention to. As soon as we finished talking, everyone left to do their thing. Bruce and Tony walked off to the lab to continue their search for the Tesseract, Thor went to the side with Phil probably to ask about Dr. Selvig and Jane Foster, while the Captain disappeared somewhere only he knew where. Clint had yet to leave the table as he was watching me with his careful eyes and was, most likely, waiting for me to make a move and tag along.

"Agent Romanoff" I heard the director call me from his control panel. I didn't need to be told twice to walk to where he was standing.

"Yes, sir"

"You're up, as soon as the sun rises. Let him brawl a little bit before making your move" he said with a pointed look. I nodded and headed towards the corridor which led to the Asgardian's cell. "Agent Barton" Fury spoke again before I had exited the room and I briefly turned around to look at the exchange. Clint was looking in my direction and I could see his desire to follow me when he replied to the director in the same way that I had before. "You're with me…" he said slowly and carefully, not leaving any room for disagreement from my partner's side.

I walked off and headed to my room to prepare for what I would have to do in a couple of hours.

I get in the containment space with all the grace that I could master. I was met with Loki pacing back and front in his cell. However he soon realised my presence in the room and stilled as a smirk appeared on his face. "There are not many people who can sneak up on me" he said whilst turning to face me.

"But you figured I'd come" I said, my voice void of any emotion.

"After" he confessed. "After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate" he spoke with confidence and, dare I say, happiness? The smile never left his face.

"I want to know what you've done to agent Skye" I went straight into the point. I would not get distracted by him and would get the information that I needed.

"I would say I've expanded her mind"

Seriously? I mentally thought and tilted my head to the side, while holding myself back from rolling my eyes. If this was how he wanted to play it, then I would play along. "And once you've won…" I started as I began walking closer to where he stood "…once you're king of the mountain, what happens to her mind?" I crossed my hands over my chest and I did let the slightest emotion slip into my voice, so as to give him the impression that my facade was breaking up from the questioning and my emotional state.

"Oh" he picked up on my 'mistake' right away. "Is this love, Agent Romanoff?"

Why of course, was what I would never tell him. Him and most people as there were only a handful who really knew my relationship with my sister. "Love is for children. I owe her a debt"

He did not see that specific answer coming. "Tell me" he asked and I would give him what he wanted.

I took a deep breath and traced back what I had prepared to say. "Before I worked for S.H.I.E.L.D., I… eh. Well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skill set. I didn't care who I used it for, or on". Both Loki and I were sitting and staring at each other. His full attention was on me. "I got on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar, in a bad way. An agent was sent to kill me but he chose to bring me in. It was hard for me, working in such a different way than I was used to and though I improved my old habits were hard to get rid of. Then agent Skye came in the picture and you could say that she… saved me of shorts. Helped me without meaning to, so it's only proper for me to return the favour"

Loki seemed to contemplate my answer. "And what will you do if I vow to spare her?", he asked with a taunting tone.

I smirked at that. "Not let you out"

"No, no, but I like this" the happiness was evident both in his face and whole posture. "Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one woman– girl, even"

"Regimes fall every day" I said matter-of-factly. "I tend not to weep over that. I'm Russian. Or I was"

"And what are you now?"

"It's really not that complicated" I stood up as I deemed that it was about time for our talk to go the direction I needed it to. "I got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out"

"Can you?" Loki asked. "Can you wipe out that much red? Dreykov's daughter, São Paulo the hospital fire?" He started recounting a list of my not proudest moments. All of whom Skye knew of and in that moment I understood how deep his control on her was. For Skye to say such information to anyone, it was worrisome to say the least, since I knew that even Melinda or Clint knew that I had informed her of all those missions. "Skye told me everything" came Loki's confirmation of my thoughts. "Your ledger is dripping" he stood as I had seconds ago and started walking towards me as I let a look of horror take over my features.

"It's gushing red and you think saving a girl no more virtuous than yourself will change everything? Because let me tell you something, Natahsa, she has her own demons that no-one but herself knows about. This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer. Pathetic!", his tone was spiking as he spoke, leading up to him yelling at my face as I let tears falsely gather in my eyes. "You lie and kill, in the service of liars and killers", I could not deny either for Fury to be honest. "You pretend to be separate, to have your own code. Something that makes up for the horrors. But they are part of you. And they will never go away" there was a brief moment of silence before her slammed his hand on the glass separating us and I backed up a little bit at the force he put at his hit, despite the warning that he got the previous day from Fury about 'as much as scratching that glass'. "I won't touch Skye, not until I make her kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way she know how and to make it as painful as possible. And then she'll wake just long enough to see her good work and when she screams, I'll split her skull"

I turned away.

"You're a monster" I said and sounded breathless. Though he was a monster and his whole speech was just supporting this theory, I would never really show so much emotion in front of anyone.

And once again, he laughed. "Oh, no. You brought the monster" he said with confidence and that was all I needed to hear.

I straightened my back and after a deep breath I recomposed myself and turned around to face him, without as much as any kind of emotion on my face. "So, Banner. That's your play" I replied and the reaction that I got from Loki was all I needed to know that I had reached the perfect conclusion. I immediately turned away and spoke in my comm as I headed towards the room where Bruce was.