A/N - Last one of the summer!
Previously:
From her perch on the bottom of the riverbed she could make out the shadowy figures of only one other guard as he splashed through the water near her position. She suspected it was Felix - the big bastard had always been a survivor - and she was glad there was at least one other to take some of the blame for this fiasco of a mission. When he spotted her, she began to retreat, following the river bottom east towards the North Sea. Walking quickly - or as quickly as she could underwater with waterlogged robes - she realized it was Felix with her.
There was no sign of the fire bird, and they paused on the bottom and waited a few minutes to see if any of the other Guards made it out, standing silent and still, their robes fluttering in the current. When no one else hit the water, she felt a momentary feeling of regret that Peytr was gone. He was young - at sixteen - the youngest of the Guard save she and her twin Alec and gifted as well. Jane had enjoyed using him for the occasional pleasure tryst over the last few decades - he knew his place in the hierarchy, which was far below hers - but she didn't linger on it for long. She had no real feelings for him except for what he could give to her, and he was easily replaceable for her needs.
Motioning with her hands, she and Felix followed the riverbed as it sloped down and out into the sea, her skin registering the much colder temperature of the water but not being bothered by it. She had initially planned on surfacing a few miles downriver but reconsidered; she wanted more space between her and the accursed Wizard before coming up.
Soon, they left the river bottom and began swimming - shedding their robes as they did - as the depth had increased so much that even their vampire vision could not pierce the darkness. As they rounded Margate on the cape, the surf relatively calm as they powered through the water, she estimated it would take them about a half hour to swim the thirty or so kilometers to Calais in France.
From there they would run to Volterra, and the Masters would know of this threat to their existence.
Chapter 29.
Onboard the Quinjet over Stuttgart, Germany
"One minute," said Natasha, calling in their ETA to Loki's location.
Bella took a deep breath: this was it. Her first mission as a SHIELD agent.
Bella had watched - via the small window - as the other planes fell behind as warning messages had come in that Loki's team were already exiting the Institute. Apparently, a CATV had gotten a view of Agent Barton inside the secure Iridium storage unit, and SHIELD was able to watch as he quickly took possession of the Iridium by securing it in several metal cases, and then directed other men with him out towards to loading dock. It was disheartening to see how many thralls Loki had; at least fifteen individuals were identified.
The final image of Barton was of him turning towards the screen, blue eyes glowing in an expressionless face, and shooting the camera out with his bow, leaving a group of frustrated SHIELD personnel having no idea what kind of vehicle they were transferring the Iridium too and what they would do next.
After hearing that, Natasha pushed the plane to its limit; they had to catch Loki and crew before they disappeared again. The other quinjets couldn't keep up, their heavier loads of personnel and equipment reducing their top speed a bit. Thus, Steve's team was going in first with Natasha maintaining air cover until the other planes arrived; at that point, she would join them on the ground, passing control to the copilot.
"LZ ahead," she called out, flipping a switch on the instrument panel. In the back of the plane, a fist-sized red strobe light began to blink, and a warning klaxon sounded a moment later. The plane suddenly slowed dramatically, pivoting around it's central axis as it moved into hover flight in preparation for landing a few hundred meters from the Institute, in the only clear area Natasha could see through the front viewscreen.
Bella clutched her harness, her face squinting through the glass window as the quinjet pivoted. She tried to take in as many details as she could, her eyes scanning the scene below as they were still sixty feet or so above the ground.
With dismay, she saw that the square in front the Institute was filled with fleeing civilians. In the midst of the running people, Loki strode tall, his staff held adroitly in his right hand, the tip glowing like a cold blue fire. Even as the jet continued it's pivot, cutting off much of what Bella could see as the angle changed, two lancing bolts of energy shot from Loki's staff and completely decimated an approaching police car, engulfing it in flames as it cartwheeled end over end just as Bella's view was cut off completely.
Momentarily stunned at the swift and deadly violence, she missed a few of Steve's commands that were shouted out. Suddenly, however, the craft lurched downwards so quickly that her stomach felt like it was in her throat. At the same moment, an angry buzzing sound and a yellow strobe light filled the cabin, and then the rear ramp began to lower very quickly despite them not yet being on the ground.
Steve didn't hesitate. He unclasped his harness and in one smooth motion grabbed his shield and took four long strides to the rear of the jet. Bella gasped as he jumped, the craft still perhaps twenty feet up.
A few seconds later the quinjet touched down - the timing of the lowering ramp was so perfect that it was fully open just as the wheels hit the cement - and Bella freed herself from her own harness, noticing that the two sniper agents had already done so and were already lifting their long cases. With a single nod towards Natasha, the two agents were off and down the ramp at a steady jog, not looking back. One turned left, the other right, their black BDU's fading into the darkness outside.
Bella took a deep breath, prepared to jog off herself so the jet could get airborne again, when Natasha called out to her. "Agent Swan? You ready for this?"
Despite the formal address Natasha used, Bella could sense Natasha's genuine concern for her: this was, after all, her first op, and she was facing an essentially superhuman that was equipped lethal alien weaponry. Worse yet, this weapon could steal men's minds, turning even hardened agents into slaves to Loki's will.
Could Bella actually do this? Would her shield have any chance to protect someone's mind from Loki's weapon? Had her earlier successes been luck?
No one really knew. It was all guesses and hypotheses at this point.
"Bella?" Natasha asked again, her face showing concern and her gaze locking with Bella's, interrupting her doubting thoughts. "Are you ready for this?"
The Black Widow's eyes were like emerald lasers, burning away Bella's own skepticism.
Taking a deep breath, Bella gave a firm nod of her head. "Yes. Yes, I'm ready."
Natasha's eyes roamed Bella's face. Finally, her eyes seemed to relax, and she nodded back. "Good luck, Cygnet." Natasha's lips quirked at that last one.
Bella gave a brief smile, ruminating on her code-name that she seemed to have inherited even as she turned and raced off the plane. It had started a few days ago, when someone called her 'Cygnet.' When Natasha asked what it meant, Bruce said it was a small or baby swan.
After that, everyone seemed to call her that, and the name stuck.
Truthfully, she didn't mind too much, but it would have been better to choose her own codename. At least Harry didn't tease her too badly about it, especially when she called him 'Marshal Potter' or just Marshal in retaliation.
As soon as Bella cleared the landing ramp, she heard several things happen simultaneously; loudest, and closest, was the plane lifting off behind her, the turbines whirring as Natasha took off to provide air cover. Almost as loud, and coming from the direction Loki was in, she heard his amplified voice echoing off the surrounding buildings. 'KNEEL!'
Bella picked up her pace, running almost flat out, trying to close the distance. Far ahead she saw Steve, just about at the crowd's edge now, closing the distance much faster than Bella ever could.
Another flash of light made her blink, and then more screaming, the crowd streaming out in all directions. Loki repeated his shouted command. "I said Kneel!"
To Bella's dismay, everyone in the plaza did so, save for a single, older man.
Suddenly her ear piece chirped to life and she saw the Captain up ahead stop running. "Cygnet, he's using an illusion. I see four Loki's - can you see which is the real one?"
Bella was breathing hard now, sprinting as she had tried to get closer, but Captain's question had her slowing. She didn't know what Steve was seeing, but she only saw one Loki, now stepping through the kneeling crowd, walking further into the square.
"Captain, I only see one of him - he is walking through the crowd to our seven o'clock, his back is to the steps of institute!" Bella was panting, and took another deep breath. "Repeat, his back is to the steps of the Institute at our seven o'clock!"
Steve started running again. "Copy, Captain out."
Bella missed whatever Loki and the man were saying to one another, but clearly he was defying Loki in some manner as the Asgardian suddenly was raising his staff against him. Bella was running again, ignoring the stitch in her side, knowing she was still too far away at about eighty meters to shield anyone if Loki used his scepter, but trying desperately all the same.
And then time ran out.
A blast of blue energy rocketed outwards from his staff, heading directly for the hapless man who stood alone among the kneeling civilians. Bella screamed out her own defiance and helplessness at the situation, angry that this brave man was going to die and there was nothing she could do about it.
However, at the very last moment before the man was struck by the energy beam, Steve - who was much faster than Bella and was almost upon them - took a flying leap off the edge of a marble bench, launching himself over the heads of the kneeling crowd and landing in a ready-stance with his adamantium shield placed at exactly the perfect angle to block the blast and send it back at Loki.
Loki was knocked back and off his feet, and more of the crowd ran in a panic, heading in all directions across the square. Bella now had to dodge fleeing civilians as she closed the range until finally, perhaps twenty meters from Loki, she took position behind a marble statue where she had a clear view of Loki and the Captain, but was pretty well obscured and far enough away to be outside of 'hand to hand' range. She was panting heavily, winded from her run; despite how good her conditioning had become, a two hundred meter near-sprint would leave anyone breathless.
Even as she caught her breath, her wand was in her hand, her mind alert and she was ready to cast as needed.
Steve and Loki began to banter back and forth, and Bella recognized that Steve was buying time for not only for Bella to get ready, but for the sniper teams to get into position and for the backup teams to get closer and join them.
Whatever he was saying seemed to be working, as Loki made no move to attack as he sauntered back and forth, taunting words delivered by both of them. Nevertheless - as pleased as Bella was about the delaying tactics Steve was using - she was nervous for him. She knew how powerful the scepter was; she read reports and seen the video, about how it had smashed rocks into rubble and pierced metal tables during Loki's escape from the desert facility; she'd also just seen it blast a police car to bits. And yet Loki had just taken a scepter blast to the chest and had stood back up without any evident injury to himself, or even his clothes.
No wonder the ancient Norseman thought the Asgardians to be Gods; they probably didn't have any weapons back then that could even scratch their skin.
As Loki stood tall across from Steve, Bella noted his dress; he was wearing the Asgardian robes she'd seen before; green, black, and silver, complete with the same golden, tusked headpiece he'd worn in the desert.
The scepter was the same too, save now it had the blue gem in it, and she noticed his eyes seemed to have the same blue glow to them. An eerie, hazy blue, that seemed to sparkle on it's surface.
Just like the Tesseract, she realized, wondering if Fury had made the same connection. She'd had a few glimpses of the famed Tesseract, both in briefing documents and in footage from the energy lab in the desert. She'd also seen footage of Loki arriving in the portal it opened. Thankfully, the video was uploaded to SHIELD computers before the base was destroyed, so they were at least a little prepared for Loki's abilities.
Though Bella was not cleared for it, she'd wager that Fury was quite eager to get his hands on the spear, and maybe that explained all the extra technicians that flew in the other quinjet.
She shook those thoughts away and tried to keep herself out of Loki's field of vision; everyone agreed there was no reason for her to interject herself into the fight without due cause. Essentially, that meant that Loki was either trying to mind control Steve or anyone else from SHIELD, or about to kill someone.
Otherwise, her orders were firm: stay put and observe, shielding when possible.
Just then, the sound of jet engines whirred overhead, and Natasha piloted the jet so they hovered perhaps twenty meters away. A large, impressive looking rotary autocannon dropped out of the fuselage, pointing directly at the Asgardian. Natasha's amplified voice came over the jet's loudspeaker, commanding and full of authority. "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down."
Bella knew it was a bluff; no way could Natasha fire the gun with so many people still surrounding Loki. Apparently Loki knew it as well, as without any hesitation he raised the staff and fired a blue bolt of energy at the jet. The scepter bucked in his hand, recoiling from the shot.
Bella's wand was already up, her shield already forming to try and block the blast; but Natasha deftly moved the ship out of the way, leaving the bolt to streak towards an office building behind it.
Pushing her shield out to her maximum range, Bella grunted as the bolt skipped off her shield and shot up into the sky. She knew that holding the shield when under fire was hard, especially the further away it got from her person. Fury had tested this extensively, and while her range had steadily improved, the feeling of being punched in the gut had never really gotten better.
Gritting her teeth, she turned back to Loki, who was now engaged in a full on brawl with Steve, the crowd screaming again and running for safety, finally clear of the square.
As the battling duo fought, she kept a careful eye on the crowd; she knew Loki had other thralls with him, and she had no idea if any of them were close enough to lend him aid.
The fight was fast and brutal; Steve was clearly the more skilled, but Loki was stronger, taking punishment that would have probably killed a normal human. His own blows seemed to leave the Captain reeling, and she wasn't surprised when Steve tried to gain an advantage by throwing his shield at Loki. The adamantium was so hard that perhaps a solid hit would knock Loki senseless.
Loki dodged, and the shield went clattering away against a fountain. She considered going for it and retrieving it for Steve, especially when Loki had Steve on one knee, his scepter held to his throat. The spell was even on her lips when Steve somehow reversed the position and kicked out at Loki.
Just then, however, she noted four men moving in the opposite direction from the fleeing crowd, their posture alert but no panic evident. They moved with purpose towards the fighting duo, and for a moment Bella considered they might be other agents from the backup team. Surely they must have landed by now?
However, as they got closer, Bella saw the telltale blue glow of their eyes: just like she'd seen in Washington when those thralls had tried to kidnap her.
One of them were moving towards Steve, approaching from behind him. A second turned to the left and walked off towards an alley between the Institute and a neighboring cinema, vanishing around a corner.
The other two... they were coming directly for her.
When Harry had apparated the first two SHIELD agents to the surface, he saw his fiendfyre had gotten out of his control. A large warehouse was completely ablaze, and the fire showed no signs of slowing. Waving his wand in a complex motion, Harry directed a huge plume of water from the Thames to rise up, just like Dumbledore had done long ago in the battle in the Department of Mysteries. He then directed it towards the cursed fire, smothering it with the water and the force of his will.
It took a long half a minute before the fire was completely under control, and Harry was panting heavily when he finished. "Bloody fiendfyre," he mumbled.
One of the SHIELD agents looked at him in concern and a bit of awe. "Are you okay, Sir?"
Harry looked at the agent who couldn't have been much older than himself, and noticed the cuts and bruises on his face, the twitch of the eyes and the haunted look. This must have been difficult for the agent; watching his team torn apart by vampires and barely escaping with his life would be hard for even veterans to stomach. "Yes, agent. I'm okay. Why don't you and your partner there make sure no one got hurt in that fire?" Harry knew that giving the agent something to occupy his mind was the best thing for now.
He took another minute to regain his strength - fighting Fiendfyre was hard and was one of the main reasons Harry hated using it - while the SHIELD agents walked their perimeter. The two agents stopped for a few moments at the spot where wispy purple smoke signified the final resting place of another vampire that was turned to ash by the firebird, and then finally began walking back towards Harry.
Seeing their approach and being reasonably confident the vampires were long gone or dead, he apparated back to fetch the rest of the SHIELD team to the surface. He knew that the Ministry would have detected the fiendfyre and aurors would probably be arriving soon.
So much for keeping this quiet! And the paperwork!
When Harry returned with the last man, he saw Brock was speaking quietly on his radio. A voice that sounded like Maria Hill came from the tinny speaker. "... and Loki has been spotted in Stuttgart, the catch team is engaging him now."
Harry suddenly felt a chill settle in his gut, his tiredness vanishing as he digested what he'd just heard. He wandlessly summoned the radio right out of Brock's hand. "Is Bella with them?" he asked in a barely restrained whisper.
"Marshal Potter?" Hill's crackly voice asked. There was a pause, then she spoke again. "Yes, Agent Swan was sent as backup on the mission."
Without saying a single word, Harry handed the handset back to Brock, his temper rising and his fears confirmed. Fury had promised him - promised him! - never to send Bella out on a mission without him or until they agreed she was fully trained and ready! Her magic was much stronger with another witch or wizard nearby!
Bloody spies! You could never trust them, they were liars by nature.
Cursing, Harry knew he had to get to Stuttgart as fast as possible; he trusted Bella and her skills, he really did, but she had the same dangerous penchant that he once had: she jumped in with both feet when someone was in danger, and her own safety was often an afterthought.
A 'saving people thing' Hermione called it.
Harry knew that making a portkey to a place he'd never been wouldn't work. However, he HAD been to Hannover before, and from there he knew the tracking charms on the jewelry Bella swore to always wear before a mission would lead him right to her. So without saying a single word to Brock or the rest of the SHIELD agents, he vanished with a 'crack' of displaced air, leaving them behind to file the reports and clean up the mess.
Bella knew that, somehow, the thralls had spotted her despite her attempts at staying in cover. Seeing no point in hiding now, she called in a situation report to Natasha, the tiny microphone in her earpiece transmitting her voice with surprising clarity. "Widow, this is Cygnet. Hostile thralls - repeat, hostile thralls - closing in on me and the Captain."
Bella kept one eye on the advancing thralls and one on the fight between Steve and Loki. She winced as the Captain took a blow to the stomach, but he was able to evade the next punch and deliver a vicious kick.
"Roger copy," answered Natasha. "Three bogey's identified, all in dark suits. Running facial scans...roger, I've got facial ID on them, the two approaching you are SHIELD agents, the third is a freelance mercenary."
Bella nodded her head, briefly wandering about the fourth thrall she had seen. She stepped sideways as she tracked the two thralls, her wand held out in front of her as they closed in. They didn't have any weapons out that Bella could see, but that didn't mean anything. Many of SHIELD's field agents were expert in martial arts and could be deadly foes.
Natasha's voice chirped through the earpiece again. "I can't get a clear shot on anyone, too many civilians behind them. Our second ground team is about three minutes out, snipers not yet in position. You need to hold out until then Cygnet."
"Copy," answered Bella knowing this was the moment of truth. They had theorized that Bella could potentially cut off the mind control of Loki, though it was all supposition at this point. Bella herself didn't know what she'd done in Washington, save that when she blew up the kidnap car she somehow freed the agent from his mind control.
This would be the first time it was actually put to the test.
With Steve and Loki fighting in the background, Bella tensed as both men reached into their jackets and took out what looked like long barreled pistols, black and menacing.
They continued to close on her, now less than fifteen meters away. They had not yet raised their weapons towards her, and she gave them a quick glance trying to determine what she was facing.
Something about them looked unusual. She thought at first they were heavy caliber pistols with large silencers, but they didn't look quite right. Fearing some unknown weapon, she signalled Natasha. "Widow, this is Cygnet. Can you zoom in on their weapons and give me a read?"
"Hold," answered Natasha.
At that moment, the weapons rapidly came up and pointed at her. Bella cast, knowing that her response time would never match a bullet. Better to have the shield up already, Harry had drilled into her.
Bella had expected there to be impacts on her shield, but nothing came and she wandered at what they were doing. Their weapons were still raised, but they hadn't fired.
And then a shouted warning from Natasha saved her. "Cygnet, move! Hostile three is targeting you, move!"
Bella's shield, which had formed between her and the first two agents, was completely out of position to do anything against the third agent, the mercenary freelancer.
Maybe that had been the plan all along, use the first two as decoys?
She was out of time; a sharp 'pfffttt' sound - just like a bb gun or silenced pistol would make - reverberated through the air even as Bella dove to the side, off the path and into the brush. Her first shield dropped and a new one recast even as she was still moving, a skill that had taken many weeks to learn properly.
At the same moment two more sharp reports came from the direction of the first two thralls, indicating more incoming rounds. The firing of their guns were like gentle caresses of whispered air, completely masking their deadly intent.
Bella's shield formed a hazy shimmer and curved like a sharp oval that wrapped protectively around her in a hundred eighty degree arc at a distance of about five feet. A tinkling noise, like bouncing metal, sounded from the base of the statue where she'd just been standing, and two more sharp reports indicated more rounds incoming.
With the shield tight around her she felt momentarily safe, as she raised herself in a crouched position, her knees bent and her weight and wand forward. She glanced at the ground where she'd heard the metal bouncing, and she noted something shiny. Holding her guard up, she tried to look more carefully at the object on the ground and was surprised to see a long, thin spike, perhaps four inches long with a feather base.
With sudden clarity, she realized she was looking at a tranquilizer dart like she'd seen in SHIELD's armory or that she'd seen on TV when park rangers had to tranquilize wild animals.
Shit. They were trying to capture her, not kill her. Just like in Georgetown.
Bella was unnerved. She strengthened her shield and made it larger as she tried to maneuver so she had all three men in her sights. She was forced to back away to do so, and was close to being too far away to help Steve if he got in trouble, but there was nothing she could do about it unless she attacked them first. She also remembered the fourth thrall, and began to worry that he was out there, preparing an ambush for her.
Meanwhile, Natasha had scanned the images of the guns and ran them through the computer. She hit the transmit button. "Cygnet, this is Widow. They are carrying Dan-Inject model JM tranquilizer guns. Non-lethal rounds, but they will knock you out fast. Repeat, they have tranquilizer guns. They are trying to capture you again. Be careful!"
"Yeah, got that," snarked Bella as her shield held against another round of darts. She continued to back herself away, trying to keep the distance between her and the thralls who were steadily closing, now perhaps ten meters from her, as they could walk forwards more quickly than she could retreat backwards.
All the while, the hostiles had been separating, so that each one of them were now at right angles to one another, with Bella at the fourth corner of the equidistant square they were positioned in. She tried stretching her shield wider to cover the angles, but could feel it weakening the wider it went.
Without warning, one of them dropped the dart gun and pulled out some sort of mallet and the second pulled out a long cloth and wrapped his hand in it. Bella feared it was soaked in ether or some other chemical, and she began to backpedal faster.
Then the two charged right for her, breaking into a run. The third one kept his gun trained on her, and she realized that she needed to go on the attack or she would be overwhelmed.
Without hesitating - even as the thralls were almost close enough to bash her in the head, Bella gathered her power, forcing it through her wand and cast her most powerful shield right at them, trying to let herself feel what she did in the car in Washington when she needed to escape. Her intent was to smother the thralls and force them to the ground.
At the same time she cast, she sidestepped to the right, changing her position so the two charging hostiles were coming at her from the less of an angle while the 3rd agent was dead ahead. This way she could keep her shield up in the same arc she was comfortable with.
When her powerful spell rolled over the two agents - they were less than ten feet away now - she sincerely hoped she didn't kill them. She remembered what she had done to the wizards in London, how she had smashed them away so far and fast that they died. These two, however, were innocent and under Loki's control - and she hoped maybe she could hold them in place until reinforcement's arrived, and then she could work on maybe breaking Loki's mind control.
To her relief, the tactic worked better than she'd have hoped; both agents were bowled over by her spell, flung away from her and smashed to the ground. This gave her the space and time so she was able to raise part of the shield to block the third agent who continued to fire.
He proved to be an able fighter, however. He quickly shifted his own position, trying to draw her eye away from the downed agents, opening up the angle again, leaving her vulnerable to attacks from the flanks. Luckily, the two she had downed hadnt moved much, and were in fact splayed with their legs and arms spread, their whole disposition looking like they were being pressed hard against the cement, like she had pressed Harry to the wall during that first ever test in what seemed ages ago. a year ago. She felt them fighting her shield, but it was holding steady.
Bella shifted again, trying to always keep the two downed agents between her and the third, just in case one of them were able to escape her confinement.
This time, however, luck was not with her and she tripped over the edge of the stone walkway where it met the grass, falling harshly to her side and smashing her elbow and shoulder into the unforgiving cement, her wand flying from her hand.
Looking up into the implacable face of the third thrall - the mercenary - she saw his hollow blue eyes shine with the taste of his pending victory. Bella panicked, scrambling forward on her knees to grab the wand even as the gun zeroed in on her downed position. Without her wand, she couldn't hold the flexed shield over the other two men and protect herself at the same time; she would have to release them.
The thrall fired just as Bella screamed out in anger and frustration. With a surge of power, she pushed all of her frustration into the shield holding the two agents down - hoping to knock them out - before pulling it away and forming it up in front of her, trying to block the incoming dart.
This time, she was too slow, and she felt something sharp and hot tear through the skin on her left bicep even as her shield formed in front of her.
Even as the knowledge that she'd just been shot echoed in her brain, she somehow noticed something strange about her shield; the back end of the dart - presumably the one that just hit her - seemed to intersect the shield. The remains of the shaft - a piece of metal perhaps an inch long and a collection of short feathers like an arrow would have - seemed to hang suspended in the air, almost like her shield had manifested and cut the dart in two even while the dart was in flight.
Bella barely had time to think about the ramifications of this, and would only remember it later.
The back end of the metal dart hung for another moment before sliding down the edge of the shield until it hit the ground. When SHIELD examined it later, they would note that it was cut to a razor fine edge, sharper than anything someone could ever do by hand.
Meanwhile, Natasha had seen Bella take a hit and go down. Not knowing her status yet, she made a decision with cold fury in her veins. "Sniper 1, take out hostile target three."
"Roger," came the one word reply.
The sniper was as good as she expected. A moment later, like a marionette with it's strings cut, the third agent dropped to the ground, a splatter of blood misting the air behind him as he fell. Concrete chips spalled everywhere when the bullet hit the cement, indicating it had been fired from a rooftop somewhere, giving an oblique angle that wouldn't hit any bystanders standing in the line of sight behind the bad guy.
Natasha glanced at the body for a moment; his leg twitched once, and then he didn't move again. "Target down," came the remote voice of Sniper 1."Standing by."
"Roger," was Natasha's only reply.
Meanwhile, Bella grabbed her wand and pivoted to assess her situation. She saw that the first two thralls were thankfully still down, and focused her attention again on number three. To her surprise, she saw him lying still, his arms akimbo and his left leg bent at a sharp angle.
Natasha's voice cleared up the mystery. "Cygnet, target three is neutralized. Backup team is one minute out."
"Roger," Bella answered, accepting the fate of the thrall with a small shiver. She regretted his death, but he was a legitimate threat and SHIELD handled it. She idly wondered which of the snipers had taken the shot, and then focused on her left bicep. Her uniform was cleanly cut, and blood was seeping out of the two holes in her arm. Hoping that the drug was in the back half of the dart, she grimaced as she knew she was going to have to suck on the wound, hoping to get the toxin out of before it could spread to her veins and arteries.
Preparing herself for the nausea and dizziness that must surely follow after she sucked her own blood, Bella placed her lips over the wound and sucked as hard as she could, not acknowledging the irony that not too many years ago she had wanted to be a vampire and would have been sucking blood for eternity.
The first pull was as disgusting as she expected, iron and rust and salt, thick and warm, mixed with pieces of skin. Thankfully there wasn't much, as the dart did not hit a vein and had made a clean entry and exit wound. Normally, the dart would have been anchored by the feathers, pumping the drug into the flesh and easily pulled out later. Luckily, however, her shield had bisected it, and the remaining projectile headed straight in and out of the muscle of her arm, pumping little to no drug into her system.
Bella gagged at the taste, but fought down the dry heave that wanted to come. Her mouth filled with saliva, the prelude to vomiting, but again she was able to hold it together even with her stomach roiling and heaving. She took several deep breaths through her nose, cataloguing that she was lucky and didn't taste any drug in the blood; she'd been trained to know that most drug cocktails had a bitter taste to them, and she had tasted nothing but the blood.
She knew SHIELD would check her out regardless, but she felt like she had a lucky escape. She spit out what she could, and then wiped her wrist across her mouth before regrouping and assessing her situation.
Remarkably, little had changed, and she realized not even half a minute had passed since she was hit. Steve and Loki still squared off, people still ran away - though most had cleared the immediate area - sirens still blared, and her two thralls were still down.
As Bella cautiously approached, she noted the other two had not gotten up to attack her despite her having removed the shield. In fact, they seemed almost dazed, and one of them was laying on his back looking at the sky, his chest rising and falling rapidly. The second was on his hands and knees, dry heaving himself like he had just vomited.
As she got closer, wand at the ready, the one on his hands and knees lifted his head and looked at her with a dazed, almost lost expression. For a moment Bella looked on in confusion, not understanding why he wasn't attacking, and trying to understand what was different about him. It took a moment, but then she realized what had changed: the blue shimmer of his eyes was gone!
She had broken Loki's control! Smothering them under the shield had done it! She called out quickly to Natasha. "Widow, I can break Loki's control! Repeat, at least one of the men down are free from his control! Don't fire on them!"
There was a slight pause, and then Natasha replied. "Copy, Cygnet. Confirm other bogey when you can."
Bella hesitantly moved closer, her wand still trained on them out of caution. He was still on his back, staring at the sky; but when she was perhaps ten feet away, she could see that his eyes, too, were clear of the blue haze.
He was free.
When Bella tried to report to Natasha, a sudden blaring rock music began to pour out of the speakers of the Quinjet. Her eyes looked up to where it was hovering about a hundred feet away, her brow wrinkled in confusion.
Then, just beyond it, she saw a streaky blur approaching their position at a fast clip, barreling down towards Loki and Steve who had now separated and were watching the sky with cautious eyes.
The blur slowed, resolving into the yellow and red armor of Iron Man who pulled up while still about thirty feet up. A blast of yellow light erupted from his hands, impacting straight into Loki and sending him sprawling onto the pavement. Iron Mans' jet boots flared, and he lowered down to float just next to Steve, his arms pointed at Loki.
Bella had never heard his voice while he was wearing the armor before, and she was impressed with how deep and menacing it sounded through the suits amplification. "You're move, Reindeer Games," he growled.
A/N I had several versions of this chapter, including about 5000 words where Harry actually came to her rescue. It was dramatic, but I decided I wanted Bella to, one time, save herself with no assistance from him. So this was the version I went with.
Who knows, maybe he will still need to save her...there is that mysterious 4th agent unaccounted for...