When I woke up, I was in a bedroom of sorts. Thankfully, the door was unlocked. Guess Fury forgot. Or he wasn't trying to lock me in. I tentatively touched my neck, feeling grateful for the fresh air, and saw that his headlock didn't leave bruises. I make my way to the control room, where I knew Fury was with Thor. Or at least I think he was. It depended on how long I'd been out. It wasn't as long as I thought, because Fury was indeed in the control room, talking to Thor. They were talking about Loki.
I just moved into hearing range when Thor said, "Hang on, where is your small human pet." Oh, pet! We'll see who's a pet. I stride over and try to reach Thor's face but Fury holds me back.
"Pet?! Who are you calling a pet? You second rate Lord of thunder, with your pretty little sparkles!" Nick's face looks tired, like a single mother with an out of control child.
"Calm down, Y/N." I was still mad at him though.
"Or what? You'll put me in another headlock till I pass out?"
Thor looks accusingly at Fury. "You did that?"
The director rolls his eyes. "I did what I had to. Y/N Is proving my point daily that I think she's a spy, and she tried to make a run for it. When I caught up with her, she tried to attack me." Now Blondie's accusing glare was turned to me.
"Don't look at me like that. I'm not a child." Fury gives a short laugh.
"No? Then why do you insist on acting like one?" I stop struggling and relax. He's right. I was being stupid. Acting like this was getting me nowhere.
"Okay fine. I'm sorry alright. I just really don't want to fail this." Fury looks at Thor who shrugs. The arm restricting my movement is dropped and I relax myself. "Look. I have no idea how to actually prove myself to you but your universe is depending on me, so please, let me help. I won't cause trouble and will only make slight changes to alter the events that happen."
"Why do I find that so hard to believe?" I sighed. Beginning to get sick of this. "Is it because, ever since you arrived here, unannounced, you've done nothing but cause trouble, is it the fact that I have no idea if you are lying or not? Or is it the fact that time and time again, you constantly prove to me that I should lock you in a cell and throw away the key. If you are going to save this world, you aren't going to do much from here." I look up at him with a glimpse of hope.
"So, you believe me?"
"Not entirely, but what the hell. It's not like I have any other way to get you out of the way since you clearly won't give up." I grinned. Finally! I had spent so long trying to get him to believe me and this was probably as close as I was going to get. "So, where do you need to be?"
***
Natasha and I had the next job of questioning Loki. We had a very extensive briefing of what I was allowed to do while in the same room as him.
"Don't interact with him."
"But-"
"No. Don't talk to him, don't listen to him, don't do anything, don't touch anything. You stay with me from beginning to end and don't do anything unless I tell you to. Is that clear?" It wasn't like I had much of a choice. I was just glad to come along for the ride. I wasn't sure anything could go wrong in this scene, and the more I hung out with Loki, the more he seemed to know about me, but I would hate to miss it.
Nat walked in stealthily and I did the same, doing my best to avoid thinking too loudly to attract attention. He had his back to us and it took a few seconds for Loki to realize he wasn't alone.
"There's not many people who can sneak up on me." He commented, and turned around, quickly hiding the fact that he was shocked that I was there with her.
"But you figured I'd come." I paid close attention to her every move, watching her manipulation skills to get what she wanted.
"After whatever tortures, Fury can concoct." He slowly walked closer and I did my best not to get distracted. "You would appear as a friend, a balm, and I would cooperate."
"I want to know what you've done to agent Barton."
"I would say I've expanded his mind," he replied.
"And once you've won, once you're king of the mountain, what happens to his mind?"
"Is this love, agent Romanoff?" Loki's eyes shimmer with mischief.
"Love is for children. I owe him a debt." She goes on to explain her debt to Clint while I tiptoe off in the background to have a peak at the control panel. Who knows when I might need to know how to use it.
Loki bangs a fist on the glass and I look up to watch him threaten Nat.
"I won't touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you, slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake, just long enough to see his good work and when he screams I'll split his skull." Nat turned away in faux distress. "This is my bargain you mewling quim."
"You're a monster."
"Oh no, you brought the monster." She straightened her spine in realization, emotion flooding off her face in seconds and turning to face her victim.
"So, Banner, that's your play." Loki dropped his guard for a second in shock. Nat walked off, seeming to have forgotten about me and spoke into an earpiece. "Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in his lab. I'm on my way." Loki followed her in his cage while Nat moved to exit before she stopped to face him. "Thank you, for your cooperation." And she left.
"Wow. Feels good to be important." I retort sarcastically. Loki looks over as if he too, had momentarily forgotten my presence. "I mean seriously, am I that invisible?" Loki walks back over to where I am and grins.
"Just us then? Lucky me." I looked at him closely, trying to find anything in his face that suggested that he was thinking for himself. All I saw was pain.
"What has he done to you?" I ask sympathetically.
"Who?"
"Thanos. He hurt you. Are you... Can you even think for yourself right now?" I look down in sadness, imagining all the torture and pain he must have been through. Right now, I tried to find the distinction between a villain and his true self. The only thing that seemed to be left was exhaustion and hurt.
"I don't need your sympathy. You mean nothing to me." I smile sadly.
"No. I suppose I don't. I never did mean much to anybody. That's what I loved so much about these movies. They allowed me to escape from my reality and succumb to a world where I could be around people that might actually care whether I lived or died." Loki showed no change in the blank expression on his face. "When I learned that I could actually play a part in these adventures, I couldn't think of anything better. But so far all that's happened is I was told I'm a liar, I've broken my leg, constantly been taunted by you, and put in a choke hold till I passed out. Not exactly the adventure I was hoping for." I sit on the ground, leaning my back against the glass of the cage with my back to Loki, holding my knees close. "I'm not even sure if this is real or if you are all a dream I've made up in my head. A desperate attempt to feel accepted. Look how well that turned out."
From my peripheral vision, I saw Loki sit down next to me with his back also to the glass. "You know, it sounds like we are very much alike, you and I. My father never truly loved me and only faked what little emotion he showed, to hide the fact that I was a failed bargaining chip for his own gain. No matter what I did I could never make him proud." I turned my head to face him.
"Well, in my world, everyone thinks Odin is a dick. And the amount of fans you have, you could have an army of volunteers alone." He looks at me with a hint of disbelief. "I'm serious. The actor who plays your character, dressed up as you for a comic-con convention, and he got the entire stadium to chant your name while they screamed to let you know that they love you."
"And were you there? Did you call out my name?"
"Um, no. Other than this, I will probably never get the chance to meet you or your actor. I gave up on that fantasy a long time ago. No point obsessing over something that's never going to happen." Loki looked at me with real sympathy in his eyes.
"Well, it may not be much consolation, but I'm sorry you never got that opportunity. I'm sure in other-reality-me would have been honored to make your acquaintance." Emotion built up in my chest and I struggled to keep it contained, tears beginning to fill in the corner of my eyes. A thought came up in my mind and I turned to him urgently.
"Loki, I have to tell you something. You will eventually be free from Thanos' grasp, like you are now while you don't wield the mind stone. This will be when the Avenger's defeat you and you won't have to follow his command anymore. When this happens, you are going to get a chance to escape. You can't take it." He looks at me with confusion. "After all this is over, you will see that there is someone around you that isn't supposed to be there, I can't say who. They will accidentally give you the tesseract but you can't take it. It will lead you into all sorts of trouble and trust me, it's not worth it. Not yet."
"I have no idea what you are on about, my dear."
"Just trust me, please. If you get the opportunity don't do it or it'll all turn to shit for you." I looked at him deep in his eyes, trying to communicate how desperate I was. This Loki wasn't meant to do it yet.
"Y/N!" I spun around to see Fury storm into the room.
"Loki please. Just do that one thing for me and you'll be fine." That was a lie. I knew what else was in his future. But I needed him to stay in this timeline for now. Fury grabbed my arm and pulled me off the ground and away from Loki.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Romanoff forgot about me and I don't have clearance to open the door so I entertained myself." I ignored the extensive lecture while I was dragged out of the room, looking behind me to look at Loki to see if he would agree to do as I said. Before I was out of sight, I saw him give a slight nod at me and I smiled to myself. It would be alright.
"You have a lot of explaining to do." He twisted me around to face him. "What were you talking about with Loki?"
"Oh just your average conversation starters. Childhood trauma, Loneliness, normal stuff."
"Normal stuff." He comments sarcastically. "I don't want you anywhere near him from now on. I gave you a chance and you blew it. Go to the room you were in earlier and I'll get you when I need you." A guard came up to Fury, obviously to transport me to the room. But that wasn't going to fit with what was going to happen.
"No. Please. No, I need to be somewhere where I can fix things."
"Absolutely not. Take her away." The guard took a hold of my arm and dragged me off while I screamed to Fury to let me come along.
"Something big is going to happen. Please! I can't be stuck in a refined place where I can't get out if this ship falls from the sky! Fury please!" He didn't listen, and soon he was out of range. The guard wordlessly escorted me to the chambers and locked me in, much to my protest of pounding on the door.
I stopped when I felt a disturbance. Something wasn't right. Last time I felt like this, Loki had used the mind stone to contact The Other, of the Chitauri. Oh yeah I knew exactly what was going on. The Avengers would be neck deep in conflict, firing up the mind stone and drawing Loki's men to the ship. Any moment now, Barton was going to blow up the engine, and I wasn't going to be stuck in a cell room for that.