Chapter Text
It all went down on a Monday. Doesn´t all the bad stuff always happen on a Monday?
You sighted as you pushed your heavy blue blanket back, got out of your warm bed, and stretched your hands above your head. Cracking all your knuckles separately, you tried to get rid of the uneasy feeling, that had sunk deep into your core. You hadn´t slept well. You had lived through your usual nightmare again. Fighting. Blood. Death. You saw your parents die again and again and you couldn´t do anything to prevent them from their fate. If you had been there, in reality, you could have helped them, you could have done something, anything, but to no avail. You trembled slightly, but decided to shove the dark memories deep down to not let yourself get overwhelmed and sad all over again.
Not today. You thought to yourself.
Nine months, for the last nine months you lived with the Avengers in their tower, you even got your own room. After your parents got killed during their work, Tony offered you a place to stay. He had met you at an official party, thrown for another success of the Avengers. Actually you met him through Agent Fury.
You were a former agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. yourself and because of your excellent skills in all kind of forms of combat and a recommendation from the head of the agency himself, the team of heroes recruited you. It didn´t take long and you befriended with all of them. In these days, they were like a family to you.
Yawning, you padded to the large window, which stretched all over the whole wall next to your bed, and took a look outside. The normally blue sky was covered in darkish grey clouds and there was a faint drizzle coming down to the earth. Lately every day was like this. Depressing weather, fog and rain. Ever since, well ever since he took over.
It was a few weeks ago, on a bright and sunny day in June. Currently you were at your preferred coffee shop in New York and the friendly barista handed you your favourite hot drink, a caramel macchiato, as everything went pitch black for a second. Not even the lights in the comfy café worked at that moment and all customers were left in absolute darkness. A feeling of utter terror settled into all present people, because the warmth of the day was suddenly replaced by a much more sinister and gloomy atmosphere. A strange feeling crept up your neck and it seemed to you that all happiness had been drained from the world. The second went by and the darkness crumbled slightly, but it didn´t disappear, it was stuck, as if someone had thrown a bucket full of grey paint over the city, which now clung to every surface and object it had formerly touched. You stepped outside the small café and looked sceptically up to the black clouds. An uncontrollable mass of blackness and dark swirls had been built high up in the air. It seemed strange, against all odds of the possibilities of nature and there was a fair green glow lingering around them.
Abruptly you jumped a few feet back as, just above your head, a hologram of no other than the God of Mischief appeared. He wore his black, green and golden armour, his golden helmet with the pair of horns and his significant smirk. He seemed so full of himself, proud even, as he looked down on the people, which also seemed shocked by his sudden appearance. A moment of silence passed, and the figure started to speak: “You might wonder, what the hell just happened. Well, it is actually quite simple.” He paused and let his gaze wander over the small group of people that had gathered around you. His smirk had grown into an expression of pure ecstasy, as he threw his arms up in the air and shouted a little bit louder.
“I overtook Midgard. And Asgard. But that’s not your realm, so you won´t be directly confronted with that.”
Silence.
He…He did what?
Your thoughts ran a thousand miles per hour, you felt a sudden rush of panic as they abruptly stopped and took in what he just stated and then you began to laugh hysterically.
This was impossible. Absolutely impossible. This can´t be happening. How?
The Loki figure turned to you. You felt his piercing gaze on your body and even though it wasn´t the real version of him, you shivered and took an involuntary step back. The laugh had died in your throat as soon as he looked at you.
“And why do you think, you are laughing?”
He raised one eyebrow at your form and took your now challenging stare in.
You sneered, suddenly feeling confident. This must be a bad joke or something.
“You can´t just overtake Midgard…I mean the earth. That is impossible.”
We won´t let that happen. You thought to yourself.
“Oh, quite on the contrary, my dear, it was actually quite easy. Your leaders didn´t even try to put up a fight. They just submitted to me. As you all will, I can promise that. I mean, neither they did nor you do stand a chance against me, so fighting would have and will only result in innocent deaths. After all, my new powers are pretty much unlimited.”
He grinned again, like a cat that ate the canary, and stretched his limbs with a satisfied expression clearly written all over his face.
You stood there, frozen in shock, just like the rest of the people, which surrounded you. Nobody dared to speak up. Nobody dared to move even the tiniest muscle.
“Do not worry”, Loki said, “This will be fun.”
And with that he disappeared.
You shivered slightly and grabbed a black hoodie. The memory of that particular event still caused you nausea. Living since the, well since the takeover wasn´t really enjoyable as it used to be. The first order of Emperor Loki, as he liked to refer to himself, was that all forms of organizations, which could be considered as a threat to him, would be forbidden. That meant for you, that your friends and you were no longer legally allowed to do anything to help innocent people, let alone do something against your brutal new head of state, well world. The Avengers of course hadn´t just given up and stopped doing what they normally do, but decided to organize themselves new, different, suited for this special occasion. Secret projects, missions, which had to be carried out in the safe of the night, and as much discretion as possible, which meant that you were most of the time incognito. These were your new daily activities for the last few weeks. In the bigger context, your goal was quite easy. Correspond with as much former authorities as possible. Build an alliance against Loki. Cause his downfall. The problem wasn´t the what, but the how. Because Loki wasn´t someone who is easy fooled.
You sighted again and began to walk in the direction of the kitchen. That will be a hell of work to do.
As you arrived in the living area, you discovered Clint and Natasha at the breakfast table and Steve next to the coffee maker. Bruce and Tony were nowhere in sight and you hadn´t heard from Thor since the whole Loki-incident. You hoped that he was fine and just hid somewhere in Asgard or even escaped to Midgard and would show up at any point.
“Want some too?”
Steve asked, swinging the pot full of hot steaming black life elixir in your direction.
You nodded and he handed you a full cup.
Both of you then wandered over to Clint and Natasha and sat down across from each other.
“Where are Bruce and Tony?” You asked, grabbing a croissant and dipped it into your coffee.
“Disgusting.” Tony´s voice echoed through the kitchen and both scientists appeared in your view.
“Shut up!” You whined and threw a piece of your soaked breakfast at him, which he managed to dodge while wearing a look of utter shock.
“What were you doing anyway? It´s way too early to do anything.” You asked, trying to get his attention away from the fact that you just assaulted him with food.
“We were just trying to encode a new transmission signal by using an alternative communication key and also a different pattern, so we can optimize our reach.”
“Interesting.” You said, not fully understanding what he just said.
Tony huffed at you, but gave you a tired smile.
“We are making some serious progress, that´s good.”
You nodded in quiet acceptance and continued to chew on your croissant.
He and Bruce had settled down at the breakfast table too and it suddenly hit you, a feeling like the good old times. Your whole family, eating breakfast together and being happy. Except that the happy part didn´t really make it to reality in these times. The good old time feeling disappeared and was replace by a feeling of tiredness.
Steve seemed to pick up your mood shift and sighted. “When will this all end?”
“Oh, it can end right now, if you want to, my dear Captain.” A sly voice interrupted the somehow comfy feeling. The six of you jumped up, your eyes widened at the sight in front of you.
“Loki.” Natasha whispered shocked.
He mockingly bowed down towards her direction.
“The one and only. Oh, come on, don´t be so shocked, Natasha.” He took a step closer and we instantly moved to stand in a fighting stance. He grinned at us and at our, to him, ridiculous behaviour.
“What do you want?” Steve nearly spat.
“Do not worry. We are on the same side, if you cooperate. I want the same thing as you do. I want to end this, right now.” He growled, slowly stalking closer to us.
“Thor is already taken care of, he will spend some time in a lovely prison cell in Asgard.” He informed us witch a careless movement of his hand. “The only problem that is left”, and now his gaze turned cold as ice, “is your little group of pathetic heroes, who try so hard to not give up. But let me destroy this fragile glimpse of hope you´ve got left right now. You. Do. Not. Stand. A. Chance.”
He emphasized the last words through dropping an octave with his voice. You shivered involuntary and shifted slightly.
His eyes darted quickly to you, a glimpse of recognition showing and covering every other emotion momentarily, but it was gone before you could lay a finger on the emotion he had just shown. His gaze darted back to Tony`s angry form, who had taken a step towards him and was now nearly face to face to him.
“Get out of here.” Tony hissed. “Now.”
Loki chuckled. “I don´t think so.”
And with a small swift motion of his arm, he sent Tony crashing into the bar across the room.
“Tony!” Steve shouted, sending Loki an angry glare, while he made his way over to his friend, dodging Loki as if he didn´t want to be his next target sent flying around the room. He carefully kneeled down next to Tony and examining his physical condition.
The norse god didn´t seem phased by their actions, he just kept glancing at the team.
Everyone stood there, everyone caught like a deer in the headlights, which seemed to give Loki even more joy and delight.
You were still frozen in place, while Clint was slowly reaching behind him, to grab his bow, which was resting on the coach right next to him.
“Don´t. Move.”
Loki´s voice sounded cold and annoyed, as if it was incomprehensible to him while Clint would even think about doing something so stupid as trying to fight him.
The archer stopped dead in his tracks, his gaze flickered over to the god, then to Natasha and then he returned to his former position.
Loki smiled satisfied at Clint´s behaviour and turned around to observe Steve and Tony´s doing. The former soldier had helped his friend up and they both sent death glares in his direction.
“Alright, that´s enough!” Natasha yelled and charged fast towards Loki, simultaneously, Clint grabbed his bow, began shooting arrows at the norse god and Tony and Steve started to run towards him too. You and Bruce stayed back, too stunned for a second, but then we unfreezed and got out of our stance of not moving. You could feel that Banner was about to turn into his green alter ego, so you grabbed a knife from the table to have at least some kind of weapon, but before any one of us could lay as much as a finger on Loki, the god sent us all flying through the living room, effectively knocking out Bruce and Tony and sent Clint, Natasha, Steve and you to the ground.
You winced, your head had made contact with the edge of the wooden coffee table in the living room. Reaching up, you touched your forehead and came in contact with a warm red substance. You whimpered slightly and tried to get up, but your legs were somehow glued to the floor and you were unable to move them or to stand up. You swiftly looked around, catching a glimpse of your friends, which were either unconscious or also thrown down on the floor, seemingly also not being able to move.
It must be his magic. That´s the only explanation.
Your gaze shifted back to Loki, who was grinning rather pleased at them.
“Isn´t that much better?” He asked.
He is so fucking strong. Too strong. We couldn´t even put up a decent fight against him.
At that moment, you felt like a huge weight was crashing down on you. How should you do anything against him? If he was able to throw you through the room with one single motion, what else could he do? You felt panic spreading through your body and not being able to move didn´t help. You closed your eyes and tried to calm your breathing.
Everything is fine. No need to panic. Get yourself together. We will sort this out. We always do.
“As you see now, there is no use in fighting me. You won´t succeed. Whatever strength you may or may not have left. Spare me with your efforts. It won´t help. You can´t overpower me. Don´t interfere with my business again or I will end you without hesitation.” He threatened.
At the sound of his deep, calm voice, your eyes shot open again.
His stare glided over the whole team and stayed fixed on your small form.
His lips curled into a small smirk again.
“You know, I don´t think that you have learned your lesson properly, so…let me show the next level.”
He disappeared and reappeared right in front of you and grabbed you by your throat, effectively lifting you up from the ground, like you weighted nothing and nothing but slammed you against the nearest wall. Your head hit the hard wall and you groaned out in pain, you felt some more warm blood trickle down your temple and drop down on your cheek.
Loki`s hands were icy cold against your neck and you felt how the pressure on your windpipe slowly triggered the wanted effect. You slowly started to feel lightheaded, not being able to breathe properly, and you didn´t like that at all. The feeling of being restricted in your movements just added to your slightly upcoming panic and you started to trash under his iron grip.
He huffed, not really bothered, which made you even angrier and you tried to kick him with your legs, but to no avail. You weren´t even able to touch him. The grip on your neck tightened suddenly and you gasped, before he loosened it and you started to cough violently as the air came rushing to your lungs again. As your breathing had calmed down, you tried to swing your arm at him, but you found yourself again in a position of not being able to move.
His goddamn magic.
Suddenly he leaned in close, your noses almost touching and his stunning green eyes sparkling with slyness and a hint of curiosity.
You tried to turn away from his intense gaze, but you didn´t succeed. This time you couldn´t even move a single muscle. He kept staring into your eyes and you found yourself staring back after a while, not so sure as to what he was planning next. You were feeling as if he was gazing directly into your soul. You were absolutely sure, that you wouldn´t be able to hide anything from him.
“Let her go!” Clint´s voiced echoed through the apartment, causing Loki to break out of his stare and to turn around quickly. His eyes now lingered on the other team members. For a moment he seemed to be in deep thought and you couldn´t help to wonder again, what he was about to do or what he had planned in the first place.
“I don´t think so, Birdie.” He mocked the archer.
He turned around to face you again. He tilted his head and scanned your form again. You saw a hint of happiness and determination fly through his impressive eyes, but it was gone before you could grasp it and as soon as it was over, you weren´t so sure if you had seen it in real life or if you had just imagined it.
“Actually, I have a way better idea.”
The smirk was back on his face and he lifted his hand up to your temple, almost gently wiping away the blood, which had gathered there. Your eyes kept staring into his and you were left to wonder yet again, what he was about to do.
“Goodnight princess.” He whispered, as his fingers waved in front of you and sent you in a deep slumber.