God of Thunder (An Avengers/Thor Fanfic)

Chapter 28

Elsi's POV

I wake up to complete silence, worried at first. Then I remember everybody is on the mission. They should be back soon, a few hours at the most.

I make toaster strudel and head down to the prison block. As soon as I walk in, Ward's snarks begin. "Shut up. Really not in the mood for your rudeness," I growl.

"Does Skye talk about me? Does she love me?" he asks.

"She talks about how you tricked her...," I start, but he interrupts.

"I didn't trick her!"

"Okay, Mr. I really work for Hydra."

"I didn't!"

"You did, how can you not get that? You lied to her to get to that file, everyone knows about it."

"What else did she say?"

"She said she didn't have the intent to kill you when she shot you."

"Why?"

"She was blinded by her feelings, in a way."

"She didn't look regretful when she ran from the room."

"Yeah, well nobody really would."

"She would."

"Whatever, Ward. You broke her heart and she hates you for it. You'll never earn her trust back. She doesn't want to see you again."

"That's my fault. I said some terrible things to her when she came down here."

"I know. Coulson's never going to let her see you again. Neither will S.H.I.E.L.D. You're going to get locked up as soon as they're done here. For the rest of your life, most likely. Then they'll forget you're there and you'll rot in that cell like you deserve."

"Are you threatening me?"

"No. Just telling the truth." I hear several pairs of feet walking above us, so I leave the prison block and take the elevator to our living room.

Everybody is just standing around, looking at each other. "What happened?" I question, concerned as I look around the room for everybody.

"They knew we were coming. Blew the base as soon as we set foot in there. Barely got out," Cap whispers, with a faraway look on his face.

"So you didn't get any information?" I ask.

"No, we went back and searched through the rubble. Everything was blown to pieces," Skye answers, the first person to look me in the eyes.

"They blew it up with a lot of people still in there," Tony voices, a horrified look crossing his face.

"They were burned to a crisp. Then some agents came back while we were searching and tried to fight us off. They staged this well, tried to make it look like a lot of agents were in there. We think they took people off the street and planted them there. No sign of Vaughn," Natasha sighs.

She's seen a lot of death, I don't expect her to be as horrified as everyone else. They've all seen their fair share of death, but nothing this horrible it appears. Everyone stands motionless, quiet in the living room. Thor gives me sad look and I go to him. He wraps me up in a bear hug, as if making sure I'm real.

Almost everybody looks like they've seen a dead man walking, except for Clint, Bucky, Natasha, Coulson, and May. Skye's eyes flit around the room until they land on me. I try to give her a reassuring smile, but it feels more like a grimace. Simmons has tears rolling down her cheeks, Fitz trying to comfort her but failing.

Tony, Bruce, Steve, and Sif look sad and disturbed. Joe told me that M.O. doesn't experiment on people, but I can tell by the looks on everybody's faces that they do and they had to fight the experiments. The Avengers are probably glad they didn't see the botched experiments, that they were lost in the explosion.

After what feels like hours of standing in the living room I speak up. "You all need to get some rest. Think about happy things before you go to bed, write down whatever is on your mind, talk about it."

All at once, everybody moves without saying a word, the only noises are our feet against the wood floor. Thor and I walk back to his room. We lie down together and he wraps his arms around me. We lie in silence for a few minutes before he says anything.

"They had strong mutants. Brainwashed. In pain. They didn't realize what they were doing. The brainwashing started to wear off and their pain became stronger. I can still hear the wails of pain. We had no choice but to kill them. They were miserable, Elsi. I cannot even speak of some of the things they did while they were brainwashed. Terrible things."

"You need to talk about it, I can help you," I tell him.

He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. "When it wore off, they saw what they did and cried out. Along with the charred bodies, there were bodies torn to shreds. The mutants were covered in blood, the blood of their families and friends. One mutant begged me to kill him, saying he just murdered his younger sister, his screams were deafening. He kept begging me, in his eyes I saw sheer horror and sadness. This mutant started beating his head against the ground before I killed him. I have never seen so much death in my life."

Tears start rolling down his face. I sit up and pull him into my arms. His silent sobs remind me of how terrible people can be. I can't believe that the mutants killed their families. Were forced to. Had no idea what they were doing. Thor's tears soak into my shirt, but I don't care. I never could imagine something shaking him up this bad.

We fall asleep a few hours later, but I wake up to Thor's screaming and thrashing not too much later. Tears are rolling down his face again and my heart squeezes in my chest. It hurts me to see him in this much pain. I wake him as quickly as I can, trying to avoid his flying fists.

When he realizes it was just a nightmare, he grabs me and wraps his arms tightly around me. I decide not to ask him about what happened. I flip the lights on and hold him in my arms until he calms down.

"I saw you like the bodies on the field. And my hands were covered in blood, your blood. They were telling me that I did a good job," he explains, fresh tears rolling down his face.

"That's never going to happen, okay? I'm still right here and I always will be. And nobody from here could brainwash you. You're a freakin' god!"

"I could not live with myself if I ever hurt you."

"Thor, don't worry. You're never going to, unless you squeeze the crap out of me like you're kind of doing right now. But it's okay because you're going through a rough time."

Thor loosens his grip a little bit and I peck his cheek with a kiss. He gives me a half smile as I wipe the stray tears away. I pull him close and he buries his head in my neck. I squeeze him and pat his back.

It's crazy to me how this could affect him. Never would I ever have imagined him getting this shaken up. Or crying. I can't even imagine what any of them are going through.

Clint's POV

After the mission, Nat and I go back to my room. My mind won't even process what I've seen, Nat seems unaffected but I can read her mask.

"Tash, do you want to talk about it?"
I ask, rubbing her arm.

"No," she responds quickly.

"I know that I'm horrified at what I saw. And I've seen a lot," I try to convince her.

She sighs, "Clint, I don't even know what to say. I've seen a lot, too. But nothing like that. They were all in so much pain. It's like M.O. timed it perfectly so they would see what they did as soon as the brainwashing wore off. That's horrible and I can't fathom how anyone could do that."

"I know. It seems like they aren't even people. Like they don't have feelings. All they want to do is kill us and they won't stop until we're dead or they're dead."