Unfettered (Loki x Reader)

Chapter 31 - Et Tu?

"Making entry."

Lowering your weapon, Steve enters the room. His gaze tumbles over the area in a quick pattern scan before zeroing in on Agent May - strapped down and tied up. But she doesn't move. Doesn't even flinch. Concern flits across Steve's brow as he walks up to May and checks her vitals.

"Is she...?" you ask

"She's alive," Steve exhales in relief. He pulls out a sturdy pocket knife and is about to start working at her restraints when suddenly, the hair on the back of your neck stands up. 

Something isn't right.

"Wait," you say.

Steve freezes. "What?" he asks, blade resting gingerly against the fibers of rope around her wrists. 

"I don't know," you frown. "Something's...not right."

Steve withdraws his blade and backs up as you step to his side, gazing down at the restrained SHIELD Agent. Dried blood flakes around her nose and mouth. But otherwise, she appears unharmed. No bruises. No cuts. No burns. 

Punishment?

Your stomach churns with a vicious nausea as memories of fire-laden injections swim in your head. The pain had been so intense that you had occasionally dislocated your own shoulders, knees, and other joints writhing against restraints as they pushed the liquid through your veins. 

It had also caused nosebleeds. 

"I recognize this," you exhale, tears brimming in your eyes. "Oh fuck."

"What's going on in there, Squirt?" Tony's voice comes over comms.

"They tortured her," you exhale. 

"She in one piece?" Tony asks.

You take a steadying breath, and close your eyes. You reach for the heat simmering in your cheeks, pulling it close and letting it spread up your neck and out your shoulders until it clicks into place. With a snap of warmth, your Perception flares. You glance at Steve, who gives you an encouraging nod. 

"Be careful," he cautions.

You turn your focus to Agent May, and gasp. 

"What?" Steve asks. "What's wrong?"

Your words dry up as you try to understand the scene before you. If dead, you wouldn't be able to sense any emotion at all. If truly unconscious, May's emotions would be barely detectable. Instead, you connect with her right away. And there's something wrong - her emotions are, shattered. They pierce the air in sharp streaks of color that make you almost dizzy. Then they pulse - growing brighter.

"Steve, watch-!"

But you're too late. Agent May lifts her head and pulls free from her restraints, which hadn't truly been secured. Fiercely, she lashes out at Steve, engaging him in combat.

"What's going on in there?" yells Tony.

"Agent May! It's us! We're here to help!" you whisper-yell as she continues to fight both you and Steve.

"Guys?" you can hear Nat yelling into the earpiece.

"Something's wrong, Tony," you say. "She's not herself!"

"Shit," Tony says. "Nat, get in there."

You and Steve are in full out combat with Agent May by the time Natasha makes her way through the door. Only seconds after she makes it to you, alarms begin going off in the compound.

"We're blown Tony, they know we're here!" you shout.

"Abort!" Tony yells. "Abort! Get out of there!"

"Not without Agent May!" you yell. "Steve! Grab her!"

"What?" He yells back, confused as he ducks a powerful kick to the jaw from May.

"I said grab her!" you yell back.

Confused, Steve lunges for May's arms, gripping them tightly and bending them behind her back. You use that split second to grab both sides of her face with your bare hands, opening a Genetic Link.

Agent May fights you as you try to permeate her mind, but you've trained for this. It takes a moment but you finally make it through, and find yourself standing within her memories. They begin to flash by in pieces. 

But her mind is broken. Rather than scenes from a movie, Agent May's memories float by you as if reflected on shards of broken glass, out of order, out of synch. As you try to sort through them, you can hear Tony's voice in your ear from far away.

"You need to get out of there. NOW!"

"We can't Tony!" Steve's voice answers - a distant echo. "It's Y/n - she...I don't know what she did but she's not moving!"

You ignore their shouts, and focus on the carousel of broken memories in front of you. 

Desperately, you try to find a pattern in the fragments. Finally, you see it. A faint silver haze around certain pieces. Following those pieces, you're able to start piecing back together the memories. But they're too far back. Lost in a jungle, news of a baby, loss of a child, a husband. 

You move faster, the shards flying by more quickly until a familiar face causes you to stop. 

Phil?

Phil reaching out a hand to pull Agent May from the side of a cliff. Phil in a warehouse, back to back with May, surrounded by HYDRA. Phil standing on the balcony of a ship, overlooking the city - aliens are attacking.

The attack in New York City. Agent May was with Phil during the attack in New York City. 

Then Loki.

Loki?

Loki stands in front of Thor, trapped in a chamber. Agent May is on the ground, incapacitated, watching. Phil takes down a corrupt SHIELD member and aims his weapon at Loki, but Loki disappears, only to reappear behind Phil, stabbing him through the chest.

You can't breathe. 

You watch as Loki allows Phil's body to slump to the ground. 

Loki walks over to a panel, and drops Thor out of the sky, allowing him to plunge to his death.

"You're going to lose."

"Am I?"

"It's in your nature."

"Your heroes are scattered. Your floating fortress falls from the sky. Where is my disadvantage?"

"GET OUT OF THERE, THAT'S AN ORDER!" Tony's voice rings in your ear.

"How?" barks Steve.

"I don't care how! GET OUT. NOW!"

From somewhere far away, pressure on your shoulders yanks you away from Agent May's memories. Your connection ends with a painful crack inside your own head. You let out a howl of pain as Steve forcefully separates the two of you. Your vision swims as ghosts of Agent May's memories are overlaid on the spinning world around you. You're unable to tell what's real, and what's in your head. Your knees buckle as  you fall to the ground - eyes rolling back as the last thing you see are Agent Melinda May's onyx eyes staring blankly back at you.