Intertwine

86 -I'm Not His Biggest Fan

"Roara." Simon raised an eyebrow, turning his head slightly. "You'll have time to have fun later."

"Fine." I shrugged and opened up my palm. 

Gunn had his tie off, the top two buttons of his shirt undone, and his face was still bright pink. "You did that just by closing your fist?" He asked, horrified.

"What, I'm a bit more powerful than I used to be?" I flexed my fingers out in front of me. "Yeah, I did. And by concentrating." I tapped the side of my head. "I don't even really need to use my hands, they just help with directing it." 

"I knew that." He began to button his shirt up again now that he could breath properly. 

"What are we doing in a meeting?" I asked.

"I just wanted you to demonstrate how powerful you were to Gunn. He was underestimating you. I doubt he will be now." He gave Gunn a warning look. "You do realise Gunn, that was just a taste. I watched her heal from a bullet wound in seconds, six stab wounds in less than half a minute."

He looked up and down my ripped and bloody shirt. "I can see that."

Simon shrugged. "Now that this is done with, Roara, would you like me to take you to your rooms?" 

"Plural? I like the sound of that." I grinned and followed Simon out, giving Gunn a small wave as we left.

After having a bath and cleaning myself off very thoroughly I was presented with a suit. It was black, without a hint of the brown or green my other had had. It had long sleeves with cold shoulders, and a hole around the chest area leaving most of the skin around the collar-bone area exposed, but it did end up in a high neck at the top. The bottom half was short, basically the length of underwear. My boots went up most of my calf, and I still had holsters tightly strapped to each thigh but this time they weren't attached to a suit, but rather wrapped around my bare skin. Looking in the mirror it felt like the suit hadn't been made for practicality but for sexiness. It didn't matter. I didn't need practicality, apart from perhaps the fingerless gloves I was also wearing. And besides, I looked good. Like, really good. The pure black suited me. The only part of it that wasn't black, was the white A emblazoned onto the back and the small silver pin on the top left of my suit. It was a uniform really. 

I twisted and turned in the mirror, trying to look at every angle.

"You look good." Simon said encouragingly from his position sat on the end of my new bed.

"I know." I replied. There wasn't even a hint of uncertainty in me, or in my voice. I knew I looked damn good. I turned around to face him. He was wearing his own combat outfit, head to toe black just like mine, but his had more padding to it, filling him out. He was far less slender than I had realised.

"You know do you?" He raised his eyebrows. 

I strode over to him, standing in between his knees and leaning forward, trailing a finger along his cheek. "Of course I know." I whispered.

I felt his hands on the back of my bare thighs, pulling me towards him. I laughed and wrapped my gloved hands around his neck, his steel grey eyes the same colour as the suit he'd been wearing only thirty minutes before. 

"How does it feel," he murmured, lips so close to mine I could practically feel them moving, "to have all this power and none of the responsibility that was dragging you down before?" 

"How does it feel?" I paused for a second, thinking. Underneath it all, somehow, there was still that hunger. A hunger for more. For something different. For someone. But I didn't know what it could possibly be. I had everything I could want. In front of me was an attractive man who worshipped me, I was no longer taking order from anyone, and I was the most powerful person in the building. I was no longer holding onto things. My worries from before, they had all disappeared. I couldn't even remember what I had worried about, and I didn't care. I had been naive and foolish, siding with the Avengers, when the real power was to be had with the Ascendency. I felt the truth of the words slipping off my tongue as I spoke. "It feels like I want more."

"That's my girl." He brought his mouth up to meet mine, his hands moving upwards. This man had power, and I wanted it, I wanted all of it. That's my girl. That's my... Someone had said that to me before, hadn't they? Had they? I couldn't remember. 

That's my girl.

That's my brave girl.

"Agh!" I broke away from him and stumbled backwards, clutching my head, my eyes tightly shut. A flash of green went across my mind, a chalk drawing carved into the earth, a castle tower, a dark cave, a river. 

"What?" Simon asked, not moving from his position on the bed.

"I...I don't know." I looked up. "It's stopped." I slowly lowered my hands. "I have no idea."

He smirked and came over to me, lifting my face so I was looking up at him. "We need to go." He bent down and gave me a quick kiss. "I've had your fighting gear moved to here, you'll find it in your closet." He let go of me and walked to the door. Without turning around he said, "Be ready in five minutes. We have to go and show you off to your old friends. You're going to be the grande finale. But before that... I have a little treat for you."

I flung open my closet doors. Sure enough there was my sword. Someone had given it to me. Who was it? I concentrated hard. I wasn't getting a name. Damn. A set of knives, daggers and guns. I put them all along my belt or in the holsters on my thighs. The sword came with an adjustable sheath, it could be worn around the waist or around the back. I decided to go with waist.

"Are you ready?" Simon called.

"Of course." I replied, following him out of my rooms and to the lift. We rode down in silence until we got to the basement. 

"This," he said softy, gesturing around the room, "will be for our renowned guests." It was a room of glass cells. "And that," he nodded to the only cell in the centre of the room, "is the crown jewel."

It was the only cell occupied. 

I walked over to the cell, placing my hand flat on the glass, peering in. 

The man inside it took a few steps towards me.

"Can he hear us?" I asked Simon, my eyes still on the man inside the cell. 

"Not at the moment, no." Simon replied, his hands going around my waist and his chin resting on my shoulder. "Why?"

"I feel like I should know him."

"You do know him. He was once your friend, but you've outgrown him." I felt memories beginning to return to my head, ones of screaming matches and brutal words and betrayal. "You don't need him. He was holding you back from reaching your full potential."

I thought of all the power I could get from the man stood behind me and I leant into him. I wanted that, I wanted all that power. "What's his name?" 

Simon chuckled. "His name? Oh that's easy. His name is Loki."