V I G I L A N C E ~ (MCU) ~

C H A P T E R 7_

All of us pause and look at her.

She turns around, her eyes hesitating before they meet Barton's.

"Base Twenty-one?" Clint asks.

"Base Twenty-one," she replies with a sure voice.

Some of us exchange looks and that's when Cap grabs his shield and Tony puts back on his helmet.

All of us get different vehicles working while Thor and Stark take to flying.

Like a team... we are back in motion, never to give up.

We find one car and a motorcycle that work. As we gather around to leave I walk up to Rogers and search through the bag that was in the passenger seat. "We're taking Loki with us," I say plainly and coldly, not looking at him.

I can feel his shocked and judgmental gaze from the left of me. "What?

"You heard me. He's coming with us." I dig through the sack without finding really anything of importance.

"Esther we can't trust him. He's killed millions of—"

I look at him. "He's not that person anymore—you saw him. You saw his eyes change color—he was under the same spell as Barton. And I broke him free of it."

"And he still got out and tried to continue with his plan."

"Fine. But that was before Nebula attacked."

"What does that change?"

"It means even if he doesn't have a heart of gold, he needs us as much as we need him. There's a common enemy and Loki knows there's no way to beat her or even get off this planet without our help and we need every soldier we can get. This isn't a time to be picky—"

"And what happens when he doesn't need us anymore?" He looks me dead in the eye, protective of me and the rest of us.

I flatten my lips in thought but then shake my head. "He's not going to hurt me. That's one thing I trust. I also trust that he's going to want a few allies if Thanos is gunning for him after all of this," I say realistically.

"Esther the others are not going to—"

"It doesn't matter what they agree to. We don't have a choice." I pick up the bag after it's been emptied and walk past him.

When I stand at Loki's side, Bruce looks at him with wide eyes and then glances at Rogers and some others as he asks hesitantly, "Are we taking the... enemy with us... or...?"

"According to Thor and Esther he's not our enemy anymore," Rogers says with disbelief.

"But if you don't trust him we could always lock him in the trunk," Romanoff says with a smirk as she leans against the vehicle.

Loki grins with amusement.

I hold back a chuckle. "Don't worry, I'll make sure that he doesn't step out of line."

Everyone starts to exchange looks.

"...He can have the bike," Steve finally says and everyone starts to pile into the car.

That's when I notice the vehicle is full with Rogers, Banner, Romanoff, and Barton all inside.

Loki walks over to the motorcycle with a smile. "Ooh this looks fun," he says while looking it over.

I shake my head as I laugh. "Do you even know how to ride one?"

"Not at all," he says with a smirk but also not caring. He appears excited actually.