(A/N: Another cliffhanger! This chapter also has quite a lot of whump, so you may not want to read it if that is a concern. There is AT LEAST one more chapter coming, don't worry. Thanks for reading!)
"Wake up!" Someone shouted in your face, their hot smelly breath hitting your cheeks. Honestly, a group of criminals smart enough to capture you should be able to take care of their own hygiene. Or maybe it was because of their hygiene that drove them to be villains. Who knew.
"Couldn't you have given me five more minutes? I still need to snooze my alarm." Ok, maybe that hit on your head had done more damage than necessary. Or that you realized.
"You're an idiot, you know that?" Well at least he stopped yelling.
"Who was the idiot that gave me this concussion?"
He- Kevin, you realized, sneered at your comment. He attempted to compose himself, and you took that time to look around you. You were in a different room, still all concrete, except that the position you were trapped in was different. You were no longer chained to the wall...
You were strapped to a table. Like, an experimenting table. It was tilted somewhere between upright and leaning, and no matter what you did you could not get comfortable.
"Here's how this is going to work. I am going to ask you a question. If you do not give me an answer, there will be consequences."
"Like a spanking? 'Cuz I'm not letting you touch my ass. Especially not after what you did to Brenda-"
"Shut up!" He shouted. Turns out you hit a nerve. Apparently there really was some drama between Kevin and Brenda. "I will cut you into pieces until you give me my answers, ripping the very skin from your bones until I get what I want. Understand?" He said it forced, as if he had to really think about what threat he wanted to shout in your face.
You clamp your mouth shut. That was a nasty threat- obviously one he practiced in the mirror a thousand times- but you could only barely take him seriously. It would be beautiful to watch him writhe in pain... But even you weren't that cruel. You wouldn't be the monster he was trying to be.
You could wait it out. The Avengers would come, one hundred-
One hun-
You were dry. Numbingly dry of all your magic, Loki's or no. Your chancing... you had finally run out of fuel. Only once had you ever run out of fuel; and you had tried your best since then to make sure it never happened again.
But it did.
You were zapped of all your powers. All your preventative measures. Hell could break loose and all you could do was watch. Watch as you burned-
You were absolutely doomed.
"Do you understand?" Kevin asked, suddenly having a knife in his hands. Apparently you had been too into your own thoughts that you didn't even notice him grabbing a knife.
"I'm gonna warn you beforehand, that I barely know the Avengers or probably any answers to the questions you're going to ask me."
"Oh, but I think you do. You can see any secret, can't you? Don't tell me you've never looked..." He tossed the knife in his hands, before gesturing it at you, the sharp point on your end.
You set your jaw, staring at him menacingly. Or, hopefully it came across that way. You weren't entirely sure you even had a 'mean face'.
He smiled a wicked smile. It was one of pure evil, one that told you how ridiculously rotten he was. He was going to enjoy this- whatever this was. "Defiant as ever Fate. Let's see how much luck is on your side now, eh?" He set the knife down, luckily, although still keeping his smirk plastered on his face.
He swung a fist.
Then another.
And another.
A few more, until your head was throbbing. You could feel something warm and sticky drip from your nose, as well as feel a split in your lip. There was blood dripping from above your vision as well, giving evidence of a gash across your forehead.
"We'll start easy. What do you know about Tony Stark?"
*
It was a pattern. The damn asshole Kevin would ask a question, you would refuse to give him an answer, and he would try again. Sometimes he repeated the same thing over and over again, trying to get you to break. But every single time, you remained resilient. He would grow frustrated at your defiance, and bash your body for it. You knew one of your ribs were cracked, as well as probably having internal bleeding. Secrets didn't run on fuel, luckily.
You were silent. He barely managed to get a whimper out of you, and nothing more than a wince. You would endure this. If nothing happened in a week...
You wouldn't break. You'd never break. Even if the team never came for you. Even if they thought-
No. They would come. If you knew one thing about the Avengers, was that they would avenge you. Loki would come for you. He would rescue you, you knew he would. Whether that was before you die, well...
You'd just have to wait and see.
Luckily, after near the 20th beating -in which Kevin had apparently forgotten about the knife- you couldn't take it anymore. You had felt the darkness coming for the last hour or more, and it was too much to bear. You couldn't keep your head up or your eyes open a moment longer, succumbing to unconsciousness.
And it went like this for days. Kevin would question you and beat you until you passed out, which happened more and more quickly. You doubted you could even talk, given how sore your throat was. Even then, Kevin still came every day, making your hopes of rescue dwindle.
*
Loud, really loud, blaring sirens. Horrendifically screaming of alarms. Red lights. Take your pick. Either way, you were awoke to noise -being a mix between sirens, heavy footsteps, and shouting- and red light streaming across the room in synchronized waves.
Was the building under attack? Were they friends or foes? Right now you just might accept Shield's help, especially if it got you out of this shithole.
Speaking of -now that you were truly waking up- it seemed Kevin had really done a number on you. You were sore in every place imaginable, sporting a throbbing head, aching muscles, as well as an inevitable unhealthy number of bruises all over your body. Every time you breathed it stung, as if someone was sitting on your chest and wouldn't let you up.
You tried to focus on what was going on. How could you escape? How could you help the people infiltrating in any way?
You couldn't. You couldn't make it to the only entrance, if you even managed to get out of the room. You doubted you could even walk, given that you somehow managed to escape the cuffs binding your wrists to the table even without your abilities.
You were completely trapped, with the only way out being blocked by the inevitable battle you could hear echo off the halls.
An explosion that shook you to your bones, then silence. Eerie, lifeless silence filled the entire compound.
Until a single set of footsteps could be heard, barreling down to right outside the door to your cell. The door you were trapped behind, completely defenseless. Maybe it was the Avengers. Maybe they had finally come to save you. Maybe the door was going to open, to reveal Loki-
The door creaked open, revealing a single figure. One figure with the ugliest secret, that you had been staring at for the past week or so.
That damn asshole.
All hope for rescue within you disappeared instantly.
"You did this." He said, picking up the knife from where he left it last time. On the table of trinkets, featuring every torture tool you could imagine. Somehow they even got a taser. That didn't work out for them too well though.
You clamp your mouth shut, just as you've learned for the past week. Don't talk, and then you can't reveal anything.
"You did this! I don't know how, but your little friends tracked us down. It's all your fault!" He said, holding the knife to your throat threateningly.
"You'll never escape, Kevin. They know who you are, and they will kill you."
He scoffed, taking a step back. Looking fear stricken for just a moment. Until an unearthly madness crossed his eyes, looking at you hideously.
"If I am to die, then the last thing I will do is make you regret everything you never said. I'll drag you down to hell with me." He said, grinning, gripping the knife in his hand tighter. He started at your cheek, cutting a long strip of skin from your ear to your nose.
Damn that stung. It was worse than anything you had endured before, worse than that time you had gotten shot. Ok, maybe not worse, but it definitely rivaled the pain.
He moved to your arms, cutting deep and fast. Two on each shoulder, three on each arm. Down your legs, cutting and stabbing all over.
You couldn't fucking bear it. You shouted the first time he plunged the knife in your leg, although no sound came out. Your voice was so hoarse from the lack of moisture, it barely came out as a hiss.
He never once touched your actual body. Your limbs were covered in deep cuts, but never once did he cut or stab your stomach. He was making you experience pain, before you died of blood loss. And given how many slices across your skin there were, you barely had five minutes.
You were barely holding on to life, and way too disoriented to even register Kevin's sped up torture, as he made you writhe in pain over and over again. He eventually ditched the knife, resorting to punching your open wounds. Blood was spilled -even more than already- as well as driving the pain factor up to ten. Each punch reopened old wounds, as well as re-splitting the new ones.
You were too caught up in pain to register a crash behind the locked door, or that the bindings on your magic had worn off. You didn't realise when the door burst open -only wincing at the ear-bursting sound- revealing the Avengers.
You didn't realise they had come back for you.
You didn't realise that they cared.
You did realise that you were on death's doorstep, and welcomed the notion with open arms. Death would ease the pain. It would stop the throbbing.
"Avengers," Kevin sneered, unable to do anything in this situation. Unable to do anything but one last movement, one last action before he became nothing but a sack of bones.
One last act of torture, even when you were so close to dead.
With all the Avengers watching, two seconds too late to help, two seconds too late to do anything about it, Kevin shoved his knife into your stomach, before having his head blown into nothing but brain-goo.
He deserved it.
And you would have relished in that fact, if you were not actively dying. If you could even manage to realize anything besides the overwhelming pain, the blood pouring out of your abdomen. The feeling of life slowly draining out of you, feeling the rest of your body go numb from lack of blood. Feel your heartbeat increase, as you have no way to pull the knife out of you. Feeling the cold metal sit there, cutting more of your insides every time you gasped.
You didn't realize Kevin's death.
You didn't realize your bindings give away, as you tip away from the table that had been holding you for so long.
You didn't realize the Avengers rushing across the room, trying to get there in time before you fell. To have hope you may still be alive.
You didn't realize that as you fell, a certain god teleported to catch you.
You didn't realize when you didn't hit the floor.
All you could barely recognize, before the feeling of reality slipped through your fingers, were the two beautifully familiar green eyes staring down at you, misty at the edges and yet still so full of love.
You barely had time to murmur the words you had been wanting to say since you had come to that shithole.
"I knew you'd come."
(A/N: Next chapter comes out within 24 hours of this, I won't leave you hanging for long. Thanks for reading!)