Another fanart by MurdurMuffinLoki because she has lots of great art!
Plus, y'all get a little biology lesson in this chapter. +-+ (DoN'T reAd ThE blOoDY ComMenTs, it's about brain biology, nothing else)
(Philosophical Rabbits And Nocturnal Kangaroos)
Tony groaned as he opened his eyes to come face-to-face with the dull gray infirmary ceiling of Avengers tower. He glanced around, there was yellow mist on the floor, that thankfully seemed to be fading. Good. He didn't need to deal with any magic-voodoo-improbably stuff this morning, or night, or whatever time it was. At least not without an unhealthy amount of coffee. He pushed himself up onto his elbow, surprisingly, nothing hurt, or ached. Not even a migraine. It's weird, but he'll enjoy it while it lasts. He glanced around the room, where everyone else seemed to be waking up, except for the resident God of Mischief.
A random girl- Cassidy, he corrected himself, was slumped on the floor. She was lying face up, but thankfully, she was breathing. Not dead. Amazing. If she was, then he'd have to organize a 3-hour conference meeting (and probably show up 40 minutes late for the sake of cohesion) with a certain pirate-wannabe about why there was a dead girl in his tower, plus the paperwork would be a nightmare. He glanced around the room to see who else was awake or waking up. Hammer time was stirring, and mumbling something about 'waiting 5 more minutes' and 'not wanting to go to Asgardian history studies now'. Jolly green, triple imposter and Legolas were also getting up. He noticed Pepper on the floor and got out of the cot to help her up.
"Tony?" She mumbled as she sat up. "Yeah?" He answered. "W- what happened?" She asked as she put her head in her hands. She fumbled a bit for the edge of the bed to push herself to her feet. When she finally got her bearings under her, she glanced around the room. She sighed as she stared at the unconscious, immobile girl on the floor. "Is she going to be ok?" She asked. Tony just shook his head and answered; "I don't know Pepper, I don't know." As if simply saying those words had some sort of magical effect, Cassidy suddenly sat up and sucked in a huge breath.
Pepper sighed in relief and walked over to help Cassidy. Thor also got out of bed, shaking his head slightly, the other three were simply sitting in bed and staring at the rest of the group. Tony turned to the trio sitting in the beds; "Nice to see all of you on the right side of consciousness!" He bellowed sarcastically. His loud voice rang around the room, causing some of the people in the said room to wince at the volume. "Tony, if you don't mind, could you keep the yelling to a minimum?" Bruce pleaded.
Tony pouted; "Fine." He mumbled, then sat back down on the bed. Pepper, meanwhile was helping a confused Cassidy sit up properly. She was glancing around the room as if she expected anything and everything to abruptly launch itself at her and try to kill her. She nervously got up, keeping a death grip on Pepper's hand, but not harsh enough to bruise, more like hold extremely tightly. "It's ok Cassidy, there's nothing here to harm you. You're safe." Pepper said softly, Tony smiled, sometimes he felt like he didn't deserve her. "Safe?" The girl repeated a tremor in her voice. "Safe," Pepper repeated.
"Monsters don't feel safe. Monsters don't have friends." Cassidy replied inaudibly. Pepper frowned. "Do you think you're a monster?" She asked softly. Cassidy chuckled, but it came out as a bitter laugh. "I know I am." She swallowed, the continued; "You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are part of you. And they will never go away." She quoted, Natasha's eyes widened a fraction. "I have red in my ledger, but unlike all of you, I can't wipe it out, and I never will." She responded.
Natasha got up off the bed and strolled over to Cassidy. She sighed, then grabbed her firmly by the shoulders, forcing her to look directly into her eyes. "You aren't a monster. No matter what you've done in the past, they're gone. It's done. That's all that matters, what you want to be from now on. Only you can change your life, no one else can do it for you. You can either stay and dwell on the past, or you can stand up. You can become a better person." Natasha said with fierce determination. Everyone in the room was surprised, minus Clint, since she had shown her emotions, well true emotions, not a counterfeit identity. Cassidy sniffed, then retorted; "But I killed them, Natasha. I killed them. I could have done something, but I left them to die."
Natasha frowned; "You're talking about your friends, aren't you?" Cassidy sighed heavily, then replied; "Them, and so many other people."' Then, to everyone's surprise, Natasha pulled her into a hug. "I know what it's like to lose someone close to you." She said, her voice quiet but audible in the silent room. "I- I lost my sister when we went into the red room." Cassidy immediately pulled away from the hug, and stared at Natasha, the bright fire of determination burning in her eyes. "I know where Yelena is." Natasha gawked at her for a second, before asking; "You do?"
Cassidy nodded enthusiastically; "I have a vague idea of where she would be right now." She answered with a smile. "Are you going to be ok?" Natasha questioned abruptly, changing the subject. "I think I will be, thanks. I needed the pep talk." Cassidy paused, then continued; "I can go get her in a bit, but I need to check on Loki before I go." Pepper frowned; "You're going by yourself?" Cassidy laughed, then replied; "I'm used to doing pretty much everything by myself, besides. I'm the only one who can get the red powder stuff to undo the other mind control stuff."
Natasha blanched. "Mind control?" She questioned. Cassidy fidgeted a bit at the question. "Well, Nat. That's a long story, but the mind control that you had in the red room was mostly psychological, while Yelena's mind control chemically alters brain functions." Natasha took a deep breath; "So, it's like the scepter's control?" Cassidy thought for a moment, then replied; "Not exactly, but . . . wait, nevermind! Dreykov doesn't create that until 2016, which means all we have to do is get the red dust, and bam! Everything goes back to normal." She replied happily. "Also to answer your question earlier, the weird mind control stuff in the red room is more biological. The chemical blocks the nerve receptors in the brain responsible for individual thinking, making them perfect candidates to be reshaped into black widows." Cassidy paused, then turned to Loki. "The scepter, on the other hand, does, in my opinion, a lot worse stuff to someone," Clint sat up further, listing intently.
She took a deep breath, then continued; "The scepter . . . well, it does a lot of things. Let's take the way how it mind controls someone for example. So as most of you know, you poke someone in the chest with the . . . business end of the scepter, and the stone sends a current of power into the victim's mind." Cassidy glanced at Clint briefly. "The stone sends the probe through the bloodstream and into the brain since it's easier to access the cortex via the bloodstream. The brain is divided into 4 sections, but I'll only mention the important ones. There's the cortex, which controls voluntary movement and thinking. The basal ganglia are in the middle of the brain and coordinate messages between the different parts of the brain. The cerebellum is at the base of the brain and controls balance and coordination."
"There are also 4 lobes, but I won't get into those. Pretty much the energy from the stone goes through the bloodstream and into the cortex of the brain, which as I said, controls movement and thinking. The stone hijacks that entire part of the brain and opens a link between the victim's brain and the stone. Now, the person with the stone can control and move the person like a puppet." She paused, before resuming. "The stone though doesn't numb the brain or force the person's consciousness out, the person is trapped in their own body and forced to see what they're doing. Clint, you luckily were only controlled once, which means the stone's energy only went through to the cortex. Loki, on the other hand, may not be so lucky."
Thor got out of the bed and turned to Cassidy, his tone distressing; "What do you mean little witch?" "Well, you see Thor." She paused for a moment, then replied; "There's a rule that says that when timelines branch and a new universe gets created, you can't go back in time or further in time. The rule is technically true, but it doesn't apply to everyone. The one exception is . . . me. I can pretty much just go back and forward in whatever universe, timeline or multiverse I want. Before you all protest that I could have done something to save people, I did and can save people now, but I couldn't before. I swore another blood oath that I can't interfere unless I'm called specifically, but when I am, I can do whatever I want from the point I was summoned." everyone paused for a moment before Cassidy celebrated;
"Pretty much I have to leave this universe for a while, and then come back when someone calls me, and when that happens, I pretty much have free reign on whatever I want to do, except I can't tamper with the past." Mutters of understanding rand around the room, Tony spoke up; "Why do you have to leave, take a VC, then come back when you can just stay here forever?" Cassidy scowled a bit, which looked slightly hilarious seeing as smiling was her default. "Because Odin Dickson, which works since Dickson is an actual name likes banning me every few hundred years from coming to this universe." Thor looked like he was about to ask another question, or maybe try a lame retort at protecting his father's shreds of honour or something, but Bruce interrupted him;
"You mentioned blood oaths again, but you didn't add the consequences of breaking one." Cassidy thought for a moment; "Oh yeah! I never got to that, did I?" Everyone shook their heads; "Well, pretty much, if you break a blood oath, you get your blood boiled out of you from the inside out and you explode." She replied plainly, she scowled a bit at the definition. Everyone paled at that, but Cassidy was quick to reassure them; "Well, don't worry. It gives you quite a few telepathic warnings before that happens." None of them looked relieved though, so Cassidy added; "Don't worry though, it's a relatively painless *death*." Cassidy said, making air quotations at the word 'death'. Steve spoke up; "Why did you do the . . . finger things at the word 'death'?" He asked.
Cassidy nearly snorted at him not knowing what finger quotations were, but decided that that would be rude, unlike Tony, who was snickering on his bed and answered him as politely as possible. "Well, since it's most of the time, if not always mages or people who use magic or Seidr who do blood oaths, and relatively powerful mages, mind you their magic is powerful enough to stitch the body and soul back together again. You die, and your magic resurrects you. Simple." Cassidy answered optimistically. "Ok, cook, but just to get these types of things out of the way, was there anything else I missed last time?" Tony spoke up; "You never actually explained how you know about us and our f*cking existence before you even met us!" "Oh, yeah that!" Cassidy said; "Also, there's no need to swear Stark, I was going to get to that eventually, but since you're an impatient human, I'll just tell you now." She paused. (Mostly for dramatic effect) "Well, in my universe, you're all fictional characters in movies, tv shows, a few connecting comic books and fanfictions."
Everyone paused, some of them paled; "What do you mean?" Steve asked. "Well, I mean exactly what I mean. In my universe, you're all fictional characters." Clint spoke up; "This has to be some sick joke! It has to be." Cassidy sighed; "Unfortunately it isn't." "Did Loki know? Thor croaked out. Cassidy nodded; "He did, but as he said, he was under a blood oath." "And you aren't?" Tony asked. "Well, I'm only allowed to break it only if someone asks, no other exceptions."Everyone let the information sink in before Cassidy continued; "But, I'm getting off track now, back to the original question. Why is Loki probably going to have the rest of the side effects from the scepter's control a lot worse than all of you guys?"
"Side effects?!" Clint shrieked. "Yes, side effects. Selvig will also have the same symptoms as Loki, except a bit more extreme, thankfully that is. Besides, we wouldn't want a mentally unstable young Asgardian sorcerer running around. You, Clint, are the luckiest out of everyone who was controlled by the scepter, minus that other guy who I don't know. Marvel Wiki didn't add him, but ok. The least side-effects anyone would have, that means you, Clint is pretty much just a headache when you wake up after being knocked out, which I assume already happened, so you have nothing to worry about." Clint sighed in relief; "What about Loki and Dr. Selvig?" He asked. "Well, Eric is a mortal, well, he's human, is what I'm saying. And since he's a human and he was influenced by Loki a lot longer than any other humans were, he'll pretty much just go *banana balls* as Darcy put it." Cassidy replied.
Thor spoke up; "I'm afraid to interrupt you, Miss. Bell." Cassidy glared at him, (If looks could kill) and Thor corrected himself; "Cassidy, but what will happen to Selvig?" Cassidy fidgeted a bit, picking at her palm, Thor noted that; "Well, he's isn't going to go, crazy per se. More like saying some stuff that isn't probably but is 100% true. Don't worry though, he gets better eventually." Thor sighed in relief, Cassidy continued; "But, it wasn't the mind stone that caused him to go *crazy*. It was his experience with the Tesseract. The Tesseract gave him a lot of knowledge, plus the mind stone's influence on him which meant he had a lot more to sort out. You, Clint, weren't focused on the Tesseract during the invasion, you were focused on your . . . mission." Clint looked away.
"But, yeah. Now, I'm pretty sure you're all wondering why I mentioned the fact that I can travel through time in universes, while I was talking about why Loki's going to have a worse effect from the mind control." Everyone nodded. "Well, when I showed up, which was a few minutes before you all left the interdimensional space pocket room place thing-a-ma-gig. Which speaking of the room, what were you guys doing in there?" Thor spoke up; "We were viewing my brother's memories of his . . . time with the Chitauri."
Cassidy frowned; "So you all know about torture already?" She asked. Replies of confirmation and around the room. "Ok, yeah. Ok, that clears some things up." Steve spoke up; "How can you be so casual about this? Your friend was tortured for a few months and you're not taking this seriously?!" Cassidy frowned; "I care about him more than any of you, maybe even more." Cassidy said, staring directly at Thor, who dared to look decently ashamed of himself. "And you Thor, you're his brother, you're supposed to be there for him. I was there when you ignored him in favour of Sif and the Idiots 3." Thor was about to protest but Cassidy cut him off; "And don't you dare pretend, Odinson that you don't know what the Hel I'm talking about. I was there, in case you've forgotten. I knew how the brother who you care oh so fricking much about's life was going to play out.
"I knew he was going to experience living Hel through his life, pain that he didn't deserve because of other people's barbarous actions and life choices. I was there when you were in the vault when you proclaimed so joyfully that you'll 'hunt the monsters down and slay them all'!" Thor swallowed; "And did you correct your atrocious ways? No, you didn't!" Thor finally cut off her rant; "Yes, but that was Father's fault!" Cassidy paused; "That man you call 'father' has the blood of thousands on his hands! That man has killed and slaughtered and called it mercy! That man is not, and never will be fit enough to raise anyone! And yet, you lie and say that man is true of heart when you know, you know Odinson that he isn't! We wouldn't even be in this mess, your brother wouldn't even be unconscious or tortured, or even hurt for that matter if it weren't for that man you call 'father'!" Cassidy hissed at him.
Nearby, a vase on one of the bedside tables shattered, causing the broken glass to explode and fall to the floor, luckily no one was hurt. "Think twice, Odinson before you decide to debate with me whether the man you call father is worthy or not." She said, then turned to the rest of the group. "Sorry about that, sometimes yelling or emotional trauma is the only way to get stuff through his thick skull, it works too, I've seen it in other realities where a few Thor variants didn't learn a lesson, and a yelling session should to the work just fine." Thor simply looked bashful and started yet another staring contest with the floor. Cassidy sighed, then turned to Thor; "Look, Thor." Thor looked up.
"I know you're trying to be a good brother to Loki. I know you're trying, but you're not trying hard enough. I've seen you make up with Loki, be nice to him for a day, or even a minute, and then dismiss him and his feeling for the next century or decade." Thor looked like he was going to speak up, but stopped himself. "It's ok Thor, you can talk." Thor swallowed, then spoke up, his voice hoarse. "I want to be a better brother to Loki, but, I- I don't know how." Cassidy smiled softly; "That's a start Thor, that's a start. It's like in psychology, to face your problem, you have to realize you have a problem, or someone else does, but you have to realize you have a problem in the first place to cure it." Cassidy paused; "Sometimes problems don't require a solution to solve them; instead, they require maturity to outgrow them."
Thor smiled; "That is very wise, Cassidy." Cassidy grinned back; "Thanks, I use a generator." Everyone laughed. Cassidy stood back up from her kneeling position in front of Thor and switched back to *business mode* from *Thor needs a 'pep talk' mode*. She swallowed, then continued; "So, as I said, Loki was . . . tortured for a bit." Everyone nodded, while Pepper and Happy were staring somberly at Loki. "But, so I'm not sure if you know this, but it took, quite a few attempts to get the mind control to work properly." Clint blanched; "He was experimented on with the scepter more than once?" Cassidy swallowed; "Yes."
"They, and by 'they' I mean the Chitauri, and a certain space grape needed to make sure their puppet was working properly," Cassidy said cheerlessly. "Isn't that what Loki called Thanos?" Tony asked, murmurs of confirmation rang around the room. (Oh wow, I'm using this expression a lot.) Cassidy suddenly lit up; "He said that?! Straight to his face?!" "Aye, he did," Thor said, sounding as if he was proud of his brother. Cassidy glanced at Loki; "I hope you pull through buddy because we're going to need you in the Endgame."
_|_-_|_
Loki 3rd person P.O.V
Darkness
He floated in the void of black, nothing around him.
He felt at peace, oddly. As if here in the abyss nothing could hurt him anymore.
Nothing could, and nothing will.
It was finally tranquil.
Until it wasn't. (Ok, I use this line WAY too much! xD)
A voice spoke up, but it was not the kind soothing one of the mind ston- Wanda. It was harsh, gravely and metallic.
"We meet again,"
The voice paused;
"Loki Laufeyson."
Muahahaaaaa! yOu Guys thought zE OTHER cLiffHangers were bad? Oh no! The is much, much worse!!!! Ehehehehe!
Keep scrolling :)
Ok, that's enough I'm not cruel, you guys get like, 1 more paragraph! (ehehe, random prank, if you read the start of the chapter, you know what I mean :))
Cassidy 3rd person P.O.V
"What do you mean 'if he pulls through? He's going to live, right?" Clint said, worry evident in his voice. Cassidy turned sharply to him; "Didn't know you cared, Barton." Clint frowned; "Of course I care about the kid, I fricking shot him!" He screeched, tugging at his hair, which Natasha gently pried his hands away from his scalp. "Y- You care about him?" Cassidy asked quietly. "Of course I do, he's a kid who got fricking tortured," Clint replied guiltily, Cassidy chuckled. "Don't let him hear you say that, he doesn't like being called a kid. And said 'kid' mind you, is a thousand plus years old, pretty much excellent in the use of every weapon, my best friend and the most powerful sorcerer in all the 9 realms. He only has the psyche of a teenager, and an abused teenager mind you, but still a teenager." When she mentioned the 'abused' bit, she glared at Thor, who immediately hung his head. All of a sudden, a 'wooshing' sound came into existence. The team abruptly went on edge, glancing around the room, Cassidy only smiled as a haze of blue formed in the room and slowly expanded; "Looks like the gang's all back together again." She said with a smirk.
Well.... That may be an even WORSE cliffhanger but... Eh. I'm sadistic, it's pretty well known but this point. Also, Cassidy will be finding and recruiting Yelena in the next chapter, and you'll all get to find out who the mystery arrivals are. :)
Also, guys, I was wondering if I could add another pic at the end because I realized I have quite a few and I probably won't have enough to finish them all, so what do you guys think? 2 pics by chapter? (It won't affect the words count just saying, it'll still be in the 2000-3000-word range.)
This one was 3865 words
Hope y'all like the chapter;
- just-a-random-tissue