Loki POV:
"Okay, fine," Elizabeth defended at my dangerous expression, her curious, amber eyes wide. "You. I'm trying to get rid of you, is what I'm saying."
I erased my expression back to smug derision, knowing it made the girl uncomfortable how quickly my mood could shift. I quickly erased any admiration I may or may not have felt toward her when she immediately accepted my change in gender, something I doubted most Asgardians could have done. She even felt guilty and worried about misgendering me. Me! Her kidnapper! Admiration was not something I should be feeling toward a prisoner, I reminded myself.
"Does it seem at all possible that you could get rid of me?" I asked, rolling my eyes to deflect any emotion Elizabeth may have detected.
"Not really, to be honest, but that never stops me from trying," she retorted in an instant, tossing her wild, tawny curls.
"Well, at least you know your limitations," I sniffed, secretly impressed by her brutal honesty (and refusing to dwell on her untamed hair). No one could lie to the God of Lies, but that never stopped many fools from attempting. No matter, though; I had business to attend to.
I rested my scepter on the table. "Have you finished deliberating on the matter of our deal?"
Elizabeth nodded, but a peek into her mind revealed that she had completely forgotten about it. She made up her mind in that instant, much to my amusement. Holding back a derisive smile, I pulled away from her thoughts while she sifted through conditions.
"Yeah. Okay, I have some conditions. Can- uh- let's talk about them," she stuttered. I smiled at the reminder of how much it irked her to ask for permission.
"Of course. Allow me to present my terms," I proposed.
Elizabeth stood up straight. "No."
I raised my eyebrows.
"Allow me to present my terms," she insisted. I must admit, I was beginning to admire her spirit. But only to the extent of an entertaining pet, of course. Nothing more.
I smiled indulgently. "But of course, Elizabeth. What are you thinking?"
The girl stood silent for a moment. I believe she was surprised at me giving in so easily, but she could also have been making up conditions on the spot.
"Okay. Here they are." Here she shot a warning look my way, as if telling me not to interrupt. "One: In exchange for a place to sleep in that includes a bed (with a mattress and pillows; I'm not stupid), I will work on your machine for you like I've been doing. Two, in exchange for actually being allowed to sleep in that bed for a reasonable amount of time each night, I will do that work with as little complaint as possible. Three, if you tell your goon over there to let me go to the bathroom, and take a shower every once in a while, I'll..." she paused, thinking, then shook her head dismissively. "Actually, I don't know what I could do in exchange for that."
It was like a candle lit in my mind, too good of an opportunity to resist. I gave her a sideways smirk.
"I have a few ideas," I purred.
I expected her to give me that adorably shocked look, followed by that combination of discomfort and annoyance that I had come to know so well. Instead, however, she shot me a glare that, if looks could kill, would have sent me to Helheim. She was barely phased anymore, at least outwardly. Her mind, however, was currently running through a list of very unladylike phrases.
"Just- here," she huffed, tearing off a page of the notebook I had given her. "You write things you want from me -appropriate things- and I'll write down things I want. Then we can match them up or whatever."
"As you wish," I replied. "I will take this page and note what I require of you, and you shall do the same. Tomorrow, we will compare our lists," I acquiesced.
Elizabeth seemed far too confident, and I did have to attend to the matter of the agent, whose name I did not care enough to learn. A tendril of cold anger wound through my chest when I recalled the reason I had come here in the first place- Elizabeth attempting to hide the man, for reasons I could not decipher.
"Actually, Beth-" I began, knowing exactly what she would say.
"It's Elizabeth," she interrupted.
My lip curled. As I suspected.
I pretended to be disappointed. "Really? I thought we were getting somewhere."
She gave me the most deadpan look I had ever seen, tilting her head in such a way that I could tell what she was thinking even without looking into her mind. I chuckled.
Straightening, I turned and walked over to the boy, who stood pretending to work on a part of my machine. His hands shook with the effort of not turning around as he felt me behind him.
I heard Elizabeth's heart rate speed up as I approached him. "What are you doing?" she demanded.
I turned the disheveled man around and tilted his chin up to look into his eyes. He fought to maintain his blank façade, but he failed miserably. His petrified, brown eyes confirmed my suspicions: this one was no longer under my control.
I grabbed the man by the throat and threw him to the ground with godly strength. My boots clacked on the floor as I prowled towards him.
"Get away from him!" Elizabeth yelled. She started to walk towards me, but with a wave of my hand, Barton held her back.
What is she doing WHAT IS SHE DOING- screamed Elizabeth's thoughts. Aside from reminding me of our first meeting, it struck me how the girl did not stutter or make even one mistake with my pronouns, even in her panicked state.
But that was irrelevant.
The hawk held her upper arms, unflinching even as Elizabeth yanked frantically against his grip. Unhurried, I stood over the man who had escaped, placed my foot on his chest to keep him in place, and lowered the point of my scepter to his chest.
...
Beth POV:
A tendril of blue light wound around the tip of the scepter and entered his chest. The man instantly stilled, and blue veins crawled their way up his neck. His eyes turned to black holes, void of all light and warmth, before giving way to the same cold blue as the Tesseract.
Loki turned on me with a deadly sneer curling her lips. "Did you really think you could deceive me? I am the God of Lies, you foolish maverick! I knew the moment I laid eyes on you that you were hiding something from me!"
"What the heck is a maverick?" I yelled back, blinking back tears.
Loki hesitated. "You!" she growled. Oh, very nice. Miss Silvertongue over here. Do you even know what that word means?
"Oh yeah? Well you're a lily-livered frogmouth!" I shouted, leaning against Barton's hold. What? It was the first thing that popped into my head- I don't have a filter when I'm angry; sue me!
"And you are a pathetic mumpsimus!"
"Cockalorum!"
"Annoying little spitfire!"
"Poopy head!" I immediately opened my mouth, wishing I could take the words back in and save me from further embarrassment. Then I pressed them shut like airlock doors, refusing to let anything else incriminating escape. The expression on my face must have been priceless.
Loki's mouth twitched, her eyes locked with mine.
She stalked closer to me. I stared defiantly up into her icy eyes, barely noticing that in the dim lighting, they looked bluer than before. I fought with all my might not to struggle against Barton, but I absolutely despised feeling so helpless. With an unholy amount of effort, I stayed completely still, my muscles so tense they shook.
Loki growled, "I have been very lenient allowing you to remain free of my control. You seem to have forgotten just how powerful I am."
I stared her right back into those beautiful blue eyes. Well, you know what? I let out a long mental string of the worst curse words I could think of, and watched her flinch with perverse delight. That's what.
"You insolent-" She raised her hand as if to smack me, and Barton's hands tightened on my arms. I braced myself, turning my head to the side against Barton's chest and squeezing my eyes shut.
No strike came.
I peeked through my eyelashes to see Loki with her hand still raised and her spear barely a foot from my chest. The rage on her face had given way to an unreadable expression. Though the light seemed no different, her eyes looked slightly greener than before. There was fury in them, yes, but also confusion and... was that guilt? No, surely I was imagining things. Sociopaths like her didn't feel guilt. I glowered back with defiant trepidation.
Loki seemed to break out of whatever had stopped her from hitting me. Her blue-green eyes caught the light, and when the glint faded, they were back to that same icy blue. She gave me a black look.
"You will learn your place," she whispered, her voice shaking.
I glared. "What are you going to do? Kidnap me? Oh, wait."
Ooh, that was good, I congratulated myself on the clever remark. Often when I was arguing, I seemed to become much more eloquent, and when I was truly angry beyond the point of no return, I often said whatever I thought would hit the hardest and sound the cleverest.
I felt Agent Barton let go of me and fell forward, stumbling. Loki caught my chin in her thin fingers, and I shied away from her predatory, cold blue stare. I pulled away and backed against the wall with my hands held out protectively, but when my back hit the wall I stopped, scared.
"Mortals like you think you are so clever, so quick and biting, but you have no concept of how much words can wound," she hissed.
What? What's she going to-
"You are a phenomenal disappointment. Undoubtedly, you are a social outcast, alone and afraid. You hide in the shadows, hoping some pitying soul will see you and reach out, but too cowardly to do it yourself. So you remain alone, desperate, defending yourself with the very thing that ensures you will never form a meaningful relationship. You speak with sharp words and insults to hide the fact that inside, you are nothing more than a terrified, pathetic, weak child. Do you think I don't notice? I know I terrify you. Need I remind you that I can hear your every thought in what passes for your brain? I see how you flinch when I enter a room, how you shy away even from the softest of words. You pretend to be unaware of the power I wield, but you are as transparent as glass, your walls as thin as gossamer. Even now, you have no witty quip, no retort, no defense against my words- because you know that they are all true. You. Are. Weak. And everyone can see it."
By this point, I was shaking. My shoulders were squared, and my chin pushed out in the picture of indifferent defiance, but less obvious was the forceful chewing on my lower lip and the flabbergasted pounding of my heart. Loki was right. Her words had cut me deep. I had no idea she had seen through me so easily, and no clue as to how to recover from this. Numbly, I observed that Loki somehow felt male again. I didn't know how I knew, exactly, but it didn't matter. What dignity did I have now? I couldn't just pretend I didn't care, because as Loki had so bitingly pointed out, he could see right through that. The only choice now was not to act like I didn't care, but to act strong in spite of the hurt.
"I-"
"You what," Loki taunted. Well, there goes that option. "You... don't matter? You... have nothing to say? Don't even bother pretending. You are nothing, and-"
Suddenly, I was across the room without remembering how I got there. All feeling was gone from my chest, leaving a dull numbness only tempered by the burn of absolute rage. I didn't care what he did to me, I just snapped. I wanted to make him hurt, no matter the consequences, so I did the only thing I could think of.
I threw back my fist, and with all the strength my skinny little body could muster, I punched him in the face.
...
Loki POV:
My cheek burned. Elizabeth stood frozen inches away from me, her face filled with defiance despite the terror that had been there moments before. Her cheeks glowed a furious red, and fluorescent light glinted off her wild, caramel-streaked, brown waves. Her defiance-filled glare should not have phased me, but a pang went through my chest at the level of hate in her stare.
Somehow, she had sensed my change back to male, and seamlessly began using the correct pronouns in her mind. How had she noticed?
I stood frozen, absolutely shocked that this indomitable, infuriating mortal girl had dared to strike me.
Should I hit her back?
Leave?
...Apologize?
For once in my life, I had no scheme, no plan, nothing to do or say when faced with this trembling, stubborn, fierce young woman. I was unsure what to do with this sick, churning feeling in my gut when I saw Elizabeth blinking tears from her golden eyes with the last thread of the wall that I had so brutally destroyed. She did something to me, something I was unused to feeling.
And that scared me.
...
Beth POV:
I didn't care.
The voice in my head that normally screamed about how stupid whatever I had just done was (though it never showed up before I did something) was noticeably absent. In its place, all the swirling currents in my mind seemed to flow in one direction, like a river instead of the crashing, chaotic sea I was used to.
I didn't regret hitting him, no matter what would happen next.
Loki's expression was unreadable. For a moment, I couldn't tell whether his eyes were green or blue, but then they cleared, settling on a shade of light green that I had not seen from him before. I stared at him warily. Despite all my newfound internal courage, my body refused to move. Stupid body.
Suddenly, Agent Barton walked over to Loki and motioned for him to lean down. When he did, keeping his eyes glued to me, Barton whispered something in his ear, something too quiet for me to make out that caused the Norse god's eyes to widen slightly. I had never seen him show fear or surprise, so anything that could provoke any reaction at all must be something big. I raised an eyebrow. Yeah, I'm still here. What was that? I thought, not wanting to say it aloud. I don't know why I thought him reading the words in my mind would be less likely to provoke him than saying it, but I digress.
Loki looked from Barton to me, and seemed to come to a decision.
Raising a hand, Loki snapped his fingers, which flared green. The world blurred and bent around me, sound and light rushing by like when a ship goes to warp speed in sci-fi movies. I squinted and tried to raise my hands to protect my face as the world rushed by. It felt like it took bits of me as it did, like it was eroding me as it passed through. I braced my stance against the gale, feeling like it was ripping me apart. Just when I thought the force would sand me down to nothing but dust- it stopped.
Is that it? Was that some sort of torture? It was bad, but not that bad. I imagine Loki could do much worse.
I realized my eyes were still squeezed tightly shut and opened them. Warm light assaulted my darkness-adjusted retinas. I blinked, willing my eyes to adjust faster, and backed against the nearest wall so nothing could sneak up on me.
As the blinding glare faded, I looked around and realized that I was in my cell- but not my cell.
It was the same room I had been tied to a chair in before Loki and I made our "deal." The door was in the same place, the walls and floor the same bare concrete as the rest of this place (which I still didn't know where I was). But gone was the rickety, splintery, wooden chair that I had been tied to. In its place was...
Was...
Was that a bed?
It could have been a trick, or a trap, but whatever it was, it was better than being in the lab with an angry Norse deity that I had just punched in the face.
At that point, I didn't have the energy to stay awake, much less analyze any more of my cell. The second I saw that bed, with its plain gray blanket and thin mattress, I jumped on it and crashed. All the stress and emotion of the past day (has it really only been a day?) faded to background noise, and I was asleep nearly the second my head hit the pillow.