Signy and Natasha, now accompanied by Thor, reached the lab to an already tense environment which didn't bode well for the reason for their visit. Stark, Banner, and Rogers had been busy while the others were getting information from Loki. They'd discovered some troubling information regarding SHIELD's intended use of the Tesseract.
"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked Natasha as the three entered the room.
"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Nat said.
He chuckled. "I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."
"Loki is manipulating you."
"And you've been doing what, exactly?"
"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."
"Yes and I'm not gonna leave because suddenly you get a little twitchy." Bruce turned the hanging monitor towards them slightly, pointing at it with the arm of his glasses. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."
"Because of him," Fury said, pointing at Thor.
"Me?" Thor questioned.
"Watch the finger, sir. You're not the Director of us," Signy interrupted.
Fury glared at Signy for a moment before continuing, "Exactly, Ms. Odindotter. Exactly. Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously outgunned."
"Well, that much is accurate, but our people want nothing but peace with your planet."
"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury said, his focus narrowing on her. "And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled."
"Like you controlled the Cube?" Steve intervened.
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it. And his allies," Thor said. "It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."
"Great plan," Signy sassed.
"You forced our hand," Fury argued. "We had to come up with something."
"A nuclear deterrent," Tony chimed in. "Because that always calms things down."
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark."
"I'm sure if Stark still made weapons, he would be neck-deep-" Steve said.
"Hold on. How is this now about me?" Tony questioned.
"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"
"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor jabbed.
"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury conflicted.
"And yet you treat your champions with such distrust," Signy said.
"Are you really that naive?" Natasha condescended. "SHIELD monitors potential threats."
"Captain America's on threat watch?" Banner chimed in.
"We all are."
Signy grew bored of the conversation, her eyes wandering to the scepter which seemed to be thriving on all the negative emotions swirling around the room. Her gaze lingered back in the direction of Loki's cell. Banner was still his target, that much she was sure of. But was this part of his plan as well? Trigger arguments between the group which had previously been moving towards a comfortable partnership.
"You speak of control, yet your court chaos," Signy said, rejoining the argument. It was true, she thought. Their plans with the Tesseract had completely backfired. Now this "team" was falling apart before it had even begun whether that was loki's doing or not.
"That's his M.O., isn't it?" Banner agreed. "I mean, what are we? A team? No, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb." Signy gestured to him in agreement.
"You need to step away," Fury ordered.
"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony instigated, putting a hand on Steve's shoulder.
"You know damn well why! Back off!" Steve exclaimed, pushing Tony's hand away.
"I'm starting to want you to make me."
"There is so much testosterone in this space," Signy muttered with a roll of her eyes.
"Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."
Steve scoffed. "I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself." Signy's brows furrowed, her disagreement evident. Tony made mistakes and he used the power he had to fix them. That wasn't selfishness or arrogance. In fact, it was rather noble. "You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."
"I think I would just cut the wire."
Steve chuckled. "Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."
"A hero? Like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."
Signy finally saw the issue in front of her face: these people didn't know each other. Not well enough, at least. This group had only known each other for approximately a day and already, they'd each made huge judgements about the other.
Steve saw arrogance in Tony, so he formed his view of him around that. Tony was looking to Steve for the "special" about him that made his father speak so highly of the captain. The way Tony's father never spoke about him. When Tony couldn't find that thing he thought he was missing, his jealousy doubled, because the man his father seemed to like so much more than him was just as ordinary as the rest of them.
"Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds," Steve continued his pursuit against Tony.
Thor's laughter cut off their grudge match. "You people are so petty... and tiny."
"Yeah this is a team," Bruce mocked.
Fury turned to Natasha. "Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his-"
"Where? You rented my room."
Signy winced. "Yikes. Gotcha there."
Fury glared at the child again. "The cell was just-"
"In case you needed to kill me but you can't. I know. I tried." The team turned towards Banner, thinking they mustn't have heard him right. "I got low. I didn't see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out... So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"
Fury's hand subtly moved to his gun. Thor pushed Signy behind him slightly. She looked up at him confusedly, but followed his gaze down to Banner's hand.
It was grasped around the scepter.
"Dr. Banner," Steve said. "Put down the scepter."
The moment was postponed when an alert went off on their computer screens. Bruce quickly abandoned the scepter and went towards the monitor. He glanced at Signy apologetically as he passed her by. "Sorry, kid. Looks like you don't get to see my party trick after all."
"You located the Tesseract?" she confirmed.
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard," Thor argued. "No human is a match for it."
Tony and Steve's bickering picked up right where it left off.
All thoughts of fighting or possession were ceased when Bruce realized that he'd located the Tesseract hovering right outside of the Helicarrier. Everything was cut off when a huge explosion rocked the ship, throwing the team in opposite directions.
As a last ditch effort, Thor grabbed his sister and shielded her body with his, the sound of her screams echoing in his ears as they went flying.
---♦♢♦---
Signy's ears rang as she pulled herself up and threw herself off of her brother's crumpled form. He'd used himself as both her human shield and landing pad in the chaos of the explosion, leaving him injured where she should've been.
"Are you hurt?" she quickly asked, pulling her hands back and forth to draw water droplets from the air.
"Of course not, Sister. I am mighty." Thor stood but subsequently fell just as quickly.
"Mighty my ass," she muttered. "Sit still and let me heal you." Her self-sustained source of water wrapped around Thor's head to first alleviate his concussion. Then, there were a few superficial wounds that she quickly got rid of.
Moments later, they heard the roar of Hulk and could then assume that Natasha was in a bad spot. "I'm going after them," Thor said.
"If Banner's Hulked out, that means Loki's plan is coming to fruition."
"That can't be good."
"No, it can't." Signy thought for a moment. "Go after them, as you said. I can handle Loki."
Thor smiled at his sister's confidence. And it was true; Loki wasn't one to have a soft spot, and yet that's what Signy was to him. Loki treated her the same as any with his tricks and impulsive tendencies, but there was a softness Loki showed to Signy and no other. Thor held out his hand which his sister grasped appreciatively, pulling her to a standing position. "I know you can. Good luck, Sig."
"Luck I've got. Just stay safe, Thor."
They ran off in separate directions, Thor towards assured danger and Signy towards a trap.
---♦♢♦---
While the hypnotized operation team infiltrated the Helicarrier, Signy continued down the familiar route to the center of the ship where Loki's cell stood untouched, icing spellbound enemies left and right.
As she walked, she repeated the slow movement of pulling the fingers of each hand apart and bringing them back together, drawing droplets of water from the air around her.
She had only learned this skill in part as it was usually a last ditch effort in time sensitive and dangerously important times such as these. By the time she reached the cell, a plentiful stream of water circled her wrist.
As Signy rounded the corner, her walk turned into a sprint when she saw the door to Loki's glass prison slide open. "No!" she yelled, diving for her adoptive brother. Loki matched her fighting stance, but instead of engaging in any sort of spat, Signy fell straight through him. And the glass door slid shut behind her.
Signy shot up from the floor, turning around to see the now-sealed cell. "Oh, my gullible siblings. Will you ever not fall for that one, Sister?"
Signy threw a shard of ice at the glass, a small crack growing from the point of impact. "No, Loki! I will always place my trust in you. I will always believe in you. Even now, when you so clearly don't deserve it."
Loki smiled, but Signy could swear there was a hint of remorse behind his cold facade. "It won't help, but I did so hope it wouldn't be you."
Signy's breaths grew shallow as panic set in. "What does that mean?"
Her brother's arrogant act returned as he laughed lightly and pressed a button. The space below the cell opened, air rushing in as they gained sight of the clouds and the long drop below. "The humans think us immortal. Don't you think we should test that?"
"You're bluffing," Signy decided. "I know you, Loki. Perhaps better than any other. Thor, you'd drop him without a thought. But look at me Loki. Drop the act, look me in the eye, and tell me you would risk my life like this."
"Don't pretend to know me," Loki said quietly, his gaze locked on his little sister. "You and Thor are Odin's golden children. And I am worthless. That's what Father thinks, so that's what you all think-"
"I love you!"
"Stop lying to me!"
The sound of one of Loki's guards hitting the floor reached the siblings' ears. Standing, holding a large gun, was a familiar SHIELD agent. "Move away, please," he said calmly. "Ms. Odindotter, I don't believe we've met formally. I'm Agent-"
"Phil Coulson." At his surprise, she smiled a bit and said, "Maria Hill speaks very highly of you. Stark, too."
The corner of his mouth turned upwards before he turned back to her adoptive brother. "You like this? We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does." He loaded the gun, an orange glow rising from the barrel, making a mischievous grin break out across Signy's face. "Wanna find out?"
They never did as the sharp end of Loki's scepter pierced Coulson's chest.
Signy's horrified scream filled the space as she collapsed to the ground, pulling at the roots of her long, blonde hair.
There was a disgusting squelch as Loki pulled it from Coulson's body and he crumpled against the wall. Signy's hand rested against the reinforced glass, fractals of ice growing between her fingers and the smooth surface, wishing she could just reach him. Had she been able to, with a large enough source of water, she may have been able to heal the wound. Instead, she was confined behind a layer of glass as she watched his life force drain before her.
"It's... okay," Phil choked out as blood gushed from his mouth.
Signy shook her head as tears flooded her eyes. She barely knew this man. And yet, the sight of him dying before her as he was attempting to save her from whatever Loki had in store, was heartbreaking.
Her pale green eyes raked over to her adoptive brother as his hand posed over the button that could drop her in the blink of an eye. Signy craned her neck to look down at the open air.
She looked back up at her brother, any facade to hide her own emotions dropped. Only fear clouded her features. She'd guessed wrong. Loki wasn't who she thought she was. And yet, she still said, "Loki... please."
Loki looked up slowly and met her eyes. Again, she could see the sadness behind them, but it didn't help calm her fear. If anything, it doubled it. "It's for your own good."
With that, the red button was pushed and the short cylinder dropped from the aircraft, soaring towards the Earth far below it.
♦ author's note ♦
i may or may not love this chapter. it's probably the whole reason that i decided to expand on sig's journey in 2012 avengers. she and loki's relationship is so complex and sig's relationship w trust is so complex and all of that begins in this scene.