Loki watched through the monitors as they brought you in. They secured your arms in weighted metal cuffs that went straight up to your elbows, constricting your wrists as well as your hands. You walked in with no less than ten SHIELD agents accompanying you. You looked like a maiden sacrifice being led to her fate.
"Who is that delectable creature?" Loki asked with a growing smirk.
"She calls herself Zephyr," Thor answered watching Loki to the side of his eyes. "She's been setting fire to hidden SHIELD facilities up and down the eastern seaboard. Killed 20 people, and injured 50. She's targeting your record." Thor laid his hand on Loki's shoulder. "She threatened to blow up the whole site, but we can't find any explosives. Leave it to you to be attracted to the outlaws," Thor whispered with a chuckle. Loki just raised an eyebrow at him and dusted his shoulder off where Thor had patted him.
"We need to know how her powers work. Before she does it again," Rogers added. "FRIDAY is running a background check on her as we speak to give us any clues. Wanda is still on her honeymoon with Vis. I don't want to contact her unless absolutely necessary. Do you think you can get into her head? See her memories?" He asked Loki.
"I can try," Loki answered, trying to hide his elation.
They led you to a cylindrical cell in the lower levels of the building. It was made out of indestructible glass and light. You couldn't escape the watchful eyes of the cameras or the glaring reflection of yourself.
You had formed dark circles under your eyes. Your hair was knotted and singed at the ends. You looked like you hadn't eaten in days. They took the manacles off of you, leaving welts below your elbows.
If only they knew. It wouldn't have mattered if they bound your whole body. You'd still be able to set fire with or without your hands.
The first time you used your powers, was when you were eight. You set fire to your shared bedroom and nearly killed your baby brother. You didn't need your hands then. You just simply stopped breathing.
Your parents, being the doctrinal extremists they were, had decided that eight years of loving a child was not enough to protect said child. So they had abandoned you to a research facility in upstate New York. Fear and loathing in their eyes. They had solemnly believed that they were looking into the eyes of the devil herself when they looked at you.
So, you became one.
A figure stepped into your reflection, interrupting your thoughts down memory lane. You instantly knew who he was. His long face and high cheekbones were more prominent in person. His long dark curls were secured in a half-ponytail. The sleeves on his dress shirt were rolled halfway up, exposing the veins in his arms. He carried a small plate with a sandwich and a bottle of water.
"It's peanut butter and jelly." He said to you, holding the plate up to the glass for you to inspect it. "I was told, it's a favorite amongst you mortals here in this region."
"I'm not hungry." You snapped at him.
"Oh no darling, this is for me." He chuckled. "I hadn't eaten lunch yet. I was about to until you had to pick this time to come in with your retinue." He grabbed the nearest chair and sat down on it, backwards. His legs spread apart as he straddled the chair facing you.
He took a bite of his sandwich, eyeing you. You paced back and forth in your cell. Your eyes darted between the man and the sandwich he devoured. You really hadn't eaten in days. You couldn't help the growling complaint of your stomach as you watched him demolish it bite after bite.
When he finished, he licked the jam off his fingers and proceeded to drink half of the water bottle. You could see his Adam's apple bob with every chug of water he swallowed. You crossed your arms and narrowed your eyes at him.
"Oh, I'm sorry. How rude of me..." He said to you, acknowledging your hungry stare.
"Finally! What's a girl gotta do to get a meal around here?"
"...I didn't introduce myself. I am Loki, Prince of Asgard. The rightful heir of Jotunheim. Odins..."
"OH MY GOD! Do you come with an off button? I know who you are!" you growled, matching the energy of your empty stomach.
"So feisty! You know my name, but I don't know yours." Loki beamed.
"Does it matter?" you rolled your eyes.
"Yes. I'd like to know the name of the person whose head I'll be rummaging through." He said.
A new sense of panic trickled through you, but you refuse to show him the effect he had on you. He stood up from his chair. His long legs unmount the seat. He stopped right in front of your cell, his hands in his pockets, staring you down.
His gaze felt intrusive and speculating. You could see his smile, so sweetly towards you, and a glint in his eyes. How is that possible? That shit only happens in books, right? You walked up to him slowly, pressing yourself up against the glass. Your wrists cross over, above your head.
"Why don't you come in here then? I'll let you rummage all you want." You tried to say in the most seductive way you could.
"Oh, I won't do it right now, darling. You're too guarded and wild. Plus..." Loki knocked on the glass causing you to cover your ears from the loud echo. "It's no fun being in there. I would know."
He started to walk away. "When you're ready, dear. Do call for me." He saluted and walked off. You continued to growl at him as he retreated. You slammed your fist against the hard glass trying to make a dent, knowing it wouldn't have mattered.
You turned, leaning against the blue-tinged glass, and slid yourself down onto the floor of the cell. That's when you noticed a small plate in the center of the chamber with a full sandwich, and a bottle of water.
Loki came to visit you that night, unbeknownst to you. You had fallen asleep on the floor of the cell. You used your jacket as a pillow, leaving you to weather the cold of the basement. He conjured a blanket over your shivering figure and he saw you instantly relax into a fit-less sleep.
He had already seen inside your thoughts earlier that day but didn't lead on. There was so much heartache and pain. Trifling through your memories had triggered his own childhood recollections. It also triggered some protective instinct of his that he didn't know existed.
Maybe he just felt a kindred spirit with you. That perhaps you would understand what it was like. Because he certainly understood the suffering you were going through now. He tried one more time.
He let his invisible strings find their way inside the cell. Crawling slowly over the floor, then into your temples.
You must've been eight or nine. You were so small, but you had the same shade of hair, the same intelligent eyes. Loki looked around and saw that he was in a nursery, perhaps your bedroom. He could hear an argument in the background happening somewhere inside the house. You sat on your bed as your baby sibling started crying in his crib from the loud argument outside the bedroom doors.
You covered your ears. It was too loud. You rocked your tiny self, back and forth. Loki saw you take in a deep breath and shut your eyes. That's when the first flicker of flames appeared.
It started with the bedsheets you were on. Then it traveled to the curtains. Pretty soon the whole room was engulfed. Your parents entered the room alarmed. Your mother grabbed your brother from his crib and then tried to grab you. "Y/N!" She yelled. But you were surrounded by flames. Your father came back with an extinguisher, dousing the room with white foam.
The flames had receded enough for your father to grab you from your bed and haul you out.
Loki jumped out of your head as you started to stir awake. You sat up, looking around the brightly lit room outside your cell, not seeing anyone or anything. Except for the chair that Loki was sitting in earlier. Vacant. You went back to sleep, pulling the blanket over your shoulders.
Blanket?!
You recalled the dream you had just woken up from. Loki was there in your dream, reliving the fateful night you triggered your powers. Now looking down at the conjured blanket on you, could he have been here? Could he have gone into your thoughts, unguarded? Just like he said he would? You threw the blanket across your cell and stayed up all night.
The next day, Loki came in with two sandwiches on a plate. "Let me guess, they're both for you? You little glutton," you asked eyeing the plate.
"No, darling. One's for you. I wouldn't be that heartless." He splayed his hand and the other sandwich appeared inside your chamber with a bottle of water. "I figured we could have lunch together."
"Usually, you take the person to lunch before you intrude on their thoughts."
"I was not aware you knew I had done it."
"Does it make you feel better? Does it make it any more moral? Now that you've fed me?"
"No. Not really. But innocent lives are getting hurt-"
"Innocent, my ass!" you chided.
"And an amazing ass it is. But pray, tell, what exactly makes them not so innocent?" Loki asked.
You raised your eyebrows at him. Then rolled your eyes. "You have got to be kidding me! That's all you people ever see, isn't it? The damsel in distress. Surely, we can save her. Well, listen up 'Lucky Charms.' I've been way past saving. Where were the Avengers twenty years ago when I nearly burnt my house down? Where were you guys when my own parents sold me to the nearest SHIELD facility for research? Where were my heroes, huh?" you yelled out to him, tossing the sandwich against the glass wall.
"I wasn't here twenty years ago. But we're here now, Y/N."
"Don't you ever call me that again!"
"It's your name isn't it?"
"It's what those hypocritical excuse-for-a-parents called me. I refuse to answer to it!"
"Ok. Zephyr it is. Zephyr. Zep. Phyr? Zee? Can I call you Zee?" Loki said, trying your name. Trying to taste it on his lips. Feeling how it sounded with his tongue.
"No. Is my name too long and complicated for you? Loki? Prince of Ass-guard. Yada yada yada." You deadpanned. Loki was getting agitated with all your irreverent backtalk. He almost preferred it to when you were asleep.
"I'm going to try and get into your mind again, Zee. It would be easier for you if you didn't resist." Loki warned.
"Or what?"
"Or else, you might see something you might not like. Memories you've tried to repress. I can guide you. But you'd have to follow my directions." Loki said ever so calmly, putting his hands back inside his pockets.
"Oh, I'm not worried about what I'll see. I know what goes on in my head." You taunted. You walked back towards the opposite end of your cell, leaning back on the cool glass as an invitation to him.
In an instant, Loki was transported to a dark room. A brick façade lined one side of the walls. On the opposite side of the room, floor-to-ceiling windows showcased the moonlight outside. The view was six, maybe seven stories up, and overlooked the Brooklyn Bridge. Loki took note of some major street names that he could read.
A soft moan from behind him stole his attention. There was a couch and some furniture that had appeared mere seconds before. He saw you on the couch. Your back to him. A man's hand tangled in your hair and his other hand gripped your hips tightly.
The man's legs spread apart as he pulled you in closer to rub against him. You whimpered. And that sound sent a delicious rush down Loki's spine arousing him.
Who were you tangled with? Loki was curious. You started grinding against them, eliciting a staggered familiar moan from the stranger. You cocked your head slightly to give Loki a better angle to watch.
Loki jumped back in shock to see himself staring back at him. The Loki under you smiled a mischievous grin as he grabbed more of your hair and angled you to get a better kiss.
Loki quickly jumped out of your head. Shaking in disbelief. He stared at you, unable to say anything. He knew that neither of you had ever met before. So this wasn't a memory. Were you strong enough to block his advances? To make him see what you wanted him to see?
"I told you. You might not like what you see." You gave him a knowing smirk.
"What did she show you?" Bruce asked through his headpiece.
"Are you alright, brother?" Thor added.
"Do you need one of us to go down there with you?" Rogers offered.
"No. I'll try again." Loki whispered.
"Try all you want. You're not getting anything out of me. Those fuckers deserve to die!" You yelled as you hit the wall of your cell with your fist. Hot white light erupted from your hands, momentarily blinding Loki.
Loki jumped back in and landed in a field with tall dry grass. The half-moon had shown above and the only sounds he could hear were that of cicadas.
He spotted you walking through the grass and muck. You were younger, but well past your teenage years. You were wearing a tattered jumpsuit. Your hair was greasy and slick. Your eyes were a lot deeper and darker than they were now. You had a chain wrapped around your ankle attached to a heavy metal ball. You pulled on the chain, its weight slowing you down, dragging along the dirt. The cuff biting into your weak ankles.
Alarms sounded in the air as searchlights began their hunt for you. You looked up and sucked in a lungful of air, then blew at the weight around your foot. The surrounding air began to lift the heavy ball and carry it as fast as you could run.
The ball and chain followed you. There were men chasing after you now. They had the SHIELD insignia patched on their arms. One caught up with you and grabbed you by your arm, marginally missing the ball you had thrown his way.
"Come, kleiner lufthauch, we mean you no harm." The man said to you. You sucked in your breath again, but this time you held it. All of a sudden the reeds around you caught fire, catching the pant leg of your assailant. The man was too distracted to notice that you threw the metal ball at his head. All by just exhaling your breath. The man fell. A concave dip where his face should have been.
You ran.
Loki snapped back to reality. Air, breath. That's her power. He sent a projection of himself into the control room. Thor, Banner, and Rogers standing around a giant monitor, watching the two of you on the screen.
"Her powers come from the air around her," Loki said behind them. Two of them stumbled forward, startled by Loki's sudden appearance.
"For goodness sakes, Loki!" Rogers warned. Thor stood unfazed, accustomed to Loki's surprise attacks.
Loki rolled his eyes as he continued. "It seems she can control the air around her."
"How does the fire come into the equation?" Thor asked.
Bruce contemplated. "Fire needs three things. Fuel, heat, and-"
"Oxygen!" Rogers finished his sentence.
"She was being held against her will at a SHIELD facility. I saw her trying to escape." Loki started again.
"Why are there no records of her?" Rogers asked. "Even with her given name, FRIDAY still can't seem to find any trace of her."
"The jailor I saw in my memory-walk called her 'little breath' or 'little air?' You could try looking that up." Loki offered.
"How did he say it?" Bruce asked, typing into the keyboard.
"Kleiner lufthauch."
"That's German." Steve stood straighter looking Loki in his eyes. "You don't think she escaped an undercover HYDRA facility, do you?" Rogers said starting to put pieces together.
"Maybe the facilities she's been targeting have been undercover HYDRA bases?" Thor questioned.
"If that's true, how does she know which ones are true SHIELD offices, and which ones are HYDRA bases?" Banner posed. Loki left them to ponder it out. His projection leaving.
Back down below the building. Loki still sat in the chair facing you. "I have a proposition for you, darling?"
"No," you said without hesitation.
"But you haven't even heard it yet," Loki said feigning hurt.
"Don't care. Don't want it. Especially from you."
"What if it means, I could get you out of this cell?" He dangled the sweet bait of freedom in front of you.
"Loki! Don't promise something we can't deliver." Rogers said in his ear.
Loki ignored him and continued, "What if...you join us, and we can go after your little HYDRA spies with you?"