"Zee!" Steve calls out to you as you run back down the hallway. Barnes was standing right next to him in the elevator. If this was any indication of how life would be like living here, you knew you made the right decision to leave. You wouldn't want to run into him every day. It wouldn't end well for either of you.
Loki raised his hand up on Roger's chest. Stopping his advance towards you. "Neither of you are going anywhere near her!" he growled. Steve looked irritated as he tried to walk past Loki, ignoring him completely.
Loki materialized in front of him again, stopping him. "Rogers. You need to stop."
"We need to talk to her, Loki. Bucky found the last hidden base. That's what he and Sam had been doing these last four months." Loki involuntarily looked at Barnes who was standing way behind Rogers with his hands in his pockets. "If she wants to take down HYDRA so bad, this is her chance."
"Is he coming too?" Loki asked, still staring at Barnes.
"He has to. He's the one that went on the mission and has the intel," Rogers answered.
"She won't go along with this. She doesn't want to be anywhere near him."
"Can you guys please stop talking like I'm not here?" Barnes interrupted.
"Then leave!" Loki snapped.
"Loki, I know you've gotten really close to her. But if she's going to be a part of this team. She has to learn to work together. You of all people should understand that," Rogers finished.
'A part of this team.' Loki finally realized one thing. They were never going to let you go. Even after this HYDRA base was dismantled. They would find a way to keep you. If not working with them, then for them. They would be no better than the HYDRA agents they were trying to stop.
So, what does that mean for me? Loki thought. I could make all the reparations and apologies they want, but it would never be enough for them.
"I'll go talk to her. I can't promise you her civility. But I can make sure she will lend you her aid," Loki huffed.
"Ok. We leave tomorrow at twenty-one hundred hours." Rogers just nodded, trusting that Loki will deliver on his word.
"I suggest you prepare the larger jet. More room means fewer accidental meetings like we just had." Loki narrowed his eyes toward Barnes and walked back to your room, hoping you haven't figured out a means to run away yet.
As soon as Loki closed your door, he found you leaning over your balcony. "Where are you going?" Loki asked, confused and astounded. "We're at least 90 stories up? Are you mad?"
"You stalled them long enough. I'm getting out of here," you explained.
"I still have your duffel. How are you going to survive without it? Get in here and we'll talk."
"You're not gonna try to convince me to stay are you?"
"Let's talk," was all Loki said. He left the sliding door open and waited for you on your bed.
"What is it?"
"They found the last HYDRA base. The Captain wants you to go on this mission."
"Whose gonna go?"
"Barnes will be there," Loki answered your underlying question.
"NO!" you walked back towards the balcony sliding the door open. Loki used his seidr to shut it.
"Let me go Loki. I'm not working with him!"
"Just listen..."
"I said, NO!" you yelled marching your way to your bedroom door instead. Loki magically locked it too. You tried the knob. Rattling it and trying to force it free. Your breathing got haggard as your tried to keep your anxiety down. "Let me go, Loki!"
"Darling, relax." He said calmly. Slowly making his way to you, his hands up in peace.
"Easy for you to say! You're not the one being asked to work with your abuser. You're not being used like a tool just so they can all pat themselves on the back and wish themselves a job well done at the end of the day," you spat out rolling your eyes. You tried the balcony doors again.
"It'll be the last HYDRA base, darling. Then you can leave. You won't have to stick around anymore." His voice had gone soft and regretful.
"And what makes you think they'll let me? They're not gonna let me go. They'll put me back in that glass cell just like HYDRA." You tried with all your strength to pull that sliding door open. Even so much as huffing trying to get the air around you to break the glass.
"It's no use," Loki said coming up to you. "Stark reinforced the doors this high up in the tower. Safety measures," he said putting his hands on both your shoulders. You stopped at his touch.
"Open the doors, Loki," you simmered with rage.
"I've tried countless times to blow those doors wide open. The glass never shattered. It took me a while to realize that it was the same glass that they used in the cell downstairs. The same cage. Just with a better view."
You laid your forehead against the glass, defeat in your breath as you sighed. You looked out admiring the lights of New York. It really was a better view. But no view was worth the cage that they put you in.
"It's too late for me, darling. But I promise you, I will help you breathe free. Do you trust me?" He asked softly.
You lifted your head up and saw his reflection in the glass. His eyebrows were pulled together in concern, but his eyes- his eyes glowed with mischief.
The flight south towards Georgia only took an hour thanks to the speed of the quinjet. It was the most nerve-wracking and confusing moment in your life. You had all these emotions warring for attention inside you. You were angry, energetic, and terrified. You were tired, and the most confusing emotion of all, you felt safe.
Loki sat with you the whole flight. When he couldn't hold your hand, his knee rubbed up against yours, promising stability and security.
Your restlessness made you fidget. Your hands shook and you started looking around the jet catching the eyes of the Winter Soldier.
"Look at me, Zee," Loki said. "Don't look at him. Keep your eyes on me," he said with a gentle command.
"I pictured today going totally different in my head," you said biting your thumbnail anxiously. Loki pulled your hand from your mouth and held it. Keeping you from soothing yourself by damaging your nailbeds. His calloused hands felt cold to the touch as he twined his fingers with yours.
"Yes, now it's even better. You get to finally have your revenge on the people that wronged you," he joked. You sighed and involuntarily looked at Bucky again. "What did I say?" Loki chided.
"To keep my eyes on you," you answered hesitantly, looking back toward Loki.
"Good girl," he smirked as you rolled your eyes, swiping your hand away from his. He only chuckled as he continued reading a novel he brought with him.
"Ok team, listen up," Steve said coming back from the cockpit. "We're gonna touch down in less than fifteen minutes. Bucky you can go with..." after considering his options, Steve decided, "...Loki. If you can protect each other, and create a distraction, I can infiltrate the bunker with Zee and Nat. Zee and I will get any prisoners out of there. Nat's main concern would be to extract files. Sam will stay here in the jet for a quicker getaway in case things go sideways. He'll have Redwing on patrol. Any questions? Good." Not giving anyone time to answer back. "Suit up."
Instantly, Steve donned his shield behind him as he made his way to the back-hanger door. Loki's green seidr engulfed him changing his casual Midgardian wear to his fine Asgardian leather. Barnes rolled his metal arm causing you to flinch at the swift movement. A flinch no one missed but didn't dare to bring up.
Loki squeezed your shoulder one last time, his swirling eyes trying to convey everything he couldn't say aloud. You nodded as you watched him jump off the back door, only a few stories off the ground. Bucky followed him, shooting as he landed on his heels.
"Ready, Zee?" Steve asked. "Keep a wind-shield around Nat and me and we'll cover you until we get inside." You nodded at his command. Running when the jet touched down on the field.
Everything went according to plan. Loki and Bucky had managed to attract the attention of all the guards outside the facility, while the three of you forced your way into the heavily armored base.
Once inside, Nat went her separate way to try and decrypt any information she can harvest from the servers. You and Steve separated as you took the top steps to see if they were keeping anyone in the labs.
Your heart ached whenever you did these raids. It was too late for you to have hope that the Avengers would've saved you a long time ago. You had to save yourself.
Checking that every room was clear, you headed for the nearest window and blasted it with air from your lungs. The glass shattered as you looked down seeing Bucky shooting at some HYDRA henchmen disguised as SHIELD operatives. You kicked the glass out of the window not caring if it scratched Bucky one bit as you jumped.
You floated down, using your breath to slow your fall. As soon as your toes touched the grass, you were tackled down by Barnes from behind. You yelled and screamed as his whole body encased you. "Get off me! Get off me!"
Bucky didn't listen to you. All he knew was that a gunman was pointing his rifle toward you, and he had to cover you. Nail scratches and bites be dammed! He would not let you get shot. Fire after fire, the gunman emptied his round.
Tears flowed from your eyes at having such close contact with him. The cold feeling of his arm once again touching your skin made it crawl, triggering memories that you would rather have stayed buried.
Steve threw his shield, disabling the gunman. The shots ceased as Bucky knelt up. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he repeated. You pushed him off you and tried to crawl your way from under him. Loud sobs wracked your lungs as you tried to breathe. "Zee, please. Th-there was a gunman..." he tried to explain.
"Get away from me!" you yelled at him. Bucky looked exasperated.
"Perhaps now is not the time," Loki said coming up behind Barnes, misdirecting a few more bullets coming your way.
"I just saved you," Bucky countered.
"Buck, not now," Steve tried to intervene. "Let's go. Zee, let me help you up."
"Don't touch me!" you screamed as you got yourself up.
"Zee, we have to work as a team." Steve tried to placate.
"Team?! A team?! We are not a team! Answer me this Rogers, when we're done here and we've taken down this last HYDRA facility, would I be able to go free?" you asked. "Would you let me go or would you put me back in that cell in the basement, studying my powers? Did you let Loki go?" you yelled pointing in his direction. "No, you haven't. I'm nothing but a tool for you. A weapon. So don't you dare fucking tell me I'm part of this team."
Bucky got up with you and tried his hardest to apologize again. Consequently, Loki tried to keep him away from you. Holding his arm out, stopping his advance toward you. No one saw the gunman get up from his supine position on the ground grabbing whatever firearm was available.
A small flutter of wind was all you felt. A displacement of air barreled through as the gunman's bullet hurled its way toward Loki. You only had a small window of time before you pushed Loki out of the path of that bullet and blew your air against Bucky and Steve, hurtling them some distance away from you.
"Zee?" you heard Loki yell. Steve ran towards the gunman, following his shield, as he threw it again to incapacitate the attacker. Bucky ran towards you and Loki.
"What happened?" he asked as Loki cradled you on the ground.
"She got shot!" Loki snarled back.
"Is she-is she..." Bucky tried, out of breath. "You saved my life," he said.
"Now, we're even. I don't owe you a thing," you gurgled.
"You're gonna be fine, dear. Just a minor wound. We'll patch you back up, all right?" Loki said looking down at the massive wound bleeding out from your abdomen. Loki looked up at Barnes, both of them knowing that what he said was a lie. Barnes took off his shirt and handed it to Loki to press on your wound. "Hold it still. Hold it strong, darling."
The air around you fizzled. Heat began to rise as the oxygen around you tried to fill your gasping lungs with air. You were panting for breath. Your vision was slowly fading, and you knew what was happening. "Loki..."
"Don't you dare, darling," he said lifting you up. Everyone was running towards the jet now. Nat and Steve secured the remaining captives inside as Sam was preparing to take off.
"I'm not gonna make it, am I?" you asked meekly. Loki looked down on you, hurrying towards the aircraft. "Lie to m-, g-god of mischief," you whispered.
"You're going to be fine, darling," he said, coolly. You smiled up at him one last time and exhaled your last breath.
"Darling, w-wake up." Loki shook your body as he fell to his knees again. "Zee! This is no laughing matter. I need you to wake up!" he cried. "ZEE!" Loki's face twisted in pain as he watched your lips part to your dying breath. The fire in your eyes, the one that he loved so much, the fire that he looked forward to seeing every time he annoyed you or got on your nerves, extinguished.
There was no sound in that small moment in time. Other than the roar of the propulsion and the cries of a god on his knees for a friend that just died in his arms. Everyone's eyes stung from what they witnessed.
The flurry of heat and air swirled around you both, With no oxygen in your lungs, it vibrated as it tried to make its way inside your body. Fire engulfed all around you. An explosion was imminent.
"Loki!" Rogers yelled. "She's causing an explosion around her. You need to leave her!"
"I- NO. I can't!" Loki cried as the flames rose higher. Loki engulfed the two of you in his seidr, the explosion encapsulated in his small bubble. Everyone looked away as the explosion ensued, showcasing a bright light flashing in everyone's eyes.
When the heat and the light died down. There was nothing left of your body but ash. Loki's armor was dusted with soot. His fingers dug into the earth where your body had burned after the heat got too much for him to bear.
Thor had once told him how he harnessed the light of a dying star to help forge Stormbreaker. Loki could never have imagined the willpower it took to do that. Until now.
Steve came by and stood next to Loki. The weight of losing a member of his team collapsed his knees and he joined Loki on the ground. Everyone gathered around as a gentle breeze came and took some of your ashes along with it. Loki watched as it gently swayed and picked up. You were finally free.
"Loki," Roger's voice muffled in his ear. "I'm sorry Loki."
You don't get to be sorry, Loki thought as he glared at Rogers. He sunk his fingers deeper into the ground, clutching whatever he could of your cinders.
His lips blistered and his face burned as Loki stood up and quietly made his way back into the jet.
A month later, Loki puts on his best black suit with a dark green handkerchief adorning his breast pocket. Must keep up with appearances, he thought as he straightened his tie, slicked back his hair, and collected the calla lilies that were on his dresser.
The rest of the team watched as Loki made his way through the common room toward the elevator. They had a ceremony a week prior for your passing. They collected whatever they could from the facility and placed you in an urn. That's where Loki was headed now, the cemetery to lay flowers for your final resting spot.
He relished the newfound freedom he was able to have. In a sense not only were you free from your glass cage but so was he. When they found out that he'd been sneaking out just to visit you and leaving you flowers, Stark himself lent him one of his vehicles.
The team wanted to help him recover from your loss. They didn't realize how close the two of you had gotten. All those times it seemed like Loki was being his mischievous, annoying self, was really his way of trying to integrate you into the team.
Loki drove the half-hour trip west. Away from the city. Away from the buildings of glass and concrete to where the ground was green and the air was fresh. He got out of Stark's car, adjusted his suit, and walked over to the giant marble wall adorned with plaques.
Loki walked over to the other side of that wall, where only your plaque had been installed. A small stone plate That read your name.
Zephyr
Friend and Avenger.
Loki ran his fingers through your name. Whispering it with reverence. He knew you'd want this name. The name you chose for yourself. Not the one your parents gave you at birth. He planted the lilies on the canister by your plaque and sat down at the bench behind him.
He looked at the vast wall that was completely empty. Glaring white with veins of gray and black. He took a deep breath in and sighed, reading the last line of your headstone.
Until we meet again.
And Loki smiled.