⤷ may 3, 2012
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Loki paces his cell, and Irina watches.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
Planning.
Scheming.
"Do you want to go down or should I?" whispers Romanoff, who stands beside her as they collectively watch the god, eyes simmering with intense focus.
Irina purses her lips. "I will," she mutters. "I have some questions I need answering. I'll wring him out."
Romanoff quirks a brow at her, before looking back at Loki's pacing figure. "Alright. Scratch your left eyebrow if you're losing it. I'll come in and recover."
Irina nods wordlessly, and walks silently up to the cage, standing in front of it, and watching Loki pace.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
He stops, letting out a small chuckle. "There's not many people who can sneak up on me," says Loki, turning around to face her.
"But you figured I'd come," she says.
"After," Loki says, taking slow steps towards her. "After whatever torture Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate."
"Cocky of you to assume I'd ever be nice to you," Irina mutters, "even as an act."
Loki chuckles. "So truthful. It's a virtue many value."
"Do you?" She asks, quirking her brow.
"I value loyalty in my subjects," says the god, eyeing her with glittering blue eyes. "But I'm sure I can make an exception for a truthful one when my rule comes."
Irina scowls at him, her lip curling. "I feel so special," she scoffs. "Should I say "thank you"?"
Loki chuckles, approaching the glass and towering over her. She meets his gaze, her brown eyes dark under her eyelashes. "You know this is a losing battle, Irina," he purrs her name out, and she stiffens, eyes twitching at it. The reaction makes Loki's eyes shine with glee. "Yes, I know your true name. But your little outcasts...they don't, do they? You're scared that they'll find out your truth, the blood that's on yours hands and discard you, leave you for dead."
Her bottom lip wobbles slightly, and Irina purses her lips, fists clenching hard, and fingernails digging into her skin, pinching it. "I'm not afraid to be left alone," she says.
Loki grins. "Ah, but you are afraid that once your identity comes to light, it's only a matter of time before it slips out to the world, for all to see. And then...then they can come for you, at long last."
Irina inhales, sharp and trembling. She hesitates in taking a step back, debating it. "You don't know what you're talking about," she mutters.
"Oh, but I know very well. Because, you see, I have a little contact. A small bird, and he knows much about you, and your fears."
She freezes up, hearing her heart beat rapidly in her ears.
No.
It can't be.
She gulps loudly. "You — You don't know what you're talking about," she repeats in a panicked whisper. "I killed him."
Loki tilts his head, smirking at her. "Come now, Irina, we both know you're not as foolish as you like to think you are," he coos. "You know he's well and alive, and coming for you."
She looks down at the place his body had fallen, all that was left being a single droplet of blood. A sign. And she inhales, long and deep. Because deep down, in the caverns of her soul, she knows.
Irina takes a stumbling step away from the cage, staring up at Loki with fearful eyes. "How — How did you —"
Loki's smile is cruel and stomach-churning. "There's no running, Irina. Not from your end, and not from me. Kneel, and I can be generous and benevolent, and free you from the strings still attached to you," he says, voice low and cunning, like a low hum in the back of her mind.
Irina shakes her head. "No. No — I'm going to stop you. We're going to stop you. All of us. You won't win, you monster," she declares.
Loki lets out a laugh at that, his eyes glittering in amusement. This is all a game to him. "I'm not the monster here," he says, leaning close to the glass his breath leaves a small shroud of fog against it. "You have brought the monster to the party yourselves."
She stands up straight, eyebrows raising at the realization, the sudden switch from fear to calm making Loki's eyebrows furrow and pinch together. "Banner," she says. "That's your plan? To use the Hulk?"
"What —"
"Thank you for your assistance, Loki," Irina's lips curl into a smile as she leans close to the glass, peering up at him with a Cheshire grin. "I hope you enjoy your time in here," she says, before turning and walking away.
Romanoff meets her at the door, watching her with slightly raised eyebrows. "Nice job. I could have done it better, though," she says lightly.
Irina smirks, passing her with a wink. "Next time we emotionally manipulate a god from outer space, I'll let you do the fun part," she says.
Romanoff watches her back, the ends of her lips twitching up. "I knew I liked her," she mutters under breath, before following after Irina. "So, Irina."
Irina falters in her step, before recovering and continuing down the hall. She let out a sigh. "Don't tell anyone. No one knows my real name here except for Fury and Coulson," she mutters, "and I'd prefer it stay that way."
Romanoff eyes the back of her head, pursing her lips. She slowly looks back ahead. "Understandable. I also know what it's like to hide under an identity for your own safety," she says.
Irina glances back at her, her lips twitching up. "Do I get to know yours? A simple "you know mine I know yours" deal?"
Romanoff stares at her wryly. "We're not there yet," she says dryly.
Irina gives a roll of her eyes, looking back ahead. "Of course I get the short end of the stick," she sighs. "Come on. We need to get to Dr. Banner."
Romanoff chuckles softly and presses her finger to her comm, activating it. "Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, Roberts and I are on our way," she says as she makes eye contact with Irina, who nods gratefully. "Bring Thor, too."
𓆩*𓆪
They meet Thor on the way to the lab, who greets them with a stern nod. "Lady Emma, Lady Natasha. What is the matter?"
Romanoff tilts her chin to the lab. "Follow and see, Your Majesty. Follow and see."
They enter the lab, Stark and Banner already inside, but with additions like Fury and Steve inside, too. Steve was looking at Fury with a look of anger. "I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit," Steve says.
Banner looks at them. "Did you know about this?" He asks them.
"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Romanoff says lightly.
Banner chuckles. "I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."
"Loki wants to manipulate you, Dr. Banner," Irina speaks up. "He wants to use the Hulk to escape —"
"I'm sorry, and what have you been doing, exactly?" Banner retorts in a passive-aggressive tone.
Irina frowns. "Don't look at me for that. I just want to end this and go home," she says.
"You think I don't want the same? But I'm not going to leave when you get a little twitchy," Banner says, turning a screen to face them. "I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."
Irina blinks in surprise at the new information, turning to Fury with raised eyebrows. The man looked hardly guilty, and she scoffs out a laugh. "You son of a bitch," she curses in disbelief.
Fury sniffs. "You want to know why?" He asks, before pulling his arm out and pointing behind him. "Because of him," he points at Thor, who frowns in confusion.
"Me?" Thor checks in a small, confused voice.
"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town," says Fury. "We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."
Irina blinks. Right, she'd heard of that from Danny, who had a cousin that lived in that town. He'd ranted about it through the whole shift. Was that really Thor?
"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor says with an earnest frown.
Fury turns to him. "But you're not the only people out there, are you? And you're not the only threat."
"And if these threats come to Earth?" Irina scoffs. "When they're fighting off in Canada, will you decide to drop a nuke on the entire country just to neutralize the threat? Do you not see how stupid that is?"
"The world is filling up with people who can't be matched," continues Fury, "that can't be controlled."
Irina rolls her eyes, letting out another scoffing laugh of disbelief. She shakes her head, turning away as Steve tilts his head. "Like you controlled the Cube?" He dares.
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," says Thor. "It is a sign to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."
"A higher form?"
"You forced our hand," defends Fury. "We had to come up with something —"
"A nuclear deterrent," Stark interrupts. "Because that always calms everything right down."
Fury turns to him. "Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark," he deadpans.
"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep —" Steve steps up.
"Hold on," Stark says, frowning. "How is this now about me?"
Steve tilts his head at him. "I'm sorry, isn't everything?" He snips.
"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor comments.
"Excuse me," Fury turns to the god, "did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"
"You treat your champions with such mistrust —"
"Are you boys really that naive?" Romanoff speaks up. "S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors potential threats."
"Captain America's on threat watch?" Banner comments in disbelief.
"We all are."
"Wait, you're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees?" Stark comments.
"Stark, so help me God, if you make one more wisecrack..." Steve grumbles.
Stark steps away, raising his hands in the air. "Threat! Verbal threat. I feel threatened," he says.
"Show some respect," barks Steve.
"Respect what?"
"Would all of you just be quiet?" Irina hisses, squeezing her eyes shut. Something felt off, and there was a high-pitched ringing in her ears. It made her want to cover them.
"Oh, I'm sorry, are we too loud for you, Your Highness?" Fury lifts his eyebrows at her, voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Hey," she growls, stepping up to him and jabbing her finger into his chest, "I was doing just fine with my life before you strut back into it and called me here. I told you I didn't want this life, and now you're making these weapons? Do you ever even think, Fury?"
"I'm thinking just fine, like how I'm thinking you shouldn't get so aggressive. Someone might get killed again," Fury bites back, and Irina takes a step back, scoffing out in disbelief.
"You're impossible," she mutters.
Thor shakes his head. "You speak of control, yet you court chaos."
"That's his M.O., isn't it?" Banner comments. "I mean, what are we, a team? No, nono, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb."
"You," Fury says, turning to Banner, "need to step away."
"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Stark speaks up, placing a hand on Steve's shoulder.
The soldier immediately pushes it off. "You know damn well why. Back off!"
Stark eyes him bitterly. "I'm starting to want you to make me," he mutters.
Steve smirks. "Yeah. Big man in a suit of armor," he leans in. "Take that off, what are you?"
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," Stark states smoothly.
Irina lifts her eyebrows. He had a point.
"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you," Steve mutters. "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. 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," Stark says.
Steve lets out a scoff, looking over at Irina, who purses her lips at the interaction. He looks back at Stark. "Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero," he bites out.
"A hero? Like you?" asks Stark. "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."
Steve smiles, but he has a smoldering fire in his eyes. "Put on the suit," he dares. "Let's go a few rounds."
Thor lets out a laugh, and Irina glances up at him curiously. "You people are so petty," he glances at her, "and tiny."
Irina lifts her eyebrows at him. "Oh really? We're really stooping this low, now?" She scoffs.
"Yeah, this is a team," drawls Banner.
"Agent Romanoff," speaks Fury, "would you escort Dr. Banner back to his —"
"Where?" Banner interrupts. "You rented my room."
"The cell was just in case —"
"In case you needed to kill me. But you can't. I know, I tried," Banner bites out.
The room falls silent at the news. Irina watches the doctor, a newfound empathy swirling in her chest for him. Banner glances around the room. "I got low. I didn't see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit it out," he says. "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 at risk."
Irina's eyes flicker down, watching Banner pick up the scepter without him seeming to know. She frowns, and hesitantly looks back up at his face. "You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?"
The two agents slowly reach for their guns, and Irina takes a step forwards. "Dr. Banner," she says slowly, "please, put down the scepter."
Banner freezes, and looks down at the weapon in his hand. A beep runs through the lab.
"Got it," says Stark.
Banner puts the scepter down, walking over to the screen. "Sorry, kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all," he says as he passes them all.
"You located the Tesseract?" asks Thor.
"I could get their fastest," says Stark, lifting a finger up.
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard," Thor says adamantly. "No human is a match for it."
Stark begins to walk out the door, but Steve grabs his arm, Stark quick to push it off. "You're not going alone."
"You gonna stop me?" dares Stark.
"Put on the suit, let's find out."
"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."
"Put on the suit," Steve grounds out.
"Oh my God," Bruce mutters. Irina turns her head to him.
"Doc?" She asks.
And then the explosion sets off.
𓆩*𓆪