here's the new chapter!!! Thanks to my readers and commenters! :)
Chapter Eleven
"So you took a swing on Loki did you?" Clint asks as he looks me over from across the room. My temporary living quarters have been moved to a higher floor of the ship. It's a small room, with a small cot and a dresser. There aren't any windows, as it is near the center. Leah's is next to mine.
I don't reply as I sit down on the bed so that it creaks. My head is still hurting, and that is such a stupid question, it is not really worth my time.
Then, Clint says, very softly, "He killed your brother?"
This question, I do answer. "Yes." I say, trying not to let my voice waver.
Clint is silent for a couple minutes. Then, he says, "You're a very good fighter, Thea."
I am so surprised that I am not about to be scolded that I am speechless for a couple seconds. Then, I say, "What?'
He shrugs. "You're a good fighter. You just need to learn to have better aim and more patience. And have more control."
I don't say anything.
"Natasha told me that we can teach you some things. I think we can. As soon as you're healed completely."
"I'm not sure I want to learn any more," I say, trying not to admit out loud that the furious drive that I had possessed during the fight earlier was bothering me. It was an unusual feeling-hot, desperate, and hungry. I don't know where it came from or how to control it.
He raises his eyebrows. "Not at all?"
"Well," I amend, "Maybe to kill Loki."
"You actually want him dead?" he asks. "I am aware that he killed your brother, but think about this. How would your brother feel if you wanted to kill Loki?"
"Seeing as he's not here anymore, I don't see why it matters."
"How would you feel if you killed Loki?"
This question is so surprising, I have to think for a few minutes. Then, I say, "You're a spy and a master assassin. Why would you ask me the value of killing someone who has killed thousands?"
"Because it's you that we are talking about." Says Clint. "And let's get this straight. I do not enjoy killing. Actually, I loathe it and don't do it, if it can be helped. But Thea, we are talking about taking someone's life. Not a normal person, but think about how you would feel if he died, and it was your fault."
"I would celebrate," I say, ignoring the doubt in the back of my mind.
Clint smiles. "Would you really?"
I'm silent. Then, I say, "How much longer until you and Natasha train me?"
He sighs. "Give yourself a week."
"Two days."
"Four."
"Done."
*
I walk down the hallway, much more calm, but trying to pick my path down to Stark's office carefully. I do not regret what I did, but I have no desire to run into Loki at the moment.
I get down to the office without a problem. Inside, Tony is fiddling with a screen, seemingly touching thin air until the computer changes scenes. As far as I can see, he is the only person in there.
The door is locked, but just as I am about to knock, I hear Tony's slightly muffled voice saying, "Unlock rear door." I hear the click of the lock, and the door opens.
Stepping into the office, I look around. The lab doesn't look much different from what I had seen last time. The most notable difference is that the Imeldi weapon is no longer on the table. I wonder where it is.
As the door swings shut behind me, Tony says, without looking up from his screen, "It took you a while to get in here."
"I was busy."
"With what? Oh right, trying to kill a god. Well, we all have our schedules."
I want to smirk at Tony's snark, but I don't feel like it.
"Point is, you're going to get to help me. Let me just get Banner down here, though." Tony swipes at something on the screen so that it goes black and vanishes. He is now staring at blank air.
"What do you want me to do?" I ask, with some sort of trepidation.
He beckons me over to a large, steel table set up near the back. There are cables set up alone the sides, surrounding some sort of black box. I walk over as slowly as possible.
"Well, all I need is your finger, actually."
"What?" I ask, stopping in my tracks.
I hear the door open behind me. It's Dr. Banner.
"Hey, doctor, Thea's going to help us out," says Tony, pushing me towards the box, as I have stopped moving.
"No!" I exclaim. "Not until you tell me-"
"For goodness sake, Tony, you're scaring her," says Banner, crossing his arms.
Tony snorts. "Scare? Me scare the kid who almost successfully took out an Asgardian deity?"
"Look at her eyes. She's frightened, and you're not helping. Just explain things out to her, and actually ask her if she wants to help us." Says Banner. I look at him appreciatively, although I feel a bit childish as he says this.
Tony rolls his eyes. "Fine." Turning to me, and with apparent bore, he says, "So, this box is full of this chemical liquid we found in the Imeldi weapon. Don't know what it does, but we do know that it can help us access holographs- those floating graph things you see in here." He vaguely points around the room. "We can't access it without a fingerprint- or clawprint, more likely considering what these demons are- that came in contact with it. Basically, we need DNA."
"I assume you already tried Leah." I say, slightly angrily.
"As a matter of fact," says Tony, leaning against the table. "We did. But it didn't work."
"So you want to still try it on me."
"Yep."
"The gun was found next to you, not Leah," says Banner, and I glance at him. "But we wanted to try your sister just in case. We assume the Imeldi that injected you with the poison was the one who left the gun. Why he left it, we don't know."
"Finally," I say, glaring at Tony. "Someone who actually explains things."
"What the hell, that's what I've been-"
"What do I have to do?" I ask, glancing at the box with an air of apprehension. "And how long until I can get off of this stupid plane?"
Tony holds his hands up. "One question at a time, kid."
"Thea."
He rolls his eyes for the umpteenth time. "Thea. One question at a time. All you have to do is press your finger on this key pad thing Dr. Banner fixed up. It's connected to the box, which contains the Imeldi-"
"I know that."
"Good, glad you do, because I didn't want to repeat myself. You'll find that I hate to do that."
"Well then let me repeat myself," I say, causing Tony to look rather taken aback. "When do I leave this plane?" I swear, I see Banner covering his mouth with his fist, but he doesn't contain his small smile.
"No idea. Take that up with Fury."
"I don't want to talk to Fury any more than I have to."
"Well then I have no idea. So are you going to do this or not?"
"Fine, whatever." I say.
"Good." Tony nods his head towards the box, and I approach it. I hear Banner behind me, but my main focus is on the table. True to word, there is a small, silver square that is connected to a bunch of wires that leads to the box. The box itself is slightly translucent, and I can see what is unmistakably a liquid inside. "Go ahead and put your finger on it."
Trying to ignore the fact that my finger is shaking slightly, I lower it onto the pad. Immediately, it hums, and I resist the urge to pull my hand back.
"Good," says Banner, glancing at the box, then at me.
And then, a bright light fills the room, and I barely manage to keep my finger on the pad. Opening my eyes, I see that there are four bright screens around the box and myself, not unlike the ones in this lab. But they are full of odd diagrams and an unfamiliar language and writing system.
Tony clucks his tongue. "Well that sucks. Hold on a second." Before I can say anything, he has walking out of the room, whistling.
"Where's he going?" I ask, looking at Banner. He shrugs, but offers no other information.
I peer at the screens. There are three sorts of maps, layered over each other. They seem to be depicting one thing: large and definitely mechanical. Cocking my head, I peer at it closer- it seems familiar.
And then, with a horrifyingly sickening pain of fear, I realize what the Imeldi charts are representing.
It's the helicarrier.
Extremely accurately labeled, with neon red lines stringing through them, that I cannot decipher.
"Oh my god," I breathe, looking at the fourth screen. Two figures, obviously human. One tall, one short. Unfamiliar writing, which reminds me of Egyptian hieroglyphs, is scribbled around it nearby. This, I cannot figure out.
"What is it?" asks Dr. Banner, sliding on his glasses and looking over my shoulder. But I am so distracted, I barely notice his presence.
"Dr. Banner," I say, glancing around the screens. "It's here. It's the S.H.I.E.L.D. craft."
He frowns. "The helicarrier."
"Yes," I say, trying to keep calm. "I don't know what it means."
Shaking his head, he says, "It's definitely not good. But like you, I have no idea how to read this script. It's nothing like I have seen before. Similar to Sanskrit, but clearly, the numerals aren't aligned the same. Plus, the symbols are more exotic and circular."
I nod, even though I have never seen Sanskrit in my life, but I guess I will take his word for it. Keeping my finger on the pad to ensure that the screens do not vanish, I continue to look at the screens- what concerns me the most is why the Imeldi have a projection of the helicarrier when that is exactly where I am right-
Oh god.
"Dr. Banner!" I exclaim. "It's tra-"
"Thea, try not to over-react," says Tony. I turn around. He is walking towards Dr. Banner and me, followed by none other than Loki. "But I'm pretty sure he's the only one who can decipher this."
But I am actually too distracted to pay attention to the fact that the person I dearly want to kill is within four feet of me. "Tony. Look- it's the helicarrier. And those figures." I point, trying not to hyperventilate. "That's Leah and me. They're tracking us."
"Or they were," says Loki, leaning over me (which I stiffly tolerate). "These markings depict the dates of the tracking. The last one was... the afternoon before we removed the poison from you. No longer, though, as far as I can see. Previously, however, this weapon, this material, was tracking nearly every move of you and your sister, almost every hour."
"So that means..."
"They're planning an attack," says Tony, interrupting Banner. "The trick is knowing when, where, and why."
"Where?" I ask. "The helicarrier, duh."
"Don't 'duh' me, young lady," says Stark, pointing a few rolled up pieces of paper at me. "But you're probably right."
I roll my eyes.
"That is why they did not kill either of you," says Loki, drawing away from the screens, although his green eyes are still tracking the different floating panels. "They wished for a means to track the records of S.H.I.E.L.D and to somehow gain access to their deepest secrets."
"Yeah," says Tony. "But does anyone not see the bigger picture here? Since they no longer can track the girls, who's to say that they're not going to attack any day now?"
Nobody contradicts him, although fear pulses through me. Tony takes the silence as a means to continue his hypothesis. "Their last records were a couple days ago. They will probably be here anytime- think about it. They don't want us to move too far from where they had last tracked the girls."
"Yes, but why did they not attack as soon as they determined the girls' location?" asks Dr. Banner.
Tony shrugs, twirling a large ring he has been wearing around his finger. "They probably wanted to get as much info as possible."
Loki is still looking at the screens, his eyes darting back and forth, reading. I try shake away my hatred for him, although it is boiling so that I know I do not have much longer before my temper flies away like earlier today.
He glances up at me, and his forehead creases slightly as he frowns. "Thea, do you wish to know why you were such a skilled warrior earlier?"
"If it can help me kill you, feel free," I say through clenched teeth, trying to concentrate on keeping my finger on the pad, although it is beginning to shake.
He chuckles, which sends shivers of anger through my body. "You see, Thea, when the Imeldi poisoned you with this unknown substance, they- most likely unsuspectingly- injected you with another substance."
"What is it?" asks Tony.
Loki's eyes are still on me, although he still answers Tony's question. "I do not know its name, but it has the power of warriors. All Imeldi have this substance in their veins- it is why they are so skilled in fighting."
"So you're saying that if it wasn't for that stupid substance, I wouldn't be a good fighter?" I ask, ignoring Dr. Banner's concerned expression and Tony's mildly interested one.
In the meanwhile, Loki smiles widely. "Well, I rather doubt it."
I am about to lunge at Loki when Dr. Banner gives me a look, then turns to the Agardian god. "Is this substance harmful?"
He shrugs. "I do not think so. It only means that when she loses her temper, she will fly into rages." He smirks at me, and I hate the way he is looking down at me. "As she so demonstrated today."
My hand is shaking as I try to control myself. I'm about to say something else when the door hisses open. It's Thor.
"What is going on?" he asks. "I was just coming in to-"
"Well apparently, the Imeldi are tracking us," says Tony. "Also, Thea has some sort of unknown substance in her," he holds his hand up as Thor's face twists in concern. "Hold up, bud, it's not poisonous. But anyway, this substance not only gives her supernatural fighting skills, like she was trying to murder Loki, but it also helped the Imeldi track her."
"No," I correct him, "The one I have in me now is not what the Imeldi used to track Leah and me."
"Whatever. Point is-"
"We are under attack," says Thor, walking over to me, his strides long and urgent. "We need to take the girls and hide them somewhere these creatures cannot find them, provided they are coming aboard soon."
"And you wish for all the men to be up fighting the Imeldi, I assume," says Loki smoothly.
Thor looks slightly confused. "Well, yes."
"Oh, so Thea and Leah will be hiding and if the Imeldi find them, they will have no means of protection. Unless you count Thea's spurs of madness, but she is merely a novice, and I do not trust in her abilities."
The fury is rekindling inside my body, but Thor, his eyes darting over to me, puts his hand on my shoulder. Strangely, I find it comforting, but nonetheless, I try to shake it off, but to no avail. "Very well. I will stay with the gi-"
"Really?" asks Tony, looking insulted. "Don't know about me, but I'd rather have one half of the Asgardian duo fighting with me."
"You will," says Loki smugly.
"Both."
"Here's what we can do," says Dr. Banner. "I will stay with the girls. I don't want to fight if I do not have to, so that's perfect. I can protect the girls if I have to."
"I can take care of Leah," I say staunchly.
They all ignore me, except Loki, who says with a very belittling smirk, "Really, Thea. Do you wish to endanger your sister's life by pretending you can protect the both of you?"
Apparently, Thor has predicted that my temper will snap because of Loki's smart mouth, because as I try to lunge at Loki, his hand tightens on my shoulder, pulling me back. "Let go of me," I growl at him, as Loki's grin widens and my fury grows stronger.
"Please, Thea," says Thor so that only I can hear him. "Now is not the time."
Desire over mind battles in my head, but finally, I take a deep breath and look at the ground, but I can still feel someone's eyes boring into mine, that are probably pigmented green.
Vote/comment please! Thank you!