Everything was destroyed.
Where I was wasn't familiar. The damage was catastrophic, so traumatizing that any sane human would be put into an asylum looking at it. The stench was overwhelming; I was very tempted to vomit.
I pulled myself out from under building debris. My body ached, my legs were about ready to collapse, and I had a nice collection of dirt and dust all over me. I breathed in the disgusting air, coughing.
"Hello?" I yelled into the air.
The only response I received was my echo.
Chilling laughter made me spin around, lighting up my hands with fire. "Show yourself!"
"I would be glad to."
I nearly stumbled off the debris I stood on once Loki materialized before me.
"You're the only one left."
I looked around, realizing that his army of Chitauri—whatever they looked like—was nowhere to be seen. I could say the same for the Avengers and any S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. It was as though Loki and I were the last two beings on Earth.
"I warned you, did I not, that this would happen? Here is your chance to stay alive. All it takes is you pledging your allegiance to me."
It took all the strength in my body to stand erect. "Never!" I spat. "I would have gladly bowed down before you if you were a rightful ruler. You lust after power. Genocide did not help you gain anything, so what brought you to believe that ruling over an entire race would give you a better result?"
He gestured to the destruction around us. "I believe it is an improvement."
"You deserve to be buried under all this damage, not the humans!" I stomped my foot down.
"Your words are meaningless, darling. You are a woman of all talk, no action. A shame. Your powers could have easily been improved if you had taken the time to train yourself. Who knows what you could have achieved—what you still can?" He walked casually closer; his staff's gem a blindingly bright blue. "I will break you, Kiara. I will not murder someone who has potential to be something."
"I would rather take my life."
"You would really resort to such an extreme? My, my, Earth really has given you a bad influence." He tsked. "Your spirit will be all the more fun to command. Cooperate, and we will not have any issues."
I scoffed, feeling a bit dizzy. My eyes didn't leave the blue gem of Loki's scepter.
"Kneel before me," he said quietly. I felt a hint of urgency behind his tone.
I didn't obey, I stood my ground. "What, you thought I'd bow because you asked? Even if you asked nicely, it would be a hard 'no'. You're not dealing with humans anymore, Loki."
One corner of his mouth twitched downwards. "Once I get you to obey, I will have to make you keep quiet." We stood with a foot of space between us. His eyes seemed to flash with annoyance. "I said, kneel."
I stood in defiant silence.
Loki's face twisted into a snarl. I almost dropped to my knees instantly when he wrapped a hand around my throat. Blue eyes met blue, only the blue I stared into were supposed to be green. Whatever was controlling Loki had full dominance over him.
***
"Kiara."
I shot awake in the chair with labored breathing. I ran my fingers over my throat, expecting to feel crushing pressure. I swallowed, pushing my emotions back.
I noticed Thor hovered over me with worry in his light blue eyes.
"I'm fine," I lied. I knew Thor could see right through me, but he didn't question me. "What's going on?"
"We are needed at the laboratory. Agent Romanoff figured out Loki's next move."
"Which is?"
"I will explain on the way. Come, on your feet."
I squinted to see the sun was rising. I knew I didn't get a good night's sleep. Until this thing with Loki was done, nobody here would.
With Thor taking the lead, as if he really knew where the laboratory was, I mulled over my nightmare. I wasn't one to have premonitions of the future. I really hoped that wasn't a gift I had yet to discover. I was perfectly content with my limited fire and mind reading.
You, I growled at Loki.
I have not done anything, Kiara.
You were in my dream.
Oh, you think about me that much, do you?
Though it was recently true, I wasn't about to let him know that. You probably can sneak into people's dreams and alter them, so stop acting innocent. You're the reason why my dream became a nightmare.
Though I may be very talented, that is sadly not one of my abilities. It is a shame; I would have loved to peek into your head while you slept. I could picture him smiling in the glass cage.
"So...what is Loki's play?" I asked Thor.
"Agent Romanoff believes that he plans to unleash Banner's beast."
"You mean the Hulk?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"I do not know, she never said. She may not even know. I am sure things will come to light once we group with the others."
Natasha intercepted us halfway. We followed her lead.
"So, what did it take?" I whispered to her. We walked alongside each other, Thor trailed behind us. "How did you figure it out?"
"I had to do what was necessary," she said stiffly.
"That gives me nothing."
"We talked, and I tricked him."
"You must be clever, not many can trick the God of Mischief."
"It's one of my many skills."
We were close to the laboratory, I could hear voices. They were faint, but all sounded male.
"I was wrong, Director." Cap's voice. "The world hasn't changed a bit." He didn't sound happy.
Natasha, Thor, and I all came into the laboratory to find quite a sight.
I could understand how Banner could like this room, it looked very technological. Stark was present, as was Director Fury. On one of the many tables in the laboratory, held up by some tiny prongs, was Loki's scepter. I didn't understand why Cap sounded so furious, not until I saw a weapon lying on one of the other tables.
"Did you know about this?" Banner confronted Natasha.
"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" she asked calmly.
"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 leaving because you suddenly got twitchy." He went to one of the roving panels and angled it so we could all see.
I tilted my head. Phase Two?
"I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."
I couldn't help but gasp. Coulson had told me that S.H.I.E.L.D. was only studying the Cube's properties. Oh, wait, technically he didn't. He never gave me an answer. But I thought S.H.I.E.L.D. was about protecting the world and keeping peace?
"Because of him," Fury answered Banner, pointing a finger at Thor.
"Me?" Thor asked.
"Him?" I added. "What did he do?"
"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town," Fury explained. "We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."
"Our people want nothing but peace with your planet." I was surprised Thor included me, but I shouldn't have been. I was Asgardian by blood.
"But you're not the only people out there, are you? 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?" Cap butted in.
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Thor said accusingly. "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," Fury said. "We had to come up with something."
"A nuclear deterrent," Stark voiced. "Because that always calms everything right down."
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark."
"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep—" Cap began hotly.
"Hold on," Stark said. "How is it now about me?"
"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"
"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor complained.
"Excuse me," Fury said, "did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"
"You treat your champions with such mistrust."
"Are you boys really that naïve?" Natasha finally voiced. "S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors potential threats."
"Captain America is on threat watch?" Banner asked, sounding a bit surprised.
"We all are."
"I thought I was under protection, not a threat watch," I finally sounded off. "Don't tell me that's why I'm here."
"That's not why you're here," Natasha confirmed. "Coulson recruited you to help stop Loki."
"Is that really all, Natasha?" I asked sharply. "What's my real purpose for coming here?"
"What?"
"Am I here to be experimented on?"
"Why would you think that?"
"I've got unique powers. Who wouldn't want to get their hands on them and try to duplicate them?"
"You're being ridiculous."
"With S.H.I.E.L.D.'s technology, I doubt it. Your people are very capable of trying to do something like that, I'm sure."
"Loki got to you too." Natasha shook her head. "I thought you would have known better, Kiara, being that you know him better than most of us here."
Everyone started to get into it. Stark and Cap wouldn't stop going at each other's throats, while the rest of us argued amongst each other. I kept going back and forth with Natasha, feeling heat surge through my veins. I kept my temper in check, I didn't want the Helicarrier to burst into flames and kill us all.
"You speak of control, yet you create chaos," Thor continued.
"That's his M.O., isn't it?" Banner added. "I mean, what are we, a team? No, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb."
"You need to step away," Fury threatened.
"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Stark protested.
"You know damn well why," Cap barked. "Back off!"
"I'm starting to want you to make me."
"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."
That's still pretty good, even if I don't know what all of those are.
"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. 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."
"Always a way out. 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."
"Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds."
Thor's low laughter kind of eased the tension in the laboratory. "You people are so petty...and tiny. How have you lived amongst them, Kiara?"
"I haven't encountered this before," I said simply.
"Yeah, this is a team," Banner said lowly, sarcastically.
"Agent Romanoff," Fury addressed the only other female in the room besides me, "would you escort Doctor Banner back to his—"
"Where? You're renting my room."
"The cell was just in case—"
"In case you wanted to kill me. But you can't. I know, I tried."
An uneasy silence fell over the room.
"I got low," he explained. "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." He turned to Natasha. "You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?"
"Doctor Banner," Cap said in a commanding, yet gentle voice, "put down the scepter."
I was completely oblivious to the scepter in Banner's hand until Cap had said something. I had been too preoccupied on preparing for the Hulk to be unleashed in the laboratory.
Something beeped, making me jump.
"Got it," Banner said. "Sorry, kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all." He went towards the source of the noise.
"What did you find?" I asked.
"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.
"I could get there fastest," Stark piped.
"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard. No human is a match for it."
"You're not going alone," Cap addressed Stark.
"You're going to stop me?" Stark retorted.
"Put on the suit, let's find out."
"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."
"Ladies, please," I said dramatically.
"Oh my God," Banner murmured.
Before anyone could ask what he was going on about, the glass window of the laboratory shattered, and everyone was tossed in different directions.