[1.5] "THAT WAS GROSS."
*****
THE WIND SUFFOCATED FREYA AS SHE HELD TIGHTLY ONTO LOKI'S ARM. They were soaring through the sky and towards a rocky mountain face in a matter of seconds. Thor flew down towards a flat space on the mountain and roughly dropped Loki, making him skid across the ground. And because Freya was holding onto him, she was forced to let go and land roughly on the dirt.
Freya landed on her back on the brown dirt and hit her head against a small rock, creating an instant dizziness, pain and headache. Freya felt the back of her head where she got hit and brought her hand to her face, seeing the familiar sight of blood on her fingertips. She groaned.
'Do not cry in front of the Gods', she thought and wiped the tears from under her eyes. Knowing that she would be alright, Freya sat up and everything around her was dizzy and she felt nauseous. A few meters away, Freya could only just see Thor and Loki arguing. She tried to listen in but couldn't hear them over the sound of ringing in her ears. Her eyelids were getting heavier and heavier until she couldn't keep them open any longer.
The last thing Freya heard was someone saying her name.
***
Freya's eyes opened unwillingly and she groaned, slowly lifting herself up off the ground, relying on her arms for support. Freya winced as she did so, but despite the pain screaming in her body she expected to be in more pain than she was after landing on the rough ground. Not thinking much of it, Freya analysed her surroundings. She was on a rocky mountain, the only thing in sight ahead of her was more rocks and two ravens sitting on those rocks, seemingly inspecting her. Freya was confused at first, frantically sitting up and upsetting the pain in her head, causing bile to reach up her throat. Freya rushed to the side just in time and emptied the contents of her stomach onto the dirt just below. When Freya was done, she rolled back onto her back and groaned, "That was gross."
"It was rather unpleasant."
Freya froze at the sound of the voice. Her eyes scanned around and saw that it belonged to a man sitting on the edge of the mountain. Freya immediately recognised the man as Loki, then everything came rushing back to her.
"Where is everyone?" Freya asked, the churning of her stomach returning at the close proximity between them.
Loki pointed down to the valley of trees, "The metal man knocked my 'mighty' brother off the mountain and now they're duelling," He said, rolling his eyes.
Not thinking it through, Freya reluctantly got off the ground and made her way towards the edge of the cliff, fighting the dizziness. She sat down a decent enough distance from Loki and watched as Thor and Tony battled it out.
Freya's mental awareness was on full alert as two sat in silence. Freya's brain was in a frenzy asking questions over and over again, until eventually she blurted out, "What do you have planned for me?"
Loki chuckled and answered her, not looking at Freya and continued watching the fight, "You'll know soon enough."
Freya growled under her breath at the vague answer and decided not to bother demanding an answer. "So," Freya began, "Why didn't you just escape and take me with you? You had the perfect opportunity and no one would have known where you had gone."
Loki shook his head, "And miss my brother possibly losing a battle? Absolutely not." Freya rolled her eyes and shifted into a more comfortable position and watched the battle. Freya didn't believe he was telling the truth, but she accepted the answer either way knowing she probably wasn't going to get anything else out of the God.
As Freya continued watching the battle, it was quite entertaining. Thor had summoned a lightning bolt and charged it towards a beaten down Tony, but Tony seemed to gain energy from the bolt and blasted Thor with it. They brawled it out until Steve came. Thor hit his hammer against Steve's shield, causing some major deforestation. And just like that, the fight was over.
"Well," Freya said, getting up from the edge, "Time to go. There's a nice cell waiting for you." Freya suddenly felt uneasy and fell to her knees on the brown dirt. Freya clutched her head as the pain came back.
"You should take it easy," A male voice spoke to her. Freya recognised it as Tony. He must've flown up to get Loki.
Freya took a deep breath and waved it off, standing up saying, "Nah, I'm alright! Just feeling a bit-" She swayed a bit too much to the right and fell to the ground again, "Never mind, I think your right."
"Come on, Shorty." Tony picked Freya up and she clutched close to him as he levitated up and started flying towards the Quinjet that wasn't that far behind.
***
When everyone got back to the Helicarrier, they took Freya to the infirmary. After the doctors onboard tested Freya for injuries and it wasn't long until her father came rushing in, worry was evident in his facial features, "Hey honey, are you okay!" Kevin Jones knelt down beside the bed Freya had been lying on.
Freya gave her father a half smile, "I'm fine Dad, I just got a minor concussion. That's all."
Kevin studied Freya for injuries, but there appeared to be none. With a sigh of relief, Kevin relaxed and flicked his brown eyes over to look into hers, "I'm glad you are okay, but know what you did," He started, "It was incredibly reckless."
"What do you mean?" Freya asked, her brows knitting together in confusion. "I didn't do anything."
A mixture of anger and disappointment flooded Kevin's features. "You fought against him! You could've gotten yourself killed!"
"Well I didn't," Freya emphasised. "Besides, I wasn't intentionally looking for a fight against him, it just happened! He came after me, not the other way around. If you want someone to be mad at, be mad at him not me."
Kevin sighed and massaged his forehead. "I guess you're right. I'm sorry Freya, but you've got to understand how serious this situation is. That man is killing people without even a shred of remorse and you could've been another one of his victims. How do you think it would make me feel if you died? You're the last family I have left and if you died, that would destroy me."
Freya's gaze locked eyes with the floor. "It's the same for me too, Dad. I'm sorry."
Sympathy filled Kevin's eyes and he pulled Freya into a soft hug, "I know honey, I know. I'm just glad you didn't get hurt."
"Me too." Freya sighed happily. She loved her father's hugs, they always made her feel safe. Kevin pulled away from the hug when his watch beeped. He swore under his breath and got up, locking eyes with Freya.
"I'm sorry Frey but we've got to go. The Director is about to interrogate Loki and he wants me there with him, but you have to be in the conference room with the other Avengers to watch." Kevin helped Freya off the bed and they started walking towards the Conference room together.
'You're still letting me be on the team?" Freya was shocked and didn't understand. He was so against her being on the team, why would he still let her be on it?
Kevin sighed and shrugged, "There's nothing I can do. The Director is pretty adamant on you being on the team. I still don't understand why you were even ever considered for the team because of your age, but like I said there's nothing I can do."
The rest of the way was silent until they reached the Conference room. Freya and Kevin turned to face each other and gave each other a hug. "Be safe," Freya whispered into the hug. Kevin smiled and squeezed Freya a little tighter.
"I will." Kevin gave Freya a kiss on her forehead and pulled away from the hug and started walking away, "Be good!" he called out to her.
"I always am!" Freya called back. When her father had disappeared down the hall, she turned around and joined the group at the table. Freya took a seat next to Steve and across from Nat, while Bruce stood behind a chair and Thor was also standing by the table. It was rather silent until the camera feed came alive on the table. When Thor heard the recording start he moved about a foot away from everyone else just listening while the rest of them watched a live camera feed from the security camera in front of Loki's cell.
Once Fury and Loki were finished taunting each other, Fury left the cell holder area and the live feed went black. All of them were stone cold silent until Banner spoke up first. "He really grows on you, doesn't he?"
"Loki's gonna drag this out. Thor what's his play?" Steve addressed the God of Thunder.
"He has an army called the Chitauri. They are not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract." Thor explained, still not looking in the group's general direction.
Freya nodded along, picturing in her head what they would look like, while listening to the others talk. "An army? From outer space?" Steve asked in disbelief..
Bruce whipped his glasses with the hem of his shirt, "So he's building another portal, that's what he needs Erik Selvig for."
Thor brows knitted in confusion, "Selvig?"
"He's an astrophysicist," Bruce explained before Thor shook his head and said sadly,
"He's a friend."
"Loki has him under some type of spell," Nat joined in, "Along with one of ours."
Freya's eyes widened. Loki has Clint, that's why she hasn't seen him around yet. She was now slightly worried about Loki now that he had Clint, since Clint was one of the best agents in S.H.I.E.L.D. Clint was also one hell of an archer, being able to shoot an arrow from miles away and still hit its target. He never missed.
The sound of Steve's voice brought Freya back into the conversation, "I want to know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here."
Freya agreed with him. Why didn't Loki run away when he could have ran away on that mountain and taken her with him? Why had he let them take him in? What was he planning?
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki," said Bruce, "That guy's brain is like a bag full of cats, you can smell crazy on him."
"Have care how you speak," Thor demanded. "Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard. And he's my brother."
'How unfortunate for him,' Freya thought to herself, 'He had to live with Loki as his brother.'
"He killed eighty people in two days." Nat deadpanned.
Thor shrugged and slightly defensively said, "He's adopted."
"I think it's about the mechanics," Bruce spoke up, "Uh- Iridium. What do they need Iridium for?"
"It's a stabilising agent!" A voice called into the room. Everyone looked to the door to see Tony walking in and whispering to Phil quietly before they went in opposite directions and Tony continued to speak, "It means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D." As Tony walked past Thor he patted Thor's bicep. "No hard feelings Point Break, you have a mean swing."
"Also, it means the portal can stay open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." He stopped where Fury normally stood with all his controls and hi-tech touch screen computers.
"Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails." Tony gestures to the workers below. "That man is playing Gallagheer! Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did!"
Everyone, including the crew down below, stared at Tony in confusion, not quite sure what he was babbling on about. Tony then glanced at Fury's computers and placed a hand over his eye, "How does Fury even see these?" He turned around to ask the group.
"He turns." Agent Hill deadpanned. She had been so quiet Freya forgot she was even here.
"Sounds exhausting." Freya rolled her eyes at Tony while he swiped across one of Fury's computers. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton could get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component that he needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."
"When did you become an expert in Thermonuclear Astrophysics?" Hill asked Tony, giving him a suspicious look.
"Last night," Tony shrugged, like it was no big deal that he learnt all that in one night. "The packet. Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only person who did the reading?"
"Hey, I do enough reading for school, don't expect me to be reading anything on my day off." Freya said as she leant back more in her seat.
"Does Loki need a particular kind of power source?" Steve asked no one in particular, ignoring what Freya had said and finally interrupting Tony's blabbering.
"He would have to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Bruce interjected, answering Steve.
"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilise the quantum tunnel effect." Tony stated as he started walking over towards Bruce.
"Well, if he could do that then he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet."
"Finally, Someone who speaks English!" Tony rejoiced and he and Bruce shook hands.
Steve turned to Freya, "Is that what just happened?"
Freya shrugged. "To be honest, I completely zoned out as soon as Bruce said 'Coulomb'."
"Your work on anti-electron collision is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of how you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." The look in Tony's eyes showed respect for Bruce but at the comment about the Hulk, Bruce looked uncomfortable, muttering a thanks.
"Doctor Banner is only here to find the cube." Said Fury as he walked into the room. "I was hoping you would join him." He said to Tony.
"I would start with that stick of his. It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon." Steve suggested.
"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube," said Fury, "And I'd like to know how he used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."
"Monkeys?" Thor asked, puzzled. "I don't understand?"
"I do!" Steve rejoiced proudly. "I understood that reference." Tony rolled his eyes while Bruce and Freya gave him a small smile. It must've been hard for Steve, and Thor, listening to Bruce and Tony go on about that science stuff and having no clue what the hell they were talking about. Mind you, neither did Freya but at least she had a slight understanding.
"Shall we play doctor?" Tony asked Bruce. Bruce gestures to the door. "This way, sir."
Tony stopped before they walked through the door and turned to face the group again, pointing to Freya, "You might as well come along too, Munchkin. I heard somewhere that little kids learn better when they're surrounded by that.. something. Something about brain development?"
Freya's eyes narrowed at Tony before he gestured to her to get up and she got off the seat, trailing behind them as they walked to their lab.
***
To say Freya was bored out of her mind was an understatement. She was extremely bored.
Tony and Bruce had been talking their science nonsense that Freya did not understand for hours on end. Freya had been in this lab for far too long as she felt her eyelids grow heavy. Freya leant against the table, the only support holding her up was her arm which her head laid in. Her eyes were slowly shutting when suddenly called out to her, causing her to bolt up and awake.
"So, Kid, shouldn't you be at home waiting for your mom to bring you some juice?"
Freya glared at Tony as she saw the corner of his mouth turned up into a smirk, "No, if anything I should be at school." Freya avoided talking about her mother, she didn't really know these men. Freya knew they were good men but didn't know them well enough to just go spilling her life story.
"Why are you here instead of, you know, kindergarten?" Tony questioned, his focus not on her as he continued to tap about on the tabet he was holding.
Freya shrugged, choosing to ignore his comments despite her being annoyed, "Fury came and pulled me out of school to be here to help you guys so I'm here until all this finishes."
Tony stopped what he was going and turned to look at her in disbelief. "Fury pulled you out of school? How are your parents okay with this? Actually better question, where are your parents?"
Freya rolled her eyes at Tony. Ever since she first met him he has been so against her being here with them and it bothered her. If Fury didn't think she should be here then she wouldn't be here. Freya knew she had great powers, powers she knew could help them in some way, in a way Tony didn't know yet but he would learn.
"Well actually," Freya started, "my father works for S.H.I.E.L.D, he's one of Fury's best agents. He is on this ship right now and my father isn't exactly okay with it, but he's got to listen to his Superior so he doesn't have a choice."
During this whole conversation Bruce had only been half listening, but now had finally stopped what he was doing to give his full attention, but Freya was done being in the room. Freya stood up from her seat and looked towards the two men, "Well, speaking of my father, I better go find him. Thanks for the lovely chat guys."
And with that Freya left the lab, her blood starting to boil. Freya first set out to look for her father in his room, but after knocking for a few minutes decided to look for him in the Main Control room. When she got there her eyes scanned for her father, but yet again he wasn't where she thought he would be. Suppressing a growl, Freya went to turn around but out of the corner of her eye she spotted Phil, Fury and Thor talking.'Phil would know where my father is', Freya thought and she walked towards them. As she got closer she could hear their conversation.
"You think you can make Loki tell us where the Tesseract is?" Fury questioned Thor, looking at him intensely with his one eye as he stood at the top of the stairs leading up to the upper level of the Control room.
Thor answered, staring out the Helicarrier window, "I do not know. Loki's mind is far afield, it's not just power he craves, it's vengeance upon me. There's no pain that would prize his need from him."
"A lot of guys think that, until the pain stops." Fury said, walking down the stairs as he does and meeting Thor face to face.
Thor stared at Fury, his eyes scanning Fury before asking, 'What are you asking me to do?"
"I'm asking. What are you prepared to do?"
"Loki is a prisoner." Thor stated, looking away slightly before bringing his focus back to Fury.
Fury gave a humourless chuckle, "Then why do I feel like he's the only person on this boat that wants to be here?" When Thor didn't answer, Fury silently turned around and walked away.
Conflicted, Thor turned around to Phil, "I may take my leave now. Thank you, Son of Coul, for the protection of Jane." Thor turned around and saw Freya standing there, the first acknowledgement of her presence. His bright blue eyes pierced her soul, as if looking at an old friend sent shivers down her spine as he gave her a small smile, "Good day, Lady Freya."
Freya gave a polite smile back, not showing what she was really feeling and said, "Good day, Thor."
Thor smiled again before walking off. Freya's gazed followed and watched as Thor exited the Control room. Freya felt uneasy about that encounter. That was the first time she had ever talked to him and vice versa. How does he know her name? And the way he looked at her as if he knew her. Freya didn't understand him. Maybe it was common where he came from.
Freya shook her head, deciding to forget it for now, and turned around to face Phil. "Hey Phil," Freya said, giving him a goofy smile.
Phil turned around from the screen he was looking at and gave her a goofy smile back. "Hey Frey, what's up?"
"Nothing much," She said leaning against the bench, "Just wondering if you knew where my father was?"
"No sorry I don't right now but-" Phil was rudely interrupted by Freya as she noticed the woman on the screen that Phil had been working at previously.
"Is that Jane?"
Phil turned his focus to the screen, "Yes, that's Jane Foster. She is one of the world's leading astrophysicists while also being the world's foremost astronomer. We had a run in with her last year when she was in Puente Antiguo, New Mexico and had gotten involved with Thor, and eventually Loki." The mention of Loki sent chills down Freya's spine. "She has partnered up with us and has given us information regarding the Nine realms and we offered our resources for her research. When Loki took Doctor Selvig, we had to send her to an observatory to be safe."
Freya analysed the picture on the screen. Jane Foster was absolutely beautiful. Long light brown hair that reached just a bit past her shoulders, warm coloured skin, and strong facial feature, although her strongest were definitely her striking brown eyes.
Freya looked away, thinking about what Phil just said, "Are we safe?"
Phil looked at Freya with concern written over the features of his face but also held a gentle smile and he pulled Freya into a hug, "I believe we are, Frey. I believe we are."
Freya forced a believable smile and pulled out of the hug. Phil look down at her with a lopsided grin checking his watch and sighing as he saw the time, "Sorry Freya I've got to go finish something for the Director," Phil started to walk off, but not before turning back around, "If you want something to do you could go check out the Training rooms. And remember, we're all gonna be fine!"
Freya gave Phil a thumbs up just as he started jogging away and out of the Control room the same way Thor had. Freya let out a sigh and started walking towards the Training room. Freay had nothing better to do anyway. As Freya made her way through the hallways of the Helicarrier her mind could stop thinking about the last thing Phil had said.
We're all going to be fine.
She wasn't so certain she was going to be fine, not when she had basically made a deal with the Devil. Her insides had been churning the whole time being in an enclosed space with Loki, still not knowing what he had planned for her.
Freya was so caught up in her own thoughts she didn't even register a hand grabbing her by her bicep until she came to a full stop in her tracks. Freya gave a slight yelp and turned her head quickly to see who grabbed her. Maria Hill's face can into full view, her expression unreadable. "Loki had requested to speak to you. Follow me."
Freya's eyes widened, and followed after Hill as she powered walked around the corner. Freya raced to catch up, slowing down to match Maria's pace. "He wants to speak to me? About what?"
"We're not sure. We don't even know why he requested to talk to you," Hill said, staring straight ahead and not sparing a glance at Freya. Freya only nodded, staying physically silent for the rest of the way to wherever they were going but my mind was going off like a siren. Question after question after question. At this point Freya was driving herself mad.
Freya didn't know what to expect. She didn't know whether or not he was going to make her break him out, or whether he had something more sinister planned. It didn't matter what it was, it scared Freya shitless.
Hill stopped out of a door after what seemed like forever. Hill then proceeded to type a code into a keypad, then scanned her ID Badge and the light flashed from red to green and the door slid open. Freya shut her eyes and took a deep breath, then she took a step inside, Hill following after but staying at the door.
Freya took little small steps towards the glass in which contained Loki. She could already see from where she was that he was sitting on the singular bench positioned at the back of the cell, leaning to rest his arm on his knees and his hands clasped together. It gave Freya the slightest comfort knowing how far away his was from her, at least a good three feet with glass between, but all that comfort was taken away though when Freya saw the intense stare and the sinister smirk on Loki's face Freya's heart beated rapidly when she came to a stop in front of the glass. It took all the courage in her to say, "What do you want from me?"
"I do not want anything from you right at this very minute. Although, I would suggest packing a bag relatively soon."
Freya's brows knitted in confusion, "Pardon? Pack a bag? What do you mean?"
Loki slowly got up from the bench and walked forward towards the glass. Freya's feet were stuck to the floor, despite the fact that the only thing that they wanted to do was take a few steps back. "I want you to be prepared for what is about to happen."
"What's about to happen?" Freya asked cautiously, fearing the answer. The God in front of her gave another one of his sinister grins.
"We're going to win. I'm going to take you all out."
Realisation dawned on Freya as she remembered a question asked earlier by Steve. "That's why you didn't run away on the mountain earlier and why you gave up so easily in Germany, you want to be here with all of us because that's the only way you can win."
Loki chuckled in surprise, "Why, what a clever girl."
"I have my moments," Freya agreed. Freya was a clever girl, but in this moment she realised how dumb and naieve she was. Freya had let the disappearance of her mother cloud her judgement when she made the agreement with Loki. He was the God of Mischief and Lies, he could be lying to her. Her friends were right, she was insane. Freya wanted to smack herself silly, how could she let herself agree to something like that and make her feel so afraid? Freya suddenly felt confidence and courage that she had been missing unlock from within and hit her like a pile of bricks. "Especially now when I say we are done."
Loki's features suddenly darkened. "What did you just say?"
"I said we're done! I'm not helping you anymore." Freya declared, finally finding the strength to turn around and move her feet towards the door where Hill was waiting.
"Do not dare to defy me!" Loki yelled threatenly, slamming his fist against the glass. "You will regret this," He seethed and taunted her, "and you're already too late."
This stopped Freya in her tracks, Freya turned around swifty and looked the God in his blue eyes. Loki chuckled sinisterly, "There's nothing you can do to stop it, Barton and his team are already on their way. I'm going to win."
And as fast as Freya's heart beating, Freya frantically left the room to warn the first person she thought of; Tony.