Shadow
Chapter 4 of Singer
“Soul meets soul on lovers' lips.”– Percy Bysshe Shelley.
The night began to creep in and slowly the life within the helicarrier dulled to a low hum of engines and snores from the guards on the other side of the door. Loki lay on the bench with his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling. The sterile metal top to the impressive cage stared back at him, slowly warping into the newest visitor’s face.
He watched as her face emerged before his eyes and he was able to see the details of her features that he had started to memorize the moment he had watched her enter the chamber where he was being kept.
She had walked in almost in a daze of wonder of everything surrounding her, if she had held any fear of him and what he had done she did not show it outwardly. Her eyes danced from object to object around the space and had allowed Loki to see their vibrant green hue. It wasn’t until he was standing with his body gently pressed against hers in the dream that she had created for them that he had seen the river of brown that ran around the pupil and the warmest blue ring around the iris. It seemed only fitting that when he looked deeply into her eyes as reality melted away around them that they had reminded him of the first time he had gazed upon Midgard from space as he approached it through the bifrost.
The swirling colors of the beam transporting him through space allowed small cracks and peaks at the universe it was carrying him through but back then he had never seen the beauty in the little blue marble that swam in a sea of stars on its own so far removed from the other realms. But now, after the years long totrure at the hands of another where he believed that the only thing that he would ever see again was his own flesh as it burned and dripped off his body, he could hardly deny that the tiny blue world was something to behold in awe and reverie. While the planet was indeed captivating, it would never be as breathtaking as the color her eyes had been in that split second before he had leaned in to kiss her. A warm and fuzzy sensation blossomed in Loki’s chest and began to seep into the rest of his body and for the briefest of moments he allowed himself to revel in the feeling of a simple memory had given him; the simple memory of being wanted by the one he wanted in return.
It had been so long since he had sought comfort in another person and not be rejected by them outright for his brother or used in some game to position themselves closer to the prince that would someday occupy the throne of Asgard. There were so many reminders in his life that he was the spare to the throne and therefore unworthy of finding a person with whom he could share his life with or even the love of his family. Maybe that is why this is why the mortal had caught him so unaware of what she was doing - it was if she could see inside of him and knew what it would take to fill the void of what she found there.
It had been nice to be held in the arms of another.
It had been nice to feel her heart beat in time with his own.
It had been comfortable holding her in his arms.
It had been nice to feel her lips moving with his own as their kiss deepened.
It had been…
It had been…
It had all been a trick!
In one smooth motion Loki sat upright, placing his feet on the ground of his cage and just like that he felt his old companions, anger and resentment, flair within him quickly killing whatever that insignificant mortal had left within him. He was never enough, no matter how hard he tried, bargained, or worked; it was simply never enough and it was a cruel twist to imply otherwise.
How had he not seen it for what it was?
It wasn’t as if the Avengers would bring him something to make him feel more welcome in this little prison that they had engineered. They had brought her to discover something - was she able to see into his mind without him realizing it?
It was not as if there was much to conceal from them, only a crazed titan that was hurdling towards their tiny, insignificant planet who would stop at nothing to see his insane plan come to fruition. Loki was clearly the better alternative, at least he would rule them with subjugation and care. This feeble planet and its band of crusaders had no way of knowing it at this moment as their planet sat at a crossroads between life and total annihilation.
This was just another to use and manipulate Loki to bend to another’s will just as so many had done before; so why was the thought of watching the tiny mortal with the eyes that reflected her planet should not have been the stab to the chest that he was feeling but yet the feeling was there despite his own wishes and desires? Loki pondered this thought as he returned to laying on the metal bench and looking up towards the direction he imagined to be the sky, his anger and resentment fading away as he closed his eyes only to see her face yet again.
Melody laid in her own compartment just a few levels above where the prison kept the ruminating god. The compartment was spacious enough but she did not need a big space, in fact she was used to sleeping wherever she felt safe enough to sleep for a few hours. Before Nat had sent her message through their old network channels to her, Melody had spent the past few weeks in an abandoned theme park sleeping in one of the old line ques for some wooden roller coaster that had seen better days. It was summer so the nights had been warm enough that she could sleep exposed to the wind and not be chilled and she had spent many a night wondering what the old amusement park had looked like when it was open.
She had imagined the colored light sparkling, the cheers and screams of excited patrons filling the sky, and the sweet stickiness of cotton candy hanging in the air. Small children holding the hands of their parents as they pulled them to the next attraction that had caught their eye. Couples locked together in embraces and laughter as they spent their time together without a care in the world. The scene was sweet and should have been a memory that Melody held of her own childhood but it was nothing close to anything that she had experienced for herself.
Her childhood had been filled with training and breaking.
Breaking her body.
Breaking her will.
Breaking her mind.
She had been handed over to HYDRA as a small child, no more than 4 or 5 years old, nothing more than another tool to be molded and crafted into what they needed. Melody had been humming to herself and the old woman that had been entrusted with her care must have been overcome with vision. Whatever she had seen had been enough to make the old woman call an old ally from the war and break the promise of keeping Melody safe and hidden that the grandmotherly figure had given not only to Melody’s parents before they died but to the courts as well upon her adoption. Melody remembered packing up the few things that were hers and being taken to a camp filled with military personnel, since it would be hard to explain the existence of a small child there, she was quickly transported to what she assumed to be another orphanage. There she had made some friendships with other children and there had been rare moments of play and pure happiness which made their indoctrination even more torturous since there were memories of well- being spliced in between the torment.
Melody’s eyes refocused for a split second as she heard a pair of feet walk past her door causing the light that was seeping underneath the door and into her bunk to be disrupted for a split second before the feet carried their owner down the hall and farther away from her. Melody held her breath for a few extra seconds and she could feel the cortisol pumping into her nervous system causing her muscles to tense and coil, ready for the anticipated fight. This was one of the rare times when she would not need to face an opponent but her body was now wide awake and sleep would no doubt be far away so she got up and shrugged on an oversized hoodie before walking out of the compartment in an attempt to find her way back to the living room in search of something to occupy her until she could go back to sleep.
However, Mel soon discovered that whomever had designed the floating fortress in the sky in which she now found herself must have really loved the old Greek myths of the Minotaur and had made this place into their own tribute to the labyrinth. Melody had been wandering aimlessly for at least half an hour when she found herself in a makeshift lab with two men, a glowing scepter between them, deep in conversation.
Bruce and Tony looked up from the screen when they heard footsteps come to a stop behind them to find the young woman that Natasha had brought into the fold. Tony hadn’t really resisted the addition of another supernatural being to the helicarrier especially since Natasha and Barton had been so willing to put their own trust in her hands and she had been the only one that had even gotten Loki so much to blink at her.
“What’s up kid?” Tony asked.
Melody turned her eyes from the scepter to the man with the beard and bravado as he spoke to her. She was not sure how to answer the question since her mind had wandered so far while she drifted through the hallways.
She decided to state the obvious, “I couldn’t sleep.”
Tony’s eyes crinkled as he offered her a smile, “Ya, interacting with a big, bad space alien would keep me up at night too.”
Melody gave a small laugh sharing in Tony’s amusement. The man with glasses turned to offer her a small smile as well before turning back around to his screens and calculations.
Melody took a few moments to look around the lab before her eyes settled on the scepter with glowing stone held tightly in its prongs. She had never seen a jewel quite as mesmerizing as the one in front of her and it was easy to become transfixed by the feelings it stirred within her.
After calling her name a few times Tony decided that he would have to touch Melody’s shoulder since she had decided not to hear him and his warning about the scepter. Tony stood and crossed the room placing one hand lightly on Mel’s shoulder and turning her slightly to him, when he saw Melody’s face he couldn’t stifle the small gasp that exited his lips.
Blue swirled in Melody’s eyes overtaken by the power of the mind stone making her zombie-like in her appearance as if she was looking at something far away that no one else could see.
Her unfocused eyes found Tony’s as she simply said, “Something is coming.”