Chapter 12
“Are you sure about this, brother?”
“Yes,” Loki answered, having just finished telling Thor that he was prepared to return to Norway. “When are we set to leave?”
Thor frowned. “I thought we’d stay some time, Loki. But if you’re intent on going back, we can send you alone.”
“How soon?”
“You’d have to ask Stark,” Thor shrugged, looking at him off in the corner.
“Huh?” the man looked back from three slates of glowing screens before him. He was standing beside Pepper, who also turned at the sound of his name.
“Loki would like to return home.”
Stark narrowed his brows. “Oh.”
Pepper’s eyes slitted at the God of Mischief—he stared back pointedly, refusing to ever be intimidated by the likes of her. “Why?” she asked—voice low, and dripping with suspicion. “What did you do?”
Tension rippled through Loki’s jaw, but his face remained calm. “Nothing. Is it a crime to want to return home?”
Stark and the woman exchanged glances. “There’s always the quinjet,” he shrugged, tossing a blueberry into his mouth.
“S.H.I.E.L.D’s actively using the fleet right now,” Pepper interjected, giving Stark a look as she leaned against the counter. “You know that A.I.M’s been expanding, they’re planning something… They’re all over the place, and S.H.I.E.L.D needs all the help they can get.”
He smirked. “So? When has that ever stopped us from doing what we want?”
Stark and Pepper both turned back to the screens as she mumbled, “Plenty of times we’ve flown like regular people—France, Greece, Switzerland… If we start abusing their resources, how much longer do you think they’ll keep us around?”
“We are a defense company, Pepper? I make the quinjets, and I can stop making them any time I want. Along with other…. stuff they need,” he paused, glancing back at Loki over his shoulder.
Loki rolled his eyes at the continued air of distrust—despite his continued consultations for S.H.I.E.L.D and Stark Industries. There’s never been a shortage of alien eyes watching over Earth, and on a number of occasions, Loki’s experience had proved invaluable with the insight he had to offer.
Still, the mention of Switzerland brought back memories. Memories that Loki shoved to the back of his mind.
“Think on it,” he mumbled as he stalked down the hallway to his bedroom.
He’d bring this up again tomorrow, perhaps to Pepper alone, as he had no desire to discuss his motivations with the rest of the group—which was why he pointedly locked his doorknob, and ignored the subsequent knocks that came later on from Thor. They could discuss it amongst themselves if they so wished—perhaps it would stifle the curiosity, without his intervention. He wasn’t prepared to engage in those conversations.
It was already late, so avoiding the others would be a simple task from there. Especially as the hours passed, and everyone else went to sleep. It was well into the night when Loki first noticed sounds coming from the living room, and he was reading on an electronic tablet that Stark had offered him. He furrowed a brow and looked up at the door, stifling his movements to hear it again. No one had left their rooms, so there was no reason for there to be any noise out there.
Another ruffle. Barely discernible, if not for his advanced hearing.
Loki swung his long legs over the edge of the bed, and quietly strode toward the door. He opened it slowly, and peered at the dim light emanating at the end of the hallway. His socks were silent against the hardwood floor, and he stared out at the figure standing before the slitted screens.
Light, curly hair… Long, black trench coat… The figure confirmed her identity as she turned and stared blankly—it was Cerys. Clad in her usual form fitted apparel and boots.
“Cerys,” Loki murmured, relaxing at first. “What are you doing?”
Silence.
It took a moment for Loki realize that something wasn’t right. Her eyes… There was no sign of Cerys in them. They glowed in a pale, green light, and her hand hovered over one of the knobs at the bottom, which was blinking. When the bright red light turned green, and she clamped down on it immediately—darting toward the elevator. Loki acted fast, flinging a small piece of furniture in front of her her. She turned toward him slowly, an amused grin tugging at her lip.
“Well, well…” she crooned.
“Cerys?” he repeated again, stepping toward her.
“Nisha,” she mused. Her voice was her own, but her tone lilted unusually. “Cerys sends her regards."
Stark and the others suddenly filed into the room, stopping in their tracks just behind Loki.
“Cer?” Pepper muttered, stepping toward her.
Loki’s arm shot out in front of her. “No.”
Cerys’ eyes slid to Stark, and in a brisk movement that no one predicted, she pulled a dagger from her boot and threw it toward him. A similar blade manifested in Loki’s hand as he blocked the dagger midair, and Stark stumbled back.
“What the hell?” he growled, after nearly toppling onto the floor. “Who crapped in her cheerios?”
“That’s not Cerys,” Loki answered.
“Is that…” Pepper stepped forward, glaring at the device in Cerys’ hand. “One of our drives?”
“What’s wrong with her!?” Thor exclaimed.
No one answered. They barely had a moment to, before Cerys—Nisha—bolted toward the elevator, which had somehow summoned itself.
“Jarvis,” Stark began. “Shut down the-”
He didn’t get the chance to finish before Nisha suddenly stopped, and whipped Cerys’ head back toward him. Loki saw Stark’s eyes suddenly widen, and his jaw was held in place—like he couldn’t talk. Loki and Thor made toward Cerys across the room, but it was too late. She climbed into the elevator.
Loki’s heart raced as he banged his fists against the metal doors, and Jarvis’ voice suddenly came on. “Security protocols are still in place, sir—shutting down the buil-” It stopped. Jarvis’ voice too, was suddenly stifled, dropping to a low tone before tapering.
“What’s going on!?” Thor cried again.
“I don’t know,” Stark growled behind them as he shuffled away.
“Something’s inside her,” Loki scowled. “It called itself Nisha.”
Pepper’s eyes widened. “Nisha? She said her name was Nisha?”
Loki narrowed his brow. “Yes—do you know who that is?”
Panic rose in her expression, and he could see it. Her eyes darted down to Stark, and she murmured, “The profile we looked at, remember what the name was…”
His face paled as he glared up at her. “The…” he paused. “Crap, it’s starting—and she took the drive. We’ve got to find her. You guys go down the stairwell, catch her before she leaves the building.”
Loki and Thor exchanged glances before turning toward the front door.
“I’m coming with you guys,” Pepper turned toward Loki and his brother.
“No,” Thor protested before Loki could. “You should stay here, where it’s safe.”
Loki froze when Pepper’s eyes fell to him. “No, I’m coming with you. We’ll split up and look for her.”
“I’ll search faster on my own,” Loki said.
“I’m the only one who remotely knows what we’re up against,” Pepper exclaimed. “And there’s no time for arguments. I’ll explain it on the way.”
She practically jumped past Loki as she threw on her coat. Her cell phone appeared in her hand, and she looked back up at them with a pale face. “Her phone GPS marked her last location in seven different places, but they’re all near by.”
“What does that mean?” Thor asked.
“It means something’s throwing the signal off,” Pepper answered. “We’re going to split up,” she pointed to the brothers—Stark had disappeared already. “Loki, you’re coming with me.”
Loki furrowed a brow as the woman turned, and darted out of the door. He and Thor exchanged glances before following after her. Somewhere in the hallway, they heard her on the phone, telling Stark which locations to comb through—while they looked through the rest.
***
Panic rose in Loki’s chest, though they hadn’t had any reason to panic just yet. According to Pepper, Cerys’ locations had changed several times within the past hour, which could only mean one thing—she was moving slowly.
Slowly through the same, brightly lit streets of Manhattan that they were running about on, looking for signs of her. Loki was especially focused, scanning the long streets and buildings of Manhattan as they scurried about from one area to the next. All petty thoughts were gone, paling in comparison with the danger they were all facing. It wasn’t until Pepper raised a shaking hand to her lip that Loki even remembered she was there, save for the occasional comments on where to turn—where to look, and what to look for.
“What’s wrong?” Loki asked as he looked over at her. People were sparse along the street, allowing some semblance of privacy, and Pepper’s hands had turned even paler than they already were in the brisk, night air.
“One of the points…” she whispered, staring at the screen. “Says she was off the harbor…”
Loki’s jaw clenched as he considered the implications. Cerys could be at any one of those locations, and if one of them were off the harbor, then…
He shook the thought away, taking the woman’s shoulder and shaking her back up from the screen. “Tell Stark to check the harbor,” he said calmly, though his eyes were burning into hers. “We’ll keep looking—where’s the next spot?”
The woman collected herself impressively, nodding briskly as she pointed down the street. “There—just a few blocks down.”
“Alright, let’s go,” Loki bobbed his head, and ushered her by him—carefully, so as not to shove her in front of a car as they crossed the street.
The air was cold as they made for the sidewalk, and the pavement was glistening with the remnants of some earlier rainfall. This had been the third or fourth street that they had checked, and they’d have kept looking—if not for the sudden whizz of light between two buildings. It caught Loki’s attention immediately, and his head whipped toward the flash of light.
Something had flown up from between the two buildings, like a ball of flame with a figure inside it—leaving another at the bottom. He recognized her immediately as she stared up at the flame, though Pepper named her first.
“Is that Cerys!?”
Almost like she’d heard Pepper’s voice, she turned and stared at them—the light of the buildings on the far side of the alley outlining her silhouette. Her hands were empty, no longer holding the device she’d taken from Stark tower. She must have handed it off, though Loki wondered why they left her behind here.
He hadn’t had the time to consider it, before Cerys broke through the window beside her and disappeared into the building. Loki immediately darted in her direction, not bothering to check the relatively empty street for cars, before bolting toward the alleyway with Pepper in tow.
It was the lobby of some sort of office building, and the alarm went off as soon as she was inside. There was a stairwell in the back room, and Loki barely caught the shadow of her movement in the light as she ascended.
It was quite a chase from there, one floor to the next, until he finally caught up with her. She’d disappeared behind another elevator door, grinning slyly, and Loki followed it up the stairs until it reached the top—barely tiring on the way up, more so from the stress of Cerys’ safety, than physical exertion that the chase required. Cerys had still managed to get past him, and into the stairwell leading to the roof.
He nearly skidded on the slippery surface as he ran after her, leaping into the cold night air, and Loki finally managed to grab her. “Cerys—Cerys, stop!” he exclaimed, but she shrieked and writhed and thrashed as he kept his arm wrapped firmly around her stomach, lifting her into the air.
Bouts of magical energy continuously hit him, again and again, but they had no effect on him—which only seemed to anger her further. It wasn’t until Pepper burst out from the door that she managed to slip loose—whipping him with her hair as she ripped away from him. She jolted several feet, and slowly began backing toward the edge of the building like a cornered animal.
“Cerys…” Pepper kept a hard gaze fixed on her, with her hands raised up in front of her, while Loki inched toward her slowly.
He towered over her considerably, and could have overpowered her—if not for her proximity to the edge of the building, and the unpredictability of the inhabitant controlling her body, he might have lunged.
“Cerys,” Pepper said again, more sternly this time. Cerys’ glowing, green eyes snapped to her as she smirked.
“Cerys can’t come to the phone, darling,” she said. The way her eyes slid to the corner—toward Loki—indicated her keen awareness of his movement. He suddenly shuffled toward Pepper, and tension gripped Loki’s chest as Cerys’ eyes jumped across with the movement.
"What are you," Pepper scowled. "And what do you want with her?"
Cerys slid her gaze to her friend. "I'm just Nisha," she answered proudly. "And you must be… Hm," she paused—and her eyes rolled as though she were rummaging around in Cerys' thoughts. "Something of a very close friend, it feels like—she is a stubborn one, fighting with me oh so hard right now—as for what I want," she went on, glancing down at Cerys' hand with a demonstrably amused expression. "Well I'm just here to get a job done."
“What job? What was on the drive?”
Loki listened, watching as Cerys—no—Nisha shook her head. “The drive? Oh that wasn’t the job, sweetheart—not all of it, anyway.”
“Then start talking,” Pepper scowled. “Tell us what you want.”
Loki flinched—all Nisha offered in response was a smirk, before lunging toward Pepper, dagger in hand. But before he could intervene, she suddenly stopped.
Pain and restraint grew in her expression, with the greenish glow of Nisha’s power fading in and out as she glared at Pepper. Loki looked over his shoulder at her, but the woman merely stood frightened—frozen by what was happening, and her eyes never left Cerys’.
There was a subtle gasp, and Loki sliced his gaze back to her. The look of restraint had now shifted to pain alone, and her limbs shook midair as she squinted her eyes. When they opened again, the glow was taking over slowly, and Loki understood the look she gave as she cast her eyes toward him—keep me away from her.
His body tensed defensively as she shrieked, and swung her dagger toward him. Loki blocked the first maneuvered swing, the second, the kick, the slice—flesh thumped against flesh as he fought her back, driving her further and further away from Pepper with his large stature. And when Cerys’ body shifted in front of him, an opportunity rose to press her shoulder forward—surely breaking her arm in the process.
His hand flew toward it at first, but then he stopped—every muscle in his body skidded to an abrupt halt when the thought of her pain sprung to mind. Not soft, emotional pain, no—that injury would have been agonizing.
He couldn’t do it, and he hesitated.
With a smirk, Cerys broke free of his grip and suddenly darted toward the edge of the building, leaping up onto the ledge.
“Well that was fun,” the woman mused, pivoting over the stone. “But I’m afraid our time is up. I have a job to finish.”
Pepper’s eyes widened with realization, as she shook her head. “No… No, you can’t do this!” she screamed as she appeared at Loki’s side. “Cerys, don’t you dare—don’t you dare!”
“Cerys,” Loki pleaded calmly, trying to keep his body and heart rate steady as he slid toward her little by little, raising his hands up to grab her when he was close enough. He held her eyes intensely, knowing that somewhere deep down, she was listening—watching. Perhaps affected by the burning in his gaze, anything that would help her grip the reigns once more. “I know you can hear me—listen to my voice and come back. Come back to us,” he paused. “To me. Please.”
Nisha’s face contorted with discomfort for a moment, like she’d considered some unpleasant feeling rising to the surface. But the green remained as bright as it was before, even more so as her reluctant contemplation melted to a sarcastic sneer. “I don’t think she liked that.”
Rage cut through Loki’s veins as the woman grinned slyly, and lifted her arms up at her sides. White-hot fear burst through every limb as Loki watched her topple over the edge of the building, with Pepper screaming out in horror beside him. They both darted toward her, but it was too late—the bright, green glow had faded at the last second, revealing Cerys’ dark, golden eyes, brimming with fatigue and faintness as she disappeared over the edge.
Loki’s vision seemed to darken. His breathing stopped and his limbs turned limp—he could hardly think as he sank to one knee, and his jaw fell open as his eyes stayed fixed on the ledge.
She was there, and then she was gone. Had she disappeared? No—he watched her fall. Her coat flew forward under the wind, her curls whipped to the front of her face, and her arms floated forward. He didn’t dare look over the edge, to see her state on the asphalt below. Pepper sobbed beside him, gripping his arm stronger than he ever thought a human could. He looked over at her, watching as she displayed the sorrow that simmered under the surface of his own skin.
Until a sound caught his attention, and his eyes darted back to the ledge. It hummed at first, and grew louder and louder until something rose up in the air.
Relief flooded through him as red, gleaming metal drifted over the side of the building—Iron Man, having caught Cerys as she fell. Without turning away, Loki lifted a hand to Pepper’s shoulder, and her sorrowful sobs turned brisk with a sudden relief. Pepper grasped Loki’s sleeve, momentarily turning and pressing her forehead into his arm, while Stark landed on the ground before them.
“Delivery,” he murmured mechanically, setting Cerys—only half conscious—onto the ground in front of them.
Loki immediately shifted toward her. She came to slightly as he extended his arms out, and pulled her into his chest. Her eyes darted about in panic, pausing momentarily on Pepper, and tears began streaming down her cheeks—though her expression was stunted, as though she were in shock.
Loki held her tightly as she panted, coming to terms with what just happened. He wrapped one arm around her backside, and tangled the other hand in her hair. For all that she was crying, hard, Loki felt nothing but relief—relief for the fact that she was safe, and for the fact that he had her close. The world would have to cut through him first, if it wanted to reach her again tonight.
“I’m sorry,” she cried. “I’m so sorry…”
“It’s alright,” he whispered against her forehead, steadying her as she trembled. “It’s alright…”
Suddenly her arms clasped around him, and she dug her face into his neck as she wept, tucking her legs underneath her as she pulled herself against him. Curling into him for safety. He held her tighter as Pepper and Stark eyed them both, and inwardly vowed to stay that way—without the slightest retirement—until she felt safe enough again.
“She’s still in here,” Cerys stuttered, her voice trembling as she gripped him harder. Loki slid his cheek down lower—observing her face. If he’d moved just a bit, he could have brushed her wet cheek with his lips in a gentle kiss, but he resisted. This was not the time. “I-I can feel her, she’s still in my head—I’m so sorry!”
“Sh-shhh,” Pepper calmed her, reaching out and grasping her arm. “We need to get back to the tower, we’ll get you secure—it’ll be okay,” she muttered, looking at Loki. Pepper’s tears continued to fall, but Loki was impressed with the way she commanded the information at hand—ordering Stark to fly Cerys back to the tower immediately. To put her in one of the protective cells, where the woman inside would be unable to use her powers.
“I got it,” Stark said to Pepper—then turned to Loki, whose eyes jumped to him defensively. “I’ve got her,” he muttered reassuringly, extending his arms out.
Cerys had begun fading in her exhaustion, and Loki relinquished her reluctantly. Stark was gone within seconds, flying back to the tower—leaving himself and Pepper to deal with the law enforcement that had appeared at the ground level.
Tired and frustrated, they stood to make their way back down the building. Loki wondered how long Cerys could hold Nisha at bay, what it would take to free her. One way or another, he knew—the night was far from over.