Here's another chapter! :-) Thanks! 

Chapter Twelve

"Okay, Thea," says Dr. Banner once I have calmed down slightly. "Let's go."

"Where are we going?" I ask as Thor gives my shoulder a quick squeeze and then beckons his brother over. My finger is still on the pad.

"We are going down to one of the lower stories. In a storage room," he replies. "Come on."

I glance back at Thor. "Where's Leah?"

He shakes his head. "With Jane. Where, I know not."

"She's upstairs near the observatory," says Steve, who has just entered the room. "I just passed her. Stark, what did you want me for?"

"We might or might not be under attack." Says Tony, then very briefly explains the situation. "So we are preparing."

"Thea, let's go," says Dr. Banner, but I shake my head, wanting to see what Steve is going to say. "Thea!" I frown at him- he is looking at me with a determined expression, worry lines across his forehead.

"Oh yes, darling," says a cool voice from behind me. "Please leave us grown-ups to determine the more important things."

I snap my head up so that I am face to face with Loki, calm but with a twinkle in mischief in his eyes. "Please don't make me get mad," I growl.

He leans down so that we are eye to eye and then squints at me, mockingly, as if considering something. "Yes, because you successfully marred me horrifyingly last time."

"Don't. Push. Me." I hiss through my teeth.

He smiles broadly, his teeth shining in the bright light, and a twinge of fury flows through me. I just want to smash his face and-

"Thea," says Dr. Banner softly. I jerk my head up, and he is looking at me, now concerned instead of impatient. "Calm down. He is just trying to get to you."

"Why?" I ask desperately. Meanwhile, Loki has stood up, but I still feel him looking at me. When he does not reply immediately, I say, "You know, don't you?"

Dr. Banner sighs. "Let's go."

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Loki turn away, his cape swishing slightly, not giving me the slightest glance back.

"Ple-"

"Thea," says a low voice next to me. I turn to see Thor's concerned blue eyes looking down at me. He is so tall, I have to look up at him.

"What?" I snap.

"Find Leah and Jane and go with Dr. Banner."  He says. "You need to calm yourself, and staying here will only provoke you."

"You talk to me like I'm a little girl."

"You are." He says gently.

My glance over to Loki, who is now watching his brother, totally ignoring me. His expression is one of annoyance.

I look back at Thor, whose eyes are still on me. There are a lot of things that I want to say, but I hold my tongue as Banner takes my arm and gently pulls me away. But not before Thor briefly rests his hand on the top of my head. "Thea, please-"

I jerk away and follow Banner out of the room.

*

We find Leah and Jane downstairs, actually, not as Steve said. Jane is on a computer, staring fixatedly at the screen, on a long, steel bench across a wall, with the laptop on a table in front of her. Leah is lying next to her, seemingly asleep, her head in Jane's lap. Occasionally, Jane strokes my little sister's hair. I try to ignore it.

"Jane, we have a problem," sighs Dr. Banner, walking up to her and sliding his eyeglasses off and into his pocket.

She looks up immediately. "What is it?" Beside her, Leah stirs but does not wake.

Dr. Banner explains in a few short sentences. Jane doesn't panic; all she does is shut her computer with a small click and say, "I'll go down with you."

"It's al-"

"I'm going down," Jane says firmly. "If there's a fight anyway, I won't be much of use, now will I?"

"Well, I think-"

"Good, it's settled then." She looks down at Leah hesitatingly, then gently pushes her. "Leah," she whispers. "Leah, please,-"

I interrupt her, walking over to my sister. "Leah, wake up, please, Le. We have to go downstairs."

Jane, with something like doubt flickering over her eyes, gets up from the booth, then says something to Dr. Banner that I cannot interpret. I see that Thor has walking in too, and that he is talking with Jane. However, I am mostly focused on Leah as her eyes open. "What's going on?" she asks, her small voice fogged by sleep.

"We have to go downstairs now," I say. "Something bad might be coming. Can you please come with me?"

"Where's Jane?" she asks.

"She's over there," I say with some annoyance. "C'mon. Let's go, Leah."

She gets up, but instead of holding my hand like she normally does, she hurries, albeit sleepily over towards Jane and takes her hand. Something pangs at my heart, and I swallow hard, looking at the ground.

A shadow crosses over me, and then strong arms wrap around me. I struggle against him, but Thor holds on to me, then says, leaning down so that he is close to my ear, "She is merely looking for someone who does not remind her of her past."

I try to get out of Thor's grip, but he does not let go. I begin to cry, not really about Leah's treatment towards me. I cry for my mother and father, both of whom I love very dearly, but now I have to move on without them- or at least try. I cry for my past life and for the life I am leading now, one that I cannot back out of. I cry out my frustrations for the foreign threat to this world, for my desire to fight, for Loki's constant taunts, and for my own fear of the world. And the entire time, Thor does not let go of me.

Finally, I swallow my tears, knowing that there is no time for cowardice and sadness right now. Thor rests his hand on my shoulder, then says, "Everything will be all right, Thea."

"I doubt it," I say, then walk away. Leah and Jane have already left, and I assume that Dr. Banner is with them. Unfortunately, this means that I do not know where to go, so I am forced to wait for Thor.

I follow him down three flights of steps, which grow steeper and colder as we dismount. Silently, we walk down a hallway and then at the end, Thor presses his finger onto an entrance pad. It lights up green and he pulls it open.

Surprisingly, the room is large, but what captivates me the most is how angular and how plain it is. There are four distinct divisions, separated by thick columns that fill the absolutely gigantic room. There are shelves filled with supplies, such as water jugs, cans, and blankets, but what interests me are the hooks plastered onto the columns. Then, I look towards a small area in the right-most corner, where I see Leah, Jane, and Dr. Banner- the hooks are for hammocks. I realize that this room is a sort of shelter, more than likely built for people like me to hide- people who aren't deemed worthy enough to fight, or who cannot physically (or skillfully) fight.

I walk over to the three, ignoring the few looks I receive from the half dozen or so S.H.I.E.L.D. workers already in here. I sit down in a corner, a few good yards from them, trying to tune out Leah's piping voice as she talks on and on about heaven knows what.

"I will leave you," says Thor, speaking to Dr. Banner. "Will you be all right?"

"We'll be fine," Jane says quietly. Thor turns to her and then they kiss. After a few seconds, I have to look away, so I put my forehead on my arms, curling up in a ball and closing my eyes.

"Thea," says Thor when he and Jane separate, his arm around her waist. She is leaning against him, and I find the sight of them an odd mix of comfort and of sweetness. "Stay strong."

I shrug, then close my eyes. Jane whispers something to Thor, and then I hear footsteps walking away and then the door bangs closed. I open my eyes- Thor is gone.

*

I receive a visitor about thirty minutes later. During that time period, I have mostly been staring at a blank part on the equally blank wall, avoiding about ten attempted conversations with Dr. Banner, and ignoring Leah's constant prattle.

Unfortunately, as the visitor happens to be the god of mischief, my situation hasn't exactly improved.

Without stopping to say anything to Dr. Banner or Jane, Loki hauls me up by my arm and, scarcely before I can protest, he pulls me into the second divided area. Dr. Banner nor Jane do anything about this, which leads me to have a sneaking suspicion that they know something about what is going on.

"What do you want?" I demand.

He gives me a look, that is no longer condescending, but sharp. "Your word."

"What word? That I won't kill you?" I laugh without any emotion. "Because I will tell you right now, that is not going to happen.

He smirks. "No, feel free to try to kill me. I would quite enjoy seeing your fruitless attempts." When I scowl, he continues, "But no. I want your word that you will remain here during the fight."

"So you think there will be a fight?" I ask, skipping over the part where he was asking me to promise that I would stay in this boring old room during a fight that could potentially determine my fate.

"Do not change the subject, but yes, I know as well as you do that there will be a fight. And very soon." His green eyes are cold as he says, "Now give me your word that you will stay in this very room and not try to play hero."

"Play hero?" I scoff. "What does that mean?"

"You know well what it means."

Deciding to stop discussing this mute point, I say, "And what if I choose not to, in your words 'give my word'?"

He does not reply, but his gaze at me intensifies, and his grip on my shoulder tightens. He is looking at me so frighteningly, I want to look away.

"Fine, I promise," I say hastily.

His  emerald eyes do not move from mine, holding me in a trance like stare. "Let me put it this way. If you step one foot out of this room, one toe, then I will make it so that you will regret it so terribly, you may wish to be in the hands of the Imeldi instead."

I try not to let show that his threat has any impact on me whatsoever, because quite frankly, it hasn't. "Yeah, whatever, Loki. I don't like to make deals with the villain who murdered my brother."

He hisses through his gritted teeth, and he shakes me, hard. "Do not let vengeance get in the way of what you have promised me. If you dare go back on your word -"

"What, will you lock me back up in the infirmary?" I taunt. "Because that didn't seem to work last time."

"Even if that is what I had in mind," says Loki, his voice hard, "It would work. This time around, the connecting ward would not have its door open."

I try not to show my surprise on how he had figured out how I had managed to get out of the room on the day I had spied on the meeting. "Whatever, Loki. I 'promise'."

Suddenly, I am pushed against the wall, and I wince as Loki snarls, "Your word is nothing, as I knew it would be. If you go against what you have told me, Thea, you will regret it to the end of your life."

I laugh, although admittedly a bit forced. "I'm terrified. As if anyone else would allow you to torture me or something."

A slow smile spreads across his mouth, which makes me a bit uneasy. "There are other ways," he says quietly. "That do not involve pain. As if I would wish to physically harm the poor orphan who, like a bedraggled bird, landed at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s doorstep."

He is trying to get to me again, like Dr. Banner said, and I fight the ball of fury that is going through me. "Why do you even care if I go out? I am sure you would love me dead, for all the annoyance I give you."

"A very true point," he says. "But the simple fact of the matter is this: S.H.I.E.L.D. needs you to fight the Imeldi. If you die, you put not only those onboard in danger, but also the civilian population."

"And why do you care about that?" I demand. "You kill for pleasure.

His eyes cloud, but quickly harden once again. "You do not deserve to hear it, even if you have earned my trust, which you have most certainly not. But let's leave it at this for now: I have a debt that must be paid, and it cannot be fulfilled if I go about killing innocent people."

I snort. "Fine. Whatever. I won't leave the room during the damn fight."

"Good," he says, smiling sinisterly again. "Because let's put it this way." His eyes bore into me, and I wince. "If you leave this room, I know of a room on this ship that is so small you can hardly turn around." As my eyes widen, he continues quickly, "Oh, you can breathe very well- that, I rather doubt is not where you will have a problem. Now, Thea, why are you looking down?"

He jerks my chin up so that I have to look up at his face again. "Ah, I see you are frightened. You don't like small spaces do you? It haunts your past, does it not? A dark room, with nowhere to go." I squirm against him, desperate to get away, but his grip is like iron, and I cannot escape as he continues to taunt me in a slow, quiet voice that is almost a whisper, harsh and unfeeling. "A room with only two people in it. Just you and the ghost of your worst nightmare: a boy your age, his eyes dark with desire. Recall that it is dark in that room, Thea. Very dark." I feel my body begin to quake. "You cannot escape, you cannot scream, as nobody will hear you. You can only live out that nightmare again."

I choke back a sob. "Plea-a-s-e," I gasp. "Sto-o-p."

The corner of his mouth turns up, like a cruel crescent moon as he smirks. "Am I haunting you, Thea? Is what I am saying, for once, having an effect on you? Are my words allowing you to remember that night?" 

"Plea-s-e," I beg desperately.

"Do you not wish to be reminded of this nightmare that haunts you?" he says, his voice dropping to a sinister whisper. 

"St-o-p," I say with a short scream, collapsing into full sobs.

"Oh no," he says as the tears fall faster down my face. "It wasn't a dream was it, Thea? It was reality. It was the night that something was nearly stolen from you. I do not think you wish to be reminded of this, do you, kitten?"

"N-N-"

"If you put a toe out of this room when the Imeldi come to call," hisses Loki, "Then I will throw you in that tiny, dark room and stand outside of the padlocked door and listen to you scream until you can scream no longer."

I begin to cry harder and I want to fall to the floor, but he pulls me up, roughly. Then, he smiles without any happiness- just hardness and... maybe a twinge of fear. "Good. I see that I have you convinced. Remember what I have told you, Thea." I open my mouth to scream at him, but he covers it with his hand. "I am most sorry it had to come to this," he says, and I detect a hint of sarcasm. "But remember the consequences if you should choose to disobey me."

"You're foul," I choke out as he takes his hand away from my mouth . "And I hate you more than anyone else I have known or will ever know in my life."

"Well," says Loki. "At least now, you will take my words seriously."

He squints at me, looking at me once more, then lets go of me. I fall to the floor, trying to contain my sobs, but my body racks silently nevertheless for the nightmare that Loki had just re-induced in my mind.

"Remember what I said," he says, his voice distant, as the only thing I can truly hear is the sounds of my cries. "Although...I doubt you will forget any time soon."

Without another word, I hear him walk away. The door bangs behind him as Loki leaves me crying on the cold, hard, and unfeeling ground. 

Sometimes, I think I might torture my characters too much :'(... but anyway, please comment and vote. Thank you, lovelies!