I inhaled deeply, drawing a desperate swarm of air into my lungs as my eyes opened, my vision seemingly blurred and bright as my pupils dilated with the pain of the sudden harsh white lighting. I shifted my hand slowly, wincing at the stiffness but taking great relief in the fact that I even could move it.

"Holy shit." I croaked hoarsely. Breathing deep as my heart rate steadily dropped. I furrowed my brow and bit my cheek, wondering where the hell that dream had come from. How that memory, that I hadn't revisited for years had suddenly stained my subconscious without warning.

As I ran over the dream in my head, picking apart its every detail, I came to a conclusion that Loki had to have been linked to it. Especially After he'd knocked me out with whatever spell that was, I was fairly sure it was related. I raised a hand to my head and trailed my fingers through my tangled hair as I allowed my gaze to wander over the room they had me in.

Funny. It didn't look a bit like how I'd pictured it in my mind's eye. The walls were metallic coloured as opposed to the titanium white I'd imagined, and it was larger than I perceived, Echoing in emptiness with the few pieces of bland furniture that adorned it. The consistent beep carried on its whine and I sneered at it, levering my stiff body up into a semi-straight sat up position.

The door opened and I watched as Clint entered the room followed by Tony, both of them quietly muttering a conversation that they both seemed deeply sincere about. I raised my hand behind my head and flicked my tongue around the inside of my dry mouth, waiting for them to notice I was no longer incapacitated.

"Well I'll be damned." Tony muttered lowly as he caught sight of me, prompting Clint to observe what he'd seen. Tony smirked a little and Clint just gave me a displeased raised eyebrow.

"Little Poltergeist's back from the dead."

"How are you feeling?" Clint queried, stepping forward to help me up into a sitting position. I wafted his hand away and gritted my teeth, hauling myself up straight with great difficulty, to sit up to a comfortable level.

"I don't know man.. I'm Lo-ki still feeling a little Thore." I replied deadpan, desperately trying not to snort as I delivered the god awful pun. There was a thick silence that settled over the whole room for a moment, quieting even the machine's beep as it cringed painfully at my crude statement.

Clint immediately removed his hand from my arm, grimacing as he wiped his palm off on his jacket like he'd just touched a human disease and Tony just stared, his blank facial expression void of the disappointment that instead dripped from his deploring gaze.

"Yeah is there any chance we can put her back into the coma?" Tony finally spoke to Clint, giving me a disgusted side eye. I grinned sardonically at Tony and ripped the tubing out of my arm as Clint nodded to Tony and I just sneered at him.

"Don't rip it out you moron." He sighed, rubbing his brow but smirking all the while.

"How do I look then?" I asked warily, running a hand through my frizzy mane.

"Horrible."

"Not good."

I sighed and grabbed my phone from the side table that held all of my belongings sighing when I saw that I'd been out for three days. Three fucking days of things that I would've missed.

"Three days huh" I muttered, using my camera to smooth down the tangled mess of hair and gawk at my horrifically pale skin clung to my cheekbones.

"Wanna tell me how 'the great Ace Wilson' manages to get herself stabbed?" Clint queried, his tone curious but reprimanding at the same time.

"I'm not invincible, birdy. I just act like I am" I countered sneering at Tony as he sat on the end of the bed, eating a bag of crisps he'd snuck in. He frowned for a second, then offered the bag towards me.

"As far as I remembered you were never so easily taken out." Clint commented off-handedly.
"No... no don't do that, her heads big enough as it is." Tony muttered and I snickered lightly.

"Yeah Clint, god. With both me and Tony, the inflated ego in here is suffocating us." I lectured, giving in and taking a crisp from Tony. Clint was smirking but still raised his eyebrows. He knew me well enough to know something was up.

"I was a little distracted." I admitted, pulling the loose thread up from the seam of the sheets. It wasn't a lie. And that was all the information he needed to know. He furrowed his brow but nodded, turning to inspect the machine I'd previously been hooked up to. He wouldn't push an answer he knew I wouldn't talk about.

"My question is, what the hell happened to your hand? It looks like you had a bad run in with a witch and she cursed you." Tony interrogated, shifting off the bed to come closer and peer at my palm. I flexed my hand and inspected it.

"Had an experience with a witch yourself then have you?" I muttered absent-mindedly.

"Hey, don't call Pepper that."

I snorted and tugged my hand away from his grasp. I traced my finger over the imprinted shapes, hoping to feel the same buzz I'd felt when Loki had touched it, alas feeling nothing but the rough skin of my fingertips.

"So what's happening now?" I asked out loud, mostly to Clint as I believed he'd probably more likely give me a straight answer. He looked to Tony for a second, a light glitter of apprehension streaking over his eyes before he turned back to me.

"Just tell her." Tony muttered and I raised my eyebrow at Clint, waiting for his response.

"We're going to meet up, see Thor and Loki off to Asgard, With the tesseract." Clint commented lightly, shrugging as he said it as if it was the least important thing in the world. I nodded an understanding and smiled, seeing a glimmer of hope shine in Clint's eyes as he watched me.

"Well... Guess I woke up just in time."

"See, Tony this is exactly why I specifically didn't want to tell her." Clint sighed, rubbing his brow stressfully.

"Why not? Kid's been dead for three days, she doesn't wanna miss out on anything else." Tony quipped bluntly and I clicked my finger and pointed at him in agreement.

"Maybe because she's just woken up from being 'dead three days'." Barton recited dryly, raising his eyebrow at Tony and I, his tone weary and saturated with derision. I sighed audibly and stretched my aching muscles, cracking my back as I did so.

I was about to find a good response to that when the nurse waltzed in, her eyes widening dramatically as she took in the scene before her. She ran over, ushering Tony and Clint out of the way as she pressed a hand to my head.

"You seem surprised." I commented. "Secretly hoping I wouldn't wake up?" I muttered dryly, squirming away from her clawed hands that checked me over. She tutted at the bruise that was forming from where I'd ripped the tubing out of my arm and quickly wound the machinery's wires up and away from me.

"How long have you been awake?" She queried, pulling back my sheets and yanking up my hospital gown to check over my wound, making me frown distastefully and thank god I was still wearing underwear.

"Geez, alright frisky. It's not as if there are two  guys in here or anything." I uttered under my breath, glaring dangerously at Tony in case he decided to catch a glance. Clint laughed a little under his breath and turned his back.

"Get over yourself, ghostie." Tony replied rolling his eyes and taking out a device from his pocket that he tapped some things into whilst I watched the irritating nurse unravel the bandage. Bet she was the bitch who moved my damn pillow.

"You won't be back on your feet for a while yet." She informed me as she peeled the tape, gasping slightly when she took the last of the gauze off to reveal an almost completely healed gash. Three guesses as to who's doing that was.

"H-how? it's been... three days?" The nurse stuttered, running her unpleasantly cold fingers over the scar as if she couldn't quite believe what her eyes were telling her. I rolled my eyes and adjusted the scratchy material of my hospital gown as she carried on checking my skin.

"She had a run in with a witch." Tony acknowledged off-handedly, still glued to his phone. I smirked and shifted, snapping the nurse out of her disbelief as she straightened up. She frowned disapprovingly at me for no apparent reason and began to walk over to the door.

"I'll be back to deliver some meds and your dinner. Stay here and rest." She implored matter of factly, her tone still laced with curiosity at my 'fast healing skills'. I nodded once and smiled, waiting until the door closed behind her and she started off down the corridor, before I dropped my face into a frown and threw the sheets back. I sat with my legs dangling off the bed as I tried to get used to moving my unused muscles before I could stand.

"Stark, your jacket, now." I called to Tony, raising my hand out to take it from him.

"I'm gonna recommend you stay put, Ace." Clint inquired lowly as he turned back round.

"But you're not going to attempt to stop me are you?"

There was a brief moment of silence in which Clint attempted to grind me down with just the deploring glint in his stare. He clenched his jaw and looked down, shaking his head impassively.

"No. I'm not. Cause I know damn well you've already made up your mind." He sighed dramatically and I grinned victoriously.
"I take it back you're not like Steve."

"You said that?"

"I thought it, in my head. When you were being all responsible and that." I admitted, motioning to Clint to give me the baseball cap he was wearing.

"Tony, jacket." I reiterated bluntly, clicking my fingers at him. He gave me a fiery glare and grimaced at me, pushing his device back into his pants pocket.

"I need to get out of here without being recognised by the demon nurse." I explained as he pulled a distasteful frown. I smirked as Clint dropped his cap on my head, adjusting it over my hair that was still fairly messy. Tony looked at us for a second, then sighed dramatically, tearing off his jacket and throwing it into my stomach.

I laughed and pulled it on, pleased at the fact it was so large on my short little ass that it swamped me and went down way below my butt covering the gap in the hospital gown that happily flaunted my buttcheeks to the whole world. I grabbed my docs from the floor next to the bed and pulled them on fastening the laces a little tighter than usual for extra support as Tony and Clint discussed the best way to get to wherever we were headed.

"How come you guys are here?" I asked as I zipped up the jacket, referring to the fact that they weren't exactly the closest and a little trip to see a comatose patient in hospital together didn't seem like something that was on their agenda.

"I was already here, Tony just came up to check up on you." Clint explained as I began to push myself off the bed. I held my hands out as my feet touched the floor and my legs buckled slightly, pushing away Clint who'd stepped forward to help. I had to do this on my own. I just stood there for a minute, finding my balance as Tony smirked mockingly at my incapability to walk just yet.

"Aw tin man, I didn't know you cared." I mocked, adjusting the jacket around me as I took a step forward, wobbling only slightly.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Tony muttered and opened the door.

"We're gone have to be fast about this. Ace you better walk in between us"

I did what he said and walked behind Clint, not before I'd snatched his sunglasses to cover my eyes, and then Tony followed suit. We made it into the corridor, slipping past a multitude of nurses and doctors, patients being wheeled past in beds. I suppressed a shiver, remembering just how much I despised everything about hospitals.

"Can't believe you dropped me at a general hospital." I hissed to Tony behind me.

"Well, I am sorry but the 'mutant hospital' was closed for the day." He quipped dryly, thwacking me on the top of my head with his little device.

"Pretty sure that's just a mental asylum to be fair." I muttered and Tony humed in agreement. I pulled the brim of the cap down as I passed a particularly strict looking nurse, looking to the side to avoid all suspicion.

It seemed like we were probably going to make it, the elevator was only 20 metres or so away and the nurses and doctors appeared to only care about the tasks they were carrying out and the patients they were wheeling to and fro. I smirked a little and held my head a little higher, beginning to feel a bit overconfident, when I heard a shout from the end of the corridor.

"Patient from room 137 missing!" I heard a nurse yell. I began walking a little faster, now feeling more cautious under the heavy gaze of the doctors who had heard the shout.

"Any chance you know what room number I was?" I hissed to Clint, who'd now pulled me beside him, slinging an arm around me.

We'd only got a few steps further when there was a hand on my shoulder. I turned believing it was Tony, only to see that same damn nurse who'd checked me over staring daggers at me. She was studying me knowingly and I immediately decided she knew it was me. Even under my 'meticulous' disguise.

"We should probably run." I muttered quietly to Clint, hearing his swift hum of approval in response. I wasted no time and immediately set off, legging it down the hall before she even uttered a word. I was slower than usual given my current state but Clint reached the elevator fairly quickly and slammed the doors closed button so they'd began to shut before I'd even reached it.

I tumbled in and turned around, seeing the nurse attempting to fast walk over to us in heels as the only image in front of me before the doors squeaked shut.

"We forgot Tony." I commented, adjusting the zipped up jacket over my thighs so I didn't look like I'd just stepped out of my one night stand's flat or something. Clint chuckled lowly as the elevator started moving.

"He's Tony Stark.. he'll be fine."

I nodded in agreement as the elevator ground to a halt on the ground floor. Clint pulled me closer to him as the doors opened and we stepped out. Thankfully there didn't seem to be any hunt for a missing patient in the reception area so we walked through, giving the man at the desk a brief smile.

"I'm guessing we're not talking about what happened in the period of time I was brainwashed then." Clint muttered as we got out onto the sun bleached street. There was a light breeze in the air, but the rays of warm, golden sun stretched comfortably over my bare legs, levelling out the goose flesh that had rippled over the skin of my thighs.

"I could give you a run down of everything I remember if you want?"

"No I already got one from Nat." Clint laughed lowly.

"What do you mean then?" I asked off-handedly, relaxing my face and hiding the fact that I'd become progressively apprehensive of what he was asking me and what he was trying to get at. We walked for a while, dodging various people on the packed sidewalk. He seemed hesitant to ask, but the look on his face told me he wanted to know the answer to whatever question was on his mind.

"You and Loki?.." He asked quietly in an almost hinting tone. I rolled my eyes.

"Fury asked me to guard his cell."

"Then you let him out."

"Under strict supervision."

"Whose?"

"Mine." I huffed, becoming increasingly tired of the conversation. There was a sour frown blooming over Clint's face and he wouldn't look at me.

"He kidnapped you."

"I escaped."

"That's exactly my point."

I bit my cheek harshly as we walked, debating whether or not I should just suck it up and tell him I fucked the guy who tried to take over Earth. And it was probably the best and most enlightening sexual experience of my life.

"Care to elaborate?" I scoffed dryly, grimacing at the creepily prolonged stare this guy was giving my legs as I passed him. Clint sighed and finally looked at me, his eyes weary and shining with a bitter annoyance.

"There were countless times he could've had an option to kill you, or brainwash you at the least. But he didn't." He explained simply, giving me a reprimanding stare like he knew what I was hiding from him. I just returned the stony gaze for a while, relishing in the simple fact that I knew he couldn't read me. There were very few that could.

"Not everyone wants to murder me, Barton." I countered derisively, suddenly hearing a powerful engine roar into life down the road. Clint gave me a disparaging smirk, his face relaxing into a blissful neutrality. Either he was happy with my response or he'd just given up trying to claw his way into the vault that held his trustworthy answer.

The rumbling engine got closer as we walked and I turned my head, seeing a flashy car pull up next to us. Clint sighed at the same time I did, both of us stopping in our tracks.

"Get in loser we're going shopping." Tony called out as the window rolled down.

"Shotgun." Me and Clint announced at the same time. He gave me a sudden challenging stare which I returned devilishly, a wide smirk pulling over my features.

He darted towards the passenger door but I stood back, closing my eyes as I teleported myself directly into the passenger seat. I turned to grin at Barton as he pulled open the door, sighing dramatically when he saw me already there, pulling my seatbelt across my body.

"Too slow, katniss."

As we set off again, I flicked my head in Tony's direction, fixing him with an interrogating stare. It was blissfully calm in the seat of the car, the quiet growl of the engine being the only thing to keep the true pressing silence at bay.

"What happened back there then?" I mused lightly, pulling the cap down a little and sinking into my seat. He smirked a little as he turned off into a smaller road.

"I held back a bit. I wasn't to keen on the idea of running away from a frankly very persistent nurse." He commented calmly like the very notion was playing at the strings of his excessive dignity. I rolled my eyes and looked out of my window, watching the cars that passed by.

"Could've fooled me. I was convinced you loved  the idea of women chasing you."I commented dryly. Clint snickered quietly and Tony just raised a snarky eyebrow.

I gazed blankly at the pedestrians cluttering the sidewalk. Every single one chained to a certain purpose, caged by whatever task they were running, whatever place they had to get to. They all seemed so confident in their own little lives. All of them content with normality and simplicity.

My stare faltered as my eyes fell on a couple stood by the road. They were both hypnotised, enthralled within each other's gaze. Their eyes bled profusely with the affection that announced itself with a crystal clear confidence. Nothing existed outside of their world consisting only of the other and their love.

I clenched my jaw together and smirked a little. I couldn't quite comprehend the ability that some people like these possessed, to be completely dependent on someone else. To fully and lovingly trust in another independent soul. One completely capable of destruction or creation, and one that ran by its own faithful morals.

Soon Tony accelerated the car again and I brushed away the thoughts as the couple fell out of my eyeline and I breathed in deep, resting my pounding head against the door. Maybe I could grasp at the small amount of calm that I felt in this car to selfishly allow myself some temporary relaxation. I smiled a small smile and closed my eyes, enjoying the warmth, the quiet, the sunlight, and the smell of Tony's vanilla scented car freshener.

God knows I had to steal any chance I could get at relaxation. The closest thing I had was when I watched the sky, gazing on at the clouds that littered the washed out periwinkle background. In fact, the last time I'd felt any true blissful calm, was when... when Loki and I had woken up after our night together. We Lay in the warm heat of the sunlight and wrapped ourselves in the luxury of comfort and the mixture of scents in the air, of both our body odours and ones that hinted at the activities that had taken place only hours before.

It had been truly serene but so sinful. A guilty pleasure I should not have taken such satisfaction in.

My blissful moment of serenity was over way too quickly as the car came to a sudden stop and Tony wrenched open the door. Natasha was already there to greet us as I got out and I just then realised I was still wearing my "disguise" as she peered at me warily, unaware of my identity.

"Poltergeist woke up just in time." Tony explained pointing at me as we walked in succession behind Thor and...Loki. Steve had turned up on his motorbike and now joined us, doing a double take when he saw me waving at him.

"Didn't doubt your stubbornness for a second." Natasha muttered to me and I gave her a grin. She looked me up and down, smirking at my odd attire as she glanced over the oversized hoodie, hospital gown and combat boots.

"See. Proof I can make anything look good." I joked, doing a 360 twirl as I walked. She grinned and slapped the brim of my cap, pushing it and the sunglasses down my face.

"Oh yeah? What do you look like under the sunglasses?" She commented dryly and I clicked my tongue, smirking as I thought.

"Ever seen that show 'the walking dead'?"

She snorted in amusement just as Steve jogged over to me. Here we go.

"What the hell happened? I thought you were comatose?" He asked as he looked me over, clearly not believing that I was here walking about when he'd seen me lifeless in a hospital bed just a day before. We reached the clearing and I pulled off my cap and sunglasses, feeling grossly sweaty underneath them.

"No I was faking it all." I sighed dryly, nudging him with my elbow. He opened his mouth to say something when my eye caught on two familiar glittering aqua irises in front of me, immediately diverting the focus from whatever Steve was ranting to me about.

Loki looked worse for wear. He still had open cuts on his face and he was muzzled, his hands chained together securely. He was staring at me intensely, his eyes wide as he took in the sight of me and I bit my lip harshly, wondering why the fuck I found the image of him with the metal mask over his mouth so damn hot. What the fuck is wrong with me.

I clenched my jaw tightly shut, stepping a little closer to him. His gaze was solely fixated on mine and he glared at me like I was everything he loathed and adored at the same time. Suddenly everything meant nothing and all I knew was him, the only thing in my little world were those damned eyes that searched my very soul, causing everything and everyone around us to disintegrate into dust.

It seemed he'd also forgotten everything. He was staring at me with a newfound anger that shook the grounds I walked along,eliciting a smirk on my face as I relished in the fact I could still draw such an imminent anger from him with naught but my presence. The only problem was, he was so good at doing it right back at me.

I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to launch myself at him, dragging a sure and steady knife over his pale throat. Lord help me I wanted to kiss his damn face until my lips were bruised beyond recognition. But it was wrong.. it was all wrong...

He was muzzled just as I was, no words escaping our mouths as we mentally chanted the thoughts we wished could reach the others ears. No one else invading our mind as we poured our troubled souls into one another. I needed that. I needed to.... talk to him.

His irritable stare suddenly softened as he washed his gaze over me once more, his emerald eyes gleaming with an emotion I couldn't quite place as I held his inquisitive eye contact. There was nothing to be said. His eyes spoke such wounding words of weaponry with only the shining depths of his kaleidoscopic iris' and I listened avidly to every poisoned statement.

My chest pounded heavily and painfully as I stared at him,and a thought, one that caused my entire steel reinforced world to shiver and crash into a smoking mess of broken caging, struck me like a ten tonne truck.

I inhaled shakily and swayed slightly on my feet, unused to the agony that was coursing through me at this very second. Everything I knew and had built up had perished, every fortification, forged of pure trauma and shredded dignity had toppled into the mess that pooled into the darkened corruption of my mind.

He'd won

Everything I'd forbidden myself from doing had happened and suddenly not only did I loathe him with every damned fibre of my being, I also couldn't stop despising him. It had taken root as a parasitic obsession within my mind. He'd buried himself in my brain like no other had and I'll be damned if I didn't resent the shit out of him for it.

I unclenched my stiff jaw and held his intense, seething glare as I shook the aching thought from my head, my face resuming it's blank mask as I did so. I slowly and deliberately mouthed the simple, but so heavy words, 'I hate you' with the least amount of conviction as I could spare across the clearing. His eyelids shuttered slightly as he watched my lips move and when I'd uttered the silent proclamation, his eyes glittered madly.

The lines around his eyes crinkled up in a familiar way and his eyebrows relaxed as his shining emerald eyes glimmered with a mischievous flash. I didn't have to look behind the mask to see the quotidian smirk painting his chiselled face as it so commonly did, setting off a familiar jolt in my abdomen.

My stare lowered and I pulled my palm up to my gaze, running my eyes over every groove and indentation that marred the flesh on my hand. Do not worry yourself little hex. Its not a curse as I feared but rather a mark of warning. A sign that links both of us in the act of tampering with such power.

I sighed heavily and looked up again to see Loki had pulled up his same hand and was looking at it as I had done, his eyes swirling with an enlivened vibrant discomfort. He returned my gaze and I breathed unsteadily with the pure emotion that ran through his stark coloured stare.

Before I could even decipher every word within those eyes, he turned his head and my world snapped back into consciousness, drawing an uncomfortable pain through my lungs as it did so. I watched as he held the other end of this contraption Thor had within his heavy grasp. Thor turned to all of us stood around as I was aware of a slight whisper from Nat as she leaned over to Clint who smirked in response.

Thor nodded a brief farewell and I immediately set my mind and my face neutral as I was hit with a blinding light and they were gone.

He never spared me a final fleeting glance as he went. a kindness I couldn't have expected, and yet didn't deserve. But I couldn't stop the shuddering ache that gradually spread over my chest, taking root at the space in between my lungs. There was too much I'd left unsaid. Too many words I had to speak to him. Too much I needed with him stood before me.

I smiled to myself lightly, staring at the place they'd been only seconds before. There was a certain agony that bleached my mind behind my eyes. One that outshone every battle wound and scar I'd ever acquired. One that seemed to bleed from my memory but also felt so raw and new at the same time.

There was a sheer finality that closed around me as I turned and made my way back to the others, knowing that I'd never get an encore to the performance I'd so quickly become obsessed with. And I guess, in a sense, That was okay. As much as I despised the very notion of it.I knew I'd just have to push it from my mind and start over. Again. Like I'd done so many times before.

As I walked I noticed the orange sun leaking out across the landscape as it began to set and I pulled my hands in front of me, tracing the familiar path around the branding as I closed my eyes lightly.

I hate you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So as heartbreaking as it is for me... this technically is the final chapter of this book :(

I kinda got attached to it towards the end not gonna lie. I don't really want it to end. BUT I'm so excited for my plans for the next book in line. I have so many ideas for it and I hope you guys stick around for it :).

I know this is kind of all over so I decided to bless your eyes with this so that you all know where I'm coming from with that previous statement.

Yeah exactly.

Thank you guys so much for reading I rlly hope you liked the book 🥺❤️

Shoutout to my favourite person bookydreams You give me actual life ✨

Love you all
Xxx