"Agent Scott informed me of your betrayal. I have trusted you and let you roam free in my facility, growing more powerful each and every day. Is this how you repay me?" Dr. Pamela asked, pacing in front of the chair that Loki was cuffed to.

"Say something!" She screeched, slapping him across the face.

Loki ignored the sting and met Kat's eyes from the other side of the small, dark room. The only light came from a small fluorescent bulb above his head, the harsh white light causing him to squint. Kat looked away quickly, taking another pill.

"You really want me to say something? That's surprising, considering that that's how I ended up here in the first place. I can tell that you're beginning to crack under pressure, Reese."

The woman above him sneered and slapped him again, harder this time. In response, Loki spat at her, abandoning his pride in an attempt to exact revenge on Reese.

"You disgusting piece of filth!" She screamed.

This time, he received no slap. Instead, she pulled out a gun. Loki could almost see his horrified expression in the sleek black surface of the weapon.

"This is a high tech laser gun that can both kill and revive someone, if used in the proper way. My scientists tend to refer to it as The Devil's Mercy, but I prefer the name Lazarus. I could kill you and revive you thousands of times, which, I heard, is also a favored method used by the Chitauri."

Loki's eyes widened as scenes of his past torture flashed before his eyes.

"Please....don't do this..." He begged.

Pamela smirked.

"If we're just going to keep going around in circles like this, I'm afraid I can't trust you anymore. You have outworn your usefulness, Laufeyson. A quick death would suit you ill."

She aimed the gun at his forehead and rested her finger on the trigger.

Loki's eyes pleaded with Kat, and all of a sudden, she was jumping in between the trickster and Dr. Pam.

"No!" She screamed, throwing her hands out in front of her face and sending a jolt of electricity through Dr. Reese.

Pamela's eyes widened in shock as she fell to the floor, twitching and screaming.

"Let's go!" Loki shouted, blasting away his cuffs using his newfound abilities and darting out of the room, Kat leading the way.

They bolted through the facility, agents charging at them from all angles of the building, pistols in hand.

"We don't have to worry about the guns if we blast back the agents, but pay attention to the people with colored stripes on their shoulders! They have abilities like us!" Kat yelled back at Loki as she fried the agents in front of her.

Loki leapt into the air and hovered above the horde of agents. He spotted a group of men and women with colored bands on their arms and headed for them. The second his feet hit the ground, an inferno of flames was sent in his direction, setting his clothes on fire. He magically changed into his less flammable Avengers uniform and smirked.

"Did you just try and burn a frost giant?" He asked mockingly, sending a blast of ice in the direction of his attacker.

He was faced with a telekinetic woman next. She caused the floor to shake beneath them as she sent a dozen knives flying at Loki. He dodged most of them, but one ended up lodged in his leg. He let out a cry of pain as he ripped it out and tackled the woman to the ground, driving the knife into her heart.

"Mommy!" He heard a voice yell.

A young girl with dark brown hair pulled back in braids came rushing over to the woman's corpse and screamed. Not a normal scream, but a screech with such high frequency that it caused agents around her to fall to the floor, dead.

Loki created a pair of earplugs from thin air and shoved them into his ears. As the little girl continued to scream, Kat came up from behind Loki and silenced her, sending a quick, clean jolt of electricity through her. She crumpled, dead before she hit the floor.

Loki stared at her in horror.

"She was going to kill us. It was our lives or hers."

He shook his head and took out the last of the agents with abilities in a daze. He murdered them in cold blood without feeling a thing, and something told him that it wasn't a side effect of the pills.

The last of the agents in the hall weren't a problem, and soon the floors were littered with bodies.

"What now?" Loki asked as he tried to catch his breath, avoiding looking anywhere but the blood spattered ceiling.

"If we want to eliminate H.O.P.E. for good, then we need to get to the control room. I'll hack the computer mainframe and figure out the override code. Then, we need to come back 24 hours from now to set off a bomb that will wipe out this entire facility. It's pretty much a self destruct mechanism in case Dr. Reese needed a way to destroy her research in the light of a catastrophic event. The bomb takes 24 hours to prepare, just as a precaution. She didn't want to cut any corners."

Loki nodded and opted to hover over the dead bodies instead of walk through them. Kat led the way from the ground.

They entered the control room and she began typing away at one of the keyboards.

"You know, I used to be a hacker back before I got these powers. I'm actually an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D., which is why I ended up here."

Loki raised an eyebrow.

"Wait, I don't understand. What about the pills I saw you take? Surely you didn't come here of your own free will!"

Kat bit her lip and continued to type, lines of code popping up on the display of computers in front of her.

"I was taking different pills. Mine were meant to help me get stronger, and also to help control my temper."

Loki stood back and let her work.

"You do realize that by doing this, you're exposing yourself to S.H.I.E.L.D.. They will find you and you will face justice if you come with me. Or your could run, and I could say that I hacked the computers."

She turned her head slightly and offered him an apologetic smile.

"My hacking has a signature, Loki. Just like your magic. I don't want to spend my life on the run."

The god of mischief looked genuinely surprised.

"So you're coming back with me?"

Kat stopped typing for a moment as she considered what she was about to say.

"Yes. After we activate the bomb in 24 hours, I will come back with you and deal with whatever punishment S.H.I.E.L.D. decides to give me."

Loki shook his head in disbelief.

"We really are nothing alike."

She chuckled, hitting "enter" on the keyboard in front of her and turning around to face Loki.

"In some ways we are, in some ways we aren't. Come on, let's get out of here. We have 24 hours to kill before setting off the bomb."

Loki nodded and left the facility with her.
***
Brunnhilde lay wide awake in bed, knowing that something was wrong.

In truth, every single Avenger felt the exact same way she did.

Something was about to happen, but they didn't know what.

All they knew was that it would change the rest of their lives.
***
They spent the better part of the 24 hours in a forest near the facility, not wanting to risk going out in public. It was in the last hour before they went back to the H.O.P.E. facility that Loki decided to break the news.

"Kat?"

"Yeah?"

Loki shifted uncomfortably, unsure of how to approach the subject.

"I...uh....I'm already with someone. Her name is Brunnhilde."

Kat didn't look surprised at all.

"I know."

"I beg your pardon?"

She shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm a hacker, what can I say? Plus, I kinda developed a bit of an obsession with you. I know that we can never be together, especially considering the fact that I'll most likely either be dead or in prison hours from now."

He sighed and stood up from where he was leaning against a tree.

"Can I braid your hair?" He asked.

"What?"

"We have fifteen minutes left before we set off the bomb, so I need a way to distract myself."

She shrugged.

"Sure."

So there he sat, styling her hair into a fishtail braid that rested on her left shoulder. They enjoyed the moment in silence, listening to the sound of the trees swaying back and forth in the icy wind.

All too soon it was time to detonate the bomb.

"Now listen carefully. The second I hit this red button right here, we need to run like hell. Got it?" Kat said as she stood in front of the computers back in the control room.

Loki nodded and watched as she slammed her hand down on the button.

"Go!" She yelled, following him out of the door.

They ran about a mile away from the facility and watched as it went up in a fiery mushroom cloud.

They turned to each other and breathed out sighs of relief in unison.

"You know this isn't over. Dr. Reese isn't dead, I can feel it."

Loki nodded.

"I know, but at least we won't have to worry about her for a while."

"Loki....can I kiss you?"

Loki froze, not expecting this at all. But when he looked into those sorrowful, bottomless pits that she called eyes, he knew that it was the last and only wish he might be able to grant her.

Without warning, he pulled her closer to him and kissed her. He could feel her lips curl up into a smile as they kissed, and he tried not to feel guilty as he imagined the look that would be on Brunnhilde's face if she ever found out about it.

"Thank you." She breathed as they pulled away.

"Can we keep this a secret? Please?"

"Of course."

They walked back together after Kat denied his offer to have him teleport them back.

"I want to enjoy this for as long as I can."

They spent almost a full day walking, never looking back. By the time they finally hit New York, they were both exhausted.

"Are you ready?" Loki asked as they approached the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.

Kat shook her head.

"Not at all, but what's done must be done."

Loki placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you sure? We could grab coffee or something, we don't have to-"

"No. I'm fine. I need to do this."

He nodded in understanding.

With one final nervous glance at Loki, Kat stepped forward and opened the door.