Blind

Closing her eyes, Kennedy leaned back against the seat and inhaled slowly. She had some pain killers stowed away in her bag but those were for a later time. She needed to be clear headed. She needed to be focused.

Unfortunately, her focus continuously returned to Freyja. Freyja had lied to her, had lied to her as long as they had known each other. It stung. It made Kennedy angry.

Her teeth ground together, the muscles in her arms tensing as her white painted nails dug into the smooth leather. She felt her spine go rigid for several moments before she forced herself to relax. Slowly her fingers uncurled and she opened her mismatched eyes.

“I can hear you grinding your teeth,” Loki said, gaining her attention.

“Terrific,” Kennedy returned.

Tenderly, she pushed up from the seat she was in. Her knees popped as she stood, burning with a brief throb of pain. It went away quickly though and she walked along the aisle of the private plane so as to stretch her legs.

Kennedy twisted a ring around her finger as she walked, her eyes unfocused as she tried to avoid thinking about the pain in her ribcage. Trying not to think about it only made her think about it more though. Which didn’t really help things at all. Her jaw locked in an attempt to keep from cussing out loud.

Eventually, Kennedy left the cabin of the plane to explore the rest of it. With so few people on board, things were extremely quiet. In fact, the only people that she’d seen thus far were Loki and Barton. And neither of them was exactly very talkative or good traveling company.

She found a small-ish area that suited her just fine after a few minutes of slow searching. Slowly, she lowered herself onto the small seat and closed her eyes. It was easier to relax here without feeling like someone was looking at her. In fact, she was almost asleep when she heard the creak of a boot.

For a moment, she thought that her mind had made the sound. But it hadn’t. Opening her eyes, Kennedy turned her head to see Barton standing a few feet away.

“Can I help you with something?” Kennedy asked, irritation creeping in.

“Are you going to be able to make it through tonight?” Barton returned, ignoring her question.

“I survived this far,” she muttered.

“A man with no eyes could see how much pain you’re in,” Barton said dryly.

“All thanks to you, buddy,” Kennedy snapped. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m trying to relax here. So go bug someone else.”

Kennedy closed her eyes as she leaned back against the wall behind her. Her arms folded to rest on her abdomen, just beneath the tender area of her ribs. When she didn’t hear Barton leave, she cracked open an eye and peered up at him in irritation.

“You’re not leaving until you make sure I’m okay, are you?” Kennedy asked.

“Can’t have you getting us all screwed over,” Barton replied.

Rolling her eyes, Kennedy got to her feet and shrugged out of the long cardigan she was wearing. She dropped it onto the seat before wiggling her torso out of her dress. Since it was tight-fitting, she rolled it down so that it was sitting on her hips and out of the way.

Barton stepped closer then and began unwrapping the bandage he had placed there hours ago. It was hard for her to imagine that so much had happened in almost two days. It felt like it had been ages even though it hadn’t. She needed a good night’s sleep before she did anything else.

Her eyes glanced down to her ribcage as Barton unwound the last rows of the bandage. The skin was mottled dark purple and blue where the guard’s arms had applied pressure. Kennedy sucked in a deep breath without realizing it before swearing as her lungs pressed against her ribs.

“You sure you’ll make it through tonight?” Barton asked as he began rewrapping her ribcage.

“It’ll be a walk in the park,” Kennedy replied breathlessly.

Once her ribs were wrapped back up, Kennedy pulled her dress back up and left the area. She made her way back through the plane until she was back in the cabin with Loki. Without a word, she lowered herself into the seat and closed her eyes once more.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“He’s set to give a speech in five minutes,” Kennedy murmured softly.

“He’s on his way,” Barton replied a beat later.

Kennedy glanced around the gala slowly, her eyes watching people as they stood and talked. Earlier there had been some dancing but now they were waiting on the speaker. She didn’t even know his name, just that he was some German scientist with the iridium that Loki needed. She didn’t even know if he was a scientist.

She didn’t need to know that. She was here to make sure that Loki got what he needed. Then they would be onto the next step. All she knew was that she was doping up on painkillers and sleep between the end of this step and the beginning of the next. Everything else could wait at that point.

Kennedy stuck close to the perimeter of the room, her eyes watching the entrances and exits for any sign of Loki. Occasionally, she’d do a sweep of the people gathered in room for anyone that looked remotely suspicious. The last thing they needed was for someone to come in and mess things up.

Slowly, she swept her gaze along the crowd now. Almost immediately her eyes froze on one person. Freyja.

“Shit,” Kennedy swore.

At that moment a movement on the second level caught her attention. Loki was about to make his entrance. He had stopped by the railing, his green eyes meeting hers. Holding his gaze for a moment, she flicked her eyes to Freyja before looking back to him. She saw his gaze move to where she had looked before returning to hers. A razor-thin, devious smile split his lips.

The sound of someone tapping on a mike reached her ears and Kennedy glanced over to the platform as everyone turned. There was the man Loki was looking for. Looking back to Loki, she saw his smile widen slightly before he gave a nod in her direction.

She turned into the corridor beside her, glancing over her shoulder as she did so. No sign of Freyja having seen her. Grinding her teeth together, Kennedy turned her mike back on as she moved down the corridor.

“We have a problem,” Kennedy hissed.

“And what would that problem be?” Barton asked.

“Freyja’s here,” she replied as she pushed open a door.

Stepping inside, she closed the door behind her before reaching under the desk in the room. With drawing the black duffel bag, she set it on the desk top before beginning to undress. Kennedy wasted no time in pulling the gold and emerald jewelry from her body or removing her shoes.

“Does the boss know?”

“I pointed her out to him and he just smiled,” Kennedy said as she pulled her pants on. “I don’t know if she has back up. Or if she’s here on her own for me.”

“If she’s not here by herself, she’s probably here with S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“Yeah, I have no idea who that is but I’m going to assume it’s not good. I’ll let you know if anything happens.”

Turning off the mike again, Kennedy hurriedly finished dressing. She could hear women screaming from the down hall already. Grabbing her gun, Kennedy picked up the bag before crossing the room. One of Loki’s agents was standing outside the door. She passed him the bag before jogging down the hall to where everyone was fleeing out the door.

Kennedy barely paid the man lying on the marble slab a glance. Her eyes were watching Loki as he crossed the room, gold staff in hand as he began to glow. Her brow furrowed, watching as the suit was replaced by a different version of his leathers, more armored, and a golden helm with horns materialized on his head.

“Well…that’s a change of pace,” she muttered to herself.

Drawing her gun, Kennedy followed him outside of the gala slowly. People were running and screaming, their gazes turning back to watch as Loki made his way outside. She stayed a safe distance back, watching as he aimed the staff at an approaching cop car. The blue gem at the end glowed before a bolt of blue light struck the car. It rose onto it’s front bumper and slid several feet before crashing.

She stayed in the shadows of the building, just watching. Several Lokis materialized around the people, herding them all into one area. Kennedy just stared, not quite sure what to make of the situation. For a moment, she couldn’t tell which Loki was the real Loki until he slammed the butt of his staff down and screamed ‘kneel’.

“Everything alright down there?” Barton asked, his voice buzzing in her ear.

“It depends on how you define the word ‘alright’, Barton,” she muttered, still watching Loki.

"Is there a problem?”

“No, no problem.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

“I’m not really sure, but we’re good. I’ll keep you posted,” Kennedy said.

Her eyes scanned the crowd gathered in Loki’s circle of Lokis. At first, she couldn’t see Freyja. For some reason, a small part of her was glad that she couldn’t find Freyja. It meant that Freyja had gotten away. If everything went according to Loki’s plan, whatever that was, then things probably wouldn’t bode well for Freyja.

“It’s the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life’s joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity,” Loki said, gaining Kennedy’s attention. “You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.”

Shifting slowly, Kennedy moved in a slow circle to continue scanning the crowd. Loki had come to a stop as an old man began to climb to his feet. Though she was unable to see Loki’s face, Kennedy knew that he had seen the old man. Loki never missed anything. And it looked like he hadn’t missed where Freyja was in the crowd.

Kennedy wouldn’t have even noticed Freyja in the crowd if Loki hadn’t come to a stop beside the Asgardian woman. And the only way she knew that it was Freyja was when Freyja shifted ever so slightly, her blonde hair swinging forward over her right left shoulder to cover her face. Her head turned to the side and Kennedy caught a glimpse of her face. It was definitely Freyja.

Her gaze was drawn away from where Freyja was crouched beside Loki to where the old man was. He standing now, his face turned towards Loki. Loki’s head was turned in his direction as well.

“Not to men like you,” he said as he looked at Loki.

Kennedy could hear the amusement in Loki’s voice as he said there were no men like him. There was no man like him in the way he was thinking. But there had been men like him.

And what did that make her? She was willingly working for him. That should have bothered her. He wasn’t here for a good reason; that was obvious. He was here to rule. But Kennedy was an opportunist, had always been. She never did anything where there wasn’t the possibility of her coming out on top somehow. There wasn’t a chance in hell that she would work for Loki if it wasn’t advantageous to her in some way at all.

“Let him be an example.”

Kennedy’s mismatched eyes landed on Loki’s staff as he pointed it at the old man. The blue gem glowed brightly before a blast of light was shot at the man. And she stood there, unfazed entirely while watching. She didn’t know him, he was a nameless old man who was one part brave and three parts fool. He was just another statistic, another casualty in the war that was inevitably coming.

There was a bright flash and then the blast ricocheted back into Loki. There was a man standing in front of the old man, holding a shield. He was practically dressed in the American flag as he stood there, watching Loki. Kennedy cued her mike back to life as she thumbed the safety off her gun.

“Barton? We have a problem,” Kennedy murmured.