Blind

Licking her lips, Kennedy adjusted the crossbow in her hands. She was careful to keep Freyja in her sights, finger adjusting on the trigger. Her back was braced against the tree solidly, thighs clamped around the tree limb in front of her. A tree hiding place, while not an entirely original or well-thought out hiding place, served it’s purpose better than sitting out in plain view with a cross bow did.

The suit and tie S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were standing about, watching for signs of trouble. The special snowflakes had formed a circle around Loki and the blonde Asgardian. Kennedy still didn’t know his name. That didn’t really surprise her. The more surprising part was Barton and Freyja.

Really, she shouldn’t have been that surprised to see Barton standing there alongside Romanoff. Her head lifted from the scope of the crossbow briefly, blue-lensed eyes looking at him. After a moment, her gaze was returned to peering through the scope.

Freyja was standing at Banner’s side and not with the two Asgardians in the center. Her arms were folded across her chest, blue eyes watching Loki. Kennedy’s head tilted slightly behind the scope. That was an interesting look.

“Blue team, on my mark. Red team, standby,” Kennedy murmured into the mike.

“Roger that,” one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents answered.

“Three…”

Kennedy noted the muzzle on Loki’s face. That could be problematic.

“Two…”

If the sedative didn’t set in, Banner could be problematic.

“Blue.”

Kennedy watched as the suits dropped like stones, red mists of blood spraying from their skulls. She didn’t give anyone the chance to prepare themselves.

“Red.”

Her finger squeezed around the trigger. The kickback of the crossbow jerked her slightly but she barely noticed. Stark, Romanoff, and Barton dropped like dead weight on the ground. She didn’t notice anyone else because she was too busy swinging out of the tree.

An explosion rocked the ground, throwing those who were wobbling to the ground. From what she could tell, Banner was down. That made her breathe a little easier. Metal canisters dropped, adding more chaos to the scene as smoke began to leak from them.

Kennedy ducked a wild right swing, twisting and ramming the crossbow into Steve’s stomach. She pulled back to avoid being punched by his flailing arm. As if to serve as a reminder of how strong Steve actually was, her ribs throbbed as she twisted the wrong way.

Yanking the knife out of her boot, Kennedy ducked and slashed at the back of his thigh. The sharpened edge of the blade slid through his khakis and blood began soaking through the material. His leg slid out from underneath him, dropping him to one knee. Her own knee lifted, aiming to connect with his face.

Steve dove forward, his muscular shoulder burying itself in her abdomen. They went down in a tangle of limbs, Kennedy’s teeth drawing blood from her lip as she felt at least one or two ribs crack. She struggled to push him off, a wave of nausea rolling over her as her ribs throbbed.

Someone lifted Steve off, a black, leather-clad elbow connecting with his temple. Steve hit the ground and didn’t move. Kennedy sucked in shallow, quick breaths so as not to stretch her ribs while she staggered to her feet. Her blue eyes glanced around as another cover of smoke exploded around them.

“This way,” Kennedy said before moving across the body-littered area.

The only glance she paid to the unconscious bodies on the ground was towards Freyja. Her sister’s hands were wrapped around Bruce’s wrists, despite the bolt of the crossbow jutting from her shoulder. There was blood staining her shirt but not enough to suggest a fatal wound. She was breathing though, which satisfied Kennedy.

Without another moment of hesitation, Kennedy began moving again with Loki at her side. She could feel something warm and damp on her back, sliding along the curve of her spine. She really hoped that was just sweat. Sliding her hand back, Kennedy pressed it to the spot and withdrew it blood-stained. That couldn’t be good.

Shaking concern for herself away, Kennedy slid into one of the unmarked S.H.I.E.L.D. cars, eyebrows rising at the keys sitting in the cup holder. Idiots. Or luck was on her side for now. She didn’t like to hold much in the way of luck though. Luck was a bitch.

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

“You have any idea how to get that off?” Kennedy asked as she pulled the black-haired wig off her head.

She popped the blue contacts out and stuck them in the case before peeling her jacket off. The blood-stained piece of green and black leather was deposited in the bathtub before her shirt was added to that as well. Kennedy turned her back to the mirror before peering over her shoulder at her back. There was a cut on her back from where Steve had tackled her and she’d landed on something.

The skin of her lower back was smeared with blood, the cut bleeding once more from the act of Kennedy twisting. Soaking a washcloth in the sink, Kennedy began wiping away the blood smeared across her skin. She had completely forgotten that Loki was sitting just outside the open door of the bathroom. And that he couldn’t talk.

“Give me just a minute.”

Opening a bottle of peroxide, Kennedy carefully, and awkwardly, twisted her arms about so that she could pour it on the cut. Her teeth bit into her lower lip as the peroxide stung the torn skin and began to bubble and fizz. After a few minutes, she carefully patted the skin dry before looking at the cleaned wound. It would need a few stitches, which was something that she couldn’t do right now.

Kennedy grabbed a wad of gauze and pressed it to the cut before taping it down. Pressing a roll of ACE bandage to the gauze, Kennedy wrapped it about her abdomen tightly to form two layers of protection over it. Hopefully that would contain the bleeding until she could get some stitches.

Her eyes, temporarily returned to their normal, mismatched colors, glanced down at the darkening skin of her abdomen where Steve had tackled her. She’d removed the tape from her ribcage earlier so that it didn’t hinder her. That would undoubtedly be redone within the next few hours to protect support her ribs.

Sliding a tank top on over her head, Kennedy brushed the light chestnut hair from her face. Her fingers combed her hair back from her face, the newly cut strands obediently combing back from the slight dampness. She cleaned the small cut on her forehead before walking out of the bathroom.

“Let me get a look at this,” Kennedy said as she made her way over to Loki.

She peered at the muzzle on his face, mismatched eyes narrowing slightly as she studied it. Kennedy was good with computers but she wasn’t anywhere close enough to being able to do something about this. Undoubtedly, this was Stark Tech. She’d probably need to say some arrogant, egotistical and or narcissistic thing and it would unlock. Hell, it was probably “Tony Stark is amazing.”

Kennedy took a moment to take in the fact that Loki’s face was fairly cut up. He even had a bruise for each of his eyes. Her eyebrows rose as she moved to stand in front of him. His nose was broken and there were a few gashes on his forehead as well.

“You couldn’t resist being theatrical, could you?” she smirked.

Loki glared at her and Kennedy let the smirk drop externally. She walked out of her bedroom and into the kitchen where her mail was lying. She’d picked it up once she got to the building after spending all morning running around the city. The S.H.I.E.LD. SUV that she’d stolen that morning was probably burnt to a crisp now.

She picked up her phone and made a few calls to get two of the agents still under Loki’s call here. One of them needed to work on hacking into that muzzle and she needed the other to stitch up that cut on her back. The last thing that she needed was for that to get infected. Especially since, just this morning, papers ordering Kennedy, Kylie, to report to the Helicarrier in three days had come in.

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

Freyja shifted slowly, vision blurring briefly as she opened her eyes. The bright light overhead made her eyes quickly squeeze together. Too bright. Her mouth was dry and her tongue felt like it was made of cotton. When she managed to get her eyes open, a wave of vertigo washed over her.

Grunting slightly, Freyja fumbled about on the bed she was on until she managed to push herself upright. She had double vision which was enough to cause nausea to wash over her. Slowly, she slumped back down until she wasn’t so upright anymore. The nausea went away after a few minutes.

It was another thirty minutes before Freyja could sit upright with her eyes open and not feel sick. With her mouth and throat still dry, she glanced around to see if there was any water in the room. There was some to her right. She went to lift her arm only to feel a throb of white-hot pain lance up her arm and through her shoulder.

“What the hell?” Freyja muttered as she realized she wasn’t wearing her own shirt.

A gray, S.H.I.E.L.D. shirt had been put on her at some point. Frowning in confusion, she struggled with pulling it off, teeth gritting together whenever she bumped her shoulder. This was by far the worst thing she’d been through as of late.

“Miss Cross, are you alright?”

Freyja looked over at the doorway to see a S.H.I.E.L.D agent standing there. Giving her a brief look, Freyja returned her attention to the shirt. After a moment, she gripped the seam of the sleeve and gave it a sharp tug. It split easily.

Someone had wrapped a layer of white bandages around her chest and shoulder. A little bit of blood was seeping through the bandages.

“What the hell happened?” Freyja asked, looking up at the agent.

“You were shot, Miss Cross,” Fury said as he walked in the room.

Freyja looked over at him as the first agent came over and began unwrapping the bandages carefully. Fury was looking at something, ignoring what was going on here. She glanced down at her shoulder once the bandages were off and the dirty gauze had been removed. The wound wasn’t too pretty.

“Because of your Asgardian blood, we are relying on what Thor knows to help you. It seems that your prolonged amount of time here has lowered your rate of healing to a slightly significant degree,” Fury said with a brief glance at her face. “What Thor knows helps if you have the same rate of healing as he does.”

“Thor and I have different blood anyways,” Freyja replied, wincing when some hydrogen peroxide was splashed on the wound. “I’ll take care of it when I can. Who shot me?”

“Your sister ran an impressive operation to free Loki from our custody. A successful operation, might I add.” Freyja wasn’t sure but she thought that Fury sound slightly impressed by whatever Kennedy had done. “In the process, she had seven S.H.I.E.L.D. agents killed before tranquilizing Mister Stark, Agents Romanoff and Barton, Doctor Banner, Thor, Captain Rogers and yourself. She almost killed you.”

“With what?”

By now, the nurse had packed the gauze back into Freyja’s shoulder and was wrapping a clean bandage around it firmly. Freyja ignored her movements and continued watching Fury as he lifted two clear bags. One had over half of a crossbow bolt. The other held the rest plus the bloodied tip that had been the reason of her shoulder injury.

“A crossbow bolt, tipped with a dart of Asgardian metal. The same was used on Thor but not attached to a bolt like yours. In fact, save for a few minor bruises on Captain Rogers, you were the only one to come out injured.”

“So Kennedy tried to kill me?” Freyja asked, blue eyes meeting his gaze as the nurse left the room.

“That would appear to be what happened,” Fury nodded.

“Wait,” Freyja frowned, sliding off the table, “how did she even manage to knock any of us, well Thor, Banner, Steve or me, out?”

“Near lethal dosages of rocuronium bromide and an unknown sedative were used on the four of you. The others received a high enough dosage of sedative to render them unconscious,” he explained.

“What about the tesseract?”

“Safe in our custody for now.” Freyja could have snorted about the ‘safe’ part. “Loki is our primary concern at the moment.”

Freyja nodded slightly, her blue gaze looking back at the piece of bolt that had been removed from her shoulder. Loki had given that to Kennedy. And Kennedy had used it to almost kill Freyja. She’d used the other to knock Thor out and had only ordered the rest to be sedated. But she’d tried to kill Freyja.

“Miss Cross?”

She ignored Fury’s question as she crossed the room. Leaving her injured arm down, Freyja managed to shrug a black S.H.I.E.L.D. jacket over her shoulders to cover her torn shirt. She didn’t even respond to Fury when she left the room, bare feet moving across the floor of the Helicarrier quickly. To his credit, Fury didn’t try to stop her.

Freyja didn’t stop until she reached the room that Kennedy had temporarily been kept in. It had been cleaned, undoubtedly, since it had last been used but she doubted anyone else had used it recently. She stared at it for several seconds before rubbing her face. Her forehead pressed against the wall beside it, eyes closing.

She knew the person approaching was Thor before she even opened her eyes. She didn’t know how but she just knew it was him. Freyja didn’t move, blue eyes remaining shut as she leaned against the wall.

“You should be at rest now, Freyja, so that you may heal,” Thor said quietly.

“I don’t want to be at rest, Thor. I want to be here.”

“You have been informed of your sister’s betrayal then…”

Freyja lifted her head, eyes opening as she turned to look at Thor. His blue eyes met her gaze seriously, his expression concerned but grave. He knew how this felt. To be betrayed like this.

“Thor…I don’t think there’s anything good left in her. Whatever good there was is gone.”

“I fear that my brother is much to blame for this,” Thor sighed. “His influence on your sister has been great.”

“It wasn’t Loki that did this,” she said with a shake of her head. “She chose this. Loki put the temptation out for her but she took the bait. She took it and ran with it.”

“She is still your sister as much as Loki is my brother. Not by blood but by the memories you share. You cannot turn your back on her.”

“Is that why you still try to reach out to Loki?” Freyja asked, almost bitterly. “You try to reach out to him even though he despises you and everything you are?”

“I know Loki’s feelings towards me. But he is my brother and I will not abandon him like everyone else has.”

“They won’t kill your brother if they catch him. They’ll leave him to you. If they catch Kennedy, they will kill her if they have the opportunity.”

“Then maybe you should hope that your sister retains some of the good that you say has abandoned her.”