The Familiar Taste of Poison

“Speak to me,” Loki said, intently watching the Midgardian before him. She still looked broken, but her spirit was intact. She was just a mortal, but Loki couldn’t shake the feeling that she could be so much more. He was torn between his actions and duty. Loki was supposed to have Agent Barton by his side, he was supposed to be the backup. Now, with a childish impulse, Clint Barton was a backup in another sense. Loki could easily kill this woman and correct his path, or he could watch this unfold. With Lacy, he couldn’t help himself.

Lacy looked up from the “peace treaty” keeping her occupied to raise a delicate eyebrow at him. Loki had resorted to giving her weapon back in exchange for unknown trust from her. Loki knew nothing she could do with twelve bullets would put him and his mission in jeopardy. He saw it like a safety blanket for her.

“What do you want me to say?” she asked him. Loki stood from is seat and folded his arms behind his back, pacing in front of where she was sat on the ground, cleaning her gun.

“Telling me about SHIELD would prove useful,” Loki suggested, still pacing. He couldn’t deny that he was growing restless.

“Usually interrogations begin with some sort of... Forceful prompting,” Lacy sat up straighter, intently watching Loki.

“You’d prefer I torture you for information when I could ask Agent Barton?” Loki questioned, stopping to look down upon her.

“Semper Fidelis,” Lacy responded after locking eyes with the god in front of her.

It took Loki a moment to respond to her, “You’re a soldier.”

“Marine,” Lacy corrected though she didn’t expect him to understand her explanation, but knew he understood her loyalty.

“I admire your passions,” Loki smiled in approval, “Though I feel something is troubling you,” he said after a few seconds.

“You think so?” Lacy raised her eyebrow with her sarcasm. She stood from the ground then, her loaded Glock gripped tightly at her right side.

“Please don’t be cross with me, Lacy.”

“You’re trying to destroy my home, Loki. Of course I’m going to be ‘cross’ with you,” Lacy said, looking away from him in her anger. It was raising her voice and quickening her heart. Loki felt that this could be both a useful reaction, to manipulate her love for her world, or it could become an unnecessary hurdle in conquering Midgard.

“I’m not destroying it, I’m improving it. Humanity is not united and you have a foolish idea of freedom. Freedom without unity it means nothing. Under one united force, there will be no more war,” Loki made it obvious to the woman that he was going to declare himself that said “united force” of this world.

“You can’t rule the Earth, it’s too big. And people won’t change, we’ll always fight each other because we won’t ever have the same beliefs and ideas. Even under one king,” Lacy tried reasoning with him.

“It’s sounding like you have no faith in me, Agent Garrett,” Loki pushed her.

“No, I don’t have faith, in you nor humanity. But I’m certain that you cannot rule Earth.”

“Perhaps I could show you once the time comes, all humanity would kneel in acceptance before me.”

“No, Loki. I don’t want to see. I’d rather die fighting than be ruled over,” Loki could tell Lacy wanted to walk away from their conversation and in a sudden flash of red anger in his vision, he grabbed hold of her before she could even move.

“Hear me out,” Loki rose his voice, “You would not be ruled, you would be ruling. You would have power bestowed upon you which you could not imagine.” Even with his sudden anger, Loki was close to making his decision. Better this woman than Clint Barton.

“Loki,” Lacy began slowly, “I’d rather die fighting against you than ruling with you.”

Of course this choice wouldn’t come easily. His hand tightened in anger around her arm before he spoke, “Then you will fight and die amid the humans who get in my way. And as for leaving, you can forget about it. I won’t let you. I want you to witness your kind suffering beneath me before I kill you.”

Midway through trying to frighten her, Loki let go of her arm and watched her turn and leave once he was finished. Lacy stopped a moment, and Loki’s lips stretched back into a sinister smile as he watched her stand alone like a lost child. She didn’t remain long before Lacy disappeared into his curtained off room.

Loki himself set off towards Clint Barton and Eric Selvig, intent on gaining information that Lacy would not easily provide.

“This is wonderful!” The professor shouted happily to Loki as he walked over to the plastic curtains surrounding the Tesseract. “The Tesseract has shown me so much. It... It’s more than knowledge, it’s truth.” Loki stopped on the otherside of the plastic, watching the slightly crazed expression of Selvig carefully.

“I know. It touches everyone differently,” Loki glanced away to compose himself and his emotions after his fight with Lacy. When he was looking back to the professor he was smiling. “What did it show you, Agent Barton?” Loki then asked, his face serious once more.

“My next target,” Clint replied quickly.

Eric Selvig chuckled, “Stick in the mud, he’s got no soul.” Clint wasn’t amused however and slowly turned to face him. “No wonder you chose this tomb to work in.”

“Well the Raddison doesn’t have three levels of lead lined flooring, between SHIELD and that cube,” Clint explained with a harsh tone, and Selvig only nodded before turning to work more on the Tesseract.

“I see why Fury chose you to guard it,” Loki acknowledged, and Clint turned back to him.

“You’re gonna have to contend with him, sir,” Clint explained and they both walked away from the Tesseract. “As long as he’s in the air, I can’t pin him down. And he’ll be pinning together a team.”

Loki glanced to him quickly, “Are they a threat?”

“To each other, more than likely. But if Fury can get ‘em on track, and he might, they can throw some noise our way,” Agent Barton explained.

Loki felt he understood where he was coming from. “You admire Fury,” he stated.
“He’s got a clear line of sight.”

“Is that why you failed to kill him?” he asked, his tone growing darker and Clint stopped walking. Loki moved ahead of him and turned to face him.

“It might be,” Agent Barton was slow to answer, but Loki forced the truth out of him. “I was disoriented. And I’m not at my best with a gun.” All Loki heard were excuses, but they were the truth.

“I want to know everything you can tell me about this team of his... I would test their mettle.” Loki stated after accepting Barton’s explanation. “I’m weary of scuttling in shadow.” Loki looked up to the ceiling, knowing that he had his fingertips on Midgard, he almost had a hold of it. “I mean to rule this world, not burrow in it,” he finally stated, looking back to Clint.

“It’s a risk,” Clint stated, still truthful.

Loki smiled widely at him, bearing his teeth. “Oh yes.”

“If you’re set on making yourself known... It could be useful.”

“Tell me what you need,” Loki walked towards him, still smiling.

Clint Barton took a moment, a glint of delight flashing across his eyes before he walked over to a case and pulled out his bow, shaking it so it would unfold itself. “I need a distraction. And an eyeball.”

Loki understood, but still needed a plan. First he needed the help of a scapegoat. “Right,” he agreed, and looked to his personal area, curtained off from the rest of this place and hiding Lacy. He said no more and walked off to grab his scepter.

He found he didn’t need it when he found Lacy already asleep on the cot. He stepped behind the heavy green curtains, and watched her soundly sleep despite her predicament. It was reassuring to see that she still trusted him, despite what had happened earlier between them.

Loki took a seat across the room from her, his scepter laid across one of his knees as he leaned slightly forward, focusing on her like he had before when she was sleeping. He had a different intent now though, faithfulness through fear would take too long for her proud heart, but he had another way in.

Her breathing hitched in a silent whimper and Loki slightly cocked his head to the side, his eyes scanning down her body before landing back to her face. He couldn’t see what she saw, but he could make her feel what he wanted. After only moments, Loki wasn’t sure if he was trying too hard but was answered as soon as the thought crossed his mind, breaking his concentration.

“Wait,” Lacy opened her blue eyes wide, finding whom she had just previously been dreaming of, sitting in front of her, still leaned over in a metal chair on the other side of the small room.

“Wait?” he questioned quietly.

“You…” She didn’t finish. Loki could tell that she was still feeling the full effects of his manipulation. He could see her chest shudder with her breath as if what she felt had been real.

“I,” he replied almost tauntingly, his voice was smooth and calm. Loki stood and left the scepter on the chair in the room.

“Tell me,” Lacy said to him, “Why did you take your control off of me? Really this time. I can tell you had a reason.” She propped herself up on the bed with her elbow, her wanting, blue eyes watching him as intently as he was watching her.

“The same reason you want this,” Loki didn’t hesitate in answering her, slowly walking over to where Lacy laid on the bed.

“You can read minds?” She asked, though they both knew she knew the answer.

“You don’t have to concentrate like that for me to see your thoughts,” Loki smirked. He knew that she wasn’t but he was loosing her to a sturdy rational. He needed to kill it fast before her mind became too fuzzy.

Lacy remained silent as he walked to the edge of the bed and sat down on the edge, facing her. “And you’re hardly trying to keep me out,” he added. Lightly he took her chin in his forefinger and thumb, the smirk staying on his lips.

Holding her chin in place he leaned down, barely brushing his lips past her own. Lingering only a moment, he backed off and Lacy reopened her eyes that had fluttered shut automatically. Loki’s own shone like brilliant emeralds, darting between the endless sky blue of Lacy’s. He could see that she had nearly broken.

“Tell me what you’re wanting, darling,” Loki spoke lowly, and he had no doubt of what she would ask.

“Fine.” Lacy sat up to level herself with Loki, kissing him again, this time not so gently. She felt his cold hands through her shirt, settling themselves on her slender waist. She moved shortly after, breaking their kiss for a moment as her leg swung around Loki so that she was straddling him.

“Is this gonna kill me?” she asked between hasty kisses, acting as if she were an uncontrollable teenager.

“Maybe,” She felt him answer into her swollen lips, pulling away to give her a devilishly handsome grin. From that point, where Lacy led them Loki followed.

They ended with Loki behind Lacy, who was on all fours in front of him. He was above her, supporting himself with one arm. The other was wrapped around her waist, keeping her body held up, although she was ready to break in a different way. Loki let her down onto the bed, following her with kisses placed across her shoulder blades.

“Don’t think I quite killed you,” he whispered, laying on his stomach behind here as she panted.

“Uh,” was all Lacy could muster in a replied, before closing her eyes.

Loki chuckled softly, running his fingers along her spine, and saw they were chased by waves of goose bumps. His mood was drowned slowly, remembering suddenly what he was trying to do in the first place. This deception had worked too well.

“Lacy,” he whispered.

“Yeah?” she asked, yawning.

“I… I need a favor from you,” he said, his elated tone leaving him for good.

“What is it?” She asked, turning onto her side so she could face him. The solemn look she was met with worried her.

“I’ll let you leave if you help me with something. You can go back to SHIELD.”

Her narrow eyebrows furrowed at him, perplexed and not liking where he was going with this. “Loki?” She asked, “I have no idea what you mean.”

“I’ll tell you everything, tomorrow. You won’t like it but after I’ll let you go,” he said and hastily crawled over her and off of the bed. As he stood the armor he wore before reappeared on his skin, like they were burning with gold smoke.

“Where are you going?” Lacy called after, but Loki didn’t answer her. He purposely left Lacy naked in the room, grabbing his scepter before making his exit. He had succeeded, too well and had somehow lost himself in her, as she had lost herself in him. Now he wasn’t second guessing if she was the one he would prefer to keep over Clint Barton. He was second guessing using her as he had intended for a distraction.