Close Your Eyes

“Agent Coulson is down. The medical team is here…they called it…and Agent Swan is missing.”

Tony could not believe his ears as he heard the news. The billionaire shook his head in denial, the two possible scenarios that never went through his way actually happened? He could not wrap his head around the idea.

A certain tingle in his fingertips crawls up his knuckles towards his hands, his heart starts to skip beats as he whispers, “Dasha.”

He was more than confident that she could take care of herself and he became a bit more comfortable knowing that she had her powers, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. His mind immediately started to go to work with the possibilities. Loki took her, there was no question about that and under the supervision of Coulson no less.

Just thinking about the newly deceased agent made his heart throb; he wasn’t close to the agent, but he was considerably close to Pepper.

Tony did not remember removing his suit or walking to the headquarters sitting next to Cap. Fury standing on the other side of the long table while Agent Hill stood a behind him. It takes a moment for them all to realize that their team is cut down in half.

Not only was Dasha taken, but Bruce and Thor were missing as well.

Tony refused to meet anyone’s gaze with his head turned and staying incredibly silent, knuckles white from the tight grasp he has on the arm rests. When Fury tossed the bloody cards across the table towards, Steve it hit a nerve. The vintage cards matted with crimson blood sticking to the table, Steve gazing at the cards forlorn.

As Fury continues speaking, Tony blood starts to boil. He starts to fume while Eye-Patch confesses to the diabolical plan of using the tesseract for a weapon and in the crossfire he lost Coulson, his one trusty companion that he depended on too much.

“But I wanted to start something riskier…” Fury paused making his way round towards Tony. “Tony already knows this. I wanted to start the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring in a group of remarkable people to see if they can become something more. For them to come together and fight battles that we couldn’t.” Fury’s eye harden as he peers down to a silent Tony. “Phil Coulson died believing in that idea and believe it or not Swan believed in the idea too.”

That is all it took for Tony to push himself out of his chair, storming out of the facility before he snaps. He could not bother to lose himself during a time like this, especially when it has become confirmation that Dasha has been taken.

As Tony made his exit, Jak entered. His lip split open and a line of stitches trailing down the side of his face. Pursing his lips, he eyes the cards laying on the glass table. “I hope you know what you got yourself into, Director…putting Dasha in danger like that. You practically gave Dasha to Loki letting her storm in like some hero. The things that she is capable of…” Jak paused hating the fact the next words are going to come out of his mouth. “We might have to put her down.”

Steve furrows his brows, “Miss Swan isn’t some dog, Harrison.”

Fury wordlessly left the quarters. Jak narrows his eyes at his Director who makes his quiet getaway knowing full well that he’s words are sinking into that thick skull of his. Jak always believed in his leader and hardly ever questions him, but considering that he is close with Dasha and the outcomes of her death are high.

Turning his gaze onto the blonde, he states, “I know that, Rogers, but let’s consider her powers. Do you know what she is capable of, Captain?” Closing in on his gaze, holding it for dear life as he remembers the training he had Dasha go through brings shudders down his spine. “If she is pushed, forced or mishandled in any way she can kill us all in one swoop without batting an eyelash. All her powers are in her mind, she can’t read thoughts, but she can link herself to you and when she does that—it’s over.”

Just by looking at the Captain’s face, he is reeling at the level of danger that this could possibly turn. “So I take everything into consideration despite Dasha being my closest friend…I have to think about everyone else. If I am forced into a corner, I cannot hesitate to kill her. It’s part of the job.”

Steve’s jaw tightens, “Don’t let Stark hear you say that or you will have your head served on a silver platter.”

Jak smirked dryly, “I can care less what he has to say, as long as we all band together to finish this. Loki is still out there and he’s our main priority.” The American spy purses his lips in thought, “One small obstacle is to get Stark on board, and I’ll leave that to the Great Captain America.”

Steve frowns noticing the dry sarcasm dripping from his voice, that agent may not show it, but it is as high strung as everyone else. No one is thinking straight, having create more problems and solve. He knows that everyone is trying to locate, Thor and Banner, the latter for safety purposes.

Still, he murmurs, “I doubt Stark wants to listen to me right now.”

“He never does, but reel him in. The more people on board the better.” Jak slap his hand against Rogers back as he heads out leaving Cap to think about everything that has been given to him. If anything is possible, now is the time to pull themselves together to prove it. Standing with a new determination, he starts to look for the billionaire to have a talk.

Looking for the prodigal son of Howard Stark, he notices a few contrast traits about him and his father. His father was analytical, far less sentimental leaving his emotions behind when it came to war. Tony did have the wander eyes of his father, not as of late considering the circumstances, but seeing how he handles Dasha…well, it speaks for itself.

Stepping into the large platform, Steve casually leans against the railing, cobalt eyes on the beaten Stark. The billionaire hunches over, deep with sadness, regret and every other emotion swinging off the branches of his mind. Steve didn’t know what to say to convince Tony to not think rashly, to jump the gun and try to find, Dasha on his own.

Everyone has watchful eyes on the billionaire knowing his track record. Honestly, Steve doesn’t believe that Tony truly loves, Dasha. He doesn’t see it, only tension running between those two and them being on a friendlier level than most, it’s more than enough for Tony’s stone heart to go rescue her. The Captain knew the snarky man isn’t heartless, at the moment he looks like he lost his best friend.

“Was he close to you?” Steve ponders; it is the only way he can think of to ease his way into having him talk. Dasha’s name should be out of the picture for the most part if he plays his cards right. Seeing the hands on the rail tighten into a pale white, Tony’s jaw twitches.

“Not really. Known he was dating a cellist…nothing important.” Tony’s dismissal has Steve’s nerves hitting a rail. Pushing himself off, walking towards him, he makes a choice. To face Tony head on with his problems or avoid it hoping he understands what he is trying to convey. Before Steve can say anything, Tony speaks, “He should have waited…she should have waited. They were stupid enough to-”

“Coulson died for what he believed in and Dasha knew the risks. It’s what they were trained to do, face the opponent even with the odds stack against them.”

“Not when there is a whole team levels above you. Dasha or Coulson should have called it in.” Grinding his teeth, Tony maintains his temper as he glares at the Mr. Blonde.

Feeling his top lip twitch, Steve pulls in his thoughts. This is what Tony does, get under his skin as soon as he opens his arrogant mouth. Still he does not understand the meaning of sacrifice and having Coulson and Dasha take the blow is what they expect to do in matters like this. Not one of them will idly twiddle their thumbs hoping, Loki didn’t go through with his plan, and they spring into action to prohibit further plans.

“They made their own decisions and try to handle it, why can’t you respect that? It’s what soldiers do, they take a course of action immediately after something steers off course.”

Tony steps back, purely enraged, “Soldiers? None of us are soldiers. Dasha is a fucking doctor for fuck’s sake! She’s not a soldier! Neither am I! So to lump us all together like we are in some naïve teenagers that signed up to be fucking drafted then you are utterly insane. I didn’t sign up for this.”

“You didn’t, but everyone else did.” When Tony made a half way lunge towards the Captain, Steve didn’t flinch. Not moving an arm as he stays in the exact spot, gazing at the fuming billionaire. “If we are going to not let Coulson’s sacrifice be in vain then we have to work together. Don’t let your personal feelings intervene.”

“He made it personal.” Barking back, rage bubbling to the surface as something clicks for him. Everything is starting to make sense, Loki wants to hit everyone where it hits home. Learning weaknesses, relationships and breaking them down piece by piece for his grand opening and now he wants his finisher.

There is no room for uncertainty when he knows that Loki will somehow use Dasha against him. His brown eyes darken as he glances over at the dry blood splatter against the wall near a vent. The billionaire will do anything to get Dasha back, the fire in the pit of his belly raging like a soaring blaze.

“Where is the one place, Loki can make his grand entrance? Lights, a spotlight, cameras, the full works.” Tony mumble, Steve furrowing his brows as he stares at the man watching his wheels turn. Then suddenly, it all fits together. “That son of a bitch is going for my tower.” As the pieces now fit well together, the duo race out the room to recollect Natasha and Clint to figure out a plan.

- - -

“They will be coming soon.” Dasha murmurs, trailing behind her leader. Her lit blue eyes darting around the perimeter of the Stark tower. “Selvig will have no defense, should I go help him?” Her vacant eyes peer up at, Loki as they casually walk out into the terrace.

Loki smiles gleefully, “Perfect. There is no need. Once that portal opens their focus will be on the Chitauri. I need you here with me, for personal purposes.” The wind picks up, swaying her brown locks around her face. After a cleanup of blood splatter on her previous clothes, she dons the green and black suit perfectly, with gold incrusted plates on her shoulders and back.

Dasha is his perfect weapon, the perfect line of defense. To have such a beautiful and astounding creature completely under his command, no hesitation on her part. She has proven her loyalty multiple times in the few hours that she has been his.

Her boots clank under the cement ground, she tilts her head up with suspicion. “Tony Stark is coming within our perimeter in under sixty seconds.” The demigod cannot be any happier than he is now, with the power of his scepter her powers have triple in development, having complete control under her power. “Should I contain him?”

“No need. Let’s have a little fun, shall we?” He grins sinisterly watching the man in the iron suit rocket his way towards the top where Selvig and the tesseract is. Patience has always been his game, standing there with the allegiance of that man’s lover.

The things she so easily shared. Loki will purely enjoy pulling part of his control having Dasha see the final breaths of her beloved, her screams of agony being the perfect ending to the start of his rule. As Stark finally makes his way around, he lands on the pad, his suit detaching piece by piece and the human man has eyes for this enhanced woman.

Dasha quietly follows, Loki inside. Taking the stairs up into the large hallway that leads to the grand quarters of the living room, large windows to look out into the beautiful city of Manhattan. Dasha falls short, staring at the beauty of the city as she listens to the footsteps of Loki and her enemy. The compulsive of connecting her mind to the stranger’s starts to grow.

That thread wanting to mesh into his, diving into his thoughts and watching him squirm as she gains control over his body. She obediently stays where she is at until she hears them speak. “Please tell me you are going to appeal to my humanity.” The large grin she can feel on Loki’s face is grand as her eyes switch to Stark as he voices his opinion.

“Clearly you have done a marvelous job, right, Dash?” His nonchalant behavior is confusing, clearly dismissing her presence.

“You have seen nothing yet, Mr. Stark.” Dasha point, gaining those few steps to be closer to her leader. Her eyes narrow at the man as he clearly states that he plans to threaten, Loki. A raise of his hand stops her from moving any further, pushing back her steps into her proper place.

Tony purses his lips, “Did I hit a soft spot, sunshine?” He wants to remain in control of his emotions, there is nothing more pleasurable than to beat the living shit out of this guy. How far can he get to Loki before Dasha pulls her mind tricks on him? Not far. As long as Dasha is sort of contain, observing every little twitch to see what makes her tick.

He can say that he is slightly happy to see that his punch lines still strike a nerve in her. That means she isn’t completely lost. Or he hopes so. The billionaire doesn’t know the full capacity of the glow stick of destiny and how much personality it allows the victims to keep while under control.

“Do you want a drink? Either of you?” Pointing fingers to see if they will take the bait, finishing off that he is going to pour himself a drink.

“The Chitauri are coming, there is nothing you can do to change that. What do I have to fear?”

“The Avengers.” Tony pops the cork on the bottle, slowly pouring into the glass he settles on the counter. Dasha scoffs, rolling her eyes as she mutters something under her breath. Good, she still has a bit of control or at least her personality. “Earth’s mightiest heroes. Why don’t we go a head count?” As he rambles, starting off with striking a nerve, Tony talks about Thor making the demigod turn with bitterness, a small window of opportunity to place the cuffs around his wrists.

His eyes meet Dasha’s wondering if she sees his movements, clearly she didn’t because she remains the same stoic face. “Yes, well I have her and with a push she can conjure powers beyond anyone’s wildest beliefs.” Loki makes his round towards Dasha, standing next to her. “She is who you should fear because I control her.”

Loki mutters a few words he cannot understand, the glow in her eyes pulse, getting brighter before settling into the dusty blue it’s been. Dasha stalks forward, raising her arm, clenching her fist slowly. Tony feels like a bullet has shot through his head, his neck twisting in an odd angle leaving him breathless.

A surprise gasp escapes him as he tries to clutch for the other band he is about to place on his wrist. “You think I can’t see what you are doing? Creating some great illusion for your petty threats? I can have her kill you within seconds.”

His sight starts to become blurry at the wake of seeing Loki’s boots in his sight. Then suddenly his vision starts to clear, it wasn’t Loki’s boots, but Dasha’s as her face is within inches away from his. “I’m not stupid. I saw what you were trying to do.” She whispers, bringing him closer to her, gripping his chin with her forefinger and thumb, she slams his head against the cabinets.

Tony winces, coughing as the pressure of his brain starts to become too much. “Should I kill him?” Her question is thrown in the air, waiting for, Loki to answer her. Her soulless eyes bearing into the soul of Tony, he weakly says her name in a splutter with no recognition flashing in those eyes.

“No. Why spoil the fun when I can have two Avengers fighting against their comrades.” The demigod kneels with his scepter in hand, reaching closer as the tip barely touches the man’s chest. Instead of seeing the initial glow of his eyes, there is nothing. Wiping that smirk off, Loki’s face he tries again.

Tony grins, “Don’t be embarrassed, everyone has performance issues. It’s more c-common than you think.” Grimacing when Dasha applies more pressure, a short scream. He wants to reflexively have his hands hold his head, but he can’t. Being paralyzed and having his mind being in control of his girlfriend has not been the best experience in his life.

“Leave him here. He is no threat.” Loki glances at the plethora of Chitauri flying through the city. “We have more important matters to attend to.”

Dasha nods, giving the snarky man one final glance before reaching for the counter. Waving the device that he try to place on his wrist, she snaps it on her own before following, Loki out. Tony fights to move, to scream at her, but she control his vocal chords until she is out of sight.

Feeling the urge of relief in his body, gaining air into his lungs as he coughs and pants. Lying on the cool tile floor, his cheek press against it, he mutters, “Fuck.” His nostrils flaring, his fists tighten at his poor attempt at bringing Dasha back. He knew that he cannot knock her upside the head like Natasha did to Clint, Dasha is a mutant. A powerful being beyond comprehendible measures.

Void Dasha follows her leader as he leads her to the landing pad, a smile upon his face. “Can you see this? All of this will be mine at the end and you will help me get there, at any cost.” His green eyes flicker upon his loyal subject as she quietly mutters a positive response.

A hovercraft flies in their direction, noticing the familiar faces. “Three in the hovercraft. Shall I contain them?”

Loki narrows his eyes, “Just the pilot.” The Russian has been on his mind, still fuming on her ability to weasel her way into having him share more information that he want to. Seeing bullets being shot their way, he gives one of his own hitting the wing that sends them flying back to a retreat. Perfect timing as Dasha wires her mind to Natasha’s, clipping parts of her brain into a seizure.

Natasha first loses grip on the control as she stammers out a few words, gaining the attention of Clint in the copilot seat before she starts convulsing. A string of curses as he tries to maintain control of the aircraft, having Steve manage Natasha as best as he can.

The demigod laughs until Dasha reports the next incoming, his brother. Loki frowns as a minute later, Thor lands on the terrace. “Stop this madness, Loki before it gets any worse!” The prince of Asgard glances at the human beside his brother, surprise when he recognizes her. What is she doing here? The bulky demigod growls in frustration when he notices the signature glow of her eyes.

“What have you done?”

Loki delightedly responds, “I freed her mind.” Before launching off the pad to meet weapon on weapon. Dasha watches as the two start to brawl, she stalks around the area of the pad noticing, Tony is in the same spot as before. Content with the same outcome, she comes round behind, Thor with a gun raise.

Pulling the trigger, Thor buckles when a bullet pierces his calf giving, Loki leverage. With brute force, Thor pushes his brother off having him land on his back before turning towards, Dasha. “Listen to me, Lady Swan. You are under the control of the scepter. Regain control of your mind and you will be set free. I know you are capable.”

“I don’t want to be free.” Dasha races towards the bigger demigod, landing a roundhouse kick on his injured leg. Thor reacts to the attacks with his own, pulling back on his strength to not hurt the human in front of him. He fully knows her powers do not work on him and as childish as this may be, he has an opening of grabbing her, incapable of using her arms as he lifts her. Her legs kicking as he squeezes until she lets go of the gun.

Seeing, Loki trying to use this advantage, he is force to throw Dasha aside to face his brother. It didn’t take long before Dasha falls off the tower, landing on one of the Chituari’s aircrafts. Flying away from the tower to her next mission, she pushes her hair aside as she zooms off.

Listening to the mind waves of everyone in the city, zeroing in on the ones that she wants to target. Black Widow is incapacitated, Hawkeye and Captain America are still active. As she gets close enough to their brainwaves, she flips off the aircraft and onto the ground, rolling into a stop. She still is not as graceful as she wants to be. Blinking, she brushes the dirt off her face before loading her gun with a clip.

The next step is to finish off the others.

“Where’s Stark? I haven’t hear any response from him.” Clint attends to Natasha as he looks up at Steve.

Captain gazes at the tower, “He might still be at the tower. Dasha was there with Loki.” That eerie tension swallows each Avenger as they witness part of the power that Dasha withholds. It look effortless how she has Natasha in the state she is in. “Right now we need to focus what’s right in front of us. Losing our eyes in the sky, we have to do this tactfully as possible on the ground.” As soon as those words come out of his mouth, a large beast of a thing slowly sails across them, smaller alien like creatures jumping off to create havoc.

“Think you can handle this on your own?” Steve thinks out loud as he gazes at the army of Chitauri coming in close.

Clint grits his teeth, the only thing they didn’t plan out thoroughly is Dasha not being in her state of mind at this moment in time. They seriously plan, Tony to have her out of, Loki’s control and onto their side. Holding Natasha protectively, he calls out, “With genuine pleasure, as long as you get Nat into a safer place.”

The two come into agreement with the plan, Steve picking up Natasha’s limp body with one arm as he protects their bodies with his shield, running off to a safer location for her. Once Steve picks out a spot where a few civilians can keep an eye on Natasha, giving a few coordinates to Clint and Thor in case they need to locate, Romanoff, he heads off convincing the police force to follow his orders.

“Thor, we need you up in the air to take over Stark’s part.” Steve calls out, pulling his shield closer to his body as another alien makes a swing at him. The small opening leaves the Captain to swing his shield full force slicing the thing in half as he hears Thor agreeing to the plan.

Dasha notices the wave frequencies pulling farther apart before coming together again. A few Chitauri follow her lead as she starts to close in on the two Avengers, Rogers and Barton. The soft wave curls the Chitauri into a vicious scream as her eyes glow brighter, clenching her fist, gun in hand they snarl at her before turning towards the duo again.

Clint curses under his breath as he is the first to notice her. Steve and Clint are surrounded by Chitauri before they start to part way to reveal, Dasha. Her black and green garb is not to be missed, mesh with gold plating on her shoulders swirling down her back. She pulls the safety off, raising the guns towards the boys. A small void smile on her lips, “Missed me?”