The World We Live In

"The Blackwidow, here in the flesh. I thought it would be more of a challenge."

The Widow glared up at the German man in front of her, but didn't say a word.

"I hardly think you can handle a challenge of her caliber," a new voice said.

Natasha barely glanced over at the feminine voice. She did though and that glance changed everything. The woman was pale with thick black hair. She was dressed in a garb similar to that of Loki's. Natasha knew that it was Matilda and knew that whatever she was gonna try to do; she had to try to do it fast. That would be difficult though considering she was stuck in a metal chair with metal restraints.

She was caught between to thought processes. One process knew that she was right and that Matilda shouldn't have been trusted from the get go. The other saw the odd blue in the telepath's eyes and knew that she was under Loki's control.

'You'd make a perfect puppet, but I'm not going to do that. No, it's going to be much more fun watching you try to act indifferent when the world comes crashing down around you,' Matilda pushed the thought into Natasha's head.

"Get the hell out of my head," Natasha growled.

"Fine. I don't need to be in your head," Matilda said. She turned to the large German man. "Get her out of that chair. I want to be able to move her if necessary."

"But if she escape-"

"I'm sure even a moronic peasant such as yourself, can manage to restrain one person," Matilda said bitingly.

"Listen, I-"

Matilda's pupils completely backed out. "You are going to do as I say, because that is not only what I want, but your King as well."

The guy had no will of his own. "Yes, my queen," he said.

"Bravo," Loki said entering the room, clapping.

"My king," Matilda greeted.

"Ah, my fair queen. You are truly one of a kind."

"Thank you."

Natasha was dragged out of the room by the German man. The sight of Loki and Matilda happy made her sick to her stomach, something she was unaccustomed to.

Meanwhile the tower and the Avengers were in a state of complete and utter chaos.

"WE NEED TO ACT NOW! HE HAS HER! DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THAT MEANS?! THE RISK?!" Clint yelled, slamming his fists down on the table.

"Birdboy, I'm all for hunting them down now, but you need to calm down."

"We're not going now. We need more information," Steve said.

"I am in agreement with the patriotic one," Sif said, "It is far too dangerous for us to go into battle without proper preparation. We-"

"No. There's no we. There's us and you, who let him escape."

"It was not Lady Sif's duty to guard Loki," Thor said.

"Of course you're defending her," Clint said, "You defended Loki too. Are you going to now?"

"You trusted the Widow," Bruce argued.

"That wasn't her," Clint said.

"No it was Loki. You trusted Loki," Bruce pointed out. "God we fell right into his plans!"

"Yes, that you did," the entire group turned to look at the door, where Fury was entering.

"Fuck," Tony said, slamming his head down on the table.

That pretty much summed it all up. They all started arguing again. Sam hadn't said anything, but she had had enough.

Instantly everyone felt the most intense pain in their heads they had every felt. "Enough," she said quietly. "This moronic arguing isn't going to solve anything. Here's the deal. Loki has my mother. He's going to use her. We need to stop him. We don't know enough to do anything, even if acting immediately was the right plan. We know nothing. So rather than argue over stupis shit, we neeed to figure out what the fuck is going on. Clint you love her. We know, but you of all people should know that letting your emotions get in the way isn't going to fucking help shit. Thor, Sif, you two need to sort out everything you know about Loki's current powers and you need to do it NOW. Steve, Bruce, try to figure out where they're at. Tony you and Fury figure out who Loki's working with. Clint you know her, and you've been under Loki's control. Help me figure out how to help her."

With Matilda gone, Sam seemed to be able to carry that same control as her mother. No one argued with her, not even Fury. Everyone went to work separately and as Sam had predicted although she hadn't spoken the words, everyone and thing had started to come together.

It wasn't enough though. They had a very loose idea of what Loki and Matilda were capable and the resources they had, but not enough to really do anything with it.

After a while, Clint rubbed his face tiredly. "Calm down. We'll get her back. You know we will, because if we don't, when she finds her own way out she'll come and kick our asses, so we need to," Sam said.

Clint smirked a bit, but the it didn't reach his eyes.