The Secret Asgardian (An Avengers Fanfiction)

Chapter 44: Double Agent

44. Double Agent

Twenty-two days, seven hours, and approximately forty-three minutes.

Yes, I’d been counting.

I heard slow footsteps, and I cringed into the wall behind me, closing my eyes tightly. Not me. Please, not me again.

The footsteps stopped outside my cell. For the love Odin, must Loki continue to torture me?

“No, please!” I said desperately, wishing that I could mould myself into the wall as the cell door opened. I kept my eyes shut, hoping in vain that they would go away.

“No, take me instead. I could go for another refreshing round of agony,” Tony called in a lilting voice, but someone grabbed me anyway and pulled me up.

I looked at Barton in fear, and his face was like a stone.

“Clint, please!” I begged, but couldn’t stop myself from stumbling along behind him.

“You’ll regret this, mortal,” Thor vowed as he watched me stumble past with narrowed eyes, and Clint smiled grimly but didn’t reply.

Peter watched me with guarded eyes, absently toying with a key in his hands. Clint pulled me forward.

However, instead of stopping outside the room, he carried on walking, dragging me with him.

Suddenly, he stopped as we rounded a corner, and he turned to me with a panicked look in his eyes ... his eyes which were not icy blue anymore.

“Clint? What-” I began slowly, but he shook his head sharply.

“Loki’s mind control, it’s worn off. I don’t know what happened, but I was just thinking about someone, and it was like I could feel the real me, pulling on my consciousness. It’s hard to explain, but suddenly, I was back, everything crystal clear again.”

“Who were you thinking about?” I asked curiously. It wasn’t very often that someone could shake of Loki’s mind control. Actually, it was unheard off. I was surprised to see him blush slightly.

“I was thinking about Natasha,” He admitted after a small pause.

I leaned against the wall, needing support.

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked wearily.

“Because I want to help, but if Loki finds out that I’m not being controlled anymore, I don’t know what he’ll do.”

I sighed, and ran a shaky hand through my knotted hair.

“Where is Natasha?” I asked absently, and he stiffened, just like last time.

“Loki has her...”

“What do you mean?” I asked sharply.

“She was the first one to break through the mind control, a couple of weeks ago, when we first reached Atlantis. I don’t know how she did it, but when she did Loki was furious, and instead of enslaving her again, he took her to ...” Clint stopped, looking pained.

“Where?”

“To the cell below. There’s a dungeon below this one, with only one huge cell. It’s where Loki puts his most troublesome prisoners. Actually, I think he was going to move you down there soon. Anyway, it’s guarded by a disgusting monster - I think it’s called a Chimera or something like that.”

I processed all this info slowly, my brain slow.

“I can’t help. I’m sorry, but I really can’t do anything like this when you keep putting that stupid Spider Venom in my food,” I said, angry at my own weakness.

I had discovered how they had kept Thor and I drugged, but it was impossible to survive without eating something, so I had been reluctantly eating the poison-laced food they gave me once a day.

“What if I said that I could stop the poison? Could you do something if you weren’t poisoned?” Clint asked eagerly, and I nodded after a moment.

“Yes. That could work.”

Clint looked like he had something else to say, so I waited patiently. Finally he spoke again.

“Loki’s going to notice I’m not under his spell if he looks at my eyes.”

“So? Just don’t look at him – or wear sunglasses,” I told him shortly. That wasn’t my problem.

“But-”

“What do you want me to say?” I asked bluntly, and he hesitated.

“I don’t know.”

“Look, just keep your head down and stay out of his way for a few days, until the poison starts to fade. Unless ...” I trailed off, my eyes widening as I thought of something.

“What?”

“Tony’s suit. The Iron Man suit. Tony’s got the antidote to the poison– I know he kept a spare vial of it in one of the compartments just in case ... he told me so...”

“Which compartment?” Barton asked quickly, and I smiled slightly.

“I have no idea – you’ll have to find out yourself.”

Clint sighed, and ran a hand through his short hair, before grabbing my arm again.

“Come on, I’ll take you back to your cell. Then we’ll begin.”

“So now you’re kind of a double agent?” I asked, smiling slightly, and he cracked a small grin.

“Yeah, I guess I am. But really, I’m used to this.”

“Good – because Loki’s going to have your head if he finds out you’re not enslaved anymore,” I warned him, and he shot me a sharp look.

“If there’s a chance I can save Natasha, then I’ll gladly take it, no matter the risks. I ... owe her a debt.”

Yeah, of course he does.

Not.

But I said nothing, content to laughing at his poor lie in my head, and let him roughly pull me back to the cells.

For the first time in a long while, I had hope.