Chapter 14

Bright light floods my vision. I try to shield my eyes, but quickly find I'm tied to the surface I lie upon.

They have me.

The thought sends shivers down my spine, and I desperately try to free myself from the bonds. They've successfully taken me, but I won't let them hurt me anymore. I won't let them hurt anyone again. I thrash around, successfully ripping myself free of the platform.

Voices flood my ears, but none make sense. I try to open my eyes but the light hurts too much, and colors flash through my vision. Blue people surround me, and they all hold weapons, all advancing toward me. I scurry off and under the table in an attempt to keep myself alive.

Perhaps this is all illusion? I hesitate, thinking it over.

No. What you see is what you get. You need to fight. The voice in my head argues, and unfortunately, it sounds better than finding out the hard way.

I open my eyes again, but colors all distort and images waver. One flash of vision shows many of the blue people have left, but some remain, and definitely hold weapons. My vision fails once more, and my world goes black. I strain my ears but the sound is garbled and it's as if it's underwater. I feel someone grab my arm, and my body reacts quicker than my brain can. I grab his arm, twist, and hurl him away, and I surprise myself at my own strength. Unfortunately, I can only be amazed for a few seconds before something sharp and hot enters my neck. I quickly rip it out and feel a dart-like thing. I roll out and run for where I think the window is, but something collides with me and launches me to the side. I collide with the floor, and I kick them away and scurry back. I feel the air go still, and I strain to see.

"I know you're here." The growl rips out of my throat, startling me. I try to hold still, to listen, but my body moves against my will. I get to my feet and tense up, readying for more attacks.

"I won't let you hurt me or anyone else. I'll kiiilll you for what you did." I feel my voice echo around in my head, and fear rushes through me.

My voice isn't mine, my motions aren't either. I'm terrified.

A pause and their strange words float toward me as I back away. Small noises get closer within the room, and as something makes a slight metallic clicking sound, the room crashes into my view, showing me a blue thing right in front of me. Once again my world is draped in black and I kick out and force myself to retreat quickly to the corner.

"Stay back!" I shake with fear, and my control quickly dissipates.

They're going to kill you. Kill you the same way they killed your parents. They want to kill you dead, but I'd be damned if they do.

I launch myself into the air and land on the table, then hesitate, listening. The underwater muffling dissipates slightly, and I hear the smallest breath to my left. I fake right but launch myself left and right as my vision flashes to show me I am about to make contact, I find myself frozen in the air. Light flashes and I see I am surrounded by red. Memories of my parent's blood puddles run through my mind and emotions pour out of me. For a moment, I give in to the pain and I stop fighting.

"YOU KILLED THEM! I'LL KILL YOU!" I explode, and a tremendous boom rips through the room, and I fall and hit the cold floor, landing on my arm horribly wrong. I try to drag myself to my feet but I'm slammed back down and my world becomes still.

When I come to this time I can see, and I can remember. My animalistic actions, then how I turned into a bomb... I try to sit up and my head starts spinning. A groan escapes my lips and I cover my face in my hands.

"You're awake." My brain immediately recognizes the voice of Black Widow. My mind brings up the scene of Black widow interrogating Loki in his fishbowl.

"If you want to talk about being childish and have me call you a mewling quim, come back later," I mutter. A few tense moments slide by before she responds.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Did I hurt anyone?" I counter, shifting myself into a sitting position. I open my eyes and look around the bright glass room. She stands on the other side of the glass wall across from me, her arms to her sides. I lean against the cool glass and toilet.

"I asked f-" She begins to say, but I interrupt her.

"I know you did, but I want to know if-"I choke back a sob, holding my pounding head. "I want to know, did I hurt anyone?" I look at her but her image becomes distorted, but this time it's because of tears. I wipe them away, but they are quickly replaced with fresh ones.

"If it makes you feel any better, you severely damaged the medical holding room, gave a severe concussion to three medical professionals, threw Stark for a loop, and gave me a split lip." She hesitates, "Oh, and poor Wanda has a cut on her forehead from that little explosion you made." I look up to the ceiling, letting the tears flow free this time.

"Now, my turn. What did you mean?"I look at her and then away.

"Back when you interrogated Loki, that's what occurred in the conversation," I say quietly, but it damn-near feels like I shouted it.

"How do you know about that?"

I chuckle darkly. "See, I have no idea where to start. I suppose it all started when a green cloud covered my car and poof," I twinkle my hands up in the air, "Like magic, I find myself in a world that was once just fiction, movies, comics. A fandom."

She's silent, so I continue. "The best things happen here. Epic fights, cool tech, possessions."

I open my mouth to tell her more, but I find myself suddenly having to lean into the toilet as I unexpectedly vomit. Blood gushes from my mouth, and nothing but blood comes up. Red splashes into the bowl and some sloshes out. The blood comes out so violently that I have no time to breathe. Between bouts of vomiting, I gasp, trying to regain oxygen to my lungs, but I only breathe in blood, causing me to choke.

As suddenly as it starts it stops, and I collapse to the ground, still coughing up red. I close my eyes but find no darkness taking me. I lie on my side and roll into the fetal position, and after a few minutes of lying there, trying not to vomit again, I am dragged up and deposited gently to a metal surface, something cloth placed under my head as a makeshift pillow. I open my eyes but they feel so heavy...

I wish for sleep, I wish for death, I wish just to make this all stop. Hands fuss over me, checking pulse after pulse. A needle sinks into my arm and the rush of my blood as it is drawn. I let out a cry of pain, but my movement is limited. Something beeps off in the distance and mutters of confusion flood the room.

"Can you hear me?" someone asks, distant and quiet. I try to speak but no words escape my lips. I instead focus on moving my fingers. I sign 'yes', but it feels as if my entire body is asleep.

"Good, just focus on staying alive, ok?"

I sign 'why?', and a male voice speaks up.

"Because you don't deserve to die."

'Lies.' I sign, before my hand goes completely numb and I slip into a paralyzed state. Panic ensues after this, my own and others. I feel them perform chest compressions, and I feel a few ribs crack, and they stop after a set. Another needle slides into my arm, and I feel a cold fluid go into my veins.

Aw yesss ...heroin. I laugh internally. My heart starts beating rapidly, humming in my chest, becoming the only sound in my ears. Now completely unable to see or hear, I begin to panic, so I try to rely on feeling. The air around me buzzes with life and needles enter and exit my skin. Each dose of Adrenalin they give me only lasts about thirty seconds, and every time it feels like a roller coaster, my heart speeding up, then dropping down. About the 12th time they dose me, I feel like I'm floating, and I find I can open my eyes, but I find I am not in my body anymore.

I hover over my limp body, surrounded by medical staff trying in vain to keep me alive. A heart monitor beeps next to me, showing my heart quickening and slowing. I float for a bit, then I look around, looking for... something. I float through the ceiling and up through the floor and into another basement-looking room.

This isn't it. My inner voice says, and I float up, up, and away. I reach a glass-walled room, and see Stark outside, talking to the big muscular Thor. I zoom towards them, through the glass and across the grass.

"Her blood is not of this world, you are correct," Thor says with his heavy accent.

"And you think it's of one you know?" says Stark, shifting on his feet.

"Yes, and seeing the color of her skin during the fight, I know what blood she needs, and I know of one donor that would be the most willing to provide."

Stark sighs, rubbing the back of his neck."And you're sure he's ... changed?"

Thor laughs. "I thought Banner told you of the great adventure of Ragnarok?"

"Yes, he did. And I trust Banner completely, but... Just bring him in chains."

"If that will make you more comfortable, and if it will save the girl, I shall."

With that, he holds his ax to the sky, and in a flash of a rainbow beam, he is gone. Stark sighs, then speaks to his glasses.

"How is she?" He asks aloud, and for a moment I think he's talking to me, but then I remember his glasses. He rubs his eyes. "Up the dosage of the Adrenalin, maybe it will hold longer." He begins pacing. I sit on the grass, waiting. What did they mean, the color of my skin? I puzzle it over, then think back to my parents, and the giants that killed them. They had me, they were holding on to me...

The Bifrost shines again, interrupting my thoughts, and I watch as the light clears, Thor stands there, with a chained Loki in tow.

"Took you long enough! Thor, I told you to go grab burgers, not make them from complete scratch."

"Shall we be off?" Snarks Loki, and I snort. His eyes snap in my direction, and I stand, brushing off my pants, pretending he doesn't know I'm here. He can't possibly know I'm here. I'm invisible, aren't I? They begin walking back to the compound, and I walk alongside the party.

They take the elevator, and I float down and back to the fishbowl, making it way before the others. I stand to the side of my body, watching the medical professionals work. Soon, the elevator arrives and they exit and make their way down the stairs. The entire room goes silent except for the beeping of my sporadic heart monitor.

They enter the fishbowl, and Thor walks Loki over to a chair. He looks only to my pathetic-looking self, lying still upon the metal tray that they call a bed. A woman with a tight bun and white lab coat walks to him, but hesitates, holding the needles and tubes. Loki looks to her and offers her the crook of his arm, one eyebrow raised.

"What's the matter, never drawn blood before?" he chuckles, and Thor backhands his shoulder playfully. The woman glances from Thor and back, her expression guarded.

"Come now, brother. Anyone with a brain should be afraid of you, considering what became of New York after you visited last."

"Hm." Loki hums, and the woman regains her strength and hooks him up to tubes.

Holy shit they are actually doing this.

Panicking, I back up and run into another doctor, but instead of going through him, I blink, and suddenly am him.

I stumble, then look around with not my eyes.

"Dr. Flaugher, are you alright?"Tony looks at me.

"Uh-Y- Uhm, just lost my balance is all." I look down at my dying body, then turn to Tony. " I was just thinking, uh, what if she is too dangerous to be..." I pause, glancing at myself in the reflection of the glass. "What if she is too dangerous to be left alive? I mean, she blew up an entire-"

"I'm not so sure that it's safe to make assumptions at this point." Tony counters.

"Well, what if that becomes a norm?"I look around the room, and the medical staff glance at each other, some considering my words. In the back of my head, I feel the doctor struggling to regain himself, slowly coming to realize that I...possessed him.

"If she is able to explode an entire room, throw people around like rag dolls, what's to say, I don't know, she becomes him?" I gesture to Loki.

"My brother was mind-controlled during the invasion of New York. The problem has been taken care of since then." Thor says angrily as Loki watches silently from his chair.

"Exactly! If even the great and powerful Loki can't withstand a stone's power, then no one can!" I realize what I have said too late, and watch as metal creeps over Tony's hands.

"And what leads you to believe that it was a stone that controlled him?" He asks, slowly, and I try to choose my next word wisely.

"Well... the uh, the scepter. If it could control people, what's to say it can't control its user to gain what it wants?" Loki looks at me with a rather curious expression.

"Are you suggesting the staff could have been designed to control my mind?" He says, an eyebrow raised.

"Uh," I cough, struggling to maintain my grip on the body as the doctor fights to regain control. I strain to shove him back down, and I feel my nose begin to run. I pull out a tissue and swipe at it and pull it away bloody.

"Excuse me, I-"

"Leave his body." He speaks with an air of authority as he watches me.

"I don't know what you mean." I try to act like he's crazy, but I have to swipe more blood from my nose.

"Yes, you do. Return to your own body before you kill that poor man." His words make the medical staff back away from me.

"Thor, what's he- what do you mean?"Tony says, and I watch as the metal continues over his elbows and up over his arms.

"She's possessed him, and his body can't hold her for much longer. If she remains, she will kill him. She needs to let go and return to her own body."

Swallowing, I look at Tony. "Please let me die. Death seems to follow me," I pause, slowly approaching my body, "and I can't let it happen to anyone else." I reach into my back pocket and find a pocket knife, and quickly a plan forms in my mind.

As I flip open the knife and lunge at my body, Loki jumps up and everyone tries to stop me, but they're too late. I rip out the IVs and plunge the knife into my heart in one smooth motion. I am thrown back against the wall, and I feel the wound I inflicted on my body ripple through this body. I allow myself to leave the doctor and I snap back to my own. My eyes snap open and I gasp, grabbing at the wound. Tony rushes over to me and begins trying to repair the damage I have inflicted upon myself.

"Why did you do this?" He mutters, trying to stop the flow of my now blue-tinted blood.

"I told you," I whisper, choking on blood, "I'm too dangerous. People will get hurt."

The pain floods my body and I once again slip into the paralyzed state, only able to feel the air around me.