Who are you? (A Loki Love Story)

Chapter Forty Three - South Africa

Loki's POV~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


        It had been hours since the face trace had started, and we had yet to find anything. It was the middle of the night, yet no one had gone to their bedrooms, opting to wait in the living room for any information. Most of them had fallen asleep on the couches or chairs. All except for Coulson and I. He was tapping his foot, and kept looking at the picture he had taken from Sophie's room. The one of the two of them at base. I gazed out of the window at the city during the night, the darkness battled back by the thousands of lights.
        Had it really been only months before that I had destroyed this place? That I had tried to take over this world? Since Sophie had changed my life for the better. There was no question there. She had taken me by storm, twisting me in the right direction. And now she was gone.
        "Agent Coulson, I may have a possible match." The mechanical voice cut through my thoughts, making me look up at Coulson. "Would you like me to display it on the television?"
        "Yes! Now please!" He says, standing up and putting the photograph back in his pocket. The large television buzzes to life, and displays a black and white video. It zooms in on one man, quickly weaving in and out of the croud of people before exiting the view of the camera.
        "It is a 87% match, and the most likely possibility because the picture given to my system was almost a decade old." Jarvis says. Coulson studies the screen, nodding once.
        "Where is this?" He asks.
        "The intenational airport in South Africa, sir." Coulson frowns, an unreadable expression going across his face, before turning around.
        "Wake up!" He shouts, startling everyone into consiousness. The two field agents instantly snap to attention.
        "What is it Phil?" The woman May asks.
        "We've got a location. Pack up. We're leaving for the bus in fifteen minuets." That catches everyones attention, and they all hurredly exit for their room, leaving to pack. "Skye." He says, catching her before she exited the room. "You need to stay here with Lok-"
        "No." We both say at the same time, cutting Coulson off.
        "There is no way I am going to stay here." Skye says.
        "I am helping you find her, whether you like it or not." I say, a cold edge to my voice. Thor stands, looking between us and Coulson. Coulson opens his mouth to argue, but Thor speaks first.
        "Son of Coul," He says, getting Coulsons attention. "It would not be wise to leave them here. Both are valuble help in the search for Lady Crest." Coulson stops for a moment, thinking it over.
        "One mess up, and he will be put in the cell on the plane. Got it?" We all nod and hurry off to pack.



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~



        "South Africa, sir." We were all sitting on the large plane that they called 'the bus', and Fury was having a video conference with us about what has happened. Fury scowled at the news.
        "Alright." He says after a moment. "Just make sure you stay out of the Avengers way. I don't even want them knowing you're there until the last possible second."
        "But wouldn't it be easier having us all work together on this, sir?" Simmons asks.
        "Yes." Fury admits. "But they are on avital mission right now, and we can't have any distractions at all. You're on your own on this one." He exits the video chat without so much as a good luck. We all sit in an awkward silence for a few moments, before Coulson stands up.
        "Well, we've got a ten hour flight ahead of us. Do what you will." He says before quickly exiting the room.
        Ten hours has never seemed so long.



Tony's POV~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~



        "I am so sick of these parties." Nat says as she walks into the villa, collapsing into the big armchair. She kicks off the heels she's wearing and lets out a sigh. "Especially those heels."        
        "Money comes with a price." I say, smirking.
        "Which is why we'd rather be agents." Clint says, taking his tie and suit jacket off. "Seriously Stark, how do you deal with these people?" I smirk again.
        "It's all pure Stark talent." I say. Clint rolls his eyes and flops down next to Spangles on the couch.
        "So were you guys able to find anything?" Nat says tiredly.
        "Tony was able to break through another firewall." Bruce says, coming around the island that connected the living room and the kitchen. "but there wasn't anything important in the files we found. All shipping paperwork." Nat swears in russian. Something shes been doing a lot more of lately.
        "We've only got a week until they present 'subject 1'." She says, then pauses. "have you checked in on them lately?"
        "Relax Nat, I checked on them this afternoon. they're fine. I'll show you." I say, pulling up a video feed from the tower. I flipped the tablet in my hands around, giving it to her. "See? Loki's reading and Sophie's training. Everythings normal." She visibly relaxed and handed me my tablet back. We were all worried about Sophie.
        "I just wish we were there for her right now." She says. "I wish we could at least call them. I want to apologize for yelling at her." Fury had told us to drop contact with her, not wanting anyone to trace calls from the tower back to us, and vise versa. We understood, but that didn't make us any less anxious.
        "What worries me, is that they haven't postponed it or anything." Spangles says. "they have to be planning on taking her soon, or they are going to show something else."
        "If they're showing something else, then we can just relax and go on with the original plan." Bruce says. "But until we're positive, we better keep an eye on the tower."



Bruce's POV~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~



        Everyone at the villa was asleep by now, as well they should be, it being two am. I was the only one awake, and that wasn't very suprising, considering I didn't get much sleep anyways. I had too many all-nighters in the lab to have a normal sleeping pattern.
        I needed to check something anyway. The talk about Sophie tonight had remined me about what Fury had asked me to create. I had forgotten agout it in the stress of the mission, but I realized that I could xheck it now that she'd had a nightmare. It made guilt naw at me, knowing I had to use her nightmares to test this, but it had to be done.
        I turned on my personal tablet and logged into a database that Tony didn't know about, or have accsess to. I quickly pulled up the results. I had placed five test trials in hidden places near her room and......... every single one was broken. Great. Another failure. but... Wait a second.
        I looked a little more closely at the results. The only one that was at a really close range was the one that had lasted the longest before breaking. And it hadn't shattered like the others, it only broke into a few huge pieces. This was more promising than anything else so far. I yawned, but started working, trying to figure out how this one could be finalized.




Sophie's POV~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~



        "Our little session was fun, wasn't it?" Fuller asks. My head is so full of the pain and tears that I can barely comprehend what he's saying. "Its a shame we won't be able to use the knives again until next week, isn't it." That makes my head clear up slightly. No knives? For a week? What was going on? "We have a little presentation coming up." Horror filled every cell in my body. I remembered those.
        They would show me off to people. Donors, new workers, and sometimes potential workers.  If those potential workers turned down the opportunity though, things didn't end well for them. This place spesializes in 'accidents' if you know what I mean.
        But after the presentations. That is what was filling me with fear. That was when they made up for the tourturing time that they had lost during the week preparing the presentations. Sure, during the week before they could do the injections, the shocks, anything that didnt really show up. But they had the most fun when they saw the blood flow. When they could see the damadge that they did.
        But after the presentations, that's when they brought out the special knives. The ones they not only used like the normal knives, but coated the blade with the injections. I was lucky if I passed out.
        I wondered if they'd give me any actual food this week. I doubted it, but there was hope, wasn't there? I hoped the clothes I was wearing would last until after the presentation. They barely covered up my underthings now, but at least they coverd them.
        I tkae the great effort to move my head a little when I hear a thump. Fuller is walking back over, needle in hand. He down at me. "Can't forget to put you out for the night." He says, plunging the needle into the side of my neck. My eyelids instantly feel heavy, and everything in my body is going into sleep mode. I only have one last thought before I'm compleatly out.
        Why can't they just kill me?