Worthy

Part 41 - You're Scaring Me

"So am I right in assuming that you and Thor?" Bruce asks as he leads you to Loki's room.

"Not the time Bruce," you retort, trying the door as you get there. Panic starts to rise as you realise that it's locked. As you get ready to bang on the door, Vision phases through the wall. "I don't care what anyone says, but that's both creepy and impressive." After a few minutes of not hearing anything you start banging on the door. "LOKI! VISION!" You yell, but are met with silence. "Ok, you need to knock this door down!" You turn to Bruce.

"Why me?"

"I'm calling a code green."

"No way Kate," He half laughs. "Besides if Vision can't stop Loki then what makes you think..." But he's interrupted by the door opening, Vision standing on the other side. Marching into the room, pulling Bruce behind you, you see Loki strapped to a chair sitting in the middle of the room. Feeling uncomfortable at him tied up again, you can't help but be glad he's still here and safe.

"I had to subdue him." Vision explains. "He got aggressive."

"I can't stay here Kate," Loki huffs out as he meets your eyes, absolute fear in his voice. "If he's here..."

"Stop Loki," you kneel in front of him, loosening the bonds that Vision had tied him up with. Vision and Bruce start to hesitate. "It's ok." You look at both of them. "Can you give us a minute?" Loki rubs his wrists as they leave; their heavy footsteps letting you know they're just outside the door. "We don't know it's him." You sigh, standing and pacing around the room.

"You have no idea what he's capable of." He panics. "He will kill us all, or use other ways to torture us." A sudden epiphany hits.

"It's not Thanos you're scared of?" You turn back to face him. "It's what he made you do. You're scared he'll manipulate you again, that he'll make you hurt Thor..."

"ENOUGH!" He roars, taking two short steps to stand in front of you, aggression filling the room. "You are beneath me, all of you." He gestures to the door. "I am a god, I fear no one, nothing! No man, nor beast will ever break me..."

As he yells you see right through the facade. "Loki," you plead, taking his hand in yours. His face which was contorted in anger now softens, with a single tear falling slowly down his face. "Use that anger to fight him - make him pay for what he did to you!"

Looking down at your hand placed in his, his voice softens. "You're only here because of my brother..." he starts.

"No, I'm here to help a friend."

"I'm not your friend."

"You could be." He looks at you with a small smile. Flinching as you reach over and remove the small disc from his neck.

"You trust me that much?" He asks, genuine concern in his face. "After everything?"

"I think we both know that I do." You smile, when he finally squeezes your hand back.

***

Tony and Thor meet Bruce and Vision as they stand in the hallway. "Where's Kate?" They both ask at the same time.

"What's going on?" Bruce looks around confused. "Is it..." He asks nervously.

"No, but it's still a problem," Thor brushes past Vision and marches into Loki's room. "Kate? Loki?" He asks, surprised to find you both standing in the middle of the room, holding each other's hands. While happy to see the two of you getting along, he can't help but feel a pang of jealousy.

Your eyes light up as soon as you see him, Tony standing right behind him. "What's wrong?" you ask, when you see the look on both of their faces. "Was it.."

"You want to come with us for a minute?" Tony asks, his voice filled with sadness, making you more nervous. When you don't move he comes closer to you. "Please Kate," he almost begs.

"You're scaring me Tony," you reply but start heading out with him. As Thor starts to follow you, you stop him. "Please stay and talk to him," You nod over to Loki. "He needs you right now." Extremely conflicted Thor looks to Tony, who shrugs. "Please Thor." You hug him and he sighs as he agrees to.

"You two, go catch up with the rest of the team," Tony tells Vision and Banner as he finally drags you out of the room.

"Tony, what the hell is going on?" You ask again as he wraps an arm around your waist, leading you down the hall. When he stops at your bedroom door you really start to fear what's going on. "What's happened? Who got hurt?" Tony doesn't respond, making you angry now too. "If you don't say something Stark, I swear to all that's holy I'm going to take a can opener to all of your suits!"

With a slight smirk Tony opens your door, raising an eyebrow at what he sees strewn across the bedroom floor. Blushing you rush ahead of him, grabbing your dress and underwear and throwing them under the bed. As you try and fail to look composed, you sit back on the bed, gesturing for Tony to join you. "I'm not sitting there," he half laughs, looking around the room. "Is there anywhere that's a splash free zone?"

"You're disgusting." But you can't help but laugh at his reply, before pointing at your desk chair. "Now tell me what the fuck is going on! What did Danvers say?"

"She's found another stone," Tony looks warily at the chair before sitting down. "In fact she found a whole team who'd be able to help us with all this shit." He rubs a hand down his face. "They were on the ship that was following her."

"And?" You ask, still full of nerves at the way Tony was reacting. "Isn't that a good thing? Why didn't she just send us that info? Would have saved a lot of panic!" You can't help but think of Loki's reaction, and how things between you and Thor had been interrupted.

"She did. Just seems that Fury didn't pass the message on." Tony rubs his hands together, complete nervousness taking over him - how was he supposed to tell you this? What hadn't he checked this guy out first? His first thought had been your reaction. "One of them is from Earth." He figures letting you work it out for yourself would be the safer option, but your brain can't respond. "He's called Star Lord...."

"WHAT!" Your head snaps towards him, adrenaline coursing through your body. You hadn't been sure if you had heard him correctly, but that was a name you hadn't heard in years, not since your mum had died. "What the fuck did you just say Tony?" You snap as you get up and walk towards him. Tony is slightly confused, the nickname your mother had given your brother was one of the only details of your life that you had left out, desperately trying to keep some of that to yourself.

Standing to meet you and taking your hand. "We think it's him Kate," he sighs. "It's your brother."

"Don't mess with me Tony, if this is one of your weird jokes...

"I wouldn't dare and you know it." Tony just stares at you, looking for your reaction, while you try to figure out how your feeling right now; a mixture of grief mixed with shock and absolute fear. You feel like your legs could give out any minute. Surprisingly no tears fall - and that's because an overriding surge of anger begins to flow through you.

"Where is he?" You almost bark, your rage taking Tony aback.

"Still on the ship, they've just landed. I told Nat to keep them there until I spoke to you..."

You stopped listening after Tony said the ship had just landed. You pull yourself away from his grasp and march out of the door, heading straight for the lawn. "Bruce, heads up." Tony talks over comms. "Kate's on her way out and she's pissed. We may need a Code Green to stop her."