I Kneel to No One

A Scaly Surprise

Beth POV:

Questions:

·Is my sister OK?

· Did L kill anyone?

· Is the guy whose eye L took alive?

· Am I still in Germany?

· What country/city am I in?

· What purpose is the Tesseract machine meant to do?

· Am I the only non-mind-controlled person here?

· Why didn't L control me?

· Is L really a Norse god?

· Am I underground?

· How did Snape know I'm good at mechanics? I wasn't thinking about it when he took me.

Things to Do:

· Memorize layout of building. Underground?

· Be meek polite obedient to L to gain trust

· Sabotage machine if possible

· Be nice to Selvig and Barton- not their fault

· Talk to Snape about food/sleep

· Who's cooking for MCd people? I can if I need to

Rules:

· Be nice to S and B

· Don't talk bad about L to B (bad things happen)

· Don't bother trying to make S realize this is bad

· Don't show emotion

I scribbled away in my notebook in the short periods of free time I had. Barton stood over me with his foreboding expression, making sure I was working, but occasionally something distracted him, and I was able to jot something down. I wrote the entire list of things to do about fifteen minutes in, when Dr. Selvig let me use the bathroom. And trust me, I really needed to.

Every so often, Loki would walk by with his fancy leather outfit flowing behind him. He usually ignored everyone he passed, but once he caught my eye and smirked, to which I hurriedly glued my gaze back to the screen, where yet another of Selvig's possible theories had proven to be incorrect.

After what must have been hours of running equations and variables through the simulation Selvig had designed, my eyes were beginning to burn. I blinked, but that only seemed to make them heavier. With a resigned sigh, I sat back in my chair, brushed back my mane of curls, and decided to rest my eyes for a moment.

Barton and Loki won't like that, a cautious voice in my head whispered. Who cares what they think? another part of me retorted. I'm tired, and they managed just fine before I came along. They can manage without me for thirty seconds.

You have a job to do, and there will be consequences if you don't do it, insisted the voice, refusing to give me a minute's peace.

I'm nineteen! If he wanted me to do a good job, he should have at least asked what I knew before he gave me a job in astrophysics, my brain snarked. The mental battle won, I leaned back in my chair and kept my eyes closed. My mind began to drift, and I let out a soft sigh.

Then I felt something smooth and cold slide over my hands that still rested on the keyboard.

My eyes have never shot open so fast in my life. My head flew upright, and I caught sight of a snake on my computer!