Sunshadow

The cage

Loki stood in a cage. Inside Lee's head, of course, but it came from a memory.

Well, the memory was Lee outside. Kiki was the one in the cage. Kiki was the one Lee was trying to save.

Loki watched it at least 5 times. She seemed to be stuck inside a nightmare, one where she couldn't help Kiki. One where Kiki died every time.

That was what Loki had to change.

Hydra had trapped her inside her own personal torture chamber, using her mind to hurt her in ways no physical wound could ever do. They could twist her and take her anger at Kiki not surviving to hurt Kiki. That was how they controlled her, that was how they turned her subconscious to following Hydra. Loki had to break her away from that.

The next time he watched it happen, he yelled, "Enough!" He raised his hands, channeling his power and pulled forward the true memory.

It wasn't the right memory though.

He went through her mind, searching. He had just looked for the first one that had emotionally damaged her. That worked for most people.

Not for Lee, though. He had to watch several, even worse, memories before the right one came through. He pulled it through and erased all of the bad versions, where things had gone wrong. He also searched through her subconscious, which, surprisingly, had no idea, to look for anything else they had done to her while Lee ran through the right memory to set her mind back on track.

He opened his eyes and stepped back, noticing Nova and Kiki watching him intently.

"I'm sorry I ever said you were unimportant, Kiki. I didn't know." He whispered to her as he walked past.

"What the hell was that about?" He heard Nova ask behind him. So she hadn't told her everything, then. 

☾

"Lee, are you alright?" Kiki stepped forwards towards her friend.

"They changed my memories, and used me." She fell to her knees. "How could they do that?"

"It's ok, Lee. It's gonna be ok." Kiki comforted her just like Lee had done before. Nova was standing back, thinking about what Loki had said. It was unexpected for everyone, but he must have seen more of Lee's memories.

The worst of Lee's memories.

They stood her up and helped her back to her cell. She had to stay there for the time being, as Bucky had not allowed this, and they hadn't even asked Fury. If Bucky said no, Fury definitely would. And Hill. And Hayl. And Sola. And... basically everyone. That was why Nova was such a great friend.

They laid Lee on the floor in the centre. She was acting almost like she was drunk. They left as soon as they knew she was alright, since they didn't want to be caught until they could be sur eit had worked.

"And where have you two been?" They had only managed to make it down a floor when they heard Bucky behind them. They probably looked incredibly suspicious, since they were creeping and ducking and rolling around, laughing.

"We went out into the garden and talked." Kiki said, standing up and dusting herself off. She continued sarcastically, "Is that alright with you?"

"Why are you being weird then?" He ignored her jab at his protectiveness, judging the strange movements instead.

"We were pretending to be cartoon spies, and seeing if it worked." Nova said, coming up with something on the spot. Kiki tapped out 'good job' in morse code onto her back.

"Obviously not." He rolled his eyes. "I could see you on the cameras, idiots."

Kiki had a brief moment of panic, but then remembered they had taken the side stairs, which had no cameras. That was a serious design flaw. They need to fix that.

"I was looking for you. I changed my mind, let's go save Lee."

"About that..."