Free Soul | Natasha Romanoff

Chapter 9: you've got a heart like mine

"In case it's unclear, you try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass," He pressed the button to open the hatch, letting the forceful gusts enter, "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?" He closed the trap to mark his point, making Shin raise a dubious eyebrow, "Ant," He pointed at Loki before pointing at the control panel, "Boot."

The god raised an eyebrow himself, his chin held up high in presumptuousness, "It's an impressive cage," He formally declared with a self-assured smirk, his eyes gleaming in an emotion none could comprehend yet, "Not built, I think, for me." But he added. He sounded to be five steps ahead of everybody, even ten steps ahead of the Director of SHIELD. 

Shin didn't like the whole unraveling of the events. There was something strange, something fishy in everything. 

But Fury didn't let Loki have the chance to get through him and, instead, retorted without missing a single beat: "Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh, I've heard." They all saw Loki looking at the camera. His gaze was intensely somber, as though his irises were made of a very crystal clear chrome, "The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?"

"How desperate am I?" If Fury had let his emotions show, he would have scoffed and rolled his eyes for the bits of drama and sass, "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill because it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh." Loki mused as a mockery. 

This was just all a game for him, a chess board to determine who would be the king, and it was infuriating.

"It burns you to have come so close, to have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is." Loki stared at the camera again. 

And just for a mere insignificant second, Shin's mind felt to be fathomed by a piercing thought drilling through her skull— like a gust bringing whispers into her head. But it was just an illusion, a simple and ridiculous illusion; the god couldn't possibly guess her eyes watching all of his every movement, could he? No, he couldn't. He was only tricking them all to install confusion. 

"Well, you let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something." The Director lastly said with his signature sarcasm, and he walked off on his sassy line. 

But if he was completely honest, he still wasn't certain as to which approach to adopt to handle the god. He would never let his doubts be displayed though, no matter which alternate reality he was in; he had to remain confident and put his blind trust in his agents— all except Shin. He perfectly knew she had never really been willing to be under his orders. She still wasn't. 

Albeit the dishonesty disenchanted her, she couldn't care less about his trust; as long as they would keep her safe from HYDRA and provide for a comfortable life, she didn't mind all the dirt she had to dig through for them, though under one condition. It was the cost for daring to think that she was an easy pet to tame, the cost being to let her proceed her own way, without orders.

Shin really abused their tea bags and tea-pot though— it was the other cost for her fantastic services. Hence, it was no surprise she had already taken five cups to survive through this exhausting and anxiety-triggering day. Her nightmares and insomnias had been getting in the way of her work lately, there was no choice for her stubbornness but to admit the hard truth. 

She however couldn't lose focus and didn't have the right to just yet. But even in awareness of that fact, she was already gone in the lands of her daydreams, far away from reality. It was more peaceful there, less busy and far less filled with nerves. It was quiet, so quiet it began to feel extremely strange. So she reconnected with her present time in that same heavy quietness.