Time Unchanging

Chapter 88

⚠️*TW: Torture and SA*⚠️

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The next day, Eva and Loki tried to keep their minds occupied. They wanted to have faith in Bucky. At the same time, Clint was so filled with guilt, that he tried to avoid the pair as much as possible, but as the day progressed, they began to notice his odd behavior. Having enough, Eva called out to him just before dinner as the team sat with the pair in the main living space.

"Hey, Clint," she said with a smile.

Clint replied in a nervous tone, "Oh, hey, guys."

Eva rolled her eyes. "Loki has something to say."

Loki's head snapped up from his book as he asked, "I what now?"

Eva growled at him. "Do it or I conjure up a dagger."

Knowing her threat was not empty, Loki sighed and put his book down. "Fine. I'll do it." He looked at the archer. "I apologize for how I reacted."

Thor took Loki's hand and said with a proud grin, "Good for you, ᛚᛟᚢᛖ- love."

"You don't have anything to apologize for," Clint replied, "but I accept it."

Before anything more could be said, JARVIS announced, "Sir, an incoming call from an unknown number. Highly encrypted."

Tony ordered, "Put it through."

Nat's face appeared on the monitor, smiling as she said, "Hey. I've missed everyone. How are things?"

Everyone was appalled at how casual she sounded as if she had only gone away a few days and wanted to check in with everyone. It made some angry, others sick. But for Bucky, Loki, and Eva, it brought up memories of their pasts they would rather stay that way; in the past.

"What the fuck do you want?" Bucky all but growled, moving between the twins and the monitor, as if protecting them from any trauma the former Avenger might trigger.

Nat's Cheshire grin fell as she asked, "Can't I say hi to old friends?"

"That would imply that we want to talk to you."

"Ouch." Her twisted smile returned. "You're breaking my heart."

Wanda made her way next to Bucky, acting as another shield as she hissed, "If you even have one."

Nat rolled her eyes. "Say what you want. I just have something for the God and angel that belong to me. Consider it," she searched for the right words, "incentive to come back home to me."

Before anyone knew it, a second and third screen appeared. Tony ran to the computer. Images and videos played that the billionaire couldn't seem to stop. Everyone watched as Eva was assaulted by Nat over and over and as Loki was forced by several men to take them into his body, both begging for them to stop. They were witness to several of the God's more brutal death sessions and many of the unknown substances wracking Eva's body as needle after needle pierced her skin and sent pain through her. Their screams echoed through the halls of the compound as they were whipped until there seemed little flesh on their backs, burned so that their skin seemed to have melted away from the muscle of their arms, and slowly carved into until they passed out as Nat hit bone.

Loki and Eva were horrified by the images, holding each other and moving away from the group. Bucky clenched both fists in outrage until the flesh on his one real hand bled. Clint shut down as he watched, his guilt overflowing as he saw what he had put the twins at risk of enduring once more. Sam moved up to Bucky, knowing his boyfriend needed the support to not become the very monster of his past. Wanda was so horrified, that she couldn't look away until Bruce pulled her into his arms and turned her face to his chest, glaring at his ex with pure malice. Yelena was disgusted by the woman she once called sister, holding Sharon's hair out of the way as she threw up before looking at the back wall uncomfortably to avoid the images. Tony saw in the code why he couldn't stop the videos and sat down hard, trying not to puke from how sick and twisted Nat was.

Thor and Steve were affected the most out of everyone, apart from Loki, Bucky, and Eva. They shed silent tears as they were unable to look away from the monitor, watching the rapes, the deaths, and the varying degrees of torture their partners endured. Their own guilt was eating at them for not having saved them sooner, for not getting them out before scars riddled their bodies and trauma took hold in their minds.

Nat looked at the people she once called friends. This was her last ditch effort to get Loki, but she no longer saw value in a God afraid of a mortal. Her face was like ice as she saw their expressions. Her eyes landed on the twins and her voice was colder than the deepest corners of space.

"See you soon," she said before the monitors went dark.

"I'm sorry, sir," JARVIS replied, his voice sounding overly loud in the silence that followed the call. "I couldn't track it."

"No!" Eva's sobs cut through the air, causing the Avengers to jump. "Not again! Never again!"

Loki's cries blended with his sister's as he all but begged, "Make it stop! Just make her stop!"