Shadowfax (An Avengers fanfic)

Sweet, Beautiful Revenge

Jade blasted through the streets, the sweet caress of the night air brushing cool fingers against her face. Her hair streamed behind her, whipping around like serpent tails in the wind. Her eyes burned, seeming to glow against her pale skin. Jade's shadow marks were like the the kisses of a demon, making the dark night around her seem gray in contrast to their own inky blackness.

Jade was constantly aware of Loki behind her, hot on her heels. Jade hadn't allowed anyone but the Asgardian prince to come with her, trusting only him to finish the job.

Tonight wasn't about mercy. Tonight was about revenge. Tonight was about settling the score. And boy, was she gonna enjoy it.

Jade reached out to the shadows in front of her. The responded, the Professor's own unique shadow racing in front of her like a hound on the prowl. Jade followed close behind, the huntress after her quarry. As she drew closer, the shadow grew darker, blacker.

Eventually the shadow's trail stopped, halting in front of a ramshackle of an antiquities shop.

"This is it," she breathed. Her nerves were shot, her body buzzing with excitement.

"It looks rather dreary," Loki commented. He glanced at her sidelong, the glimmer in his eyes betraying his excitement. He flexed his fingers at his sides, a hunter's predatory gaze stealing across his features.

Jade rolled her shoulders, slipping around to the back entrance. "As long as my bràthair doesn't decide to show up and make one of his flamboyant entrances, we should be fine," she muttered.

"What was that?" Loki questioned. Jade merely shot him an innocent 'whatever do you mean?' look. Loki shrugged and followed her as she finally picked the lock, cracking the door open just enough for them both to slip inside.

Jade padded down the dark hallway with the silent steps of a panther, comforted by the warm presence of Loki at her back. As she neared the end of the hall, a ticking sound filled her ears. She winced as the sound got steadily louder, cringing. When she finally reached the end of the hall, she saw the source of the ticking sound.

Clocks, hundreds of them, dotted the walls. Glass dolls, old watches, sparkling necklaces, and other antiquities covered every surface of the small room. But the clocks were what really got to Jade. Those stupid clocks brought back memories of perfectly timed and measured experiments, each one more awful and painful than the last. And the Professor was going to pay for it. Her fists tightened at her sides. She would make him pay.

"Er, Jade?" Loki waved his hands at her from across the room. He was standing beside a large grandfather clock. It was the perfect size for blocking a secret door.

Muttering something about cliche secret doors, Jade stalked towards him. Rolling her shoulders, she grunted as she heaved the clock aside. Nudging the demigod away, she lined her body up to the door, drew back her foot for a hefty kick- and released an unprintable cuss word as her foot connected to a very solid wall.

"Of all the-" Jade grumbled, rubbing her foot.

Loki rolled his eyes at her, kneeling down to the square of wood paneling the clock had been guarding. The small square of floor wasn't- as one would expect -dusty. Rather, it was a great deal more polished than the rest of the wood around it. If she peered closely at the floorboards, she could see the outlines of a trapdoor in the wood.

"You 'heroes' always seem to enjoy the whole 'shoot first, ask questions later' side of life as opposed to 'look before you leap,'" Loki commented, glancing at her. "Or in your case, 'look before you kick.'"

Jade made a face at Loki, who didn't seem to notice as he returned to the issue of the apparent trapdoor. Running his fingers along the lines in the floor, he traced a thin line alone the cracks until he sat back, satisfied, on his heels. With a deft flick of the wrist, the trapdoor swung open, revealing the typical dark, dank stairwell.