Monstrous (Avengers Fanfic)

Chapter 20

Previously:

Lila knew pain, oh did she know it, but this this was unlike anything she had felt before. The torture she was subjected to for most of her life was agony, to be sure, but it was physical. This feeling... it was as if someone was trying to unmake her, break her apart from the inside out, and she could not handle it.

Finally, her legs gave out until she was kneeling before him.

A hand came into her field of vision, surprisingly gentle as it lifted her head to look up into wrong eyes, set in the face of her Loki, eyes full of a sadistic glee. There was a flash of light as her oath cemented.

She could feel all fight leave her body and her eyes go dull and unfocused. Lila's body spoke without her mind's consent, but it was the words that made her silently weep.

"I am yours, master."

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~ Meanwhile, elsewhere ~ 

Clint had to be the worst brother that there ever was and ever will be.

First, he couldn't save her when he was young, then he couldn't find her and free her when he was older. Now she had somehow found her way to him, only to be snatched cruelly from his grasp, from her freedom.

He sat at the conference room table, surrounded by the arguably the most powerful people in the world, and yet, none of them could find a trace of Lila and Loki.

 They were almost as useless as he was, he thought idly.

Natasha sat beside him, silent support in the cacophony of sound that surrounded him, coming by way of various arguments, everybody directing their stress and their ire towards each other.

There was no organisation to their planning. Idea after idea picked apart as logic reared its ugly head. The conference room was chaotic.

"What about Cerebro?" Someone asked.

"No," was the reply, "Lila can block the professor out, it wouldn't work."

"Scent, could scent work to track them?"

"Even if Loki isn't using his magic to hide them, we would have to know where to start, a frame of reference." Cried a voice of reason.

Though Clint sat in a room full of people, shouting and carrying on, he could not bring himself out of his own mind. He was drowning in guilt, slipping away little by little.

Natasha saw this, and decided that she was going to put and end to the pandemonium.

A whistle tore through the air, making all those with heightened hearing cringe, but effectively silencing the room.

Natasha touching his arm gently wrenched him back into consciousness, and Clint suddenly became of the silence echoing, all eyes on him.

He gave it a second think.

Who ever had control of Loki, was, in essence a drama queen. Now he has Lila, he's convinced he can't be stopped, so what he wants is an audience. Someone to applaud his masterful planning and kneel in awe of his power. To have that, he needed to be somewhere that would get people people's attention. He wanted his name in bright and shining letters, written in the sk- ... son of a-

Clint's head snapped up so fast, Natasha was surprised he didn't get whiplash.

"New York. New York is his play. Loki wants his name in lights, he wants an audience. Where better than Stark tower?"

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I hope you appreciate this present, I stayed up to 4am to write it for you!

Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, whatever Quanza is, etcetera etcetera...