Cheshire

Chapter Eighteen

Third POV
In the medical wing, Natasha watches Barton as he tries to shake off Loki's mind control.

"Clint, you're going be alright." Natasha says quietly. Clint grunts and clenches his fists.

"You know that? Is that what you know? I got...I gotta go in though. I gotta flush him out." He growls.

"We don't have that long, it's gonna take time."

"I don't understand. Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Pull you out and send something else in? Do you know what it's like to be unmade?" Natasha pauses and thinks back to the Red Room.

"You know that I do." She utters.

"Why am I back? How did you get him out?"

"Cognitive recalibration. I hit you really hard in the head." Natasha smirks and Clint smiles sarcastically.

"Thanks." Natasha unfastens the restraints and steps back.

"Tasha, how many agents?"

"Don't. Don't do that to yourself, Clint. This is Loki. This is monsters and magic and nothing we were ever trained for."

"Loki, he got away?" Clint asks.

"Yeah. I don't suppose you know where?"

"I didn't need to know. I didn't ask. He's gonna make his play soon though. Today. Cheshire was somehow involved...he's obsessed with her." Clint growls. Natasha looks at him sadly before looking down. Clint, noticing her distress leans forward.

"What happened to her?" He asks, seriously. Natasha lets out a puff of air before turning around and looking out the window, arms crossed.

"Fury found her with Coulson. He was already gone and she didn't look so great either."

"You never answered my question Natasha." Clint had never used her full name. She turned to look at him only to find his watery eyes


"I can't lie and say that she's okay, because she's not Clint. She's not okay at all. She's surrounded by I.V.'s and tubes. Her heart rate is weak, and she's lost a lot of blood. The doctors said it's a miracle she survived her wounds at all." Clint snorts.

"She's a fighter." He mumbles. "The entire time I was under, she was the one thing I could see clearly through the haze. I don't know if that son of a bitch wanted me to
just to torture me, or if she's really impacted my life that much..."


"We gotta stop him." Natasha snarls.

"Yeah? Who's we?" Clint asks sarcastically. "Cheshire's down under, Phil is gone. Who do we have left Tasha?"

"I don't know. Whoever's left." Clint sighs and looks up at her.

"Well, if I put an arrow in Loki's eyesocket, I'd sleep better I suppose." Natasha smiles

"Now you sound like you." She says as she sits next to her partner and friend.

In the Detention Section, Tony looks at the empty cell container, and then to the blood stains next to the wall. He stands not saying a word. Steve walks in.

"Was he married?" Steve asks

"No. There was a uh...cellist, I think."

"I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man." Tony scoffs.

"He was an idiot." Steve looks at him incredulously

"Why? For believing?"

"For taking on Loki alone." Steve looks at the large blood stain.

"He wasn't alone." Tony growls and glares at the super soldier. "He was doing his job."

"They were out of their league. She should have waited. She should have..." Tony turns around, his back facing Steve.

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony." Tony starts to walk away.

"Right. How did that work for them?"

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier Tony?" Tony turns around sharply and scowls at Steve.



"Neither am I! He's got the same blood on his hands as Loki does. Right now, we've got to put that aside and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a
List..." Tony shakes his head and once again looks at the blood-stained floor.

"He made it personal."

"That's not the point."

"That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart." Steve mutters.

"He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

"Right, I caught his act at Stuttengard."

"Yeah. That's just a preview, this is opening night. Loki's a full-tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered..." Tony pauses suddenly.

Cheshire's POV
I slowly lifted my heavy eyelids and as the strong smell of anti-bacterial cleaner filled my nose. My mouth was dry and I smacked my lips a few times. I was laying down, in a bed it seemed, and the room was bright. Light from the window reflecting off the white walls, making me want to close my eyes again. I felt like I had slept for years, but I was still tired. I heard the beeping of a machine and slowly turned my head towards the source of the noise. The muscles in my neck were stiff and sore.
"Woah, woah, woah!" A man's voice shouted. "She's waking up!" I winced as another and before pushing his arm away.
"Do us all a favor, and shut up." I groan. Silence fills the room. "And turn the fucking light off! God this is worse than my last hangover..." I whine.
"Cheshire, do you remember anything? Does anything hurt? How many-" I cut him off with a weak wave of my hand.

"Come closer" I whisper." The Doctor looks at those around the room before stepping closer to the hospital bed. "Closer." I demand. He hesitantly leans down towards me before I grab him by his chin and force him so close our breaths mingle. "If you value your life, you'll find me coffee and tell me where the hell my teammates are." I growl.

Third POV
Steve walks in the room in full uniform. Natasha looks at him, unprepared.

"Time to go." He states firmly.

"Go where?" Natasha asks incredulously

"I'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?" Suddenly, the bathroom door opens and Clint steps out, looking at Steve.
"I can." Steve raises an eyebrow before looking at Natasha and she nods her head to confirm Barton's on their side.

"You got a suit?" The super soldier asks.

"Yeah."

"Then suit up."

MONTAGE TIME!

KRAKAKABOOM!
A blinding bolt of lightning strikes down from above, colliding on mjolnir. The explosion is massive.

Captain America pulls on his

Tony glares ahead as he puts the on.

Natasha attaches a love gauntlet with her rounds on her wrist and glances up at the taped up on the wall of her as a child

Clint slips on his quiver of arrows. He slowly stands up and avoids looking at Cheshire's suit hanging up beside

Cheshire, watches them through the security cameras and smirks. "I guess I should get ready." She mumbles as her eyes catch sight off the bottle beside the bed. "Or...I could be just a tad

Third POV
Cap, Widow and Hawkeye walk towards and into the Quinjet, ignoring the look a young SHIELD pilot gives them.

"You are not authorized to be here..."

""

Fury looks the window of the ship, contemplating life, or something. No one knows. Suddenly, shouting erupts from the hallway and a man in a doctor's coat is thrown through the glass doors. Cheshire emerges through the doorway, or what's left of it. Fury narrows his eye at her, hiding his relief.
"What? He didn't get my Fury rolls his eyes as she steps over the doctor's limp bod and struts towards him. "I should throw you through a door ya know?"

"Oh really?" Fury asks, bemused. She is still deathly pale, her usually confident voice, softer. He takes off his trench coat and drapes it over her small figure. "And why is that?"

"Those cards, they were in my locker, not in his jacket. I should know, I stole them from his coat. I thought I was the sneaky one around here you sly dog."

"They needed the push." He replies, holding Coulson's cards. A loud noise screeches and the two of them look up to see Tony in his suit flying off, the Quinjet behind him.

"Well...it looks like they found it." Cheshire grins.

"Get our communications back up, whatever you have to do. I want eyes on everything." Fury orders the crew. Cheshire sighs and hands Fury back his coat before walking over to the still-passed out doctor and pulling a needle full of a blue liquid from his jacket pocket. Fury turns towards her, raising an eyebrow. "What do you think you're doing?"

Cheshire winces and grabs her injured side before taking the cap off of the needle and inserting it into her thigh. Fury lets out a shout and rushes towards her.

"What the fuck Ember?!" He yells. Cheshire's body tenses up before she lets out a sigh of relief and stands up straight.

"That my dear Boss Man, was adrenalin.

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