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Fic - Chained - 4/?
Title: Chained
Author: Evandar
Fandom: Avengers
Rating: R
Genre: Angst/Drama/Romance
Pairing: Clint/Coulson
Warnings: Swearing, pseudo-bestiality, torture
Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers and I am making no profit from this story.
Summary: S.H.I.E.L.D is in uproar: Fury and Coulson are AWOL, one of Thor's friends is missing. Odin has discovered the human lives of Loki's monstrous children and returned them to their original prisons. The Avengers aren't happy; neither is Loki, and Hawkeye might just be gunning for Odin's remaining eye.
The video feed showed the biggest damn wolf in the universe lean down and allow Clint Barton to pet its muzzle. Two thousand miles away in New Mexico, Natasha sat back in her chair and breathed a sigh of relief, before shutting down the feed on her phone and returning it to her pocket. She hadn’t wanted to come here. If she’d had a choice she would have stayed in the cave with Clint and Phil, but as much as they were family – the closest she had to one – they had all been trained to do their jobs first.
Her job was talking to Thor’s girlfriend.
Apparently Jane Foster had and issue with S.H.I.E.L.D agents being near her equipment because she’d insisted on meeting Natasha in a diner instead of her lab. Natasha didn’t mind. The coffee was hot, and while it wasn’t really secure, she wasn’t going to be discussing anything classified. Not yet, at least. A missing persons report had been filed for Darcy Lewis with the local police department, and it seemed that everyone in the small town knew that she had vanished.
What she did mind was that Foster was running late. It set her on edge – more on edge, even, considering she’d been tense ever since Phil and Fury had been discovered missing. There was a throbbing sensation growing behind her right eye that was threatening to become a full-blown tension headache at any moment.
Coffee, and the visual confirmation that Phil was now free, could only do so much.
Strictly speaking, as an Avenger, this was something she shouldn’t have had to do. A junior agent or three could have been sent in to make sure the job was done. But S.H.I.E.L.D was barely functioning as it was. Hill had taken over as temporary commander in Fury’s absence, and was mostly preoccupied by making sure the Council didn’t find out that Fury was missing and investigating how far S.H.I.E.L.D may have been compromised by its commander secretly being a giant serpentine demigod. All of S.H.I.E.L.D’s agents were part of that investigation, and the Avengers were not exempted.
Not only that, but this time it was personal. It was Phil.
He was a member of Thor’s immediate family. Hell, he was Loki’s youngest son. Tony had built his own version of the Bifrost in order to get Thor and Loki out of Asgard unnoticed so that they could fix things. Steve was doing his best to help Hill by temporarily taking over Phil’s cat-herding duties. Clint was, well, currently he was petting his boyfriend’s muzzle and being jaw-droppingly open-minded, but a few days ago he’d been inches from a nervous breakdown.
It made her glad that Bruce had escaped to Laos to do charity work and was, therefore, oblivious.
Because the one person in S.H.I.E.L.D you did not mess with was Phil Coulson; not unless you wanted the Avengers gunning for you. They’d already proved that once and none of them were fans of repetition.
If Odin ever came to earth again, he would discover that. If he managed to survive the exploding arrow Clint was no doubt planning on putting through his remaining eye. They never had managed to test what effect that would have on a god.
The bell above the door jangled, and Natasha looked up to see Jane Foster walk in. The young woman looked like hell, and for the first time since she had stepped into the diner to discover her absent, Natasha felt a twinge of sympathy towards the other woman. She raised a hand and waved her over. A waitress followed, and Natasha ordered two more coffees. Foster looked like she needed it.
“I’m Natasha Romanov,” she said by way of greeting. “From S.H.I.E.L.D.”
“I know,” Foster replied. “I, uh, saw you on the news.”
Of course. Natasha had worked in secrecy and infamy for so long – assassins did tend to avoid the spotlight – that it still surprised her when people recognised her. But Black Widow was an Avenger now and the Avengers were national heroes. Fury had told her to suck it up and learn to live with it.
She gave a smile that felt brittle even to her. “It’s a pleasure to meet you in person, Miss Foster. I’ve read your file.” It would have been kinder, perhaps, to lie and say that Thor had spoken highly of her, but he had barely even mentioned her. All of Natasha’s information on the woman had come from the file S.H.I.E.L.D kept on her and a few observations Eric Selvig had made to her before she’d stepped on the plane. “Your work is impressive.”
Tony had replicated the Bifrost using whatever he used to power his arc reactor and whatever Thor and Selvig had been able to tell him about the original, and he had done it in a week. Foster was still considered the official expert only through length of time studying and a powerful desire not to inflate Tony Stark’s ego even further.
But that was classified.
“Why are you here, Miss Romanov?” Foster asked. Apparently she wasn’t in the mood for platitudes. Natasha could understand that.
“I was available,” she said. “We need access to some of your data.” Another reason why Foster was still considered the expert on wormholes and the Bifrost: she was the one actively studying and recording data on them.
“Why not send Thor?”
“He’s not available,” she said. “His location is currently classified.”
Foster looked mutinous. “Look,” she said. “This isn’t really a good time. My friend’s gone missing and I’m supposed to be helping look for her…”
“Give us the data and we’ll make her case a priority,” Natasha said quickly. She didn’t say that without S.H.I.E.L.D and its temporary alliance with Loki, Darcy Lewis would never be found. Instead she elaborated, “Send in some agents. Move things along faster.”
Foster was considering her offer. Natasha wished she would consider a little faster; she wanted to be in New York when the others got there.
“Okay,” Foster said. “What do you need?”
…
Foster’s lab was one of the more disorganised Natasha had seen. Not as bad as Tony’s, which was a jumble of robots and suit-tech and half-completed prototypes of things that no one but him could understand, but it was close. There were computers and notes and diagrams strewn over every flat surface, and a note-board with photographs pinned to it.
It was the photographs that drew Natasha’s attention first. She walked over to study them as behind her Foster rummaged for the observations she’d made the night Fury and Phil, and her own friend, had gone missing. She’d raised an eyebrow when Natasha had given her the date they were looking at, but hadn’t asked.
She was a smart woman. Natasha liked her.
“When were these taken?” she asked.
She traced her finger over the image of a blurred black shape in the middle of a flare of orange. It didn’t look human. In fact… She peered closer, before reeling back as she realised what she was looking at. She didn’t need to hear Foster’s confirmation that they had been taken the night of the abduction to know it was Odin and that he hadn’t been alone.
She had spent the last few days brushing up on her Norse mythology when she hadn’t been busy with other assignments. It had been something she’d intended to do for a while – ever since Thor had started working with them – but hadn’t yet got round to. The revelation that her handler and her boss were Loki’s children and the sight of Phil bound and bleeding in that cave had finally spurred her into doing it.
She’d found out that Loki had more children than just them, and in front of her was the proof. Odin had brought Loki’s eldest son – Sleipnir – with him.
He’d made him watch as he kidnapped and imprisoned his brothers; driven a sword through the youngest’s head and pinned it to the ground, and gods knew what he’d done to Fury.
Natasha had had a very long career. She’d started young and she hadn’t been eased into her job gently. Spying and killing were the things she had been born for, and in the process of doing it she’d met some very sick individuals. She was beginning to find a horrible number of similarities between the worst of her assignments and Odin’s behaviour towards his adopted son and his children. She swallowed her growing nausea and tried not to think about how much Loki must have had had to take before he had finally snapped.
God. How many of those stories were true?
She shoved her emotions into a tiny box in her heart and slammed it shut, hiding herself behind the cold front of ruthless professionalism. She’d rant and rage and avenge later; now she had a job to do.
“I will need to take these,” she said.
And when Loki saw them – and he would – she would have his back as all hell broke loose. Anyone who tortured children deserved the full force of her wrath. She didn’t think it would sit well with the others either. Clint already had a grudge, he didn’t need more of an excuse really, but Steve and Tony and Thor would have to see them as well and they would like it just about as much as she did.
Odin was going to find himself very unpopular next time he dropped down for a visit. In fact, it was almost tempting to take the fight straight to him – they had to put that false Bifrost to good use, didn’t they?
“There are copies of them on here,” Foster told her, handing her a memory stick. It was accompanied by a thin folder of notes. “I didn’t have time to review everything that happened that night. I, Darcy…”
Natasha tried her best to smile, to comfort, but failed miserably. “I understand, Miss Foster,” she said. “This is a trying time for you.” For all of us. “Thank you for your cooperation. You’ll receive a visit from some of my colleagues very shortly.”
Foster nodded. “Thank you,” she said. She gave Natasha a shrewd look. “Her disappearance is something to do with Asgard, isn’t it. With Loki.” She nodded towards the pictures. “I thought it might have been when I saw the Bifrost had activated, but I don’t understand why he would take her. If he was trying to get back at Thor, wouldn’t he have targeted me?”
She was intelligent and observant, but she didn’t have all the details and had rather spectacularly missed the point. But any correction would mean giving her classified information and putting her – and S.H.I.E.L.D – further at risk.
“Who knows why Loki does anything?” Natasha murmured. She let her hand rest briefly on Foster’s shoulder. “We’ll find her,” she promised.
They’d better, or there would be hell to pay.
Author: Evandar
Fandom: Avengers
Rating: R
Genre: Angst/Drama/Romance
Pairing: Clint/Coulson
Warnings: Swearing, pseudo-bestiality, torture
Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers and I am making no profit from this story.
Summary: S.H.I.E.L.D is in uproar: Fury and Coulson are AWOL, one of Thor's friends is missing. Odin has discovered the human lives of Loki's monstrous children and returned them to their original prisons. The Avengers aren't happy; neither is Loki, and Hawkeye might just be gunning for Odin's remaining eye.
The video feed showed the biggest damn wolf in the universe lean down and allow Clint Barton to pet its muzzle. Two thousand miles away in New Mexico, Natasha sat back in her chair and breathed a sigh of relief, before shutting down the feed on her phone and returning it to her pocket. She hadn’t wanted to come here. If she’d had a choice she would have stayed in the cave with Clint and Phil, but as much as they were family – the closest she had to one – they had all been trained to do their jobs first.
Her job was talking to Thor’s girlfriend.
Apparently Jane Foster had and issue with S.H.I.E.L.D agents being near her equipment because she’d insisted on meeting Natasha in a diner instead of her lab. Natasha didn’t mind. The coffee was hot, and while it wasn’t really secure, she wasn’t going to be discussing anything classified. Not yet, at least. A missing persons report had been filed for Darcy Lewis with the local police department, and it seemed that everyone in the small town knew that she had vanished.
What she did mind was that Foster was running late. It set her on edge – more on edge, even, considering she’d been tense ever since Phil and Fury had been discovered missing. There was a throbbing sensation growing behind her right eye that was threatening to become a full-blown tension headache at any moment.
Coffee, and the visual confirmation that Phil was now free, could only do so much.
Strictly speaking, as an Avenger, this was something she shouldn’t have had to do. A junior agent or three could have been sent in to make sure the job was done. But S.H.I.E.L.D was barely functioning as it was. Hill had taken over as temporary commander in Fury’s absence, and was mostly preoccupied by making sure the Council didn’t find out that Fury was missing and investigating how far S.H.I.E.L.D may have been compromised by its commander secretly being a giant serpentine demigod. All of S.H.I.E.L.D’s agents were part of that investigation, and the Avengers were not exempted.
Not only that, but this time it was personal. It was Phil.
He was a member of Thor’s immediate family. Hell, he was Loki’s youngest son. Tony had built his own version of the Bifrost in order to get Thor and Loki out of Asgard unnoticed so that they could fix things. Steve was doing his best to help Hill by temporarily taking over Phil’s cat-herding duties. Clint was, well, currently he was petting his boyfriend’s muzzle and being jaw-droppingly open-minded, but a few days ago he’d been inches from a nervous breakdown.
It made her glad that Bruce had escaped to Laos to do charity work and was, therefore, oblivious.
Because the one person in S.H.I.E.L.D you did not mess with was Phil Coulson; not unless you wanted the Avengers gunning for you. They’d already proved that once and none of them were fans of repetition.
If Odin ever came to earth again, he would discover that. If he managed to survive the exploding arrow Clint was no doubt planning on putting through his remaining eye. They never had managed to test what effect that would have on a god.
The bell above the door jangled, and Natasha looked up to see Jane Foster walk in. The young woman looked like hell, and for the first time since she had stepped into the diner to discover her absent, Natasha felt a twinge of sympathy towards the other woman. She raised a hand and waved her over. A waitress followed, and Natasha ordered two more coffees. Foster looked like she needed it.
“I’m Natasha Romanov,” she said by way of greeting. “From S.H.I.E.L.D.”
“I know,” Foster replied. “I, uh, saw you on the news.”
Of course. Natasha had worked in secrecy and infamy for so long – assassins did tend to avoid the spotlight – that it still surprised her when people recognised her. But Black Widow was an Avenger now and the Avengers were national heroes. Fury had told her to suck it up and learn to live with it.
She gave a smile that felt brittle even to her. “It’s a pleasure to meet you in person, Miss Foster. I’ve read your file.” It would have been kinder, perhaps, to lie and say that Thor had spoken highly of her, but he had barely even mentioned her. All of Natasha’s information on the woman had come from the file S.H.I.E.L.D kept on her and a few observations Eric Selvig had made to her before she’d stepped on the plane. “Your work is impressive.”
Tony had replicated the Bifrost using whatever he used to power his arc reactor and whatever Thor and Selvig had been able to tell him about the original, and he had done it in a week. Foster was still considered the official expert only through length of time studying and a powerful desire not to inflate Tony Stark’s ego even further.
But that was classified.
“Why are you here, Miss Romanov?” Foster asked. Apparently she wasn’t in the mood for platitudes. Natasha could understand that.
“I was available,” she said. “We need access to some of your data.” Another reason why Foster was still considered the expert on wormholes and the Bifrost: she was the one actively studying and recording data on them.
“Why not send Thor?”
“He’s not available,” she said. “His location is currently classified.”
Foster looked mutinous. “Look,” she said. “This isn’t really a good time. My friend’s gone missing and I’m supposed to be helping look for her…”
“Give us the data and we’ll make her case a priority,” Natasha said quickly. She didn’t say that without S.H.I.E.L.D and its temporary alliance with Loki, Darcy Lewis would never be found. Instead she elaborated, “Send in some agents. Move things along faster.”
Foster was considering her offer. Natasha wished she would consider a little faster; she wanted to be in New York when the others got there.
“Okay,” Foster said. “What do you need?”
…
Foster’s lab was one of the more disorganised Natasha had seen. Not as bad as Tony’s, which was a jumble of robots and suit-tech and half-completed prototypes of things that no one but him could understand, but it was close. There were computers and notes and diagrams strewn over every flat surface, and a note-board with photographs pinned to it.
It was the photographs that drew Natasha’s attention first. She walked over to study them as behind her Foster rummaged for the observations she’d made the night Fury and Phil, and her own friend, had gone missing. She’d raised an eyebrow when Natasha had given her the date they were looking at, but hadn’t asked.
She was a smart woman. Natasha liked her.
“When were these taken?” she asked.
She traced her finger over the image of a blurred black shape in the middle of a flare of orange. It didn’t look human. In fact… She peered closer, before reeling back as she realised what she was looking at. She didn’t need to hear Foster’s confirmation that they had been taken the night of the abduction to know it was Odin and that he hadn’t been alone.
She had spent the last few days brushing up on her Norse mythology when she hadn’t been busy with other assignments. It had been something she’d intended to do for a while – ever since Thor had started working with them – but hadn’t yet got round to. The revelation that her handler and her boss were Loki’s children and the sight of Phil bound and bleeding in that cave had finally spurred her into doing it.
She’d found out that Loki had more children than just them, and in front of her was the proof. Odin had brought Loki’s eldest son – Sleipnir – with him.
He’d made him watch as he kidnapped and imprisoned his brothers; driven a sword through the youngest’s head and pinned it to the ground, and gods knew what he’d done to Fury.
Natasha had had a very long career. She’d started young and she hadn’t been eased into her job gently. Spying and killing were the things she had been born for, and in the process of doing it she’d met some very sick individuals. She was beginning to find a horrible number of similarities between the worst of her assignments and Odin’s behaviour towards his adopted son and his children. She swallowed her growing nausea and tried not to think about how much Loki must have had had to take before he had finally snapped.
God. How many of those stories were true?
She shoved her emotions into a tiny box in her heart and slammed it shut, hiding herself behind the cold front of ruthless professionalism. She’d rant and rage and avenge later; now she had a job to do.
“I will need to take these,” she said.
And when Loki saw them – and he would – she would have his back as all hell broke loose. Anyone who tortured children deserved the full force of her wrath. She didn’t think it would sit well with the others either. Clint already had a grudge, he didn’t need more of an excuse really, but Steve and Tony and Thor would have to see them as well and they would like it just about as much as she did.
Odin was going to find himself very unpopular next time he dropped down for a visit. In fact, it was almost tempting to take the fight straight to him – they had to put that false Bifrost to good use, didn’t they?
“There are copies of them on here,” Foster told her, handing her a memory stick. It was accompanied by a thin folder of notes. “I didn’t have time to review everything that happened that night. I, Darcy…”
Natasha tried her best to smile, to comfort, but failed miserably. “I understand, Miss Foster,” she said. “This is a trying time for you.” For all of us. “Thank you for your cooperation. You’ll receive a visit from some of my colleagues very shortly.”
Foster nodded. “Thank you,” she said. She gave Natasha a shrewd look. “Her disappearance is something to do with Asgard, isn’t it. With Loki.” She nodded towards the pictures. “I thought it might have been when I saw the Bifrost had activated, but I don’t understand why he would take her. If he was trying to get back at Thor, wouldn’t he have targeted me?”
She was intelligent and observant, but she didn’t have all the details and had rather spectacularly missed the point. But any correction would mean giving her classified information and putting her – and S.H.I.E.L.D – further at risk.
“Who knows why Loki does anything?” Natasha murmured. She let her hand rest briefly on Foster’s shoulder. “We’ll find her,” she promised.
They’d better, or there would be hell to pay.
I <3
Re: I <3
Thor's in for some serious whumpage over his previous behaviour. XD