12. The work of Thanos

2.5 hours till activation.

Tony, Steve and Thor stood at the back entrance to the SHIELD headquarters.

"I'll disable the motion sensors. You two take out the guards," Tony said in his comms.

It happened quickly and even smoothly. Tony took under sixty seconds in doing a sweep of the area and disabling the motion sensors. Steve and Thor covered him, taking out the four-man guard easily.

"Chitauris?" Tony asked, alighting beside them.

Steve unmasked one and sucked in a breath, "No."

"They're alive. Don't worry," Thor said. Times like these, Steve could see that Thor was a warrior, regardless of his countenance.

"Yeah, but...it's just that people are helping Thanos destroy the Earth," Steve said. "It's horrifying."

Tony set his face, "That's where we come in. Let's do this."

They tied up the soldiers and left them behind, approaching the door.

"I'll take care of this," Thor raised his hammer high.

"Wait, wait," Tony grabbed his arm much to Thor's irritation. "It might be open already."

"I seriously doubt that," Thor pouted.

Tony tried the lock. The door clicked open. He looked around at his companions with a smile that was lost in his Ironman helmet.

"Is he smirking at me?" Thor asked Steve.

Steve nodded, "Afraid so."

"Oi, you two! Come on." Tony looked at the blueprint hologram over his palms, "Right from here. Follow me."

"It's really quiet here," Steve said, "almost as if—"

He stopped as his leg caught on a wire. Immediately a wall closed Steve and Thor off from Tony.

"Are you kidding me?" Steve shouted. "Who even uses a tripwire these days? How archaic can you get?"

Tony punched the wall and then tried shooting it down, "Steve? Thor? What happened?"

Thor pounded against the wall of concrete with his hammer until it got stuck in it. "By Odin, what is this?" He had to pull back with all his strength to free Mjolnir.

"What now?" Steve said, eyes narrowing as he tried to look for a weakness in the contraption that had descended in front of them.

"It is strange," Thor called him over. "This wall...it is concrete but when I try to hit it with Mjolnir, it becomes almost as if a swamp, pulling it in. It is drawing off its power."

"The work of Thanos?" Steve asked grimly.

"Indeed, it seems."

"Tony?" Steve called out.

"Yeah, guys, I'm just breaking this wall down. It's...it's a work in progress, you could say. Don't worry, I won't abandon you two kids."

"Tony, we have a clock ticking. You'll have to go on," Steve said.

Thor added, "This door is enchanted. There is nothing you can do. Go on, we will find a way to meet you at the vault."

Steve whispered, "We will?"

Thor shrugged.

Within the next twenty minutes, they would realize that they had been blocked off at the back too. Even the corridors were made of the same stuff. Actually, that was what they thought for around ten minutes, until the floor began to move with snakes and the air was filled with sharp-beaked birds.

Then Thor walked to one end and found himself locked and surrounded on all sides by plain walls. He lashed against a wall and fell through, now on Asgard.

"What is this?" he demanded angrily. "What is the meaning of this?"

Years passed. He ruled on Asgard. He killed Odin and Loki. He cried in secret and moved on in public and then Asgard began to die. All too soon, he stood on a barren planet. His eyes were dry from having cried too long and too much and his throat hurt from all the screams he didn't know he had screamed.

Steve swallowed the growing nausea as he reached for Bucky for the thousandth time and watched him fall from the train. He hated this train and he hated himself. The moment Bucky would fall to his death, Steve would find himself in yet another repeat of the moment. He whimpered falling to the floor, pulling his shield over his form. No, he couldn't watch this. No, not again.

Someone pulled at his shield, "Steve, it's gone. Steve!"

"Bucky?" he asked, getting up.

His friend stood in front of him, calling out from the darkness of the place.

"You're okay," Steve almost laughed.

Bucky's face twisted into pain, "Steve, you let me fall."

Steve watched in horror as Bucky's arm fell to his side, the blood splattering over Steve.

"Hallucinogens," Steve gasped.

"You let me fall, Steve," Bucky stood tall and formidable and suddenly Steve was small, before he had had his miraculous boost. "I wouldn't have done that to you, Steve. I was there till the end of the line, right where you pushed me off. Steve, you killed me a death worse than death."

***

2 hours until activation.

Clint shielded Bruce behind him, "Just be calm while Natasha and I finish off here, okay?"

Bruce's voice trembled slightly when he replied, "Yeah, I'm fine." What he meant to say was, Easy for you to say.

There were too many Chitauris and they all targeted Bruce. Natasha and Clint had their hands full. As Clint was pulled off, Natasha took his place automatically. They knew their job. Protect Bruce.

Bruce knew his. Protect Natasha and Clint. From himself.

Natasha took his hand and led him across the room. They were nearly clear of the door when the floor gave way and they fell several feet to the floor. Natasha hooked a wire and caught him mid-fall. Still, the risk of the long fall, the sight of crushed Chitauri bodies and the fact that the wire holding them was very very thin was enough to spike Bruce's heart rate.

"It's okay," Natasha said. "I've got you. We won't fall."

Maybe it was because he was practically hugging Natasha for his life, the words had no calming effect.

"Catch your breath and then we'll climb up, okay?" her voice was soft and her pupils were dilated. He realized she was scared that he was scared.

The wire lowered slightly with renewed weight and they looked up to see a Chitauri descending towards them. Another jumped on to the wire.

"Uh-oh," Nat scowled.

The wire broke and they fell. Nat rolled over and cushioned her fall best as she could but Bruce landed on his left leg which exploded in pain.

With a roar, Hulk announced his intent to break free.

"Natasha! I'm coming down," Clint shouted from above.

Nat looked above and raised a finger to her lips. She motioned for him to go on, after pointing towards Bruce. Clint nodded, mouth set in a line.

"Bruce, it's me, Natasha. I'm here," she smiled and reached towards him. "Remember our song. Remember the words? It goes something li—"

Bruce growled, eyes wild, "Run!"

***

1.75 hours till activation.

"Will you talk to me?" Loki asked, from outside the bedroom door.

About twenty minutes after the Avengers had left, Naz had come home. Her red eyes had held testimony to the fact that she now knew every letter in the folder which she held tightly in her hands.

Once she had walked out of the apartment then, feeling betrayed and shocked, she had ran down the stairs and locked herself in her shop.

It struck her, then, as it had never struck her before, that it wasn't even her shop actually. It had been Nani's. A shot of pain and stronger betrayal struck her heart. Her grandmother had been a SHIELD agent. A mutant with powers, powers much like her own.

She looked at the file with distaste. She had powers but she didn't feel powerful. Those 'abilities' outlined in the neat profile in the folder didn't mean much. All those abilities, she couldn't control or knowingly exercise any of them.

Untriggered. Untrained.

Those had been the words, the file had described her as. That meant, she supposed, her mutant status was pretty much dormant. With Nani dead, she couldn't very well just ask another experienced mutant for answers.

Well, there was one place that contained all the answers.

The folder lay untouched on the table beside the haircare equipment. No, she wouldn't open it again. There was something dreadfully horrifying about it and it made her feel sick to the pit of her stomach.

Instead she mused over the word 'mutant'. She had studied enough biology to know what the term meant. Read enough offbeat news and conspiracy theories to know that there were things immensely diverse in the human capacity to experience and negotiate the reality of the universe. There were rumoured to exist beings with marvelous power who could both save the world and destroy it and now, she was being told she was one of them.

All her life, she had been told that she was worthless. Years in an orphanage where she had been more burden than anything else, had made her realize that there was a certain purposelessness in her life. She was nothing special and she knew that.

She hadn't really ever cried in years and suddenly, in the privacy of this lonely shop, she let go. Her shoulders shook as her body racked with sobs.

The clock on the wall was exceedingly loud.

She wiped away the tears quickly but something cathartic was already flowing through her veins and maybe that was what gave her the strength and courage to pick up the folder and begin to read.

Her parents were alive. She had twin sisters, five years younger to her. They all believed her to be dead. They must have mourned her for months, years, and then got used to the absence. She was probably just a reminder of pain and loss for them now. She had been taken away and put in the care of Agent Neha V., she remembered the matron at the orphanage—Dr. Neha had looked anything but an agent. SHIELD had always known where she was. She was an asset for them. She wondered how many more mutants out there had suffered like her, lived lonely lives and died unsolved deaths.

The greatest shock was, perhaps, the fact that Nani was alive. Agent Abida, in a footnote it was written sparsely, was on an undercover mission which had necessitated her to fake her death to her granddaughter temporarily.

So formal and emotionless the records described her life as.

By the time, she had finished with the folder, she was filled with disgust at everything and everyone, her eyes felt dry and so did her mouth. She got up and walked out of the shop, up the stairs and into her apartment.

She had forgotten him in light of the recent discoveries but the minute she laid eyes on him pacing around the living room, everything flooded back. She made an exasperated noise and stalked off to her bedroom, banging the door shut.

Now he stood outside, sounding awkward and lost, while she told herself firmly that she would not open the door because she had a feeling she would either shout at him or burst into tears the second she laid eyes on him.

"Naz," she heard him say. "Nazneen, I-I can't even imagine what you must be going through right now and I know you hate me and I've let you down time and again but—"

He shifted outside, unsure if she was even listening, finding it so very tough to say all the words that could get stuck in his throat. "You...you aren't what that folder says. You're you, you're so much more than just a few words on a page."

He closed his eyes and called up whatever trickling of magic he could. His hearing increased tremendously and he could hear her increased heartbeats, her ragged low breaths.

"Is it so bad?" he asked.

He heard her move towards the door before it opened a chink. She handed him the folder and closed the door. He frowned and opened it, staring at a photo of Naz.

He found himself scowling at the way they had gathered bits and pieces of her life. She had been monitored most of her life. Hidden, kidnapped, placed under care for future use. He stared at the photo of her family. Unlike him, she had actually had a family who cared about her. She hadn't been abandoned. She could have grown up with people of her own. Away from all this mess.

It was weird to suddenly know so much about the woman he had hardly known any more than she had allowed. Suddenly he knew she liked pasta, that the long scar that sometimes peeped at the back of her neck over the neckline was due to a childhood injury, that she was allergic pollen...it felt like reading up on a stranger.

Loki knew he was no good at comforting anyone. Usually he said more along the lines of something that could cause more discomfort. He tried to imagine what she would do in a situation like this. Look on the positive side. Find out what hurts the most, the root of all and help. Help.

"Naz, please come out."

Her hand was on the door knob but she was still.

"They aren't friends with you because you're a mutant. If you weren't one, sure Tony wouldn't have found you the way he did and Rogers wouldn't have either but they would have found you somehow."

He turned the knob and opened the door, "They all would have found you. Some moments are fixed in time and you meeting the Avengers was one of them. Nothing can change that."

Naz blinked, clearly taken aback.

Loki laughed, "Except, of course, you wouldn't have been burdened with me if you weren't a mutant."

She gave a weak laugh, "When you put it like that...hey, I'm supposed to be angry with you!"

He never got to reply because a number if things happened simultaneously in the seconds that followed. The front door burst open and as tiny dark orbs rattled across the floor, smoke filled the apartment.

"What the—" Naz choked, something burning at the back of her throat. Her body racked with dulling pain and only when her eyes began to droop did she understand what was happening.

Her legs were numb and she stumbled as she reached for Loki in the smoke. Another smoke bomb exploded right next to her and she fell against the wall, tasting blood on her tongue. She couldn't feel much of her body. Everything was numb, being pulled into a sleep.

Something pulled her to the floor, she vaguely understood it to be Loki's hand. "Keep low," his voice sounded stranger, almost a drawl, and he shielded her body with his. Something warm and fuzzy tried to clear her mind and she was aware that Loki was trying to heal her with his magic. The magic was feeble, weak and trembling in its attempts to fight against the overpowering effects of the smoke.

She whispered because that was all she could, her tongue heavy in her mouth, "Leave it. It's not...working. You're...just exhausting yourself."

Loki's weight over her disappeared as she heard footfalls across her apartment. Before her eyes closed, she could see through the now thinning smoke, multiple armed men in smoke masks. A blonde strode across the room, waving away the last remnants of smoke. He aimed a kick at Loki's chest, "The Commander Thanos sends his regards."

He looked around the room and smiled proudly, "We did it, boys. Pack 'em up. We're running on a clock here." When he saw the hesitation, he barked, "I know he's a God but as long as he has got that chip in his head, he is as good as dead meat. If he starts to wake, just use the Volt. Enough power to knock him out for a few."

He walked towards Naz and knelt beside her, "Hello, there. You seem like a stubborn one." He looked at his men and laughed, "A mutant, can you believe it? Well, darling, you're mine to play with but where are my manners? Dr. Ajax at your service. Good night for now." He winked and pressed his gloved fingers to her neck.

Her body racked against the several volts that coursed through it.

The last thing she heard was, "I call it the Volt. Handy, isn't it, mutant?"

***

Totally modelling Ajax on Ajax from Deadpool because he totally fits the bill. DEADLOCK Ajax au is what I like to call him. If you find any notes to self I might have left hanging around this chapter, just forgive me, okay? It's late and I'm tired :3 That cliffhanger tho. Do you have questions regarding how and what happened? Let me know.

Vote, comment, share and follow...you know the drill. Thanks for reading, as always x

P.S. Not many chapters left now. Stock up tissues, we might need them.