Chapter 8

The golden ring glowed in front of her, and no matter how hard she tried to run to it, it kept getting further away, disappearing into the darkness that surrounded her. She tried desperately to reach out and grab it, frantically chasing it. A mans voice screamed her name, as she felt herself being pulled backwards into the dark, just as a haunting white skull-like face came into view in front of her. Its emotionless expression scared her as it approached, its darkened body moving swifter than she could take in. A bonelike fist. The ash-like ground. A sharpened blade. His petrified scream. The taste of blood. A golden flash. Then her scream. Her heart breaks. Her breathing stops. The sky begins to fall, the burning darkness consuming her. She screams her last breath.

Rebecca jolted awake screaming; her breath coming in painful gasps, her eyes wild. Frantically, she looked around, her eyes struggling to adjust to the bright lights. Breathing deeply, trying to calm down, she took in the details of the white room. She had been laid down on a plain metal bed, with a steel metal table and two metal chairs over on one side of the room. There room was windowless, with only a solid metal door as the only break between the white walls. Starting to panic, she tried to get up and run to the door, but cried out in pain as her leg was pulled from underneath her, and she collapsed onto the floor. She looked down at her leg, and noticed her foot had been chained to the corner of the bed. She tried to prise it open with her bare hands, but the metal cuts her hand, causing it to bleed. She notices that it has been put on the same leg which has the ring in her shoe, and that she can't take her shoe off to check if it is there as the cuff is closed to tight around the top of it. She felt through the canvas material, and breathed a sigh of relief. It was still there and safe. "Hello?", she shouted loudly, hoping someone could hear her. "Hello?". Still no reply. Starting to feel desperate, she tried to prise off the cuff again, but it caused her hand to hurt even more, spilling more blood onto the floor and herself. A loud bang suddenly startled her, causing her to look in the direction of the noise. She looked at the door, and watched the handle move down, as the door opened.

Two gentlemen walked into the room, and immediately their eyes fell down onto her. One of them, Rebecca immediately recognised, as it was Barton. She instantly climbed up off the floor and pressed herself against the wall, as she was still afraid of him, even if he didn't seem to be under that mind spell anymore. He gave her a stern look, before stepping aside to let the other man enter. He wore a long black leather trench coat, and had an eye patch over one eye. "Please, sit", he said, motioning her to one of the chairs as he himself stepped forward at sat down at the table. Hawkeye moved over and closed the door shut behind him, before leaning against it, acting like a barrier. After looking from one to the other, she hesitantly sat down in the chair. "Your probably wondering where you are my dear.", the man said, trying to sound reassuring. Rebecca's eyes kept flicking between both of them, her breathing coming in sharp intakes, twisting her hands under the table nervously. "I'm Nick Fury, director of SHIELD. We found you at Stark tower in quite a state. Care to tell us how you got there?". Rebecca gulped; she didn't know what to say. Loki had said that he couldn't protect her from them. Did that mean that they would try to kill her if they found out she had been involved with him?

"What's your name?", he asked softly, but firmly. "Rebecca", she mumbled, wishing she could disappear away from them. "Well, Rebecca. We have one of two options here. Either you tell us why you were there, or we try a more direct approach". As Fury was saying this Hawkeye took the opportunity to walk around so he stood behind her, causing her breathing to intensify. "I believe you two know each other already. So this can be like a family reunion." As if on cue, Hawkeye placed his hands firmly down on her shoulders, causing Rebecca to let out a slight yelp in alarm. She tried to get up out of her seat, away from him, but he pushed her back down, planting her firmly on the spot. "Now, I'll ask you again. Why were you there?", Fury asked more firmly, leaning in closer to her. She couldn't help but stare, petrified at his single eye, as it unnerved her. "I don't know", she whispered, struggling to stay calm, feeling her body start to shake. Barton pressed down a little harder onto her shoulders, causing her breathing to intensify. "I'll ask you again, and think very carefully about what you say. Why were you there?". "I told you, I don't know what I was doing there. I was just there", she said panicking. Fury's gaze didn't waver, staying fixed on her. "Fine. Well, I'm afraid your going to be here a while then", he concluded, standing up from his chair, walking towards the door. Hawkeye released his grip on her, and also followed, closing the door firmly behind him.

Rebecca burst into tears, her body shaking in fear and shock. She didn't know what to do or say anymore. In a burst of frustration, she stood up and tried to flip over the furniture in the room, only to find it bolted down. She screamed in anger, and kicked and clawed at the walls, hoping in some way that they would fall down, and let her escape from this hellish place. In her blind rage, she had caused the wound on her hand to open more, leaving streaks of dirt and blood on the white walls, adding to her nightmare. She sank down into a corner, curling up, letting her tears and blood fall down from her body. She didn't want to be here; she was terrified. She wanted Loki to be here with her, comforting her. His cold touch and velvety voice calming her, helping ease her pain away. She stopped herself; her mind racing. She was obviously in a SHIELD base somewhere, and the Avengers are obviously nearby, as otherwise Barton wouldn't have been here. Which means that if the Avengers are here, then so is Loki! She tried to calm herself down, realising that is she was ever going to get to Loki, she needed to escape.

She frantically looked around the room, trying to find anything that would help her escape. In her rage, she had managed to split one of the metal slats on the bed, so it had a sharp point. She looked down at her already cut hand, and back up and the blood stained walls, a plan forming in her head. Breathing slowly, she placed her arm next to the freshly ripped metal, feeling its sharpness already dig into her flesh. Taking a deep breath, and hoping her plan would work, she closed her eyes, and in one swift movement, sliced her arm on the metal. The blood flowed immediately from the cut, causing her to scream out in pain, falling to the floor. She cried out for help as loud as her voice would allow. Immediately, the door was unlocked and someone rushed in with medic supplies in their hands. They quickly knelt down next to her as she kept her eyes scrunched up in pain, holding out her arm to them. They swiftly started bandaging up the wound, their full attention on their task, and not on Rebecca. She opened her eyes, and in a moment, brought her other hand up, grabbed hold of the back of their head, and slammed it down onto the metal bed frame. They slummed down onto the floor, knocked out cold. She speedily rummaged through their pockets until she found a key, which she put into her leg cuff. Unlocking herself, she placed it around the other person's leg, before locking it on them. She hastily tied up the half done bandage on her arm before racing out of the door, slamming it shut behind her.

Finding herself in a corridor, she set off running as fast as she could in the direction she thought would lead her to Loki. No matter which way she ran, all of the corridors looked the same, and none of them had helpful signs on to tell her which way to go. She stopped at a crossroad, panting, sweat pouring from her. She had no idea which way to go, clutching at her arm in pain. An alarm blasted through the air in the direction she had just come; along with the shouts and orders of soldiers. Realising she was now in very serious danger, she set off running again down one of the corridors. Every step she ran caused her great pain, and she felt herself becoming light headed. She didn't want to stop, her breath coming in sharp painful gasps; she wanted to find Loki. Suddenly, the path in front of her became blocked by soldiers, running in her direction. She immediately turned down another corridor, hearing them behind her, gaining distance. She took a sharp turn down another corridor in an effort to loose them, and felt like she was going to collapse at any second, hearing the storming of their boots ringing in her ears. Her vision was blurring, her arm heavily bleeding, her breath shortening, her hope fading.

A hand quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her into a storage room just off the corridor. She collapsed onto the floor of the room and tried to get back up as the person slammed the door shut behind her. They immediately grabbed hold of her and pushed her back down onto the ground, putting a finger to her lips, telling her to stay quiet. She couldn't make out who it was, but she nodded her head with what little strength she had left. She listened as the soldiers ran straight past the door outside in the corridor, and continued on unaware, thinking she had continued on. The person who had been on top of her stood up, and headed back over to the door, locking it, before turning on the light switch. The woman with red hair she had seen in the apartment was stood there, looking down at her, a sorry look in her eyes. "I'm sorry. Hope I didn't hurt you", she said quietly, coming over to her. Rebecca tried to get back up, but sank back down to the ground as her head started to spin. "That was quite a risk you took back there", she said, nodding towards Rebecca's arm. "Yeah, it was all I could think of", she panted, trying to get her breath back from the effort of trying to stand. "I'm Natasha, by the way. You're Rebecca, aren't you? You gave us all quite the scare back at the tower", she said, dropping down to sit next to her. "We though that you had died of shock at seeing poor Steve".

"No, I just panicked I guess", Rebecca said weakly, looking down at her arm. Natasha glanced down at her arm, before looking back at her. "You know that we don't want to hurt you, right?", she said reassuringly. "We just want to know the truth, that's all. Fury just has an awkward way of going about it. Not everyone agrees with his methods, especially as you're so young." Rebecca gave a weak smile, looking up at Natasha. "I'm older than I look. I'm eighteen next month".

Natasha looked at her, and then shifted her position so she was closer to her. "May I?", she asked, indicating to her arm. Rebecca nodded, and slowly offered her arm out to her. She winced as Natasha carefully untied the bandages, inspecting her wound. "You know what you did was pretty dangerous right? How did you know that someone would come to help you at all?", she asked, carefully retying her bandages to stop it bleeding further. "I didn't", she replied weakly, her voice giving away just how scared she was. They sat in silence for a few minutes, whilst Natasha fixed up her wound as best she could. "What did he do to you?", she asked gently once she had finished, placing her hand onto her shoulder, encouraging her to talk. Rebecca thought carefully, the sound of the distant alarm filling the silence. "He lied to me", she finally spoke, a single tear rolling down her cheek. "I know. He's good at that kind of thing", she said as Rebecca collapsed into her shoulder, her body heaving in emotion. "I trusted him", she whispered, finally overcome with the reality of what she had just done. "I gave him my mind. I gave him my heart. I gave him everything", Rebecca cried between sobs, clutching at her head, emptying out her heart. Natasha sat there holding her, before saying quietly into her earpiece, "This is agent Romanoff. Stand down. She doesn't know anything. Take her home".

The next few hours passed by like a blur to Rebecca, as her mind fought over her emotions. Her wounds were patched up and she was taken care of, given new clothes, and Romanoff never left her side. Even when Fury was apologising to her for the inconvenience he had caused, she didn't take it in; her mind was too preoccupied on something else, or someone else. It wasn't until she was in the back of the car being driven through New York that she realised that she was free. She looked out of the window as people carried on their everyday lives; Rebecca envied them, as she knew hers had changed forever. She looked down at her wrists, the golden bracelets still sat there, reminding her. She had lied. She had never thought she could have done it, but she did. She betrayed herself by lying. She had lied to them, so she could be free. A small smile crept across her face, realising that now she was free. She giggled to herself, a sly giggle. She never thought that it would have worked, but it did. She even managed to fool the great Black Widow too! She sighed, slumping back in her seat, looking out of the window, placing her hand into her pocket, feeling the coolness of the ring against her skin. And then she gasped, immediately sitting bolt upright, shoving the ring back deep into her pocket, her eyes fixed on a particular colour. A red cape. Not even telling the driver to stop, she flung open the door and jumped out of the car. Luckily, the car was only crawling along, so she was able to start running immediately, heading straight towards Central Park, her driver oblivious to her departure.

Weaving through the mass of people, she fought her way along the path towards the Park, fighting through the crowds that had gathered as SHIELD agents began to seal off the area. She managed to duck into the hedges just in time, as a fresh herd of agents arrived, pushing the crowd further back, leaving her inside the perimeter. Rushing from cover to cover, Rebecca edged closer to the centre of the park, her eyes fixed on the wearing of the red cape at all times. She managed to get pretty close now, so she could see what was happening. She recognised Thor immediately, as his size and attire didn't let him blend in so well as all of the other Avengers that had now gathered. She watched intently, as a van pulled up alongside them, and the doors were opened. Rebecca gasped in shock. It was Loki, as their prisoner, chained and gagged, being escorted by Thor towards the rest of them. Not even caring that she would get into serious trouble for being near, she ran out towards him.

"Loki!" she shouted, running towards him. His eyes snapped towards her, a look of both relief and concern crossing them upon seeing her. SHIELD agents immediately grabbed her to stop her getting any closer. "I'm sorry miss, you can't be here". "No, you don't understand, I have to see him. Please", she tried to plead to them, but they held her arms tight, making sure she couldn't get any closer. "Loki!", she tried calling to him, but he had already been pulled along by Thor, as they now stood opposite each other, clutching the Tesseract between them. She looked at Loki, and felt tears running down her cheek. She didn't want him to leave her here, not here alone and forgotten. Suddenly the blinding light of the Tesseract engulfed both Loki and Thor, before firing them up into the sky, disappearing in an instant. She didn't take her eyes off the sky where Loki had vanished as the agents released their hold of her as the Avengers ahead of her went their separate ways. She walked forward, and stood in the exact spot Loki had disappeared from, staring up at the sky, her heart caught in her throat. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry", she whispered to the sky, hoping he could hear her. "I love you", she whispered, bringing the ring out of her pocket, twisting it around in her fingers. "Miss, we need to take you home now", an agent interrupted, breaking her thoughts. She turned to him and nodded, following him, glancing back, whispering "Goodbye".

The drive back to her home had taken forever. She had curled up on the back seat for the journey, sleeping. Her parents broke down into tears when she was escorted into her home, throwing their arms around her, saying how they would never let her leave their sights ever again. Rebecca couldn't feel any emotion to them, but only smile a fake smile to please them, pretending that she was happy that she was back home. Her life returned back to normal; almost like what happened only a few days before had never taken place. Her parents were back to their normal selves, arguing with her again about her education, and now even her Uncle had started to question her ability to work, as she was more 'distracted' than usual. She felt horrible, so cold and empty, and alone. All the while, her mind was elsewhere, reliving the previous events that had changed her.

On the evening of her eighteenth birthday, her parents had decided to pop out for a few hours, leaving her home alone. She stood, in her bedroom, admiring herself in the mirror, in the lovely golden dress that she had had for a present, her brown hair hanging loose at her shoulders, her complexion pale. She hated herself, just as much as everyone else did. She looked down at her wrists, at the golden bracelets that still hung there. They had become a part of her, and she never made any attempt to take them off. She had never wanted too, as they were the only thing that kept her believing that the life she was living, day to day, in her small town, was a lie. She walked over to her bedside table, and pulled out a necklace, which had a small, golden ring hung on it. She took it off its chain, and held it up, looking at it. Somehow tonight, she felt drawn to it in a way she had never felt before. She wanted to wear it, for it to be hers, to claim it.

Walking over to the window, she looked up at the stars, lost in thought. Without realising it, she took the ring in her hand, and placed it onto her finger. The world around her darkened, but she didn't notice; as she was too busy looking at the stars. She blinked. The stars were not the same stars anymore, and nor was the large golden window frame of which she now looked out of. Gasping in surprise, she spun around to see her bedroom had gone. Instead, she stood in a much darker, grander bed chamber, with golden architecture everywhere. She gasped walking around the room, trying to take it all in the darkness. "Rebecca", a voice whispered. She froze in her tracks, her eyes transfixed on the silhouette of a figure sat near the bed, hidden in the shadows. The figure got up, the sound of chains accompanying its every move as it stepped slowly out into the light. Her eyes widened in shock as she recognised the imprisoned man in front of her. His green eyes sparkled, a sly grin on his pale face, he simply said to her, "Welcome to Asgard".

To Be Continued ... in FAR FROM HOME

Authors Note : Thank you so much for reading! I do hope you like it. And don't worry. The story of Rebecca continues in "Far From Home", which you can read in my other stories. Again, thank you so much for reading.

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