I awake with a slight headache. I feel groggy, my throat feels dry and sore, and it takes me some strength to open my eyes. With my consent, Bruce had injected me with something that made me fall asleep to keep my movement to the bare minimum and reduce the possibility of hurting my spine.

I groan, attempting to roll around, but two firm hands quickly grab my shoulders and keep me on my stomach. "Good morning, darling." "Loki?" "I'm here." He assures, and the pressure on my shoulders loosens a little. I try rolling over again, but again, he won't let me. "I'd stay like this if I was you." He tells me.

Then it all comes back to me. "Is it out?" I murmur into the pillow before turning my head to face him. "It is." He smiles. "How do you feel?" Carefully, he helps me sit up and hands me a glass of water. "I'm alright, I guess. Whose is this?"I ask and tug on the unfamiliar shirt I'm wearing. "It's mine." Loki smirks.

"Good." I smirk back. "Don't think you'll be getting it back." "Is that a dare?" He growls. "Maybe." I sip on my water when another question comes to my mind. "You said you could heal?"

Humming in response, Loki takes the water from me and makes the glass vanish into thin air. "Then why didn't you heal me after the procedure?" I ask carefully, referring to the dull pain in my back. "Stark wouldn't let me. I don't blame him for not trusting me, though." He explains and sighs.

"Well, Stark wouldn't have to know." I smirk, and a playful expression sparkles in his eyes. "Indeed." His tongue darts out, moistening his lips before stretching out his hands. "Come here."

I crawl over and sit in front of him, not sure how to proceed, but Loki takes things into his own hands and pulls me onto his lap, securing me in place with one arm wrapped around my waist while the other one slips under my shirt and comes to lay above the wound on my back.

"This may hurt." He informs me before letting his magic work. I grit my teeth and unconsciously start squirming when I feel my skin melt together, but after a few seconds, it's over. "Thanks." I pant and climb off his lap before sprawling out on my bed. "Was it really necessary to have me on your lap, though?" I want to know.

"It wasn't." I can hear the smirk in his voice. "But I liked it better this way." I roll my eyes at him and hit him with a pillow. "You're unbelievable!" He yanks the pillow from my hands, and I squeal when he raises it to hit me back. Quickly grabbing another pillow, I glance up at him. "Do you yield?" He asks, his voice dangerously low. "Never!" I fling my pillow at him again. I shouldn't have done that.

"Stop! Okay, I yield!" I screech after thirty seconds. Loki has tackled me down and is now repeatedly hitting me with the pillow while I try not to suffocate from laughter. Now, he bends down to my ear, letting his voice drop an octave. "Good girl." He smirks, knowing exactly what he is doing.

My eyes widened, and Loki winks at me before raising the pillow again, hitting me one last time before dropping the pillow and sprawling himself out next to me. "Why did you come here in the first place?" I want to know.

"I'm bored." He admits. "There's not much to do here. Besides, I've been here the whole time. I've been reading." He reaches for a book, on my bedside table, and holds it so I can read the title. "You seem to have some reasonably good works here on Midgard, contrary to my expectations." "Macbeth?" (*) I ask and have to chuckle. "I'm beginning to see parallels."

Half-heartedly, he smiles back. "I can't undo the damage, but I can avoid making that mistake again." I stop giggling and search his gaze. My face becomes a little more serious when he finally returns my gaze. "Loki, I've seen pictures from the security cameras." He swallows and averts his eyes. "I'm disgusted with myself." He says quietly.

"That wasn't you." I try to get him to turn back to me. "It doesn't matter." His voice is suddenly cold, and I freeze. "Your eyes." I try to explain. "Loki, that wasn't you." My voice trembles slightly, and I slide away from him a little. It scares me that he won't look at me. He seems so angry, and I don't even know why. "Don't talk about things you don't understand." He spits and stands up.

"Loki." I whisper, and sure enough, he turns to me for a moment. What I see takes my breath away. "Your eyes..." They shine down on me in a brilliant blue, and as I back away a little, I think I see a red sparkle in them. "Don't tell me about things you don't understand, and believe me, you don't understand anything." I stare at him with widened eyes. Why is he being like this?

I get up and walk around my bed, standing in front of him and raising my hand. The sound of my hand hitting his cheek resonates in my small bedroom, but when he turns to me, the blue is gone. "Thank you." He surprises me, and I blush. "I'm sorry." I state. "But I don't like this other version of you." "Me neither." He sighs.

"Loki." I try to get his attention, and he turns his head toward me, his green eyes gazing into my blue ones. "What do I not understand?" I want to know. I want to know what happened to him, and I want to know what is behind that change of personality. "Tell me." I plead. "I can't." He whispers and looks away.

Suddenly, there is a knock at the door. Panicked my gaze shoots to Loki, but to my surprise, he's gone. "Y/n?" Steve asks when he opens the door and steps in. "Are you alright?" I nod my head, and he comes over to sit where Loki sat just a few seconds ago. "You seem a little shaken up." I shake my head and offer him a bright smile. "Nonsense. What got me the honour of your visit?"

"Caden won't stop asking for you." He sighs. "And he won't tell what he's up to." "Alright." I get up and wander to my wardrobe. "Let me change. I'll be down there in five minutes." Steve raises a brow at the shirt I'm wearing but decides against saying something.

Exactly six minutes later, I stroll through the door to the kitchen, looking for either Tony or Steve. They weren't down where the cells are, and they aren't in the living room either. Tony's, as well as Steve's quarters, were unoccupied, and in the training room was just Nat, jogging on a treadmill at a pace that every normal human being would never be able to do longer than a few seconds.

"Bruce!" I call when I see him through the door of his lab. "Y/n!" He greets me and flashes me a smile. "How are you?" Leaning against a table, I grin back at him. "I feel amazing. Thank you for taking that thing out."

Modest as he is, he waves it off. "You must be looking for Tony." He says and turns back to his screen, which shows strange formulas and something that looks like the structure of a molecule. "Do you know where he is?" I ask. "Sure." He taps on a spot on the molecule, and the section enlarges. "He's in the conference room. "Oh." I reply. "I've looked everywhere except there."

He smiles. "What are you doing?" The complicated structure of the molecule has piqued my interest, and I step a little closer, whereupon the scientist willingly gives me some space by taking a step to the side. "Thor brought me a plant from Asgard. He says it is used as a sedative, but it only affects the state of mind." He sighs. "It would be helpful in... certain situations."

"How kind of Thor." I say cautiously. I know how much it gnaws at him that there are moments when he can't control the Hulk. "Mhm." He smiles. "You should go now. You know Tony's span of patience is no longer than it takes his suit to build up." I chuckle at the accurate comparison and walk toward the door. "See you around, Bruce." "See ya." And with that, I disappear towards the lift.

"Took you long enough." Tony grumbles when I finally slide through the door to the conference room. "What has taken you so long?" "If anyone had told me exactly where to go, I would have been here ages ago." I reply and plop down on one of the free chairs.

"Whatever." Tony clears his throat and looks at Steve, who speaks up. "Caden is turning out to be quite the enigma." He begins. "Oh to hell with all the preliminaries." Tony chimes in, ignoring the resigned look from Steve. "Caden's not talking. The only thing he says is that he knows you and will only talk to you because he thinks we're arrogant idiots."

"I think you mean to say he thinks you're an arrogant idiot." Tony grumbles to himself as Pepper enters the room, a plate with two Sandwiches in her hand, which she sets down in front of me.

"Thank you." Indeed, my stomach grumbles softly, and I am more than grateful for the Sandwiches. "I can't believe no one else thought of it." Pepper's eyes flash over to the two men, who are suddenly looking around the room very much at odds. "You missed lunch." She explains to me and points to the clock, which reads a little after four.

"Thank you." I say again. My words are a little slurred since my mouth is full of sandwiches. "Let's go see Caden, I'd say." Tony nods, and the two of them stand up. On the way to Caden's cell, we meet Nat, who joins us, but instead of stepping into the cell wing, she takes a turn and ends up making her way to the control room.

The view I get is kind of funny. Caden sits in his cell and tries not to let on how much Bucky's impenetrable gaze bothers him. He has sat down on a chair in front of the glass wall behind which both Loki and I have already been sitting. My gaze lingers on his long hair. "Bucky!" I exclaim joyfully and fling myself at him.

"I missed you! Why didn't you tell me you were back?" "Nat said you were still asleep." He explains. "I didn't want to wake you." "How was the mission?" I inquire curiously, but a warning look from Tony in Caden's direction causes us to pull away from each other. No discussing missions in the presence of unauthorized people. He is right.

"So, did he say anything?" Tony asks as he watches Steve pat his friend on the back, probably expressing his delight at seeing his best friend again. "Nope." Bucky shakes his head, his hair swaying slightly.

"Hi, Caden." I greet the man in the cell and then turn to Tony. "Is that really necessary?" I ask, pointing to the cell. "He's not dangerous. How about we create a little more comfortable conditions for a conversation?" I suggest, and to my surprise, Tony agrees.

After fifteen minutes and several meaningless answers from Caden, with which neither I nor Tony, Nat, or Steve can do anything, I begin to lose patience. Tony is pinching the bridge of his nose while Steve looks out of the window, and Nat tries to keep up the mood by continuing to bombard Caden with questions.

"Caden." I finally say and open my eyes, which I've had closed for the last five minutes while trying not to freak out. "If that's even your real name." "It is." He interrupts me, and I glare at him. "We," I point to the people present, "are here to help you. However, we can't do anything unless you finally open your mouth and spill the beans."

He casts a nervous glance at Tony, and that is the point at which the already overstretched thread of my patience finally snaps. "Damn it, they all know! Aiden, the tracker, Aiden's motives..." I expel the air I didn't even know I was holding. "We can help each other." Nat takes the floor. "We're on the same side, but we can't do anything unless you give us the information we need."

"We are a team." Steve joins in. He has turned away from the window and is now walking slowly around the room. "We let you out of the cell, and you're not even wearing handcuffs or anything comparable that physically restricts you. We let you sit here free. Now it's up to you to show us some trust." "Get the sensor out. Then I'll talk."
___

(*) Macbeth is a tragedy written by Shakespeare in which a general receives a prophecy from three witches that he will be king. His wife encourages him to kill the current king and driven by greed, no sacrifice is too great for him to attain the promised power and to sweep aside those who dare stand in his way.