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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲-𝐍𝐢𝐧𝐞: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬

May 2015

Bucharest, Romania

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It had taken years for Allie to fully appreciate the comfort that came from peace. The beautiful and relaxing idea of being free from disturbances. Completely at ease and tranquil. But although glorious while it lasts, peace inevitably comes to an end.

Because one can not be happy for their entire life, as happiness would then lose its meaning. The highs would no longer be as high, as joyous and all-consuming as they had been. Instead they blur together, rendered insignificant. So you wait for the other shoe to drop, wondering when your peace will be replaced by inner turmoil and demons. Waiting for the change to roll in like a rising tide at sea.

Because it wasn't a matter of if, rather when would everything start to change.

And because of that sentimentality, Allie decided to cherish her peace with Bucky before she lost it. Before that other shoe would drop and return her life into its constant state of stress.

It had been over a month since Allie returned to Bucharest, and the time seemed to fly before her eyes with little haste. The soft, sensual kisses and the endless midnight conversations that had been Allie's life. A bundle of light incarnate bestowed upon her like a gift from the Gods.

Her and Bucky had begin to experience the closest thing they would ever get to a mundane life. Staying at home in each other's arms, weekly shopping trips into the town, watching the century old television as they ate their dinner together, even going on the occasional date if they felt like it. It was a life they never believed they would get the chance to experience, not in the '40s nor in the 21st century.

So they made sure to make the most of it.

The previous night they had spent exploring the town, trekking through the concrete jungle for hours. Listening to the melodious sounds of street buskers echoing into the flurescent heart of the city. They conversed the entire time, walking down the streets without a care in the world. Eating fatty street food as they danced underneath the soft moonbeams like stars.

A now usual nighttime activity for the pair, one they both quite seemed to enjoy.

Eventually they decided to return home, sometime in the early hours of the morning. Immediately collapsing on the bed wrapped up in Bucky's arms. And she had fallen to sleep quicker than a light turning off, easily succumbing to the darkness.

But what she awoke to, was very much not normal.

Her eyes fluttered open, suddenly thrown into consciousness. The room was a blur as her eyes readjusted to the golden sunbeams that leaked in through the windows. She lay drenched in the light, but oddly enough she didn't feel its warmth. Nor did she hear the faint rumble of cars roaring down the street outside or the touch of Bucky's skin against her own.

Perplexed, she rolled onto her back and rubbed at her eyes. Unaware of the foreign presence standing in the center of her room, decked out in a familair emerald and black uniform.

"Good day, Alexandra." The man spoke, instantly sending Allie jumping up in the bed in fright. "It's been quite a while, hasn't it."

Eyes swirling with silver, she turned towards the person intruding in her home, drowning in a sea of fear colder than a dead star. Her muscles tensed and react to attack if necessary, the threat of being captured never truly out of her mind.

But then she saw who it was.

She remembered the stark raven locks that fell down his back like a river of darkness. His glimmering jade eyes, holding a certain ambiguity to them, a jokester's eyes. And she remembered the odd clothes, the billowing green cape that hung off his broad shoulders and the golden embellishments to his undergarments that ignited the room in radiant light.

"Jesus Christ." She muttered, placing a hand over her heart that raced beneath her ivory skin.

"I think you have me confused. I'm Loki." He grinned mockingly, eyes swirling with friendly sarcasm.

At Loki's words, Allie's hands wound into her hair tightly, clutching at the chestnuts strands. "I'm dreaming. There's no way you can be here." She muttered beneath her breath.

Because there couldn't be any way that Loki was here, in her bedroom on Earth. She hadn't seen Loki since that one time back when she was imprisoned in HYDRA. The time he informed her he was going to do something trecherous, something bad enough that he was now considered a mass murderer and criminal across the world. A criminal that had returned to Asgard with his brother.

"Have you forget who I am? I can be wherever the Hel I want to be." Loki rebuked scornfully.

"Loki?" She questioned, frowning as she took in his new attire. The softer features, the pallid skin and curious eyes. "W—What? Or h—how? Loki?"

"Well I'm glad you at least can form a coherent sentence."

"No need to be so rude." She commented, crossing her hands over her chest frustratedly.

But all Loki did was smirk at her words, a facestious chuckle falling past his thin lips. "Sorry, I didn't realize I hurt your precious feelings." He simpered.

"You sure changed." She muttered, eyes glinting deviously. " You used to be nice."

"Well, I profoundly apologize then." He retorted, no ounce of honesty present in his words. But then he donned a somber expression, regarding her with interest. "It seems that you have changed also, Alexandra."

"Well, I eventually realized you were right, so I left." She answered softly, dropping her sarcastic tone and instead replacing it with a wistful one. "I left Mikael."

And her words were drowned in a sea of anguish because somewhere deep inside Allie, she missed the Mikael that he used be. The boisterous child that chased her down the hallways of HYDRA. The friend that used to mutter not so hilarious jokes to her during training just to see her smile. He was her light in a place that was devoid of all things luminous, a place that cultivated only the darkest parts of human nature.

That Mikael she would always miss. Because just as Allie was a victim of HYDRA's torment, so was he.

But she found herself unable to balance her hatred of the man he became with her love for the child he had been, the friend he used to be to her. She didn't know if she would ever be able to forgive the things Mikael had done to her as Trickery, the abhorrent crimes he had forced her to commit. But the memories of who he was a child made it just as hard to blame him too.

And she was torn.

"Please, don't tell me you still care for that bastard. After everything he did to you!" Loki spoke incredulously, irritation flaring in his eyes as he noticed the inner turmoil in her dark eyes.

"He was a good person before HYDRA corrupted him. He was kind and caring, and he looked after me when no one else did. He was the only reason I survived my training at HYDRA when we were children." She explained ruefully. Trying to suppress the emotional memories that threatened to bubble up to the surface. "Mikael and Erskine were my family."

"And now? After all the pain, all the lying, all the torture, would you still call him your family now?" Loki asked, cocking his dark brow challengingly.

And that was the million dollar question. Because after everything Mikael had done, creating Trickery, the monsterous side of Allie, she wasn't sure if she would call that love. She wouldn't call locking her up in a cage and being used as a brainwashed soldier as love.

But that little boy she knew, the one who took the whip instead of her when she got herself in trouble. The child who used to comfort her when she was sad or hurt, she couldn't find it in her to abandom him.

"I—I don't know." She murmured, dropping her gaze to the ground.

But Loki didn't understand her reasoning.

Immediately he bristled at her response, fury churning inside him like a diseased parasite. Clawing up his throat and leeching from his mouth as enraged words. Anger that was synonymous with how he felt about his own family. How they had disregarded him.

"He betrayed you, he used you as a pawn in his own game. He never loved you, he loved your powers, everything that you could achieve for him. He was obsessed with power, and that was all you were to him. Power that he could control." He growled.

"Don't you think I know that!" She yelled, fists coiling by her side in anguish.

Loki let out a sigh, running a hand through his dark locks in slight exasperation. And then he opened his mouth to speak, his tone reflective and exhausted. Speaking words that he wished somebody had told him long ago.

"I told you this before and I will tell you this again, I know firsthand that it is those you trust most that hide the harshest of truths. But you can't be the one to let them keep lying to you." He murmured. "You can't let them treat you like a doormat for their own selfish reasons."

"What happened to you, Loki?" She whispered, recognizing the fragmenented soul that lingered behind his harsh exterior. A soul that mirrored hers in all ways possible. "Who broke you?"

"The world." He answered vaguely, eyes hardening as he spoke, realizing that he beared his soul to much. Exposing his vulnerability to the world.

"Loki—"

"Darling, I'm not here to talk about me. I am here to warn you." He cut her off implorignly, successfully changing the topic.

"What?" She gaped, horror churning inside her like a hurricane. "Warn me of what exactly?"

"I can't reveal too much, Alexandra because it will cause carnage amongst the timeline if I do. But there are many battles to come, wars that will need fighting. And unfortunately, you will be a soldier in these wars yet again." He somewhat explained.

"Why do you always have to speak in riddles." She sighed, shaking her head as questions whirled around inside her mind like a carosuel.

"We have had this discussion already, Lady Alexandra. I am Loki, the God of mischief, and you can't have mischief without riddles." He smirked softly.

"I would very much disagree." She muttered, but she was unable to stop the small quirk of her lips at his statement.

Warmth blossomed inside Loki like a flower, its soft petals curling around his heart and giving it a reassuring squeeze, filling the small shriveled organ with life.

But Loki never let beautiful live for too long, he was a creature prone to disaster after all. Slaughtering anything pure within his path with little care in the world. And whether he liked it or not, that was who he was, a wolf hiding beneath a sheep skin.

Clearing his throat, he let the grin fall from his lips almost as quickly as it arose. Focusing on the reason that he was here, which wasn't to mingle with the woman that may have been an exact carbon copy of him, a woman that deserved so much better.

"As I was saying before you rudely interrupted me, you will be caught in a battle that you won't want to fight in. Stuck between choosing sides that will tear your new family apart. Thrown back into the clutches of the monster you have fought so hard to escape." He continued, his features cold as he explained his sudden reapperance.

"You really are just a ray of sunshine, aren't you?" She quipped, frustration boling inside her at his unclear words.

"I am trying to help you and here you are insulting me." He scowled.

"Sorry, do continue." She rebuked playfully.

"If you wish to survive, you will need to remember who it is that you have become. Everything that your past has taught you, all the progress you have made to become the strong woman that you are now. Because if you don't, then you will not be able to bear what the future has in store." He spoke like a poet, words eerily cryptic and yet insightful.

"Wonderful, just wonderful." She muttered, running a hand through her dark tresses anxiously. "I really can't have any peace or reprieve can I? Not a brief vacation from this hellish world, no."

"People like us don't get given easy paths, Alexandra." Loki attempted to ease her anguish.

Taking a deep breath in, replenishing her lungs with oxygen, Allie let out an exasperated sigh. Chest deflating as a dark shadow flit across her face.

"And what of you?" She questioned. "What's going to happen to you?"

"Don't you know? I'm seemingly unkillable." He chided, eyes glinting with a ghost of amusment. "I'll live forever in my tormented reailty. I am a God after all."

"Thank you, Loki." She murmured, reaching up and touching the all too familiar amulet that rested against the ivory skin of her neck. The amulet that he had given her all those years ago. "Thank you for everything."

"There is no need to thank me." Loki replied, a rare smiling pulling at his lips as he noticed that she was still wearing the silver charm he gifted her. "You are strong, Alexandra. And I have no doubt that you will flourish during these coming challenges."

"They don't sound like challenges to me." She grumbled, to which Loki let out a melodious chuckle.

His laugh echoed in the air for a moment, the last time Allie would ever hear such a glorious sound. One that made songbirds and singers alike bow in deference. But then Loki's figure began to fade, dissapearing right before Allie as if he was just a figment of her imagination.

"It looks like it is time for me to depart, Lady Alexandra." He sighed despondently. "I have a kingdom to govern."

"So you are a proper King now." She smiled lightly, recalling her conversation with him back at HYDRA where he mentioned something about him ruling those planets she could not remember. "Do I even want to know how that happened?"

He grinned impishly at her question, mischeviousness glinting in his eyes as he thought about his own rise to power. "No, darling. I don't think you do."

Allie let out a soft chuckle at his words before her happiness wilted away, replaced by a look of sorrow.

"Will I see you again?" She murmured.

"If you are lucky enough to be graced with my presence."

And with Loki's smirk burned into the forefront of her mind, he faded away from view. Leaving Allie enshrowed in darkness until her eyes blinked open again. Only this time waking to the feeling of the early morning sun beating warmly down on her skin and Bucky's metal arm dangled loosely over the curve of her waste.

Not a single trace of the Asgardian God left behind.

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For the next few days, the raven haired God was the only thing that was on Allie's mind. His peculiar words, the ambiguous warnings playing on her head like a broken record. The strident sound sending her reeling in distaste, wishing she could flick the off button and pull out the cord that allowed such thoughts to circulate. But her mind would never shut off, she had no control over it at all.

Not unless she died, which was something she was quite against at this moment in time.

As soon as Bucky had awoken that morning, Allie had told him of Loki's visit. She informed him of everything; his first visit to her at HYDRA all those years ago, the amulet of Fenrir that she wore around her neck, and his most recent visit, how he spoke in riddles of the hardship that laid ahead for her. She told him everything, risking the fact that he would think she was actually mentally deranged.

And at first he looked as if he didn't belief her, skepticism swirling in his cobalt eyes like a thunderous storm. He truly did wonder if she was insane, that she had become a victim of her hallucinations once again. That the motley of pills Tony had her ingesting each day were doing more harm than good.

But when she had used her illusions to show Bucky what she saw, more accurately who she saw, Bucky began to think maybe she wasn't so crazy after all. Because who could paint such a realistic picture of a God that one saw in their dreams, to have them act with startling accuracy and move as if it wasn't just a figment of his imagination (ignoring the fact that Trickery was quite literally her namesake).

Eventually believing her, the only advice that Bucky was able to muster up to her all-consuming confusion was let it be. The future was something best left alone, that no matter how hard she tried to avoid it, it would always be nipping at her heels. There was nothing she could to do so why bother worrying about it.

However, the only way for Allie to truly push Loki and his preemptive warnings out of her mind was to let herself become distracted. Resulting in Bucky deciding to take her on a walk around the city.

They trekked down the concrete street, licking the sickly residue of sugar off her fingers left behind from the donuts the pair had bought at the market. The radiant sun shining down on her like a halo of light, slightly simmering against her alabaster skin. Dirty pavement and small Romanian buildings extending as far as the eye could see. Conversation flowing between the two like a stream, boundless and never ending.

"Feeling better?" Bucky questioned, adjusting the navy cap that sat atop of his dark tresses.

"Much." She nodded, squeezing their enclosed hands gently as physical reassurance.

"M'glad. After all those donuts were expensive." He grinned impishly, a familiar warmth spreading through his fingers that were wrapped around her own. The warmth that came from her very touch.

Rolling her eyes, Allie smirked back at him lazily.

"And if I didn't feel better?"

"Then I'd go back and demand a refund." He answered, eyes holding hers with all the devotion of a man of faith. "I don't give my doll things that don't make her happy."

A melodious laugh fell from her ruby lips, a sound that Bucky believed to incarnate of angels singing in heaven. A piece of refuge for his wounded heart, healing the jagged abrasions like a magical cure.

"A man after my own heart." She smiled, eyes alight in jubilant glee.

"I thought I already had it?" He chided, turning down to gaze at her in barely contained adoration.

"Correction, you will always have it." She answered.

At her words, a pure smile curled on Bucky's lips. One that seemed to be made from molten moonbeams, something celestial, not of this earth. An image that she would see in her favorite dreams, seared into her mind to remind her of this exact moment. Of the joy they experienced, the love that enraptured their hearts.

Drowning in her love for him, Bucky released her hand from his hold and wrapped the free limb around her shoulders. Pulling her smaller body into his own, joining like two puzzle pieces contrived for each other. A display of affection that showcased their love more than any kiss or carnal pleasure.

And they continued walking through the bustling streets, laughter echoing into the air without a single care in the world. Teasing each other and sharing thoughts without fear of who could possibly over hear them, of the monsters who could be lurking in the shadows.

But their serendipitous affair was brought to an end when Allie's phone began ringing in her pocket.

Pulling away from Bucky's hold, she reached into her back pocket and pulled out the device. Immediately a smile curled at her lips as she saw that it was Peter calling her, the boy she had met back at the therapy meeting in Queens. The teen who had first called her a couple weeks ago, needing someone to talk to about the absence in his heart because of the loss of his uncle. And now regularly conversed with her about all topics under the sun.

Quickly answering the phonecall, Allie lifted the device up to her ear, unaware of the slight frown that pulled at Bucky's own lips.

"Hi, Peter!" She greeted cheerily.

"Hi, Allie!" His trilling baritone voice replied, dripping with pubescent shyness. "How are you?"

"Good, good. And you?" She answered, turning to Bucky and offering him an apologetic smile.

"I'm alright. Have you seen the news?"

Frowning at the question, Allie shook her head, forgetting that Peter wouldn't see the action. "No, is everything okay?"

"You need to go turn on the TV. It's World War 3 in Sokovia." He informed her.

"Sokovia? What's going on?" She questioned, panic brewing in her throat like a mighty storm. Characterized by clenching hands and discombobulating fear immobilizing her limbs.

"I don't know! All I can tell you is the Avengers have been called in to fight these robots and the city is flying!" He tried to explain with the limited understanding he owned.

"Jesus Christ." She muttered beneath her breath. "Alright, I'm going to go turn the TV on now, Pete. You stay safe, please."

"Will do, Allie!"

"Goodbye, Pete." She spoke, bidding her farewell as she turned to meet Bucky's worried gaze.

"See ya!"

Hanging up the phone, Allie let out an anxious sigh, chest deflating with apprehensive fear. The mere mention of war scaring Allie, reminding her off the carnage that she experienced all those years ago. The loss, the destruction, the complete evil that war brought as if it were a child of the devil. The sinister embodiment of all things corrupt and catastrophic. And she knew that no person or place deserved to experience war. No one deserved that pain and suffering.

"Allie?" Bucky's voice called, pulling her from her dark thoughts.

"We need to get home, now." She told him, meeting his worried cerulean orbs.

"Why? What's going on?" He questioned, face hardening as he recognized the look of fear in her eyes all too well.

"Steve and Tony are in trouble." Was all she managed to say.

And with that, the pair began running. With unprecedented speed the two sprinted back home, bounding around those who stood in their way, bodies quivering with dread as the news of Sokovia hung over their heads like a dark cloud. Obscuring the light, hiding any potential hope behind a sickening veil of panic.

Her heart was pounding in her chest, each thump becoming closer info frequency as they neared their humble abode. Pumping acidic anxiety in her bloodstream, circulating the emotion throughout her body until no inch of her was left untained.

Upon seeing the familiar apartment complex that she called home, her pushed her legs to move even faster. Bucky right on her heels as she barrelled down the street and into the building. Not caring for the odd looks they received by passersby. She bounded up the stairs two at a time, not even bothering to breathe until she was in the safe confines of their room.

She slammed the door open and instantly reached for the tv, turning it onto the news and letting her jaw drop open as she saw what was happening in Sokovia, a scene reminiscent of a horror movie. Ignoring the incessant screaming of the reporter as she watched the scene unfold right before her eyes.

Hundreds of feet suspended above the ground was Sokovia, a disfigured expanse of land quite literally rising in the air with each passing second. A city stained with carnage and destruction, soaked in the blood of the towns inhabitants. A city that she assumed was once bursting with life and serenity, knowing nothing of this type of terror.

Amongst all the falling debris and ruins, Allie managed to see flying silver bodies. Well oiled machines that released bullets upon the civilians and its protectors with unforgiving precision. Raining devilish hellfire down on the already suffering city.

But she could also see the Avengers. Tony is his ostentatious red and gold tin suit, flying around the city firing his beams of incendiary light at the robots. Melaina's raging black infernos of pure darkness igniting the droids, reducing them to nothing but blackened soot. Steve's instantly recognizable navy suit dashing around trying to preserve as much life as possible.

It was a scene that rivalled one of her nightmares.

"What the hell is going on?" Bucky murmured, eyes glued on the tv in overwhelmings horror.

"I really don't know." She whispered, watching as the fleet of metallic robots descended upon the Avengers like a squadron of soldiers. Weapons firing with deadly accuracy and the intent to kill.

The world was changing, and watching the events unfold on the screen before her, proved that to Allie. No longer was she a woman of the '40s, fighting an enemy seeking to control the world with an army of soldiers at his back. No more was she the good guy, avenging those who didn't have the ability to fight for themselves. No longer loved by a man of purity, a man with a golden, untained heart wanting to spend the rest of his life building a family with her.

Instead, the 21st century seemed to hold problems that would forever baffle Allie. Enemies of human biology or made of automated parts, somehow with the ability to think and act like a person of Earth. She was the bad guy, the villain of her narrative, trying to escape those who sought to recapture her and those wishing for her to be sent to trial for her crimes. A monster who could only be loved by someone equally broken as she, willing to glue back the pieces of her glass heart.

Everything had changed. But what she failed to understand was that everything was still changing. And not all changing for the better.

"What has this world come to?"

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Hi everyone!!!!

WOOO OMFG WE ARE DONE!!!

Excluding the small teaser that I have coming for Tricked, we are finally finished with Trickery!! It's been a wild ride!

I just want to thank every single one of you for sticking around and putting up with my terrible writing, chapters filled with constant angst and very little fluff, and my very infrequent updates!! Your support means more to me than what you will ever know xx

On another note, i feel like I can never do Loki justice when I write him :( He's just such a unique character and I don't know how to balance the comedic side of him with the actual evil side and then the broken side of the good man he used to be.

Ngl, I never actually planned on bringing Loki back into the story. But you guys kept asking for him (even though I literally forgot about him lol), so I caved and decided to bring him back in the last chapter. It's my final present to you all so to speak!

And now onto the questions!!!

1. What do you think of the chapter?

2. What would you like to see in the Teaser?

3. What did you guys think of Loki and Allie's reunion?

4. What has been your favorite part of Trickery?

Until next time!!!

— Grace