The Real Monsters - Chapter 1

   It began simply enough. Just a routine mission; capture some person or another that had information S.H.I.E.L.D. needed. Loki hadn’t really been paying attention to the briefing. He’d been too busy observing the object of his interest for the past year: the Avenger by the name of Alice Stranton, codenamed ‘Nightshade’. The pale, shapely young woman had caught his eye from the moment he first arrived to headquarters with Thor to work alongside the Avengers (for reasons he refused to acknowledge, much less talk about), and he’d quickly made it his goal to work his way into her acquaintance. That had proved to be very easy, seeing as when they were introduced the girl had smiled at him and actually hugged him as though they were the best of friends, much to his bemusement. The rest of the room had had a good laugh at his expense over the expression on his face that he’d failed to hide in time. Time in her presence had only served to deepen Loki’s puzzlement over the black-haired, violet-eyed woman; while she seemed genuinely affectionate towards him and the rest of the team, on the field she was downright ruthless to anyone standing in her way on a level that slightly disturbed him.
As the months passed, he’d gotten mostly used to her ways, even going so far as to call her a friend. They worked well together, too; her skill with the arsenal of blades she used along with his own fighting skills and magick had proven to be a very effective combination, and their strategies of attack blended so seamlessly together one would think they were reading each other’s thoughts. Lately, though, things had been changing, at least in his mind, and he couldn’t quite figure out why.

   Or rather, deep down he had a pretty good idea of what it was, he just didn’t want to admit it.

   In any case, Agent Romanoff and the Captain were sent to retrieve the person of interest, which they accomplished easily enough, and, after whoever had been sent in to interrogate the man failed at their job, Fury sent him and Alice in instead. Loki had decided to play it nice (well, sort of) at first, but the man had been uncooperative so far, and so he decided on a different approach.
Loki barely had time to open his mouth to speak before Alice moved forward, fist swinging out to connect harshly with the prisoner’s jaw. He sighed, crossing his arms over his chest and eyeing her in annoyance as she turned to face him.

   “What?”- She asked innocently with a slight shrug, “Your way wasn’t working.”

   “You think that’s gonna get me to talk? Playing ‘Good Cop, Bad Cop’?” - The prisoner huffed, causing them to turn back to him. Loki raised an eyebrow in mild amusement and Alice’s lips turned up in a slightly unnerving grin.

   “Ohh, sugar...” - She began sweetly, leaning forward slightly, before her smile dropped and she turned serious, “I’m not playing.”

   “That’s more my territory.” - Loki added with a wolfish grin, “And believe me, my games are anything but good.”

   “You know, I don’t think he really needs all of his fingers to talk; do you?” - Alice spoke casually as she straightened back up and looked at Loki, pulling out a very sharp-looking dagger from its scabbard on her belt, twirling it easily in her hand.

   “Technically, no.” - Loki replied just as casually, “But you’d have to cauterize the wound after; wouldn’t do for him to bleed to death before we get what we need.”

   “Hey, I just play with knives; you’re the one with the magick.” - Alice laughed, poking his shoulder playfully.

   “Oh, very well, if I must.” - Loki replied with an exaggerated sigh, then conjured up a ball of flame in one hand and gestured for her to go on.
Alice walked over and grabbed one of the prisoner’s hands, holding it flat on the table, and was drawing the dagger over to one of his fingers when the man finally broke.

   “Alright, alright, alright! I’ll talk! I’ll talk! Jesus Christ, I’ll talk!!” - He cried desperately, fear turning the pitch of his voice up a few octaves.

   “Ah, too late!”- Alice chirped and continued moving. The blade was inches away from its destination when the door burst open and Fury stormed in looking none-too-pleased.

   “Stranton, stand down.” - He scolded, as though speaking to a child.

   “Aw.” - Alice whined with a pout as she straightened back up and put the dagger away, “You never let me have any fun.”

   “Out.” - Fury ordered with a sharp jerk of his head towards the door.
Alice huffed, then sauntered out of the room, but not before turning back to the prisoner at the door and waving goodbye at him with a flirty smile and a wink.

   “The hell kind of freak you employ around here?” - The prisoner cried out, voice cracking, as Loki followed after Alice shaking his head at her antics and chuckling.

   “Let’s get one thing clear: You stop talking, or lie to me, and I call her back in. Understand?” - Fury asked, and the prisoner eagerly nodded his understanding, “Good.”


   The evening found all the Avengers lounging around, unwinding. Natasha was sitting at a table talking to Wanda and Vision, Tony was at the bar with Rhodey and Clint, Loki was sprawled out on a chair with a book in his hands that he was more-or-less paying attention to, and Sam, Steve, Thor and Alice were sitting on the couches chatting about nothing in particular, Alice curled up practically in Thor’s lap happily playing with his hair. Eventually, the conversation turned towards the interrogation from that afternoon, causing the rest of the room to gradually cease their respective activities and turn their attention to the couches.

   “There’s just one thing I really gotta know.” - Sam asked, looking at Alice.

   “Just one?” - Alice joked, to which the rest of them chuckled, before nodding to him and asking, “And what’s that?”

   “Were you really going to...?” - Sam began, then trailed off.

   “To what, cut his fingers off?” - Alice asked, receiving a nod in reply. She smiled and continued brightly, “Yup! Among other things.”

   “Seriously, just like that?” - Sam asked.
Alice looked at him with a sympathetic sort of expression, ceased playing with Thor’s hair and leaned forward, resting her hands on her lap.

   “Sam, I may be fighting on the side of the ‘heroes’...” -She began with a smile, tilting her head to the side slightly, “But I am not a good person.”

   “A lot of us have done.. questionable things. I mean, look at Nat, and Loki.” - Sam said, gesturing to each person respectively.

   “True; they’re both very dangerous people in their own right.” - Alice agreed, eyeing her comrades before turning back to Sam and adding calmly, “But I’m a monster.”

   “I don’t buy that.” - Sam insisted, “You care about the team. The people we save.”

   “Well, you’re half right, the team does mean the world to me.” - Alice said with a slight laugh, then shrugged, “Even monsters have someone they care about. But while there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you guys, I could just as easily decide to kill you all one day.”

   “Hey, as long as you do it with love...” - Clint chimed in, earning a laugh from everyone in the room, save for Sam and Loki, the latter of which was staring at Alice thoughtfully.

   “Always, Hawkdude; always.” - Alice replied cheerfully.


   Sometime after 3am, Alice and Loki sat on the roof of the building, staring up at the stars. Loki had been amusing his friend with stories of past exploits until gradually they’d slipped into a comfortable silence.

   “Do you truly think yourself a monster?” - Loki asked after a while.

   “I don’t think, sweetie; I know.” - Alice replied, then stretched her arms over her head with a slight pleased moan and leaned back until she was lying on the floor.
Loki looked down at her, scrutinizing her features as if to gauge whether she was serious or not.

   “... You really believe that.” - He concluded in slight disbelief, then shifted so that he was facing her fully and asked, “Why? What could possibly have led you to that?”
Alice looked up at him for a moment, then turned onto her side and grabbed one of Loki’s hands, bringing it up to her face and pressing a light kiss to his palm.

   “That, my friend, is not a three-in-the-morning conversation.” - She said, before releasing his hand and turning back onto her back, turning her attention to the sky again, “Ask me again after breakfast.”
Loki stared at his palm for a while, then shook his head sharply and moved to lie down next to Alice, turning his face to the sky but staring at her out of the corner of his eye every so often.


   After breakfast, Loki had every intention of questioning Alice again, and so he hunted her down, finding her lying on her back in the middle of a hallway with her legs propped up against the wall chatting away with Steve, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor opposite her leaning against the wall.

   “Alice, have you a moment?” - Loki asked as he reached her.

   “I don’t know; do I?” - Alice asked, turning to Steve, who shrugged.

   “Sure. I have things to do anyway.” - He replied, standing up and walking away.

   “I guess I do, then.” - Alice said and curled up her legs, using them to push herself across the floor away from the wall. She then turned to Loki and reached her arms up at him, to which he rolled his eyes before reaching down and helping her up as she asked, “So what’s up? Our earlier conversation, I presume?”

   “No; I just wanted to ask if you know whether Rogers is dating anyone before I work up the nerve to ask him out to dinner.” - Loki replied sarcastically.

   “Oh, no you don’t; that ass is mine!” - Alice retorted, managing to stifle most of her laughter.

   “Well then you’d better make your move fast, because I play for keeps.” - Loki countered, having more success in keeping a straight face.

   “Okay, how ‘bout this: we share?” - Alice suggested, managing to regain a bit of her composure.
Loki feigned consideration of the idea and was about to reply, when another voice cut in.

   “I hate to burst your bubble, but I’m pretty sure our Captain is a one person type of guy.” - Fury said rather amusedly as he walked into the hall, Maria trailing a bit behind him wearing an expression that suggested she really wanted to laugh, before stopping in front of them and turning to Alice seriously, “We have a situation; about an hour ago, a woman came into the office with enough weaponry on her to take out a few SWAT teams, and yet put up absolutely no resistance when we moved to detain her.”

   “And this involves me, how..?” - Alice asked slowly.

   “She’s claiming to be your mother.” - Fury replied, and Alice’s world seemed to come to an abrupt halt.