Chapter Text
They had been on the move for a couple days by the time they got to settle down. It definitely wouldn’t be long seeing how Loki seemed determined to recruit an army and lucky for him, SHIELD had no lack of enemies.
Unlucky for him, they worked faster than him.
“Jane Foster has been moved off the grid, sir. No record of her for the past few days,” Clint grumbled as he continued to click through the files of the people that SHIELD had decided were interesting enough to keep an eye on.
Selvig sighed and shook his head.
“Can you not do this on your own, doctor?” Loki frowned as he drummed his fingers on the handle of the scepter that he wouldn’t let out of his sight.
Selvig perked up. It could have been from nerves or excitement, the god wasn’t sure. “Of course, Loki. The Tesseract has shown me...so much about how it works! We should be able to share it with other people, don’t you think?”
Loki could practically feel the Other breathing down his neck as they spoke. He didn’t answer this time, at least not with words. Instead, he let out an annoyed sort of grunt as his eyes flickered over towards the Tesseract. Perhaps it would be helpful to have someone else in case he had to dispose of Selvig at one point or another. The human life-span was so different from his own so who was to say if the man got too old to serve his purpose.
“What about Sidney?” Clint spoke up again as he looked up from the tablet that he had been focused on for the past few minutes. This seemed to peek the older man’s interest; Loki just turned his gaze towards the archer and waited for him to continue. “She’s almost as good as Jane with the astrophysics, right?”
Loki had to stop himself as he nearly physically cringed at the mention of Thor’s Midgardian love.
“Almost?” Selvig laughed. “If she hadn’t disappeared off of the map 3 years ago, she would have made a real name for herself. Sidney Orwell was one of the brightest interns that Jane had...until Darcy, anyway.”
“What use is another individual of your specialty if they all can’t be found,” Loki said through gritted teeth.
“She can be found.” Clint assured them as he turned the tablet to face the other two men. “This was from last week. A convenience store pretty close to Gainesville, New York. It’s in the middle of nowhere. Population below 500. A good place for someone who doesn’t want to be found. Running diagnostics now!”
Loki leaned forward slightly. His facial features didn’t betray the interest that he felt as he took in as many details of the woman’s face as he could from the grainy security footage.
She looked young, but that wasn’t saying much. Many Midgardians would say he looked young as well. Her face was too blurry to really make out any details until a little box popped up in the corner of the screen.
“That’s a match!” Selvig shouted a few inches from Loki’s ear, but the god couldn’t be bothered.
He could see the woman’s face a lot more clearly now as the identification picture popped up on the screen beside a clearer version of the security footage. Loki’s head began to ache the longer he looked at the pictures. Something looked too familiar. Maybe it was the slope of her nose or the cheekbones, but something itched at the back of his brain. With one last fleeting glance, he spotted it and his breath stopped.
Without another thought, he rose to his feet and gritted his teeth. His grip on the scepter tightened as he turned away from the two SHIELD employees.
“Bring her to me.”
It was always a sort of special occasion when Sidney would leave her secluded little cabin and head into Gainesville in order to stock up on some essentials. The man behind the counter knew her by name as he knew everyone in the town. Sidney was always polite and pleasant but never revealed anything about herself. People in town tried their hardest not to talk to the woman that secluded. Some of the kids in town whispered about her being a witch. Sidney had heard a group of them once when she was headed home and she couldn’t help but smirk at them.
Today was different. The air felt thick and the cellphone that she carried in her pocket felt heavier than usual. A weary smile crossed her face as she set the few containers of ramen noodles on the counter with the rest of her items. “Hey there, Ben. How’s your mom doing this week?”
“Oh she’s doing great, Miss Orwell!” The younger man flashed her a bright smile as he rang up her items. “Should be back runnin’ the store in no time. About time too, I don’t think my nerves could handle it anymore.”
Sidney laughed quietly as she paid her total, “I’ll keep that between us.”
She was already in her own world again as she collected her bags and made her way to the car. As she slammed her trunk closed, a vibrating noise in her purse drew her attention. Her hand flew to her back pocket and she found her cellphone was still there, That meant…
The blonde hurried into the car and pulled a smaller black phone out of her bag as she tossed her normal phone onto the passenger seat.
Selvig. Her throat felt dry for some reason as she looked at the caller ID on the SHIELD issued phone. That had been part of the deal she’d made with Fury. She should have known better than to trust him and SHIELD after everything that had happened with Thor. Saved by the bell, she sighed out loud as the call went to her voicemail.
As she put the car in reverse, she took a deep breath before she began on her journey home. Her right hand shifted the car into drive again as her left hand entered the passcode to her voicemail.
“Sidney! It’s Erik. I don’t even know if this is still your number but give me a call when you get a minute. I have really important questions for you!”
“Why don’t you just ask Jane,” Sidney sighed as she clicked a button before she tossed the phone back into her bag.
Still, she couldn’t shake the nagging sensation that something was wrong.
Her suspicions were solidified as she came within eye-sight of her cabin a few miles later. An unmarked black car was parked on the side of the road just a half-mile away from her house and people were inside. The hair on the back of her neck stood up as she white-knuckled it down her driveway.
“You’re losing it, Si.” The blonde took a deep breath through her nose before she looked in her rearview mirror. The car had pulled off the side of the road and followed her now. “Well son of a bitch.”
Somehow, she managed to keep her demeanor calm as she put the car in park and walked to her door with her head held high. Sidney tried not to shudder as she heard the black car roll up closer down the driveway. She was safe in her house now but her eyes scanned the room quickly. She needed an escape route just in case and she found it just as a loud bang bang shook the door behind her.
“Just a minute,” she threw her voice as she grabbed a small swiss army knife off of her kitchen table and stuffed it one of her back pockets along with her SHIELD phone. Sidney took a deep breath and she opened the door.
“Oh! Hello, gentleman,” she flashed the two suited men a disarming smile as she peeked her head out. “How can I help you?”
“Sidney Orwell?” The shorter of the two asked. The blonde just nodded her head. “I’m Agent Downey and this is Agent Evans. We’re with SHIELD. You’re going to need you to come with us.”
“Is that supposed to mean something to me?” Sidney narrowed her eyes slightly as she glanced between the two men. “I don’t work for you. In fact, part of my deal with Fury was that he would let me live in peace if I let him keep an eye on me so I suggest you get back in your car and you leave.”
She went to push the door shut but a force stopped her. Anger flared through her as she wrenched the door open and stood to her full height. “I’m afraid we can’t do that, miss. We have orders.” Her eyes shot to the taller man. A shiver went down her spine this time as she locked eyes with him. There was something not right about it. “Erik Selvig requests your presence.”
“I don’t know Selvig was in a position to make requests of me,” she replied coolly.
“Everything could be explained if you just let us inside, ma’am.”
Sidney glanced over her shoulder into the kitchen for a moment before she stepped aside to let the two agents inside.
She closed the door behind them and quickly turned to face them. Everything about them just seemed...off. She was used to SHIELD agents and how they acted but there was something truly off about these two.
Time seemed to stand still and then all at once, everything was moving. The shorter man’s hand shot to the taser on his belt as the taller man pointed his gun at her. She hadn’t even realized she had the knife in her hand now. “Everything will be so much easier if you just come with us!”
“Go to hell,” Sidney hissed through gritted teeth.
“The Tesseract can show you so many things.”
Her eyes widened slightly. “What the hell did you just say?”
She didn’t get an answer. Instead she ducked as the probes of the taser embedded themselves in the door where her neck had been moments before. A yell left her as she jumped to her feet and tossed the knife at the taller man. The shorter one made a move to grab her as his partner screamed and cursed her as he tried to wrench the knife out of his hand. The woods were right there. Sidney cleared her mind as she dodged another punch from the shorter man. The man looked slightly shocked just as she punched him in the chest and sent him flying across the room.
Without another thought, she pulled the front door open and sprinted for the woods.
She had no idea how long she ran for. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours; all she knew was that by the time she stopped running, her lungs ached. Sidney nearly jumped out of her skin as she felt something. The cellphone in her back pocket was vibrating.
Her fingers shook as she pulled it from her pocket and answered without thinking.
“Listen you bastards if you think-”
“I see our intelligence wasn’t quite up to par on this information. I apologize, Miss Orwell,” a somewhat cheerful voice on the end cut her off. Sidney never thought she could be so happy to hear someone’s voice in her life.
“There better be a good reason why some of your agents showed up to my house unannounced talking about the Tesseract of all things, Phillip,” Sidney’s eye darted around the forest once again.
She could hear Coulson say something to someone else in the background before he replied. “Some of our agents have been...compromised.” He even sounded like he was cringing. “We were calling because we need your help.”
“I-”
“I know all about your deal, Sidney. Fury fully intends to honor it once the fate of the Earth isn’t in danger.”
Sidney swallowed hard as she started to walk again. “I want that in writing this time, Coulson,” she deadpanned.
“I’ll see what I can do. For now, just do me a favor. Walk North for about another 10 minutes. We’ll have a jet waiting for you.”
The line went dead before she could even reply.