Chapter Text
Loki was shaking. He was exhausted and his entire body ached. His head throbbed with the headache which had become his constant companion for what seemed like an eternity and sweat trickled down his forehead.
As the bright blue, glowy smoke of the Scepter faded, Loki slowly got to his feet, blinking to clear his eyes, adrenaline pumping through his veins. His back protested as he tried to stand up straight. He saw two mortals both dressed in black. One of them appeared to be nearly as tall as him and had an eyepatch that reminded him of Odin.
The man also looked like he was a leader of some sort judging by how the other(shorter) man stood half a step behind him. What was it with old, eye patched men being leaders? He spied another aged mortal, who for some reason, looked familiar. Several other men dressed in dark suits with guns cocked were moving towards him.
"Sir, please put down the spear!" Eyepatch said.
He briefly debated on what to do but as he felt a sharp tug on his mind, Loki looked at the Scepter and his mind suddenly went blank.
Then suddenly he pointed it at where Eyepatch and his assistant(?) were standing and shot a beam from the Scepter towards them. The shorter man tackled Eyepatch to the ground and they both barely missed Loki's fired shot.
All hel broke loose. Machine gun fire was shot at Loki, but the bullets bounced off him like a boss. As if on autopilot, he took out all the agents in the blink of an eye. As he jerked back and gasped in air, the blue fog receded from his brain. The facility was almost entirely trashed at this point. He saw the the short man from before get up but Loki was quicker and touched his chest with the Scepter.
"You have Heart." he said to the man(Barton- he learned, as their minds connected).
Eventually he went around touching other agents and staff with the Scepter when he suddenly spied Eyepatch (Director Nicholas Fury, he gathered from Agent Barton's mind ) trying to leave with the Tesseract.
"Please don't. I still need that." Loki said.
"This doesn't have to get any messier." Fury said.
Hah, Loki thought. 'It doesn't have to get any messier', he says. As if he has the first idea of what is actually going in this situation. A sharp pain shot through his head again.
"Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki of Asgard (and wasn't that ironic, he thought ), and I am burdened with glorious purpose." Glorious purpose indeed. If that was not utter drivel, he didn't know what was.
"Loki ? Brother of Thor?" the familiar looking aged man (he was supposedly a scientist and his name was apparently Selvig— Loki still couldn't place why the man appeared familiar ) asked. Loki couldn't help looking away in irritation. Of Course Thor would have to come up in everything, wouldn't he? Thinking of Thor caused all the anger and resentment which he had managed to repress until now, to bubble up under his skin again.
"We have no quarrel with your people." Fury said, trying to placate him.
His people? His people? The people who had always considered him only second to his not-brother, always lesser than the Golden, perfect THOR, who considered his talents inferior and where even servants laughed at him?
The friends who would tolerate him only because of Thor, who would look down upon him in every way possible, and mock him, their prince?
The "father" who never looked at him with anything other than disappointment and to whom he was nothing but a tool and a war prize? The man for whom he would never be enough? Who had initiated this whole charade and lied to him his entire life?
His "mother" who always sided with Odin and excused his actions and who he had thought was the one person he could trust completely but had also lied to him for his whole life?
His "brother" who asked him to know his place ?
Besides, he thought bitterly, it wasn't even just that of course. He was not even a real Asgardian. He was a Frost Giant. A Monster pretending to be an Asgardian. But let him play pretend for now. And to Asgardians, Mortals were all inferior of course.
"Like Ants," a harsh raspy voice whispered in his mind, "just like you are to him."
He jerked his head forward repressing a shudder.
"An ant has no quarrel with a boot."
Fury tilted his head in consternation, narrowing his eyes. "You planning to step on us?"
"I come with glad tidings, of a world made free." Loki corrected.
"Free from what?"
"Freedom." Loki said. He suppressed another shudder as he remembered the Maw's words: Hear me and rejoice. You have had the privilege of being saved by the great Titan. You may think this is suffering, but no. It is salvation.
"Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart..." He twirled around touching the Scepter to Selvig's heart now. Ah, he saw now that Selvig was one of the mortals who had helped Thor during his banishment. Of course everyone always fell head over heels to help Thor. Selvig was also the one who had been injured by the Destroyer and then healed with a healing stone. "You will know peace."
“Yeah, you say peace. I kind of think you mean the other thing.” Fury said.
Loki suddenly noted the Tesseract's energy building up within the half-destroyed facility and realised it could cause an implosion leading to the ceiling caving in on all of them and that the director was asking unnecessary questions to stall them till that happened. It certainly wouldn't kill him, but it would kill or at the very least fatally injure most human beings.
"Sir, Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow. Drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us." Barton said. Oh yes Loki had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. I hadn't noticed that at all.
“Like the pharaohs of old,” Fury adds. How much more obvious could they be? Why would Fury even agree to it out loud if he wanted to stall? he briefly wondered, but decided he had neither time nor energy to think about it.
"He's right. The portal is collapsing in on itself. You got maybe two minutes before this goes critical." Do they REALLY think I still haven't realised that?!
"Well, then..." Loki said and Barton shot Fury in the chest who fell down.
Loki supposed Fury must have been wearing some sort of bullet proof clothing since he could not spot any blood. Barton then grabbed the case containing the Tesseract and left the lab, with all of Loki's other thralls following half a step behind Loki. To his utter mortification, his spine chose that moment to protest rather painfully causing him to bend over stumbling and he was even more embarrassed having to be temporarily supported by one of the mind-controlled agents.
But as they walked out of the facility quickly gathering weapons and got into a lorry, a somewhat tall, dark haired woman (who Loki learnt was Agent Hill by a little prodding at his mental connection with Barton—not painful mind you, he'd had enough of that himself to do that to anyone.) looked about in confusion.
"We need these vehicles." said Clint.
"Who's that?" Hill asked referring to Loki.
"He didn't tell me."
Agent Hill gave them a rather suspicious look as they got into the lorry and started moving. To his endless shame, Loki stumbled again, as his back gave out while getting on the lorry.
Suddenly they heard Fury's voice through Hill's walkie-talkie and Loki turned sharply towards her, in a movement mirrored by Clint.
"Barton is.... compromised."
Hill turned to shoot at Clint but he'd already taken a shot at her and kept shooting as he got into the driver's seat and started the engine.
"He's got the Tesseract! Track it down!" Fury said through the walkie-talkie (the Facility was in an even worse condition).
Agent Hill slipped into a jeep and followed Barton's truck. Loki's truck SCREECHED across the tunnel. Several SHIELD trucks pulled up to them. Oh well Loki thought, getting away without a chase would be too good to be true I suppose.
He reluctantly and painfully(his back protesting again) got up and used the scepter to flip over the SHIELD vehicles. (It would cost energy he didn't have to spare, to use his own magic)
Agent Hill's jeep roared out of a side of Barton's truck and pulled up alongside them on the left. She went way ahead and pulled her brakes, swerving into a 360, facing Barton's truck and driving in reverse. Barton reached out of the window and open fired. Agent Hill probably thought 'to hell with it' and shot her windshield and return fired on Barton.
Suddenly amidst all this chaos, there was a massive shock-wave and it was obvious that the Facility had been overwhelmed by the energy and had crumbled. But the destruction did not stop there and the tunnel they were passing through caved in, almost trapping Hill. Suddenly Fury started firing at Barton from a flying contraption and in a fit of rage Loki shot at him with the scepter. The contraption (a helicopter, he learnt) caught fire but Fury jumped out and fell to the ground. By the time he came back to his senses and shot at Loki, they were already too far. Loki finally sat back to give his back some much needed rest.
Loki was sitting down on the stairs of the underground lab where Hawkeye had brought them and observing everyone. He had spoken to all of his thralls individually but mostly with Barton. The man was smart and resourceful and he was quite a high level SHIELD agent.
Loki had learnt about "The Avengers Initiative" from him and about his ......friend? partner? Natasha Romanov. He also learnt that the man had a secret family about which only Agent Romanov and Director Fury knew and they were hidden in a farmhouse in someplace called Missouri where they could live safely.
From some other *ahem* SHIELD agents he learnt that HYDRA, an organisation which was supposed to have been eradicated after some Great War or something, and something "The Captain America" had given his life to achieve (the fact that he had turned out to be alive was a different matter entirely ) actually still existed and had it's roots deep within SHIELD. But SHIELD was opposing him anyway, so why bother doing anything.
Suddenly a sharp and very familiar agonizing pain shot through his head and he felt the Other directly contact him. His heart hammering, he sat up straight, projecting a simulacrum to the Barren rock which may once have been a moon and which was...which was where— Stop. The Other walked towards him and he had to suppress his tremors.
"The Chitauri grow restless." He said in his raspy voice.
"Let them gird themselves. I will lead them into glorious battle." Loki said feeling rather proud with himself for being able to keep his voice and breathing steady.
"Battle? Against the meager might of Earth?"
"Glorious, not lengthy. If your force is as formidable as you claim." Loki wondered at his own recklessness challenging the Other in his own domain whilst he was far from recovered.
"You question us? You question him? He, who put the Scepter in your hand, who gave you ancient knowledge and new purpose when you were cast out, defeated?" The Other spat.
"I was a king, the rightful king of Asgard! Betrayed!" He had to bite out. And he had been.
They technically couldn't charge him for anything he had done during Thor's banishment because he had been the Rightful King. And then The Fools Three and Lady Disdain had to betray him. Because Of COURSE whatever he was doing was because he was jealous of Thor. It obviously couldn't be that he was trying to end a war that Thor had started.
"Your ambition is little, born of childish need. We look beyond the Earth to greater worlds the Tesseract will unveil." And of course his needs were childish . His wants didn't matter. The same thing he had been hearing since he was but a child.
"You don't have the Tesseract yet. I don't threaten, but until I open the doors, until your force is mine to command, you are but words." Brave words he thought, but empty.
"You will have your war, Asgardian." The Chitauri snarled.
He stepped even closer and Loki tensed even more (he hadn't thought that was possible).
"If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us," The Other was circling him and the stench of his malevolent aura was too much to handle now and Loki's eyes started watering.
"There will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he cannot find you. You think you know pain?" He raised his hand towards Loki and Loki swallowed hard blinking rapidly to hold back the tears, nornsdammit! All there ever was here was PAIN. He had learned that the hard way. He was terrified but he managed to keep still.
"He will make you long for something as sweet as pain." And the Other brought his hand to Loki's head breaking the simulacrum and sending Loki's consciousness back to his body at the underground lab with a sharp jolt. He tried to steady his breathing but couldn't stop a single tear from rolling down his cheek. All he could hope for was that no one had noticed as he discreetly wiped it off.
He thought for a moment that he caught Barton looking at him but he could have been mistaken.
Once he was in control of himself he looked up to see Barton and Selvig talking.
"Where did you find all these people?" Selvig asked Barton.
"SHIELD has no shortage of enemies, Doctor." Barton replied and oh if that wasn't true. In fact SHIELD had a great enemy they did not even know about.
Clint held up a screen showing information on Iridium. Loki got up and walked towards them.
"Is this the stuff you need?"
"Yeah, iridium. It's found in meteorites, it forms anti-protons. It's very hard to get hold of."
"Especially if SHIELD knows you need it." Barton sniped.
"Well, I didn't know!" Selvig said defensively.
Then Selvig saw Loki and piped up. "Hey! The Tesseract is showing me so much. It's more than just knowledge, it's... truth."
"I know." he said, but he really didn't. It wasn't as if he had been close to or in a direct contact with the Tesseract since he got here. He turned to Clint nonetheless. "What did it show you, Agent Barton?"
"My next target." Ah focused this one, wasn't he? "Tell me what you need."
"I'll need a distraction. And an eyeball."
Loki raised an eyebrow but he trusted the man to know what he was doing. Besides as long as he was under the control of the scepter it wasn't as though he could betray him. As he looked around and saw all these people working for him, he felt a pang of bitterness. These men only worked for him because of the Scepter(After all he had never been able to inspire loyalty. Even from his so called friends.). As soon as they were free, they would loathe him for life, and he wouldn't blame them in the least.
He turned and walked towards the Tesseract. It's blue glow was rather alluring and he just couldn't help it. He had to touch it. When his fingers did come in contact with the cool blue cube, it was rather anti-climatic. He supposed he had been expecting something to happen.
As he turned to leave, Clint caught up with him.
"Do you need anything else, Agent Barton?"
Clint hesitated. "I need to ask you something, sir."
"Well, go right ahead."
"Are you alright, sir?" Loki blinked. That definitely hadn't been what he was expecting.
"Why do you ask?"
"I don't mean any disrespect sir, but you look ill. I also caught you stumbling twice without any reason."
Loki felt a wave of shame rising on realising that his moment of weakness had been noticed, but he pushed it back down and looked closely at Barton. If it hadn't been for the utter sincerity in the man's eyes and the fact that he couldn't possibly lie to him right now, Loki would have been certain that he was being mocked. As it was, the man appeared concerned for him.
It's somewhat morbidly fascinating, Loki thought distractedly, how completely the Scepter changes one's loyalties and priorities.
"I am fine." he replied, the dismissal clear in his voice.
"No sir, you are not fine. When was the last time you even ate?"
"I—" He couldn't remember, but he supposed it would have to be the last time he was on Asgard which was ..... how long ago exactly? An year? More? Nonetheless he took a deep breath and said "It's none of your concern Agent Barton."
"It is, sir." Loki was startled. Wasn't Barton supposed to obey him? Well he supposed he hadn't given any direct orders.
"Your well being is my concern, sir." When was the last time someone else has been so invested in his well being?
"Please let me help you." Even though this kindness was only because of the Scepter's control, Loki was touched. How could he not be? After all it was after so long that someone was offering him unconditional kindness.
"How could you possibly help me any more than you already are?" Loki asked, deciding to humour him. "Well, for now," said Clint "I could get you some soup, which you will eat while sitting down on a chair. You could show some compassion to that back of yours, you know."
Loki chuckled. If things continued like this, he wouldn't be able to help becoming rather fond of the feisty little Hawk, which could only lead to endless problems, considering that Barton would loathe him when he came to his senses and for a very good reason. But well, he decided, let me enjoy it while I still can.
"Well then, lead on ...... Clint."
He was free. He could not feel any of the disgusting yellow remnants or any blue haze from the gem in the scepter. The Mind Stone, he now remembered.
He took a deep breath. Despite the fact that he had recently been very humiliatingly tossed around like a rag doll by the Hulk, he was happier than he had been at any point in the past year or so. Well not happy, per se, but well......
He was finally free. His body ached but he did not care.
After everything, his mind was finally free of the Other’s clutches and the Mad Titan’s powerful but sickly aura?
There was no other presence in his mind other than his own. No one could influence his decisions or emotions now but him. He was free. Oh how long had he waited for this.
Could the Universe truly be on his side for once?
It certainly seems so. However, how long the Universe will stick to it’s uncharacteristic benevolence for me remains to be seen.
For a while he closed his eyes and let himself rest. He wished he could just sleep for the next century. He let himself get reacquainted with the feeling of being the only presence in his mind. Bliss. It was pure bliss.
Well after all this he had certainly learned not to take his own capability to make good decisions or even bad ones for granted. They were after all made freely by him under only his will.
The sounds of the battle outside had started to die down and he assumed the Avengers had won. Well, the mortals and his dear brother had at least successfully helped him delay the Titan for a while longer.
Once he could muster enough willpower, he took a few deep breaths and then started to dig himself out of the very prominent Loki shaped hole on the floor of Stark Tower (He had to admit that the Hulk was very strong. He was the only one who had really been able to hurt him in any way after all).
It took him some time to get out of the crater. As he hoisted himself on his elbows he heard several footsteps. A clanky metallic one, a very familiar one and a very heavy one, two unfamiliar ones (one of which was so silent that it could not have been caught by human ears ) and another somewhat familiar one. Ah . So all six heroes were here and getting into positions behind him.
He took a deep breath and turned. Indeed. So they were actually getting into positions behind me. Ah of course Barton is at the forefront. He mentally sighed. Why would I expect anything else? Well at least he hoped if he surrendered now, he wouldn't have to fight anymore. He was so tired. So exhausted.
He glanced at Stark for a moment.
"Well if it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now."