Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers.
A/N: happens after TDW except Loki fakes his death to escape instead of taking the throne of Asgard.
Steve was surprised, to say the least when they got the news that Loki, the supposed to be dead Loki, was actually an alive Loki. For some reason, Loki was back to terrorizing New York. The briefing in which he had to tell everyone had not been fun. Clint and Tony were furious and he had a sneaking suspicious that the Natasha was as well, even if she hadn't shown a trace of emotion.
Steve got in the quinjet with Natasha and Clint as they went to the spot that Loki was last seen: Times Square. Loki had been last seen with a large and very alien looking glowing red and blue box, laughing manically.
Steve jumped down from the jet followed by Clint. They watched as Loki turned to face them his face mad, and laughing... only something seemed wrong about it. Steve shoved that thought away as Loki threw daggers at them which bounced harmlessly off his shield. Clint drew back an arrow and let it go, only for Loki to roll his eyes and catch it in midair, then throw it to the side before it exploded.
"You'll have to try something new." He said to the archer grinning. "However, it will do you no good." Loki picked up the glowing red and blue box and petted it like it was a cat. "This will explode taking everything with it, except for me, in 2 minutes," he said with then let out another maniacal laugh. "The best part is that you can't stop it. You can try of course, but you will fail. So either you can leave and save yourself from a horrible fate and leave the rest of city to their's, or you can try to save them and die with them. It's really your choice." he said and laughed a little more. That was when Tony and the Hulk showed up. Loki's eyes darted to the Hulk for less than a second but he still saw it as did everyone else.
"You remembered how this turned out last time for you?" Tony spoke, "How about we all just skip this part and get to the part where we kick your ass." Loki's grin didn't dim.
"That won't help you. The bomb will still go off. As you see, it has no circuits, no wires like your Midgardian devices. It is attached to my life force and only if I were to die then it would stop and since I am a god, well, you know what that means." he said with a wide crazy smile. "So it is up to you. If you do not run then I will be the only one left standing, and maybe The Hulk," he said after a moment's hesitation.
Steve didn't give the order, but as one The Avengers all moved in on Loki. Normally he wasn't one for killing- unless it was necessary, but this was pretty necessary. Millions of people lives depended on the end of one villain. Steve threw his shield at Loki who dodged out of the way. Clint let loose several exploding arrows that met their mark and Steve ducked behind his shield which had just returned as the explosion hit him. He peeked out behind it to see Loki still standing looking no more battered than before. Tony used his suit to attack him, but didn't seem to be having much luck either- that was when the Hulk grabbed Loki.
"You will not hurt humans. Puny god!" The Hulk roared and started smacking him harshly against the road creating deep welts in the road. Normally Steve would intervene, but if Loki's heartbeat was the only thing that was keeping the bomb alive then they would have to do what would help the most people. Banner had smacked the villain several times when they heard a loud voice from behind them.
"Hulk stop!" Thor's voice cried as he landed right next to the Hulk with Mjolnir out.
"Thor, buddy, you don't understand-" Tony tried.
"-Loki's going to kill us and everyone here if we don't," Steve added and heard Clint say.
"He has to die."
"No one is going to touch my brother," Thor said heatedly, fire in his stormy blue eyes. Loki looked into their eyes though what he was looking for he didn't know. Steve did know that Loki had to die, but he didn't have the power to make it happen, none of them did except the Hulk who was staring at Thor.
"Do it!" Clint yelled at The Hulk. "He'll kill us all." Thor's eyes promised pain to anyone who would harm his brother further. Thor didn't understand though, didn't understand what was at stake. Loki's eyes dropped the mad maniacal look and now he just looked annoyed. He looked up at Thor with rage in his eyes- but not the kind of rage he had before, it was different, sadder, kind of defeated.
"You ruin everything," he hissed and then was gone in a haze of green.
Thor stared at the ground where his brother had been in confusion. When had Loki learned to teleport? If he could teleport, why hadn't he teleported away when the others had attacked him?
"Great, now we're going to die because Thor can't see that his brother's a psychopath." That made Thor frown.
"Die? Why would you say that?" Thor looked around but didn't find anything that would cause them harm. Clint pointed at the glowing red and blue box and Thor frowned. He hadn't seen one of them in ages. Thor walked to the box, lifted it up and smiled. The others looked at him in horror and Thor frowned.
"Friends, what is the matter?" Thor asked.
"You're not worried?" Tony said and Thor frowned.
"Why should I be worried? Tis is only a toy for Asgardian children," he said and looked at it once more jovially. He was probably under a century the last time he had played with one. He looked up to see everyone save Natasha looking at him in shock.
"Friends, what is the matter?" Thor asked not understanding.
"Loki implied that that was a bomb," Steve said weakly causing Thor to remember that they had nearly killed his brother. He had thought his brotherly feelings for Loki had died long ago but apparently that was not the case. He was angry with his friends, even though he suspected that they had a good reason. They usually tried to take in villains alive if they could. Besides, there was something about this that seemed off.
"But it is not a bomb," he said.
"Well, yeah, we know that now," Steve replied slightly sheepishly.
"Why would Loki pretend that a child's toy was a bomb?" Thor thought aloud confused.
"He told us as that as long as he breathed, it would explode," Steve said sounding just as puzzled as him. Why would Loki tell them that? Thor thought that seemed dangerous...almost like he wanted to -no His brother was unstable but he was always one to preserve himself which was why Thor should have known that Loki had faked his death in the first place. Except that Loki had once before tried to kill himself when he let go of Gungnir and fell into the void, another part of himself reminded him. But had Loki really have been trying to kill himself?
"Loki, " Thor whispered softly under his breath as he looked down at the toy that his brother had pretended was a bomb. "No," he said hoping that he was wrong even if his instincts told him otherwise.