The Tongue's Greatest Fear
Okay, so this was another one of those, mini-plots that wouldn't leave me alone. I thought, there are plenty of fics where Loki is forced to tell the truth, but what if he was actually forced to live up to his name the God of Lies, and could do nothing but lie? I originally started this piece as to be only slightly angsty with mostly humor, but I surprised myself as it just kept getting darker as it progressed, and I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it.
This story implies (or more blatantly mentions) non-con, but no details whatsoever.
Keep in mind (I'm saying this now, so you'll hopefully understand the first time through) after Loki is hit with the spell, everything he says IS A LIE.
Also: THERE WILL BE NO SEQUEL. This is a one-shot and will stay a one-shot. I'm working on too many multi-chapter stories as it is. (Keep an eye out for my Predator inspired Avengers fic)
Please enjoy. :)
Everyone knows that the best lies have a grain of truth in them. Loki has always known this; it is how he perfected the art of lying in the first place. He has molded his ability so well, that if he says something as obvious as 'Fury wears an eyepatch,' all who hear it will doubt its validity. (It has caused more than one agent to look at the Director sideways.) If asked, Loki would say his ability to weave words however he wishes is his most prized. However, no one would ever ask, because why would you bother to have a chat with someone who constantly harasses the people of Midgard? That's right. You wouldn't.
Still, there are a choice few who already know. Two, to be exact: Loki…and Amora. The Trickster did not know, however, that the Enchantress knew this, nor would he ever have thought she would use it against him. He quickly learned the Midgardian phrase of 'Hell hath no fury, like a woman scorned.'
It had simply been a bad day for him. He had had to wait in an hour long line to get his favorite coffee, because his alarm had not gone off that morning. Then, on the way out the door, a careless woman chattering on her phone bumped into him, causing them both to be covered in coffee, and earning him an earful and a slap to the face. The woman was lucky he didn't feel like attracting attention, otherwise she would not have lived for her insolence, that and he was tired. The laundromat he frequented had ruined his good suit jacket, and refused to refund him. A group of protesters had flooded the street outside the museum he had planned to visit that day, and he had been harassed by them for a good ten minutes, before he could get past them at all. When he had finally given up, he returned to his lair and settled in with a book in hopes of relaxing.
An explosion erupted outside, shaking the very foundation of his abode. He slammed his book down next to him.
"For the love of-" He transformed his clothes into his armor and teleported outside. The intruder was not who had had been expecting.
"Amora? What are you doing?" The Enchantress glared at him, and that was when he remembered. He sighed.
"Damn." He had forgotten their standing date last night, and had completely stood her up. They were not getting out of this without bloodshed.
"Laufeyson! Do you know how long I waited for you to show up!?" Loki walked up to her, hands out in surrender.
"Darling, I am so sorry. It was not my intention-"
"Three hours! Three!" Loki winced as her screeching pierced his ears. She unleashed a blast of magic at him, and he barely had time to get his shield up. Volley after volley she threw at him. All Loki could manage was to duck in time and get her as far from his home as he could. He refused to rebuild, again. Unfortunately, moving them out had caught the attention of SHIELD, and soon Loki could hear the telltale signs of his brother's approached. Loki rolled his eyes as he blocked another shot.
"Great!" Just what he needed today. He was going to have to book a spa day, soon. Thor landed with a grand entrance, soon to be upstaged by Tony Stark.
"What have you done now, Reindeer Games?" Loki only snarled at the inventor, which apparently was enough of a distraction for Amora to get in a lucky shot.
"Ah!" He clutched his side and sent his own blast back, cracking Amora's shield in one blow. This did not seem to help his case. She screamed in rage, and all of them ducked as her magic blasted in a good twenty foot radius from her.
"Brother! What have you done to make the Enchantress so mad?" Loki set some of his magic to healing his wounds, while the rest he pushed to see what cracks there were in the witch's defense.
"I have done nothing, you great oaf, and once I am done with her, I will destroy you just to brighten my day!" Loki peeked out from behind his shelter and flung what he could at the Enchantress. He did not see the dark gleam in the woman's eyes until it was too late. She landed a solid blow to his chest, effectively winding him. Loki could feel the magic crawling under his skin and working its way up to his mouth. His energy was slowly draining, and he could do nothing but snarl at Amora as she crouched next to him, smirking.
She cooed at him and brushed a stray hair behind his ear.
"This is going to be good for you, Loki. You'll see the effects in a few minutes, don't worry. And I'm being gracious. It only lasts for a day." She glanced up, presumably towards the confused Avengers, and smiled. "I think they'll enjoy it too. Ta ta." She winked at him, before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Loki rolled his eyes, even as he ground his teeth. So dramatic.
He was quickly surrounded by the heroes, reminiscent of their first battle, except this time, he didn't really want a drink.
"I guess we take him in now?" The inventor asked. This was the first time they had ever caught him after he returned, and besides the first time he arrived on Midgard, all of his trouble was simply mischief. He hadn't harmed anyone really since then. Their battles were more Loki messing with the Avengers until he got bored.
So, he was hauled up and bound and brought to SHIELD headquarters. When they arrived, Fury seemed surprised to see him in tow.
"You actually caught him? What did he do, give himself up?" Clint shoved him none too kindly into a bolted down chair.
"No, but he was practically gift wrapped." He was still low on energy, but any discomfort from the spell had faded. Once he had rested a bit, he would simply teleport away, and sleep the rest of the horrible day away. The Avengers all filed into the room, Tony without his suit, and once they were all in, the door sealed behind them. Loki smirked at the lack of cameras. His bound wrists were unchained then locked into the arm rests, and his ankles were shackled to the legs. They must have reinforced the metal for his strength, because his slight tug did not even budge the restraints.
"Tight enough for you?" Loki rolled his eyes at the archer's taunt, and opened his mouth to respond in kind.
"No. They are quite loose actually." Loki snapped his mouth shut in surprise. That…had not been what he was going to say. The Avengers didn't seem to notice, however.
"Now that the pleasantries are over, let's get started. Just to be sure…Are you Loki of Asgard?" Loki felt something lurch in his stomach and the word popped from his mouth unbidden.
"No." That got them all on the edge of their seats. Tony snorted and rolled his eyes, and the others looked as if this was a waste of their time, which Loki would agree upon.
"Really? Are you just playing with us?" Loki tried to bite down on his tongue.
"M-mn..yes." The Trickster was still unsure what Amora's spell completely entailed, but he knew it was not going to be pleasant. The heroes in the room, were starting to look confused.
"Brother, are you alright?" Sweat was starting to dot his brow, as he fought the compulsion to speak.
"Y-yes, I am perf-ectly well." Damn that woman, and damn Thor, because for once in his life it seemed the Thunderer was quick on the uptake. The Thunderer had learned a lot in his dealigns with his brother, and he knew how spiteful Amora could be.
"Amora hit you with a spell, correct?" Even as he bit his tongue, Loki's head started to shake back and forth, until he just opened his mouth.
"N-no." That got their attention, since they all saw that she had. Curse that vile woman, see if I ever treat her to a nice evening again! Loki now knew exactly what she had done to him. Natasha had figured it out now.
"Have you ever fought us before today?" Loki did not fight this next answer.
"No." Clint and the others were catching on as well. Well…except-
"What the hell is going on here? Thor, what is your brother doing?" Thor looked grave as he answered the Director.
"Amora did hit Loki with a spell, one that weakened him, and left him there for us to capture him. I believe the spell also forces Loki to lie for every question asked of him." Steve leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, with a contemplative look on his face.
"So, basically, the opposite of a truth serum. We know that he's lying, so if we ask him yes or no questions, we know that the opposite is true." Tony smirked.
"Gold star, Cap." Steve rolled his eyes, but Fury was looking pleased.
"This should help. I doubt a lie detector would have worked on him. Would it?" He directed the question at Loki, forcing him to answer.
"Yes, it would," Loki said, as he did his level best to burn a hole through Fury's skull. He turned his attention to the archer when he heard him scrape his chair back. The man was looking at him with undeniable glee.
"How did it feel to get your butt handed to you in the Battle of New York?" Loki rolled his eyes, though Natasha flicked his ear.
"Yes or No questions, Clint." Nevertheless,
"I-thoroughly enjoyed it." Hawkeye barked out a laugh, and the inventor smirked. Loki closed his eyes and decided he would go to his happy place while the Midgardians used his current state for their entertainment.
"Did you escape Asgard with the intent of coming here and taking over our world?" Loki sighed and opened his eyes. There would be no avoiding this.
"Yes." Fury did not seem surprised by the information, and neither did Thor. Clint looked like he still didn't believe him, though it wasn't as if Loki actually cared what the archer thought of him. Loki did care, however, about the glint in Thor's eyes, and the Trickster knew the blonde was going to ask him those damn sentimental questions.
Dr. Banner had been sitting quietly in the back of the room, and had yet to even look at Loki. The Trickster appreciated whatever it took to keep the green monster locked away, not that he would ever admit that he might appreciate anything the Avengers did. Loki chanced a glance at the doctor and was surprised to find him meeting his eyes dead on. The raven haired Asgardian raised a brow in question, and perhaps in challenge, to the man. Bruce responded.
"Did you want to invade our planet the first time?" Everyone else who had been muttering amongst themselves suddenly froze. All eyes went to Bruce then whipped back to Loki who was fighting the answer with all of his strength. He did not want to answer. This was not for them to know. He would rather everyone thought him the dreadful villain than-
"Yes," Loki coughed out. He sucked in lungfuls of air like a drowning man. The silence that he had broken, resettled and Loki would not dare to look at them.
"Brother-" Loki snarled at Thor, daring him to say another word. Tony kept his hips facing the restrained villain, but turned the rest of his body towards his science bro.
"I'm assuming there's a reason you asked that question, Brucie." Banner's eyes slid back to Loki for a brief moment, before nodding to Tony.
"He doesn't smell like crazy anymore." Clint scoffed and kept looking between the doctor and Loki.
"You're kidding, right?" Bruce didn't answer right away, and eventually all eyes had turned from Loki, for which he was grateful, to Banner.
"Doctor?" Fury prompted. Bruce sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose under his glasses.
"Before…when he was here before, he smelled like crazy, but you know…psychotic, going to kill everyone crazy. He doesn't smell like that now. More…tame, I guess?" Thor had been the first to look back at Loki. His brother's head was bowed, his inky hair creating a curtain around his face, and his slim fingers were curled tightly around the ends of the chair's arms. He looked like a man defeated.
"Your nose seems to pick up some interesting things, Banner." Bruce cut a look at the Director.
"I'm not going to be SHIELD's bloodhound." Fury held up his hands in surrender.
"I wasn't going to suggest it." The room fell back into a tense silence, which Clint (who had started fiercely biting off his thumb nail) eventually broke.
"You can't tell me he was under the same mind control I was." Natasha shook her head, while, like Thor, keeping her eyes on Loki the whole time.
"No, they had something on him. Didn't they?" The spell recognized that the question was directed at him, even when he wasn't paying attention. Therefore, he was surprised when his mouth opened of its own accord.
"No, they didn't." Tony leaned forward then, a bit more intrigued.
"Do they still have it? A hold on you?" Everyone was surprised at the sudden sadness that flooded Loki's eyes, along with strongly fought against tears.
"Y-yes, they do." Thor felt a strong urge to go to his brother and comfort him, but he was not sure how it would be received. He recognized that sorrow. He had seen it before in Loki's green eyes.
"Brother…were you far along?" Loki shot Thor a look of both intense hatred and fierce sorrow, but also a hint of gratefulness. For understanding or being willing to ask this time, Thor was not sure.
"Not v-very." Thor closed his eyes, sharing in his brother's pain. The others watched in the exchange with curiosity, and yet a growing sense of dread.
"Thor? Do you want to explain?" Thor could see Loki pleading him not to, but this could free him. If he didn't tell them, they would simply force Loki to explain by asking him question after question. It took him a few moments to collect himself, before he answered.
"Loki…was pregnant." Loki cried out in rage and pain at Thor, which only solidified everything for the observers. He pulled at the restraints, but he could not get free. He just…he needed to get away. Loki had already mourned for the lost child, but he had never shared the grief. He had simply hidden himself for days when he first arrived on Midgard, and cried his lungs out.
"I'm sorry, what? Last time I checked, and not that I checked your brother out, but he was your brother," Tony exclaimed.
"The Norse myths talk about Loki giving birth to children before. According to them he has a few," Natasha offered. Fury sighed and leaned back in his chair, bringing a hand up to rub at his temple along the strap of his eyepatch.
"So, Loki can get pregnant. That would have been useful information." He directed his next question at Loki. "Did they threaten to kill your child if you did not attack Earth for them?" They saw as Loki struggled against the pull of the spell, until a disturbing bark of…laughter came from his mouth. Loki began to laugh deep in his chest, a dark, pained thing, and he shot his eyes directly at Fury. They were tinged in hysteria.
"No, they asked very, very nicely." A chill spread throughout the room, causing a few of the Avengers to shiver. Tony coughed and tapped the table anxiously, in desperate want of a drink. A few of the others would have gladly joined him.
"I guess the spell okays sarcasm as lying." No one said anything for a few seconds until Bruce spoke up from the back. His voice was quiet, and they could all hear the fear and horror in it.
"Did…did I, kill it?" Only Bruce saw how Loki's eyes softened almost imperceptibly when they looked at each other.
"Yes." The doctor let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding. A pained sound dragged their attention to Thor, whose eyes were bright with grief, accented by an under current of rage.
"In, in your cell. Father told me you had gotten…sick. I-I almost killed a guard in rage when I heard him laughing with a friend, speaking about how much pain you were in. You had escaped the next morning. Did they…did they do that? Kill your child because you failed?" Loki could only shake his head 'no' in affirmation, his throat too choked up to get any sound out despite the spell's prodding. He had given up fighting. What was the point? They all knew. They knew now that he was used and thrown away, something to be pitied, something with weaknesses.
"Is that all they did to you? Threaten your kid?" Clint hated it when people hurt children. He always made sure his arrows landed somewhere to drag the pain out longer when his targets hurt or killed or used kids. But this…he hated Loki. Despised him for what he had made him do, and now a spell is making him spill his guts, and they had to threaten his kid to make him do what he did? It was difficult to not feel his gut churn, but he had to know.
"Yes." Loki's face had lost all emotion, and he addressed his answers to the table rather than the people. They would soon pry all they wanted to know from him, and no matter if the spell wore off in five minutes, they already had enough to destroy him. Tony, meanwhile, stared at the Trickster in the chair and dug what was left of his fingernails into his palm. He could do the math, and it made him sick to his stomach.
"I think we can easily say Reindeer Games here was coerced, forced, tortured, whatever you want to call it into invading. Why don't we wrap this up? I've got places to be." Tony stood and moved towards the door. He needed a drink. He needed Pepper. He needed air.
"Stark, sit down. You have not been dismissed from this interrogation." Fury sounded as harsh as ever, though even the inventor could see a part of him wanting it to be over as well. Tony did not return to his seat, but glared balefully at the Director.
"I think we've gotten enough from him. He was forced into attacking Earth, was thrown into prison for it, and all this time he's been here after he broke out, he hasn't done one act of supervillainry. The worst he's done is disrupt the peace with pranks. Cap, you can't tell me you think this is ethical." Steve sighed and ran a hand over his face."Tony, I agree that he might not have been the big bad we thought, and it's true he hasn't done much in the way of harm since he's been here, but…what about New Mexico? He tried to destroy an entire race before he fell into the hands of the Chitauri. How do we know something like that won't happen again?" Steve, like Tony had brought up, was feeling very conflicted about this. But at the same time…well, he had known worse interrogation techniques to be used during the war. Tony snorted and shook his head.
"He's paid for that already, and Thor told us that most of the people on Asgard hailed Loki as a hero for it." Bruce watched his friend passionately defend the villain across the room, and understood where he was coming from, if not the vehemence behind it. It appeared Clint felt the same about the latter.
"Why are you defending him so much?! He threw you out of a window." One more glance at Loki did it, and Tony snapped. Maybe it was the resignation there, or the shoulders weighed down by a grief that was being dredged up right in front of him, but Tony just…couldn't.
"Maybe because he wasn't pregnant before he was found by the Chitauri!" Loki hissed and spit at Tony for exclaiming his final secret aloud, and everyone watched stunned as Tony walked right up to him. "You fight your brother and then fall from your magic rainbow bridge. You get found by the Chitauri, and they want you to invade Earth and bring them the Tesseract." Loki snarled and fought the restraints as Tony continued. "You wouldn't. You didn't want to get involved in their plans, so they made sure you were invested in them. They..got you pregnant; to break you. Let you get connected to the child. Then they used some magic link or something to make sure you knew they had complete control and would kill your kid the moment you failed. You never wanted to come here, to bring war and lead an army, but you had to fight for the sake of your kid. But you still failed, and you- and the child- paid the consequences." Loki was seething and breathing heavily as Tony ended. Thor stood and growled.
"Man of Iron, I ask that you step away from my brother." Tony did without hesitation, and Thor immediately went to Loki, and began pulling at the restraints.
"What do you think you're doing," Fury exclaimed. Thor snarled as the cuffs would not yield. He stood and directed his scowl at the Director.
"You will release him immediately. This has gone on long enough. You have the information you need." Fury started to shake his head and opened his mouth when Thor cut him off.
"I do not want to hear your excuses. You will release my brother now, or risk starting war with my people." The Director stood there silently for a few minutes, just looking at Thor, before deciding it was best not to take any chances. They didn't have an official treaty with Asgard, and he didn't want to risk Thor actually being upset enough to bring an army to their front doorstep. So, very reluctantly, he pulled a key from his pocket and gave it to the Thunderer.
"What?! You're actually letting him go? Sir!" Fury held up a hand for him to be quiet and simply watched as Thor unlocked his brother. Loki didn't put up much of a fight being pulled from the chair into his brother's arms, because he couldn't. All he could manage was a glare, and at the floor no less, because for the life of him, he could not bear to look any of the Avengers in the eye. So, Thor scooped him up and headed for the door. Tony let them sidle past him and followed them right out. They were soon followed by Bruce and Steve, to which Tony only smirked.
"Come on. You guys are coming back to the tower with me." Loki kept his mouth shut during the entire trip, and Thor held him securely to his side. The Trickster had no doubt the Thunderer thought they could be brother's again now that it was shown that he was forced to invade Midgard. The oaf was so sentimental it made Loki sick. Loki did not want that.
He did not want anything to do with Thor….
At least the spell still allowed him to lie to himself.
Well? Would love to hear what you guys think! Please review :)