The Right Man
Summary: Before he got arrested in Germany, Loki made it a point to study his enemies. One in particular caught his interest...
Rating: T
Disclamer: None of these characters belong to me. I'm just borrowing them to have some fun.
Author's Note: This is a bonus scene from the first Avengers movie. It takes place before the attack on the Helicarrier, after Loki's check-in with The Other.
The rating is for one swearword and mentions of past torture (all canonical, either showed or implied by the movies).
The underground complex where Loki had set up his base was bustling with life. Midgardian scientists and soldiers milled around, working towards the goal he had set for them, but Loki hardly paid them any attention. His eyes were glued to the screen with the information that Barton had provided for him, reading fast. Loki had to admit that he done well in choosing this man – it might have been a spur-of-the-moment decision, but it had been a good one. The agent knew every dirty little secret of his enemies and - thanks to the power of the scepter - he was now more than willing to share them with his new master.
Loki scrolled through the information Barton had gathered on anyone noteworthy they might come in contact with, memorizing the faces of his enemies and anything else that might prove useful. Most of them weren't that interesting, but some of the so-called "Avengers" made for a fascinating read – particularly the files of Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanov. He took a while to read through them and imagined all the possibilities their corruption would bring.
He was almost ready to put the little glowing square away and go back to overseeing Selvig's progress with the Tesseract when he happened upon a file that made him pause. A man's face stared at him from the screen, bold and confident, with intelligent honey-brown eyes and lips curled into a smirk full of silent mockery for the world around him.
Anthony Edward Stark, the name read, son of a wealthy inventor, ex-weapons manufacturer. Currently no. 2 on SHIELD's list of potential threats.
How interesting.
"Barton?" he asked the ever-lurking agent.
Barton dropped down from his position on top of one of the columns and came over, keeping a respectful distance between them. "Sir?"
"What can you tell me about this Anthony Stark?"
"He's an asshole," the agent said bluntly.
Loki raised an eyebrow. "Is he."
Barton nodded. "Yeah, I've met him a few times before."
Loki's curiosity was piqued.
"Did you. What else can you tell me about him?"
Barton gave the picture on the screen a brief look.
"He's a genius. Super smart, rich as hell and absolutely insufferable in person. He's got an ego the size of Canada, but – as much as I hate to admit it - it's mostly well deserved, because he really is frighteningly good at what he does. Half the tech in this room came from him you know, even the tablet you're using right now." Barton gestured for Loki to turn the screen around and indeed, on the back of the device he found the man's name imprinted in bold letters. Loki couldn't help but enjoy the irony that he was using the man's own invention to spy on him.
Barton continued: "He used to make his living as the world's top weapons manufacturer but a few years ago he had some sort of epiphany and now is supposedly trying to make up for the scores of people his weapons had killed."
He gestured to the screen. "This is everything SHIELD was able to gather on him. You know how to play videos, right?"
"I do."
Barton had explained the concept of recorded moving pictures to him yesterday. When he tapped the file on the screen now, he saw that it contained dozens of such recordings. This should be interesting.
He dismissed Barton with a wave of his hand and waited until the man was out of sight before clicking on the first video. The picture burst to life before his eyes, giving him a glimpse of the life of one of his potential enemies. Loki settled himself a little more comfortably and let the man entertain him.
Most of the videos were fairly mundane stuff – Stark giving speeches, presenting his inventions, basking in the glory of his genius. It seemed that his usual interactions with people consisted of him alternately insulting and charming everyone around him. He was clever and charismatic and slick as an eel – never staying in one place for long, never letting anyone see behind his lies. And there were plenty of those – lies both great and small, brought to life by a quick tongue that could almost rival Loki's own.
Despite his best intentions, Loki found himself fascinated with this man. Who was he, really? And why was he suddenly pretending to be a hero when he so clearly enjoyed causing chaos and destruction?
A few more clicks revealed the classified SHIELD report on Stark's capture and captivity – the purported source of his sudden change of heart. Loki leaned closer to the screen, reading with interest. There were several moving pictures attached to the file and Loki tapped the first one, curious to see what he would find.
What greeted him were images of torture – endless weeks of beatings and threats and drowning, condensed into less than an hour of footage. Three months, the file said. Loki couldn't help but grudgingly admire the man's stubbornness. For a supposedly inferior creature he sure was resilient. There was no sound attached, so Loki could only observe the picture, watch the man gasp and sputter for breath when he emerged from the water, eyes full of pain and hatred and defiance. Oh, the defiance was particularly delicious.
Even when he finally agreed to his captor's terms, that same defiance was still there, lurking in the corners of his gaze along with a thirst for revenge that Loki knew all too well. He found himself deeply regretful when he discovered that there was no recording of Stark's breakout and subsequent destruction of the compound. It must have been a glorious sight to behold.
There was one more video attached, a message from the captors for someone called "Obadiah Stane". Loki almost closed it, having little interest in ransom notes, when a phrase caught his attention. "You paid us trinkets to kill a prince."
He beckoned Barton closer once more and the man came, halting a few feet away to wait for Loki's commands like the good soldier he was.
"Who is this Obadiah Stane?" he asked offhandedly, showing the man's portrait to the agent.
"From what I've heard, he was a sort of a father figure to Stark," Barton answered. "Ran the company for him after Stark's parents died. It took him almost twenty years before he got greedy and decided to get rid of Stark. It was him who paid the terrorists to have Stark killed. He almost succeeded, too – his only mistake was that didn't count on the guys realizing what a prize Stark was and keeping him alive."
"What happened to him?" Loki couldn't help but ask. The official SHIELD file on the man was suspiciously vague.
"The official version says that he died in a plane crash. Stark has never been entirely forthcoming about the circumstances of his death, but SHIELD thinks he killed Stane as a revenge for the kidnapping. They just didn't put it in a file because they were never able to prove it."
"And what do you think?" Loki asked him.
"I think Stark killed him," Barton said. "Just like he came back and wiped out the terrorists who tortured him in Afghanistan. He's definitely smart enough to pull off something like that without anyone finding out about it."
"Not so wholesome, are you?" Loki muttered, eyeing the picture of the handsome dark-haired man. He watched a few more of the more recent videos and marveled at the way the man used his charisma and smart mouth to weave a web of lies around himself. Slowly but surely, Loki could feel the picture of the man form in his mind.
SHIELD's official assessment of the man's combat abilities made him raise an incredulous eyebrow.
"Just how good is he?" he asked Barton, who was still dutifully lurking around.
"If you're asking about combat abilities, then those are pretty impressive. From what I've seen, he could probably take down the helicarrier all by himself without breaking a sweat. As far as his other skills go - well, he's one of the smartest people on the planet. There's very little he can't do. He could probably build a bomb out of dust and shoelaces. If you give him a screwdriver and a box of spare parts, he can build you practically anything."
Loki felt his interest sharpen.
"Anything, you say?"
Barton shrugged. "Pretty much. He can built anything from a phone to a guided missile to a pocket watch." He gave Loki a look. "Why are you so interested in him? Are you planning to turn him, too?"
Loki inclined his head. "Something like that."
He could still remember the vastness of space, the endless days of torture as he desperately waited for cold grip of death that never came. When he focused, he could almost feel the phantom fingertips on the back of his neck, monitoring him, controlling him.
There was no way he could avoid opening the portal and releasing the Chitauri, but maybe, just maybe, he could survive this after all.
It was all a question of finding the right weapon.
Or the right man.
This story is the first one in my new Tony/Loki series, but it can be read on its own. The first chapter of the second (novel-length) story will be posted before the end of November.
I hope you liked it :) Reviews and favourites are always welcome :)