"You have failed "they say in an angry and disappointed tone.
"I'll try again, I won't fail next time!" I tell them hurriedly. I didn't want them to hurt me again, like they did last time I displeased them.
"There won't be a next time" they say, grinning at me while their leader hold me up by the neck and slams me into a wall. I was gasping for breath and I could see black on the edge of my vision.
"I only wanted to please you!" I yell as my master strangled me.
"Well obviously you didn't or we wouldn't be here right now" he says as he tightens his grip on my throat. I try to wrench free of his hold but cant. I always was tiny compared to every else, midguardians excluded. I twisted and turned, trying to break free.
Just as I was about to pass out, he abruptly released his hold on me and I sunk to the floor, gasping painfully. I felt dizzy. My lungs couldn't get in enough air.
I tried to get up but I was pushed down roughly "Stay down" their leader says roughly. I am then being yanked back up and being held still. I tried to yell but a dirty cloth was shoved in my mouth.
As I thrashed and tried to get free a voice whispered in my ear "I told you to be compliant, but since you weren't now we have to do this the hard way" I stilled and closed my eyes, waiting for the pain to come, and I didn't have to wait long.
I heard the crack of a whip distantly. My ears were ringing, and I felt dizzy and sick. Then came the pain, as I felt the whip cut into my flesh I screamed. Several whippings in they stopped and I lay panting on the ground.
I thought they had stopped, that they were done. I was wrong. I was hauled upright and placed in a tub of hot water. The water burned, but as I screamed my head was shoved underwater and I chocked.
After a while, I was let up for air. I gasped in the air like a drowned rat, clinging to the side of the tub like container. The water was cool now, but it was red. I vaguely noted that it was my blood and that I was covered in blood too. They dragged me out of the tub, onto the cold hard floor.
The wounds on my back had become numb, and now I just felt a low throbbing. They hadn't been this thorough before, not even last time, to ensure that I succeeded in taking over earth. Everyone was watching this, and all the soldiers were laughing.
I looked in their eyes, but before long, another whip came down on me and I looked down.
"That's right, cower before you masters" their leader hissed into my ear. I dared to look up at him. His hand struck across my face and I went collapsed onto the floor. "Learn to be submissive, slave"
I nodded and whimpered in pain. I could always feel them in my head, always watching. Any privacy was an illusion, and I knew it. I bowed in front of him, and he laughed. He ordered the guards to take me back to my cell, and I was dragged upright by my hair.
The guards threw me in my cell. Even alone in my cell I was never truly alone, for I could always feel their presence in my mind, telling me what to say and do. I curled up into a ball and let the pain drag me into the blessed darkness, where even they couldn't reach me. I slipped unconscious to their distant laughter.
Tony woke up to blood curdling screaming. Not the "Stop splashing me with water!" kind, but the "I'm being tortured" kind. Tony knew that kind of scream well. He himself had screamed like that before.
Tony jumped out of bed and ran to where he thought the sound was coming from. He reached Loki's room first, with the rest of the team behind him.
Tony threw open the door, with Thor almost crushing him in his haste to see what was wrong with his brother. They found Loki thrashing on the bed mumbling things like
"I'll be obedient, just please stop"
"I tried! You have to believe me I tried"
"Please stop, just kill me now….."
and even worse things. What could have been done to make Loki, the most cunning and proud person he had met, to make him beg them to stop and for someone to just kill him now. Everyone was horrified and shocked. Even Clint, who had his bow pointed directly at Loki when they opened the door, looked horrified and he quickly lowered it. Even Clint couldn't help but feel bad for someone who so obviously went through something that horrible.
Natasha was the quickest to react. She gently shook Loki and he woke with a jerk. He was sobbing and Natasha was holding him. Thor quickly enveloped his brother in a bone crushing hug, and Tony joined him in hugging Loki. Bruce was standing in front of Loki, checking to make sure he was okay, and he told the team that it looked like Loki was close to having a panic attack.
Natasha whispered in Russian to Loki, who somehow understood it.
"Они не могут больше получить вас, вы в безопасности. Это нормально, не бойся. Я буду держать вас в безопасности"
Loki looked up at her and whispered
"спасибо"
Once Loki was fairly calm, Bruce was the one who asked the question on everyone's mind.
"Loki, what happened to you?" Bruce said it gently, but Loki still flinched. He seemed reluctant, but Loki was smart enough to realize that after seeing him like that, there was really no hiding it anymore.
"I didn't willingly try to take over your world; I was being controlled by the Chituari." Loki looked at the ground, instead of at his brother's hurt expression. "They tortured me and were influencing my mind"
"But why would Odin not intervene? Why did I not know of this?" Thor asked, while staring at his brother worriedly.
"Odin specifically hid it from everyone, and it was my punishment for trying to take over the earth" Loki said sadly.
Tony looked shocked "Wait, your father gave you up to your mind controllers for them to torture you as punishment for being mind controlled?!"
"Yes, he did, and he's not my father" Loki said tiredly.
"I have daddy problems too but dang, maybe if your family was nicer to you then you wouldn't be so messed up" Tony said.
"It wasn't just Odin, my achievements were often downplayed or ignored because they were caused using magic. In Asgard, only women use magic. It is often drowned upon if a man uses it. However, I am thin and weak compared to most Asgardians. I never had Thor's strength, so I used what I was good at, which was magic" Loki said, glancing at Thor.
Thor looked hurt and he walked over and enveloped Loki in a hug. Tony actually heard bones crack, and he winced.
"Thor…you are..crush….ing me!" the smaller god squeaked out. Thor quickly let go of his brother, and Loki tumbled to the ground in a heap. Loki glared up at Thor, grumbling about 'the uses of moderation' and how 'strength isn't always a good thing'. Thor actually looked sheepish.
Seeing that Loki was calm and that the spectacle was over, the Avengers slowly filed out of the room until only Tony and Thor were left. As Tony began to leave however, Loki grabbed a hold of his t-shirt.
"Stay?" Loki said in an unusually quiet voice. Loki refused to look Tony in the eye, expecting him to say no.
Tony who knew what it was like to be tortured agreed.
"Sure, reindeer games"
Loki's startling green eyes snapped up to meet his own, looking surprised.
"I may not be the nicest, but even I cant hate you after learning that the Chituari tortured you"
Loki seemed to hesitate before saying "Its not like it's the first time that they had done that, I just learned to deal with it"
Tony caught the implications and asked
"Wait, your actions weren't entirely your own were they?" The more Tony thought about it, the more sense it made, Loki looking haggard before the Hulk had even touched him, how set to take over the earth he had been, all of it.
Thor had mentioned that Loki never really desired to rule, and that he found it odd that Loki was acting like this. Thor had said that his brother, while skilled in politics, never wanted anything more than acknowledgement of his work. It all clicked into place in Tony's mind, Loki had been at least tortured into his actions or possibly even mind controlled.
Tony looked at Loki, who was staring at the floor, and took his chin in his hands. Tony forced Loki to look into his eyes
"Were the Chituari torturing and mind controlling you?" Tony asked, looking slightly sick.
Loki finally looked him in the eye and said "What does my answer matter anyway? I am called the lie smith, so why should you believe anything I say?"
Tony replied "Because you have basic human rights-well, Jotunn rights-and nobody should be held accountable for being mind controlled"
Loki looked at him, looking to see if he was being honest, and when he saw nothing fake said
"Yes, Odin removed their influence now but they were controlling me to a certain degree"
Tony nodded and asked "is it like when you controlled Clint? Clint said it wasn't like he was being mind controlled, it felt like he was a friend just helping"
"….No, their influence feels more like someone is constantly reading your mind, and telling you what to do or they inflict pain" Loki said
