Warning: evil!Loki this chapter gets very dark very quickly so prepare yourself and I promise it should pick up again in the next chap.
Loki was positioned in the centre of a public square his head tilted down but his eyes looking up at the men who had come to stop him, they seemed to glitter with malice and a madness that he had lost control of a long time ago. Screaming civilians were running from him anyway they could, trying to save their own lives, as he stood and revelled in the chaos he had brought with him. Steve's stomach churned as he scanned the square; the bodies of civilians, bloodied and crumpled, lay around him on the pavement staining it red. He was standing holding the limp, but thankfully unharmed, form of Jane Foster in his arms grinning manically at his brother, his lips a thin twisted line on a pale sculpted face. Thor stood stoically taking in the scene around him observing the disorder Loki had created one look at the figure in Loki's arms and he was running towards him, Mjölnir spinning in his hand ready to attack, bellowing Loki's name.
"THOR, WAIT!" Steve yelled after him, this was not the time to be heading into a fight without a plan! Thor didn't stop he just kept forging forward, seemingly hell bent on stopping his brother. His eyes widened in shock and realisation as Mjölnir went straight through Loki before the image of both him and Jane flickered in a multitude of colours before vanishing.
"How many more times Thor?" Both Thor and Steve frantically searched the area looking for him before Tony, who was up in the air; saw him on top of one of the buildings surrounding the square. He immediately let Thor and Steve know through the earpieces he had provided them with, as soon as they heard they ran over to the bottom of the building to see Loki standing on the edge.
"Where is she!?" Thor's voice was hoarse and filled with anger purely for Loki.
"Oh do not fret dear brother." He sounded as if his voice had been amplified, a quiet madness lying under his diction. "She is quite safe at the moment." Steve lifted his hand to his earpiece so he could talk to Tony, who was still circling above,
"Tony, can you get a clear hit?"
"Yes, but there will be major property damage to take him down, possible further civilian injury and he still has Jane but we don't know where. So, any other plans cap'?" Tony took his prolonged silence for a big no and started to panic slightly, things never looked too good when cap' couldn't even come up with a rudimentary plan. They couldn't attack without a high risk of severe retaliation and additional damage, they would just have to hope and pray that Thor could get through to him in some way, even if they could just get Jane back so they could finally deal with Loki. Before Steve could tell him what he had to do Thor was already on the roof facing Loki, both of them standing their ground staring at each other.
"Why are you doing this!? You have the tesseract, please stop this madness! Can we not be brothers once more?" Thor was always so full of hope; Tony could see him facing Loki silently begging him with his eyes.
"Do not direct your injudicious sentiment towards me!" As soon as Loki started speaking Thor seemed to know that there was no chance, he could hear it in his voice. Loki was past the point of no return. "I am doing this because I want to. I want you to suffer, to know what it is like to feel helpless; knowing you couldn't save all those people that will end up being no more than food for the maggots! I want you to know what it is like to feel inferior and HOPELESS." The anguish and hate in his voice tore at Thor's heart, he felt guilty about all of this feeling as if things could have been different if only he had done something, anything at all to save Loki. But he now knew Loki was beyond help and he lamented letting it ever get this far,
"At lease let me save her! Please, Loki tell me where she is." Loki simply stared at Thor before an unhinged smile covered his face, a small laugh escaping from between his lips. He flicked his eyes in the direction of another building on the opposite side of the square; wordlessly telling Thor that was where he needed to look; as he turned to look Loki grabbed his attention again by clearing his throat and spoke,
"Never learning from your mistakes brother." Thor felt as if a weight had been dropped in his stomach as Loki flickered and vanished before him yet again. Time seemed to slow down as he turned to look where Loki had indicated before and saw the last thing he ever wanted to see. Jane had been thrown from Loki's arms off the rooftop; her body still limp as she fell toward the concrete. Steve, Tony and Thor were already calculating if they could get there in time to catch her until Thor looked back to Loki for a split second, he was holding a sceptre him his hand and the end of it was coated in blood. Everything seemed to stop when he noticed the dark shade of red blossoming on her chest as she fell, and every tiny shred of hope Thor ever held was extinguished. They all knew she could not be saved but they went to her all the same, Steve caught her body and laid her gently on the ground. He closed her lifeless staring eyes, it was too late.
All of the background noise seemed to fade out as they stood there; Loki watched them stand around her body, seemingly forgotten for a moment.
And in that moment he knew. He had won; he had beaten Thor however this was only a small victory. There was a battle still to be won.
