Miya waited as the agent behind her quietly unfastened the restraints on her hands. She stared at the grey cell door before her.
Hill had resisted even letting her through the door. "It's too risky," she'd said, "there's no telling what he might be able to do over that link." But Coulson had backed her up, and Fury had approved it.
No one was happy with the tactic she'd suggested. The deal she would offer.
She wasn't sure how she felt about it herself.
The door slid open with a quiet hiss before she could think more about it. Miya strode through and heard it shut behind her.
Loki looked up, green eyes locking with hers.
It really was him.
She was in a room with him.
When she faced him in the temple, she didn't have time to process anything. The think about who exactly it was before her.
Coulson's murderer.
Yes, Coulson was alive. But that didn't change the fact that for well over a year, she'd believed he was dead.
Bled out on the ground like an animal.
She'd spent countless hours fingering a blood-stained card, hoping he hadn't been in too much pain.
And sitting before her was the man responsible.
"The little hero," Loki greeted her, "I was wondering whether you'd gather the courage to come talk to me."
At the sound of Loki's voice, memories of the Void flickered to her mind. Thoughts of Coulson and an eternity in nothingness battled for attention. Miya quashed the sick feeling that churned in her stomach.
This was not the time for weakness.
"I faced a god with a pocket knife and a toy I didn't even know would work, and you're doubting my courage?" Miya kept her shoulders back and head up as she strode over to the chair in front of Loki's cell. She gripped the back of the chair and smirked. "My intelligence, perhaps, but I'm pretty sure no one will be doubting my courage for the next few years. It's taken this long for the doctors to let me out of bed, let alone interview dangerous prisoners. You did quite the number on me."
She gestured at the purple and blue marks visible above the neckline of her uniform. "I must admit," she continued, leaning her arms on the back of the chair, "I was quite impressed back in the ice temple. The way you took down Stark – brilliant. And the illusions you cast – you tricked two dozen top SHIELD agents and the Avengers. This is includes Barton, who has the best eyesight of anyone I've ever met, two certified geniuses, and a man who's known you for a thousand years. To put it frankly, you outsmarted us. I took you down by a stroke of luck."
Loki's face was blank. It was likely that he wasn't used to his interrogators – or anyone – being so excessive in their praise of his brilliance.
"So here's the question that just bugs me," Miya continued, "Why was your prison break so sloppy?"
The blank mask over his face twitched slightly.
"Thor knew you'd left before you even made it to Earth," she said, circling around the chair to stand before the glass, "He knew where you were going. They were able to track you, Loki. It was a total hack job. That goes against everything I know about you, and trust me, I've done my homework."
Homework done while fingering a bloodstained card.
"There is a reason you broke out of prison. Beyond boredom or anger or revenge. Something that drove you to go running for the Casket, a weapon that you used as little as possible in the temple and completely avoided before. Something made you desperate to get out of Asgard. So that would explain why you're not so eager to go back."
"What is that are you suggesting?" His voice was low and curious.
Miya leaned forward. She was almost touching the glass.
"I'm suggesting that you give us a reason not to send you back to Asgard."
Loki raised a single eyebrow. "So I explain why I left, and I don't go back."
"I'm not saying that," Miya said, shaking her head, "I'm giving you one chance to tell me the truth and to convince me it's a good idea not to send you back to Asgard. Convince me, convince SHIELD. One chance, Loki. Don't waste it."
Loki looked at her appraisingly. He ran his tongue over a row of white teeth as he thought.
"Have you ever had a bad dream?" he asked, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his widespread legs.
"Several," Miya answered. And you're not really helping with that, she added silently.
Loki templed his fingers. "Dreams come for many reasons. Some are meaningless. Some are memories. And some are promises. I made a promise to someone, and they made a promise to me. And now I am being reminded of the consequences of breaking that promise."
Cryptic as always. But now they might finally get somewhere.
"By whom?"
"An enemy we hold in common."
"And does this enemy have a name?" Miya prodded.
Loki leaned forward and whispered the name as if it burned him to say it.
"Thanos."
Miya flinched as her mind flooded with images.
Purple skin.
Cruel, cruel hands.
Death watching from a distance.
"Thanos," she whispered back unconsciously. She almost collapsed into the chair behind her. As the foreign memories threatened to overwhelm her, she imagined herself pushing them away, back, back into the corners of her mind.
Miya came to herself to find Loki watching her with narrowed eyes
"You've heard of him, I take it?"
"This is the first time I've ever heard the name," Miya replied honestly, "Tell me about him."
Loki tilted back his head and chuckled.
"Tell you about him?" he said scornfully, "How could I even begin to describe him in a way you could comprehend? Thanos is one of the Titanian Eternals. Even a normal member of his race would be a formidable foe, but Thanos is a mutant and a god in comparison to his people. He is telekinetic, telepathic, and can manipulate matter itself. He was trained in the art of war from an early age and has incredible strength. His tactical mind is only surpassed by his scientific genius. He commands the Chitari and the Norns only know who else, and he kills what he pleases and takes what he pleases. And now, he has set his eyes on Earth."
Miya surpressed the storm that surged in her belly at his words. She knew Loki spoke the truth. "Why would Thanos want to attack Earth?"
Loki gave her a twisted smile. "To please Death."
"So he's a nihilist?"
Loki shook his head.
"Oh, it goes deeper than that. Thanos is a man in love, you see."
"And the person he loves…likes death?" Miya ventured.
"The person he loves is Death," Loki retorted as though Miya was an idiot child for asking, "She is all he desires. So, in an attempt to woe her, he presents her with gifts."
Death was a person. Death was a she?
A figure in black watched from a distance.
"Soon, my love. Soon."
"So Thanos kills to please Death," Miya said, trying to get a handle on the whole "Death-is-a-person" deal.
"More than that," Loki gestured, "Romance is all about presentation, and Thanos is a romantic in the highest degree. Have you ever been in love, Agent?"
"Once, but it didn't end well. You?"
She pulled a blue ribbon from her hair.
It tumbled in golden curls around her shoulders.
"Once," he echoed, "My experience has been that one should never underestimate a man in love. Nowhere else can one find such fire or such folly."
"So why is Thanos the enemy of Earth, apart from general death-fetish?"
"Because of the Tessaract, of course," Loki stated matter-of-factly, "I promised to retrieve it in return for an army. When you defeated me, Thanos deemed Earth to be a suitable gift to woe Death."
Miya held up a hand. "Wait, so a Death-worshipping alien with uncomprehendable power is going to try to destroy Earth because you attacked us first?" Forget sending him back to Asgard. Fury might deep-fry the psycho here and now.
"Yes and no," Loki hedged, "Yes, it was my defeat at your hands that caused him to mark Earth as a suitable foe. But he would have come for the Tessaract sooner or later. And it would have likely been sooner, seeing how you were toying with powers beyond your comprehension." He scoffed, mouth twisting. "Fools, did you truly think you could play with the Tessaract and no one would notice? True, I was the first, but others were not far behind me."
He grinned, shark-like.
"The Odinson has told you nothing of what lies beyond your little world, has he?" Loki stood and approached the glass, "Has he told you of the Kree, the Skrulls, the Shi'ar, the Badoon, the Brood? The Technarcy, the Dire Wraiths, the Epsiloni, the Uncreated?" he stopped before the glass and laughed, shaking his head, "There are many dangers in this universe. Many worlds, many races, and no shortage of enemies to be made." He gave her a pitying look. "I was not a bad enemy to have, mortal. When I came, I came to conquer. When Thanos comes, he will come to destroy."
Neither spoke, neither moved. Loki stared down at the little mortal in front of him. He reveled in her confusion and fear, basking in the power it gave him, however temporary it was.
"What promise did he make you?" Miya asked, finally. Loki blinked, the power slipping from his grasp. "You said someone made you a promise, that you were being reminded of the consequences of breaking your promise. What did Thanos promise you? What are you running from?"
Loki's jaw tensed, the tendons in his neck standing out. He turned from her and clenched his hands behind his back.
"Thanos promised me Earth in exchange for the Tesseract. Obviously, things did not go as I planned. The price of failure – well. I was promised that would be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he could not find me."
He twisted his head just enough that he could look at her from the corner of his eye.
"That he would make me long for something as sweet as pain."
Loki turned back towards her.
"That is why I ran. That is why I retrieved the Casket. And that is why you should not send me back to Asgard."
"No. This is not happening."
Tony was pacing up and down in the observation room as he ranted. His anger had overwhelmed his interest in Miya's ongoing conversation with Loki, much to the others' chagrin.
Coulson, Thor, and Hill were all closeted in Fury's office. Tony had been unwillingly left behind. Steve and Natasha were sitting at the table, and Banner was standing quietly in his corner.
"Why don't we just publish nuclear launch codes online? Sell anthrax on the open market? Promote chainsaws as a weight loss tool?"
"Tony…" Steve tried to interject, but Tony ignored him.
"Because these all sound better than letting Silence of the Lambs stay on Earth or Midgard or whatever we're calling it now for a single minute longer!"
"I'm afraid that isn't your decision, Stark."
Tony turned and looked at Clint incredulously. The archer was perched on the stainless steel table, his feet on a chair.
"Seriously?" Tony spat out angrily, "I thought of all people, you would be the one to back me up. You or Coulson, even though apparently he was only mostly dead. Am I the only one who remembers what Loki's done? The people he's killed?"
"Half an hour ago I was accused of wanting to torture Loki for my own enjoyment," Clint retorted, eyes flashing, "And now you think I want to sit around a campfire with him and sing Kumbaya. Well guess what?" he kicked back the chair violently and jumped to his feet, "This isn't about my feelings. Put a gun in his mouth and I'll gladly pull the trigger. But that doesn't change the fact that I have a job to do: protect the Earth. And if Loki is the only one who can help us stop Thanos, then I work with Loki."
Tony threw up his hands at that.
"And how is Loki going to protect us from…Thanos? How do we even this Thanos guy is a threat?"
"Loki spoke the truth," Thor said, clearly rattled. He stood with his feet planted widely, hands clasped behind his back. Coulson, Miya, and Fury were all positioned around the latter's office, angled so that they could watch the feed of Loki's cell on a wall-mounted screen.
"The Mad Titan is known across the nine realms for his cruelty, brutality, and strength," Thor continued, "He is a foe Asgard itself would hesitate to face."
"Do you really think he would attack Earth just because he thought we were somehow 'worthy'?" Fury asked.
Thor nodded. "His own race was one of the first to suffer in his attempts to please Death. He nearly annihilated them. There have been far too many others."
"That doesn't mean we need to turn to Loki," Coulson said stiffly, "We can defend ourselves."
"I mean no disrespect by this, but Thanos has destroyed many peoples much more advanced than Midgard. It is unlikely that you, however formidable your heroes might be, will be able to withstand him."
"What about Asgard?" Fury asked, addressing the elephant in the room.
Thor bowed his head. "Between the destruction of the Bifrost and the return of the Dark Elves, Asgard has suffered a great deal of loss," he said, voice filled with regret, "The All-Father has restored order to the Nine Realms, but our strength is not what it was. To attack Thanos would be to invite his wrath on Asgard as well. And if Asgard was lost, chaos would return."
"In other words, no help from Asgard," Fury said with dry frustration.
"I am sorry, but all I can offer is my own assistance. It would be wise to take allies where you could find them."
Hill crossed her arms, "How do we know Loki isn't going to try to betray us to Thanos?"
"After all," Miya said, "If there's anything I've learned about you, it's that you're a master manipulator."
"You'd be fools to trust me," Loki agreed amiably, "But fortunately for me, you can trust Thanos. It is his one redeeming quality, I suppose; he never breaks his word. It's part of loving Death, of course. Apparently 'Death is a promise that is always kept', and she detests broken promises."
"And how does that prove that you aren't plotting with Thanos?"
"Because he will do everything in his power to fulfill his promise to me, and there is nothing, nothing, I or anyone else can do to change his mind." Loki's eyes burned with a desperate light.
"I cannot face him on my own," he said, starting to pace back and forth in front of the glass like a changed animal. His voice sounded hollow. "The Casket might buy me time, but it would not stop him. But I know things," his voice dropped to a fervent whisper, "I know more about him than the All-Father himself. With my knowledge and training, Earth could prepare itself. My mind, my magic, everything I have I will lend to Earth's defense. And you can trust me when I say that I would give my dying breath to rip out his heart and serve it to Death on a silver platter." The final words were spat out, and Loki's chest was heaving with coiled emotion.
Miya bit her lower lip.
"That's it, then?" she said, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend?"
"I doubt 'friend' is a word we will ever apply to one another," Loki replied wryly, "But perhaps we will learn to say 'ally'."
Loki sat in his cell, alone once again.
The woman was gone, likely off talking with SHIELD and the Odinson. Discussing, debating, acting as if they had a choice in the end.
There was only one path they could take if they wanted to survive.
A wave of satisfaction washed over Loki.
It was good to see a plan come together.
And he hadn't even had to pitch the idea to SHIELD himself. The mortal had done all the work for him, building a case, weaving an argument. Teasing him out of his shell little by little. She was likely congratulating herself on her cleverness. Patting herself on the back for out-thinking the god of manipulation and lies.
Loki adjusted himself, picking at the gaudy orange garments he wore. He'd have to negotiate for proper clothes and decent living arrangements. No need to be uncomfortable if he was going to be stuck with these mortals for the foreseeable future.
If he was going to face Death once more, he might as well look like a prince.
Author's note:
I'm feel horrible about all the times I've gotten annoyed waiting for updates by other authors.
My sincere apologies for taking this long to update. Life happened, most significantly a laptop that utterly and completely bit the dust. And this chapter gave me fits to write (and it's ridiculously long).
As an attempt in recompense, I've uploaded a one-shot I wrote for a Loki-flashback, "The Birth of Sleipnir.". It works as a stand-alone story.
Any questions, comments, or reviews? I'm easier to interrogate than Loki.
