DISCLAIMER: I do not own the film MARVEL'S The Avengers, nor any of its events or characters – I am just borrowing them for play.
Enlightening Nuances
-~S~-
Chapter Ten: Honing
Thunder boomed as lightning streaked through the clouds, Thor's flight carrying him and Loki to the crag of the mountainside below. The God of Thunder lifted Mjolnir overhead to slow his momentum as he threw the Trickster to the ground, stepping from air to rock as if there was no difference between their solidity. Loki let out an exclamation of pain as he landed harshly on his back, breathing laboured for a moment before he began to laugh weakly as he panted.
"Where is the Tesseract?" Thor asked stonily.
"Ah, ha, ha – I missed you too," he responded with a grin, eyes on the sky above as he regained his breath.
"Point," Tony acknowledged to Loki's raised eyebrow.
"Didn't you think he was dead?" Steve asked of Thor.
"Yes, and I say that," he replied.
"But not first," Tony stated, causing Thor to cast his eyes downward in shame.
While Agent Coulson and the two assassins were sending vaguely disproving looks towards Tony for his careless defense and sympathy while in Loki's presence, Bruce noticed the god's evident confusion at the reaction and explained, "This disc is really showing us how, well, injured you were-"
"So showing up, not only with the cliché of thunder and lightning but also without, like, hugging you and crying or something is frowned upon here," Tony finished.
"He was trying to take over the world," Natasha pointed out.
"I don't think I'm going out on a limb here when I say he's probably always got something going on that Jupiter here doesn't like," he countered.
Though Loki snorted at the naming of Thor as the Roman god of sky and thunder, he remained mystified at Stark, Rogers, and Dr. Banner's thoughts during the shown interaction. In the previous scene, these were the same individuals who had abhorred his maiming of the curator and intimidation of the German crowd. He was accustomed to fickleness regarding people's view of him, but usually it ranged from tolerance to loathing, not to the positive extreme of defense. With the exception of Thor, who seemed to profess unconditional love for him on occasion and then, on others, charge him with Mjolnir when differences in opinion were presented.
He found it fascinating that these mortals, who he had outright, personally opposed, could find it in themselves to extend their scope of perception to that of the reality of guarding him against others' slights. Although, he supposed it would take a while for the circumstances that inspired pity to abate from their minds and for them to remember all of the ruin he had brought. It had been the same with the Ӕsir; in the start his aspirations and disposition were overlooked in favour of (what he had been deluded to think of as) his birthright as second in line to the throne, but the range of opinions shifted into a more negative realm over time.
"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?!"
"You should thank me," Loki huffed in reply as he lifted his head to finally speak towards his not-brother. "With the Bifrost gone, how much dark energy did the Allfather have to muster to conjure you here – to your precious Earth?" He braced his torso with difficulty as he shifted to stand, moving to his hands and knees before starting to push himself up.
Thor dropped Mjolnir to the dark sand at his feet before marching forward to grab Loki's upper arm, hauling him to his feet as the god grunted at the pull upwards. Thor then reverently placed his other hand below his brother's jaw and around his nape, drawing him closer and forcing him to meet his eyes, proclaiming softly, "I thought you dead."
"Did you mourn?" he asked impassively, chin held defiantly high.
"We all did. Our father-"
"-your father," Loki interrupted with a raised finger. He shrugged Thor's hold off and began to step around him, cautious of the rocky environment. "He did tell you my true parentage, did he not?" As he gingerly walked away, he lifted his right hand to the curve of his lower back to provide steady support to his upper body.
"Seriously – seriously – could you just tell us how injured you were?" Tony whined. "I know it's embarrassing, but it'll spawn emotions that can only be used to your advantage. You're walking like you've got back-labour, for fuck's sake!"
"Just answer this," Clint started, all of the occupants in the room knowing full-well that Loki would not divulge the information Tony was begging for. "Give us a number – what fraction of your normal strength were you working with? You don't have to detail whatever shit happened. Just the percentage of physical strength when compared to normal, not looking at the magic that was restrained, which was probably a big part of your stumbling about."
Loki's gaze drifted to the upper corner of the room while he calculated how weak he had been during the invasion. The number was distressingly low, but when compared to the meager strength of mortals they would not know how embarrassing it was for him to admit to. And he doubted his not-brother had the wits to accurately mathematically measure his own level of power over that of the humans he surrounded himself with – nevermind comparing his muscle to that of Loki's.
"I would estimate my strength to be equal to that of your Captain's enhanced form," he admitted with a nod of his head towards the soldier mentioned, thereby preventing the approximation of his normal strength as well as the extent of the drop. "I was unaccustomed to the difference, and with my magic's restraint in addition to it I appear as diminished as I am during all of this."
The avoidance of exact measure caused a frown to pull at Tony's lips, but they did receive an answer that alluded, somewhat, to Loki's strength and corresponding weakness.
"We were raised together," Thor insisted. "We played together, we fought together! Do you remember none of that?"
"I remember a shadow. Living in the shade of your… greatness," he answered sharply after he had turned to face the baffled, quiet Thunderer.
Tony breathed through the parallels.
"I remember you tossing me into an abyss – I, who was, and should be, king!"
"That seems like a… skewed version of events," Steve commented.
"Your intelligence is severely lacking if you think my perception is altered in such a way," Loki belittled.
When he refused to elaborate on his words further, Thor ventured cautiously, "I thought it was that you were looking at Father and I's distance from you and the knowledge of your adoption that further estranged you from us. When we ignored the diplomacy of leadership you had, before all of this madness."
Loki crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned back in his chair, pointedly redirecting his attention back to the screen.
"So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights?" Loki reeled back as his eyes began to tear while he gaped at the response-
"Excuse me?" Tony snarled, whipping to face Thor. "'Imagined slights'?"
Thor began to shrink down into his seat even as he protested, "I was angered with his attack upon this world and the destruction he had already caused – what more he was planning. I did not mean to harm him further."
"Sure! Just ignore his reasons for it all! Even if he hadn't been forced into it, he would've had motive after all the shit he's had to deal with!"
"Tony, stop," Steve ordered.
"Make me, Golden Boy," he snarled in return. He had knocked his chair back when he had stood sometime previously, palms flat on the table as he leaned over its surface in challenge to the fair-haired, morally-upstanding jocks that outshone all others in any righteous competition. Tony had maintained his aloof, uncaring persona for long enough, and now his muscles were coiled for a fight as his brain surged with the memories of his childhood, of his father's treatment of him.
Captain America was a hero, was good for the sake of good, and did it matter at all that Tony had built his first circuit board when he was four, an engine at six, while his dad had drunk himself under the table, searching and searching for perfect, golden, Steve Rogers?
There was a component in the Captain and Stark's relationship that he was unaware of, Loki concluded. The two were at each other's throats as he and Thor often were, feelings of inferiority glaringly obvious. This was a lack of knowledge that he would not tolerate and needed to mend as soon as possible, but first he deemed it prudent to dissolve the conflict arising in the room currently.
He leaned over the arm of his chair and asked of Clint, "Was there as much divergence from decorum during the first disc? Considering it is all in the past, you would think present priorities would impress upon everyone's sensibilities sufficiently so to maintain their train of thought to finish the viewing."
"Could you not speak like an 80 year old prof – spewing that many long words makes it feel like I'm being force-fed a dictionary," Clint remarked. "And yeah – there was a lot of flailing and yelling and shit."
The sound of their voices brought Tony out of his enraged and raw musings, and he settled back into his seat with the thought that, though reaming out the two would make him feel better, he couldn't physically take on either one and he was also starting to show his heart and emotions and issues a bit, so he should reign himself in right now. Thor was not looking at him, evidently partially having agreed with his rant, but Steve was glaring. They had been progressing past their initial rough meeting, but he supposed his issues upon issues with the good Captain in particular would prevent that from developing even remotely quickly.
A glance around the room revealed a couple of unimpressed stares, but Loki met his eyes with a discerning gaze that Tony was regretting having drawn onto himself.
-Thor striding forward with an authoritative finger leveled at him as he stated, "No. The Earth is under my protection, Loki."
He laughed as his expression reverted to showcase a gleeful, wide smile. "And you're doing a marvelous job with that," the dark god jeered. "The humans slaughter each other in droves while you idly threat. I mean to rule them! And why should I not-"
"You think yourself above them?"
"Well, yes," Loki answered with furrowed brows.
"Then you miss the truth of ruling, brother-" Thor replied earnestly, "-a throne would suit you ill."
Loki snarled as he shoved the blond out of his way with a covered forearm, passing him to make his way back to the edge of the cliff where they had landed as two ravens flew by emitting echoing caws.
Loki leaned forward sharply in his seat, narrowing his eyes as he asked incredulously, "Is that Hugin and Munin?"
Thor jolted and squinted at the screen that had been paused, announcing, "I had not noticed the two."
"Who are Hugin and Munin?" Bruce wondered.
"Our father's ravens, Thought and Memory," Thor answered. "They soar over Midgard and bring news to him of important events."
Loki scowled at the thought.
"I've seen worlds you've never known about! I have grown, Odinson," he derided as he spun to address the god trailing behind him, "in my exile. I have seen the true power of the Tesseract, and when I wield it-"
"Who showed you this power?" Thor interrogated abruptly.
"Astute," Natasha remarked.
At Loki's stunned hesitation he continued, "Who controls the would-be king?"
"I am a king!"
"Not here!" he yelled, fisting the leather drawn over biceps in his hands as he shook the God of Chaos. "You give up the Tesseract – you give up this poisonous dream!" Thor's passion deflated as swiftly as it had raised, his bright eyes boring into Loki's as he lifted a hand to grasp the side of his neck again, breathing heavily as he requested, "You come home."
His gaze darted over the sincere expression on the other's face for a few seconds before his mouth stretched in a grin that was not reflected in his eyes as he shook his head and confessed his belief, "I don't have it."
Thor recoiled in anger at the firm rebuttal of his appeal, crossing his arm in front of his body and drawing Mjolnir to his hand to raise threatening. Loki halted the other god's movements as he responded, "You need the Cube to bring me home – but I've sent it off, I know not where."
"Bullshit," Clint coughed.
"He is named 'Trickster'," Natasha retorted.
"You listen well, brother-" he began menacingly with hammer-arm outstretched, before a blur of metal and light slammed into his side and pitched him from the area.
"I'm listening," Loki retorted, tone taunting though his face remained deadpan.
The assassins traded amused glances as Tony crowed, "I've great timing."
Iron Man's thrusters flared through the night sky as he slowed, passing treetops by as Thor was carried to the ground with the continued force, landing heavily in a sputter of dust as he grunted. Tony skid to a landing on his feet, helmet retracting from his face as he watched the god stumble to his own. "Do not touch me again," Thor panted seriously, Mjolnir gripped tightly in hand.
"Then don't take my stuff," Tony replied.
Loki raised an eyebrow at the remark.
"You have no idea what you're dealing with," he said.
"Uh," Tony swiveled around to take in the trees on either side of him as his suit whirred, answering rhetorically, "Shakespeare in the park?" While gesturing to Thor's attire, he asked in exaggerated formality, "Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?"
Clint chortled at the response before beginning to cackle unrestrained, bowed over the surface of the table as he choked out, "Now I'm imagining Thor in a dress!"
That caused laughter to erupt throughout the room from the Avengers, with the exception of the God of Thunder whose expression filled with dread as he eyed Loki warily, whose eyes had begun to shine with mirth. "Please, Loki," he begged quietly, the chuckles subsiding at the sound of his voice.
Tony looked between the terrified blond and the elated Trickster before praying, "Please, please, let there be a story here."
Loki immediately answered, "Of course there is," overwhelming Thor's 'There is not.'
"I sense potential blackmail," Tony sung gleefully.
"It all began one morning when Thor awoke to find that Mjolnir had been stolen-"
"-please, brother-"
"-naturally he was angered, and sought me out first in suspect," Loki continued, smirking at Thor's grudging acceptance of his telling of the tale and the mighty Thunderer's cowering in his chair. "I knew nothing of the event, of course, and once I had convinced him of that fact I went to the goddess Freyja to borrow her feathered cloak and flew off to discover what had happened.
"I came upon the giant Thrym, who admitted to having taken the hammer and buried it. He conceded to its return only if he would have the hand of Freyja in marriage. A council meeting was called upon my return to resolve the issue, since Mjolnir's theft could not go unanswered and yet the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility obviously could not be wed to such a being. Heimdall came up with a marvellous plan of cunning for Thor to fetch his hammer himself…" He trailed off to savour the mortification of the other god as well as the rapt attention of the room before finishing with relish, "by clothing himself in a bride's dress and disguising himself as Freyja."
Tony and Clint howled with laughter as the others sniggered, a flush spreading over Thor's cheeks. "You were my bridesmaid," he retorted weakly.
"Ah, but I changed my shape into a woman – it is not as amusing when compared to your massive frame stuffed into a dress of fine linen," he replied.
"Give us a sec before you keep talking like that," Tony gasped amidst his laughter, attempting to calm himself and regain his breath.
"I can't- Fuck- Thor in a dress-" Clint managed as he giggled hysterically.
"Loki- Female- Holy shit-"
Bruce cast an amused glance at the two, as well as towards Thor's embarrassed countenance, before speculating, "Switching genders must be easy compared to shifting into an animal."
"Yes," Loki answered. "It's quite similar to my regular form, and there are no unruly instincts that I have to manage."
"You sure about that?" Tony snorted, smirking in Natasha's direction. She glared at him. "Why don't you show us what you look like?"
"I don't think that's a good idea," Coulson interjected with a shrewd glance in the playboy's direction.
"Hey! It's not like I'm going to hit on him- her," he objected.
"What does that mean?" Thor asked with a frown.
"Nothing," Tony instantly responded.
"It means-" Clint began, before being interrupted and verbally bowled over by Tony.
"I'll just be appreciating her body. Respectfully, obviously."
"Perhaps it would be interesting," Loki mused, eyeing Thor and his glowering at the genius.
"Well, you know now I don't think it's such a good idea-"
"Come now, Stark," Loki cajoled as some of his features altered and his hair grew longer, his voice rising to a higher pitch, "what harm will it do?" And Tony had a feeling that he knew exactly what harm it would do to what part of himself when Thor saw him ogling his little brother- sister. Playboy that he was, he could appreciate all types of beauty, and though Loki came here to enslave the human race he was one from the Realm Eternal and Tony had noticed his looks in passing. But now Loki was reclined in the chair with leather ensemble altered to hug her definitely female body: high-heeled leather boots reaching up the length of her calves and over her knees, tight pants stretching over the muscles of her thighs, belt slung low over her hips, dark tunic now a fitted corset that accentuated her chest and slim waist. Her bright eyes gleamed as her lips curved into a dangerous smirk, hair draping in waves around her face, over her shoulders, and down her back.
"Do not drool over her in such a way, Stark," Thor growled. "And cease immediately the thoughts running through your head." Mjolnir hung from his belt, and he gripped her handle as his muscles tensed in preparation to leap over the table and attack the playboy.
"I'm not drooling," Tony responded before sending a charming smile towards Lady Loki. "And that looks to be an awfully tight outfit, darling – perhaps I could help you change into something more comfortable?"
Thor jumped the table with a yell as Tony laughed and slid from his seat, darting under the slab to reappear on the other side, keeping the piece of furniture between them. He raised his hands in a gesture of peace as he partially hid behind Bruce's chair.
"Settle down," Coulson ordered with a sigh. "And change back, Loki."
The Trickster basked in the reaction caused for a second longer, absorbing Tony's exaggerated leers, Thor's enraged glares, Steve's blush and his avoidance of eye contact, and the others' amusement, before shifting back into his typical form. He winked at Clint who was seated beside him and he rolled his eyes in response to the chaos instigated, Tony dropping into the empty seat beside Steve as the tension bled out of Thor's frame and he sat alongside the assassins, still watching Tony warily.
Steve cleared his throat before questioning, "So what happened after you two dressed up?"
"Well, we arrived and Thrym was fooled – there was a heavy veil over Thor's face, else such an ugly maiden could never have been mistaken for the goddess of beauty," Loki answered as Thor frowned, though he smiled after the thought occurred that of course he would never look as delicate as a woman. "The wedding was underway and we feasted, reminding the giant that Mjolnir was to be returned. When the hammer was placed on Thor's lap to consecrate the marriage, he of course used her to demolish the place."
"Now that that's finished…" Coulson prompted before Tony interrupted.
"Wait, there was something about a 'feathered cloak'! What did that do?"
"It disguised my presence as well as enabled me to fly, thereby making it an ideal artifact for searching for information," Loki answered. "Giants in general are rather accustomed to magic though, so Thrym was able to see through that defense."
"Alright," he nodded, permitting the disc to resume its play.
"This is beyond you, metal man. Loki will face Asgardian justice."
"He gives up the Cube, he's all yours. Until then," the faceplate slid down, "stay out of the way." Thor cast his eyes to the ground in consideration as he panted, before Tony's muttered 'Tourist' as he walked away urged him to hurl Mjolnir at his back with a yell.
Tony turned, but the hammer slammed into his chest piece before he could raise his arms and forced him backwards and through a tree. The impacted trunk shattered and the tall tree fell sideways, Tony lying on his back where he had been thrown with the debris of bark lying scattered around him. He shuffled as the HUD inside his helmet flickered, uttering, "Okay," deceptively calm of the impending battle.
High above, Loki lowered himself to sit on the rock face. Thor met his gaze as he summoned his weapon back to his awaiting hand, the other smirking.
"He's just sitting there – it's obvious he wanted to be captured," Steve sighed.
"The Director said as much the same," Thor remarked.
Tony manoeuvered onto his hands and knees as the blond began to twirl Mjolnir by her strap, but before he could fly to Loki's side again Tony fired a repulsor blast from his position. Thor was knocked into a tree that held strong at his back before Iron Man flew forward and landed before him as he was gaining his bearings, landing a kick to his chest with the momentum and sending the god through the trunk. Thor lifted his head slowly after he had slid to a stop down on one knee, calling Mjolnir back to his hand from where she had been flung and punching his dominant arm into the sky. Lightning crackled and gathered in the clouds above to streak down to the hammer's head, the power collecting within her before Thor thrust his arm forward and she released the electricity at Tony.
The sizzling beam landed on the suit to additional rays that sparked out upon impact, Tony bracing himself against the onslaught as he grunted. The attack finished as he gasped, suit smoking as a crack glowing molten now stretched alongside the reinforced glass covering his arc reactor. Inside the helmet Tony winced at the surge his suit experienced, HUD brightly flickering over his eyes. "Power at four hundred percent capacity," Jarvis intoned as the power reading for the arc soared to finally rest at 475%.
"How about that?" he mused, planting his feet firmly and firing repulsor blasts from both of his palms as well as his chest.
Sparks erupted in the wake of the rays as Thor was thrown backwards with a shout, once again flipping to land on one knee so to halt his movement. Iron Man crouched in anticipation, Thor flying forward with Mjolnir outstretched for Tony to meet him in the air with a blast of his thrusters, catching the god in the torso and forcing them through the branches that blocked the skies above. He punched the blond in the side and then the head as they sailed through the air before arching his flight pattern as they approached a mountainside, dragging him up the stone face with a screech of metal. The Thunderer threw off a part of his hold as he turned to face the mountain, Tony maintaining his grip on one of his arms as the god got his feet under him and ran up the rock, vaulting them off its surface and pulling the suit along as he altered their trajectory back to the forest.
They spun as they flew, grappling as they crashed through treetops before hurtling through the base of a tree and tumbling over the ground. The two scrambled to their feet facing one another, Thor swinging a punch across the suit's 'jaw' before Tony reeled back and aimed one in retaliation that was caught about the wrist. He tried to throw the grip off for only a second before striking out with his other hand, that fist caught as well. Their muscles strained as they tried to gain some sort of leverage over one another, before Thor bared his teeth and squeezed the metal in his grip. The material over Tony's forearm crumpled at the pressure as sensors beeped in response to the damage the suit was sustaining, displaying the schematics to Tony who was grunting at the pain before he managed to swivel his hand and fire a repulsor blast to the side of Thor's face.
At the withdrawal, Tony surged forward and slammed his helmet into the other's forehead. Thor released him as he stumbled back a step and stared at him for his audacity before coiling his muscles and returning the attack, Tony thrown backwards at the force before flipping and landing on one knee. He immediately blasted forward, grabbing the god as he landed beside him and swinging him around to toss him a fair distance behind him. Thor was stopped by a fallen tree as his back crashed into it, landing hard on his front before climbing to his feet and charging Tony.
Tony threw a punch that was ducked under before Thor landed one to the waist of his suit, causing him to turn to the side with a grunt as the God of Thunder took the oppourtunity to land a blow across his shoulders and nape before his fingers dug under the metal plating of the top of his back. He swung him around and over his head before finally throwing him to the dirt at his feet, Tony landing heavily with a groan. As Thor reached back and called Mjolnir to him, raising her above him to slam into the fallen suit, Tony directed power to his thrusters and blasted along the ground, knocking Thor's legs from under him to send him crashing down.
As Thor was moving to stand Tony soared back and landed a punch to the back of his head as he fell to one knee beside him, the two bounding to their feet to attack one another once again. A yelled 'Hey!' interrupted them, a bright shield thrown to clip Thor's temple and the side of Tony's helmeted head before rebounding back into the hands of her owner. Their attention was pulled to Steve's stand on top of one of the ruined and slanted trees as he fastened his shield onto his left forearm without taking his eyes off of them as he said harshly, "That's enough."
He leapt to the rocky ground where the two were facing off and began towards Thor, "Now I don't know what you plan on doing here-"
"I've come here to put an end to Loki's schemes," the god asserted.
"Then prove it," Steve dared. "Put that hammer down."
"Uh yeah – no, bad call. He loves his ham-" Thor viciously slung Mjolnir into Tony's chest to send him flipping helmet over thrusters through the trees to land against a stone with a groan.
"You want me to put the hammer down?!" he boomed, leaping through the air between them and swinging Mjolnir over his head. Steve braced himself and crouched low, holding his shield above his head and body as the hammer slammed into the vibranium.
A blinding light signaled the impact as the sound of the shield's reverberations echoed through the space, an immense shockwave blasting the trees in its path backwards as it expanded to cover the area, Thor thrown away with Mjolnir in hand. The three men stumbled to their feet slowly, panting and gazing around at the debris as Steve asked, "Are we done here?"
Thor's silence was evidence of his acquiesce, eyes realising the destruction they had wrought.
"That's truly an enlightening first meeting," Loki commented.
"That's what happens when alphas meet," Bruce remarked. "There has to be at least a rough agreement of hierarchy, or they'll keep fighting."
The Helicarrier soared through the night sky that was littered with puffs of grey cloud, an entourage of a couple of jets maintaining a perimeter around the ship. Loki strode through the lower halls with a guard of sixteen armed soldiers, his posture confident. The group passed the laboratory Bruce was stationed in simulating the gamma signature of the Tesseract, the dark god meeting his eyes as the doctor removed his glasses and smirking at him as he walked. Bruce rubbed the bridge of his nose before blinking purposefully.
"Up to something – right there," Tony sung.
Loki observed the fortified cage he had been placed in with curiosity as the door slid shut behind him, Director Fury stepping around to the control panel at the front of the room. "In case it's unclear," he started as he typed a sequence into a couple of areas on the panel, "if you try to escape – you so much as scratch that glass-" The layered floor beneath the suspended cell slid outwards from the center, the hole allowing rushing air into the room from its passage to the sky surrounding the colossal aircraft. Loki stepped to the wall of the glass enclosure to peer down before directing his gaze onto Fury as he continued, "-it's thirty thousand feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?"
He closed the flooring before gesturing to the fallen god, pronouncing, "Ant," and then indicating the controls and stating, "Boot."
"Nice," Clint nodded.
Loki chuckled lightly, stepping casually back to speak from the center of the floor space with arms held wide. "It's an impressive cage – not built, I think, for me," he finished with both of his hands pointing to himself.
"Built for something a lot stronger than you," Fury responded.
"Oh, I've heard," he commented, turning to stare into one of the cameras secured to the ceiling above. "A mindless beast."
The Avengers were stationed around a wide round table with an interactive interface that displayed the security footage of the room the two were speaking in; Natasha, sitting with her arms crossed and laid on the surface of the table, lifted her eyes to meet Bruce's gaze. His arms were crossed over his chest and he stood with his weight resting on one leg and wire frames resting low on his nose as Loki's voice sounded through the room, declaring mockingly, "Makes play he's still a man." Thor worried his fingers as he stood listening to his brother's taunts, back turned on the table the others were viewing at.
"How desperate are you that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?"
"How desperate am I?" Fury repeated, walking closer to the glass that separated him from the god. "You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace, and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."
"Ooh, it burns you to have come so close," Loki uttered, the Director's jaw shifting in response. "To have the Tesseract, to have power – unlimited power. And for what?" He smiled and directed a knowing expression up at the camera, stating in derision, "A warm light for all mankind to share."
Agent Hill clenched her jaw at the statement and stare from her position on the bridge where she was watching the proceedings.
"And then to be reminded what real power is."
Fury's mouth pulled up at one corner before he turned away to exit, commenting, "Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something."
Loki arranged himself to calmly gaze up at the watching cameras before the video feed was shut off.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thank you Stardancer Cloud for pointing out the drapes comment and the oppourtunity for the myth insert! I was looking for a place to put it and it worked out wonderfully! And a note on Freyja's white feathered cloak - in one version it stated explicitly that it turned Loki in to a white raven, but in another it said it simply disguised him and enabled him to fly, and in another it didn't seem to have any benefit at all. So I decided on the disguise and flight (and they all agreed that Thrym recognized Loki), as it makes the most sense with my explanations of Loki's shifting. He wouldn't seek it out if he could just shift into a raven himself - there had to be additional properties. And he hadn't know who had stolen Mjolnir, so was unprepared for the vulnerability of being recognized.
Drop a review and let me know what you think!