After doing some research on SHIELD, Steve and Thor were having some dinner in Stark Tower. They didn't know anything about Tony and Bruce (and Loki) and the god of thunder was starting to get anxious.
"I should be there." He said, suddenly standing up. "I should be with him, apologize for what's been done, compensate for my excessively lengthy absence. Not Stark and Banner. I dislike being cast out and this wretched uncertainty. I am his brother, adopted or not."
Steve looked at him, blue eyes full of empathy.
"I know, friend. But he doesn't want you there right now. Maybe he'll change his mind, with time..."
As if on cue, Stark called Steve on his cell and asked for Thor.
"Could you com here for a bit, bug guy? Discreetly. No rolling thunder, no wielding a big thunder. We still don't know what's going on with SHIELD, so dress civilian, okay? Steve can help you. Maybe come along too, if he wants, but discreetly. Don't forget that."
Thor was confused about this sudden change.
"What about Loki? Did he change his mind?" He asked.
"He's..." Stark sounded hesitant. "I'm not gonna lie to you, Thor. He is... he is very ill. He's unconscious now, and Bruce and I have a theory but we need to ask you some delicate questions."
"Delicate?" He did not understand.
" 'Bout your dad and stuff. Just get here. I am going to tell you the address, write it down somewhere. I would text you, but we have to be careful about leaving traces."
Shortly after he did, the Captain of America and the God of Thunder started their journey.
Back at SHIELD, Clint was doing some progress too. He had become a sort of double agent, infiltrated in the group that had planned the attack on Stark Tower. After deciding that simply trying to investigate was useless, he had decided to go around SHIELD, talking with some key people about how happy he'd been about the op and what a pity it was that the bastard had gotten away. In a matter of hours he was invited to a secret meeting of a clandestine division called RVG (short for Revenge, he assumed) on one of the rooms of the west wing.
It was a bunch of people, between thirty-five and forty agents, men mostly and they were very angry.
"We had him, Fury! We had him on the interrogation rooms and you let him go! After all the work we've done!" One said.
"It's like going thirty steps back! We were so so close!" Another one screamed.
There was a clamor on the room. These men wanted Loki's head on a plate. What troubled Clint more was the fact that if he'd been approached earlier, he probably would have been one of them right now. Irrational, angry, asking for blood, to give Loki his just desserts. But that only made them closer to the men the hated, closer to killers and criminals. That want for retribution... it was a desire for violence. Not a good thing. Not something them, law enforcing agents should ever have.
He'd been one of them. He had been hours daydreaming of the torment he would inflict on Loki if he ever had the chance. But when he had actually done it, when he punched the god until there was blood, he hadn't felt good. At all. Instead, he had felt dirty, low. Became the thing he hated. It was bad. And as much as wanted to hate the guy, it was becoming harder after his stunt with Bob. What was quite meaningful to Clint was that he had not killed or even seriously injured Fury when he had the chance and motive. That alone made him, paradoxically, better than all this bloodthirsty agents.
After the clamor had decreased a bit Fury spoke up.
"I know you feel betrayed by that man's escape and I know we never had this kind of problem before, but we've never had this kind of threat before. Just letting Loki speak ten minutes and he will trick you. He is that dangerous. But, despair not, friends. He's still near and in this planet, which is something, and we have a new addition to the team- and one of the Avengers to top it all. Agent Barton!"
Clint shyly waved. Ok. Everything was going according to plan.
When Thor and Steve arrived to Banner's place Tony and Bruce were going through some data and Loki was still much the same. Pale and shivering under the sheets, still burning up. Thor looked at him concerned. He had been all right when he had handled his captor only some hours prior...
"And you say you have figured out what is causing this reaction?" his grave voice asked.
"We have some ideas..." Stark begun. "They do magic back in your land, right?"
Thor nodded, not understanding.
"And are there spells connected to thoughts? Something that could turn a thought into pain, into a physical illness?"
Thor thought for a while. It didn't sound familiar. For a moment, Tony wished he was wrong, that this was all a big coincidence and that Loki only had a bad alien virus, or some strange case of food poisoning. No such luck.
"Now that you mention it, yes, I remember a sentence the Allfather gave a rapist. It was a spell that was activated with obscene thoughts and turned them into pain in his... lower parts. It was vastly effective."
"I can imagine why." Stark said, grimacing.
"What does this have to do with my brother?"
This time, it was Banner who spoke and explained their theory, Loki's recurring thought, his ups-and-downs, the fact that Odin was the only one allowed on the cell, how the prisoner's disease covered everything. It was a lot to take in. Steve was horrified, looking at Loki with sadness. It was much worse than they thought. Thor didn't want to believe it.
"I will talk to the Allfather. I am sure there is an explanation that does not involve him causing Loki unspeakable pain only the avoid his escape." He boomed.
"He is playing with that too, you know." Stark added. "You all guys admire him so much you'd never think he'd do a thing like that. You'd just assume it was something else."
"Loki is his son, never forget that!" Thor all but screamed. "I will go to speak with the Allfather and come back with the truth. He will not lie to me and offer a rightful explanation."
"I'm sorry, Thor, but it all figures." Stark said, sipping a glass of scotch. He understood Thor's reluctance, but the fact that Odin had used spells like those on criminals on the past was the only info they needed. It was quite clear now.
The thunderer looked at his brother again, thrashing and moaning in a restless sleep.
"I've pumped him full of antidepressants, seeing that he is almost human without his magic. But... if you're going up there maybe you could ask your father for some sort of cure or counter spell or something. If we're right, I mean. And tell us what's going on if we're not."
At least Banner had the grace to doubt their theory.
Thor threw one last sad look in hos brother's direction and headed out, to travel to Asgard once again. Stark advised him to do it a bit far, to be more discreet. He would prove them wrong, he was sure of that. The Allfather wouldn't be so heartless with Loki. He couldn't be. He desperately hoped so as he took off into the skies.
On Division RVG, things were starting to heat up. Clint had gathered that the clandestine team worked on taking down terrorists, as cleanly and swiftly as possible, not exactly legal but not pursued by the law, either. Loki had been one of their priorities since they left and Fury had joined after regretting handing him over to Thor to what they thought would be a very soft punishment. Clint didn't point out their mistake. He just told the bastard deserved far worse, which was what they clearly wanted to hear.
On a break from the meeting, Clint excused himself and shortly informed Stark from the bathroom. They were going to discuss what to do about Loki next and Fury had said he was gathering info, and that they would get him in no time. The rest of them had said his death was top priority, which put in danger not only him (double agent) but Tony and Bruce too, since they were close to the target. Those were bad news, but at least now they knew their enemy and knew their moves. At least, they weren't in complete darkness as they've been in Stark Tower.
While Stark and Banner researched in Bruce's old computer, Steve went to look in their guests room to see if there was any improvement, now that the drugs had had time to make their way on Loki's system. Indeed, the drugs had an effect. Loki had woken up in an strange room, his mind blurry, his body not entirely responding. He tried to remember what had happened but only got flashes of his nightmare.
The ice. The cell. The cell! He was no longer in the cell? Or was he? What if this was all an illusion?
Dark eyes had been asking him something. A human? Could it be?
Suddenly, the door opened and a blonde man (not Thor, different face, same build, shiny colored shield) came in. Instinctively, Loki took the lamp from the nightstand and held it, menacingly.
"Who are you? What is this place? I warn you, mortal, I may be without magic but I am not defenceless." He said, and his voice was row and cracked from coughing.
Steve was confused, but then remembered hearing Banner saying something about the illness messing with his memory. Disorientation. He held out his hands, showing him that he meant no harm, leaving the shield he had taken just in case on the floor.
"It's okay, Loki. We're on earth, remember? We brought you here to help us with Bob. And then Fury and rest of them took you and you escaped and then sought out Dr. Banner to help you. Any of this sound familiar?"
Doctor Banner. Those were the dark eyes that asked him things (the last thing he remembered before the nightmare). And this was the soldier who had said such nice things about him on television. He was with the mortal comrades of his brother. Now he remembered but still, he held on to the lamp. One couldn't be too careful. His breathing could be heard across the room but he didn't care. It would take more than a mere illness to take him down.
"Thor was here too, while you were sleeping. He is gone to your land to ask your father for some cure for your illness."
"That man is not my father! I have no father!" Loki almost screamed, feeling shivers at the mention of Odin. Don't let the enemy see you like this, he thought, don't let the sickness consume you. But the man was getting blurred.
"You okay?" The man approached and Loki stood his ground and the lamp in place. "I really don't mean to hurt you, Loki. You can relax now. It's Fury and SHIELD we should worry about."
Slowly, Loki released the lamp and left in on the nightstand. He was the right. The Captain was not the enemy, if he was planning to attack him he would have done so earlier.
"And you're right" Steve continued "that man has no right to call himself your father. Being a parent has nothing to do with that. It's beyond justice... beyond moral."
Loki looked at the soldier, uncertain. Why was the man saying such nice things... again? Did he mean to control him like he did with Bob?
In RVG, things were heating up.
"We have them!" Fury bellowed after a while. "Agent Hamilton, the pictures."
In one of the screens appeared some pictures of the windows of a house and the people in them. They were taken by someone outside, someone with a potent zoom in their camera.
"I had some agents follow Rogers and Thor after they left Stark tower and this is where they are. We have them, Stark and Banner and... Undesirable number One." There was a picture of Loki, holding a lamp and Rogers' back next to him. They had them. "So, the question is... how are we going to take him out?"
Clint wanted to warn his friends but if he started texting in that moment the others would suspect him, and go against him too. He couldn't risk blowing his cover in a room full of armed agents. Agent Bolton was the next to speak.
"We end this, now, before he has a chance to cause any more damage. Loki is a massive threat and is trying to mind-control the world in to loving him, using the Avengers. He is a threat to the security not only of this country, but of the whole world. He is obviously controlling Rogers like he did with Barton last time, perhaps Stark too. What if he uses the Avengers to go against The white house and kill the president so he can finally rule? I say we throw a small missile on the house, stop the threat for once and all. We pin the explosion on him, say it was a battle between the forces of good and evil that went haywire. And stop worrying about the man, once and for all. Do a service to our country."
There were voices, some approving, others, outraged. This couldn't be real.
"Are you suggesting we kill half of the Avengers just to kill this guy?" Casey, who had been at Stark tower, asked. One thing was shooting darts to get the Avengers out of the way and another killing them.
"Trust me, if there was any other way I would take it. But if we let Loki talk, to a guard, to anyone, he'll escaped. He was gagged last time, and yet here he is. This is the inly way. And besides, Stark is a danger on himself, hacking onto our files, threatening us with exposure.. Do you know what would have happened if we hadn't intercepted those mails to his lawyers? The end of us, Casey, the end of our job, the end of safety. This country would constantly be in danger. We still have Barton, Romanoff and Thor and there are many people out there who are potential avengers, like Pym, that Namor weirdo and many more. Stark and Rogers will die for the greater good, the very cause they served, they will become symbols, and, sorry if I'm insensitive but they leave no family behind. You know who had families? The men and women brutally attacked in Stuttgart. Many agents that died when HQ collapsed. Hundreds of people who saw their lives destroyed after the Chitauri invasion. Those people deserve justice, those innocent families deserve it. And that can only happen if Loki is dead."
When Bolton finished his speech, Clint no longer cared about his cover. Pretending to be giving Natasha the happy news he called Stark. No answer. He texted him, with incredibly anxiety.
Get out of there!
Get out of there NOW!
The members of RVG voted.
Tony didn't answer his phone.
There was a decision.
As Thor reached the gates of his father's castle on Asgard, hoping for an answer, he sensed that something was wrong.
When he finally stopped speaking Tony saw that his phone was ringing. But it was already too late.
Steve heard the sound of a soft wheezing approaching and immediately recognised it. Quick as lightning he reached for his shield.
"Loki, behind the shield, Now!"
The missile reached its destination. There was sound.
And then there was silence.
A/N: I know, cliffhanger! But the next chapter will come sooner, I promise. I just had a big french exam, that's why there haven't been many updates. Next one should be sooner. Did you like this one? The chapter as a whole? BTW, Agent Bolton is named after Ramsay Bolton. (Kudos if you get the reference) He's evil. Unlike Steve, who is nice, even if Loki can't seem to trust him (yet). Do leave a review, it's the best motivator to continue!
Reviews are love! ^^
