Just so there's no confusion, around six months have passed since Cora was put into deep freeze. She was frozen on November 1, 2010 and the Battle of New York takes place May 4, 2011.
This chapter was probably the most difficult one I've had to write so far, but worth it just like all the rest. Trying to encapsulate The Avengers from Loki's viewpoint while not going through the entire movie was a little exhausting, but I hope I did well at blending canon with my own dialogue and takes on what happened. Hope you enjoy.
Loki stood silently by as the Chitauri leader he'd come to know as the Other addressed the dark figure upon his throne, his body bent in a submissive bow as he spoke. "The Tesseract has awakened. It is on a little world. A human world. They would wield its power, but our ally knows its workings as they never will…," he said, his voice gravelly and barely concealing a dark, deadly hunger in its undertones.
The Other turned and placed a golden scepter crowned with a blue spherical gem and silver blades like teeth in Loki's hands, and he barely contained a shudder as the raw, writhing figments of Chitauri magic slid beneath his skin just as they had before, time and time again, then presenting pain instead of power and seeking out the repressed weaknesses and emotional casualties which lay within him. Exploiting them. Reopening the scars and blistering the vulnerable flesh beneath until they festered, rotted, stemming with sickness into his bloodstream until disease circulated back to his mind, where madness had already eagerly begun to brew.
The Chitauri writhed in masses all around them, the earth quaking from their frenzied shifting. "He is ready to lead," the Other continued, ignoring the prince's muted discomfort though Loki knew he could sense it. He had to be attuned after all this time. It hadn't been long; the blink of an eye for someone like them. Yet every moment had been agony, force, punishment, and borderline despair for the Jotun amongst true monsters the likes of which he was sure Asgard had never experienced. Otherwise, tales of Frost Giants would have never seemed so frightening in comparison. "And our force, our Chitauri, will follow."
The Other flourished a respectful hand toward the figure—Thanos, one of the last Eternals of Titan—upon the throne as he said with as much charm as his reptilian voice could muster, "The world will be his. The universe, yours. And the humans… What can they do but burn?"
Thanos remained pensively silent for a moment before a smirk crooked his lips and he murmured simply, "Then let us begin." Feral cries of anticipation rang out all around as the Chitauri retreated from the throne once the signal was given, Loki keeping step as to not get swept up in their scaly ranks. As they continued onward, he began to lag a bit, glancing down at the scepter in his hands just as the Other came near. It was all Loki could do to not reflexively defend himself or even, shamefully, shrink away.
"You lack enthusiasm for your day of glory," he observed, though he severely lacked any of the concern he may have been trying to falsely imply. It was mockery and it made the former king bristle with injured pride. The Other's voice became stone-cold in a way familiar now to Loki as he said, "You will not have second thoughts."
Loki nodded once, wired and on edge from the sickening power pulsating from the scepter, feeling like hundreds of insects shuffling through his bones. He drew a shuddering breath as he tried to ignore the sensation, the Other watching him with entertainment taken from the Jotun's reaction to the Chitauri's magic. The frost giant's pain was his pleasure and there had been many a tortured soul before him to hold the hooded creature's attention. "I will not," Loki said woodenly. "Why should I?"
"Because you are not getting what you desire from this," the Other answered easily, moving forward slightly while Loki stayed still. "You gain a throne, but not the right one, no… Why would a reign over Midgard satisfy you?"
"I am destined to be a king," Loki gritted quietly.
"But not over men," the Other said, having pulled the exact words from Loki's passing thoughts. Loki glanced down at the scepter in his hands, cursing it and wanting to drop it, but knowing it would prove only to anger the being nearby and plant suspicion where there need be none. Flashbacks of the pain, the forture, lanced through his disheveled mind and put him back in check. The Other turned, circling Loki as he spoke. "You do not care for a Midgardian throne. Admit it now," he instructed calmly.
Loki hesitated before murmuring back, "I do not care for a Midgardian throne."
"Yet you will take one because your desires are outlandishly impossible and do not mesh with our true leader's will," he snapped. "You should be grateful you will reap this much from your small part in this scheme. Your sole two wishes are follies, weak ploys of a boy long dead by my merciful hands."
Loki frowned faintly after quickly dispelling the Other's last statement from his head. "Two wishes?"
"Of course. Young Loki, you do not know your own mind, do you?" he mocked and elaborated, "Yes… Two. One much stronger and more vital to your sanity than the other. We both know what I speak of."
"Vengeance," Loki said in a hard voice when the Other gestured for him to speak it. "My rightful place as king of Asgard. Yet, apart from that… I cannot think of another whim I may have."
"Oh, but there is another… One more pathetic than your desperate climb toward a throne you lost."
The Other waited, letting the unknown hover in the air between them until Loki gave an impatient, "Enlighten me."
The cloaked creature smirked under the shadow of his hood as he continued to step slowly around Loki. "This was never about control of Midgard and it has not been about the Tesseract for a while now. It is your bargaining chip… What care do you have for a throne over mortals? They will expire beneath your boot heels, they will clamber for your approval, but for what? They are easy, they are vermin. You want power—desperately—and yet there's something else as well." The Other smirked maliciously, finally bringing an end to his extensive teasing. "I have been inside your head, Loki Laufeyson, over and over again… And you would bring the entirety of Midgard to ruin just to see her again."
Loki's gaze flashed toward the Other, his eyes narrowed. "Think you I hold feelings for a mortal woman?"
"She is alive, you know."
His jaw clenched, dropping the façade of disbelief as it was of no use; the Other spoke the truth of invading his mind. He recalled it clearly and with disgust. "You jest."
"If you say so," the Other murmured with a flippant shrug.
"How would you know if she lives?"
"Your hold on the human scientist's consciousness branches to me as well, given my hold over a portion of yours," he explained silkily, ignoring the way Loki's eye twitched at that. "I dug deeper than you did. You are careless. And you are weak."
The Other shifted over and began to walk away, giving Loki little choice but to follow, preparing to channel the Tesseract and carry out his purpose as he pondered what the Other had told him, wondering idly what had become of the little woman he'd aggravated and been aggravated by in those few days they were cooped up in a warehouse together. He'd hung onto those few days and days from his childhood through the misery of this nightly void, drawing some comfort from them when his sanity clung by bare threads.
The fact that he'd become so involved with concern and interest over the girl both angered and baffled him. Worldly attachments were not options to him now and he'd learned from the Asgardians he'd called his family until that dream was ripped from his clinging fingers that love wounded. It was a path to destruction and it was a lie. Loki exhaled slowly as he followed the Other to a small space in the rocks, his grip tightening on the scepter as the gem began to pulsate with energy as a connection between it and the Tesseract was forged, a portal slowly ripping reality before their eyes.
"Go forth, Loki. A new era begins in Midgard this day," the Other encouraged just before Loki moved forward, stepping into the portal and being swept into a continuum for a few short seconds, where he knelt to keep his balance. He was spat back out again in what felt like two long moments, stable on knee and foot as the roaring rip in the air behind him sucked in upon itself until closed. Steam billowed up around him as he slowly looked up, the Chitauri magic in full force now that he was putting their plans into motion. His eyes focused upon the Tesseract directly across from him in the lab as a maddened grin nearly split his face in two, the demigod slowly rising to his feet.
Chaos broke out shortly within the lab, shots being fired from SHIELD's agents and Loki slaughtering the lot with magic that plunged forth from his scepter at his command, not to mention his procuring one of Fury's most important underlings, Agent Barton. A lull only fell over the room when men lay dead upon the steel floor and Loki turned to Fury, who was attempting to get out of the lab with the Tesseract in tow. "Please don't," he said calmly, Fury halting in his wake. "I still need that."
"This doesn't have to get any messier…," Fury suggested, looking at the scepter-wielding spaceman nearby warily.
"Of course it does," Loki murmured, growing colder inside as he spoke and flashbacks lanced through his mind. "I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose…"
Dr. Selvig gaped nearby. "Loki? Brother of Thor?"
It was all Loki could do not to snarl at the middle-aged scientist as Fury continued, "We have no quarrel with your people."
His eyes shifted lazily back to Fury. "An ant has no quarrel with a boot," he murmured flippantly.
"You planning to step on us?"
"I come with glad tidings," Loki replied with added friendliness as he stepped away from Barton, "of a world made free."
"Free from what?"
"Freedom," the demigod murmured severely, twitching faintly as the Chitauri energy from the scepter continued to worm through his bones. "Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart…" He put the point of the scepter against Selvig's chest as he'd done with Barton, watching as cerulean tendrils branched from the gem and permeated the mortal's skin, his irises crystalizing with submission to its power. "You will know peace."
"You will have your war, Asgardian. If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he can't find you. You think you know pain?" the Other sneered in their state of psychic connection. "He will make you long for something as sweet as pain…"
Loki felt the Other's clammy hand press against his face just before he was jolted back into consciousness, glancing around like a beaten animal, feral and wary. He heaved a breath before shaking his head and standing, looking up as Barton began to pass him, holding a tablet. "Hold a moment," Loki murmured at the last minute as he rose stiffly, watching as Barton stopped and turned toward him. "Approach me."
Clint stepped forward and Loki raised a hand to his head, closing his eyes before barely touching his skull and delving carefully into the man's mind. He saw many things, some of a redhead who was also an agent for SHIELD, but who had quite a past before settling into a governmental role, his initiation into SHIELD, and even when he'd been prepared to sink an arrow or two in Thor for tearing through so many agents to get to Mjolnir during his banishment.
Finally, he got to what he wanted: the day he and the older agent had come to collect Cora from the warehouse. Loki clenched his jaw faintly as he watched the memories play out, not understanding why he cared and why he wanted to know what had happened so much. Then again, he might've known why and was just unwilling to admit it.
He watched as she was taken to their headquarters, where he had been hours before, and told she was likely going to be given a death sentence. The tale unfolded until he seemed to learn along with her that she was going to be put into deep freeze. Loki's brow knitted as he continued to watch it all unfold, only able to see bits and pieces, given that he was watching from Barton's point of view and he seemed to have extricated himself often, silently disturbed by the injustice of it all.
Loki was prepared to let go when he saw the panic as the Tesseract had started reacting to the connection which had been forming between it and the scepter. Barton had been taking orders from Fury and among those orders was an evacuation plan for all agents. "And Camo, sir?" Barton had asked, to which Fury had paused and given a firm nod, noting, "Of course she's included." In Barton's bank of knowledge, Loki could see that "Camo" had been codename from day one for Cora Dempsey.
The demigod dropped his hand from Barton's head and nodded. "As you were." Barton saluted and then went back to what he'd been doing, Loki following idly to see how things were coming along with Selvig and the Tesseract. Encased in ice on the sky-craft they've all fled to…, he mulled over the development as Dr. Selvig turned and saw him, excitedly ranting about the things the relic was revealing to him. Interesting.
Loki idly paced his steel and glass cell, suspended from over thirty-thousand feet, having just been "played" by the red-haired woman, Natasha, to get information on what he was counting on to occur… She'd not gotten the full story, of course, but he was mildly concerned that his plan wouldn't go as he wanted. At least he could think clearly now, without influence from the Chitauri ancients in the scepter and the Other in his head…
Still, how he flinched. How the anger rose within him, how the hatred burned deep… Those were not brought on by the disgusting power which infiltrated his body from the weapon, they were a part of him now. The pain, the memories of torture and agony, the lust for vengeance, the madness which took him over, all this. Whether he wanted them or not.
He sat down, his elbows braced against his knees as he looked down at the floor, at his hands which were riddled with faint scars, the worst of them under his armor. Loki sighed and ran a hand through his hair, growing impatient with his lack of progress just as he heard a roar loud enough to rattle the glass of his prison. A grin spread across his face as agents filtered in, taking shortcuts to get to Fury and warn him of what was happening, the second one stumbling and bumping the control panel in passing with the butt of his rifle.
Loki's jaw clenched as he wondered which button had been hit until a voice spoke from the panel. "Confirm identity for release?" His eyes narrowed and he stepped to the glass, his eyes blazing green as his powers permeated the glass and constructed an illusion of Director Fury near the control panel, using it as a puppet to speak using Fury's voice, "Director Nick Fury."
"Identity confirmed," the automated response chimed and Loki smirked triumphantly as the door before him slid open, a soft chuckle shaking his frame. He glanced around and started across the grated walkway when he heard familiar heavy footsteps beyond the door. Glancing toward the open cell, he created an illusion of himself, which took no more thought than the bat of an eye by now, just as Thor barged in, shouting, "NO!" as he barreled through the illusion, glancing around in confusion.
Loki had made his way back to the control panel as the door shut on Thor, who stood, a look of panic and betrayal on his face, smoothed over by anger. "Are you ever not going to fall for that?" he wondered aloud. "The humans think us immortal…" He smiled wickedly toward the imprisoned heir. "Should we test that?" Flinching as Mjolnir struck the glass and made just the smallest crack, Loki sneered and moved over to the control panel.
Hearing the whirr of a nearby weapon, Loki's hand paused, hovering over the button Fury had used to threaten him earlier, seeing the familiar thin-haired agent approaching with a massive gun of some kind. "Move away, please." Arching a brow, Loki backed off. "You like this? We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does," he noted as he fired it up. "Do you wanna find out?"
The true Loki had gone after the scepter after leaving the cell, leaving a few illusory versions of himself behind in case he got the opportunity to cause more turmoil where his cell came into play. He stepped in behind Coulson and snarled silently as he rammed the point of his spear through his beating heart, the illusion dropping off as he ripped the tip back and let Coulson hit the as Thor shouted in the cell, mourning the being who was insignificant in Loki's eyes, Loki went to the control panel and opened up the porthole beneath the prison, making eye contact with his brother before dropping him, cell and all.
He stared at the porthole a moment before closing it, starting to walk away as Coulson murmured, "You're gonna lose," which caused him to pause.
Turning slowly, Loki looked at him. "Am I?"
"It's in your nature," he said calmly and Loki wasn't sure why he seemed so at ease.
Rage at the mortal's impertinence roiled as he seethed, "Your heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky… Where is my disadvantage?"
"You lack conviction."
Loki shifted forward, opening his mouth to speak just as Coulson fired the weapon, the force of the blast shooting him back through the wall behind him, shaking his head a bit as he sat up and got to his feet, looking around him until he saw a familiar staircase made of the same metal mesh as the rest of the walkways, familiar only because he had seen it in Barton's mind.
He glanced toward his exit briefly before he took the staircase down into the recesses of the ship, having to step over a few portions of the stairs which had been ripped out during the Hulk's rage, no doubt. Loki frowned briefly, closing his eyes and bringing Barton's memories back to the surface before taking the hallway furthest right, which led him to a compact storage area. He'd passed multiple capsules on his way there, shattered and leaking fluid, and the felt his pace quicken as he wondered if the capsule Cora slept inside had come to the same fate.
Just five minutes passed before he found it, at the far corner of the containment area. He approached it slowly, ignoring the discord he could hear in higher levels of the ship as his gaze dropped down to the plate on the side of the steel case, reading, "DEMPSEY, CORA "TARGET: CAMO" #3441."
He cautiously touched his fingertips to the fogged, frozen glass lid, sighing with a tinge of unease as he allowed his hand to slowly transfigure into its true Jotun blue, his eyes shifting to red as he eased the ice on the inside of the glass just enough to see the interior. As just the frost from the glass cleared, he leaned forward to peer inside, his lips thinning into a line as he saw the familiar, formerly fiery-tempered girl inside. The feelings that stirred in him at seeing her this way forced tension into his jaw and spine, his sense of vengeance growing until he tamed the anger. He could almost hear her notifying him that she was—in her word for rage—"pissed."
"As am I, woman," he murmured as he lifted his hand from the glass, his skin returning to porcelain as his eyes became green once more. "As am I."
