Since this got some response, I've decided to continue it. I have an idea for a plot now that involves Thor hunting down Thanos and I think I can take this somewhere. But please be prepared, I will heap all the whump in the world on our favorite trickster god in this one. And on Thor too because, well, he needs to suffer. They both need to suffer. We all need to suffer! *snickers in evil*
Oh, and this is canon divergence so the council wasn't cold-blooded enough to wanna launch a strike against the civilian population of Manhattan and the portal doesn't need to stay open until Tony gets the nuke through.
"Our wounds are often the openings into the best and most beautiful part of us." ~ David Richo
"Thor?" whispers Erik Selvig when the Thundergod lands on the upper roof of Stark Tower where the scientist has built the machine that is harnessing and stabilizing the Tesseract's energy in order to keep the portal open. His handiwork is whirring and sizzling with the energy of the mighty cube, shooting a pillar of light into the sky.
"Wh-what d-did I," Selvig stammers, glancing at Thor for support. He looks confused and shaken but the doctor's eyes too have lost their blue sheen.
"It wasn't your doing," Thor hurries to say because there is only one thing on his mind and that is Loki, who is lying unconscious below them with his body drained by the weapon in Thor's hand and his mind poisoned by the mysterious voice who has been in command of it this entire time. "You have been made into a tool, just like my brother." He holds the weapon out to Selvig. "Loki said the scepter can shut it down."
The scientist is slowly collecting himself with deep breaths but he still shoots Thor a wary glance. "B-but your brother …"
"Enough, Erik," Thor commands and the other man flinches from the deep, commanding tone of his voice. "We do not have any time to spare. Close the portal. The time for explanations will come soon enough."
The scientist stares at the scepter between them with an expression of awe as if he has never seen it before for a few heartbeats but then recognition flashes across his face. "I built in a safety," he mumbles and his breathing is heavy, "to cut their power source … The energy of the scepter can deflect the energy of the cube … He told me this … Why did Loki tell me to …"
"Just shut it off, please," Thor urges him and Selvig gives a hesitant nod before he walks up to the machine, flips open a computer screen and taps a few keys until the safety he spoke of materializes around the machine harnessing the Tesseract's energy in a translucent shield. He nods at Thor and then at the scepter, saying, "Right at the crown."
Thor blows out a breath, pokes the scepter through the barrier and feels the energy of the cube answering to it. A crackle comes from the artifacts, sounding almost as if they are conversing in a language of electrical impulses, and Thor can feel the scepter's hilt vibrating with their magic, their raw power biting into the skin of his palms.
This is ancient magic, Thor realizes as the pillar of light trembles, sending a shockwave into the sky. Ancient magic predating the order of this universe, predating even Asgard. He gazes up as the portal closes, its edges looking like dark veins against the blue sky before it shrinks up with a deafening rumble and, then, simply vanishes from sight as if it has never even existed in the first place.
Below, on the streets, people are throwing their arms up into the air, crying out tonelessly.
Thor heaves a sigh of relief and then directs his attention back at Loki, who … is no longer there. Thor's lips gape open in confusion. "How can he," he whispers in astonishment. He knows he shouldn't be surprised because that is what Loki always does, isn't it, he casts illusions to play tricks on people's minds and disappears into the air shrouded by a spell and shapeshifts into a raven that sits down on the windowsill to spy on him when he has private conversations with the Lady Sif, but only moments ago he was too exhausted to even keep his eyes open. He couldn't have possibly … Or could he? Thor is not sure—Loki is resourceful and resilient, he can do pretty much anything—but thinking about the mind games Loki used to play on him makes him realize, or maybe not realize, but certainly understand to some extent that everything his little brother has suffered through, every little bit of terror and agony he has seen and felt during the past year, might finally shatter his fragile mind.
Thor drops the scepter, reaches for Mjölnir and leaps down from the upper roof, his heart beating in his throat. Just as his boots land on the concrete with a thud, a movement registers on the periphery of his vision and he turns around to see the Hulk jump on the roof and run past him in a blur of green.
"Oh no," Thor gasps and charges after the beast into Tony Stark's quarters, where Loki is on the floor, crawling away from the war he has unleashed, crawling on all fours like an animal or a helpless child. Seeing his proud brother brought so low turns Thor's stomach once again.
"Banner, no!" Thor bellows. He is already swinging Mjölnir and when the Hulk makes no move to stop, he hurls it after him but the beast turns around, roaring at him as it catches the norndamned hammer. "Must smash the enemy!"
"He is not the enemy, okay?" Thor gasps as he summons Mjölnir back into his hand. "Not anymore!" He thinks about unleashing a thunderbolt but Loki is too close and, by Odin's Ravens, he doesn't even look up. He just keeps crawling and then the Hulk picks him up by the feet with his giant green meat hooks and his brother exhales a shaky breath but he is not speaking. He is just staring, his eyes blank and wide open.
"Alright, put him down!" Thor roars, swinging his hammer, just for emphasis really, because he knows he cannot really attack as long as the Hulk is holding his brother.
The Hulk merely stares at him, his face an angry grimace. "Must smash the enemy," the beast repeats.
"He is not the enemy," repeats Thor, through clenched teeth.
"Wait, did we miss something?" comes from Agent Romanoff who has made it to the tower with Barton. She scrunches up her nose, eying him warily, and Thor can almost smell their distrust.
"You did, yes," Thor presses out, anger rising inside of him at the sight of the Hulk holding his brother upside down like a lifeless doll, with Loki's head facing the ground. "What he did to you," Thor snaps at Barton, "it was done to him as well. He was under the influence of that scepter himself!" He glares at the Hulk. "Now, put him down!"
"Put him down," agrees Stark, who comes flying in through the door. "He clearly isn't a threat anymore right now."
The Hulk grumbles.
"Put him down!" Thor demands again and, finally, the beast obliges with an exasperated grunt and flings Loki back onto the ground, his golden armor clanging against the stone floor.
Thor drops his hammer and to his knees, feeling for his brother's pulse. "Loki?" he whispers. "Can you hear me?"
But Loki just stares. Damn it all, he just stares, his eyes unfocused.
Thor shakes him but he gets no response except for a soft whimpering noise that rams an icy splinter of fear into his heart.
Bring your brother home, my love. He can almost hear Frigga's voice, can almost hear the panic seeping into her words. But not like this! What happened to him? Why didn't you save him?
"Care to elaborate?" Tony Stark asks as his Iron Man helmet disintegrates, revealing a face pinched up with suspicion.
Thor looks up at the mortal and his chest yawns open at the recollection of Loki's false memories and all his pain. So much pain. "I am going to take my brother back to Asgard," Thor announces, his gaze hiking up the building where the Tesseract and the scepter are still with Erik Selvig. "I need to take him to the healing room there as quickly as possible."
"The healing room?" echoes Barton.
"I don't know how you felt after you shook off the scepter's influence but I dare say you've also felt a little drained," Thor grumbles. "Loki fell into space a year ago." Thor harrumphs because he knows how outrageous this must sound to their kind. "He has been untraceable for almost a year and we thought him dead until he came here with the Tesseract's aid and I fear that he has been poisoned by this scepter for all this time."
"By whom?" asks Steve Rogers, who is just now joining them.
"I do not know that yet," Thor admits. "But I heard his voice inside Loki's head and he …" Tortured his body and raped his mind until there was nothing left but this helpless creature who is cowering on the floor, gazing up with no flicker of recognition in his dead, empty eyes. "He broke him."
Romanoff swallows.
"I don't know who he is but I will find him and I will kill him with my bare hands for what he has done to my brother and your world," Thor growls. "And now I will take these artifacts that are infested with ancient magic and that are too powerful and too dangerous to remain on your world to my father and Loki to my mother." He stretches out his hand and softly touches his brother's shoulder. "Are you ready to come home with me?"
"Not a chance," says Tony Stark. "You can't just—"
"Look at him, Tony!" Thor roars and his voice breaks. "Just look at him!" A tremor of trepidation rocks his body—because what if Loki stays like this, what if his smart, sassy little brother never awakes again and what if his brilliant mind remains shattered forever and can't be pieced back together, not even by the Asgardian healers or Frigga's healing spells—and his shivering startles Loki. He blinks and turns away, and he starts crawling again.
"Where are you going?" Thor asks him softly, nurturing a tiny hope that, at some point, Loki will reply.
"Away," his brother breathes so quietly that Thor thinks he might have imagined it.
"Okay, this is …" Stark's voice trails off and he walks over to Loki, crouching down in front of him. "Hey, can you hear us?" Thor watches and his entire body tenses as Stark snaps his fingers in front of Loki's face. "Is somebody in there?"
Loki exhales another trembling breath. "W-why?" He blinks again. "I d-don't even know … who you are."
"How convenient," Clint Barton grumbles. The Black Widow puts her hand on his arm to comfort him and they turn away towards Steve Rogers, who doesn't really look as if he knows what to do with himself now that the battle is over and who also looks slightly embarrassed to see Loki in such a state of raw, unguarded vulnerability even though he has fought him until moments ago.
"Do you know who I am?" Thor whispers and he is so afraid of the answer that his heart sits physically heavy inside his chest.
"The mighty Thor," says Loki but his voice is flat, as if there is no emotion attached to the knowledge any longer. "The son of Odin. The Thunderer. The crown prince of the Aesir."
Thor nods. "And do you know who you are?"
This time, there is no response. Loki just stares.
"You are my brother," Thor says and he puts his hands on his brother's shoulders again. "You are Loki. Odinson. And I'm going to take you home now. Home to Asgard."
Loki's lips part and he shakes his head. "No."
A lump forms in Thor's throat and he tries to swallow it down. "Do you remember Asgard?"
A vague nod.
"Do you remember our mother? Frigga?" Thor elaborates when Loki gives no response. "The queen?"
Another vague nod.
"She is waiting for you," Thor continues and his words come out in a voice that is thick with held back tears because, by Odin's all-seeing eye, he can't break down now that his brother needs him to be strong enough for both of them. "At home. We need to get you home, okay, so that she can take care of …" Words fail him when he realizes that he is talking to his brother as if he were a small child and Loki shakes his head again, whispering, "Not to Asgard."
Thor's first impulse is to scoop his brother up and drag him back home anyway but then it crosses his mind that Loki did not think of Asgard as his home anymore even before that evil creature laid hands upon him and poisoned his mind with the lie that he means nothing to his family, and Thor remembers the day he lost him, the day Loki let go of his sanity because he probably feared that Odin would send him back to Jotunheim and that Thor would slay him for the monster he thought he was and Thor thinks about how these thoughts festered in his brother's subconscious until their poisonous fumes wafted into his conscious thinking and he felt there was no reason to hold on to his life. He thinks about how this was the Loki that the monster found; a proud, intelligent, strong God, broken by the revelation that he was the bloodson of a giant whom he has grown up to think of as evil and monstrous and hideous; not worthy of anything but hatred and contempt.
No, Loki no longer thinks of Asgard as his home. By Hel, his mind has apparently shut itself off enough for him to forget his relation to the Asgardians because these memories are too threatening and too painful and if Thor brings him back against his will, he might break what is left of his heart and he can't do that to him. Not after everything … else that was done to him.
"Do you want to stay here?" Thor asks and glances at Stark, who nods even as Natasha, Steve and Clint break out into a murmur of objections. "Last time I checked, this building is mine and I can invite whoever I want," says Tony.
But Loki shakes his head.
"Where do you want to go, then?" Thor asks and there is a brief flicker in Loki's empty eyes. Thor's stomach clenches when he mentally steels himself for the answer.
"Back," Loki whispers and Thor's heart plummets to the bottom of his stomach with such force that he gags. "Back to Him."