Loki heard Natasha scream and knew he could not just sit still. His hatred of the avengers may still burn rather strongly, the fire not extinguished by threat, but unlike the avengers Loki knew that even criminals deserved fair trials and human rights. He was bound not by slavery but by his morals to help them.
He sprinted out the bedroom and down the stairs. The journey had never felt so long, his feet collided with the floor and he felt the ground beneath him give way. He fell forward, rolling over to avoid breaking his neck. He gets to his feet and walks into the living room, wondering what on earth he can do.
The scene that meets his eyes is chaos. Natasha and Clint are bound by ropes. Bruce is surrounded by magic, frozen still. Steve lies on the floor, Loki can only presume he has been knocked unconscious. Tony stands to one side, unmoving and unsure. Thor is in the centre, a knife held to his throat by a woman. Her hair is wild. Her eyes are wild. Her outfit, a glowing scarlet, matches the blood on the knife.
As Loki watches, the woman pulls the blade backward in a sharp, fluid motion, and Thor falls to the ground. Loki knows Thor is dead before he hits the floor. He can tell by the way that his magic pulses through him, free of the bonds for just a fraction of a second. A great weight lifts from his shoulders. The bond settles again, and this time he knows he is bound to Tony. He can feel it in the way he moves, the way the bond has settled, the way Tony matters now.
Loki watches, held in place by shock, as the woman pulls Tony to him. He watches as Tony is drawn nearer, wrapped up in magic and drawn in like a fly caught in a spiders web, like a boat in a whirlpool. The woman raises her blade to Tony's throat.
"Do you know who I am, Tony Stark?" she questions. Tony shakes his head. "My name is Wanda. Wanda Maximoff. Although they call me Scarlett Witch. I hate you, Mr Stark. See the thing is, a while back, I was happy. Then a grenade killed my family. My parents, my brother, all dead. On that grenade was written Stark industries. You are my nemesis, Mr Stark. You are a monster. You and your team of heroes, walking about this world like Robin Hood, pretending you are saving us. We do not need saving by you, we need saving from you!"
Wanda pauses in her monologue for impact. Loki cannot move, cannot think, he is paralysed by fear and shock. She is right, but not about Tony. And he has to protect Tony. But without explicit permission, he cannot use his magic. He is worthless.
"You prance about like you are higher than the laws. You pretend you are Merlin when you are Morganna. You make weapons and you kill for profit. You sit on your wealth, using it to live a life of luxury, instead of feeding those who starve. You own slaves. You are al monsters dressed up as saviours. You are my, and all of earths, nemesis."
As she spoke, something hit Loki. He was not powerless, not useless. He may have no magic, but he still had one strength. He was still silver-tongue, and he still had his voice.
"Wanda, was that your name?" Loki asked shakily. "Wanda, please. If you know of the avengers keeping slaves then you must mean me. And Tony, he is the one guy who didn't treat me like a slave. He kept me safe. The others abused me, violated me, struck me down and mocked me, they are monsters. But Tony kept me safe. He protected me. He isn't a monster, not like the others. Please, you have to believe me. I love him!"
Wanda slowly dropped her magic and let Tony go.