Ensoulment
by Valerie Vancollie
valeriev84 at hotmail dot com
Notes: Sorry for not posting a chapter yesterday, but I was seeing Endgame and that didn't end until midnight. I'd hoped to post before I went to see it but I ran out of time.
For anyone else who has seen it, just remember this fic is not Endgame compliant and is a spoiler free zone, so please don't mention anything in the comments that would ruin the movie for those who've not yet been able to see it!
Now onto the chapter itself.
Earth, 2018 A.D.
"Thor? Buddy?" Tony called out leaning into the room the god had been assigned.
"Man of Iron," the big guy replied, coming out of the bathroom. "You wished to have words with me about Loki?"
"Yeah," Tony pulled the door closed behind him as he entered. "I just wanted to check a few things."
"Such as?"
"Well, I assume that as a prince of Ásgarðr he would have had all kinds of training on how to rule, in case something had ever happened to you. Right?"
Thor frowned. "Aye."
"And I assume how to fight battles or... well, uh, wage war would have been part of that."
"Of course," a sad smiled crossed Thor's face. "We are a warrior people and we learn how to fight early as boys. Loki... he ever excelled at unusual weapons- knives, staffs, scepters- rather than the more traditional."
Traditional? Was Hammer Boy truly commenting on his brother's choice of weapons? Really?
"But he was still good at it?" Tony asked instead.
"Aye, particularly at tactics and planning," Thor confirmed. "He managed to free my friends and I from more than one difficult situation during our quests."
Read: sticky situations.
And, okay, right, that's what Tony had thought. Although not the specialty in tactics and who could blame him? The invasion? Not a well-planned attack.
Well, at least not if it had been intended to succeed.
Their assumption that it had been planned that way was part of what had led to the whole bag of cats idea as it had been so crazy. But, if that had not been the case then that put a whole new spin on things entirely. And if Tony added in a few assumptions of his own regarding that thrice damned scepter and the Mind Stone it had contained? Ah, well, then it suddenly did become a beautifully planned thing once more.
One being played out on multiple levels to two completely different audiences and all without allowing either to see or even guess that there might be another layer to Reindeer Games' performance and actions. It became a multifaceted lateral thinking level approach and that alone made him yearn to gets his hands Loki again and try to unravel his thinking and simply to pick his brain. It wasn't often he came across someone who could impress him with their mental skills, but if he was right about all of this then Rock of Ages was definitely one of them, particularly if the whole charade had been done under the duress he thought it had been.
Not to mention that Tony simply couldn't help but be both intrigued and impressed with the show Loki had put on in order to achieve it all. But it all begged the question; was the guy truly as much of a diva as he'd seemed or had that all been part of the act?
Somehow Tony found himself hoping it hadn't all been faked. There weren't many people who shared his sense of 'fuck expectations sideways' and to do so in the same person whose intellectual abilities had already intrigued him so? Well he never had been good at resisting temptation and now he just wanted to meet the guy again on better terms. Not that he could immediately forget the whole defenestration bit, but then by that point his ability to fly had been known, so perhaps Loki had been counting on that? After all, if the god had truly wanted him dead, Loki's hand had been on Tony's throat just then and it would have been nothing for him to simply squeeze a little harder. Someone who survived a Hulk smash as easily as Loki had certainly had more than enough strength to easily pulverize one engineer's throat and spine.
And wasn't that ironic given how Reindeer Games had died?
"Man of Iron?"
Tony blinked to find Thor standing closer and frowning at him in concern.
"Sorry, Point Break, I was just thinking about something," Tony waved off.
"Does it have to do with this theory of yours?"
"Yep," Tony paused, both for dramatic effect and to allow for the inevitable follow-up question. It was his turn to frown when it didn't come. "Aren't you curious?"
"Of course, but you said you were not ready to share and Loki has taught me those such as you will not do so until they are prepared to."
Thor thought he was like Loki? Before this might have angered him, at least superficially, but given where they were right now and what he strongly suspected, he'd take it as a compliment.
"Unless you now wish for me to do so?" Thor asked, a rather knowing and yet sad smile crossing his face. "In order to demonstrate your cleverness?"
"Ugh, you're no fun," Tony complained. "Or Loki and I are too much alike."
"The thought had occurred to me," a pause. "You do not appear insulted or affronted at this possibility."
"Once perhaps, but given the complicated shell game he was playing during the invasion, no, I'm rather pleased at the comparison."
So he may not have been able to prompt Thor into setting up his revelation at first, but he definitely had the big guy's attention (and confusion) now.
"What is this shell game you speak of?" Thor asked.
"It's a confidence trick used to cheat people out of their money," Tony replied. "But basically it involves sleight of hand and other underhanded means to make it look like you are doing one thing when really you're doing something else entirely."
"My brother does like his tricks," Thor's brow was furrowed, clearly confused. "You... approve of this?"
"When it means he's sabotaging someone's plans to attack and conquer Earth? Hell yeah!"
"Sabotaging? Explain your meaning, Man of Iron."
Tony's eyebrows shot up at the more menacing undertone suddenly present in Point Blank's voice and it rather abruptly reminded him of how Thor had reacted when they had first met. Both on the Quinjet and during their rendition of Shakespeare in the park immediately after.
Charge in and attack, ask questions and respect humans later.
With everything that had happened since it had been so easy to forget, but Tony made himself a mental note not to do so again. They actually knew precious little of what Ásgarðr thought of Earth and humans and given how Loki had turned out- one way or another- there were signs there that perhaps everything might not be milk and honey in the land of gold. Or was that just within the House of Óðinn? Not that it truly mattered as Óðinn is- was- the king of Ásgarðr and thus his views would essentially be their version of foreign policy when it came to Earth. At the very least he needed to carefully probe Thor's stance on the issue, especially if Point Break was going to be approaching them regarding potential asylum for the surviving Ásgarðrians.
"Just this, Loki's plan sucked, big time. Almost as if it were specifically designed to fail," Tony stated bluntly.
"But he attacked and brought an army through the portal!" Thor protested.
"A really tiny portal, did you notice that?"
"It allowed through the chitauri with their vile beasts and ships."
"Only the smaller ones," Tony shuddered as he had a flash of what he'd seen on the other side of the portal. "They had much larger ones which couldn't get through. By having a small portal, Loki essentially bottlenecked the invasion, giving us both time and a chance to win."
Thor mulled over his words, though his frown only deepened and Tony wondered if that was due to fear of seeing more good in his brother than was there or something else.
"And consider this," Tony continued. "Why open the portal above New York where everyone could see it?"
"I thought it required the energy from your tower?"
"Yes, but there are other energy sources available. From everything you've said, Reindeer Games is inventive and resourceful, I'm sure he could have gotten his hands on one, just like he did everything else he needed in order to open that portal."
"What are you saying?"
"That it makes no tactical sense to open the portal where he did, or when he did. Why not open it in some remote area where we wouldn't have been able to see what was happening? Then he could have gotten his entire army through before attacking us. In doing so the army would have been completely here already and able to focus all of their attention on fighting us, rather than having their focus split."
"Aye, but we already knew what he planned."
"Yep we did. Because he told us. In fact it was almost the first thing that he did upon arrival, even before he had fully secured the Tesseract," Tony stated. "In doing so, Loki gave us the maximum time possible to prepare and mount a defense against him. Something which he most definitely didn't have to do. Instead he could have simply attacked and taken the Tesseract. True, S.H.I.E.L.D. would have known something was up, but not precisely what. This could have made them be slightly more secretive in how they handled the situation, as they did when you first arrived in New Mexico."
"Loki told you?" Thor questioned.
"Yeah."
Blondie slowly shook his head, but Tony could see the first glimmer of hope there. "My brother never says what he is truly planning. That is left for us to figure out unless the goal is one decided upon together. You think it was meant as a warning?"
"A warning and show both. Remember how I said he was sabotaging someone's plans?"
"It was said earlier the invasion was Thanos' first attempt to obtain the Space Stone."
"Now you're getting it, Point Break. So, if Loki wished to deceive them as well as warn us, what better way than to make an appropriately villainous speech, announcing his intentions? To them it would seem like he was following his orders while to Fury it would have set off all kinds of alarm bells."
"You believe he was being observed," Thor said.
"Given what was in that scepter of his and how it influenced us when we were merely in the same room as it? Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if there was some kind of link back to Thanos or someone working for him. It would match with all of the energy readings I got off the damned thing."
"Do you have any other proof?"
"Two things. First, Loki's choice of target. He chose both us and New York city, neither of which makes any tactical sense."
"We are Earth's greatest defenders."
"Now we are, but when your brother first came here we weren't," Tony countered. "No, we were hardly more than a disparate set of superpowered individuals. It is Loki and the threat of his invasion that brought us all together. Remember how we argued on the Helicarrier?" The way Thor winced told Tony the god most definitely did. "Without that, we'd never have been able to come together to fight him off, which is why I think he allowed himself to be captured in Stuttgart and brought back to the Helicarrier."
"Allowed himself? You do not believe you captured him?"
"After seeing what you are truly capable of? Nope," Tony hated to admit it, but there it was. "Besides, did he try to run while Rogers, you and I were fighting after you dragged him from the Quinjet?"
Thor shook his head. "That had occurred to me. What is it about New York you view as a bad target?"
"The fact that it's capture would have been symbolic only. It's not the political capital of America nor a strategic military stronghold."
"My brother would not have been aware of this."
"After what he said and did in Germany? Yeah, he knew," Tony retorted before raising a hand as the big guy opened his mouth. "Trust me, what Loki said and did in Stuttgart was deliberately designed to provoke an old wound. If he did enough homework to know about that then there is no way he wouldn't have done enough to know that not only was New York not a particularly tactical target, but would again deliberately provoke a spirited and enthusiastic defense response."
There was a pause as Thor processed that and Tony moved towards the computer console built into every bedroom on site. He had known when he'd designed the place that those staying here would often require quick and easy access to all kinds of information, so he had taken steps to make that as simple and easy to achieve as possible.
"You mentioned that there were two further items, you have only mentioned one," Point Break finally spoke up.
"The second is better seen with your own eyes, but Thor, it isn't pretty."
"What is the importance of beauty?"
"No, what I meant is that it will be heard to see."
"Ah, I see. This is your... security footage?"
The words sounded as alien in Thor's voice as they no doubt felt to the big guy. Tony couldn't help but wonder what they had on Ásgarðr instead as he couldn't believe that they didn't have some sort of equivalent.
"Yes, of Loki's arrival on Earth. The quality isn't great as the base was on the verge of implosion, but S.H.I.E.L.D. had a constant backup of all its cameras for precisely this type of scenario. Friday, if you will?"
The holographic display lit up and they could see the inside of the rather cavernous room the Tesseract had been held in the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility. It wasn't the best angle as it was farther out than Tony would have liked, but it did provide them with a good overview of the events that were to follow. Just now though all they could see was the innocuous looking cube and the scientists that skittered around the edge of the view on the left.
"Erik Selvig!" Thor exclaimed before his face fell. "This is when Loki captured him."
"Yeah," Tony confirmed before nudging one bulging arm. "Here he comes."
As he had seen the footage countless times since he'd illicitly acquired it (it wasn't like S.H.I.E.L.D. was simply going to hand it over to him no matter how nicely he asked for it), Tony didn't pay as much attention to it as he did to Thor. The big guy's face was grave as he watched what essentially boiled down to a one god smackdown of a team of what he had no doubt were highly trained and deadly men. It was part of why he now knew Loki had allowed himself to be captured in Stuttgart; the difference in Reindeer Games' fighting skills was simply far too marked for it to be explained in any other way. Especially given the condition the god had been in here.
"This does nothing to prove your theory, Man of Iron," Thor intoned when the footage Tony had spliced together winked out.
"Ah, that's because you're paying far too much attention to what Loki is saying and doing and not enough to how he is."
"Explain."
Tony didn't even need to give the command as Friday was already bringing up several stills from the cameras. She was no JARVIS but she was no slouch either and he knew he wasn't being fair to her whenever he noticed a disparity. Friday was able to do things JARVIS hadn't, so he really shouldn't rank them, but it was hard. He missed his old friend.
"Okay, here, does Loki look healthy to you?" Tony asked, pointing to the first good shot they had of his face.
He'd be the first to admit that he didn't know Rock of Ages very well, but even to him Loki looked ill; face paler than later, eyes wild with dark circles under them, sweating and posture almost hyperalert like a bow ready to snap in half.
"Nay."
Soft and wounded.
"Now watch here as they are leaving the room, he stumbles," Tony continued as Friday helpfully played the relevant segment.
"He is wounded," Thor realized.
"Yep. And why would he come from his allies looking ill and wounded?"
Hope you liked this chapter. Tomorrow we'll go back to both Soul World and Vormir.