Loki Laufeyson.
Silvertongue.
Liesmith.
Babysitter.
The demi-god sent a withering glance at the two other occupants of the room as he strode in, his nose turned up in exasperated disgust.
After more than half of their fighting force had vanished into thin air, they'd all beat a strategic retreat to the Avenger's Compound to regroup and figure out their next steps, which for now had consisted of "Quill's group takes out the remaining aliens and the rest of you stay the hell put."
Banner and Stark were all that remained of the original Avengers, and since Strange apparently had better things to do as their self-appointed leader and Valkyrie was out looking for reinforcements, Loki was assigned as the one who was supposed to watch the two men.
The Asgardian Prince settled himself at the edge of the room, glancing over the other occupants in bored contemplation.
His brother was fond of Banner, and even though Loki would prefer to be as far from both him and the green beast as possible, he'd have to work himself into a friendly face for his brother's sake. Keeping the peace, and all that.
Thor wasn't overly fond of Stark, though. And Stark was incredibly annoying. So therefore, Loki didn't need to worry about pulling his verbal punches where that particular irritation was concerned.
The drunkard billionaire also wasn't likely to turn huge and green and rip him in half if Loki insulted him one too many times, so there was that advantage as well.
"Nice hat; you compensating for something?" Stark asked with a smirk when he noticed Loki, raising an eyebrow as he glanced over the golden horns.
"Is this what they call projection, Stark?" Loki replied smoothly, not sparing him so much as a glance as he looked over the various pieces of midgardian tech in the room.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Stark's smug expression fall into an ugly glare.
Loki supposed that the man was used to being the one who won little spats like this, and subsequently wouldn't be pleased to find himself on the receiving end for a change.
To be fair, though, the last time that they'd met, Loki had been exhausted, somewhat under Thanos's influence, and generally not at the top of his game. Stark wasn't expecting him at his full functioning capacity.
"So, what are you doing here anyway? Getting ready to run to Thanos with whatever information you can get out of us?" Stark baited again, leaning on a counter as he toyed with some electronic device. "I mean, everyone here knows that you can't be trusted… Hell, your own brother probably only pretends to care about you so you don't go murder people to get his attention... So what's your angle this time?"
It was amazing how fast those words made him snap.
Loki was used to distrust, of course. The Warriors Three and the rest of Asgard had tolerated the strange son of Odin, but it was no secret that Thor had always been the favorite. Once Loki had started to show aptitude in magic, women's work, the rumors had started.
The horse he'd engineered for his father only existed because he had turned himself into a mare. After all, the Liesmith could create nothing natural.
He'd borne his own children.
He was unnatural - a monster that was tolerated because he had Thor's favor.
He was a viper in the palace, waiting to strike.
He was nothing more than a highly skilled liar.
And he'd made those rumors true.
"That's odd," Loki said, feeling a smile spread on his face as easily and smoothly as broken glass. "From what I've heard, the person that everyone says cannot be trusted...is you."
Stark's eyes narrowed.
"And just who is saying that?" he asked. "Cause I'm pretty willing to bet that you're lying through your teeth."
Loki's smile widened. So, the human wanted to play this game. His mistake.
"Oh, everyone, Stark. Or, at least all of your former teammates. I heard...I believe it was Sam Wilson, mentioning it to the Ant Man. All the lovely little things that you've done...or that you've turned a blind eye to."
His vague lead-in only earned him a derisive scoff from the billionaire, so Loki continued in detail.
"I've heard all about how you allied yourself with a man who hated Banner here, and how you revealed to him the location of Barton's secret family - a secret that not even I touched when I took over his mind as an enemy - how you ignored the torture of your friends in prison, and how you attempted to kill a man in cold blood, all because you wanted to be right about some accord or other…"
Loki turned to fully face Stark, his smile spreading into something sharp and dark as he re-ran all of the overheard, whispered conversations from the other Avengers back through his head - everything he'd seen on the Earthen news channels, and heard from Thor's battle stories, and read tucked away in SHIELD's files when he'd gone poking around after dark - looking for anything he could twist into ammo should the need arise.
Anything he could use to arm his verbal barbs so that they could splinter like shrapnel and tear this man's smug ego to pieces.
"Did you know that according to your little pet project, anyone that is innately enhanced must now register with the government to be injected with a tracking chip, or face repercussions such as life-long imprisonment for refusal? Or was it just not that important to you, because your enhancements can be removed like clothing?" he prodded, watching the room's other occupant out of the corner of his eye.
Banner hadn't moved or spoken since Loki had entered the room, but he caught a look of suspicious concern flash across the other man's face at that particular reveal, so he kept pushing.
"After all, you thought your conscience would finally feel clear once the others were punished for the crime you committed, right? Oh, yes, I heard about your robot, too. Ultimate...? No… Ultron," he hummed, his smile getting sharper as the blood drained from Tony's face.
Across the room, Banner twitched.
"Such a grand legacy, and a far higher death total than I ever achieved, even with the Chitauri to assist me. I'm sure you're quite proud of your weapon's potential. But that was always the end goal, wasn't it? To have the most powerful guns, and a means to take out all of your other teammates if need be? A contingency plan for everything, so you always wound up on top? An 'iron suit around the whole world,' to take out dissenters who might dare to speak against the great hero, Tony Stark...and the laws you helped put in place to shackle the Captain so that you could lead the Avengers unquestioned? Your former friends seem to think that you'll turn on them the moment that Thanos is no longer a threat, and attempt to return them to the custody of...General Thaddeus Ross, I believe…?"
Across the room, Banner stiffened sharply.
So...Banner hadn't been aware of that. Interesting.
Stark made no move to stop him, so Loki continued, going for blood.
"I also know how you leveled a city in your attempt to 'save' it from Banner's green friend, because you wanted an excuse to test your latest armor in a real fight. Oh, I'm aware that you tried to pin that one on the little witch instead, but...how far away was that city, Stark? Three hundred...four hundred miles? Given the girl's...questionable education level, I doubt she even knew where she was on the map, let alone her vague proximity to Johannesburg. Claiming that she intended for the city to be attacked when she set off the beast was grasping for straws at best. The child was clearly bumbling around with her powers while trying to fight you and burned herself in the process - but that was easy enough to point a finger at, wasn't it? To shift the blame. And really...why even create that armor? Were you honestly expecting to fight against the green monster in it, when you had the Widow to soothe him? Or was it more or less...just to see if you could? Because that is you, Stark. Untrustworthy, uninhibited, doing things with no thought of the consequence, and then throwing money and scapegoats at the problem when it appears. Playing at being a hero in a desperate attempt to escape your father's legacy, until the fame can no longer hide your misdeeds, and then pretending that you had nothing to do with it in order to ease your conscience. It's no wonder that your former allies distrust you, when you only keep them around so you have somebody to eventually take the fall for your mistakes."
"That's enough," Banner said, his soft voice carrying an undertone of volume, and a hint of green seeping into his eyes.
Stark had turned a few shades paler as Loki had spoken, shocked beyond ability to respond, and the trickster allowed his smile to turn hard as he raised his hands in submission.
For a long moment a silent tension crackled in the air, and Loki tried to bite back a smile as Stark finally collected himself and huffed in frustration, clearly wanting to speak but not wanting to undermine Banner's command.
After another second or two, Stark turned away, focusing his attention furiously on the device he held, and Loki let his hands fall back to his sides, doing his best to hide a self-satisfied smirk.
"What exactly is Strange doing?" Banner asked, taking a breath as he un-subtly changed the subject, not looking at Stark.
"Strange is attempting to track the magic that the girl released from her body at the end of the fight. As it was unintentional, there should be enough of it around still to leave a trail," Loki answered with a shrug.
He was willing to change the subject.
Thor liked Banner, he reminded himself, even if the green beast worried him. He didn't want to give his brother any more reason to be upset with him.
And it was always best not to get on this particular monster's bad side.
"Traceable?" Banner seemed honestly interested.
"Magic is energy being applied to accomplish a task that bends the laws of reality, but all things said and done, magic is merely will made manifest. The witch's power is impressive, but in the end, it is still subject to the rules of magic. She lashed out blindly, clearly with the intent to remove herself and those she cared about from the battle. But the act was messy and inexperienced, therefore, there should be traces of the spell left that form a trail of sorts, leading right to them. One that anyone else with magical capacity should be able to follow."
"So why are you here, then, oh high and mighty Loki, the traitor?" Tony asked, bitter sarcasm dripping from his tone. "Why aren't you off helping track down the little witch? Oh, that's right, because Strange doesn't trust you," he spat. "And last I checked, none of the rest of us had any reason to trust you either. You're a killer, and a menace, and Thor shouldn't have brought you back here, not even to fight Thanos. I'm honestly rather surprised you didn't just backstab us mid-fight. That is your thing, isn't it? Betraying the people who pretend to care about you?"
Loki smirked, resisting a quip about how Stark must have been itching for a chance to get the final jab in ever since Banner told them to break it up.
"Oh, absolutely; and Strange is far more clever than my brother not to trust me fully," Loki said, shrugging. He turned to face Tony, forcing a saccharine smile across his face. "Unlike you, Mister Stark, I am fully aware of what I am, and my flaws."
"A penchant for murder isn't usually considered a flaw," Banner pointed out, and Loki flashed him a tight smile.
"That rather depends who you ask."
To Loki's mild amusement, the other man gave a grudging nod.
Perhaps he could get to like Banner after all.
The real reason that Loki was here, of course, had little to do with Thor's misplaced trust. Thor didn't trust him. He still liked Loki, for some reason, but he knew better by now than to trust him.
In all honesty, he was here because there was simply nothing else to do with him. Asgard and Jotunheim were little more than ashes, and none of the other realms would have had him.
He wasn't even completely sure what would have happened after the battle had they won. Other than probably being returned to a cell, now with only his mother's ghost for company.
Besides, he had a personal score to settle with Thanos.
The mad titan had used his weakened mental state against him, and Loki did not take kindly to being manipulated.
"The reason I am not assisting the good Doctor, of course, is that I am here to be able to remove you to a different location should Thanos decide that he wishes to fight regardless of the missing infinity stones. After all, you are rather hopelessly outmatched... Unless you count that little papercut you boasted of so much," he smirked at Stark.
"Thanks for that pleasant reminder," Banner muttered before the other man could reply, turning his attention back to the screen in front of him.
"I've never been one for giving false hope to others unless it benefits me," Loki shrugged.
"Somehow, I'm not surprised you never had any friends," Stark muttered.
Loki leaned against the wall with a forced little smirk, closing his eyes.
"Friends" was a rather loose term if he was being honest. He didn't have friends so much as allies. And right now, it would seem that even those were in short supply.
For a long moment the room was silent save for the slight shuffle of movement, and Loki allowed his tense muscles to unwind for the first time since they'd left the battlefield.
It was easy, like this, to imagine that this was Asgard, and Thor and the last Valkyrie were planning their next escapade that he was assumed to be tagging along on.
Almost like everything was still fine.
A flare of magic caused him to open his eyes again as Strange walked out of apparently nowhere, cape billowing behind him.
"I think I've tracked down the location of the missing Avengers," he said, glancing around. "Get what you need, we're going on a trip."