CHAPTER TWO

"Unbelievable. You are unbelievable—"

"Steve-"

"You know, for being such a genius you really have some of the most idiotic ideas-"

Tony scoffed. "Hey, it wasn't all mine! Bruce helped in creating the concept."

Bruce looked over from the couch in alarm. "You asked me three questions about whether your science was sound. That doesn't constitute in partially owning an idea."

The team was currently spread across the living room of the newly remodeled Avengers Tower. After the trial, they had split up with Tony and Steve grabbing dinner for everyone while the others took Thor back home. The car ride had been a silent one with Thor doing his best to keep it together while Natasha and Clint rubbed his back from either side of him. Bruce had been awful quiet since the verdict and stayed contemplative as he stared out the car window. Natasha could tell something was wrong, but tabled her questions for later.

The minute they hit the lobby, Thor had sped to the elevator shafts and taken one alone to his floor. Tony and Steve arrived soon after with Five Napkin Burgers, Thor's favorite, and multiple cases of beer. The god never came back down to join them.

However, whatever conversation both Steve and Tony had started was now turning into a fight as Steve looked ready to storm out of the room. Tony threw himself in his path.

"...but if we learned how to correctly harness the tesseracts energy. Imagine the world we could live in."

Steve slammed his hand on the counter causing everyone but Natasha to flinch. "I already have lived it, Tony," his voice dropping to a low growl, "TWICE in what has felt like the longest year of my life. First, the Red Skull and then SHIELD after waking me up from the ice. And now you're telling me you want to make the same mistake. Messing with it is what brought Loki here in the first place."

"Yes, but he lost. To us, I may add."

Steve glared at him. "Barely."

Tony raised his brow. "You want to give that lunatic the benefit of the doubt?"

"I wouldn't be calling him that if I were you." Clint warned with a low voice before taking a swig of his beer.

"A lunatic? Tell me Barton, when did you become a Loki sympathizer? Was it after he brainwashed you or after he almost made you kill your best friend over there." He gestured to Natasha who had been silently sitting on the couch with Bruce.

Bruce cringed. "Low blow, Tony."

Tony looked over to see Natasha giving him looks that could kill. He turned to Steve to back him up but one look at his face and he knew Cap shared the same feelings as Bruce.

"Regardless," Tony continued, waving his hands through the air, "he's being dealt with and we can all move on from what happened four months ago. And if we were to play around with that scepter Loki brought with him…"

As Tony spoke, Steve grabbed his empty bottle of beer, walked over to the trash where he aggressively let it shatter, and walked out of the room. Clint darted his eyes to Natasha to find she was already looking at him. With just a slight nod of her head, she, too, got up and left the room.

Clint, following Natasha's signal, grabbed two new bottles and followed her out, leaving Bruce to talk Tony out of his terrible idea.


"Can I ask you something?"

"Anything." Clint answered as he took another drink.

The two of them were perched on the roof of Avengers Tower, a spot they frequented together or used individually when they needed a moment alone.

"When Loki came thru the portal that first day... do you remember how he was?"

Clint looked over to see if she was joking. Seeing that she wasn't, he rethought his answer.

"I know he was power hungry right out the gate," she continued, "but something's not sitting right with me..."

"He was jumpy." Clint's voice was dry. "He hated when Selvig brought up Thor."

"Makes sense." Natasha said before throwing her own drink back.

"I'm just..." Clint groaned as he dragged a hand across his face. "...angry isn't the word, but the way Tony is handling this whole situation. I mean, come on! Testing on the tesseract? And then talking shit on Loki when Thor could easily be listening."

Natasha gave him a side-glance. "I know this can't be easy for you, either."

Clint shook his head. "I, too, have major qualms about Loki but let's at least be sensitive for Thor's sake."

Natasha nodded. They sat in silence for a moment, both of them taking in the New York skyline at night. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Clint look down at his drink, then over at her.

"About what Tony said back there. Again, I am sorry-"

She cut him off. "You don't need to apologize again. I forgave you then and I forgive you now."

Clint broke into a smile which evolved into a huge yawn.

"I think I'm going to call it a night." He stood up, grabbing the empty beer bottles as he did. "Are you coming in?"

Natasha shook her head. "I'm going to stay out here for a few minutes."

Clint gave her a nod and headed for the door. When all was quiet and still again, Natasha ran through her head everything that had happened since the Battle of New York: the Avengers Initiative, Loki, locking him in a prison cell, handing him to the United Nations, processing his crimes through Earths judicial system, and now his death sentence.

And yet.

Loki never put up a struggle, he never quipped at anyone's remarks or took anyone's bait, and his need for power and sense of supremacy seemed no more.

There was something the team was missing and Natasha had a feeling it was a matter of life and death.


The elevator opened onto the living room. It had been emptied out except for the few forgotten burger wrappers on the coffee table and the scientist who was bundled up with a blanket on the couch.

Bruce's head popped up from his tablet as Natasha came closer.

"I didn't realize you were still outside. I thought you had gone to sleep already." He placed the tablet to his side.

Natasha said nothing but took a seat across from him.

"How's Clint?" Bruce asked.

"Upset."

He nodded. "Yeah, that seems to be going around these days."

"I don't even think it's about Loki." Natasha continued, "What kind of team are we if we defend the Earth and then publicly hand him over to be killed while we bask in glory?"

Bruce didn't answer but leaned forward with intrigue, pulling the blanket in tighter around him.

"And don't even get me started on Tony-"

"Tony is constantly looking out for us and always feels the weight of the world on his shoulders." Bruce added. "If he can find an angle to avoid what happened in May he will, no matter how crazy the plan sounds."

Natasha crossed her arms. "Doesn't make it a good plan."

Bruce leaned back. "I never said it was."

They sat in silence for a moment before a sound from Bruce's tablet rang out. The scientist grabbed the console and quickly scanned the screen.

"A new experiment?" Natasha asked, drawing her knees into her chest.

Bruce fidgeted for a moment before answering, "No."

"Has anyone told you what a terrible liar you are?"

Bruce smiled, his eyes still glued to the screen. "I'm not a spy, Natasha. Lying isn't a necessary skill for me."

She smiled. "I think the Hulk would be a much better liar than you."

Bruce didn't respond. Instead, he tossed the blanket off of him as his smile slowly melted into a frown. He began furiously typing away, making his way to the door.

"Bruce, what's wrong?"

He looked up, for a moment seeming to forget that she was there before plastering a forced smile onto his face. "Nothing, just some bad results on a laser prototype that I was testing for the Mark 10. Just need to go make sure everything is okay with the simulation."

He awkwardly nodded to her and whipped around the corner into the hallway to make a right.

Natasha, knowing damn well when she was being lied to, jumped up from her seat and took a left. Running down a short flight of stairs, she found Bruce in his workshop on the floor below. He barely had time to register she was there before she had the tablet in her own hands.

"Natasha, please stop. I can explain—"

She turned the device over and found herself face to face with Loki— well, a photo of Loki from his SHIELD file. Alongside the photograph was information regarding blood samples, a video feed of the cell he was currently in, Fury and Maria Hill's report that assessed his powers, and a few chicken scratch notes that she assumed was Bruce's horrible penmanship.

When she looked back up at Bruce, he looked torn between hulking out and fleeing the room.

Natasha handed the tablet back, deadpanned. "Explain."

"Look, there's something not right about this whole situation." Bruce admitted. "I've been monitoring Loki's behavior and it's just not adding up. One week he's a raging maniac, the next he's peaceful and submissive. There's a disconnect that I'm not finding."

"I can't find it either." Natasha added. Bruce's audibly sighed in relief. "Today at his trial- he wasn't the Loki that was looking for unlimited power."

Bruce nodded in agreement. "He's been too calm. Putting him away has almost been too easy and the last time it was that easy—"

"He managed to tear our team apart from the inside." Natasha finished, remembering when Bruce almost tore the hellicarrier apart after being prodded by Loki.

He must have been thinking the same thing as he added with a cringe, "Not our best moment."

"So," Natasha leaned against the nearby counter, "any idea on what our missing link is?"

Bruce grabbed a folder from his desk, laying it out for her to see. "My personal belief? We've just met two sides of the same character."

"You're implying, then, that there's two of them. Two different Loki's?" Natasha asked.

"No, no, no." He took off his glasses. "Though a multi-verse theory is plausible, what I think may have happened is Loki may have been, and bare with me on this… possessed by another being."

Natasha looked at him in confusion. "Possessed. Like, just to throw it out there, by another Asgardian."

Bruce groaned as he began pacing. "And see, this is where I'm stuck because Thor doesn't think anyone on his home planet could have done this other than his mother, which seems unlikely."

She quirked her brow. "You asked Thor, huh? How long have you been looking into this?"

"About a month now." Bruce admitted, a slight rosiness coloring his cheeks. "I went to do some work on the cell and something just struck me when I saw him. He doesn't look well. He almost looks tortured which brings me to…"

Bruce reached into the folder and pulled out a detailed file with results of blood samples alongside temperature readings. At the top of the page, although in Bruce's illegible handwriting, Natasha could clearly see his hypothesis.

"You think he's been mind controlled."

He nodded, solemnly. "I think we've met two different Lokis- one who's been mind controlled and another who is suffering the consequences of it."

It was Natasha's turn to pace around. "Hold on- how did you jump to mind control? We just held fourth months worth of trials under the guise of intergalactic terrorism. If you claim that he wasn't making these actions based on his free will, that's a whole new ordeal."

"Because," Bruce showed her the tablet again which showed a cranial scan, "there seems to be a portion of his brain that has been damaged by something that no longer is there. A missing piece, you could call it. I originally thought it was from when I... or the Hulk," Bruce was still having a hard time associating one with the other, "threw him into the ground but I've never seen a brain do this. Until just now..."

He ran past Natasha to a screen in his lab that took up a majority of the largest wall. With a few swipes, there revealed photos of three different brains, all with a dark spot in the same location.

Natasha scanned for the names of the subjects. "Are these other Asgardians, or..."

Bruce shook his head. "These are scans of Loki, Erik Selvig, and," he pointed to the furthest right, "Clint Barton."

Natasha felt her heart rate rising as she found herself unable to do anything but stare in disbelief at the photos, taking a step closer to examine their strange similarity.

She turned to Bruce. "I think we have a problem."

"Which is?"

"I think we may have convicted an innocent man to death."