CHAPTER THREE

"Natasha, you do realize what you're asking me to do is insane, right?"

"Director, I would not be here if I full heartedly didn't believe this to be true."

Natasha and Bruce were sitting in Fury's office in the New York City SHIELD base after a long, sleepless night of collecting evidence. The two had managed to scientifically link the three mind control cases and had hard evidence that Bruce's theory was true. The only factor that remained was who had been mind controlling Loki.

"And you said Barton was on board as well."

Bruce nodded. "Yes."

Fury looked around. "Well, where is he?"

Bruce opened his mouth to answer then closed it. Natasha swept in, "Believing something and being okay with something are two very different things."

"He's waiting in the car." Bruce added.

Clint had come down to look for Natasha only to stumble on their efforts to clear Loki's name. After hearing everything, the archer had stormed out, slamming the door behind him. The two assumed he was going to alert the team or fire a round of arrows in the gym. About fifteen minutes later, Clint resurfaced with a box of bagels and a carton of coffee for them. He silently ate as he watched them work all morning.

"Let's say this is all true: Loki came down to conquer Earth for someone else." Fury said, leaning back as he crossed his arms. "You do realize the whole world has seen this man firing at innocent people, reigning hell on Manhattan. You now have to assure everyone that he won't do this again. You saw the crowds at the trial. They want him dead."

"And here we are proving he's innocent and your fight is with someone even more powerful." Bruce replied.

"I repeat, there are people who want to see this guy dead." Fury sighed, "I would like, for once, to no longer have this burden in our custody."

Natasha stood up abruptly. "Is that what the Avengers are, Nick? A ticket to rule out justice and do whatever the hell you want? That's not what any of us signed up for."

Fury leaned forward in his chair. "You know exactly what you were in for—"

"I know that I had red in my ledger and I wanted it out." Natasha snapped back. "So here we are with a chance to do right by someone who I dislike for a million reasons. But, at least I'll be able to go to sleep knowing I didn't kill him just because I could."

She grabbed her jacket from the back of her chair and went to leave. Bruce, trying poorly to hide his admiring smile, grabbed their research from Fury's desk and followed her out.


"Did you really think you were going to get the big guy's approval?"

"You know, Part of me did." Natasha admitted.

Clint smirked as the elevator door opened, "Well, then you don't know Fury as well as you think you do."

The two of them stepped out with Bruce in tow. They had arrived back to the tower and immediately had headed for Thor's floor. The living area seemed empty and the lights throughout were off save a single one at the end of the hallway. Since the trial, no one had seen Thor or talked to him. He had been taking the imminent death of his brother with difficulty.

Clint stepped forward into the darkness. "Thor?"

Silence answered. Natasha took point has she headed down the hallway, motioning for the others to follow her. They entered the illuminated room and found Thor lying on his back. His comforter had seemingly been pulled off the bed to cover the god who was still wearing the same suit he had worn to the trial the day before.

A muffled voice came from under the covers. "Steve, I already told you I do not require anything right now so, please…"

A blonde tuft of hair peeked out. "Oh. You are not Steve."

"No." Natasha softly replied with a gentle smile.

"Though I'm assuming Steve is the one who brought this." Clint walked over to a tray of food that had been left by the door. Swooping down, the archer grabbed an exposed biscuit off the plate.

Bruce silently took a seat next to Thor on the floor and placed a hand on his arm. Natasha glanced over at Clint who seemed unfazed by the doctor's gentleness with his teammate. It wasn't that she thought he was incapable of it. It was just that Natasha had never seen that side of him before.

"We're here for you." Bruce whispered. "We all are."

Nothing happened for a while with the only sound being Clint chewing on his piece of bread. Then, Thor patted Bruce's hand and Natasha swore she heard a soft 'thank you.' Bruce nodded.

Natasha made her way to Clint who was eyeing the second biscuit on the tray.

"Did you know he could do that?" She whispered.

"What, be a softie? Oh yeah. You should see him watching his romantic comedies."

"Don't act like you don't stop to watch them with me, bird brain." Bruce threw over his shoulder with a smile.

Natasha couldn't help but laugh, the sound cutting through the heaviness and tension in the room. Thor slowly lowered the blanket from his face and began to sit up, smiling.

"Now we're calling each other names? Not cool, Bruce." Clint pouted.

Thor chuckled along. "I think that name is quite fitting for you, actually."

"Is that so? Well, I guess we won't tell you about our exciting news then. Really thought it was going to cheer you up some."

The god seemed to recoil, shifting uncomfortably. "While your visit is well appreciated, friends, I doubt there is much that can cheer me up at the moment."

Bruce got up from the floor with a grin. "I think we have something that just might."


"So, you're saying... that Loki—"

"—was brainwashed in the same way both Clint and Selvig were."

The team had moved back down to the lab. Bruce had explained everything to Thor who was now in a clean pair of sweats after a much needed shower. Clint and Natasha were seated on the counters, aimlessly tossing about one of Bruce's many stress balls he kept hidden throughout the tower.

Thor nodded, "While I do see this as good news for my brother, it raises a more pressing question of who has the capacity to do such a thing. Loki is a very powerful person to overthrow."

Bruce sighed, "Thats what we were hoping you could help us with. I know I asked you before but, is there anyone else you can think of?"

"My brother briefly mentioned being shown a higher source of power from someone." Thor began walking around, aimlessly. "However, I am not sure that I recall him speaking on the matter any more than that."

"I have a question." Clint raised his hand. "Do you think, because your brother is not human, he would better remember what he did when he was possessed? Or even who he was possessed by?" Bruce looked at the archer like he had grown another limb. "What?" Clint protested. "I'm smart sometimes."

"It is possible!" Thor replied

Natasha hopped off the counter with ease. "So, we go see Loki and we ask him."

"There is no 'we' in that trip. I'm staying here." Clint stated. Natasha shot him a dirty look. "Look, I am not about to sentence an innocent man to death but, that man took over my mind and made me kill people, too. Innocent or not, I want nothing to do with him."

Bruce nodded, "Fair enough. So the three of us will go."

"Or you can go ahead and tell me what the hell is going on." Tony's voice rang out.

Everyone turned to find the billionaire at the door with a thermos of coffee in his hand.

Bruce immediately stepped forward. "Tony, I'm going to need you to trust me on this and hear me out."

"First, I find out you've got hidden servers running tests," Tony accused as he walked into the room, "and now I walk into a team meeting without me or Cap."

Clint hopped off the counter. "Don't strain your ego. We were going to tell you at some point."

"And that point is now." Tony set his coffee down and stood with arms crossed at the group.

Natasha looked to Bruce who was trying to keep his breath and composure under control. Clint was looking at Bruce as well, though he was less subtle about his fear of a surprise visit from the Hulk.

She turned back to Tony, "You cannot get mad because we're doing this with or without you."

Tony raised his brow, "Romanoff, is that a threat?"

"Maybe." She glared back, "Depends on how irritating you decide to be about this."

"Okay, okay," Clint said as he walked between the two of them. "As much as I would love to see this go down, you both need to cut it out."

"The truth is we're trying to save Loki."

All heads turned towards Bruce. Thor was smiling by his side, obliviously excited to share the good news with more of his teammates.

Tony stood with his mouth slightly agape. All traces of snark were gone as he tried to speak but couldn't seem to make a sound. Clint could practically hear the gears in his brain trying to compute what Tony had just heard.

"We have evidence that Loki was brainwashed during the Battle of New York," Bruce continued, "and we have taken it upon ourselves to clear his name. He deserves proper justice, not death."

Tony blinked a few times before shaking himself out of his shocked state to stand up straight. He showed no expression as he slowly walked over to Clint, standing only inches away from him. The height difference made it so that Tony still wasn't looking at the archer but Clint could hear every word.

"Where do you stand on all this?"

Clint could hear the intensity in the whispered question. Taking a step back, he forced Tony to look him in the eye.

"I think he's innocent."

Tony held his gaze for a moment longer, then nodded. Without a word, the genius walked past the others who were standing on edge, grabbing his thermos of coffee as he headed for the door.

Clint turned to Natasha, "Did we just break him?"

"Tony?" Bruce asked.

Tony stopped in his tracks. "Remember when four months ago I flew into a portal in the sky to stop an alien invasion? I think about that every night but," he turned to face the group, "now I learn that my team is actively trying to save the man who put us in that very position."

Clint looked around, puzzled. "When did we establish this was your team?"

"Besides that point," Natasha interrupted, "we have proof that what Bruce is saying is true!"

Tony was practically yelling at this point. "I don't care! He destroyed New York, he practically killed us on multiple occasions." He turned to Clint. "I'm shocked that you are not losing your mind right now!"

"Oh, I did." Clint admitted. "And then I realized that turning a blind eye to the truth is not the kind of Avenger I want to be."

"So you figure you would save the life of the guy who stole all your secrets and made you kill other SHIELD agents. That makes perfect sense—"

Natasha grabbed Clint by the arm before he could even make a move towards Tony. "That is enough!"

"Stark," Thor said, stepping towards him, "My brother is not the most agreeable person but, I know him to be good—"

Tony scoffed. "This coming from his brother who was stabbed by him, point blank. Are you guys even hearing yourselves?"

Just then, the doors open again, bringing in a confused Steve Rogers who, with his hand wraps and glistening sweat, had clearly just come from the gym.

"Did I miss something? I heard you yelling from down the hall. Are we under attack?"

Tony let out a sarcastic laugh. "Oh, it's nothing, Steve. Just a little argument over the fact that our teammates here are trying to clear Loki's name."

As far as any of the other Avengers were concerned, they had been holding off telling Steve for many reasons. The biggest one being that they were expecting Steve's reaction to be a stern scolding followed by a lecture on how idiotic he thought they were being which nobody was looking forward to. They couldn't tell whether it was because he was Captain America but, disappointing Steve was a thousand times worse than letting down anyone else. At least with Tony they knew he would hate their plan and not hesitate to let his anger be known before storming off.

Steve nodding his head, saying, "I know" was the last thing they could have possibly imagined.

Tony was furious. "You knew?"

"I was called into Fury's office for a debrief and I must have just missed you," he said, nodding to Natasha and Bruce, "because he had some choice words to say about your efforts to clear his name."

"Did he say some no-no words?" Tony was constantly teasing Steve for his golden boy image and had somehow created the notion that the captain was against swearing. Natasha, who spent many training sessions sparring with Cap, knew this not to be true but, somewhat enjoyed watching the two of them irritate each other.

Steve rolled his eyes. "I swear to god, Tony, one of these days I'm going to punch you in the face."

"So, you're in." Natasha said.

"It's complicated…" Steve confessed. "But, if what you're saying is true and this is something we feel strongly about as a team, then I'm in."

Thor broke into a smile as he walked over to Steve, slapping him a touch too hard in the back. "I am grateful to hear this!"

"Can we stop and think about this, please?" Tony asked, unable to hide the plea in his voice.

"Tony, I know." Bruce said. "I know this is hard to hear. I know how much of that day still haunts you. I know better than anyone else on this team but, we can't let them kill Loki just because we don't like him."

Bruce gestured to the group. "We are all putting things aside because we care about justice for everyone. Even if it is Thor's crazy brother who tried to take over the Earth."

Clint cautiously side-eyed Thor. "Bruce, I don't know if crazy is the word to go with—"

"Oh, crazy is correct." Thor added. "When we find time next, remind me to tell you about the snake story*. I will never forgive him for that one."

"Tony," Natasha stepped towards him and offered her hand. "We can do this together."

Tony seemed to stare at her outreached hand in contemplation for some time before letting out a large groan. "Ugh, okay." He took her hand then turned to Thor. "But one small move out of line and I'm blasting him."

"Fine by me!" Thor shrugged.

"Off to see Loki, then." Clint sighed. He grabbed the abandoned stress ball from the counter and threw it across the room, making a perfect shot into Bruce's waste basket.

Natasha raised her brow. "I'm assuming you're coming then."

"Well, if Tony is putting aside his differences then, I guess, so am I."

Natasha, smiling, put her arms around both Clint and Tony's shoulders as she began to lead them out of the room. "I am proud of my boys." The two groaned in response.

"I'm kind of curious to hear this snake story, now." Steve said as he followed them out with Bruce and Thor at his side.

"Oh, it's great." Thor promised. "There was one time my brother transformed himself into a snake because he knows how much I like snakes and so I picked the snake up to admire it…"


* Snake Story from Thor: Ragnarok (2017; dir. Taika Waititi) - It belongs to Marvel and Chris Hemsworth who improvised the whole thing like the genius that he is