CHAPTER 10

Clint hadn't even fully stepped through the open door before a voice rang out.

"I really hope you haven't come to kill me because that won't end well for you."

Clint smirked. "I will admit, I put up a pretty good fight."

Loki stepped into the light. The god was almost unrecognizable to Clint who was noticing how much healthier he looked. The reports from SHIELD had said he was eating more in the last week and with his brother staying with him, the two were always in constant conversation (or were they fighting? The archer guessed it was a little bit of both). On top of that, someone had cut Loki's hair short making the god look younger and less of a maniac. Clint would even go as far to say that the guy was pretty good looking.

However, even with the improvement of his well-being, there seemed to be a sense of uneasiness in Loki's demeanor. Although his face remained rigid, there was a tension in his body and a slight shake in his voice as his eyes kept shifting between the floor and Clint.

"So, if not to kill me…"

"I'm here to get you out."

Loki did not immediately respond. He seemed frozen in place with an inquisitive look on his face.

"I know with everything that happened I have every right to want to kill you." Clint continued. "But if being mind controlled for you was anything like those fleeting moments in that cell? I can't imagine."

The god continued to stare at Clint, looking skeptical. 'Alright,' Clint thought, begrudgingly, 'guess I'm doing all the talking here.'

"I'm just going to state the obvious and say this is really weird. For the whole team. For you as well, I imagine..." Loki scoffed, trying to look annoyed but as he crossed his arms, the tension in his stance seemed to dissipate. 'Good.' Clint thought.

"But our team is here for you. We're obviously not friends and maybe we never will be but you're going to need to trust us if you want to get out of this."

Clint had already imagined this conversation countless times throughout the week and as he was driving over from Avengers Tower. Best case scenario was that Loki would feel safe and respected which would prompt him to maybe share some magical spell he had been holding on to that could destroy Thanos before they even had to fight him. Worst case? Loki smites him right where he stands. Now that Clint was thinking about it, he probably should have told Natasha where he was going.

Or written a will.

Loki dropped his head down towards the floor. "I don't deserve that."

That took Clint by surprise. He truly had been expecting the god to be more biting or feeling more inclined to stab him for who knows what. Being an unworthy mortal? Making the 'possibly being friends' comment? Maybe Loki could tell that he thought the god looked better with short hair. There was an endless list in Clint's head but nowhere did he take into consideration that Loki had somewhat of a heart.

"Hey!" Loki looked up at Clint's rather abrupt greeting, "I know you don't look at me directly because you know what you did to me. You were in my mind and you used my memories against me. So, as fucked up as it may be, you of all people should know that I don't deserve this team's trust after everything I did both before I joined SHIELD and while I was brainwashed by you."

The other man looked as though he was at a loss for words as Clint continued on, "I don't deserve any of their trust, let alone their friendship, but here I am."

There was a brief pause. Then, ever so softly, Loki responded, "In regards to our battle, it is regrettable that I had a hand in causing you pain." The room fell into silence. Only the sound of feet walking past the cell door outside could be heard.

"Oh." was all Clint could get himself to say. He couldn't make out whether it had truly been an apology but he figured it was a step in the right direction. And one look at Loki, who, now unable to hide behind his hair, looked sheepish and uncomfortable made it clear that he was genuine in his sentiment. The corners of Clint's mouth twitched into what could be a small smile. Maybe saving Loki wasn't a bad idea after all. However, just because he wouldn't kill him didn't mean he was going to let Loki off easy.

After some time, Clint added, "You call that an apology?" Loki snapped his head up with a look of outrage.

"An apology? I gave no such thing! The words 'I'm sorry' never left my mouth!" And just like that, the old Loki was back- dramatics and all. "What would rather have me do? Grovel on my knees for forgiveness?"

Clint tried his hardest not to show how proud he was to be getting a rise out of the god. "You owe me a real apology, you dick! You took over my mind!"

"I owe you nothing!" Loki rolled his eyes, "Why my brother even bothers hanging around the likes of you is beyond…"

What he continued to say, Clint didn't hear. Instead, he walked towards the door and leaned an ear on the metal, seemingly listening for something. Suddenly, a look of panic came over the archer's face as he grabbed Loki's arm and pushed him against the wall next to the doorway.

"Shh!"

"Do not shush me! And get your hands off—"

"Will you just shut up!"

Before Loki could respond, the sound of two pairs of footsteps approached the door. "We have made the final arrangements for the prisoner," said a woman's voice. Loki's eyes widened as he yanked his arm from Clint's grasp to quietly listen.

"Will he go undetected?" A deeper voice responded. "We can't let SHIELD know he's no longer in their custody."

"The master will take care of that. Just bring him to the landing dock and there we will hand him over."

Without making a sound, Loki pointed his fingers towards the door in the cell. A gold thread of light shot out and wound itself around the handle. The door shook as one of the agents tried to enter but it remained closed.

"They're handing me over to Thanos." Loki whispered mostly to himself in shock. "He's having me handed over so he can kill me."

"Level with me." Clint kept his voice low as he began walking along the perimeter of the room. "Have you tried to escape and, if so, what have you tried."

"I never found a need to try and escape."

"Well, if you had to design an escape plan, what would you do!"

"We could try to trick them into thinking we are also under Thanos' control!" Loki offered. "I remember the feeling well enough to act accordingly and, for you, I could alter you mind to act the same!"

Clint blinked. "Okay, that's going to be a big fucking 'no' from me, so what else you got?"

"We can't go through the walls and the air filtration is too small. The only way out is…" He looked at the door and sighed. "Tell me, are all your powers bird related?"

The other man stopped dead in his tracks with his mouth wide open. "W-what? Bird related?!"

Loki raised his brow. "Is that not why they have given you the name of the hawk?"

Clint looked like he wanted to punch someone and burst into tears at the same time. "NO! I am a master marksman and a former assassin!"

"Really."Loki said looking unimpressed. "Well then," He brought his hand to the door and prepared to retract the magic he had placed on it, "let's hope your skills are adequate enough to get us both out of here alive. Though, I will admit, your inferior race makes you more likely to be injured while fighting these other humans."

"Just incase I die saving your ass," Clint added as he pulled a gun from inside his jacket. "I hope you know that you are an absolute dick."

Loki smiled. "Flattery, Barton, will get you nowhere."

Pulling his hand to the side, the gold light retreated back into Loki's palm and the two ran out into the hallway to face the group of SHIELD agents waiting behind the door.


"When we go in, we have to assume everyone in the building is compromised."

Steve was currently breaking down the rescue mission for Clint who had yet to return to the Tower. Sitting on the couches in front of him was the team in SHIELD uniforms Natasha had stolen from Clint's closet. Thor's was already ripping around the shoulders and Steve's pant legs ended in the middle of his shins.

"We set all weapons to stun, not kill. In order to find Clint we're going to need to break up into pairs. We need to be prepared in case," Steve took a deep breath, "in case Barton is, once again, compromised as well. Bruce will be on stand-by in the quinjet but we need to find him as soon as possible."

"What if he's not even there and this whole thing is a trap?"

The captain turned to Natasha. "JARVIS says he's there and, honestly, we have nothing else to go off of."

"Do we look for Loki as well?" Tony asked.

"No."

"Steve—"

"What if he's compromised as well?" Steve pointed out. Thor, who had risen to his feet, nodded in agreement as he slumped back into his seat. "I want to get him out of there too, but if he's not of sound mind, we're going to get stuck fighting him once more. So we go in, we blend in, we get Clint- even if you have to stun him, and we rush out of there."

"How do we know if he's under the influence or not?" Tony asked.

"How do we know if any of us are currently under the influence!" Bruce rose to his feet as Steve pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fury did managed to get into the tower! Who knows if he turned any of us?"

"Like I said before," Steve didn't even try to hide his irritation, "we don't. We are just going to have to take that chance for Clint. I know if he were here, he would—"

The rest of the sentence went unheard as a blast of light pulsed through the room. The team turned away, shielding their eyes from the source. As quickly as it came, it went leaving the room untouched other than the archer and the former villain who were fighting with one another, unaware that they had materialize onto the kitchen counter.

"You're such an asshole! You could have transported us that whole time?!"

"I could have done it the moment you changed my cell a few days back but why spoil the fun?" Loki smirked.

"Remember when I said I wasn't going to kill you? I take that back!"

"As if you would stand a chance against me. What useful power do you possess other than being terribly irritating?" The god looked down his nose. "And short."

"I could kill you with one arrow and you wouldn't even see it coming, dick head!"

"Is that any way to speak to someone who just saved your life?"

Clint was sputtering. "I- I saved your life!" He turned to face the others though he failed to acknowledge their looks of confusion. "Someone please back me up here!"

Bruce was the first to say anything. "What the hell is going on?

"Well, we found him." Natasha shrugged.

"Where were you and why is he," Steve pointed to Loki who was just realizing where they were standing, "here with you?"

"All great questions!" Clint looked out at the others. "Are you guys wearing my clothes?"

Thor took that as an invitation to rip the garment of his body in one sweeping motion leaving him in only his athletic pants. Anybody in the room, minus Loki who was scowling, would be lying if they said it hadn't been distracting or borderline arousing. Thor didn't even notice the team's reaction as he left the room to go, presumably, grab another shirt.

"How did you even get here?" Natasha asked as she was better at recovering from anything, no matter how distracting.

"I transported us out of the base when it seemed we had no fighting chance left." Loki answered, still looking grumpy as he gracefully climbed off the counter.

Clint turned to Steve. "Also, SHIELD has been—"

"Compromised? Yeah, we got the memo." Tony cut in.

"Oh, I didn't get that."

"Yeah, dipshit, because you took off!" Natasha lightly smacked Tony on the arm. "Why are you hitting me? He's the one who left without telling us where he was going, making us think he was brain washed and brought back a fugitive!"

"A fugitive we were already planning on saving." Bruce clarified.

"Whatever." Tony took a seat on the couch. Steve looked about ready to retire his shield right then and there as he turned to the Loki and Clint. "What happened?"

"All that 'handing over to be dealt with' crap from the trial?" Clint replied. "Yeah, Thanos took over the base to get SHIELD to hand over Loki with no resistance."

"So Fury wasn't telling the whole truth." Natasha saw Clint give her a look of confusion. "There's a lot you missed."

"Thanos infiltrated the SHIELD bases and took the scepter and the tesseract." Steve elaborated.

"Well, he thought he stole the tesseract but I saved the day by switching the thing out a few weeks back." Tony clarified. Clint figured the rest of the team had given him hell for taking what, essentially, was government property so he just nodded. However, Bruce couldn't help but notice Loki's spike in interest when the tesseract was mentioned or how the god seemed to be staring at Tony in curiosity.

"Before we go into any further detail," Bruce cut in as he caught Loki's gaze. The god didn't react other than to raise a brow at the scientist and change his focus to another point in the room, "we need to make sure we are all of sound mind." Thor re-entered the room wearing the same casual outfit he had been wearing before they had devised their rescue plan. Bruce tore his gaze from Loki to the other god. "Thor, ask me a question only I would know the answer to."

"Nobody here is under anyone's control."

Bruce practically glared at Loki who was casually leaning against the kitchen counter. "And how would you know that?"

"Well," the god gave a feigned sigh. "I'd like to think that since I have been being tortured by him for some time now I would have a great understanding of when Thanos' magic is at play."

The silence that broke out was extremely uncomfortable. Bruce's face immediately fell and he took a step back, bowing his head some. "I take that back."

It was in that moment that Loki realized his situation. Currently, he was standing in the middle of Avengers Tower where, not even half a year ago, he had been pummeled into the floor by the Hulk who now stood before him as an ally. The whole team was his ally, apparently. There was a part of Loki that was outraged by this. The god had been getting along fine on his own. Though, now that he thought of it, since his fall from the bifrost he had managed to be taken, exploited, and sentenced to death on two separate occasions so maybe 'fine' wasn't the right word.

And he would never say it out loud but some (emphasis on some) of the Avengers weren't as brainless and pathetic as he had thought them to be. Clint Barton had shown that he cared enough to save him and his humor made him to be great company. There was something to be said about Banner and Romonoff who, according to Thor, were the ones who called to vouch for his freedom.

And then there was his brother. How odd their relationship had become because only months ago did Loki wish to rid himself of their familial ties. Now, he was openly letting Thor call him brother and, yes, they still fought constantly but it was reassuring to know that the god of thunder was always in his corner.

However, it was beyond Loki's capability to be a 'team player.' If he was, he predicted his youth possibly may have transpired with less pain and trauma. Maybe that was the key to this new chapter of his life. Tony must have sensed Loki's feeling of conflict because he stood up and addressed the room.

"So, is Reindeer Games on the team now?"

All eyes turned on Loki who was staring at Tony. The genius' face remained stoic but the fact that he had even asked the question led Loki to believe that the invitation was genuine. He couldn't help but notice Thor who was smiling with anticipation of Loki's answer. There was no version of this story, Loki thought, where he ended up a hero. Blame it on trauma or character but one that one thing Loki was certain.

"I wouldn't say 'team' so much as I would say alliance." Loki looks around at the others. "A truce, perhaps?"

No one spoke for sometime. Steve turned to Clint who tried to look indifferent as he nodded but Natasha could see a ghost of a smile on her friend's lips. Bruce gave a shrug to Tony and when the genius turned to Steve, there seemed to be a clear answer.

The soldier stepped forward. "If you are, even in the smallest sense, out of line, we will find those magic chains and put them back on you. Are we clear?"

"Yes." Loki responded.

"You will stay in the tower and your magic will be monitored. If you so much as heat up a cup of tea with your hands, we will be alerted."

"And," Tony interrupted. "If you try to hurt any one of us, you give us all the right to find you and kill you."

"Quite dark," Loki pointed out, "but yes. Understood."

"And you will be staying on Thor's floor." Bruce added.

Loki's face dropped which was comical next to Thor who walked over to his brother to put an arm around his shoulders, his face filled with joy. "There will be nothing to worry about. He will be safe and well behaved with me!"

In an act of pure desperation, Loki turned to Tony. "I will spend the night in one of those small bathing pools you humans keep in your homes but please. Do not leave me to my brother's care."

"You want to play in our house you have to play by our rules." Tony was trying to be stern but he couldn't help but smile at the effect Thor had on his little brother. Steve, too, was failing to keep a straight face. Over the soldier's shoulder, Clint stuck his tongue out a Loki which prompted the god to glare right back at him.

"So that's settled." Bruce cut in. "As fun as today has been, I'm exhausted so I'm going to my room. Do not wake me up unless something is on fire or one of you is dying."

As the scientist walked into the open elevator, Tony yelled after him. "Love you too, Bruce."

"Well, then brother," Thor patted Loki on the back which elicited a loathsome look on his face, "shall we go prepare your new quarters then. There's a rather nice couch I have that is quite comfortable to sleep on!"

As they walked away, Clint shook his head seemingly in anger. "I hate him, Nat."

"Yeah, I'm sure you do."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Natasha simply gave him a look and walked away. She was one hundred percent sure the two were going to end up being colleagues based solely on their petty fight earlier. If Clint was still in denial, then he would have to figure it out. Clint was quick to follow her out leaving Tony and Steve alone.

"And the tesseract?"

"Safe." Tony answered. "For now at least. Though we might need to come up with a game plan for how to keep it that way."

Steve nodded in agreement. "But for now, I think Bruce has the right idea. You need some sleep."

"Ah, ah, ah!" Tony smiled. "I know you. You can't keep watch by yourself."

"How did you…" Steve hadn't even told anyone he was planning on keeping watch out of precaution.

"Because, like I told you before, I can read you like a book." Tony threw himself onto the nearest couch and closed his eyes. "You take the first watch and then we can switch halfway."

Steve looked as though he was going to protest but decided against it. He rolled his eyes and took a seat on the other open couch which faced the front entrance. Between their new teammate and the impending war with Thanos on the horizon, there was no way Steve was sleeping tonight.


Thank you for everyone's support on this story so far! It means the world to me.

I wanted to take a moment to say that if you are from the United States and of a legal age, please use your voice to cast your vote in this upcoming election. We must exercise our right to democracy and the easiest way we can do that is cast our ballots.

Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk and on with the story...