The Hulk shot a look at the person lying on the ground, twisting his face in a sneer "Puny God," he growled, stalking off, leaving Loki in the Loki-sized dent in Tony's penthouse floor.
Loki bit her lip, trying to stop herself from whimpering out loud at the pain that was shooting through every nerve of her body. Now that the presence in her mind is gone, the pain was suddenly back. It had been nice to not feel it as bad as it actually was. Without Thanos pulling her strings, she was horrified at what she did. She never wanted to hurt those people… Never wanted to bring the Chitauri to them… Tears entered her eyes as she glimpsed the destruction outside the window. She couldn't allow Thanos to win.
She fought to get to her feet, clutching her stomach in pain. A quick look around revealed that the sceptre had fallen not far from her. Loki whimpered as she bent down, trying not to fall. She needed the portal to close… Here was hoping that she had left Selvig with enough sense that he built in the failsafe without changing her plans. The little bit of herself that had bled through Thanos' control had allowed her a tiny amount of leeway where she could make her plan fail miserably. She never wanted to win and had done everything she could to get caught or give the Avengers as many hints as she could.
"Loki," Erik Selvig exclaimed, hurrying over to her when she fell to the ground in front of him "Are you hurt? What happened?"
Loki shook her head, accepting his hand reluctantly "Everything is fine, Professor Selvig. There has been a small change in plan."
"A change in…?"
"I need you to sleep, Professor," Loki cut him off, touching the sceptre to his chest. She hissed when the energy of the mind stone pulled at her mind, trying to take over again "I won't be your chess piece anymore, Thanos. Not now and not ever." She tightened her grip on the sceptre and made her way closer to the portal machine.
Just before she could reach out to close it, she heard the could of the Man of Iron's repulsors behind her "Step away from the machine, Reindeer Games."
"Don't. I'm trying to help," Loki started, the sound of her voice going under in the sound of the battle. She hadn't turned around to face Tony, instead reaching out with the sceptre. The barrier gave an angry hum, battering against her own magic violently. She bit her lip violently, knowing that if she was lucky, she wouldn't survive this. Maybe it wouldn't have been that bad had one of the humans done this but to her magic, it was like poison. The moment she reached centre mass, she turned her head, seeing the Man of Iron hovering not far from her, repulsors at the ready "Tell the Green Beast that I'm thankful… Without him…" She shook her head before muttering to herself "Thor needs to know about Thanos but how…?"
Tony could see Loki's lips moving but didn't hear anything over the sound of Chitauri screeching behind him "Jarvis, what's happening?"
"I don't know, sir. It appears as if…"
"Shit," Tony cursed when Loki jabbed the sceptre further into the machine. He had no idea what she was doing but whatever it was, it would probably be bad, so with barely a thought towards it, he fired his repulsor at her.
The blast that hit Loki in the back, threw her into the forcefield at the same time as the sceptre cracked in her hand, the mind stone lashing out at her magic. She let out a scream of pain as she was enveloped in a poisonous blue glow.
"What the hell?" Tony breathed as the portal machine seemed to practically implode. He turned away from the machine to check on Loki only to realise that she was nowhere to be seen "Guys, we have a problem."
"Really?" Hawkeye snorted "I hadn't realised."
Tony rolled his eyes "Rock of Ages closed the portal… And now she is gone. Just vanished. Kaputt. Really, I have no idea what the hell just happened." He barely had a chance to react when Thor landed on the roof behind him "Thor…"
"Where is my sister, Man of Iron?" Thor demanded, narrowing his eyes as he surveyed the scene.
"How should I know? Jarvis, did you catch what happened?"
"Affirmative, sir," Jarvis hummed in agreement.
