#25

"What is that, exactly?" asked Loki. He pushed himself off the armrest of the lounge chair and tiptoed over to the computer with a look of slightly panicked curiosity in his eyes, his fingers curled around his empty whiskey glass.

"It's a program I created," Shuri replied firmly and Thor's chest began to clench all over again when his mind replayed the conversation of the previous night. This is an exact replica of the mind stone's molecular integrity and this computer should be able to show us what this stone knows. What it saw.

"The Mind Stone is a sentient entity," Shuri continued. "It can access and manipulate people's thoughts by command of its wielder and"—she flicked a suspicious glance at the scepter—"apparently, also by itself."

"Yes," Loki mumbled even though the young scientist had not asked for confirmation.

"And if the Mind Stone truly resembles a human brain, it must have memories of what it saw in people's minds."

"So you built some sort of decoding system that you hope will be able to access those memories and translate them into sound and imagery?" asked Loki.

"Exactly," Shuri confirmed with a glint of appreciation in her eyes. Thor silently bristled at his brother's quick wit that left him looking all the more dense but, even though Shuri's subsequent elaboration left his mind reeling, he suppressed the urge to comment on it. "Thoughts are produced by synchronized electrical pulses from masses of neurons communicating with each other along the neural pathways of our brain. Which is why we call those energetic manifestations brainwaves."

Rocket shot a glance at Thor, who just shrugged in response.

Loki snickered. "I have got to admit, it sounds fancy."

Shuri narrowed her eyes. "What do you call them?"

"We just call them thoughts." Loki was standing almost directly behind Shuri now, furrowing his brows. "I am sure you had good intentions when you devised that program, however, I would strongly advise you against using it."

Of course, you do, thought Thor. And who can blame you for not wanting to share the memories the stone has of your conflicted mind with everyone in this room?

Steve huffed. Shuri's brows drew into a single line. "Excuse me?"

"And why is that?" asked Bruce.

"Because, first of all," Loki began way more theatrically than necessary, "the Mind Stone is over fourteen billion years old. Can you even begin to imagine how many memories are locked inside of it?"

"He has a point," Valkyrie conceded.

"Thank you!" Loki exclaimed with a smile that was almost genuine. "Do you truly think you can access that many memories with a single piece of your technology? Second—"

"Don't be so arrogant," Shuri chided him with a listless smile. "It was my technology that allowed you to retrieve the Mind Stone in the first place. Without my replica, you would never have been able to harbor the stone's essence."

"Point taken." Loki bit his lower lip. "But my second objection still remains. You have all witnessed its power only moments ago. What makes you think that it will let you access its memories so easily? What makes you think it is a good idea to tap into its core at this very moment when you were so afraid that Thanos might be wielding it when I tried to retrieve it half an hour ago?"

Bruce shot him a confused glance. "But I thought we'd established that he isn't the one wielding it? Because he can't?"

"My point exactly," Loki replied as if this was in any way a reasonable answer. Thor looked into the faces of the others but all he saw mirrored in their expression was his own confusion.

"What is your point, exactly?" Tony asked, his voice taking on an edge of mild annoyance.

Loki feigned a sigh. "My point is that you think of Thanos as the ultimate threat and thereby underestimate the power of the stone; the power of the ancient magic locked inside of it. You have no way of knowing what will happen if you start extracting its memories."

"And you do?" asked Shuri.

"No, but …" Loki's voice trailed off, then wavered back into strength. "But I have first-hand experience of the malice these stones are capable of."

"And yet you willingly soaked up all of its power and channeled it through your own mind," Clint pointed out sourly.

Loki grimaced at him. "But I knew the risks. You obviously don't."

"I say we're giving it a shot," Bruce proposed and the others murmured their agreement.

Loki scowled. "If you must."

"It's the best chance we have if we want to know where Thanos is right now," Nebula countered in her typically quiet angry hiss. "Or what thoughts were on his mind shortly before the stone was taken from him."

Shuri gave a nod and tapped a single key with her index finger. Loki inhaled sharply. The pulsating net-like diagram of the stone's essence in front of them dissolved, turning the screen charcoal. Thor and the Avengers inched closer. For a few seconds, the screen poised in a dark shade of gray.

"There's no way why it shouldn't work now that we have the original," whispered Bruce just as the screen began to buzz. "It should be able to—"

All be damned, it was able. A fuzzy, shaking image showing the Avengers in the conference room only moments ago when they had been bickering at each other manifested itself on the screen. Thor gasped and the others made similar noises of disbelief as single, almost translucent black and white images jerked across the screen in rapid succession, overlaying the image of the conference room: Clint Barton standing on a meadow, his legs spread apart, a young woman turning to ash in front of him. Bucky Barnes crumbling into dust, breathing Steve's name. Tony sucking on his own blood-and-ash-covered-hands, his eyes closed against the pain. Odin disintegrating into golden dust on the coast of Norway. Stormbreaker deflecting the energy of the Infinity Gauntlet and then splitting open Thanos' chest. Tony facing Steve in a dark building, his body clad in his Iron Man armor, head exposed, lips pinched, tears glistering in his eyes, his face taut with anger and grief as he whispered, "Don't bullshit me, Rogers. Did you know?"

Just as Thor had dreaded, Shuri's invention was able to expose everyone's deepest vulnerabilities. Next to him, Loki was staring at the screen, his eyes widened in both fascination and alarm. Barton's face had turned ghastly pale. Tony's breathing was heavy. Steve's mouth was hanging open. Natasha had averted her gaze.

"Holy shit," whispered Valkyrie while Bruce mumbled, "Fascinating."

The screen buzzed again and melted into a blurry image of Asgard from years long past, the golden pillars of the Royal Palace rising majestically into a starry sky. Thor heard himself gasp. Loki's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"What the hell is that?" asked Tony.

Rocket's jaw dropped. "Is that—"

"Asgard," whispered Valkyrie and despite everything, her mouth curled into an almost melancholic smile.

"This can't be right," Thor blurted out. "Asgard cannot be on top of the Mind Stone's memories. It has not been on Asgard recently and who knows if it has ever been on Asgard?"

"Maybe it is not a memory," Bruce mumbled, turning towards Shuri. "The image before, the conference room; that was what it was seeing a few moments ago." He swung around, focusing first Clint, then Steve, then Tony. "And the black and white ones were memories that it pulled out of your heads just now, right?"

The men gave hesitant nods, their faces warped with agony. "I need to," Clint stammered and fled the room, Natasha running after him.

"But those were black and white and the image of Asgard is displayed in color, which means that … it might be thinking of Asgard right now," Bruce concluded with a nervous glance at the scepter in Thor's hands. To Thor's dismay, its tip was glowing treacherously. "Is that possible?" asked Bruce.

Thor turned towards his brother. "Is it?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Loki replied with the shadow of a condescending smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "She devised that program."

Shuri snorted and turned back to the keyboard, mumbling, "I don't understand. I created an algorithm to access memories distributed throughout the cortex and not …"

"I'm not asking about the stupid program," Thor growled, blocking out the young girl's voice. "Why is it thinking of Asgard right now? What does it really want from you? Did you make a bargain with it?"

Loki glowered at him. "A bargain for Asgard?" He snorted a laugh. "In case you forgot, Asgard is nothing but stardust now."

Thor winced at the reminder.

"And I told you everything about my conversation with the Stones," Loki added in a soft growl.

"You also said there is something about that conversation you don't yet understand," Steve reminded him. "Does Asgard have anything to do with it?"

"No," Loki replied but before he had a chance to elaborate, Shuri let out a curse as a plethora of images suddenly poured onto the screen, overlaying the image of the Golden City. They were too indistinct to make out and they kept appearing so quickly that the program could not display them correctly. The screen froze again and the computer began to whir, first faintly, then growing louder. A whiff of burning plastic wafted through the air. Shuri tried to counteract the program's malfunction with a few taps on her keyboard, cursing under her breath again, but nothing happened.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Loki said with a self-satisfactory grin that he suppressed immediately.

"Are you sabotaging this?" Steve demanded.

"Of course," Loki mocked. "Because I have no interest whatsoever in finding out what this stone actually wants from me."

Valkyrie tilted her head and arched an eyebrow. "You truly don't know?"

"I know what it told me but I don't know if it told me the truth. Why is that so hard for you to believe?" Loki cackled. "You know what? Don't answer that." He then turned to Shuri, asking, "What is an algorithm, exactly?" and Thor silently cursed himself because he had not even bothered to question the significance of the unfamiliar term the young scientist had used a moment ago.

"A set of rules that defines how a sequence of computational operations is being carried out," explained Tony, eagerly jumping at the slightest opportunity to dispel the painful memories of both his distant and his recent past. "In this particular case, the algorithm decides according to which criteria the stone's memories are accessed and shown on the screen."

Loki frowned. "Which are?"

"Long-term memories are stored throughout the brain when groups of neurons are primed to fire together in the same pattern that created the original experience," explained Bruce. "Each component of a memory is stored in a very specific brain area and if you—"

Loki shook his head in what seemed like exasperation to Thor and said, "You keep forgetting that this is no human brain. This is an Infinity Stone with a personality of its own locked inside of it, for crying out loud! I spoke to it. Her. Him. Whatever. My point is—"

"If it has a personality of its own, it makes all the more sense that its thoughts and memories are stored in a structure which very closely resembles that of a human brain," Shuri pointed out, her fingers flying over the keys. "And you did see the diagram of the stone's essence on the screen earlier, didn't you?"

"Of course I did," Loki snapped. "I am not blind. But if it were similar, wouldn't your program allow you to translate its memories the same way it allows you to translate human memories stored in a human brain?"

"What do you mean?" asked Bruce.

Loki raised an eyebrow. "I'm assuming this isn't the first time you are attempting to transform those brainwaves or neuron firings that you think responsible for the creation of memories into moving imagery?"

The room fell silent.

"Actually, it is," Tony conceded when no one else answered. "Human technology hasn't yet come up with an effective way to truly read what's in people's minds."

Loki guffawed with a spark of madness flaring in his eyes that sent Thor's entire body into attack mode. "You have the audacity to tell me I'm arrogant," Loki said in a soft growl, "even though you clearly have no idea how to reach into the mind?" He exhaled sharply. "Forget your brainwave, net-like pathways. The mind consists of layers. You might want to reprogram your algorithm accordingly."

"The mind doesn't consist of layers," Shuri replied curtly. "That is just a metaphor. Actually, the mind as such does not even exist. What you think of as the mind is just an epiphenomenon of biological processes."

"A metaphor?" Loki cackled. "Is that outrageous conclusion truly the pinnacle of your planet's scientific achievements? That the mind does not exist?"

"Hey, calm down," Thor chimed in. "You guys are probably talking about the same thing but using different words for it. You know, Jane always said that magic is nothing but science that humans do not understand yet."

"No offense to Dr. Foster's words of wisdom," said Shuri, "but we do understand the brain quite well."

"And it does not consist of layers," Bruce confirmed.

"Sure, I understand," Loki mocked the mortal scientists with a dismissive grin. "The mind does not exist. That's why the Infinity Stone controlling this aspect of our universe is called the Brain Stone." He guffawed. "It makes perfect sense."

Shuri let out a frustrated sigh. Tony grimaced. Bruce eyed the computer suspiciously.

"Is that really going to get us anywhere?" asked Rocket.

"Next, you are going to tell me that reality, space, time, power and soul do not exist either?" Loki went on. "That those are just metaphors, too?"

"This is really not the time for accus—" Valkyrie admonished but Loki spoke over her. "Oh wait, I forgot, you do think that the soul doesn't exist."

"Can we please try to not—" Steve began but before he could finish, something inside Shuri snapped. She fixed her eyes on Loki and yelled, "We're giving you the benefit of the doubt, all of us! We've been willing to acknowledge that you cannot be held fully responsible for the attack on New York and we're willing to acknowledge that you're actually trying to help here right now but that doesn't give you the right to be so damn obnoxious!" Her voice caught in her throat but she continued nonetheless. "There are lot of intelligent people in this room but we are given only about eighty years to put our intelligence to use! What do you think we could do if we had thousands, like you? You would tremble before what we could achieve!"

Loki snorted. "Not if you cling to those petty natural laws of yours."

Nebula had observed the conversation spinning out of control in silence so far but when she finally spoke, her quiet words jolted the Avengers back into reality. "Alright, that's enough! We are only wasting time here."

Rocket nodded in agreement.

"Loki said Thanos picked up the Gauntlet and noticed the stones' glowing," Nebula continued. "We have no way of knowing what he will do and how quickly he will do it. Now that the Mind Stone works again, so might the rest of the stones that are still in his possession and yet you are standing here, arguing over labels when all that matters is how quickly he might reach us." She focused Shuri with her giant, dead, black eyes.

"She's right," Valkyrie added. "Why can't you at least try to consider Loki's advice?"

"Because I do not know what to do with his advice," Shuri replied, her frustration almost palpable. "I duplicated the stone's molecular structure. This diagram is what—"

"Forget your inconsequential diagram for one norndamned second, will you?" Loki interrupted her, his face twisting into a grimace of pain. He let out a soft moan. "Why do you think your machines allow you to harness Infinity Stone magic?"

"Do you remember when you tried to brainwash me with the Mind Stone's magical energy?" Tony asked, his hands jerking towards the scepter that was beginning to feel more and more heavy in Thor's hands with each second that crawled by. "How you failed because of this?" He tapped the blue-glowing triangle on his chest that powered his suits. "This is Arc Reactor technology. You wonder why it was able to deflect the Mind Stone's assault? Because my father powered the first Arc Reactor with the energy of the fucking Tesseract after he fished it out of the ocean." He flashed Loki a broad, self-satisfied grin that left Thor in serious doubt that they were ever going to accomplish anything in this constellation. "Wanna tell me again how our machines can't harness Infinity Stone magic?"

Loki narrowed his eyes. "I'm not talking about that kind of harnessing," he continued as he crossed over to the table and poured himself another generous drink. "I know your people have successfully used the Tesseract's energy to build weapons of all kind but what you are trying to do right now is different." He tossed his drink back and sucked in a sharp breath. "You are trying to tap into the core of an Infinity Stone. Need I remind you that the last time you tried to adapt the Mind Stone's essence to your machinery, you created a monster?"

"I hate to say that but he's right," said Steve.

Tony let out a growl.

"So what do we do now?" asked Nebula.

Valkyrie crossed her arms. "Any suggestions?"

Loki started to speak but his words transformed into a groan of pain. He grabbed the side of his head and closed his eyes.

"Dude, are you okay?" asked Rocket.

"Yes," Loki hissed through clenched teeth. "You are giving me a headache, that's all."

"It was probably Cap's shield that's giving you a headache," the rabbit continued and Steve's lips parted. Thor stirred uneasily.

Loki blinked in confusion. "What was that?"

"He whacked his shield over your head," Rocket elaborated almost nonchalantly.

"Because you were unresponsive," Steve added hastily. "Your eyes started glowing blue."

"And we were worried that the stone might be trying to take over your mind," Tony finished. "Again."

Loki gave them a scowl and Thor braced himself for his brother's inevitable emotional outburst.

Author's Note:

After how Endgame turned out, I decided that I will actually give Loki and his semi-redemption arc another chance. I don't know how regularly I will post but if there are still some of you who enjoy reading this story, I will try my best. Much love xoxo