"We have a visual on Loki." Natasha, currently piloting the quinjet, began winding down towards the ground, like a corkscrew. "Remember, this is a quick extraction. We're going in there, getting Loki out and leaving. No civilians are to be hurt." They were now hovering over a square in Stuttgart. Harry glanced out the window. What he saw made his blood boil.

Loki, an imposing figure dressed in ostentatious gold and green, a helmet that reminded him of a reindeer on his head, was talking to a crowd of trembling civilians. These civilians were on their knees, heads bowed towards the ground. A sceptre housing a glowing blue gem was clutched in Loki's hand. He was obviously making some grand speech about wanting to rule them. The civilians, frightened for their lives, did as they were told. Loki seemed to be revelling in the attention being bestowed upon him, head held high, arms spread wide like he was some holy figure people should gaze upon with reverence and awe.

The sight of terror being instilled into a crowd brought harry back to his youth, back to Voldemort and his campaign. Well, campaign was a mellow word compared to what Voldemort did. A more fitting word would be murder to get people to comply. Murder people who opposed him. Attack those who believed that he wasn't the answer to all the problems the wizarding world had. Just the thought of another man, monster, trying to rule like Loki only made him even more determined.

Harry strapped his staff to the back of his SHIELD issue uniform, double checking that his wand was in his holster, secured so it wouldn't fall out. That was a mistake he wasn't keen to repeat. Steve was standing at the back of the quinjet, poised, ready for a fight. Harry held himself in the same way, that same familiar stance he now fell into easily, fluidly. It was like a switched had been flicked. One second he was relaxed. The next, his body was tensed, tightly wound, a coiled spring waiting to be released.

"Let's go get this son of a bitch," Harry growled. As Hermione would have said, his 'justice meter' was skyrocketing, his blood was boiling. His mind was clear, though, cooler than ice and clearer than crystal. He knew what he needed to do. Knew what needed to be done. "Merlin knows he deserves what's coming to him."

"Amen to that." Steve glanced back at Natasha. She nodded at them and opened up the back of the ship. "Let's go get this son of a gun."

Harry glanced down at the crowd below. They were now herded into a circle, illusions cast by Loki surrounding them. He saw a lone man standing, could almost smell the fury, the indignation radiating off of Loki like a bad smell.

"You guys get down there. I'll get the gun on him." The back of the ship finished opening. Harry and Steve walked towards the edge.

Steve stepped over the edge the second he saw Loki raise the golden staff, pulsing with ethereal blue, against the old man, the brave man, the one willing to stand up to those who believed themselves better. Harry followed suit, jumping out and readying his wand.

The wind whistled through his hair, in his ears, making his eyes water and fingers tingle. The ground was coming up fast, faster than he could ever imagine. He braced for landing and hit the ground hard, landing next to Steve. The shock that rippled up his legs was overpowering. For a second, all he could hear was an intense ringing, the corners of his vision blacking out. All it took was a shake of the head to snap himself out of it, and narrowly avoid a bolt of deadly blue energy rocketing towards him.

Harry came around just in time to hear Steve say, "You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everyone else, we ended up disagreeing." The casual way he strolled towards Loki oozed experience, ease, he knew what he was doing.

Loki sneered, his eyes flickering between Harry and Steve, seemingly unsure where to focus his attention. He ended up on Steve, fingers tapping on the sceptre. The slow tapping betrayed Harry's mood perfectly; ominous, unsure, willing to do whatever was right.

Hauling himself to his knees, Loki laughed. "The soldier. The man out of time." His eyes began boring into Harry. "And the son, desperate to live up to his father's image." Harry's left eye twitched. If that wasn't the most ludicrous statement he had ever heard...

"I'm not the one who's out of time, Loki."

The mechanical whirring of the quinjet sounded overhead. Harry knew that right now, Natasha was in the cockpit, readying the minigun, hovering above the courtyard. The people around him scattered, screaming, shouting, desperate to leave.

"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down."

Loki's features contorted into ugly anger in response to the command. He raised the sceptre and fired at the quinjet. Natasha effortlessly manoeuvred it to the side. Steve took this moment of distraction to leap into action.

As the shield rocketed through the air, Harry fired an extremely powerful stunner. It collided with Loki the same time the shield did, only causing him to stagger backwards. The rage on his face increased tenfold and being challenged.

"Bombarda!" The ground and Loki's feet exploded, causing him to fly back through the air. This barely impeded him. While in the air, more blue energy flew towards Harry. He dodged to the side and barely dodged it. The force of it knocked his wand out of his hand. Harry watched it despair as it flew through the air and clattered to the ground metres away. Too far away for him to retrieve it in time to rejoin the fight.

Dammit.

Not letting that phase him, Harry pulled out his staff, getting to work. He sprinted towards Loki, swinging the staff around. It impacted on Loki's face. In return, Harry received a sharp hit to the face. He landed on the ground a fair distance from the fighting pair.

The metallic taste of blood seeped into his mouth, dribbling down from his nose, pooling in the corner of his eyes. He rushed forward once again, seeing Loki knock Steve to the ground. He activated the force field built into his staff, hoping against hope it would work.

This was all dashed when, with a deadly thrust of the sceptre, Loki ripped through the force field like a knife through butter. Harry knew at that moment that he was done for.

To his surprise, instead of impaling him with the deadly sharp end of the sceptre, it was gently placed on his chest.

The second he felt the cold, blue, inching through his veins, his vision darkening and his limbs stiffening, Harry knew that he would have rather died.

Harry always hated the feeling of waking up groggy. When he opened his eyes, something primitive in him recoiled at the offensively bright light, beckoning him to hiss at the intruding force. The light did nothing to speed up the molasses in his veins, moving at a snail's pace. It also did nothing to rectify the fog that hung in his mind, a veil between bleary, morning thoughts and common sense, a fog that told him to go back to sleep.

The light this time was particularly glaring, piercing through his eyelids even when he closed him. Finally giving in to the reality that he was going to have to get up, he rolled over. Or at least he tried to. His limbs were immobile, trapped by some immobile force. This took the fog and molasses away in an instant, his senses heightening to alertness only found when he was about to die, or a similar situation with appropriate amounts of peril.

His eyes shot open. All he could see, through the blurry, too-bright light, was a green and gold blob. He knew that blob from somewhere. Harry tilted his head to the side in confusion, straining against the invisible bonds that held him against his will, froze his body until he was no better than a statue.

As the blob came closer, memories of what had happened suddenly snapped back into focus. At the same time, the blob morphed into a sadistically grinning Loki, sceptre in hand and ridiculous helmet jammed on his head.

"What have you done to me, you prick?" Harry desperately tried to break free of whatever was holding him in place. "Let me go!"

Loki smiled gently, chuckling to himself. "No, I don't think I am going to do that. Is this not a terribly amusing reality? You, trusted by so many people, completely under my control. I could make you do terrible things. Oh, the possibilities are endless." Harry could see the cogs whirring, the excited gleam in Loki's eyes, a fire that could never be quenched and only thirsted for more. "And don't call me a prick. It an insult used by a child. Still, used by a child or not, I don't like to be insulted."

He stalked towards Harry, until they were nose to nose, eye to eye. Close enough that Harry could see the minute pores on Loki's skin, the slight crookedness of his nose and faint smile lines around his mouth. They weren't the good kind of smile lines, though. They were the kind that came from tormenting prisoners with grins that belonged in nightmares.

"Where am I?" Harry grunted the question out, barely wanted to speak to Loki.

"In your own mind, of course. Where else would you be?"

"Oh, I don't know, some super secret place where you dump your victims?"

"You aren't dead. You're dreadfully slow, aren't you, Rogers."

"The name is Potter. Harry Potter." He held his chin high. "Steve Rogers may be my biological father, but I keep the name of those who raised me."

"But they didn't raise you, did they? No, they were killed when you were a mere infant." Loki took a step back, circling Harry. What surface was he walking on? It was like they were in limbo, an endless void that was simultaneously full of everything and nothing.

"How do you know that?"

"I have control of your mind. Access to all your memories. All your insecurities." Loki's eyes lit up. "Oh, would you look at that? You have feelings for a certain spy. You're never going to get to act on them, never let her know how you feel. In fact, here's a bright idea. I'm going to force you to kill her, force you to watch. Wouldn't that be splendid? And when you're done, the guilt will consume you, a dark tidal wave. Isn't that brilliant?"

"Screw you, you bastard!" Loki merely waved his hand in mild irritation. An invisible hand clamped around his throat. No sound came out of his mouth when he tried to speak.

"I told you, don't insult me. That was a very stupid thing to do, Harry." Loki tutted disapprovingly, the very image of a disappointed professor. "Now, let me explain one last time what is going to happen.

"Right now, we're in your mind, frozen in time. No one outside knows what is going on, no one will ever know what is going on until I get you to strike. To say it in an asinine Midgardian term that you will understand, you're my foot in the door."

Harry strained against what was holding him back. Still no luck. Instead, he glared at Loki, ice cold.

Loki merely smirked. "I am done here. And don't think about trying to break through. I know you resisted the pathetic imperious curse when you were fourteen. Compared to this, that curse is a tickling charm." Loki waved mockingly. "Enjoy your time."

Everything went black for a second. Then, Harry opened his eyes. He could see normally. Could look around normally. But the voice whispering at the back of his mind had a total hold over everything he did, every infinitesimal movement he made.

"You alright, Harry?" He turned around, acting normal, just as the voice commanded. Biding his time. "You took quite a hit. Loki's surrendered, though, no need to worry now. We got him."

"I'm fine, Steve. I'm fine."

"You sure?"

Harry looked Steve directly in the eyes, smiling playfully. "Positive."

Negative.

Sorry for the delay. I particularly enjoyed writing this one. There will be slight delays between chapters, as I plan out the part of the story.

If anyone has any idea what I can do with Winter Soldier, please leave a review. If you have anything you want to happen in the future, also leave a review. I have what happens for Endgame all planned out, but apart from that, there's a huge gap in-between.

If you want to, feel free to join my discord server. We discuss fanfiction, there are story updates, and I do take requests. The link is below. It is a bit broken, but I'm sure that if you want to join you will be able to make it.

/Kb9zJgV

Sincerely,
Mariadoria