The Trickster: Ragnarok
by: Shadow Chaser
Disclaimer:
I do not own any characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. All characters belong to Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Comics, and Disney. I am not writing this story for profit, only for my own (twisted) amusement. I will try to return the characters unharmed, but some they might have a few scuff marks.
Story:
Chapter 10
"He's pretty much asleep," Dr. Banner turned to Phil Coulson as he left the readouts from the hard-light projection up in the air. "Didn't want to risk waking him up by putting electrodes on his head to read his brain activity."
"No need," Coulson shrugged, as he stared at the live monitoring readouts before glancing beyond the observation window to the sleeping form of Loki. "What about the snake, Jormungandr?"
"Refusing to leave his side," Banner gestured to the corner of the pillow where a mass of coiled serpent laid; looking like, for all purposes, a deceptively tiny thin-whipped corn snake. One could even call it a 'pet-sized' version if they were kind, but were in for a very rude awakening if they even attempted to get near Loki – Dr. Banner not withstanding – the corn snake would morph into a white cobra, hissing and spitting real poison. Sometimes, the corn snake turned into a ball python, still deceptively tiny, but more prone to squeezing fingers off of anyone that dared reach for either Loki or himself.
"But he allows you to go near," Coulson glanced at Banner who shrugged.
"Jormungandr only agreed in so many words because he said that Hel had apparently told him while they were in Asgard's cells who came up with the actual cure to his poison while Loki came up with the delivery system," Banner looked nonplussed as if it was a usual occurrence, "even then, I get the fact that whatever orders or punishment Odin handed down after we were done up there, he's taking protecting Loki rather seriously."
"Eh, maybe, maybe not," Coulson crossed his arms as he stared at the two prone forms. "I think it's probably a hold-over from Loki's coterie days or something. From what I remember, they were pretty loyal if they were willing to commit regicide for him."
"I thought that was only Fenrir," Banner commented. They had all heard the words spoken in the hanger bay when Fenrir had lured Loki to the hanger bay and tried to kill him a second time. Granted, it had taken them precious minutes to get into the hanger bay, Mjolnir's power nearly tearing through the electronics of the Helicarrier to break through whatever barrier Fenrir had thrown up. But they had heard everything. It did not change Coulson's opinion about Loki in general, but it at least provided some very needed intel that he had always been wondering about the Asgardian. Judging by the vagueness of Thor's words, that Loki had been adopted into the royal family, he had wondered if there had been some kind of hierarchy or societal opinion about adoption that made Loki the way he was.
His intel had not been completed until they had arrived on Asgard itself, Fury negotiating the treatise that Thor had lobbied hard to have his father recognize. He would have called it a treaty, but the Asgardians called it a treatise, which Coulson still did not understand the difference. In the Allfather's Court, Coulson got the real feel of Asgardian politics...and how Loki really factored into it. He suspected he would never know the full truth behind Loki's motivations, but it was not too hard to put together the pieces of what he had heard, what he knew, and what he learned from the Trickster God, Thor, Thor's warrior friends, and even Fenrir and Jormungandr for all of their mass murders and killing sprees. His own conclusions into Asgard as a society and how Thor and Loki factored into it – royal families and their inherent dysfunctions not withstanding – was a moot point; but he thought that advance aliens from space would have at least solved some of the societal issues that plagued less advance races. His predictions were wrong.
It did not mean he forgave Loki for what he had done – no, he would have thought anyone would have been better than to try to enslave a world, geas, no geas, mind-controlled and not even mind-controlled, not withstanding. If anything, Thor at least knew that the Earth needed protection and vowed to do so. Loki apparently thought otherwise. And there was no way Coulson would ever forgive him for killing him and having Fury activate Project TAHITI. He had managed to keep the urges to draw hidden from the others, May the only one who truly understood and kept him sane, but some days it was harder than most. Skye still had not found any connection, even with her hacking abilities and resources and Coulson was feeling a little desperate, especially with the stress of the past week. London had been one of their larger bases and he knew he would have to use Fury's black box to find another base for what remained of SHIELD. They could not stay at the Avengers Tower in the long run, the tower too public and too exposed even with the added protection of the Avengers living in the top floors. He would not risk the United States government and other international governments coming down on the Avengers because he and his agents were at the tower.
But, first things first and the next crisis in line was Thor still missing after assaulting the fake Baron von Strucker's base and finding Vasily Karpov. The fact that Loki was here of all places, that concerned Coulson more than any other crisis at the moment. Loki's motivations as a conqueror were easy to read – his motives as to why he wanted to conquer, not so much – and so once he had been defeated by the Avengers, it was like any other conqueror, to not return until some time had passed when memories faded. There was also the more simplistic version was that Loki, besides being embarrassed, just plain did not like mortals, considering them less than someone like himself. Coulson was fine with this assessment – he had no love for his murderer – and did not care for his opinion on mortals and humans. So in the two times that Loki had arrived on Earth since his failed attempt to conquer it, he always took notice. Because the first time Loki arrived, the Chitauri and Thanos had followed quickly behind. The second time, the members of whatever was left of his coterie followed quickly behind.
Coulson was expecting something to follow quickly behind Loki in this third appearance.
And also, the two times Loki had arrived after the Battle for New York, it was highly personal and usually involved a lot of destruction. Stuttgart and Karpov's former base were already testaments to his latest arrival. Though, he suppose this time, Loki was clearly looking for Thor. The question was, besides the obvious, why.
He had always been good at reading people, making them believe things and complete actions otherwise contrary to what they thought he wanted done, and applying his skills to the relationship between Loki and Thor had been no different. On the surface, there was no love lost between the two estranged siblings, adopted or not, and Loki seemingly hated Thor to the point of stabbing him with a dagger if he could. But, neither was he oblivious to the seemingly blind selflessness the two possessed towards each other. Thor was more obvious about it, his gestures of affection, his words, trying to get them through his brother's head that he was at least loved by one member of Asgardian society. Loki was not as obvious and apparently took great pains to hide it. But Coulson caught onto some of it. He knew that the Trickster God always spoke in riddles, his motivations far different than what one could predict – that was what made him a Trickster; honeyed words and deception his forte. But Coulson had caught the undercurrent of affection, of familial brotherhood in Loki's actions regarding Thor. There had always been that hesitation, that moment where when push came to shove, Loki would not outright kill Thor – certainly batter him as Coulson suspected Asgardian warrior society always had – but not deal the final blow.
So Coulson wanted to know why Loki was demanding to know where Thor was and why was he really here. The pretense of finding Thor could have been chalked up to the fact that Loki was worried for Thor, or thought him as idiotically asinine for getting captured, but Coulson suspected there was more to that. Not love, not affection, nothing of the sort – but from the sole fact that Loki had arrived angry and seemingly knew something of what had happened to Thor. That was what he was aiming for.
And also Coulson had read up on the myths of Norse Gods after New York – courtesy of a book that Captain Rogers had let him borrow – and knew that if Loki was here, and if things had had a tendency to follow him; he was not called the God of Chaos in Norse myths.
"Just Fenrir?" he glanced at Banner who nodded a bit.
"Good point," the doctor adjusted his glasses a little and pursed his lips as he stared at the read outs. "Thor didn't show up," he said after a few minutes of amiable silence.
"It was a stretch, but something that we needed to know," Maria had called him as soon as Rogers had requested a quinjet to go after Loki. He had immediately come to the same conclusion as Maria and authorized it – even though technically he was not in charge of the Avengers or Maria anymore. He knew that she had only called as a courtesy, to keep him in the loop as the new Director of SHIELD, but he appreciated it nonetheless. It also stood to reason of Fury's not-so-subtle reminder that he too, was an Avengers – something that had truly shocked him. To him, the Avengers were composed of the best men and women he knew and it had been a group he had not expected to be included with, considering that a few of them had superhuman powers. He had always expected to be the Avengers' handler until Fury gave him his new assignment and the Bus, but had not expected to be an Avenger.
"Facial recognition hasn't brought up anything on Karpov-"
"Baldr-"
"-Er, Baldr, Thor, or the guy who was not really Strucker," Banner shook his head, "Tony's tweaking it now, but I kind of wished I scanned Mjolnir before this..."
"Not your fault, Doctor," Coulson reassured him, "but at least we know that if Loki shows up, Thor isn't prone to doing that, or at least Baldr-Karpov controlling him."
"They could be anywhere...maybe not even on this planet," Banner rubbed his eyes and Coulson obliquely glanced over to make sure that he wasn't turning green. Instead, the other man yawned a little, "Sorry, long day."
"Get some rest, Doctor. The Big Guy did well today," he smiled a little with a brief nod of his head.
Banner returned the smile with a crooked grin of his own before sobering a little, "Hey, about Loki and New York..."
"Twitter and other social media sites are trending with his appearance in Stuttgart, but Maria managed to forward most media companies to tell the public at large not to do anything about Loki or New York. There have been a few reports of people rushed to the hospital for unexplained heart attacks. I've got eyes and ears on the ground to see if they were blaming Loki for New York, but I think the public at large knows about the geas contract Fury made with Loki," Coulson let his smile drop as he uncrossed his arms and instead folded his hands together, "that's the good news."
"Bad news?"
"Someone's got a hashtag that's blaming Loki for the spate of poison attacks two years ago," he grimaced, "I'm having Skye track that, but it could be safe to say it's HYDRA leaking that."
"Oh boy..." Banner scrubbed his face as he sighed, "that's not good."
"Understatement of the year," Coulson replied dryly, "get some rest Doc. No one's going anywhere."
Banner only nodded again and left, suppressing another yawn with the back of his hand as he did so, leaving Coulson alone in the observation room. He glanced at the readouts before pulling up a chair and settled himself in it. There was nothing else to do except wait for the resident Trickster to wake up. Then...then Coulson would get the answers he wanted.
The comforts were not as plush or firm as Loki remembered his bed in his quarters which only meant that he was either on the Helicarrier or elsewhere. He extended his senses out, but did not hear the familiar hum of machinery and minute vibration of the Helicarrier. That meant he was elsewhere and finally opened his eyes to stare at the pale beige ceiling of the room he had been placed in. There were several faint honks of noise followed by screeching sounds of something motorized speeding to his right and he turned his head to see the familiar skyline of the city he had remembered flying through on the Chitauri skiffs. New York then...and judging by the feel of the bed beneath him and the plain-looking, but practical room he was in, more than likely the tower that Stark owned.
Loki laughed inwardly at the idea that he had been actually allowed into the tower, placed in one of the rooms, at Stark's behest. And considering there was no cold metal biting at his wrists nor anything save a blanket, trapping him on the bed, it meant that he was not imprisoned. Maybe imprisoned in the room as he glanced to his other side to see the telltale sign of a one-way mirror, the wall too blank for it to be not so obvious. Still, the fact that he had been treated like this, must have irritated Stark and probably some of the other Avengers to no end.
"Welcome back to the land of the living," the familiar voice of Agent Coulson spoke over a speaker of sorts and Loki looked towards the blank wall, a mirthless smile on his lips.
"Agent Coulson, how very kind of you to host me here-"
"Uh, no, this is my house and I really don't want you here-" Stark's voice was cut off with a click of sorts as Loki snorted quietly. Stark, as ever, was predictable with his words. He gingerly pushed himself up from the bed, noting that the dizziness and exhaustion of previous times was all but gone, but in place was a ravenous gnawing hunger. When had he last eaten...Loki did not remember, but neither was he inclined to ask for food. He would find his own later.
A soft hissing sound made him glance back to see Jormungandr lift his head up from where he nested into the corner of his pillow. He could feel the faint tingle of leftover healing magick on the snake's skin and knew that he had procured a healing stone or two from the utility pouch that all Asgardians were prone to wearing on and off the battlefield. Healing stones contained the most basic magick and spellwork so that even a core-less mage like Jormungandr, or even a warrior like his idiot brother Thor, could use it without the aid of other spellwork. Loki reached over and plucked the snake from the pillow before putting him in his pocket just as a door opened with a click and the mortal Coulson stood before it, a congenial smile on his face.
"It's actually Director now," the son of Coul said as he gestured to one of the empty chairs near an end table in the room, "do you mind?"
"Would it not be safer for you to interrogate me through your looking glass?" Loki inclined his head as the affable man walked in, pulling the chair towards his bed and sat down. "I suppose congratulations are in order."
"If you want," Coulson did not seem to be affected by his sarcastic remark, "a few things changed since you've been away. Director Fury's been dead for a little over a year."
"Leaving you in charge," Loki flicked a look towards the blank wall. If Stark was there, chances were the other Avengers were there too, all of them looking in while he was unable to see them.
"Well, I was hoping to ask your friend in your pocket there about any HYDRA connections he might have picked up the last time he was posing at them, but he has a tendency...to spit poison," the other man shrugged as if it was not a greater problem, "SHIELD's pretty much fallen since you were here last, and HYDRA's taken over for-"
"I care not for your problems," Loki shook his head, "holding me here is for one purpose only, you wish answers."
"Are you willing to tell us?" Coulson immediately countered and Loki had to suppress the smile that threatened to appear on his face. If Fury was truly dead, then he would have been proud of the successor he had chosen in the man that had come back to life. He was every inch like Fury with his directness.
"It is a bargain-"
"Nuh-uh," Coulson suddenly shook his head, "no geas, nothing of the sort Loki. I'm not like Fury. I don't do geas bargains."
Loki chuckled lightly, "Far cleverer than your predecessor." He had to admit, Coulson was smart to immediately tell him not to make a geas and would not budge on it. Here was a man who was more than likely handed the reigns of power that he did not want, but was willing to step up and take them if needed. Fury had the curiosity, but also wanted to know about the geas. Coulson was far more cautious in that regard, but also was far more aligned to Thor's morals and ideals. No wonder his oaf of a brother had been so devastated when he had stabbed and killed Coulson back on the Helicarrier. He folded his hands on his lap, "Very well then, no geas."
"Especially since you still have one hanging over your head," Coulson added and Loki shot him a look, daring him to say more. The other man did not seem affected by his look and only stared back, gaze placid. "Should we expect someone, or a few someones coming after you since you're here?"
He raised an eyebrow, a little amused, but also a little confused before the click of the microphone made him glance towards the one-way window once more. "Loki, guns are always involved whenever you come here. Armies or people wanting to kill you also follow and this time, I think we might just hand you over to them."
"Ah," he recognized the familiar tones of Agent Romanov, "Agent Romanov. How kind of you to remind me of my previous ventures on this Nornforsaken ball of dirt."
"You're trending on Twitter," she shot back and Loki did not know whether he should be pleased or insulted by her words. He had no idea what the Twitter comment about.
However, he turned back to face the son of Coul when he lifted a hand after her comment. "Captain Rogers said that you came to the tower looking for Thor. We can help you find him."
"I think not-"
"And subsequently also find who you're really looking for," Coulson interrupted him and Loki stared, eyes narrowed.
"And pray tell, if not Thor, whom do you think I am searching for," he asked in a deceptively calm voice, wondering how perceptive this mortal was to actually know that he was not looking for Thor, but rather looking for Thor to find his true target.
"Baldr," the son of Coul said in a simple tone, "or as he was more recently known on Earth, Vasily Karpov."
"I have no need of your resources-"
"You can work alone, which is fine," Coulson interrupted again, "or use us. Use the resources we have-"
"What resources? You said so yourself that SHIELD had fallen, HYDRA more than likely taken its place. You are pathetically weak that there have been no other resources for you to use to find Thor. Your vaunted Captain has said that you have searched for a week with little to no results," Loki countered viciously, expecting Coulson to react, but the man only stared at him, much like Fury did. He restrained the sudden urge to lash out with his magick, finding the other man's gaze almost as unnerving as one given by the Allfather. The mortal was nothing like the Allfather and could not even begin to be like him.
"And you're here not because Heimdall can't find Thor," Coulson replied, his tone mild, but Loki caught the tremor of something unidentifiable underneath it, "so it tells me a few things. That Thor's still here on Earth somewhere and he and Karpov, well, Baldr, haven't done that opening portal thing you do to the other realms. It also tells me that you're not here for Thor, not when you sooner shank him in the ribs than anything else for his idiocy or something like that. You're here for Baldr. But you know Thor is somehow involved with Baldr."
Loki refused to let the surprise appear on his face, but Coulson was not finished, "Why else would you send Thor to find the Chitauri sceptre you left behind unless you know maybe something of what's happening here? Thor told us before everything went down that he didn't mention to the Allfather about SHIELD's dissolution and HYDRA's rise. He didn't want to open Earth to the power play of the other realms if they knew that SHIELD fell and couldn't enforce the treatise made. But I did notice that he was dropped right into the middle of a firefight without the Bifrost's help and only picked up after the fight by Heimdall. Your handiwork I suppose."
Coulson suddenly pushed the chair he had been sitting on back with a small scraping sound, and stood up. He buttoned his jacket up, looking as impeccable and unflappable as ever, "Think about it, Loki. You might not like us, and we might not like you, but we do have a saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
"We're certainly not friends," Loki's eyes tracked him as he walked towards the door and opened it.
"No," the other man turned back an amiable smile on his face, "we're not. Allies is probably stretching it, but we do have resources that you can use. And you have resources we can use. You want to find Baldr, and we want to find Thor." The other man made to close the door behind him, but paused, "You're free to leave the tower, I think Mr. Stark probably wants you to, but you might want to avoid the public for a bit. Agent Romanov is right, you're trending on Twitter and the media and its not pretty."
"New York?" Loki wondered how foolish were the mortals to claim revenge against the geas he had made with Fury three years ago.
"No, we've got that covered. Most world governments are blaming you for your friend-in-the-pocket's poisoning of several cities from what happened two years ago," Coulson shrugged.
"And now you will tell me you have done nothing to dissuade them of that. Thereby keeping me here hostage to your requests for help-"
"Yes and no," Coulson tilted his head a little, "if you want to give up Jormungandr to us, we can hand him over to the proper authorities and it'll certainly give whatever is left of SHIELD some credibility because it was his fault instead of yours-"
"If you think-" Loki was livid at the implied suggestion.
"-but frankly, that's not my problem at the moment," his anger deflated at the son of Coul's nonchalance and stared at him, puzzled, "I really don't care about that. I'm just letting you know if you want to leave, you can. Just know that someone's going to be pointing a gun at you and probably try to arrest you. We, the human race, have gotten a little smarter and more aware since the last time you were here."
"And you do not care if these mortals are harmed?"
"Like I said, we're pretty thin on resources and I know asking you not to harm them is probably a moot point. The only thing I can say is that it'll probably be harder to do whatever spell scan thing you were trying to attempt in Stuttgart and probably what Baldr wants happen if anything. The guy was a complete megalomaniac when we found him before he escaped." He gave him a wan smile, "Just think on it, Loki."
With that, he pulled the door close and Loki was left alone with his thoughts and the near-silence of the room, punctuated by the constant traffic and noise of the city he had once tried to conquer.
"Sheesh, the guy's a basket case," Maria Hill ignored Skye's comment as she watched the security cameras around Loki's room carefully for any sign that the Trickster God was going to launch a surprise attack on Coulson.
"Seriously, he's giving me the creeps and I'm not even there with him. It's like Ward, but ten times worse," Skye continued, "and you're telling me this guy can, what, cast spells like Harry Potter or something?" She waved her hands in the air.
"Tried to shoot me down for one with his glowstick of ice," Sam commented behind Maria and out of the corner of her eye, she saw him shift a little, "Steve, we really have to work with him?"
"His choice," Maria flicked a quick look as Steve leaned forward, arms placed against the panel she was working on as he also looked at the security footage. Or not, as he reached out and opened a few different hard-light projected windows that showed the grainy footage that social media had collated so far when Loki had appeared in Stuttgart with the footage from the underbelly of the quinjet of their fight against the remaining Centipede and Extremis soldiers under Karpov's command.
"You know I'm just impressed by the Director there," Triplett's voice chimed in from the back of the small group that had congregated into the room once it looked like Loki was waking and Coulson had left the observation room to talk to him. Maria knew that the other Avengers - minus Barnes who was nowhere to be seen, Steve, and Sam who were several floors down with her - had been in the observation room, watching the whole thing. The command staff for Coulson's team had decided to come here instead. She, Steve, and Sam had already been in here with Skye looking at what had been trending on social media and how to mitigate it. Steve had been ready to made an announcement regarding Loki's appearance and what the Avengers were going to do about it when Loki had woken up. Tony had originally offered but everyone had shot it down, knowing the animosity between Tony and Loki.
"There aren't many people who are willing to confront their killer like that, much less sit in a room and have a civil conversation," Melinda May murmured next to Triplett and Maria smiled slightly. She knew exactly whom May was referring to and agreed with her sentiment. Though Grant Ward had not killed her per se, she was still furious that he had managed to slip past her notice as a HYDRA agent and could have conceivably killed Fury any time before HYDRA had crawled out of SHIELD's remnants. It had been her job as Fury's former bodyguard and ex-STRIKE Alpha commander to watch for all threats.
"I am rather curious about the magic he uses. I mean, conceivably it might not be magic at all and probably advance technology like Dr. Foster said in her papers and research. It could be a biological factor, I mean Thor isn't human and he does have unusual properties when it comes to strength ratio versus-"
"Jemma..."
Maria ignored the whispered conversation Simmons was having with Fitz related to Loki's magic as she brought as she noticed Coulson finally closing the door to Loki's room.
"His choice?" Sam asked, "really?"
"His choice," Steve repeated and she glanced over to see him with his jaw set, a determined look on his face, "we can't force him to work with us, nor can we detain him. The only thing we can do, if he does decide to go it alone is to follow behind him and try to find Thor that way."
"The last time that happened, Loki apparently wasn't himself and nearly downed the Helicarrier. Code Omega," Maria reminded Steve with a pointed look.
"What? Wasn't himself? Code Omega?" Sam asked and Maria turned in time to see May's eyebrows raise up in surprise as did Triplett, Fitz, and Simmons. Skye, like Sam, looked utterly confused.
"Oh...makes sense now," May commented quietly as Triplett and the two scientists also nodded. "All of us at the Triskelion were wondering what had happened when the Omega was announced across all channels."
"The Academy was in complete lockdown back then. We were all ordered to stay where we were and armed guards were placed at the doors. Everyone was worried," Simmons murmured, "that was because of, uh...Loki?"
"Coulson took control per the Omega command when Loki was forcibly taken by Thanos. He has a geas contract with him," Maria explained quickly before eyeing Steve, "you think Thanos is ultimately behind this?"
"Don't know," Steve shook his head, not meeting her gaze as he looked intently at the windows he had brought up, "it's something I saw while Baldr was messing with my head, but can't shake the feeling. The coterie was also involved with Thanos, however obliquely until Fenrir decided to abandon the plan and take his revenge against Loki. This might be the latest in a long string of things with Loki and Thanos."
"Who's Thanos?" Sam asked and Maria caught him looking at Steve for a long moment, deciding not to mention anything else about Steve being under Karpov's control when they had assaulted the base in the Alps.
"The guy behind the Chitauri invasion, maybe," Steve replied, "but definitely someone Odin Allfather recognizes and apparently has been fighting with for a long time."
"And...he has a thing...for Loki?" Sam asked before backpeddling with Steve's confused look, "I mean, what's he to Mister-I'm-Going-To-Try-To-Blow-Everything-Up-I-Apparently-Hate-You-All person?"
Maria had to grin a little at Sam's name for Loki and judging by the amused looks the others threw Sam, they too liked how he had summed up Thor's adopted brother. "From what Fenrir said, I think Loki got his sceptre from Thanos and probably also the Chitauri army too. They probably were once allies, but had a falling out when Loki failed in his conquest of Earth."
"Good thing," Skye interjected, "so how come we just don't hand that asshole over to this Thanos? I mean he's a war criminal right? He should be prosecuted-"
Maria whirled around and quickly reached over to cover Skye's mouth, muffling her words as she shook her head. "Don't say it, Skye. Don't say anything about New York," she warned. "You've been collating the poison hashtag right? That's the only thing we can try to prosecute Loki with. Not New York. Not with the geas contract Fury made with Loki back then."
Skye made a muffled noise on her hand and Maria reluctantly let go to allow her to talk again. "Why?"
"We don't know anything about geas contracts, but we do know that the one that Fury made with Loki initially contained the provision that no one can blame him for New York. Anyone who goes against that contract can die."
"As in-n d-drop dead, die?" Fitz asked, his brow wrinkling in concern.
"Yeah, Stark tried a variation of that and had a near heart attack right then and there on the Helicarrier," Maria still remembered when Tony had not believed what had been said and had paid for it painfully before he relented.
"But how does Fury have that right to do something like that?" Skye shook her head, "I can't-"
"Like I said, we don't know much about the complexities of a geas contract, but we do know that if a contract is made with a person and either one reneges on it or doesn't follow the provisions made, they drop dead. If a person dies in some manner before fulfilling the contract, the contract is still valid."
"That's why you had me release those two files you had on Fury as soon as Loki was in Stuttgart," Skye replied as she sat back against her chair, "huh..."
"So where does that leave us?" Sam asked after a few minutes of silence, looking at Steve. Maria also turned to look at him, wondering what was going on in her friend's head. She understood the initial rush to find out where Loki went and to go after him, but now, especially with the radio chatter between Dr. Banner and Steve while they had been flying on the quinjet, she wondered if Steve knew something more about what was happening with Thor, Loki, and Baldr.
"Still his choice," Steve replied, "but we still have to be ready in case Thor or Baldr shows up. If there's one thing that Loki's really good at is bringing chaos and trouble with him."
Maria could not agree more. Chaos, destruction, and trouble always followed Loki in the last three times he was here. All of the above had already happened in Stuttgart and in the remnants of the base in the Alps. There was an old childhood poem she remembered, something wicked this way comes... Whether it applied to Loki or to the chaos following Loki, she did not know, but she knew that they needed to prepare.
Author's Notes:
Just a reminder that this story does incorporate Agents of SHIELD, but onlySeason 1. Season 2 is not considered part of this story and so Trip is still alive, but Ward has gone missing after events in Frozen in Time.