I just watched 'Guardians of the Galaxy' and man you wouldn't believe how many ideas I have right now. Of course the plots of this fic is already set, the one for future ones though, isn't. I'm also working on a new project that involves Teen!Loki and Teen!Thor and generally Teen!Everybody probably and it's gonna be awesome and please tell me if you'd be interested in reading it, I will come up with a summary soon and I will probably cross-upload it with this. I'm not sure yet. Please people, I see you there, followers and favoriters and kudo-markers, if you'd just take the time to review, it doesn't have to be much, it would mean a lot to me, updates would be faster, I'd feel a lot better about writing all of this.
The attack came too soon and nobody had been prepared. Not for what had come.
"I am here live, just outside the city and it has been chaos, our view of the city is being blocked by a huge cloud of, of dust and all communication has been blocked. Is this the end of the world?"
The new reporter says. And then everything around them explodes and the only thing the people outside of New York can see, is a test screen on their television.
XxXxXxXxXx
"The suit is at twenty percent sir and dropping." The robotic but very distinguishable voice of the A.I. Tony Stark named Jarvis says.
Tony only grunts at the moment he's very busy not getting killed. Around him he can see Thor summoning his thunder and captain America throw his shield. He can see Clint firing arrows and Black Widow shooting aliens or stabbing them with their own weapons. He sees the hulk trample hundreds of those vile creatures with his feet. He can see that they are losing.
They keep coming, millions, Loki had been right, what had been sent a few months back, led by the very person they are now protecting had been nothing. A fraction of the power Thanos really possesses. The Leviathans had come with the dozen and even now they are still coming. Giant ships looming over the city, aliens, spreading rapidly, already they had seized the entire city. The attack had started literally two minutes ago. They will not last another two.
"Ten percent sir and dropping very rapidly." Jarvis says. Tony normally has a plan, doesn't he always but now, now he doesn't. His blasters take care of maybe half of the aliens coming for him. He doesn't need Jarvis to tell him how much power is left.
He wants to yell at Thor to summon some lighting but the Asgardian god of thunder is protecting his brother. The Asgardian God of Thunder is being overrun by the sheer number of foes. Behind him stands Loki, who does nothing. The Trickster God does nothing, he stands there, looking at the sky as if that holds all the answers. The sky only holds Chitauri warriors.
"Loki" he hears Natasha yell, "get back to Stark Tower now!"
But Loki does not move. He looks hypnotized. Almost peaceful. Around him people are screaming, people are dying but the tiny god-child stays still, like a statue.
"Thor!" Tony yells. And Thor gets the message. The thunder bolt that strikes the suit leaves Tony shaken.
"Three hundred percent capacity sir." Jarvis says, almost sounding relieved.
Then Tony grabs Loki and flies him into the hands of the Black Widow before he's taken down by the tail of a Leviathan and he hears Jarvis say something about a system failure.
XxXxXxXxXx
Natasha beheads a Chitauri five more take its place, it is even worse than Hydra.
"Loki," She shoots the five Chitauri before her and turns around running towards an enemy that is dangerously close to him, "get back to Stark Tower now!"
Loki doesn't listen. Natasha does not have time for this, she takes the weapon from the closest Chitauri and shoots his comrades with it, their filthy blood splatters on the street and in her face, she sees Tony grab Loki and he throws the god-child in her arms. She doesn't see what happens next because the next wave of Chitauri is coming.
"To soon." She can hear Loki whisper, in a defeated way, "I didn't finish the spell yet."
The red-haired special agent blasts every single one of those aliens, leaving puddle of blood and smoking corpses on her path to Stark Tower, but she doesn't even get there properly, suddenly it feels like the entire army has come down on her while it only a fraction, the weight crushes her and she lets go of Loki. She pushes him away as fast a she can. The Chitauri on top of her, reach towards their target but Natasha grabs its arm and breaks it with a swift motion, she wants to take Loki and run but the Chitauri, there are just too damn many of them, too damn many.
"Brother!" she hears Thor yell. "Brother!"
Suddenly a whistling sound is heard and it's the only warning the Chitauri get before all of the ones around her and Loki and dead bodies, skewered by arrows, she doesn't look up she looks at Loki. Thor stands before him and Natasha gets up trampling on the corpses of the dead aliens, behind Loki. From above Iron Man descends, his suit looks so damaged, part of the arm piece is gone, exposing burned flesh. The Hulk rages next to her ear and Steve Rogers throws his shield once more.
Everybody knows it's futile.
They stand in a circle, united, and Natasha can't help it. She smiles because of the irony. Barton is standing on the roof, he shoots an arrow with a ropes and slides down, killing Chitauri in the process.
Oh the irony, Natasha thinks, we stand protecting the very man who tried to kill us all against the army of said man.
Said man, no boy, stands inside the circle and stares. There's no way they can get him to Stark Tower now. All of them prepare to fight, one last time. They ready their weapons.
Only then do they all see and realize. The Chitauri have stopped attacking.
XxXxXxXxXx
"Give us the Trickster." It is not Thanos who speaks, Clint recognizes the alien that is speaking, the Other.
"You fought well, Midgardian heroes but against the great Lord Thanos, you stand no chance." Clint is not listening to this kind of crap, coming from an ugly alien holding the staff that took his mind. He draws his arm back and in one swift motion he shoots, of course the arrow doesn't reach its target. Its target however, seems to be irritated now.
"Yield and my lord will give earth a glorious and swift death." He spits.
Tony Stark opens his helmet and takes a ridiculous pose with his left hand on his hip and his right hand looks like it is holding a purse.
"That is a great offer dear but I'm afraid we must respectfully decline." He says in a high-pitched voice.
"Maybe on another day? We're very busy you know, saving the world, catching some villains, I'll take a look on my agenda and maybe we can squeeze you in."
Clint snickers when the Other's eyes widen in rage.
"How DARE you mock the almighty, the Overmaster, Thanos, He who will sacrifice you all to Death herself!"
"How do you even know Death's a she, I mean for all you know Thanos is perfectly gay but don't worry, that's pretty legal, unless you wanna go to Russia. You wouldn't want to freak out president Putin." Tony says, shrugging.
A blast from the staff of the other almost hits him but Star manages to jump out of the way just in time.
"Your insults will get you nowhere mortal, if you do not give us the trickster we will kill every human in this city and beyond."
"Well I don't know if you've noticed but we're the Avengers, we'll get to you."
The Other smiles.
"After we murder your entire race. Unlike the god in your midst we do not seek to rule this world."
Tony shrugs and looks around for a second.
"Do we care?" he asks to them, then he turns back to the Other and spreads his empty arms.
"Look at the amount of shits we give," he smiles, "look at them, we're still stopping you, we're still the Avengers."
The other smiles back, a crooked smile, a sinister one that, if Clint hadn't already seen much worse, would have made the shivers run down his spine.
"You are the Avengers?" he asks in a mock tone, "One of you is an impulsive and impudent child who calls himself a god, two of you are not Avengers, they betrayed you," Clint can almost feel those words like a stab from a knife, they betrayed you, they had kidnapped Loki… They had been following orders. "Another is a monsters, makes play he is a man but he killed so many people, you are an arrogant Midgardian alcoholic who is losing, losing the game called life and your captain. Your captain wishes he were somewhere-no sometime, else and would throw all of this away for his old life." All of the words hit their marks, all of them are like swords, like knives being thrown at them and slicing them apart inside, hearing it from their enemy makes it all the more humiliating because what he says, what the Other, servant of a mad titan says about them, the so-called heroes of this world, is true, all of it.
But Stark and Clint doesn't know how he does is, doesn't know where the fire comes from that is evident in his voice as he answers, in a low voice, with a face that for once doesn't show sarcasm or mocking but sincerity.
"Yeah," he says, nodding, "I'm not perfect, Thor's not perfect, Bruce here," he motions to the Hulk, "isn't perfect, and Black Widow and Hawkeye aren't either, not even Captain Rogers is perfect. But are you? Are you little miss perfect?" he mocks. The Other opens his mouth, ready to speak once more in that disgusting voice that breaks the words and makes them sound like nails on a chalkboard but Tony doesn't let him, he continues talking.
"I did some things, some things I'm not proud of and Thor did some too probably, Bruce as well, hell even Captain America regrets some things he did in his life, we all do. Clint and Natasha, they've done some pretty terrible things as well, some even pretty recent but you know what? We're standing here, we're not doing those things anymore, we're standing right here, where we belong, between you and earth. We're here to protect it and if we can't do that, we'll avenge it. And everything you just said, that's OUR business, how we handle things, how we look at certain people, you don't get a say in that, in fact you don't get to say anything anymore because we're taking you and your stupid army down."
XxXxXxXxXx
Pepper Potts hates this. She's helping people, she's guiding them away, as far as possible from that fight but she can't help but worry. About Tony about all of them, the army that came down, she hadn't been there, back when it was Loki who tried to kill them all but she is very certain it could have never been as bad as this. People all around her, screaming. Children yelling for their parents, children, being killed by monster, there's chaos everywhere around her stand an elite team of agents. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents they had tried to take her away from the city but they hadn't been able to move here. She will stay where she is and she'll help where she can and most she wants to run to the fight but she can't. Not only are there alien soldiers blocking her way. There are giant monster, giant flying monsters destroying buildings. These monsters have blocked all exits but also all entrees. They are trapped.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents guide her to the cover of a building and she is forced to leave those people who only now realize that they can't get away, she's forced to watch while hundreds around her die, while one of those hundreds, can be Tony.
Then it stops. The aliens aren't attacking anymore, they're standing there, immobile and growling and spitting every so often but they don't move. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents around her empty their guns but it just bounces of their armor. Some hit their target and a few Chitauri fall. But their comrades do nothing. The people on the street stand frozen.
"Get away!" Pepper yells, those people need to get away while it still can, "Run, find cover, run!"
It makes them move, they shake their head as if waking up from a dream and just when they're about to move they stop, mid-movement.
That's when she hears it, at first it is but a whisper, it sounds like the wind playing a trick on her, as if the sudden silence made her imagine a voice but soon she realizes it is not the wind. It is a voice.
She doesn't understand the words. She knows they are words though, somehow. For a single moment she gets the feeling that something is off. Around her everybody stands frozen even the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents but then that feeling is gone and she feel stupid for ever feeling something like that.
And yes, for some time, she doesn't know how long but it feels like a very long time, it's like there's nothing wrong, like they're not… they're not…what? What are they again? There is something, there's something happening but she can't remember what.
She wants to look around, to see what exactly it is that's happening but she can't. She can't move her head, she can't move her arms or legs but she can feel them. She can feel the wind on her skin, the sweat on her brow. Why is there sweat on her brow?
When it hits her, she feels it. And not like some sort of silly realization like she's forgotten to call someone or she forgot to fill in some paperwork back at Stark Industry, no it's like a giant wave, with the force of a truck. It feels like water does, why's she's standing there, but also who's controlling her, what's she'll do next even though she doesn't want to, it engulfs her, fills her nostrils, seeps into her, it feel like a disease gaining entrance.
She can feel her hand moving, her arm, her legs. She's walking and she has no control whatsoever. She can see her movements , she can see and feel she's walking but pepper Potts officially has no control over her body whatsoever and it should frighten her, it should make her panic and want to scream but she doesn't.
A red-haired woman walks through the streets and next to her are hundreds of people, walking the same way thinking the same thing. It's not a voice in their head it's what they want.
She wants to kill the Avengers
XxXxXxXxXx
The Chitauri do not move but they are attacked nonetheless and the Avengers can do nothing but dodge them, their own kind. Loki doesn't care, Loki doesn't have the privilege to care.
He knows they are fighting, they are fighting the very people they want to protect and Loki cannot care. The spell needed more time, spells as complicated as these always do. He had thought he'd have more time.
They are surrounded by mortals, it distracts him, he must complete the spell, this spell is so very vital.
"And you're a hundred percent sure this'll work, spells don't always work out the way they should." Thor protests, Loki knows Thor is merely asking to stall, to perhaps, find a way to change their (or better yet his) mind but it won't work. Thor must understand that there is no plan B because there are no other options.
"It'll take away my magic, It'll strengthen my magical defenses enough to resist Thanos, to keep the Tesseract magic safe for 48 hours."
"If a spell like this exists why not use it like the whole time, Thanos won't get the Tesseract energy that way." Thor says, he's said this before, Loki's also answered this before but he decides to keep dancing this dance.
"It's impossible to use all the time, it would drain me, it would kill me."
"And the Tracker, the Tracker's gonna work?" he says, turning to Stark. The mortal nods.
"It's made by ME of course it will, it'll fall off when I say so."
"Maybe you should know when to brother?" Thor says. Loki shakes his head.
"It's better if I don't."
"What if he tortures you Loki? I can't-"
"He WON'T, the energy is too precious." Loki snaps, this dance, this game they're playing it's wearing him down.
"Everything will go like we planned it to go."
"You see?" Loki's missed a part of the conversation too lost in his own thoughts.
"We will not kill your friends, your precious kin. They will kill each other. My master will make them want to kill everyone. They'll laugh when they do it, they'll even enjoy it. But first, as a little taste, they'll want to kill you. Their heroes, their 'Avengers'."
More and more mortals join the fight and the Avengers can't kill them. His brother knocks them out as best as he can, everyone does but there are so many, at this rate, there won't be any mortals left to save by the time this fight is over and somehow, even though Loki tries to convince himself he doesn't care, he feels like he can't let that happen. He doesn't care about the mortals but he cares about Thor, yes that's it. He doesn't want Thor to suffer, to kill these Midgardians he so dearly loves.
The spell is as ready as it'll ever be, he is now, as ready as he'll ever be.
"Thanos!"
His voice is shrill, it is the voice of a child but Loki does not care.
"You send your dog to greet me, the one you want the most of all the Realms, I am offended, I am insulted. Come out!"
The Avengers try to turn around. To grab Loki and shut his mouth but they can't, they're a little busy right now.
The eyes of the Other glow a bright blue for a second and then a voice comes out of his mouth that is not his. The mortals who were attacking Earth's Mightiest heroes freezes and their mouth open as well. Everywhere Thanos, the mad titan can be heard.
"Have you figured it out trickster god. That you cannot win, do you surrender?"
And Loki nods. And his brother yells but he's stopped by mortals and they're fighting again but Loki can't look back.
The Other smiles, but it's not the Other it's his Master. Hands grab Loki's body but Loki feels strangely numb. He's signed himself up for a place, where Hell would seem like a holiday.
"You lied."
"You might want to be more specific, I lie quite a lot you see."
"When you explained what was going to happen when Thanos attacks."
Loki's not smiling anymore, his face looks older again, tormented like it had looked back when he attacked earth months ago. His eyes turn sad for a moment before they light up again.
"That I did." He smiles again like it's no big deal.
"That spell is not for defense."
Loki smiles stays on his face, eyes distant as if reliving a nice and happy moment.
"No," he admits, looking the Black Widow in the eye, "It's for self-destruction."
The woman frowns. "It's to seal your magic." And the woman knows, she knows that Loki is nothing without it. He won't die, he'll break down, he'll go mad because magic is not like air. It's like blood he needs it.
"The signal." She states but she doesn't finish.
"It is but an illusion, the signal will never break through."
"Never." She repeats.
"Not in time." Loki says.
"Thanos won't be able to get the Energy inside you. He won't have any use for you anymore."
Silence reigns over them. She is not shocked or afraid. He does not have the courage to think about it. He's always been a coward. He's never been brave, it's always Thor. Thor is the Brave one. Thor is the mighty one and Loki is the coward, is the Lie-Smith, the Trickster God.
"You'll die."
"That," Loki starts walking again, "I most certainly will."
What did you think? I worked VERY hard for this part I have been playing with in my head ever since I knew how I wanted the fic to go, you know the basics and this little scene on the end with Loki and Natasha worked out better than I'd hoped, please tell me what you thought about it. From here it'll go faster yet slower at the same time. Thanos is going to take the steps to his master plan and the Avengers, well we'll see how that goes. I can't assure happy ending though.