I am so happy I got 4 reviews for the last chapter! Thank you so much it means the world to me! Thanks you
Wolftattoo: I won't make Thor sever ties because that would make a possible sequel next to impossible! I'm happy you liked what the Other said because I worked very hard to find his accusations!
thekelseyrenae: I can't guarantee a happy ending but it may still happen.
Kelly Riker: Yes people sacrificing themselves is always intense. I am indeed planning on introducing the Winter Soldier however not for this story but for a possible sequel (if there are enough reviews and people who'd read it)
WARNING! TORTURE, BLOOD, GORE IT'S NOT GOING TO BE PRETTY. THERE IS GOING TO BE MENTAL AS WEL AS PHYSICAL TORTURE.
Please mind the warnings, this chapter is going to be very rough and the next one will probably be just as bad if not worse. The Avengers won't be making many appearances it'll focus on Loki mostly, Clint is going to have a rough time as well but it's all part of what needs to happen and to make you understand why I made him be an ass in former chapters! I took the liberty of creating some of Clint's past, which will be based on the comics.
There's so much blood, so much blood, it's in his eyes, it's in his mouth, the smell makes him want to puke, his eyes are filling with tears he can hear people scream, muffled sounds like someone's thrown a plastic bag over his head. It feels like that, not that he's ever had a plastic bag being shoved over his head but he thinks it would feel like this.
He can't breathe and he opens his mouth again and again but there's no air to fill his lungs. It's smoke and he knows somewhere deep down it's from a fire because he can feel the heat. There's so much heat and it almost blisters his skin. He doesn't know what's happening, They're just driving, they're sitting in their car, they're going to something fancy. And then there's only this.
More people scream and he cranes his neck, he can see his brother, barely seven, he's screaming and he's crying and he's kicking, it doesn't matter where he's kicking for him. Clint wants to yell too but he can't even breathe let alone yell at his brother to STOP; he's only making it worse. Clint's five and he knows Barney's making things worse.
He's still coughing but somehow the air's gotten cleaner and now, with enough oxygen in his brain he can feel it. The Pain, the immense white hot searing pain, he looks down, screaming. There's blood, his blood he doesn't know it yet. Then. But it's not only his blood that's coating his legs and face. The Pain is too much it's too much. He blacks out.
He doesn't feel the people's hands on him. He doesn't feel them laying him and his brother down on a stretcher. He feels it though when he wakes up and his leg hurts, it hurts so much and he can't breathe and he can't see. He blacks out then as well. Barney, he can just see Barney running towards him but darkness wins against the five-year-old easily.
He feels it when he wakes up. And they tell him. Barney tells him. And the Pain, doesn't matter anymore, he doesn't feel it anymore because there's another pain that's taken its place and it's much worse than anything physical could ever be.
His parents are dead.
XxXxXxXxXx
The Seidr tries to gain access, to rip out what its user so dearly desires but even Thanos cannot undo magic like this. It feels like someone buries his hand in your body and then yanks it back out after playing with your organs for a while. The Mad Titan rages and growls, his frustration growing with every passing minute.
"Undo this magic Trickster." He screams, but Loki doesn't answer and the hand comes again and impales his body like it's nothing. Loki screams, Loki's hasn't stopped screaming since he arrived here. Loki'll probably die screaming like this and he knows it.
The Hand, the Seidr fights but it does nothing. The spell Loki made, can only be undone by one person. Loki himself. Even the Mind gem cannot make him.
Thanos withdraws his hand but Loki doesn't stop screaming, he's screaming and wailing and his limbs are shaking, the restrains have cut unto his wrists and ankles, blood drips to the ground or is thrown against a wall because of his struggling.
The Mad Titan takes a step back, grabs his closest underling and takes his weapon, the pointed front gleams, the pointed end is driven inside Loki and the screaming finally stops. It's changed to choking, the sound of a man/boy drowning in his own blood. It spills from his mouth his eyes wide before the struggling stops.
"Take him away." Thanos voice booms in the cave.
Two Chitauri proceed, one yanks out the weapon still embedded in the child's mid-section and they both carry him away. Any mortal would have died. Loki is no mortal but he wishes he was. He wishes death would come so easily.
XxXxXxXxXx
"Clint, Clint!"
A voice is screaming next to his ear and the archer immediately shoots upright, knife in his hand, ready to strike. Natasha stands next to his bed, without blinking not even the least bit scared or impressed with the guy in pajama's who's threatening her with a small knife.
"You were screaming." She says, her face doesn't betray a thing. Clint shakes his head.
"A nightmare again?"
"This one was different." Is the answer. He puts his face in his hands for a moment before he continues.
"I haven't had this one since… since forever." There's no answer but he never expected one anyway.
"This wasn't about New York." He says. Agent Romanoff doesn't react.
XxXxXxXxXx
How long had it been? It feels like years yet Loki knows that cannot be possible. On the other hand, he does not now where he is, time could very well move different here, in the Void, in this emptiness no one ever dared to enter. In this cave, in this cell, it's cold, it's so cold but Loki can't shiver anymore. At first he would have thought his Frost Giant nature would have protected him but it would seem that there were other rules besides time in the Void as well.
There are no shackles that bind him but there are none needed, the Trickster is weak, has always been weak actually. Loki is starting to forget, why is he here again? The Mad Titan keeps asking him to give up and stop the spell but Loki, Loki, the three-hundred-year-old God does not know how anymore. He feels the spell of course, it binds him and sometimes he has trouble believing that he himself cast it, it is torture in itself. Never in his life has his magic been like this, so close and yet so far. He needs his magic and he can't reach it, no matter how hard he tries, no matter how hard he wants it, every attempt has been futile. And he can feel it dimming already, that constant flow that's always been present but isn't right now. With his magic he can feel himself slowly fading away, he knows this spell will take long, there is no other way.
There are voices in his head. Not one but many and he doesn't recognize all of them. Sometimes he can hear himself, his older self, whispering in his ear, telling him to do horrible things, telling him that the world deserves it and corrupting his thoughts. Sometimes he hears his brother, yelling at him to stop.
You give up this pointless dream!... You come home.
Look at this! Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?
It's too late. It's too late to stop it.
Who controls the would-be king?
Did you mourn?
We all did
Sometimes he hears himself, his own voice.
'Liar, liar, liar, you didn't mourn, Father didn't mourn, YOUR father didn't mourn."
The Casket wasn't the only thing you took from Jotunheim that day, was it?
'No, no it wasn't.'
So I am no more than another stolen relic, locked up here until you might have use of me?
Why do you twist my words?
'You lied to me, everyone LIED to me!'
You know, it all makes sense now, why you favored Thor all these years, because no matter how much you claim to love me, you could never have a Frost Giant sitting on the throne of Asgard!
'I am a monster, you are a monster because they LIED to us. They KNEW and they lied.'
'You'll never be as good as Thor. You'll never amount to ANYTHING. We stand in his shadow, You and I.'
Loki giggled. Pain flared up in his chest, his small form winced and shook and giggled at the same time, spasms running over his small body.
'You and I, You and I, Loki and Loki, I, us, we!'
When his captor come in his cell to get him for another torture session they hear him giggle, this small Midgardian-looking boy and he sings and he snickers and he whispers.
"You and I, You and I, Loki, do you hear me? It's You and I, You and I…"
XxXxXxXxXx
"Look at the freak and his freak brother."
They try to ignore it.
"They say you killed them you know?"
Barney pushes Clint away, he's only 8, Barney's 10 and the other children they're much much older.
"Did you?"
"Kill your parents I mean?"
"You know what I think?"
"Wanna know that huh? I think you wanted that accident to happen."
Four of them, always four, the others don't look they shrink into themselves. Clint knows they're cowards, he knows he can't expect anything from them.
"Leave him alone." Barney bites.
They don't.
When they get back to the orphanage no one says anything. The woman who are supposed to take care of him. Of his brother, turn their backs at the two bleeding boys.
"You're late." One of them snaps, grabbing Clint's wrist, another woman grabs Barney and the two brothers cling to each other but the women are still stronger.
The dream shifts to something he knows all too well.
"You stupid little SHIT!"
SMACK
Barney stumbles back and his frightened little brother sits under the table, trembling.
Please stops, please stop, please-
His mantra is interrupted when his brother's body comes flying toward the table Clint is hiding under. He scrambles away as fast as he can but his brother still hits him and he can see stars for a moment.
Barney grabs him and pushes him away from their father but Clint stumbles and falls. Their father rages on, throws bottles at both his sons in anger Barney tries to protect him. Bottle after bottle hits his brother and the glass that breaks off cuts Clint too as he tries to run away.
"You think you can just take MY money? Steal from ME?" their father yells. Clint reaches for the door and wants Barney to come with him but his brother isn't coming, he pushes his younger sibling through the door and slams it shut.
Clint's attempts at opening the door and grabbing his brother are futile and even when he finally gives up and runs to his room he can still hear the crashing sounds and the screaming.
XxXxXxXxXx
It's been two days. Loki had said the signal would've broken through but it hasn't. The only one who doesn't want to see the facts is Thor. Of course it's Thor, who still hasn't given up on his brother yet. Who refuses to believe that maybe, maybe his brother is dead already.
When the Mad Titan finally acquired what he wanted so dearly he had stopped his attack. He hadn't relinquished his control over the mortals though. Tony Stark, the Invincible Iron Man has lost his mortal girlfriend, Pepper Potts and never has Thor seen him so angry, so driven to destroy the Mad Titan.
He keeps enhancing his machines in the hope of receiving the signal of the transmitter they sent in with Loki, it does nothing. It doesn't even beep, Stark too does not want to believe everything is lost.
S.H.I.E.L.D. has retreated, has gone back into its shell and even agent Romanoff and Barton are cut off. The world is preparing to at least fight when the end comes.
Captain Rogers tries to make the team of superheroes believe but it's obvious to all of them, even to Thor that he doesn't really believe all of this will have a happy ending.
Thor should have never allowed his brother to be captured, he should've fought more, should've protected his little brother but instead he had chosen this, doomed, this, failed plan that will damn them all. Every hour that has passed by he's yelled at the sky. Yelled at Heimdall to open the Bifrost, yelled at the All-Father to bring him back to Asgard but no one answers him and never, not even in his banishment, has he felt as alone as he does right now.
When they are holding to umpteenth meeting once more Thor is staring at the empty space in front of him. Captain America keeps suggesting awful plans. Bruce Banner is in the lab and doesn't come out. Tony does come out for meetings where he doesn't pay attention to any of them and does two things: he order Jarvis to do things in the lab, and he drinks. A lot. Romanoff's face is always blank, like she's not feeling anything, like she's not even there. Thor wants to yell at her. He still hasn't forgiven her and he doubts he ever will. Barton… Thor doesn't look at him. He doesn't know how to think about him. It was Loki who took this man's mind, who opened up his head and did as he pleased with it. Thor cannot imagine what he would do if someone did something like that to him. If he had to kill people, to slaughter his own people under the control of a lunatic. But what he did… to Loki, Thor cannot forgive him for that either.
Thor only looks at Barton a few times, most of them by accident and when he does, he sees the bags under his eyes. The haunted look in them but also a strange sort of anger. He looks even worse than when he was under Loki's mind control but honestly Thor couldn't care less about him.
"You haven't been successful at contacting Asgard yet Thor?"
Captain America asks for the millionth time.
"No I have not, Captain, else I would not be sitting here." Thor says, also for the millionth time.
"Isn't there another way than the Bifrost?"
"There are but only one person knows where those are."
"Loki." Captain Rogers sighs.
"Not this one." Thor bites, somehow he feels the need to defend his brother.
"Look Thor, I understand-"
"NO! Captain Rogers, do not presume to know me or my brother!"
"That's not-"
"The signal will break through, Loki-"
"NO THOR!" the shout doesn't come from Steve, it comes from Tony, he stands up and stalks to the thunder god, who in turn stand up as well.
"Your brother TRICKED US. That signal will never break through and for all we know all of this was a set-up, a mind game designed by your lunatic brother. Don't you get it Thor?" Iron man throws the pad he's been holding in his hands for the last two days on the ground and it shatters.
"We're fucked and we're all gonna die because we trusted the enemy!"
The outburst leaves Tony exhausted, the sound of his labored breath fills the room.
And then the broken pad, that lies on the ground starts beeping and Jarvis tells them why.
"An unknown signal is coming in and it looks similar to the energy signature of the Bifrost sir."
XxXxXxXxXx
"See, I told you, you've got talent."
The man grins down at Clint. He feels bad for Barney because the Swordsman doesn't want his brother as an assistant for some reason. Trick Shot nods.
"He's got talent alright but I'm still the one he owes it to." He drawls.
The Swordsman ignores Trick Shot and smiles.
"This sure is gonna pay off in my act."
"Don't forget!" Trick Shot snaps. "You forget my debt to you, you forget the money I owe you for this!"
The swordsman nods and waves the archer off.
"Of course that was, after all the deal."
It continues like this for a while and Clint can honestly say he's quite happy in the Circus. Barney… Barney has troubles, Clint knows his brother's angry because the Swordsman didn't want him to be his assistant even though barney's older and it has caused some heated arguments and quite some fights but overall, it's much better than the orphanage. Clint misses his brother though, he misses the time he and Barney would play together, he misses the bond they had and are now, slowly but steadily losing. He's been trying to get barney to talk to him, asked the Swordsman if he couldn't recommend his brother to someone but Barney doesn't want to talk and the Swordsman just rudely says he couldn't care less.
Lately, the swordsman has been on edge now that he thinks about it. He's been snapping a lot too. Clint doesn't really mind, he doesn't hit him when it's not necessary and it's much better than his father.
It's after one of the performances and since Clint joined the Swordsman in his act, it had become increasingly more popular. The young teen makes his way to his tent when he hears someone curse. He frowns, it comes from the main tent where the leader of the circus lives and he sure as hell knows that's not the leader at all. He's just seen him in the dressing rooms talking to the knife throwers, so who the hell is in his tent? Clint silently creeps to the tent and peeks through a small hole in the tent.
The young boy stumbles back in shock, his feet are uncoordinated and without realizing it he slams against a small bench and it falls with a loud BANG.
When the swordsman hears the bench fall he whirls around, the bag he has in his hand, full of stolen money is clenched tighter in his fists and he storms forward. Clint scrambles back, trying to get away before he can see him but it's too late.
The Swordsman eyes widen when he sees his assistance scrambling away but he doesn't hesitate one second. He grabs Clint, pulls him off the ground and shakes him hard.
"What are you doing here?" he hisses, his face dangerously close to Clint's.
Clint is paralyzed, he can feel the terror and adrenaline in his body but he's frozen and he wants to answer but he doesn't. He feels a weird sort of numbness suddenly when the situation really starts to get to him. His mentor, is stealing money from the circus that took his brother and him in when no one else would and suddenly he can move his lips again.
"You were stealing money." He hears himself say.
The Swordsman's eyes narrow.
"You didn't see anything." He snaps but Clint can feel the adrenaline again and with it his boldness increases as well.
"I saw everything, I'm going to tell everyone!" He struggles from his grip and tries to get free but the Swordsman is still stronger. His former mentor growls and throws him on the ground but he doesn't give Clint time to gasp for breath, his boot buries itself in his stomach and with another kick he makes the boy roll on his back. Clint tries to back away again but his former mentor grabs him again and throws him away.
Then come the punches, he punches everywhere but especially his head. Clint can feel his nose break with a loud CRACK and he sees stars. Black edges creep into his vision, blood seeps out of his mouth and nose and just when he thinks the Swordsman is going to kill him, his attacker is pulled off of him.
He swears he can see Trick Shot and his brother standing over him just before he loses consciousness.
XxXxXxXxXx
"Loki."
The small demi-god on the ground barely stirs. He doesn't care anymore, everyone inside his head is screaming at him, insults and swearing. They force him to relive memories he doesn't even remember, he doesn't even recognize them but they throw them at him anyway. They are horrible memories, they are about suffering and they are always dark but sometimes he can see himself and Thor again. His OWN memories, he lives for those moments that he can squeeze a good memory in his head but they never last long.
"Loki."
Maybe it's just another voice in his head, maybe it's the Mad Titan again, playing a trick on the Trickster. He's seen Thor storm through that door over a hundred times. At first when he really believed it, he dreamt they defeated Thanos, he hallucinated that they won and celebrated but when Thor asks him to break the spell he remembers again: Thor barely knows anything about the true nature of his spell, he wouldn't ask. Then when that stopped working, he sees Thor storming through that door and Thanos appears and rips him apart. Or takes him prisoner and forces Loki to watch. Sometimes he can even see his mother, pleading, begging to stop but He doesn't stop.
Or he sees the Frost Giants, dying, screaming when a beam of light hits their planet and he hears Odin's voice, the All-Father's voice.
No
But the screaming doesn't stop.
"Loki."
The screaming stops. His mind is clear again, silence, pure and blissful. Loki looks up and at first he thinks it's another trick. But he knows it isn't, no one, not even the Mad Titan, can manage an illusion like her. Loki smiles sadly.
"Hela."
If something is unclear please, please, please tell me. I have all these plot point in my head but I forget whether or not I put them in the story already!