Chapter 3: Plan of Attack
Sorry for the semi-long wait. My course load has been unkind :(
And thanks for those who are following/reviewing. I hope my story will continue to entertain :)
"Nice bracelets. A little too kinky for my taste though…" Tony grins, rubbing his beard as he analyzes the prospect before him. "Actually, that's not true. Know where I can get a pair?"
Loki does not dignify with a response.
"You don't seem to like them very much, but you still keep them around." Tony takes a few lazy strides towards the cell. "Let me guess. Can't get them off? Can't do your little magic tricks with them on, either?"
Loki follows his movement with wary eyes, lips pressed into a thin line.
"I'll be honest with you. I am extremely curious to know how they work." Tony's eyes glistens with unholy glee, his forehead almost pressed to the transparent walls of the cell.
Loki's lips quirk up into a small grin. "Perhaps you should come and see for yourself."
The scientist's brows shoot up, but before he can open his mouth to respond, Fury's less than amused voice resonates from the overhead speaker. "No Stark, you cannot go into the cell."
Tony frowns like a child who was refused a new toy. "Our conversation is surveillance, by the way," he says dryly, "Though I'm sure you already knew that."
It's been three days since they had brought Loki back to the base. It's been three days of fruitless interrogations that Steve had sat through (even Tony is getting a shot at this point). After Natasha's first attempt, the god had revealed less and less with each encounter, sometimes opting not to speak at all no matter how loudly Fury yelled. For the most part, Loki simply wills himself to take whatever verbal abuse comes his way—head held high, eyes unwavering, face like a mask. And Steve finds this so strange because the god who had lead the Chitauri against them would never have been this…passive. Perhaps, those couple of months in Asgardian prison (or at least Steve presumes) has changed him. Up until now, Steve has yet to see that eerie smile the god so often wore. The small grin he showed to Tony would be the closest thing to it.
But that grin soon was replaced by a permanent scowl as Tony transitioned from being playfully quick-witted to unbearably rude, asking question after question with no relevance or class.
"Is it true that you gave birth to a horse?"
"How come Thor has a weekday named after him, and you don't?"
"In your honest opinion, is it possible for a mortal like me to make love to an Asgardian woman?"
By the time Fury orders Tony to return to the conference room, Loki looks like he is contemplating murder. Steve can almost sympathize with him. Almost.
Fury decides that there are more important matters to tend to because obviously they're getting nothing out of Loki. He orders Tony to return to his lab and work on contacting Thor. Bruce will join Coulson's team in lower Manhattan to investigate the portal, which still swirls angrily above Steve's apartment. Natasha and Clint are to return to their missions because villains aren't going to cancel their plans just because Loki crashed back to Earth. And last but not least, Steve was to remain at the base, just in case Loki isn't as helpless as he seems.
After everyone had gone his or her separate way, the director pulls Steve aside to have a word in private.
"What do you suppose Loki is up to?" Fury asks almost immediately.
"I don't know, sir." Steve finds the question strange, considering they had just spent a good two hours around the table, shouting out baseless theories. Anything is possible, considering they know little to nothing, but Steve—being the one who actually found Loki—is leaning towards believing that maybe the god didn't plan any of this.
"But judging by the chains and injuries," Steve decides, "He might very well be here against his will."
"But that doesn't make him any less dangerous." The director responds easily.
"No, sir."
"I plan to get rid of him as soon as possible, which is why I sent Stark and Banner away. Loki would either leave the way he came, or Asgard will have to deal with him."
Fury pauses as he stares out the window that spans from floor to ceiling of the conference room. "Dividing the team leaves us more vulnerable, but I don't have much of a choice. Loki—as dangerous as he is—is not our only threat. Romanoff and Barton are needed elsewhere."
Steve wonders where the director is going with this, because honestly, he is perfectly fine with staying here if he can't contribute anywhere else like the rest of the team. Steve doesn't need the pep talk. He is more than willing to do whatever he can for the safety of the planet.
But Fury almost immediately nullifies his assumption, which takes him slightly off guard. "There is a reason why I asked you to stay," the director says without meeting his eyes, "Because I believe, you are our best shot right now."
"Sir?" Steve has no idea what's going on anymore.
"Loki's mere presence puts our planet at risk," Fury elaborates, "And keeping him here without any knowledge of even why he's here is a time bomb waiting to explode. Our attempts to reason with him have not been productive, but perhaps, what we need is a different approach."
Something about this—perhaps it's Fury's tone, taunting almost—rubs Steve the wrong way. And he very carefully says, "Interrogations have never been my strong suit. Maybe you should've kept Agent Romanoff here instead."
"When we captured Loki last time, Agent Romanoff was able to extract from him his plans of unleashing the Hulk."
"He was willing to talk. He wanted to be captured," Steve responds somewhat defensively, feeling as if the director is chastising him for not jumping at the opportunity to interrogate Loki.
"Are you sure he didn't want to be captured this time?" Fury turns to glare at him knowlingly, and Steve sighs because he knows the director is right. At least this time.
"No, I don't"
"Agent Romanoff approached Loki with a lure," Fury continues, "a weakness he thought he could exploit. He underestimated her, and therefore, he lost. But he won't make the same mistake again."
Steve is finally putting two and two together. "So you want me to lure him?" He winces at how inarticulate that sounded.
"Loki is an opportunist. Whatever the reason he is here—whether for revenge or to escape—if he sees a chance, he will not hesitate to take it. And that is how we get inside his head."
"I'm not sure if I'm the right man for the job." Steve isn't convinced, not at all.
"Kindness and morality are easy to exploit." Fury says with a small grin, challenging him.
The soldier responds stiffly. "I do not consider these a weakness."
"But Loki will."
Steve knows Fury is pressuring him, using every trick up his sleeve to convince Steve of his plans. He is manipulative, just like Loki or any villain. But unlike them, Fury has the interest of Earth in mind, and if Steve were forced to choose between two evils, he would rightfully stand by Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D.
The director grins because he knows Steve has made up his mind, but the super soldier gives no effort to hide his discontent. "This is not how I usually do things. I'm a soldier, not a spy."
"Well, you can't always get what you want."
###
Steve reviews Loki's files because every battle needs a plan of attack. All the information are electronic, and Steve has to play around with the device—dragging and sliding the holographic images back and forth—before he finally gets the hang of it. Thankfully, Loki's history is brief, his life before the Chitauri invasion mostly a mystery with the exception of a few videoed reports from Thor. These were taken shortly after Loki's capture, when Thor had returned to ask Earth to preserve Loki's name.
Steve plays the file, and watches Thor as he sits uneasily before Fury, searching for the right words.
"…I know not the decision of the All-Father, but until then, Loki remains a prince of Asgard. We take full responsibility of the destruction he has caused, and he will be punished accordingly by our laws. But today, I am here before you with not only apology but also appeal. In the name of the royal family of Asgard, I humbly request that Loki be spared from public disgrace, that Midgard would purge him from its history. We do not wish him remembered as simply an enslaver."
"That is a lot to ask for," Fury says, "Considering the damage he had done. The people he had killed."
"If you allow this one favor, Asgard will be in your debt. And in return, no race will harm Midgard as long as we stand."
"And if we say no?"
"Then I will be forced to be the bearer of bad news…"
Steve watches the rest of the video, as Fury weighs out the pros and the cons. Thor did not give him much of a choice. It would be foolish for Earth—being the backwater of the Universe—to make enemies when offered an opportunity for, maybe not alliance, but at least mutual regard. Fury very unwillingly agrees to the god's terms, and Thor appears surprisingly relieved.
Steve skips to another video of Thor, this time recollecting the events in Asgard that had lead to Loki's involvement with the Chitauri.
"…Loki is my brother, though not by birth. I knew not of his adoption, and neither did he, until recently. Asgard had once waged war against the frost giants of Jötunheim, where our warriors had fought and won. In the aftermath of the last battle, father had ventured into a temple, where he had found an abandoned infant, left to die. Father brought him home, raised him as his own, my brother, Loki…"
Most of this, Steve had already learned from wading through paperwork after the war. But Thor's recollections are still surprisingly revealing—the worry in his eyes and the heaviness of his words reminding Steve that Loki is a brother, a son, and a prince of another realm. He had a life before he ruined those of so many others.
"…I was banished to Midgard for my foolish pride." Thor continues. "And it was during my absence that Loki learned of his adoption, shortly before father fell into Odinsleep—a deep sleep he undertakes every year to renew his strength. Brother was given the throne in my absence, and he—in his fixation to validate himself in the eyes of our father—forged a plot to murder Laufey, the king of Jötenheim, his father by birth. I returned in time to end Loki's madness, destroying the Bifrost before it destroyed an entire race. Father awoke in time to save us from the fall but Loki—he let go…"
Thor's large hands clenches on the table as he bows his head. Fury gives him a few moments to collect himself.
Steve admits that Loki might not have had the easiest life, but then again, who's past isn't burdened with sadness? Loki could have chosen to be a hero just as rightfully as any of the Avengers. None of them have escaped heartbreak or loss. None of them have been saints either.
"I know not what happened to my brother after his fall," Thor on the screen continues, "How he had obtained such power and the madness with which it came."
"Are you suggesting he had help from friends?"
"He could not have done this alone. But I do not know the circumstances of his alliance, or to whom he pledged loyalty."
"Do not know, or are not willing to share?" Fury challenges, "If our planet is still under alien threat I want to—"
"Your planet is safe." Despite the good intent, Thor sounds more threatening than anything. "Midgard is under my father's protection as well as mine. The consequences of Loki's actions will be ours to bear alone."
The video ends then, and Steve thinks this is hardly reassuring. There are so many much larger forces at work when dealing with Loki's fate—realms and races Steve has never heard of, capable of more destruction than he can imagine. Only recently did the people of Earth even realize that they weren't alone, that aliens like Thor existed, whom they had considered mythical gods. The Avengers will do everything in their power to protect the Earth, but beyond Earth exists a universe completely out of their league. And Steve hopes they won't have to face those dangers until they're ready.
He shuffles through the rest of the videos, mostly surveillance footages from when they had captured Loki the first time. Steve watches Natasha's interrogation, and can't help but to be in awe of the way she falls into her roles so gracefully, perfectly.
"It's really not that complicated," the spy says, sitting face to face with the grinning god "I've got red on my ledger. I'd like to wipe it out."
"Can you? Can you wipe out that much red?" Loki taunts her.
"Drakov's daughter, San Paulo, the hospital fire? Your ledger is dripping. It's gushing red." He brings up the worst of her past.
"You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away!" He tries to destroy the very foundation on which she stood.
"I won't touch Barton, not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear." He aims for where he could hurt her most—love, vulnerability, the raw, honest desire for another human being.
Loki's face contorts as he towers over her, as Natasha turns away from him, horrified. "And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!"
But of course, it had all been a ruse with Natasha emerging the victor, completely unscathed and even poised enough to end it with a taunt. She walks away with the god searching after her, expression completely unguarded.
Steve imagines what he might've done if he had been in Natasha's position. He doubts he could've walked away so cleanly and effortlessly if Loki had taunted him about losing Peggy, or blamed him for Bucky's death. He wonders how much Loki knows of his past, how many weaknesses he has found just itching to be exploited when chance comes. At least, Steve can brace himself for the worst, even if those memories still hurt like salt on an open would. He looks at Loki's frozen image and wonders how he's going to do this. How can he crack the god's perfect mask when even Natasha can no longer?
Thanks for reading until now! Leave a comment if you've enjoyed it so I know I'm doing something right..or a critique if I'm doing something wrong. Till next time!