A/N: This feels like part of something larger, but I'm not sure what yet so here it is in the meantime. It's Loki and the Sweet-As-Pain guy, whose rank I'm only guessing at, chatting about their plans.

I continue to want to think that Loki had something up his (crazy, mindcontrolled) sleeve. The Chitauri attack is just so, so, so stupid and pointless and ineffectual otherwise!

"I want you to terrorize them," Loki said. "The attack must drench the city with fear."

The creature rumbled with laughter. "Yes. We will kill so many that the survivors will need years even to count the dead."

Images flashed through his mind, courtesy of the scepter: scenes of destruction, bodies piled high, the Chitauri feasting on remains. His stomach flipped. That is a poor strategic decision. Surely he could explain so now; once the army began there would be no way he could get them to stop. "Were you not listening?" he said impatiently. "I said fear."

The creature lashed its tail. "Watch your tongue or we will cut it from you," it hissed. "The mortals fear death. Everyone, except for Him, fears death."

That was not true: Loki, personally, had been in the process of deliberately seeking death when the Chitauri had found him. That was what had piqued His interest in the first place.

But he didn't think that bragging to the creature would be wise just now; there was already enough bad blood between them. As the commander of the Chitauri army, this creature was the one whom Loki's appointment had displaced. "Of course – I didn't mean to imply otherwise," he said, polite and conciliatory. "Each mortal, standing alone, fears to die. But it's their... their collective consciousness that I'm talking about. If you'll forgive the expression, because we higher beings surely are beyond such things, but: it's their heart. You may know all there is to know about the biology and the weapons of humanity, but I know its heart. Let me explain."

The creature scowled, but gestured for him to go on.

"The mortals value their weak above almost all else," he explained. "Their young, their old, their women. If we let your armies wreak a slaughter, many will die frightened... but the living will be enraged. They will never kneel to us. They will never accept me as their king." Loki paused. "Which means I will never be in a position to give the Tesseract over to you – or even to return the scepter, really."

The creature moved towards him fast and he recoiled. (He tried to disguise the flinch as a bow, but the creature was doubtless not fooled as it could see straight into his mind and do as it pleased there). "Please don't misunderstand me," he said, entirely failing at not sounding shaken. "I don't threaten. It's just simple fact: I need you to do as I tell you so that our plan will succeed. He has told you as much." Even invoking Him made Loki's skin prickle. "I know He has. This operation is to be carried out according to my instructions."

Sure enough, that drained the creature of all its aggression. "Very well. But how are we to make them fear us if we cannot kill any of them?" It was almost whining.

His heart skipped: the plan sounded absurd when spoken aloud, and He surely would not be pleased with a plan that was absurd. "I didn't say not to kill any of them," he corrected quickly. "That's not realistic, of course. But you must keep the killing to a minimum. Otherwise, every story told of that day will be of the mountain of corpses we left behind us – we will fade from the tale entirely."

The creature tensed a moment and then relaxed. It looked almost like a sigh. "Very well. How will we proceed?"

"I am having a device constructed that can open a portal in the earth's sky, directly to your homeworld. It will be able to transport your armies safely."

He felt the creature rifling through his mind. It no longer troubled him; he had long since learned to stop trying to lie to them. The portal really would be safe for travel, which was as far as he had ever thought.

(-What is this newfound love for the frost-giants?

He pushed the memory away quickly.)

The creature chuckled. "What will you need my Chitauri to do?"

He focused fully on the question at hand. "The mortals have raised a small band of superheroes whom they fancy can protect their planet. We will call those heroes to battle, and in the sight of all, your Chitauri will defeat them. The earth will know itself to be helpless. Then, the mortals will cower in fear. Then, they will be ready to receive me."

"Then, you'll give us what we are due."

Loki smiled. "Then I'll give you everything you're due."

The End?

I may continue this. If Loki had had some plan for using the Portal Contraption to wipe out the Chitauri mothership/planet/whatever-it-was, I'm curious how it would have played out.

Plus, I like the idea that the reason the Chitauri weren't killing civilians left and right is that Loki somehow tricked or convinced them not to. Otherwise they really are the most incompetent layer wasters (waste-layers?) ever, which makes them a lot less impressive to me, giant stone Nessie notwithstanding, since laying waste appears to be pretty much their main job.

Let me know what you think!