The moment Clint and Natasha entered the tower, they were greeted by Pepper Potts, who welcomed them with a strained smile and escorted them to one of the many conference rooms located in Stark Tower.
The other Avengers were already there; Bruce was fidgeting in his seat while Tony sat at the head of the mahogany table, staring down at the wood in pensive silence. Steve was glancing worriedly between the two scientists and Thor, who was pacing the floor behind Tony, head down, deep in thought.
They all looked up when the door opened, and Clint noticed that Thor's eyes narrowed for an instant, before the Norse legend looked away.
"Oh, good, the ninjas have arrived," Tony said, coming out of his contemplative trance with a few blinks. "Can I have something brought for anyone, now that we're all here? Does anyone want a drink, maybe we could... order a pizza?"
"There is no time for such pleasantries," Thor said with a sigh. "I am afraid that the urgency and importance of my quest is such that I fear we have wasted far too much time already."
Clint sighed as he took his seat, Natasha sitting next to him. "Sounds serious," he said.
"Oh, it is," Thor affirmed. "Long has it troubled me, until I could not rest nor eat. It has plagued me e'er since we parted last year, although I was not yet certain to what I owed my unrest. Indeed, I had all but forgotten it until recently, when many things were brought to light, and I was forced to accept that I cannot hope to face it on my own."
"Face what?" Steve asked, desperately trying to keep up. "Thor, some of us don't know what you're talking about."
"Actually, make that all of us," Bruce stated.
Thor glanced around at the group, eyes lingering once more on Clint, before he looked away, shifting his weight slightly.
"...Wait," Natasha said. "Does this have anything to do with Loki?"
Everyone stiffened slightly, and they all turned to look at Thor, who hesitated before nodding.
"What happened?" Bruce demanded. "Did he escape?"
"Nay, he did not," Thor said. "He is secured well, there is no escape."
This only served to confuse everyone further, and Thor sighed. "Perhaps I ought to begin anew," he said.
"Yeah, I think that would be a big help," Tony said.
Thor sighed again, and turned away, facing the large open window over the city.
"When last I was on Midgard," he began. "Bidding you all farewell, I could not help but feel as if something had gone wrong. Something was not the way it should have been. But, we had defeated our enemy in glorious battle, Loki was restrained and unable to cause any more harm, we were mostly uninjured and everyone had come out of the ordeal alive, and the planet was saved from my brother's treachery. Atop that, I felt I had gained new comrades through battle and perseverance, and the future looked bright."
The Avengers all waited patiently, as Thor frowned in remembrance. "I did not attend my brothers trial," he said. "Although I knew him to be guilty, I did not want to see him befall an ill sentence. He is still my brother. And then there was also the matter of my own testimony, one which I did not wish to give. No, I stayed away from the trial. I did not see my brother again. I continued to guard Asgard as its prince; I helped defend it from threatening forces, I continued studying swordplay, I lived life much as I have ever done."
"And yet," Thor continued. "Throughout it all, an uneasiness grew upon my mind, a danger I could not quite perceive. It remained there, although I ignored it. It stained through my consciousness, although I constantly pushed it back. Then, not three weeks ago, I was resting in my quarters, when I had a vision."
"Wait, wait," Tony said. "A vision?"
"Aye," Thor said. "While I lay in repose, I had a vision, a vision of my brother, pleading with me to come to his aid, for he was in great distress, and had urgent news to deliver."
"But it was just a dream, though, wasn't it?" Clint asked.
"Indeed, it was not," Thor said. "My brother has long possessed the ability to send messages to others, although it is a difficult and rare occurrence. Still, I did not trust my brother's intentions, and so I tried to forget."
"Good for you," Clint muttered.
"But the vision returned the next night, and stronger. Again, I ignored it. It was not until the third night when I resolved to hear my brother out, and so I traveled to where he was being held, and sought an audience with him. He gave me some grievous news."
"Exactly how grievous are we talking?" Tony said. "And follow up question: is there any reason we should care?"
"He told me of a greater threat than we had at first believed," Thor stated. "And he spoke of the ease with which we defeated him, and the army he led with him."
"Ease!?" Clint demanded. "He called that easy!? We barely made it out of there alive! We destroyed most of New York just trying to contain the stupid reptiles. It was definitely not easy."
"But it should have been much harder," Thor said. "Selvig's inclusion of the fail-safe, Loki's losing the spear in the first place. The death of the soldiers already on the planet once the mother ship was destroyed. Everything that caused the battle to be won in our favor was convenient, far more convenient than can be left to chance."
"Are you saying our victory was rigged?" Tony asked, skeptical.
"I am saying that my brother brought up some interesting points," Thor said. "My brother said that he was forced into his actions, that he could not control himself."
"Like we're supposed to believe that?" Clint said with a scoff. "He almost destroyed the planet!"
"You almost destroyed the Helicarrier," Thor said, turning to Clint, who froze.
"That wasn't called for," Steve said reluctantly, trying to calm the situation.
"You are right," Thor said humbly before turning back to Clint. "I'm sorry. I did not mean anything by it, except a plea that you all will not dismiss my brother's claims so lightly. Even before the battle was over, he spoke of a greater power, one that granted him the scepter which allowed his control over others."
Clint shuddered instinctively, but anyone who noticed pretended not to, and Thor continued.
"Still, Loki said that there is no such thing as complete control, and there would always be some measure of fight. That was why he gave in so easily and lost his spear. That was why Selvig thought to build in the fail-safe activated by the spear. And that was why Friend Clint broke control of the power and rejoined his friends."
Clint bit his lip. "But I didn't break control," he said. "Natasha knocked me out."
"You missed," Tony said suddenly, straightening up and widening his eyes, obviously just realizing something. "Clint, you missed!"
"What are you talking about?" Clint asked. "I did everything he asked me to. I even came up with some of the plan myself."
"Yes, but you couldn't kill Natasha," Tony said, leaning against his chair smugly. "You never miss, but we found three clean arrows in the room where you two had your little lover's spat. You never miss, Clint. But you fired three arrows that never found their mark, while Natasha managed to knock you out, which no one else can do."
Clint looked at Natasha, who raised an eyebrow and then nodded her agreement. "Sounds right to me," she said. "As often as we've sparred, you never fired at me in training, because you never miss."
Clint looked at him, hiding his shock well. He had never really forgiven himself, as Selvig had fought, but he hadn't been strong enough. Now, as it turned out, he was. He had fired at Natasha, but she had won against his bow, without even being grazed by his arrows.
A fresh feeling came over Clint then, a slow release of breath he hadn't known he was holding, as the last measure of guilt over the events of the helicarrier washed away. He had fought. He had resisted what he could.
It was at that moment that what Thor was saying clicked in Clint's mind, and everything became crystal clear. Who knew better than he did, after all, what it was like to be forced to do what you could not help, to the point where even your own friends had to fight you with all they were worth?
And he still remembered flashes of what had happened in that moment, he still remembered sometimes, the clarity with which everything had seemed to make sense. He couldn't quite remember what it had all meant now, but the sense of surety was the same. Everything was clear now.
Loki, with all his love for chaos and destruction, had truly set everything up to fail. For someone who planned each action to determine an infallible end, why else would he have made the determining mistake of killing the one man that had managed to befriend each and every one of the Avengers? Clint had seen the security footage from Stark's tower during his confrontation with Loki. He'd said as much himself. There was no possible way for Loki to win, not after killing Phil. If he had killed any other member of SHIELD, if he had killed any other person close to one of the Avengers, he would have gained the enmity of that one Avenger. Only Phil had forged ties with each and every one of them.
Even before killing Phil, though... Loki had made several mistakes that, looking back on it, were rather obvious. Allowing the camera in Germany to get his picture, surrendering to Steve and Tony, waiting to be moved to the helicarrier while he and Tony fought with Thor... giving Fury the information needed for Bruce and Tony to hunt down the tesseract and discover the volatile Phase Two that had drawn Loki's superior to their planet in the first place... Loki was responsible for all the convenient things leading up to their victory. Just as Thor said.
"So, is that what you came here to tell us?" Steve asked. "That you believe Loki is innocent?"
Thor shook his head. "While I do believe he is," he said. "That was just to explain the real threat at work here."
"Oh," Bruce said, speaking up after being silent for so long. "You're saying that, whoever did this to Loki... he's still out there. Biding his time."
"Correct," Thor said. "While on Earth, Loki spoke of a power, a power beyond that of our understanding. This power gave him the scepter, and, as price, took control of his mind. He still retained the schemes and plans only his mind could dream up, but his plans were brought out because of the power of the scepter."
"So Loki was just a frontman," Tony said. "And when we defeated the Chitauri and sent Loki with you, we weren't really stopping the real threat." He paused. "So who's the real threat?"
"Alas, Loki could not say," Thor said. "But he seemed certain that whoever it was, they're now after him."
"After him?" Bruce asked. "What do you mean?"
"He broke from their control, and cost them the Earth," Thor said. "They will not forget him so readily."
Everything was silent as the truth of the statement set in.
"Right now, Loki sits in a cell in Asgard," Thor continued after a short pause. "He is guarded, yes, but to prevent escape, not to defend his life. He wears stone bracelets on his wrists, preventing the majority of his magic. He is, defenseless against an attack. As for the rest of the Kingdom, they suspect nothing, and are prepared for nothing. If this unknown power aims to recapture Loki, there is little hope for survival."
"And do you think they'll try?" Natasha asked.
"Without a doubt," Thor affirmed. "It is only a matter of when."
"What should we do?" Steve asked.
"I intend to break Loki out of his prison and bring him here in secret, while we prepare Asgard for war," Thor said.
"Hold up, wait a moment," Tony said, standing up. "Now, Thor, bear in mind, I do believe you," he said. "But I feel this little voice in the back of my head telling me that someone has to ask the question: What if Loki's lying to us, and he's just hoping for a means of escape?"
Thor gave a small smile. "I will not pretend that I didn't have such fears myself," he said. "And so I asked for proof. And in return, Loki told me that I would find my proof in the opening of the door."
"What?" Clint asked, leaning forward.
"Yes," Thor said, placing a familiar device on the table. It was the transport Tony and Bruce had created, powered by the Tesseract, which shone bright and clear as it throbbed and ticked. Clint looked at it, it looked much the same as it had when Loki had first shown up through it.
"Where'd you get that?" Bruce asked, standing up quickly.
"We have kept it safe and untouched since last year," Thor said. "Until I entered to take it this morning, it had not even been seen."
Tony also stood, leaning forward to watch the Tesseract with curiosity. "Interesting," he said. "Is the deadbolt working?"
"No one has been able to use it from the other side of the portal, if that's what you are asking," Thor said. "Whatever device you installed in the vessel is working well."
"Good," Tony said, sitting back down in his chair. "So, we've got an unknown threat waiting out there somewhere and we think he might be after Loki. And you want us to go save Loki, even though, we're the people who put him there in the first place. Am I missing anything?"
"No," Thor said. "That's everything."
The Avengers all looked at each other, silently asking the same thing. Did they dare risk Loki escaping from prison? Or did they risk leaving him there when he was possibly innocent, to be captured by enemies unknown?
"I say we get him out," Clint said gruffly. "He... If he was controlled, he deserves a chance to make up for what he did."
"I second that," Tony said, raising his hand. "And so does Bruce."
Bruce chuckled, but nodded. "I... think we need to at least give him a chance to explain himself," he said. "If anyone knows what it's like to wake up and see the aftermath of a battle you didn't fight, it's me."
Natasha nodded as well, but didn't say anything, and Clint once again felt everything make sudden sense. Bruce was plagued with the Hulk. Tony had been raised as a war profiteer. Natasha was a famous assassin. They all knew what it meant to be counted as one of the bad guys. They all were willing to give another the same chance they had received.
"What do you say, Capsicle?" Tony asked Steve. "Do you have any argument against this?"
"No," Steve said thoughtfully. "I mean, I don't know if I believe him, but everyone's innocent until proven guilty. I'm not about to blindly condemn Loki without hearing his side of the story." He sighed. "I only wish we'd given him the same chance before we left him alone for a year."
"Do not fret, good Captain," Thor said. "For an Asgardian, one year matters very little."
"Okay, so, we're going," Tony said, standing up. "JARVIS, alert Pepper that I'll be making a quick run to Asgard with the boys, and, um, Natasha... And then run a scan on the Tesseract and make sure there's nothing suspicious going on."
"Sir, are you sure this is the wisest course of action?" JARVIS asked.
"Hey, J, don't worry," Tony said absently as he picked up the transporter and examined it. "This is me we're talking about."
"That's exactly my point, sir..." JARVIS said. But Tony ignored him.
"Hey, Blondie," he said to Thor. "How are you planning on getting us all to Asgard? I only designed this thing to take two jumpers at a time. And unless you plan on making five trips, some of us are gonna be left behind."
"I had hoped you could alter the machine," Thor admitted, and Tony nodded.
"Alright," he said. "JARVIS, after the scan, bring up file 6-3-W-I-T-8-6-4-R-G-Pepsi-8-2-3 and begin fabrication."
"Uh, what was that, Tony?" Bruce asked hesitantly.
"Oh, those are my original design specs," Tony said. "I encrypted them and hid them when I decided to go for a more simple design."
"What are you talking about?" Steve asked. "A simpler design for what?"
"For this, of course," Tony said, holding up the transporter. "Originally, I had planned on us all taking the trip to Asgard to deliver Loki to his time-out. I figured we could use a vacation, we could tour the place, take in the sights, all that stuff. I mean, I'm rather sick of all the tropical paradises around here. I wanted some new scenery."
"Well, why'd you change your mind?" Clint wondered.
"Because I couldn't book a good hotel," Tony said, taking a sideglance at them to see their reactions to his joke before continuing. "With all the work that needed doing here, I didn't have time for a vacation. Not to mention, we were going to leave the Tesseract in Asgard. But without the Tesseract, the machine couldn't have taken us back here."
Everyone nodded.
"Sir," JARVIS said over the intercom. "Fabrication will be complete in three hours, seventeen minutes. Ms. Potts would like to speak with you."
Tony sighed and put the device back on the table before turning and walking to the door. "Alright, folks," he called over his shoulder. "Meet me on the roof in three hours and twenty minutes. We're going to Asgard."
