Coterie
By: Shadow Chaser
Disclaimer:
All Marvel characters do not belong to me, they belong to Marvel Entertainment and Marvel Comics. Liberties were taken with the Norse myths.
Story:
Chapter 3
Night, for all intents and purposes, had fallen, but night on Asgard was not like night on Jotunheim or even Midgard for that matter. Loki looked out of the entrance of the Observatory as he waited for Heimdall to relay his instructions to Huugin who was to fly back to make his next report to the Allfather. He made it a point not to stare anywhere near the bridge itself or anything remotely towards the drop that ended in nothingness. Even with the Observatory and Bifrost repaired, Loki still felt the thrill of fear grow within him this close to the blackness-
He mentally shook himself from the thought as his gaze traveled to the golden spires of the palace. The nightfall on Asgard glittered upon the reflection of the spires, brightening the starry sky with even more stars. Nebulae and galaxies of beyond brightened in the night skies of Asgard as did the oort cloud that encircled the artificial asteroid that the Asgardians of old had made into their home and center of the realms. It was truly a beautiful sight, something he had kept to himself during the period of blackness within Thanos-
He bit his lip as he pulled his thoughts away from Thanos and what had happened. Everything now reminded him of what he had nearly lost; what he had pulled tight to himself to keep Thanos from utterly dominating his mind. It was a problem that still needed to be rectified, but it was something that he would deal with later. The trip to Midgard once more was his first and foremost concern.
But that was not to say that the feast had been interesting to say the least. It had been the first time Helblindi had come to Asgard after the battle against Thanos had been decided; tensions still heavy between the Jotuns and Asgardians – even in wake of the new peace treaty. For one thing, Loki knew that it was the perception of the Jotuns causing a lot of the tension – dressed in the simple cloths of the people that they deemed nobility, it was seemingly beneath the class and finery the Court wore. It was also the fact that the Jotuns towered over every single Asgardian with their dominating alien blue skin and blood-red eyes.
Monsters, many of the Court had whispered and Loki had ignored them. It was an epitath that he had heard many times and also had applied to himself, no matter how much it hurt him. Words like that did not hurt him, words the Court and popular opinion bandied around. He did not need approval from anyone and certainly not of the Court. But at the same time, he also understood the importance of such words, especially in wake of the peace treaty. While he himself was able to manipulate words so easily, others were too dimwitted to realize what was at stake.
Surprisingly it was the young King himself who had quelled the nearly-disastrous words whispered amongst the Court with words of his own. They were far kinder and more diplomatic than what he would have said if he had been in Helblindi's position, but Loki was a little disturbed at how close the words were to his own. It really proved that Helblindi was his blood relation and he had been uncomforted by that fact. Even Thor had looked surprised at the words, but then again, his brother always wore his expressions on the sleeve of his armor.
The feast itself had then been a minefield of carefully dodged questions and deflections that Loki had come away with mostly satisfied with Ymir's persistence. Clearly, Ymir was at least Helblindi's protégé in terms of bandying of words, but the young King also knew his place during the feast and left the questioning of today's events at Court to his advisor and ambassador. There had been a slight misstep on Thor's part that Loki had frustratingly covered for his brother. He thought of abandoning Thor to Ymir and Helblindi's metaphoric wolves, but it would have undone what he had been carefully doing all night. It also would have told them secrets he did not want them finding out; especially with the possibility of Jormungandr loose upon Midgard.
The delighted cackle from Huugin broke into his thoughts as he turned to see the raven now perched on Thor's shoulder. The source of the cackle was a shelled nut provided by Thor to the raven who then proceeded to crack it open on one of Thor's shoulder plates before devouring the soft insides. It gave another caw of delight before seemingly puffing up in annoyance at Thor's whispered words as he handed over another shelled nut. Huugin hopped a bit on Thor's shoulder before flying away, passing by Loki who watched him until he could not see the black speck against the golden spires of the palace.
"Huugin seems to favor me, but I told him to at least share with his fellow familiar brother the fruits of his labor," Thor said by way of explanation as Loki turned back around to see Heimdall moving to insert his keyblade into the activation port of the Bifrost.
He threw his brother a withering look. Who asked him to explain his actions? However, he noted to some degree of annoyance that Thor ignored his look and instead waited patiently at the site where the power of the Bifrost would transport them to Midgard.
"I have searched the seas, my Prince, but I did not see the Midgard serpent even with his mass. I will search the lands for his camouflage, but if someone has freed him, he has either shrunken in size or has taken on human form that I am not familiar with," Hemidall said, making his address more to Thor than to Loki. Loki bit back a smirk even though his lips twitched in amusement. Since his return, he had made it a point not to even go near the Observatory and Heimdall made it a point not to do anything with him, even after all of the recent events with walking the shadows and Heimdall being blind to Thanos' cloaking spells.
"Thank you Heimdall. We will hope to have answers soon," Thor said after half a second of awkward pause occurred since Loki was not going to acknowledge what he had said.
"Where would you like me to transport you to?" Heimdall asked, his golden eyes boring into Thor.
"The man of iron's tower in New York City if you please. I believe that was where he said he would be able to use his technology to create a cure," Thor said and Loki blinked a little. He was surprised that such a place would be chosen, but supposed it was as good of a time as any to truly test out the geas-contract he had made with Director Fury if he so stepped out into the public. He would even be inclined to wear his helm-
"Loki, I ask that you do not test out the geas-contract you had made with the Director while we are there," Thor turned to him and Loki stared at him in surprise before his brother nodded, his smile a little earnest, "I too have been learning and changing my ways. I cherish the things I care about more and thus have learned to not take many of them for granted."
For a second Loki was taken aback at the sheer sentimentality and the love behind those words before he shook his head, "It is a bigger weakness to exploit by your enemies."
"Yes, but it is one I will gladly bear the burden of," Thor tilted his head and for a moment Loki did not see Odin that he had seen so much in Thor, but rather Queen Frigga and huffed a sigh before turning away.
"Again, I remind you my Princes, that the Bifrost will not open for you so long as you are in open combat," Heimdall intoned as the Bifrost began to build its charge up. "The enemies of the realm will not gain a foothold here," he continued, the whine buzzing the edges of Loki's teeth as he felt it's hair-raising magical energies flit across the surface of his exposed skin. It was a heady feeling, though he supposed that Thor, having no ounce of magicks within him, could not quite feel it as much as he felt it. At the same time, it also triggered the danger sense within him, that he needed to run far away from the power of the Bifrost, from the power of the Tesseract.
Just when he could not take it anymore, he felt himself being horribly compressed, struggling to breathe-
Only to find the wind now whipping his hair into his face as he and Thor landed on the open patio of the newly rebuilt Stark Tower. Being transported by the Bifrost was unlike walking the shadows of Yggdrasil, but there were times when both were eerily similar. This was like one of them, except without the voices to whisper to him his innermost thoughts, it was the horrible physical feeling of magicks that had pulled and clawed at him.
"Hey Point Break-whoa, whoa, whoa, what the hell is he doing here?!" Stark had walked out of spacious living quarters; Loki supposed it could be called that, his smile turning into a frown as he pointed a finger at him.
Loki allowed a smirk to form on his lips and mockingly bowed to Stark, "I never did get to have that drink now did I?"
"Uh, yeah no, but still, Thor, what is he doing here?" Stark glared at him and turned to Thor.
"My brother has offered his assistance in this problem-"
"Oh really?" Stark shook his head in disbelief, "and what will it cost us now? More lives lost? Oh wait, let me guess you won't kill us or enslave us today, right?"
"Or perhaps for the last time I was in this city?" Loki smiled, full of teeth, but Stark shook his head with a toothy smile of his own.
"I ain't falling for that trick again, Reindeer Games. Nope, frankly don't care about the bargain you made-"
"You do not care for the hundreds of lives lost when I used your building-
"Seriously? Jarvis, please let the media know that Loki's here and-"
"But you will not let them know because it will bring questions, questions you know your precious SHIELD cannot answer and will not answer," Loki loved baiting Stark and saw him frown as his lie was caught nice and neatly into the palm of his hand. He had studied the global "media" as Barton had told him during the time under his spell, and concluded that it was no more than pandering heralds who answered at the beck and call of bloodshed and war; highlighting the misery of those that suffered and those that glorified the warrior-like mortals. No wonder Thor found a lot in common with the mortals. Even some of the sciences, no matter how applied, someone found a use to make it into a weapon and Tony Stark was perhaps one of the biggest causes.
"I could still do it. In fact, I'm not on SHIELD's payroll you know. Just because I work with the others who work for Fury doesn't make me on Fury's payroll. Hell, I don't like half of the stuff they're doing!" Stark's eyes were dark with anger before shook his head, "Why the hell am I defending myself to you anyways?! Thor, you said you were going to consult with your brother-"
"He's not my brother," Loki narrowed his eyes, irritated.
"-not bring him here!" Stark continued heedless of his words.
"Sir," a disembodied, but cultured voice suddenly spoke up and Loki blinked, looking around, magicks tingling at the tips of his fingers for an attack, but there was none. "I've contacted Director Fury instead and he is aware of the situation. He will be sending in a team to assess the situation."
"Assess the situation? Uh, no, Jarvis, tell him he can land the quinjet at the helipad, but he isn't sending in a SHIELD team to storm my place. In fact, Reindeer Games can wait up there for them."
"Son of Stark, I understand your concern, but my brother has personally asked the Allfather to rectify this situation. I can vouch for his good faith on this. He may be familiar with the poisons used upon Agent Romanoff and Captain Rogers."
"He probably created them," Stark replied darkly and Loki pursed his lips as Thor fell silent. Loki could hear the silent question Thor's body practically screaming, whether or not he had anything to do with this. Surprisingly Stark was not too far off the mark and the man of iron realized what he had intended as a joke was perhaps the truth. "Oh shit, are you serious?!"
Loki rolled his eyes, "Would I be here if I did create such a poison?"
"Let me guess, yes," Stark's eyes flashed in anger, "it would be just like you to do something like that. To watch two of the best that I know suffer and eventually die."
The words stung and it was an effort for Loki not to reel back as if he had been slapped by them. He knew he should not consider the opinion of the mere mortal, even though Stark was by far the closest to a battlemage on this realm, but it hurt. Even after Thanos, the Chitauri, it still hurt. Instead, he laughed lightly and shook his head, "Petty insults are the best you could come up with?"
"Just because you have a habit of cleaning up the problems you created, doesn't mean you have to be a complete psychopath to watch your own handiwork-"
"Hey! You're back!" the forced jovial tone of Dr. Bruce Banner cut Stark off and made everyone look beyond the doors to see the mild-mannered scientist adjusting his glasses as he stepped out into the balcony. A strained smile appeared on his face and Loki frowned as Stark stepped forward.
"I thought you were downstairs in the labs-"
"Jarvis told me that Thor was back so I wanted to get his opinion on what other tests I could run on this think save for cracking it open," Banner smiled openly at everyone and Loki immediately picked up on the lie. If this Jarvis was the disembodied voice, then there was no way that Banner did not know that he too was here with Thor. Banner suddenly stuck his hand out towards Loki, "Good to see you again."
Loki stared at the hand for a long minute before Stark snidely piped up, "You shake it."
"Only if one wishes to be friends-" he started before Stark's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Hey, don't you go insulting my friend here-"
"Loki-"
"Uh-"
He stopped Dr. Banner from saying anything as well as to shut both Thor and Stark up by taking the doctor's hand and shaking it once, grip firm; all the while shooting the man of iron a smirk as he released the doctor's hand. "I trust you have come to no harm in recent events?" he directed his polite question to Banner who looked a little surprised at his gesture before sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.
"Uh, no. Tony here called me in to see if I can help with this," with his other hand Banner reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black sphere about the size of a child's marble.
The sphere itself was matte black, seemingly sucking in the light from all directions, but also did not give off anything that Loki could sense from it without the brush of his magicks.
"It's not giving off any particular radiation levels that I was able to scan nor is it seemingly made of any material here on Earth. It's more than likely an alien design, but since it's not giving off the magical equivalent of radiation, I don't really know what to make of it. I wasn't able to penetrate whatever barrier it has around it to scan inside. I was about to crack it to see if I could figure out what kinds of chemical compounds are there to hopefully start a cure, but I figured we should wait until you got back Thor. It's only been a few days since you left, but…since Loki's here, maybe you can help us?" Banner looked at him and tossed him the little black sphere.
Even as the surface of the sphere touched his outstretched fingers as he neatly caught the thrown object, Loki immediately knew that it was a trap. It was not a trap set by Dr. Banner, but rather by what he had unwittingly threw at him. He reacted on instinct, pushing the others back from him with a silent spell, before his hands worked the spells that he had long known to contain a poison of this kind as the black matte sphere exploded.
He jerked his head back on instinct in an effort not to breathe even though he knew his spell had been successful and held the crackling barrier of energy in between his hands. A quiet sigh escaped his lips as he stared at the dissipating poison held back only by his magicks.
"Loki-"
"What the hell was that?!" Stark's muffled voice made him turn to see the man of iron covering his mouth with a hand while Thor had stepped forward, hammer gripped tightly. This was nothing Thor could conceivably smash his way through, the irksome thought passed through his mind.
"It exploded…" Banner had not even put his hand to his mouth, but Loki noted with some chagrin that he had turned a bit green, but his skin was now returning to its normal tanned color.
"Yes it exploded," he agreed tightly as he concentrated on keeping the barrier steady, watching as more of the gaseous poison slowly dissipated into harmless air.
"It's releasing its gas," Stark's voice was still muffled.
"You are perfectly safe," Loki rolled his eyes at the man of iron and Stark snorted and shook his head.
"You're the God of Mischief and Lies so I'm not giving you the benefit of the doubt," Stark shot back as he shuffled a step back at the same time shuffling a step forward. Loki realized that Stark was indecisive, wanting to both flee from the area and at the same time see what was within the barrier he was keeping the poison contained in.
"Brother-"
"I am not your brother," he hissed quietly and saw the hurt on Thor's face. It was also then that he realized he had not said those words to Thor since he had been revived by the Casket of Ancient Winters. They both knew that Thor had called him his brother more than once since then, but for him to say such words at the moment… Loki was determined not to feel guilty, but now was not the time-
"Is it because I tossed it at you? Because I didn't mean to do that-"
"It is a failsafe," he replied tightly as he mentally shored up a crack in the barrier while keeping the poison at bay. This was a very strong poison and he had a nasty feeling about its creator. Only he would be able to create such poison, as it had been his forte as both the healer and poisoner of the coterie. "And a warning," he added, meant for me.
"A failsafe? So how come we weren't able to break it earlier?" Stark had finally decided that it was safe to breathe the air around them once more and stepped forward, bending his knees a little to study the crackling barrier. Loki frowned at him, feeling more like a display case than trying to contain the poison as it slowly dissipated.
"It is something your mere technology cannot crack," he could feel his hands start to shake and gritted his teeth a little, "nor break. If you had magicks and did not know, you would have instantly been killed and the secrets would have been dead with you. It also prevents the enemy from using this weapon against its creator."
"So how did you know what it was Thor?" Stark asked as Loki concentrated on the barrier, forcing the oxygen within to completely nullify the poison as it seemingly fought back to consume the oxygen. It wasn't much and he was working with a limited supply, but he would be damned if the poison so much as escaped.
"Because I had felt it once before. I could not be sure until I consulted with the Allfather and Loki here, but seeing this-"
Loki slammed his hands together; breaking the barrier and sending a spray of leftover magicks into the air as he finally finished his work and breathed a sigh of relief.
"What did you do?" both Stark and Banner asked at the same time and he gave them a sideways look. They were like the ravens of the Allfather, curious to no end and always seemingly jabbering with questions and so forth.
"Dissipated it," he replied.
"But the cure-"
"Would not have been found inside it," he interrupted sourly, acknowledging Banner's grim shake of his head, "unfortunately the spell used to contain it and force it amongst the oxygen renders any type of scan completely useless. The containment process would have fought against its innate magicks within to spread and contaminate." He secretly wished there had been another way, but he had reacted on instinct and it was instinct that had saved all of them from dying right then and there.
"Damn," Banner shook his head, "I thought we could have had the cure right then and there. I mean, I did draw their blood, but the analysis has yet to be completed-"
His words were drowned out by the whine of an approaching quinjet as it came in for a landing on the helipad of Stark Tower. Loki noted to some degree of surprise that Stark had completely renovated the area where he had compelled Dr. Selvig to set up the Tesseract-based portal device into a landing pad where the quinjet now sat. There were some unusual things on the edges of the pad that he knew should not be there, and caught Stark with a wolfish smile on his face. The man of iron had been staring at his reaction and Loki met the smile with a thin-lipped one of his own.
"Security and deterrent," Stark replied to his unspoken question before waving a hand at them, "Since Touch of Doom here destroyed the evidence; you guys get the nice pleasure of explaining to Fury why we don't have a sample to work with anymore."
"Thanks Tony," Banner replied dryly before Stark shook his head.
"I meant those two, not you. If you want, you can stay here and keep working with the blood samples we got. There has to be a way to at least make something of a stop-gap cure until we can find another alternative-"
"I'll probably also head to the Helicarrier-"
"Wait, what? No!"
"Tony, think about it. If Loki's here, it means something's going to go down and whatever it is, it may be key to getting a cure for Romanoff and the others," Banner shrugged as if being on the Helicarrier was not an issue.
Loki tilted his head curiously at the nonchalant attitude that the doctor was wearing; he knew first hand how much the doctor did not want to be there, having picked Barton's brain for the information – knew how much of a threat SHIELD considered Banner to be even though they claimed otherwise. It was why he had put together his plan in the first place. The Hulk was by far the biggest threat and asset the Avengers were sure to have – but after the incident with Thanos, Loki was wondering why there was such an attitude about yet at the same time a resignation hanging there.
Perhaps SHIELD still did not trust Dr. Banner and while it brought some measure of comfort to Loki, it also somehow disturbed him. He did not know why, after all Banner was just a mere mortal, albeit one of the few to extend a measure of courtesy and outward friendliness towards him – but Loki had long decided it was his inner fear of the Hulk and being thrown about like a ragdoll by him.
"I don't care about the whole 'if Loki's here' type of deal. That's no excuse for you to feel pressured to go to the Helicarrier-"
"Tony-"
"And just because you feel obligated to help the unpunished war criminal here-"
"Obligated? Really Tony? No, that's not how it works-don't interrupt me – because I certainly don't feel obligated to help Natasha, Ward, and also Steve and the other agents that you neglected to mention who were affected by the poison. Yeah, sure, that's not obligation-"
"That's not-"
"That's fair and you know it. Tony, I'm going. I know what you were trying to do and thank you, really, thank you for doing that. But I'm going. You and I know that even though your lab's got all of the works and can access SHIELD, it will be easier for me to try to find a cure quickly if I'm with them on the Helicarrier or even at whatever medical facility they've been shipped off to."
"You fight dirty," Stark looked angry, but shook his head, "fine then. Head up guys, I'll catch up with the sample analysis."
"Tony-"
"It's fine," there was something in Stark's tone that had become brittle and flippant as he walked back inside without so much as a wave to them; not that Loki expected the man of iron to be so courteous. But at the same time he could see something crumbling in the doctor's expression and it made him uncomfortable, reminding him of something long past…of himself, but not with Thor in place of Stark.
"We should do as the man of iron said," Thor put in quietly, but with the bluntness of his hammer. Loki all but shook his head and swept past the two of them, taking the set of stairs that he saw led up to the helipad. He heard them follow as he saw the quinjet's ramp open and two agents whom he did not know step out, their guns not quite raised towards him, but not shying away either.
He smiled at them and saw them stiffen a bit before their postures relaxed, signaling to Loki that Thor and Banner had come up the stairs behind him. One of them touched her ear and spoke quietly before gesturing for him with a frown to enter. "Why thank you," he said with the entire vacuum of politeness and saw the agent twitch a little in an effort not to shoot him. Taking a seat near the entrance, he sat down as Thor and Banner also entered, his brother fitting into one of the larger jump seats and Banner sitting himself in at the far corner of the quinjet, closest to the cockpit. He immediately belted himself in and turned away from them, a frown on his face, clearly wanting to be left alone.
"Tony Stark said he would be joining us soon. I presume he is to fly in his suit to the Helicarrier," Thor spoke up from his seat before the two agents glanced at each other and conferred with whoever was speaking to them judging by the cant of their heads. As one they both entered and one of them knocked on the cockpit door as the other pressed a button to bring the ramp back up.
Soon they were in the air and Loki felt the slightly unpleasant swooping sensation of a hovering quinjet before the tug of momentum as they flew towards their destination. It was about twenty minutes into their flight that Loki saw one of the two agents, both whom had remain standing in the quinjet, reach over to hand Dr. Banner a headset. Loki watched, mildly interested, as the doctor stared at the headset before putting it on and his face contorted into a series of half-laughs followed by a look of exasperation and then a resigned shake before he spoke into the microphone on the headset.
Loki knew he could easily cast a spell to listen into the conversation, but he decided not to, and it was not because of a polite quasi-friendliness with the doctor. He figured it had to be Stark on the other end, the man of iron perhaps apologizing for his treatment and words.
"Was it really Jormungandr's spell?" Thor rumbled near him, leaning over in his chair to ask his question.
Loki shrugged, not exactly in the mood to answer his brother's question, but at the same time, feeling a little spark of jealousy at the easy smile Banner now wore. He was not jealous of the banter and friendship between the scientist and the insufferable man, but he was jealous of the way Banner was able to relate and forgive Stark so quickly.
"Loki-"
"I do not know, so stop asking me," he hissed back at Thor, before crossing his arms and closing his eyes, wanting some peace and not wanting to see anymore of Banner's smile.
There was the creak of armor plates as Thor leaned back against his seat, but did not say anything else. Loki huffed a silent sigh and mentally shook his head. Asking the Allfather to deal with this was a bad idea, yet at the same time, he knew that it was something he needed to deal with and not let anyone else interfere. It was as if-
The creak of Thor's armor made him cut his thought off before he heard his brother rumble quietly near him, "If it is truly Jormungandr or even if it is not, I will stand arm in arm with you, brother."
Loki sighed loudly and opened his eyes as he stared at no point in particular on the quinjet, feeling it bank and the rumble of its engines grow louder as it made its descent to the Helicarrier. He had been on edge since Thor brought back the news, trying to find all sorts of distraction during his time in the library, his impromptu chess match with his mother, the feast, even trying to find some kind of distraction with Stark's inane rambling and Banner's mild-manners.
It would do no good to see how much the news rattled him, especially if it truly was Jormungandr. If it was not Jormungandr, well, he was not known as the God of Mischief, Trickery, and Lies for nothing and whomever was responsible would pay for their sorry attempt at mocking him. Even as the quinjet started to settle and land, Loki stood up, brushing himself off, startling the two agents who once again drew their weapons, but did not quite point it at him. He heard Thor stand up behind him as the quinjet finally landed with a quiet thump and one of the agents reached out to open the ramp.
"To what do we owe the pleasure now, oh God of Lies?" Director Fury was standing at the end of the ramp, posture relaxed, hands behind him, but his lone eye spoke another story. They were angry, annoyed and at the same time resigned.
"Nothing more than a passing interest in your recent discovery of HYDRA's secret lair," he had plucked the more relevant information Thor had spoken during his telling of the tale at the feast.
"Oh really," Fury did not look convinced as Loki stepped down the ramp and gave him an open smile, one which was not returned. "Admit it, you just miss us," the dark-skinned man said sarcastically.
"I try not to make it too much of a habit to come here-"
"Except to blow up cities and play pranks on the rest of the populace," Fury interjected, "I've been reading some of the stories about you."
"And they are just that, mere tales," Loki was vaguely aware of tales told of him, Thor, Odin, and a host of Asgardians and even Frost Giants, and the like. Some were of names that he did not even know, but he supposed the mortals were prone to creating wildly inaccurate tales of things that they could not comprehend.
"Yeah, well, fiction sometimes come from fact and vice versa," Fury shook his head, "so what's your price now?"
Loki laughed lightly as he spread his hands out, noting that there were no other agents around, but he was willing to bet that they were hidden within the vicinity. The clomping of boots on the inner hanger bay told him that the man of iron had arrived. "No price," he said, "no catch, just a vested interest in HYDRA's leader."
"Vested personal interest?" Fury tilted his head and Loki's smile only grew a little wider.
"Perhaps," he clasped his hands behind him.
"Director, I can vouch for my bro-for Loki's interest as it is mine too," Thor rumbled behind him and Loki saw Fury's gaze narrow a little as he digested the new information.
"Can I ask why?" Fury looked back and forth in between them, "or is it some kind of hush-hush that's gonna blow up in all our faces like Thanos."
All of the sort-of goodwill he had been feeling towards Fury vanished in an instant as he frowned and gritted his teeth in anger. He had not kept Thanos a secret from them even though he had innately known what was going to happen. It was something that they should have been aware of from the beginning and he had practically told them when he had arrived with Thor after the harried battle on Jotunheim. For Fury to insinuate this-
"I, believe," Thor reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder, "that HYDRA's newest leader is a healer of great skill name Jormungandr. My brother here, is only here to confirm or deny Jormungandr's presence."
"You?"
"Yes," there was something in Thor's even tone that Loki could not quite identify until he realized it that he had heard it time after time since Thanos had wrecked his path to him before being trapped – unconditional support. The firmness of Thor's hand on his shoulder gave weight to his words.
"And what happens then?"
"He will be brought to justice," Thor replied, "both Asgardian and Midgardian justice Director. I understand your position regarding Loki's actions here on Earth and will not deny you that chance."
"Your dad doesn't seem to think so-"
"My father will hear wisdom in my words," Thor shrugged as if it was a mere thing, but Loki heard the weight behind them and they sounded like what the King of the Nine Realms would say.
"Just a consultant, you say?" Fury's lips curled in a twisted sense of amusement and Loki heard Stark splutter behind him, but did not know what had passed between the two. Whatever it was, it infuriated Stark to no end, so he let it pass.
"All right, so what now," Fury seemed to accept the terms stated and placed his hands on his hips.
"Director, I'm going to need a lab to work in along with some specialized equipment, I have the list-" Banner stepped up and held up a piece of paper.
"Done," Fury extended his hand and shook Banner's, "it's good to see you again Doctor."
"Can't say I'm kind of glad to be back here, but I need to be near the patients if they haven't been moved yet…?"
"No," the dark-skinned man shook his head, "I've put them all under quarantine and I feel a lot safer if they're up here than down in some lab somewhere where HYDRA can get at them again."
"Good idea," Banner agreed before gesturing towards Stark, "Tony, you got the results?"
"Yeah, can't quite read them well, but I think it's not the ones your looking for," Stark shrugged as he clomped over still in his metal exoskeleton, "I can see if they respond to the modified Extremis virus-"
"Or that might make it worst," Banner grimaced, "anyways, Director, if you could tell the staff that I'll probably need some fresh vials of blood so we can test that theory…"
"I'll have it sent to your lab. Agent Sitwell can escort you there," Fury said as Loki was amused at the sudden appearance of a seemingly innocuous agent with olive skin and steel-rimmed glasses on his nose. They watched as Stark, Banner, and Sitwell left the hanger bay before Fury turned to them.
"And you-"
"I will need to see those that had survived the poison," he cut Fury off before the Director stared at him, his lone eye blinking several times before an eyebrow rose as if he was ascertaining the truth of his words. He finally nodded slowly before making a quick gesture with his fingers and a female agent whom Loki vaguely remembered as Hall, or something appeared by Fury's side, having hidden herself in the shadows of the quinjet that had landed.
"Agent Hill will escort you," Fury said and Loki was well aware of the unspoken command that Hill would perhaps try to incapacitate him should anything untoward happen.
"I look forward to our new arrangement," he smiled toothily at Fury before following Hill out of the hanger bay, Thor following them.
Author's Notes:
Please note, I am NOT asking for reviews, I will never hold a story hostage for reviews – but I do like feedback. It's been a while since I wrote Loki and I would like to hear back from readers if I'm characterizing him right or if something is wrong with what's happening at the moment in terms of plot. If you don't feel like leaving feedback or a review, that's fine too, I will not fault you for it (I'm horrible at leaving reviews too).