The Enemy of My Enemy
"What the hell is he doing here?" Tony asked, the first one to break the silence
"Stark—" Thor tried to begin, his voice low and controlled, but Tony wouldn't let him speak.
"Don't Stark me, Hercules, just answer the question!"
Natasha seemed to be the only person in the room successfully keeping her composure. Tony wasn't doing that bad, all things considered, but he was gesturing with his alcohol and his eyes were a little wide. Steve looked about like he was ready to football tackle Loki at any moment. Clint was now standing at Natasha's side, the fingers of one hand twitching toward the gun strapped to his leg, and Bruce was on his feet nearer the back of the room, just in case. Out of everyone in the immediate area, she was the least worried about him losing his cool.
Loki, meanwhile, was positively reveling in the shock his reappearance was causing. Natasha could see it in his smile, in the glimmer behind his bright green eyes as they swept the face of each Avenger in turn. When they connected with hers, however, his brows twitched. It was only a twitch, but it was enough to suggest that he was intrigued by her apparent lack of a reaction. She didn't enjoy that he was noting her above the others for any reason but she held her mask in place all the same, watching impassively as his smile diminished slightly and took on a far more sinister undertone.
"Friends, Loki is in trouble," Thor began, his tone still grave although it was steadily adopting a pleading quality as well. "No one was more shocked than I to discover that he yet lives, and after his crimes I would not bring him to you if his need were not truly dire."
"What happened to that lifelong prison sentence you told us about?" Steve asked, his voice low and his tone bordering on accusatory.
"Technically it was served," Loki offered with a playful grin.
"Hush, brother!" Thor commanded. The grin fell from Loki's face and a shadow seemed to pass over him, but it disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving him looking yet again all too pleased with himself. Natasha noted that Thor didn't seem to be happy with his brother, but didn't interrupt as he continued, "He is hunted, and he needs our protection."
The corner of Loki's mouth twitched at that, and Natasha noted it as well. Apparently he didn't like asking for help.
"No deal," Tony immediately replied, laying a hand flat on the top of the bar. "We return him to sender today. Whatever's after him, he deserves it."
"I told you this was a fool's errand," Loki observed, a hint of bitterness in his haughty voice.
"HUSH!" Thor retorted forcefully. "Your sarcasm does you no favors, Loki."
"I'm sorry, were you under the impression that I wanted a favor?"
"You have no choice. Be grateful, and be quiet."
Loki bristled, but he remained silent, his jaw clenched, hands balled into loose fists at his sides.
"He doesn't want our help. Why are we still talking?" Clint asked, speaking up for the first time. Natasha could practically feel the tension radiating off of him. Part of her wanted to lay a hand on him, get him to relax, but that would have to wait.
"What Loki has done is unforgivable," Thor began, and he actually held up a hand to silence Tony before he began protesting yet again. Apparently the typically polite Asgardian was getting tired of the interruptions. "As I have said, I would not bring him to you were there another path we might consider. The fact remains that he is my brother, and I would not see him lost a third time. I assure you that should you help him, he will fulfill the sentence handed down to him by our father—"
"Your father," Loki corrected sharply.
Thor leveled a hard glare at him before continuing, "—by our father, and he will never set foot upon Midgard again."
"Just what is it he needs protecting from?" Bruce called from his position some feet away. His arms were crossed over his chest as well, his expression more apprehensive than it was angry.
Thor let out a sigh, his lips pressing together in a firm line. It was clear that he was not looking forward to revealing just why Loki needed them, but he answered honestly, "Loki made a bargain with a being in exchange for the forces he used to invade Midgard. He failed to deliver the Tesseract, so the being is—"
"Coming to collect," Natasha supplied, her husky voice thoughtful. She could see where this was going, having been in similar situations herself, and she didn't like it.
"Yes," Thor nodded, accepting her colloquial phrase.
It was at this point that Bruce took a few steps forward, concern clear in his features as he prodded, "Just what kind of being are we talking about?"
"He is called Thanos, and he is what is known as an Eternal," Thor explained. He was met by a confused silence, so he went on, "He is of an old race of very long-lived creatures. It was he who commanded the Chitauri forces and who desired the Tesseract for himself. He is very strong, very powerful, and his servant, The Other, is searching the Nine Realms for Loki as we speak."
"What will they do when they find him?" Natasha asked in spite of herself. She firmly believed that Loki deserved whatever he got for what he did to her, to Clint, to her team and to their planet, but she wanted to know what they would be sentencing him to if they did hand him over.
Thor's face darkened, and Loki's expression pinched slightly with something she couldn't put her finger on. "Subject him to a fate far worse than death," the god of thunder answered, effectively creating yet another silence among the team.
Everyone mulled that statement over for several long moments, each appearing to weigh it against their own consciences. Natasha was largely ambivalent about it all. She wanted to see Loki punished, but she didn't necessarily relish the idea of taping a bow on his head and handing him to someone who would slowly carve him limb from limb. At least, that was her mental image based on Thor's expression. A tiny voice in the back of her mind told her that she might not like herself much more if she spoke out in favor of condemning Loki, but it was a small voice that she paid little attention to.
"You lie and kill, in the service of liars and killers..."
It was a small voice that she paid no attention to.
She chanced a glance around the room. Bruce looked a bit squeamish at the implication of Thor's statement. Clint still looked furious bordering on eager. Steve looked unsure of himself. Tony, on the other hand, looked like he'd been blown out of the water by everything Thor had said.
"So," he began, gesturing with his alcohol again, "Lady Macbeth here's got an intergalactic loan shark on his tail and you want us to lock him up for safekeeping? Is that what we're taking away from this? Well, I don't buy it. Take him back to Asgard, keep him out of trouble up there."
"He would be killed for his treachery," Thor pointed out.
"No less than he deserves!" Tony countered. "He betrayed us, he betrayed you, he betrayed Thanos—I'm not seeing a reason to stick my neck out for him, especially if the people after him are influential enough to command robot space armies."
"Please, he is my brother—" Thor began again, blatantly entreating them, but Tony cut him off.
"So you've said! I sympathize, I do, but it doesn't change the fact he tried to take over the planet, killed a hell of a lot of people doing it, and is now raining death and destruction on us again by leading this Thanos dude straight to us."
Silence hung in the air for a brief moment. Thor was beginning to look defeated while Loki seemed to have already resigned himself to the proceedings. Soon, however, Steve spoke up and suggested, "Is there another way to settle this thing? I mean, get Thanos off his back without handing him over until he can be imprisoned safely again?"
"He will take the Tesseract or myself, nothing else," Loki said. Natasha thought she sensed a hint of bitterness in his tone.
"Well, that settles it. I'm not goin' to bat to settle anybody else's debts, let alone his," Tony said with a note of finality.
"He will come for you as well, you know."
Natasha looked around at the sound of Loki's silky voice. It was low and even, not at all pleading or emotional like that of his brother. Something burned behind his emerald eyes, but it was neither resentment nor anger. His words weren't a threat but rather a simple statement of fact. "Why?" she asked quickly, before Tony had an opportunity to mouth off at the suggestion.
Loki turned his gaze upon her, meeting her eyes. His expression didn't change. "You will have information about me, will you not? You are also responsible for the destruction of his most reliable soldiers. That is not an action he is likely to forgive."
Natasha tilted her chin up in the air just slightly as she regarded Loki, her way of conceding that he had a point. She thought she saw something flicker in his gaze, something that hinted at laughter, but it was gone before she could be sure.
"He may be right," Steve said after a moment, shifting uncomfortably where he stood. "If retribution is tied up in this, who's to say he won't come claiming he's looking for Loki and just burn us up on the way out?"
"That's a good point," Bruce offered, looking between Clint and Tony as they seemed to be stubbornly holding onto their anger.
Thor was quick to capitalize on the minimal support he was gaining, however, and immediately suggested, "Help me keep him safe. I cannot risk bringing him to Asgard. Even if the Allfather would spare him, Thanos would surely make war upon us for denying him his revenge. Let him stay, protect him, and we shall stand together against the Mad Titan to show him that Midgard will not bend beneath his threats!"
Another silence settled, although it was brief before Steve moved his gaze around the room. "Well...what does everyone think?" he asked hesitantly.
No one answered right away, but after a couple of moments passed Clint all but growled, "I don't like it."
"Neither do I," said Tony, draining his glass. He set it down on the bar with a loud thunk and stared down at the half-melted ice cubes. Steve was in the process of turning away from him when he grumbled, "Might not be much we can do, though."
All heads turned in Tony's direction, but he kept his back to the room.
"Captain?" Thor inquired, barely containing his hope in his low voice.
Steve hesitated for a long moment, his brows furrowed as he breathed in and then let out a long sigh. "I'm not eager to let your brother off the hook...but if this Thanos is a threat to us either way, he might be able to help us," he said at length, weighing each word carefully as it was clear he wondered if one day he might regret them.
Thor was openly smiling now, having enlisted the majority of the team in his cause. "Lady Natasha?" he asked eagerly, turning his bright blue eyes upon her.
Natasha's nose crinkled slightly at the way he addressed her, but she never had the heart to correct him. She took her time answering as well, measuring her thoughts and carefully moving her words around in her mouth before she said, "You heard the Captain."
"Thank you, my friends!" Thor shouted exuberantly, pumping Mjolnir into the air with his massive ham of a fist.
Natasha paid him no mind, however. Her eyes were trained on Loki's, watching the surprise that flitted through them before he recovered himself. That same grin he'd flashed her, or least that his illusion had flashed her, in her apartment spread over his face, so full of glee and chaos.
She ignored this as well and turned her attention once more to Thor, celebrating all by himself as everyone else was still horribly unsettled by everything that had happened. "I'll put in the call to Fury. If we're gonna babysit him, it'll be somewhere we can keep an eye on him," she said coolly before she turned and drew her phone from her belt, pressing the emergency contact. She came to a stop just in front of the glass doors, her eyes trained across the hallway.
After a solid five minutes of shocked and angry shouting, cursing, crashing, and threatening, Natasha walked back to where her teammates still stood, their sparse conversation falling silent immediately. "A secure facility is being prepared as we speak. Agent Barton and I will escort Loki," she said flatly, speaking predominately to Thor.
"What?" Clint growled, throwing a sharp look at her.
Natasha raised her eyebrows in response, her own expression icy. She didn't appreciate the implication that she had any choice in who dragged their charge around.
"This is reasonable," Thor decided, evidently choosing not to touch the brief exchange between the agents. "Will I be allowed to visit him?"
"That remains to be seen," Natasha told him, knowing that any privileges Loki would or would not be granted were completely at Fury's discretion. Thor still made to argue, however, so she added, "I'll put in a good word."
Thor nodded at this and turned to clap his hand over his brother's shoulder. Loki weathered the touch, but when he turned his eyes to look at Thor, he looked less than grateful for it.
"Let's go," Natasha said after a moment, her body half turned to leave. She wasn't looking forward to being stuck in a car with Loki and Clint and really just wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. It was a minor miracle she had kept her composure as thoroughly as she had now that she was face to face with the person who understood her secrets, or at least some of them, and she knew she couldn't keep it up forever.
Clint began making for the door without a word while Loki shrugged out from beneath his brother's hand. He leveled his emerald eyes at Natasha's once more and, allowing another playful smirk to cross his pale face, remarked, "This should be fun."