Imitations Carved Deep: Chapter 11
Pretty sure copy and paste is the extent of my technical abilities. Thank goodness that's all sound editing programs require for my projects. T.T
Please enjoy!
This chapter is dialogue heavy...and short. Sorry!
Not a Tony/Loki story. Just friendship.
Be forewarned, I have named female Loki, 'Kira', and that is what she will be referred to for a good chunk of the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own them...so sad.
Warnings: Severe angst. Stupid/Bad Thor (temporarily). Torture (in the past). Implied rape (in past). Don't read if any of these trigger.
Proof
"…Kira can't do magic! Why do you want to handcuff her to the bed?!"
"How about because that's Loki and magic or no, he could still try to stab us with a scalpel?"
"My brother is vey good with knives."
"Yeah, you don't say. He also likes stabbing people in the back with them."
"Guys, I really don't think-"
"Cap, do not tell me that you are starting to believe Loki, or what, feel sorry for him?"
"But what about her shoulder?" Steve gestured to the swollen joint that looked like it really shouldn't be in the position the handcuffs forced it into.
"Not gonna happen, Cap."
Steve sighed and rubbed his temples, a headache brewing. Bruce and Tony appeared to be in the same boat. They were angry and felt betrayed, but at the same time were more willing to try and understand the situation rather than jumping to 'It's Loki. Ship him off.'
"Clint, I get that you're angry. We all are, but I want to understand what's going on first, before we just hand Kira over." Clint threw his hands up as Tony and Bruce nodded.
"We've had her in my Tower for weeks, and she's done nothing but be frightened and extremely helpful. If this were the Loki we knew, he wouldn't have been able to handle being around us for so long. Some sort of power trip would have reared it's head." Tony's eyes kept glancing over at Natasha. She had yet to say a word, but her body language spoke of an inner turmoil. Tony would say her past experience was telling her not to trust their 'guest', while what they had all witnessed spoke of another person entirely.
"Loki has been known to let his lies run for years. I do not doubt that he could handle a few weeks in your presence." Tony glared at Thor.
"Look, no offense, Buddy, but I get the feeling that you really don't know your brother all that much. Everything you have been spouting to me sounds like you are reading the headlines from Asgardian tabloids." Pepper laid a hand on Tony's shoulder, trying to calm him. The inventor wouldn't actually punch Thor, but his mouth could lead to a brawl in the infirmary. The Golden Prince scowled and opened his mouth to retort, but he was interrupted.
"Why is Kira healing at a human rate, Thor?" Thor looked over at Bruce's quiet question. The doctor was at Kira's bedside, ensuring all of the equipment was working and immobilizing her shoulder. When Thor didn't answer right away, Bruce looked up. "Asgardians and Frost Giants, as you have told us, have naturally accelerated healing, where something like this would heal in a couple of hours. It has nothing to do with whether Loki- uh- Kira has magic or not. So, why is her achilles still in the earlier stages of healing, and why is her shoulder going to take weeks to heal?" Thor's mouth opened and closed a few times, before the man just growled.
"I thought I explained this to you already! Loki could use his magic to slow his healing on purpose. If it is not that, then…then I do not know! But I do know that Loki must be lying! It is Loki." Tony rolled his eyes.
"Wow, that sounds like a completely infallible argument. It's Loki, so she's lying. So, if Kira woke up this minute and said she did attack Earth, would you say she was lying then?" Thor's scowl deepened.
"No." Tony leaned back and threw his hands up.
"Oh! So Loki's only lying when you don't like what he has to say!"
"Tony-"
"Do not twist my words, Man of Iron! I will silence you if need be." Tony's eyes narrowed.
"Bring it on, Hammer Time." Thor stepped forward. Cap went to hold him back, while Bruce and Pepper grabbed Tony.
"Guys, stop!"
"As you wish, Stark."
"Gentlemen." Everyone stopped as Jarvis spoke for the first time in a while. If Tony didn't know any better, he would say the AI sounded like an exasperated parent. That was definitely not in Jarvis's programming. Then again, neither was the sass. "I believe I can help settle this matter." Thor and Tony unwound enough for the others to let them go, but they were relegated to other sides of the room. Natasha and Clint stayed in the middle.
"Wel, Jarv, what is it?"
"I found footage from the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic that makes it quite clear that Miss Kira is not lying." Clint snorted.
"What? How the Hell does a psych hospital have anything to do with this? Besides, maybe Loki needs one." The archer was actually surprised when Natasha elbowed his side sharply. He thought she was on his side!
"Well, Jarv? Anything to exonerate our guest?" Without a verbal response, Jarvis turned on one of the large computer screens in the room (there was one inset in a wall in every room). The Avengers gathered around as a video began to play. It wasn't the best picture quality, but it was obviously a security feed at the hospital Jarvis had mentioned.
They watched as a burly nurse pushed a drugged up patient along the hallway in a wheelchair. At one point the patient tried to move about and managed to flip their head back. The face was without a doubt Kira's. The timestamp on the video put it at two days before the space portal opened over New York City.
"No way. That can't be Loki, that or he messed with it for you to find."
"I thoroughly examined the video and found no evidence of any kind of tampering, magical or otherwise. I can show you the thousands of other clips like this one, that span weeks both before and after the Battle of New York, if you should wish it." Pepper hid a smile at the AI's irritation with the archer. It seemed Jarvis was quite determined to defend Kira/Loki.
"Jarvis, what were you doing digging around the security footage of a psychiatric hospital based in Pittsburgh," Natasha questioned. Pepper had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing when the AI did not answer right away. Finally,
"I have facial recognition software that records whenever and whatever a listed 'Villain' is caught doing. When it was revealed that Miss Kira was in fact Loki of Asgard, her face was added to my search." Tony rolled his eyes.
"Smooth, Jarv. Just admit you've got a little crush on Kira and move on."
"I was not programed to have 'crushes', Sir. You should know this." Before Tony could start bantering with his own invention, Bruce cut in.
"So, how long was Kira at this facility?" The video on the screen went away to be replaced with another, time-stamped at almost a year ago.
"Nearly eight months, Dr. Banner. It appears Miss Kira was placed and kept there against her will." Jarvis showed them the video of when Kira was dropped off. Two policemen brought in a struggling young woman who looked like she had just done a stint in a regular hospital after being tortured. Natasha, Clint and Steve all recognized the look of a prisoner of war. The cops handed her off to two large nurses, and a doctor jabbed a needle into her neck. Kira instantly fell slack into their arms, and they dropped her limp body in a wheelchair.
A couple more silent videos played showing Kira struggling against the thick cuffs keeping her in the wheelchair, of her pleading desperately with a nurse or doctor before she was once again drugged, of a nurse trying to take advantage of her and getting a bedpan to the face for his efforts. Most of the men had growled at the start of the last one, then smirked triumphantly when the disgusting man got knocked to the floor holding a bloody nose. Clint didn't want to be happy for Loki for anything, but he seethed a little less on the inside.
"Well, I guess that explains Kira's aversion to wheelchairs." Steve's brow furrowed.
"Yeah, but why was she put there in the first place?" Tony stared at the screen for a couple of seconds then started pacing.
"Okay, follow me on this." Everyone gave the inventor their attention. "So, Kira slash Loki says that she hasn't been on Earth since she was a child, which was centuries ago. The Destroyer thing doesn't count," Tony commented when Thor opened his mouth to interrupt. "Looking at the first video, I'd say when Loki fell from Asgard, he landed in a group of not so nice people. They somehow take away his magic and turn him into his female form. Let's not speculate as to why right now. Kira escapes or is tossed down to Earth. She's been tortured for who knows how long and by whom, and she makes it to a hospital. When they ask her what happens, she makes the mistake of telling them the truth, so they cart her off to the Loony Bin."
"The Truth," Bruce questioned. Tony looked him dead in the eye and said,
"Aliens." A pause. "And two guesses as to who."
"The Chitauri," Natasha muttered. The room fell quiet as they rolled the theory around in their heads.
"It makes sense. Kira probably broke out of the hospital, and then made her way to New York. She's been living in the Tunnels so no one can find her and take her back."
"Okay, great. Fine, but how does any of this explain how Loki led an invading army of Chitauri to New York City while Kira was handcuffed to a wheelchair in Pittsburg?" Bruce took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Thor looked deep in thought, as though he were trying to come up with an answer Tony wouldn't immediately shoot down. Natasha was the one to break the stretching silence.
"Sometimes the simplest answer is the right one." Clint narrowed his eyes at his fellow assassin, while the others looked at her curiously. The red-head lifted her head up. "Kira, and by default Loki, did not lead the Chitauri army here. Someone else did." Clint was fuming, but he didn't say anything, too mad to even scream. Thor looked close to throwing his hammer through a wall in frustration. Tony, meanwhile, was nodding.
"Someone, my money's on whoever took away Kira's magic, must have done some hocus pocus, and made us all think it was Loki." Steve's brow furrowed.
"Like they manipulated all of our minds?" Tony shook his head.
"No, Cap. I'm talking an Impostor." Bruce sighed and pointed at Tony with his glasses.
"But why? What's the point? Loki was disgraced when he fell from Asgard. Thor was looking for him. If someone wanted to take over Earth, why impersonate Loki? It would attract attention, and possibly bring the whole force of Asgard down on their heads."
"Aye. The Allfather would have eventually sent his own reinforcements should I have not been enough assistance," Thor inputted. Tony bit his lip in thought. Suddenly, Pepper perked up next to him.
"Oh! No, it wouldn't actually." At everyone's confused looks, Pepper elaborated. "It wouldn't bring the full force of Asgard down on their heads. It would bring it down on Loki's." There was a pause, and then the Avengers were a flurry of excitement.
"So you're saying-"
"Who would do such a thing to my brother!?"
"Oh, so now you believe it?"
"-Maybe this whole thing wasn't just about the Tesseract."
"This was about Loki!"
"Guys!"
"Okay, but who-"
"Thor, bud, start listing off all the people Loki pissed off."
"Stark-"
"No, you're right. Probably take to long."
"We can't seriously be considering this."
"Does this mean we can unhand cuff Kira?"
"Over my dead body, Cap."
"But we just established-"
"No, we didn't! Stark's just theorizing!"
"GUYS!" Finally the noise stopped. Everyone stared at Pepper and her irritated expression.
"Everyone needs to stop shouting. We can't know anything for sure until Kira wakes up, and we talk to her. Alright? So everyone calm down." The Avengers all took a breath and stepped back. A couple of them were getting uncomfortably close to a brawl.
"Well, Miss Potts, you shouldn't have to wait too much longer." All eyes went to the hospital bed. Kira's face pinched in what had to be pain, and she tried to lift her hands to her head. When they were stopped by the cuffs, her green eyes flew open.
"What-" Kira began viciously tugging at the restraints, despite the pain it caused her. She heard a loud buzz of voices, but her panic was overriding any sense she had. All her mind could focus on was Escape Escape Run Run! Pain Coming! She felt hands touch her, and she flinched away with a scream.
Not again!
Tony's about to punch Thor in the face...I think I am too :/
Please review:)