The last few SHIELD agents passed by Natasha and the others as they cleared out of the room, having gathered the things they needed. The Captain, Stark, and Bruce sat on three of the four bar stools, and behind the bar, Clint leaned against the back bar, facing them but tapping away at his phone.
Stark, in typical fashion, took the reins of the conversation.
"Well, hi, Matt. I'm Tony Stark, you know who I am. Sitting to my right is Steve Rogers- and yes I mean thee Captain America, who is still like 25 years old somehow."
"Hi." the Captain said with a nod.
"And sitting to my left is Dr. Bruce Banner, a brilliant scientist who turns into an enormous green rage monster otherwise known as The Hulk."
"Nice to meet you." Bruce said.
"Over behind the bar is Clint- he shoots arrows. To your left is Nat- who I'm sure has a cool code name I don't know, but I promise you even at five foot nothing and ninety pounds wet she could kick your ass-" Natasha huffed, she was not nearly that small, "-and, finally, to her left is-"
"Thor Odinson, God of Thunder, Crown Prince of Asgard, future King of the Nine Realms." Thor interrupted, walking up to Matt with a posture and tone that Natasha thought managed to be even more pronounced and performative than usual. He reached out and grabbed Matt by the shoulder, "I thank you for providing your assistance with this matter." Thor let go and strode past Matt and around the bar top.
Natasha noted the way the expression on Matt's face flickered when Thor called himself a God. A quick twitch at the center of his brows and the corners of his lips. It made Natasha suspect that- much like the Captain- the idea of Thor being a god conflicted with his beliefs.
"There's an empty stool in front of you, if you want to sit down." Bruce volunteered, loudly patting his hand on the seat.
"Thanks," Matt said as he walked forward, swaying his cane out in front of him until it hit a leg of the stool, he took a seat.
Natasha walked around the bar and leaned against the counter next to Clint.
Tony took another casual looking- but performatively loud- sip of his drink, "Sssso, Matt Murdock, tell us about yourself. Who are you, what do you do, do you like long walks on the beach, you know, the basics."
"Well, again, I'm Matt. I'm 24, I'm a legal student, I grew up here in Manhattan, and walks on the beach aren't really my thing."
Stark beamed, "Not a fan of the sights?"
Bruce turned to look at Stark with a look of offense "Tony!"
Matt gave a polite smile "Yeah, there just isn't much for me to see, you know?" he joked.
Tony and Clint burst out in a laugh while Natasha found herself stifling a smirk, Bruce and Steve looked slightly uncomfortable, and Thor looked utterly confused.
"Why are we discussing walking on the beach?" He asked, "What is so funny about it?"
"Human joke, I'll explain it to you later." Stark said. "So tell us about the lie detecting, like, you can really just tell if someone's lying or not? Two lies and a truth: I once spent an afternoon in the 90's dismantling a furby, I won a wet t-shirt contest in college, and one New Year's Eve I made a plant explode, which one is true?"
"They're all true."
"Damn, he's right." Stark said. "So how does that work? Like, can you tell if what I'm saying is the objective truth, or are you just able to tell whether or not I'm intentionally lying? Is it related to your blindness?"
"It's not related to my blindness, and I can only tell if someone's lying," Matt answered, "if someone thinks what they're saying is true I'll know they're telling their truth even if what they're saying isn't the truth."
Natasha took note of how Matt wasn't particularly detailed describing himself, limited his description of his ability to answering the specifics of Stark's question, was quick to say it had nothing to do with his disability, and leapt on to the change of subject. It wasn't suspicious, per say, but it was notable.
"So if Loki feeds us a buncha bullshit he doesn't know is bullshit we wouldn't know." Clint piped up as he typed on his phone.
"Yes." Matt pursed his lips with a slight nod, "Is that who I'm here to talk to? This Loki?"
"Yeah, You're here to help interrogate Loki- the guy that just wrecked New York- because he's a manipulative liar and we can't trust a single word out of his mouth." Clint told him. Natasha walked around the bar to lean on the counter next to him.
"Could you give me more info on what happened?" Matt asked, "Was it really an alien attack?"
"Yeah," Steve nodded, "Loki is an alien who came to earth through a portal, stole the Tesseract- uh, which is an ancient cube that produces an immense amount of energy- and used it to open a portal for an alien army to come through and attack the city. He meant to take over the whole world."
Matt nodded, taking in the information, "Ok, so this Loki was leading his fellow aliens to conquer the planet." He summarized.
"Well," Thor- with a pint glass full of what Natasha was pretty sure was a three thousand dollar whiskey awkwardly held by the tips of his fingers to avoid touching the blackened flesh on his hands- frowned and tilted his head, "Not exactly his fellow aliens, the Chitauri are a separate species from him. They're of no known world, I know not where he found them."
Matt pursed his lips and nodded, turning slightly so he was facing in the direction of Thor, "And what is it you know about him?"
Thor leaned forward, resting an arm against the bar top between them. "On Asgard, he was known as the God of Mischief. His domain- his very nature- is causing chaos, spreading lies, and creating mischief. Lying is as essential to his being as thunder is to mine. He's clever- manipulative, really- and is more likely to win a conflict through words and deceit than through combat. He's a powerful mage, a master of illusion, and a natural shape shifter."
"And your brother." Clint added in a pointed and cold tone without looking from his phone.
Thor rankled, "Yes, but he's-"
"Adopted, you said." Stark cut off, "What's up with that? Did your parents, like, go to the orphanage and ask for the craziest kid they had?"
"They did not." Thor said with a shake of his head, clearly taking offense. "My father found Loki abandoned in a temple as a babe, presumably left by a widow of the war who couldn't bear to raise a child alone. My father took sympathy on the infant and brought Loki back home, raised Loki alongside me as his own, keeping the truth of his birth a secret."
"Anyways." Clint said, Natasha could see a familiar crease of irritation in his brow, "Last year Thor was in New Mexico-"
"Banished." Thor muttered into his drink.
"-and Loki sent a robot-"
"The destroyer."
"-Stop interrupting. Loki sent a robot after him to have him killed and it destroyed a small town in the process. Thor returned to Asgard and we didn't hear anything from either of them until five days ago when Loki came through a portal in a SHIELD research facility, stole the Tesseract, and used a spear with mind control powers to control three people there." Natasha used her elbow to bump Clint's arm, and he reluctantly grumbled "And one of them was me."
"Three?" The Captain turned towards him with a questioning look, "I thought it was just you and Selvig."
"It was just me and Selvig he had with him, the third guy- Agent Ward- didn't make it out of the facility before it collapsed."
"What about all those guys who attacked the Helicarrier?" Stark asked, "Weren't they controlled by Loki too?"
"No, they were enemies of SHIELD I knew of from my work and recruited."
"Well, that makes me feel better about the one I tackled going full speed in my suit." Stark muttered.
"So what did you do while under his control?" Matt asked.
Clint let out a small huff of a sigh, quiet enough that Natasha was sure she was the only one who heard it. "Drove, recruited help, scouted out locations for the stuff we needed to steal to make the portal."
"Why did he need to make a portal if he arrived through one?" Matt asked.
"Because the portal he came through was small and clearly unstable." Clint responded, "When he arrived he was covered in blue flame. Dude's tough, bullets bounced off of him, but that much heat took a toll on even him. He was showing signs of heat exhaustion for almost a day afterwards. And the effect of going through the portal caused the facility it appeared in to collapse. No way he could've brought a whole army through it."
"So he instructed you on building the portal?"
"No, Selvig was the one actually building the portal, I just fetched supplies and helped as needed." Clint crossed his arms, "And Loki never really gave much direction, Selvig knew how to build the portal because the Tesseract was informing him, I knew what to fetch because of what the Tesseract was telling me. Most of my discussions with him were just touching base until the order to attack the Helicarrier."
"Wait, the Tesseract was giving you information?" The Captain asked, an uncomfortable expression crossing his face.
"That's what it felt like, yeah."
"That makes sense," Bruce added, "The one thing we knew about the scepter was that it was being powered by the Tesseract."
"It makes sense it was powering the scepter because it's a power source." The Captain said, "But it shouldn't be able to communicate with people. Right?"
"Spears shouldn't be able to mind control people either." Stark said, "It's weird freaky magic! It's not something with a logical framework to understand how it works." Stark frowned and added, "Yet."
"Anyways." Clint grunted, "Loki sent me off on a mission to steal iridium and at the same time he went and got…" Natasha could see his shoulders tense, "something that would get me through security and created a big enough distraction that no one would focus on the break in."
"His debut in Germany." Stark said. "Where he let himself get captured."
Clint grimaced, "Yeah. I didn't know about that part of the plan. I just knew to get a SHIELD quinjet and attack the Helicarrier a full day after."
Natasha frowned, "What were the instructions for after the attack? He couldn't have expected me to free you."
"I knew that he was planning his attack for the following day, but beyond that, nothing."
"You freed him from the mind control?" Matt asked. "How?"
Natasha shrugged, "Just some, uh, cognitive recalibration."
"She gave me a good wallop in the head." Clint said with a chuckle, leaning over to bump the side of his arm against hers. Natasha suppressed a smile.
"Then we realized that he was planning to open the portal here, in my tower." Stark said, "Using my brand new clean power source I installed literally days ago. We came in, kicked alien butt, kicked his butt, closed the portal, and now here we are."
"You know that is not all." Thor said grimly.
"Yeah," the Captain added, "When we came here to capture Loki, he tried to kill himself."
"He put up a show of trying to kill himself." Stark corrected.
"We are not having this argument again, Stark." Thor rumbled, pointing a blackened finger at Stark.
"Oookay, touchy." Stark responded, "We had to get an independent mediator to determine if his attempt was genuine or not. That's why you're here." he nodded to Matt, then, making a face of realization, added, "Matt."
"That's not the whole reason you're here." Natasha corrected. "We have a lot of unanswered questions about the invasion, and, like Thor said, he's a liar, we can't get a straight answer out of him."
"And we have many questions." Thor said, "Like who it was he was working with."
"You think he was working with someone?" Matt asked.
"I do not think he would have been able to acquire an army if he wasn't." Thor said, "I suspect he was going to give whomever was controlling the Chitauri the Tesseract in exchange for their service."
Matt nodded like he was taking in the information, "Why do you think that?"
"The Tesseract allows the passage between worlds. A warring race like the Chitauri would find great value in it."
Natasha frowned, "So you think whoever controls the Chitauri was behind this?" it seemed to her Thor was grasping at straws to exonerate his brother.
"He got that scepter from somewhere," Thor said, "I think whomever lent it and the Chitauri to him have plans beyond conquering this planet."
"So a trade," Matt concluded, "They give him the tools and personnel to help him take over our world, and they get the Tesseract in return."
"Exactly." Thor responded.
Natasha crossed her arms. Ok, so Thor wasn't trying to make excuses for his brother. That was a relieving change of pace.
"How did Loki find the Chitauri?" Matt asked, "You said you don't know where they're from, so how did he end up working with them?"
"It is a long tale." An expression somewhere between irritation and exhaustion passed over Thor's face. "It starts a year ago when Loki made a deal with the Frost Giants of Jotunheim, leading them into Asgard to have them break into the royal vault and steal the Casket of Ancient Winters on what was meant to be the day of my coronation."
Natasha rolled her eyes, Thor couldn't just get to the point, he had to make it a long winded tale.
"Could you say that again in English?" Tony asked.
Thor frowned, "I have not been speaking English. I know not how. I have been communicating with you using Allspeak."
Stark groaned "I mean you need to explain some of what you just said, like about the Frost Giants and Jotunheim and the 'Casket of Ancient Winters?' We need some context here."
"I already told you of the Frost Giants-"
"You didn't really tell us about them as much as say that's the species Loki shapeshifted into." Natasha interrupted. "All we really know is that they're cold and blue, and Matt, the one who needs to know this, wasn't there for that. Who are they, what's their relationship with Asgard and the Casket of Ancient Winters that they broke into your vault to steal it?"
"We had had a millennia of peace with Jotunheim," Thor told them, "But before that we were at war over their invasion of earth. They were using the Casket of Ancient Winters to turn your planet to ice. My father drove them back to Jotunheim and took the Casket so they could not try again."
Natasha nodded, filing the information away, "So when Loki offered them a chance to regain it, they jumped at the opportunity."
"Indeed. I, knowing nothing of Loki's involvement, was furious over the insult of the Frost Giants' actions, and Asgard needed to know how the Frost Giants managed to get not only into Asgard, but so far without detection to get into the palace vault. Loki… goaded me into going to Jotunheim to make the Frost Giants pay."
Natasha noticed Matt frown and purse his lips at that last bit.
"My father had cut off permission to travel to Jotunheim long ago, but Heimdall- as the all seeing gatekeeper- disobeyed my father's orders and let us through in hopes we found out how the Frost Giants managed to evade his sight, and we made it to Jotunheim without interruption.
"I confronted Laufey- their king- over the break in. Things… escalated-" Natasha didn't need lie detecting powers to notice the heavy lifting the word 'escalated' was doing, "-and when my father arrived to stop us, Laufey declared war against Asgard."
"How did things escalate?" Natasha asked.
Natasha could hear the silenced groan from the back of Thor's throat. "I.. it was…" he sighed, "Loki had been insistent we leave from the moment we arrived. While I was trying to get the truth from Laufey, Loki- ever the coward- was hovering over my shoulder begging me to give up and leave because we were outnumbered. When I finally relented to Loki's pleading one of Laufey's guard taunted him saying 'run home little princess.'" Thor spat the words with venom, "I could not allow the insult against Loki, he was my little brother."
Stark snorted, "The insult against Loki? Sounds to me like he was taunting you."
Thor's brow bent in a confused frown "Why would he have called me that, I'm not-" Thor shook his head with a guffaw, "The insult was most certainly meant for Loki," he insisted. "It was a cruel and lazy insult against a prince of Asgard by a Frost Giant commoner. I could not let such words go unpunished-" Natasha noticed another frown cross Matt's face, "-so I attacked the guard, starting a battle between my companions and the Frost Giants.
"We were surrounded when my father intervened and tried to implore Laufey to stop, at which point Laufey declared Jotunheim and Asgard were again at war.
"We returned to Asgard and my father banished me to Midgard- here- as a punishment for my actions. A short while later he fell into Odinsleep and Loki-"
"He fell into what?" Stark interrupted.
"Odinsleep, it's a rest my father must take at least every few hundred years to maintain his power, he had been putting it off for some time. The stresses of the Frost Giants' invasion and my banishment and the approaching war proved too much for him and so he succumbed to Odinsleep without establishing a line of inheritance in my absence-" Natasha could see from the exasperated look on Stark's face that that had not explained nearly enough "-and so with me banished to Midgard and my mother dedicated to my father's bedside, Loki was crowned as King Regent."
"That must have gone great." Clint scoffed.
The expression on Thor's face went from dour to dark, "After he was crowned he cut off our friends, refusing their advice, came to Midgard and told me my father had died, then sent the destroyer to kill me and our friends-"
"The aforementioned attack on a town in New Mexico." Clint added.
"Yes, that. Then Loki went to Jotunheim and made a deal with King Laufey to lead him into Asgard to kill Odin, only to then turn around and kill Laufey as he attempted the deed, and used his actions as justification to unleash the full power of the Bifrost onto Jotunheim and destroy it."
Thor paused, taking a swallow of his drink.
"And then what happened?" Matt asked.
Thor took another, much bigger, swallow and sighed.
"I barely got to the Bifrost in time, I couldn't turn it off," Thor's voice grew more strained with each word, "he had locked it with… with ice…" for a moment Thor looked like he was contemplating something before shaking his head and saying "I had to break the bridge entirely to stop it. The force of its destruction pulled us down into the void. My father arrived and managed to catch me by my ankle just before I fell over, and I grabbed Gungnir- the spear Loki had been wielding, which he held onto. And- and- and-"
Thor hung his head with a rumbling exhale, "I know in that moment my father and Loki exchanged words, but despite my best efforts I cannot recall what they said. And then Loki- and then he let go of the spear, letting himself fall into the collapsing wormhole caused by the destruction of the Bifrost."
The room was silent with a heavy air until Thor said "We all thought Loki dead until the events of these past few days." There was another pause as Thor sighed, "I had hoped that what my parents and my friends told me of Loki's crimes were exaggerations, but faced with his actions here it pains me to know they were right about him."
"Why did you even give him the benefit of the doubt?" Clint asked, "After all the things you know he did? He literally lied to you that your father had died."
"Ah," Thor said in a rasp, "It was just… My friends told me Loki confessed to them he'd intended for me to get caught trying to go to Jotunheim, but he did not expect us to succeed in getting there. He had made efforts to ensure I was caught at the Bifrost trying to enter Jotunheim, having ordered a guard to inform my father before we left. He hadn't even expected Heimdall to let us through to Jotunheim. So I assumed…"
There was another moment of silence as Thor stared at the drink in his hand.
"As I told you before, Loki is the God of Mischief, his domain is causing chaos, and so I thought this had been one… one of his pranks that had simply gotten out of hand. I thought his… hoped his intentions weren't malicious." Thor was staring down at the ground now, avoiding eye contact.
"I had not realized how mad he is- how mad he has been- until seeing Loki these past few days. Forgive me for wanting to think the best of my brother whom I thought was dead."
Natasha had heard similar statements before, always with a harsh tone of sarcasm. This… This was not sarcasm, it was a genuine apology.
"Mad?" Matt said. "To clarify, you mean 'mad' as in insane and not as in angry?"
"Yes," Thor took another drink, "but he was certainly angry, too."
"Angry about what?" Matt asked.
Thor swished his now near empty drink around in his glass for a moment before finally speaking, "I know not the details of it, but some time in the weeks before my coronation my brothe- before my coronation Loki discovered the truth of his birth and he had a bitter argument with my father over it. The revelation must have driven Loki to madness, there's no other explanation for his actions since."
"So he was angry about being lied to?" Matt asked.
"That he was lied to, that he wasn't truly royalty, that I was more deserving of the throne."
"So when did you find out about Loki being adopted?" Bruce asked.
"What do you mean?" Stark asked.
"Well, he just said Loki found out shortly before his coronation, so when did Thor find out?" Bruce asked.
"Ah," Thor vocalized before taking a hearty swallow, finishing off his drink. "After it was too late." He eventually choked out.
"During our fight on the Bifrost, Loki declared he was not my brother, that he never had been." He let out a hollow, humorless chuckle, "I thought it was one of his tricks, just him trying to confuse me. Moments before he had declared he did not even want the throne! Just to be my equal! Of all the lies he could have told!" Thor let out a bitter bark of a laugh, "After, when I recounted to my mother what happened, she revealed the truth to me."
"And you don't know how Loki found out?" Bruce asked.
Thor shook his head, "I only know what I've already told you."
"What about the adoption itself?" Bruce asked, leaning forward in his seat. "You said he was probably abandoned by a widow of the war- what war? The one against the Frost Giants?"
"Yes, the war between Asgard and Jotunheim over their invasion of Midgard." Thor told them.
Natasha perked up as the pieces of the situation suddenly fell into an order that made sense, "The same Jotunheim that Loki double crossed?" she asked to clarify.
Thor nodded, "Asgard and Jotunheim have been at odds for many millennia, but since that war we had an era of peace." Again Natasha noticed the flicker of a frown on Matt's face, "At least until Loki partnered with them to have them break into our vault."
Of course, it made so much sense, "Loki's plan from the very beginning was to destroy Jotunheim." She concluded.
Thor turned abruptly to meet her gaze, "What?"
"He was orphaned by the war with Jotunheim." She explained, "and after finding out as much he set up the events for Frost Giants to invade on a hugely important day- an action that would reasonably be considered an act of war."
Natasha's mind raced through the details of what Thor had told them about Loki, "When that didn't work to get your dad to declare a war against them, he goaded you into going there and starting the war yourself, and then not only are you out of the picture, but it stressed your dad out enough to make him too ill to lead, putting Loki on the throne and in charge of the war effort against Jotunheim.
"Then he set up the King of Jotunheim to try and kill your father so he could justify destroying his planet without making it seem like he was doing it because he wanted to."
Thor shook his head, "That- that's madness."
Natasha pushed herself off the counter she'd been leaning on and took two steps to stand next to Thor, looking up at him, "You're the one who said he'd gone mad, Thor. Does it really sound out of character for someone in his state of mind?"
Thor brought a hand to his mouth and then pulled it away with a hiss in pain from the pressure to his blackened flesh. "I… I suppose it does not."
There was a moment of heavy silence in the room that was interrupted by JARVIS announcing "Sir, Director Fury and two guests are headed up here on the elevator."
Stark groaned and threw back the rest of his drink, "Ok, J, thanks."
A moment later the doors to one of the elevators open and Fury strode out saying "So does someone want to explain to me why you invited a civilian to interrogate our prisoner?" Agent Hill and a man in a suit that Natasha recognized, but didn't recall the name of, followed him.
"Nice to see you again, too, Fury." Stark said as he reached over the counter and grabbed the bottle of whiskey Thor had poured his drink from and began to pour it into his own glass. "No 'thank you for saving New York from getting nuked'? I'd appreciate a 'thank you for saving New York from getting nuked.' And how did you know we'd invited Matt anyways? Hacked JARVIS again?"
Fury stopped in front of them with an exasperated sigh, "Yes, thank you for handling the nuke, Stark. And, no, I didn't hack your AI. Agent Barton kept me apprised of the situation."
Stark looked over in mock-offense at Clint, who put away his phone. "Traitor!" he gasped.
Clint shrugged. "He's my boss, I met you earlier today."
"Okay, fair." Stark grumbled, taking a sip of his drink.
Fury walked up to Matt, "Hello, Mr. Murdock, I'm Director Fury of SHIELD. I've been told you can tell when people are lying."
"Yes, I ca-"
"Does that have anything to do with the chemical spill that blinded you as a child?" Fury interrupted.
Matt pursed his lips and frowned. "It seems you have me at a disadvantage here."
"Matt Murdock, son of the boxer Jack Murdock, mother unknown. Blinded by a chemical spill from a car crash at 9, where you saved an old man from getting hit by a truck. Raised at Saint Agnes orphanage after your father was murdered by Roscoe Sweeney. Currently studying law at Columbia, you nearly dropped out last year, but managed to get back on track and are now interning at Landman and Zac. Do I have that all correct?"
Natasha watched as Matt's expression grew more and more stony with each statement, clearly having not wanted so much information known about him.
"Yes, though I thought an all knowing government agency would've been able to find out something as simple as who gave birth to me." He said with a tone skating the line between sarcasm and bitterness.
"The information was removed from your original birth certificate, there's no recoverable record of it." Agent Hill informed.
"So, Mr. Murdock," Fury continued, "How is it you came to be a human lie detector?"
"I don't know." Matt told them, "It's just something I've been able to do for as long as I can remember."
"And it's awfully convenient that no one else here can tell if you're lying or not to confirm that." Fury said.
"Am I going to be the one interrogated here?" Matt asked, "Because I don't have to be here. I chose to come and help, and I can choose to leave."
The man in the suit spoke up, "We could have you detained, Mr. Murdock."
"We're not detaining him, Alexander." Fury said decisively. "Sorry, Mr. Murdock, I just wanted to get a better read on you before letting you talk to our prisoner. Didn't mean to spook you."
The assurance from Fury did not seem to reassure Matt, who still had a frown lining his brow. "Thanks," he said stiffly.
"So we're really going to let this civilian, this college student, into a room with our prisoner?" Alexander (Pierce, Natasha now remembered, Alexander Pierce of the World Security Council,) questioned.
"Your prisoner?" Thor said, crossing his arms, "Loki is of Asgard, he will be taken back there to answer for his crimes."
"Loki committed crimes here on Earth and will face justice here, on Earth." Pierce insisted.
"No," Fury said, "If Thor wants to take him back to Asgard, he's going back to Asgard."
"Are you serious, Nick?"
Fury raised an eyebrow at him, "You want to try and stop him? Be my guest, but I'm not going to fight the God of Thunder for the right to keep a prisoner who easily escaped our last attempt to contain him."
"He seems pretty well contained right now." Pierce disagreed.
"Contained by Thor's chains and Thor's handcuffs." Fury responded, he turned to Thor, "Though I am curious as to why you didn't provide those when we first captured him."
"Had I known your containment was so weak I would have."
"So, Romanov, you go down with Mr. Murdock to interrogate Loki-"
"Sir," Bruce interrupted with a leveled voice, "With all due respect, I don't think that's a good idea."
"Excuse me?" Natasha responded. She knew Bruce was wary of her after she had brought him in, but did he seriously doubt her abilities so much?
"Well, it's just that Loki seemed to know about all of us, especially Natasha," Bruce explained, "and he kept needling to try and set us off. He doesn't know who Matt is, so Matt might be able to get the most out of Loki if he talks to him alone."
Fury frowned in contemplation. Pierce didn't seem to take that well.
"You can't seriously be considering that, Nick!?"
"He makes a good point, Alexander. Loki's contained, your men are keeping guard outside of the vault, the risk is low." Fury turned to Matt, "So long as you're comfortable with that, Mr. Murdock."
"Yeah, I'm ok with that." Matt replied with a nod.
"Alright, let's get a list of questions together." Fury proclaimed, "Mr. Murdock, we'll need to set you up with a com to supply questions and directions to you through."
"Like an earbud you talk to me through?" Matt asked, "That's going to be distracting."
"If I may," the voice of JARVIS projected through the room, "There is a braille printer in the HR department on the seventh floor you could print out the questions on."
"I would prefer that." Matt said.
"And I would prefer if we were able to communicate with you directly." Fury said.
"Why not make a list in braille and have Matt wear a com in case we think of any new inquiries in the moment?" Bruce suggested.
"That works," Matt said, "Just keep the interruptions to a minimum."
"Alright then." Fury said. "What questions do we have?"
They spent the next twenty minutes putting together a list of questions that JARVIS recorded and sent to the braille printer. The Captain volunteered himself to keep guard outside of the vault (as well as be the person to lead Matt to it,) while the others would observe over the monitoring system in the security room on the third floor. There was an elevator in the room itself "So if anything goes wrong we'll be down there in twenty seconds flat," Stark assured.
They established a system to have Matt inform them if Loki was lying by raising his foot. Under the table, it would be out of Loki's sight, but would be captured on one of the security cameras for the others to see.
Matt was given a discreet com, which he reluctantly accepted and put in his ear. The group then took the security elevator. First down to the seventh floor for Tony to collect the list to give to Matt, then down to the third floor security room where all but The Captain and Matt departed.
In the security room, Stark sat down in one of the chairs next to the monitor and changed the security screens to highlight the room Loki was in. "Why's he still blue?" he asked when the images came on screen, "Weren't those cuffs supposed to cut off his magic?"
"They have." Thor assured, "It takes magic for him to change forms, but none to stay in a form."
"So he's just stuck like that?" Bruce said.
"Until the cuffs have been removed and he's gained enough power to change himself back, yes."
Natasha watched from the security feed as the Captain and Matt went down to the basement. She noticed how, as the Captain led Matt to the room Loki was in, Matt's nostrils flared and his brow furrowed, as if something smelled bad.
Matt and the Captain arrived at the door of the weapons testing facility, the hallway now occupied by ten heavily armed SHIELD agents. JARVIS opened the door and the Captain pointed Matt in the direction of the table for him to sit at. Matt swayed his cane in front of his as he walked to the table and sat down.
Loki was still where they had left him, now awake. He glared at Matt, his red eyes passed over him, taking in his new adversary. A threatening grin passed over his face and he chuckled.
"So." Loki began, his voice level, "You're the one they've sent to speak with me? It doesn't look like you're here to torture me, but you could surprise me yet."
Matt placed the page of questions on the table next to him, but didn't read them. "Hello, Loki," he greeted, "I'm not here to torture you, just to talk."
"It won't be much of a talk if I don't know your name." Loki said, "And I like to be able to look the people I speak with in the eye, even if they can't look back."
Matt paused for a moment, and with an exhale, removed his glasses, revealing a pair of dark brown eyes, "My name's Matt."
"It's ever so nice to meet you, Matt." Loki said, from one of the cameras, Nat and the others could see Matt raise his left foot. "Tell me, how did SHIELD come to have a blind man in their employ? And why did they send you to speak with me?"
"SHIELD doesn't have me in their employ. I'm an… independent party," Matt said, "and I'm the one supposed to be asking you questions," he added with a chuckle.
"Ask away, then." Loki said, his cuffed hands making the best attempt of an inviting gesture.
Matt tapped his hand on the paper. From what Natasha could tell, not actually reading it. His nostrils flared again, and he asked "Where were you six days ago?"
Loki looked as surprised by the question as Natasha and the rest of the room did. That wasn't one of the questions they had prepared.
"What the hell's he doing?" Pierce exclaimed, "He's supposed to be sticking to the list!" He reached out for the mic to communicate with the com, but Fury moved it away from him.
"I want to see where he goes with this," he said.
"Where I was?" Loki repeated, "I was in space. Somewhere no one in the whole of the nine realms besides myself would recognize the name of." Natasha took note that Matt's foot stayed firmly on the ground.
"If no one would recognize the name, then there's no harm in sharing it, is there?" Matt asked.
"Nor is there any advantage in learning it."
"What were you doing there?" Matt asked, "Who were you with? Were you expecting anything?" something about these questions caused Loki to scowl.
"I was expecting," he said, with an odd emphasis on the word, "a glorious war against your meager earth."
Matt raised his foot.
"So you were preparing for this invasion?" Matt asked as he set his foot back on the floor.
"Yes." Loki responded, and Matt raised his foot again, "Do you think I'd be so foolish as to conquer a planet without preparing to do so beforehand?"
"I don't know what you'd do, Mr. Odinson."
Loki bared his teeth with a scowl, "That is not my name." he hissed.
Matt tilted his head questioningly, Natasha could tell from her own experience as an interrogator that this was a bait tactic. "Really? I spoke with your brother, Thor Odinson, so wouldn't that be your name as well?"
"He is not my brother." Loki insisted, still hissing. From where she stood, Natasha could see Thor tense, even though a short while ago he was also distancing his relationship with Loki.
Matt's foot still remained firmly on the ground.
"What is he then, if not your brother?" Matt asked.
"Well, what is an inferior creature one drags along with them?" Loki asked, with a near maniacal laugh. "I was never Thor Odinson's brother, I was his pet."
Matt's foot remained on the ground and a clap of thunder shook the building.
Sorry this chapter took so long, not only did it take 11 months to write, I straight up forgot I had also posted this to and not just Ao3, I posted this chapter there two weeks ago. To receive updates when they happen and not just when I finally remember still exists, you can find me on Ao3 under the name Brimstone_Assembly. For some reason the link to it on my profile isn't working and I can't figure out how to fix it.
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Comments are greatly appreciated!