#chitauri scepter

[unityrain24]

ok but i'm like in love with the concept of the chitauri scepter acting like a drug. and you suffer withdrawals when you are severed from its influence

[viviennes-tears]

Soulmates (Loki One shot)

18+ blog: It is YOUR responsibility, as a reader, to think about the content that you consume at your own discretion. 

~

Summary: The Avengers, Earth’s mightiest heroes, sort out to avenge it from the Chitauri army and its leader the God of Mischief. As fate would have it the God comes to realise amongst the chaos that a simple wives tale is very much real and discovers a human is his soulmate.

Warnings: Mild violence, on going battle, mentions of death and near death experiences.

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The Chitauri army poured out of the massive portal which opened up in the crack of New York's skyline, causing a dark shadow to cast over a large portion of the city, the weather instantly changed to a more gloomy eclipse of mass destruction. Civilians screaming as they ran for a safe haven away from the alien creatures, abandoning their cars and other vehicles in the traffic build ups, a tremendous amount of people having to evict their homes and workplaces just in the nick of time of their demolition. Sadly not everyone was lucky during the chaos, many of which ended up suffering various injuries, while some unfortunate souls did not make it out alive at all.

Meanwhile at the heart of the attack was a God, who many only believed to have been a myth prior to his recent appearance in Germany, now he was coming at them live and in person at an astonishing rate. Alas some people had a close run-in with the God himself. Seeing up close how he terrified the 'puny humans.' Seeing the dark sunken in crazed glossed over green eyes piercing into their very souls. Seeing the sheen of sweat on his brow and the snarling animal within ready to pounce at any given moment.

During the maelstrom in a diner a few blocks down from where the attack had begun a young woman’s gaze caught the television screen that’s mounted to the wall. Seeing ‘BREAKING NEWS’ in its bold block font that stretched across the bottom of the screen while the rest of the screen was filled with an incoming live exclusive from one of the news reporters. The reporter was standing in the midst of the action that exploded behind them and she felt the aftershocks in real time. 

It unsettled her to see what was happening to the city she grew up in and loved so much, but what the worst part was seeing it herself, after she joined those who ran outside of the diner, seeing it unfold before their very eyes. A confirmation that it wasn't just some cheap hoax or unauthorised filming of a movie with special effects going off. However instead of following the moving crowd as they ran for their lives she actually ran towards the commotion, given she’s training to be a nurse and her instincts told her people needed her, always equipped with her bag of first aid on hand for anything. Yet these circumstances were never something she imagined to be on her list of possible emergencies. 

Along the way she saw flashes of men and a woman running around in spandex attire and unconventionally armed with unlikely choices of weaponry. She could even have sworn she saw a green giant of a man in only ripped trousers throwing cars at the alien creatures flying above her head. Although the consequential lives that are at steak didn’t leave room for dwelling on the absurdity she’d witness along the way. 

Once she reached the line of fire she began digging through a wreckage for survivors. During her search she found a middle aged man trapped inside his crushed car, with two cars smashed into it, one being smashed through the rear and one on the drivers side while a lamp post penetrated through the windscreen. The man looked to be unconscious and the airbag appeared to have failed. She quickly grabbed a piece of rubble and used it to smash through the passenger side window and then reached inside to pop the door open. Dropping her bag beside the car before climbing onto the passenger seat to reach over the lamp post to get to the man trapped. She managed to get her fingers on the side of his neck to check his pulse, tragically there was no signs of life, she was too late. 

A heavy and regrettable sigh escaped her lips as she climbed back out a moment later, grabbing her bag and putting it across her body once more, then continuing her search for survivors. Whilst she continued on her way she had to avoid an abundance of debris and not to draw any unwanted attention that might diverge her from her path. Without warning she witnesses a mother being struck down by one of the alien creatures, her insides being torn right out of her abdomen, being shown no mercy before collapsing lifelessly to the ground and her son left frozen in fear. Unhesitantly she immediately ran towards the boy, who quite possibly could only be five years old, and now alone. Luckily she managed to push the boy down and away from the alien creature in enough time. A man in red, white and blue suddenly intervenes, slicing off the head of the alien with a swift fling of his shield.

“You could have been killed.” Panted the man, as he caught his shield on re-entry before looking down at her cradling the boy who’s crying uncontrollably in her arms.

“I couldn’t leave the boy. I’m a nurse...or trying to be anyway.” She says, smoothing the boy's hair in an effort to bring him some comfort.

“A nurse, huh? Explains it…but all due respects ma’am, you’re better off setting up medical attention away from here. There’s bound to be hundreds of them needing your help once out of here.” Steve said, hoping she’d take his word.

“I’m not leaving when I can give people immediate help. If I left everything for the cops and the fire department there’s potentially many more who might not survive.” It was clear to him she was a stubborn one from the way she's spoken.

He sighs and comes to the decision that they’re wasting precious time, requesting for back up on his coms, which thankfully came swiftly and the boy was taken to safety. “The names Steve Rodgers, ma’am and I advise you to stay close to me.” He advises.

“Morgan Pritchards and you don’t need to worry about me, it's everyone else.” She reassures him, in spite of his hesitant look.

Nonetheless, Morgan proved to be quick upon her feet and quite stealthy too, much to Steve’s surprise, although at a time like this he was thankful all the same. He also couldn’t fault her determination and moral code over protecting the other civilians as expected of her profession.

However no matter how good Morgan had been and worked alongside Steve closely she made an untimely move which cost her footing to slip up. Then she was swept up by a strong arm encircled around her waist tightly. The contents of her bag tipped out as she was being held onto at an angle and as she peered up she realised the God of Mischief himself had captured her. 

“Hey let her go!” Steve protests angrily, as Loki takes off into the sky on the enemy’s mode of transport and sees her struggling to pray herself free of his grasp. Before Steve can do anything one of the creatures blocks his path and forces him to take them on first then ultimately losing sight of Morgan completely.

Within moments Loki lands on top of Stark Tower, keeping his arm around Morgan’s waist tightly, forcing her to walk inside against her will as his captive. She wasn’t scared, yet oddly she felt some sort of magnetic draw towards him, an unexplainable feeling as she’d never seen him before. 

“Get off!” She screeched, alas to no avail, the God ignoring her struggles against him.  

Once inside he forces her to kneel, then he raises the scepter towards her chest, but doesn’t quite get to press it against her due to the impromptu interruption of Stark’s arrival. Morgan glances over her shoulder and sees the Iron suit piece by piece disassemble from Stark’s body by robotic arms as he walks the gangway. 

“Please tell me you’re going to appeal to my humanity.” Loki says mockingly, as Stark enters the tower and watches Morgan in the corner of his eye, ensuring she doesn’t move from her place.

“Er, actually, I’m planning to threaten you.” Stark says, while taking his time to enter, also seemingly remains as cool as a cucumber, despite the circumstances and the still ongoing attack outside. Of course he clocks onto Morgan kneeling on the floor and in his mind simultaneously he is calculating the best possible option to rescue her.

“You should have left your armour on for that.” Loki replies, slightly pointing the scepter at Stark as he slowly moves towards the Billionaire. 

“Yeah seen a bit of mileage and you got the, er, glowstick of destiny…” Stark says, as he points to the scepter and takes a few steps down onto the main floor with ease. The mere mention of the scepter being dubbed with such humour had even managed to make the God smile a little out of amusement. “Would you like a drink?” Stark adds as he rounds the bar.

“Stalling me won’t change anything.” Loki said, then he glances back and catches Morgan moving, his gaze instantly freezes her back in her kneeling position. Stark also sees this and stares at her with a serious look.

“No, no, no threatening…no drink, you sure? I’m having one.” Stark says, grabbing the scotch bottle off the shelf behind the bar and then turns to look back at Loki. 

“The Chitauri are coming…nothing will change that.” Loki says, whilst pacing towards the large glass window and switches the scepter into the opposite hand. His gaze out the window was only a brief moment before turning around to face Stark. “What have I to fear?”

“The Avengers…” Stark says casually and readies to pour himself some scotch. The confusion on the God’s face causes him to pause for half a beat and roll his eyes. “It’s what we call ourselves…sort of like a team. Earth’s mightiest heroes type thing…” He explains and pours himself the scotch.

“Yes, I’ve met them.” Loki said, a hint of amusement once again in his expression and his tone in a mocking kind of way.

“Yeah, takes us a while to get any attraction, I’ll give you that one…but let’s do a head count here…your brother the demigod…” Loki scoffs at the mere mention of Thor and begins to pace back towards Morgan. “A super-soldier, living legend, who kind of lives up to the legend. And then with breathtaking anger management issues and a couple of master assassins…and YOU big fella have managed to piss off every signal one of them.”

“That was the plan.” Loki mockingly-mirthed.

“Not a great plan.” Stark dismisses before he steps away from the bar with his tumbler of scotch in hand. “When they come and they will…they’ll come for you.”

“I have an army.” The God reminds Tony.

“We have a Hulk.” Tony counter reminded the God with ease.

“Oh I thought the beast had wandered off...” The God trails off.

“You’re missing the point…there’s no throne. There’s no version of this where you come out on top...now maybe your army comes and maybe it’s too much for us, but it’s all on you. Because if we can’t protect the Earth you can be damn well sure we’ll avenge it.” Stark…then takes a sip and briefly sees Morgan crawling along the floor behind Loki quietly, but he quickly snaps his gaze back to Loki so as not to draw any attention to her.

“How will your friends have time for me?” Loki asks as he prowls towards Stark completely oblivious to Morgan crawling up towards him. “When they’re too busy fighting you…” He closes in on Stark as the scepter powers up with a strange noise before Morgan grabs near the bottom end of it, instantly receiving a sharp pain shoved into her chest and lets it go, due to Loki shoving the scepter backwards into her. 

Loki rolls his shoulders followed by him pressing the tip against Tony’s chest. Yet nothing happens much to the God’s confusion that it normally works without much effort, but also to Morgan’s relief, even after he retires his actions still nothing happens.

“Oh performance issues…not uncommon. One out of five…” Stark manages to say before Loki wraps his free hand around his throat then lurches him out of the window. Glass shattering as Stark’s body hauls through it.

“No!” Morgan yells with her arm outstretched seeing Tony falling before Loki lurches for her.

The pair wrestle on the floor with the scepter between them. She tries holding her own against him the best she can, but ends up being flung off him with the force of his godly strength and the use of the scepter. She groans as she lands sprawled out away from him on the marble flooring and takes deep in takes of breaths whilst willing for the pain to go away. As she lays there she hears a swooshing of an Iron suit deploying and follows suit behind Tony. Loki then appears in her sight, having already gotten back up on his feet and towers above her. His gaze racks over her curves with a sly smile curled up on his lips. She’s disgusted, except not entirely, as below the surface she’s slightly aroused unexpectedly. Again it disgusts her to feel that way too. When Loki’s gaze trails upwards past her chest his eyes narrowed and the sly smile dissipates, as he noticed a marking on her left wrist above her head, her sleeve had moved down during the struggle and now drew his unwanted attention. He proceeds to crotch down to her and lightly his fingers trail over the mark upon her delicate skin, following the tail of a snake, and causing Morgan to shiver. He’d read about it many moons ago, but never did he once believe it to be anything other than an old wives tale, only seeing the mark quashed any doubts he had. In that moment he realises soulmates existed and she bore proof upon her skin of his spite animal.

Suddenly Stark comes flying back in through the broken window fully armoured up once more, having survived what would have been his death, then swipes Loki off his feet with a blast from his repulsor. Immediately following Loki sliding across the floor from the blast, the Tesseract amplifies the signal just outside the Stark Tower, making way for reinforcements of the army of Chitauri to invade. Tony is quick on the upkeep and starts to fend off against the oncoming army.

Meanwhile Loki is up once more and points the scepter at Morgan. “Stay here.” He growls, as she sits propped up on her elbows and watches him walk out onto the gangway, his horns, armour and cape materialising on his person in a shimmer of gold, just as Thor flies up and lands smoothly.

“Loki!” Thor calls, in that instant his brother looks at him, a slight gasp barely audible escapes Loki’s lips seeing him.”Turn off the Tesseractor or I will destroy it.”

“You can’t.There is no stopping it. There is only the war.” Loki says menacingly, tipping the scepter down towards Thor on the balcony below the gangway.

The brothers break into a fight, during which Thor sees a glimpse of the fear in Loki’s eyes, the horror creeping into his voice as he tries to hold himself off against him. During this interlude as they spoke Morgan had come out onto the balcony and ended up pushing herself between the brothers, holding her arms out to keep them separated, heavy breaths coming from both Gods as they looked between each other and her. Despite her keeping the peace temporally between them the Chitauri were still reaping havoc on New York around them, causing the sounds of distant screaming mixed with the alarms' continuous blaring, and crumbling sounds of nearby buildings. Steve and the rest of the Avengers doing their best to avenge Earth’s threats.

“Look at this…look around you, you think this madness will end with your rule?”

“It’s too late…it’s too late to stop it.”

“No, we can together.” Regardless of Thor’s words Loki pushes Morgan aside, and with a tiny sharp blade he stabs Thor in his abdomen, making him fall to his knees. However the wet shine to his eyes doesn’t go unnoticed by her after he’d done it, but Loki growls at her when she tries to approach him.

Mercifully Thor finds the strength to get back up and body slammed Loki to the ground before he rolls off the edge of the tower and lands on the back of Chitauri transport to get away.

“Are you alright, Miss?” Thor asks gently in a breathy way.

“Yeah…yeah I’m fine...” Morgan replies, although her mind is foggy and she doesn’t seem to be able to comprehend the swirling emotions inside her.

Thor nods along before apologising that he has to leave her and returns to the fight. She understood loud and clear. After he left she rushed back inside and began raiding the place for medical supplies so she too could get back out there to help. Albeit before getting too far into her search Loki comes back crash landing on the balcony following an explosive arrow shot at him from Hawkeye. Just as Morgan was going to go out to him the Hulk appeared from nowhere and sent the God through another part of the window, more glass shattering everywhere, the echoes of a Hulk cry filled her ears. Instead of intervening this time Morgan saw the God being thrown about and Hulk smashed repeatedly after being called ‘a dull creature.’

Eventually after the dust settled, the Tessa Tesseractor destroyed, putting a stop to the portal opening and the end of the war for good. Earth’s mightiest heroes had prevailed. Morgan approached the God carefully as he laid in a creator shape of himself in the flooring. He was wheezing in pain. Instinctively she knelt down to attend to him, her moral code, keeping him alive in the aftermath of his madness. At first he wouldn’t let her touch him, he was guiding himself, although his resistance gave in at the end. The fog cleared from his mind enough as he looked into her brown eyes and the unusual fluttering of his heart. When he seemed calm she took care of him, her hands soft on his skin and so attentive.

Later as Thor arrested his brother for his crimes Loki paused and looked Morgan over from head to toe. The other’s kept a watchful eye in case Loki tried anything.

“If it’s all the same to you…I’ll have that drink now.” Loki says huskily, biting his lower lip and his eyes darkened with desire, as he drank in her form.

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Source: @viviennes-tears

[galaxythreads]

Foegive me of this is a question you've answered in the past but, what are your thoughts on the scene at the beginning of Avengers 1 where Loki sort of doubles over/trips on his way out of the SHIELD base and it's never addressed?

Also thoughts on the canonicity of various myths to the MCU Loki backstory?

no worries, I don't mind answering questions twice. My blog is long and tales tales, so I understand if people don't want to hunt for answers and just reask stuff.

as far as your question goes,

SCREAMING SCREAMING SCREAMING. Do you KNOW how much I LOVE that SCENE (the answer is no because I haven't talked about it) but I LOVE THAT SCENE! That is THE scene to me. I love everything about how carefully it's handled because what you have to look for is SUBTEXT here, because the Avengers was written in a way that forces you to think. It doesn't lay everything out for you, it's intended you come to your own conclusions.

The Avengers trusts you and that is a very strange thing for media now. It's pretty rare to find one that doesn't treat you like an idiot.

Breaking this down:

The first frame with Loki is of him kneeling. That is the first thing we learn about him. I want you guys to remember that the introduction of a character is HUGE. It tells us the most important things for us to know about that character right now

So what do we need to know about Loki RIGHT THEn. Right at the start of the movie?

he's smart. He opened the portal with the Tesseract, from across space, and teleported himself to another planet. This is something no one has replicated (using an infinity stone from across space). Loki is said to "know it's workings like they never will" which says a lot about him.

Loki was GIVEN the scepter by the Chitauri, but if you watch that opening opening scene, it looks more like it's being forced on him than him GLADLY taking it. (There's this half second where the Other waits to make sure Loki is actually going to hold it. Loki doesn't reach for it until he has to. One of the most powerful objects in existence and it practically has to be shoved into his hands) Look how close their bodies are. Like bro???

-okay, then Loki comes through the portal and he is KNEELING. so the first, and I mean the VERY FIRST thing we need to know about Loki is that he is in the subservience of someone/thing else. This gif below is artwork of that moment, but still. Like. who do you think he's kneeling TO? Well, the opening scene of the Avengers showcases that the Other is kneeling to Thanos, Ergo, using the subtext trust that the director/writers have given us, that means Loki was kneeling to Thanos before he came through the portal.

And then, Loki comes out like a hunted animal, but he legitimately does not remember he's holding the scepter until Fury points it out to him. You can see him look down at it in confusion. And okay, WHY is he confused? I remember watching this for the first time at 14 and going huh, that's kinda weird he forgot he had the weapon. What this is trying to tell us is that this is not a familiar weapon to Loki AND -- it is doing something to him. It's emitting that same misty thing that it does when Loki possesses someone later. That wispy smoke is always so interesting to me because of the implications. The scepter doesn't do that unless it is FRESHLY possessing someone. And what do we know about Loki TWO SECONDS AGO?

he was kneeling to thanos.

Anyway, so Loki gives his name, is not a well man, and the scene you're actually referring to is this one:

which GETS ME EVERY TIME. I could talk aout this scene for hours. The implications of it. (Also if you've read my work YSFSLWFTCA, that man who grabs Loki's back is Nathan Swenson ;)

So I've been getting professional acting training for about 6-7 months now and one thing I have learned is that nothing makes it in the movie by accident. The director has to approve it, the editor, the producer, up the whole food chain. This was not Tom Hiddleston sneezing and then them keeping it in the movie because it's funny. So this was put in on purpose. They WANTED you to know that Loki isn't okay. And a scene like this would get like what? idk 3-6 takes at a minimum, which means that they flimed this ON PURPOSE 3-6 times. Tom Hiddleston was instructed to do this ON PURPOSE. That guy who approaches Loki's back was told to do that ON PURPOSE. Loki was supposed to be shown to be a mess physically. Like. Then they go and KEEP doing this later, when Loki can't get into the car and can barely keep himself upright. Loki doesn't start to look "okay" until Germany and even then he's not doing amazing.

What's interesting to me, beyond the obvious implications toward bodily harm - torture! :) - is the timing. Loki immediately topples when Clint hands the Tesseract to Selvig. There's something about Clint doing that that seems to cause him physical pain. That could be a coincidence, and I bet it is because it's not brought up again in the movie that the Tesseract exchanging hands gives Loki physical pain, but it is interesting.

Another interesting point is that Clint looks away, Selvig doesn't care, but that sheild agent Immediately moves up to put his hand on Loki's back to support him. And Loki doesn't flinch. That always struck me as weird, right, because even people who don't have trauma flinch when someone touches their back and they weren't expecting it. And Loki clearly wasn't? So why didn't he twitch at least a little? Tom Hiddleston is too good of an actor for that to be a mistake.

So to me that means that Loki just... doesn't have feeling in his spine at that moment. Or he was in too much pain to even register it. Loki was clearly tortured with some type of heat. If you watch him in this scene he's displaying all the signs of heat exhaustion. So I kinda think that maybe Loki got burned so badly on his back before this happened that he just... doesn't feel anything anymore. It had to have been recent for walking to nearly send him toppling, but Loki's back is a source of issues for the entire movie.

That is why this scene is here from a directing perspective. to SET UP Loki's back problems. The extent of them are left vague, but I think when Tom Hiddleston and Joss Whedon sat down to talk about Loki for the Avengers, one of the things they must have agreed on was that Loki was not in good physical condition and they planned to show that THE ENTIRE MOVIE. I don't know if they talked about torture or Thanos, but they talked about SOMETHING.

But I just...idk. That guy grabs Loki's back to support him in an effort to help and it's just so interesting to me. Because how does the mind control WORK then? Selvig is obsessed with the Tesseract. He almost seems possessed by that rather than Loki. Clint goes completely silent and doesn't do anything except the mission. THIS GUY immediately comes to take care of Loki, and Loki himself is ruthlessly efficient with one goal in his mind. So it's interesting. Subtext! :D

So what do I think about this scene. I think that Loki was tortured and his back is giving out and I LOVE THIS SCENE BECAUSE IT IS SO DARK BUT TRYING NOT TO BE.

Thanos' immediate response to something not going his way is torture and he knows Loki. Knows him well enough to pick his brother out of a crowd in Infinity War and leave him alive until the end. Knows him well enough to make his death personal. Strangulation is a crime of passion. Thanos hurt Loki and he knew Loki, and the idea that Thanos made sure that Loki wouldn't see the torture coming - by doing it to his back/spine - is just an extra layer of awful. Thanos left Thor alive. On purpose. He could have killed him. He didn't.

That was Loki's punishment. Leaving Thor alone. Because Thanos knew that would hurt him the most.

But Thanos also chose to kill Loki, and in infintiny war, while hunting the stones, Thanos doesn't make any unnecessary bodies. Which to me, means that Thanos had to kill Loki because he saw Loki as a threat.

So anyway, somehow I'm talking about Loki and Thanos again, who are my favorite horrible duo and I love talking about them because their relationship is so so messed up. I wish that the Loki series had DONE something with Thanos and Loki, but they didn't. :/

But why Loki's back? Like Thanos started with Loki's head in the post-credits scene of Thor 1:

why did he move to Loki's back? Also the fact that Thanos was having Loki hunt down the Infinity Stones through astral projection and/or enchantment is just so messed up and I love it. Wish it had been explored because THIS ^^^ was the giant beast I wanted poked at in Loki season 1.

[cookies-and-music]

Ghost. - part 6: The Night We Parted.

This chapter's musical suggestion is Love of my life by Queen.

Part 1 here - part 7 here

PAIRING: TVA!LokixOC

RATING: ALL

SUMMARY: Loki meets sombody at the TVA he once knew. Unfortunately she doesn't seem to remember him.

This chapter is a little bit angsty but it's all for the sake of the plot.

Who am I kidding, this was angsty from the start.

Perhaps it was the influence of the TVA that transmitted this conviction to her, but Lydia felt wrong. The erroneous copy of a corrected version of herself. And she threw herself into her work, hoping to prove that this was her better version, starting a sort of insane competition with herself. The problem was that Lydia had never seen her file, afraid to know exactly what she had missed, so she didn't even know what she was competing against.

Until that moment.

The recording contained everything. Every encounter, every exchange, every glance, every moment.

"There's only one place where you can find such a source of energy." "Which is?" "The Stark Tower in New York."

Lydia glanced at Loki, who didn't take his eyes off the footage.

The file really had everything, up to her last day of life. Their whole story, from her perspective.

Midgard, 2012. Battle of New York.

"I want you back to the bunker."

Lydia shook her head amusedly. "No way, I'm finally back in New York, and there's no way I'm going back to that shithole at the end of the world."

Lydia - Agent Prichett - sat facing Loki in the small space at the back of the black jet they had stolen from SHIELD.

"I'm serious," Loki put his hands on his legs, leaning towards her "when the Chitauri arrive, the situation won't be good."

"Don’t you say? I thought you wanted to have tea with the Avengers while playing with one of your space pets."

"Lydia" he said impatiently.

"Loki" she imitated his voice.

There was silence for a moment.

"You'll lose."

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do. They're bigger and more powerful than you, it's an uneven match" Lydia shrugged.

"But if I were to win—"

"It won't happen" she decreed, looking at him severely before taking a deep breath, softening her expression "You still have time, Loki. Stop everything, withdraw your orders."

"They'll come anyway," Loki shook his head.

"And how?"

Loki didn't answer, and Lydia exhaled a frustrated breath.

Back at the TVA, all of that, Loki knew. He had seen it. What he hadn't seen was everything Lydia had done once they arrived in New York.

When the Avengers arrived in New York, Lydia led Black Widow to the platform where, from the device containing the Tesseract, the beam that created the portal between worlds originated.

"How do we destroy it?" "With this" Lydia raised Loki's scepter with a smirk. "How did you get that?" Romanoff raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you know me, I have a couple of aces up my sleeve" Lydia shrugged. "Well, how do we do it?"

TVA, 2021

After closing the portal, Lydia and Natasha Romanoff descended from the tower to rush to support the other members of the ground team with what remained of the Chitauri. It was at that point that debris from a building collapsed, hitting Agent Princhett, and on the screen appeared the words

<Lydia Pinchett - End of recording>.

Lydia shrugged as she couldn't take her eyes off the footage. Her death had been so... unheroic. A piece of debris? Seriously? Of course, not all endings have to be particularly grandiose, but that... that was pathetic. Not to mention the fact that she had just found out that Loki, the man sitting next to her, who had organized the closest thing to a TVA picnic under the stars, had tried to destroy her entire world and had torn apart a good percentage of New York.

Loki, for his part, had his brain spinning.

"What... what happened?"

"I died."

"Yes, I got that," he turned to her, "I mean in New York. Why did you lead her there? I mean... I would have won."

Lydia raised an eyebrow, moving her eyes from him to the screen.

"Why... why did you betray me?" Loki turned his torso towards her.

"Loki... she was never on your side," Lydia shook her head, looking at Loki's hurt expression.

"That's not true... we, I mean you and I... you saw the same thing I saw. There was complicity, there was—"

"Manipulation, Loki," she interrupted him, "that's what I saw. Every time she talked to you, she wasn't just curious about your motivations, she didn't want to know you because you interested her. She was interrogating you."

Loki shook his head, turning to the other side.

"I know it hurts, but it's true," Lydia extended a hand, placing it on his shoulder, but Loki shrugged it off, "I'm sorry you misunderstood."

"Misunderstood?" Loki turned abruptly, "You deceived me!"

"Me? I didn't do anything. While those things were happening, I was here," she pointed a finger at herself, "Variant, remember?"

But Loki didn't listen; he was lost in his thoughts and anger.

"It's your fault if I lost."

"I didn't ask you to attack my planet. I'm only guilty of defending my home," she shook her head annoyed.

"I trusted you, I opened up to you, and you stabbed me in the back."

"From what pulpit comes the preaching," Lydia forced a laugh, "what do you want, Loki? Apologies for something I didn't do?" she raised her voice slightly.

"You hurt me!"

"I didn't!" she yelled, standing up, "As far as I'm concerned, I only met you a few weeks ago!"

"But you're her," Loki stood too, pointing to the screen, "and if there's one thing I know for sure, it's that people don't change," he shook his head with a bitter smile, "a backstabber doesn't wait for anything but the right moment to strike again."

"And you're certainly an expert at that," she spat, approaching him.

Loki stared at her for a moment before bending slightly so they were face to face.

"At least I know who I am."

They stared at each other full of anger for long endless seconds before Lydia took a breath through clenched teeth.

"It's not my fault you fell in love with someone who manipulated you."

Loki could have started a long speech, probably accompanied by a presentation with about twenty slides, about the fact that this wasn't love. But it wouldn't have made sense. The only relevant issue is that the eyes he had in front of him, those he had just believed were the sweetest and brightest in the universe, now seemed to him those of a viper.

"Get back to your work, Prichett, trample anyone who stands between you and your mission since it's the only thing you care about."

Loki passed her, giving her a slight push. He strode across the room and left through the door, slamming it shut behind him.

"You fucking murderer!" She screamed, trembling with anger.

Lydia grabbed the computer keyboard and, with a scream, threw it against a wall. "I didn't do anything!" she grabbed the monitor and, tearing out all the wires, threw it to the other side of the room, repeating louder, "I didn't do anything!!" as she trembled and tears covered her face.

She collapsed into the chair, rested her head on the desk, and covered it with her arms while repeating softly, with a voice interrupted by sobs, "I didn't do anything."

No more starry skies for these two. Next chapter will be connected to canon events. Please go on supporting as I'm writing a short sequel. Or I'll just make this fic longer. Dunno. Ps. Should I make a masterlist with all the links for this fic? Is it even needed?

[lokigodofaces]

okay i actually think the way loki's scepter works is fascinating. like so often people write it off as clint, selvig, and even loki being completely mindless but canon shows that isn't even remotely true.

first off, there are multiple ways someone can be controlled. loki isn't being affected the way clint and selvig are. loki is being influenced. while canon never specifies what that means exactly, from what we can understand the scepter heightened negative emotion (insecurity, betrayal, anger at his family, feeling that he was raised to be a king and he darn well will be, etc) and messed with some memory (loki tells thor that thor threw him off the bifrost (i don't remember the exact wording) when we know that loki himself let go while thor was very upset over it and loki saw it). but otherwise he was himself. the same strategic warrior he was before. thanos told him to give him the tesseract and in turn he'd lend him the chitauri to take over the planet. thanos never came up with a plan for how to go about doing that. it was loki that came to earth assessed his options and went with it. thanos had no way of knowing specific parts of the plan--how would he know that selvig would be necessary to activate the portal? he didn't know who selvig was. but loki showed up determined which people had skills that would be needed (clint is skilled in combat and duty driven, selvig is the scientist and most knowledgeable on asgardian science, we can assume the others he controls have skills needed we weren't shown) got to a place where those people could use those skills and bam! invasion! that was all on him getting to the battle and seeing what options were there.

and then there's clint and selvig who had a much more invasive effect. they truly were controlled by loki and forced to join him. but they aren't the mindless minions people sometimes paint them as and canon shows it. when they stole the iridium, it was clint that made that plan! in the deleted scene (some of it is in the final release, if you don't consider the deleted scenes canon. i will bold the text that does appear in the final film) loki (after asking about the avengers) says he wants to test them and draw attention to himself. clint tells him it was a risk, and loki confirms. to which clint says that could be useful as he clearly is formulating an idea. loki asks clint what he needs, and clint responds with "an eyeball." this isn't the conversation you would find between someone under complete control and the controller. loki recognizes that clint understands shield's strategies and himself is a good strategist & lets him come up with a plan. loki has absolutely no problem being the distraction/eye provider to let clint pull off the heist. we also know from a little before this that it was clint that chose the location due to the needs to hide the tesseract. in other words, the only change was their loyalty to loki. theirs minds were not lost. they could strategize and experiment and act as they would before, but only with the added addition that they wanted to help loki conquer the planet. & it's very interesting that loki treated them more like partners than subjects. he knew they had skills and knowledge loki didn't, so loki trusted them to make wise decisions (and they did).

not to mention what selvig said when his mind was released. he said he knew what he was doing. some inner part of him knew this wasn't right and he put a failsafe into the machine. while we are never given an exact example with clint, he didn't kill fury when he shot him. & if fury had been dead oh man there wouldnt have been a task force called in nyc wouldve been nuked man the council wouldve gone crazy. & in said deleted scene clint does admit that he admires fury, & loki asks if that's why he didnt kill fury. well, very well could be true. and as for loki, oh man, this has been meta'd to death. so many ways that he sabotaged his own plan. he had the invasion based from stark's tower despite knowing that stark would likely have weapons at his place & didnt do anything about the obvious ones & acted all surprised when tony summoned the other suit. he sabotaged the plan in so many ways it's insane. showing that the control/influence isn't perfect.

i find it fascinating. & there's nothing wrong with writing clint as mindless or loki as controlled the same way or whatever it may be (it's fanfiction, it isn't canon, y'all can do whatever you want) and it often makes for very nice fics with lots of angst:). but it is very cool this system of mind control that isn't a total thing where there's zero choice.

[thorchickmotorchick]

This is my first time writing a post or something online.. (Not counting the failed attempt 10 minutes ago.) I'll just be posting my THOUGHTS AND CANON THINGS about Thor/Loki. Some people will be interested, some will not...

Anyway.. The current topic is about the Dark World. You know, it seemed like Thor's attitude towards Loki was a little harsh, but justified by Loki's actions and Thor's character. But I still had the feeling that we had missed something.

And yes, maybe I was right.. Quite a long time ago I found an official manga about the events after the first Avengers film. The plot itself is about infection with the Chitauri virus, but that’s not what we’re talking about now. Thor became infected. And he had a nightmare.

Guess who was in this nightmare?

Certainly. Loki. (Zombie Assemble. 2017, manga)

The point is that Thor CONSTANTLY has dreams where he tries to save Loki, but gets a knife in.. Oh, sorry, nope, he got the scepter right through😮.. (Joke, joke, heh..)

Why did I say constantly?

"Avengers Assemble" season 2 episode 21. (Let's ignore the fact that the animated series is a different universe..😊)

Context: Thor is hit by a villain's beam and his guilt is released from his mind.

It hurts me to look at Thor.. He really suffered because of this..

My conclusion: Thor literally blamed himself for Loki becoming a villain. He believed that he was responsible for this, he had to be stern, hiding the wounds from the inside. The movies... They didn't show us what was going on in Thor's head. Imagine how desperate Thor was seeing these dreams over and over again? He stored up anger inside himself. I dread to imagine what he dreamed about the day Loki first “died.” I dream that Thor will have his own series or animated series.

Next topic: Also about the Dark Wold, about the Desire of the heart. (Haha, yes, intrigue. I forgot to say, sorry about English. I use a translator.)

I don't care how you take it, romantically or brotherly. It doesn't matter to me. Maybe I should have said it more gently... But anyway, I'm wondering if anyone is interested.

[winters8child]

It´s been a long, long time

Chapter 35

I was trapped in my own body; my legs and arms no longer obeyed me. Consciousness flickered in and out, leaving me with gaps in my memory. I had no idea how I ended up in this tower, overlooking the city.

I tried to scream, but no sound escaped my mouth. My only purpose now was to obey Loki and his commands. He loomed over me, his scepter in hand, a sinister smile playing on his lips as he caressed my face. "I have an extraordinary task for you, my pet," he purred, circling me until he stopped behind me.

Leaning in, his hot breath brushed against my ear as he whispered, "Kill the captain." A flicker of recognition surfaced, but it was quickly smothered by the overwhelming compulsion to obey. My purpose was clear, and pleasing Loki became my sole focus.

"If you do the job to my satisfaction, I might even keep you," he drawled into my ear. The notion of being kept like an animal stirred something within me, but I shook it off. Doubt had no place here. "Now go and do as you are told," he commanded.

Stepping into the elevator, I descended to the lobby, my mind blank except for the mission.

As I exited the building, chaos greeted me. People screamed, and Chitauri soldiers swarmed from a portal in the sky, their shrieks mingling with the sounds of destruction. Cars exploded, and the air was thick with panic and smoke.

But nothing could deter me from my mission. I just had to find the thickest part of the attack; that's where he would be. It was almost as if I could sense him like an invisible string connected us. I walked through the chaos, ignoring the cries for help and the civilians writhing in pain as Loki's army decimated them.

It didn't take long to find him. Surrounded by the Chitauri, he fought them off bravely, unaware of my presence. I watched him for a moment, admiring his righteous resolve. He would fight to the death if it meant saving even one person.

After defeating every enemy, he slumped against an overturned car, catching his breath. As I approached, stepping over the fallen Chitauri, my hand instinctively gripped my gun. "There you are," he said, relief in his voice. "I was worried about you. Are you alright?" He stood and started walking toward me. I should have killed him by now, but I hesitated.

This was wrong. It went against everything I believed in, yet I still pulled my gun and aimed it at his head. He smiled at first, confused. "What are you doing?" he asked, frowning. My whole body tensed, an intense pain shot through my brain, and my hand started to shake.

He slowly lifted his hand as realization dawned on him. "Just put your gun down. You don't want to do this," he said, his voice stern but gentle. I tried to steady my breath; I was losing control. I should just shoot him and get it over with. He took cautious steps toward me, likely aiming to disarm me. "Loki is controlling you, but you're stronger than this. Don't let him," he urged, coming closer.

He was just trying to manipulate me. "Shut up!" I yelled, pulling back the trigger. I wasn't sure if I was shouting at him or the voices in my head. My hand shook more violently, and my head throbbed. It was now or never. I gripped the gun with both hands, took a final aim, and shot.

He went down with a grunt. Before I could finish the job, something or someone struck me on the head, and everything went dark.

I woke to the rhythmic beeping of machines and a throbbing pain in my head. My entire body ached. Struggling to recall the events of the previous day, I found only blankness. When I dared to open my eyes, I saw Steve sleeping in a chair, bundled up. His right arm was bandaged, and he was still wearing his suit pants and boots.

I rubbed my forehead, hoping to conjure my lost memories. The last thing I remembered was being on the helicarrier when a bomb went off. As I tried to sit up, I realized I was tied to the bed. I pulled and struggled against the restraints around my wrists, but they held firm. There must have been a reason why they really didn't want me to get out of this bed.

I must have fallen into a frenzy again. Had I hurt Steve? On closer inspection, the room looked more like a lab than a hospital room. Were they going to experiment on me? But Steve wouldn't let that happen, I tried to reassure myself. Yet, what if I really was the one who had hurt him?

I straightened up as much as possible to look out of the window, trying to figure out where I was. "We're at the Avengers Tower," Natasha said, noticing my efforts. She glanced over at Steve. "We brought you here after you hit your head... after I hit you on the head, to be precise," she added.

"That was the only way to get Loki out of your head," she explained, seeing the confusion on my face. I exhaled a sigh of relief. It was Loki's magic, not my own issues, that had caused me to be tied to this bed. I was almost too afraid to ask what I had done under his control. It couldn't be something too terrible, I thought, or I’d be in a prison cell instead of a comfortable hospital bed.

I looked at Steve, who was stirring in his sleep. "What did he make me do?" I asked Natasha.

She walked over to my bed and removed the restraints. "It looks like he wanted you to kill Steve. You shot him in the arm before I knocked you out," she answered.

I rubbed my wrists; they were red and the restraints had left an imprint, but it quickly disappeared thanks to the super soldier serum. Meanwhile, Steve had already woken up and tentatively walked over to my bed.

"I will leave you two alone," Natasha said with a smile and slipped out of the room.

Steve sat down on the edge of my bed and took my hand in his. "How are you feeling?"

I glanced at the bandage on his arm. "Shouldn't I be asking you? I'm so sorry for shooting you. I tried to gain back control but I was not strong enough," I apologized. It should heal relatively quickly considering the serum, but it should not have happened.

He took my face into his hands, looking deeply into my eyes. "It's over now, that is all that matters. We can go home and forget about all of this."

That was all I needed to hear. Steve could make me feel safe just because he was near me. I leaned into his touch and gazed up into his eyes as he closed the gap between us, kissing me softly.

I closed my eyes and let his warmth envelop me. With him, I could let myself fall. His hands dropped to my waist and he pulled me closer to him without breaking the kiss. I had my hands in his hair; they looked more golden than usual, the sun shining on us through the big glass windows.

We broke apart when someone behind us cleared their throat. I was surprised to see a red-faced Dr. Banner standing at the door.

"Sorry, Dr. Banner...we were just..." Steve stammered while trying to fix his disheveled hair.

I looked down at my hospital gown, trying to straighten it, just to busy my hands. I felt like a teenager who got caught making out by their parents.

"I should have knocked, I'm sorry. I just wanted to tell you that you are free to go. Everything seems to be normal and you are obviously not trying to kill him anymore," Bruce told us.

We packed up our stuff the same day and went down into the lobby where a certain redhead was waiting for us. She smiled when she saw us approach. "You two could stay here if you wanted to, you know. We have living quarters in the tower; that's where I stay. Tony is here most of the time, and Bruce said he will be staying here too. The tower has all the amenities you could need," she explained.

Steve looked down at me with a questioning look, leaving the decision up to me. I loved living in Brooklyn; that apartment was a part of our past and Steve and I could enjoy our solitude together. On the other hand, getting to know the team better could be important, but that did not mean I had to live here.

She noticed that I was hesitating and put her hand on my shoulder. "You can think it through, no pressure, it's just an offer," she said. I sighed in relief; I was not good at making decisions on the spot. She pulled me into a hug. "Just don't be a stranger. I'm so glad to have another woman on the team; these guys can be tiring."

She patted Steve on the arm and wished us farewell, waving to us while the elevator doors closed with a ding.

After an hour-long drive, we finally arrived home. It felt like I had not been here for weeks, but in reality, it was just five days. It was late evening by now and I was starving. I had not eaten the whole day and the sounds coming from my stomach made that clear. I let myself fall onto the couch, sinking into the pillows while calling for Steve. He leaned over the back of the couch and smiled at me.

"You are hungry, I know. Pizza?" he asked.

I nodded. "Pepperoni," I said while he was already picking up the keys from the bowl by the door.

"And don't forget the garlic bread!" I quickly added before he put on his leather jacket and answered, "I would never," with a playful tone. I had planned to continue the book I had started a month ago and still had not made a dent in. Superheroes did not read much, it seemed. I could not find it on the couch table where I could have sworn I had left it. Ultimately, laziness won over my desire to read, so I stayed put, staring at the ceiling.

I must have fallen asleep because I could already hear Steve's steps at the back of the couch as they circled it and stopped in front of me. I slowly opened my eyes and sat up, but he was nowhere to be seen and the lights in the apartment were turned off. It was raining outside and thunder was booming through the air, the curtains fluttering from the wind. Why was the window open, I wondered.

A flash of massive lightning struck, illuminating the room for just a fraction of a second, but it was long enough to see the man sitting in the reading chair opposite me. He was staring at me, motionless, the lower half of his face covered by a mask. I screamed, jumping up from the couch, but he still did not move.

My handgun was still in my backpack, sitting in the foyer; I would never be able to reach it in time. I slowly backed away, my eyes not leaving his face. It was so dark in the room that I could not make out any details of his face. A second lightning strike was so loud that I did not hear our apartment door open.

Steve stepped inside and turned on the lights, seeing my pale face. "What happened?" he asked, putting down the pizzas on the dresser. I looked over to the chair where the man should have been, but it was empty.

"There was a guy with a mask. He was staring at me," I said, running over to the open window to look outside. "He must have come through the window," I continued.

"Are you sure?" Steve asked, putting his hand on my back. "I don't see anyone," he added, peeking his head out of the window. It would not be the first time that I had crazy dreams, I thought to myself, not knowing that this was not the last time I would see that man.

Next Chapter

[anonymousewrites]

Portal to My Heart (Book 1) Alternate Chapter Six

Loki x Reader

Alternate Chapter Six: Into the Original Timeline

Summary: What if instead of escaping the timeline and becoming variants, (Y/N) and Loki continued on their path in the original timeline?

Author's Note: Welcome to my Alternate (or really Original) Timeline Loki x Reader. I'm going to start a book that follows the original Thor: Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok, and Avengers Infinity War timeline of the Marvel universe to show what would have happened between Loki and the MC if they hadn't gone to the TVA and such. Fair warning, as my Book 2 showed, it will not have a happy ending, so just know you're not going to be necessarily satisfied. But we have the LOKI series to keep the romance going! And now, without further ado, what could/would have been:

            (Y/N) could hear the fight continuing outside. She could see Chitauri and their strange tank creatures flying by. She could see flames and smoke from destroyed buildings. She hated to think about the lives lost in the battle. (Y/N) sighed. She hoped it would be over soon with the “Avengers” the victors.

            Suddenly, the sky outside went dark. Storm clouds rolled in. Lightning crackled above. Then, lightning crackled down the Empire State Building. It was then redirected, undoubtedly by Thor, over Stark Tower. (Y/N) guessed it was probably to hit the Chitauri coming out from the portal.

            After that, relatively clear skies returned. Screams and explosions were all (Y/N) could hear. She despised it, but there was no safe way of getting down from the tower, nor could she really help. So, she decided to have a little bit of fun during the possible end of the world. Stark’s bar was pretty out of the way, so (Y/N) sat down behind it so people couldn’t see here and had a drink.

            Cheers to the end of the world, thought (Y/N), toasting to herself. She was alone with her thoughts. They were clouded with thoughts of Loki. She was curious about what he was really like, beyond whatever was controlling him. (Y/N) had felt how the scepter wanted to influence her, whispering without words about how much power and revenge it could bring her, magnifying her negative feelings. She wondered how much of what he was doing was him, and how much was the scepter. Loki possessed it for much longer than the minutes she held it. Who knew how much his mind was twisted? Granted, (Y/N) knew he definitely had some mischievous tendencies and loved power, but she had seen some forms of kindness in him, although only briefly. She wanted to see more since he was very interesting.

            Summoned by her thoughts, she heard a crash on the balcony outside. Peeking over the bar, she saw Loki standing up angrily. His helmet had been knocked off. He was about to attack when the Hulk slammed him through the remaining windows of Stark Tower’s top floor. (Y/N) winced at the force by which Loki hit the wall and then the floor. Hulk roared and approached the raven-haired man.

            “Enough!” cried Loki furiously, standing up. “You are, all of you, beneath me! I am a god, you dull creature. And I will not be bullied by—.”

            Hulk grabbed him by the ankle and smashed him repeatedly against the floor. Loki was left on his back in a dent in the ground, groaning.

            “Puny god,” huffed Hulk as he left the building.

            (Y/N) was deciding whether or not to come out. She watched first as Black Widow dropped down, grabbed the scepter, and left again quickly. She decided not to question it as the assassin was probably helping save the world. Bracing hers

            Loki whimpered slightly from the pain.

            (Y/N) was deciding whether or not to come out. She watched first as Black Widow dropped down, grabbed the scepter, and left again quickly. She decided not to question it as the assassin was probably helping save the world. Bracing herself slightly for what she would have to deal with, she finished her glass of wine. (Y/N) then grabbed a towel and a bottle of vodka. She walked calmly over to Loki.

            “You look like how I feel,” she muttered.

            Loki scowled at her. “Spare me your pity.”

            (Y/N) rolled her eyes. “No worries, I’m not pitying the guy who’s started a war in New York.”

            “Then what are you doing?” questioned Loki.

            “You saved me from pain, so I’m saving you from some,” she answered. “Don’t tell anyone I did this, and I won’t tell anyone what you did.”

            “Very well,” said Loki.

            (Y/N) poured the vodka onto the towel and began dabbing into onto the trickster’s forehead where many wounds were. He hissed slightly at the sensation, but (Y/N) continued. No words were spoken between them. Both were planning on never speaking about this. In fact, if Loki lost, which it very much seemed he would, they were probably never going to speak again in their lives. (Y/N) and Loki were both disappointed since they had found someone interesting that brought some excitement into life, but neither would admit that. So, they contented themselves with silence, resigning to push away the emotions that they didn’t like.

            “There,” said (Y/N), finishing. She looked outside and saw Chitauri falling to the ground from where they had been flying. They all seemed to be “shutting off,” if living beings could do that. “It’s over.”

            “I’ve lost,” said Loki, growling slightly.

            “We did warn you,” said (Y/N), “And now you’re going to pay for your crimes. Have fun!” She stood and placed the alcohol bottle back in the bar.

            Loki smirked up at her. “If there’s one thing you should remember of me, it is that I rarely allow others to determine my future.”

            She turned back to him and nodded. “True, you did spend quite a bit of effort ridding yourself of the scepter’s control.”

            “And as usual, my efforts yielded results,” said Loki.

            “Well, I suppose I should congratulate you,” remarked (Y/N), smirking, “But I’m afraid you’re about to be rather disappointed.” She saw the Avengers landing on the balcony.

            “Oh, joy,” said Loki sarcastically. He dragged himself up the stairs before turning around. He looked up at the group of heroes who were looking down at him threateningly. “If it’s all the same to you, I’ll have that drink now,” said Loki cheekily.

            The Avengers looked unamused.

            (Y/N), on the other hand, snorted. “Good luck with that. Most of the bottles and glasses are destroyed.”

            “All right, get him on his feet,” said Iron Man, “We can all stand around posing up a storm later.” He glanced back at Loki. “By the way, feel free to clean up.”

            Loki’s hands were chained, and Thor stood by him so he couldn’t run off.

            “Who gets the, uh, magic wand?” asked Romanoff.

            “STRIKE team’s coming to secure it,” said Rogers.

            SHIELD agents began to stream in. Some were doctors and walked over to (Y/N), but she waved them off. She had enough of people being all up in her business for today.

            “We can take that off your hands,” said one agent to Black widow. (Y/N) thought his name might be Sitwell.

            Black Widow handed it over, and Sitwell looked at it in awe.

            “Don’t mess around with that thing,” advised (Y/N).

            “Yeah, unless you want your mind erased,” said Barton, taking a drink he stole from the bar.

            “And not in the fun way,” said (Y/N).

            “We promise to be careful.” Sitwell placed the scepter in a silver case.

Captain America pressed his earpiece. “On my way down to coordinate search-and-rescue.”

   ��        Loki rolled his eyes and transformed into the Captain. “ ‘On my way down to coordinate search-and-rescue.’ ” He transformed back. “I mean, honestly, how do you keep your food down?”

            Thor took out a small device that then expanded. It was a muzzle, which he then placed on Loki’s mouth. “Shut up.”

            (Y/N) snickered at Loki’s face and followed everyone to the elevator. She just wanted to go home and sleep for days. Unfortunately, now she had to deal with being right next to Loki and a bunch of SHIELD agents.

            Carrying a silver briefcase with the Tesseract in it, Stark was the last to get into the elevator after the SHIELD agents sent it back up. Behind him, Hulk attempted to get in.

            “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said Thor.

            “Hey, hey. Buddy!” said Stark. “What do you think? Maximum occupancy has been reached.”

            The doors began to slide closed as Hulk growled.

            “Take the stairs,” advised Hawkeye.

            “Yeah,” said Stark.

            Hulk was getting annoyed.

            If I have to deal with a brawl with the Hulk, I’m running away to a random island where none of this shit will bother me again, thought (Y/N).

            “Stop, stop,” said Stark as Hulk raised a fist.

            Too late. As the doors closed, Hulk dented them.

            “Oh, come on,” said Stark, exasperated.

            (Y/N) raised an eyebrow at the dent. “I would hate to get hit by that.”

            Loki glared at her, but she just smiled innocently at him. The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. They all walked out into Stark Tower’s lobby. Six armed guards remained on either side of Loki, and most of the other avoided being near him, but (Y/N) didn’t care. She was right in front of him while Stark and Thor walked farther up. They halted in front of some SHIELD higher-ups, including Mr. Pierce. (Y/N) found him as disgusting as every other government official, especially since he always looked out for himself more than the good of the people.

            “Uh, may I ask you where you’re going?” questioned Pierce.

            “Bit of lunch and then Asgard,” said Thor. “I’m sorry, you are…?”

            “Alexander Pierce,” answered Stark, “He’s the man above the folks behind Nick Fury.”

            “Oh,” said Thor in realization.

            “My friends call me Mr. Secretary,” said Pierce.

            “More like Mr. Suspicious,” muttered (Y/N).

            The guards to either side didn’t hear her, but Loki’s eyes crinkled in a smile that couldn’t be seen because of his muzzle.

            “I’m going to have to ask you to turn that prisoner and the girl over to me,” said Pierce.

            “Excuse me?” questioned (Y/N), crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

            “We were recording as much as we could of Loki in Stark Tower. You gave off some strong energy similar to the Tesseract,” said Pierce.

            Shit, thought (Y/N), sighing.

            Thor and Stark turned to her, and she shrugged casually. There was no point in denying what she’d done if there was proof.

            “We are going to investigate what caused it,” said Pierce.

            “By experimenting on me?” (Y/N) raised an eyebrow challengingly.

            “You will just be participating in some tests,” replied Pierce.

            Thor butted in. “Loki will be answering to Odin himself, and Asgard has knowledge beyond Earth’s. We would be able to help Lady (Y/N) there.”

            “No, he’s going to answer to us. Odin can have what’s left. And she will be perfectly fine in our care,” said Pierce.

            Care my ass. You’re going to turn me into a brainwashed weapon who will do all your dirty work.

            Loki and (Y/N) simultaneously rolled their eyes.

            “And I’m going to need that case,” said Pierce, glancing down at the Tesseract’s container. “That’s been SHIELD’s property for over seventy years.”

            One of Pierce’s associates tried to take the case from Stark, who pushed him back.

            “Hand over the case, Stark,” ordered Pierce.

            Thor and Stark put up a hand to keep the government officials back.

            “I’m not gonna argue who’s the higher authority here,” said Stark.

            “I need the case,” enunciated Pierce.

            “I know you’ve got a lot of pull, I’m just saying, jurisdiction…” said Stark.

            “Okay, then give me the case,” said Pierce, becoming annoyed. He grabbed the case’s handle.

            “Well, jurisdiction…” The billionaire tightened his hold, even as multiple agents tried to take it from him.

            “Hand it over,” ordered an agent.

            “Get your hands off me!” exclaimed Stark.

            Before Pierce or Stark could further argue, Thor plucked the suitcase out of Stark’s hands. Everyone’s eyes went to the tall, muscular man.

            “This will return to Asgard. My people will guard it properly,” said Thor.

            No one was about to argue with the god.

            “Fine.” The words came out sharply from Pierce, frustrated at having been thwarted but knowing he didn’t have the power at the moment to challenge Thor. He turned to (Y/N), and she narrowed her eyes. “So, you have your prisoner and your artifact. We’ll be leaving with Miss (Y/N) in order to discuss the strange power surges we sensed during the battle.”

            No thanks, no way in Hell, thought (Y/N). And so she turned to Thor and smiled. “Actually, I’d like to learn what Asgard’s knowledge on such power is. They clearly have more experience than Earth does.”

            Loki nearly snorted with laughter at how sickly-sweet (Y/N) was being. (Y/N) glared at him with a look that said “don’t-mess-this-up-this-is-my-ticket-out.”

            Thor didn’t notice the exchanged and grinned. “What a fine idea, Lady (Y/N)! I’m glad you agree!” He smiled at Stark, Pierce, and the rest of the mortals. “Well, then, we’ll be heading off!”

            “Do not do that disappearing-portal-thing in the middle of my building,” said Stark. “It’s been through enough already. Pepper’s gonna kill me about the remodeling costs.”

            “The park is big enough,” said Captain America.

            “Excellent!” Thor grabbed Loki and hauled him with him.

            (Y/N) smirked at Pierce before following them out. She had no idea what she was about to step into, but if it meant getting out of Pierce and SHIELD’s control and having some autonomy, then (Y/N) was going to take the opportunity. She was going to find freedom.

            (But seriously, did it have to involve god politics?)

Taglist:

@alexpangender

@technikerin23

@kikster606

[five-rivers]

Life's Great Lie Chapter 18

AO3

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Cujo circled.  He was a good boy.  He was the best boy – that was a fact, his person told him so – but even he had to look for things, and there were a lot of interesting smells in the air.  Well, there were always a lot of interesting smells, but the smells today were interesting-er.  Along with the flashes of light, the dust, the noise—

There was just a lot going on. 

But!  That was okay!  Cujo liked challenges!  Challenges were fun!  And he was going to get that stick.  He just had to sniff it out, first. 

Ah-hah!  There it was!  All shiny and straight with a rounder, shinier, pointier bit on top.  He snatched it up off the broken car it was on (Why was it broken?  Who cared?) (Cujo didn’t know this, because he was a dog, but over fifteen pounds of enchanted gold, bronze, and topaz, falling from over a hundred stories, made an impact.  Specifically, fifteen pounds impacting at close to two hundred and fifty miles per hour, imparting over six hundred pounds of force – more than enough, considering the narrow profile of the object, to put a significant dent in the roof of a sedan.) and flew up in a spiral pattern. 

His person was nearby, yes, but… Where?  Usually, it was easier for Cujo to sniff him out, but now… now, there was something obscuring his scent. 

Cujo circled the tall building restlessly.  Where was his person?  Where?  Where?  It should have been much easier to find his person than it was to find the stick!  That’s how things were supposed to go, wasn’t it?

Oh!  There!  On top of the tall building!  It was his person’s friend!  Maybe he could play with Cujo! 

He zoomed down and deposited the stick in his lap, tail wagging. 

.

“Oh,” said Tucker, staring wide-eyed at the Scarab Scepter, covered, as it was, in green-tinted dog drool, “crap.”

.

“Oh,” said Pharaoh Duulaman, taking a moment to reward the beast who had retrieved his scepter with a pat on the head, “wonderful.”

.

Erik Selvig stumbled back into the penthouse, looking for a closet to hide himself in as burning sand from nowhere whipped itself into a storm.  He was, to be honest, in shock.  How many mind-controlling scepters could there possibly be?

.

Sam landed lightly on top of the Ops Center, powering down her jet pack momentarily, and propping the bazooka against her shoulder.  She was good at using it – no false modesty here – but it required work and attention, and she didn’t want her attention to be split while she was in the air.

“Tucker, is that sandstorm you?  Did you get your scepter back, somehow?”  She paused.  “Tucker?”  No response.  “Hey, everyone sees that sandstorm, righ—”

There was a huge flash through one of the sand clouds, followed almost instantly by a deep, bone-shaking, ear-splitting rumble.  A space whale fell out of the sky, smoking.

“I love storms like this!  Keep up the good work, Tucker!”

Sam bit her lip.  “If no one is hearing from Tucker, either his phone got wrecked or Duulaman’s got him messed up.  So, uh.  Be aware of that.”  There was, of course, the option that he’d somehow gotten himself killed, and this storm was caused by his ghost somehow (in which case, wow, he’d formed fast), but she was kind of.  Not thinking about that option.  So. 

She frowned.  The sandstorm was expanding. 

.

Thor flew through the storm. 

He did not often have the opportunity to navigate sandstorms.  There were no deserts in Asgard, and that was where he had spent his time for most of his life.  But a storm was a storm, and a sandstorm – or a dust storm, for that matter – held lightning in it. 

Lightning, through Mjolnir, was his.  Storms were his. 

And his brother—

He made quick work of the next group of chitauri he encountered, although they had already been injured by the sheer force of the storm.  He was getting closer to Stark’s tower, and where the fight with Loki was, but he couldn’t just leave the battle.  There were too many enemies. 

Something metallic flashed among the sand, and Thor readied a blow, but no.  That was no chitauri.  But neither was the metal suit a creation of Stark’s.  The green fire that burned at its head, and the lights behind its eyes was that of the ghosts.’ 

“A human?  Flying?” asked the creature, its words almost whipped away by the wind.  “No.  You’re the Asgardian that Phantom’s human friend talked about.  Do you know where he is?”

“Phantom?” asked Thor, warily.  “Yes.  With Loki.”

The creature grinned.  “Then what are you waiting for?  Lead on!”

.

Valerie didn’t like this.  She didn’t like this at all. 

“He’s really not responding?  Can we still hear other people?”

“I can sure hear all of you,” said Hawkeye.  “It might not mean anything.  Storms can mess with comms, sometimes.  Focus on what’s in front of you.”

Yeah, but the Fenton’s super ultra ghost comms, or whatever they actually were? 

What was in front of them was a legion of aliens they were trying to keep more or less in the air.  It was like Galaga, but real.  And worse.  Because, you know, people were dying.  Her weapons weren’t the most effective (unfortunately, the chitauri were firmly alive) so she’d been ferrying people down from damaged buildings, but now she was racing towards Stark Tower.

By the time she’d gotten through the portal, Danny had already disappeared with Loki, but now that they knew where he was, well.  She was the only one other than the ghosts with real experience fighting Danny, as crazy as that seemed. 

She really did not like the look of that storm. 

Tucker was okay, right?  They weren’t, like, great friends or anything, but they had dated, sort of, and Valerie didn’t hate him, really. 

She dove down into the sandstorm, and the HUD in her visor lit up with red lines, giving her an overlay of where things were supposed to be, based on city plans pulled from the internet.  It was risky flying like this, like flying by instruments on a plane.  Records weren’t always right.  She knew that much from flying in Amity Park, and New York was probably worse, honestly. 

But there weren’t any buildings quite as tall as Stark Tower, so her chances of running into a building were slim.  Chitauri gliders and Iron Man, on the other hand… Well.  It’d probably be fine.  This far up, it’d take a while to hit the ground. 

Wire-traced lines splayed out below her, showing her an outline of the roof, and she carefully landed near the center, a good way away from the pillar of light that was the portal beam. 

“Tucker?” she called. 

A bubble of clear, but blisteringly hot air formed on the roof.  Her HUD helpfully informed her that the temperature was 101.49°F/38.61°C.  At the center stood Tucker in full Egyptian regalia.  His eyes were bright, solid red. 

“Hello, Valerie Gray.”

.

It wasn’t a guarantee that the pilots were HYDRA.  The chances weren’t even above fifty percent, as far as Coulson’s estimates went, which were, admittedly, based largely on hunches at this stage.  Even for him, the amount of research he could do under the present circumstances was… limited.  But the odds were still too high to let them sit in those planes. 

Especially when the council was ordering Fury to launch a nuke at New York. 

Yeah.  That wasn’t going to fly. 

(Literally.)

So far, both of the pilots had been compliant, but Coulson wasn’t going to relax.  He wasn’t missing an ‘until’ at the end of that sentence.  He just wasn’t going to relax. 

That didn’t mean he wouldn’t be happier when there were no longer two potential HYDRA agents walking behind him. 

He turned the corner.  At the other end of the hallway, Jasper Sitwell and six other agents also turned the corner.  He saw the flash of blue characteristic of Phase Two weaponry and his gun was in his hand before his conscious mind processed the connection. 

He got off two shots before he was hit.  Center of mass.  If it had been a conventional bullet, it would have bounced off the Kevlar vest he had on underneath his jacket, but it wasn’t designed to counter Phase Two weaponry.  Nothing was.  The pilot directly behind him got off one wild shot at Sitwell before the second pilot shot him in the back of his head. 

Lying on the ground, Coulson mentally apologized to him.  He hadn’t been HYDRA after all.  Not that it did either of them any good. 

But Coulson was down, not out.  He’d kept a grip on his gun, and now he aimed it at the pilot.  It was probably too much to hope he was the only HYDRA agent onboard who could fly a plane, but any delay—

He didn’t see if his bullet hit.  He’d been shot again. 

.

Loki didn’t seem at all interested in escaping. 

They could have escaped.  Definitely.  Absolutely.  It would have been easy to escape, at least temporarily.  But Loki was uninterested. 

And they kept going for the scepter. 

They definitely knew, which was something that had Danny’s heart racing.  Well.  Racing as much as it ever did. 

Unfortunately, the three of them weren’t quite good enough to take the scepter, and Loki’s obvious malingering aside, Danny couldn’t, like, talk to him about it.  Talk him into doing something about it, talk him out of doing something about it, whatever.  Partially because they were in the middle of a fight (duh), partially because of the influences still acting on him.  Boxing him in.  Forcing him to fight in the first place. 

Mind control sucked. 

Really, what he had to hope for at this point was that something would come along that was actually a threat.  The Hulk or something.  Danny wasn’t sure he could beat the Hulk as a human.  Escape him, sure, maybe even trap him, temporarily, but beat him?  That was a different thing altogether.  Oh!  Or maybe Pandora.  Pandora was really cool, and maybe mind control could be sucked into her evil-trapping box. 

Probably not, but a guy could dream. 

He pulled another piece of armor off of Tony Stark, who, mostly unarmed, seemed to decide that discretion was the better part of valor and booked it, sliding over one of the lab tables and disappearing behind a partition.  Good for him.  Discretion, valor, all that.

The mechanical arms on the ceiling began to move.  Danny, not expecting that, failed to dodge and was knocked over a table.  Iron Man #2 bore down on him, flinging a prototype Fenton Net with Utra-Grav Weights (patent pending) at him.  Unfortunately for Iron Man #2these things didn’t have the same level of protection against Danny as the other weapons.  Probably didn’t have time to modify it.  Just stuffed whatever could fit into the suit and hoped something would hit.  Danny drained its energy and tore it, easily. 

Loki, surprisingly, looked like he was having trouble with Black Widow and the mechanical arms.  He was probably just faking.  But the appearance was enough for Danny, and he grinned as he dropped Mr. Norse God of Mischief through the floor, then tore off his green-stained shirt and dropped through himself. 

“You,” said Loki, “are a menace.”

“Thank you,” said Danny.  “I try.”

Loki rolled his eyes and handed Danny his jacket.  “You look ridiculous without a shirt.  You have less muscle than an infant.”

“That’s completely untrue.  I’ve got a six pack.”  He did.  It wasn’t a super well defined six pack and existed more due to lack of body fat than muscle mass, but it did exist.  “Unless, like, alien babies are ridiculously ripped.”  Which was a possibility.  It wasn’t as if Loki had been super forthcoming about, well, anything.  Which was incredibly unfair of him.  Danny deserved to know more about aliens.  Particularly the space-related parts. 

A thump from above shook dust off the ceiling.  They both looked up.

“Stark does not seem like one to attempt to follow us directly through the floor,” observed Loki. 

Danny licked his lips.  “You know what it means that they want the scepter.”  He cast a sidelong look at Loki.  Loki looked… Well, his whole… everything looked really weird without the armored trench-coat-like… thing.  The jacket.  Whatever.  It probably had some kind of fancy Asgardian name that, once again, Danny was not privileged to know. 

He wasn’t upset about the relative lack of space-related knowledge he was receiving. 

But, to get back to the point, Loki looked awful.  Like, he hadn’t looked great before, but now he looked the way Danny felt.  Which was bad.  In case anyone was wondering.  And also reading his thoughts.  Which wasn’t super likely, but also not outside of the realm of possibility.  And, hey, maybe the part of him that was still sitting out the whole mind-control thing would appreciate the context if it didn’t already have it. 

“It means,” said Danny, probably unnecessarily, “that they know.”

There was another thump, a louder one, but now that Danny was paying attention, it didn’t quite seem like it was coming from above—

The next sound was distinctly more crash or explosion like. 

“Uh,” said Danny.

“Thor,” said Loki, baring his teeth in something that wasn’t a smile at all.  “Perhaps this time, my brother will do me the honor of fighting me in earnest!”

“I don’t think honor is really the right word for that,” said Danny. 

His ghost sense went off. 

Skulker phased through the ceiling shortly before Thor’s hammer turned it into rubble.  Danny managed to get Loki out of the way, but this?  This would be difficult.  He felt his lips stretching in an approximation of Loki’s expression.  Okay.  So.  He might empathize a little.

And then the sand blew in. 

Yep. 

Difficult.

.

“What,” said Tony, “the hell is going on?”

“I think Tucker might have lost control,” said Jazz, “but it’s a little unclear right now.”

“Yeah, I think that might have to do with the sandstorm in my building.”  He’d slammed down the lab’s steel blast shields as soon as he realized that the sand was a) razor sharp and b) eating all the glassware in the room, and now he and Romanov were shut in one of the lab’s testing areas.  Never say he didn’t give his employees the best.  “JARVIS, can you navigate?”

“Yes,” said JARVIS, who was piloting the other suit.  The AI’s control over it wasn’t great.  They’d done tests – a bunch of tests, Tony had plans – but he hadn’t intended for JARVIS’s first foray into solo-piloting a suit to be such a trial-by-fire.  However, a mapped area like the tower, where JARVIS was completely aware of the floorplan, wasn’t the worst place to start.  In some ways it would’ve been better for JARVIS to take the Mk. VII, but Tony had known the kid would be able to take that one apart, and one of the two of them had an actual body outside of tech, so…  “One moment, Mr. Stark.”

“What do we do now?” asked Romanov. 

“Try to see what other systems I can access from here,” said Tony, impatiently tapping through the interface for the mechanical arms.  It was the only computer currently installed.  “Hope the sandstorm gets taken care of soon.  Hope rip-off green and silver me is worth something in a fight and that Thor doesn’t get tricked again.  Lots of hope.”

“But not much doing,” pointed out Romanov. 

“Maybe one of you can take over as mission control,” said Jazz.  “Because we’re going to be hit with the storm soon, and then I’ll be focused on keeping us steady.”

.

The pilot was relieved when he saw the man he replaced returning.  Sure, Agent Coulson had told him not to leave without direct orders from him or Fury, personally, but Coulson wasn’t the one with the World Security Council breathing down his neck.  And the conversation with the WSC was getting… progressively more unsettling.  If he could call it a conversation.  They’d brought up his family several times in what might have been a vaguely threatening way, but, luckily, he hated his family, so he didn’t care if they got their taxes audited or shipped to a black site or whatever conclusion he was supposed to draw from what they were saying. 

Point being, he got out as soon as the other man knocked on the cockpit glass.  Yes, he’d probably be reprimanded, but he could handle that better than the WSC.  Plus, it looked like his usual plane was being loaded up to go fight those aliens, and he was always happier when his bird wasn’t carrying a nuke. 

He waved to the pilot in the plane next to him as he went, one of the other replacements.  He’d taken his helmet off for some reason, and he looked terrible.  Completely white-faced.  Must be the kid’s first time sitting on a nuke.  Well, hopefully the guy he replaced would be back, soon, too.

.

“Once I remove these armies, this city shall make a fine capital,” said Duulaman.  “Pandora and Frostbite I shall reward handsomely, of course.  I invited them.  But the others…  These insects.”  Duulaman paced on the edge of the rooftop.  “The sheer insult cannot be borne.  I will allow these ‘police’ to live, should they swear allegiance to me.”

Valerie watched him, and the ghost dog padding along next to him, warily.  “The police aren’t an army.  Technically.”  Not that they weren’t full of crap more than half the time, but they weren’t actually an army. 

Duulaman waved a hand at her, lazily.  “Anything that has to be appended with technically is a lie.  Everything will be much better after I fix it.  Some of these buildings…” 

He pointed, and a nearby skyscraper shimmered into a pyramid, like a mirage.  It shimmered back after a second, but the sight still made Valerie’s breath catch in her throat.  That was definitely enough of that. 

“Tucker,” she said, voice tight.  “You’ve got to snap out of it, this isn’t you.”

“I have snapped out of it,” said Duulaman.  “This is what I was before.  This is what I was always meant to be.  And would the people of Earth not prefer a native son to rule in place of a dictator from beyond Great Ra’s furthest reach?”  He spread his arms.  “I will return to this world the glories of Kemet, that even in ruin and decay are celebrated thousands of years on.  I would think you would understand, Valerie Gray.  After all, you, too, have wished to return to what you once were.”

“Okay, yeah, I’ve maybe thought about that once or twice,” admitted Valerie, “and what you’re saying does sound cool, but can you do it without the megalomania and the sandstorm of death?”

“You want me to cease my efforts against the invaders?”

“No?” said Valerie.  She did not know what the right answer was here.  “But, look, I might’ve wanted to go back to the way things were before my dad lost his job, but I’m not that person anymore, obviously.  Can you really say you’re the same person you were, what, a thousand years ago?”

Duulaman rolled his eyes.  “The next thing to reform will obviously be the educational system.”

.

The sand was the worst.  So was Skulker.  And Thor.  And Iron Man #2.  And Loki, while he was at it.  It was all the worst. 

But then, that was a good thing.  Sort of. 

Lightning crackled through the sand cloud as Thor swung at another fake Loki.  The resultant impact with the floor sent cracks through the tile and concrete.  Danny didn’t have time to pay attention to that, though, because between Skulker and Iron Man #2, there was a lot of stuff flying through the air.  Missiles, bullets, knives, those weird repulsor ray things, ectoblasts, more nets, the works. 

.

“What did you say that tin can is using on the teenager?” asked Tony, appalled. 

“You shot missiles at him, too,” pointed out Romanov.

Tony stared at her, wide-eyed.  “Full of the equivalent of paint, yeah.  Aren’t you bothered by this?  At all?”

She shrugged.  “I started younger.”

“Of course you did.”

.

All in all, a normal day for Danny.  If he’d been in ghost form and not trying to protect Loki at the same time. 

He was getting closer to his limit. 

The whole fight went through a pair of walls, and Danny hoped that they weren’t breaking anything structural, because to the best of his knowledge, Black Widow and Tony Stark were still up there on the other floor, with minimal protection. 

They stopped just short of the next wall, a pane of frosted glass—except the glass wasn’t supposed to be frosted, apparently, and a second after they’d gotten there, even more sand blasted in.  The wind sucked at them, creating a sort of vacuum pulling them out.  Danny didn’t particularly feel like fighting three people who could fly while falling through the sky, so he anchored himself to the floor with ice.  Iron Man #2 (seriously, who was that guy?) promptly tumbled out into the sand and vanished. 

He was probably fine.  He could fly. 

.

“Sir,” said JARVIS, “I appear to have collided with one of our neighbors.”

“Please tell me you mean a building and not a person who will sue me.”

“I am quite certain people will sue you for this regardless.”

The terrible thing was, JARVIS was probably right. 

.

Thor and Loki grappled momentarily, hammer to scepter, and then Loki twisted, the hammer sliding down, into the floor, with a huge bang that echoed despite the howling of the wind.  At the edge of Danny’s ice, the floor fractured, then began to tip outward.  Danny took the opportunity to throw Skulker at Thor, who mostly phased through except for when he ran into the hammer, which knocked both of them off balance and half into Loki. 

Who promptly fell out of the building. 

Danny lunged after him, but Thor caught him by the heel.  Danny thanked him by kicking his chin as hard as he could.  He’d have to apologize later. 

For now… 

For now, Loki was way too far down for Danny to catch with the powers he had available in human form, and he had no idea what kind of a height would kill an Asgardian. 

(Or whatever Loki was.  He was still unclear on that.)

(And, yes, he was still resentful of his lack of alien knowledge.)

(He was never going to let it go.  He was going to get a t-shirt that said ‘I spent three days mind controlled by an alien and all I got was this lousy t-shirt and sleep deprivation.’)

(He was pretty sure it was three days, anyway.)

Anyway, point was, his orders were to protect Loki, and the only way to do that right now was to go ghost. 

Finally.

.

Okay.  So.  Valerie had tried reasoning with her mind-controlled kinda-sorta friend, but the sandstorm was getting bigger, and he was talking about conquering Syria (yikes), Mitanni (where?), and New Jersey (meh), and also making her one of his chief advisors, which was flattering but not really something she wanted, so she was pretty sure now was the time to try something more physical.   

She braced herself to move fast, and pulled up the biggest gun she could safely use on a human. 

Duulaman countered it easily, batting the blast away with the scepter.  He sighed.  “Of course.  I will have to take care of things here first.”

Next to him, the dog perked up, as if hearing something, then jumped for the scepter. 

“Argh!” said Duulaman.  “What are you doing?”

Well, Valerie wasn’t a fan of that stupid dog, but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth or an ally in a fight in a motivation.  She charged her blasters. 

.

Cujo had just sensed his person!  His person was here!  And since his person’s friend wasn’t playing fetch after all, it was time to get his stick back!  Or play keep away!  That would be good, too! 

Cujo was having a great time, and he was being the best boy!

.

Danny’s transformation burned through his body like fire through flash paper, a brilliant flare of energy kept contained for too long.  The bonds on his mind, designed to control something of this world, something alive, shredded themselves on the crystalline, ethereal geometries that were Phantom as the pieces of himself that were kept separate came back together.  Whole again.  Free again.  Able to choose. 

He caught Loki and landed them in an alley that was, at least, somewhat protected from the howling storm.  Loki stumbled away from him. 

“You caught me,” he said, as if he couldn’t believe it. 

“Well, yeah,” said Danny.  “I wasn’t about to let you fall to your death.”  He held out his hand.  His white glove gleamed moon-bright in the shadows of the alleyway.  “You’ve made your point.  They’ve come together.”

“Half a dozen men does not an army make,” said Loki, his body between Danny and the staff, “and I—"

“I think there was at least one woman with them.  Also, my friends.  Tucker.  Jazz.  Sam.  Tucker actually sort of beat you up a little bit, there—”

“Don’t be obtuse, child,” snapped Loki, moving a little further away.  There was a glimmer of magic on his skin, and Danny knew they’d be more evenly matched in a fight than either of them would like… at least, without Danny resorting to the kinds of attacks he’d use against his stronger enemies.

“What do you want them to do,” asked Danny, throwing up his hands, “materialize an army out of nowhere in under a week?  Well, they did!”  Danny jabbed his finger up, where the green line of the ghost portal was still barely visible. 

It chose that moment to flicker out into nothing.

.

The Ops Center had already been struggling, but the moment the sandstorm hit it, everything but emergency controls and communication went down.  The wind pushed them sideways, and Jazz struggled to keep the airship upright.  By the time she managed something like stability, the ghost portal was long gone.  

Sam staggered onto the bridge.  She’d stayed out until the last minute. 

“The portal?” she asked, managing to get to the copilot’s seat. 

“Gone,” said Jazz.  She tapped comms.  “I’m going to have to set us down, we can’t maintain our position in this.”  An alarm – something for envelope integrity – started to go off.  “Hawkeye, if you aren’t already off the roof, you need to go now.  I won’t be able to see you.”  And even if she didn’t like the guy very much, she didn’t want to squish him with the Ops Center.

“Got it,” said Hawkeye.  “I’m headed down, now.  Hopefully things will be clearer closer to street level.”

Jazz inhaled slowly, and carefully started down.

.

Loki raised an eyebrow. 

“Come on, you want the chitauri here as much as I do.”  Which was to say, not at all.  “Give me the staff so we can end this.”

“It is my destiny to rule this place.  My… my glorious purpose.”

“I don’t believe in destiny,” said Danny, moving closer.  After all, if destiny was really a thing, his family and friends would all be dead along with a big chunk of the population of the US.  “It sucks and it’s also really uncool.”

“And you think that makes you free of it?”

“Well, yeah.  That is how that works, actually.  You’re free to choose what to do.”

Loki laughed.  “There is no choice.  Freedom is life’s great lie.”

“Well, maybe the bigger lie is that you don’t have a choice?  Have you thought of that, huh?”  Danny gestured emphatically, aware that he was not delivering this argument as eloquently as he could be, but since Loki was regurgitating lines from the night he’d popped out of the Tesseract, he felt like he was winning.  “Like, that’d be the real trick, wouldn’t it?  A really great lie.  Because there’s always a choice.  I mean, like, right now, you can choose to keep doing this, and then we’ll fight, and, no offense, but if you haven’t managed to run away under my nose or something, I’m definitely going to beat you up, I have experience with this, or you can choose to stop this and give me the staff.  Obviously, I’d prefer you to give me the staff, but, like.  It’s a choice.”

Loki stared at him.  “Do you always talk this much?”

“Only when I’m sleep deprived, so, really, this is your fault.”

A sigh came from behind him, and he twisted to see Loki fade out of invisibility.  “Now you sound like my father.”

He held out the staff.  Danny took it.  It felt cold, heavy, and unpleasantly alive in his hand. 

“Uh,” he said, lifting off the ground.  The portal device was, after all, on the top of the tower.  “My condolences about your dad, I guess.”

“He’s still alive,” shouted Loki after him.

“Yeah?  So?” Danny shouted back.  He didn’t get an answer. 

He flew up, faster, faster, as fast as he could go, now, and braked in the middle of a firefight between Tucker and Valerie… and Cujo?  Or Duulaman and Valerie.  He recognized those red eyes.  (And Cujo.)

(Cujo was the best boy, trying to get the staff away from Tucker.  So smart!  Danny made a mental note to give him lots of treats and pets when this was over.)

Duulaman smiled and tilted the scarab scepter just so.  “Hello, Danny.”

“Nope!”  Danny zoomed past Tucker/Duulaman in a burst of speed.  “I’ve already fulfilled my mind control quota for the year, thanks!”  He used shields to push away the sand and flew directly towards the portal device.  He would’ve liked to free Tucker on the way, but the portal spewing an alien army had to come first.  Every minute it stayed open, more people would die. 

(He wondered how many people had died while he talked Loki into giving up the scepter.  He wondered how many would have died if they fought, Danny tearing through illusions and Loki running for his chitauri ‘allies.’  He wondered which number would have been bigger.)

He plunged the scepter into the heart of the device, smacking the Tesseract off-center.  The device, naturally, didn’t like that, and some whirring part inside it kicked up into a high-pitched scream before the device shut down altogether. 

Danny grinned, then turned to face Tucker.  That was one problem down.  Now he just needed to knock some sense into Tucker and help with the chitauri that were still in the city.

Heh.  Just.  That really went to show what his week had been like.  Thank goodness it was almost over. 

.

“Hill, have you seen Coulson?” asked Fury.  Coulson hadn’t been answering his comms, which, given the HYDRA situation, might very well mean that he was dead, but Fury couldn’t just start sending people out to look for him.  On the other hand, it was possible Coulson was utilizing alternate methods of communication. 

“No,” said Hill.  “I—”  She cut herself off, fingers flying over her keyboards.  “Sir, we have a bird in motion! Anyone on the deck, we have a rogue bird! We need to shut it down! Repeat! Take off is not authorized!”

Fury didn’t waste his breath swearing.  He took the emergency route – the one also stocked with emergency weapons – up to the deck. 

He didn’t like shooting at his own people, but the fact was, whoever was in that plane wasn’t one of his.  He raised the RPG to his shoulder and fired.  It hit, sending the plane spinning across the deck, just in time for the second plane to shoot off past Fury. 

Reflexively, he drew his gun, but there was nothing a little handgun could do against a fighter jet that was already hundreds of feet away. 

There was only one more thing he could do. 

[unityrain24]

sketches for my latest oneshot (in hopes that you will read it), in which loki kills the avengers by command of the Black Order during his visit to Midgard.

(also i'm so so so pleased with how thor turned out, i don't draw him very often)

[gunsandspaceships]

Review of some anti-Tony comments from Ao3. Part 5

Today we are looking at not so much interesting, but ridiculous question. Because if you saw the Avengers (2012) you know that this statement is completely false:

“So you remember the portal closing but not that Tony had TOLD Steve to do it if he didn't come back within a certain time frame? If Steve had left the portal open he posed the risk of allowing more enemies through, which meant endangering more innocents.” “Steve made mistakes, sure. The portal wasn't one of them though, again, he had to think for the betterment of everyone not one single person.”

Let’s list the order of events in that scene:

2:02:40 - Avengers are tired, and began to lose the fight against the smaller part of Chitauri. The rest of their army is ready to go through the portal.

2:04:00 – the nuke launched, ordered by The World Security Council. Fury tells Tony.

2:04:40 – Natasha and Erik Selvig with The Scepter are ready to close the portal. Cap says “Do it!” (his first order to close the thing). They don't know it yet, but if they do it now, they would all die. Well, Tony knows.

2:04:55 – so Tony says “No, wait. I got a nuke coming in. It’s gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it”. He grabs the nuke.

2:05:20 – Rogers says “Stark, you know that’s a one-way trip”. Tony doesn’t respond. Instead he asks Jarvis “Save the rest for the turn, J”, meaning to put remaining power into changing nuke’s position from horizontal to vertical. Jarvis asks Tony if he should call Pepper. Tony says “Might as well”. Pepper is busy watching news.

2:06:10 – Tony enters the portal. So you are saying “Tony had TOLD Steve to do it if he didn't come back within a certain time frame” – where did it came from? Because there is not a single mention of this in the entire scene. I've put here everything he said from the nuke’s launch moment to the moment he disappeared into the portal. Conclusion: this statement is a lie.

Let’s check the next part of that statement: “If Steve had left the portal open he posed the risk of allowing more enemies through, which meant endangering more innocents.” “Steve made mistakes, sure. The portal wasn't one of them though, again, he had to think for the betterment of everyone not one single person.””

2:06:40 – Tony sent the nuke at the Mothership of Chitauri/Thanos. It blows up the ship and all the aliens, who were connected to it, instantly get killed. And Steve watches this happen at 2:06:48. That’s it – no more threat, no more enemies. All are safe. Except Tony, because…

2:07:10 – Steve gives his final order to close the portal with Tony on the other side. Which Natasha unquestioningly does.

2:07:29 - Tony is falling out of the portal at the very last moment.

That’s what happened. First, Tony destroyed the Chitauri army, and Cap gave an order to close the portal and leave Tony to die AFTER that. So, another blatant lie.

[peavhyshy]

𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗧 V

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x Avenger!Reader

Summary: in which you have nothing better to do so you agree to join a group of dysfunctional superhero's.

Warnings: death but it's aliens, violence, gore,

Words: 2,636

a/n: is this the last part for the avengers, idk when I'm going to start winter solider.

Series Masterlist

𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗧 V

act one, 𝗳𝗶𝘃𝗲

''I have unfinished business with him as well, so you both can get in line behind me.''

𝗬𝗢𝗨, 𝗖𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗧, 𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗩𝗘, 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗡𝗔𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗛𝗔 𝗚𝗔𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗢 𝗕𝗢𝗔𝗥𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗤𝗨𝗜𝗡𝗝𝗘𝗧. When you guys arrived at the jet, you noticed a pilot inside who stood up when he spotted all of them. ‘’Hey, you guys aren’t authorized to be in here.’’

‘’Son,’’ Steve said as he paused in his footsteps. ‘’Just don’t.’’

After the pilot was kicked out, Natasha and Clint walked up to the control panels and took a seat. As the ramp closed and the jet prepared to take off for New York City, you and Steve stood behind them.

‘’Stark, we’re on your three, headed northeast.’’ As Tony's face appeared on the screen, Natasha said.

‘’What? Did you stop for drive-thru?’’ Tony asked. ‘’Swing that park, I’m gonna lay them out for you.’’

As you watched Tony fly by with a swarm of aliens following him, Natasha pulled the machine gun from the jet. She aimed and fired numerous shots at them, one by one, as she watched them all fall.

‘’Nat?’’ Clint called out as they approached the tower, causing everyone to turn to the side.

‘’I see him.’’ Natasha replied.

As Natasha fired the machine gun at Loki, Clint spun the jet around to face him. Loki looked up from his fight with Thor and sent a beam of light from his scepter toward the jet's engine on one side.

The entire jet began to tremble, and. You and Steve grabbed a bar above you to keep from falling. As Clint attempted to land the jet in a safe location, the jet began to veer out of control, smashing into the street and wrecking the pavement.

Clint and Natasha swiftly unbuckled their seatbelts, and the ramp was soon opened as you all dashed to the street. When you peered up into the sky, you noticed more Chitauri flying everywhere.

‘’We gotta get back up there,’’ Steve said as you all ran into a four-way intersection. You all took a look around and assessed the damage, which included flipped cars, demolished buildings, and gravel all over the place.

When you noticed a giant shadow enveloping part of the buildings, you all came to a halt and froze. Looking above, you noticed a massive Chitauri leviathan emerge from the portal, roaring.

You stood there watching as Chitauri soldiers launched from the giant leviathan's back, some shattering windows and jumping into buildings, others attaching themselves to the building's edges and sliding down.

You conjured a watch on her hand and began walking backward. 

‘’Won't you look at the time? I have somewhere else to be.’’ You merely groaned as Steve gripped your arm and gave you a look.

‘’Stark, are you seeing this?’’ Steve asked. 

‘’Seeing. Still working on believing.’’ He replied before asking. ‘’Where’s Banner? Has he shown up yet?’’

‘’Banner?’’ Steve questioned, puzzled.

‘’Just keep me posted,'' Tony said.

You and the other three huddled beside a taxi. Steve had his shield raised, and Barton had drawn his bow. You all glanced up to see Loki leading a bunch of Chitauri down the street and attacking them with a series of explosions, overturning and demolishing cars, and further increasing fear.

''We’ve got civilians trapped up here,'' Clint announced.

Steve took a step forward and gave a faint glare at the individual who had started all of this turmoil. ''Loki.''

''They're fish in a barrel down there,'' Steve muttered to himself.

Laser beams blasted all of them from behind before anyone could respond.

As Clint took shelter behind another taxi to assess the situation, Natasha pulled out her pistol and fired back at them. Chitauri soldiers descended from the sky, landing on top of cars on the ground and peering at you.

''We got this. It’s good. Go'' Natasha said, turning to look at you and Steve. 

''You think you can hold them off?'' Steve asked as he turned to face Clint.

''Captain.'' Clint started as he turned to face Steve. ''It would be my genuine pleasure.''

Clint pulled out an arrow and shot one of the aliens in the head, distracting them. As Natasha stood up to begin shooting at the aliens, Steve glanced at you, and you nodded. You both dashed to the bridge's edge before leaping and landing on a bus.

You dashed off the bus and leaped from it. When you looked around, you saw Steve leaping atop an exploding car before immediately jumping off and landing alongside her as the aliens continued firing at him. You and Steve dashed forward, dodging alien attacks.

You and Steve began rushing to the plaza, where you knew the cops were stationed, to seek their help in evacuating people. As the Chitauri soldiers continued firing at the two of you, you both jumped from one car to the next.

When you looked forward, you noticed a large gathering of police officers shooting at the aliens flying by. Steve leaped and landed on top of the car in front of them, while you landed alongside him on the ground.

''You need men in these buildings.'' Steve turned around and gestured to the side before continuing. ''There are people inside, and they can be running right into the line of fire. You take them to the basements or through the subway. You keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th.''

''Why the hell should I take orders for you?'' One of the policemen asked, and your eyes began to glow pink and your hands started to glow as well. Both cops looked down and stepped back, their guns drawn and ready to kill you.

Before you could respond, an explosion exploded behind them, signaling the approach of Chitauri soldiers. You conjured a shield to deflect their lasers. Using your powers, you slammed one into the ground so violently that it obliterated the pavement, then you used your powers and made a gesture towards another, causing the alien's internal organs to rupture from within, splattering alien blood all over you.

You then performed a hand motion that caused all the alien blood on your body to vanish. When you looked up, you saw Steve grab a gun from a Chitauri soldier's hand, chopping off the alien's arm with his shield, and knocking the alien off the car.

The police officers were taken aback when you and Steve easily fought off the Chitauri, before turning around to tell the rest of the police team what Steve had told them. ''I need men in those buildings, lead the people down and away from the streets.''

He turned around and talked into his shoulder-worn walkie-talkie. ''We’re going to set up a perimeter all the way down to 39th street.''

𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗕𝗢𝗧𝗛 𝗦𝗘𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗡 𝗨𝗣 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘 𝗔𝗦 𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗩𝗘 𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗗 𝗜𝗡 𝗙𝗥𝗢𝗡𝗧 𝗢𝗙 𝗖𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗧, who was clearly outmatched; he shoved them all back with his shield, and you conjured a gun, killing a few aliens. Suddenly, lightning hit and killed all of the aliens. When you looked up, you saw Thor land right in front of all of you.

''What’s the story upstairs?'' Steve asked as he approached Thor.

''The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable,'' Thor explained. 

''Thor’s right.'' Tony chimed in, making you all look up. 'We've got to deal with these guys.''

''How do we do this?'' Natasha asked, looking at Steve.

''As a team.'' he replied.

''I have unfinished business with Loki,'' Thor uttered. 

''Yeah? Well, get in line,’’ Clint said from behind Thor, making everyone glance at him.

''I have unfinished business with him as well, so you both can get in line behind me.'' You said attracting everyone's focus from Clint to you.

''Save it,'' Steve spoke and walked away, you all exchanged glances before following him. ''Loki’s going to keep this fight focused on us, and that’s what we need. Without him, these things could run wild. We've got Stark up top. He’s going to meet us to''

Steve came to a halt as he heard an engine behind him, causing him to turn. When Banner got off the motorcycle, you all took a moment to gaze at him before approaching him.

''So, this all seems horrible,'' Bruce uttered as he gestured around. 

''I’ve seen worse,'' Natasha remarked, causing you to turn your gaze toward her.

''Sorry.'' Bruce apologized, looking at her. 

''No, we could use a little worse,'' Natasha said slowly. 

''Stark, we got him,'' Steve informed Tony through the comm.

''Banner?'' Tony asked.

''Just like you said.''

''Tell him to suit up. I’m bringing the party to you.'' Tony said.

When you all glanced up, you saw Tony soaring around the corner of a building, trailed by a leviathan.

''I-I don’t see how that’s a party.'' Natasha stuttered.

As he began going towards the Chitauri leviathan, Bruce let out a sigh.

''Dr. Banner,'' Steve called. ''Now might be a really good time for you to get angry.''

''That’s my secret, captain'' Banner responded, halting in his step to turn around and glance back. ''I’m always angry.''

You watched as Banner transformed into the Hulk and began pounding the creature to the ground. As the leviathan started to flip, he slipped back a little.

''Hold on.'' As he fired a tiny missile at the leviathan, Tony shouted.

As you all looked away from the bright explosion, you conjured a shield in front of you and Thor to protect them from the blast. Clint took cover behind a car as Steve covered himself and Natasha with his shield.

As the parts of the Leviathan were tossed down the bridge, Thor thanked you.  You all assembled in the middle and faced the enemy, who were dispersed in all directions. Hulk roared as you heard the Chitauri soldiers shrieking and wailing at all of them.

''Guys'' Natasha called, as all of you turned to face the portal and saw other leviathans emerge from it, indicating that more are on their way.

''Call it, Captain,'' Tony said.

''Alright, listen up.'' Steve started. ''Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment.''

''Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays.'' As Cap gave the orders, you all stared at him. ''Stark, you've got the perimeter. Anything that gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or turn it to ash.''

''Wanna give me a lift?'' Clint asked Tony, looking at him.

''Right,'' Stark said, as he approached and grabbed Clint. ''Better clench up, Legolas.''

After both of them left, Steve turned back to the rest of them to continue giving orders. ''Thor, you've got to try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got lighting. Light the bastards up.''

Thor nodded as he swung his hammer and flew away.

''For both of you and myself, we stay here on the ground. We keep fighting here'' Steve said looking at You and Natasha, who nodded. ''And Hulk''.

Hulk let out a huff and turned to look at Steve, who pointed at him, giving him the last order, ''Smash.''

Before leaping up and landing on the side of a building, Hulk flashed a huge smile.

Soldiers from the Chitauri raced over to where the three of them were. The three of them broke off and went their ways, each fighting their aliens.

You headed out to locate Steve and Natasha after you finished killing some of the aliens. Natasha was resting against a vehicle, panting profusely, while Steve stood alongside her. You jogged towards them.

''Captain, none of this is going to mean a damn thing if we don’t close that portal,'' Natasha said as you all glanced up.

''Our biggest guns couldn't touch it,'' Steve stated.

''Well, maybe it’s not about guns,'' You mumbled under your breath, staring at the portal.

Steve gazed at you before moving on to the aliens, who were steadily approaching you all. ''If you want to get up there, you’re going to need a ride.''

''I can fly.'' You said.

''Are you sure about this?'' Natasha asked as she stood up from where she was resting.

''Yeah… It's going to be fun, and I can't die anyway, so.'' You responded, looking up at Steve and Natasha with a grin.

''I’m going with you.'' Natasha grabbed her arm before she had a chance to resist.

𝗔𝗦 𝗦𝗢𝗢𝗡 𝗔𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗧𝗪𝗢 𝗢𝗙 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗔𝗥𝗥𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗗 𝗔𝗧 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗞 𝗧𝗢𝗪𝗘𝗥, 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗝𝗨𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗔 𝗚𝗨𝗡, tumbling along the edge before rising and approaching the CMS machine gently.

''The scepter.'' A voice spoke out, causing you and Natasha to turn to the side.

Doctor Erik Selvig was lying on the floor, looking frail.

''Doctor,'' you said as you and Natasha walked towards him.

''Loki’s scepter. The energy.'' Selvig said. ''The Tesseract can’t fight, but you can’t protect against yourself.''

Natasha kneeled in front of him. ''It’s not your fault. You didn't know what you were doing.''

''Actually, I think I did,'' Selvig responded. ''I built in a safety to cut their power source.''

''Loki’s scepter.'' You said finally realizing. 

''It may be able to close the portal,'' Selvig said before glancing down at the level beneath him. ''And I’m looking right at It.''

You and Natasha waited as Dr. Selvig prepared everything after retrieving the scepter.

''Right at the crown!'' He shouted as he indicated where the scepter should be placed.

You nodded and pushed past the barrier with the specter in front of you. You felt a force pushing the specter away, but you kept forcing it back, pausing just before you were about to touch the Tesseract.

''She can close it. Can anybody copy that?'' Natasha asked through the comm. ''She can shut the portal down.''

''Tell her to do it!'' Steve responded almost instantly. Natasha was about to repeat what Steve had said to you, but Tony interrupted.

''No, wait.'' Tony called.

''Stark, these things are still coming,'' Steve shouted, confused about why Tony didn't want to close the portal yet.

''I got a nuke coming in, and it’s going to blow in less than a minute,'' Tony explained. ''And I know just where to put it.''

''Stark, you know that’s a one-way trip,'' Steve said, but Tony didn't respond.

You and Natasha stood there watching as Tony, who was holding the missile from behind, sent it into the portal. Soon after, you watched the whole Chitauri army collapse to the ground, lifeless.

''Close it,'' Steve commanded through the comm, Natasha nodded to you, indicating that you should close the portal.

You went back to face the Tesseract, gradually pressing the scepter on the cube, feeling the pressure intensify. Then, out of nowhere, a beam of light from the machine surged up through the portal, gently closing it.

You recognized Tony as a small figure who emerged from the portal. You let out a relieved sigh and grinned, and you and Natasha ran to the edge of the structure, when you saw he wasn't slowing down in his descent.

As he fell and tumbled down a building, the Hulk appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Tony. When he got to the ground, Hulk threw Tony off him, and Thor and Steve dashed over.

Cap checks for a heartbeat when Thor removes Tony's face plate, and he notices the arc reactor is not glowing. The Hulk roars and beats his chest at the same time. Tony gasps and opens his eyes, glancing around, startled. 

𝗟𝗢𝗞𝗜 𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗧 𝗨𝗣 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗣𝗦 𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗘𝗙𝗨𝗟𝗟𝗬, 𝗜𝗡𝗛𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗗𝗘𝗘𝗣𝗟𝗬, 𝗕𝗨𝗧 𝗣𝗔𝗨𝗦𝗘𝗗 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗡 𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗦𝗘𝗗 𝗔 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗕𝗘𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗗 𝗛𝗜𝗠. He cautiously turned around to see the entire team gazing at him, their expressions irritated and pissed. Clint aimed an arrow at his head, and Loki merely stared anxiously at all of you.

''If it’s all the same to you.'' He began, glancing at Tony. ''I’ll have that drink now.''

[antvnger]

((Most belovèd trickster, behold! the exchange doth proceed below.))

JARVIS The barrier around the Tesseract is made of purest, strongest energy. Unbreachable it is.

STARK --Indeed, 'twas clear.

ENTER LOKI WITH HIS SCEPTER

Plan B shall I pursue, then.

JARVIS --Sir, Mark Seven is not preparèd for deployment yet.

STARK Incessant are thy spinning rims--proceed! The readiness is all, the time hath come.

[Stark walks inside the tower as machines remove his suit.

LOKI Wouldst thou appeal to my humanity--Make me feel guilty for my wicked schemes--Appearing thus unarm'd and innocent?

STARK In point of fact, I plan to threaten thee.

LOKI Thou shouldst have left thine armor on for that, for thou art weak whilst I am passing strong.

STARK Innumberable miles the suit hath seen, and thou hast thy glow stick of destiny. Wouldst have a drink?

LOKI --To stall shall nothing change, for I shall act no matter what thou dost.

STARK Ill are thine ears--not stalling, threatening. No drink, then, thou art certain? I'll imbibe.

LOKI Chitauri come anon, naught shall delay't. What have I, then, to fear?

STARK --It's the Avengers, the name by which we call ourselves--our team. "Earth's heroes mighty" we may be describ'd--Belike we shall, in news reports hereafter.

LOKI I've met them, and avoided them as well.

STARK It took us time to gain our traction, yea, this much I shall confess. Yet, let us count--Thy brother, demigod, of Asgard come, a Super Soldier born of strength and virtue, a living legend who deserves his fame, a man with horrid anger management, a pair of sly and masterful assassins--And thou, my fellow, madest each one mad.

LOKI Such was the plan--I did not improvise.

STARK It was a plan most foolish. When they come, which presently they shall, send not to know for whom the bell tolls, for it tolls for thee.

LOKI I have an army, stronger than thy group.

STARK Indeed? We have a Hulk of anger wild.

LOKI Methought the mighty beast had weakly fled.

STARK It seems thou missest e'er the point--there is no throne to claim that thou mayst sit upon, no ending to this tale in which thou winnest, no final act that sees thee on top. Perchance thine army shall arrive in time, perchance that army shall o'ercome our group--Yet all the shame and pain shall fall on thee, because if we cannot protect the earth be certain, villain, we shall it avenge.

LOKI How will thy friends have time to clash with me if they are busy fighting thee, their foe? The power of my scepter makes it so!

[Loki puts his scepter against Stark's chest to force Stark to do his will, but it clangs against Stark's arc reactor.

This usually worketh, by my troth.

STARK It's not uncommon, some performance issues. E'en gods of Asgard may prove limp at times. One out of five, so the statistics say--

[Loki grabs Stark by the throat.

[Aside:] Pray, JARVIS, anytime thou ready art!

LOKI Ye all shall fall before me as I rise.

[Loki throws Stark through a window.

STARK I say, deploy! Or Stark's fate shall be stark.

[While he falls, an Iron Man suit rushes out to him and encompasses him. He flies back safely.

There is one more whom thou didst anger, Loki--His name was Phil: a worthy man, and true.

The Bard's Avengers Game

@benevolentgodloki

[xalygatorx]

Worthy (2015) | Chapter 12, "In Glory or Ruin"

Disappearing sporadically in public spaces quickly becomes Cora Dempsey's least concerning problem when suddenly she captures the attention of the forming Avengers Initiative, the World Security Council, and Asgard's fallen prince all in one week. And the universe is only just getting started with her.

Worthy is a slow-burn SFW Marvelverse (films) romance between Loki and a female OC. For additional details on what canon is used, see the Prologue post.

Summary: Loki and the Chitauri’s onslaught of New York draws to a close. His plan to rescue Cora’s capsule takes unexpected turns as the Other intercepts it. Loki is captured and entrusted to Thor in anticipation of their return to Asgard.

Pairing: Loki x Fem!OC

Warnings: None

Word Count: 3.2k

It had been difficult to leave the capsule where it sat, but it had not been time to put his plan into action just yet. It wouldn't be until the reptilian Chitauri filtered from the splitting sky and chaos scorched the budded metropolis, spreading like fire over Midgard. "Ant. Boot," Loki quietly repeated with a darkly smug air.

He had escaped the Helicarrier just an hour before, already beginning to bring ruin to the mortal city where he could. He was growing impatient. While he was aware that part of his mercilessness came from the alien energy intermingling with that of the Tesseract, which had resumed its infiltration of his form from the scepter, that didn't matter. The day for war had come and all would kneel before his might. His day was finally here; the day he would be king and keep the throne he won.

The mere sight of him wrought havoc amongst the citizens who had seen newscasts and photos of his show in Stuttengard or simply knew who to cower before and, from that fear, a grin of anticipation crossed his face. He sent blasts of raw energy from the scepter at the supports of buildings, at sniveling humans, at a taxi which flipped twice and then smashed against the front of a bank. He was elated, he was alive, and he would not stop.

Fires from ruptured machinery climbed over walls and traveled over spilled petroleum leaking from overturned vehicles, a gradual panic flooding down the streets. Faint sirens rang and then split the air as three police cars swerved around the corner, having to dodge a few wayward mobs of pedestrians sprinting from assorted buildings.

Loki gave a bored groan and shook his head as he raised his scepter and blasted them onto their noses, sent them twirling like a child's tops before slamming onto their backs or sides, only a few of the officers dragging themselves out over a street lined with shattered glass. Screams of pain and terror ricocheted off the walls constructed of limestone bedrock, up to the highest skyscrapers, only marred by the sharp squeals of four more pairs of tires as an additional two cruisers flew in behind the fallen prince, the maneuver surely meant as an attempt to surround and contain him.

"I do not have time for you!" Loki shouted in irritation as he whirled and sent the two new arrivals toppling end over end down the street, which was swiftly being closed off by barricades. People scattered left and right out of the way of the airborne vehicle, only a few returning to aid the officer inside.

He turned to see a group rushing past him and a malicious grin split his face as he fired at the asphalt beneath their feet, causing fissures to form and trip them into a mad, writhing mess. One face caught his eye, however; a man of dark blond hair and brown eyes, which narrowed as he tried to shove his way to his feet at the expense of the others, Loki drawing ever nearer. The man froze when he locked eyes with Loki, who tilted his head incrementally. Why do I know your face?

Then it hit him, a flashback which took only a few seconds' time to unfold, but that was more than enough. He'd still been curious about her phone, the day in the warehouse when they'd coerced each other into working with her abilities, seeing how well she could channel them. They'd never gotten much farther than that. "Who is that?" he'd asked, and he'd seen her startle, literally fade into the background, and then reappear, looking as if she'd rather she'd stayed gone. She'd been evasive and unsure.

"We were in a relationship once," she'd said. He hadn't understood his own reaction to that.

"Why aren't you any longer?" 

"He didn't react well to things."

Loki's jaw tightened and his fingers flexed into fists as the rest of the exchange cycled through his head, some parts more emphasized than others as they mingled with the beat of his kindling rage. His gaze remained fixed upon the man in front of him, who stood as unwavering as a mouse before a striking snake. James.

Both remained very still for a long moment until a smirk of deadly, predatory calm shaped Loki's lips, his eyes gradually growing ablaze with vivid green fire as he slunk forward. "Oh, but I've got time for you…"

"I don't know how many times I have to tell you sons-of-bitches, stop sending squad cars! This is above even a National Guard level response, all you're doing is upping the body count! Evacuate, do not engage!"

Muttering a few more choice words as he leaned back from the control panel, Fury nearly snarled with frustration. Prisoner escaped, agents dead and seriously wounded (Coulson included), their only hope in the form of the Avengers Initiative (scattered across the damn region for all he knew), no idea where to find the Tesseract, and the World Security Council breathing down their necks worse than ever before. Things had never gone to shit so perfectly.

"Fury," Tony called, causing the director in question to turn. "It's my tower."

"Stark, for the love of God, the world is in the hands of a tyrannical alien terrorist, and all you can think about is—"

"No, not that! I have an ego, not a complex!" Tony interrupted with an agitated wave as he walked up the steps of Fury's podium.

"Debatable," Steve remarked, though the jab was a friendly one. As he joined them, he elaborated, "He means that's where the Tesseract is positioned."

"How did you—"

"It's the highest point in the city," Tony pointed out with an air of haughty pride. "Pretty simple, really. Surprised we didn't see it sooner."

"Go. Steve, get Natasha and Clint, too, if he's up for it," Fury ordered, all business as the facility around him hummed with tamed panic, agents rushing left and right. "Depart immediately. If Banner and Thor manage to haul their asses there in time, they can join the party, too."

"How will they find us?" Steve asked, prepared to plan out every detail; he was back in his soldier mindset in full-force.

"I'm sure that won't be a problem," Fury said warily before going back to his podium's control panels, giving an altered set of orders with the new developments as Tony and Steve turned tail to head toward Stark Tower.

Loki hit the back of the Chitauri hovercraft, sliding a bit with the force of his fall as he rode away from Stark Tower, leaving Thor behind with a dagger in his side, not quite so deeply plunged as it could've been.

He heard the whirrs of his reptilian soldiers joining behind him and he signaled two over closer to him, reaching out to place his hand upon the closest Chitauri's forehead. He could still feel some of the residual magic from the scepter flowing through him and, using that, Loki showed the creature the way into the Helicarrier, into the storage rooms. Then, at last, the capsule it needed to find.

"Take one or two of your comrades with you," Loki said over the wind rushing around them as he retracted his hand. "See that it stays safe until all this is over."

The Chitauri gave a nod and waved for two others to follow it as it turned a sharp corner, heading toward the large ship now hovering far out from the bay, a speck in the distance to human eyes.

Loki watched for a few seconds before turning away and leading the remaining Chitauri through the city. He lacked his scepter, but it didn't matter. His army was in full-force, hundreds within the city and a steady flow of more coming through the portal, fueled by an infinite energy source in an indestructible barrier. He glanced toward the sky as one of the plated, monstrous eels slithered through the wormhole alongside yet another Chitauri fleet and he felt rejuvenated in confidence. How could they possibly stop this?

And yet, how everything was so going according to plan. And the dull creatures enforcing his victory hadn't the faintest idea that, no matter what, he would win.

The rule of Midgard was very likely at this point. Should the nine realms be put under Thanos' bulbous red thumb, Loki would have this realm as his own. Yet that would not stop him from attempting to gain all he could… Asgard was—and would always be, as far as he could see—his prize and he would have it in glory or ruin, he cared not which. It was his right, given by succession. Odin was incapable, a fool, and his brother only slightly sharper. Thor had been banished, Odin had nearly fallen were it not for the meditative Odinsleep which had saved his feeble life time and time again. Loki knew beyond all doubt that he should be the one on that golden throne.

It will be me.

The Chitauri soldiers made it into the Helicarrier undetected, going the route Loki had shown to the leader of the trio. Two of the soldiers infiltrated the lowest level and slunk through the storage units, growling and crackling their voices at one another in the strange tongue they shared. When they found the capsule, they were able to pull it off the metal floor, which it had been nailed into along with a few other larger objects in the belly of the craft.

They stealthily took the capsule to the edge of the ship, the Chitauri who had remained outside pulling up to them, and attached it between two of their armored vehicles, securing it before letting it go and remounting their hovercrafts. They shot off, rocketing away from the Helicarrier toward the wormhole in the sky, taking a path through the city to avoid being conspicuous.

As they approached the wormhole, they heard the Other's voice in their heads. "Bring it to me."

Glancing at one another, they obeyed without question, breaching the portal and moving around the waiting fleet of their kind, swarming and rearing with anticipation, to get to their leader in the gargantuan ship above. The Other stood upon a walkway, watching their progress until he could get a look at the capsule. The lid was frosted over, but he'd seen the contents when Loki had given his Chitauri underlings the route through which to obtain the odd container. It was foolish to channel even fragments of my power. It is not yours to wield.

The Other looked toward the wormhole, seeing the Midgardian warriors thrashing through multitudes of his soldiers, damaging their chances because his appointed leader was incompetent and selfish. He growled lowly in his throat as he looked away, peering at the capsule and listening as one of the Chitauri before him informed him that they'd been ordered to keep it safe.

"It is important to him, whether he accepts it or not," the Other observed knowingly as he slid a small panel open on the side, which revealed a heart rate monitor, rhythmically peaking every few seconds, and a meter measuring the oxygenation of the capsule. Though he did not know for certain what these little mechanisms meant, he could feel the life force inside the casing. His eyes lifted back to the portal as their ranks continued to fall, the Earth warriors now organized and gradually taking out the present fleets.

He shook his head; he'd have to inform their overlord of this. "He will fail us," the Other murmured softly before looking to the Chitauri before him. "He does not give orders. He should have learned that long before now with my teachings… He has no right."

The Other took one more glance over the frost-lined capsule before dismissively commanding, "Cast it into the barrens of Jotunheim. Let irony take its course. He will learn of this, feel punished by his own kind, and then he will pay. We will attack once again without his interference." He walked back into the ship, intending to return to Thanos to report the Asgardian prince's eventual loss in Midgard. It was only a matter of time.

With their final orders, the Chitauri made their way inside to send the capsule to the Jotun realm, detaching it from their crafts onto a metal pad made of a material similar to their exoskeletal armor, blue energy swirling around it before it dissolved into thin air. It reformed inside Jotunheim's borders, hurtling down before crash-landing on its side in the distant, frozen land, the lid shattering and spilling out its occupant into the ice and glass-riddled snowscape.

Everything changed within so short a time span. Chitauri still came in droves, but they fell so much faster. The World Security Council, impatient to end the chaos which had consumed the whole of New York, continued to press Director Fury to take action and nuke the city. When he continuously refused and showed no signs of letting up, they deployed the bomb themselves.

Knowing there was only one option in order to save the city's residents and anyone in at least a three-mile radius, Tony had taken up the airborne bomb and angled it to utterly lay waste to the Chitauri ship through the portal, Agent Romanoff shutting the Tesseract down just before the man in the iron suit plummeted through the near-shut opening in the sky. The Chitauri still on Earth, no longer sustained by their life source linked through their armor to their mothership, had fallen to the pavement and Loki lay battered and breathless in Stark Tower after a run-in with Banner.

Now under arrest and completely purged of the Other's power, Loki sat in chains in a less-impressive cell on the Helicarrier, his binds forged of dwarfish steel of a different make than that of Mjolnir and Gungnir. His scepter taken, his army fallen, and even his speech restrained by a plated piece covering his mouth, he was angry, but not entirely surprised. In the last of the battle, he'd seen the defeat of the Chitauri, the Other, and Thanos beginning to become more clear as the result of this mayhem.

He was to remain there until Thor finished up a few loose ends with SHIELD and his Avenger colleagues, then they would both return to Asgard, where he would face his true verdict, which would surely have loopholes for him to wriggle through and claim what was rightfully his.

Loki's eyes shifted over as he heard those familiar footsteps again, Thor soon appearing outside the cell. "We will remain here for three days' time so I may make peace with what Midgardians you left alive," he said, his voice cold and angry. "You dishonor our entire race, brother."

"Your race," a doppelgänger of Loki said as it shimmered into being, given that Loki, himself, could not speak at the moment. A bitter smirk. "Not mine."

"We grew up together. I loathe to say that we were fostered beneath the wings of the same parents. You are as Asgardian as I, yet you lack the empathy to understand what my words mean."

"It's drivel from a juvenile dream," Loki snapped, his illusory puppet pacing the bars while the true Loki sat against the wall, his eyes never moving from the crown prince. "You have no idea what I have suffered."

"Your suffering is largely born of your carelessness," Thor said calmly and the lack of passion in the accusation made Loki realize just how distant he'd become. Any hope he'd seen in his eyes while fighting him earlier that day had died. It left Loki feeling wary and unsure.

"What of the Chitauri?" Loki asked curiously, playing off the carelessness Thor accused him of. "Send them off with their tails between their legs?"

"All destroyed."

Loki's eyes narrowed faintly. "How?"

"The Midgardian weapon which was sent toward New York was redirected through the wormhole. Everything within the ship's area has been demolished. Your allies are ash," Thor replied before turning away. "Do not cause needless mischief during your stay here. You have lost."

He then left Loki with his thoughts, which he presumed lay along the lines of indifference or perhaps some injured pride. Loki's gaze was stony until Thor left the area entirely, which was when his jaw clenched inside the armor which restrained it, his eyes moving to his cuffed hands, where his knuckles were white with tension after fisting against his lap. He cared not for the scaly creatures lost in the blast, the ship which had been lain to waste, the battle which had been lost. Midgard had never been a tantalizing prize anyway.

Loki felt the burn of hurt pride, but he felt the unexpected lance of loss that hit him even more. All over a woman. A mortal woman, at that, at least as far as he could tell. A mortal woman with powers beyond her, with tragedies, with pain and suffering, and yet with a bright, understanding disposition. She'd irritated him until he felt mindless with frustration, but, when he was being truly honest with himself, he knew he hadn't minded. "We're not as different as you think." 

He'd endeavored to save her once he'd known it was still possible and he'd failed her a second time. Loki remembered the day she'd been taken, remembered the conflict and the anger that had welled up when they'd put hands on her and shuffled her out of the warehouse. His reaction had been near-primal, his immediate instinct to tear them apart for disregarding her will and taking what he'd come to look upon and think very distinctly, Mine. His reaction to that memory had grown ever more primal as his sanity had slowly unraveled.

They would have used her. He knew that. His plans would have never come to pass had he revealed himself that day. Everything would have crumbled to pieces, every moment he'd used to make strides toward understanding and obtaining the Tesseract would have amounted to nothing.

They would've had a weakness pegged for him and he would have either caused her death or been bent by his own will to prevent it. He'd done them both a favor by letting SHIELD take her away, though the betrayal in her eyes had made him feel genuine guilt for the first time in many years over anyone but his mother. He'd gone the lengths to ensure her freedom—because she was a useful ally and not the danger her kind saw in her, not even close—and she'd burned along with the Chitauri scum.

Loki had known he'd failed in his mission in Midgard this day, but he hadn't known just how elaborately until now.

"Foolish are you to have grown soft for that girl," his illusion muttered just as he was dispelling it, and didn't he know it. She'd come into his life at a time when he was insufferably vulnerable and had stuck with him in memory throughout the many, many days in which he was hardened into his current state. His mind was addled and he could barely remember the finer moments of his childhood, which he'd so cherished, but he could still very clearly remember how she'd punched him for startling her.

He smiled faintly behind the metal restraint; he was truly mad.

Far off in the frostbitten plains of Jotunheim, that same woman twitched a finger.

Next chapter: Chapter 13, "Waking Up"

[earth-18104]

Earth-18104 - The Battle of New York

The story is based on the movie Avengers, with some details from the comics. Most of the characters are changed to fit the original comics lineup of Avengers, and other characters have slight changes in their story, based on my original universe plot.

Like Loki uses different pronouns, Hawkeye and Mockinbird are not part of the team officially, and there's two Nick Fury in this universe: the Colonel, that fought with Captain America during war, and his son Diretor Fury Jr, that looks more like Samuel Jackson's version and is leader of the SHIELD. Also there's a slight addition of my OCs, but they don't even are part of the main story.

List of Events of Earth-18104 (Resume)

Resume of the events of 1990.

1990 -

• (Earth's mightiest heroes)

• (April 1, Sunday)

• On earth, Director Nick Fury Jr (42), Maria Hill (25), Barbara Morse (24), Clint Barton (24), Phil Coulson (43), Henry Pym (27), Janet van Dyne (24) and Erik Selvig are called to the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility in the Mojave Desert, where Dr. Selvig is researching the Tesseract, which has recently begun emitting strange amounts of energy on its own, leading the facility to be evacuated.

• Aided by Thanos, Loki activates the Tesseract from within the Sanctuary, teleporting to the SHIELD complex. She steals the Tesseract and uses the Scepter given to her by Thanos to control the minds of several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, including Selvig and Barton.

• They escape and the Tesseract's energy destroys the base, starting the Chitauri Invasion. In response, Nick Fury Jr. reactivates the Avengers Initiative.

• In Asgard, Heimdall sees Loki on Earth with the Tesseract, and informs Thor and Odin, who sends his sons, Tyr, Vidar, Honir, Balder and Thor to Earth to bring Loki back to Asgard for punishment.

• (April 3, Tuesday)

• In Kolkata, India, late at night locally, Barbara Morse tracks down Bruce Banner (28) and tells him that his knowledge of gamma radiation is essential to helping SHIELD locate the Tesseract. Banner reluctantly agrees to help SHIELD.

• In New York City, Steve Rogers (70) sits in his new apartment going through the SHIELD archives. Unable to sleep, he goes to a boxing gym, where Nick Fury Jr. approaches him with a mission to recover the Tesseract.

• Meanwhile, Tony Stark (26) brings his miniaturized Arc Reactor online to power the newly opened Stark Tower in midtown Manhattan, built on the site of the old Pan Am Building.

• Phil Coulson visits Stark Tower and asks Tony to review Erik Selvig's research on the Tesseract, as well as classified material on potential members of the Avengers Initiative.

• (April 4, Wednesday)

• Phil Coulson flies Rogers to the Helicarrier and tells him about the new uniform they have waiting for him.

• There he also meets Bruce Banner, Maria Hill and Barbara Morse; he is impressed when the Hellicarrier takes flight and retroreflective powers to "disappear".

• At the same time, Selvig explains to Barton about his research, saying that he needs iridium, an element that they can find in Stuttgart.

• (Loki's attack in Germany)

• On the Hellicarrier, Bruce gets to work tracking the gamma radiation the Tesseract emits, while SHIELD's spy satellites find Loki in Stuttgart, Germany.

• Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne intercept a transmission from Selvig and trace it to Germany.

• Rogers dons his new Captain America uniform and travels with Hill and Morse in a Quinjet to confront Loki in Stuttgart; the God of Mischief is acting as a distraction while Hawkeye steals iridium to stabilize the Tesseract.

• Loki attacks a man named Heinrich Schafer before terrorizing a crowd of people attending a gala, providing a distraction so Hawkeye can steal iridium.

• Rogers and Morse attack him and a fight breaks out in the crowd. The unexpected arrival of Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp leads Loki to surrender.

• During the confusion, Mockingbird loses sight of Hawkeye and he escapes with the iridium.

• On the way back to the Helicarrier, the Quinjet is ambushed by the princes of Asgard. Tyr, Balder and Honir hold back the Avengers, while Vidar and Thor grabbed their youngest sibling and jumped.

• While Vidar wanted to simply bring Loki back to Asgard to be punished, Thor tried to to reason with them. Loki, blinded by his jealousy of his older brothers and contempt for Odin, refuses.

• The Avengers are not able to go through the princes, as Balder was indestructible and Honir and Tyr had the strength of ten men. Seeing the fight was useless, Wasp reasoned with Balder and explained they needed Loki alive.

• Balder and Wasp made a deal, and Balder allowed them to leave, agreeing that their younger sibling should be taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody as long as one of them went along.

• Vidar choose himself, as the oldest, but Thor asked to go with Loki, so he was granted permission, and his brothers went back to Asgard to tell their father.

• Back on the Helicarrier, Loki was placed in a cell designed to contain the Hulk and other super-powered people. The vigilantes and SHIELD agents debate what to do with Loki, giving them time to plan an escape.

• Fury tries to interrogate him about the Tesseract's location, but Loki remains silent.

• The meeting between the heroes was tense at first, but Wasp calmed the nerves and convinced the assembled heroes to help her cause. Thor reveals Loki's plan to the Avengers: with the Tesseract, he hopes to open a portal that will allow the Chitauri access to Earth, thus starting an alien invasion.

• As Pym and Banner work to locate the Tesseract, Tony becomes intrigued by his old college roommate's level of control over the Hulk. Henry is irritated by Tony's attempts to anger Banner, warning him that the Hulk is a danger to everyone on the Hellicarrier.

• Steve, also angered by Stark's erratic behavior and disrespect for authority, tries to get him to follow orders more carefully, which instigates a rivalry between the two. Wasp once again tries to intervene in the fights.

• The five begin to question SHIELD's intentions, deducing that Fury is hiding something about his plans with the Tesseract. Stark reveals that he has begun hacking the agency's mainframe to unlock its secrets, while Rogers leaves to investigate the restricted areas of the Helicarrier for himself.

• Tony also gave Henry access to Stark technology, which he used to build a device that could increase its range and be able to use ants across the country.

• Janet shrinks into a locked room, where she and Steve find several 1940s HYDRA weapons and uniforms in crates in a secret room. With Stark's help, they learn about "Phase 2", a project that aims to use the Tesseract to make weapons.

• (April 5, Thursday)

• In the early hours of the morning, Mockingbird interrogates Loki in their cell, but they refuse to budge. However, in a moment of cruelty towards her, Loki accidentally lets it slip that they're interested in Banner, and Mockingbird realizes that they intend to use the Hulk to escape.

• (Attack on the Hellicarrier)

• As the sun is rising, the Avengers confront Fury with their discoveries, to which he reveals that S.H.I.E.L.D. has begun using the Tesseract to make weapons in response to the Victor von Doom incident last year, the presence of the Skrulls in the planet, the first appearance of the Hulk, the Puppet Master attack, the debut of Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp.

• A large argument ensues, during which Hawkeye, accompanied by several soldiers also working for Loki, attacks the Helicarrier, crippling one of its engines.

• The resulting explosion destroys the laboratory where the group is arguing, causing Janet and Bruce to fall into the boiler area, trapped by the debris.

• Despite Janet's attempts to calm him down, the injured Bruce transforms into the Hulk and chases the Wasp throughout the Helicarrier.

• Thor comes to his rescue and fights with the Hulk, only to be surpassed in strength. A SHIELD jet tries to lure the Hulk away, but he crashes the plane and destroys it. The jet explodes and the Hulk is thrown towards the ground.

• Rogers, Pym, and Stark attempt to repair the damaged engine, but Loki's subordinates hinder their efforts.

• Janet and Mockingbird face Hawkeye and after an intense fight, they manage to break Loki's control by delivering a blunt blow to Barton's head.

• Thor tries to stop Loki from escaping, but is tricked by an illusion of Loki and imprisoned in her old prison cell and takes her out of the Hellicarrier. Thor breaks free of the cell at the last second, falling into a field.

• Rogers, Pym, and Stark finally overcame their attackers and got the Helicarrier back in the air. However, victory is bittersweet when Loki escapes and Bruce disappears.

• Hours later, Hawkeye recovers in the Hospital Wing and rejoins the team, informing them that Loki plans to open the portal above Stark Tower in downtown New York City.

• (Battle of New York)

• Mockinbird (26), Wasp (24), Hawkeye (24), Ant-Man (27) and Captain America (70) take a Quinjet to New York City, following Iron Man (26) in his suit.

• Stark arrives at the tower first, failing to stop Selvig from using the Tesseract to open the portal in conjunction with a device he built.

• Tony then enters the tower to meet Loki, failing to intimidate him. The god of mischief unsuccessfully attempts to possess Stark, as his Arc Reactor physically blocks the scepter's power and instead throws Stark through a window.

• Fortunately, Stark manages to activate his Mark VII armor before he hits the ground.

• Selvig launches the device, opening a portal above New York. The Chitauri fleet appears, beginning Loki's invasion.

• The other Avengers gather on the street to stop the Chitauri, but with the portal open, more and more soldiers arrive. Banner (28) finally joins them on a motorcycle and voluntarily transforms into the Hulk, who stops a large ship with his hands.

• Captain America begins giving instructions to the Avengers to direct their battle strategy against the alien threat.

• He tells Hawkeye to get to a nearby rooftop and assigns the perimeter to Iron Man, sends Thor to try and fire a beam at the portal while Ant-Man closes it, Wasp stays in the air, and Mockingbird and himself stay on the ground.

• Finally he instructs the Hulk to "smash". Hulk jumps from building to building, punching the Chitauri.

• Thor flies to the Chrysler Building to use it as a conduit, building up energy to fire at the portal, eliminating some Chitauri and an approaching Leviathan.

• On the Helicarrier, Nick Fury Jr. examines monitors showing what is happening. Maria Hill (25) says the World Security Council is calling.

• Hawkeye advises Iron Man to lead the Chitauri around sharp turns so they fall. He does so, eliminating the aliens chasing him, and goes to help Thor.

• From the battle, enormous damage is done to downtown New York City, and many lives are lost, but the Avengers save as many civilians as they can.

• Somewhere, Peter Parker and Harry Osborn (9), were returning from school when the attack began. The two boys try to get back to the Parker home safely when they are attacked by Chitauri soldiers.

• Fortunately, they are saved by Captain America, who orders Wasp to take them to a safe place.

• The Wasp shrinks them both and takes them away from the battle. Before leaving, she smiles and the two boys cheer for the heroes before running to the Parker's house.

• While Thor destroys as many ships he can, Heimdall, by Vidar's orders, opens the Byfrost. Vidar, Honir, Tyr and Balder join their brother on the fight, protecting civilians and putting Chitauri down.

• Francine (183) and Antônio Cavalcante (190) (both OCs) were watching the battle. Antônio asks his wife if they should help, when he recognizes Captain America, but Francine says that human problems are none of their business and tells her subordinates to protect themselves, closing the gates of the Sister Margaret's house.

• A Leviathan heads towards a building, the Hulk runs through the building and jumps on it, attacking it in the mouth and redirecting it.

• Captain America tells the Avengers they need to do something about the portal. Wasp grabs Pym and takes him to the top of Stark Tower.

• Hulk attacks a Leviathan, Thor helps him hammer a piece of the vehicle into the Leviathan's back, killing it. He crash lands in Grand Central Terminal, where Hulk also punches Thor in retaliation for earlier.

• Before more debris can fall on the civilians, the Fantastic Four arrive to help.

• The Invisible Woman (26) creates a shield while Mister Fantastic (27) pushes the civilians to safety. Human Torch (18) and the Thing (28) join the Hulk and Thor, causing a brief argument between the four.

• In New York's Sanctum, Stephen Strange (46), Wong (46) and Sara Wolfe (37) help fight the invading forces.

• At the top of Stark Tower, Erik Selvig wakes up, his mind control broken, and sees what is happening around him.

• The military enters the streets to do what they can.

• At Pym's house, his girlfriend Maria Trovaya, watches the fight on the news.

• Hawkeye directs Captain America to a nearby bank, where he goes and stops a Chitauri attack from killing civilians. The Invisible Woman protects the civilians from an explosion, while the Thing catches the Captain before he can fall from the building.

• Ben Grimm is nervous when meeting the Captain and presents himself as a big fan. Susan reminds him of the battle and drives them away with her shields.

• On the Hellicarrier, the World Security Council tells Fury Jr. that they have made the decision to launch a nuclear attack on Manhattan to contain the threat to the island only, but Fury refuses.

• Loki boards a Chitauri vehicle, which is intercepted by Human Torch. Johnny dodges the God of Mischief's attacks and throws her away, throwing her into Stark Tower, where the vehicle drops the "S" and "T" from the logo.

• Mister Fantastic scolds Johnny for losing sight of the "big villain", but Hulk jumps into the tower and attacks Loki, who tries to intimidate him; Hulk just grabs them and throws them to the ground repeatedly, leaving her unable to move.

• Wasp and Ant-Man meet Selvig in the tower, who says he believes Loki's Scepter, lying on the ground below them, may be able to close the portal.

• Iron Man finds himself unable to break through the shell of a Leviathan whale, so he tries to fly directly into its mouth, managing to explode it from the inside. He falls to the ground and finds himself fighting Chitauri again.

• Hawkeye runs out of arrows and has to kick an attacking alien off his perch. When his building is attacked, he jumps, firing a hook arrow to swing through a window below.

• He reaches the sidewalk, where he meets Mockingbird and they fight side by side.

• At Salem Center, Scott Summers, Bobby Drake, Warren Worthington III and Jean Grey watch the news. Scott asks the professor why they won't join the fight. Xavier simply says that them, as students, are not ready yet.

• Somewhere in Brooklyn, Sanguinária (OC) and Sabretooth takes down a Leviathan with their powers. They notice Captain America on TV and grin.

• The World Security Council orders a nuclear attack on Manhattan and a pilot will take off. Fury Jr. arrives with a rocket launcher and manages to hit the jet, but another jet flies in to launch the missile. He calls Stark and tells him that there is a missile heading to New York in the next 3 minutes.

• Wasp grabs the scepter. She, Selvig, and Pym work together to break the Tesseract's defenses to close the portal. Stark asks them to wait, saying there is a missile coming and he wants to send it through the portal.

• Stark grabs the missile just in time and begins to change direction. JARVIS tries to call Pepper Potts (29) in case he dies taking the missile through the portal. However, Potts, on a flight, is too preoccupied with watching the news to see her phone ringing.

• SHIELD watches the news closely on the Helicarrier. Just like every civilian, mutant and human, in New York.

• Stark diverts the missile into the air at Stark Tower and through the portal.

• SHIELD cheers with relief for New York, although Fury is worried about Stark.

• Peter Parker and Harry Osborn cheer in the living room, while Ben and May Parker (46) look fearfully at the TV.

• Strange, Wong and Sara Wolfe watch from the security of the Sanctum.

• Stark finds himself in deep space and his suit begins to fail. He releases the missile and it continues flying, hitting the Chitauri mothership and causing a huge explosion, which causes the remaining fleet of Chitauri and Leviathan to crash and fall dead without the mothership's power.

• Stark falls toward the portal, but the explosion threatens to hit Earth as well, so Rogers orders Pym and van Dyne to close the portal.

• Tony falls back into the New York sky just before its closure, but continues to fall, unconscious. Hulk jumps and catches him to slow his fall.

• The Fantastic Four and the rest of the Avengers crowd around Stark, Reed Richards manages to wake him up. Steve says they won and Tony says they should celebrate with shawarma, but Johnny reminds him that he lost sight of Loki.

• At Stark Tower, Loki recovers from Hulk's beating and the Avengers arrive to arrest her.

• A team from the Damage Control Department arrives at the Avengers' floor of Stark Tower to retrieve the Scepter. Jasper Sitwell takes the Scepter and he and Brock Rumlow (29) guard it.

• While the SHIELD agents guard the Tesseract, Tony invites the Fantastic Four to go eat shawarma and they accept.

• A little after the battle, at Thanos' ship on space, Gamora (29) talks to her master about Loki's defeat, the loss of the Tesseract and Earth's new protectors. He claims that attacking Earth again would be an act of suicide.

• Thanos (975), simply turns and smiles, thinking about what's to come.

• (April 6, Friday)

• The New York Bulletin has a front-page article titled "Battle of NY" that depicts a Leviathan causing several deaths by crashing into a building.

• The world, changed once again by the emergence of superhumans, is dominated by the idea of ​​a team of superheroes.

• The Avengers become the center of media attention, admired by the public as heroes, but are also received with some concern and fear. Some feel that his appearance during the battle is too coincidental.

• (April 11, Wednesday)

• Gathering in Central Park, the Avengers and SHIELD watch as Thor escorts Loki and the Tesseract to Asgard.

• Nick Fury Jr (42) talks to Colonel Fury Sr. (82), saying that the moment a new global threat emerges, the team will come together.

• Odin sentences Loki to an eternity of imprisonment in the Asgardian Dungeons and the Tesseract is put in a safe chamber inside the castle, watch by guards and Heimdall.

• (April 15, Sunday)

• Tony Stark (26) and Pepper Potts (29) review plans to rebuild the damaged Stark Tower, which lost the "S", "T", "R" and "K" outside in battle. They choose to repurpose the remaining "A" to represent the newly formed group, renamed "Avengers Tower".

• Tony reunites with Pym and helps him improve Janet's Wasp costume.

[braveclementine]

Battle of New York

Warnings: None

Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own my OC Elizabeth Lightwood. I do not condone any copying of this.

You had cleaned Coulson's trading cards and put them in the side pocket of your Agent outfit. You would give them to Maria later, knowing that she would want them. But at the moment, you needed to prepare for the fight that was coming.

You shoved the knives into your boots, putting your pistols in your holster. You let out one shaky breath, before sliding on the leather gloves Tony had made for you when you first fought with him- just new and improved.

You followed Barton, Nat, and Steve out to where the Jet was waiting, a technicion already in it.

"You got everything?" Barton asked, just as you knew he would. He had been the one to train you in combat and readiness.

Him and Coulson.

"Of course." You answered steadily, before you saw a flash of yellow and saw that Elizabeth was racing across the platform towards the rest of you.

"Elizabeth." You greeted her. "How's the side."

She made a grumbling noise which could've meant anything, but she seemed fine.

The five of you stepped inside of the jet.

"Hey, you guys aren't authorized to be in here." The technie said nervously.

"Son, just don't." Steve said in a hard voice.

The techie left quickly and Barton was soon getting the jet up and ready to go. Tony was flying alongside the ship, and soon he was taking off faster than the rest of you.

You could see his flight pattern was off though and you knew that his suit had to go through some major repairs. You quickly touched your com, "Tony, are you alright? The flight looks wonky. How's the suit?"

"It'll last." Tony answered.

Tony reached the tower much faster than the rest of you and you grew anxious, getting up from your seat to start pacing. Elizabeth was also anxious, her ears and tail flicking over and over in uncomfort.

"I can't see him anymore." You muttered, almost to himself as you saw Tony disappear from view.

"He'll be fine. He's a Stark." Nat said calmly.

You nodded, but you couldn't relax yet.

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Tony's heart was pounding, going with plan B. He let the Iron man suit come off his body much like he did on the opening day of Stark tower. He was fairly pissed that Loki was using his tower as a calling beacon for aliens, because he knew that there was going to be a fair amount of damage.

Loki followed him on the opposite side and so when Tony reached the same room that he'd had champagne with Y/N, Pepper, and Coulson only. . . what? A day? Two days ago? Him and Loki were opposite. Tony at least, had the high ground.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity." Loki spoke first, prowling into the room.

"Uh, actually, I'm planning to threaten you." Tony responded.

Loki left out the breath of a laugh, "You should have left your armor on for that."

"Yeah." Tony said in a causal voice, making his way down the stairs now. "It's seen a bit of mileage, and you've got the uh, glow stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?"

"Stalling me won't change anything." Loki shifted the scepter over to his other hand.

"No, no no. Threatening." Tony corrected, going over to where his glasses were to get himself a drink. "No drink? Are you sure? I'm having one."

He saw Loki walk over to the windows and said, "The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?"

"The Avengers." Tony said casually, pulling the plug on his new square jar of whiskey. He paused and then made a shrugging, awkward motion, "That's what we call ourselves. We're sort of like a team. Earth's mightiest heroes type of thing."

"Yes, I've met them." Loki sneered.

"Yeah." Tony laughed too. "It takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But let's do a head count, here. Your brother, the demigod. A super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to legend." Now he slipped his hands under the counter was Loki turned his back, putting the bracelets on his wrists carefully. "A man with breathtaking anger-management issues, a couple of master assassins, a very sexy Agent if I don't mind saying so myself, and your beautiful soulmate who has a nasty bite. And you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

"That was the plan." Loki said with a smirk.

"Not a great plan." Tony disagreed. Tony started to walk forward, hoping the Mark 7 prototype would work, drink in hand. "When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."

"I have an army."

"We have a Hulk."

"Oh I thought the beast had wandered off."

"You're missing the point. There is no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it."

He sipped his whiskey while Loki stalked towards him like a great beast. Tony knew now why Elizabeth had been the one to change. Loki was definitely far more dominant, and far more dangerous.

"How will your friends have time for me when they're so busy fighting you?" Loki hissed, raising the scepter to Tony's heart. It clanged against metal and the power went out a little. Loki did it a second time and then said in such a sincere, confused voice that Tony almost laughed, "This usually works."

"Well, performance issues, it's not uncommon. One out of five." He grunted then as Loki caught him around the throat, tossing him to the floor. "Jarvis, anytime now." He groaned, pushing himself back to his feet. Loki caught him around the throat before he had finished straightening up.

"You will all fall before me." Loki hissed.

"Deploy!" Tony shouted. "Deploy!" He was shoved out the glass window and started to fall towards the streets of New York.

'Well Fuck. Y/N is going to kill me.' Tony thought.

And then, his plan had worked, the suit connected around his body and he quickly stopped himself before he crashed into the citizens on the street, and sent himself flying straight back up.

"And there's one other person you pissed off." Tony said, hovering outside the window in front of the God. "His name was Phil."

And then he shot the God of mischief in the chest with his blaster.

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It took some time for the jet to fly over New York and by the time you grew close to the Stark Tower, you could already see great explosions in the sky as Tony weaved in and out of the aliens, making them explode.

You couldn't wait any longer to get to the ground. You rushed over to where the parachutes were and started to unpack one.

"No." Steve put his hand on yours. "As a team."

"My husband-"

"Stark, we're on your three, headed northeast." Natasha spoke through the coms in the front.

"What? Did you stop for drive-through?" The quirky response from your husband came through the intercom and you stopped fighting Steve off. He was still himself, he was alright. "Swing up Park. I'm gonna lay them out for you."

You got out of your seat to look through the front windshield, watching as a fast comet streak past Town hall, followed by aliens. Natasha lowered the gun, shooting the aliens that were chasing your husband.

Natasha flew the plane higher into the air and you saw Thor had come- so he had survived! He was fighting Loki on top of Stark Tower and you bit your lip in worry. It looked as though Loki had the upper hand at the moment.

Elizabeth growled beside you as Loki tossed Thor to the side, before pointing the scepter at the plane. A blast of blue light shot from the weapon and the jet went spinning.

You were tossed off your feet, sliding past Steve who had grabbed the handles on the ceiling to steady himself. You crashed harshly into the jet doors and were only glad that they held shut. Elizabeth dug her nails into the jet to steady herself, spreading her four paws out, back bent.

"Y/N!" Steve exclaimed, as the jet pitched forward and you nearly flew towards the front windshield. His arm caught you around the middle and you quickly righted yourself inches from Steve's face to grab the bars yourself.

"Thanks." You breathed out shakily and then shut your eyes in nausea as the plane went spinning. You let go as the jet hit the ground, jolting to hard to keep a hold on, falling onto your knees and hands.

The plane had barely settled before Natasha and Clint were unstrapping themselves from the front of the plane and Steve had grabbed your arm to lift you.

Elizabeth was already running out, was already disappearing into the dust. You wondered for a moment as you drew your pistols, if she was going to be joining Loki's side against Thor.

Or she was going to get hurt, trying to stop the fight between the two of them, just like she had attempted to with Coulson.

But you couldn't think about it anymore, with Steve leading the way out of the jet, with you taking up the rear behind Barton.

"We gotta get back up there." Steve shouted as the four you started to run back through the street. People were screaming and animals were making various noises as human and animal soulmates alike ran through the city. There was already plenty of rubble around, dust filling the air and making it harder to breathe. Luckily, it was open air so there were parts that weren't quite dusty yet.

Suddenly, the four of you came to a stop in front of town hall, looking up at the great portal in the sky as it made a low growling noise. Blue mist swirled around it, as though it was attempting to spit something out of it.

And then it did. A huge, very long centipede looking creature. It looked both robotic, yet also fleshy, as though it were made of both metal and flesh. Before realizing that it was probably wearing armor.

It went past the four of you and as you looked, you watched as alien creatures started to leap from its body, grappling onto nearby skyscraper walls. The nails raked down the sides of the building as they started to make their way down.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve asked.

"Do I look blind?" You retorted, before realizing that he was speaking to your husband and you gave him an apologetic look.

"Seeing." Tony's voice came through coms, sounding a little uncertain, "Still working on believing. Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?"

Was Banner even alive?

"Banner?" Rogers sounded as perplexed as you felt.

"Just keep me posted." Tony said.

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"Look at this!" Thor shouted, hammer to Loki's throat. "Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?"

No. Loki wanted to say. Not his rule. Ronans. And ultimately- Thanos. He couldn't stop it. He was to weak, for all that he boasted to be, to fight the mind control. He'd even hurt his own soulmate because they had wanted it. His soulmate! The one and only person he had thought he could never possibly hurt because of the bond between the two of them.

He knew she understood. He could feel that in their connection. He could feel that she knew he wasn't in the right mindset. He could feel her, even now, feel her presence coming closer, as though she were at the bottom of the tower.

"It's too late." He hissed. "It's too late to stop it."

"No. We can. Together." Thor said.

Always the optimist. Loki wasn't even entirely sure that if he had done this of his own free will, that he would have let Thor help even then. Even now, under the mind control, there was a reluctance to let his 'brother' help him. And the mind control fed upon that reluctance.

His arm reached forward, stabbing his brother under the coat of armor. "Sentiment." He whispered as Thor fell to one knee, grabbing the weapon that was imbedded in his skin.

And then Thor charged forward, grabbing Loki and kicking him through the glass. It shattered easily under his weight. Thor lifted him up, dropping him to the ground with no mercy and he grunted. He rolled off the tower just as Fuli came running to the top of the tower, coming to a stop. Her amber eyes held him for just one second, before she disappeared from sight.

He fell only a few feet, before one of the alien vehicles caught him and he grabbed on, narrowing his eyes at the destruction before him.

He didn't look back. If he did, those eyes might command him. He knew that, and so the side controlling him knew that.

He didn't look back.

But he wanted to.

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You, Steve, Nat, and Clint were all hiding behind the same Taxi.

"We've got civilians trapped up here." Clint pointed out. You looked up, watching the alien bikes whiz by. The entire city was on fire and chaos ensued every which way that you looked.

"Loki." Steve said, overlooking the bridge. "They're fish in a barrel down there."

You ducked as you were shot at, before Natasha returned fire and Clint ran to another Taxi. You lifted your own gun, watching the Chitauri in front of you.

"We got this. It's good. Go. You too Stark." Natasha said to Steve and you.

"Do you think you can hold them off?" Steve asked, motioning to you to stay put for another second longer as you moved to go.

"Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure." Clint smirked.

And that was when he turned to fire over the Taxi.

Steve turned as Natasha joined Clint and he ran, jumping off the ledge onto the bus below. You followed suit, not entirely sure if you were going to land as pleasantly as he did. They were already firing and you could feel the flames behind you. Steve grabbed your arm, yanking you onto his back while your eyes widened in surprise. You had not time to object as the bus was nearly blown up underneath you.

He leapt to another car, which tilted forward from the explosion and he leapt far, his arms waving. You were tempted to close your eyes, but decided to focus more on not accidentally pulling the triggers of your pistols while they were both pointed at his throat.

Steve barely landed on the gravel without getting hit, the two of you tumbling forwards. You quickly rolled out of the way, letting him drag you along once more before you could completely get your bearings.

You quickly started running on your own though, while also conscious of the thing behind you still focused on killing the two of you.

You and Steve started running through the street very differently. Where he used cars and his super strength to propel himself, jumping from car to car, you dashed around them heaving for breath and wondering if you could get some of his agility from somewhere.

You could see the police up ahead, shooting at the aliens. You felt a pride building up inside of yourself that these brave men hadn't scattered. They were performing their civic, American duty, even though they didn't know what was going on or if they were even going to go home to their families.

Steve was already giving the police orders when you got there, feeling winded and hot in your agent outfit. You were going to have a talk with Fury and possibly Tony about getting some sort of air conditioning feature in these outfits.

"Why the hell should I take orders from you?" The police officer retorted, looking even more confused at the sight of Steve before him.

Suddenly, Chitauri landed around you. You lifted your gun, blasting his face off with one bullet while Steve took out the two on top of the car that he had been kneeling upon. The minute Steve had finished them off, the police officer in charge immediately turned and started relaying the same orders that Steve had given him.

"Well we got its attention." Tony suddenly spoke in your coms, "What the hell was step two?"

You and Steve ran back to where Clint and Natasha were fighting. You shot into the aliens while Steve leapt forward, bashing them in the heads with his shield. As you dropped the alien, you grabbed its weapon, replacing it with one of your guns. You'd save the rest of your ammo for desperate measure.

Suddenly, the rest of the Chitauri were struck down with fierce lightning and Thor flew down from the sky, landing in front of the rest of you.

"What's the story upstairs?" Steve asked immediately.

"The power surrounding the Cube is impenetrable."

"Thor's right. We got to deal with these guys." Tony said.

"How do we do this?" Natasha asked.

"As a team." Steve said.

"I have unfinished business with Loki." Thor said.

Clint was cleaning his arrows as he responded, "Yeah? Get in line."

"Save it." Steve and you snapped at the same time. Steve then continued, saying, "Loki's going to keep this fight focused on us, and that's what we need. Without him, these things could run wild. We got Stark up top. He's going to need us to-"

Steve cut off as the sound of a motorcycle sounded behind him. All of you except for Tony quickly joined Banner who was riding a very puny, dirty motorcycle. "So, this all seems horrible." He said and you raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"I've seen worse." Natasha said and now both eyebrows were raised in skepticism.

"Sorry." Banner replied.

"No, we could use a little worse." Natasha protested and you realized she was talking about the Hulk.

"Stark, we got him." Steve said.

"Banner?" Tony asked in the coms and that reminded you to pull out an extra com to hand to Bruce. He waved it away.

"Probably won't need it soon." He explained and you nodded in understanding.

"Just like you said." Steve replied to Tony.

"Then tell him to suit up. I'm brining the party to you."

Tony flew around the corner and brought the large centipede looking thing with him. Thor snarled and Natasha sighed, "I don't see how that's a party."

"Dr Banner." Steve said urgently as Bruce started to walk towards the very large creature that was coming towards the rest of you. "Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."

"That's my secret Captain." Bruce responded. "I'm always angry-"

You watched him turn green within less than a second before your eyes, and then he punched the huge centipede in its face.

Now that the centipede was folding upwards, threatening to fall and crush the rest of you, you realized that you had been correct before: it was partly made out of metal.

"Hold on!" Tony shouted.

Steve grabbed you and Nat, blocking the two of you with both his body and his shield as the creature above you exploded. You could still feel the heat, even with the protection and knew it had been a pretty big explosion.

Suddenly, the air was filled with screeching and snarling from the other aliens that had been looking to the larger one as their champion. The Hulk joined in with their roars as Tony started to hover above the rest of you.

You looked upwards as the others decided to put on heroic poses and saw that there were two more coming through the portal.

"Um, Tony?" You asked in a small voice.

"Guys." Natasha said in a warning one.

"Call it, Captain." Tony said, coming over to your side. You looked up at him and he looked down at you. Neither of you touched or said anything. You didn't have to.

"All right, listen up." Steve said. "Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash. "

"Can you give me a lift?" Clint asked.

Tony looked away from you. "Right. Better clench up, Legolas."

The two of them flew off and you turned your attention back to the fight.

"Thor, you got to try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up."

Thor swung his hammer around and then took off, leaving you and Nat with Steve.

"The three of us, we stay here on the ground. We keep the fighting here. Y/N, you've got long range with the alien weapon. Keep out of touch. And Hulk. . . Smash."

The three of you watched for a moment or two as he leapt up towards the aliens on the building, before leaping from building to building.

Turned out, the alien weapon was a lot better than expected. Not only could you blast them before them even reached out, but on the off chance that they did reach you, you had an excellent weapon to sweep them off their feet and parry their own blocks.

You started working out combos with your knifes when they got to close and didn't even realize how long you had been fighting until you were no longer being attacked, and you had a pile of thirty or forty dead aliens in a circle around your feet.

You looked around, seeing Natasha looked exhausted as she leaned against an overturned car, Steve having just jumped back up from wherever he had been. Nat has blood trickling from her hairline, but Steve looked fine. You had no idea about yourself. Your body ached, but nothing hurt and you couldn't find any blood.

"Captain, none of this is going to mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal." Natasha sighed, looking up at the sky.

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it." Steve sighed as well.

"Well, maybe it's not about guns." Nat said and you looked over at her.

"If you want to get up there, you're going to need a ride." Steve said as more Chitauri jumped down from flying overheard vehicles.

"I got a ride." Nat said, tossing aside the alien weapon she had been using. "I could use a boost though." She looked over her shoulder at Steve.

"Are you sure about this?" Steve asked, backing up to the complete opposite wall that she was standing at.

"Yeah. It's gonna be fun." Nat said in a hardly convincing tone. You rolled your eyes and decided to use the aliens across from you as target practice since they were at long range.

More aliens came however, and soon you were using the alien weapon and your knife again, more than you were blowing them up. It was fun, fighting alongside Steve, who looked like he was doing gymnastics or something as he did flips and turns in midair as he kicked off aliens.

Tony came flying down, landing on the ground and blasting other aliens backwards so that the two of you were pretty much fighting back to back. But soon he was taking off for the skies once more to laser off aliens that were still climbing the buildings.

Suddenly, you were shoved forwards and you grunted, catching yourself on your knees, rolling over just in time to avoid the stab that ended up in the concrete instead.

You turned your own weapon in time to catch the next blow, before reaching for your pistol and blowing a hole through the aliens face, rolling over, pushing yourself to your feet.

You weren't on them for long, a slippery arm wrapping around your throat and you hit the concrete so hard you saw stars. You reached up, grabbing the handle of the weapon that was threatening to go straight through your stomach. It came lower, inch by inch. You could hear Clint telling something to Tony and you were struck with the sudden notion that you should say something to Tony.

And then the alien was missing a head and Steve was pulling you to your feet. "You alright?"

"Head hurts." You managed to say.

"It's bleeding." Steve admitted. "You need to stay on your feet."

You nodded, blinking to clear your head. You wanted to touch the back of your head, see how much blood was there, but didn't want to.

Suddenly, a flash of yellow came tearing down the street, leaping on aliens and biting their heads off.

Elizabeth.

She came to a stop before you and as you bent down to talk to her, she walked around you and you winced as she started to lick the back of your head.

"That might stop the bleeding." Steve admitted, looking curious. "Keep her safe, I've gotta go."

You let Elizabeth take care of you until she sat back on her haunches, looking agitated.

"Loki is a terrible soulmate." You finally said.

She snorted and started to lick her paw.

You smiled a little and then heard Steve cry out and you watched as he was thrown from a building window by a blast of blue light.

"Steve?" You rushed to his side, followed by Elizabeth.

"I'm fine." Steve grunted. You saw that he had lost his mask, his pale face was dirty and drawn. His hair looked my black than blond at the moment. Elizabeth licked his face right then and there and he almost smiled.

"Are you a dog?" You muttered quietly in amusement. She just growled.

The Chitauri didn't stop. Elizabeth launched herself at one and you quickly got back into the fight. But it was different now. You lacked the energy to put in the swift moments and you were getting hurt.

You watched Steve fight as you picked yourself up again. Thor too.

You looked out at New York. This was your home. You were an American. And no one was going to come into your country and take your freedom. Destroy what you had built.

You dropped your pistols which were empty of ammo, drawing your knives. You ducked and slashed.

And then Tony was inside your ear.

"Y/N?"

"Tony?" You asked, ducking another swing of the weapon, stabbing up through the ribs, ripping right up till the throat.

"I-I put us on a private line."

Your heart nearly stopped and in that moment, you were swept off your feet and you groaned as you crashed into another car. Your head tilted back for just a moment and Thor tossed the alien that came towards you.

"Why? What's happening?"

"A nuke."

You swallowed. You knew what that meant. It was over. You were all going to go down with the aliens.

You. Tony. Steve. Thor. Clint. Nat. Elizabeth. Loki.

Your unborn child.

You watched Steve get shot at the moment and it pushed you to your feet.

Suddenly, Nat interrupted whatever else Tony wanted to say to you. "I can shut the portal down. Anybody copy! I can shut it down!"

"Do it." Steve commanded.

"No. Wait. I got a nuke coming in." Tony said quickly. "It's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it."

You relaxed. Tony would position the nuke upwards so it went into the portal. Nat would close the portal. Bada-boom, Bada- bang.

"Stark, you know that's a one-way trip." Steve said suddenly, turning to look at you and you felt weak in that moment.

"Save the rest for the turn, J." Stark said.

"Tony!" You shouted in your com, already feeling the waterworks flowing. You turned away from Steve and Thor, unable to face them.

"Y/N, it's gonna be okay." Tony said.

"No, no, Tony, don't. You can't. . ."

"You'll be alright." Tony whispered. You closed your eyes, looking up at the sky to watch him streak by, the white bomb above his suit.

He was already past, already going up towards the portal.

Your knees gave out from under you, wanting to look down at the city, but also unable to look away as he grew closer.

"I love you Y/N."

You knew you couldn't change his mind. You couldn't rant and rave and hurt him. Not now. Not in his last moments. You could only give him what you could.

"You were right." You whispered so softly you didn't know if the com would carry over. "She's a little Y/N."

And you ripped your ear piece out so you didn't have to hear Tony's sob on the other side.

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Tony's heart pounded as he grew closer and closer to the edge of the portal. He was going to have a little girl. He had known it all along, but you couldn't help but feel a little superior.

And yet, a little melancholy. How could it be that he had almost had everything he wanted. Everything he actually wanted. And now it was going to be gone. Because he was going to make a choice.

He let out a shaky breath.

"First or middle." He said softly. He had heard her com go dark, but he knew the others were listening. "Everleigh."

And then he pierced the blue.

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So he was gone.

Steve came over, dropping the shield to kneel in front of you. Elizabeth padded over as well.

"He said her first or middle name should be Everleigh." Steve whispered.

You just nodded numbly, tears pricking your eyes again. "He. . . he always said she would be a girl. I didn't believe him."

You didn't understand why they were still staring at the portal, as though he was going to come back. The aliens around you were dropping as though they were robots that were powering down. Tony wasn't alive. The nuke had clearly gone off.

"Close it." Steve said suddenly, giving you a pitying look.

And you realized they had hoped more than you had. They had waited for as long as they could. They had to close it now.

You couldn't hesitate. It was only you that you would be trying to save, waiting and waiting for Tony. And more aliens could come. You nodded once, hating yourself for it.

And then the portal was closing, the jet of light that was attached to Stark tower. . . Stark tower. . . was shooting back up towards the sky. The portal was closing up. And then, a very small figure escaped.

"Son of a gun." Steve said and then turned back to you. He shook your shoulder gently. "Y/N, he's okay."

But you wouldn't believe it. Yes, he was back here. But the nuke. . . he could be blind. Or radiated. Or. . . dead.

"He's not slowing down." Thor said suddenly, spinning his hammer.

But it was the Hulk that jumped from nowhere, catching Tony in his suit and landing on the car.

Thor ran over and Steve brought you to your feet. You stumbled after them, trying to beat down the hope that was trying to bloom in your heart. If you hoped, you could potentially be disappointed. Better not to hope in the first place.

Elizabeth was quickly by your side.

"Is he breathing?" Steve asked as you, Steve, and Thor knelt down around him and Thor flipped him onto his back.

Thor tore the plate from his face.

Steve leaned over to listen and then sat back, putting his hand where the glow of the arc reactor was missing, before he stopped touching him.

You knew you had hoped, because it all came crashing down on you again.

Elizabeth started to lick his face, cleaning away the dirt that somehow managed to be there. She whined softly.

Suddenly, the Hulk roared loudly and Tony jerked and shouted.

"What the hell?" Tony gasped as the Hulk continued to roar and you let out a sob at hearing his voice. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me."

You couldn't breathe, wanting to both laugh and burst into fresh tears from his normal attitude.

"We won." Steve said.

"All right, yay! Hurray. Good job guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I want to try it."

You couldn't help the laughter that pealed through your lips and Tony immediately sat up. "Y/N."

Your laughter turned to sobs as you fell into his arms, letting his metal amor wrap itself around you. He kissed you right then and there and your sobs were stifled. "I love you bunny."

You hiccupped, resting your forehead against his. "Don't do that again."

"You have my word."