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nikkoliferous · 4 years ago

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Phase One: Avengers (Part One)

With everything being about the LOKI series right now and me dreading it, I figured I'd distract myself by finally posting my thoughts on the Phase One: Avengers novel, which I seem to recall somehow being way worse than the Thor novel? I'm not completely convinced this thing wasn't ghostwritten by Taika Waititi; that's all I'm saying. Anyways, here we go.

(Quick note: please be aware that this overview is significantly Thor-critical. If that sort of thing bothers you, I do not recommend proceeding. You've been warned. Lol)

Let's start off with a friendly reminder that SHIELD had four hours to evacuate before Loki showed up, shall we?

Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago,” Coulson was saying.

“I didn’t approve going to testing,” Fury said.

Coulson nodded. “He wasn’t testing it. He wasn’t even in the room. Spontaneous event.”

So either they're grossly incompetent or grossly negligent, but either way those deaths are on them at least as much as they're on Loki. If not more so.

“It just turned itself on?” Hill sounded skeptical. Fury, as usual, was less interested in how they’d gotten there than in what they were going to do next.

[...]

Selvig acknowledged him briefly and then returned his attention to the monitoring equipment. “Director, the Tesseract is misbehaving.”

“Is that supposed to be funny?”

“No, it’s not funny at all. The Tesseract is not only active, she’s… behaving.”

Fury didn’t comment on the doctor characterizing the Tesseract as female. He also wasn’t interested in Selvig’s notions about its personality. It didn’t have a personality. It was a cube containing energy, and all Nick Fury wanted was to know how to control that energy. “I assume you pulled the plug.”

Fury having no intellectual curiosity explains a lot, tbh. Like how he thinks Loki "kills because it's fun", even though nothing about their prior interaction indicates that. Like, at all. Loki killed only the agents who were attacking him. Because he felt threatened. If he indeed killed for the fun of it, he would have taken them all out and been done with it. Doing so would have both entertained him and made for a much smoother getaway.

“She’s an energy source. We turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level—”

“We prepared for this, Doctor. Harnessing energy from space.”

“We’re not ready. My calculations are far from complete. And she’s throwing off interference radiation.”

Fury watched the Tesseract in its circular containment shell. Eight separate energy sensors built into a frame supporting that shell were designed to measure and conduct that energy. Those sensors in turn rested on stainless-steel support scaffolding. The whole setup sprouted cables and conduits. These were there to supply energy to the Tesseract in a controlled fashion so Dr. Selvig could analyze its reactions. Now they were all shut down, as Dr. Selvig had said, but even so, the Tesseract glowed with a fierce blue energy. It was starting to spill onto the sensors, arcing like electricity. But it wasn’t electricity. It was something much more exotic.

I also find it curious/amusing/something that Fury later accuses Loki of "stealing a force [he] can't hope to control". YOU'RE DESCRIBING YOURSELF, NICK. YOU'RE THE ONE WHO CAN'T CONTROL IT AND HAS BEEN ARROGANTLY PRETENDING YOU CAN.

The man looked up at them and smiled as he stood. He was not a large man, not remarkable in any particular way. He had long black hair and wore black leather clothing, similar to what Fury was wearing. However, he wasn’t a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Fury didn’t know where he had come from.

I beg to fucking differ lmao

Fury had the Tesseract in a steel carrying case and was taking a step toward the door when the stranger turned to him and said, “Please don’t. I still need that.”

Kudos to Loki for not forgetting his princely manners even while completely off his rocker. Lol

“This doesn’t have to get any messier,” Fury said. He glanced quickly around, trying to figure the fastest way out.

“Of course it does,” the stranger said. “I’ve come too far for anything else.”

TELL US WHAT YOU'VE BEEN THROUGH, LOKI. INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW.

“Loki?” Dr. Selvig said. He stood up from helping one of his fellow doctors, who was barely conscious. “Brother of Thor?”

“We have no quarrel with your people,” Fury said.

Loki acknowledged Selvig and then returned his attention to Fury.

By "acknowledged", the author means he rolled his eyes so hard he saw his own brain lmao

“I come with glad tidings,” Loki said. “Of a world made free.”

“Free from what?” Fury asked.

Turning back to him, Loki said simply, “Freedom. Freedom is life’s great lie. Once you accept that in your heart…” As he spoke the word “heart,” he turned and touched Selvig’s chest with the tip of his scepter, just as he had with Hawkeye. Selvig gasped, and the same change came over his face that Fury had seen in Hawkeye’s. “You will know peace.”

He's not simply deranged, you know. For Loki, this is actually true. He has never been free in his entire life, and won't be at any point after this either. Yes, there was also the torture and the mind control at play, but even underneath all that, is it any wonder he was vulnerable to the Thanos cult's brainwashing?

Hawkeye had been looking around the complex. Now he stepped up to Loki. “Sir, Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us.”

Loki looked back at Fury, who said, “Like the pharaohs of old.”

“He’s right, the portal is collapsing in on itself!” Selvig called out from the monitors. “We’ve got maybe two minutes before this goes critical.”

Friendly reminder, once again, that Loki wasn't even aware the PEGASUS facility was on the verge of collapsing—let alone the cause of it.

“Well then,” Loki said. He glanced over at Hawkeye.

Without a word, Hawkeye drew his gun and shot Nick Fury once, dead center in the chest.

Two things:

1) Every time I see this scene in gifs, all I can think of is, "Pull the lever, Kronk." 🤣

2) So how does the direct mind control of the sceptre work anyway? Because Loki never actually gives Barton a command here. So does he sometimes communicate with his minions telepathically (sort of like The Other does with him), or does Barton just intuit his intent here, or what?

Maria Hill saw Hawkeye come out of the lab into the garage with Selvig, a liaison officer, and a stranger carrying a spear. He looked more like one of the people they’d been recruiting into the Avengers Initiative than an ordinary technician or S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. “Who's that?” she asked.

*sigh* In a just MCU, this would have been foreshadowing.

She jumped into a jeep and headed after them. Other S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicles followed, filled with agents. They roared along the underground access road that led up to the surface in the New Mexico desert. She was gaining on them and firing as she drove. Sooner or later, she’d be close enough to have a good shot at the stranger.

He had other ideas, though. When he saw the pursuing convoy get too close, he pointed his scepter at them. The tip of it flared bright blue, and a bolt of energy lashed out from it, striking the vehicle in front of Hill and shattering the right side of its passenger compartment. The vehicle slewed around and flipped, rolling and landing sideways across the road. They were blocked.

Interesting of Loki to go for the passenger compartment instead of the driver. Was anyone even sitting there? Just one more example in a long string of Loki being inexplicably merciful to his enemies, I guess. 🤷

They got around ahead of the truck, and Fury leaned out of the helicopter’s side door. He fired, emptying his clip. He could tell from the sparks that some of the bullets had hit, but he was too far away to see if they’d done any damage.

His real target was Loki, but he was protected by the cab of the truck. Fury couldn’t get a good shot at him.

Did Fury already forget that Loki is bulletproof, or...? I mean, I guess that's fair. Earlier, Hawkeye goes to draw his sidearm only minutes after the narration points out that the bullets already fired at Loki had bounced away harmlessly.

Leaning over the truck’s roof and keeping low, however, Loki could get a good shot at the helicopter. A blue bolt lanced out and struck the helicopter’s rotor assembly. All the control mechanisms went haywire, and the helicopter spiraled down out of the sky. The truck drove underneath them as they were about to crash, close enough that Fury could see the gloating expression on Loki’s face.

Haha, good for him.

“Coulson, you know that Stark trusts me about as far as he can throw me,” she said.

“Oh, I’ve got Stark,” Coulson said. “You’ve got the big guy.”

Oh, Natasha thought. That big guy. She said something in Russian. It wasn’t polite.

This has nothing to do with Loki. It just made me laugh.

Nick Fury had called an emergency meeting of the World Security Council. They needed to know what had happened with the Tesseract, and they needed to know what he planned to do about it. He brought up holographic images of all the WSC members, with their faces and locations hidden. He did not know who they were, but S.H.I.E.L.D. reported to them.

Well, that doesn't sound problematic at all, does it?

“The Avengers Initiative was shut down.”

“This isn’t about the Avengers.” That wasn’t strictly true, but Nick Fury was no idiot. He wasn’t going to show all his cards to the World Security Council when he didn’t even know who they were.

I'm glad he at least recognizes the stupidity of working for people he doesn't know, but uh... debatable, otherwise. Lol

“This isn’t about personality profiles anymore,” Coulson said. He wasn’t giving up, and that irritated Tony even more than the fact he’d showed up right when the celebration of Stark Tower was supposed to be starting.

*cough*DIVA*cough*

Loki watched Dr. Erik Selvig work, preparing the Tesseract for the next phase of his plan. Technicians and soldiers scurried about on various errands. Loki did not know the details and did not care. They were beneath him. He had his eye solely on the greater prize. It was time to consult with the Chitauri and begin the next phase of the preparations.

Really? You expect me to believe that Loki, the master tactician with "a cunning mind far exceeding Thor and Odin’s", couldn't be bothered to know the details of his own plan? Um, how about no?

Deep space and a field of stars surrounded this rocky world. Pale blue lights glowed where the Chitauri had built their fortress. They gleamed in a set of stairs that climbed to the topmost tower. That was where Loki had made his bargain with the Chitauri: They would be his army and he would open a path to Earth for them. Once Earth was his, and Asgard as well, he would turn the Tesseract over to them.

At least that was what he had promised.

1) Who said anything about Asgard...?

2) Indicator that Loki never planned on actually turning over the Tesseract? I don't know why you'd include this line otherwise.

“Let them gird themselves,” he said. “I will lead them in glorious battle.”

“Battle?” the Chitauri warrior snorted. “Against the meager might of Earth?”

“Glorious,” Loki repeated. “Not lengthy. If your force is as formidable as you claim.”

He had intended to anger the Chitauri, and he had succeeded.

Personally, I saw this less as intending to anger and more as "Loki has no self-preservation instinct and literally cannot help himself". What's to be gained by intentionally pissing off The Other here?

“You don’t have the Tesseract yet.” The Chitauri leader rushed at Loki and stopped just short of him, claws raised. Loki did not move.

“I don’t threaten,” he said, though he was doing exactly that.

LOL

The Chitauri leader backed down but only a step. “You will have your war, Asgardian,” he growled. Then he too decided to make a threat. “If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he cannot find you. You think you know pain? He will make you long for something as sweet as pain.”

Loki flashed back into his awareness of Earth. He took a deep breath. The Chitauri did not frighten him… but he would have been a fool if he had not possessed a healthy respect for their leader, the mad Titan known as Thanos. For it was Thanos who had given Loki the scepter, and Thanos who had rallied the Chitauri to Loki’s cause… and Thanos who wished to possess the Tesseract for his own monstrous ends. One did not bargain lightly with Thanos—and one certainly did not fail to meet the terms of such a bargain.

Love how this book just repeatedly glosses over the obvious fact that Loki was tortured. In the first chapter, it makes zero mention of his stumbling or other signs of being weakened. Here, it completely omits the pain WE ALL SAW The Other inflict on him. Fuck this narrator, seriously.

Steve had a moment to look around. The commanding officer appeared to be a woman with short dark hair reeling off orders from near the center of the bridge. “S.H.I.E.L.D. Emergency Protocol 193.6 in effect,” she was saying after a series of status orders and acknowledgments. Steve didn’t know what protocol that was. At the moment, all he knew was that he was on a flying aircraft carrier… and wasn’t that enough? Amazing.

[....]

The Helicarrier disappeared from view. From the inside, it didn’t look any different, but Steve saw monitors from satellite feeds, and on those, the Helicarrier had simply become invisible. He corrected himself: He wasn’t just on a flying aircraft carrier. He was on an invisible flying aircraft carrier. The future was pretty… cool, was the word everyone used now.

I'm not the biggest Steve fan, but I will admit to finding his childlike awe over the Helicarrier slightly adorable. Lol

Side note: is someone on this thing coordinating with Air Traffic Control? I... really hope so.

“What did it show you, Agent Barton?”

Barton turned to look at Loki. “My next target,” he said.

Loki nodded. “Tell me what you need.”

Barton took one his bows out of a case and snapped it into shape with a flick of his arm. “I need a distraction,” he said. “And a biometric ID.”

Why the change from "eyeball", I wonder? Seems random. Lol

Inside, Loki had been mingling with the crowd, taking on the appearance of an ordinary man with a walking stick. But as the president of the museum, one Doktor Heinrich Schäfer, began his welcoming speech, Loki decided it was time to make a dramatic entrance. He tapped the walking stick on the floor and it became his scepter. Immediately, to get the crowd’s attention, he aimed it at the nearest museum security guard and fired.

This... didn't happen?? At all??

Loki strode the rest of the way down the stairs and manhandled Schäfer over to a stone altar that was one of the museum’s prized ancient Norse relics. He slammed Schäfer onto his back, forcing a machine over his face. Schäfer cried out in pain and surprise as the machine shone blinding light into his face, holding his eyes open.

On the one hand, confirmation that Loki did not actually shred this dude's eye and he's probably fine. On the other hand, the author completely made up what just happened literally two sentences ago, so their credibility is a little suspect at the moment. Lol

A police car, alerted by the commotion, raced toward him. He blasted it with his scepter, and it spun out of control and crashed.

ACAB!

The crowd froze. Slowly the crowd knelt, and Loki reveled in their submission. “There,” he said. “Is this not simpler? Is this not your natural state? It’s the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life’s joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.”

He's talking about himself here. We all get that, right?

An old man in the middle of the crowd stood. Loki paused in his speech to regard this individual. Around him, all the copies of himself also looked at this old man.

“Not to men like you,” the old man said.

“There are no men like me,” Loki said.

No lies detected.

But Loki was tougher than he looked. He struck back with the scepter, forcing Captain America to parry until Loki found an opening and slammed the butt of the scepter into Captain America’s midsection, knocking him down. Captain America threw the shield again, but this time Loki was ready. He knocked it aside. It fell ringing to the stones of the plaza, and Loki had the tip of the scepter against the back of Captain America’s neck before the soldier could get back to his feet.

Correction: If he'd actually been trying to win, he would have used the tip. (Narrator: he was not trying to win).

A sudden storm rose around the Quinjet. Natasha looked at the instrument panel. There’d been no warning of heavy weather. “Where’s this coming from?” she wondered out loud.

At first, she thought that Loki was responsible. But that didn’t appear to be the case. He looked more nervous than anyone else on the jet.

Loki has Thor-induced PTSD. Understandable, tbh.

Thor let Loki fall well before they got to the ground.

Because Thor is an asshole.

So hey, as long as we're here, let's review how each member of Loki's family responds to the realisation that he's survived his suicide attempt.

Thor- manhandles him, angrily demands to know where the Tesseract is

Odin- refuses to even use his name, implies he should have either slaughtered him as an infant or left him to die

Frigga- tells him not to make things worse (fucking rich coming from the woman who exacerbated his trauma immeasurably by thrusting the throne upon him when he was at his most vulnerable)

Wild, man. I wonder why Loki's convinced his family doesn't give a shit about him. They seem like such loving people to me.

“I remember a shadow,” Loki said bitterly. “Living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss. I who was and should be king!”

Because you would have destroyed Asgard, Thor thought. Just to impress our father, you would have annihilated all the Nine Realms. “So you took the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights? No. The Earth is under my protection, Loki.”

1) Actually, he was trying to save Asgard... from a war that YOU started, numbnuts. He went about it all wrong because he was having a fucking mental breakdown, but at no stage did he even really endanger Asgard, let alone come close to destroying it.

2) Um, what? Where the fuck in Loki's plan was annihilating anything other than Jötunheim? I see Thor shares his friends' impressive conclusion-jumping skills. Not surprising.

3) Thor, I mean this truly and without reservation: go fuck yourself.

Loki chuckled. “And you’re doing a marvelous job with that. The humans slaughter each other in droves while you idly fret. I mean to rule them, and why should I not?”

He... has a point.

“You think yourself above them?”

“Well, yes.”

At least Loki is honest about his condescension, Thor. You should try it sometime.

Suddenly furious, Loki raged at Thor. “I’ve seen worlds you’ve never known about! I have grown, Odinson, in my exile. I have seen the true power of the Tesseract, and when I wield it—”

“Who showed you this power?” Thor interrupted. “Who controls the would-be king?”

And he will never bring this up again. Ever.

Stepping right up to his brother, Thor shouted back. “Not here! You give up the Tesseract! You give up this poisonous dream!” Then he softened. “You come home.”

“I don’t have it,” Loki said. Furious, Thor brought Mjolnir to his hand, ready for battle.

Thor's sort of a one-solution kind of guy, huh? Somebody help me out here, because he's "changed" but his first instinct when he's not getting his way is still to react with intimidation and violence. Funny how that works.

Tony braked and skidded to a halt as the Asgardian rolled away from him, tearing up trees and brush as he went. He got to his feet and extended a warning hand. “Do not touch me again,” he said.

Oh, what's the matter, Thor? Do you not like being manhandled? That's weird because you sure do seem to enjoy doing the manhandling. 😕

“If he gives up the cube, he’s all yours. Until then…” Tony’s faceplate clamped back down. “Stay out of the way.”

He turned to walk back to a place where he could make a clean takeoff. “Tourist,” he muttered.

That was the last straw, apparently, because the next thing Tony knew, the Asgardian’s hammer had hit him about as hard as he’d ever been hit in his life. The force of the blow carried him through the trunk of a tree and laid him out flat in the dirt.

Please note that Thor was not being attacked. He once again used offensive violence against someone who hurt his feelbads. "Changed", my rear.

“Then prove it,” Cap said. “Put that hammer down.”

“Uh, no, bad call,” Iron Man said. “He loves his hammer—”

The Asgardian interrupted Tony by smashing him out of the way with a backhand swing. “You want me to put the hammer down?” he roared, and leaped high into the air, bringing his hammer down toward Captain America.

And again—not in any immediate danger, simply reacting with violence to something that made him angry.

“Oh, I’ve heard. A mindless beast. Makes play he’s still a man. How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?”

“How desperate am I?” Fury echoed. He walked slowly over the catwalk to stand in front of Loki. “You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can’t hope to control. You talk about peace, but you kill because it’s fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did.”

This is called 'projection', kids. Projection, and making up stories about your enemies so they're easier to hate. Fury needs to show his work.

Loki knew he had been heard throughout the ship. He could hear the echoes of the speakers, and even if he had not, he always knew when people were listening to him. That was part of his power, to make them listen… and to make each of them hear something just a little different. Just what he wanted them to hear.

This doesn’t mean anything, does it??

Perhaps he was in a cage right now, but he had been in cages before. Not once had one been able to hold him for long.

This... has to be a reference to his time with the Black Order, right? There's certainly no basis for such a statement pre-2011.

Or the author is just on crack. That's very possible.

Thor took a step toward Bruce. “Have a care how you speak,” he warned. “Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard… and he is my brother.”

“He killed eighty people in two days,” Natasha pointed out.

Citation needed, please.

“Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension, no surprises…” As he spoke, Tony walked behind Bruce and gave him a little zap with an electrical instrument.

“Ow!” Bruce said.

Tony looked closely at him. “Nothing?” He’d been testing Bruce to see how well he controlled the Hulk. The little shock hadn’t provoked any kind of unusual reaction, which Tony seemed to find a little disappointing.

Ok, but what exactly was Tony's plan if Bruce had Hulked out here? lmao

“Steve,” Bruce said, “tell me none of this smells a little funky to you.”

Cap looked back and forth between the two scientists. Bruce could tell he was struggling with something… but he also wasn’t going to share it. He was too much of a good soldier for that.

🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

“Yeah. I’ll read all about it.”

“Or you’ll be suiting up with the rest of us.”

Bruce shook his head with a regretful smile. “No, see, I don’t get a suit of armor. I’m exposed. Like a nerve. It’s a nightmare.”

Bruce has BPD. Lol

No, you guys don't understand. That's literally what it feels like.

Thor watched over Coulson’s shoulder as the agent showed him S.H.I.E.L.D.’s current files on Jane Foster. When he had learned that Loki had captured Erik Selvig, his first thought had been of Jane. Thor had destroyed the Bifrost to save the Nine Realms, but he had also cut himself off from her… or so he had thought. It was a terrible decision to make, sacrificing love for duty—yet Thor had done it. If necessary, he would do it again. He hoped it would not be necessary, though, and that was one reason why he had asked Coulson about Jane.

Oh my god, Thor. You spent like, three days with her, max. And people call Loki the dramatic one...

Thor looked out into the sky, gathering his thoughts. “When I first came to Earth,” he went on, “Loki’s rage followed me here, and your people paid the price. Now, again. In my youth, I courted war.”

“War hasn’t started yet,” Fury said.

1) Correction: when your daddy threw you to Earth like a sack of trash down a cosmic garbage chute. You were not here on vacation, bro.

2) No, Loki's rage followed your treasonous friends.

3) LAST YEAR. YOUR 'YOUTH' WAS LAST YEAR.

4) *committed mass murder over an insult

“You think you could make Loki tell us where the Tesseract is?”

This possibility hadn’t occurred to Thor. “I do not know,” he said. “Loki’s mind is far afield. It’s not just power he craves. It’s vengeance, upon me. There’s no pain that would pry that need from him.”

1) Opposing Thor = being crazy. Noted.

2) Not everything is about you, buddy. At the risk of repeating myself, this is the guy I'm supposed to believe learned humility? Really? Where?

3) Please note that Thor does not object to torturing Loki because it's immoral or because the thought of hurting Loki pains him. He objects because he doesn't believe it will work.

Thor held Fury’s gaze. It was not the first time he had looked at a one-eyed man who posed him a difficult question. “What are you asking me to do?” he asked, wanting Fury to be clear and to own his words.

“I’m asking what you are prepared to do,” Fury said quietly.

“Loki is a prisoner,” Thor said. He thought Fury was testing him, seeing if he would violate his ideals to find out something they all needed to know. But Thor would not.

"I'm okay with physically assaulting prisoners if they make me mad, but I suddenly draw the line at torture. Even though my 'ideals' didn't appear to be a concern two sentences ago."

If I feel like being generous to Thor, maybe he initially hoped Fury would back off if he just said torture wouldn't work, and then Thor wouldn't have to risk appearing... soft? Weak? I don't know.

“But you figured I’d come,” she said.

“After,” Loki said. “After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate.” It was a typical approach. Cause misery, and then let someone appear as a friendly face. The miserable person would say anything to keep this friend. Loki had seen strong men break this way, many times.

I'm not sure why the author felt the need to depersonalize this by talking about other men. Loki knows this experience intimately. It's what he's endured his entire life at the hands of his "loving" family. The torture just wasn't physical then as far as we know.

An interesting story, Loki thought. She has much to atone for. He could hear some of her memories, from before her first encounter with Barton. Little girl, he thought, you’ve done some very bad things. And now you think you owe Clint Barton your life… but there is more to it. Loki could tell there was something in her mind that he was not quite uncovering. He pushed a little more.

Is... is this text implying that Loki can read people's minds/memories even without touching them?

“Can you?” he asked. “Can you wipe out that much red?” He listed for her some of the things he knew she had done. “Dreykov’s daughter… São Paulo… the hospital fire? Barton told me everything.” This was a lie. Barton had told Loki certain things about Romanoff, but he was also guessing some others.

He... guessed the details of these very specific incidents? What? lmao

He pushed ahead. Now that he understood her, he could break her. “Your ledger is dripping, it’s gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? Pathetic. You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors, but they are part of you and they will never go away.”

He's talking about himself again. 🥺

For some reason, this book skips right over the part where Loki threatens both Barton's and Natasha's lives. Not sure why; the author clearly has no problem depicting Loki as an unhinged psychopath most of the time. Oh well, whatevs.

Loki couldn’t understand how she had gathered her composure so quickly—and then he did understand. She was a superb actress! Or not even an actress, for he could see through a conscious performance. She was something else. She had been broken down and remade so many times, with so many identities, that she could put them on and take them off at will. And Loki had gotten lost in those emotional costume changes.

He had been outwitted by a mortal. Unthinkable.

Yeah, phew, it's a good thing Natasha figured it out in time. Otherwise, something terrible might have happened—like Bruce Hulking out and rampaging through the Helicarrier. Oh, wait...

“I was wrong, Director,” Cap said. “The world hasn’t changed a bit.” He looked angry and disappointed. Captain America was a big believer in shooting straight and telling the truth. He didn’t like spies and he didn’t like lies, and now he saw he was knee-deep in both.

This novel's hero worship of Steve Rogers is going to kill me. 🙄

“I’d like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction,” Bruce finished.

“Because of him,” Fury said, pointing at Thor.

“Me?”

“Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town,” Fury said. “We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned.”

Has anyone figured out yet how this line doesn't conflict with Captain Marvel? Is Fury lying to hide her existence for some reason? Or is this just one of those things that we're supposed to shrug and pretend wasn't retconned?

“A nuclear deterrent,” Tony said. “Because that always calms everything right down.”

“Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark,” Fury said coldly.

On the one hand, yes, good point. But on the other hand, he... stopped making them? So clearly, he no longer thinks they are a good thing?

And also, not to gloss over his past sins, but wasn't Tony born rich? Lol

“I thought humans were more evolved than this,” Thor commented.

Tony turned on Thor. “Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?”

Didn't Fury say this in the movie? Why did the author give the line to Tony instead? There are all these... weird changes in the story that are so minor I have no idea why the author made them. Very confusing.

Just like that, all of them were arguing. Cap and Tony were nose to nose, while Bruce and Natasha fired remarks back and forth. Thor stood off to the side, contempt plain on his face.

'Cause he also thinks he's superior to humans. 🙃

Tony and Cap squared off over an argument that they couldn’t even remember starting. Tony was still mad about the last thing Cap had said to him… whatever it was.

In case there was any doubt about the sceptre being the reason everyone starts losing their shit with one another.

Cap stood his ground. “Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?”

Tony had an answer ready for this one. “Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.”

Hey Steve? You know he invented the suit, right? Like. The suit is literally him.

“Put on the suit,” Cap said. “Let’s go a few rounds.”

Steve putting out big Joe Biden, "listen, fat..." energy here lmao

Thor laughed. “You people are so petty… and tiny.”

Thor, my dude. You literally started a war over being emasculated in front of your friends. I don't think you get to judge other people for being petty.

Fury could see things were spiraling out of control. He started trying to get them all back on track. “Agent Romanoff,” he said, “would you escort Dr. Banner back to—”

“Where?” Bruce interrupted. “My room? You rented my room.”

Nobody had said it out loud, but they all knew the cell currently holding Loki was designed for the Hulk.

What was their plan for containing the Hulk if necessary after sticking Loki in his cage, anyway? Did they even have one?

“Dr. Banner,” Cap said. “Put down the scepter.”

Bruce looked down. He hadn’t even known he’d picked it up.

Why does that sound familiar...?

Even though he could see what was going on, the hostility in the air was still thick enough that Bruce didn’t know whether he could back everyone down… or whether he could back himself down. He could feel tension rising inside him. He could feel the monster trying to get loose.

And yet none of them so much as considers the idea that the sceptre might be having a similar effect on Loki? Ok then.

But even though he was now refocused on the mission, the others still bickered. Loki had gotten into their heads, sowing discord and setting them against each other.

lmao I'd just like to note that Loki didn't actually do anything. This was all them and the effects of just being near the sceptre. #ThanksLoki

“The Tesseract belongs to Asgard,” Thor said.

Why, though?

“I’ll go after it,” Tony said.

“No you don’t,” Cap said, stepping into his way. He wasn’t ready to forget the way Tony had insulted him.

Ok, first of all, you started it. But also, seriously, Steve, that's your number one priority right now? Earth's mightiest heroes, ladies and gentlemen... lol

I have apparently managed to hit the paragraph limit, so we'll return after this short break, I guess. 🙈

↪️ On to Part Two

#there is a lot of salt here please remember to drink plenty of water #loki meta #loki #thor #tony stark #steve rogers #bruce banner #natasha romanoff #clint barton #nick fury #avengers assemble #mcu #phase one: avengers #thor critical

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loveisnotadagger · 3 years ago

Text

Love Is Healing - Chapter Seven

Chapter 7/?

Rated: T

Pairing: Loki/OFC

Arianna jolted awake when she heard the alarm signaling that someone had broken into the tower. She looked around her room, relieved to see that no one had broken in there, at least, before hopping out of bed.

SHIELD training involved having to learn to wake up under any and all circumstances, so Arianna was alert within seconds. She crept to her door, still in her pajamas, and opened the door slightly.

There was nothing in the hallway her room was located in, but it seemed that Loki had been alerted by the alarm too, because he was also peeking through a crack in his doorway.

"What's happening?" he whispered.

"I don't know. Someone's here. The others will be looking as well."

Arianna went past Loki's room and was surprised when he grabbed her wrist. She looked at him and was shocked to see the concern on his face.

"What?"

"I'll come with you," he said. "I can fight. You said that you don't know how."

"No, but someone might get hurt, and I can help with that."

"Then maybe you should wait. You do not want to be caught in the crossfire."

Loki's logic made sense. She would probably only get in the way. She didn't know how to fight at all, and she didn't have a weapon. Logically, she knew she should go back into her room and lock the door behind her, let the others deal with whatever this was, but she couldn't.

"Loki, they're my friends. I have to go."

She gently withdrew her wrist from his grip and continued down the hallway towards the main room. When she got there, she noticed nothing out of place aside from the fact that Natasha, Clint, and Steve were in the middle of the room. They were all in their pajamas, but they each had a weapon: Natasha a dagger; Clint his bow and a quiver full of arrows; Steve his shield.

"Jarvis? What's going on?" Arianna asked.

When she didn't get an answer, she looked to the three Avengers in the middle of the room.

"What's going on?"

"Jarvis is offline," Natasha said. "Has been since we tried contacting Tony a few minutes ago."

"Where is Tony?"

"In the lab with Banner."

"We have to get to them," Steve said. "Right now we're divided and they're only two people."

"One is not technically just a person," Loki said. "Banner is more than capable of protecting himself and Stark."

"Hate to say it," Clint said. "But he's right."

"You'd be surprised how often that happens."

Arianna would've smiled at how open Loki was being at the moment, but it just so happened that that was the moment that the window looking out over the balcony was broken into as several people crashed through it. There were about six people in all, dressed in black, with guns. One of them launched a smoke bomb into the middle of the room, and the Avengers plus Loki covered their mouths as smoke filled the room.

Arianna dropped to the floor and began crawling in the direction of what she hoped was the hallway where her bedroom was located. She'd lost sight of the others, but she could hear them coughing and moving around. She was coughing too, dizzy from the lack of oxygen.

Before Arianna could get far someone grabbed her ankle and dragged her backwards. She let out a small yelp of surprise and then an even bigger scream as she felt whoever it was grasp her shoulders and yank her to her feet.

A gloved hand covered her mouth and she tensed as her mind filled with panic. Who was this person? What did he or she want? Why had they gone to so much trouble to get in here?

The room was slowly clearing of the smoke and she was still being dragged backwards, towards the shattered window. She could see outlines of the other people now. Most of the people in black had been disarmed by Natasha and Steve, and now they were fighting along with Clint and Loki.

Arianna would have to find a way to free herself, as the others were busy. She did the only thing she knew to do: She lifted herself up and made herself become dead weight in her captor's arms. It threw her captor off balance, and she dropped to her knees to try and scamper away.

She was grabbed by the ankle again, only this time she was able to turn and kick out. The kick landed on the person's abdomen, and a male grunt reached her ears. Then she kicked again just for good measure, but he was ready for her this time and was able to block and catch her leg.

That was when she became aware of the shining silver dagger he was holding and fast arcing towards her thigh. She jerked away enough for his aim not to be completely true, but the blade still sliced through her pajama bottoms and over her skin deep enough for her to feel like fainting from the pain.

Instead, she screamed.

This seemed to cause the man to become angry. He slammed his fist down towards her and she clenched her eyes shut, anticipating the pain she was about to feel. She'd been hit before on missions – and during training – so she knew she could take it even if she would black out for a few seconds.

The blow never landed. In fact, the man's weight had been lifted completely off of her. When she opened her eyes she found out why.

The man that had been about to hit her had been tackled by Loki and they were grappling for the knife now. Loki looked dangerous and angry, but there was none of the insanity he'd displayed a month ago when she'd first seen him.

He knew exactly what he was doing when he finally got the knife and plunged it into the man's side, twisting and yanking it up to insure the man's death.

"I think you'll find the mistake you made was, in fact, hurting her," Loki said, knowing that all who heard it would hear the possessiveness he'd used while speaking.

He watched as the man went limp and stopped breathing. Loki stayed the way he was for a good fifteen seconds before checking for a pulse, and then turned to face Arianna, who had let out another scream, this one of pain.

Natasha and Clint had come to her, and Steve was on his way. The people that had broken in had been killed with arrows or by broken necks. Loki wouldn't be punished then, for killing the one that had hurt Arianna.

Loki went over to the others and knelt beside Arianna, who was not bleeding profusely from the gash in her right thigh. Her usually tan skin was pale now, and her face held an expression of pain.

"Why does she not heal herself?" he wondered out loud.

"She needs a source of energy and she refuses to take it from a human," Natasha said.

Loki, always quick on his feet, said, "The lab. There's plenty of energy down there."

Once the others realized that what he'd said actually made sense, Steve, who Loki still mentally called The Patriotic One, carefully picked Arianna up and they all went to the elevator, Natasha holding the shield now.

"Why did the intruders not cut the power?" Loki asked. "That would've been the smart thing to do."

"Jarvis was cut off," Natasha said. "That's the main security. Whoever broke in first . . . it wasn't the guys we fought or the alarm wouldn't have sounded until they smashed through the window."

"Maybe they hit the lab first," Clint suggested as they all stepped into the elevator.

Loki was surprised that no one said anything against him accompanying them. Then again, everyone was preoccupied with the crying girl in Steve's arms. Arianna didn't seem to be aware of her tears. She was more worried about not jostling her injured leg too much.

Loki wanted to ask if she thought she would be okay, but he also didn't want to do so in front of anyone else.

He would wait until he could get her alone. ----------

Once they reached the lab, they found both Tony and Bruce unconscious. Tony had a tranquillizer dart sticking out of his neck; Bruce had several in many places on his body.

Arianna hadn't known Bruce could be tranquillized, but there he was on the floor, completely knocked out.

Steve gently sat her down on one of the many tables there, and then he went towards the two scientists on the floor. Natasha and Clint followed him, but Loki stayed with her.

"Are you going to be okay?" he asked quietly.

She nodded even as she swayed from the pain she was feeling. Arianna usually didn't have any negative wishes for anyone, but she was glad the one who had hurt her was dead. He wouldn't be able to hurt her or anyone else again.

"Thanks for saving my life."

"You've saved mine countless times," Loki said. "Consider it a returned favor."

Arianna tried to smile, but her expression quickly turned into a grimace instead.

"Or it could be that you consider me a friend and you were looking out for me."

"Perhaps. Just don't tell anyone. I've got a reputation to keep up as a heartless monster."

"I think that ship has sailed," she said, swaying again.

"Maybe you should lie down. Just don't go to sleep."

"What I need is for Tony to wake up. Or for Jarvis to be put back on."

Arianna knew Tony had been working on finding a source of sustainable energy for Earth. He was trying to create something much like the Tesseract, only not as volatile. If she could get her hands on it, she could heal herself easily.

"May I see?" Loki asked. "The wound, I mean. We need to stop the bleeding. You've lost a lot of blood, and I'm not sure what the limit is for a Midgardian."

"I'm – okay. Yeah."

Arianna wasn't sure what her limits were either. She knew she was dizzy and fading fast. She needed to stop the bleeding until Tony woke up.

"You will have to lie down for this."

She did as she was told even though she didn't really want to lie down. What if she passed out?

Loki drew out the knife he'd used to kill her attacker and used it to rip through the right leg of her pajama pants.

Loki was very clinical about it, focused on stemming the blood flow more than anything else. After he'd ripped the pantleg enough to reach the wound, he tore a strip off so he could tie it around her thigh and keep the blood from coming out too fast.

"Done," he said, "but keep still and do not sit back up."

Arianna relaxed as much as she could and did as she'd been told. She probably shouldn't have been upright to begin with. It had only helped the blood flow out more quickly.

Natasha ended up by Arianna's side once she'd done everything possible to help Tony and Banner. They were fine, but she didn't know how long they would be out. They had no clue how much of the tranquillizer had been used or how strong it had been.

Arianna was set, though, and Natasha had a hard time admitting to herself that Loki was the one responsible for that. He'd also been the one responsible for saving Arianna's life earlier.

Everyone else had been too busy with the other attackers. Even though Natasha knew Arianna couldn't fight to save her life, she'd still taken her eyes off of her friend and had left her to her own devices.

"Are you okay? We still have to wait for Tony and Banner to wake up."

Arianna nodded weakly.

Steve and Clint came over as soon as they were able, and they all formed a circle around where Arianna was lying.

"I still think you should take energy from us," Loki said. "All of us. You won't hurt anyone that way."

Arianna shook her head, but she didn't seem certain anymore. Natasha wondered if Arianna had ever thought about channeling from a group. It made sense, and she was all for it if it would close the wound on her friend's leg.

"I'll do it," Natasha said.

Clint nodded, as did Steve, but Arianna still shook her head.

"Why not?" Loki asked, a note of impatience in his voice. "You do realize if the two over there don't wake up soon, you could die?"

"I don't know how!" she exclaimed, putting more energy into her response than she probably should have.

Natasha noticed that her answer seemed to placate Loki, however, because he no longer seemed impatient. In fact, Natasha saw understanding flash over his face.

"If forget they don't train you in the art of magic on Midgard," he said and put a hand on Arianna's leg. "Everyone put a hand on her. We will all be connected while she does this. If it works, you'll feel your energy draining into her."

"And what do I do?" Arianna asked.

"Start with one of us," Loki said. "Focus on one touch at a time until you've reached us all."

As it turned out, Natasha was the one Arianna reached out to first. They were best friends, so it made sense. Natasha had found Arianna when she'd been at her lowest point and when Arianna had only just found out about her ability to manipulate energy. Natasha had tried to help her and had somewhere succeeded by offering her a job with SHIELD.

As Natasha's mind connected with Arianna's the red head almost flinched. She'd never had her mind invaded before, and she didn't want anyone seeing what was there.

"Sorry," Arianna muttered. "I've never done this when I was so weak."

Natasha relaxed when she felt the other's presence leave her brain. She could still feel Arianna's energy, but not Arianna's thoughts. That was better.

She eventually felt Clint's and Steve's presence as well, which made her feel oddly vulnerable, but it got much worse when Loki's energy merged with theirs.

It was worse because she could feel Loki's emotions. She realized that Arianna was naturally connected with the former Asgardian. She'd formed a bond with him when she'd brought him out of his mind prison. Through Arianna, Natasha could tell that even though Loki was all the things Natasha thought him to be, he was also what Arianna thought him to be.

He was a victim as much as he was a villain, and Natasha knew that meant that Loki might be redeemable. He'd already found someone he wanted to protect. Whether he'd done it because he cared for her or because he felt he owed her it, it showed that Loki did have a code of ethics, even if that code was unique to him.

Natasha had reason to believe that Loki wouldn't hurt Arianna. She wasn't sure about anyone else. ---------- Arianna tried to keep her mind out of everyone else's, but it was hard because she was so weak she could hardly focus. In the end, she got flashes of memories from everyone.

From Natasha she'd gotten glimpses of some school for girls, though it must've been more than that because Natasha had been angry at and scared of the memory of the place. Natasha never spoke about her past, so Arianna wasn't sure exactly what she'd seen.

Clint had been thinking about a family – his family. A farm house with acres of land. A wife, children. Arianna hadn't known that Clint had any family.

Steve had only one thing on his mind: A woman named Peggy Carter. Arianna already knew that story, but she hadn't known that it still filled Steve's thoughts.

Finally, there was Loki. She saw more from him because she'd been in his mind a few times before. It was much easier to connect with him because of that.

In Loki's mind now, Arianna could feel that no matter what Loki showed to the outside world, he was still plagued with memories from his year of torture. Why wouldn't he be? One didn't just get over something like that. Thanos had made Loki believe that no one had ever, could ever care for him.

Since he'd been on Earth – or Midgard, as he still called it – he'd found someone who did care. He didn't want to admit it out loud, but he knew Arianna didn't take time out of her day to check on him and keep him company just because he was her responsibility.

He was still waiting for the moment that Arianna realized that she was dealing with a lost cause and would give up on him. Loki had been alone and tortured for so long that, until he'd met Arianna, comfort from an actual person had seemed a thing of mere fantasy.

Loki had believed that no one could ever understand why he'd done what he'd done in coming to Midgard and trying to conquer, but Arianna did. Because of her ability to see what had happened and feel some of it, she did understand and she didn't hate him.

'Of course I don't hate you,' Arianna sent the thought to Loki only.

She had blocked Loki's thoughts and feelings from everyone else. In fact, since she was acting as a sort of filter, nobody had felt anybody else's feelings once she'd figured out what she was doing, which hadn't taken long.

After Arianna was healed – healed but still weak – the room fell silent. No one really knew what to say, it seemed. Arianna wanted to talk to Loki but knew he would not be open to conversation with everyone else around.

There was movement where Bruce and Tony had been lying. Bruce was waking up now, hands over his eyes, as if his head was aching. Side effect of the tranquillizer, maybe. His hands began roaming over the rest of his body – probably checking for the darts he'd been shot with, but they had already been removed.

The room was tense as they all waited to see if Bruce was going to turn green and angry, but he seemed fine even if he was moving slower than normal.

Tony came to not long after that and he was the first one to speak by asking what had happened.

"Someone broke in," Natasha said. "They were trained fighters and they were after Aries. There are a few bodies upstairs."

"She was hurt, but we helped heal her," Clint said.

"Bet that was awesome," Tony said. "The healing, not the hurting."

"I know what you meant." Arianna looked around the lab. "Was anything taken?"

Tony went rigid before stumbling to his feet. He hurriedly went through all the tables around him, searching for something.

"We were testing your blood. It's gone."

"Three guesses as to who has it," Loki muttered.

"SHIELD," Arianna said.

"No," Natasha said. "No way would Fury –"

"He did threaten me," Arianna reminded her. "But I wasn't talking about him. The council – or someone about Fury's authority. If they knew about me . . ."

"Are you in danger?" Loki asked.

Arianna didn't want to believe her own people would go against her just because of how different she was, but it was more than possible for that to happen.

"If they believe me to be a threat . . . yes."

"We can protect you, though," Steve said. "We'll take turns watching over you."

Tony nodded. "Absolutely."

Natasha nodded as well. Arianna knew how hard this would be for her. Natasha looked to Fury as a father figure – to actively go against him would tear her apart inside.

Bruce would do whatever he thought was right.

Clint would protect whoever he considered to be innocent.

"Loki?"

The black-haired man shrugged. "I've already killed once to protect you. Nothing more needs to be said on where my loyalty lies in this situation."

"Thank you."

A few seconds later, Tony lightened the mood by opening his mouth.

"So . . . who's picking up the cleaning bill?"

Arianna threw her hands up in a gesture of backing away from the responsibility.

"You're the billionaire here, so . . . you." ---------- Back upstairs now, the whole group was sitting around Tony's living room. None of them felt like sleeping, not even Arianna, who was definitely in need of rest.

When they had reached the living room, the first thing Tony had done was call someone to get rid of the bodies there. He'd take care of the cleaning crew in the morning – or later that morning.

"I think I need to teach each of you how to override a system shutdown," Tony said. "I was hacked into tonight, so I'll have to create a whole new program to work with."

"Yeah, um . . . the problem is that you and Bruce are the only ones smart enough here to pick up your technology quickly," Arianna said.

"Agent Romanoff does okay," Tony said, earning a smirk from Natasha.

"We should start sparring again," Natasha said. "I know you hate fighting, Aries, but you need to learn. You could've been killed tonight."

"They didn't want me dead. They just didn't expect such a fight to keep me here."

The people who had broken in had indeed been SHIELD agents. The outfits they'd been wearing had told them as much.

"Sometimes, Arianna, death is a kindness," Loki said and got up from his spot on the couch.

He'd been thinking about how he'd almost lost the only friend he had on Midgard. Maybe anywhere, to be honest. He hadn't even really thought about what he'd been doing when he'd killed that guy. He'd just known that Arianna had been in trouble and that he'd been the closest one available to help her.

He quickly went to his room and sat on his bed. He became lost in his own mind at once. So much had happened to him in the last year, most of it more than not good. Pain, so much pain. He had become something he'd never wanted to be, something monstrous. He'd become a killer.

Hundreds of people had died because of his actions. He'd been in battle before, of course, but killing just to kill . . . that wasn't him. He'd brought death and destruction to Midgard.

"Please stop," Arianna's voice came from his doorway. "I can feel you thinking all the way in the living room."

Loki looked her way. She was leaning against the wall. He could tell she was tired even though she was fighting against it.

"You feel my thoughts?"

"Yeah. It happens after I connect with someone a few times. It'll fade eventually."

"And I . . . heard your thoughts earlier?"

She nodded. "That doesn't happen often, but I thought you needed to hear it. I don't hate you. If I didn't know what happened, I might. But after everything how can you not see that I do care?"

Loki stood up. "But why?" He hadn't meant to yell and he definitely hadn't meant to make her flinch. He didn't want her to be afraid of him. "Why care about me? What could you possibly gain?"

Arianna shook her head and seemed infinitely sad.

"You don't need a reason to care, Loki. And you don't care for someone just so you can get something from them. I don't know where you learned that, but it's wrong."

He knew that – within his whole being he knew he'd always wanted someone like Arianna. He didn't deserve someone like her, but oh gods, how he wanted. She gave and never expected anything, didn't even want anything in return. She cared about him and only ever wanted him to be who he'd been before he'd found out who he really was.

"And who are you?" she moved forward. "And does it really matter? You've been given a new start."

This girl could ruin him.

"I agreed to help you because I know you're better than you let yourself be. You don't believe me because you think you're unlovable. But that's not true. If you didn't have good in you, you wouldn't have saved me tonight."

Every fiber of Loki's being wanted to believe her, wanted to look into Arianna's green eyes and get lost in the naïve faith she seemed to have, but he wouldn't allow himself that pleasure.

"Are you really so foolish as to accept a monster? You know no one outside of this building will ever understand why I did what I did. They will never be able to forgive. And SHIELD will never forgive you for siding with me."

Arianna scoffed and Loki saw a determination there that he'd never seen before.

"They are not my friends. They tried to kidnap me tonight. I know what will happen to me if they get their hands on me and I refuse to do what they want. You know what will happen."

'Pain,' Loki thought, shuddering. Kind Arianna in so much pain, being used for someone else's gain. He wouldn't allow that. Not ever. Even if he had to burn SHIELD to the ground.

"Not everyone is a problem."

"Get out of my head," he said, no real malice in his voice.

"Then stop thinking so loudly."

@smallangryandpink @purplekitten30

#loki #loki/oc #loki x reader #Loki/OFC #love is healing #chapter seven

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the-great-imagines-of-1812 · 4 years ago

Text

Through The Years Pt. 10

A/N: feedback is so so appreciated! THANK YOU SO SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO WAS KEPT THEIR PATIENCE WHILE I WROTE THIS! (also, this is kind of short, my apoligies)

tags: @a-girl-who-loves-disney @the-romanian-is-bae @bihoeofmanyfandoms

@thicc101q

takes place during: The Avengers

Italics= flashbacks

~~~~~~~

NEW YORK, 1942

SSR HQ

“As you all know, a threat has risen. Commander Johann Schmidt has his eyes on something new; they call it the Tesseract. The power it holds is unlimited and unknown. If it falls into the wrong hands, especially in times like these, this is a war we won’t win. Meeting dismissed.” Dr. Erksine said, as all the agents seated around the table got up, desperate to go home.

You had dozed out ages ago, and would’ve practically fallen asleep if it weren’t for Howard. He laid a hand on your shoulder and shook you.

“Y/N/N, it’s time to go. C’mon. I heard your favorite radio show is on tonight.”

“Thanks, Howwie. It’s just, there’s something-”

“This Tesseract thing? I know were supposed to believe everything Dr. Erksine tells us, but this is a stretch-”

“Except it isn’t, Howard. I got a bad feeling about this one. You know how strong my intuition is.”

“I know. That’s what worries me.”

~~~~~~

PRESENT DAY, 2012

BRUCE BANNER’S LAB ON THE HELLICARRIER

The Hellicarrier is quiet as it floats across the night sky, and you absentmindedly type some data that Tony had given you a few minutes ago. You weren’t going to lie; you were scared then, and you are scared now. It seems like history is repeating itself; some bad dude wants to get his hands on the Tesseract and if he isn’t stopped, a lot of people will die.

Only difference was, you didn’t have a brother this time.

Blinking back the tears that were about to escape, you kept typing as Dr. Banner was scanning the scepter for gamma radiation, and Tony was solving several different equations and theorems and god knows what all at once.

“Well, we’re going somewhere now. The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But it's gonna take weeks to process.” Banner said, letting out a sigh, laying down the object he was using to measure gamma readings on Loki’s scepter.

“We bypass their mainframe and direct route to the Homer Cluster we can clock this at around 600 teraflops.” Tony replied from across the room.

“And all I packed was a toothbrush.” Bruce said, going back to the computer.

“You know you should come by Stark tower sometime. Top ten floors, all R and D. You’d love it, it’s Candy Land. I’m talking to you too, Auntie. Paris must be as boring as-”

“How- Tony, I can promise you its not. Paris is fine.”

“But Pepper and I miss you in New York. Think about it, will you?”

“Sure will, hun.”

“Thank you for the invitation, Mr. Stark. But last time I was in New York- I sort of broke Harlem.” Dr. Banner said.

“Well I promise it’s a stress-free environment. No distractions, no surprises.” Tony says, while poking Bruce in his side with an electric current.

“Tony, leave him be!” you say, taking the current away from him.

“Hey! Are you two nuts?” Steve says, scolding Tony as he walks in.

“Oops. Jury’s here. Tell em your secret, Dr. Banner. Bongo drums, mellow jazz, bag of weed?”

“You think is is funny, Mr. Stark? Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship? No offense, Dr. Banner. You neither, Y/N.

“None taken, sir.” Bruce says, while still working on the scepter.

“Don’t worry about it, cap.” you say, while finally snatching the current from Tony’s hand and placing it down on the countertop to continue working.

“You- you don’t have to worry, capsicle. Last time I checked, you spent over 66 years stuck in the ice. You don’t know how anything works here. This little gadget-” he getsures to the comm in his hand. “will let us know everything S.H.I.E.L.D has been hiding from us since the beginning of it’s existence.”

“This is going to cause trouble.”

“Ding, ding, ding. We got a winner. Congratulations, you’ve just won a free box of popsicles. Or is that too cold?”

“What have you three been doing all this time?” Fury’s voice cuts in as he walks into the lab. “You’re supposed to be locating the Tesseract.”

“We are. The model’s locked and we’re sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we’ll have the location within have a mile.”

“You’ll get your cube back, director.” You say, crossing your arms, after hopping to sit on the table with Tony.

“No muss, no fuss.” he passes you the blueberry bag, then looks at the screen “What is ‘Phase 2′ anyway?”

At this point, Steve has had enough and decided to intervene. “Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D uses the cube to make weapons. Sorry, the computer was moving a little too slowly for my taste.”

“Captain Rogers, we have gathered every part of information possible related to the Tesseract. This does not mean-” He’s interrupted by none other than Tony.

“What about this Nick? What were you lying?” Tony said, turning the computer so Fury could see it clearly.

Steve takes one look between the two men, but keeps his gaze on Tony, and says “I was wrong director. The world hasn’t changed a bit.”

Thor and Natasha enter the room and Bruce asks them “Did you two know about this?”

“Dr. Banner, you might want to think about removing yourself from the premises.” Natasha said.

“I was in Calcutta, I’m pretty sure I can handle this, Ms. Romanoff.”

“Loki’s been manipulating you.”

“And you’ve been doing what exactly?”

“Dr. Banner, You didn’t come here because I batted my eyelashes at you.” She fired back, crossing her arms.

You hopped off the table, and on the hilt of the sword on your left side, if tensions just so happened to go to another level.

“And I’m not leaving because you’re getting a little twitchy. What I do want to know is why S.H.I.E.L.D is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction!”

~~~~~~

NEW YORK, JANUARY 1943

SSR HQ

“Starks, Ms. Carter, General Philipps, should the case arise that we get our hands on this - ‘Tesseract’ - as it appears, it shall not, under any circumstances, be used for weapons of mass destruction. It goes against everything we stand for. Everything the SSR stands for.” Erksine says, addressing the group.

“But Dr. Erksine, The rise of facism in Europe is a threat to our national security, and if the SSR can not make weapons of not necessarily of mass destruction, but weapons to protect the country, how are we to protect the nation?” General Philipps said from across the table.

“Excellent question, General. That’s were Y/N and comes in. Y/N, if you will.” Erksine said, gesturing to you.

Straightening yourself up, you opened a file. “I’ve thought of this concept for the past couple of months- although just a concept, It would, has General Philipps mentioned, make weapons not of destruction, but of protection. This is why, I’ve decided to name the concept- S.H.I.E.L.D. Get it? A shield is supposed to protect, and that’s what this will do.”

“And what does it stand for, Y/N?” Peggy asks.

“Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.”

“And it’s purpose?”

“To Protect and Serve, Dr. Erksine.”

“I like it, but we will discuss it further on Monday. Meeting Adjourned.”

~~~~~~

PRESENT DAY, 2012

BRUCE BANNER’S LAB ON THE HELLICARRIER

“And I’m not leaving because you’re getting a little twitchy. What I do want to know is why S.H.I.E.L.D is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction!”

“Banner, calm down.” Natasha said cautiously.

“No, Romanoff. He had every right to be mad and confused. With all respect, director, me and my brother did not start S.H.I.E.L.D so we could pull stuff like this.” you said.

“But we have a reason, Stark. It’s because-” Fury points to Thor “him.”

“Me?” Thor questions.

“Yes, you. Last year Earth had a visitor from another planet who held a grudge on a small town. We learned then that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned.” He finishes, diverting his eye to you, but saying nothing.

“Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies, as a signal to all the realms that Earth is ready for a higher form of war.” Thor booms.

“A higher form of war?” Steve questions.

“You had us in a corner, Thor, we had no choice. We had to come up with something.” Nick fired back.

“A nuclear deterrent. Cause that always calms everything down.” said Tony.

“Remind me again how you made your fortune, Mr. Stark?” Fury asked.

“I’m sure if Stark industries still made weapons you both would be knee-deep in-” Steve was cut off by you.

“That’s enough, Steve! Leave it alone!” you exclaimed.

“No, hold up capsicle, how is this about us?” Tony asked, in a tempting manner.

“Are you midgardians really this naïve?” Thor asked.

“Oh please, are you that immature?” Natasha said, looking between Thor and Fury.

“Everyone, we’re a mixture for chaos. A ticking time bomb waiting to explode.” Bruce said.

“You should step away, Doctor.” Fury said to Bruce, before being overlapped by Tony. “Why shouldn’t the guy let off a little steam?” Tony asked, putting a ahnd on Steve’s shoulder.

“You know damn well why!” Steve yelled.

“I’m starting to want you to make me.” Tony said, coming face to face with Steve.

“Big man in a suit of armor, take that off and what are you?”

“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.”

“He’s not wrong-” Natasha said, shrugging her shoulders.

“Thank you, Romanoff! Someone with sense on this ship.” Tony said, thanking Natasha.

“I’ve seen guys none of that worth ten of what you are. The only person you fight for is yourself. You’re not one to make sacrifice play, to lay down your life for someone else. You better stop playing the hero.”

“Steve-” you began, now both hands on both swords, both of them on your waist.

“No! You better stop acting so cocky, Rogers. You’re a lab rat, everything special about you came out of a bottle.” Tony fires back.

“If you think your think you’re so special, put on the suit then, lets go a few rounds.”

“I’m not afraid to hit an old man.”

“Stop it you two! You’re acting like children!” You yelled, cutting both of them off.

“You are ALL acting like children, man up, all of you!” Fury said.

Bruce kept his eyes firm on Loki’s scepter. It seemed to glow even more now, but all of you had to resolve the argument first.

“Something’s coming. Something bad.” Bruce muttered. “I can feel it.”

“Keep calm, Banner.” Natasha said, and both her and Fury put a hand of the holster of their gun.

“Dr. Banner, please-” You began.

You were once again cut off, but not by anyone talking. Thor, Natasha, Bruce, Fury, Tony, Steve and yourself were knocked down to the floor, scattered all over the room.

“What the hell was that?” Natasha asked.

“Engine’s been blown off. I didn’t want to say I told you so, Agent Romanoff.” Bruce said, while helping you up from the floor.

“You alright, Tony?” you ask, as You help Tony up.

“Just fine, aunty. You?”

“Barely hurts, tones.”

“What the hell was that, Fury?” Natasha asked.

Fury looks out the window before running out of the room.

“Agent Barton.”

#marvel #marvel x reader #avengers #avengers x reader #tony stark #tony stark x aunt reader #steve rogers #bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff x reader #thor #thor odinson x reader #steve rogers x reader

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movie-magic · 3 years ago

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Loki: Every MCU Easter Egg In Episode 1

Loki has officially begun on Disney+, and Tom Hiddleston comes bearing plenty of Marvel Easter eggs in the premiere episode. Here's what we found.

The premiere episode of Loki is burdened with glorious Marvel Easter eggs, from potential future villain teases to skulking Skrulls. Even before the considerable success enjoyed by WandaVision and Falcon & The Winter Soldier, MCU fans were eagerly anticipating Tom Hiddleston's return as the God of Mischief. Now blessed with his own Disney+ solo series, Loki has all of time and space to bother, and the premiere wastes little time throwing Hiddleston from the Avengers' frying pan into the TVA's fire.

After using the Tesseract to escape The Avengers in Avengers: Endgame, Loki is swiftly picked up by the Time Variance Authority - a seemingly omniscient organization overseeing the entirety of time and space. Evidently not ones to take prisoners, Loki's fate at the TVA looks grim, but Owen Wilson's Major Mobius intervenes, handing the silver-tongued variant a reprieve. In the opening episode, Mobius successfully digs to the root of Loki's dastardly ways, breaking him down to (presumably) build him back up, all with the aim of enlisting Loki's services as an ally to hunt down an especially vicious variant murdering the TVA's Minute Men.

Loki's premiere is predictably heavy with exposition, and relatively limited in scope, mostly taking place within the walls of TVA HQ. Nevertheless, Michael Waldron (creator) and Kate Herron (director) pepper the 50-minute installment with an array of references to the Marvel comics, MCU history callbacks, and hints of the multiverse madness to come. Here's every Easter egg we discovered in Loki's "Glorious Purpose."

The Avengers Intro Sequence:

Loki's introductory scene is somewhat of an Easter egg itself, retelling the famous Tesseract heist from Avengers: Endgame. Much of the footage here derives straight from the 2019 box office behemoth, meaning no other MCU stars filmed additional footage or recorded new dialogue especially for Loki. With that said, a few extra Tom Hiddleston moments are spliced into the existing footage to show events entirely from Loki's point of view. The villain's Steve Rogers "search and rescue" gag is zoomed-in, and there's a closer shot of Loki waving goodbye to Hulk in the elevator, as well as fresh reaction shots during the Stark scuffle in the lobby.

An Iron Man Callback:

After commandeering the Tesseract in New York, Loki finds himself falling from the sky above Mongolia's Gobi Desert, landing unceremoniously in the sand below, and this scene might trigger a sense of déjà vu for longtime MCU fans. In 2008's Iron Man, Tony Stark escapes capture by creating a rudimentary suit of hi-tech armor. Flying to safety, the genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist also lands roughly in a remote desert. There's a symbolic correlation in how Iron Man marked the beginning of the MCU, while Loki is now ushering in a whole new chapter, and both begin with their protagonists in matching predicaments. Both characters also crash while evading incarceration, though only Loki immediately finds himself in chains once again.

"Burdened With Glorious Purpose":

As a man who rarely shuts up, Loki has plenty of wry MCU catchphrases, and one of his most famous would be "I am burdened with glorious purpose" from The Avengers. Disney +'s Loki premiere leans heavily into the line's popularity, with Tom Hiddleston repeating the quote on several occasions throughout the episode, the phrase becoming less sinister with every utterance.

The TVA:

The addition of the TVA to MCU canon was confirmed ahead of time via Loki's trailer and, sure enough, the paradoxical pen-pushers play a prominent part in the premiere. Although their motivations and methods are somewhat altered from the source material (as well as their aesthetic, which now sits closer to The Umbrella Academy's Commission), the TVA hails directly from the Marvel comic books. They were introduced by a 1986 issue of Thor that featured several time-hopping agents, one of which picked a random Earthling up for jaywalking.

A Skrull At The TVA:

Given their propensity to shape-shift and assimilate the forms of other races, it's not surprising that a Skrull might be lurking around the TVA's front desk. One of the MCU's green aliens can be spotted in the background as Loki gets marched in, and though it's not clear why the Skrull is present, the distinct lack of guards would suggest they aren't a variant. A timely reminder that Secret Invasion is right around the corner.

The Time Twisters:

As you'd predict, Loki tries running away. With minimum effort, Hunter B-15 (played by Wunmi Mosaku) clicks a device, and Loki is pulled back to where he stood moments earlier, effectively making escape impossible. These time twisters appear to be standard issue at the TVA, and have a vaguely similar counterpart in the Marvel comics called the Retroactive Cannon. Far more lethal than Loki's little clickers, these devices would rewind a person completely until they were unwritten from history. Like The Algorithm in Tenet, but less confusing.

Life Model Decoys:

For someone who spent many, many years unaware he was actually a Frost Giant, Loki probably shouldn't be shocked that some people don't realize they're secretly robots. Heading through the TVA's airport scanner, Loki passes the test with flying colors, though he remains perplexed by the idea someone could be unknowingly cybernetic, Loki's line is a nod to Life Model Decoys, which have appeared in both the Marvel comics, and Agents of SHIELD. These lifelike androids can mimic mankind so perfectly, the LMD itself isn't always certain of the truth.

Secret Wars?:

Whether you've accidentally arrived late for work, or just escaped a group of costumed vigilantes by seizing a glowing blue cube from the beginning of time, being labeled as a variant is confusing stuff. Luckily, the TVA has put together a short animation to fill quantum criminals in on the basics. The helpful Miss Minutes finally provides an explanation of the MCU multiverse, revealing how, long ago, separate timelines fought an inter-dimensional war for supremacy that almost resulted in total annihilation. Since then, the TVA has strictly maintained one single reality - the Sacred Timeline *echoes*. The history lesson bears some similarity to 2015's Secret Wars comic event, in which conflicting universes came together in Battleworld (the setting of the original Secret Wars), and attempts were made to streamline Marvel's sandbox.

The Time-Keepers:

The TVA's infomercial also confirms the organization are led by three Time-Keepers, who oversee the combined reality and dictate the proper flow of history. This big-faced trio were first introduced in the late 1970s, created from the sole remaining survivor of the previous universe's destruction. The mysterious overlords performed much the same function in the comics as they do in Loki, and possessed virtually complete mastery over time.

Kree And Nova's Attack On Titan:

As the animated exposition rumbles on, Miss Minutes (voiced by Tara Strong) uses "starting an uprising" as an example of something the TVA might potentially frown upon. The corresponding image shows two armies clashing, with the blue folk on the left appearing to be Kree, and the force on the right possibly the Nova Corps. Based on the spiky ruins in the background, the battle is taking place on Thanos' home planet of Titan. In Guardians of the Galaxy, Ronan confirmed the Kree and Nova Corps were at war for 1000 years - was the TVA involved somehow?

Nexus Events:

This week's lesson from Miss Minutes explains how stepping off one's designated path can create a "Nexus event," and spiral out of control to spawn countless alternate timelines that trigger another war. This word has cropped up several times in the MCU, first as an internet facility in Oslo (Avengers: Age of Ultron), and then as an antidepressant drug during one of WandaVision's fake commercials. The latter was most likely a reference to the Nexus of All Realities from the Marvel comics, which is essentially a gateway between every possible timeline. The TVA's Nexus events could take their name from the very same source.

The Timeline Diagram:

Throughout Loki's Disney+ debut, the TVA repeatedly use diagrams of a single flowing timeline with branches shooting off to represent unwanted deviations. MCU fans might recognize this from Avengers: Endgame, where the Ancient One drew something extremely similar while explaining the consequences of time travel to Bruce Banner. Perhaps Ms. One has visited the TVA herself once or twice?

Devil In The Church:

MEPHISTO. There, we said it. When Mobius asks a young girl who committed time crimes in 16th century France and the child points to a stained glass window depicting the Devil, Loki knew exactly what it was doing. WandaVision dropped several hints that Marvel's own Satan would appear, all of which proved fruitless, and Loki seems to be heading down the same hellish vein. Alas, there could be a simpler explanation. Mobius claims to be chasing an alternate version of Loki, and it's highly likely the child has mistaken the God of Mischief's famous horned helmet for the demonic horns of Lucifer.

Ravonna Renslayer:

Though her name isn't mentioned in Loki's premiere, Gugu MBatha-Raw's TVA judge is actually Ravonna Renslayer, who made her debut in a 1965 Avengers issue. In the comics, Renslayer is a human from the far future, most often a villainous figure associated with Kang the Conqueror. She certainly isn't a legal official sat behind a desk. One would imagine Marvel Studios has something more interesting in store for Renslayer further down the line.

Explaining Endgame:

During his TVA interrogation, Loki quite rightly points out that it was not he who meddled with the timeline. T'was those pesky Avengers who penetrated the Quantum Realm and disrupted the natural course of events in the aftermath of the Battle of New York; Loki merely picked up the Tesseract that fell at his feet. Unfortunately, this excuse falls on deaf ears, as Gugu MBatha-Raw confirms the Avengers' ambitious time heist was entirely sanctioned by the Time-Keepers. This exchange more or less clears up every single timeline wrinkle in the MCU, including Steve Rogers' reunion with Peggy, and Gamora from the past staying in the present. It's not altering time that irks the TVA; it's altering time in a manner the Time-Keepers haven't permitted.

Loki's "Wooing":

After Owen Wilson saves Loki from being "reset," the pair sit down for a more friendly conversation, but when Loki warns Mobius that cooperation isn't an option, the TVA officer retorts with, "even when you're wooing someone powerful you intend to betray?" Loki has betrayed a fair few people during his time, and Mobius' accusation could easily apply to Odin or Thor. Most likely, however, Mobius is alluding to Thanos here - a powerful figure Loki tried buttering up with intent to usurp him once the universe was brought to its knees.

Josta:

While not strictly a Marvel reference, it's worth noting that Mobius is a big fan of an ice cold Josta. Viewers of a certain age might not recognize this soda brand, but Josta is a genuine Pepsi product that was available in the late 1990s before being discontinued. An early variety of energy drink, there's evidently a few perks to hunting down timeline criminals. In Mobius' case, this includes sugary contraband.

Loki's Greatest Hits:

In a twisted version of It's A Wonderful Life, Mobius tries to change Loki by examining his choices in the past, present and future. Unlike the jaunty 1946 holiday classic, Mobius has access to a handy hi-tech screen which displays Loki's "greatest hits." The footage begins with the God of Mischief's defeat and arrest in 2012's The Avengers - perhaps not an entry Loki himself would've picked for the highlight reel. The screen next switches to Phil Coulson's death (which Loki definitely would pick), before moving on to images of civilian deaths from the Battle of New York, the gala eyeball removal scene, and the dictator speech, all from The Avengers.

D.B. Cooper:

More an Easter egg from real-world history than Marvel lore, Loki reveals the truth about D.B. Cooper - it was Agatha Loki all along! In 1971, an as-yet-identified man boarded a Boeing 727, held the aircraft ransom for $200,000, then parachuted out with the cash. Mobius' dive into Loki's past reveals that, thanks to a lost bet with Thor, the God of Mischief descended from Asgard to pull the plane heist himself as some kind of stunt. From Loki's hairstyle matching the real D.B. Cooper artist's impression to the smattering of bank notes left behind, there's an impressive attention to detail in this scene.

Infinity Stones In The Desk:

The Infinity Stones... Thanos would give his own daughter just for one. Entire worlds brought to their knees by their power. Humans turned into Gods at the merest touch. Gary from the TVA's HR department using one as a paperweight. Threatening Casey with a fishy demise, Loki finally gets his hands back on the Tesseract, only to discover even Infinity Stones are useless within the TVA's jurisdiction. To Loki's immense surprise, Casey's desk draw is chock-full of discarded Infinity Stones, most either of the Time or Reality variety (no surprises there). The scene essentially confirms that the power of these fabled jewels has led to more than a few timeline variant incidents over the years, but perhaps also undermines the once-unstoppable power of the Infinity Stones. Well, the Infinity Saga is over.

A 3rd Millennium Kang Hint?:

In its final scene, the Loki premiere might just be hinting at the future villain of Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania. The MCU will soon introduce Kang the Conqueror, a major comic book baddie played by Jonathan Majors, and "Glorious Purpose" could represent the first step toward his arrival. Called out to 19th century Oklahoma, TVA agents find a piece of technology hailing from the 3rd millennium. Though it might be a coincidence, Kang hails from the 31st century, and is known for using advanced tech in his dominion of the timeline. The mysterious hooded figure is more likely a Loki variant than Kang himself, but since Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania and Loki both deal in temporal themes, it wouldn't be strange for the Kang foundations to be laid on Disney+.

- Screen Rant

Loki releases new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.

#loki series #loki #loki odinson #loki show #loki spoilers #tv news #tv show #movie magic #mcu #marvel #movies #marvel cinematic universe #movie news #mcu phase 4 #news #disney+#tv series

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rocinantescoffeestop · 4 years ago

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Whumptober2020: Day 10 – Internal Bleeding

Fandom: MCU Characters: James Rhodes, Tony Stark, Helen Cho Pairing: IronHusbands Tag: @whumptober2020

Summary: In the aftermath of an Avengers’ mission, Rhodey studies Tony’s behaviour and deduces something to be wrong. Universe: Alt.Timeline created by the time-travel shenanigans in 2012, in which Loki ended up stealing the Tesseract in the aftermath of the battle of Manhattan.

[Read on AO3 here.]

Rhodey had been watching Tony since the wrap up of their latest mission. He kept a trained eye from where he leaned against the quinjet walls, arms crossed. The billionaire wasn’t speaking much, even after a very quippable dialogue between Steve and Clint to which he was just three feet away from. Tony loved to pounce on such openings in order to poke fun at his teammates. Except now?

Unable to take much more of this worry, Rhodey crossed the jet floor and stood to his boyfriend’s side. “You okay?” he asked in a quiet manner. He knew how little Tony liked it when his vulnerabilities were broadcasted.

“Fine,” was the return. It was very hard to believe what he just heard; no follow up, no flourish, just a word– a syllable, at that.

“Tony, look at me,” he coaxed. A look in his eyes would be all he needed to determine Tony’s pain. That was where he hid everything. All Rhodey needed was one glimpse.

The mechanic shifted his head the slightest degree. He did not quite meet Rhodey’s eyes, which in itself tipped Rhodey off.

Still keeping his tone hushed, he asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Dizzy,” Tony gasped. “Bit nauseous. I can’t.. World’s not supposed to sp..” He scrunched his eyes tight, “..blur, right?”

“No, not really.” Rhodey shook his head with a light smile.

“Hm,” Tony attempted a noncommittal grunt. “That’s not happening to me.”

Guiding him into a chair, Rhodey patted him on the shoulder before slipping into the space to the left of the pilot’s seat. “How far out are we?” he asked, to which Clint glanced over.

“Couple minutes at most,” he updated. “Why?”

At a tone that would only be audible between the two in the cockpit, Rhodey commanded, “Go faster, and alert Helen to prepare medical equipment for Tony. He’s worse off than I thought.”

“Copy that.”

Rhodey left the cockpit to crouch by Tony’s chair. The man held his head in his hands. His posture was ridiculous, and if this weren’t a worrying situation, Rhodey might have teased him for it. Instead, the Air Force lieutenant placed a hand on Tony’s knee and regarded him for a few silent moments.

“We’re almost at the Tower,” he said. He didn’t receive an answer. “Hey, Tones.”

“Can we just go to sleep when we get there?” Tony muttered. As much as Rhodey liked the idea of curling up with boyfriend for the night, he shook his head.

“Medbay, first.”

Tony groaned, but the sound was pitifully weak. “I don’t want to.”

“You think you have a choice?” The last thing Rhodey would do would be ignoring the clear signs of sickness on the testimony of ‘I don’t feel like it’. “We’re just coming back from a mission, you’re clearly in pain. I’m bringing you to Helen, end of discussion.”

Within the next minute, the quinjet landed upon the tower platform. The back of the jet slid open and out descended the ramp. Rhodey linked an arm around Tony’s torso and let the wounded lean heavily on him the entire way to the stretcher waiting. Helen Cho was quick to relieve some of Tony’s weight from Rhodey’s shoulders.

“Any notable symptoms?” she asked while strapping a halfway-to-unconscious Tony to the stretcher.

“Dizziness and nausea,” replied Rhodey. “Also fatigue, the obvious one here. Blurring vision.”

Nodding, she took up space at the back of the stretcher to wheel him away. Rhodey was left with no other choice but to follow. He would have followed all the way into the Medbay, but he was blocked by one of the staff. They needed space to work, she explained. Rhodey could only push so much before common sense kicked in and he sank into the waiting room chairs just outside.

What happened? he let himself wonder.

As with all missions, things in the field happened fast. Through adrenaline and years of military experience, Rhodey kept up well with the rapid pace. He trained to process things in real time. He recalled every move he made. How many times had he crossed paths with Tony this rescue mission? A handful, maybe three? Had he seen anything happen, anything he could have prevented? He held his face in his hands. Through the gaps in his fingers, he watched the floor tiles.

Dangerous thoughts, he warned. The past was the past. What judgements he had then were the best he could have thought of. Hindsight may be twenty-twenty, but it served nothing more than a dish of regret and a promise to be better.

He remembered seeing one of the buildings crumble, but there hadn't been a man of gold and red underneath. Not that you saw, the back of his mind commented. What if he was inside?

Lulled by the relentless sound of self-critique, Rhodey closed his eyes. He sank inside the darkness only to be shaken back into the light after what felt like a few seconds. Blissful seconds they were, a few seconds of absolute relief.

“Mr. Rhodes,” someone hissed. “James.”

He shook the darkness into the corners of his mind and blinked up at the gentle face of Helen Cho.

“I’m here– awake– Is he awake?” spluttered words from his lips.

“He is,” she smiled. “You can see him now.”

Rhodey jumped to his feet. He would have raced inside the hospital wing's doors if it weren't for the doctor's hands coming to a rest on his upper arm.

“Be careful. He’s still recovering. The internal bleeding was severe. Make sure he doesn't move much.”

Baring her words in mind, the lieutenant pushed open the MedBay door. At the end of a chamber of beds was Tony’s resting place. Rhodey drew in a sharp breath. Tubes and monitors and the stench of disinfectant quelled not his fluttering heart. It only quelled when he caught Tony’s head roll across the pillow.

“Imagine my pleasure,” the mechanic smirked, and though it sounded weary, Rhodey’s spirits were lifted by the detection of Tony’s signature spark of life. He hadn’t lost his vibrancy; he’ll be okay. “The second face I see is ol’ Sourpatch.”

“Imagine my pleasure, seeing you make it,” Rhodey retorted. "You gave us a scare."

“You thought a building was going to stop Iron Man?”

“It could have." He winced at the reminder of seemingly ceaseless cascade of cinder blocks. Again, he could not remember seeing a flash of gold underneath. How much pain had it cost to fly out, he asked himself, how much had Tony endured as everything came crashing down upon him?

But Tony was safe now. Tony was sailing towards a recovery. Everything proceeded optimistically.

Placing a hand on his shoulder, Rhodey smiled down at those chocolate eyes he’s come to love. The browns darted back and forth between both of Rhodey’s own eyes, surveying him through a mild squint.

“You’re going to tell me to ‘be less reckless’,” Tony ventured a guess.

Rhodey chuckled dryly. “What’s the point? You’ll just ignore it.”

“Good, you’re catching on. Only took a couple decades.”

“Being your impulse control is a full-time job,” he said. He trailed his hand down Tony’s arm only to stop when he reached his hand. Integrating his fingers in between the mechanic’s, his shoulders rose and dipped witho the least obstructed breath he’d had since the mission, since before, even.

“You love it, though.”

“I’m pretty sure the only good thing that comes out of it is you not ending up dead.” Rhodey cast a glance behind him, spied the chair against the wall, and stretched his free hand over to drag it close by. He settled himself on the dark blue cushion before leaning his forearms against the bed.

"Yeah,” Tony drew out. “I think I’m invincible.”

“It’s that kind of thinking that’ll get you killed.”

Tony pouted for show. “You don’t believe in me? I thought that’s why I signed up for when I started dating you.”

“Shut up,” dismissed Rhodey but not without sharing a laugh between them. Seeing that smile was enough to warm his heart and drive the post-battle jitters definitively from his system. He might have his work cut out for him when it came to teaching Tony restraint, but for the moment, he focused on the solace in his recovery.

He stayed by Tony’s side for as long as he could, but eventually, Helen came in to herd him out, claiming it was time for her patient to rest. Rhodey bid a ‘good luck’, knowing how impossible it was to get Tony to sleep, before making for the door. One last look, he tossed behind him, a mutual exchange, before Rhodey took his smile into the hall.

Yeah, things are going to be fine.

#whumptober2020 #no. 10 #internal bleeding #mcu #fanfiction #tony stark #james rhodes #ironhusbands #ships & otps #lilly's whump #lilly's writing

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ceealaina · 4 years ago

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Title: Caught Somewhere in Time Collaborator Name: ceealaina Card Number: 3088 Link: AO3 Square R2 - Time Heist Ship: Steve Rogers & Tony Stark Rating: Teen Major Tags: Avengers: Endgame - Alternate 2012 Timeline, Team Bonding Summary: There was something weird about the aftermath of the Battle of New York, too many coincidences and Tony hasn't been able to stop poking at it. Turns out, Steve's been noticing some weird things too. Word Count: 1703

SOMEWHERE IN AN ALTERNATE 2012

Tony frowned, watching the footage from the Battle of New York aftermath yet again. Something about that entire thing wasn’t sitting right with him. Tony wasn’t a big believer in coincidences at the best of times, and this was entirely too many of them. The arc reactor randomly malfunctioning, the Tesseract somehow ‘falling’ out of the locked case, Loki getting his hands on it and then using his newfound freedom to wipe the floor with Rogers, grab the scepter, and then… Disappear entirely? None of it made any damn sense. And there was something else niggling at the back of his mind. He barely remembered it, on account of being in the middle of dying at the time, but there’d been a SHIELD agent, someone he hadn’t been able to track down, calling for a medic in a voice that was painfully familiar but in a way that he couldn’t quite place.

Unfortunately, information from that day was seriously lacking. Half the lobby security cameras had gone down in the battle, and since the tower wasn’t supposed to be open to the public yet, and it wasn’t like he kept proprietary information in the lobby, he hadn’t bothered giving them backups and failsafes yet. Which meant he had exactly one angle that would show how the supposedly secured case spontaneously opened, and that was blocked by a view of Thor’s gorgeous rear end as he restarted Tony’s heart with a bolt of lightning. In addition to that, there was absolutely nothing on the mysterious SHIELD agent that nobody seemed to remember — although, there was an audio file of him calling for the medic, so at least Tony wasn’t making it up. He did have a clear shot of the Tesseract sliding to Loki’s feet only to have him pick it up and vanish, but there was nothing of Steve’s fight with Loki.

And that was something else too. Steve had been weird after that fight, obviously unsettled in a way he hadn’t been since Tony had met him in Stuttgart. The man had just woken up to find himself seventy years in the future a week ago, Tony had expected him to freak out any number of times. And sure, it didn’t take a psychologist to see that his mental health probably wasn’t the greatest, but he’d been fine — certainly as good as Tony on some of his better days. So what was it about that five-minute fight that had finally been the thing to throw Rogers off?

“Sir, you have a visitor requesting entry.”

JARVIS’ voice pulled Tony from his thoughts, and he blinked down at the camera feed only to startle at the familiar form of Steve standing at parade rest as he waited in front of the lab doors.

“God, I hope I’m not suddenly developing psychic powers,” he muttered before waving at the door. “Let him in, J.”

The last that he’d heard, Steve was supposed to be in Washington. After the mess following the battle, SHIELD had lost their shit, Alexander Pierce throwing a hissy fit and pulling rank. They couldn’t actually do anything with Tony or Thor, and Tony had managed to get Bruce tucked away before they could even try anything with him, but in revenge they had recalled both Clint and Nat. Then they claimed that Steve was one of their assets too, and while Tony had been ready to fight them on it, Steve hadn’t argued. Tony had let them all know that they had an open invitation to stay at the tower if they got tired of SHIELD’s bullshit, their biometrics already inputted in the system, but he hadn’t heard a peep from any of them in the six weeks since. So what the hell was Steve doing here now?

He swiped his hand, flicking away the surveillance footage just as the sliding doors opened and Steve stepped through. He was dressed in civilian clothing, a pair of well fitted jeans (thank god, Tony might have cried if he’d been back in those khakis with the grandpa pleats) and a grey t-shirt, but it didn’t stop him from standing at parade rest. Tony resisted the urge to roll his eyes as Steve tilted his head in a slight nod. “Stark.”

Tony gave an enormous, exaggerated sigh, letting his entire body heave with the force of it. “Jesus,” He drawled. “You’re killing me, smalls. Kick back a little, relax, cool it with the American soldier routine. We saved the world together, Cap. You can at least call me Tony.”

Steve gave him a crooked smile, some of the tension easing out of his body. “Tony,” he corrected himself, his voice a little warmer than before. “Sorry,” he added after a moment. “Washington has been… Hectic. Sometimes it’s easier to just fall into routine, wear it like an armour, you know?”

Tony arched his eyebrows, a little weirded out by how well Steve seemed to know him sometimes without even realizing it. “Yeah, I think I know what you mean,” he said with a rueful grin. “Still,” he clapped his hands together, titled back precariously in his wheely chair. “You’re among friends here, Steve.” He shifted forward again and hooked his ankle around the leg of another chair, hauling it away from the table. “Sit down, take a load off. Tell me what’s troubling that star spangled mind of yours.”

That earned him an eyeroll, but Tony could tell Steve was fighting back a smile as he dropped into the offered seat. “So the thing is…” He trailed off a moment, rubbing at the back of his neck as he tried to work out what he wanted to say. “I’ve been working with this new team, out of SHIELD? I think they were one of the teams that stepped in here, after the Battle?”

“And what, you’re missing the old crew already? Wanna get the gang back together?”

“No. Well…” Steve huffed out a soft laugh. “It’s not quite the same,” he admitted. “But that’s not why I’m here. There’s… There’s something up with the STRIKE team.”

Curiosity piqued, Tony leaned forward, elbows on his thighs. “Oh yeah? What’s up?”

“They keep saying weird things to me.” Steve met Tony’s gaze steadily. “Like, ‘Hail Hydra.’”

It took a minute for Tony to even process the words, and when he did he let out a low whistle. “Shit,” he said.

“Yeah,” Steve agreed. “Shit.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I don’t know who in SHIELD is compromised, who we can trust… how this is even possible? I haven’t seen Natasha or Clint since we arrived in Washington, and well... “ He shrugged helplessly. “I couldn’t think who else I could come to with this.”

Tony arched an eyebrow at him. “You trust me?”

Steve gave him a pointed look. “We saved the world together, Tony,” he said, echoing Tony’s earlier words. “Of course I trust you. And whatever I think of your methods, I’m damn sure you’re not a fucking Nazi.”

Tony grinned, trying to ignore the ten-year-old Tony in his head losing his shit over the fact that Captain fucking America trusted him. “Definitely not,” he promised him. He hesitated a moment, and then flicked his hand again, bringing the surveillance he’d been purviewing back up. “You’re not the only one who’s noticed weird stuff, for what it’s worth.” He offered him a smile. “I’ve been busy, since you’ve been gone. We’ll figure out what the fuck is going on.”

Steve grinned, kicking his foot against Tony’s. “Glad to have you on my side, Iron Man,” he told him, and Tony couldn’t help grinning back at him. Then Steve’s smile faded slightly, a frown crossing his features instead.

“What?” Tony asked. “What is it?”

“There’s something else,” Steve admitted. “When I was fighting Loki, after he escaped?” He drew in a slow breath and Tony leaned back, waiting for him to finish. “I know you read my file, Tony. You know about the Commandos?” He waited for Tony’s nod before continuing. “He told me that Bucky’s still alive.”

“He… What?”

“Yeah.” Steve gave him a helpless look. “I just… I can’t get it out of my head. If it’s not true, why would he do that? If he was trying to throw me off to get an advantage, how would he know to use Bucky? That’s not how Loki’s powers work -- is it? And if, if it is true…?” He trailed off, looking so lost for a moment Tony felt like he should give him a hug.

“Okay,” he said instead. “So what we need is a team. People we can actually trust.” He hummed consideringly. “Thor and I have been working to try and track down Loki, not that we’ve gotten anywhere, but I don’t know how much help he’ll be. I feel like this’ll require a level of… subtlety that he doesn’t usually manage.” He grinned when that got a huff of laughter out of Steve.”Bruce is still lying low, which is probably for the best right now. I can find Clint and Nat, don’t worry about that, but we’re gonna need someone else, someone we can trust.”

Steve considered this, nodding slowly. “I maybe know a guy,” he offered. “Back in Washington. He’s sort of my running buddy?”

Tony arched a skeptical eyebrow. “You found someone who can keep up with you?” he asked, second eyebrow joining the first when Steve laughed at some kind of private joke.

“Nah,” he admitted. “But that’s kinda what I like about him. Anyway, he’s good, I know he is. I mean, I know it know it, but also I ran a background check on him?”

“You know how to do that?” Tony teased, laughing when Steve kicked the leg of his chair in retaliation. “Okay, okay, sorry. So we’ll bring in your Washington running buddy too. I know it’s not much, but it’s the start of a plan. And you are the man with a plan.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Hilarious.”

Tony just shrugged. “What do you say, Steve? Time to bring the team back together? Take down the bad guys?”

Steve grinned back at him. “Avengers Assemble.”

@tonystarkbingo

#tonystarkbingo2020 #tsb2020 #tony stark #steve rogers #team bonding #alternate 2012 #fic #my fic

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evien-stark · 4 years ago

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✧I Need You✧ Chapter 164

“He usually picks up on the first ring!”

The alien was struggling with its communicator. You were running thin on patience. But for one reason or another your shock and fear had died. Mostly because… well he wasn’t very threatening. And you sensed he was very scared of you. Scared you really would blow a hole through him. Tony had eased up a little too, but was still waving his hand around. “Ten seconds ended a minute ago, you know.”

Really. Honestly… truly… it was amazing how annoyed the two of you were. And not just. Blown away. Blown away that you were standing in front of another lifeform. One that could shapeshift. One that had taken Nick Fury’s place. No telling how long for.

How did that not shake you to your very core?

Had you really become that jaded? Were you that tired?

“You know…” You sighed a breath out but kept your hand up. Just for good measure. “Even if he does pick up, how am I supposed to believe it’s not another one of you? You’re already a liar.”

Tony tipped his head your way. “You know, that’s a very good point.”

“Look- he put me up to to this- I’m just doing him a favor-!” This alien was so very frantic. It really did back his story. That he was just standing in.

The communicator on the other line picked up and you heard Fury’s voice. “If you blew your cover I want nothing to do with you.”

You and Tony shared another very exasperated look and at the same time read each other’s minds. “Yeah. That’s Fury.”

The alien shoved his communicator your way. “Here. I told you so. Please put the weaponry away now. We can be nice with each other.”

Tony narrowed his eyes. “Why don’t you get a grip, Shrek.”

Fury spoke again. “And you blew your cover with those two? I told you to get in and out, Talos-”

Said Talos whipped the communicator back his way. “I tried. What, you think I invited her for tea? I tried to get him alone. She showed up unannounced!”

“She does that.”

“She is right here.” You were beyond done. Stepping forward you yanked the communicator out of his hand and he backed up immediately once it was handed over. Turning it your way, you gave Fury a very angry glance. “And if you’ve been fooling around with aliens this entire time-”

“You’ll what?” He scoffed at you.

“I’ll tell everyone about this. LUNA’s been recording the whole time. Clearly you’re trying to keep this a secret.” Nick Fury had an alien running around doing work for him. Yeah. That was pretty big news. “And- just for the record- I don’t want to keep any more secrets for you- so please give me a reason not to.”

Fury scoffed. “Yeah. You two are playing the same games that got you in trouble when we first started coming around. You’ve got enough secrets without me.”

Tony interrupted the two of you barking at each other as he waved his arm again with a sharp little reprimand, “Hey hey- away from the door. Back up. Now.”

Talos had been trying to slip out. He put both his hands up again. “Alright, alright-”

He pointed to that bale of hay. “Sit down.”

“I’m going- I’m going…” As Talos backed down to sit again, you watched him. Waiting until he was fully seated with Tony’s looming presence keeping him sequestered to put your attention back on the communicator. “Why is this thing doing your busywork?”

“That thing is Talos. A skrull. He works for me. He owes me.”

Talos made a very frustrated noise. “Favors are running pretty thin at this point, to be honest.”

Everyone in the room ignored him. You just ended up shaking your head. “Stop. You know what? I don’t care. Don’t explain this to me. The less I know the better.”

“At least we agree on that.”

You didn’t want to carry this around for Fury. It’d just be another thing on a pile of other things. And maybe Fury was right. Maybe you had too many secrets of your own to worry about what the hell he was doing. Or why. Clearly this alien wasn’t a threat. “I just need one thing from you and then you’re free to go.”

“Oh. Am I being held on your orders?”

“Yeah. You are. So listen up.” Taking just a moment to gather your courage again. To ask again. “Did you authorize SHIELD experiments on me sometime in 1990?”

Fury didn’t have an immediate response back. That was… probably bad. Fury without snark? Trouble. But he at least wasn’t as meek as the pretend Fury had been. And he didn’t seem like he’d just back down and run. Instead he barked out a harsh laugh. “That’s what this is about? You throw the world into chaos and the only person you’re concerned with is yourself?”

“Not actively. But while I have you-”

“You don’t have anything. Believe it or not, I wasn’t the director of SHIELD the moment I joined. Certainly not in 1990.” Alright. ...that tracked. And made sense.

But- it also wasn’t what you were asking. He was dodging. “I don’t care what you’re the director of. Or when you started. I asked if SHIELD-”

“I heard you. Stark’s been digging around where he shouldn’t have been- to no one’s surprise- and finally got around to telling you, is that it? What do you think he found?”

You began shaking your head, lifting the communicator closer. “No. We’re not playing that game.” His next avenue of attack to avoid answering you was to try and play you and Tony against each other. That was never going to happen. “There was a girl on that file- 1990- she was some labrat for Tesseract experiments-”

Fury was probably hundreds of miles away, but he set a cold stare on you that did its job. You were suddenly chilled to the bone as he cut you off. “That woman is Carol Danvers. And if you knew anything about her, you’d know you’re not even half the woman she is.”

There was some sort of flicker of weird recognition from Talos, and you even caught his head whipping up in your peripheral, but you ignored him. “SHIELD experimented on her?” You needed to get to the bottom of this. Okay. So. It wasn’t you. Was that good? Is that what you wanted? Right now you weren’t sure. But it was somebody and if she was out there-

“You’re not even close. You never will be. Just let it go. It’s got nothing to do with you.”

“The researcher on that case led you to me. So cut the bullshit for once and just be honest with me.” It was a struggle to remain calm. To not raise your tone and yell at him. But what would it accomplish? He’d just get what he wanted. A rise out of you. You were determined not to give it to him.

There was a small window of silence. The two of you stared at each other. And finally he gave something up. “The scientist on that case went nuts when he picked up a similar signature. You’re lucky you’re not dead. I’ll give you the address where you can send my thank-you card.”

...this really wasn’t what you wanted. You didn’t want to owe Nick Fury anything- and now he was saying he put someone in the ground- someone on his own team- to save your life? No. This really wasn’t what you wanted at all. “The signatures-”

“Look. I’m very busy. And you’re a day late and ten bucks short at this point. The Tesseract has nothing to do with you. Carol has nothing to do with you. You didn’t crawl out of one of our labs. I can promise you that.” This wasn’t satisfying at all. You were walking out of this conversation with nothing. “Talos will reassume his position. His cover is not to be blown.”

This reminded you of a lifetime ago. Natasha had shadowed you, too. And when she’d been revealed, Nick had asked- or told- this same thing to you.

“How long has this been going on?” As you asked you looked up at Talos, and he tipped his head back up to look at you in kind.

But Fury chuckled, and it drew your attention back. “I thought you said you didn’t wanna know anything.”

Despite your better instincts, it seemed you really couldn’t help yourself. “What is he? Why is he here?”

Talos groaned out a noise as he stood, like he was tired and his muscles ached. “He is right here. You can just ask nicely.” Funny, you’d taken similar offense not five minutes ago.

Fury cut between the two of you. “I’ll leave everyone to it.” That was it. That was the end of the call. The screen went black. He was just trusting you wouldn’t go blabbing to the entire team. Or the world. He hadn’t even asked how Talos had blown his cover. Only figuring it had something to do with you and Tony-

Maybe he’d expected that- maybe he wanted-

“So.” Tony stopped your thoughts circling the drain. The ones that plagued you, when you’d been a little tighter under Fury’s control under SHIELD. The ones that wondered why he did things or didn’t do things. What the ulterior motives were. All the angles. You didn’t want to go down that path again. You didn’t have to anymore. “What are you, exactly?”

One blink of your eyes and then another and he’d changed. Back into that facade of Fury. Funny. Now that you knew it was a disguise you couldn’t unsee it. The cracks in the seams. The fakeness of it all. Talos crossed his arms. Fury’s voice came out of his mouth. “My people are called Skrulls.”

Despite yourself, you couldn’t help but ask, “And what do you owe him?”

He grinned. “Why not ask him that?”

Tony rolled his eyes in that overly dramatic yet entirely sincere way of his. “You try asking that guy anything.”

Talos laughed. “That’s exactly my point.”

The two of you stared at him a little bit longer as he put his hands in his pockets, and then Tony turned suddenly, coming over to you, “Team meeting.” Said only a couple of seconds before he came closer and started murmuring. “We trust this guy?”

“Absolutely not.” As if he had to even ask that.

“Yeah. That’s my thinking too. So. What’s the plan?”

It might have been childish and entirely terrible to put your shoulders up in the huge shrug that you did. But you were tired. And you didn’t have any answers. “My vote is ignore this and maybe he’ll just go away.”

Tony seemed to be considering this. A lot. He cast a glance over his shoulder and then quickly turned back to huddle slightly with you. “Fury’s employing aliens and you just wanna look the other way on it? Who knows how many others are out there?”

This was probably bad news. Tony already had enough on his plate. And his mental state regarding… otherworldly affairs was not the best. There was no doubt he would not be able to rest with this new information on hand. That was a problem. A deep sigh welled out of you and you straightened your back, half turning to Talos. “Does Fury have any other Skrulls working in his employ?” And while he opened his mouth to speak you pointed at him. “Don’t lie to me. I’ll know.” Looking him square in the eyes.

Talos considered this for a long moment. Then finally, “None currently.”

Tony looked between the two of you but in the end deferred to you, watching you closely to wait for your judgment. About the only thing that mattered to him in that moment. You looked. You looked deep. But you weren’t getting deception off him. “Are there plans to?”

To this Talos gave a brazen shrug. It was weird now. He was definitely not trying to pretend to be Fury at all, even while wearing his face. “How should I know? You know what he’s like. Everything’s on a need-to-know basis.”

Tony’s nose twitched in a bit of a scrunch, forehead wrinkling as he made quite the face. “And you- some guy masquerading around in his place- don’t need-to-know things?”

“Not currently.”

Anger flared up within Tony and you tried to put a soothing light over it, raising your hand to give him a small touch over his heart. Talos was being … well. He was being an asshole. But what more could you expect of someone in his position? Considering who he worked for, especially. And in what capacity.

While you wanted to curb him to heel, someone fast approaching had you putting a hand up in warning to stop current discussion. Both men looked at you, and then the three of you looked as Steve opened the barn door and poked his head in. He also realized he’d interrupted something. “...everything okay in here?” It took a few seconds to register that Nick Fury was there. “Oh.”

Talos put on quite the act pretty immediately, lifting his head in a bare acknowledgment. His tone dried up. “Nice to see you too, Rogers.”

Steve stepped in a little more and crossed his arms. “What are you doing here?”

Talos-Nick sighed. “You know, when I left, the world was a bit of a mess. But not quite like the one you’re all in now. Thought I’d check in.”

“You won’t find me disagreeing.” Steve’s haughtiness not only bugged you but also ticked Tony off to a terrible degree.

They must have been having a heated discussion out in the yard while you’d been speaking with Laura. He had been pretty angry about Ultron, and you imagined that hadn’t changed after what had gone on in Johannesburg. To think Tony had been taking the brunt of all that… as usual…

You turned Steve’s way. “We’re fine. We’ll be out in a minute.”

The two of you shared a long look. It even looked like he might be attempting to stare you down. Too bad for him you weren’t in the mood. Eventually he broke with a shake of his head. “Sure. Whatever you say.”

There was complete, stale silence in the barn until Steve actually removed himself and closed the door. When he did, Talos dropped the act again. But only to ask, “How did you know he was coming?”

For all his stresses, this seemed funny to Tony for some reason, a little laugh escaping him. “You really don’t know anything, do you?” Maybe this was relieving. In some way.

Then again. Talos was asking how you knew someone was coming, but not how you’d forced his hand? He had some strange priorities. ...Fury trusted this guy? Really? Seemed like a poor decision. ...although he’d apparently been instructed to stay away from you. For this exact reason.

Talos knew nothing. And as always, Fury knew more than he was letting on.

You felt a headache coming on. “Are you staying?”

Talos gave a shrug. “For a little while. Then I’ve got somewhere else to be.”

This felt unsatisfactory for many reasons. But the biggest one Tony voiced for you, “Fury just asked you to drop in- why? What’s the point?”

“How should I know?”

The dual groans that escaped you and Tony came from somewhere deep within the both of you. Talos knew little, he was also playing stupid. A terribly tiring mix. You looked at Tony. He looked at you. And you just knew the both of you understood how worn out the both of you were. “Food should be ready by now.”

“Food sounds good.” Agreeing with a slow nod. He hooked a thumb Talos’ way. “He invited?”

It only just occurred that Clint had told Laura something, and then Laura had sent you away. Laura, by Steve’s admission, had also told Tony to go to the barn. To meet Fury. The three of them were in on this. At the very least they knew Fury had been lurking about.

God you really needed a good night’s sleep. Finally deactivating your suit, you took hold of Tony’s arm to lead him towards the door. “Not by me. But I have a feeling he’ll invite himself regardless.”

“Well, hey.” Tony’s voice lowered into a murmur. “He may as well actually be Fury then.”

Talos shouted behind the both of you just as you exited, “You know, I can hear you!”

One more thing. It was always one more thing. You didn’t want to worry about this. You didn’t have enough in you to do so right now anyway. But how many more things were just going to keep happening? Keep showing up?

Screw a night’s sleep. You needed to sleep for an entire year at this point.

#Tony Stark #Tony Stark x Reader #INY Chapter One Hundred Sixty Four

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aurorawest · 4 years ago

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Title: not really sure how to feel about it, something in the way you move Author: @aurorawest Rating: T Characters: Stephen Strange, Loki Relationships: Loki & Stephen Strange Word Count: 5,888

Wrote this for the no excuses writing meme, askbox version - @mareebird sent me POV and I (of course) got extremely carried away. Please find below chapter 3 of Sleight of Hand from Stephen Strange’s POV.

How was it possible that he got so much mail? He wasn’t exactly giving this address out—if anything, he’d kind of fallen off the grid. But somehow, they still found him. Exterminators (huh, if only they knew), his alma mater asking for money (not even the med school; what was this, the liberal arts school? Christ), an offer to renew the extended warranty on the car he’d wrecked along the banks of the Hudson (had he even had an extended warranty?).

Stephen Strange flipped through envelope after envelope as he stood in the Sanctum’s foyer. How many trees had died just for him to toss this stuff in the trash?

There was a sound upstairs, distant enough that it wasn’t coming from the second or third floors. That meant it was coming from the attic. Stephen grimaced. Only one possible source, then, since Wong wouldn’t go up there. Hard to blame him, considering who had been living up there for three months.

He stood there for a second, listening as footsteps drew closer, and then he went back to flipping through the mail. Their houseguest would be there in three, two, one…

“Oh good, it’s you,” Loki of Asgard sneered from the stairs. Stephen glanced up at him. “You know, I don’t think your lackey is relaying my complaints to you.”

Feeling a muscle twitch somewhere in the region of his temple, Stephen looked back to the mail. He guessed Loki of Asgard maybe wasn’t appropriate anymore, what with Asgard being vaporized and New Asgard being off limits. “It might be because you keep referring to him as my ‘lackey’—which is apparently one of the nicer things you’ve called him.”

‘Goat’s arse,’ ‘feeble-minded cretin,’ and ‘tedious shepherd of a pile of musty, worthless tomes’ were among the epithets that Wong had relayed to him. “So you two aren’t friends yet,” Stephen had said. Wong had given him a flat look and walked away. There was a certain art to Loki’s venom, Stephen had to admit, but it took a masochistic streak to enjoy being the subject of his bile.

Of course, Wong had also mentioned that Loki had sneeringly referred to him as ‘Beyoncé,’ which had given Stephen pause, and not in a particularly good way. He didn’t like to think of Loki and him being anything alike.

A sneer still on his face, Loki said, “Your hurt feelings aren’t any of my concern.”

“Uh huh. You’ve made that pretty clear.” There was nothing worthwhile in this pile of mail. He tossed it on the table. Loki was obviously spoiling for a fight and Stephen didn’t really want to have it here in the foyer. There was too much furniture in here and some of it was probably valuable.

Instead, he gathered a bundle of the Sanctum’s magic to teleport them to the study and twisted it—

—Only to come up against a solid, hard barrier, like a pane of glass. It felt like someone had punched him in the gut and he tried not to stumble. Loki was staring at him, a blazing look on his face. So. Loki didn’t care for that method of transportation, and he’d come up with a way to stop it. “I was wondering how long it would take you to figure out how to do that,” Stephen said, trying to smile a little.

“Don’t patronize me,” Loki snapped back.

Stephen held up his hands. Christ. Never a quiet moment. Loki looked like he was going to kill someone. Probably worthwhile to calm him down. “Okay,” Stephen said. “Let’s talk. But do you mind if we do it in the study? I need to sit down with a cup of tea; I’m exhausted. Interdimensional squid monsters don’t just defeat themselves.”

When Loki didn’t object to this, Stephen summoned a cup of tea for himself, only half full, because otherwise the cup would shake and he’d spill hot tea all over his fingers. Burn scars on top of the surgery scars; what a look. No wonder he couldn’t get a date. Tea in hand, he asked, “Want one?”

There was a tense moment, and then Loki nodded. Another cup materialized on the table where Stephen had tossed the mail. He was half convinced Loki wouldn’t lower himself to going to get it, but he did, and the two of them went into the study.

While Stephen made his way to a chair, Loki lingered in the doorway, his fingers wrapped tightly around his cup of tea. His expression was the kind of closed-off anger that Stephen had always thought was easy to read and easy to deal with. Angry people were boring.

Loki, though, wasn’t boring.

“Have a seat,” Stephen said, gesturing at the other armchair as he sank down into his favorite one. Loki didn’t. He remained on his feet, looking stiff and out-of-place.

No. Wrong phrase. He didn’t look out-of-place in the Sanctum. He never had. At first it had really bothered Stephen. Now, he just tried not to think about it. There were a lot of implications to Loki looking like he belonged at the Sanctum that were better left untouched.

Maybe the right word was unwelcome. Loki looked like he felt unwelcome.

“Did you have a good day?” Stephen asked, taking a sip of his tea. The question was probably unnecessarily sarcastic. But something was kicking at his chest, agitating him, making him irritable. It wasn’t Loki’s mood. He could handle Loki’s foul mood—hadn’t be been doing it for three months? Granted, he tried to stay out of Loki’s way as much as possible, and the feeling was mutual.

Sometimes he’d catch himself looking up the stairs towards the attic, wondering what Loki was doing up there. What did a god do to keep himself from getting bored? Besides insult Wong? What did Loki do to keep himself from getting bored? The answer seemed obvious: get into mischief. But there’d been a distinct lack of mischief. Stephen didn’t know if he was thankful or worried that he just hadn’t noticed it yet.

Clearly, Loki had picked up on the sarcasm. Not a surprise. Not much got past Loki, especially if he thought you were insulting him—and he seemed to usually think you were insulting him. “Oh, yes,” he said, his eyes narrowing. “An absolute peach of a day.” When Stephen shrugged, anger flashed through Loki’s eyes like knives. His voice tight, he snapped, “I’m sick and tired of being locked up here, wizard. I’m sick and tired of being in that room, wasting time. I’m sick and tired of you telling me that it’s for the good of the universe for me to rot in this house.”

Stephen had been watching Loki’s fingers clench more and more tightly around the cup during this speech, which was the most he’d heard Loki talk since that day he’d arrived outside the Sanctum, falling on the sidewalk, Tesseract in hand. She, Stephen guessed. Loki had been a woman at the time. To this day, Stephen didn’t really know why, but he’d recognized her immediately. No question in his mind that he had been looking at Loki.

He waited for Loki to go on, but he just gulped down his tea, wincing. The cup vanished once the tea was gone.

There was silence. Then, Stephen asked, “Are you done?”

“Did you want to hear more?” Loki asked.

It almost made Stephen smile. But he wasn’t supposed to smile at Loki. Loki was the guy who had attacked New York in 2012. He was a threat. He wasn’t a good guy.

That was oversimplifying everything, and Stephen hated it when people oversimplified things. At Stark’s funeral, Stephen had approached Thor, because…well, he didn’t really know anyone else there, except the Guardians, and he’d pretty much exhausted all the conversational possibilities with them within five minutes. And there was the Parker kid, he guessed, but he could do better than chatting with a high schooler.

Saying he ‘knew’ Thor was kind of overstating it, but at least they’d had more than a two second conversation. But he knew he’d made a mistake right away. Thor had been drunk and definitely hadn’t wanted to talk; after attempting to make conversation for a minute, Stephen had given up and walked away.

He’d almost stepped on Rocket Raccoon, who was on his way to Thor and who had glared at him and muttered something that had definitely begun, “Fucking wizard…” under his breath.

Stephen had bitten back the urge to tell him how many raccoons he’d hit over the years. “What’s with Thor?” he’d asked. The weight, the hair, the beard, the booze, the crushing defeat slung around his shoulders—it wasn’t really a ‘what’s with him’ kind of question, but Stephen was hoping Rocket would give him the short and surly answer.

Rocket had rolled his eyes. “Gee, I dunno, where should I start? Dead mom? Dead dad? Dead sister? Dead brother? Blown up planet?”

Which was when Stephen had known. Loki was dead. Banner’s story about Thanos attacking the Asgardian refugee ship hadn’t included the fates of the Sons of Odin. But this had clinched it. No one had told him what had happened and he wasn’t about to ask Thor or his friend, the woman with the sword who had glared at anyone who had looked sideways at Thor. But Stephen had gotten the feeling that Loki had gone down fighting, that whatever had happened between the guy charging him with a couple of knives and Loki’s death, that him and Thor had made up.

It also made everything he’d seen make a shit ton more sense.

When he’d looked at those fourteen million, six hundred and five futures and found the one where Thanos was defeated, he’d looked further ahead. Of course he’d looked further ahead. How did he know there wasn’t something worse coming right after Thanos? He had to be sure he was choosing the right one. So what had he seen? Death. So much death. His own, over and over and over and over again. His own and everyone else’s. In the end, Natasha Romanoff’s and Tony Stark’s. Steve Rogers’s, too, in a way.

He’d seen Thor, an absolute wreck of a man who needed to find something on his own before he could find the thing he really needed, which was his brother. Yeah, the dead brother. Because Stephen had seen Loki, too. Loki, living at the Sanctum, Loki befriending Jane Foster, Loki and Thor together, Loki—

Well. The point was, he’d seen Loki.

There were actually a lot of reasons he didn’t want to smile at anything Loki said, and to blame it on him being ‘the bad guy’ was disingenuous.

Carefully, Stephen set his cup of tea down on the table next to his chair. Did he want to hear more? That was an open question, and he wished it wasn’t. “I think I get the general idea,” he said. “You know you’re not confined to that room, right? You’re free to go anywhere in the house.”

Not that anyone had ever actually come out and told Loki this, because the fact was, there kind of were places that Stephen and Wong didn’t want him going. Once or twice, Stephen had caught Loki slipping like a shadow through the house, trying not to make eye contact with the Sanctum’s other occupants, but staring longingly into the library. Stephen had almost told him he should go in and read whatever he wanted. But something had stopped him. Maybe that had been wrong.

Loki snorted. “And trip one of your booby traps? I don’t think so.”

Stephen took a fortifying breath. “Don’t get into anything you’re not supposed to, and you won’t.”

Loki’s face twisted. “And how, pray tell, am I supposed to know what I’m allowed to touch and what I’m not?” he snarled.

“You’re a wizard, aren’t you?” Stephen asked, unable to stop himself from throwing Loki’s preferred slight back in his face.

“Master of Magic,” Loki shot back, his eyes narrowed dangerously.

“Right.” This was going nowhere. Antagonizing each other wasn’t going to solve anything. Loki was stuck here and they both knew it. “Look, we’ve been over this. I’m sorry about keeping you here, but this is the way it has to be.”

Clenching his fists, Loki said, “It has to be this way, does it? I know you can look into the future, so tell me why, exactly, the universe’s fate hinges on me being stuck in this house. It seems just a bit unlikely.”

No argument there. Fourteen million futures unlikely. But Loki didn’t know what. Steepling his fingers in his lap, Stephen said, “If you’re referring to the fact that I used the Time Stone to see if we could beat Thanos, yeah. I looked past that moment to make sure there wasn’t some kind of world-ending, Avengers-level event coming right after it. I saw possibilities.”

They’d had this conversation several times already. That part usually went okay. It was the next part that pissed Loki off. Narrowing his eyes, Stephen went on, “What I saw was that it’s better for the universe for you to be here. I wouldn’t presume to tell you the fate of everything rests on you crashing in the attic room. But I can’t let you leave. There’s too much probability that millions of lives are at stake.”

There was devastation on Loki’s face. Stephen didn’t relish it. He didn’t like causing this man pain. Man? God, he guessed. But he knew Loki didn’t see it that way. He knew Loki thought he got off on being a prick.

Well, maybe he had, at one point in his life. Not so much anymore. At least, not to Loki, who, three months into this unwilling roommate situation, was pretty clearly very damaged, hurting badly, and profoundly lost. And goddammit, Stephen knew that feeling so, so well.

“What do I care for millions of lives when my brother—” Loki paused and seemed to gather himself. “—when my brother needs a kick in the arse, preferably from me?”

Then again, Loki didn’t always make it easy to not be a prick.

And it was better if he pushed Loki away. It didn’t necessarily seem smart to make the God of Mischief hate him, but it ultimately seemed preferable.

“That’s sweet,” Stephen said. “I hope he can feel the love, even if he thinks it’s coming from beyond the grave.”

Anger twisted Loki’s face. “I didn’t ask for this,” he snarled. “I was ready to die. You lot are the ones that messed up the fabric of space and time. The only reason I’m here at all is because someone let a group of rank amateurs loose in something they knew nothing about and couldn’t possibly hope to understand the ramifications of. So if my presence here is such a problem, such a wrench in the continued existence of the universe, blame them. I’d tell you to take it up with your counterpart in the other timeline, but—oh yes, I had to erase it from existence, so I suppose you’ll never know why he was so adamant that I be sent here, to you, in this particular year.”

Another big speech from Loki. Stephen had noticed that when he got upset, when he got agitated, he talked more, his words spilling over each other like rocks tumbling along the riverbed in a swift current. His anger didn’t make him less eloquent. There was something admirable about that. To be honest, there was something mesmerizing about watching Loki get more and more angry. His fury was something to behold—like something wild, like a storm, like something that no one would ever be able to control. There was something kind of beautiful about that.

And, nope. Better for Loki to hate him.

Keeping his face impassive, Stephen asked, “Is there more you’d like to say?” When Loki remained coldly silent, he went on, “You know, I couldn’t keep you here if you really wanted to leave. You stay because you think what I’ve told you is true.”

Harsh laughter tore itself out of Loki. “What can I do but assume it’s true? Do you know what I’ve been through?”

“Only what you’ve told me. I’m sure it hasn’t been easy.”

“Your sympathy means so much.”

Stephen knew he was pushing every button Loki had. It wasn’t that hard. He had an unfair advantage, after all. He’d seen the future. But even if he hadn’t, he still thought it would be easy. There was something about Loki that was easy to understand, when he should have been impossible. And Stephen really, really didn’t want Loki to be easy to understand. Not for him. Definitely not for him.

Meeting Loki’s eyes, Stephen said, “Loki. I’m not keeping you here because I have some sort of vendetta against you.” Loki just glared at him, so Stephen sighed. “Your brother has things to do and he needs to do them without you. You can’t help him right now. That’s what I’ve seen. There are a lot of possible outcomes, but in most of them, you staying out of Thor’s life right now is best for everyone.”

Stephen had known this wasn’t the right thing to say. But he had to admit, even he hadn’t guessed just how wrong it was.

Something…happened. Magic screamed out of Loki, blasting into everything in the room. It slammed into Stephen, a shockwave that passed through his skin and lungs and bones, roaring through him, invading him, and for what felt like forever, he couldn’t breathe.

This was the sort of thing he’d trained for, though. This was what made him a Master of the Mystic Arts. This was what made him Guardian of the New York Sanctum. As glass and wood shattered around him, he called a spell to his hands and cast it, magic flowing from his hands. Everything in the room stopped, suspended in midair, a tableau of frozen destruction. The only two things moving in the room were Loki and Stephen.

Stephen flicked a hand and everything settled back to where it was supposed to be. This was the first time he’d really seen what Loki could do—it was the first time Loki had unleashed his magic. And unleashed was the word. Loki’s chest was heaving. His eyes were bright with rage and his face was open in a way that Stephen had never seen, even if it was only open enough to be twisted with fury and pain.

He was…magnificent. Incandescent. He looked every inch a god.

And Stephen Strange did not want to think so.

So he waited a moment. Steeled himself. And then, he said dryly, “Looks like I hit a sore spot.”

The other thing, that hadn’t been meant to wound. This definitely had been.

Knives appeared in Loki’s hands. “Shut. Up.” His voice was shaking. An attack would be easy to stop, but Stephen didn’t want to have to do that. His shoulders still heaving, Loki said, “I would rather be trapped in your pocket universe, falling into infinite blackness, then have to look at your insufferable face and listen to your smug, sanctimonious, pedantic explanations about why I’m here for one—more—SECOND.”

How hard did he want to push? How much did he want to make Loki hate him? Stephen had to look away from him. Watching Loki, enraged, threatening him, radiating anger, was a little too much like looking at the sun. “That can be arranged,” Stephen said, folding his hands in his lap.

Loki stepped forward, holding his dagger up, leveling it between Stephen’s eyes. “You’ve wanted to since day one. Put your money where your mouth is, sorcerer.”

At this, Stephen looked back up to Loki, meeting his eyes and holding his gaze. He could see Loki thinking about it, those blue eyes of his cracking with anger, with dislike, maybe even with hate. Hell, if their positions were reversed, Stephen would probably be tempted to stick a knife in his own chest to shut himself up.

This was too much. There were good reasons for Stephen to antagonize Loki; good reasons for them not to be friends, or even friendly. But this didn’t sit right. He couldn’t keep doing this.

Loki lowered his arm, sagging, as his fingers loosened around his dagger. Stephen’s eyebrows drew together. What was happening? Why was Loki giving up? That seemed unlike him. In the encounters they’d had, Loki had always snarled a vicious parting shot before stalking away. Nothing seemed to cow him.

That wasn’t right though, was it? Loki was cowed. Thor and Loki were like mirror images of each other. One wore his pain and brokenness on the outside, the other stuffed it down and papered over it with rage. But at the end of the day, it was the exact same pain.

Sounding defeated, Loki said, “Do it, Strange. I promise I’ll only blame you a little bit.”

Christ. Seriously? Did Loki really think Stephen was going to trap him in a void, falling forever, or until Stephen felt like freeing him? Well, to be fair, he guessed he’d done it before. But those had been extenuating circumstances.

Extenuating circumstances. Right. His whole life was a series of extenuating circumstances, now. He had an Asgardian prince living in his house and he hadn’t informed anyone—except people he trusted at Kamar-Taj—that Loki was here at all. Extenuating circumstances: if he was right about what he’d seen in this future, then Loki would never be a threat to Earth again.

Stephen’s list certainly didn’t think so. A few days after Loki’s arrival, his name had disappeared from it. Stephen had thought something might be wrong with it and he’d checked it, a pit of ice forming in his stomach. But of course nothing was wrong with the list. He already knew Loki wasn’t a threat. Every time things played out exactly the way he’d seen them play out with the Time Stone, he felt a little more sick. Most of it was fine; most of it was great, but he’d caught a glimpse—there was a future that he didn’t want, and if he could nudge things just a little off course—well, it would be better for everyone.

Watching the anger flicker out of Loki’s eyes was like watching a storm recede. No pocket dimension for him. Anyway, he’d find his way out of it before long. “Yeah,” Stephen said, “I’m not going to, but your permission’s noted.”

They couldn’t keep going like this. Stephen was pretty arrogant, but even he wasn’t cocky enough to think he could break Loki. But something—stupidity, sentimentality, shortsightedness, all of the above?—made him realize that he didn’t even want Loki thinking he was trying to break him. That wasn’t who he wanted to be, not for himself, and not for Loki, either.

All of the above, definitely. With a really large helping of stupidity. Taking a breath and tilting his head to disguise his own swirling thoughts, he said, “You know…you might have a point. Not about the pocket universe. But about being cooped up. It’s probably bad luck or something to keep a god under house arrest, even here.”

The daggers vanished. “I’m listening,” Loki said warily.

Stephen got to his feet, mainly so Loki wouldn’t be able to see his face. Up until this point, he’d been a mainly passive observer in the events he’d seen. He’d give up the Time Stone to Thanos, but other than that, he’d set nothing in motion. His job was to be part of all of it, not to guide it. But there were certain things that he’d glimpsed, things that he didn’t understand how they could come to pass without him initiating it. The problem was, he didn’t know when any of it was supposed to happen. A year from now? Four months? Next week? Today? There was no way to know. The Time Stone didn’t subtitle dates at the bottom of its visions.

Which left him to use his own judgement. There was a time when just about the only person’s judgement he’d trusted was his own. The bizarre vicissitudes of his life had taught him better. Humility made him hesitate. How did he know this was the right time? If he set things in motion now, he couldn’t stop them. What if he acted and it wasn’t time? What if he had it all wrong?

He cast spell after spell to clean up the room, feeling Loki’s presence at his back. As the last lampshade fit itself back into place, a realization hit him like a train. Humility? He thought he’d learned humility? He was still the same arrogant son of a bitch he’d always been. This wasn’t about him. It had never been about him.

He recognized the pain Loki was in. This was about Loki.

There was no way for him to know the right time to set events in motion. But it didn’t matter. Loki needed this now, whether it was the right time or not.

Stephen hesitated for another second. Once he spoke, he couldn’t take it back. He couldn’t undo it.

He turned around to face Loki, who looked like a caged animal, desperate to run but with nowhere to go, his rage barely subsided, simmering just under the surface. And Stephen spoke. “I shouldn’t even be telling you this. I’m breaking every patient confidentiality law on the books.”

Surprise flickered across Loki’s face, though he immediately wiped it away. “Then please don’t feel compelled to.”

Stephen ignored him. “I was at the hospital today—”

“Why?” Loki interrupted. With a pointed look at Stephen’s hands, clearly meant to be cruel, he added, “Don’t tell me they’re letting you cut people open?”

He deserved that. But it still rankled. He thought he actually preferred the knives. “I thought you said you were listening,” Stephen said. Loki backed down, holding up his hands. The expression on his face had returned to wariness. “I was visiting a friend,” Stephen went on. “While I was there, I walked by a room that listed the occupant as Jane Foster.”

This was…not exactly a lie. Stephen had been by Metro-General recently—not today, but within the week—and he had seen Christine while he was there, but he’d gone for the express purpose of seeing if Jane Foster had taken up residence there. The little ball of ice in his stomach had grown a bit more when he’d seen her name on the door.

Loki started at the name and immediately scowled.

“Someone you know?” Stephen asked, knowing the answer perfectly well.

“An acquaintance,” Loki replied, raising one eyebrow.

This shouldn’t have charmed Stephen, but against his will, it did. Something in the arch of that eyebrow, the glint in Loki’s eyes, which wasn’t quite mischief but was sharp and pointed and keen as those daggers he carried around on his arms. God knew Loki had never tried to be charming in his time at the Sanctum. Somehow, that made the flashes of his natural charm way more genuine and likable.

“Uh huh,” Stephen said. “Friend of Thor’s, right?” Loki shrugged and Stephen grew serious. “I looked at her records. Another broken rule, by the way. Same Jane Foster. She’s dying.”

“Of course she’s dying,” Loki said, shrugging again. “You humans are in a perpetual state of mortality. It’s just what you do.”

Less charming. Stephen felt his lips thin. “She’s terminally ill. She has weeks. Maybe a couple months, if she gets really lucky.”

This seemed to hit some kind of nerve. Or maybe Loki just realized he was being an asshole. Finally, he said, “I see. And?”

“And nothing.” There was still a shattered vase in the corner. Stephen magically repaired it and it settled back into place on the table that held it. He tried not to take a deep breath and make it obvious how much he was bullshitting his way through this conversation. This was it. “Unless you want to go see her,” he said.

If this had been a movie, the music would have swelled and then abruptly dropped away at this point. The audience had to be clued in that this was a Big Moment. But of course, only Stephen knew that. Loki had no idea. His eyes narrowed and he asked, “Why would I want to go see her? I barely know the woman. My brother was the one who couldn’t stop mooning over her.” Something seemed to occur to him and he quickly added, “He dumped her, by the way.”

To be totally honest, Stephen didn’t care about the love lives of the Asgardian royal family, or lack thereof. But there was something kind of sweet about Loki insisting on this point, which told Stephen that it absolutely wasn’t true, and Jane had definitely dumped Thor’s ass.

“I was under the impression you wanted to do something nice for your brother,” Stephen said.

Loki made a series of spluttering noises, then finally managed, “This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

“You don’t say,” Stephen said, his tone deadpan. When Loki glared at him, he added, “Why don’t you think about it?”

“Why don’t you let me go tell my brother that I’m not dead?”

Point to Loki. Probably. Stephen had kind of lost track. He’d felt like this was a game he was going to lose from the moment Loki had appeared on the sidewalk outside, anyway. He sighed, less at Loki; more at the situation. “Do you really want to do this again today? I just got done cleaning up.” This drew an unwilling snort of laughter from Loki, and Stephen felt a tendril of an emotion that he wasn’t willing to name unfurl ever-so-slightly within him.

“By the way,” Stephen said, to distract both of them from the fact that he had just made Loki laugh, “Thor isn’t even on Earth right now.”

Picking at the armor on his hands, Loki said, “I know.”

Stephen felt his brow furrow in surprise. Loki looked at him, taking this in. “You do?” Stephen asked.

“I heard you and Wong talking about it.” Loki looked almost guilty. He cleared his throat and said, “Something about some people calling themselves the Guardians.”

Huh. Well. What else had Loki heard?

“You have good hearing,” Stephen finally said.

With a faint smile, Loki replied, “I’m very good at overhearing things that people don’t want me to.”

Good to know. Stephen wished he’d known it three months ago. He’d have to comb through his memories to figure out if Wong and he had talked about anything sensitive within Loki’s impressive earshot.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Stephen said.

Exiting a conversation at the right time was a skill Stephen had always prided himself on, and he knew this one had run its course. Something momentous had happened here, though Loki didn’t know the half of it. Stephen didn’t know if he felt like a puppet master or a puppet himself, a marionette whose strings were being jerked around by the universe the same as everyone else’s. He just happened to know about it.

Loki seemed like the kind of guy who you could have really in-depth philosophical discussions with. Get him started on a conversation about free will, and Stephen had a feeling he’d be fascinating. Stephen had heard him invoke the Norns, and as soon as that particular argument had ended, he’d pulled out his phone to google the word.

The Fates. Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld, the most important of them. They wove mortals’ fates, pulled at the threads, followed them, tangled them, untangled them. Stephen had no idea what Loki thought about free will, but he had a feeling it was complicated.

Another thing Stephen was good at? Leaving a difficult conversation on top. He held out a hand and Loki stared at it. His open confusion was kind of satisfying. “Oh, sorry,” Stephen said. “The cup you vanished. I’ll take that back. They’re antique. I’m trying to keep the set together.”

Total bullshit. They were from the thrift store a few blocks over, and before that, probably Kmart, and there were already several pieces missing.

But Loki didn’t know any better. Stephen didn’t even know why he was messing with him. Maybe just to see if he could. There was, after all, the aforementioned feeling that he’d lost this game before it had even started. Anything to get the upper hand, no matter how temporary it was.

Smirking, Loki twitched his fingers, and the cup appeared out of thin air, dropping into Stephen’s palm. Without another word, Loki turned to leave. But then, in the doorway, he stopped and turned around. “How do I get to this hospital?” he asked. “In case I do decide to go see Miss Foster.”

Check. Did the Norns play chess? Whatever. Stephen wasn’t sure he believed in them.

Then again, he hadn’t believed in magic either, had he?

With a small smile, Stephen said, “We’ll get you a Metro Card.” He couldn’t read Loki’s face. Probably he didn’t know what a Metro Card was. Lucky guy. In all seriousness, though, Loki was, what, a thousand something years old? But he didn’t know much about Earth. Given an opportunity, he’d probably learn everything he could about it. And that reminded him. The library. Giving Loki free rein in there was something he should have done a long time ago. Wong would hate it, but…Stephen would pick up his tuna melts for a month or two and he’d get over it. “And Loki? I think you’ll find that the library has a number of books that might interest you.”

There was an impossibly long silence while Loki stared at him. Would he accept this? As peace offerings went, it was pretty paltry. Peace offering? Stephen kept his face still, but inside, he snorted at himself. He guessed so. For the past three months, he’d either outright ignored or tried to alienate Loki. Something momentous had happened here without him knowing, too. This relationship had changed. Stephen had Seen Things, but he didn’t have a roadmap. He didn’t know where this was going. He didn’t know what to expect.

The knot of ice was still in his stomach, but it seemed to thaw a little. Maybe he wasn’t entirely a toy of the Norns.

Finally, Loki inclined his head, a graceful, courtly gesture that reminded Stephen forcibly and viscerally that this was a prince. It wasn’t something that he cared about, per se. He was a person first and foremost. And last, when it came down to it. But somewhere in the middle, he was a prince, a god, a onetime villain. And he was also a brother, a son, and—

Definitely not a friend. Not to Stephen, at least.

“Thank you,” Loki said. Stephen nodded to him, and Loki turned and walked away, his footsteps quiet on the wood floor.

No, not a friend. But maybe, just maybe, not an enemy, either.

#loki #stephen strange #fanfiction #soh #mareebird

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thorne93 · 5 years ago

Text

Unforeseen Chasm (Part 16)

Prompt: Two sisters fall for men that are absolute enemies. The love they have could tear all of them apart, or it could bring them together.

Word Count:2537

Warnings: fighting,and lying????

Song: Young God - Halsey

Note: This is by far the longest thing I’ve ever written (including my novels). It’s a collaboration with the amazing @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo. It started as a funny “What if…?” and it evolved and got huge. This took two years to write. We are both proud and happy and we hope you enjoy it. It follows from Thor 1 to Endgame in the MCU. Some of the timelines may be off in order to fit certain people, and some characters may show up earlier or in different ways than they have in the movie. But for the most part, it follows the MCU. It also has a bit of crossover with some other Marvel characters throughout the story.

Masterlist for Unforeseen Chasm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Loki’s plan was… complex. Convoluted. But it would work. It had to work.

Before he left, you pulled him into the bedroom (a cold, small room that had a bed in it, and that’s all) that you two had made in the bunker/work area.

You shook your head, tears already streaming down your face.

“Loki, I don’t want to do this. I hurt her. I don’t want to hurt anyone else. If we let those things in...” you started, choking on your own sobs. Anger took you over and you began again, “If we let those things in, they’re going to attack people I love. People I work with. People I don’t want to hurt. I stabbed her, Loki. She didn’t deserve that. I don’t want to do this anymore,” you sobbed.

Loki drew you into a comforting embrace, holding you tight as he soothed you.

“I know, darling.”

“Everything… Everything Thanos said was a lie. You know that, don’t you? That it was all a manipulation?” you asked, desperation in your voice.

“Of course I know that!” he hissed. “But does it matter? Does any of that matter? You and I both know the stakes if we lose. It will be far worse than some scrapes and bruises for your friends. They’ll kill all of them, including us.”

“Is there nothing we can do to stop them?”

“I’m afraid not, my love,” he said, sorrow in his voice. “You know how badly he will punish us if we do not do as he asks.”

Your heart shattered in your chest at his words. You knew this, you always knew it. That’s the only reason you could do what you did today.

Loki saw your pain and kissed your head as he put his hand on the nape of your neck. “Go… see her. I will tend to this.”

You peered up at him with stormy eyes. “Are you sure? I could help you here. I could--”

“Go. Don’t lose your family for him,” he instructed, referring to Thanos.

With a firm nod, you kissed him and then left quickly. Meanwhile, Loki and Barton worked on getting the eye for the Iridium for the portal to let the Chitauri in.

--------------------------

All seemed to be going according to plan.

Loki had retrieved the eye. Tony and Steve had arrested Loki. This resulted in all the “superheroes” of the world uniting. Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, and Thor Odinson -- all together on one helicarrier. With Loki, trapped in a cage.

This should’ve worried you, but you knew this was the whole point, to get Loki alone, keep the attention on him, so they wouldn’t notice when Barton and the rest showed up to bring out the monster.

Barton and the rest of the crew got on a jet, finding the helicarrier, and successfully got the Hulk released onboard. However, Barton had apparently been compromised, as he didn’t rejoin Loki back on the jet.

Which meant Loki would be at Stark Tower soon enough.

Funny coincidence, you were already there.

--------------------------

You stepped inside the lab. It was so familiar to you it hurt. This same lab where you’d been before countless times to watch Shannon work, to help on some projects, to fuck with Tony just to fuck with him.

And of course, Shannon was working away, diligently. She had the noise cancelling headphones on you’d given her three Christmases ago, since she just had to have music on when she worked.

You were sure Tony probably told her to stay on the lowest level of the tower. He probably told her to turn on every alarm. He probably told her to arm every door.

Did she do any of it? No. She didn’t. This tower was just as exposed as it always was.

You were careful to tiptoe up to her, the last thing you wanted to do was startle her. Just as you approached her though, the scars of your wounds from yesterday were an angry red, violent purple. Reminders of your cowardice. A reminder that you didn’t have the power to confront Thanos, to tell him to fuck off.

But how could you? If you defied him, Loki would pay the price. Shannon would be killed. Thor would be killed. Everyone you loved -- killed. You had to obey him.

And that’s all you needed to tell Shannon. She would believe you right? You two had known each other forever and she would have to know you didn’t do this on purpose.

Just as you went to speak though, Jarvis’s voice came over the speaker in the room, a light blinking on the workbench, alerting Shannon of the call.

“Yes, Jarvis?” she asked.

“Mr. Stark is on the phone for you. He says it’s urgent.”

“Thank you, Jarvis. Put him on.”

Half a second later, Tony’s voice filled the room. “Shan, where are you?” he demanded.

“In the lab, why?”

“Leave, now. Y/N is there.”

Your blood ran cold as you stood behind her, perfectly still.

“What?” she asked.

“Y/N. She’s at the tower. Get somewhere safe. I’m on my way. Loki might be there too. He has the Tesseract. He’s going to come there. I don’t know what he’s doing with it but I don’t want you anywhere near it. Okay? So get out of the tower. Now.”

“Tony, I’m not just going to leave,” she started to protest and a faint smile touched your lips.

“Please, for the love of God do not argue with me. Not right now. Okay? We’ve got two total nutcases on our hands, headed for our house. Y/N is in the tower, but Jarvis can’t pinpoint where. So leave before she finds you.”

Shannon turned to leave, still talking to Tony. “Okay, okay I wil--”

But her eyes caught yours as you stood there in front of her. Her eyes went wide as she stumbled back into the workbench, gasping. Her hand accidentally hit the hangup button on the phone call.

“Shannon, wait!” you begged, holding your hands up in defense.

“Wha-- What are you doing here? How did you get in?” she stammered.

“Shannon, you never locked this place down. I’m not surprised to be honest because you nev--”

Her eyes began to change color and you backed up.

“Wait! Wait! Don’t! I’m here to apologize! Please!”

“Apologize or distract me while your boyfriend sneaks in?” she asked, making her way around the table.

“No, I’m here to apologize. Shannon, please, give me five minutes. I can explain everything,” you tried.

“No. You snuck in here. Why? You could’ve called.”

“Would you have really picked up the call?” you challenged.

“It’s still better than showing up behind me like a creep.”

You bobbed your head side to side. “That’s fair,” you granted. “But please, hear me out.”

Shannon wanted to help you. She thought she did. But now that you were standing here again, clad in an all black outfit, green and gold accenting your boots and robe, showing who your real alliance was with… Well, she wasn’t so sure Tony was wrong. Maybe you’re past help. The wild in your face, the edginess in your form… maybe you were lost. Maybe she had lost you to him.

“Why? So you can stab me a few more times? Or are you just trying to get Loki in here?” she demanded through clenched teeth.

“Shan, please,” you begged as you stepped forward, your hands raised. You wanted to calm her down, to make her listen to you for five minutes, but every step you took was sending her closer to the edge.

“No! I won’t listen to your lies!” she shouted as she backed up farther from you, the flashbacks of you chaining her to a chair reverberating in her mind. The sting of the knife you plunged deep into her flesh and muscle still very vivid.

You tried to close the gap and that’s all it took.

Shannon’s fear of you went into overdrive as she slammed a button on the table and a suit came flying out of the cabinet next to her, enveloping her.

“Spare suit?” you noticed, appreciative.

“Tony likes to keep one on hand, you know, in case any enemies come in and try to kill me,” she informed with a slight shrug.

“I am not your enemy, Shannon,” you swore as you stepped towards her.

“Stop there. One more inch and I’ll open fire,” she warned, deadly serious.

Just then, JARVIS’s voice came over the intercom. “Ms. Shannon, I don’t mean to alarm you but it would appear that Loki is on the roof with Dr. Erik Selvig.”

With that, Shannon looked at you for a brief second before rocketing out of the lab.

With a low growl, you followed as best you could. You used the energy you’d picked up from Asgard as well as the power Thanos had bestowed upon you to fly up to the roof.

“JARVIS, inform Tony that I’ve found Loki on the tower roof with the Tesseract,” she told the Al as she got closer to Loki. As soon as Shannon landed on the roof, she told Loki to back away from the Tesseract. “Move away from it!” she ordered, sounding confident in her orders as she held one of the arms of his suits up.

Loki’s tortured eyes peered up at her. “You must be the famous Shannon,” he cooed. “Hiding behind your boyfriend’s technology are we? I was told you had great power all on your own.”

“Yeah, but I hear someone already scares you shitless with lightning. Thought I would make this more fun,” she said as you landed on the rooftop with them.

“You’re outnumbered,” Loki commented, holding his arms out as if to taunt her.

“But not outgunned.” Then she opened fire on him, blasting him away from the Tesseract and off the roof where he went tumbling until he hit the balcony ten floors below.

“Loki!” you screamed, your throat burning from the volume. You ran to the edge of the roof, seeing he had fallen and landed, but he was still moving, trying to get up. You turned to her and narrowed your eyes. “You’ll pay for that.”

You launched at her, slamming into the suit and all, going over the edge with her.

“Are you crazy?!” she shouted from beneath the mask.

“Depends on who you ask,” you said before trying to rip off the mask of the suit. But Shannon used the repulsors to send the two of you back into the building, breaking a window to get onto the floor, landing a few floors below the balcony level.

“This is insane. Stop this, Y/N,” she demanded.

“Take off the suit and fight me. One on one,” you ordered, your voice quivering with anger.

“I’m not going to fight you! I want you to end all of this and I can help you!”

“Take off the suit!” you screamed so loud your face grew red and the veins in your neck bulged.

She sighed and obliged, the suit slowly disassembling off of her. The suit stayed on autopilot if needed. “There. Are you happy? Now what? You have no power. You can only conjure illusions,” she stated as if all hope were lost for you.

A dark smirk came over your face as you raised both hands and held them in the air. Without warning, you used your birth power of bio-kinetic energy to charge some of the kitchen knives that were on the counter and propelled them at her. Using her own mutation, she conjured a small streak of lightning to deflect them.

“Pick up a new trick?” she asked, cocking her head.

“One or two,” you remarked as you stood at the ready.

“Oh yeah? Well so have I.” She looked at you and you could see her eyes begin to turn red compared to the white they turn when she brings in a storm. Red beams of electric light came out of her eyes, close enough to scrape your cheek. “Now I won’t repeat myself, stop it at once Y/N,” her voice boomed in the room but you were shocked to see she had new mutations. Who knew what else she might have acquired in your year gone.

In a heaving breath, you replied, “I… can’t.”

“Then I’ll end it myself,” she remarked as she shot the red electrified light at you once more but instead of dodging, you used the powers that had long been suppressed on your time on Earth.

You put your hands up and captured the energy, something she didn’t realize you were doing at first, but once she did, she stopped her actions altogether. You kept your hands up, letting the power hit your palms before squeezing them together, pushing the power back into yourself.

You took a deep breath and looked at her, releasing her own energy back on her, but in your dark form. The dark purple energy radiated to her at speeds she couldn’t comprehend and it knocked her on her ass. She leaned up and looked at you with perplexed and worried eyes.

“I think you’ve forgotten,” you began, standing over her, you leaned down in her face, “I’m a god.”

Shannon’s eyes narrowed as she frowned before she swept her leg out and kicked your feet out from under you. She jumped up, landing on her feet, with her standing over you as you tried to recover from the blow.

“And I think you forgot that I’ve fought gods… and won.” She smirked letting her eyes be clouded a milky red. “In the year that you were gone, so much changed me. I’d been training with the X-men and the Avengers, there’s so much more to my powers than just this!” She spread her arms out and an array of colors began to filter out each one stronger than the last. To say you were shocked was an understatement. You had no idea that she’d begun to make her powers stronger rather than get rid of them.

You tried your best to absorb the oncoming attack, but it was starting to become too much. You released the energy you had gained back at her. Throwing everything you had into one shot. It actually somewhat worked, pushing her back and off her footing.

“It’s sad, isn’t it?” you mocked as the two of you circled each other. “That you spent most of your life trying to understand and use these powers and you still have no idea what they can do? But I--” You held up your hand, lighting it in the purple energy “--I was only away for one year and I can already beat your ass.” With a small scream you threw the energy at her but she dodged it. In a split second she was next to you, her hand on your arm and your heart raced.

“Always a quick mouth, huh, darling, Y/N, just never quick on your feet.” She seemed to have moved with heightened speed.

Her touching you was the last thing you wanted. It was something you’d tried to desperately avoid.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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#unforeseen chasm #Loki Laufeyson #loki x reader #loki fic #tony stark fic #tony stark #tony stark x ofc #Dr. Erik Selvig #thanos

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bluebellhairpin · 5 years ago

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Yellow Flicker Beat [2]

The Almost Introduction Loki Laufeyson X Pyrokinetic!Reader

- One // In The Beginning There Was One

- Two // You’re Here!

- Three // (Coming Soon?)

A/N: Every story needs a problem. - Nemo

Summary: You had planned to flee New York; the news of your powers had reached the news and painted you a villain. But you never got to even pack your bags properly before your apartment was stormed. That lead you to do the only thing you could think of.

Masterlist

Avengers Tower, New York, 2012

“Heat signature has picked up again!” By now everyone had moved to a less battle-tainted room, the agent from before ran in, alerting the group to the newest movement of the suspected villain.

Loki was with them, having to stay back since Thor felt he couldn’t leave yet, however Sif had been down to collect the tesseract. Both Odin and Thor felt it best to keep it and Loki in separate places until things on earth had been completely dealt with.

Tony had even ordered in shawarma.

“From where?” Steve asked, already prepared to deal with the seemingly problematic fire-manipulator.

“Brooklyn Heights!” The agent replied, beaming a pinned map onto the conveniently placed tv at the other end of the room.

“We have agents there, right?” Natasha said, standing and wiping her fingers with one of Clint’s hoarded napkins. “Should probably make sure they haven’t been turned to charcoal.”

“Unless you’re fire-proof, you ain’t going anywhere.” Tony said, also standing since finishing his food. “Think strategically - Cap should be good at that. Me, Thor, and Mr. Reindeer over here should go. Maybe Banner if he can bear to go green again.”

“Not today Tony.”

“Okay, so Hulk is out of the equation.”

“Why Loki?”

“You tell me Meatswing. Ain’t he an Ice King?” Tony said, pointing between the two gods.

“I have- Never mind. You mortals won't understand.” Loki grumbled, looking down to the untouched shawarma in front of him. It wasn’t like he could eat it even if he wanted to. His hands were still tied up.

“He can withstand fire, if that’s what you’re alluding to Man of Iron.” Thor said, grabbing Mjolnir and pulling Loki to stand alongside him. “But we should go before anyone else might get hurt.”

(Y/N)’s Apartment, Brooklyn Heights, 2012

You didn’t want to hurt anybody, never to begin with anyway, but eventually you had a breaking point.

Fire always starts out small.

These people weren’t the good guys, and it wasn’t just the movies that told you. You’d done research on societies and groups on earth - cliches almost - and these people were not one of the good cliches.

They bore the logo of Hydra, and in no way were you going to yield to them.

It didn’t take long before your kitchen and hallway was in flames, and you figured that the two-story drop from your almost non-existent balcony was a least survivable.

So you took the exit through the window, glass both shattering and melting if it stayed too close too long. The landing was mediocre, but made your shoulder hurt more compared to what it would’ve if it’d only crashed through a window.

You stood, groaning, and took a look up to the broken window, seeing someone gesture back into the room so they could get down the stairs. Wimps. You shook the fall off, taking to running further inland. The last thing you needed was your powers getting smothered by the rivers. And ocean.

Not that you got that far either.

In front of you landed Iron Man, also known as Tony Stark, weapons mobilized and he seemed ready to kill you if he had to. Not a moment later Thor appeared next to him, dumping a mix of leather and green fabric on the ground between him and the metal-clad billionaire.

You cautiously took a look behind you, seeing the Hydra agents were nowhere to be seen, which made you look even worse.

“What’s with the shoulder?” Tony asked, his voice slightly mechanized from the suit. “Get into a fight?”

“Not exactly.” You shrugged, looking to your right shoulder to see the shirt was torn and stained red more than you first thought. “But I do try not to make it a habit to jump out windows.” You pointed to your apartment, flames now starting to lick through the broken window.

“Me neither.”

“You you midgardians always talk before you apprehend each other, or are you just prolonging the event because I’m here?” The mass of fabric had now pulled itself up and was now standing as tall as Iron Man, revealing the chiseled features of the days actual villain; Loki.

“Apprehend? Do you really think I’m the bad guy?” You almost screeched your words to the two Avengers. “There were people in there trying to kill me!” You looked at Loki too, and you hated to say that it looked like he believed you. It’s not like it’d make a convincing argument against what the others thought for him to say you’re telling the truth.

“What people?” Tony said, seeming to lower his defense at you and raise them at something non-existent existing behind you.

“Don’t you have a program to hack into the cameras in the building's hallways to do that?” He tilted his head at you, and you figured if the mask wasn’t on he’d be squinting at you with a ‘really?’ look. “Don’t you?”

Avengers Tower, New York, 2012

“Don’t worry guys, she’s cool now. Literally.” Tony said, striding into the level’s foyer as the Avengers that stayed behind tensed. You followed him out of the elevator, with Thor and Loki behind you.

Steve was the first to come closer.

“And you brought her back so she could heat up again?” He asked, completely done with the day and wanting to go home. Tony tutted the soldier and shook his head.

“She isn’t a bad girl Rogers. You oughta know how Hydra is.” Steve stiffened, looked you over and noted the bad shoulder and slightly charred clothes. Tony went to the bar. “Drink?” You shook your head, having followed Tony, moving to sit with your back against the bar.

“So what are you?” Natasha asked, turning in her seat to face and talk to you instead of talking over you like the others were.

“A monster.” You laughed slightly, not noticing Loki turn his attention even more to you. He thought he was a monster. You looked fine. “Or at least a pyromaniac.” You lips quirked up in a sly smirk.

“Not to sound like I’m prying, but do you usually smoke like that?” Clint asked, nodding to your shoulder, which was now letting off a small tendril of grey smoke.

“Only when I’m healing. It won’t last long.” you shrugged, rolling your shoulder lightly as small flakes of skin rose up with the smoke like embers off burning wood.

Needless to say, Loki was infatuated.

When he first saw you, it was from above, and you were running inland towards inner Brooklyn. Flames were still licking up your arms, hair ablaze with the light of a thousand stars, and you were like a beacon of light. He’d guessed then, not on purpose. When he saw you at a more level height, your eyes were losing their glow, but it was almost as if they hadn’t from how much he was captivated by them.

He felt for sure you weren’t a mortal. You were a being like him. A Goddess of Muspelheim.

But he wasn’t going to let anyone know that. He’d already suffered humiliation at his defeat, and then again when he wasn’t brought back to Asgard. A third time at giving heart-eyes to a hot-headed mortal wouldn’t help.

The room lulled into silence. Everyone was too tired to talk that much

As the night drew on, the likes of Steve, Bruce, and Clint went right to bed, no questions further asked. Tony also ran off, probably to deal with Pepper, of which had got an early flight back to make sure everything was going to be okay. Natasha stuck around, situating herself next to you on the floor, and would alternate between staring at the wall, asking you questions, and taking sips of her self-served drink. Thor also helped himself to the non-effective drinks Tony had left unsupervised, leaving Loki across the room on a sofa with Mjonir in his lap to make sure he wouldn’t go anywhere.

Looking at him, you almost felt sorry for him.

He didn’t seem to be putting up a huge fight to get away from Thor and whatever horrible punishment was waiting for him back in his old home. That was strange to you. If you were in his position, you knew you wouldn’t of made the mistake of getting caught to begin with.

You figured if you both ended up sticking around long enough you have to tell him how.

----------

Series Taglist: @iamverity @peterhollandd @estherosoro @noambition-blog @miracleginge

(Taglist is open!)

#loki imagine #loki x reader #Loki Laufeyson x Reader #loki laufeyson imagine #loki odison x reader #marvel x reader #marvel imagine

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lostinaseaoffictionalbliss · 5 years ago

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Every Rose Has Its Thorn part 7

A/N: If you like this the masterlist for this series and my other works is in my bio

Summary: Steve and Lilah go on a hunt for information

Pairing: Steve x OC

Warnings: none I can think of

Word count: 1134

I stood in the shower, my arms resting against the wall, water cascading down my back as I watched it swirl in the drain. The water was hot and my whole body was glowing softly. It made me think of how my hands glowed when I touched Steve or my arm when he rested his hand upon it. Why did he affect me in such a way? It was bugging me to no end.

What was worse, it wasn’t just his touch that affected me. It was those blue eyes of his as well. Every time I gazed into them I got lost. They drew me in and made me think of things I shouldn’t. I barely knew him. What I did know was from his file, the old tapes from before he went into the ice, and what little time I had spent with him. It was crazy and it made no sense for me to be drawn to him like I was. Yet, I couldn’t get him out of my mind.

I climbed out and dried off. I was in the middle of dressing when I heard a knock at my door. I pulled my shirt the rest of the way over my head and opened it. “Steve?”

He crossed his arms and stared at the ground for a hard moment. “How much clearance do you have?”

That certainly wasn’t the question I had been inspecting. “Pretty high. Why, what’s on your mind? What are you wanting to know?”

Steve walked into my room and closed the door. “You said that you didn’t think SHIELD should have pulled the cube out of the ocean. That it was too powerful and they had no idea what they were doing with it.”

“I did and that’s exactly what I think. What’s going on exactly?”

“Stark and Bruce brought up some good points. If Fury is really using the cube to make clean energy why didn’t he bring Tony in? I mean he is the leading name in the stuff right now.”

I frowned. “You’re...they’re...dammit. I know what you’re suggesting and I know you probably aren’t wrong. What do you need from me?” I grabbed my security badge and sighed.

He smiled. “You’ll help me?”

I nodded. “I’ll help.” God help me, but I couldn’t tell him no. The look in his beautiful blue eyes, the conviction in his voice, I had to help. It didn’t matter how pissed off Fury was going to get. I needed to do something.

Steve grabbed my hand and started leading me down the halls. It seemed he had figured out his way around rather quickly. When we reached the door he wanted to enter I opened it. Inside were crates marked ‘Phase 2’. I frowned and tried to open one, but someone was coming.

I jumped up to the higher ledge with Steve and watched the guard come through. I had clearance to be here, but if we were caught before we found out what we needed to then it was all for nothing.

We waited a bit and the guard passed. Steve climbed down and I went with his help. His hands rested on my hips and I could feel the heat radiating off of him. I could smell his cologne and he smelled wonderful. The perfect mixture of musk and spice. It made my nose tingle and for a split second I thought about laying my head on his chest and taking a deep breath, but then he was moving away. I pouted, but followed. It was probably for the best anyway.

Letting Steve know that I was harboring some kind of feelings for him just wasn’t a good idea. I knew it wasn’t. I had to let it go. There was no way a guy like him would ever go for me. I was too outspoken, loud, weird, and I had strange powers. I was a mess and not necessarily a hot one.

Steve easily pried open one of the crates and inside was weapons. He pulled one out and the pure unadulterated anger that seemed to come off him in waves was slightly intimidating. However it was also highly understandable.

It had been such a short time since he woke up. To him the war had only ended a few weeks ago. A war he had been told we’d won. Yet weapons created from the Tesseract were sitting right in front of him. It had been the very thing Red Skull had done. He had claimed it was to build a better future for humanity. What was SHIELD’s excuse? This certainly wasn’t an energy project they were working on.

The very people Steve thought he could trust were doing exactly what the enemy had done and they had lied about it. I wasn’t sure how many of us they lied to, but like him I was feeling very betrayed.

“I had no idea. I always thought they should have left something that powerful in the ocean, that we couldn’t ever comprehend it, but I never imagined this. I never thought they would do what Hydra did.”

He looked down at me. His blue eyes held a storm. There was anger, hurt, betrayal in them. I reached out and touched his arm. “I swear I didn’t know,” I said softly.

Steve’s jaw clenched. It was hard to miss it, but he nodded. “I believe you. I don’t think you lied to me, but Fury clearly lied to you.”

“He did and it hurts. I looked up to him, to Nat, to Hill. Learning that they lied to me like this...I have the clearance to find it. Why not just tell me?”

“Maybe that’s why they gave you clearance. What reason would you have to think they were lying, keeping you in the dark, when you had access? It was a ploy. And a cruel one at that. They shouldn’t have messed with you in such a way.”

I frowned and shook my head. As much as I wanted to yell, scream, and cry I wouldn’t. Not now. “Let’s go show Tony and Bruce.”

“What is phase two?” Tony asked.

Steve slammed the gun down on the table, gaining everyone’s attention. “Phase two is SHIELD uses the cube to build weapons. Sorry the computer was moving a little slow for me.”

I glared at Fury, daring him to say that wasn’t the case. If he thought for one second he was going to talk his way out of this one he was wrong. I was going to get answers one way or another.

****

Likes don’t spread my work! Please reblog and leave a comment if you enjoyed this! I love hearing from you guys and knowing what you think and hope to see!

#Steve Rogers #Steve Rogers fics #Steve Rogers x OC #Steve Rogers x Lilah Shaw #Steve #Steve x OC #Captain America #Captain America fics #Captain America x OC #Captain America x Lilah #Every Rose Has Its Thorn #MCU #MCU fandom #MCU fanfiction #mcu fanfics #marvel #marvel fandom #marvel fanfiction #marvel fics

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itsshortfurball20 · 5 years ago

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Percy Jackson, The Avenger

Summary: Percy has an encounter with Nick Fury. A year later, he’s being called on to help protect the world… again. He’s not alone in this Avengers Initiative. A genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist; a super soldier; a green scientist; a Norse god; and two secret agents. What could go wrong?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

This chapter has 3,545 words

8 – This is the Sad Part

Percy replayed the story that Fury had told them over in his head. Apparently, not only did Loki’s fancy scepter open portals, but it also controlled minds. Some of SHIELD’s own agents under its influence had struck the ship. In the end, they had managed to lose Loki and his scepter, Banner, Thor (who had fallen in the glass cell that had used to host Loki), and most devastating, Agent Coulson who had died at the hands of Loki.

To say he was shocked would be an understatement. There were so many emotions swirling around inside of Percy like a hurricane. Frustration, humiliation, guilt…

Sure, Percy didn’t know Agent Coulson that well. He didn’t even know that his first name was Phil until the director had told him. But no one should’ve died. No one.

The son of Poseidon just stared down in his lap, fiddling with his pen. On one side of Percy, Tony sat with a blank face and glazed eyes, body turned away from the table. From what Percy could remember, the two had been friends. Percy had lost many friends of his own through the years, and each death was always a punch to the gut, leaving him lost and numb.

On Percy’s other side was Steve. The super soldier has been silent since Fury announced Coulson’s death, his jaw clenched tight and his hands hidden under the table where Percy guessed they were curled into fists. Percy wasn’t sure how well the Captain and Coulson had known each other, but it was clear to Percy that Steve was just as distraught as everyone else.

In front of the table stood Fury. His face seemed to have age, becoming tired and worn. With a heavy sigh, he reached into his coat’s pocket and pulled something out. “These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them.”

He tossed a pack of cards onto the table. Steve reached for the top card. Percy noted that the top corner of the card was stained with blood. He looked away from the cards and back down on Riptide.

“We're dead in the air up here.” Fury told them. “Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming.” Fury’s eyes swept over the table.

“Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract.” The director admitted. “I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avenger Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could.”

Percy let his eyes drift back up slowly. Fury had moved from the front of the table to behind one of the empty chairs. The two quickly met eyes, and Percy felt trapped as the director studied him.

After a brief pause, Fury sighed and stood up straight. “Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea.” He tried to make eye contact with each of the three men, only which of two he caught their gaze. When Fury met Percy’s eyes, he was able to see just how tired the director was. How heavy his shoulders seemed to be, burdened with the weight of Coulson’s death. “In heroes.”

Tony swiftly stood up and left. Percy watched him leave, his now empty chair spinning slowly. Fury walked to stand next to Percy, his eyes focused on the doorway that Tony had just left through. “Well, it's an old-fashioned notion.”

Percy snapped. He stood up so that he was eye-to-eye with the director. Jaw clenched so hard that his teeth started aching, he stared Fury down. The director met his gaze. After a few seconds, Percy spoke up, his voice as soft as a whisper that only Fury could hear him.

“Don’t say that. Don’t act like there’s nothing to fight for anymore. Coulson died a hero. We should honor that. Honor him.”

Percy didn’t give Fury a chance to respond. He turned on his heel and stormed out of the room.

\~*~/

Percy figured there were one of two spots that Tony would run to. The first would be his room, but as it was empty, Percy headed to spot number two.

He entered the cell room. The large green glass cell that had once housed Loki was gone, leaving a big gaping hole in the middle of the room. Percy slowly walked around the catwalk, closer to Tony. The man was staring blankly in the center of the room, eyeing the empty space.

“I’m sorry,” Percy spoke up. “I know he was a friend.”

“He was.” Tony took a deep breath. “He was an idiot too. Thinking he could take on Loki by himself.”

“I asked him to,” Percy admitted. “I asked for someone to come watch Loki while I went and tried to help Thor tame Banner.” He let out a bitter laugh. “Lot of good that did…”

“He should’ve waited.” Tony insisted. “He was out of his league.”

“Everyone else was busy. Who was he supposed to wait for? You?” Percy asked. Tony turned around to face the demigod and he noticed the anger on Percy’s face. “You were busy with the engine. There’s nothing you could’ve done.”

The room fell silent. Percy stared at Tony, waiting for him to say something. When the billionaire said nothing, Percy let out a sigh. “If…if it’s any consolation, I do know that his actions more than likely earned him a spot in Elysium. Paradise, for heroes.” He added when he saw Tony’s blank face. “All we can do now is honor his memory and stop Loki.”

Tony pushed past Percy and marched down the catwalk. “And how are we gonna do that?” He asked. “Half of our team is gone, we just got our butts whipped. How are we supposed to take down an army when we can’t even stop fighting for five minutes?” Tony stopped in front of a large stain on the wall, staring intently at it.

Percy recognized it as blood instantly.

“He made it personal,” Tony muttered, almost too quiet for Percy to hear.

The demigod paused, recalling the prophecy Rachael had given. The words played like a broken record over and over in his head. Dark as night… final fight…charged to protect… all must end in blazing pain.

Percy shook his head, trying to clear it. The prophecy had to mean something. There had to be a hidden meaning somewhere. His mind wandered to the other aspects of the dream; his and Loki’s talk, the Chitauri, Rachael’s sketch…

Wait.

“I know where Loki’s next move is!” Percy shouted, startling Tony. The demigod ran over to the billionaire. Tony lifted his eyebrow, waiting for Percy to elaborate. “Your tower,” Percy explained. “I saw it in a sketch. Rachael, our oracle, drew it, I just didn’t remember because the prophecy was more pressing at the moment.”

There was a small silence while Tony absorbed what Percy had just said. When realization finally dawned on him, he asked the demigod, “You mean that antler-wearing-diva is planning to use my tower as his source of energy? Son of a bitch!”

\~*~/

Percy fished around in his bag, searching for a drachma. As soon as he found one, he headed to the bathroom, where the shower was already running and waiting for him.

As soon as Percy and Tony had realized Loki’s next move, they left to go find Steve, who had actually been on his way to see them. Together, the three had devised a strategy to take down Loki. Now Percy stood in the bathroom, armor on and ready for battle. He was supposed to meet the others at the Quinjet in five minutes so they could fly to New York City.

There was only one thing left he had to do.

“O Fleecy, do me a solid. Show me Sally Jackson, Upper East Side, Manhattan.”

The first thing Percy heard was laughter. There was a shimmer in the rainbow as it revealed Sally’s living room. Percy saw Annabeth sitting on one of the chairs, her head tossed back in laughter. Sitting on the couch opposite of her were Sally and Paul. Sally had a big smile on her face as she stared at Estelle, who was sitting on the ground in front of them, surrounded by her toys.

Percy’s lips curved into a smile. He loved little moments like this, where everything melted away. It was nice to not worry about space armies, or egotistical gods trying to take over the world.

His smile dropped a little as he realized he was running out of time. “Mom?” He called out.

Sally’s eyes turned to him, widening in surprise. “Percy!” She smiled.

Annabeth turned towards him, her curly blonde hair falling in her face. She noticed the battle armor and her smile dropped. Percy noticed the slight tilt of her head as she started trying to analyze the situation. “Why are you wearing armor? What’s happening?”

“There was an attack, Loki escaped.” Percy rushed to get his explanation out. “We know he’s heading your way. You need to leave now.”

Paul scooped Estelle off the floor and brought her close to his chest. “I’m on it.”

Percy nodded. “I don’t want you guys taking any risks. Head to Montauk for the weekend or something.”

“But what about you?” Sally asked, concern written on her face. “I can’t just leave knowing that you’re going to be in danger.”

“I’ll stay,” Annabeth spoke up.

Percy shook his head fiercely. “No.” He stated. It wasn’t even an option to him. He crossed his arms, unwilling to change his mind. “Annabeth, you need to go too. This isn’t a debate.”

Annabeth stood up and walked to stand in front of the IM. “We’re not having this fight again Percy. I don’t want to fight with you.” She pleaded. “Remember before you left? We were arguing about the same thing.”

“I don’t either want to fight with you either,” Percy confessed. He sighed, knowing that the clock was ticking. He needed to wrap this up. Running a hand through his hair, he tried to come up with a quick solution.

“We can handle ourselves, son,” Sally told him. “We’ll… head to Montauk,” she said slowly, looking over at Paul for confirmation. “Annabeth’s needed here more than there.”

“Besides,” Annabeth piped in with a small smile. “You need someone watching your back. I know you’re unhappy with the idea of me staying, but… I can help evacuate civilians!” She offered.

Percy thought about the idea. After a brief silence, he slowly nodded his head. “Okay. Don’t draw unwanted attention,” he advised. Annabeth nodded as she turned to start preparing. “And stay safe!”

Annabeth turned back towards him. “You too, Seaweed Brain.”

She cut through the IM and Percy leaned against the wall, the events of the day finally catching up. His body was tired, and his arms were heavy. He wanted to stay there for a while, but he knew he had to go. Making sure to grab his helmet, he took one last sweep of the room, trying to make sure he had everything he needed, before leaving.

Percy jogged through the halls to try and make up for the time he had spent talking to Annabeth and his family. His armor clanked and his shield made his heavy arms even heavier, but he trudged on.

Eventually, he rounded the corner and entered the hangar bay. Straight up ahead he could see Steve’s distinctive blue suit. Slowing down, he neared the group. “I’m here,” he said.

“You’re late,” Tony told him before turning his attention back to his suit, making final adjustments.

Percy took a quick glance at the group. He had seen Tony and Cap’s suits before, but he noticed that Natasha was in a new leather suit and had some cool looking gadgets on her belt and wrists. She was checking her guns and talking to a man Percy hadn’t seen before. The man was tall with blond hair and had a quiver stocked full of arrows strapped to his back.

“Who’s this?” Percy shrugged towards the new guy.

The man turned towards him, and Percy saw the light reflect on something small in the man’s ear. “Hey, I’m Clint.”

The guy, Clint, held out his hand for Percy to shake. “Nice to meet you,” Percy said taking his hand. “I’m Percy…so are you new here?”

“He was one of the agents under Loki’s mind-control,” Natasha informed him as she strolled into the Quinjet, Steve following close behind her. “He’s part of the team.”

“Ah…got it, I think,” Percy muttered as he climbed the Quinjet. He took a seat on the bench, wishing that there were some form of seat belts. Didn’t the place pride in safety for everyone?

The ramp door closed, and Clint moved up to the cockpit with Natasha while Steve took a seat opposite of Percy. “We’re not too far from New York,” Steve reassured Percy. “It should only take us fifteen minutes to get there.”

“That’s fifteen minutes too long,” Percy muttered.

He set his helmet down next to him and tried to get comfortable. The demigod could hear the familiar sound of Tony’s repulsors firing up before he took off, the Quinjet following close behind as they made their way to New York City.

\~*~/

Percy realized that Tony had reached the tower when he heard the billionaire talking to a Dr. Selvig. Listening to Tony talk to his AI, the son of Poseidon grabbed his helmet and placed it on his head. He saw Steve also gearing himself up, strapping on his own shield. There was a small pause and Percy figured that Tony was making his way inside the tower.

“Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity.”

Loki’s voice came through the comm. Percy could imagine the god, with his smug smile and that condescending look in his eyes as he stared down Tony.

“Uh...actually, I'm planning to threaten you,” Tony informed the god.

“You should have left your armor on for that.”

“Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. You've got the blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?”

Percy concluded that Tony Stark was either ADHD or just really good at evasive tactics. With an anxious glance into the cockpit, Percy hoped that Tony could keep Loki busy until the Quinjet arrived to help.

“Stalling me won't change anything.”

“No, no, no! Threatening.” Tony corrected. “No drink? You sure? I'm having one.”

“The Chitauri are coming,” Loki told Tony. Percy, still miles from where the words had actually been spoken, felt a slight chill run down his spine and the image from his dream entered his head. “Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?”

“The Avengers.” The billionaire answered. “It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes' type of thing.”

“Yes, I've met them.”

“Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But, let’s do a head count here. Your brother, a literal god; a super soldier, a living legend that kinda lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a Greek demigod who holds true to his namesake; a couple master assassins and you, big fella, you’ve managed to piss off every single one of them.”

“That was the plan,” Loki said. He sounded confident, so sure of himself. Percy couldn’t wait for the opportunity to change that.

“Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you.”

“I have an army.”

“We have a hulk.”

“I thought the beast had wandered off?”

“You're missing the point.” Tony’s voice rose, getting louder. “There's 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 damned well sure we'll avenge it.”

There was a small pause and Percy hated how he couldn’t see what was happening. And then Loki spoke, sounding much closer to Tony. “How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?”

“No!” Percy shouted. Across from him, Cap sat with the same wide eyes and shocked expression. A cold feeling stirred inside Percy. How could they have been so stupid to not realize what Loki could do? Now they had lost Tony to Loki, and with them down Thor, the only other flying member of their team, they stood very little chance—

“This usually works.” Loki’s voice came through, confusion lacing his words.

The cold feeling left Percy’s body as he slumped back in his seat. ‘It didn’t work’ he thought, relieved.

“Well, performance issues. You know, not uncommon. One out of five, I would—” Tony cut off as a large thud noise occurred. Percy could hear Tony talking to JARVIS, his voice sounding rough.

Tony made a guttural sound like he was being choked. “You will all fall before me.” Loki stated through Tony’s harsh breathing and yelling of ‘deploy’ before the sound of glass breaking and wind filled the comm. Percy figured that Tony had been thrown out of his window. He waited with bated breath for the roaring wind to stop, for Tony to miraculously stop falling. It took a couple seconds, but finally, Percy could hear the thrusters of Tony’s Iron Man suit.

“And there's one other person you pissed off!” Tony yelled over the sounds of the thrusters. “His name was Phil.” A blast sound followed by a cry from Loki made Percy smile a little. The smile did not last long, however.

A great boom sound filled the air. Percy didn’t even need the comm to be able to hear it from inside the plane. Needing to see what was happening, Percy stood up and headed into the cockpit.

Just up ahead was the island of Manhattan. The familiar skyline brought come comfort to Percy before it was wiped away by a huge portal that was only growing larger by the second right above the city. It was just like the sketch Rachael had drawn.

Then to top it all off, something came through the portal. At first, it was just the one, then a couple, quickly growing to a huge mass of flying aliens. Percy could faintly see Tony flying up in his suit to meet them. He was able to knock a couple down, but they were coming through too fast for Tony to be able to stop them all.

Pretty soon, they started shooting at people, no doubt causing mass panic among the population of New York. The demigod could see some smoke start to rise from the streets. Flying high over the buildings. the Quinjet made its way to STARK Tower.

“You know, Loki isn’t being low-key,” Percy commented as a group of aliens on flying scooters flew after Tony.

“If I could shoot you right now, I would,” Natasha told him, her voice calm and collected for what was happening. “Stark, we're heading northeast.”

“What, did you stop for drive-thru? Swing up Park, I'm gonna lay 'em out for you.”

Up ahead, Tony flew by with his Chitauri entourage close behind. Clint used the Quinjet’s gun to shoot down some of the invaders. Percy grabbed onto the back of Natasha’s seat as she steered the jet upwards.

A queasy feeling entered Percy’s stomach and he felt the need to sit. Making his way to the back, he gripped onto the rail tightly as the Quinjet made a sudden turn.

“You hanging in there?” Percy heard Steve ask.

The demigod waved his free hand dismissively. “Yeah, as soon as we land—”

He never got to finish his sentence as Clint and Natasha both grunted as the ship shuddered and started to spin. Percy’s heart dropped when he realized that the plane was descending. His feet lifted off the floor of the plane. The son of Poseidon clamped his eyes shut and gripped the rails so hard his knuckles turned white.

There was a rumble and the jet shook as it landed on the ground. Percy’s feet fell back on the floor and he became aware of his own harsh breathing and rapid heartbeat. When he heard the sound of the ramp being lowered, he loosened his grip on the bar and took a couple of deep breaths. Once he gathered himself, he joined Steve, Natasha, and Clint outside the plane.

It was chaos. People ran by screaming, desperately trying to run away from the massive crowd of aliens flying overhead on hovering bikes, shooting at anything that moved. Just up ahead was STARK Tower, now missing its R and K.

“We gotta get back up there,” Cap shouted over all the noise.

Percy took off running with the group as they started making their way back to Stark’s tower.

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tisfan · 6 years ago

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One in Fourteen Million

Title: One in 14,000,605 Collaborator: @tisfan Link: AO3 Square Filled: G2 -- Stephen Strange/Tony Stark Ship: IronStrange Rating: Teen Major Tags: kissing, first kisses, get together, angst, Infinity War compliant, Dad!Tony, panic attacks Summary: Keeping secrets is lonely work. Two men, with the worst, most desperate secret between them, find comfort in each other.

Or: The one where the Cloak of Levitation ships it. Word Count: 1,783 Created for @mcukinkbingo

The Sanctum wasn’t the sort of place that made itself receptive to strangers. It wasn’t quite invisible to the bustle and stir and populace of New York City, but if you were there casually, the building would encourage you to walk away.

A determined visitor could reach the front door, put actually gaining the attention of the sorcerers who lived there was tricky. The Sanctum valued their privacy and had a fine sense of what its inhabitants would consider important.

Which meant when there was a booming knock against the ancient door at three in the morning, Stephen actually looked up from his books, sighed, and got up to answer the door. Levi, who’d been draped over Stephen’s lap like an afghan, swirled to attention and fastened himself neatly over Stephen’s shoulders. Stephen allowed himself a brief smile and patted his cloak with one hand, not commenting on how utterly ridiculous they looked together, whenever Stephen was wearing jeans and a comfortable sweatshirt.

Levi was sensitive.

Stephen got to the door and struggled with the knob; it was huge and clunky and slick from generations of wizard hands and his own hands didn’t have the best grip. Levi gave a shudder from the effort of not helping, but the cloak had learned over time that Stephen prefered to do for himself, when he could manage it.

Door open finally, Tony Stark practically fell into his arms. “Tony!”

“You said, you said, you said,” Tony was panting for breath, struggling to speak, “if I need anything.”

“Yes, of course,” Stephen said. “Come in.” If it had been anyone else, Stephen would have slung them straight back to the library, but Tony had a loathing of portals, and he was in bad enough shape that Stephen couldn’t inflict it on him, not right then. There was a seldom-used parlor right beyond the staircase, and Stephan urged Tony gently in that direction.

“Are you drunk?” Tony reeked of expensive scotch to the point that it was difficult to determine how much he’d drunk and how much he’d bathed in.

“If I’m not, it’s a criminal waste of booze,” Tony said. He wasn’t staggering, not quite, but Stephen knew better to trust that. Tony had gotten very good at hiding his state of intoxication, even before he’d become a superhero and literally taken on the world’s problems as his personal responsibility.

Stephen directed Tony into a plush chair near the fireplace, hoping that Wong hadn’t left any devices or crumpled bits of spell components in it. He concentrated for a moment and summoned a cup.

“I’m not drinking any of your damn weed juice, Strange,” Tony protested.

“And I would not ask you to,” Stephen told him. “Just put it up to your mouth.”

“It’s empty,” Tony said, turning the cup over, then he shrugged and did what Stephen said. He about choked when the evening’s booze came pushing back out through his system, dripping from his mouth into a cup. “Good Christ, what the hell is that?”

“Expensive scotch, I imagine,” Stephen said. “Don’t worry, it’s perfectly sanitary. You could drink it again, if you wanted.”

(more below the cut)

“Ok, never let anyone with an eating disorder know you have one of these,” Tony said. He pushed the cup under his mouth again and the cup filled itself, almost to the point of overflowing, and Stephen had to waft the excess away. By the time Tony filled -- and Stephen emptied -- two and a half more cups, Stephen was starting to believe it was a minor miracle that Tony wasn’t dead. “Also, that’s a hell of a party trick.”

“I’m saving your life, Stark,” Stephen told him. “If I have to talk to you while you’re drunk and cuddly, I may have to murder you.”

“I don’t get cuddly when I’m drunk,” Tony protested.

“Oh, so I just woke up with you wrapped around my legs last time, that was completely by accident?”

“You have stupidly long legs, wizard,” Tony said.

“I’m not a wizard,” Stephen retorted, rolling his eyes. “Wizards are one-trick ponies.”

“Where you have about a million tricks, don’tcha?” Tony spit one more mouthful into the cup, looked at it for a moment, then drank about half of it back down. “Not drunk, just can’t… can’t be sober, not tonight, Stephen.”

Levi swooped off Stephen’s shoulders and landed on Tony with a thud, almost crushing Tony into the chair.

“You and your ridiculously affectionate cape. Decidedly a wizard,” Tony said.

“You went for a walk again tonight?” Stephen made a face; he’d thought Tony was getting over that obsession.

“Peter’s fine,” Tony said, shivering, sinking into the chair, letting Levi wrap him up in the cloak’s equivalent of a comforting hug.

“I am fine, as well, as you see,” Stephen said. He braced himself and then offered a hand to Tony. He hated it when people looked at his hands, hated them seeing what had happened to him, the pity or disgust, the way they tried so hard not to see, not to comment. It would be easier if they’d just deal with it. He had.

Mostly.

Tony caught Stephen’s hand between his own. Tony’s hands were freezing, the knuckles swollen and the skin chapped, one nail torn down to the quick. Stephen sighed, drew a little circle on the back of Tony’s hands and whispered a tiny bit of power into it, healing the minor aches, soothing the skin.

“You’re fine,” Tony repeated, and then he was shivering with emotion, not the cold. “You’re alive.” Tony rocked himself back and forth in the chair, squeezing Stephen’s hands gently. Stephen let himself be drawn in until he was standing in front of Tony, letting him sob into Stephen’s belly, arms wrapped tight around Stephen’s hips.

“Bad dream?” Stephen cupped Tony’s head, keeping him tight against Stephen’s ribs, despite the tears that were soaking in his sweatshirt, running his fingers through Tony’s hair.

Tony shook his head. “Pepper called,” he said, sniffling. He pulled back to wipe his nose on the cuff of his shirt, disdaining the conjured handkerchief that Stephen offered. “She… she’s pregnant.”

Stephen’s fingers froze, suddenly aching. “Oh,” he said, very gently, trying to conceal the way his heart fumbled around in his chest. “I didn’t know you two were back together.”

Tony blinked and backed out of the embrace. “We’re not. She’s… she’s uh, apparently she’s been seeing Happy for a while now. It’s great, it’s fine, I’m over it. It was just… that morning that I met you, she and I had been… well, she never wanted any children of mine, anyway.” He tapped absently at the arc reactor, no longer an implant, that housed the Iron Man nanites. “I had a dream, before that day, that she was pregnant with my child, and I had so much hope, Stephen, for everything. For us, for the world. Then Thanos came, and he tore everything apart, and she doesn’t even remember.”

“Sometimes I think it was a mistake,” Stephen admitted, “letting you and Peter keep your memories.”

“No, I told you, no, I can’t be prepared for a threat if I don’t know what it is. I don’t need to be swaddled in cotton, I just… sometimes I need to make sure the only other people who know… the ones I can talk to… are okay. Okay?”

“Thanos isn’t coming back, Tony.”

“You don’t know that,” Tony protested. “The stones can’t be destroyed. Hell, you’re still wearing yours around your neck. Someone else could come back and put the whole thing back together--”

“That would take centuries,” Stephen said, soothing. “The entire universe got a second chance. Only a handful of us know what really happened, no one else knows the stones even exist anymore.”

“I wonder,” Tony said. “How many times has this happened? Your people have been guarding the Time Stone for centuries. Red Skull was seeking the tesseract. My father… I don’t think this is precisely new.”

“We’re a small cabal, Tony, but that’s what we have to do. Keep the secrets, stand alert, trust each other. I know how you feel about secrets, but this one is… for the good of the world. And I know, it’s lonely, holding the fate of everything in your hands.”

“At least I have you,” Tony said, and he looked up at Stephen, those doe-eyes wet and full and full of beautiful agony.

“You do,” Stephen said. “Perhaps even moreso than you know.”

Tony chewed his lip a moment, then stood, resolutely. Like he was treading too near quicksand and had to back away. “I should go,” he said. “Thanks for listening to me whine again. I do it too often, you’d think I’d get over it.”

“Tony, I don’t think this is the sort of thing you just-- get over,” Stephen suggested. “Stay, if you want, I can--”

Tony’s eyes went even wider, his gaze darted down to Stephen’s mouth, and then back up.

And then he staggered as Levi put a corner in the middle of Tony’s back and shoved him into Stephen’s embrace.

Kissing close, now, and all Stephen would have to do is tip his head.

“I think your carpet’s trying to play matchmaker,” Tony suggested, as if he was going to make a joke, but also, giving Stephen the opening, trying so hard to make it look like a casual remark.

“I wonder where Levi might have gotten that idea,” Stephen said. He stroked one broken thumb down the side of Tony’s face, feeling the wet streak of his tears, drying them. “Will you stay, with intent, if I ask you again.”

Tony wet his lips, pushed up onto his toes. His eyelids fluttered closed. “Ask me again.”

“Stay. I would like it if you would stay,” Stephen said. “You’re not the only one who wakes in the night, who wants to make certain that you’re okay. That you’re alive.”

“Are you going to kiss me, wizard, or just babble?”

“Sorcerer,” Stephen corrected. “I have many more than just one trick.”

“Prove it.”

And Tony closed the gap.

Tony’s kiss was achingly tender. So soft and sweet. He clutched at Stephen’s shoulders, pushing himself up until Stephen responded, brushing his mouth over Tony’s. Stephen groaned, pulling Tony closer, ignoring the pain in his hands, because all he wanted was to hold on.

Stephen kissed Tony Stark, standing in the parlor, the fireplace roaring, the night cold outside, and Stephen was kissing the man he’d come to know, to respect, and to love in fourteen million, six hundred and give possible futures.

A one in fourteen million chance, and it had all been worth it, for this one, perfect moment.

#mcukinkbingo #IronStrange #Tony Stark x Stephen Strange #tony stark #stephen strange #angst #first kisses #get together #pre-slash

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imamotherfuckingstar-lord · 7 years ago

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The Curtain, part 8

Steve Rogers x Reader

Summary: You had been Steve Rogers’ best girl for many years, until he took down SHIELD and proclaimed his allegiance to Hydra. And that was when your world came tumbling down. Now you were part of the Underground - a group of rogue heroes and civilians that wanted nothing to do with Hydra. The Mount was the secret headquarters where you lived now, as you all try to find a way to get the world back. And where you try your hardest to forget Steve Rogers or at least the man he is now, but could you ever?

Then an incident with a piece of cosmic cube has you face to face with Steve Rogers of the past.

Characters: Past!Steve Rogers, Hydra! Steve Rogers, Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Miles Morales/Spider-Man, Amadeus Cho/Hulk, Viv Vision, Bruce Banner/Hulk, Thor.

Warning: If you don’t like the Hydra Steve currently in the Marvel comics, don’t read. He is mentioned quite a lot, but he won’t be making an appearance until near the end. Won’t be tagging anyone unless they asked to be tagged. Spoilers for Secret Empire.

A/N: This is mostly based on the comic Secret Empire and most of the characterization is based on comic book counterparts - or at least a mix of the two for those also in the MCU. TBH, this story isn’t what you expect.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

He drowned in your scent, the way your body moved against his - knowing which ways to drive him crazy. Steve moaned at your every touch and it occurred to him, as you placed a hand onto his face. You did know every nook and cranny of his body, knew what he liked and what would send him over the edge. You knew this all, because you knew him - a version of him that not yet existed and for a brief moment, Steve felt guilty. Felt like he was taking advantage of you, of your love for him - his future self, but then you gazed into his eyes as you climaxed and uttered his name so softly with a brace of familiarity. And he forgot everything in the haze of euphoric pleasure.

The two of you laid nude, limbs wrapped around each other on the gym floor mat. Skin a little sweaty, despite the cool air in the room. Your head rested against Steve’s chest and for a moment, it was like nothing had changed. Nearly forgetting about Hydra Steve - as you called him in your mind, because he wasn’t your Steve, he wasn’t the Steve holding you closely against his body. The Steve who brushed his fingers against your back, but then again, he was.

It was confusing in every way, but you still felt comfort in this Steve’s embrace.

“We should get dressed soon,” Steve sighed regretfully. “We don’t want anyone walking in.”

“Right,” you chuckled, lifting yourself off his body. Your eyes gazed down to his and without thinking, you pressed a finger under his collar bone. He lifted his head to watch as you drew five small black dots on his skin, perfectly aligned in a row. Steve felt a warm sensation, but it did not hurt.

“Did you just brand me,” he joked and you smiled.

“Two dates, three weeks,” you explained, running a finger over the mark. “Five is my lucky number.”

“I guess it’s mine too.”

....

Steve walked you to your quarters, after the two of you dressed silently. He asked if you wanted some lunch and you said yes, but you wanted to shower and go see what Stark and Banner were up to.

“Of course,” he smiled, taking a step toward you. “I want you to know, what just happened, it meant something to me.”

His face tighten, waiting for a response and when you took his hand- Steve sighed quietly.

“Me too,” you confessed, giving a light squeeze against his palm before pulling away. “I’ll see you a in a bit?”

“Of course.”

...

After a long warm shower, where you contemplated the consequences of what just happened. Would it affect the future - like Back to the Future? Was it a mistake?

Well, it certainly didn’t feel like one.

You walked into Stark’s lab, feeling fresher in every way.

“Hey Science Bro,” you chimed, when you didn’t see Bruce.“So how the hell are we going to save the world from Hydra Cap?”

Tony snorted and it pained you, because if he only knew what happens to him in the future. Shrugging off all negative thoughts, you smiled brilliantly at the man and walked over to where he worked on a tablet.

“So, Rogers and you,” he teased, not looking up from his work. “FRIDAY warned us not to go into gym.”

“Warned who?”

Tony smirked up at you. “Everyone.”

“Oh, great,” you exhaled. “I’m the slut from the future, well, I do like to keep it classy.”

“Relax,” he chuckled. “We all know Steve and you have history..future.. Wow, that’s going to be a complicated story to tell the grandkids.”

“Very funny,” you nudged him lightly and asked if anything interesting came up from the Tesseract.

“What are you abilities? The last time we spoke in person, I don’t remember you having any.”

“I did, just they weren’t fully developed then.”

Tony hummed and said Bruce went to take a nap. “He’s gotta rest once in awhile or the green guy gets mad. Go grab a bite to eat or go out, come back in an hour and you can give us a show.”

“A show..”

“Of your abilities,” he laughed. “Jesus, get out of here. Go find Rogers, maybe you two can go another round in the gym.”

Not bothering to respond, you waved him off and left the lab.

...

You wandered off back to your room, finding Steve waiting outside - leaned against the hallway wall. He looked up when he heard your footsteps and smiled, pushing himself of the wal.

“So, Stark and Banner have any news?”

“No, I have to go back in a bit to show them my abilities. Hopefully then, they can figure something out, because time travel is for sure not one of my powers.”

“Right,” Steve chuckled. “So, how about some lunch?”

The two of you opted to stay at the Tower, because the surrounding area was still in recovery and both of you had guilt about the mess, and selfishly wanted to avoid the chaos left behind from the battle.

You watched as Steve worked around the Tower’s kitchen, fixing up sandwiches for the two of you. He asked what you liked and you shrugged.

“The works, anything really. Food isn’t the greatest, the Underground, we try, but supplies have ran low the last couple of weeks.”

“The Underground?”

“Yeah,” you sighed, reaching for the water bottle Steve had set in front of you. “Clint, Nat, the kids and a few others, we have a secret hide out, base - we’re a collective of heroes and civilians wanting to fight against..”

“My regimine,” Steve frowned, as he cut the sandwiches in half, carefully placing them onto plates.

“That’s not who Captain America is, that’s not who you are Steve. I know this, Clint knows this - we’ve been fighting to save you. We know something’s wrong, we know we can get you back,” you choked out. “We believe in you, I believe in you and I’m determined to fix it, especially now, that I’m here with you.”

“And what if you can’t? What if you’re stuck here forever?”

You throat tightened.

“What if Stark and Banner can’t figure it out? What’s going to happen?”

“I have faith they’ll figure it out,” you lied. Sure you had hope they would, but you knew things were never certain and everything could go to shit so fast, you’ve seen it first hand. There was a plan B.

Kill Steve Rogers, rid the world of the man you loved so much.

“Well,” he said lightly, handing over a plate. “If you have hope, I have hope.”

You took the food and grinned up at the man. “In the meantime, I plan on enjoying this sandwich to the fullest.”

Steve watched in quiet delight as you ate and tried to hold back the feeling inside him, the feeling of not wanting to let you go.

Tagging: @travelwithwords @bubbleboss15 @frostingsfics @buttercup337 @to-pick-ourselves-up-7@alwayshave-faith @radrouda @rubynationwins @mo320 @sleepyartistsworld @artisticniffler @a-michellerae-things

Only tagging those who ask to be for this series.

#The Curtain series #steve rogers x reader #hydra!steve #captain america x reader #captain america #steve rogers #tony stark #clint barton #bruce banner #marvel

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heidi891 · 5 years ago

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In the Avengers movie what exactly was Loki's plan for the Chitauri?

The following quote comes from: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/37510/in-the-avengers-movie-what-exactly-was-lokis-plan-for-the-chitauri

There are a lot of opinions that I don’t agree with, but there are a few that are quite interesting.

“In the movie we see the portal opened in New York and the bad guys come out shooting and causing all sorts of mayhem, but… generally not doing anything constructive, at least from the point of view of the overarching goal (take over the world).

Lets look at some issues:

Loki attacked the Avengers and Shield seeing them as his strongest opponent. However he hasn’t taken out any world governments, or addressed the fact that a lot of those governments have nuclear weapons. (which as we see at the end of the movie work rather well on the Chitauri.) New York while big and kinda important… really isn’t important, as seen by the willingness of human leaders to nuke the place. There are thousands of Chitauri that come though the portal, yet instead of spreading out to take military objectives, they are contained within a few blocks by 6 people, super hero’s admittedly but still just 6 people. We also see them stopping and killing bystanders. I understand that they don’t care if they break a few eggs, but to what end does it serve to kill potential slaves that can’t offer any sort of resistance.

I know they used the Stark building because of the power supply, so I’ll give them the location. Beyond that… from the observed footage, how exactly were their actions accomplishing their ultimate goal of world domination?”

“There’s a line where Cap tells Thor they don’t want to take out Loki before closing the portal, because as long as he’s in charge, the Chitauri are focused on taking out the Avengers, whereas without his command they might spread out. („Save it. Loki’s gonna keep this fight focused on us and that’s what we need. Without him these things could run wild.”)”

”Yup, not a great plan, if you plan to make people kneel before you. Loki’s plan makes no sense. Probably because it wasn’t his endgame? Let’s see closer.

• The rhetoric isn’t his normal rhetoric („Kneel”, „You’re born to be ruled”, „You crave subjugation”, you name it). He doesn’t stick to it neither before, nor after New York.

• Condition in which he came to Earth in the first place is as well questionable at least: he trips, he’s sweaty, with white lips and shades under his eyes. Loki even struggles at first to hold Hawkeye back as he blocks archer’s hand.

• Mental slap from across the Universe from the Other don’t as well contribute to the statement that he was completely falling in line. Same as Loki naming himself a messenger to Fury („I come with glad tidings”) instead of I AM A KING, and stating for no reason that „Freedom is life’s great lie”.

• As much as Tony said that Loki was a diva, Loki never drew any additional attention to his fight with Avengers and most of the time was even out of people’s view. He didn’t even address them to maybe vote for peaceful surrender.

• As Loki said to Natasha, Barton told him everything. He knows Widow’s backstory (and still somehow falls for her primary method: to play a victim to get abuser to gloat over how petty you are compared to them).

He recognizes Captain America („The soldier, man out of time”) and still doesn’t kill him on at least three occasions in Stuttgart;

He knows of Banner’s condition (and not a single time evokes doubt in him to reach for Hulk, on contrary even);

And he kills of all people Coulson, because if Natasha and Hill know he’s close to Tony and fanboys over Cap, then Hawkeye knew it too.

• Then again, with Thor and Hulk thrown off the Helicarrier, why again didn’t Loki shoot engines of „flying fortress”? He just saw that Stark mended the engine. And he left Hawkeye behind, as well as used a sniper not as sniper should be used. What did he achieve by attacking but not finishing the Helicarrier? He lost sniper and informer, and won what? Thor and Hulk being thrown off the craft? Of all the two people who could possibly survive the fall and would be pissed off at him if they did? Yeah, great planning.

• And every time he shoots vehicles or aircrafts, he shoots whatever else but pilot’s/driver’s place. For a person who tries to make a statement, he killed at most about handful people at the very beginning, the others died of blast SHIELD knew was coming.

• Oh, and for some reason Hawkeye, who knows Fury, shot him not in head but in torso, of all places the one where he knows armour can be? And Selvig building in mechanism to cut off power — just in case if truth on the other side that he was so fascinated about turned out not to be overly friendly? Yeah. And Selvig built a mini Bifrost for that matter, Asgardian technology that Loki, being „master of Magic”, i.e. science. would know very well.

Loki’s field of expertise, in fact, is military deception

In first Thor alone he’s shown to be professional at stealth and military ruses (from his decoy holograms and manipulation to briefly mentioned in deleted scene smoke cover he provided Thor and company with to cover their retreat).

And in „Avengers”?

• They play it like he — being a manipulator — wouldn’t know that common threat, one that shows off and leaves casualties behind, is more serious than any doubts/differences team must put aside? Loki goes as far as to say that to piss them all off was his plan.

• Compared to „Thor” and „Thor 2”, Loki is suddenly a show-off? He wanted attention, yes, but he never invoked it. He killed Kurse without showing off. He supported team during Jotunheim battle without putting an emphasis on himself. He killed blood father in Odin’s bedroom and not in front of whole Asgard. Also Loki for some reason openly lies to Thor twice in the movie: he says he’s a king (contradictory to his statement from „Thor” that he never wanted a throne, but wanted to be equal to brother), and he says Thor threw him into abyss, given he knows darn well he let go of the spear himself. Maybe it was a way to tell „If two of three are obvious lies, than third iiiiiiis… a lie?”

The Other supervised Loki’s work in Avengers and if he could mentally slap him over distance, then maybe Loki wasn’t as willing and rather was coerced? Why supervise him if he’s undoubtedly loyal after all?

What does Loki need Midgard for? Because it’s Thor’s favourite world? Thor should grow up and understand that not everything revolves around him. It simply was a world in which Loki knew Tesseract was (one of Asgardian treasures). And one world that could be sold to Chitauri as petty, since it’s not Asgard after all. But one that could fight them off with a little bit of help and assemble.

What for would he do it?

Well, he never sought destruction of Asgard, and Chitauri were interested in one of Odin’s greatest treasures, which would have drawn Asgard into this war eventually.

And he at very least didn’t want of all people his mother, Queen of Asgard, dead?

Of course, to repay dismissive attitude towards himself.

To have an opportunity to escape from Thanos back to luxurious Asgard?

Again, if looked at as it is, Loki’s plan doesn’t make a least bit of sense. He wants Earth. Why? He let himself be caught in Stuttgart. But what did he achieve? Assembled Avengers and temporarily broke an engine. How Selvig controlled himself enough to help Avengers? Why was Hulk integral to Loki’s plan even? Why not kill off couple Avengers that are not as famous as Stark? Like, Captain, a symbol? Or why not put Hawkeye in charge of Helicarrier — the closest military stronghold? This wouldn’t’ve diminished spectacle of overtaking Earth.

What I was trying to say, his plan for Chitauri was simply to defeat Chitauri army with Avengers, because he wasn’t truly The Other’s and Thanos’ ally, and was probably coerced to cooperate.”

#loki #avengers #mcu theory #loki theory #mcu

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