Avengers Fic: Ask Me No Questions 2/6
Part 2.
“Brother.”
Startled awake, Loki sat up and saw Thor standing in the doorway to his cell. Surreptitiously, he slid his hand under the pillow and slipped the Starkpad under his coat.
“We are returned,” Thor continued, displaying his gift for stating the obvious.
Loki raised an eyebrow.
“You need not remain in this cage any longer,” Thor added, as if Loki might have missed that detail.
Loki looked around the cell, attempting to convey through the gesture that he hadn’t noticed that he was confined, but Thor, as usual, missed the nuance.
“Jarvis is sending roast fowl and potato salad to our quarters,” he added.
Pinning the Starkpad between his elbow and ribcage, Loki got to his feet and followed Thor out of the cell. As they rode the elevator up to Thor’s quarters, Thor recounted the recent battle, occasionally pausing for the admiring remarks that the geas prevented Loki from uttering.
At least it was good for something.
Roast fowl and potato salad at least made a change from what Loki had been eating for the last day and a half. The Avengers had left him with adequate food and water-“Like a cat,” Stark had remarked-but Loki was getting tired of foodstuffs that required neither heating nor refrigeration. He could have done without Thor continuing his tale of the recent mission, however. Now that he’d finished telling of his own part, he went on to explain what each of the Avengers had done.
At the conclusion of the thrilling tale of how Barton had hidden himself in a high place and shot arrows into things, Thor asked, “And you, brother. What did you find to occupy yourself in our absence?”
An open-ended question gave Loki more leeway in his answer. The geas required that whatever he said be true, but he had some choice in how complete it was. He briefly considered treating Thor to a recital of time he had eaten, scratched, and relieved himself-presenting the tale in mock-heroic fashion might even be amusing, and it had been quite some time since Loki had had the pleasure of hearing his own voice at any length. But Thor was all too likely to actually enjoy it. Remaining as taciturn as possible was far more reliably annoying. Sipping carefully from the bottle of ale Thor had set before him, Loki answered, “Very little.”
Thor’s brow creased. “It cannot have been very interesting for you,” he acknowledged. “I regret that you could not accompany us.”
Loki didn’t-going up against even a mortal villain with no magic didn’t sound like a good time to him. He let his distaste for the idea show, but Thor misinterpreted it.
“We used to go on adventures together, brother,” Thor reminded him. “We could again.”
Yes, Loki would be sure to invite Thor along the next time he tried to conquer his friends’ world.
“The Avengers would appreciate that you fight using your wits instead of strength of arms,” Thor continued earnestly.
Certainly they would. Thor’s old companions had as well-frequently for as long as thirty seconds after Loki had used his wits to save their sorry hides. Taking up a leg of roast fowl, Loki retreated to his room.
#
“So there we were,” Thor said dramatically, “surrounded on all sides by a hundred of the Norn Queen’s soldiers. Even such fierce warriors as we are could not have hoped to prevail against such numbers.”
Tony resisted the temptation to look pointedly at his watch. This story of Thor’s-which he’d started telling in the middle of pizza night for no apparent reason-had been going on for about four times longer than Tony had been interested in it, and with at least one more “thrilling battle” to go, there was no end in sight.
“And there was no avenue of retreat open to us,” Thor continued. “Defeat seemed sure. But then, at the last moment, Loki veiled us in a cloud of smoke to ease our escape.”
Natasha, who up until now had been leaning back, her chair balanced on two legs, looking as bored as Tony was, sat forward with a thump. “Loki was there?”
“Of course he was,” Thor said, sounding confused about why anyone would think he wasn’t. He’d said at the beginning that he went on this adventure with a “small band of warriors,” but he hadn’t mentioned any names.
“Whose side was he on?” Clint asked.
“Ours, of course,” Thor said.
“It’s just, uh, you didn’t mention him before now,” Bruce explained. “You know, when you were fighting the monster…thing…with all the heads….”
“Or when you convinced the ‘comely serving-wenches’ not to scream for help,” Natasha added.
“Or when you knocked out the guy who was guarding the treasure room,” Tony said helpfully, glancing over at Loki, who was staring at the ceiling like it had insulted his mother.
“I must have mentioned him then,” Thor said. “He was the one who undid the enchantment securing the door.” He looked around the group. “Did I not?”
Tony was pretty sure he hadn’t-that part had been near the beginning, when he was still paying attention-but before he could answer, Loki said, “No.”
“I am sorry, brother,” Thor said. “I could start over.”
“No,” said Tony, Natasha, and Bruce, all at the same time.
“I mean,” Bruce added, “I’m sure we can just…slot that part in with what you already told us.”
The rest of them quickly agreed.
“Very well,” Thor said, with another sorrowful look at Loki. “Well, as I said, Loki veiled us in smoke. And we escaped. With our honor and with the Circlet of Seven Leaves, which we presented to our mother.”
“Is that it?” Tony said hopefully.
Thor seemed to misinterpret his tone. “Is it not a glorious tale?”
“No, it was great. Very, uh…glorious,” Tony said. “It just…wrapped up kind of quick.” Oh God, he could not believe he was saying that. Did he want to listen to even more of it?
Thor still looked bewildered. “It was an adventure in which we prevailed thanks to Loki’s cleverness,” he explained.
If the point had been to remind Loki of the good old days, Tony thought, Thor probably should have made a little more of an effort to show that he remembered Loki had been there.
“So the, uh, veil of smoke,” Bruce said. “Was it magic smoke, or was it, like a rubbing two sticks together kind of situation, or…?”
“An illusion,” Thor said. “Loki’s very good at them.”
Loki transferred his glare from the ceiling to his brother.
“Brother?” Thor asked. “It…wasn’t an illusion?” he ventured.
“No,” Loki growled.
Now even Tony thought Loki had legitimate reason to be pissed-at least, for a reasonable sibling-annoyance level of being pissed. It seemed like they’d heard about every stroke of Thor’s hammer, but he didn’t even know exactly what Loki’s contribution had been. It was like if Thor made some big production out of explaining one of their missions, and then said, “Oh, yeah, then Tony saved our asses by doing some of that science stuff he likes, the end.” Tony would have been a little ticked off, too. Particularly if he couldn’t jump in and explain what the science stuff had been. With that in mind, he turned to Loki and asked, “So what was it?”
Loki gave him one of his contemptuous, kneel-before-me-puny-mortal looks, and ground out, “Real smoke. Summoned by magic.”
Tony nodded. “Seems like that would work better. You probably wouldn’t get the whole watering eyes, not being able to breathe thing if it was an illusion. Right?”
“Correct,” Loki said. He looked…not exactly pleased, but a step back from murderous, at least.
Then Bruce said, “So what other kinds of magic stuff can you do? Besides the, uh, the smoke and the illusions?”
The murderous look came back with a vengeance. Loki pushed his chair back, snapped out, “None,” and stormed off.
Tony looked over at Bruce. “Didja have to piss off princess when I just got him down for his nap?”
“I probably should have realized magic would be kind of a sore subject,” Bruce admitted.
Thor just frowned-how else?--thunderously.
#
Thor was beginning to understand Tony’s distaste for meetings. He didn’t mind the ones before missions, since there was always something of substance to discuss, but Steve was in the habit of calling one at least once a week to discuss “ongoing operations.” This one had been taken up mostly by Clint complaining that the officially licensed action figure made in her likeness looked nothing like her.
Once her views on the matter had been heard, Steve moved on to the next topic. “I have another project I could really use some more help with. On Saturday-weather and super villains permitting, of course-I’m going to be helping some kids rebuild a playground.”
That, Thor was actually interested in. While his attempts at showing Loki that his differences were valued, by sharing a tale in which he saved the day with his cleverness, had not been particularly successful, he hoped that Steve’s community-based superheroing initiatives might lead him to another idea for soothing Loki’s madness. “Are these the children you are teaching not to bully one another?”
“Not exactly,” Steve answered. “This group are juveniles court-ordered to perform community service.”
Thor’s confusion must have shown on his face, because Tony said, “He means juvenile delinquents.”
“I am not familiar with that expression,” Thor said.
“They’re kids who have had a little trouble with the law,” Steve explained. “The idea is to give them positive role-models and show them they can contribute positively to the community. But some of them might not be too cooperative, at first, so it would be just great to have more of you guys-or Natasha-there to help make sure they….”
“Don’t kill each other with the power tools?” Tony asked.
“Something like that,” Steve admitted.
“I’m pretty sure I’m washing my hair that day,” Tony said.
“Bruce?” Steve said hopefully.
“I will assist,” Thor said.
“See, there you go,” Tony said. “And he’s already got his own hammer.”
Thor suspected that Tony was jesting, but just in case, he said, “It would not be wise to use Mjolnir in the construction of a playground. I will obtain an ordinary Midgardian hammer for the purpose.” Two of them, in fact.
#
Loki turned over the…object…in his hands before looking at Thor with frank disbelief.
“Allow me to explain,” Thor said.
Loki couldn’t imagine that any explanation that Thor might offer could possibly answer all his questions, but there was nothing Loki could do to stop him from trying.
Thor began by explaining Rogers’s ideas of “community based superheroing,” which Loki had already learned of from the internet. What speaking to school children and picking up litter had to do with heroism, Loki was not sure, and he gained little insight from Thor’s explanation other than that Rogers apparently believed that these activities would somehow prevent mortals from becoming super villains.
Thor eventually worked around to telling Loki what that had to do with him. “Today we will be helping some troubled young people rebuild a playground.”
We?
“You cannot accompany us on our more…traditionally heroic exploits,” Thor went on, “but there can be no objection to you joining us for this…activity.”
Loki very much doubted that. For one thing, the mortals just might remember how the playground in question had come to be damaged in the first place.
It turned out that the objections came much sooner than that. As soon as they exited the elevator in the tower’s lobby, Rogers said, “Great, Thor, you’re the last-oh, boy.” He stared at Loki for a moment, then looked over to Banner for support.
“This is a surprise,” Banner said.
“I did not want to say anything before I knew that Loki would agree,” Thor explained.
Agree? Loki was quite certain that Thor hadn’t asked. Just interrupted Loki’s reading and handed him a…thing.
All right, so it was a hammer. Made of Midgardian steel, with a rubber handle and a price tag on it that said $9.99. And Thor had apparently left Mjolnir behind in favor of one just like it. It would have been funny, except that Loki was fairly sure that the joke was at his expense.
“Yeah, Thor, I’m…not sure this is such a good idea,” Rogers said.
Thor looked at Rogers like a confused lapdog. “You explained that this project is meant to give those who have wronged the community an opportunity to contribute positively. Do you not think that Loki can benefit from such an experience?”
“Honestly?” Rogers asked, his eyes narrowing. “No, I don’t.”
Oh. Heavens. It wasn’t Rogers who wanted to rehabilitate him-it was Thor. Loki would never have predicted that.
“It’s great that you’re so loyal to your brother, really,” Rogers went on. “But after everything he’s done, no. I don’t think he can change. And he can’t possibly be a good influence on the kids.”
“He can hardly incite them to further disruptive activities under the eyes of half of the Avengers,” Thor pointed out. Glancing over at Loki, he added, “Not without his magic, at least.”
“You know, Thor, somebody might recognize him” Banner pointed out.
Thank you. At least someone here had both basic reasoning skills and the freedom to speak.
“No one would dare attack him under the eyes of half the Avengers, either,” Thor said.
Rogers sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Look, if Bruce and I both think this is a bad idea--”
“Hang on,” Banner said. “I’m not sure if I’m ready to cast my vote yet. Loki, are you even on board with this? Do you want to come help us with this?”
Loki certainly hadn’t wanted to before, but now that Rogers was against it, he was starting to see the appeal. And he could put forward his plan of appearing to be rehabilitated with Thor as the target instead of Rogers. “Yes,” he answered.
“Really?” Banner asked. Then, suspiciously, “Why?”
Open-ended question. Loki searched for an answer that was both true and misleading. “I haven’t left this Tower in over two weeks. I’m bored.”
“And are you planning any mayhem?”
“No,” Loki said truthfully. Given his long-term plan, he might not even take advantage of any opportunities that arose.
“Okay. Then…I think we should let him come. But if he makes any trouble at all-I mean if he so much as jaywalks on the way there-no more field trips.”
“Loki cannot assume the form of a jay-or any other bird-without his magic,” Thor said.
“That isn’t-never mind. He has to behave himself.”
“We understand,” Thor said, looking over at Loki. “Don’t we, brother?”
“Yes,” Loki agreed. He even tried to sound pleasant about it.
Taking a deep breath, Rogers looked around the group. “All right, then. Let’s go.”
Stepping out onto the streets of New York for the first time since his army had tried to conquer half of it, Loki felt…nervous. He half-expected that the first mortal to see him would point, scream, and perhaps try to attack him with one of their puny mortal weapons.
Puny mortal weapons that, without his magic, he had little chance of defending himself against. But no one seemed to notice them, not as they left the Tower, nor as they boarded the subway, or even when they arrived at the damaged playground, where a group of sullen-looking mortal youths loitered under the supervision of a pair of adults, who introduced themselves as Ms. Chalmers and Mr. Gill.
Rogers immediately took command of the group, explaining the day’s work in tones so enthusiastic that they bordered on the deranged, then dividing the young people into groups and assigning each one a superhero and a task. He ended with, “And Lateesha, Quinn, Deyvon, Martin, and…uh, Loki, you work with Thor on the pirate ship. Thor will get all you guys set up with hammers; won’t that be fun?”
Loki was somewhat pleased to see that his new teammates looked about as thrilled about the prospect as he felt. Thor did, indeed, get them all set up with hammers. “Where the pirate ship?” asked one of the young people.
“There,” Thor said, pointing at a pile of lumber occupying one corner of the playground. “Tony Stark created the plans; we need only to follow them.”
As it turned out, Loki did not get to use his new hammer immediately. One of the first tasks for their team to accomplish was cutting the lumber to length using a power saw with a very large spinning blade, and as all of the youths except Lateesha were clamoring to be the one chosen to operate it, the Chalmers woman came over and-clearly having no idea who he was, apart from an adult and, from the way he was dressed, conspicuously affiliated with Thor-assigned Loki to do it.
It was actually rather satisfying. It would have been more satisfying to cut the lumber using magic (if he had to cut lumber) or to use the saw to sever the limbs of his enemies (if he had to use the saw), but it was better than nothing. Lateesha was assigned to measure the boards and mark with a pencil where Loki was to cut, and they worked side-by-side, without speaking, until Mr. Gill came around distributing sack lunches.
Loki sat down on the pile of cut lumber to inspect his lunch; after a moment, Lateesha joined him. The lunch break, too, might have passed perfectly pleasantly-apart from the food, at least-if Thor had not called out, “Brother! Join us!”
Loki looked up to see Thor waving from where he and the mortal boys were sitting on and around the skeleton of the pirate ship.
“Brother!” Thor yelled again. “And-young woman!”
Lateesha looked from Thor to Loki. “He ain’t gonna shut up till we go over there, is he?”
Prior experience certainly suggested he wouldn’t. Loki shook his head. “No.”
They went, Loki finding a place to sit as far from Thor as reasonably possible.
As Loki struggled to eat a sandwich consisting of two slices of bread and a single slice of something he refused to believe was actually cheese, one of the mortal youths-Deyvon, Loki thought-suddenly said, “Hey, you that guy.” Rising to his feet, he brandished his hammer as though it were a scepter and proclaimed, “Kneel, puny mortals!”
Loki was almost entirely certain he had never said that.
But another of the youths, Quinn, said, “Yeah, you the ‘kneel puny mortals’ guy! Man, that helmet is sick.”
The word sounded like an insult, but the young man’s tone was admiring. Loki inclined his head graciously.
“You still got the helmet?” Martin asked.
“Yeah, where is it?” Deyvon looked around as though Loki might be hiding it behind his back.
“No. It was destroyed in the final battle,” Loki answered.
“You really his brother?” asked Lateesha.
Loki wanted to say no, but the geas wouldn’t let him. “In a manner of speaking.”
“What you doing here? You court-ordered too, or what?” Martin asked.
These mortals were so good about asking open-ended questions. “Something like that.”
“How you get community service for flattening half of New York?” Deyvon wanted to know.
Before Loki could answer, Lateesha said, “’Cause their daddy a king. Rich white boys always get community service.”
“It was my brother’s idea,” Loki said.
Lateesha shook her head and repeated, “Rich white boys. What you want to go knocking down our city for, anyway?”
It was with some surprise that Loki realized that no one had ever actually asked him that question before. “I wanted to conquer your realm,” Loki answered. “The damage to your city was incidental.” Not to mention that the Avengers had knocked down as much of it as he had, but the geas wouldn’t let him stray that far from the question.
Lateesha wasn’t satisfied with that answer. “Why you want to ‘conquer our realm,’ then?”
Loki really didn’t want to get into his reasons-how keenly he’d sought for an opportunity to leave Thanos’s “hospitality,” and to take up his rightful place as king. Somewhere. “I needed a realm. Yours was convenient.”
“I know,” said Deyvon, balling up the wrapper from his sandwich and throwing it at one of the other youths. “It like that movie. You the younger brother, right?”
“Yes,” Loki admitted.
“See,” Deyvon continued authoritatively, “places that got kings and shit, only the oldest son get to be king when their dad dies. If the younger one want to be king of something, he gotta conquer it.”
Both Thor and the mortals were watching Loki intently, though none of them had actually asked him anything. Loki shrugged.
“It is true that Loki was not to inherit,” Thor said. “But that does not excuse him attempting to take over your realm.”
“I dunno,” Deyvon said, looking as though he didn’t appreciate Thor’s sanctimonious tone any more than Loki did. “Sometimes a man just in a conquering mood.”
Loki could not agree more. After considering for a moment how best to express his agreement nonverbally, he extended his hand, curled loosely into a fist, to Deyvon, who bumped his knuckles with a solemn nod.
#
“Mr. Stark wishes me to inform you that there is pizza in his quarters,” Jarvis announced when the returning Avengers, plus Loki, stepped into the Tower’s lobby.
“A feast to end our adventure,” Thor said to Loki.
Loki just grimaced, but Thor thought he was pleased. The construction of the mock pirate ship had gone well-though they would have to return next weekend to paint and add other finishing touches-and more importantly, Loki had contributed positively to the community, and even had received admiration from the youths for his exploits as a warrior.
Admittedly, Thor was a little surprised that it was the “juvenile delinquents” who were able to see past the fact that it was their personal city which had been the site of Loki’s deeds, while his fellow heroes were not. And he was also a little bit glad that Steve had not noticed the youths’ esteem for Loki, as Thor suspected he would not approve. But if Loki’s villainy had been motivated by feeling that he was not appreciated and did not belong-as the reading materials Steve had given him suggested was often the case with those who felt themselves bullied and then became bullies in turn-surely receiving acceptance from anyone was a step in the right direction.
When they arrived at Tony’s quarters, Tony approached them, a slice of pizza in hand. The Avengers who had not participated in the playground re-building were already present and similarly occupied. “Thor, I’ve gotta tell you, I wish you’d clued me in that you were taking Tall, Dark, and Crazy along on this Boy-Scout project. It might have been worth going along just to see that.”
“In that case,” Thor said, “you can join us when we reunite next week.”
“Next week,” Tony said.
Pretending to misunderstand his doubtful tone, Thor explained, “We did not have time to complete the work, and the youths’ schooling does not permit them to continue until next Saturday.”
“I’ll check my schedule.” Tony gestured toward the bar that occupied one side of his sitting room. “Pizza, beer, soda, help yourselves.” Stuffing the crust of his pizza slice into his mouth, he ambled over with them to obtain another. “So how’d it go?” Tony inclined the neck of his beer bottle in Loki’s direction. “He eat any kids?”
“I know it is in your nature to make such jests,” Thor said. “But you risk that someone might think you mean it.”
“So that’s a no, on the kid-eating?” Tony asked.
“He actually wasn’t any trouble,” Steve said, reaching past Tony to select a slice of pizza with pepperoni. “And I have to admit, he even did his share of the work. I was surprised.” Glancing over at Loki, he added, “Good job, Loki.”
Loki nodded in acknowledgement, and Thor beamed at both of them. “Did you not enjoy contributing positively to the community, brother?”
Loki cocked his head to one side like an inquisitive bird. “Yes,” he said firmly.
Thor smiled even more broadly. At least, until Tony groaned and said, “Tell me you didn’t fall for that.”
“The geas does not allow him to lie,” Thor reminded him.
“Yeah, but think about what you said. ‘Did you not enjoy’ it. And he said yes, he didn’t enjoy it.”
Thor looked at Loki to confirm that this was true. It was difficult to remain disappointed in him for long when he saw the traces of Loki’s familiar, mischievous grin dancing at the edges of his lips. Thor shook his head ruefully. “You have fooled me again, brother. But surely you enjoyed something about our day.”
Loki just shrugged. Thor decided to take that as a victory-at least he hadn’t denied it completely.
#
Over the next few days, Thor dragged Loki along to more and more activities with the Avengers, and offered increasingly sincere apologies when he had to leave Loki to his own devices while the team trained or discussed strategy. Loki generally chose to cooperate, with as much appearance of good will as he could muster. The more Thor believed that he was successfully rehabilitating him, and the more the Avengers got used to him as an inconsequential presence, the more….
Well, to be honest, Loki didn’t exactly know what his endgame was. It wouldn’t be as simple as convincing Thor to restore his magic; he wouldn’t be able to do so even if he wanted to. Loki wasn’t even sure if Odin could. He might have destroyed it utterly. But if Loki was encouraging the Avengers to underestimate him, at least he was doing something-and surely eventually he’d find some opportunity to take advantage of it.
One day, they were gathered in Banner’s apartment playing a video game. Unlike Angry Birds, in this one, one played not by touching the screen, but by moving one’s body as one wished the on-screen figures to move. Loki was unfamiliar with many of the sports the others were miming, but it was nevertheless amusing to watch them contorting their bodies as if swinging bats, throwing balls, and so on. Watching Thor fail spectacularly at putting an imaginary basketball into a net was a particular highlight.
“Maybe that’s, uh, not exactly in your wheelhouse,” Banner said when the others’ peals of laughter had died down. “Here, there’s a sword fighting one. Do you want to try that?”
Thor agreed, and quickly defeated Banner, Stark, and Barton at imaginary swordplay. Rogers posed a bit more of a challenge, but Thor eventually triumphed over him, too.
“Do you want a turn, Loki?” Banner asked when Romanoff had declined the opportunity to be beaten as well-like Loki, she seemed to prefer watching her teammates embarrass themselves over making a spectacle of herself.
Thor turned to look at Loki hopefully.
“No,” Loki said. One of the few advantages of no longer being a prince of Asgard in good standing was that he didn’t have to engage in combat practice of any kind.
“We could play one of the other games,” Thor suggested. “I think I noticed darts on the list. You’ve always been better than me at darts.”
That was true, but Loki certainly didn’t want to take the chance that he’d be less good at imaginary darts.
“Go on, Loki,” Rogers urged him. “It’s fun.”
“Oh, come on,” Barton said suddenly, his tone much less friendly. “Tell me we are not doing this.”
“Doing what?” Rogers asked.
“Pretending like the mass-murdering super villain is one of the gang now,” Barton explained.
“It’s been like three months since he’s tried to take over the world,” Stark pointed out. “Granted, most of that he was on Asgard, but--”
“It’s not funny, Tony,” Barton interrupted.
This was getting more entertaining by the minute. If Loki’d had his magic, he would have conjured a bowl of popcorn.
“Okay, so maybe we have to let him live here because Thor’s…compromised, and at least this way we can keep an eye on him. But we do not have to hang out with him. And I for one am not going to.” Suiting action to words, Barton stood to leave.
“Clint,” Thor said. “If you would only make an effort to understand why Loki acted as he did--”
“I already understand. The guy was in my head for three days. Does anyone else even remember that? I know as much as I need to know about his motivations, and I am never going to feel sorry for him. Excuse me.” Stepping over Rogers and Banner’s legs, he left the apartment. A moment later, Romanoff got up and followed him.
“Okay,” Banner said. “I’m thinking maybe the party’s over?”
#
After giving Clint a little time to cool down, Bruce sought him out. He felt bad about how the gathering had ended, and wanted to explain things to Clint.
He found him in the main gym, with Natasha. They were both sweaty and dressed in workout clothes, but by now they were just sitting on a pile of mats drinking bottles of water.
“Hey,” Bruce said, waving.
“Hey,” Clint answered. “Look, no hard feelings about…earlier. I mean, it wasn’t you personally.”
“Thanks,” Bruce said, sitting beside them. “I’m sorry, too. I didn’t think about how you might be uncomfortable hanging out with Loki, and I should have.”
Clint shook his head. “It’s not about me being uncomfortable. It’s about him being a villain. Even if he’s neutered right now, we need to stay on our guard.”
“I know,” Bruce said. “I just…I mean, Thor misses his brother.”
Clint nodded. “I know he does.”
“And I thought, well, what harm does it do to just, you know. Give him that. Let his little brother be part of the gang for a little bit.”
“We can’t afford to get complacent,” Natasha spoke up. “That’s the harm.”
Clint nodded. “Right. Look, when he was controlling me…it was like I was still me, but I wanted the same things he wanted, you know? And what he wants is…scary. Those aliens he brought with him, they thought he had him under control too. The deal was that they’d give him an army to conquer Earth with, and he’d give them the Tesseract.”
Bruce nodded; Clint had explained that in the debriefing.
“But that was only one layer of it. He had all these contingencies running about how he’d double-cross the Chitauri the first chance he got, and then use the Tesseract to send a human army back and conquer them. And conquering Asgard was somewhere on the decision-tree, too. I can’t even really keep it all straight now that he’s out of my head, but it all made so much sense then. And his motives are just….”
As Clint trailed off, Natasha took up where he left off. “He’s an insecure little man who wants as much power as he can get, any way he can get it.” Bruce knew that Natasha had plenty of experience with men like that. “There’s nothing complex or misunderstood about it.”
“We can’t afford to play along with Thor’s little fantasies, because he’ll play along, too. Right up until he gets a chance to stab us in the back,” Clint finished.
“Do we need to talk to the team about this?” Bruce asked.
Clint rubbed his jaw. “I’d like to think everybody already knows. But maybe a reminder wouldn’t hurt.”
“I’ll get Cap to call a meeting,” Bruce suggested.
Clint nodded. “And I’ll…prepare some remarks.”
#
When the meeting started, Tony was clowning around with a Powerpoint slide that said, “It has been __ days since our last super villain invasion.” It initially displayed 11 days, but Tony and Bruce were arguing about whether a little dustup in Central Park that Iron Man had put down in about ten minutes yesterday counted as an invasion.
Clint decided to use it as his hook for starting his presentation. “In case the rest of you haven’t noticed, we have a super villain living in Thor’s guest room.”
Of course Thor immediately started arguing about that. “He is not a super villain. I admit, he has…made some unwise choices…but he is no villain.” Clint waited for somebody else to point out he was wrong, but the others just sat around looking uncomfortable.
Taking over the slide projector, Clint put up some images of the damage Loki had done to the SHIELD base, the Helicarrier, and-oh, yes-Manhattan. He ended with Phil Coulson’s file photo. “He’s been hanging around here like he’s some kind of mascot,” Clint said. “Eating pizza and playing Angry Birds. I think some of us are starting to forget he’s a monster.”
“He is my brother,” Thor objected.
“Yeah, well. Phil had a brother, too.”
“He did?” Tony asked. “Nobody tells me these things.”
Cap shushed him. “What is it that you want us to do, Clint?”
“Stay on our guard. Remember that he’s a prisoner. Stop all this trying to understand him and make him feel wanted crap.”
“Hear, hear,” Natasha said.
Steve cleared his throat. “Actually, I’ve been thinking that we should be making more of this opportunity to understand him.”
Oh, God. Not him, too. Clint had thought that at least Cap was on the side of the sane people. “Really? If you hadn’t been frozen, would you be trying to understand Hitler?”
“Godwin’s!” Tony said brightly.
“Shut up, Tony,” said Bruce.
Steve explained, “Many historians believe that the most important reason Hitler’s rise to power succeeded was that the Allies failed to understand the psychological effects of the First World War on Germany. The Germans were humiliated, their country was economically and personally devastated, and the harsh peace terms only made things worse. The next generation was angry and looking for a leader who would convince them that their defeat wasn’t their fault and would help them get revenge. So after the war-my war-the Allies helped Germany rebuild, and they haven’t made any trouble in over half a century. So yes, if I’d been around, I like to think I would have helped with that.”
That wasn’t what Clint had meant at all, and he sensed that he was losing ground fast. “It’s not the same.”
“No,” Steve agreed. “But you asked. I don’t see Loki coming over to our side,” he added, with a glance over at Thor. “But we do have an opportunity, here, to understand the super villain mindset better. And possibly leave Loki a little bit less thirsty for vengeance.”
Things devolved from there. Thor earnestly explained what great pals he and Loki used to be, and gave them all a reprise of the sad story of how Loki had completely flipped his shit when he found out he was adopted. Tony talked about how maybe, if Loki got a little more cooperative, Tony could pick his brain about how Asgardian magic worked, and come up with better ways to defend against it. Steve reminded everyone about due process and the American Way, and how they couldn’t do anything to Loki since he hadn’t done anything to them recently enough.
And when Clint tried to explain that he wasn’t talking about doing anything, exactly, just remembering to stay cautious and not go soft on Loki just because he seemed harmless at the moment, all they did was pat him on the head-metaphorically, although Steve did give him a manly clap on the shoulder-and say that of course they were already being careful and would continue to do so.
Steve wrapped up by saying, “So everyone’s had a chance to be heard, and I think it’s clear that we all more or less agree about what we’re doing. Right?”
Clint didn’t even argue; it just wasn’t worth going another round. Besides, it would probably suit Loki just fine to know they were all arguing over him, even when he hadn’t-as everyone kept pointing out-even done anything.
Then he left the meeting room, and the very first person-monster, whatever-he saw was Loki. Leaning over the railing and looking down on the lobby of Stark Tower, like he really was a god looking down on Earth from heaven. It was sickening. “You,” Clint said, advancing on him.
#
For a second, Loki could only be amused that the weakest of the Avengers seemed to think he was actually some kind of a threat to Loki.
Then he remembered that, right now, Barton was a threat. Whatever Thor said, Loki was not completely hopeless as a fighter-but without his magic to enhance his strength, speed and agility, he was, at best, evenly matched against a particularly skilled mortal. And he had no doubt that the Avengers would come down on him like the proverbial ton of bricks if it even looked like he might prevail.
Smiling slightly, Loki spread his hands and did his best to look friendly, helpless, and a little bit confused.
“What do you think you’re smirking at, asshole?”
Several answers flashed through Loki’s mind; he settled on, “You,” as the least inflammatory.
“I hope you know you’re not fooling anyone.” Barton continued to advance until he had Loki backed up against the mezzanine railing.
Fooling them about what? Loki actually had to lean back a little, against the railing, to keep Barton’s face out of his.
“Phil was a friend of mine, you know. He was a good guy.”
Loki had absolutely no idea who Barton was talking about-though, surprisingly, he could tell that he was lying. Barton wanted to believe that this “Phil” had been a friend of his, but he hadn’t really been.
“Kind of a geek. Big fan of Cap-so at least he got to meet him before you killed him. I guess that’s good.”
Loki hadn’t killed Captain America-obviously, since he’d just left the room a couple of moments before Barton did-so Phil must be someone Loki had killed.
“But, you know, I think he’d rather have lived.” With the last word, Barton shoved his arm against Loki’s throat, pushing him back even further, and bringing him dangerously close to overbalancing.
Now Loki was…alarmed. Just a little bit. One good shove, and his fragile, un-magically-enhanced body would tip over the railing and plummet onto the marble floor two stories below. It might not kill him, but it would certainly hurt.
If Loki had had command of his voice, he might even have considered yelling for Thor. Better to be embarrassed and walk away than turned into a broken sack of meat, after all.
“Do you even know who I’m talking about?” Barton demanded.
“No,” Loki admitted, struggling to pull Barton’s arm away from his throat so he could breath.
“Agent Coulson,” Barton said. “On the helicarrier. You stabbed him in the back.”
Oh, him.
“And I know you’re not even sorry.”
Well, no, he wasn’t. He wasn’t entirely sure why Barton was so upset about it. “Phil” had fought to the last in defense of his planet, and had managed to knock Loki-a fully powered god at a time-on his backside, after suffering a mortal wound. Surely he’d gone straight to Valhalla-and if Barton really missed him all that much, all he had to do was keep on being stupid and heroic, and he’d join him there soon enough.
“Are you?” Barton demanded.
#
“-yeah,” Bruce was saying to Thor, who was understandably a little upset that Clint had called a meeting to discuss how untrustworthy his brother was. “But you have to see it from his perspective, too. I mean, he said it’s not that he’s uncomfortable over the mind-control thing, but--”
Suddenly, they heard a strange, squishy thud, followed by Clint’s voice saying “Shit.” Jarvis’s cool tones spoke up, “Dr. Banner, there is a medical emergency in the lobby.”
Bruce took off at a sprint, Thor easily keeping pace with him. Bruce was initially relieved to see Clint standing by the mezzanine railing, looking intact. “Clint! You okay? What happened?”
Looking back and forth between Bruce and Thor, Clint said, “Yeah, I-you better get down there.”
They looked over the railing. Loki lay on the lobby floor, two stories below. Bruce wouldn’t have thought that a fall like that would seriously inconvenience Loki, even without his magic, but he was very still. As they watched, a thin trail of blood spread across the marble tiles, from his head.
Thor got to his brother’s side by the simple expedient of jumping over the railing, but Bruce had to take the long way down, shouting instructions to Jarvis as he did.
When Bruce ran out of the elevator in the lobby, Thor was leaning over Loki, his hands on his shoulders. “Don’t move him!” Bruce yelled.
Thor looked up at him sharply. “Why not?”
“If there’s damage to his spine,” Bruce panted, “could make it worse. Just, ah, keep him still.”
Kneeling down beside Loki, Bruce was keenly aware that, no matter how he looked, Loki was, in fact, an alien. Fortunately, Thor had never had any injuries serious enough for differences in his physiology to be an issue-but Bruce could already tell that this was going to be a different story.
Still, the ABCs ought to be the same. Methodically, Bruce checked Loki’s airway-unobstructed-breathing-shallow, but present-and circulation. His pulse, at least, seemed strong.
“Does he live?” Thor asked.
Bruce glanced up at him. “Yes. He’s unconscious.” Assessing the patient’s spine, with that ridiculous leather armor covering most of it, was going to be a challenge. The neck, at least, seemed all right. He moved down to rock Loki’s pelvis.
“What are you doing?” Thor demanded.
“Checking for damage to his spine.” Anticipating Thor’s next question, he went on, “I won’t be sure until we get an x-ray, but it looks okay so far.”
“The wound on his head appears most serious,” Thor pointed out, crouching by Loki’s head.
“Yes, I’m getting to that next.” Keeping himself calm by reviewing his training, Bruce explained, “Trauma assessment starts with checking the things that will kill a patient the fastest. Head injuries are a little bit down the list.” Probing the back of Loki’s head, Bruce found it sticky with blood, but, “Skull seems intact.”
“That’s good,” Thor said. “Isn’t it?”
“Probably.”
Steve and Tony were arriving now, with the stretcher and backboard that Bruce had called for.
“Jarvis said you needed some help?” Tony said.
“My brother is injured,” Thor explained.
“Yeah,” Bruce said. “Hand me that c-collar.”
#
Thor sat in the outer room of the tower’s infirmary, waiting for news of his brother. Tony was in the inner room with Bruce, helping to operate the medical machinery. Steve was waiting with Thor; he wasn’t sure where Clint and Natasha were. No one would tell him.
Nor would they explain how Loki had come to be injured. Even Jarvis was silent on the subject.
“I’m sure he’ll be okay,” Steve spoke up. “I mean, he’s been through a lot worse before. Like when the Hulk….”
“He uses-used-his magic to increase his body’s resistance to injury,” Thor said.
“Oh.”
“Indeed.” For just that reason, Thor had taken great care to protect Loki on Asgard, keeping him within sight at all times. But he’d thought him safe here.
Bruce came out of the inner room, wearing a white coat over his ordinary clothes. “Thor, what’s the medical care like on Asgard?”
“What?” Thor asked.
“Loki’s…it’s pretty bad. And he’s not, you know. Human. If what you’ve got there is as good or better as what we have here, the best thing is probably going to be to stabilize him and take him home for treatment,” Bruce explained.
Thor understood what he meant, but shook his head. “We cannot.”
“Why not?”
“The Bifrost is still not functional,” he explained. “We travelled here via the Tesseract, and arranged to return the same way in six months’ time. I was given no means to arrange an earlier retrieval.”
“Shit,” Bruce said. “And-you can’t get a message to them?”
“No.” Hadn’t he already said as much? “Tell me what you can do for my brother.”
“Okay. Uh, he has some bleeding in his brain. That’s…that can get pretty bad. If the bleeding doesn’t stop on its own, there’s nowhere for it to go, so the pressure will build up inside his skull, and eventually it’ll damage his brain.”
“He will be feebleminded?”
“Possibly, or paralyzed, or… this kind of thing can even cause death. It all depends on how big the injury is, and where in the brain, and how well it responds to treatment. Some people recover with no permanent effects. In Loki’s case…well, I’ve seen worse, but it’s serious enough that it’s not going to just turn out OK on its own. We’re going to have to come up with a plan of treatment fast.”
Bruce kept mentioning treatment. That was good. Loki was not necessarily going to die, or be crippled. “What is the treatment?”
“Well, usually the first steps would be drugs to reduce the bleeding and pressure. But the problem is, we don’t know how Loki’s body will respond to those drugs. They could do nothing-which will waste time-or even make it worse somehow.”
Thor sensed that Bruce had something else to suggest, and that Thor wasn’t going to like it very much. “I see.”
“So we’re probably going to have to go on to the next step, which is a little more drastic. We have to, uh, cut into his skull to relieve the pressure.”
Thor was right; he didn’t like it. “You intend to crack my brother’s skull?”
“Very carefully,” Bruce emphasized. “We use a…actually, Tony’s calling hospitals to get the equipment right now. I’d make a sort of…flap, in the area closest to the site of injury, and put in a tube to draw out the blood. It sounds alarming, but with this procedure, I wouldn’t actually be doing anything to the brain itself, so it’s actually…pretty straightforward.”
It sounded a lot less straightforward than simply applying a healing spell to the injury-but that was not an option. Thor nodded.
Bruce went on, “If that doesn’t work, the third stage is going into the brain to repair the damaged vessels, but that’s a lot riskier, not to mention way outside my area of expertise, so we’re gonna hope that’s not necessary…but Tony’s also scouting around for a brain surgeon willing to work on an alien. Just in case we need that.”
“I am in his debt,” Thor said. “And yours. Very well.”
Bruce nodded. “As soon as the equipment gets here, we’ll get started. He also has some broken bones-four ribs, the clavicle and scapula on the right side, and the head of the humerus. That’s going to hurt, but the treatment’s straightforward. Fortunately, there isn’t any serious damage to the soft tissues in the thorax and abdomen-his armor protected him. That’s really lucky, because from what I saw on the MRI, nothing in there is where I would expect it to be-he has some organs I can’t even recognize-so trying to operate would be a nightmare.”
“We are fortunate,” Thor said, even though, at the moment, he really didn’t feel fortunate.
“Yeah, I….” Bruce trailed off. “Do you want to come in and see him, before we operate? I mean, he’s unconscious, but….”
“Yes,” Thor said immediately, rising to his feet.
Loki was lying on a bed, dressed in the traditional Midgardian light-blue medical smock. Thor always forgot how small he looked, without his armor, and he looked even smaller now, without his vast personality inhabiting his relatively slight frame. He looked nearly as fragile as a mortal.
“Brother,” Thor said, swallowing hard around a lump in his throat. He took Loki’s uninjured hand. “Brother,” he repeated. “I am sorry that I allowed this to happen to you.” It wasn’t just that he hadn’t watched Loki more closely. He had brought him to Midgard-to prevent precisely this fate, true. And he had scarcely argued when Father named Loki’s punishment, though he knew that Loki would find it a sore trial. And he hadn’t been able to stop him from committing his crimes on this realm. Or from allowing himself to fall into the Void. “You will be well,” he promised Loki, instead of saying any of that. “Bruce Banner will heal your injuries, and you will be well.”
Link to Part 3
“Brother.”
Startled awake, Loki sat up and saw Thor standing in the doorway to his cell. Surreptitiously, he slid his hand under the pillow and slipped the Starkpad under his coat.
“We are returned,” Thor continued, displaying his gift for stating the obvious.
Loki raised an eyebrow.
“You need not remain in this cage any longer,” Thor added, as if Loki might have missed that detail.
Loki looked around the cell, attempting to convey through the gesture that he hadn’t noticed that he was confined, but Thor, as usual, missed the nuance.
“Jarvis is sending roast fowl and potato salad to our quarters,” he added.
Pinning the Starkpad between his elbow and ribcage, Loki got to his feet and followed Thor out of the cell. As they rode the elevator up to Thor’s quarters, Thor recounted the recent battle, occasionally pausing for the admiring remarks that the geas prevented Loki from uttering.
At least it was good for something.
Roast fowl and potato salad at least made a change from what Loki had been eating for the last day and a half. The Avengers had left him with adequate food and water-“Like a cat,” Stark had remarked-but Loki was getting tired of foodstuffs that required neither heating nor refrigeration. He could have done without Thor continuing his tale of the recent mission, however. Now that he’d finished telling of his own part, he went on to explain what each of the Avengers had done.
At the conclusion of the thrilling tale of how Barton had hidden himself in a high place and shot arrows into things, Thor asked, “And you, brother. What did you find to occupy yourself in our absence?”
An open-ended question gave Loki more leeway in his answer. The geas required that whatever he said be true, but he had some choice in how complete it was. He briefly considered treating Thor to a recital of time he had eaten, scratched, and relieved himself-presenting the tale in mock-heroic fashion might even be amusing, and it had been quite some time since Loki had had the pleasure of hearing his own voice at any length. But Thor was all too likely to actually enjoy it. Remaining as taciturn as possible was far more reliably annoying. Sipping carefully from the bottle of ale Thor had set before him, Loki answered, “Very little.”
Thor’s brow creased. “It cannot have been very interesting for you,” he acknowledged. “I regret that you could not accompany us.”
Loki didn’t-going up against even a mortal villain with no magic didn’t sound like a good time to him. He let his distaste for the idea show, but Thor misinterpreted it.
“We used to go on adventures together, brother,” Thor reminded him. “We could again.”
Yes, Loki would be sure to invite Thor along the next time he tried to conquer his friends’ world.
“The Avengers would appreciate that you fight using your wits instead of strength of arms,” Thor continued earnestly.
Certainly they would. Thor’s old companions had as well-frequently for as long as thirty seconds after Loki had used his wits to save their sorry hides. Taking up a leg of roast fowl, Loki retreated to his room.
#
“So there we were,” Thor said dramatically, “surrounded on all sides by a hundred of the Norn Queen’s soldiers. Even such fierce warriors as we are could not have hoped to prevail against such numbers.”
Tony resisted the temptation to look pointedly at his watch. This story of Thor’s-which he’d started telling in the middle of pizza night for no apparent reason-had been going on for about four times longer than Tony had been interested in it, and with at least one more “thrilling battle” to go, there was no end in sight.
“And there was no avenue of retreat open to us,” Thor continued. “Defeat seemed sure. But then, at the last moment, Loki veiled us in a cloud of smoke to ease our escape.”
Natasha, who up until now had been leaning back, her chair balanced on two legs, looking as bored as Tony was, sat forward with a thump. “Loki was there?”
“Of course he was,” Thor said, sounding confused about why anyone would think he wasn’t. He’d said at the beginning that he went on this adventure with a “small band of warriors,” but he hadn’t mentioned any names.
“Whose side was he on?” Clint asked.
“Ours, of course,” Thor said.
“It’s just, uh, you didn’t mention him before now,” Bruce explained. “You know, when you were fighting the monster…thing…with all the heads….”
“Or when you convinced the ‘comely serving-wenches’ not to scream for help,” Natasha added.
“Or when you knocked out the guy who was guarding the treasure room,” Tony said helpfully, glancing over at Loki, who was staring at the ceiling like it had insulted his mother.
“I must have mentioned him then,” Thor said. “He was the one who undid the enchantment securing the door.” He looked around the group. “Did I not?”
Tony was pretty sure he hadn’t-that part had been near the beginning, when he was still paying attention-but before he could answer, Loki said, “No.”
“I am sorry, brother,” Thor said. “I could start over.”
“No,” said Tony, Natasha, and Bruce, all at the same time.
“I mean,” Bruce added, “I’m sure we can just…slot that part in with what you already told us.”
The rest of them quickly agreed.
“Very well,” Thor said, with another sorrowful look at Loki. “Well, as I said, Loki veiled us in smoke. And we escaped. With our honor and with the Circlet of Seven Leaves, which we presented to our mother.”
“Is that it?” Tony said hopefully.
Thor seemed to misinterpret his tone. “Is it not a glorious tale?”
“No, it was great. Very, uh…glorious,” Tony said. “It just…wrapped up kind of quick.” Oh God, he could not believe he was saying that. Did he want to listen to even more of it?
Thor still looked bewildered. “It was an adventure in which we prevailed thanks to Loki’s cleverness,” he explained.
If the point had been to remind Loki of the good old days, Tony thought, Thor probably should have made a little more of an effort to show that he remembered Loki had been there.
“So the, uh, veil of smoke,” Bruce said. “Was it magic smoke, or was it, like a rubbing two sticks together kind of situation, or…?”
“An illusion,” Thor said. “Loki’s very good at them.”
Loki transferred his glare from the ceiling to his brother.
“Brother?” Thor asked. “It…wasn’t an illusion?” he ventured.
“No,” Loki growled.
Now even Tony thought Loki had legitimate reason to be pissed-at least, for a reasonable sibling-annoyance level of being pissed. It seemed like they’d heard about every stroke of Thor’s hammer, but he didn’t even know exactly what Loki’s contribution had been. It was like if Thor made some big production out of explaining one of their missions, and then said, “Oh, yeah, then Tony saved our asses by doing some of that science stuff he likes, the end.” Tony would have been a little ticked off, too. Particularly if he couldn’t jump in and explain what the science stuff had been. With that in mind, he turned to Loki and asked, “So what was it?”
Loki gave him one of his contemptuous, kneel-before-me-puny-mortal looks, and ground out, “Real smoke. Summoned by magic.”
Tony nodded. “Seems like that would work better. You probably wouldn’t get the whole watering eyes, not being able to breathe thing if it was an illusion. Right?”
“Correct,” Loki said. He looked…not exactly pleased, but a step back from murderous, at least.
Then Bruce said, “So what other kinds of magic stuff can you do? Besides the, uh, the smoke and the illusions?”
The murderous look came back with a vengeance. Loki pushed his chair back, snapped out, “None,” and stormed off.
Tony looked over at Bruce. “Didja have to piss off princess when I just got him down for his nap?”
“I probably should have realized magic would be kind of a sore subject,” Bruce admitted.
Thor just frowned-how else?--thunderously.
#
Thor was beginning to understand Tony’s distaste for meetings. He didn’t mind the ones before missions, since there was always something of substance to discuss, but Steve was in the habit of calling one at least once a week to discuss “ongoing operations.” This one had been taken up mostly by Clint complaining that the officially licensed action figure made in her likeness looked nothing like her.
Once her views on the matter had been heard, Steve moved on to the next topic. “I have another project I could really use some more help with. On Saturday-weather and super villains permitting, of course-I’m going to be helping some kids rebuild a playground.”
That, Thor was actually interested in. While his attempts at showing Loki that his differences were valued, by sharing a tale in which he saved the day with his cleverness, had not been particularly successful, he hoped that Steve’s community-based superheroing initiatives might lead him to another idea for soothing Loki’s madness. “Are these the children you are teaching not to bully one another?”
“Not exactly,” Steve answered. “This group are juveniles court-ordered to perform community service.”
Thor’s confusion must have shown on his face, because Tony said, “He means juvenile delinquents.”
“I am not familiar with that expression,” Thor said.
“They’re kids who have had a little trouble with the law,” Steve explained. “The idea is to give them positive role-models and show them they can contribute positively to the community. But some of them might not be too cooperative, at first, so it would be just great to have more of you guys-or Natasha-there to help make sure they….”
“Don’t kill each other with the power tools?” Tony asked.
“Something like that,” Steve admitted.
“I’m pretty sure I’m washing my hair that day,” Tony said.
“Bruce?” Steve said hopefully.
“I will assist,” Thor said.
“See, there you go,” Tony said. “And he’s already got his own hammer.”
Thor suspected that Tony was jesting, but just in case, he said, “It would not be wise to use Mjolnir in the construction of a playground. I will obtain an ordinary Midgardian hammer for the purpose.” Two of them, in fact.
#
Loki turned over the…object…in his hands before looking at Thor with frank disbelief.
“Allow me to explain,” Thor said.
Loki couldn’t imagine that any explanation that Thor might offer could possibly answer all his questions, but there was nothing Loki could do to stop him from trying.
Thor began by explaining Rogers’s ideas of “community based superheroing,” which Loki had already learned of from the internet. What speaking to school children and picking up litter had to do with heroism, Loki was not sure, and he gained little insight from Thor’s explanation other than that Rogers apparently believed that these activities would somehow prevent mortals from becoming super villains.
Thor eventually worked around to telling Loki what that had to do with him. “Today we will be helping some troubled young people rebuild a playground.”
We?
“You cannot accompany us on our more…traditionally heroic exploits,” Thor went on, “but there can be no objection to you joining us for this…activity.”
Loki very much doubted that. For one thing, the mortals just might remember how the playground in question had come to be damaged in the first place.
It turned out that the objections came much sooner than that. As soon as they exited the elevator in the tower’s lobby, Rogers said, “Great, Thor, you’re the last-oh, boy.” He stared at Loki for a moment, then looked over to Banner for support.
“This is a surprise,” Banner said.
“I did not want to say anything before I knew that Loki would agree,” Thor explained.
Agree? Loki was quite certain that Thor hadn’t asked. Just interrupted Loki’s reading and handed him a…thing.
All right, so it was a hammer. Made of Midgardian steel, with a rubber handle and a price tag on it that said $9.99. And Thor had apparently left Mjolnir behind in favor of one just like it. It would have been funny, except that Loki was fairly sure that the joke was at his expense.
“Yeah, Thor, I’m…not sure this is such a good idea,” Rogers said.
Thor looked at Rogers like a confused lapdog. “You explained that this project is meant to give those who have wronged the community an opportunity to contribute positively. Do you not think that Loki can benefit from such an experience?”
“Honestly?” Rogers asked, his eyes narrowing. “No, I don’t.”
Oh. Heavens. It wasn’t Rogers who wanted to rehabilitate him-it was Thor. Loki would never have predicted that.
“It’s great that you’re so loyal to your brother, really,” Rogers went on. “But after everything he’s done, no. I don’t think he can change. And he can’t possibly be a good influence on the kids.”
“He can hardly incite them to further disruptive activities under the eyes of half of the Avengers,” Thor pointed out. Glancing over at Loki, he added, “Not without his magic, at least.”
“You know, Thor, somebody might recognize him” Banner pointed out.
Thank you. At least someone here had both basic reasoning skills and the freedom to speak.
“No one would dare attack him under the eyes of half the Avengers, either,” Thor said.
Rogers sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Look, if Bruce and I both think this is a bad idea--”
“Hang on,” Banner said. “I’m not sure if I’m ready to cast my vote yet. Loki, are you even on board with this? Do you want to come help us with this?”
Loki certainly hadn’t wanted to before, but now that Rogers was against it, he was starting to see the appeal. And he could put forward his plan of appearing to be rehabilitated with Thor as the target instead of Rogers. “Yes,” he answered.
“Really?” Banner asked. Then, suspiciously, “Why?”
Open-ended question. Loki searched for an answer that was both true and misleading. “I haven’t left this Tower in over two weeks. I’m bored.”
“And are you planning any mayhem?”
“No,” Loki said truthfully. Given his long-term plan, he might not even take advantage of any opportunities that arose.
“Okay. Then…I think we should let him come. But if he makes any trouble at all-I mean if he so much as jaywalks on the way there-no more field trips.”
“Loki cannot assume the form of a jay-or any other bird-without his magic,” Thor said.
“That isn’t-never mind. He has to behave himself.”
“We understand,” Thor said, looking over at Loki. “Don’t we, brother?”
“Yes,” Loki agreed. He even tried to sound pleasant about it.
Taking a deep breath, Rogers looked around the group. “All right, then. Let’s go.”
Stepping out onto the streets of New York for the first time since his army had tried to conquer half of it, Loki felt…nervous. He half-expected that the first mortal to see him would point, scream, and perhaps try to attack him with one of their puny mortal weapons.
Puny mortal weapons that, without his magic, he had little chance of defending himself against. But no one seemed to notice them, not as they left the Tower, nor as they boarded the subway, or even when they arrived at the damaged playground, where a group of sullen-looking mortal youths loitered under the supervision of a pair of adults, who introduced themselves as Ms. Chalmers and Mr. Gill.
Rogers immediately took command of the group, explaining the day’s work in tones so enthusiastic that they bordered on the deranged, then dividing the young people into groups and assigning each one a superhero and a task. He ended with, “And Lateesha, Quinn, Deyvon, Martin, and…uh, Loki, you work with Thor on the pirate ship. Thor will get all you guys set up with hammers; won’t that be fun?”
Loki was somewhat pleased to see that his new teammates looked about as thrilled about the prospect as he felt. Thor did, indeed, get them all set up with hammers. “Where the pirate ship?” asked one of the young people.
“There,” Thor said, pointing at a pile of lumber occupying one corner of the playground. “Tony Stark created the plans; we need only to follow them.”
As it turned out, Loki did not get to use his new hammer immediately. One of the first tasks for their team to accomplish was cutting the lumber to length using a power saw with a very large spinning blade, and as all of the youths except Lateesha were clamoring to be the one chosen to operate it, the Chalmers woman came over and-clearly having no idea who he was, apart from an adult and, from the way he was dressed, conspicuously affiliated with Thor-assigned Loki to do it.
It was actually rather satisfying. It would have been more satisfying to cut the lumber using magic (if he had to cut lumber) or to use the saw to sever the limbs of his enemies (if he had to use the saw), but it was better than nothing. Lateesha was assigned to measure the boards and mark with a pencil where Loki was to cut, and they worked side-by-side, without speaking, until Mr. Gill came around distributing sack lunches.
Loki sat down on the pile of cut lumber to inspect his lunch; after a moment, Lateesha joined him. The lunch break, too, might have passed perfectly pleasantly-apart from the food, at least-if Thor had not called out, “Brother! Join us!”
Loki looked up to see Thor waving from where he and the mortal boys were sitting on and around the skeleton of the pirate ship.
“Brother!” Thor yelled again. “And-young woman!”
Lateesha looked from Thor to Loki. “He ain’t gonna shut up till we go over there, is he?”
Prior experience certainly suggested he wouldn’t. Loki shook his head. “No.”
They went, Loki finding a place to sit as far from Thor as reasonably possible.
As Loki struggled to eat a sandwich consisting of two slices of bread and a single slice of something he refused to believe was actually cheese, one of the mortal youths-Deyvon, Loki thought-suddenly said, “Hey, you that guy.” Rising to his feet, he brandished his hammer as though it were a scepter and proclaimed, “Kneel, puny mortals!”
Loki was almost entirely certain he had never said that.
But another of the youths, Quinn, said, “Yeah, you the ‘kneel puny mortals’ guy! Man, that helmet is sick.”
The word sounded like an insult, but the young man’s tone was admiring. Loki inclined his head graciously.
“You still got the helmet?” Martin asked.
“Yeah, where is it?” Deyvon looked around as though Loki might be hiding it behind his back.
“No. It was destroyed in the final battle,” Loki answered.
“You really his brother?” asked Lateesha.
Loki wanted to say no, but the geas wouldn’t let him. “In a manner of speaking.”
“What you doing here? You court-ordered too, or what?” Martin asked.
These mortals were so good about asking open-ended questions. “Something like that.”
“How you get community service for flattening half of New York?” Deyvon wanted to know.
Before Loki could answer, Lateesha said, “’Cause their daddy a king. Rich white boys always get community service.”
“It was my brother’s idea,” Loki said.
Lateesha shook her head and repeated, “Rich white boys. What you want to go knocking down our city for, anyway?”
It was with some surprise that Loki realized that no one had ever actually asked him that question before. “I wanted to conquer your realm,” Loki answered. “The damage to your city was incidental.” Not to mention that the Avengers had knocked down as much of it as he had, but the geas wouldn’t let him stray that far from the question.
Lateesha wasn’t satisfied with that answer. “Why you want to ‘conquer our realm,’ then?”
Loki really didn’t want to get into his reasons-how keenly he’d sought for an opportunity to leave Thanos’s “hospitality,” and to take up his rightful place as king. Somewhere. “I needed a realm. Yours was convenient.”
“I know,” said Deyvon, balling up the wrapper from his sandwich and throwing it at one of the other youths. “It like that movie. You the younger brother, right?”
“Yes,” Loki admitted.
“See,” Deyvon continued authoritatively, “places that got kings and shit, only the oldest son get to be king when their dad dies. If the younger one want to be king of something, he gotta conquer it.”
Both Thor and the mortals were watching Loki intently, though none of them had actually asked him anything. Loki shrugged.
“It is true that Loki was not to inherit,” Thor said. “But that does not excuse him attempting to take over your realm.”
“I dunno,” Deyvon said, looking as though he didn’t appreciate Thor’s sanctimonious tone any more than Loki did. “Sometimes a man just in a conquering mood.”
Loki could not agree more. After considering for a moment how best to express his agreement nonverbally, he extended his hand, curled loosely into a fist, to Deyvon, who bumped his knuckles with a solemn nod.
#
“Mr. Stark wishes me to inform you that there is pizza in his quarters,” Jarvis announced when the returning Avengers, plus Loki, stepped into the Tower’s lobby.
“A feast to end our adventure,” Thor said to Loki.
Loki just grimaced, but Thor thought he was pleased. The construction of the mock pirate ship had gone well-though they would have to return next weekend to paint and add other finishing touches-and more importantly, Loki had contributed positively to the community, and even had received admiration from the youths for his exploits as a warrior.
Admittedly, Thor was a little surprised that it was the “juvenile delinquents” who were able to see past the fact that it was their personal city which had been the site of Loki’s deeds, while his fellow heroes were not. And he was also a little bit glad that Steve had not noticed the youths’ esteem for Loki, as Thor suspected he would not approve. But if Loki’s villainy had been motivated by feeling that he was not appreciated and did not belong-as the reading materials Steve had given him suggested was often the case with those who felt themselves bullied and then became bullies in turn-surely receiving acceptance from anyone was a step in the right direction.
When they arrived at Tony’s quarters, Tony approached them, a slice of pizza in hand. The Avengers who had not participated in the playground re-building were already present and similarly occupied. “Thor, I’ve gotta tell you, I wish you’d clued me in that you were taking Tall, Dark, and Crazy along on this Boy-Scout project. It might have been worth going along just to see that.”
“In that case,” Thor said, “you can join us when we reunite next week.”
“Next week,” Tony said.
Pretending to misunderstand his doubtful tone, Thor explained, “We did not have time to complete the work, and the youths’ schooling does not permit them to continue until next Saturday.”
“I’ll check my schedule.” Tony gestured toward the bar that occupied one side of his sitting room. “Pizza, beer, soda, help yourselves.” Stuffing the crust of his pizza slice into his mouth, he ambled over with them to obtain another. “So how’d it go?” Tony inclined the neck of his beer bottle in Loki’s direction. “He eat any kids?”
“I know it is in your nature to make such jests,” Thor said. “But you risk that someone might think you mean it.”
“So that’s a no, on the kid-eating?” Tony asked.
“He actually wasn’t any trouble,” Steve said, reaching past Tony to select a slice of pizza with pepperoni. “And I have to admit, he even did his share of the work. I was surprised.” Glancing over at Loki, he added, “Good job, Loki.”
Loki nodded in acknowledgement, and Thor beamed at both of them. “Did you not enjoy contributing positively to the community, brother?”
Loki cocked his head to one side like an inquisitive bird. “Yes,” he said firmly.
Thor smiled even more broadly. At least, until Tony groaned and said, “Tell me you didn’t fall for that.”
“The geas does not allow him to lie,” Thor reminded him.
“Yeah, but think about what you said. ‘Did you not enjoy’ it. And he said yes, he didn’t enjoy it.”
Thor looked at Loki to confirm that this was true. It was difficult to remain disappointed in him for long when he saw the traces of Loki’s familiar, mischievous grin dancing at the edges of his lips. Thor shook his head ruefully. “You have fooled me again, brother. But surely you enjoyed something about our day.”
Loki just shrugged. Thor decided to take that as a victory-at least he hadn’t denied it completely.
#
Over the next few days, Thor dragged Loki along to more and more activities with the Avengers, and offered increasingly sincere apologies when he had to leave Loki to his own devices while the team trained or discussed strategy. Loki generally chose to cooperate, with as much appearance of good will as he could muster. The more Thor believed that he was successfully rehabilitating him, and the more the Avengers got used to him as an inconsequential presence, the more….
Well, to be honest, Loki didn’t exactly know what his endgame was. It wouldn’t be as simple as convincing Thor to restore his magic; he wouldn’t be able to do so even if he wanted to. Loki wasn’t even sure if Odin could. He might have destroyed it utterly. But if Loki was encouraging the Avengers to underestimate him, at least he was doing something-and surely eventually he’d find some opportunity to take advantage of it.
One day, they were gathered in Banner’s apartment playing a video game. Unlike Angry Birds, in this one, one played not by touching the screen, but by moving one’s body as one wished the on-screen figures to move. Loki was unfamiliar with many of the sports the others were miming, but it was nevertheless amusing to watch them contorting their bodies as if swinging bats, throwing balls, and so on. Watching Thor fail spectacularly at putting an imaginary basketball into a net was a particular highlight.
“Maybe that’s, uh, not exactly in your wheelhouse,” Banner said when the others’ peals of laughter had died down. “Here, there’s a sword fighting one. Do you want to try that?”
Thor agreed, and quickly defeated Banner, Stark, and Barton at imaginary swordplay. Rogers posed a bit more of a challenge, but Thor eventually triumphed over him, too.
“Do you want a turn, Loki?” Banner asked when Romanoff had declined the opportunity to be beaten as well-like Loki, she seemed to prefer watching her teammates embarrass themselves over making a spectacle of herself.
Thor turned to look at Loki hopefully.
“No,” Loki said. One of the few advantages of no longer being a prince of Asgard in good standing was that he didn’t have to engage in combat practice of any kind.
“We could play one of the other games,” Thor suggested. “I think I noticed darts on the list. You’ve always been better than me at darts.”
That was true, but Loki certainly didn’t want to take the chance that he’d be less good at imaginary darts.
“Go on, Loki,” Rogers urged him. “It’s fun.”
“Oh, come on,” Barton said suddenly, his tone much less friendly. “Tell me we are not doing this.”
“Doing what?” Rogers asked.
“Pretending like the mass-murdering super villain is one of the gang now,” Barton explained.
“It’s been like three months since he’s tried to take over the world,” Stark pointed out. “Granted, most of that he was on Asgard, but--”
“It’s not funny, Tony,” Barton interrupted.
This was getting more entertaining by the minute. If Loki’d had his magic, he would have conjured a bowl of popcorn.
“Okay, so maybe we have to let him live here because Thor’s…compromised, and at least this way we can keep an eye on him. But we do not have to hang out with him. And I for one am not going to.” Suiting action to words, Barton stood to leave.
“Clint,” Thor said. “If you would only make an effort to understand why Loki acted as he did--”
“I already understand. The guy was in my head for three days. Does anyone else even remember that? I know as much as I need to know about his motivations, and I am never going to feel sorry for him. Excuse me.” Stepping over Rogers and Banner’s legs, he left the apartment. A moment later, Romanoff got up and followed him.
“Okay,” Banner said. “I’m thinking maybe the party’s over?”
#
After giving Clint a little time to cool down, Bruce sought him out. He felt bad about how the gathering had ended, and wanted to explain things to Clint.
He found him in the main gym, with Natasha. They were both sweaty and dressed in workout clothes, but by now they were just sitting on a pile of mats drinking bottles of water.
“Hey,” Bruce said, waving.
“Hey,” Clint answered. “Look, no hard feelings about…earlier. I mean, it wasn’t you personally.”
“Thanks,” Bruce said, sitting beside them. “I’m sorry, too. I didn’t think about how you might be uncomfortable hanging out with Loki, and I should have.”
Clint shook his head. “It’s not about me being uncomfortable. It’s about him being a villain. Even if he’s neutered right now, we need to stay on our guard.”
“I know,” Bruce said. “I just…I mean, Thor misses his brother.”
Clint nodded. “I know he does.”
“And I thought, well, what harm does it do to just, you know. Give him that. Let his little brother be part of the gang for a little bit.”
“We can’t afford to get complacent,” Natasha spoke up. “That’s the harm.”
Clint nodded. “Right. Look, when he was controlling me…it was like I was still me, but I wanted the same things he wanted, you know? And what he wants is…scary. Those aliens he brought with him, they thought he had him under control too. The deal was that they’d give him an army to conquer Earth with, and he’d give them the Tesseract.”
Bruce nodded; Clint had explained that in the debriefing.
“But that was only one layer of it. He had all these contingencies running about how he’d double-cross the Chitauri the first chance he got, and then use the Tesseract to send a human army back and conquer them. And conquering Asgard was somewhere on the decision-tree, too. I can’t even really keep it all straight now that he’s out of my head, but it all made so much sense then. And his motives are just….”
As Clint trailed off, Natasha took up where he left off. “He’s an insecure little man who wants as much power as he can get, any way he can get it.” Bruce knew that Natasha had plenty of experience with men like that. “There’s nothing complex or misunderstood about it.”
“We can’t afford to play along with Thor’s little fantasies, because he’ll play along, too. Right up until he gets a chance to stab us in the back,” Clint finished.
“Do we need to talk to the team about this?” Bruce asked.
Clint rubbed his jaw. “I’d like to think everybody already knows. But maybe a reminder wouldn’t hurt.”
“I’ll get Cap to call a meeting,” Bruce suggested.
Clint nodded. “And I’ll…prepare some remarks.”
#
When the meeting started, Tony was clowning around with a Powerpoint slide that said, “It has been __ days since our last super villain invasion.” It initially displayed 11 days, but Tony and Bruce were arguing about whether a little dustup in Central Park that Iron Man had put down in about ten minutes yesterday counted as an invasion.
Clint decided to use it as his hook for starting his presentation. “In case the rest of you haven’t noticed, we have a super villain living in Thor’s guest room.”
Of course Thor immediately started arguing about that. “He is not a super villain. I admit, he has…made some unwise choices…but he is no villain.” Clint waited for somebody else to point out he was wrong, but the others just sat around looking uncomfortable.
Taking over the slide projector, Clint put up some images of the damage Loki had done to the SHIELD base, the Helicarrier, and-oh, yes-Manhattan. He ended with Phil Coulson’s file photo. “He’s been hanging around here like he’s some kind of mascot,” Clint said. “Eating pizza and playing Angry Birds. I think some of us are starting to forget he’s a monster.”
“He is my brother,” Thor objected.
“Yeah, well. Phil had a brother, too.”
“He did?” Tony asked. “Nobody tells me these things.”
Cap shushed him. “What is it that you want us to do, Clint?”
“Stay on our guard. Remember that he’s a prisoner. Stop all this trying to understand him and make him feel wanted crap.”
“Hear, hear,” Natasha said.
Steve cleared his throat. “Actually, I’ve been thinking that we should be making more of this opportunity to understand him.”
Oh, God. Not him, too. Clint had thought that at least Cap was on the side of the sane people. “Really? If you hadn’t been frozen, would you be trying to understand Hitler?”
“Godwin’s!” Tony said brightly.
“Shut up, Tony,” said Bruce.
Steve explained, “Many historians believe that the most important reason Hitler’s rise to power succeeded was that the Allies failed to understand the psychological effects of the First World War on Germany. The Germans were humiliated, their country was economically and personally devastated, and the harsh peace terms only made things worse. The next generation was angry and looking for a leader who would convince them that their defeat wasn’t their fault and would help them get revenge. So after the war-my war-the Allies helped Germany rebuild, and they haven’t made any trouble in over half a century. So yes, if I’d been around, I like to think I would have helped with that.”
That wasn’t what Clint had meant at all, and he sensed that he was losing ground fast. “It’s not the same.”
“No,” Steve agreed. “But you asked. I don’t see Loki coming over to our side,” he added, with a glance over at Thor. “But we do have an opportunity, here, to understand the super villain mindset better. And possibly leave Loki a little bit less thirsty for vengeance.”
Things devolved from there. Thor earnestly explained what great pals he and Loki used to be, and gave them all a reprise of the sad story of how Loki had completely flipped his shit when he found out he was adopted. Tony talked about how maybe, if Loki got a little more cooperative, Tony could pick his brain about how Asgardian magic worked, and come up with better ways to defend against it. Steve reminded everyone about due process and the American Way, and how they couldn’t do anything to Loki since he hadn’t done anything to them recently enough.
And when Clint tried to explain that he wasn’t talking about doing anything, exactly, just remembering to stay cautious and not go soft on Loki just because he seemed harmless at the moment, all they did was pat him on the head-metaphorically, although Steve did give him a manly clap on the shoulder-and say that of course they were already being careful and would continue to do so.
Steve wrapped up by saying, “So everyone’s had a chance to be heard, and I think it’s clear that we all more or less agree about what we’re doing. Right?”
Clint didn’t even argue; it just wasn’t worth going another round. Besides, it would probably suit Loki just fine to know they were all arguing over him, even when he hadn’t-as everyone kept pointing out-even done anything.
Then he left the meeting room, and the very first person-monster, whatever-he saw was Loki. Leaning over the railing and looking down on the lobby of Stark Tower, like he really was a god looking down on Earth from heaven. It was sickening. “You,” Clint said, advancing on him.
#
For a second, Loki could only be amused that the weakest of the Avengers seemed to think he was actually some kind of a threat to Loki.
Then he remembered that, right now, Barton was a threat. Whatever Thor said, Loki was not completely hopeless as a fighter-but without his magic to enhance his strength, speed and agility, he was, at best, evenly matched against a particularly skilled mortal. And he had no doubt that the Avengers would come down on him like the proverbial ton of bricks if it even looked like he might prevail.
Smiling slightly, Loki spread his hands and did his best to look friendly, helpless, and a little bit confused.
“What do you think you’re smirking at, asshole?”
Several answers flashed through Loki’s mind; he settled on, “You,” as the least inflammatory.
“I hope you know you’re not fooling anyone.” Barton continued to advance until he had Loki backed up against the mezzanine railing.
Fooling them about what? Loki actually had to lean back a little, against the railing, to keep Barton’s face out of his.
“Phil was a friend of mine, you know. He was a good guy.”
Loki had absolutely no idea who Barton was talking about-though, surprisingly, he could tell that he was lying. Barton wanted to believe that this “Phil” had been a friend of his, but he hadn’t really been.
“Kind of a geek. Big fan of Cap-so at least he got to meet him before you killed him. I guess that’s good.”
Loki hadn’t killed Captain America-obviously, since he’d just left the room a couple of moments before Barton did-so Phil must be someone Loki had killed.
“But, you know, I think he’d rather have lived.” With the last word, Barton shoved his arm against Loki’s throat, pushing him back even further, and bringing him dangerously close to overbalancing.
Now Loki was…alarmed. Just a little bit. One good shove, and his fragile, un-magically-enhanced body would tip over the railing and plummet onto the marble floor two stories below. It might not kill him, but it would certainly hurt.
If Loki had had command of his voice, he might even have considered yelling for Thor. Better to be embarrassed and walk away than turned into a broken sack of meat, after all.
“Do you even know who I’m talking about?” Barton demanded.
“No,” Loki admitted, struggling to pull Barton’s arm away from his throat so he could breath.
“Agent Coulson,” Barton said. “On the helicarrier. You stabbed him in the back.”
Oh, him.
“And I know you’re not even sorry.”
Well, no, he wasn’t. He wasn’t entirely sure why Barton was so upset about it. “Phil” had fought to the last in defense of his planet, and had managed to knock Loki-a fully powered god at a time-on his backside, after suffering a mortal wound. Surely he’d gone straight to Valhalla-and if Barton really missed him all that much, all he had to do was keep on being stupid and heroic, and he’d join him there soon enough.
“Are you?” Barton demanded.
#
“-yeah,” Bruce was saying to Thor, who was understandably a little upset that Clint had called a meeting to discuss how untrustworthy his brother was. “But you have to see it from his perspective, too. I mean, he said it’s not that he’s uncomfortable over the mind-control thing, but--”
Suddenly, they heard a strange, squishy thud, followed by Clint’s voice saying “Shit.” Jarvis’s cool tones spoke up, “Dr. Banner, there is a medical emergency in the lobby.”
Bruce took off at a sprint, Thor easily keeping pace with him. Bruce was initially relieved to see Clint standing by the mezzanine railing, looking intact. “Clint! You okay? What happened?”
Looking back and forth between Bruce and Thor, Clint said, “Yeah, I-you better get down there.”
They looked over the railing. Loki lay on the lobby floor, two stories below. Bruce wouldn’t have thought that a fall like that would seriously inconvenience Loki, even without his magic, but he was very still. As they watched, a thin trail of blood spread across the marble tiles, from his head.
Thor got to his brother’s side by the simple expedient of jumping over the railing, but Bruce had to take the long way down, shouting instructions to Jarvis as he did.
When Bruce ran out of the elevator in the lobby, Thor was leaning over Loki, his hands on his shoulders. “Don’t move him!” Bruce yelled.
Thor looked up at him sharply. “Why not?”
“If there’s damage to his spine,” Bruce panted, “could make it worse. Just, ah, keep him still.”
Kneeling down beside Loki, Bruce was keenly aware that, no matter how he looked, Loki was, in fact, an alien. Fortunately, Thor had never had any injuries serious enough for differences in his physiology to be an issue-but Bruce could already tell that this was going to be a different story.
Still, the ABCs ought to be the same. Methodically, Bruce checked Loki’s airway-unobstructed-breathing-shallow, but present-and circulation. His pulse, at least, seemed strong.
“Does he live?” Thor asked.
Bruce glanced up at him. “Yes. He’s unconscious.” Assessing the patient’s spine, with that ridiculous leather armor covering most of it, was going to be a challenge. The neck, at least, seemed all right. He moved down to rock Loki’s pelvis.
“What are you doing?” Thor demanded.
“Checking for damage to his spine.” Anticipating Thor’s next question, he went on, “I won’t be sure until we get an x-ray, but it looks okay so far.”
“The wound on his head appears most serious,” Thor pointed out, crouching by Loki’s head.
“Yes, I’m getting to that next.” Keeping himself calm by reviewing his training, Bruce explained, “Trauma assessment starts with checking the things that will kill a patient the fastest. Head injuries are a little bit down the list.” Probing the back of Loki’s head, Bruce found it sticky with blood, but, “Skull seems intact.”
“That’s good,” Thor said. “Isn’t it?”
“Probably.”
Steve and Tony were arriving now, with the stretcher and backboard that Bruce had called for.
“Jarvis said you needed some help?” Tony said.
“My brother is injured,” Thor explained.
“Yeah,” Bruce said. “Hand me that c-collar.”
#
Thor sat in the outer room of the tower’s infirmary, waiting for news of his brother. Tony was in the inner room with Bruce, helping to operate the medical machinery. Steve was waiting with Thor; he wasn’t sure where Clint and Natasha were. No one would tell him.
Nor would they explain how Loki had come to be injured. Even Jarvis was silent on the subject.
“I’m sure he’ll be okay,” Steve spoke up. “I mean, he’s been through a lot worse before. Like when the Hulk….”
“He uses-used-his magic to increase his body’s resistance to injury,” Thor said.
“Oh.”
“Indeed.” For just that reason, Thor had taken great care to protect Loki on Asgard, keeping him within sight at all times. But he’d thought him safe here.
Bruce came out of the inner room, wearing a white coat over his ordinary clothes. “Thor, what’s the medical care like on Asgard?”
“What?” Thor asked.
“Loki’s…it’s pretty bad. And he’s not, you know. Human. If what you’ve got there is as good or better as what we have here, the best thing is probably going to be to stabilize him and take him home for treatment,” Bruce explained.
Thor understood what he meant, but shook his head. “We cannot.”
“Why not?”
“The Bifrost is still not functional,” he explained. “We travelled here via the Tesseract, and arranged to return the same way in six months’ time. I was given no means to arrange an earlier retrieval.”
“Shit,” Bruce said. “And-you can’t get a message to them?”
“No.” Hadn’t he already said as much? “Tell me what you can do for my brother.”
“Okay. Uh, he has some bleeding in his brain. That’s…that can get pretty bad. If the bleeding doesn’t stop on its own, there’s nowhere for it to go, so the pressure will build up inside his skull, and eventually it’ll damage his brain.”
“He will be feebleminded?”
“Possibly, or paralyzed, or… this kind of thing can even cause death. It all depends on how big the injury is, and where in the brain, and how well it responds to treatment. Some people recover with no permanent effects. In Loki’s case…well, I’ve seen worse, but it’s serious enough that it’s not going to just turn out OK on its own. We’re going to have to come up with a plan of treatment fast.”
Bruce kept mentioning treatment. That was good. Loki was not necessarily going to die, or be crippled. “What is the treatment?”
“Well, usually the first steps would be drugs to reduce the bleeding and pressure. But the problem is, we don’t know how Loki’s body will respond to those drugs. They could do nothing-which will waste time-or even make it worse somehow.”
Thor sensed that Bruce had something else to suggest, and that Thor wasn’t going to like it very much. “I see.”
“So we’re probably going to have to go on to the next step, which is a little more drastic. We have to, uh, cut into his skull to relieve the pressure.”
Thor was right; he didn’t like it. “You intend to crack my brother’s skull?”
“Very carefully,” Bruce emphasized. “We use a…actually, Tony’s calling hospitals to get the equipment right now. I’d make a sort of…flap, in the area closest to the site of injury, and put in a tube to draw out the blood. It sounds alarming, but with this procedure, I wouldn’t actually be doing anything to the brain itself, so it’s actually…pretty straightforward.”
It sounded a lot less straightforward than simply applying a healing spell to the injury-but that was not an option. Thor nodded.
Bruce went on, “If that doesn’t work, the third stage is going into the brain to repair the damaged vessels, but that’s a lot riskier, not to mention way outside my area of expertise, so we’re gonna hope that’s not necessary…but Tony’s also scouting around for a brain surgeon willing to work on an alien. Just in case we need that.”
“I am in his debt,” Thor said. “And yours. Very well.”
Bruce nodded. “As soon as the equipment gets here, we’ll get started. He also has some broken bones-four ribs, the clavicle and scapula on the right side, and the head of the humerus. That’s going to hurt, but the treatment’s straightforward. Fortunately, there isn’t any serious damage to the soft tissues in the thorax and abdomen-his armor protected him. That’s really lucky, because from what I saw on the MRI, nothing in there is where I would expect it to be-he has some organs I can’t even recognize-so trying to operate would be a nightmare.”
“We are fortunate,” Thor said, even though, at the moment, he really didn’t feel fortunate.
“Yeah, I….” Bruce trailed off. “Do you want to come in and see him, before we operate? I mean, he’s unconscious, but….”
“Yes,” Thor said immediately, rising to his feet.
Loki was lying on a bed, dressed in the traditional Midgardian light-blue medical smock. Thor always forgot how small he looked, without his armor, and he looked even smaller now, without his vast personality inhabiting his relatively slight frame. He looked nearly as fragile as a mortal.
“Brother,” Thor said, swallowing hard around a lump in his throat. He took Loki’s uninjured hand. “Brother,” he repeated. “I am sorry that I allowed this to happen to you.” It wasn’t just that he hadn’t watched Loki more closely. He had brought him to Midgard-to prevent precisely this fate, true. And he had scarcely argued when Father named Loki’s punishment, though he knew that Loki would find it a sore trial. And he hadn’t been able to stop him from committing his crimes on this realm. Or from allowing himself to fall into the Void. “You will be well,” he promised Loki, instead of saying any of that. “Bruce Banner will heal your injuries, and you will be well.”
Link to Part 3