Chapter Text
Chitari carapaces littered the streets and the buildings amidst the wreckages of their weapons and the city. Emergency workers moved carefully through it all, seeking out trapped men, women, children, and animals with their own scent hounds. People screamed and cried and sat there huddled in the dust, wondering what would happen now.
One such person, though he was neither covered in dust nor pondering his next course of action, was Loki. He was sitting up in the indentation Hulk had made with his body, eyes sightless, face slack, looking entirely different from the man he had been just moments ago. He did not acknowledge the looming monster of a man that had put him in such a state.
He did not notice when the other Avengers arrived. He did not even seem to see his brother, for all he had a strong aversion to the bigger Aesir.
On the video, the Tony of four weeks ago looked to Thor.
“What’s wrong with him?”
“I do not know. Though friend Hulk is certainly strong, he has not the physical injuries to denote this sort of behavior,” Thor said. Again and again, Tony hears the audio play from the hidden speakers in his room. Again and again, he plays the video over and over again.
“Well, I guess we should go ahead with the plan,” the voice of Captain America says.
“I don’t like it,” Clint objects slowly as he notches a different arrow from the one he already had out and moves around in a circle to Loki’s other side.
“Hey,” he says, trying to get the god’s attention. Loki did not move. The tip of the arrow moved a bit closer so that it was just barely touching his cheek.
“You think he’s… what? Sort of consciously comatose?”
“I believe he is lying,” Thor says as he takes out the magic inhibiting handcuffs and moves to capture both of Loki’s wrists. Still, Loki does not react.
“I shall take him home like this, then, and we will see how long he holds his silence in my father’s court.” The Tony onscreen lifts his facemask.
“You sure about that, Jock?” Tony asks, running his tongue over the insides of his teeth contemplatively. “Cause that doesn’t look fake.”
“Loki is a master manipulator. I would take all that he says and does with a grain of salt. Besides, father is fair. If he does not have the truth out of him by asking, he will use his will as the Allfather to-” abruptly, Loki twisted his head around to look Thor dead in the eye, not back online yet, but not comatose, either.
“Beware Asgard, brother. There are demons that hide in plain sight.” a look of anger crosses Thor’s face and he quickly pulls up on Loki’s bound hands, forcing his younger brother to either scramble up or have his arms yanked out of their sockets.
“You betray the crown, and claim it evil. You betray the family, and declare us blind. You faked your death-”
“It was not faked-”
“Only to return and meet out death on innocents. Be silent, or you shall find your mouth sewn shut for your lies. It may yet happen.”
“The funny thing about lies, brother, is that I only tell them when they are useful.”
“There is something deeply wrong with you, brother,” Thor growls at him as he bodily drags Loki to the broken window. “But the Allfather will help. He always does.” At this promise, Loki seems to panic.
“Take me back to Asgard and your questions will never get answers!” he shouts as he starts to pull away.
“There are others who can answer these questions I have,” Thor says as he stops moving to fight Loki’s resistance.
“Perhaps, but you won’t find them in Asgard. There is something going on there and I don’t remember what!” Thor turns and tackles Loki. The smack of a jaw against concrete is sickening, even when it is coming from a homicidal maniac.
An invisible ring on Thor’s finger glows as he reaches to the side. His hand disappears and reappears with ankle cuffs and chains.
“Hulk?” the giant places his foot on Loki’s upper back, keeping him in place so that Thor may work unhindered.
“You cannot avoid every punishment with wild stories. The lives of midgardians might not be much in Asgard, but there is still treason to consider.” At this point, Loki truly begins to lose it as he writhes on the ground, trying to avoid the cuffs.
“They’ll take my mind away again, and then they’l try and make me theirs! Justice is justice- I understand that it cannot be avoided, but this will just keep happening! Over and over until you get it through your head that Odin is not the father you think he is.” All this is muffled by the foot. Thor turns back around and reaches into the pocket dimension again to come out with a gag.
“And I’ll bring you back until you learn that conquest will gain you nothing.”
“No, you won’t,” Loki says so quietly that Tony didn’t hear this the first time around. He’d had to enhance the audio a bit to get it in the video. In a puff of green smoke, Loki disappears and reappears in the open window. “Because by the time you do, he will be prepared to get you too, oh king to be, and then you won’t remember anything” he hisses out. He spares one quick, wandering glance to the assembled group, nods, and disappears. The video ends with Thor standing up, scoffing, and spitting where his brother’s indentation was up until a week ago.