Chapter Text
The clink of the scepter's tip against Stark’s chest echoed loudly in the otherwise quiet room.
“This usually works.” Loki frowned, his gaze flickering back to the man’s face, eyes still brown in color.
“Oh, you know, performance issues , not uncommon. One out of five…” The man went on an obnoxious ramble, but Loki’s attention shifted back down to his chest. There appeared to be some kind of contraption built into it, its outline harsh against the soft fabric of his shirt. Loki lifted the scepter again, Stark's amused grin still in place, and simply pressed it down next to whatever the thing embedded in his chest was. The power of the scepter set its roots deep within his mind, brown receded to black, became blue and it was done.
It had happened so fast, Starks cocky smile didn’t even have time to falter. “Seems like you know how to hit the right spot after all.”
Loki raised an amused eyebrow but there was no time to banter back to the man. Not when there was an alien army waiting for them. “Barton told me you are the best when it comes to blowing things up.”
“Aw, how sweet of him.” Stark all but cooed. “Though the best is quite an understatement. You want destruction, I can give you destruction. How big are we talking here?”
The man caught on quick, which was reliving. The scepter might take away a person’s free will, but the personality and qualities of the controlled remained much the same.
“Big.”
“That is not quite the unit of measurement I was hoping for, Rudolph.”
Loki let his eyes roam out of the window, at the buildings below them that stretched as far as the eye could see. “Big enough to level the city.”
“ That , I can give you.”
A smirk twitched at the corner of Loki’s mouth. It wasn’t relief he was feeling, there were still too many steps left in his plan that had to work out exactly as he envisioned them before he could even think to relax, but it wasn’t a bad start.
“Good. Prepare everything as quickly as you can and wait for further instructions.”
There was a hint of apprehension flashing through Stark's eyes. The man did not like being told what to do, especially not without knowing the full plan behind something, but the scepter was stronger than any willpower he would have been able to conjure up. After throwing Loki a mocking salute, he turned around and disappeared further into his tower.
As soon as he was out of sight, a wave of pain washed over Loki, as if it had just been waiting for Stark to leave. It was so strong it made his knees buckle and he barely managed to steady himself by leaning against the glass window next to him.
“They are impatient. Do not keep us waiting, godling.” The hissed words reverberated through his skull, leaving an ache behind that he was no stranger to. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean it was any less painful.
For another moment Loki remained there, with his palm pressed against the cool surface of the window and the pain in his head slowly ebbing away. The world below him was so utterly unaware of what was about to happen, the Midgardian vehicles – cars , as Barton had called them- driving through the streets, the small figures of people walking next to them, barely visible from his position so high above.
His grip on the scepter tightened and through it he could see Selvig on the rooftop, everything required to open the portal ready.
Loki sucked in a shuddering breath, straightening his posture into confidence. It was time.
“Open it.”
He did not have to look through the scepter's connection again to know that Selvig had followed his command, the pleased hiss of the Other in his head told him enough.
For a while he kept his eyes closed, forehead pressed against the glass and simply listening to the sounds that erupted below him. They were distant, but certainly audible. The gurgling sounds of the Chitauri language that evaded even his allspeak, the screams of terror coming from the Midgardians, the sounds of destruction, of death.
Only when the images behind his closed eyes morphed too much into the horrors of his own memories, was he able to tear his eyes open, even if what he saw in front of him brought no relief either.
The formerly moving cars now stood still, burning smoke rising from some of them where the panic of the drivers must have led to collisions that now blocked the road. People were desperately climbing across them, running through the streets in an attempt to find refuge in the already collapsing buildings.
Loki watched a man stumble around, his head lifted towards the sky as if he couldn’t believe the sight around him, as if he thought everything was nothing more than a bad dream. He hadn’t even tried to run from the Chitauri that rammed a spear through his chest, his lifeless body now slumping to the ground and painting the concrete around him red.
Loki’s hands balled into fists. He had to harden his heart, there was no time for sentimentality when he still had so much to do.
A loud whistle coming from behind him almost made him flinch. “These our allies?”
Loki hummed. He tore his eyes away from the window, looking Stark up and down as he walked towards him. He was wearing his metal armor, a confident smirk on his face, but most noticeably, his hands were empty.
“Where is the weapon I told you to make?”
“Bambi, I can’t just build a weapon of mass destruction within ten minutes, that’s a bit much even for me.” Stark huffed out a laugh, while every muscle within Loki tensed.
“You said you could do it.”
“No, I said I could give it to you.” The man held up his hands in a defensive gesture. “Which I can. We are just borrowing it from someone else first. Tell me where to send it and it’s going to be there in no less than a few minutes.”
Loki’s grip tightened around the scepter. That wasn’t exactly what he had wanted, but it would have to make do.
The Chitauri were still pouring out of the portal, destruction washing like waves of chaos over the city, but now, there was at least someone fighting back.
Stark's little friends appeared to have arrived, most noticeable the green beast was scaling the buildings, smashing in every Chitauri it could get its hands on. And then there was the crackling of thunder, accompanied by Thors figure flying through the sky.
They had to act quickly.
“Stark, listen to me very carefully.” Immediately the man’s full attention shifted to Loki, his eyes hard and determined. “You will send that weapon directly into the portal and destroy whatever is on the other side of it. Do you hear me?”
“ Into the portal?” Stark blinked in confusion.
“Yes.” Loki had to clench his eyes shut as a stinging pain shot into his head. He let out a shuddering breath before opening them again. “Don’t question it. Just do it as quickly as possible.”
Stark looked a little uncertain. “Sure, I’ll send it right away. We got to close the portal once it’s through though or else the blast will-“
“ Yes, yes , whatever. Just do it.” Loki hissed out, the pain in his head so strong he could barely get the words out, let alone think much about them.
“Okay. Jarvis, launch the nuke. You heard where to.”
A distant voice responded to the order, but it was drowned out by the ringing in Loki’s ears, morphing into the hissing sounds of the Other trying to break into his mind. Loki sucked in a shuddering breath, concentrating on anything that wasn’t the pain that rocked through him.
The Other had uncovered his betrayal, but he had to grasp at the belief that it would be too late for them to do anything about it.
He would not allow himself to become their puppet again.
Never again.
“Uhm, are you okay?”
Loki raised his head from where he had sunk to his knees to find Stark hovering in front of him, concern in his eyes.
“Yes. Just go.” The three words took all of his energy just to spit out, but he must have still sounded convincing enough because after another lingering moment of hesitation that Loki was unable to understand from Stark, he finally darted away.
Loki knew he should go to the rooftop as well, to protect the Tesseract and make sure it would all go according to plan but he could barely manage to drag himself back into a standing position, every limb feeling as if it had been turned to stone. He had just managed to stabilize when he noticed a familiar figure flying towards him.
“Brother!” Thor shouted out, not even able to be drowned out by the loud noise of the shattering glass behind him. Mjolnir was in his hand, gripped too tight like it might fly off on his own fueled by the thunderer’s anger. “Stop this madness immediately!”
“Isn’t that your job?” Loki barely dodged Mjolnir as it flew towards him, his side hurting where he had all but thrown himself out of the way. “Also, still not your brother.” He coughed out as he got back up from the floor, half leaning on the scepter. Thor really did always manage to have the worst of timings. Though, perhaps it was better that he was here with him instead of possibly disrupting Stark on the rooftop.
“This utter destruction…” Thor's eyes looked pained, trying so hard to understand something they would never be able to. “Loki, this can’t be what you want.”
Loki shrugged, feigning nonchalance as if he wasn’t burning up with pain from the very inside. “Oh, come on now. You love the thrill of battle. Why don’t you enjoy yourself a little on the playground I built for you?”
The moment the words left his mouth a hand came to grab his throat, his body pressed against the wall with a crack reverberating through his skull. “You think of these mortal lives as nothing but toys to play with?”
Loki smiled at him through bloody teeth, glad that the tremor of pain rocking through his body was invisible to Thor's angry face looming before him. “Well, naturally yes.”
The fight against Thor that followed was nothing new to Loki, he knew the crackling anger behind his punches, the cold pain that spread through him every time Mjolnir landed a hit on him, all too well.
Fighting against Thor was one thing, but fighting against the Other trying to pull the strings of his sanity out of him at the same time turned it into a losing battle. His only hope was that with every crack of his bones, more time passed that would bring Stark’s weapon closer to them. The weapon that hopefully was as powerful as he had described it to be.
“Brother, it is still not too late.” It seemed Thor was still not quite cured from his delusion, his eyes pleading as if there was still a way Loki could magically undo all that had happened.
Loki used the brief pause to spit the blood that had filled his mouth to the side, barely able to pull himself to his feet. The pain in his head had only worsened with the aches in his body and as much as he had the determination, he wasn’t sure how much longer he would be able to hold out anymore. It took all of his strength just to lift the scepter and send a blast towards Thor and even that had only ended up hitting its mark because Thor had not expected it.
A few minutes , Stark had said. They couldn’t be this long, could they?
Thor was already on his feet again, his eyes even harder than before and for the first time doubt fluttered through Loki’s mind.
Had Stark broken out of the scepter’s grasp after all? Had he been interrupted? Had it all been for naught?
But then there it was. The sudden shift in the air, the knowledge that something had just happened that made even Thor freeze where he was about to send Mjolnir towards him once again.
Not caring about his injuries, Loki ran out onto the balcony and tore his eyes to the sky. He watched as the portal shrank and disappeared, leaving behind nothing but an unassuming blue sky. Even the sounds of fighting had stopped around them, the Chitauri now dead on the ground, just as lifeless as the bodies of the Midgardians surrounding them.
Loki sank to his knees, the scepter clattering to the ground at the sound of quiet.
There was nothing in his head but his own thoughts, no hissing commands from the Other, no eyes watching through his own. The pain in his head still lingered, as it does when a wound is cleaned, when a thorn is pulled from the flesh. But it was the kind of pain that promised healing, the proof that his mind was once again his own.
The tear that rolled down his cheek felt cold against the wind. Loki hadn’t even noticed how strong it was up here, tearing at his clothes and pulling at his hair.
“What is the meaning of this?” Thors words reached him as if he was underwater, insignificant in the wake of Loki finally, finally having done it.
He had won.
The metal shield from the Captain collided with his already broken ribs and Loki felt something that shouldn’t crack, crack inside him as he tumbled to the ground. He coughed out blood, heaving himself around to look at the parade of narrowed eyes levelled at him. Stark was among them, but most importantly, he was blue eyed with the Tesseract in hand.
“Tony, were you the one that managed to close the portal?” The widow sounded slightly out of breath, as if she had to run up the stairs to get here.
“Yep. The hero as always .” The man said cheerfully, throwing a wink towards her before his eyes found Loki again. Despite his playful tone they were open and alert, awaiting instructions.
Loki was in no position to fight again, there was blood filling his mouth and every one of his breaths brought more pain than oxygen into his lungs, but that did not mean he would simply give up. He had to utilize his advantage before the other Avengers would notice that Stark was still under the influence of the scepter.
Right, the scepter.
It laid on the ground just a few meters behind the gathered group, unnoticed. With Stark's eyes still on him, Loki let his eyes flutter towards it and back at him. A tiny nod followed. The man had understood.
The exchange had unfortunately not gone unnoticed by the others either. Rogers furrowed his brows, studying Stark before a cold realization set into his expression. He immediately dove for the scepter, kicking it off the edge before Stark even had time to move. Loki would have groaned in annoyance if he weren’t so preoccupied with not actively dying.
“Tony, I need you to listen to me very carefully.” Rogers had raised his shield defensively, putting himself between his team and Stark. The others looked confused, but when their eyes fell onto Stark’s face, their bodies too took on defensive stances. “You are being controlled by Loki.”
“My, how observant you are!” The man quipped, but his too tight smile faltered the second a bow was loosened from its holster, flying directly towards Loki who had been nothing but an observer in the exchange.
It was burned by a repulsor blast before it could reach him.
“Now, let’s not injure our dear Morticia over there.”
The fight that erupted was short lived, though not unimpressive. Loki had no doubt that the man could have easily held his own against his teammates under normal conditions, but as it was, he had both the Tesseract in his hands and Loki behind him to protect.
And protect he did. Really, it was almost ridiculous how much of a need the man appeared to have to defend those he saw on the same side as him, which for now luckily included Loki.
But even with all the determination on their side, it was four on one and even Stark eventually faltered. They could count themselves lucky the green beast wasn’t among their adversaries, or the fight would have most likely ended a lot quicker already.
“Tony, step away. Let us get to Loki and we promise all of this is going to make sense.” Rogers sounded out of breath, but he was still more than steady on his feet.
“Yeah, no. Not happening.” Stark was standing in front of Loki, a shield between him and the others.
Thor stepped closer, hands tightening around Mjolnir. “You leave us no choice…”
Stark twisted his body around as the hammer was thrown at him, but instead of remaining in his armour to keep fighting, he jumped out of it, Tesseract in hand and flung himself at Loki.
Loki’s eyes widened in surprise, but he didn’t hesitate. As soon as his skin came into contact with the Tesseract's cold surface, he let its power flow into him and pulled them through space.
“Hmpfh!” Loki landed hard on the ground, pain flaring up in every part of his body. He must have fallen quite a bit through the air after teleporting, he realized drily, but it wasn’t like he had been able to cherry pick his location in his haste.
With a groan he pried his eyes open, noticing that his surroundings looked quite different from the concrete buildings of New York. For one, it was raining, which it hadn’t before, and it was also a lot darker than he thought it would be. Not yet night, but close enough for it to take a few seconds for Loki to properly see his surroundings.
There were trees around him, an awful lot. A forest , his sluggish mind supplied.
And then the wave of pain rolled over him again, shuddering and aching in his every bone. Using the Tesseract to teleport away had taken an even further toll on his already bruised body and with his own magic depleted, he had to find another way to heal before the injuries would get the better of him.
“Stark, give me the Tesseract.” The words took all of his strength just to get out, scraping his throat with every syllable. He could hear the rustling of footsteps even if he couldn’t see much through his blurred vision, but even after they had come to a halt, the Tesseract was not placed in his hand.
“Stark?” Loki concentrated his eyes on where he assumed his face to be, his swimming vision slowly turning back into focus to reveal the man hovering in front of him, eyes cast down on his figure.
Eyes that were no longer blue but had instead returned to their natural brown.
He hadn’t taken the scepter with him and wherever they had ended up, was too far away for the connection to be upheld.
Loki couldn’t help it, a laugh bubbled up within him, wrecking through his bruised body with an aching comedy.
Of course, things wouldn’t go his way. How utterly foolish it had been of him to believe himself the winner for once, just because his plan had seemingly worked out. He had gotten rid of the Other, had managed to get away from Thor, but death had simply taken on a new face for him.
His fate was, as always , inescapable.
“What are you waiting for? Is a blow of mercy beneath you?” His question was accompanied by blood filling his mouth, that he didn’t even have the strength to attempt to spit out. He simply let it trickle out, every wheezing breath he sucked in only bringing pain instead of oxygen into his lungs. He couldn’t make out the expression on Stark's face as his eyes filled with the tears one's death brought about but from what he could see, it appeared that the man was still just blankly standing there.
Perhaps it should have made him angry, that in his final hour he wasn’t even rewarded with triumph from his adversary, but he found that he didn’t care. It was a numbing realization, but it was also one that brought an odd wave of comfort with it. He let his eyes flutter shut.
It was over.
It should have been over.
“Loki? Hey, can you hear me?” The words reached him as if he were under water, the cold surface of the Tesseract pressed against his limp hand. “Loki!”
His eyes opened just a split, the worried face of Stark swimming in his vision. His hands were curling around his own, making him hold the Tesseract where his own fingers lacked the strength to do so. His mouth opened and closed uselessly.
Was he hallucinating?
But all of it felt real , from the press of warm skin on his own to the cold thrumming surface of the Tesseract beneath his fingers.
For just a moment Loki hesitated. For once, it was him who held the power over his life in his hand, it was him who was able to make the final decision. It was somewhat tempting to deny the power that had controlled him for so long, to go against fate just because he could.
But then the warm hand around his own squeezed, curling his fingers tighter against the surface of the Tesseract. It was that last bit of warmth, the reminder of life, that made him realize that deep down, he wanted to live.
He allowed the power of the Tesseract to flow into him, waves of raw energy washing over his body and mixing with his own pitiful rest of magic. He directed it to the worst of his wounds, it was raw and untamed, but it was powerful, and even if it was far from its intended purpose, Loki could feel himself heal through it.
He let out a sigh, the Tesseract falling from his now limp hands.