Masters of Chaos

Tensions

The next day was spent with Avery locked up in their "study" strategising as everyone else trained. Loki had attempted to lure them out with food to no avail. They'd shut the door at 7.30am barking at everyone to not disturb them unless someone was dying. By 15.00 Loki had had enough. His friend was being an antisocial dipshit and hadn't spoken to the people they had insisted be recruited. Thor seemed to get along well with the rabbit... What was his name.. Rocko? Something like that. Tony and Peter Quill seemed to get along, the blue man seemed to be too dim to hold a decent conversation and the daughters of Thanos were chatting to Carol and Bucky. Nebula had arrived that morning after contacting her sister.

Loki threw his hands into the air.
"This is ridiculous!" he said, completely exasperated. He barged into the study which was met with a chorus of "Ooh noo" from the Iron Family as they had been nicknamed by the rest of the group. Fitting considering Rhodey was almost always in his suit which made him a nearly a foot taller than everyone else and Tony had it literally built into him.
He strode in and picked up Avery who immediately started hurling swears.
"You haven't eaten or even left this room in nearly six hours! Whatever it is, plan out here so we're at least up to speed!" he said firmly before setting them down.
The punch was blocked boredly and the consequential kick was side stepped.  Avery scowled.
"I have all I need. Case files, logs, eye witness accounts, everything. You don't know how I work. So don't tell me how to do my job!" they huffed, their fringe rising slightly.
"Are they always this grouchy?" asked Gamora.
"Yes!" came the reply from the Iron clad crew and Loki.
"I'm not grouchy! People just annoy me." Avery grumbled.
"They would annoy you less if you ate"
"Or if I sewed your mouth shut, Laufeyson."
"Or you could just eat, twit."
Avery glared and walked to the middle of the room.
"Alright, some of you just joined yesterday when I nearly died so I didn't get to give an introduction and quite frankly I don't want to. I'll get to the point and I am going to make a few things clear I clearly did not clarify to the rest of you. I am not a nice person. My job was killing people, and kill people I did. There is one group of people I don't despise but they are not here. I've spent the last decade in prison for something I didn't do, thrown in there after my girlfriend died in my arms. I was separated from my friends and beaten up repeatedly in prison. Their idea of justice wasn't just to beat me to a bloody pulp, they violated me. It's not on record because fucking HYDRA decided it wasn't important. I am NOT here to make friends or "play nice" especially when pretty much everyone who has ever used me or stabbed me in the back is currently in this room. I am fulfilling a mission so I can actually live my life in peace. I don't care who is dating who or about any stupid arguments between you. If you're put in a mission together or apart you fucking do it. If necessary I will kill anyone who stands in the way of us beating this guy. That is a promise." Avery said, venom injected into every word.

"You are not the only one here to have lived a hard life, Ave." Loki said softly.
"Ah yes, poor Loki. Who was loved by his mother and brother and not treated as the crown prince by his father because news flash you weren't the heir. You were never going to be given the same treatment. No point in being bitter about Thor being oblivious, you didn't say anything like a TWAT. Then you think mass genocide of innocent civilians is perfectly valid because "Thor agrees". And decided you didn't want to deal with the consequences.

Then you joined Thanos, got your ass whooped, tried to enslave an entire planet, got framed, got your mother killed which I admit was genuinely traumatic, helped your brother avenger her, nearly died, kidnapped your father and sent him away and took the throne which you claimed to never want. Yes, poor you." Avery said sarcastically. Then they put their hand up to stop Loki from retorting.

"You had a great childhood apart from Odin being a bit distant. Ragnorak was traumatic, Frigga was an accident. You weren't in control of Thanos' actions and you just wanted to prove yourself whilst being brainwashed. However, wanting to kill Thor? Not justified. Enslave a race? Not justified, sorry. The scepter may have unhinged you towards the end, but God dammit Loki you still thought taking over Earth was perfectly ok afterward. "Glorious Purpose?" You'd have found it a lot faster if you'd just listened to your family. I am not the only assassin here, and I am not the only one who has done time in prison or had their family betray me. However growing up I had regular experiments on me that were basically torture. Then I was sent on that stupid mission that was meant to get me killed by my own dad. I left because I was sick of being used and I had clearly overstayed my welcome. You left because you had Daddy Issues and just needed a decent shrink and maybe get a social life. Pepper didn't do shit to help me. Your mom tried to talk to you and patch things over. You were locked up for war crimes to be rehabilitated. I was locked up for life and raped for a crime I did not commit! Tony brought me to those damn people and didn't even watch what they did to me, he just drove off and came back, I didn't have real parents, I had guardians, who made sure the experiment was completed. I had ones who had false ideas of love and parenting planted in their heads. One of them was willing to let me die because I had power I didn't fucking ask for. He didn't even ask about my well-being when I was in prison. You've seen my memories, Ki. You know I'm not-" Avery said angrily.

"That. Is. Enough." Loki said crisply. The humour was gone. Loki was gone and a Prince was in his place.
"That is NOT what I meant. You and I have a lot of shit to work through. However, I dragged you out here because newsflash, You are not the only one in this war. You had your team, the Mutants who understand your way of leading and working. These are different people. The Gaurdians clearly don't have a leader, the Avengers work as a unit. The others fly solo. What I did was messed up as fuck. I am trying to make amends. Whether I feel I need professional help is up to me and is not your business. But never, ever compare trauma especially when you don't know the full story, O'Hara." Loki spat back. The rest just watched silently, afraid to move. Two out of the four godly figures in the room were pissed.
"You seriously expect me to stay silent? We may be friends" Avery spat and Loki flinched in a movement so slight only Thor truly caught it. He watched the scene unfold before him. He didn't know Avery well, only speaking with them to tell them Loki was apparently dead. He'd watched them scream their anguish, throwing themselves at the cell walls until he'd managed to get a soldier to let him into the cell. He'd restrained them by hugging them so tightly they couldn't move and just let them cry and scream until they'd collapsed. Odin had watched silently, unsure of what to do. All he could see was two people in a lot of pain as they continued. "But I am warning you now, do not overstep my boundaries. I can feed myself just fine, you twat. I left using magic, got something to eat and left with it. My plate is inside. I don't care what anyone says I will beat your ass six ways to Sunday, you do not touch me after what you did." Avery said, their voice deadly calm. It was quite scary, Thor could admit that. He liked their no nonsense attitude, very military. Something else was clearly bothering them. Something from last night.
Loki looked at Avery haughtily. Oh no, I know that look, he's going to act the twat.
"You will not threaten me, and honestly Avery we discussed this last night! Everything you're angry about, we already spoke of. We're wasting time and clearly you need to learn respect and manners. While your fiery personality is refreshing, I have grown bored of you acting like you know better. You may be a genius here with these people, but not compared to me. Whether you like it or not, Thor and I are still royalty and will be treated as such if you cannot be polite when informal." he said with a sneer.
Avery rolled their eyes.
"I love how you say we talked things through and you expect everything to be perfect between us despite the distance. Even when you never actually denied us being a dalliance or a ruse last night, never actually said you never used me. Never said you weren't being put up to acting like you care by SHIELD so I'll comply. You never denied any of it and yet I'm supposed to trust you? And yes, Laufeyson, I am smarter than you. You're not the best at everything and the world is not your oyster. Get used to it." Avery sneered right back.
"Oh and Loki? You guys are Princes of a dead world, your people are refugees and could easily run themselves without you. You're a novelty." they finished before turning to everyone else, missing the look of sadness and guilt on Loki's face completely. Thor and Valkyrie saw it and nodded to each other. They would discuss later.
"Just out of curiosity, just how good at fighting are you?" asked Nebula.
Avery turned and grinned maliciously.
"Come see for yourself."