Lies and Trickery

Chapter 5: Brothers

✍️ I'm avoiding studying so here we go. ✍️

                                                     "Each villain is a hero in their own mind."

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To say that Bruce was shocked to meet an injured Loki lying among the rubble of destroyed furniture would have been an understatement.

 The pain in the villain's eyes and the trickle of blood that ran down from his lips made the scientist wonder if Thor was wrong in this situation. The slight movement coming from the blonde made Bruce look over at him noticing the unconscious Tony Stark lain upon the floor a bottle a few feet away from his head. He didn't even look at his brother. "Right you take Loki and I'll take Tony," Bruce commanded his worry taking over his nervousness.

"Why would we take Loki?" Thor muttered, confused. Staring at him with a bemused expression on his face Bruce wondered if he even noticed the state that the raven was in. '"He's hurt Thor" the scientist explained his tone hostile. "He deserves to be hurt," Thor muttered his mind flashing back to his mother with a knife in her side. Edging away from the thunder god Bruce slung one of Tony's arms on his back lifting him up. 

Loki was exhausted he had spent the last hour in fear and pain, stuck in the tangles of his broken memory. Seeing the genius collapse in front of him had transported the god of mischief back into the endless abyss of torturous remembrances. The genius' slurred words and unexpected collapse had reminded Loki of the death of his fellow victims to the torture that the 'The Titan' had inflicted upon all the people Loki had seen. 

The collapse had been like a domino toppling all the emotions that he had tried so hard to hide, instead of the glass cage Loki was suddenly tied spread-eagled to the wall again the whip mercilessly slashing at his too thin back.

He'd trashed his prison, under the impression that it was only in his mind. An illusion that he had made up to escape the pain-ridden days aboard the spaceship. Several times the green-eyes god had envisioned his rescue from hell. The method changing with every illusion, he'd fallen asleep in a comfortable bed with his brother stroking his head comfortingly only to wake up and be met with the twisted purple face of one of his tormentors. 

When he had landed on Earth he had been exhausted his legs nearly giving away under the weight of his weak body. He'd wanted nothing more than to fall into the warm embrace of his brother when he was met with the blue eyes of his. Instead, the spere had influenced his thoughts making his cries for help seem nonexistent and turning him into the cold-blooded murderer. 

Out of all the vision of his rescue, he had never envisioned going through another year of painful torture his already broken body being put under more strain. He'd wanted to explain to his family how he had been forced, how he'd wanted nothing more than to escape the control of the scepter but the gold thread around his lips prevented that. 

It wouldn't have mattered much even if it was removed as no one had come to visit him even once. 

Upon receiving the news of his mother's death his body had been wracked with silent sobs and tears streamed down his face. The queen's last memory of her son had been a pleasant one but that didn't stop the thoughts in the god's mind from whispering hateful things. 

It's your fault

She hated you 

She never wanted to take you from the temple

She wished you dead

They all did

They talked about you while you were imprisoned, cursing your weakness and stupidity to get controlled

After a while, he believed the voices to be right. Simply because he had nobody tell him otherwise. At present, as his brother lifted him gently he couldn't help but lean into the warm touch, something he had craved for ages. He allowed a small smile to play upon his lips, ignoring the pull of the threads as he smiled at his brother. "Must we take him as well?" Thor asked  Bruce misinterpreting the smile on his brother's face.

Immediately the grin faded a fearful and hurt expression replacing it. Where were they taking him?  Loki wondered, images of prisons popping up in his mind. He wanted to ask his brother, wanted to say so much to the blonde who was staring at him with curiosity and hatred in his eyes. But he couldn't ask him anything. 

The walk to the infirmary was silent the only noise being his brother's winces of pain. Thor resisted the urge to stare at Loki's bedraggled state. The god could barely walk, the majority of his weight was on Thor who begrudgingly supported him. He still had tickles of blood run down his lips from his attempt to smile at thunder god. Seeing him lay on the white of the bed Thor couldn't help but notice how pale his brother was and how sickly he looked. 

"How much of him am I allowed to heal?" Bruce questioned. "I doubt there will be much to heal." The blonde replied ignoring the doubt creeping its way into his words. Lifting up Loki's tunic Bruce paled slightly rushing to the bathroom from where retching sounds could be heard. The skin wasn't pale, it was almost completely red the scars that covered him looking as though they had been caused recently. His torso was decorated with bruises and cuts so severe that nearly every one of them would require stitching. 

It looked as though the raven would barely be able to move without every part of his body flaring in pain but yet the god slept on as if unaware of his injuries. Thor was still staring at the almost peaceful face of his brother when Bruce emerged looking green though that had nothing to do with Hulk. "We have to wake him up. We can't risk him having a panic attack in the middle of stitching. 

"I'm already awake in case you hadn't noticed." 

Turning towards the other bed both the Avengers startled at the sight of a conscious Tony. "We were talking about Loki, not you Tony." Immediately his expression soured, "Loki's here?! Out of his-" the billionaire stopped mid-sentence catching sight of the sickly god. 

The bathroom was filled with a retching noise for the second time that day.

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✍️Sorry, it's short I'll try make the next one longer cause know they gotta debate on whether Loki stays or not. Hope yall are liking it so far✍️