Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 88

Fury opens up a case holding the chips, and Steve eyes them warily. Where are they going with this? What are they going to do with these?

"What's that?" Sam asks, echoing Steve's thoughts.

"Once the Helicarriers reach three thousand feet," Maria Hill explains, turning her laptop around so they can all see the visuals, "they'll triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized."

"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own," Fury tells them.

"One or two won't cut it," Hill adds. "We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational a whole lot of people are gonna die."

Steve nods. That's going to be a hell of a challenge, but they have a good team. They might stand a chance. They better stand a chance.

"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA," Fury says.

Steve nods. "We're not gonna have much backup."

He pauses, brows furrowing.

Wait.

Natasha looks up at him warily. "What's with that face? I don't like that face."

"We're not bringing in the other Avengers," Fury tells him. "I wish I could say we can trust them, but I just don't know. It's not worth the risk."

"I wasn't going to say the Avengers," Steve says. "They could be with HYDRA. We can't know for sure."

"But..." Sam prompts.

"But we do have one ally who's barely even seen SHIELD," Steve says slowly.

Natasha raises her brows. "You want to bring Loki in."

Steve nods. He can't do much, but Natasha said he was messing with her earlier. He has some pull. Maybe he can't take the lead with anything. Maybe they can't even put him in the plan. But just having him around, making sure nothing goes wrong? They could use an extra set of eyes.

But Fury immediately strikes it down with a very loud, very firm, "No."

Sam looks between them, his brows furrowed. "Loki? The god Loki? Decimated-half-of-New-York Loki?"

Steve sighs. "Yeah, he's been living in Avengers Tower for the last year and a half."

"Don't even ask," Natasha mutters.

Sam stares at them in disbelief, which is promptly ignored.

"We can't even trust our own people," Fury says incredulously, "and you want to bring Loki onto the battlefield?"

"We can't trust them because they could be HYDRA," Steve reminds him. "Loki's not."

"Maybe not yet," Fury says, "but who's to say he won't turn with the right incentive?"

Steve sighs. "I know you don't like him—"

"Oh, I like him just fine," Fury tells him. "He's cute, like a little puppy dog. But you provoke 'em, and puppy dogs have a nasty bite."

Steve presses his lips into a firm line. He gets it. He really does. He can see why Fury wouldn't trust him, but he does. He knows Loki, probably better than anyone else on this planet (assuming Thor hasn't come back yet). He's not going to turn. He can't.

"Hate to admit it, but Rogers might have a point," Natasha says. "I mean, he makes one wrong move, his dad's going to drag him back to Asgard."

"And believe me," Steve says darkly, "he doesn't want that." If there's one thing that Loki has made very clear since he showed up, it's that he wants nothing to do with Asgard or its people, his father especially.