What If... HYDRA Got Hold of Loki?

''you're lying''

Warnings: suicidal ideation

He's lost track of how many days he's been here.

A week, probably.

Two weeks?

It might be three.

Days don't mean anything to him anymore. It's just one tortuous trial after another. He's grown uncomfortably accustomed to it. It's familiar in its unfamiliarity. Every day is a new horror, and he has no choice but to accept it with open arms.

Today doesn't seem all that bad.

He's seated in a metal chair, arms and legs bound so he can't move, not that he would even try; not that he could try. After all, Natasha told him to listen to them, and they told him to sit in this chair. Whatever they do to him now, whatever they want him to do now, he has to do it. That's just the way it is.

As they place the electrodes on his head, his gaze keeps flickering to the bowl by the door. It's just porridge, he's sure. It's always just porridge. But he hasn't eaten all day, and right now, porridge sounds like the most wonderful thing in the world. There's a water bottle next to it, and his dry, scratchy throat so desperately wants to drink it.

Every day, the same thing.

When we're done, you can eat.

He cannot wait for this to be done.

"We're going to monitor how your brain functions through a series of tests," Pierce explains to him as he hooks his finger up to the same machine the electrodes are attached to. Next, he wraps a blood pressure cuff around his arm – something that's made frequent appearances over the last few days, so they must be getting some interesting results. "I'm gonna start by asking you a series of questions, and I want you to answer them as honestly as you can."

Loki's gaze flickers to the bowl by the door. He'll tell them whatever they want to know if they'll give him his porridge. Hell, he'd tell them whatever they want to know if they just ask; they have that control over him. They don't need to bribe him. They don't need to monitor him. If they ask for the truth, they will get it. It's as simple as that.

"Okay, first question," Pierce says. "What is your name?" He turns his gaze to the monitor that everything is attached to.

"Loki."

That was easy. That was a nice start. It's not so bad right now.

"Your full name," Pierce says. "First and last." He pauses. "You do have last names in Asgard." It's a question of sorts, and if he asks a question, Loki has to answer it.

"Yes," he says. "My full name is Loki..."

Odinson.

But he's not.

If he was an Odinson, then Odin would be here. He would ride in upon Slepneir's back, just like he did when Thor angered the Jotuns. He would come in and he would save him and he would bring him home, and maybe he would be angry and maybe he would curse him out and punish him for his mistakes, but he would come after him.

But he's not coming.

So he's not an Odinson.

Laufeyson?

Can he even call himself that? They're related by blood, yes, but they've only met once since he was taken from Jotunheim, and that was due only to Loki goading Thor into an attack on his people. They didn't speak about it. They didn't know.

Laufey's not a father to him. He abandoned him in the midst of a war; left him to die alone. Is that what a father does? Abandons his son in his time of need?