Power of Gods | Loki FanFiction

XXI| know your enemy

"rally up the demons of your soul"

When we reached the peak again, we found Jill and Loki waiting patiently. I wasn't sure what exactly I had expected, but it certainly wasn't what I found. In addition to his bleeding nose, Loki now had a heavily bruised cheek to showcase.

Questioningly I looked at my best friend, who replied with a small smile and a shrug.

I didn't believe a thing. It was nothing like her to just hit someone in the face. Loki must have done something to provoke her. Had he tried to escape, he surely wouldn't have gotten off so lightly.

We made our way to the Quinjet to get Loki to the SHIELD HQ. Every step made me feel more cold and sick than the one before. For years I had managed to avoid Natasha. I had never believed that this would last forever, but I had hoped that I would at least have a little more time to prepare myself. I also hadn't planned for our reunion to take place in a room with another person, that made it difficult for me to think clearly or make sensible decisions.

I stopped in front of the open entrance. My legs refused to carry me any further or to move at all. "Are you okay?" I nodded, as always when being asked a question like this. Knowing me, Jill took my hand, which I didn't resist. Instead, I gave her a soft squeeze and a gentle smile. Knowing there was someone there to support me was strange, but very reassuring. I freed my hand and entered the interior of the plane.

"How long are we gonna be up?" I asked, surprised at how steady my voice was. She barely let it show, but I noticed the look she gave me in the rearview mirror. "Ten minutes," she replied coolly, fixing her attention on the buttons and levers in front of her.

I said nothing, but just leaned back and stared at the wall behind Loki until I noticed him looking back at me. "What?!" "You can't escape your past forever." "Can't I?" I sat up, hands folded in my lap. "Well, you can't escape your sentence. Looks like we're both pretty fucked." When he said nothing, but just smiled confidently, I groaned in annoyance and sank back onto the bench, ignoring the looks of the others.

No one could have predicted or even speculated what Loki had planned, but we all knew that it couldn't be anything good.

~

We put Loki in a high-security cell that would be able to keep him in custody for a good while. Then we set about figuring out his plan and looking for the Tesseract.

One was clearly more successful than the other. While Banner and Stark were programming algorithms, the rest of us had a long discussion about how to get Loki to reveal his big master plan.

Natasha: "I don't think he just sent the Tesseract away. It would be foolish to just give away such a powerful weapon when you could use it. If he doesn't have it with him, at least he knows where it is."
Jill: "Is it really worth just guessing? Surely we can get it out of him somehow."
Me: "We could-"
Thor: "We won't torture him."
I shrugged.
Thor: "That wouldn't work with him. We have to attack him on an emotional level. Mentally he's stronger than most here, but his feelings are vulnerable."
Me: "For us to do that, he would need to have something like a heart."
Natasha: "He certainly has a weak spot. Everyone has one."
Me: "Or maybe he's just a robot, like some other people in this room..."
Rogers: "We should focus on the important thing... One of you can question him. Maybe he'll make a mistake and give us a clue.
Thor: "Loki doesn't make mistakes."
Jill: "He threw himself off a bridge..."
Me: "...and he made me angry."
Natasha: "Then you should go."
Me: "Why me? Send Thor, he knows him better."
Thor: "He likes me less."
Me: "He doesn't like me either."

Thor just raised an eyebrow and turned away.

I hesitated. This was part of my job. This was about the well-being of humanity, not about my personal desire for revenge. But what was I supposed to do? Although we had already tried to kill each other several times, I felt like I knew nothing about him.

And yet it was worth a try. We didn't have another, let alone a better, plan, so there wasn't much else left to do.

"Fine then!" I sighed reluctantly, "any tips on how to best manipulate him?", I asked Thor. "He always loved our mother very much. And then there is his origins, although I don't know how he will react to that. But I think your presence can do a lot too" I furrowed my eyebrows and shook my head. I didn't want to try to understand Thor. "You'll do great," he called after me as I left the room.

The easiest way to get to his plans was to find his motive. Then it would be no problem to figure out what he was gonna do next.

The most likely candidates for an answer - minus certain subcategories and nuances were:

A. I want to prove to my parents that I'm better and more powerful than my brother.
B. I want to take everything my brother loves.
C. I enjoy oppressing people.

Or, he just wanted a big comeback.

So, with an ill feeling in my stomach, I made my way to the glass cell.