Loki's Last Chance: The Chosing of a King

A Mind of It's Own

Mari POV

Nick Fury began to explain how Coulson was revived, sparing all the details, as I noticed a small presence hiding behind me. I casually glanced over my shoulder, but there wasn't anything there. I quickly realized that it was a presence in my mind, not behind me.

Loki, get back in that cell. I thought to him.

He was using the link to see what I could see and I was about to push him out again when he replied.

But it's fun watching you show up everyone... His tone was slightly childlike and winy and I audibly sighed.

I don't care! Get out of my head and back in yours. It's going to be hard enough to get them on my side without them thinking I am on yours. Now git!

Fine... His presence receded and I returned to the conversation in front of me.

"So you have been keeping this from us the whole time?!" Steve demanded as the group got quiet again.

"We needed something to bring you together." Nick replied.

"And you couldn't have told us the truth after we became a 'team'?" Tony had moved to stand in front of the monitor and was now standing with Steve.

Their talk soon faded into the background as my mind began to wander away on me. There were images of the clouds, trees, and water running through my head at light speed gradually changing to less pleasant subjects. My head began to pound and the information started flashing by leaving me with no time to interpret it before being replaced with something new.

I squinted my eyes shut in an attempt to make it slow but it made no improvement. I was soon clutching my head in my hands and bending forward slightly. Subconsciously, I must have started muttering the information out loud at auctioneer speed, because the room had gone quiet. Though, it wasn't like I noticed; I was a bit preoccupied. The images had morphed into things from Loki's attack on New York and they had slowed down just enough for me to process the pictures.

I had to make it stop! But with all the things running through my mind, I couldn't remember how. 

Loki POV

After Mari had shooed me out of her mind, I started listening in on the others' thoughts to see if I could follow the conversation. All their thoughts revolved around the new information that agent Phil Coulson was alive; occasionally straying to Mari who was off to the side not paying much attention.

Suddenly the chatter in their minds died down and confusion replaced it. They all turned to Mari who was holding her head in her hands, eyes shut tight. Something was very wrong.

I pulled out and landed back in my cell. I could feel the tension and panic that Mari must have been feeling through the mental link. I was tempted to enter her thoughts so I could try and help, but I could still remember the last time we tried that.

Once when we were young, Thor, Mari, and I explored the extents of the mind links and magic of mind-reading. I successfully mastered the art quickly, but had never tried it on Mari or Thor. We set up an experiment to see if i could do it without seeing anything I wasn't allowed. They would both think of something simple and harmless like the alphabet or a book they were reading and I would see if I could listen in. It started out fine; I could easily follow Thor reciting the names of all the nine realms in order of loyalty to Asgard. But when I tried to enter Mari's mind, I was overwhelmed with the information running through her head and blacked out. I didn't wake for eight hours and hadn't tried again since.

So instead of risking my consciousness, I checked on her again through Barton's eyes before taking any sort of action to help. Mari had started muttering at light speed and they had no idea what was going on. It seemed as if the information was becoming too much for her and had started to overflow.

Mari? What's going on? Are you alright? I thought to her hoping she would answer back.

Mari POV

The images of New York started to focus on Loki, and it was apparent something was different about him. There was something wrong with his eyes in some of the scenes. When he was acting aggressive and cruel, they seemed to have an electric blue tinge and when he could truly see the damage around him or showed regret, they would return to normal. By making me compare the pictures to those of Clint Barton under the control of the Tesseract, my mind pointed out that this was most likely that Loki had been at least a bit under the influence of the Tesseract as well. This would explain how he wasn't entirely certain what motivated him to do those things or why his hatred had flared so high.

Mari? What's going on? Are you alright? I heard a faint voice ask me in the back of my head.

Loki...

That was how I could calm the swirling sea inside. Emotion. Thinking of emotions was always how I kept the storm at bay.

How did I feel about Loki? Did I care for him? Of course. Could I love him? That was yet to be seen.

The pressure behind my temples subsided and the flow of information stopped. I opened my eyes to see that the group had gone silent and were watching me in confusion. I straightened, squaring my shoulders and gave them a calm smile.

"Sorry, carry on with you conversation. I'm just going to sit in that chair as you keep talking." I told them, trying not to act too suspicious/crazy.

They began to chat, quieter than before, as I dropped into the chair sitting in the corner. With my elbows on my knees, I buried my face in my hands.

I-I'm fine... It was nothing. I thought to Loki, hoping he could believe my half-hearted lie.

Maria... I'm the god of lies and mischief, please don't lie to me. He replied in a calm, cool voice.

I sighed.

This was going to be a long day.