A Feather's Trick ➸ Loki fanfiction

Chapter 10

"Pietro." Wanda said slowly. "What are you doing? You were supposed to watch her." She grabbed my arm forcefully. She sounded angry, but there was an underlying tone of concern.

"I was watching her!" He defended himself. There was no lie there. He reached for my other arm, holding me back.

"You know what I mean." Wanda sighed, dropping my arm in frustration.

"It's fine. I had it under control." He brushed her off.

"That was not our plan, and you know it." Wanda looked skeptical to say the least.

"Plans can be changed."

"We don't have time for this." She groaned. "I've had a vision." She looked at me, before looking at him once again. "And it involves her."

I followed the twins as we entered the empty building. It looked abandoned. I scoffed. How could the humans leave their place of worship in such a desolate state. Gods deserved better than this.

"Talk. And if you are wasting our time..." Wanda threatened the hooded figure.

"Did you know this church is in the exact center of the city? The elders decreed it so that everyone could be equally close to God. I like that. I bet you do too," I knew he meant me, "The geometry of belief. You're wondering why you can't look inside my head." He sounded amused.

"Sometimes it's hard. But sooner or later, every man shows himself." Wanda said confidently.

The figure stood, and faced us. He looked like Iron Man, but all metal. Wanda briefly looked shocked. I raised an eyebrow and Pietro whistled.

"Oh, I'm sure they do. But you needed something more than a man. That's why you let Stark take the scepter." He said knowingly. Realization struck as he said those words. I paid even closer attention to his words, if that was possible.

"I didn't expect..." Wanda trailed off momentarily. "But I saw Stark's fear, I knew it would control him, make him self-destruct."

"Everyone creates the thing they dread. Men of peace create engines of war, invaders create avengers, people create...smaller people?" He paused. "Uh...children! I lost the word there." He laughed. "Children. Designed to supplant them, to help them...end."

"Is that why you've come? To end the Avengers?" Wanda asked. I felt a flicker of fear in my heart. The man started deeply into my eyes, as though he could read my thoughts. I urged the fear to subside.

"I've come to save the world. But also, yeah." He shrugged. "We'll move out right away. This is a start, but there's something we need to begin the real work."

"All of these are... All of these are..." Wanda motioned around the room.

For the first time, I looked around. Other metal bodies similar to the one she spoke to were strewn about.

"Me. I have what the Avengers never will. Harmony. They're discordant, disconnected. Stark's already got them turning on each other. And when you get inside the rest of their heads..."

"Everyone's plan is not to kill them." Pietro piped up beside me impatiently.

"And make them martyrs? You need patience. Need to see the big picture."

"I don't see the big picture, I have a little picture. I take it out and look at it every day."

"You lost your parents in the bombings. I've seen the records." The man stated. I began to realize the extent of his power.

"The records are not the picture." Pietro argued.

"Pietro." Wanda warned.

"No, please." He urged Pietro to continue.

Pietro told the tale I'd heard a few days before. But this time, there was a fire that hadn't been there. I could see how badly he wanted vengeance.

"We were trapped two days." He seethed.

"Every effort to save us, every shift in the bricks, I think, 'This will set it off.' We wait for two days for Tony Stark to kill us." Wanda told her side.

"I know what they are." Pietro's voice was laced with venom.

"I wondered why only you two survived Strucker's experiments. Now I don't. We will make it right. You and I can hurt them." He told Pietro. "But you will tear them apart, from the inside." His hand rested against her temple.

"Don't tell me your man swindled you. I sent you six short range heat seekers and got a boat full of rusted parts. Now, you will make it right, or the next missile I send you will come very much faster." Ulysses Klaue ended his call. "Now, minister, where were we?"

The lights went out, and there was a commotion in the salvage yard. That was our signal. I trailed behind the twins as they entered Klaue's office.

"Yeah. The enhanced. Strucker's prize pupils." He picked up a plate from his desk. "Want a candy? Oh, sorry to hear about Strucker. But then, he knew what kind of world he was helping create. Human life, not a growth market." The twins looked at each other. "You...you didn't know? Is this your first time intimidating someone? I'm afraid that I'm not that afraid."

"Everybody's afraid of something." Wanda sounded intimidating.

"Cuttlefish. Deep sea fish. They make lights. disco lights. Whoom, whoom, whoom! to hypnotize their prey, then whoom!" He grabbed the air in front of him. "I saw a documentary, it was terrifying."

Pietro sped over to pick up a candy from Klaue's desk. Klaue jerked back, no doubt expecting to be attacked. I couldn't help but smirk.

"So if you're going to fiddle with my brain, and make me see a giant cuttlefish, then I know you don't do business, and I know you're not in charge, and I only deal with the man in charge." He stood up.

Ultron broke through the glass window behind him, knocking him down, "There is no 'man' in charge. Let's talk business."