Havoc and Retribution

Power in Emotion

They stagger into the Avengers tower, bleeding, bruised and shell-shocked.

Maybe they have grown accustomed to winning, to being the righteous, because not one of them knows what to do with this murderous turn of events. Six superhumans with strength and technology rivaling what the world understands, have not tasted a defeat like this before.

Because they are slow to recover, it is Loki who becomes the leader. Bjern and Syvlk have come through the portal to New York with them and he sends them to the infirmary, the Vanir men giving no protest, Syvlk silent and devastated, Bjern leaking tears that never seem to end. Loki is the one who orders Jarvis to bring six drinks into the room, and the AI obeys because it has never seen Tony looking grateful to be in Loki's presence. Thor cannot understand how his brother is still standing, knowing that it is true, that Jaycee is locked inside Hel, that they are one woman, and that she has just murdered the prophetess who was her adviser and friend. How can he be moving, knowing that she is dying a slow death?

He does not realize he has said that last bit aloud until Loki looks up at him with aged eyes. Thor has always thought of his brother as young, spry even, but now he sees age on his brother. But he also sees ferocity, ferocity that was not there after he invaded Midgard the first time, ferocity that was not even there when he first met Jay and saved her on the Bifrost. Now there is something gritty and dastardly there too, something that Jay had also.

"That is your problem, brother," Loki says coldly, but not unkindly. "You think in terms of battles, singular events. I think in strategies, wars, and events unspooling over time." His green eyes spark with life, with energy. "You see the death of one woman as confirmation that Jay is Hel and Hel is Jay and that the woman you thought of as teammate is dead." The Avengers are all watching him now, eyes slowly livening. "Despite your profession of heroics and hope, you see the pessimistic side of things. You see the bad that you did not defeat."

He paces towards the window, overlooks the city, sees the sprawl, a map to him, not a sequence of locations. His voice bounces off the glass back to them. "You do not understand that there is more to feel than defeat or grief when you lose a battle. You do not see it as an opportunity."

Steve has finally had enough of Loki's posturing. Steve is on his feet, stalking towards Loki as the trickster turns to meet him. "Enough of this," Steve growls. "There is no opportunity in Dorany's death, no hope to be found in proof that Jaycee is dying in her own head!" His fist shakes the glass next to Loki's head, but the trickster gazes up at him coolly. None of the Avengers have risen, satisfied to let Steve take out their shared frustrations on the trickster.

"Because you are so fixated on the fact that you have lost," Loki spits at Steve, "You fail to recognize what we learned about Hel. You fail to understand what Dorany's death will do to Jaycee, because you are so wrapped up in what it means to your precious reputation!"

The last part is almost a yell, his control slipping. Steve looks ready to strike him, but Loki sweeps an arm to the side and suddenly the table moves, rocking with green light, anger manifest. He turns his back on Rogers, walking away, needing the breathing room. "You are selfish, arrogant, ignorant fools," he says, not caring what they do to him for daring to tell them the truth. Let them lock him up, it has never stopped him before. A one-man mission sounds nice, a change from this idiotic team nonsense. He'll take matters into his own hands.

But the reaction he gets, out of Barton no less, is not what he expects.

Clint's voice is gravelly with unspoken emotion, both sadness for Jay and anger at Loki. Just one word. "Explain."