Puzzle Of A Chosen Trickster

Conference

(Narrator POV)
"This is insane!"

They had all left the memory box for now, but they planned to go back in later. Currently though, they had arguing to do apparently.

"I can't believe that." Steve said with so much force it actually made Thor flinch. He seemed to be unwilling to believe what they had seen, but how could he really deny something that they had all seen with their own eyes moments ago.

"Cap, you can't really deny this! Sure, it could be some kind of trick, but you saw it with your own eyes the same as the rest of us did! I didn't get that thing open for you to shoot down anything it said!" Tony yelled back. He didn't care if it could be a trick because there was equal likelihood that it wasn't.

He had heard those whispers in the beginning. All the pain, anger, hate, and jealousy that surged in each spitting word. He could feel the acceptance when Odin said 'No Loki', he could feel the guilt when Frigga whispered 'please don't make this worse'. Loki had felt those things and then fell into a place that warps your head and makes all your worst emotions amplify. Now it looks like he still chose the same side as they had.

"You can't seriously believe this! You know as well as I do that he plays games! That's what he does! That claims that he was trying to bring us together, but he ended up making us fight even more!" Steve shouted while pointing angrily at the stone. Thor and Natasha both chose to just hang back and wait until these two were calmed down.

"Might I remind you that us fighting led to us apologizing for all the stuff we said! We ended up a team because his attack gave us the kick in the pants we clearly needed!" The inventor said with more calm then before but still throwing his arms up in exasperation.

"The mind-control is also ridiculous! How do we know if he was actually mind controlled?! He killed people, Stark!" Steve pointed out.

"So have I! My weapons killed thousands and you all still gave me a shot! Also, Bucky was mind-controlled to kill thousands and you took him in no problem just because he was your old bestie!" The engineer sounded beyond fed up.

"Don't talk about Bucky like that!"

"Don't talk about Loki like that!"

"Boys!"

Their arguing was interrupted by Natasha. She looked thoroughly done with them and her sigh sounded heavy.

"Listen, we don't know if it's the truth or not yet, but we are going to watch all the rest of it." She paused to study them before continuing. "And I do mean, all the rest of it."

It was silent for a moment before the thunderer spoke, his booming voice being replaced by a calm, quiet, slightly sad one.

"I never believed in my brother. I trusted the words of my father and friends, instead of listening to him. He has told me thousands of times that being the God of Lies does not mean that he has to lie, it just means he's good at it and can tell when others lie. I never believed him. I never believed most of what he told me. He gave me reason not to trust him because of his pranks, but if that is enough reason for me not to trust him then he had more than enough reason not to trust me." He paused to sigh before continuing.

"I was a terrible brother. I chose my friends and father over him every chance I got. I mocked him, made fun of him, and I was not the supportive brother that he was. He has saved me more times than I can count and yet he never got the credit. I am giving him all of my faith now, even if it's too late." He slowly walked away, and was followed by Natasha to make sure he was okay.

Steve and Tony stared at each other before letting out twin sighs. Their shoulders slumped a bit and Tony collapsed back into the desk chair.

"You really believe it?" The captain asked after a few moments of silence. He sounded skeptical, but like he was still ready to join in on this crazy train if Tony's answer was yes.

Did Tony believe it? More than he would probably like to admit. All those words from the puzzle were still ringing through his head. The first to replace Peter's voice in weeks. A certain line was sticking in his head at the very moment.

More than a liar, trickster, and cheat.

Which was true. Loki was more than everyone seemed to think he was and clearly he had been holding back his power during the invasion if he was really the most powerful sorcerer in the nine realms.

Thor had faith, that was for sure. He had seen who his brother could really be and if that meant that he'd gained the thunderer's trust than Tony was willing to at least consider handing over his own.

Tony also understood how you can be misunderstood. The more he thought about it, the more he had in common with the God of Mischief. They were both smart, determined, and turned into a villain by other people having control of the situation.

Natasha clearly had enough trust to at least look into it further. Of course, she wasn't about to jump to anyone's defense unless she had real proof, but she was good at reading people and she clearly saw something in Loki.

Steve would come around because Loki and Bucky weren't all that different in the realm of 'someone else is making me do the things I'm doing and I don't really have a choice right now'.

So, did Tony believe it? Did he have enough hope and faith to look into it further and maybe, just maybe except that the God wasn't as evil as he seemed? "You really believe it?"

"Some people deserve second chances."

A/N I made the cover of this chapter be Tony Stark's iconic, meme-worthy eye-roll. Because that look is a mood.

Hope you all enjoyed and keep on readin'!