Summary: The events of Moon Knight took place in early 2012, and after Marc and Steven found out Jake was still working for Khonshu, they decided they needed a fresh start. So Layla and the boys moved to New York City, where they continued to be Moon Knight and Scarlet Scarab, and with Steven's confidence and stubborn will, they learned to work with Khonshu in a way where they wouldn't be manipulated.
However, with their luck Marc should've expected their new peace wouldn't last for long, because just a month after their move a large hole opened up in the sky over Stark Tower, and aliens began their siege on NYC. So now we just have one question left...
How does the Battle of New York change when you add in a little bit of Moon Knight?
"For the record Marc, I think this is a really, really terrible idea, most people tend to run away from the giant aliens," Steven muttered, staring up at the massive rip in the sky over Stark Tower. "I mean... aliens, Marc. Bloody aliens."
"Yeah. I know, buddy," Marc sighed. He could swear they were cursed. They'd just moved here after everything that happened with Harrow and finding out Jake still worked for Khonshu which technically means they all still work for Khonshu and--god, why is it that every time Marc tries to get a clean slate it just gets messed up worse than the last one?
At least Layla wasn't here. She was on a trip for Taweret, something about a weird metal in Africa? She didn't say much about it, just that she'd be back in a few days.
Now looking through the massive hole in the wall of their brand new apartment on the 20th floor, Marc just hoped that wherever she was, she didn't have giant aliens flying towards her through a split in the heavens.
It was the biggest thing they'd ever seen. A long, eel-like creature swimming down through the sky and between buildings, armored aliens springing from its metal hide. Even with Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor down there fighting, they all knew they couldn't just leave New York to fend for itself.
"Look alive, hermanos," Jake said, now looking down at the city below them, and the grey, shiny bodies of the aliens crawling up the side of the buildings. Marc summoned the suit and leapt out the hole in the building, a roar in his chest as he sank a dart into the fleshy back of one of the aliens. He leapt off the building and their cape formed into its crescent glider, giving them a moment to take in the scene.
"Khonshu!" Marc shouted over the wind in their ears. "What the hell are these things!?"
"The Chitauri and their Leviathan!" Khonshu replied, nowhere to be seen, but his hard voice heard clearly. "A hivemind race from a planet not of our own, the perfect army! But why they're here I do not--oh hell."
Marc looked around to see what Khonshu noticed and his eyes fell upon a Chitauri spacecraft flying past, though this one was not piloted by a fleshy grey alien like the others.
"Loki," Khonshu growled. "Of course."
"You know this asshole?!" Marc shouted, watching as this "Loki" soared through the sky. He dodged other Chitauri and explosions all the way, and his bright gold horns glinted in the sun.
"He is another god, brother of Thor and prince of Asgard!" Khonshu responded. "He's always been an idiot, but I never thought he'd be stupid enough to do this!"
"Goddammit Khonshu, why is everyone you know an asshole?" Marc muttered.
"I heard that!"
Marc ignored him and dove down, swinging his feet forward and slamming them into a nearby flying craft. He knocked the pilot from its controls, keeping it from smashing into a building just in time. However as the craft began to lose control, Marc quickly realized he hadn't really thought this plan out.
"Shit shit shit shit shit--"
"Dammit, Marc!" Steven suddenly fronted, shifting into his Mr. Knight suit and jumping from the craft, tumbling onto the roof of a building before it crashed onto the street below. "What the hell was that, Marc!? You're gonna get us killed!"
"I'm sorry, I've never fought aliens before, Steven! Give me a fucking break!"
"Both of you shut up!" Jake shouted suddenly, his black suit appearing over their body. "None of us knows what the fuck we're doing!"
"They do," Khonshu said. They looked up at the tall bird standing next to them, and he swung his long beak over to point at the giant eel-like creature (Leviathan, Khonshu called it?) swimming through the air. It was then that Marc finally noticed something flying right in front of its nose, red and gold metal soaring between buildings.
"Iron Man," Steven muttered, squinting at the figure. "What in the hell is he doing?"
They watched as Iron Man flew low to the ground, the Leviathan following close behind, right towards a small group in the middle of the street. One of the people started to walk forward, and as he did his form changed, green skin ripping through his shirt and growing until suddenly the Hulk appeared in his place, his fist slamming into the nose of the giant alien with a defiant roar.
Marc, Steven, and Jake all watched in awe as the monster flipped head over tail, its armor falling away until Iron Man shot a series of flares at it, causing the creature to explode. A magnificent shower of fire, metal, and flesh rained down on the street, evidence of the Leviathan's quick death.
"Dios mio," Jake breathed. "Yeah. They know what they're doing."
"Oh thank god," Steven muttered. "I didn't want to be the one to come up with a plan."
"What makes you think you'd come up with the plan?" Marc leapt off the building and deployed their glider again, angling them towards the group.
"You're the one who almost put us in the same position as that Leviathan," Steven muttered. Marc sighed and rolled his eyes.
It's not like he didn't have a point. Didn't mean he had to like it though.
He landed with a roll in an alleyway near the group of superheroes, but rather than stepping into sight, something made him stop. Or rather, some one.
"What is it?" Marc snapped, frowning at his frozen feet. "C'mon, they need our help."
"I didn't come here just to get told what to do," Jake growled. "We'll listen in, see what their plan is, and fill in the gaps. I'm not lookin' to get ordered around by the Knight in Shining Red, White, and Blue."
"Oh my fucking--fine, fine, whatever, do it your way like we always--"
"Bloody hell, will you shut up, I can't hear them!"
Steven crouched low behind a thoroughly wrecked car and peered through its shattered windows, letting his mask fall away and straining his ears to hear what they were saying.
"Alright, listen up," Captain America's clear voice said. "Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment." He turned to a man with a bow and quiver of arrows. "Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays." Then to Iron Man. "Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."
A moment later Stark and Barton soared up into the sky, and Cap turned to a man in a flowing cape holding a large hammer.
"Thor, you gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up."
The man called Thor followed in the same fashion as Barton and Stark, and Cap turned to a woman with bright red hair.
"You and me, we stay here on the ground. We keep the fighting here. And Hulk?"
The giant green man turned toward him with a snarl.
"Smash."
And finally off the last team member went, a deafening roar echoing down the street as he threw aliens left and right.
"That's... all well and good," Steven said.
"But?" Jake asked.
"Well he never told anyone what to do about Loki, or the portal, did he? What's the use of fighting the aliens if more of them are just going to keep coming through that rip in the sky?" Steven said.
Once again, Marc had to admit he had a point. Even as he looked up now he could see more and more aliens pouring through the hole, like blood from a fresh wound. Two more of the Leviathans had swam through the sky now, and he was sure that given enough time, there would be far more than that soon.
"Looks like we've figured out what we're doing," Marc said, and Steven let the Mr. Knight mask form around their face again.
"Be wary, now," Khonshu warned as Steven popped the cap off the end of his truncheon, revealing the grappling hook inside. "Loki is no easy opponent. He is not a god that will show mercy to a mortal. Do not let your guard down."
"Believe it or not, I've met an arsehole god before," Steven muttered. "I see one every night."
Steven pointed his truncheon at a building and launched up into the sky before Khonshu could respond. Still, Marc found he didn't mind it. Old bird needed to be taken down a peg, as Steven always said.
"Alright you bastard, where the hell are you?" Marc said, shifting suits to use his glider, and scanning the air for any trace of golden horns. Light flashed on the edge of his vision and he turned to see that Thor was completing his task, throwing long bolts of lightning at the portal. And heading straight for him was a blur of green and gold. "There you are. Steven, since you're apparently the alien-fighting-expert, how do you want to hit him?"
Steven formed a silent plan, relaying it to Marc and Jake in their mind.
"Jesus, Steven, and you tell me I'm gonna get us killed," Marc muttered. "This shit better work."
Marc glided over Stark Tower and began a slow spiral down, circling the portal beam and keeping an eye on Loki, who was getting closer and closer to Thor, and consequently, closer to Stark Tower.
"You can't miss this shot, Steven," Jake said. "Me and Marc can get us into position but if you--"
"He can do it, Jake. Let him concentrate," Marc said. He could feel Steven thinking hard, and his eyes were starting to hurt from how hard they were staring at the green and gold blur that was Loki.
Almost...
They could see Loki's face now.
Almost...
His lips were pulled into a snarl, strikingly blue eyes seeming to glow against his pale skin.
Almost...
He swerved by the tower just as they circled towards him.
"NOW!" Steven shouted. He shifted into his Mr. Knight suit and pointed the end of his truncheon at Loki's back. The grappling hook shot out as they began to fall, and dug deep into Asgardian armor and cloth. Steven pulled hard, turning over in the air as he yanked Loki off of his Chitauri craft. Loki cried out in surprise as Steven grabbed him by his chestplate and slammed his back into the roof of Stark Tower, landing on top of the god with a snarl.
"Gotcha."
Loki stared at them for a moment, his helmet having fallen off and his hair swaying from the portal's energy beside them, before his bright blue eyes flicked up to the crescent on Steven's mask.
"Ah," he breathed, his lips turning up unto a grin. "Khonshu. I take it this is your latest 'Fist of Vengeance'?"
"Loki, you must cease this foolishness at once!" Khonshu said, appearing at their side. "Your reckless actions will send this entire planet into disarray!"
"You say that like it's such a bad thing," Loki said, and for the first time, it seemed someone other than the moon system could see the giant god standing next to them. Loki tilted his head in mock confusion and tapped his chin. "Yet I seem to remember that you've always liked a bit of discord. What was it that you always used to say?"
Loki suddenly yanked Steven forward and whispered in his ear.
"Ah yes. Embrace the chaos!"
And before they could react Loki kicked them off, sending Steven scrambling to regain his footing, but it was too late. Loki was already on his feet, a large golden scepter materializing in his hand.
He touched the point to their heart, and a haze of blue filled their vision.
~~~
"Hello, and welcome to Staying Awake."
What? What is the meaning of this?
"Meet my friend, Jake Lockley."
Is this who you are?
"It's Steven, actually, I am... Steven."
No, no that doesn't make sense.
Tick tock, Marc Spector. Tick, tock.
Marc Spector?
I serve Khonshu. I'm his avatar. Which means you are too.
No, no this isn't what's supposed to happen.
Surrender the body to Marc.
No, NO! He is mine now! He's supposed to stand down, supposed to kneel to ME!
Do you want to know the truth?
Why am I here? Where am I? I'm not supposed to be here, this isn't how it works.
There's chaos in you.
I am chaos.
Your mind, I can feel it.
No, no I forbid it.
Fractured.
Stop--
Broken.
No, no it's not, I am a King, I'm--
What a waste.
...Father?
You were always jealous of him.
What? Of Thor? What is happening?
Ever since he was born.
Because YOU favored him! Always, since we were children!
I should've known you'd do something like this.
Of course you think I did this because of him, because it's always about him! It's always your precious Thor!
You're about to lose everything.
I never had it.
Do you understand?
No, no this is all wrong, none of this makes sense. Who are you?
You want to remember the truth?
That I had a father that ignored me? That hated me?
That made your life a living hell?
You're just trying to upset me.
You're gonna learn to listen.
Stop it.
Why do you have to make me do this?
Stop, stop this, father, please--
You disgusting human.
STOP, STOP THIS PLEASE!
It's maddening, isn't it?
Who are you?!
The voice in your head.
His voice in my head.
Relentless, forever unsatisfied.
He could never have a Frost Giant sitting on the throne of Asgard.
No matter how hard you try to please...
Am I just the monster parents tell their children about at night?
...it devours you, until there's nothing left but a hollow shell.
...I am going to die here, aren't I?
You're not gonna die.
What?
Let me save us.
...Alright.
~~~
Coming out of the hazy blue felt like finally taking a breath after too long underwater. The world was too bright, too colorful for their eyes now, it made Marc want to squeeze his eyes shut and put his head between his knees. All the sounds of the world were muffled and loud at the same time, ringing in their ears and hammering at the inside of their skull, but completely unintelligible.
"...up! Get...!" Khonshu's cold voice said somewhere between a mile away and right in their ear.
"Fuck off," Jake groaned.
"What is...? No, no I didn't want this." Marc forced his eyes to stay open as he looked up at Loki, who was staggering to his feet and staring at the city around him, scepter forgotten on the ground.
"Loki?" Marc said, slowly standing up. Loki whirled around, but looking at his face now, Marc could swear this was a different man than the one they'd been fighting.
There was a horrified and confused expression on Loki's face, all malice and confidence wiped away. His hands were shaking and there was a fine sheen of sweat on his face, as if he were sick.
But the biggest difference was his eyes.
Not only had they lost their reckless courage, but they were no longer a bright, icy blue. They were green, soft and playful even as confusion and fear overpowered them.
This wasn't the man they fought, but it was the man in the blue haze of their mind just moments ago.
"W-Who are you?!" Loki shouted over the roar of the portal. His hands gripped the railing on the roof so hard his pale knuckles somehow grew whiter. "You're not the man I fought!"
"Listen, I know you're confused, but we don't have time for that right now!" Marc said. He pointed to the machine creating the portal and the glowing blue cube inside it. "Tell me how to shut down this portal!"
Loki looked at the machine, then up at the portal in the sky, and shook his head.
"We can't shut it down now, the Chitauri will still be headed for Midgard even without a portal to aid them. It will only delay the inevitable--we need to destroy their ship!"
"How the hell are we supposed to do that!?"
Loki looked apprehensively at the scepter still laying at their feet. Marc sighed and picked it up, handing it over to him. He didn't much like the idea of handing over the weapon that just threw his brain into the blender, but it's not like he knew how to use it either.
Loki took it with an acknowledging nod, then stepped next to the machine so the portal was directly overhead. Within a moment the scepter started to make a loud whirring sound, its gem glowing brighter and brighter every second.
"I don't think I'll be able to destroy the ship and close the portal!" Loki shouted, his teeth gritted and straining from the power of the scepter. "So once I destroy the ship, you need to take the scepter and plunge it into the heart of this machine! Do it before the blast makes it to the portal!"
He gasped and stumbled as the gem's power grew, and Marc caught him by the shoulders, barely keeping him from hitting the ground. The gem was starting to glow yellow in its core now, like a fire swallowed by cold ice.
"That will close the portal?!" Marc said.
"Yes!" Loki barely got the word out before he hissed in pain again, but his eyes were full of determination, and he straightened up again, standing on his own two feet without Marc's help.
Loki roared as a bright beam of yellow light burst from the scepter's gem, shooting up into the sky and through the portal, and he held it long enough for an explosion of fire and light to be seen from below.
Around them Marc saw aliens begin to fall, dropping from buildings and their crafts crashing to the ground. Without their ship to lead them, the hivemind army fell from the sky. The Chitauri were dead.
Loki had saved the world.
Loki himself went limp a moment later, dropping the scepter and leaving Marc to catch him before he fell. He was pale, but his chest still rose and fell with labored breaths.
Alive, but spent.
Marc quickly laid him down and took up the scepter, not even checking to see if debris from the Chitauri ship had begun to fall. He plunged it right into the crown of the portal, below the glowing cube, struggling against its power. After a few, agonizing moments, the end of the scepter finally reached the heart and the machine shut down with a creaking moan.
The portal closed, and the sky was clear, as if nothing had ever been there in the first place.
Marc dropped the scepter and leaned on his knees, gasping for breath and squeezing his eyes shut at the headache forming behind his eyes.
"Thank you."
Marc opened his eyes to see Loki standing again. Leaning heavily against the railing of the roof, but still standing.
"I'm uh... I'm Marc," Marc said, straightening up. "Or Moon Knight. But I guess you've already heard my real name so it's not worth keeping secret anymore." He let his mask and hood fall away so Loki could see their face. "This isn't going to make a lot of sense, but I kind of... share a body with the guy you fought."
Steven returned to the front, and with him his Mr. Knight suit. Recognition dawned on Loki's face as Steven gave him a wave.
"Hiya," he said. "I'm Steven, or Mr. Knight. We also have a third here."
Jake fronted along with his black suit.
"Hola," he said. "Just call me Jake. I don't have a fancy name like the other two."
Loki didn't seem to have it in him to answer. He gave a minute nod and ran a shaky hand through his hair, his eyes flicking back to the city ruins below them.
"I...I don't understand," Loki said, apparently talking more to himself than to anyone else. "Why did I do this? I never wanted to hurt--I never wanted to do any of this."
"I believe I may have an explanation," Khonshu said suddenly, causing both men to jump. He pointed his staff in the direction of Loki's fallen scepter. "That staff holds an incredibly powerful gem, it's magic unlike any other in this universe."
"The Mind Stone," Loki said softly.
"Yes," Khonshu replied. "However, it has been altered. That blue gem is not its natural state, and I believe it was corrupting you, Loki. The longer you wielded that staff, the more it infected your mind, filling it with desires that were not your own."
"He... He tricked me," Loki said. His green eyes started to fill with tears as he gazed down at the desolation around them. "It was all a lie."
He slumped down, sitting with his back to the railing, and put his head in his trembling hands.
Jake stepped forward and sat down next to Loki with a sigh.
"You alright?" he asked. Loki gave a mirthless laugh and wiped his eyes.
"I have a migraine," he muttered.
"Yeah, we're gettin' one too," Jake said, rubbing their head. "That gem thing really scrambles your mind, huh?"
"It's supposed to," Loki said. "But I think with the condition of your mind, it didn't work properly. You were supposed to be hypnotized, made to follow my command. But with so many of you sharing one heart, it couldn't choose just one to control. So it grabbed a bit of everybody. Including me, apparently."
"Huh," Jake said. "Guess so. I dunno anything 'bout this magic stuff. That's more Steven's thing."
"Ah." Loki looked up at them with a calculating stare, scanning over their face as if looking for the other two alters hidden behind Jake's eyes. "Are you cursed?"
Jake barked a laugh that made Loki start, but soon he too grinned and chuckled at his own words.
"Sorry, that may have been a bit forward," Loki said.
"No, it's a fair question, what with all the magic and weird shit happening all the time," Jake said. "But no, we're not. Sometimes it feels like we are, but we've learned to work together, so it's not as bad as it used to be."
Loki nodded and laced his fingers together, looking at them thoughtfully.
"That... wasn't my father I was speaking to in your mind, was it?" he said.
Jake stiffened, and Steven took over the front, gasping a little at the stab of pain in their head as they made the switch. Loki looked up at them in concern, but Steven waved him off.
"It's alright," he said. "Jake just doesn't like to talk about those things. And no, it wasn't. It was kind of a lot of people really. Those were our memories."
"Your memories? Even the--" Loki cut off, unwilling to repeat the words he'd heard in their mind. But Steven didn't need him to.
"The 'disgusting human' bit?" Steven said, offering a sad smile. Loki nodded. "Yeah. That would be our dear old mum."
Loki didn't answer to this, only looking back down at his laced fingers with a sorrowful gaze.
"So erm," Steven went on, "Would I be right in saying you probably didn't exactly have the best father ever?"
Loki scoffed and his jaw tightened.
"Not according to the whole kingdom," he muttered. "If we asked them, they'd say he was the greatest man to ever exist, a hero to all the realms, and any son of his should be proud to call him 'father'."
"Oh," Steven said. "And if we asked you?"
"I'd say that I wonder how much happier I would've been if I wasn't stolen from the world of my birth, and had grown up with a father who actually loved me."
Loki sighed and more tears sprang to his eyes as he returned his gaze to the city.
"But I can't even begin to imagine that," he said softly. "My father... he's part of me. He shaped me to be king, a ruler. He taught me to constantly strive for his approval, but he held it just out of reach. He's part of who I am, and I who I am is a monster."
He turned and looked into Steven's eyes.
"How can I ever be anything more than what I was made to be?"
Steven looked at him for a moment before looking down at their suit.
"I think you should take this one Marc."
Marc obliged, and shifted to the front, the Mr. Knight suit fading away to form his Moon Knight suit.
He looked back up at Loki, and put his hand on his shoulder.
"Time," he said simply. "Time and a little help."
"That's it?" Loki said, raising an eyebrow.
"Easier said than done," Marc said. "I know how you feel right now. It's how I felt a few months ago, before I moved here.
"I've hurt a lot of people in my life. I grew up with a mother like your father. A mother that hated me, that made my life a living hell, that convinced me all I could ever be was someone that hurt people. So that's what I did, for a real long time. And even when I tried to stop, I still hurt people. I hurt my friends. I hurt my wife. I hurt the people that lived in my own mind. But worst of all, I hurt myself.
"I hurt myself by believing what my mother told me. By thinking that all I could ever be was a killer, and a monster. By believing that every bad thing I ever did and every bad thing that ever happened to me was an inevitable consequence of being born.
"I hurt myself by believing that all I could be was what my mother told me I was. A disgusting human. A killer. A monster."
Loki looked up into his eyes at the last word, and Marc hoped the expression on his face mirrored the empathy he felt.
"After I let people in though, I started to get better," he said. "I let Steven help me. I let my wife take care of me. I let Jake protect me. I let myself find love and family again. It was hard, and it hurt like hell, and it felt so fucking wrong the whole time, but in the end I am so much happier than I've ever been in my life.
"And yeah, sometimes I still believe what my mom told me. I still believe I'm a monster, that I'm a killer, that I'm a disgusting human who's unworthy of the love my family has for me. But I've learned that when I feel that way, I don't have to run away and save myself from pain anymore. I can go to the people I love, and let them love me back."
Marc glanced down at the movement in the corner of his eye, and smiled when he saw Thor walking on the balcony of Stark Tower just a few feet below them. He was pacing around, looking in each broken window and tapping his hammer nervously with his fingers.
"And it looks like someone who loves you is looking for you right now," Marc said.
Loki looked down and gazed at Thor, a wishful and scared glint in the green of his eyes.
"What if--"
"You'll never know until you try," Marc said. Loki pressed his lips together and nodded.
"Thank you," he whispered.
"Anytime."
Together they climbed down the tower and dropped onto the balcony, and Marc let the mask and hood form over their face again before Thor saw them.
But he didn't need to, because the only person Thor seemed to see was his brother. He didn't hesitate for even a second before dropping his hammer and running to Loki, throwing strong arms around his brother and holding him tight.
Marc smiled at them, before leaping off the tower and spreading his cape, gliding back down to the streets of New York City.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who read this! I really hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think in the comments!