Later that day I found myself back in the place I had last seen Loki: the same room in which Coulson had drawn his final breath. Two of the Avengers soon joined me and despite my wishes for a quiet place to think, Steve and Tony quickly began to argue. As I stood, contemplating possible location of the trickster, the two men continued to be at each other's throats. Finally I was broken completely from my stream of thought by a stern statement from Stark.
"We are not soldiers."
The silence seemed to fall upon us like a heavy blanket and suddenly I had no wish for it.
"I'm not marching to Fury's fife," Tony added.
"He was building weapons, none of us are other than Tasha and Clint. But unfortunately we now have a god on our hands who just so happens to have an infinity stone so put the petty arguments aside for a moment because I doubt the world is ready for an alien invasion. Thanos has a formidable army that could easily wipe out our planet so let's focus on that, we can deal with SHIELD's ulterior motives later," I cut in, glaring at the two men.
"He made it personal," Stark noticed, glancing at the blood on the wall that had not yet been removed.
"That's not the point," Steve retorted.
"He's right. That is Loki's point. His strength comes from his mind, not any physical prowess. In case you have not noticed, he is a master manipulator," I stated.
"He wants to tear us apart," the blonde added.
"Yea, divide and conquer is great but he wants to win. He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."
"So a big city," I said quietly as Tony paced, deep in thought.
"Right," Rogers noted, "I caught his act in Stuttgart.
"That's just previous. This is opening night, and Loki is a full tale diva."
Stark's statement made me let out a chuckle as I realized he had a point and remembered all of the times Loki had pulled random stunts for attention.
"He wants flowers, he wants a parade, he wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered-"
"Stark Tower," I interrupted, just as Tony's eyes flooded with realization.
"Son of a bitch," the man muttered, running off to most likely get his suit.
Steve and I exchanged a glance and nodded in unison before taking off in separate directions. I jogged up to my room and managed to strip down to only my undergarments before Loki appeared in front of me.
"Illusion," I noted, using the clothes in my arms to cover myself as best I could while the god stared down at me.
"Anastasia," he greeted, averting his eyes to the ground.
"So you have the manners to avert your eyes but no incentive to keep from killing my friend?" I spat, glaring daggers at the man before me.
"I didn't know you were close to him-"
"That doesn't mean you can just go around killing people Loki! What do you think you are doing? Even if you win, you will be gaining what you want at the cost of everything you really need."
"What?" he scoffed.
I shook my head disappointingly, unwilling to explain something so blatantly obvious.
"Loki you think that ruling this planet will make you better? Is your desire to rule so strong that you need something lower than you? You simply want others to be small so that you can feel big. Why did you come to me?" I asked, forcing my eyes to keep from watering as Loki's jaw tightened in anger.
Yet despite his anger, the god had no retort for my words and soon the anger drained from his face before being replaced by hopelessness.
"Join me?" he offered hopefully, holding out a hand towards me.
"You know I wish to join you in most everything Loki, but not this. Your destruction of this planet is something I hope not to live to see. When this is over, tell that damn grape to shove the infinity gauntlet up his ass," I said, adding a quiet joke to the end as I approached Loki's hologram slowly, clothes still covering most of my torso and my bra doing the rest.
Slowly, I reached my hand towards his face but waited a hairsbreadth away.
"You were always a king in my eyes Loki, I wish that had been enough for you. I hope that when this is over you remember who you are," I said quietly, resting my hand on the hologram's face which caused it to fade away.
When he was gone completely, I let out a shaky sigh and dropped my clothing to the floor before sliding into a skin tight black catsuit. Once it was on, I secured a few weapons of choice onto my belt: a pistol, two daggers Tony had made me which consisted of a type of laser/electric blade, and my scimitars. Once everything was situated, I threw my hair up into a messy ponytail and filled myself a cup of water. When it was finished, I fastened a radio onto ear and my legs brought me outside to the runways where I saw Cap, Tasha, and Clint in a Quinn Jet. Stark stood next to it with his suit on and gave me a nod as I headed inside.
"Anastasia," Clint greeted before closing the doors and taking us up into the air.
The city approached us rapidly from outside of the window, making me rub my hands together nervously. Outside, Stark was barely staying in the air as he sped directly towards his tower. I watched from my seat as Stark attempted to fire at the machine holding the tesseract and nearly laughed.
"We're too late for that. The tesseract will be untouchable unless we can convince Loki to shut it down which is highly unlikely," I informed as we landed in the street beside Stark tower, "so prepare for a fight with some extraterrestrials."
I leapt out first, scimitars drawn as a massive wormhole came into existence in the sky above us.
"Get out of here!" I boomed, making all nearby civilians run in the opposite direction before I returned my blades to my waist.
"Damnit Loki," I sighed, staring up as Stark fell from the tower and preparing to catch him only for his suit to do the job.
"Stark!" I shouted, causing him to snatch me from the ground as he flew by before flying us up with me clinging to his back like a monkey.
"There's another person you pissed off," Tony started as Loki stared directly at me with a look of surprise, "His name is Phil."
With that, I leapt into the confines of Stark tower as Tony blasted the god to the ground.
"Army," I reminded as the man looked up to the sky.
"Right," he muttered before flying upwards.
A quiet groan from behind me caused me to turn, scimitars drawn in an instant.
"Loki, please," I sighed, glancing down at him as he stared back up at me with unnaturally blue eyes.
With a grunt, I forced myself into his mind momentarily where I found Thanos lying in wait.
'I'm going to make him kill you. He will rip you apart and I will give him control just as the light leaves your eyes so he can see what he has done,' a dark voice threatened, making me stab at it blindly with my own consciousness.
'What do you want with Earth? You have the gauntlet and the rest of the stones are nowhere to be found. Why couldn't you just mind your own business or at least bring your grape ass down here yourself?' I retorted, landing a blow to the presence and sending it reeling which allowed Loki some control.
When I returned to my own consciousness, Loki's scepter was at my chest. The god's eyes quickly widened and he flung the weapon across the room, but his hand seemed to twitch at the absence of it.
"Anna," he gasped, as though he had just ran for miles on end.
"Loki you have to fight this. I can get him out of your mind but I need your help. Even if this is what you want, the ownership of this planet, I am guessing you would much rather have it to yourself than risk Thanos taking it," I replied, staring into his now normal eyes pleadingly.
I held my hand out towards him in a silent offer, watching carefully as he slowly raised his trembling hand to meet it. Tentatively, I prodded at his mind and was surprised when I was met with no resistance. Loki let out a relieved sigh, causing both of us to relax for a moment. Natasha's voice over the radio made me jump slightly and suddenly Loki's eyes were blue, allowing Thanos to strike.
"We need some help down here," Tasha called.
I was forced out of Loki's mind by the alien before being physically thrown out of the same window Stark had fallen through earlier.
"STARK!" I shouted frantically, hoping the crash would not render me unable to protect myself from the chitauri below.
Fortunately a fall from this height would only incapacitate me, but the aliens below most certainly could do worse.