Warnings:
Captivity
Kidnapping
Hand Feeding Mention
Combat
Heart Attack Mention
Lima Syndrome
Pain
Suicide Attempt Mention
Manhandling
Suicidal Ideation
It/Its Used in a Dehumanizing Way
Peter's POV
Peter sighs as his phone buzzes. Ned, May, or whoever is texting him didn't choose a good time. Peter checks his phone and sees it's Ned. He sighs. His best friend doesn't know what happened, he doesn't know it's a bad time. He can't be given blame because Peter didn't tell him.
Ned: hey, I got a Lego Star Wars set of a Star Destroyer. Wanna come over?
Peter: sorry, not a good time ): got crazy Avengers stuff going on
Ned: yeah I saw what happened. Loki in Queens. Good job getting him :)
Peter: yeah about that. Hasn't been told to the public yet, but Loki escaped.
Ned: WUT
Peter: that's why I can't come over. Wish I could. We totally should build the Star Destroyer later though
Ned: you ok? How did Loki escape? R the rest of the Avengers ok?
Peter: ...most of us are
Peter explains to Ned how Loki escaped and abducted [Y/N]. In the end, Peter is glad he didn't just turn his phone off. Telling Ned what happened is like taking a huge weight off his shoulders. Only the other Avengers and Aunt May know what has happened. Peter also tells Ned what they've done to try and find [Y/N], and how, as of yet, none of it has worked.
Ned: wow...r u ok? Emotionally?
Peter: who knows? Ngl [Y/N] is kinda like the older sister I never had
Ned: anything i can do? I can get your school/home work to your place
Peter: that would be great. Drop it off with May, I've been staying at the Compound since Loki took [Y/N]
Ned: ok lemme know if I can help
Peter: will do
"Peter?" FRIDAY asks through the speakers in Peter's room.
"Yeah FRIDAY?"
"Mr Stark needs to see you, as well as everyone else in the lab."
"Okay, thanks FRIDAY." Please be something good, please be something good! Peter hurries to the lab as the rest of the Avengers pour in.
Several screens are out for a facial recognition search. If Loki is in any camera anywhere, that footage will go through that system. Before Peter can really look at it, Tony is speaking.
"Today's the day. Look who FRIDAY found." He taps on a screen and enlarges a picture of Loki in a suit. "He's in Brooklyn. FRIDAY hasn't found [Y/N], but it's pretty hard to take a walk when you're tied to a chair and terrified for your life because a manic god thought a good vacation would be kidnapping you." Tony fists his hands in anger before continuing. "She might not be in Brooklyn, she might not be in New York City, she might be out of state, she might be in a different country, for goodness' sake she could be on another planet. But if we can capture Loki or follow him back or something, we can rescue [Y/N]."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Peter asks. "We need to find her!"
Everyone hops onto the quinjet and FRIDAY flies like it's the end of the world to get to Loki's position in New York. While there, they try to make a plan.
"I don't think capturing Loki is the wisest course of action," Vision asserts.
"Why?" Scott asks.
"When we captured him last week, we did exactly what he wanted," Vision explains. "He wanted to choose which Avenger to abduct, and our interrogations of him allowed him some time with each of us to decide which one of us he would abduct. He had a plan of escape, and he easily put his plan to action and took [Y/N] with him. If we capture him again, he may very well be getting exactly what he wants."
"Loki did say that he considered taking me or Cap. He might still want us," Wanda adds quietly.
"Capturing Loki might also hurt [Y/N]," Peter says slowly.
"How?" Rhodey asks. "Wouldn't keeping the crazy god away from her help her?"
"Every other time you've captured Loki, you were looking for an object, and any people he took were mind controlled, so they could still move around. [Y/N]'s not under his control. She's tied to a chair. She can't eat or drink on her own." Peter lets out a shaky breath of anger. "Whatever food or drink she's had, Loki's hand fed her. If we capture him, it doesn't guarantee he'll tell us where she is. So [Y/N] could die of dehydration after three days, or less. Maybe Loki hasn't given her any water the past few days." This has been at the back of Peter's mind for some time now. He can't imagine what it would be like to be in her place. It is absolutely horrible what Loki has done to her. His hands shake slightly from anger.
"We should follow him," T'Challa says. "He can lead us back to [Y/N], or at the very least knowing where he's going now might somehow let us know where he will be going or has gone, and maybe we can get a clue as to what his intentions are."
"It would likely be the latter," Thor says. "Once him and I were on Vanaheim together. There was a group there that didn't have particularly warm feelings for Asgard, and decided they wanted to follow us some distance. I'm sure they had some plan, but they were a bit too dead to ask about later. I wouldn't have noticed anything until they began to attack us. Loki noticed them almost immediately."
"Well, we don't have much of a choice," Steve says. He tells them the plan. The quinjet begins to land. "Let's go save [Y/N]."
Once Peter gets off the quinjet, he climbs up a building and looks down at the street. He can see Loki underneath him. "'Kay, he's below me," he says into his comms. Loki is in a suit and is holding a bag. "He's got some sorta bag, but I dunno what's in it."
Natasha is feigning reading a book not too far from Loki. "Rectangular in shape, has hard sides. Can't tell what it is either. Could be a box."
"Hope, Scott? Could you get a look?" Steve asks.
"Already on it," Hope says. "It's a box, and we can't get inside it."
"What sort of box is it?" Bruce asks.
"Uh, it looks like something you'd get at some store. Cardboard, cheap, has a logo on it," Scott answers.
"What logo?" Clint asks.
"We can't see all of it," Hope says.
"There's a price tag over it. Idiot salesman. Not helping us out here. Last letter is 'S' and the first one is 'C?' 'O?' 'G?' We can only see the first half and it curves kind of like those letters," Scott explains.
"He's turning down that alley," Peter informs as Loki heads down that direction. Bucky is in the alley, and Peter is above it. Sam is on the other side.
"I see him," Bucky whispers. Peter watches as Loki heads toward Bucky, who's giving cash to a homeless man, head averted from Loki.
"Now's as good of a time as any to say I know I'm being followed," Peter faintly hears Loki say. Crap!
"Nat and I are going to cover the side we're on. Sam and T'Challa take your side. Thor and Peter up top. Scott and Hope, stay small and out of sight. Buck, keep him distracted. Everyone else, head over here onto either side or up in the skies," Steve orders. Sam, T'Challa, Steve, and Natasha get to their positions quickly. Thor flies up to the building opposite Peter. The rest of the Avengers gather around to surround Loki. Everyone is close enough to hear the two in the alley without comms.
"I'll give you an extra ten if you get somewhere safe," Bucky says quietly to the other man in the alley. The man gladly takes the ten dollar bill and leaves, somewhat startled when he sees more Avengers. Bucky turns to look at Loki. "Where did you take her?!"
"Somewhere safe," Loki answers. "Why so hesitant to capture me?"
"Isn't that exactly what you want?"
"No, actually I would like to check up on [Y/N] right now. We wouldn't want her to be lonely, would we?" Loki sighs. "I really should go, she'll be very confused when she wakes up, and she gets so frightened when confused. She'll need someone to explain everything to her before she starts panicking herself into a heart attack."
"How about you tell me where [Y/N] is and I'll explain to her that we captured you and that she's now free?" Bucky suggests coldly.
"Tempting offer, but I'll have to decline. You wouldn't even be able to go through the door. If you and your friends will excuse me, [Y/N] needs me."
"I disagree."
Then things start getting violent, which isn't all that surprising. Loki is very adept at making everyone hate him. Bucky is nowhere near as strong as the frost giant, but strength isn't everything in a fight. He used Loki's own momentum to his advantage. On either side, the team starts to converge.
"Should we go in, Cap?" Peter asks.
"Heck yeah. Let's go."
Peter jumps down and shoots his webs at Loki, aiming to stick him to a wall. Loki makes a magical shield to protect himself.
"Not to be rude, but this isn't a good time. [Y/N] needs me right now." Naturally his comment doesn't make the Avengers stop at all, and he has to defend himself. After a few minutes, he rolls his eyes. "I'm going now. Stop trying to be heroic and rescue someone who doesn't want to be rescued."
"The heck are you talking about?" Sam asks angrily.
"Clearly I am much better at protecting her than you Avengers are. Trust me, she'll need that protection."
"You think you're protecting her?" Thor roars in outrage. "How would you define protection? Abduction? Ropes binding the protected to a chair? Keeping the protected terrified?"
Loki rolls his eyes. "Why would I bother to explain it to you when you won't try to comprehend? I really must get going. She'll wake within the hour." He releases a spell and after a sound like glass cracking and a weird light, Loki disappears.
"Darn it!" Steve says. A second later both Hope and Scott enlarge to normal size. "Weren't you both in the bag still?"
"I dunno what he did just now, but one second we were and the next we weren't," Scott answers.
Darn it! We were closer than we've ever been to finding her! But he slipped through our fingers again! Peter takes a deep breath. "What do we do now, Cap?"
"I don't know, kid. I don't know."
•••
Some time ago
Loki's POV
Everything hurt. Loki couldn't move, couldn't see. Is this what death is? Neverending pain? This was not what he expected when he let go and fell into the abyss next to Asgard. Why had he thought dying would be the best option? He was so overwhelmed by everything. Learning the truth of his heritage, Thor's banishment and return, losing to Thor. But was that enough to die for? That didn't feel right. It felt like an overreaction. Which was very uncharacteristic of Loki.
He felt himself being moved, dragged over the ground by his legs. It made his nerves scream, but there was nothing he could do to stop whoever or whatever was taking him who knows where. The ground was rocky underneath him, which didn't help his breaking body at all. Whatever was dragging him was harsh and unforgiving, and did nothing to make it any more comfortable for Loki.
If I'm not already dead, please just kill me so I can't be in this much pain anymore.
Whoever was dragging him stopped and dropped his legs. His legs landed hard and Loki let out a cry of anguish. How could such pain even exist? He began to see somewhat. The back of his mind said his eyes needed to adjust to the lighting and that's why he couldn't see. The creature that had dragged him was bent over him, and kept turning Loki's face this way and that. Loki felt he should know what life form was looking down on him, but he couldn't say.
"Is it an Asgardian?" someone asked in a language not from any of the Nine Realms. Loki thought of what other languages he knew to try and learn where he had fallen. Kree? Xandarian? Groot? Skrull? Chitauri? Chitauri! That's what it was. He had been found by some Chitauri. No, no, no! Not the Chitauri!
"Maybe. It's from the Ten Systems or whatever they call themselves," the Chitauri examining him answered.
"Should we kill it?"
Please, kill me. Anything else you could do would be so much worse. I'm of no use to the Chitauri, or anyone else for that matter. Kill me!
"Don't," said a third Chitauri that stepped into Loki's field of vision. A Chitauri Loki recognized as the Other, their leader. "Three Infinity Stones reside on some of the Nine Realms. It may be useful in gathering them."
Infinity Stones?! What do you want with those?! One on its own is powerful enough! What could you possibly want with three of them!
"Help me carry it up to him," the one who had examined him ordered the one to first speak while the Other walked away. "I'm not dragging it up all those stairs."
No, no, no! Just kill me! I'm not going to gather the Infinity Stones for you! Save yourselves some time and kill me! A wave of guilt crashed over Loki. The Stones aren't on Asgard. And Thor destroyed the bifrost. Thor can't stop the Chitauri. He doesn't know the secret passageways I do. Could Odin summon that much dark magic? Would he? What realms would they be on? Oh, what did Mother tell me about the Infinity Stones? Bor hid the Aether somewhere in the Nine Realms, but no one knows where. A powerful sorcerer wielded the Time Stone on Midgard centuries ago. Odin hid the Tesseract on Midgard. The Aether is the safest. But Midgard?! Why did it have to be Midgard?! They couldn't possibly ward off the Chitauri! And if they use me, they wouldn't be able to defeat me! Unless Odin gets Thor to Midgard, it's not just Midgard at stake. Two Infinity Stones! The universe is at stake! Thor would go in a heartbeat, he would fight off the Chitauri, and would benefit from that Foster girl afterwards. But would Odin actually make the way for him?
A/N
I know this was a really fast update but don't get your hopes up. Idk when I'll next update. But, hey, over 300 votes! Dang! And like 9.8 K views I think! Thank you all so much for your support! Love y'all, stay safe!
Michelle