You speed walk down the hallway and into the bridge, not stopping until you see who you are looking for: Thor. You aren’t quite sure how to approach him, having known him for the least amount of time. You slow down and casually head in his direction. “Thor, we need to talk.”
“What about?” Thor asks kindly. The two of you walk away from the nearby agents and sit down on a metallic bench bolted into the wall.
You take a deep breath. “So, Fury told me to see Loki before Romanoff does, and specifically try to learn what happened between him and I. Well, he gave me a brief explanation of his theory, but I wanted to see if I could double check with you, since he’s the God of Lies and all that.”
Thor nods. “Certainly. Unfortunately, my brother has quite the talent for lies, which works very well for him in his grab for power.”
“Thank you,” you say with a sigh of relief. “Okay, remember what I told you about the Apparatus and how I became a psychic?” Thor nods. “Alright, so Loki said that the Apparatus gave me magical abilities, which is why I’m a psychic. Which, honestly, is the theory that makes the most sense about that, since I have no idea how I became a psychic. But he also said that I could’ve gotten another power. He said that he thinks that I, I teleported away from him. According to him, strong emotion can unlock powers or whatever, and, well, I was pretty terrified when he took me. So, if that logic works out, I guess that means that my fear could’ve kick started magic in me? And made me teleport away from him? Without me knowing what was happening? Is that even possible?”
Thor contemplates Loki’s theory. “What he said about emotion is true. My emotions affect my abilities, and the same is true with Loki. When we’re angered, our abilities are harsher, when we mourn, we are weakened, when we are confident, our strength is enhanced, and so it is continued with every emotion we can possibly feel. When we are fearful, our abilities are erratic and less controllable.”
“So you’re saying that, between me not even knowing about my powers and my terror making them erratic, I was unable to control it and ended up at S.H.I.E.L.D.?” you ask for clarification.
“Exactly. I know not about this Apparatus and whether it could possibly have given you power you had not before. All I know is that my brother’s description of emotion and our abilities is accurate.”
“So you think I’m a sorceress?” you ask jokingly. “Loki called me that.”
“I think it’s entirely possible. But be warned, Loki is a skilled spinner of tales. It is possible that he took the actual laws of the universe and weaved a tale out of it in hopes that he would ensnare you in his lies. While he may be telling the truth, it would be wise to remain skeptical,” Thor answers solemnly.
“Agreed. If I’m not careful he could even convince me to, I dunno, watch Twilight.”
“Twilight? What is this Twilight?” Thor asks in confusion.
“Let’s just say that if it were to come to it, it would be my choice of torture for whatever poor soul gets it.” Thor looks at you in worry. “It’s not really torture,” you say in assurance. “Just really, really poor writing.”
Thor nods in understanding and smiles. “Loki used to speak similarly about different Asgardian books. He is rather fond of literature. I have nothing against reading, but it is not something I do rather often. Loki used to tell me about how this book he had read was horrible and proceeded to tell me its every flaw. I wouldn’t read those books ever, not when he had told me they were unworthy of my time, so I didn’t mind. It was fun to see him so passionate over only some books, raving about how an unschooled child could write better in his sleep.”
“If it weren’t for the fact that he’s kinda trying to take over, it sounds like he’d be my type of guy.”
Thor laughs lightly. “He wasn’t always like this. It was only in the last few years that he became unbalanced and his desire for power grew past the measure of a good man. I think you would have liked him, [Y/N]. He was kind and always seemed to know what to say at any given moment. He tended to keep to himself, but those fortunate enough to know him well never had an uneventful day. He’s always been the mischievous type and would get us all into all sorts of trouble. There was never a dull moment with him.”
You smile as Thor tells you about his brother. It is bittersweet. From what Thor says, Loki was a good person and a fun person to be with. But all of that is gone. Well, maybe not, but Thor doesn’t know that. Okay, Loki was definitely in the wrong in Thor, at least at the end he was. Before that he didn’t really do anything wrong. But right now he is working with Thanos, and odds are it isn’t willingly. Whether he was tortured or mind controlled or whatever, I don’t know. But this isn’t the real Loki. But, of course, I can’t let Thor know that, or else who knows what would happen? “My condolences. All of this must be really hard on you.”
“Thank you, [Y/N].” The two of you sit in silence. “Would you mind if I took some time alone?” Thor asks, breaking the silence.
“No, not at all. Thanks for the help,” you say as you get up and walk away, not heading in any particular direction, only trying to give Thor some space. Gosh, this all must be horrible for him. You’re walking along the corridors of the helicarrier until you find yourself outside the laboratory where Tony and Bruce are working. At the same time you end up there, so does Steve.
“Oh, hi,” Steve says as the two of you get closer. “How are you?”
You shrug. “Good. You?”
“I’m good, just getting stir crazy, not knowing what is happening.”
You nod. “Same here.” You look over at the laboratory. “You think they know anything yet?”
“Maybe. Let’s see.” Steve opens the door and lets you in before entering himself. There’s a wide variety of high tech monitors and other tools turned on, with Loki’s scepter on a stand on a table in the back. The two of you enter in the middle of Tony and Bruce’s conversation.
“Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension, no surprises,” Tony says as he walks around Bruce, only to shock him with the tool in his hand. Bruce shouts, mostly in surprise. He doesn’t appear to be hurt. Well, if he was hurt he’d be green.
“Hey!” Steve shouts at Tony.
“Nothing?” Tony asks Bruce.
“Are you nuts?” Steve asks angrily.
“Jury’s out,” Tony tells Steve nonchalantly. “You really have got a lid on it, haven’t you?” Tony says in amazement. “What’s your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?”
“Is everything a joke to you?” Steve asks harshly.
“Funny things are,” Tony answers. You roll your eyes, trying to act like you don’t have everyone’s lines memorized.
“Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn’t funny,” Steve responds. “No offense, Doc,” he adds apologetically.
“It’s all right, I wouldn’t have come aboard if I couldn’t handle pointy things,” Bruce replies quietly.
“You’re tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut,” Tony tells him.
“Can we please focus on the problem?” you ask tiredly.
“Do you think I’m not? Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn’t he telling us? I can’t do the equation unless I have all the variables,” Tony answers.
“You think Fury’s hiding something?” Steve asks.
“He’s the spy. Captain, he’s the spy. He’s secrets have secrets.” Tony points at Bruce and you. “It’s bugging him too. And her. Isn’t it?”
Bruce looks up from his work. “Uh…. I just want to finish my work here-”
“Doctor?” Steve responds.
“‘A warm light for all mankind.’ Loki’s jab at Fury about the Cube.” Steve nods. “Well, I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn’t tell Loki about the Tower, it was still all over the news.”
“The Stark Tower? That big, ugly building in New York?” Steve asks for clarification as Tony hands you a bag of blueberries.
“Powered by an arc reactor. Self-sustaining source of energy. It’ll run itself for a year or something, right?” you add.
“It’s just the prototype. I’m kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That’s what they’re getting at.”
“Why didn’t S.H.I.E.L.D. bring him in on the Tesseract project?” Bruce asks. “What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?”
“Yet they bring me in, hoping I’ll be able to see the Tesseract’s future,” you add. “Seems a bit shifty, doesn’t it?”
“I should probably look into that, once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s secure files,” Tony says casually.
“I’m sorry, did you say-” Steve starts.
“Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge,” Tony interrupts. “In a few hours, I’ll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?”
“Yet you’re confused about why they didn’t want you around,” Steve responds.
“An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome.”
“I think Loki’s trying to wind us up,” Steve asserts. “This is a man that means to start a war, and if we don’t focus, he’ll succeed. We have orders. We should follow them.”
“Following’s not really my style,” Tony replies.
Steve sighs. “And you’re all about style, aren’t you?”
“Of the people in this room, which one is, A) wearing a spangly outfit and, B) not of use?” Tony retorts.
“Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you,” Bruce interjects.
“They have good points. Fury is up to something shifty,” you add.
“Just find the Cube,” Steve says as he walks out briskly.
You sigh. “Why can’t anyone on here just get along?”
Tony shrugs as he gets back to work. “Conflicting personalities.”
“Yeah, well, we have a maniac god locked up. Why do I get the feeling that he’s the only one that actually wants to be here?” You walk out of the laboratory and find Steve standing in the corridor, looking as if he’s contemplating something. “You okay?”
“I’m not gonna wait a few hours to find Fury’s secrets,” he tells you as he heads down the hallway towards the storage section of the helicarrier. You chase after him.
“So, we did convince you something’s wrong?”
“Maybe. I don’t want to keep waiting though.”
“Two is better than one.”
Steve smiles. “I appreciate the help.”
For the next couple hours, you and Steve search the storage. There are several rooms packed full of crates of many different things. Most of them are weapons, medical supplies, and the like. Finally, you and Steve get to the last room. Secure Storage IO-C. Just as with every other time, Steve opens the door, straining against the locks on the doors before they pop off. Steve jumps up onto the upper levels while you search the lower levels. The two of you open crates, look through them, and move on to the next one.
You open one and find something that looks similar to some of the parts of the machine Selvig built. “If S.H.I.E.L.D. has what they’re looking for, it’s here,” you shout up to Steve. “These are spare parts of Selvig’s.”
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Steve shouts back. You smile. That’s the same line from Star Wars.
“Have you seen Star Wars?” you ask.
“Haven’t heard of it,” he answers.
“When all of this is over, we’re watching it together. You’d like it. Everyone likes Star Wars.” You move onto the next crate and gasp when you open it, seeing the long tentacles etched into metal. “Steve, you should come look at this!”
A moment later, Steve jumps down and runs over to you. He tenses when he sees the contents of the crate. Hydra weapons, powered by the Tesseract. “This wasn’t about clean energy to S.H.I.E.L.D…..” Steve starts.
“They’re making weapons with it,” you finish. “We should show Stark and Banner.” Both you and Steve grab a rifle each and head back where you came from.