"Ah," said the foreign 'reptile', its voice rasping. "So I finally get to acquaint myself with the infamous warriors of the galaxies." The Avengers watched the waking creature in disgust as it licked its rotten teeth and scaly lips with a lizard like tongue.
"Hold your tongue unless it is an answer to our inquiries," said Thor. "You have caused enough damage upon this innocent realm."
"Innocent. What an interesting interpretation," the creature mused.
"Why are you here? What is your business on this realm?" A hoarse laugh echoed somehow in the soundproof room. Bruce felt the Hulk trying to rise to protect him, to beat the creature into a pulp. He'd have to teach Hulk someday that hitting was not always the answer.
"I have heard many a tale and those ballads spun in your name, to praise your murderous acts. And yet you come to me to answer for the killing of a mere few pathetic mortals? You are as dim-witted and as brutal as the barfs have made you out to be."
"Let me know the name of the one that so easily disputes mine," said Thor. "Unless you insist on flyting one-sidedly."
"You may address me as Emrath, Asgardian," said the creature. "I look forward to this banter with the murderous god of thunder and his...mortal accomplices."
"Mortal accomplices or not, we still managed to kick your ass pretty good," Tony said, stepping forward. Emrath ignored him.
"Would you like me to tell you a tale golden prince?" Emrath asked, casually tilting its head to the side to face the Avengers, tone amused and playful. Thor glared at the creature, one hand gripping Mjonlir in an iron grip, the other curled into an angry fist. Natasha stood by his side, face a trained passive expression as always, but the tension in her figure gave her away. Clint stood beside her, and Tony and Steve just behind Thor, ready to restrain Thor should they need to.
"A tale?" Steve managed, voice unsure and defensive. Emrath nodded.
"A take of the young trickster, the royal imposter, the Jotun runt." He jeered. Thor scowled but nodded sharply.
"Then speak." He replied coldly. Emrath's snarl-like smile widened.
"He fell through space and time, and my master, my kind, merciful master took him and brought him to our home. We offered the runt power for the Tesseract. He refused. We tried to convince him, yet he still refused. Our master let us have our fun with him, but still the little Laufeyson refused the power he offered. Oh but how he cried for an end, how he cried for his brother, but you never came," Emrath's voice was teasingly distressed, a taunting imitation of Loki. "He wept and cried and beg but still he refused, and so our master let us be extra convincing with him, and there were no limits to the fun we had with the weakling -"
"You...you beat my brother?" Thor's voice rang out sharp, mortified expression stark on his paled face. His hands shook violently. Tony and Steve exchanged a warning glance before moving slightly closer. Emrath waggled a finger at him tutting cheerfully.
"Let me finish golden prince, you may comment at the end...now where was I...Oh, yes! Laufeyson was forced to swallow down the waste of its superiors," said Emrath. "It hung by its entrails from a spike above fire and melted like a mere object. It moaned and sniveled and whimpered for trivial comforts. And Lord Thanos, how unfortunate he was that he had to replace his love for Lady Death with something so disgusting and worthless, he took Laufeyson and consumed it, fucked it until it-"
Emrath was cut off again as Thor let out a roar of pure rage and struck at the terrible creature, too fast for the team still caught up in the shock of what they'd just heard. And suddenly Thor felt himself fight against hands trying to pull him back and pull him away because he must avenge his brother, he must, these monsters had impugned his honour and where was he when his brother needed him most where was he?
"How dare you," Thor whispered, quietly, too quietly, Natasha thought- she could hear the rage shaking violently in his voice as much as it thrummed through her own veins. "How dare you, how dare your kind dishonour a prince of Asgard in such a way how dare you!"
"He called for you, golden prince. Ah, we have heard of your murderous deeds; even beyond the Void you are known. You still have the stench of Jotun bloodshed- why did you not kill the most pathetic of them all? The Frost Giant was a failure of a commander. It did not deserve the knowledge of the Tesseract nor the scepter in its hand, and especially not the breath in its lungs-"
"Have care of how you speak!" said Thor, a growl ripping his throat. "You dare let one slip against my brother go past your lips, you will sorely regret it."
"I think I enjoy blaspheming the trickster god too much to ever regret it," said Gath. "Though, is it truly blaspheming if it isn't even a god? Just a Jotun monster that ought to be slain. That is what you said yourself, isn't it?"
"You-"
"Right, you know what I think?" Tony started, cutting off Thor before he could get riled up enough to direct a thunder bolt to his building and blow it to bits. He'd already had one alien redecorate his tower in a destructive manner and he didn't need another. "I think you're a pretty little coward, running away hiding in a little village. What, are you scared? Are you scared of us, of some pesky little earthling mortals?"
"You think I fear you?" Emrath let out a wicked laugh. "You think I fear the weakest species in all the Nine and beyond? Did you not see what we did to that village? We slaughtered each and every one of them. We laughed as they cried and wept and begged for us to show mercy. But we serve the master Thanos and we showed none."
"So what's your play?" The creature looked at her curiously. "I mean yes you are sadistic enough to slaughter all those people just for fun but no, you wouldn't use so many resources to do so, especially when they're so scarce for you. And it's not like you're getting any more of them. So what's your play?"
"Ah, the little spider. Yes, your archer friend told us much about you," the creature leered. This time it was Clint who started forward sharply, rage trembling in clenched fists, and it was Natasha that had to hold him back. "He told us you were smart. Yet you show yourself to be foolish and naive. You really think a little information will Thanos? Your arrogance rivals that of the thunder god here."
"You should keep your flattery to yourself," said Tony. "And you shouldn't underestimate information."
"Ah, but nothing can help you now. Thanos will come for you, come for you all. And he will hunt the little runt and watch him squirm, he will break and break the vermin prince again and again and mayhaps this time, if our master is merciful, you may watch."
And suddenly there was a painful crack- Thor's fist had shot towards the creature with lightning speed to deliver a forceful blow to its face. Emrath laughed wheezily, horrifically dark blood pouring down from his face.
Natasha came forward as well, anger burning through her veins as though her sins had been pumped with oil and someone had set them alight. She was beyond rage and rationality and reasoning-
Somewhere in the tangle, Steve led a slightly green Bruce, a fuming Thor and an incandescent Natasha out of the suffocating room, into the open corridor with something more than grey, grey walls everywhere, surrounding them like a prison.
***
The bourbon burned Tony's tongue, nearly setting his mouth on fire. He grimaced and pushed the half-full cup away. He hated drinking when he was stressed—it reminded him of Howard. But if the world didn't want alcoholics, why did they make alcoholic feel so cleansing? As if the burning sensation would sear away all impurities inside. Sometimes it was a mystery why the world wasn't yet divided between the religious and the alcoholics.
But he had never needed alcohol more than now.
"Four hours," Tony groaned, finally slumping on an armchair in the communal room. Steve looked up at him tiredly.
"We spent four hours with that damn reptile. That's four hours I'm never getting back. And it wasn't even useful! All it managed to do was piss me the hell off!"
"Soldiers will never willingly give up information. Even torture would not be fail-safe. And it's wrong."
"It's still an option," said Tony. "I know, I know—" He raised a hand to stop Steve from interrupting. "Even if this—Emrath—isn't human, he is still a living creature that shouldn't be tortured, and we shouldn't be those hypocrites. But what are we left with? Counting to three? A truth serum? Releasing him back to the wild?"
"Pain doesn't—"
"Pain does a lot. Trust me," said Tony. He rubbed his arms. "And—hell, even if it doesn't get him to talk, it'll get him to—to—"
Tony groaned and took another gulp of his alcohol. Steve scrutinized him concernedly.
"What's eating you, Tony?" said Steve.
"Nothing's eating me," said Tony.
"Look, I may be somewhat naïve about things, but I'm not stupid," said Steve. "I know something's bothering you."
Tony rubbed his face tiredly. "I just feel like shit."
"Well, you have downed a lot of alcohol."
"You heard what that thing said," said Tony. "What he said about how Thanos treated Loki. Thanos raped Loki. He raped Loki, who knows how many times. And we treated that guy like chewed up chewing gum stuck to our shoe. And now look at him! Wasting away, looking worse than those people out of concentration camps. It's just- this just isn't right."
Tony closed his eyes and downed the rest of his drink. It was likes swallowing lava and he felt his throat blister—it was a grudgingly satisfying sensation. He could still remember being indirectly bitchy towards the guy all those months ago; dirty little side looks as a "bog off" signal, walking out of the room the second Loki walked in. He felt like sludge clogged his veins.
"I know you feel guilty, Tony," said Steve. "But that wasn't what happened. We're all here helping Loki; we care about him. It's crazy, admitting it, but that's what happened, and I don't think any of us regret it."
"But that's not it!" Tony ran a frustrated hand through his hair, slamming the glass a little harder than necessary on the table. Steve said nothing. "When I got back from Afghanistan I had people I could pour my heart out to like Pepper and Rhodey. We literally forced Loki into silence because he felt like he couldn't even look at anyone of us without us giving him a death glare. He's been keeping all of that in him for so long. I don't even know if I ever knew what normal for Loki was, if the whole bag full of cats Loki we knew all those months ago was not who he truly was before.
That's not even the worst of it. He's been having nightmares. You ever have to stay up at night and watch over him? I did. Once. The most pitiful whimpers- he was begging someone to stop hurting him. And all this- pain- it must've been in him for a lot longer. I heard him once begging for that Odin dude, saying sorry and that he'd try harder. You know who that reminds me of? Me. And I was all ready to slam the door in his face- if it wasn't for Thor god knows what SHIELD would be doing to him now if I'd told him to piss off."
"Well, you didn't tell him to piss off. Yes, you said yes for Thor, but now you're letting them stay for Loki. And you stopped all that. You've stopped treating him like that- we all have. We can fix it; it'll take time and effort and a hell of a lot of tape and Band-Aids but we can fix this. And we will."
As motivational as Steve's words were, they did nothing to quell the burning guilt in Tony's veins. Just once, he wished he could build a machine that could fix something other than enhancing the oven to cook any dish perfectly in five minutes. Something to fix a person. Loki.
AN: ok so my phone is like 7 years old and it somehow decided to unpublish this chapter so for anyone who' already read this, feel free to just skip it 😬 it does indeed suck having a phone with an IQ lower than mine
Also this chapter- so for some reason I never really believed that they managed to kill ALL the Chitauri. I mean there were loads of them and as vicious and as ruthless as they may have been, there must have been some that decided to vamos à la playa during the fight because they didn't want to die. I feel like every species, no matter how uniform they may seem, will always have those small groups of like those with more intellect, more cowardice. I'm not sure what I'd classify the Letchworth Chitauri as but perhaps the "live to fight another day" group? I don't know but this is just why I decided to have some alien escapees.