Chapter Text
A quin jet landed next to the group. They all jumped into their battle positions. Bruce just stood behind. Loki had assured him that he didn’t need to fight. Out of the quin jet stepped Natasha, Tony, and Steve. Clint was absent, probably because the man had no restraint upon seeing that there were some new additions to the group. They seemed taken aback by the possibility that they could find other people who were not the Avengers to help them.
“We just want to talk.” Steve said Loki scoffed, “as if we believe a word that comes out of your mouths.” Thor replied that he was hurt that they didn’t tell him and that he would disagree with them in the first place. Loki was his brother, and Family mattered more than friends, especially when he only had one person left. “Are these the Avengers?” Gamora asked. Loki nodded. “I expected better, to be honest,” Nebula remarked. Natasha muttered “rude” under her breath, “If it’s any consolation, the reality stone is in Thanos’s hands now. We just came from Knowhere.” Thor said
if they had only gotten there sooner. “if we don’t want the rest of the stones to fall into his hands, we should come together again.” Natasha said, “Let’s weigh the odds here. There are 10 of you and, let’s say, 20 of us, so I suggest you come with us, and we work together, not killing anyone; I think that’s the best you will get.” Tony said, cutting through Natasha's statement.
She glared at him, but he simply ignored her. Thor and Loki looked at each other for a moment and nodded. “We’ll come on the condition that there are no attempts on anyone’s life.” Thor said, “That works for you too.” Tony said, “Fine.” Thor said.
They walked up the ramp into the ship. Loki had concealed his daggers inside his sleeves just in case of aggressive behavior. The ride over was not uncomfortable; no one felt like talking about much of anything. “So how long will Thanos travel to get back here from Knowhere.” Steve asked the question was directed at Loki “around 2-3 days or so.” Thor answered, not that Loki would say it, but his throat still hurt from the ‘incident’ and talking aggravated it. Loki could swear he felt like it was bleeding. But that was for another time.
He occasionally exchanged looks with the sisters sitting across from him. They couldn’t talk openly, not in front of them. “can I just say that there’s a chance we jumped the gun a bit.” Tony said, walking in front of Loki, “just a little.” Tony said again quickly as he saw Loki glaring, but he did not move to get up. “You mean trying to kill me,” Loki said, his voice dripping with disdain.
“You have to honestly understand that you are still a threat rock of ages,” Tony said, waving his hand in Loki’s face. Loki got up, grabbing Tony’s hand. “My name is Loki. Use it,” Loki said, releasing his hand as he saw Natasha unhook her gun, not that it would do much. “Touchy, aren’t you,” Tony said. Did this man have a death wish or something? “I’m growing quite tired of you.” Loki remarked, “That’s really too bad because you stuck with me.” Tony said, walking away. Loki motioned to sit down again. Thor glanced at Loki for a minute. Something was wrong. He could feel it.
The last few weeks had been honestly terrible, and neither spoke a thing about it, but it was apparent Loki took the brunt of it. Thor knew Loki was covering up with magic, but the way he was carrying himself, it looked as if he was being crushed by something Thor knew outright asking Loki would never work it never had before.
Thor moved closer to Loki, a subtle gesture Loki would have to notice. Loki didn’t so much as look at him. Bruce had been quiet ever since Knowhere. He felt confused and betrayed. All he knew had been turned on its head. The people he thought he knew and trusted were lying to him and so cold towards him, and the person he thought he would hate til the end of his days was actually quite a pleasant person.
Learning the Avengers had broken up and that no one could trust anyone anymore was hard to cope with. He could only imagine the same for Thor; he truly wanted to get to know Loki more, but he was very secretive. He understood he had no idea how bad his life had been. What he did know was Loki was bright and powerful—but also damaged from what he’d seen. He had never been able to have more than five conversations before someone would barge in, and Loki would disappear within those six months. Loki had avoided almost everyone, but that was fair from what Bruce had seen. The people of Asgard didn’t like Loki very much. They spoke about him behind closed doors often and occasionally to his face. From what Bruce had heard was that Loki was ‘unmanly’ by Asgardian standards, but from what Bruce had gathered, Loki seemed to change his gender most of the time, not that Bruce had ever seen it himself. Also, some of the talks were that Loki was never tied down for very long as he seemed to date all genders, not that it was ever spoken of with real examples, and always had hate tied with it. Bruce never asked if this was true. He felt that Loki would be offended if it weren’t that, but Loki wasn’t stupid. He must have known people said these things.
Gamora and Nebula were over the moon that Loki was alive years ago. They had made a bet that Loki was dead, but neither had collected on the bet after they found out. They really wanted to have a conversation with Loki, but sadly, there was no time for that kind of thing. No matter what happens, Thanos will be dead by the end since they learned about Xandar.
Groot didn’t care what was happening, but Rocket was cautious about these people. He had heard of Loki before, but these Avengers sounded like bad news, at least from what he’d heard. Mantis could feel Loki’s atmosphere around him was a mix of emotions, and she wanted to touch him and soothe the feelings, but that would obviously end badly since Loki seemed closed off. His brother, on the other hand, seemed very hopeful she liked him; he was pretty handsome, and she hadn’t spoken to him there was very little time.
Drax thought the pirate angel was manly and powerful. The black-haired one was known to Gamora and Nebula. They seemed to be friends, which meant he was probably a good person to be around if he was friends with both sisters. Peter didn’t like either of them showing up out of nowhere. This Loki person was strange. He seemed to be really friendly with Gamora. They obviously had known each other for a long time now. His brother was also bizarre. He could feel a sort of power radiating off both of them, but he couldn’t place what it was.
Tony liked to tic Loki off; it felt like sweet revenge for throwing him out of his own window. Now that Loki was apparently a good guy to an extent, in Tony’s opinion, Loki should be either on the ground or in a cell somewhere, not able to walk around free. Obviously, Asgardian justice wasn’t very long-lasting, especially after what he did to Clint.
After the last few years, Steve really had to resist throwing Loki out of the Quin jet. Sometimes, he thanked Loki for making the Avengers form. Now, though, ever since they broke up, Steve really wished Loki had never come to earth in the first place. Maybe he could have just lived a normal life instead of being on the run. But at least Tony and him were able to be in the same room; they still were not on speaking terms.
Natasha just felt rage, having to deal with Loki after everything. This was all Loki’s fault. If only he had never come back, maybe things could have gone better than they were going. But Bruce was back, and so was Thor. She had thought they were both dead and was relieved that they were both still breathing, but she hadn’t had a proper conversation with either since they had gotten back.
Loki was honestly tiptoeing on his breaking point at any moment. He felt like he might break and fall into the void and never come back out again. Trying to juggle everything just made it worse. His body hurt. It really hurt. Everything ached, and scars littered his body. His mental health had gone to hell. And his body always felt like it was in danger because it was. He was being hunted down by a titan while dealing with the Avengers, and dealing with the Avengers. Thor was treating him like glass. Bruce was awkward around him. Everyone was watching him all of the time. The guardians of the galaxy seemed cautious around him, except for Gamora and Nebula, of course. The mind stone had been prodding him since he saw it again. The tesseract was pushing on his magic every time he used it. All he wanted to do was collapse and not get up again. His mind was racing, trying to plan a way to win without dying. He wanted to die and not come back this time.