Gods & Monsters

Thor wasn't sure if he could make it from New York to New Mexico in an hour, with Loki-who had refused to teleport them, but he managed to make it just in time. Lily was outside waiting for him with Jane and Darcy on other either side of her, tied up and gagged. The expression on her face was not a happy one.

"This will not end well." Thor warned as he approached her, dragging a smirking Loki along with him. 

"It won't for you if you don't do exactly as I say." she retorted, unfazed by Thor's threats.

Lily looked at Loki. "Did they hurt you?" 

"No, my pet." he smiled. "They cannot hurt me."

"Is he truly alone?"

"As far as I'm aware of, yes." 

"Good." She turned her gaze back towards Thor. "You can follow directions, now, give him to me and you can have these two." She motioned towards Darcy and Jane. "No harm, no foul."

"You will not get away with this." Thor growled. "I-we, will come back for him, for you."

"You're the one who wouldn't leave us alone! Trying to rescue me as if I'm some damsel in distress! I LOVE your brother. Yes, at first we had fun toying with you, but did you not notice we stopped? That we'd gone quiet? We have a life, and I'll be damned if you take it away from me." 

"I am required to take Loki back to-"

"To what, the son of a bitch that calls himself a father! I don't think so."

"Thor, have you ever, even for one second, thought about anyone other than yourself? Have you for one second considered what a lie like that would do to your brother? The fact that Odin lied to him his entire life and gave him false hopes of something he can never truly have, because Odin doesn't see it fit!" Lily roared, fists clenched and shaking with rage. "He just wanted Odin to accept him, love him, but no. All he got was a, 'No, Loki' while he was dangling off the Bifrost. His entire world had been stripped away, a lie, so do you truly blame him for wanting to end the very thing he was raised to hate!"

"Or the fact that Odin plans to punish Loki for something that wasn't his fault! You do realize Loki could have killed every single one of the Avengers if he had truly wanted to, don't you? You do realize he held back as much as he could-finding loopholes in the madness that MONSTER put him through?! HE TRIED TO TELL YOU, but you were too fucking clueless to get it, too fucking self absorbed to care! The FIRST fucking thing you say to him after a year-after you thought he'd died-was, 'Where's the Tesseract!' Are you truly that much of an asshole that you give zero shits about what happened to your brother?!"

"That he was tortured...do you even care?"

Her rage had turned into sobs by the time she was done and Thor could feel Loki trembling in his clutches. Thor couldn't move. He hadn't thought about any of that. Conversations he had with Loki in New York started to make more sense as her words sunk in. He looked at Loki, tears in his eyes, and for the first time in his life he felt like he was worthless. Utterly and completely worthless. Thinking back, Odin always did treat Loki different. He was never good enough for Odin, nothing he did mattered or made him proud. Then he remembered feeling so jealous with mother and how she worshiped Loki. He was always her favorite, he'd always known that, but now he understood why. Frigga didn't want Loki to feel like he was different, so she loved him for both herself and Odin; since he always treated Loki so unfairly. 

Thor let go of Loki, who had yet to look at him, but he knew Lily's words had affected him in some way. "I'm sorry, Loki." Thor knew it wasn't enough. It would never be enough. "I called your problems imagined slights when it was I who was blind all along."

Loki didn't respond. He just ignored Thor and walked over to Lily, taking her hands into his. "Leave us be, brother." When Loki finally looked at Thor, there was a pleading look in his eyes. "My life does not belong to him."

"I won't be able to stop them, the Avengers; SHIELD. Father will send warriors if I refuse, they will come for you." Thor whispered, slightly sobbing.

"Then let them come." 

Thor blinked. Loki and Lily were gone.

 When Tony finally made it to New Mexico he spotted Thor and a panicked Jane standing next to him while he untied an even more panicked Darcy.

"YOU JUST LET THEM GO!" Darcy wailed, full of anger. "She would have killed us!"

Thor shook his head. "If I hadn't cooperated, maybe, but Lily was only doing what she thought she had to, to get Loki back." And to get me to listen.

"And you just gave him to her." Jane spat. "You gave her Loki after everything he's done! After what she did!"

"I was going to do so regardless to save you two!" Thor yelled. When his eyes snapped up, he saw Stark glaring at him, helmet in hand.

"So you were never going to try to capture her, like we had agreed." Tony concluded.

"I wasn't going to risk putting them in more danger."

"She's a fucking 5'5, 125 pound girl. What the hell was she going to do?"

"Dude, that girl is hella hardcore. I think she'd give Natasha a run for her money." Darcy told Tony. "Seriously, she moved like a cat and we didn't even know she was there until it was too late. Good reflexes too." She remembered when her stomach began aching from getting up too quickly. "Bitch threw me across the room like I was a rag doll and then kicked me in the stomach when I tried to Taser her.

Remind me never to piss her off." Darcy muttered, shaking her head.

Tony looked surprised. "Seriously?" 

"Seriously." Jane agreed, the anger clear in her tone. "She's just as dangerous as Loki is and he-" she glared at Thor."- let them go."

"Yes, I did." 

"Because you let her get to you over some bullshit."

"Jane, don't." Thor warned. "You have no idea what you're talking about and I would recommend keeping your mouth shut."

Jane looked appalled, but said no more.

"You know we can't just let them get away, right?" Tony reminded Thor. "She is our enemy now. They need to be contained."

"Well, do what you wish, but I'm not helping you. I also suggest you leave Loki and Lily be."

"What?" Tony furrowed his brows. "You're not going to what?" Had Thor really said what he thought he just said?

"I said, I'm not helping you."

It had been three days since Tony had learned that Lily had crossed over to the dark side and betrayed them. Three days since Thor had refused to help them find Loki and Lily. Three days since SHIELD had caught wind of what was going on, he assumed from Barton, Natasha, or Steve-he just didn't know who, and had demanded they be brought into custody.

He had to put his feelings for Lily aside. He had to remember the mission.

Capture and contain; kill them if you have to.

Kill them...

Could Tony really do it?

He hadn't been asleep long when he was woken up suddenly, feeling a presence of someone else in the room with him. That's impossible, he thought, sure he had locked his doors and windows before falling asleep. Jarvis would have also alerted him if someone was in the tower.

Unless....

Tony jerked up and terror filled his entire body when he saw the tall, dark shadow lurking in front of the bed. 

"Hello, Anthony." he sneered, walking around the bed closer to Tony.

Tony was paralyzed; he couldn't breathe, he could only stare at the dark God wide eyed and terrified, trembling in fear.

"Do you remember what I told you the other day?" He asked calmly.

All Tony could do was nod. 

"Good." 

Loki sat down on the bed and leaned his face in so close to Tony, he could feel Loki's breath on his lips. "I want you to remember this moment. Remember that I could have killed you, but I didn't; for her. I know she still cares for you in some way, and that is why you still live Man of Iron.

I want you to remember that, while you're chasing us down for your precious SHIELD."

Tony sucked in a breath and blinked.

He was alone.