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Fury is seriously considering the idea that his agency may have been infiltrated. It’s a harrowing thought and not one he considers lightly but —
The other possibility is that he has had these people in his employ for years and as analysts while they had unimaginable power within them. It means they were right under his nose and neither he nor his top agents, ever clued in that anything were different. If he had heard of them outside of his agency he’d be considering them for the Avengers Initiative. Instead, he’s stuck masking his shock as they ignore the laws of physics and logic. Of course, they have secrets, it’s the nature of their profession, but this? This is beyond secrets.
It starts with that Alien menace Loki [of course it does] when he is first brought aboard the Helicarrier. Or well, it begins with his subordinates leaving their office to peer at the so-called god and then – against their orders – speak to him.
“He told people to kneel,” one of his top analysts says from beyond her opening doorway, voice chiding.
“I mean I’d do it. I’d kneel for him.” Is the response, entirely too honest for people who know they are consistently under surveillance and especially now when agents are known to have been compromised by a glowing spear.
“Harry” she hissed in response as Loki, escorted by his brother, Stark, the Captain and one of Fury’s best agents comes closer.
“I’m just saying. There’s a reason they call him Silvertongue, and I volunteer to find out” he responds just as they come close enough to respond – and Mr Glorious Purpose does respond, because of course he does.
“I have no interest in mortals. You are beneath me”
“Yeah, I bet you’d like that huh? Want me to be beneath you sweetheart? Want me to make you feel good”
“You dare?”
“What are you gonna do? Shut me up? Gonna silence me, darling?” He steps closer through the doorway, voice dipping to a near whisper even as other agents shuffle tensely, “Going to put your hand around my throat and be the one to control whether or not I breathe?”
Then Loki shuffles a bit and there’s a flush creeping across his cheeks while Thor shoots them both a look of dawning amusement. Inside the room he stepped from, Agent Granger sighs in a full-bodied, resigned way. Stark looks on in interest whilst the good Captain seems both awkward and disturbed. Everyone else hides their views behind masks of neutrality.
“Right, well, unfortunately, you neither deserve nor are able to handle him,” she snarks at Loki as she steps out before grabbing Agent Potter and marching him towards a door in the opposite direction of the glass cage.
.
They are in the control room by the time everyone else – including Stark – makes it there. Like many others, they are running through footage and predicting patterns or drawing conclusions. They are also doing a terrible job of pretending not to listen to the discussions being had in the room. At least they’re still doing their job.
Not for long though, considering how they start scolding the god of thunder.
“Have care how you speak! Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard - and he is my brother!”
“He killed eighty people in two days”
“…He’s adopted”
That’s when they stop working entirely and spin around in their chairs. They both look furious, Potter more than Granger, but she is the one that speaks, drawing everyone else’s attention as she does so.
“You traitorous twat! That’s both rude and hypocritical considering you’ve slayed many more in less time. This is ironically the most he’s ever been like you. Or do you disagree? Do those people not count because they were enemies? Monsters?” She sneers, voice mocking as she continues, standing in her fury “The Golden Prince, heir to Asgard, Land of Warriors. Don’t pretend Odinson; we know all about you. Don’t think yourself above him just because he views humans as ants while you only see them as the helpless people of a backwater planet.”
“Who are you? That you dare to speak to-”
“Oh, but I do dare. And my name matters not. For now, we’re on the same side; I don’t want the Chitauri here, so I’ll put up with you for as long as it takes for them to be destroyed.”
He freezes at that, and for all that he has been looking at her now, she has the entire weight of his focus and looks no more ruffled by it than before. “You know of the Chitauri?”
“Who doesn’t?” They both answer and then smile wryly when Thor pointedly looks at the rest of the people in the room.
“What are they?”
“An army,” Thor begins to answer and the two slip from the room as he does.
.
Later, when engines are exploding and the Helicarrier is falling they face off with the Hulk. In a fashion.
Harry takes a running leap towards his back and his sister does some motion that pulls him down and behind her.
“Sorry, got caught up in the memories” he responds sheepishly.
“Yes well we’re not untrained preteens anymore” she scolds as she shoots a calming charm at the green-skinned man [who looks nothing like a mountain troll despite the size and unnatural clour] as they continue their path to Loki.
.
They see them flitting around during the battle, like so many other agents. Only, none of the agents makes whale-looking aliens explode without weapons.
And then the nuke is coming and the man who was flirting with the god who started this all is somehow speaking to him without comms.
“Just throw it when you get near enough to the portal okay? Don’t go in there”
And for all that Tony doesn’t like following orders he finds himself compelled to listen to this one.
He throws to nuke and then watches as it speeds up through the portal before there’s an explosion of light.
The portal closes and the Chitauri fall – but none of them makes it to the ground, shimmering a bright blue before disappearing as well.
Tony turns around the fly back to his tower, Jarvis already running the data.
.
When he enters the penthouse they are having tea and a discussion while watching the still unconscious god currently inside Tony’s floor.
“You know, I think he was embarrassed about the number actually. About it being so low I mean”
“Yeah he was probably there like: Loki we are a warrior race why do you disappoint me like this?” Her partner responds, affecting a deep voice when mocking Thor.
Multiple things happen at once after that.
The elevator dings.
Tony enters the room properly.
Loki groans and starts to shift.
The girl puts her cup down and presses down on a pendant on her bracelet.
Tony hears the words “initiate protocol Cerberus” and a strange sound coming from both inside and outside like a string instrument playing as his world goes dark.
When Tony snaps into consciousness there is a Loki-sized hole in the floor but no Loki. No cube or sceptre either. Fury is there though. Living up to his name in the middle of Tony’s bar area.