WHAT IF... Hela Won The Fight

9.

Thor and Hela were given rooms to stay at, but they didn't even go to see them.

They wanted to have this all over with, to help the Midgardians free their people and then take the Tesseract, The Scepter and, most importantly, their brother home.

They didn't sleep during the night, nobody really did. Everyone was cautiously waiting for any updates.

Tony Stark and Doctor Banner spent in the lab, searching for the Tesseract and examining The Scepter.

But, at the moment, the whole team - if one could call it that - was in the conference room, looking at the monitors on the wall.

"This is Jane Foster, an astrophysicist. Her friend called the police and filed a missing report. She hasn't seen her since yesterday, so we can assume that Loki got to her before the incident in Germany." Fury said.

"She's not the only one. Loki's targeting scientists and agents. Not just ours. Missing reports are still coming in. Conclusion: Just because Loki's locked here in a cage doesn't mean he's stuck and can't proceed with his plans." The Director finished.

"So, what do we do?" Steve Rogers asked.

"Well, if what the Asgardians here are saying is true, that he's under that spear's control, we need to snap him out of it." Nicholas Fury answered.

"Yeah, Doctor Banner and I took a quick look on that as well. And we couldn't hope to understand how it works, let alone find a harmless solution to free the controlled ones." Tony Stark said.

"So, what you're saying us that the only thing we can do is to punch my brother and hope it will work?" Thor asked.

"We'll do it." Hela said.

Thor looked at her in disbelief.

"It's the only chance we currently have. And if it works, maybe our brother will share some valuable information with us." She explained.

"Well then, let's go." Fury waved his hands towards the exit.

The Asgardians followed him, the rest stayed in the conference room, surely looking at the room through security cameras.

Fury led them through the helicarrier. They took many turns, walked through many automated doors... The place was truly a maze.

Finally, they stood in front of their brother, only separated by thick glass.

"You took your time. I have to say, I expected you to visit me sooner." Loki said.

Hela looked him in the face. His eyes had an almost glowing blue colour, so different from the usual green. How could they not notice sooner?

They came to a controls panel, Thor, along with the Director, stopped there.

Hela continued towards the glass. When she could almost touch it, she looked back at Fury, who had his hand ready to push the button.

He did, and the cage started opening. Hela quickly stepped in and the cage closed after her.

Loki looked a but confused, even though he didn't want to. He had no idea what was happening and Hela could only imagine what was happening inside his head.

Hela looked through the glass at Thor, who was watching them with frowning eyebrows.

"I'm very sorry about this, brother." She said towards Loki, who frowned in confusion.

He probably wanted to say something, but he didn't get the chance. Hela punched him in the head. Hard.

Loki fell on the ground, unconscious. His sister picked him up and made his back lean against the glass.

Then, she exited the cage and joined her brother.

"So, how long till he wakes up?" Fury asked. He knew how long it would take a normal human, but Asgardian biology was a bit different, so he didn't even make assumptions.

"Two to three minutes. I hit him pretty hard." Hela responded, not taking her eyes off Loki.

Really, after about three minutes he began moving. Firstly, it was his actual expression that changed - he frowned and moved his head so that he wouldn't be facing the lights.

After that, he slowly opened his eyes  that were now back to the usual green, searching around him.

"Brother? Are you well now?" Thor asked.

Loki's brows furrowed some more. He didn't say anything. He was feeling very different from before. He slowly nodded his head.

"Can you please give us a moment?" Hela turned to the Director. He almost rolled his eyes, but he did leave. Hela knew that he'd be listening nearby, but it still offered a tad more privacy.

"Loki, are you okay?" She asked.

"I am... now." Loki slowly responded.

"Loki, we made a deal with the Midgardians. They will release you to us if you help us. We need information." Thor went straight to the point.

"After I fell from The Rainbow bridge, I found myself at a place called The Sanctuary. There, I met Thanos." He said the name with mixed feelings in his face. Loki looked up at his siblings to see whether or not his siblings knew the name.

"They call him The Mad Titan. I heard his goal was to bring balance to the universe. And he was to do that with something called the Infinity stones." He said.

"I heard of those." Hela nodded.

"He... Made me tell him the location of the Tesseract. He broke into my mind with the help of The Scepter. Thank you for helping me to break that link." He said towards his sister.

"And where is The Tesseract now?" Thor asked while taking a few steps towards the glass.

"I don't know. The Tesseract was essential to creating a portal to bring The Chitauri here, to Midgard. To make that portal, one needs a lot of energy. The Chitauri are supposed to overtake Midgard. What for, I'm not sure. Perhaps to find a home for themselves."  said.

"Do you know anything else that could be of value?" Thor asked again.

"I'm sorry, I wish I could help." Loki shook his head. Then, suddenly, he stopped, just as he realised something.

"I killed. I killed innocent men who didn't stand a chance against me, unarmed men... Please tell their families that I am truly sorry." He whispered the last sentence towards a camera on the wall.

Before his siblings could say anything, The Director marched into the room.

"Alright, that's enough. Thank you for your cooperation." He said with a serious tone towards Hela and Thor.

"You got your information, release my brother." Thor walked to Fury.

"What we got was basically nothing that could help us for now. You'll get Loki when we find Tesseract and free my people." He responded.

"We can't help you more than we already have. We even proved that the cognitive recalibration works. And we tested it on our own brother!" Hela said with a raised voice.

"As for the Tesseract - your scientists found a way to locate it. If I'm right, you shall know it's whereabouts in the next few hours." She finished.

"As far as I know-" Fury tried to argue but was interrupted by the voice of Tony Stark from the speakers.

"It's in Stark Tower. Whoever Thanos is, that son of a bitch is using my Tower's energy." It said.

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A/N: Thanks for reading. It's really interesting to think about how the timeline would change. It began with small changes like a line that was never said or some trees that weren't destroyed.

Now, it's the Avengers + Nick Fury knowing about Thanos in 2012. Oh, this is gonna be fun.

Also! The Falcon and The Winter soldier ending? I won't spoiler anything here, but damn...