Mayari

Brothers

    It's been a long time since Loki had stared at the six pairs of eyes in front of him all at once. It made him wonder what he had done now. Surely they weren't here to reprimand him. He's been keeping himself busy. Otherwise occupied with you. Speaking of which, where are the rest of the team?

    "Why am I here? There had better be a damn good reason you lot pulled me from a very comfortable, very warm bed, in the middle of the night." Loki spoke first.

    "Loki we need to send you out on a top-secret, detainment mission." Rogers started.

    "Thanks to Natasha's intel, we were able to fine-tune the algorithm I had created to ascertain the location of Dreykov," Stark said.

    "And she also discovered Dreykov's plan." Rogers continued. "He wants to apprehend Mayari, in hopes to change her to a Widow. With Mayari under his control, he can use her power to essentially control anyone." Stark and Rogers looked menacing in the somber room. The dim light from the projections highlight their noticeable features.

    Loki had suspected as much ever since the mission in Oslo. Ever since they came back, he hasn't heard anything else regarding the matter. No follow-up missions. No other interrogations. He just thought that they got other agents to handle the issue.

    Loki clutched his fist. You two had just started a wonderful relationship. It took too long for him to finally admit his feelings for you and months after that before either of you did anything about it. Now, there's a pompous egomaniac out there trying to take you away from him. Loki was not happy.

    "We need you to go undercover. You can shape-shift. We'll take a small team, you and maybe two others, and see if we can get Dreykov alone and take him out." Rogers said.

    "Mayari would be perfect for this mission!" Loki interjected.

    "Yes, but we can't risk her getting kidnapped and into his clutches," Stark said.

    "Is this why you haven't sent her out on many missions?" Loki asked.

    "Mostly. Can you imagine her powers in the hands of that madman? He would be unstoppable." Stark cried. Loki wouldn't imagine it. He made a promise to protect you and that's what he would do. But he knows that keeping you caged won't help you either.

    "Why haven't any of you told her about this? She knows from our last mission in Norway that she's being targeted. I will not lie to her." Loki said.

    "Then you better find a way to skirt around the truth. You're the god of lies. I'm sure you'll find a way." Stark smirked.

    "Loki, you know that if Mayari found out, she would want to be in the front lines. To stop him herself. We can't afford to lose her." Rogers explained.

    Loki let out a sigh. He scanned the faces in the room. Stark and Rogers were waiting for his answer. Barton was fixing one of his arrows, Bruce and Romanoff were sitting quietly. Thor was standing by the doorway, his head down. Not once has he looked up at him.

    "How long have you lot known? How many of you?" Loki asked directly at Thor.

    "It was initially just the six of us."

    "And probably Vision...if you think about it." Bruce interrupted.

    "If Vision knew, then Wanda knew." Romanoff finally spoke.

    "We've known since a little after you guys came back from Norway. We didn't want the whole team involved unless they needed to be. We wanted to keep Mayari safe, and Natasha wanted her chance at revenge. We thought Nat would have done it. But you were there for that retrieval mission. You knew how that ended." Rogers admitted. Romanoff rolled her eyes. Clearly, she was agitated that she didn't get her mark.