Tom's hospital room at S.H.I.E.L.D. HEADQUARTERS
The heart rate monitor beeped steadily, the corresponding line on the monitor ticking up and down consistently with the heartbeat of the patient in the room. The eyes of the man remained closed due to the cellular stasis placed upon him by the Tesseract.
A male nurse entered the room with a small cart of medical supplies. He picked up the chart at the edge of the bed, glanced it over quickly, and placed it back on its hook. Reviewing the monitors for a moment, the nurse turned back to the cart. He retrieved a syringe from the cart, uncapped the needle, and emptied its contents into the IV line before capping it again. Once more the nurse returned his attention to the monitors.
"Poisoning the patient only works if the patient is still attached to the IV."
At the sound of the voice coming from the bed, the nurse turned to see Tom's eyes open and looking up at him. He pulled at the IV line, blinking with surprise to see the end detached and capped as he claimed. "Y-You're awake! When did you wake up?"
"Wouldn't you like to know," Tom purred as he sat up and swung his feet over the edge of the bed. As the nurse backed away from him and placed the cart in between them, Tom stood and began walking toward him.
"Stay back. I'm warning you, stay back!"
Tom tilted his head to the side. "You speak as if I'm a threat."
"What am I supposed to think," he asked, his voice rising hysterically, "with you detached from everything and lying in wait for me?"
With a slight smile on his face, Tom nodded. "Perhaps you are right. I'm a threat to anyone who ever made an attempt on Tom's life." A green shimmer slid over him, and the clothing changed from the hospital gown to Loki's Asgardian armor. "There's a reason they call me the trickster god, you know."
"Wh-What is happening? Who are you?" the nurse cried out.
"Come now," Loki smirked. "We both know who I am, just as we both know who you really are... Toshar." Loki stood facing Toshar as the latter maintained his appearance as the nurse. "This face doesn't suit a master manipulator like yourself. Why don't you show your true form? Or better yet, show yourself as the face you've been masquerading as all along."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"We'll see if you stick to that story once we analyze the contents of the IV." Loki smiled. "Keep in mind I could smell the poison in the tea across the room. I can do the same for the toxin you placed in the IV." He gave Toshar a sideways glance. "Are you sure you want to remain in this form?"
Toshar chuckled once. "And reveal my disguise to the cameras in the room? I think not." The nurse's expression shifted from fearful to cunning. "So the young Asgardian prince believes he knows everything."
"We know everything, in spite of your careful work to cover your trail." Loki continued to look his opponent in the eye. "What have you done with the real Director Fury? Did you have him killed too, as callously as you did the others?"
Slowly the nurse shook his head. "Fury is helping the rest of my people in Skrull territory. They sent me to take his place until he returns. I came with the complete approval of both Fury and the Skrull people."
"But with your own plans in mind."
"I do not deny it," Toshar replied with an offhanded shrug. "I volunteered to take his place knowing I had my own agenda to pursue."
Loki's jaw clenched once. "Namely undermining everything Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. worked so hard to accomplish."
Once more Toshar chuckled, longer this time. "Nothing that ordinary, but I consider it a side benefit. Taking the Tesseract for my own purposes was always my goal. Stealing the technology to harness it for weapons was a bonus."
YOU ARE READING
Of Two Minds
Fanfiction**What if Loki Laufeyson and Tom Hiddleston existed in the same parallel universe, and that universe made them work together as a team?** During a freak incident involving the real Tesseract stolen from S.H.I.E.L.D., actor Tom Hiddleston is injured...
