Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 143

When Wanda takes control of people's minds, there's a kind of serenity to it; an unnatural calm washing over them. Bruce has felt it himself, and though her goal had been to drive the Hulk out, she did so without disturbing Bruce's own peace of mind all too much.

Loki's magic seems to have the opposite effect.

The moment his hands met Wanda's head, the monitor began to beep rapidly, the screen flashing red in a way he hadn't even realized it could. Without thinking, Bruce reaches over and begins pulling off the electrodes on her head. He doesn't need to broadcast Loki's power to the whole room — and, honestly, he's kind of worried that Loki's going to blow the thing up.

In the blink of an eye, Pietro's next to him, tugging on Loki's arm with all his strength. Loki doesn't budge. Still, out of an abundance of caution, Bruce backs away. This is a very emotionally charged situation that he really doesn't want to be a part of right now.

Clint runs up to them, too, but instead of trying to stop Loki, he rests his hand on Pietro's shoulder. Pietro looks over at him, putting a temporary pause on his tugging, not that it's done any good.

"Hey," Clint says quietly. "You're not gonna be able to stop him, okay?"

"Then help me!" Pietro says. "How can you stand there and watch while he hurts my sister?"

Natasha sighs and walks up to him as well. "I know this isn't what you want to hear," she says, "but you have to let him do it."

Pietro scoffs. "No!" he says immediately. "No, I am not–"

"I know," she says. "I know you don't want to. But he's just trying to get answers. And it's creepy and invasive and trust me, you're not the only one who doesn't like it, but these are the answers you've been looking for, too. He's going to tell you what you want to know, and she's gonna be shaken up for a little bit, but then she'll be fine, and you'll know where your powers came from."

"And then maybe things will get better after that," Clint says. "I mean, his whole thing is that the scepter scares him. If he finds out that the scepter's not, you know... doing... things..."

Pietro narrows his eyes, but he doesn't argue. That's a good first step.

Probably.

Although Bruce isn't entirely convinced that this is a good idea, so maybe it's not a good first step.

Tony finally comes over from his isolated little corner of the room, instead leaning against a nearby table where he can watch this all go down. "You know," he remarks, "Wanda did pretty much this same thing to him, too. You let Loki get his revenge, get his answers, and maybe things'll lighten up a bit."

Still, Pietro's not convinced. "If he hurts my sister–"

"He won't," Tony assures him. "I know this is a pretty fucked-up way for him to solve his problems, but right now, it's all we've got. You guys have been at this for days. You give her a few minutes to recover, and I think your sister's gonna be glad to know the truth."

Pietro hesitates, but slowly, he takes his hands off Loki's arm. Clint leads him to a spinny office chair to sit on – something he was very much enjoying the first time Bruce told him to sit down, though right now, he's far too distracted to spin around at near-light speed like he did then. He crosses his legs, bouncing the top one up and down anxiously. Clint gently rests a hand on his back.

Bruce just watches from a not-so-comfortable distance.

A very long, very slow few seconds pass in silence, until finally, Tony asks, "Does anyone else feel like this is taking longer than it should?"