Chapter Text
Pain bloomed across Loki's chest, radiating through every bone like wildfire. His head struck the shattered marble floor with a sickening crack, stars exploding behind his eyes. He barely registered the thunderous growl above him before the world blurred into black.
Then... silence.
When he opened his eyes, everything felt wrong.
The chaos of the battle was gone. No more explosions, no fire or screaming. Just a sterile, cold room filled with wary eyes and distant murmurs. He lay sprawled on the floor, his arms splayed limply, too heavy to lift. The smooth stone beneath him was unfamiliar, the bright overhead lights foreign and harsh.
A semicircle of figures surrounded him, each tense, each ready to pounce. He counted six. Maybe seven. The one with the bright red-and-gold armor had his palms pointed at him, blue light glowing faintly. Another, blonde and broad-shouldered, clutched a hammer too large for any mortal. There was a woman in black with piercing green eyes, and a man with a bow, tense as a string ready to snap. Behind them, a tall man with skin like shadow and a glowing arc at his chest stood beside someone dressed in patriotic colors.
Loki blinked slowly. His tongue was dry. His body felt like lead.
"He's awake," the woman in black murmured.
Loki flinched, confusion tightening around him like a vice. His mind was a fog, stitched together with fragments of pain and fire and commands that he couldn’t place. All he remembered was his throne, the darkness, the voice. The voice.
Thanos.
A chill swept through him.
"Loki," said the blonde man Thor, he realized distantly. His brother. But even that thought felt thin and worn, like it belonged to someone else. "Are you hurt?"
Loki stared. His lips parted, but no words came out. He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what had happened.
"He's not answering," said the archer. His voice was tight, barely restrained. "Of course he's not. He's just playing us. Again."
"Clint," the woman in black said warningly.
"No, Natasha. No more second chances. Not with him. I saw what he did. You all saw it. You think this is real? You think he just conveniently lost his memory after getting a Hulk-sized beatdown?"
"He might be telling the truth," said a calm voice. The man in the suit Stark. Tony Stark. "Or, more likely, he’s faking amnesia to get us to drop our guard. Let’s not pretend he hasn’t pulled worse."
"I agree," said the man with the shield Captain America. "We treat him like a threat until we know otherwise. We’ve seen what he’s capable of."
Thor stepped forward, frowning deeply. There was a weariness in his gaze, a flicker of sorrow. But his voice remained uncertain. "You don’t know him as I do."
"Exactly," Clint snapped. "We know the version that took over my head, dropped me off a building, and tried to enslave half the planet."
Loki's breath caught. He looked toward the archer, trying to piece the words together. Did he do that? Did he
Thor kneeled beside him. "Loki," he said again, softly this time. "Do you know who I am?"
Loki’s throat moved. It felt like glass scraping down his windpipe. "You’re…"
He hesitated.
The image in his head didn’t match the man before him. He saw Thor as a boy, swinging a wooden sword. Then he saw him battling frost giants. Then he saw… nothing. Just void.
"I don’t know," he admitted.
The room went still.
Tony scoffed. "Oh great. Now he’s playing the ‘Who am I?’ card. How very daytime soap."
"He’s disoriented," Natasha said, though her tone was guarded. "Possibly concussed. He hit the floor pretty hard."
"Good," Clint muttered. "He deserved worse."
Thor stood up slowly. "Maybe he’s… confused. But I don’t know if I trust it either. He’s lied before."
"Exactly," Steve said. "He’s done this before. Manipulated, twisted truth. We’d be fools to take him at face value."
Without another word, Thor pulled the muzzle from his belt the one forged in Asgard, meant to silence Loki’s magic and stepped forward. Loki's eyes widened, scrambling weakly backward, but Thor was faster.
"No...wait," Loki gasped, but the muzzle snapped over his mouth.
The metal sealed shut, magic humming through it. He could no longer speak. No illusions. No spells.
Just silence.
"We’ll put him in the cell," Steve said. "He stays there until we figure out what to do."
As they hauled him to his feet Tony gripping one arm, Steve the other Loki stumbled, legs barely functioning. They dragged him down the hallway like a prisoner, past scorched walls and broken glass, until they reached the glass cell built for the Hulk, now repurposed for a god.
They threw him in. The door hissed shut.
Loki slumped to the floor, shivering. His heart pounded like a war drum. He didn’t understand. He remembered fire and pain, and that voice in his head. That thing. But everything else was noise.
Above, the Avengers gathered to speak.
"He’s faking it," Clint said first, arms crossed tightly. "He has to be."
"I’m not sure," Natasha said slowly. "I’ve seen real dissociation before. That wasn’t an act. He looked… terrified."
"Terrified, maybe," Tony said, pacing. "But not innocent. He’s the master of misdirection. Remember what Thor used to call him? Silver tongue, always playing both sides."
"That tongue’s muzzled now," Clint muttered.
"It doesn't mean his brain is," Bruce said quietly. He’d been silent till now, arms wrapped around himself. "Maybe he hit his head harder than we thought. But selective amnesia? How convenient."
Thor frowned. "He spoke of remembering nothing but pain. Nothing but fire and... a voice."
"A voice? What voice?" Steve asked.
Thor hesitated. "He didn’t say."
"Because there is no voice," Tony snapped. "He wants us to believe something else was pulling his strings. That he wasn’t in control. But let’s be honest we’ve never seen anyone capable of controlling him."
"Exactly," Clint said. "He’s too proud for that. Too damn smart. Everything he did, he did because he wanted to."
"People don’t just get controlled like that," Steve said firmly. "We can’t go chasing ghosts. He’s responsible for what he’s done."
"Even if he says he was influenced, it doesn’t mean we excuse it," Natasha added. "And frankly, I don’t buy it. Not from him."
Thor’s expression hardened. "I want to believe he’s not beyond saving. But I have no illusions left. If this is another of his tricks…"
"Then we deal with it," Steve said. "Together."
Behind the glass, Loki watched them argue. He didn’t understand the words, not entirely. He could barely follow the thread. But he saw the fear. The anger. The mistrust.
He felt it all like a fire under his skin.
And he wondered was he truly free now?
Or just in another prison, crafted from his own broken mind?
He pressed his forehead to the cool glass, breathing shallowly.
The world he knew was gone. The voice was gone. But the pain… the pain remained.
And behind his eyes, a shadow still lingered.