The Seventh Avenger by ElrondsScribe

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Chapter 7: Comparing Egos, Part 2

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All rights belong to the Tolkien Estate and to Marvel Studios.

The timing of the events at about this point in the movie is slightly sketchy, so I may be playing rather loosely with it. Also, weird ideas about Elf telepathy on display here.

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By the time Glorfindel got to his locker, his temper had cooled down a bit and he was beginning to be rather alarmed about the whole business. It was all very well for Tony Stark to hack censored information on leaked photos during an internationally broadcasted Senate hearing, but to hack a counter-intelligence agency with their own equipment on their own airship? And what about poking poor Bruce with a stick, for no reason other than to see if he could provoke the Hulk? Had the man no restraint, not to mention common sense?

As for Bruce himself, he had obviously been on edge since his arrival, which did not bode well for the continued absence of his larger, greener alter ego. Glorfindel had meant what he said about Harlem, and refused to refer to the mild-mannered scientist as a monster, but he had no desire to become personally acquainted with the Hulk just yet. Not with Loki still on board.

And Steve? Glorfindel winced. What was wrong with himself and the Captain? Tony was possibly more tactless and superficially arrogant than Steve; and yet Steve's meddlesome, almost bullying manner was nothing short of infuriating (Like Elrond when you first met him, whispered an annoying memory in his ear. And look how you and he get on now.). And yet the man had been relatively easygoing before Loki had come aboard.

As for whatever Fury was withholding . . . Glorfindel had been in both the Avengers' position and Fury's. He knew perfectly well that Fury could be masking some really repulsive mission of his own for which he wanted the Tesseract; he also knew that Fury, as the head of something like an intelligence organization, probably had a hundred (possibly quite legitimate) reasons for revealing only what he deemed necessary; not to mention having superiors of his own to placate and orders of his own to follow.

But the mention of Gondolin troubled him because, loath as he was to admit it, Steve was right. Treachery had brought Morgoth to Turgon's hidden gates, and fire and death to the Gondolindrim.

But what could he do?

Well, for starters, he could get some answers from the one person who was undoubtedly up to something.

Glorfindel turned and marched down to the detention level. It took him some time to find it, for the Helicarrier seemed to be designed so that the detention level was not easy to get to. But at length he reached the room with the great glass-walled cell, and Loki looked around when he entered. He smiled. "Well, if it isn't the yellow sprite," he said. "What may I do for you?"

Well, two can play this game. Glorfindel flashed his own most radiant smile. "You could abort your evil plan to take over the earth with your Chitauri army, to begin with," he said.

"Oh, I'm afraid that's not possible," said Loki, still smiling. "You see, I have a score to settle."

"So I hear," returned Glorfindel pleasantly. He began feeling out, cautiously, for the Asgardian's mind.

Loki's smile twisted into a sneer. "Did you hear it from Thor?" he mocked. "Was he sad and mournful?"

"Very," returned Glorfindel, who had just found what seemed to be Loki's mind, a vast and twisted maze full of traps, entire chambers held hostage by some unknown force of great power. "Anybody'd think his adopted brother had destroyed part of another planet, and then come back to destroy all of it."

"And that, my shining golden friend, is where you are mistaken," Loki's face assumed a noble expression. "I'm not here to destroy anything, merely to rule and instruct."

"Really?" said Glorfindel. "I thought you had a score to settle." He was tiptoeing around the edges of Loki's mind, peering in where he could, trying to see the Asgardian's (Jotun's?) more immediate plans without being detected.

Loki tilted his head. "You don't agree that the mortals of this planet want for a ruler? Why should I not be the one to make them free from freedom?"

"Do you think I'm going to let you do that?"

"I don't see that the matter rests with you," returned Loki.

"And that's where you are wrong," Glorfindel stopped smiling, folded his arms, and narrowed his eyes. "I and my people, the Eldar, have walked this earth for thousands upon thousands of years, and we have both suffered and conquered evils the like of which you have never known. Do you think we will suffer your foolishness? Do you think we would let a mere child of some thousand years old to reign over us, because he decides he wants to?"

Loki blinked, and for once seemed to be at a loss for words.

It was at this moment that Glorfindel began to sense that Loki's mind was far too dangerous a place to wander at will. There was strange, perilous magic about him that Glorfindel had not felt from Thor, and not a little insanity. So he withdrew as delicately as he could; but Loki's eyes suddenly narrowed with suspicion.

"What are you?" he hissed, striding forward toward the Elf (though he never touched the glass).

"Oh," said Glorfindel with an air of blinking innocence. "Just a yellow sprite, I guess."

Loki's eyes flashed, and the sudden assault on Glorfindel's mind made him start back. Hastily he went on the defense, barring every door and window into his consciousness and flinging Loki back with all his force. Loki reeled, and Glorfindel pressed his advantage with a strike that tore through Loki's barriers in a moment.

A glowing blue orb in the midst of the golden scepter thrummed with power, and from it curling tendrils of blue magic reached outward as if to draw Glorfindel toward the orb. He drew back from the power of the scepter in suspicion and alarm, only to fall straight into the octopus-like tentacles of Loki's will. Glorfindel struggled to break free, but Loki held him fast, twisting his way into Glorfindel's memory.

He seemed to falter then, overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of days that were the Elf's long life, and Glorfindel took the chance to slip unnoticed into Loki's designs.

He seemed to step straight into the ruins of the Helicarrier's half-destroyed command room. The enraged Hulk whirled on Glorfindel and gave a roar of rage, SHIELD scattering before him like ants, and the Avengers swarming all over him in vain like so many gnats.

And then, with a resounding GET OUT! Loki had hurled him from his mind, and Glorfindel returned to his body to find himself lying on the floor with an aching head and back, as if he had fallen over backward, which he apparently had. He turned his head with some difficulty and saw that Loki was on his knees in the middle of the cell, panting and and in disarray.

For a moment both were too dazed to move; and then Glorfindel remembered what he had seen of Loki's plot. The Hulk. He scrambled to his feet and went racing up to find the command room. By the time he burst into it, he was so out of breath that he could only gasp out "Director - urgent -"

Both Fury and Hill were standing over an agent's screen, though they (and many others) looked up almost involuntarily at Glorfindel's rather violent entrance. Hill then looked up at Fury, who gave her a nod and then turned to Glorfindel. "What is it?" he asked as he crossed the room.

"In private," panted Glorfindel, turning to go out into the hall which would eventually bring him to the flight of steps that led to the lab. Fury followed him, and as soon as they were out of the room Glorfindel hissed, "Loki means to unleash the Hulk."

Fury's face, which had already looked fairly grim, became even grimmer. He touched his ear. "Romanoff, you copy?" he barked. "Find Thor and get both your asses up to the lab. Loki wants to unleash the Hulk." He touched his ear again. "Shoulda known he was here for Banner," he growled. "Like we didn't already have enough to worry about."

Glorfindel knew better than to ask what he meant. He just followed the Director anxiously until they reached the lab. Both Bruce and Tony were quietly leaning against one of the work stations in front of a screen.

But Fury's first words were addressed, not to Bruce, but to Tony. "What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" he asked in frosty tones.

Glorfindel suddenly remembered what exactly Tony Stark had been doing for the past hour or so, and remembered also that Fury had been standing in front of a screen in the command room. He knows he's being hacked. Should I have told him? Naw.

"Uh, kinda been wondering the same thing about you, actually," said Tony breezily. "Not you, Goldilocks," he added to Glorfindel. "Just Mad-Eye Moody here."

"Goldilocks?" scoffed Glorfindel. "That's the best you can come up with?"

"Shut up," said Fury to Glorfindel, and then to Tony, "You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract."

"We are," said Bruce, who looked just as smug as did Tony. "The model's locked and we're sweeping for a signature now." He pointed over Fury's shoulder at a distant screen. "When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."

"And you'll get your Cube back," added Tony. "No muss, no fuss - what is Phase 2?" He had at that moment just glanced over one of his screens.

And then something large and heavy landed on one of the countertops with a clack, and the voice of an angry Steve Rogers said, "Phase 2 is SHIELD using the Cube to build weapons. Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me." The last words were addressed to Bruce and Tony.

"Ooh, not following orders now, are we, Captain?" mocked Glorfindel, ignoring for the moment the large, rather nasty-looking weapon Steve had just laid on the table.

"Oh, you think this has nothing to do with you," Steve shot back. "You think you didn't get ripped off too?"

Fury moved to dispel the implied accusation. "Rogers," he said, laying a hand on the thing that had so angered Steve. "We gathered everything related to the Tesseract, this does not mean that we're -"

"I'm sorry, Nick," Tony swung round the screen he and Bruce had been reading so that it now faced Fury, Steve, and Glorfindel. "What were you lying?"

There on the screen, clear as daylight, were unmistakable schematics for large, powerful-looking, possibly nuclear weapons. More damningly, Glorfindel had seen them before, during his years as an English spy during the Second World War. In HYDRA hands.

"How did I let myself get into this again?!" he groaned under his breath.

Steve was glaring at Fury. "Looks like I was wrong, Director," he growled. "The world hasn't changed a bit."

And then the armored Thor strode into the room, and behind him Agent Romanoff. Her green eyes were fixed on Bruce Banner, and the moment Bruce looked back at her Glorfindel could almost feel the tension.

"Did you know about this?" he asked her, pointing with his glasses at the weapons schematics.

"Of course she bloody knew about it!" Glorfindel threw up his hands. "Everybody on this ship probably knew, except for us." I wonder if that was what Hill was so twitchy about earlier.

Romanoff did not spare the Elf so much as a glance. "You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" she asked warily.

Bruce gave a bark of mirthless laughter. "I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed," he said. Glorfindel suddenly noticed the gleam in the man's eyes with some alarm.

"Dr. Banner, Loki is manipulating you," he said. With success, apparently.

Bruce indicated Natasha and Fury with the glasses. "And they've been doing what exactly?" he demanded.

Romanoff took a step toward him. "You didn't come here because I batted my eyelashes."

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy," snapped Bruce, and he indicated the screen again. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

And Fury said, "Because of him," and pointed at Thor of all people, surprising Glorfindel very much. He wasn't the only one, for Thor arched his eyebrows and asked, "Me?"

"Last year," said Fury. "Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that, not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously outgunned."

And then it struck Glorfindel like a bolt of lightning - this was the purpose of the Avengers Initiative! He peered closely at the Director. Unless he was mistaken, "Phase 2" had not been Nick Fury's idea. Did he even support it? If not, why was he defending it?

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor was protesting.

"I suppose your precious brother isn't one of 'your people,' then, nor this army of Chitauri he intends to lead," snapped Glorfindel. "To say nothing of your 'Dark-Elves' or whatever you call them. Why on earth would we think other planets want nothing but peace with us?"

Thor faltered, and Fury folded his arms. "Even our own planet is filling up with people that can't be matched, that can't be controlled."

"What, like you controlled the Cube?" demanded Steve, and Thor interjected, "Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is a signal to all the realms that Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"Higher form?" demanded Steve, eyes darting to Thor.

"You forced our hand," said Fury. "We had to come up with something."

"Nuclear deterrent," Tony chimed in, "'cause that always calms everything right down."

Glorfindel stared at the man in disbelief. "Oh, that's a good one, Merchant of Death, by all means call the kettle black!"

And Steve said, "I'm sure if he still made weapons, he'd be in this neck deep!"

Tony bristled. "Wait, wait, wait," he said, taking a step toward the Elf. "How is this now about me?"

"Isn't everything?" snarked Steve.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," scoffed Thor.

"Ex-cuse me," said Fury irritably to Thor. "Did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"

"Do you always give your champions such mistrust?" asked Thor.

"Yes, actually, and the more you've sacrificed, the less they trust you," snapped Glorfindel.

Natasha Romanoff stared from Elf to Asgardian. "Are you boys really that naive?" she said in exasperation. "SHIELD monitors potential threats!"

Bruce's arms were folded. "Captain America is on SHIELD's watch list?"

"You're on that list?" asked Tony of Steve. "Above or below angry bees?"

"I swear to God, Stark, one more crack -"

But Glorfindel was suddenly distracted by the sight of something just behind Bruce. The golden scepter sat on a white tabletop, and the large blue gem set in it gleamed like a blue star. The high, musical thrumming that came from it grew steadily louder until Glorfindel could hardly believe that he was the only one hearing it; now that he was looking, he saw that, the longer they argued, the brighter it glowed and the more it thrummed.

And then suddenly, he remembered just what he'd just been saying. Hell no, you will not have me too!

He was distracted when somewhere beside him Bruce spoke: ". . . what are we, a team? No, no, no - we're a chemical mixture that creates chaos. We're - we're a time bomb."

Fury took a step toward the physicist. "You need to step away," he warned.

Tony flung out an arm. "Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" he asked with a bravado that only a man who had never been near the real Hulk could muster, and he laid a hand on Steve's shoulder.

"You know damn well why!" cried Steve, flinging off Tony's hand. "Back off!"

There's going to be a civil war in here!

"Stop!" cried Glorfindel. "Stop!"

Nobody seemed to be listening to him. Tony had actually just swung round so that he was directly facing the Captain. "Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."

"Big man in a suit of armor," Steve scoffed. "Take that off, and what are you?"

"Ah, genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," Tony rattled off, but his face held no humor at all.

Glorfindel gathered all his breath. "DARO!" he thundered, and everyone around him started and stared at him, their quarrels dying on their lips.

"You fools!" cried Glorfindel furiously. "Do none of you understand? This is why Loki wanted to come aboard! I'm sorry, Captain," to that individual. "You were right. Loki does mean to start a war here. And look at us now! Do you think he hasn't done it?"

The look Bruce turned on him could have blistered concrete. "And just where are you in all this anyway?" he demanded. "Sounds like you've been pretty comfortable sitting on the sidelines for the last seventy years - what made you decide to get involved now?"

Glorfindel was thrown by the question. "I - SHIELD knows about Elves," he said. "Generally the fewer who know of our existence, the better."

"Really?" asked Tony. "What are you trying to hide?"

Glorfindel clenched his jaw. "Maybe we don't like being hunted like Dr. Banner," he said. "People do that, you know."

And then, shockingly, mercifully, the machine in the corner beeped.

"Got it," said Tony into the sudden silence.

Banner headed toward the monitor, saying, "Sorry kids, I guess you don't get to see my little party trick after all."

"You've located the Tesseract?" asked Thor.

"I can get there faster," Tony volunteered

"Get where faster?" asked Glorfindel sharply. He'd just been looking at the screen over Bruce's shoulder.

"Uh, the Cube?" suggested Tony.

But Bruce's eyes widened. "Oh, my God!" he said.

"What?" asked Thor.

"It's here!" cried Bruce.

And at that moment, the explosion came.