Mending

Author's Note: This is my first attempt at a gender bender story. I just liked the other fanfictions I read in connection with this theme and Thorki. However, I hereby declare that I didn't do this because I don't like Loki in the movies (I mean, the hell, who could actually say that when it's about the godly Tom Hiddleston, right?!) - neither do I do this because I can't imagine the 'normal' Thorki with both as guys, it's just that I enjoyed the idea and wanted to expand my horizon a bit, if only just a bit. Therefore, this story is obviously AU - and my representation of the characters is of course not perfectly adequate, I mean... you just can't capture perfection, right? Plus, those are not my characters, I won't ever own them, sadly, neither do I do any trademarks mentioned etc. I don't own anything, poor me ;)
Plus, I will not put as much emphasis on the fighting scenes, they might be present, but I want to focus on the personal relationships within the team and not their fights (in detail, that is), so real action will be not as present as some may wish, for which I apologize.
Please enjoy, if you wish to review, you are welcome, but please, be nice, still a new puppy to the game. I'm just a wee little fan imagining her own bubbly world of fanfiction.

First chapter now revised ;)

Setting: After the events of Avengers, before Thor: Dark Kingdom. Plus, in this story, Loki didn't kill anyone (especially not Coulson, I was sooooo sad when he died). I just think if Loki actually murdered that many people, it would be hard to reconcile in any way and make this story work, though he did cause a lot of havoc, for the record (people just almost died).

Summary: The Avengers are on their daily mission of saving the world when they suddenly find themselves in a tough spot they cannot maneuver out of. But they get unexpected help. It will come as a huge surprise whom they find behind the mask. Male!Loki & Fem!Loki, Thorki, Avengers!Madness, a bit of everything, hopefully.

Life: A useless condition. Why? Because history is bound to repeat itself. Sounds great, right? Almost epic. This curious circumstance seems to make history or the many organisms within more than what they are, more than they will ever possibly be. Something eternal. Yet, that is just an illusion - because the truth is that all of us are just fools.

We make the same mistakes over and over and over and over again, till all worlds shall end - and go down in an epic crescendo of powers no one was yet able to truly grasp. Just for history to repeat itself. We are reborn, tossed back into the pit we crawled out of, are thrown back in time by being thrown into an unknown future.

For what? Nothing, obviously. Yet, we cannot fend off this urge, for truly, we are just animals creeping out of the depths of the Aether. And that is ever the more a reason to regard this moment of creation and recreation a useless condition. We are useless, pawns in a game of chess whose contestants are, well, the deities and the sciences are still eagerly fighting about who is sitting in the chairs, trying to beat each other. Yet, it remains that there are just some powers that take their seats and push us pawns from right to left, back and forth and kick us out, end our lives, just the way they please. We are at the mercy of entities that do not even remotely care for us, or even if they did, never make any effort to show that.

Nevertheless, we are begging, on our knees, stones biting into our flesh, face in the dust, for these ruthless emperors to bring us back again, use us in the next game, and hopefully for all those still to come. We cannot even imagine a world, a reality, a life in which we do not live, do not exist, are breathed into being. The thought is so utmost terrifying, or rather, the terror is so deeply ingrained into our very beings, that we rather accept the pains and sorrows of life in infinite regress, enslaving us to the unknown masters, wearing the collar with a swell of pride in our chests, than giving in to the bliss of non-existence. Foolish animals, that is what we are. We fight for something that should not be fought for, yet...

Yet we do. All of us. All organisms, animals, humans, God or Gods, we all strive to live, to be, with biting teeth and clawing nails. We have to exist - what for? No one knows, no one even seems to care. It is not about how, but that. That you exist matters, not under which circumstances. If you enslave yourself does not matter. After all, we are still alive then, and that is all that counts. The urge wins the fight - we lose.

And that is the epic irony of it all: No matter what we do, we lose. If we give in to our urges, we lose our dignity, ourselves, are whores to the powerful figures looming over the checkerboard. If we actually find the power to give in, though, so that we are not forced to crawl, we lose our lives, our existence, are swallowed by the Aether. And in essence, darkness claims us and blows the candles out.

The game is over.

Checkmate.

We lose.

And is that not truly useless, utmost pathetic? No, it is madness, actually. It is madness to do things over and over again, live or let someone decide on our lives, and expect a different result at some end, this divine state of Nirvana, Scheol, Heaven, Sechet-iaru, Dschanna, Paradise, the Afterlife. The madness we all share is that we expect things to change at some point, and that for the better - or for the worse if you are rather pessimistic and believe in world's doom. Through doing the same thing, answering the same urge, answering the demands of a figure we do not know or see, we expect our lives to change, expect us to change, even if in fact that marks our rigidity. Because our eternity is just a history of repetition. Of mistakes. Truly, this is madness. And that makes us perfect fools, because we allow to be the pawns.

All of us are just pawns. At checkmate. The end of the game is always the beginning. Our loss is the constant. Our gift is our loss, life is a lost game of chess, because the chessmen are simply newly aligned and the first move is made, dooming us all over again.

A useless condition.

The Avengers are on a mission to save the world, as always. The Egghead is raging again, but this time it's not looking good for the team. The mad scientist created a set of machines which will cause a chain of explosions that could blow up all central cities of the world. SHIELD sent out the team to stop the madman, after Tony stopped laughing at the man's face, as always. However, the tables turned since the machines make matters worse than expected. The energy output is so great that the tower in which the base is set is faltering. The Avengers give it everything they have to get through to the machine to disable it, but thanks to the traps the Egghead has prepared for them, it's getting increasingly difficult. One of the main problems is that Thor can't absorb the energy, because, despite the fact that it's like lightning, it's apparently not, something that Egghead thought of beforehand. So yeah, it's looking bad.

"Fuck! How is that even possible!? We are losing?! To that guy?!" Tony cries out in sheer exasperation.

"Perhaps ordered retreat would be the best of options...," Natasha grimaces.

"No way!" Tony pouts. They can't lose to that guy. They didn't lose to the Chitauri either, for goodness sake!

"Stark, we are losing this battle," Black Widow argues sternly. "And it might be best to recollect before we strike again."

"I don't think I will let that happen!" Egghead smirks viciously.

Debris ricochets against the walls, forcing the Avengers to retreat behind the remains of the walls once again.

"We have to find a way to shut down that machine or else this is our end!" Steve yells.

"The problem is that we can't simply distract Egghead to break through. He set out those traps beforehand. So that's pointless," Clint argues.

"And if we don't get there any time soon, the machine will blow and we are chow!" Tony mutters.

"It's no help, we gotta give it another try," Steve sighs.

"So, we'll try it from all sides and see if someone slips through?" Natasha retorts. That is no real plan... this is simply suicide - and all know that.

"You got any other plan?" Steve retorts.

"Sadly... no," Natasha exhales. Really, she would like to have a better plan in store, but... they have nothing at this moment.

"Awesome," Tony snorts, "I can't die on this mission. I can't lose to this guy, c'mon, he's an egghead, literally! That wouldn't ever leave me!"

The Avengers set out for their next attack, but their attempts remain futile. Egghead created traps for each of them, blocking their paths by nullifying their abilities. Thus, they just find themselves on the ground once again as the madman laughs in the background, already sure of his victory.

"I think it's time to move things up a gear!" Egghead laughs evilly. With that he activates the next stage, seemingly. The machine sends out thunderbolt-like energy flashes that tear down the tower, shaking the building to its foundation.

"WE GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE!" Steve yells. But it's already too late. They duck for cover as the explosions rock the tower further. But when they fear the building will collapse on them – and they along with it... nothing happens. After a few moments of confusion, they dare to glance up to see a hooded man standing on one of the broken pillars, a giant shield of energy engulfing the machine now, keeping it from breakout. It's a man dressed in black leather and a dark blue hood covering his face, silver applications and belt completing the picture.

"What the hell?! Who is that?" Tony grimaces.

"I don't care for as long as he helps us. Right now, we need it!" Natasha argues.

"I'm with you on that one," Tony nods absently. He is too busy watching this guy - and what his diagrams and calculations can tell him about this hooded guy.

"Guys, we should help... our help," Steve grimaces, pointing ahead. The others nod in agreement before spreading out again. The hooded man makes quick work and lunges at Egghead. That is when the Avengers realize the true advantage that just unfolded in front of them: Egghead prepared traps to block them, but not a guy whom he has never met. That means they finally have a chance to turn tables. The hooded man moves almost cat-like from the pillar, his jump mighty, but well-aimed... even if...

"Is he coming off short?!" Tony gasps in shock once realization hits him. The Iron Man already intends to catch the man falling, but the hooded warrior suddenly fires a futuristic looking shuriken at Egghead, who was distracted by the man's downfall. After all, one doesn't expect the man to fall who just pulled such a trick. The hooded man hits him squarely in the shoulder, making Egghead cry out and retreat a bit. The new one uses the momentum to catch a part of the wall to cling on to, his grip firm and steady. He swings upwards and suddenly disks of light appear in the air. He swiftly jumps upon them to throw another shuriken at the enemy, missing him only by inches, but making Egghead sway. The hooded man uses the disc to surf in one swift motion back around – and toss another shuriken.

The Avengers used the time to disable the trap system Egghead set out and are now finally able to make their way to the platform on which the base is set.

"Stark, come here. You have to help us disable this thing," Natasha tells Iron Man over the comm.

"On my way," Tony hums. He flies over to the panel and starts to work his magic. They would normally count on Banner, but he is full in Hulk-mode, and they know better than to interrupt him in that mode. No one digs a Hulk Smash at work... or in general.

"Hulk, the debris falling off might kill people," Steve tells the green monster. "Get it out of the way."

The Hulk grunts before jumping outside and collecting the chunks of wall as they fall.

"Am I the only one feeling reminded of those old video games where you have to catch fruit?" Tony frowns at the Hulk as he catches the debris, to which Natasha angrily retorts, "Stark, for once, focus on what's on hand."

"Thor, help the hooded guy," Steve instructs the thunderer.

"But no thunder! You might mess with the machines," Tony tells him quickly.

"Alright," the God of Thunder nods before he swings Mjölnir to hit the villain, but he swiftly gets away with his transportation machine. He simply appears at the other end of the tower, making Thor grunt in anger. Yet, the hooded man seemingly anticipated Egghead's move – and is now standing behind the villain, a knife to his throat.

"Switch off the machine," the hooded man says, his voice sounding somewhat distorted.

"Go to hell," the villain snarls.

"I have already been there," the man mutters, tightening his hold on Egghead a bit more, causing him to yelp once.

"There is nothing you can do anyways. The system is meant to overload – and blow you all up. If that means that I go down along with you, then this is how it is," Egghead argues self-consciously.

"If we kill you now, you'll never know if we manage to confound your plan after all," the man argues darkly.

"How would you?" the villain snorts, to which the man only shrugs, "Think about it. I stopped your tiny machine once – don't you think I can do it again?"

"That is too much for anyone. It's the power of...," Egghead means to say, but the hooded man quickly interrupts him in a low voice, "You don't know what I'm capable of, do you?"

"You won't manage," Egghead argues sternly.

"So you really want to give it a try?" the hooded man taunts him. The villain swallows thickly, clearly intimidated despite the act he tries to keep up.

"Thought so," the hooded man sneers.

"Fuck! This is not working!" Tony cries out, his fingers dancing over the panels relentlessly.

"Not working? Stark, not working is not working now! You gotta shut this down!" Natasha growls at him.

"Tell me about it! But I can't change it. Whatever algorithm I try, it always sends me back to the beginning. I can't even get past the first friggin' firewall, if this is a firewall, coz sure as hell I can't tell. Whatever weird language that is – I don't know what those signs mean! I'd have better chances making my PhD in Swahili. This would take years to decipher! We need the security code to overwrite the system back to anything language-like," Tony curses. He never saw something like this before. He can deal with most technology, obviously, but this is nothing that he ever saw before.

"Thor, get the security code out of that guy, now!" Natasha yells at the thunderer. The God of Thunder makes his way over to the two.

"You heard the Lady. Security code, now!" the hooded man snarls, pressing the blade deeper into the skin, drawing blood, which makes Egghead whimper pathetically, though he manages to say in a calmer voice, "Again, go to hell."

"I shall smash your ridiculous head if you don't tell us," Thor threatens him.

"You'd do me a favor with this. That way I know you'll never get the codes," Egghead argues maliciously.

"Hold him so that he doesn't squirm away," the hooded man nods at Thor. The God of Thunder goes with it, even if a bit hesitantly. The hooded man, once Egghead is secured, takes hold of the man's temples. Egghead gasps, his eyes wide.

"What are you doing?" Thor asks, unable to keep a bit of shock out of his voice.

"Getting the codes," the hooded man shrugs. The villain squirms beneath his touch, clearly terrified at what is happening with him.

"... Is that guy just pulling the Spock-move?!" Tony blinks at the three incredulously.

"FOCUS!" Natasha yells, knocking against the Iron Main suit harshly.

"On it, on it!" Tony mutters, punching in more sequences.

"Thor, we need the codes, NOW!" Natasha reminds Thor another time. The hooded man suddenly lets go of Egghead and flips a disk into the air to jump on to join the others on the podium, searching the panel Tony is working on relentlessly.

"God, what kinda language is that?! I don't even get through the alphabet!" Tony cries out. The hooded man nudges him aside, his hand stretching out over the panel for a few seconds. There is an energetic pull beneath his fingertips. The machine is seemingly responding to him, which makes this encounter ever the odder. Who the hell is this guy?!

After a few moments, his fingers start to dance over the board effortlessly and at rapid speed.

"You can read that?" Tony blinks at the hooded man, but he doesn't answer. Instead he continues punching in codes. Suddenly the symbols change into Roman letters.

"What?! What did you do?" Tony stammers helplessly.

"As you suggested, I got the code from this fool's mind and overwrote the system. Then... simple translation. Now you just have to disable it. Do you think you can do it?" the hooded man asks.

"I can take over from here, yeah," Tony agrees. The hooded man nods curtly before he takes his stance in front of the machine, spreading out his arms.

"What are you doing?!" Steve frowns.

"He can disable it, but the energy that is already created needs to be released," the hooded man replies calmly, making Natasha gape at him, "What?"

"He's right," Tony agrees as he glances at the screens. "Even if we shut down the reactor, the energy is too much to put back. The buffers are fried. The relays dropped out ages ago. And this machine can't convert the energy back. It has to be released in some way. We can keep more energy from being forced out, but that blow stuck in there still has to blow."

"But what do you want to do in front of it?" Steve argues. That can't be a very safe spot after all. The hooded man suddenly sends energy balls upwards to enlarge a hole in the roof just above the machine.

"Dude! Careful! This building might break down any second!" Clint growls.

"I need... Thor... here. Someone will have to take over the pathetically deformed man he's holding," the hooded man says, still unimpressed by anything the others say. Steve nods and makes his way down to Thor, who is giving Egghead into his care before he swings his hammer to move up to the platform.

"You command the thunder – get outside, take a stance on the tower over there. You'll have to use your hammer to guide the energy into the sky," the hooded man tells him.

"This is not thunder. I cannot control it," Thor argues.

"I will make it thunder," the hooded man tells him sternly. "The machine cannot convert the energy, but I can. You will just have to shoot the thunder I am going to deliver you into the nightsky."

"But...," Thor means to argue, but the hooded man snarls at him with urgency, "We have no time. Go."

Thor nods, swinging Mjölnir to fly through the crack in the roof to take position.

"Okay, the system is shut down. The energy level is constant. Whatever you think you're doing... now'd be the time, man!" Tony tells the hooded man, whose only reply is, "Away from the machine."

Tony doesn't waste another second, but grabs Clint and Natasha to bring them out of the immediate danger zone. The hooded man takes his stance. The barrier slowly disperses and then the lightnings strikes out from all sides. Yet, they are caught as they are absorbed into the hooded man.

"Okay... that is... officially awesome," Tony manages to say.

"Only if he survives the trick," Natasha argues. That is when suddenly the energy, in form of real lightning, shoots upwards to where Thor is standing, who then guides it into the sky.

"I think it's working, wow," she puckers her lips, visibly impressed. Till last she didn't think this would happen. After a few more surges of energy, the reactor dies out and the light fades away until the deafening buzzing from before finally disappears also. Suddenly... silence.

"... It did work... can we keep him?" Tony asks, still blinking. The hooded man goes to his knees, heavily leaning on his hand.

"Stark – help him," Natasha urges the Iron Man. Tony flies up to the platform again to turn to the hooded man, "Yo, man, are you alright?"

He glances at the ground to see blood splattering on the ground in fairly big droplets. The man hacks and grunts as though in pain. That surely was a bit too much even on the new badass of the Avengers Club.

"Okay, I guess that counts as an answer," Tony winces sympathetically. "Guys, we need an ambulance..."

"Not... needed," the hooded man croaks, his chest heaving painfully.

"You are bleeding, I think it kinda is," Tony grimaces. The man suddenly is back to his feet, sways for a second, but catches himself before Tony can even try to offer him support.

"Dude, you don't have to do the lonely dying hero here," Tony shakes his head. However, the hooded man, without a further word, flings a disk he means to jump on, but misses. He quickly creates another one to make sure he doesn't fall, but it is obvious that he is drained of his energies.

"Guys, we have a hurt deer on the run," Tony tells the others over the comm. The man lands on the lower level, his disks no longer supporting him.

"Hey, you! We are trying to help. There's no need to run off," Natasha assures him quickly, holding her hands up in the air. Maybe he is just confused after the attack. However, the hooded man makes a run for it, to one of the huge gaps in the wall.

"Should I knock him out?" Clint suggests drily.

Natasha turns to him angrily, "He helped us. We will try to be civil before we do that... We should just try to catch him before he does something real stupid."

"That might be too late already...," Clint snorts, nodding ahead. And Hawkeye might be right with that, since the hooded man makes his way over to the edge to seemingly jump out. In his condition, that is perhaps not that much of a good idea, possibly deadly idea.

"Fuck!" Natasha cries out before she turns to Tony, "Stark?"

"On it," Tony replies, already up in the air. He flies over to the edge, just as the man walks over it.

"Dude, now give it a rest," Tony sighs. He means to catch the hooded man, but once he touches him, he disperses into thin air.

"The hell?! Guys, that guy just dispersed into nothing...," Tony blinks. That was... not part of the plan.

"Okay... this guy is really something," Natasha shakes her head. Tony flies further down, and sees the hooded man again. The Iron Man loses no time as the ground is coming closer by the second, but when he means to grasp him, one of the disks is sent his way and Tony has to dodge. It causes no damage, but is enough to gain distance. That guy really tries hard to stay away from them.

"Dude, you will die!" Tony tells him, though he feels that he is just pointing out the obvious. Tony already fears he will have to pull away so that he doesn't hit the ground himself, but suddenly a blotch of green flashes past him... and the hooded man is pushed... very... roughly into the wall by said blotch, the Hulk, as it turns out.

"Bad Hulk!" Tony yells.

"Debris!" the Hulk grunts, blinking at him incredulously.

"No, man who helped us!" Tony curses, lecturing him like a naughty child. "Bad Hulk! You don't smash someone who helped! Bad Hulk! Bad Hulk!"

"What's going on out there?" Natasha grimaces.

"The Hulk just smashed the guy into the wall, coz he thought he was debris. Now I do not only feel grateful... but also pity for the guy. That looks like it hurt," Tony explains, but then curses at the green monster again. "HULK! Now get him up there, but be nice, okay?"

The Hulk nods before he grasps the slender form of the man and jumps up the tower.

"Remind me to never play catch with him," Tony mutters under his breath. "Hulk, put him down, slowly."

The Hulk obeys, even if the guy is rather thrown to the ground. As he lands, the hooded man is instantly back inside his head, though his movements are sluggish, still. He tries to get away from them, even if it means he has to crawl, as it seems.

"Okay, uhm... we've had a bit of a bad start, I guess," Tony grimaces. "Look, the Hulk didn't mean it. That's just his way of expressing love."

"You should just take it easy. Ambulance should be up here any second to treat you," Natasha adds.

"I don't... need it," the hooded man grumbles.

"After the Hulk Smash, anyone needs it," Tony shakes his head with a smirk.

"He's really persistent on that one," Clint grimaces. He is likely refusing treatment also, but that... is a new level of refusing treatment.

"Look, we want to thank you for helping us out. So let us help you in turn," Natasha tries to assure him. Tony comes closer, growing impatient, "Dude, now don't be a bitch about it. I don't like hospitals either, but you just got struck by lightning and then struck by the Hulk. I'd call it a night if I were you."

He grabs him by the shoulder, but the man pulls away with much effort. Tony means to grab him again, but only catches the hood, subsequently pulling it off. And that is when world stops turning for a second. The Avengers gape at the man in front of them.

"Well... hello there... long time no see," Tony grimaces. That is the moment Thor comes back through the roof, "What is the matter, mates? I was just..."

He glances at the rest of the team who are all staring at the formerly hooded man. Thor can't see his front, because he stands in his back.

"I guess... I should go... now," the man grimaces.

"Don't even dare to move," Clint snarls, already pointing an arrow at him.

"What is this about?" Thor blinks at his teammates. He uses Mjölnir to travel the rest of the way – and that is when he comes face to face with the man also.

"Long time no see," the man huffs. "... brother."

"Loki?!" Thor blinks.

Checkmate.