Emma's POV

As soon as we entered Loki’s mind, we could see what kind of form his mental defence took. The mental defence was different for every person who could create one since they created it by themselves.

In Loki’s case, the mental defence appeared in the form of a blue energy barrier with golden lines on it. However, we had no time to analyse the barrier properly since we had to break it as soon as possible.

We attacked the mental barrier using the equivalent of a sledgehammer, all of our attacks landing at the same spot so that we could smash through the barrier.

But despite us hammering continuously at the same spot, only cracks had appeared on the mental barrier with no chance of it shattering quickly in sight.

“Ha ha ha ha!! I would admit that I had not expected this.” Suddenly, Loki’s voice sounded in the mental space, coming from all directions. At this moment, it was clear that Loki had learnt about the psychic attack on his mind.

A giant face of Loki formed on the mental barrier and in response to it, the mind avatars of us also appeared before the barrier.

This was how it looks inside a mental battlefield, in case the honour of the mind was strong enough to sense the intruders and fight against them. The owner of the mind was always in a greater position compared to the intruders since it was his turf.

“Your attempt was truly marvelous. If it was not for the fact that my mind had been enhanced by my staff's power, you would have really entered my mind and learnt my secrets.” Loki applauded our attempt even though it had failed.

“Still, you have provided me some good entertainment. I will not fight needlessly with you. You are free to leave.” Loki said, letting us leave as if he was taking pity on us.

“Emma, I think we need to use it.” Jean said in a determined tone upon seeing the whole situation.

I know what Jean was referring to. In the data given by Spider Supreme about the Phoenix Force, there was a way for us to channel and use the Phoenix Force’s power temporarily, for about a minute.

This method however took a heavy toll on one's mind. But with Jean besides me, she could mitigate the worst of the toll.

Moreover, it was me who had to do it instead of Jean since I was the one whose telepathy was stronger. And we had to do it now since the cracks on the barrier were already regenerating.

“Try to mitigate what you can.” I said as I channelled the near endless power of the Phoenix Force through my mind.

My mind avatar was soon shrouded in a fiery aura which took the form of a giant bird. The power Phoenix Force gave me was truly great. It honestly felt like I could control the entire world with this power. Yet it felt like this power could consume my mind whenever it wanted.

Besides me, Jean was also shrouded in a fiery aura, albeit a smaller one in size as she tried to mitigate the load on my mind. Professor Xavier was on standby, ready to help at any moment.

“What is it, this power?” Loki said, his voice laced with fear as he sensed the amount of psionic energy coursing through my body.

“You don't need to know.” I said with a smirk as I readied my attack.

A giant fiery bird appeared before me and upon my direction, flew and smashed into the mental barrier, completely shattering it.

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“Ahhh!!” Loki's projection screamed as it was destroyed along with the barrier.

“Come, we need to hurry. Loki’s mind is momentarily in shock because we broke his mental barrier but he will not be always like this. We need to read his mind and find what we need before he throws us out.” Professor Xavier instructed.

As per his orders, our mind avatars deconstructed as our formless minds finally entered Loki's mindscape.

But what we saw was something we had never expected.

Loki's mind could be said to be a giant orb full of blue energy where the blue energy actually represented his memories.

Yet what scared us were the various golden strands which were present all over the orb as if parasiting it.

Professor Xavier hesitantly contacted a nearby golden strand but immediately removed his mind from it as if he had been shocked.

“What happened, Professor?” Jean asked worriedly.

“See for yourself.” Professor Xavier connected our mind and showed what he had seen inside the golden strand.

There were several pictures and voices he showed to us which completely shook our minds.

“Asgard is your enemy, not your friend.”

“You deserve to be the King of Asgard, not Thor.”

“Humans are lesser compared to you. As such, they deserve to be your slaves.”

All I could see were several commands which aggravated Loki's already worse personality. But there was one single command which was the most superior one and repeated several times.

“Bring the Tessaract to the Master at any cost.”

At this moment, after seeing the commands in the golden strands, it was clear what had happened to Loki.

“Loki was mind controlled himself.”

********************************

“When will your teacher Ancient One send what she has analysed from the data? It is already morning.” Mr. Stark complained as there had been no update even after several hours since I had sent the staff’s data to Ancient One.

“It takes some time, Mr. Stark. Be a little patient.” I replied.

“Well, it seems that we won't need it in the end. After all, we have already cracked the Tessaract’s signal. Now, all we need to do is track the signal which will be handled by the various labs around the world.” Dr. Banner gave the good news.

“Now that our work is done, we can see SHIELD’s secrets, my dear friends.” Mr. Stark said, showing us that he had hacked the main computer.

“But it looks like SHIELD has also found you hacking it.” I said as I looked at the monitor.

“It doesn't matter now.” Mr. Stark replied, clearly not considering SHIELD as a threat.

“What are you doing, Stark? I had not recruited you so that you could hack SHIELD’s database.” As if on cue, Director Fury appeared in the lab and asked Mr. Stark furiously.

“What is this, Director?” Before Mr. Stark could say anything in response, Captain America appeared in the room along with Mr. Logan and slammed a weapon on the desk.

The weapon had HYDRA’s logo and Tessaract’s energy could be felt inside it, albeit a very small amount.

“Why is SHIELD creating a weapons using Tessaract, Director?” Mr. Logan asked threateningly. He seemed ready to unleash his claws at any moment.

“You are misunderstanding, Captain. SHIELD has only collected everything related to Tessaract.” Director Fury said, trying to appease everyone but we were clearly not buying it.

“Then, what is this project, Director? This ‘Phase 2’, where you would create weapons using Tessaract.” Mr. Stark said, showing files on the Phase 2.

“What am I seeing, Director Fury? Just what the hell are you trying to do?” Professor Xavier asked furiously as he entered the lab along with Agent Natasha, Jean and Emma. Thor also entered the lab soon after.

It was clear that no one was happy to learn that SHIELD was creating weapons of mass destruction.

“We can explain it later. But first I need to tell everyone something. It's incredibly important for the mission.” Agent Natasha said, revealing that they had found something extremely important.

“Fine, tell what, it is.” Captain said, willing to listen.

“Loki is being mind controlled himself.”

All of us were stunned when we heard Agent Natasha's words. The mind controller was also being mind controlled!

It honestly sounded like a bad joke. Loki was not a common man. He was an Asgardian and moreover, a mage. Someone whose mind was a fortress according to Thor. And that person was being mind controlled.

“This can't be possible. An Asgardian’s mind is not fragile enough that it can be controlled.” Thor said, clearly having difficulty believing Agent Natasha's words.

“We can discuss this matter later since Loki is already in our prison.” Mr. Stark said, dismissing the matter for now.

“Explain this first, Fury.” Mr. Stark redirected everyone's attention once again to SHIELD’s weapon plan. He clearly wanted answers right now.

Director Fury looked ready to explain when suddenly I felt spatial fluctuations in the lab.

A portal suddenly opened and out came a figure I knew all too well, Ancient One!

But why had Ancient One appeared here?