"How'd you know we needed help?" Clint asks, glancing at Loki in the rearview mirror.

"Oh, I had absolutely no idea," Loki tells him. "Rogers and I were bemoaning the loss of team unity, and I came to tell you to hurry back so that we could have some celebratory pizza."

"Then you and Rogers have great timing," Natasha remarks. "Thanks for the assist."

"Oh, any time," Loki replies with a grin. "You know that I enjoy any opportunity to hurt people."

Clint chuckles, and Natasha shakes her head to herself, a look of amusement on her face. It's nice to see that that kind of comment garners this kind of response and not a snappy comment about how finding joy in others' suffering is bad. It's almost as though he's graduated from "resident supervillain" status to "minor nuisance" status. Isn't that heartwarming?

"And, might I add," Loki says, "I do believe this is the exact behavior that the United Nations was so opposed to. You could have at least waited a week before you began destroying property and endangering lives in foreign lands."

"We didn't exactly have a choice," Clint says.

"Yes, what is going on?" Loki asks. He looks over at Yelena, who's staring at him like he has two heads (though he's fairly certain he does not). "You sent the vials, I assume, given your photo was attached. What's in them?"

Yelena just stares at him for a few seconds; then, "Alright, why is he here and why are you being so nice to him?"

Natasha heaves a sigh. "He lives with us now," she says. "It's a whole thing."

"A wonderful thing that they have been nothing but delighted about from the start," Loki quips.

"Not the word I would use," Natasha replies. For Yelena's benefit, she adds, "But he's useful sometimes, so we keep him around."

"What the fuck?" Yelena mutters in Russian under her breath.

Loki claps his hands together once. "Now that this is established," he says, "who wants to tell me what was in the vials?"

It's Natasha who answers. "A mind-control antidote."

Loki furrows his brows. "What?"

"They are mind-controlling the Widows," Yelena says. "The vials are the antidote."

Loki cocks his head to the side. "I was under the impression that there were no more Widows," he says. "I'd assumed the Red Room died with Dreykov; that everyone else was free to go."

"That's the kicker," Natasha says. "Apparently, Dreykov's not dead."

Loki purses his lips.

This is... interesting.

"I assume you aim to fix that," he says slowly.

Natasha huffs a sarcastic laugh. "Boy, you know me so well."

"Might I make a suggestion?'

"You can make it," Natasha says. "I can't promise I'll use it."

"Come back to the compound."

Natasha scoffs. "What? No way!"

Clint looks over his shoulder at him. "You want to get the others involved."

"I don't see why not," he says. "Perhaps Stark and Banner can recreate the formula the vials hold; you could free all the Widows from the mind control. Rogers and Wilson and Pietro and possibly Bucky could help you with the fight – and Thor, though I believe he's in London with Dr. Foster at the moment; you'd have to text him. Still, it seems simple enough."

Natasha and Clint share a look, and then Natasha looks at her sister in the rearview mirror. "How would you feel about taking a field trip to New York?"

"I'd hate it," Yelena deadpans.

"Is that a 'yes'?"

Yelena makes a show of rolling her eyes. "That's a 'yes.'"

Loki cracks a smile. He loves when things work out.

"I am going to tell Rogers what's happening," Loki tells them. "Largely because I've been in his room this entire time and he's doubtlessly wondering why this is taking so long."

Natasha huffs. "Why are you in Roger's room?"

"I told you: we were talking about pizza," Loki answers as though it's the most normal thing in the world. "Is there anything that I can do to help before I go?"

Natasha and Clint share another look, and the latter shrugs and says, "Nope; I don't think so."

"Alright, then good luck," Loki says. "I'll see you... tomorrow, I assume."

"Sounds good," Natasha says.

"And I expect you to bring back enough pizza for everyone," Loki adds, giving them no time to answer before he disappears. They can't refuse to bring back pizza if there's no one to refuse to.

He opens his eyes, and Steve is sitting on his bed, legs hanging over the edge, and watching him curiously. Loki flashes him a smile, and that seems to quell any concern he may have had.

"Was it as exciting as you'd hoped?" Loki asks, a playfully sarcastic lilt to his voice.

"It was definitely something," Steve says.

"Something boring, I'm sure," Loki says. He's never actually seen himself project his consciousness elsewhere – and how could he? His consciousness is always elsewhere – so out of curiosity, he asks, "Did I move at all?" His guess would be no, but it's hard to say.

"Not really," Steve says. "You smiled a couple times. I'm guessing you have good news."

"I don't know that I'd call it 'good,'" Loki says, "but I do have news."

Steve gestures for him to continue.

"Firstly," Loki says, "they are coming back, and I did tell them to bring pizza."

Steve chuckles. "That sounds like good news to me," he says.

"Secondly," Loki continues, "it seems the vials they were sent are the antidote to a mind-control agent that's been used on the remaining Widows. The reason they are returning now is that I suggested they get your help – and the help of the rest of the Avengers – on their mission to take down the Red Room."

Steve blinks at that.

"But..."

He furrows his brows.

"They already took the Red Room down."

"I said the same thing," Loki says. "Apparently, we were all wrong. The Red Room remains, but not for long."

Steve nods slowly, processing that. "Well, is there anything we should be doing in the meantime?"

"Preparing for a pizza party, I suppose," Loki says. "The real fun starts when they get back." And he'll be very interested to see how Yelena's presence goes over – and, beyond that, he'll be very interested to see where she goes when this is done.

Perhaps he should warn Tony that he may need to prepare another room. He wouldn't be surprised to hear that the compound is about to grow a little more crowded.