Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Peace fell over the Earth once again, or at least as much peace as there ever is in this troubled world. The people of New York began to rebuild their devastated city. Day and night, crews of dispatched soldiers and civilian volunteers could be found clearing away the wreckage left in the wake of the Chitauri's attack. There had been no sign of these invaders from distant space since the Avengers first closed their massive portal in the sky. The strange machine which had opened the portal was dismantled, and its power source was taken by the Avengers. Neither the tesseract nor the Avengers had been seen since.

So where had they disappeared to?

For the time being, the Avengers found their home to be an upper floor of Stark Tower. The entire floor was designated as one of Tony Stark's personal test areas and was off limits to everyone else. In an environment such as this 'test area,' the Avengers were free to do as they pleased, and no one would find it out of place. No one could even begin to fathom the grandiose ideas running through the brilliant mind of Tony Stark, so nothing going on in his laboratories could be considered strange, because essentially everything in this tower was strange. So, temporarily housed in Stark Tower was the tesseract, the Avengers, and their prisoner, Loki.

And why should such company reside here?

The best explanation for Stark's current guests is best summed up to simple curiosity. tony Stark's burning desire to understand the workings of the intensely complex tesseract brought him to bring it, and those who must accompany it, to Stark Tower where he could study it to his heart's content. If only everyone would allow him to do so in peace. His fellow Avengers rushed and pressured him to no end to finish his work with it quickly. Tony understood they wanted this dangerous power sent away to Asgard as soon as possible, he really did, but there are some things that just can't be rushed. Besides, he'd like to see any one of them do better; this wasn't exactly child's play.

At first Banner held a rather strong dislike for Stark's latest project. Like the other Avengers, he wanted the cube gone so he and everyone else could fall back into the false sense of security they all valued so much. But as time wore on and Tony chattered constantly about everything he was figuring out, Bruce's curiosity was piqued. It wasn't long before Banner joined Stark in his study of the tesseract.

No one was keen on the idea of the tesseract staying on Earth any longer than necessary, but somehow or other, and no doubt putting his knack for maddening persistence to great use, Tony Stark had convinced them all to allow him to keep the cube for one week's time. But true to his typical character, Stark pushed his limits. That single week soon gave way to two months. And that was the point at which Banner joined in his efforts. Still time continued to tick by, and in what felt like no time to Tony and Bruce, a whole six months had passed. While time sped by for the two of them, it drug on and on for the others. A couple of them would go out from time to time, but the secrecy of their living arrangements depended on no one witnessing their comings and goings. Needless to say, such outings were limited. Fury and everyone back at SHIELD believed Thor, Loki, and the tesseract had already gone back to Asgard. Which meant, it was hard telling when Stark would give up his newest toy.

And since the tesseract was required to transport Thor and Loki to Asgard, they too were forced to stay on Earth for the time being. Thor was free to come and go as he pleased within reason, same as with the other Avengers, but his 'brother' was not so fortunate. Being a prisoner, Loki obviously couldn't be free like the other residents of Stark Tower, but no one believed it to be a good idea to send him to a prison until the time he was to be returned to Asgard either, especially since everyone believed him to already be gone. Besides, the Avengers believed Loki's imprisonment required special care; to leave him in an ordinary prison, or even a SHIELD detention center, would be too risky. They wanted to keep an eye on him personally, taking no chances that he could escape. So Loki was locked away within Stark Tower, waiting for the day Stark ans Banner would finish their study of the tesseract and Thor would take him back to Asgard. By no means did he look forward to that day, but never getting to see anything outside the small room he had been confined to became quite dull exceedingly quick.

After some time, Thor took pity on the brother be still refused to give up on. He would occasionally go talk to Loki to keep him company in his isolation, perhaps to try to reason with him as well. He noticed that Loki was significantly calmer now, but he refused to talk about anything that had happened recently. Thor wasn't sure what to think of this, and none of the other Avengers cared to so much as comment on the matter. They didn't believe there was any hope of redemption for the fallen god.

As his research continued, Stark eventually realized that Loki already knew much more than he did about the tesseract. So, he too paid a visit to the bored prisoner. Tony went into the room expecting a fight, but while Loki expressed no desire to explain all his secrets, he didn't express any of the hostility or insanity expected of him either. But of course, having failed to obtain the information he wanted, Tony settled for being an annoyance to the strangely calm prisoner. Being a master of such antics, it was no surprise when the mischief-maker began answering in kind. But something Loki said during that shattered serenity stuck in Stark's mind. It didn't make sense, and it lingered in the back of his mind as he resumed his study of the the tesseract. A couple days later, Stark and Banner were unable to figure a solution to the equation they formed in an attempt to understand another type of portal the tesseract seemed to be capable of opening. Once the two of them had spent hours upon hours struggling, Tony finally realized he had already known the answer the entire time. That's why Loki's words were haunting him...They were the answers he was looking for! When Stark accused Loki of helping him, the trickster only smiled. Over the course of the next week, Stark continued to receive similar hints from the prisoner, but nothing was outright told to him. Loki was slowly winning Stark's trust nonetheless, and Tony began talking to him on a regular basis.

After this went on for quite sometime, Stark had another "brilliant" idea. He knew before he even acted on it, that most, maybe all, of the other Avengers would hate it. Too bad he didn't care. This could be fun. If Tony could learn this much from a man sitting in a cell, what could this prisoner possible show him firsthand?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

One day Banner worked in the lab all morning, and there was no sign of Stark. It was unusual for him to be gone so long, and Bruce didn't like it. For one thing, that left him to labor over their work on the tesseract alone, but more importantly, it concerned him for another reason. Stark had been spending too much time with Loki recently. Banner couldn't help but wonder if Tony had gotten a bit too comfortable around the troubled murderer and was now paying for it. Bruce was contemplating going to look for him, when the door on the other side of the lab slid open.

In through the now open door stepped a smiling Tony Stark. His grin never faltered as his two guests followed him in and Banner's face froze in an expression if pure shock. Stark's first guest, to enter the room was a decidedly unhappy Thor with his hammer, Mjiolnir, held tightly in his hand. Stark's second guest was unmistakably the cause for the hammer held ready in Thor's hand and the unwavering look of amusement on Tony's face. Coming through the door of the lab only a step behind Thor was Loki. A small chain from handcuffs hung down between the gods with one of the metal bracelets on Thor's wrist and the other on Loki's.

"A- You- Are you out of your mind?" Banner finally manages to sputter out.

"Oh, come on. He's chained to a big guy with a magic hammer. What's the worst that could happen?"

Chapter Text

Bruce Banner was far from pleased by this unexpected turn of events. He didn't want to see Loki out of his cell at all, let alone walking relatively free through the laboratory currently housing the tesseract. Had Stark forgotten how much trouble this man had caused with the cube less than a year ago? Could the "genius" honestly be this stupid?

Tony Stark was completely fascinated by the prospect of learning from someone who actually knew how to control the tesseract even partially, even if that someone was a person he had wanted dead not long before. And since Loki didn't seem half as crazy now as he had during his attempted take over of the world, learning from him seemed like fair game. As long as there was something to be learned from this, it all seemed perfectly fine to Tony.

Thor thought that interaction with others may help Loki learn more about the humans he believed himself so superior to, and maybe realize just how wrong he was. But he had hoped that said interaction would come from within Loki's room here. It would have been much safer that way, for everyone. But if this is what it took to get the others to give his "brother" any chance at proving there was some good in him after all, then Thor would do everything he could to help. The broken god who declared war on humanity was not the "brother" Thor knew and cared for. He only wanted to see Loki return to his old self, return to the way he had been before everything had fallen apart not so very long ago. Thor just wanted to see his "brother" saved.

And in all honesty, Loki had no tricks up his sleeve this time. There were no schemes playing in his mind for how to escape or cause trouble with this new and rather miraculous partial trust. He was simply bored with sitting in his cell all day every day, and watching Stark and Banner puzzle over the power of the tesseract was quite an improvement.

The Avengers hated this arrangement. It was as simple as that. They didn't agree with Thor's belief in Loki's possible redemption, and they really didn't like the idea of Stark trying to learn anything from him. That was just asking for trouble. They argued to no end about it, and the only person present to never comment on anything said was Loki himself. He was almost always there for the arguments, but even so, never a word passed his lips as he listened to the long list of complaints and insults said about him. Loki knew he deserved every bit of it. But this being said, even the Avengers who didn't believe he had or ever would change were impressed by his silence. And whether they liked it or not, the thought grew in the back of their minds, What if there really is more to this story?

The weeks went by. Still Loki was allowed his "freedom" so long as Thor, or eventually any of the others, agreed to wear the second metal bracelet of the handcuffs. The arguments over this became few and far between, then finally they stopped all together. Relations with the former terrorist were tense at first, but everyone gradually became accustomed to not having to view him solely as an enemy, even if they couldn't quite see him as a friend either. Some even trusted him completely now; they believed Thor had been right after all - there was a chance Loki could be redeemed from the insane murderer he had somehow become, and that maybe there was a great deal of information they were missing as to what had happened to him to bring out such an unprecedented character in this boy who had only ever wanted acceptance. Whatever the reason, Loki just didn't seem like such a terrible person any more.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

There came a day when Banner stumbled across something which Loki had absolutely no understanding of. Naturally, this drastically increased Stark's interest in it, where as it made Bruce extraordinarily cautious. He wanted to just abandon this line of research as it seemed remarkably unstable, in addition to already being even more of a leap into the unknown than usual. But even Loki was excited at the possibility of unlocking this latest secret of the tesseract. So, outvoted two to one, Banner resigned himself to only trying to make sure there would be no accidents of cataclysmic proportions.

In order to test what his newly detected feature of the tesseract did exactly, they had to set up an area of effect a few feet ahead of where the cube was positioned. The area was completely contained by a barrier surrounding where their calculations said this target area should take place once the tesseract was activated. Tony had used his Ironman suit to make the construction of the barrier faster and smoother than it otherwise would have been with all of the awkward heavy materials. Working as quickly as he could, Stark finished the majority of the construction in a single day. The second day of work, he finished up early, and they were ready to start their experiment.

Banner prepared the tesseract, which proved more difficult than he expected it to be. He continuously had to move in circles around the set up on all sides of the tesseract and make adjustments here and there. That would have been no problem normally, except Bruce now had the added frustration of having a metal bracelet around his wrist forcing him to drag an extra person around with him as he tried to work. And no matter how much he tried, Loki just could not stay out of Banner's way like this. Stark, of course, refused to trade Bruce places, and he found the slight tangle rather entertaining. He just loved pushing Bruce to his limits with his anger; Loki on the other hand wasn't too keen on the idea of finding himself handcuffed to a raging Hulk. While the two of them struggled just to get all this over with, the billionaire stood off to the side, perfectly content to snack from the small bag of chips he held and watch the show.

Gritting his teeth in frustration as he tripped over Loki for the dozenth time, Banner threw a sharp glare in Tony's direction, only encouraging Stark to chuckle lightly. "And I suppose you would die laughing if one of us was to kill the other in this mess."

"Hmm..." Stark seemed to genuinely consider the thought for a moment. Rolling in his eyes, Banner turned back to his work, not having time to wait for the useless remark. "Probably. He dies, I get to see you turn into a big green rage monster again. You die, he goes back to a cell for the rest of his life,however long that may be." Tony paused as he leaned over them to see the monitor at which Banner was currently working. Turning to go back to simply enjoying his snack, Tony clapped his hand in Loki's shoulder as he walked away. "Guess this ends bad for you either way." Smirking, Stark dropped into a nearby chair and returned to his observations. Tony didn't particularly dislike Loki; he just enjoyed tormenting him too. He wasn't giving the god any special treatment just because he was technically not allowed to fight back, besides Tony tortured everybody.

Loki glared at Tony, but his anger was lost as Bruce drug him across the room again. Banner quickly changed directions, causing Loki to fall. Bruce reached over him to continue working. Not a minute later, they heard a crash from the other side of the room, near the barrier. Looking over for the source of the awful noise revealed Tony frozen awkwardly by the construction, his hand still extended as if he had been poking at the metal structure only moments before. Now, the piece that should have been in contact with his finger was now lying on the floor at his feet, and he had the expression of a child who has just done something he knew he shouldn't have done.

Turning to face the two angry faces currently staring at him, Tony simply states, "Umm...It fell."

"Well, fix it! I can't stop the sequence now that it's up and running. You have somewhere around two minutes before...well, whatever happens when this thing goes off happens."

"Can you slow it down? That's not even enough time for me to get suited up!"

"No. And if you hadn't messed with it to begin with-"

"Let me fix it!"

Banner and Stark just stopped for a moment. They looked down at the prisoner who was still sitting where he had fallen on the floor. "Yeah, that's the last thing we need right now." And he turned and ran towards the door.

"Let him do it."

Stark stopped dead in his tracks. "Are you out of your mind?""

"Funny. That's usually my line. But we don't have time to argue, and you don't have have time to suit up. He can do it, so let him." Banner reached into his pocket and pulled out a small silver key.

Stark sighed but ran over to them pulling an identical key out of his own pocket. Both keys were required to unlock either bracelet, just for a little added security should the need arise. They released the metal cuff on Loki's wrist. He instantly jumped to his feet and ran to the piece of metal on the floor. A bright smile lit up the prisoner's face at his first taste of true freedom in almost a year.

All Asgardians had strength superior to that of humans, so Loki had no trouble lifting the heavy material. Broken piece in hand, Loki climbed up the side of the structure. The metal piece was a bracket holding up a shield which would drop over the entrance of the construction once the tesseract finished its work, just in case whatever it sent out there wasn't too friendly.

"Less than a minute." Banner warned.

Loki positioned the piece back into place and tried to make it snap back over the edges. But it wouldn't reattach to the structure no matter how much he tried.

"Move over a little more!" Stark called up to him.

Already reaching as far as he could, Loki dropped down so he was hanging from a metal bar running along the front of the structure. He moved over so that so that he was in the exact center of the opening. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea." Banner remarked as he glanced up at the god hanging directly in the tesseract's line of fire. Ignoring this comment, Loki continued to try to repair the shield.

Finally, the piece clicked into place. "Got it!"

"Great. Now move!" Tony shouted, getting a touch nervous himself.

Loki looked down to aim his jump so that he would land safely out of the way of whatever the tesseract had in store for this containment field. He swung on the bar and let go, sending him flying through the air. They all thought the structure was fixed, Loki would be safely out if the way, and everything would go fine.

But when do things ever turn out the way you want?

Suddenly the tesseract sent a burst of energy forward at the barrier. They should have had another thirty seconds or so, and that would have been all the additional time needed for Loki to be clear of the blast. But as it was, the power of the tesseract came in contact with Loki just as he jumped, forcing him to fall inside the structure. The newly repaired shield fell into place over the opening, trapping Loki inside. The lab filled with smoke, both inside and outside of the containment field. An alarm in the lab began sounding due to the smoke, and red lights began flashing around the room.

As the smoke finally began clearing, Banner coughed and looked over to where Stark was choking on the smoke and bracing himself against the table beside him. "You alright?"

Stark coughed a few more times, then standing up again, answered, "I'm good." Which was immediately followed by a couple of strangled coughs. "You still in one piece?"

"I think so." He looks around at the smoke and flashing lights, creating an eerie look in the laboratory. Bruce turned to a nearby monitor; he was going to try to raise the shield or at least take a look inside the still clouded chamber. However, the tesseract had fried the circuits of the computer, rendering it useless. "No power. Do you think Loki's alright in there?"

"Hard telling." Stark said, walking over and pressing his face up against a panel of reinforced glass. "I can't see anything through this smoke."

The door to the laboratory swished open, and the two scientists turned to look at the figure that came running in. "What happened? You boys alright?" Steve Rogers looked from one choking scientist to the other. The disappointment and a touch of anxiety were easily noticed in his voice when he spoke again. "Where's Loki?"

Banner answered him. "We've had a bit of an accident."

"'Cause accidents happen, you know." Stark added, seemingly trying to shrug the whole event off as if it was no big deal.

"Right." Banner cast a slightly annoyed look in Tony's direction, clearly not appreciating the unhelpful input. "Anyway, we had him fixing something up there." Bruce pointed to indicate the bracket on top of the shield door which Loki had been working on.

"You mean to tell me you let him free?" Rogers facial expression was one of complete shock. What were they thinking?

"Uhh yeah." Bruce went on. "Didn't have much to work with at the time. But the tesseract went of a little ahead of schedule. So, Loki got hit and is currently stuck in there. Now, since you're here, you can help us get him out."

His mind still trying to process everything he had just been told, Rogers simply nodded and followed Banner and Stark over to their makeshift containment field. "Just what exactly were you expecting to need this thing for?"

"Scary monsters, lifeless vacuum, fun stuff." Tony said, smiling at him.

"So..."

Banner supplied further explanation. "We had no idea. We still have no idea. It was just a precaution."

Without another word spoke. among them, the three men began trying to force open the heavy shield door. Finally after a few difficult minutes of working with it, they managed to loft the barrier back to its open position. Tony pushed the bracket so it locked the door open, so they could avoid any further entrapments. Now that the shield was up, the smoke inside the structure began pouring out. As visibility increased, Bruce stepped into the small enclosed area. Stark and Rogers waited anxiously outside as Banner suddenly got very still.

"Tony...Maybe you should go find Thor."

Chapter Text

"You tell me something is wrong, but you either cannot or will not tell me what it is! What is going on?" The thunderer could be heard long before he was seen. Bruce and Steve were arguing about what should be done when they first heard Thor's shouts at Tony. Banner had sent him to find Thor, but he had run out of the room without having seen for himself or even asking what the problem was. Although, that may have been for the better. They needed some help, and it would be much easier to let the thunder god see what had happened for himself. Besides, there was no explanation for them to give anyway. Banner had a theory, but he wouldn't know for sure until he received confirmation or denial form Thor. The only thing known for sure right now? No one wanted to be in Tony's place right now. They could hear Thor's shouts of frustration from all they way down the hall.

The door slid open, and in stepped an irritated Thor. He looked around the still somewhat smoky laboratory with an expression that seemed to say someone had better be dying. Then, quite suddenly, all emotion left his face. He looked first at Tony, who was just as confused as he was, then Thor turned to Steve and Bruce. Banner shifted uncomfortably under the thunderer's piercing gaze, wanting so much not to have to be the one to speak to Thor now. But somebody had to say something...

"Thor-"

"What has happened?" Thor's voice was flat and lacked all sign of feeling. He was clearly expecting the worst. "Where is Loki?"

"Umm..." This was not the time to be hesitating. Falling short on words, Banner could only step aside and allow Thor to look into the structure where the tesseract had fired its burst of mysterious power.

Thor cautiously stepped forward and approached the construction of barriers the tesseract had hurled Loki into. He stepped inside and peered through the smoke still hanging in the air. It was difficult to see at first, and Thor could just barely make out the form of someone on the floor, leaning back against the metal wall. The person's head lay over on his shoulder, and his whole body seemed to be limp and unmoving. Net even with limited visibility, Thor could tell there was something not right about the small figure in front of him. Loki was thrown back here by the power of the tesseract, but they had no idea what that power might have done to him. Banner hadn't recognized the crumpled body on the floor, and he still waited for Thor to come out of his stunned silence to prove his theory.

Thor stared numbly ahead, with no coherent thoughts passing through his mind. He was looking at Loki, but not a Loki any of the others here would know. What he saw was an image straight out of their childhood. There was no sign of the troubled soul who had killed so many... Instead, Thor saw only a child.

The unconscious boy looked to be no more than ten years old. The little by had a feature about him that Thor had not seen about Loki in a very long time; it was innocence. He looked as if he didn't have a care in the worlds. His clothes were suited for play rather than battle, and his dark brown hair hung down almost over his eyes. Knowing how picky Loki had been about his appearance as a child, Thor couldn't help but wonder if this would bother the boy when he woke up - if he woke up. His eyes were closed as if in sleep, and he appeared completely harmless; greatly contrasting the adult most people knew him as. Thor almost laughed a loud as he realized that even when asleep his little "brother" held a slight grin on his face that hinted at mischief. On the child, such a look only emphasized how innocent and light-hearted he was. It did not yet serve as a mask to hide his dark feelings of pain and abandonment or to cover any schemes of revenge. This boy was exactly the old Loki Thor had wanted to see again. But how was this possible?

Thor spun to face Banner, who stumbled back a few steps in surprise. "How can this be?" His voice shaking a little, still only just recovering from the terrible shock.

Unable to withstand his curiosity any longer, Tony leaned around Thor to look inside the containment field. He too turned to face Bruce with a look of pure astonishment. "That's not-" He turned to Thor. "He isn't-" Then he looked back at the child. "There's no way..."

Stark ran to the nearest computer display, then, remembering none of the computers were working any more, he moved on to the paper notes the three researchers had been scribbling down for the past week. He dug through stack after stack of scrap paper, not actually knowing what he was looking for. But there had to be something...

Confusion and anger rose in Thor at the helplessness of the situation. Then, confronting Stark and Banner's denial and uncertainty, Thor raged, "That is Loki! Now what have you done to him?!" Banner rushed to help Tony search for some kind of explanation for what had happened. Thor waited impatiently, looking back and forth between the confused scientists and the child still lying unconscious on the floor.

Tony and Bruce started talking hurriedly in hushed tones in an attempt to solve this without provoking further anger from the thunderer. But the longer they stood there whispering, the worse Thor's frustration became. Steve tried to calm him down, but with little success. Not surprising considering everyone had every right to be shaken or, dare he say, scared by this. And really, there was no help for controlling Thor's anger by the time he was this upset.

Thor paced back and forth in the lab, occasionally pausing as he would "accidentally" smash something. After what felt like hours, but was in fact only a matter of minutes, Thor began shouting again. "Do you know what has happened here or don't you?! While you stand there looking at all your crumpled trash, Loki is-" He didn't really know how to finish that sentence. No one knew what had happened to Loki; no one knew if he was alright, or hurt, or even alive at all. No one dared go near the little boy who had yet to make even the slightest of movements. They couldn't even tell if he was breathing. "Loki is-"

"Causing less trouble than you, Thor." Banner cut off the thunder god's tirade. His senseless yelling helped nothing.

"You've been doing research on that thing for months. Yet you can't figure out what you just caused it to do only moments ago?!"

"You think you could do better?! This isn't counting on your fingers and guessing how many sides are on that cube. This isn't magic that you can just wave your hands around and have everything go back to normal. This isn't a fight where you see the problem and kill it!" Tony was getting just as riled up as Thor now. Not knowing what was going on wasn't okay with Stark to begin with, but now someone actually dared shout at him for it? Oh, no. He wasn't just going to stand there and take such abuse. Bruce may put up with it, but Tony Stark intended to fight back against the furious god of thunder.

"You tiny humans keep telling me what it isn't! How about trying to explain to me what something is for a change?!"

"In case you haven't noticed, we don't know what it is! That's the point of research. To figure it out."

"But you've figured out nothing! You tested having no idea what it would do! And you tested it on Loki at that!"

"That part was an accident! We studied and studied and when we still couldn't figure out what it did, we did a test run. Maybe not Bruce's best idea. I'll give you that much." Banner lifted an eyebrow in disbelief at Stark but kept quiet nonetheless. "But Loki was well aware of the risks too, and he's the one who was climbing on the side of that thing know the tesseract could go off at any time."

"You're blaming him?!"

"I am! It's his own fault he didn't get out of the way in time!"

"It was nobody's fault, Tony. That's why it's an accident. Thor, that means it's not our fault either, so yelling at us will get you nowhere." Banner's tone was calm, as always, as he spoke. Even though he had been drawn into the argument, he did not raise his voice as the others did, but the tension in him was clearly evident.

Thor's anger grew even more, and he nearly growled with frustration. "Whether you are to blame or bot isn't the problem here. What I want to know is how you plan to fix this!"

"We can't possibly hope to fix it until we know what happened. We need time. We need to study, maybe run a few tests."

"Tests?! You want to run more tests while Loki lies in such a state?!"

Tony laughed at Thor's question, only angering the thunderer still further. "Such a state? You see? You can't even begin to tell us what happened either. Thor, you're no help here. Why don't you go bother someone else while we work, alright?"

"No help? I-" Thor stopped short. Tony was right. There really was nothing he could do here. He had confirmed that the child was in fact Loki, but that was the extent of his use. "I can't just stand here and do nothing!"

"No, apparently you can't. You have to create even more trouble than we're already in!"

Thor's expression darkened, and a murderous look crept into his eyes.

Tony laughed again, taunting the thunder go. "Oh, have I upset you?" Tony smirked and looked at Banner.

Bruce muttered,"You should just be happy he doesn't have his hammer."

On a role now, this was only further encouragement to Tony, who continued to provoke Thor. "That's too bad."

A smile sneaked its way onto Thor's face, and Tony got the feeling that he may have pushed a little too much. He had wanted Thor to storm out of the room, so he and Bruce could work in peace. Well, maybe a fight would get rid of him too. Tony only now noticed the odd way that Thor had been holding his arm out towards the wall for some time now. Then, realization dawned on him.

And only seconds later, the lab was filled with the sound of something very heavy crashing against the wall. Steve, Bruce, and Tony flinched away as bits of plaster, drywall, and metal debris flew through the air. When they looked back over, there was a gaping hole in the wall, and Mjolnir was in Thor's waiting hand.

Tony ducked just as Thor's hammer flew at his head. Mjolnir slammed against the wall behind him before it returned to Thor. Shouting, he raised the hammer high over his head, preparing to throw it again. The red hazard lights cast an eerie glow on his face, and the lingering smoke made the thunder god look like something out of a child's nightmare.

"That's enough!" Shouted Rogers, loud enough to be heard over even Thor's yelling. He had been silent through all the fighting thus far, so at his sudden interjection, the other three froze like statues. "Everyone needs to just calm down and think this through right now. We'll have plenty of time for blame and smashing things later. This," He said, holding his arm out to indicate the three of them. "Is madness. I mean, just look what you're doing to the poor kid!"

At that moment, all four men turned to look towards the containment field where they had left the little boy lying, unconscious and temporarily forgotten. Crouching behind the side of the opening so that only a small portion of him was visible, little Loki peeked out at them. His eyes were full of tears, and the lines of many more traced down the half of his face they could see. The child was shaking from fear and looked as if he would have run and hid if he hadn't been trapped in that small structure by the shouting men.

Realizing all eyes were on him now, Loki shrunk back into the corner even more so that he was completely hidden from their sight. A slight whimper escaped the terrified little boy. The Avengers could hear him trying to quiet his crying as if in hope that they would forget he was there if he just stayed quiet.

The four men looked at each other. Steve's stare was accusing, and soon the other three took on ashamed looks. Bruce looked in the direction of where the traumatized child was cowering in fear. He felt sorry for the little kid. As weird and confusing this was for them, he couldn't imagine how it must be for him. Who knows how much he even remembered about them, this world, or even himself. The boy had to be completely lost...Tony didn't feel pity for the kid. He couldn't get past the shock of having just seen Loki cry, even if he was just a little kid now.

As for Thor, all of his anger seemed to have suddenly evaporated. He now looked the most shamed of them all, and rightly so. His face was purely apologetic and sympathetic as he stepped towards Loki's hiding place. Thor walked over with the intention of comforting Loki. He knelt in the doorway of the containment field and reached out for the trembling little boy.

Chapter Text

Where am I? What's going on?

It's dark and cold. Really hard to breathe here too. My chest burns, and it feels like I'm being torn apart every time I cough. I can't stop though. It keeps hurting more and more! And it's getting even harder to breathe!

I want to go home. But I can't even stand up. I can't move at all! Is something wrong with me? Why am I stuck here like this?! What's going on?!

My head feels funny...

I can't breathe at all any more...

I-

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"...More trouble than we're already in!"

That voice is so loud...It hurts. My head feels like it was kicked by a horse. And there is so much noise. People keep shouting. What's going on?

There's a light in front of me now that wasn't there before. I want to go towards the light. I can move now! Whatever was wrong with me before isn't now!

I'm a little slow 'cause I still don't feel too good. But if I could make it to that light, maybe I'll find mommy. She'll make me better.

But when I lean against the cold wall and look out, I don't see mommy. Only men yelling. It looks like there's a cloud in the room out there. And there are strange red lights everywhere. They burn my eyes.

There are four men out there. They're all arguing. One of them looks really mad. I wonder what's wrong.

Now they're quiet? They still look upset, but no one's saying anything.

Then something broke through the wall! Pieces of the wall are flying everywhere!

There's something really warm on the side of my face. I wipe it off, but when I look at my hand, it's covered in red stuff. Blood! I reach up again and this time find the cut on the side of my face. One of those flying pieces had hit me! The cut is starting to sting now. Tears are in my eyes, and I start crying.

It hurts. I want mommy to make it better. Why am I here?

I know it's still not safe out there. No one's yelling, but that just scares me more. I'm careful to stay behind the wall a little when I look back out. The angry man is holding a hammer now. That hammer looks really familiar, but I don't remember why. The man I heard yelling first is smiling, but his eyes say he's scared.

I am too.

The hammer crashes into the wall behind him and almost makes another hole! It had missed, but he wasn't smiling now.

The hammer flew back to the angry man who threw it. Was that magic? Now he's shouting again. I think he's gonna throw his hammer too. He's glowing red, and it's hard to focus my eyes on him. He looks like some kind of demon...

I can feel the tears falling down my face. I just wanna go home. I want my mommy to make my cut better. I want daddy to make the scary men go away. But mostly, I want my brother. He would keep me safe. He could take care of me...

Where is Thor? Where am I?

"Just look what you're doing to the poor kid!"

That was a different man yelling. He'd been quiet so far. The others got really quiet when he spoke. Wait...

They're all looking at me now! Oh, no. Maybe they'll leave me alone if I just stay out of their way. But I can't stop crying. They won't forget me if I'm making so much noise. I can't be any quieter. I can't shrink away into the corner any more.

Please, just go away!

I can hear footsteps coning towards me. No. No. No! Leave me alone! The tears are falling from my eyes faster than I thought possible. I'm so scared I can hardly breathe. What am I gonna do?

The footsteps have stopped. Are they gone?

"Loki."

Guess not.

Why does this strange man know my name? Who is he? Is he the one who brought me here? Where is here? Why dies he have me here?

I feel a weight on my shoulder. When I turn my head to look, I see a man's hand on my arm. Why is he touching me?!

He pulls on my shoulder, and it makes me spin so I'm looking at him. I can't help but gasp as I'm made to look into the face of the angry man who had a hammer. But now I can't breathe at all. I'm too scared. What does he want with me? Oh, I wish my brother was here with me...

He doesn't look as angry now. He almost looks sad. But that doesn't make him less scary. He still has that hammer in his other hand. I think he noticed me looking at it 'cause he's lifting it up now. Why? What's he gonna do? He wouldn't hit me with it, would he?

"Are you hurt? Do you remember anything?" He's talking to me. But I'm too panicked to hear what he's saying. "Loki, calm down."

I feel his grip on my shoulder tighten. The hand with the hammer moves towards me too, His hammer bumps my leg, and I shrink away as much as I can. But I'm already against the wall. I can't go back any more. The man still doesn't stop though. He wraps his arm around me.

He's trying to pick me up?!

My feet aren't touching the floor any more! Now what? I don't want him carrying me away! What am I gonna do? What can I do?!

He starts to stand up, and I can't take it any more. I scream and kick at his stomach. He didn't expect that. He dropped me, and I fell to the floor.

Gotta get away. Gotta get away. But there's no where to go!

I scramble to the back of the tiny room I woke up in and look back at the man. He hasn't moved since he dropped me. He's just standing there. Staring at me. The angry man looks so sad now.

Why is that?

One of the other men is walking in now. He's whispering something, and I can't tell what he's saying. They argue, but quietly this time. Then everyone but the one who had made the others be quiet left. I could see them walking away. From where I'm sitting, I can see them all walk out the door. Now I'm alone with just this man.

The door slides closed. And a few seconds later the flashing lights in the room go away. But the man just stays where he is. He's watching me, but doesn't come towards me.

Why does he keep staring at me if he's not going to do anything?

It's quiet now. Maybe if I close my eyes I can just pretend I'm alone. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.

There we go. I've stopped crying at least. Maybe I'll be alright after all.

"Loki?"

Maybe not. I really forgot he was there... He still hadn't moved. He's still just standing there. But I guess I can't ignore him if he's gonna try to talk to me now. Dang.

"Loki? Think you could talk to me now?"

Should I? This one doesn't scare me as much, but I still don't want to talk to him. But what else can I do? I have nothing else to do... Nowhere else to go... Maybe he can help me? He seems nice, I guess. He doesn't seem as scary as the other man who tried to talk to me... This may be my only way of getting back to mommy and daddy and Thor.

I nod at the man. I still don't want to have to talk to him.

"That's good." He smiled at me. He looks kinda friendly... "Do you know who I am?" Should I know who he is? "Do you remember me?"

Of course I don't remember you. I've never seen this man before in my life... Right? I shake my head no.

"Well, that's alright. My name's Steve." He didn't say anything for a while after that. I don't think he really knows what to say. Does he not know why I'm here either? Great...

"Does that hurt?" What's he talking about? Does what hurt? "Your head?" Oh, right. That cut on my head's still bleeding. Heh, I was so scared, I forgot how much my head was hurting... I'd rather have not been reminded. "You wanna come with me to get a band-aide on that?"

What's a band-aide? He says it like it's something to make my cut better. Should I go? I don't know... I reach up and touch the cut on my head again. When I look at my hand, it's shiny with blood. I've never seen so much of my own blood like this. It's so strange to look at. It's supposed to be inside me, but it's here on my hand instead...

But wait, that's bad... There's still more running down my face and in my hair! What if it all comes out? I would die, wouldn't I? Blood's kinda important... I don't wanna die!

"Or-" No or. I'm going. I jump to my feet and run towards him. He just stops and looks at me for a minute. He didn't think I'd come? Then he smiles again. The man put his hand on my back and starts walking towards the door. He's pulling me with him, but he's not being rough about it. I don't try to run away or shrink from his touch like I did the other man's.

We're walking slow. I think he's trying not to scare me again. But I'm not scared now. I don't know where I am or where I'm going, but when I get there I get a "band-aide." Whatever that is. I really hope it helps. I don't like getting this much blood all over me...

We walk down a few hallways that all look the same. There are doors, but no windows. All the doors are closed, and I can't see inside. What's in there? Or there? Are we almost there yet? This is too much blood...

Steve finally stopped at a door. I can't tell the difference in this one or any of the others. How does he know it's the right one? But he opens it, and I follow him inside. The entire room is white. Everything is white. It makes my eyes hurt.

I don't know where to go. So, I just stand near the door. If I keep my eyes half closed, the light doesn't hurt so bad. I must look really stupid though... I'm not sure it's worth it.

I hear Steve laugh. When I look at him, I see that he was looking at me. Guess I really do look stupid... I hate being laughed at.

He stopped laughing. Guess I looked madder than I thought. Dang. I don't like people knowing what I'm thinking either. "Sorry. Your eyes'll adjust in a minute." He started looking through one of the white cabinets on the wall. "Ya know, I didn't think about it. Going from sitting in the dark like that, to this?" He turned around to look at me again. There was a small box in his hand. "Must be murder on the eyes."

I nodded. The man handed me the box. "Can you hold this a moment?" While he goes back over to look for something else, I look at his box. It's strange. Like everything else here I guess. There are words on it, but I have no idea what they say. I do recognize on word on it though. "Band-aides." I can't help but smile a little. Finally something to make the blood stop...

"Alright." Steve walks over to me. He had some kind of cloth in his hand now. It's shiny, but I can't tell if it's from water or something else. He gets down on his knees in front of me so he's the same height as me. I like not having to look up at the man now. "You ready? This is gonna sting a bit." I nod. It can't hurt much more than it already does, right?

Nope.

As soon as that cloth touches my face I can tell I was wrong, definitely wrong. I can feel tears suddenly in my eyes. I close them hard to keep myself from crying again. It feels like fire on my skin. He keeps rubbing it over the cut. It never hurts any less. How long is he gonna do this?

"You can open your eyes now. I'm done." Finally... "Now, can I have that box back?" I look down at the small box in my hands. I'd crushed it a little. Oops... I held it out to him and hoped he wouldn't be too mad. I didn't break it on purpose...

He takes it from me, and I don't think he even noticed that it was a little squished now. Steve tears one side of the box to open it. And to think I'd been worried about messing it up... He pulled two small things out of the box. One side is white, and I think it's paper. I don't know what the other side is, but it looks almost the same color as my skin. I don't know what he's gonna do, but I'm trying to trust this man. He's trying to help me, I think.

He peeled the paper off of one of the band-aides. "Try to hold still now." Steve held the band-aide up to my face. I just watch. I'm curious. What's he doing? And how is this supposed to help me?

He touches it to the cut, and it hurts. But I try not to let him know that.

The band-aide stays on my skin where he touched it. So strange... He does the same with the other. I guess just the first wasn't big enough to cover my whole cut. Gods... It must've been even worse than I thought... Would I be okay now?

"You'll be good as new in no time." Steve laughed after he said this, but I don't see what was so funny. I reached up and felt these strange band-aides. They stopped the blood! I'll be okay after all! I smile up at Steve. I should thank him, but a smile's the best he's gonna get. I still don't wanna talk to him...

"Now we've got you all patched up, you're probably tired, am I right? Seems this has been an interesting day for you. You want something to eat or to go to bed?"

How do I answer a question like that without having to talk to him? I don't know what to do, so I just stand there and bite my lip.

He sighs. I'm making him mad... Maybe I should just get over it and talk already... But...

"You hungry?"

That I can answer. I shake my head.

"Wanna sleep?"

Oh, yes. A hundred times, yes. To lay down and sleep after all this would be so good... I nod once. I really like that I may get to sleep, but I don't want to move my head too much nodding. It still hurts.

"Alright then. Let's get you settled somewhere." He walks to the door, and I follow. We walk through a couple hallways. I don't know where we're going. And I'm not sure I really care any more. I'm really tired. That's all I really care about right now. I can't stop a yawn as I stumble down the hall after Steve.

"You can stay here." Steve opes a door and steps into the room. I walk in behind him. The room is small and kinda empty. But it feels comfortable in here. When I lay down on the bed, I feel safe. I don't like the idea of sleeping in this strange place, but I'm so tired and it's so nice in here, that I don't care.

I only have to lay here a couple of minutes before I fall fast asleep.

Chapter Text

"Where is Loki? Why isn't now he with you?" Thor had been waiting impatiently ever since he'd been told to leave the lab. He had finally calmed down, but he was clearly still anxious. As soon as Steve Rogers stepped through the door, Thor was on his feet and asking questions.

Rogers was tired and had hoped to be able to come in here to have some peace and quiet. That was a mistake on his part. The living room was already occupied by a busy Bruce, confused Tony, and very anxious Thor. So much for getting to rest... Steve raised his hands at the thunder god in a gesture of surrender. "Relax. He's fine. He's sleeping. And at this point, I'm a bit jealous of him."

Banner looked up at Steve. "So go get some sleep. I think we could all use some rest right about now."

"Well, I was going to sleep here, but apparently that's not gonna happen." Steve cast an accusing look at Thor.

"And what's wrong with sleeping in your own room?" Bruce chuckled.

"I let Loki sleep there. I wasn't about to put a kid in a cell."

Tony spoke up now. "Oh, great. So if anything weird starts happening, we know who's loose in here."

Steve rolled his eyes at the billionaire. "I locked the door. He's not going anywhere. Besides, poor kid was so tired I don't think he'll wake up for quite a while anyway."

"Poor kid?" Tony laughed. "Just this morning you thought Loki was just some psychopath, and now he's "that poor kid"?"

Rogers's only reaction was to give Tony a weary look. He walked to a chair off to the side of the room and dropped down into it, exhausted. He was then sad to find that Thor had followed him. The thunder god just stood in front of him as if expecting something. Steve was too tired for explanations right now though, so he chose to simply ignore the thunderer.

After waiting for a couple minutes, Thor walked away, disappointed. He was trying to be patient, but patience wasn't exactly his strong suit. He slumped ob the couch, hoping Rogers would decide he felt like talking soon.

Bruce and Tony continued looking through notes and books, still searching for explanations and solutions. Thor took to tossing Mjolnir up into the air and then catching it again. This act of impatience irritated the two researchers, but at least he wasn't smashing things now. Steve couldn't care less what Thor was doing or how annoying he was being. He was asleep. And while he would like to gave stayed that way, of course Thor would not allow it.

Rogers was woke up by a loud thud. The sound was that of Mjolnir crashing to the floor. Everyone looked at Thor, but none could tell whether he had dropped Mjolnir intentionally or if he'd simply failed to catch it that time. It didn't matter though. Either way, Rogers was awake now. It would be better just to get it over with and answer Thor's questions so he could sleep in peace. He reached up to rub his eyes but stopped short as he caught sight of his hands. Steve's hands had blood on them, and he didn't really want to wipe it onto his face.

Rogers just looked down at his blood stained hands for a moment, not sure of how this had happened. He remembered having to put the bandage on Loki's head, but had the boy really been bleeding that bad? It hadn't looked serious, but looks can be deceiving sometimes.

Then he noticed Thor looking at the blood with wide eyes. Bruce and Tony could feel the tense silence and looked also. Bruce hesitantly asked, "Steve, what happened?"

Rogers shook his head. "Nothing. Loki had a cut on his head. Guess I got his blood on my hands when I put the band-aides on him. No big deal."

Thor wasn't satisfied with that answer. "That much blood just on you, are you sure he's alright?"

"He should be fine. I checked it and it looked minor enough to me."

Thor still looked like he was getting angry again. So Banner spoke up to try to calm him before that happened. "If you're still that worried, I'll check it out later, provided he lets me." The thunder god seemed content enough by this for now.

"How'd it happen?" Thor asked, still a bit tense.

Steve shrugged. "He didn't say. But I had to wipe what I think was little pieces of plaster out of the cut. So, I would say he got hit by something when Mjolnir crashed through the wall." He looked at Thor and watched as the color drained from his face.

"It was my fault?"

Rogers nodded once. Tony laughed and said, "Way to go." Thor just looked at him with a blank expression.

"Is he afraid of me?"

Steve stayed quiet for a while before he finally answered. "Terrified." Thor hung his head in shame. "But, Thor, just give him some time. He's lost. He's confused. He needs time to adjust." Thor nodded slowly, still crushed inside. "That whole time, he wouldn't say a single word to me. It's not just you he's afraid of."

Thor sighed. "So what should I do?"

"Right now? Leave him alone. You can talk to him tomorrow maybe, but don't try to make him answer you. He's scared, so don't try to make him do anything really."

Without saying another word, Thor got up and left the room. Tony, Bruce, and Steve watched him go. "You know he's not actually going to leave the kid alone, right?" Tony said to Steve.

"I know. That's why I set the lock so no one can get in or out without my code."

"So...He'll just break the door and go in anyway."

"I don't think so." Bruce said. "Thor's too worried about Loki being afraid of him. As impatient as he is, He won't risk scaring him like that."

"We'll see."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Thor paced up and down the hallway, swearing under his breath. Rogers had made sure he wouldn't be able yo get in there. He tried and tried to figure out the code that would unlock the door, but it was no use. He didn't dare force his way in as he so desperately wanted to. He couldn't risk having Loki any more afraid of him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Finally, Thor left the hallway. He knew if he stayed here his frustration would get the better of him, and he'd do something he'd regret.

Loki woke to a knock on the door. The room was dark, and he had no idea how long he had been asleep. The little boy sat up on the bed as the door slid open and Steve walked in.

"Awake yet?" Rogers laughed at the still sleepy look on the child's face/ His eyes were half closed, and his clothes were twisted about him as if he'd been tossing and turning all night. Poor kid had probably been having nightmares.

Bruce stepped into the room next to Steve. Loki's eyes widened when he came in, and he quickly looked back to Steve. "Loki, this is Bruce. He's a doctor. He wants to take a look at that cut on your head." Loki reached up to the band-aides on his face. He'd bled through them as he slept, and blood was crusted in his hair. It was impossible to tell if it was still bleeding or not. "Is that alright?" Loki seemed to think about this for a minute before looking to Bruce and nodding slightly.

Banner smiled at the timid little boy. "Good." He cautiously walked towards him and sat on the edge of the bed. Bruce opened a little bag he had with him and pulled out a cloth. "Does it hurt any? Loki didn't answer him. "Any at all?" Starting to look worried, the child nodded. Banner we the cloth with some typed of disinfectant before setting it down on his leg. He had to get the band-aids off before he could do anything else. Noting the anxious expression on the boy's face, Banner felt the need to try to calm him down a little before actually trying to do anything. "Don't worry. Just let me take a look, and I'll make sure you're okay." Bruce pulled the edges of the band-aides loose, but between the glue and dried blood, there was no chance of peeling them off gently. "Better to just get this over with quickly. Sorry." A look of confusion crossed Loki's face, just before Banner ripped the band-aides from the boy's face with one fast motion.

Tears immediately sprang to the boy's eyes, and he pushed Bruce away from him. Banner looked to Steve, who was staring at the injured little boy with wide eyes. It was easy to see that the cut was already becoming infected.

"I need to clean that out now. It's going to hurt. I can tell you that now. But if I don't, the infection is going to get worse." Little Loki wiped the tears from his eyes, and stayed completely still while Banner rubbed the disinfectant-covered cloth over and in the cut. He squeezed his eyes shut tight, but otherwise did not react to the burning pain. When he finished, Bruce put fresh band-aides on the cut. "There you go." Bruce smiled at the unhappy child. He ruffled the boy's hair as he stood up and could hardly keep from laughing at the flash of anger that followed.

Bruce turned back to Steve. "It's a good thing I checked after all. Guess Thor was right to worry."

"Thor?!" Steve and Bruce looked at the so far mute little boy. Loki was now standing up and looking very excited. "My brother's here?" The two adults were so surprised their only response was that they both nodded at the boy. "Where is he? Can I see him?!" The men just looked at each other.

What should they do?

Chapter Text

"Guess Thor was right to worry."

Thor...He's here? And he's worried about me?

So where is he? And if he's talked to them, why didn't they tell me? Why hasn't Thor come to get me?!

"Thor?!" Forget being quiet. If it means I can get to my brother, I'll talk to anyone. "My brother's here? Where is he? Can I see him?!" Why do they look so confused? Is something else wrong? "Please?"

Bruce looks at me with a strange look on his face, but he nods. "We'll see." They both walk out the door. I try to run after them, but Steve closes the door before I can get out.

"Wait!" But he locks the door, and I'm stuck here, alone. Why? Why couldn't they take me with them? Why can't I go to Thor? I sit down in the floor right by the door. I don't know what else to do.

Everything has been so strange since I got here. Wherever here even is. This place and the people here are so different from everyone back home...

I lean back against the door and close my eyes. I'm still tired. How long did I sleep? I can feel myself drifting in and out of sleep now. But I don't want to sleep. I want my brother.

Without warning, the door behind me opened. "Woah!" Without the door holding me up, I fall backward into the hallway outside. My head hits someone's shoes. It made my already sore head ache. I close my eyes and wait a minute for the pain to pass. When I open my eyes, I'm looking up at the face of the man who had been so angry before. Uh-oh... I just stay very still. Please don't be mad...

He doesn't look mad, just curious. "Are you alright?" I nod. The man smiles at me, and leans over me. He grabs my arms and pulls me up to my feet. I turn to face him, and I'm surprised. He looks familiar. But I don't know who he is. His clothes look like something from Asgard, like maybe something one of father's warriors might wear. His hammer is hanging from his belt, and I feel like I should at least recognize this... But why?

Mjolnir!

I had seen it in the weapons vault in Asgard. But why does this man have it? There's something really weird about this man.

As I looked at him, he started to look kinda sad. "You still don't know me, do you?" I shook my head. I want to remember who you are. I really do. But I can't... Why does this bother me so much?

"Loki, I'm your brother."

...What?

"I am Thor."

I stumble back away from him. Something isn't right... There's no way this man could be Thor. Yeah, Thor's older than me, but he's not this old! I look up and down the hallway. There has to be somewhere I can go... I need to get away. I- I- I panic and run away.

"Loki! Stop!" I run faster. But I don't know where to go. This building is a maze to me. So I won't run far. Just enough to get away from this man who says he's my brother. But then I trip and fall flat on the floor. I don't feel like getting up though. I don't wanna run any more. So I just crawl over to the wall and sit with my knees pulled up against my chest. I lay my head on my knees to hide my face.

"Loki..." The voice was close. He must be crouching right in front of me. I didn't even know he'd found me. "Please listen to me. I know you're scared, but let me explain. There's a lot of things I need you to understand. The first being that I am your brother, Thor. You can trust me. I won't let anything hurt you."

That definitely sounded like something my brother would say. But... This makes no sense... How could this adult possibly be my brother?!

But... He looks kinda like my brother... He talks a little like my brother too... And he's definitely acting like Thor... He even has Mjolnir... Could this man really be my brother?

"No one messes with y little brother, but me, right?" He smiles and tries to mess up my already messy hair. I frown and shake my head. My hair's already a mess. He doesn't have to go making it worse.

But... That's exactly what Thor always says and does...

"Thor? Is it really you?" I dare to smile a little. He nods once. Thor! I jump at him and wrap my arms around his neck. I hug him as tight as I can. I'm afraid to let go. I don't want to risk him leaving me. Then he wraps his arms around me too. Now I know I'm safe.

Thor lets go of me and stands up. I smile up at him. I don't feel so scared any more. Not now that I know I'm with my brother, even if he is a little...different than I expected.

"When's the last time you've eaten?" I have to think about it. I really don't know. I can't remember when I last ate. So, I just shrug. Thor frowns. "All this time, and nothing? I told them they should have let me be the one to take care of you." I hadn't even noticed how hungry I was... I'm pretty sure I've slept most of the time since...whatever happened. How long has it been since I ate? Or drank? Or even played? I don't know... "Never mind that. Come on. Let's find something to eat." He puts his hand on my shoulder and starts pulling me down the hallway.

Thor took me through a couple of hallways. I don't understand how he can tell where he's going here. But then we walk into a big room. I think this is their kitchen. Not at all like home...

"Sit here." Thor points at a stool next to me. "I'll find us some food." I jump up on the stool and sit on my knees. This way I can lean up on the top of the counter and look around. Thor's looking through cabinets on the wall. He pulls out a strange box from one, and a bowl form another. But now I stop paying attention. I look around the room. It's weird. The kitchen is pretty simple. But even being so simple, it's so different form anything I've ever seen before...

I hear something click against the counter. Thor had set the bowl in front of me. I'm supposed to eat this? It looks gross... Whatever's in this bowl looks like bird food mixed with milk. I look up at Thor. But he just smiles. "The food is strange here. Nothing like what you're used to. But try it. You might like it." I doubt that. Thor goes back to get his own bowl of "food."

I don't want it. But it's been so long since the last time I ate... I wrinkle my nose and pick up the spoon. I'm hungry, so I might as well just eat and be done with it. I make myself take a bite.

Thor was right. This isn't like anything I've had before. I don't like it. But I guess I don't dislike it either. Good enough, for now.

Thor set his own bowl on the other side of the counter across from me. He leans against the counter and eats. And he's watching me the whole time. We aren't talking. It's kinda weird. But what can we say? My brother's an adult now. I'm just a kid.

I finish eating and push the bowl away. I fold my arms on the table and lay my head down. I close my eyes.

"You okay?"

I nod without lifting my head from my arms. I hear the bowls clink together as Thor picks them up. A few seconds later I hear them clank again as he sets them down somewhere else in the room. I didn't open my eyes to look where.

"Come with me." I open my eyes. Thor's stranding next to me now. I try to hide my smile so he won't know what I'm about to do. I push off of the stool with my knees and jump towards Thor. I'm gonna jump on his back like I usually do when we play. But now that he's big, I wonder if he'll still fall. Thor steps back as soon as I jump though. I won't be able to catch onto him now! I gasp as I fall towards the floor. I hear myself cry out when my face gets close to the ground.

At the last second, Thor catches me around my waist. I'm hanging in the air with my face just a couple of inches off the floor. Thor is laughing, hard. How did he know I was gonna do that?

"I know you well, brother. I saw the look in your eyes before you even jumped." I hadn't counted on him knowing me so well... Dang. I crossed my arms in frustration. I must look really silly hanging upside down with my arms crossed like this 'cause Thor's just laughing even harder...

Finally, Thor stops laughing so hard. He pulls me up, so I'm not upside down any more. Then, he swings me around so I can hang on his back like I'd tried to do anyway. I wrap my arms around his neck and hold on tight as Thor walks out of the room.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Come with me." Thor says after place the empty cereal bowls in the sink. He walks over to stand next to Loki while he waits for the boy to get up to follow him. Thor recognizes the spark in Loki's eyes and the twitch of his almost-smile, and he knows his little brother has mischief in mind.

Loki jumps at him, sending the stool clattering to the floor. Thor steps back and watches Loki's slight smile turn to a look of surprised fear as he plummets face first towards the floor. He waits until the little boy is about to hit the floor before he finally catches him. Thor laughed as he held onto his little brother who was now just hanging upside down and staring up at him with a confused look etched on his face. "I know you well, brother. I saw the look in your eyes before you even jumped." When they would play as children, Loki had often been able to tackle Thor to the ground by jumping at him in this way. But little Loki hadn't thought about the fact that Thor had already grown up with him once. He already knew many of Loki's tricks from when they were younger, and he knew what to watch for in the little boy.

Then again, how could Loki have known to account for this? Thor still hadn't explained anything to the child.

The confused look on Loki's face gave way to annoyance at Thor's words. The frustrated child crossed his arms over his chest and looked away from his older brother. This only inspired Thor to laugh harder.

After a couple of minutes, Thor stifled his laughter and pulled Loki right side up. The child's face was bright red, and Thor couldn't tell if it was from having been upside down for a while or if he was just that mad. Thor swung his little brother around so Loki landed on Thor's back. Immediately Loki's arms found their way around Thor's neck, and as he started walking, Thor heard the little boy on his back laugh quietly. Loki held tightly to Thor's neck as they made their way down the maze of hallways once again.

Thor headed towards his room. There he let Loki get cleaned up, because if Thor remembered correctly, his little brother had always been somewhat happier when he was clean, unlike Thor himself. Now, dust and bits of plaster still clung to Loki's clothes and hair. The dust was smeared and stained on his face, and blood matted his hair against his head on one side. His hair and clothes were badly disheveled, and the kid looked as if he hadn't been sleeping well.

Thor sat in the floor in the hallway while he waited for Loki. When Loki cam out of the room, his clothes were brushed free of debris, his hair was clean and tidy, and his face had been scrubbed clean. The little boy wore a bright smile on his face.

"Better?" Thor asked, climbing to his feet.

Loki nodded happily. "Much."

"Good. Now, what do you say we go see what our other friends are up to?"

Loki hesitated, and his smile faded. "Umm... Do we have to?"

Thor noted the fearful expression on the child's face. "You'll be fine." He tries to give him a reassuring smile. "You got along pretty well with Steve and Bruce, didn't you?"

"I guess so..." Loki still wasn't too fond of the idea.

"Off we go then."

The two brothers take off walking down the hallway in the direction of the living room where some of the other Avengers are. Loki hangs on to Thor's arm as they go. And while he's still scared of having to go in there, Loki takes comfort in having his big brother by his side.

Chapter Text

The door to the living room slid open. Inside, three of the Avengers were passing their time. Steve Rogers was staring blankly at the television. Natasha Romanov sat on the couch, reading a book. And next to her, Clint Barton was sleeping with his head tilted back against the wall. When the door opened, Steve and Natasha looked up at the newcomers, but Clint went on sleeping.

Thor stepped into the room with Loki hanging onto his arm. The little boy was looking up at his older brother and laughing. There was a bright smile on his face when he started looking around the room. But when he caught sight of the Avengers, his smile disappeared. Steve waved, Clint snored, and Natasha stared in complete confusion. Thus far, no one had bothered to share the tale of the accident in the lab. Only Thor, Steve, and Tony knew what had happened with Loki. The others hadn't noticed anything different other than the Mjolnir-sized holes in several walls now.

The way in which Natasha was staring at little Loki certainly didn't help the fear he was already feeling. The little boy's grip on Thor's arm tightened, and he moved so he could hide behind his big brother. Thor glanced down at him but then turned his attention on Natasha, who was now off the couch and walking towards them. Natasha stopped in front of the brothers and looked down at Loki as he peeked around at her. She knew there was something familiar about this child, but she couldn't tell why. Natasha was instantly suspicious; something wasn't right about this little boy... "Who's this?" She asked, looking back at Thor.

Thor pulled Loki around from behind him so that the child stood in front of him and in plain view of Natasha. He put his hands on his little brother's shoulders, both to comfort the boy and to keep him from running away. Thor didn't like that Loki was scared; he didn't like it at all. But he couldn't very well hide his brother from the others forever. May as well face them sooner rather than later. "This is Loki." He looked down at his brother. "Loki, this is Natasha."

Loki raised his hand to wave timidly at her. Natasha raised a hand but only for a few seconds before dropping it again and looking to Thor for an explanation. "Thor, I've met your brother. Why are you introducing us?" She looked confused and annoyed.

"Do you not see something a bit different here?" Thor was a bit surprised by her question. "He's only a child. He has no memory of you!"

Loki looked back and forth between Thor and Natasha. He had no idea what they were talking about. It had something to do with him, and he didn't like that. What had happened to him or what had he done? He couldn't even guess... He was confused. And Natasha seemed kind scary to him, because she sounded angry without looking like she was. People like that made him nervous. It was always harder for him to know if he was in trouble or not with adults like Natasha.

"I can see he's a child. With magic like his, I'm not sure any trick of his will surprise me. You would do well to keep that in mind as well. This is exactly the kind of trouble I've warned you of since Stark first let him out." Natasha had her doubts about Loki being completely evil same as the others, but of all the Avengers, she had the least faith in his redemption.

Thor looked down at Loki. He didn't doubt his brother even a little. Thor knew this was no trick. Besides, Banner and Stark had seen the accident that caused this transformation, and neither of them were suspicious. "Natasha, I swear to you, this is no trick."

Natasha roller her eyes. Thor could be so naive. But she humored the thunder god, and knelt on the floor in front of the child. Now that she was down to his height, Natasha looked into the eyes of the trickster god. Being a master of reading people, she thought she would have no trouble seeing through Loki's schemes.

However, Natasha was not prepared for what she saw in the little boy's eyes. Those two bright green orbs held more depth than ever belonged on such an innocent looking child. They were a well of sadness that almost won even her pity, mischief that should make anyone apprehensive, and an innocence that countered it all. Natasha could see that the old Loki was indeed there, but somehow or other, he currently lay dormant, buried in the depths of this child's subconscious. This was no trick. It couldn't be. Standing before her was a genuinely innocent and helpless little boy.

Natasha looked up at Thor. "How did this happen?" Thor hesitated, seeing the hopelessly confused and frightened look on little Loki's upturned face.

"There was an accident, Natasha. I ask you to please question Tony and Bruce on the matter."

Natasha stood up and crossed her arms over her chest. Raising an inquisitive eyebrow at the thunderer, Natasha almost laughed as she asked, "He doesn't know, does he?" Thor only shook his head. "Fine. I'll go find Banner." And on that note, Natasha Romanov stalked out of the room in search of the scientist.

"Hey, kid! Where'd you come from?" Called Clint Barton, who had apparently woke up sometime during Natasha and Thor's conversation.

Loki looked at him with wide, timid eyes, but his voice was clear. "Asgard."

"Where were you this morning?" Clint wasn't completely convinced of Loki's innocence just yet.

"With my brother."

Barton looked surprised to hear Loki refer to Thor as his brother. Normally, the trickster resented the term, which Clint found understandable given that they weren't technically brothers. But even Thor avoided referring to Loki as his brother these days because of Loki's strong objection to it. "And where were you last week?"

Now Loki faltered, unable to answer. "I-" The child stopped to think. He stood there under Clint's analytical gaze for almost five minutes before he managed a shaky "I don't know..."

Barton just stared at the kid for a couple minutes before nodding and getting to his feet, satisfied by the boy's lack of answer for his last question. He had been convinced as soon as Loki acknowledged Thor as his brother. "I think I'll catch up with Natasha. This story should be interesting." Clint Barton left the room, hurrying after Natasha.

As soon as the door closed behind him, Loki turned to Thor with tears threatening to spill out of his eyes. "Is something wrong with me?"

Thor was shocked. "Of- Of course not. You're just- Well, you're-" What could he say? He'd been putting off telling Loki about the accident in the lab that had done this to him, and so far the little boy had patiently waited for his explanation. But now he was finally asking... What should Thor tell him?

"Well, I think I'll just leave you two boys alone now. Don't mind me." Steve Rogers quickly stood up and left the room to avoid sitting in on the awkward conversation about to ensue. When he left, the first of many tears slipped from the distressed child's eyes. Now the kid knew that there really must be something wrong with him...

Thor still struggled with what to say to his little brother. After he explained, would he lose him all over again? Would he still be able to call him "brother?" Or would Loki's resentment be awakened in this child then? How would he even react to all of it? The accident? The horrible crimes he had committed? The revelation that he was actually a frost giant, a race Thor knew Loki had secretly feared when he was young? And worst of all, what would little Loki think when he found out once again that Thor wasn't really his brother?

But Thor had to say something and soon. He couldn't just leave Loki standing there crying. Or could he... No, of course not. He dismissed the thought immediately. Thor owed Loki some kind of explanation.

Thor took a deep breath. "Let's sit down." He guided Loki over to the couch recently vacated by Clint and Natasha. Poor kid could hardly see where he was going through the torrents of tears in his stinging eyes. "I don't know where to start. I have much to tell you, but I don't know that you're ready to hear nay of it. But I'll start from the beginning. If it gets to be too much, stop me, and I will explain the rest when you're ready for it. Understand?

Little Loki nodded, wiping the tears from his eyes and trying to compose himself. As Thor began his story, the little boy finally managed to stop crying. He was too busy trying to make sense of the story Thor was telling him - his story.

Unfortunately, the beginning of the tale of Loki's troubles was the part Thor feared most. It was what had driven them apart and set Loki on his downward spiral into darkness. He hoped history was not doomed to repeat itself.

"I trust you know the old stories of the war with the frost giants that occurred when we were both very young." Loki nodded. A look of terrible curiosity appeared on his tear stained face. He couldn't see how the war was at all relevant here. "It was at the end of this war that you would come to join our family. At the close of the final battle, Odin defeated Laufey. But before leaving he went into the temple on Jotunheim, and there he found Laufey's son. While he had been abandoned there, Odin saw a purpose for the boy back in Asgard. So Odin transformed the baby to look like one of the gods, and someday when he boy had grown, Odin meant for him to return to Jotunheim as its rightful king. And because of this child's family in Asgard, he was expected to bring a long awaited peace between our peoples. but Odin made a mistake. He never told the boy of his true nature, and when events led him to find out on his own, it destroyed him. He finally understood why everyone had always favored his brother, and now he knew that this family wasn't even really his family. He felt betrayed, and to prove himself worthy of his life in Asgard he made some very bad decision. But I want you to remember this, he wasn't a bad person. Grief can push us to do things we would not normally do. I very much regret there was nothing I could have done to help him before it was too late." Thor paused here. this was hard for him to retell, and Loki was listening to him completely enthralled by the tale, looking sad even though Thor was pretty sure the child had yet to realize the boy n the story was actually he. "Loki, you are the boy in this story."

"M- Me?" He was in shock. Loki looked down at his hands as if waiting for them to turn blue and confirm Thor's words. Then as full realization hit him, Loki became frantic. "I- I- I can't be! How?! No!" He jumped to his feet. He looked at Thor as he continued to panic, praying his brother would tell him it was all just a bad joke. "Why wouldn't fath- Odin tel me?!" Thor's heart sank. Loki was already stopping himself from calling Odin his father, would Thor no longer be his brother now too? Loki was babbling incomprehensibly now. "-just a lie. All lies! No one cares! What can I-" Thor pulled Loki to him, cutting off the child's frightened chatter. He hugged the boy close even though Loki made no move to return the embrace.

"Loki, you will always be my brother. By blood or not, you were and will always be my brother. I love you, and I will never let anything hurt you again."

After a couple agonizing minutes, Thor was answered by a tear-choked voice. "You shouldn't make promises you can't keep. You won't always be able to protect me." Loki wrapped his arms around Thor's neck, finally returning his hug. "But you'll never lose me as your brother."

"That's good to hear." Thor held Loki back at arms' length from him and wiped the tears from the little boy's bloodshot eyes. Loki sniffed and managed a slight smile at his older brother.

"But if I've already gone through this, and done something really bad because of it, why can't I remember anything?"

"About a week ago you were helping Bruce and Tony with their research on something called the tesseract. It is very powerful and is used to open portals, usually between realms or great distances. You were testing a portal you didn't know what would do, and there was an accident. Instead of opening a portal like it was supposed to, it hit you while you were working. And that's how you came to be as you are now. Loki, you are supposed to be and once were near the same age as I am. You are no child."

Loki just froze. He stared dumbly at Thor, waiting. This one had to be a joke, right? But of course Thor never started laughing, never even cracked a smile at the boy, while he waited for that strange fact to sink in. Loki dropped down on the couch again, and he just stared ahead, greatly struggling with this piece of information. "So.. I'm supposed to be grown up already... But now
I'm a kid again, and I remember nothing... Will I ever remember?" Loki still just stared s straight ahead at the wall, not looking at Thor.

"I don't know. You may. Although, I think it will be better for you if you don't"

Loki nodded slowly before finally turning his head to look at Thor. "C- Can we stop for today?"

"Of course." It was easy to see that the little boy had had as much as he could handle for one day, if not more. Loki stared blankly at Thor; he was already lost in thought. Thor would give him some time to think and deal with what he'd been told, and when he was ready he'd tell the next part of the tortuous tale. And he would be patient and understanding with the little brother he finally had back, and he'd help him through everything this time. And hopefully he wouldn't have to watch Loki fall into madness for a second time.

"After I was banished and father fell into the Odinsleep, you became king. to keep me from returning, you tried to have me killed." There were tears running down Loki's face again. Thor was leaving out any details he could that would only cause Loki unnecessary pain. He tried to make things sound less harsh, but he could only soften the horrors so much. It was important that Loki understand the the severity of the things he had done. "I suppose I would have gotten in the way of your plans to prove you were worthy to be a son of Odin. You set up Laufey to make an attempt on Odin's life, and you killed Laufey just before he finished his task. Then, you tried to use the power of the Bifrost to destroy Jotunheim once and for all."

"Stop! Please, stop... How could I have done these things? Am I really so terrible?!" Loki hid his face in his hands and sobbed. Thor put his arm around his little brother, trying to comfort him.

"You believed what you did was right at the time. You tried to prove yourself worthy and a hero by saving father's life and destroying our enemies. There was a time I would have done the same." His words did little to comfort the broken boy. Thor sighed. It would be better for him to finish the story now than have to subject Loki to this same torture again later. So, he went on. "To stop you from destroying Jotunheim, I destroyed the Bifrost. We fell with it. But father caught hold of my legs, and I caught your staff. You called out to father,trying to tell him that you could have done it for the good of us all. When Odin told you no, you let go of your staff and fell into the abyss." And that is where Thor would end the story for today Loki couldnt even speak around his wracking sobs. Thor feared the effect these stories would have ont he child's fragile psyche.

"Everyone believed you were dead. But then you showed up here on Midgard, full of talk of ruling and the army yu had coming. In the end, the army did come, and chaos was released upon New York. We defeated the army and closed the portal through which they came. You were captured and brought here until Stark finished his work with the tesseract. Then, I was to take you home to face Asgardian justice. But clearly we never made it that far. Stark's studies took longer than expected, and you even began to help. I don't know what inspired the change in you, but I was glad to see it. But it was those studies which caused the accident that has reverted you to this childish form. We still have not found a way to reverse it." Loki was crying again, but not so much as last time.

"Why? Why did I come here? I had something to prove on Asgard. Why would the humans mean anything to me?"

"I assume it was because they were dear to me after my exile. The Earth is under my protection. Also, without the Avengers, Earth would have been easy for you to conquer and rule. It's also possible you were just doing as you were told, but no one could know that but you."

"Who would have told me to do that? I thought I was alone after I fell?"

"You had to find an army somewhere, didn't you? You did not simply create the Chitauri. No, you found them somewhere on the other side of space. Who knows what else you found out there though..."

"Is it possible my attack on Midgard wasn't my fault?" Loki asked but didn't dare hope for it to be true.

"It is possible, but no one knows. You refused to speak of it."

Loki nodded, looking lost in thought again. "I wish I could remember."

"I'm glad you can't."

"I've been thinking and... I think I remember. Not everything, but bits and pieces. I can see flashes of battles, and cities full of terrified people, and a lot of prison cells. How long have I been a prisoner here?"

"'Bout a year now." Tony Stark answered the kid shortly. The boy was full of questions, and he was busy searching through a long list of files on his computer, hidden so no one else would know he'd kept them. He had told Loki he head something to show him, and while Thor was sleeping he took Loki into a room on an upper floor of the tower where he himself lived. He had to wait for the thunderer to be asleep, because he knew Thor wouldn't have approved of this. This was the first time the child Loki had gone anywhere or done anything without his older brother by his side.

"Thor says you're the one who let me out."

"Yep." Everything out of this kid's mouth was 'Thor said this' or 'Thor said that.' It got annoying listening to someone who acted like he didn't know anything for himself. Well, Loki really didn't know anything since his memory was gone, but Tony thought he might be able to jog his memory a bit. "Having to go sit in a cell with you got kinda old."

Loki didn't know what to think f this man. He didn't seem to like him very well, but he didn't seem to dislike him either. His behavior confused Loki. Right now, Tony was trying to help him, but only ten minutes ago he was making fun of him. He assumed that was just the way this man was, and he didn't trust that.

"Here it is." Stark said, more to himself than to Loki. He pulled up a video feed.

Loki's eyes opened wide as he watched the recording. He recognized the setting form the brief flashes of memory he had recovered. Loki stared at the screen, unable to look away. On Tony's computer, the battle of New York played out before them as recorded by the camera in Stark's Ironman suit. They watched the entire video. Loki watched the dozens of innocent people die in the streets, the vicious Chitauri murdering and destroying everything in their path, and himself standing high above, controlling it all. Next Tony pulled up a recording from a camera in Stark Tower. He skipped through this one to only show the parts where something interesting happened. They watched the discussion between Loki and Tony at the start of the fight, and they watched Loki and Thor's fight. Now, Loki had tears in his eyes. But the more he watched, the more he actually remembered. Finally, Tony showed him being beaten by the Hulk and his capture afterwards. Every time the Loki in the video was smashed into the ground by the green beast, little Loki flinched away and let out a slight whimper. Tony felt a little guilty for showing him that one; it may have been going a bit too far.

Loki's mind was flooded by memories from what he'd seen. He cried as he actually remembered and relived all the horrors of his time on Midgard. The video had triggered all the memories he had lost of once he arrived, but he still knew nothing of what had happened before. He collapsed on the floor, overcome by the flood of memories cascading through him.
Tony jumped from the chair he was sitting in at the computer. He leaned over the half-conscious child in the floor. "Loki!" The boy was unresponsive. He only stared up at the ceiling with empty eyes. Tony didn't know what to do.

"What did you do to him?!" Tony looked to the doorway where Thor was now standing, looking ready to kill. The thunder god ran towards Loki and Tony, glancing at the computer screen as he did. Frozen on the screen was an image of Loki on the ground with the Avengers standing over him. "Why would you show him this?!" He grabbed Tony by his shirt and pulled him from the ground.

"I was trying to help!"

"How is this helping?!"

"I could be wrong, but I think he remembers now. So... You should be thanking me. Not strangling me." Tony tapped on Thor's hand still holding tightly to his shirt. Thor let him go, but still seemed to be contemplating hitting him. "Maybe less threatening me, and a bit more helping?" Tony risked turning his back on Thor to look back at Loki, hoping he would at least live to regret it. But Thor dropped down to his knees on the floor and reached for Loki.. As soon as he touched the boy's arm, the child sprang up to a sitting position, gasping and looking terrified. He looked around, confused of where he was. Upon seeing Thor, he immediately leapt into his arms.

"I remember... I remember New York." Loki's voice was no more than a whisper.

Thor held his little brother in his arms and felt the small boy shaking. "Do you remember what happened before?"

"No. Nothing before arriving through the tesseract." Thor didn't say anything else. He simply held his little brother, rubbing circles on his back and waiting for him to calm down.

"What is going on here?!" Nick Fury stormed into the living room of the Avengers' home. It was the middle of the night, but Natasha, Bruce, and Thor were all sitting on the couch watching television when Fury entered He looked furious and had a squad of SHIELD troops with him. Thor and Bruce paled as they saw who else Fury had with him.

Fury drug behind him a dazed Loki. He pulled the child in by his hair, but Loki didn't seem to even notice the pain he should have felt. As Fury forced him around into plain sight, an already purpling bruise was visible on Loki's forehead.

"Was that really necessary?" Natasha asked. She seemed completely unsurprised by Fury's sudden appearance with the boy.

"He tried to run."

"He's just a ten year old boy, and a bunch of strange men try to abduct him while he's sleeping. You're right, who'd run from that?"

"Doctor Banner, you seem to forget that this boy is responsible for leading an army and the murder of hundreds of people. Now, will somebody explain to me why he's still here? I was under the impression he was sent back to Asgard a year ago?!"

"Research took longer than expected." Tony said as he and Steve appeared in the doorway, pushing their way past the SHIELD agents. As they made their way past Fury, Steve scooped the dizzy little boy into his arms and moved to stand with the other Avengers.

"What brings you here after him now anyway?" Rogers says as he carefully passed Loki to the anxiously waiting Thor. Banner immediately told Thor to keep the child awake.

Natasha spoke up in answer of Steve's question. "I called him when I found out what happened. I'm surprised it took him so long to get here." The look in Thor's eyes at her words made everyone glad that he was holding Loki and therefore unable to do anything in his anger.

"And I'm disappointed no one called me sooner or, dare I say, followed my directions to begin with." Fury rested his eye particularly on Stark now, but Tony only rolled his eyes as if the suggestion was completely ludicrous Fury sighed and ran his hand over his face in exasperation. The Avengers did good work, but they could be a real pain to deal with. Looking back to Banner, he made another attempt to gather information about their apparently secretive activities. "So who wants to explain how our evil mastermind is suddenly a clueless little boy who looks like he couldn't hurt a fly let alone kill people?"

Since Fury was staring at him anyone, Banner felt compelled to answer him. "He was helping with the research, and there was an accident. We tried opening a portal, but it tried to open a bit early. Loki got caught in it, and you can see the result of that."

"A trick to help him escape?" Fur eyed the addled child suspiciously.

"No, an uncontrollable mishap."

"Besides, he lost his memory and would've forgotten to run anyway." Stark said, smiling smugly.

Fury lifted an eyebrow at Tony. "So he remembers nothing?"

"We think it's all slowly coming back in pieces, but he's till not a threat." Bruce said looking over at the child in Thor's arms. He nudged the boy's arm as he started drifting off. With that bruise on his head, they must have hit him pretty hard. It'd be wise to keep him awake until he had time to check for any real damage to him later.

Fury frowned. "He's still a criminal though, people! Child or not, he's murdered countless innocents! Are we just gong to forget that now?"

Thor was outraged by the continued blame on his now defenseless brother. "But he doesn't even understand what he's done! What will you do to him?! Lock him away? Kill him? And who will do so? Who can punish a child?!" While Thor ranted on, Bruce pulled Loki from Thor's arms. The thunderer moved towards Fury n his rage, trusting Banner with his injured brother.

Thor continued his tirade at Fury, but Bruce was no longer listening. Something had looked wrong about the child before he took him, but now he knew Loki was in trouble. "Thor!" Banner shouted to make the thunder god be quiet. Thor turned to see Banner lying Loki down on the couch. His arm dangled limp over the edge, and his head lolled to the side. The boy's eyes were closed, and he was barely breathing.

Loki's eyes fluttered open. He looked around the room in confusion He was lying on the couch in the living room. Thor and Bruce were leaning over him, concern written plainly on their faces. "What happened?"

"You blacked out on us for a minute there." Banner said as the concern began to give way to his normal calm demeanor. "You feeling alright now?"

Loki nodded, but the motion made him dizzy. He closed his eyes until the world stopped swirling around him. "I felt like I was falling again."

"What do you mean?" Asked Thor, confused.

"Everything was spinning and dark. I couldn't tell which way was up or down. It was all just a big blur." Loki looked directly at Thor, and the elder brother understood what the boy was talking about. "I remember what it was like. Falling forever in darkness. It was like how I felt before I opened my eyes just now."

Steve thought the boy must be losing his mind. "Thor, what's he talking about?"

"He's remembering his fall from the Bifrost." Thor said in awe. "Loki, do you remember everything now?"

The boy shook his head, careful not to move too quickly or too suddenly. "I remember most things though. There are a few things that still a bit fuzzy, but I think I remember everything before I fell." The bump on Loki's head had lead to a dizziness which triggered more of his memories.

"What about after you fell?"

"Nothing until I got here."

Thor looked at the others. Most stared at the child with curiosity. Fury gave up for the time being and left the room. Banner finally broke the awkward silence. "It's only a matter of time before something triggers those memories too."

Thor nodded. "That's what I'm afraid of."

So long as Loki remained so harmless, Fury decided it wasn't worth a fight to keep the child locked up. The boy was allowed to continue roaming Stark Tower freely. He liked to watch the SHIELD agents who were now staying in the tower with them. They were strange to him, but he found them interesting.

Loki looked over the shoulder of an agent compiling gathered information on the Chitauri. He read the words as they scrolled across the page. Near the end of the report was a close-up picture of a Chitauri warrior. It's menacing face looking directly at the camera, and it's piecing eyes seemed to reach out to the boy. Looking at this image, Loki felt a chill run up his spine, and sense of unbearable dread welled up inside him.

The child screamed and fell back onto the floor, thrashing wildly. The final pieces of his memory crashing into place. Fear threatened to tear him apart as dozens of people surrounded him. Finally, Thor pushed his way through the gathering crowd around his little brother. Loki's desperate eyes immediately locked onto Thor's, but all the boy managed to say was "He's coming..."

Chapter Text

Loki spent the next week lying in bed with a raging fever. The boy was delirious and unable to focus on anything around him. Even Thor was unable to make sense of anything the boy cried out or mumbled in his restless sleep. Banner kept him sedated to keep him from hurting himself during his more extreme fits of hysteria. It also helped keep his nightmarish dreams at bay, but nothing would be able to stop them completely.

Loki was asleep when his fever finally broke. When he woke up, Thor was in a chair at his bedside, he'd scarcely left him the entire time. "How do you feel?" Thor asked, relieved just to see his little brother awake and not flailing in a burst of insanity.

"My head hurts." Thor glanced at a clock, wanting to ease his brother's pain, but not enough time had passed for him to be able to take any more medication safely. "It all felt so real..."

"What? What felt real?"

"The Chitauri." The pale boy shivered, and Thor had a feeling it had nothing to do with him being cold.

"What did they do to you?"

"I- I remember what happened after I fell from the Bifrost." Loki was avoiding Thor's question. "I thought I would fall forever, but something, or someone caught me. They... wanted to know things, but I didn't want to tell them. So, they hurt me. They hurt me bad." Loki choked back a sob, remembering the terrible pain all too clearly now. "I j- just wanted them t- to stop. I would've done a-anything." The tears ran down his face now as he went on. "So, I d- did what they said. I d- don't know how l- long I was there. But when they th- thought I was ready, they s- sent me to Earth. I- I had n- no choice. I just couldn't take it anymore!"

Thor found himself nearly crying with his brother now. So, Loki really had been forced to come here and to commit those awful crimes. It really wasn't his fault...

"I'm sorry! I'm s- so sorry..." Loki turned away from Thor, unable to stand his brother's gaze on him any longer. He curled in on himself and wept. The boy shrank away from Thor's touch when he tried to comfort him. There was no help for him right now. So, Thor sat on the edge of the bed and waited. He waited until his little brother had run out of tears and could cry no longer. Then, Thor pulled Loki onto his lap and hugged the boy tightly as he continued whimpering and gasping. Still crying even long after his eyes had run dry. Thor held his little brother like this until the child had finally cried himself to sleep. As Thor gently lay him back down on the bed, he looked towards the camera newly mounted on the wall to record Loki's every movement and cry.

Watching the video feed from his new office, Fury frowned. Thor would expect him to drop all liability for Loki's crimes from him now. And after what he'd just witnessed, he wanted to too. But could he do that? Someone had to be held responsible for this. And what happened to Loki wasn't the all-pardoning mind control he had subjected others too. Loki was simply a man who broke under torture. He had still been in control of his own actions. But now he was only a little boy - a broken and suffering little boy. The child had been punished enough, but had the man who still lived somewhere inside him? Thor was right. Who can punish a child? Loki's situation was unbelievably complicated.

Fury had no idea what to do with him, but little did he know, someone would make that decision for him very soon.

Chapter Text

I wake up gasping and shivering, again. I look around the dark room, but I'm alone. There's no one there. Go back to sleep. This is silly. I haven't slept well since I got my memories of the Chitauri back. I always dream about them, what they did to me, and what they'll do when they come get me again. I shake my head to get rid of these thoughts and pictures, but it doesn't help. It just makes me kinda dizzy.

I sit up and get a drink of water from my cup on the table by my bed. Yuck, I'm all sweaty now. You'd think those dreams were real with the way I look now. I'm a mess. I need to sleep... I lie back down. I'm afraid to sleep, but I've already tried to just stay awake all the time. That didn't go so well... Gotta try sleeping again.

But I can't. My fear won't go away this time. Why? Usually after I get a drink and sit here for a while I start feeling better. But this time's different. I'm still scared. I feel like someone is watching me, but I don't see anyone?

Am I crazy now?

I'd believe it. I sigh and close my eyes. Scared or not, it's the middle of the night, and I have to sleep. I'm finally almost asleep when something completely wakes me up again. I felt something weird move against my leg. I kick my blanket off into the floor, but there's nothing on my leg.

I really am crazy...

I curl up and face the wall. If I can't see my dark room, then I can't imagine things in it. If my legs are against my chest, then nothing can touch them without me seeing it first. Then something rubs against my back. I squeeze my eyes closed tight. There's nothing there. There can't be. It's all in your head. You're crazy now, remember? But there it is again! I roll over and face my dark room, but it's still empty. I'm alone? I close my eyes again, but now I'm sitting up with my back against the wall. Nothing can sneak up behind me this way. But I'm still so scared I can barely breathe. I need to calm down... Just wait 'til morning. Breathe in. You'll be fine. Breathe out. You don't need to go running to Thor again. Breathe in. Prove to him you can make it one night on your own. Breathe out.

But then there's a breath that isn't mine. It blows right in my face. It smells bad, and I choke a little. My eyes snap open, and this time there's another face less than an inch from mine. I'm a looking right in the eyes of Thanos. I'm too scared to breathe at all now that I'm face to face with the Chitauri leader who hurt me so bad before. I knew he would come for me. A wicked smile stretched across his face, and a shiver ran up my spine. I finally find my voice and scream as loud as I possibly can.

I try to scramble off the bed, but I don't even make it to the floor before Thanos grabs my neck. He's holding me from the back of my head, but his long fingers wrap around to press into my throat, and I can't scream any more. It's hard enough just to breathe. Thanos is carrying me out of my room now. I kick and struggle, but he only laughs at me. "You have your spirit back in this form. I shall enjoy breaking you again." I struggle harder, but it only makes his smile grow. I jerk to the side and kick a door as we go down the hallway. Please wake up...
Thanos slams me up against the wall. "Go ahead. Kick as much as you like. It will do you no good. You'll only get your friends killed." I don't know whether to try to wake anyone up now or not. Will I really just get them killed? But I need help... He can't take me again... He can't take me! I kick and hit the wall as hard as I can. I force a scream past Thanos's hand around my neck. It feels like my throat is being torn apart, but it's nothing compared to what will happen to me if someone doesn't help me. Please help me! Somebody! Anybody! Help! Please help me...

Thanos pulls me back and crashes my body against the wall again. It makes a louder noise than any of my kicking or hitting did. But the world's spinning now from Thanos hitting my head against the wall. I'm just hanging here, pinned against the wall. My arms and legs feel too heavy to lift now. I can't call for help any more... A single tear slides down my face. Now what? Do I just give up?

"You see? They won't help you anyway. You are nothing." Thanos's voice was right in my ear. I choked back a cry as the tears fell down my face. He peels me off the wall and starts walking down the hallway again.

Thanos turns to go through a door, but I don't know where it goes. I've never been anywhere near this part of the building. I can't remember how we got here or how to get back to my room. Not that it matters now...

A bright burst of light explodes in front of us. I just stare at the wall where the explosion was. I can still see spots from how painfully bright it was. "Put the kid down." It was Tony!

"Stay out of my way, pathetic human." Thanos practically growled as he turned around to face Ironman. "This is not your problem."

"You're in my home and taking my stuff. You're right. Not my problem. It's yours." I flinch as Tony shoots at the floor at Thanos's feet. An arrow sinks into Thanos's arm really close to my head. Clint came out of the shadows to stand next to Tony. They had heard me!

"Yours? You would lay claim to this pathetic creature?" Thanos's hand tightens around my neck. I squirm to try to get air again. But I can't! " He was mine before, and I think I'll take him back now. It is time this wretch remembers his place." Thanos's grip tightens around my neck even more. I can feel myself being pushed to my limits. Any more and my neck will break. I pull against his hand with all my strength, but it's not enough. Help me... Please...

Thanos tosses me through the door next to us. I land on stairs going up I don't know where. Terrible pain shoots up my leg when I land. My first breath of air turns to a strangled scream of pain. Thanos doesn't even look at me, like he knows I'll stay where he left me. Maybe the old me would, but I don't want to go back to that - back to him. I can't move the leg I fell on, so i drag myself along. He threw me on the stairs going up, so I crawl to the stairs going down. I can hear a lot of shouting and explosions from the hallway. I can hear Tony yelling that I've been taken. Then a roar I think belongs to Bruce's other form, the Hulk. Clint and Natasha were yelling too.

Natasha screams, and Clint starts shouting something at Thanos, but I can't understand what he says. After that, I don't hear Clint or Natasha any more. Only the sounds of explosions and roars make it down to me now. But I'm not even halfway down the stairs yet. I can't go any faster though. It hurts too much...

I look through the railing at another set of stairs below me. There are two faces looking back up at me. It's Thor and Steve! They had come around to get me while the others kept Thanos distracted! They ran up the stairs towards me. I reached out my hand for Thor as they got close, but just before I could grab his hand, a blast of energy sent him and Steve flying back down the stairs. "No!" I scream as they hit the wall. I jump towards them. I don't care that it'll hurt me to jump or that I'll fall down the rest of the stairs. I just need to get to my brother! "Thor!" Thanos caught me by my hair and took me back up the stairs. "Help! Please!" Thanos is already to the top of the next set of stairs. I scream the whole way, but help isn't coming. Please help me...

The door at the very top is already open to the roof of Stark Tower. This must be how Thanos got in too. But why did no one notice? He shouldn't have been able to just walk in like this...

"Let my brother go!" Thor ran up the last few steps and out on the roof. Thanos doesn't so much as look at him. Thor hurls Mjolnir at Thanos's back, but somehow he steps to the side, and the hammer misses. Not only does Thor's hammer miss, but it almost hits me. I squeak when I feel the wind as it passes my face. I see Thor's face get really pale when it almost hits me. He doesn't throw Mjolnir again. He slowly walks towards us, and Thanos backs up to the edge of the roof. Is he afraid of Thor? "Let him down!"

"Alright. I'll let him down." Thanos laughs and let's go of my hair. "Perhaps you should choose your words more carefully, Thor Odinson." The last thing I see before I fall is Thor running towards the edge of the roof. I hear him shouting until the roar of the wind gets too loud for me to hear anything else. I'm falling towards the hard concrete of the New York street below. This is gonna hurt...

Then something slams into me, and suddenly I'm not falling any more. I look over my shoulder to see a Chitauri warrior. He'd caught me as he flew by. He flies up and away from Stark Tower. I scream and fight the Chitauri holding me, but he won't let me go. I guess I don't really wanna fall, but I know I definitely don't wanna go with these guys. I look back at Stark Tower as it gets farther and farther away. I can see Thor swinging Mjolnir at Thanos, but the Chitauri leader dodges or blocks the hammer every time. But he hits Thor several times. Thor falls to one knee on the ground. Thanos sends my brother flying back into the stairwell with a blast of energy. Thanos turns and jumps onto the back of another Chitauri warrior flying by. The small squad of Chitauri fly away into the night, taking me with them. Thor steps back onto the roof, but there's nothing he can do now.

I am at the mercy of the Chitauri...

Chapter Text

Thor stands on the roof of Stark Tower and watches in horror as the Chitauri vanish with his little brother. Loki is gone... He is with the one who tortured him before sending him to attack the Earth... What would happen to him now? He had failed them. The Earth is safe and not under his control, and Loki himself was a prisoner. Would Thanos punish him? Torture him again? Maybe even kill him?

No... They won't kill him. Thanos will want to make him suffer before he dies. Loki will beg for death long before it is granted to him. The fact that he will now have to face such torture as a child is enough to make most of the Avengers cringe.

They have to help him... But Fury refuses to help Loki. He is glad the trickster isn't his problem any more. He doesn't really want him back, but he won't stop anyone who does want to go after him. As far as Fury is concerned, once the Chitauri are finished with Loki, they boy's debt will be payed. Whatever the Chitauri are likely doing to him now is punishment enough. If the kid survives, Fury will welcome him back and consider giving him a fresh start.

So, only two days after Loki was abducted, Thor and anyone willing to go with him would set out to rescue the boy. Thor wanted to leave immediately, but he was forced to accept he couldn't go alone, and no one else was fit to take on the Chitauri again just yet. Thanos had left everyone in rather poor condition. When they left Stark Tower, the small band consisted of only Thor, Bruce, and Tony. Natasha was hurt too badly to go, but everyone knew she wouldn't have wanted to rescue the trickster anyway. Clint stayed with Natasha and wouldn't go while she was in her present condition. Steve wanted to help, but Thor was forced to tell him to stay behind. He wan't fit for fighting the Chitauri now. Thanos's attack in the stairwell had left him buried in rubble from the partially collapsed wall for nearly an hour. He was pretty banged up and needed more than just two days to recover, and Thor couldn't bear to wait any longer. Every second they delayed was added time for Thanos to once again destroy Thor's little brother.

The trio took a small SHIELD aircraft and followed the tracker Fury had given them. The spy had hidden a tracer in the child's clothes ever since he found out about his presence on Earth, not that he'd mentioned this to anyone else before now. Considering it gave a location far from Stark Tower in New York, they found it safe to assume the child was still wearing the tracker. It said that Loki was far away but still on Earth, which was good since the Avengers had no reliable way of crossing space to the realm of the Chitauri. Even so, it took the group three days to catch up to Thanos and figure out exactly where he was keeping Loki.

Tracking Loki's general position from relatively far away was simple, but narrowing the trace to a precise street address was a bit more challenging. The Avengers were somewhere in Germany, but they'd wandered in circles so much that they no longer knew what city they were near. Finally, they ended up on the outskirts of an old town that was likely abandoned. The town itself gave off an eerie aura, and the heavy rain gave it a nightmarish essence. Chitauri warriors could be seen scurrying along the decaying rooftops, watching the Avengers closely but also maintaining their distance. They were definitely in the right place...

Hopefully they weren't too late to save Loki...

Loki lay in the floor, shivering. It's cold here anyway, but more importantly, the child has lost a lot of blood over the past few days. He's lost enough that his body was having trouble functioning and keeping him warm, but even the kid knows it's better for him to be cold than to have something stop working. But that doesn't mean he likes being cold. The shivering makes everything hurt more. There are more cuts on his body than he can count, and the constant shivering isn't letting them close and heal properly. The movement is also enough to cause a great deal of pain from his leg that was broken when Thanos threw him on the stairs. There are awful pains in his side and chest, telling him it's likely that a few of his ribs have been broken. And then there's the many burns and sores from Thanos's more magical ideas for torture. He's been subjected to more nightmares both physical and mental that even his memories of his last time with the Chitauri pale in comparison. The child doesn't know how he's survived this long, but he very much wishes he hadn't. He still tries to fight however he can; he doesn't want to be broken and forced to do Thanos's bidding again. But with every hour, more and more of his strength fails, and he slides closer and closer to giving up. He doesn't even know if Thanos will want him back now that he's already failed him once. That seems too forgiving... Even with all of the unimaginable torture beforehand. No, Thanos won't use him again. He only wants to make hum suffer for his failure. Thanos isn't going to let him die easily either, if he lets him die at all. Loki will be at Thanos's mercy until the captor grows bored of his new toy. Then, who know what will become of the trickster...

"On your feet, boy." A rough Chitauri voice reaches the miserable child from across the small dark room. Why do they always insist that the kid get up and walk out of his prison himself? They know he isn't able to at this point. And this is the one place where nothing bad has happened to him, so why would he willingly leave? They always took him elsewhere when they tortured him, then they'd drop him here to recover for just long enough to make sure they didn't accidentally kill him.

"You know I can't..." Sometimes, they would smile wickedly and carry him away when he said this, and sometimes they would make him try first for their own sick amusement, and yet other times they would get angry and beat him when they got to wherever it was they had decided to take him that time. It was worth a try anyway, since his only other options were to try to get up like they would likely do anyway, or to just lie there and ignore them. He had tried that once, and it was a mistake he would never make again...

"I said on your feet." The Chitauri growled at him. The boy groaned; it hurt just thinking of having to try to get up again. But he had no choice.

Little Loki put his hands on the rough stone wall behind him, so he could use it to pull himself up and take some of the strain off his inured leg. The child found it was best if he thought of this agonizing trial as a game. It was a game to see how close to standing he could get or at least how long he could endure. If he managed to stand or bore the Chitauri before collapsing, then he won. It was a truly terrible game, but it help him endure. And anything that helped even a little was a blessing in this accursed hell.

Loki's fingers scrape along the rough surface of the wall until he finds a decent sized crevice for him to slide his hand into. He squeezes his eyes closed and grits his teeth as he begins to pull himself off the floor. His aching limbs scream in protest, and the world swirls around him. The returning pain and dizziness is sickening, and the child must fight the urge to fall to the floor and vomit. After a minute the feeling passes, and the boy pulls himself up a little farther, making it to his knees this time. But this is the worst part for the little boy as it puts all his weight on the lower part of his legs, and with one such part being badly broken, the pain is quite excruciating. Unable to keep silent any longer, little Loki begins whimpering and leaning more heavily against the wall, but he didn't cry. Loki didn't cry any more. He was beyond tears now. The past few days had taught him how useless crying really was; it only made his tormentors take even more pride and enjoyment form their despicable work on the defenseless child. Even in the worst pain imaginable not a single tear would slip form the broken child's eyes. The Chitauri still laugh at his weakness and the way he whines like a kicked puppy, but at least he doesn't cry.

Loki finally reaches a near standing position, but the weight on his leg and tension on his ribs make sit impossible for him to completely support himself. He tries to go on but can't, His bad leg buckles under his weight, and the child collapses to the floor, his leg at an even stranger angle than it had been before. Loki had lost his little game.

Laughing, the Chitauri warrior walked forward and picked up the pathetic child now lying crumpled in the floor. He carried him away form the small dark room which had become something of a sanctuary to the little boy. The Chitauri carried him down an equally dark hallway to a room with only slightly better lighting. It was impossible to see what lie ahead for the child, but he was used to this by now. And he preferred it that way; it was much worse knowing ahead of time that something horrible was going to be done to him and he would be powerless to stop it. At least this way there was a little mystery to it which kept his mind form focusing directly on the pain that would be raging through his already battered body, for a short while at least, for nothing could ever block out the pain entirely.

The Chitauri drops Loki onto a metal slab that's supposed to be a sort of table. Thanos is nowhere to be seen. While that doesn't necessarily man he isn't somewhere simply out of Loki's sight, the child still finds his torturer's absence rather strange. Then the Chitauri warrior turns and leaves the room, closing a heavy steel door behind him. Loki is shocked that he has been left alone some place new. He considers attempting to escape, but quickly thinks better of it. Past escape attempts were hardly successful and had only resulted in even more severe torment that day. It just wasn't worth it any more... Loki had already accepted his fate.

When Thanos finally enters the room sometime later, Loki hasn't even moved an inch form where the Chitauri warrior had dropped him. The boy was still trying to get as much rest as he could in hopes of easing his suffering somewhat. A laughable notion which Thanos would soon see crushed. The boy's spirit is so nearly broken that Thanos can see the child's anguish plain in his too bright eyes. While the boy had ceased to cry after the third day of torture, Thanos knows other ways of forcing the child to express his pain: a violent shiver here or a blood curdling scream there. And all of it is music to Thanos's ears.

Thanos runs his knife over the seemingly sleeping child's face. The little boy's eyes immediately snap open, but otherwise he stays completely still. He has learned. Thanos moves the knife over the delicate skin but doesn't cut the child, not yet anyway. He watches as Loki's eyes follow the blade dancing over his skin. Thanos is about to dip the sharp blade into the little boy's delicate skin when there is a series of dull thuds o the closed steel door behind him. Anger ripples through him at the interruption He hurls the knife down at the table with such speed that Loki doesn't even know he threw it until it sinks into the metal slab a hair's breath form his face. Loki gasped at the proximity and stares at the knife, trying not to imagine what would have become of him had it been even a little closer.

Thanos stalks away form the petrified child and harshly jerks the odor open. "You had best have a good reason for interrupting me." Thanos's voice is low and threatening. The Chitauri at the door stumbles back a few steps, putting him out of Loki's line of sight.

"They're here, my lord. Three of them in the city."

Thanos laughs, sending shivers up the child's spine. No one should ever laugh like that; there was just something terrible and unnerving about it. "I knew they would come, but this is sooner than expected. Where are the rest?"

"No where to be found, my lord."

"Interesting." A dark smile stretches across Thanos's face. "Leave me now. And do not disturb me again." The Chitauri's head comes back in sight for a few brief seconds as he bows before Thanos, and Loki can see a smile on his face as well. this certainly couldn't mean anything good for him. And then the Chitauri was gone. Loki is once again left alone with Thanos.

Thanos walks back over to the little boy who is watching him closely with his feverish eyes. The smile is still on his face as he pulls his knife free of the table, also somewhat surprised that it managed to penetrate the durable metal. But to Loki's great surprise, Thanos tosses the knife across the room where it clatters to the floor.

"It seems your friends have taken a notion to come rescue you." He pauses and waits for the child to begin wondering if this was true or just another of Thanos's many lies. "They are outside in the city as I speak, only some tens of feet above our heads. Loki can't help but allow a small smile make its way onto his face. They wee really coming to save him! "Too bad they'll never make it this far."

Loki's hopeful smile wavers for a moment but doesn't disappear entirely. He feels he could withstand any torture Thanos may throw at him today. His brother is coming to rescue him. He only has to hold on for a little while longer... Thanos hates to see the child hopeful, but the knowledge that he will see this foolish hope shattered later will make it all worth while. The news of Thor's death would be devastating to the little boy who has finally found hope. This will be the final too Thanos needs to break this small child's spirit once and for all. But for now, he will leave him to his futile hopes. The higher his spirit rises now, the farther Thanos will see it plummet later.

Thanos grabs the child's hair and drags him down form the table. He pulls the boy back to his small room, and Loki limps and struggles to keep up with Thanos's rapid and intentionally painful pace. The only reason the kid is able to even attempt to walk like this is that Thanos is holding him up by his head. It hurts, but Loki really doesn't care right now. He's glad Thanos has decided to dump him back in the safety of his cell until his big brother comes for him.

Without another word spoken, Thanos flings Loki into the dark room. The small boy bounces a little when he hits the floor with the force of Thanos's throw By the time the kid can focus past the pain consuming his body, the door is closed, and Thanos is gone.

Now all he has to do is wait for Thor.

Loki drifts in and out of a restless sleep all through the next couple of hours. This is the longest the child has been left alone since coming here. It's the most he's managed to sleep too, even if he isn't sleeping well. His nightmares make sure of that. Even here, in this nightmare, he is plagued by still worse nightmares. The poor kid doesn't understand how this could even be possible.

He is in the middle o f one such dream when he is awakened by a loud bang just outside of his room. Little Loki cries out as he is ripped form his horrible dreams ot an only slightly less horrible reality. Someone's laughing at him on the other side of the door. "Bad dream?" A raspy Chitauri voice asks him, mockingly Loki doesn't even bother with responding to the warrior. He barely acknowledges his presence at all.

But then another voice sounds, and another figure takes the place of the Chitauri scurried off down the hallway. Loki recognized the voice as belonging to Thanos, but he found this odd as Thanos never came to drag Loki out himself. What is so special about this time?

"Don't you look blooming with life now?" Loki still wore a defiant smile on his face as he looked up at Thanos. "How unlike your little friends."

"Wh- What?" The child's new found confidence falters, and his smile fades. He couldn't mean...

"Your friends are dead, you wretched boy. Struck down trying to save such a pathetic child. Are you proud? Your friends died because of you."Loki's heart seemed to skip a few beats as he was told of the Avengers' deaths. Could they really be dead? How? How could this be?

"N - No! I don't believe you!" Loki shouts at Thanos form where he lay on the floor. Thanos throws his head back and laughs heartily at the boy's spirited denial.

"No? What reason have I to lie to a worthless brat such as yourself?" Thanos stops and listens as the little boy babbles nonsense into the darkness, unable to cope with what he's just been told. "Would you like to know how they died?" Thanos taunts the traumatized child. "No? Not even your dear brother?" The child's breathing stops. Complete silence settles over them.

Thanos walks into the room and towers over the distraught little boy. "I killed him myself. He fought so hard to get to you, and yet his life was so easily crushed." The little boy whimpers and shakes his head violently, covering his ears even though Thanos's voice still reaches him plainly. Thanos kneels in front of the boy, so he now looks directly into the child's eyes as he goes on. "Your brother wept and begged for his life before he died. Pathetic, just like you." Thanos sneers at Loki's expression of complete hopelessness.

Then an unexpected fire flashes in the mini-trickster's eyes. Loki spits in Thanos's face with a burst of intense hatred. "My brother would never beg" the boy's voice is little more than a whisper and holds far more menace than any child should have been capable of mustering.

"Insolent fool!" Thanos pulls Loki form the floor and pins his back to the wall, holding the child up off the floor by his neck. Loki gasps and struggles despite the pain it stirs up inside him. Thanos is outraged and ready to wring the life form the scrawny brat.

Loki panics. Thanos may really kill him this time. He fights with every scrap of strength he has, but his body screams in protest. And it's no use. He's far too weak to force Thanos to loose his grip on him. It's getting harder and harder to fight. His lungs burn form the lack of air. The child begins growing dizzy form lack of air and cut off circulation. He can hear his blood rushing in his ears as the world seems to start spinning and melting all around him.

Maybe this isn't such a bad thing... Everything will be better once I'm gone. I won't be able to hurt anyone ever again Nobody else will ever suffer or die for my sake. Nobody will have to worry about taking care of me as a kid or locking me up as a grown up. There's no reason for me to go on any more.

There's nothing wrong with me giving up at this point.

With everything I've done, I know I'm not good enough for Valhalla when I die, so I won't get to see my brother again event hat way. He's lost to me no matter what happens now. No one else would even care what's happening or going to happen to me anyway.

The darkness is closing in on me, threatening to drown me. I stop fighting. I welcome the end as I fall away into darkness.

Thanos holds Loki by his neck until the child stops resisting. The boy becomes limp in his grasp, and his eyes fall closed. This is the end for the wretched trickster. He was an amusing toy while his life force lasted, but in the end he failed even in this. Thanos would be glad to be rid of the Asgardian pest.

Then something very heavy crashed into the back of Thanos's head. He drops Loki to the floor as he stumbles against the wall. Furious, Thanos turns to see who had dared to strike him.

Standing boldly in the doorway were Bruce, Tony, and Thor. Mjolnir is back in Thor's hand already, and the thunder god holds his weapon up, ready to attack again. Bruce is already in the form of the Hulk and is covered in what seems to be Chitauri blood. Tony stands with his back to the others, facing the stairway which breaks off of the hallway only a few feet form the door to Loki's cell. A Chitauri warrior leaps into the hallway form the stairs, and Tony immediately blasts it in the face before it can follow through with its intended attack. There are still dozens of the warriors in the old building above and the deserted city beyond. Thanos had instructed the Chitauri to dispose of the meddlesome Avengers, but apparently Loki wasn't the only failure in his ranks. When he speaks, it sounds more like a growl. "You would have done well to stay away."

"And you would have done well to have left my brother alone." Thor's voice is tense with barely contained rage.

More Chitauri continue to drop down the stairs for Tony to shoot, but the tide seems like it will never end. "Think we could hurry this along a bit?" Thor needs no further encouragement. He hurls Mjolnir at Thanos again.

Thanos responds by shouting and swinging his arm out to meet the hammer. Mjolnir flies to the side and crashes into the wall nearby before returning to Thor. Bruce changes forward at the kidnapper, slamming him back into the wall. Dust and bits of stone shower the motionless child int he floor. The Hulk roars in Thanos's face as he hits him again knocking him away form the little boy now. Thanos lands a blow of his own on Bruce's face, causing the Hulk to stagger back form him a short way. Thor runs over and is already swinging Mjolnir as he reaches Thanos. The enemy enemy dodges to the side and hits Thor with a counterattack which knocks the thunder god flat on the floor. Thanos jumps towards him to crush him on the ground, but Bruce hits him just as he lunges forward. Thanos falls off balance and tumbles to he floor. He takes Bruce's feet out form beneath him with a sweeping kick, but the green beast smashes his fists down Thanos as he falls. Back on his feet now, Thor slams Mjolnir down at im as well. Thanos avoids Thor's attack and kicks Bruce away form him. He moves forward with his attacks on Banner, but while he's focused on the Hulk, Thor bashes Thanos's head with Mjolnir. The villain crashes through the stone wall beside him and lets in a pile of rubble in the next room over. Thor strikes Mjolnir against the wall, burying Thanos in the debris. Hopefully that would buy them sufficient time for escape.

Banner grunts and moves to stand next to Thor. Tony is still keeping the Chitauri at bay at the door. "If you're done playing, let's take the kid and get out of here!" Thor ran to where Loki lay on the floor. He still hasn't so much as twitched since Thanos dropped him.

"Are we too late? Banner!"

Bruce picks up the little boy and walks towards the door, leaving Thor sitting dumbly on the ground. There really wasn't time to worry about the kid's condition now. The best thing they could do for him is to get im away form this awful place. Thor scrambles to his feet and chases after Bruce and Tony s they begin fighting their way out of the eerie basement. The three of them fight through the waves of Chitauri. There are many of them, but they are not a significant threat at this point, and the trio cuts through them easily. The Hulk keeps Loki cradled in one arm while crushing Chitauri resistance with the other.

They fight their way out into the streets, glad to leave the creepy building behind. Once they reach the edge of the deserted city, the Chitauri stop attacking them. They do not pursue them beyond the city, likely not instructed to go any farther by Thanos who is still currently buried in rubble. The Avengers didn't stop to question it, and they certainly don't want to be around when Thanos breaks free.

Bruce manages to calm enough to revert to his normal form along the way back to their plane. He carries Loki more carefully now. It was impossible to tell the extent of the child's injuries before, but now Banner can tell just form holding him that he isn't in good shape at all. But he is alive, if only just. Tony drops into the pilot seat of the plane while Thor and Banner look after Loki. By nightfall, they were back at Stark Tower. Loki is hurt to the point that it si impossible to tell if he will be able to survive the ordeal or not. Banner did the best he could to patch the kid up, and it was all up to Loki now. He may make it, and he may not. They would have to wait and see; there is nothing else they can do for him. Thor refuses to leave his little brother's side.

A week goes by, and Loki remains unresponsive and utterly still. It is difficult to tell that the child is even alive. And for how long would he be? Loki hangs at the edge of death, and at any given time, he could slip over that edge

Chapter Text

The light is blinding. I can't see anything but a pure white light. I stare up at the light, not wanting to move. My body aches. I'm worried if I try to get up I won't be able to.But is there really anywhere for me to go anyway? I mean, I'm dead, aren't I? Thanos killed me, didn't he?

I thought it wasn't supposed to hurt after I die though, so why does my chest hurt so bad? My entire body feels like its covered in pins and needles. I see a shadow move just at the edge of my vision. I'm not alone.

Well, something isn't right.

Is it possible that I'm...alive?

My heart sinks. Why? Did Thanos really save my life form his anger just to hurt me again? So much for that escape... But the Chitauri always kept me in the dark unless they were planning to do something bad to me. So what's with this light? I don't feel like I'm being tortured. so... What's going on?

I try to lift my head a little so I can look around. My head feels so heavy I can barely lift it from my... pillow? I have a pillow? And it's not a rock? Okay... Something is definitely weird here.

As my eyes adjust to the harsh light, I manage to pick out a couple figures in the room. Both are standing over me, and as I move, they lean closer to me. But being so used to the dark, I'm having trouble getting used to the light again. I can't tell any more than just a rough outline of the people above me.

"Loki?" A voice reaches me as if form across a great distance. I think it was the figure to my left speaking, but I can't really tell. I try to answer, but my tongue is too heavy to lift. Talking is impossible. I drop my head back again, not able to hold it up anymore. I'm too weak.

"I don't think he can hear you. He's still pretty heavily sedated."

"Could that be why he hasn't been waking up?"

"Possible, but not likely. It's only numbing. It shouldn't be enough to knock him out like that. Besides, I wait as long as I can before giving him each dose. It surprises me the pain doesn't wake him up sometimes."

"So what is this? His eyes are open, and yet he still sleeps?" This voice sounds very tired and worried.

"He's awake, but the anesthetic is keeping him from feeling much. As a side affect, he probably can't move or talk much. I wouldn't be surprised if the kid's even having trouble thinking."

So that's it? I'm drugged? But why? Why would anyone drug me? Isn't the point of torture that it's supposed to hurt? If I can't feel it, thenw hat do they hope to accomplish.

"If we let it wear off more, will he be able to speak?"

"Maybe. But he'll also be feeling pain by then, maybe a lot of it. Although, if he could speak, he'd be able to tell us just how much pain."

"Let's try waiting for a time then."

So they're gonna let the drug wear off? I think that's a good thing... I think... I don't know. I was in a lot of pain before. Will I be again once the medication's gone?

Now they're quiet, I can't move, and I'm kinda bored. Wow... Didn't expect that to make it to my list of problems ever again. I close my eyes, so I don't have to look at the bright light anymore. I hear the figure on my left sigh.Is he upset I closed my eyes? That's kinda weird. But he was the one that sounded really worried, so maybe hes actually concerned for me? As unlikely as it is, maybe, who knows?

I open my eyes and turn my head slightly, so I can look at him. I squint my eyes against the light. I wish I could tell who those people are, especially this one. Who is he, and why does he care about me?

"Loki? Can you hear me?" That voice is very familiar... But they're right... I can't think too good. I can't connect his voice to his face to his name...

I try to answer. But what feels like it should have been a scream is only continued silence. My mouth opens, but no words come out, not even a sound.

"Don't get your hopes up too much. He probably doesn't even recognize you...sorry."

Then the bright light is gone. Now in the dark like I'm still more used to, I can actually see the two men in the room. The one who was on my right is now off tho the side. He must be the one who turned off the light. The other man is...my brother?

Thor! I try to shout at him, but I can't. My voice still makes no sound, and my tongue won't move. Thanos said Thor was dead... He- He lied to me... And I'm the fool who believed him..

Or does this just mean we're both dead? I don't think so... But maybe?

"His heart rate is accelerating. I can't tell if it's from pain or fear, or something else..."

"Leave him a little longer."

"Thor, do you really want to make him suffer any more than he has to?"

"Don't you tell me of his suffering. Do you really think for a second I could forget the pain he's in?! He's my brother, Bruce! And I failed him! I couldn't protect him. This is my fault..."

"Thor, this is Loki's mess. He got himself into trouble in Asgard. Thanos used him to cause trouble here. Your brother's been dealt a bad hand. There's nothing you can do to change that."

"But I should have protected him..."

"No one could have protected him from this. We tried, remember?"

"I-" Thor sighs and falls silent. I've caused too much trouble... They should've let Thanos keep me...

We sit in silence for I don't know how long. I have no way of telling how much time is passing. All I can do is think, and the more I think, the worse I feel. I stare up at the ceiling. I wish I could sleep, but I can't. Between my guilty conscience and the breathtaking pain, there's no chance of me sleeping. Thor still won't let Bruce give me any more medication. They argue from time to time, but it never lasts long. And then we fall into silence again.

"Thor, this has gone on long enough. He's completely unsedated now. He's probably in more pain than you would believe, and he still hasn't said a word. Let him go back to sleep."

Thor lays his hand on my forehead. "Alright." His voice is weak and defeated. My brother runs his hand over my face and makes me close my eyes. He holds my hand in his, and I feel Bruce lift my other arm. He's gonna make me sleep again...

I try to pull my arm away from him. I'm much to weak to succeed, but at least I manage to move enough to get his attention. He pauses, and I don't feel him stick any needles into my arm. "W- Wait." My voice is only a whisper and is really scratchy. It hurts to talk, but I need to say something before they make me sleep again... When I try to say something else, I cough instead, and it feels like my throat is being torn apart. I taste blood. I open my eyes again and look at my brother. "Am I dead yet?"

Thor's face is so surprised, I almost want to laugh, almost. I think my question scared him. But Bruce is laughing. I look at him, and he smiles at me. "Afraid not, kid. I think you'll live to play many a new trick."

"But why? I should be..." I reach up and feel my neck where Thanos tried to strangle me. Without the drug, I can move a lot better, but everything hurts. As soon as I touch my neck, I really wish I hadn't.

Thor pulls my hand away from my throat. "We got you away from there, Loki. You're safe now."

"Am I?"

Thor nods. "I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you. I promised you I would, and I have failed you, brother. I-"

"No." He looks at me as if he's confused. "I told you before not to make a promise you wouldn't be able to keep. I knew something like this would happen. I got into more trouble than I could handle. I know I didn't do all of it 'cause I wanted to, but I still did it. I'm sorry. I deserve to be hurt for the things I've done..."

"Loki..." Before Thor can say anything else, things start getting fuzzy. I can't see well, and I suddenly feel really sleepy. "Bruce, why did you do that?" Thor sounds kinda mad.But if this is Bruce's fault, then he must have given me more medicine. I'm glad. Now Thor can't argue with me. Plus, I'm tired of hurting. I want to go back to sleep.

"That's enough." Bruce is calm like always, and he doesn't seem at all bothered by Thor's annoyance with him. "That's where this should end. Before you start making excuses for him or try to take the blame again. He knows what he's done, willingly or not, and he has to live with it. If you keep denying it, you'll only set it up to happen again."

I can't keep my eyes open any more. My body feels like it's floating in water, and I'm slowly being dragged down. My eyes slide shut, and I am in darkness again. But this time I know I'll wake up again, hopefully when I feel better.

I blame myself for everything that's happened. Maybe if I'd done something differently I could've avoided all of this. I'm sure there has to be something I could've done...

A lot of other people should share the blame with me, but does that matter? I don't know. It's not important now. It's in my past, and I know I can do better with my future. I just have to prove that to everyone else. Maybe this doesn't have to be the end for me after all...

Chapter Text

"You feel alright?" I'm having trouble balancing, but nothing hurts. I smile up at Thor and nod my head excitedly. That's all it takes to throw me completely off balance, and I fall back against my bed. One of my crutches clatters to the floor. I laugh at myself, but Thor frowns at me. He expects me to be dealing with this much worse than I am. My brother treats me like I'm made of glass now, and he seems to think I'm terribly sad all the time. He thinks my smiles and laughter are just lies. I'm having some trouble adjusting, but I'm managing alright. All of my cuts and burns have healed and vanished without even leaving scars. Bruce says I'm really lucky 'cause some of them were pretty bad. And he fixed me as well as he could, so all my ribs are mostly better now too. He says I should just be a bit more careful for a while. That only leaves me with my leg and my memories to deal with. I have so many horrible memories already that a few more really won't make that much difference to me now that they're in the past. I don't worry about Thanos taking me any more. I think he decided he was finished with me when he tried to actually kill me. I don't think he'll come back, not because of me at least. And even if he does, I know I'll have my brother by my side ready to face anything with me. But as for my leg, Bruce says it's so messed up that there is no quick fix for it. He did his best to put the bones back together and then put a cast on it. Even with my faster than normal healing, my leg will take weeks, maybe months, to heal. But I'm dealing with it. There's nothing I can do to make it get better any faster, so I might as well just get over it. I just wish Thor would see it my way, instead of worrying all the time.

This is my first time out of bed. I've been trying to convince Bruce to let me get up for a couple of weeks now, but he said I needed to heal a bit more first. He says I shouldn't try to walk for another week at least, but people don't call me a silvertongue for nothing. I talked him into it pretty easily once I got bored enough. So he found some crutches for me and it standing by the door, watching me struggle to walk out of my room on my own. I won't have it any other way. I won't let Bruce or Thor help me. I need to do this by myself.

Thor picks my crutch up from the floor and leans it against the bed beside me. Okay, I'll let him help that much. I don't really like the idea of crawling around on the floor trying to pick it up myself. I put it under my arm and give it another try. I lean away from my bed and again support myself with my good leg and the crutches until I get used to it. My balance seems a little better this time. One step at a time, I make my way across the room. I get about halfway to Bruce when I lose my balance and crash to the floor. It makes my leg hurt kinda bad, but I wouldn't admit that to either of the two men rushing towards me. The pain that erupts in my chest from my still not fully healed ribs is dizzying though. When the world finally stops spinning, I grab my crutches from where they landed nearby. "I'm fine!" I look up at Thor and Bruce with annoyance. I want them to stay away and let me do this. I have to do this. They back up, and I try to pull myself up off the floor. I can't... Every time I try, I end up right back where I started. I sigh. I need help.

I look up at Thor, and he can tell just from the discouraged look on my face that I've given up. He lifts me up and keeps me balanced on my good leg until Bruce can give me my crutches back. I may not have been able to stand back up alone, but I still think I did pretty good making it this far. I'm excited now. I can do this!

I move faster this time. I'm not going to give myself a chance to fall again. Thor and Bruce tell me to slow down, but I ignore them. I keep going until I get to the door. And I would've kept going, but as soon as I get out the door, I bump into Tony. He was rushing down the hallway and hadn't seen me. Since I hadn't seen him either, we ran into each other. I fall to the floor and slide a few feet before stopping My crutches slide even farther.

Tony looks down at me and laughs. "Just back on your feet and already running into trouble?" He smiles and gets my crutches for me. He lays them on the floor next to me as Thor and Bruce step up to the door.

"Tony!" Having heard his comment, my big brother is ready to jump to my defense. But Tony only smiles and continues down the hallway. Thor starts to go after him, but Bruce catches his arm and holds him back.

"Just let him go. It was an accident. You know how he is." Thor watches Tony walk away. He still looks mad, but he stays by me. Good, I don't want Thor to do anything. I'm still lying on my stomach in the floor. Bruce can't tell I'm dong anything other than maybe trying to get up. I hold my hand out towards Tony and hope Thor doesn't notice what I'm doing until after it's too late.

"Loki..." Dang, he noticed. That was a warning. Of course, my brother saw that look he claims I get in my eyes when I'm up to no good. I don't know how he always sees it... But it makes no difference right now. I ignore him.

The tiles in the floor in front of Tony are suddenly distorted slightly and basically liquify, but he doesn't notice. Tony slips and falls flat on his back on the floor. I drop my hand back to the floor, and the tiles go back to normal as if nothing had happened. I start laughing really hard. My first taste of mischief - it's been far too long. Tony looks around confused before looking back at me, still laughing at him. Even Thor and Bruce are laughing now. Tony glares at me for a minute before he too laughs and picks himself up from the floor. "Alright, kid. This is war then." Tony walks down the hallway but keeps his head turned so he can watch me the entire time. Then he turns the corner and is gone.

I'm still laughing. This may be fun. Bruce smiles and shakes his head at me, and Thor lifts me up off the floor. He laughs lightly and ruffles my hair. I duck my head away from him and fix my hair. I smile at my brother as he picks me up. I'm tired now; I don't feel like trying to walk on my own any more since I definitely don't have to. "I think you've done enough for one day." And apparently Thor agrees.

"Actually, I have another test to run on him before you wander too far."

"What test? You said he ws going to be alright."

"He's fine. It's just a precaution."

Thor nods and carries me back into my room and lays me on my bed. Bruce props my crutches against the wall so they're just out of my reach. He digs through the drawer he's been keeping his medical stuff and my medicine in. Bruce pulls out a syringe and takes a sample of my blood. I'm so used to this by now that I don't even flinch any more. "That's it. You're good to go now."

I wrap my arms around Thor's neck, and he swings me onto his back. He carries me out of my room, but Bruce doesn't follow us. It's weird, but I'm not concerned with him right now. I'm too busy thinking of other tricks to play on Tony.

After Thor and Loki leave, Banner heads to the laboratory where the tesseract is still being kept. The lab's been cleaned up, and the computers have been repaired. Tony is poking around at the cube, this having been where he had been in a hurry to get to when he'd knocked Loki down in the hallway. No one knows about this continued research except the two of them. They haven't mentioned it to even Thor or Loki.

Banner tests the sample of Loki's blood with one of the computers. He compares it with a sample from before the accident made the trickster a child again. He ran many tests on both samples over the next few days. Tony and Bruce are still searching for a way to reverse Loki's transformation, but so far they've had no luck.

Loki spends the next three months with a broken leg. On the day Banner finally removes it, Loki immediately jumps up and runs out the door. Thor chases after him, but the kid ends up literally running circles around his older brother. Banner stands to the side of the hallway until the little boy burns off some of his excited energy before he tried to bring up a more serious matter.

"When you get the chance, I do have something else to tell you."

Loki skids to a stop behind Thor. He looks at Bruce with an intense curiosity and hurries over to him. "What is it?"

"Come with me." Bruce turns and walks down the hallway with Loki right on his heels. The small boy dances around Banner's legs as he walks, occasionally tripping him. Each time he would apologize but keep going anyway. When Bruce opens the door to the lab, Loki's eyes instantly lock on the tesseract. He finally stops running around and freezes in place, causing Thor to trip over his little brother. Loki stares at the cube, completely entranced by it. Thor gives him a light push on his back so he'll stumble on into the room. Loki is hesitant to go into the room though, so it takes a few more nudges from Thor to get the boy to finally enter the room. When the door slides closed behind them, Loki stops staring at the tesseract. He turns to go back out to the hallway, but he runs into Thor, who doesn't know if he should let him run away or not. "Umm w- why are we in here?" Being in the same room as the tesseract is clearly making the child nervous.

"I told you I had something to show you." Banner says as he types something in on one of the computers.

"And here I thought you'd ruin the surprise." Loki hadn't even noticed Tony sitting on the other side of the lab, tinkering with some kind of equipment.

"S- Surprise?" Loki looks at Tony, hoping he'll explain but know he won't. He looks up at Thor next, but he looks just as confused as his little brother. So, Loki turns to Bruce, his last hope.

Bruce gives in and explains. "We finally got it. We figured out how to change you back." Tony chuckles at the stunned looks on Thor and Loki's faces. After a minute Loki starts smiling and looking excited again, but Thor doesn't seem too pleased.

"I thought you had stopped your work on the tesseract." Thor's voice was almost accusing as he addressed the scientist.

"Just had to make Fury think we had. He tends to get in the way a bit otherwise." Tony smirks as he moves to check the machine currently holding the tesseract. "Funny, I thought you'd be happy to hear little brother wouldn't be quite so little any more."

Loki turned to look up at Thor questioningly. The smile slowly fading from his face as he waits for Thor to explain himself. "I didn't expect to be changing him back. I thought he would be staying this way."

"You don't want me to be a grown up again?" Loki is confused by his brother's reaction. He is thrilled to be getting to go back to his normal self, so why isn't his brother?

"Do we even know what will happen this time? Will the tesseract behave the way you want this time?" Thor looks between Bruce and Tony but doesn't wait for either of them to answer. "Will he remember anything this time? Or will the past few months be lost to him?!"

"You think I'll forget and hate you again like before..."

Thor sighs. "Yes. This gave us a chance to make things right, the way they should have been all along. Who's to say after you change back that you'll remember anything of this second chance you've been given? I won't lose you again, brother."

Loki looks around the room - at Thor, at Bruce, at the tesseract, at Tony, and back at his brother again. Could he really forget all this? "You won't lose me. How could I ever forget this?"

"You say that now, but your memories are strange like that. It's impossible to tell if you'll know any of this even existed."

"Then you'll just have to remind me." Loki smiles up at Thor, hoping his brother will return the smile.

Loki had no desire to have to grow up a second time. Thor understands that, but he still fears what will happen when Loki goes back to his old self. Changing Loki back would alter more than just the way he looks. In the next few short minutes, he wouldn't even think the same any more.

Chapter Text

Loki steps in front of the tesseract where Bruce indicated. The child is smiling excitedly and can't hold still. He looks around the room, clearly anxious, staring at the powerful cube that had caused him so much trouble. It brought up the terrible memories and dreams which used to haunt him. He's been fortunate enough to retain a peace of mind since being brought back to Stark Tower, and if he avoided the tesseract, he could likely keep that peace for quite sometime. But he couldn't face his older brother either. Thor doesn't want him to do this, because he's scared of what could happen It's a risk Loki has to take though. Growing up, particularly in the teenage years, hadn't exactly been fun the first time around, and the boy saw no reason he should have to go through it again just to make Thor happy. He owes his brothers a lot, but that's asking a bit much of him. Besides, once he is finally back the way he should be and everything's okay, Thor will forgive him. But even with this in mind, Loki can't force himself to make eye contact with his overprotective older brother, whose eyes haven't left him for even a second.

Bruce and Tony busily work at their computers, and the tesseract starts glowing with a brighter blue hue. The machine holding it is making a loud humming noise now too. The light grows brighter and brighter while the noise grows louder and louder. Loki gets anxious as the tesseract's reactions become more intense. After what feels like an hour to Loki, Tony and Bruce move away from their computers and the cube to watch from a safe distance. The entire setup only having taken a couple of minutes.

By now, Loki is shaking. The child is scared, suddenly overwhelmed with doubts and fears of his own. He wants to run, to avoid the tesseract's power, but he knows he can't. It's too late to change his mind now. Finally, Loki meets his brother's eyes. He expects his older brother to look scared, but strangely Thor is calm.

Thor's never been able to stop Loki from doing what he wanted before, and it doesn't feel right to do so now. This is rightfully Loki's decision, and he trusts his little brother to make the right choice this time. Most importantly though, Thor believes in his little brother; he always has, and he always will. No matter how this turns out.

Thor smiles reassuringly at Loki. Seeing he had Thor's support now after all, Loki takes some comfort in his brother's smile. He returns a shaky smile.

And then the tesseract fires.

Tony and Bruce hadn't bothered to build anything to try to contain the burst of power this time, since they already knew what should be happening. However, they didn't think about what would happen to Loki once the energy hit him.

The child is hurled across the lab by the power of the tesseract. He screams as he flies through the air and then crashes into the back wall. The tesseract releases a concussive wave of energy as a backlash. The force knocks Bruce, Tony, and Thor to the ground, toppling chairs and stacks of paper with them. The machine holding the tesseract sputters and dies. The backlash short circuits every electronic in the room and leaves Tony's computer sparking dangerously, and even the overhead lights flicker out. A thick layer of smoke blankets the room, making it impossible to see.

Banner uses on e of the desks to slowly pull himself up form the floor. "Well, it seems about the same as last time. Maybe it worked." In the little the Avengers can see through the heavy smoke, the lab appears to be in much the same condition as it had been when Loki was made a child, only this time there were no red lights or loud noises from alarms. But there is a fire now.

As Tony clambers up form the floor, his computer makes a strange popping noise then proceeds to spew fire from its back. Surprised for only a minute, Tony frowns at the burning machine before simply ignoring it and stumbling away. The computer shouldn't be able to do much harm, at least not to anything but itself Just about everything in the room is supposed to be flame retardant. He'd never really thought about it that included the computers - but apparently it didn't. "Just perfect." Tony mumbles, somewhat annoyed.

Bruce stumbles to the door and pushes it open, so the smoke has somewhere else to go. The smoke pours out the door to fill the air in the hallway, greatly helping to clear out the lab. Now able to see well enough to move around without too much trouble, Bruce and Tony move to stand on either side of Thor, who's simply staring across the room. The smoke is still only just dispersing along the back wall of the lab where Loki is. The three of them walk cautiously towards the back of the room.

The smoke slowly drifts away to partially reveal a shadowy figure crouched on the ground. It is difficult to see in the dark, but it is obvious there's something there. The shadow is completely still as the Avengers approach. Bruce and Tony stop moving closer, but Thor goes on. When the Thunder God is only a couple feet from the figure kneeling on the ground in front of him, it suddenly looks up at Thor, stopping him in his tracks. Bright green eyes stare up at Thor from a face that looks completely confused by his surroundings. It had worked; the tesseract had done its job. Loki is back to his old self again - no longer a mere child. But Thor's heart sinks as he sees nothing but confusion from the man before him.

Loki stares up at Thor in a daze. The thunderer doesn't look happy. The laboratory around him is a complete mess. This scene is horribly familiar, but lacks a certain over-imaginative edge to it. Then the trickster realizes where he is, and realization floods his mind. Thor is holding his hand out to help Loki up. Loki smiles and grabs Thor's hand, allowing his brother to pull him to his feet.

Seeing Loki's smile gives Thor some hope of his brother remembering all that had occurred, so he risks asking. "Do you remember what happened?"

"Of course I do. I told you I wouldn't forget so easily. Why do you assume I was lying?" The trickster laughs and brushes some of the dust from his clothes. Thor claps his brother on the back, overjoyed that all has not been forgotten.

"It is good to have you back, brother."

The silvertongue casts his words aside and allows his actions to speak for him. Loki hugs his brother. For an instant, Thor only stands there awkwardly, surprised by his little brother. Then he returns his brother's embrace. Maybe now things could be as they should have always been all along.

Loki stays in the room he was given in his time as an innocent child. They don't make him return to his old cell. A message came from Fury stating that Loki's punishment was sufficient to pay for his crimes, and he was officially pardoned. As far as SHIELD is concerned, Loki is as free as any of the other people presently staying in Stark Tower. Some of the Avengers trust him, and some don't. He is okay with that. He knows he still doesn't deserve their trust, but Loki is confident he will win them over in time.

However, Loki's status with Asgard is not so good. There's been no word from Asgard since Thor showed up to fight Loki before the Battle of New York. Until now that is.

Tony got a call from Fury saying he would be having a friend dropped off at the Tower some time that day. So, here he stands on the roof of Stark Tower along with Bruce, Natasha, and (against his better judgment) Loki. The four of them sit up there for almost an hour before the helicopter flies into sight.

As it lands, Tony and Bruce stand to greet whoever this new 'friend' is. Natasha stays off to the side, ready to spring into action should their guest prove unfriendly. Loki stays in the shadows near the entrance to the building, preferring the slight cool of the shade over the blazing sun of this too hot day. The helicopter lands, and their 'friend' jumps out. Wasting no time, the pilot lifts the aircraft into the sky again and is gone, leaving the new arrival in the care of the Avengers.

The woman walks up to Tony and Bruce, without a trace of fear or nervousness in her. Her long black hair whips around her in the wind from the departing helicopter. The look in her eyes is full of spirit with a touch of impatience. She wears clothes that certainly wouldn't blend in anywhere around here, although there is a strange familiarity about them.

"Welcome to Stark Tower. I am Tony Stark." The billionaire smiles proudly and holds his hand out to the woman. "And you are?"

She takes his hand in a brief awkward handshake. "I am the Lady Sif of Asgard. I have been sent by Odin to find and if necessary aid Thor. I was told I could find him here. Is that so?"

"Err... yeah. Old Point Break should be around here somewhere." Tony looks back at the door to go inside and then back at Sif, quickly recovering from her less than friendly straightforward attitude towards him. "Doctor Banner," Tony smiles and holds his hands out to present Bruce to the impatient Asgardian woman. "Why don't you help the lady find our less troublesome Asgardian friend?" Sif looks at him quizzically, slightly confused by who this other friend could be. Banner looks at Tony with irritation, but a smile quickly spreads across his face when he faces Sif so that he still appears friendly to her at least.

"If you'll follow me-" But Sif's not even paying attention to him or Tony any more. Something else has clearly caught her eye.

Sif stares past Bruce, and her expression turns from simple impatience to a striking look of hatred. Stark and Banner slowly turn around to see what could have possible inspired such a look, although the answer already rings clear in their minds.

"Loki..."

"Well, don't you look happy to see me? Loki laughs and smiles at her but stays leaning against the wall where he is.

"Traitor, I'll make you pay for all you've done."

"Ah, but haven't you heard?" Loki pushes himself off of the wall, smiling brightly at the vengeful goddess. He spreads his hands in front of him in a gesture of innocence. "I've been pardoned. My debts have all been payed."

"What trickery is this?" Sif draws her sword and takes a threatening step towards Loki. Bruce steps out of her way to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.

"No tricks. No lies. No swords, please." Tony interrupts before things can escalate further. "As much as I would love to watch you turn him into a pin cushion with that sword of yours, really I would, let's avoid breaking things, namely my things. I'd rather not have to make repairs a third time because of you." Tony looks at Loki, who hasn't moved from his place near the wall.

The god of mischief only shrugs in response. He hasn't made the slightest move which could imply violence on his part. The aggression is all on Sif. "You would do well to stay out of my way." The Asgardian warrior runs forward past Tony with her sword raised, ready to strike at Loki.

"Here we go again." Tony throws his hands in the air in exasperation.

Natasha pulls out a gun and fires at the ground at Sif's feet to try to make hers top, but the angry Asgardian rushes on, undaunted. She yells for her to stop, but when Sif ignores her still, Natasha aims to wound Sif more seriously. The woman avoids the bullets with ease and doesn't even slow in her charge across the rooftop.

Once Sif has closed half the distance between them without being stopped, Loki decides it's time for him to run. Fighting her would be most unwise given the circumstances so his only option is to rely on the others to stop her while he tries to get away. The trickster takes off running through the doorway and down the stairs leading into Stark Tower. He takes the steps three at a time, trying to put as much distance between him and Sif as possible. Loki can still hear Sif close behind him, too close!

Loki jumps over the rail of the stairs and drops to the landing below just as the stairwell echoes with the deafening sound of metal striking metal. He looks up to see Sif's sword sunk into the railing right where he would have been had he not vaulted over the rail just when he had.

Sif swings herself over the railing as well to continue her chase after the man she believes to be nothing more than an evil, murderous traitor. Loki tries to reason with her, but hurried words called back to her as he races down a series of hallways prove quite ineffective. If any of the Avengers were following, then they had fallen far behind. Loki and Sif seem to be all alone as they run down the hallway. But Sif is faster than Loki, and it's not much longer before she catches up to him.

The trickster hasn't looked back at her for a while, so he has no way of knowing how much ground Sif has gained on him. Taking advantage of this, she swings her sword at him, aiming for his shoulder. But Loki looks over his shoulder as she is in mid-swing. His eyes open wide with fear, and Loki dives to the floor to avoid the deadly blade. Instead of cutting into the trickster's shoulder, Sif's sword only grazes his arm. A small trail of blood is left behind as he rolls on the floor. Not giving her a chance to hit him again, Loki quickly pushes himself back to his feet. As he runs, he uses his other hand to cover the cut on his injured arm. The blood seeps from between his fingers.

Loki stumbles through a door on his left, tripping as he does so. He struggles to keep his balance as he hurries into the living room, and to his great relief, he sees he's not alone in here. Or rather he's not alone with Sif in here. Steve and Thor are standing in the middle of the room talking , or they were talking until Loki came running in with blood running down his arm and an angry woman with a sword behind him.

"Thor!" Loki shouts, running to his brother. "Call her off!" He slips behind Thor, so his brother is between him and the warrior trying to hill him. "She'll listen to you!"

"Sif? What are you doing here?" Thor is shocked to see the goddess here on Earth again, and not to mention attempting to kill his little brother, but that part really isn't too much of a surprise... "Stop this! What is going on?"

"Thor, what madness is this that you would defend him so?" Sif looks from Thor to Loki and back again, not daring to take her eyes off her prey for too long.

"There is no madness in this, Sif. Much has changed since I left Asgard. Has Heimdall not been telling what he has surely seen happening here?"

"He has only spoken to Odin as of late. The rest of us have had no news of what goes on here for nearly a year now."

Thor glances back at Loki, who still looks somewhat nervous. He turns back to Sif and her murderous gaze. "I have much to tell you. So, please, put your sword away and let me explain." The warrior woman frowns but lowers her sword. "Brother, perhaps it would be best if you were to go elsewhere while we speak."

"Don't have to tell me that twice." Loki hurries past Sif, still wary of the sword in her hand. And he vanishes out the door, leaving Thor to tell Sif of all that had occurred after the Battle of New York.

"Well, Loki, it seems you've had quite an eventful year." Sif found Thor's story hard to believe, but coming from him, she had no choice but to believe it. But beyond that she didn't know if she felt disturbed by the take, felt pity for Loki, or just wanted to laugh at the impossibility of it all.

"You think so?" Loki gives her a half smile, not really interested in what she thought of what had happened to him. He looks back down at his arm and finishes the spell he's using to heal the cut from Sif's attack earlier.

"We're going back to Asgard." Thor had decided that after talking to Sif; he didn't expect Loki to like the idea.

"Really?" Loki looks surprised, but not as concerned as Thor expected, not yet anyway. "Well, you enjoy yourselves. It's been great seeing you again." He stands up and tries to walk out of the room. "I think I'll just-"

Thor catches his newly healed arm and stops him from going any father. "You're coming with us, brother. We have to return sometime. Why wait any longer?"

"Is this really necessary?"

"Yes." Before Loki can argue any more, Thor releases his arm to let him go. "We'll be leaving in an hour. Say your goodbyes if you wish." Loki's heart sank. There isn't really anything he can do but go along with this, no matter how much he doesn't like it.

The stars rush by in a familiar way. The only difference in this and traveling over the Bifrost is that the tesseract lacks the vivid rainbow colors. It mostly consists of shades of blue and white.

And then it's gone.

Loki, Thor, and Sif stumble as they suddenly find themselves standing on a random street in Asgard.

Asgard. It feels like it's been an eternity since Loki last set foot in the shining city. His departure wasn't exactly a happy memory, and his return wouldn't likely be much better. It's enough of a miracle that he's not in chains already. Sif insists that while Earth may have forgiven Loki, Asgard had not. She wanted him bound before they even left Stark Tower, but Thor wouldn't hear of it. Even though Sif knows the truth now, she still doesn't know how she should feel about the god of mischief. But she knows she doesn't trust him. And neither will any other Asgardian. They don't know of anything that has happened since Loki attacked Earth and Thor had gone to stop him. They all still view Loki as their enemy.

"Welcome home, brother." Thor pushes Loki playfully, glad to be home. Loki even manages to crack a smile as the three of them walk along the empty street. For the moment at least, it isn't so bad being back in Asgard.

Loki stands before Odin, his face an emotionless mask. He's afraid, but he'd sooner die than let anyone here know that. He takes some comfort in having his brother next to him as he faces the Allfather. At least he doesn't have to be alone. He's imagined this moment many times, but he always thought he would be alone. Loki doesn't know what to expect of this now, but it already seems better than anything he has dared hope for thus far.

The room is crowded with gods and goddesses eager to see a traitor brought to justice. They all know there is something strange about all of this, starting with the way Loki is allowed to walk freely. There are rumors of a greater enemy behind all of this; one who had been controlling the younger prince of Asgard from the start. But did they dare believe that the god of mischief wasn't responsible for his own mischief? Or does his position among the gods just make him an easy target for such manipulation? Such are the hundreds of whispers circulating throughout the room, many reaching Loki's ears as well. Some of it is true, some is lies, much is exaggeration. Let them think what they want. In the end, they will think whatever Odin wants them to think.

Odin himself is also expressionless. He looks down at his sons from where he sits on his throne, his one eye never leaving Loki's calm face. Even Odin cannot see past the carefully placed mask hiding Loki's thoughts.

"Loki, my son, what have you to say for yourself?" Odin's voice is void of all emotion.

"What would you have me say, father?" Loki spits the last word out like poison on his tongue. He still holds no love for the Allfather. For a moment, the trickster's mask slips to reveal an anger burning within him. Thor hits his brother's shoulder, reminding him that he should be more cautious with his words. Loki makes an irritated sound and shrugs off Thor's blow along with his anger. His mask once again hiding everything. Loki holds his hands out in front of him, and a smile found its way onto the trickster's face. "We all know what I've done. No amount of clever words will change that. Some of you know why I really did it, and some of you can only imagine. The only real question here is: what do you intend to do about it?"

"Loki, much has happened that has only recently been brought to my attention. In light of this new, I am forced to reconsider the guilt previously dubbed upon you. Heimdall has kept a close watch on you this past year. The appearance of this Thanos, the true leader of the Chitauri and the one behind your attack on Midgard, has persuaded me to agree with the Midgardians. You have payed sufficient penance for the part you played there. However, your crimes here in Asgard are another matter." Odin pauses here, and the room is blanketed in a deafening silence.

And here's what I've been waiting for. The great Allfather will pass his judgement on me, and I will be punished. Asgard will have it's so called justice. So... What will Odin decide to have done to me as my punishment for trying to prove I am worthy of being his son? I certainly can't wait to hear this.

"For your crimes against Asgard and Jotunheim... I take full responsibility." Odin's voice holds a tinge of regret, and he actually looks sad as he says this. The room is suddenly filled with shocked, and some outraged, voices.

...What?

I already had the perfect outburst in mind that would haunt them all for years to come. When Odin pronounced my guilt, I would reveal all the carefully hidden secrets about how I came to be his 'son' and how the truth had been kept from me for all these years as well. What would Asgard think of their perfect Allfather kidnapping a defenseless Jotun child? And only to have him treated like an outcast later? Would they all still have it in their hearts to bear such hatred for me? ...Of course they would They'd see it all as lies, me putting my craft to work in an attempt to save myself, but they would have remembered it nonetheless. I'd be sure of that, Loki Laufeyson would not be so easily forgotten.

But this? For this I have no words... I never thought I would hear those words pass from Odin's lips. Can he be serious?

"W-what?"

"The blame is mine. I should not have taken you from Jotunheim as a child. Maybe you would have been better off had I left you there. I suppose we'll never know. And furthermore, I should have told you, when you were old enough to understand. I have wronged you, and for that I am sorry."

He's sorry? He's sorry?! After all I've gone through, he's saying he's sorry?! All I can do is stare up at Odin dumbly. I never saw this coming, and I have no idea how to react to it...I feel...Angry? Pleased? Disappointed? All of the above?

Could Odin really feel bad for all the trouble that has befallen me because of him? Bad enough to actually take the blame for what I've done? How ironic he blames himself just as I blame him. But could that possibly mean...he really cares? Does he truly feel responsible for me? As his son?

"However, while your actions just after you learned the truth are my own fault, if such actions are to be repeated, I can not protect you again or allow you to freely cause trouble in Asgard, or Midgard, as you please."

Oh, so I'm to be locked away after all? And just when I dared to hope...Ha!

"So, Loki, can you accept my apology? Can you look beyond my errors and go on with your life? If you can answer me honestly that you can see past your hatred and mean no further harm, then I welcome you home, my son. If you are unable to bury your grudge, then I'm afraid you leave me with no choice, but to-"

"Don't threaten me. It makes no difference. After all I've been through, there is no threat you can make that would persuade me to take your offer." Everyone in the room is deathly silent as I speak. I have their complete attention. At my words, Odin seems saddened and looks down for a moment. Thor is looking at me as if I've just struck him. Is this really so surprising to them? "So it's a good thing I don't need persuading." I smile, pleased with the reactions I get. Everyone is whispering amongst themselves. Odin looks completely caught off guard. He probably never expected me to agree in the first place. Thor looks happy. He's certainly smiling big enough; he must be happy. Some people in the room appear happy too, but many look concerned. I can't say I blame them. But I'll show them I can be trusted.

Thor grabs my shoulders, and I stumble towards him as he pulls me into a hug. I gasp as he crushes the air out of me. But I recover quickly and laugh as I return the hug. After all these years of drifting apart and fighting, and after all of the awful things that have happened, it seems things are finally the way they should be. Thor and I are back to the way we were as children, when we didn't care about all the things that would complicate our lives; we were inseparable. It's nice to have that back.

I don't think I'll ever think of Odin as my father again. But that's probably for the better. Knowing the truth and having come to terms with it by now has taken away the unbearable need I felt to prove myself to him. I expect I'll be able to get along with him well enough to not cause any major trouble though. This could work.

No one trusts me, but that's alright. I expected it. Some are openly violent towards me, not wanting me to be back in Asgard. But I expected that too. What surprises me is that some of them actually fully accept my return. A few have welcomed me home as if nothing ever happened.

But something still just doesn't feel right about my being here.

After being in Asgard nearly a month, I've settled into life here again. Much of the open hostility towards me has dissipated, although I'm still not very well liked or trusted. But things are getting better, slowly but surely.

So why do I still fee like I shouldn't be here?

It just doesn't feel right. I'm not ready to be back yet. Everyone needs more time to let things fade into the past it seems. Maybe I'll fit in better once the old wounds have more thoroughly scabbed over, but for now the memories of what happened are too fresh in everyone's minds. I actually felt more at home on Midgard. On Midgard, I had come to know the Avengers as my friends. But back here, Thor has friends, and I have Thor. Just as when we were children, his friends tolerate my presence, but they hardly speak to me if I am not with my brother. I suppose things are as good as I could have ever hoped for, but I can't honestly say I'm happy here.

Thor has talked of going back to Earth, but it is hard to tell if he shall ever actually do so. Without the Bifrost, it's not so simple as just deciding he wants to go. But he wants to find that woman he met during his banishment. He was never allowed to contact her when we were there before, but now things are quite different. With each passing day, his desire to go grows, and I have to wonder if he will in fact get his way with this. Thor will return to Midgard to find Jane Foster.

Thor finally spoke to Odin of his intention to leave Asgard again. The Allfather wasn't pleased with it, but Thor was persistent and eventually won him over. Thor would leave for Earth tomorrow.

And I would be left in Asgard without a single person I could call 'friend.' If my brother leaves me, I'll be alone here.

The morning of Thor's final day in Asgard, I don't bother to leave my room. It's no use trying to say goodbye; he'll be too swarmed with other people for that. I won't even have a chance at getting anywhere near him. I'm still a bit irritated with him for going anyway. And besides, I may as well get used to this now; I'll probably be spending a lot of my time alone like this from here on out.

I'm sitting in the window, reading a book I found in my room, when someone knocks on my door. I don't answer. I don't want anyone's company right now, and I can't imagine who could possibly be seeking mine.

The person at the door knocks again. Strange. Usually they just give up if I don't answer the first time. Then, despite my lack of response, the door is pushed open. No one's been this bold before, and I liked it better that way. What could this unwelcome visitor possibly want?

I don't even look up as my visitor walks into the room and closes the door behind him. I say nothing as he enters my peripheral vision, and I see that my brother has come to see me before he leaves. Why is he here? Surely there are better people for him to be spending his last day home with than his sulking little brother. Yet here he is, standing right next to me. I'd swear he's reading over my shoulder, but I know better than that. He's just trying to be patient with me. As soon as I turn the page, he decides I've had enough time to appreciate the peaceful silence.

"Why do you hide away in here so?"

"I'm not hiding. This is my room, and I happen to like it in here." I still haven't looked away from my book. I keep reading while I wait for him to get to his point.

But why do you stay here? Why do you not go out or see friends?"

"I have no friends I wish to see and no places I wish to go. I have everything i need right here."

"What has you in such a foul mood today, brother? Would my leaving wouldn't happen to have anything to do with it, would it?"

I roll my eyes and snap my book closed. "Don't be foolish." I stand up and push past Thor.

"Why don't you come with me, Loki? A little lighthearted adventure could do you some good."

I sigh and drop down on my bed. I stare blankly up at the ceiling. "I just got back. Why would I want to leave on another adventure?"

"Yes, but are you happy being back, brother?"

I don't answer.

"I have not seen you smile once since the day we returned. Is coming home not as satisfying as you imagined it would be?"

I still don't answer.

"Is-"

"No. It's not satisfying at all being back here. Not now. This doesn't feel like the home I left."

"Did you really expect it to?"

"Yes."

"Loki..."

"I know, Thor. Things will never go back to the way they were. I know that. But I had hoped. Guess I'll never really have my home back."

"You seemed rather at home on Earth, in Stark Tower."

I sigh and close my eyes. Why does he have to bring this up now? The last conversation I'll have with my brother for who knows how long, and all he wants to do is lecture me about how unhappy I am. He really thinks that is going to help? "At home? I was a prisoner."

"Yes, they locked you in a cell for a time, but you do the same to yourself here. Loki, you are your own prisoner now."

"Say what you will. I have no desire to follow you on a search for some woman." Without bothering to sit up, I open my book and hold it up above my face, returning to my reading and no longer listening to anything my brother may have to say.

Thor sighs and walks to the door. "Suit yourself." He opens the door and steps out into the hallway. He hesitates before pulling the door closed behind him. "Goodbye, brother." And he's gone. I'm alone.

I tip my book down so it rests on my face, and I stare up at the dark too close words. What am I doing? Is there really any reason for me to stay here? Nobody wants me here. I'm not even sure I want me here any more. But I finally have the right to be here again. I'm finally allowed home; how can I just give that up so easily? I wanted this for so long... I can't leave now.

Can I?

I sigh and lift my book up from my face. Better to just go back to reading and put this nonsense out of my mind. After all, it is just nonsense...right?

Just in case there's another accident with the tesseract, not very many people are allowed to actually be present when Thor is sent back to Earth. Obviously Thor is here; this may prove a bit difficult without him. Odin is operating the tesseract, and unlike the humans back on Midgard, he needs no machinery to help him. The Allfather simply holds the cube in his hands while he waits for Thor to be ready to go. Frigga is here to bid her son farewell with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. She hates to see him go, but if it's what he wants she'll be as supportive as she can be. She's always been that way with Thor, and there was a time when she gave me the same treatment. Sif, Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg are here to see their friend off as well. And then there's me. I stand off to the side by myself, staying out of everyone's way. I'm here more out of obligation than a wish to say another goodbye to my brother. I don't want another conversation like when Thor came to say goodbye to me earlier.

But I also felt strangely compelled to be here. I can't understand why. I suppose a part of me really does want to leave with Thor, but I've already made up my mind to remain here in Asgard. But as I watch Thor walk out into the middle of the room so Odin can send him to Earth, I feel drawn to his side so that I too may return.

I'm being foolish. I should be in Asgard. This is my home. I don't belong in Midgard.

But do I truly belong in Asgard either?

If not...then where do I belong?

Is there anywhere for me now?

I shake my head to clear such thoughts from my mind. That line of thinking would lead nowhere pleasant. Besides, I've already made up my mind to stay here. Why do I have to keep reminding myself that?

Thor waves at me since I'm the only one in the room he didn't actually speak to. So, he knew that was a bad idea too? I'm surprised. I nod to acknowledge his goodbye.

The room is filled with an eerie blue light as the tesseract gathers power. Then a burst of pure white shoots from the tessersct to consume Thor. Mere seconds later, the room returns to being rather dimly lit, and the seven of us are left staring at an empty space in the center of the room. There is no sign that Thor was over there only a moment before.

No one speaks as they begin to file out of the room. I stay rooted where I stand though. I simply stare at the place where Thor had been, and where part of me says I should have been too. Should I have gone with him? Should I have gone back to Midgard?

It's too late now either way. Thor's already gone, and I've missed my only chance to return.

I should leave. I'm fairly certain everyone else already has. I'm alone. I should go back to my room, maybe find another book. Just resign myself to the long solitude that lies ahead for me. Thor was right...I really am my own prisoner here.

I'm pulled out of my thoughts when someone puts their hand on my shoulder. I look over to see Odin standing next to me, looking mildly concerned. "Loki, no one is forcing you to stay here. If it is your wish to leave, you are free to do so." I have nothing to say to him. I still have my mind made up to stay. And Odin, of all people, is not going to change that... Is he? "I know things haven't been easy for you since you returned home, and I wouldn't blame you for wanting to go. Maybe this just isn't the time for you to be here. I hope some day things will be different."

I look down at the tesseract in Odin's hand. He's really giving me a chance to go... My resolve to stay in Asgard all but shattered with Thor's departure. But when I thought it was too late to go, that didn't really mean much. Now that I have another chance to go though? What do I do?

...Should I go?

"Loki?"

I nod slowly. What do I have to lose? I'm miserable here. Midgard can't possibly be worse... And at least on Earth I'll be with my brother, maybe even the Avengers. I admit, I was happier with then before I came here. For once, I'd had friends of my own. It's time I get out of here. Asgard may have been my home at one time, but not anymore. I don't know that I'll find my home on Earth either, but it's worth a shot.

I walk out to the middle of the room. Blue light once again fills the room as Odin lifts the tesseract to aim it at me. I can't believe I'm doing this... And to think Odin's the one who finally convinced me... "Thank you."

"Be safe, my son."

The white beam bursts from the tesseract, and I can see nothing but the bright light. I feel like I'm falling. Swirls of varying shades of blue surround me. And then everything goes dark.

I hit the ground with enough force to knock me off my feet. I roll down the side of a grassy hill. When I finally stop at the bottom of the hill, I'm lying on my back in the dirt, staring up at an endless expanse of stars. That was a bit of a rough landing... I wonder if it was this bad for Thor too.

And speaking of my brother... Where is he? I know I don't have a very good vantage point like this, but as far as I can tell I'm alone out here.

"Over there! I told you I saw something else!" A woman is calling out to someone back at the top of the hill I just fell down. I look in that direction as I pick myself up off the ground and begin brushing the dirt from my clothes. There are now three figures standing at the top of the hill, looking down at me. Even in the dark, I can recognize one of them as my brother.

"Loki!" Thor shouts and runs down to me. "You decided to come after all!"

I laugh as he gets near, and I see he's just as dirt covered as I am. Guess he didn't have the best of landings either. "I couldn't let you have all the fun, now could I?"

The other two shadows make their way down the hill to join us. "Loki, I'd like you to meet Jane Foster." He puts his arm around one of the two women who are now standing with us and smiles. So, this is the woman who changed Thor so much during his banishment.

"It's nice to finally meet you." But I'm confused by how she is already with Thor. I didn't leave that much later than he did... "Your search seems to have been quite short."

"Jane is a scientist. She's found a way to detect when such a connection between the realms is made. She found me this time, just like she did before."

Before I even have a chance to respond, the other woman interrupts. "Hold on a second." This woman is the one who had been shouting from the top of the hill earlier. "Am I missing something here? When you left, it was to go fight your evil brother Loki. Which now you're telling us, is him?!" She points at me, and I can't tell if she's angry or just confused.

Thor looks over at her, struggling to hide away smile. Apparently I'm not the only one who finds her reaction amusing. "Much has happened since then. I shall tell you both all about it later, but know now that my brother is not evil. You can trust him." Thor looks back at me and smiles. Smile after smile, he is clearly glad to be back here. "Loki, this is Darcy. She is a friend and studies science like Jane."

"Political science." Darcy seems a tad defensive now. "There's a difference."

"I'm sure there is." She looks up at me, and I can tell she is trying to figure out my thoughts as I speak to her. "How is it you ended up with this work then?"

"It's... a long story."

"You'll have to tell it to me some time."

She seems surprised at first, but then her face brightens, and she looks somewhat excited. "Alright." I smile at her, and she looks away as if I've embarrassed her or perhaps made her nervous. Jane is laughing now, but when I give her a questioning look she only turns away and starts walking back up the hill.

"We should be getting back to town. It's late." As soon as she speaks, Thor follows after her. Darcy hurries after them, still avoiding looking at me. I follow the three of them up the hill towards Jane's car.

Darcy randomly giggles as we walk through the grass. "Jane! This isn't right! You haven't hit Thor with a car yet!" Jane and Thor laugh, and I can't help but to wonder what I'm missing. "And I haven't gotten to taser anybody yet!" Darcy's hand goes to her pocket, and she looks back at me. I stop walking, unsure of what she's talking about, but pretty sure I don't like the sound of it.

Jane calls back at us between her own fits of laughter. "Leave him alone, Darcy! I don't want to have to make a trip to the hospital this time."

Darcy gives Jane a look of mock disappointment before turning back to face me. She points at me, laughing again now. "You're lucky."

"Don't mind her! She's harmless, mostly." Jane climbs into the driver's seat of her car, and Thor claims the passenger seat, leaving me and Darcy to share the backseat.

As we drive to the nearby town, the three of them talk and laugh the entire way. I stay quiet, lost in my own thoughts. These two women believed me to be evil until Thor told them differently only minutes ago. And then they instantly welcomed me. As far as I can tell, they hold no suspicion or distrust towards me. Their faith in Thor must be remarkable, but that does not concern me. I'm the much more interested in the way they automatically completely accepted me. Why? They don't know me, yet they treat me as of I'm their friend. As strange as this is to me, I can't help but to like it. I've been on Midgard for less than ten minutes, and it already seems that things are better for me than they were in Asgard.

I'm glad I followed Thor. And I don't expect I'll regret this decision. Here, I'm not going to have to wait and hope for life to start getting better eventually. Here, it is better already. As Thor will no doubt point out to me later, I've smiled more in five minutes on Earth, than I did during my entire stay in Asgard.

Apparently while I wasn't paying attention during the drive to where we would be staying tonight, it was decided that we would be heading up to New York to visit the Avengers. A trip that I actually look forward to. Of course, Jane and Darcy will be coming with us, which is great. I especially look forward to spending some time with Darcy. She seems to be an... interesting girl.

Now I have my brother, some old friends, and a couple of new friends. Everything is falling into place. Maybe I've found somewhere I can call home after all. As long as I'm with these people, these friends, I believe I've quite possibly found where I belong.