DISCLAIMER: I do not own the characters mentioned in the story unless I specify exactly which ones I have created myself. The setting and characters belong to Marvel.

Tony was running away. From what fate exactly, he wasn't entirely sure, but he knew if they caught him, he would find out soon enough.

It had only happened a week ago, the event that had changed everything he knew for the worse. A 'god' by the name of Loki had declared war on their planet, and at the time, his team, the Avengers, had thought 'What the hell could this one guy do against the five of us?"

Well, apparently a lot of damage it seemed. After getting his brother to infiltrate the team as a friend, the team was eventually scattered and the fate of the planet was left in the hands of Loki, who had succeeded his brother in claiming the throne of Asgard or something after their father had died.

One by one, the people of Asgard started to make themselves at home on Earth, driving humans from their own homes and capturing them as prisoners for later use. Those who actually thought about their self-preservation actually offered themselves up to the new inhabitants and were greatly rewarded by being given the job of tracking down other humans. Fun.

Tony himself had been on the run since, his suit destroyed and his building taken from him by the godking himself. He only stayed in the same place for a short while before running off again, and, based on slightly unreliable information that he gained from others, Loki was still pursuing him after the other gave themselves up, presumably Loki had found something that he could bargain with.

The man knew quite well what Loki could use to bargain with him, but he didn't want the thought of her stop him from running; if Pepper was lucky, she had been killed in the initial battle.

His health was starting to catch up with him, and Tony easily realised that he couldn't escape for much longer; he had no food, no source of clean water, and nowhere to rest without being seen. The man sat down against a tree and waited nervously for someone to come find him.

It didn't take Loki too long to track down the wayward human who had escaped his grasp. While he could have easily teleported himself to the man's location and taken him back to his own Tower, he decided against that scenario mostly because he was a fan of showing off what he had achieved to the cocky man he had once thrown through a window.

Looking for Tony had been no easy task, even with a good 10 humans on his trail. He had already collected the rest of the Avengers (Natasha and Clint with the threat of killing the other, Steve with the threat of freezing him again and Bruce with the threat of harming Betty Ross), and he had found a way to sufficiently disable their abilities with simple microchips designed by some of the few humans who had decided that helping the Asgardians was the best way to escape death; they were mostly right.

Tony was woken by being pushed face first into the ground, an unpleasant awakening to say the least. His hands were, of course, handcuffed behind his back and he didn't make a move to fight or defend himself; no matter what, he was going to be taken to Loki, so the less he was injured, the better a chance he would have to run from the god. Tony blankly stared out of the window of the car as he was driven to his destination, his chest hurting slightly from the pitiful state both he and his former city were in. As he entered his, no, correction, Loki's Tower, he almost expected to hear JARVIS' voice to pipe up and welcome him back; it only made sense that Loki would remove something like JARVIS from the building in case someone hacked him.

The décor in the building had changed from its original silver and modern style to something more grandiose and gold, with hints of green; it definitely was not a good look for the building, but who was Tony to complain? The elevator ride to the very top floor seemed to go on for ages, and the claustrophobic feeling wasn't helping him too much either. As the elevator made a quiet dinging sound and opened, he felt all of the colour drain from his face as he saw Loki.

The man instinctively began to fight as he was brought closer and closer to the god until he was forced to kneel before Loki by the men holding him down. He tried to regulate his breathing as Loki stood and walked over to him, bending down slightly to lift Tony's chin up.

"I must say I'm slightly impressed that you were able to escape me for so long, but, I am king after all, so I guess I should have expected that I'd get what I want eventually. Now, as you may or may not know, I have found every one of your little friends, so do not try to delude yourself into thinking there is some way of escaping this Tower without me." And with that, Tony watched the god walk back to his throne and lazily sit down on it, flicking his hand towards the cage nearby; what Loki said next chilled Tony to the bone. "Take off his shirt and put him in there. It's probably best if he learns his place as a pet sooner rather than later."