New York City, NY, USA, Midgard

As the doors of the elevator closed, Silver's breathing sped up and she could hear her own heartbeat. The walls were made out of glass, so she was able to watch the different floors. The reconstructed Stark Tower already looked amazing from the outside, but from the inside it was utterly fascinating. Silver had been in quite some skyscrapers, but this one definitely took the cake of. She didn't have much time to admire the building though, because suddenly the elevator came to a halt and its doors opened, revealing an office and a young blond man wearing a black suit. He smiled at her.
"Miss Rakastava, it's great to finally meet you. My name is William Stancy. I will show you around on your first day."

Silver calmed down at his friendly tone.
"That's very kind of you, Mr. Stancy."

To her surprise he motioned her to walk down the stairs with him instead of using the elevator.
"I'll introduce you to your superior, Miss Romanoff."

The sight of the woman felt like a blow in Silver's stomach: She was beautiful with her slender but not too thin figure and her red curls. At least she seemed to be likeable as she walked to Silver with a wide and honest smile on her lips:
"You must be Silver Rakastava, I guess. Welcome at Stark Industries."

She held out her hand and Silver took it with an insecure smile that didn't slip the woman's attention.
"Please call me Natasha, I'm not too fond with all the politeness at work, it's hard to make friends that way."

Silver couldn't help but like her. Natasha seemed to be very down to earth despite her high position in the company.
"I'm a bit curious who are going to be my colleagues."

"You already met the first one."
Natasha's gaze turned to Stancy, then returned to Silver.
"He is quite new here, too, but there'll be two others who –"
Natasha was interrupted by a loud rumble from outside. Suddenly the office went quiet as everybody turned to look out of the window. The sky was dark with clouds, just one tiny point between two neighbored skyscrapers glowed in a bright blue.

William Stancy was the one to ask the question.
"What on earth is that?"

"I don't think that it is something out of this world, William" replied Natasha quite calmly, her eyes focusing on that spot.

Silver noticed that the point had turned into a line that looked like a crack and was still growing. Both she and William jumped at the unexpected noise of a pager at Natasha's belt.

Natasha took it.
"I'm on my way, Nick."
Then she spun around and hurried up the stairs until she arrived at the rooftop of the Stark Tower.

Silver looked at William in confusion.
"What is she doing?"

"I have no idea."

But both their attentions were caught by a nearing helicopter which came to a halt over the Stark Tower. Silver began to chase after Natasha shouting back to William.
"I have to know what's going on!"

When she entered the rooftop she saw a young man dressed in black who stood on top of one skid of the helicopter, a bow in one hand while he pulled Natasha up with the other. The helicopter flew closer to the rift and the stranger bent his bow to aim at it obviously waiting for someone. The blue began to glow nearly white and expanded to a big hole, then a creature entered landing on the Stark Tower, right in front of Silver. It had an upright figure quite similar to a very muscular human, but his skin had a mix of grey and purple, his face covered in ugly scars, his eyeballs a scary red and his iris the same glowing blue as the rift. He wore a golden armor that only covered the most important places of his body.

Closing his eyes he took a deep breath.
"Finally, I have entered Midgard."
He opened his eyes again, grinning wickedly at her.
"You have the honor to be my first victim, human."

Silver was paralyzed in shock as he formed a small ball of energy in his hand and shot it at her. But before it reached her, another ball of energy coming from behind her collided with it. Confused she turned around to look at Iron Man landing beside her.
"Sorry to interrupt, but who the hell are you?"

The creature smirked.
"I am Thanos, a titan born on the Saturn's moon of the same name. I remember you. You were the one to close the rift last time I tried to take over this realm."

"Nice to know I have a fan in outer space. You can call me Iron Man, by the –"
He was cut off by another ball of energy who hit him with inhuman speed. The metal on Tony's chest was dented but otherwise he wasn't hurt.

Thanos' grin had gone wider.
"How ironic that you were the one to prevent my plans last time and now you will be my first victim instead of that girl."

A female voice entered the conversation.
"I don't think so."

An arrow hit Thanos bouncing off his skin, but exploding just a second later. Silver just got a glimpse of Natasha and the archer turning around and jumping into the helicopter which immediately flew off into the distance. Then she felt someone wrapping his arms around her and before she was able to protest, the ground under her feet was gone and she instinctively held onto Iron Man as he followed the helicopter.

Thanos who didn't get more damage than a few light scratches from the explosion made no attempt of following them. Why should he, everything had gone according to plan…

Asgard

Despite his words Thor wasn't able to shake the worry about his brother off his mind. He was very unfocused during training which didn't slip his friends' attention.

"If you were this distracted in a real battle, you would be defeated by now" said Hogun, his face unreadable as always.
Thor didn't know what to respond since Hogun was right.

Fandral put his sword down and laid a hand on Thor's shoulder.
"Instead of fighting you should get rid of what concerns you. Or should I say who concerns you?"

Thor winced.
"You would not be that eager for me to deal with that person if you knew who he was."

Sif joined the Warrior's Three who had planted themselves in front of him.
"So we are talking about Loki, right?"

"Sometimes it scares me how well you know me."

Volstagg shot him one of his famous wide smiles.
"We are your friends after all."

"What is bothering you? He is locked up in a cell and he is cut off his magic. He cannot do any damage" said Sif, trying to calm him down.

Thor shook his head.
"It is not that. I… I think he is sick."

There was silence. Everybody seemed to wait for the joke. Fandral was the first to break it.
"First of all Loki is a god, he cannot be sick, it is just not possible! "
Thor opened his mouth to interrupt him, but Fandral continued.
"And secondly he is the God of Mischief. It could just be a trick."

"He is not able to perform his tricks since he cannot access his magic as you know already."

Volstagg was the one to respond.
"Did you tell the Allfather about this? He is far wiser than all of us put together!"

"He already saw it with his own eyes, it was his idea Loki was ill. But he does not care."

Volstagg chuckled with a warm grin.
"I can hardly believe that. You and your brother are quite precious to him. Especially you, Thor. Do not forget, there is always purpose in what the Allfather does. If he did not help Loki, then he has a reason for that."

Thor knew he was right, but still felt frustration.
"But it is my brother's health we are talking about! I was convinced that was one of the few things my father would not take lightly!"

Once again Fandral joined the conversation.
"Then perhaps he wants YOU to do something about it."

Thor took his words into consideration.
"But what can I do?"

Now it was Fandral's turn to grin.
"Why do you not try to find out?"

Not for the first time Thor felt pride rising inside his chest for having such loyal friends. He laid his hand on Fandral's shoulder and squeezed it.
"Thank you. It is what I should have done in the first place."
He left them ignoring Sif who was shouting warnings after him.

Ten minutes later he arrived at the isolated cell he had just visited yesterday. Loki still looked the same and Thor didn't know whether to take it as a good or a bad sign.

Loki's eyes were shut, but he had heard him.
"I did not expect to see you that soon again."

Thor swallowed knowing what he was about to do, was a high risk.
"I want to help you."
Loki didn't react at all and Thor could understand him. He stepped so close that his breath was fogging the glass between them.
"Please tell me what to do! Let me help you!"

Finally Loki opened his eyes and stood up using the wall as support. Thor hadn't noticed how close to the glass Loki had been sitting and was now caught off-guard by the proximity. The glass and a few centimeters was the only thing dividing them and Thor was so hooked by his brother's mysterious green eyes that he nearly missed his words.
"I need my magic back."

Thor had feared this answer.
"You know I cannot do that."

"And why is that?"

"You cannot be trusted."

Loki's hand touched the glass and Thor felt the disturbing urge to smash the glass and entwine their fingers.
"I hear your friends speaking. You on the other hand fought with your father and the eldest to spare my life. So there must be some part in you that thinks I am worthy of your trust."

Thor was taken aback by the truth in his words.
"What are you going to do if I free you?"

Loki blinked to suppress a wave of pain that made him tremble again.
"I am going to pay Midgard a visit."

Thor's heart began to beat faster in memory of what had happened the last time.
"Why?"

Loki seemed to have read his thoughts, because he rolled his eyes.
"Calm down, I will not try to take it over again! But I think my sickness might have something to do with some unfinished business down there."

"I want you to recover, but I am not going to help you escape!"

"Then let me die in here!" screamed Loki, his mask suddenly gone and with hurt visible in his eyes.
Thor looked at him in silence, confused why Loki was overreacting. Loki closed his eyes and Thor expected them to become a solid shield again. But to his surprise they still looked vulnerable after he had opened them again.
"Thor, if you cannot turn your back on father like that, fine. I will not judge you. But I need to do this, not just for my own sake!"

Thor chuckled humorlessly.
"You always do things for your own sake."

Loki's face hardened.
"Is that what you think of me?"

"What am I supposed to think?! You took over Asgard and tried to destroy Jotunheim!"

"You lead us in there and caused a war! I was just trying to right our mistake."

Thor didn't want to give up that easily.
"And why did you try to take over Midgard?"

Loki took his time with an answer.
"That is what I want to find out."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Look, I know this sounds like a cheap excuse, but I think somebody messed with my head. I wanted to destroy, hurt, kill, inflict pain on others and that is how I acted. I am far away from being innocent, I feel hatred, I feel rage and I feel the thirst for vengeance, but…"

Thor completed his sentence.
"…but you are not evil. I know, you are my brother after all."

Loki didn't have to answer. They looked at each other for some more moments and then Thor turned around and left to think about this.