Almost as soon as they were at a remotely safe distance, Loki started pitching such a fit to be let down that Thor nearly dropped him. Instead, he managed to set them down on another rooftop, a few miles away from their destination. Trying to let Loki stand on his own produced the same results as it had before the SHIELD team, forcing Thor to conclude that, yes, Loki's legs were well and truly paralyzed and he had only the barest use of his arms still. Except no, not truly paralyzed, there was a tremor running all throughout his body that scared Thor badly.

And when they touched down, Loki almost immediately went limp in his arms, gasping and struggling to breathe. It was only the sight of his brother's eyes, wide and scared, that told Thor Loki was still conscious at all.

Trying desperately not to panic, Thor sat them both down, bringing Loki to lean against his chest. His brother did not protest, which only made Thor worry more. Loki seemed too busy trying to move his arm.

When Thor realized Loki's goals, he took hold of his brother's hand, brought it to press against his chest. What he felt there nearly made his own heart stop, feeling how Loki's was racing desperately, hard enough that Thor felt it hammering against his brother's ribs.

"Was this…was this always your plan?" Loki asked in a faint, rasping voice.

"Don't try and speak," Thor insisted firmly. He thought he knew what problems and fears his brother might be facing, and also knew that when Loki was desperately struggling not to have a heart attack was not the time for an argument.

But he also knew that panic would do nothing to help Loki's situation. So Thor wrapped his arms around his little brother from behind, holding Loki to his chest. He had found in recent years that this was the best way to make Loki listen, even if he struggled or squirmed or, in this case, growled.

"I will not let them hurt you," Thor murmured softly, the words just between them. He kept one hand braced flat on Loki's chest, the hold firm, trying to give him something steady as he convulsed. "I will not let them keep you. If there were any other way to fix this, I would take it, but I do not know what they've done to you and any other hospital would not know how to treat you."

Not because of the poison. Because of what Loki was. Because of what they were.

The reassurance seemed to work. It seemed to work as Loki held on tightly to Thor's arm, shuddering and just trying to breathe through his convulsive fit until it slowly, much too slowly, began to subside, until his heart rate began to slow and the tremors in Loki's body became those of exhaustion rather than sickness.

"There is another way," Loki finally said. There was a pleading note in his voice that made Thor's chest hurt, a note that spoke of fear that Loki was too proud to express but too sick to entirely hide. "Take me home. The healers can see to this, they've seen to worse in the past."

The full reality of their situation settled over Thor once more as a weight heavy enough to bow his shoulders. He couldn't lie to Loki, however – his brother was already looking for reasons to mistrust him, and Thor did not intend to provide them. "I tried," he said. "When you were unconscious. Heimdall would not answer. We must settle matters on our own before we are allowed back. The danger we would invite from Earth in leaving this to lie is too much for Asgard to face, right now…especially after our troubles from the Void."

He felt Loki tense against him at the memory. A year ago, a creature had come to Asgard demanding that Loki be turned over to it and its master. It had called itself the Other, and even that name had been enough to drive Loki to desperate heights with terror. When Odin had refused, the Other had attempted to launch a surprise attack on Asgard, using the remnants of the Chitauri army. Asgard's might – with Loki's aid – had easily beaten back the invaders and closed down the hidden pathways they had used to gain entry.

"My troubles, you mean," Loki said quietly.

But in the months since, the Other, or maybe its mysterious master Thanos, had made its displeasure known with periodic raids on others of the Nine Realms. Thor has tried to keep knowledge of this fact from reaching Loki, knowing that his brother would take it personally and also knowing that this was not a problem that could be quickly resolved even if they had an entire year together to work on doing so. There was therefore, to Thor's mind, no point in letting Loki further torment himself, especially when they only had their own suspicions. The Other had been careful never to make its presence directly known, but the same reanimated dead things that had nearly killed them both on the roof, coupled with the feel of dark, cold, dead energy that even Thor was starting to learn how to look for, had left him with little doubt, his parents and friends in agreement.

If another attack came to their doors, of course Loki would be allowed out to fight. Otherwise, he was a prisoner, a laborer, not a prince, and so Asgard and Earth were the only worlds he had any reason to concern himself with.

Otherwise...Thor had seen the sort of lengths to which Loki would go, where these two dark beings were concerned. Had seen him nearly throw himself off a roof that night in an attempt to get at The Other, almost lose himself to a trap so transparent that Thor had seen it coming from the start. Until the situation was less volatile, more clear, until Loki was more stable, Thor wanted to do what he could to keep his brother from the fray. Loki still had healing to do, and Thor battles to focus on with a little less worry in mind.

He would not lose him agan.

Locked up in his cell deep within the bowels of the palace, hard at work in his forge, no news of the slowly brewing troubles in the outside world should have reached Loki at all, but it couldn't have been clearer that his brother was at least partially aware of the situation, and that it almost certainly led back to his former master. Thor supposed that it had been a futile endeavor from the start, however. Loki had always had a gift for finding things out that he shouldn't. Especially since the recent troubles were also the only reason they'd been able to come here this time without Loki's usual guard of Sif and the Warriors Three, and never had Thor regretted that fact more than now.

"Thanos' troubles," said Thor. "I am sure it offends your pride to hear this, Loki, but you are merely an excuse along the line towards his true goal." That, he knew, being a body count to end the Nine Realms.

Loki smiled thinly, but that was something. "Then perhaps this is Mother and Father's way of telling you to leave me. For the good of Asgard. You will be king, soon, and kings must make so very hard choices."

"It isn't," said Thor, more harshly than he'd intended. He paused, took a deep breath. As much as it hurt to think that Loki could still suspect their parents so, he knew that it wasn't done out of malice. It was done out of fear. This was just how Loki was, and Thor had resolved since learning this to just be there to talk him down when he got like this. "And even if it were…they would find themselves disappointed. I would rather be a good man than a great king. I would certainly rather be a good brother. I will not leave you until we can both return home, Loki, I swear it."

"Promises, promises."

"And I keep mine. But you have to trust me, brother, if we are to see this through without bloodshed."

Because it wasn't just his brother he was worried about protecting, or about losing. If, when, word got out to his other friends here on Earth that he had been bringing Loki back here, even in the hopes of helping him heal, Thor knew their trust in him would be damaged, perhaps irrevocably so, and he knew he would not even be able to truly blame them for it.

Because he knew, if it absolutely came down to it, which choice he would make. He just had to make sure it didn't come down to that. There had to be a way, there had to.

When he made to help Loki to his feet, Loki did not protest. Despite the rest, he only looked marginally better, which was to say he wasn't outright struggling to breathe, his heart wasn't racing like it was about to explode, and he was capable of at least maintaining a hold on Thor. "I thought you might have recovered by now," Thor ventured, hesitantly. For all that his little brother was, strictly speaking, physically underdeveloped, he'd marveled before at how much Loki had managed to survive over the centuries, survive and even bounce back from when far stronger warriors would have been laid low for months. Now, however, that didn't seem to be happening. Loki was enduring the poison, and that wasn't the same thing.

His brother, in turn, rolled his eyes. "Yes, it's amazing what magic can do to speed things along," he snapped, and Thor understood. His father trusted Loki far more than he once had, but some rules were unbendable. Loki would not ever be allowed out of his cells with his magic. It was just another part of his punishment, being forced to learn to depend on Thor. And it wasn't as though it left Loki completely powerless, because even Odin could not take away Loki's access to his other shape. But his magic could be sealed, and had been for this trip, as it had most every year before. Without it, it seemed, Loki was only slightly better than a human when it came to recovering.

At least they had the promise of an antivenom. It was a promise that had been made under duress, and Thor was well aware that he could not truly trust any of these humans to try and make Loki well. He was taking a lot on faith, they both were. The SHIELD team was as well, however, and so Thor could only hope that they could all manage to trust one another long enough to see this resolved.

It was with this hope, faint but bright in his chest, that Thor held on to Loki and took off from the roof once more, bearing due east and keeping an eye on the ground for a massive plane.

So, this was exciting.

Coulson had called ahead, of course, warning them that a couple of Asgardians would be stopping by the plane, and that one of them was extremely dangerous but also in need of medical attention for a dendrotoxin overdose. They were to give it to him as long as he behaved and shoot him dead if he didn't.

Sure enough, about twenty minutes later, someone landed outside the plane and went to work hammering on the door. External cameras revealed two figures, and Simmons realized that Coulson had neglected to mention one very important detail.

Namely, that one of their Asgardian visitors was Thor.

She didn't know who the dark haired man he was all but holding up was, but even from the other side of a camera she recognized a dendrotoxin overdose when she saw it. "He must be dangerous," she mentioned over her shoulder to Fitz, as she entered the commands to open the hanger doors. "May must have shot him with a full load for a reaction like that."

"Amazing he hasn't gone into cardiac arrest already," Fitz agreed with a nod. Then he sighed, before looking up to her with a wry smile. "Funny how Coulson's always finding ways to expand our job description, isn't it?"

"Oh, don't be like that. I mean, of course, he's dragging along a dangerous criminal, but at least he looks mostly paralyzed! And how else would we ever have the chance to meet Thor without our lives being in danger from some awful alien invasion? This might even be our first chance to run some tests on a real Asgardian when he isn't bleeding out all over the floor – think of the possibilities!"

Fitz was forced to concede she had a point there. "You go mix up the antivenom. I'll go and say hello."

"Righty-o!"

They parted ways – Simmons to the lab, Fitz to the hanger bay.

It was another door code to let them in from the hanger bay, and after that, Fitz found that he…needed a minute. A minute to just stare and take it all in. Thor had always seemed so strong and dashing whenever he showed up on television to take down some new threat to the world, but to see him in person was something else entirely. Fitz found that he was forced to restrain himself from just reaching out and touching the man's chest.

Thor, in turn, spared him that particular fight by clearing his throat. "Greetings. Our apologies for the intrusion, but I was told I could find medical attention for my brother here?"

"Oh!" said Fitz, startled out of his admiration and grateful for that small mercy. "Oh, um, yes. Right. Coulson called ahead. You have a brother? Wait, no, not important. I'm Fitz. Simmons is in the lab mixing up your antivenom."

"Thank you, friend Fitz." Thor offered him a smile of plain relief, before looking to the man beside him. "Not far now, Loki. I told you this would resolve itself."

"When will I learn not to doubt you?" Sarcasm was all but dripping from Loki's voice as Thor moved to help him further inside, looking to Fitz for direction and nodding when Fitz pointed in the direction of the stairs leading down to the lab.

They were halfway across the floor when he found that he just couldn't stop himself from asking any longer. Curiosity might have killed the cat, but that was why you didn't trust cats to prod at the secrets of the universe. Leave the adorable Internet videos to them. "Sorry, but…what was it that you did? To make Agent May…freak out like that? I know she can be a bit, um, absolutely terrifying. But she's not normally like that."

"Oh, it's a funny story," said Loki. He didn't look back, but Fitz could hear his tone of voice vibrating with a manic cheerfulness, the sort Simmons got when she'd had too much caffeine and the sun was coming up. "You see…"

Thor probably didn't mean for him to see the way he elbowed Loki in the ribs. Fitz saw it anyway, and Loki bit off whatever he'd been about to say.

"It is a long story as well," Thor finished, looking back at Fitz with an apologetic smile. "Another time, perhaps, when my brother is well."