Twelve months before incident:

Location: Earth, USA: Midtown, Manhattan: New York City: Stark Tower, floor zero.

Subject(s) involved: Anthony Stark, Nina Remerez, Ian Cassidy, Isaac Greene, Renard, Loki.

Renard had done many stupid things in her life, most with the best of intentions.

Keeping that fact in mind, she didn't think she could be blamed for her apprehension upon entering Stark Tower.

(The inside of the building was just as intimidating as the outside- upscale and modern, with pristine white walls, furniture, and carpet. It was neater than she had expected anything belonging to Tony Stark to be.)

A twenty something woman in a navy suit manned a large front desk, made up entirely of glass and chrome.

"Miss Renard?"

"That would be me."

"Nina Remerez," the woman introduced herself, in a half whispered tone. "You're exactly on time. Take the second elevator on the right. You'll be met inside."

Renard followed the woman's directions and was met by a tall blonde man, in another navy colored suit.

"Agent Renard?"

He shook her hand.

"Ian Cassidy. Hop on."

He allowed her to step in and reached for the floor pad, typing in a line of code that queued the floor to lurch.

"You get used to that," he told her, "But this is the cool part."

He proceeded to remove his jacket, and put it back on inside out. The action revealed a white Shield logo, emblazoned across the right side of his chest.

Renard rolled her eyes, preforming the same inside-out, quick change maneuver.

"Ive been meaning to ask," she said, tugging her sleeves into place. "What exactly is the purpose of this? Is it just supposed to be dramatic?"

"Think of it as camouflage," Ian told her. "As far as the prisoner knows, He's in the heart of a fully automated Shield Facility. No reason to hint otherwise by showing up out of uniform."

"And no reason to make the people on the street suspicious by wearing it obviously?"

"Good catch. By the way, the elevator is my station. It only stops in the basement, and the lobby. It can only be activated from there, so once you're down, you're down until someone comes to relieve you."

On that note, the floor stopped moving, and the doors opened to reveal a very dim, narrow hallway. It was made- walls, ceiling and floor- of plain concrete, and led the space was so compact they had to walk in single file. Ian kept looking back to make sure she was still following him.

"Stay close- but for future reference, the trick to getting in and out is to keep your hand on the wall, and always go right."

It was necessary advice. The space was dense, but packed into it were sloping floors and curving walls. Plus, the halls to the left divided and forked off in random directions. It would have been easy to walk straight in to another corridor without ever realizing it. It would've been impossible to navigate if she hadn't been prepared.

"You still with me?"

"Yes. Who's idea was this?"

"Probably Stark."

"Why does it have to be dark?"

"Because it's disorienting. Plus, cuts down on the electric bill. But hey, we're almost there."

It felt like miles had passed by the time they reached the end.

Flickering fluorescent light came from the back of a dead end hallway. It was sectioned off into rooms by two walls of glass, both as tall and wide as the room itself. Each was several feet thick, and secured to the walls and ceiling by pairs of iron brackets. In front of the first, another guard was posted.

He stared abysmally foreward, around a heavy iron door set into the glass, and Ian led her towards him.

"Agent Renard, Captain Greene. Captain Greene, Agent Renard."

He nodded stiffly, queuing Ian to retreat back to his post.

Greene sized her up with a critical eye, and dragged a hand down his face.

"You were a Specalist in the field, correct?"

"Correct."

"Alright," he grunted. "Agent Renard, here's how this goes. No one comes in or out except you and the Agent who relieves you for the morning shift. You will be given a comm- you will not use it except in cases of emergency. Don't talk to anyone, don't let them down here."

Turning to the door, he began the long process of opening it, explaining each facet of the security as he went. Eventually, the door swung open- slowly, and with a long hiss of air depressurizing.

There were two other men besides Greene in the room- One she recognized as-

"Hey there, Steele wool. Tall dark and gorgeous. I'll be your host for the evening, my name is Tony Stark."

The billionaire (whom she shouldn't have been so surprised to see, really- it wasn't as if they could've built a prision block in his basement without him noticing) turned to bend over a moniter, frowning and typing long lines of computer code.

"Mr. Stark is just adding your specs into the system. You should be able to open the door yourself next time."

"Actually I'm trying to install pac man, but I'll get to that in a minute."

"Stark."

"Fine, fine, boss me around in my own back yard. Just don't forget who's paying you."

"Taxes?" Renard guessed, and Greene shot her a look as if to say don't feed the monkey.

"Exactly. And you know who pays taxes? Me. So be nice or else."

Renard grinned slightly.

"Now, I'm sure Captain Kill Joy has already explained this all in detail, but since adding you to the payroll will take a minute, lets hash out the finer print. Since the rest of Shield is busy, you'll ultimately be reporting to me. Potential jailbreak? Call me up."

He typed another long line of code, and she saw her personnel picture flash across the screen along with pages of script. She held her breath, waiting for something to go wrong. For her fake ID to not be good enough. But Tony only stopped typing to bring up what looked like a log-in page, and she released the breath she'd been holding.

He turned the screen to face her.

"You get here at nine pm, you log in. You leave at six am, you log out. The code changes to eight different, randomly generated digits every time you do, so that bit is important. Don't forget it- you'll be the only one who knows."

He jerked his thumb over his shoulder, pointing to the keypad by the door they'd just entered.

"You get that code as you log out. Retinas scan is next, then keycard- yours, Greene's, and the day guard's-"

"His name is Fred."

"-And Fred the day guard's are the only ones it will except. I can only get in here if you let me in, which you should do. No one else can get in unless you let them in, either, which you should not. Last, we have a good old fashioned bolt."

"Thorough," she observed, eyes flickering between Stark and her fellow agent, noting the tension there.

"Not done yet. These," He said, pointing to the next screen over, "are the security camera's feeds. Two normal and two infra-red. Don't mess with them, they're high tech and very, very sensitive."

Expensive, Renard translated in her mind, but nodded.

Tony turned his eye on the next door in.

"That cannot be opened or closed without an encrypted key. It generates eight thousand codes per second, so it's too fast for anyone to hack."

Renard broke character and spoke in a complete sentence.

"You've got that key somewhere safe, right?"

"I haven't made it yet."

Greene was losing patience.

"Speed things up a little, Mr. Stark."

"One, you aren't the boss of me, two, I'm done, unless tall dark and curvy has any more questions?"

Tony turned a questioning eye on Renard, and she shook her head, assuring him that no, no, she got it all.

"Perfect. Then I can get back to doing things of actual importance and Greene Bean can go sulk in his HQ."

Greene scowled but turned to leave, Stark on his heels.

He caught her arm as he made his exit and whispered "Seriously, keep me up to date."

Then, the door was shut and she was alone.

Slowly, she turned to face the room's permanent resident.

Loki was laid back, arms behind his head.

He barely looked at her.