Still don't own the Avengers.

Three days had passed since the birth, and Loki's condition was unchanged. Except for the one time when he had half woken up and panicked at the absence of his child. He now lay quiet, holding a doll to his chest as if it were a living and breathing baby. This morning, they moved him to the safe house. It was a couple blocks away from the tower, a modern house built of concrete and reinforced with all the ingenious armaments Stark's money could buy, which is to say, a lot. The living room had been converted to a state-of-the-art sick room, as the bedrooms were deemed too small for the equipment needed. The house was continuously monitored by Jarvis, and one of the Avengers was on guard at all times.

It was just in time, as this afternoon, Thor had made his presence known with an unexpected torrential downpour and thunderstorm. He alighted on one of the balconies of Stark Tower and meandered his way down to Tony's lab, where Tony, Steve, and Bruce were gathered. Clint was on guard duty at the house, and Natasha had been reclusive since they found Loki. "My friends!" The prince boomed with an enormous grin, gathering the three of them into a hug for an instant, before stepping back, face falling into a more serious expression. "I'm afraid I have some bad news. My brother escaped a while ago, and we have new information that he might have come to Midgard."

The three of them were silent for a moment, unsure of what to say. They obviously should have planned for this ahead of time. Fortunately, Tony saved the other two. "Please don't tell us your brother is planning another invasion? I only just got the floors refinished from the last time."

Thor smiled slightly. "Fear not, Man of Iron. I believe my brother is merely hiding here, not plotting. Though I suppose that could change."

"Why would he come here to hide?" Steve ventured. He really had no clue how they were supposed to broach the subject.

"Why not? Midgard is more comfortable for him than many of the other realms, and easier for him to blend in if he wishes. And we have searched fruitlessly for him in other realms already."

"When did he escape?"
"A little over a year ago."

"And you're only telling us now?"
Thor frowned. "I had hoped to find him myself, rather than get many others involved."

"…Why?" Please say you were worried others would hurt him or something like that.

"Well, for one thing, even weakened as he was, Loki is a dangerous foe, and I would not wish for anyone to be hurt capturing him. For another, he… he's my brother…" Thor seemed unsure of what to say.

"What will you do when you find him?"

"He must return to Asgard and face his punishment, obviously."

"What if he is injured?"

Thor looked at Steve questioningly. "Do you know something, friend Steve?"

"Maybe," Bruce said, "Now, answer the question."

"Do you have my brother? Is he hurt?" There was definitely worry in Thor's voice, and Steve was relieved. He glanced at the other two to check that they were in agreement.

"SHIELD tracked him down a few weeks ago. Traced him to a house in the city. He was in bad shape when we found him."

"Take me to him!"

"Not yet." Thor looked stunned, staring at Steve incredulously. Steve sighed. "He is in no condition to be moved right now, so what are you planning to do?"

"Is…is he going to be alright?"

"We don't know, and we definitely want your input to see if we can do anything else for him. But we can't let you see him until we know you won't hurt him. He is in our custody and under our protection at the moment. We won't be releasing him back to Asgard until some questions are answered."

Thor blinked at him, unused to any from Midgard exerting influence on Asgardian affairs. But this was his brother, and these were his friends. "I swear I will not take him forcefully from your custody. Now, what's wrong with my brother?"

Satisfied, the three Avengers nodded, and Tony turned to one of the computer monitors in the lab. "Jarvis, pull up the footage I saved of our guest. Thor, your brother lost a lot of blood, and, well, he's an alien, so we couldn't just replace it. He's been unconscious since we found him."

"Of course sir," came a disembodied vaguely British voice. A short video clip appeared on the screen, showing Loki in a hospital bed, glowing with the golden lights in his veins.

"Do you know what's happening here?"

Thor stared at the video. "I have never seen my brother do this before. Not after even the most grievous of wounds. But I have heard of this phenomenon. Only great sorcerers can accomplish it. His magic is taking the place of the blood he has lost."

"That's what I thought," Bruce mumbled. Then he spoke more clearly, "Is he okay like this? Will he get better?"

Thor thought for a moment. "I think he should improve, but I am not sure. In the stories I have heard, the magic can only last so long in this role before the body gives out and dies. If he does not replenish his own blood supply fast enough, he…" Thor did not finish the sentence but rather buried his face in his hands. Steve dropped a hand on his shoulder, sorry they hadn't been able to simply trust Thor to be loyal to his crazy brother.

"Is there anything we can do to help him, Thor?" Tony asked, gently.

"I am no healer." Thor's voice was muffled, but he sniffed and looked up again. "But Lady Eir, our greatest healer, could surely help. I must take my brother to Asgard!"

"No."

"Why?"

"What was Loki's punishment, Thor?"

Thor growled at them but answered. "He was imprisoned in a spacious cell below the palace. The sentence to last his lifetime."

Steve raised a placating hand. "Alright. Now, does Loki have any children?"

Thor looked puzzled. "Not really."

"What do you mean 'not really'?" Bruce asked.

"Well… actually, they were all in the book Lady Darcy had. 'Norse myths.' Not entirely accurate, but… are you familiar with them?"

They had all read the myths in the past few days, looking for clues. Bruce answered, "I know one version where Loki was the 'mother of monsters' and gave birth to your father's horse Sleipnir, the world snake Jormungand, the great wolf Fenrir, and Hela, queen of the dead."

"Yes?"

"That's all I know." The Avengers wanted to hear Thor's version.

"Ah. Well, it is sort of true. Loki turned into a horse and mothered Sleipnir. But he was the father to the other three. Their mother was a wicked giantess who seduced my brother with her tricks when he was very young. They weren't simple beasts, mind you, but shapeshifters like Loki. Except for Hela. Why is this relevant?"

"In a moment. What happened to those children?"

"Well, Sleipnir is indeed my father's horse. He has eight legs and is the fastest runner in the nine realms. My father had to place a spell to keep him from changing back to a human though—he was too important as a warhorse." Thor missed his friends' horrified looks as he mused. "Fenrir and Jormungand were very volatile. Even Loki could not control them after their mother was found out and banished. So Fenrir was chained as a wolf in the caves below Asgard, and Jormungand was banished to the seas of Midgard, actually, because of his favored sea-serpent shape. And Hela… her powers were so unlike any other's in Asgard. Unsuited to Asgard. She was sent to Nifelheim when she was seven and now rules that realm as the queen of the dead. I believe Loki managed that for her, but he never told me how."

Tony, Steve, and Bruce were silent for a moment, taking in this new information. Then Bruce asked quietly, "were there any others."

Thor looked away, a little guiltily. "Yes, his youngest were twins, Vali and Narfi. These he birthed himself as well, but in his Aesir guise, not as a mare or anything like that. It was unnatural, everyone thought. The boys didn't live long."

"What happened?"

Thor hesitated, and Steve steeled himself. He wasn't going to like this story, worse than the others, he guessed. "It was when they were five. They were too old to keep hidden in the nursery any more. No one but Loki, Mother, and I could stand them. It wasn't their fault; they were sweet kids, eager nephews. But a constant reminder of Loki's strangeness. Father didn't like them at all, and they could tell, so they goaded him, as children will. They would play tricks on the Allfather. Oh, you knew they were Loki's! Then when Father grew angry, they would flee and hide, giggling, in Loki's shadow. Loki never chided them for mischievous behavior, you see, so long as no one was hurt. The last time, Father managed to fling a spell after them as they ran. He missed Narfi, but Vali was changed into a wolf." Thor paused for a moment, either gathering his thoughts or in hopes that Steve or Bruce would stop the story. They didn't. "Neither Vali nor Narfi was born with Loki's gift of shapeshifting. When Vali turned into a wolf, his mind changed too, not just his body. He became a beast, and he chased down his brother and killed him in front of Loki and me. Loki changed him back instantly, of course, but it was too late for Narfi, and Vali was heartbroken. He just kept crying, even when he was taken to trial and condemned as a kinslayer, he never stopped crying…" Thor fell silent.

"Let me get this straight," Tony said. "Odin turns a five-year-old into a wild adult wolf, then blames the kid when things go south? And what do you mean he was 'condemned as a kinslayer'? What does that mean, really?"

"Killing a family member is the most heinous crime conceivable on Asgard, punishable by life in prison or death. Vali was sentenced to death. Loki was punished as well, for enabling his sons' wild behavior."

"And how was he punished?" There was a dangerous edge in Tony's voice now, and it took a long time for Thor to answer.

"I would rather not say."

"If you don't say, then you won't see your brother."

Thor glared at him, then sighed. "He was chained in a cell for a year, with a viper's venom burning his face… tied down with… Narfi's entrails."

Three cries of outrage and disgust followed that remark. Steve blurted, "Really? That is… the worst thing I have ever heard, I think. Or one of the worst anyhow—I lived through WWII. Thor, how could you let that happen to your own brother? And, oh God, please don't tell me that Odin was the one who came up with that…"

Thor looked away. "Father is wise. He always has a reason for everything that he does. Your justice system on Midgard is soft. The Aesir are a hard race. Hard crimes are punished harshly. And rare crimes even more so, for deterrence. No one who was there ever forgot. And we have had no kinslaying since."

"Well, from your story, it sounds like Loki was the innocent one in this case. If anyone should have been punished, it should have been Odin!"

Thor stood up from the lab bench and balled his fists. Thunder rumbled outside. "You have no place to sit in judgment of the Allfather, Captain Rogers. He is the king of Asgard and bound to its laws, not yours. Now, I have answered your questions, you answer mine. Why is this relevant?"

"Well, listening to all this has convinced me at least that Asgardian justice is making the Loki problem worse, not better, for one thing. To answer your question though, the reason we were asking about Loki's children is that when we found him, he had just given birth. The blood loss was from postpartum hemorrhage."

Thor sat back down, hard. "Loki has another child? I am an uncle again!"

Bruce coughed, "Well, actually, no. I'm sorry, Thor, but the child was stillborn."

The smile blossoming across Thor's face vanished. "Oh." The group stood there awkwardly for a moment. "Was it a boy or a girl?"

"A boy."

"A nephew… Did Loki say who—"

"Loki hasn't been able to say anything since the birth. The only time he spoke was in delirium, when he thought the baby was going to be taken away from him. Again." Tony bit off the last word in sharp accusation.

"I see." Thor looked appropriately chastised. "I didn't realize he was still taking it so hard."

Steve, Tony, and Bruce all stared at each other in wonderment. How in the world could Thor, Loki's own adopted brother, not understand how untenable the situation was? Was Jotun psychology somehow more similar to human than Aesir or something? Or was Thor just that dense, and Odin that cruel?

Bruce broke the silence. "Thor, even though you have obviously known Loki longer than us, by a lot, it seems like Midgard might have a better understanding of what's going on in your brother's head than you do right now. Until he's back on his feet and this situation is sorted out, we're uncomfortable with letting him go back to his cell in Asgard."

Steve finished the point, "You must admit that our planet has a greater stake in his punishment even than Asgard, and our culture does not condone the sorts of punishments that Loki endured in the past. It's even written into this country's constitution—no cruel and unusual punishment. We can accept life in prison, even death sentences, but torture is unacceptable, as is denying someone the help they need while in prison. Loki is physically ill now, and now we know he has been mentally suffering for a long time. We won't send him back until he is well enough to go. Understand?"

"Understood, friend Steve, friend Bruce… May I see him?"

"Maybe."