Chapter 2:

Validation

Grasping his hand grudgingly, Tony once again felt the falling sensation gather in the pit of his stomach. Loki grimaced as he focused on their destination, using his other hand to grasp Tony's shoulder. The glow formed sluggishly, his eyes rolling back in one languid motion before the ground left their feet. As they sore through the light, Tony had the strangest sensation of being naked.

When the world reopened around them, it was still dark, but Tony felt slightly heavier, a weight pressing down on his shoulders. Reaching to his head, he could feel the rough (wool) of a hooded cloak. Looking up, he could see the sorcerer adorned in an identical floor length garment. Tony peered down the front of his cloak.

"Where the fuck are my clothes?" He was wearing some kind of black tunic underneath, his shoes replaced with soft supple boots that barely made a sound on the stone floor.

"Stay silent and follow my lead." Loki whispered, ignoring him and flipping up his hood. Although Tony would never admit it, he was frightened like almost-pissed-my-pants frightened. They walked through gilded corridors, stopping at every sound of trouble. Tony followed behind obediently. Peaking around the corner Loki gestured for him to come closer. Tony peered around his slight body. Several other dark cloaked figures with grayish skin and a multitude of fingers were whispering in some language Tony didn't understand.

"What are they saying?"

"Hush!" Loki muttered. They crept past the hooded figures into another corridor that resembled a darker, more ancient version of a prison. There was no light save from what dim candles could emit. Grasping his surroundings, Loki glided apace to the far end of the hall to the last cell. He knelt before it soundlessly.

"Thor," he breathed grasping the bars. Tony leered quietly behind him, too shocked by the sight of his friend, bound and humiliated in chains. Several slashes lashed across his bare chest, trickling thick streams of blood onto the cold floor.

"Brother?" Thor murmured half-conscious.

"Yes." Loki replied reaching his hand in quickly to silence him. "Shh." This was just getting weirder and weirder in Tony's eyes. Loki shifted to let him come closer. Looking up at him, he waved him over. The mask of his face felt uninviting, but Tony complied. Thor looked like hell.

"Damn." He winced as he got a better view of the bound demigod. Lacerations painted a grotesque pattern across his body, colored in by green and purple bruises. Tony felt like he was going to be sick.

"Tony Stark?" he croaked, surprised. "How-"

"Ask your brother." He pointed towards Loki, trying to hold down that night's dinner.

"Why did you bring him here?"

"He wouldn't believe me, apparently I'm untrustworthy." He gave Tony a look of mocking disdain.

"He wants me to help." He said to Thor, trying not to look at the wounds.

"You should not have come here." He turned his head to Loki. "Brother, you need not involve him." Tony couldn't help but notice that Loki filched at the word 'brother'. Like he would lash out were it not for the bars between them. He took a deep inward breath to compose himself.

"Thor, I can't save Asgard on my own." Ouch. Tony could almost feel Loki's humiliation as he forced the words, the truth, from his lips.

"Loki I-" Thor stopped, as there was a scuffle just outside the corridor. His brother's hand flew up to cover his mouth.

"SHH!" His eyes darted frantically to the exits. "We must leave." He directed to Tony before turning back to Thor and giving him a whisper of an impish smile. "Trust me," he mouthed. Instantaneously, he was at Tony's wrist, pulling him down the corridors away from the clamor of footsteps. But they only grew louder as they darted through hall after hall, spinning around corner after corner. Panting, the two desperately scavenged for a place to hide. If Loki needed to take five minutes to teleport them they'd need this privacy.

They hung a left down a particularly dark passageway before Tony smashed into something, hard. Trying to catch his breath having the wind blown out of him, a dull light similar to the one in the cellblock illuminated the figure. The something, or rather someone that they had crashed into did not seem fazed by the impact. Beneath a low-slung hood, a perverse, distorted face glowered back at them.

"Two little jail birds flown from the coop. "His voice was rough and threatening. Loki froze; his eyes widening as the sickly hand with one too many thumbs pulled back his hood. "Loki." The figure growled turning slightly to rip off Tony's furiously. "And his mortal pet I presume?"

Tony was about to argue his position as 'pet', but the look on his newly declared cohort's face advised him otherwise.

"We have been searching for you." He stated calmly, as if his capture was inevitable. Tony wasn't exactly sure what to do; he'd never actually seen Loki this way, so intimidated, so petrified. The cloaked figure reached his hand back up to caress his face. "I'm a man of my word. There is nowhere left to run little prince. You are mine now. "Loki's already wide eyes began to dilate. He grew pale as his muscles stiffened and his veins became more pronounced. A slight whimper choked from his throat as the creature lifted ever so slightly into the air, his feet dangling above the floor. He didn't seem to be able to fight him off, even though he was barely touching him. His body paralyzed either with fear or by whatever magic this monster was using on him. The creature didn't even bother to acknowledge his 'pet', too wrapped up in pleasure of his torture.

Loki's face turned a terrifying shade of purple before Tony's brain jumped into gear. He leaped onto the monster's arm breaking his hold on Loki who crumpled down pathetically to the floor. Before Tony could gather his wits as to what to do next, he was backhanded into the wall, crumbling the stone as he collided with it. He would be feeling that in the morning.

The cloaked figure spun around to pick the feeble god back up for round two of creepy psychic voodoo torture. Loki flung a bony elbow at his face as hard as he could with his diluted strength, which apparently was still pretty hearty. It hit the figure hard enough to throw back his own hood, revealing ghastly scared and twisted features, tinged with a blue-grey pallor, now dripping with thick black blood.

"Come on." Loki was able wheeze as he hauled Tony, broken and shaky through the corridors again.

"Guards, GUARDS!" The unnerving voice called, only fueling their panicked urgency to escape. Finally, after what to Tony felt like an eternity they stopped. The hall around them was shorter than the previous passages. They both would have been crouching if they hadn't doubled over in pain.

"Who was that?" Tony gasped, trying to count the number of broken ribs he now had jabbing around his chest.

"Later," Loki replied. He grabbed his shoulder again and looked as if he might just vomit. The telltale green glow began to form weakly around them. It seemed to take a shorter time for the falling sensation to fill Tony's stomach, but that could have just been from the blood loss and severe need to just black out.

Wow, he thought. All this from one hit? Note to self, keep portable suit on hand at all times.

Before he knew it, they were in the living area at stark towers, dripping blood on to his newly refurbished floor.

"Was that enough reason for you Stark?" Loki chuckled painfully from the adrenaline. Glancing over at Tony's shell shocked expression he smiled through the discomfort. "I thought so."