"So, you brought another Asgardian to Earth."
Allan cocked his head. Loki leaned against the counter, ignoring the throbbing in his limbs and the frost that crept from his fingers.
"I did."
There was a short silence, in which Allan pursed his lips thoughtfully.
"Mmm…what do you hope to accomplish with this?"
"What you wish me to do, cause mayhem. There are many ways to go about this, you shall have to trust my abilities."
Loki winced as a wave of fatigue rolled over him. The room went in and out of focus for a few moments. During this time, Allan took the syringe from his suit pocket, gazing at it absently.
"Trust…that's a high order to ask of someone, although I'm sure you know that. Of course, I can't trust you but I can rely on your desperation. So, no answering questions tonight."
"Fair enough, let's get this over with."
Loki continued to lean heavily against the counter, preparing to leave his Jotun form. Allan gave a short nod and smiled.
"Alright, but before I do, you should watch yourself, trickster. Don't push me too far. You came quite close to doing just that today."
Allan's smile contrasted with his low tone. Loki gave an unflinching nod.
00000
"I never knew about this tapestry. Why did Loki never tell me about it?"
Thor mused, rocking back on his heels as he stared out over the city. The team and Sif sat in silence behind him, waiting for S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to arrive, as Natasha had called Fury just after Tony had shown them the tapestry and Hel had told them what had happened to Loki. Originally, Thor had been ecstatic to learn of his brother's innocence but his enthusiasm had quickly been tempered by the precarious situation.
"Don't be too hurt, I don't think he told anyone about it. Also, I need to ask something, how many of the other myths are true? 'Cause I'm a bit suspicious after the whole, talking to Loki's freaky ass kids, thing."
Tony asked, partially to get the dark look off Thor's face before he caused the storm and partially because he was genuinely curious. After a few moments of consideration, Thor shrugged.
"Not all, you would have to specify which. But that is not important now. We must somehow contact Loki and tell him that we know. This man cannot be allowed to continue his foul meddling."
Thunder rumbled as storm clouds gathered outside. Tony nodded at Thor's words, thinking back to Loki's behavior after the gas, checking his blood work and the security feed. It was strange that Jarvis had picked up nothing.
"Jarvis, I need to see the security feed myself, might as well see the blood work for Loki too."
"I will transfer it to your laptop, sir."
Tony stood and grabbed one of his laptops, which was sitting on the counter. He returned to the couch and flipped it open, going to the newly downloaded items. Opening the security feed first, Tony chose the recording for the night after Loki had been sprayed with the gas and looked for the one in Loki's room. He found and expanded the image.
Starting when Loki first entered the room, Tony and the others, who peered at the screen as well, watching. In the recording, Loki lay on his bed, reading. After a few minutes, Loki set the book aside and continued to lie down.
"You don't look at these unless you have to, right? I mean, this feels a bit invasive."
Steve pointed out, glancing to Tony, who arched an eyebrow.
"No, Jarvis does all the checking usually. Trust me, I get the privacy thing. Why, is there something I should know, Captain?"
Tony snickered at Steve's expression. Their attention was brought back to the screen as Loki lurched upwards. There was a slight static in the recording, that faded as quickly as it had appeared. Loki stayed in that position, not moving. Tony glanced up to the time, to see if it had paused, but saw nothing strange there. Loki stayed still for some time, then there was another burst of static. When it cleared, Loki sat on the edge of his bed, head bowed.
"That static, it's strange."
"Perhaps it is the man's magic, when it tampers with Jarvis."
Tony frowned at Thor's suggestion.
"Tampering with Jarvis…magic could probably be the only explination because that would take some heavy duty hacking smarts without magic."
They searched the other footage, all showing the same pattern with static. After checking them, Tony switched to the blood work but got nowhere with that. He scowled with frustration. Sif, who was standing behind the couch and leaning over, spoke up.
"Do you still have the blood that you took? Perhaps, if you tested it again, something more could be found."
Tony considered her suggestion for a few moments.
"Maybe. Jarvis, do we still have some of Loki's blood?"
"Yes sir. There is still some left over from your previous tests."
Jarvis answered, Tony grinned with surprise.
"Well, then it's worth a try."
Down in the lab, Tony and Bruce began to test the blood, everyone else watched. At one point, Bruce frowned and looked up from his microscope.
"What the…Tony come here."
Bruce moved away from the microscope as Tony scooted over and looked into it.
"The hell?"
"So I take it that's not what you saw last time."
Tony continued to look into the microscope with a frown. Everyone else looked on with renewed interest.
"What is it?"
Natasha asked. Tony entered a few commands on a panel next to him and brought up the magnification on a screen for everyone to see.
"This is definitely different from last time. I mean, his blood isn't exactly normal anyway, but this doesn't look healthy."
The magnified blood was obviously not human, it was too dark a red and with an overabundance of cells. But a tendril of some inky dark substance seemed out of place. Even as they watched, the tendril snagged a cell. The cell was engulfed by the darkness, crushing it from within. The tendril retreated, leaving the cell crumpled and black, like many of the others around it. But even as they watched the cell began to return to its normal color, expanding again. Then the tendril returned in, what seemed to be, an endless cycle.
"That must be the poison. I suppose because this blood hasn't been cured or whatever the guy does, the poison is functioning properly."
Tony said quietly as they watched the process.
"I guess that when the cells return to their normal color, they're healing themselves…but they can't get rid of the poison."
He continued uncertainly. From behind Tony, Thor made a low noise in the back of his throat.
"This would probably continue until my brother ran out of energy to sustain it, being excruciatingly painful all the while."
They watched as the cell was assaulted many time more until, when the tendril withdrew, it stayed dead. Tony grimaced as the tendril of poison moved onto another cell, imagining this happening on a large scale.
"It's strange though, we've had this sample for a while now, shouldn't the cells be completely dead?"
"Maybe it's because they were in frozen stasis. That might have slowed this whole process down."
Bruce offered, moving back to the microscope and sitting down.
"Do you think we could isolate the poison? From that we might be able to understand how the poison works."
Tony brought up other calculations that were being run. The rest of the team thought on the situation. Steve spoke up.
"If the poison is inhibited by the cold, could Loki bring himself to a low enough temperature to halt it until we can figure out a cure?"
Bruce shrugged, considering the possibility.
"Maybe, he can survive much colder temperatures than us, right Thor? Could that work?"
Thor frowned thoughtfully.
"Perhaps…it is true that Ice Giants can survive extremely cold temperatures, but they're still active at those. But I think at some temperature it can become too cold even for Jotuns. I am not all together sure, I was not the one to study these intricacies."
A slightly sheepish smile twitched Thor's lips as he finished speaking. Tony chewed his lower lips as he shifted through the data and listened to the conversation.
"Even if we could that would mess with the whole, "if Loki dies, the guy will go after us", thing."
Steve sighed, abandoning his idea, and was about to respond when Jarvis spoke.
"Sir, S.H.I.E.L.D. has arrived, shall I let them in?"
"Yeah, tell them we'll be down in a minute."
Tony replied, turning away from the data. Bruce stood, picking up what was left of the blood sample.
"Should I freeze this again?"
"Yes, we need more time to work with it later."
Together the team and Sif descended towards the agents.
Directory Fury and six other agents waited as the elevator doors opened. He gave the team an expectant look as they stepped out.
"What was so important that you had to call me here?"
"It's a long explanation."
Natasha replied as she shifted her eyes between the other agents. Fury got the message and turned to them.
"Wait outside, I don't need your help in here right now."
The agents nodded and left the building. Fury turned back to the team with a slight frown.
"Alright, now talk."
"We know that Loki is being manipulated."
There was a short silence following Tony's words. Fury gave him a disbelieving stare.
"Do you now?"
Steve cut in before Tony could reply to Fury.
"Look, we can show you, it's true."
"I'll give you all the benefit of doubt and not call you crazy, show me your proof."
00000
After having Hel explain, which Tony let Thor ask for, he didn't want to get on the bad side of the godlings, everyone sat around a large table. Fury looked over the newly recorded blood work.
"So, what do you think?"
Tony watched Fury expectantly. After a few more moments, Fury looked up.
"I will need to record this data and put it into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database. I would record the conversation with, what was her name, Hel, but I don't know how exactly that would work seeing as she doesn't actually speak aloud."
Bruce nodded in confirmation of Fury's words. Then a dull boom radiated from somewhere in the city and everyone tensed. Steve bounded to get a better look out the windows.
"There's something a few streets from here. I'm not sure what it is, but it's big."
Steve turned to Sif and the team, then to Fury, who spoke.
"If it's Loki, find a way to contact him. To put it straight, I'd rather not have to deal with some psychopath with the power to blackmail a god and a bunch of displeased monster kids, if Loki dies."
There was another noise, this time a screeching sound, and Steve nodded.
Down on the streets the team found the noise's source. A massive beast, with long fangs below four dark eyes and huge clawed paws, overturned a car. It lunged towards a fleeing woman but was brought short, rearing its head with a loud huff. Atop it sat a man, pale and with long red hair, wearing human clothes. The man pointed and the beast turned away from its previous target.
Steve looked to the rest of the team.
"Long red hair, pale, matches the description of the disguise Loki was using. Think it's him?"
Without taking his eyes off the beast, Thor nodded.
"It's most definitely him, that beast is not of Midgard. What should we do?"
This time it was Tony who spoke up.
"I think you have the best chance of getting close enough to tell him, we can take care of the-"
The beast took a bounding leap, landing a few cars away from them. The thing reared again as Loki held out a hand.
"Hello, wonderful day isn't it?"
It was Loki's voice, but with the slight lilt of an American accent, which Tony would have found hysterical if a giant beast wasn't glaring down at them. Tony looked to Steve, who nodded at Thor before turning to him and speaking quickly.
"Say something to get him off the thing, from there we can take care of it and let Thor fight with Loki."
Tony quickly searched for what to say.
"What, is this another of your monster kids?"
His words had the desired affect, not fury but surprise. Loki's eyes widened for a moment before returning to their leer. Loki indeed leapt from the animal and stood beside it.
"Don't be idiotic, of course not. None of my children would ever do something so mundane."
Loki made another motion and the beast leapt towards them. The Avengers and Sif dove out of the way, Thor made a beeline for Loki while the others converged on the creature.
Thor closed in on his brother but was hesitant to strike with Mjolnir. Before they collided Loki dodged away, but not before hissing something in Thor's ear.
"Do you know?"
They turned to each other, Thor gave a nearly imperceptible nod. For a moment Loki visibly smiled but then his smile turned crooked with the act. This time it was Loki, still with red hair, that moved first. A dagger flashed in his hand as Loki stabbed towards Thor. But his slow movements, seemingly purposeful, allowed Thor to grab his arm and pin him against an abandoned car. Thor spoke quickly and quietly.
"Yes, what should we do?"
Loki pretended to struggle while hissing his reply.
"We need some form of trap to kill the man, I'm not sure how yet."
"But then you would die."
Thor saw the desperation flash in his brother's eyes and felt a pang of dread. Loki broke free from their mock struggle and leapt back. While this was happening, the team continued to fight with the monster. It seemed like they were holding back, as if to buy Thor more time.
Loki made a small motion for Thor to attack him again. Thor did, this time swinging Mjolnir to deflect Loki's dagger. They grappled for far longer than Loki normally would so that they could exchange more words.
"We don't have to kill him, he must have a cure. S.H.I.E.L.D. can-"
"No, don't let all of S.H.I.E.L.D. have access to this information. He has infiltrated it, he will find out if you do!"
Loki cut Thor off as they matched blows. Behind them the beast reared as the Hulk hit it with a car, they couldn't distract it for much longer without looking suspicious.
"Bruce and Tony still have the sample of your blood, we may be able to develop a cure from that."
Thor noticed Loki wince and grit his teeth for a short moment. Remembering the image of the poison engulfing Loki's blood, Thor loosened his grip on his brother's arm. Loki hissed a response as the moment passed.
"I have a feeling that would take some time. Taking this man out is more important."
Just then, the beast collapsed, dead. Loki locked eyes with his brother, who gave a worried grimace then loosened his grip even more for Loki to pull away. Loki gave a mock leer and disappeared.
The team and Sif rejoined Thor, eager to hear what had transpired.
"Friends, we cannot let Director Fury take the information back to S.H.I.E.L.D. with him."
"What, why not?"
"According to Loki, the man has spies within S.H.I.E.L.D., he would know that we have found out the truth."
Across from Thor, Steve gave a grim nod and turned towards the tower.
"Alright, let's convince Fury."
00000
Loki sat on his couch, watching a filigree of ice creep across its threads. He thought back to his talk with Thor. They knew, the risk had been worth it. The next goal was stopping Allan, together. Of course, Thor would never willingly let Loki die, most likely neither would Tony, but that was a far better option then having Allan alive. Loki grimaced as a spike in pain disrupted his thoughts.
"Mmm…hurry up."
"Don't be impatient."
Allan's voice was amused. Loki snapped his head up to stare at him.
"You do love your entrances, don't you?"
"Finding joy in mundane things is a good way to look at life."
Loki's silence made Allan smile even wider.
"Interesting show today, where did you get that beast?"
"Not Earth, doesn't really matter where I got it."
"Fair enough, I did enjoy that though. Panicked many people, it was fun to watch. So, question time."
Allan took the syringe from his suit pocket, grinning expectantly. Loki ignored another spike in pain and gathered his thoughts.
"Yes…tell me about yourself."
There was a short pause as Allan arched a surprised eyebrow.
"Not really a question but I can tell you a bit. I made a large amount of money when I was younger, doing a variety of things and being a generally upstanding citizen. I took many tropical vacations to isolated places, searching for people with magical capacity in areas where the main world wouldn't miss them if they disappeared. That took some time but it was useful."
Allan paused for a moment as Loki interrupted.
"So that's how you got the blood."
"Indeed. After that I set up a stable network to aid me in creating my masterpiece. Then, to most of the world, I died. That's the best way to fall off the radar, after all. Tragic, horrible death, one that leaves people lamenting your early fall from grace. From there I worked on my darling in peace. You can guess the rest."
Loki kept his neutral expression but noticed Allan's smile waver for a moment.
"No personal details, I see. That tells quite a bit in itself, not a nice past, eh?"
There was a tense moment before Allan chuckled.
"You didn't ask for personal details. But I believe that's enough questions for now. I appreciate your work today, I see good things in our future."
"I'll keep that in mind."
AN: This chapter took a bit longer than I had anticipated, I had writers block for a while. But it's my longest yet, so I guess that can make up for it. Also I will finally break the 7 chapter curse that seemed to hang around me with these stories, because I've planned at least two more chapters before this thing finishes. How do you like this chapter and the story so far? Hopefully the next chapter will be up later this week sometime.