The doorbell was ringing, the electrical chimes piercing into Tony's forehead like each note was an ice pick. Tony wrapped his pillow over his ears but ignored it, vaguely hoping Pepper would get up and answer it, or they'd go away on their own.

"Tony…" Pepper murmured, still half asleep.

"JARVIS, who is it?"

"Doctor Banner, sir."

Tony grunted a response and pulled the covers over his head, trying to block out the sound. When he didn't get up after another minute or so of chimes, Pepper rolled over and hit him with a pillow. Neither of them were notorious for being morning people, unlike Bruce seemed to be.

"Fine," Tony muttered, dragging himself into the cool air of the bedroom and instantly regretting it the second his feet touched the floor. It was fair enough, he guessed; Pepper had been working hard all week on trying to get some government contracts, and she'd still probably be back out this afternoon, even though it was Saturday and she'd already be jet-lagged as hell. As far as she knew, Tony had done nothing but mess around with cars and work on the plans for some new suits. She'd been so tired last night, she hadn't even noticed that he'd disappeared back up to the lab almost as soon as they'd got back from the airport, just got changed and passed out in bed.

Tony pull on the t-shirt he'd been wearing the previous night and practically staggered to the door in just that and his boxers.

Bruce was stood outside, looking annoyingly well-rested and put together to say he'd presumably had even less sleep than Tony had.

"Morning, Tony."

Tony stared at him, barely even able to comprehend his own name and a greeting, never mind string a sentence together without his morning coffee. Bruce glanced past him at the room beyond to see if Pepper was up, then continued to speak when he realised she wasn't.

"I need to speak to you about that…" he trailed off, adjusting his glasses nervously. "That project from last night."

Tony blinked slowly a few times, then shut the door in Bruce's face. Coffee first. Then he could maybe start thinking about getting dressed, then possibly go back to worrying about the super villain currently locked up in his panic room.

Bruce stared at the door, counting to ten under his breath. In some ways, Tony Stark was the best thing that could ever have happened to him after the accident, forcing him to come out of his shell and getting him back into the field of work he'd always loved. They made a good team; they were just as intelligent as each other, and they both got excited about the joint projects they worked on in Stark Industries R&D. The difference was, unlike Tony's other science buddies, Bruce was pretty much guaranteed to survive any time the lab ended up in flames when they got a little too enthusiastic. Other times, Tony drove him crazy. It was bad enough it was just the two of them knowing about Loki without having to wait to share this discovery.

It took about ten minutes for Tony to open the door again, fully dressed in clean clothes this time, even if his t-shirt was on backwards, cradling what had to be his second enormous mug of black coffee to his chest like it was his firstborn. He stepped out into the corridor, closing the door gently behind him so not to wake Pepper before he said anything.

"What's he done now?" It couldn't have been anything too serious, or JARVIS would have told him, but that still left a lot of options.

"He says he was controlled the whole time, like Barton."

"Yeah, and I'm Audrey Hepburn. Next."

"He said that it was all 'done on the will' of a creature called Thanos."

"One; he's had a whole year to think this crap up," Tony said, but with slightly more thought than just straight up disbelief. "Two; who the hell is that?"

"No idea," Bruce admitted. "I had JARVIS look it up but the closest we found was Thanatos, the Ancient Greek personification of destruction."

"Could work."

"How?"

"Well, Rock of Ages and Point Break exist, so does good ol' dad, why not the Greek guys?"

"I don't think so," Bruce ran a hand through his hair. "I didn't want to believe him, it sounds like total bull, I know that, but you didn't hear the way he said it, Tony. He was terrified."

"He's a trickster god, Banner. The guy lies professionally," Tony couldn't believe it, not until he'd seen Loki say it himself, but he knew he was playing devil's advocate here. When they'd been bringing Loki in they'd had exactly the same argument from other sides of the table.

"I know. But what if he isn't? What if he's telling the truth? Just hear him out. You have way more experience with lying than me."

Tony grinned broadly at that.

"That wasn't a compliment."


"I don't see why I must go over this again; Thor must have told you," Loki said quietly, unable to meet his eyes.

Tony just raised an eyebrow. Thor had told them, more than once, mostly when he'd had a few too many. But that wasn't the point. He had to get Loki to tell it the way he'd seen it, to judge his reactions to measure them up against the stuff about this 'Thanos' guy.

"He offered me his help, they both did, but I realised what I had done. It was that simple."

Tony's expression didn't change, and Loki spilt out more of the story.

"I saw my crimes laid out in front of me. I knew what I had done was too much for a mere slap on the wrist, so I let go, perhaps to save them some pain in the long run. I hurt the people who had raised me as family, and not in a way I could take back."

"And then this Thanos guy, he took you over?"

"It was hardly that simple. I fell for what felt like months through that void. I have no idea how much time had passed when I finally hit the surface of some freezing, dead moon, far outside the Nine Realms or any of known space. Not even an Asgardian can fall that far and that hard without shattering. I was dying, completely alone and in pain, all because I was too much of a coward to face my judgement from Odin. The Other found me-"

"Wait, what the hell is 'the Other'?"

"It is the commander of the Chitauri armies-"

"Thought you said that was Thanos?"

"The Other is willing servant of Thanos. It does whatever he tells it to," Loki looked up at him. "It dragged me in front of Thanos. He chose to save me for reasons I, at the time, could not comprehend. He's more than a man, Stark, he transcended that long ago. He invaded my thoughts while I was weak from the fall and… and what they had inflicted on me, pried off whatever loose grip on my sanity I had left."

"Bullshit."

"Tony…" Bruce's tone was warning, but Tony didn't look away.

Loki didn't break eye contact with him, but his bloody lips contorted into a familiar snarl.

"No, Doctor Banner. It's obvious he doesn't believe me but what do you want me to say? That I wanted this? That I wanted so many innocent people dead?" He looked sickened by the idea of it, but Tony had seen better liars under oath. When he continued, he was far quieter, staring at the wall just over Tony's shoulder. "I'm the monster parents on Asgard warn their children about. I can deny that about as much as I can change it; it's in my blood. But the atrocities committed in my name the last time I was in this city were not my own."

"Yeah, that might work on Bruce but you're not gonna convince me so easily."

Loki stood up, unbroken hand curling into a fist reflexively. He towered above Tony but he didn't flinch or step back, just looked up to match the demigod's glare, totally unforgiving.

"Nothing I say can change what was done through me. My other recollections are blurry at best but the deaths are burnt into my eyelids, Stark! All those people!" His breathing was getting ragged and he clasped his arms to his abdomen. Broken ribs were a bitch, Tony knew that from experience, but pain made a lot of those other features he was looking for a lot harder to identify. "You know people can be taken over! Even if the spear failed on you, you have to have believed Barton! Why not me?"

Tony shrugged. "I've read your file."

Loki stuttered for a second, then his knees gave in and he fell back onto the bed. He paused, trying to catch his breath, then looked up at Tony again. "I've lived over nine hundred of your world's years! The file is the events of a year at most, and only what SHIELD saw of it. I was in my right mind for none of that."

Bruce stepped forwards towards Loki and it was all Tony could do not to pull him back. He was mentally checking up on Loki's injuries, Tony knew, making sure it hadn't gotten too much worse. He looked at Tony. "He's too weak for this. Aren't you convinced yet?"

Tony slid his hands into his pockets and mentally prepared himself for the disapproval he knew was coming.

"I believed him about halfway through all that. Just had to make sure."


Loki stared at Stark in disbelief. From the similar expression on Banner's face, he guessed that Stark hadn't warned him about this little stunt and was almost as unimpressed as Loki himself. He half considered casting some curse or hex on Stark, but held back. He didn't want to live up to their expectations or, more likely, their fears, not yet at least. Besides that, he doubted he'd recovered enough strength to do anything worthwhile.

Banner touched his shoulder lightly. Somehow, he seemed to be on Loki's side of this argument, whether he believed what Loki had told him or not.

"You really thought that was a good idea?"

"Interrogate him while he's still too weak to throw me through my own window again? Yeah."

Loki understood Stark's intentions now, pushing him that far to see how he'd react, Stark had to be sure after all, but he was too tired for mind games. He doubted he'd be able to string a coherent lie together at this point, no matter how hard Stark pushed him. The truth was all he had left. He let his head sink to his chest and his shoulders fall to a slouch. He could use his weakness to his advantage now, and he would.

"Are you okay?" Banner asked quietly, crouching in front of him.

"I don't know," Loki replied honestly in the same low tone, then looked over his shoulder at Stark. "I think it's possible I may have been pushed too far."

Banner nodded. "Get some rest."

Loki couldn't have forced himself to protest that even if he'd wanted to. Stark started to speak but Banner flashed him a look.

"You remember the last time you nearly died, right? He needs time to heal."

Loki had to wonder how many times Stark had nearly died for Banner to feel the need to say 'the last time'. It had to be quite a few.

"That was different."

"We practically had to cut you out of the suit with a can opener. This is the closest anyone can get without billions of dollars to-"

"I know," Stark interrupted. "But this isn't the same. More like Afghanistan."

The two heroes stared at each other, an unspoken dispute taking place in the air between them. Loki half expected Banner to give in and look away first, but it was Stark who turned to look at him.

"Got my eye on you, Snape." He said, pointing to his eyes then to Loki's before spinning on his heel and walking out of the room.

Loki stared after him, trying to discern the name or the meaning of the gesture. "Why does he do that?"

"Which part?"

Loki jumped, unaware he'd been thinking aloud. "All of it… This time, however, I was mostly thinking about the names."

"It's not just you, he does that to everyone."

"But why?"

"Honestly, I just don't question it any more. Slightly out of date pop-culture references are the least of my worries." Banner said with the hint of a smile on his lips.

"Who or what is this 'Snape' anyway?"

"He's a wizard from this series of kid's books…" Banner trailed off.

"Let me guess, he's the villain?"

"Kind of, I guess."

"'Kind of'?"

"He redeemed himself a little towards the end."