Yay! I am back! This was a fun chapter to write and I hope that you will enjoy it too.

Loki knew that telling the Avengers that he would help them was really a bad idea. But something about the prospect of working with Stark was alluring, and Loki could not for the life of him figure out why. It was another one of those feelings inside of him that were eating him alive, another part of himself that he couldn't trust. Of course, this new feeling was not nearly as painful as some of the other ones. This one was almost warm and fuzzy, but that made Loki distrust it even more. He would have to keep an eye on this.

Over the next few weeks the group spent most of its time going over plans and battle strategies and working together. Working together was the class that Loki found himself failing immensely, and getting in trouble for it too. He kept 'accidentally' hitting Thor with magic or insulting another member instead of giving status updates over the communication systems. The only person able to get Loki to do anything helpful was Stark, and Loki could tell that it was amusing him to no end.

Fury was also getting very fed up with Loki, and Fury was really not someone you should allow to get fed up. Loki was extremely powerful, no one could deny that, but he was unruly and tended to only think of himself when in battle. He would let another Avenger get hurt if it meant that he himself would not get hurt. After so many years of acting like this, Loki found it extremely hard to start thinking of other people. It wasn't as if he still wanted to get people killed, he just had the selfish actions hardwired into his brain.

He told Stark this on one morning that they were sitting at the bar together. This had become a sort of tradition between the two of them, waking up a little earlier to avoid the others for just a little while and sitting at the bar eating breakfast, or in Loki's case drinking a cup of tea. They would talk quietly about whatever it was in the group that was troubling them or other trivial things. Loki found that he looked forward to talking to Stark, who seemed to understand him more than anyone else. And Loki found his calm, humorous responses to things that were troubling him almost comforting, making things less heavy and hard to deal with.

"You know, Fury really is going to roast you alive if you fail another one of those teammate training sessions," Stark said, stirring his coffee.

"I know, I just can't seem to make myself work with your friends without doing or saying something wrong," Loki said. "It's sort of a natural instinct for me. I always have to look after myself or somebody is going to kill me behind my back or something like that."

Stark smiled. "You have found yet another thing that you share in common with me," he said in an almost astonished voice. "I don't play well with others, they told me. When it comes down to it, taking care of 'number one' is most important."

"But you seemed to work through that," Loki said.

"Well, I had to, otherwise you would have destroyed the Earth with your minions and all," Stark said lightly. Loki would have bristled at anyone else saying that, but coming out of Stark's mouth it hadn't meant harm.

"Good to know you learned," Loki said dryly.

"Hey, we'll find a way to make you useful and make you one of us. Wouldn't it be cool to call yourself an Avenger?"

Loki's mouth twisted as he thought about this. He supposed it would be kind of nice to refer to himself as a good guy, instead of the one everyone detested. He nodded, smiling slightly.

Stark checked his watch. "Hey, you know, I don't think we have any training today. Fury is going to be working with Thor and the people at HQ to figure out more diplomatic stuff, but we are totally free. What do you say to going down to the workshop and throwing your magic at stuff to see what it does to it?" he said, smiling like a little kid who was asking to go to the toy store.

"While I don't think that throwing my magic around is a good thing, I do believe it would be interesting to see your workshop," he answered, putting his cup in the sink and dressing in normal clothing with a flick of his wrist. Today's clothes were even more casual than usual, with a grey t-shirt that had green stripes and deep blue jeans that fit magically. No matter what clothes he wore he still cut a pretty impressive figure, especially because of the hair.

"That trick is really handy," Stark mumbled, looking at Loki in awe, even though he had seen the god do this many a time before. Loki didn't really think much of it, he had been able to do it almost all of his life, but to a human he guessed it probably would be unbelievable.

They finished up in the kitchen and made it down to Stark's workshop before any of the others had awoken. Stark was going to ask Banner if he wanted to come down with them, but as Banner and all of the others were still fast asleep they thought it wasn't a good idea. Loki found himself looking around in awe. There were robots and machines everywhere, and a huge bank of computers that Stark must use for planning out his inventions.

"If you think this workshop is cool you should see my main one back in my home in California," Stark said, moving into the large room and turning on the computers with a wave of his hand. Designs for other projects were projected into the air, but Stark pushed them away with a wave of his hand. With another few motions of his hands he had pulled up the three-dimensional designs for his arc reactor. He picked up the projection and handed it to Loki, who took it tentatively.

"This is very interesting technology that allows you to be able to pick up things from your computer," Loki said, examining the projection that had absolutely no weight or feel in his hand.

"Yeah, just another one of my inventions," Stark said modestly. He took back the projection and sat down in his chair, gesturing for Loki to sit in the chair next to him. Stark spent the next hour or so trying to explain the technology behind his arc reactor to Loki, using the projections to show Loki what he meant. Loki was a pretty fast learner and understood it pretty well.

"You know, based on your explanations, it sounds as if this arc reactor technology is not far from my magic. You are so close to breaking into the realm of magic that you might want to start hiding this from the rest of your people quickly," Loki said.

"Don't worry, I have not given anyone the directions how to make this, and they are far from figuring it out themselves," Stark said, leaning back in his chair.

"I wonder…" Loki whispered to himself, letting his magic curl around his fingertips.

"What?" Stark asked him, breaking his concentration.

"Oh, nothing."

"Hey, do you mind if I hook you up to some of my energy reading devices and look at the results?" Stark asked him.

"As long as it can't kill me or do irreversible damage," Loki said, a slightly nervous expression on his face. He didn't trust machines.

"It won't hurt you as long as you don't sneeze while hooked up," Stark said calmly as he began to pull out the devices.

"What?"

"Here, put these on your temples and these ones on your forehead," Stark instructed him, ignoring his previous question. Loki did as he was told without any more protests, though he tried hard not to feel itchy around the nose area.

XxX

"Does everyone know the plan?" Fury asked as he paced back and forth in the main room of the helicarrier. The whole Avengers team and Loki were all on the ship sitting at the consultation table that was off to one side, all looking at Fury with the blank expressions of people who had been sitting and listening to Fury for longer than necessary.

"Yeah, we have gone over them like three times already," Tony groaned.

"Yeah, Agent Fury, we got it," Steve said, scratching his head.

"Alright, Thor, go talk to them and meet us back here as soon as possible," Fury said, and Thor nodded. He and Loki stood up. With their combined magic they were able to send Thor back to Asgard, where he would be telling the Chitauri that he wanted to hand over Loki to them for punishment. They would have to come take Loki from SHIELD on Earth, but if they got ahold of him they could have him. Thor would give them the place that they would be making the hand-off.

Loki and Tony would be waiting at the hand-off site, and once they spotted the Chitauri they would give the signal. That was when the others would attack, hopefully beating the smaller group that they had sent. Of course, this whole plan depended on Thor's communication skills and the Chitauri's want to get revenge on Loki. There was a good amount left to chance, and Tony knew that Fury was probably not very happy about that.

"Stark, Loki, get ready for departure," Fury said to them. Loki would have to wear handcuffs so that he looked like he was being detained by SHIELD, and Tony would only wear his Iron Man suit to fly down to where they would be waiting. He needed to take it off to act like it would be a peaceful hand-over.

Tony walked over to the side of the ship that had his suit in a locker. On the press of a button it sprung off of its hooks and formed around him. The displays inside the helmet lit up and adjusted and JARVIS's voice came on crisp and clear.

"Hello, sir."

"Hey, JARVIS, ready for another spin?"

"Yes, always ready."

Tony walked back out into the main room fully suited to find Fury yelling at Loki who was standing there with his arms straight by his sides and his face drawn in anger.

"You are going to get us all killed! I shouldn't have allowed Stark to take you in!"

Loki remained silent, anger coming off of him in waves. Tony stepped between them and popped his visor up to look at each of them. "You guys need to settle down. We already have the plan set. There is nothing that yelling at each other is going to accomplish."

"He started it," Loki mumbled, crossing his arms, and Tony couldn't help but chuckle, not knowing whether or not Loki had meant to make that a joke.

Fury looked at his fancy watch. "Time to go, Stark. If you put us behind schedule I will personally see to your execution," Fury said, and Tony didn't doubt one bit that he would.

Tony and Loki walked out onto the main deck of the helicarrier. "You better not drop me," Loki warned as he moved closer to Tony.

"Well, don't bother me," Tony responded and he grabbed ahold of Loki. "Hang on." And with that he took off. At the very last moment Loki clamped his hands around Tony's neck for more support, his eyes wide in anxiousness.

It was rather awkward flying longer distances holding onto another person. Tony usually used the blasters in his hands to stabilize himself, but that was not an option when he was holding onto Loki. It was a good thing that he had become a seasoned flyer or they might have just ended up in the side of a building, or the ground for that matter.

The building that they were headed to was a warehouse on the edge of the city near a place that had a smaller population to avoid getting innocent mortals in the way. It was a more secure location, and they were able to have cameras on the place from all angles to watch for the Chitauri's arrival. Tony landed right outside and let go of Loki, who moved away from him, looking grateful to be on solid ground again.

"Oh yeah, you need to give yourself some handcuffs," Tony told Loki, who materialized handcuffs around his wrists. "That gag too?" Tony asked, and Loki sighed. A few seconds later Loki was wearing the metal muzzle.

Tony nodded, and then gave a command to JARVIS. The Iron Man suit started to fold in on itself and became a little metal box with a handle. Tony hid it in a good spot outside the warehouse, making sure to remember where it was for later. He took out the little bracelets from his pockets and put them on his wrists to make sure that the suit would fasten to him when he needed it later on.

Both Tony and the newly shackled Loki made their way into the warehouse, which was empty other than a few dusty tables and the odd piece of ancient machinery. The place looked like it hadn't been touched in years, and the roof was crumbling away in places to let in sunlight.

Loki raised his eyebrows at Tony, and Tony imagined he meant something along the lines of, 'nice meeting place you got here.'

"Yeah, Fury does have interesting taste in architecture, doesn't he?" Tony said sitting down in a chair that looked a little less dusty than the others. Loki found another one near him, sitting awkwardly due to the fact that his hands were a little less useful than they usually were having been shackled.

They waited for a little while, and then the tiny earpieces in both of their ears buzzed to life.

"Stark, are you in position?" Fury asked.

"Yup, yup, Mr. Fury, sir," Tony said, smiling at Loki, who merely shook his head slightly.

"Good, now hold your position until we give you any more updates, got that?"

"I copy, over," Tony said again. Fury ignored his joking, as usual.

It was rather awkward, sitting in an empty warehouse waiting for something to happen, especially since the person you were sitting there with was gagged and unable to respond to you. Tony found himself blabbering on about his life back home and how he didn't actually miss it that much. Loki seemed to be listening, too, so Tony told him about his loneliness, about how nothing ever worked with any of the women that he had ever been with, about how he wished that there was someone out there that would understand his feelings. None of this was anything that he was usually comfortable saying, but the way that Loki was sitting there made him feel like he could trust Loki with all of this information. And over the weeks they had talked to each other about more and more and actually became the equivalent of friends.

"Stark, get ready. Thor is back and says that there is a large group of about thirty Chitauri or more headed for you. They should be there in about ten minutes," Fury said through the earpiece, and both Tony and Loki jumped in surprise, jolted from their one-sided conversation.

"Yeah, got it. Preparing ourselves," Tony said into his earpiece.

"Good," Fury responded. Tony didn't really know what he needed to do to prepare other than sit here and wait, because the Chitauri needed to see that he was not in his suit for them to trust him, and he wasn't going to leave the warehouse, so he just sat and waited, ready for some sort of action other than just sitting here anxiously.

Not that much later they heard a rather loud voice. It sounded like one of the Chitauri's leaders broadcasting his translated voice out for them to hear.

"Nice try, humans, but we can see right through your little trap," it said darkly. That was when there was a loud explosion and the whole warehouse started shaking. Loki looked up in alarm and his bonds were suddenly gone. He and Tony stood up quickly, but had no time to go anywhere as the building started to collapse on itself. Tony pressed a button on one of his bracelets, but it was far too late. All they were able to do before the building flattened itself on top of them was look at each other one last time.

A large piece of concrete landed over top of Tony, effectively pinning him to the floor, but also keeping more dangerous pieces from killing him. The only problem was that the concrete had hit him hard in the chest, cracking the glass on his arc reactor. He looked at it helplessly as it flickered, willing it to stay powered, because if it went out while he was in here, he was as good as dead. He might also die of suffocation or starvation if they didn't find him under here soon, but his arc reactor failing would kill him much faster.

The little light in his chest flickered off for a final time, going completely dark. Well, shit.

Please review! And sorry about the cliffhanger, I couldn't resist.