A/N:

1)Sincere thanks for reviews and encouragement goes to: MYsweetAngel, calicojack, Psyche102, Abandon-Morality, icis182, Gilraen Elensar, Aquaburst, L WAS HERE, HowlynMad, simply anonymous, MalfoyMaladyoftheDark, Anon and anon, FireSenshi2, WrenWeir, kitkatthevampirelover92, my feathered scales, Kina-chan, NinjaxxxApocalypse, and WatsWitDaMonkey. As usual, I'll respond via PM to anyone I can.

Also, thanks for all the faves, alerts, etc, it is most encouraging.

2) Sincere apologies to anyone waiting on updates for Stark Realizations and Heart of the Storm. They should be here within a few days. I've had to get back to work again, and things are insanely hectic. Well, that and with the DVD release of "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows", I've been on a bit of a Holmes bender which may or may not result in some kind of publication (I don't know if it's actually any good yet).

3) I'm on youtube now! with the username "Astra Eightyseven", and I have made two vids, both Iron Man character-study videos, set to a couple Linkin Park songs that I think fit the character perfectly (and I happen to really like).

Since I cannot put the link here, the titles are "IRON MAN - What I've done" and "IRON MAN - In The End", though since a lot of people have made similar vids, if you're looking for mine, best to google my username.

Anyone who wants to drop by, or who finds Tony Stark as amazing as I do, come say hi :-)

4) I hope I did this justice. This one is from Tony's POV (though most chapters will be Loki's) because I wanted to get inside his head a bit. Of course I tried to write him as Tony Stark with some subtle Sherlock Holmes traits (or at least comparisons) and some vague vestiges of memories from his previous life, so I hope I did ok.

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(Tony's POV)

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Tony knows he should sleep. He feels exhausted and injured enough that he really doesn't need Jarvis's incessant reminders of the fact, and yet here, sitting in his empty darkened bedroom, he finds that his mind is running too far, too fast, and in too many directions to allow him any rest at all.

Seeing Loki again, standing just a couple feet from him had been…. unsettling, and not exactly in the ways it should have been.

Last time he'd seen Loki, he'd momentarily panicked, certain that his luck had finally run out, but even then, he'd noticed a strange…. something in the trickster's usually cavalier demeanor. Hesitation? regret? fear?

The time before that, all he can remember of Loki's expression is the manic cruel grin laced with an edge of insanity that had filled his HUD, between flashing red warnings that he'd chosen to ignore, right before all perception shattered beneath the tidal wave of pain that engulfed him as the shattered remnants of his armor ripped into him, and he knew he was dying.

After that – nothing…. nothing until waking up and seeing what he'd first assumed was a sure sign that everyone who said that PTSD would catch up to him and drive him crazy - despite his conviction that he was handling it fine - had been right, because he just had to be hallucinating….. only to realize that yes, Thor's deranged little brother was in his bedroom, and noticing even though his abortive attempt to get the hell out of there ASAP that something was just off with the Trickster.

Beneath Loki's veneer of silk and deadly ice, Tony had always sensed something broken in the immortal, forever buried deep beneath his air of invulnerability. Now all those broken pieces are poking through the shattered veneer like shrapnel from within, revealing just how damaged Loki is inside, and though Tony should not care – not after all this – he cannot stop asking why?

What exactly had he missed that had done this to a god?

The facts simply do not add up, something which annoys Tony as much as the rare bug in his code - though the latter is far easier to find and fix - and instead of sleeping, he finds himself trying to fit the misshapen puzzle pieces together.

Loki having drawn an apparent truce with Thor and living peacefully under the same roof?... not a chance in hell, but there's no denying that it happened – though how long it will last is another matter entirely.

Loki having saved his life – or so he's been told – after having very nearly killed him? …. the latter is not nearly as disturbing as the former.

After all, with SHIELD and the Avengers needing Tony more than they cared to admit – both for Iron Man and the Stark genius – killing Tony made perfect sense. Loki had done his homework, clearly; he'd found Tony's greatest vulnerability with more accuracy – he'd understood him better – than most of the Avengers, starting with Cap…. and in truth Tony expected nothing less.

Saving his life though? ….. weird.

Saving his life right after very nearly ending it? …. even more weird.

Surrendering peacefully to SHIELD? …. now that's plain freaky.

It is not as if Tony believes that Loki is not further ahead than he seems to be. He's pretty sure that Loki can find a way out of that anklet if he puts his mind to it, and the logical explanation is that Loki is screwing with him – with all of them.

Hell, Loki is the god of mischief and chaos…. that would be right up his alley, but despite that fact, Tony cannot shake the intuition that this ….. anomaly…. is something else.

Even more disturbing than this study in contradictions is the fact that at some level, Tony feels like he knows Loki.

It would be confusing enough if Tony felt that he simply understands the Trickster - and has a tad more faith in his motives than any sane man should have. That alone he could chalk up to the fact that after learning a bit of Loki's history, he knows that they have actually a lot in common, even though they've dealt with their problems in entirely different ways.

But that would be too simple. Instead, what's bothering Tony more than anything is something which resembles an irretrievable indistinct memory lurking in the back of his mind – a memory which tells him that he's known Loki before all this, a memory that makes him want to care for the Trickster despite everything.

That might be what is most wrong about all this, because Tony does not forget… ever. He might get busy enough that he misses important dates because time (along with sleep and food) becomes utterly irrelevant when he's in the throes of creativity….. but he does not forget facts - be they schematics, formulae, lines of code, people he's known, or the precise location in his shop of some tiny tool buried by the chaos of hurricane Anthony – his mind keeps it all.

How in hell can he feel like he knows Loki this well when for certain he has never met him before in his life?

Annoyed, Tony gets to his feet, pacing restlessly. He could do with some music right now – nothing like blasting some heavy metal to slow down the chaos in his mind, even if just a little. Or at least something to work on with his hands while he tries to solve the puzzle of Loki's behavior, because the functioning of his own mind in this case is a mystery which he's not even sure how to approach.

Deciding that he can make it down to his shop without alerting Pepper or doctors…. or anyone else who will order him back to bed rest under threat of sedation, Tony slips out the back door to his bedroom, and heads down to his shop.

Of course, Jarvis protests his decision, and as usual Tony ignores the computer's advice, but he still smiles a little. After all Jarvis is the one great constant in his life…. the one person who will never willingly leave him and never turn on him…. and it's good to have that connection, even if Jarvis is indeed just a computer.

His body protests every step, but it's not as if he's ever paid it any heed before – not at least when his mind demands to be satisfied – and why should he worry anyway? He knows that if he manages to overdo it yet again, Jarvis will call for help, regardless of what his creator wants. That's directive 4, and Jarvis has stubbornly kept it in effect since he'd field-tested the Mark II.

"Jarvis. Pull up everything you have on Loki since out last fight in Manhattan."

There is no mistaking the subtle but very real anger and bitterness in the computer's tone as he replies:

"You mean since he tried to kill you – and very nearly succeeded."

Tony simply nods, continuing calmly: "Yep, get me that too while you're at it. SHIELD surveillance, private satellites, everything…. Run into any firewalls? Hack 'em."

He starts to assemble a new suit of armor as Jarvis works, smiling slightly at the mortification in his computer's tone when Jarvis informs him – or perhaps more accurately complains to him – that all his in-house surveillance of Loki is corrupted, but that he does have composite satellite imagery of everything else.

Still working, Tony views the satellite imagery, then puts aside his tech as he has Jarvis do a frame-for-frame analysis of the fight where he'd almost died, focusing on Loki.

He sees the precise moment when Loki's expression changed from manic glee to horrified devastation, the moment when the trickster had gone from fighting like an enraged cornered tiger to an apathetic punch-sack for a team of enraged superhumans, and based on Jarvis's reconstruction, he knows that whatever happened – in Loki's mind no less – happened while Loki had been watching him dying.

But what was it?

There is little useful information in the scattered surveillance that follows. Loki had not been outside much, and clearly he'd been emitting something that interfered with local sensors.

Leaning back in his chair as he stretches his aching body, Tony sighs, then abruptly chuckles at the irony of the fact that had Loki been from this world, it would be easy enough to find the missing information. Tony's yet to meet a computer system he cannot break in to. Asgard, though – with no computers that he knows of - is a different matter entirely, and that means he'll have to gather information the old fashioned way: observation.

Of course, it's going to be technologically enhanced observation, and he spends the rest of his little remaining energy coding data-filtering algorithms into Jarvis's sensors so that the interference that's practically boiling off his new…. guest (for lack of a better term)… cannot blind them anymore.

Hours later, Tony's fairly certain that his upgrades have fixed the problem, and decides to catch a couple hours of sleep, after wearily telling Jarvis to wake him if – or more accurately when - anything happens that he should know about, at the computer's discretion.

The concern in Jarvis's tone is again unmistakable:

"You will allow him to stay here?"

Laying on the couch in his workshop as if this is any other time that he's been forced – by exhaustion alone - to take a rest from his work, Tony only shrugs and replies:

"For now, Jarvis. It's the only way I can figure out what's really going on."

He suppresses a smile at the pregnant pause which could well have been a sigh of exasperation had Jarvis been human, because Jarvis knows him well enough to realize that no amount of argument will deter his creator when he's working on the solution to so engaging a problem.

When finally the computer does reply, the resignation in his tone is palpable:

"I would recommend extreme caution, Sir."

Tony smiles, closing his eyes, as he replies quietly, and with more than a little irony:

"Duly noted. Come on, J, you know me. I'm always cautious."

Jarvis does not bother to respond, though it's easy to tell that the computer has bit back an acerbic 'hardly', and Tony lets exhaustion overtake him, musing to himself that though cautious is the last thing he will likely ever be described as, he does know how to be cautious when it matters.

He's cautious when it comes to keeping his tech out of the hands of those who would do harm with it, and he's cautious when it comes to the safety of those he cares for. His own safety? not so much…. but he does not know Loki's intentions, does not know if this is a trick, what is the Trickster's endgame.

So yes, he'll be cautious – more than his usual – but that still does not stop him from wanting to understand why, from wanting to study Loki until he can find the solution to this …. unsolved problem in chaos theory.

After all, Tony Stark has always thrived on challenges.