For a moment, Stark looks almost peaceful, half sitting, half lying on the chair, the robotic arm pulling his arc reactor out. In this exact moment, everyone seems to hold their breath, even the machines seem to skip their buzzing for a second. In this absolute silence, Fury takes a look at Dr. Banner, standing next to him, his brows furrowed, biting his lip and clenching his fists. Everything happens in slow-motion. Banner's fists unclench slowly, in his eyes Fury can see a glimmer of hope, when the arc reactor is separated from Stark's body without anything happening.

The second Dr. Banner turns his head and locks his eyes with Fury's, the second the S.H.I.E.L.D. director can see the relief in them and the small smile forming on the doctor's lips, in exact this second the screaming starts.

It doesn't even sound human. Reluctantly, Fury looks over to Stark, whose head is in a weird angle, his mouth opened widely. From what he can see, his eyes are rolled back into the sockets, so that only the white of his eyes is visible. Stark's hands are clenched to fists, his fingers twitching every now and then and Fury can see a trail of blood from where his nails are digging into his skin. The ECG shows an alarmingly high heart rate, rising with each second and instantly, a bunch of doctors are bending over him, shouting across the room and trying to calm him down.

In the meantime, a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are taking the arc reactor into another room. They are probably trying to get as much information out of it as possible and with the state Stark's in, they have to be as fast as possible. The team of doctors is trying everything to cram the other arc reactor into Stark's chest, but for whatever reason, they don't succeed.

The silence that follows next is everything but peaceful. Fury glances to Dr. Banner, who widens his eyes in horror when he sees Stark's head slamming back at the chair, his eyes closed. One of the doctors is turning around to them and calmingly waves a hand at them as if he wanted to say that everything is under their control, but that doesn't wipe the look of pure horror from Banner's face.

"He either was in such pain his body shut down or the impact of energy released inside of him was too great for him to bear, so that he lost consciousness," the doc mutters toneless.

"They couldn't sedate him, they didn't know if the magic would react to the sedatives. Otherwise, they would've done it." He closes his eyes, taking a deep breath before looking at Stark again, who is still not moving. His skin is incredibly pale and blue energy wavers at the edges of the opening for the arc reactor, tinting Stark's chest and face a lifeless blue-grey, but it is getting less and less, as if the magic inside of Stark is losing power. The ECG shows he's stabilizing again, but he doesn't look healthy at all.

"Why wouldn't they wait before almost killing him? Why does he have to go through this the second time today?" Banner doesn't look at him, his gaze is still fixed on Stark and his arms are crossed – he looks as if he has to hold himself together, or he would break otherwise. And from the look of his skin, which is slightly tinted green, Fury knows that his assumption is correct. He opens his mouth, to tell Banner to keep calm, but closes it again.

Rule #1: Don't tell an angry person to calm down. Especially if this person transforms into a huge, green rage monster.

"It is necessary to do this as fast as possible. Stark is a ticking time-bomb. We don't know what the magic inside of him can do. He might be a danger for all of us and most of all for himself."

Now it's time for Banner to look directly at him.

"What are you going to do, when the tests are over? You have no idea what the magic is going to do, if it controls Tony or otherwise! The only thing we know for sure is that Tony has this huge amount of magic in his body, but other than that, nothing!"

"Banner. Go." The doc is green all over. Wasn't it for the anger management training he has absolved over the past few months, he would probably hulked out already.

"I'm not going anywhere. Not until they are finished."

They don't talk for a few moments, both staring at the motionless Stark.

"Next thing I am going to do is talking to Thor. He has at least some knowledge about Asgardian magic. If I must, I will talk to Loki. Maybe "real power" will answer some questions, now that he isn't all that powerful anymore. But that's about all I can do. There's a team of agents working on finding out what kind of magic it is we are talking about, but we don't exactly have the right equipment for it, which is why we have to move fast here. We don't need having to work against time, too."

"Whatever it is, it is in both Tony and the arc reactor, and doesn't want to be separated," Banner points out, when the arc reactor is brought back. Instantly, the energy in Stark gets brighter and finds his way to the reactor, until they are linked together. As soon as the robot arm releases the arc reactor, and it is pushed back into Stark's chest, the billionaire's skin color seems to normalize again.

It's over. Both of them are staying for a few more minutes, watching Stark and not saying a word until Fury steps back from the glass wall that separates them from him.

"I'm talking to Thor."

"I'm staying until Tony wakes up."

On the way to his office, he checks the data that has been collected. Apparently, the amount of energy stored in Stark's chest and arc reactor could easily power a small village for over a month. Most of it is stored in the arc reactor, and the magic in Stark's body is diminishing fast without it, but if he believed the results, simply waiting for the energy to vanish from his body wouldn't work – Stark's vital functions were slowly declining without the arc reactor, which means for whatever magic Stark is playing host at the moment, it stays where it is.

The only positive aspect Fury is able to discover before reaching his office is that Stark is most likely not mind-controlled. The energy inside of him shows many similarities with the data they have collected from Barton, but it is clearly not the same. Of course, none of this is more than speculation, as they don't have enough data to compare the magic with in the first place. But it has to suffice for now.

Thor is already waiting for him when he opens the door to his office, sitting in one of the chairs in front of the desk, his arms crossed and Mölnjir leaning next to him.

"Fury," he mutters and nods, when the director is crossing the room.

"Thor."

Fury sits down on his chair behind the desk and lays the tablet with the data on it before him, for Thor to see.

"What is it that you want to ask me?" Thor openly stares at Fury, his brows furrowed.

"I need information. About magic. There has been an incident with Tony Stark and we have reasons to believe that your brother is behind all this."

"Then why are you asking me and not my brother?" Thor asks, his voice angered.

"I simply prefer talking to you first."

There is a moment of uncomfortable silence between them, before Fury continues.

"As you may have heard, Stark is having panic attacks. Now, here's the thing, the panic attacks may have been caused by magic. We have traced extremely high amounts of magic in Tony and his arc reactor, and the magic is clearly Loki's. What's more, Stark claims he has some kind of mental link to your brother. So, we're pretty sure he's not mind-controlled, also that would have worn off by now. Is there anything you know about magic? Anything that can help us here?"

The thunderer brushes his hair back with both of his hands.

"I am by far not the right one to ask. There are only few things I know about magic, as I have never studied it."

"Try. Anything."

"Humans are not suitable for storing high amounts of magic in their bodies, normally magic vanishes after some time. Also, the human body is very fragile and cannot bear magic for long. I am afraid this is all I know."

"So, what you are saying is that we should get rid of the magic asap? Are there any harmful side effects that could occur when we don't?"

"As I said, I am by no means an expert. But it would be advisable to eliminate the magic, as it is for sure not beneficent for Anthony's body."

"So, are there any sorcerers in Asgard that could do this for us?"

"No." Thor's voice is sincere and again Fury senses anger.

"No?"

"For one, a spell can only be countered by the one who casts it. And this is my brother we speak of. Were this the work of another sorcerer, there could be a few skilled users of magic who would be able to lift a spell someone else has cast, but my brother is one of the most powerful sorcerers of Asgard. Secondly, my father would not simply send one of the few sorcerers Asgard has to Midgard. Wielders of magic are far too valuable to send them onto different realms, especially since Odin cannot rely on Loki anymore."

"But you could have a word with your father."

"I don't think so."

Fury raises his eyebrows, looking questioningly at Thor. What is he up to? Normally, Thor is very, very direct, but today it doesn't seem like it.

"I will not talk to my father about anything before you do not start sticking to your part of the agreement between you and him. As I remember, you have obtained the Tesseract in exchange for taking care of Loki. My father wants him to amend his behavior, to rehabilitate if you want to call it like that. He wants you and the Avengers to take care of him, show him what it means to be human and do everything in your power for him to understand what he has done. But this agreement does not say anything about putting him into a cell and constantly observe him. Loki did not come to Midgard as your prisoner, so why are you treating him like one?"

The last sentence obviously comes out louder than Thor has planned.

"You have to understand one thing, Thor. We don't trust Loki. Which is why you can't expect us to let him walk in here, with us being unprotected. He is a potential threat and we don't know for sure if his magic is bound. Our magic tracker only shows us that there is magic in him, not if he actually has access to it. So the only thing we can do is waiting and observing."

"You could trust me. I am one of your team."

"He is your brother."

"I have delivered him to Odin by myself. He has wronged many of us, including myself and I assure you, I would never let him walk on Midgard freely with full access to his powers. He is not worthy of them, like I have not been worthy of my hammer when Odin banished me to this realm."

"Still. I can't just let him free."

"Sooner or later this will come to Odin's notice."

"Okay, listen. This is not a favor for your brother. But we have to think about Stark. His life probably is in danger. So, answer me this question. Do you think Loki is the only one capable of helping him?"

"Yes. If it is true what you are saying and it is his magic in the man of iron's body, then he is."

There isn't exactly much he can do. If this shit with Stark hadn't happened, he would be able to bargain. He would be able to do something, but now Stark is number one priority, if he likes it or not. So the only hope they have is for Loki to become worthy of his powers again. This, and for Loki to be willing to lift the spell or whatever it is from Stark. Which of course he won't do if they let him rot in his cell.

"So the only thing I can do is let him free and hope for him to cooperate."

"Exactly."

"What if Loki won't regain his powers again? Or too slowly? What if we are running out of time?"

"Then I will do anything in my power to save Anthony Stark's life. But don't mistake this as a favor to you, director Fury."

"Of course not."

Thor smiles sweetly and gets up.

"I wish you a pleasant day, director."