"Why doesn't he move?" Bruce asked, looking away from the screen to Thor. Tony had managed to tap into the security camera on Loki's cell, and now the seven of them were sitting around the living room, eating breakfast and watching for any sign of change. As of yet there hadn't been any. Loki hadn't moved from the cells bed since being left there, lying in a motionless heap with his back to the camera.

The god of thunder was sitting on the coffee table, chewing nervously on a pop tart and staring up at the security video like everyone else in the room was. He swallowed and shook his head. "I wish I knew. He's been like this since returning from father's punishment. He barely moves unless forced."

"I can work with that," Clint said, scowling at the pile of blankets that was Loki.

Coulson gave him a reprimanding stare, then looked to Thor and asked, "What exactly was your father's punishment for him? It'll be helpful to for Shield's therapists to know when they try to evaluate him."

Everyone turned to Thor with curious expressions, wanting to know what could have caused so much mental damage to the once confident god of mischief. Thor frowned as he thought about the wording. "Are you aware of a place known as Hel?"

"Hell? As in fire and brimstone Hell?" Clint asked.

"I don't- I suppose there could be fire-"

"No, Hel as in the underworld," Bruce interrupted from where he sat in front of the couch, at Tony's knee with the billionaire's fingers tangled in his hair. He looked over at the god apologetically. "Sorry, I thought it'd be easier."

Thor gave a relinquishing gesture. "No apologies necessary. Please, continue."

"Ah, well, Hel," Bruce spoke to Clint, "is the Norse, or in this case Asgardian, version of the afterlife. Unlike the Abrahamic Hell, which is reserved for punishment, the Norse Hel is where everyone ends up. Anyone who dies journeys to Hel. It's a tangible place though. I can't be sure of the accuracy of any mythology, but supposedly Odin traveled there."

Thor nodded quickly. "He has, several times. The All Father is the only one capable of returning from Hel, or retrieving lost souls."

"Question," Tony spoke up. "If everyone ends up in Hel, what's so bad about it?"

"The nature of the place depends on one's actions in life. So, as you can imagine, it likely wasn't pleasant for my brother. But only he and my father truly know what Loki went through."

"It doesn't sound like something everyone comes back from," Natasha said contemplatively, then elaborated at the slow blink Thor gave her. "I mean, just because someone can be brought back doesn't mean they should be. If their mind is gone, then what's the point?"

"Uh, guys-" Bruce called.

Thor scowled. "His mind isn't gone."

"How can you be sure?" Natasha expression was blank, but her stance was unsympathetic.

"Guys!"

"What?" they both snapped.

Bruce gestured at the screen in exasperation. "He's moving."

Everyone looked. Loki was sitting up on the edge of the bed, staring towards the door. Then a pair of armed guards came into the camera's view. "What are they doing?" Thor asked worriedly. They were in the process of standing Loki up and putting cuffs on him.

"Looks like they're taking him somewhere," Tony said. "Jarvis, follow them so Thor doesn't end up having a panic attack."

The image on the screen flicked and showed the hallway outside Loki's cell as he was led away, then again when they turned the corner. It followed until Loki was hustled into a room, the guards left standing outside the door. "Sir, I believe this is a therapy session. I would advise against eaves dropping," Jarvis chimed in.

"A therapy session?" Thor asked. "What does this mean?"

"I means they're figuring out if he's crazy or not." This came from Clint, who was smirking to himself maliciously.

Phil frowned and pulled out his phone. "I didn't think they'd be starting so soon," he said to himself, dialing and holding it to his ear. "Hey, it's Coulson. What's going on with Loki?... Yeah, but did you really expect him not to?... Yeah, I figured as much… Oh, really?... Sure, I'll relay that… Yep." Then he hung up.

"Did he say bye?" Tony asked before Phil could get a word out. "He hung up on you, right?"

The agent arched an eyebrow. "He never says goodbye, but I wouldn't exactly call it hanging up. It's more for the sake of efficiency."

Bruce was chuckling quietly. "Efficiency my ass," Tony grumbled. "And it's not funny."

"Yes, yes it is," Bruce said, smiling at Tony's glare. Then he looked back to Phil. "What's going on with Loki?"

"Charles Xavier is here to evaluate Loki. He came last minute. He's booked up for the next few weeks so Fury had him come in now."

Various impressed and surprised expressions passed through the group, except for Thor. "Who is Charles Xavier?"

"He's a mutant, a telepath to be specific. He reads minds."

"I wasn't aware such abilities occurred among humans," Thor said, mildly impressed. "Do you think he'll be able to help my brother?"

"That's what makes him a mutant. You know, there's still a lot you need to learn big guy," Tony said, patting Thor on the shoulder amicably. "But yeah, if anyone can help the nut case that is your brother it's Xavier. And don't complain about the nut case comment, you know it's true."

"Bag of cats," Bruce added.

Thor huffed but grudgingly nodded.

"Xavier wants to meet you once he's done with Loki, by the way. Fury told me to send you down," Phil said.

"Me? Why?"

Phil shrugged. "He didn't specify."

Thor sat in a chair outside the room Xavier and Loki were in, tiny waiting room furniture looking entirely too small for his frame. Tony sprawled next to him haphazardly, and Bruce in front of them, perched on the edge of the only available table. It wasn't a very big waiting area. Everyone else had declined to come, but Bruce had wanted to meet the professor, and Tony came for moral support, trying to be a casual unperturbed presence to defuse Thor's nerves. The guards on the door weren't helping the situation though. Thor kept glancing at them, and Tony shot them the occasional irritated look.

"They're just doing their jobs," Bruce murmured when he heard the other two shuffle again. He didn't even have to look up from the magazine he was reading to know Tony was glaring at the uniformed men. Tony just snorted.

"I understand the reasoning," Thor said eventually. "It just saddens me that it's necessary. I remember him as a babe. I remember protecting him when we were children, defending him. But he brings it on himself, and I can't protect him from that. The guards are simply an unpleasant reminder."

Then the door opened and they all looked to find Xavier holding the door for Loki. The guards were on him in an instant, cuffing and ushering him away, but the professor interrupted. "Could you leave him here? I may want to speak to him again once I'm done with his brother."

The guards looked at each other, then one spoke hesitantly. "I don't think we can to do that. We were told to bring him straight back at the end of his session."

"Well, his session isn't technically over until I say it is. And I think you can handle it if he gets out of hand, given the present company." Xavier smiled pleasantly at Bruce and Tony, then gestured for Thor. He promptly jumped to his feet, clapping his brother on the shoulder on the way past, and disappeared into the room.

The guards reluctantly guided Loki to the vacated seat, then backed away until one was guarding either direction down the hallway.

The former god sat tense and curled as far in to the seat as he could get, and the other two men were finally able to get a decent look at him. There were deep circles under his eyes, and his hair hung around his face without finesse, casting odd shadows over his gaunt bone structure. He was very carefully not looking at either of them, simply focusing on the floor, but it was easy to spot the dulled look in his eyes. Even the vibrant emerald green seemed to have faded away to grey. There was no fight left, no cunning, not even fear. Just resignation.

Something very much like guilt settled over Bruce.

Then he frowned and shook his head. Tony arched an eyebrow but decided he's ask later. The three sat in silence, nothing but the sound of air moving through the ducts and the occasional shuffle between them. Eventually Tony whipped out his phone, and Bruce went back to his magazine.

Thankfully Thor emerged quickly, followed by Xavier. The god's face was lost in thought, and Xavier gave him an understanding smile before wheeling over to the other three men. He gave Loki a knowing look, and the downtrodden man actually looked intrigued for a moment, before the guards jumped in and started pulling him away. Thor looked as if he wanted to follow, but grudgingly stayed.

" ," Xavier said, once Bruce was standing before him. "I've wanted to meet you for quite some time. I'm glad to finally get the opportunity." They shook hands and exchanged genial smiles, but Xavier sighed with a distinctly disappointed air. "However, I'm afraid my time here today is nearly up. I'd love to arrange another time to speak with you."

Bruce nodded. "I'd scramble to write my number down for you, but I'm sure you can probably get it pretty easily."

Suddenly two loud pops interrupted them, and they all turned to find a cloud of smoke come down the hallway. Then the sound of a scuffle and dripping purple blur came racing around the corner, immediately going to Thor and hiding behind his bulk. It didn't take long to realize it was Loki, for some reason covered in thick purple paint, then his guards were running after him, with slightly less paint on their uniforms, chattering into their mics. They glared furiously, but Thor stood his ground, blocking Loki defensively.

Tony broke first, laughing until he was doubled over and braced against the wall. "What happened?" Bruce asked, trying to remain calm to placate the alarmed professionals.

"There was a bomb!" one snapped.

"Two. A smoke, then a paint," the other corrected. Then he looked to Thor and actually had the audacity to glare. "We have to get him back to the cell, now."

Thor stared back icily and the distant roll of thunder could be heard, echoing deep into the building. The two men shrank a little from the look, and Thor turned his back on them. He murmured quietly to his brother, eyes wide and still dripping paint from his hair. Then he patted him gently on the shoulder and guided him towards the guards. "Lead, we'll follow," he said simply.

They disappeared, and Tony managed to compose himself. "That would be Clint," he said, giving one more small chuckle. "Should have known he was up to something when I found him in the lab." The other two nodded.

"Anyway, Professor Xavier, it was nice to meet you, but I think Tony and I should go find and alternative route upstairs," Bruce said, shaking hands one last time. "I look forward to hearing from you."

"Of course. I'm expecting director Fury any moment now, so you'll hear from me."

Tony grabbed Bruce by the arm at that and started pulling him away. "Come on, I know he's gonna try to pin this on me, let's go." Then Bruce was dragged away, with one final wave back.

Around the bend and midway down the hall they heard a furious, "Who the hell did this?!" and Tony giggled maniacally.\

So, I had a hard time convincing myself to include anything X-Men in here, because originally my thinking was super heroes are super heroes because they're rare, and mutants are somewhat common, which makes the Avengers less special. So for a while I was against putting any crossover things in here. But then I got to thinking that most mutants are lower classes, and not very strong, so they're not really super heroes. And the ones that are strong enough to be super heroes are rare, so basically if you're strong enough to be a super hero then you're special. And there's a lot of bad crap going on in the world, you can't expect just one super hero group to take care of everything that goes down. So it's logical to have more than one super hero team. And my logic is that Xavier has mutants covered, so Shield doesn't touch that. So if one group of super heroes reacts to a crisis its like "We got this, bro. We got this." Unless they go out of their way to ask for help, a worse comes to worse sort of thing. Anyway, yep, just logicked the shit out of that. Oh, and yes, we are ignoring the fact the Xavier died in the movie. In my head this is kind of pre X-Men movies.

Okay, so now its FEEDBACK TIME! Yay! Okay, so I'm thinking I'll pair Loki with Thor as a tertiary pairing. But then I had this vague thought that I could do a three part relationship with Tony, Bruce, and Loki, but I don't know. Both options have potential for plot, so I'll just leave it to opinion. Otherwise, barring feedback, I'll draw a choice at random.