Hela left Loki alone in that dark recess of his mind. He began to weave another portal to get himself home. He was half way through when he was interrupted by a cough. This was Loki's mind. Hela could get there, sure, but she was connected to him, of course she was, she was his daughter. He recognised that cough? But it was not one of his son's. Loki turned to look behind him. "Odin" Loki's voice was cold, but not as harsh as he'd have liked. He didn't have the energy to be spiteful.
"son" Odin's voice was soft, fond loving.
"what are you doing here?"
"I have been watching you. You have changed. A human has cured you Loki." Loki knew that Tony had brought him happiness, healed his wounds, but changed? Loki hadn't joined the good side. "I am sorry if I have hurt you in the past but you may return now. Come with me Loki, come back to Asgard. Rule with me." Loki snorted
"what? Alongside that beast" he spat. "he killed... He killed my..." Loki's voice broke again. "Stark" he sobbed. He had never shown such weakness as he had that day, but he did not care. He had been stripped, everything had been taken again. But this time... What was left?
"Thor made a mistake." Loki snorted again. "Thor has not been allowed to return to Asgard." Loki looked up "Come with me son. You have proven yourself worthy. Come with me, and you can rule once again." Odin's voice was soft, but it held great power. Loki let out a strangled noise followed by a croak.

"what's the point father. What is there left for me." he almost winced at the word 'father' but Odin smiled.
"I do not know son. But what is there here? Your mother, she yearns for you. Sleipnir. Come home Loki." Loki fell to his knees once again. He didn't care for Asgard, but there there were books, spell books. We're there some left. The dark ones, the tales if resurrection. Research, he would go back for research. If there was any hope, any hope for Tony... Loki looked up and nodded towards the allfather. He was not in armour, but as he moved towards Loki and touched his shoulder, the brilliant gold appeared. "HEIMDALL!" the god boomed.

In a flash of many colours, they were gone.

"Time in Asgard passes differently to how it does on Midgard Loki. You will have a number of weeks here until a day passes in Midgard. However, you must not linger long, the Doctor awaits you." Heimdall had never liked Loki much, but he had observed him over his time in Midgard and the prince was beginning to grow on him. "Now go, study. He will not wait long." Loki nodded. He would meet Frigga later, for now, he had work to do.

As a precaution, Bruce was made to stay in HQ. He was sat outside the holding cell, if Thor tried anything, he was the one with the most reasonable chance of stopping him. Not that any escape seemed likely.

Fury was with the others. They were in a large hall. Most of it was filled with office chairs. On the other end of the room was a low podium with a long table and seven seats which faced out towards the room. On the table there were a number of microphones set up. The room was lit by many bright spotlights on the ceiling. The avengers conference room.
Sat in the centre of the row was Fury. To his left was Natasha, to her's was Clint and to his was Thor's empty seat. On te right of Fury was Steve. Beside him were two empty seats. Bruce's and at the end... Tony's. Nobody could keep their eyes from that seat. Even Fury had a little trouble looking straight ahead. This was wrong. They weren't the Avengers anymore. They were supposed to be earth's mightiest heroes... There were only three of them.

Steve was in a slight daze. He barely notice the crowds of people in front of him. The big blur that they were, the flashing lights of the cameras mixed with the harsh lifts from above him. His forehead was coated in a thick layer of sweat. He was dizzy. He reached for the glass of water in front of him. It was all gone. He reached for the jug in front of fury. He clumsily splashed the water into his glass and brought it to his lips. He could barely make out Fury's words.
"...unfortunate training accident. Mr. Thor is currently healing at HQ..." some of the water splashed onto Steve's front."... No civilian casualties..." the cool water evaporated almost instantly from Steve's chest "... Unfortunately after the incident, Mr. Stark, also know as iron man..." Steve reached clumsily for the jug again, only to find his hands fumbling with the air.

Steve suddenly became horribly aware or a man sitting in the seat two places to the right. Tony's seat.

Long pale fingers clasped the handle of the jug and poured some water into a glass recently conjured by another hand of long, elegant fingers.
Loki.

Steve stood, suddenly on the offensive. At this fury and Natasha also leaps to their feet. They left only Clint sitting, unphased by this new development.

"oh please, please, I mean you no harm." the God addressed the party. None of them eased even a little. Clint merely raised an eyebrow. "I am simply here to tell the truth." Fury moved as if to protest, then decided against it.
"I won't even bother to try to arrest you." fury took his seat and addressed the rest of the room "may I simply remind you that this is the man who tried to enslave mankind, take over the world and has been nicknamed 'liesmith'. I wouldn't believe a word he says."
Loki shrugged. The god more round to the front of the table, perching on the edge of it. He grabbed a microphone from beside him and began to make his statement.

"Training exercise." Loki snorted "Tony stark was my lover." the God held in a tear. A few gasps emulated from around the room. The God also got a number of eyebrow raises. "Tony Stark was a great man" Loki swallowed "and he does not deserve his honor to be taken from him like this. My brother... My 'brother'... THOR..." Loki was unable to continue. He mentally counted to ten.
"Why do you think that Thor and the hulk are not here?" there were a few shrugs. "He killed m- He killed my- he..." Loki's voice left him and he struggled to regain his composure.

"THOR FUCKING KILLED TONY STARK!" but the voice didn't come from Loki. If he had expected an outburst like this, he would have thought it would be Steve. But on a second glance, Steve barely seemed able to stand, let alone speak.
The words came from the Hawk. Loki really wasn't expecting this.
Clint hadn't moved. He was still sat with his forehead in his hands. Loki was stunned. He barely choked out a feeble yes. There were more camera flashes and each person in the crowd fought to get their voice heard and their question answered above the rest. Loki was gone. He was back in the extensive library of Asgard, a particularly large tome before him. That's when he had the idea. That book inside the mountain, that one Tony was reading...

Three days of no sleep and solid work. The result was a near-complete Tony-bot sitting on his desk. It looked exactly like stark, doom had even made a mini arc reactor. All he needed to do now was to download footage of Stark onto his robot, to make it behave as he did. Doom could then control the rest from the outside. Yes. He had done well. The rest of the plan had been sorted. All was well.

If Loki could use this book to resurrect tony by making a deal with a 'devil' then all would be well. He highly doubted the existence of such a devil, maybe a fire giant or keeper of Hel. No, fire giant. Hela couldn't help, he'd already tried that. If he could just find what they wanted, tony could be free.

What about Odin? Maybe he'd have to ask him for help.

Tony had 'died' before, but he'd really just fallen off the radar. In Afghanistan, they all thought Tony was dead, but he had kept on searching. Had found Tony alive. Barely.

Rhodes reached for the manual release of the manual release of the suit. Tony had to put it right at the back where he'd never reach it. When he found Tony, he'd have to get some updates. If he found tony.

Rhodey's scrabbling for the back was interrupted by the hollow click of heels on the floor. He turned on the spot to see Pepper standing in the bedroom doorway. She had been staying with him. She needed someone around. With a smile she came to stand behind Rhodey. She had often had to help Tony with the suit. It was probably why he put it there, so she'd have to help him remove it. Tony always did things like that.

She pulled the release and Rhodey felt the armour move around him. Once all the fastenings undid themselves, Pepper slid her hands around his neck from behind, removing his helmet in one quick movement. She threw it onto the bed but kept her arms wrapped around Rhodey's neck. As Rhodes turned to face her, she kept her hands in place. Pepper could feel the cool breath on her forehead. Their eyes met and Rhodey stood back, leaving Pepper to look a little hurt and embarrassed.

Once across the room, Rhodey stood out of his suit and drifted back to Pepper. As Pepper's smile returned, he wrapped his hands around her waist and let hers return to his neck. This was wrong. They couldn't do this now, Tony was dead. But they had wanted this for so long, Tony being their only barrier. They both wanted to stop, it felt like dancing on Tony's grave, but neither could stop.
Pepper looked up at Rhodes as he bent down to kiss her slight mouth carefully. This had to mean something. He had always loved her. One of Rhodes' hands reached down to lift Pepper by the thighs. He did not break the kiss as he moved her round and lowered her onto the bed before climbing on top of her.

"Son, you have a visitor" Loki looked up from his desk.
"Sleipnir!" he cried, rushing forward with his arms open. He buried his head into the horses shoulder. "My dear sleipnir..." he whispered into his neck. Loki stood back to look into his sons eyes. He hadn't realised how long it had been. Tony had uh... Distracted him... Loki smiled to himself. "Odin, I truly thank you." his voice sounded completely sincere for once in a long time.
"I wanted to remind you son, that even without this man, there is still something left." with these final soothing words Odin returned to the throne room, closing the large golden doors behind him, leaving Loki alone with his son.
Loki led the dark horse over to his desk. "come, you can help me" Loki returned to his reading, memorising the long spell in his head. He was now more hopeful, something he could blame on the majestic animal stood behind his shoulder, breathing on his tired neck gently.

As Loki recited the words, a portal formed in front of him, it was not unlike the last one. This one was darker in the middle and slightly purple in the edges. It still wasn't entirely stable, but this would have to do, he had grown impatient. With a turn and a last smile to sleipnir, Loki was gone, through the purple and into the dark, sweltering heat.

A/N

No Pepper, No! DON'T DO IT!

Okay, so I kinda wanted chapter 10 to be monumental, seeing as it was the TENTH chapter and whatnot. I was originally going to make it super long, but it ended up being super short, sorry guys. I just think it needed to stop here. This was the right place to end it!

Okay, so cause it's chapter 10 and I haven't done anything special, I'm going to give you a little something which really doesn't go with the plot or anything. I'm going to post some related art to my DA okay. There's already some stuff up there if you take a loook before I've posted today. its doctormaz . deviantart. com but without spaces.

You have made me smile so much with your reviews. Keep 'em coming guys!