A/N: There really are no excuses for the long wait, except, life sucks and it's exhausting. I help take care of my disabled parent, and I've started University again, and I've volunteered in different organizations to bring a good and happy change to life. And that has also brought me back to my fanfics. I adore everyone who loves these fics, and has stuck by in the long haul. Expect new and fresh stuff first, but I'm going to focus on finishing what I have first. You all deserve the best, not something rushed and that makes no sense.
I don't own Marvel, or the Avengers, or Loki, or any of that stuff. I own Naiden though, and anything that doesn't actually exist in the Marvel Universe.
"You had the tesseract?" Bruce asked, blinking. "When did you have time to take it?"
"When didn't I have time to take it?" Loki responded calmly. "Did any of you actually see the tesseract before or after the failed invasion?" After a few moments of thinking Bruce shook his head no. "It stayed very centralized inside of Tony's Tower, until I, swiped it, from under Thanos' grasp."
"Maybe the better question would be when did you have time to give it Thor?" Bruce amended his question. Tony was a little curious himself. "When the battle inside the Tower was over, you and Tony weren't even conscious."
"You can ask your Captain and Widow that I was in contact with Thor right after escaping Thanos' grasp, I had Naiden with me." Tony glanced over to see that Naiden had his arms folded out on the fort, chin resting on his arms. "As I entrusted his safety to Thor, I also made the exchange of putting the cosmic cube into his possession as well. I knew that if the unlikely event of me falling in battle were to happen, then I wouldn't want such a powerful item on when so many would be coming after me."
"And Thor would then know to get the cube out of there," Bruce nodded a bit. "Any idea on when he'll be back?"
"I'm not sure," Loki shook his head. "I did a good deal of damage in Asgard before I, left, making travel a little different, and probably a bit difficult."
"How did he get here before? When he stole you off the quinjet?" Tony tilted his head a little to look at Loki. "Which, I was not pleased with, by the way." Loki let a little smirk cross his face.
"I presume that Odin helped him get down here, with such a delicate situation happening." Loki waited as Tony adjusted his position again, not taking his arm away from holding onto the smaller man.
"Why not just send the guards from Asgard? Or the strike team, I know Asgard has a secret strike team." Loki hummed a little at Tony's words.
"Because Thor still considers me as family, and family takes care of their own first," Loki started to explain. "It is actually a great insult to send someone who isn't related, or in the immediate family, to deal with a situation. I should be honored, I suppose."
"Hey, we came to deal with you," Naiden spoke up, smiling. Loki let his smirk grow to a smile at the elf. "So yeah, you Should be honored."
"You have been teaching him too much," Loki said to Tony. "I should not have let you influence him so much."
"I'm going to take that as a compliment," Tony preened. "And I didn't do all the teaching, our boy here was accepted into seven colleges, on his first try, and they wanted to pay him to come." Naiden rolled his eyes a little with a soft smile; he knew that Tony would always be proud of that. "He's got two more years until he gets his bachelor's, and then we'll see if he maybe wants to continue on to a Master's-"
"Jumping the bit a little, aren't we?" Naiden interrupted. I've still got to find a career before I go straight into a Master's degree. The Bachelor's is hard enough."
"There are different levels to the education system here?" Loki asked, listening to them talk. While he was also proud of the young elf for being accepted into so many Midgardian schools, he didn't know the meaning behind the different levels attributed to said education.
"It's more complicated than you would think," Naiden told him before Bruce cleared his throat a little.
"Right, well, there's your answer," Tony said to Bruce, the one Avenger he considered a friend above all else. "Thor has the Tesseract and is giving it back. Does that mean we can go now?"
"I'm not sure," Bruce shrugged. "You know we're not getting all the information." Tony snorted a little.
"I'm still serious about that offer, Brucey," Bruce raised an eyebrow at Tony. "Once the Tower gets all fixed up, play around int he labs. R&D is going to be better than ever, Candyland, just like...," Tony frowned when he felt a twinge in his neck, and felt Loki's body give the same response. They both turned to look towards the window, Naiden and Bruce following their glance, and Tony felt something cold and heavy drop in his stomach.
"Get down." Loki hissed as he pulled Tony down to the ground, covering him with his body. Naiden moved on instinct, not waiting to see exactly what they saw, but Bruce got down just before something bright came in impact with the wall.
Alarms were blaring, the air was filled with dust, and Tony felt a lot of weight on top of him. He opened his eyes a little and saw pieces of the wall shifting off of Bruce as he moved. The weight was moving from him and he saw Loki push a bigger piece off and away, moving for where the couch fort had been. Tony coughed when he opened his mouth to talk and pushed himself a little, looking behind him.
He saw what had to be close a hundred Yar guards marching across the grass. They didn't worry as much as what he saw between them. Prisoners, they had brought other prisoners with them, all itching for a fight. "Shit, shit shit shit." If Tony had been an animal, then his hackles would have been raised, his fur would standing on end, but instead only armor started to appear around his neck. "Bruce?"
"I'm okay!" He called out, coughing on the dust. "What happ-"
"I need my suit!" Tony said as he tried to get to his feet as quickly as possible.
"It's not functioning as a whole," Bruce reminded him as they both stood up. Bruce looked out the giant hole in the wall and blanched a little. "What is that."
"Prison life," Tony mumbled. "I need my gauntlets at the least, my boots. Shit," he swore under his breath when he remembered that one of the gauntlets was busted. One would have to do. "I need them Now Bruce!" Bruce nodded, running for the door as it opened, Steve running through with shield in hand.
Tony took a breath as he felt the rest of his armour starting to settle in place, and feeling he would never get used too. He suddenly cried out at an unexpected pain and pulled his bad arm to his chest. He felt Loki next to him then as he took a few deep breaths. Glancing down he saw that his shirt, the bandages, and the sling were starting to turn a dark red. It seemed that his damaged arm did not take well to the natural armour change with his skin.
"Tony-" Steve was on the other side of him then, Loki tearing the sling away from his arm.
"Get ready to fight Cap," Tony said, trying to talk through the pain. "Get as many people out of here as possible, and if we can't contain this, then we need to blow this place."
Steve frowned looking at him, opening his mouth to say something before Loki interrupted him this time. "They come for us, but they must not be allowed to leave this place, should we fall." He looked at Steve. "They will turn your planet into one of torture and death if they are allowed to roam free."
Tony turned his head a little, hissing when Loki pulled off some of the bandages. "Where's Naiden?"
"I sent him off with Dr Banner," Loki told him, inspecting his arm. Tony looked down at it and saw that the armour didn't fall into place like it did on the rest of his body. It looked crooked, forced, and wrong. He kind of wished that he could go back to feeling nothing in that arm.
"We'll have to deal with this later. Do you have your magic?" Loki shook his head and held up the wrist that had the cuff on it. Of course SHIELD would put a restrictor on it. Glancing back over at the approaching enemies he saw all kinds of weapons, and he recognized some of the prisoners. They looked all too pleased to get this chance. "There were probably promised freedom for whoever kills us," Tony muttered.
"More than likely," Loki affirmed, still inspecting Tony's arm. "And they are probably the ones with the most wins in the arena." Loki looked around the room, then pried a piece of metal support fromt he broken wall, testing its weight in his hand. "It will have to do until I can get this cuff off of my wrist."
"If Bruce can get me my gauntlet, I'll get it off," Tony told him. He, Loki, and Steve were facing the little army as it stopped right before the hole in the wall, the prisoners barely contained in the middle, itching to earn their freedom. "Be ruthless, Cap," Tony said to him. "This is worse than any war you know, there will be no prisoners-"
"Except for one of the guards, we will need one to send back with our message," Loki growled out.
"Kill or be killed."
The Yar in front moved to the side, and the prisoners charged inside the room.