Ey so here we are! Getting deeper into the thick of the story - and man, Loki/Gabriel is not happy about some of these new developments. But enough spoilers!

Chapter 10

Unfortunately, all talk about how to get Loki to merge with Tony was ground to a halt when Clint jumped in and said accusingly, "A freaking sphinx?"

Blinking, Tony took a second to remember what Clint was talking about and the thought processes that had led up to him using a sphinx. "What did you expect? You practically suggested it yourself."

"You should have kept your mouth shut," Natasha told Clint without any sympathy.

"Why are you so hung up on that?" Tony asked, as Clint had been pretty obsessed with the sphinx and its innards since coming back from the maze. "We've faced worse."

"Are you—" Clint sounded half-strangled, anger pouring off him in waves. "It's not just the sphinx, you jackass. It's what you put us through! And you're not even sorry about it, are you?"

Gabriel blinked, then hit the side of his head. "Sorry. All those memories are through the Trickster's mindset. I'm getting mixed up."

"That still wasn't very apologetic," Clint said, staring him down.

"Look, if I'd been in one piece, I wouldn't have put you through that, all right? You're my friends. So I'm sorry about it, but there's nothing I can do."

"And if we weren't your friends?" Clint didn't look away. "Would you still be sorry, then?"

Gabriel's lips thinned, his fingers tightening briefly on the fabric of his jacket sleeves. "Probably not, no," he said flatly. "Because at that point you would've done something that ended up in Trickster-me messing with you. I don't deal with the innocent."

"I think this is something that can be postponed until after we have found Loki," Gadreel interrupted thankfully, shooting Clint a look. His Grace brushed comfortingly against Gabriel's for a moment before drawing away.

"I admit I am looking forward to when there is only one Loki running around," Loki said dryly.

"We'll have to find the other one first," Peggy pointed out.

"He probably hasn't left wherever he was when you talked to him," Gabriel said. "You said he went there because there was a bunch of Norse stuff, right?"

"Yep," Natasha confirmed. "You don't think he would have left?"

"Well, it's been a while since you talked to him. He probably doesn't count you as enough of a problem to want to move." Gabriel shrugged. Loki was a bit too confident for that from what Gabriel remembered. He'd been polite but cool in the conversation he'd had with the Trickster, but the Trickster – he – had known that he was outclassed and shouldn't outstay his welcome.

Rubbing his forehead, Gabriel struggled to put together the memories of the Trickster with the rest of him. It was far more confusing than having to reconcile his human and angel selves, simply because the way the Trickster thought was so different from his normal mindset. Before he had still been a mixture of Trickster and archangel, but this time it was just the Trickster.

He should probably be thankful that the Trickster had stuck with the usual method of going after people who deserved it.

"Is there something else?" Steve asked, concerned.

Blinking, Gabriel let his hand drop, refocusing on Steve. "Yeah. The Trickster and Loki had a little chat at some point. Nothing much, but just throwing it out there."

"I suppose we should be thankful that they didn't decide it would be in their better interests to work together," Gadreel said.

"No chance of that happening," Gabriel immediately replied, shaking his head. "From the impression I got from that conversation, Loki thinks tricksters aren't worth his time, and I wasn't about to stick around to see what an angry pagan god looks like. They can get pretty nasty."

"Of course we don't want to piss you off," Clint said, sighing. "That would just be idiotic."

Gabriel's lips twitched. "Keep in mind he's just a god at this point. There aren't going to be any soft feelings towards you."

"He's still you," Steve said. "We get that he's dangerous, but—"

"At this point, he isn't." Gabriel met all their eyes, completely serious. "He doesn't know you all. He doesn't even know me beyond that vague sense we all had that something was seriously fishy and we were at one point stuck together. If you piss him off, it's not going to be pretty. But"—he shrugged, flashing a grin—"I wouldn't worry too much about that part since I'll be there."

"He doesn't like angels," James pointed out. "Like, at all. Gadreel had to leave because he wouldn't talk to us."

"Who said he'd know I was there?" Gabriel tilted his head, smirking. "In the grand scheme of things, angels trump pagans, and he can't see through my illusions."

"He said angels don't like pagans, either," Natasha remembered aloud. "Is that every angel, or just a bad run-in with someone you knew?"

"It's kind of the principle of the thing." Gabriel shrugged. "Beings calling themselves 'gods' – well, Michael took offense to that, and so did everyone else."

"The first time I met you, you said there was a difference between God and gods," Steve recalled.

"Small 'g,' yeah," Gabriel agreed, remembering the same conversation. "But it was still pretty damn presumptuous of them. At least, so Michael thought. And since the Commander got the idea that they were lesser, the rest of my siblings fell in line."

"I feel as though we have gotten a bit off-topic," Loki noted. "Weren't we wondering how to find my counterpart – and your last part?"

"Make no mistake, we have questions," Natasha said, "but Loki's right. Let's focus on putting you back together before we get into it."

Gabriel wasn't ashamed of his past. Sure, there were things he wasn't proud of, but that was part of the gig of living. That didn't mean he wanted to be held under a microscope and questioned about what he had done before. He'd had his reasons and motivations, but how did one explain that to humans?

He was partly human now, but even then he didn't see eye-to-eye with his friends. They just didn't (couldn't) see the bigger picture.

So how was he going to deal with this? It was the worst possible way for them to have found out about his past, and they still had one more part of him to see.

Keeping his tone carefully neutral, Gabriel said, "I'll take a look around with Gadreel, see what we can find."

"And we'll sit here doing nothing?" Clint didn't sound pleased.

"No." Gabriel met his gaze, raising an eyebrow. "You'll sit here waiting for us to find him and prepare. Dealing with a pagan is a bit different than a trickster."

It was best that he and Gadreel not be in the tower if they wanted any chance of taking Loki off his guard. Approaching him on his turf wouldn't go well, and if they were out and about, there was a better likelihood of Loki coming here.

After the conversation Loki had with the Trickster, Gabriel thought it very likely that his team would be getting a visit.

"This is ridiculous." Clint was sitting slumped over the back of the sofa. "How are we supposed to 'prepare' for Loki? We barely know what we're going up against. And Tony and Gadreel just skipped off to go do whatever?"

Natasha rolled her eyes, but Clint wasn't looking at her so it didn't have much of an effect. "We know some things about Loki," she reminded him.

"Yeah, some." Clint snorted. "I don't like lying around waiting for someone else to do something."

"No one's saying this is fun." Steve entered the conversation. "I'm gonna trust that Gabriel knows what he's doing."

"He's a biased source."

"So are you." Natasha smacked Clint's shoulder. "You're still insistently against the Trickster." Not that she blamed him considering what they'd been through, but you didn't get far in this life if you allowed your biases to cloud your thinking.

Then again, those biases had been the reason Clint had spared her after all.

"I had a bad time, sue me," Clint retorted. "Why are all of you so cool with it? You don't seem mad at all."

"How do you ask someone like Tony why a part of him trapped us in a maze of puzzles and our worst fears?" Peggy asked rhetorically.

"To his face and with witnesses so he can't duck out of answering."

"Are you sure you want to know the answer?" Loki asked, looking out the window. He was standing apart from them all, leaning against the glass with his shoulder.

"Don't you?" Clint fired back. "Even you have to admit that what the Trickster pulled in there totally wasn't cool."

"Gabriel has lived for an immeasurable amount of years," Loki answered, head turning towards Clint. "Would you really want to know everything he has experienced? His motivations for becoming who he is? Perhaps this is something that you should just leave alone, lest the answer not be what you want."

"I already know I'm not going to like the answer."

Sighing, Loki turned back to the window. "I should have known the answer would be as ridiculous as that. At the very least, I would advise you not to make things worse for yourself."

"I may not have known him as long as some of you, but he's not going to hurt us," James protested. "Even if we ask him something he might be uncomfortable answering."

"Let me put it this way," Loki said, his head turning to James. "You know me as I am now, but I assure you that you would not have liked me ten years ago. Or even five. Ask if you will, but be aware that he is not human."

"You know," a familiar voice said, "I think it might be a testament to your collective intelligence on how you keep having to be reminded of that. A testament to what, I'm not quite sure."

Natasha twitched violently, unpleasantly surprised to find the other Loki standing behind the bar along the righthand wall. He seemed rather amused at everyone else's reactions, expression identical to that of the Trickster.

Clint was the first to react, his posture stiff. "What are you doing here? There's nothing Norse-like here!"

"Excuse me," Loki said, affronted.

The other Loki rolled his eyes. "As if that's the only thing I'm interested in. I'm quite aware that Asgard is several worlds away, and the remnants of the Norse followers on this Earth are pathetic. You, however irritating you may be, remain the most interesting force in this world."

"I would've thought the mutants would be more interesting," Steve said, his posture deceptively relaxed. "They've got more going for them."

"Yes, but there's the chance they'd notice." The other Loki's eyes gleamed, the same amber as the Trickster's. "You, on the other hand…well, without the rest of me, unlikely. And you didn't, until I chose to let you."

"How long were you standing there?" Peggy sounded wary, her eyes slightly narrowed.

"Long enough," the other Loki said cryptically, the corner of his lips twitching upwards in what could have been a smile. "Enough to know that you seem to be having doubts about associating with an archangel."

"It's not doubts about associating with him," Natasha replied coolly.

"Really? Because you'd have been wise to have them. Archangels aren't the kindest of creatures."

"What, and you've met them?" Clint scoffed.

"I don't need to." The other Loki lifted one shoulder in a small shrug, eyes dropping to the bar and the various bottles assorted there. "Word of mouth gets by fast, particularly when the gods like to gossip." His smile was flat. "Michael certainly took offense to some particularly minor issues, but then it was the fault of the gods in question for thinking they ever had a chance."

He poured himself a glass of something Natasha couldn't make out the label of, taking a seat on one of the barstools and looking for all the world like a guest in the tower, perfectly relaxed and seemingly not at all put off by the group of wary and tense superheroes no more than ten feet away.

"You've been rather quiet," he said conversationally, gaze moving to Loki. "Considering how eager you were to talk last time."

"Last time I did not know of your determination to ignore the truth," Loki said, moving forward and away from the windows.

"Your truth," the other Loki said, tilting the glass towards Loki. "Not mine."

"There is no difference. Your truth is simply what you insist to be true."

"So you say." Loki's counterpart was watching him, a smile playing at his mouth. It wasn't a friendly expression. "I'm still wondering about what you didn't say last time. Frost giants, was it? The Trickster had much to say on that topic."

Loki's posture was stiff, and Natasha thought she saw green flicker around his fingers. "That," he said quietly, "is no more your business than it was last we spoke."

"Oh, has that ever stopped either of us?" The other Loki took a sip from his glass. "We may be from places so far apart I can't begin to try and return, but we're more similar than you think. Or"—that smile, again—"more than your friends think, at least."

"I'm aware," Loki said mildly. "Though your method of drawing power from people is, I admit, rather foreign."

"You're an alien, not a god. I don't expect you to understand."

"I'm a god as much as you are." Loki's tone was edged with something like pride. "Try me."

The other Loki considered Loki, his expression mostly unreadable. Natasha could find only traces of emotion – thoughtfulness, perhaps. "Could you imagine depending on humans for power?" the other Loki asked, now sounding amused. "Could you imagine knowing that as soon as they forget you, you'll be gone? No, you can't understand. You don't depend on anyone for life."

"Neither do you," Clint said, before Natasha could stop him from doing anything stupid.

The other Loki's eyes were flat as his attention moved to Clint. "More of this 'you're really an angel' business?" he asked, sounding bored.

"I know you don't like angels," Natasha said, "but you have to admit that there are some parts of your memories that don't match up with what they should. Do you have any way to explain that which doesn't involve angels?"

The other Loki raised his eyebrows, something green flickering over his body before it disappeared. "Magic, perhaps? I know you humans love your science nowadays, but not everything has a perfectly rational explanation."

"Trust me," Steve said evenly, "we know that all too well."

"If you hadn't noticed, you're standing in a room with several so-called scientific impossibilities," Peggy said, arms folded across her chest. "And since you brought it up, what kind of magic would have brought you here if you're unable to return? You can't like it here considering how much you've complained about a lack of a power base."

"Oh, I know all too well what magic brought me here," the blond Loki said venomously. "You can thank Gabriel for that. Unfortunately, I'm not quite at the power level required to cross universes…even if I were as strong here as I was there, else I would be long out of your hair and none of us would be having this conversation."

"No, you'd be having it over there," Steve said. "Since he'd just follow you."

"Like a stalker," Clint said. "Or is it stalking if the person you're following is another facet of you?"

Natasha resisted the urge to roll her eyes. However reasonable this Loki seemed, Tony had already warned them against angering him, and pointing out that Tony would follow him could tip him over the edge. "I think that's a question for Tony's lawyers. He pays them enough to deal with that."

"Very amusing," the other Loki said, not sounding amused in the slightest. "Am I really worth that much trouble to an archangel? I'm sure he's got other things to worry about – like the rest of this universe. It's not like there are any other angels to share the load with, after all." He took a pointed sip of his drink. "Unless, of course, there's something you'd like to tell me."

"You met Gadreel," Natasha pointed out.

"So, that's – what – two angels for this big old universe? That's a demanding job, even if one is a member of the big four."

Natasha had never actually considered it, really. Tony had mentioned more than once that he wouldn't let this universe be destroyed, but beyond dealing with the Leviathan and Thanos, he hadn't actually left Earth itself.

How much work was involved in taking care of an entire universe?

"You've never considered that, have you?" the other Loki said knowingly, amber eyes on Natasha. "Never considered the facets of your friend that he didn't regularly show you." He laughed to himself. "That explains why you weren't expecting any of us."

"He's mentioned you before," Steve said.

"Briefly," Clint supplied. "As an aside."

And they had never pressed for more, not that it had been any of their business to begin with.

Natasha, for one, would have happily dealt with anyone who pried into her past without asking permission. There were some things that shouldn't be known.

That didn't mean she wasn't curious about Loki and the others. It just meant that, however reluctantly, she'd side with Tony if he didn't want to explain it all to them. There were some points she was legitimately concerned about – such as the way this Loki and the Trickster had both expressed an alarming distaste towards angels – but they could be addressed later.

It wasn't as if they were all without neuroses.

"And him mentioning me means you're prepared to deal with me?" Amusement was clear in the other Loki's voice. "As if you know anything about me."

"We know some things." Natasha realized what Clint was about to say the second before he said it. "Like Baldur—"

The other Loki moved so quickly that Natasha didn't even see him do it, but in the next second he had one hand on Clint's throat, pressing him back against the sofa and cutting him off mid-sentence.

"Don't you dare speak of what you know nothing of," the other Loki hissed, an abrupt departure from his earlier mood.

Loki hadn't really moved from his position, but Natasha could tell that he was ready to counteract whatever his counterpart did. "Then tell us," he said, the words slightly strained.

The other Loki's eyes flickered to him, narrowing briefly. "So you can pass judgment on me? I don't think so."

"You'd rather we judge you for being an ass?" James asked, his right hand curled into a fist at his side. "We know something happened, but the myths don't tell us your side."

"Shut up," the other Loki snapped, hand tightening on Clint's throat. Clint made a strangled, pained noise, one hand grasping at the god's wrist.

Natasha bid James to be quiet. Trying to refocus this Loki's anger wasn't going to do any good, not with a prime target already literally within his grasp.

As James wasn't looking at her and couldn't read minds, he continued baiting the other. "Obviously that's a sore spot. Maybe you should ask your Trickster buddy about that, since he's the one who told us in the first place."

"The Trickster is a fool," the other Loki retorted, turning to look at James. "He knows as much as you do. All he desires is to stir up bad feeling, to try and distract you. And look how well it worked for him. Gone and mixed back into the whole of us."

"So you admit it?" Loki took a cautious step forward "That you are part of Gabriel."

The other Loki snapped something in a language Natasha didn't recognize, but judging from Loki's face it was either surprising or incredibly rude.

"If there is one thing I know about us," Loki said after a moment, his face smoothing out, "it is that we are not idiots. If the answer is staring at us right in the face, there is no use in denying its existence simply because of prior prejudices. It makes you a 'bigoted dick' as James put it."

"Do you think I care?" The other Loki hadn't let go of Clint. "Do you think I give a damn what you think of my opinions? I have gone a very long time without anyone telling me what to do, and I don't intend to change because of you."

Natasha had a brief second to wonder where the hell Tony and Gadreel were before something pulled the other Loki back by the shirt, flinging him across the room. Clint pulled in air in a loud gasp, chest heaving.

"You," Tony's voice said very calmly, "are very lucky that I can't actually hurt you right now." He appeared as if from nothing right before Loki.

"As if you would," the other Loki spat, getting back to his feet. "Did you tire of waiting for me to finish entertaining myself with your so-called friends? I would have thought you would watch over them more closely."

"First, they are my friends. Second, who says I wasn't?" Something crackled in the air around Tony, the lights flickering briefly. "Now, this can go one of two ways, and I'm hoping you're a bit more reasonable than the Trickster was."

"And what did you have to do to rejoin with him?" the other Loki asked, a sneer pulling at his lips. "Grab him in the middle of one of his entertainments? Tell me, how easily did that go?"

Tony shrugged. "Easy enough, if you got past the curses he was throwing around. That doesn't mean I like dragging around an unwilling passenger."

"And you think I'll come willingly?" The other Loki laughed. "No. I'll remain my own, thank you. I don't see the promise or the lure of being a part of you again, and I swear that I won't go easily. And I always keep my promises." An ominous grin curved his mouth. "Odin knows that much."

"And here I thought you'd be reasonable." Tony sounded just a bit disappointed. "Well…here's one thing you can take with you…I also keep my promises." Judging from the other Loki's face, Natasha thought that Tony had a pretty terrifying expression right now. "And I think I'll deal with the results just fine. Come on, brother."

The other Loki's eyes widened briefly before he spun on his heels, his hands coming up to grasp hold of Gadreel's, who had just appeared behind him. Green energy crackled around his hands where they were clenched around Gadreel's wrists. "A surprise attack? That's not very angelic of you."

"Who says I'm all angel?" Tony turned his head, facing them for the first time since he'd appeared and giving them a wink. "You should know better than that by now." His hand came down onto Loki's shoulder. "Let's go."

With an audible crack of energy and a violent displacement of air, the three vanished, leaving scorch marks on the floor and what smelled like ozone.

Still breathing heavily, Clint rubbed at his throat, meeting Natasha's eyes with no small amount of relief. "What the fuck." His voice was hoarse.

Natasha commiserated, but she was a bit more concerned about the bruises she could see. "You're all right?"

"I'm still breathing." Clint shot the spot where they had been standing a perturbed look. "But I repeat, what the fuck."

Exhaling softly, Loki leaned back against the window, hands relaxing. "He did warn you, I recall."

"So we're blaming me now?"

"So that's an angry god," Peggy murmured.

"Bruce'll be interested to know he also glows green," Steve said, rubbing his face.

"That's really what you're going to take out of this, Steve?" Natasha shot him a look, leaning back against the sofa. "I'm more interested in what he said about Odin."

"I'm trying not to think," Steve said, "because then I'd have to think about what's going on in that workshop."

"That machine needs to die," Clint proclaimed. "Otherwise we're going to deal with this thing again, this time with someone much larger and greener."

"I will smash that thing myself before that happens," James said. "We don't need a Hulk running around."

Something rumbled in the depths of the tower, the floor vibrating slightly under their feet. Natasha glanced down instinctively before reminding herself that she couldn't see anything through several floors.

"I suppose that's him not going easily," Peggy remarked, sinking into the cushions besides Steve.

If this had been several years ago, Natasha would have been a little bit more concerned about being in a tower that was shaking like that. But after everything she'd been through, she just couldn't be bothered. Besides, she had no doubt that if worst came to worst, Loki would take them away without a fuss.

"I feel like we should be more concerned about what's happening," Clint said, voicing Natasha's thoughts.

"For your information, I'm just going with the flow," James said. "But this isn't normal."

"Our lives aren't normal," Steve said to the ceiling. "Welcome to the club, Bucky."

Loki managed to tear himself away from the two angels in the moment of transport, so that they ended up with a table in-between them and the god.

"You think you're so clever," he snapped, green sparks flickering around his hands. "As if that was anything to be proud of."

"It got you down here," Gabriel retorted. They were still several floors away from where they needed to be – Loki had managed to wrangle his way out of Gabriel's grasp. He hadn't given the god enough credit.

Or maybe it had just been the shock of them taking off, with Loki's magic fighting against his Grace.

"Not quite far enough." Loki knew he still had an opening, which made him more confident. He moved further behind the table, putting a barrier in between him and Gabriel. The three were frozen in a standoff, even with Gadreel and Gabriel working together. They couldn't risk harming Loki.

"Will you really do this now?" Gadreel asked. "Once all is said and done the potential backlash will affect you as much as Gabriel."

"Then let it," Loki snapped. "I've no love for angels, and if this is truly to be inevitable as you claim, then let the consequences be the worst ones."

Fuck it all, he'd have to deal with this either way. A minor temper tantrum from a pagan god wasn't even the worst thing he had to deal with in merging back together.

"If you think that'll get me to change my mind, you've got another thing coming," Gabriel told him flatly. "You're not even the worst thing I've faced, which you'd know if you were being reasonable."

"As if your kind is so reasonable?" Loki sneered. "You lot preach forgiveness and acceptance, but you just like being enormous hypocrites, don't you?"

"As a general lot, both of our species are dicks," Gabriel said. "Individually is a different question, but even then I have to say that you're an ass."

"And yet you claim I'm you."

"No one ever said I thought I was perfect."

Loki laughed mockingly. "Do you remember nothing from when we spoke, Trickster to god? I told you exactly what I thought of this mess. And still you try?"

Gabriel snorted. "If I gave up anytime something wasn't easy or people didn't want to do something, the world would have ended several times over. I'm not doing this because it's easy, but because I know full well that being anything less than you're supposed to be isn't good."

"Who cares if it's 'good' or 'right'?" Loki scoffed. "We can survive individually. There's no one forcing you to do this but yourself and your misguided idea that you'll be better off if you finish your self-imposed mission."

His chest tightened at the memory of tearing out his soul, at the self-inflicted violation he had done to finish the Leviathan. Loki might not be entirely aware of it, but Gabriel knew that this wasn't right. He still wasn't whole, could feel that he wasn't whole, and it wasn't a pleasant feeling.

Maybe they could survive individually, but Gabriel wasn't willing to test that assumption in the long run.

Loki took advantage of his moment of thought to make a break for it, but Gadreel was still standing in his way. "I am not letting you out of this tower," his brother warned, his hand tight around Loki's wrist.

"Let's see how well that works out," Loki hissed, but there was an undertone of panic in his expression as he attempted to get out of Gadreel's hold.

Exhaling slowly, Gabriel stretched his awareness out to the space around the tower, tweaking it so that if Loki did try to escape, he'd just cycle back to his original position. "You can try, but you won't get anywhere."

Eyes flashing to him, Loki went rigid as he apparently tested Gabriel's statement.

"That's cheating." Loki's deceptively calm joke couldn't disguise the fact that he knew he was trapped and was panicking.

"Who said I played fair?" Gabriel stepped forward, keeping Loki pinned in place with his Grace. "After all, the Trickster didn't."

"You're not just the Trickster." Loki's eyes were fixed on Gabriel.

"No, but he is me, and I was the one who chose to become him." Gabriel's hand came down to Loki's shoulder, gripping him tightly. "Can't choose to become something you don't have the capability of being."

Loki flung his magic out in a burst that made the tower rattle, a desperate last-ditch attempt to wriggle out of the hold of the two beings he was stuck in between.

"You're only partly an angel," he spat. "I may not remember everything but I have an idea of what you're forcing on me. An angel who hated his family enough to abandon them, to make himself into what they despised."

Gabriel's fingers tightened, and he pulled in a sharp breath. "I never hated them. I still don't." It wasn't because of that that he'd left.

"Oh, you had someone you hated, for dislike that strong to bleed over." Loki leaned forward, edging in on Gabriel's personal space and probably disregarding every bit of self-preservation he had. "Tell me…was it you?"

Ignoring Gadreel's palpable shock and the way his eyes flickered to him, Gabriel closed the distance between them, squashing Loki's futile attempt at casting one last spell. "I think that this conversation is over."

"You're avoiding answering me." Loki grinned sharply. "Oh…I was right—"

Gabriel's wings snapped out and he darted down, taking Loki and Gadreel with him, not wanting to wait for Gadreel to follow. They slammed onto the floor in the lab, knocking the wind out of Loki.

A rustle of wings signaled Gadreel rearranging his after Gabriel had pulled him along so abruptly. "A little warning next time, brother?" Gadreel said, not sounding like he had much hope that Gabriel would listen.

"He was getting on my nerves." Gabriel's hand was already pressing against Loki's forehead, Grace pushing against magic. It would be more difficult to reverse a shapeshift – the Trickster dealt with illusions, so his false appearance had been easy to remove, but Loki really did look like this. He simply changed his body.

Still, Gabriel was an archangel, and Loki was running low on power.

Loki was breathing heavily as the change filtered away, and it was odd to have a version of himself glaring so severely at him. Gabriel could feel himself unconsciously mimicking the expression, and quickly stopped.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you that it's rude to mess with other people's appearances?" Loki snapped, only a slight tremble running through his body any sign of how terrified he was.

"Anyone tell you it's rude to strangle people's friends?"

"He's fine," Loki bit out.

"Humans do need to breathe." Gabriel glanced at Gadreel pointedly, telling him nonverbally to get out before he activated the machine. The last thing he needed was to accidentally pull Gadreel in as well.

"Is it wise to send your brother away?" Loki's throat rippled as he swallowed.

"I don't know. Are you going to do anything that might piss me off?"

"You won't harm me."

"And you won't hurt me," Gabriel retorted. "Looks like it's a draw."

The moment the doors shut behind Gadreel, Gabriel turned his attention partly to the machine, putting Grace in to kickstart the process. The machine hummed quietly, glowing as his energy fueled its batteries.

"You think this will solve everything?" The question was quiet, but even that couldn't disguise the hate seething at the edges. "That you'll just remember and things will work out? That everything will be as it was before all this?"

Gabriel looked into Loki's eyes, remembering the conversation his friends had while he had been waiting for Loki's arrival. He remembered what he had done as just the Trickster and how betrayed Clint still was, the only one willing to verbalize what everyone else was thinking.

"No," Gabriel said, subdued. He could feel the machine tugging at him, wanting to pull the two of them back together. "I know it won't be."

"Then why bother? Let me go. Give yourself an excuse not to answer." Loki grabbed at Gabriel's arm, fingers digging in. "I know you don't want to."

"Because." Gabriel pulled the two of them directly into the machine's path. "I'm done running."

The moment the machine's ray hit them, Gabriel lost any physical orientation he had.

Grace struggled to reconcile with pagan magic, the lines between Gabriel and Loki blurring. Not only that, but the two sets of memories didn't immediately fit together, the disagreeing power affecting everything else and making it that much more difficult to fit himself back together.

He was distantly aware of his knees having hit the floor some seconds ago, but it was all inconsequential compared to the internal battle that was roiling inside him. He was trying to quell the anger inside his pagan magic, but it wasn't going very smoothly.

An outside source of energy surrounded him, someone speaking to him in words that he should understand but weren't making sense. He grasped hold of the other, needing something solid to anchor himself to.

The other voice was still speaking, but it wasn't making any more sense than it had a minute ago.

"I don't—" Gabriel/Loki forced out the words, recognizing them as Norse and registering distant surprise in the other.

"You're fine, brother," the voice said, this time in the same language. "Calm yourself."

"Easier said than done," Gabriel (or was he Loki?) managed to get out. "I can't—"

"You can. You've done it before. You can, Gabriel." Warmth stroked through Gabriel, and he forced himself to relax, clenching his eyes shut as he stopped forcing his Grace into the pagan magic and let it settle. The two warring powers were tangled and tense but, as he relaxed, so did they. Slowly, the magic calmed, integrating itself back into his Grace, attracted by the Trickster power that was more obvious now that he wasn't pushing his Grace forward so strongly.

It went against every instinct he had now to relax when something was threatening his very core, but if he didn't do it…

Pressing his head back against whatever he was leaning against, Gabriel pulled in a deep breath, opening his eyes. For a few brief seconds, he saw absolutely everything, the bright light of his brother's Grace nearest to him. Focusing on it and the warmth Gadreel was still pressing into him, Gabriel blinked, bringing his sight back to relatively human levels, Gadreel's human face swimming into view.

"Gabriel?" Gadreel's voice was calm, but his Grace fluttered nervously.

"I'm—" Gabriel inhaled, bringing his hands up to touch Gadreel's where they were holding onto his shoulders. "I'm fine," he said in English. "I've got it."

His grip relaxing, Gadreel let out a slow breath, nodding. "Thankfully we won't have to do that again."

Snorting, Gabriel let his head fall back against the wall. Somehow he'd moved from the middle of the room to the side, but he wasn't complaining about the support. He felt achy all over, four different sets of memories colored by different perspectives just waiting to be looked at more closely. And he was just exhausted. "Tell me about it," was all he said, grinning faintly.

Gadreel's brow crinkled, something like worry flickering over his face. Then, he said quietly, "We should let the others know."

Gabriel could tell that his brother wanted to ask about Loki's earlier words, about whether it was really true. But he said nothing, and for that Gabriel was thankful, not wanting to have such a draining conversation at this time when all he wanted was to recover. "Probably," he agreed. "I doubt they were too worried, though."

The one good thing about faking it until you made it and everyone else thinking that archangels (or angels in general) were practically invulnerable was that they tended to think things like this were a walk in the park. And it wasn't like Gabriel was going to dissuade them from that notion.

"Regardless," Gadreel said, helping Gabriel to his feet, "we should go and inform them of the happy news."

It was only the small twitch of his lips that told Gabriel that Gadreel had just cracked a joke.

It was a few more minutes of them sitting and wondering if they should possibly go down to check and see if things had worked out before Tony and Gadreel were standing before them, Tony looking visibly weary but smiling.

"So," Tony started, "I feel like this should be a momentous occasion, as it's not every day someone can say that they literally pulled themselves together." His eyes fell on Clint. "Sorry about your throat. I'd – uh – do something, but I don't think that'd be a very good idea." He winced.

Gadreel stepped closer until he could inspect Clint's throat. Two fingers on the forehead later and the bruises were gone.

"Thanks." The hoarseness was gone from his voice as well. Clint poked his throat experimentally, then glanced at Tony. "Remind me not to make you that angry again."

"You're good in the future, but I appreciate the sentiment." Tony glanced at the rest of them. "If we're all good here, I'll go and make sure that machine is taken care of. That thing is a menace."

He vanished before any of them had a chance to reply, leaving Natasha staring at the space where he'd been.

"I hope he means he's going to destroy it," James said.

"Most likely," Gadreel agreed. "It would be unfortunate if anyone else were to get caught in it."

"And for the record, Gabriel," Clint said loudly, staring down at the floor, "this doesn't mean you're off the hook!"

Gadreel studied him for a few seconds. Then, in a quiet voice, he said, "He knows."

The other Loki had accused Tony of not watching his friends closely, but Tony had refuted that. And the way Gadreel was looking at Clint now…

Natasha muttered a quiet curse under her breath.

It was all well and good to plan a sneak attack, but it didn't really help if everyone else had no clue what the plan was.

Judging from the look on Steve's face, he had figured out the same thing.

"You were waiting for him to show up here, weren't you?" Natasha asked.

Gadreel didn't answer, but the way he wouldn't meet their eyes and the guilty slump to his shoulders said it all.

"What the hell!" Clint looked scandalized. "You're telling me we were bait?"

"You were never in any danger," Gadreel immediately reassured him.

"He was choking me!"

"You are still alive." Gadreel seemed to realize this was the wrong thing to say when Clint puffed up angrily. "We needed him distracted enough that he wouldn't strike back. If we had let you know ahead of time what the plan was, he would have suspected something from your behavior. It had to be genuine."

"We can act," James said.

"Maybe you can, but I know from painful experience this one can't," Peggy said wryly, tousling Steve's hair. "At least not without practice. Selling bonds doesn't count," she told him before he could protest.

"You're not mad about this?" Clint sounded disbelieving.

"I've made hard calls before," Peggy said evenly. "They're not fun, but they are necessary."

"I agree," Loki said, breaking his silence and standing again. Natasha didn't recall seeing him sit down. "It was necessary. If none of you mind, I'm going to try and ensure Gabriel doesn't spend the rest of the week holed up in his lab."

The silence he left behind in his wake was fraught with tension, most eyes on a silent Gadreel.

Looking away from the other angel, Natasha's eyes landed on a silent Steve. One thing was for sure: Things were not going to be the same after this.

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