Days went by and Thor visited his brother whenever he could but Loki still wouldn't talk to him.
He talked to no one.
Most of the time, he was sitting in a corner of his chamber and stared at the opposite wall or at his own naked feet.
He wouldn't touch the food or the water they brought him and soon he looked more like a ghost than a god.
Odin, his wife, Thor, Sif and even the warriors three tried to get him to eat, drink or at least talk to them but they all failed.
It seemed like Loki had abandoned his body and shut himself completely off to the world around him.
With every passing day without any kind of change, Thor got more and more impatient and frustrated.
So after a month, he grabbed Loki by the shoulders and forced him to stand up, although he had to hold him in place because his brother hand no strength left in his body.
"Come on, pull yourself together! Look at me!" Thor insisted. "Your tongue has grown back by now. It doesn't take that long for a god's body to heal an injury. So this is no excuse for you to remain silent. Please Loki, return to us! Where is my annoying brother with his tricks and his sly grin, with his ambition and his cocky behaviour? I beg you, snap out of it!"
There was no reaction at all, as usual and so Thor let go of Lokis shoulders. The younger gods legs gave out from under him and he fell to the floor. He banged his head on the wall behind him and the old Loki would have had a fit of rage, but now…nothing, not even a moan.
Thor realized that the simple passing of time would not be enough to heal his brother. He needed help. But who could provide this help?
"Father, Lokis wounds have healed, but he has locked himself up in his own mind. You've seen him, too. I can't convince him to return to us. However, I think there might be help on Midgard. I've come to you today, to ask for your permission. I want to take Loki to my friends on earth. Maybe they're able to help."
Odin looked at his son and frowned: "Do you really think they are going to help Loki, after all he has done to them?"
"True, it is a tall order but they are our only hope. They are much more skilled in dealing with the fragility of the mind than we are."
"Alright, I will allow you to go to Midgard with your brother." Odin said and his wife added: "Look after him, Thor!"
"I will, mother."
And so it came to pass, that Thor and Loki visited Midgard again. The god of thunder had to carry his brother, for he was too weak to do anything.
When they entered the S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, all eyes were on them.
People were whispering behind their backs.
They couldn't believe what they saw.
The mighty Thor brought the seemingly defeated god of mischief into their facility.
The villain was conscious, though he was not protesting. How could that be?
"I need to speak to Nick Fury." Thor said and what he demanded was done immediately. He was brought to a large room, where he could lay Loki down on a comfortable looking sofa and not long after he placed himself in a chair, Nick Fury arrived.
"Thor! You're back again." Fury smiled, but the corners of his mouth dropped the instant he became aware of Loki. "What the hell is he doing here? And why isn't he in chains or something?"
"That is why I'm here. Loki has been tortured in a way we could never imagine, I suppose. He is not the same anymore. I need your help."
"Could you explain that in detail?"
"I will, but can I ask you to assemble the Avengers? They all need to know what happened and maybe I need their help as well." Thor asked.
Fury nodded and with a suspicious glance at Loki, he walked out of the room to arrange everything to let the Avengers know that they had to come in.
Half an hour later, Fury and all the Avengers were sitting around a table in the big room Thor had been sitting and waiting. Everyone was staring in disbelieve at the catatonic Loki.
"So what did you say happened exactly?" Tony asked still puzzled at the fact that this bastard wasn't behind bars or chained to a nuke or something similar.
"Loki has been kidnapped by the Chitauri. He had to work for them. I do not know why exactly he had to, but he also had to steal the Tesseract for them."
"Whaaaat!" Banner shouted. "So that extremely dangerous device is in the hand of the Chitauri now? Didn't you tell us, that it is impossible to steal something from the weapons vault in Asgard?"
"Whoa, easy there, don't lose your temper. You know it's not good for you...and us." Tony teased him and smiled. But Banner just bit his lip and swallowed the things he wanted to say to Stark right now.
"Tony, stop it." Rogers was annoyed with Stark. He always had to joke about everything. He just got out of the hospital a few weeks ago and managed it to get on his nerves already.
"You are right," Thor admitted, "I said that. And it is normally true. But Loki knows Asgard and the weapons vault as well as I do and he somehow developed new powers. We were caught by surprise."
"Alright, but what's wrong with him now?" Barton asked and pointed at Loki on the sofa.
"Yes. So after he had helped the Other to attack Tony, he disappeared right in front of us, as you all have seen." Thor continued. "That was the Chitauri, they kidnapped him and punished him for the death of their leader. After a long search, I was able to free him again. But by then, Loki was already in this state. They tortured him. I don't know for how long and I don't know what they did exactly but it must have been horrible. One thing I know though, they cut his tongue out. It grew back again, but he still won't talk."
"Gross", was Tonys commentary on that.
"And now what? Why did you bring him here?" Fury wanted to know.
"I need your help. It's been a month now and Lokis condition still hasn't changed. He won't eat, drink, sleep, talk or do anything at all in fact. He just sits or lies somewhere and stares into space. I can't bare that. I know that he is responsible for a lot of destruction and pain here on earth and that you hate him. But he is my brother and I still remember what kind of man he used to be, I won't give up on him, I can't. Please, would you help him, for me?"