Chapter 28: Mortal Limitations

"Forget this," Stark suddenly announced more under his breath than aloud, but still loud enough for all to hear. He hurried forward and stood defensively in front of Darcy, glaring at Thor. Thor stared back in confusion and Darcy remained perfectly still. "Rogers get him and the little green rat out of here, now."

"I am not trying to harm her, Man of Iron," Thor argued.

Stark raised himself an inch more and stood less than an inch from the warrior angrily as the others moved even closer except Banner and Selvig who stood nearest the basement door. "I mean it, Rogers, get him, get both of them, out of here now," Stark said more loudly than before and with greater strength in his tone. The two stared formidably at one another their intents equal not merely in purpose but in strength as well, though the means were significantly different in their own minds. After a few beats of strained silence and no cooperation, Stark looked past Thor and sneered angrily at the rest of his comrades for the moment. "Fine," he hissed and turned quickly, grasping Darcy by the arm and hurrying towards the door. Thor growled and hurried to block their path. Stark kept a steely gaze fixed on Thor's. "Either I leave with her or you leave with your brother, which is it going to be?"

"You cannot escape what my father has decreed," Thor warned in a low tone.

"Why not? You sure did and now you want your brother to go home free and clear of anything we have decreed," Stark replied furiously. He felt Darcy pull free of him for a moment. He turned and glanced back at Rogers for a beat who sighed and stepped forward, wanting to avoid any further damage through a confrontation, but sadly not seeing another way to protect Darcy for the moment. There was nothing that made Rogers trust any family that could produce two children like Thor and Loki even if one was adopted; especially if one was adopted. He stopped a few inches from Darcy and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Get her out of the room . . . now."

"Go upstairs, Miss Lewis," Rogers said softly, pulling her backwards and nodding to Selvig at the same time. Darcy silently did as he had said. The scientist nodded and followed Darcy after whispering a 'come on' and putting an arm around her with a more comforting 'it's gonna be alright'. Rogers sighed heavily and looked at Thor with resignation. "Now what? You expect us to send a Citizen of the United States of America who was held prisoner by a terrorist back to his home country to face what exactly?"

"If you try to evade Asgard's Law it will end poorly for . . ." Thor began.

"For more victims of the senseless brutality than your brother could've had?" Natasha suddenly interjected. Thor turned to her in shock. She glared at him angrily, nostrils flaring at remembering the foul word Loki had used in reference to her. There was clearly something wrong with a world that still used that word let alone allowed it to be instilled in a prince. "But in the name of justice this time."

"This is not my doing and I will not allow harm to come to her," Thor argued.

"Like you got Loki to reveal the whereabouts of the Tesseract?" Banner added.

Thor turned to him, a measure of uncontrollable rage welling within him at this kind of mistrust. "My first priority was to ensure that he spent energy healing whatever fever he had caused in her because your skills and the skills of your physicians were entirely insufficient," Thor shot back. "And then I was preoccupied with your bickering."

"Our bickering? That's absolutely adorable coming from Ivan the Terrible and his not so better, but oh so bitter, younger brother," Stark replied. Thor glanced over his shoulder at him; sure that turning to face him would mean a need to engage in combat, not something he wanted to do at the moment. "You go down there, get your little trouble-maker, and get ready to go home."

"Whoa, whoa, doesn't he need the Tesseract to go home?" Barton interjected.

"I know where it is and I can drive them out to a remote location," Stark offered.

"Wait, Barton's right, Selvig said he needed to make sure using it again wouldn't create problems for people in the area," Rogers realized aloud. "Thor, I think it's best you stay down in the basement with your brother until we can figure this out."

A chorus of 'what is there to figure out' (which came from Stark) along with 'the decision to take her with me is the wisest and safest for all' (which came only from Thor) was accompanied by an undertone of 'yeah, wisdom is really a concern and a major export from a planet with his kind of crazy' (which came from Banner who had moved even closer to the three men arguing most loudly) resounded through the living and reached Darcy's ears as she sat down on the only bed upstairs in the guest room with Selvig beside her. He placed an arm around her as she put both hands over her ears and began to sob.

The noise reached Loki who had been waiting for the opportunity to hear where the idiots had placed the Tesseract, but had been denied it when Rogers had interrupted Stark. He growled and reached up, pulling at the muzzle that had been completely locked in place, as the arguing grew louder. Behind the arguing he heard the sobs, the attempts at comforting, and Darcy's decision to call for someone else to handle Thor. Loki snarled and looked up towards the door at the top of the staircase, willing his senses to wait patiently behind the door. To his dismay, the part of him that still feared Thanos was reignited after the dream and he feared that much more than Odin's wrath. He needed to leave Midgard and with leverage, as quickly as possible. If he could not deliver the Tesseract to him, surely someone with Darcy's potential would do just as well. He leaned back carefully against the floor. It struck him that what he had planned for the selfless human was the most cruel and despicable thing he had ever done and it was made all the more cruel by the suffering she was now enduring both at the thought of execution and in trying to compute the last few days. He closed his eyes and tried to speak into her mind a pseudo apology without actually apologizing but found it shut tightly against the outside world. His brow furrowed in anxiousness at realizing for the first time on Midgard, he was truly alone.

Barton moved closer to the door, hearing the strange sounds behind them where Loki grunted in frustration and struggled with what had been placed on him. Barton considered opening the door, slipping down the stairs, and firing an arrow straight into the trickster's legs just above each knee and then retrieve both arrows and head silently back up the stairs with no one truly able to hear the trickster's screams above the arguing and beyond the doors themselves. He shook it away realizing that this was just asking for more trouble and would create unnecessary tension, although what had happened to New York, to S.H.I.E.L.D., to Germany, to himself and Selvig, and especially to the girl were all punishments worthy of long, dehumanizing torture. He breathed deeply and reminded himself sharply of what he had said to Natasha as she had come to grips with what she had done and tried to cope with guilt for the first time in her life. "The guilt, the second guessing, the sadness we feel for the awful things we do, we don't focus on it but we never lose it. It's what keeps us from being just as bad, doing things that are just as sadistic, as the enemy does." He contemplated the notion of going down and just landing one, only one, solid blow into the side of the trickster's skull when suddenly his digital communicator began to sound off and show a faint blue light indicating a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent was trying to contact him, a very familiar one. His heart leapt and his mouth went dry as he picked up the communicator and turned to the rest of the arguing crowd. "Hey!" he finally shouted at the top of his lungs, a surprising volume and depth that no one, not even Thor, had expected. Barton stared harshly at them as the device sounded more loudly but the group remained silent. He lifted the device and pressed a small button allowing the communication to follow through. "This is Agent Barton."

"I know who it is, and why isn't anyone else in range?" Coulson's voice asked quietly. Barton's heart beat more furiously and an inescapable expression of relief and joy spread across his features, drawing Natasha closer. "Where are you?"

"Our position is classified right now," Barton replied with a sarcastic tone and a happy laugh.

"Classified? By who?" Coulson's voice replied in nearly a whisper. "Just tell me where you are. I managed to get this away from one of the medics and I'm not sure how long I have to stow on board a transport before I pass out again."

"You're losing consciousness at random intervals and looking to stow away on a jet?" Barton continued. Natasha gave him a stern look, demanding to know if what she was hearing was real or not. "And everyone is within range, of me at least. They've turned their equipment off and I'm about to do the same."

"No, no, no, no, no, don't do that, don't turn anything off yet," Coulson pleaded. "Just tell me that everyone is alright, tell me I can stop promising God things he's going to hold over me that I won't be able to come through on."

"Relax, Coulson," Barton said, nodding to everyone else in the room who either breathed a sigh of relief, swelled with tears of joy, or did both. "Everyone's alive and accounted for, even the green goblin, so stop bothering 'big guns' upstairs, alright? Let Him help you help Him help you. Go back and get some rest, I'll update you on my whereabouts and activities on an as-needed basis."

"Barton, when I asked about everyone I meant . . ." Coulson continued as the sound of several other official voices began to mingle with the background demanding to know what the recovering agent was doing awake and ambulatory while his heart was trying to compensate for a temporary valve. "What about the girl, is she still . . . I mean, he didn't . . ."

"No, but he tried. Everyone's here," Barton replied quickly as the voices grew louder. "Goodnight, Coulson," he said with resignation and hurriedly cut off the flow of electricity within the device. Sighing and setting it back into a pocket. "Looks like everyone on our team came out alright after all."

"Does he sound stabilized?" Natasha asked quickly.

"Yeah, he's stabilized," Barton replied with a sigh. "So how are we going to solve this?"

"Thor will stay in the basement with his brother," Rogers interjected quickly. The group turned to him in a slight measure of surprise. He straightened himself, remembering the power that he held in the heat of battle and how effectively he had organized the team before. He looked at the rest firmly. "Stark and I will take the first shift from now until 03:00 and then Barton and Banner will take the next shift until 09:00 and then we'll work out getting everyone where they need to be."

"You really think that just because his older brother's watching over him, and let's not forget that he tried to kill us both with his hammer," Stark began.

"That is in the past, we have shared combat together since then," Thor countered.

"Hey, this is not open to negotiation," Rogers added sternly, more sternly than he could ever remember speaking in his life thus far. "Now if you're going to spend the night in my apartment, then you're going to do as I say."

"Alright, but if we all of a sudden find ourselves in the middle of a pile of rubble with both the Green Meanie and Darcy missing," Stark continued, clearly unhappy with the situation but too tired and confused to stand his ground any further. Besides, he knew he had the backing of the rest of the team in keeping the girl safe and that Coulson was still alive which made things seem a little less difficult. "Then we'll know exactly . . ."

"What the heck happened?!" a new voice suddenly exclaimed. Thor seemed to recognize the voice instantly and whirled around to face none other than Jane Foster, looking none too pleased with what she was seeing after having to use a kit to get hurriedly into the dwelling after Darcy's latest message a mere few seconds before. Jane had raced to the scene in Manhattan, learning that Selvig had already been there, but the message from Darcy had sparked fears and anger that were already kindled in the scientist's mind and instead of the happy expression Thor had expected to see in his beloved when seeing her now, he saw contempt and ferocity. "She-she wasn't making that up, you really are here," she added. She huffed and turned away for a moment. "And you were going to leave tomorrow, just up and leave and not say anything to me."

"Jane, allow me to explain what has transpired since last we . . ." Thor began, growing increasingly aggravated at the defiance and disappointments he was having to face during this visit.

"We? There is no 'we', Thor, not anymore; you can kiss that whole notion goodbye," Jane said angrily moving past him. She turned and sneered at Stark. "I'm not even going to start to point out how much of a letch you are, Tony Stark," she continued. Stark seemed to smirk as if remembering something faintly from a few years prior which was fitting given the chance encounter the two had during a symposium. Thor turned and noted the look following her words, his features contorting with greater anger. Jane turned instead to Rogers and sighed heavily. "Where are they?"

"How did you get . . ." Rogers started to ask anxiously.

Jane growled a little and threw the lock-pick at him. "Where is Darcy? Where is Dr. Selvig?" she asked again, firmly.

"Upstairs," Rogers replied, stepping cautiously out of the way as Jane stormed past him. He looked around at the other members of the group as they began to disperse to more appropriate positions for the rest of the night. He glanced down at the lock-pick for a moment as Thor cut off his glare at Stark and headed to the entrance to the basement. "This is a criminal's tool," Rogers muttered to himself as Thor firmly grasped the handle. Stark noted tears forming in the Asgardian's eyes as he flung open the door and moved quickly down the stairs, slamming the door behind him which took a great deal of control for his massive strength. Still, its sound was alarming and caused many of the group still present to jump whether they were prepared to hear it or not. Rogers frowned and turned to Stark for a moment. "What's his problem?"

"I think his brother might've just cost him his human girlfriend, which is a shame, too because Jane Foster is a class act. I mean if I wasn't in semi-committed, somewhat professional, entirely appropriate relationship with Pepper, that is exactly how I would spend my down-time," Stark replied.

"I got from what she said that you two have already had some down-time," Natasha shot back as she settled down on the largest sofa. "That is what you do best, sir."

"Actually, she refused me," Stark said with a broad grin. "In the most pleasant way possible."

"Meaning?" Rogers asked in confusion.

"She didn't punch him in the chest," Banner answered quickly.

"That and so much more," Stark said with a heavy sigh. "Everyone else get some sleep. Keep an ear out for the heat and anything from the basement. It's going to be a very long night."

"That's an understatement," Rogers said, putting the lock-pick down and exhaling heavily as he sat down in front of the basement door next to Stark. "This is really not fair for anyone involved."

"Well, we do thrive on Jeffersonian Democracy, so why don't we put it to a vote what happens next?" Stark offered.

"The only vote that matters is hers," Rogers replied, nodding up towards the stairs. "And something tells me she's giving all the angles a lot of thought right now."

(*)

In the basement, Loki watched Thor silently settle into a corner, sitting and cupping his brow in one hand. It bothered the trickster that his brother had been sent to keep a watch of sorts over him; hearing the commotion from upstairs and Rogers' command he also knew that this was a miniature form of exile for the warrior, an exile from the rest of the group that he had come to admire over the past few hours. He had most recently heard from above that he had more painfully been exiled from the human woman's presence. Perhaps that was more bothersome to him, but it served him right for having to deal with someone's unexpected and somewhat unwarranted anger after he had left Loki to do that for centuries. The trickster smirked under the muzzle, glad not only to be in a similar predicament and watching his older brother suffer nearly a fraction of what he had, but also to no longer be alone and cast aside down here. His expression changed fully and his brow furrowed as the darkness of night drew on, accompanied by an unfamiliar and disheartening sound: Thor sobbing pitifully.