Sorry it's so late! I wanted to see Ironman 3 first for some fight-scene inspiration, and wow what a film! So much better than that shocker of a second film! But…well, I can't really keep any of the plot details, sadly. As much as I love what happened in the story line I can't keep to that canon if I want this story to work. So, as far as this fic is concerned, Ironman 3 hasn't happened (which is admittedly a shame).

Also, I had some rather disgruntled people asking where Loki was last chapter so I wrote a nice big gory bit for you. And by gory, it's really really gory. I think you guys can handle it if you've got through the other stuff so far, but it's not pretty. I'll put warnings at the end so if you think you would be better checking to see if it's something you can read, hit the End button now.

Other than that; enjoy!

"Sir. Sir. Sir. Sir."

"Shut up, Jarvis!" Tony was underneath one of his many cars – an Aston Martin db9 to be precise – and when in the car-zone he did not like to be interrupted. Jarvis technically knew this, but ignored it each and every time.

"No. Sir. Sir. Sir. Sir-"

"Jarvis!"

"Yes, sir?"

"Sometimes I hate you."

"Only sometimes? Sir, you astonish me."

Tony sighed. "Is there a reason you're being more annoying than Clint when he's injured?" He pushed himself out from underneath the car chassis and wiped his hands off on a nearby towel.

"I need to discuss Miss Evelyn's lessons with you, sir. The reason that I started this conversation in such a manner was because she dared me to."

The man ran a hand over his face with a groan. "What did I tell you about accepting dares with Evie?"

"It is my duty to keep her happy and when I am not acting as her teacher I am her friend as much as I am yours." Jarvis said smoothly. "I may be a very intricate string of binary, but you programmed emotion into me and I understand the obligations of friendship, insofar as humans have defined it. So when she is bored outside of lessons I will engage in dare contests if she so wishes."

"…I hate how rational you can be."

"You routinely say that, sir."

"Yeah. So, we're off topic. Evie's lessons? What's up?"

Jarvis affected a small cough, which was usually a sign he was about to bring up a more delicate subject. "I have encountered a small problem."

Tony grinned. "Let me guess. You've taught her everything that it's possible for her to know, because she's just that brilliant and now she can help out in the lab whenever she wants?"

"Not as such sir. She is very clever, but not that clever."

"Damn. There go my plans of a second pair of hands around the workshop. Kay. So what's the problem then?"

"Miss Evelyn has reached the age where schools usually begin to teach sex education."

"Oh…"

"I wished to know if you want me to talk to her about these facts of life, or if you would like yourself or someone else to do so. Miss Potts perhaps?"

Tony rested both hands on the work bench and hung his head with a heavy sigh. "She's only ten, Jarvis, surely she doesn't need to know the facts of life just yet."

"On the contrary sir, I believe it's highly likely she's already worked most of it out anyway – as you say, she is very smart. And as a girl going into puberty there are things she needs to know so that she won't have an awful shock later on."

"But…" But she's my little girl… Tony didn't say the words, but he didn't really need to. He wasn't ashamed to admit that he still saw Evie as a tiny child sometimes. It was hard to believe that the baby he had helped into the world was now approaching the scary world of puberty.

"Time to get out of the Egyptian river, sir."

"The...? Oh. Denial. Ha ha, Jarvis."

"You know I'm right, sir." The AI sounded unbearably smug to Tony's mind. "So, how do you wish to proceed? I'm sure Miss Potts will be amenable to having a talk with Miss Evelyn. Or perhaps even Ms Romanoff."

The man scowled. "Are you saying you don't think I can handle this myself?"

The pause was just slightly too long. "Of course not, sir. I merely assumed you wouldn't want to."

"You think I can't do it. You think I'm not mature enough to give my daughter The Talk."

"The thought never even crossed my mind, I can assure you."

"Hmmm." Tony glared up at the ceiling. "I don't believe you. I'll talk to Evie myself, thank you very much!"

"If you insist, sir. Should I call her down now?"

"Er…" The man had to admit to sudden panic. However, he also was less than inclined to let his smart-arse AI know that. "Yeah. Sure, send her down, I'll…uh…find a flip-chart or something."

Infact, he decided against the flip-chart since it was just a little too clichéd, but he did pull out one of his empty A3 notebooks and a pencil just in case. His drawing skills weren't spectacular so he was hoping he wouldn't actually need to sketch anything down, but it was better to be prepared.

How had it come to this? How had his little girl grown up so quickly?

With everything that had been happening over the past few years he had entirely forgotten that little girls don't remain little for very long. At least he knew he hadn't wasted that time with her.

"Dad? Jarvis said you wanted me?" Evie wandered into the lab only half looking where she was going as her attention remained fixed on the StarkPad in her hands.

"Oi, careful!" Tony pulled the tablet out of her grasp, bringing her up short before she walked into the corner of the work surface.

"Hey! I was doing something!"

He glanced over the webpage that was open and smiled slightly. Evie had been immersed in the Hubble Telescope picture gallery. "It's not going anywhere. You can have it back after we've had a talk."

The girl sighed and pulled herself up onto one of the stools next to the work bench. "Okay. What do we need to talk about? If it's about Aunty Nat's gun then I swear I didn't know the safety was off. And you can hardly see the hole."

Tony winced at the memory of the destroyed sofa in the living room. "That's not actually what I wanted to talk to you about, but we do need to discuss that at some point."

"Must we? Uncle Clint already lectured me." Evie whined.

"Yeah we do. But not now."

"So why am I here?"

Tony spun his stool around to place the confiscated tablet on his work desk then turned back to his daughter. "I think it's time we had a chat, Evelyn."

The girl grinned. "Ooh, full name, this is serious."

"Yeah, this is serious, Birdie, you're a growing girl and it's time we had a talk."

Evie's grin faded and she narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "A talk or the talk?"

"Alright, the talk."

"I think I already know it."

Tony arched an eyebrow at the quick answer, noting the way his daughter went bright red. "I know Jarvis monitors your internet use, so I know you've not been looking up anything untoward. Where have you got your info from?"

She shrugged. "I worked it out."

"Worked it out?" To be fair, Tony couldn't actually dispute it since he had a vivid memory of watching a James Bond film as a child and having an 'Oh dear God! Is that what they're doing?!' moment half way through a sex scene. "Well, yeah. Okay, I can believe that. But I can guarantee you've missed out on some key points. So park your butt because we're having this talk. I am being a responsible parent and I am not going to let you escape from this!"

"Uh….Okay?" Evelyn fixed him with a shrewd gaze. "On one condition. If I'm old enough for The Talk, I'm old enough to get my ears pierced."

Stark knew when to make compromises and this had been one battle that he knew he'd been doomed to lose when Evie had first mentioned it two years ago. He'd held off allowing her through the age-old parental fear, but she really did have a point now, and he sighed.

"Yeah, okay, deal."

WMWMWMMWMWMWMW

"And we were singing; bye bye Miss American Pie. Drove my Chevy to levee but the levee was dry. And them good old boys were drinking whisky and rye singing; this'll be the day that I die…This'll be the day that I-"

"Clint, shut up!" Pepper slammed her book down to glare at the archer. He merely grinned at her and continued singing, sashaying over to her.

"Did you write the book of love, and do you have faith in God abo- Ow! Nat!"

Natasha, curled up in her favourite sofa near the window had successfully thrown an apple at him and smirked when he glared. "That is an annoying song, and you know it."

"But it's stuck in my head!"

Pepper sighed heavily and glanced up at the ceiling. "Jarvis, some music if you please?"

"With pleasure Miss Potts."

Clint scowled, until Jarvis began playing the Dambusters March which drew a laugh from the archer. "Really?"

The elevator doors opened to reveal Evie and Tony; the girl running into the room with her arms outstretched like an aeroplane in response to the music.

"Dad said I could get my ears pierced!" She dived at the sofa Pepper was sat on and bounced excitedly on the cushions. "We're going out this afternoon! I get to choose what colour the ear-rings are!"

Pepper laughed at the child's enthusiasm. "What's the occasion?" She asked, looking to Tony for confirmation. "I thought you two were at logger-heads over the whole ear-piercing thing."

Tony grinned sheepishly. "We decided she was old enough."

"I persuaded Dad that if I was old enough to know about sex I was old enough to decide what I wanted to do with my ears." Evie stated smugly.

Clint's jaw dropped. "The…Talk? You gave her The Talk?! Tony Stark managed to maturely discuss sex? Jarvis! Tell me you got this on video!"

Tony laughed and folded his arms. "I wiped the files, Clint. There are things about Loki I'm sure you don't want to know."

"Huh?"

Evelyn knelt up on the sofa and folded her arms on the back of it to grin at the archer with all the maliciousness as befitting the daughter of the God of mischief. "Think about it Uncle Clint; both my parents are men. There are things you really don't want to know."

Natasha muffled a snort of laughter that gave Tony the sudden insight that she would be asking him many questions later. Pepper tried to look disproving, but was certainly thinking along the same lines as the female assassin.

"So, earrings, huh?" Clint was apparently desperate to get off the subject of Loki's childbearing abilities.

Tony slumped down onto the sofa besides Evie. "Yeah, we'll pop into Tiffany's later on today. Assuming madam here can take it."

"It's hardly going to hurt that much!" The child shot back instantly.

"You say that now but-"

"Tony." Pepper was sitting up straighter and glaring at her boss. "Did you say Tiffany's? As in the leading jewellery designer? For a ten year old?"

Tony thumped his head back against the back of the sofa with a loud groan. "Oh come on! You should see what most celebrity parents do for their kids; I think I've been very well restrained over the years! She doesn't even own a pony! If she's going to permanently scar her ears for life it will be with nothing less than diamonds!" He folded his arms like a petulant two year old. "I'm a multibillionaire and I will occasionally spoil my only child rotten. So sue me."

Pepper pursed her lips disapprovingly before nodding curtly. "Well, you'd damn well better get me something whilst you're there then."

"Seconded!" Natasha didn't even look up from the gun that she was trying to mend. "But no alloys. My skin reacts badly to alloys."

Tony laughed and glanced at Clint. "Any requests? Apparently I'm buying for everyone. Nose ring? Got a Prince Albert you haven't told us about?"

If the archer had had a response it was never going to be known.

The sudden wail of a klaxon from the ceiling made Evie and Pepper visibly jump, and even Tony glanced up sharply.

"Jarvis, report."

"Nevada desert, sir. Military exercise gone wrong." The Ai's informal mannerisms had vanished and were replaced with a business-like tone to convey the facts as quickly as possible. "They have lost control of one of the un-manned drones. Requested: Ironman, Captain America, Hulk and Thor to take it out. Requested: Hawkeye and Black Widow to protect the ground crew. Director Fury to oversee."

Natasha frowned. "Where are these orders from, Jarvis?"

"The Army."

Tony scowled. He had never been able to get along with the military ever since he had stopped supplying them with high-class weapons. "Oh great." He ruffled Evie's hair. "Sorry, kiddo, looks like we may have to delay the piercing until tomorrow. That okay?"

"I guess it will have to be." She quickly hugged him round the waist. "Be careful."

"Yeah yeah, I'm always careful."

Pepper held her hand out to the child. "Come on Evie. Let's go look online and pick out what sort of earrings you'd like. They'll be back in no time."

MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMMWMWM

The desert heat shimmered in the air, and Tony once again had cause to be glad that he'd put a cooling system into his suit as he flew across the sparse ground. The Quinjet was keeping level with him – he'd purposely flown at a slower speed so that they would arrive together – and he swept low, coming in to land next to the army tents that had been set up.

A very harassed looking major stepped out from the shade of one of the structures, glancing at the landing Quinjet before turning to Tony.

"Mr Stark, damn glad to see you here."

"Wish I could say the same. Couldn't you have turned the heat down a little?" Ironman flipped his face-plate up and squinted in the sudden harsh sunlight. Jarvis had been scanning the air-space as they arrived and had so far to see any sign of the missing machine, but it was a large area so Tony wasn't too worried yet. "What happened?"

"Routine exercise." The major glanced to one side as the Quinjet turned its engines off. "We were pitting our ground crew against five fighter pilots to test the drone's response time. It's a new system – I can't tell you too much about it of course – but essentially it's a remote controlled jet. Should cut casualties in half, or at least that's the theory."

"Only theory?" Tony was well aware of what the 'top-secret' system was like – it was still based on one of his old designs after all – and didn't place much faith in how they had upgraded his work. "Where's Warmachine?"

"The Iron Patriot is currently lending a hand to our troops in Iraq."

"Huh. Sucks to be Rhodey." Tony saw the major's eyes flicker over his shoulder and turned a little to see the rest of the team jog up. "Guys, this is Major…" He glanced back.

"Major Alunson."

"Yeah, Major Alunson. He'll fill you in, I'm going to go find that drone and take a look." He probably should have waited for at least Steve to agree with him before flipping his face-plate back down and taking off. Should have, but didn't.

The HUD was lit up with a scan of the area but there was nothing abnormal in the vicinity and certainly no sign of the missing machine. Tony flew high enough that the Quinjet was just a small spec before hovering in one place, surveying the desert below him.

"You could have waited to hear what the plan is going to be." Steve's voice was tinny and resigned inside the helmet.

"What's to know? You and the Hulk can't get up here to fight an aircraft, the Quin is out-manoeuvred so won't be any good. Ergo it's me and Thor versus creepy un-manned plane. That cover it?"

"Uh…yeah, actually."

"No need to sound so peeved, Sparky, I am the resident genius here." He turned on the spot to look out across the horizon. "You guys stop it from taking pot-shots at the folks on the ground and me and ol' Thunder-boots can handle it up here. Savvy?"

There was an exasperated sigh in his ear. "Fine. See what you can do to slow it down and we'll handle the ground work."

Tony was more than happy with that plan.

"Sir?" Jarvis sounded as worried as he ever did. "Sir, I believe the drone you are looking for is coming in from the west at Mach 2."

Ignoring what could have very nearly been a Starwars reference, Tony spun in mid-air to face said direction, only to be nearly knocked out the sky as the unmanned aircraft screamed past him.

"Jesus Christ, Jarvis! Why didn't you warn me sooner?!"

"It's cloaked, sir. Stealth technology." As the plane swerved and began heading straight back towards Ironman Jarvis added; "It also appears to have a low-grade form of AI. At least enough to cause it to act in self-defence."

"Self-defence?! I never attacked it!" Tony shot downwards as the drone came in again, this time deliberately aiming itself.

Even as he said the words his superb mind was already drawing its own conclusions. They already knew that the army had lost control and therefore their connection with the machine; it made sense that the drone's AI would perceive that as an attack and would go onto the offensive.

"Thor? You in the air yet?"

"Yes. What is it?" Thor sounded terse, and Tony guessed that the drone, having shot past him had now had a go at the God.

"I'm pretty certain that due to the broken connection its default position is to classify us as a threat." Tony eyed the flickering numbers that had started scrolling in the corner of the HUD. "Jarvis is trying to hack into the system, but it's pretty well protected. " He didn't expect Thor to understand the jargon, but knew the God would understand the situation.

"Sir, incoming!" Jarvis' warning came just in time and Tony swerved to avoid the missile that had been shot towards him. He watched it fly past, only to curve round and come straight back. "It appears to be target-locked."

"Yeah, kinda got that." Ironman dodged again, and once again the weapon spun back. "Huh." Then he grinned.

"Sir?"

"Guys, nobody worry, I'm about to perform a Wronsky feint."

There was a chorus of 'what?' from the rest of the team, that made Tony despair for their lack of Harry Potter knowledge – especially that pertaining to Quidditch. Too little time to explain, though. As the missile zoomed straight back towards him the man simply flipped over and plummeted down towards the desert below him.

He couldn't help but whoop as the ground came rushing up to meet him at break-neck speed and the sensors in the HUD screamed warnings that he entirely ignored. Ignoring all of the speed-gauges he timed it by pure instinct, sharply changing angle at the last moment and at such a speed that the G-forces made the suit whine painfully.

The missile didn't make the U-turn as neatly and hit the desert with a soft 'whooph' noise that was then over-shadowed as it exploded.

"Hah! Hell yeah!" There was another explosion nearby and Tony glanced towards the sound to see that Thor had smashed a second missile with his hammer. Out of the two strategies it was hard to say which was the less risky.

The drone came back into sight again and this time Ironman struck first, shooting his own mini-rocket towards it.

"There we go, problem solved."

Or…not. Even as he watched the unmanned aircraft opened fire on the tiny Stark-tech and the ensuing fire-ball threw Tony backwards head-over heels in the air. He barely righted himself before the drone narrowly missed taking him out with its wing. In retaliation Thor threw his hammer only for the drone to fire again and knock it off course. Obviously it couldn't actually damage the weapon, but it had deflected the attack effortlessly.

"Okay…This thing's beginning to piss me off now."

Tony quickly went through his mental list of what he had in his arsenal and what could be more effective that either his mini-rockets or Mjolnir. On the plus side he had a lot of toys that could deal varying types of damage to most things.

"Thor, back up a little." He had to smirk as the increasingly infuriated thunder God aimlessly tried the hammer a few more times. "I've got another plan."

Thor didn't audibly reply, but stopped his attempts on the drone to allow Tony to aim at the aircraft. It obviously couldn't sense threat, but it apparently sensed focussed concentration because it roared back towards Ironman.

"Jarvis? Anytime, please." Tony watched the oncoming machine in the full confidence that it was about to fall out of the sky.

It didn't.

"Jarvis?! If you could fire the EMP I'd ever so grateful."

"EMP already fired, sir. It appears that the hostile has shielding."

Tony's sudden swearing was cut off by the hail of bullets that hit him square in the chest-plate, punching through the outer layers of armour like they were going through cheese.

"Shit!" He tumbled backwards before being able to dodge out of the way. The drone swung to follow, but he was faster at manoeuvring and escaped the second battery that was fired at him.

"Tony, you okay?" It was Steve's voice, sounding worried.

"I think so." Red lights were flickering across the HUD but nothing critical seemed damaged. "I'm going to try a missile again, see how it likes taking things up the ass."

He didn't listen to the barrage of complaints that comment drew. It took a moment to swing back up behind the drone but its attention had refocused on Thor which made targeting simpler. Tony aimed the missile at the fuselage on the back of the air-craft, figuring that the small exhaust port would be a weak spot.

Heh, exhaust port. As a long-term Starwars addict he couldn't help but make the parallels to Luke's run on the Death Star.

However, Luke's attempt was successful.

This wasn't.

There was a large explosion as the weapon activated, and for a moment the drone disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Then, like an iceberg out of mist, it reappeared, looking almost unscathed.

"Bugger! Damn thing!" Tony knew that the missile wasn't hugely powerful, but it was almost insulting how little damage it did. "Bloody thing's shielding must be as thick as my arm!"

He wasn't kidding either. The impact spot of the small missile was scorched but there was no evidence of it having done more than scratched the surface. It appeared that the aircraft had been modified since he had last seen the specifications, and the thick armour cladding was certainly new. He hated it when people played with his toys – even the old ones.

Okay…EMP and missiles not having an effect. That was a bit not good.

"Guys? Little help up here?"

"Try manually taking it to pieces." It was Bruce who responded, evidently going on his own working knowledge of how the Hulk took out aircraft.

"Uh, yeah. How about no? This thing can rip me to shreds before I even get close."

"It was just a thought. Since the mighty Stark Brain is floundering up there."

"Cute, real cute. And I am not floundering, dear Bruce." Tony dodged out of the way as Mjolnir shot past him and spun to see Thor glaring mutinously at the aircraft. "But…Give me a moment. I might have a way to make it work. Oi! Thor!"

The hammer returned to the God's hand and he turned so that Tony could see his now-quizzical expression.

"What is it? You have a plan?"

"Yeah. That shielding's stupidly thick – neither of us will be ripping it open any time soon, but if you can pull the guns off that will at least deprive it of one of it's weapons."

"What would the point of that be?"

"Just…trust me on this." Tony's tone of voice made it clear that no-one would agree with what he was planning next, hence why he wasn't saying. It was a ruse that probably would only work with Thor – who rarely looked ahead of a strategy once in a battle – whereas the others were far less trusting of Ironman's methods.

This was, after all, the man who personally delivered a nuke into a portal that – let's face it – could have led to anywhere and then nearly didn't make it back.

As predicted, Steve immediately latched onto the weak reply, demanding to know just what Tony intended to do if the drone was divested of its guns. Needless to say, Ironman blocked him.

"Thor, the guns, if you'd please. And Jarvis, can you scramble it's gyroscope?"

"I believe so, sir."

"Wonderful."

The twin barrels that protruded on either side of the aircraft's nose-cone were possibly the only weak spot on the whole thing and whilst Tony could aim better that Thor; he was also a lot more mortal than the God. It might have seemed slightly selfish but it made more sense for the Thunderer to face the bullets and take them out.

Thor seemed to agree with the silent assessment of the situation, summoning a large bolt of lightning to strike the presumed vulnerable spot.

"Uh…Thor? Ever heard of a Faraday's cage? – look, that won't cut it, you're going to have to use brute force!"

"That would have been helpful to know beforehand!" Thor sounded more distracted than annoyed, and it was little wonder.

Tony didn't have a very clear view of precisely what happened, since he was coming in from the wrong angle, but what he was certain of was that the God simply flew directly at the drone, head-on. The resulting collision sent a shockwave through the air that sent more warnings across his already-blaring HUD and it was only Thor's war-cry in his ear that stopped him from checking that the God hadn't gone full-on kamikaze on the thing.

As it was the ensuing explosion brought a chorus of concern from all members of the team that only abated when Thor re-appeared, looking mildly concussed, from the plume of black smoke.

"One gun removed, I can't do the other one for a moment. This machine has a form of shield, like my own lightning that will require me to heal for a moment."

"He means it's electrically shielded." Jarvis supplied. "That shockwave was the result of electro-static shielding when Mr Thor impacted with it."

"Yeah, I got that." Tony watched the God gearing up for a second attack and calculated quickly. "Thor, wait! I can do it from here!"

"I only took out one gun. A moment and I will do the other."

"No, I'm not having you blow yourself up; I can do this as is."

Jarvis must have opened the coms back up again because Steve's voice immediately filled the Ironman mask, demanding to know exactly what said Ironman was intending. Up until the point that Tony switched him off again.

"Right…" Stark fired a single bullet at the air-craft and watched as the drone – now metaphorically limping, and trailing black smoke from one gun-port – swung back to face him in response. "This is probably the best idea I've had since going into outer space with a nuclear missile. Have you scrambled the gyro?"

"Scrambled as an egg. And it would help if you told me your plan, sir. "

"No, it really wouldn't. Just…hang tight, Jarvis." Because this was stupid, which was mostly why it was a classic Tony Stark plan.

Flying head-on towards the machine he waited the second or so it took for the remaining gun-barrel to target him before neatly flipping over and heading directly down. Directly down. Earth-bound.

"Sir! I would not advise this course of action!"

Tony didn't reply. He did, however, glance back over his shoulder enough to check that, yes, the drone had indeed followed his trajectory. The scrambling had done its job – with a busted gyroscope the thing couldn't tell which way was up or down. Good job Jarvis.

However, it did still have one functioning gun that it was insisting on using. He could feel the bullets biting into the bottoms of the boots and up the back of the suit, the angle just so that they wouldn't penetrate, but enough to start causing more warning lights to flash. It wasn't something he could concentrate on, with the ground rushing up so quickly. All he could do was hope that the mechanisms would hold out just long enough.

It was a matter of the most precise of timings. He had noticed the slight delay the drone had in following his movements, which meant that in theory he should be able to pull up just in time and it wouldn't have the chance to do so.

In theory.

Just like with that first little missile.

The ground was worryingly close when there was a sudden blaring alarm in his ear.

"Sir!" Jarvis sounded panicked. Infact, Tony didn't think he had ever heard the AI shout in such a fashion. Even that time when he'd iced up. "Thrusters have failed!"

"What?!"

There was…well, a sputtering sound. Tony could feel the burners on the boots suddenly begin to stutter before one suddenly blinked out all-together, sending him suddenly off-course before both died. And he was falling.

Falling and the ground was rushing up at full speed and he had no way to steer and –

…

Whoooomph

The impact was somewhat reminiscent of the first flight he'd ever made in an Ironman suit – also known as the escape from a terrorists cave. Only somewhat reminiscent, though, because this one hurt a hell of a lot more. The speed could have had something to do with that.

For the longest moment Tony wondered if he'd actually been killed. Everything was dark. Complete pitch blackness that was terrifying.

He couldn't move.

Couldn't even tell if that was because of the dead suit or because he had just broken every bone in his body. It was actually really quite terrifying.

He didn't even have breath in his lungs to call for Jarvis. Or for help.

Couldn't even call for help.

MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMW

"…Coming round, I think. Tony? Hey buddy, you there?"

There was a nice voice.

Friend.

Friend-voice.

"…Concussion from hell I'd say, though. He's definitely waking up."

Steve. Only Steve sounded that motherly.

Tony managed to crack half an eye open, before groaning as the light glared and burnt his retinas. He was spared from what felt like being blinded as Captain America's worried face floated into view, blocking the offending sun out.

"Tony! Hey, good to see you!" The all-American-hero looked so relieved that Stark tried to smile.

"How long I been out?" It was crap grammar but if he was going to try to talk it was going to be with the least effort possible.

"Five minutes? Not long. Well, long enough for us to be really worried." The relief turned to a scowl. "And that was stupid! I thought you'd got that out of your system with the nuke! You could have killed yourself!"

"Suit failed…"

"I know! I had to prise the damn thing off of you after digging you out of a crater! No, don't sit up…"

Tony tried to lever himself upright, carefully taking stock of all moving parts as he did so. It actually appeared that nothing was broken – a fact his scrambled mind could only put down to dumb luck and superior suit design – although it hurt enough that he might as well have broken the lot. He blinked a few times to try to clear his blurred vision and realised that he was sitting on the edge of a rather impressive crater that was littered with bits of drone.

"How 'm not dead?"

"You should be. Thor couldn't catch you in time, but he managed to knock the aircraft off course just enough so that it didn't land on top of you."

Good old Thor. Tony tried to make a note to thank the God; had the drone landed on him the impact and ensuing explosion would have certainly have resulted in Ironman becoming an inch-thick smear across the bottom of the hole.

"Anyone hurt?"

"Just you."

"Grand." Stark allowed gravity to pull him back down to the floor again and lay there, looking up at the bright sky. "Are the army happy?"

"Not really, that thing was expensive apparently."

"Of course it was. Can we go home now?"

"Wait for Banner to check you over."

"Aww…"

MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMMWMWMW

In the end Tony managed to fend Bruce off – refusing a proper medical examination after determining he could still walk and therefore hadn't seriously damaged anything. The doctor was less than impressed, especially faced with the evidence of Stark's concussion, but was mollified that he could keep a close eye on the man on the flight home in the Quinjet.

Truth be told, Tony was still surfing the adrenaline wave. Yes, he hurt, and hurt badly at that, but it didn't feel half as bad as he knew it would once the magic neurotransmitter wore off. Infact for now he felt…great, actually. He'd survived a stupid decision, wrecked another suit and currently felt more Godlike than Thor.

That counted as a win.

However, he was well aware that as good as he felt, he looked like crap. The others had made that clear and Fury had emphasised it when he sent them on home with the order to clean themselves up and save the debriefing for the next day. In hindsight it should have alerted Stark that he must be really looking like crap if the Director himself was putting off a debrief in favour of sending them home.

They landed on the helipad on the roof of Stark-tower and took the elevator down to the main living space.

Evie and Pepper were curled up watching Pretty Woman, although the girl had fallen asleep at some point, her head on Pepper's lap. The woman smiled when the tired heroes traipsed quietly past, her eyes quickly taking in the damage Tony had acquired when he ruffled Evie's hair – careful not to wake her.

"How was she?"

"Absolutely fine, just as she always is." Pepper's eyes showed her concern as she pursed her lips at him. "You look terrible and Jarvis has been unusually silent about what happened. You did something stupid, didn't you." She didn't even phrase it as a question.

"Yeah, just a bit." Tony ran a tired hand across his face before looking back down at his sleeping daughter. "I'll tell you about it tomorrow. After I've slept for about a week. Give me a moment to get the remains of my armour down to the lab then I'll come and carry kiddo to bed."

"Remains?"

"…Yeah? I just want to make sure it's all neutralised and won't explode. It took a bit of a pounding."

"And so did you."

He shrugged, albeit painfully, and grinned. "You know me. I'll be back in a bit."

Pepper rolled her eyes and waved a hand telling him to shoo and do what he needed to do. Years of working alongside him had made her almost worryingly immune to these sorts of incidents. She settled back to watch Julia Roberts on a shopping spree, content in the knowledge that Jarvis would warn her if anything was amiss.

Tony meanwhile limped painfully back into the elevator, trying not to look as pitiful as he was beginning to feel. Okay, magic adrenaline was wearing off now and small hurts were slowly becoming big hurts.

He automatically hit the button for the laboratories without looking, choosing instead to rest his arm against the wall of the elevator and to let his forehead lie on it.

"Sir, may I call Doctor Banner for you? You seem unwell."

"M fine, Jarv. I'll see after put birdy to bed." The man rubbed his chest with a groan, feeling the large bruise that spread outwards from the reactor. His suit had saved his from broken ribs, but the pain was still fairly monstrous. "Few day sleep, I'll be fine."

"You are using fractured sentences and your blood pressure appears low. I would advise medical attention." Jarvis insisted gently.

Tony rolled his eyes and didn't bother to reply as the elevator stopped and he stepped out into the lab space.

Yes, Jarvis was more than likely correct that he should see a doctor, but it could wait. It could always wait. The bruising on his chest hurt.

It wasn't until his hands were gripping the work-surface that Tony realised his legs were shaking enough to give him need to hold on to something to stay upright. Everything hurt and his heart was absolutely thumping in his chest.

This…wasn't good.

He knew that it was concerning and something was screaming in his mind that he should be recognising what was happening. This was something he needed to deal with but he couldn't make his brain work.

"Sir, please let me alert Doctor Banner." Jarvis' voice seemed fainter, further away maybe and Tony tried to focus on it through muffled ears. "I believe you are going into shock, you need assistance."

Assistance…Yes that would probably be a good idea…

"Sir? Sir…? SIR!?"

Tony heard the sirens going off around the tower as his vision blacked in and a crippling pain – even worse than the horrific bruising – shot through his chest. His knees hit the floor with a hard thud, followed by the rest of his body.

"Sir!"

Strange…He hadn't realised Jarvis had the emotional capacity to panic….

"Tony!"

His gaze slid dreamlike to see Bruce skidding down next to him, and Tony distantly wondered why the doctor appeared to be moving in slow-motion. Or why he looked so frantic.

"Ton…hear…?"

Bruce was saying something, but Tony found that he couldn't focus on the sounds as his eyes slid shut again. He was so tired and it just hurt too much to bother concentrating.

"Steve…fetch…defibrillator…shock…Cardio…arrest…"

It was just so much easier to sleep. He'd worry about everything later.

MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWM

Loki lay in the far corner of the cell, motionless as he stared at the bloody mess left across the filthy ground.

He knew he should probably be feeling an emotional response to the creature that was abandoned in the middle of the tiny dungeon, but all he could manage was revulsion. There was pain of course, oh there was always pain, but really nothing else as he silently stared at the remains of the child and the sheer amount of blood.

It was the fifth pregnancy forced upon him, but the only one he'd carried to full term. With each one so far the chitauri had aborted the foetus at different points in time; apparently interested in the development of the hybrid at various stages. There'd been enough time between each termination and next impregnation for the deep surgical cuts along his stomach to heal into thick knots of heavy scar tissue. He'd been unsurprised to find that he felt nothing for the children. Monsters: they aren't children, they're monsters.

This one he'd carried to full term and he'd realised that he had been expecting to have this creature ripped out of his belly the same as the others. He hadn't considered or been mentally prepared for giving birth.

And apparently chitauri didn't give birth in the same way that mammals, or Frost Giants, did. Loki vaguely remembered a Midgardian film Tony had forced him to watch in which an alien hibernated inside a human's chest before bursting out once fully developed. It seemed that that had been accidently based on fact when it came to the chitauri – although it was possible their exoskeleton allowed for them to survive the procedure.

He'd screamed like he'd never screamed before when the thing tried to rip it's way out.

No one had come, no one had cared. It wasn't even as if he could speak to beg for help. He'd had to just lie there, desperately willing for it to be over – be it through death or otherwise. If he'd thought it impossible to die from pain before, he now knew that it was all too possible.

Infact, the broken God hoped that it would be the case.

The creature hadn't burst its way out of his stomach in the end, despite its best efforts to do so. The hybrid nature of its genetics had deprived it of the sharp claws it would have needed to use – much like the egg tooth on the beak of a chick. Instead it had struggled and ripped with badly formed and mutated talons that weren't adequate to tear apart the tissue surrounding it. Eventually it had been born via the method Loki was more used to, but not before it had torn through its own umbilical cord and died of the oxygen deprivation.

The cord wasn't all that had been cut, though, and the God lay huddled and motionless. If he managed to survive the blood loss and shock that was shivering through him then there was enough internal damage to ensure that he would never conceive again.

It wasn't a thought that occurred to him, though.

He was in so much pain that logical thought wasn't possible. He knew that the monstrous creature had been born, and could vaguely tell that there was something seriously wrong with himself, but it was back ground noise against the agony. He had been pretty much ripped apart from the inside out, blood washing between his legs and leaving a trail of gore from where he had dragged himself away from the mutated corpse. He didn't have the strength or will to check his injuries but he wouldn't have been surprised to know that his internal reproductive organs had been almost entirely ripped to shreds.

He hardly cared anymore.

So lying in a tiny cell, losing blood at a dangerous speed and with his still-borne child cast to one side, Loki closed his eyes to it all and surrendered to unconsciousness.

MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMMW

You all still with me?

Well, those two aren't looking great, are they? Full details of what has just happened to Tony will be explained in the next chapter, but needless to say, he'd in trouble.

The warnings as promised in the author's note: Blood, still birth, child death, torture, mention of rape.

Love you all and thanks for reading!