Bruce couldn't help the laugh that burst from his mouth. He knew it wasn't a good idea to antagonize the other man, but he just couldn't suppress his reaction. In what world could Loki even consider that Bruce would take him up on his offer? And what made him think they'd even be able to succeed if they tried?

"You're joking," Bruce scoffed, shaking his head in surprise.

"Oh, I can assure you, I would never joke about something like this," Loki replied, tipping his chin up so he could look even further down on Bruce.

"Well, although it's an interesting offer, I'm going to have to decline," Bruce said, trying to figure out how to get out of this room without any casualties. How much longer was Loki willing to deal with not getting his way?

"I wouldn't advise turning down my offer so hastily. Wouldn't you like to hear what you'd possibly gain from this partnership?"

"There is nothing you could-"

"Or perhaps what you could stand to lose?"

"And what do I have to lose?" Bruce asked, genuinely wanting to hear the answer. He wasn't as low as he had been when he was desperate enough to try to take his own life, but he wasn't exactly living a happy life now. Helping people off the grid had been fulfilling, but that option was pretty much gone for him. And if his only choice now was to fight bad guys as the Hulk for the rest of his life, he wouldn't really miss it if that option was taken from him.

"Even a man who thinks he has nothing, still has something to lose," Loki said, sending him a sly smile.

"Is this a riddle? Is the answer my life? I hate to break it to you, but the other guy may have something to say about that," Bruce chuckled. Loki might not have as easy of a time as he thought following through with that sort of plan.

"Actually, yes, but not in the way you might think," Loki grinned, beginning a slow circuit around the room. Bruce fought the urge to spin around in a circle to keep his eye on him, just turning his head slightly when necessary. "Killing a man takes no effort, but taking away his choices, that is a skill. Finding what a man holds most dear, even when the man may not even know that fact about himself, that's the sign of true power."

"And what do you think you know about me?" Bruce asked, wondering what kind of big reveal Loki had in store for him. What could he know after this short amount of time?

"You live your life getting by under the assumption that you and your alter ego are separate beings. 'The left hand doesn't know what the right is doing.' But what if people saw that that wasn't true? What if the poor scientist was just as dangerous as the monster who lies beneath?"

"But it isn't true. And no one would believe you," Bruce insisted.

"Are you sure about that?" Loki whispered, and Bruce whipped around to stare at him. It wasn't Loki standing behind him anymore, or even Steve. Bruce was standing face to face with a perfect replica of himself.

The accounted for members of the team were scouring the roof, looking for any clues that might have been left behind. Tony doubted Loki would've left a note with a forwarding address, but anything was better than doing nothing. He hated feeling at a disadvantage and that was the circumstance they were in right now. They were flying blind and that could end up costing Bruce his life.

"How well does Loki know Earth? Is there any place he'd be most likely to go? Somewhere he'd feel comfortable?" Natasha asked, inspecting the area the tesseract had been earlier.

"I don't even know how long he'd been planning all this. I regretfully have to admit that I don't think I know my brother as well as I thought," Thor sighed, staring off into the distance. "At one point in our lives, I would've said we were best friends. But now, he's like a stranger."

"Schedule the family therapy for after we get Bruce back, okay?" Tony snapped, kicking a piece of rubble.

"Was there anywhere you went while under his control that you think would be a good place to keep Bruce?" Natasha asked Clint, putting a hand on his shoulder as his face went dark from the reminder. "Somewhere secure enough to handle the Hulk?"

"I've got a couple ideas," Clint said, nodding wearily.

"Let's check them out, starting with the closest. It can't have been easy to move Bruce, so hopefully he didn't take him far," Steve commanded, frowning a little after he spoke. "Can Loki fly?"

"Of course he can't fly," Tony scoffed, pivoting to look at Thor for confirmation as soon as Steve's back was turned. Thor shrugged, which was completely unhelpful.

"If he can't, then someone must've seen something flying from your tower. How else could he have gotten away from up here?" Steve said, peering over the edge of the roof.

"Jarvis, start scanning for any nearby surveillance that might've caught sight of Loki's escape. Let me know immediately if you find anything," Tony demanded, striding back into his tower. "If we're going, I'm gonna need a new suit."

"How are we planning on going on this search? Three of us can't fly," Natasha reminded him.

"That sounds like your problem, doesn't it?" Tony shot back.

"We could take a quinjet from Shield," Clint suggested.

"And what do we tell them we need it for? And speaking of Shield, why haven't we been informed of Loki's escape yet? They should be freaking out," Tony said.

"Unless Loki killed everyone," Steve murmured, rubbing his hand over the back of his head.

"Well, that's a tad dark, especially coming from you," Tony snorted, staring at Steve in a new light. If America's golden boy was going pessimistic on them, this was more dire than he wanted to admit.

"We don't know if that's true. Why don't we go down there and see for ourselves?" Natasha said, walking over to the elevators. "And I'm sure there is a helicopter nearby that I can borrow."

"I love how you say that as if it's as easy as stealing a candy bar from a convenience store," Tony chuckled. Natasha just raised her eyebrow at him. "Okay, maybe it is." They got on the elevator and were about to go down when Tony noticed Steve was hesitating before getting on himself.

"What's the holdup?" Natasha asked.

"What if Loki did something to me, like…" Steve trailed off, gesturing toward Clint.

"Does it feel like he did?" Tony questioned, wondering if that dark Steve observation he made earlier was more accurate than he thought.

"No, but would I know? What if we find Loki and I try to hurt one of you?"

"How about this? If you start going coo coo for Loki puffs, I'll make it my personal mission to take you down before you can hurt anyone else. Non lethal weaponry at first," Tony offered.

"Thanks, I think," Steve grumbled, finally climbing on the elevator. Tony wasn't sure what they would see once they got down to the ground floor, but if it kept with the theme of everything else since the end of the battle, it probably wouldn't be good.

Author's Note: Sorry these chapters have been so short. I'm kind of making this up on the fly and stopping when it feels right.