The journey back to the compound hadn't been as bad as Tony had been anticipating. He ignored Natasha, though she didn't seem to be interested in talking, instead scrolling through her phone most likely for information about the whole mess. Instead he simply listened to Friday, who was reading off different transcripts which all involved the Battle of New York and Loki. It wasn't as much as he had been expecting. Most of the interactions had been wiped during the data dump and Tony had only recorded the meeting with Loki in his Penthouse. He wasn't even sure what he was supposed to be looking for as the Spider hadn't told him yet.

Tony resisted the urge to sigh, instead he turned his thoughts to a pair of sunglasses he could design, they could be similar to the head set inside the Iron man Suit so that Friday could actually show him videos or zoom in on objects with the bonus of hiding his eyes. He filed that away to add it to his inventions list. He looked back at Romanov and saw her slip her phone into her pocket. They must be nearly there then. Thinking about it, Tony suddenly realised that with getting rid of the cast as well as putting in the earpiece he had neglected to bring a phone with him. Irritating but not the end of the world. Friday was already dormant in most of the tech in the compound so if he needed to bring up a video or something he could just log into that. It would have to do. He was really going to have to get back into the groove of everyday life.

The car rolled to a stop and Tony slid out of the car as soon as the engine cut off. He looked up at the compound and felt incredibly vulnerable in his simple hoody. Steeling himself he walked over to the front doors which opened automatically. He was met with a silent lobby.

"They're in the cells under the comping Boss," Tony gave a thumbs up to one of the security cameras which blinked red in response. Ignoring Natasha who was following him close behind, Tony started down the corridor to the cells. He didn't need Friday to help him get there, he remembered the blueprints from when he built the compound.

"So what am I supposed to be looking for," asked Tony, "since we're in a secure location and all."

"Loki's claiming that he was under mind control during the Battle of New York. The group he landed with are backing him up."

"And I come in how?"

"He said that it would be visible because his eyes would be a different colour. When Clint was mind controlled, his eyes went blue. We're looking for the same thing," Tony nodded. He guessed that made sense. He would have to talk to Thor to see if Loki was being truthful. He quickly shook that away. He wasn't really part of the Avengers anymore; he couldn't ask them to tell him information anymore really.

"You mentioned that there was more than just Loki, who else?"

"One human, one that looks like a racoon and three humanoids,"

"A racoon?"

"Yes, he talks," Natasha pushed past him to open the door to the cell's entry room, leaving Tony muddling over that new nugget of information. He stayed outside the door for a moment, Friday automatically channelling the cctv cameras to the earpiece.

"Is he here?" was the first, unmistakable voice of Captain America. Tony winced slightly, before pulling up a blank façade, he will simply panic inwards.

"yes, he was pretty cooperative and agreed to help," was Natasha's reply,

"I don't understand why we're going through all of this for Loki, we know he's the God of Lies or something, why should we believe him," ah, Barton. It was unsurprising that he was reacting this way, Tony still remembered the first few weeks after the Battle of New York, the poor man had been scarred.

"My brother is many things, but he would not lie about this. On Asgard we grew up on stories of Thanos and the destruction he wrought. This is within the realm of possibility." The name of Thanos seemed to strike a chord in Tony, it was if he felt great fear when hearing it, but he hadn't heard it before… had he? Having enough of eavesdropping, Tony pushed open the door to find most of the Avengers circled around a table. They all looked up when he entered, Natasha glanced at him when he entered put didn't comment on how he must have been standing outside for a while.

"So, I'm here. What do you need," Rogers immediately went on a spiel about what they needed from him. Yada, yada the typical. Tony tuned him out, already having the information from Natasha. He was in a bit of a petty mood. He clapped his hands together causing Rogers to stop talking,

"Excellent, Friday as already found all of the videos of Loki that is on her database so all I need is a tv or tablet to play it on," Bruce who had been standing near Thor, hidden by the bigger man, slipped past and handed Tony his work tablet, raising an eyebrow he nodded in thanks and logged into his SI account. Friday then downloaded all of the videos straight on the tablet and ordered them up. He passed the tablet to Natasha who was still closest to him, knowing that Friday would stop them if they tried to snoop around his account. "While you all look at that, I would like to meet our extra-terrestrial guests, where are they?" Barton glanced up and pointed down the corridor which held all the cells. Tony frowned, "You're telling me that you're keeping people prisoner when they haven't committed any crimes?"

"They're with Loki. That's enough of a crime,"

"Well, right now you're the ones breaking the law. You're holding people prisoner when they haven't done anything wrong." Stated Tony. Imagine your first time on earth you were held in a cell because of the fact you were an alien. He didn't much like his team – he was still on the fence with some off them – but he didn't take them for Xenophobes. Thor nodded along with what he said,

"That is what I said. On Asgard you will only be imprisoned for a crime you commit, not because of the fact one of your crew committed a crime,"

"You at least put them in different cells I hope," silence, "great," he mumbled to himself, heading to the holding cells,

"Stark, can I talk to you for a moment?" That was surprisingly from Barnes, probably about the call last night. Was it really only last night? Had his life always been this hectic?

"Yeah, what's up?" They walked over to the edge of the room near the hallway to the cells, away from the others,

"I wanted to say thank you. I know it's probably a bad time, but I never got to thank you for the BARF tech. It's helped a lot and the trigger words that Hydra implanted don't work anymore so…. Thank you," Barnes rubbed at the back of his neck with his metal hand. Tony felt relief first. Relief that Barnes wouldn't suddenly become a killing machine. He had already fought him before, without him trying to kill him like Rogers – Right okay. Stopping that train of thought.

"Erm… your welcome. Glad that it worked," Barnes nodded excepting it and walked back to the group. Tony also felt happy for the guy. He had no idea how scary it could e knowing that he had words implanted in his head that could make you attack the people who cared for you (Tony definitely had people who cared for him, yep), he was about to make is way to the actual cells when Thor came over,

"May I come with you man of Iron, I wish to speak with my brother,"

"Sure Point Break." They walked in silence of a moment until they were out of sight of the others when Thor stopped and looked at Tony. Being alone in a hallway with a man who could snap him in two made Tony's heart rate pick up and his hand itch for his repulsor, remembering what had happened when someone a lot stronger then him was in the same place as him, but forced him to remember Thor hadn't hurt him before – well technically he had but Thor had apologised profusely having forgotten for a moment how fragile Humans were and that he would try better, which to his credit he had – and forced a smile, "Everything good," Thor looked to the ground embarrassed.

"I wish to apologise as to how I acted when we returned to earth. I should have found out your side as well. Banner, Colonel Rhodes and I tried to contact you but when we received to answer we believed you didn't want to talk to us." Tony stared at the God. He really hadn't expected Thor to apologies and so sincerely. Tony was a master at reading body language probably close behind Barton – he didn't come close to Romanov's skill – and he knew Thor meant it,

"Thanks,"

"I fear I have done similar things with my Brother, and I have lost his trust. I do not want to lose a friend as well,"

"Well. Thank I guess." Tony bit his lip, feeling slightly overwhelmed at all the apologies he was getting. Maybe they had time to think everything over? He didn't really know what to say to Thor, but he liked the guy. He wasn't stupid as many people thought for reasons beyond him and he and Thor had spoken often about the difference of technology and magic uses in their worlds. "and I except your apology. Maybe we can start over?" Thor smiled at him,

"I would like that very much," Tony gave him a genuine smile and turned his attention to the entry door, putting on his game face. The last time he had interacted with Loki he had been thrown out of a window. Hopefully this wouldn't be a round two.