A/N: Hi there! First thing I need to establish here is (believe it or not) I don't own any of Marvel's characters or institutions in here. Fara's mine though.

I know it's hard for people to make anything of a story's first chapter so here's the second one to help you get into the plot. Please leave some reviews! I'd really like to know what people think, even if it's constructive criticism.

Enjoy!

Thor and Loki would travel directly to Midgard. Alone. The warrior prince hoped it would not take too long to find S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers once they were there.

The thought brought bile up Loki's mouth and he swallowed it down hard. Something told him the mortal warriors wouldn't be all too happy to see him again after what happened with the Chitauri. The man out of time, the green monster, the man of iron – they all would probably try to rip his skull apart the moment he set foot on their planet.

He stepped out of the cage of glass and stone that had been his home for almost two-hundred-and-sixty days and could slowly feel his magic returning to him, like two snakes crawling up his arms and into the back of his head. He winced at the sharp pain he felt flowing through his veins before it subsided and warmed him from the inside out.

Still weak, he noticed with a scorn. It would need some time until his powers were fully restored.

He let out a snort. His voice would be kept away still, for only Odin had the powers to bestow it back to him and he, of course, was currently indisposed to do so.

"If you try to run none of us will hesitate to kill you." Thor said. He turned around to lead the way, but not without throwing one last glance back at his frowning brother, whose eyes widened for a split second the moment he saw the huge entourage Thor had brought along. About twenty men were there waiting for him, heavy chains in their hands that were clearly meant for the prisoner. Their expressions were blank, but some pairs of eyes still reflected their owners' disgust.

Tss, not even allowed to walk by myself.

Thor guessed his thoughts. "It is for your own good. You are allowed to go to your room and get cleaned up and changed."

A raised dark eyebrow answered him.

They walked through dark tunnels and many corners. The lack of food had caused the sorcerer's body to reduce muscle tissue and he would have to build up his stamina again, he noticed with disdain. Also his injured leg was causing him difficulty with every step, but he would not let them think him weak, not anymore. He had risen above these pathetic creatures, never again would he allow them to feel superior to him. Not them. Not Thor.

He had been through the lowest forms of torture and degradation and had survived. He had been the one made fun of because of his magic, then scorned and despised by the universe. Thousands wished his death, but the mighty Thor himself had asked him for his aid. What a humiliation for the wielder of Mjolnir to have to ask the Jotunn for help.

If they cannot love you, let them fear you.

They reached Loki's old quarters and Thor commanded his men to position themselves to both sides of the door. Then he let Loki walk in first, following behind and closing the door carefully.

It was strange standing again in the rooms that had once housed his brother. Loki didn't know how Thor had been here every day the first year after the younger prince's supposed death. He hadn't touched anything, just sat on his bead or stood on the balcony. He had been left alone in here and it was the only place Thor had allowed himself to give in to his grief. Had he only known then that one day he'd be standing there again together with one of the most dangerous men alive.

He eyed the slim man's form, curious for a reaction.

Loki felt strangely out of place. Once his chambers had been his territory and apart from Thor no one had ever dared disturbing him in here. His books and scrolls had been left piled one over the other across the floor and on his desk. Strange artefacts and tools were still spread in between them, shimmering in gold, silver and copper- tools only Loki knew how to use.

Nothing had been changed; nothing touched or moved. Somebody had kept the room clean, seeing that not one of his ancient texts was covered in layers of dust.

It was his room, unchanged since the day he had last stood in here, yet he felt like a stranger too. The walls around them spoke of different times, of times when Loki had believed Thor and Odin to be his family, times when he had believed himself part of that world, belonging with those people. But oh, how times had changed. He had changed and he felt unwelcome.

"Take your time, brother." Thor stood close to the wall, hands held behind his back.

His words only earned another faint snort.

With one flick of his hand Loki's hair looked clean and soft again, albeit still left down in a careless manner. What did he care for sleek looks anymore? He lifted both hands to tuck a few strands behind his ears. He tried to use his magic on his leg too, but soon felt he could not concentrate it enough. How pathetic if he already felt drained after one tiny spell. Thankfully the bleeding had stopped.

"We left everything as it was." Thor said.

Pulling of his shirt and breeches Loki walked to his trunk choosing a light emerald tunic and black trousers. He sent a mocking glance back to Thor, then straightened the green fabric over his shoulders and walked to a separate wardrobe where his armour and knives were kept.

Thor knew the sorcerer could have just used his magic to change into new clothing, but Loki's sickly physique told him that even the spell on his hair had been too much for him. Whatever magic it had been Odin had used on the cell walls to prevent him from escaping had clearly left him exhausted. He would need time to gain back his strength and Thor hoped with all his heart they would be given that time.

Just then the doors were flung open and Frigga stepped into the room, eyes widening as she saw her youngest. Sif and the Warriors Three followed her with ever watchful eyes.

"Loki." A gasp. Then the queen all but ran towards the man and wrapped her arms around his bony frame. "Oh Loki."

Frigga had been the only one besides Thor who had ventured down into the dungeons to see the fallen prince. She had gone every day and every day she had been dismissed, first by savage looks and gestures, then silence.

She wanted to tighten her embrace, to let him feel her love through every inch of her arms, but she feared to break him. Bluish gray shadows lay beneath his eyes and she could swear she could feel each of his ribs through his tunic. He resembled a corpse more than anything else and it frightened her immensely. Her son, her baby had suffered, was still suffering and she could do nothing against it.

Loki froze as he felt the woman's arms around his cold body. As she held him he did not move, neither embracing her back nor shrugging her off. He couldn't. He had made it clear he did not want her pity, her lies anymore. She was not his mother and he couldn't see why she would not understand, why she would still come every day to see him, despite him ignoring her for hours. She had come and she had talked to him and for that curious reason he felt unable to push her away.

He wasn't turning soft, however. It had been too long since he had felt the warmth of an embrace on his skin, and incapable to move he just told himself to let her have her way just this one time.

"When are you leaving?" Frigga let go of Loki reluctantly, who then proceeded to put on his armour and boots. Her eyes travelled to Thor who had not moved all the while.

"Soon. Harald is bringing the runes for the journey." He gave his mother a sad smile and she cupped her eldest's cheeks.

"I don't think it a good idea." Volstagg said. "We should come with you."

"And who will protect Asgard in my absence? No, my friends, I must know that she will be safe with you." Thor said.

Sif had her hand on her sword's handle, her eyes trained on the fallen prince's form. "You can trust on us but I advise you to be careful with whom you put your faith upon." She bit her lip when she saw the tiny twitch on the corners of Loki's pale lips.

"Your father is very proud of you – both of you. Even now in his state he knows what you're planning to do and I know he wishes you success." Frigga said with a warm smile.

The doors opened a second time and the guard Harald came in, the magical runes Odin had left Thor for emergencies held carefully in both hands.

It was the only way they would be able to travel through the worlds with the Bifrost still not fully repaired and Loki's magic too weak to carry them both through space.

The sorcerer finally rose to his feet after tying up his boots, his knives and daggers tied to a belt carefully hidden behind layers of black leather. His lips twisted into a smirk again, a cruel twitch of his mouth and it was ice rather than fire that sparkled in his jade orbs.

Tony Stark was leaning against the mahogany table inside his massive kitchen, glass of scotch in one hand, glancing out of the tall windows into the snowy landscape.

The house was new, brand new and equipped fully to his wishes. Why would a man such as Tony build a house deep in the heart of the Canadian wilderness? Because he damn well could.

Pepper was still in bed and he had sneaked down to enjoy the last hours of silence until the building would be bursting with super hero egos. The thought made him grin widely. How he had missed the mob.

First it had just been considered as a means of escape, to be able to work on his suit without the disturbances one encountered in tightly crammed metropolises. And after what had happened in New York Pepper and him had needed a time off the city and choose to spend a short vacation here. Being a hero could be so exhausting at times.

And then those aliens had showed up in Norway.

Tony wasn't really sure how many times one could survive alien attacks and not go a little mental, but apparently Earth was now on the radar of creepy insectoids from all over the universe. This time they had disappeared again as swiftly as they had come and no damage caused. Question was why had they come in the first place?

S.H.I.E.L.D. of course had informed them all about the incident and the witnesses were kept under constant surveillance to keep them from going public with their stories. The last thing humanity needed now was mass hysteria.

That was when Pepper had proposed to set up a secret Avengers meeting in their house and as Jarvis had taken up her side there hadn't been much Tony could've said against it.

All of them had been contacted by S.H.I.E.L.D. and all felt mixed about cooperation. Perhaps they could discuss the matter first in private without Fury's watchful eye scanning their conversations like a metal detector.

He looked away from the view when he noticed Steve joining him, sleepy eyes adjusting to the snow's bright reflection that streamed in through the almost entirely glazed walls.

"Good Morning."

"Morning, Captain."

"Any news of the others?" the blond man opened a can of orange juice and poured its contents into a glass.

"Hawkeye arrived around three o'clock last night and is probably still dreaming like a baby and Spiderwoman should be here in the afternoon. Banner will join us in a few days. He said he couldn't leave earlier. You want some?" He held up the bottle of whiskey.

Steve just shook his head. "And what about Thor?"

"Don't know, we can't contact him. If Superman wants to help he's welcome, but I think he's gonna have a handful with Loki now anyway."

"What are we going to do once everyone's here? No one knows why those creatures came to Earth."

"Yeah, let's hope we'll find out soon."

Both men were startled at Jarvis' voice interrupting their conversation.

"Excuse me sirs, a disturbance in the atmosphere and a non-seismic movement of the ground, possibly from an impact, was registered right now about one mile to the north."

"Thanks, Jarvis." Their eyes met again and Tony clapped his hands together. "Bingo."

Loki felt like having been stoned with dozens of gigantic rocks until his flesh was reduced to pudding. His back had taken the force of the impact, knocking all the oxygen out of his lungs. There was a reason why he had learned to travel through worlds by shifting space. It didn't feel like being crunched by a mountain.

He could feel bones grinding against each other in the thigh of his already injured leg and feared he had cracked some. Trying to concentrate his magic to heal himself he found he still could not. With lips set in a thin line Loki tried to breathe in. He was too weak, he did not have the strength to even heal his leg and a silent curse left his throat. He would have to ignore the pain. That shouldn't prove to be that difficult; he had endured worse after all.

Again he took a deep breath before pushing himself up a bit, his jade eyes needing a moment to adjust to the light.

They had landed in the middle of a deep forest judging by the thick wall of trunks and pine needles surrounding them. The air was bitter cold, but Loki hardly noticed it. A dull tuck at his mind reminded him why the cold didn't affect him like others, why it had never affected him the way it had Thor or Fandral or Volstagg on some of their countless adventures.

Jotunns did not feel cold.

His eyes found Thor already standing and shaking pine needles out of his thick blonde mane. He rolled his eyes and rose onto his own shaky legs. A question formed in his gaze and Thor understood.

"I don't know. The runes were meant to lead us to the Avengers, but this surely is not New York or Puente Antiguo." He clutched Mjolnir's handle tighter.

Great! Leave it to Thor to get them lost. Had he been strong enough he could have changed into a bird to fly up and take note of their exact position, but he felt dizziness click on the edges of his conscience just at the thought of it. It was frustrating him to no ends and he only hoped it wouldn't take long to recover his magic.

His power was his life. Without it he was nothing. It was the only thing that had not turned against him, the only thing he still had and he dreaded to lose it as well.

Damned be Odin and his dungeons!

"The sun will not set for at least ten more hours. We should-" Thor started.

His words were interrupted as the younger god felt himself being thrown against a tree. Captain America held him tightly, one hand on a shoulder and the other wrapped around Loki's throat. Blue eyes met green ones and widened with recognition, before hands covered in blue fabric tightened their iron grip even further.

"You?"

"Okay, this was definitely not part of the plan." Iron Man landed and his eyes flew from Thor to the man's younger brother and back."I thought you people would be capable of keeping him locked away for longer than that."

Thor stretched out his arm in a soothing gesture. "We have come to offer our help. We know about the creatures that came to Midgard. "

"And you thought bringing that maniac back to Earth would be a good idea?" Steve turned around to Thor in disbelief. He had to be joking.

Loki shifted beneath the blonde soldier's hand on his throat. He couldn't breathe.

Tony looked at Loki. "Hey, Rudolf, don't you have anything to say to this?" his tone giving away his disbelief. What had Thor been thinking? "How can this even be, did he escape or something?"

"The highest possible measures were taken to ensure his imprisonment. Never could he have escaped."

"Then why else is he here?" asked Tony. "Thor, your help is really appreciated, but we can't have the one guy who wanted to kill humanity running around causing havoc."

Loki felt shadows lurking at the edges of his vision, like black smoke. A dark laugh brushed against the corners of his mind, belonging to no one present. He tried to concentrate on the men before him.

The captain's grip on him did not loosen. "Stark's right, Thor, this won't work."

Thor sighed, but his eyes were determined. "He is the only one who can help us. He knows the Dark Elves and he knows their strength and weaknesses. Loki it one of the best sorcerers in the Nine Realms, and it is dark magic we are facing here."

"Wait, Dark what?" Steve and Tony exchanged glances. "You're joking. What would elves want on Earth?"

"We don't know yet, but we need Loki's knowledge to help us find the answer."

The silence that followed weighed heavily on all present. Thor had a point - they didn't know what foe they we're facing and they needed all the help they could get. Tony wished he could have a glass of scotch right now...and smash the bottle over Loki's smug face.

"Okay." Iron Man took off the ground and gave Thor one last sharp glance out of his lifted visor. "But if he even thinks of doing something stupid I won't guarantee for anything."