CHAPTER TWO:

Every bit of him ached as his eyelids, thick and raw, peeled open. Loki Laufeyson's vision was blurry but he could see enough to recognize his former cell. A groan began in his lungs but the pain in his ribs was too great to allow it any further. He had passed out after Thor had taken him to the Bifrost gate. Exhaustion, hunger; he wasn't sure why. Not that it mattered. What did matter was in that time, his gag and cuffs had been removed.

The skin around his mouth burnt with the friction of where the metal gag had been. Around his wrists was no better. Loki was lying on the floor of the cell when he awoke and the movement of sitting upright proved almost impossible to do without wanting to scream.

But soon he was on his feet and he looked around. No Fury, no Black Widow, no Hawkeye, no Thor. Anyone else wouldn't have been particularly useful or interesting, but it would have been company. But there was no one. Just shadows. He went to sigh but the air was startled out of him as one of those shadows moved.

A large figure emerged, larger even than his brother. His head was shaved and on his face was a mask not so different than the one Loki himself had been trapped inside of. Was this some other prisoner of Fury's? Loki went to the glass and felt the other man's eyes drilling into his own, but he would not be the first to look away. He forced a smirk.

"And what do they call you, my friend?"

"They call me many things, where I come from," came a low voice, as bellowing as it was distorted. He stood his distance from the cage with his gigantic arms crossed over his equally enormous chest. "Pure evil, I have been called. Reckoning. Protector."

"And what of those who have control of your leash?" Loki asked softly from behind his teeth. "What do Fury and your other puppeteers call you?"

In the silence of the chamber, Loki could almost hear his heart beating. He did not like being measured up, and he felt now that everything he said was being assessed. It was not anyone's job but his to be thinking this far ahead. And maybe it wasn't—maybe he was just paranoid after his recent, crippling defeat.

He looked at the man and tutted a sound indicating he was worthy of no further effort before he turned back and sat on the bench inside the cage. As he sat, he noticed the masked man's eyes had not left him. Loki withheld a grunt of irritation.

"What is it, exactly, that they want from me now? Have they misplaced their shiny blue toy again?"

"I care nothing about the Tesseract," the man said, taking a heavy step forward. Loki almost wanted to recoil. He had never felt this amount of distaste for anyone his entire life. Had he been a weaker sort, he would have almost labeled it fear. What was it about him? Loki finally realized it wasn't his size, it was his almost snakelike patience. The ferocity in his calculation. Loki knew how to bide his time, but he had never experienced something like this. It was completely vague what this man wanted or how he would go about getting it.

"I care nothing about Fury either, for that matter," he continued, walking closer. "Nor the salary given me. I care, now, about you."

Loki forced a laugh. "And what could I have done to gain your fancy, friend?"

"They gave me your file. Destroying an entire city, killing hundreds of people…to rule them? Behind some guise of doing it out of kindness—because to be ruled is in their best interest. Now why would someone who is so sympathetic to the plight of the human race show such apathy towards their well being?"

Loki's mouth opened and shut.

The man raised a finger and shook it slightly. "No, no, Little One. I have seen men do all sorts of things, and heard all kinds of stories. But this one," by now he was almost pressed up against the glass. "This one, I do not believe."

There was silence once more, save for Loki's hurried breaths.

"'Little One'?" the Prince finally scoffed. "I was a King, you dull creature," he snarled.

"I know," the man said. "Your brother informed me of what came to pass in your world."

"Thor?" Loki almost yelled. "He knows nothing of what happened! No one does! If Odin had given me the simplest courtesy of hearing me, after I saved his life—" Loki's eyes went wide and he silenced himself.

Bane staked in front of the glass like a shark. It seemed to Loki the man had not blinked since his arrival.

Loki swallowed and started anew. "What do I call you?"

"Bane."

He forced a smirk once more. "That was easy enough to pry out of you."

"I should say the same. I give information for information. Now go on."