Disclaimer: I do now own any of the Marvel characters. The Avengers was written by Joss Whedon, movie transcript taken from the website Scribd. If you know it, I do now own it.

What a Difference a State Makes

There's a fragile tension that's keeping us going / It may not last forever / But, oh well, it's blowing

-Depeche Mode, "Fragile Tension"

The trip back was made in silence. King Reindeer glared daggers at Stark, Stark smirked and messed up his hair while continuing to think up outrageous nicknames for RG.

Thor was baffled.

Rogers, well, Rogers remained silent. His fingers twitched, as if he wished for something to do with his hands instead of sitting there watching Stark dig a deep hole that would likely cause the latter's death. By the time Loki made his escape to the front of the plane to sit with the silent Romanov, Rogers appeared as if he was going to explode if Stark came up with another nickname for Insane Loki. Loki was sure a few epic shouting matches were in the future for the two men.

"So, that was fun," Romanov commented as she landed the plane.

"Oh, yes. Let's do it again," Loki snarked dryly.

"I thought you were the god of chaos? Shouldn't you be thriving on this?"

"This isn't chaos. This is insanity," Loki commented, unstrapping himself from the seat as Romanov did the final button flipping or whatever was required to shut the plane off.

Romanov snorted. "What are we going to do with…RG?"

"Put him in a cage," Loki muttered, slowly getting to his feet. "Director Fury had me…suggest a few upgrades for the glass cage SHEILD made for Doctor Banner."

Romanov shifted minutely. Then flipped a few more switches.

"He will be unable to magic himself out," Loki assured her. "That, though, is where it ends."

"What ends?"

"The good news."

'Til all my sleeves are stained red / From all the truth I've said / Come by it honestly I swear

-Onerepublic, "Secrets"

Loki's skin was crawling. It felt like a million bugs were scuttling in every which way as he stood in the lab with Banner upon returning to the Hellicarrier. The sound of many pairs of marching feet got Loki's attention and he looked up just in time to see the Deranged Reindeer parade passed— looking as his name claimed: deranged.

"Should I be worried?" Banner asked, eyeing RG as he smirked and met Banner's gaze. Banner removed his glasses and rubbed his forehead. He looked up again as RG turned his attention forward and continued onwards to his glass cage.

"Likely," Loki admitted, absently rubbing his bare arms. He had shed his amor as soon as possible, as it felt foreign without the magic.

Even on Other Earth, the magic had remained.

Loki was mystified as to where the magic had gone.

After fighting with the armor to remove it, Loki was dressed once again in the only clothes he had on him: a grey v-neck t-shirt and dark jeans.

"Is it story time now, James Dean?" Stark asked, leaning on the doorframe to the lab and eyeing Loki. He was dressed in a dark, expensive looking suit. Agent Hill stood behind him, eye balling Stark as if she didn't want to let him roam freely.

"Yes, I believe you will all hear the whole tale in the near future," Loki replied, straightening up. He pulled his leather jacket off the back of the chair and shrugged it on. Stark shook his head, looking as if he wanted to make a sarcastic comment on Loki's jacket. Loki pressed on. "I will tell it after Director threatens RG and tells him he's now the ant and Nicholas Fury is the boot."

Banner snorted.

"I feel like I missed all the fun," Stark muttered, looking angry.

"We can watch on the monitors in the briefing room," Romanov said, popping up out of nowhere. She was still dressed in her black catsuit. "I believe that's a much better spot for Loki to tell us his tale of woe."

She turned on her heel and brushed passed Hill. Stark motioned for Banner and Loki to exit before him. Loki gently turned Banner away from the scepter and the pair exited the lab.

Captain America and Thor were both waiting in the briefing room on the bridge as they entered. Thor was pacing while Captain America was seated at the table— still wearing his superhero suit. Romanov set the monitors in the room to broadcast RG in his glass cage.

"Is there…a screen in the table?" Rogers asked, staring at the flat, shiny surface.

"Uh, yeah," Stark muttered, falling into a chair ungracefully. He leaned up and stared at the image in the table. "Oh, putting the homicidal maniac in a glass cage always works out for the best."

Banner frowned as he took the seat next to Stark. Loki remained standing watching Thor as the larger man paced the room. He had shed some of his armor, but remained tense. Agent Hill entered and moved to some of the computer monitors that did not reside within the table, tapping the screens and frowning.

"Thirty-thousand feet, straight down," Fury was saying to RG, "in a steel trap. You get how that works?"

Loki leaned over Roger's shoulder to see the opened hatched close under RG, who looked unbothered by the thought he could drop to his death in the glass box.

"Ant."

Fury pointed RG.

"Boot."

Fury pointed at the big red button.

Stark quirked an eyebrow, somehow knowing he was still missing the joke. He pouted.

RG smirked. "It's an impressive cage. Not originally built for me, but…you've made some key changes."

RG raised a hand and pressed it to the glass.

"I'm quite clever," he praised flatly. "How I dislike myself at the moment. I am much too clever for my own god. But, did I think of this?"

RG smirked and his hand turned blue, ice forming on the glass. Thor let out a noise. Loki glanced up to find Thor looking a combination of angry, stressed and sad. The blond man looked up and met Loki's eyes.

Loki shrugged and went back to watching.

RG frowned, looking at his formerly blue hand, then at the lack of cracks in the glass.

"It was built for someone a lot stronger than you. I hear he smashed you into the ground. Made a nice Loki shaped crater."

RG glared at Fury.

"Don't fool yourself thinking you know how this ends just because of him," RG spat. "I know what he knows."

"And I know what you know," Fury offered.

"Oh, but do you, Director. Do you?" RG asked sweetly while looking demented.

"I've got you on my side," Fury whispered.

Without waiting for RG to answer, Fury spun around and exited the room. RG narrowed his eyes, then backed up a few paces till he was in the center of the cage. He planted his feet hips distance apart and clasped his hands behind his back and stood, staring straight ahead.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner muttered. He shifted uneasily in his seat before getting to his feet.

"What's he going to do?" Romanov asked, breaking the silence in the briefing room.

"Something insane," Loki muttered.

"I want my story," Stark demanded loudly, leaning back in his chair. "I wanna know why we've got two Gods of Mischief. And while I'm totally thankful one is sane, I'd like to get rid of the whack job one and pry the cube out of his possession."

"RG's gonna play this out for as long as he can," Rogers realized, sitting up straighter and looking at the two gods in the room. "No matter what we know about him, what we think we know, his specialty if chaos, right?"

Rogers looked up at Loki over his shoulder.

"I think before we get to that, Captain Rogers, we will be hearing Lo's story," Thor said.

Everyone stared at Loki.

"Do we need to wait for Director Fury?" Rogers asked, looking at everyone in the room.

"He knows most of it, but we might as well wait for all the players," Loki said.

It took Fury about three minutes to reach the briefing room, with Coulson trailing behind him. He nodded at Loki, sitting back in his chair.

"With the exception of Thor, Director Fury and Agent Coulson, are you aware of the events of New Mexico a year ago?" Loki asked, looking at each person around the table.

Hill, Rogers, Stark, and Romanov all nodded. Banner shook his head. Loki gave a quick overview of the events leading to his fall for Banner, then told the tale of falling to Other Earth.

"So, you fell off a bridge into nothingness?" Banner asked, looking concerned.

"Yes. And, as I might have stated before, that is where RG and my story splits. I do not know where RG fell or what occurred to him."

"I can't believe we're all actors," Stark muttered, still looking shocked. "Least I was still rich and famous."

Everyone glared at Stark, who suddenly started smiling.

"So, about these movies we all made," Stark started. "I got three and everyone else only got one?"

"Except Agent Romanov and Agent Barton," Loki admitted. "They do not have their own films."

Romanov looked insulted while Star smugly smiled. He opened his mouth to say something, but Rogers spoke over him.

"Wait, the movies didn't tell you where you went? You seem to know a lot about each of us, but not much about what happened to you when you fell into the void."

"The movies did not show exactly what occurred to…Loki. They simply showed he'd aligned with The Other and Thanos and was given the Chitauri in order to rule over Midgard," Loki explained.

"And the Chitauri are?" Stark asked. "Besides sounding ugly."

"A warrior alien race," Thor reminded him, staring at Stark as if he were an idiot. "Ruthless, strong and mindless outside of battle."

"But, we win, right? What's the big deal? I mean, yeah, King Rudolph knows he's going to loose, but he seems to be following his original plan. He's in a cage."

"Are you an idiot?" Rogers asked, jerking in his seat to look at Stark.

"No. Genius."

"He got out of the cage last time," Banner quietly said, but was overpowered by Rogers shouting, "Things aren't going to play out like a movie. This is real life, Stark!"

"We won last time. Why?" Romanov asked, cutting off Stark's comeback.

"You worked together," Loki replied, wearily eyeing the rag-tag group.

Rogers and Stark looked like they were at one another's throat, Thor was disappointed, Banner rubbed the bridge of his nose and Fury sighed deeply. Romanov was as she usually was: set to neutral. Coulson was eyeing Rogers and Stark likely debating on punching Stark in the nose, while Hill's eyes were still glued to the monitor she'd been at since entering the room.

Yeah, this group was going to win a battle.

"After a tragic death of someone who'd touched each of you during RG's escape you came together, put your differences aside and worked together to save the day," Loki explained, wearingly watching Rogers seethe while Stark pointedly ignored the blond solider.

"Hear that? Team work solves the problem," Fury said. "We know Reindeer's got the cube and likely still planning to bring his army down. And his eyes are blue, so he might not be a hostile as we think. His eyes are really blue."

Fury looked upset by this, glaring at Loki as if it were his fault the villain of the moment might not be as evil as they all wished.

"The world is not black and white, it's in shades of grey," Loki blandly stated.

"Are you telling me the insane one might not be a looney-toon?" Stark asked, slapping the table. "Seriously?"

"He's been whammied. Yeah," Fury said, crossing his arms across his chest. "If you want, we can knock him upside the head a few times and see what happens."

"Why haven't we hit him over the head yet?" Rogers asked.

"It won't be that easy to break it on him," Loki quietly said. "He's a mortal. It will take a great force to render him unconscious. Sometimes great emotional turmoil can break him free, but it does not last."

"How do you know?" Thor asked, looking curious.

"The film. In it, you took Loki out of the plane and crash landed somewhere. You hit him with the hammer and banged him against rocks. He hit his head a few times, but the spell didn't break. He only broke free during moments of emotional upheaval. It did not last, though."

The room was silent.

"The control rendered over RG is different from the control he's put on your people. Also, RG is angry and…vengeful. So, it is easy for the spell to take hold again."

"When did it break?" Romanov asked. "For good?"

"After the Hulk smashed him into Stark's floor," Loki quietly said, giving Banner soft smile. "That likely rendered him unconscious long enough to re-callibrate his mind."

Banner cringed and rubbed his head, turning away from Loki and walking to the other side of the room.

"Hulk threw him around like a rag doll," Fury offered. "Now, we don't know where the cube is located. Banner, you anywhere with that?"

"Getting closer. Everything is triangulated and lined up. But, they seemed to know what we'd doing, so we're getting reading from all the… all the cities having strange fake weather."

Thor looked confused. No one felt compelled to explain weather patterns to Thor, so they continued to discuss what the other Loki might be up to, what he did last time and what they might to do get the cube back. The conversation went in circles till it came back to RG's eminent break out.

"So, you are sure Barton will be here to break him out?"

Loki nodded, turning to Romanov. "I'm sure that Jessica and Barton will come to get him. Barton knows this ship well and Jessica knows how we will all react. "

Romanov didn't like the sound of this in the least. Her eyes hardened and her mouth grew a tiny bit tighter.

"What do you think he planned is this time around? Just a guess," Stark prodded.

Loki glanced up at the monitor, where RG was smirking into the camera aimed at him. He was still standing in the dead center of the cage with his hands behind his back, but his smirk was growing by leaps and bounds.

"Likely the same thing he was going for before," Loki admitted. "He will know we know this, so he will see it as a challenge to make it happen."

Banner shifted and frowned. He stood uncomfortably on the other side of the room. Stark got up out of his chair and approached Banner. Stark clapped him on the shoulder.

"Love your work on gamma radiation."

Banner looked utterly baffled. "Er, uh, thanks."

"Your work is seriously brilliant. Seriously. Oh, and I love how you turn into a huge, green rage monster. Totally cool."

Banner turned a bit green as he stared at Stark.

"He likes you," Loki offered, grinning.

Banner continued to look baffled, confused and a little green. Stark got distracted by something and wandered off.

Finally.

"Do you believe the other Loki beyond reason?" Thor softly asked.

Loki knew what answer Thor was looking for and found himself unable to give it to him.

"Well, he hasn't killed anyone yet," Romanov offered. "So maybe redemption is in his cards."

Thor said nothing, but looked like someone had just killed his puppy. Loki quickly looked away.

"If they're not going to use iridium, what are they going to use?" Banner asked, clearing his throat. He removed his glasses and scratched his temple. "I mean, they use it for stabilizing the portal. What else could they use?"

"What do you mean?" Rogers asked, leaning forward.

"Means they need something so the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at the SHEILD compound," Stark said. "Also, it'd mean he'd be able to get that portal as big as he wanted. And for as long as he wanted."

Stark stopped fiddling with the computer monitor near Agent Hill and wandered further away from the group, though he didn't shut up. He waved his hands around as he continued to talk a hundred miles an hour.

"So, what would he use?" He whirled around to face the group. "Wait, if we know we're going to be shot out of the air, why are we still in the air? Wouldn't we go land on something solid like, oh, I don't know, some land? That man is playing GALAGA!"

He pointed at some random agent on the bridge. Rogers sighed, Fury rolled his eye, Agent Hill scowled, while Banner pinched his nose. Thor looked puzzled and peered at Coulson— who had raised an eyebrow.

"What is this Galaga?" he asked, looking to Coulson.

"I'll explain it later," Coulson assured.

"Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did," Stark called loudly, pointing at the man playing a video game. Stark suddenly covered his left eye and stared at one of the flat screen monitors. He moved it to the left and right, turning his head as well. "How does Fury do this?"

"He turns," Hill supplied, appearing at his side and moving the monitor away from him.

"STARK!" Fury shouted.

Stark frowned, but turned and said, "Well, that sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The iridium was the only thing GQ knew he'd have trouble getting. Actually, what other things did he need?"

"They never said. I would not dare guess," Loki admitted.

"How did you get here again?" Stark asked.

Loki smirked. He'd not detailed how he'd managed to arrive when he'd told the story, knowing only Stark would truly care.

"I built an arc reactor."

Stark startled and looked down at his chest, even though his chest piece wasn't showing under his dress shirt.

"You built an arch reactor?" Stark asked, sounding a combination of worried and amazed. "How?"

"I used the plans they had for the Iron Man movies," Loki explained. "I improvised after that, as the plans were movie props, thus were not meant for real operation."

"Loki is very clever," Thor offered.

"That means…that if one could figure it out…he'd know what power source he needed and…he would know he had the ability to build an arch reactor because your friend would have told him," Stark realized, his tanned face paling. "He could build himself something that could put a high energy density, something to kick start the cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill demanded.

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers," Stark rattled off, looking rattled. "If I can do it, no doubt Loki could. Why does he even need a crew of scientists?"

"He's not an idiot. He had to delegate," Loki reminded Stark. "I did not build the reactor overnight. He will know this."

"So, I am amazing," Stark boasted, a smug smile appearing on his paled face.

"Of course, Mr Stark," Loki allowed with a nod of his head.

Stark pointed a finger at Loki and said, "Call me Tony. Mr Stark was my father. Not me."

"So, does, er, the other Loki need a particular kind of power source?" Rogers asked, tensing up at the mention of Starks' father. "I mean, he must have figured out what to use other than iridium, and so he'd figure out that he'd need another power source since he will not likely use what he used in the, uh, the film."

Banner rubbed between his eyes, then shoved his glasses back on his face. "He got the heat on the cube up to a hundred and twenty-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier. Lo didn't do that when he broke through. How did you do that? I bet Reindeer will want to know how you did it and ask your friend. Clearly, using the arch reactor was key to avoiding the heat up."

Banner peered at Loki.

"I believe RG…forced his way through instead of allowing the Tesseract to drag him."

"So, you asked permission?" Stark asked, looking curious.

"In a sense," Loki said.

"In what sense," Stark challenged.

"In the sense, I connected to the power it was all ready emitting, fed it some more along with magic and let it drag me to where it was. I did not speak to it, I did not commune with it, and it did not speak back, but it was greedy for the power I was offering."

"What did you power your arch reactor with?"

"Magic."

"Not any Earth element?"

"No. I was unable to get anything powerful enough to really power it. I could only use what I had available to me."

"So you powered it with magic," Stark snorted. "Sure. Whatever."

"Whatever Lo did worked," Banner said. "The collapse only happened because Reindeer showed up in the manner he did. Whatever Lo did was, while not long lasting, it was a lot less destructive."

"He would need to figure out how to power an arch reactor with magic and get rid of whatever his tainting his magic," Loki said. "He's still tainted. And I doubt he has figured out how to build an arch reactor in that cage or in the time since he's been here. I'm clear headed and it took me several weeks."

"So, unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilizes the quantum tunneling effect with science, they're gonna need some sort of stabilizing agent," Stark concluded.

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet," Banner offered, turning his attention to Stark.

"Finally, someone who speaks English!" Stark cried, throwing his arms wide open and beaming at Banner.

"That was English?" Rogers asked.

"Science, Rogers. That was science," Romanov snickered.

Stark and Banner began to further speak in terms even Loki was having issues following.

"Brother, I must ask, what happened? Really," Thor asked quietly, turning Loki to face him. "Why are there really two of you?"

"I do not know, Brother."

"You must have a theory," Thor said, narrowing his eyes.

Loki glanced back at his insane counterpart on the table monitors and sighed.

"A million," Loki quietly said. "Each one as unlikely as the next. We both belong here. I do not understand. One of us should not belong, and yet we both do."

"Could you have been ripped apart?"

Thor and Loki startled, looking down at the small, redheaded woman who was now standing next to them with her arms folded across her chest.

"What do you mean?" Thor inquired.

"Well, when he fell into this void, he said he felt pain and then nothing. Could different aspects of his personality and his very being been ripped apart?" Romanov suggested. She made a ripping motion with her hands— like tearing a sheet of paper into two. "From what I've seen of the two, they are different sides of the same coin. One of them is all anger and rage and the other is not. You said yourself you had no anger or rage, simply fell into a depression. What if RG embodies all that anger and rage you once had? As, really, where did it go?"

Loki frowned.

You think it's fictional, mystical / Maybe, spiritual / Hero who appears to you / To clear your view when you're too crazy

-Gorillaz, "Clint Eastwood"

Clint stared around the lab while Stark/Jessica danced around the classic cars.

"This is just like the movies!" the deep voice of Tony Stark shirked very uncharacteristically.

Clint opened up a long drawer and smiled down at what he found within.

"Sir, are you alright?" came the voice of the AI.

"Oh, just peachy, Jarvis," Stark/Jessica chirped.

She snapped her head up, as if she was listening to something. Clint looked around, but didn't hear anyone.

"Jarvis, can you get a plane ready. I gotta fly to the East Coast. I've got a plane that can get there in a few hours, right?"

"Your suit can get you there in less than an hour," Jarvis pointed out.

"Yeah, but I can't take Clint with me if I go that fast," Stark/Jessica reminded the AI.

"I was not aware you wished to bring him along."

"Well, I do. Jarv— pilot, jet, and be ready to go in an hour. Gotta go get my friend," Stark/Jessica said. "I need to bring a suit. Hmmm…"

"The Mark III, IV and V are available."

"Cool. Old school," Stark/Jessica said.

"Your newest suits are in New York at the tower, sir. If you've forgotten."

"Of course I didn't forget. I just forgot what was here. Problem living in too many place at once," Stark/Jessica laughed. "Hmmm…what is the one that goes into a suitcase?"

"The Mark V. I'll get it ready," Jarvis replied.

Across the lab, one of the suits on display suddenly folded itself into a metal suitcase. Stark/Jessica skidded across the lab and grabbed it up.

"Thanks, Jarvis! Come on, Barton. Grab what you want from that drawer that's making you drool and let's go bust Locutus out of jail!"

Under haunted skies I see you / Where love is lost your ghost is found / I braved a hundred storms to leave you

-Adele, "Turning Tables"

Loki sat staring at a monitor in the lab. He was watching himself while Stark (who had shed the suit in favor of a beat up t-shirt and jeans) and Banner talked science at one another. Loki honestly had no idea what they were up to, but he knew they'd figure out whatever they were trying to figure out at some point. Loki was trying to figure himself out, trying to figure out if Romanov's suggestion— that he'd been torn in two within the void— was legitimate.

He did not want it to be legitimate, as it meant that he'd carry that rage and anger within him again.

The madness.

Loki still recalled the madness that had gripped him before the fall, remembered it clearly. It was hard for him to drag it up to the surface, as if he was honest while he recollected feeling it, the feeling itself wasn't within him any longer.

It was gone.

He remembered but was unable to feel.

When was the last time he'd felt mad or angry as he once had? When had he felt the intensity of emotions that had filled him before his fall into the void?

He could easily feel depressed, calm, happy, uneasy and a variety of other things, but he could not feel the rage, madness and anger he was so familiar with before he trip into the void.

Gripping the table, he felt the air leave his lungs.

"OW!"

Loki snapped his head up as Rogers rushed into the lab and shouted, "Are you nuts?"

"You really got a lid on it, don't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?" Stark asked Banner, looking curious. "Yoga. Tantric yoga? That one you do in a hot room and sweat to death?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Roger demanded.

Loki looked back at the monitor, still gripping the edge of the table, not hearing the metal scrunching under his finger tips. Dimly, he realized he wasn't breathing. He couldn't recall how to do it.

"Uh, Loki?" Banner asked.

Loki flicked his eyes towards Banner and briefly caught the concerned frown etched upon his face.

"Funny things are," Stark said, staring at Rogers as he seethed.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense— uh, doctor?"

"What's wrong, Loki?" Banner asked, slowly approaching the god.

Loki still wasn't breathing, not that he really needed air. Air was overrated. Gods didn't need air.

Okay, they did.

"Earth to GQ?" Stark asked. "You still in that pretty, little head?"

Stark sounded quite far away.

A warm hand grasped his shoulder. It jerked Loki out of the daze he'd found himself within. Air rushed into his lungs and he let go of the table, noting the finger impressions in the cool metal surface. He slowly looked upwards towards the arm connected to the hand and into the worried eyes of Captain America.

"It makes sense," Loki faintly heard himself admit. "No wonder I became depressed. I simply thought it was because I was so different..."

He looked away, staring at himself in the monitor.

It was him.

They were not different. They were the same, only ripped apart into two different entities.

His madness, insanity, the villain, the true monster within was standing in a glass cage.

Everything else was sitting in a lab surrounded by the Earth's heros.

"Uh, is it possible he can go more pale?"

"I think something is wrong."

"Great observation, Captain Obvious."

"Stark."

"Will you two shut up?"

Banner's face appeared before Loki, the monitor moving so Loki could no longer stare at his evil reflection.

"You're not a monster," Banner reminded Loki. "I don't know what is going on in that head, but I know it's not filled with cats. He's got cats for brains."

Banner jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

"You can smell the crazy on him," Loki faintly said, looking into Banner's warm, brown eyes.

The hand on Loki's shoulder tightened.

"Do you remember what you told me when you came to get me?"

"You are contained," Loki blankly said, eyes darting to the monitor Banner had moved out of his sightline.

And in that instant Banner understood.

"My monster is not," Loki finished.

He lifted his hand, allowing it to turn blue. He heard both Rogers and Stark gasp, one in shock and one in interest. Even though the coldness, the hand on his shoulder remained, seeping warmth into Loki's freezing cold skin between the layers of t-shirt and leather.

It almost burned.

"This isn't the monster as I once thought, Doctor Banner. My monster is in the glass cage. My monster is the homicidal maniac who wants to rule the world."

Loki roughly stood up, knocking the stool over and causing Rogers to stumble backwards. Without a backwards look, he fled the room.

You are more than the choices you've made / You are more than the sum of your past mistakes / You are more than the problems you create

-Tenth Avenue North, "You Are More"

"What are you doing?"

Loki turned around to find Fury behind him. Loki pressed a hand to the door leading to the cage where his other half lived and said nothing.

"Romanov told me her theory. That you two are actually one guy, but split like Jekyll and Hyde, only you each got your own body."

"Yes, Director."

"Does he know that?"

"No. He would be unable to draw that conclusion," Loki lied.

"Oh, I think he might have. I doubt he wants you back, though," Fury went on, moving to stand next to Loki. He placed a hand on Loki's shoulder, forcefully turning Loki away from the door. "And you don't want him back either."

Loki stared hard at the ground, shrugging the hand off his shoulder. He took a few steps away from Fury, turning his back to the man.

"You told me throughout the movie, Thor believed in his brother— believed there was still good within him."

Fury let his words sink in.

"You are that brother he wanted back, aren't you? You're the version Thor remembered fondly."

"But, I am also the one who would like to stomp on you, rule over your world and believes…"

"What does the man in that room believe, though?" Fury challenged.

Loki turned to face Fury, knitting his eyebrows together.

"He lacks conviction. Remember?"

"But, in the movie, he was both of us," Loki reminded the director. "The character in the movie wasn't torn apart, ripped into two within the void."

"You don't know that for sure. Maybe you just didn't show up on time?"

Loki studied the man before him, taking in his set expression. He did not see the Loki before him as a threat.

"You can't be the villain, Loki Laufey-Odinson. Your last name proves it," Fury stated flatly, crossing his arms across his chest. He glanced at the closed door. "I wouldn't talk to that guy in there."

"I can't be angry."

"You can be angry. You can be bitter. I heard you when you were talking to Banner. The radio Hill gave you was an open com link. I heard everything you told him. You showed him something and asked him a question. What did you show him?"

"The monster within."

Loki didn't explain or elaborate. He knew there were cameras all over the ship and Fury had likely seen him turn blue in the lab earlier.

Fury looked away for a moment, smiling sardonically and shook his head.

"Racism," Fury snorted.

Loki tensed, remembering Jess telling him about racism.

"Are you familiar with it?"

Loki nodded.

"That— let me guess, that's your actual race, the blue skin?"

Loki nodded. "I'm Jotun, also known as a Frost Giant."

"Thor mentioned you were adopted," Fury offered, uncrossing his arms. He pointed a finger at Loki and continued, "That blue skin is your race. And it's got nothing to do with who you are."

Loki remained silent.

"Racism is ugly," Fury flatly said, folding his arms again. "It's not as bad as it was in this country, but it's still there under the surface. And it's ugly. For a long time, just because someone had a different skin color, they were thought not to be human, thought they were something…lower. Now, tell me, do you see me any different than Stark?"

"Based on your skin?"

Fury nodded.

"No. You are both humans, mortals. Frost Giants are not the same species as Asgardians."

"And you're not the same as me," Fury pointed out. "Do you see me as a monster? A lower form of life?"

"No. I personally do not," Loki admitted. "The man in the cage thinks you are below him."

"I don't care about him. I care what you're thinking. You don't think Doctor Banner is a monster. He turns green. What makes him different?"

"He is a good man. He…he chooses…he helps people and contains the Hulk."

"We both know the Hulk isn't exactly the mindless rage monster everyone else thinks he is," Fury quietly reminded Loki. "The Hulk isn't stupid, just angry."

"That is very true," Loki said quietly. "Banner is not a monster."

"Why? You need to answer that."

"His choices."

"Monsters are born out of choices."

Loki did not reply. He stared at the ground hard a moment before looking back at Fury.

"What choice did you make?"

"When? I made many."

"After you woke up in another world after your fall," Fury clarified. "If I remember, you made the choice to let go of the anger and rage. You made a choice to wallow in misery."

Fury gazed at the door to the cage room before looking back at Loki.

"The Loki behind that door is being controlled by another force, but what if he had made the choice to wallow in his misery? Would he be trying to take over the world?"

Loki did not reply, but knew Fury had a point. Loki turned to the closed door and stared at it.

"Why are you doing this?"

"You're an asset," Fury flatly stated. "While I know you know we are scared senseless by Reindeer and what your mere existence means for our planet, you are an asset against those who might harm us."

"And yet I am also a danger."

"So is Banner. The Hulk has the same potential to be a danger as you do."

Loki did not reply, but turned to look at Fury.

"So, if the guy in the cage had chosen to wallow in misery, would we be standing here right now?"

"No."

"Exactly. Without his anger and vindictive rage, he'd not give two shakes about us here on Earth. He'd be off busy being depressed and feeling sorry for himself."

Loki thought about that for a moment and nodded.

"I have no desire to rule the Earth. Or anything for that matter."

A spark suddenly appeared in Fury's eye.

"Exactly. So, what's he doing here?"

Loki frowned.

"If you two are the same guy and he's just the angry side, then what the hell is he doing?"

Loki straightened up, trying to parse out what Fury was aiming at.

"Neither of you has any desire to rule."

"He's being controlled, Director."

"Neither of you has any desire to rule," Fury repeated, his eye burning with intensity.

"He lacks conviction. He has no desire to rule the world," Loki whispered.

RG's actions still spoke to this truth: he lacked conviction. Just as the film version had lacked conviction.

He was playacting, going through the motions.

"You said yourself: Loki gave up after being Hulk smashed. Now, why the hell did he just lie there? While, yeah, having the crap knocked out of you can even put you down for the count, from what you told me, Hulk knocked the crap out of Thor more than once and Thor got back up."

"Thor is much stronger—"

"You are missing the point. You heal fast. Thor might get right back up due to the fact he's freaking Thor, but you aren't exactly weak."

"I could have escaped," Loki realized.

It was in his nature to escape, to save his own skin. Instead, he had sat in the crater and pretty much waited till he was surrounded. And even then, he still could have gotten away.

"Yeah. But, you didn't and snarked back at Stark," Fury said. "So, what was Loki's real goal in that movie?"

Loki and Fury stared at one another.

"What does the guy in the cage want, Loki? Why is he here of all places? Why subjugate Earth?"

Loki straighten up to his full height, realization hitting him over the head.

"He wants to go home," Loki whispered.

"And what is there? This big bad that is controlling your other half, what does he really want? Yeah, he could want the Tesseract, but why the invasion of Earth? Why use you? You had the cube, he's got it right now. Why not hand it over? Why the invasion?"

Loki stared in horror at Fury.

"I have to go deal with Rogers and Stark. Rogers found out I'm making weapons and Stark has been poking around in my computer system since he got here. Romanov is going to go talk to your evil twin. I want you and Thor to figure out what the hell the guy in charge wants from Asgard."

Fury turned on his heel and left.

There's a hole in my conscience / There's a hole in my country / Like a nose that keeps running

-Phantomgram, "You Are The Ocean"

They landed at a private airport in the middle of nowhere. Clint studied his surroundings as he got off the jet.

"Where the hell are we?"

"Somewhere," Stark/Jessica replied, throwing the red and gold suitcase down on the ground and kicking it.

By the time Clint looked up, she was no longer standing there. Iron Man was next to him.

"Ready?" asked the voice of Iron Man.

"Sure. What's the plan?"

"We break onto the Hellicarrier. I'm going to explode the suit. Blow a nice big hole. I'm assuming they are in the water and not the air. If they are in the air, I'll go for an engine. We gotta make a mess to set the Hulk off. Data will have told them the plan, which they will expect to change. We're keeping it pretty much the same, only with a few change ups."

Clint nodded. "What am I going to do while you're blowing up the ship?"

"You're going to go in and disable the bridge. I'll let Locutus out and then we'll split."

"Where am I to meet you?"

"You're staying behind," Iron Man informed him.

Before Clint could reply. He was picked up and carried off into the air. Clint wasn't too crazy about being carried under his arms, legs dangling above the ground— especially when they got out over the water.

It felt like it took hours.

By the time the Hellicarrier came into sight, Clint was frozen. The Hellicarrier was also in the air, not in the water. Clint heard the rocket boosters of the Iron Man suit kick off and they rose up to where the carrier hovered. In a covered, protected spot the cameras didn't reach, Jessica/Stark landed and let Clint go.

Clint fell to the ground, his limbs stiff and frozen.

Jessica/Stark did not comment. She remained silent as Clint attempted to warm himself up. He rubbed his arms, legs and chest till he slowly got feeling back. His head snapped up at the sound of the Iron Man suit opening up. Jessica/Stark stepped out.

"Well, guess we're going to blow an engine. Got the exploding arrow?"

"I can't feel my fingers."

Clint flexed his fingers.

"Sorry. I need you to kill that engine then get to the bridge. I'm going to get Locutus."

She cocked her head to the side. Without waiting for him to confirm his role in the whole plan, she vanished from sight. Clint blinked a few times, wondering where on Earth she'd gone.

He felt something nudge his mind and his fingers warmed suddenly. Flexing them, along with his arms and legs, he felt better. He stood up, pulled out the collapsable bow he'd found in the drawer in Stark's lab. Also in that lovely drawer were several exploding arrows as well as other sorts of wired arrows along with a case to carry the arrows. Snapping the bow together, Clint stalked along the deck till he found what he wanted and got to work.

I hit rewind most every time / That tape runs through / Your memory is haunting me and cuts to the bone

-Duke Special, "Ballad of a Broken Man"

The whole ship rocked.

Violently.

"What is going on?" Banner asked, raising his head up from the tabletop where he'd fallen asleep.

Loki was on the ground, having fallen off the stool he'd fallen asleep on at some point. Stark lay on the ground, blinking dumbly.

"I just had a moment of total lack of grace, right? The boat isn't exploding. Tell me it didn't blow up," Stark said, making no move to right himself.

Thor ran into the lab, looking around wildly.

"Loki, what is this?" he demanded.

"I didn't do it," Loki automatically said, pushing himself onto his knees.

The ship rocked again.

Loki crashed back to the ground. Stark yelped, rolling to his side as one of the steel lab tables fell over. Thor caught it before it crushed Stark.

"I think something exploded," Banner dumbly stated, rubbing his eyes. He struggled to get to his feet, having been knocked off his stool with the last explosion. "I need coffee before I deal with things going boom."

"LOKI!" Thor roared, throwing the table across the room.

"THOR!" Loki roared back.

This got Thor's attention.

"They are here for him!" Loki shouted, getting to his feet finally.

Thor looked wild eyed, but turned and high tailed it out of the lab.

"Are you alright, Tony?" Banner asked, helping the other man to his feet.

"I need my suit," was all Stark said.

"Doctor!" Romanov rushed into the room. "We might want to remove you from the situation!"

"What is going on?" Stark demanded.

"They've blown out an engine and there is a huge hole in the side of the ship. Our computer systems are compromised as well," Romanov reported flatly as Rogers ran into the room. His hair was pointing in all directions and he was still trying to pull a shield t-shirt over his head.

Loki tried not to stare.

He might have failed.

"Going to hell in a hand basket in other words," Stark grumbled, eyeing Rogers as he struggled to get his shirt on properly.

"I thought they wouldn't repeat!" Rogers cried, head suddenly popping through the right hole.

"Oh, what fun is that?" Loki muttered, burying his face in this hands.

"That energy signature…" Stark trailed off, staring at a computer that hadn't fallen over and was still working somehow.

"Would be yours."

Everyone in the room froze at the sound of Stark's voice coming from across the lab. Loki lifted his face out of his hands and found Stark standing next to the scepter hooked up to various monitors on the other end of the lab. The table it was on had not been rocked by the explosions. The Stark by the table, studied the spear with his hands held behind his back for a moment before looking up, smirk on his face.

"Or should I say ours."

"That is not me. I am right here!" Stark shouted, pointing at himself. "How am I over there when I am clearly right here!"

Loki straightened up, Romanov grabbed her gun and pointed at the Stark by the spear. Rogers looked around, but failed to find his shield in the lab. He silently berated himself for leaving it behind.

"Well, I'll just take this and be out of your way," the other Stark said, hands appearing from behind his back.

"MOVE!" Romanov shouted, causing everyone standing to this the deck.

Romanov shot at the impostor as he reached for the spear.

The bullet didn't hit, it bounced off a green tinted shield.

"Oh, cool! I've got a shield! Go me!"

"Jessica?" Loki breathed, standing up slowly. Stark and Banner poked their heads up from behind the fallen lab table.

"And BINGO was his name-o!" she sung out, tapping the tip of her nose. Well, Stark's nose.

"How?" Loki asked.

"Magic, duh. And you call yourself a wizard," Jess snapped. "But, here's the dillio. We're gonna do this just like we did last time only in a different local. Due to my appearance, I bet you can figure it out. Now, if you don't— well, that won't be any fun now will it?"

Jess laughed.

"Okay, I do not laugh like that," Stark grumped.

"Stop him!" Romanov shouted, shooting off a few more rounds.

Jess grabbed the spear, bullets bouncing off the shield, and the whole room exploded.

What's so different this time that you can't ignore / You say it is so much more than just my last mistake / And we should spend some time apart for both our sakes

-Snow Patrol, "Make The Go On Forever"