Tony was in his workshop again when Bruce sought him out looking for his help.

"I need an extra pair of hands and Thor's already left for New Mexico." Bruce explained as he led Tony towards Loki's cell. "I just need someone to hold his head up while I unwrap the bandages around his eyes,"

Thor hadn't wanted to leave. In fact he had raged against the very idea of it but Tony and Bruce had stood firm in their argument that Thor couldn't afford to appear to suddenly loose interest in Jane. Shield would most certainly be watching them, and Thor's sudden residence in the mansion was sure to look strange enough. They had to keep up appearances from before. Thor had to look like he was still worried that Loki would attack Jane at any moment, and guard her as he had been.

"If Shield gets in here, if they think for a second that we have Loki, He'll be gone." Tony explained, preferring to use blunt honesty in the face of Thor's stubbornness. "And the likelihood of us finding him, let alone breaking him out again is nil."

The argument had gone on for a while, but in the end Thor conceded that he would leave the next morning under the promise that while he was gone Tony and Bruce would take extra care of his brother.

And that was how Tony ended up in Loki's cell, awkwardly cradling the fallen gods head as Bruce carefully undid the bandages that had been protecting his eyes. By now most of the tubes and air masks had been removed as they were no longer needed. Loki's lungs had healed as much as they were going to by this point, and the single IV drip contained a painkiller.

Tony made sure to keep the majority of contact on the sides of Loki's skull, where his hair had protected his scalp from most of the effects of the UV light and the damage was less severe. When Loki had been brought in, any skin that had been left out under the lamp was a mess of blisters and burns that was obviously quite painful. Loki had managed to save most of his face from the worst of it, but his neck had suffered terribly. Tony couldn't imagine how painful it would be, so he was careful not to move Loki's head too much as he lifted it up so that Bruce could undo the bandages. Still, despite his efforts, a small barely heard moan came from Loki's lips and Tony grimaced. It was moments like this one that made it difficult to remember that the man whom they were trying so hard to help was the one responsible for so much destruction. For the deaths of hundreds of people, Coulson included.

When the last of the bandages came off, Tony eyed the damage critically. His eyelids looked like they suffered from a terrible sunburn but thankfully that was the extent of the surface damage. He knew from the medical reports the Richards had left that there had also been some problems with the eyes themselves, but thankfully nothing permanent. The gauze had been put on mostly so that his eyes would remain closed even if Loki regained consciousness.

Now however, Bruce was leaning forward and gingerly parting the slumbering god's eyelids to gauge the healing process. A small flashlight was held up with his other hand and Tony was glad to hear the approving noises the scientist made a minute later.

"Looks good, we can probably leave the bandages off now. Most of the capillaries have healed themselves, and there doesn't seem to be any cataracts developing."

Tony leaned in to peek and frowned at what he saw. "Remind me, what are the effects of long term exposure to UV lighting on eyes?"

Bruce shrugged, apparently nonplussed by the question. "Lots of things, Photokeratitis; which is basically a sunburn on your eyes, to cataracts and pterygium and pinguecula formation. Those are really not fun, and hard to treat without direct surgery."

"What about changing eye colour?"

Bruce frowned. "Uh, not that I- no. No not really. Eye colour is in your DNA, it can't really be altered from outside forces."

"His eyes are green."

Bruce stared at him and Tony did not resist the need to roll his eyes.

"His eyes are green now. They were blue before." Really, Bruce was smarter than this. They were Science Bros, he should not be this slow on the uptake. Tony took just enough time to carefully lower Loki's head back onto the pillow before he turned and walked right out of the cell, making a bee-line for his workshop and trusting that Bruce would follow.

He did. By the time Bruce walked in, Tony already had Jarvis bring up the images from the day of the invasion from the inside of his penthouse. The Loki on the screens was a harsh reminder of how much damage Shield had caused the god. The invading Loki didn't look in the peak of health either, but he still looked a hell of a lot better than the Loki downstairs. Tony waited for Bruce to come up to the screen before he enlarged the central image.

Blue eyes glittered with malice from Loki's shallow face. It was a huge difference from the forest green that Tony had peeked at from over Bruce's shoulder.

"So, either we're missing something here," Tony started as Bruce leaned in for a closer look, "Or we have Loki's remarkably identical twin brother with different coloured eyes."

Bruce muttered something under his breath that might have been a curse in some obscure language.

"Sorry- one sec," Bruce shifted the screen over to the side and brought up another and started flicking through files at a rate that even Tony had trouble following.

"He doesn't actually have a twin right?" Tony asked, only half joking.

Bruce didn't answer. Instead he continued flicking through files until finally finding the right one and spreading it out. Tony looked up to see video footage of Clint from when he had infiltrated the helicarrier and nearly brought it down.

"After all the craziness died down in new york, there was a team put together in Shield to study what little information we got on Loki's Sceptre and how it controlled Clint and the others. I was called on it only briefly, mostly to talk about the gamma rays. There was someone else they talked to upstate but as far as I know they haven't learned much. There are some mutants out there who can control minds, but whatever Loki did it was different. The thing is, in most cases when a mutant is controlling someone else, there is no way to know if that person is acting of their own free will or not. Loki's method left some visible changes to each of his victims. The most obvious of them is the eyes." Bruce zoomed in on Clint's face and a familiar pair of blue eyes looked back at Tony.

Shit. The implications of what Bruce was saying was starting to sink in, and Tony didn't like it one bit.

"Every single person who was taken over by Loki was reported to have a rather particular shade of blue eyes, and they only reverted to their original colour after receiving a forceful blow to the head."

"So you think Loki was brainwashed as well? And when the Hulk put him into the floor, it knocked him free of the spell… but see, he was still his snarky self when we brought him in." Tony pointed out. He didn't admit it to anyone at the time, but he'd been kind of amused when the defeated god crawled out of the crater the Hulk had put him in and asked for a drink.

Bruce shook his head. "It took a hour or two for Clint to shake off the brainwashing. Going by that time frame, by the time Loki would have been able to think for himself he was already gagged."

"And we were handing him off to Shield to be tortured." Tony finished, his voice bitter.

()()()()

An hour later, Bruce was on the surface level of the mansion when the doorbell rang. This event was such an oddity that it wasn't until the doorbell rang again that Bruce realized there was someone at the mansion door. In Bruce's defence, not only had it already been a difficult morning, but also there was a front gate that barred anyone who didn't have authorization. And anyone who had authorization would usually just walk right in without ringing the doorbell. This of course begged the question; Why did they even have a doorbell? But Bruce focused more on the immediate situation instead.

Tony was somewhere downstairs, so it was up to Bruce to answer it and on his way he went through a mental list of who it could possibly be. (he could have simply asked Jarvis but really, compared to what else he had to occupy his mind, this was a more pleasant endeavour)

By the time he had actually reached the door, he was fairly certain he knew who he would find on the other side. It was a very short list of those whom Tony had granted Authorization for the mansion. And on that list there was only one person who would be so polite enough to knock even when he'd already been granted access to the grounds.

Sure enough, when Bruce opened the door Steve was smiling that small hopeful smile of his that reminded Bruce of a dog his neighbour had when he was a kid. A vintage looking duffle bag was slung across his shoulder.

"Dr. Banner," Steve greeted, his hand coming out.

Bruce shook it and opened the door further to let him in. "I think considering what we've all been through, we can probably all go by our first names now." He gestured to the bag. "So it looks like you got Tony's invitation too."

Steve gave a half shrug. "Yeah, I needed to think about it for a while but he talked me into it. Besides, it's probably better if we're under the same roof for when Loki eventually shows up."

"Yeah… about that,"

Sometime later, Bruce decided that he was a bad person. It was an unavoidable feeling really, given the situation. Bruce had invited Steve in, let him put his bags down and explained to him as nicely as he could that they had Loki and the circumstances in which they came to have him. At first Bruce had thought between telling Thor and telling Steve, Steve would be the easier option and Tony had dealt with worse having to tell Thor what had happened to his little brother. But then about half way through the story, Bruce realized how wrong he was. He was basically explaining to an American Soldier that the American government had imprisoned and tortured a man to the point of near death, a possibly innocent man. And he wasn't just explaining this to any American soldier. This was the American soldier.

The expressions that crossed over Steve's face during the explanation made Bruce feel guilty, despite the fact that he'd done everything he could to right the situation.

He had finished explaining why they thought that Loki was possibly innocent and was near the end of outlining the list of injuries he'd accumulated, and Steve had yet to say a word. Finally, Bruce ran out of things to say, and instead folded his hands on the countertop and waited for Steve to speak.

Bruce wasn't expecting to see him smile.

It wasn't a happy smile, or a sick one, just… for a moment Steve's lips twitched up and he seemed almost relieved.

"You know the worst thing I think about finding out about this whole thing is?" the solider asked and Bruce gave a small shake of his head, not sure what to expect.

Steve's face grew solemn, "The worst thing is that when you told me what Shield had done, I didn't feel surprised."

Bruce looked down at the countertop feeling grim. He knew the feeling of being betrayed by your own government, but that lesson had been hard won.

"So much has changed," Steve continued slowly, "the way people see the world has changed, the way we treat each other… but at the same time, I think I'm really happy. Because as much as everything else has changed, this hasn't. Even when you guys thought Loki was evil you still rescued him. Because torturing someone, anyone, is still wrong. I'm just- I'm really happy that at least that hasn't changed."

Steve looked up to meet Bruce's eyes and the scientist did his best to return his weak smile.

"Well, thats… good. I guess. Just, a piece of advice? I wouldn't bring up the subject of torture in current times in Tony's earshot." Steve's eyebrows rose at the warning so Bruce tried to explain himself a bit more. "It's kind of a hot button issue with him. I don't know how much you heard about him from the Shield files, but he was kidnapped in the middle east a couple years back. I don't know the details, only that the Iron Man was born in those caves."

Steve nodded, his eyes distant as he thought that over. "Alright, so what's the plan? I can't imagine we can hide Loki here forever."

"Tony has some ideas, the plan was to keep Loki locked up downstairs until he was well enough to move. Then Thor was going to take him back to Asgard and well out of Shield's jurisdiction."

"He's still locked up?" Steve questioned and Bruce grimaced.

"Yeah, well, we haven't had much time to really discuss that. We only really just figured out he might be innocent. We have no real way to prove it. Tony wants to talk to Thor before we do anything drastic like let him out of his cuffs."

"But as long as the cuffs are on him, he's pretty powerless right?"

"Uh, yeah. Especially now."

"So leave the cuffs on and let him out of the cell."

"Steve, we could leave the door unlocked and he wouldn't go anywhere. He hasn't regained any sort of consciousness since we brought him in."

Steve put his captain face on, "All the more reason to move him to a different room. When he wakes up, the last thing he's going to want to see is a cell. At least let him be in a room with windows. I'm pretty sure that there aren't a lack of beds in this place."

Bruce couldn't really argue with that, and after letting Tony know what they were doing he and Steve carefully lifted Loki onto a moving stretcher. Tony was grim faced when they found him, and told them in short precise words which room they could use. They left him alone to deal with whatever emotions he was dealing with at the moment, and transferred Loki to a more comfortable room on the second level of the house. Jarvis was installed in sensors in every room of the mansion, so they could keep an eye on him without having to be in the room itself. Bruce checked the IV one more time, making sure that nothing was dislodged in the move before they went back to the kitchen to go over how they were going to tell Thor.


Next chapter Loki finally wakes up! Thank you to everyone who reviewed and all your input! Please keep it up!