See Chapter 1 for disclaimer.

Rated for some violence, language, blood, relatively dark themes and possible flashbacks of torture.

A/N: So, here we go, chapter 2, sorry I took so long. I think a 4 month between chapters is a record for me. Sorry about that ^-^. Only a short chapter but I should be updating more now, I think I finally know where I'm going to go with this fic. Ok. So without much further ado, I give you

Chapter 2 – A Silhouette in Red

Loki had a complicated relationship with the dark. On one hand, floating in this oblivion of his unconscious mind was peaceful, blissful even, for the world held too much anger and pain and he did not particularly feel like dealing with that right now. However, the dark still held fear. He had spent what felt like an eternity falling through space, drifting through a calamity of nothingness where all he could do was scream and scream, an action that he suspected – had his entire being not been completely numb- would have caused him a great deal of pain. He had spent all of that time on the line between the living and the dead, yet death had merely been toying with him, keeping him suffocating in the darkness which, at the time, he had so despised. The feeling had been mutual.

However now, as he floated through his unconscious mind, he could not shake the feeling that he was missing something, though he could not, for the life (or death) of himself, remember what was so important.

He could feel the nagging of the outside world slowly reel him back to consciousness, but he did not want to leave, did not want to leave this void of painlessness. But it soon became apparent that he had no choice.

Tony shook him head comically, trying to rid his mind of the cloud of hangover-induced sleepiness which threatened to overcome him. It was normally at this point that he would begin to murmur about how he would 'never drink again' and how he would 'lead a brilliant, happy, productively sober lifestyle', but really, who was he kidding?

He glanced over at the sleek tablet propped on his lap, he had been tracking the presence of any unusual foreign energy, but the screen was currently all green, no red polluting the map of the local area. He wasn't sure whether this disappointed him or not.

Not that he expected anything to pop up between where they were and the small SHEILD campus on the outskirts of New York.

So he settled for looking out of the car window and wallowing in his own hung-over self-pity, sighing he leant his head against the glass to look closer at the view outside which was rapidly changing from popular, typically New-York-ish building into shabby, run down tobacco shops.

He turned his head ever so slightly away from the window, his eyes drifting lazily shut.

"Are we nearly there?"

"No"

"…" Tony sighed over-dramatically, opening his eyes " Now?"

"Nope"

Tony turned fully around to shoot Pepper a childish pout "How about now?"

"Tony…"

"Ok fine" Tony replied sulkily (the resemblance to a toddler who had been refused his favourite toy was truly remarkable)

Sitting back in the passenger seat Tony let his heavy eyelids flutter shut once again, 'just a few minutes', he thought, 'just to rest my eyes'.

2 hours later Tony's eyes snapped open as the car came to an abrupt stop.

The sound of heavy breathing filtered into him ears (Pepper?), making his sleepy brain begin to comprehend the possibility that all was not well with the current situation. When the breathing was closely followed by a familiar mechanical beeping, he knew for sure. Something was wrong.

Out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of Pepper's hands clutching the unmoving steering wheel in an iron grip, her knuckles slowly turning white, contrasting with the sleek black leather of the car. Looking up to her face he realised that, yes, it was Pepper's panicked breathing that he could hear.

"Pepper?"

She flinched ever so slightly at the new sound but showed no other sound that she had heard him, her attention was currently dedicated to the sight in front of the car.

"Pep?"

This time her eyes did dart to Tony for a mere second, the bright blue orbs shining with fear, fear and…anger?

" Tony…your tablet"

Immediately looking down at his lap Tony realised that it was his tablet that had been beeping, and he soon understood why. In front of the small black dot that represented their car Tony could clearly make out the shape of a figure, shining bright red on the screen with strange energy.

He knew what he would find before he even looked up.

"God fricking dammit Reindeer Games"

A/N: So, what did everyone think? Hopefully the story will get going in the next few chapters, I'll get it to you as soon as I can, please review/follow/favourite if you can and want. Also If anyone can beta for me that would be great, pm me ^-^.

Thanks everyone