Chapter 2

Loki had remained unconscious throughout the ride back to base. In fact, he didn't rouse until hours after he had been placed in a secure cell deep in the bowels of the building. Even then it was just to bolt from the cot he had been placed on to the toilet where he vomited up the meager contents of his stomach. Apparently Norse gods weren't immune to morning sickness. And it was morning sickness. Shield scientists had managed to get a sample of his blood and confirmed what Thor had told them. Loki was up the Duff. Thor had then, at the request of Fury, explained to all of them the details of his brothers previous pregnancies. They were pretty much the same as the stories from the Vikings, so it was less shocking for Tony, and anyone else who had done their research. Steve on the other hand, he was practically falling out of his chair.

Loki hadn't moved far from the toilet, and had sat against the wall, legs crossed, his cuffed hands in his lap. He hadn't said a word either, not even when Thor had visited to inform him that as soon as Shield approved it, he was taking Loki back to Asgard so he could birth whatever creature he was incubating at home. He remained silent for hours, just sitting there until stating in a quiet voice to the empty room that he had information for Shield.

And that's where they were now, standing on the other side of the double-sided glass watching as Loki was escorted into the interrogation room. It was just four of them, Steve, Bruce, Natasha and himself. Thor didn't know about this little exchange, and Clint was probably trying to see how much liquor it took to get rid of the mental picture of Loki giving birth to an eight legged foal.

Loki looked like shit. Tony had heard that pregnant women were often described as 'glowing', but he didn't see it here at all. Their enemy was pale and drawn looking, with dark bags under his eyes. Still, as unwell as he looked, his expression was devoid of any emotion. He merely waited patiently with both hands on the table as he waited for Coulson to arrive.

When he did, he took the seat opposite the depowered god and folded his hands on the table, his face the picture of neutrality. "I've been told you have something to say.," he said as an opening statement.

Loki nodded and his fingers twitched. "I wish to offer an exchange of services. I have a great deal of information on many of your enemies. I am willing to part with this information in return for a favor from your organization."

"We're really not in the habit of making deals with terrorists." Coulson replied evenly, neither accepting nor denying the offer. "What favor would you be asking for?"

Lokis eyes flicked to the mirror for the briefest of moments but came back to meet Coulsons. "I'm assuming that by now Thor has informed you of my, condition?"

"He has told us that you are pregnant."

"Indeed," he paused, "The favor I would request of you would be to preform an abortion."

Tony heard Steve make a quiet noise beside him but Tony didn't spare him a glance.

"You want to terminate your pregnancy?" Coulson asked, his voice still calm and impassive.

Lokis face may well have been carved out if stone for all the emotion that it held. He nodded once and then waited for his answer.

"Why?"

Loki blinked, apparently not expecting to have to further explain himself. "Why?" he repeated and for the first time since he'd been shot by Tonys dart he showed a sliver of emotion. Frustration.

"Why? Other than the fact that without the baby you would have full use of your magic again."

It was a full minute before Loki answered, his voice suddenly thicker and sounding more real. "Because it would be a far kinder fate than that dealt by the All Father."

Thor would have raged at the insult at his father, Fury would have assumed Loki was trying to play them. Coulson just tilted his head a fraction and asked "How so?"

Loki studied the man in front of him, and Tony watched as physical signs of distress started to show despite Loki's efforts to remain calm. His breathing pattern had picked up, and his fingers would twitch in repeated patterns. "I suppose it is safe to assume that Thor has told you about my children?" he asked, his voice going for casual but falling short.

"He gave us the basic overview, nothing we wouldn't have known already from the recordings from Norse mythology."

"Ah yes, then you should know that it would probably be in your best interest to kill the beast before it is born, Odin has a bad habit of throwing my children into other realms." Loki gave a smirk but it was hollow. Every word he spoke was hollow. He was lying about something, Tony realized. Thankfully Coulson picked up on it too.

"How old were they?" he asked, his tone mildly curious. "When Odin sent them away."

Loki seemed thrown by the question, and drew his hands off the table. "What does that matter?"

"Maybe I'm just concerned about more giant animals falling to earth." he answered with a shrug. "But considering that we're about to send you back to Asgard, I'm curious to know how long you'll be with your child."

Loki was staring at Coulson as if he had never seen the man before, he hadn't looked back at the mirror once. When he spoke his voice was hollow again, but this time Tony knew he was telling the truth.

"Sleipnir, I had him for nearly five years before Odin found us. Jorgumand, almost four years, Fenris, not even two." he took an unsteady breath and looked down at his hands as they twisted in his lap. "Hela wasn't even born yet when he found me. He took her the moment the cord was cut. It took me nearly a year to find her but even then it was too late."

"What do you mean?"

"No living creature can survive in Niflheim. By the time I found her, her body was already half dead, and wasting away." Loki explained tonelessly.

Coulson visibly considered this. "So she wasn't like that when she was born? It was an effect brought on by the conditions of her environment?"

Lokis head snapped up and he glared with wet eyes at the man in front if him. "She was perfect, they all were before he-" he cut himself off but it was too late. The words had already been spoken.

Coulson allowed Loki a moment to compose himself before pushing forward. "What did Sleipnir look like? When he was almost five?"

Lokis face crumpled a little at the mention of his sons name and Tony suddenly felt a stab of pity go through him. "He was tall, for his age. He had coal black hair, my eyes but darker." His mouth twisted as his eyes unfocused in memory. "He had his fathers smile though, and his laugh. He was very smart, and very kind."

"How can a horse smile?" Steve quietly asked the small dark room, his eyes still trained on the broken figure that was Loki.

"He wasn't a horse," Tony said, his voice sounding strange to his own ears. "Not in the beginning."

Coulson had apparently come to the same conclusion. "He was human." It wasn't a question but Loki nodded slowly anyways. "Was it the same for the others?"

"Yes." Loki took a deep shuddering breath and tried to collect himself before continuing. "When Odin found us he said it was for the best. That if the people of Asgard were to know… Sleipnir he transformed into an eight-legged horse, whom he then bridled and rode as though he were a common beast. Jorgumand he turned into a serpent and banished him to the seas of Midgard. Fenris was changed into a wolf that he chained. He is still chained, alone and deep under Asgard. Hela, he did nothing to her. Just sent her away to die." He brought his eyes up to Coulsons and his tone went cold. "What choice do I have but to kill this child before Odin can get to it. To be turned into a monster and punished for all of eternity, simply for the crime of being mine."

Coulson regarded Loki for a long moment before abruptly standing. "We will consider your offer." He said smoothly, "In the meantime these guards will escort you back to your cell." And with that he turned and left. No one in the adjacent room moved. They just watched as Loki stared numbly at the door that Coulson had just exited through. He came back to himself when the guards approached him and got up without a fuss and allowed them to lead him back to his cell.

Tony cleared his throat. "Well. That was illuminating."

"If its true." Natasha added though her expression was just a little less severe than usual. "He is the god of lies, and there's no way to prove he's telling the truth. This could all be some big game to him."

"Tricking us into giving him an abortion? Really?"

"Even Thor believes all of Loki's kids were born as monsters. If Loki's telling the truth here, then only he and Odin know about it." Bruce muttered quietly. "And if Loki is telling the truth, then Odin would deny it simply to keep the secret. There's no way to prove his story either way."

Steve remained silent throughout the exchange and excused himself shortly after. Tony watched him go with a critical eye but said nothing to stop him.

()()()()

Steve didn't sleep that night. He moved through the next day in a daze before finally napping in a comfortable armchair in the common room. He missed Thor being shown the footage from the interview, and the subsequent tantrum he threw afterwards. He woke though when Thor loudly stormed into the common room and nearly threw the couch out the window in his frustration.

"I'm sorry friend," he said tersely as Steve blinked owlishly at him as he set the furniture to rights "I did not see you there."

"It's ok," he said automatically, taking in Thors appearance. "They told you about last night then?"

The larger man nodded with a scowl on his face. "My brother has always been skilled with his words, manipulating us all, but this… it is to much. For him to accuse Father of such a crime, all to force us to kill his child before it even draws breath… I knew my brother had fallen but this madness is unimaginable." The thunderer collapsed into the sofa and ran a hand through his hair.

Steve mulled over his words before tentivly asking, "Can we really be sure that it's all a lie?" The look Thor gave him would have had a lesser man running out of the room but Steve had never been one to run. "I'm not trying to accuse your father of anything, I'm just saying that we need to consider all the options here."

"My father would not be so cruel," Thor said shortly.

"What if he didn't think of it as cruel?" Steve countered. "If Loki got pregnant then that means he must have slept with another man right? I know that sort of thing is ok now, but back where I'm from, or I guess when I'm from, that wasn't a good thing. Would your dad have been ok with Loki being with another man?"

That seemed to make some kind of impact on Thor, and he paused before answering. "No. In Asgard men do not lay with other men. It is disgraceful, and it would bring shame to them and their families."

"So maybe Odin was just trying to protect Loki." Steve theorized. "I don't know Thor, I don't know if he's telling the truth or not. What I do know is that it's our job to protect the innocent. Loki's child, monster or not, is innocent. It's the one I'm the most concerned about right now." With that he got up and left. He needed to speak with Fury before anything was decided. But before he did that he needed to find some paper.

()()()()

Fury had his back to the door when he entered, facing the window and looking out at the city lights, so Steve shut the door behind him and waited to be addressed. It didn't take long. "What's on your mind Rogers?" he asked without turning his head.

"I was wondering where we stood in regards to the situation with Loki." he said, holding an envelope in his hands behind his back.

"The situation remains the same for the time being."

"Are you thinking about agreeing to his deal?" Steve asked boldly.

Fury turned his head a fraction towards him. "Why do I get the feeling you have an opinion on that?"

"Probably because I do."

"You and every other member of your team." At this Fury turned to face him fully, his expression impassive. "Well, let's hear what you've got to say."

"You can't accept his offer Colonel. It's not right."

"Son, people have been debating whether or not abortion is right since the day it started. But in the end it comes down to one thing. It was Loki's idea, it's his choice."

"But it's the wrong choice." Steve argued. "Because he has no other options. He said so himself, it's a decision between killing the baby now or letting Odin do whatever he's going to do to it. He's going with the lesser of two evils and that doesn't make it right."

"What would you have us do then?" Fury asked looking interested in his answer.

Steve took a breath. "Give him a third option."

Fury crossed his arms and stared him down. "Which would be?"

"The way I see it, no one knows if Loki's lying about his kids being turned into monsters, and it doesn't look like there's anything we can do to prove it either way except to wait. I think we should hold off on extraditing him to Asgard until after he gives birth. If it's a baby then we know he was telling the truth. If it's a monster, well, we deal with that kind of stuff on a daily basis. I think we could handle it." He finished his small speech with a wry smile that Fury didn't return, not that he was expecting him to. Pulling the envelope from behind his back, he placed it on the desk between them. "I don't want to force your hand sir, but you should also know that if you do take Lokis offer without giving him some other way of dealing with this situation, I'm going to have to resign from the Avengers. I know that Loki is our enemy, and we don't owe him any favors, but his kid hasn't done anything."

Fury looked down at the paper on his desk and then back up at Steve. "I'll take that into consideration Captain. Under the agreement that until a decision is made that you will remain on duty. We're already down one team member."

Steve frowned. "Who?"

"Thor. He's gone back to Asgard for a little father-son talk. Apparently someone convinced him that Odin might actually be guilty of what Loki's accused him of, so he's taken off to confront his father face to face." The look Fury gave him left Steve with the impression that he was blaming him for Thors absence.

"Is that all Rogers?"

"Yes sir."

Holy Cow I did not expect that kind of a response to the first chapter, Thank you to everyone who reviewed! To those who asked for it, I'm going to put a link to the Norsekink prompt so you can all weep your brains out if you so please.

The next couple of chapters should be up pretty soon as I have 55 pages of this story already written up. I was planning on waiting till it was finished before posting, but as I got close to the end I found I was dragging my feet. So to set a fire under my butt I've started posting in the hopes that reviews and the need for a deadline will keep me going. (why YES, that is intensive for you all to review!)

Special thanks to my new Beta reader (I know it was about time I got one right?)

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Please review!