A/N: And thus the real plotline begins! I'm already planning a sort of sequel, but I'm not sure whether I'm going to just include it into this story or make it an actual sequel. I think you readers will either love the next few chapters or dislike them. Please read/review either way

Tony arrived at a quaint little cottage-looking house on the outskirts of the New York countryside. He had expected Thor to live in a shabby apartment in the heart of NYC, but apparently he was mistaken. Why the god wouldn't want to reside in an apartment the size of his castle back home was beyond him, but if Thor was looking for solitude from the rest of the world, he was sure to find it here. Parking his Lamborghini and opening the car door, Tony was greeted by a booming voice as the front door of the country house swung open.

"Man of Iron, how great it is to be in your company again! What brings you to this small yet humble abode?"

Tony shook hands with the god and offered a pleasant enough smile.

"I'm here with a business proposal. Can we talk inside? I would rather not be overheard by spies out in the open. Not like there aren't secret cameras inside," Tony muttered bitterly as he tried to feign a friendly smile. He knew if his plan was to work he had to get Thor on his side, but he was still shaky as to whether or not Thor would understand or overreact.

"Lady Jane has just left on a trip to return to her kingdom of science. Please, come in!" Thor replied cheerfully, ignorant as usual to Tony's dismal comments towards SHIELD.

As Thor led the way into his home, Tony couldn't help but look around once before entering the home. There were no cars or copters to be seen for miles, but Tony knew SHIELD was watching him. He was half-tempted to give the finger to whomever was watching, but he held his reserve. He had to put on an image...like usual.

"So Anthony, how can I be of service?" Thor asked as he sat down in an 18th-century looking French love-seat. Opposite him Tony took a seat on a leather sofa. Thor's tastes were certainly...unique. He had painted-red walls and gold carpeting for Odin's sake! Tony vowed to seriously redecorate if he ever returned here.

Tony looked around the room, cautiously looking for cameras. He had already done a sweep of Thor's apartment with the help of Jarvis, but he hadn't picked up any security notices. However, Tony knew there had to be at least one spymaster in the room.

"How long has it been since you've seen your brother?" Tony asked, cutting to the chase. There was no going back now.

Thor's brows knitted as he rested a foot on his knee. Dressed in low-hung faded jeans and a tight black t-shirt with a red hooded sweatshirt, the man looked impressive to say the least. Tony wondered how the hunk hadn't found a hoard of screaming fangirls on his doorstep by now...or fanboys. Thor and Jane had split a few months ago from what Tony could gather...

"Loki? I haven't seen him since his sentence was announced."

"How come you haven't stopped by? You know he gets plenty of visitors as it is."

Thor's gaze darkened as he leaned forward to grab a can of beer from the table that rested between the two heroes. Opening it, he replied, "It would be useless and unwise for me to visit. I would only go to see him to try and change his mind and to make him recognize his wrongs, but I would not be able to stay long. I believe I have made it quite clear to Sir Fury that I am completely against Loki's form of punishment."

"Why? Do you think he should be better punished on Asgard where he could be tortured to death?"

"Certainly not," Thor's voice boomed as he chugged back the beer in one gulp and crushed the can in his fist. "If I believed torture was a suitable punishment for my brother, then I would have sent him to Asgard."

"So you believe that Loki is just rotting away in a cell, completely unharmed?"

"...Is my belief wrong?" Thor asked, slowly lowering the can and looking into Tony's eyes. "What has happened to my brother?"

Tony took out his cell phone from his pocket but before he opened it, he said, "I have to worn you ahead of time that you're not going to like what you see. But I can assure you that I do not like or approve of what has happened either. And I am here today to ask you to help me free him from what he must endure every single hour he rots away in my tower. But I can't approach Fury without having someone else on my side. If I don't persuade him to free Loki of certain extremities, he will just move your brother to a far worse cell outside my home, and neither of us will ever see the god again. And I highly doubt you want that."

"What has happened to my brother?" Thor's voice demanded, but his eyes revealed his genuine fear and concern.

Tony paused. Should he really show Thor what happened? But he knew he had to, if he was going to convince the god to help him.

Slowly, Tony handed over the phone.

As Thor's eyes gazed at the image, he became very, very quiet.

Tony didn't see this as a good sign.

"Because he still has enough magic to heal himself, the wounds weren't as bad as they were when he arrived back in his cell from being...manhandled. However, the damage was severe enough that he couldn't stand up, let alone move much, and he won't be able to walk for weeks, at best. I know I'm not a medical doctor, but it doesn't take a genius to see that the wounds are still serious. And he's not being healed, Thor. He's rotting away in the cell looking like...well...that. And we're the only ones who will want to help him."

Tony could read the emotions rippling across Thor's expression like a stone skipping across a river's waters. Disbelief, shock, fury, hurt...Tony could only guess at what the god was thinking.

Suddenly he snapped.

"WHO DID THIS!" Thor roared as he threw his beer can against the wall, the can going straight through the steel-enforced wall. "WHO DID THIS TO MY BROTHER?"

"SHIELD, that's who," Tony replied as he ducked out of the way of a thrown vase. "And Fury allowed it. He knew it was going to happen and he let it slide."

"But it happened in your home!" Thor cried as he lifted up the table and threw it at Tony, who dodged in time for the table to smash against the wall. "Why didn't you stop it?"

"I didn't think it would get to these measures so quickly! Well I did, but I ignored my brain. I was so caught up in other events including your brother that I didn't think anything could go wrong, to be honest! I was on this high, but I'm broken of it now, and it's all because of YOUR DAMNED BROTHER!" Tony shouted, realizing the only way to get through to Thor would be through a shouting match.

Thor grabbed a pillow ready to rip it to shreds, but something in Tony's tone caught him off-guard and made him pause.

"Other events? Did you do this to my brother?"

"NO!" Tony shouted before he even realized it. Taking a breath, he continued in a more civilized tone, "I would never in a million years dream of hurting your brother physically like this...not after recent events."

"Recent events?"

Tony gestured for Thor to sit down, which the god did, after regarding the billionaire cautiously.

"I've been going down to visit Loki regularly since he found his way into my tower. Not to abuse him," Tony added quickly, seeing the look on Thor's face, "but to talk to him. To find out more about him. In all honesty, I've been...rather lonely lately, and I figured two lonely guys could shoot the breeze together. And in that time I've found a few...interesting things about Loki. In any case, I fully believe that what SHIELD is doing to him isn't the fairest punishment for him."

Tony leaned in closer to Thor, now that the table was gone, and continued, "Thor, I see a different side of him, one that I believe only you have seen before. I believe he can be changed - turned to a life of good and helping the world. I'm not saying he should be freed from his crimes, but let's face it. We all have something in our lives we could serve an eternity of confinement for. But he shouldn't be abused for it, should he?"

"What is your plan of action?" Thor asked in a calm voice that slightly terrified Tony.

Maintaining the businessman persona, Tony responded with, "If we approach Fury and demand for him to release Loki, he'll just deflect us or relocate him, and we can't have that. If Loki is to remain prisoner, it's best that he remains in my tower where I can keep an eye on him and make sure he's not being mistreated anymore."

"Well what can we do? If we do indeed free him without Sir Fury's permission, he will use his army of agents to retrieve Loki and punish him more. Now that I know of my brother's situation, I cannot endanger him anymore. But something must be done."

"I have a plan. It's shaky at best, but it's a start. And it requires all of the Avengers to join our cause, as well as a SHIELD agent or two."

"But how will they be able to help us in our cause to free my brother from this...barbarism?"

"Bruce has medical training, he can help Loki heal his wounds if SHIELD won't. And Banner will have to act fast if Loki's to be helped at all. I suggest you and I hightail it out of here and find whatever lab Bruce's holed himself up in and convince him to join us. He of all people should know what it feels like to be a prisoner of SHIELD."

"And the Man of Stars?"

"Steve's a SHIELD pet, that's for sure, but I'm sure even he could join us if his feelings towards torture are revealed enough."

"But what do you propose to do once you get all of us to join you?"

"How will the world react when we tell it that Nick Fury of SHIELD is using torture against a changed man? If we can show the world through the support of each Avenger, that Loki has changed in his ways, then the world will rally against Fury with us, and we can free Loki of torture."

"But..." Thor was struggling in his mind, and Tony could see the divide in him.

"I know proving to Bruce and Capsicle that Loki is truly a great guy is crazy, but we need to try. We need to show them the Loki we have both grown very fond of."

Thor's eyes locked with Tony's at that.

"Fond of?"

Tony could feel his face heating up, but he tried to brush it away as he waved his hand in dismissal.

"Metal Man, have you...grown attached to my brother?" Thor asked, both skepticism and humor in his voice.

"He may be known as the God of Mischief and Lies in both our worlds, but in my own personal world, he's just a lonely guy who is sorry for his deeds. I'll let you in on a little secret," Tony gestured for Thor to lean in closer. "I spent my New Years with him and one of the people he wronged. When the person forgave him, your brother seemed to have such a weight lifted off of him...I want him to feel that again. I want to see him smile, even if it's for another moment. But every second he stays in that cell...in the hands of SHIELD...he gets further and further away from ever seeing happiness. And even if he has been lying to me this whole time, even if he has been using my loneliness against me...I don't care. Torture is torture, no matter what way you look at it. And even if he does betray all of us in the end for helping him, I can't sit by and watch as SHIELD makes him their own personal knife holder."

Tony hadn't realized at what point he had taken his cell phone from Thor, but he realized the picture of Loki was still on his screen, and he found himself staring down at the almost lifeless, bloody form of the one god who had corrupted his heart.

Without another word, Thor stood up, grabbing a pop-tart from a plate by the front door, and made his way out of the cottage, Tony following in tow.

"Let us go see our friends, then!" Thor said cheerfully as he hopped into the passenger seat of the sports car.

XXXXX

"Come in, " Director Fury's voice rang out as Coulson warily stepped into the office, closing the door behind him.

"You wanted to see me, sir?"

Director Fury closed the newspaper he had been reading, and tossed it onto his desk, folding his hands and looking at Coulson with his one good eye.

"Status report on Loki?"

"Agent Barton roughed him up pretty badly with their last meeting, Director," Coulson began somewhat shakily. "The prisoner's magic is not healing him fast enough and he's losing a lot of blood, sir. Perhaps we could send him to medical or have Dr. Banner give him a look-over -"

"Prisoners are not meant to be mended and tidied to," Fury remarked briskly. "Blood loss won't cause him to die, maybe end up in a coma at most or something. As of now, Loki is a prisoner, and I order nobody to go into that cell unless he/she is with myself or Agent Barton."

"Understood, sir," Coulson replied automatically, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach.

As Coulson turned to go, Fury called out, "Is there anything you want to tell me, Agent Coulson?"

"Not that I can think of, sir," Coulson replied, turning around to look into his director's eyes honestly.

"Did anything happen over the holiday that I should be aware of?"

Coulson felt his blood run cold but he simply shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. He, Loki, and Tony had simply shared some drinks and made small chat. He certainly didn't believe Tony had fallen for the prisoner, and Coulson surely didn't think Tony planned on breaking him free somehow.

"No sir, not that I can think of."

"Well if you think harder later on and find you do need to speak with me about anything, you are more than welcome to do so," Fury replied in a steady tone as he dismissed his agent.

Phil waited until he was safely in his room before he let out a sigh and checked his phone, seeing a new text message from Tony.

"Hunky's in. Going to see Rage-Master and Spangles now. And keep Peppermint away from Loki. I know it won't be long till she visits him to nag him."

Phil smiled as he sent back a reply before collapsing onto his bed.

Why couldn't he have just stayed dead?