Disclaimer: I own no part of the Marvel movie universe.

Chapter 12

Thor was glad for Clint, but the bounce in the man's step made him want to break something.

When they returned, all three of the people they'd left in the room looked toward them.

"Well?" Natasha asked.

"I'm clean," Clint offered. "And that's about the only good news."

Thor deeply appreciated the concern in the two humans' eyes at that. Loki was, thankfully, oblivious.

"I wouldn't call it bad news, though." Dr. Strange walked over and gave Loki a last quick hug. "It's just going to be hard on him." He pulled away. "Is it all right if I find my own way out?"

"It's easy to get lost. I'll show you," Phil offered.

Just before they left, Dr. Strange told Thor, "Don't hesitate to try contacting me if anything unexpected happens. And get me when he regains his language comprehension skills - he's probably going to want me to talk to him about his own condition and it's not really fair for you to know and him to not at that point."

"All right, I will," Thor told him with a nod.

When the sorcerer was gone, Thor sat next to Loki again.

Natasha asked, "What's the diagnosis?"

"He doesn't remember what they did to him. He doesn't remember that he is adopted. He doesn't remember what family is. He's been tortured for eating without his captors' permission."

Natasha swore in Russian. Steve swore in English.

Loki looked back and forth between them, clearly frightened at their reaction.

"Let's go fill in Bruce," Pepper told Tony.

The others all made their own excuses until it was just Natasha, Thor, and an increasingly anxious Loki.

Thor wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "It's going to be okay, Brother," he promised Loki in an even voice he had to struggle to maintain. "You are going to get better, and while that will be distressing I will be here for you."

Loki looked at him, calming down. Thor hated the thought of what was really going on behind those bright eyes.

"And I promise to be a better brother, because you deserve one."

Natasha raised an eyebrow at him.

"Dr. Strange thinks some of our sibling rivalry made it easier for them to take control of him. I was oldest and exactly what our culture values. Loki... was not."

"So who are you?" Phil asked once they were out of earshot of everyone but JARVIS.

"Dr. Stephen Vincent Strange, MD." He smirked.

"Nice try. SHIELD did research. The only man by that name with that degree profile was born back in the thirties. There's no way you're in your eighties."

"I have access to magic, Agent Coulson."

"But a universal in the old stories is that defying age is ethically questionable at best or requires a deal with Death at worst. And you have better ethics than that."

"I shall take your assessment as a compliment, but I would like to point something out to you: a deal with Death is only an ethical negative if one sees Death as evil."

Phil stopped walking and stared at him. "You have a deal with Death."

"More of a professional courtesy. She sees value in keeping me around, in return I am assured that she will not come to take me over natural causes, including age. It's balanced out by an increased risk of being killed by other means." He shrugged. "I wouldn't be surprised if your recent survival wasn't a case of her refusing to take you yet, given your importance in this delicate stage of our planetary defensive strategy. Certainly wouldn't be the first time she's done that."

"How the hell do you know about that?"

"Because I'm the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth and damn well cared to find out what happened in my absence when I got back from the off-realm business I was dealing with at the time of the attack. I was gone and incommunicado before Loki arrived. And yes, the thought my movements were being observed to take advantage of an opening has crossed my mind in disturbing ways. Several times in the past week alone."

"You're our Sorcerer Supreme."

A nod. "Someone has to do it. That's why I couldn't swear anything to SHIELD - any day, threats you have no way of perceiving exist might call me elsewhere or one of my colleagues might need help dealing with a threat that could spread here. Believe me, I'll be alerting as many as I have good relationships with to the profile of Loki's captors. This... this does not sound like a threat to a world."

They started walking again, but a moment later Phil had to stop in shock again. "She?"

"It's a preferred form when dealing with most bipedal humanoids. Helps make everyone more comfortable. Every once in a while someone even falls in love with her."

Phil shook his head fast, trying to clear it.

The smirk was back again. "Don't worry, I'm not one of them. It generally leads to stupid risks in battle and a quick but bloody end. The rest just mope around with fond thoughts of when normal events will bring them to her."

Phil stared at him.

"She isn't malicious, Agent. She sees her role as reducing the amount of suffering in the universe, as I understand it. And if she thinks letting someone survive a near-death experience will accomplish that, sometimes she'll allow it." Dr. Strange gave him a quirky smile. "Consider your survival a compliment."

"So, what breed are the cats?" Bruce joked as Tony followed Pepper into their lab.

"He's completely noverbal, both comprehending and producing. He doesn't recall much of what happened to him. He doesn't remember what a brother is, much less that Thor is his. And magic is real. I'm not kidding - Loki shapeshifted himself up there."

Bruce just kept poking at their current experiment.

"You aren't surprised?" Pepper asked.

"Considering we still have no clue where all the extra mass comes from when the other guy shows up or where it goes when he leaves?"

Tony stared at him.

After ten seconds of trying to jumpstart his brain again, Pepper cracked up laughing behind him and excused herself from the room.

"Don't tell me you never wondered."

"Well, considering what it would take to find out? I mean, do we even know what he weighs?"

"No." Bruce turned away and adjusted something. "He trusts you enough that he might be willing to let you find out."

"No. Not going to happen." Tony shook his head. "He's got enough people wanting to experiment on him as it is. Better if he feels safe in my labs."

Bruce looked over his shoulder and smiled at him. "Thanks. So, how bad was it when we were fighting him?"

"The phrase 'broken to halter' was used."

"Damn." Bruce looked away again.

"He's been tortured for eating."

Bruce turned back around to face him. "Eating?"

"Eating. Apparently whoever was his handler had to give him permission. Permission I'm presuming we can't replicate."

"Is there any hope at all for him, or do we need to plan for him to always be like this?"

"Dr. Strange - yes, he actually has an MD - thinks he'll start remembering in the next few months, with language coming last. His personality should shift back with the next breakthrough."

Bruce kept tinkering. "So he really didn't have a choice about being here then, did he?"

"It's unlikely."

Silence.

"We had to stop him. For his good as well as the planet's. He had to be incapacitated and the other guy made sure he was only incapacitated."

"Right." He lightened up. "So, when are you going to tell me why you really need a source of elemental carbon that is suitable for further processing?"

"I'd prefer not to use blood diamonds, even by accident, in Stark Industries products and processes."

"And you're rich enough to be able to use lab-made to specifications. If you can get the crystal size up and the purity where you want it."

"Exactly."

"And there isn't a secondary purpose?"

"A lot of industrial processes use carbon."

"Which is what you told me to start with." Bruce gave him a knowing look. "2 carat, brilliant cut, set in 14 carat gold for the durability? Mean anything to you?"

Considering that's too large for her hand, there are other cuts I know she goes 'ooh' over, and why use gold when you have access to titanium and will need a band set to match in a metal that is lab-safe and resistant to damage should she by any chance say yes? "Nope, doesn't mean anything to me."

"Yeah, right," Bruce coughed under his breath with a smile.

They had been working on the project since before Thor had contacted them, officially as a 'can we make industrially-useful carbon from atmospheric carbon dioxide?' project but mainly as an excuse to fool around in the lab with basic chemical engineering that touched on both their specialties - Bruce knew the reactions, since biochemistry had been a major component of his solo work, and Tony knew all about building the required apparatus to make them possible. After his little promise to Peggy to listen to whatever he'd regretted during his brushes with death, it had come to mean a bit more.

A lot more.

Because the thing he'd regretted was knowing he'd be leaving Pepper behind and legally vulnerable to having anything he willed to her taken away by someone with a more expensive lawyer. And if it was sudden, there would be no chance to name her CEO as he had before or personally transfer funds and property to her through normal means.

Which meant she needed a legal status that reflected her importance to him. One that couldn't be invalidated once he did finally pass away no matter what killed him.

And in New York City, there was only one way to do that for sure.

He had been anxious about the visit by the strange man in the red coat, mainly because he could remember touches and mental brushes similar to his being uncomfortable in the past, but he'd obeyed because the tall one had told him to.

It hadn't been bad, and the strange man had made whatever felt off about his body feel okay.

And what happened after... he'd have submitted to it with no prompting, if it were his place to make such a decision and it wasn't, had he known what was going to happen next.

He'd gotten worried when the tall man had gotten so serious Maybe he was going to be rejected, now that they knew how useless he was. That wasn't something worthy of being treated as Failure, but the usual results weren't pleasant either.

But no.

The nice lady with the orange-ish hair had shown him how to set out the plates and utensils for dinner, and he managed so well on his first try that she praised him for the job he'd done.

And then they let him sit with them for the meal and the tall one didn't even try to trick him beyond the obvious rule-breaking that couldn't be helped.

They'd even waited to leave the table until after the tall one had finished feeding him.

And they hadn't rushed him.

The tall one hadn't even let him rush.

And then when it was time to get ready to sleep, the tall one had shown him how to adjust the water for washing and didn't punish him when he stayed for what he was sure must be too long in the cold spray.

Warm sheets, the same place he'd slept last night. He and the tall one shared a room, he in the smaller bed as was appropriate and right. He'd thought last night that maybe it was just because he'd been good on the journey, but now it looked like a permanent arrangement.

And everything made a kind of sense now.

They'd been waiting until the strange man could tell them what he was capable of before really ordering him to do anything. And of course he wouldn't be allowed privileges until he was doing something - it was proper for them to be taken for no reason, but nearly unthinkable for them to be given for no reason.

He wished they would make contact again, but this... this wasn't a bad place to be waiting until they did.

He lay awake thinking of it until long after the tall one fell asleep.