A/N: Thank you all for reading and reviewing this story! It is very much appreciated! Hopefully you will enjoy this next chapter too. Merry Christmas (Eve)!

Chapter six) Fear and freedom of falling.

It had all happened on instinct, it had been a trust of his senses, that this indeed was right. Thor stood before him, hands having moved forward to snatch the tube away, but it was too late. He could already feel the liquid burn him.

"What's happening to him?" one of the agents spoke up, while they closed in on him, weapons still aimed. Loki's sight spun and soon his eyes were closing. Even if he had had the possibility to reply to the question, he wouldn't have been able to, for he had no idea what was happening to him.

He blinked a few times and Thor saw how his eyes were turning bluer and bluer by the moment. The visible veins beneath his skin flashed the same blue as his eyes, making Loki's muscles spasm. He stumbled backwards, trying to grab anything to keep himself up, but he slid to the ground, a groan leaving him, but not due to the collision with the floor. It was the blue liquid burning him. "He's turning white..." one of the agents spoke and Thor moved to his side.

"Loki, can you hear me? What's happening?" he asked, looking at how his body arched in pain, his eyes shut, his body spasming like he was suffering from an epileptic shock. He took hold of Loki's hand and turned his wrist upwards, pushing his sleeve back. The liquid was running through his blood, turning it blue or... "The liquid is connected to the Tesseract. Loki is being consumed by the Tesseract," Thor spoke. He grabbed hold of Loki's face, trying to shake him awake. "Loki, wake up!" he spoke. One consumed by the Tesseract was another word for death. Loki would be wiped out and his body would be powered by the Tesseract only, if that was what was happening. Loki stood no chance from winning from the liquid, as he had no magic himself to fight it off, no Godly resistance.

Loki's body became paler and paler. "It's replacing his blood," Thor spoke, worry in his voice. "There is no sorcery or magic that can counteract or undo this..." he said, shaking Loki, but his body had gone white entirely. He was no more, his blood was gone, but the blue liquid, empowered by the Tesseract still pumped through his body. "He needs blood. He's dead, he needs blood, but his heart is still beating the fluid around. If he stays like this any longer he'll-"

Loki's eyes suddenly shot open, his eyes the brightest blue Thor had ever seen, his body regaining it's natural pale colour. Loki let out a scream, a look of worry on his face. The power going through him was unbearable. He shouldn't have drunk this. This stuff was not to be consumed! As Loki's body had stopped arching and lied still once again, a cackle of laughter left him, his eyes scanning the ceiling, Thor and the agents around them. He pushed himself up from the ground shakily, then took a step towards the agents. He looked like he was glowing blue, his skin no longer pale with a pink colour, as he was bloodless. He was blue, very light blue... No, Loki, what had he done...?

"Loki?" Thor asked, stepping before his brother, in between him and the agents. "You have to calm down," he spoke. Loki's eyes met Thor's and the colour of the madman's eyes made Thor's blue orbs look dull.

"I will not take orders from you," Loki spoke, raising his hand to Thor. The blue glow that came from his skin seemed to increase at his opened palm that faced Thor. "Kneel for me, or be defeated by the heir of the Tesseract," he spoke, grinning, a wicked look in his eyes as he looked frantically from every one man to the other.

"Brother," Thor spoke, but Loki did not respond to it, for he wasn't Thor's brother, he need not respond.

"I said; kneel!" he shouted and the power that was almost uncontrollably rushing through his veins had him blinded for a moment. It felt good, it felt amazing... Yes, he was powerful once more and he would travel to Asgard to regain his own magic to combine it with the Tesseract's might.

"No, brother," Thor spoke and he placed his hand on Loki's shoulder, the other moving to touch his cheek. Loki's eyes flickered, but steadied on Thor's a moment later, ready to listen and disobey. "This is not you! This is not the way."

"Not yourway," Loki sneered his reply. "It's a perfect way."

"You're destroying yourself!"

"You've done that years ago, Thor," Loki said. "Now, begone!" he pushed Thor away from him and smirked as his push had actual effect. Thor stumbled back and although he was soon rushing forward to Loki again, the God of Mischief was quick to step out of the way. But of course, all the agents were bound to fire their weapons now... and Loki wasn't too sure whether his skin would hold the bullets. He duck behind one of the tables, filled with machinery that looked expensive enough not to want to shoot at.

"Loki!" Thor rushed towards him and grabbed hold of him before he could flee once more. This time he was flung to the other side, slamming into a table and falling to the floor once more. "Do you know what you've done?!"

Loki got up, turned to look at Thor, ready to continue their fight, but a moment later Thor was slamming him back down to the ground. Physically he was no match... and he had no true control of these powers. He tried to blast Thor away, but the God of Thunder resisted. Would a day come again in which he wasn't fighting one he once loved?

"I was betrayed," he sneered, looking at Thor as he spoke. He knew that Thor would not harm him further if he continued to talk, and in the meantime he could collect his energy to direct a fiercer hit. "I fell for the same trick. Kinship, love, friendship, whatever name we give to such fleeting things. I fell for it once more." He wondered where Tony was and whether he was pleased to be rid of Loki.

"He did not-"

"He betrayed me!" Loki replied, interrupting Thor. "Like you all do!"

"Actually, no," Tony's voice suddenly sounded and Loki looked up, distracted for the moment, as he watched Iron man come forth. Anger rushed through him and immediately he directed the strike towards Tony, which - of course - meant that Thor moved forward to take hold of him.

"Contain him!" one of the agents called. "Or we'll have to open fire."

Tony took only a moment to recover from the blast as he stepped forward. "You stupid idiot," he muttered, as he came closer to Loki, who was struggling against Thor's grip. "Do you realize what you're here for? They want to understand your works and now... you've suddenly made it a whole lot more interesting."

Loki's eyes flickered slightly as he looked from Tony to the agents. A menacing grin then formed on his face. "I am empowered by a source powerful enough to power your entire planet," he said, ending his sentence with a crazed cackle. Thor kept hold of him, stopping him from doing anyone else any harm.

"This is not who you are, Loki," Thor said, trying to make the mad blue eyes look at him.

"This isme, King. The Tesseract belongs to me, it completes me. It gives me all the power I need..." he said grinning up at Thor, then turning to Stark.

"You have become SHIELD's test rabbit," Tony said, stepping further into the room. He grabbed a few objects from the table. "This, this... this and this..." he started, lifting things up that Loki didn't recognise, "we all have no idea what it is and now you... you have shown us what that blue vessel does," Tony said, his iron finger pointing to Loki.

"And now you can see how powerful it has made me. Now you can see me rule your planet, rule all people!" he shouted, his body glowing still, his eyes flickering in a madness. "This is magic nobody can comprehend. It is magic understood by none but the possessor," Loki explained. "I know where it is, I can get it, I can consume it all!" he shouted. "I can create a race much more powerful than any God, any Elf, any sorcerer, any demon," Loki cackled. "I can create offspring empowered by the Tesseract, an entire race that is unbeatable," Loki spoke.

"How are you going to do that when you are locking in here, then?" Stark asked, taking a step towards Loki. "You cannot retrieve your own magic and this power is merely uncontrollable. This power is too great for a mortal to be able to even fathom," Tony spoke, placing a metal hand on the man's shoulder.

A distortion took place, a distortion in the magic running through Loki. The liquid consuming Loki's body, empowered by the Tesseract was not the only magic that was cast upon Loki. The magic that made him look like the human he was, that made him look like a God, still hung over him and the magic was colliding.

His eyes had flicked not from green to blue, but from blue to red, his skin suddenly taking on a much bluer colour, lines etched into the man's skin showing. But this was only for a fraction of a second, barely noticeable for Loki himself. Stark jumped back. "What was that?" he asked Thor, looking up at the God who's face had taken on a much more drastic expression.

"Loki, fight this..." he whispered softly.

Loki looked up at Thor, their eyes connecting and within a second Loki's body was limp, colliding to the floor. Tony frowned as this happened and took a step back. Thor leaned over him, speaking his name once more. Loki's body was still, but did not change back to his mortal form. Tony looked at Loki's blank expression and wondered what he'd done by bringing him here... He should have kept him at the Tower...

Suddenly bright balls of blue formed at Loki's palms. "Thor!" Tony spoke, but it was too late. The God of Thunder was blasted back by the power of the Tesseract and so were the agents. A wicked grin formed on Loki's face as he pushed himself up. Tony stepped towards him, stopping him.

"What a reassurance to know that my pranks still work on every single one of you," Loki smirked, leaning forwards to grab something from the table. He didn't care what it was, as nobody knew anyway. "Ah, I've seen one of these before... it's a weapon from Svartalheim..." Loki spoke, grinning up at Tony. Tony did a step back.

"Put that down, sweetheart," he spoke, grinning behind his mask, though fearing what the weapon would do. Loki then suddenly threw the weapon at him, making Tony dive to the side. Most of the agents were back on their feet, helping those with severer damage to get up too and it would only take another second for Loki to realize he either fled now or never. "Loki, tell me, hypothetically speaking could you survive a..." he shrugged, as if he thought about what exactly to ask him, "eight-hundred feet fall?"

Loki seemed somewhat puzzled and as he didn't immediately respond it became clear the God didn't know. A grin tugged at the corner of Tony's mouth and a moment later he grabbed hold of Loki and was rushing towards the window. Here they went again...

Crashing through the glass he took better hold of Loki right before he rushed upwards into the sky, taking the God with him.

Loki braced himself for the crash they made through the window, grabbing hold of Tony firmly as the iron man took him straight up into the sky, blasting past all the tall buildings, higher and higher up into the sky. Loki looked down, seeing how the buildings became smaller and smaller below him. "You better not be planning to do anything stupid," Tony said, "something stupid being killing me, for instance."

"I'm not stupid," Loki replied, obviously recognizing the stupidity of doing so, as it meant his inevitable fall.

Tony Stark flew higher and higher. "Now, look down, Loki," he spoke as he got about 800 feet high. "I can drop you," he spoke. It would be like falling from the very top of the Eiffel Tower. Not so nice, he presumed. "You will die if you fall, so you're not so mighty at all, are you?" he asked.

"You wouldn't get rid of me," Loki spoke, clinging onto Stark. "You care about me and not only that, but I'm SHIELD's little experiment. You wouldn't kill me, they'd punish you so badly."

"I don't think they would. I'd have removed a large threat from the planet. Isn't that fantastic for them?" he asked, taking a firmer hold of Loki, starting to fly a little higher, building up speed like this.

He remembered when Loki had taken Clint and Eric and had powered them by the Tesseract, a firm knocking out got them back, but how did this work with Loki? Loki had literally consumed a liquid empowered by the Tesseract, which had consumed all his blood... Loki had no blood to live on, would the liquid be knocked out of his body, but how would it leave him?

"Look down, Loki," he told the God again. He just laughed maniacally, still holding onto Stark firmly. "I could drop you, kill you, and I know I could do it, as you are a large threat. You could kill me and you will die also. Now tell me why you'd want to live."

"The only outcome of this is me and you returning to SHIELD," Loki then said, looking into the lights on Tony's mask, which were his eyes. "You took me here for me to say sorry, not to kill me and thus that is not an outcome of this game. I will not die and nor will you, nor will I apologise," a wicked grin appeared on Loki's face and Tony laughed softly.

"Actually, there's a different outcome of this I had in mind, Loki," he said, "if there is a bit of Loki in there, anyway," Stark added a little annoyedly.

"Oh and what's that?" he asked Stark, his eyes still flickering, though now once again from blue to green. He wondered what this magic was. Was this truly because of the Tesseract, or was it because he is truly a God, a God without his initial powers. Is a God without powers, but with powers replacing those, still a God? Stark chuckled softly at his own thoughts.

"Well, that's for me to know, and for you to figure out, hm?" Stark said, looking at Loki, trying to see if he bought it. All Tony got in response to his words was an annoyed snark. Now he just needed to figure out what Tony knew. Ha, smart move.

Apparently the liquid consumed blood, replaced it, as the heart continued to beat it through the God's body. There was no blood left to keep Loki alive, but what could happen is drain Loki of the liquid, fill him with blood and give his heart a jump start. Tony was thinking like Loki was a machine, not such a good approach, perhaps, but it may work, right?

"Do you want to fall?" he asked Loki, looking down at the man clinging onto the iron.

"What do you think?" Loki struck back, his voice vicious. "Would you want to?"

"No, but this is about you, not about me. Anyway, heights don't scare me so much as I'm pretty used to flying now," he said, looking around. "You see that building down there, the lighter one in that street?"

"Yes..." Loki said, though by the tone in his voice you could tell that he was not amused.

"Well, I'll meet you there," he spoke, grabbing hold of Loki's hands pushing him away from his body, letting him fall. Now he just hoped that this frightened Loki.

It wouldn't have been so bad if the memories hadn't returned. It wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't tried to reach out to Tony, only to fail. If he hadn't been looking up and watching Tony disappear further and further, as he fell down. It wasn't the fall that scared him, it wasn't even the landing that scared him, it was that memory. That pang of immense regret he'd felt right when it was too late to change his mind. And it had been his pride that had stopped him from calling out to Thor... that he was sorry. That he would miss him for as long as his fall lasted.

He felt the air rush past him, much like it had done then and slowly his eyes turned to look at the ground, that wasn't too quickly rushing towards him. Panic went through him, remembering what had saved him last time. He'd rather not been saved at all than go through what he'd been through with the Chitauri.

He always knew his death would come at the end of a fall, a metaphorical one or a real one. (He'd always preferred the latter.) Yet, it felt wrong now. He'd too many things left unsaid, things that he'd ran through his mind last time he fell, but had never gotten round to changing. The opportunity to share with his brother his true feelings had never arose. He could only be honest when he was above Thor... and he never was.

His lies forever continued, for he never rose to what he aspired to be. He never walked the paths he should have and he never sat upon the throne that he wanted. And now he was falling down to the ground, possibly to death-

Suddenly, right when he'd closed his eyes, waiting for the impact of his crash into Earth, he changed course, felt arms wrap around him and pull him upwards again. He breathed in sharply, unknowingly having held his breath. His eyes opened and he looked up at Tony, immediately grabbing hold of him again, like he'd done before. He hadn't died... was all he could think for the moment. So, it had indeed not been Tony's intention to let him crash.

"Look down," Tony spoke and despite Loki's trembling, he still managed to do so. They were right up there again, possibly higher than before. "You want to go again?" Loki felt a lumb forming in his throat and if he wasn't careful his eyes would water too. No, he never wanted to experience that again. It were the worst memories... the worst thoughts and the darkest places.

"N- no..."

"You sure?" Tony asked.

"Yes!" Loki bit back. He wanted to hurt Tony, wanted to punish him for everything he was putting Loki through, but he had no chances of doing so. Not now, anyway. It frustrated him endlessly, but he had no idea what to do about it.

"Good, then you better behave," Tony replied. "One wrong move and I'm doing it again, without the part that I catch you."

And with that Tony was on his way back to that broken window, back inside the SHIELD building, where Thor stood waiting. Loki's eyes turned away from his brother's immediately. After all the thoughts he'd had he could not bare the sight.

"Take him," Tony spoke towards the SHIELD agents. "He won't do anything." They rushed forward and Loki felt his hands being bound, tightly. He said nothing and did nothing, as it was the only way he knew to preserve some of his dignity. The next moment he was blindfolded and not too long after that, gagged too. So, he was considered quite the danger, suddenly. That was good.

"We should sedate him," he heard one of the agents say and as that was certain to cause him to struggle, he felt Thor's grip on him. He felt how he was pulled close to his brother, almost in a hug... and the next, a stinging pain in the side of his neck and soon thereafter; nothing.