A/N: Time frame wise, this is set 8 years after Burning Curve, for reference. :)

So updates might be a little slow as I deal with some big personal stuff. If you're interested you can read about it at my Tumblr. megaranoelle . tumblr . com

I don't own The Avengers, Loki, Iron Man, or anything of the like. Just the thoughts inside my head. And taking some personal freedoms with mythology and lore.

Loki never stayed in one area for long. He was pushing to see what the limits to his magic could be, but he needed to. He would spend an hour in one pocket of the Void before opening several pathways and sending clones down them before moving himself, tinging them with his magic. It probably wouldn't keep fooling Adir, or it might not take long for him to find a pattern, but Loki would keep it up until he was sure it didn't work.

The pocket closed behind him and he manipulated the area around him to look like his study back at the Tower in New York. If he could bring enough of the room into reality he might be able to consult some of the books to help him. He was going to have to start experimenting with magic, that much was obvious. Perhaps he would have to turn to making physical spells as well. Creating the environment he needed for the spells might be a little difficult, but he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

"You truly are an idiot, aren't you?" Loki turned quickly when he heard the female voice behind him. He watched Hela walking around the study, looking at his books. "You would attract the attention of the Creator."

"I thought you were supposed to be locked down in a special prison," Loki said, turning back to the books on the other side. He could sense that it wasn't actually her, but he was interested in how she was able to project herself to him.

"Oh, I am, don't worry about that." He could practically hear the roll of her eyes. "There will be no escaping from this, at the moment, but that doesn't stop me from coming to tell you how utterly idiotic you are."

"Yes, I heard you the first time." Loki flipped through some pages of the book, skimming through the words.

"Do you not get it?" She turned towards him. "Do you not understand the situation that your find yourself?"

"Do you have any information that can aid me, or did you just come to annoy me?" Loki looked over at her. "I have to find a way out of here, and I don't exactly have a lot of time to do so."

"You actually think that you can escape this?" Hela walked over to him. "You are truly insane. This is the Creator, Loki. He can do whatever he wants and no one can stop him!"

"So far I've seen him to be nothing but a power monger," Loki said evenly.

Hela let out a sharp laugh. "You're terrified, don't try to fool me. I'm terrified and I'm not even here. This is something that even I would give in to. An eternity trapped with your idiotic family ruling my realm is nothing compared to the eternity of tortures and pain that he could give." She looked at him carefully. "You think it was just coincidence that he brought you back to the Void? To the one place that broke you easier than I or Gauton ever could?" Hela poked his chest several times, pushing him back a little. "He knows everything about everyone. He knows their fears, their darkest moments, and he gets a sick kind of satisfaction from it. Loki Odinson, you are never going to get out of here."

Loki narrowed his eyes a little at her and turned back to his book. "If you are going to be of no use to me, then you might as well just leave."

"You are so stubborn!" She threw up her hands in exasperation. "For once in my life I'm trying to help you."

"You are trying to talk me into giving in and accepting a fate worse than death," Loki corrected.

"I'm trying to talk you into accepting a quick death!" She growled at him. "There are reasons that no one has stories about the Creator, he is invincible."

"People once thought us to be invincible as well," Loki reminded her. "Everything can be killed, it is only a matter of finding out how."

"How can you kill what was never born?" Hela asked him.

"You can kill what was created." Loki looked at her, closing the book in his hand. "He may have been responsible for creation, but he had to have been created himself." He took a couple of steps closer to her. "Skuld died bringing information to me, she gave my husband her powers, and it had to be for a reason. She must have believed that Adir was able to be defeated."

Hela looked at him, considering his words, an eyebrow raised. "One of the Fates came to you?" He nodded. "You're going to get yourself killed. If you aren't careful your actions will reverberate all the way back to your pathetic family."

"Don't you have a prison sentence to return too?" Hela snorted and turned away from him, disappearing as she walked away. Loki let out a sigh and dropped to a crouch, leaning against the bookcase.

She wasn't wrong, he was terrified. He had no idea what to do, no idea where to even start. He was floundering in the dark with no leads to take. Loki was afraid that she might be right, and that Tony and their children would bear the brunt of his actions against Adir. Loki rubbed his face and took a breath.

"Sir, Doctor Elason has arrived." Tony made a noise, trying to push his face into his pillow.

"I'm trying to sleep," Tony mumbled when he heard the door open.

"Yeah, I hear that's a problem for pregnant people around this time," Alex said, leaning against the door frame to his room. "If you get up and let me take a look at you I might be able to get you a sleeping pill."

Tony let out a sigh before pushing himself up, sitting on the edge of the bed. "Your promises of sweet relief do little to make me feel better."

"The joys of pregnancy are apparently not doing too well with you." Alex walked over, pulling a chair over to sit in front of Tony. Tony shot him a look that made him put his hands up in surrender. "Dr Banner tells me that you're at least eating everything you need to be-"

"And then some," Tony added.

"-and taking vitamins, so that's good," Alex continued. "Good news is you're going into the third and final tri-mester-"

"The prefix of tri kind of implies that." Alex looked at Tony, raising an unimpressed eyebrow. "Sorry, I've been extra snippy lately. A lack of sleep will do that."

"I'm sure contending with a 16 month old isn't doing any miracles for your energy as well." Alex reaching into his bag and pulled out a couple of things.

"I'm lucky that Bruce and Sander are here to help with her," Tony told him. He let Alex start to take his blood pressure.

"We should probably come up with a plan," Alex said and now Tony raised an eyebrow at him. "A backup plan in case Loki isn't back in the next 12 weeks."

"He had better be back," Tony stated. "I have no intentions of actually giving birth, mostly because I do not have the ability that he does to give a natural birth."

"Which is why I suggest coming up with a plan," Alex reiterated. "You'll obviously have to do a cesarean."

"Uhn, cutting me open?" Tony looked at him, both eyebrows raised now. "Last time someone did that, I ended up hooked to a car battery and this thing." Tony tapped the arc reactor. He had been monitoring the shrapnel and the arc reactor's output.

"And how else do you expect to get this fast growing little girl out of you?" Alex pulled out his notebook, making notes of his vital signs. "Tony, I've done a couple hundred of them, it'll be like clockwork."

Tony groaned and let himself drop back onto the bed, heading bouncing on the pillow. "Never again."