Summary: The war between Jotunheim and Asgard draws to a close, but thanks to a horrible twist of Fate (or perhaps not), the nameless runt of Laufey-King is not discovered by Odin and so begins a remarkable journey of life that should not have been. Jotun!Loki AU. Set pre-/during-/after Thor/Avengers Assemble. MCU-verse only.

Warnings: ANGST! Loki-whump! Language, adult situations, violence, child abuse, dub-con, sexual assault (also of a minor), substance abuse, one abortion scene (sort of), slavery, sex trade (maybe), some mild original character/Loki M/M pairings. Also F/M pairings.

Comments: This is not a slash fic. Sorry. It's Loki-centric, although I definitely show the rest of the Avengers and etc. Please review! Constructive criticism welcome.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avengers. Marvel owns it. I do not get paid for this piece of work. Sadly, but understandably. LOL.

I am so so so sorry guys for the wait. I'm assuming you guys are sad when I don't update regularly... which I suppose is egotistical of me to think. But, for some reason I had issues with this scene and then I was trying to add the whole fight scene on the Helicarrier - and then realized I had enough to post without it. So... here we go.

I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Thanks to: InsolentKatt, Vincent1875, Basia Orci, Guest, vonhinten, wbss21, Armand, Elizabeth, Juventus. Thanks for taking the time to support this fic! Thanks to everyone for reading!

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Distortions In Time
Chapter 84
Dividing Differences

Asgard's Academy for those magickally gifted had held many rooms for the various skills of the mages and their apprentices. There were the apothecaries, the smithies, the alchemists' studies, the distilleries, the spell rooms, the astronomy towers, the herbalists' gardens and the Healing Halls. There were other rooms locked away filled with various arcane instruments, few of which anyone knew how to use which brought to Loki's mind another dark, dim, foreboding room – the King's Vault. On various marbled and carved pedestals, ancient weapons long left to the grip of Time and dust sat, waiting to be used, and, in a prime position at the end of the Room right before the grille which held the Destroyer, the Casket of Ancient Winters, Jotunheim's long lost prize, sung quietly to itself.

In contrast to the earthy tones of the Mage's Academy and the dark lighting of the Vault, the Helicarrier's 'laboratory' (or 'secret lab' as Stark had derisively called it) was a sparsely decorated, cleanly furnished, brightly lit place. The white counters, the closed cupboards, the tidy storage units, and the shining screens of the computers gleamed as though unused underneath unrelenting, white lights. Like Midgard's healing halls – the hospital, Loki corrected himself as he remembered Thor's unusual vocabulary. Like the hospital, this place is laid open before the eye. The mysteries, such as they are, have been hidden in plain sight, cloaked in numbers and metal – and without Asgard's atmospheric lighting, it does feel more prosaic. In the end, one could say, Loki concluded, magick is more than science, for it deals with more than the reality of the Seen; there is the discovery, the manipulation and the presentation of the Unseen.

Watching Stark and Banner pore over the rapidly scrolling information on the various translucent screens, Loki was once again sharply reminded of home. Of his own little working space stashed in the corner of his room, of Frigga's looms and apothecary's bench, of the Academy's studies and halls. So much more than this, Loki thought as he tapped on his own computer screen and tentatively brought up the data. Looking at the numbers and the oddly familiar configurations and formulas and graphs, Loki nodded. Yes. This is, after all, the playground of children. Without shadow and restraint, with no concept of the mysteries, with no attempt at finesse... Unwieldy and ungraceful, yet practical and, no doubt, in its own way effective. In its own way, powerful and destructive.

With a frown, Loki fiddled with the settings in hopes of setting the information on a continuous cycle. A few seconds later, the tall warrior-mage could feel the gaze of one of the humans. The oddly unsettling quiet doctor. Banner, Loki recalled.

"You looking for something?" Banner asked.
"I wish to set the information on a continuous cycle, but the controls of this technology are a little..." Loki swallowed the first words which popped into his head – 'archaic' and 'simplified to the points of incomprehensibility'. Pause. He remembered Frigga and Odin's words about representing Asgard; he thought of Thor's relationship with the humans. Loki sighed. "Unfamiliar."
"I see." Across Banner's face, a smile flitted. "I suppose where you come from, this all seems a little Stone Age."
"Stone Age," Loki tipped his head and considered the words.
"Primitive."
"Well..." Here, Loki glanced around the room. "It seems as though the humans of Midgard have begun the long arduous climb to civilization. Your... science is as yet incomplete, but it does seem to be well applied..."
"High praise indeed," Stark snorted.

The shorter scientist on the other side of the room, who had been typing frantically into his own console and had been talking with some computer interface, glanced over at Banner with a brown-eyed, hurt look as though to say 'how could you have betrayed me?'. Then, he smiled quickly at Loki.

"Of course, Asgard isn't going to share either," Stark continued. "Not that I'm offended. I totally get it. I've buried a few projects for the safety of the masses. Monopoly of information is power. Look at the ship we're standing on. You can bet your bottom dollar that this isn't gonna be dished out to just any country."

Just any country. So this planet does have many countries... Loki thought, remembering the two mysterious young people who had saved his life. Mildy and Jace.

"Well, Asgard will not speak of such things," Loki agreed with a shrug. "Much of this is a matter for the working man and the mage – and being such, it is not something the warriors and the elite study. They take it for granted... and without the technicians, as some might call them, the science would be lost, I should think."
"Wow."
"I suppose with a long history," Bruce said, leaning back to double-check Loki's console before nodding, "that kind of thing is bound to develop. It happened in Egypt."
"Except the higher ups in Egypt hoarded it all. Sounds like the opposite is happening in Asgard," Stark shook his head.
"Relying on workings and magick and the sciences can only get one so far... Or so it is said," Loki mused aloud, watching the screen cycle through twice successfully.
"Sour grapes."
"Sour grapes?" Loki echoed Stark's words.
"An old tale on Earth about a fox who couldn't get to some grapes no matter how high he jumped. He gave up and to console himself, he said that they were probably sour anyways." Bruce shrugged, accepting Loki's nod of unspoken thanks. "Sour grapes."
"Sour grapes." Loki thought of Laufey's uncertain magickal abilities and Thor's unspoken jealousies. "Understandable. Still... Asgard may not speak of their technology, but," and here Loki smiled, "I can."
"Huh," Stark suddenly looked up. "So we can watch you do your thing?"
"I am here, am I not?" Loki turned about and wandered over to Bruce's side of the room, surreptitiously double-checking the man's calculations (and finding them quite correct) while poking through the different cupboards.
"You looking for something?" Stark asked curiously.
"Paper and pen."
"Talking about Stone Age..."
"I found a few pads and pens in the third drawer from the left," Bruce turned and waved at the far counter on the other side of the room. "Over there."
"Paper and pen," Stark snorted, but Loki noticed the gleam of curiosity in his lively dark eyes.
"Discovering the correct sigil is key before inputting it into any working or piece of technology," Loki explained.

He dug about, found the paper and pen, pulled up a black plastic and metal hair to his console's counter, propped his feet up on the edge and tipped his chair back to gaze up at the screen. As Loki became immersed in his notes, the rest of the room fell into a companionable silence with the odd occasional short conversation between Stark and Doctor Banner. Every now and then, Loki glanced over and saw them deep in conference about 'teraflops' and 'Homer clusters' and 'R and D'. It was obvious that Stark was courting the retiring Doctor Banner. Amusing.

Once in a while, Loki himself felt the heaviness of someone's gaze upon his shoulders – and judging by how Stark hopped from one place to another poking at various pieces of technology, opening and shutting things seemingly at random, chattering in a scattered way about some scientific principles (and also gossip) and checking on a few of his own projects, it was the rich man who hovered over Loki and watched with eyes like a hawk as the warrior-mage worked out his own magick on paper. The ink shifted and twisted beneath his fingers as Loki flicked his fingers and found the balance of power within the planet. His eyelids drifted lower as the mage focused on the power around him, as he immersed himself in the living flow of the Realm's spirit. The current was strong and just dipping into it he felt the ineluctable pull, the energy fed from youthful stars and the spirit of the Realm which harbored the young planet.

Why this one? That had always been Loki's question from the first day he had read of Midgard in the Academy's library. The question had never been fully answered.

"You seriously are going to go to the dark side on this one?"
"It really does look like magic." That was Bruce. Much closer now. "Admit it."

Loki twisted back in the move-able chair and looked up at the two men who now stood just behind him looking over his shoulder.

"I am trying to concentrate here."
"Doing what?" Tony asked.

The rich man's brown eyes were less cocky and his posture less aggressive – and beside him, Banner hovered obviously torn between the hesitancy of the polite and the curiosity of the scientist.

"All things emit a kind of..."
"Wave?" Bruce suggested.
"Something like that," Loki hesitated. "Of course, depending on the material of the object under consideration, the... waves... or the emissions of being may range from rather weak and difficult to find up the scale to something more..."
"Seismic. Cosmic. Epic."
"Yes," Loki gave Tony a quick, twisted smile. "I am not..." At my fittest, Loki was about to say, but he stopped. Norns know if Thor is right around the corner ready to pounce and drag me back to the infirmary. "It is not easy at the best of times, but it can be done for anything lost." A pause. "Anything lost."
"Anything?" Bruce asked, voice laced with just a little bit of skepticism.
"Anything," Loki repeated firmly. "With something like the Infinity Stones... it is... much easier, especially when they are-" Here, Loki paused and cocked his head. "Awake. Alive. In use."
"So you are trying to find it from its gamma ray emissions. Like us."
"In a way," Loki nodded. "With the information I find through my working, I could also reach out and ascertain its usage and the details of its whereabouts."
"Huh. Is this like... astral projection?" Bruce asked, removing his glasses and rubbing at them absently with a handkerchief.

Loki gave Bruce a blank stare.

"Never mind that," Bruce shook his head.
"With the more powerful an object, the greater the emissions. Something like the Tesseract," Loki turned away, eyes falling closed. "That is how Flarathir and Thanos located the Tesseract. In a way, it desires to be found, to be used."
"It's the Ring!" Stark said dramatically, no doubt making yet another incomprehensible reference to some local lore no doubt.
"So they used the same form of... technology as you are to finding the Tesseract?"
"Yes," Loki nodded.
"They can detect and analyze gamma rays," Bruce mused. "They must be as modern as we are."
"Not gamma rays," Loki corrected the man quickly. "Emissions of being – that is the best way for me to explain it to you Midgardians. They are not gamma rays. They are bhu'foera. Although, using your technology to detect kel'ausa is also an interesting answer to our dilemma."
"Okaayy... High praise indeed," Tony rolled his eyes. "So Flarathir and Thanos used this method to find the Tesseract..."
"And pinpoint its location and perhaps even walk in the spirit among the environs of the Tesseract. It is, after all, the Space Stone and therefore lends itself easily to such workings."
"You mean, people have been astral projecting into SHIELD's HQ?" Bruce asked, glancing nervously over at the mage's spear.
"More than likely. Flarathir, for certain."
"Shit," Tony said, hands on his hips. "They're so far up SHIELD's ass-"
"That's one way of saying it," Bruce rubbed his eyes, his glasses bumping up against his forehead. "Not good."
"However, it is odd, for despite its size, it is difficult to exactly pinpoint even now. I can feel it from a great distance. A powerful voices among many, all of them striving to be heard. Perhaps... perhaps the entire world is attempting to hide it, crowd it out."
"Okay. Time out." Tony scooted back a bit, hands rising. "The world?"
"The Spirit of the Realm. And the Stars." Loki shrugged. "You cannot understand. You must hear them yourself to know. As I said, the emissions of being are not gamma rays. They are something else – and they are strong. Like the center of a galaxy, its light shines brightly, overpowering all. Thankfully, there are other voices..." Loki paused, froze infinitesimally, glanced at the screen, stared down at his sigils and then back up and around at the two waiting men. "Light. Light and song. That – that-"

The chair creaked as Loki's feet were suddenly removed from the edge of the counter and as the exiled Asgardian prince leaned forward, pen suddenly scrawling across as the page.

"That is it! Perhaps – perhaps!"
"What?"
"This part of the universe is unusually filled with-"

As the three men clustered around the notebook, Captain America and Thor strode in and paused.

"We caught you at a bad time," Steve said, stepping back.
"Well, all time's a bad time when people walk in on me in my lab," Stark said, looking up, annoyed. He shifted back a little, rooting around in a couple of drawers aimlessly.
"This isn't your lab," Steve frowned.
"Well, it is at the moment. We were in the middle of something." The short inventor held up two metal cylinders and threw them back in, muttering imprecations against badly misused budgets.
"I see," Thor's blue gaze met Loki's green one. "Any luck?"
"Luck has nothing whatsoever to do with it," Loki grunted. "Hard work, maybe – and I hardly can get any work done around here. I have managed to-"

Loki stopped and stared – as the short, dark-haired man, Stark, suddenly produced a small metal cylindrical object and zapped Doctor Banner with it. Jerking away with a wounded look and a sharp exclamation of pain, Banner moved back around the corner of the counter. Steve's mouth dropped open an inch in shock.

"Yes, this is what I have to deal with, Thor. My day feels as though it will last a millenia, but," Loki smiled begrudgingly, "their science and technology, while primitive, does function on some level and my working is almost finished and I believe their, ah, programs have begun running already."
"Nothing?" Stark was saying to Banner, tossing the electrical prod aside and leaning in a little to look at the man closely. "No sign of green anywhere."
"But they are interested in magick and I just discovered – or I had thought I had discovered – something but then you two had to come in and-"
"Hey!" Steve's sharp voice cut into Loki's diatribe. "Are you nuts?"
"You really have got a lid on it, haven't you?" Stark asked conversationally, ignoring Steve. "What's your secret? Bongo drums? Mellow jazz? A bag of weed?"

Loki shook his head, while finishing his final choice of runes.

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked.
"Funny things are," Tony gave Steve a quick, sharp, head-to-toe look. "What's got your panties in a twist? Dropped your shield off the edge of the carrier? Decided to give up spandex?"
"They're making weapons," the blonde-haired super-soldier said, nodding at Thor who set a large, metallic gun down on the white counter top with an ominous clank.

-0-0-0-

While SHIELD's staff worked on gathering more intel, while her newest compatriots separated for their various duties, Natasha made her way down to the lower deck, to the cylindrical glass cell and the prisoner within. It was relatively quiet below – as quiet as a flying helicarrier could get that is. There was only the steady clank-clank which marked the pace of the circling guards, the hum and the rattle of the ship itself, the whoosh of various air vents and the steady beeps of muted monitors. As she approached, the elderly man, their deceptively strong prisoner, turned on his second circuit of pacing and, catching sign of her, paused. The two eyed each other apprehensively as cats might upon first meeting.

"So they sent a woman." A smirk flitted across his face.
"This is a surprise?" Natasha asked coolly.
"Well," the man tipped his head, "not at such an early stage, no." He turned, glanced upward and then around the restricting confines of the circular cell. "I thought, perhaps, that there would be some... other forms of... persuasion offered before they sent me a woman as balm. Ah, but then perhaps this race of Midgard is more fairly represented thusly."
"I am the representative of SHIELD... of humanity?" Natasha leaned back against the rail and looked thoughtful. "Now that is a scary thought."
"Scary?"
"To those who know me well-"
"Ah," Flarathir smiled then, his blue eyes glinting beneath craggy grey-white eyebrows, "yet in a strange way, it could be a compliment to your kind. Perhaps more apt than some would think, Drakov's daughter."

Natasha's chin lifted and something crossed her face – a glimmer of regret, a glimpse of grief. Flarathir smiled.

"Agent Barton," Natasha said.
"Indeed."
"I... wanna know what you've done to him."
"What I have done to him?" Flarathir's eyebrows rose in mock innocence. "I have done nothing... I merely introduced him to the truth. The truth of the Tesseract. His mind is now expanded... and grasps more of what truly is than what is seen."
"I see," Natasha stepped forward, her hand trailing along the rail, a picture of worry. "And once you've won – once you're king of the mountain, what will happen to his mind then?"
"Is this... love, young child?"
"No."

A pause.

"Love is for children," Natasha finally said. "I owe him a debt."
"Hm. He spoke of this. You were raised a killer, lived a killer's life and instead of meeting a killer's death, you were granted a second life."
"Yes."
"He spoke of this. Of everyone," Flarathir casually added.
"Then you know this is the truth," Natasha pointed out. "I, uh... well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skillset. I didn't care who I used it for, or on. I got on SHIELD's radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me, he made a different call."
"A second life," repeated Flarathir.
"A debt I want to repay," Natasha corrected.
"And if I vowed to spare his life," Flarathir asked carefully. "What then? Do you promise escape? Leniency? Partnership?"
"Maybe."
"As if I need any such aid, any such inducement." Flarathir laughed then.

His laughter scraped through the speaker, grating and irritating like nails running along a black board. Natasha knew all about those. Back in Russia.

"They send one who has nothing to recommend her but an insatiable appetite for blood. You become the scapegoat – carrying the burden of what they themselves could not achieve, what burdens they did not wish to carry." Flarathir slowly paced to the other side of the room. "You wish to pay back a debt – and somehow achieve it with empty threats and equally frail promises. The world may die for all you care, but this man is all."
"It's not that complicated," Natasha said quietly, moving closer to the glass. "Not really. I've got red in my ledger – and I'd like to wipe it out."
"Ahhhh," Flarathir whirled around and stalked across the room. "The prayer of a child, the heart of a simpleton, the sentimentality of the weak. To cover one's work in such a way, to white-wash the actions to which one had once been committed, to attempt some kind of reconciliation before the end..." He stopped before her and looked down at the red-head and leered. "For the end will come to all – the ones forever stained in blood, the ones who maintain their innocence as they order others to the kill, and the ones who walk in the daylight and never understand the battle for their peace. Ha!" Flarathir's fist hit the glass and his eyes, staring down at Natasha, were filled with contempt and hate. "I know what it is to stand in the shadows. I know what it is to play the part of those who walk in the dark. You pretend to be separate, to have a code of honour, something that would make up for the horror of what you have done – but they are a part of you and they will never go away!"

Natasha eased back.

"So we are all monsters."
"When I turn Barton on you, when he kills you slowly and intimately in every way he knows you fear, then you will recognize what you hate and fear within yourself – the dilemma of the scapegoat and the never ending struggle against one's fate. Your man will be all that you fear in yourself."
"Scapegoat?" Natasha's face was drawn with barely contained horror. "You're a monster,"
"No..." Flarathir smirked, "you brought the monster."
"Huh," Natasha tipped her head as she stepped back, looking thoughtful. "That's your play then."
"What?"
"Banner..." With that, the slight red-head flicked on her earpiece and moved back down the catwalk, her pace picking up as urgency began to rise. "Flarathir is going to unleash the Hulk somehow. Where is Banner?" At the end of the catwalk, Natasha turned and looked back at Flarathir who stood in the middle of his cell looking a little put out. She smiled. "Thank you for your cooperation."

She left. She did not look back.

-0-0-0-

Loki, finishing his working, looked up, saw that the four men were now mutely staring at the weaponry with no small amount of dismay, set the notepad aside and rose to his feet, feeling all of his thousands of years and then some.

"Fury was hiding something," Steve finally said, breaking the awkward silence.
"Well, he's a spy," Stark rolled his eyes. "Spies have secrets. I bet Fury's secrets have secrets."
"See, the whole question of what SHIELD was doing with the Tesseract... has become fairly obvious," Banner shook his head, stepping a little back from the counter and eyeing the weaponry with disfavour.
"Well, Jarvis has been running a program of mine – a small, yet effective decryption program – since I hit the bridge. We'll know in a few hours what SHIELD is really up to –"
"We don't need a program to guess-"
"What is going on here?"

It was Fury. A not so happy Fury. Loki smirked as everyone whipped around to face the tall, dark-skinned, fierce-looking Director.

"Uh... that's what we've been wondering," Stark said.
"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract."
"Which we are doing," Stark said quickly. "Bruce and I have a program running and Loki is doing his own... thing... in his corner."
"The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature," Bruce elaborated. "When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."
"Which is all very cool and interesting," Stark waved a hand, moving over to his counter and tapping at the monitor of his computer, "until we got interrupted."

Everyone's eyes returned to the counter and the large, hulking metallic gun which lay on the smooth, clean, white surface. A computer pinged. Stark's dark eyebrow rose.

"Hey," he asked with mock innocence, "Director, what is..." Pause. "Phase Two?"
"Probably, the weapons." Steve gestured at the gun. "You think I've not seen HYDRA technology before?"
"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract," Fury sighed. "This doesn't mean that we're actually doing anything-"
"I'm sorry, Nick," Stark swiveled his computer monitor around, allowing everyone to glimpse a plethora of weaponry blueprints which flashed in quick succession across the screen. "What were you lying?"
"Whoa..." Bruce's glasses were off now and his dark brown eyes glinted with anger. "You were right."
"I'm always right," Stark stopped, "well, about these things anyways."
"Interesting," Loki murmured. "Quite an effective application of the Tesseract if crude."
"So things haven't changed after all," sighed Steve.
"In the end, that is what learning is for," Thor agreed quietly. "I have seen this kind of thing before. In Asgard. Loki?"
"Why else are the tender arts of Academics sheltered?" Loki agreed bitterly, "But to bolster power and accumulate wealth and spawn the fires of war?"

Natasha burst in through the door and skidded to a halt at the sight of everyone ringed about the room, backs to the great windows on the one end and the Scepter. Instead, all of their focus seemed to be on a gun and a computer monitor. The red-headed assassin frowned, but then her focus settled on the problem at hand – Banner. The Hulk.

"Did you know about this?" Banner asked Natasha.
"You need to get out of here," Natasha said. "Remove yourself from this environment. It's gonna affect you."
"I removed myself," Banner said softly and angrily. "I remember being dragged in, but I know I can take care of myself."
"It's not you I'm worried about."
"Uh-oh," Stark glared Natasha. "Now you're really gonna make him mad."

Loki snorted, noticing that Stark looked less worried and more excited.

"I am not the one losing it here," Banner said.
"We're being manipulated. You too," Natasha glanced around the room nervously.
"We've all been manipulated," Steve shot back, pointing at the gun.
"Uh, not I," Loki raised a hand. "I knew."

Director Fury frowned, "What-"

"Loki," Thor sighed.
"But I know what she's saying," Loki added quickly. "Human ears cannot comprehend it, but it is hiding within the subconscious: Flarathir's powers are invoking the Mind Gem."
"I'm not leaving just because some people are getting twitchy," Bruce tensed a little further. "I was dragged out here for a 'good cause' and now the 'good cause' is making weapons of mass destruction? I wanna know what's going on! Who wouldn't?"
"It's because of him," Fury pointed at Thor.
"Me?" Thor asked, blue eyes widening in stunned surprise and his voice rising several tones.
"Look, last year, our planet had a visitor: Thor. And from all accounts, there is a war between his people and many others in the Nine Realms, or whatever they call it. How else do you think we could respond?" Fury glared at his group of recalcitrant superheroes. "We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."
"But..." Thor swung about to look at his friends, obviously hurt. "My people want nothing but peace with your planet."
"In a manner of speaking," Loki muttered.
"Loki."
"Nobody has attacked us!" Steve added.
"Yet," Stark interjected, voice low.
"Well," Loki folded his arms and and quirked an eyebrow at Thor, "how does one have peace with a bunch of barbarians? Peace is what we can call it, but ownership and a sense of patronizing supremacist care is more like it."
"You're not helping, Loki" Steve frowned. "Still, I agree with Thor. From what you and your brother have said, Asgard means Earth no harm."
"No," Loki shrugged, "I suppose not. But the way the Tesseract has been handled is... unfortunate. It needs to return to Asgard. Fa – Odin – Father will know what to do with it."
"Not happening," Fury folded his arms. "You're not the only people out there, am I right? And your people aren't the only threat. Our world is filling up with people who can't be matched or controlled."
"Like how you control the Cube?" Steve asked. "Or did. Before it got stolen."
"Double-edged swords," Loki said thoughtfully. "Fire that burns the wielder. I understand that... but you also do not understand. Using the Tesseract..."
"Loki is right," Thor shook his head. "This is what has drawn Thanos's eye to this planet. It will draw others. It is as signal to all the Realms that Earth is ready for a higher form of war."
"Higher form?" Steve asked.
"Ordinarily I'd say 'cool'," Stark glanced at his monitor, "but this time, maybe not so much."
"Our hands were forced," Fury said defensively. "We had to come up with something."
"Yeah, like nuclear deterrent." Stark quipped. "'Cause that always calms everything right down."
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" shot back Fury.
"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be into this all the way – and he wasn't," Steve said.
"Wait! Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?" Stark asked with mock hurt. "I'm clean now. Clean energy. Robots and fast cars."
"I thought everything was about you."
"OK, Rogers, you wanna go there?"
"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor wrinkled his nose and shook his head.
"Welcome to reality," Loki sighed. "But they mean well... I suppose."
"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"
"We haven't blown up anything!" Loki said hotly, a touch of red rising in his otherwise rather pale cheeks.
"A piece of back state New York would beg to differ," Fury said acidly.
"That was not my fault!"
"Do you always have to mistrust people?" Thor jumped in to his brother's defense, glaring at Fury.
"You can't be that naive," Natasha pointed out. "We all know that SHIELD monitors all potential threats. That includes us."
"Us?" Thor asked even more saddened.
"Potential threats?" Banner asked. "Captain America is a potential threat?"
"You're on that list?" Tony turned to Steve. "Are you above or below angry bees?"
"I swear to God, Stark, one more crack-"
"Threatening! I feel threatened now!" Stark slid away from Steve who was now looming over him.
"This is fascinating," Loki shook his head, but his green eyes held a glint of worry.

There was a ring of them now, standing in the lab, shouting and yelling at each other. Voices overlapped voices, rising in volume. Beneath the echoes and reverberations of conflict, Loki could hear it. The whispers.

"You speak of control," Thor was saying vehemently, "yet you court chaos."
"Isn't that your brother's M.O.?" Fury snapped.
"What-"
"Loki, God of Mischief-"
"I am not a god of anything!" Loki protested, shoving down a rising feeling of guilt.

Isn't it true?
It isn't true. It isn't true.

"It is not Loki's fault that Thanos is on your doorstep. If you had not used the Tesseract-"
"We are the chaos." Banner. "We're the chemical mixture, the time bomb."
"You need to step away," Natasha was trying to calm the increasingly tense scientist.
"Why shouldn't he let off a little steam?" Stark shrugged. "I know I wanna. After this."
"You know why!" Steve glared at Stark. "Back off! Let's try – let's try to keep calm!"
"Make me!" Stark shot back.
"That would be criminal," snapped Steve. "Like beating on a tiny kid. Take off the suit – and what are you?"
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist... Not hopped up on serum, that's for sure."
"Guys – this isn't helping-"
"...worth ten of you..."
"...you humans are so petty..."
"...the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you..."
"I would just cut the wire."
"...and tiny..."
"...you better top pretending to be a hero..."
"...told you so, Thor. We should take the Tesseract and just... go!"
"A hero?"
"It's going nowhere."
"Yeah... says the man who lost the Tesseract!"
"Yeah!"
"...not your choice..."
"Like you? A lab rat. Everything special about you came out of a bottle!"
"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Doctor Banner back to his-"
"My cell? Oh, wait," Banner paused, "that's been rented out."
"That was just in case," sighed Fury.
"In case you needed to kill me. But you know you can't! You can't! I tried!"

Everything fell silent at Banner's unspoken admission. Thor and Fury who had been attempting to loom over each other, turned back to the others. Stark and Steve stepped back in mild shock. Natasha inched forward, inclining her head and keeping her stance open and friendly. Banner was upset. Something was wrong. Loki's green-eyed gaze which had been vague suddenly sharpened.

A great city of metal and glass and streams of life moving slowly and then quickly down wide streets and amongst it all, glimmered... glimmered...

"What?" Banner shrugged, suddenly awkward and just a little defensive. "I got low. I didn't see an end... so... so I put a bullet in a mouth and the Other Guy spit it out."
"Wow," muttered Steve.
"So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good, you know, I was good." Banner continued, "Until you guys dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk! And for what – some shadowy organization that has been building our planet's... doom?"
"He's right," Steve sighed.
"This is actually... ironic," Thor mused in agreement.
"Ironic?" Loki paused and glanced at Thor. "You discovered irony? Since when?"
"Isn't anyone else upset about this? Wanting to do the right thing but in the end who are we helping here? The world? Or SHIELD? I don't know about the rest of you... but I didn't come here to be some kind of recovery agent."
"Bruce," Natasha said softly, her eyes meeting his.
"You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

Natasha's hand fell to hang loosely by her hip, while Fury's hand went to his side – to the holster at his side.

"Doctor Banner," Steve asked quietly. "Can you put down the scepter?"
"What?" Bruce looked down and stared wide-eyed at his hands. "When – when did – what-"
"It is calling," Loki said, green eyes now ablaze. "Do not give in."

A small signal rang on one of the monitors. The two scientists glanced over at the screen. Loki craned his head as well.

"Got something," Stark moved closer to the counter and reached for the monitor.
"Well," Banner set down the scepter, walked over to Stark's side and looked at the scrolling data. "No party trick today."
"You located the Tesseract?" asked Thor.
"Yes," Loki smiled, staying at Thor's side. "It is in a large city... a city on the edge of an ocean. Within this country."
"You... knew?" Bruce asked.
"Not for a long time," Loki hastened to add as Fury's suspicious eye focused on him. "Only a few moments ago... The tracking sigils have found it. As have yours."
"Everyone wins," Stark said sourly. "I can get there."
"We need to go together," Steve said.
"I can get there faster," Tony shot back.
"Loki," Thor turned to his brother. "You were right about the Tesseract. You were right. Again."
"I know," Loki sighed. "Sometimes I do so hate being right."
"It belongs on Asgard," Thor nodded. "We need to take it back."
"Unfortunately," Loki sighed. "The Bifrost is... and I cannot transport us there... not yet."

The edges of Loki's eyes tightened with chagrin and frustration.

"We'll get there."
"I'll get there first."
"You can't go alone," Steve said firmly, stepping in front of Stark.
"You gonna stop me?"
"Put on the suit," Steve said. "Let's find out."
"I'm not afraid to it an old man."
"Put. On. The. Suit."
"Uh... guys..." Banner looked up from the monitor. "Loki?"
"Soon. It is in transit..." Loki met Banner's gaze. "When it is installed with a stable power source, it will be open the gates. Soon."

An explosion rocked the Helicarrier.

Loki smiled. "It has begun."

Well, there you go. Lots of talking. Some science bro stuff. Some arguments. Sigh.

I hope I don't get stuck on the following battles. (goes off to die somewhere)

Thank you for your reviews! They're my writing food~

kakashidiot

Reader's Responses:

vonhinten: Hi there! Good question. My answer is... this battle, believe it or not (!), is NOT the climax. Unbelievable. No wonder I'm tired! This battle is a blip really. In the climax, there will be Jotunn. There will be a battle... but it won't be on Earth. XP You can guess where, probably. XD

Elizabeth: Well, Iron Man is a douche. That being said, Tony does have his good qualities - as we see in the last chapter and this one. He's smart and outspoken for what's right. That doesn't make his method of delivery right; he is mouthy and obnoxious. That's what makes him Iron Man, I think. That's what makes him human. However, as you see here, I do agree that he and Loki would find some kind of commonality. And they would become friends, I think, with time. I dunno. As for my teaching, yeah, I teach. I like teaching but sometimes, I'm like... what was I thinking?

InsolentKatt: Well, this Loki is a bit different... XP

Armand: You're welcome.

Unsigned Guest: Thank you~

Glossary:

kel'ausa - gamma rays
bhu'foera - emmissions of being