The team watched Thor inspect the tablet. They were deep within a S.H.I.E.L.D. complex, many monitors and other machines filled the room. Thor ignored the wires and holdings surrounding the tablet as he inspected it. They watched as he furrowed his brow with concentration. After some time he sighed with frustration and turned back to the team.

"So, what is it?"

Steve stepped forward.

"The other side is no different, it is the same words, yet none of them make any sense strung together longer than three or four words."

Thor frowned, disappointed by his lack of progress. The rest of the team converged to look at the artifact.

"Show me the one you were talking about before, Thor."

Steve moved to get a closer look.

"The misshapen one? Here."

Thor pointed towards a line near the center, Steve frowned, he did not understand the markings but they did not seem different than many of the others in the immediate area.

This one? It doesn't look strange to me."

Thor furrowed his brow, concerned.

"What? It is distinctly different from the rest, surely even you can see this."

Natasha heard Thor's protests and came over to stand beside them.

"What are you two talking about?"

Both Steve and Thor pointed at the tablet.

"What do those runes look like to you, do they look strange to you?"

"They all look strange…but no, no stranger than most of the others, why?"

The two of them glanced at the god, who frowned thoughtfully. His eyes went between the tablet and his teammates.

"Can you write down what you see?"

"Er…sure, I can. Do you have paper?"

After Steve received a pen and paper from one of the many agents, he set to accurately copying the symbols. Thor watched attentively. Once finished, Steve handed the pad to Thor, who frowned at the written symbols.

"This is not what I see, it is not even similar."

"It's what I see, sorry."

Thor shook his head, glancing between the paper and tablet. Natasha peered at Steve's drawn symbols.

"That's strange, those don't look like the symbols you pointed to."

Thor turned back to her and held out the paper eagerly.

"Draw what you see."

After she finished, Natasha gave the paper back to Thor. He narrowed his eyes, discontent.

"What is this? All of ours are different."

Steve frowned.

"What do you mean, what do my ruins say compared to yours?"

"The runes that you wrote, read; 'new time, change' and Lady Natasha, yours read; 'upheaval in thought'."

They stood there, thinking. Natasha moved to inspect the circular artifact, her hand moving across the glass above the ringed runes. She turned back to them, her eyes were sharp.

"What do these remind you of? Don't the rings look a bit like the rings in the center of trees?"

Steve looked at the tablet, mentally comparing it to a tree's center. If he didn't focus on the symbols then he could see Natasha's point. The differences in the rings, some darker or lighter, like imperfections in wood.

"What are you implying, Nat?"

"Rings on a tree, what do those record? Thor, read some of the other runes."

Natasha turned towards the god, who was surprised by her urgent tone. He hesitated then looked back at the artifact.

"There is one that says; 'power giving interrupted', another here; 'friends and travel'."

Steve closed his eyes, putting together the pieces. Natasha continued on.

"Okay, thanks. In trees rings record growth, each is unique, right? They are like a tree's-"

"Memories."

Steve interrupted her, his eyes snapping open with realization. After a moment Thor's expression changed as well.

"The rings in a tree are like memories and here the runes are memories, is that what you are saying?"

"Yes! We each see different things because we don't have the same memories. If the artifact is magical then I assume it can do that. Those little stanzas, don't they sound like fragmented memories?"

Natasha turned back to the artifact quickly. Their discussion attracted the rest of the team, Steve made a silencing motion as Natasha proceeded.

"And in trees, the rings change depending on events, either good or bad. So here, the misshapen runes are bad events, the larger ones are good events. This artifact is memories, I'm sure of it."

"Then shouldn't it be constantly growing?"

Natasha paused at Clint's question but Thor picked up.

"Perhaps it was, but when my brother broke it…perhaps it broke, or because someone has used it the tablet has paused, or maybe it is growing and we simple cannot perceive it properly, I am not sure."

They stood there for a few long moments.

"So Tony and Loki are in a different time?"

Bruce's question set in, their excitement fading as they thought of the complexity.

"They would be in the past, most likely my brother's, but when, we cannot know. The artifact's power is beyond my knowledge, perhaps my father would know more."

"Could you take it to Asgard, Loki has shown you through one of his passages before, so you could take one of those, right?"

Thor thought on Steve's question, frowning.

"I may be able to, but brother did not tell me exactly how to pass between the realms, it may require a magic that I do not posses."

Director Fury had noticed their congregation and joined them.

"What is it, what did you find?"

After a long explanation of their theory, Fury stayed silent for a time.

"So Stark and Loki are around the time of a memory. Is it possible to change the past through this?"

Thor shrugged.

"It may be."

Fury massaged his forehead.

"That is dangerous, if Loki gets a hold of this in the past and figures out how to use it-"

"What are you implying?"

Thor stepped forward, his voice dangerously low. Fury stared back at him.

"You know exactly what I'm implying. Is there anyway to know where they are?"

The rest of the team stood in silence, varying degrees of displeasure on their faces. Thor scowled.

"I have absolutely no idea how to get my brother or Tony back. That tablet holds the answers we seek but I know not how to access them."

"I'll have our top scientists look into it."

Fury spoke briskly, ignoring Thor's displeased tone.

"That could be incredibly dangerous, we don't know enough about it. We're not even close to knowing how it works."

Everyone looked at Steve as he spoke. Fury made a helpless motion with his hands.

"It's a risk we have to take, either we figure out how to get them back or one of them figures it out and that could go two ways. I'd rather not wait for them"

00000

Loki led Tony through the winding corridors. They entered the grand library, braziers lit the hall. Tall arches on one wall gave them a good view of the city and Bifrost, which seemed to be activated, creating a beam that shot out into space. Loki glanced out at the Bifrost then looked away pointedly.

"Find somewhere to sit, hopefully this will not take long."

Tony nodded as Loki disappeared among the high shelves. He sat down at a table with a straight view of the Bifrost. Loki soon returned with a large stack of tomes, grimacing for a moment when he realized where Tony had chosen to sit.

"Do you enjoy being a spectator to my life?"

There was more than a hint of displeasure in Loki's voice. Tony quickly turned away from the archways. Loki gave him a dark look before continuing to read.

The sound of a dull explosion drew both of their eyes. The energy around the observatory had increased dramatically, creating a vortex of energy visible even from here. There was another dull boom, the rainbow bridge flashed erratically. Another boom cut through the night.

"What is-"

A cracking noise issued and a bright explosion lit the bridge, Tony glanced away for a moment, noticing Loki, who seemed fixated on the events, a muscle in his jaw, twitching. Tony looked back, his eyes widened.

The end of the bridge was crumbling into space. Tony warily looked back at Loki, the god watched the collapsing Bifrost stoically. After a few moments he made a sharp movement, grimacing and bringing a hand to his head.

"What's wrong?"

Tony gave him a concerned look but Loki merely shook his head and returned to reading. They sat in silence, Tony still gazing out at the shattered bridge. Something felt off about the air but he assumed it was just the magic from the events. Then Loki spoke, looking up.

"Ah, here, I believe this is the entry. I-"

He halted, the air had suddenly grown thin. Black dots danced before Tony's eyes. Loki frowned, glancing around at the scribes, who rushed about but did not seem to notice the change. A low hum began to make their heads ache. Tony looked to Loki, who gave him a confused shrug before looking down at the tome. He read quickly, glancing between the passage and the tablet, which rested innocently on the table.

"Loki, what's going on?"

Tony's voice came out weak, colors began to drain from the world and more black spots appeared on his vision. Tony watched, blinking away the dots, Loki's eyes widened as he reached out to grab the tablet. Loki looked up at him, his mouth moved but no sound came out. After a moment he seemed to realize this, quickly reaching out to grab Tony's arm. Loki took the tome and tablet in his other hand, fingers brushing over one of the runes he could see through the dark splotches.

There was an inaudible sigh of relief from them both as the tablet lit up. Although Loki, almost immediately, grimaced as the burning sensation shot up his arm. Long moments passed, there simply didn't seem to be enough air, then the monochrome world was engulfed by white and their feet left the ground.

00000

Tony gasped for air as the world returned to color. Beside him, Loki pushed himself up, still holding the tablet and tome. He gingerly rubbed his hand.

"Where…what was that?"

Tony glanced around, taking in the Earth alleyway they stood in, before focusing on Loki.

"I can only guess, but that maybe have been my memory reaching an end."

"Excuse me, what?"

Loki squatted down, carefully setting aside the tablet and opening the tome he had brought with them.

"The tablet does not simply control time, it records memories. In essence, it is time travel but it has boundaries, perhaps that happened because I was no longer on Asgard, things changed and the memory died. That might explain the pain I received in the library."

Tony frowned, glancing at the tome. The symbols were alien to him.

"So, how does it-"

An explosion drowned him out. They both glanced up. Tony's suit flew past, pursued by Chitauri.

"Ah, I had thought this was when we would go. Interesting, it's also incredibly lucky, we did not end up in your tower or in the middle of the battle."

Loki grinned slightly to himself before turning back to the tome. After a moment of thought, Loki snapped his fingers, his golden battle armor shimmered into being. Tony raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you-"

Loki glanced up, his eyes narrowing. In a swift movement he pinned Tony against the wall, sneering viciously at him. Tony stared at him in shock.

"Struggle."

Loki hissed in his ear before turning his head. Tony followed his gaze, four Chitauri stalked towards them. After a moment Tony connected the dots, feeling a flood of relief. The Chitauri moved closer, Loki glared at Tony, pushing into his windpipe, causing him to squirm.

"I do not require your assistance, I shall dispose of the mortal myself. Leave."

The Chitauri cocked their heads, staring at Tony. One hefted its gun but Loki snarled.

"Follow orders creature, take the city. Now go."

Loki's voice was harsh, commanding, his face was cruel. Tony continued to struggle in vain as Loki's arm cut off his air. The aliens hesitated for a moment longer, then turned and loped out of the alleyway. After Loki was sure they had left he released Tony, who gasped for air.

"Was choking me really necessary? Hell, I thought I was going to pass out."

Tony massaged his neck, while Loki returned to the tome.

"Of course, being convincing is important."

Loki spoke as if nothing had happened, Tony scowled for a moment but crouched next to him.

"Fine, what else does that book say about the tablet?"

Tony waited as Loki finished reading the passage. He reached the end and jerked his head back, a look of intrigue on his face.

"Well?"

"There appears to be no previous records of travel due to the artifact…or if there has been, it was not written here."

"So we don't know how to use it properly and that can't tell us."

Loki glanced up as more Chitauri flew past.

"Not exactly, it is possible that the tablet reacts to magic. I had a vague idea of where I wanted to go and it reacted, sending us here. I may be able to create another reaction but if time has passed in the present then I do not know exactly how the memories would collide."

There was a roar, followed by the sound of screeching metal and calls of the Chitauri. Loki hesitated, waiting for the noises to die down.

"If the tablet has been recording our memories then it is too small to see with the bare eye. I could just attempt to activate it with a rune in the center but if it messes up, we could have two extra copies of us running around in a time we shouldn't be. But-"

An explosion rocked the building next to them as a Chitauri craft crashed into it. They ducked, Loki summoning a protective bubble to stop any falling debris. He grimaced as some of the masonry was deflected, using more of his, already meager, energy. Once it was clear the building was going to stand, Loki dissipated the shield, sighing heavily. Tony coughed as the dust cleared.

"Nice reflexes, as always. Anyway, what were you saying?"

"Yes, there may be an exploitable element that could aid us."

Loki handed him the tome, motioning towards an illustration near the bottom. Two drawings of the tablet were surrounded by alien runes.

"What does it say?"

"This describes tablet one and tablet two. There are two artifacts. If we could find them both there may be some loophole."

"But do we even have any idea where the other tablet is? I mean, it could be anywhere."

Tony frowned, adding this new information to the list of confusing things in their situation. Loki took the tome back, glancing between the illustrations and the tablet they had.

"We may be closer than you think. There is a possibility that the other artifact lies within that museum right now. Hopefully-"

Another explosion drowned out the rest of his words. Tony's eyes stung from the smoke and dust.

"Oh you mean it's…how are we going to get there without being seen or blown up?"

"That's the challenge, Tony."

AN: Sorry that took longer than normal, blame distractions and writers block. Although I finally got what I wanted the tablet to be out, I have a large amount of random facts on trees in my head for some reason, literally didn't have to look any of that up. There will be one or two more chapters left. How did you like this chapter?