I didn't get this updated as fast as I promised, but it is a longer chapter. :)

Thirteenth Installment: Trial and Error

Though it was an emotion Loki loathed, he still couldn't quite banish his anxiety as he made his way down into that cavern where Stark had been working with Vign's engineers. The three women and two men smiled at him as he entered, each giving him a respectful half-bow.

Stark, of course, only gave him a grin just shy of an appreciative leer. Loki found himself not minding, returning the smile without thought. Skaði, following behind Loki, bounded across the dirt floor and threw her arms around his waist, for all the world looking like a little girl greeting her father. Loki followed more sedately as Stark chuckled and hugged her back.

"Hey gorgeous," he said, leaning forward just to brush his lips high across Loki's cheek. "You ready to see if this thing works?"

"Yes," Loki said, absurdly tempted to return the gesture of affection. He did not.

One of the three women spoke up, "Tony has been absolutely invaluable to us." She looked at the human and blushed. "He's immensely clever. He tackles problems in ways we'd never considered."

A lesser man might have been jealous to see someone so obvious. Loki, however, just smiled at her, gentle and benevolent. Her interest in Stark just meant she had good taste. "I think you for your help, Miss Lyra. All of you. While Anthony may have been able to do this himself, it certainly has gone much swifter with your aid."

Which brought her blush back. Loki almost smiled again.

Since Stark had made his little ear buds with their translation programs for his fellow engineers, they had no trouble communicating with each other. They brought Stark a device that looked very similar to his original Arc reactor. It was quite bigger but otherwise could have been its twin.

"I used the same principles," Stark said, setting it on a rough table beside Loki, "but the guts are completely different. The Arc reactor was designed to power itself. This thing is really more of a capacitor. The trick will be whether it can store that energy in you or if it just burns through it." He frowned. "Too bad we don't have other varieties of crystal."

The Vign engineers nodded.

"May we begin?" Loki asked, plenty eager to see if this would work.

"You bet," Stark said, leaning toward him to smooch his cheek again. He tinkered with the device a little, flipping a switch here and there before stepping away from it. "It's on and ready when you are, babe."

Loki didn't react to the endearment, but he made a mental note to bring it up later. With more force than the plethora of times before. In private, he could tolerate it. Barely. But in front of others . . .

Now, something more pressing required his full attention. Putting everything out of his mind, Loki turned to the engineers. "Would the five of you mind waiting upstairs for us?" No way in all the universe would he allow himself to be so vulnerable around anyone but Skaði and Stark.

They hesitated, but it was Lyra who spoke. "We really would like to record the process so we have the data if we need to change anything -"

"I'll take care of that," Stark cut her off, dropping an arm around her shoulders and steering her toward the scaffold leading up out of the cavern. "This might take a while. Why don't you guys go tell your uptight Director we're starting? I'll let you know the results as soon as we're done."

She blushed like mad at his touch, giggling like a maiden being offered her first courtship. Her blush only brightened when Stark gave her a wink. Loki kept his impatience under control as the five engineers finally left.

"Sorry about that, babe," Stark said as he returned to Loki's side. "Charm just works best with her -"

Loki snorted. "If you're someone imagining I'd feel jealous, let me assuage you. How could a simple woman hope to capture the attention of one such as you? She couldn't even dream up the adventures you've had."

Grinning, Stark crowded into his personal space and nuzzled his ear. "Not to mention she ain't got nothin' on you."

Loki let the terrible grammar slide. However, "Stop using creative nicknames in front of others," he commanded, pushing Stark away. "If you must, wait until we're alone."

"You got it, gorgeous," Stark said, somehow gluing himself right back to Loki's side.

Torn between amused fondness and irritation, Loki extricated himself once more. "I would like to begin. If you're quite finished."

With a last rude kiss right to Loki's mouth, the man backed away. "Okay. Skaði, you keep watch. Anyone comes down here, turn 'em into soup."

The Aether giggled wildly, the red in her eyes speaking volumes of her wicked delight.

Loki couldn't quite stop his own tiny grin. Then he sobered and drew in a slow, deep breath. "I have no idea how this will affect me, Anthony." Low and soft.

"Don't worry," the man said at once, his voice both grave and gentle. "I'll be right here if you need me."

"And I," Skaði added.

With nothing left to say, Loki opened himself up and began channeling the toxic energy from Yggdrasil. The gold lines visible beneath his skin immediately started to glow brightly, surrounding him in a blinding nimbus. Pain welled up inside him, his unhealed seiðr channels screaming in protest. He ignored it, difficult as that was, and focused solely on directing the energy into the device Stark had built.

The capacitor reacted at once, various lights coming on all over the thing.

"The flashing red lights on top will turn green when it's full," Stark's voice said, somehow soothing.

Loki just nodded to show he'd heard, not daring to split his attention between speaking and channeling. The more he directed the flow toward the capacitor, the worse the pain grew. Like taking a blade to his own arm the pain expanded with each cut deeper.

Soon, perspiration broke out on his skin. His whole body began to slightly tremble, and he felt ill. His head throbbed, and his blood felt too hot in his veins. His legs wanted to collapse, but he forced himself to ignore all of it. A feat which proved more difficult each passing second. Keeping his eyes fixed on the blinking red light, Loki continued to channel.

It took forever. His own seiðr flowed from him in a cool, natural wave, going where he directed with no protestations. This toxic energy clung to him more tightly than a limpet to its rock in the sea, seeming loath to part from him. He could feel his senses beginning to tangle, could taste familiar colors on the back of his tongue. It made his breaths come in short, desperate gasps.

Then the lights stopped flashing and turned green. Loki stopped at once, and the suddenness of it almost sent him crumpling to the ground. Through sheer force of will he remained on his feet, and it helped when Stark appeared at his side and wrapped an arm around his waist.

"Well?" he said, voice hopeful.

Trying to slow his breathing to something more normal, Loki gazed down at the device for several moments in silence. The thing glowed brilliant and strong gold, a sure sign of a successful transference. But himself, Loki felt strange. This wasn't what it felt like to channel ordinarily. A glance down at his arms showed a somewhat dimmer golden color in the lines in his skin, which seemed a good sign.

But as he took a few hesitant steps away from the capacitor, his awareness of the energy no longer inside him heightened. It isn't working. It doesn't want to be separated from the only link it has to the Nine Realms. Unnatural though the connection may be, his body was still a more familiar resting place than a man-made storage device.

"The components are wrong," Loki murmured. "It's living energy. It won't stay in a cage without something to make it stick." As surely as he knew that, he knew what he'd have to do to accomplish such a goal.

Only, he wasn't sure he had the strength to do it.

"What does that mean?" Stark asked, the beginnings of concern building up in his countenance.

Skaði stirred. "I think I know. In the Nine, this energy comes from the Yggdrasil itself. It will need a living, growing energy to make it leave its current container."

Loki nodded.

"Okay," Stark said, frowning. "Like what?"

"The life energies of this world," Loki replied. "That would work. But magic here is very weak. To harvest it would require strength I simply do not have."

"But if you have to use this energy to do so," Stark said slowly, "wouldn't that be a good thing? You'd have to channel out a lot of this Yggdrasil energy. Then your own magic could come back."

With a weary smile, Loki leaned against one of the tables burdened with equipment Stark was using to repair the ship. "Normally, yes. That is what would happen." The storage device began to pulse brighter, the energy within seeking its original vessel.

"He doesn't have any of his own seiðr to fill the void," Skaði said, her eyes dark as she watched Loki. "Mad Titan wounded him too severely, and he can't heal until he purges all of this energy."

"But it's staying put," Stark said, glaring at the storage device he'd built as if somehow it were responsible for all this. "It's not trying to return."

Loki's smile this time was grim. "It will. Channeling it from my body did not end its connection to me as it should have. It will need something else to convince it to stay."

"I'll help you," the Aether said at once, trotting to him and putting her hands on his.

Taking a slow breath, Loki cupped her chin. "I know you will, my dearest one."

Stark crowded to his other side. "Is there anything I can do?"

Loki rolled his shoulders a little, still eyeing the storage device. It wouldn't be long now. "No." Then, feeling inexplicably exhausted and in a moment of rare vulnerability, he leaned against the man and closed his eyes. "Nothing except be by my side."

Arms instantly went around him, tight and hard and warm. Stark said nothing, but words weren't needed to feel the love pouring off him. Just this once, Loki let it wash over him without resistance in his mind or heart. Let Stark be a grounding influence.

"Here it comes," Skaði warned.

With one last pulse, the storage container went dark and that terrible energy went flooding back to its unnatural home within him.

~*o0o 0o0 o0o*~

Loki assured him this would absolutely work, so after two days and a few dozen adjustments to his Arc Reactor 2.0, Tony went to the suite where they were staying. Though he controlled his emotions remarkably well, Tony could see little tells about Loki's face that he was anxious, a tightness at the corners of his mouth and eyes.

"We're all set," he said. "The good Director gave us this nice carriage kind of thing to drive down to the sea. It hauls pretty fast, so it should only take us an hour to get there. It's all loaded up with my modified containment device. You ready to go, gorgeous?"

"More than," Loki replied, settling papers and books on the table in tidy stacks.

He'd taken to wearing tunics with no shirts beneath. It left his arms bare, and Tony was slowly growing accustomed to seeing the glowing golden lines beneath his skin. Reaching out, he ran his fingers over silken smooth skin. "When you're able to purge this energy," he asked, "will these wounds heal up and go back to being invisible?"

Loki's eyes tracked the movements of Tony's fingers. "Likely not," he replied. "They will heal, but they will probably be visible for the rest of my life. Just like a deep gash scars over but remains visible. They will, however, be green and not gold."

He sounded like he couldn't wait for that. Hell, neither could Tony. Green was good. Green meant natural. Green meant his love was no longer in pain. Leaning forward, he smooched Loki's cheek. "After today, we'll be one step closer."

With a soft, rare smile, Loki returned the gesture of affection. His lips feathered over Tony's jaw. Then he replaced lips with fingers. "I'm glad you've trimmed this. It's ever so much more becoming when well-kempt."

Tony immediately grinned. "You saying I'm sexy like this?"

Snorting softly, Loki turned away and headed to the door. "I suppose I am."

Fuck. Tony closed his eyes. Sweet Loki was really, really hard to resist. He trotted to his love's side and captured his hand, raising it to his lips and gently biting the god's bony knuckles. "Don't say such cute things. Makes me want to throw you down and ravish you."

Brilliant, emerald eyes met rich brown. Something mischievous glimmered within those limpid depths. "The time may be coming when I allow you to do just that."

Double fuck. Tony stopped, yanking Loki against his chest and burying his nose in soft raven hair. "Shit. Seriously, stop being so goddamn cute. I really can't handle it."

Apparently reaching the end of his patience, Loki put a hand over Tony's face and pushed him back. "Yes, you can. Now, let us go. I'm eager to get this over with."

"Me, too," Tony agreed, not letting go of Loki's hand. "And hey, where's the princess? She's coming, right?"

"She is already there," Loki said, "trying to find the best spot for what I need."

Not that Tony didn't thoroughly enjoy Skaði's company (which was completely insane, he thought, given that she was the Aether, for Odin's sake), but he was glad to have Loki all to himself.

The carriage secured for them by the Director looked for all the world like an old 1800s horse-drawn carriage from Earth. There were two significant differences. First, it had two well-cushioned bucket seats designed for maximum comfort. And second, no equine filled the harness. Rather, two crystal poles ran from the front of the carriage to a glowing blue orb.

Tony took the driver's seat, which basically meant he had a to push a few buttons on the control panel. These things were programmed to avoid all obstructions to afford the smoothest ride. It steered itself. Which was fantastic for a number of reasons, including for napping, but mostly it meant Tony could pay attention to nothing except his love.

Which he fully intended to do as the carriage set off, but Loki blindsided him with a question first.

"What do you expect we'll find when we leave this world, Stark?"

Startled, Tony looked at him for a few seconds before reaching over and snatching his hand. He did nothing more than hold it, his thumb caressing over elegant fingers, as he considered the question. "I don't know. More humans like we found here? Weird alien races with eyes on long stalks and purple skin?" Then he frowned. "How come Vign has humans, anyway? Jarvis told me their genetic makeup is almost identical to us Earthlings."

"I couldn't say for sure," Loki said, voice idle as he gazed down at their conjoined hands, "but I'm assuming the Ljósálfar brought them here. Were you able to find any sort of flight recorder in that ship you're repairing?"

"No," Tony said, sighing. "I looked everywhere. The engineers helping me said nothing inside the ship was touched when they discovered it, so who knows what happened to it."

Loki smiled faintly as he looked across the moving landscape. "Then it will remain a pleasant mystery."

"For you, maybe," Tony muttered. "It's been bugging the crap out of me, but there's no one to ask. Reckon that guy would know? What's his name, that Light Elf guy."

Turning his eyes to Tony, Loki's little smirk spoke volumes of his amusement. "Are you talking about the king of Alfheim? Freyr?"

"Yeah. That guy."

"He very well might," Loki said, nodding. "Shall I ask him if we ever return to the Nine?"

"Hell no," Tony grunted. "I don't trust him. He's a little too shiny."

With a faint chuckle, Loki settled a little deeper into his seat and closed his eyes. Tony decided to let him rest. Besides, there was something ridiculously sexy about Loki at rest. His effortless grace, knowing his devious and clever mind had quieted, the way his whole body softened . . .

"Tell me more of your thoughts on our upcoming journey," Loki commanded softly, not opening his eyes.

Tony smiled, resuming stroking Loki's hand as he leaned back and propped his feet on the front lip of the carriage. "Well . . ."