A/N:

The Avengers, Loki, Iron Man, or anything of the like. Just the thoughts inside my head, and Kaia, Gabby, and Nathan. And taking some personal freedoms with mythology and lore.

"Tony?" Tony glanced over and saw Nathan walking towards him later that night.

"Hey kid," Tony turned and leaned his back against the railing. "What are you doing up so late?" He knew why he was up, he could see it in his eyes.

"How do you do it everyday? Just, everything?" He trailed off playing with his fingers a little.

"Not easily," he gave Nathan a practiced smile. "Then again I've had some years to work through it, a few more than you've had."

"Do ever wish that you could go back and change things?" Nathan looked up at him. "The crash, the arc reactor? Any of it?"

Tony took a deep breath as he thought. "I used to, every damn day. If you would have asked me fifteen years ago I would have said yes, and I would have been working on time travel." Tony looked over at him as he continued. "Right now, not so much. If it wouldn't have happened then there wouldn't be Iron Man, Kaia wouldn't be here, the earth would have been overrun by-" Tony suddenly stopped talking and his eyes widened as he looked behind Nathan.

"Tony?" He yelped when Tony suddenly jumped on him pushing him to the ground. When he looked there was a scorch mark and a small hole where he had been standing.

Tony looked over and saw something he hadn't seen for over ten years; a Chitauri warrior. Just one though and he was confused. He pushed himself up quickly, grabbing one of the chairs from the balcony and throwing it at the warrior as he ran. The chair hit the weapon in the Chitauri's hand and Tony jumped at it. The warrior grabbed Tony by his bicep and held him up letting out a roar. Tony kicked up and caught the thing in the face then let out a yell when it threw him back. He hit the railing and flipped over, his hand scrambling out to grab onto it.

Nathan had reached over quickly to grab onto his other hand and started pulling him up. "This would be the time that the others take a night on the town," Nathan grunted as he helped Tony up. Tony rolled his eyes a little as he was able to grab the edge with his hand other hand. Nathan suddenly yelled as he was grabbed and pulled away.

"Nathan!" Tony grunted and was able to haul half of his body up. As he flipped over he saw the Chitauri had his arm around Nathan's chest but was growling in a fighting stance as Loki blocked his path.

Suddenly the Chitauri started to laugh and Tony frowned a little. "Did you think that we forgot about you, little god?" Loki's hands had started to glow and the warrior had grabbed Nathan's shoulder and held him up in front of Loki. "There is no where you can hide, and now we will make you come to us, and beg for death." There was another scream and Tony and Loki's eyes widened.

"Kaia!" Tony took off running towards the stairs. The air suddenly left his lungs and he hit the ground on his back as he was caught by the Chitauri. He wheezed out and tried to roll over, ignoring the pain. He didn't get very far when Nathan was suddenly thrown on top of him and then into the wall, knocking him out like a light. Tony looked over and saw that he was still breathing and sighed a little in relief.

A Chitauri hand reached down and suddenly grabbed his shoulder and lifted him up. His feet tried to get steady ground as he was pulled around and blinked when he saw a box with part of the tesseract sitting on the floor between them and Loki. Loki was frowning and the box started to glow. The warrior started to laugh as tendrils of the tesseracts powers started to flow towards him and Tony.

Tony's eyes widened his arc reactor started to glow brighter and the power started to seep into it, changing the glow ever so slightly to match the power. Tony's body tensed and he fought to keep from yelling out in pain. He could feel the power running through his body now and vaguely aware of the Chitauri dropping him.

"Let us know when you want to surrender," the warrior threatened before disappearing. Loki ran over to Tony.

"Get, Kaia," Tony forced out as he curled his legs a little. "Make sure, she's okay."

"You'd better be when I get back here," Loki said before he took off running up the stairs.

Tony had experienced pain in his life, mental and physical, and it ranged from horrifyingly graphic to nothing more than a papercut. The only thing that Tony could compare what he was going through now was the torture he had gone through to that let to requiring the need for the arc reactor. When he suddenly saw Clint standing above him, and they locked eyes, he had never been so happy when someone had knocked him out.

Clint had gotten the report of the break in at Tony's from JARVIS, who had automatically called the closest team member. When he arrived it looked like things had already gone down. He saw Gabby on the floor and quickly checked on her first. Her vitals were stable, she was breathing, and showed no other damage. Loki was gone and Tony was on the floor, almost writing in pain.

He made his way over to the man and called his name, but the man didn't seem to hear him. That's when Clint saw the box with the piece of tesseract in it, and every nerve in his body was alert. When Tony rolled onto his back and opened his eyes Clint saw swirls of blue fighting to take over the normal brown. He decided he'd take Natasha's theory of a good knock on the head, and give it a try.

Steve and Gabby had arrived shortly after Clint had, and was currently watching over Nathan and Kaia as Clint scouted the area, and Loki tried to help Tony. Kaia was asleep with her head in Steve's lap, feeling more relaxed with someone else with her, and her parents in the next room. Nathan had woken up enough to move to the couch to sit next to Kaia, still feeling winded, and Gabby was watching over him.

Loki studied the tesseract piece in it's box and watched Tony toss and turn on the bed, still out, or asleep. He put a hand over the arc reactor and could feel the power centralized in it. He couldn't help but fear what would happen if Tony stayed like this for too long.

Tony took a gasping breath as his eyes shot open. Loki moved up quickly and took one of Tony's hands. He didn't like how even Tony's eyes seemed to swim with the presence of the tesseract. It brought him back to all the trouble he had caused, and worked to put behind him.

"Well, this wasn't where I was before," Tony's voice was tight but it was still Tony.

"Well, after Barton knocked you out I thought it would be good to move you somewhere more comfortable." Loki told him, keeping up appearances.

Tony took a breath and glanced over to look at Loki. "What about Kaia?"

"She's fine," Loki reassured him. "There was no one with her, but they did try to scare her. She is currently resting with Gabby and Rogers."

"Oh good, Stars and Stripes is here," Tony nodded a little. "That should make her feel a little more comfortable. What about Nathan? Last I saw he took a hit against the wall."

"Nothing more than aches, as he is resting comfortably with the others, close to Kaia of course." Tony smirked slightly, and Loki was glad to see it.

"So, here's the million dollar question, what's happening to me?" Tony concentrated on taking even breaths. "Last I encountered of that thing, you couldn't even make it past my reactor."

"It seems as if that was the target this time," Loki told him. "As far as I can tell the power has localized in your arc reactor, but I am unsure of what will happen."

"Okay, well it's a start." Tony grunted a little. "At least I know where it's all coming from. I can feel it through my entire body, and that's not even the scary part." Loki raised an eyebrow. "It doesn't hurt as much anymore. I think I'm getting used to it, and I don't like that one bit."

"Perhaps we can use that to an advantage though," Loki thought. "Perhaps you can get to the lab and run some tests. I know that you're itching to find out if it's damaged the reactor in any way, and I would like to find a way to remove it."

"Whoever is planning all this is underestimating us, I think," Tony smirked a little.