Loki hadn't fought his captors. All he had done was facepalm at his own stupidity for messing up a most basic transportation spell. Clint and Natasha wondered what was going on with him.

"Do you think this is another one of his tricks? I mean…"

"Yeah. He didn't resist capture."

"Why the fuck isn't he on Asgard anyway? I thought they would lock him away forever… Or perhaps behead him or something; I don't know what kind of medieval punishment they have there. Whatever it was he would have deserved it!"

"It's not the first time he has tricked Thor into letting him free…"

"True. But what about…"

Clint bent closer to Natasha, as he saw Loki was listening in on them. He had noticed the way Loki's eyes narrowed, and instinctively felt it wouldn't be a good idea to talk about their young captive while the god was not yet behind a few inches bullet-and-magic-proof glass.

"How is the… you know?"

"Safe. I'm not sure about the sound part."

"I can see why…"

They were going to bring both Loki and the young girl to Stark Tower. Tony had been working on magic-detection systems, and he would love to have a chance at studying Loki… not to mention the girl they had captured, who was either a magic user herself, or under a special type of Loki's mind-control somehow. Fury had objected at first, but when Stark had explained the facilities he had at his disposal, the director had agreed…

"What about her family?"

"If returning her will prove to be impossible, a suitable story will be made up."

Loki listened in, even though their whispering was barely audible. What he had feared had indeed happened. They had Lori. He felt anger coursing through his veins… how dare they hurt her! His rationality won this time. He would have to wait it out, see where they were brought. He couldn't trust his magic completely at the moment, especially not if he would have to teleport with another person out of a flying craft in the middle of nowhere. He didn't think it would do Lori much good if they ended up on the Antarctic, or in the forests of Norway, or on Tahiti… (All these were places he had accidentally visited while practicing teleportation, long ago in a distant past…)

Clint did his namesake justice by watching the god like a hawk.

"I think he's plotting something."

"I don't think it… I'm sure of it."

(Pagebreak)

They had brought him to that wretched tower. Being back on the site of his defeat left a bitter taste in Loki's mouth. Of all the places in this realm… The cell they put him in was very reminiscent of the other one, all glass and no toilet. Only this time he didn't have the pleasure of knowing it was all a ruse. For the first time Loki hoped Thor would show up fairly quick. If anything, that might give him an explanation as well. He sat down on the floor of his cell, legs crossed. It wouldn't be long before they would come to interrogate him… And indeed, he just sat down when Director Fury entered. Immediately he got up again.

"Well. We meet again."

"I wonder, does this cell have a mechanism like the other one had? Will I fall 60 storeys down if I scratch the glass?"

"What are you up to, Loki?"

Loki glared at him.

"What makes you think I'm up to something?"

"The last time you didn't resist apprehension and got locked up by us you certainly were up to something…"

Loki shrugged.

"What's the fun in doing things over?"

"Do you realize that if you refuse to cooperate… there are quite a few people here who would like to have a word with you, and perhaps a little more than that."

"Where in this am I not cooperating, director? I did not resist apprehension, for as far I know I didn't commit any crimes since I was brought back to Asgard, and I was honest about not having any plans."

"The girl. What have you done to the girl?"

The director immediately noticed something in Loki's demeanour changed. He tensed up, glared at the one-eyed man. With a venomous tone he said.

"Hurt one hair on her head and I will make you regret the day you were born, human."

Fury was smart. The god's reaction had told him everything he needed to know.

"Then you better cooperate."

He walked out of the room with the cell, but made sure that Loki could hear him when he spoke into some sort of communicator.

"You can start the tests."

(Pagebreak)

Loki cursed himself. Why hadn't he shut his mouth? Lori's bigmouthed behaviour had rubbed off on him it seemed… he should have acted as if he didn't give a damn about her, so they would have left her alone… The situation wasn't looking too good at the moment. Loki went to sit down again and concentrated on Lori. He knew her mind almost as good as his own now, he knew how it felt, moved, worked… He could find her. While he was seemingly meditating, Tony was watching the cell on camera with Clint and Natasha.

"What the fuck is he doing?"

"It looks like meditating."

"Oh great. So Reindeer Games is into yoga stuff? Next time I'm so gonna say Namaste to that asshole"

The two assassins shook their heads.

"Any progress on the girl?"

"Apparently her name is Lori Lauritsen, 17 years old, no criminal record, family is clean too. Her parents are divorced and she lives with her dad. I checked and so far she has no mutations on any sort, nothing that could explain the hair-cutting incident. I'm also checking that scarf, to see if it's somehow controlling her."

"And the girl herself?"

"Sedated. I didn't want to take the risk of suddenly being covered in poop or losing my lovely locks, you see."

"Any idea when she'll be ready for interrogation?"

"Not sure…"

In the meanwhile, Loki had found Lori. He could feel her mind, even though it was weak… Now he just needed to get to her. He hadn't planned on resisting his captors, but he couldn't allow them to hurt the girl. As a plan formed in his mind he smiled. That smile was the last thing the people in the control room saw, before all cameras went down. The lights and other equipment followed. Simply teleporting out of the cell was not much of an effort, and the darkness posed no problem to him. When the SHIELD officers stormed into the cell room, Loki was long gone…

(Pagebreak)

"JARVIS? JARVIS for fuck's sake come online!"

"My rudimentary systems have been restored, Sir."

"Thank god. Although, not one particular god. Speaking of which, where the fuck is he?"

"Loki currently finds himself in research lab 12."

Tony turned to the assassins.

"You heard him."

(Pagebreak)

Loki simply followed Lori's mental signature, leading him to a laboratory. Lori was tied to a table and attached to several machines reading things like brain activity and heartbeat, but for as far as he could see she was unharmed. Clearly the director had been bluffing, but then… it was better not to take risks. He detached the machines and the IV with what probably was some type of sedative.

"I'm sorry Lori… I shouldn't have brought you in trouble…"

As if she knew he was there, she shifted a bit. He took her hand and softly caressed it.

"We could escape, but… It's important I talk to Thor. But… don't worry, I won't let them hurt you again."

Loki knew the girl couldn't hear him, but that didn't stop him from saying those things. In a way it was more for his own comfort than that of Lori…

When the doors of the lab flew open, showing Clint, Natasha, Tony Stark and a small army of SHIELD agents, Loki rolled his eyes.

"Hello again."

"Get away from the girl, Loki."

That gave rise to another eyeroll.

"As far as I know you've hurt her more than I have."

Tony interjected.

"You can't control her anymore. I have the scarf!"

That made the god burst out in sarcastic laughter.

"Really, Stark? Really? I don't believe you actually think I can mind-control someone with a fucking scarf! It's just a scarf!"

Loki talked… too much like a human being and not so much as a Shakespearean inspired deity. One of the SHIELD agents grinned to a colleague.

"Someone's been taking language classes…"

"What do you want with the girl?"

"I didn't want anything with her. Seriously, I wasn't planning on involving her in any way."

"Then why…"

Loki shrugged.

"Even gods make mistakes. It was a bit of a navigational error. I didn't mean to get caught so close to her place."

"But you did mean to get caught?"

"Yeah. I need to have a word with Thor."

They were all kind of stunned. For one, evil deity Loki was holding a girl's hand with clear affection, second, evil deity Loki admitted to making a mistake and thus not being perfect, and then third, evil deity Loki wanted to talk to his adoptive brother, while usually he avoided the thunder god like the plague if Thor was to be believed. It all just didn't fit. Before they could make a remark on it though, they were interrupted by the sound of breaking glass and thunder. Thor had arrived, straight through the window, Mjolnir in the hand. Tony sighed.

"You gods have something with breaking my windows, don't you?"

The blonde god ignored Tony's remark and bellowed.

"LOKI! Father sent for you!"

"He is not my father. Nice to see you too, Thor."

Thor stared at Loki, who was softly patting Lori's hair. His mouth hung open a bit. He hadn't expected such a strange behaviour from his brother…

"Who is that, brother?"

"Whatever Odin intended to do, it's with her that I ended up."

Thor stared at Loki. His voice was full of surprise when he said.

"And… you came free? So soon?"

It was clear he could hardly believe it.

"Perhaps for once I did learn the lesson I was supposed to learn…"

Tony Stark interrupted the conversation. It was getting slightly awkward, with all the SHIELD agents chattering on whisper-tone, Clint and Natasha death-glaring at Loki, and the two gods having a highly incomprehensible conversation.

"What are you talking about? What do you mean with that 'he came free'?"

Thor turned to Tony.

"It's hard to explain. Could we perhaps speak with each other in a place with less…"

He gestured around a bit. Tony nodded.

"Meet in the conference room."

(Author's Notes)

New chapter! I figured that Loki wouldn't have too much trouble escaping the holding cell and everything, but might choose not to do so at first because he wants to be sure Lori is safe first. Also, Lori got sedated because they suspected she might be a magic user and therefor stronger than her age suggests. Hope that answers some of the questions you got.

Also... the next part will feature group dialogue, and Emotional!Loki (but not emotion of the crying type, I can tell you that), and I hope you'll all review so I can update soon!

Anyway... REVIEW! Give Loki and Lori some support! The more reviews, the faster the update!

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