Coterie

By: Shadow Chaser

Disclaimer:

All Marvel characters do not belong to me, they belong to Marvel Entertainment and Marvel Comics. Liberties were taken with the Norse myths.

Story:

Chapter 9

Thor had just hung up the phone provided for him to communicate with Jane Foster when he saw Dr. Banner approaching him with hesitation in his steps. It had been a couple of days since Hel had delivered Jormungandr's venom and the Doctor had good news that he was more than likely to create a cure out of it. The process had already begun, but there had been no way to deliver it. Like the poison that was coated in magicks, the venom and subsequent anti-venom to be created was coated in magicks that encased the cure in a barrier rendering it undeliverable.

Banner had said that he was sure he had the cure, but since Loki had not found a feasible way around the magicks and barrier, there was no way to test it. They had refused to test it on any of the poisoned agents; tests in the lab had proven the existence of the barrier along with several piles of glass shards.

"Can I help you Dr. Banner?" he asked. The Warriors Three and Lady Sif had taken upon themselves to see what the Helicarrier offered in terms of combat training and had been sparring with some of the agents for the past couple of days. Hogun had said that they were not leaving for Asgard until Loki was finished, having been given strict orders from the Allfather.

"Can you talk to him, to Loki I mean?" Banner looked a little anxious and uneasy.

"What has my brother done?" Thor was instantly alarmed and wary.

"It's not that," Banner shook his head, "that's just it. He hasn't done anything. He's not eaten, not even slept. He leaves for a few minutes every few hours, I think, to go to the bathroom, but that's about it. He hasn't even drunk anything. I think he's working on autopilot and I know you guys are like immortal, but seriously...everyone needs sleep, even him..." Banner grimaced, "And he's not getting it..."

"Surely you could have persuaded-"

"Thor," the doctor shook his head, "I'm not you. I just...he and I just work together, he tolerates me, but he doesn't listen to anything I've said. I mean, short of tranquilizing him, which I don't think anyone can probably do, he's been at his workstation the whole damn time!"

"The cure-"

"Thor," Banner reached out and placed a hand on his arm, "Loki's been up for the last seventy-two hours. That's three whole days."

Thor grimaced a little. He understood Banner's concern and even he too was starting to become worried by what he had described. But at the same time he also knew that Loki did not like to be disturbed from his work when he was heavily engrossed in it

It was why he brother had set up wards around his rooms time and time again. He, himself, used to have the minor burn scars and various effects of those wards whenever he ran into them. He had finally learned to leave his brother alone for a couple of days and return when he knew they were at their lowest. It was because by then, Loki was so engrossed in whatever he was doing that his mind was not quite on the wards. The lack of food probably also had something to do with it, but that was why he had been there. He had battered them down and had forcibly dragged Loki away from his workstation to at least get something to eat.

"You let him go like this, didn't you?" Banner suddenly stared at him, eyes narrowed and Thor reluctantly nodded.

"Yes...because it was the only way I knew I could outwit my stubborn brother and his wards that he used in his rooms," he explained, somehow sensing that Banner was not too pleased with his explanation. How could he explain to his friends the Avengers that his method was seemingly harsh, but at least it was the only way that worked. Even the Allmother could not penetrate Loki's wards when they were at their strongest and the Allfather...it was something that could not be brought to his attention for such a seemingly trivial matter.

The doctor shook his head and muttered, "You guys..." He did not finish his thought as he looked back up at him, "You do know that he most likely doesn't have wards up. I mean, everyone's been able to walk in and out freely and even to his workstation in those three days."

That had not occurred to Thor. He realized that he had automatically assumed that when Loki had retreated into his lab area, he had warded the area to prevent anyone from bothering him as was his custom. He had not even approached the area in the past three days out of habit. Considering that the doctor himself had been in and out of the labs, even with food on occasion, he would have thought Loki would have eaten. He had even seen the doctor bring an extra tray whenever he had been inclined to eat in the commissary at odd hours.

But the fact that Dr. Banner had approached him and told him otherwise, Thor mentally shook his head at his own inattentiveness and huffed an irritated sigh. Damn Loki for being so stubborn and damn himself for being so blind and set in ways past.

"Thank you Doctor," he said sincerely, "I will force my brother to at least get some rest for the time being."

"The cure is important, but if Loki can't think straight or do his magic spells or whatever straight, it's only going to take longer," Banner followed at his heels as Thor headed towards the lab that the two had been working in.

When he arrived, he saw that the door was half propped open by Tony Stark who was leaning against the doorway. His arms were crossed and he was staring at his brother who, like Banner had said, was thoroughly engrossed within the eerie glow of his instruments. Thor knew what their names were, but what function they performed, he really had no idea. All he knew was that his brother considered them very precious and in the year that they had all thought him dead, Thor had seen the various spellwork and sundry items left upon them to know that his brother would never leave such work unfinished.

"Tony Stark-"

The man of iron held up a hand and Thor fell silent as he saw the serious expression on his face as he continued to watch Loki. He wondered why Stark was observing his brother, but made no move to walk inside. Perhaps there was now a ward up, but did not know.

"Tony-"

"He's on the verge of a breakthrough," Stark murmured out of the corner of his mouth, his tone soft unlike the hardness that Thor had heard time and time again whenever his brother's name or actions were mentioned. He realized that Stark was seeing something of himself in Loki at this moment and was content in watching him. That was certainly an odd turn of events considering that Stark had been all but hostile or antagonistic towards Loki each time he had been here.

"...Oh...sorry," Banner apologized quietly, "I didn't get a good look when I walked by a few minutes ago."

"And how do you know this?" Thor asked, curious.

"Apparently according to Dummy, Butterfingers, and You's recordings, I get that kind of face," Stark murmured back quietly. Thor had no idea who the man of iron was talking about, but he supposed it was like the video recordings he had seen, ones that were able to be played back over and over again. "Ah..."

Thor peered over Stark's head and saw that his brother's pensive expression had changed to a nearly overjoyed one and was about to open his mouth to congratulate him when suddenly Loki started to shake his head.

"No, no, no, no, no!" his brother's denials devolved into curses in the Alltongue, the language of the dwarves, fire demons, anything and everything they had been taught as well as some that Thor had never heard, but realized were horrific ones. At the same time Loki suddenly drew his hands away from what he had been working on.

He saw his brother look up at them for a split second before his face morphed into a wordless snarl and his fingers flashed out at them, twisting-

Thor found himself catching Stark and nearly slamming into Banner behind them all as they were seemingly pushed from the door way just as a huge explosion occurred in the lab.

"Loki!" Thor shouted, as black smoke emerged from the sudden fiery explosion that somehow did not shatter the windows. He pushed Stark away from him and clawed at the open door, his hands burning as he came in contact with a barrier-

And just as suddenly it fell, the black smoke pouring out, setting off the alarms and sprinklers as Thor stormed in, his heart seizing as he expected to see his brother's burnt form somewhere amongst the melted table, display, and vials of glass. It was only another second later that he realized most of the warping was contained on Loki's side, leaving Banner's side of the lab in almost pristine, if a bit soot-covered.

"Loki!" he shouted again as the black smoke started to thin.

He heard his brother's angry, pinched voice swearing in the thinning smoke before he all but barreled out and nearly into him. Thor only managed to side-step before his brother could run headlong into him.

"Loki-"

"Don't," Stark was suddenly there, stopping him from reaching out to grab his brother's shoulder as he brushed past them, headed out of the door, his swears in different languages still streaming out of his mouth, though now at a low mutter.

"What...what happened?" he asked as he looked towards Loki's place in the lab and saw that his table was all but gone, the vial of venom sitting innocently on what was clearly the epicenter of the explosion.

"Failed result," Stark replied a little flatly, but somehow, Thor knew that the tone was not directed at his brother, but more towards his own self. "It's a failed result..."

Loki needed solitude and on this Norn-forsaken ship there was none to be had. He did not care for the quarters that SHIELD had thought to put him in, knowing that he was going to be watched by their cameras. He knew he could cloak himself, but that would only bring the headache of the mortals panicking and Fury potentially trying to use the geas in ways that he cared not for the mortal to discover yet.

He had thought he had it that time, the skeins and weaves in a perfect place before everything exploded. A rebound spell hidden deep within to prevent tampering that he thought he had slowly peeled away after so many hours...days even, judging by the sudden surge of hunger he felt, of laboring away. He pushed the hunger away...food was an afterthought and his anger at Jormungandr's clever, clever spell was more than enough to sustain him.

He finally made his way to the hanger bay and picked a corner at random, weaving his way through the many metallic cages and obstacles in the bay to a corner that he knew was rarely used and rarely treaded upon. The brief brush of a scanning spell told him as much as he sat down and leaned against the metal walls, closing his eyes briefly and breathed out quietly, trying to tamp down on the surge of anger.

The anger would do him no good here, and was perhaps more apt to make the Midgard serpent laugh if he was watching. There had been no time to study the triggered spell, the explosion quick and calculating to prevent tampering. If he wanted to study it, he would have had to carefully pull apart the weaves once more and contain it and it was something he did not want to do at the moment.

He absently waved his fingers and conjured a bligesnipe-shaped familiar, watching it snuffle a bit, horns and scales; overall a very ugly bligesnipe as it should have been. He twitched his fingers a bit, refining its look as it snuffled up at him, seemingly wondering why it had been summoned, but he knew it was a reflection of his own state. The bligesnipe pawed at the ground, snorting a bit angrily as he finished detailing it and released the spell. At least now he would have a ghostly familiar summon that was to his standards instead of what Erikur deemed a good-shaped familiar.

Still, he could feel the anger lingering and shook his head as he pulled his legs up, knees almost to his chest and let his arms hang from them. He needed something to distract him and glanced into the pocket in-between. His tessellation was still there, a work of perfection considering he had fooled even Thanos with it until the last minute. The real Gauntlet...well...he preferred not to say where it really was. There was no work that needed to be done and he really did not want to touch the tessellation – it reminded him too much of what had happened on the Rainbow Bridge that day...

He saw the glint of an unknown modular and pulled it out, releasing the in-between spaces as he stared at the modular in his hands. He remembered that this had been Helblindi's gift in the closing moments of the treatise between the two realms, given only days ago by Ymir. He had almost forgotten about it until now. Examining it with quick twists and turns of the modular in his hands, he could clearly feel the different tingle of magicks that was surely Helblind's own in them.

At the same time, there was something familiar about it that he could not place, but decided it was something to think about later as he worked on figuring out how to peel away the modular to get at the real gift hidden inside. From his vantage point, it looked like a small claw with a tiny stone of power embedded at its tip, but Loki wasn't too sure what it was that was inside, the modular's angles warping the image a little.

"You're feeling the ghost-spell of your own on that modular," she suddenly spoke up, but he was not surprised as he continued to play with the modular in his hands, taking one strip off while reinforcing another side.

"Hel," he greeted absently as he felt her presence settle by his side, having seemingly appeared out of thin air. In a way, she did, her abilities to walk the shadows of Yggdrasil like he did greatly magnified because of her heritage. He had to physically rip open portals as did most others who knew how to walk the shadows. Hel's abilities were far beyond that, only drawing at the shadows, enabling her to deftly leave and appear at her will with little to no announcement..

He felt her cool, lithe body leaning against his own on the right side and it only took him a moment to let old habits wash over him and cast a silent warming spell so that her so-called deathly touch did not completely freeze him. Even before he had known about his frost giant heritage, Hel always had a cool touch that seemingly wilted everything she put her finger, skin, even her dress of wailing souls to. Her appearance was that of a normal Aesir, pale skinned with strawberry-blonde hair, but her touch spoke otherwise.

"See, you knew what to do," she said in a simple tone, her voice close to his ear, but he paid her no attention nor did he lean into it.

"What are you doing here?" he asked as he peeled off another skein and reinforced the opposing side.

"To visit, and to warn you," she replied, her voice monotone, but then again Loki remembered that she never had emotions in her tone either. It was the way she had learned to speak, and because of her duties as the Queen of the Realm of the Dead. He had thought her odd when he had first met her, but had grown used to it; quickly realizing that what others perceived as apathy was most certainly not.

"The warning that Jormungandr's venom was laced with an explosive spell made by Fenrir in the beginnings of the weave would have been nice," he replied sarcastically as he flipped the modular in his hands, frowning as he saw that he was not making any headway into unraveling it. He would have to take another approach with Helblindi's mysterious gift.

She did not answer, nor did he expect one, but he could feel her indifference in the subtle way she had dropped her body temperature against the warming spell he put up on his own skin. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw her staring at the modular as he flipped it around and around, his fingers lightly testing the spots where the edges met and the small flickers of magick emanating from them as he absently tested various methods.

After several minutes of silence, she shifted her body a little, "Mother is disappointed."

"Your mother is always disappointed," he replied back, but did not mean the remark as a retort as she tilted her head in acknowledgement.

"She enjoyed the gift you graced her in your madness-"

"That, was not madness," he stopped his fiddling and looked at her, her cool dead-grey eyes staring back at him through the glasses perched on her nose. "That...that was..." He stopped as grimaced and looked back at the modular in his hands, trying to think of anything but what had happened in New York City. "If your mother was disappointed then she had no one to blame but the maker of this object," he said abruptly, changing the subject.

She reached out and plucked the modular from his hands, her spindly, almost delicate looking fingers daintily holding the modular within. She peered at it for a few seconds, "Ah...I see what it contains." If she was someone else, Loki knew he would have saw a satisfied smile on their face, but Hel's face remained expressionless.

"Will you puzzle the riddle for me?"

She threw him a withering look, one had recognized as his own and he snorted lightly. He watched as she let the modular roll around her own fingers. He knew that she was making no attempts to puzzle it out and just wanted the tactile feeling of something in her hands, a habit she along with two others of the coterie had picked up from him during their time together.

"You have finally discovered your heritage," she said, "now the question remains, what will you do with that?"

"Make war? Give your mother the glorious amounts of the deceased mortals she craves for?"

"You wish to usurp Thanos' position as her lover?" Hel countered and Loki looked away, gritting his teeth. "A feint and petty words are not your doing, my Prince."

"It suits me fine," he growled out, suddenly angry at himself for falling so easily into her worded traps.

"Yes...yes it does," Hel leaned over to peer at him, "but I know you. I know...what lies within. The bitterness can fester, can grow, can consume. The anger, false acceptance, recompense is a facade. You-"

"If you have nothing but words, then do not speak of them," he cut her off roughly, his fingers twitching to snatch back the modular from her fingers, but restrained himself from doing so. He did not need the childish display of dominance over her, nor did he need to show that her words were digging deep into him. But at the same time, he knew that he had revealed the turmoil within him to her with just his body language.

She dipped her head a little lower to peer up at him some more, her glasses lights off of the reflected lights of this corner of the hanger bay. He met her gaze with a square neutral one of his own-

And suddenly found his lips burning with a searing kiss that was most definitely not her own. He jerked back and felt pain bloom in the back of his head as he bumped into the metallic wall, but her lips were still pressed onto his and Loki recognized the kiss. Even though his warming spell, prevented most of her cool, deathly touch from affecting him, he had known what Hel's lips felt like – the feather-light whisper of death itself, akin to like having his own soul ripped out. But this kiss...no, this searing fiery passionate kiss that he almost-leaned into, but just restrained himself so, this belonged to someone else. He could feel her within it, reflecting off of his own warming spell, seemingly burning his own lips up, the corners of his mouth, edges of skin about to crackle-

And just as suddenly the magick disappeared, leaving Hel's cool lips over his own and Loki gasped, sucking in a breath in between his teeth, feeling the chill melt all the way down to his bones, freezing him in place. But it only lasted another second before his warming spell returned as Hel allowed her magicks to disappear, having overpowered his own in his initial surprise.

She drew back and peered up at him, the ghost of a smile on the corner of her lips, a mimicry of what she aped from mortals and from others of the realms.

Loki tasted a bit of a coppery taste in his mouth and reached up to touch the bottom of his lip and it came away tinted in a little blood. "She really did that?" he asked, surprised at how hoarse his voice was.

"The mirror shows all, my Prince," Hel continued to look at him, "and thus does not lie." Loki cast a quick healing spell, as it healed the minor wound and shook his head as she continued, "I was instructed to do so the next I met you."

"And how is she?" he asked, unable to keep the sardonic smile off of his face. He had almost forgotten about Hel's greatest ability.

Hel's forte in all of the magicks of the cosmos was her ability to mirror, or mimic the spells of others back at the casters. It was because of her position as the Queen of Helheim, but also because of whom her mother was. If the magicks mortal beings, himself included, wielded was considered life, then hers was the exact opposite, death – and so what had been called mirror magick. It was also what enabled her to cross the shadows of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, the Life Tree. It had taken him years of study to master it and even now, he knew that he could only transport himself and barely one other person, whereas she used it to shepherd the souls of the dead to her realm.

"Sig-"

"Do not say her name, not when you walk so openly amongst-"

"I am cloaked from Heimdall's gaze, my Prince. You, however, have not," she leaned back and leaned next to him again.

"I wonder why," he replied a little dryly.

"Do you regret what we have become that badly, my Prince?"

He did not answer her as she leaned her head against his shoulder once more. She sighed, a very mortal sigh and played with a ringlet of her strawberry blonde hair, looking for all the world, a young woman barely out of adolescence.

"She is well," she finally said before shifting a little, "As for the others you so wonder since all of this began, they are all but gone from my sight. I have kept her as promised and her alone. Perhaps for some sense of an attempt to be more like your kind." She handed the modular back to him, dropping it unceremoniously into his limp hands.

He picked it up and rolled it around his hands, not quite staring at it, but at the same time his mind absently began to puzzle it once more.

"Your mother understands what had happened?"

"Yes," Hel replied, "but you knew what had happened when the pact was made with him. It was one of the lessons learned under mother's tutelage."

"Then why is she disappointed?"

Hel laughed, a bitter sound, but Loki knew it was anything but, "Could she not see her favorite student once in a while?"

"I rather like living," he turned his head a little to stare at her and saw her tilt her head in acknowledgment, "and if she wanted me to visit, all she had to do was to send you with the message to meet her on your realm."

"Even if it was against your father's-"

"Odin is not my father-"

"Even if it was against the Allfather's explicit orders? And he is your father whether you deny it or not."

He ignored her last jab and shook his head, "I would have found a way."

She nodded, "You always do, my Prince." There was a moment of quiet before she shifted again, her dress echoing a little, seemingly sending the silent howls of the damnned across the room. "Will you give up what is most precious?" she asked quietly, changing the subject once again.

"My life?"

"Will you give up what is most precious to you?" she peered at him again and this time Loki knew that she was asking as both Death's daughter and as the Queen of Helheim.

"Have I not given up what is most precious?" he countered and she smiled faintly as her dead-grey eyes spoke their silent negative to his counter question, before leaning back against him.

"Then no...I do not have a solution to your geas problem with Thanos," she replied before taking the modular from his hands once more, "I will give you a token of my affection though."

"How generous of you," he countered, "your...'affection'."

"It is what words have been put into the mouths of babes borne before the cosmos," she shrugged, "you of all people should know, after all, my mother deigned to teach you, something she has never done outside of her daughters."

"Or Thanos?" he narrowed his eyes a little and she stared at him with a neutral expression.

"I not care for what my mother's lover does with her knowledge spoken in the drawn covers of starlight and of whispered secrets," she met his stare squarely, the implication that he had told Thanos some of the spellwork and knowledge he had learned from Death herself, falling squarely on him and him alone. He looked away, glaring down at the modular now back in her spindly fingers. He had foolishly given secrets like walking the shadows of Yggdrasil and of cloaking oneself from Heimdall's gaze to Thanos like it was nothing precious – but it had been precious, ripped, bargained for...a promise... There had to be more secrets given up during that year of absolute darkness and emptiness, but Loki did not want to stare into the abyss, did not want to remember it. It was too-

"And yet, you do not have a solution-"

"Oh, I do," she replied, "but you will not give up what is most precious to you."

He opened his mouth to argue that he valued his life above everything else before closing it and gave her a sideways glare. Her wordplay was not as strong as his own, but he could clearly feel the thrum of magicks weighted behind them and knew that she was digging. The thought occurred to him – if she had already denied that his life was what he valued the most, then what was most precious to him? Closing his mouth, he shook his head and ignored her baited question. He still had not been able to puzzle out whether or not she was rebelling alongside Jormungandr and Fenrir or was clearly a wild card in all of this. At the very least, she at least knew of the poison that Jormungandr used since she had given Dr. Banner the venom to make his anti-venom.

Hel smiled briefly before holding out the modular to him. "Mirror."

"Pardon?" he blinked before he suddenly felt the warming spell grow a little too hot and knew she had all but disappeared. He released the warming spell as he picked up the modular that had fallen to the ground just as he heard a pair of lightly booted feet land on the ground in front of him.

"Agent Barton, I do believe that pointing an arrow at my head is hardly polite-"

"Cut the bullshit Loki, I heard you and crazy undead lady there," he looked up and sat back as Barton, dressed in his light armor, held his composite bow and a very sharp looking arrow point straight at his face. The agent stood over him, but Loki could see that he was also more than likely to shoot him without even a single explanation. He knew he could easily dodge it and could feel the automatic tingle of magicks within him, preparing an illusion of himself sitting there while he slipped away-

"And what would you do about it?" he quashed the magicks, forcing himself to sit there, the arrowhead nearly touching his nose. It was still too easy to goad Barton into shooting him. He could practically read the unspoken hate and wish to shoot him with his arrow – no words need to be said, no threats threatened. This was not about New York, but it was more personal. There was no geas holding Barton back, nothing that had been part of agreements made previously or of now. Barton did not care.

But at the same time, Loki knew that Barton would not shoot. It was not that he could not, it was that he knew that the man with so much blood on his ledger; who had somehow decided to save Romanoff in Sao Paulo, had a shred of honor, no matter how misguided, to not shoot him.

"Why aren't you using your illusion behind me? Why aren't you fighting dirty like I know you can and will?" Barton asked after a few seconds of tense silence between them.

"And why should I stoop to your level-"

"I don't-"

"I know all of your secrets, Agent," he briefly enjoyed the way red suffused into Barton's face and saw the arrowhead waver just a little bit; the muscles in Barton's drawing arm twitching and jumping as he resisted trying to put an arrow into him.

There was an intensity to Barton's gaze for a moment that Loki met with his simple challenging one, wondering if the archer was really going to disobey orders and shoot him on sight. Finally, Barton grounded out through clenched teeth one word, "Why?"

That was a loaded question if there ever was one and both of them knew it, but Loki knew that Barton was also allowing him, however small of a measure, to answer the question as he saw fit. And if the archer was allowing him to answer the question, then Loki saw no reason not to play along – to see if the archer really could keep the tattered shreds of honor that he claimed to have; the long buried perhaps sympathetic emotions regarding the coterie that Loki knew Thor and the others must have told him by now. He knew all of Barton's history and knew that the man disliked those who were bullied, having come from a broken family background himself. Perhaps that was why he had fought so hard under his mind control spell, he was a mortal who fought hard to define himself and not to bow down to others; except in cases of people he clearly respected.

"Perhaps it is for the same reason you saved Agent Romanoff," he decided to answer and saw Barton's eyes narrow a little, clearly unsatisfied with his answer. The arrowhead shook a little more and Loki wondered if he was going to continue with his line of questioning or even protest that the situation in which Hel and Romanoff had been compared to were completely different.

But it seemed Barton was somehow mollified or even decided not to ask his follow-up question later as he swallowed hard and forced out another question, "The fuck did she mean by 'mirror'?"

Loki wondered what Thor and the others told the remaining Avengers as he tilted his head fractionally, staring at Barton. Somehow, he got the feeling that the archer knew a little more than he had let on, perhaps out of some misguided fanciful story that Captain Rogers had said that some of the mortals had made up of them from long ago. When he had controlled Barton and picked his mind, the archer had truthfully claimed not knowing much of what they called "Norse" mythology, but now, looking at those chipped eyes, maybe he had learned something more.

Maybe it was what stayed Barton's hand at this moment, though Loki had a feeling that it was not out of a sense of pity, but rather a sense of wanting more knowledge. The knowledge he would gain would not help him nor would it help Romanoff with the poison and magicks coursing-

Loki froze, his eyes widening fractionally as he realized what Hel meant. It had been a long time since he had talked with her and he had almost not grasped the double, even triple- layers of conversation they had been having. With Hel it was always two or more separate conversations that flowed as one and most of the time, Loki knew what those lines and layers conversations meant. No one else was able to match his wordplay so well as she had, the exception was probably her sister, but she was beyond his reach for now.

So that was what she meant by giving him a token of her 'affection.'

"What...wait- Loki-!"

Loki pushed the arrowhead aside, feeling the sting of a cut draw across his palm as he scrambled to his feet and quickly headed out of the hanger bay, Barton scrabbling behind him, protests falling from his lips. He ignored the archer's spluttering as he spelled the doors to open rapidly. He charged through, his focus narrowed to reaching the labs, not caring that he made the various SHIELD personnel push against the walls of the hallways.

He flicked the door to the lab open rather violently with a quick spell before heading straight to his workstation and unceremoniously dumped the bag of healing stones onto the partially melted table. Grabbing one, he could feel the magicks coursing through it and immediately plucked the weaves apart, spreading his fingers and hands wide to shoulder length apart.

He could hear Barton's footsteps pounding in the hallway adjacent to the lab, before the archer skidded to a stop at the still open doorway, yelping as his hand found contact with the roughly opened door. Sparks hissed from ripped wires that were still active and trying to pour their power into the door he had roughly opened, but Loki pushed that extraneous thought to the side as he concentrated and grabbed the weave he had extracted from the venom with his right hand. His left holding the weave of the healing stone as well as the stone itself.

He glanced at the skeins in his right hand, studying it quickly to confirm that he knew each thread by heart before setting it back down as he distantly heard Barton muttering a few words, no doubt to call the others, he supposed. Letting out a deep breath, he got to work on the healing stone in his left hand, twisting the fine threads of magicks within, watching as the stone slowly turned from its majestic blue color, the color that soothed wounded souls and wounds itself, slowly to an inky grey-black before becoming all but a seemingly irradiated blackened lump of coal.

When he was sure of the thing he had created was complete, he crushed it into a fine powder with his hands and set it on the tabletop. The swirl of magicks twisted and lashed out, unlike the soothing magicks of a healing stone. He reached over to grab the bottle of venom and carefully drew out a single drop of the venom before placing it on top of the pile and waited.

He did not have to wait long as he saw the beginnings of a repellent magick rising up from the venom...only to be seemingly squashed by the magick of the blackened healing stone before all became quiet, leaving the single drop on the tabletop, surrounded in a small crater of the dusty remnants of the healing stone. He gathered the drop in a pocket of air and deposited gently on the silvalume that had not melted in the explosive spell.

Studying it, he could see the barrier encased in the 'mirrored' spell he had weaved within the healing stone, leaving, for all intents and purposes, just a drop of ordinary venom from an ordinary sea snake. Satisfied with his study, he took another blue-unaltered healing stone from the bag he had brought with him and got to work, his hands weaving the spell to imbue it with the mirror spell to neutralize the magicks of the barrier surrounding the venom.

"...Is that it?" Banner's quiet calm voice surprisingly did not startle him as he had not even sense the mortal walking into the lab and standing next to his half-melted station. Instead, Loki felt oddly soothed by it, glancing up for a second to see the doctor with a kindly smile on his face. The mortal looked exhausted and Loki thought he saw himself reflected off of the slightly lined, yet youthful face.

He did not answer as he looked back at his weave and put the finishing touches on the stone before holding it out to the scientist. He extended his own hand out and Loki dropped it, watching as the doctor briefly examined it and moved to his own workstation. He watched, unaware that he had held his own breath as the doctor picked up a vial of the anti-venom he had created, crushed the stone in his hand before pouring it into the vial and giving it a good shake.

Banner then took the vial and drew out several drops of the anti-venom and placed it on a small dish of reddened blood he had learned was called a petri dish. He did not know whose blood sample it was, but the result was the same. There was the swirl of volatile magicks, lighting the air briefly above the dish before it was quashed, leaving just the dish of red. The mortal scientist did not say anything as he silently took a swab of the dish before rubbing it on a small glass strip and then placed it under what he had called a microscope.

The contraption was similar to the boye and silvalume, but it seemed more inclined for organic uses instead of magical ones. Banner peered into it, a frown on his face as he adjusted the lenses, his fingers moving the glass ever so slightly. It felt like a long time before he lifted his eyes from the microscope and had a bemused expression on his face.

"It's clean...and it works...at least in this setting," he looked at him and a hesitant grin appeared on his face, "whatever you did Loki, it works. The barrier's neutralized so the anti-venom attacked the venom and did what it was supposed to do. It didn't get destroyed at the last minute and cause an explosion or shattering of dishes and vials!"

Loki let loose the breath he did not realize he had been holding at the news, the exhaustion of working non-stop for the past three days finally hitting him as he blinked rapidly. He could suddenly feel the sandpaper-like quality of his eyes, the tugs of exhaustion creeping to the forefront... He would have returned the smile of triumph if not for Thor who's booming voice suddenly rumbled through the door to the lab.

"Then we have a cure-"

Loki's mood instantly soured as he wondered if there was not a time when Thor would interrupt the moments in his life that he wanted to savor, before brushing past the flash of irritation. He nodded curtly and quickly glanced up to see the remaining Avengers crowded by the door and beyond them, the four curious faces of the Warriors Three and Lady Sif.

"Yes, we do," he agreed curtly as he grabbed the bag of healing stones and drew out his tessellation that he had kept in the spaces in between since using it on Thanos to mimic the image, texture, and feel of the Infinity Gauntlet. Imbuing the weave that he had affected onto the stone, into the tessellation; he wrapped it around the pile of stones and set it on the unmelted part of his table.

"Let the tessellation sit until the stones are blackened before you use it on your anti-venom," he looked at Banner who was staring at what he had done with open curiosity.

"Uh-"

"You will feel the magicks in between your fingers," he shrugged before rounding the table and headed towards the door.

"Brother-"

"I am ready to return to Asgard to answer the Allfather's inquiries," he said loudly as he brushed past Thor and the others and saw the Warriors Three and Lady Sif stand at attention as he made his way towards them.

"Brother- Loki-"

"Do not think to touch me unless you want another knife in between your ribs," he hissed back as he felt Thor's presence loom behind him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a look pass between Sif and Thor beyond his shoulder, but was too irritated and too tired to care. "My part of the geas is finished. All the Director needs to do now is to deliver his part."

He could feel Thor stop where he was as he walked back towards the hanger bay, the others scrambling to catch up to him. Without further flourishes, he marched to the edge of the hanger bay and turned in time to see Sif and the others jog the last few steps to join him at the edge of the Bifrost sight. Beyond them, Thor and some of the SHIELD personnel that had been watching came into the hanger bay. Loki thought he saw the man of iron hanging back and he could just make out under the shadows of the rafters Agent Barton before the howl of the Bifrost and rainbow starlight engulfed his vision, sending him back to Asgard.

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the minor delay – last minute things at work and real life before the holidays. Hopefully I'll be consistently updating until the new year! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! Also, Hel is awesome.