Chapter Summary: As Tony well knows, if something is going to happen... it will happen at the absolute worst time.
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After the New York attack, Odin has taken Loki's magic, made him mortal and imprisoned him. But Asgard is not a safe place for the Trickster under these conditions. Recent events make Odin decide to take away one more thing from his second son, his memory going back for the last four years. This decision and events that lead to it cause Frigga to decide that Asgard is not safe for Loki's reduced station. From stories Thor had told, she decides that Tony Stark's tower would make an excellent secure location for amnesiac Loki to be under house arrest. Rating may change in later part of fic.
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Chapter 6 – Sleeping Beauty
"Sir?"
"Not now Jarvis," Tony said, his finger tracing out the wiring on a piece of Chitauri tech, trying to figure out what it had been designed for. "I only have two hours to figure this out before I have to get ready for that Senior Management meeting that Pepper roped me into."
"Actually sir, you only have a little over an hour, but I assure you that you want to hear my news."
Crap, he was never going to figure this out in just an hour. "Alright," he said, rolling his eyes slightly and disgusted at having to stop. "What ya got Jarvis? Our stock slipped a point? Liam Payne just announced his undying love for Justin Timberlake? Johnny Depp wants a date? What?"
"The glow has disappeared from Mister Odinson, and he appears to be trying to wake up." Jarvis said calmly.
"Of course he is," huffed Tony.
Predictably, after spending months sleeping surrounded and cared for by that gentle green glow. Months of being completely and totally no maintenance and no trouble at all, again thanks again to that lovely green glow, Loki decided to wake up just when Tony would have to leave. Figures.
"Jarvis, call Pepper for me, I'm going to have to cancel this afternoon."
"Sir, might I remind you that Ms. Potts has threatened to eviscerate you if you miss this year's meeting."
"Yeah, well this is an emergency, she'll understand."
"As I recall sir," Jarvis retorted, "You claimed that the last three times you missed were also emergencies. She has not forgotten that one of your 'emergencies' was caused by you deciding to stay late at a car show."
"Ouch. Jarvis, you hurt me. Pain, lots of it, right here." Tony clutched dramatically at his heart.
"I don't believe that is where Ms. Potts threatened to wound you if you missed this year sir; I believe it was about two feet lower.
Tony grimaced. "Fine, don't call her. She would probably be all unreasonable and emotional anyhow."
"Sir, are you sure you want to use the word emotional in any sentence that references Ms. Potts?"
"Ha. No, probably not after what happen the last time. Tell ya what Jarvis, call Bruce ask him to come over."
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Something was missing, he thought slowly, but what? Taking another breath, Loki tried to open his eyes, but it was so hard and he was so tired. After trying again, which only resulted in his eye lashes fluttering he decided to just keep them closed and rest a minute.
Something was missing, but something was also wrong. Even with his head stuffed with wool, eyes glued shut and limbs that wouldn't move he knew something was very, very wrong.
His arms were dull, leaden things and he was amazed at the effort it took to move his fingers. The weight on his chest was his own hand; the fingers he had moved with so much effort could be felt above the thin soft material he was clothed in. Strange feeling material, thin and very soft, like the material that babes were clothed in. Also something light was over top his hands; he felt it rub on his knuckles when he moved his hand again. Concentrating harder than he would need to for a major working Loki brought his right hand up to rub his eyes, and froze when he felt cold hard metal touch his cheek and a thin cold cord drape across his neck and mostly bare shoulder. Was it metal also? Was it a restraint?
Had he been… Could he have been… Was he… a prisoner somewhere?
It started small, just a trill of terror gliding up his spine, then he shuddered hard, the movement jarring sore muscles and within an instant he was shaking, every part of him was shaking, shaking so hard he couldn't breathe.
He had to find out. Arms trembling he brought his hands together, one unsteady hand covering the other as his fingers mapped out the cold metal cuff. Shakily his fingers danced on its surface, finding no hinge or hasp or lock, only a long hard cord of some kind that just felt like it was fused into the cuff.
Desperate to see, Loki's hands ghosted up to his face, rubbing at his eyes, trying to help them to open. Finally after what seemed like a year of trying, his eyes opened, and almost immediately closed, but not before he caught a fuzzy glimpse of a green healing haze surrounding him, which flickered away as he looked at it.
As the green haze disappeared he was shocked to hear a voice beside him.
"So, Sleeping Beauty, I see you finally decided to wake up huh?"
Every muscle in his body contracted as a cold, mocking voice washed over him. Somehow he found himself sitting up, wedged in a corner, a cool hard surface at his back as he blinked rapidly, trying to focus on the figure standing over him, trying to stop shaking.
The creature looming over him had brown eyes, cropped brown hair and a short matching beard trimmed much like Fandral's, but he was far too short to be an Asgardian, not stocky enough to be a dwarf and his face was squarer than any elf Loki had ever met in Álfheimr. Male, he was definitely a male, behind him was an opening of some sort, possibly a door beyond it, glass or crystal by the look of it.
"Hey, calm down okay?" The man huffed in mild amusement at his distress. "It's me, Tony Stark? Iron Man? Remember me?"
Loki's eyes snapped up and held the brown ones above him, his brows knitted in thought, Midgardian? Yes, Midgardian, it had to be. Loki might be shaky and just woken from a healing sleep with no restorative draught, but even in his weakened state he could take a single mortal with no trouble at all.
Watching the mortal named Stark from the corner of his eye, Loki slid to the side of the bed he was on, and slipped his legs down to the floor. He was shaky, but by leaning his back against the wall he could move towards the door. He felt a slight tension on his wrist and looked at the cuff. How had he had forgotten about it? Surely the cord was longer than it had been a minute ago.
Loki jerked his arm to get pull slack, but the cord didn't move. Alarmed, he looked at where it was attached to the wall. Why? It had moved before, Loki leaned back slowly to see how much tension it would resist, but this time it gave way like it had at first. He jerked his arm and it held firm. So… if he moved his hand slowly, the cord moved with him, granting him more movement, rather than holding him in one area. If he jerked it, like he was going try and yank it out of the wall it locked into place and didn't permit him to move.
"So, bathroom?" The Midgardian named Stark said. "Sure. Okay, just be careful getting in there; let me know if you need a hand."
The brown haired mortal actually moved towards the bed like he wanted to help, trailing behind him with one of his arms slightly raised almost touching his un-cuffed arm, but most importantly, leaving Loki's path to the door open. The instant he was at the entry to the bathing room, Loki slid past it, smoothly extending his wrist in front of him to gain more slack in the cord as he glided through the nearby antechamber towards the cell door. The walls of his cell were clear, he didn't see anyone else within sight of the cell, strangely the brown haired man was alone.
"Hey. Stop. You don't need to go there," the surprised Stark yelped, hurrying behind him and grabbing his arm. "You need to stay in here. Look just go do your business, freshen up and then go sit down, we'll talk then okay?"
Loki tried to pull his arm away, but the mortal wouldn't let go and seemed to be surprisingly strong, much stronger than Loki thought a mortal should be. Even in his weakened state Loki should have been able to easily break the man's hold on his arm.
But he couldn't. Not only that, but the mortal's other arm grabbed Loki's thin shirt and he was actually dragging him away from the door!
The mortal Stark was trying to drag him back, Loki was trying to stay by the door, he grabbed the man's shirt and spun him around.
"Jarvis reel him in," the mortal called out. "Get him back to bed."
As he spun Stark around, Loki had to duck out from under the cord, to keep it from becoming entangled as they grappled with each other.
The cord started gently tugging him back towards the bed, but as he and the other man fought, all that really happened was that the shorter man became surrounded by loops of the metal cord and the cord began to tighten as it tugged both him and the yelling mortal away from the door.
Frantic and breathing heavily, Loki wrapped his arms around the man dragging them both to the floor so he could brace his feet the interior door's frame.
"Ow!"
"Damn it Loki that hurt," the brown haired man yelled as they fell, eyes snapping in anger. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Loki's legs strained against the door frame and his arms tightened around the trussed up mortal as the cord tried to tow them both back into the other room. Loki desperately hoped this would give him enough leverage to keep the cable from dragging him back into the cell before other guards were made aware of the disturbance and came to help.
Right now all Loki could hope for is that this Stark person had the key to open the cuffs, here before they were yanked back any further. Loki had no intention of allowing the metal cord to get as short as it had been when he had first woke up. If that happened he would be trapped without any room to maneuver.
"Stop. Jarvis stop! Stop! The cable is tightening around me!" The dark haired man yelled. "Where's Banner?"
"How do I open this cuff mortal?" Loki growled into his ear, voice harsh with anger and disuse.
"Sir, Doctor Banner is in the elevator, he is headed towards the medical wing, and he will be here as quickly as he can," Said Jarvis. "Sir, shall I alert S.H.I.E.L.D?"
"Loki, you can't. It won't open for you. Just relax and let's go back in there, you sit down and we'll talk about what's happening. Jarvis tell Banner forget the medical wing and just get up here!"
"Shall I alert S.H.I.E.L.D?"
"Fuck S.H.I.E.L.D!" Tony screamed "Tell Banner to get his ass here now and give me some slack on this damn cable!"
Knowing that someone else was coming and that his time was growing shorter, Loki took a chance, hoping that he could hold Stark with just the cord and his cuffed hand. He brought his free arm up around his captor's neck and squeezed. He just wished the fuzzy feeling in his head would clear up enough for him to use his magic, so he wouldn't have to resort to such crude methods of persuasion. Physical violence was more Thor's style than his.
"I want this cuff off, and I want it off now!" Loki hissed as his arm tightened cruelly against the man's neck, even as he slid them both backward taking advantage of the extra cable to get closer to the exterior door. He squeezed he man's neck tighter, more than enough to let him know he meant business. "I might not be able to open this cuff, but you better hope you can or I'm going to break your neck."
"You don't want to do that, look just-" His voice cut off momentarily as Loki gave him a hard, quick warning squeeze. Something was wrong, something was majorly wrong. Loki was far weaker than he should be, but he was strong enough to snap a neck if he so desired.
"Jarvis open the cuff now." Stark called in a strangled raspy voice as Loki eased up on his throat.
With the way the blood was pounding in his ears, Loki was not surprised that he couldn't hear the cuff click open, but he did feel it loosening. Stripping it off his wrist, he twisted the attached cord once around Stark's neck and then wrapped it securely around one of the cord loops that already encircled the angry struggling man.
While Loki didn't hear anything, Stark apparently noticed some movement, Loki followed his gaze in time to see a door slide shut on the far wall and another Midgardian man running towards the cell.
"Sir, protocol is the outer door doesn't open while the prisoner is not secure and the inner door is open." The voice said urgently.
"Just do it! Fuck protocol Jarv-" Loki clapped his hand over the man's mouth so he couldn't give any more orders or warn the approaching man that Loki was no longer cuffed to the wall.
Stark rolled angry eyes up and glared at Loki, his screams muffled by Loki's hand, struggling furiously as he tried to break free from his grasp. Despite the man's struggles, Loki managed to get to his feet and without taking his hand from Stark's mouth he crab crawled, dragging the man with him as close as he could get towards the door. Not facing it, but rather placing it on his right and watching it from the corner of his eye. A brief pat down of Stark didn't find a weapon on the short man, and this worried Loki. Where they so confident that Loki couldn't escape that the guards didn't even bother to carry weapons?
The other mortal had made it to the outer door, as it slid open Loki stood up, jerking his captive up also and shoving him hard towards the opposite side of the entry chamber. As he hoped, this distracted the man entering, who made an involuntary grab to try and prevent the trussed up mortal from falling. He wasn't fast enough to switch directions before Loki surged past him using his elbow to hit the new jailor hard in the small of the back, pitching him forward on top of the brown haired man. Loki sprinted out the door before it could finish closing. Both men were both screaming in pain and calling his name as the door slid shut, momentarily muffling their cries.
Breathing heavily, clutching his hand to his side, Loki sprinted as fast as he could towards the large metal doors, they had no handles, but there was a button, which he pushed. Not that it did him any good, either the doors won't open for prisoners or if they do open, it will take too long be of use to Loki. Stumbling along the wall looking for a door, a window that will open he came across a different door, smaller and very plain with a bar across it that doesn't lift, after he desperately bounced up against the door in aggravation trying to see if he could force it open, his hip hit the bar and it pushed in with the click of a latch releasing. A sign above the door is illuminated and it proclaims that this door is an EXIT.
So Loki does. He is not sure what the word means, but the door did open...
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Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.
I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.