Thirty Six

I jetted up the stairs to land next to Loki. He held a hand out for me. I took his hand with one of my gauntlets. The world filled with a black mist as he transported us. I closed my eyes against the feeling. I really didn't want to black out this time. The teleportation left a sickening feeling in my stomach. I pushed against that feeling. I wanted to be able to talk to him.

"Take off that damned helmet, Stark." Loki said, sounding echoed. I lifted the mask and took off my helmet. I was in my penthouse in Stark Tower. It looked like my house did the day Hydra raided it. I assumed that's what had happened here as well.

"So, you're back to calling me Stark?"

"Give me a reason not to." His back was to me surveying the room. He turned. "You look like hell."

"So I've been told. Feel like it too." I rolled my eyes.

"Did you have a good time last night?" He purred.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"With that woman." It was his turn to roll his eyes. I struggled to remember. It suddenly came rushing into my head. Darcy!

"How? What? I mean…" I stumbled.

"I have my methods." He coolly said. My jaw dropped as I was at a loss for words. He pressed a finger to my chin, closing my mouth. "You'll catch flies."

I stood dumbfounded looking at him kick around circuity and glass that littered the floor. He was dressed in his usual armor. It had a few singe marks, probably from the chaos he'd been causing.

"You obviously didn't bring me here to gloat about however you're spying on me." I finally found my voice.

"No, but it's fun."

"Jealous much?" I smiled. Loki shot me a dirty look. If I wanted more information, I needed, I had to stop being a smart mouth for ten minutes.

"What do you think?" He stalked over to me.

"Maybe a little. You've been blowing up a lot of buildings lately and held a lot of people hostage, just to see me."

"I do not care about you anymore!" He shouted. His voice hitched slightly. Loki rubbed the bridge of his nose, regaining his composure. "Those buildings were all covers for Hydra. Hydra will pay for what they did to me. I mean to hunt them all down. I brought you here to propose an alliance."

"An alliance?"

"Yes, Hydra is a common enemy and I have use of your technological skills."

"I'll agree, but under one condition. Why did you attack New York? You said you had fallen into the void and this Thanos person rescued you. You could have started over, but you brought chaos to our world. And when you had the chance, you could have killed us. All of us. Well, except for Thor and Hulk. You threw me out a window some thousand feet from the ground. All you did was bring us together as a team to ensure your capture and return to Asgard." I rambled on. He held a hand up to pause me.

"You've done a lot of thinking while drinking." He said, suddenly looking lost. "I suppose I owe you an explanation. You look exhausted, let's sit. It's a long story." He moved to couch and dumped the glass off the cushions.

"Like that would have mattered, this armor is not coming off." I muttered, but sat anyway. Loki sat in a pensive state, gathering his thoughts. He stared into the distance. He looked so broken, so lost. For a moment I could see the Lana I fell in love with behind his eyes. His eyes were not as menacing, but softer, pain bottled up inside of him.

I worked an armored gauntlet off and placed a hand on his knee, bringing him back to reality. He moved his knee away and I returned my hand to myself. I fiddled with my gauntlet.

"Thanos rescued me from the void. Took me in cared for my broken soul. He heard my plea and promised me the nine realms. He promised me an army to take Thor's precious Midgard. He promised me a throne on Midgard. He gave me more magic than I could ever dream of. But that magic came at a price." Loki paused. He sighed and looked at his nails, picking at his cuticles. "There's no easy way to put this, I essentially became his slave. The things I was forced to do were appalling. I don't wish to speak of the details."

"Loki," I started. He held up a hand stop me.

"I later found out that after I had completed my task and found the infinity stones on Midgard, he was never going to let me have Midgard. I was to be locked away, only to be used as Thanos' play thing." He stopped again, brushing away a tear that threatened to fall. I saw the hurt, I saw the damage. I suddenly felt like a jerk for the way I acted.

"That's why I didn't kill you. Any of you. You were right. I had it in my power to, but didn't. I realized if I let any of you captured me as a prisoner of war, I'd be safe from Thanos. It worked out better that Thor took me back for sentencing and imprisonment on Asgard. Thanos wouldn't challenge the Allfather for my return. When my mother died protecting Jane from the Dark Elves, Thor released me. I faked my own death and posed as the Allfather to escape enslavement." Again a deep sigh.

I worked my other gauntlet off. I wanted to comfort him. I remember my time stuck in the cave. That lost feeling. The feeling of your last moments before they kill you. I took his hand in mine. He came back to reality, but didn't pull away.

"They came for me." This time he couldn't stop the tears. "Thanos sent his minions for me. They tortured me, they cut me open repeatedly, knowing I would heal. They raped me over and over. And he watched. He sat back and watched and did nothing to stop it. I wanted to die. Every time I was close to dying, Thanos brought me back, telling me this was my punishment for letting you Avengers destroy the Chitauri army, for failing to retrieve the infinity stones and for losing the staff." He let the tears flow as he spoke. He spoke more to the floor, than me, but I listened. I don't think I'd ever sat for this long and let someone else speak from the heart. Not even Pepper.

"I escaped, hell bent on revenge on my brother letting me out of prison. Now, you know everything." He shook my hand away and stood. He leaned his head against one of the remaining windows. "He is coming. He still believes there is an infinity stone on Midgard."

"There isn't?"

"No, Thor took both off this world. But that won't stop him. He believes it's here and nothing will stop him until he has all of them." Another deep sigh. "Think this proposal over. I'll be in contact." He disappeared in a cloud of mist.

He needed to be alone, I understood that. But he didn't need to leave me in New York. My suit didn't have the power to make it back tonight, so I settled on cleaning up the tower. I had no cards, no money and no Jarvis so ordering out and conning a delivery kid into helping me wasn't going to happen this time. I showered and cleaned up while the suit charged. I wanted to get back to the safe house before Thor went on a man hunt for Loki. I needed to tell him what happened. I needed to tell Thor it wasn't Loki's fault, he'd been forced to attack earth.