A/N: I appreciate constructive criticism. If you feel something was a little off, feel free to inform me and tell me how you might have written it better.
Tony sat back and poured himself another drink while the agents unhooked themselves from their harnesses and slithered forward with weapons in hand. He almost wanted to poke the woman Loki had left on his counter, but resisted the urge. There was no sense in waking a sleeping dragon, if that was what she was.
Almost predictably, the elevator dinged and presented one Nick Fury to him. Making a mental note to check for breaches in his security later, he pointed a finger at SHIELD's director and said, "You owe me new windows."
"If you can afford to slap your name on a building, Stark, you can get yourself new windows," Fury replied, his one good eye fixed on the woman. "Was this Loki's parting gift? Do we need to run a series of tests on you to make sure you're not compromised?"
Tony almost scowled at the way Fury was distancing himself from the woman, like he was already making plans on how to dispose of her or make the most use of her. He rose and set the glass down, moving to lean against the bar and conveniently place himself between Fury and the woman. The agents that had been advancing on her paused and glanced at their commander for direction.
"You know, I think I'm good. All he did was drop her off and threaten to kill or maim us should we do any harm to Sigyn," Tony said and Fury frowned at that.
"And you think you're equipped to handle her should she wake up and start destroying everything?" Fury asked.
"Sir, vital readings indicate that your guest will awaken soon," JARVIS informed them. "If you plan on tranquilizing her as it seems Director Fury intends to, now would be the ideal moment."
"Run a full diagnostic scan and compare readings to those collected on one Loki Liesmith," Tony instructed his AI. There was no reason to stand between Fury and his team intent on collecting her. He owed her nothing, owed Loki even less, but the memory of some of the files he had hacked pressed on him, reminded him of the months he had spent in Afghanistan. Torture was one thing that SHIELD wasn't shy on and one thing he didn't agree with them on. Not the only thing, but the beginning of a very long list, one could say. Amoral shadow organization was the least of such a list that made him look sideways at them.
"Already done, sir. The energy output given off by the two individuals is different from that given off by humans," JARVIS answered.
Tony smiled and drew breath to say something else, but Fury's eye had slid to something just over his shoulder. A crash shortly followed after that and when he turned, he was met with the sight of empty space where Sigyn had lain. Peering around the edge of the bar, he saw the dark haired woman sitting cross-legged on his floor, rubbing at the back of her head, and blinking rapidly.
There was a long moment of silence before JARVIS commented, "I do believe your guest has awoken, sir."
"Thank you, JARVIS. I can see that," Tony replied, sarcasm touching his voice.
At the sound of them talking, she glanced up and froze. Then, she surged to her feet only to lose her balance and stumble against the bar opposite Tony. She gripped the edges of the counter and closed her eyes tightly. After a moment, she opened them again and stared at Tony. "Is this…" she began, voice rasping. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Is this dream or trick? If you are either, then be gone. I've no desire to play host to Odin's games again."
"I'm afraid, sweetheart, that this is very much real," Tony said. "You're on Earth…er…Midgard as your people...reace...lot might know it." She stared at him still and he asked, "You're not going to go on a murderous rampage and start killing everything in sight, right? Because if so, I'm going to have to ask you to start outside."
A slow smile curved her lips as she looked around from him to the others at his back. "You are very strange, for a dream." There was a pause as she seemed to gather her thoughts. "It has been a long time since I last set foot on Midgard."
"That still doesn't answer the question, though," Tony pointed out. "Do you intend to start killing everything in sight on a whim? Ritual dismemberment is highly frowned upon on Earth."
Sigyn chuckled, or at least he assumed the rasping sound she made was an attempt at chuckling."No, human, I've no intentions of committing mass murder for the sake of amusement. I leave that to Thor and the Warriors Three." She paused and her eyes returned to the genius. "If this is no dream, then how did I come to be here? I've no memory of casting a spell and any magic Odin worked on me was meant to leave me stranded in the Abyss."
The final part sounded more like she was thinking to herself rather than talking to him, so he filed that away for later examination and said, "That would be because you caught the Loki express to my humble abode." Her gaze sharpened on him and he continued, "He seemed to think it would be a great idea to drop you in the middle of the home of a known enemy."
Her gaze flicked to the agents at his back and he didn't have to turn to know that her tight expression was due to the proximity of so many weapons. She might actually be defenseless against them all, he realized. "Loki doesn't always make the wisest decisions, but he has never led me too far astray." Her voice was still raspy, though the longer she talked the more of a husky tone it took on. "Might I inquire as to what you humans intend to do with me, if Loki is indeed an enemy of yours."
Tony turned his head a fraction to look at Director Fury, who had moved into his peripheral vision and she followed his gaze. "The last time your little...friend...was seen, he was being taken away in chains to face punishment for attempting a hostile take over," Fury said, striding forward until he was three feet from her. "What we intend to do is prevent another hostile take over. Do you have any objections to that?"
She huffed out another breath of amusement and tilted her head as she studied him. "Do what you must, but I intend you no harm. Whatever Loki has done, I apologize for his actions. If you wish retribution against him, then focus your ire on me and leave him be."
Memory and cold fear trickled into Tony as he moved without thinking. "Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said, sliding around the bar to place himself just a step behind her. "This is my tower, my rules, and I say no torturing my guests. She's been awake, what, five minutes-"
"Six minutes and thirty-three seconds, to be precise, sir," JARVIS cut in. The AI paused and then added, "Forty seconds now."
"Yes, thank you, JARVIS," Tony said while Sigyn looked up at the ceiling. "What he said. She's been awake for longer than five minutes and she's made no hostile move-" could be defenseless now and attack when stronger, doesn't matter, deal with later, ran through his head alongside torture, pain to self, not acceptable to inflict on others. "I think it might be a little extreme to assume she's a hostile and take her away to be tortured. Hell, I think it's a little extreme to try and take the blame for an invasion perpetuated by another individual all together." This, he directed at Sigyn herself and she only glanced at him as amusement flickered through her eyes.
Fury's glare could have melted acid. "We aren't just going to let her roam the streets at random and vanish from our sights. Whatever intelligence she has on Loki has to be collected for future attacks. Agent Dregar, tranquillize the subject."
"JARVIS, deploy the suit if they make another move towards us," Tony said, snagging the bracelet from Sigyn's wrist and sliding it onto his own. She flinched at the contact, but it went unnoticed by anyone else. An agent to his left froze and looked again at Fury and Tony assumed he was the one called Dregar. For her part, Sigyn leaned more heavily on the counter to ease the weight off her legs. Her breathing became a little more labored and the color began to drain from her cheeks. "Easy there, princess, don't die on us just yet."
She ignored his jibe and returned Fury's glare. "I'll give you nothing to use against him," she said. "Torture me as you like, take your anger against him out on me, but do not think for a moment that anything you do to me will extract even an ounce of knowledge you can use to attack Loki."
A moment of silence passed before Tony said to Fury, "Look, even if I have no reason to believe that she's harmless, I do have reason to believe Loki's threat to return and harm and maim those that imprison and torture her is genuine. Believe what you will of me, but I'll allow her to stay here so JARVIS can keep an eye on her and so she isn't wandering the streets unsupervised."
A muscle twitched in Fury's jaw as he studied the pair of them. "If you are compromised, Stark, I'll rip the Arc Reactor out of your chest and feed it to you. For that matter, if she turns out to e crazier than Loki and Thor combined, you get to deal with the clean up."
"Fair enough," Tony said, extending one arm out to Sigyn's side when she started tilting back. "Now, shoo. I have important things I need to be doing." He glanced at the windows as a breeze wafted in. "And windows to replace."
Fury took a step back, paused, and smiled. "Expect the other Avengers within the week. If you're going to be babysitting Loki's girlfriend, you're going to have help doing it." It wasn't a surrender, not even close, but it would do.
Sigyn collapsed before he could make a smart reply and he caught her, bracing her weight against his shoulder and chest. Fury, by that point, had already turned and swept out of the room, leaving his agents to retreat.
Far above, within the realm of Asgard, Heimdall stood on the edge of the shattered Bifrost and peered intently into the darkness below. He Watched as the Lady Sigyn collapsed into the arms of the mortal that had defended her against the others of his kind. Another few minutes saw the retreat of the mortals that had threatened her and the attempts of her defender to move her into another room.
By that point, he sent word to Thor with a request to see the oldest prince of Asgard. In that message, he said nothing of the worry he felt over the plans that the fallen prince was hatching or the concerns he might have felt for the safety of one that had already suffered so much.