Ahh! This took way too long to post! I'm terribly sorry, my wonderful readers, life got rather busy for me. On the bright side, this chapter was originally turning out to be much longer and it was still in the works, so I cut it in half so you can have this part now. That means the next update should be very soon, since it's almost done already. Yay for updates!

Now then, let's see what happened to our favorite duo.

As far as questionable choices went, Loki's decision to side with the humans was one for the record books. What was he thinking? It had seemed like the less horrible choice at the time, but now? Well, he would just have to accept the fact that he'd gone mad and get over it. Loki could only hope that his history of bad luck and defeat didn't follow him to plague the mortals as well. He sighed and looked down at Stark, who was unconscious and struggling to breathe by the looks of it. He supposed he should do something about it… After all, somewhere in the back of his mind he was beginning to worry. He'd have to attend to himself as well, his shoulder was aching and his armor was already soaked through with blood. Nothing he couldn't handle though.

Loki knelt down beside Tony, thinking back to when the mortal first showed signs of injury and inwardly cursing him for being so fragile. It must have been the explosion in the S.H.I.E.L.D. base. A trail of blood had made its way from the corner of his mouth, which only prompted Loki's thoughts to wander amongst morbid fantasies about utterly destroying the miserable creatures of this realm… No, he mustn't think that way. He was supposed to be on their side now, which he was still trying to accept. In reality he was supposed to be working for them since Odin had forced him to accompany Thor to Midgard, but the idea of him aiding the Avengers of his own volition still felt foreign and strange.

He turned his attention back to Stark and placed his hand on Tony's chest. He felt the cold surface of the arc reactor and wondered vaguely how it was keeping Stark alive. Of all the things Clint had told him, he'd never found out about Stark's weakness.

"You know," Loki said, his expression turning to a glare, "I hate you for this. I could have done it, Stark, I could have taken that Chitauri's side and used its strength against your people. But you had to make things so difficult. No matter how much I would have liked to take revenge, I simply could not. You horrible bastard, you've been too kind."

"Mister Loki, I hate to interrupt this moment," Jarvis chimed in, nearly making Loki jump. He'd forgotten about the computer. "But Mister Stark's health is deteriorating at an alarming rate. You may want to take action."

"Right, yes…" Loki murmured, closing his eyes and concentrating. It had been a long time since he'd used his magic to heal, and even then he rarely used it on anyone other than himself. Yet again he found himself hoping this would work, otherwise he might end up harming Stark further. As much as he would hate to admit it, he didn't actually want that to happen.

Everything was dark. If Tony had to choose a shade of dark he would say 'pitch black.' He didn't remember how he'd gotten here. There was no sound, not even the echo of his own footsteps registered as he began walking. There was no direction, no sense of place or time, no substance… It didn't even feel like there was air in the great, empty space that was currently surrounding him.

Tony looked down at his hands. He could see himself perfectly well despite the lack of light in his surroundings. For whatever reason, he was wearing the Iron Man suit. Although the glow of his arc reactor was rather bright, it didn't do much to illuminate the space he was in. The darkness just went on and on and on…

Or did it? Perhaps his mind was playing tricks on him, but he thought he could see a light in the distance. There was really nothing to do but start heading in that direction. As he got closer, he could see that the light was from hundreds, maybe thousands of stars high above him. Not just stars, either… It looked like galaxies and nebulas and colors he didn't even know existed, all standing out against the black void they illuminated. And right in the middle of all the light was Loki.

He was standing in front of a mirror. He didn't seem to notice Tony approach; he was focused so intently on his own reflection that he didn't bother to look around. But there was something… strange about his appearance. While his reflection looked exactly like the Loki that Tony remembered the day of the battle with the Chitauri, the Loki looking into the mirror looked much different. He seemed younger and was wearing much lighter armor. There was something else, too… It was as if their demeanors didn't quite match up.

As he approached, Loki spoke. "How desperate are you that you would call upon such lost creatures to defend you?"

Tony recalled the first time he'd said that to Fury. He had been full of spite, as his reflection was now. But the Loki standing before him seemed affected in a different way… He couldn't quite put a finger on how, though. Loki continued to ignore Tony as he spoke again.

"Freedom is life's great lie." the pair said, mirroring each other as one might expect.

"Loki?" Tony said, moving closer. He was ignored.

"In the end, you will always kneel." Loki's reflection grinned, but Loki himself looked away. He seemed so… sad. Defeated.

For some reason this was enough to make Tony angry. Not just angry, really pissed. No one treated Loki like that, not even Loki himself. He wasn't sure why he was getting so defensive, but he didn't question it. He raised his hand to the mirror to blast the thing to tiny shards with his repulsor, but Loki turned around and held his hands up.

"No, Stark! I am nothing without him."

Him? The Loki in the reflection? But they were two different people! Tony opened his mouth to protest, but he found that all he could do was cough.

"Stark." Loki said, becoming rather fuzzy and indistinct. Tony could see that Loki's reflection was smirking malevolently before it too became fuzzy. The stars were beginning to fade.

"Stark, can you hear me?"

Tony's eyes snapped open and he realized that he was lying on the floor with Loki's shadow looming over him. His memory quickly came back as he turned over and coughed again. Thankfully, the pain in his chest had vanished. Had he been dreaming? Freud would have a field day with something like that, the symbolism was rampant. He couldn't help but wonder, though, if any part of such an odd vision had some truth to it. Something else had dawned on him as well; Loki had mentioned Natasha. Tony couldn't understand the Chitauri, but Loki had been implying that Tasha was… No, he didn't want to think about the possibility.

"How long have I been out?" he rasped, looking back at Loki. He tried to sit up, but the trickster had him firmly pinned to the ground with his hand on Tony's chest.

"A few minutes at the most. How do you feel?"

That was a strange question… coming from Loki it seemed particularly out of place. Did he really care? "I feel alive, which is probably a good thing. What did you do?"

"As intelligent as you are, Stark, I doubt even you would understand the intricacies of magic." He grinned and leaned back, giving Tony some room. "I'd like to give you time to recover, but I'm afraid we haven't any time to spare."

"Why's th-" Tony was cut off abruptly by the sound of doors opening and a cacophony of footsteps heading in their direction. Steve and Bruce were the first to appear. The captain had drawn his weapon and had it pointed at Loki as soon as he set his eyes on the scene. The rest of the team emerged shortly after, all in mixed states of shock and panic. Thor somehow managed to make his way past the rest of the group to stand next to his brother, much to Loki's dismay. Thankfully, Fury had already gone back to the Helicarrier, and Pepper stayed upstairs.

"Would you put that thing down before someone gets hurt, Rogers?" Loki snapped, scowling at the group. Apparently they hadn't been fully informed on the situation. Tony could see how this could be misleading, what with the Chitauri already gone and Loki kneeling above him like a hawk.

"Jarvis, you seriously didn't tell them what happened down here?" he said, sitting up without Loki holding him down this time. The sudden rush of dizziness made him understand why the trickster had insisted he stay down in the first place. Tony was really getting sick of being incapacitated in some manner; he made a mental note to take Pepper on an extremely long, safe vacation after all of this was over. Maybe they could go somewhere he wasn't likely to get beat down by aliens in.

"No sir, I wasn't exactly aware of the situation myself. I will better inform them next time, sir."

Tony snorted at the A.I.'s response and looked up at the group. "It's alright, it was the Chitauri, not Loki."

Steve lowered his gun immediately. "Sorry, force of habit. What happened?"

"That thing was intruding on my systems. Well, we didn't know that when we came down here, but yeah, he was messing around with my stuff." He wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his sleeve. "Still don't know what it wanted though. Maybe it was just playing with us."

"Actually, that's not quite correct." Everyone's eyes were on Loki. "It did mention what it was after-"

"Wait, you can understand it?" Bruce said, looking more amazed than disturbed by this.

"We do not speak languages in the way you do," Thor said as Loki stood up, placing a hand over his injured shoulder and beginning to mend it with magic. "We speak the All-tongue, we can understand nearly any language."

Clint raised an eyebrow. "Really? I'd always wondered why Loki was speaking to a huge crowd of Germans in English last year, I just kind of assumed he was an idiot."

"Go on Loki, what did the thing say?" Steve asked, achieving the highest level of civility Tony had ever seen in the soldier with regard to Loki. Perhaps the captain was finally accepting his presence.

"It wants to find a way to finish what it started. If it can open a portal to the rest of the Chitauri without the tesseract, it's going to do it. It also thinks it'll be able to obtain the tesseract from Asgard once it's done with Midgard."

There was a pause, in which everyone looked at each other with quite confused expressions. Bruce spoke up again. "That isn't possible, is it? The Chitauri would need massive amounts of energy to achieve the same sort of portal, and without the tesseract it won't be able to just find the technology on Earth…"

Loki sighed wearily. "That's not true either. The technology has already been created here on Midgard, you mortals simply don't know how to make it function."

"Where is it then?" Steve said, asking the question that was already on everyone's mind.

Tony could have sworn he saw Loki look at Thor, if only for a second. "It was built by Jane Foster and Erik Selvig, and it remains in their keeping."

The room went quiet. Getting Thor upset was nearly as bad as angering Bruce, though perhaps Thor didn't have as much control over his emotional state as Bruce did. The news of his pretty little human being in any sort of danger would certainly hit Thor hard. Surprisingly though, he took the news well.

"If we know where the vile creature is going, then we shall get there first. It will not stand a chance against our combined might." Thor lifted his hammer victoriously, as if they had already won. Everyone else seemed to agree with him, but Loki was still looking somber.

"As nice as that would be," Loki said, turning to face Thor fully this time, "The Chitauri also mentioned that we only have a few hours before its explosives detonate somewhere in the city, where we will also find Agent Romanoff."

Dead silence. So Natasha was alive? The relief at the knowledge was only momentary, as the detonation of explosives in Manhattan was among the worst scenarios anyone could imagine. Tony stood up, using the console behind him for support.

"That's going to have to be our top priority then." Steve said, giving Thor an apologetic look. Now Thor truly did seem upset. It couldn't have been easy for him to just leave Jane at the mercy of the Chitauri while they dealt with a more pressing matter, but they weren't about to leave the city on its own. Not to mention Natasha was still in danger.

"I could fly ahead while you deal with the threat in the city. Surely you don't need me for some explosives." Thor said confidently, looking at Steve as if he was challenging the captain to disagree.

Steve sighed and looked around at the others. "I'm sorry Thor, but… I think we should stick together on this one. Every time one of us has gone off alone we've run into trouble. I'll admit, I should have listened to Tony."

Well that was the most satisfying thing Tony had heard all day. "That's alright Capsicle, no use living in the past. We should get moving if we're going to prevent horrible stuff from happening, though."

Thor looked ready to object, but Loki wouldn't let him. "I know this Jane Foster is important to you, but stop and think for a moment. You care for your mortal realm, yes?" Thor nodded, looking at Loki. "Well then, we shall have to protect it. I am sure it is possible for these 'S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to warn Foster and Selvig before we can get to them anyway."

Clint offered a curt nod. "S.H.I.E.L.D. keeps tabs on people like Jane and Erik, we know how to get to them." He paused, quietly adding, "Could we get going, maybe?" As if in unspoken agreement, the team began heading back the way they had come.

Tony was surprised to say the very least. He had never expected such behavior from Loki, particularly in regard to Thor. Could it be that the trickster was actually willing to sympathize with his brother? The thought seemed absurd, but perhaps this brief interaction between princes of Asgard was a window to a far off past, one where these two vastly different individuals had truly been brothers. As Steve led the group back to the elevator and Tony stumbled along (still quite disoriented, whether from injury or the magic that continued to make his skin tingle, he wasn't sure), he couldn't help but wonder what these Asgardians used to be like. He decided he'd have to ask Loki later. Granted, childhood was probably a sore subject for him, but Tony was far too curious (and too reckless) to avoid the subject.

Tony would also have to build bigger elevators in the next extravagant building he frivolously threw money at. Six people might not usually make for a horrible elevator experience, but with Thor and Steve taking up more space than humanly necessary and everyone trying to find their own pocket of space where they wouldn't have to touch anyone else (the Avengers weren't that close) it was a bit cramped.

"Bruce," he said, breaking the silence, "I'm kinda happy you come in two different sizes right about now."

Clint and Steve snickered while Thor produced what could only be described as a guffaw, making things all the funnier. Even Loki cracked a smile. This was how Tony preferred things to be; calm and tension-free.

Bruce fidgeted under the attention and smiled rather uncertainly. "Yeah, well… Lucky for you I get to choose what size I come in. Most of the time, anyway." Tony grinned. Bruce was always such a good sport.

"Hey Tony." Clint said as the elevator reached its destination back in the general living room area, "Before Pepper sees you, you should probably know you look like shit."

"And here I thought you were going to tell me that I'm pretty." Tony answered with a dramatic sigh, prompting another round of snickering and an eye roll from the resident villain. Now that he thought about it, he probably did look horrible despite the fact that he felt much better. Whatever Loki had done with his magic left him feeling perfectly healthy, though he hadn't quite gotten rid of the taste of blood yet. Looking down he realized the front of his shirt was stained with blood as well. Though he was taking it lightly, Tony was beginning to wonder exactly how badly he'd been injured. He could guess from his not-inconsiderable knowledge of anatomy that he'd punctured a lung. Or two. He'd have to thank Loki later. Speaking of the trickster, Loki's armor was covered in blood too, though Tony saw that he'd healed himself as well.

They looked like battle partners. If only Tony was wearing Asgardian garb, they'd be the most ridiculously awesome duo that ever existed. Well, according to the part of his mind that was still a child anyway. Looking at the brothers, Tony found himself wondering how often Loki and Thor had fought side-by-side. From what little he'd heard of Thor's stories, they used to 'adventure' together often in their youth. It was difficult to imagine they could have traveled such different paths since then.

The doors slid open and everyone piled out, focused once again on the task at hand. Explosives. Natasha. A few hours left. Right. The group gathered in the little area full of sofas in the middle of his spacious living room while Tony poured himself a glass of completely non-alcoholic water.

"How did this creature obtain explosives?" Thor asked as everyone sat down. Loki elected to stand over by the window, avoiding everyone's gaze. Drama queen.

"Probably found them at S.H.I.E.L.D. There was a ton of crazy technology down there." Clint offered, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling.

Bruce nodded in affirmation. "It could be old Hydra technology, or the leftover Phase Two weaponry…"

Tony pondered this. "If it's either of those, we can-"

But before he could complete his sentence, Pepper stormed into the room looking absolutely irate. "Tony Stark!"

Oh no. Where had she come from? Tony had hoped she would be busy elsewhere, but apparently he wasn't that lucky. He hadn't even gotten a chance to change shirts. Damn it. "Yes Pepper dear?"

"You really need to stop doing this, Tony! Jarvis told me what happened, you can't keep running off and getting into trouble. Honestly, it's like living with a child around you!"

"Pepper, I'm-"

"No excuses, I'm sick of worrying about you. I know you have things to do, but-"

"Pep…"

"Could you at least try to be careful? I know that's a lot to ask of you, but could you just-"

"Pepper!" he said, utilizing Thor-quality volume, "I'm sorry and I love you and all that, but can we please have this conversation later? We're busy avenging."

Pepper glared, but she seemed to understand by everyone's expressions that this was indeed a serious matter and that Tony would be free to chastise after their little meeting. She narrowed her eyes at him and pointed a finger at his face. "Watch yourself, Tony."

He gave her a hasty nod and she stalked off, no doubt to make another business call. He felt slightly guilty that the business aspects of Stark Industries were still on her shoulders, but most of the time she actually enjoyed it. Who was he to get in her way?

It took him a moment to realize that everyone was staring at him. How rude.

"Did he just say the 'L' word?" Clint asked in hushed tones, looking to the others for confirmation.

"Which one? 'Love' or 'later'?" Bruce inquired, grinning at Clint.

"Okay, back to the point." Tony said hurriedly, feeling the warmth of a blush on his cheeks. Yes, he loved Pepper. He really, truly adored her, but that wasn't the kind of thing he liked to talk about. He wasn't ashamed or embarrassed, it was just… Weird. "As I was saying," he continued, "If the Chitauri Hydra or Phase Two tech, we can track it. That stuff gives off distinct gamma signatures."

"Can we be certain this is the technology our enemy used?" Thor asked.

"Well, no," Bruce offered, "But it's our best guess and we should go with it. There wasn't much in that bunker that wouldn't be traceable anyway, so it'd be reasonable to just start looking for energy signatures."

"Good, because we don't have any time to spare." Steve declared. "Stark, Doctor Banner, get to work on tracking down our target. Agent Barton, Thor, Loki, get yourselves ready to leave. I'm calling Fury, we'll need a quinjet." And with that, Tony and Bruce set to work (with all due haste) on tracking down the latest thing that threatened to blow their peaceful city to bits. They could only hope they would have enough time.

Finding the signal didn't take long at all, which was a good thing considering it had been at least a half hour since they'd fought off the Chitauri, and the alien had told them they only had hours to spare. Did that mean two? Five? Were they down to one? Either way, they found the signal.

Loki stood back and watched while the scientists analyzed their data, partially distracted by wounds that, though mended by magic, had refused to heal completely. He was a conjuror, not a healer. It was miracle enough that Stark was alive, but he'd been particularly focused in Tony's case. This mortal was really beginning to grow on him, as much as he hated to concede such a thing even to himself. All feelings of hatred and desires for revenge were slowly beginning to fade, and whether Loki realized it or not, he was beginning to like working with this team. There was solace in being amongst these people, even if he was woefully alone most of the time.

He couldn't help but notice that the team looked exhausted. It was no wonder too, considering how long they had been kept from sleep by this single Chitauri. Even Loki was feeling the strain by now, and he could see it in Thor as well.

"We have the signal now, at least…" Bruce muttered as he looked at the large projection in the middle of the room, featuring a two dimensional map of the city and a flashing point of light that represented their target. "But it's not staying in one place."

Stark nodded, watching the little point slowly make its way around the city. "That doesn't make much sense. What if…" He trailed off and turned the projection on its side with a gesture, so the map was now laid out horizontally in front of them. With another visual cue from the inventor, the holographic city stretched itself out and became three dimensional. Every little building was detailed perfectly. The little point of light, as it turns out, was underground and following what looked like a system of tunnels.

"I had kinda hoped I would be wrong, but it looks like I wasn't." Stark observed, looking to the rest of the team. "The explosives are somewhere in the subway."

"Subway?" Thor asked, looking inquisitive. Loki was interested as well; he'd never seen what the mortals called a 'subway' before.

"Yeah, underground transportation. You know, I'm really getting sick of being underground." Tony said, exasperated.

"What are we waiting for then?" Clint demanded, "Let's go!"

"Keep your tights on, Legolas, we're going." Tony grinned and gave Clint a wink.

As the group made their way to the quinjet waiting outside (and Stark went off to get his armor) Thor leaned over to Loki and lowered his voice. "Brother, I'm still not sure what this 'subway' is."

The trickster looked at Thor. "Nor am I, but I suppose we're about to find out."

Yes, they're going to find Natasha, but I have a surprise for you. You'll have to wait to find out!

~Nightlance