"I believe I'll take that drink now." Loki says as the Avengers crowd around him in his defeat. He is covered head to toe in bruises and feels every single one. Not that it matters. It is nothing compared to the pain that he will be feeling soon. His defeat will mean his death. It is only a matter of time now before Thanos receives word of the annihilation of the Chitauri. It would be more merciful if his brother just killed him now.

Thor grabs Loki and hauls him up to his feet. He is too weak and exhausted to fight back. The big green one has transformed him into a limp rag doll. No one speaks a word to him. They merely watch him and guard him to ensure he doesn't escape. With all the destruction to the city it takes over an hour for SHIELD to arrive and slap some decent handcuffs on him. Loki and the Avengers are transported to an FBI building downtown. Nick wants to interrogate Loki before Thor takes him back to Asgard. They need to know if the threat is fully neutralized or if there is more bad news on the way. For all they know, they may have only defeated one small fraction of the Chitauri army.

Loki is plopped down into a hard metal chair in front of a large metal table in a tiny room with a large two way mirror. Natasha and Clint come in.

"Come to gloat?" Loki says with venom dripping from his voice.

"Yes. Yes we have." Clint says. Natasha shoots him a disapproving look. They need information. The rest of the team watches from behind the mirror. Bruce is back down to size and watches Loki as he slides on some clothing Nick managed to dig up for him.

"I wouldn't if I were you." Loki says, and then his gaze goes distant, not focusing on anything in particular.

"Why is that? You have more friends coming?" Natasha asks, not that she really expects a straight answer but she must try to glean what she can from this man.

"In a manner of speaking." Loki says, and this time he actually looks…scared. Why would Loki be afraid of his own people coming here, unless they are coming to kill him for his failure?

"Tell us how many and you and your brother can leave here and return to Asgard. I don't know what kind of justice your people will give you for what you have done here, but I'm willing to bet it will be more merciful than what your friends have planned for you." Clint says.

"You're wrong about that." Loki says cryptically. A moment of silence passes and Clint loses patience. He punches Loki in the face, breaking his hand. Clint cries out in pain. Loki doesn't display any outward damage from the punch. Not even a nose bleed. Natasha drags Clint out of the room. Serves the idiot right for losing his cool during an interrogation.

Bruce watches Loki through the glass. Something is off. He can't put his finger on what it is but something is definitely off. Loki looks….peaceful. It is strange to watch the subtle emotions playing across the god's face as he sits alone in the cell looking at his reflection in the mirror. He went from defiant, to scared, to utter calmness all in the span of just a couple of minutes. Then there, for the first time, Bruce sees something else. Sadness. Why sadness? Loki does not strike him as the remorseful type. Suddenly Loki's whole body goes into convulsions.

"Shit! What is happening?" Tony yells.

"Somebody get in there!" Steve cries. Bruce bolts from the room into Loki's interrogation cell. He pulls at Loki's clothes getting frustrated will all the layers of leather. He loses patience and rips the clothing open on his chest. What he sees makes everyone gasp. Scars. Lots of them. Loki's skin starts turning blue and other things start to appear that disturb the team. Loki is not as healthy as he looks. His face becomes gaunt as the bags under his eyes grow dark, almost black, and his ribs are very prominent.

"Jesus Christ!" Tony yells. While it is obvious where all the fresh bruises came from, there are older injuries that clearly did not come from Loki's battle with the Avengers. Loki screams as his convulsions worsen. There is a sewed up gash on the left side of Loki's abdomen that is bleeding. Bruce pushes on it.

"There's something in there. I can feel it. A foreign body. I need a knife." Bruce says. Natasha hands him one. He reopens the wound causing it to bleed profusely and reaches inside. His fingers wrap around what feels like an egg shaped object and pulls it out. Immediately Loki's seizure stops…. And Bruce starts Hulking out.

"Get out! The pain!" Bruce cries as his skin turns green. Everyone flees from the room leaving Bruce alone with Loki. The egg starts to beep and with horror Steve realizes that the damn thing is booby trapped.

"It's going to blow!" Steve yells, making everyone scatter. The Hulk roars in pain as he crushes the device like a cockroach. Little sparks sputter out of it as it dies in his massive hand. The threat is neutralized. The Hulk shrinks back down and Bruce staggers out of the room, throwing the bent up metal object on the ground. He drops to his knees. Once again he is nearly naked with only shredded rags covering his neither region. In all his life he has never felt such pain. From the tips of his toes to the back of his eyes, every nerve ending was on fire. If he had let go of the torture device it would have exploded.

"Loki." Thor says quietly. They rush the room to find Loki still lying on the floor unconscious. His limp blue body looks broken and twisted like a holocaust survivor. Tony throws up. He knows all about torture. He'd seen the disgusting horrendous things that can be done to the human body when he was a hostage. After being thrown out of a high rise window of his own tower, pity is the last thing Tony expected to feel for the man. But he does. In spite of the anger and desire for revenge, he feels pity for Loki. A man will agree to anything while under torture.

"Get him to a medical bay. He needs to be examined." Steve says.

XxXxXxXxXx

Bruce along with a man named Dr. Stevens comes out of the exam room to report their findings to the others who are all standing in the hallway just outside Loki's room. Dr. Stevens looks pasty and Tony can tell the man has vomited. Bruce looks like he is going to cry.

"Loki is still asleep. We gave him some pain medication though we don't know what level of relief it gives him. We learned a lot about his anatomy. There are multiple layers of scars upon scars on Loki's torso, front and back. It would appear that he has sustained both cuts and burns from both chemical and heat. He was starved at some point and still shows signs of malnourishment, and while we can't confirm it we believe sleep deprivation was also used. There were no signs of sexual abuse that we could find, thankfully. Aside from that little Easter egg we found earlier, all of the damage appears to be externally inflicted." Bruce finishes. Dr. Stevens loses it again and vomits into the waste basket for the third time.

"I don't get it. If they were torturing him why didn't he run when he had the chance?" Clint says.

"They gave him that scepter and put him in charge of the attack. I think they used that thing to keep him on a short leash." Steve says.

"But why use him in the attack at all? What did they stand to gain by using him?" Natasha asks.

"Asgard. He would have used his triumph here to enslave the human population and turn everyone into mindless drones he could use to expand his army. Even Asgard cannot fight against a swarm of a billion mortals and Loki knows Asgard's weaknesses and routines. Though whether the purpose was to conquer Asgard, destroy it, or to simply get into the weapons vault, I know not." Thor says.

"What's in the weapons vault in Asgard?" Tony asks.

"Dozens of items, all powerful enough to destroy this world and any other of one's choosing. Unfortunately the only person that can answer our questions is Loki, and his word cannot be trusted." Thor says.

XxXxXxXxXx

Loki slowly opens his eyes to a sensation he has not felt in a long time. Comfort. The pain is gone….relatively speaking. Like a constant companion it had hummed inside him, ever present and reminding him that with the push of a button, Thanos could kill him should he betray him. He can tell there are pain killers in his system and he relishes the high it gives him. He is too exhausted to question why he is being given comfort. He doesn't have the strength to care. There are tubes in his arm and several bags of fluids being fed into him. Loki doesn't know what they are, he just hopes the drugs keep coming.

"Good Morning." Bruce says. Loki has been asleep for four days and they took to feeding him intravenously. "How do you feel?"

"What do you care?" Loki asks. "I find it hard to believe you have any genuine concern for my welfare." Loki says flatly. Bruce looks at him with a grim expression.

"How long did they torture you?" Bruce asks. Loki looks horrified then, realizing he is wearing a hospital gown and at some point someone had to undress him, and worst of all, he is blue. Wait? How is he even still alive?

"I should be dead." Loki says.

"Yes you should be. That device they implanted in you not only emits painful pulses along the body's nervous system it also acts as a bomb when removed. I crushed it." Bruce says.

"If you were smart you would have let me die." Loki says.

"Yeah, well I didn't. Do you mind explaining something to me, since I spared your life and all?" Bruce asks. Loki raises his eyebrows at him.

"Why did you lead the attack?" Bruce asks.

"It was the best option presented to me at the time." Loki says cryptically.

"What were the other choices?" Bruce asks.

"It no longer matters." Loki says.

"I think it does."

"In the grand scheme of things it really doesn't. There is no hope for anyone now." Loki says sounding utterly defeated.

"And why is that?"

"We are all going to die. Your world is damned and your people now face certain extinction. I cannot help you now."

"Help us? You just tried to conquer Earth and enslave the human race! You call that helping us?" Bruce says getting angry.

"Enslavement or extinction. One of them lets you live to fight another day. The other is just…nothingness. Believe me or don't. I frankly don't give a flying fuck."