A/N: This is my first multi-chap Avengers fic, hope you enjoy! Please R&R, it would make my day :) Also, didn't have much time to edit, so sorry for any mistakes.

Prologue

Loki paced inside his new cell, wondering not what punishment the Asgardians were discussing for him, but the Chitauri. The Other had made it very, very clear on what would happen if he failed.

He knew that to most onlookers it would just look as though he was raging over his defeat by the Avengers, as they called themselves, but it was much, much worse than that- for them as well as him. His rage would not just be a small tantrum, no, it would destroy them all.

Loki sat on the "bed"-in actuality a metal shelf- and put his head in his hands. Instantly, his mind flashed back to his last meeting with the Other in the strange, rocky realm that looked as though a moon had exploded into a thousand fragments.

"You think you know pain?" the Other had hissed. "If you fail, he will make you long for something as sweet as pain." The hiss had turned into a snarl as the Other had placed his cold, scaly hand on Loki's cheek.

"You seem troubled, brother," a deep voice said, shaking Loki out of his musings.

Thor. The great oaf. Why couldn't he leave Loki alone? He needed to get as far away as possible. Though even that wouldn't matter... his mind drifted back to the Other's promise.

"You will have your war, Asgardian. If the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no crevice, no barren moon where he cannot find you."

"Brother!" Thor said, snapping Loki once again from his thoughts.

"I. Am. Not. Your. Brother." Loki ground out, still holding his head in his hands.

"You will always be my brother, Loki," Thor replied. "Now what troubles you so?"

Loki snarled. Thor was too forgiving, too sweet. It made his gut churn. Anything, anything would be better that puppy-dog face, the stubborn attitude that wouldn't allow him to let go. Fight me! Loki wanted to scream. Hate me! Anything, anything but forgiveness! For Loki knew, while Thor was ignorant, that he had done things far too horrible for forgiveness to fix anything.

"Nothing you'll be able to anything about," Loki muttered darkly, and lay down, back turned to Thor.

Thor started to say something, but was cut off by the some announcement over the radio.

"I must go, brother," Thor said, looking at his watch (Loki was surprised- Thor knew how to use a watch?), and walked out after a nod of farewell.

"By all means, do," Loki muttered after Thor had gone.

When Tony got back from their mission (it was just a few rouge Chitauri, nothing to be worried about) he knew something was up. SHEILD agents in black uniforms ran frantically back and forth, shouting to each other. Fury was yelling into his headset, chewing out someone while Hill walked around other agents sitting at their computer monitors, snapping out orders. Red lights flashed, and a shrill siren sounded dimly.

"You know, I don't think you even need Loki here," Tony said nonchalantly, hands in his pockets. "You got the chaos thing down pat."

Fury glared at him. "That's the problem, Stark- Loki isn't here."

Tony was flabbergasted. "He escaped? From a cage I built? That's a little hurtful, you know."

"This isn't a joking matter, Stark!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Tony said, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. "Take a chill pill. I'll check it out."

"Get going, then," an aggravated Fury muttered while turning back to his bank of screens.

Tony walked down to his lab, whistling idly. He typed in his code, and the doors opened silently. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he called out a greeting to Bruce and JARVIS.

"Heard the new gossip? Loki's managed to escape," he said cheerfully.

"Yes, I have, and I think you should be doing something about that," Bruce mumbled while fixedly looking at the screen and whatever he was working on.

"Yeah, yeah," Tony said absently. "JARVIS, pull up the security camera footage from... eh, six hours ago."

The billionaire fast-forwarded through three hours and forty-seven minutes of Loki alternately pacing or lying on his bed staring blankly at the ceiling. How boring. Tony voiced his thoughts aloud.

"This guy must be so bored. I mean, all he does is pace. When we get him back in there, d'you think we should get him some magazines or something?"

Bruce ignored him. Tony sighed and sprawled back on his favorite leather spinney chair, and began scrolling through footage again.

Finally, he found something of interest, something out of the monotone of pacing and waiting. "Whoa, JARVIS, slow down there. Yeah, at 2:24 pm."

Tony's eyes widened as he replayed the footage for a third time.

"Hey, Brucey-boy? You might want to look at this."