"It just occurred to me: What if Odin's a playable character." Tony-in-the-Bed looks at his life partner.

"What do you mean," Bruce asks him. "What are you thinking, Tony?"

Tony shrugs. "I was just thinking. – Wondering how an Asgardian would program something like this."

"Well it would be magic, not programming." Other-Tony, from across the room. "That's what they use on Asgard..."

"Yeah, but what's cool:" Bruce interrupts. "Maybe this whole thing wasn't pre-planned ahead of time. Maybe Odin in there somewhere, and he can watch, and change the variables according to how Loki plays."

Loki frowns. The thought of All-Father watching his ever reaction is distasteful.

"That would be a programmer's dream." Modell speaks excitedly: "Imagine being able to tailor a game directly to each individual player... – Being player and programmer at the same time. I'm almost jealous of Odin."

"We don't know that such is indeed the case. All-Father is busy." Loki parrots the words he has heard his whole life: His father is "busy", he cannot take time away from the throne for a child's petty concerns. "I doubt he would forsake his duties for a mere simulation."

"We all know how much you hate your dad." Tony from the first step of this simulation, who has been his companion now, for so long. "You're never going to to give him credit for anything." He looks at the other Tony. "So what you're saying is maybe Odin's been playing this game right along with Loki? Like, running it and playing at the same time?"

"Basically." His alternate version looks at Thor. "Would your dad do that?"

"And he did it..." – Thor's simple blue eyes are troubled, his face creased. – "And All-Father gave of his time like that brother, I know it would be because he cares about you. He wants to spend time with you, all of us do, Loki."

Oh yes he does! The bitter thoughts crowd Loki's mind. Odin is so desperate, always to spend time with him, that he left him to grow to adulthood without knowing the truth of his parentage. He took the time to plan a coronation for Thor, that he must have understood would never, and could never end in his Kingship, but he could not be bothered to spare a moment to tell his younger child that he was of Jotun descent. E'en when he did tell him, why was that? Only because Loki had penetrated his precious Treasure Vault.

"All-Father has his heir." His voice is low. "He has no need for a Frost Giant's issue."

Thor stands. He puts out his hands, moves forward. "Brother..."

Loki turns away. There will be no more of these lies. And the Thunderer wishes to delude himself, he may, but Loki Silvertongue is cleverer.

"That's not what I meant anyway." Tony-From-This-World's voice cleaves through the tension in the room. "I was thinking how much more control this gives Loki: If nothing's set in stone here, that means he's in control of the outcome."

Loki swallows. "I am not. Odin would never allow it."

"Yeah, depending how the game's set up, he might not have any choice." Bruce waves a hand. "You either give the players freedom, or you don't. You can't give it first and then take it away."

"Like you could be one of the guys that designed Call of Duty, but a player could still hand you your ass." Tony-From-The-First-World grins. "I did that one time," he says. "I played one of the guys from the design team and I kicked his ass. – Of course I was also hacking the game at the time... – C'mon, Reindeer Games, at least give it a try. You can't say you wouldn't like the chance to hand your dad his ass."

Bruce's interruption: "Metaphorically, of course. It's not a fighting game, remember? I say you go back, Loki. You see what kind of puzzle the All-Father has for you this time. Then you totally beat it."

Modell looks at Thor. "You think Odin'll let your brother out after one more battle?"

Eager Thor is ready with the proper, approved answer. "And my brother shows he has changed, Father will release him. I am sure of it"

Changed. It is a strange word that can mean many things. He is different than he was when he came in here, that much at least, Loki knows. Has he changed in the way All-Father would want him to? – Does he, even wish to have done? – Of that, there is no way to be sure.

When he returns to "Asgard", Loki brings the Tony from the first world, and his woman. They have been with him, it seems, for his entire time in here. He knows not what they are, whether beings in their own right or simulations merely. Perhaps they are figments of his own imagination, hallucinations dreamed up so that he would not be alone. Whatever they are, he feels he knows them now. And they have called themselves his friends.

Thor returns with them as well. He kneels at the base of All-Father's throne and he presents Loki to him as before. And is this the real Odin who looks down at him, Loki wonders, in this false pretense of a throne room he has returned to? Does he care if his younger son has "changed"? – Does he in fact, even deign to grace him with his presence? This time, Loki hesitates not to kneel, so intent is he upon having an end to this. He bows his head, raises it only after All-Father grants leave, looks up into the face of the one he once thought father.

Odin is careworn, older-looking than he'd remembered. He looks down, and a smile lights his wrinkled face. Something that looks like tenderness shines in the one eye that is visible.

"My son, you have returned."

Loki meets his gaze. "I return merely that I may leave."

Behind Odin, unglimpsed until now, there is a door. Like the last one he saw here, it is grand in keeping with its surroundings; like the last one, it was never here before until now. The old man gestures to it. "Go my son, the door awaits."

"Just like that?" Surprising, the interruption comes from the woman Pepper. "Tony, did you ...Do you buy this for a minute?"

Tony's voice: "Shhh."

Loki stares at the door. "It is too easy." His gaze flicks All-Father. "Why pray, should I trust you? Did you not lie before, about my very parentage?"

"I lied." Odin nods. "Many times since, I have regretted it. I thought to protect you only."

To protect... The thought sticks in his mind. It is too close to what he did himself, with the child Bruce.

"I thought you a child, incapable of understanding. I thought there would be time and enough to correct my oversight."

As he thought himself, when he made those first changes to the simulation... - Wherefore these thoughts, Loki asks himself? From whence this sudden identification with All-Father's intentions?

...And more to the point, why should he trust him, when he has lied in the past? Loki looks at the door.

"Do not doubt, my son." Odin sounds very old. "The door is yours, you may choose to take it. Will you trust, Loki? Will you take the chance that others besides yourself have learned from their mistakes?"

"I made no mistakes." E'en as he says the words, Loki knows they are not true. Mistakes he has made, and he has learned from them. "Say rather," he corrects himself, "my only mistake was to trust you before."

Still, it is a lie. The child Bruce died in the one simulated world, because he was careless in his treatment of him. How is he, then, so very different from All-Father?

Softly, he speaks. "I will never call you Father. I trust you not," – And as he speaks, he moves forward, hand outstretched to find the door. – "nor will I ever serve you."

"I served you once, old man." His hand on the door-latch, he turns back to Odin, now behind him. "Or rather, you used me. How did that work out for you?"

All he sees is the old man's head shaking. "No better than it works for any," Odin says, "when they would use another. I pray you and your brother will be comrades, rather than either of you expecting the other to serve."

"All-Father, we will!" From far below, Loki hears the Thunderer's voice. Naive Thor, trusting, innocent, good Thor, who is gulled so easily and so often. What will it be like when such as he assumes the throne? He will need protection, for his own sake, as well as for the realm's.

"Thor trusts too easily," he murmurs and, before the words are out of his mouth, comes Odin's response:

"That is why he needs you, my son."

Loki lifts the latch and pushes the door open. From inside, a dimness grown unfamiliar after his long absence. The cell again? It looks like it, certainly.

He turns to meet Odin's gaze. "Another lie, All-Father?"

"It is what you make it," the old man says, "as is your life, my son."

"Brother..." Thor, or his simulation speaks. "I would bid you farewell."

"Why," asks Friend-Tony. "Unlike us, you're on the other side too."

His words are true. E'en Loki returns to Midgard, and to the Tony Stark there, it will not be his Tony. It will not be the one who has stayed with him, and adventured with him, and returned with him, twice so far, to Asgard. "I would bid you farewell." The words leave his lips unthought.

"A hug!" Thor again, his enthusiasm ever unprompted.

Tony puts out his hand. "You might do some good things, Reindeer Games, at least if you pick some good partners the next time around."

He takes the outstretched hand. "We do not part yet. I am very sure this is another deception." But he is not. He has looked already, and it is the cell in verity. He has seen the walls, the cot and table, the outer door. Even, he has glimpsed the window in the outer door, and the two faces peering through it.

"Do me a favor." It is the woman Pepper. "When you see Tony in your world, try not to throw him off anything while his suit is broken."

"This time I am sure," says Thor. "My brother will fight on the same side as we."

"I will not be an Avenger. I am not a mortal to fight among such." Loki tries to pull his hand away from the woman. He could force himself free, but he would not. Then when Pepper puts her arms around him, he is not surprised. What surprises him is when she pulls him down and Tony joins the hug.

"My friends," he says softly. "I wonder if I will find your like when I leave the portal."

"Exactly like us," Tony says.

No, he thinks, not exactly, for they will not share history with him like their counterparts. "And I meet them, I will treat them well for your sake."

He crosses the threshold of the portal and crossing, he sees the outer door already opening. Thor enters; after him, Odin follows.

"All-Father." Inside him, suddenly, a child's longing. Loki kneels, unbidden. "You did not have to come," he says. "You are busy Father, I know."

"In truth, I came because your brother asked me to."

Ere Loki can feel the anger prompted by the words, Thor opens the outer door and enters. He puts his hands on Loki's shoulders, pulls him to a standing position.

"I stayed because I chose to," All-Father continues. "Because I would see what the Sly One did when given a world of his own to make free with." His voice softens. "You have learned wisdom, my son."

"No thanks to you." Standing, Loki does not move away from the Thunderer. He does not move nearer his father.

"Thanks to yourself," All-Father says. "Thanks only to yourself."

"And is my brother free then?" Thor too, stays where is is, and close to Loki.

Odin nods. "As free as you or I, son."

"Brother, did you hear that?" Brilliant, the smile that splits the face of the Thunderer, as he turns and takes both Loki's hands. "What would you do first with your freedom?"

What? Oh, so many things come to mind: A night in his own bed again, a meal of the foods he likes, rather than the bread and small beer that are a prisoner's fare, perhaps a visit to his adoptive mother Frigga. Loki smiles. "Mayhap I will become an Avenger."

Amusing, the look of surprise that crosses the Thunderer's face. "You were not asked."

Loki hears a laugh and turns, catching his father's eye. He looks back at Thor. "And I wish it, it will happen."

My interpretation of Odin is based a lot on the one in Mike Vasich's book "Loki". In Vasich's book, he's almost as manipulative as Loki, only his intention is to bring order, rather than chaos. Frankly, I think Marvel movie-verse makes him out way too "sweet" and "fatherly". There's a limit to how much time you can give to good Daddying and still make the hard decisions for the Nine Realms.