Loki woke to a muted shade of white ceiling. It reminded him of the prison cells in Asgard. He disliked it.

Slowly, Loki gazed around. It was the same room he'd woken up to only a day before, he was fairly certain - except much tidier. The broken crystal left from the old tesseract had vanished; otherwise he couldn't find any real difference. He lifted his gaze to eye-level.

There was a very large difference, and it was sitting right in front of him. The realization that Loki wasn't alone jolted him into perception.

Thor, settled in between the door and the cabinet, watched him uncertainly. Discomfort wrote all over his features, but Loki assumed that came from sitting in a chair meant for a much smaller frame. When he saw Loki notice him, his face brightened – if only an iota.

"Hello, brother."

He even held a small ornament, but didn't throw it. Perhaps he thought it would cause Loki harm.

If Thor thinks a small metal weight would detriment me considerably, Loki realized with a start, I must be in a worse shape than I assumed.

That or Thor was being overcautious, but Loki shook and sat himself upright with the aim of testing his strength.

Physically, he was in surprisingly good shape. Still, there was a hollow kind of weakness that ran through his bones, and Loki sat still for a moment, trying to understand the strange event.

Magic.

The realization came upon him with a start.

It's completely shut off.

In a technical sense, he knew he'd overused it and it would slowly return. But even with that in mind, he felt uncomfortable, like he was lacking something vital. If he stood up he'd probably find himself off balance.

Thor, still watching, squeezed the ornament tightly.

It's the Mjolnir hand, Loki thought, idly. I'm surprised it doesn't break in his grasp.

He also realized that he hadn't said anything in response to Thor's greeting.

"You've been residing over me," Loki started with.

"Shall I send Stark in?"

"Like a stubborn nurse." Loki continued.

Thor conceded the edge of a smile. "I'll tell him you're in good spirits."

"No need," Loki said, looking above them for the invisible machinery. "He probably already knows."

Stark arrived not long after, with his hands in his pockets.

"Are you up for a walk?"

"I've yet to decide."

"Let's go for a walk."

Loki looked between Stark and Thor's expressions and figured that 'the walk' probably wouldn't bode well for him, but he didn't have much of a choice. Which began the arduous process of getting himself out of the bed.

As Loki'd gathered before, he was physically fine, but he couldn't help clutching the bedside as he stood. It came as a surprise to him not to need it.

His lack of magic didn't make him feel off-balance, or drained, or even lighter than usual. It just wasn't there.

He straightened himself, a slight frown on his face, and followed Stark outside.

As soon as the door slid closed he heard a faint thunk, which Loki surmised was Thor throwing the ornament. He almost wished Thor had let him catch it - it would have given him assurance that he might make it back.

Stark didn't move too far down from the room before stopping to lean against the wall.

"So."

Loki raised an eyebrow.

"Vision told me what happened."

"Yes?"

"Yeah, and he didn't seem to have all the details so I'd like to hear it from you."

Loki paused. He hadn't expect Stark to ask this - at least, not so directly. Or immediately. "Where should we start?"

"How about you tell me?"

"What?"

"Tell me where you started. And I mean tell me, not Jedi mind trick. I have a crowd full of people downstairs with a none-too-high view of you, and if I'm going to convince any one of them - or myself, for that matter - that you're not just here to destroy everyone like you tried to do last time, I need to hear the full story."

Loki was stunned.

Trust?

Stark actually wanted to trust him.

...

"Let me get this straight." Tony rubbed his forehead; it'd been a long day and it wasn't even noon. "Vision pretended to die but he didn't actually die because you put a crystal...whatchamacallit on top of his stone. A shard."

"Yes." Loki sounded as despondent and tired as Tony felt.

"And you were actually using your magic to make it seem like the scepter was meeting resistance."

"If you consider trying to keep the shard from exploding to bits upon contact, then yes."

"And then when you stood up, you..." Tony just stopped and waited for Loki to balance out the tale. All he'd been asking for was repetition, anyway.

"When I stood up, neither I or Maw were physically contacting Vision, which meant he could phase through and around the bridge while I maintained the required duplicate. Beyond that, I know nothing."

Except that apparently, the plan had worked, because Loki had been carried by Thor to Stark Mansion unharmed (except for both of his hands, which had splinters, and how those had gotten there befuddled Tony, alibi or no).

"What was supposed to happen?" Tony had heard most of the story out of order. Loki was a surprisingly bad storyteller.

Tiredly, Loki informed, "We disagreed on that point. Vision wanted to take Maw in for questioning; I warned him any attempt would be futile. I assume he took my advice."

Tony recalled the burnt patches of grass and the way Vision was holding Maw's scepter. "Yeah," Tony said. "Eventually." Vision had ended up taking it. But he was pretty sure (and Vision had quietly, solemnly confirmed) that he didn't enter the fight with that intent.

He moved on to the next question.

"Why didn't you tell Vision the whole plan?"

Loki leaned against the wall, somewhat petulantly. "We were short on time; you can't fault me on that regard," he muttered. "Surely you can piece together what you know with my additions and figure that they line up just as I said."

"Yeah, that's what worries me."

"And why should it? I've given you all I know, and I'll give you something further to back it." Loki searched within his clothing, suddenly reanimated. "If providing you with what you need prove my story's validity."

"Depends." Tony pushed himself off from the wall, wary; he'd spent the interrogation alternating between leaning against the wall and standing away from it. "What do you think we need?"

"To defeat Thanos?" Loki drew a strange glass figurine from his pocket into his palm with a shudder. "You'll need this."

Tony's eyes narrowed in confusion before he recognized it – really recognized it – and sucked in a gasp.

"The space stone is within that container," Loki said tiredly, knowing his words were redundant but needing to somehow clarify.

Slowly, Tony took the glass model from him and examined it.

"I trust that you'll be careful – it would be best to keep it dormant," Loki advised, before adding, "Doors open on both sides."

Tony nodded once and, after turning it over in his hands, carefully put the reinvented tesseract away.

The elevator dinged then, but he'd programmed it to.

"That's our cue," Tony said, and ushered Loki into the elevator.

.

"So," Tony said, when they both faced the closed doors - he was more energetic now, Loki noticed - "it's going to be more than a little surprising when you walk out. They might get upset."

Loki looked dubious but asked something else instead. "Everyone is here?"

"Yeah. The team's back together, for now. Except for Clint, but we're working on that. It's been busy."

Loki swallowed, not deigning to ask about Barton. It was probably better at the moment that he was gone. "I can imagine."

"Which is why I haven't told them about you.

"But. Don't worry, Bruce was supposed to prep them, I'm pretty sure. Letting him know he was in charge of telling everyone may have slipped through the cracks."

The first part of the sentence swept out any other thought in Loki's mind, including whatever else Stark deigned to spend breath on. "You...excuse me?"

Stark seemed to ignore him. "Anyways, you're on the team now, so they'll just have to get used to it. You can expect some cold shoulders. Oh, and after Thanos is defeated all bets of protection are off. Just a warning."

Stark moved to clap a hand on his shoulder, but Loki jerked away from it and twisted to face him.

Stark let his hand drop and did the same. "You know about Thanos, you can help us defeat him. You're on the team."

Loki saw Stark's uncertainty then, lined right above the shadows under his eyes. But he also saw that Stark meant what he said.

He was willing to trust him.

And without an inkling as to how he would convince a previously hostile team of people to consider the same, the elevator doors opened.

The End.

Hooray, it's finished!

I should probably reiterate that this fic was meant to be a 'prequel' for Infinity War. That being said, the point where this ends is very different from where Infinity War begins, but this is still going to be the last chapter. I hope you enjoyed the ride! Even if sporadic updates made this fic over a year and a half in the making, whoops.

Also, give all the glory to God! Without God, people and stories wouldn't exist, so it's kind of important I give the credit to the source of the talents :P

Finally, thank you for reading! I'm so excited that people continued to read this story :) and the follows, favorites, and reviews added a whole other level of encouragement, so thank ALL OF YOU so much.

Farewell!