Tony stared at the blank screen for several long moments before taking a deep breath and getting up. "Jarvis, call Rogers."

"Yes sir."

The phone rang three times before Steve picked up, "Tony?"

"Hey, I think that Point Break's gonna be back with his brother soon."

"What? How do you know that?"

"Just a hunch." Tony said after a moment, "I mean, it's looking a little cloudy, right?" Tony took a chance, guessing that the sky had to be darkening, preparing to storm and rain down the thunder god with his trickster sidekick.

He could practically hear Steve frowning, "Yeah, I suppose it is a little cloudy. You really think Thor is coming back with Loki? We need to get a containment area ready. We can't just let Loki into the populace. There would be mass panic if someone saw him. New York is still—"

"Yeah, I know." Tony cleared his throat past the sudden dryness that seemed to happen any time anyone mentioned New York. "I'm sure Fury can rig up another floating glass prison. Hell, he probably already has."

"...He actually has."

Tony grinned, "Great, so we've got a room for tall, dark and loony."

He briefly flashed to that too thin face of Loki leaving the prison cell, but shook the thought away, "Just keep an eye out for some lightning stuff. I'm tracking for the energy spikes associated with the Rosenberg bridge. The second I get something I'll send you the data and fly that way."

"Do you think it's safe for Loki to be back here on Earth?" Steve asked. "I know these dogs are attacking but-"

"Look, I don't like it. Fighting one bad blast of voodoo with another sounds like a surefire way to screw things up to me, but we're gonna have to work with Thor on this, and hope he can keep a handle on Loki this time around. I bet Asgardian prison has mellowed him out a bit."

"Or made him worse than ever," Steve sighed, "Help me keep close tabs on him. We can't let him pull the wool over our eyes and mess this up."

"Don't worry Rogers. I'll have Jarvis keep tabs on him, and we can get surveillance set up in whatever room he ends up living in. He won't be able to sneeze without us knowing about it." Tony tried to sound confident, but truth of the matter was it made him beyond nervous that Loki would be here.

He knew that it didn't matter if they knew every move Loki made, that didn't mean they would ever guess what Loki's game was or what he was playing at. Loki played his cards tight by waving them around like a madman, and trying to predict what a madman would do next was something Tony had never mastered. He knew it was just a matter of time before Loki sent the house of cards falling all around them again, but he wanted to reassure Steve. Crazy or not, Loki was their best bet at getting at whatever was behind these demon dogs that were appearing all over Earth. People were starting to talk about end times, and the entire globe seemed on edge, this needed to be resolved before someone in power did something very stupid.

"We've beaten Loki before, just need to poke Banner a bit, and I'm sure we won't have a single problem with our favorite psychopath."

Steve sighed heavily, "I guess we do need to get Banner ready for this. We can't have another incident on the hellicarrier. A lot of people died the last time that happened."

Tony rubbed his temples, "Yeah, I know. Look, I can build a containment unit here at the tower. We can keep those two separated except for in wide-open spaces. That works, yeah?"

"I guess so Tony, but you really want to keep Loki close to you?"

"I'll be fine. I can summon the suit to me now, he won't be able to take me off guard, and with my tech, I can get scans of him, see with hocus pocus he's casting. That way if he starts doing anything weird, we can nip it in the bud. It'll be fine, scout's honor."

Steve sighed, "I don't like it, but I think you're right. We need to keep Loki away from as many people as possible and where we can keep a close eye on him. Otherwise, he might just disappear, and we don't have time for another game of hide and go seek with him."

"Well, I'll get a room ready for him here." Tony said, "Just keep an eye out. I'll talk to you later." He hung up, and set to work with Jarvis, getting a new containment area set up.

Almost an hour later, Jarvis flashed a spike of energy across the screen. "Sir, I believe a bridge is about to form."

The coordinates appeared on the screen. "Suit me up and let Rogers know." As soon as the faceplate clanked into place, he headed out to the balcony and took to the sky as clouds gathered overhead and lightning flickered over the clouds.

Steve buzzed in over the suit's interface, "You heading out with the team?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, I've got Natasha and Clint loaded up, we're coming in by jet."

"No Banner?"

"He wanted to stay behind and run some scans on the landing."

Tony shook his head, "Well hopefully, we'll be back out here in a flash. Hey, I see you. I'm pulling up beside you all now."

"See you down below." Steve disconnected the call as the jet whisked by, Tony flying close to it, but landing a safe distance away as the jet eased to the ground.

"Banner's saying this is the most likely area." Steve called over the din of thunder.

Natasha and Clint scanned the area, watching and categorizing everything. Clint's hands were light on his bow, and Natasha's fingers grazed over her guns.

"Energy's spiking, think everyone ought to take a step back." Tony called as the sky grew into a mass of dark, whirling clouds.

Steve, Natasha, Clint, and Tony took shelter back inside the jet, watching through the narrow windows as a bolt of light slammed into the ground, and two dark shadows appeared on the ground. Tony waited until the energy levels dropped before getting back outside, Natasha and Steve were at his side, weapons at the ready while Clint stayed towards the back, bow trained on the thinner of the two shadows.

"Friends. I return." Thor slowly got up to his feet, Loki stayed on his knees at Thor's side, head down. Tony noted that his armor was much thinner than the last time he was on Earth.

"Loki." The word was muttered like a curse under Clint's breath. His muscles tensed, fingers drawing back, and ready to fire.

"Hello again hawk." Loki slowly brought his face up, and then stood.

Thor glanced between Loki, and his mortal allies. "Loki is here to aid us. He will bring no harm to anyone but our enemies."

"Forgive me if I find that a bit hard to believe." Clint growled faintly.

Loki smirked faintly as he looked around the area. Tony had Jarvis center in on Loki, measuring every possible reading and trying to compare it to the last saved file of Loki's scans from when he was held captive by Shield. Body temperature was the same, freakishly low, and the energy fields around him swirled and spiked in strange patterns that Tony had never seen before. It was fascinating to watch, and he noted that these energy patterns didn't spike as high as the original ones from Shield, they were actually only at about a third of the power, and on a totally different, much lower wavelength. Whatever sort of bind Thor had put in place on his powers seemed to be doing the trick.

"Well, now that these lovely pleasantries are out of the way, we all really should be going. I've got a nice little room already put together for you reindeer games."

Loki looked towards Tony, face impassive. "Well, I believe you will have some issues to handle here first." He glanced away from the jet and towards the horizon.

Tony frowned, "Jarvis, what's out there?"

"Sir, that appears to be a group of the creatures called the Abatu approaching at high speed."

"Dammit, get ready boys and girls, the party's here." Tony took to the air to try to head them off.

Steve grabbed his shield and Thor began spinning his hammer, gathering the clouds overhead. Clint loaded up his bow, and beside him, sparks flew from Natasha's wrists, ready for a fight. Loki however, stayed exactly where he was, watching the approaching of the screaming demon dogs.

"Thor, can you funnel them in?" Steve called.

Thor nodded, lightning rained down from the sky.

The dogs screamed but kept bounding forward. Steve lurched towards them, slamming his shield into the head of the closest creature. It whimpered and hit the ground hard but was back up in just a few seconds, jaws latching onto Steve's forearm. Clint fired an arrow into the dog's back; it went limp as two more rose up to take its place. Natasha was taking down one of the dogs; hands around its throat as it snarled wildly beneath her while her built in electrical shock devices fried its skin, and it finally fell silent.

Tony flew overhead, several of the beasts bounding after him; Tony fired at them as they took chase, "Just like a regular dog chasing cars." He banked hard, groaning when the dogs took it with ease.

One repulsor blast sent a dog slamming into a bolt of lightning Thor was crashing down, but another dog leapt up onto the jet, and then soared high enough to grab onto Tony's boot and start pulling him to earth. He kicked, but the unnaturally sharp fangs pierced into the repulsor, crunching through metal. The boot spark and finally lost power. He started easing down towards the ground as the three repulsors worked over time. He cut the power to all the repulsors, and let himself crash to the ground, using the force of his landing to snap its neck.

In an instant another one was on Tony's back, dragging him flat to the ground as it clawed frantically at his armor. He could hear metal screeching and peeling back, and sighed with relief when he felt the dog cry out and fall off his back.

"We can't keep this up." Tony muttered as Steve grabbed Tony's arm, and pulled him to his feet.

"We can't let them just run wild. There are towns not far from here!" Steve growled, "Thor, keep them contained to this area!"

"I wasn't going to say let's just run off and let them have at." Tony rolled his eyes, "Watch your twelve o'clock!"

Steve turned just in time to deflect the leaping dog with his shield. The dog crashed to the ground, skidding over the dirt before getting back to its feet and circling around Steve and Tony. There was a sharp, strangled yelp from one of the other dogs behind Tony's back and he chanced looking towards the sound, and finding Loki, standing tall, blood dripping down his arm, his hands firmly around the throat of one of the animals, it was dripping shadow onto the ground as it screamed and struggled to get out of Loki's grasp. He tightened his grip until the animal fell silent. When another dog attacked, he battered it with the corpse of its ally, and then sank upon it with the fury of a wild beast.

Tony looked away and tried to focus on his own fights as more dogs came and surrounded him, tearing at his suit, ripping off chunks of metal and electrical circuits. The sheer jaw strength was frightening, and Tony got first-hand experience when one sank its teeth straight into his now bared arm, and ripped into the skin. He grabbed at the back of its neck with his free hand, trying to throw the beast off but it held tight, blood pooling in its mouth and dribbling to the ground. He felt himself falling to a knee as the dog pulled at his arm, and he was about to hit the ground.

Loki's pale hands sank around either side of the beast's jaws, thin fingers not reacting to the jagged teeth that ripped into his skin. There was a terrible cracking, wet sound and the dog screamed before Loki threw the body to the ground.

"Uh...thanks there reindeer games."

Loki didn't acknowledge him, watching as the dogs began to back all together until the ground turned dark beneath their feet and they disappeared like shadows in the noonday sun. Soon all that was left was blood, not even the bodies of the slain dogs lingered.

"Everyone alright?" Steve called after a moment.

"Yeah. Think I'll live. Maybe just turn into a werewolf or something." Tony tried to joke over the throbbing pain of his arm.

Natasha wordlessly went to Tony's side and applied a tourniquet, tightening it to stop the flow of blood from the vicious bite wound.

Tony took a few deep breaths, "Well, looks like we won, right?"

"If you call the damn things running off, a win." Clint grunted from the ground, Steve stood over him, trying to tend to several claw marks that ran over Clint's forearms and throat.

"We need to get back to base so you all can be treated." Steve said, looking at Natasha, "Can Tony move?"

"I can move fine!" Tony snapped.

Steve sighed, "You're bleeding. You and Clint both are bleeding pretty badly."

"I can help." Loki stepped forward, gore from the dogs dripped down his pale arms. He brought a finger to his lips and licked it clean before wiping the rest on his thin armor.

"Uh yeah. No. That's not happening." Tony shook his head, the movement left him dizzy and he flopped his head back onto the ground.

Thor looked over his brother, then to the men on the ground, "Loki has no offensive magic at his disposal, but he can use magic to mend bone and flesh. I have seen him use it on soldiers in Asgard."

Steve frowned, looking at Loki, then to Clint. The wound on Clint's neck was bleeding more, oozing through the pressure Steve was trying to put on it.

Natasha looked at Steve, her eyes hard before she turned to Loki. "Do it. But one wrong step…"

Loki's lips slowly curved into a serpent smile as he nodded and approached Clint, pulling Steve's hands away and putting his hands over the wounds on Clint's neck. A dark green spark began travelling over Clint's body, and the archer's back arched as the assassin screamed. The sound froze the blood in Tony's veins. He'd never heard Clint scream like that. Hell, he'd never heard more than a grunt of pain from Clint.

Tony stared, "What the hell did you-"

"There." Loki cut him off, pulling his hands away, and leaving Clint limp, unconscious, but wound free on the ground.

"And now, your turn Stark." Loki turned towards Tony.

Tony kicked his feet, trying to push away, but Loki grabbed his bare wrist before he could get very far.

A thousand pinpricks of pain and cold ripped over his body, and Tony could vaguely hear himself screaming in the distance. The ripping cold speared through his body, circling closer and closer to the reactor. He could feel himself trying to scream, trying to stop it, but the green sparks flickered up to his reactor, and the world went dark.

It wasn't a darkness like passing out, that was something Tony was familiar with. No, this was a darkness that hurt, that ripped him to shreds and then put him together backwards. The darkness screamed, and howled at Tony, tangible, and hungry. There was a pinprick of light, and Tony scrambled back towards it, clawing desperately to get away from the darkness consuming him from the inside out.

He sat up gasping for air, and looking around for a fight. The hospital room was simple, Steve sitting at his side, sketching in a small notebook. "Hey. Welcome back." Steve offered a faint smile, "Are you okay?"

"Where is the little devil, I'll wring his neck myself. I'll-"

"Loki's next door. He hasn't woken up since he healed you." Steve spoke quickly, "You both started screaming and then you both passed out."

Tony frowned, "Clint?"

Steve shook his head, "Clint's been up since then. He came to just after you two passed out."

"...Did he say anything about what happened when Loki healed him?"

Steve frowned, "No. Well, he said it felt like he'd broken every bone in his body all at once."

"No...darkness?"

"...No? Not that he mentioned?" Steve leaned forward, "Why?"

Tony licked his lips, "I think something went wrong with Loki's magic and my tech." He looked at his arm where the dog's teeth marks were only faded marks, barely a reminder. "When he was...with the...glowstick...it didn't work on me." He tapped on his reactor. "Guess he forgot about it."

Steve frowned, "I guess so. We'll have to remember that in the future. You sure you're okay?"

Tony nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine." He laid back against his pillow.

"Well, let me talk to the doc, and see if maybe we can get you out of here."

"Thanks." He managed a smile as Steve left the room. He took a deep breath, and shuddered.

He could still feel that creeping darkness lurking under his skin, reaching out and threatening to pull him back in. He looked down at his reactor. It didn't look different, no strange colors, no strange sounds or noises, but somehow it felt heavier, darker. He took a deep breath, and laid back into the pillows. Just another nightmare, that was all that screaming darkness had been, nothing more than what tormented him every night.

He rolled over, and carefully got out of the bed, testing his balance, glad to find everything was in one piece and he easily could pace around the room. He peered out into the hallway, spotting Steve and Thor in the hallway talking in, what must have seemed like hushed voices for them, but whispering was not Thor's strong suit.

"Loki does not stir. He does not appear injured, but I cannot rouse him. I fear the man of iron's metal trinket has interfered with Loki's magic, and left him injured."

Tony frowned, and looked towards the door Thor was motioning to. He waited for the blondes to both be looking away before he crept to the room, and slid inside.

It was strange seeing Loki still, and asleep in a bed. Strange to see him looking so very...human. His breathing was labored, and his hands curled into fists, wrapped up in the sheets and tugging at them. His sharp eyebrows were drawn downwards, lips sealed tightly together.

Tony stepped closer, "Hey. Reindeer Games."

No response.

He took another step, "Hey. Wake up." He clapped his hands.

No response.

He sighed, and went to grab Loki's shoulder, "Hey, look sleeping beaut-" The instant his hand touched Loki's shoulder, the screaming darkness slammed into him full force, devouring him, and the room around him disappeared as the pain consumed everything else. He couldn't pinpoint what hurt exactly, or even begin to describe the pain. He only knew that pain had become a part of his skin, stitched along the seams of his body and crawling out through his pores. He couldn't breath and choked for air. Somewhere in the darkness, he heard someone else screaming, and a single distinctive pain shot through each finger joint one by one. He swore he could feel the skin bubbling, burning, melting off his body.

There was a sharp gasp, then a burst of dark green that spiraled and narrowed until Tony realized he was staring into the too green center of Loki's eyes.

He stumbled backwards, "What the hell was that?"

"Why are you in my chambers?" Loki sat up.

"Jesus, I was just making sure you were still alive!" Tony snapped.

"You have your answer. Now get out."

Tony swallowed, "What was that?"

"What was what?" Loki narrowed his eyes, "What did you see?"

"...I didn't see anything, just..." he shook his head, "Nevermind. Glad you're okay there hot stuff. Just uh... try not to pass out on the field again, alright?"

Loki kept his eyes focused on Tony as the man backed from the room, running into Thor on his escape. Thor looked over Tony's head.

"Loki, you wake."

"Yes." He turned to let his feet hit the floor and slowly stood.

"What ails you?"

"Nothing. I have not used my magic for healing in many years, I simply had forgotten how taxing it can be." He held his hands out and slowly flexed his fingers one by one. Tony watched Loki's lips move, and he realized the god was counting, checking that each finger was still there. Tony glanced down at his own hands.

"I am glad you are well. Captain Rogers wishes for us to all gather to discuss what is known about the Abatu. You will join us."

"I will meet you there shortly. I need a moment." Loki brought his hands to his side, flexing his fingers out, then curling them back into fists. "A moment alone." He amended.

Steve frowned faintly, but Thor nodded, "We will be in the hallway when you are ready." He ushered Steve and Tony out of the room, and shut the door behind them.

Tony could hear Steve and Thor talking, but he was focused on watching Loki through the small glass window in the door.

Loki stayed perfectly still, staring down at his hands, and taking slow deep breathes as he counted to ten over and over and over again.