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The next few days found them all working in haste to get a read on the tesseract in any way possible. Tony and Bruce spent the majority of their time in the lab, monitoring the energy waves, entertaining themselves with tinkering. Bruce did more research on the tesseract energy from what they could make out from Dr. Selvig’s work, but there wasn’t much to be seen. The man recorded only things that he deemed interesting and hadn’t worked as hard as he should have.

Clint kept as far away from the situation as he could, and he steered clear of Jane Foster completely. She apparently set his hair on end just as Erik had. Typically he spent his time in the high corners of rooms where Natasha and Loki would join him whenever either of them pleased.

Natasha was off training and running through stats with the teams of agents, getting them ready. Phil was typically with her, as well as Director Fury. They would keep half of their mind on the problem, the other half on the training. It worked, a systematic way of ostracizing themselves from everything else.

Clint and Loki joined them whenever they felt like it, also.

Steve spent his time listening to the battle strategies they had planned if an attack was to be made upon the helicarrier. It was a good thing to be prepared for and he was a soldier—he loved being prepared.

There were times he would spend with Loki and the others, trading jokes and laughs, getting to know the twenty-first century just a little bit better. It was fascinating learning how much things had changed from the time of World War II to now.

Loki spent his time in his chamber—a simple room with four solid walls and no door. It was designed specifically for him, for when he needed to do his own training and couldn’t risk having other agents being near enough to get hurt, or lingering.

The walls were bare of all decoration and Loki would spend hours there, meditating, training with his magic, making potions to help with the upcoming battle because everyone knew there was going to be one. They could feel it, in the air, in their bones.

This was something that wouldn’t be solved peacefully, unfortunately.

Loki had known that from the second he laid eyes on Amora.

From the day he met her, he knew.

Amora was going to come back and bite him in the ass.

He had simply assumed it would be while he was still on Asgard.

What a foolish mistake that was.

His preferred form of weaponry had always been a spear, or a scepter, or a staff, or his daggers. Since coming to Midgard, he had developed a sort of odd fondness for guns as well. Beautiful creations. They could deliver death swiftly from the other side of the street without having to waste a single bit of energy other than to pull the trigger.

It was an exciting creation.

But when he was alone in his own special training room, he would tune everything out and use his seidr, conjure up a foe and fight them. His magic was the hardest part of himself to train and it required long hours and a serious amount of energy.

It was his way of disappearing into his own world nowadays, when things became too much, when he missed home a bit too much and his mother’s hugs and the way she would crook her head down whenever he barreled into her rooms and buried his face amongst her skirts.

A series of bullets were fired in his direction and he dodged out of the way, sending a ripple of magic through the floor, watching the green blanket spread, thin but effective, destabilizing his oppponent.

When it came to fighting, he had a rule book, things he had learned after ages of training.

Rule number one; never expend too much energy or seidr. Doing so could be potentially fatal and the goal was always to make it out of a battle alive.

Rule number two; never go for the final blow unless there’s a one hundred percent chance that it’ll land and finish everything. If it doesn’t, then you’ve put yourself in a vulnerable position and gave false hope to any others fighting alongside you. Going from the fact that the people gathered on the task of finding the tesseract and Amora, this wasn’t a battle that was going to be fought one on one.

He ducked as a blade sliced where his head had formerly been and swept his leg out, knocking his opponent off their feet. He sprung back, landing in a semi-crouch. He’d learned ages ago it was best to train barefoot and with good reason.

Blue spread, from the point on his chest above his heart and traveled over his skin, covering it in a royal blue, absinthe eyes bleeding a light red, covering the whites and the irises. His nails grew to long dark claws, nearly black, on both fingers and toes and he could feel his teeth, sharp and pointed as he bared them, releasing a primal roar of rage that shook the walls.

Rule number three; focus, and only bring out your heritage when your enemy is fatigued. Although it came with greater power, Loki was immediately made vulnerable by using it. It was always a calculated risk.

The fight was over in a matter of seconds after that. Loki darted forward, feinting left before ducking right, using the wall as a jump board and shooting his body off of the wall and onto his opponents back. Claws dug into the neck, tore in, felt the liquid soaking his fingers as he ripped the neck open, teeth bared and eyes flashing sporadically between an all-encompassing red and an all-encompassing green.

The figure dropped to the ground and Loki landed on his feet lightly.

The blue receded, nails shortening, teeth straightening as his appearance took on his Asgardian form once more.

A sigh slipped past his lips and he drew himself up straight, waving his hand as the scene disappeared. The only downside with training was that when it was over, he felt a hole of emptiness opening up in his chest and all he wanted to do was flop down on a bed and sleep for endless days.

Which is what he ended up doing nearly always.

With what remained of his energy, he walked out the door, moving through the halls of the helicarrier quickly, finding Clint up in his nook as usual. He climbed the steps, smiling as he found Natasha there as well.

He flopped down, head in the Russian’s lap and legs draped over Clint’s. The agents glanced at each other before smiling, long fingers stroking through raven locks as Natasha murmured soft words in Russian, watching the body slowly relax as he drifted off to dreamless sleep.

Another day went by before they finally got a clue as to where Amora was.

The clue was, unfortunately, the blowing up of one of the propellers.

There was immediate panic at the explosion, but according to Maria, they would be fine with just three.

But then another one became out of commission and suddenly, there were no longer three—and they were dropping.

“Shit,” Loki hissed, running out his room and sprinting down the halls in the direction the chaos was coming from. The others ran in and joined, all looking vaguely confused as to what to do, with healthy amount of fear and confusion thrown in.

Bruce looked the worst out of all of them, a bit greener around the edges.

“Natasha,” he called and the redhead immediately hurried over to his side. “I need you to get Dr. Banner to the chamber and try and keep him calm. We have to make absolute sure he does not turn, you understand?”

She nodded before looping an arm around Bruce and beginning to drag him away.

“Tony, any idea if either of those propellers can be brought back up?”

“I can go out and check.”

Loki nodded. “Go ahead. Take Captain with you.”

He was thankful that neither Tony nor Steve argued with him, just doing as they were told, Tony heading off to go put on his suit. Loki pretended not to see the way the Captain hesitated between following Tony to ensure his safety, and heading down to where he was supposed to go.

“Clint, we need eyes up high. Use the rafters—do not go through the vents.”

Clint grunted and moved to the wall to climb up to the ceilings, bow strapped across his back.

“Thor,” he cleared his mind, looking over at his brother the way they would whenever they were on the battlefield, “I need you to stay calm and go block the entrance to where Natasha took Dr. Banner. If the Hulk gets out, this battle will be lost before it’s begun. Try not to draw attention to yourself. The goal is to keep Banner calm.” He placed a comm. in Thor’s ear. “You can now hear every relay we give to you, okay? Go.”

Thor nodded and took off down the hall.

Breathing out deeply through his nose, Loki pulled out his comm. from one of his pouches. Placing it in his ear, he began running down the hall.

“I need confirmation that everyone can hear me right now.”

“Loud and clear, Lo,” Tony chirped and Loki smiled a bit as Steve confirmed directly afterwards. Clint followed, sounding like a string pulled taut. Natasha was last to answer, after Thor and Loki sighed in relief once more.

“Stark, status.”

“I’m looking, I’m looking. Cap’, check out that board, would you?”

“You mean the circuit board?”

There was a lapse of silence before Tony snorted. “Right—cover my back instead.”

Loki ushered agents to head to the dock and take separate Quinjets in evacuation while other he put on the offense. “If you see Amora, do not engage. Inform us immediately, do you understand? Attack any of those who might be working with her. If you see any of the agents taken, knock them out, do not kill. They might be able to be saved.”

And that set of agents was off, running to go carry out their orders.

Inhaling sharply, he heard Clint mutter a sharp curse over the comm. and he automatically jerked up in response, head snapping up to the rafters.

“Incoming on your three o’clock, Captain; looks like they’re after Stark,” Clint hissed and Loki caught the briefest glances of Clint’s form, leaping from place to place, arrow strung in the bow and waiting to be fired.

“Shit. Rogers, do not let Amora get anywhere near you or Stark. If you see her, get out of there as soon as possible, find me.”

He took off down the hall, running as fast as he could, throwing a simple glamour over himself, shielding his appearance.

“Thor, try not to be seen by her, if possible.”

There was a rumbling sound, like Thor was humming in consideration and by the Nine did Loki remember how that sound vibrated in Thor’s chest, rolling through him like the thunders that he could make rumble outside.

“Very well, I shall do my best.”

Pulling his daggers from their holsters, he spun them around his fingers expertly as he ran down the hall, propelling himself off of walls and smacking controlled agents on the back of the head to disable them. It was the safest way to break them out of whatever funk they were in.

Knowing Amora, it was probably a sort of seductress magic rather than a simple mind control, and if not that then probably a death bind.

Loki winced mentally at the thought.

There were a few agents that were already too far gone on whatever to be saved. The tendrils of magic he sent out to seek how much of their consciousness was left, to determine if they could be saved, would receive close to none of the agents consciousness remained. Those who couldn’t be saved, he didn’t hesitate to slice the throat of.

Honorable agents or not, if they were beyond saving, he would grant them a quick death. It was the least he could do—the only thing he could do.

“Nat, how is Banner holding up?”

There was silence before Natasha’s voice filtered through. He could hear her muttering in Russian for a brief moment before she tuned in to the comm. “He’s fine, put some music on. Hopefully he’ll hold like that for as much time as needed.”

“Right,” Loki responded, grunting as three agents fell upon him, flailing limbs hitting his sides and his stomach. Barely an ounce of their former selves remained and Loki didn’t hesitate to hit back, driving a dagger clean through one of the agent’s neck and the other slit the throats of the remaining two. He tried not to cringe at the sticky residue of the blood painting his normally pale skin an enchanting red. “Be prepared to take him on a Quinjet should we not wrap this up within the next twenty minutes or so.”

“Understood,” she stated and Loki thanked his lucky stars that he met her.

And suddenly he froze, eyes trained up above and he hated the fact that he couldn’t use his seidr at the moment. Hated the fact that if he did, everyone could be in more danger than they were already.

“Grenade—Clint, get out—”

And the bomb went off and all Loki could see was smoke and debris.

“Clint!”

Oh Norns; please no—please no, don’t let it be. Please don’t let it be.

A cough came over the comm.., a groan followed by a strained voice. “I’m fine, though I think I just voluntarily kneed myself in the jewels with the wall.”

He sagged against the wall in relief, glanced about at the other agents to see if they were fine before his eyes trailed to the ceiling, the blackened patches, missing pieces. “Vents?”

“Vents, but they’re fucking drenched in smoke.” Another cough and Loki started to worry all over again, running to the wall and pulling his body up the rungs. “Fuck, I can’t breathe.”

“Get out of there.”

“I’m trying! My foot’s stuck.” The coughs were becoming weaker and Loki swung himself around the rafters, ducking and searching, emerald eyes wild as he searched for whatever vent Clint had thrown himself into.

“Clint,” he breathed, catching sight of a foot poking out of the wall, leaping over missing pieces of the rafters to get to the vent, fingers gripping the ankle tightly as he finally reached close enough. “Clint, relax, I’m going to get you out, okay?”

“Loki, Banner’s starting to look a little green around the edges.”

“Norns…” He could feel his hands start to shake, but then Clint coughed weakly and shifted, grunting as he pulled on his other leg, the leg stuck in something. “Get him out of there. Take one of the jets and go. Your top priority is to get Banner out of here.”

He summoned some magic, gripping the walls of the vent obstructing his view and tearing them away. Clint’s leg was caught under a twisted metal part of the vent, practically a shackle. Wrenching the metal away, he pulled Clint’s leg free before pulling his body out, balancing him against the wall, feet placed precariously on the beam Loki was balanced on.

“Clint?” He brushed away some of the soot covering Clint’s face with his sleeve, the fingers of his other hand pressing on his pulse point. The agent coughed, eyes blinking open blearily and Loki smiled at him, a relieved sigh escaping him. “I said no vents, Clint,” he teased and the blonde cracked a lazy grin.

“I think it’s a good show of where my priorities are that I’m more worried about the fact that I hit my balls than the fact that I almost died from suffocation.”

Loki barely suppressed a grin at that.

Out of everything he would prefer didn’t happen; Steve would prefer no one getting hurt. Of course, as a soldier that’s idealistic and not at all possible, but Steve was a super-soldier, he maintained faith that it could.

However, the second he heard Loki’s shout about a grenade, his stomach plummeted. Although he continued to work with Stark, he could tell that both of them had a quarter of their mind fixed on worrying about every other person there.

Barton ended up okay, though, and Steve automatically relaxed, but it was a bad time to do so because a series of bullets just whizzed by his head. Gripping his shield, he swung his arm out, watching the disk ricochet off the walls and hit the agent shooting in the head before bouncing off the opposite wall and back into his waiting hand.

“Stark?”

He could hear the man muttering to himself, some technical terms that Steve honestly could care less about hearing, but they were running out of time here.

“This thing isn’t going to get moving without a jump-start,” Stark commented, finally breaking out of whatever limbo he had been in. “I’m going to get in there and push.”

“You’ll be shredded, though.”

“See that red lever? Pull it when I tell you to. It’ll reverse the polarity long enough for me to get out.”

If only it was that simple.

They had already lost two of the engines, they were short of time, and a group of agents came and attacked Steve while Stark was setting out to get the propeller going. They were dropping fast and he could hear Loki yelling orders to other agents.

“Natasha, have you gotten Banner out?”

No response filtered in immediately and when it did, Steve was a bit busy dodging bullets to fully acknowledge it.

‘I hope that was a yes.” He muttered.

He could hear a low laugh on the other side of the comm. “That was an almost.”

Steve sighed, dodging another series of bullets before picking up a spare gun, tossed aside by one of the other fallen agents and shooting back at the man. It wounded him to admit that his aim was not the best at the moment.

“I’ll take it.”

“Rogers,” Stark calls over the comm. and suddenly Steve remembers he has a fucking job to do, “I need you to pull the lever.”

“Give me a second,” he calls back, jumping over to the ledge where the lever is, but there’s bullets raining on his again and he grabs his shield, holding it up for protection, but there’s another guy behind him and he ducks, shooting a handful of bullets at the guy’s chest.

“Rogers—any day now; preferably today, like, right now.”

“Give me a moment!”

He ducks, sending his shield to hit the other agent, but it misses, just barely and now he’s being shot at from both sides without his shield. For a brief moment, he curses the creators of guns as he flips over the ledge, grabbing a loose wire and swinging to the broken level below.

“That’s not good…”

His heart stops momentarily.

Shit.

“Cap’, the lev—fuck!”

He tries not to wince as he works around the floor at the level below, trying to get up as quickly as possible, but with those men in the way, it’s close to impossible. Lifting the gun, he aims at one of the men and fortunately hits the man in the chest.

Grabbing the loose wire from before, he swings himself up, stumbling as he rushes to the lever and pulls it, hears the fall of the Iron-man suit as the clashing stops. His victory is short lived as he flattens himself to the ground quickly to avoid the rain of bullets aimed at where his head had formerly been.

“I need a coffee,” filters in through the comm. and when he lifts his head once the firing is done, he sees Stark, still in the Iron-man suit, lying prone on the floor, next to the possibly dead agent.

Running over, he presses his fingers over the helmet. “Stark, open up.”

The face-mask lifts and Steve sighs as he sees the man’s eyes focus on his face, a cocky smirk pulling on his lips. “Took you long enough…”

He snorts, huffing a laugh as he slouches in his crouch, shaking his head. “I think Tony’s done for a bit. The suit took quite a beating.”

“Banner’s clear.”

It took only two words to take off most of the stress of off Loki’s mind.

Banner was out. The Hulk hadn’t come out and Banner was safe.

He drew in a much needed breath, feeling soft shudders course through his body as he let that tension slip.

“You’re with him, right?”

Natasha hummed in affirmative and Loki sighed once, letting the tension bleed out of his shoulders from where he was hanging upside down on the rafters, knees hooked firmly over it to prevent him from falling.

“Is Thor with you?”

Another hum was his response.

“What do we do?” Clint whispered, looking down at Loki, swinging his legs childishly, biting his lip and looking contemplative like he was thinking about it despite having asked the question.

“Take him to Stark Tower.” Tony said over the comm., sounding as tired as Loki expected after the man nearly got shredded in a propeller.

“Stark Tower? You mean that ugly,’ the captain paused and Loki barely held back a snort, imagining Tony’s expression at that moment, “building in New York?”

“U235?”

“Take him there. We’ll meet you there soon.”

Letting himself fall, Loki flipped to land lightly on his feet, surveying the damage around him as he padded around crumpled bodies and puddles of blood daintily, bare feet quiet on the ground.

“Everyone re-group in the lab,” Loki instructed, watching Clint drop down next to him with wary eyes. Although the archer was fine, Loki couldn’t help his concern. It could have ended a lot worse that it had and just the thought was enough to put him off his lunch.

The lab was thankfully intact when Loki walked in, seeing Steve and Tony there already, both slouched in chairs. The brunette looked like he was going to clock out at any second, eyes blinking blearily at him when he walked in.

Walking over, Loki pressed a hand to Stark’s head, feeling out for injuries and sending his magic into the man, healing a concussion and a fractured cheekbone.

“Jesus, talk about a head rush,” Tony grumbled, sliding down further in his seat and Loki couldn’t help but laugh, soft and low as he drew back, leaning his hip against one of the tables.

“Did any of you catch sight of Amora?” Phil questioned as he walked into the room—more like sauntered. He bore a few scratches and his knuckles were bruised, but other than that, he was as clean cut as always, not even a speck of blood on his suit which Loki found to be more stunning than any other thing that had happened that day. Or the past few days, for that matter, if he’s being completely honest.

It had been a hectic week and he was more than ready for it to be done and over with.

“No,” they all chimed, almost as if they had rehearsed it and Phil sighed, looking like a bedraggled mother hen and Clint gave the man a heavy pat on the shoulder, smiling sympathetically.

“We might not have seen her, but she probably saw us which means she has an idea as to how we work,” Steve spoke up and Loki sighed, trying not to cringe at how correct the captain was. She might have lost this battle, but she could have gained some very useful data.

“Way to put a damper on the mood, Cap,” Tony groused, though he gave the man a single pat on the knee when Steve looked momentarily stricken at the thought of having lowered everyone’s spirits. “Personally, I think we’re all in need of some ‘sustenance’,” he bellowed the last word, puffing his chest out and the action made the arc reactor appear brighter through the fabric of his shirt.

“It’s called food, Tony.”

“No shit. I’m mocking—never mind. It’s not funny if I have to explain it.”

Steve’s brow furrowed, but when Clint began laughing and Loki grinned while Phil just sighed and looked to the heavens as if they held the answers to help him with grown up children, he cracked a small smiled, albeit a confused one.

Tony merely laughed at the super-soldier’s expense, shooting him a reassuring look.

The poor blonde was the only one who hadn’t gotten acquainted with Thor before the man’s time had gotten occupied with Jane.

Steve didn’t seem to care, as his expression brightened a bit at seeing he smiles on those in the room with him.