"I'm gonna say this once."

Tony and Bruce both look up from their work with the cradle, and though Tony is very clearly about to make some sort of quip — which is his usual state, to be honest — he cuts himself short when he sees who Steve's brought with him.

"Shut it down," Steve says.

Tony barely seems to register his words. He jerks his head towards Loki. "Is that...?"

"Yes," Pietro says, "and he is very heavy."

Bruce wordlessly kicks a rolling chair over to him, and Pietro sets Loki down on it. Loki tries to pull his legs up with him, but he doesn't have enough space to prop his feet up. He starts to lower his feet to the floor, but he pauses a foot or so above it, then tries to pull his feet up again. He squirms in his seat, trying to get comfortable, until finally, Pietro picks him up, carries him over to a wall and puts him down on the floor. Loki pulls his knees into his chest and wraps his arms around his legs, and his eyes flicker between each of the Avengers.

"Well," Tony says. "Didn't see that coming."

"What happened to him?" Bruce asks.

"Turn the cradle off and we'll talk," Steve says. It's a decent bluff, given that he himself doesn't know what happened to Loki.

"We can't do that," Tony says.

"Stark—"

"You all talk too much," Pietro says. He darts across the room, unplugging every port within the cradle in the blink of an eye. When he finishes, he stands on the other side of the room, holding some sort of tubing that's doubtlessly very important to whatever suicide project they're working on.

Tony scoffs. "Hey!"

Bruce walks toward Loki, each step slow and cautious. Wanda steps toward her friend as well, fully prepared to go to any lengths necessary to stop him if he tries to hurt him.

"Loki?" Bruce says warily.

Loki's gaze is glued to his face, his eyes growing wider as Bruce approaches. Wanda crouches down by his side to keep him company. She doesn't want him to think even for a moment that he's alone here.

"Loki?" Bruce says again. "Do you remember us?"

Loki's attention snaps away, and without warning, Pietro is thrown back against the wall behind him. A bullet shoots up from beneath the floor, shattering the glass Pietro had stood on a moment earlier.

Pietro stumbles and throws his arms out to catch his balance, then immediately returns to Wanda and Loki's side, probably the safest place to be.

Bruce gestures to Loki with his head, but his gaze strays to Wanda's face. "Did he do that?"

Wanda furrows her brows. "I do not know." She crawls in front of him, and his gaze softens at the sight of her. "Was that you?"

Loki reaches a hand up toward Pietro, and he crouches down obediently. Loki takes his hand in his own, and Pietro gives it a gentle squeeze.

"Barton, get up here!" Tony calls down to him. "And don't shoot anybody!"

While they wait for him to come up, Pietro leans in and presses a kiss to the top of Loki's head. He lingers there, and Loki closes his eyes, taking in their closeness and the comfort it brings.

The cradle begins to beep, a clear warning sign of some sort, and Tony announces that he's rerouting the upload. Steve throws his shield at him, and Tony shoots a blast of energy back at him, throwing him across the room. The rest of Tony's suit begins to follow, the back piece swiftly attaching itself to his body.

Loki still holds Pietro's hand in one of his, and he grabs Wanda's in the other. Bruce looks down at them, a frown on his face, and for a moment, Wanda begins to wonder if he's going to attack; if setting off one Avenger sets off the rest.

He doesn't. Instead, he turns around to face his friends and yells, "Okay, everybody, stop fighting!"

Surprisingly, that does work, though both Steve and Tony seem rather reluctant to listen. Clint reveals himself then, still holding that gun in his hand, and he aims it at Wanda and Pietro... but then his gaze lands on Loki and he pauses, slowly lowering his gun to his side. He looks up at Steve, pointing at Loki awkwardly, and Steve just shakes his head.

"Look," Bruce says, "JARVIS has been fighting back against Ultron this whole time. If we can get him in this body—"

"Giving an AI a body is what started this," Steve reminds him.

"JARVIS isn't Ultron," Tony says simply.

Steve shakes his head. "Shut it down."

"This is our best shot at beating Ultron," Tony says. "We're seeing this through."

Thor barges into the room then, his single-minded focus resting entirely on the cradle. He hops on top of it, ignoring all the Avengers' yelling for him to stop, and holds up his hammer. Lightning surges through the room, and then Thor brings his hammer down to the cradle, shooting his lightning through it.

Loki pulls his hands free and slaps them over his ears. He squeezes his eyes shut and ducks his head, curling up into as small a ball as he can. Wanda and Pietro stand up, both prepared to fight if it comes to that.

When the lightning finally fades, an eerie silence fills the air.

And then it's gone, ruined by a creature crashing through the cradle and throwing Thor across the room. Immediately, everyone is on their guard — everyone except Loki, who does nothing but try to make himself even smaller.

This creature, this being, crouches on the cradle with all the energy of a crazed feral cat, and then slowly, he stands up, taking in the sights around him. Nobody moves to attack, but they're all ready for it.

The moment he lays eyes on Thor, he takes off, throwing himself at the god and nearly toppling him to the floor. Thor grabs him and throws him across the room, almost through the window overlooking the city. It almost seems like he's going to come back, to finish what he's started, but then he gets distracted, looking out the window at the rest of the world.

Loki finally looks up, letting his hands fall from his ears. Wanda gently rests a hand on his head, but he doesn't seem to notice, his eyes glued to his brother.

When the man finally turns around, he's calmed down, his demeanor much more stoic than before. He conjures a cape, and it drifts behind him as he floats back to the Avengers. "I'm sorry," he says, "that was... odd." To Thor, he adds, "Thank you."

Thor gives a single, silent nod.

"Uh, Thor?" Steve says awkwardly.

Thor glances at him, and Steve looks pointedly at his brother. Thor's eyes go wide, and for a moment, he's frozen, his only reaction coming in the form of a whispered, "Loki." Then he darts across the room, kneeling down in front of him and putting his hands on his shoulders. "Loki, you're alive!"

Loki just stares at him. Every muscle in his body is tensed, but he's completely still, unmoving, even as Thor pulls him in for a hug.

"Stop it!" Wanda says, reaching down to pull him away (though she can't; when it comes to brute strength, she's no match for a god). "You're scaring him!"

Thor shoves her away. "Do not tell me how to treat my brother. I've known him far longer than you've been alive."

Wanda scoffs. "He's terrified!"

"He is not—" Thor cuts himself off when he really looks at his brother. He frowns, taking in the sight before him, a step he'd previously skipped in his excitement. "Loki?" He lays a hand on his shoulder. "Loki, what's wrong?"

"You're scaring him!" Wanda insists.

"Get away from him!" Pietro says.

"I do not take orders from you," Thor snaps. "Loki, what are you doing? It's me. It's Thor. You..." He trails off, visibly deflating as he really processes the lack of reaction. "Loki? What...?"

Loki makes no conscious movement, but he begins to shake under Thor's touch, and after a pause, Thor slowly takes his hand away.

"You're scaring him," Wanda says again, calmer this time. She nudges him with her foot, and Thor reluctantly moves out of her way.

Wanda crouches down on the floor, and Loki finally tears his gaze away from Thor's face to look at her. She cups Loki's face in her hand, and Loki leans into her touch, his eyes fluttering closed as he covers her hand with his own.

"You are okay," Wanda says quietly. "Pietro and I are here. We will keep you safe."

Loki takes a deep breath in, then slowly lets it out. He opens his eyes again, so Wanda smiles at him. After a pause, Loki returns it with a small smile of his own.

"I don't understand," Thor says. "Why does he behave so differently with you?"

"Because we are his friends," Wanda says, with a slightly venomous tinge to her voice.

"And because we do not yell and shake him around like a salt shaker," Pietro adds.

"I did not—"

"Yes, you did," Wanda and Pietro say in unison.

Thor narrows his eyes at them, but he seems to decide against fighting them on it. He looks down at Loki with a frown. "I don't understand. I've known him a thousand years and I've never seen him act this way."

"I do not understand why everybody says that," Pietro says. "How did he used to act?"

"Well, for one, he used to talk," Steve says.

"A lot," Tony adds. "Every time he opened his mouth, it was a whole goddamn soliloquy."

Wanda's smile slips away, and with it, so does Loki's. He used to talk? She can't imagine that. What would his voice even sound like? She feels like no matter what it is, it would sound wrong; it wouldn't fit him.

"He was one of the most powerful sorcerers of our realm," Thor says. "He was as skilled with his wit as he was a blade. He was..." He sighs. "He wasn't this. He wasn't so broken."

Wanda scoffs and whips around to face him. "How dare you?"

Thor raises his brows. "Excuse me?"

"How dare you say that he is broken?" she demands. "There is nothing wrong with him."

Tony makes a face at that. "Well..."

"If he's changed, it's because he's hurt," Wanda says, "and he does not need you to belittle him when he's already in so much pain."

"That is not what I meant," Thor says quickly.

"What does it matter?" Clint asks, exasperated. "He's not gonna care. He's so out-of-it, he has no idea what's going on right now."

"Hey!" Pietro yells.

"That is not true!" Wanda snaps. "He is quiet; he is not dumb. He understands everything that happens around him, even when he does not react."

"Oh, does he?" Clint asks, his voice dripping in sarcasm.

"Yes," Wanda says indignantly, "he does."

"Uh, guys?" Bruce says awkwardly. "Should we, uh..." He gestures to Vision. "Should we maybe talk about what this is?"

Everybody looks at Vision, who's awkwardly floating a few feet away from everyone else, watching this conversation in silence.

"Oh, right," Thor says. "I had a vision; a whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life, and at its center is that." He points to the stone in Vision's head.

"What, the gem?" Tony asks.

"It's the Mind Stone," Thor tells him. "One of six Infinity Stones, the greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities."

Steve scoffs. "Then why would you bring it—"

"Because Stark is right," Thor says.

"Oh, it's definitely the end times," Bruce mutters.

"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron," Thor says.

"Not alone," Vision says.

Steve raises his brows. "Why does your 'vision' sound like JARVIS?"

"We reconfigured JARVIS's matrix to create something new," Tony explains.

"I think I've had my fill of new," Steve tells him.

Vision looks at him curiously. "You think I'm a child of Ultron."

"You're not?"

"I'm not Ultron," Vision says. "I'm not JARVIS. I am... I am."

Loki tugs on Pietro's pant leg, and he crouches down next to him. Loki's hand falls back down to his lap, covering his crotch subtly but pointedly.

"Bathroom?" Pietro asks quietly.

Loki gives a small nod.

Pietro scoops him up in his arms and stands up. Interrupting the others mid-conversation, he asks, "Where is your nearest bathroom?"

Bruce gestures vaguely. "Down the hall, take a left, it's on the right."

"Now is really not the time," Steve says impatiently.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Pietro says sarcastically. "Here, I will leave him here to pee on your floor."

"Pietro..." Wanda gives him a look.

"What?" he says. "I am not the one being difficult."

"He really needs a chauffeur to go to the bathroom?" Clint asks.

"Well, he's not exactly the most mobile person on the planet," Tony remarks. To Pietro, he says, "I think I have an old wheelchair lying around somewhere. I'm gonna go see if I can find that, and you get him out of here before he pees on my floor or I'm making you two clean it up."

Wanda is fairly sure that Loki would not pee on the floor, but Pietro takes Loki away anyway. Wanda almost wants to go with him so she's not stuck here alone with the Avengers, but she doesn't want to overcrowd them, either. Instead, she awkwardly waits by the wall for them to come back, which means she has to listen to the rest of the Avengers' conversation.

"Stark, seriously?" Steve asks, annoyed. "If you haven't noticed, we're kind of in the middle of something."

"Hey, you're the boss," Tony says. "You figure out what we're doing and where we're going, and I'm going to find a wheelchair."

"Sokovia," Clint says. "That's where we're going. Ultron's holding Nat there."

Tony's brows shoot up, and he gestures to the archer. "See? Easy."

Steve sighs. "Tony–"

"Five minutes, Rogers," Tony says. "We gotta wait for the Flash to get back before we do anything, anyway." Before Steve can complain again, Tony heads out of the room, leaving a very irritated Steve behind.

Wanda glances around uncomfortably, her gaze returning to the hallway every few seconds as though Pietro and Loki could possibly be coming back already. Even with Tony out of the way, she's not overly eager to be alone with the Avengers for any amount of time.

"So." Bruce claps his hands together, looking as uncomfortable as Wanda feels. "We're going to Sokovia. Fun."

"Looks like we don't have a choice," Steve says. He turns to Vision. "Is there anything we ought to know before we go?"

Vision shakes his head, walking across the room as he speaks. "Just that you should be prepared for anything," he says. "Ultron will stop at nothing to destroy this world. We must stop at nothing to save it."

Thor holds a hand out, and Mjolnir flies into it. "Then we have no time to waste. Let us finish this."

"Everybody suit up," Steve says. "As soon as they're back, we're heading out."

"And Loki?" Bruce asks.

"We leave him here," Thor says immediately. "He is in no position to come with us."

Wanda finds herself in agreement with him for the first time since he arrived. They may have very different opinions on Loki, but at least they agree that he's far safer here than he would be on the battlefield.

"And we're not at all concerned about leaving him here alone?" Bruce asks hesitantly.

Clint snorts. "Yeah, I'm real scared that he's gonna pee on the floor while we're gone."

"Hey!" Wanda and Thor snap at the same time. They both look at each other, but the moment Wanda realizes that there's something more than surprise in his gaze — something positive; some brand of affection or appreciation — she looks away, doing her best to shut it down before it begins. She's not here to make friends. With Pietro and Loki, she already has all the friends she could want.

When Pietro and Loki finally return, they do so with Tony by their side. Loki now sits in a wheelchair, and Pietro stands it to push it. Loki doesn't look overly comfortable. Though the wheelchair has foot pedals, he doesn't use them. He still has his feet pulled in as close to him as possible, propped up on the top of the leg rests. He has a death grip on the handles as Pietro rolls him down the hall, but when Pietro parks him next to Wanda, he slowly lets go, his arms instead wrapping themselves around his legs.

"I do not think he likes this," Wanda says with a frown.

"But my back appreciates it very much," Pietro says.

"Alright, let's head out," Steve says. He gestures for everyone to follow him, and, for the most part, they do. Wanda, Pietro, and Thor are the only ones who hesitate.

Wanda kneels down next to Loki and gently places a hand on his knee. "We need to go," she tells him. "But we will be back as soon as we can be." Her only fear is that "as soon as they can" will never come. But if that's the case, there's a good chance that the entire world will end and that Loki won't live to realize that they're never coming back. She just doesn't want him to think that they left him. They would never do that to him. He has to know that by now, right?

Loki doesn't react. He just sits there, his expression blank, looking up at her wordlessly. Wanda leans in and gives him a kiss on the cheek before pushing herself to her feet.

Loki's hand shoots out and grabs her wrist. Wanda raises her brows and looks down at him in surprise. She rests her free hand on top of his in what she hopes is a calming motion.

"We will be back," she promises him. "But we have to go now. You saw Ultron. You understand that we must stop him."

When it becomes clear that Loki is no closer to letting go, Wanda tries to pull his hand off of her. She tries to remove each of his fingers, but he just digs them in harder every time.

"Loki, stop it," Wanda says. She tries to unwrap his fingers again, and they snap back each time she takes one away. She grimaces, sucking in a sharp breath as his nail hits her the wrong way. "Loki, you're hurting me."

Immediately, Loki lets go. Wanda pulls her hands away and hides them behind her back, just in case he decides to try that again. She looks down at him with a frown. She wishes they didn't have to leave him. He deserves better than that. They just don't have much of a choice.

Pietro takes one of Loki's hands in his own and brings it to his mouth for a brief kiss. Loki clings to him, too, but when Pietro removes his fingers, Loki lets him. Pietro gives him a small smile, but it does nothing to soothe him.

"We will see you soon," Pietro assures him. "We will tell your stories of all that you've missed. It will be like we never left."

Loki doesn't seem at all convinced, but there's nothing they can do about that. Rather reluctantly, they turn to leave anyway. Thor's gaze lingers behind them just a little longer, but then he does the same, leaving Loki behind.

It's a bit of a walk, but eventually, they find the others all gathered outside the quinjet. Wanda glances at her brother nervously, and he gives her a reassuring smile. It doesn't really help.

Tony furrows his brows and awkwardly points behind them. "What is he...?

Wanda, Pietro, and Thor all turn around, and she jumps at the sight of Loki just a few feet behind her. How did he even get here? He's still just sitting in his wheelchair, his arms around his legs. It doesn't even make sense.

Pietro crouches down next to him to ask just that. "What are you doing here?"

Loki's gaze flickers between the twins, a look of determination on his face that they don't quite understand.

"Stay here, buddy." Pietro stands up and pats his head a couple of times.

Pietro and Thor both continue walking, but Wanda keeps a cautious eye on Loki, so she notices when his wheelchair carries him into the room, untouched by anyone's hands, his own included. Wanda watches in awe. Is he doing this himself? Is there anything he can't do?

"Pietro," Wanda says uncertainly. She doesn't check to make sure that her brother is watching. She can't tear her gaze away from Loki.

Loki's chair comes to a halt, and he looks up at her blankly. Wanda sighs. She really doesn't want to have to say goodbye again. It was hard enough the first time.

Wanda locks his wheels, then leans down with her hands on her knees until she's close to eye level with him. "I'm sorry," she says quietly. "But you need to stay here." She kisses his cheek, then heads to her with Pietro.

She's barely made it to Pietro's side when he says, "Well, that did not work."

Wanda turns back around, and Loki's followed her again. She scoffs. How is he doing this?

"Loki," Thor says, "you have to stay here. You are in no condition to come with us."

Wanda and Pietro both shoot him a look. He's not wrong, but what gives him the right to say it?

Loki glances at him, but then returns his gaze to Wanda and Pietro, as if they'll give him a different answer. They don't.

"Stay," Wanda says firmly.

She and Pietro slowly back away, and, to the surprise of absolutely no one, Loki follows them.

Tony groans. "We don't have time for this!"

Clint snorts. "Says the guy that gave him the wheelchair."

Tony ignores that. "Everybody in the jet. We got places to be and killer robots to kill."

Wanda looks at Loki pointedly. "Not you. You stay."

Loki follows them to the base of the jet anyway.

"Loki," Thor says, exasperated, "you don't even have a weapon."

Loki doesn't tear his gaze from Wanda and Pietro.

"You cannot come with us," Wanda insists. "It is too dangerous."

Loki begins to wheel himself right by her and into the quinjet. Tony awkwardly steps aside to let him pass, and Loki finds himself atop the onboarding ramp before even Wanda and Pietro step inside.

The twins share a look, and it's Pietro who speaks. "I do not think we have a choice anymore."

Wanda frowns. She looks up at Loki, who turns himself around to look back down at her. She really doesn't want him to come, but if he's this determined, who knows what he'll do if they leave him behind unsupervised?

So, finally, she sighs. "Fine." She meets him at the top of the ramp. "But you be careful. I do not want you to get hurt."

Loki gives her a small smile, and, against her better judgment, she smiles back. This is probably a very bad idea, but at least if the world ends, she knows her family will be by her side the whole time. It's a cold comfort, but she'll take it for what it is.