Forcing myself to get to my feet, I raise my scepter, knowing that I won't have much strength for any magic for a little while. But when I look around, I see nobody. I'm the only one out in the open.

....which means that my allies are still in the grip of the Mind Stone.

Dammit.

Turning, I look back at the woods, searching for any sign of Veers, Tony, or Peggy, hoping to see or hear movement. But there's nothing, nothing at all. For a moment, I stand still, hesitating. I don't want to go back in there.

But it will look bad if I don't.

Damn, damn, damn.

Quickly, I assess my remaining strength. My own breakout took more of my power than I would have liked, but now that I know what I'm about to face, I think that my remaining strength will suffice. It'll have to, I reflect grimly. I cannot just sit here and give myself a breather while my allies are most likely being tortured within the woods.

Steeling myself, I grip my scepter tightly and take a mental grip on my magic. Then I head back into the woods.

I can feel the power of the Mind Stone attack me the second I enter the jungle. I repel it with my magic, using my scepter to cut through the air in a defensive gesture that makes a figure eight pattern, using the crystal in the center of the scepter's blade to focus my magic. But I know this will only work for so long.

I hear something and turn in its direction, and I see Tony Stark, crashing through the underbrush. He falls to his knees and I see the metal suit shaking. He's caught in whatever nightmare the Mind Stone has given him.

Striding toward him, I stop my defensive maneuver. I have no idea if what I'm about to try will work, but I don't know any other way to try to snap Tony out of his mental prison.

Tony is on the ground, his limbs twitching. I drop to my knees and summon a dagger to pry open his faceplate. His head jerks to the side and I press my free hand against the top of his helmet, to hold him steady. Wedging my dagger into the seam between faceplate and helmet, I apply pressure and pop the metal piece off.

Tony's eyes are wide under the helmet, sweat coating his brow. The muscles jerk in his face. Dispelling the dagger, I place my fingers on his forehead and call forth my magic.

I can feel the power of the Mind Stone gripping his mind, and when I touch it with my own magic, I see it. What Tony is seeing. And it is terrifying.

Stark Tower lies in ruins, the giant A from the lofty platform propped up against the rubble, half the lights illuminating it smashed to bits. Pepper and Rhodes are lying among the ruins, Rhodes in his broken War Machine suit, Pepper covered with lacerations, one arm bent at an awkward angle. Howard Stark's body lies nearby.

Tony's fear. It's...war, it's death, loss, the end of all things significant to him, it's...it's....

Failure.

Sounds like the Iron Man and I have more in common than I realized.

But I cannot dwell on that. I have to snap him out of it. "Tony," I speak forcefully, willing my voice to penetrate the fog induced by the Mind Stone's vision. "Tony."

I see Tony's features twitch at the sound of my voice and I speak again, keeping my voice strong yet calm. "Tony."

It's not enough. My voice isn't strong enough on its own. Taking a deep breath, I steel myself and call forth more of my magic. I need to replace the image in his mind. But already I can feel the Mind Stone battling against my mental defenses, trying to break through. I can hear my mother's voice, soothing me, scolding me, asking me to take her hand.

No, no. That's not Mother, it's not real. Focus on Stark.

I project images of the walls of Stark Tower into Tony's mind, seeking to drive out the ruins he's being terrorized with. Using my memories of my visit to District Four, I reconstruct the room just off the high terrace, complete with the bar and the bottles of liquor behind the counter. I erase the broken bodies of his friends, not even bothering to try and animate them.

Tony stands now, without his Iron Man suit, at the top of the stairs coming in from the higher platform on the terrace. He has one hand wrapped around his wrist, eyes darting around the space. "This won't work!" he calls out, and although his voice is mostly steady, I detect the undercurrent of panic. "I know this is part of the game. Something's about to happen, isn't it?"

Damn. Tony thinks he's still in the Mind Stone illusion. That didn't go as well as I'd hoped. All right then. "What makes you think something is about to happen, Stark?"

Tony gestures up and around, his eyes drifting from mine for a second to take in the walls and ceiling, the illusions built from the ruins of his nightmare. Then his eyes pin right back on mine again, the forced casualness of his expression and posture belied by the slight clench of his jaw, the intensity of his gaze. He walks forward, down the steps, pausing only on the last one to give him some height. "All of this, big fellow. I just saw it in ruins, and now it's fixed? I know this is all fake. So, just what game are you playing? Because whatever it is, it's not a good one."

"I'm not playing any game, I assure you," I tell him, my fingers tightening around the scepter. It takes a painfully slow minute for the movement to register in my physical body, left behind in the forest kneeling over Stark. The delayed flex of my fingers, the delayed sensation of cool metal pressed tight against my palm, causes a surge of panic to roar through me. If the reactions between my illusory self and my physical self are so delayed, then that also means any warning signs in the environment around me will not reach my mind until it's too late to disband and return. The magic is straining my body.

Better make this quick, then. Stark's not worth my life.

"There is no game, I'm here –" I start again, but he cuts me off.

"So, already turning against your allies, are you, Rock of Ages? You know, I'd always pegged you for a traitor, but thought you would at least pretend a little longer. You son of a –"

"Stark!" I yell. "Damn you, listen to me! I am not betraying you. You are caught in an illusion not of my making, and I couldn't conceive of any better way to break its hold on you."

Tony's brow furrows. "So you didn't do all this?"

I glance around. "Well, technically, yes, I did, but it was the only way to get rid of the first illusion. The ruins of Stark Tower – that was not me. That was the Mind Stone, Stark. It traps you within your nightmares and suffocates you in them. You need to snap out of it, because I don't know how much longer I can hold this."

Tony frowns at me, but he looks more uncertain than angry right now. His panic seems to have subsided a little, too. That's good. I need him thinking, not freaking out right now. "So what now?"

"Focus on my voice," I say, because I know he's going to hate my plan. "I'm going to do what I did earlier."

I have just time to see the flash of alarm in Tony Stark's eyes before I lunge at him.

With my forward motion, I visualize my magic as a spear, prying through the Mind Stone influence wrapping around Tony's brain right now. Just before I would smack into him, I hurl the invisible magic spear at his head.

I feel it hit. He feels it hit, for he stumbles. But I break through, snapping through the hold which had prevented me from taking him out earlier, and then I drop the rest of the illusion. We come to gasping on the forest floor, and I'm covered in sweat.

Tony slaps his hand against the neck of his suit and the front snaps open. He rolls out, gasping and also coated in sweat. I stagger to my feet, wildly casting my gaze around, swinging my scepter to and fro at the leering shadows of the trees. But that's all they are, for the moment – shadows.

"What the hell?" Tony croaks, glaring up at me. "That hurt, genius."

"It was the only way," I tell him. "It was either that, or live in Thanos' nightmare, Stark. Which would you prefer?"

Tony ignores the question as he dons his Iron Man suit again. "Where's Peggy and Veers?"

"I don't know," I reply. "I came back in looking for you three. You were the first one I found."

I can tell Tony doesn't like that, but he puts on a stoic expression. "All right, then, let's go find them."

There is no time for me to try and regain back part of my strength, for who knows what has happened to Veers or Peggy? I haven't noticed any cannons, but I am not sure if the Mind Stone's influence would be able to block that out. They may already be dead. But we simply don't know.

As we hasten back through the woods, I focus on regularizing my breathing, keeping my attention on each step. I've already told Tony to do likewise, but nevertheless I make him strip off one of his metal gloves so I can keep a hold on his wrist, my fingers digging into his skin. He grumbles about this, but doesn't protest in any meaningful way. That tells me more about his state of fear than anything else.

There's a throbbing now, at the base of my skull, dull but persistent. I use my free hand to rub at the back of my neck but that does nothing. It may be because of the excessive drain on my magic – I remember getting headaches after long days of practice as a child. But that hasn't been for years. I'm stronger than that now.

"Very good, Loki."

My mother's voice drifts through the air, winds into my ears. My first feeling is longing, an ache for the comfort that my mother embodies, the warm hugs she gives, the way she ruffles my hair and smiles at me. I twist without thinking, instinctively searching for her.

"Loki?" I hear Tony say, but from a distance – did I leave him behind so quickly? Stopping, I turn and look back. I don't see him. I don't remember starting to run. Oh, no, that's not good.

"Loki."

There's my mother's voice again. I spin, searching for her, and catch a glimpse of blonde hair gliding away from me through the trees, above gently shimmering golden fabric. Taking off again, I sprint after my mother, Tony's yell of "Loki!" fading away behind me.

Why was I with Tony Stark in the first place?

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the forest shimmer, the trees wavering, and then suddenly I'm running down the hallway of the palace on Asgard, the floors gleaming in the light from the torches. For a moment, I'm disoriented, my brain whirling in confusion, but then I'm back to running, the soles of my boots pounding against polished marble. But I can feel, or sense rather, the slightest give under my boots. So slight, only someone trained in illusions would notice it.

I do.

But I keep running. Seeing my mother again, it's too much to resist. Even after earlier.

I see her, up ahead of me. She turns a corner. I'm almost to her. But then something catches my leg and I go sprawling, and instead of smashing my face into the hard, relentless marble flooring, it's something much more yielding that I hit. I can still feel the sting of the marble, but yet, the sense of that yield is present.

"Loki?"

I push myself up onto hands and knees, shaking my head to clear away the sting. I can't lie anymore; I know this is not real. My mother is dead, and the Mind Stone is trying to take control of my mind.

Sitting back on my heels, I gaze around at the halls of Asgard, knowing that they conceal the trees and brush of the forest. Veers and Peggy are still out there, probably under the influence of the Mind Stone. And Tony. Dammit, that's why I was with Tony Stark. We were trying to find our allies.

I need to find Stark, and then find Veers. And Peggy.

But first I need to break out of this prison. Again.

I stand, closing my eyes and curling my fingers into fists. Break. I send out a wave of magic. Trees. Another wave, and I feel the walls give. Earth. I ground down through my heels, breaking through the marble. Break. That thread, holding it all together, I yank at it as I did before, pouring my power against my prison.

I feel the Mind Stone clawing at my brain, not wanting to lose me a second time. But I continue to bombard the illusion with knowledge of what's on the other side. And then I see one tree branch, and then an entire tree, and after endless, agonizing minutes, I am standing in the forest again. I can still see flickers of the Asgardian halls, mirages through the tree trunks, but once again, I am free.

"Loki."

My mother's voice again. "Stark!" I yell, determined not to fall under its spell again. I cannot afford to be tricked again. "Stark!"

"Loki!" He's closer than I thought. Pivoting, I run towards his voice, stumbling through the brush, reminding myself over and over again that I am in a forest and nowhere else, a forest and nowhere else. No matter what else I see, I am in a forest. Within minutes, I come across him.

And he's leaning over the body of Peggy.