It was one thing for Loki – and by extension, Percy – to be horrified at their new revelation. It was another for Thor of all people to have the same expression on his face. Loki had never seen his brother express horror of all things before, not even when they'd realized that they were surrounded in Jotunheim, or when they got into trouble on Alfheim when they were boys.

The other avengers were sitting around in confusion, not understanding why the two gods were looking as though a bomb had been dropped on them. Percy, on the other hand, was using the vantage point to his advantage, with both Thor and Loki standing up; they couldn't really see his face, although his mind was racing now with the new information, trying to process it.

The trickster god was processing information rapidly as well, but even as his mind raced at the possibilities of the Mad Titan being in such close proximity with the Gauntlet and the possible measures that the Allfather would taken in order to prevent that from happening – as much as he detested the man, he could admit that the Allfather was cunning and sly, he would not have left the Gauntlet to such an enemy – Loki was aware that he was standing in the middle of the room like a frozen statue, as was his brother –

His brother.

Loki's eyes widened as his thoughts screeched to a halt.

Thor.

His brother.

Who had an equally horrified look on his face. When he shouldn't have had one. Which meant that –

Loki reeled back in shock, just as Thor turned an accusing stare on him.

"You."

Loki stepped back in shock, not understanding why his brother was growling at him. "Thor...?"

The thunder god didn't waver, "You knew." He growled, his blue eyes flashing in anger. Overhead, thunder rumbled in the distance.

Loki narrowed his eyes, reigning in his shock, "I'm surprised, you actually managed to figure it out that quickly?"

Steve, sensing the tension, stood up, trying to calm his team mate before he blew up, "Thor," he said placating, but the god turned a deaf ear to him, pinning his wayward brother with his fiercest stare.

Loki bared his teeth in defense and glared back, his body slightly hunched over in a defensive position, "Why are you staring at me like that? It is not as though I had no –"

Whatever Loki had wanted to say was cut short when Thor gripped him by the neck and threw him across the room.

Taken aback by the sudden action, he hit the wall and crumpled to the floor, laying where he was at the base of the wall dazedly, until his brother leapt over the couch and dragged him upwards by the collar, slamming him against the wall, heedless of the alarmed cries of the avengers behind him.

"You knew that Asgard was in trouble! You knew it and you kept it to yourself! There was no way you would have not known!" Thor snarled, his bright blue eyes boring into his brother's wide green ones. Loki gasped, his hands gripping Thor's, futilely trying to get him to release his grip.

The thunder god shook the other, shrugging off the hands of the avengers who were trying to pull him back. "Why did you never say anything?" he growled, shaking his brother.

Loki curled up, getting his legs between him and his brother. He kicked outwards, sending his brother flying into the avengers who had gathered behind him. He landed with a crouch, releasing a hiss as the pressure on his neck lifted. His eyes flicked to Percy, who had managed to duck out of the way, and who was staring at him in concern.

Loki remained crouched, even when his brother got up within seconds, "I did not lie to you, you dim-witted fool!" he hissed, staring straight at his brother.

But the thunder god was infuriated, and he stalked closer, "You knew. You were not surprised, you knew that Asgard was in trouble yet you never bothered to tell me!"

Loki looked at him in shock, "Thor, cease your accusations –"

"Accusations?" the other god hissed uncharacteristically, causing everyone present in the room to flinch. Percy's hand twitched, wanting to form a weapon but Loki's minute shake of his head stilled his hand, telling him not to get involved.

Thor growled at him, "Those are not accusations. Those are facts. You knew that my home was in trouble, yet you never bothered to tell me." He took a step forward, the avengers all standing around, not understanding but also not wanting to go near the enraged thunder god, their human instinct telling them to shy away from such power. They all glanced at each other warily, having never witnessed this side of their friend before.

Thor ranted on, his blue eyes flashing with anger and hurt and pain, "You are nothing but a selfish, self-centered, arrogant monster." Loki flinched backwards, his eyes growing wide as his brother flung words sharper than knives at him.

"You live up to your name as the Liesmith, I should never have trusted you from the beginning. Were you laughing?" the god demanded, "Are you happy that this has happened? With mother and father and all of our friends trapped in Asgard, submitted to that creature's torment!"

Loki remained silent, his mouth open, but no sound came out. (Where were the words he needed? What good was a wordsmith with no words? Why couldn't he say anything?) "Thor..." he whispered.

But the thunder god was relentless, "Did you enjoy it? Knowing Asgard is destroyed? Knowing that everyone is gone?" he shouted hoarsely, his voice cracking, as did his heart.

"Thor – brother, I did not know –"

"Do not lie to me!" The thunder god roared, pushing the smaller built god against the wall. Percy stepped forward, wanting to break this ridiculous argument up before things got out of hand, but Tony grabbed him and pulled him back. He whirled around and glared at the genius, "What the hell are you doing? We need to stop this. Now. Thor –."

"Thor is right," Clint cut in, his brown eyes dark as he watched his friend advance on the black haired trickster, "That guy is an asshole." He growled, "He's getting his just desserts, its what he deserves for tricking Thor like that."

Percy looked between them, anger rushing through him as he watched them stand by and do nothing. These, these were the heroes in which we entrusted the safety of Earth to? These people, who would stand by and do nothing but watch as one of their own pummeled another based on a mere accusation?

He growled in disgust and snatched his hand away from Tony, pinning them with one of his infamous death glares. He stalked up to the thunder god, pushing him away from Loki, who was still frozen in shock, "Thor, stop this. You need to stop your tantrum now!"

The thunder god snarled and turned on him, "This abomination sat by and did nothing but watch as Asgard fell! He could have helped me get to Asgard to aid them, but he did not!"

Thor turned and glared at his brother, hissing, "He is nothing more than a monster. Unwanted and unwelcome by all."

Percy's eyes widened and he turned to look at Loki, who's eyes had grown as wide as dinner plates, the hurt flashing through them momentarily before his expression frosted over. "Loki –"

The trickster god bared his teeth wordlessly and pushed away from them, grinning dangerously, "And there it is," he hissed, grinning all the while, his smile painful as it was sharp and brittle, "The hypocrisy of Asgard. You are the spitting image of your father." He sneered, "Preaching your forgiveness and your cheer when everything is nothing but. A. lie."

"Loki!" Percy shouted, but the god swirled and disappeared down the corridor.

The whole room was silent, save for the harsh breathing of the thunder god behind him. Percy's face became expressionless as he turned around to face the remaining god in the room. He watched how Thor calmed down, how the anger flushed out of him almost as soon as it overtook him. He saw the clouded blue eyes clear, confusion evident in his sky blue eyes.

But Percy was mad, spitting mad, he was annoyed and angry and completely furious at the callous way that Thor had treated his brother. Granted, said brother was a mass murderer that was still probably on a homicidal rampage in his mind, but all Percy could think of was that Thor should never had said all those stuff.

He knew that Loki was adopted, he knew that the god was hurting from that, if his reaction to Percy seeing his other form was any indication, and he knew how it tore through a person like a knife to know that your parents had lied to you, had used you. He knew, gods forbid, he knew how it felt. And he had only been dealing with eighteen years of lies. Loki had been dealing with it for hundreds of years. That was enough to render any sane person mad.

He was reminded of Tyson, how everyone sneered and jeered and mocked him because he was different, because he was their supposed enemy. He remembered how he was ashamed of Tyson in the beginning. How Tyson had been so excited and happy to have a brother while he could only look away and pretend that he didn't have a Cyclops for a brother. He was reminded of Triton, who had reconciled with him and been mocked for mixing with a filthy half-breed for it. They were not his real brothers, far from that, but they considered each other family, they stood up for each other. And if there was one thing that the gods ever got right, it was that you didn't give up on family.

Hermes had taught him that*.

Turning to face Thor now, Percy felt unspeakable anger surge through him, clenching his fists to control the tidal wave of anger, knowing that if any of the avengers were to even stand by the cliff now, they would see the ocean churning and waves crashing ferociously. He didn't know why he was so angry, let alone why he felt so offended on Loki's behalf, but he gritted his teeth and faced Thor, his eyes darkening in anger even as his heart clenched with unknown emotion.

"What – in the name of Hades possessed you to do that?" A voice cut through the silence.

Thor jumped and looked at the origin of the voice, being pinned by dark, swirling ocean eyes. Finding himself uncharacteristically nervous, he tried to think of why the words had poured out like it did, but his voice was trapped in his throat.

"I – I do not know. I –"

"Why," Percy snarled, "Would you say such stuff to his face? You know exactly how being called a monster affects him so why in the name of Zeus would you do that?"

Thor flinched back as if Percy had slapped him. The other avengers tried to intervene but Percy waved them off, "He didn't even know about the damn situation until last night!"

Thor kept quiet, his eyes growing wide in shock, Percy on the other hand, was on a roll, "He only managed to find out that Asgard was attacked last night. Last. Night. He was going to tell everyone today, which is why I called this freaking meeting. And all you did was jump into conclusions. I don't see you speaking up and telling everyone about the situation. I don't see how you get the right to accuse him when you yourself didn't even mention anything!If he didn't have to give everyone a crash course in what those gems were, he would have been able to speak up sooner!"

Percy glared at the thunder god, who stepped back at the intensity of said glare, "I – I apologize my friend –"

"It's not me you have to apologize to." Percy said sneered, crossing his arms, "I'm not the one you hurled insults at. I'm not the one you hurt."

"Woah wait," Clint interrupted, "Why should he say sorry? I mean, okay fine, so he did jump into conclusions, but Loki should have told us sooner as well right? I mean its Asgard we're talking about here."

Percy stared at him incredulously, had they let their minds be corrupted by the hate they all shared towards the trickster god? Or were they just so prejudiced against him that they didn't even want to give him a chance? "Which part, " he said slowly, "Of 'he didn't even know until last night' did you not get? And I don't know," he said, sarcasm dripping off each word, "Maybe he should apologize because it's common courtesy to apologize when you accidentally accuse someone of something that they didn't do?"

Clint scowled, not liking the way Percy was standing up for their enemy, "Look, okay, Thor gave that asshole so many chances, but he didn't even respond to any one of them, why should he keep giving if that bastard doesn't deserve it? Thor doesn't deserve to have to be hurt time and again by that asshole."

He would forever deny the flinch and less-manly-than-he-would-like whimper that escaped his throat when Percy turned his death glare onto him.

Percy felt his ire grow, "Yeah okay so maybe he doesn't deserve the care and concern that Thor shows him, maybe he's committed so many mistakes that he's got his name on hell's list already." he snapped, "But if there's one thing that I know is that you don't fucking give up on family." He hissed, his entire posture tense as memories of the people he considered family haunted him.

"Am I missing something?"

Six heads swiveled around to look at the newcomer – newcomers – who stood at the top of the spiral stairs that led to Tony's underground lab.

Steve gave Thor and Percy a warning look and shook his head at Bruce, who was staring at them, eyebrows raised. "Just a slight misunderstanding." The first avenger said. Percy barely concealed the snort, crossing his arms and looking away, clamping down on his anger. He eyed Matthias, who was standing some way behind Bruce, a little hesitant and wary about being surrounded by Earth's mightiest heroes.

He softened his gaze and cocked his head to the side, asking the other boy silently about his physical. The former SHIELD agent slash assassin quickly scurried to his side, getting out of the way of the avengers. He breathed a sigh of relief, grinning slightly, "I am never ever ever going for another physical ever again." He complained, "I thought the one at SHIELD was bad."

Percy smirked, "Obviously, you've never met Doctor Banner."

The other boy just rolled his eyes and huffed, his gaze straying to the blood circlet entwined around Percy's wrist. "What are we gonna do now?"

Percy looked at him, then back at the avengers, who had gone back to their seats, while Steve explained to Bruce what had happened in an undertone. "Well," he said conversationally, his voice still tight with anger, "they're probably gonna decide your fate now."

Matthias squeaked, "What?"

Percy just let a grin stretch across his face, trying to calm the raging storm within him, knowing that it made him look maniacal. "Just joking, but really, you're gonna have to tell them what they want to know."

As if on cue, Steve turned and beckoned Matthias to the couch, Percy following silently behind him.

He leaned against the sofa, behind Matthias, not wanting to be any nearer to the hypocritical god than he needed to be.

Steve, to his credit, smiled gently at the boy, easing his worries, which, actually, were quite justified worries, considering how he had helped in an assassination attempt on one of their own. Granted, Percy wasn't a part of the avengers, but he was one of them, part of their family, even if the boy didn't know it.

"Matthias, was it?" Steve said, smiling as the boy nodded, he looked no older than seventeen, still a child, by his standards, "Would you mind telling us what happened?"

Said boy licked his lips nervously, wringing his hands together, "Look, I wasn't really that high up on the ladder, so I don't really know a lot of stuff because as I said, I wasn't allowed into a lot of meetings and stuff, so I don't know how much I can tell you –"

"Just cut to chase kid. You're rambling." Clint said flatly, his face stony.

Matthias flinched lightly, "I – I'm sorry. It's just that – well, alright." He breathed in, "Look, it's just, well, I think you all already know it but SHIELD is practically taken over by those aliens."

Silence met his words.

He looked around nervously, feeling as though he was standing on a mine field. Percy nudged him from behind, "What about director Fury? Is he still alive?"

Matthias glanced up at him, ten at the captain, "Well," he said hesitantly, "He is alive. Last I checked, I'm not sure about now, and I don't know what they want with him either but..."

"But he's probably kept somewhere with a lot of chitauri." Bruce finished his sentence.

Matthias just nodded. Steve frowned, leaning back, "We need to get him back. Matthias, how much of SHIELD is compromised?"

The boy tilted his head to one side thoughtfully, "I know that the Helicarrier is a goner. They killed off most of the agents there, most of them are chitauri in disguise."

The avengers all shared horrified looks, "You mean," Steve choked, "Everyone is dead?"

Matthias shook his head slightly, "Not all of them." He whispered, "I don't know, I don't know who's alive and who's dead, I don't know if they left anyone alive. Maybe if some agreed to work with them, I don't know."

"What about you?" Natasha asked bluntly. She did not mince her words, if the boy in front of her was truly a SHIELD agent, he would have been trained, even if he was a newbie. They were on precarious grounds. They had no way of determining if their allies were still allies, they had to work with their enemy while their true foe remained unseen and veiled. No one could be trusted, not even a boy who claimed to have defected because they threatened him. It made no sense, to her at least, she wondered if any of the other avengers picked it up, if Percy picked it up. The boy claimed that he'd been threatened, that his family had been threatened, yet he claimed that he wasn't high enough on the totem pole to receive important information. Natasha narrowed her eyes, no, there was something off about the boy, and she would not leave her team mates to chance.

When the boy just gave her a curious glance, she pinned him under her steely gaze, watching him flinch imperceptibly and shrink under her stare, is eyes questioning. "Why did you work with them? Why did they choose you to work with them?" she clarified.

He blinked once – twice – then ducked his head, not meeting her gaze, "I don't know." He said, "I don't know, I was part of the security team that was supposed to be stationed at Mr. Stark's tower –"

"Whoa wait there," Tony cut in, "I don't have a security team at my house –"

"Yes you do." Natasha interjected her attention turning away from the crocodile tears that Tony was shedding at their 'distrust' of him. she caught Percy's eye and shared an amused glance with him, before focusing on said security team. "Why you?"

Matthias shrunk back slightly, looking at Steve and Bruce for comfort, "I – I don't know, really, I don't, please, there were a few of us, and some didn't agree and others just jumped the fence and all – please, they killed those who didn't agree to work with them, I had no choice."

Natasha narrowed her eyes, "They didn't use any other – incentives?"

He swallowed and looked up at her, his brown eyes staring straight into her light leaf green eyes with uncharacteristic braveness. "They threatened my family." He said stiffly.

"Where are they now?" she pressed, ignoring the angry glares that Tony was throwing her, the others could accept his story for all she cared, but she wasn't called the master spy for nothing.

He shifted his gaze away from her, "They're dead. They killed them anyway."

Natasha narrowed her eyes, opening her mouth to ask further when Tony cut in angrily, "Come on Nat, give the kid a break why don't you? Can't you see that he's fucking upset?"

Natasha's face smoothed into a neutral expression, looking straight at Tony, can't you see you're being played by him?

"Enough." Steve said quietly, he sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly. It wasn't even ten in the morning and already he felt exhausted. "We need to make plans. As of right now, you," he turned to Matthias, "Are under house arrest. I'm sorry, but we can't take any chances right now."

Matthias nodded his assent.

"You will be accompanied by at least one of us if you are to go anywhere outside of this house. JARVIS monitors you when you're in the house." Steve continued. He turned to look at everyone gathered in the room, "We have no way of confirming who's who, so from now, we will consider the whole of SHIELD under the control of the chitauri." He breathed out, "Avengers, we need to find the director. Fast. We don't know what the chitauri wants from him, but we can safely say it's for information."

"No."

Steve blinked and looked at Percy, who was staring back defiantly. "You guys need to do damage control. If the chitauri has really taken SHIELD, then it means that they're gonna use SHIELD. You need to stop that from happening. You need to thwart whatever plans they have. We can't have them taking over remember?"

He looked at each of the avengers, noting the fact that Tony seemed like he was about to burst a vessel, if the shade of his face was any indication. "I'll search for the director. Matthias can come with me."

"What?" Tony protested vehemently, "No way kiddo, no way you're gonna search for him alone."

Percy rolled his eyes, "I won't be alone Tony."

"No, at least have one of us along with you Perce!"

"Tony's right Percy, it's too dangerous for you to search for him alone, if the chitauri swarm, then what?" Bruce argued.

Clint nodded, in agreement "It's better to go in pairs, that way, we each have someone to back us up –"

"You are a team!" he snapped, annoyed yet strangely touched, "Splitting up like this? That's what they want. Together, you all complement each other. Apart, you're easy pickings. The Avengers are the last line of defense against any extra-terrestrial threat remember?" he glared at all of them, "NYPD isn't gonna be able to fight against the chitauri. None of the police department are. That's what SHIELD was created for isn't it? To protect the people from threats that cannot be handled normally?"

None of the avengers dared to interrupt him as he continued on his rant, "If you split up, and they swarm, you'll be easy pickings. They will pick you off one by one, they already tried that! Or have you all forgotten that already?"

He breathed heavily, narrowing his eyes, "Fury would not send a troop to retrieve one person. I will look for him, I'm not part of the avengers anyway, I'm a SHIELD agent, it's my job to protect the director anyway. Matthias can come along," he gave a sidelong glance at the boy, "he probably knows several potential places yes?"

Matthias just nodded shyly, not wanting to interrupt this impromptu speech.

He looked at the avengers, "Do you understand?"

It was an amusing sight when six heroes, one an alien prince, another a human trapped in ice for seventy years, two master assassins and two geniuses nodded mutely at the youngest of their family, looking for all in the world like a bunch of children being chastised by their parent.

Percy huffed indignantly, running a hand through his hair, I wish I had a camera right now, they're acting like Travis and Connor when they –

He blinked, face reddening slightly when he realized that he had essentially been scolding the protectors of Earth. He cleared his throat awkwardly, "Right – I'm just gonna go – uh – to my room. Right, see you guys later." He said hastily, quickly backing away and practically diving into the shadows along the corridor, but not before shooting one last glance to Natasha. He ignored the blond Asgardian completely, who remained silent throughout the whole proceeding.

Tony was the first to break the silence – as usual – "Hah! Did you see that?" he pointed out gleefully, "He does care about us! The little kid, all grown up now."

The rest of the occupants in the room gave him weird looks which he just shrugged off, "Right, so, battle plan? If not I'm going to my lab."

Seeing no response, he shrugged again stood up, making his way to the stairs, "Hey kiddo!" he called out, "Wanna see some cool Iron Man stuff?"

Matthias' eyes widened and he grinned, "Really?"

Tony grinned as well, ignoring the disapproving looks that Steve was giving him, "Yeah obviously, Capsicle over there said you had to be around one of us at all times right? Last I checked I was an Avenger too."

Said boy jumped up in excitement, hurrying over to Tony's side, who gave them a look, and disappeared down into his lab.

Seizing the chance that Tony had given them, Natasha questioned, "What do you want us to do Cap?"

Steve looked startled for a moment before gathering his wits, "Nat, Clint, can you both hack into SHIELD?" at their nods, he continued, "Right, I want you to monitor the situation, anything that seems of importance, let me know, we need to keep up with the chitauri. Bruce?" he said, turning to the scientist, "We know that the chitauri are looking for something, can you – can you calibrate a scan?"

Bruce blinked, "What type of scan? Because I need to know exactly what type of frequency to look for if I'm supposed to calibrate the scanner."

Natasha threw Steve a shrewd look, "You think that they're looking for a gem."

When all eyes landed on him, Steve nodded grimly, "They've been searching for something, we just never knew what, but now that Loki has told us about the gems... I feel like all those attacks on the SHIELD bases, plus the takeover of SHIELD, is to help them look for it."

"It must be an important one if they're willing to risk exposure to find it." Clint commented.

"What was it that my brother said before? Only two gems remain unfound, the Soul gem and the Reality gem." Thor put in, he looked at his fellow warriors, his eyes still clouded with guilt but holding a shine of determination.

Steve looked down thoughtfully, "Both are big deals, if what Loki said is true. Either way," he looked at the two assassins, "Nat, Clint, I'll get Tony to help you, we all know how many times he's hacked into SHIELD before, but I want him to focus primarily on upgrading our weapons. Thor, you and I will patrol the area when we can. Not too frequent, so people don't think that something is up, and we don't alert the chitauri either. But we have to make sure that they don't try anything. Bruce, you know what to do yes?"

Bruce nodded, "I'll try my best, like the power gem is different from the Tesseract and the scepter, each gem has a different frequency, but I'll try to find it based on the frequency that I've scanned from before. There should be some similarities somewhere..."

Steve smiled and nodded genially, not really understand most of the drabble that was spilling from his friend's lips. "Right," he said, clearing his throat, "That should be about it. We can't let up, there's too much on the line. Like what Percy said, we are the last line of defense for humanity. Let's not waste that."

Thor nodded, his bright blue eyes shining, "The Captain and Perseus are both right, we must stick together and we shall not allow this foe to slip through our defenses. We shall not give them a chance to take out the Avengers!"

They all grinned to one another, even Natasha cracked a smile, feeling their spirits lift from where it had plummeted after the betrayal of one of their most trusted allies.

They didn't know how much they would come to regret this.