Of Two Minds

Chapter 18 Part 1: Restoration

S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters

Tom returned to London in Loki's body for his next acting project: a set of Shakespeare plays to be released under the title The Hollow Crown. His excitement to be returning to Shakespeare warmed the hearts of his friends at S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers, who all promised they would find a way to see his work once it was released.

Meanwhile, the Tesseract research toward restoring Tom to his own body progressed rapidly once Bruce, Tony, and a projection of Loki began to collaborate at the New York location. The three men each brought their unique expertise to the discussions, namely science, technology, and magic. The task ahead of them required Loki's understanding of magic and magical artifacts to unlock what the Tesseract did and how, and the combined efforts of Bruce and Tony to use scientific and technological means to interface with the Tesseract to reverse it.

Only one month after the capture of Toshar, the team discovered the breakthrough they needed to communicate with the Tesseract. They experimented carefully on two dozen blooming plants to replicate the stasis effect the Tesseract placed onto Tom. When the blooms on all of the plants remained unchanged for three weeks, they knew their efforts succeeded.

In the fourth week after their discovery of the interface protocol, they attempted to reverse the stasis on three of the plants. Within two days several of the blossoms faded and dropped while new buds opened. They continued their tests until they removed the stasis from all of the plants.

During the following week, they tested the process on a few small rodents and rabbits. The group placed them in and took them out of stasis without any harm to the animals. At Steve's insistence, each animal received careful, kind treatment while it was in stasis to calm any confusion or fears during the experience, which earned him the nickname Crocodile Hunter from Tony. Loki witnessed many times as Steve cuddled and talked to the animals in a soothing manner while they were under the stasis and convinced Natasha to take photos for blackmail purposes later.

After several weeks of successful trials on plants and animals, the three debated the possibility and the ethics of testing the process on a consenting human volunteer. Their argument drew the attention of the other Avengers, all of whom volunteered for the test. With additional discussion, they talked Clint out of the experiment due to his family and Steve due to his super-soldier abilities. They also continued to try to talk Natasha out of it, but she insisted she was perfect for the test since she had no family ties and a history that no one would miss her for if things went wrong.

It was only after Natasha called in Nick to back her up as the best choice that the others relented to place her into stasis for a week. Bruce carefully placed health monitor leads on Natasha as she lay in the bed. "I still have misgivings over this," he muttered under his breath.

"We all do," Steve agreed.

"You need a volunteer," Natasha reminded them, "someone who you don't have to bring up to speed on the process and can give informed consent to the test. I'm your woman for the mission."

"I still don't like it."

"You don't have to like it, you only need to do it." Natasha smiled around at the others. "I have confidence in the three of you."

Loki frowned, a far-off expression on his face. "Apparently my thoughts are too loud. I woke Tom. He also asks you not to go through with it."

"Tell him to go back to sleep. I'm doing it for him."

"Telling him now..." Loki answered, the far-off look still in his eyes. "He's climbing out of bed. I think he plans to talk you out of it in person."

A klaxon alarm sounded, interrupting the discussion. Tony glanced at Loki. "The last time the intruder alarm went off, it was you bringing back Agent Stephenson."