"I..." Amy shook her head. "Not everyone is a god, Loki, some of us have to make do."

"Make do with what? With this? A gilded cage?" Loki smiled faintly. "Come, now, my dear, I do know more of those than you. You will not be happy here, not for long."

"What, then?" Amy asked. "Trade one cage for another? I wasn't exactly free in the tower, either."

Loki shrugged. "The choice, of course, is yours," he agreed. "But I cannot and will not see you here if you choose to stay here."

"I thought you were bored and needed me to keep you amused," Amy challenged.

"Not as you are now," Loki said with a careless shrug. "The woman who amused me had a mind of her own and was afraid of all this. You are not she."

Amy flinched again, her hands clenching.

"S-so that's it, then," she said. "I'm n-not useful to you anymore, so you're done. I don't know w-why I thought any different." She forced the words out, as if she was fighting for each one.

"Perhaps because you actually thought," Loki said with a touch of scorn. "Rather than this... limited existence."

Amy flinched again. Everything he said was true, and it hurt because of that truth.

"You know what it's like," she said quietly, "to want to feel wanted."

"Yes," Loki said, very quietly. "I do know. I also know that this isn't being wanted, this is being used. Being used gets you nowhere but in a cage." He was quiet for a few moments. "I of all people would know."

"What's left for me out there?" Amy asked. "Running? Paranoia, praying every day that we won't slip up?"

"I was teaching you," Loki pointed out. "You can learn to conceal yourself, to push them away. You do not have to live in fear."

"They've found me at least twice so far," Amy pointed out. "Just in this city."

Loki looked at her and then shrugged. "Or I could just kill all of them for you so they will no longer be a problem," he pointed out.

That made Amy pause, and then she looked away and winced. Her hands clenched and unclenched.

"You-- you would do that?" she managed to grind out through her programming.

"I do not see how it would be any great loss to this world," Loki pointed out. "So yes, I would."

Amy looked torn between telling him not to and asking why he hadn't already done it.

"If you do, you'll get locked up again," she finally said. "You know they're constantly keeping an eye on you."

"In this case, I may be granted some leniency," Loki said. "They are causing trouble for humans as well, and I believe Stark was on his way here."

Amy took a breath to steady herself. The longer she talked to Loki, the easier it was to try to slip around her programming. The Extremis was strong, and it was coded better this time, but she managed to find a couple of cracks to slip through. Part of her, though, was genuinely reluctant to leave her illusion of control. Carefully, she loosened her hold on her improvised harem, wiping them clean of any memories of Loki being there and sending them away.

"I believe that is tacit permission?" Loki raised an eyebrow at her. Because if she didn't object, he would go wipe those creatures off the face of this planet.

"I--I just-- Before I change my mind again--" Amy looked at him, and then looked down. She bit her lip. "I just want it to stop."

"I can make that happen. Wait here." Loki walked out of the room, striding down the hall like the god he was among puny mortals. He didn't have access to all his magic, but he didn't need it. Not to wipe these pitiful excuses of humanity out of existence.

Amy nodded, just sitting back down and wrapping her arms around herself as she tried to fight off her programming again. It was harder now than it had been the first time around.

Loki got the information he needed out of one man before he started killing humans and freezing segments of the building. Very quickly, an alarm went up, and people started evacuating. Including Lea and the higher-ups. Scowling a bit, Loki went to go check on Amy again.

Amy was leaning against the doorframe of the room she had been in, just watching everyone go by as they evacuated. Occasionally someone would stop as if to tell her to get out as well, but then their expression would turn confused and they would just continue on their way. She wasn't worried about evacuating, really.