Loki just watched her, his head tilted to the side. He knew the wall would hold, and the programming part of Extremis would stay contained. All the power without the urges. He was going to have fun teaching her what she could really do.

"It's..." Amy struggled to find the words. "It's really not there." She bit her lip, trying not to cry.

"It's not," Loki agreed quietly. "Now you can truly learn what you can do, not what you were pressured into doing."

"I don't even know where I would start," Amy confessed after a moment.

"I can help with that." Loki kept the words quiet and uninflected. But, finally, a good challenge in this gods-forsaken tower.

Amy looked at him.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked. "What's in it for you?"

"Something to do," Loki responded. "None of these humans practice magic, and I am not allowed to leave, nor do I have access to my own magic. Teaching you is one of the few things I will be allowed to do, and you present the only challenge in this building."

"So, a distraction," Amy summed up. "Something to keep yourself occupied."

"Yes." Loki didn't bother to deny it. He knew that altruism would make this one more nervous rather than less, and decided that the truth (what of it he wanted to expose, anyway) would work better.

Amy was quiet for a moment, considering that.

"I've been worse than just an amusement before," she said finally. "I would rather be an amusement than a tool."

Loki nodded. "Very well. I'll give you the rest of the day to adjust to how things feel now. We will begin lessons tomorrow." He stood and headed back inside.

Amy nodded and watched him go. Then she settled back down with her tea, trying to center herself again.

Lea came up from the labs a little earlier than normal, getting herself a cup of chai tea before heading over to their bedroom for a bit. She had a persistent headache from trying to figure out too many things on her own, not helped by the dull, steady throbbing that had settled into her cut hand over the day.

Amy noticed her sister coming upstairs, and went over to her.

"How's it going?" she asked quietly.

"Too much to do," Lea admitted, rubbing her temples. "I'm trying to keep up with the research Stark and Banner are doing, and figure things out on my own, and I'm making a few new toys in case anyone from AIM tries to jump us again." She took another sip of her tea, bringing up the password she'd "borrowed" to get into Tony's personal databases. Again. Because that was where he was storing his research.

Amy nodded and nudged her sister a little in support.

"What did you do to your hand?" she asked when she saw the bandage.

"Hmm? Oh, right. We were testing some of the tech, something to slow the healing rate down. Their tests would have taken too long so I cut my hand." Lea shrugged. She still didn't think it was a big deal.

Amy raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment.

"Loki made my programming stop," she admitted softly after a moment.

Lea stopped altogether at that, turning to look at Amy after a few moments.

"What?" she asked, her eyebrows high on her forehead. "What exactly happened while I was working?"

"I was sitting on the balcony," Amy said. "Loki showed up, did something that locked up my programming, and told me he was willing to teach me how to use my talent, because he's bored and wants a distraction."

Lea stared at her for several moments, stuck between disbelief and outrage. Then she shoved that all aside and grinned broadly.

"Well, hey, that's great! You don't have to worry about the urges, at least. And if he did that for you, he probably can teach you, so then you won't have to worry again."

Amy studied her sister for a moment.

"You don't like it," she observed. "That someone else did something."

"I'm just glad that you won't have to worry about it anymore," Lea said, shaking her head. "It doesn't matter who did it." Which was a lie, but Amy didn't need to know that.

Amy sighed slightly.

"Lea, I know you better that that," she said. She touched her sister's arm. "Talk to me?"

Lea shook her head, getting to her feet and heading into the kitchen to make some tea.

"Really, Amy, I'm just relieved. I don't know how much I trust that guy, but if you don't have to deal with the programming, that's great."