Part 2 - Chp 3
“I know where Loki is,” Tony says as he bursts into Thor’s room. It takes him a minute to remember that it’s three in the morning. Thor tends to follow human cycles for no reason Tony understands (if he could just keep going on on no sleep or food he would), and so Thor is--was asleep.
Thor takes almost no time to process what Tony said.
“Where?” Thor’s already on his feet--and right, he sleeps in the nude.
“Tesseract--he’s been bound and locked up again, it’s why he’s not showing up when we look for him. Thor, it’s a scout force.”
Thor crosses his arms; Tony has no idea why he isn’t leaping at this chance.
“How do you know all of this?”
“He showed up,” Tony says, patient. Well, as patient as he can be. “A projection. Thor, he looks like shit, we can’t just—”
“And, if he is bound as you say, how did he manage such?”
Tony’s brain grinds to a halt.
“He got lucky?” he suggests, but that bad feeling is back. Worse. It’s too valid a question, one Tony didn’t have time to think of in the chaos of Loki’s bloody arrival.
Thor sits down on the edge of his bed.
“You are right,” Thor says, voice gentle. “I do not believe all is well. But I also do not believe that all is as it appeared to you. Did anything strike you of particular note about his appearance? How did he appear?”
Tony hesitates, then leans against the door frame.
“His eyes,” he finally says. “They looked… wrong. Green, sure, but there was blue too. Looked like webbing. He wasn’t human--or at least he wasn’t trying to be.” He licks his lips. “He couldn’t fake that sort of pain.”
Thor hums, a low sound that vibrates through the room like distant thunder.
“Loki can fake many things,” Thor finally says, “when it suits him. He will lie by action, if not words.”
“He tried to bite through himself,” Tony says; it all looked so real--he doesn’t want to believe Loki would fake that sort of pain.
Thor only looks at him. He’s thinking--it’s written all over his face, charging the air with a low hum of static. His gaze is ancient, an actual weight pressing down on Tony.
Thor’s churning through possibilities--probabilities, Tony realizes with a jolt. He’s known Loki for so long--so much longer than Tony--that he’s weighing what Tony’s reported against what he knows of his adopted brother; time that spans longer than Tony can fully comprehend.
Tony keeps his mouth shut and lets Thor think.
“I believe,” Thor finally says, “that he is trying to warn us. I also believe that he may be bound in some way, but perhaps not the way he lead you to believe. We are as much physical as metaphor.”
“Thoughtforms.”
“Eyes are the window to the soul,” Thor says, agreeing. “We cannot change them ourselves; if Loki’s are changed, then there is something wrong.”
Tony considers that, then nods.
“Do we still go then?”
Thor frowns, then shakes his head.
“I do not know. I believe that is what Loki wishes, but I do not if that is a wise course of action. At the least, I think we should not alert any to our presence--including Loki.”
“Okay.” Tony pauses, then shakes his head. “Okay.”
“Try to get some rest. It seems we have a busy day ahead of us.” Thor offers a small smile, but his eyes are as unhappy as Tony feels.