Part 2 - Chp 4
There’s a little arguing, but Tony finally talks Thor into not telling the others where they’re headed. It’s not a good idea, but the idea is to not get caught--the more people who tag along, the harder that’s going to be.
Besides, Thor’s big enough to be two people--which makes three.
“Very well,” Thor says unhappily. “But if we are caught—”
“I take full responsibility. We’ll be fine. We’re just checking things out, right?”
“As you say.”
***
It’s different, traveling with Thor. Thor goes by ways that scream down Tony’s nerves, light his synapses on fire, near blind him with brilliance and a shatter of rainbow hues even through his closed eyes. It’s hard and fast--like lightning--and if Tony didn’t have the suit he is keenly aware that he’d be little more than a fried crisp when they leave the byways of light and reenter human physical space again.
It’s as far from Loki’s quiet not space travel as possible.
They come out in the vastness of space above a fleet of ships. Maybe ships--they look organic, at least the ones that don’t look like so much debris. Space whales, Tony’s mind suggest as they lazily propel themselves forward. Everything is blue and cold and gray. There also a lot of them.
They are, to the best Tony’s tech and Thor’s strange aptitude for light can do, cloaked. Tony has no idea what frequencies the force is monitoring, if they are--he can’t see any obvious terminals, but aliens.
Which he is very, very firmly not letting him think about. Just like he’s not letting himself think about all between him and space is his suit.
It’s Thor who points out what looks like a central base--a smaller sized asteroid with an excellent view of the rest of the force and, as they draw closer, what looks like a damn throne carved into the surface. Which really, how tacky.
They don’t land but they do circle, both skimming for an obvious leader. Or something. Tony gets some decent looks at some of the troops--vaguely humanoid, bipedal, gray and kind of gross looking--but it’s all getting recorded for later, so other than making sure to get a closer zoom on one of them, he ignores them.
What’s frustrating is he can’t really see how they’re controlling anything. For the most part, it all looks almost autonomous--the space whales aren’t helping that--and there’s some weird blue glow but it doesn’t look like a control panel or interface at all. Tony records them anyway, because he’s not so thick-headed to think maybe they aren’t and he doesn’t recognize them for that, but so far all this is is frustrating.
He catches sight of a familiar form wrapped up in black leather with green trim, dirtied gold and a horned helmet both gleaming in the poor light.
There aren’t any chains, any wounds, nothing even slightly animalistic about him. Loki looks downright regal and in total control of himself, his spear that Tony vaguely remembers from when Thor first showed up in one hand. He looks, well… like all this is beneath him, and he’s deigning to be there, talking to a hooded figure with the wrong number of fingers.
He does not look like he’s dying or going to tear himself apart.
Tony circles around, gets a better visual on him, and feels something go a bit cold inside as Loki looks up with a smile--directly at Tony. But no, he’s still talking, and he’s not focusing on Tony; he’s mocking whoever it he’s talking to.
His eyes are still wrong; the blue is worse, whatever green might be in his eyes subsumed, and Tony can’t tell if it’s the crap lighting or just that’s how far it’s progressed. All he knows it’s wrong.
Tony peels away, heading back towards he and Thor had agreed to meet, taking his time to grab more video of the rest of the force. The more he has, the better.
It’s better than thinking about Loki.
***
“Did you see him?” Tony asks once Thor gets them back, still trying to blink the light out of his eyes.
“Yes,” Thor says.
“He’s practically working with them!” Tony yanks his helmet off, starts to get the rest of his armour off. As much as he’s tried not to think about it, he hasn’t been able to stop and it has him fuming angry. What would have happened if he had just rushed in there like Loki wanted?
“Possibly,” Thor says, settling against a workbench and crossing his arms.
“Possibly?”
“His eyes—”
“Were worse,” Tony admits. “They weren’t that blue. I could still see some green under everything.”
“They are the same blue of the Tesseract.”
Tony pauses, tries to remember that particular shade of blue. It’s possible, he supposes…
“Jarvis, pull up a model of the Tesseract.”
One springs to life, and okay, yes--that is the same shade of blue.
“Do you think it means something?”
“I do not know. There are some rumours… I do not know. Speculation will do us little good.” Thor shakes his head. “It is possible that Loki is working with them of his own volition. It is also possible he is appearing to work with them for his own ends, and that what he told you was a warning, a trap, or perhaps both. After all, who did he find to warn? And how willing were you to go straight to him without thinking?”
“Layers,” Tony says.
“All the way down,” Thor agrees. “It does not harm to overthink what Loki does and suggests, if only to be more prepared for the possibilities.”
Tony sighs.
“He’s giving me a headache and he isn’t even here. I’m going to get Steve and let him know what the hell we’ve got coming our way.”
“I will join you.”
How the hell did Tony end up with this mess?