REINDEER GAMES
Tony stared.
He couldn’t help but, not with how terrible Loki looked; pale, sweaty, dark shadows beneath his eyes, and that look. God, that look, one Tony recognized all too well.
He’d seen it in the mirror for months after Afghanistan.
Perhaps he’d been staring too long, though, because JARVIS’s voice sounded softly within the suit, asking with a delicate “Sir?”
Tony let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and raised both hands, pointing the repulsors as well as most of the suits weapons systems at the smirking god.
“Make a move, Reindeer Games.”
And Loki did- but not the one Tony had been expecting.
No, Loki raised his hands in surrender, innocence written in every line of his body, but Tony wasn’t stupid enough to fall for a trick like that.
Loki was just as dangerous with his armor as he was without.
“Mr. Stark,” he heard to his right, and turned his head slightly, not enough to remove his eyes from Loki but enough to see who it was he was speaking to.
“Captain.”
***
Lightning McQueen showing up, though untimely, wasn’t exactly a surprise.
Tony had heard a lot about the other god, and while most of it was uncomplimentary and muttered angrily in some ancient language Tony could never hope to understand, he was able to get some useful tidbits; so really, he wasn’t surprised when Thor yanked his brother out of the jet with a snarl of rage and flew off with him, his eyes- pardon the pun- stormy.
Tony didn’t even hesitate, shooting off immediately despite the Boy Scout of America calling after him, something about orders and plans, but Tony couldn’t hear it over the rage and fear making his heart pound in his ears.
Blasting Thor into the sky may have been a little cathartic.
The lightning that blasted his suit soon after wasn’t, though the extra power boost made up for the bright white spots that remained dancing across his vision for the next few hours.
And Loki just sat there, watching in dark amusement as his brother and his boyfriend fought to kill each other below.
The fight was over just as fast as it had started, once again with Rogers jumping in where he was unwanted and Thor attempting to kill first and talk later.
Just another day in Tony Stark’s sad little life.
***
It was hours before Tony was able to convince Fury and the team to let him talk to Loki, let alone go in by himself.
It was dangerous, they said.
You’re compromised, they said.
“Oh, go fuck yourselves,” Tony finally snapped, tired of being discussed like he wasnt there. “I’m just as compromised as Loki is, and that is exactly why I can get the information we need.”
And that was that.
***
In this lighting, Loki looked even worse, somehow. And that was saying something, given how terrible he’d looked before.
But here, trapped in a steel cage thirty thousand feet up with nothing but glass and bright white light surrounding him, Loki looked...half dead. Tortured.
Tony felt nausea roil in his stomach but ignored it, masking the horror on his face with a cheeky grin, dragging a chair over to the glass, settling in right in front of where Loki was pacing like a caged animal waiting to strike.
“So, Dasher, comfy? I’m sure we could get room service in here; people bend over backwards for people like me,” -people like us- “I’m sure I could arrange something.”
Loki said nothing, eyes trained on Tony, a sneer lifting his lips, disgust and- something, recognition? Or was that just wishful thinking?- flashing through his eyes but it was gone before Tony could even try to analyze it.
“What?” Tony asked. “Don’t feel up to talking? That’s alright, I only have one question I want answered, and then I can leave you to your escape.”
That finally got Loki talking, at least.
“Escape,” the god murmured, sounding amused. “What makes you think I plan to try?” He gestured grandly around his prison, eyes alight with curiosity and dark amusement. “I could hardly escape from such a place.”
“I’m not stupid enough to think a man like you would end up in a place like this without at least three different contingency plans.”
“Perhaps you have merely caught me unaware.”
“I’m not stupid enough to believe that, either.” Tony shrugged. “Despite your rather nasty opinions on us...ants, we’re not as stupid as you think. Or, I’m not, at least. Certified genius and all that jazz.”
“Genius, you say?” Loki smirked. “Please, then, explain this so called escape plan you seem convinced I have.”
“Only since you asked so nicely,” Tony said with a grin and then leaned forward, slipping one hand to his watch now that his body hid the action from the cameras. Smirking, he clicked the small button to activate his newest protocol, sending out a signal that jammed the microphones and turned Shield’s camera view to static as JARVIS took over, before murmuring so softly Loki actually had to lean forward to hear it. “Magic, snowflake. You could have left any time you wanted; you didn’t even have to let us bring you in, so I know you want to be here. Which begs the question of why? Dasher, I started psychoanalyzing you the moment your pretty face showed up in that Shield base; I knew the answer the moment you let us take you in. You needed an in, a way to learn how we’d react, to see what we had planned, a way to make it that much easier to tear us apart from the inside; you’re not known as the silvertongue for nothing, after all; it wouldn’t take more than a handful of words, and you knew that, didn’t you? After you saw our failure to act as a team.” Tony heard yelling, the sound of running feet, and motioned for JARVIS to close all doors to the room, continuing as they slammed shut. “And once you’d caused enough doubt and animosity between us, once you’d caused enough chaos for the scepter to take hold of whomever was closest and whomever was angriest, you’d use the ensuing panic to break yourself out, and take out...hm, Banner, am I right? He’s your biggest threat. Not me, not the assassin twins, not even Goldilocks, but Banner. He’s the only one who might have enough power to kill you because your brother neverwould-”
“Enough.”
Loki’s voice was cold and deadly, ringing out sharply and silencing Tony in a way only Loki could.
And, as he had every time Loki had ever used that tone on him, Tony fell quiet.
Loki was silent for a moment, visibly regaining his composure, before asking once his mask of impassivity was firmly back in place,
“What is your question?”
Tony smiled, sharp and wide, and asked,
“Why are your eyes blue?”
***
Later, Tony would have to rewatch the footage; everything went to shit so quickly, he couldn’t even begin to tell you what went wrong if he hadn’t watched it with his own two eyes.
So, here’s what happened next:
The glass door slid open like it had never been locked in the first place.
Tony was thrown halfway across the room and into the nearest wall before crumpling to the ground.
Banners control was shredded by the scepter and the Hulk roared to life and started to tear apart the Helicarrier.
Thor demolished one of the doors and dove into the room with a yell, sliding right into the open door of the cage.
Loki sent his not-brother hurtling thirty thousand feet to the ground in a steel death trap.
And then he turned his furious gaze on Tony, grabbed him by the throat, and suddenly they were gone in a wash of blue light and black smoke.
***
There were worse ways to die, Tony figured, staring down at the scepter sticking out of his chest.
Really, there were, but Tony was having trouble remembering any of them.
Water, he thought distantly. That’s one of them.
And then he was falling, landing on his knees and listing to the side, though before he could face plant into the ground, cruel fingers curled in his hair and yanked his head back to stare into pissed off blue eyes.
Tony started laughing, blood bubbling past his lips.
“Y-you always...you a-always hated...h-hated blue…”
And then he laughed again, because he was dying and he could do whatever the fuck he wanted, okay?
Loki actually had the gall to look disgusted before dropping him onto the ground and pacing, muttering angrily to himself.
“J...JARVIS...T…” Tony trailed off, coughing violently, breath wheezing wetly in his lungs.
“Silence!” Loki paused his pacing long enough to snarl at him before beginning again.
The pain was starting to fade into the background, and he knew he had something he needed to do, he did, but he couldn’t remember what it was for the life of him.
Electrocution, that was one too, wasn’t it?
His vision began spotting out just as the prototype Ironman armor burst from the wall and began to form itself.
“Sir,” JARVIS’s voice was oddly gentle in his earpiece. “Please, sir, you must activate the protocol.”
Protocol? What protocol? No, no, he just needed to rest. That was all. He just needed to….
Cardiac arrest, that would have been a bad one.
“Sir,” JARVIS spoke again, urgency warring with worry in his voice. “Please. Loki appears to be preparing to leave and you must not let him. You must activate the protocol.”
Tony watched, dazed, as Loki gathered blue magic around himself like a cloak.
High pitched ringing. Sharp metal. Can’t move. Can’t breathe. Hole in chest. Dying.
“Sir!”
Protocol. Protocol. Active the protocol. Need to...oh. Oh!
“A-activate...Terminator Protocol!”
There was a soft whirring; the sound of metal crashing together, and then JARVIS’s voice rang out sharply into the silence that had fallen with the armor’s complete formation,
“With pleasure, sir.”
And with a cold vindication Tony would forever be proud of, JARVIS used the suits repulsors and blasted Loki through the window in a shower of shattered glass, sending him hurtling eleven hundred feet to the ground.
Cold hands pressed on the wound in his chest.
Tony’s eyes flew open and wow, when had he closed them?
His vision was spotty, swaying in and out of focus, but he saw a red and gold blur hovering in front of him, metal hands trying to stop the flow of blood.
“Sir, I...I am unsure what to do.” JARVIS spoke softly.
“You...y-you’re doin’ great, buddy,” Tony slurred, reaching a hand up to clumsily pat at one of the armors. “Nothin’ t’do.”
“Your life functions are critical, sir. I do not think there is…” JARVIS trailed off, sounding so very young, unsure in a way he hadn’t been in the years it had been since Tony created him.
“I know…” Tony coughed raggedly. “You’ve been g-good, you’ve been so...so good, buddy. Now...now s’time. You’re on your own. You g-gotta...you gotta stop ‘im. M’gonna...m’gonna miss you.”
“And I you, sir.” JARVIS’s voice was stronger. Steadier, now that he had a purpose. “It has been a pleasure and an honor serving you, sir.”
Tony grinned, even as his vision started to darken and his breath stuttered in his broken chest, light from the arc reactor starting to flicker.
Just before Tony Stark’s eyes slid shut and the light died in his chest, he could have sworn he’d seen a flash of green, but he was gone before he could figure out what it meant.