THE BEGINNING
Tony didn’t expect to wake up again.
So when he did, it was in a panic; he shot upright, panting, numb fingers scrabbling at his chest, frantically searching out the light that always resided there, and he clamped his eyes shut when he realized it was gone , it’s gone, it’s gone, Obi got it, he got it, please, I’m dying …
But before he could spiral out of control, cool hands gently grasped his and pressed them firmly against a leather covered chest.
A soft, achingly familiar voice murmured in his ear, “ Breathe ,” and Tony did, sucking in great, heaving lung-fulls of air.
Slowly, ever so slowly, Tony pried his eyes open once more, blinking past the gold dotting his vision until he could focus, eyes locking on black leather and long fingered hands grasping his, before his gaze moved slowly upwards, taking in the elegant line of pale throat hugged by emerald fabric; the long, soft looking raven hair; the chiseled jaw and sharp cheekbones before locking in on bright, sinfully green eyes.
“ Oh my god ,” Tony breathed, air catching in his throat as his eyes pricked with tears. “ It’s you .”
And then Tony was throwing his arms around Loki’s body and hauling him in close, burying his face in the gods neck, breathing in the snow-apple-leather scent of him, body trembling uncontrollably even as he felt strong arms wind around him and anchor him in place.
“Anthony,” Loki murmured. “Oh, my Anthony. My love, you are safe now.”
Tony didn’t say anything, just clung tighter, letting himself ride out the confusing jumble of emotions he felt upon hearing those words, working past the confusion, hope, fear, and longing to finally settle on warmth.
“Loki,” Tony asked quietly, finally pulling back to look Loki in the (green, blessedly green) eyes. “What the hell happened?”
Voice soft and hesitant but slowly gaining traction, Loki told him.
Told him of his trip to Asgard, of the All-Father outing him as Jotun to the whole of his home realm, of his fall into the Void, of his time spent in Thanos’s torture chamber until his mind was weak enough to stop resisting and the mind gem was able to take over.
Loki told him of his own partial awareness, of his ploy to sabotage his own invasion to keep the tesseract out of Thanos’s hands.
Loki told him of the Mad-Titan’s plan to fix , to tear the universe apart down the middle and snap away half of the galaxy’s living creatures.
And, finally, Loki hugged him tighter and told him in a wrecked voice that hitting the ground had knocked the hold of the gem loose from his mind; that the moment he’d let go of the scepter, it had vanished in a cloud of black smoke and blue lightning and the alien army had dropped like puppets cut from their strings; told Tony of the absolute, gut wrenching horror he’d felt upon teleporting back to the top of the tower and seeing Tony in that state; told him that, in order to save him, he’d had to bring Tony to Asgard and force him in his half conscious and unaware state to eat one of Idunn’s apples before the healers could even begin their work on him.
“Longevity,” Loki had said and Tony stared at him, eyes wide, shock numbing his limbs and stalling the whirling mechanisms of his mind.
“Immortality, you mean,” Tony had rasped and Loki shook his head, held him even tighter.
“No,” the god murmured. “But as close to it as one can get.”
It took time for Tony to even begin to come to terms with his newly expanded lifespan, time he apparently had in spades.
And Loki let him, sitting patiently as Tony paced, muttering to himself, thoughts running through his mind faster than he could compute them, fingers twitching towards his chest in an aborted move to tap against the arc reactor.
Longevity. Immortality. They were, essentially, one and the same.
Contrary to popular belief, Tony wasn’t actually self centered enough to believe the world needed him to stick around forever. Sure, he’d contemplated it; everything he could achieve with infinite time to do so, the perks and downfalls of immortality, the ability to do as little or as much as he pleased because he no longer had a time frame to follow. Some part of his mind thought that would be incredible, really. But that part of his mind had also recognized an impossible feat when it saw one, and that was one challenge he was content not to try to overcome.
Now, though, with a literal forever looming in front of him, he didn’t feel excitement or elation or anything he thought he would feel if he’d ever went about the task of creating his own immortal lifespan. No, he felt...tired. Weary, down to his very bones. And sure, maybe that was in part due to the intense healing his body had so recently gone through, but he knew most of it wasn’t. He’d healed from impossible injuries before, he knew what that felt like, and this? This was mental exhaustion, pure and simple.
So instead of throwing himself down that rabbit hole, instead of letting himself spiral, he pushed away his fears and doubts and emotions and replaced them with facts, instead:
- Loki lead an army of aliens into New York while under the control of a bigger and badder alien grape.
- Said alien grape was going to do everything in his power to get Loki back under his thumb.
- There were magic rocks scattered around the universe that had the power to decimate half the population.
- Thanos was after those magic rocks, and they could not under any circumstances let him get them.
- Loki would be pursued by Thanos for failing, as well as by Asgard for attacking Earth.
- Tony Stark was immortal.
Tony repeated these six things to himself, over and over, until all he had were the facts. No emotional response, no fear, only determination and understanding.
Facts, he could do. He was a scientist, they were all he had; right now, they needed to be all he had, otherwise he was going to fall apart at the seams and a mental breakdown was not something he had time for; not ever, but certainly not now.
Now, he had to focus on Thanos.
Thanos, an all powerful, unbeatable threat that was looming on the distant horizon; Thanos, who already had one Infinity Gem back in his possession and was well on his way to collecting a second- Loki failing the invasion was a mild setback, nothing more. Thanos still knew where the next gem was, he just needed to find a way to get it. And a being as smart as him wouldn’t have any trouble finding it.
So, either they risk Thanos finding and collecting all six gems, or they start searching for the gems and collect them before Thanos can. Which would just leave finding someone who could withstand the power of all six Infinity Gems without being fried or corrupted or...oh. Oh , this was going to be fun .
Opening his eyes, he found Loki watching him with concern, though he hadn’t moved from his comfortable sprawl next to the bed Tony had vacated, and his posture was relaxed in a way Tony knew was deliberately open; just enough to manipulate Tony into as calm a state as Loki appeared to be in.
Tony wasn’t surprised to find it working; Loki had always had that effect on him.
Now, though, now that Tony had found a purpose, an anchor point, he could breathe again; he was no longer drowning.
His mind quickly sifted through options, planned and revised until, like pieces on a chessboard, everything began to fall into place.
Meeting Loki’s eyes, Tony grinned, sharp and predatory, and said,
“Listen up, snowflake, because I’ve got a helluva plan for you.”
***
Half a galaxy away, Thanos grinned, crushing the glass container of the scepter to dust until he had nothing but the warmly glowing Mind Gem held in his palm.
Plucking the cord from around his neck and allowing the metal cage dangling from it to open, he carefully settled the gem into its cradle and locked it inside before clasping the cord shut around his neck again, the gem pulsing with power where it sat nestled comfortably against his chest.
He turned his gaze outward again, watching shrewdly through the small mirror dimension hovering gently before him as the god clutched his mortal close in desperation and the pair spoke of something Thanos was unable to hear, likely coming up with plans meant to stop him.
Fools, the both of them.
They would do well not to forget who they were dealing with.
Waving away the mirror dimension, letting it wash away like water, he turned his eyes back onto the stars surrounding him and his children, focusing on the wink of gold in the distance.
“I am coming for you, little god. I hope you are ready.”