Empty Handed
“Fear is what controls you, Stark.”
Cold consumed his body, like he was freezing in a block of ice. Everything was black. He was falling.
His eyes snapped open.
Tony bolted up right in bed, his eyesight blurring and his breathing heaving. He was lost somewhere he didn’t even know. “Where am I? Why is it soft?”
“You are in your bed sir, the others are currently waiting for you.”
Tony managed to calm his breathing. “Where are they?”
“At SHEILD, sir. With Thor.”
Tony breathed out. “Peachy.”
The inventor stood up and wandered to his closet. He changed into fresh clothes, it really felt good to get out of the grimy-three day old ones.
He rubbed his face and got going. Fury was waiting, and he hated waiting.
When Tony got to “the office”, he spent a good time looking around. Curious that there was a god waiting in Hulk’s cell, and he wanted to “chat”, he made his way through the halls and to the confinement space. Except, when he got there, there was no god. He stared at the empty cell and felt a strange ache in his chest. What the hell?
Tony made his way to the meeting room. “Be composed.” He had mumbled to himself.
Don’t let them see you’re afraid. You’re not afraid. You are Iron Man. We don’t do afraid.
Oh, but you do. You really do, don’t you? He shook away his nagging voice and glanced up to meet the eyes of Fury.
It took him fifteen minutes to explain how Loki escaped, how Phil was killed, and how it was now their job to stop the crazed god. It wasn’t a choice, Tony got that. He could respect that…even if he didn’t show it.
Steve took Phil’s death the hardest, people had noticed. He would snap at the other’s more, his orders more demanding, and his moves frantic. Capsicle’s mind was melting and his heart was cracking. No one knew it could happen, but here it was, in front of them as he argued with Tony. Bruce tried to block it out.
“Son of a bitch.” Now their interests were peaked. What had the play boy discovered now? They didn’t get to know though. He had turned and walked out.
Steve and Bruce had glanced at each other. Their eyebrows were raised, and they had frowns that showed confusion. So, they followed him, saw him change into his suit, and everything clicked together. Time to alert Natasha and Clint…hopefully Clint could help.
They had a battle on their hands, and it wasn’t going to be easy.
Tony got to his tower to be greeted by the smirking God of Mischief. He envi-… hated, hated him. He slowly lowered himself onto the landing pad and walked off, venerable as his suit was removed. Facing forward, he walked inside.
“Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity.” Loki had snarked out. He had tilted his scepter to the side as if he was pointing at something.
Tony gulped, but made it unshorn, as he walked behind his counter to grab himself a drink. “Uh, actually I'm planning to threaten you.” His voice almost wavered but he had caught himself.
“You should have left your armor on for that.” Loki didn’t know what to think. He was confused but intrigued. Unmoved but amused. Did the man not know that Loki was a god and could kill him easily? Did the man not care for his life? Was the man not afraid? Oh, but he was. Loki could…just tell. There was something telling Loki how the avenger was actually feeling.
“Yeah. It's seen a bit of ‘mileage’ and you got the ‘glow-stick of destiny’. Would you like a drink?” The Iron Avenger was really doubting his words, Loki could tell. His posture had said defiant and determined, while his eyes shown fear and desperation.
Loki faked an offended and confused face. He was enjoining this casual time with this avenger. “Stalling me won't change anything.”
Tony Star smirked. Just keep smirking and he’ll never know. “No, no, threatening! No drink? You sure? I'm having one.” He took a swig from his glass of finally poured alcohol.
The god watched Tony’s movement and caught himself from almost growling at the mortals antics. “The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?”
Yourself. A small voice nagged him. Loki brushed it off and stalked closer to the other male, slowly. Predatory like.
“The Avengers. That's what we call ourselves; we're sort of like a team. ‘Earth's Mightiest Heroes’ type thing.” Tony smiled and walked around the bar. If Loki was getting closer, so could he. No fear, not fear, no fear. You fear him, Anthony. Admit it.
Tony left the voice alone as he gave the god a once over. How can a man be that tall?
“Yes, I've met them.” Loki all but snarled, rolling his eyes. Is he always this insufferable?
“Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But let's do a head count here: your brother the demigod; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and YOU, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them.” Tony stopped himself from full out smiling.
“That was the plan.” Loki did smile. “Not a great plan. When they come, and they WILL, they'll come for you.” “I have an army.” “We have a Hulk.” “I thought the beast had wandered off...”
Tony was getting annoyed now, fear and annoyance just don’t mix. He was letting it show. Fix it, Anthony. He’ll catch on. “You're missing the point! There's no throne, there is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it!”
Loki glared and stepped forward. He was too close for comfort for both him and Stark. “How will your friends have time for me, when they're too busy fighting you?” He tapped Stark with his scepter, but the Arc Reactor had just absorbed the magic. Loki blinked and tried again, with no success. “This usually works...” He snapped out.
Tony pulled a long face a shrugged. “Well, performance issues, it's not uncommon. One out of five...”
Loki was furious, his eyes burning with raw rage as he picked Tony up by the throat. So, he did the only thing he could think to do. He threw him.
He took joy in watching the small man slide across the floor, but there was this pang in his chest. Not wanting to explain it nor did he want to acknowledge it, he left it alone.
The god had walked towards the male and picked him up by the throat again. Tony stared at him, and the next thing he knew, he was flying out the window. Luckily, the bracelets he had on worked and directed his suit to him.
He caught himself right before he had hit the ground. Thank god. Tony had thought about going up and blasting Loki, he really did, but something about the idea made him hesitate and want to hurl.
So, he had flown off to join the rest of his teammates to see if they needed his help.
It was towards the end of the battle that Loki got thrown around like a rag doll by the Hulk. All the god could do was lay in the crater and groan out a wimpy breath. There was no way he could get up, not while this pain and the other pain that he couldn’t place was spreading over him.
Tony could admit that trying to call Pepper was a dumb idea when flying through the warm hole, they weren’t together anymore anyway. Taking what he thought was his last breath, he let the nuke go and let his eyes drift close. This was the end for him. People said silence was bliss, but it wasn’t. It was cold and lonely. It was a tearing pain that consumed your thoughts and feelings. There was screaming, crying, nothing. That’s what scared Tony the most. The bleak nothingness of death. The only color that surrounded him was black. He didn’t want to die. He never wanted to die.
So why did he do it? Oh yeah, it was to help those people.
There was a roar. His eyes snapped open. Breathe! He did. His back almost arched at how much air he drew into his body. Tony’s head felt Thor hit him with his hammer and his body felt like the Hulk had jumped on it. “What happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me.” Is now really the time to joke?
Steve gave a small smile at that, Clint had rolled his eyes affectionately, and Natasha shook her head at his joke.
“You’re all good, Stark. Lets go get Loki.” The captain said, and for once, the iron avenger agreed with him.
Loki waited in the Hulk’s cell for Thor to come pick him up. His plan had worked, he would be back in Asgard. The very place he was banned from. He couldn’t help the smile that formed on his face, but then it had crumbled like an old, broken, stone statue. Searing agony and guilt had washed over the god. He doubled over and his hand pushed roughly against the glass to Hulk’s cell.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME?” He seethed. His breath was coming quickly and his body was shaking from the effort of fighting against collapsing. He could see the agents staring at them with a shocked confusion. One had ran to go grab some help, Loki could only guess who.
Then, that voice of which he “despised” had broken through his ear drums. “Brother! What is wrong? The mortals here are doing nothing to you.”
“Well something is.” Loki has rasped out, finally falling to his knees. It hurts. Why does it hurt? He was holding back a scream, but as soon as the pain came, it was fading.
Looking at Thor, he asked for answers with his eyes.
Thor got Loki out, chained, and on his way to where they would need to open the bridge all in 5 minutes.
Tony found himself only now focusing on what was going on around him when deep green eyes had met his. Shuffling, Tony thought about what he was doing here. Loki was going back to Asgard to await and learn what his punishment would be, so why did Tony feel different? Why did he not want him gone? The green eyes wouldn’t leave him.
Calm down Tony, you’re showing him your anxiety.
Shut up! The inventor had growled at the voice in his head.
Lifting his head from where he apparently started staring at Loki’s feet, he watched the gods grab onto the tesseract device the mad and turn the ends. With that, they were gone. Tony felt an emptiness he had only felt one other time, and that was when Pepper had left.
The two gods had approached the King of Asgard, Loki with rage in his eyes while Thor had worry and defeat in his.
“Father, something is wrong with Loki. He was in great pain earlier. I could see his anguish.”
Loki kept himself from fighting against his restraints for the words Thor had used.
Odin let a small smile grace his elderly features. “That’s what should of happened, yes.”
The two gods tilted their heads.
Loki growled. “What do you mean?”
Thor just stared at their father.
“Your punishment Loki,” Odin paused as his smile grew a bit more “Will be to stay on Earth and be the protector of the one they call Tony Stark. If you fail to comply you and him will both be injured. Him, by what you failed to protect him from, and You, by the magic that I had cast upon you to bind to him. If you complain about it, you will feel a strong wave of quilt. If you fail to protect him, you will feel a pain in your chest. You are to leave here empty handed. Now be gone. Thor, take him to live with the Avengers to serve out his sentence.”
Thor went to grab his brother but Loki jerked away.
He growled angerly and stared into the eyes of Odin. “No.”