When Tony found Loki he had already made up his mind on what he wanted to do, but he wasn’t an idiot and he favored using all the resources he could. That and he was intelligent enough to know when he has been outclassed. He had many advantages against the Avengers, like having built their weapons and suits while financing them for the last decade, but there were more of them than him and there was no winning the fight there if he was alone. Rhodey wasn’t about to be involved in any of this not that Tony told him about his plans anyways, he absolutely would not approve.
But Loki, Loki had no morals to speak of and he had a vendetta against the Avengers. It seemed reasonable to guess that he could strike a bargain with the god even if Tony wasn’t stupid enough to trust him. Loki is a trickster by nature and Tony has never been trusting to begin with, and he was less so after a person he thought was a good friend betrayed him. There was never a point where Tony assumed he was more important than Bucky, but he thought he’d earned enough respect to at least be informed of the true nature of his parent’s deaths.
At the very least Howard earned that and Tony didn’t think the man earned much. But he and Steve had been friends or so Tony thought. He wondered what the old man would think of Steve’s treatment of his son, or if he wouldn’t care considering he never treated Tony any better. Tony was certain he wouldn’t be pleased with how Steve handled news of his murder though, or of his wife’s murder. Howard was a piece of shit to Maria but Tony knew that, in some fucked up and twisted way, he cared about her. Regardless of Howard’s feelings Tony has decided that he has had enough. He was tired of the people closest to him stabbing him in the back, abandoning him, and then chiding him for not being trusting like he had a reason to trust anyone after all he’s been through. And that fucking bullshit letter Rogers wrote him sent him over the edge. He’s had enough and now he was going to get some well fucking earned revenge god damnit.
Finding and recruiting Loki had been an accident on Tony’s behalf- he’d been lingering in a coffee shop debating on his plans to lure the Avengers out of Wakanda when he had spotted a familiar profile. At first he thought the dark figure was just someone who looked like Loki but no, as soon as Tony paid attention he knew he was looking at the real thing so he slid over and into a seat across from the now amused looking god.
“Tony Stark,” he says in a slow, drawling tone while he looks him up and down. “You don’t have that piece of technology over your heart anymore,” he notes.
“And you don’t have your scepter,” Tony fires back, “but I could get it for you.”
Loki’s brows shoot up in genuine surprise before he schools his face back into submission. “For a price, I assume. I doubt you’d be willing to pay the price I’d ask,” he says as his lips curl up into an almost cruel smile.
He leans forward and smiles too, just as cruel. “How about Steve Rogers’ head on the end of it?” he asks and Loki’s face falls into surprise again but this time he has a harder time regaining his composure.
“And here I thought you and the good Captain were friends,” he says. Tony could feel his curiosity, his need to know and Tony plays on it.
“Things changed,” he says, shrugging like this was no big deal. It was, in fact, a huge deal.
Loki waits for more of an explanation but when none comes he speaks. “Well don’t leave me hanging Stark, I’d love to know what tore the Avengers apart. I’ve seen the news.”
He lets out a sharp snort, “according to the public and Rogers that’d be me. Of course there’s no mention of the fact that Rogers basically told the world to go fuck itself when they asked him to sign some simple fucking laws, of course its all my fault. I make an easy scapegoat and I’m tired of it. I figured if the public wants to condemn me for destroying the Avengers I might as well actually do it.”
The intrigue is clear on Loki’s face but Tony isn’t dumb enough to think his interest was without his own strings attached. Eventually Loki would become a problem to him but he defeated the god once, he’d do it again. He knew more about Loki and his powers than most anyone else minus maybe Bruce and he wasn’t here at the moment to stop Tony from doing whatever the hell he wanted. When the time came he’d deal with Loki whatever the consequences may be.
“I assume you would like my help on this little… mission of yours, then?” Loki asks, head tilted to the side in question.
“You’d be useful,” Tony says somewhat evasively. He didn’t want to sound like he needed Loki even if he was sure he did.
“And why would I help you?” Loki asks. “You were, after all, the only thing that stood between me and victory. None of the other Avengers are nearly as resourceful as you were, and you were the one that destroyed my army. I don’t see why I’d be inclined to help.”
Tony smiles and leans back in his seat, “well, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Besides, you said it yourself, I’m resourceful and I’m intelligent and I once took out your army. I’m a resource you can’t afford to throw away, especially since I doubt Asgard just freed you.” He wondered how Loki did manage to escape and why he was here now. Ultimately it didn’t matter but it didn’t mean he was less curious about it. If he was lucky Loki would explain what happened but he was hardly going to count on it.
Loki lets out a surprisingly sad smile, “Asgard is more. Your argument intrigues me though, even if it’s still unclear what I get from this deal.”
He resists the urge to tell him he got to maintain his freedom at least for the moment. Instead Tony shrugs, “you help me, I’ll be inclined to help you. My request is that you resist killing eighty people in two days and trying to take over the planet again. I’ll happy to help you with other goals,” he says.
Loki considers this for a moment, “you want Rogers’ head on a pike but you don’t want to get back at the public that has wronged you. Interesting.”
“The public wants to keep its national icon, I can understand that even if I resent it. Besides, killing said national icon is revenge enough. So are you going to help or not? I have things to do.”
For a moment Loki processes Tony’s words before he nods, “consider me curious, Stark. I want to know what you have in mind, and in return you’ll help me kill my brother.”
Tony considers this mostly because he was unsure Thor could be killed by average human methods. “Would permanently contained be a viable compromise? I think killing a god might have me a tad outclassed,” he explains when Loki raises an eyebrow.
“Not to worry, if you get me that scepter we won’t be outclassed.”
He nods, “deal.”
*
Loki was more than a little curious about Tony Stark and he had been since they met if he was honest. Humans were below him but this one had everything Loki has ever wanted. He had fame, glory, and his name literally written in the sky. This human achieved what he always wanted in a far shorter life span than Loki had and it made him curious, especially when he discovered that Tony Stark wasn’t the hero he thought he was. Oh, he was noble absolutely, heroic even, but a hero? No, he’s lived with a hero his whole life and the only time Thor ever considered revenge it was for selfless reasons- usually to regain some kind of glory for Asgard or to avenge someone. Tony’s desire for revenge was the kind Loki favored- good old-fashioned murder to show that he was not the kind of person you wanted to toy with. And Loki would be lying if he said he was uninterested in killing Rogers himself. He found all of the Avengers grating and he’d take pleasure in killing at least one of them.
He wondered if he could kill Tony too when this was all over but something told him that the plucky human would be more difficult to kill than he would anticipate. So instead he chooses to sit back and watch Tony operate, to see what the man was capable of. The first thing he learns was that Tony was incredibly detail oriented. He watches for days as Tony goes over and over Avengers footage, noting how everyone moved, making notes and adjusting weapons on his suit to properly combat his previous teammates. He takes notes on their gear, finding weak points in their armor that he tells Loki about and reworking his weapons to address that too.
Stark takes meticulous care in making plans to kill Rogers in particular, but almost none of the rest of the team was spared either. “You’re avoiding the witch,” Loki points out when Tony makes a few notes on her actions but focuses on the rest of the team.
“Wanda will be impossible to target, she’s stronger than all of us in powers alone,” he says dismissively.
Loki sits back in his seat and watches the horror dawn on Wanda Maximoff’s face as she realizes she just killed eleven people in Lagos. “I think she’s easy to target,” Loki says because her weakness, like Tony’s own, was extremely easy to read. In fact they had the same weakness- a conscience.
Tony looks up from his notes with an almost curious expression on his face, “and what, pray tell, would be her weakness?”
Loki smiles wide, “her mind.” Tony raises an eyebrow and Loki’s smile grows wider, “she has incredible power yes, but its raw, uncontrolled. All you have to do to destroy her is to make her believe she’s killed someone innocent. While she’s distracted with her petty grief kill her. The good news is that she isn’t the only one who can cast an illusion.”
He almost doesn’t expect Tony to consider it but he does, sitting back in his seat and rewinding the video feed he had going to watch Wanda’s reaction in Lagos. The film capture is grainy and hard to see, but her expression is enough to still have been captured on the bad quality camera. Tony’s head falls to the side as he considers his options. “Show me,” he says to Loki.
It takes a bit of concentration, Loki has always favored green and because of this his spells have naturally taken on the color, but he produces a red energy around his hands that looked remarkably similar to Wanda’s. Tony nods, “doesn’t feel anything like hers, but with some exposure I’m sure you can mimic the magical signatures well enough. Here’s what they look like mathematically, if that’s a help,” he says and he hands over a StarkPad with the mathematical workings of the energy waves Wanda emitted. They were quite helpful, yes, so Loki begins to meld his energy to resemble Maximoff’s. It’s a challenge, but he’s always liked challenges and this was no exception.
*
When Tony breaks into a SHIELD lab, or maybe it was HYDRA now, who the fuck knew, to get Loki’s scepter the god isn’t pleased when he hands it over. “Where is the mind stone?” he asks.
“In Vision’s head. FRIDAY, show him some video,” he says and the AI complies.
“This was not the deal,” Loki tells him, looking like Tony was testing his patience but Tony rolls his eyes.
“I told you I’d get you the scepter, you were the idiot who assumed that it wasn’t tampered with,” he points out and, to his surprise, Loki backs down. He gives Tony a slow, lingering once over before he grins.
“You’ve tricked a trickster, I’m not pleased but I can appreciate a clever loophole,” he says.
Tony smiles with no real humor because good- Loki was going to have to get used to it.
*
Tony Stark lived a life of luxury and Loki was quickly growing fond of it. The foods were rich; the beds were soft, and best of all Stark but no limits on extravagance. Loki soaks in a large tub that easily fits his tall frame and listens as the bubbles pop around him. in Asgard he never got any of this- there was always a focus on magic and combat and even when he did have the benefit of indulging in luxuries Thor always hung over his head like a dark shadow standing in front of his sun. Now though Thor was out of the picture, at least momentarily, and he could enjoy the moment. Recently he had acquired a cat that Tony seemed just as fond of as he was just because he wanted to see why humans thought they were acceptable pets. They had similar things in Asgard of course, but Fenrir was far larger than any dog humans had and probably far more willing to eat his owners.
He found that he liked the cat though- cats, he has decided, knew their worth. People liked to talk about dogs and loyalty but dogs devoted their loyalty to near anyone who had a half a mind to pet the stupid things. Cats on the other hand only liked those that were worthy of their affection and Loki found that to be a far more valuable quality than blind loyalty. Tony has since told him he was more fond of cats than dogs too- they’re solitary, he said, and he could appreciate an animal that liked space as much as he did.
They bonded over their appreciation of Wyrd, mostly because the cat’s name applied to the situation their foes were about to be in. Fate, after all, had a habit of catching up to everyone.
When Loki hears a knock on the bathroom door he flicks his fingers at it, letting the door open on its own accord. Tony stands behind it, raising an eyebrow when he spies Loki lounging in the tub. “You could have said you were busy,” he says.
Loki smiles, “I’m hardly busy, I’m relaxing. What is it that you want, Stark?” he asks in a slow, lazy voice. He runs a hand through his wet locks and he doesn’t miss the way Tony’s eyes follow the movement with more than curiosity in his eyes. Hmm.
“Have you managed to imitate Wanda’s magical signature?” he asks, still business as usual. Disappointing but unsurprising. Tony had a strong aptitude for focus when he wanted to, even if Loki had a desire to test that. He hardly held any respect for humans, but he did have a curiosity about this one in particular. Tony Stark, the human that had everything you could ask for- like Loki had in Asgard- but still wanted more even before he gravitated towards a revenge plot. Loki has paid attention to Stark’s mannerisms and he knew the man was always hungry for something more, something new, something… exciting. Humans were inconsequential, pathetic even, but this particular human was above that irritating savageness that permeated most of humanity. And he had a darker side that Loki wanted to see more of. Stark was certainly worth his curiosity at least.
He extends his hand from the bath and easily calls up Wanda’s energy signature, something that was now second nature to him thanks to practice. Magic has always been his strong suit no matter how good he was at combat. Trickery was where he was truly gifted and the look on Tony’s face tells him that he’s impressed. “Don’t look so surprised, Stark,” Loki drawls as Wyrd jumps off the counter to Loki’s hand to examine the energy he extinguishes just as the cat reaches him. The cat, confused on what just happened stands on its hind legs to sniff at Loki’s hand, trying to figure out where the energy went. “Magic is my specialty, and so is tricking people. It’s hardly surprising that I managed to match the signature,” he point out.
“Matching the signature exactly is still impressive,” Tony says, “I wasn’t aware that was possible.”
Loki smiles, “it isn’t, but your machines can’t pick up the intuitive feeling of someone imitating your magic and I doubt Maximoff will be able to detect it either. She’s not been exposed to magic other than her own, correct?” he asks. The cat presses its front paws to Loki’s forearm and sniffs the palm of his hand, eventually deciding the water was more interesting than the red light his hand just held, lapping it up. The cat’s tongue was rougher that Loki thought it would have been, he thought the animals would have smoother tongues thanks to his experiences with dogs licking at his hands but the cat had proven him wrong. He doesn’t mind.
“Not that I know of,” Tony says, eyes focused on Loki’s pale, exposed forearms. Humans were embarrassingly easy to entice, Loki knew. He shifts his arm, gently shaking the animal off of it and receiving a glare from the cat for his efforts.
“Fantastic. Than she’s unlikely to know that I’m manipulating her magic,” he says as his limb retreats back into the bath water.
Tony licks his lips as he examines Loki there for only a moment before he returns to his impassive state. “Great, then we kill her first. I’m not risking her discovering our plot and telling everyone else and the whole damn world what we’re up to, she’s got too much power to consider doing anything else.”
Loki nods, “take out the biggest treat first,” he says. Tony nods his agreement.
“Exactly.” Loki wonders if Tony knew that he was the biggest threat.
*
Tony is only human so he felt he couldn’t be blamed for finding Loki attractive. It wasn’t as if he was the only one, plenty of others found Loki attractive too- he found as weird online following for him that he absolutely wasn’t telling Loki about. He liked being considered attractive, Tony saw it every time his stupid face gave him away, and he was hardly about to give the god more fuel for his arrogance and desire to be worshiped.
That said he did make an effort to keep things crisp and business-like. He wasn’t a total fool- if he did something stupid like indulge Loki’s attempts to seduce him it was bound to go terribly. Instead he focuses on Wanda, her travel patterns, luring her out of Wakanda- a task that proved to be shockingly easy thanks to Loki- and killing her swiftly and efficiently. He thought this would be harder, planning murder, but it wasn’t really hard at all. He wondered what that said about him that could so easily plan to kill someone. Loki tells him it doesn’t matter.
“Humans, you’re hardly worth the life you’re given,” he says. “Maximoff is no exception. She isn’t even clever. One simple hint of her dead brother and the pathetic twit left the safety of Wakanda straight to her death,” Loki tells him over the comms they were using. It took some effort to get them to work around Loki’s magic, especially when it was running high, but he managed.
“Lovely,” Tony says back, “nice to know how valuable my life is to you. Not that I expected less, I suppose.” He tried to take over the world once; it wasn’t like Tony expected Loki to be a shining beacon of moral fiber.
Loki snorts, “oh relax. You… you’ve got something,” Loki says in a low, attractive voice that has Tony shaking his head to clear it. They were here to kill someone, not flirt. “I’d like to know how you achieved your success. I’d rather like to be loved and adored like you are. Or were.”
“Adoration is easy,” Tony tells him, “all you need to do is have something people want. Or a few things. I’ve got looks, money, intelligence. All things people value here and in combination, well. Worship was bound to follow.” It was easy to win people over when they either wanted to fuck you, fight you, or be you. No matter what people were saying it didn’t really matter- you were getting attention all the same. What was that saying… no publicity is bad publicity, that’s it. And it rang true. It never mattered how many people said nasty things about Tony it only ever seemed to get him more fans.
“You know that’ll all be dashed as soon as people find out what you’re doing, right?” Loki asks.
Tony shrugs, “adoration was never my goal, it’s yours. All I wanted was to invent things.” He could have lived a life of solitude in the hills for all he cared but Loki obviously disagrees because he laughs.
“Oh Tony, you wouldn’t even be you if all you had was your machines. You’re so much more than that,” he says in an amused tone. Loki makes the comment offhand and clearly without thought but it sticks with him, turning over in his head as they lure Wanda further into their trap.
You’re so much more than that.
*
Killing Wanda Maximoff was shockingly easy. Tony thought that with her power level killing her would be next to impossible but Loki was right, her weakness was her mind. Luring her out with the possibility that her brother didn’t die after all only to distract her by amplifying her outburst of power and fooling her into thinking she killed three more people proved to be a sufficient enough way to keep her occupied. She didn’t notice Tony until it was too late and, lucky Tony, Loki cast an illusion of him close by so she had no idea which one to target.
Loki watches him as he watches his liquor cabinet. It was empty of course, he quit drinking some time ago, but he still got cravings frequently. “Did you really do anything wrong?” Loki asks and he turns to face him.
“You do realize we just committed murder, right?” he asks, wondering if Loki was really this blasé about killing someone.
“I am aware, yes,” Loki says dryly. “But you’ve killed plenty of terrorists- Wanda started out as HYDRA so I see no real difference.”
“Yeah, except she left that life. She didn’t exactly have an origin story that was different from mine,” he points out. Except he never got called a terrorist even when he more than earned it.
“Well she wasn’t even half the hero you were. You saved the world, the most memorable thing she did was throw cars at you on an air strip of some kind and kill eleven people in Lagos. I say this as an outsider,” Loki says, “which means I’m far more likely to pick up what people really care about.”
“It was an airport and we were all involved in that fight,” he says weakly because Loki wasn’t wrong in suggesting Wanda was a key part in escalating that fight.
“Tell yourself whatever you need to to try and make her life worth something but it wasn’t,” Loki says casually.
Tony squints, “seems kind of judgmental of you to judge Wanda for her failures when you tried and failed to take over the world,” he says.
Loki rolls his eyes, “I simply put my faith in a bad army, Wanda was a useless villain. She had the power to ruin everything, she could have ruled it all and instead she killed a few people by accident and threw temper tantrums like a child. Wasted potential,” Loki says, shaking his head.
*
Stark’s conscience was getting on Loki’s nerves so he chooses to confront him on it. “If you’re going to feel guilty about all of this you aren’t cut out for revenge,” he states point blank. “And if you feel guilty I have no use for you. What is it that you refuse to let go of?”
Tony looks up at him, obviously angry. “My humanity, asshole.”
He rolls his eyes, “humanity. You humans are so self-centered- you’re hardly the only beings that feel, and feeling doesn’t negate the ability to hurt people without caring. I feel things all the time and I don’t care when I hurt people- they aren’t mutually exclusive. Accept that or get out of my way.”
This gets him a harsh laugh, “out of your way? You wouldn’t even have a way without me, Loki. You’d do well to remember that,” he says in a short, unforgiving tone. Loki smiles, pleased to see that he got through to Tony.
“They hurt you. There’s nothing wrong with making people pay for what they’ve done to you, with making them feel the way you did. They’ve earned that much,” he tells Tony. He can see the way the fire lights in Tony’s eyes, how he manages to reignite that nearly extinguished flame. He feels the excitement stir in his chest as he considers what Tony might do under his influence. All this wealth, intelligence, and power Tony had at his disposal… oh, that was tempting. Very tempting. And Tony himself, he certainly wasn’t a bad consolation prize when he wasn’t sulking. Loki would ensure he never felt guilty for indulging his whims again, not when they had so much potential. “Rogers lied to you about your parents’ death, he didn’t give a damn about you, he only cared about himself. Let the punishment fit the crime,” Loki says in a cruel, harsh tone.
Something goes off in Tony’s mind, Loki sees it in the way his whole body lights up and a smile spreads over his features. “Let the punishment fit the crime…” he murmurs.
Loki nods, “yes. Guilt is an emotion for the weak, you’re better off without it,” he coaxes.
Tony stands, “the crime wasn’t murder,” he says and Loki opens his mouth to try and convince Tony to kill Rogers anyways but he interrupts Loki before he can say anything. “The crime was lying about the circumstances of a murder, and lying by omission by not telling me a murder took place at all.” Tony gives Loki a slow, deliberate once over. “How effective are your illusions?” he asks.
Wherever Tony was going with this, Loki was curious. “Humans wouldn’t be able to detect them at all if they didn’t know they were there. Even if they did it would be near impossible to see. Why do you ask?” he asks innocently, head tilted to the side as he looks down at Tony. He was short for a human quite like Loki was short for a Frost Giant but they both made up for their lack of height in interesting personalities.
His question earns him another once over; “you said you wanted adoration, people throwing themselves at your feet, worshiping you. What if I told you I could get you all that, even from Thor?”
His eyebrows climb, “I’m listening, Stark. This had better be good,” he says in a low tone that could be dangerous or silky depending on how Tony took it. Judging from the look on his face Tony gathered both the intents behind his words.
“Adoration is easy, all you need to do is have something people want, and everyone loves Captain America. No one even needs to know he was dead because as far as they know he isn’t. He’ll be you, and you’ll get everything you ever wanted,” he says, eyes bright with his new idea.
Loki smiles slow and deliberate, “you are a genius.”
*
Kidnapping Captain America wasn’t nearly as difficult as Loki thought it would be. Luring him out of Wakanda took a little work, but all he and Tony had to do in the end was drop a few hints about what HYDRA had done to Bucky Barnes. Tony even got a little creative there and Loki had to appreciate his little flourishes.
“Are you insane?” Steve asks him, struggling to get out of his bonds. He wouldn’t, Loki had charmed them to tighten every time he moved. If they weren’t cutting into his hands by now he’d be shocked.
“Quite likely, yes,” he says, circling around Steve, getting a feel for the body he was about to take on.
“You won’t get away with this, we stopped you once and we’ll do it again,” Steve says in a tone that was far too defiant for his liking.
“And who do you think will save you?” Loki asks, raising an eyebrow.
“Someone has to notice I’m gone, Tony will notice.” Loki has to laugh at that, throwing his head back as he does it. “What’s so funny about that? He helped stop you from taking over the world once, he’ll do it again,” Steve says in a rough, harsh tone.
“Oh you pathetic simpleton, Tony is the reason you’re here,” he says, stopping in front of Steve to get a good look at Steve’s face as the news sinks in. He’s disappointed when Steve looks confused.
“How is Tony the reason I’m here?” he asks.
Loki rolls his eyes dramatically. “My god you are foolish. Tony is quite magnificent you know, once you get him past that pesky conscience of his. He’s like… a sleeping tiger, only one strong poke from waking up and mauling someone. Unfortunately for you, you were the one who poked him. Actually you did that to yourself with your secret keeping and whatnot,” he says casually. Loki couldn’t say he felt bad for Rogers. He knew what it felt like to have the people closest to him to lie about his family, about how he came to be in the situation was. It was an unforgivable crime- lying about something as important as family. Loki struggled his whole life to belong in a society he was never meant to be in, and Tony spent his whole life being worshiped by a society he was above in so many ways only to have some buffoon dressed as a flag ruin it for him with his lies and deceit.
Every single one of them deserved what they got and then some. They deserved to be forgotten by history- erased because of the lies they told and the lives they ruined. Tony and Loki, they were portrayed as the bad guys but all they did was react to getting the deceit thrown their way, they did what anyone would really. If it weren’t for the lies they were told they never would have gone over the edge…
“No,” Steve says, drawing Loki’s attention back to him. “No Tony wouldn’t help you take over the world, that’s… he wouldn’t do that.”
He shakes his head, “oh, Tony has no intention of taking over the world and nether do I really. I’ve got something better. See, Tony’s intent was never to destroy the world, it was to destroy your world.”
*
Tony has, if he were honest, wanted to kill Captain America his whole life. His father compared him to Cap his whole life, using him as a measuring tool to point out where he failed for seventeen fucking years before that asshole was finally killed. And even when Howard died he couldn’t fucking escape Captain America and his father’s bullshit legacy- it followed him around until the legend came back to life to torment Tony some more. If it was bad to have Howard tell him he’d never measure up the real thing was worse, and he got a good decade of that. He’d never lay his life down on the line, Cap said, and when he did just that he changed the standard.
Then Tony made too many mistakes and never owned up to his actions, he was too reckless. So Tony apologizes for Ultron- his fault- and tries to work with the law Captain America so loved but then the fucking standard moved again. Oh, it was fine to be reckless and to ignore the law if you were Captain fucking America but if you were Tony Stark it was bad. Well fuck Steve, and fuck his bullshit standards. It was time he finally died so Tony could gain a little peace in his life. For once Captain America got to be a good thing to him, something he could be proud of and connect to but that was because dear old Cap wouldn’t be Cap at all. He’d be Loki wearing Cap’s image. And oh, Tony looked forward to that.
When he walks into the room to find Steve tied to a chair Loki is lounging in a couch he probably spelled into existence off to the side. He looks confortable, like a king relaxing on his furniture. It was an attractive image. “Tony,” Steve says, eyes wide with surprise. “You can’t do this.”
He rolled his eyes, “since when do I listen to authority figures?” he asks.
“This isn’t you,” Steve tries but Tony just laughs.
“This isn’t me? Funny, I thought you thought I was more reckless, heartless, and selfish than the villains we chased after. Isn’t that what you hammered into my head for years? You harped on me more than Red Skull and he was a fucking Nazi- what the hell did you think I’d get from that?” Certainly not that he was sunshine and rainbows. He talked to Loki about it once and he pointed out that most of Tony’s guilt never even came from himself- it was almost all from the way Steve treated him.
He wasn’t foolish enough to take Loki’s word at face value- he’s a trickster god and he was invested in seeing Tony go to the dark side, but he wasn’t wrong. Tony was happy to own up to his mistakes, but he was tired of taking the blame for everything that went wrong with the Avengers, not when he was only one man on a team of nine. They all held responsibility for what went wrong, not just him. And he wasn’t even the only selfish reckless one to add insult to injury- Steve was just as selfish and reckless but it was fine when he did all the same things Tony did and he didn’t even have to apologize. He got away with saying ‘sorry you got hurt’ instead of ‘sorry I hurt you’. Tony didn’t even get forgiveness when his apologies were genuine but Steve got forgiveness with no apologies at all. He was tired of it, and he was tired of living in the shadow of a man who wasn’t worth the image he had.
Steve Rogers had the mage of a god and Tony intended to make sure an actual god got to bask in it.
“You’re not this selfish,” Steve says in a low voice, trying to appeal to reason Tony supposed.
But he’s already seen reason, and he’s already made peace with what he was about to do. There’s nothing wrong with making people pay for what they’ve done to you, with making them feel the way you did. They’ve earned that much… Loki’s words float back to him and he smiles. “I’ve always been selfish, Steve, but so have you.”
“I’ve never been a villain,” Steve said sharply and Tony snorts.
“Please, the only difference between a hero and a villain is that a villain is at least willing to admit he fights for himself. It the hero that claims his need to prove something is noble,” he tells him. Steve might have responded to that but Tony would never know because he pulls a gun from his beltline and he shoots Steve in the head. He’s played the ‘banter with the villain until you can escape your bonds’ game far too much to start falling for that when he was on the other end of things. He shoots a second time to make sure he was actually dead- another lesson learned from people who just wouldn’t fucking die.
Loki stares in shock before he starts laughing softly and clapping, “well done, Stark. I didn’t expect you to be this fast. Thought you might play with your food a bit,” he says.
Tony shakes his head, “I prefer my food fresh, not frozen.” Loki lets out a sharp laugh at the ridiculous joke, standing from his position on the couch and holding out his hand to Tony. He takes it and with that they leave.
*
He’s curled under Loki’s arm- Steve to anyone who didn’t know better- looking out at the cameras snapping pictures at the press conference that, to the public, was an end to the ‘Civil War’ as the media dubbed it. Tony smiles because the world had no idea what they were about to walk into- he and Loki had plans and the only one who even suspected was T’Challa, who was a world away dealing with his own problems.
The world was their playground and Tony intended to enjoy it with an equal by his side for the first time in his life.
*
Mortals were so foolish, Loki thought, but Tony was so much more than any mere human being. He was a god in his own right and Loki intended to treat him like one. The world should have been his from the beginning and he’d be damned if it wasn’t Tony’s in the end.
He looks down at Tony, who was smiling at the cameras playing his part well and the only regret he had was not seeing his potential the first time they met in Stark Tower. They could have had everything they ever wanted so much sooner. Time was no concern for a god though, and Loki knew plenty of spells to ensure Tony never had to leave his side.