Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The first hint he gets of something being off is when looking at the files Agent had given him. 

—it didn’t matter if he knew the man’s name or not, he had threated to tase someone with a heart condition and an electromagnet in his chest. He was allowed to be a little petty. 

The video feed of the base though was unsettling, but perhaps not for the same reason Pep thought so. Or the agents. Still, this was hardly his problem at the moment. 

Pepper disagreed. 

He’d really been looking forward to this date. 

As the elevator closes behind her, he picks up the holographic cube. The Tesseract, the very thing the arc reactor that he’d just finished installing in this tower and the one in his chest were based off of. Was SHIELD even aware of that? When they’d ‘handed’ him all those files and records from Howard and threatened him under house arrest, did they know? 

He snorted and read the files. 

That hardly mattered now. They had done what people tended to do with things they didn’t understand and poked it with a stick— 

—Yes, he had a habit of doing so as well, but at least he was expecting the worst-case scenario when he poked it— 

—and it had literally blown up in their faces.  

And yes, it was SHIELD’s fault there from the readouts and the video recording. Agent Barton had been the one to tell Loki the building was about to blow; he hadn’t known before then. So, SHIELD had been prodding at unknown power and were surprised when it had unknown results.  

Hell, not even unknown results, they knew it was a fucking door. They knocked, something answered. 

Typical. 

The videos on the rest of the boyband he wasn’t a part of but was still being told to help with apparently weren’t anything new or surprising. It wasn’t that they weren't interesting of course, but well, he had already read up on them. And been told he wouldn’t play well with them. 

Given that one of them had lied and infiltrated his company, and another was the guy Howard had a hard-on for and he had never been able to live up to no matter what...maybe the assessment wasn’t so wrong. Though, with the other members of the team being currently mind-whammied and a seemingly uncontrollable rage monster?  

What were the chances any of them could work together? 

All of this left the supposed threat. 

Loki. 

The man-being-alien-god-whatever-the-hell had shown up and... what exactly? 

He’d attacked Fury sure, but he hadn’t killed him. No, he had only killed the others when they had attacked back. But he’d let Fury live. Repeatedly. 

Why? 

Yes, he had attacked, but if anything, his precision in taking out the others while failing to kill the obvious person in charge? 

And Barton being mind-whammied to apparently follow Loki’s orders and still, despite being known for his eye sight and skills, failing to kill him? That left possibilities either leading to Fury needing to be alive, and/or Barton still having some sort of control enough to make it seem like he’d shot him when he hit the vest. 

Definitely filing that thought away for later. 

But it was still Loki that didn’t make sense. Because for all the posturing, and discussions about “glorious purpose” and peace, he was  off . He had just arrived, nothing had touched him, and yet, he looked beat to hell. And stumbled. Barton was supporting him. 

So yes, something about all this was very...off. 

>>>

The second, glaringly obvious hint was Stuttgart. 

“Make your move, Reindeer Games.” 

He could easily send his own blast at him, like he already had with the Quinjet. Then the Captain would move to attack, which he’d already proven capable of handling. Shit, Loki had already been able to stop literal bullets earlier, what evidence did they have that his missiles and weapons could do anything. And surely everything that he had come to accomplish had been done. Maybe he’d use it as a chance to escape? If he got the chance—a chance he’d already gotten during their battle—he could turn Rogers into another puppet like Barton. If that was the case, would he have to neutralize him, or would Romanoff— 

Loki put his arms up, the dramatic armor fading away in a wash of gold. 

Because of course he had magic that could manipulate his appearance. There was the faintest possibility he could have hidden, hell, there were a million ways in which he could have cornered the one man he attacked without being noticed. But he hadn’t. He’d put on a show. 

“Good move,” the quip falling naturally from his lips. 

But was it? 

Strategically, nothing about it made sense. Only putting off the battle until later, willingly being captured. Which might be his plan but...why would he need to captured at all? 

“Mr. Stark,” Rogers acknowledged him. Right. Fucking Rogers, Howard’s Golden Boy, was here. And had called him 'Mr. Stark', which, ouch. If he recognized him, surely he had done at least some of the reading to know he had just as much right 'Dr. Stark' as Howard.

—a small part of him was soothed at seeing him get his ass kicked, not that he’d admit that aloud ever—  

“Captain.” It was only years of practice that kept his voice as calm as it was. 

With that over, he turned his focus back on the attempted—attempting?—conqueror. He didn’t lower his weapons until he was chained, and even when he did, there was no illusion that Loki wasn’t still in control somehow. 

Whatever was happening, this was playing into his hands, and yet, how could it be? He got what he wanted, in the most dramatic flourish possible and was extremely powerful and competent— 

—which he had taken notice of both in the footage and watching the fight, but damn it, this was NOT the time!— 

—so he had let himself get capture by them but why? Was he really this arrogant that he needed to put on a show? Wasn’t he supposed to be clever and all that? 

Then there was that wildness in his blue eyes. 

Even with the air of confidence and control he gave off, something about that wild, mad look was unnerving. And familiar. 

Just like the state he had arrived on Earth in. 

A state he himself had— 

“I don’t like it.” 

He looked back at Rogers, who was wound tight with tension as he eyed their ‘prisoner’. “What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily?” 

“I don’t remember it ever being that easy. That guy packs a wallop.” 

He was just now figuring that out this was weird? Really? Also, wallop? God, he wouldn’t talk like that the entire time, would he? “Still, you are pretty spry, for an older fellow. What's your thing? Pilates?” 

“What?” 

“It's like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple things, you know, during your time as a Capsicle.”  

And oh, wasn’t that a look. Did Howard pick it up from Rogers, or was it the other way around? “Fury didn’t tell me he was calling you in.” 

“Yeah, there’s a lot of things Fury doesn’t tell you.” Like that they had way to save one’s life for example. But really, once again, Rogers hadn’t figured that out yet? Had the ice messed with his brain? Howard had gone on and on about how great a tactician he was, and yet the basic things like “the spy isn’t telling you things” and “the guy gave up too easily” took forever to break through. 

Lightening shook the jet, and—oh, this couldn’t be good. 

“What’s the matter? Scared of a little lightning?” 

“I’m not overly fond of what follows,” Loki shot back, though there was actual concern in his eyes.  

Clearly being abducted—potentially rescued?—was not a part of his plan. Whatever that plan was. 

If it even was his. 

>>> 

On the Helicarrier, he only had more questions about the now resident Bag of Cats. 

He’d been thrown into a mountain, quite literally, and had gotten up and walked it off like it was nothing. So, what had crippled him before the SHIELD base? 

—he eyed the man playing Galaga carefully, because seriously? They’re discussing an alien invasion and that’s what you choose to do? 

Okay so maybe it was exactly his sense of humor, he’d give the man that much— 

Not to mention, he’d had a chance to escape when they were off having a pissing match—because seriously, they were supposed to believe they had any means of mitigating his magic in those chains—but he hadn’t taken it. He wanted to be here. And he wanted the Hulk free if his comment to Fury meant anything. 

And then there was dear old SHIELD and if there was any time he was going to get answers out of them, now was it, and what better place than the good ol’ Pirates' own desk? 

“The rest of the raw materials,” he continued for everyone else’s sake, “Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube.” 

A power source he could find anywhere. And likely knew as much too. But why take any old power source when— 

“When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?” Hill asked. 

“Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?” The genius moniker wasn’t just for show people, and it would be nice to have it actually recognized by someone! 

“Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?” 

“He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier,” Dr. Banner beat him to response. 

“Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect,” he added. Which, given what Dr. Selvig was already capable of, and what Loki likely could tell him, was definitely the likely outcome. 

“Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet.” 

And ten points for Dr. Banner, someone else had done their homework! “Finally, someone who speaks English.” 

He ignored Rogers’ comment to shake the only other hope for this mess of group’s hand. A sentiment that Dr. Banner seemed to share based off the mirror of appreciation. 

“It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.” 

He looked down as he mumbled his thanks. Huh, so that was a sore subject. Which was very not good if that was Bambi’s plan for the fantastical show he seemed intent to put on. Hopefully it wasn’t actually losing control then? 

“Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube.” Ah, so Fury finally decided to grace them with his presence then? “I was hoping you might join him.” 

Of course, he’d be joining him. What else was he gonna do, hacking SHIELD not withstanding?  

—that Galaga player’s screen had been moving too fast for a normal person to be reading. So maybe he’d be having another slight detour from looking for the cube, but well. Maybe it was unlikely they’d have to do much actual  looking  for the cube. Which could mean a chance to talk to current ‘prisoner’ without anyone noticing?— 

“Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon.” 

“I don't know about that,” suuure he didn’t, “but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.” 

He bit his tongue, but only barely from comment there. Yes, Dr. Selvig and Barton might be the bigger problems, but they weren’t the only one's mind-whammied here people. Other agents had been taken, those two were just— 

—the most likely to draw attention. 

To make people worried. 

The doctor was probably necessary and the first he had access to, but Barton? He was just an agent, admittedly with impressive skills. But an agent nonetheless, yet one who had SHIELD concerned quite a bit, something Loki couldn’t have known unless— 

“Monkeys? I do not understand.” There was Thor’s brilliant contribution. 

“I do! I understood that reference.” Aaaand there was Rogers. The man was far too excited about a simple movie reference when he didn’t even know Galaga and used words like ‘wallop’. 

He turned to Banner. “Shall we play, doctor?” 

“Let's play some.” 

—he caught the smirk from the man as he switched back to his game. Right, so likely not another mind-whammied grunt then sent to listen in. He’d really need to check in on that, but figuring out the deal with the staff and Tessaract and getting to chat with one of the other greatest minds of his time?  

There’d be a chance to investigate that later.

>>>

There was, actually, not a chance to investigate his hunches or have that conversation, because of course Natashlie thought she’d actually be able to manipulate Rock of Ages and had finally connected the dots that he wanted to unleash the Hulk. Seriously, he’d already told Fury as much. But of course, that had kicked off an argument which had distracted them juuust long enough. The ‘Bag of Cats’ clearly wasn’t as far gone as they all thought. 

Or rather, everyone else thought, he had hoped that maybe, just maybe he really was wrong but no. He’d been just as clever as he feared. If anything, time spent away from the scepter had made him even more sane, which might not be that big of a surprise given how it had affected all of them. 

All of this of course, leading to now, one dramatic attack on the Helicarrier to distract them all, while also unleashing the Hulk and killing Agent Coulson later. He was under no illusions of it being a prison break. Fury had said it best from when he’d been watching to Thor: Loki was the only one who had wanted to be on Helicarrier. 

But there still wasn’t the answer of why? 

He had escaped....when he had never been held, or had had many an opportunity to do so on his own. There were other methods of causing a distraction if that’s what this was about, methods that didn’t piss off the super spy network and supposedly all of ‘Earth’s mightiest heroes’. Methods that wouldn’t have lost him Barton, someone who’d now likely be out for blood. It wouldn’t have brought him any answers about them or SHIELD he likely couldn’t get from anywhere else. 

His eyes fell on the stained cards. Cards that shouldn’t have been anywhere near Agent at the time of death, but what did that matter now? He’d killed a man he had to have known had a connection to most of them. “He made it personal.” 

“That’s not the point,” Rogers's voice cut in. Right, he was still here, being Fury’s perfect solider and not thinking. 

“That is the point,” he all but snapped. “That’s Loki’s point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?” 

“To tear us apart.” 

But all he’d done was bring them together, so, no, no that was not his plan. Unless he really wasn’t as clever as Thor’s warnings— 

—which to be entirely fair, plenty of people could have been seen as especially clever— 

—and his prior actions suggested. Because as odd as it was, the entire capture thing and ‘prison break’ had been perfectly done. Hell, he’d perfectly gotten all of SHIELD’s attention and their own which had to be his plan. It was the only thing that made sense. 

“He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right?” Now at least, if he hadn’t gotten all their attention, he could have easily taken everything down with no one noticing until it was too late to do anything, his army already here. So no, he wanted the attention. “That's what he wants. He wants to beat us,” though that still didn’t add up with his actions, so okay maybe not beat? “and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience.” 

“Right, I caught his act at Stuttgart.” 

“Yeah. That's just a preview, this is opening night.” That was just getting all of their attention. Perfectly executed and all. It was impressive really— 

—not the time, not the time— 

—But now he needed to keep their attention for some reason. So where would he go, what would his next act be? “Loki's a full-tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered…” 

Oh. 

Oh that “Sonofabitch!”

>>>

“Skip the spinning rims. We’re on the clock.” 

The bastard watched him intently as JARVIS stripped off the pieces of the suit, and he had the audacity to smile. Granted, he himself currently had the audacity to walk up to the questionably insane and possibly-attempting-to-conquer-Earth and maybe god. And he smiled back of course as they walked in together. Weren’t they a pair? 

There was still that wild look in his eyes as he grinned at him. 

With countless years of practice behind him, he casually walked down to the bar, his own mask of cockiness in place. 

“Please tell me you’re going to appeal to my humanity.” 

“Uh, actually,” he picked up one of his favorite bottles and poured a drink, “I’m planning to threaten you.” 

Loki raised an eyebrow at that. “You should have left your armor on for that.” 

“Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. You've got the blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?” He held up a glass in offering. 

The portal would be opening any minute, and yet, here Loki was, talking to him. Either he was completely confident that the device couldn’t be stopped and he didn’t need to be there, which was entirely possible— 

—but not likely, if there was still that possibility of slight free will under the scepter that even Barton had admitted to when he’d asked about not killing Fury, and Selvig would likely have built in some fail safe— 

—or he simply didn’t want to be near it and see the immediate pay off of his efforts.  

Or of course, he simply wanted the banter as much as him and that’s why he hadn’t killed him yet. 

“Stalling me won’t change anything.” 

“No, no, no! Threatening,” he said casually, leaning against the bar. “No drink? You sure? I’m having one.” His best pout and puppy dog eyes seemed to have little effect as Loki came closer. 

“The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What have I to fear?” 

Nothing will change that. 

Stalling won’t change anything. 

No mention of winning, of their imminent defeat, or any grand speeches about kneeling and being beneath him. Simply because there was no audience but him—which like rude, he was a very good audience—but still. These weren’t the same words of a conqueror. 

“The Avengers. It’s what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ type of thing.” A slow drink as they continued to stare each other down. 

“Yes, I’ve met them.” 

“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,” that flinch, however minute, couldn’t be hidden from someone else used to masks, “the demi-God; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend,” no one could fault him for an eye roll or bitter note there, it was only him and Loki, “a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella,” he totally wasn’t checking him out when he looked him up and down, it was for emphasis thank you, “you’ve managed to piss off every single one of them.” 

“That was the plan.” 

Because of course it was. He’d already figured that much out. He had wanted them upset, had wanted them all to show up, had wanted a show. 

The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. 

“Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they’ll come for you.” 

If he was supposed to be the master conqueror, why did that not earn a sneer, a rebuff, hell, even an arrogant smile? 

Why was there a flash of relief? 

Sure, it was barely there and gone the next second, but it had been there.  

As had a flash of green. 

What have I to fear? 

Loki had blue eyes. 

Barton had the same blue eyes. Emphasis on had. 

He slipped the cuffs on. 

“I have an army.” 

“We have a Hulk,” he continued with a casual shrug, hoping his thoughts weren’t obvious. 

“I though the beast had wandered off.” 

“You’re missing the point. There’s no throne, there is no version of this, where you come out on top,” and again there was that damn flicker of relief, of green. “Maybe your army comes and maybe it’s too much for us,” and that was a flinch, “But it’s all on you.” 

Because whatever this was, it was all on him. He wasn’t here of his own free will any more than Barton or Selvig had been. The cunning Trickster that should be here was replaced with a cocky showman not using deceit in hopes of winning like he should. Not using his knowledge to create some great distraction elsewhere while he took over the Earth. All of his moves were far too obvious. Designed to bring them all to this point, pissed and doing everything they can to stop him. 

He wanted all eyes on him.  

But not as he won. 

Shit. 

Something shifted, a wild panic behind Loki’s eyes, there for longer than the relief, as he must have seen the realization. 

They were too close now, and were both too aware of the other to hide anything. 

 Quickly, he continued, “Because if we can’t protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we’ll avenge it.” 

Green and blue warred in his eyes as they stood toe to toe. 

Whatever was happening, Loki was scared of him knowing the truth. Even if it would help him. 

Because he had to lose. 

Blue took over more, deeper, as a cruel grin spread across his face. 

“How will your friends have time for me, when they’re so busy fighting you?” For a moment he was frozen in fear as the scepter tapped his chest, but all that happened was a light ‘ping, ping’. “It should work.” 

Several emotions crossed his face then, but he’d already seen the relief slip through. He had tried, attempted to take Tony over—or so it would seem, when he hadn’t done this to Rogers when given the chance even though he was clearly the more appealing fighter. If he had known it wouldn’t work was another matter entirely. 

He licked his lips and grinned at the slight green ebbing back into the blue. “Well, performance issues. You know? Not uncommon. One out of five...” 

Okay so maybe taunting the still mind-whammied puppet conqueror wasn’t his smartest move— 

—nonono definitely not a smart move, damn it, not the time to think about how he could throw him around like a rag doll. Especially not when that wild  blue  gaze was back. 

“JARVIS. Anytime now,” he breathed as Loki’s hand closed around his throat again and brought them nose to nose.  

Cognitive recalibration, that’s what Romanoff had said. 

But the man had been thrown into a fucking mountain, what would do a better job than that? Assuming that would even work on the version he had. 

“You will all fall before me,” the words were gritted out and seemed agonized, eyes a very deep blue but there was still a plea there and— 

—fuck fuck fuck falling, not good, JARVIS help now, this was not the plan, this was not the plan! Had he actually just tried to kill him when— 

—the suit caught him just in time, thank—well whoever or whatever was listening at this point. 

Maybe the shot in response was a bit petty, but he’d been thrown into a mountain and seemed fine and no, humans should not be thrown out of windows thank you very much. 

—though he hadn’t squeezed, hadn’t applied any more pressure than was necessary to pick him up and thrown him— 

Still wasn’t enough to knock it loose though. 

He grits his teeth as the Chitauri came through the admittedly very small portal given what should be possible. Still, it was too many. 

And it meant that Loki was not the most pressing issue at the moment.

>>>

There were more out there. So many more.  

He’d suspected, hell, practically had it confirmed when he figured out Loki’s whole deal. But that was different than seeing. Different than being suspended in the empty endless void of space with a nuke and knowing it wasn’t enough to wipe out all the forces.  

Something else was out there, now it knew about them, and it would likely be coming.  

He swayed a little on his feet, leaning against the Hulk as they approached the Loki shaped whole in the floor. It could have been fear and the realization settling in. Or it could have been the fact that yeah, maybe he’d just died a little bit and had been scared back to life.  

Those were things to deal with later.  

Now he stared down at emerald eyes that were taking in the little group gathered there. Emerald eyes that caught on his with the faintest smile as he righted himself, and that was a small comfort. “If it’s all the same to you, I’ll have that drink now.”  

He couldn’t help his own grin. Brushing off Rogers’s bark of ‘Stark!’ and the rests indignant noises, he stepped forward and offered a hand.   

“With me now Bambi?”  

It was just a slight incline of his head, but it was enough as he took the offered hand.  

“Stark, step away from him.”  

They were all staring at him, Romonoff’s eyes assessing everything, while Rogers, unsurprisingly, was mostly glaring. The most troubling though was Thor’s still threatening pose. This was his brother for Christ's sake!  

“At ease Capsicle, he’s, well I wouldn’t say harmless, he did just take being beat to hell by the Hulk and is upright so clearly we should be cautious, and is apparently clever enough to work out a failing strategy despite mind control, which is truly impressive I might add and—”   

Loki’s grip had tightened almost dangerously, and a quietly hissed “Stark,” drew his attention to the rigid way he was holding himself and gave a slight shake of his head. Why didn’t he want them to know?  

“What are you saying, Man of Iron?”  

He frowned and turned back to them, fixing Thor with a look. “Come on, you have to have figured it out there Point Break.” But the look that still pinned him revealed that no, no he really hadn’t figured it out.  

Neither had Rogers, but that was hardly a surprise, and the Hulk was still, well the Hulk. Barton though...well he looked slightly less murderous at least. Though the way his jaw was clenched and his gaze fixed firmly on Loki made it obvious he didn’t particularly like the realization. Go figure.   

Realization was dawning on Romanoff’s face though. “Green.”  

“What?”  

“In the Helicarrier, they were blue.”  

“Exactly.”  

She swore in what was presumably Russian before putting a hand on Barton’s shoulder, which seemed to relieve some of his tension. “They won’t believe you.”  

He sighed and glanced back at Loki, who still looked guarded, his eyes darting from him to Thor. Yeah, he had figured that much out on his own. SHIELD would be unlikely to pass up the opportunity here, they needed someone to blame after all. Even more so if it got them free access to whatever knowledge he had, but—  

“Friend Stark, despite what I believe you are implying, of which I must admit to doubting, Loki must face justice for his actions as a prince of Asgard.”  

The body beside him tensed once again, the grip still on his arm bordering on too much. A mask had slid into place over his features, but those eyes still darted from him to Thor before settling on his with an intense stare. “He is right.”  

“What?” Of all things he’d expected, that was not one of them, especially not with the fear that his still too tightly wound body conveyed. But there was also a challenge in those eyes, and... resignation. “Point Break, what exactly will happen in this justice?”  

“For my crimes against the Realm? I will likely be imprisoned and executed,” Loki answered instead, tone flat.  

“What?”  

“You will not be executed, Brother. Father—”  

“Your father.”  

“—would not allow such a thing to befall a member of our family.”  

“Not a part of the family.”  

“Well, that’s a lot, but back up, why do you want to be imprisoned? You’re innocent!”  

“And Asgard would be able to prove as such. But even if he was, he’d only be innocent of the crimes here on Midgard, not of his previous actions.” Thor’s tone made it obvious he would hear no argument, and that he doubted the innocent claim at all, as he stepped forward with the set of chains. Whatever history there was there, he was certain he didn’t want a part of it.  

—okay, well maybe he was very curious and dying to ask, but even he occasionally knew when to hold his tongue.  

Still, he was stubborn and held his ground as he grit his teeth and turned back to Loki who was still feigning impassivity. “Why?”  

For his part, Loki blinked at him, a flicker of confusion, and then suspicion as his eyes narrowed. “You would have me escape judgment for my actions?”  

“You’re innocent.”  

“Says you,” came the flat reply. “Do you truly believe that I would allow myself to so easily succumb to the same methods used to enthrall—”  

“You’re afraid of something.”  

Those eyes narrowed further, the expression growing cold as he finally released his arm. “What have I to fear?”  

The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that.  

He thought he could escape whatever would happen on Asgard.  

He only barely suppressed the shudder. “Whatever, damn it, fine. I don’t care!” It was a bit of an overreaction, he could admit it, as he threw his arms up and stormed over to the bar. He was exhausted, and playing these games with would-be-but-not-really-conqueror would have been fun at any other goddamned time. But not when the he knew what was coming and the only other person was running.   

Running in a way he couldn’t.  

Loki had been through hell and was absolutely terrified no matter what he claimed. Maybe he deserved whatever method he used to shield himself.  

But he didn’t have that. Not now.  

Not when he had to prepare and he was the only one that knew the full extent of it—or rather not full but had a very clear picture of what it could be.  

So no, he didn’t want to deal with it right then. Not when he could go get shawarma and drink away his problems later before giving JARVIS everything they knew and needed to do.  

Let Loki run away if he needed.  

But he couldn’t.  

Of course, letting him get the last word would have been too easy, and leaving him with what he thought was a clear picture of him was something that just seemed out of his grasp. Because before Thor muzzled him—and was that really necessary, he had tried to argue that before remembering he wasn’t supposed to care—Loki had passed close enough by to whisper a simple and not at all cryptic, “Keep your star safe Stark, it may be the only chance we have.”  

And then he was gone with Thor.  

And he was left with more questions than answers, and knowledge of just how off everything was.  

But at least he had the start of a plan now.  

He wished that it also came with an ally that he couldn't know the true fate of and that bothered him more than it really should.

Chapter Text

He tapped the familiar rhythm against the arc reactor as he stared at Extremis’s file. With just a few tweaks, he’d perfected it. 

Pepper was safe for the moment, it was stabilized after all, though not truly gone. 

This wasn’t getting rid of it though. This was creating a strain he could give himself that would mean the shrapnel could be removed and he’d heal and— 

And he wouldn’t need the arc reactor anymore. 

His fingers didn’t let up in their drumming. “J, run the numbers again.” 

“Sir, you’ve already run them several—” 

“I know, just, please? One more time.” 

The simulation played again, familiar at this point, confirming that yes, yes it could actually work. Under the blue glow of it, he sank bank onto his stool, head in his hands. 

This is what he wanted. No more vulnerability in case something happened to it. No more worrying about their being, for all intents and purposes, a fancy magnate keeping him alive. No more having to upgrade and check he wasn’t still being poisoned. No more worrying looks from Pepper at it. 

This was what he wanted. 

—waking up in painpainpainohgodhewasgoingtodie with a car battery the only thing keeping him alive. Working endlessly with Yinsen—god, Yinsen, was he doing enough—to fix it, perfect something better, but it was still another battery, just more manageable— 

—Obi-Stane's hand closing around it while he was paralyzed, unable to move, unable to stop it as his heart—or rather the arc reactor was ripped out. Crawling to his lab barely able to make it, barely able to get to the older model— 

—the constant pain, the constant notice of it there— 

—poison burning through his veins. He was going to die because of this thing, but it was fine. Rhodey had a suit, he’d be a far better hero anyway. Pepper had the company now. That was fine. But why did it have to hurt so much? Why so many headaches, and god, waking up without memories of the nights before was terrifying. Even at the peak of his drinking and drugs it had always at least come back as a hazy tinged dream. But now he was still expected to function and remember and—whatwasthisthinginhischestwherewasObiwhowasIronMan—run a company and keep designing and he was just so tired, and everything hurt he couldn’t think— 

—what if Coulson really did use a taser on him, did he know could he know was that a threat wouldSHIELDkillhim— 

—please let this work, please don’t let this be another poison, please, he really didn’t want to die even if he was ready. What side effects would come from this one? Please just no more pain, please just let him think— 

—endless nights making better and better designs of reactors, so he’d never run out, so there was always something nearby, figuring out how to make the suits contain one, until the projects between the suits and reactor were almost one and the same— 

—being unable to look at it, Pepper refusing to touch it and that contrite look on her face when she saw it in bed— 

Things would be better without it. 

Right? 

—Loki passed by, lips inches above his ear, close enough that he was glad for the armor still on to hide the shiver from the puff of breath, “Keep your star safe Stark, it may be the only chance we have.” And then he was gone— 

—waking up in a panic, the endless void of black empty space above him. The soft blue glow the only thing grounding him until he could understand JARVIS’s words— 

—his hand brushing over it, tapping away to remember that he had survived Afghanistan, the poisoning, the New York attack, Killian— 

—catching the impression of it and remembering Yinsen and his promise to him. This was the reason he had to keep fighting, keep trying to do better— 

—he was alive, he was surviving, he’d gotten this far— 

— “How will your friends have time for me, when they’re so busy fighting you?” For a moment he was frozen in fear as the scepter tapped his chest, but all that happened was a light ‘ping, ping’. “It should work.” 

And green ebbing back into those eyes because he hadn’t been able to control him— 

—what would be the next thing to put him in danger if he took it out? At least with the arc reactor he knew the risks, he knew how to improve it, he knew what it was and it was familiar now— 

—it had been based off the tesseract, it held immense power that terrified him, absolutely. But it was doing good, the clean energy program, keeping him alive— 

—“Keep your star safe Stark, it may be the only chance we have.”— 

What was wrong with him? Why couldn’t he just agree to the damn procedure when he knew it would work? It would make everyone happy, it was what everyone expected he did, hell, it was what he expected of himself! 

So why was he hesitating? Because someone he’d been fighting against not an hour earlier had said he should keep it? Because it had saved his life several times already? Possibly saved a few more lives in New York? 

He let his head fall onto the worktable with a heavy ‘thump’. 

More was coming. He had to be ready, he had to be prepared for every possible outcome, and this was a massive weakness that needed to be abandoned and fixed. 

More was coming. 

That rabid look and fear in Loki’s eyes were the reason he hadn’t destroyed the entirety of the Iron Legion to appease Pepper. It would only be a matter of time before she realized that. But it was necessary, though he and Bruce still had way too much work to do on that program before it was ready for anything more than a basic, shoddy dream created to ward off his own nightmares more than actual work. 

Because they needed to be prepared, and he wasn’t enough, the Avengers wouldn’t be enough, not with how ragtag they were as it was. And they had only barely managed during a fight that was designed for them to win. ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’, and they wouldn’t be enough. 

Extremis could be fixed up. He’d done it. 

It would let him remove the arc reactor. 

The thing that had let him keep his mind his own. 

He’d overheard Clint talking Romanoff about what it had been like to be under the scepter’s control. Memories of the lack of control he’d felt under the palladium poisoning but at someone else’s bidding instead of his own recklessness—and he’d already been pretty easy to influence during that. 

The poisoning that was caused by the arc reactor. 

A problem he’d fixed, like everything before then. 

And Extremis was the next step in that fix. 

But it could leave him vulnerable again without it. If more things like that scepter—which were in SHIELD’s clutches who’d already been willing to make tesseract weapons—existed out, and ended up working on him, then... 

Then why had he escaped Afghanistan and stopped Stane? Why had he escaped being used before to do harm, and what if this was the only way he could escape it again? 

The thought made his blood run cold. 

Maybe it was selfish, but well, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d been accused of such. 

“J, store the file away for a later date.” 

“Very good Sir, shall I put it next to the Ultron project?” 

“Yeah—wait you’re agreeing with this decision?” He eyed the nearest camera. 

JARVIS was quiet for a few moments, seemingly hesitating in his answer. “We have reviewed the footage from the attack a lot, and I was worried about what that scepter would make you do, Sir.” 

His heart clenched at the admission. He hated worrying his kids. “Hey, I’m fine buddy, everything turned out in the end, didn’t it?” 

Well, except for someone being willingly dragged off to prison or execution. 

“Yes, but, if I may Sir? I’ve been reviewing my readings from our time around...that thing,” was that disgust he could hear? “And I do believe that the arc reactor was the only thing that could hold up against it.” 

“We already knew that part, J.” He picked up a piece of the suit gauntlet he fiddled with off and on to occupy his hands. “Because Loki tapped it instead of my chest, poof, saved.” 

“What I mean to say is, that when I was reviewing the data from the Helicarrier incident as well, when everyone became aggressive near it.” There had definitely been something about it that had amped up everyone’s emotions, with how willing they’d all been to fight. Everyone had commented on such after. Well, everyone who wasn’t a spy. He’d of course idiotically stepped into the baiting Rogers had been setting for a fight— “Sir, how did you actually feel under it? Doctor Banner reported already being barely able to hold on more so than usual. Captain Rogers was also needling you into a fight, with Thor fighting giving into his disgust with SHIELD’s actions and Director Fury and Agent Romanoff showed heightened anger as well.” 

“So did I?” Because he’d definitely felt the tensions rising in the room, and Rogers’s comments had only worsened that. 

Once again, JARVIS hesitated, “Forgive me Sir, but we have both witnessed how you...” a beat, “lash out when under true duress and it was only after Captain Rogers continued pushing. Everyone else already seemed to be feeling the effects and you were acting as usual until the end of the event.” 

He winced at the likely unintended implication to those words, because he’d reviewed the footage and had to deal with Rogers’s looks recently enough to know what his acting as usual then meant. 

The next second though, he shook it off. It wasn’t news that he came off as an ass with his words, and well. He was Tony Fucking Stark. He wasn’t going to start apologizing for that fact now of all times, when other matters than his irreverent attitude were more important. 

Especially not when Clint and Bruce had been the only ones to actually check up on him after he’d been reported dead, not that they could do much about it. Thank you SHIELD and Captain America for more abandonment issues to not talk to a therapist about. 

But...thinking back on it, it was true. He wasn’t unaffected, no, there had definitely been the pull to give in, but. But it only had been a pull, not the sudden consuming wave the others had described. 

Huh. 

“Alright, I’ll give you that one J.” 

“I’m honored Sir.” 

“The sass!” 

“I am as you created me of course.” 

He snorted and went back to fiddling, filing away the conversation with the other...peculiarities of the attack. 

The reactor could protect him from influences like the scepter, maybe not completely, but it was a start. More direct ones were a better guarantee it seemed. But even if subtle influence infecting a room— 

He shuddered at what actually having gone toe to toe with Rogers if he’d given in sooner might have resulted in. 

No. This was a risk still. But so was removing it. 

It was keeping him alive. 

And at the moment it was keeping him in control. For now. 

“J, add a protocol to that file for if another incident like palladium poisoning happens that—” 

“That will give Ms. Potts or Colonel Rhodes access to the information and directions on how to use it and who to contact? Already done Sir.” 

“You’re the best.” 

“I know. I have also adopted a protocol to watch your behavior and that of the others in case someone starts acting as though under similar effects of control. 

He smiled at the camera. 

>>>

The break up with Pepper was what he had expected honestly. As soon as he decided he was still going to keep the reactor to keep being able to fight, well. It wasn’t like he had chosen it over their relationship really. But he couldn’t blame her for seeing it that way. Of course, it seemed she’d been expecting it as much as he had, they knew each other too well at this point, with only Rhodey and his kids beating her. 

“Tony, just promise me that you know what you’re doing,” she’d said as she pulled him into a hug. “This better not be another attempt to distance us all.” 

“It’s not Pep, J won’t let that happen.” 

“Indeed Ms. Potts, you and Colonel Rhodes will know immediately if Sir starts acting suspicious again.” 

She pulled back with a watery smile and nodded. “You’re still all I have you know.” 

“Same for you, but I couldn’t let this ruin our friendship either. We do still have that right?” 

“Yes. It’s going to be awkward for a bit, but we’ll get through this. Friends.” 

“Friends.” 

“Will that be all Mr. Stark?” 

“That will be all, Miss Potts.” 

He watched as she walked into the elevator and collapsed back against the sofa when the doors closed. 

A few minutes later, Rhodey joined him from wherever he’d been eavesdrop—giving them privacy. 

“I’ve just lost the most amazing thing in my life, haven’t I?” 

“Of course you haven’t.” 

“But it’s Pepper, sweet, strong, amazing Pepper.” 

“Yes,  but if she hasn’t left yet, she’s definitely in for the long haul. You know she’ll still be there for you Tones; she cares about your ass just as much as I do.” 

“Wow, Sour Patch, since when have you been checking out my ass?” The shove he received in response almost knocked him off the couch, but given that they were both laughing, it was probably worth it. At least until he turned more somber, “You really don’t think this is a mistake?” 

“A mistake? No. Reckless, risky, with a whole ton of potential consequences? Of course, but we’ve already been dealing with them. Or well, dealing in the only way you know how.” 

“I’m trying!” 

“Uh-huh, sure,” he only rolled his eyes before continuing. “But I agree with the numbers you and JARVIS has run. The risks are too great, and with what you’ve seen...we need all the protection we can get.” 

He sucked in a breath. “You really believe me?” 

Of course, he’d tried to tell SHIELD, and the other Avengers, and really anyone who would listen but wouldn’t cause public panic, about what had been beyond the void and about Loki’s actions. They’d either ignored him or blamed the stress and trauma. Which, that last one might have been reasonable according to the therapist he wasn’t talking to. But, they were still all ignoring the larger threat. Loki was an easy scapegoat for everything. 

One only the spy twins had been willing to agree was fishy despite what they’d all witnessed. And his relationship with Natashlie was still strained. At least he had some rapport with Clint now the few times he’d crashed at the Tower and they’d both gotten a little too drunken and honest about demons. 

Well, Bruce had seemed to understand his worry, but at the same time, “I’m not that kind of Doctor,” after falling asleep still stung a bit after a few days.  

Pepper had understood...as best she could. Mostly she’d been worried about him and how it was all affecting him. Which subsequently led to her own safety being put into danger because of his panic, and yeah okay, maybe just being friends really was the best way to keep her safe. Not that she couldn’t handle herself, Extremis only being a boon in that department, but, well. The less she had to prove that, the better he’d sleep at night. 

But Rhodey? 

“Of course, I believe you Tones. Despite what you seem to want everyone to think, I know enough by now to trust you’ve thought about a quarter of the plan through before doing it—” 

“Hey!” 

“And you’re still my little brother.” 

He would of course deny the goofy grin until the day he died. 

>>> 

It was a relief to know that Happy was also won over by his plan and really didn’t hold what happened against him. 

Not that he didn’t hold it against himself of course, he never should have let him or Pepper be in the position to be hurt by that in the first place.

He wouldn’t let it happen again. Couldn’t. But hopefully with his head on a little clearer—and JARVIS’s watchful eyes—he wouldn’t start spiraling without noticing again. Because he needed to focus on what was coming, but none of that mattered if his family was hurt in the process.

They’d also agreed to start watching for more individuals that might listen to them. Apparently, there were a few local individuals to New York. Maybe SHIELD hadn’t gotten their claws in them yet. 

>>>

The kid wasn’t someone he brought into the whole big plan of things of course, but he did give him a lab and make frequent phone calls and trips to see him now. Pepper and the PR department either were a godsend—which he already knew—or he’d for once managed to have something that didn’t end up on the front page for once. He’d like to think it was the latter. Harley didn’t deserve that. Nor did his adorable little baby sister who had stumbled into a call and wrapped him around her finger in five minutes flat.   

Maybe he really should think more about the custody paper’s Pep had joked about.  

But nonetheless, he  hadn’t  told the kid about the void and space and the reasons for his attacks. Or the reason the arc reactor was still in his chest after he’d admitted to solving Extremis.  

The little demon had figured it out on his own. And promptly manipulated him into confirming it with the added little details he couldn’t have known.   

He did leave out the more traumatic parts best he could, and thankfully wasn’t called on that.  

Really, he’d rather the kid was as far from all of that as possible. But of course, he was swayed by the argument he’d given that it was best to know and be prepared because they didn’t know when the threat could be coming. So naturally he needed a plan for him and his family. He did finally get him to agree that school and his family were more important at the current moment in time, and the conversation had. Well, he knew it hadn’t ended, but paused.  

That would have to be enough for now.  

His family was safe, aware of the danger, but momentarily safe and settled. It had only taken several agonizing months after the Extremis and Killian event, but hey. At least he got some chances for what could potentially pass as peace.  

>>>

Naturally that’s when aliens and portals appeared in London—and promptly disappeared almost as quickly—and he arrives just in time to find Thor heading back to Asgard with the cause of the event and in mourning over both his mother and brother’s deaths.  

There might have been something about treason and that’s why he couldn’t stay but he’d been distracted by the fact Loki had apparently died.  

He wasn’t sure why that news affected him so much other than the thought of losing the only other person who actually knew.  

Of course, he got over that pretty quickly when he arrived back to the penthouse to a note on the bar under an overturned glass, that JARVIS reported to have just appeared with a recognized signature. He was otherwise alone though, and nothing else seemed to have been affected.

Reassured, he walked over and picked up the thick paper to read the message left in flowing green script:

Stark, does your offer for a drink still stand? 

Chapter Text

The safe, sane, normal thing to do would be to get in touch with SHIELD and tell them that a former would-be-conqueror of Earth just left a note and no, he isn’t really dead despite what Thor said a few weeks ago. Then to call some sort of back up to his penthouse in case this wasn’t the extent of this. At the very least, that safe and sane and normal individual would have JARVIS run some more tests—

—well no, a normal person wouldn’t have access to JARVIS but Pepper would, and what Pepper did was probably the safe and smart decision—

—but he was Tony Fucking Stark.

Safe, sane, normal people didn’t build a suit out of scrapes in a cave and take on terrorist organizations alone, announces to the world they were Iron Man, or fly a nuke into a portal not expecting to come back.

Tony Stark did.

So, instead of doing any of that, he picked up the glass and sought out what remained of the bar’s stash of alcohol. “J, we’re sure it’s him right?”

“Considering your other possible enemies that could be waiting for a drink, I’d say it’s a safe assumption.”

“Always with the sass.” He poured the bourbon—a decent brand of it too, hopefully this worked—and raised it in a mock toast. “Alright Bambi,” then poured some of into the sink—he didn’t exactly have fireplace nearby, for a proper offering, “here’s to you.”

“Sir,” J responded with a slight note of exasperation.

“How else am I supposed to contact him? He didn’t exactly leave an address or phone number. And with what Thor said, standing on the roof and yelling at Asgard seems out of the question.”

“You could always just ask.”

He definitely did not yelp nor jump at the sudden voice speaking into his ear. Nor did he throw glass at the figure that defiantly hadn’t been there seconds before. He would admit to grabbing at his chest, and glaring at the smirk he received in response though. As well as the double take at realizing the glass had not hit him, but rather gone through him. “Haunting me now, Casper? And here I thought you liked me.”

Loki tilted his head in thought, though the smirk didn’t disappear. “Naturally, Stark. Why would I want to spend eternity in the company of someone I hated? You’ve already proved to be much better entertainment.”

“Yeah, well, this ‘entertainment’ has a heart condition you know, so be careful,” he snapped, which actually earned a flicker of something darker across his face before his features settled into a frown.

“My apologies, Stark, I did not mean to cause actual distress.” He bowed his head slightly and yeah, the emotions here were not okay.

“Don’t worry about it.” With a wave of his hand he attempted to dismissive the slight tension, before frowning. “But you do have to explain how you’re doing this. I mean, you’re real..right?”

“I assure you, I am real.”

“But you’re not really here? J, what are you sensing?” He gestured to Loki—not Loki? Magic double? That was actually likely and would explain several things, such as the Hellicarrier tricks with appearing in his cell but being able to watch them from a closer position.

He looked, really looked, at the figure in front of him. Physically, Loki looked for all intents and purposes much the same as he had during the invasion, wearing similar, though not the exact same armor. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, a stiff and rigid posture that he’d adopted after his little joke. His hair was longer, and not quite as slicked back, and his face was behind an indifferent mask, though thankfully his eyes were green. Still, something seemed…off. Like it wasn’t the full picture, still hazy around the edges. Though no, that didn’t seem right, because if the glass hadn’t gone through him—thankfully it hadn’t shattered—there would have been no indication that this wasn’t the real Loki. Maybe it was just because he already knew then?

“The camera is picking up the image of Loki, Sir, but the sensors do not detect any physical form, only a spike in the same energy signature that delivered the note.”

“Indeed, it is as your spirit puts it, this is but an image, a projected double—”

“I knew it! So you’re what, using your magic to project here and…damn, alright we need to record this, maybe run more scans and—what?”

His brow had furrowed and there was the slightest downward tick of his lips. “You’re not—of course,” a shake of his head and the mask slipped back into place, “Mortals have little grasp or experience with Sedir.” Lot to unpack there, but Loki just continued on, “Another time perhaps. We have far more pressing matters to discuss first, the reason for my note.”

Right yes, why had he revealed himself to not be dead—

—though okay, he really wanted an explanation of the magic—Sedir? He’d have to look into that, hopefully JARVIS had made a note, the word sounded familiar from what he’d read—and to ask a million questions and do a million tests and readings because he was a scientist and had earned his eccentrics and doctorates for a reason and really when would he get another chance, maybe he could convince him after whatever this was—

—to him, of all people. Not his brother, or anyone else, but someone who had been an enemy.

“Right, well, floors all yours, Merlin, because I’m failing to see the reasoning here.” There were plenty of possibilities of course: maybe he just wanted to rub it in that Asgard hadn’t been able to hold him, playing into the full-tilt-diva guise he’d worn during the invasion that may not have been a part of the act. Maybe he wanted to fuck with him in particular after everything that had happened, he had already made a comment about him being the better entertainment after all. Or maybe—

“The invasion.”

—the Chitauri coming through the portal in a seemingly endless wave—

—falling falling falling—

—the nuke barreling towards New York, towards innocent people—

—the endless void of space—

He swallowed and braced himself against the counter. His voice missed the mark of nonchalance, instead coming out a dry rasp when he finally found words, “What about it?”

“You saw the truth behind it. The multitude of ships beyond the portal, the true threat they posed, the truth behind what I—” Loki’s voice had been calm and indifferent before it broke on the last part, a flicker of emotions crossing his features. “You know, as I do, that it wasn’t the end of things. You’ve been preparing.”

“Obviously. Am I just supposed to sit back and be unprepared for everything? I’ve tried drinking away the memories and pain before, it didn’t work. What else am I supposed to do, cower and run away—” he winced, the action mirrored more minutely on his face. That is what he had accused him of, even if it was only mentally, after he’d willing been taken prisoner. Clearly, he knew that too. “What else am I supposed to do?” He repeated, the words quieter as he slumped more fully against the bar.

“Do not misinterpret me, Stark. It’s commendable, truly, when others in your position would not have done so in face of such a threat. But it is not enough.”

He wanted to laugh.

Or maybe cry.

“Of course it’s not!” At his snapped words, he at least had the decency to look taken back. “We’re woefully unprepared. Until whatever drama you and Pikachu played out in the desert, we didn’t even know for sure anyone else was out there or that they’d come to us! We don’t have the technology to deal with this. Or the firepower or anything. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes could barely hold their own against an already botched invasion attempt. What would we possibly do if all those things came to Earth, if someone else had led it and opened the portal to its full potential or we hadn’t been able to work together at all or had given into the scepter or—”

“Sir, I need you to take a deep breath. You’re heart rate has increased at an alarming rate.”

Pressing one hand to his chest, closing his eyes, and forcibly relaxing his shoulders, he took the calming breaths Harley had shown him what now seemed like forever ago.

Only after several long seconds of prolonged silence, did Loki find his voice again, “Forgive me, once again, I did not mean to cause such levels of distress—”

“Yeah well, PTSD will do that to you—”

“What I meant to say, is that you are woefully unprepared without an ally or further knowledge of what is to come. Even you are unaware of just what truly was behind the attack for all your genius—”

“Really not helping there Bambi, even with your flattery.”

“Stark. What I’m offering, is aid, knowledge, protection, and resources at your disposal, anything you could want that was within mine and Asgard’s power to obtain.” He unclasped his hands to spread his arms slightly, as though to show off all he offered.

As the words spun around his brain before settling into some sort of coherency, he could only frown. “And what all could you offer? Last I checked, you weren’t well liked by Earth or Asgard. What would you even get out of—hang on, how do you even know what I’ve been up to at all, you’ve been imprisoned haven’t you? Or was Thor lying about—”

“I can assure you that was true. As for what I would get, comfort for one. Knowing that there is someone out there who is capable of stopping the Mad Titan working to do so. That the universe isn’t entirely unaware of it’s fate and that there may be a chance no matter how small to survive this.”

The universe was much bigger than just protecting Earth but damn, Loki had been willing to die rather than face this threat and now suddenly he was changing his tune because he believed he, lowly mortal Tony Stark, could do something? That was quite a lot of faith in someone he’d met once and tried to kill.

“I would also request,” the somber tone was replaced with a smile, sly in away that implied he was being let in on a secret, “That you not let anyone know exactly who or where you’re getting all of this from. Least of all Thor or your SHIELD.”

“I’ve never really been on the greatest terms with SHIELD anyway, super shady spies and all that—”

“I’m afraid you don’t know the half of it Stark.”

“What, and you do? And I can see not wanting Point Break to report back to the AllDaddy—”

“I do, actually, and I assure you, that last part isn’t a problem at the moment. You asked how I knew all of this and how I had anything all to offer.” For the first time since arriving, the illusion moved from his spot to slowly circle the bar before ‘sitting’ down. “This is information that I do not give lightly, Stark, because the answer could jeopardize everything I have so far achieved, as well as my own life, once again.”

Loki let the words hang in the air for  a moment between them, letting him soak them in.

Then he fixed him with a cold, assessing stare before continuing. “I am taking a risk coming to you. I do not trust that you much care what will happen to me, however. You have already shown a remarkable level of…compassion, shall we say, or concern in the past for what I—what happened. And I do trust that you want to defend your world, if nothing else. I hope I am not wrong in believing you will do so no matter the cost. Admittedly, it is a sentiment I have only recently regained due to circumstances I’d rather not retell, but I do, share it, to an extent,” the words seemed to take a great deal of effort for him to say. “It is because of all this that I extend this honesty, this peace offering to you, but only, you. You must swear though, that you will not betray me. I assure you, the consequences would not be pleasant Stark.”

And oh, this had bad idea written all over it. Rhodey definitely wouldn’t, Happy would probably have shot or arrested him already at this point, Clint definitely would have, and Pepper—and Harley now too—would also definitely find out somehow and give him an earful for even thinking about it. This was not someone he should trust.

But he wasn’t them, and bad ideas like these tended to be the big red button screaming do not push that Tony Stark definitely pushed.

Besides, he needed allies, all of them they could get, and from the way Loki was talking? Allies with connections to outer space and as much power as he likely had were the only ways they were going to win.

Leveling him with the most sincere look he could, he licked his lips and nodded. “Deal.”

“Don’t make this lightly, Stark. I will know if you break your promise, and I have means if ensuring your silence.”

“I know,” because boy did he have his theories about all the ways this could go wrong and all the things Loki could do in response, “and I’m not. I—” trust you seemed the wrong thing to say, even though some small crazy part of him did, there was still a healthy amount of doubt there. “Believe you.”

His gaze did not turn any less assessing, but it did drop the harder, colder edge to it just slightly as he stood once more and walked to where he was still using the bar for support. For some reason, of all the things he expected, Loki—or the illusory version of him—holding out a hand to him was not it. Was it his imagination that he suddenly seemed more..real? “Swear it to me, that you, Anthony Edward Stark,” how the hell did he know his full name? “Will not betray me.”

He studied the arm for a moment. The prodffered hand seemed harmless enough, but this was Loki, and just because something seemed harmless didn’t mean it actually was. In fact, this was likely something very binding and very nasty if broken. A bit too “Unbreakable Vow” for comfort, but still. If this is what it took? Well, he had been correct to assume he’d do whatever it took, even if that was making a deal with the enemy—

—not that he believed Loki ever truly had been the enemy though he didn’t have the full story, he had a pretty good idea and okay this is off track.

Point was, black and white morals could be left to Captain Righteous. That bitter part of him was all too happy to point out that he’d never truly be free of the Merchant of Death side.

Still, he wasn’t a genius for nothing.

“Only if you swear the same, that we are working towards a common goal and you will not betray me or use this against me.”

Perhaps he had been expecting a hint of anger or disappointment or really any sing that it upset him. Instead, it almost seemed to..amuse wasn’t quite the right word, please? Yes, please him. “Of course, my clever mortal.”

—he did not react to the possessive, he did not, JARVIS you have no proof—

He grabbed his arm, and okay wow he was suddenly real and tangible, huh. “I, Loki…of Asgard, Laufeyson, swear, to you Anthony Edward Stark, not to betray, endanger, or otherwise knowingly cause or bring about harm to you for as long as we work together to ensure the safety of the universe.”

Swallowing, he mirrored his actions and words. “I Anthony Edward Stark, swear to you, Loki of Asgard, Laufeyson, not to betray, endanger, or otherwise knowingly cause or bring about harm to you for as long as we work together to ensure the safety of the universe.”

He would deny for the second time that day jumping—or trying to, Loki had a very firm grip on his arm—or yelping as a warm golden glow washed and settled over the both of them. Just as quickly as it had appeared however, it disappeared beneath their skin. Well, no, that wasn’t quite right, because it didn’t disappear, so much as settle into a strange warmth beneath the surface.

“Alright, yup, definitely getting you to explain all of that.”

“In time, Stark,” he answered, a sparkle in his eyes, replacing the earlier edge.

“Nope, no, we’re not doing that. We make some sort of unbreakable vow, you are not allowed to call me Stark. It’s Tony, Harry Potter.”

In response, he merely raised an eyebrow and smirked, “You expect me to call you by your name, and yet are incapable of calling me by mine.”

“Don’t take it personally, its one of my endearing character flaws.”

“Quite. Now, I must return, before the physical presence is noticed on the throne.”

“Hey wait, you haven’t explained—”

Noticed on the throne. Odin not being a problem. All of Asgard’s resources.

The knowing look on the smug bastard’s face told him he’d seen the realization. “Figured it out now? I hope it answers all of your questions?”

“Not in the least.” Because this just left the door, no the floodgate, wide open for things like how, when, where was Odin, did anyone else know, how long, what had happened—

“I promise I will answer everything for you, soon, Anthony. Until next time.” He bowed his head, and just like that, was gone.

At the very least, it appeared he had an ally finally.

Unfortunately that was one that came with more questions and problems than answers and solutions.

And yet, looking down at his arm where he could still feel the traces of whatever had passed between them, he couldn’t find it in himself to regret it. Really, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Chapter Text

After that night, Loki—or at least the magic double—became a frequent visitor to the tower. The expected parts of the deal...bond, oath, vow, whatever-the-hell-it-was-he'd-agreed-to. It started with another visit to detail exactly who, the Mad Titan was and why he wanted magic space rocks like the tesseract—the space stone—in the first place.   

He had needed a very strong drink after learning about the plans to annihilate half the universe and court Death for the sake of balance of all things. With that much power Thanos could do literally anything else to ‘help’ people not struggle in that way. But the title of Mad Titan wasn’t for nothing apparently, was it?  

So yeah, he’d need a strong drink, and had invited Loki to join. Which he had refused, citing his need to remain on Asgard to broker a peace treaty.   

—he wasn’t sure he’d get used to the sudden vanishing and reappearing aspect of the teleportation, er, skywalking that Loki did, honest. Being caught unawares was something he despised, but at least he’d started announcing his presence in non-jump scare ways since then, with a little light show or noise added on solely for his benefit.  

Regardless, he’d ended up blacking out the lights in the penthouse and drinking until he passed out, trying to forget about the fact he was expected to face this threat down because he was one of the few people who knew and who Loki believed could do something about it.   

Unfortunately, his plan had failed and his mind had been plagued with images of the Chitauri destroying everything, everyone he cared about dying because he couldn’t do enough, he wasn’t enough, and he was still falling falling falling through the void of space all alone with no portal to save him. He’d be here forever, he’d die here, all alone, no friends, no family, no hope. There wasn’t even the stars or hell, the Chitauri here, just black empty nothing.  

Somehow, that wasn’t the worst of it though, because his alcohol induced dream decided to give faces to the beings he’d learned about, and apparently add in a drop of his time from Afghanistan. Mix well and it felt like he was being tortured all over again.  

And then it all faded. Not into an empty black void again, but a pleasant nothingness and deep sleep that almost erased the memories of the nightmare the next morning. Almost. Granted, they did only come back to him when he purposely tried to recall why exactly his voice was hoarse the next morning.   

—maybe that should have been his first clue of there being something else to this...deal, yeah let’s go with deal,  less terrifying connotations to deal than the others, because when was the last time, he actually slept well period. Let alone after a nightmare. And his eidetic memory never let him forget them—  

It was a couple days after that Loki reappeared to answer any questions he still had. And he had a lot of questions. The first being where all of the stones were and just how many Barney had managed to acquire already.  

—for some reason, he had gone even paler at discovering that he somehow knew what the Mad Titan looked like now after inquiring about the nickname—  

—though he’d quickly forgotten to press that question when he had explained how the Mind Stone had been in his possession...right up until Loki’s purposely botched invasion that had lost him both the Space and Mind Stone in the end. The distraction had been entirely because that was a great boon to them, yup, no other reason, definitely not because of how amazing it was that he’d been able to do all that while still being mind controlled and wasn’t that intellect just hot as—no, bad Tony.   

Talking about invasions and plans to stop them is not sexy, stop it.  

It did mean that there was still a Stone on Earth that the Titan would come for though, and oh wait, no, there were two, and wasn’t that just great.  

At least the second one—the Time Stone apparently—was being watched over by somewhat competent sorcerers and ancient magics that seemed to be shielding it pretty well. If Loki was correct, which really, he was the expert in all this stuff, it would take another sorcerer of his own caliber to be able to even determine it was near Midgard/Earth. The tesseract was still safe in Asgard under his watch, and he’d sent the Aether to another planet so too many were never in the same place. The Power Stone and the Soul Stone hadn’t been seen or disturbed in years though, but he’d report the first time either came up.  

The scepter and Mind Stone were another problem, and he’d instantly set JARVIS to trying to track that one down. It was not safe in SHIELD’s hands according to some of what Loki had witnessed going on behind the scenes with the organization. They knew that one was on Earth, but. Well, whatever had happened exactly with it made Loki reluctant to try and reach out to find it on his own. He was definitely not going to force him to do so when he’d seen the same wild terror from the invasion reappear in his eyes at the thought.  

That was another thing. While Loki was more than willing to give up the facts surrounding Thanos and the Stones, it became quickly apparent that there were two subjects that were entirely off limits.  

The first, whatever had led to him falling into Thanos’s grasp in the first place, and what he had endured to end up on Earth with the invasion plan. From what he’d gathered, it had something to do with the New Mexico event, and Thor’s banishment as well as his discovery of being adopted, but past that? Nothing. And he’d only pieced that together from the fragments he’d caught from the brother’s conversation on Earth, Thor’s words, and the bitter statements that Loki let slip. Which wasn’t a lot, and was only after he’d had a bit too much to drink.   

Otherwise, the story was he’d left Asgard, been found by Thanos and warped until his only escape had been failing on Midgard.  

The other, the year that had passed since the invasion and the Aether event in London. Presumably, he’d been taken to Asgard and imprisoned, until Thor had needed his help—  

—and witnessed him die, but that wasn’t well explained either, other than waking up after the attack, surprise, not dead, and taking the throne when Odin had fallen into Odinsleep. Yeah, okay, he still wasn’t touching that one. At least, not as long as Loki seemed to be helping, rather than using it against anyone—  

The only reason he even knew he wasn’t getting the full story about the events were the flat tones and masks appearing whenever the two came up. And he only recognized those from his own collection used to talk about Afghanistan, Ob-Stane, the palladium poisoning, what he had seen past the portal, hell, even before then with How—  

—yeah okay, so he had his own reasons not to push the subject. Because after the night of questions, Loki turned up more, and what started as talking about their steady progress towards their goals—he was running all kinds of scans with JARVIS to find any individuals that might also be willing to join them outside just the Avengers, and Loki was slowly building up Asgard’s resources, allies, defenses, what have you—their talks became more social. And if he pushed on Loki’s past, there was no reason, he wouldn’t be pushed right back.   

He had finally gotten him to agree to that drink, which had led to the more personal and social conversations. It had happened because Loki had been updating him about the treaty she’d—he had taken longer than he should’ve to register she was the same person, but when he had and had changed nothing about their usual interaction, it had looked like a weight taken off her shoulders—been working on for the past month. She’d seemed far too tense about it, and when he’d asked, it had become a full-blown rant about the mess the past rulers on both sides had left for them.   

Neither had realized that almost five hours had passed, as opposed to the usual two at most, until JARVIS warned that Pepper was on her way up.  

So yeah, one month became two, then three, then four, then he stopped counting entirely, and Loki was there at the tower two nights a week now. At some point, it had turned from shared rants about their responsibilities, into what he...yeah, it could be called a friendship. They were friends now. At least, close acquaintances?  

They seemed genuinely interested in his inventions and work outside preparing for the bigger threat, even given suggestions based off the Aesir technology they were familiar with. It had been together, with the input of Bruce (unknowing about Loki of course), that they’d put the Ultron program on the back burner as a last result. It was good in theory, but too easily abused until they worked all the kinks out.   

In return, he’d asked questions about Asgard and other realms and...well any and everything he could really. But then he asked about their Sedir and—well, it had become his favorite subject to ask about solely for the way they lit up. At first it had been a lot of suspicion, but that had faded quite quickly into genuine enthusiasm to share.  

—and that suspicion added to a list of growing reasons he wanted to visit Asgard to give the residence a piece of his mind about how they seemed to have treated his friend in the past. Though he wouldn’t, couldn’t admit that to anyone but J—  

Their time was always spent in the tower, but cut between the penthouse and his lab, where the bots had taken a quick liking to them, and they, in return, had marveled at them for several hours. It didn’t take long for him to realize that he had grown to look forward to their meetings, the snarking back and forth, and the shared rants and ideas. It had startled him and made him panic, naturally, but J had been quick to remind him that having friends was a good thing, Sir. And Loki was a good friend to have at the moment.  

It was surprising how quickly JARVIS seemed to have come to accept Loki. The suspicion had been there the first day, but it seemed to have vanished entirely by Loki’s third appearance in the tower. It did help, considering he was the only other one outside the bots who could even know Loki was still alive, let alone visiting.   

That really should have troubled him more than it did, but...well, some selfish part of him liked keeping this secret. His life was on display to the public too much as it was. Usually the only parts that were hidden were, well less than savory secrets like Stane, the abuse, the extent of the torture, the PTSD...yeah, it was nice having a good secret. So no, he didn’t feel the need yet to tell his small family about Loki. Maybe soon, but for now, this was his.  

—of course, it didn’t save him from them knowing he was meeting  someone , they just had the wrong idea about why—really, how would he have met and found someone to date without them knowing Pep—  

But for now, only JARVIS knew, and he seemed to be a fan. The two were even in cahoots sometimes, which was just unfair!  

Oh yeah, that was one of the...not so expected parts of their deal.  

Loki was, to put it frankly, a mother hen.  

—though, once again, he’d never say that allowed for fear of another defenestration—  

That  had also started on the third visit. Or maybe it was the fourth but it had been caused by the third.  

See, after remembering his nightmare, he’d gone on a workshop binge to distract himself from sleep. Old habits and all that. So, Loki had found him working himself to exhaustion on a suit, and had become very concerned about his health. Sure, he’d seemed like he wasn’t that interested, and it had been asked in a bland, conversational tone. But the lines around his eyes and barely there pinched look were a ghost of the ones he’d gotten from Pepper and Rhodey for years now—if J had a body, he’d probably give them too.   

J had, for some unknown reason, since only days before he’d classified Loki as a threat, tattled on him and his lack of sleep.  

He’d offered to leave after that so he could rest, but had resigned himself to the fact that there was no way he could after the nightmares. Hell, he’d even seemed to empathize with the point, and they proceeded on until with ‘20 Questions: Alien Version’ until Loki could no longer divide attention to the clone.  

The fourth visit had been hours later—maybe the next day, yeah that definitely seemed more accurate with how the sun had set and risen again.  

His fatigue addled brain had been too focused and out of it at the same time to register that it was odd how quickly he’d shown up again. That was until he’d actually felt him grab his arm and teleport him back to the penthouse, just outside his room.   

—no, he hadn’t questioned until later why or how Loki knew it was his—  

“Stark, I will not have my only competent partner in this endeavor dropping dead because they are incapable of caring for themselves. You will sleep.”  

He’d been too far gone at that point to offer more than a weak protest before he was already falling into bed. The last thing he’d been aware of was cool fingers pressing against his temples. Then another, dreamless and blissfully empty sleep had claimed him.  

After that, JARVIS had teamed up with him by giving ratting out whenever he hadn’t been sleeping an at least barely healthy by human standards amount. Or when he’d forgotten to eat.  

He swore that last one was the reason that even if Loki hadn’t visited, food that definitely hadn’t been there minutes earlier would appear within reach. Not that he registered it had happened until he’d already eaten most of it. It was the same trick Pepper had learned early on as his PA.  

Now, had that been the only side effect of the deal, he might have dropped it. Shrugged it completely off and moved on.  

Except, for the nights when his dreams became especially vivid, when he was back to falling in that starless void or staring down or being tortured by the Mad Titan mostly, but there were some others too. Some where it was dark and empty but not because he was falling and it was just pain, some where he swears, he catches glimpses of other people being tortured too, there and gone which wouldn’t be unusual for a nightmare if he didn’t think it was himself in some.  

On those nights, with any of those vivid ones, suddenly, the dreams would end.  

And he’d have a full night's rest in that blissful nothingness. Unable to recall his dreams until hours later where they would filter back in sluggishly only if he pulled at the loose threads left behind.  

It was the same nothingness that Loki put him into on that fourth visit.  

Which was fine, really, helpful even, except.  

Except how did he know when that was happening?  

Just like, how did he know when during their next visit after one of his battles with the villain of the week or remaining Ten Rings cells, exactly where and how badly he’d been injured before asking or being there for more than a few seconds?  

Maybe he would have chalked it up to coincide, or you know, Loki spying on him through the throne and all that because he couldn’t have him dying now. Maybe that would have been that and once again, he’d shrug it off.  

Especially since it was nice occasionally having someone talk him down from the-not-so-occasional panic attack still, who didn’t say anything about it after.  

But as the months went on, he became increasingly aware that they seemed to know, not just his general attitude about an earlier meeting that day that he’d been forced to sit through, but had repeated back to him the exact thoughts he’d had. Sure, they often had similar thoughts on things, but that was...disconcerting. Especially when one day he practically heard a frustrated huff and what has to be a curse in a language he didn’t recognize while he was alone in the lab. And then it kept happening.  

It wasn’t a constant thing of course. Primarily it seemed to be centered around when he wasn’t focusing that much on anything in particular, got overly frustrated, or had grown exceedingly bored. So that meant board meetings and SHIELD/Avengers debriefs for him, and..... advisors and foreign dignitaries for Loki it seemed, based off what they’d next vent about. Until he can start better understanding what is being sai—er, thought, and can confirm it. Which was just weird.  

—maybe slightly concerning because what if it wasn’t just then, and there were other times, like during  their  meetings that he was decidedly focused a little too much on the wrong thing, damnit Tony. Though could you blame him, like honestly—  

And, you know, having other people inside your head wasn’t really safe now was it?  

Okay, so maybe he should’ve asked for more information or done some sort of research before agreeing to the…deal. But it wasn’t exactly like he had access to books on magic—on Sedir—at his disposal or would have even known where to look. And he couldn’t exactly ask the only other Aesir he knew.  

—Though Loki would be quick to remind him that he wasn’t actually Aesir either. So maybe that wouldn’t have helped him—  

Still, a voice in his head was constantly telling him that unknown deals with magical entities were not to be taken lightly, especially when they came with side effects, and what the hell had he been thinking Tony?! Naturally the voice sounded like Pepper, but it wasn’t Pepper because she couldn’t no didn’t know.   

Nobody did.  

And maybe he should have listened to the warning signs and red flags surrounding that particular part of the deal.  

But the…deal—yeah let’s just call it a deal for now, less terrifying connotations to deal—did prevent them from hurting each other. Besides. The side effects weren’t bad, per se. Just unexpected. And odd. And occasionally unsettling. Because thought sharing. And awareness of his injuries. And whatever was going on with the dream thing.   

Still, however many months later, and he still hadn’t pressed about it. Maybe if he didn’t acknowledge it, it would stop—no that wasn’t likely, what are you thinking, Stark? Or maybe if he did bring it up, Loki would laugh at him because it really was just his overactive imagination.  

But it did seem to happen more and more frequently as time went on. As if it was...growing stronger.  

And that really should have scared him. Bothered him at the very least.  

But he’s always been rather good at ignoring things that he shouldn’t and poking at things he should ignore.  

That is, until he’s acutely aware of something being...off. It feels like another panic attack, at least at first. JARVIS is quick to try and talk him down from it, but—but then it registers, and he isn’t quite sure how because it feels real at the same time it feels far away, that  he’s  not the one experiencing the attack, or the growing headache. Because the incessant stream of thoughts that seem to be making it worse definitely aren’t his.  

Can’t see. Can’t see, everything's black and gone and oh Norns what if it stays this way this time can’t stop it, darkness emptiness nothingness can’t see—  

And okay, now some of that panic is his, because he’s never been on the receiving side—at least he’s never been aware of being on this side before. What’s worse, Loki could teleport to him, but he has no means of doing the same thing the other way around, and no means of calming Loki down from this unless—  

He has no proof that’ll work. But, well, worth a shot because that panic is only getting worse and—  

Here goes nothing.  

Loki.  

Not again not again not again—  

Loki can you hear me?  

Falling falling it won’t stop just endless nothing someone please—  

He feels like an idiot, because here he is standing in the middle of his workshop trying to telepathically communicate with someone on an entirely different planet—okay, how had this become his life? He was going crazy wasn’t he, had to be.  

But he had to try damnit.  

So, he sets the tools down finally, and forces down what definitely is his own rising panic as he sits on the floor, and focuses. Maybe he should’ve taken up those yoga classes with Bruce and Pepper. At least then he might know what he’s doing.  

Loki! If you can hear me, I need you to try and focus, okay? I don’t even know if I’m doing this right, this probably isn’t even reaching you, I mean how insane is this, I have no idea how this bond thing works and—  

Anthony?  

—not Stark, finally huh—  

Oh good, you can hear me. Okay, definitely need to sit down and talk about how exactly this has happened because I don’t remember—  

Norns, no, nononononono if you’re here, that means—they, we...we’ve lost, haven’t we? No, no this wasn’t...I’m sorry—  

Hey, no stop that! Loki? Look Bambi, you’re having a panic attack and for some reason, you’re projecting it over to me too, and I don’t, I can’t help you any more than this. I don’t know what I’m doing, usually it’s me, but I need you to focus. I don’t know what's happened to trigger it, or what state you’re in or anything.  

A...a panic attack? No, no you shouldn’t be witnessing me like this, please just—  

Well you’re projecting very loudly, it’d be kind of hard to ignore Rock of Ages. By the way, we do need that talk about getting into my head and all without permission but now’s not the time.  

Despite the flares, his babbling thoughts did seem to be having some effect of calming Loki down, if even slightly.  

There you go, now wanna tell me what happened to cause this? Or at least what you were doing first so I might be able to be more help.  

I don’t...  

He could imagine their frown based off the tone and pause alone.  

I was working on a spell. Something old I had found in Mother’s library.   

So maybe he wouldn’t be any help then. He winced, just how much of this could get through? No concentrate, they need help. At the very least, recounting this seemed to help.  

A spell huh? What kind of spell are we talking?  

It was meant to restore—to increase one’s eyesight but it—it appears to have gone wrong I can’t oh Norns I can’t—  

Loki? Hey, stay with me Prancer! There’s only so much I can—could you skywalk here, if you’re safe, maybe then I could, I don’t know, get JARVIS to look you over?  

There was a pause for a moment, but at least the idea seemed to have quelled the resurgence of panic. If only for the time being.  

It is...possible. But I don’t...I am. Unaware of the state that I may appear in if I do. My Sedir appears...affected and this was unexpected. And I—  

If it will help you, then I don’t particularly care. If you can do it however, that would probably at least make sure you were at the tower and someplace safer with an ally so as not to be caught unaware—  

—even though it was likely that the palace was more warded than whatever Loki had put up here. Still, it would be better than taking a risk of someone walking in on the apparently currently blinded not-dead-but-supposed-to-be prince with the king missing.  

Another pause.  

Very well.  

Somehow, even as just a thought, it carried a weight to it, like they were signing their own death warrant rather than coming over.  

Where are you currently?  

In the lab. Uhh, the couch, is...the freest spot currently if that—  

Without preamble or warning, Loki appeared on the couch, hands covering their face, as they curled in on themselves. A show of vulnerability that was entirely unexpected and out of character.  

But then he did a double take and he froze mid-step towards them, breath catching.  

They weren’t in their usual armor, the thick layers that he’d grown accustomed to, but rather clothes that were far softer, seemingly more suited to, well meditation if he had to guess. But the lack of layers revealed just how  thin  they were. Not stick thin, at least not anymore, because it appeared—  

He swallowed.  

—appeared like they were still gaining back lost weight slowly, like he had.  

What was visible of the skin had also taken on an almost blueish tint to it, but what was most concerning were the crisscrossing scars over their hands, arms, and from what was visible, face. The rest of their body was still covered, but. But there was little doubt of there being more.  

Unaware of the state that I may appear in if I do. My Sedir appears...affected.  

Their Sedir had been covering this every other time.  

And then they lifted their hands and—  

“Oh god.”  

Chapter Text

“Oh god.”  

At the words, they flinched back violently, shaking hands quickly recovering what had been revealed but—  

But well, for lack of better words, the damage had already been done. He’d already seen what they were now trying to hide. Their face was littered with what looked like burns and scars in the process of healing. Based on the weight and other scars, what he’d learned of Thor’s healing and from Loki’s own stories, these were still relatively recent too. Or had been incredibly severe.  

Or both.  

And there was a limited timeframe in which they could have occurred, and given that they supposedly had been only locked away for a year where, if that was true, they could have devoted who knew how much time to healing and recovering—  

—unless their Sedir was being hindered. Or that’s when it—  

“I knew this was a mistake,” Loki broke the silence, “You will forget what you—”  

“No, let me help!” He reached out on instinct to stop the already sparking Sedir—  

—they yanked back, out of reach, and pressed into the couch, body going rigid. “Do not. Touch. Me.”   

“Shit, sorry, Lo, just—damn it, tell me how to help! J, you got anything on scans?” He waved off his three bots, who’d been drawn by the noise, DUM-E already holding a blanket and U and Butterfingers ready to offer their own comforts.  

“You can’t. Don’t bother.” The words were still gritted out, and their body was still tense, but they didn’t make to leave. That was...progress, right? Infuriating as it was. “There’s nothing you can do.”  

He rolled his eyes. Why couldn’t this ever just be easy? He already wasn’t a people person, how was he supposed to deal with this of all things? “J?”  

“From my previous scans, it seems Loki’s Sedir is at a lower level than usual, and I am detecting traces of a foreign energy—”  

“We knew that!”  

“—however,” JARVIS continued as if not noticing the interruption, “It seems like the other energy is at a weaker state, as well.”  

“Wonderful,” they let out a bitter laugh that made him flinch. “It wasn’t even a competent user’s spell.”  

“What can we do to help?”  

“I already told you, there’s nothing. Your powerless without Sedir, and your mortal technologies are too far behind—”  

“Then why did you even bother coming!” They both flinched from the harsher tone than he had meant but well, could you really blame him? “You invade my head without permission—”  

“I assure you that was  not  my intention.”  

Not their...no other problems to deal with first. “And you accept my offer of help only to reject and insult it after you arrive. So why did you even bother to come?”  

Silence.  

The seconds ticked by, he wasn’t sure for how long, but it was long enough that they apparently weren’t going to answer. Standing up, he threw his hands up with a huff and turned—  

“I had no one—where else.”  

He blinked.  

It was said so quietly he would swear he imagined it. There was no visible indication that they had even spoken, save the tense set of their jaw.  

“Okay.”  

Of course, it  wasn’t  okay, because how the fuck could any of this be okay when he was the only one they could turn to in a time like this and they’d only been allies for a few months? When their brother was out there and didn’t even know they were alive? When—  

—no, short version, nothing was okay.  

But.  

At least they had some place to go. He could work with that. “So, tell me, what are we going to do?”  

“We’ve already established that you—”  

“Not me. Us. You. What are you going to do?”  

“I...I am working on it.”  

Wonderful.  

“If I may?” JARVIS cut in just as he was about to retort. “It appears as if the foreign presence is already starting to weaken and disappear.”  

“Se—there! We didn’t know that, and now we do know that we can wait it out.”  

They huffed something about incompetence, but if you asked him, that incompetence probably saved their life. Of course, they  hadn’t  asked, so he kept his mouth shut. For once. He was capable of that sometimes, thank you!  

“We may not have time to wait it out, Stark.” Their tone was still hostile and a bit condescending, but somehow it seemed to come off more as a defense rather than them being actually—  

—oh right, the  magical  telepathic bond. He should really pay more attention to it if it would allow him to read them better.   

Except.  

He hadn’t been able to hear—sense?—much from it since they arrived. Since they became aware of it and it was no longer beneficial. Trust issues, well that was obvious, they were still hiding their face, but that was fair. He wasn’t too keen on someone having easy access to his thoughts anyway. And, of course, they could find a way to block it out and really that was just unfair—  

“I’m still playing the part of Odin and people will expect my presence.” And there was no magic double to take their place momentarily because of the Sedir issue. Of course, for all their talk, they had made no real attempts to leave yet, and exhaustion rolled off them in waves. No, it was probably just all for show, and— “And could you not project so loudly?”  

“Hey, I’m not the one who put this here!”  

“As I have already stated, this was not my intention. I assure you, I’m not particularly pleased with having my own thoughts—” vulnerabilities “—on display any more than you are.”  

“So how did this even happen in the first place?”  

Another beat of tense silence.  

“I don’t know,” they finally grit out.  

“Fan-fucking-tastic.”  

“I have my theories, don’t think me so helpless. But they are little more than that at the moment, since I had more pressing things to attend to after I became aware.”  

“Like this spell.” It wasn’t a question, but he regretted saying it from the way they tensed. Alright, so his brain to mouth filter still sucked most of the time. “Wait hang on, how long exactly  have  you been aware of this?”  

“I am a master of my craft, Stark, of course I became aware of it as soon as the first sign appeared, I just wasn’t aware of the exact nature and strength of it until a few moments ago when you purposely reached out.”  

“The first sign of it?” What had that been? For him, it had been the way Loki always knew when something was wrong, and the thing with the dreams like that night after the visit...purposely reached out...  

They tensed even more as the thought crossed his mind, the thought they could hear and—  

 “Shit, that second visit. That was you. The reason I slept so well because that never happens, at least it didn’t before you showed up, which the only way for you to have known what was happening was because I—fuck. I accidentally projected all that, didn’t I?” He winced back and closed his eyes, preparing for the beratement or whatever they would offer to having seen all his greatest fears on display like that.  

But it didn’t come.  

Silence again for a beat.  

“What?” Their head had  finally  lifted from their hands for a moment, scars and confusion on display. “You think you started—” a bitter laugh tore from their throat. “Of course, you weren’t even aware.”  

What? Weren’t aware of what exactly? Had it started before then? Sure, the deal had probably been what caused it, but no signs or anything had happened prior to that night. Had they? Or well, maybe Loki had known something he hadn’t and—  

“ You  didn’t project your nightmares that night, Stark. As brilliant a mind you may have, it would have required a mastery of Sedir to have even created a possibility for the link in the first place. Let alone letting one take root so firmly.”  

Oh. Oh, he did not like where this was going. “Bambi, this did start because of the deal, didn’t it?”  

“An unintended consequence was the barest threat of this, yes.” They wavered for a moment, hands moving as if to hide themself again. Instead, they forcibly dropped them and tilted their head up. Suddenly, despite sitting on his ratty couch in the lab, and being in their current state, they projected all the regal airs of someone with authority. “This is of course, only what I know and further research would have to be done. But you deserve to know as much as I about what has afflicted us.”  

“Aw, you say afflicted as if it’s only been awful, I’m not so bad you know Reindeer Games.”  

“Stark.”  

“Right, sorry.”  

Despite the reprimand though, there was a hint of a smirk on their scarred lips. “One can only listen to so many complaints about board members intelligence.”  

He did his best to look offended for a moment before remembering and opting to totally not pout where he leaned against the workbench. “As if you were any better with your advisors.”  

“Anyway.” God, he had missed that banter over the last hour. “The deal that we made was only meant to do as we stated to each other, I assure you. No lies or trickery there—”  

“I know.”  

Confusion flickered briefly across their face again, and something about it cut deep at his heart. Because he did know. Maybe not in the moment of making it at the time, but over the past couple months it had become obvious. Despite what little they said, it was glaringly obvious that they had been hurt one too many times, and that deal had been as much about protecting themself as acquiring a genuine ally.  

“Yes, well, regardless of intentions, the deal was still an ancient practice that had the possibility of side effects given its, uh, original purpose. Though it has been adapted many times outside of that and is often used for far shorter and simpler arrangements, or between close friends. All without consequences of note. That was why I didn’t foresee anything more coming of it.”  

They had not been close friends, nor had there been a time limit placed on their deal. “What exactly was this original purpose?”  

“Joining two people and their respective houses together, generally until death, so they could live long happy lives.” Their tone was innocent enough, and their expression blank.   

But the careful wording said it all.   

“Please tell me we aren’t actually married by anyone’s standards.”  

“The wording was changed enough to leave that part out, Anthony.” The bastard was still smirking though.  

“You didn’t think to tell me this sooner because?”  

“It seemed unimportant at the time—”  

“How is that unimportant?” His voice did not go up an octave at that, it didn’t.  

“—as you had already agreed, and as I stated, this particular bond has been adapted into less formal or binding variations over the millennia.”  

“Why would anyone even need this?”  

“Arrangements during times of wars or feuds, often to end said war, might leave either party particularly bitter towards the other. The bond keeps it from reaching the extremes that might start yet another feud. There are of course, other ways of getting out of such arrangements, but nevertheless, here we are.”  

“There is so much wrong with everything you just said.”  

“You asked, and once again, we aren’t actually married so you can quit worrying about that,” they scowled, “Really I insist, you’re projecting that fear quite loudly. I would take offence if I thought you conscious of it. Do you really think it would be that bad?”  

Pointedly not thinking about or answering that question—because what the hell kind of question was that even really, they were friends and okay sure maybe—no damn it, not thinking about it—he opted to change tracks, “Okay, so what exactly does that have to do with this?” He waved his hands between them and grimaced when he remembered. Again.  

“There is, among Sedir users who have taken the bond, always a chance that something...more will come of it. A further bond forming between the participants. One wherein if they are well matched for each other a mental link may form in order to further know how to help and keep the other from harm. Well-matched here meaning a like mind and does occur between friends and nothing more before you start panicking about that as well. It grows the more its used and the more...trust exists between the users.”  

“So there was no way of knowing it would form,” he nodded to himself, “Just a lottery there, take the bond and poof, surprise! Well, if one of you uses Sedir that is.”  

“That.....is not the whole of it actually.” They were tense again, and a wary edge laced their words. Swallowing, their hands clasped white-knuckled in their lap, they actually looked down—or at least tilted their head away. “First, the bond does not require  only  one person with the potential to use Sedir to form. A master of it however has the potential to expedite the process as it were. Otherwise, we would have needed to spend a lot more time around each other before it even found a way to take root.”  

“Okay back up, what do you mean only there? In case you haven’t noticed Prancer, I can’t do magic.”  

“And yet there are four souls in this very room that would disagree.” They said it so matter-of-factly that he couldn’t reply.  

J had no such problem however, “Thank you, Loki.”  

“Of course, Spirit,” they always said it like an honorific, and that warmed something in him.  

Right, the bond. Magic. Him.   

Well. He could process that later. “You said that was the first thing?”  

“Ah, I admit, I rather hoped you wouldn’t notice.”  

“You promised honesty here, not me.”  

“Yes, well. The second thing, and this is where the speculation on my part comes in, because I have very little proof of it happening quite this fast in the past, is that the bond is ignited by a particular event. Distress on one end and,” they turned away again, “And the one in distress reaching out.”  

“Alright, you’ve lost me. You said that I didn’t cause this, yet I was the one—”  

“You were not the only one affected by the night’s conversation, Stark.”  

Oh.  

Oh shit.  

“Loki—”  

“Do not finish that sentence or question. You’re smart enough to already know the answer and I do not need nor want your pity. Smart enough to have broken through the blocks I’d rather hoped would prevent this particular situation.”  

Because it wasn’t his nightmares that night. None of the particularly vivid ones had been. And that’s why he knew too much about what things he’d never seen looked like.  

And why he’d been dropped into a dreamless night's rest with no memories until he pushed.  

He swallowed the rest of his words and once again, they settled into silence. The only sounds were the bots whirring as they moved throughout the lab, and their own breathing, as they both processed where exactly to go from here for what felt like hours. They didn’t reprimand him for how loud his current thoughts must be.  

Loki had projected and been so distressed by their own memories and had reached out for him, of all people, in that distress that it had created this. They’d likely done it unknowingly of course. He’d been the one they’d been talking to about it, the only other one to know. And of course, no one else knew about them at all. Except for him. Because they trusted him, their enemy—  

—except not really because he’d known something was off and had been the only one and had tried to defend them so okay maybe they did have grounds for thinking that but  come on !  

This was all too much.  

God, how alone were they?   

They both flinched at the thought.  

He had his own little mismatched family that he’d fought for to keep him from spiraling, but—  

“My vision is returning,” they cut the silence as they stood for the first time since arriving. That regal air returning to them at the same time the glowing green of their Sedir sparked to life around their hands.  

Right, their vision, the spell, the reason they’d come in the first place. “Guess J was right then, we only needed to wait.”  

“Thank you for your vote of confidence Sir.”  

“Hey, I wasn’t the one that doubted you!” He shot at the nearest camera, before turning back to Loki, “You never explained that by the way. The whole reason for this.”  

“I told you, there was a spell. I foolishly attempted it, thinking the person who recorded it had to have had some base level competency, but alas, here we are.” Finishing with a flourish of their hands, their appearance shifted back to the one he’d grown accustomed to. The one the that hid all the scars and weight. As if nothing was wrong in the first place. Done so perfectly that even knowing, he couldn’t find the lie or flaw and yeah that was really impressive, and he should stop staring because it was distracting his thoughts.  

“Yeah, but you didn’t...” he let the words trail off at the sharp look they sent. They’d already revealed enough, he wasn’t good with emotions, and that was opening a whole new can of worms he probably would need to spend another few hours trying to process. Let them keep this secret with the others, he didn’t need to know. “Right. Well, uhhh...”  

“I should return, I’ve already imposed on you enough.”  

“Hey, don’t leave on my account! I think we could both use a drink after all that.”  

They tilted their head, the smirk already appearing on their lips, and a familiar light and challenge—seeing it settled the last of his worries over this—alight in their green eyes. “You know you don’t have to keep buying my company with alcohol, Stark. Unless of course, this is your attempts to seduce me.”  

He scoffed, a hand to his chest in offense, “Please, if I wanted to seduce you Bambi, I wouldn’t need any help.”  

“Is that so?” They took a step forward, crowding him against the workbench. “That confident in your own skills?”  

“Of course. I didn’t get the playboy part of my moniker for nothing you know.”  

“And yet you’ve seemed so distracted from keeping that up these past months. Though I can’t seem to fathom why. You are by all accounts unattached, are you not? Does make one curious, Anthony. Perhaps you’ve lost your touch.”  

“I haven’t lost anything, I assure you.” They were standing very close now, he had to tilt his head to meet their eye.  

“Of course not, how foolish of me to even entertain such a notion. So you are not trying to ply me with alcohol then?”  

“Merely being friendly Prancer. You’re the one that bound me with a marriage oath remember.”  

“Hm,” they rolled their eyes and stepped away. “And I already corrected you on the notion that’s all its used for. You’re hardly bound, not yet anyway,” he had not imagined that leer had he. “So please, don’t stop on my account.”  

“I’m not stopping on anyone’s account! I’ve just been busy, when would I ever meet anyone else anyway?” Why was he defending his love life now—oh. Distracting him from more questions. Clever. And effective. That should not be that attractive.  

Shit don’t let that have gone through. Wait he hadn’t gotten an answer on if it was only distress. Maybe they couldn’t hear anything else, maybe it was only strong emotions—  

“Whatever you have to tell yourself.” They winked. “But regardless, I really can’t stay, this has taken too long as it were anyway, and someone may notice my absence soon.” Odin’s absence. “But I’ll return when I can to properly teach you to shield your  loud  thoughts.” Right. Because they had responsibilities and he should really finish this new project but—  

But he didn’t really want them to go.  

Still, he kept that to himself, or at least as to himself as he could inside his own head now.  

Their Sedir was already shimmering again, and he made an aborted step forward. “Loki—hey. You’re...you’re not alone, okay?”  

For a moment, they stood there staring at each other, searching the other’s face for something before finally they gave a half nod. And then they disappeared, because there was nothing else for either to say. But also, everything.  

He still had a million questions, but they could wait. Would have to wait.   

As should the growing concern he had over just why they had ended up in that state in the first place and everything they’d be up against. That he’d sworn to be up against with Loki at his side. Or maybe he’d sworn to be at their side?  

But maybe there was something he could do now.  

“J?”  

“Yes Sir?”  

“Exactly how bad of shape are they in?”  

“Why Sir, are you asking if I was monitoring their health without either of your knowledge? I believe that would be morally wrong and an invasion of privacy as you have informed me in the past.”  

“That bad huh?”  

JARVIS hesitated for a moment, before holograms and data about Loki appeared before him. “I believe that they have been straining their Sedir too much to properly heal as they should. The damage is quite extensive and at no point during the Incident as you have termed it, did they reach quite the same state as now.”  

“Right, that’s what I feared. Alright, new project to start: Get Loki to Safety.”  

“Very good Sir, though I think the title will need work.”  

He smiled, but then hesitated for a moment, starring at all the information before him. “J? I think we need to start bringing the others into this. I don’t know how yet, because we’re not ready for anyone to know about them, but. Well, I have a feeling we’ll need all the help we can get here.”  

“Very well Sir.”  

Chapter Text

He was going to kill the idiots three.   

Well, not  the  Idiots Three. They were causing other people—read, Loki—problems somewhere else in the universe. And dispatching of them would draw suspicion of the Thor variety which they had been doing so well to avoid. At least they were being useful, whether they knew it or not.  

His idiots three on the other hand….they consisted of Captain Righteous, a slippery little spider, a new birdbrain, and a massive headache for anyone even remotely near the fallout. So yes, he was going to kill them. Anyone with the authority to arrest him might just cheer him on anyway. Or help him.  

“What was she thinking?” It’s not the first time Clint’s asked it in the past couple weeks, it likely won’t be the last.  

“I’ll stop you right there Katniss, she wasn’t.” He dropped onto the couch beside him, already taking the proffered bottle.  

Okay so maybe he’d give Clint first shot at them. He’d been right beside himself and Hill through the entire fallout, scrambling to get friends and colleagues to safety—colleagues who finally seemed to forgive him or at least stop looking at him like a pariah after the Incident—or being witness to…yeah. He deserved first shot. Maybe with one of the new arrows—arrows of all things! He was the futurist of the twenty-first century, making arrows! And damnit they were going to be the most advanced arrows he or anyone else ever could manage.  

It had stung a little to learn he had a family from the man going deathly pale and quiet upon hearing about the data dump, but considering that the only people he’d told beforehand were either dead or had been the one to release everything? Yeah, he’d gotten over it pretty quickly. Especially when they were all now holed up at the tower, in secret of course. Without knowing who had accessed what, they couldn’t be sure the house was safe. At least no one else could access them  now . And they had eyes on a farm anyway, so this was just a good shove in that direction really. Currently, he’d take it as an honor to be one of three people not a blood part of the family to know.  

An honor only surpassed by having been declared Uncle Tony a week into their stay. No, he had not cried, J, if you tell anyone that you’re getting donated to the smallest airport he can find.  

The only reason they’d been able to even act as fast as they had was because he’d already been monitoring SHIELD because of the scepter and Loki—who had been an immense, if secret, help to getting as many people as they had out. Though, he knew it had put an immense strain on the recovery he’d been subtly trying to help with through J’s help. Of course, it might have been because of that very distraction that he hadn’t realized what was happening until too late...no. Blaming himself for  this  mess was too much for even him, self-destructive tendencies or no. He’d been nowhere near the fallout or the others to even know, Loki or no. And it had given him the warning of SHIELDRA needing to be watched.  

This whole thing had put his other plans on hold for the past...fuck had it been a month already?   

He scrubbed a hand down his face. “I need a vacation.”  

Clint snorted. “Do you even know how to do that anymore?”  

“Hey!”  

“Just saying, since we’ve met, I’m pretty sure the closest thing I’ve seen you take to a vacation is the weekly disappearances up here where I know you aren’t sleeping.”  

“Spying on me know, Merida?”  

“Please,” he rolled his eyes, already having downed half his bottle. “You’re not nearly as subtle as you think you are when you come out with that dopey look on your face. Never pegged you for the long-distance type to be honest.”  

“What?” Dopey look...? He’d been called many things but that was—no. Sure he enjoyed those particular nights spent talking with Loki, even if they were on less than pleasant things but that was nothing. Even with this bond between them, they were friends. He’d only just broken up with Pepper—oh was that near a year ago now? But anyway, he wasn’t looking for anything else—  

“—hell knows you don’t have to tell me anything. But I’m happy for you man. Anyway, what were we talking about?” He’d missed what had been said prior to that in his spiraling thoughts. “Right, you and vacations. I’m not sure you’ve taken any before we met since...” whatever was coming died with a wince. “Well anyway, we all had you pegged for a workaholic.”  

“We?”  

“SHIELD, or well us agents,” he said with a shrug. “We all saw the reports.”  

He snorted at that, “Riiiight, yeah I saw that too. Textbook narcissism, and doesn’t play well with others, Iron Man: Yes, Tony Stark: Not Recommended.”  

Clint frowned and fixed him with a weird look, “What are you talking about?”  

It was his turn to turn a critical eye on the other. “The report you meant, Romanoff’s psych eval?”  

He was still frowning. “She wrote an eval on you? Natasha?”  

“You never saw it?”  

“No. I mean, it’s not like I hadn’t heard her opinions on you before, but I never—when was she close enough to even do a report? I thought she would—never mind. Clearly I didn’t know her as well as I hoped anyway. You don’t really believe any of that bs do you?”  

He waved his hand and made a dismissive noise, but  thankfully  he seemed to have more to say that wasn’t about him.  

“Can’t be trusted. Apparently, nothing can be. She knew about them; the kids call her Auntie Nat and she...fuck man, the baby was going to be named after her and I don’t—we trusted her. Laura trusted her.” Okay so maybe this wasn’t a more ideal topic.   

“Don’t beat yourself up too much over it. Maybe she was just as taken in by Rogers as everyone else was?” Though he didn’t really believe that. Not after the Senate hearing anyway, but he wasn’t going to split up the spy twins when he’d watched the way everyone else but Natashlie had turned their back on Clint. Her own choices though...well that was another matter.  

“Yeah maybe.”  

The elevator dinged behind them, followed by, “I’m going to kill him.”  

Okay so maybe Maria would have a shot at them before him as well. “Ah the lovely Ms. Hill, what has Boy Wonder done now?” He asked before taking a long drink.  

The familiar click of heels on the floor gave away the fact she wasn’t alone before Pepper spoke, “Did you know Fury was using SI funds?”  

He choked on the beer, turning to face both of them, “What?”  

Maria winced, “It was an account set up well before you took over the company. I wasn’t aware that you didn’t know until about an hour ago.”   

Pepper scowled at that, and he noticed that they weren’t standing as close as they usually did. Trouble in paradise then?  

“I swear if I had, I would have mentioned something as soon as this mess started.” He believed that at least, anything sooner though, well. SHIELDRA had shown their hands before, and she had been part of it before this.  

The idea of Howard having set up funds...well that wasn’t unexpected, especially given how much of his stuff they’d had. Still, something about that didn’t sit well. Especially since he couldn’t  find  some of the files on Howard and SI.  

“It was an incredibly well hidden trail, and I’m sorry I didn’t notice anything sooner, Tony.”  

He waved off Pepper’s concerns. “Not like I noticed either. Though if they had asked earlier, I might have—hell I was funding several of their projects anyway.” That did upset him. “This is great and all, but what does this have to do with Rogers anyway?”  

“Those funds got put into the Avengers Initiative after Loki’s Invasion—”  

“I thought we agreed to call it the Incident?”  

“And thus, were what we used for the missions, gear, and any other related expenses,” Maria continued as if he hadn’t interrupted.  

“I was still personally paying for most of that if I remember correctly. Specifically the relief efforts.”  

“Yes. You were,” Pepper’s voice was icy, matching the glare she leveled on Hill.   

He finished his beer. Yeah, he was  definitely  staying out of that.  

With a defeated sigh, the former second-in-command of SHIELD sank into the chair opposite the couch he and Clint still occupied with her head in her hands. “I didn’t know, okay? That’s not an excuse I know, but I have no other defense.”  

“This is great and all, but this still doesn’t tell me why you want Rogers dead and not the Pirate.”  

“The funds are still being used. Or were until an hour ago,” Pepper said taking the other chair. “The reason they haven’t been here or helping.”  

“They’ve been going on their own missions for the past month outside of the country, apparently to take down Hydra bases.”  

Clint cursed under his breath. “They didn’t even tell us?”  

Iron Man: Yes, Tony Stark: Not Recommended.  

But Clint?  

Was it because of how close he’d gotten to him?  

He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Well, at least we know they haven’t just been disrespecting the US’s government.”  

They all glared at him.  

“What do you want me to say? We’re cutting funding for the small scale missions? That much was obvious, but the Avengers are supposed to be used for world ending type events, and that’s still—”  

“Tony. You can’t be suggesting that we still fund them?” Pepper was pinching the bridge of her nose.  

“Not for this kind of thing but—”  

“Tony!”  

“Pep, please. I know what’s coming. I’ve seen it, you know this. The Chitauri weren’t the worst things out there there’s something behind them.”  

Maria frowned. “I thought Loki was—”  

“Not behind it.” Hopefully nobody registered how sharply that had come out. “I’ve run the scenario countless times, and the planning doesn’t add up plus there’s,” he side-eyed Clint for a moment, “the eyes.”  

“The eyes?”  

“Loki was mind controlled. Like me.”  

He sucked in a breath and turned to him. “I thought you didn’t—”  

“I’ve had time to process, and things were—are still hazy about it, but there were odd moments where they seemed to...not be in control. They’d have arguments and seemed to be in constant pain or fear.” He let out a shaky breath, not quite looking at anyone. “I think we actually got off easy you know.”  

Silence settled around everyone, and he stood to grab another beer for him.  

“Right, so,” Maria finally spoke, “There’s something even worse out there and you want to keep the Avengers at hand for that?”  

“Yes, but we’ll need more than them. We barely won against a fraction of what’s coming, so yes. We still need them and more, and before you ask, yes, I have ideas of who to ask, you weren’t the only ones keeping tabs on the world. I know about the school and Reed, impossible not to know about  that  one, and the couple right here in our own backyard.”  

Pepper still had that pinched look but both Clint and Maria looked thoughtful so that was progress at least.  

“We still need to address this problem though. It’ll do nothing good for us if Captain  America  is causing damages elsewhere on unsanctioned missions. If he hasn’t already. What the hell is he even thinking doing that though?”  

“Sir, you have another guest arriving.”  

“Is James back already?” Pepper asked as the elevator pinged.   

But that couldn’t be right, Rhodey had another week before he was scheduled to return. And Happy was still busy getting all his new ex-SHIELD employees settled. Harley was the only other person with elevator access, not that he would be in town unless it was a surprise visit.  

So no, it was no one he expected, and he certainly didn’t expect someone he didn’t recognize to step out. Red hair—longer and curlier than Pep’s—pulled back into a loose ponytail, framing a face that certainly seemed familiar enough, while they were dressed in a long black coat and heels. Even if he couldn’t place them there was no denying that they were attractive with the  familiar  confident air surrounding them. They blinked at the gathered crowd, before smiling and locking eyes with him.  

“Uh...”  

“Apologies, I didn’t mean to intrude when you had other guests, if I had known...you must all be Anthony’s friends?”  

Anthony?  

“Who are you?” Clint asked, staring them down.   

“And how do you have access up here?” Pepper was frowning again, not her upset one though, more the trying to puzzle something out, and Maria was looking rapidly between him and them.  

“Sir, Lucca said it was rather important that they speak to you.”  

Mentally, he face-palmed, because for fuck’s sake Tony, who else could it have been? But then, in his defense, Loki had never used the elevator, or shown up looking like that, or around  other people .  

“Right yes, sorry,” he bounced out of his seat and towards them, just now registering that in the heels they were taller than normal, and he actually had to tilt his head up to look. “Everyone this is Lucca, Lucca this is...everyone. Now why couldn’t you send a message?”  

“I’m hurt Anthony, can I not also want to see you? But aren’t you going to give me a proper introduction of your...everyone?” They were smiling as they turned to look back towards the couch.  

He squinted. What could they be getting at here? It was part of their deal that they remain a secret, and now here they were, purposely showing up while he was with friends, trying to get an introduction.  

“Fine, Lucca, this is Pepper Potts, Clint Barton, and Maria Hill. Now—”  

“Lucca what exactly? No last name?” Clint asked, now eying both of them suspiciously.  

“Silver.” They said simultaneously, before glancing at each other.  

It was the name they’d agreed on—Lucca Silver—when they’d started helping with the SHIELDRA fallout, because Loki needed to be able to appear in some situations and it was easier to have a name to attach to a face. Of course, it would have been nice to have had a heads up as to how they would appear but...well he may not have considered ever actually needing to see that disguise.  

“Lucca Silver.” Clint was still staring them down, but the two of them arguably had the best poker faces in the world after having spent most of their lives under scrutiny.  

“Tony, why didn’t you tell me?” Pepper spoke as she moved to shake hands.  

“Tell you what?”  

“This is who you’ve been spending so much time talking to right? When you’ve disappeared up here for hours?”  

“What? I mean yes, but Pep, it’s not like that!”  

“You don’t have to hide it from me, you know I’m happy for you.”  

“It’s not!”  

“You’ve been helping after the fall of SHIELD, right? Several of my agents mentioned you, though I didn’t realize you were close to Stark.” Maria stood to offer her hand as well, thankfully, interrupting that.  

“Yes, well, Anthony and I have been working on a project together. Which is what I came to talk about.”  

“And again, you couldn’t send a message?” This was dangerous, and they had the whole mental link to use instead.   

So why the risk Loki?  

Things are changing Anthony.  

What?  

“Another one was found.”  

Another—oh.  

Oh no.  

Panic bubbled quickly, flashes of the Chitauri and Thanos and the Mind Stone. “What? Which? Where? How? God, is it safe, who—does he have it? What are we—”  

“Calm down,” their hand rested on his shoulder as they said this, and a now familiar warmth of Sedir came from it, pushing back the panic. “I am monitoring the situation at this time, but as you can see, the situation has changed. We need to work quickly and,” they hesitated, eyes darting from him to the now curious group, “We need allies now more than ever perhaps.”  

“So you showed up here to introduce yourself.”  

“Can someone explain just what the hell you two are talking about?”  

Turning, the concern on Pepper’s face was obvious, as were the critical and assessing looks that both former SHIELD agents sported. Well, he had already made plans to get them involved and they had been discussing this just before—  

Oh sonofa—  

Watch it.  

Right.  

“The project. Saving the world from the Chitauri’s true leader and all that. We’ve been working together to find allies and build up defenses and—” Clint’s eyes were narrowed now, there was no way he didn’t know. “Anyway, it looks like one of those er, projects, is moving faster than we initially planned sooo—”  

“So, I thought it was finally time to reveal my hand in all this. Especially as the situation with SHIELD has already drawn me into the fray of helping more.” They bowed. “And it is probably time we explain—”  

“Wait. If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this right.” He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as he stepped towards the kitchen. “We need more alcohol to deal with this and if we’re going to tell them, we need to tell all of them. J, inform Happy he’s needed up here, and see if you can get Rhodey on the line.”  

“Very well Sir.”  

“Tony, you’re not making much sense right now.”  

“I promise, we’ll explain every—well, everything necessary to understand,” he amended, catching the warning look from Loki. “There’s a lot to explain.  

Happy arrived quickly, and he arranged them in front of the screen for the call with Rhodey. Pepper and Maria stayed in their separate chairs, with Happy standing beside Pepper’s. On the couch, he put himself between Clint, who kept glancing between them, and Loki just to be safe.  

“Are we missing anyone? No, alright, well, where do we start?”  

“The beginning would be nice Tones.”  

“Right, yeah. So, what did SHIELD actually know about the Tesseract before they started prodding at it?”  

Chapter Text

“Sir, I’ve located the scepter.”  

For a moment he just stares down at the tablet he was finishing for Pepper. Then the words register.  

Holy shit.  

“Where?”  

“Hydra base in Sokovia. Files indicate they may have been using it for human experimentation.”  

“Enhanced?”   

“That does appear to be what they were attempting. Some of these files are missing from the data dump though, I do believe that’s why it has taken so long to track it down.”  

“Don’t beat yourself up too much buddy.” He spins in his chair to pull up the hologram of what J’s referring to. It doesn’t look like too big of a base, nothing worse than what they’ve been taking on. Maybe he could go alone? Between him and Loki—no.  

No Loki still needed to recover, though he wouldn’t actually say that to him. Not if he wanted to live. If he asked, it was because of the business with the Power Stone. That situation needed to be watched very carefully and he was in the best position to.   

And if they have enhanced...  

Shit.  

This isn’t a world ending event but, well last time they had dealt with any stones it had been. Best to be careful and have people who at least knew how to handle the thing. Or at least knew what it was capable of.  

Even if this was going to be its own kind of personal hell.  

“J, contact the Avengers.”  

“Sir?”  

“I know, I know. But we don’t know what we’ll be facing. And I doubt this’ll be as easy to take down as anything else. Maybe it’ll do the image good you know? Team bonding and all that.”  

“I must state that I don’t believe this will be a good idea. But I see the merit to it. Still, Ms Potts will not be happy.”  

He winced and rubbed the back of his neck. “She’s still hunting down all those funds, isn’t she?”  

“Of course, Sir.”  

“We don’t have any other options at the moment though. The New York group is a bit too tied up at the moment, and we can all agree that Jessica doesn’t need to be near any more mind-fuckery at the moment. And I’d rather not see what effects that thing could have on Xavier or his bunch. And Reed—”  

“I am not disagreeing with your assessment Sir, merely providing the excuse to say I told you so if this goes wrong.”  

“The sass!”  

“As you made me. However, given how long it took to track down, I do believe it imperative that we act quickly. The so-called Avengers have all been notified of this development...including Thor.”  

That made him pause from where he was already preparing to suit up. “Thor?”  

“He was on planet to visit with Miss Foster and Miss Lewis. He will be the most capable of transporting the stone to Asgard without drawing the other’s suspicions.”  

“Right, right of course. You’re right J.”  

“Of course, Sir.”  

“Don’t sound so smug. Quinjet ready?”  

>>>  

They all fight well together. Maybe that’s why he’s not ready to give up on them yet. Though, when did the whole Natashalie/Bruce thing—nope. Not thinking about that. He’d been busy and they were grown adults. He could be happy for them for the moment.  

And at least Clint seemed to be happy to be on speaking terms with her again.  

But seriously Cap, language? Wasn’t he in the army? You’d think he would’ve heard worse—  

Right. The possible Enhanced weren’t so theoretical anymore apparently.   

At least they got Clint out of there, hopefully in time. Laura would kill him otherwise. After she brought Clint back to kill him again.  

Now for what they came for though. But this wasn’t right for what he’d seen outside.  

“Hey J, give me an IR scan of room real quick.”  

“The wall to your left. I’m reading steel reinforcement...and an air current.”  

Air current? “Please be a secret door. Please be a secret door. Please be a secret door.” He pushed and it opened! “Yay!” And right behind the secret door was—  

No.  

Nonononono this wasn’t right. Why was everything red? What was—  

He blinked and shook it away and then immediately regretted it.  

Everything around him was death and destruction and broken and the Chitauri were back. They were back and everywhere. And he was alone among all this because the team—god the team was all dead and dying with everyone else. Their weapons all lay broken, and no! No he had worked to make sure that wouldn’t happen! Couldn’t happen!  

And Pepper and Rhodey—  

He was going to be sick.  

Someone—Rogers grabbed him. “You could have saved us. Why didn’t you do more?”  

He was alone in the room in the Hydra base.  

His head hurt.  

And there was a red tinge to everything.  

.  

Stark?  

.  

“Stark? Hey Stark!”  

He blinks, registering Natasha staring at him, frowning.  

When did they get back to the Quinjet?  

“I’m sorry what was that?”  

She huffs and rolls her eyes, “I said we need to get back quickly. Is that thing contained?”  

Why was he holding the scepter? He shouldn’t--no one should be handling it. It needed...he needed...  

Why did everything hurt?  

“Yeah. I’ve got it covered.”  

.  

“Banner and I will give it the once over before it goes back to Asgard. Is that cool with you?”  

Did he say that?  

Are they back in the tower?  

Did J install red lights for some reason?  

The words don’t come through when he tries to ask.  

.  

He’s so tired.  

Maybe he should sleep. Someone keeps telling him to do that don’t they?  

But he needs to do something. Something important. Or else everyone will be in danger, and he can’t let that happen.  

And it’s nice working with Bruce again. Why did they stop working together like this?  

Come to think of it, why hasn’t he been around the rest of the team much? He needs to protect them.  

.  

Clint has him cornered and he hears his own voice distantly saying “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”   

“Don’t bullshit me Stark, somethings not right in that head of yours.”  

“Sure you’re not projecting Birdbrain?” He wants to take the words back, he hasn’t even said them, not willingly at least, and the hurt expression that flickers across his face—   

“I’ll tell  him  you know.”   

Him? Who’s him?  

.  

Stark you’ve been awfully quiet.  

.  

Anthony?  

.  

“Sir, are you alright?”  

“Of course, J.” No, no he doesn’t think he is. Something’s wrong, very wrong but he can’t think of what. Can’t be that bad right? Yeah, it’s probably nothing. Probably just forgot a date with...with Pepper? That doesn’t sound right. “Just keep watch here. Got a party to get to you know.”  

A party? Weren’t they on a mission? Why is he going to a party?  

Is that why there’s red lights? Is he in a club? He hadn’t been to one in such a long time. Better enjoy himself.  

.  

“I had to kill the other guy.”  

He blinks at the suit that’s acting up. There are more words being said—he might be saying them for all he’s aware—but something about this is very wrong. So very wrong.  

The other guy....?  

Who else would have been in the tower?  

He’s in the tower. He’s in the tower with the Avengers. There was a mission. And...and...  

Why does everything  hurt ?  

Why isn’t JARVIS responding?  

He needs to think!  

Why can’t he think?  

Something’s wrong with JARVIS! He’s not responding! He’s nonononono that can’t be right.   

Ultron—Ultron wasn’t supposed to exist. They scrapped that plan for now didn’t they?   

Didn’t they?  

Who’s they?  

Focus Stark! Something’s wrong with you.  

Something’s wrong.  

Something’s wrong.  

.  

There’s a hand around his neck and he can’t breath and it’s so damn familiar with blue eyes starring him down, but this hand is squeezing and there’s no flicker of green in the eyes and he can’t—he can’t—  

“I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark.”  

“Thor! What are you—put him down!”  

Thor. Thor is choking him. His teammate. What’s happening? Why is Thor going to kill him? What did he do what did he do what did he do—  

He can’t—can’t—  

“He didn’t do it! You’re going to kill him! Loki!”  

Black and red are bleeding together.  

There’s a bright flash of green and the red is gone for a moment.  

For a moment it’s just concerned green eyes staring down at him—when did he end up on the ground—and there might be shouting and—  

And everything goes black.  

Chapter Text

Everything was going well. 

Or as well to be expected, considering what everything was. Of course, he was slowly losing his patience—and sanity if any remained—while dealing with the political disaster that was Asgard’s relations to any of the other Realms. And one of the Infinity Stones was being protected by a group of criminals trying their best to outwit Ronan the Accuser. And Midgard was...well, at least that situation was getting better. 

Oh, and couldn’t forget the ever-present threat of the Mad Titan with a specific grudge against him. 

So, all in all, it was going as well as it could be. 

Stark’s allies were a definite plus to the plan, because like it or not, there would be no avoiding a confrontation on Midgard eventually. Not with the number of stones still there. But if they had a solid plan of defense there... 

Pain sparked through his head. 

“My King, are you alright?” 

He grit his teeth and glared at the guard, dropping his hands from massaging his temples. “Leave me.” 

They bowed before quickly hurrying off. As soon as the doors to the throne room closed, he reverted back to his own Aesir form, dropping the guise of Odin. 

But the lessened strain on his Sedir did little to ease the pain. 

Soon enough everything would be in place here that he could wake Odin up and leave. Or have Thor crowned king first. Still needed to decide on that, but as soon as he did, he’d actually have time to rest and focus on the other parts of the arrangement. 

Like tracking down all the stones and making sure they were safe beyond knowing their general location. 

And have less of these constant strains. 

Still, this pain was...odd. 

None of his wards had been activated, and no one was trying to scry on him. The guise shouldn’t have been causing that much of a strain either. 

Pain flared again. 

The bond. 

Stark? 

Was he trying to reach out again? That shouldn’t have cause that much of a strain though, should it? 

Then again, this bond was unusual as it was, and Anthony was...a fascinating complication in all of this. The man shouldn’t have even been able to communicate the other way with it at all. And yet, here he was. Breaking all expectations. 

He smiled at the thought of his genius mortal— 

His? 

Now that was a dangerous thought— 

Something tripped the ward heading towards the throne room, and the guise stepped back into place. 

“Your Highness, the ambassadors from Alfheim have arrived for the negotiations.” 

Norns, that was fast. Best to get this over with quickly then. 

>>> 

More meetings, more talking in circles. If he could just act as himself in these situations, how much faster would everything get done? 

He collapsed into the bed, his actual bed, warded beyond what was probably reasonable so no one realized he was here rather than the King’s chambers. 

But no, one wrong step and one person getting suspicious at the wrong time, and everything would be up in smoke. And at least Alfheim was one of the easier delegations to deal with. It helped that he had a more intricate knowledge of their culture from his time spent studying there. 

He really should visit again, it had been far too long. 

Maybe when everything was done and he survived—if he survived—he'd take a long vacation there. He deserved it after all. Him and Anthony both. 

Speaking of. 

Stark, you’ve been awfully quiet. 

No response. 

Now that was unusual. Even if he was submerged in an inventing binge, his thoughts often bled into the bond. It was a nice distraction to listen to the whirlwind of his mind, even if he couldn’t always follow the Midgardian’s babbling on the strange technology. 

Anthony? 

He pushed harder on the bond, and— 

Pain. 

That same one from before. 

Norns, now that was wrong. 

Sedir was already wrapping around him, ready to teleport to the tower, but he stopped. 

He needed to check on Anthony, but if there was another magic user...this could be some kind of trap if anyone else had figured out this connection.  

Gritting his teeth, he pushed at the bond again, bracing for the pain. 

Knowing it's there, it’s easier to push past. Not an actual shield or block then, but a... a parasite. Coated in red. 

And there’s something else, another thread leading away from their bond, weak and almost familiar— 

Norns. 

A quick scan, and he’s standing in an empty room of the tower. 

The min—that thing is here too, but that’s not the main point of concern currently. It’s the mess of malicious magic that he can sense surrounding someone—Anthony most likely—even without being in the same room. 

It shouldn’t be possible, not with his star, and yet. 

Panic bleeds through the bond, and more pain. He can almost make out something through the thoughts. 

Focus Stark! Something’s wrong with you. 

Something’s wrong.  

There are others in the tower still, the only reason he doesn’t immediately go running up there. Thor more specifically. But he’ll need to get closer to figure out what’s happening. 

“JARVIS, can you call—” 

“Something happened to him in that base, we can’t get through to him, and we’ve been trying, but no one else is listening.” Barton is standing there, arms crossed and glaring. 

He’s not exactly keen on being left alone with the man he was forced to mind control. Even less so when he’s exposed and clearly the archer knew about him considering he was here and not looking like Lucca. Of course, he’d been aware that Barton had known almost immediately. It was why he’d avoided being left alone after the few meetings that had occurred. 

But now wasn’t the time to worry about that either. 

“When?” 

“Right after we went to get that staff,” there’s no hiding the way the other practically spits the words. “His eyes.” 

And he freezes at that, not caring if the other sees it. “They’re blue?” 

“No, they’re red. It’s harder to see unless you’re looking close, but as I said, no one other than JARVIS has noticed either.”  

“JARVIS told you to find me?” The spirit hadn’t responded to him showing up. And they were still standing in the dark. 

Barton frowned, “No, actually. He didn’t say anything about you showing up, I had just asked to know when you showed up and got the energy thing Stark uses for when you—” 

More pain and panic, he almost drops from it. 

“Loki?” 

“Something’s happening.” He grabs Barton and teleports them both into the penthouse. 

The presence of the other’s magic is there, but it’s the traces of the sto—of that thing that makes him freeze in place. It’s twisted up with the other magic but it’s still there and such a heavy presence, brushing up against his Sedir— 

“Loki!” Barton snaps his attention back to the scene in front of them, where Thor has Anthony by the neck, Barton trying to rip his hands away, and everyone frozen by the realization of his presence. 

All that matters is getting Anthony to safety. 

He rips Thor away, ignoring the shouts starting around them, as he puts his hands to Anthony’s head and begins to untangle the mess of red. He creates a shield around them to keep everyone else out as he works. 

Come on Stark, you can’t leave now. 

Come on! 

It doesn’t want to let go, and the pure malice woven into the spell turns his stomach. Whatever this is, it’s strong, only boosted by that damned stone, but he is stronger. 

He has to be. 

Finally, he pries it free, nearly collapsing from the effort. Anthony, thankfully, has passed out, but the pain he will be in come morning...well, he won’t envy that. 

But he’ll be free and alive. 

If they survive the circus that’s forming around them. 

Chapter Text

The second Anthony passes out, he redirects his Sedir into a shield around them, barely acknowledging Thor running face first into it--  

--it’s a scene he’ll replay later in his mind for comfort, when Anthony’s warning that they could be useful aren’t the only thing staying his hand from slaughter.  

“Hello again,” his grin is feral as he stands between them and his friend.  

They weren’t prepared for an attack, but that doesn’t mean they’re not armed or dangerous, evident in the stance of every one of them, save the archer, though the Colonel’s expression belays his suspicions.  

“Loki! What have you done to friend--”  

“Friend? You dare call this man a friend when mere moments ago you had your hand around his neck?” he hisses. “At least when I did it I had the decency to be his enemy!”  

Thor, predictably, lunges with Mjolnir first, though others are quick to attack as well.  

In the same moment it takes him to roll his eyes, he’s managed to teleport both himself and Anthony to the nearby couch that’s thankfully out of sight—his strained Sedir not allowing for more at the moment. Though there’s enough to conjure clones to lounge around the rest of the room.  

“As for what I did, I simply removed the compulsion that had been placed on him.” one stated, checking his nails as they all spin towards it.  

“Tell me, do you make a habit of letting your companions suffer such torture?” another asks, from the window.  

“Or are you simply that incompetent that you are incapable of noticing?” He himself asks, having used the distraction to move away from both them and Anthony.  

Barton picked one and did nothing more than twitch his eyebrow, earning a small, hopefully otherwise unnoticed nod in return.  

“I thought he was supposed to be dead.”  

“Gold star for Rogers, someone’s been paying attention to his bedtime stories.”  

The clone merely quirked an eyebrow at the oversized dinner plate thrown through him before vanishing and being reappearing in another spot.  

“And here I am, trying to help you pathetic mortals. Tell me Thor, what do you see in them?”  

“Of course, it has been rather evident that several of them have little value for lives outside of their own rather recently. I suppose it was too much to hope that you’d extend it to your teammates. How do you sleep at night?”  

“Enough of these games Loki!” Thor slammed Mjolnir on the ground, causing the building around them to shake and him to drop the clones.  

“Are you insane!” Barton yelled at the same time the Colonel said, “Do you intend to bring us all down with him?”  

Summed up his own thoughts wonderfully.  

Thor at least looked cowed by the glares from the group.  

He grit his teeth and stepped towards them, letting some of the frigid fury bleed into the air around them. “He’s right, enough of this. Stark is safe, no thanks to the vast majority of you. However, I doubt that will continue to be the case if whatever caused this destruction--” he silenced them with a wave before they could accuse him again-- “Is out there. Colonel, I believe you’re required to notify someone about this?”  

“Not until I know Tony is safe.”  

“Check for yourself,” he motioned towards the couch.  

There was a moment where it seemed the other wasn’t going to move from where he stood ready to attack, but his concern for his friend won out over his apparent concern for him.  

That or he knew.  

Good, he could either of those and healthy distrust had saved and likely would continue to save Anthony in the future. Though why he hadn’t noticed anything amiss...  

Was a question for later. As for now.  

“You’ve managed to lose my” --he swallowed the bile at claiming the Norns’ damned thing-- “scepter, right after obtaining it. Again. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes continue to disappoint me.”  

“Stark was the one playing with things he shouldn’t!” 
“Excuse you,” Rhodes spoke up, “but it was you who gave him and Bruce I should add, permission to play with the damn thing. And in case you didn’t notice, he was with the rest of us when that thing attacked his child!” 

His child.  

JARVIS hadn’t responded when he arrived nor done anything to protect Anthony when he came under harm.  

No, he couldn’t be--  

His Sedir searched for any sign of what was supposed to be there--  

There.  

The faintest trace, but a trace nonetheless.  

A hint of relief, quickly washed away in the concern of if it would be enough to last for either his own Sedir to recover from the continuous exertion this endeavor was creating, or Anthony.  

He couldn’t worry about that now though, as much as it pained him.  

Not with the black bleeding into his own vision at the moment. There was precious little more he could take of this, and he had squandered enough time playing with them.  

He would not panic in front of them however.  

His eyes zeroed in on Barton again, though his words were stated as if for all of them, cutting through any further protests. “I suggest focusing your efforts entirely on locating it again. If you are incapable, perhaps your contacts will be of more help. You do have those, don’t you? Or did you burn all of those as well? If so, Anthony should be awake shortly if you can manage to not kill each other until then.”  

The state he woke up in, however, would be impossible to tell until he did.  

And until then, his own hands were growing increasingly tied with every passing second.  

He couldn’t skywalk back to Asgard like this, couldn’t risk staying any longer here like this, couldn’t heal Anthony or track the cursed thing responsible for all this.  

His fury had been the only thing keeping him upright, but as it thawed, the only thing he could do was skywalk to the closest safe place and pray to the Norns that the fools wouldn’t do anything further to hurt Anthony or realize he was still in the same tower, before succumbing to his own blackness.