Tony leaves soon after in a daze. He blinks back into himself when he's led back to the control room that Fury and the others are in, stumbling slightly as he steps over the threshold. It causes a jab of pain into his injured thigh.
Inside is chaos. Fury and Steve are snarling at each other while Bruce sits in a corner with his hands clamped over his ears. Natasha is trying to placate Fury with a hand on his arm, but the Director shakes her off angrily and she looks dangerously close to yelling herself. Clint is speaking lowly at Coulson, jabbing a finger into the agent's chest, something small and betrayed twisting his features.
Tony finds the wall panel that regulates the room and starts flicking the lights on and off in a kindergarten teacher's attempt to quiet the class. Everyone goes silent, but only to glare at him. Huh.
Fury is, of course, the first to break the hush that's fallen over the room.
"SHIELD didn't steal the fucking Tesseract," he growls. There's a vein pulsing in his forehead.
"Are you sure?" Steve retorts. "I seem to recall SHIELD using the Tesseract's power to create weapons before and then lying about it."
"Excuse me, do you think I have the resources to break into—"
"I think you would try—"
Tony slams his good hand down on the nearest convenient table and stares them down. Fury looks away, nostrils flaring, while Steve has the manners to look abashed.
"Look, this is probably exactly what Loki wanted. We just have to figure things out like the rational adults we are," he says bitingly. It's only a little bit sarcastic.
"We didn't steal the Tesseract," Fury repeats, sounding displeased. "I don't know what drugs Asgard has been dosed with, but SHIELD hasn't seen it since New York."
Bruce, who has finally decided to come out of his corner now that the screaming has stopped, fiddles with the silver watch on his wrist. "Wouldn't we have seen some evidence? Portals usually are accompanied by some sort of energy spike."
"Who says Earth stole it in the first place?" Tony asks. "All we really know is that Loki thinks the Tesseract is missing. Or wants us to believe that, anyway."
"And Thor," Steve says, eyes narrowed.
"Thor said so?" Tony turns to Natasha, surprised.
"Yeah," she says, her eyes flicking to Clint once before focusing back on him. "Summarized, he said basically the same thing Loki did. Tesseract missing, apparently Odin thinks that SHIELD stole it because of that whole fiasco in New Mexico, and part of Loki's sentence is to find it and return it to Asgard. Their stories matched up."
"Guess that's why they sent Thor along," Tony mutters under his breath. Raising his voice, he adds, "Of course, this is all based on the assumption that Loki and Thor are telling the truth."
"Did Thor look like he was acting under his own will?" Steve asks.
"There were no blue crazy eyes, if that's what you're asking," Natasha replies. "But he's never had a great resistance to Loki."
"That was before New York," Clint points out.
"We can't bet on the fact that Thor is trustworthy anymore." It's Fury, obviously.
"Loki doesn't have the scepter anymore," Steve argues. "Wasn't that what he was using to control people? If Thor seems lucid, then… unfortunately, he's probably telling the truth."
"So then what do you—"
Steve is cut off by a previously blank screen set into the wall that blares to life of its own accord.
"Reports are coming in of a massive blue flare before the explosion occurred. It is unknown how many survived the blast, as it is estimated that there were at least 500 deaths and counting, but paramedics are on the scene now. There is still no word on what caused this immense tragedy, though it has, without a doubt, burned the building to the ground."
The camera cuts to the wrecked shell of Stark Tower.
Tony blinks and stares, uncomprehending.
"Stark Tower," Tony says faintly. He scrubs his face with a shaking hand and grits his teeth. He can't breathe right, and sound is fading in and out, like static on a bad television. Tony is dimly aware of people muttering, exclaiming in horror. What the fucking hell? Stark Tower. Burned the building to the ground.
There's a hand on his shoulder and he lashes out blindly, nearly clipping Bruce in the face. Bruce ducks and then looks up again, an urgent expression on his face.
"Tony, you need to get it together," Bruce hisses. There's a faint green tinge to his eyes and Tony stares at him wildly, not sure what he's asking. "Breathe."
Tony's chest is heaving in uneven gasps, but he does as Bruce says and tries to slow down his frantic heartbeat. In, out. His eyes snap open, the weight of the bombing rushing back to him.
"Shit. God, shit." Jesus fucking Christ, Pepper. Was she in there today? What about Katherine Bewell, one of his managers for the lower levels? Or Jasper Tanaka, who guided all the new interns around? Stark Tower hadn't been an empty building for just himself, there was a goddamned business being run in there, and now it's burned to the ground.
Tony grabs for his phone, intending to call Pepper, but aborts the motion when he realizes that his phone is a useless piece of glass in his pocket from Thor's attack.
"I need a phone," he hears himself mutter. It feels like a dream. Time moves like molasses as he steps over to the SHIELD wall unit and punches in Pepper's number with locked fingers.
It rings, and rings, and rings. He closes his eyes and runs a shaky hand over his face.
"Hello, this—this is Potts."
He's glad his hand is covering his face so no one can see him so vulnerable. "Pepper," he breathes.
"Oh my god, Tony? You're okay, right? I saw the news, god, I didn't know if you were in there today—I was so worried, you asshole—"
"I thought—I thought you were working at Stark Tower for this week."
"No, no, I got called out to a business conference in Japan. Jesus, Tony, what happened?" She sounds shaken and he will murder whoever did this.
"I don't know. But there's—" Tony raises his head, realization dawning with black rage. "Look, Pep, I gotta go. I'm glad you're okay."
"Tony! Tony, you absolute—"
He hangs up and sprints down to Loki's cage.
Tony doesn't waste any time with bullshit security checkpoints and pushes back the stupid guards. His tower was burned to the ground; he deserves some answers.
Loki is lying down on his back, cracking his knuckles in front of him and contemplating the ceiling. He raises an eyebrow when Tony comes bursting in.
"Back so soon?"
"What the fuck did you do?" Tony hisses, marching right up to Loki's glass cage. He's so close that his breath starts to fog on the smooth surface.
"Do?"
"My tower—the tower that you attacked—has been reduced to gravel on the street and I want to know why," Tony spits. His hands are clenched into white-knuckled fists.
Loki sits up, neatly folding his legs into a cross-legged position. He looks… unsurprised. "Shouldn't you be turning to your own government for that?" he asks. It's taunting but it doesn't look like Loki believes it.
"No," Tony says shortly. "SHIELD didn't do this. There's something weird going on here and you know what it is."
Loki tips his head to the side, a considering look on his face. "Reduced to gravel, you say?"
"Gravel and the bodies of all the people working there today," Tony replies in a strained voice. He stares at Loki in confusion, white-hot rage dimming somewhat. What is he playing at?
"I do believe you know what caused this."
"I wouldn't be down here if I—" Tony starts, but then cuts himself off. Thinks. He berates himself for being so stupid, because he should have seen this coming. It seemed so familiar that it subconsciously drew him down to Loki in the first place—because the only thing powerful enough to take out his entire tower while sending off a giant blue flare in the sky is the Tesseract.
Loki is watching him, an unreadable look on his face. So he and Thor were telling the truth about it being missing, then.
"Then who. Has. The Tesseract," Tony grits out.
"That is the question, isn't it?" Loki grins a mouthful of jagged edges and for the first time Tony can see a flicker of something unguarded cross his marble features. The fear from before is crawling back into his expression, his eyes glinting with a suppressed hysteria.
"The answer is already contained within you."
Tony stares at Loki like he's insane, which he probably is. "Cont—"
Before he can finish his sentence, Tony is seized with a coughing fit that drives him to his knees. He's clutching his throat and god, he can't breathe; there are knives driving into his chest. His ribs were already messed up and this is not helping. Tony is dimly aware of Loki standing like a statue behind the glass before he's distracted. The coughs are getting worse, if that's possible, and now there's blood or something splattering the floor in front of him.
No, not blood. It's purple and slimy and now there's literally something crawling out of his throat. He's gagging and filmy violet liquid splashes on his hands and on his pants, the liquid dripping out of his nose and mouth. The thing is moving in his throat and he feels sick.
Now there is blood coming out with the purple liquid, ruby red drops mixing with indigo. There's a horrible, piercing pain in his chest, and liquid is filling up his throat and his lungs and he can't breathe.
Another spasm wracks his body and the thing comes slithering out of his mouth. It lands with a wet flop into the puddle of purple slime and blood on the floor, its iridescent, green-violet skin winking in the light. It's slimy and long with lots of legs like a centipede.
Tony stares at it for a second before turning and retching onto the floor. He hasn't eaten enough in the past 48 hours, though, and all that comes out is bile and blood. There's a guttural, moaning sound in the air and he realizes that it's him.
SHIELD agents and Avengers alike come blaring into the room. There's lots of yelling – wonderful, by the way, nice to know they cared – and a few of the SHEILD agents are dressed in what looks like HAZMAT suits. The agents won't let anyone touch him, not even Bruce, and Steve once again looks ready to persuade Fury the hard way. Tony thinks drowsily that maybe the agents have a good point though, as he did just puke out some kind of slug straight out of Alien.
Weird multicolored spots dance in his vision and he thinks absentmindedly that that's probably not a good sign. His chest feels like it's splitting open and he's gasping for breath but all that fills up his lungs is liquid. Someone is leaning over him, a dark shadow against the bare white ceiling, and when did he get on his back?
Cool fingers press on his temple and abdomen, and Tony tastes mint and icy metal before he blacks out for good.