Chapter 3 - Bargains

Four days had passed since the recon at SHIELD HQ and Tony was beginning to wonder if they had all been wrong and maybe Loki wasn't going to show. Maybe he just wanted to fuck with them and scare them, maybe he was bored.

He had taken to pacing the rooms when not in the workshop, he had been working on Jarvis so that now hopefully Jarvis could alert him of Loki's pressure signature even if Loki tried to disable him. He would have liked to make it so Loki could not disable him but magic was well beyond his skills.

He finally settled down to watch mindless tv with a drink.

'He was right about it being too warm' Tony thought to himself before getting up to the fridge and grabbing some ice.

He was a few minutes into a show about housewives when he got sick and flipped channels, he paused, his hand frozen on the remote as he came across the sci fi channel. Spaceships battled and ray guns fired and he felt the familiar tightening of his chest. He closed his eyes and swallowed hard, waiting. But nothing happened. The fear was still there, the shortness of breath, but he could breathe and his mind was clear. It was just ordinary fear.

He breathed a sigh of relief and managed to coax his fingers to turn the tv off. He flipped the bird at the blank screen and went back to his drink, contemplating ordering pizza, when there was a beep from Jarvis.

'Jarvis, what was that?'

'Sir, I have picked up the signature of Loki, he will be here in seconds.'

'Feel strange at all?'

'No sir, nothing out of the ordinary.'

'I felt no need to disable your machine this time, being that you are expecting me.' Came Loki's silky voice as he appeared in front of Tony, his body shimmering with magic.

'You took your time.'

'I had better things to do.' He said non commitally.

'Right, so, the Avengers have been summoned and now we are awaiting your next move.' Tony tried not to meet his gaze, the blazing eyes burned him everytime.

'I have come with a deal for you.'

'And that is?'

'Protection.'

'I knew you were going to say that, bit off a bit more than you can chew have you?'

'You know not what you speak of Stark. If you even had but an idea of what you are up against you would not take me for a coward.'

'No one called you a coward.'

'I can see into your mind Stark, you think I am just one mistake after the other. You are wrong.'

'And you are desperate.' Tony pointed out.

'Desperate? No, caught in a corner, yes. You have not seen me desperate, pray you never do.'

'You've come to ask your mortal enemies to help you, the same people you were intent on blowing up with your glowstick last time we met.'

'I will use my resources to my every advantage. I am not too proud to recognise others talents and their use to me.' He looked down his nose at Tony before going over to the bar and yet again helping himself to a drink.

'You know that is very expensive whiskey right?'

'You are rich, are you not?'

'Yes, well.'

'So you can just buy more, for all Asgard's delicacies, their drinks are not as satisfactory as those on this planet.'

'What can I say, we have good taste.' 'Perhaps, but your food leaves little to be desired.'

'Your brother seems to like it.' It was like an electric shock ran up Loki's spine at the mention of his brother, like always.

'Thor would eat his own faeces if he was hungry enough.'

'Not a nice mental image, cheers.'

A ghost of a smile appeared on Loki's lips before it was gone and he continued to speak.

'The offer I propose to you.'

'Proposing so soon?' Tony took a slightly too large gulp of his drink, cursing his big mouth.

Loki merely glared at him for a moment before continuing.

'I offer information in exhange for your protection, I also offer my help in defeating The Other and his forces.'

'You, want to help us?'

'The enemy of my enemy is my friend, is that not how the saying goes.'

'I thought it went 'the enemy of my enemy is still my enemy and kind of crazy', or something like that. Who says we need your help?'

'The fact that you did as I ask makes it very plain. You could try to win this war on your own Stark, but it will not be as easy as taking my sceptre and closing a portal, nor will all the enemies fall so easy if their leader is destroyed. You are no match for this alone, I will help you. All I ask is for your cooperation.'

Tony was silent, no witty comeback sprang to mind.

'I need rid of The Other just as much as you do, and I cannot take him down alone, his power alone is not greater than mine, but he answers to another.'

'And who is that?'

'Thanos, probably the most deadly creature Midgard will ever cross paths with.'

'Really? I thought that was you, after two seperate attacks devastated our continent.'

'You flatter me Stark, Thanos is brilliant, deadly and unfaltering in his quest, he has more forces than all of Midgard combined I expect. His lust for power exceeds even my own and he has many, many ways of making you cooperate with him against your will.'

'You sound like you know first hand.'

'I do, for it was he who captured me, The Other was under his orders, he who tortured me-'

'They tortured you?'

Loki was taken off guard by this question and looked at Tony strangely.

'Yes, viciously.'

Tony stared blankly at Loki, trying to process this new information. After his ordeal in Afghanistan he would never wish torture or cruel captivity on anyone, not even someone as twisted as Loki.

'Why are you looking at me like that?'

'I, uh, carry on.'

Loki watched him, almost thoughtfully.

'He who gave me the sceptre and the Tesseract and my army. The Other is but his servant. This is not a battle that can be one by sheer force, it needs to be dealt with quickly and by going straight to the ones who command the armies. No doubt they will not attack all at once, they do not want your dull planet, they just want their vengance.'

'And you.'

Green eyes glowered at him.

'So why don't you high tail it to the other end of the universe? Give them a nice distraction, maybe they'll forget about us.'

'I am too self preserving,' so modest, 'and as I have said before, I do not wish to run anymore. There is nowhere left to hide, not here, not in another galaxy.'

'If you had told me, a few days ago that I would be talking to you in my apartment, bargaining to protect you, I would probably have shot you.'

'Isn't it good that I did not tell you then.'

'Still deciding that one, so far, I have not been manhandled or maimed so I guess today is a good day.'

'I am sure I can find some time to maim you inbetween plotting Thanos's demise.'

'Oh wonderful, hooray for me.'

'Sarcasm aside, do you accept my offer?'

'Here's the thing, much as you have chosen me to be your go to guy, flattered as I am, I cannot make such a call.'

'Surely your Director Fury can, I know he will be watching us right now, along with your friends.'

'He could, but he will need to talk it over, preferably, and I use the term lightly here, with you, big fella.'

'I'm not interested in conversing with your fellow Avengers or your leader.'

'Then I can't really help you, you can either speak to them, or we go back to playing cat and mouse until you decide to stop being difficult and talk, or we catch you. Seeing as you don't leave us much choice here I leave it up to you to make the call.'

Loki looked at him incredulously for a moment, he was not used to not getting his own way. He narrowed his eyes at Tony and for a minute he thought he was going to be put into a wall again, instead, Loki took a large gulp of the drink and stepped right up to him. Tony tried to keep what he hoped was a calm expression and met his gaze.

'You want me to speak to your Avengers, fine, but first, you do something for me.'

'Err that is not how a deal works, you've already made your offer.'

'I am the one making the deal here Stark, I will barter as I wish.'

It was Tony's turn to look incredulous, and then he sighed.

'Ok, what do you want?'

'Tell me what this,' he leant down and touched his fingers to the arc reactor in Tony's chest, Tony barely managed not to flinch away, 'does.'

'I'd rather not, why do you want to know.'

'I have already told you, it foiled my plan to use you against your own friends. I want to know why.'

Tony took another sip of his drink and ended up draining the glass, wincing as the liquid slid down his throat, and then tried to figure out exactly what to do.

'So, if I answer your question, you will speak to Fury?'

'Yes, you give me something, I give you something, this will be how our little game works.'

'Just an FYI, I don't like this game.'

'Good, that was the point.'

'Right, great, fantastic. So um, take a seat?'

'I'd prefer to stand.' He replied with a bored expression and straightened up, moving away, but Tony could see his eyes lighting up, son of a bitch.

'Suit yourself.'

Tony put down the glass now he could move without entering Loki's personal space.

'So, seeing as you did your homework on all of us during our brief interactions a few months back, what do you know about me?'

'I am the one asking the questions.' Loki replied coldly.

'I am trying to figure out where to start just answer it.'

'Anthony Stark, ex weapons expert and technician. Produced some of the most dangerous weapons mankind ever used. Your father died leaving you to take over the corporation very young. You are supposed to be a genius, though you have yet to prove it,' he smiled dryly at Tony, 'kidnapped by men after your weaponry, to make a weapon for them. Held in captivity until you managed to create a suit of iron and kill your captors. Once you escaped and were found, you came back and stopped creating weapons, opting instead become Iron Man and try to create clean energy. A touching tale.'

'Right, well, that was unexpected, uh huh. So...'

He looked around wishing he could get out of his predicament.

'Ok, when I was kidnapped, I was in a military vehicle that was ambushed with my own weaponry, which had been sold to them by my best friend and father figure Obadiah Stane, in the hopes they would kill me and he would get his hands on my company.' Painful images swam in his head and he wished he had another drink. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then flinched when he heard a noise behind him. A glass was pressed into his hand and he opened his eyes to see Loki standing over him with his glass filled up. More ice crawled down the glass.

'Uh, thanks, ok.'

Loki stayed silent and moved away again.

'I managed to escape the convoy and as I was staggering about I stumbled upon a bomb with my name on it, literally, Stark Industries, I was so shocked I didn't manage to get away in time as it exploded. I was flung against a rock with pain searing through my chest. The shrapnel from the bomb had gone straight through my body armour and that was it. I was going to die right there. But instead the men found me and dragged me back go their lair, realising who I was they opted not to kill me and instead use me to create a Jericho bomb for them. There was a scientist there, already captured, his name was Yinsen.' More pain, he took a shaky gulp of his drink. 'Yinsen created a magnetised piece of metal rigged up to a car battery and put it into my chest when he found that the shrapnel was making its way towards my heart. That was the only thing that kept me alive. When I recovered enough to start work I managed to find a spot where the cameras could not watch me and design a suit of armour so I could blast my way out of there, into the suit I made a small magnetised reactor to replace the car battery hook up currently keeping me alive. We then blasted our way out once they figured out what we were up to and Yinsen.' Oh god Yinsen. 'Yinsen was killed and I escaped, killing all but a few captors and flying into the desert where I was found by my friend Colonel Rhodes. When I got back to civilisation I started work on replacing my reactor with a self sustaning energy source called an arc reactor. It's why it glows blue, kinda like a non magical version of the Tesseract. I then made my suit, using the reactor in my chest to power it and start killing bad guys.'

Loki looked him over, searching his face for something and Tony closed his eyes again. He wasn't interested in the mocking gaze or burning eyes as visions of Afghanistan wheeled through his mind.

'Thank you, man of iron.' Tony looked up, raising his eyebrows in surprise. 'I will speak to your leader, I will return in a few days.'

With that he disappeared, leaving Tony confused and slightly shell shocked. That man had the worst case of bipolar he had ever seen.

'Uhhh, Fury did you get all that.'

'Yes Stark, well done, get some rest and we'll bring you in in the morning. Gather anything you need to bring with you.'

'Sure thing Director.' Jarvis, sever the connection Fury has to my cameras.

'Yes sir.'

Tony let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding and put the glass down, dropping his head into his hands. How on earth was he going to sleep now? His hand fell to his mobile in his pocket. Pepper. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose hard, trying not to feel too thankful to the creepy super villain for stopping his anxiety attacks. But it didn't stop the nightmares.

He went down to his workshop and tinkered with Jarvis's system until first light, then gathered his suits and anything else he felt he might need/want and waited for Fury.