WARNING: A bit of Homophobia in this chapter, mostly because Rogers is from the forties where all the gayness was in Berlin until the war so he kinda isn't used to that stuff. Or maybe I just want to cement the assholeyness that is Steve Rogers.
Enjoy the Chapter!
:)
-o-
Clint burst into the East Wing Common Room, which one might notice, was smaller than the West Wing Common Room, he was panting and looking panicked.
"What is it?" Wanda asked immediately, standing up.
"You guys, this is bad, super bad." Clint gasped, gesturing in the direction of the Main Common Room.
"What?" Steve pressed urgently.
"I just heard Loki talking to Strange." Clint spat both their names with disgust.
"And?" Sam asked the only one who hadn't stood up at his entrance.
"Loki has the Tesseract," Clint said furiously. Steve gaped.
"What!?"
"It gets worse." Clint insisted. "The thing that powers the Tesseract, the Infinity whatever, Strange has one too." Wanda and Steve stared in horror at Clint, Sam, however, only looked mildly anxious.
"Well, it should be fine," Sam said uncertainty lacing his words. "Stark wouldn't let them keep them if they weren't trustworthy."
"I doubt Stark would do anything against Strange." Clint snarled, "Not when they are all cozying up together." A beat of silence followed this statement.
"What's that mean?" Steve asked sounding genuinely confused. Clint rolled his eyes.
"It means that Strange and Stark are together."
"Like together together?" Steve raised an eyebrow barely believing this.
"It would make sense." mused Wanda, her eyes flashing.
"I'm still not following," Steve said, Clint rolled his eyes again.
"It means they're fucking Steve."
"But-" Steve closed his mouth, then opened it again, then closed it, doing a great expression of a gormless fish.
Out of all the things that Steve had to get accustomed to after waking up from the ice, the concept that men could be with men and ladies could be with ladies, still confused him.
"We have to do something about this." Clint was saying as Steve tried to process the information.
"Yes, we do." Steve agreed, thinking about Tony and Strange. "Strange could hurt Tony."
"I think he meant Loki having the Tesseract Steve." Wanda sighed.
"Um, why?" Sam asked, unconcerned. "I doubt Loki would try anything. Especially with all the Avengers around."
"Oh, he would." Clint hissed, still fuming. "We need to get it away from him, and Strange too if he has another similar thing."
"Yes." Wanda nodded, "He didn't hesitate to throw us in that place, without any provocation even!"
"Tony probably doesn't know about Strange having an item that could be as dangerous as the Tesseract. If he did I doubt he'd trust Strange" Steve said attempting to convince himself.
"Yeah sorry, man." Sam sighed, finally standing up. "I've stood behind you for ages, but going up against two of the most powerful people in the Avengers? Maybe even all the Avengers again?! You guys are nuts." He shook his head disbelievingly. "I'm going to my room." He strode out, still shaking his head.
"Honestly." Wanda scoffed.
"We don't need him." Clint waved off, "Right now we need to figure out a plan." Steve blinked, staring at the door Sam had left through. His friends were just abandoning him left and right.
"We should gather more information," Steve ordered. "Make sure they actually have the Tesseract and whatever."
"Also," Clint flicked his eyes upwards. "We should actually make a plan later." Steve nodded, understanding that FRIDAY could hear all their words.
"Let's meet after the meeting later today," Wanda suggested. Steve nodded.
"Yes, let's."
-o-
"Is Tony still in bed?" Bruce asked looking around.
"I don't know." Stephen furrowed his brow, "I've been at the Sanctum and haven't heard from him since last night." Bruce nodded vaguely.
"Well, he's going to miss the meeting if he doesn't get up soon," Carol said from the couch where she and Rhodey were watching the news.
"He probably isn't asleep." Rhodey snorted, he was seated next to Carol, an arm around her. "Tony sleeping willingly is not commonly heard of."
"Hmm." Stephen gazed at the hall to the bedrooms, looking concerned.
'It is 14:10.' FRIDAY informed them. Rhodey sighed.
"Looks like we have to go set up the meeting."
"Can I come?" Bruce asked, "I don't really have, well anything, to do." Carol nodded smiling.
"Sure. Stephen? Can you make sure Tony doesn't miss the meeting?" Stephen nodded starting to head towards the bedrooms.
Stephen could hear Rhodey, Carol, and Bruce talking as they headed towards the meeting room. He walked to the door to Tony (and maybe sometimes his) room. Carefully, he opened the door. The room would be completely dark lacking the blow glow from the Arc Reactor.
"Tony?" Stephen asked softly, leaving the door slightly ajar as he moved towards the man lying on the bed. Tony made a noise halfway between a groan and a whimper in reply. Sitting on the bed, Stephen could now see that Tony was covered in a sheen of sweat and was shaking uncontrollably.
"Tony?" Stephen repeated, worry filling his tone as he gently rested a hand on the man's skin. Tony groaned again, rolling towards Stephen.
"Urgh." He groaned. Tony hands were rubbing the Arc Reactor furiously. But he was obviously awake.
Understanding immediately, Stephen opened the nearby box of pills and in the dim light attempted to read the boxes, looking for the box of medication.
"No," Tony muttered, voice tense and hoarse.
"You have to." Stephen breathed, still rummaging through the packed box.
"I won't be able to take-" His voice cut off with a severe wince, his hands pressing more firmly on the Arc Reactor.
"A 10?" Stephen asked softly, hesitating over the box. Tony chuckled dryly, wincing again.
"Try 20, or 50," he hissed, squeezing his chest. "Or 1-fucking-thousand." He groaned, "Fri? Why's it so hot in here?" The room instantly cooled a few degrees.
"I'll go tell Carol we're skipping the meeting," Stephen said, stroking Tony's hair.
"No." Tony winced, "You go. I'll-" He breathed in sharply, wincing again. "Be fine." Stephen snorted quietly.
"I'm not going."
"Then I'll drag myself to the meeting and we'll both look stupid." Stephen glared at him.
"At least take your pills." He said firmly, placing the right dosage on the bedside table.
"Once I can actually breathe properly." Tony agreed, panting slightly. Stephen paused, before standing and quietly closing the door. He began to head back to the kitchen, still troubled.
Stephen knew that Tony had more trouble with pain than him, the chronic pain mixing in with the phantom pain, causing a pain-a-palooza. He had said once that it was like being back in a desert with terrorists tearing up his chest all over again but only slightly muted.
"Crap," Stephen muttered to himself as he opened the small freezer in the common room and taking out an ice pack Tony had specially bought for this purpose. He headed back to the room, quietly opening the door again and moving to the bed, wrapping the pack in a tea towel as he did so. He gently eased it into the hand Tony had on his chest. Tony sighed slightly in relief.
"I'll be back in 20 minutes to check on you," Stephen promised, kissing Tony's forehead comfortingly.
"Always the Doctor," Tony whispered, clutching the pack to the skin around the Arc Reactor. Stephen's lip twitched, and after several seconds, he reluctantly got up. Looking back sadly as he closed the door, Stephen sighed. Turning away from the now closed door, Stephen glanced at his Cloak who had floated towards the room seeming unnaturally concerned.
"Can you watch him?" Stephen asked, the Cloak ruffled in response before floating towards the door in an apparent yes. "Thank you," Stephen whispered, running his shaking hand down the red fabric before heading towards the meeting room.
-o-
Everyone but Thor, Tony, and Strange are in the meeting room and Steve is getting restless. His eyes keep on moving to Loki, who has the Tesseract, the thing that has haunted him throughout the years. Carol and Rhodes are muttering together and Natasha, Scott, and even Sam, are sitting deliberately far from the Steve and the others. Finally the door opens and Strange walks in. He completely ignores Steve and the others, sitting in one of the two empty seats near the front of the room.
"Tony?" Steve hears Rhodey ask softly. Strange shakes his head.
"Tony's… not feeling well, he's still in bed." Steve feels a twinge of something that feels in between confusion and disgust at the implication that Strange has been in Tony's room.
"So he gets to skip the meeting," Clint said sounding mildly irritated. Strange and the others ignore the question continuing to discuss in even quieter voices. Steve notices that Strange isn't wearing gloves like he normally does. He, along with several others in the room begin to stare at Strange's hands. The thick white scars that almost seem like a line tracing his bones are obvious in the bright light of the room and Steve notices that they are shaking obviously. Apparently feeling their eyes on him Strange casually moves his hands off the table and into his lap.
"Okay…" Carol began, standing. "Since Thor isn't coming apparently, we will just go ahead and start the meeting."
"Are the children at school?" Vision asked in his usual calm voice. Steve guessed he knew what happened considering he hadn't even acknowledged their presence in the room.
"Yes, they know most of this stuff already though so it is okay."
"And Thor?" Natasha questioned As if he had just been summoned the door opened and Thor strode in.
"Excellent." He cried joyfully, "I haven't missed the meeting!" There was a shocked silence in which Loki had stood up and moved towards Thor.
"What the hel happened." He hissed, Steve reluctantly had to admit that there was worry in Loki's voice. For good reason too.
"Why does it look like you were roasted," Brunnhilde asked casually, but obvious concern was on her face. That, Steve thought, was a reasonable description. Thor's skin was dirty, scabbed, and red with burns, but despite the mildly gruesome appearance, he was joyful.
"Look, brother, I have acquired a new weapon!" Thor lifted a heavy looking axe off his back. "Stormbreaker is more powerful than Mjolnir and can even summon the Bifrost!"
"Impressive, but what happened that got you, as Brunnhilde rightly put it, roasted." Loki snapped.
"Oh this is nothing, it's just from taking on the force of Nidavellir." There was a silence in which no one but the Asgardians seemed to understand something. Loki was staring unamused at Thor.
"How exactly does one take on the force of a star?" he questioned irritated.
"Painfully." Thor smiled, clapping Loki on the shoulder and moving to his seat. Loki sighed, sitting back down next to Thor.
"Right…" Carol said slowly. "Well, Thor, if you wish you can go to the med bay otherwise we should get started with the meeting."
"Of course Lady Danvers."
"Well…" Carol sighed, "Basically, we need to inform you of a threat on the horizon."
"Who?" Scott asked.
"Thanos." Strange informed. "He is the biggest threat any of us ever have, or ever could face."
"What's he want?" Hope prompted.
"The Infinity Stones." Strange stated with disturbing calmness.
"The what nows?" Scott mumbled.
"The Infinity Stones are six elemental crystals of immense power." He raised his shaking hands and three glowing rocks appeared in the air, surrounded by glittering stars. "Each containing an essential aspect of the universe. Reality, Power, Soul," with each word the appropriate crystal in the air glowed. "Mind." Strange indicated Vision's forehead, "Space." He glared at Loki for a second who sighed and raised his hand. The Tesseract formed in it and Thor shot a glare at Loki. The original Avengers were all staring at the cube with hatred. "And Time." Strange stood and made a hand motion, opening the iris of the amulet around his neck to reveal a glowing green stone.
"Thanos basically wants them to destroy half the universe," Brunnhilde said still speaking annoyingly casually.
"That's a very simplified, blunt, way of putting it," Loki responded coolly, making the Tesseract disappear again.
"Oh I'm sorry," Brunnhilde huffed sarcastically, "Thanos wants them to bring balance to the universe by destroying half of all life."
"Does that mean ants too?" Scott asked suddenly. Hope stared disbelievingly at him.
"Is that seriously what you're asking right now?!"
"I don't know." Scott cried helplessly, raising his arms in bewilderment.
"And we can trust Loki with an Infinity Stone?" Steve asked attempting to sound concerned and not confrontational. Which apparently failed.
"Yes, you can." Loki snapped. Clint snorted.
"I understand your misgivings," Thor said calmly, running a finger along the edge of the axe. "Loki is one of the more qualified people to protect the Tesseract."
"Especially with the trying to kill us with it." Clint hissed.
"Because shooting an arrow at Thanos will definitely keep the stone from him." Strange sighed, glancing at the clock. Clint glared at the man.
"Though I must say, you are taking the new of Loki having one of the Infinity stones much better than I expected." Strange mused, looking directly at Clint who glared defiantly back. He knows you listened in. Obviously, Clint didn't hear Steve's mental warning and he continued to glare at the Sorcerer.
"That is quite a good point." Loki agreed, eyeing Clint. "I expected several measly death threats at least."
"Can you stop pondering your wish for death threats and focus?" Rhodes raised an eyebrow. "We still have things to discuss."
"We'll need to find a way to remove Vision's stone though." Wanda murmured, concern in her voice.
"Would that work? Removing the stone?" Vision asked Bruce. Bruce fiddled with his glasses.
"It should. If there is a way to remove it you shouldn't be harmed. The mind stone makes up only part of you, there's also parts of me, of Tony, of ULTRON and JARVIS. There should be enough of you remaining to still… well… be you." Vision nodded.
"How will you remove it?" Natasha questioned leaning forward on the table.
"Tony has a meeting with Princess Shuri sometime soon." Strange supplied glancing at the clock again a worried expression on his face.
"They'll have a plan within the first 2 seconds of speaking." Rhodes smiled.
"Speaking of plans, we need one." Carol began. "We need to decide if we are going to protect, destroy, or hide the Infinity Stones."
"Or something else," added Rhodes.
"Destroy them obviously." Brunnhilde pointed out. "He won't be able to get them at all."
"Or just some of them." Loki continued.
"Like the Mind and Space stone." Strange added, Loki glared at him.
"And not the Time Stone? Seems like that is the most important one to destroy."
"Generations upon generations of Sorcerers have protected the Eye of Agamotto. That is my job, not destroying it."
"So you'd rather die?" Loki snapped.
"If even one of the Infinity Stones is destroyed then Thanos can't wipe out half the universe If anything happens to the Eye of Agamotto that is a decision made by the Sorcerer's not the Avengers." Strange replied curtly.
"And your not an Avenger?"
"I am both a Sorcerer and an Avenger." Strange responded glaring at Loki.
"Then where will it stay?" Loki raised an eyebrow.
"At the New York Sanctum."
"Right, the horrendous place on Bleeker Street."
"I didn't find it horrendous." Thor butted in.
"Especially after you smashed half the glass there." Loki snapped.
"You're just irritated about the falling thing." Strange sighed. Loki opened his mouth furiously but was cut off by Carol.
"The decision on the destruction of the Time Stone will be left to the Sorcerers," Carol confirmed. "The other Stones in out possession, however, will be destroyed."
"That is probably for the best."Vision agreed.
"I have means of destroying the stones." Strange offered still glaring at Loki.
"Perfect." Rhodey smiled.
"We'll have to destroy them all at once though as it's much safer that way."
"Then we wait for the Mind Stone."
"Well, that was a relatively simple plan," Scott mumbled.
"Once we make sure the Stones are destroyed we will confirm a plan against Thanos," Carol said, ruffling through some notes in front of her.
"Tony and I have been making plans." Strange seemed to say more to himself. He glanced at the clock again.
"Let's discuss training for today."
"Basically, we need to make sure that the teams can actually work together and follow orders." Steve sighed slightly considering the last words Rhodey had pointedly directed at him.
"We have a simple exc-" Carol's words were cut off by FRIDAY.
'Dr Strange, Boss requires your assistance.' As soon as she had finished speaking Strange was already leaving the room.
"Is it urgent FRIDAY?" Rhodes asked sounding worried.
'Not anything horribly bad, just the usual bad.'
"How comforting."
'That isn't a strong point in my programming.'
"Well, Tony did create you."
"Okay then." Carol continued.
At the end of the explanation, the basic training plan was laid out. They had to enter a simulation in which they would infiltrate and retrieve the objective. Seemed fairly simple to Steve.
-o-
Almost half an hour later Stephen was quietly closing the door to Tony's room. Passing the kitchen he dropped the ice pack in the sink and continued down to training. Thankfully Tony had been able to take the medication and was now drifting off to sleep in an attempt to sleep away the pain.
"You can stay or join me," Stephen told the cloak who had hovered up next to him. After a couple of seconds of Stephen looking expectantly at it, the cloak hovered back to the door of Tony's room. Stephen couldn't help but smile at it. Continuing back downstairs Stephen's mind began to wander. He stopped outside the door of the Training room.
"So Loki." He began. "What exactly was the point of letting Clint see out conversation?" Loki stepped out of seemingly nowhere, smirking.
"Reasons."
"That reason being just to make them pissed about you having the Tesseract?"
"More or less, they were going to find out anyway and this meant they were less likely to attempt to murder me in the meeting." Stephen glared at him before rolling his eyes and turning back to the door. He heard Loki chuckling behind him as he headed towards Hope who was standing next to an awkward looking Scott and watching several screens that displayed the other team.
"'Tis quite the shitshow." Hope stated in her most serious voice. "None of them but Thor are listening to any of Rhodey's orders half the time, the other half they are doing stupid things or complaining."
"As if they could act any more like spoiled children." Stephen sighed.
"Yes, they are quite the collection of brats." She paused. "How's Tony going?" Stephen sighed.
"He is asleep. And hopefully will be feeling better tomorrow."
"Oh yes, he is making big plans for tomorrow," Hope smirked at him suggestively.
"He is?"
"Oh yes, it's supposed to be a secret though, so I didn't say anything." She put a finger to her lips.
"Right tell me there are big plans but don't tell me what they are. How considerate." Hope didn't answer, instead continuing to smirk.
Once training was over, the New Avengers team had successfully retrieved the objective in half the time it took the Rogues with fewer 'casualties' which was unsurprising considering the only Rogues following any orders were Sam and Natasha.
"You are actually supposed to follow my orders!" Rhodey growled at the Rogues. "You're not exactly doing yourself favours by not following them."
"Right," Clint said clearly trying not to sneer. "We'll remember that."
"You better. Otherwise, you are no use to the Avengers Initiative." The Rogues looked offended as Rhodey began to talk to Carol in a low voice. Stephen was barely holding back a smirk. Tony would be sorry that he missed even more humiliation of Rogers and the assholes.
-o-
They met later outside the compound and as far away as they could without drawing a large amount of attention.
"So what's happening?" Wanda asked.
"We need a plan," Steve stated. "Any ideas?"
"Well…" Clint smiled devilishly. "The Sorcerer said the Time Stone was kept on Bleeker street right?"
