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CHAPTER 7

"I think I'm going crazy." Tony paced across the room, the events from earlier in the night still fresh in his memory.

"I recommend getting tested for Alzheimer's, sir," Jarvis uttered.

"Excuse me?" Tony stopped pacing to stare at the ceiling accusingly.

"You've repeated the same thing five times in the past half hour. Do you rememb-"

"You're an asshole, you stupid non-living piece of shit," Tony joked. He continued pacing. "I can't shake off the feeling that someone was watching me," he confessed.

"No one was detected, sir."

"I know, I know." It was the quinjet, Tony told himself. It made me paranoid. I made sure there was no one there. I quadruple checked with Jarvis. He just felt as if someone was observing his every movement. It had made the hairs on the back of his neck and arms rise, but he put it down to paranoia. It sure as hell wasn't his conscience. He'd given up on that long ago. It has to be paranoia. Fuck SHIELD.

Tony's head still buzzed from the adrenaline rush he'd had. He hadn't meant to see anyone die, but he reasoned letting it happen. Who'd have reached out and stopped the hand about to kill the pesky mosquito always buzzing around, unwanted, and always trying to suck your life away? As for the man? He was a criminal. Iron Man stopped criminals. And the other dead man, Tony remembered, he was already dead. No, Tony hadn't meant to see anyone die, but he hadn't regretted letting it happen.

The first thing he'd done after exiting the suit was run down to his lab and have Jarvis edit the security video. He replaced it with static. They'd think the shitty camera didn't work, and they wouldn't be able to pin it on him. Even if they did, which they wouldn't (because nobody is better at hacking than Tony Stark. Besides, his weapons were untraceable.), they wouldn't be able to make him pay for it. It was a satisfaction he'd never felt. Not in Afghanistan, not while killing bad guys with the Avengers, not ever. For the first time in his life he'd done something without caring if others would question his motives.

After Afghanistan he'd wanted to stop inadvertently killing. He'd wanted to end the suffering he'd caused. He stopped selling weapons, but he hadn't stopped building them. He became a weapon to protect the innocent people not strong enough to protect themselves. He became a weapon for the people that didn't respect him, that took him for granted, that underestimated him. The people that were not innocent. Tony smiled, proud of the new direction his life was heading. I'm nobody's weapon.

Christine Everhart had been a textbook definition of the kind of person he'd just described. In her eyes he was never good enough. He was never a hero. He would never be able to prove that he'd changed and tried to help people. Like every other person in this world, she fought to make his life miserable, yet she still expected him to save her from death. If Tony let her die, it wasn't because he hated her. She convinced the world to doubt him and be disappointed in him. He simply decided it was time to show her how much the world had disappointed him in turn. He'd show everyone how utterly helpless they were when Tony Stark wasn't there to protect them, the same way he had shown Christine.

But first he had to show SHIELD he wasn't kidding when he said he was through with them. Tony commanded Jarvis to hijack SHIELD's systems and upload a virus while he rummaged through their files. He didn't find anything interesting until he ran into Bruce's work. This is what they're up to, Tony pondered. SHIELD and the Avengers are still busy looking for Loki. Tony thought they were wasting their time. Bruce's work was thorough, he wasn't going to deny it, but it was inconclusive. If Loki was on Earth, he wouldn't be stupid enough to leave his energy signature laying around for them to find. He was cunning while mind controlled, and must be even more so when his mind was his own. He got away from Asgard, and he's not going to want to go back. If SHIELD wants to waste their time looking for him, then by all means, he'd let them. Loki would come when he was ready, and he would come with a grim present for all of them. We'll cross that bridge when we get there. He wasn't going to fret over Loki just yet.

Tony knew the virus had his signature on it. After days of attempting to get rid of it, SHIELD would know just who had left it. Tony didn't care. It was a challenge. He wanted SHIELD and the Avengers to know they could do nothing to stop him. He wanted them to come for him and realize he was smarter than they were. Not even in their dizziest daydreams would they be able to stop him. Stop me from what? Tony laughed at himself. Stop me from doing what I want, he decided. This world is mine. It owes me. I'm going to make of it what I want.

After Jarvis had finished and Tony concluded his snooping bout, he finally sat down with the intention to relax. "You think that will convince them I'm not coming back? Or should I finally send the presents?"

"That will only aid you in convincing them that you are losing your sanity," Jarvis humored.

Tony rolled his eyes. "There's nothing wrong with my brain." He decided he'd send the presents anyway.

Earlier in the year Tony had accumulated offensive gag gifts he'd wanted to give the Avengers. He was only waiting for the perfect moment to send them, and this was very much it. Tony gathered all the gifts and a box to put them in. He took paper and a pen and wrote each of them a note to go along with each gift. He couldn't help but laugh as he was writing them. Fury was going to blow his top.

"What do you think, Jarvis? Think they'll send me a thank you card?"

"Referring you to a sanitarium seems like a more likely possibility, sir." Jarvis replied. If he had a mouth he'd be smirking. And Tony would be punching it.

"You're getting annoying," Tony snorted.

"You should not have programmed me so."

Jarvis was right. He shouldn't have. "But you're entertaining, so I'll let it slide."

Tony decided it was time for some shut eye. "Dim the lights. I'm going up to bed."

"Good night, Mr. Stark."

"Night, buddy."


Having experienced situations above and beyond her mind's capability, Agent Maria Hill was aware of the possible trouble that lurked behind every dark corner. She had experienced a lot of it during her years at SHIELD, and hence expected danger to come at any given moment, but she had not expected this.

Hill, along with the rest of SHIELD, was aware of Loki's escape.

She was not aware that he'd make his presence known to her.

In her bedroom.

During the middle of the night.

She watched, with too-tired-to-comprehend eyes, as Loki gently pressed a dagger to her neck and clamped his hand around her mouth to suppress the startled scream dying to escape her lungs. Loki removed his hand and put his finger to his lip, shushing her.

Maria nodded. She wouldn't scream. Not because Loki told her not to, but because her sleeping son was in the next room, and she didn't want to wake him. She didn't want Loki to get his hands on her son. She'd already lost her husband to war. She didn't want to lose her child, too.

That was the last thought drifting through her mind before Loki abruptly hit her in the head and she slumped down, unconscious.


Loki was leaning against the wall waiting for Agent Hill to regain consciousness, but decided to wake her up magically instead. He didn't have time to waste. She was mostly unharmed, the only injuries on her being on her head from when he'd hit her and a small bleeding spot where he removed and destroyed a SHIELD tracking chip. He watched the woman begin to stir. Agent Hill opened her eyes and slowly took in her surroundings, confounded. She seemed to remember Loki then and snapped her head to the side, searching for him.

"Agent Hill," he greeted.

"Loki," she grunted in reply. Her voice was hoarse. "What do you want from me?"

"Information," Loki apprised.

"You kidnapped me for information?" Agent Hill questioned, her scared eyes giving away more than her perfectly masked face was.

"Yes," Loki smiled, crouching down to meet her face to face.

"You are on Earth," Hill said, mostly to her self. Loki nodded. "You kidnapped me."

"I think I may have hit you a little too hard," Loki sighed. "Are we done pointing out the obvious?"

"Can you let me go?" She asked, deciding it was worth a shot.

"I can't do that," Loki smiled insincerely.

"Then I can't give you information," Agent Hill responded.

Loki raised an eyebrow. "You would give me information if I let you go?"

"Well, no," she said, leaning back onto the wall and closing her eyes. She took a deep breath. Loki could tell she was trying to calm down. "It's not like you're going to let me live."

Loki smiled sharply, causing Agent Hill to flinch. "No, I can't do that either."

Agent Hill closed her eyes again and took another deep breath.

"I am not going to lie to you," Loki informed her.

Agent Hill laughed tiredly. "I'd say I can't believe anything you say, but I don't doubt that you're going to kill me."

"You will die," Loki conceded. "But all of SHIELD will die by my hand eventually." Agent Hill's eyes were still closed, but she was now facing away from Loki. He wrapped a hand around her throat and squeezed. "Look at me." She did. "If you cooperate with me," he slightly loosened the grip on her neck for emphasis, "your death will be painless."

She stared back at him, a challenge in her frightened eyes. "I'm going to die anyway," she shrugged. "I'm not going to help you."

Loki narrowed his eyes. "One would think they would choose the easy way out when faced with death."

"Sometimes we just have to take the other option."

Impatience was making Loki grow irritable, but he remained calm. He knew the trained SHIELD agent wouldn't be easily convinced. He pulled out a small dagger and softly swiped it across his finger. He raised it to show her the thin line of blood that resulted. "It would be best for you to reconsider your options, Agent Hill."

Agent Hill's eyes moved from the dagger to his face. She shook her head. "Try me."

Loki retook hold of her neck. He dug his nails in and pushed her chin up, exposing more skin. "It would not be very difficult to simply snap your neck, but that won't do." Loki informed her. "I need information."

"You," Agent Hill choked out, "Already said that."

Loki pressed the dagger to her neck, drawing blood, and paused. She didn't blink or speak, instead choosing to stare wordlessly on.

"You do not have to tell me anything," Loki leaned to whisper in her ear. He reinserted the blade and made a deeper cut, gliding all the way from the top of her neck to her collarbone. "Just know that if you don't I'll skin you alive. I'll break every bone in your fragile body. I'll gouge your eyes out and feed them to you. If you still choose to remain silent, then," Loki smiled gleefully, delicately carving more patterns into the woman's skin. "I'll heal you and start over."

Agent Hill gulped and then flinched when the action caused the fresh cuts to sting. She would not give in.

Loki laughed again. "Your resiliency is amusing. How long will it last?" He untied her hands only to press one against the wall and drive a dagger through it. He took out a second dagger and pinned the other hand. Agent Hill whimpered but made no move to speak. Loki continued slowly, aggravatingly on for another hour. He pierced her with daggers, made cuts, broke fingers, eventually coaxing cries and shouts out of the stubborn woman. Still, she did not speak, and Loki grew increasingly more impatient. He did not have the time to make good on his threat.

He looked into the Agent's eyes, now brimming with tears, and placed a hand on her swollen cheek, turning her head until her eyes met his. "You are a strong woman," Loki whispered, "But you are only mortal. There is only so much pain you can handle."

Agent Hill closed her eyes, again, and let the tears flow.

"Shh," Loki comforted. "You are strong, but I am stronger. I will do what I can to assure that I receive the information I need, be it from you or your companions," he paused. "Although, I would prefer it be you that tells me what I need to know."

"Why?" Agent Hill croaked. "Why," she inhaled, shaking, "me."

"Because I can trust your words. You despise him, and you have the most knowledge of him aside from the Avengers, the director, and Agent Coulson."

"Who?" She questioned, her voice weak.

"Will you tell me what I want to know?" Loki continued staring into her eyes, gauging every reaction that flickered past the broken mask she desperately failed to hold.

"I can't," Agent Hill whimpered. "Not to you."

"I will destroy everything you hold dear to you," he threatened. "Here, right now." Agent Hill shook harder, but did not say a word. "You have a son," Loki hissed, determined. "Tell me what I need to know, or I'll bring him to you, and I'll slit his neck as you watch, motionless."

Agent Hill squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head back and forth, crying. "No."

"Yes," Loki laughed, empty and cruel. He actually hadn't meant to harm the child, but if it came down to that, well, he had no other options.

"Not my baby boy, Loki," she sobbed.

"He is in the room adjacent to yours. He is sound asleep in his small bed, alone, unaware of your absence." Agent Hill continued sobbing as Loki spoke. "Tell me what I need to know," he repeated. "And I promise you he will remain there. I promise."

She cried, and Loki let her, but only for a little while. "You can hold him. I will bring him to you, like I brought you. You can hold him, tell him you love him, and say goodbye," Loki smiled reassuringly. "Then I will take him back, and he will always remember you."

Agent Hill lowered her head, resigned. "Yes, yes, okay," she sniffled a few more times before repeating, "Okay, yes."

Loki grinned. "Very well." He disappeared and reappeared seconds later carrying the young boy. He unpinned Agent Hill's hands from the wall and put the child in her arms. He watched her comfort the confused child and coddle him for twenty excruciatingly long minutes. It would have been heartwarming if Loki had been capable of feeling that. (And if he hadn't been the cause of their grief.) He cleared his throat, letting Agent Hill know visit time was over.

She handed the child over reluctantly, kissing his forehead before she did. "Safe. You promised."

"I did, and I'll keep my word," Loki confirmed, and was gone and back in an instant.

He turned to her, his smile sly and his face triumphant. "It is time to keep your word."

Agent Hill bit her lip, hating herself at the moment, but there was no time for regret. Her child was more important to her than her ties to SHIELD. "Who do you want information on?" Her voice was hoarse from crying and from pain.

"Iron Man," Loki stated, ecstatic at having finally reached the desired topic. "Tony Stark."

"Stark?" Agent Hill asked, animosity present in her face. "You could have just googled him."

"Do not question me," Loki replied sternly. "Tell me everything you know of him." He didn't mention that he had no idea what "googled" meant.

Agent Hill sighed, feeling worse by the second. "From the beginning," she assumed. Loki confirmed. "His father was Howard Stark, head of Stark Industries, at the time a weapons manufacturing company, and one of the founders of SHIELD."

Founder of SHIELD? That is ironic seeing as Stark seems to hate them.

"Howard was a genius, like Tony. The arc reactor was his creation." Maria motioned to her chest, reminding Loki of the glowing circle in Stark's chest. "Tony just minimized and perfected it. Anyway," she continued. "He was a busy man. Always working, or drinking, or searching for Captain America. Never had time for Tony. Tony grew up living in his shadow, desperately trying to impress him and capture his attention, following in his footsteps until Howard and Maria's death. Maria was his mother," Agent Hill clarified. "They were killed in a tragic car accident. Tony was seventeen."

"I see." Loki motioned for her to continue.

"Howard's business partner, Obadiah Stane, took control of Stark Industries and became Tony's father figure. Stark graduated from MIT, the top engineering school in the country, if not the world, at nineteen. He took over Stark Industries at age twenty-one. He drank, he partied, and he designed weapons. Stark Industries was the leading weapons developer in the world, all of which he supplied to the military."

"Was?" Loki queried.

"We'll get to that later. This is an important part." Agent Hill paused, thinking to herself. She would have felt worse about revealing all this information if Loki hadn't been so right. She did hate Tony, and she was going to die anyway. That and talking kept her mind off of her son. "Some years ago Tony was doing a weapons demonstration in Afghanistan. He was kidnapped by a terrorist group called the Ten Rings, who, by the way, used Stark's own weapons to attack and capture him. He was there for three months, being tortured and forced to build them a missile. He didn't build a missile, though. He built the Iron Man suit."

This is the origin of Stark's suit? Loki raised an eyebrow. "How could they not have noticed?"

"Technology lacks in that part of the world. They didn't notice until it was too late, and by that time, Stark had already killed half of them and was blasting his way out of the cave. He escaped, but the original Iron Man suit was made from scrap metal, and didn't hold very long. Tony was stranded in the desert, but was found by a military search party." She stopped then, remembering something. "Oh, the arc reactor. The device in his chest. When they were attacked, one of Stark's weapons blew up near him, and lodged pieces of shrapnel in his chest. The arc reactor powers an electromagnet that keeps the shrapnel from impaling his heart and killing him. That's all we know about that. He never did say how he designed it or how it came to be in his chest. Most people don't even know it's there."

Loki didn't really care. Barton had told him that the suit was powered by the reactor, and that the reactor was basically Stark's heart. "Go on," he prompted.

"When Tony got back home the first thing he did was shut down Stark Industries. Having seen his own weapons used against him and innocent people, he declared that he no longer wanted to build weapons. The public speculated and put it down to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He soon found out that his company was double dealing under the table and the culprit was no other than Stark's business partner, Stane. Stane also was the one to order the hit on Tony, and attempted to kill Tony himself and steal the arc reactor after failing to replicate it. Tony was devastated by the betrayal from his oldest friend and father figure, but that didn't stop him from donning his new and improved Iron Man suit and killing both Stane and the Ten Rings," Agent Hill recited this, as if she were reading it from a file. She probably had done so dozens of times.

Loki absorbed all the information in. It was helping him better understand Stark. Betrayal. We share that in common.

Agent Hill continued, having received no response from Loki. "Some time passed before Stark realized he was being poisoned by his arc reactor's palladium core. He became extremely reckless in anticipation of his own death until he created a new element as a suitable replacement for the palladium."

"Stark created a new element?" Loki was genuinely surprised. He knew the man was a genius, but creating a new element was something worth bragging about.

"Yup, only he can make it." Agent Hill changed topics. She was caught in between getting the story over with and wanting to draw it out. In other words, she was pondering how much more time she'd give herself to live. "Tony turned Stark Industry's focus on energy and the arc reactor. He continued to fight criminals as Iron Man, alone, for a few years until your arrival. The Avengers didn't form until then."

"I know," Loki rolled his eyes. I hate the Avengers. He watched Agent Hill open her mouth to speak, but changed her mind and said nothing. "Continue," Loki snapped.

"That's it. I have nothing more on him."

Loki narrowed his eyes. "There is always more."

Agent Hill sighed. She was tired and very pale, obviously in pain and struggling to stay up. "Why don't you just ask me specifically what you want to know? Don't make this harder for me." She would have glared if she wasn't already so miserable.

Loki held in a snide remark. She had a point. "What has Stark done for SHIELD?"

Agent Hill stiffened, chewing over her thoughts before finally speaking. "He designed weapons, the helicarrier and the quinjets, among other things. He was SHIELD's consultant and part of the Avengers, up until a few days ago."

Now that almost made Loki slack-jawed in surprise. "He quit the Avengers? Why?"

"Tony Stark is a landmine. We've always had to be careful around him. Step on him and he'll blow up on you. I don't know how, but Fury and the Avengers crossed some line with him. He blew up. They've been butting heads since the New York incident," Agent Hill eyed him accusingly before proceeding. "And now he wants nothing to do with us. That's all I know on that."

Loki smirked. He was pleased. Things were looking up for him. Choosing Stark as his focus was proving to be the best decision he's made. The scene from earlier in the night he witnessed was replaying in his mind, and he remembered he still had questions to ask.

"What is the Merchant of Death?"

Agent Hill was confused, wondering how Loki came to know that. "That was Tony's nickname when he was still a weapons manufacturer. He didn't come up with it himself. His adversaries called him that in attempt to guilt him into seeing all the innocent lives he was taking because of his weapons."

Ah, Loki now understood. "Who is Christine Everhart?"

Agent Hill furrowed her eyebrows in concentration. "Some reporter. Why?"

"What is Stark's relationship with her?"

"She hates his guts. That's about it. She keeps trying to give him a bad name. He keeps ridiculing her in public. She's just a thorn in his side, nothing more."

"I see," Loki repeated.

"Why do you care about Christine Everhart?" Agent Hill wondered.

"I ask the questions," Loki patronized.

"Are you done yet?"

"I believe so."

"Can I ask you a question, then?"

Loki shrugged. "It depends."

"How long have you been on Earth?" Agent Hill was now certain that Loki was the reason for Stark's behavior.

"Long enough," Loki responded ambiguously. "You suspect something," he smirked.

"Why are you so interested in Stark?" She asked, straightforward.

"I think you know, Agent Hill." Loki then crept closer to her, grabbing her neck and pushing her head back into the wall. "I appreciate your cooperation."

"You didn't give me another option," She spat, determined to die with whatever dignity she had left. There would be no crying or regret.

"Oh, but I did." Loki grinned. "I gave you the option to die painfully or die painlessly. You made the right choice." He laughed darkly.

Loki's face was the last thing Agent Hill saw before Loki snapped her neck, effortlessly and painlessly, like he'd promised.


Thank you for reading!

Just as a warning: Dark Tony and Dark Loki starts from here on, if you couldn't tell by this chapter. :)