A/N: Thank you very much to you all that are still reading!
Chapter Thirteen) The Silver Demon
He was getting Loki to walk around again and Bruce had come back to redo Loki's stitches, during which Loki needed to be held firmly as they weren't sure what full anaesthetics would do to him. Afterwards, as he'd literally needed to tie Loki down, they had a flaming row after which Loki had tried to run away. And by running away, Tony meant running out of the living room and wanting to jump down. Was it not for his fear of falling, he may have jumped.
It was after that, when the tension had cooled, that Tony ordered a Chinese take-away, a type of food Loki was not yet familiar with, and set it all on the coffee table, for he didn't want to force Loki to sit on one of the hard dinner table chairs. He filled a plate for Loki and dressed it with one of the hot sauces, though only a little bit, for he didn't know whether Loki would enjoy it all that much. "There you go," he spoke, giving Loki the plate. They ate in silence and thus Tony decided to put the news on, which he usually just got a quick update on via Jarvis, though seeing at the artificial intelligence had been set to pay a close eye on Loki, Tony was going to have to check the news himself.
'In the south of Japan, a man, whose real name we do not know, has arisen under the name 'Silver Demon'. He claims to be a super villain, inspired by the recent events in Manhattan. He has destroyed at least seven factories and is planning to become the true leader of the Yakuza, better known as the Japanese mafia. With his 'army', as he calls it, he strives to put the people in their place. The American politicians, including the President, have been taken to a safe environment, as have the politicians, kings and queens from other countries throughout the entire world. Now to reporter Kim Chow in Kumamoto, where the Silver Demon has arisen.'
Tony's eyes widened, though he continued to eat, needing to fill his stomach before the nervousness hit him too hard and he could properly throw up. "Who is that?" Loki asked. Tony had paused the news before the Kim Chow woman started to talk.
"Danger, that's what," he spoke. "It's a live report, the first, I assume," he spoke, looking at Loki slightly nervously.
He pressed the button to resume the show, which revealed a Japanese woman, standing atop a building with smoke coming from others around the city. 'All office buildings and homes have been evacuated as the Japanese police try to capture the Silver Demon. What the reporter did not mention was that the president of Japan had been taken into imprisonment by said Yakuza. It has been announced that a speech will be made when they reach Tokyo. Helicopters are already on their tail, but they cannot spot the Silver Demon yet. This is truly the time to stay inside and safe, certainly if you are in Japan.'
Tony turned to Loki, who looked slightly shocked by the news. "Does this happen regularly?" Loki asked.
"What? That someone tries to claim ultimate power over authorities?" he asked. Loki nodded. "People campaign," Tony joked. "No, this doesn't happen often. In fact, you're the only one here that sought out world domination and actually had a chance at winning. I don't know about this guy, though, I'd like to get a chance at checking him out myself."
His phone started ringing, to which he excused himself and picked it up. "Pepper," Tony spoke.
"Don't you dare go anywhere," she said the moment she heard he'd picked the phone up. "Stay inside, Stark, don't you dare even attempt to get on that plane to Japan to try and solve this. You need to stay here."
"Which plane?" Tony asked, to which he looked at Loki and frowned. Pepper let out a sarcastic laugh and he could hear that she was pacing frantically. "Pepper, what's going on?"
"You don't know?" she then asked. "That superguy from Japan!" she exclaimed. Tony waited for her to actually tell him something new. "SHIELD just called me."
"Ah..." he started. "They surely have a brilliant timing. I'll get Jarvis to call them back. It's okay, don't worry, stay home. Okay, Pepper," he said, trying to reassure her while he himself was almost literally going crazy.
The moment he put the phone down he was shouting Jarvis' name to get him to phone SHIELD. Why hadn't Jarvis let the announcement through?!
"It is an emergency meeting," Jarvis then explained. "You are requested at SHIELD and you are asked to bring 'the God Loki' with you."
"Well then," Tony said, taking another few bites. It wouldn't be all too long before he would give in to nausea and hang over his toilet, not wanting to go anywhere and have to deal with this. "Let's get suited up then," he said, looking at Loki, who frowned at him in a startled manner.
"They want me to help?" Loki then asked and Tony just gave a shrug, stepping towards him, softly patting his shoulder, then kissing his lips firmly.
"I guess it's your lucky day, after all."
"How do you know they want me to help?" Loki then went on, clearly not believing in 'lucky days'. "For all we know it's just a setup to get me back in their stupid prison!"
"Well, only one way to figure out," he said, throwing the leftovers into the bin before he went to indeed get suited up. He realized that he was leaving Loki, who was still trying anything to kill himself, alone and thus hurried his pace. When he returned, however, Loki was simply staring at the television and listening to the ongoing reports.
"I'm not going to SHIELD," he said, when Tony had stepped into the room again, wearing his suit.
"Why not? Scared they might hurt you?" Tony asked mockingly, although he knew it wouldn't be an irrational fear at all.
"I want nothing to do with them."
"I know, but you have no choice. Now come." He couldn't let Loki here on his own. He didn't trust the God at all! He wouldn't risk it. But neither could he ignore the meeting, not when it was this important. "Now!"
"I'm not here to be ordered by you, Stark!" Loki snapped in reply and a moment later he got up of the couch and was stepping towards him.
"I'm not going to leave you on your own," Tony replied, trying to remain calm, although he realized he was losing precious time. "I don't want to find you dead."
"It's so good to know you-" Loki started sarcastically, but Tony was quick enough to shush him.
"Curse, remember, don't want that now."
"You have no fate in me, that's why you don't want to leave me alone. Have you any idea how that feels?"
"I don't care. Now, come." He did a few steps towards Loki, who automatically stepped back. Although, if things got serious Tony would have the upper hand, no doubtfully. Loki couldn't do a thing with the severe damage his body had suffered. Possibly that meant that the only reason SHIELD wanted Loki to come along was to put him in a cell again. Well, then that was how things would have to be for the time being, until Tony could save him once more and give them all a lesson they wouldn't easily forget. A non-violent lesson, of course. Well... not brutally violent, anyway.
"I will not!" Loki replied angrily. "You cannot make me."
"I can, actually," Tony said. "That's just not how I wish for things to be." But it seemed the God wasn't going to leave him much choice.
"You don't care about me at all," Loki then sneered. Oh, so they were going to get personal, were they? Loki was going to toy with his emotions?
"Don't even dare going there," Tony replied, a firmness in his voice that usually went with his finger pointed, but he figured that keeping respect for Loki was needed in this 'conversation'. "You need to realise that I'm doing this because I do care," Tony spoke.
"You don't trust me! Not one bit!" Loki shouted, his voice turning fierce.
"I'm scared you'll try to take your life again, for fuck's sake, and I cannot let that happen! Do you hear me?! I cannot let that happen. You live, that's the rule, whether you like it or not and if that means you have to come with me to SHIELD, then that's the way it is. Because I, Loki, care," he spoke. "Now get your fucking suit on and don't even dare utter a word about it not being fair. Because I can give you a lot of examples of what isn't fair!" he shouted, his voice incredibly angry.
He could see Loki's eyes almost literally burst into flames at his words and he felt incredibly guilty for shouting at him like that, but he didn't know any other way. Loki just had to accept the truth and deal with it. Strangely enough, he felt like a mother... Great, now look what he was turning into...
"I'm certain you can't keep an eye on me at all times," he replied harshly, though his voice had turned to a whisper. "And I'll make use of that. Mark my words; I will."
"Fine, fine, now hurry," Tony replied, although he hated to hear Loki talk like this, for it was true. Loki would do anything to make another attempt on his life, especially now Tony was making such a big deal out of it. It was childish, almost, but it wasn't childish at all. This was Loki trying to escape from the fine confines of a prison that had been set up all around him.
About another five minutes later they were finally on their way.
Tony flew Loki there, as taking a car in his suit was uncomfortable and the streets were way too busy to get to SHIELD quickly, and thus he had Loki's firm grip on him, holding him tightly as he blasted their way through the air to SHIELD. He kept them hovered above the building for a reason he didn't approve of himself. He made his mask move up, then leaned towards Loki, his iron arm still around his waist, moving closer to press their lips together softly. It was awkward because of the helmet, but it worked, it was okay. "Whatever happens, I will come for you," he whispered softly while looking into Loki's eyes.
Loki only looked back in an annoyed manner, still clinging onto Tony, but Tony knew that somewhere he could see a sparkle of gratefulness. Pulling the mask back down, he flew them both down to the ground, where they were already awaited.
Loki immediately turned cold and jumped about a meter away from Tony as they got to the ground. Tony took his mask off and stepped inside, literally needing to take Loki by the collar to drag him along, who grumbled something under his breath sounding something like: 'I'm going to get you for this.' And Tony was sure that he would.
For the moment there were more important things to attend to. He noticed how Loki was standing slightly bend forward, a hand subtly resting on his chest. Yes, it would go unnoticed to most, but not to Tony who knew exactly what was beneath that hand. All the flying and walking probably hurt him more than he even dared to admit to himself. He was in a place that he considered far from safe and who knew what would follow. Tony had no idea what SHIELD wanted Loki for and actually had the feeling that they simply didn't want the God to be left in Stark Tower on his own.
To SHIELD Loki was still a huge risk and for a reason Tony had forgotten to consider that, for he only feared that Loki would take his own life. After all, after their conversations they'd had, Loki didn't want to be evil, but it was forced upon him... Now again, perhaps, it would be forced upon him too. Loki was in no state to join the Avengers in a battle against this 'Silver Demon', for he would be tempted by 'the dark side' as Tony was going to call it from now on. Loki was in no way stable enough to face that, not at all, not even a little bit and thus he just hoped that they'd lock Loki up, but treat him nicely, keep him warm and perhaps even sedated. That would calm him...
"It's okay," he whispered with the softest voice he could manage that only he and Loki would be able to hear. SHIELD did not, yet, attempt to take Loki off him and just guided them along to a conference room.
"We do not want Loki to listen in on what we will be discussing, as he is still our enemy," one of the agents told Tony, as if Loki wasn't even there. It bothered him, but he understood too that the agents felt nothing for talking to Loki personally and as a consequence to be victimized by him, which would no doubtfully happen when one started a conversation with the Silver-Tongued God.
"I don't think he'll be of any threat to us," Tony replied. "I've come to know him quite well and he's actually just a bit confused."
"We cannot allow him into the conference room," the agent said once more.
"I will decide where I shall and shan't be part of," Loki spoke, quite viciously. "You will put Stark in danger, but not me, for you do not trust me. Listen to yourself!"
"Loki," Tony started, though knew damn well the God could not be tamed like that.
"Nor will I listen to you," Loki sneered at Tony, a finger pointed to him. "I do what I want," he sneered. "I know what it feels like to be the bad guy. I know what it feels like to be that Silver Demon or whatever he calls himself," Loki sneered.
"He has a point," Tony said looking down at Loki, now he was taller than Loki in his suit. He found it quite nice, actually.
"Rules are rules, Mister Stark," the SHIELD agent spoke, raising his eyebrows. "He's not allowed in. Your words, though," the agent turned to Loki, "will be taken into consideration."
"Consideration?!" Loki asked, but Tony was already amazed by the fact that the agent had just said that, let alone actually spoken to Loki!
"Don't push it, Loki," Tony spoke, looking into Loki's eyes for a short moment. "I'll see you later," he spoke, gave Loki to the guards, eyeing them cautiously, before entering the conference room.
Loki walked along with the guards, figuring that it was either that or being forced to come along, which was the less preferable way to go about things. He did not want them to touch him, even less than he wanted to be locked away. He could only hope the two wouldn't go together, like they'd done before on previous occasions...
He wondered what would be discussed and wondered too whether Tony would tell him everything afterwards. He should, Loki thought, at least. He knew, though, that the only reason he wanted to know about what was going on was so he could possibly help and if he could help, he might be able to win some trust, which was eventually quite an important thing. If he could show SHIELD that he could do good, they might not be so willing to lock him up next time, even if he did deserve it.
He was impatient. He always had been, despite having so much time on his hands. It had been the reason for many of the things he'd done, out of boredom of some sort. And he'd been bored so often. Waiting for something to happen, mostly waiting on Thor... At some point he would simply not wait anymore and make sure to play as many pranks as he could, simply to make life just that little bit harder for Thor. That time was long gone, now. Nothing had remained so innocent...
He was brought into a cell much like the one he'd spent a few days in while under influence of the Tesseract. The memories weren't welcome, but he couldn't get rid of them for the moment.
"You better not be planning anything," he sneered towards one of the agents as he stepped into the room. Of course he was reluctant, but it couldn't get in his way. He couldn't try another escape. He had not the strength and his body was hurt and broken as it was. There was no sense in pushing his limits.
He was locked into the room. Alone, luckily.
Tony, on the other hand, was on his way towards the conference room, where he was met by Clint Barton, Natasha Romanov and Steve Rogers. "Well, hello there. Hadn't expected the reunion to be so soon," Tony said, raising his eyebrows, leaning over the table as he couldn't sit down in his suit.
Nick Fury stood at the head of the table, his arms crossed, screens aligned behind him. Agent Maria Hill stood not too far behind him and another Agent, apparently the replacement of Agent Coulson, sat at the table. "It is the plan to stop this motherfucker," Nick Fury spoke, to which Tony raised his eyebrows a little.
"Seems logical procedure," Tony said, not sure if he wanted to listen to Fury's ramble for the rest of the conference and thus, he walked around the table, raising his hand to motion that all ears should be on him.
"This Silver Demon..." he raised his eyebrows already, "who Jarvis is already doing a scan on, is no danger to us. He is no God, no sorcerer guy, he's just smart and has got a lot of sad little mafia guys standing behind him. We have more," Tony spoke. "I faced Ivan Vanko on my own, along with a lot of other guys, I was fine," he spoke.
"On your own?" Natasha spoke, her eyebrows raising higher. Clint grinned a little. "Not entirely."
"Point is; if I get one guy on my own who was already pretty damn hard, we can get this guy and his army with the lot of us," he spoke.
"What about Loki?" Natasha spoke, her eyes moving between Tony and Fury, though resting on Tony's.
"What about him?" Tony asked, frowning a little.
"Loki is going to be held captive here. We don't know who's side he will pick."
"Loki won't fight against us," Tony spoke, turning to Fury. "He knew how that ended up last time and he's mortal. We'll beat this Silver guy and whether we have Loki on our side or not, we can do it. Though I have the feeling Loki could help pretty well, with his manipulative skills," Tony raised his eyebrows, to which Fury shook his head.
"The risk is too big, Stark, no chance," Fury spoke, to which Tony just shrugged. Well, he was going to have to deal with Loki later then. "The plan is, and Mister Stark, if you'd let me do my job, that'd help," he said, "that we meet the Japanese police and use their force to slow the army this Silver Demon has. While our negotiation does that, you all go after that Silver Demon. Find out where he's hanging, where he's working from."
"Investigate," Steve Rogers spoke, nodding a little. "We can do that."
"Not action-y enough," Tony said, quite unclearly. "Can't we just knock him down and be back for dinner?"
"I don't think underestimating our enemy at this point is what we should be wanting to do," Fury replied and Tony shrugged, figuring it was probably true, but hating that it would mean leaving Loki behind at SHIELD's mercy. They wouldn't do anything with Tony here, he'd made it clear enough that that wasn't what he wanted. But if they'd all gone of to Japan, who was to say who'd rake orders from who. Loki wasn't exactly uninteresting to experiment on... A former God, thousand of years old, cursed with a mortal body, among other things...
"In any case, let's just hurry."
It didn't sit well with him that he'd have to leave Loki behind, but it became apparent that he wasn't going to get any chance of talking anyone into changing their mind. Not even Fury was willing to bend the rules for him, probably because his hatred for Loki went further than any morale. Frankly, no one actually seemed to care. Tony couldn't blame them for it, but it didn't sit well with him.
"So, the only reason you ask Loki to come along was to ensure that he wouldn't do anything in my absence?" Tony asked Fury as they had a moment alone, before they'd depart. "I guess I understand that. But let me just make clear there's a big, a very big, difference between making sure he doesn't do anything and actually using him for whatever silly investigations you've got going on. Yes?"
"I don't make all the rules, Stark," Fury replied, in that demanding way that only he could muster. "But I believe it is indeed not the intention to do anything with him. He just needs to be locked up, that's all."
"If something happens to him, you'll regret it."
"I don't make all the rules," Fury repeated and it didn't sit well with Tony at all, but he knew too that the only thing he could do was make sure he went back and forth as quickly as he possibly could..
The most annoying part was that they had to pass Loki's cell on the way out of the place, which was slightly unbearable as he saw Loki sitting on the bed, annoyed and someone else in the room, talking to him. He then stopped walking and turned towards the cell. "Give him a book," he said then. "Lots of books and lots of pens. Don't let him rot in this cell," Tony sneered at one of the guards that stood at the door of Loki's cell. He knew Loki wouldn't be able to see, nor hear him, which was a shame. "It's an order. If you don't do it you're going to regret it, now off you go."
"Stark, you can't order people around here," Natasha spoke, who'd waited for him. "You're not even officially a part of SHIELD, let alone..." she let out a soft sigh and shook her head. "If Fury doesn't have full control, then you won't either."
"I don't care, they just better do it," he spoke, looking sideways at Romanov, who raised her eyebrows in an accusing manner. "What are you accusing me of?"
"Of being you," she said, turning a left, then heading towards the private land behind SHIELD's facility.
"Now, Avengers," Fury spoke and Tony was wondering where Banner was in all this. Was he going to join in? "You have an hour to get some stuff from your home, but you will be back here afterwards," Fury spoke. "It's a deal, now, off you go ladies, we've got serious business to attend."
And so Stark was off home, where he packed not only a lot of his clothes, a suit, extra shoes, but made a box with books that he owned. Dracula, Alice in Wonderland, Shakespeare, Hemmingway, it was all there. In it, he tossed lots of pens, got Jarvis informed of his plan and ordered Pepper to sit the place until he was back, which was their deal.
He got in his suit and made Jarvis send the reserves with him compactly. Then he was back to where he'd left. The suit unraveled from his body and formed a suit-case shaped chest, which he grabbed and took towards Fury. "Enough space for all this cargo?" he asked, holding the box of books under his arm. Fury shrugged a little, implying that it was going to have to fit.
He then turned around and walked back into the building, returning to the guard he'd addressed so angrily. "Give this to him," he spoke, getting a pen from inside the box and scratching 'Loki' into it. "Get it?" he pointed into the cell. "Loki, now, chop chop, go inside, go give it to him," he said and waited for the man to actually do so.
It was only after a few moments of hesitation that the man figured it could do no harm. "We need to check the books first," he said.
"There are no weapons in there, if that's what you're on about," Tony said. "Well- get to it then." He was growing more and more impatient and he knew that that meant he was getting snappier and snappier. Not necessarily the best of moods to be in when trying to get someone to do what you want them to do. Soon they were indeed checking the books, looking through them quickly and looking through the box. Of course they found nothing. "Great, now give it to him. Better still," he said, while grabbing the box, "let me give it to him."
That actually seemed to make the agent feel a little less uncomfortable. Ah, so they were all scared of Loki. Not necessarily the best of things, as that meant they'd hurt him when he tried anything. He stepped inside once the door opened and Loki's eyes immediately looked up. He saw the fear in them disappear quickly as Loki saw who the intruder was, however.
"Seeing as you'll have to stay here for a little while, I figured I'd bring you this," Tony said and he put the box down next to Loki on the bed, who looked at it quickly, though didn't open it to see what was inside, before looking up at Tony again.
"What do you mean 'a little while'?" he asked. "I can't stay here! These people hate me!"
"I know, but there is no other way," he said, hoping that Loki would actually understand this. That Loki would know that Tony had tried his best to come up with another option. "I'm going to try my hardest to be back in time," he added. "In the meantime, you can read."
"What if they take them away?" Loki asked.
"They-" He wanted to tell Loki that they wouldn't, but frankly he couldn't be sure. SHIELD wasn't known for their honesty, after all. For all Tony knew they were just pretending to keep him here, when in fact they had different plans in mind. "You're Loki," Tony replied then. "You have been through more than probably all the agent together have been. You can pull through anything. Just stay strong."
And with that, he was off.
When they were on the plane, Natasha, Clint, Steve, Nick, Tony and Bruce, they were quite silent for the beginning of the trip as they watched the news on the Silver Demon. "We can do something more fun, you know, guys," he said, raising his eyebrows a little bit. "This is an I don't know how many hour long trip and we're watching the news?" he asked. "I hope somebody brought scotch."
"No, we purposely didn't bring scotch," he said, to which Tony growled.
"Who thought of that? Who thought that that would be funny, hm?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.
"I did," Fury responded. "I don't want you drunk on my flight, or when you get there, Stark. We've got important stuff to do, we need you to keep your act together."
"So when I drink I'm unreasonable?"
"When you drink, you get drunk and when you're drunk you're unreasonable," Bruce then butted in. "You shouldn't drink so much."
"I'll decide that for myself, thank you very much," Tony sneered, although there wasn't much he could decide at the moment, as there wasn't any alcohol. Great... He should've thought to bring some himself. "I'm not even all that bad," he said then, just wanting to get that out there.
"No, but you can be," Bruce replied.
"Like you'd know," Tony replied, before he figured they might as well drop all the passively aggressive topics. It wouldn't do their long journey much good, after all.