A/N: Long chapter is long. And hopefully exciting! Is the end coming?
I don't own The Avengers, Loki, Iron Man, or anything of the like. Just the thoughts inside my head.
A few nights later Loki wandered downstairs and saw Tony in his workshop. He thought at first that Tony would have been checking to see if any portals had been opened recently, as most of the Avengers had been doing since they were told about it. As he walked in, hearing some music playing in the lab, he saw Tony working on some Iron Man upgrades.
"Is this something to keep you busy?" Loki asked as he walked over to the man covered in grease. "It's almost four in the morning."
"I had an idea," Tony told him. "I needed to come down and test it, before I lost the idea."
"You didn't sleep last night either," Loki said as he took a seat at the same table Tony was working at. "You should get some rest, we don't know when something will happen, or when we'll be able to draw Thanos out. You should be a little rested before that happens."
"I feel like sometimes I'm more tired than before I went to sleep," Tony admitted quietly. He shook his arm out, the healing cuts and scars pulling tightly.
Loki eyed him carefully. "I can tell that you've been meditating, too," Loki said and Tony looked up at him. "I may not have my powers, but the spell I cast up in Asgard still holds. I can feel that you've been gathering energies."
"Figured it'd be a good tactic to practice," Tony shrugged a little, smirking slightly. "I was able to light the stove without touching when I tried to make some soup last night."
Loki chuckled, a genuine smile reaching his eyes. "In no time you'll surpass me in title and skill as sorcerer and mage."
"I'd be scared if I were you," Tony winked at him. "I've been experimenting with holding onto energy, storing it to use at a later date. Almost like an emergency supply."
"Yes, I can see how that might be a good idea," Loki nodded. "Although I do hope that you don't plan on using that tactic relatively soon." Loki looked at Tony and noted how the man went back to work on the gauntlet of his glove. Loki sighed a little. "Tony-" He was stopped when an alarm started going off, and the lab started to shake slightly.
Tony quickly pulled up a screen while steadying himself with his uninjured arm. "JARVIS, is this an earthquake?" Loki made his way over to Tony so he could see the screen.
"It is not," JARVIS replied as the shaking died down. "The sensors have actually picked up activity matching the readings of the portals you recently installed." Tony's eyes widened a little. "The readings show a portal opening up a half of a mile away from the mansion." A map showed up and Loki was already in motion. Tony quickly ran after him up the stairs where the other Avengers were arriving.
Tony and Loki looked out the windows and saw a bright blue light, and Thanos, grinning. Tony felt his breath catch in his chest when he saw a familiar blue glow in at his waist. "Oh, shit."
"Well, he's here," Bruce commented.
"And he has the tesseract," Loki said quietly. They could see a portal was open behind Thanos and his army was filing in, starting to surround the mansion.
"How did he get a hold of it?" Steve asked as he stepped closer to the windows.
"I assume he was not content with his defeat from earlier, nor the fact that his prisoner escaped," Loki glanced back at the group. "He is quite capable of working the shadows."
"Asgard has been infiltrated," Thor muttered darkly.
"Would he have that gauntlet you were talking about earlier?" Tony asked. He tried to ignore the phantom pains he was feeling reminding of what he had suffered a week previous.
"No," Thor shook his head. "The tesseract was not placed in the place as the infinity Gauntlet. It has the potential to cause too much destruction, there are different wards around it."
"We've dealt with the tesseract once before, why not give it another go?" Clint said, pulling out his bow.
"We need a plan before we jump into this," Steve said. "This isn't going be the same as before. Our enemy is different and already knows how to readily make portals."
"We at least know what he wants," Tony murmured.
"And that's why you and Loki are going to stay here," Natasha told them. "Tony, you're still to sore to handle the suit right now, and Loki still doesn't have all of his powers." Tony and Loki still hadn't told them he had no powers. "It's not worth the risk."
Thanos' army had surrounded the mansion but stood still, not advancing on the group. "We should stay as a group," Steve suggested. "If we split up they'll overpower us individually. If we're together we have a better chance of keeping them at bay. Tony," the billionaire looked over at their leader. "Is there anywhere we could possibly funnel them in? Force them to come in small numbers?"
"If you want to keep them away from the mansion? No." Tony shook his head. "There are a couple of outside areas that have walls closing in to form a small entrance, or even the gate at the driveway. I didn't exactly buy this place for it's fortress like defenses."
"We try to keep them away from the mansion at all costs," Steve said and the others nodded.
"Watch out for Thanos and anything that glows blue," Tony told them.
"I think it would be a good idea to try and stay away from the big purple monster period," Natasha muttered. "If we can bring down his number maybe he'll turn tail and run." Loki snorted quietly enough that only Tony heard him.
"Alright, let's take positions be they get tired." They all followed Steve out of the room quickly.
"You two aren't thinking of doing anything stupid are you?" Tony and Loki turned to see Pepper and Phil standing towards the back of the room. "Because I know Tony, and that's something he would think about doing."
"I'm afraid we don't really have the capacity to do much even if we wanted to," Loki said quietly. Tony stayed quiet, and that worried Pepper.
"I'm going to call Director Fury," Phil told them. "He might be able to get some back up here sooner than later." He left the room and Pepper looked at the two before following him.
"We aren't going to do anything stupid right?" Tony looked at Loki.
"I believe that we have different definitions of stupid," Loki told him. They both moved in unison back down towards the lab. Loki wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for, but he knew they would need to be prepared for when Thanos' army made it to the mansion.
Tony suddenly stopped at a desk and leaned against it pushing a hand to his head. He frowned when he felt a pain brush against his consciousness. He took a breath when a sharper pain followed. "Loki?" He called out quietly. The god turned around then frowned when he spot how Tony was sagging against the desk. "Something's not right."
Loki quickly walked over and lifted Tony's head by his chin. He could see flashes of blue in Tony's eyes, but he kept his expression neutral. "You need to get out of the lab, now." Tony frowned at Loki then winced a little. "There are too many weapons in here for you to grab."
Tony's eyes widened a little when he caught Loki's meaning. "No, I want you to knock me out if this is happening again," Tony had grabbed Loki's wrist. "I can't go through that again. I was talking to Clint and we had two different experiences."
Loki's jaw tightened and he glanced at Tony's hand. "Tony, let go of my wrist." He had a knot in his stomach when Tony blinked and looked at his hand. He tried to pull away but his hand didn't move and Loki saw the panic in Tony's eyes behind the flickering blue.
"I'm serious Loki," Tony looked back the god. "I can feel it there."
"You fought it off once, you can do it again," Loki told him, pulling Tony closer. He could feel the Tony's fingers tightening and relaxing as Tony shut his eyes tightly. The knit in his stomach became tighter when Tony still hadn't moved his hand.
Tony opened his eyes and Loki scowled slightly when he saw they were a familiar blue. He narrowed his eyes a little and Tony turned, pulling Loki with him, and heading for the exit. Loki should have known that Thanos wouldn't give up Tony so easily, not when Loki was the first on his list.
Tony pulled Loki from the mansion, bypassing the army, giving the fighting Avengers a wide berth, and headed directly for Thanos. Loki watched and brought up his masks as they came closer to the grinning Titan.
"I thought it would be easier this way," Thanos said as they stopped several feet away. Tony had let go of Loki's wrist and the god just looked at Thanos.
"It feels as if you're still a little bitter," Loki said smoothly. "Although I'm not sure what for. It couldn't possibly be from the first failed attempt at getting the tesseract. Or perhaps it's when I came in and took what you were playing with." Thanos smirked a little and Tony suddenly feel to his knees, gripping his head, groaning slightly. Loki forced himself to stay still and keep looking at Thanos.
"It's only because you don't share your toys, Asgardian," Thanos told him. "But that is behind us, and I am here now. You stand before me, and I await you to acknowledge your defeat."
"You're crazier than I thought," Tony growled out and had pushed himself up the one knee painfully. "I've met some crazy people, well, things, and you top the list." Thanos eyed Tony, glancing to see Loki desperately trying not to move to help the mortal.
"And what do you offer to make me withdraw, mortal?" Thanos knew how to break the man, but he was intriguing.
"The offer to keep your life?" Tony was standing and looked up at Thanos, his brown eyes clear again. "You didn't think that this planet didn't learn from the first invasion? We learn, we adapt, we get better. Unlike you, chasing the same pipe dreams across a big galaxy." Thanos took a step towards Tony and leaned down. Tony took an involuntary step back and Thanos laughed.
"Big words for a tiny mortal. You should learn to back them up with actions." He suddenly threw his hand out and Tony hit the ground, sliding against the grass away from Loki and Thanos. Loki turned towards him but was held back by a hand. "Allow me to demonstrate. This is how I plan on taking over your pathetic planet."
Loki frowned and looked at Thanos, then froze. Thanos has grabbed the tesseract and was pointing it at Loki. The glow of the glow of the cube grew in intensity and Loki could feel the energy flowing off of it. The energy suddenly shot out of it in a beam and hit Loki's chest. He gasped and stumbled, but didn't fall. The power washed through his body at an alarming rate, burning through his muscles and veins. Instinctively he focused on his core and the energy started to gather, the pain centralized in his chest now.
Tony pushed himself up and squinted a little as his vision tried to clear quickly. He heard Loki grunt and frowned when he looked over. Loki's fingers had curled into fists, his knuckles turning white as the tesseracts energy was directed into him.
Thanos grinned as he watched. He had his own personal power source. The tesseract was too unpredictable, and with the mage with him he would be able to mold the power however wanted. Loki was powerful enough that it would be a few millenia before his body burnt out from all the raw power.
Tony took a breath and looked over when he felt a spray of water at his back. He blinked a little and pushed himself up as fast as he could and stumbled to the edge of the small cliff around his mansion. He licked his lips then put two fingers in his mouth and let out the best high pitched whistle that he could.
Tony held his breath, heart pounding in his chest. When the waves started to crash and swirl his heart nearly lept form his chest. He saw Jormungandr's head emerge from the water and Tony called out to him.
"Jorm! I need your help." The serpent lowered his head to look directly at Tony. "I have to save Loki, but I can't do that with a battle raging around us. Can you help?" Jorm watched him then nodded his head once, starting to rise up. "Wait! Jorm looked at him. "My friends are there too, they're trying to help. It would be awesome if you could try not to kill them. You'll know who they are, really bright and loud, and hard to miss." Jorm seemed to snort before he rose up again. Tony let out a breath as he watched the serpent start to slide out of the water, to the land and into the fray.
Loki clenched his jaw, keeping the scream of pain trapped inside. His eyes shot open when felt a hand grab one of his fists. He looked over and saw Tony uncurling his fingers to take his hand. "What, are, you, doing?" Loki bit out slowly through the pain.
"Helping," Tony said shortly. "Overload a circuit with power, and it burns out." Loki's eyes widened a little.
Tony gasped when he started to pull some of the power from Loki and into him. The tesseract doubled the flow and Tony felt it. He stayed on his feet as long as he could, using Loki's hand as his anchor. The pain became too much and he fell to a knee, and Loki went down with him, still holding his hand.
"You need, to let, go," Loki growled out at him. "This is, too much, for mortals." Loki was taking deep breaths. "It's too much, for the gods!"
Tony grit his teeth and looked up at Loki. "I think this qualifies as something stupid," he mumbled. Taking a deep breath he pulled on the power more and almost pitched face first into the ground.
Thanos looked at the tesseract and glared when the power started to flow too freely. He turned his gaze to the two men and snarled. He took a step forward, only to be blocked by a large snake's head lowering in front of him, fangs gleaming with the blood of his army. Thanos dropped the tesseract to the ground as Jorm wrapped around Thanos and started to squeeze. They both growled and Jorm dove back into the water, taking the Titan with him.
The tesseract started to sputter, the light blinking rapidly. It let out one last blast of power before settling in a dim glow, the beam of light disappearing. Loki fell on both his knees then, his hand pulling Tony closer to him. Tony was breathing heavily, his body shaking slightly and Loki bit his lip.
"You have to let go of the power," Loki told him, his voice quiet. "Tony, you must let go of it, or it will kill you. Unfortunately it will kill you more quickly than I would be able to."
Tony grit his teeth and opened his eyes to look up at his lover. And wasn't that a term that Tony could rapidly get used to? "I can't," he whispered, letting a natural Stark grin cross his face. "I don't have a focusing point. Someone taught me that it was dangerous to release raw energy, so he never taught me how to." Tony leaned his head against Loki's arm. "I tell ya though, power like this could keep Stark Tower up and running for three life... times..." He teetered off and slowly lifted his idea, a light bulb almost visible above his idea. "I'll be damned."
Loki frowned a little and looked at Tony. "The arc reactor," Tony told him. "We can funnel it into my arc reactor. It was built to hold power-" They both ducked a little when there was an explosion of water and sand spraying down on them.
They looked over and saw Thanos pulled himself back on land, looking a worse for wear, but unfortunately alive. "I'll have my power now."