A/N: Drama!
The Avengers, Loki, Iron Man, or anything of the like. Just the thoughts inside my head. And taking some personal freedoms with mythology and lore.
"You have to tell me what's happening, now," Tony said as he shut the door to the study. He had gotten Loki alone. He needed to know what as happening and what to do before anyone else got hurt or killed. He was about to lock the door when it was pushed open by Emma. He let her walk in and she shut and locked the door. She threw the spear on a table and looked between the two of them.
"What was it supposed to mean?" She asked quietly. "There was a reason that he used that chain, with that ring, to kill her. I want to know why."
"Em," Tony started but Loki grabbed his arm.
"It was meant for me," she told her and Emma frowned. "She stepped in the way of it to save me."
"Why?" Emma looked at her, not knowing it was Loki. "Why would she do that? I needed her more, I don't even know you!"
"Emma," Tony stepped forward and took her hand gently. "I know-"
"No!" She pulled away. "The way Dad died was different! We don't even know this woman! All we know if that you've grown attached to her because you needed something to do. Why should I care about her? Give me one good reason when she's the reason that Dani is dead!"
"Because it's Loki," Tony said looking at her. Emma stopped and looked at Tony then over at Loki. "She did it because that's Loki and she didn't want you to lose your parent again."
"She knew?" Emma asked quietly, looking back at Tony frowning.
"She figured it out shortly before Lanhr showed up," Tony answered. Emma dropped into a chair, looking at the ground. "I didn't know until a few hours ago."
"Alright, spill it," she said after a few minutes, looking up. "Tell us everything. I think we deserve it."
Loki gasped, eyes widening when he felt the spear push through his back. "I was hoping that I wouldn't have had to do it this way," he heard Gauton talking behind him as he fell to his knees. "I would have liked it if you were alive, but I can work with it if you're dead as well." Loki took a breath and closed his eyes. He didn't have much time, he had to work quickly and he needed complete concentration.
He pulled off his ring, letting out a faint whine when he felt the bond with Tony break, a hollow pain in his chest. He needed to get somewhere to heal. Loki started to mumble under his breath quickly. "What are you trying, pet?" Gauton leaned down but Loki didn't open his eyes. He could feel the build up of power, he was almost done. "Don't worry, when I"m done you'll always be by my side. I might let you take take your lover as gift."
"You'll do nothing, if you can't have me," he growled out, looking at Gauton. "And you'll never find me now." Loki let the spell release and he gasped as he disappeared from Hel, appearing somewhere on a hill. he started to slide down and let out a shout when he rolled over his stomach, the force pushed the spear out of his body.
He hit the bottom, rolling into some brush and groaned. He took difficult breath, glowing hand resting on his stomach as his vision blackened, eyes closing.
Loki gasped and his eyes shot open suddenly. His heart was racing and his chest hurt. There was a hand over his chest and he tried to move when someone was leaning over him, hand glowing green. Someone else was holding onto his shoulders from behind.
"Shhh, stop," the person above him said softly. It was a woman. He blinked his eyes to clear them up, but didn't stop trying to move away. "If you keep moving you'll make your wounds worse. We're not going to hurt you, or your children." Loki stopped and looked at her. She was elven, but he could sense another magic from her. Fae. "You are a friend of the Fae here, Loki."
She pulled her hand away and the hands on his shoulders slowly moved away too. He sat up slowly and looked down. Blood stained his clothes but the wound was healed as well as they could do. "We felt when you came here, so you probably shouldn't stay." He turned and saw a man behind him, the one who must have been holding him down. "Others will have felt it, and the ones who are after you will surely find you." Loki frowned and started to move away.
"It wasn't that hard to tell that you were running," the woman said as she wiped her hands off. "Don't use your magic, any of your magic. You need it to continue healing, and for the children, and the less you use the harder it is to track you."
"Why are you helping me?" He asked cautiously.
"We hear rumors from the Nine Realms," the man said as he started to walk. The woman followed and waved her arm for Loki to follow. "And from what we've heard Gauton is after you."
"Why?" Loki frowned. "Why is he doing this now?"
"Because things have changed," the woman replied as he followed them through a forest. "There is a new ruler of Helheim, a new King of Asgard, King Frey talks of putting his heir on the throne, and Vanaheim has lost Kasir, one of the last who can see beyond the Realms."
"You are unique among the Fae, Trickster," the man continued. "You were born Jotun, given Asgardian form and powers, and then changed to a Fae. There has never been one like you before, and there possibly never shall be one like you. You were changed by one of the last original, pure, Fae, your powers are strong."
"I still don't understand what the changes in the Realms, and what I am have anything to do with Gauton." Loki hoped he wasn't being foolish by following them.
"He would control you again, put you on the throne of Jotunheim," the man turned to look at him. "You would be imbued with the powers of a King. He would then use you to turn his attention to Muspelheim, release Surtur, and then gain the allegiance of the dwarves on Nidavellir. Every realm would have been affected, the essence of each realm weakened."
"And with you at his side as his pet he would gain the power of each Realm, collecting the power." Loki's eyes widened a little. "You know, for someone who's supposed to be one of the smartest beings in the Nine Realms, it sure took you a while to catch on." Loki shot a glare at the man.
"If this is true then I need to keep moving. I need to all but disappear from the realms." The two fae nodded.
"We'll spread the word that you've died," the woman said. "For that's how we found you." Loki looked at them and nodded a little. "This is as far as we can help you."
"It would be foolish of you to go back to Midgard," the man told Loki. "If you want to keep your family safe, then they have to think that you're dead."
"Don't tell me what I have to do," Loki hissed and removed his bloody jacket. "Specially when it comes to my family. I thank you for your help, but your opinion is not wanted past that point." He glared and started to walk away.
The woman hit the fae's arm. "You could have handled that better."
Tony stood in the door watching the twins sleep. Tyr and Lya looked up at him from the floor and he put a finger to his mouth. They both put their heads back down, still protecting the boys. He shut the door a little and walked back down the hall. He needed time in his lab.
Loki was waiting by the elevator with a wet cloth in her hand. "You need to take care of your eye, or you'll risk infection and losing it completely."
"It's not like I didn't almost lose it before," he said walking onto the elevator. Loki followed him and held the cloth out. Tony sighed and took it wiping his face off. He looked at it to see that there must have still been a good deal on blood on his face. He was glad that the boys had still been asleep, he wouldn't have wanted them to see that. They didn't say anything as the elevator moved.
Tony headed for his lab, knowing that Loki was right behind him. He didn't know what was going to happen. "JARVIS, bring up all the readings of the barrier, sensors, vital signs, everything running right now to protect us." Screens started to pop up and Tony dropped the cloth on the table. He pulled open his desk drawer and grabbed another pair of glasses.
"Will you let me heal your eye before you set to work?" Loki asked before he could put the glasses on. "You'll be no use to anyone if you can't focus."
Tony sighed a little and put the glasses down. She walked over and put a glowing finger by his eye. He closed them and winced a little. When Loki had pulled away he put his glasses on and looked at the screens in front of him. "Five years is a long time," he said as he sifted through all the screens. "No word, no nothing. It took me a week before I could even walk into the bedroom again. It took much longer than that before I would even leave the Tower."
Tony sat down and ruffled his hair a little. "I had to put up with someone coming over everyday to check on me. Eindride almost didn't want to go to school because he didn't want me to live alone. Do you know how long it took me to come to terms with the fact that weren't coming back?" Tony turned to look at her. "And now you tell us that apparently you're a key to the survival of the Nine realms. It felt like I was dying when you were gone, and then they gave me your ring. I lived alone for so many years before I met you, and I'll be damned if I wasn't good at it. But now, I wasn't even able to handle one night by myself. I have the dogs with me every night, they're the only reason I'm able to get to sleep at night. It took me five years to be happy again."
Loki looked down a little. "I'm sorry."
Tony groaned and dropped his head back a little. "Now, I'm going to feel like a jackass. Just, let me be angry while I figure out how to keep everyone safe. Stay in the boys room, the dogs will sleep there too to make sure you stay safe. They're good at that." He turned back to the screens. "If luck is with me right now, which I doubt, Emma won't have told everyone yet and I won't have to deal with everyone coming here at once. I've had enough of their concern to last for a while."
"Perhaps we can talk later, before everyone comes over, and we've been able to sleep," Loki half suggested, half asked.
"We'll see, I should at least be in a better mood in the morning." Loki nodded and left the lab. Tony sighed and dropped his head on the desk. He'd look at the readings, set up some more outside defenses to stop Gauton and Lanhr from getting inside again, then he'd try and get some sleep.
Tony walked into his room and sighed looking around. He shut the door and pulled off his shirt. This would be the first night that he slept truly alone in the room, and the one he used to share the room with was just down the hall. He pulled out a pair of pajama bottoms from the dresser and slipped them on before moving to the bed.
He tossed and turned for a bit before settling on his side, too exhausted. He was almost asleep when he turned to the side, his arm falling out to land on the empty side of the bed. Except it wasn't empty. "I don't think it's the best idea to sleep here," Tony mumbled out tiredly. He rolled onto his back and stretched his arms a little.
"I hadn't planned on sleeping." Tony's eyes shot open at the voice. Someone suddenly sat down on his hips. He could see Lanhr's face as a spell started to glow in his hands. "Of course, you aren't going to be sleeping either. We need a back up plan, feel honored, pet." He quickly pushed the spell into Tony's chest and he wheezed out a breath as pain wracked his body back arching.
"We're going to try and make you even better than Loki, just in case of course." Tony tried to move, tried to get Lanhr off of him as a second voice in the room spoke, but the pain and the spell restricted his movements. "Although this time we don't have the advantage of time, so we have to do this quickly." Tony was able to look over and saw Gauton standing by the bed, a spell in his palm. "After we're done with you, we'll get Loki, but after so long I need to relieve my frustration and anger somehow. And I've heard positively glowing things from Lanhr about you."
He placed the orb on Tony's chest, on top of the arc reactor, and it started to sink in. Tony's eyes widened and his mouth opened in a soundless scream as his body started to burn from the inside.