As Tony slowly woke, he realized there was an odd shimmer in front of his eyes making the world around him a little blurry. Tony frowned as he stuck his hand right through it and saw the shimmer turn green where he touched it.
Wait… Was he. Inside of an illusion. Slowly Tony crawled out and realized indeed, the place he had been laying. It looked like a big rock, then he looked around and there was no sign of Loki.
"He said not to wake you." Sounded a female voice and Tony turned to Nebula who still couldn't move from her spot. "There's food for you in the illusion next to the materials he gathered for you."
Tony turned to the familiar illusion of a rock and next to it, another rock. Trying to be careful Tony stack his hand through the new illusion and true enough, found a bowl of the usual goop which he pulled out sighing deeply. "I miss solids." he murmurer. "Know something? Broccoli is the worst, I hate broccoli. My company for a god damn piece of broccoli." he stated stuffing the spoon into his mouth.
He was pretty numb to the bitter taste by now. It was all the same.
Only to soon was Tony done with his food and then pulled out all the parts, for the first time allowed to actually really look at them. "Let's see, what have we here?" Tony muttered as he pulled them out and slowly started to sort the items in small piles.
Many of the items were broken, looked like Loki had been looting broken machines or just taken broken parts that were about to be thrown out. Made sense, the god wouldn't want to stir any suspicion by taking things from functioning machines.
"Okay this at least should be able to cover your heart so people can't just randomly grab it or.." Tony shivered. "I'll close you up in front first." he said. "Then I'll work on a limp." he quieted then turned to Nebula. "Which one do you want me to do first? Legs or arms?" he asked. "And erh, the first one I do will probably be my most rough piece of work as I'll figure things out as I go along."
"My left arm." Nebula requested. "Then do the right."
Tony nodded. "I'll do the best I can with hands but… That's incredible delicate work."
"Just make sure I can hold a spoon and feed myself." Nebula asked. "I assume you have much better equipment on your home planet. Give me proper hands there."
Tony was quiet, he had kept quiet. He didn't really count on ever leaving this place, but he wasn't going to say it. Instead he nodded. "Sure." he stated. "Back home I can give you the finest most delicate hands you can ask for."
"Just make them functional." Nebula sighed.
"Why not just take the opportunity?" Tony asked in a small smile. "I could make you strong and beautiful."
"I do not understand what need I would have of beauty." Nebula replied.
"Come on, everyone likes to feel beautiful." Tony smirked. "Just look at Lokes, when he is making a projection of himself he makes himself look gorgeous."
"Perhaps I don't suffer from the same kind of vanity as well as self esteem issues as the godling." Nebula commented.
Tony smirked. "I have a hard time telling if you two hate each other or actually like each other secretly." he admitted.
"I hate his guts." Nebula stated bluntly making Tony snort. "But he is incredible useful." she then admitted. "You were right, if we are to escape from here we need him." she stated. "We have a common goal and we need each other. And that's that."
"Yeah." Tony sighed deeply as he kept sorting. "So how's it hanging with you any Nebula, it's been a while since it has just been the two of us hasn't it?" he asked.
Nebula didn't reply.
"Okay, how's it sitting?" Tony asked.
Still no reply.
Tony sighed. "I miss Loki, at least he replies to you. We can actually have talks." he commented. "Nothing personal, but you're not exactly a great talker Nebs." as he glanced at Nebula she looked incredible annoyed, but she still wasn't talking.
"Come one we can talk about anything you want." Tony offered. "Supergiant is absolutely cuckoo, we agree on that right."
"Tony, you are wasting your energy with all the talk." Nebula finally said.
"It's how I work best!" Tony stated. "When I build things I always talk to my A.I. all the time! I can't work when I'm not talking! I even talk to Dumb-E… and the suite I am building. And my cars." he blinked. "I should be better at just talking to you, I ones spend an entire day talking to a water cooler while I was fixing my suite and Jarvis was being updated." he realized in a blink.
"There's something wrong with your head Tony." Nebula stated.
"Probably." Tony admitted. "Mom did talk about wanting to test me for ADHD… Dad said no. He said I just needed to learn to take responsibility and stuff."
Nebula looked really tired already. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Just pretend like you're listening, that's all you need to do. Nod ones in a while, agree with me and tell me how smart I am." Tony suggested.
"No." Nebula replied and Tony couldn't help but chuckle slightly.
Each time a guards came to either deliver prisoners or pick some up Tony hid inside of the illusion Loki had made for him. Then eventually, his own double casually strolled inside and glanced at Nebula.
He stood still until the guards had left then finally spoke. "I see you have managed to close up her chest."
"Yeah." Tony sat up so his head and torso appeared. "And there's this." he held up a long piece of electronic which just one joint in the middle. "Left arm." he informed. "The hand might be troublesome though… actually." he sighed. "With the things I have now, I am really afraid the best I can do is some kind of claw."
"Then do it." Nebula stated. "If I can hold a spoon and hold a gun, that's all that matters."
"It's ugly as sin." Tony sighed deeply looking at the rough arm.
"Build me a nicer one later." Nebula stated. "All I ask is that it works. Our focus must be to get out, then we can think of other things."
"Agreed." Loki sighed sliding down so he sat next to Nebula, also he was still looking like Tony's twin.
"Erh Lokes, you mind switching back? This is pretty freaky." Tony asked.
Loki rolled his eyes and then finally in a slight shimmer returned to his true self. "I'm glad you have clearly been working, I would have been highly annoyed if you didn't." he stated.
"And we wouldn't want you to be annoyed would we?" Tony asked in a teasing voice.
"No, you really wouldn't Tony." Loki replied in a deadpan tone.
"Oh." Tony blinked. "Right." he turned back to the arm he held. "So erhm." he hesitated. "How was work?"
"Fine." Loki shrugged. "I tried worse. Do you need more parts?"
"Not right now… But it wont be long." Tony sighed. "I already used most of what is usable for now." he admitted.
Loki sighed. "I'll take your next shift as well, then we shift back."
"Okay." Tony nodded. "Thanks Loki."
Loki shrugged. "We're each doing what we need to do. Simple as that." he stated echoing Nebulas previous sentiment and Loki sighed deeply.
"Yeah."