Chapter XXV

"Be still my beating heart"

Surprisingly, Tony recovered quickly. Two days after Carol brought him and Nebula back to Earth, he was just as new, nicely healed and in a good shape. Eir, the healer from Asgard didn't use as much magic on Tony. Stark healed up himself. It was strange. Bruce immediately wanted to test Tony, but other than slight abnormalities in his blood system Tony was just fine. The changes were coming from the arc reactor, he was sure of it. Because, what else it could be?

Once recovered, Tony kidnapped Eir to his tower. He had more means in there to work on this spell she wanted to cast to bring Loki back from death.

Loki. His lover, who sacrificed himself for the greater good. Tony missed him like crazy. He never believed that he can love someone so much as he loves Loki. The Aesir mage became his life, his heart, and his soul. He was his other, better half. He needed him in his life. Without Loki there was nothing for Tony. If a few years back someone would tell him he'd be so much dependent on someone else, hell that he'd be so much in love that he couldn't understand it, he'd laugh at the said person. Love wasn't his kind of thing. It was an emotion and Tony wasn't good in those. And yet, here he was. In love with an alien prince who was dead.

But not for long.

He and Eir will bring him back. Tony will happily sacrifice his own soul for Loki's life.

"Are you sure, it's a good idea?" Nebula, who never left his side since they came home, asked him, as she sat on the couch in the living room. She turned out to be a great friend and someone who's similar to him. She too went through lots of shit in her life, mostly caused by dear-old-daddy. Yeah, Tony welcomed her in the club with open arms.

"I'll do everything to get him back, Blue," Nebula didn't comment further. Instead, she looked at Eir's hands, as the Aesir was mixing a concoction for Tony.

"So, what is this drink?" Nebula asked Eir. "Is it safe for Tony? He's human."

"Hey!" he poked her in her ribs. "I may be mortal and all but I'm no wimp. I can handle this."

"You must understand, Consort Stark…"

"Tony," he interrupted her. "Please, call me Tony, Eir."

"I could not. It is forbidden to address the royal family without their proper status," she quickly explained, not looking into his eyes. Raising eyes on the royalty was looked up as a huge wrong and Eir didn't want to face the wrath of King Thor. Regardless of the fact that they've studied together and played a lot in their youth. Consort Stark was the same royalty as king Thor and prince Loki. The bond he had formed with prince Loki was obvious and any mage could feel it. A magical bond between a mage and his lover was considered as a marriage.

She stirred the potion in the pot, waiting until it changes its color into yellow. For now, it was still brown. It meant a few hours more were needed to gain wanted properties.

"Fine," Tony mumbled and leaned over the table she was concocting the potion at. "So, tell me everything again."

"Prince Loki didn't die exactly in a battle," she started sitting across Tony and Nebula on the chair. Despite the previous words of Consort Stark, Eir knew she could not sit next to him. You always must face the royalty with a small distance, eyes not lingering on their faces for too long. Thus, once seated on the chair, Eir looked briefly into Tony's eyes, before her eyes focused on the glowing circle in his chest. Tony explained to her last night how he had gotten it for the second time. He inserted this in his chest before he and prince Loki started their journey into the cosmos. Even though Prince Loki was against this in the first place, Consort Stark reassured him it's nothing like before. It's not connected to his real heart. It is only a means to help with his armor. "Prince Loki died while using his seidr and the magic he channeled from the Yggdrasil. Yes, he fought off many of the enemies, but… do you anything about Valhalla?"

"It's your kind of heaven, right?"

"No. Valhalla is for warriors, for those who die during a battle, killed off by a weapon, from the hands of their opponent," she explained, as she weaved the image of Valhalla she knew from the old text in the library. "When you enter the Valhalla, there are no enemies. Everyone is a warrior, regardless of the side they've been fighting for. And the warriors there are served by Valkyries."

"Valkyries? Like Brunhilde?" Nebula asked curiously. She took a liking to the woman instantly, though not like she liked Tony. Her pose, wit, and courage reminded Nebula of her lost sister, Gamora.

"Yes, most of the Valkyries come and gather the dead warriors and escorts them to the gates of Valhalla, where the king and his two most trusted Valkyries rules the realm. Previously it was Borr, who resided as the king of Valhalla, however now that king Odin is dead, he took his rightful place among them," she was saying. "But there are two more places, where a soul gets after death. Fôlkvang and Niflheim. Those who do not die in an honorable, warrior death, ends in the Niflheim. And those, who are not chosen by Valkyries and their king, but dies in a battle, ends up in Fôlkvang, meadow of Freyja, the goddess of love, war, seidr and many more."

"Freyja?" Stark reacted immediately. "I know her! She's been talking to me and getting me to Yggdrasil."

Tony began to explain Eir how he came to knowing Freyja with as many details as he could remember. The young woman was listening closely, giving him a curious look. It was unheard of gods to speak to mortals, let alone call on them. However, Consort Stark was a remarkable mortal, perhaps it is why the goddess chose him.

"She called herself Future?" Eir inquired, to which Tony nodded. "Hmm… That is odd. I have never heard the gods choosing other names. Freyja is known by other names, but none of it is the Future. Are you certain her name is Freyja?"

"That's how she introduced herself first to Loki then to me," Eir wondered about it for a while, but no reasonable answer came to her mind. She wasn't as close to Yggdrasil's magic as Prince Loki and Queen Frigga themselves. Perhaps it was possible for Freyja to be the Future as well? "Even if she's not this Freyja, I'm sure I can charm her just as much. Are we sure that Loki is in that meadow of her?"

"Prince Loki died in a battle, but his death wasn't honorable," she replied. "You must know, Consort Stark, that according to Valkyries and their ruler, the only honorable death that lets you sit among them is by a blade. Seidr's users are seen lesser than warriors, who wields a weapon."

"That's bullshit," Tony commented sourly. "No wonder Lokes never thinks himself highly."

Eir only smiled sadly.

"Ok, tell me, what I have to do."

"You wear the mark of Prince Loki," she started, gently taking Tony's right hand into hers. She turned it to look at his wrist. Eir moved her palm over Tony's wrist to reveal the spark of Loki's magic wrapped around his veins. Tony's eyes widened in shock. "There's a bit of his magic in your body. In the eyes of the Norns, you may be a seidr wielder too, even if the amount of seidr is barely sensible. Also, your glowing circle possesses magic, this is why Yggdrasil's magic didn't end you when you stepped on it. It is similar to the magic of the space stone. You must know that the cosmic entities that were turned into the stones… their magic came from the Yggdrasil as well. It is not only the world's tree but also the life and death tree. It is the beginning and the end of everything in the cosmos. Your arc reactor, even though made by your hand, is a magical device, which is an advantage for you. Thanks to it, the stones that Thanos used on you didn't kill you."

"Damn…" Nebula whispered to herself. Tony could only agree with his friend.

"As a seidr's user, I am certain you will end up in Freyja's meadow," Eir smiled at him before she lowered her eyes again.

"Wait…" Tony said, as her words sunk into his mind. "End up… dead? You will kill me?"

"Only briefly, Consort Stark," she quickly assured him and looked up to his eyes. "This potion I'm making will let me stop your heart. Of course, we will have to have someone to kill you during a fight. However, only briefly. Five Midgardian minutes at most. Your soul will not leave your body entirely. I will be able to call your soul back in time. You only need to get into Fôlkvang and take Prince Loki's soul back. You will wear a container for his soul, Consort. Then I will call on the powers of the Yggdrasil and recreate his body. From there, we will have to wait until his life force will awake."

A pregnant silence fell into the room, as Eir finished her words. Both Tony and Nebula were thinking hard about it.

Thanos's daughter had more reserve towards this whole plan. She hardly believed in its success, despite all reassurances that Eir was poisoning Tony's mind with. Nebula didn't trust the Aesir witch. Nebula wasn't gifted with magic, let alone she surrounded herself with witches. The only ones that possessed magic in her father's home were Ebony Maw, the Other, and Loki when he was captured by Thanos… Truthfully, it was Nebula who had founded him and brought towards her father. Loki was in huge despair and Nebula saw a great asset in him. Magicians were capable of everything and they believed Loki to be the same. Prince of Asgard wasn't reluctant to their plan at first until he gained the strings of his mind back in his hands. Only when he started to stand up to Thanos and the Other, her father decided to use the mind stone on him to make him a good pet. There was a brief moment, back in time, when Nebula thought her father's actions are wrong. However, Thanos quickly restored her processors back to his liking. She was the ever good daughter and that bastard still preferred her sister, Gamora.

Despite the previous hate towards the green-skinned woman, Nebula missed her sister. She wished she could be brought back just like Loki will be. They could be true sisters then.

Tony thought strongly about Eir's plan. There was a lot of danger in it, but… despite all the alerts in his mind, his heart made the decision quickly, silencing his stupid brain once and for all.

"Ok, let's do it," he announced after a moment. Nebula regarded him with a stern look, but Tony squeezed her hand reassuringly. "You will kill me, Nebs."

"I'm no…"

"Please...only you can help me," he pleaded with her. Those stupid, sad, big brown eyes were melting her heart. What was happening with her? Since when she was emotional? "Bruce will try to stop me… he doesn't understand… I need him back. I can't live without Loki. Please, Nebula."

"If something goes wrong…"

"I will survive this," his words were certain. "I've survived lots of shit in the past. I can handle this. We can handle this."

"Fine," she finally agreed. Tony threw his arms around her in gratitude. Nebula stiffens in her place. She didn't do hugs. "If you end up dead and your family tries to blame me…"

"They won't," Stark insisted, before turning back to Eir. "When you'll be done with the potion, Eir?"

"I believe an hour or so," she replied, looking back at the potion that was now in an amber color. "We will need some weapon, preferably a sword."

"What about a dagger?" Tony offered and stood up from the couch.

For a moment he disappeared in his and Loki's bedroom. The man opened the nightstand on the left side of the bed which informally belonged to his lover. He knew that there was a set of daggers made of some Asgardian metal. Loki left it there, before they went to space, insisting that they are a courting gift for Anthony, but Tony yet has to learn how to use them properly. Tony took the daggers with himself back to the living room.

"I know those daggers," Eir commented, her eyes seizing them up. "Queen Frigga gave them to Prince Loki, when he was five, after his first successful shapeshifting. Prince Loki always used them in combat. They were enchanted to be always precise in their movements."

"I didn't know…"

"They will be good for the task," Eir quickly turned back to the topic, before Tony could dwell more onto thoughts about his dead for now lover. "Nebula you must push the blade through Consort Stark's heart before the last beat of it. After the last beat, Consort, part of your soul will leave your body briefly and you will get Prince Loki's soul back."

"And the container you mentioned?" Tony asked further.

Eir stood up from the chair and walked towards the Consort. She crouched before him and touched the green necklace on his neck.

"This is connected to Prince's seidr, it will be a perfect container for his soul."

"Ok, we will do this."

What can go wrong, right?

Two hours later, after Tony drank the sour, yellow potion. It tasted horrible like meat turned into a drink with lots of salt. Terrible. He wished to drink water after this, but Eir forbid it. Stark felt as his heart was slowing down, its beats were lighter when he was fakely fighting with Nebula in his living room. Finally, FRIDAY announced that his heartbeat was dropping fastly and Eir confirmed it with her checking spell. And then, she gave Nebula a sign. The blue woman pressed her lips into a tight line and pushed the blade through Tony's heart until the hilt hit his chest above the arc-reactor. Iron Man dropped his own dagger and fell to his knees. His heart was erratic for a moment, blood was pumping in his veins and some started to run down his naked torso. He tried to catch his last breath and think about Loki.

Finally, his heart gave the last beat and everything around him turned black. With the last will of his mind, he thought.

I'm coming Loki. I'm coming for you.