First and foremost: Happy 2013! I hope this year will bring luck and happiness to you all. I can't thank you all enough for sticking with this story!
Here is the chapter that has been in my mind since I first wrote that one-shot. It's not as long as some other ones, but dear Odin, the PLOT! It appears! After all this time there is a moving plot-line to this fic!
And I hope you don't all kill me when you see what happens…
Warning: Discussion of child death and child jeopardy.
As much as having a daughter had changed Tony's life, in the end he hadn't needed to give up Ironman altogether. Now that Evie was older it was easier for him to leave her in Pepper and Jarvis' capable hands (metaphorical in Jarvis' case) whilst he assembled with the rest of the Avengers for whatever threat or disaster demanded their help.
Sometimes it meant fighting the newest brand of supervillain and foiling whatever evil plot they had concocted, other times it was diving into a natural disaster to help pull people out of the path of the hurricane, or volcanic eruption, or tsunami that was threatening them.
It could be great, being a hero and a father; being able to come home and brag to his little girl about how he and the team had saved people from whatever-the-threat-had-been. It could also be heart-breaking.
It was an attack later attributed to one Doctor Doom that really made it clear to Tony how emotionally compromised he was in certain situations. The man himself had vanished (they would later be told that the Fantastic Four had found and dealt with him) so the Avengers were left trying to help the emergency services to find the survivors buried under the rubble of what was once down-town Los Angeles.
Tony had been working with Thor, the God lifting the masonry out of the way to allow Ironman access to pull people out from the cavities and corners they had squeezed themselves into. Sadly, not everyone managed avoid the collapsing buildings and they dug out as many bodies as they did survivors.
They found a small corner shop that had been flattened. The shop-keeper and three customers had been killed instantly as the ceiling and two walls came down on them, bringing the two floors of apartments above down at the same time.
Thor shifted as much of the brickwork as he could to allow Ironman access into the dark interior of the broken room to hunt for both bodies and any soul still alive. The light from his arc reactor – magnified by the suit – dimly lit the area and allowed him to cautiously make his way deeper into the broken shell of the building.
Such a recovery process takes time, a lot of time. It required hours for the two to work their way through the shop and then the apartments that had once been above it. Hours of hard physical labour, and finding nothing but broken bodies that had once been people. It was a difficult and painful task.
When they finally realised that they would either need to rest or drop dead from exhaustion the pair slumped down on the remains of a McDonalds Golden Arch, surrounded by the rubble of the famous fast-food outlet.
Tony let the mask on his helmet lift up to pinch the bridge of his nose with a sigh, leaning over with his elbows on his knees. Beside him Thor looked just as bad; bruises, scratched armour and caked in dust. It had been a big ask: fighting a battle and then moving straight into the clean-up afterwards.
"Fuck, I need a drink." Tony broke the silence, removing his hand from his face to stare blankly out at the desolation around them. He expected Thor to respond in kind or to laugh at the quintessential Stark statement. However, the Aesir just nodded wearily in agreement.
A BigMac wrapper blew past them, the empty rustling catching Tony's listless gaze for a moment.
"There was a girl." His voice was hollow, mechanical. "She was so young. I saw her lying there and all I could think of was that that could have been Evie." A tremor, almost unnoticeable thanks to the suit, ran through him. "She was someone's child, someone's pride and joy. Gone. Just like that. If Doom had attacked Manhattan it could have just as easily been Evie and I can't bear that thought."
"To lose a child is the worst pain there is; I can understand why the thought of it would fill you with fear." Thor said quietly.
"That sounds like the voice of experience…" Tony's voice held the hint of a question to it and he glanced sideways at the God.
"My nephews Narfi and Váli."
Ironman winced. He knew the stories that Norse mythology told of Loki's twin sons and if there was even the slightest bit of truth to them then they were horrendous. He had never once asked about his partner's other children, knowing full well that the tales weren't happy ones. It was also one of the reasons that he and Loki had kept Evelyn's parentage a secret from Thor; Asgard had not been kind to the trickster's offspring.
"What…what actually happened?" He asked quietly. "Our myths seem too cruel to be the truth."
Thor chuckled humourlessly. "Your mortal stories had all of the details, and yet managed to confound the entire fact of the situation." He stared down at his own folded hands, shaking his head. "But what is true is that my two nephews died under tragic circumstances and it broke my brother's heart." He glanced sideways at Tony. "I know that you must believe my brother to be insane, heartless even, but I can assure you that there was a time once when he was anything but."
The mortal nodded, more than used to pretending that the only Loki he knew was the psychotic, homicidal megalomaniac who had attacked the planet. It was rare that they ever spoke about the God of Mischief: Tony had banned the subject around Evie, using the argument that any mention of the trickster inevitably caused at least one of the Avengers to swear heavily and death threats to be thrown around. It was reasonable enough to say that he didn't want his little girl to be exposed to such language but in reality he was far more worried about Evie's reaction should she hear someone say something disparaging about her mother.
Thor had risen to his feet and for a moment Tony assumed that the God was ready to get back to work, until he spoke again.
"Your daughter, sometimes she reminds me of Narfi." He raised his hands quickly. "And I mean that with the greatest respect, I do not wish to infer any likeness between her and my brother, of course."
"Of course." Tony had to fight back the sudden flame of panic as the thunderer casually mentioned Evie and Loki in the same context.
"It is merely that at her age he had the same inquiring mind and spark that she contains. He had my brother's great intellect, much as Evelyn has yours, and he often used it to cause mischief. His father's son."
"Sounds like a great kid, minus the whole 'related to Loki' thing."
"Indeed."
"So…What happened?"
Thor glanced at him. "Why are you so keen to know?"
"Distraction. I'd rather like to focus on something else for a few minutes." Tony gestured out at the shell of the McDonald's they sat outside of. "So, correct my knowledge of Norse mythology."
The God looked away again, his expression distant as he stared across the rubble-strewn carpark. For a long moment Ironman assumed that his request would be denied. After all; as far as Thor knew the man was only asking out of curiosity, and had no way of knowing that Tony was actually approaching the conversation from a more compassionate role.
Finally the thunder God nodded slowly. He remained on his feet as he began to speak – the tone of his voice letting his companion know just how difficult this was for him to talk about.
The conversations that arise when the mind is exhausted and has spent the day amongst nothing but blood and death. Secrets spill in such conversations.
The story began with familiar nods to the myth that Tony knew. Loki had been married – an arranged marriage – to a woman named Sigyn. They didn't love each other, infact they'd barely tolerated each other, but for the sake of the treaty their marriage had sealed, an heir was needed. It had been Sigyn's idea for Loki to put the both of them under a lust spell for the evening, enough that they could forget the mutual dislike and hopefully beget a child.
It worked. More than enough in fact, since Sigyn carried and birthed twin boys, Narfi and Váli. For all that the husband and wife couldn't get along, they doted on their children, indulging every wish and whim.
Since when had things ever been easy though? Loki's life was never gentle.
Narfi was – as Thor had pointed out – very similar to Evelyn. He was a normal Aesir youngling, without any of his father's magic, but inheriting all of the best of his wit and mischief. Váli on the other hand was a fey child. He had all of the power that Narfi had been left without, but despite Loki's best efforts refused any and all attempts to teach him to use or at the very least control it.
Things came to their inevitable conclusion when the twins were barely adults. The mythology of the story had been twisted by humans, but the key players and events were still same.
The two boys had an argument. No one ever found out what the cause was – by the end of it there was no way of ever knowing. However, the one thing that was known was how volatile Váli's temper was and how Narfi always rose to the bait.
Loki was summoned from a council meeting to find the eldest twin transformed into a rabid wolf, as large as a cart horse and looming over Narfi's prone body. The ensuing fight was short but brutal.
The God of mischief could never bring himself to use lethal force against his son, whereas Váli's mind was so far gone that he had no way of knowing that he was attempting to kill his own father.
It was Thor who did what had to be done, using his mighty strength to smash Mjolnir into the side of Váli's skull. The young magic user had been shifting forms throughout his confrontation with his father and the final blow laid him out dead, still in the body of a giant serpent. Loki was found comatose and near death underneath the reptile's body, acidic saliva and blood having burnt into his exposed arms and face. Narfi's lifeless body lay sprawled over him, effectively pinning him to the ground.
Tony winced as he realised how much the mythology had been skewed around those few details. As with all things, history had been changed in the telling to shine a light on one group and darkness on another. Such a thing had never really bothered him before, but then again it had never been so personal before.
"That's terrible." He said after a while, realising that Thor was expecting a reply from him.
"It was a dark moment in our family's past, and took a long time to heal."
"How the hell could you ever expect Loki to heal from something like that?! He lost two kids!"
Thor looked at the man in astonishment. "Do not tell me you are feeling sympathetic for my brother, Tony? At the time, of course, we did all we could for him. The physical wounds healed in the end, but I fear it may have been the mental scars that caused the true damage. Still, a tragic past does not give him the right to lay all his pain into another world."
"No…No, of course not." Tony was having to concentrate hard to keep up his masquerade of someone who hated the trickster, whilst all his treacherous mind could do was remember the Look of love and devotion on Loki's face every-time he saw Evie. No doubt the mischief-maker had loved his sons just as deeply and for them to both die in such a way…
"Tony? Are you okay?"
He jumped and glanced back up at the thunder God. "Huh? Oh, yeah. It's harder to stay emotionally distanced from a story like that when you have a kid." He ran a gauntleted hand across his face. "And to think I thought I had problems." Slowly easing himself to his feet he turned his gaze back to the wreckage before them. "Ready to go pull some more buildings apart."
Thor frowned at him. "We have barely sat down for five minutes, you need to rest."
"I don't think I'd be able to now, not after hearing that." He took a few steps away from the impromptu seat, feeling his legs protesting. However, he couldn't get the mental images that the story had conjured up out of his head. Of Loki lying almost dead beneath his son's body, nearly destroyed by his other child. He'd rather exhaust himself than let his mind focus on that.
Thor followed the man with a frown as they waded back out through the rubble and into the ruined city.
MWMWMWMWMWMWMW
Clint was babysitting.
That was a joke in and of itself. He should have been out there with the others taking on Doom and rescuing people from the ensuing chaos.
Not stuck back in the tower with a badly sprained ankle and a small girl doing her homework.
"Uncle Clint, how do you spell 'adventure'?" Evie was sitting at the table in the lounge, swinging her legs from the too-tall chair as she wrote.
"A-D-V-E-N-T-U-R-E." Barton didn't bother to take his eyes off his magazine, scanning the pages whilst not really reading anything. Ideally he would have liked to put the TV on and watch some crappy daytime show, but with Evie working it was unfair to distract her. What was she even doing anyway?
"What's Jarvis set as your homework then?"
"Write a story. It's got to have a beginning, a middle and an end, and he wants me to use time connectives."
Clint didn't have a clue what the hell a 'time connective' was, but assumed that since the child hadn't asked for help then she knew what she was doing.
There was a time when Tony wouldn't have dreamed of asking the archer to look after Evelyn. Nor Thor for that matter. Up until the girl was nearly two years old the inventor had been highly paranoid that somehow the secret of her heritage would come out and he did his best to avoid any and all people who he deemed to know Loki well enough to recognise the trickster's child.
What Stark only took into account later on was that no expected Evie to have a connection to Loki. Sure, she had his green eyes, but it was hardly an unusual colour and in all honesty it was ridiculously unlikely for anyone to ever look at her and make the link. Maybe if Thor had known that his brother had been spending the nights with Ironman then it might have been more probable for the thunder God to find the child's eyes familiar. However, since to all intents and purposes Loki had not been seen for ten years or so why would their thoughts turn to him as Evie's mother?
It took Tony longer than he wanted to admit to realise this and decide he was being severely paranoid. Even Pepper, who had seen him with the trickster hadn't thought to make a connection – after all, Loki was male, and mothers are female.
So Barton was now allowed to babysit, never knowing that he had nearly been cut out of the child's life completely.
"Uncle Clint, can you read this please?"
The assassin looked up to see Evie holding out her work-book, an earnest expression on her face.
"Read it?"
"Yes. Jarvis says it is always best to have someone else read your work because they spot mistakes that you haven't."
Clint reached out and accepted the book with a world-weary sigh. "Smart guy, that Jarvis." He scanned the two pages that the child had written.
At the age of six – or as she liked to say, nearly seven – Evelyn's handwriting was now readable and fairly neat. Her spellings were also quite passable, but Clint had to smile as he spotted the obvious weak-spot in her literacy.
"Let me read the beginning back to you and see if you can spot what's missing." He said teasingly. When she nodded he took a deep breath. "Once upon a time there was a unicorn and the unicorn was called Ben and he lived in a big cave and one day he wanted to explore so he left the cave and went into the forest and then he met a witch and she was called Anna and he said hello would you like to explore with me and she said yes please." The archer had to run the last few words together as he ran out of air and Evie started laughing. "So, what did you forget?"
"Full stops and capital letters."
"Exactly." He handed the book back. "It's a good story though. I'd like to know what happens, as long as I can read it without dying from lack of air. And the spelling wasn't too bad either. Watch out for 'e' on the end of words, though, and capital letters for the start of names."
Evie nodded eagerly, already scribbling down corrections. "You should be a teacher, uncle Clint." She said, almost without thinking about it.
"Me? What on earth would I teach?"
She shrugged as if to say that that wasn't her problem. "I don't know. Bow and arrows? Someone has to teach how to use a bow and arrows."
"I guess, but I'm an Avenger, I can't really have a day job."
The girl nodded and scribbled a few more things down in her book. "It's my birthday soon!"
Clint blinked at the abrupt subject change. Children just couldn't hold a train of thought!
"I know, four days to go." He smiled as her face lit up at the thought. "You really do look forward to your birthday."
"And Christmas! They're the best days because I get to-"
"Miss Evelyn, how is your assignment going?" Jarvis' voice cut in smoothly across the girl's chatter and she abruptly stopped, her mouth snapping shut. Clint frowned at the look of sudden concern crossing her face, as if Jarvis had reprimanded her for more than just stopping in her work.
"Give her a break Jarvis, she's doing well. What were you about to say, Evie? They're the best days because you get to…?"
"Uh…I get to open presents." She cast a nervous glance at the ceiling. "I'm finished, Jarvis, look." She held her book up.
"Very good, Miss Evie. Since your work is complete you may go and play."
The girl rolled her eyes. "Thanks Jarvis." She grinned brightly at Barton. "Want to play Mario-cart, uncle Clint?"
"I'll just watch, thanks." The archer was all too aware that the child could beat him hands down at pretty much any video game invented (or so they supposed, it wasn't as if they'd let a six year old near something like Call of Duty, but anything with a PG or lower rating was fair game). Since Tony was the only one able to hold his own against her it was generally considered that genetics had played a large part in this particular talent.
"Will Daddy be coming home soon?" Evie had put the disc in and was waiting for it to finish loading.
"Another hour or so, I'd guess."
"Good."
MWMWMWMWMMWWMMWWM
It was, infact, closer to three hours.
By the time the rest of the group limped in Clint had already given in and ordered out for Indian take-away. Evie was half-way through her butter-chicken, but abandoned it to jump up and run to the large patio windows and watch the machinery strip away the Ironman suit. She knew better than to run out to greet her father – if nothing else it was cold out there – but waited until he was inside to hug him.
"Hey, kiddo. Ooh, Indian! What did you guys order me?"
"Biryani and keema naan." Clint answered the question, dishing out the food to the group. "Jarvis tried to persuade me to get you a salad, but your daughter was quite certain you'd rip his circuit boards out and gut me if I did."
Tony laughed and ruffled the child's hair as she continued eating. "That's my girl!"
"Well, you would have done." She said, matter-of-factly. Sadly, it was very probably true. "Daddy, I'm full, can I have pudding now?"
Tony looked down at the un-touched rice and the onion Evie had discarded from the curry. "How can you want pudding if you're full?" Without waiting for a reply he sectioned off a small portion of rice. "Eat that, then we'll see."
A scene re-enacted in most families around the world as the child whined and grumbled and finally ate a few more mouthfuls.
Deceptively normal.
MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMW
The day before Evelyn's seventh birthday started off just like any other.
She was over-excited as always, waking Tony up early to ask what time Loki would be arriving and then sulking when being told that it wasn't going to be until the evening. Beyond that things continued on as normal and after her morning maths lesson the girl settled down to play a game in the lounge.
Tony had brought his laptop up from the lab, something that usually happened when he was only working on the theoretical side of things, and took up the entirety of one of the sofas. He was studying readings taken from the remnants of the chitauri weapon and trying to condense it all into a better format for working with. Usually he wouldn't risk letting the others see that he was looking into chitauri technology, but with Bruce away he knew comfortably that no one else would understand the data on his screen.
Along with Bruce being away, Steve had also gone out for the day, so that when the rest of the group migrated to the living room they had a seat each for once. This saved the usual squabble over who had to sit on the floor.
Evie grew bored with her game soon enough, and after a heavy debate it was decided that Bed knobs and Broomsticks was an agreeable film and that the rest of the adults would deign to suffer through it. (Perish the thought that each of them secretly loved the final battle scene).
The first sign they had of anything unusual happening was when the TV screen flickered. Being Stark technology a fault was unheard of so caused Tony to stare at it in confusion, his brow furrowing when the same anomaly happened again and Evie began to pipe up complaints that she couldn't see her film.
"Is the disc scratched?" Clint glanced up from his magazine to watch Ironman using his Stark-tablet to run a diagnostic check on the machine.
"It's not a disc, it's saved into the TV memory." Tony shook the tablet when it told him that nothing was wrong and stared at the blinking screen again.
Then the main lights flickered.
"Thor, are you causing an electrical surge again?"
The thunder God stared up at the bulbs, shaking his head. "Nay, this isn't my work. There's no storm in the air."
Heads all turned back to Tony, the resident genius and only one who had a hope of diagnosing what was going on. He shrugged slightly.
"Maybe the arc-reactor is faulty…" His voice said it all. The arc-reactor was flawless; there was simply no way that it could cause a problem. This was seconded by Natasha as she held up the device she'd been using.
"My Kindle's stopped working, and that runs off battery power. Something's going on here."
"Jarvis? Any idea what's causing this?" Tony wasn't concerned. After all, why should he be? Surely there were numerous simple explanations for why the technology in the tower was playing up. He rubbed his chest at that thought – but so far his own reactor seemed fine.
"I'm sorry sir, there…appea…pow…urge….unusu….don't…" Jarvis' voice died.
"Daddy…?" Evie looked uncertain as the TV failed completely and on the sofa Tony's tablet blacked-out, losing the data he'd been working on.
"Stark…?" Natasha sat herself upright, muscles poised as she tried to ascertain whether a threat was brewing or not. The others in the room were subconsciously copying her, placing down books and pens as they looked around for the cause of the anomaly. Even Pepper had put her coffee down and was watching Tony nervously as if he had an explanation.
Then the room exploded.
MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMW
Furniture was flung outwards from the epicentre, the air filled with broken glass and shards of metal.
Tony was thrown across the living space, crashing through the glass-topped coffee table and colliding hard with the bar. His head exploded with pain as the back of his skull impacted against the mahogany veneer and for a worryingly long moment it caused his vision to black-in completely. He could hear screams amidst the crashing and shrieking of metal-on-metal and through it all his world concentrated down to one little thought;
Find Evelyn.
It was far harder than it should have been, but sheer force of bull-headedness made him open his eyes against the unconsciousness and pain that was trying to pull him under. His vision was swimming and the mere act had him fighting his own body not to give in to the sudden nausea. Somewhere in the back of his mind a little voice suggested that he probably had a severe concussion.
He didn't care. Scrubbing a bruised and bleeding hand across his eyes he tried to survey the damage and see what the hell had just happened.
Complacency.
That had been their down-fall; they had grown complacent.
The Avenger's had had ten years to grow used to Stark Tower. Ten years of it being their bolt-hole and safe place where they had never needed to be concerned of attack or needed to be on edge. And they had complied when Tony requested that there were no weapons around Evie. They had stopped carrying the bulk of their armoury with them, confident in their security and trying to set an example for a small child.
Complacency.
Tony managed to clear the bursts of light and pain from his swimming vision long enough to make out the figures that had appeared in the room
Chitauri.
The explosion was evidently a side-effect of whatever teleportation they had used and it had had the added bonus that no-one in the room had been prepared for it.
There were about twelve of the creatures, each armed and already spread out across the room; they had obviously been prepared for the mayhem their arrival would cause and had planned to use it to their advantage. Natasha was sprawled under an upturned sofa, blood running down the side of her face and her legs trapped at an awkward angle under the heavy piece of furniture. Nearby Clint was pinned by a chitauri spear through his arm, holding him down to the floor.
Tony's sluggish gaze took in the rest of the scene like a bad slow-mo effect in a movie. He could see Pepper dazed and terrified as another chitauri forced her to stay on her knees, a spear held to the back of her head. Thor was the only one out of the group who was unscathed enough to struggle, but three of the warriors were holding him down, a lethal looking dagger slammed through the palm of his hand and a blade held under his throat to force him still.
This was, however, only background to Tony's frantic mind as he stared around, trying to pull himself upright.
Where's Evie?!
A chitauri hand – hand? Mandible? Thing? – grabbed his shoulder, hauling him out of the wreckage and throwing him onto his stomach, making him acutely aware of the other injuries he must have incurred in the original blast, but that had been down-played under his thumping headache. Before he could try to raise himself up he was pulled to his knees by his hair, the sudden up-right motion and added pain to his head almost causing him to black-out again.
"Daddy!"
Evie's petrified sob cleared his head better than any ice-pack or whisky ever could and he blinked enough to clear his vision.
"Evelyn!"
His daughter, his precious little daughter was being held between two of the chitauri, an ugly dagger pressed hard against her throat. There were scratches down her face from the blast and she was sobbing, so scared that she wasn't even daring to struggle.
"Let her go!"
No. Jesus Christ no! How could this have happened?! They had been so careful!
Tony had never felt so helpless in his life. To see his daughter held by those monsters and knowing that he was useless. He couldn't even use the suit – not with Jarvis shorted-out.
His demand sounded pathetic to his ringing ears, and was duly ignored. Instead one of the aliens snarled at the three holding Thor down.
"Keep that whelp still! We don't want him interfering!" The voice spoke in English, but was so scratched and roughened that it sounded like it was trying to vocalise through a throat-full of gravel.
"What do you want?!" Natasha was struggling where she lay trapped under the sofa – it looked like she had a broken ankle. Her efforts were rewarded with the butt of a spear thumping into her shoulder.
"From you insects? Nothing." The chitauri that seemed to be the one in charge stalked over to Evie, grabbing the child's chin in one hand. "We're waiting on someone else. I doubt he'll be long."
The little girl stared up at it with the expression of a child realising that nightmares are very much real. She seemed too petrified to even cry, frozen as the blade dug into her throat.
"Release her!"
Tony started, his eyes darting to the origin of the voice, unable to move his head against the grip in his hair.
Of course.
What else would the chitauri want? Why else would they be here if not for him?
"Brother…" Thor's voice, broken and pain-filled, still contrived to sound accusing and it occurred to Tony that there was no reason for any of the others not to assume that the chitauri had a partner in this.
The alien in charge let go of Evie's chin, turning to face the new-comer.
"So there you are, Godling."
Loki wasn't dressed for battle. On the contrary he was barefoot in black cargoes and a simple button-up shirt. His only concession to a fight was that he held a staff – not his sceptre – in his hands. No magic.
He must have realised that before he'd even arrived – known that the chitauri would have perfected whatever technology they used to block out his powers. He had appeared in the full knowledge that once there he couldn't leave.
This did not mean, however, that he wasn't prepared to fight.
The God's staff spun in his hands as he lunged at the nearest chitauri, knocking it off balance before ramming the butt of the weapon into its head and cracking the exoskeleton. As an afterthought he caught the dagger thrown through the air at him, returning it so that it lodged in an alien eye-ball.
"Möhdy!"
Evie had begun to struggle, childish hope filling her now that Loki had appeared in the midst of it all.
The single word she cried out only made sense to Tony and Thor – causing the God to gape at his brother in horrified shock – but the tone of voice made it all too clear to the others that she knew and trusted their enemy. Natasha stilled as she stared between the child and trickster her eyes narrowed and Pepper just stared at Tony in horror.
Loki ignored each and every one of the adults in the room as he swept two more of the monsters out of his way using what appeared to be a combination of martial arts and British quarter-staff technique. His attention was focussed only on his daughter as he tried to reach her.
"Behind you!" Tony took a hard blow to his stomach for shouting the warning, but it was worth it as Loki ducked the swinging spear that he other-wise wouldn't have seen. The God spun on one bare foot, meeting the next blow square on his staff and throwing it backwards to give himself space to work in. He followed up the move with a sharp slash at the chitauri's legs, felling the monster.
"Drop the weapon, trickster." The voice was less than concerned, almost amused, and Loki twisted round to face it with a snarl.
The leader of the attacking group was standing next to Evie, the dagger pressed hard enough into the girl's throat to draw blood. The child was holding her breath, eyes wide and tear-filled as she stared pleadingly at her mother.
"M…Möhdy…" Her terrified sob was cut off by a hard slap across the back of her head.
"Let her go!" Loki had never looked more dangerous. Tony watched him like a drowning man spotting a life-raft, praying that the trickster had a plan, some terribly clever idea that would sort the whole mess out.
Something with which to defeat these monsters.
"Are you scared, little Godling?" The chitauri held up a lock of Evie's hair tauntingly, pulling it enough to drag the child's head back at a painful angle. "I believe you are. Ah!" It tilted it's own head in warning as Loki stepped towards them. "No. Don't move. Or this will get even messier. Humans bleed so much. Even little half-breeds like this one."
"Don't!" The trickster's voice was frantic as more blood ran down his daughter's throat. His voice was echoed by Tony's, although once again the inventor was ignored.
"Don't? Or what, weakling? What will you do?"
Loki didn't break eye-contact with Evie as he whispered: "Anything."
"Then drop your weapon, you pathetic wretch, or be aware that the punishment made for you can easily be meted out on her instead."
You think you know pain? We will make you long for something sweeter…
Tony knew what Loki had been threatened with. It had been enough of a fear that the trickster had given up his own daughter and spent the better part of a decade on the run rather than be caught and subjected to the chitauri's tender mercies.
And yet with Evelyn's life threatened, Loki didn't hesitate. When he'd said he'd do anything to keep her safe he had meant each and every word of the promise, and now intended to keep it.
"No!" The word was involuntary, pure and utter shock, as Tony watched his lover let the staff slip from his fingers. It bounced once as it hit the floor, then rolled to a stop by the man's knees. "Loki!"
"Now," Loki's voice was shaking, perhaps in rage, perhaps in fear. "Release her-" His demand was cut off as the leader flicked out one of the dreaded whips and the tail lashed itself tightly around his neck, bringing him choking to his knees.
"No!"
"Möhdy!"
Tony's and Evie's screams were almost in sync as the trickster was hauled up by two of the least wounded chitauri. The leader made a strange crackling sound – the closest approximation to laughter the alien larynxes could muster – running one claw down Loki's cheek before drawing back and smacking the God hard enough around the face to leave him limp and dazed in his captors grip.
"We, the chitauri, don't break deals, but we will pass the sternest of our sentences upon those who do!" It snarled, gesturing at the two holding Evie. "Release the girl."
The child was thrown forwards and she stumbled into Tony's arms as the grip on his hair was released. She was sobbing so hard that it was boarder-line hyperventilation and all her father could do was hold her as tight as possible, hardly daring to believe that she was back in his embrace.
His gaze, however, never left Loki's face, taking in every emotion; the panic, the terror, and the pure relief that Evie was alright, making his surrender worth it.
"I'll find you!" Tony had to shout to be heard as the chitauri began to activate whatever device it was they used for travel and prepared to leave with their long-sought-after prisoner. He knew his lover had caught the words though from the expression in the terrified green eyes.
"I swear, whatever it takes I will find you!"
MWMWMWMWMWWMWMW
Uh oh…
What will their reactions be? Are they all alright? What will Steve and Bruce say when they get home? Is Fury going to be furious?
And will poor old Loki be okay?
Tune in next time :)