Warning: N/A
Chapter 10- Getting Kidnapped by Evil Titans and Other Activities that were So Not on the Agenda
Tony woke to an empty bed, which wasn't in and of itself that strange. Loki usually got up before him. What was strange was that nothing had been touched in the kitchen or the living room on their floor.
"Loki?" he called, only to get nothing back. Which ok, nothing to worry about, except Loki totally had super hearing and if he was on their floor, he would have heard Tony, which meant he wasn't on their floor, except why wasn't he on their floor at—Tony checked his watch—at 6am. That was early even for Loki.
No. Ok. No reason to panic. He'd probably just wanted an early morning coffee. And decided to leave the house to get it instead of teleporting. Reasonable.
"Jarvis," Tony called. "When will Loki be back?"
"Loki did not state any intentions of leaving, Sir."
"Ok…" Tony answered, trying and failing to keep the panic out of his voice. "Then where is he?"
"He appears not to be home, Sir."
Ok. Fuck. Ok. Something was wrong.
"When did he leave?" Tony asked, and there was a terrifyingly long pause before Jarvis answered.
"I do not recall Loki leaving, Sir; however, I cannot find him within the tower."
Ok. Ok. Don't panic. Tony swallowed hard, his heart beating so fast it hurt. Now wasn't the time to panic. First, he had to figure out what had happened, which was obvious, right? Loki had been kidnapped and the only one who'd had any history of messing with Jarvis was that no nose guy with the mind powers who worked for the big titan who wanted to wipe out all life or whatever, so Loki was probably with him. Tony leaned against the wall, his lungs feeling like they were on fire. Great. Was he trembling? He couldn't tell. He couldn't think about himself when the titan who'd basically threatened to torture Loki if he didn't invade Earth had him captive. What could go wrong?
"Sir," Jarvis said, his voice feeling like it was reaching him through a gallon of water. "May I recommend you breathe."
Tony's legs gave out, and he slid down the wall, letting his head drop down between his knees. Breathing felt impossible just then. He just… couldn't do it—couldn't save Loki—couldn't protect him—couldn't—
"Sir, you appear to be experiencing a panic attack," Jarvis said. "If you could try and breathe in."
Tony gasped, his nails digging into his calves, sharp and painful and a distraction from his racing thoughts.
"And out," Jarvis said, his voice monotone and robotic and nothing like Loki's soothing tones.
"And in." Tony squeezed his eyes shut, his breath unsteady as he tried to time it to Jarvis's words. It took entirely too long, and by the time he'd gained a somewhat normal breathing pattern he felt like he'd run ten miles, his chest throbbing and his head aching with every beat of his heart. He should have already been on his way to rescue Loki, should have known he was gone hours ago. He didn't have time to break down. He pushed away from the wall, his legs shaking.
"Jarvis," he said. "Call the others."
It took longer than Tony would have liked for everyone to get their asses out of bed and assemble into the war room. Even when they did, they were yawning like there wasn't a crisis going on. Natasha, Steve, and Barton were still off on whatever mission Fury had sent them on and hadn't responded to the message Tony had sent them, and if they didn't respond soon, Tony was going to use the tracker he'd planted in their suits and crash their party—their party that was so much less important than this.
"Loki's missing," he said, and Bruce immediately sat up straight in his chair. Thor's hammer dropped from where he'd been twirling it between his fingers, the heavy thud breaking across the silence left by Tony's words. He couldn't even be grateful it didn't break the floor.
"Tony…" Bruce started, his face scrunched up, and Tony just didn't have it in him to start listening to how he was wrong about Loki.
"And before you stay any nonsense about how I might not be sure or how Loki might have just snuck off on his own, I know Loki," Tony said. "He wouldn't just take off. At least not without telling me."
"It's not that we don't believe you," Bruce answered.
"Yes," Thor said. "My brother has seemed happier these past few weeks. In large part to you. He would not simply leave you without good reason."
"It's just…" Bruce flicked his eyes to Thor, shifting in his seat uncomfortably. "How do we even begin to track him? He could be anywhere, including not-on-Earth. How are we supposed to even get off the planet, much less find him?"
"He must be with Thanos," Thor said. "I cannot think of anyone else who would have such a conflict with Loki." Tony pursed his lips and chose to ignore that blatant optimism. He was pretty sure there were lots of people out to get Loki, few however, that were able to just casually jump worlds and sneak into the tower.
"Fine," Bruce said. "But we haven't exactly been having any luck tracking the mind stone."
"What about Loki's magic?" Tony asked.
"What?"
"I have plenty of readings of Loki using his magic, and if we apply the ideas we used to track the scepter, it should work, shouldn't it?"
"I mean…" Bruce had that far off look in his eyes, calculations flying through his head, and Tony needed him to say yes. He needed this to work. He couldn't leave Loki with Thanos any longer. "Theoretically."
"Good enough," Tony answered, shoving away from his chair hard enough that it banged into the wall behind him.
"Where are you going?"
"To make it not so theoretical."
"What should I do?" Thor asked, and Tony paused with his hand on the doorhandle. Thor stood next to his chair, his hammer cradled between his hands and his expression the picture of worry. Tony felt empathy run hotly through him. He could understand Thor's need for action.
"Find Steve, Nat, and Barton. I have a feeling we'll need them."
Natasha glanced back, keeping her hands steady on the quinjet's controls. Thor was still staring off into space, his jaw locked and his knuckles white around the hilt of his hammer. And opposite him, Barnes and Steve were still in the same position. The two of them sitting in seats right next to each other, Steve's hand hovering over Barnes' shoulder like he was afraid to touch him while Barnes sat deathly still, his eyes trained on the ground. His expression was still startlingly blank, and Natasha wondered how long it had taken Hydra to train that into him.
She sighed and turned back to the front. Clint flicked his eyes toward her before focusing back on the clouds. She had been against bringing the highly trained Hydra assassin, who was only constrained by Steve's good will—which would do a lot of good when Natasha wasn't even sure Barnes knew who he was.
Still, when Tony's first 911 message had arrived and Steve had still been in Barnes' sad little room, staring at his best friend like he could undo all the damage by will alone, Natasha had been conflicted enough. When she'd gone in to see him, he'd blatantly refused to leave, and Barnes' eyes had stayed glued to Steve the entire time he'd been yelling at Natasha, his jaw clenched.
Then twenty minutes later, and another message from Tony about how they'd better get their asses back to the tower because Loki was missing, and Natasha had been about ready to go without Steve. To her surprise Clint had been right with her, determination glinting in his eyes. She couldn't help but smile. She'd missed her Clint.
Thor had appeared just as they were about to take off, demanding to know what they were doing that was so important they couldn't help rescue his brother, and the ensuing argument between Steve and Thor had been… not good. Natasha really thought they'd come to blows before Barnes had spoken up.
"You should go," he'd said, so softly if Steve hadn't jumped at his voice, she wouldn't have been sure he'd actually spoken. Instead, they spent the next twenty minutes watching Steve fawn over Barnes while Barnes blatantly ignored him, and Thor grew increasingly impatient.
Eventually, Steve had agreed to come but only if Barnes did too. It was a disaster. It wasn't like they could actually take Barnes with them. She glanced back again. Steve actually had his hand on Barnes' shoulder now, an expression of wonder plastered across his face, and—she squinted—Barnes was leaning toward him, his face still eerily blank. She sighed. This was not going to end well.
Loki groaned. His head was on fire, pain making the edges of his vision blurry. He reached down to touch his forehead, only to find his wrists chained. The manacles clanged against his wrists, tight enough to ache and yet just loose enough to rattle his bones.
"Finally awake?" the voice asked, booming and horribly familiar. Loki swallowed, his throat dry and his head pounding. It was like he was suddenly back to before the invasion, standing before Thanos and agreeing to take over Midgard for fear of what would happen if he didn't.
He forced himself to sit up, his body aching as he turned to face Thanos. The titan knelt before him, his smile as triumphant and malevolent as it ever was. Behind him stood Ebony Maw, his face expressionless, and next to Maw was a woman Loki had never seen before, her skin a deep shade of green. Her eyes flicked over Loki, assessing, analyzing, the eyes of someone looking for something they didn't want anyone to know about. Loki knew about eyes like those.
"Ah," Thanos said. "We were beginning to think we hit you too hard."
Loki spat at him, taking a deep satisfaction in the way the spit dribbled down Thanos' face. The titan crunched up his eyes, raising a hand to wipe away the spittle. His eyes were full of fury when he finally opened them again.
"You've caused me enough trouble, Laufeyson," he said, and then he was reaching forward faster than Loki could react, his hand closing around Loki's throat. Loki gasped, his fingers clawing at Thanos' fingers as air refused to enter his lungs. The titan tightened his grip, and for one horrible second Loki really thought Thanos would snap his neck, that Loki would die here in this horrible place, that he would never see Anthony or Thor or his mother again. Then Thanos let go and he dropped to the floor, coughing and hacking as his throat spasmed painfully.
"I have one more Infinity Stone to retrieve from your precious Midgard," he said. "And you will help me before I kill you."
He turned around, heading for the door like that was the end of the discussion. Loki rubbed his throat, the choking session having done nothing to help alleviate the pain in his head. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die, but he couldn't… He thought of Anthony, the way he'd smiled and leaned against Loki when he'd said he loved him. The way he'd held him and told him it wasn't his fault after that building collapsed. He thought of Thor and the way they'd finally started to make progress. He didn't want to die, but he couldn't be responsible for the end of the world.
Odin help him, why did he have to go and become a good guy? It had been so much easier before.
"I won't help you," he said, and Thanos paused. "I know what you're trying to do, and I won't help you."
"We'll see," Thanos answered, and then he stalked out, Ebony Maw at his heel. The woman hesitated at the door, her eyes flicking over him one more time, lingering on the bruises that must have been forming on his throat. She nodded to him, sharply and then left too.
"So, you've gotten it to work?" Thor asked.
"Yes," Tony answered, ignoring the look Bruce cast him. So, maybe it was only sort of working, but it would get them close enough. And close enough had to be good enough.
"How close can you get us?" Natasha asked, eyes flicking between Bruce and him. Always too perceptive.
"Whoa, wait," Steve answered. The black-haired dude they'd brought to the tower with them shifted uncomfortably where he was standing awkwardly in the corner, his eyes following Steve's every move. "How would we even get there?" Steve asked. "I assume it's in space."
"You'd be right," Bruce said. "Can you pull up the map, Jarvis?"
"Of course, Dr. Banner," Jarvis answered, and a map of a foreign solar system popped up over the war room's table. Natasha pursed her lips, leaning back in her chair with a resigned air.
"That's hardly exact," Clint said.
"There aren't any habitable planets in that system," Thor said, his knuckles white on the handle of his hammer.
"You just know that off the top of your head?" Clint asked, and Thor furrowed his eyebrows like the question didn't quite make sense.
"So, we can guess they're probably on a ship somewhere," Tony asked, biting back his annoyance at Clint's question. Who cared how Thor knew as long as it got them closer to Loki?
"That doesn't tell us how we'll get there," Steve said.
"I could get us there," Thor answered. "Now that we know where we are going, we can use the Bifrost to transport us."
"Would that work?" Tony asked. He pressed his fingers into his temples, a headache thumping at his skull. He wanted this to be over. He wanted Loki to be here with him, to curl up with him and press his toes against Loki's cool skin and listen to Loki's critics of movies and kiss every inch of him and pretend this had never happened.
"I see no reason why not," Thor said. "Especially with Heimdall's help."
"Then, we should go," Natasha answered, already standing. "You can summon your Bifrost thing right now, right?"
"Yes, Heimdall should know as soon as I call," Thor said. He gripped his handle even tighter as he moved away from the table, and Clint sighed as he pushed his chair back, tired determination plastered across his face. Even that black-haired dude moved from his place in the corner. Only Steve hesitated, his eyes flicking between them before resting on the black-haired man.
"Should we all go?" Steve asked, biting his lip nervously. "What if kidnapping Loki was only a distraction, and he's on his way to Earth right now?"
"You would suggest—" Thor started.
"We can't just leave Loki," Natasha interrupted. "He's already been with Thanos a full day, and no one needs to be reminded what happened the last time he was with Thanos."
"Screw you," Tony said at the same time Thor's face spasmed, lightening crackling around his hammer. "Loki didn't have a—"
"I wasn't saying…" Natasha interrupted. She sighed, clenching her fists. "I was referring to the torture. I was trying to say we should go before he gets tortured." Thor winced, his shoulder's sagging, and Tony's chest ached. He felt too old for this, the very idea of Loki going through being tortured again enough to cause him physical pain. The man in the corner shifted, his fists clenching on the hem of his shirt.
"I'm not saying you shouldn't go," Steve said, "I just think—"
"Don't pretend this is about anything but your boyfriend," Tony interrupted, throwing a hand out at the man. He stared unblinkingly back at Tony, his dark hair hanging into his eyes.
"Well, he can't go," Steve answered, his voice echoing loudly around the room, and Tony desperately wished he had his suit on just so he could shoot him.
"We won't win without you," Clint said, his voice sounding impossibly quite after all the shouting, and Tony wished he wasn't right.
"I won't leave him," Steve answered. "Not after—"
"I want to go," the man interrupted. He was still standing awkwardly in the corner, his arms crossed protectively over his chest. His expression was still unnervingly blank, his eyes fixed on Steve like he had all the answers to the universe.
"Bucky." Steve let out a strangled sound, taking a stumbling step forward before stopping himself. He swallowed, his eyebrows crinkling and his lips pursing as if he was the one being tortured and not Loki. Tony wanted to shoot him even more now.
"I want to go," the man repeated, his voice more forceful like he expected to be stopped, and Steve's shoulders sagged, the fight going out of him. He nodded, his head jerking like it was attached to a string,
"Right," Steve said, his voice hoarse.
"Well, that settles that," Tony said, and he really tried to bite back his annoyance, He didn't know what kind of drama Steve had gotten himself into. It was obviously big, and any other day he would have loved to hear the story. Today, he just wished Steve had chosen another week to find his black-haired boyfriend. "Get your stuff, we meet on the roof in ten."