Three is a crowd in a double bed, so it's a good thing someone needs to man the helm. Tony volunteers because he's not going to sleep tonight anyway. The back of his eyelids look like death and every time he tries to doze off he startles awake moments later.
The windshield overlooks a blank horizon, not a star or a planet anywhere, and all he sees is death, death, death. An unnatural cold sticks to his bones, and although the stillness scares him, he looks directly into the black.
He wonders why he was always so afraid of being alone. Why listening to his own thoughts was so terrifying without someone there to call him brilliant and draw up a marketing plan. Losing JARVIS felt like losing a limb, but really he was a crutch. A computer can be alive, but it can't replace a father. Or a lover. Or a friend.
In the beginning he wanted Loki because being with him felt like living in two bodies at once. He thought he'd never be alone again. But he was. A lot. For months and months and months, and finally for a few hours after his soul floated out of his corpse. He was a fool to run from that.
Even in a crowd, every person is alone in their own mind. However tightly they hold, no one can ever step inside someone else's skull. Now that he's crossed the veil, everything is so much clearer. About live, about death, about love.
The most profound thing about love, he thinks, is being alone together. Learning how to steal coffee and do jigsaw puzzles and shove handwritten letters in donuts. It's looking in the mirror and watching the person you hate become the person someone loves.
So although the complete absence of life out the window scares the fuck out of him, he stares into it. He feels cold, and alone, and dead. But a few feet behind him there's warmth in Loki's body, and company in his spirit, and life gushing like a fountain from his heart. And Tony knows they're always together, even when he's alone.
On a scale of one to ten, Tony would rate that landing a negative five. But of course that's what Loki was aiming for. The shuttle is a pile of smoking garbage wedged in the exterior wall of Asgard's dungeons, and somehow no one was injured in the crash.
"What do you mean you don't know?" Hela demands, swinging a conjured sledgehammer at an Einherjar's head. The poor bastard goes down like a bag of bricks. Privately, Tony thinks it would be kinder just to kill him. The prognosis on that skull fracture ain't pretty.
"Well, I can't say I was eager to visit the dungeons as Odin." Loki says, wiping the sweat from his forehead with one hand while he shoots an arcane blast with the other.
"According to the map, political prisoners are somewhere around here." Tony says, examining a diagram on the wall. Luckily the earring translates text as well as speech.
Hela rolls hir eyes, and pushes hir hair over one shoulder.
"How precise." ze sighs. "I don't know why I expected more."
If they weren't in the middle of destroying a planet hir tone would call for an attitude adjustment, but Tony's busy pressing random buttons on a control panel. Loki walks up beside him and does a complicated gesture over the keypad. The thing glows yellow, and the forcefield blocking the entrance to the cell block disappears.
"This way children." Loki says, hopping down a short staircase in a jaunty two-step. At least someone's having a good time.
The cells they pass are all empty. Row of pristine white rooms with yellow barriers and unremarkable furnishings.
"You're sure he's here?" Tony asks, having to jog to keep up with the giants.
"Positive. Heimdall was charged by Odin himself, even Thor cannot pardon him."
"Which I'm assuming was you in disguise."
"Oh, who can say? It's all a blur." Loki grins, turning a corner at a brisk pace.
And skidding to a stop. A bulky figure is waiting for them, decked out in brown leather and leaning on a column.
"Stark, Loki. What a pleasant surprise." Thor says.
Loki pulls Surtur's sword from nowhere, but Tony waves him down.
Loki beams, breaking character as he's over come with very unmanly giggles.
"Too much?" Tony asks, crossing his arms, maybe a little defensive. As if Loki could do better.
Before Ultron he would've called Point Break a professional acquaintance, nothing more. But the look on Thor's face when he realized Tony lied was pretty tragic. And then the meathead apologized in the elevator.
"Hey buddy. Have you been juicing? You look good."
"Oh, it's a new outfit." Thor says, patting his stomach. "Less padding on the loins."
"It works for you." Tony says, stepping out of his suit in the hopes Thor gets the message. "I mean that, I'm not just blowin' smoke."
"You look like a bilgesnipe."
"Well it's been a hectic couple of weeks." Tony shrugs. "Made a murder bot, got abducted by aliens, became a super villain, died—which, let me tell you was a hell of a trip—and then, and then, and then... Ragnarok. Go figure."
"I don't want to fight you." Thor says over Tony's shoulder to Loki.
"Nor do I. Stand aside, brother."
Thor's brows furrow, his eyes wide with hope.
"Why Heimdall?" he asks.
Tony rubs his eyes. He really wishes he slept last night.
"We need to board the ship of the Mad Titan." Hela says in a fierce voice. They're spoiling for a battle, now that it's finally time. Point Break's hope turns to confusion, and Tony jumps in before this conversation goes tits up.
"Okay, so take this the right way." he says, putting his hands up and getting out of throat-grab range, since that seems to be Thor's primary mode of dealing with stress. "But there's a purple dictator of doom that's been collecting infinity stones and nobody told you."
Loki doesn't give Thor much time to process. He tries to pass him by, but an arm blocks his way.
"And yet you seek Ragnarok?"
Loki sighs. "The Titan is invincible. We have no other way of killing him."
"And we need a ship to get the Asgardian people out." Tony says.
"You would destroy Asgard to kill one man?" Thor asks.
Loki pushes past. "After all I have endured, I would do nearly anything to be rid of him."
Dropping his arm to his side, Thor watches Loki pass. The crease between his eyes deepens. Hela looks at Tony and he shakes his head. Even as the leading expert in Aesir handling, he doesn't really get Asgardians.
"I thought we would fight side by side forever." Thor says.
"You thought I would fight at your side." Loki corrects, walking away. "It never occured to you that I had my own path to walk."
"Is there nothing I can say to stop you?" Thor asks.
Loki whips around, brandishing Surtur's sword. It glows red in his grasp, and Tony's heart jumps at the charred, black hand holding it. Flames lick up Loki's arm, his skin molten and making the air round him warp like a desert highway.
"Do not mistake my discretion for hesitation. I have grown. I am not the boy who cleaned up your messes, and if you stand in my way I will not falter."
"I do not wish to fight you."
"Then come with us." Hela says, running to stand between them.
"And betray Odin? My people?"
Tony pinches his nose. "Look, we've fought this guy… I don't know how many times. And he's only getting stronger. He can reverse time, he can throw moons, he can bend space around his pinky. We've got to end this now."
"But our home-" Thor says, looking between all of them, torn.
"You can rebuild. Or find a new planet." Hela says. "Even if you beat us, someone has to stop the TItan."
"And we could really use a right hook like yours." Tony adds, crossing his arms.
Thor extends his hand and calls Mjolnir to it. Startled, Tony jumps back into his suit and aims the repulsors, but Thor pulls on a humorless smile.
"His cell is this way." he says, gesturing with the hammer and stalking down a line of unoccupied cells.
Heimdall's eyes wig Tony out, so he hangs back while Thor explains the situation. Apparently he's the universe's surveillance system, so he kind of already knew.
By the time they reach the exit to the dungeons the palace is on high alert. Guards intercept them at every turn, and it's a harried run through golden halls and sun washed terraces. They come upon an atrium and Loki tucks his sword away.
"This is my stop." he says, "The vault is just there."
"We've know way to know how fast Surtur will rise." Thor says.
"Then you'd best hurry to the Bifrost." Loki replies. "I have a few things to retrieve first. You'll have a few minutes to arrive."
"Let's hope the timing is right." Tony says.
"I can send a signal." Heimdall offers, and Loki nods.
"To work, then." he says, and Tony grabs his hand.
Loki's eyes flick down and back up. He checks all the exits in the room, and Tony shakes his head.
"Be clever." he says, "And don't fuck around once you've lit the fuse. I don't wanna tell your kids you died holding a firecracker."
Loki huffs. "I will return. As always."
"Hey now, I'm serious." Tony steps close, speaking only for the two of them. "I know you got a sassy makeover, and you're feeling good, and that's great. But don't get cocky. We haven't won yet."
"I won't be careless." Loki says, "You needn't worry."
Tony looks close, and finds he wants some insurance. A reason for Loki to toe the line.
"About the name thing-" he says, leaning chest to chest.
Loki stiffens, shoulders tense.
"Could we move it to my wrist? I want to be able to see it. "
Hope and surprise overcome his partner and his pulse hammers in his throat.
"T-That would be lovely." Loki stutters, and seems to catch himself. Tony suspects his ears are flushed under all that hair. Squeezing his hand, he decides to up the ante and see how much of a reaction he can get.
"And what about yours? I can't make up my mind. Should it say Tony or Stark?"
Loki's eyes widen, his mouth slack.
Tony winks, pleased at the rare feeling of catching Loki unprepared.
"Why not both?" Loki answers in awe, and that makes Tony smile.
"Good answer."
He kisses Loki's hand and returns to the rest of the group, ignoring the mix of averted gazes and blatant staring. Someone's got to gay up these halls before they explode in a blazing metaphor for social reform.
"Remember, we meet at the fountain in the city center." Loki says.
"You got it, princess." he says, watching Loki go and taking off in the other direction.
"So if you see everything, do I really need to look at you when I'm talking?" Tony asks Heimdall, and a wave of guards saves the dark skinned man from answering. Shame, he really wanted to know.
By the time they reach the bridge, he is really tired of Einherjar. Every few rooms they run into another squadron that has to be talked down or taken out. Thor orders the cooperative ones to evacuate the city, but they don't exactly have a getaway ride yet. They settle for "retreat to the Bifrost" and hope it won't be a warzone by the time Thanos arrives.
He has no way of knowing what Loki's up to or how long they have until Surtur's second coming. In the absence of data, there's only running and barked orders. He finds it deeply ironic that this realm of bigots has a gay pride float for a drawbridge, but Hela doesn't see the humor.
"Comedy has been used to discount and deny social bias against marginalized groups for generations-"
"You know what, forget I said anything." Tony says. It's not that ze isn't right, it's just…depressing.
They step into the gold sphere of the mechanism, and Heimdall centers himself on the raised platform. Tony really hopes they have the blueprints for this thing handy. It would suck to lose this kind of tech in the cataclysm.
"Who are we looking for?" Heimdall asks, lowering his sword in the slot and waiting as lightning crackles and the golden carapace rotates faster and faster. Time to pull the trigger then.
"Thanos." Tony says, for the first time. "We're taking the fight to him."
Heimdall's laser eyes skitter over the dotted sky, and a tube of fractured light appears within the spindle.
"Take care. There are many souls aboard the ship. It will be difficult to reopen the gate."
"If all goes well, we won't need to." Tony says.
With the click of a key settling in a lock, the Bifrost activates and the three of them are pulled into the beam by strings of light. The journey is a whirl of color and speed, and Tony finds himself enjoying it. His heart pounds as they soar through the kaleidoscopic tube, and land on the other side in a blink.
The ship looks identical. Black walls and transparent walkways, glowing purple catwalks with lifts rising and falling.
"I'm gonna take the bridge." Tony says, kicking on his boots. "You two-"
"I think we get the idea." Hela says, grimacing at the growing crowd of chitauri soldiers and mounted gunners.
Blocking a swinging sword with hir helm, ze sends out a spray of onyx stakes. Eight chitauri fall at once, in a pile, and ze opens the locket. Yellow light glows like sunshine in the dark atrium, piercing through the gaps in hir fingers. Hela's own white-grey magic fuses with the yellow and wraps itself around the fallen creatures, and one by one they rise.
By the time Tony loses sight, ze already has a battalion of undead servants at hir command. Of all the unsettling things he's seen and heard of since his life became a space opera, Hela is by far the scariest. Tony is ridiculously glad ze's on his side.
The path to the bridge isn't very obvious, but his old friends trial and error have his back. To his relief, Thanos isn't there. Cold sweat drips down his neck, and he steps into the command center.
The blood chilling sound of the Chitauri is translated into words compliments of the earring, so monsters garble in one ear and a highly organized hive mind buzzes in the other. The language must be hard to translate, because it comes through as sequences of words rather than complete sentences.
"Wheel. Turn. Warp. Leader."
"Enemy. Two. Two. Tall. Gun."
"Danger. Fear. Panic."
"Calm."
"Ok, listen up everybody, this is your new captain speaking." Tony says, landing in front of the big open window and bringing out his big guns.
"Alarm. Confusion. Leader?"
"Leader?"
The aliens shriek and huddle behind their stations, and Tony puts his arms down. Keeps the gun, though.
"Who's in charge here?" he asks, and the Chitauri click and cower. Fuck, this is getting nowhere fast. He picks up the nearest bug and has his suit project the coordinates of Asgard.
Pointing at the coordinates, he yells. "Here's our new destination. Hop to it."
The Chitauri seem to understand. They scramble back to their work spaces and orderly communication returns. Tony checks the screen, and he's surprised to find they aren't that far away. Maybe twenty light years.
Once they're up and running, he releases his hostage and identifies the security station by the floating orbs of surveillance magic. Hela's got an army now. A proper one with a variety of units and a clear chain of command. He's makes a mental note to never play Risk with hir.
Just when he's thinking this was too easy, Thanos appears on the monitor. Hela's army advances, and blasts of magic throw the Chitauri around like cannon fodder. It becomes an all out brawl as Thor joins the fray, charging in with Mjolnir at the ready.
Glancing around at the chittering bridge crew, he digs his heels in. He wants to help, wants to fly down there and fight, but he has a job to do. The ship needs to make it to Asgard. Loki's waiting for him. So he stays on the bridge and hopes like hell nobody dies.
The battle rages on as the ship cruises at top speed. Gems glow and floating platforms get tossed around like projectiles, but Thor and Hela keep going. They don't give an inch over the next fifteen minutes and Hela's army grows and grows with each soldier ze kills. Tony holds his breath as the distance to Asgard ticks lower and lower.
Finally the sheer numbers overwhelm Thanos, and he steps through a portal. There's the impulse to panic, to wonder where he went, but Tony focuses on the goal. Get to Asgard, find Loki. Reveal their location to Thanos and hope he takes the bait. That's all they can do, there's no value in overthinking.
By the time they make landfall, Thor and Hela have full control of the ship, and that's a fucking achievement. Walking out of the airlock feels like entering a different world. The light, the color, the fresh air, it's pretty fantastic. The crowd of riotous Asgardians, not so much. In the time since they left, it seems the city has been evacuated with no place to go. So now they're all just standing on the rainbow bridge like lost ducks.
Tony floats over them, vaguely stunned by how normal they all look. Sure, there's an overabundance of draped fabric, but none of them are armed, and a fair number of them have kids huddling around their legs.
He puts his voice on the loudspeaker. "Ah, welcome Asgardians. I'm Tony Stark, and I'll be your guide for Ragnarok. Uh, this is your getaway vehicle, as you can see it's infested with bugs. Sorry about that, we are working on that. And um, oh yeah, there's Thor. You know Thor. He's great. Say 'Hi', Thor."
Thor waves, the beautiful idiot.
"Yeah, he's gonna get you all situated while we figure out what exactly we're gonna do with you-"
A thunderous boom sounds from the palace in the distance, and the crowd turns as one. Stone and marble shatter and fly in the air as a sword the size of a skyscraper emerges from the palace walls. Wow, now that's a spectacle.
"Oh damn, guess it's that time." Tony says, landing beside Hela and her army of puppets.
"Are you ready?" Hela asks, and Tony takes a second to catch his breath.
In the city, a clawed hand reaches from the depths of the ground and Surtur climbs out of the crumbling palace, a hundred feet tall and blowing tornadoes of fire. Trees and buildings ignite around him, and Tony stiffens at the speed with which the giant is destroying the realm.
"Let's go." he says, taking flight. Hela joins him, hir bird form beating its wings to his side. It's a calming rhythm interrupted by his growing concern for Loki. They glide over courtyards, sweeping rooftops, and empty squares until they land in the open plaza in the middle of everything. A white stone fountain flows in the center, surrounded by abandoned shops and homes.
Silently telling himself not to panic, Tony paces, looking in all directions for any flicker of movement. Nothing, nothing, nothing. And then, distantly, the clop of hooves. Whipping around, he's greeted by the welcome sight of Loki riding out of a cloud of smoke on a black horse. A horse with too many legs.
"You've got to be kidding me." Tony yells, and Loki just laughs, steering the horse down a side street and urging it on.
"Tony, meet my son, Sleipnir." he calls, as Tony arcs his path to fly side by side.
"Uh...hey." Tony waves, not sure whether to look the horse in the eyes or not. Honestly, he kind of expected this at some point. All the other myths panned out, for the most part. Even so...it's a fucking horse.
"Thanos is following." Loki warns, "I don't know how he knew."
"I said his name at the Bifrost." Tony says.
Hela screeches, diving down an alley to transform in a blur of motion. Loki follows suit, pulling Sleipnir to a stop.
"Here?" ze asks, panting. Loki dismounts, his robes flapping around him as he dashes into the nearest building. Tony follows.
It's a blacksmith's forge, the walls lined with iron tools and finely crafted swords. A massive stone chimney with an open grate burns low, and Loki pulls a handful of flames from the embers. Blowing on the fire, it grows and grows and overtakes the room in an illusion.
Once he's finished, the building looks charred. The illusion covers everyone but him, and he breathes slow and deep. Finally, after all this time, they're going to put this guy down.
"Thanos!" he calls, "Olly olly oxen free. Come and get it, Frankenberry."
Thanos emerges from a portal with his gauntlet raised.
"Thanks for coming to the party." Tony says, rolling his neck and raising his fists. "Really saved me a lot of trouble."
"I didn't want it to end this way." Thanos says, and Tony throws a practice punch like he's actually planning on fighting this.
"Well, best laid plans and all that." he says, and motions for Hela to go.
He doesn't care to hear this guy justify his goals. It's time to get this over with.
Unseen by Thanos, Hela sneaks to the side of his bulky frame and activates the soul stone in hir hand. As the illusion fades, ze tugs a glowing white-blue orb from Thanos' chest. With a moment's concentration, the orb cycles through color after color until ze stops on red.
"Never surrender." ze whispers, releasing the soul. "Fight fire with fire, and show no mercy."
The soul returns to Thanos, and the titan falls to his knees, gasping and clawing at the ground. Tony takes a step back, the hair on his neck rising as Thanos succumbs to an irresistible rage. His back arches, and he slams fists on the floor, unhinged and roaring at the sky.
"I will not lose, not again." he screams, and Loki ties him down with whips of fire.
"Run." Hela yells, dashing for the door. "Lead him to Surtur."
Tony grabs Loki and follows, uncomprehending. Out in the streets, the fabric of the realm is tearing. Gashes of molten soil rend the street and the stone pavement sinks in brick by brick. Tony takes off, dropping Loki on Sleipnir's back and rising up for a better view.
No point denying it, Surtur's fucking terrifying. Even the chitauri behemoths would look like chihuahuas next to him. Shit, was he that big when Loki killed him the first time? The entire city is in flames, and going down quickly. Diving back to street level, he leads them back to the city center where Surtur is tenderizing Asgard like a steak.
Thanos chases after them, unleashing bolts of purple energy and reaching out with tendrils of mind magic. Loki stands on Sleipnir's back while the horse canters, knocking aside Thanos' attacks with ropes of aether.
"What did you do?" he yells at Hela, who runs beside Sleipnir like it's nothing.
"I changed him." ze shouts.
"Well, obviously. Into what?" Tony asks.
"Angry." ze says, "A berserker's soul. He will not run from a fight, even if he can."
"Ahead." Loki shouts, narrowly deflecting a chimney thrown by blue space magic. "We must get him to attack the giant."
Given that the entire plaza is melting and becoming part of Surtur, that doesn't seem too difficult to pull off. The horse and Loki jump from whatever solid ground is left, and Hela flies with Tony as a bird once more.
Spinning back around, he climbs high and watches with satisfaction as Thanos throws himself at Surtur's leg. With all the might of his stones, he punches and detonates, and the monster remains unphased.
The time stone glows on the titan's knuckle, a beacon of hope that he doesn't think to use. Overcome by the fervor of battle, he isn't capable of rationality. He rips at the rocky flesh of the creature to no avail, even as the world crumbles and he slowly, slowly succumbs to the lava.
Reaching the edge of the plaza, Tony feels like he can breathe again. The bubbling magma is hot on Loki's heels, but it's a clear path forward and away. Reaching out into the frothing ocean, the rainbow bridge is almost clear of the civilians, the ship's engines flaring and ready to launch.
Tony lands hard on the crystal platform, winded and disbelieving.
"We did it." he says, retracting his visor in time to see Loki dismount with his own eyes. He's windswept, hair a mess and hands covered in ash. He smiles, the real one.
"And we even followed the plan." he says, attempting to tame his hair despite the wind coming off the sea.
"The horse was a surprise." Tony quips, catching Loki's levity. Hela lands beside him, growing into a Jotun.
"Well I could hardly leave without collecting my effects."
"So do you talk?" he asks the horse. It snorts, ears tipped back.
"All my children shapeshift. He simply prefers this form."
"I'm just saying, he could make a fortune in Hollywood as a talking horse." Tony shrugs. "Are we done here?"
"Not quite." Loki says, reaching in his dimensional pocket. He pulls out some kind of glowing relic.
Tony frowns. This wasn't part of the plan.
"You couldn't keep your hands off, could you?"
"I left many of the artifacts in the vault, thank you. This I took with a purpose."
Giving it to Tony, he holds an open palm towards Hela.
"The stone." he says. Looking wistfully at it, ze hands it over.
Tony inspects the device. Metal, glowing, capable of doomsday given that it was in Odin's vault.
"The tuning fork." Loki says by way of explanation. "A dangerous but useful tool."
"What's it do?"
"It summons an entity which thrives on fear. If one can regard it without yielding, it can offer a great deal of wisdom. I am hoping it can destroy the stones. Or at least this one." Loki says, holding the soul stone.
Looking into his eyes, Tony sees a firm resolve he can only respect. It's someone at the end of a long string of mistakes, trying not to repeat the process.
"Alright, let's get it over with." he says, massaging his neck. "That blazing inferno is getting awfully close."
'Leave us please." Loki says to his kids, "This is best done without an audience."
Hela looks ready to argue, but the horse nips hir ear and snorts. Ze follows, glancing back.
"We'll be right there." Tony says, gathering his thoughts.
Ever since they played hopscotch on the universe saving Loki's kids, fear has pretty much been their life. It was so pervasive he almost stopped noticing. The loss of that threat after so long has him shaky, almost lightheaded.
When he returns his attention to Loki, he thinks his feet could leave the ground on their own. His partner is luminous. Alive and unchained and leaking pure relief. They've won.
"Look at us." Tony says, taking in the rather majestic violence happening over Loki's shoulder and the turbulent waves below. It's a fitting place to meet the God of Chaos again, for the first time.
"Indeed. Now, before our senses return and we go back to being our usual dreary selves."
Tony holds the relic between them, and Loki reaches into the circular opening where a single thread is pulled taught. He plucks it, and the world goes white.
The note is a clear and pure as a mathematical law. The perfect oscillation of a sine wave. Crashing ocean waves and distant carnage fades until all he can hear is a ringing in his ears. A sound he's only heard twice.
And when he opens his eyes, there's a shadow standing inches away. He jumps, and it grows bigger. Although the whole plane is pure white, the thing seems to suck up the brightness, like the inverse of matter.
It's skin flickers like static and a sharp toothed mouth splits out of the black. Long slurred sentences drift out like a badly tuned radio. It's his own voice, all the things he's said thoughtlessly while drunk or high or both.
You're outta control gorgeous. Come on gimme another smooch, you now you want to—i'm hungry, get me a scotch—you're never gonna get me in the sack with an attitude like that—hey Gold Stain, gimme a phat beat to beat my buddy's ass to— Hey no, stay. I'm sorry, okay? I actually am sorry—
"You're not my father, creature. End this charade. I come to make an offering." Loki says, so close. He can't see him, but he sounds so close.
The static quiets, and the whispered repetitions of his mistakes fall to the background. He shakes himself out of it, and the shadow is Loki right where he was before. There's a sort of presence all around, like a pressure on on his mind.
Offering? What offering?
Loki pries the stone out of the locket, and holds it in his palm.
"I have two stones of great power. Partitions of a celestial, split into many parts." Loki says.
But why, why now, why how, who gives something free?
"I agree. A great deal of good could come from them, but our world is not ready. We only care for power or greed. Tell me, can you destroy them? I will give you my fear, if you help me destroy them."
Give me fear? What fear? You have one?
"I have many, but I can do without one." he says.
And this one? Who is this one?
"I have one too." Tony says, looking into Loki's eyes with understanding.
"A fear for each stone."
Two fears? Two? Feast, a feast of fear for free. Give me, give me.
"Unworthy." Loki says, and out of his eyes comes red, red aether. Out of his ears and his nose and mouth, red like Mars dust. It floats up, and up and the unknown consumes it.
"Unworthy." Tony says, and the soul stone bursts into a cloud of fairy lights. Souls. Thousands of them, in all different colors. Floating to the beyond.
Fear. Feast, a feast of fear.
"Well met." Loki says, taking Tony's hand, and the ringing stops.
Reality returns, too loud. Heat assaults the exposed skin of his face, and the sounds of the realm breaking seem to fracture his skull. They walk to the ship in a hurry, Thor and Hela heckling them to go faster.
Hand in hand they step into the airlock, and Loki's feet are the last to ever touch Asgardian soil. The planet explodes in a rain of dust and rock. And although the Asgardians hug one another and cry out for their loss, to Tony it feels like a new beginning.