Lima to Stockholm

Chapter Ten: Deceit

While Tony forged the critical components for his newly designed armors and other gear the Odin-Clone took the schematics for the components Tony was willing to commit to paper and commissioned the dwarves of Nidavellir to build them. Before long new versions of Iron Man, built with Harley in mind rather than Tony, War Machine, Pepper's very discrete defensive armor and a new armor that Tony dubbed the Silver Centurion for Happy were being assembled on the veranda along with the weapons for Spider-Man, as well as improved body armor for the boy. He remade Thor's armor, so it combined the best of both Asgard and Tony's own ingenuity. Even Tony couldn't think of anything to build for Vision, most of his work had been in stopping the Infinity Stones and Vision controlled one.

Building things to protect his friends and loved ones had always been a near therapeutic activity for Tony. Feeling a measure of reluctance to move on to armaments for those he was less happy to protect Tony let himself believe that his dreams were real and overhauled Rhodes and FRIDAY's Iron Buggy design. Then he created a distinctly feminine looking robot, had it been the armor it looked to be it would have fit FRIDAY's preferred holographic form neatly. He built strictly defensive gear for Marlena, Mercedes and May Parker, then made a few more units for Cassie and her family just in case the friendships he saw developing in his dreams were real… Besides, upstaging Hank Pym was always fun.

"How do we get this stuff to them?" Tony asked Loki when he was done. "You said as Ragnok approached the rules would change and I could see them, when is that? Thanos is moving, they're going to need time to train with the new gear and I'm going to need feedback so I can straighten out any bugs."

"Thor is back from scouting Thanos' advance, he could take them," Loki said quickly. "Your friends trust him, Odin can explain things to Thor and he can pass it on them so they have the time they need to train before Thanos arrives."

"Why do I feel like you're not ready to let me go yet?" Tony asked and Loki looked away.

Tony moved to stand up from his workbench. Loki dropped to his knees beside him, holding Tony in place. "You can do so much more to shift the balance in our favor here," he said quickly.

"Pepper-"

"Is right," Loki interrupted. "Let your bullheaded captain and his brainless ilk throw themselves bodily in Thanos' path. They'll accomplish more with you arming them than with you beside them. You are more than a foot soldier, Anthony Stark. For all that you've been disparaged for your talents what good would your heroic soldiers be without the backing of those like you?

"And your return would distract them," Loki continued, speaking in a rush. "You died in Siberia, at Steve Rogers' hands, that has been proved and displayed to the world. They cut your body open to expose all the damage he did to you. They will not easily accept that you have been brought back…" Loki laid his cheek against the outside of Tony's thigh, "Especially not with me involved. They will call it a trick and you will have to fight tooth and nail to convince them that you are who you say you are. Later, once the battle has been joined, when impossible things become daily fare, they will be ready to accept miracles. Then they won't question that the gates of Valhalla have opened and the legendary dead have returned in Midgard's darkest hour to stand in her defense one last time."

Loki's form shimmered, telling Tony he was on the verge of losing control of shape-shifting again. Tony rested his hand on Loki's head, uncomfortable with the thought of Loki changing himself into something more acceptable. Tony had heard about how Odin had found Loki as an infant, left to die of exposure, how Loki had transformed himself into a Asir babe and been take in. The virtues of being yourself didn't resonant with someone whose very survival from infancy on had lain in conforming to those around him. Frigga and Odin had given Loki some support in being himself when Frigga had taught him magic and Odin hadn't forbid its use but, from what Tony had heard, they'd left Loki exposed to not insignificant amounts of abuse for choosing not to force himself even further into the Asgardian mold.

"If you go back you'll have to work with them, with the captain again," Loki continued. "You can barely stand to think about him. They'll do what they've always done and demand that you shoulder all the blame, they'll turn to you to fix every consequence of their actions and say it is better than you deserve. Stay with me awhile longer.

"Thor can take care of the preliminary explanations. After how he left me, he owes me this. Let him break the path and deal with the initial reactions when he brings news of your fate. Let him be the one to convince them of where you've been. Don't go yet, it will only hurt and in the end you won't be able to stay. After the war against Thanos is done, win or lose, you and I will return the Realms of the Dead."

And in the end it was that which convinced Tony to proceed cautiously. As much as he might want to see Pepper again, to verify that their daughter was real, returning for a brief moment wouldn't be doing anyone any favors. From what Odin had told him, from what Tony had seen in his dreams, even if they missed him and held a place open for him in their hearts, they'd moved on and done alright without him. Which didn't surprise Tony in the least, one of his basic requirements for friendship was people who wanted him around without needing him because in Tony's experience needing him really meant needing something he could provide them.

Tony had had a bad feeling as he'd started work on the Accords and he'd cleaned up his affairs before going in. He regretted not finding a solution for Rhodey's paralysis before he'd died but Peter and Harley were on the verge of completing their work and Tony wouldn't steal their thunder. He regretted meeting Peter so late and leaving the young hero's future so uncertain but Rhodey and Pepper had stepped in and probably done a better job of it. Tony couldn't see himself forcing the issue of telling May Parker and- and the truth was she deserved better than being shut out of a large part of her child's life, while Peter deserved to have a parent's support in his chosen path.

'If I can't go back for real, for a lifetime,' Tony decided. 'Then it's best not to go back at all. Best to work from a distance to make sure the war against Thanos was won.'

It was harder for Tony to lose himself in his work as he started realizing the designs he'd made for the heroes he'd investigated but hadn't met and even more so for the rogue Avengers. The protection against magic and the Infinity Stones that he made for Pym's rebellious flunky was completely generic, one of dozens he'd made for anyone willing to fight against Thanos, only different in size from the designs he'd provided for the Earth's militaries to secure their planes and tanks against those attacks. He didn't know the shrinking/growing guy's tech and couldn't do much for it without having ever looked under the hood. The Falcon's wings weren't too hard to look at, Tony had never been particularly close to Sam and the man had asked after Rhodey when they spoke on the Raft and he'd offered Tony a sliver of trust there, more than any other member of Team!Cap had given him with less reason. Natasha's widow-bites were Peter's too now but, while she and Peter also shared many of the same requirements for body armor that didn't restrict their agility and speed, there was no way for Tony to pretend that Natasha's body armor was meant for a teenaged boy. Tony started other, completely unrelated projects to switch to when he couldn't stand to look at the arrows he'd designed, let alone Steve Roger's body armor- Tony felt a little petty for stripping it of Captain America's colors but at the same time he literally got nauseous bring the old suit to mind, the one he'd last seen as Steve rammed his shield into Tony's chest and left him to die. Sometimes Tony thought about creating a new arm for Barnes just to avoid working armor that would protect Rogers from magic and the Infinity Stones.

When Tony absolutely couldn't stand to work on the renegades' gear any longer he worked with Loptr to adapt the Arc Reactor's ability to disrupt the Infinity Stones into something that didn't disrupt a magic-users own spells and crafted it into a gorget for Loki and a pauldron for Loptr. In the back of his mind it bothered Tony that the tech used in the armor would only need a few tweak before it could be employed to create weapons specifically to work with a Mage's innate powers and Tony knew Loki was smart enough to make the connections without help.

"Here," Tony said presenting the gorget set with a glowing Arc Reactor, the delicate circuitry integrated into the body of the neck guard shaping the reactor's energy field so that would blended with Loki's magic. "It should protect you from anything, upto and including Infinity Stones, trying to screw with your mind."

Tony wondered if he should point out that the circuitry design for the gorget and the pauldron were nearly identical, Loki and Loptr's magics were very nearly identical according to Tony's scans, much too close to be coincidence. It only confirmed what anyone with eyes could see looking at Loki and Loptr standing side by side but from Loki's behavior around the kid Tony figured he hadn't noticed and Loptr certainly didn't know. Tony was still a bit shaky on his grasp of Asgardian age versus developmental stage, still he figured Loki had to have been on the young side when he'd father Loptr, which could explain his blind spot about the kid.

"Thank you," Loki said, she was in her blue female form for the moment. She swept her hair aside and turned her back to Tony, inviting him to put the gorget on for her. Several inappropriate comments about collars flashed through Tony's mind and were discarded just as quickly when he noticed Loki was holding her breath, still anticipating rejection. The neck guard was a solid piece, too heavy to put on gracefully but Tony managed. After fastening the clasp Tony let his hands rest on Loki's cool shoulders for a few moments, as a reminder that Tony wasn't even slightly repulsed by Loki's Jotun skin, even if her/his attempts at flirting weren't going anywhere.

Tony remembered putting the necklace he'd made from the shards removed from his heart on Pepper, the implicit promise, the lie that he'd give up Iron Man when he blew up the armor. "So how's it feel, Elsa? Doesn't pinch, magically or physically?" he asked before Loki could notice his distraction. "Try out a few spells, let's make sure it works like it's supposed to before you need to count on it." He gave her shoulders a last squeeze then stepped back. "Bibbity bobbity away."

Tony stood in the middle of his workshop, the things he'd built for Earth's defense arrayed around him and watched Thor come in. "Let's get straight to it," he said before Thor could say anything. "You think the Accords were a shitty idea and I'm a terrible person for signing them, no surprise I think the whole team concluded that about five seconds after Ultron started talking. Fine, but if Earth is going to defend itself against Thanos you need me. So," he gestured to a row of boxes on the table before him, each one inscribed with one of the Avengers' codenames. "The keys, if you will. I coded everything I built to a specific person but without them here there's a last step before anything works. The person the gear's intended for needs to touch what's in their box, then install it in the gear. I'll show you where everything goes."

"I do not think you are a bad person," Thor interjected when Tony had to pause for breath. "I do not disagree with the intent of the Sokovia Accords, what I have seen on Earth gives proof that they could be amended into a positive force." Thor knelt gracefully, "And I am long overdue in offering you an apology. I am sincerely sorry for attacking you after our first encounter with Ultron."

Tony's mouth opened. He blinked. "Say that again? You don't think everything about the Accords is an offense to your dignity? That there's not something innately wrong with people wanting the right to second guess you?"

"I do not," Thor stated. "I, not so long ago, questioned the All-Father's judgement, I felt he had been unbalanced by my mother's loss. I do not disagree that anyone's judgement can be faulty and there should exist an instrument for assessing the actions of even the most venerated among us."

"Oh," Tony said softly. "Um- Well- I just thought- Rogers was able to shift your hammer. I haven't been able to study it, but after looking at Gungnir… Well, first there probably is something in there that says 'Not Asir? Not happening.' Only I'm not sure how far the Super Soldier Serum's effect on his genetic is from the cumulative effect of your people's genetic enhancement program. And while I'm not sure I'd agree with Mjolnir's definition of worthy, Steve Rogers' intentions are apparently a pretty close match to your. He loathed the whole idea of the Accords so I just figured…"

"I believe your people have a saying about good intentions?" Thor asked.

A small smile quirked Tony's lips.

"However, my intentions were not good when my father laid that requirement on Mjolnir," Thor said solemnly. "I was a vainglorious child chasing battle with no thought for anyone but myself. Mjolnir returned to me when I learned to fight for someone other than myself. That is not a lesson Steve Rogers needs to learn but perhaps he could learn to examine more closely the end results of his good intentions."

"Now," Thor said after a moment of silence, "That we have clarified that I do not hate you, could you explain what you have built?"

"Oh, right," Tony said. "Okay, so like I said, if the wrong person gets their hands on the key first odds are everything locks down until I reset the password but maybe not. Right now the lock is my impression of the person the gear's designed for, until they actually touch the key it's not a sure thing. That also brings up another point, if I'm too far off-base about who someone is the key'll go into lockdown then too.

"Now, here's where Rhodey's key goes…"

Once he was in Odin's study, Loki shifted from Thor's appearance into Odin's, then he sat down and quickly transcribed all the instructions Tony had given him. Expecting Thor to remember and accurately pass on that level of precisely detail, technical information was just asking for trouble in Loki's opinion. Once he'd written up the instructions for each set of equipment he called several members of the guard to take the boxed up equipment to the throne room and summoned Thor.

Loki-as-Odin, took the inscribed boxes containing the keys to the throne room himself. He called for a low table covered in velvet to array them on, then stood before Hlidskjalf and waited for Thor.

"Father, you summoned me?" Thor asked once he'd made the prescribed bow.

"My son," Loki said gravely, "You are aware that I have been in talks with Niflheim?"

Thor nodded, "I know they have been going as well as might be expected, even now when there is proof that the Mad Titan's return is imminent."

"Those talks have not been completely fruitless," Loki stated. "Niflheim has given leave for one of their armorsmiths who bares Midgard an allegiance to work his craft in support of the coming war."

Thor paled dramatically. "The rumors about Niflheim?" he breathed.

Loki ignored the question. "The armorsmith has entrusted his creations only to specific individuals. These keys must not leave your hands until they have been imprinted upon by the one they were intended for. I cannot impress upon you enough how gravely disappointed I will be should you fail me in this mission."

"Father, I will not fail," Thor stated firmly.

Loki nodded, "Even so, we will take precautions. The equipment will remain in Asgard while you carry the keys to their intended recipients. Once the keys have been successfully imprinted by their proper master then the equipment will be sent so that they might claim it. And Thor? Should any of the keys reject the person they were made for? It means they were not who the armorsmith believed them to be. If that happens return the key to Asgard promptly. The gift is not rightfully theirs if they deceived him about their true nature."

Tony watched the scar on his face, where a piece of shrapnel from the door had laid his cheek open to the bone, fade to nothing in a matter of months. He picked through the equipment he'd accumulated, a good selection of which was medical in nature, and put together a DNA sequencer. Having already established that his body was in fact the same one he'd been born with, Tony wasn't particularly surprised to find the modifications from the stabilized version of Extremis that he'd injected himself with in order to survive removing the shrapnel in his chest and the Arc Reactor.

After Tony, Bruce and Dr. Cho had determined how to stabilize Extremis and given the cure to Pepper, Tony had told her it was gone. He'd figured that it wasn't really a lie: The possibility of her blowing up was gone, probability so low that he had to use scientific notation to fit all the zeroes after the decimal point into a single computer screen. The glowing hot skin and super strength were gone and there was a 95% probability that they'd stay gone. What was left was a very, very modest version of the super soldier serum that meant Pepper found herself needing a much more rigorous exercise routine to manage stress than she'd used before. If she put two and two together, which Tony didn't doubt that she had, Pepper probably knew from the timing of her sudden increase in fitness that there were some lingering effects from Extremis but she hadn't said anything so Tony took that as proof that he'd made the right call in just saying Extremis was gone. It was easier to pretend everything was normal when well meaning idiots didn't insist on telling you things you didn't want to know… "Fuck," Tony swore to himself, as he recognized the same chain of logic that had led Steve to not tell him about his parents.

"Do I have to forgive him now?" Tony wondered. In Siberia the only thing Tony had been able to think of when he realized that Steve had hidden his parents' murder from him was that Steve had only cared about protecting Bucky but now- Tony sighed. He didn't keep things from Pepper because he didn't love her but because sometimes the news wasn't what he wanted it to be and he hated being the one to make her unhappy.

Still, if it had just been the secrecy- Tony remember Steve berating him viciously about keeping secrets when he must have already known about Tony's parents. -He could have convinced himself that his first thought had been wrong and Steve really did give a damn about him but the fight in Siberia had made it brutal clear where he rated. 'Not once did he show any sign that he that he cared,' Tony thought. 'Dad thought the world of him and not a goddamn flinch at watching his face being smashed in. Not a thought to how I might feel about about watching my parents be murdered. Nothing but how it might affect his precious Bucky.' Tony wished he had B.A.R.F. to dig out the memories and step back to just watch them replay without his bias obscuring what had happened but he just couldn't remember any point in that whole fucking mess where Steve had shown the slightest sign of compassion for what he was going through.

"Were we ever really friends?" Tony asked himself. "It wouldn't be the first time I fooled myself into believing that someone cared when really they were just tolerating me for what I could give them." He sighed, "Is it fair to hate Steve Rogers for not liking me as much as I liked him? No, either he didn't tell me because he cared enough to not want to be the bearer of bad news or he didn't tell me because he was using me all along and telling me the truth didn't have any advantage for him. I can't, I won't forgive him without evidence that I was more than a convenient source of funds to him."

Tony shook his head, "What does it matter anyway? I'll be gone after this war and it'll be plenty big enough to keep the two of us on separate fronts. There's no reason we need to make-up."

Tony hadn't expected to find that the Extremis modifications to his DNA had been further enhanced, or that he would recognize the new modifications from his and Loki's reading about the Vanir's early experiments in extending their lives and eradicating disease from their population. He still didn't know how he'd been brought back to life but if he were still dead, why had they needed to give him improved healing?

After the keys were delivered Thor returned to Asgard with news of how they'd been received.

"There is much lively debate over whether the Midgard should seek the assistance of Enhanced individuals who have been incarcerated, including those who were once our teammates," Thor relaid. "As that was the case I have held off on giving them your gifts until the debate is resolved."

"That's crap," Tony snapped. "It's the fucking fate of the planet. There's no way Steve Rogers could sit that out, has anyone actually read about the shit he pulled to get his ass into combat back in WWII? Do they want to deal with Thanos and trying to keep him from helping at the same time?"

"It is not just our former teammates," Thor said. "It is the entire planet at stake and as the decision has been made not to evacuate prisoners unless there are empty berths. If Midgard is lost the Nova Empire will destroy the planet rather than leave it in Thanos' hands. That being the case, do not all of those remaining on Midgard deserve the chance to die fighting for their lives rather than chained up like animals bound for slaughter? And if they are allowed to fight how can it be insured that they do not attempt treachery, or do more harm than good due to the natures that led to their imprisonment in the first place?"

"Is that why your father brought Loki back?" Tony asked. "Because dead or alive, Thanos is going to come after him and Loki deserves the chance to put up the best fight he can manage to see Thanos defeated?"

Thor nodded, "Svartalfheim showed me beyond all doubt that Loki can be trusted so long as his purposes align with ours," he said calmly. "Loki is no longer irrational in his anger and hurt."

Tony frowned as he stared at Thor but he continued picking through the boxes of keys that had been returned. "Why didn't this go to Natasha?" he asked. "She's not in the clink is she?"

"She was on a mission and beyond my reach," Thor replied. "The other keys were all accepted by, and accepted, those you sent them to."

Tony nodded absently, "No real surprise, most of the gear that went to people outside of my circle just had a general 'You will use this to fight in defense of the planet in the coming war, right?' on it. You made sure to explain that this stuff is only going to work against Thanos' forces didn't you? That everything turns into a pumpkin once he's out of the picture?"

"I have passed that message along faithfully," Thor said. "I would spend more time with you but now that the keys are delivered I must oversee the delivery of the equipment itself."

As Thor turned to leave Tony called out, "Loki!"

The blond Asir paused, "My younger brother, what of him?"

"Just no," Tony sighed. He gestured toward Thor and the various pieces of armor he had stored around the room spang to life attaching themselves to the startled Thunderer like leeches. As their power came on line, Thor's appearance wavered, shifting to Loki's but the startled mage was imprisoned by the armor before he could voice a protest. Tony watched Loki strain against the armor for a moment then said, "Well, it works as advertised. That's one thing you didn't lie about."

Loki stopped struggling. Tony watched a painfully familiar expression mask descended over Loki's features: Everything important was falling apart around him and he knew it was his fault, the only thing salvageable was his pride so he'd be damned if he lost that too. "What gave me away?" Loki asked.

Tony found himself remembering all the times he'd pulled that same trick, hoping someone would see through the bullshit and not let him from pull away. "First I got suspicious when 'Thor' didn't ask more questions while I was explaining the gear. Since I've known him he's never had too much pride to ask me to explain my tech in terms he understands. And you just confirmed that you weren't Thor when I asked about you. Thor gets this kicked puppy-dog look every time your name comes up," Tony sighed. "He really does love you but he doesn't get why you weren't overwhelmed with gratitude when he was willing to forgive your trespasses against him."

"And yet it didn't occur to him to seek MY forgiveness until I was dying in his arms!" Loki snarled.

"Nope," Tony agreed. "For curiosity's sake, have you been everyone I've talked to in the last… two plus years?"

"In all honesty, yes," Loki replied.

Tony nodded at the confirmation. He made a second gesture and the armor unlocked, falling away from Loki.

"You're taking it rather better than I would have expected," Loki said as he cautiously rubbed circulation back into his limbs.

Tony shrugged, "It may just be the Stockholm Syndrome talking but the anti-magic and lock-out protocols on the armor worked as advertised, that means a lot to me. And even though you've had all the power, you've generally tried to persuade me with words rather than force. You've backed off when I couldn't give you what you wanted. You've listened to my reasons, my objections. You've gone out of your way to make me comfortable, you've made an effort to deal with my issues. When you hurt me, you apologized by restricting your ability to do it again. Basically I've always known that you're using me but that's not exactly new in my life and you've been kinder about it than most, the Avengers included… Even Odin? What does your old man say about you borrowing his face?"

"Unsurprisingly little given that he has been in Odinsleep since learning of my presumed death and I have been ruling in his place," Loki replied. "Preparing the Nine Realms for Thanos."

"How'd that happen?" Tony asked.

"After I was stabbed, as I lay dying in Thor's arms, he promised that he would tell our father I had died well." Loki shrugged trying to look like he didn't care, "When it became apparent that I would not die I found myself possessed by a desire to see how news of my death had been greeted."

"Okay Tom Sawyer, you just earned yourself a new nickname," Tony remarked. "Was it everything you'd hoped for? 'Cause I have heard Thor tell the story more than once."

"I don't know what I hoped for," Loki admitted. "To be frank, I expected my father to be unmoved. Then I would have disappeared with no regrets, leaving Thor behind to spread word of my death far and wide so none would think to pursue me in the lands of the living."

Tony waited silently.

"I disguised myself as a guard and went to my father to deliver the news of my death. When I told him, for a moment I believed I'd killed him. I had never meant to hurt him so badly, never dreamed that I could," Loki stammered.

"How long did it take you to decide to take his place?" Tony asked.

"About as long as it took me to move him to his bed after verifying that his heart yet beat," Loki said. "When he fell into Odinsleep after Thor's banishment mother gave me Gungnir, I was the rightful ruler Asgard, but no one would give me a chance. I thought, maybe, finally, I could prove them all wrong." He laughed, "And, of course, there's Thanos. I swear, on my mother's memory and my magic, that I have been honest about the fate that awaits both the universe and me personally if he should succeed."

Tony smiled awkwardly, "So you're motivated," he thought back on what he'd seen on the other side of the portal, "I can live with that. When it's over, when we've won. If you think it'll do any good, I'll tell anyone you want how much work you've put into saving, well, life, the universe and everything. Doesn't matter to me if you did it to save your own butt, you still did it."

"Thank you," Loki said quietly slumping over to lean against Tony's shoulder.

Notes: I will go back to the reactions on Earth when Thor brings Tony's gifts, it's one of the early subplots in the next story, more than the segment I'd want to divert from Loki and Tony in this story. One more chapter to go before this story ends and my take on Infinity War starts.