Chapter 8: Good-Byes for forever? Or a New Beginning?
Natasha was standing on the roof of STARK Tower, with Loki's sceptre in her hand and right in front of the machine that held the Tesseract as its heart.
"I can close the portal, can anybody hear me? I can close it!" Natasha said into her communicator and was answered by Captain Rogers "Do it!" and was ready to close the distance between the sceptre and the device that kept the portal open, when suddenly Iron Man's voice joined the communication. "No! Wait!"
"Iron Man, these things are still coming!" Cap's asked.
"There is a nuke coming your way and it will blow in less then a minute!" Natasha could make out Clint's cursing as Tony told them the bad news and with Tony's next words, she could do nothing but curse too "And I know just where to put it!"
"Iron Man, you know that's a one way trip?!"
A scarcely audible "Yeah…" came through the communicator and then Tony switched off the voice changer – not caring if Thor or Steve would recognize his voice – and said: "Clint, Tasha, in case I don't make it" I'm so sorry "tell Phil that I'm sorry for not being able to give him his Captain America cards back…" And then he was gone through the portal with the nuke on his back.
Natasha let silent tears run down her cheeks while Clint scrambled out of the building he had landed in and got only one last glances of Iron Man's boots disappearing into the dark portal. The only thing that could be heard in the deafening silence that had followed the short battle pause was the static that filled their coms because of the lost connection to Iron Man.
"Come back младший брат!" Natasha whispered as she held the spear in her hands – the key of closing the portal and thus the only the thing that could bring Tony back and then Rogers said: "Close it." Hesitating for a second, Natasha finally moved the sceptre and the portal began to close.
The redhead could hear Clint's panted chant of "Come on!" through the com., which he had forgot to turn off.
The suddenly the figure of Iron Man was coming back through the portal – only seconds before it closed completely and everyone let out a collective sigh, but then they realised that he was falling lifeless through the air and fast!
Natasha's relief of seeing that he had made it back vaporised at the sight and she could do nothing but follow his fall with her eyes.
Clint was running in the direction of Thor and the Captain – always keeping an eye on the falling figure – while cursing himself for not being able to stop his brother from falling.
Rogers and Thor too were following the falling figure with their eyes and Thor got ready to catch him when suddenly the Hulk came out of nowhere and just catched him in the air, crashing into a skyscraper and then cushioning the fall to the ground for Iron Man by shielding the metal man with his own body.
Thor and Steve were hovering over the still figure of their comrade with the Hulk standing opposite from them – all three unsure of what they should do – until Clint skidded to a halt in front of them and kneeled down at Iron Man's side. He inspected his friend and when he didn't see the comforting blue light of the arc reactor shining, quiet "Oh god no!" louder he said to Natasha through the comm. "Nat the arc reactor is out, what should I do?!" He heard her cursing in Russian before she said: "Remove the mask, see if he is conscious despite the rector being down and if he is not then…" She stopped and he knew what she meant 'then we can't do anything' and did as he was told. Clint found the small release button that removed the helmet, not caring that the other Avengers were there.
At the revelation of Tony's face, Clint could hear the Captain suck in a deep breath but he focused on the still figure of his little brother. A tear escaped from his left eye as he realised that Tony really wasn't breathing anymore and then suddenly the Hulk roared! Causing Clint to fall on his backside in shock and simultaneously did Tony suck in a deep breath as if he had been underwater instead of dead. Clint was back on his feet in less than a second, leaning over Tony and tears fell onto Tony's confused face – who had realised that his faceplate was gone. Then Tony's eyes focused on Clint and he asked "Clint? What just happened?" Like an afterthought he added, "Please tell me no one kissed me."
Clint huffed a laugh, wiping away the tears while the Captain answered: "We won."
Tony looked at the Captain as if he had just realised that he was here too and looked around him to see Thor and Hulk hovering over him too – he privately panicked slightly (his secret identity had been blown up and now SHIELD would find out! Oh god, Fury would be royally pissed at him…) – out loud he said "All right. Hey. All right. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried Shawarma? There's a Shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it." to cover up his uneasiness about the development and Clint gave him a knowing look to which he countered with one of his own.
Meanwhile Cap gave him a puzzled look and just replied "First things first…" while his gaze shifted toward the beaten up Stark Tower where the God of Mischief, Lies and Chaos was still located.
Not really wanting to stand up (but knowing that he had to) he just said "…Then Shawarma after." without further exchange the five Avengers made their way towards the tower – Tony carrying Clint carefully, Thor took Steve and the Hulk took a few big leaps to reach it.
Before stepping into the penthouse Natasha meet them halfway – giving Tony a look that promised a world of hurt for what he had put her and Clint through (and for what he would have done to Phil, Yinsen, Pepper and Happy if he hadn't returned).
Together they stepped into the penthouse and trained their weapons at Loki who was just trying to get back up again. Loki looked at them, raising his arm in defeat and his lips twitched slightly at the corners as he said to Tony: "If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now." At first Tony smirked but then he looked Loki deeper into the eyes and realised that something was missing that had been there before. Before he could stop himself, he said without thinking about it: "Huh, you were being controlled too?" The sudden question startled the others and everyone gave him questioning looks.
"H-how...?" Loki stuttered and the others shifted their gazes between the two now. "Your eyes." Tony stated, as if it was the obvious thing in the world (which it was to Tony). Everyone still stared at him as if he had finally lost it (except for Clint and Natasha who knew Tony long enough that he would explain any second what he had observed that everyone else had overlooked) and he just continued calmly: "His eyes are now a brilliant green! Since Loki set first foot here on Earth, all the footage showed him with blue-green eyes and now they are a clear green. Whatever or more precisely whoever gave Loki the power to control other first made sure to control him but not like Clint or the others had been!" He again turned to Loki who looked at him as if he had never seen him before and at the same time seemed to be taken aback by Tony's conclusions. "I'm right, aren't I?" The black haired god nodded slightly in shock and then found his silver tongue again. "Yes that is right Man of Iron. A being that calls itself Thanos controlled me. He twisted my darker thoughts into something even worse and since I hadn't been in a situation of a stable mind when he found me, he had an easy job of doing so... I think I owe you all a great apology. I know that I will never be able to make all my actions undone and I don't think that I can ever be forgiv-" "Bullshit."
Loki stared at the archer who had said that and Clint, feeling uneasy about the news but still had made up his mind, sighed. "I was told that my actions under your control weren't my fault, so why should yours be your own if you were controlled too?"
The god gaped at Clint, not sure what to say. Natasha and Tony smiled slightly at the development, Steve still seemed a bit confused, the Hulk huffed and slowly began to shrink and Thor practically beamed at everyone – especially Clint and Loki.
The thunder god approached his brother and held out his hand to help him up. Once Loki was standing, Thor clasped Loki's hand between his two. "Brother, the Man of Hawkeyes is right. You cannot blame yourself for happenings that we not yours to command!"
Loki – who seemed to have finally regained his voice – said: "Thank you brother and you too Avengers."
"So since no one is pointing their weapons at him, does that mean he is innocent?" Everyone turned to a slightly shaking Bruce who was holding the meagre rest of his pants in place.
Tony was the first to answer: "Yep. I will fill you in later but lets get you some new clothes first. After that" he looked at everyone in the room "everyone will get checked for injuries by Yinsen." "And you will probably be the last to go, huh Tony?" "Ah, you know me Clint: always trying to avoid Yinsen's wrath and all that."
Tony turned away from the archer and grabbed Bruce's wrist to drag him along while seemingly talking to the air. "Jarvis, you still there buddy?"
"For you always sir." The smooth voice made Bruce, Steve and Thor jump slightly in surprise.
"Good. Is Yinsen in the medical area or did leave Manhattan like I told him?"
"Mr Yinsen is currently in the elevator and will be arriving on your floor…now."
Tony cursed slightly in different languages, before pointing Bruce to a room where he could select some new clothes from Tony's stuff, and then put on a wide grin when Yinsen stepped into view. "Yinsen! I'm glad that you're okay."
The older man strut towards them and once standing in front of Tony calmly stating with a scary smile: "Tony Stark. What in god's name did you think you were doing, guiding that nuke into a portal that led to who knows where, while knowing that the probability of coming back alive was as good as not existing?"
If it had been possible Tony would have shrunk down under Yinsen's gaze but his armour prevented that from happening but Natasha and Clint gave him looks that said 'You brought it on yourself~'. "Yins-" "Do not 'Yinsen' me! You and-" Yinsen looked at the other Avengers – Bruce had joined them a few seconds ago – and Loki "are coming with me to the medical area and no one – yes that means you Clint and Tony – is going to talk themselves out of it."
And so they followed – Tony would have to ask Jarvis later to show him the video footage of the reaction of the Avengers since he was pretty sure that Steve had almost saluted at Yinsen's commanding tone!
In the infirmary Tony shed the rest of his armour and almost fell over if Natasha and Clint hadn't caught him in time. "Ops... seems like my leg broke despite the armour…" "Tony!" "… Sorry?"
Yinsen sighed and the two older assassins laid Tony on a bed where Yinsen checked him through. After he had given Tony medical treatment, Yinsen treated Clint's back, Natasha's wounds, Steve's stomach wound (which was already healing), Thor's stab wound (which too was healing and caused Loki to apologise profusely to his brother) and Loki's wounds. Bruce was the only one that had left the battle unscathed, which earned him a few jealous looks that he answered back with a shy smile.
They sat a while in silence until Steve shifted nervously on his spot till he suddenly blurted out "I'm sorry!"
"Huh? Oh you mean because of what you said on the Helicarrier… Well you didn't know any better and I wasn't really nice as well, so how about we call it even and forget it for now?" Tony gave the Captain a crooked smile and the other man nodded, still feeling a bit uncomfortable about it.
"… You know that Phil will still want to talk to the Captain, don't you Tony?" Natasha said from her place against the infirmary wall and Tony's smiled got a slightly evil edge. "Jep and I'm gonna enjoy the show."
Steve choose to ignore Tony's words and instead concentrated on Natasha's. "Phil? You mean Agent Coulson? But he's…dead." Clint arched an eyebrow, Tony and Natasha teamed up in giving him 'you are stupid' look and Yinsen seemed shocked at the sentence. "What?!" "He's not! Fury was just playing his game with us, as if Phil would carry his precious cards on his person!" Clint's shouted words made Yinsen relax instantly and left the others (minus Tony and Natasha of course) stunned.
"Well since that is resolved: how about we visit SHIELD HQ?" Tony said with what was definitely an evil grin…
Well that was that and I think I will write one last chapter and then lets see... Hope you liked it! ^^