Every time we lie awake
After every hit we take
Every feeling that I get
But I haven't missed you yet
Every roommate kept awake
By every sigh and scream we make
All the feelings that I get
But I still don't miss you yet
Only when I stop to think about it
I hate everything about you
Why do I love you
You hate everything about me
Why do you love me
-Three Days Grace "I Hate Everything About You"
His entire body ached. People screaming and running through the streets in panic, explosions everywhere, gunfire, arrow fire, shield throwing, hammer crushing, Hulk smashing and then there was him. Only, except for his usual ability to send his opponent flying and then exploding into bits, this one had caught him off guard, gripping onto his back plate before hurling him through the closest building. Crawling out of the rubble, he was greeted with a solid fist to the chest plate, sending him flying back into the mess with a hissing creature securely latched to his front, tearing at his face mask.
"JARVIS FLARES!" he shouted. The rapid fire of small exploding lights caused the being to rear, detaching itself from his armor and giving Tony just enough time to send it a thorough blast before Romanov shot it in the head.
"Stark, keep out of the way." She snapped, rolling to the side and sending off another series bullets, each one earning her a lurch and a shriek.
Tony huffed, pushing his damaged armor back up into the air at full force, only to be blasted by a blue jet of light, sending him sprawling onto the roof next building, the screeching of metal on concrete giving him a headache on top of a soon to be concussion. When he stopped, the person looming over him was none other than Loki Laufeyson.
"We must stop meeting like this darling." Tony ground out, trying to pick himself up, only to realize the blast had knocked out his power system and JARVIS was completely offline. Meanwhile, the fuming god of destruction still straddled him with blazing eyes and staff ready on full blast.
"What's the matter Anthony, can't move a limb without you stupid program helping you." Loki snarled, giving him a good solid punch to the bowels of the armor leaving a significant sized dent and wrenching a pained wheeze from the mortal inside.
"Can't defend yourself without your stupid targeting system?" Loki snarled again, gripping both of the limp, armored arms and crushing them in his grip, wrangling a pained yelp from inside. "Can't get up, can't fight, maybe you can't even breathe." With that, the gods hands latched themselves to the damaged chest plate and tore upward, shredding the metal clear off its hinges and tossing it into the air as if it were a piece of paper mache.
Tony was beginning to hyperventilate. His arms were probably broken or at least fractured and now trapped inside the heavy, crunched up armor. He could feel the trails of blood beginning to run down his skin and seep into the undershirt he wore beneath the armor. His chest plate just got torn off like the easy peel off skin of one of those Cuties clementines made for three year olds, leaving all his vital organs and his arc reactor exposed. Suddenly his helmet felt too tight and too small. Images of the cave, of being held underwater, of not being able to breathe came stampeding into his mind and he knew what was coming. Tony Stark, Iron Man, was panicking.
"Come now Stark." Loki hissed. "Where's that charm and personality? Weren't you supposed to be the mortal that no GOD can resist?" That was punctured by a sharp fist to exposed ribs earning a hard, choked gasp from the prone human below him. But now, that human wasn't there anymore. Tony was back in that god-forsaken cave.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
"Stark." His captor's voice cooed to him, a hidden snarl and a promise of pain followed in the twisted smile he received. "Where's that wit of yours? Weren't you supposed to be the one that that had the bigger stick?"
Tony, muffled by the gag while sporting a very decorative black eye and a wet upper body from the pleasant bathing he had endured earlier, simply glared back.
"And yet you resist me. Why? Seeing you precious work do that," the captor pointed at the cruel electromagnet sitting in his chest, "to its own creator should be enough to humble anyone."
"So tell me, Merchant of Death. Who is your god now?" his captor tore the gag cruelly from Tony's mouth, not caring as a small trail of blood made it way down the inventor's chin from where the rough leather straps had cut into him.
Tony coughed for a moment before smirking, "Never had one, and never believed it worth the time to go get one."
A hard slap sent him tumbling to the ground, earning a small yelp of pain when his chest piece was pulled on through over extended wires. His captor knelt down, yanking his hair up in a painful fistful before hauling him bodily to his knees.
"This will be a lesson for you to remember where your god is."
Tony's eyes widened when he felt the hand twist around his new "heart"…no, anything but that. A smirk was his only warning before a hard pull and a crackling pop let him know that the one thing keeping him alive was now in the fist of his enemy. Ironically, the man held his life in his hands.
"Now kiss my boots."
Tony gasped for air as he felt his blood pump and for once, it was not a wonderful flow of life. It was a flood of death as he felt the shrapnel tearing through his vessels to get to all his main organs.
"Kiss…my…boots." the smirking, leering face teetered at an angle as he felt himself keel over clawing for air, clinging for life.
Pepper, Rhodey, Yensen, Obidiah, everyone waiting for him at home and for hell's sake even Dummy and JARVIS flooded through his mind. He was going to lose it all. He was no god. He was no hero. At best he wasn't even human to some degree now with the machine running his life. What had he done other than to prove that he is nothing more than a small child placing his tiny hands in his father's shoes only to realize; he would sooner drown in them than ever have a chance of filling them?
He felt the hand come closer with his "heart," his "life," so close that it was sitting on the edge of the socket.
"Do it."
Arms heavy, legs numb, and head blank, he placed his lips on the dirt covered, blood stained boots and kissed it.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Loki knew something was wrong the instant he felt the human go limp in his grasp. Moving quickly, he tore the faceplate off the helmet only to be met with glazed, catatonic eyes.
"Stark?" No response. "Anthony?" Still, those same, hazed over eyes stared straight ahead at nothing with no movement from any limbs.
Loki was becoming desperate, tearing off the rest of the armor, staring wide-eyed at the damage he had done. The human's arms where he had crushed the armor were twisted at odd angles and continued to bleed sluggishly. The area of the chest plate where he had initially punched him was forming a very hearty bruise the size of a large dinner plate. On top of it, the punch Loki had angrily dealt to his ribs resulted in two broken and a large internal hemorrhage.
"STARK! MAN OF IRON!" he bellowed, shaking the man, screaming his name at the top of his lungs while his own mind screamed back at him.
'You had to do it. You had to send everything that comes close straight to the depths of despair. You destroy everything you touch and now you've gone and broken him. He is only human. And humans die by the dozen. You've killed so many more than that.'
"ANTHONY!" Loki knew he was on the verge of tears and just that thought hit him like a ton of bricks. This man had been different. This man had meant something more than just a distraction. This man had told him that he wanted him as him. This man had kissed him. And now he'd repaid the favor by destroying his armor, and putting him in this state as his city comes crashing down around him. Loki didn't even notice when a hard fist slammed into his side, throwing him off the fallen man and well across the roof before skidding to a halt on the edge.
The Hulk was roaring with fury but one look down at Tony, the gigantic, green buffoon, gingerly nudged him with one meaty finger before sitting down and lifting the broken man into his large palm.
'Even a raging beast knows how to handle him better than you. You're a pathetic excuse for a god.' Loki's mind mocked as his green eyes watched the scene in front of him.
He was still numb when his brother picked him up by his armor and shook him violently, screaming, "WHAT HAS BEFALLEN UPON MAN OF IRON? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE BROTHER?"
Captain America knelt down by the Hulk, eyes grim as he examined the physical injuries, dialing numbers furiously into that human contraption known as a phone before giving the Hulk a quick pat on the wrist. Hawkeye and the woman, landed close by, eyeing him with a wary glare before focusing on their injured comrade. Loki picked up on bits and pieces of the conversation.
"We need to get him to the infirmary ASAP."
"I've never seem him like this before."
"Hey Tony can you hear me?"
"Let's get him out of here."
"Urf." The Hulk agreed, gingerly taking his dissension down the side of the building, Iron Man in hand.
"Call off your army Loki." Thor growled, holding the god of mischief by the throat. Loki simply gave a weak wave of his hand before surrendering to his brother's grip, earning a surprised look from the Thunder God.
"What is it that you have done brother?"
And for the first time in many, many eons, Loki opened his mouth, only to have it snap shut with no words to reply to such a question.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Tony woke in a haze of pain and activity. All around him were white lights, murmuring people, the feeling of soft and warmth touching his skin. Then there were hands on his arc reactor. He freaked, trying to bolt upright only to holler with pain at the lightning that shot through his ribs. When he tried to ball up and clutch them, he found his arms were in casts and bound to the table. Gasping for air in panicked breathes, brown eyes darted up to the ceiling and he screamed. Screamed for all the times in the cave he couldn't, screamed as the pain from his surgery came back through is mind, screamed at how helpless he was, how pliable he was, how easily he could be smashed only to be cruelly pieced back together one small shard at a time. He heard voices trying to calm him. Words about his arms were broken, his ribs were smashed grazed through his ears but still he screamed. He screamed to the point in which he knew he was sobbing and begging. He screamed till his throat felt like it was going to vomit itself up and run away to avoid the fire inside his body. Voices kept talking, trying to sooth him and he just inched away from each one, moaning, praying they would leave him alone.
Blood, death, his death, his pain, the humiliation, Pepper, Rhodey, Yensen, just keep repeating the mantra; just keep repeating it. You have a purpose now keep it. So much pain, so much to endure. Bite you tongue. Hold you emotions in. Don't let them break you.
But a part of him in that cave did. That part was still slow to repair and would probably never heal. Just like the gaping hole that was now residing in his atrial cavity. Proof that Tony Stark had a heart…yeah well he didn't have one anymore.
"What ails him?" a booming voice echoed over all the other. He knew that one. The one with the hammer and suddenly, the sensations of his arm being crushed and armor flickering caused him to gasp and begin to trash a new. More screams echoed through the room and finally, there was silence. He lay there in a haze, staring up at the ceiling wondering why, why of all the times was he there. He was in the tower; he was safe. He was being treated from the wounds he had suffered. But For Tony Stark, his mind still remained in that cave.
It was some time later that he felt another presence enter the room. This one wasn't rushing out of concern or comfort. In fact the movement could be felt as more hesitant and almost a regretful.
Silence still echoed through the room as he felt the figure stop at the foot of his bed, a sharp breath intake alerting him that he must have been a wondrous sight to behold. Then he felt long, dexterous fingers ghost onto his calf. He twitched, a whimper tearing itself involuntarily from his throat. The hand paused, almost as if waiting for permission before continuing its journey up to rest on his knee, then his thigh. The figure came into full view as he moved to stand at his bedside now, calculating green eyes clouded with hints of worry and grief.
Loki. Tony's mind must have spoken out loud because at that moment, those beautiful pools of mystery stopped examining the wounds and the locked with his.
"Anthony?" a soft voice greeted his ears as those fingers moved to rest onto his upper arm.
Loki. The god of mischief and destruction. The one man who has leveled more of his buildings than he had himself with Banner combined. The one man who had leveled the same amount of walls in Tony's mind and lack of heart in just two nights.
"Damn you Loki." He whispered, feeling sleep tugging at his mind, the screams of the cave echoing in the background of his dreams.
The God mouthed something before placing his hand gently on the inventor's forehead, murmuring a few words in his own ancient language. Tony felt his body grow heavy and warm as his dreams began to float towards a rainbow bridge and a magical beach.
"There shall be no terror in your dreams as long as I remain damned Anthony." Loki smirked, watching with a sigh of relief as the man's facial features relaxed in what the god knew would be one of the most peaceful, and relaxing sleep sessions in the man's life. One day he would find out about the night terrors of this strange mortal and one day, that same strange mortal will discover his and take them with him to the grave.
"I hate you Anthony Stark." Loki whispered.
"Love you too sunshine," murmured the sleep hazed human, leaving the reality for the dream realm with the image of shocked and slightly amused green eyes accompanying him on a leisurely stroll along the never-ending white sands of an idealistic beach.