You would not believe how much of a hassle this chapter was to write. I could not keep on a good track in my head, and everything was just being jumbled around. Kept on getting a lot of ideas, but no good ones. I am still not happy with this chapter. I hope you guys remotely like it. :/
Another thing, I keep on saying"one more chapter, one more chapter". Yeah well, I am not saying that anymore. -_- cuz, this is still not the last chapter! :( Goshnips!
Thank you to all who favorited, followed, and especially reviewed this fic. I read them all, and I appreciate them greatly~ Y'all are the best. :)
The moment Tony's feet left solid ground he knew there would be no stopping the fall into the water. He also knew that the water was from his own pool in his own house. He was not in Afghanistan. He was not in danger. He was not being held against his will. He was safe. He was safe.
It was futile to tell himself all this though, because no amount of mental chiding and prepping helped.
It was all forgotten as he was swallowed by the water.
For the first couple seconds, Tony's body had instantly stiffened under the water. Then, just as quickly, he started to thrash his arms and legs, working them furiously as he tried swimming upwards. His mind was screaming at him to swim faster; to get out of the water now. Flailing madly for what seemed like much to long, he finally broke the surface. Dots were floating in front of his eyes, affecting him vision, but he did not dare wait for them to clear. Blood was rushing past his ears, making it hard for him to hear, but he knew he was well past hyperventilating. He could feel it. His lungs were not receiving enough air. No matter. Ground. Ground. He needed out of the water.
He blindly threw his hands out to find the edge. They brushed something solid, and he latched on to it, but the few milliseconds of momentary relief was short-lived as the felt a rumble run through his hands. A laugh made its way past the numbness surrounding his brain and firm hands gripped his shoulders. He flinched harshly and tried to push away, but the hands held their grip, and he felt himself being pushed down.
"No!" he screamed, but it came out seconds to late. It was swallowed by the water as his head was pushed back under. He tried to fight back to the surface, but his captor was holding him down.
No...wait...captor? Something in his mind fought against that label, like it was wrong, but it was overwhelmed by the sheer fact that they were not. letting. him. go!
His fight or flight mode finally kicked in, and with a full vengeance. He started swinging his closed fists powered by pure desperation through wide arcs in the water. He was choking on water, and his lungs felt like they were going to burst, but he didn't care. His body was becoming heavy, and he slowly felt the lull of unconsciousness pulling at him, but he ignored it. He needed to get away. They were going to keep this up until he broke. The pain. The pain of not breathing. The pain of the electricity. It was going to come! They had not covered the wires! Any second he was going to get shocked! God! It was going to keep on, like an endless cycle. He needed away. Away!
The hands that were on his shoulders seemed to get ripped away by some unseen force, but before he could act rationally on that thought something grabbed his left side. Jerking, he realized he could not pull away, so he poured all his energy into his right arm. His fist broke the water and slammed hard into a solid mass, and the registered thought of cracking under his fist floated through his oxygen deprived mind. The hands holding onto him was gone, but no amount of thrashing this time was getting him to the surface. His eyesight was giving out. His body was failing to respond. More water poured into his lungs as he yelled under water out of frustration. To be so close, and then to go out like this?
Suddenly he felt hands grab his arms, pulling him up. "NO!" he thought, but his hands would not comply with his wish to pry off the fingers. Heck, his arms would not even move. He was jerked upwards, and his head broke the surface.
Steve could not help the smile that split his face as Clint broke the surface, laughing like a kid who had just seen Santa's workshop. Tony had not surfaced yet, which he found a little odd, but the pool was deep and Clint had used a lot of force to get Tony into the water. Tony had probably been close to hitting the bottom of the pool. Shrugging, he turned, looking for Bruce to tell him a well-earned "I told you so", but seeing Loki's face of pure anger had wiped his smile clean off and made him forget of what he was going to say. "Loki, what is wrong?"
Natasha heard Steve and slid her gaze away from the scene and studied Loki with an air of contemplation, an eyebrow raised slightly.
Instead of receiving a reply, Loki broke into a run, reaching the edge of the pool in record time."Barton, you mindless imbecile!" he snarled, trying hard to reign in his magic that was sparking from his fingertips.
Clint stopped laughing, and turned, scowling at Loki. "What? It's not like you didn't want to do it too, so don't try to act all high and mighty," he said, and stuck out his tongue. Loki's eyes flashed a murderous, bright green, the magic sparking from his fingertips becoming more noticeable. Before he could reply though Tony broke the surface.
Six pair of eyes found themselves locked on to Tony. Almost immediately everybody saw something was wrong. Tony wasn't smiling. He wasn't trying to get revenge. He wasn't even mad. He wasn't being Tony. He had a glazed, wild look in his eyes, his breath was coming in short gasps and his movements were frantic and desperate.
"Clint, I think you should-," began Bruce, but did not have time to finish his sentence.
Apparently everyone had not included Clint. As Tony latched on to him, he laughed and pushed the inventor back under.
"NO!" yelled Natasha, who had pieced everything together in the seconds Tony was above water. "Clint, get him out! Get him out NOW!"
"What is your guy's deal? It's just a-" but before he could finish Loki had jumped in and pushed him away from Tony, using enough force to send him back a couple of feet and under the water. He resurfaced seconds later, sputtering and coughing. "HEY" he yelled, but his protest died on his lips at the scene before him.
Natasha was yelling orders from the edge of the pool as Steve joined her, looking awkward and unsure. Bruce, Thor, and Loki had surrounded where Tony had been submerged, and looked to be having problems. Loki was growling, trying hard to get a good hold on Tony as Bruce and Thor attempted to grab his flailing limbs.
"Why did Tony have to build such a deep pool!?" complained Bruce as he tried to get to Tony while staying above water.
"I am victorious!" bellowed Thor. He had successfully dove under and had grasped Tony's left arm and leg, coming up with a flailing Tony in tow. Bruce did not have time to catch Tony's right hand as he swung it with full force. It caught Thor in the face, sending him back a good foot or two with a yelp of pain. He came up, holding a hand on his face as blood slowly seeped through his fingers. Tony had began to splash water everywhere, hitting Loki and Bruce in the face, blinding them. Loki snarled an incoherent noise and furiously wiped the water out of his face.
"That is enough Stark!" hissed Loki, and with a sudden burst of determination wrapped his hands around Tony's arms, finally getting a good hold. Quickly swimming to the edge, him and Bruce lifted Tony up on to the edge of the pool, where Steve grabbed him and pulled him back a few feet. As soon as Steve let Tony go he started heaving up water, shaking as he coughed and sputtered.
"What's wrong with him?" asked Clint, who had finally recovered and had swam over to join them, getting out of the water.
"Why did he react so...badly?" added Steve, giving a concern look down at Tony. Deciding he would try to comfort him, he tried to put his hand on Tony's shoulder, but as soon as his hand had touched Tony he flinched and bolted back like he had been shocked.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" yelled Tony, voice broken from the abuse his lungs must have been through. He swung out a fist, narrowly missing Steve's outstretched hand. Scrambling to his feet, his eyes darting around, but the group noticed that they were still distant and glazed over, seeing things that they could not. Bruce went to stop him, but Tony was quicker and dodged his hand. In the process of doing that though, Tony's legs gave out, and he ended up falling to the floor.
"Tony, we are not your enemy," Natasha softly said, kneeling down in front of the fallen billionaire, but he did not comprehend her words as he turned his head and eyed her with impossibly wide eyes. He hastily moved to a sitting position, and scrambled back, knocking into one of the chairs.
"STAY AWAY!" he yelled again, and put his hands over his head, curling into himself, shaking so badly that one would think he was shivering from below zero temperature. Clint and Steve frowned, and looked to want to move closer, but Loki stopped them with his curt words.
"Do not crowd him, you half-wits. It will only make things worse."
Steve's frown deepened. "You talk as if you know what is going on. What is going on, Loki?"
Loki's eyes were trained on Tony. Technically he had told them, so he did not see the problem in just saying it louder. "Stark was tortured once, which left him afraid of water."
The room was silent, all noise ceasing to exist except for the labored breathing coming from the still huddled Tony. Finally, Clint broke the silence. Eyes filled with sudden guilt, and he looked like he was struggling with a sudden thought. "So,...the joke...it was.." he whispered.
"It was a trigger," finished Natasha, looking at Tony with a shocking amount of concern. Loki sighed, stepping forward towards the shaking inventor.
"Hey, I thought you said.." began Steve, looking warily at the god, but said god shot him an annoyed look, shutting up any form of protest that was about to leave Steve's mouth.
"The one who kept pushing him down, and the one who encouraged it from the beginning. It would mean so much to Stark to be comforted by the likes of you two," snapped Loki, sarcasm dripping from his words. Steve and Clint looked at each other, then down at the floor, guilt etched into every fiber of their being. Loki huffed, looking satisfied, then turned back to Tony.
"Stark," began Loki, crouching down in front of him. Tony gave no sign of hearing him, still holding his head in his arms. "Stark, you are safe. Everything is fine. You are not in the water anymore. You are fine." Still receiving no response, Loki grumbled in aggravation. He clenched and unclenched his hands, then ran them through his hair. Finally, he decided that soothing words would do nothing but possibly make things worse. Grabbing Tony's arms, tore his hands away from his head and held on even as Tony flinched and tried to pull away; even as he kicked out and caught him in the stomach. "Stark! Look at me!"
Loki could not say if Tony had understood him or not, but Tony turned his wide eyes towards Loki's direction, short breaths becoming even more impossibly short, and his shaking slightly more pronounced. Loki's eyes softened a fraction. He may find the man annoying beyond measure, but he was the first to truly accept him into their little ragtag group of misfits. And he understood the scarring effects of torture himself. He leaned in, making sure that his movements were slow and visible. "Tony," whispered Loki, releasing his arms "everything is fine. You truly are safe."
It took a few seconds longer than what Loki would have liked, but Tony's eyes lost their unfocused look, and brown eyes locked with green ones. Loki saw many emotions flicker through those brown eyes, the more dominant ones being relief that was quickly replaced by shame and anger.
"Tony...," Bruce started, but he really didn't know what to say. To see his best friend break down so badly, and he could do nothing to help, had left him feeling utterly useless and worthless. Still, he tried. "Tony, do you need help standing up?"
Tony moved his eyes from Loki's upwards to the rest of the team. His gaze moved slowly over each face, and ended on Clint's, where it stayed a few seconds more than on everyone else's, and Clint started to shift uncomfortably under Tony's scrutiny.
"Friend, are you...do you require assistance?" Thor asked, and could not help the mental flinch when Tony's gaze fell back to him. Still, Tony did not say anything.
Natasha was not one to feel unnerved or uncomfortable, but the uncharacteristic silence that Tony had fell into was starting to get to her."Tony, say something."
Tony sat for a few seconds more, then shakily pushed himself back up on to his feet. Steve moved to help, but the look that Tony gave him stopped him in his tracks. He turned, facing the stairs.
"Tony, I think you should sit and rest," said Steve, but Tony started walking, completely ignoring him.
"Tony!" yelled Clint, running up and trying to block the billionaire. It was effective, for Tony paused in his steps. Clint breathed a sigh of relief and nervously ran a hand across his chin and looked down at the floor. "Tony, I...I mean..the water...and you...well, I did not think you would react that way. Nobody did. Well, except Loki over there," Clint said, shooting the god a glare. "It was supposed to be a joke. A harmless joke." Looking up, he tried for a smile. "And really, why do you even have a pool if you are afraid of water?"
Clint was confused when he saw anger and hurt in Tony's eyes. Tony pushed past him, and started up the stairs. Clint, still confused, did not follow, and watched as Tony entered the room upstairs and continued on to the door where they had entered. He opened the door and left, not once looking back at them.
"Did I say something wrong?" he asked, turning back towards the others. Loki scoffed, and crossed his arms, an annoyed look gracing his features.
"Barton, you truly are mindless."
Yeah, okay. Now ya see what I mean when I say this chapter was not that great. I just hit a writer's block. A bad one too. :/ Sorry y'all.
And I really do think that this upcoming chapter will be the last one, but I am not promising it this time. I hope so though. Haha, like I said before, this was originally suppose to be a one-shot. Yeah, would have been one heck of a long of a one-shot. :/
Review and Critique. If any of y'all have an idea floating around in your head for a new fic, do not hesitate to PM me or leave it in a review.