Chapter 4 - Acceptance

A few days passed and Loki did not return, in between gaming/movie marathons (in which Clint was determined to teach Thor how to use an Xbox) and eating junk food, Tony spent his time with Banner in the lab, usually shadowed by Darcy who was desperate to know everything they did. Despite her ditzy demeanour she was actually very intelligent and they often found themselves collaborating with her and Jane, Thor was always hovering so they used his scant knowledge of Thanos and the Chituari to try to figure out if Jarvis could detect portals and energy signatures from them.

Days passed this way, with occasional sparring matches in the gym, so far he had had his ass kicked by everyone but he was pleased to find out that he could hold his own in hand to hand combat for a fair while with Clint and Steve. There was no chance against Thor even without his hammer and Natasha was as deadly as her nickname, she could sweep the legs out from under anyone, even Thor.

Bruce refused to participate, instead sitting on the sidelines placing bets with Darcy and Jane on the outcomes of the matches.

It was on one such evening, about a week and a half after his last encounter that he was flat on his backside staring into Natasha's eyes as she placed a heel on his chest and smirked.

'Game, set and match to Black Widow!' Darcy called excitedly.

'You all knew that was gonna happen! Come on my body is not what I use to fight. I have managed to outsmart everyone except Natasha and Thor and I think that is pretty good going!'

Natasha just stepped back and offered him a hand, which he toom grudgingly and pulled himself to his feet, dusting himself off as the others laughed.

'Shut up Barton you haven't beat her either.'

'She has the distinct advantage over me where she knows every move I will make before I make it.'

Clint walked over to Tony and clapped a hand on his back.

'Better luck next time dud-'

And with that Tony kicked his legs out from underneath him, grabbing his hand and flipping him onto his back.

'That was for laughing at me.'

'Foul! Foul! Someone give him a red card or whatever it is they do in sports.'

Tony chuckled and stooped down to pull Clint off the ground.

'For a guy named Hawkeye you sure didn't see that coming.' He laughed and rested himself on his shoulder.

They were all laughing together now when Jarvis's voice sounded from the intercom.

'Sir, I am detecting a change in pressure similar to the signature of one Loki Laufeyson.'

'Similar, what do you mean similar?' He straightened up and everyone went quiet.

'It is very weak sir, almost untraceable.'

'Where is it?'

'It is coming from your room sir, whoever it is will be there in seconds.'

'Everyone grab your weapons and meet me at my room.' Tony yelled and legged it from the room. They ran to the armoury and he grabbed a gauntlet, pulling it on and firing it up, not waiting for the others to follow him. Rogers grabbed his shield, Barton his quiver, Natasha grabbed a gun and Thor (thankfully) already had Mjolnir so no walls would lose their life today. Bruce just followed behind, rolling his shirt sleeves up and steeling himself.

When they reached the door, Thor kept Jane and Darcy, who had point blank refused to be left behind, back from the door. Tony took the handle in his free hand and let his thruster fire up, ready to blow whatever it was to pieces. As he turned the handle Fury came running up, out of breath and one hand on his gun.

Tony pushed the door open and dropped back until it swung open fully, before entering. He checked left and right and advanced, he looked back to Steve and pointed him left, Thor and Barton right and Natasha to follow him.

'Jarvis,' Tony hissed, 'is the signature still here?'

'Yes sir.'

'Turn on all lights.'

Jarvis did as asked and Tony blinked in the sudden brightness before moving around his lounge. He looked over to the kitchen where Barton shook his head and then advanced on the sitting area. As he trod lightly as he could along the carpet he heard a noise behind one of the sofas. He looked back to Natasha who had heard the same and she went round one end whilst he took the other. He thrust his hand forwards and got ready to fire as he ran round the back of the sofa.

'Stark?' Came a weak, familiar voice and Tony skidded to a stop to see Loki face down on the carpet, trying to push himself up on his hands.

Forgetting himself, he reached forwards to help him up, only to earn himself a hiss through Loki's gritted teeth.

He managed to push himself up and lean back against the sofa as Thor came round and dropped to his knees at the sight of his brother.

'Loki.' His deep voice shook as he took in his brother's haggard appearance.

'They're coming.' He breathed quietly.

'They?'

'Sir, I am detecting another energy source, about 100 yards away from the head quarters.'

'Who are they Loki?' Tony asked hurriedly.

'Chitauri, they'll be here any second.' He seemed to regain some energy and staggered to his feet. 'They don't know exactly where you are, so go, we must get outside before they find your base.'

'We?'

'You will need me to close the portal.'

'Can you walk?'

'Yes, I can walk, they caught me off guard is all, I took a bad blow. I am fine now get outside, all of you.'

'Jarvis, coordinates!' Tony yelled before turning his back to Loki and running to the armoury, where his suit was already coming apart to allow him to step inside. Steve was already there, pulling his mask over his face and then chucking a wrist guard at Barton, who had opened his bow from its folded state. They ran down the corridor and on the second floor, Barton yanked open a window and threw a rope out, attaching it to a pipe coming out of the wall. He slid down as Tony, Thor and Steve leapt down, Tony stayed off the ground and flew to the coordinates where he could already see figures escaping onto the grass from a shimmering hole.

He fired off a shot, feeling the familiar recoil and letting his adrenaline surge. A blur of silver flashed past him as Mjolnir connected with a figure in front of him and two fell to the ground with arrows protruding from the head and one from the neck.

Natasha fell behind a tree, Darcy and Jane next to her, it looked like she was giving them each a gun and pointing at the Chitauri's heads. Tony fired off a couple more rounds as Steve's shield knocked an energy gun from one of the creatures hands before kicking it to the floor and catching his shield in one swift movement.

The portal had stopped shimmering now and more figures were coming out of it, Tony fired off a few missiles from his shoulder blasters and watched them connect with their targets as he took out some more with blasts from his palms. For each one they took down three seemed to replace it and Tony looked for a green cape in the swarm of purple and grey Chitauri, would Loki hold to his word and close the portal or would he disappear again. As he tried to blast a few more a worry crept over him, what if Loki had led them here and it was all part of a bigger scheme. It made more sense to him than Loki actually wanting to help. Distracted by the thought he took a blast to his abdomen and flew backwards into the tree Natasha and the others were crouched behind.

'Ahh shit.' He gasped as the wind was knocked out of him.

'Tony are you ok?' Natasha nudged him and he jumped upright.

'Let me know if you see Loki, I don' t trust that son of a bitch farther than I can throw him.'

Natasha nodded and he hurled himself back into the fray with added vigour.

'We've gotta close this portal, Stark can Jarvis do it?' Steve shouted through his ear piece.

'I don't think so.' Tony watched as a rather large green creature tore a Chitauri apart and smiled, Dr Banner.

'We need Loki, where is he?' Hawkeye replied to them both as he loosed arrow after arrow into the creatures.

Tony circled up high, loosing shots at anything he could as he looked for Loki. Nothing, they had been double crossed. Tony swept in closer as a fresh wave of Chitauri piled through the portal, only to be struck down by a bolt of lightning.

He watched the battle from overhead, despite the battle tipping in their favour, the amount of enemies pouring through was endless and eventually they would tire, the Chitauri were expendable, they would just keep coming.

Tony pushed the thought aside and landed back down, punching in the face of one of the creatures. Screw it, he thought, not going to let them win.

As his heart pounded and his arm ached from the continuous recoil he fought his way to the portal.

'Jarvis, talk to me.'

'The portal is different to the one created using the Tesseract sir.'

'How?'

'The energy signatures point to some for of magical energy from the other side, something is holding it open.'

'Is the signature familiar?'

'If you mean does it match Loki's sir, I cannot say.'

'Right, so if we want this thing to close it has got to be done from inside the portal?'

'Again sir, I cannot say, it is beyond my technology.'

'Great, I hate magic.' He fought his way ever closer to the portal as a lapse in pouring enemies gave him a chance to look at it better. Around 20ft high and wide it was slightly shimmering and it moved like waves on a beach. The shimmering grew brighter each time the Chitauri came through.

'Thor, can you light this up for me, give me a chance to try and get through.'

'What do you mean Tony Stark?' Came his reply.

'I mean, create a distraction so I can get inside and try to find out who is holding the portal open.'

'That is beyond your power!' He cried.

'You don't know that!'

'You are not like to survive the trip, just as you almost lost your life the last time.' A grunt came through as something hit into Thor's side, he really needed to learn to use the earpiece and walk at the same time.

'This is nothing like last time I was carrying a nuke and low on power.' Tony argued, trying to convince himself more than Thor.

A pause, no sound, then.

'I will do this for you Tony, but if I feel you are taking too long I am coming in there to get you.'

'Fine, deal, now light these bastards up!'

Tony flew right up to the edge of the portal and looked into the cavernous landscape beyond. Draped in darkness he could make out nothing except the glowing energy of the Chitauri's guns.

'On my word Thor, 3, 2-'

'Not today Man of Iron!' Came a growl behind him just as Natasha's voice came over the earpiece.

'Tony you said to tell you...'

'I heard him Black Widow thank you.' He turned round to face Loki, who was kitted out in battle gear and holding a rather decorated staff.

'Finally decided to show up?'

'I had something to do first.'

'That was?'

'None of your business now out of my way.' He leapt straight into the portal before Tony could stop him.

'Thor, no lightning, I'm following Loki.'

A grunt came in reply and Tony stepped through the portal, holding his breath as if he were diving underwater as he felt a freezing cold seep through his suit to his skin.

He dropped onto a rocky expanse, dust and dirt flying up wherever he touched and looked around into the gloom. Behind him the portal was a few feet off the floor and he could see the battle raging on behind it.

He looked out infront of him and could see nothing, but he could hear noises up ahead.

A flash of light came across his vision and took out a shadowed figure to his left, then again and again and he realised it must be Loki. He powered forwards and shot down two of the Chitauri so he could land next to Loki.

'What's the plan?'

'The plan was for me to break The Other's concentration so the portal would close whilst you and the rest of your team distracted the Chitauri!' Loki hissed through gritted teeth.

'Well you see,' he loosed off another shot, 'I don't trust you so that plan is void. How about I distract these bastards from here and you go do whatever it is you've got to do?'

Loki looked at him quickly before backing off and disappearing, leaving Tony to deal with the Chitauri.

'You'd better hurry up,' he said, exasperated. For the billionth time he felt a trickle of fear at the idea that this could be Loki's scheme to get him and the others killed and he has just made himself an easy target. He hoped he was wrong and turned his mind back to the Chitauri, more were approaching now and he knew he could not keep this up for long. 'Fuck I am so screwed.'

He continued to blast his way through the Chitauri, but soon he was taking almost as many hits as he was giving and it just kept on coming.

'Hey Thor can you hear me?'

A crackle, then silence.

'Thor, if you can hear me, can you shoot some lightning into the left hand side of the portal?' He prayed Thor had heard him and backed off from the advancing Chitauri. A few seconds later an almighty sound roared up as a bolt of lightning hit a Chitauri manning one of the small vehicles that looked like a floating jet ski and sent it up in smoke, the lightning branching off and hitting others surrounding it as if they conducted it.

'Neat, cheers big guy.' He caught his breath in the split second lapse before the Chitauri converged again.

'Sir we are losing power rapidly, this suit was not made for such atmospheres.'

'Not helping Jarvis, how long do I have left?'

'Less than 10 minutes if my calculations are correct, less if you need to use the suit to escape.'

'Wonderful, exactly what I wanted to hear. Come on you alien bastard close the portal.'

Opting to try and prolong his suit he wrestled a gun off an advancing Chitauri and let loose on them with it, but they were gaining in numbers and Tony was being pushed back, he cursed Loki and himself for being so stupid as Jarvis indicated that his power was now in the red zone. He now had two choices, continue fighting and hope Loki proves good on his word, or high tail it out of there. He wanted to do the latter, but he couldn't just leave Loki behind in the highly unlikely scenario that he actually was helping them.

'Shit, Jarvis put power into the thrusters, get me to a vantage point quick.'

'Yes sir.' Even Jarvis's voice sounded strained.

He powered up and got himself to the nearest large overhang of rock and tried to spot Loki. His breath was coming in gasps and sweat trickled down his face. He could see the massing Chitauri in the far distance and a glow that said something was going on above it on an outcrop of rock much like the one he was on. He knew the Chitauri were below him and they were almost upon the rockface but he didn't take his eyes off the mass in the distance, he was searching for a flash of green, a beam of light, anything to indicate Loki being there. Then it happened, a glint of gold helmet, a flash of bright light and an almighty explosion that stopped the Chitauri in their tracks.

'Stark can you hear me?'

'Loki?! Yes I, where are you?'

'I am speaking through your mind, get to the portal, it is closing.'

'Right ok, Jarvis you heard E.T., time to phone home.'

'Sir...'

'I don't want your pessimism Jarvis just do what I say.'

He felt his thrusters flare up and blasted off the rockface as the Chitauri broke ranks, some tried to go after him but most tried to get back to their base in the distance, which seemed to be on fire.

Red lights flashed inside his suit and he gritted his teeth.

'Almost there!' He groaned from the strain his suit was coming under.

As he came upon the portal he nearly let himself take a breath in relief, but instead searing pain lanced up his back as something hit him from behind and knocked him out of the air. He hit down hard underneath the portal, that was decreasing in size rapidly. He turned over onto his back, glad he had no breath to be knocked out of him and gulped in air. A small group of Chitauri were standing over him, one lifted their gun and fired it at his chest, warning signals flared through his suit and his navigation system and screens inside his mask started to flicker.

'Argh!' He cried as he shot backwards into the dirt from the force of the blast, he lifted up a hand and tried to shoot, but his thrusters merely started up and died.

'Jarvis, Jarvis come on, we are so close.'

No reply came and he uttered a gut wrenching cry as an armoured foot stamped down on the hand he was using to prop himself up.

Gutteral laughter rippled through the group, a choking, hacking and feral sound. Tony steeled himself and went to grab the foot but the creature had already raised it's gun and shot him in the wrist, the force of the blow flung him backwards once more and he heard a crack as his armour shattered, and another as his wrist connected with the ground. He tried to hold back a scream but it had already escaped him.

Another Chitauri placed its gun against his leg and fired, at such close range and with no shields to protect him his armour shattered, then they flipped the gun round and drove what could only be the barrel straight into his exposed leg. A sickening crunch could be heard and he felt the blood drain from his face and black dots appeared in his field of vision as pain lanced through his body. Ribs, wrist, leg, what next.

Before he could finish his thought he felt the foot come off his hand. Flexing his fingers he lashed out, only for something to connect viciously with his head. His mask flew off and more laughter echoed around him. He dropped back to the floor, fighting against the pain to stay concious until another blow, from a foot he guessed, connected with his head. He blacked out for a few seconds, but pain in his leg and wrist brought him back and he looked up to see the portal close. He felt a hand grab his unbroken wrist roughly and start dragging him away before he blacked out again.

He didn't know how long he was out, seconds, minutes? But he was jolted into conciousness when he was dropped roughly to the floor, a thud next to him signalled something else dropping and he tried to see what it was, some kind of figure was slumped next to him. Then something heavy and solid landed on his leg and he was out again.

'Must I do everything myself.' Snarled a voice, he couldn't tell if it was in his mind and he was still out of it, or if he was awake again. Something grabbed him, gentler than before and he was pulled up in one swift movement. He was pulled onto something, shoulders, maybe. Was he being carried off to the burning base? He was held in place as whatever was carrying him stood up and he felt a rush of cold come over him, like water, before he lost conciousness once more.