Loki glared daggers at the back of Tony's head as he hurried from the room. Once Tony was gone he huffed and sat down on the edge of his bed, eye's slowly rising to the floating gem.
It captivated his gaze until a familiar cold presence pressed against his mind. With a sigh he directed the bubbled stone to his bedside table and turned to the large tapestry just above it.
"What is it, mine daughter?"
Hel's disapproving presence rivaled Tony's; and Loki grit his teeth as her words filled his head.
"Your friend has a point, father, even if he lacks the eloquence to express it properly. I personally believe you should take some time away from this gem. You know it can corrupt minds."
"I did, just the other day. And it surely can interfere with weaker minds, such as those of Midgardians- that is why I am solely protecting it- them- from it. Why they cannot understand is beyond me. "
"Do you truly know that? Again, I believe you need to distance yourself from it, for more than a mere twelve hours as you did the other day."
His hand tapped a-rhythmically against his sheets. A grin slowly spread across his face.
"Well, there was something I've been meaning to make time to do. That would get me away for a day or so... Would that appease you?"
He could feel Hel probing his mind, clearly suspicious at his sudden change of heart. However, he kept his thoughts closely guarded and she eventually backed off, disapproval even more clear.
"In theory. Perhaps not in practice"
"Dispel your worries, I'll be fine."
"Father, do be careful, and please rethink whatever you are planning."
As her presence retreated from his mind, Loki's gaze turned to the city as he allowed himself a moment of quiet. Though in the moment he noticed a steady hum thats origin he couldn't seem to place.
Still irritated and ruminating on his arguement with Tony; Loki fiddled with the enchantments around the gem, checking the protective spells he had been working on before he had been so rudely interrupted.
Satisfied with the spellwork, Loki snapped his fingers, changing into his Asgardian gear.
He stood, gazing at the city before shaking his head and focusing on where he wanted to appear. His molecules began to shift and his vision went dark.
00000
"Hey, Thor, can I talk to you for a second?"
Tony bounced his hand off his thigh, working off nervous energy, standing in the doorway of the blonde god's room.
"Of course."
Thor put aside the laptop he was using, a piece of technology that Tony thought just looked out of place with the god, and beckoned Tony to sit in the chair opposite him.
As Tony crossed the room he took a good look around, he'd never really been inside Thor's room before.
Similar to Loki's; much of the furniture was clearly Asgardian, though compared to Loki's cool colors and dark wood Thor favored warmer colors and lighter wood. The warm colors combined with the sunlight pouring in from the windows made the room practically glow. Mjolnir rested upon a stack of what looked like newspaper beside a desk. Part of one wall was covered in pictures, Tony recognized Jane and Darcy in some of them, others he recognized as group pictures of the team at parties.
Despite the situation, the pictures brought a faint smile to Tony's face.
When he sat; Thor prompted him further, clearly curious as to why he was here.
"What is it you wish to speak to me about?"
"So, you know how Loki's been confining himself in his room since Allan?"
Thor raised his eyebrows, leaning forward slightly in his seat.
"Obviously, it's rather hard to miss."
"Err- yeah, well, before it started Loki told me not to tell anyone but… he found this yellow stone inside his scepter. Y'know how we found it broken? And he's been messing with it ever since, he's obsessed."
Tony had trouble meeting Thor's gaze, opting to watch his hand bounce against his leg with increasing rapidity.
"A yellow stone… You are telling me this now because…?"
"Because remember before New York, on the helicarrier, right before everything went to shit?"
The god nodded and spoke, the intensity in his eyes only made Tony feel more guilty and he looked away again.
"Indeed. You speak of when we were arguing, correct?"
"Yes! And the scepter was there and we were getting out of hand, it was screwing with our brains, turning us even more against each other!"
When Thor didn't respond Tony looked up.
Thor had his eyes closed, brow furrowed, scowling. When he did speak he did so without looking at Tony.
"You kept the knowledge of this clearly dangerous gem from us?"
"I forgot about- wait, why did you say gem, you haven't even seen it, how-"
"It's something called an Infinity Gem… After New York I brought Loki and the Tesseract back to Asgard and the All-Father told me of objects by that name. Objects so powerful and forbidden that their existence has been purposely hidden from most, for fear of them falling into the wrong hands. One is the power source of the Tesseract, I suspect this yellow stone you speak of is one of them as well. It makes sense for whoever sent Loki to retrieve the Tesseract would send him with a powerful tool to achieve that goal. Although I hadn't considered it until now."
Listening with growing horror, Tony stopped his nervous shifting, transfixed by Thor's rough tone. He spoke up after a few seconds of stunned silence.
"You know what these things are? And… Loki doesn't?"
Annoyance flashed across Thor's face for a fraction of a second, before returning to a grave sternness.
"Yes, I'm almost entirely certain. I did not know about them until after New York and I doubt Loki's old allies told him the true power of the weapon he was given."
"If it is an… Infinity Gem- then we really need to do something about it quickly, right?"
Thor stood, striding wordlessly to the door. He only stopped when he noticed Tony wasn't following.
"You did just say we should confront Loki about this now, did you not?"
"Absolutely, but… I was just talking to Loki and I sort of pissed him off, it didn't help that the gem was screwing with us either… So, just fair warning."
Another spike of guilt skewered Tony as he recalled the argument to Thor on the elevator.
Picking up on Tony's tone of voice, Thor placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You cannot take all you said as your thoughts alone, you must remember the gem's influence."
"Right, sure."
To dispel Thor's concerns Tony straightened his back and released the tension he'd been keeping in his shoulders, attempting to be more conscious of how he acted. Tony knew he had just dumped a huge amount of worry on Thor, they needed to focus on the source of the problem right now, he could deal with his own problems later.
They now approached Loki's door. Tony was about to mention how they such subtly go about this as Thor strode ahead, barging through the door and exclaiming loudly.
"Brother we must- Brother?"
As Tony entered the room he was met with a puzzled Thor standing alone. The blonde god turned back to him, confused and concerned.
"I do not believe he is here."
Tony's heart skipped a beat and his breath hitched in his throat. His shoddy attempts at ignoring the nagging worries in his mind; fell away. He leaned heavily against the wall, gritting his teeth and attempting to pull himself together.
"No… this is my fault, this is my fault."
Thor's voice cut through the haze of panic that had suddenly choked him.
"Anthony, Tony! The gem is still here, I am sure he hasn't left for good! Anthony!"
Thor's hand entered Tony's vision and he waved it away, breathing still unsteady.
If the gem was still here then of course Loki couldn't have left forever. Tony told himself he was just being unreasonable. He needed to pull himself together, that was all.
That damn humming was back.
"Gimme- gimme a minute, I'll be fine, just fine. Just- just a minute."
He felt Thor back off. What followed was a long few minutes of increasingly stifling silence, as Thor clearly wanted to respect his wishes but paced back and forth, obviously anxious as well. When Tony did push himself off the wall Thor almost immediately turned to point at the bubbled yellow gem and began speaking.
"I do believe that matches the description I was given of one of the Infinity Gems, the Mind Gem to be exact. And knowing the affect it has, I have no doubts it is that indeed."
Thor approached the bubble reaching out for it. Leaping forward to stop him, Tony hastily attempted, and failed, to pull his arm away.
"Wait, Thor! It could be rigged or something!"
Chuckling, Thor looked at him self-assuredly.
"Certainly, but any protective spells around it surely wouldn't hurt me too greatly. It's not as if Loki would want to kill you, or any other Midgardians who might come in contact with it. I should be fine. Though… back up just in case."
Tony grimaced but did as he said and took a few steps backwards, glancing at the tapestry above Loki's bed, noting the eye of Jormungandr watching him. He shivered and turned back just in time to see Thor's hand come in contact with the shimmering bubble.
There was a sound like a gunshot and thick smoke burst from the still intact bubble. Thor was thrown across the room with enough force that he stayed ahead of the smoke cloud. His momentum carried him through the window with a great shattering noise.
"Holy shit, Thor!"
Shocked, Tony ran over to the window, only to be stopped by the smoke cloud. The heaviness of the smoke in his lungs in combination with the roaring of the wind from outside practically stopped him in his tracks as he bent over, coughing and trying to cover his mouth with his shirt.
He fumbled through the smog and from somewhere behind him heard a thud and felt something whiz past him, followed a second later by a floor shaking crash from back where the thud had come from. Frustrated, Tony shouted through the commotion.
"Jarvis, get rid of this stuff!"
A mechanical whirr added to the chaos but did almost immediately make an impact on the heavy smoke.
The figure of Thor appeared in the window, through the thinning smog, Mjolnir in his off hand. Thor strode towards him, displeasure clear in both his raised voice and crumpled brow.
"I was, perhaps, a mite too confident…"
"You think? Are you alright?"
Tony frowned at Thor's dominant hand, which looked covered in scorch marks and burns.
Noticing his concern, Thor held up his bad hand, flexing it.
"Oh, yes I shall be fine, they will heal. They're only skin deep, I believe."
Feeling just slightly more reassured, Tony turned around to look for the source of the loud thud. The sliding metal door to the room was flat on the ground, clearly pushed out of its frame by the force of Mjolnir.
"Uugh… I don't have the energy to deal with this right now."
Just as he looked back to Thor; the voice of Jarvis spoke.
"Sirs, there seems to be an incident that S.H.I.E.L.D. has called for your assistance with. Captain Rogers wished that I inform you as, in his words; "you're probably having fun blowing things up but Fury requested all of us"."
Suppressing a groan, Tony exchanged a concerned look with Thor; who nodded solemnly.
"Alright, Jarvis, tell him we'll get down there. Also can you get some maintenance guy to fix… wait no nevermind, we can't let some rando into Loki's room, especially right now. But we can't just leave the broken window or the door. I- I don't-"
"I will deal with it, sir, you needn't worry yourself more."
Feeling more thankful for Jarvis than ever, Tony smiled softly as he began to walk out of the mostly wrecked room.
"Thanks, Jarvis, I owe you."
AN: Alright first two chapters are out. I'm not sure how regular these updates will be because I'm heading to college in a few days and I'm not entirely sure how much free time I'll have. But I always seem to come back, even if it takes two years. How do you like these first two chapters, I'd love to hear feedback, it really encourages me to write.