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“Because if we can’t protect the Earth…then you can be damn well sure we’ll avenge it.” When Loki’s eyes hardened at his threat, Tony had approximately three seconds to regret his impetuous plan to confront Loki before everyone else showed up.
He raised his chin and fought the urge to retreat as Loki stalked forward. “How will your friends have time for me…when they are so busy fighting you?” Loki snarled, and before Tony could react, Loki set the tip of his scepter against the gnarled skein of scar tissue where the arc reactor used to be. The tip was cold and sharp, but sharper was the ball of ice that grew under Tony’s sternum; it grew hard and painful like he’d tried to swallow something and now it was swelling too big for his esophagus. He felt himself sway as his vision went grey; Loki seemed to be standing at the end of a long tunnel, watching him with interest.
Look at all these strings, something whispered, and the ice started spreading from his chest, pulsing through his body as if it were traveling in his veins with every beat of his heart. In his mind’s eye Pepper’s face flashed, then Rhodey’s, and Happy’s and Bruce’s and Steve’s and everyone else he cared about and from each of them were silvered threads, tying them to Tony.
Or perhaps the threads were tying Tony to them… How do you dance with all these strings, puppet? Pulling you in so many directions. The cold was in his head now, pressing at his temples, but instead of pain there was…clarity. Like a breath of fresh, cool air after being locked in a stuffy room. In his mind the threads started to thin and fray, then one by one they snapped. That’s better, the voice said with satisfaction, and Tony had to agree. Looking back, he couldn’t understand why he’d let these people tangle him up and tie him down with their petulant demands on his time. Christ, how pointless it all seemed now. He’d thought he was free before, but how could you be free when there were all of these people with their unceasing wants and expectations?
Exactly, the susurration said as it ebbed, and the world came back with a suddenness that made him inhale sharply. Loki was still watching him, smiling faintly.
“You know what to do,” he said, and Tony did. Tony could imagine it clearly, each Avenger falling like a domino in his mind. Without any superpowers, Natasha and Clint would die readily enough. Steve would trust him just long enough if he played his cards right, while Bruce would be the trickiest- but would you look at that, there was a convenient hole in space right above them. The Hulk could smash all he wanted in space.
“JARVIS, any time now,” Tony said, gaze steady on Loki’s as he took another swallow of his whiskey. The rest of the Avengers would be here any minute, so he didn’t have much time to get in position.
“Sir, the Mark VII is not-”
“Deploy it anyway,” he snapped, pushing the rest of the whiskey into Loki’s hands and turning away as the god sniffed the glass curiously. “We’ve got work to do.”