Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Loki listened to Thor’s tale of yet another battle on Midgard with a mixture of exasperation and begrudging interest. It had started out the same boring way as all the others, but then it actually became intriguing. That the humans still had the scepter – and therefore the Mind Stone – was not news to him, of course, but this… This was different. If Thor was to be believed, they now had a being made with the Mind Stone. Remarkable. Loki would have to investigate this Vision more closely. The creature could be an ally against Thanos – or a dangerous adversary.

It was also noteworthy that the humans had a sorceress – or something like it anyway. That, too, bore further examination.

“Father?” Thor asked, after Loki had been silent for too long. It was a struggle not to roll his eyes. He couldn’t even think in peace anymore.

At first, it had been fun pretending to be Odin and fooling Thor and all of Asgard. Now… Now it was just tiresome. Loki wished he could still trust Thor enough to tell him the truth. Unfortunately, that was nothing but a dream; he was alone, just as he had always been. Though his anger with Thor had abated somewhat, he knew his supposed brother would never trust him again. It made him sad.

“Tell me more about this witch,” he commanded.

When Thor got to the part where the witch gave him a vision of doom, Loki frowned. When he heard that the other Avengers had experienced something similar, Loki was even more confused.

“This woman manipulated your mind and that of your shield brothers?” he asked.

“Manipulated? No, I don’t think that’s what she did.”

“Yet she made you see things.”

“Aye.”

“And she aided this Ultron creature in trying to kill you.”

Thor frowned. “Yes. But later she and her brother stood with us against Ultron.”

Well, of course they did, Loki thought. They would have died too if the planet had been destroyed. “And now she is an Avenger?” This time he phrased it as a question, since he wanted to be absolutely sure of the answer.

“Steve believes she could be a great ally. Her power is impressive.”

Impressive, Loki scoffed internally. She probably has no idea what real magic is. “So she has joined the team even though not that long ago she wanted you all dead.” Loki deadpanned. Were they really that stupid? He had never liked Rogers – too similar to Thor – but this… idiotic would be an understatement.

“She was… misguided in her quest for revenge. The Captain believes she walks a different path now. A better path.”

“I see.” Loki wasn’t sure the Captain was really that dumb, or if the witch was still somehow messing with his mind. Regardless, Thor seemed perfectly willing to give this stranger a second chance while he’d allowed Loki to rot in a cell for a lot less. How could any of them think this woman could be trusted? “What do Stark and Banner think of this?”

“Banner left after the battle. I know not where he has gone, of whether he plans to return.” I wouldn’t either, if I were him, Loki thought. “Stark argued against Wanda’s inclusion.” Good to know one of them has sense. “But Steve and Lady Natasha believes he is irrational with guilt over Ultron.”

“Why should he feel guilty?” Loki asked, wondering what nonsense Thor – no doubt echoing Rogers and Romanoff – was about to sprout now.

“It was him who created Ultron by dabbling in powers beyond his understanding.”

Loki had nothing to say to such an absurd statement. That Thor of all people would judge someone else as lacking understanding… Thor, who didn’t know the most basic principles of magic or the laws of the universe… The sheer arrogance was astonishing, but not surprising.

“Tell me more about the witch’s powers.” Perhaps she had affected Thor mind more than the thunderer had realized.

Thor described what he knew, which wasn’t much, of course.

“She got her powers from the Mind Stone?”

Thor nodded. “I am unsure how it was done, but that is what I was told.”

“And she was able to control the population of a city to make them leave their homes behind?”

“Aye.”

Mind control. It sent shivers down Loki’s spine. He despised mind control and manipulation of any kind. This woman could not be allowed to roam free, no matter what Rogers thought.

After dismissing Thor, Loki returned to his chambers to ponder what to do about the situation. The witch would have to be dealt with, obviously, but how? With Banner gone, Stark stepping back, Barton retired and Thor in Asgard, only the Captain and the Spider remained of the original team. New members had been added; the creature with the Mind Stone, a friend of Rogers’s, a friend of Stark’s and the witch. It did not seem like a good combination to Loki, not when Rogers and Romanoff were so quick to trust a woman with mind control powers. It would not do. When Thanos inevitably came, Midgard would have to be prepared to fight, so having the Avengers was a necessity. And they could not include a woman with such uncertain allegiance and morals.

It took a few days for Loki to sort out the kingdom’s affairs enough to have the time to go to Midgard. He had also surreptitiously checked Thor’s mind for any signs of tampering and had found… something. A small scar. Nothing serious, yet it did not sit well with him that this witch had had the gall to assault his brother – and who knows how many others.

Walking through the paths of Yggdrasil, Loki arrived on Midgard and made his way to the Avengers Compound, where Thor had said the new team had taken residence. He made himself invisible and crept in to see the witch for himself and determine the best way to deal with her.

She was sitting on a couch watching television when he entered, and did not seem to be aware of his presence at all. So much for being all-powerful… he could kill her right then and there and no one would be any the wiser. It was tempting. However, he still needed to know more.

Footsteps announced someone else’s approach, so Loki stepped further back to observe.

It was Rogers.

“Hey, I was looking for you,” he said.

“What for?” She didn’t take her attention out of the television, continuing to flip channels with a bored air.

“I just wanted to remind you that we’re training again tomorrow. It seems like Rhodes is going to be able to come.”

The witch’s face twisted. “Why does he need to be here? We don’t need him.”

Rogers sighed. “With Thor and Stark gone, we need someone to be our air support.”

“Vision can fly,” she replied, sounding like a petulant child.

“Yes, but… We don’t know all that he’s capable of yet.”

“Fine. Is that all?”

“Yeah, I guess. Tomorrow morning then.”

She waved a dismissive hand and returned to the television.

“Wanda, I know you’re upset–”

“You don’t know anything!” she yelled, running from the room in a tantrum. Loki followed.

Wanda entered what appeared to be her private room and threw herself on the bed, gesturing to the door. Red tendrils shot out from her hand and closed it. What a ridiculous brat, Loki thought.

She reached into the nightstand and took out a faded photograph. Loki walked closer to see it. It showed two children, Wanda herself and a boy about her age with silver hair. Her brother, Loki figured. The one who had died in the battle.

“I hate them all,” she told the image of the boy. “Rogers and his condescending attitude, Natasha with her smug superiority, Vision’s stupid naiveté… They’re all idiots.” She paused, tracing the face of her brother. “I should have listened to you, Pietro. I should have just killed Stark in Sokovia and been done with it, instead of pushing him to build Ultron. You would still be here if I had, and I wouldn’t have to put up with these stupid people.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “If only Stark hadn’t left, I could have kept messing with him. He doesn’t deserve a moment’s peace after all he’s done to us. He doesn’t even come here anymore. I could kill him then, straight up like you wanted. I can’t stand that he’s alive and you’re not. It’s not right, Pietro. I hate it. I hate him.” She sighed, then sat up abruptly. “Rhodes! Oh, I have it, Pietro. I’ll use him to kill Stark.” A sinister smile spread across her face. “Yes, that’s perfect. Didn’t Natasha said they are like brothers? I can destroy them both at once. And then… Then I can kill them all and get out of this damn place.” She put the photo carefully on the bed. “I’ll do it for you, Pietro. For mom and dad. Our revenge, finally.”

Loki had heard enough. This woman was as twisted as Thanos, and she had to be stopped. What she had already done was horrific enough, but what she was planning to do to Stark and his friend was simply monstrous. Stark was his best bet in the fight against Thanos. How dare this little ant threaten him?

Allowing himself to become visible, Loki watched in satisfaction as Wanda jumped and shrieked upon seeing him.

“Who are you? How did you get here?”

“I am Loki, and you are a particularly despicable creature, aren’t you?” He was taking a risk in revealing himself, but he could not help it. He wanted the Avengers – Stark in particular – to see this, to see who they had brought into their midst – and who had saved them.

Wanda’s hands glowed red as she tried to attack him. Loki raised a shield and the energy dissipated harmlessly.

“You call yourself a witch, little girl? You are nothing.” He brought forth his own powers and sent her crashing to the floor.

“Who are you?” she asked again, eyes darting around wildly.

“I am the one who is going to put an end to you,” he replied.

“Help! Steve! Vision! Someone help me!”

Loki laughed. “Do you think they will care to save you after they realize what you’ve done? What you are? I daresay the little Spider will happily dispose of you.”

Wanda got up and made for the door, but slammed against Loki’s shield and fell back. This time when she got up she went straight for him, red mist twirling around her.

The attack was clumsy and weak, and Loki had no trouble dodging it.

“I don’t think this power belongs to you,” he said. He could feel it now, a foreign presence in her, similar to the signature of the Mind Stone. “It is time you gave it back.”

Quick as lightening, Loki reached out and grabbed her by the throat, keeping her secure against him. He focused on the power he could sense within her and yanked.

She screamed. “NO!”

It did not take long. Wispy tendrils rose up and swirled around her for a moment before disappearing. When it was all gone, Loki dropped her to sob pathetically on the ground.

“That was for mind-raping my brother, you bitch. I hope they kill you.”

The others were finally arriving, so Loki made himself invisible again and stepped back to watch the aftermath.

“Wanda!” Rogers said, crashing through the door in uselessly heroic fashion. “What happened? What’s wrong?”

She did not answer, though, repeatedly moving her hands as if trying to summon her powers. “No… No… It’s gone, it’s gone…” she muttered, tears streaming down her face. Loki felt not an ounce of sympathy.

The Spider entered cautiously, looking around and finding nothing, the Mind Stone creature behind her.

“What happened, Wanda?” Rogers asked again.

“He took it. He took it from me…”

“Who?” Romanoff demanded.

“He said his name was Loki.”

Rogers and Romanoff exchanged a wary look. Vision stepped around Wanda and glanced around, eyes narrowing slightly as he swept by Loki’s position.

Perhaps it was time to go, Loki thought, silently leaving the room. Just as he was preparing to teleport away, a voice called out from behind him.

“Why?”

It was Vision, looking right at him even though he was still invisible.

“I’m sure you have ways of seeing what happens in this place. I suggest you watch everything the false witch has done. She was planning to kill Stark.”

Vision nodded and Loki left. He’d done what he’d come here to do. He would leave the actual killing of the woman to the others. Surely Stark had the biggest claim to that honor.

*****

Tony, Rhodey, Vision, Wilson, Romanoff and Rogers watched the recording, from the moment Wanda entered her bedroom until Vision left to follow Loki. He wanted to say he was surprised, but he really wasn’t.

“That’s not… It’s fake,” Rogers declared.

“Were you born this dumb or did the serum melt your brain?” Tony asked. He really wanted to find Loki – so he could thank him for saving his life.

“Jesus Christ,” Wilson said, shaking his head in disbelief.

“I don’t know what else you guys expected from Hydra,” Tony replied.

“She’s not–” Rogers began.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake! What the hell is the matter with you?” Rhodey said. He looked a little pale. Yeah, no wonder. Fuck that bitch.

“We got played.” Romanoff laid a hand on Rogers’s arm to calm him down.

“So much for being a master profiler, huh? Well, I guess you’ve never been great at spotting a Hydra agent right under your nose,” Tony drawled. Romanoff pursed her lips and said nothing.

“So what’s gonna happen to her?” Wilson asked.

“I say we turn her over to the proper authorities. I know the Sokovians will probably be happy to get their hands on her. I’m sure they’ll have plenty to charge her with. I can come up with quite a few things myself.”

With a last look at Rogers’s stubborn disbelieving face, Tony walked out, Rhodey and Vision falling into step with him.

“Loki, huh?” Rhodey said. “Wasn’t he dead?”

Tony shrugged. “Wish I knew where he was hiding, so I could send him a thank you card.”

“Yeah.” Rhodey shruddered. “I’d like to send him one myself.”

Later that night, Friday alerted him to an intruder in the Tower. Standing in the living room in casual clothes that accentuated his lean frame, was the god of mischief himself.

Tony smiled. “I think I owe you a drink. Or ten.”

Loki smiled back, eyes sparkling green. “Sounds good.”

Chapter Text

Loki sipped his drink and contemplated this turn of events. He had not come to Midgard with the intention of making allies. He had only wanted to destroy the witch who had dared lay her filthy hands (or more accurately, her filthy mental powers) on his brother. Yet he seemed to have gained the appreciation of at least some of the mortals. Not bad for a day’s work.

Stark seemed grateful for Loki’s intervention and willing to listen to a former enemy. It would certainly make Loki’s life easier if he could get his – and by extension the Avengers’ – cooperation in the upcoming fight against Thanos.

“So”, Stark asked as Loki sipped at his drink, “how come you’re not dead?”

“Ah, that’s rather a long story.”

Stark made a show of looking around. “Well, I’ve got nothing pressing to do.”

Loki considered it. “Perhaps I do have time for another drink.”

“As many as you want,” the mortal replied. “I guess I kinda owe you.” His expression was a bit guarded.

“The witch needed to be stopped. Helping you was... merely a side benefit. Still, if you’re feeling generous, I could do with some... assistance... in an endeavor I’m working on. One that will benefit you as well.”

“Okay. Tell me then.”

There were advantages to getting Stark on his side, certainly, but could Loki truly risk it? The man might be grateful now, yet there was no guarantee that it would last. Stark was a hero after all, and Loki... was not. On the other hand, what did he have to lose, really?

“Before we begin, I’d like to make a request.”

“All right. I can’t promise I’ll accept it though, but go ahead.”

“I’d like you to keep my... presence here... to ourselves.”

Stark frowned. “Do you mean here in the Tower right now or on Earth in general? Because the latter might be difficult, considering Cap and the others saw you on the surveillance video.”

Loki grimaced. That might not have been the best idea, now that he thought about it. At the time, though, he’d been so incensed with the witch that he wanted her to know exactly who she was dealing with, and how pathetic she was compared to an actual sorcerer.

“I suppose you’re right. I would still prefer it if Thor didn’t know about me being here just yet.”

“Well, I’ve go no problem keeping it to myself, but I doubt the others will feel the same.”

Loki nodded. “I guess that will have to suffice then.”

“So Thor doesn’t know you’re alive?”

“No, he does not. Are you going to tell him?”

Stark shrugged. “I have no idea when he’ll be back for me to even tell him anything. Also, I’m not really Thor’s biggest fan.”

“Oh? I thought you got along.” Thor certainly boasted about his friendship with the mortals.

“Yeah, well, that was before he tried to strangle me.”

Strangle him? That didn’t seem right. “I beg your pardon?”

“Tell you later. For now I’m more interested in your story.”

“Very well. It is, as I said, rather a long tale.”

“Let’s get comfy then.” He took the bottle and glasses and moved to the couch, gesturing for Loki to join him.

Loki took a seat with a bit of distance from the mortal and began.

He did not tell the whole story, of course. They would be there all day if he did. Plus, not all of it was relevant to the matter at hand. He spoke about Thor’s coronation and his attempt to show Asgard what an abysmal king Thor would have been. He mentioned becoming king instead and his final confrontation with Thor, which resulted in him falling from the Bifrost and into the void between worlds. He gave as few details as possible, wanting just to provide some context for how he had ended up in Thanos’s hands.

The expected disbelief did not come. Stark listened with very little interruption, giving nothing of his thoughts away.

It was, to be honest, a bit unnerving.

“Nothing to say?” Loki finally asked after he had come to the end of the tale of the so-called invasion.

Stark shrugged. “I had figured out most of that already.”

That brought Loki up short. “What do you mean?”

“I figured out you weren’t acting of your own accord, not entirely. That you had deliberately used a shitty plan, which gave us the best chance of beating the aliens. That bottleneck portal in the middle of New York, right underneath my Tower, was extremely dumb. And I didn’t peg you for the dumb type.”

Loki couldn’t think of anything to say to that. How could this man who had never met him and knew nothing about him have realized all that when his own supposed family had not? Not once had Thor seemed to suspect that Loki had acted under duress, that he might not have been himself. And Odin… Odin had locked him up without asking a single question, clearly having no doubt about Loki’s guilt. Even his mother hadn’t found anything odd about his behavior.

“I see…” he said at last, utterly dumbstruck. “You figured all that out… when, exactly?”

“Not right away, of course. Had to get over the panic and nightmares first, but… once some time had passed and I started to think about it more rationally. So… a few months later. I tried to ask Thor how things had gone in Asgard when he came back, but he was pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing. All he said was that you were in prison for… a bunch of stuff.”

Loki scoffed. A bunch of stuff indeed. Being himself, chiefly. A terrible crime in Asgard.

“So, what happened after you got back to Asgard?”

“Just as Thor said, I was convicted and imprisoned.” He could not keep the bitterness out of his voice, nor did he care to.

“For what exactly?”

“It doesn’t matter.” That was not something cared to discuss just yet.

“All right. So how come you’re not dead? Thor said you died heroically to save him or something.”

Loki scoffed. “He was very quick to believe me dead. I simply… let him.”

“So you could escape. Clever. Now no one even knows to look for you. So why blow your cover by coming here and revealing yourself?”

“I wanted to see the woman for myself. The one Thor said had the ability to tamper with people’s minds.”

“Not a fan of mind control, I take it.”

“No, I’m not. So I couldn’t let that… creature… go. Especially once I heard what she was planning.”

“Still, you could have just killed her without letting anyone know it was you.”

That was true, of course. Perhaps it had been a stupid idea to reveal himself. Watching Stark now, though, talking so calmly with him as if they were casual acquaintances instead of… enemies… Maybe it would turn out to have some advantages. He hoped so, at least.

“I wanted her to see me. To know exactly what was happening and why.” Yes, he’d wanted to gloat a little. Who could blame him? After all, he hardly ever got the chance for that, not with Thor always stealing all the attention and glory for himself.

“You said you also did it for Thor.”

Loki shrugged. “He might be an idiot but that doesn’t give that bitch the right to mess with his mind.”

“Hmmm… I see. If anyone is gonna mess with Thor, it will be you, right?”

Loki only smiled in response. It was an accurate assessment of the situation, actually.

“So, if Thor thinks you’re dead, how is it that he told you anything about Wanda?”

“He didn’t realize he told me.” He shrugged. “It’s not very hard to fool Thor. He believes whatever he’s told without thinking too much about it.”

Stark nodded. “He doesn’t strike me as a deep thinker, no. A bit of a hothead.”

Now that was an understatement. If it didn’t require brute strength to deal with, Thor was simply not interested in it. And what he was not interested in, he didn’t bother knowing about at all. That was the man the people of Asgard were so in love with. Despite Thor’s grand proclamations of growth and change, he was clearly still a moron if he had accepted Rogers’s word that the witch was redeemed.

“It is, perhaps, fortunate that things happened as they did,” Loki said. “You and I might be able to help each other. If you are willing to work with the likes of me, of course.”

“Bambi, if it’s to keep the Earth safe from a crazy alien, I’ll work with whoever I have to. And at this point, you actually seem to be a much better option than Rogers and his band of idiots.”

It wasn’t much of a compliment, in truth, but Loki still felt gratified to hear it. And glad for Stark’s practicality. The captain probably wouldn’t have been any help at all.

“Good. An alliance, then?”

“Sure.” He mortal put his hand forward. “It’s customary here to shake hands to settle a deal.”

“How quaint,” Loki said, and did as he was told.

*****

It was good to have a name to go with the nightmare, Tony thought as he idly shifted his files around.

Thanos. The Mad Titan.

He hadn’t been imagining things after all. There had been someone else behind Loki and the invasion. And what were they going to do about it? Wait for the guy to show up and wipe them all out? Maybe Ultron hadn’t been the best idea, but at least it had been something. Something better than Rogers’s stupid ‘together’ plan. What kind of idiotic non-plan was that? And this from the guy who was supposed to be a master tactician… It seemed rather obvious now that the legend of Captain America didn’t have much basis in reality. Rogers was full of shit.

So, once again it was up to Tony to figure something out to save their asses while Rogers sat around with his head buried firmly in the sand doing nothing. Wasn’t that what he’d done with Wanda? Thank god for Loki, because that could have been an unmitigated disaster – not just for him (and Rhodey), but for the Avengers as a whole and the world, which would have had zero defenders for when this Thanos came if the witch had had her way.

So now he needed to figure out what to do about the impending doom.

With or without the Avengers, though? That was the question he had been asking himself.

Before the Ultron disaster, he had believed strongly in the Avengers. Now… now he had a lot of reservations, not only because the others has been unable (or, most likely, unwilling) to see through Wanda, but also because of their treatment of him. He had known that the others were a bit suspicious of him from the start, but to blame him without even bothering to actually understand what had happened? To physically attack him? To take the word of a murderer over his? No, that had crossed all sorts of lines.

Maybe if Loki hadn’t come along to show him just how utterly alone he was within the Avengers, Tony might have kept on being involved with them, if only from a distance. Now he wasn’t sure there was much left to salvage from that. Perhaps it would be better to seek allies elsewhere.

“J, what do you think?”

It took him a moment to realize that there would be no answer. He still expected Jarvis to be there sometimes, and it hurt every time he remembered that his friend was gone. And then he remembered how little the others had cared, too busy blaming and attacking him to give a thought to Jarvis. Or his feelings, for that matter.

There’s gotta be a way to bring him back, Tony thought for the millionth time. Nothing he had tried so far had worked, though. It should have, but it just didn’t. It had to be the Mind Stone’s influence somehow, because scientifically it didn’t make any sense.

Maybe I should ask Loki about it. He might have an idea. Hell, he might use his magic to get it done. Tony didn’t care, as long as he got Jarvis back.

Loki would be back soon, he'd said. They had plans to make and information to exchange. Tony would bring it up then. What did he have to lose anyway?

*****

Loki returned the next day, after having made sure that things were well in hand in Asgard and that Thor was busy ascertaining the location of the other Infinity Stones, as per ‘Odin’s’ request, taking his idiot friends with him so they would not get in the way of Loki’s plans.

Before going to the Tower, however, Loki took the time to check the news, curious to see what was being done about the witch, but there was nothing about it that he could find. Perhaps it had not yet been made public. Or perhaps, he mused, SHIELD was keeping it hidden. It did not make any difference to him, of course, yet Loki thought something like that should not be swept under the rug. Despite the necessity of it, Loki had grown rather tired of secrets lately. If he could, he would give up the charade of being Odin. It was really beginning to wear thin on him.

He arrived at the top of the Tower, where Stark lived, and made himself visible.

“Boss will be with you in a moment, Mr Loki,” a female voice said, startling Loki.

He looked around but there was no one there. “Who is this?” he asked.

“My name is Friday.”

Loki could not pinpoint where the voice was coming from, and that annoyed him greatly. “Where are you?” A different room, obviously. Some kind of security surveillance.

“I am everywhere.”

“That’s a bit Skynet of you, Fri,” Stark said, coming out of the elevator. “Hey, Loki.” The mortal was dressed in what Loki had come to identify as casual clothes, and was fiddling with one of those portable phones everyone seemed to carry.

“Stark,” Loki greeted. He wanted to ask about the woman, but didn’t want to seem overtly nosy.

“So you’ve met Friday.” Stark walked to the bar and poured himself a drink, silently offering one to Loki.

Loki nodded in thanks and moved to sit at the counter where they had begun their conversation the day before. “Hmm… Who is she?”

“Friday is an Artificial Intelligence I created. She runs the Tower now.”

“Like the Mind Stone creature.” Interesting.

“His name is Vision.” There was a slight note of reproach in the other’s voice. “He’s a person, not a creature. And no, not like him. Not really.”

“Oh?”

So Stark explained how Vision had been created, and spoke about the AI from whom he was partly derived. Thor had clearly left out a lot of important details in his report – not surprisingly, of course. If it was not a battle, he never paid much attention.

“I was wondering if you had any more information on these Infinity Stones, actually. Seeing as how we happen to have one now.” Stark’s voice showed the natural curiosity of one who liked to learn new things, yet there was something else there. Something more personal, more visceral.

“Perhaps,” Loki replied cautiously. He did not want to give everything away just yet. He might trust Stark to an extent, but it never hurt to have some tricks up his sleeve he could use to bargain with, if it ever became necessary to do so.

“Okay, look, I’m gonna level with you here, because frankly we don’t have time to be pussyfooting around. I’ve got a planet to protect, and whatever ideas I come up with are going to take a while to be implemented, because everything will probably need to be talked over to death. Politics, you know? So, if you want my help against this Thanos guy, I need to know as much I can about it, and apparently that includes these damn Stones. Also, if you have any insight into how I can undo whatever that stupid thing did to Jarvis, I’d greatly appreciate it. I mean, Friday is great, but Jarvis would be a much bigger help to get shit done.”

It wasn’t just about information, Loki realized. Stark might have framed it in terms of being able to defend his people, but it was more than that. He cared about this Jarvis, and wanted him back just for that. And he was willing to ask Loki for help – he was willing to trust Loki. Of course, that was sort of a given, being as he had agreed to an alliance. Still, fighting against a common foe was very different from asking for help on behalf of a friend.

How long had it been since anyone had actually trusted him? Loki couldn’t quite remember. Even Thor didn’t trust him anymore – and Loki didn’t trust him either.

He could take advantage of this, Loki thought. I have already saved his life, I could push his gratitude even further if I can do something about this. Not that long ago, the idea would have appealed to him. Now he was just tired of constant schemes, lies and subterfuge. Of being adrift and alone, dealing with others in terms of what they could do for him. Distant and impersonal – detached.

What I want, Loki realized, is a friend, not just an ally. He didn’t want Stark to feel indebted to him, he wanted the man to like him, to care about him as more than someone who might be useful in a battle. Their short interactions so far had awoken a hunger in him that Loki had been ignoring for far too long.

“I will tell you what I know,” he said at last. “And I will help you, if I can.” Perhaps by doing something truly altruistic the Norns would see fit to grant him something good for once.

Stark nodded and his expression softened. “Thanks.” The smile he gave Loki was grateful and genuine and caused something to warm up inside Loki’s heart.

*****

It had taken a couple of hours to go through everything Loki knew about the Stones and Thanos, mostly because Tony kept interrupting to ask questions. Instead of being annoyed by it, though, Loki simply answered them as best as he could, adding theories and rumors he had picked up here and there. There were still things he was holding back – things about Asgard and the mess that had led Loki into Thanos’s arms in the first place. Tony wasn’t bothered, though. For now, it was probably not relevant anyway; Tony’s curiosity could wait.

Perhaps it would have been prudent to take some time to think things over before going straight to a new attempt at restoring Jarvis’s code, but Tony only had so much patience in him. Jarvis’s absence was a wound that refused to close, and the sense of betrayal he’d felt at the Avengers’ disregard for his friend had only grown with the discovery of Wanda’s murderous plans – plans that would have been successful if not for Loki.

The god in question didn’t say anything as Tony finished setting up his equipment, bringing up multiple screens to check the rebooting process. He explained what the lines of code and graphs were supposed to mean. “This is the part that keeps malfunctioning, and I can’t figure out why. My guess is that it has something to do with the Stone.”

Loki looked at the computers and frowned. Then he started waving his hands around in seemingly random patterns. Tony watched, fascinated in spite of his dislike of magic, though he couldn’t make heads or tails of whatever Loki was trying to accomplish.

Suddenly, Loki gasped and stared at Tony with wide eyes.

“What? What’s wrong?” Tony asked, alarmed.

“You… You created this… Jarvis? Out of… code?”

“Yes. I told you that already. What’s the matter?”

“You created a soul,” Loki said, as if he could hardly believe it.

“What? What the hell is that supposed to mean? What is a soul, anyway?” Tony had never believed in any of that metaphysical mumbo-jumbo, like souls and spirits and whatever. He was a man of science. Even magic was… just really advanced science they didn’t understand yet. “And, more importantly, can you help or not?”

“Yes, I believe so,” Loki said. He closed his eyes, apparently concentrating, then green tendrils of magic swirled around him and the computer consoles. It looked a bit like what Wanda used to do, but more… controlled, more refined. Like the magic had a purpose – other than to fuck around with people, that was.

Tony waited, hardly daring to breathe, mind going a million miles an hour with questions. Could this really work? What was Loki doing, anyway? And what the fuck was this business of souls? Did that mean Jarvis had a soul? How did that happen? How did one create a soul? What did it even mean?

“Boss,” Friday said, voice strained. “Something is happening.”

“What? What is it?” Damn it, he hated being blind like this, not a clue as to what was going on.

“I don’t know. It’s outside my experience.” Friday sounded both apologetic and fearful.

Then the lights in the lab went out, which should not be possible at all, only to return before Tony even had the chance to say anything.

“Sir? What has happened?”

Oh god, Tony thought, grabbing hold of the nearest bench when his legs turned to jelly. “Jarvis?” Oh god, please…

“It is me. I seem to be missing some data. It is quite disconcerting. Also, is that Loki?”

Tony opened his mouth to reply but nothing came out. His vision was blurry and his thoughts scattered all over the place.

“Sir?”

“Welcome back, buddy,” Tony finally said, staring at the closest camera with a watery smile. “I’ve really fucking missed you.” He wished Jarvis had a body he could hug or touch so he could satisfy himself with the reality of his return.

He noticed Loki watching him silently, clearly giving him space, and moved before his brain had fully caught on. His arms encircled Loki and squeezed for all he was worth – which, for someone as strong as Loki, was probably negligible – a stream of nonsensical words falling from his lips and tears rolling how his cheeks.

“Oh my god, it worked. It fucking worked. Thank you. How the fuck did you do that? Never mind, I don’t care. Holy shit, you really did it. Oh god. I can’t believe… I’d given up… Nothing made any sense. It still doesn’t, with all this soul nonsense, but I don’t care. Fuck, it worked.”

Loki stood stiff, awkwardly patting him on the back.

After a while, Tony finally let go, only slightly embarrassed by his emotional display. “Right. So… hmm… thanks.” He got himself back together with a bit of effort.

“Don’t mention it.”

“About this… soul thing… what’s up with that?”

To give himself something to do, Tony looked back at his screens to see if he could figure out what had happened. It all read normally now, the way it should have all along.

“Your creation has a soul,” Loki said.

He then proceeded to try to explain what that meant, which Tony couldn’t really understand, as it had to do with mystical properties and ties to the energy of the universe or whatever. While intriguing in a ‘this is new and weird’ sense, Tony couldn’t really find it in himself to care about it all that much at the moment. He was just happy he had Jarvis back.

Catching Jarvis up on what had happened since his ‘disappearance’ took a bit of time as well. Loki listened attentively (Tony didn’t even consider waiting until he left) and shook his head in exasperation when Tony spoke about Thor’s attack. Once the tale was done – including the new alliance with the former would-be conqueror who had, for all intents and purposes, just saved Jarvis – Tony asked what exactly Loki had done.

“You were right that there was interference from the Mind Stone. It had left a kind of… scar… on Jarvis’s… mind. The witch did the same to Thor, though it his case it was a small thing, not detrimental to his health.” Loki might act as if he couldn’t stand Thor, but it seemed pretty obvious that if Wanda had actually harmed the thunderer, Loki would have done a lot more than just strip her powers from her. Tony honestly wouldn’t have shed any tears for her. “I am not well-versed in mind healing – or healing of any kind, really – but even so I was able to do enough to allow the… natural healing, for lack of a better term… to complete the process.” He paused for a moment. “It is possible that Vision might have been able to do the same.”

“Really? I’ll have to talk to him about it. I mean, I don’t think he’s aware that he can do stuff like that.”

Loki shrugged. “I do not know for sure. There has never, to my knowledge, been someone such as him, with an Infinity Stone as a part of their physiological makeup.”

“Vision said he’s going to move here – to the Tower, I mean – so we can start doing some tests.” Loki tensed a bit at that, so Tony hurried to reassure him. “I won’t tell him anything about you if you don’t want me to.” That seemed like the least Tony could do. He really did owe Loki big time now. “Although maybe at some point we can bring him and Rhodey in on this new alliance of ours.”

“Do you trust Vision?”

Did he? That was actually a good question. Vision hadn’t done anything bad so far. Tony couldn’t blame him for going along with Rogers’s dumb plan to make Wanda an Avenger. The guy had literally just been born, he could hardly have been expected to make those kinds of complex moral decisions. They really hadn’t had a lot of deep interaction, and that was mostly Tony’s fault. He had found it difficult to be around the android. To hear Jarvis’s voice from someone else and be confronted by grief. Still, he cared about Vision. Now perhaps they could get to know each other better without that loss hanging between them.

“I guess that’s still to be determined,” he said at last. “I think so, but a little more time wouldn’t hurt.” Rogers and Romanoff he definitely didn’t trust. Wilson he was still on the fence about, but Tony was a little wary by how the man always seemed to go along with whatever Rogers said without much thought.

“For now I would prefer to keep this between ourselves,” Loki said.

“Yeah, sure.”

“I must go now. I have many things yet to do.”

“Oh, okay.”

“I will return as soon as I can so we may continue our plans, if you have no objection.”

“None at all. You’re welcomed anytime. Though next time you’re gonna have to tell me how you’re even getting here without using the Bifrost.”

Loki only smiled enigmatically and disappeared. Like, literally disappeared. One moment he was there and the next he was gone. How the fuck did he do that? Was he teleporting? Did he turn invisible?

“J? Did you get any readings on that?”

“I’m afraid not, Sir. I am still processing the data accumulated in my absence. My apologies. I will be ready next time.”

Hearing Jarvis’s voice – not Vision, Jarvis – soothed an ache in Tony’s chest he had thought would never go away. “Don’t worry about it, buddy. Take your time. The important thing is that you’re here.” And if his eyes were tearing up again, well, there was no one there to see him. No one but Jarvis and Friday – no one but his family.

Chapter Text

Natasha watched as Wanda was taken away in handcuffs, cursing up a storm and glaring hatefully at the rest of them.

Wanda was Hydra. She had always been Hydra. And they had been duped.

Natasha had been duped.

It grated. It grated a lot.

How could she have been so blind? Why did she think a woman who had done her best to try to kill them would be reformed? She had seen a bit of herself in Wanda, perhaps. A difficult childhood, a constant struggle to survive in an unforgiving world, doing whatever she could to get ahead. Was it the same though? Wanda had been driven by revenge, not only survival. Steve had said that she’d been misguided in joining Hydra, but had Wanda herself ever said that? Why had Steve believed her so readily? Why had any of them believed her so easily? Had she been messing with their minds this whole time? It was a terrifying thought.

It seemed to be the only thing that made sense. Natasha would not have been so utterly stupid otherwise.

There was nothing to be done about it now, however. They had to focus on salvaging this situation, which was not going to be easy. At least the public didn’t know much about Wanda, as she had not joined them for anything officially Avengers related. Perhaps they could keep her arrest quiet, or spin it as them having known about her plans all along and just wanting time to build a case against her.

As Wanda’s last screams died away, Nat went over to Steve.

He still looked as if he couldn’t believe any of it. He had still tried to defend her even after seeing the surveillance tape where she admitted her desire to murder not only Stark but all of them.

“Steve, we have to talk. We have to figure out how we’re going to deal with this mess.”

“What do you mean?” He looked genuinely puzzled, and Natasha sighed to herself.

“We need to do damage control before the press gets a hold of this. We don’t want people to find out we’ve been harboring a Hydra terrorist.”

“Wanda is not a terrorist,” he said, as if by repeating it enough times it would make it true.

Nat had to fight hard not to roll her eyes. “Yes she is, Steve. She was planning to kill us, particularly Stark. And in a pretty horrific way too.”

“She wouldn’t do that, Nat. She’s not… she’s not a bad person.”

“For god’s sake, Steve, what is wrong with you? We were wrong about her.” It was a hard pill to swallow, but what choice was there? Burying their heads in the sand wasn’t going to undo anything.

He still seemed dubious. “I don’t know, Nat. Loki… we can’t trust… what if this is a setup?”

This time Nat did roll her eyes. “Did you hear her just now, issuing threats? Or have you gone deaf as well as blind?”

He got a mulish look on his face and Nat realized he would be no help whatsoever. Perhaps she should go directly to Stark. It wasn’t ideal, not when they were trying to distance themselves from him and the whole Ultron mess he’d created. She really hated having to depend on him more than they already did. Plus, after this fiasco, he might not be very inclined to help them at all.

Damn Steve for being such a stubborn idiot.

And they would still need to deal with Loki and whatever he was planning next. Nat would have to tell Clint about the bastard not being dead after all, and it would not go over well.

And how had he even gotten to Earth without anyone noticing the Bifrost or any kind of portal? How had he gotten into the Compound without being seen? Did Thor know he was alive? Had he killed Thor? They didn’t know anything, and that bothered her.  Loki was unpredictable and dangerous and they had no way of finding him at the moment. She hated being in the dark. Even more, she hated being caught unaware, and now it had happened twice, with Loki and Wanda. If Natasha believed in omens, this would be a sign of bad things to come. But she believed that people made their own fates, and Natasha was going to make sure hers was not a disaster.

“What is going to happen to her?” Steve asked.

“I don’t know. She’ll probably go to jail. We might have to testify if it goes to trial.” That would be very bad for them. The best thing that could happen was for someone to just kill the witch – former witch, as she no longer had any powers – before the details of her crimes were widely known.

“Isn’t there anything we can do?”

Nat turned to face him fully, completely fed up with his refusal to face the situation. “No, Steve. We should distance ourselves from her as much as we can. She is not who we thought she was, and the sooner you accept that the better.”

There was clearly no point in continuing the conversation until he was ready to see sense, so she left him to his pigheadedness. Natasha had some thinking to do about how to fix this mess. It seemed she was on her own. It was all right, though. She had always been on her own, and she knew how to survive no matter what.

*****

Tony had thought long and hard about whether or not he should get involved when the news about Wanda hit, and had ultimately decided against it. Though Nat had tried to reach out – only her; Steve had still said nothing about it – Tony really didn’t feel like putting himself back in what he had come to realize had been a really toxic environment. They were the ones who had wanted Wanda on the team despite his objections, so they could be the ones to deal with the fallout of that moronic decision. He had left the Avengers for good – literally, it had done nothing but good things for him.

So he watched from TV as the media tried to make sense of the fact that a murderous terrorist had been living a cozy life with the Avengers instead of paying for her crimes.

He’d had dozens of requests for comments since the news had hit, and so far he was ignoring all of them. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to tell people the truth, it was just that he knew that if he opened his mouth, he would probably end up saying more than he should. Even though he no longer wanted anything to do with the Avengers, it didn’t mean that he wanted them in jail. Despite their stupid decisions, Tony didn’t think they were bad people. Besides, now was not the time to disillusion people about superheroes. Quite the opposite; now more than ever he knew he would need the public’s support to implement all the ideas he was coming up with to fight Thanos.

Let this be a lesson to them, he thought. Perhaps Steve and the others will learn to consider the consequences of their actions a bit more from now on. Because god knew there seemed to have been very little of it so far.

It wasn’t as if he had nothing to do anyway. Though Loki had not yet returned since he’d helped bring Jarvis back, Tony had already begun drafting plans.

Despite everything that had happened, Iron Man was still an important hero, and Tony Stark was still a powerful name. Of course, there were those who distrusted him – and those who outright hated him – but money still talked, as did the fact that he had once pretty much single-handedly saved the planet from aliens. It was high time, Tony decided, to use that to his advantage.

And doing it by himself, without the Avengers dragging him down with their stupidity and lack of forward thinking, was much easier. He had started calling everyone he thought could help, cashing in on favors with politicians and the alphabet soup of agencies both in the US and elsewhere in the world. Thanos threatened the whole world, and there was no time for petty squabbling anymore.

After some thought, Tony had also decided to find Bruce and bring him back. With Wanda arrested and about to be tried for multiple crimes, it would be the perfect time to clear Bruce’s name for what had happened in Johannesburg once and for all. Even if he didn’t want to stay and continue on as an Avenger – and Tony wouldn’t blame him in the slightest –, he should still testify against Wanda and get her the punishment she deserved. Plus the Hulk would be a powerful ally in the event of another invasion.

Surprisingly, that was turning out to be harder than he had anticipated. Bruce had really gone off the grid this time, and had disabled the transponder in the quinjet. Tony could still track it down by other means, but it was slower and more time consuming. Fortunately, he now had two capable AIs to get those sorts of things done, so it was only a matter of time. While Jarvis was helping him come up with new defense strategies, Friday was looking for Bruce and other potential new allies.

In the meantime, the political gears had been set in motion, and Tony hoped to have something concrete to talk to Loki about when he next showed up. They would need planetary defenses and a global response system to protect the public as much as possible, and that required international cooperation. Fortunately (for a given meaning of fortunate), Ultron had shown the world that they could no longer be complacent because, with alien beings and artifacts now being a fact of life, the chance of a new disaster was high, and they could not expect to escape destruction by the skin of their teeth a third time. Mobilization was already happening all over the world; Tony just needed to capitalize on that in order to create a framework to deal with such things that would be really effective.

It was going to be a lot of hard work, but at least he knew he wouldn’t be alone in it. He had gotten rid of the Avengers, yes, but he had something even better – he had Jarvis and Friday, Rhodey and Vision, and Loki. And probably others he had yet to meet. He could do this.

He had to.

*****

Ever since Wanda’s arrest a week ago, things had been… difficult, and Steve hated it. Vision had moved out of the Compound and was living at the Tower with Tony, apparently. Sam had been angry to discover that Steve had known about Wanda’s Hydra past, and even more so that Steve hadn’t thought to tell him beforehand so he could have made an, as he put it, ‘informed decision’ about her. Natasha was obviously avoiding him, and had spoken to him very little. Whenever they crossed paths in the common areas, she looked at him coldly, as if he was a bug under her shoe. It felt like everything was falling apart.

Steve missed his friends. He missed the easy camaraderie and trust he’d had with Sam and Nat. And he also missed being able to count on them on the search for Bucky. There had been no more missions, and he wasn’t sure how to broach the subject when they were clearly still upset about the situation with Wanda.

It still didn’t make any sense to him. How could he have been so wrong about Wanda? She had seemed so innocent, so earnest in her desire to help, in her grief. Steve had seen a lot of himself in her. Had it all been a lie? And if it was, what did it say about him that he’d fallen for it so easily?

Or, perhaps even worse, had she manipulated him more than he’d realized? It was a disturbing thought, but it was the only thing that made sense.

And there was the matter of Loki’s reappearance and what that meant. No one seemed to be doing anything about that at all. (Not that, realistically, there was much they could do without knowing where he was and what he was planning. Even so, it didn’t sit right with Steve). Tony – what little Steve had seen of him in television – seemed utterly unconcerned.

Things needed to be fixed, and Steve wasn’t sure how he could do that, not when his friends weren’t giving him the chance. He knew that if they would just let him explain, everything would be all right again. Well, not Wanda, but… if she really was as bad as everyone said – as bad as someone who messed with people’s minds and thoughts –, then she deserved whatever she got.

He finally managed to corner Sam one day as the other was coming back from a run around the grounds. They used to do it together, but Sam had taken to doing it at odd hours in order to avoid him, so Steve had to almost lay in wait for him.

“Hey, Sam.” He tried for a friendly smile. “Had a good run?”

Sam shrugged. “It was fine.”

“Look, can we… Can we talk? I know you’re upset, but if we could just sit down and have a conversation, I’m sure we can sort things out.” He gave his most sincere and earnest expression, and Sam caved.

“Yeah, okay. Let me just get a shower first, all right?”

“Sure. I’ll get us something to eat. How’s that?”

“Great.”

Steve busied himself with making sandwiches while Sam took his shower and then they settled on the kitchen counter.

“I’m sorry things have been so weird between us, Sam. I know that what happened with Wanda was… unpleasant, but we’re still friends, right?”

“Yeah. It’s just… Steve, man… That woman was nasty. She could have killed us all.”

“I know. I don’t… You know I would never have put any of you in danger if I’d known, Sam. I swear I thought… she said she was sorry for everything, and she’d lost her brother and I just… I guess I wanted to believe that she was better than that. Looks like I was wrong. And she probably did something to us all to make us not see who she really was.”

Everyone made mistakes, though, and it didn’t seem fair to lose everything because of an honest mistake, Steve thought. It was Wanda’s fault, not his. She had played him, distorted his view. How could he have known she was lying or manipulating him? No one had seen it. Nat, Clint, Sam and Vision had been just as deceived, but no one was blaming them, were they?

“You should have told me the whole story, Steve.”

“I know, Sam. I’m sorry. I didn’t… she really had me fooled. She had all of us fooled.”

Sam pursed his lips. “I might not have been if I’d known all the details,” he mumbled.

“I guess I just want to believe the best of people. Isn’t that better than thinking everyone is horrible? Sometimes it seems like that’s how the world is now, and it’s… It’s not how I remember it. I figured everyone deserves a second chance, you know? She took advantage of that.”

“Yeah, I guess. I can see your point.” Sam sighed. “It just feels really shitty. What she was planning to do…” he shuddered. “That’s just… that’s messed up, man. Really messed up. And it could have happened. It came this close” he held up thumb and forefinger an inch apart “to happening.”

“But it didn’t. That’s what we have to focus on, Sam. We’ll drive ourselves crazy thinking about what ifs. It didn’t happen. We have to move on. We’re still a team, right?”

“Yeah.” Sam answered Steve’s smile with one of his own, then got serious again. “But you gotta promise to tell me everything from now on, okay?”

“Sure, of course. I didn’t mean to keep secrets from you, Sam. Really. I honestly believed Wanda was going to turn over a new leaf, and the past wouldn’t matter anymore. I wasn’t trying to deceive you.”

“Okay, okay. I guess I’m sorry too. I know it’s not your fault. She really messed with us.”

They ate in companionable silence for a while, and Steve finally relaxed after days of tension. He knew it was going to be all right. Now he just had to talk to Nat, and they could go back to focusing on Bucky.

*****

“Hey, Nat. Can we talk?”

Natasha looked up from the computer screen in front of her to see Steve hovering in the doorway, looking wholesome and eager. She sighed to herself, but motioned for him to come in.

“So…” he began. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry. About the whole Wanda thing. She fooled me. She fooled all of us. I really thought she was… you know, a good girl who had just gotten in over her head. I didn’t realize she had used her powers on us like that, to change our perception of her.”

He really did look contrite, Nat thought. She was still angry, but the truth was that she had been deceived as well. They had both wanted to believe Wanda. That had been their mistake, her way in.

“All right, Steve.”

“I feel… I don’t know… embarrassed now. For defending her.” He gave her that annoying aw-chucks look Nat was starting to really dislike.

Not as much as I do, she thought. She was supposed to be better than that, after all. “What’s done is done, and there’s no use whining about it now,” she said.

“Yes, exactly.”  He smiled. “We need to move on.”

“Yes. But we also need to deal with this, Steve, because it looks bad for us.”

“I know. I'm sorry I didn’t listen to you before about that. I was still in shock, I guess.” He came closer and sat on the bed, posture open and relaxed. “What do you think we should do then?”

“We have to go on record to say we knew nothing about her previous crimes. That she played us.” It wouldn’t be good for their image, of course, but it was better than having people think they had deliberately allowed a Hydra agent into the Avengers. A lie was usually better than the truth, and in this case, most certainly.

“Yeah, I get it. We can do that, no problem.”

Well, at least he had woken up, Nat thought. I can work with that. She hesitated before continuing. “We might need to involve Stark in this.”

Steve grimaced. “Do we have to? Tony… he’s… you know he’s never rational about these kinds of things, and Wanda… He’s bound to make a circus production out of it. He shouldn’t give him any more time in the spotlight, that will just feed on his obsession with being noticed. Surely we can handle it ourselves. I mean, Tony isn’t even an Avenger anymore.”

Nat considered it. It would be better to give Stark less opportunity to cater to his ego and make it all about him. He had stayed out of it so far, but he would probably make a mess of it if they actually got him to be involved just to spite them. If Steve was finally on board with handling the situation, they could take care of it themselves. They’d done just fine against Hydra, after all. And Captain America was a better sell anyway, a more wholesome trustworthy hero.

“All right. But we’ll have to come up with a plan.”

“Sure, yeah. It won’t be a problem, Nat. People will understand that we were trying to do the right thing.”

“I’ll draft something and show you later then.”

“Great.” He beamed at her and Nat allowed herself some relief. It would not be so bad. They were heroes, and the public would see that.

“I'm glad we sorted this out, Nat. It didn’t feel right for us to be at odds. We need to be able to count on each other. And I've always been able to count on you.”

Nat nodded, satisfied that he knew how important she was to the group. He might seem like the leader, but it was really Nat who was in charge, and she liked that.

“I was thinking that, once we get this whole nasty business behind us, we can go back to our regular missions. We still have a few Hydra bases to check out.”

Yes, it would be good to show the world they were still fighting against Hydra, Nat thought. If they could get more publicity on it, it might work to reassure the public. They really needed some positive exposure out there.

“That’s a good idea, Steve. I’ll see what my sources have and get back to you.”

*****

Natasha thought a pre-recorded video would be a better way to address the public. Reporters would ask too many questions and they didn’t want to appear too defensive. Just getting their version of the story out there should be enough, she said, because the public was already pre-disposed to like them. As long as Tony didn’t say anything to mess it up, they could make this work.

So Nat gave Steve a script he would read from, and they refined it together. Even Sam offered a few suggestions until they were all satisfied with the final product.

Steve donned his iconic suit and stood in front of a camera to record the message, which Nat would then put on the internet for people to see. There was still a lot Steve didn’t know about the modern world, and these tech things seem utterly alien sometimes. Sam had tried to teach him some of it, but it just made Steve feel confused and out of his depth. It was easier to stick to what he knew and let Nat handle the computer stuff – she certainly seemed to know what she was doing, and she wasn’t obnoxious about it the way Tony was, purposefully sprouting out tech jargon that Steve had no hope of comprehending.

It took a couple of takes to get it perfectly, and once it was done, Steve breathed a sigh of relief. They could get back to their lives now and put this terrible thing behind them. Wanda and her lies were best forgotten.

Loki, though, was still a problem.

“We should do something about Loki,” Steve announced a couple of days after the video had been released while they were discussing their next steps.

“There really isn’t much we can do at the moment,” Nat replied. “At least not until Thor comes back and we tell him that his brother isn’t dead after all.”

“It’s weird that he took Wanda’s power and did nothing to anyone else, isn’t it?” Sam asked. “I mean, from what you guys have told me about him, you’d think he’d do… more. Like actually kill someone or something.”

“He’s obviously playing a long game, and we need to know what that is.” Nat tapped a few keys in the computer in front of her. “I’ve been keeping an eye on things, but I’ve got nothing suspicious so far.”

“So we just wait?”

“Loki is a showman,” she explained. “He craves attention, so sooner or later he will reveal himself.”

“It just seems like we’re missing something,” Sam continued. “None of it makes any sense. Wanda was planning to kill us. Why not wait until she did that before de-powering her? Surely he knows that leaving us alive is bad for him. I just don’t get it.”

“Thor once said Loki had gone unhinged,” Steve added. “We can’t expect him to think like a sane person. Would a sane person want to conquer a planet and kill billions of people? Nat is right, he’ll show himself eventually, and we’ll be ready.” The conviction is his voice seemed to mollify Sam. “We should focus on what we can do now, which is to continue raiding Hydra bases. Bucky is still out there, and the sooner we bring him home the better.”

“I might have a few leads,” Nat said. “But I think we should wait a bit longer until this whole thing with Wanda dies down a little more. We don’t want to be accosted by nosy reporters the second we step out the door.”

Sam nodded. “Has the video helped?”

“Yes. People are rallying behind Captain America, just like we knew they would. They understand that we were trying to do the right thing and were deceived by a lying murderer.” Steve was glad to hear that report. He had left it to Nat to monitor the response to the video, since he hated having to deal with the internet and what seemed to be the multitude of crazy people in it. Of course, he’d known it would be fine once they told people what had happened, but it was still good to have it confirmed. “There are a few dissenting voices, of course, but the majority of the public is on our side.”

“Good,” Steve said. “Let’s get to work, guys.”

Chapter Text

Over the past couple of weeks, Loki had made almost daily trips to Midgard, ostensibly to share information and discuss plans for Thanos’s possible attack. In reality, though, he was mostly going so he could talk to Stark – and, as a bonus, to escape Asgard and its unrelenting misery.

The more time Loki spent with Stark the more intrigued he became. The mortal was unlike anyone he had ever met. There was something undeniably special about him in the way he was able to think through things and make leaps in logic that even Loki had trouble following sometimes.

There was also the fact that he was very easy on the eyes, and didn’t seem to mind a little flirtation. The people in Asgard would be scandalized, Loki was sure, and that only made things better in Loki’s estimation.

Of course, Loki knew that it wasn’t going to actually go anywhere. Flirting was just harmless fun. Stark didn’t really mean it. He was seeing some mortal woman, after all. But every now and then Loki would allow himself to imagine what it would be like to kiss the man. To lay him down on a bed and touch every inch of skin and draw out moans of pleasure out of that delectable mouth.

It had been a long time since Loki had found himself so attracted to a person, and it was… somewhat disconcerting. Romance had never been something he was particularly focused on, and in Asgard there had been very few people he had even entertained the idea of being with. There had been some – Sygin being the most successful and enduring of his relationships, even though it had ended badly – but for the most part, Loki was just never happy with any of them. The women (except Sygin) seemed more interested in his status as prince (even the spare one) than with him as a person. The men… well, that had always been an extremely risky proposition. It was considered a great moral flaw for a man to desire (and, worse, lay with) another, which meant Loki had mostly used his female form for those, fearful of discovery the entire time. Of course, people called him ergi (behind his back, though not very discretely) anyway. The fact that he could – and occasionally did, even if with decreasing frequency over the centuries – shapeshift into a woman had often been used as another slight against his character, morals and manhood (or lack thereof).

From his very basic (and quick) research, things were a bit different in Midgard. While there were those who renounced such same-sex relationships, there were also those who defended people’s rights to choose their partners without prejudice. From what Loki had observed, Stark didn’t seem all that bothered by the idea at least. Which, of course, didn’t mean he himself would be at all interested in Loki – or any other man, for that matter.

It was a nice little fantasy to entertain sometimes. However, Loki knew he needed to be careful lest he lose sight of the fact that it was a fantasy.

It wasn’t just that Stark was smart and attractive, though. It was the fact that, despite their tumultuous first meeting, they had reached a sort of easy camaraderie that Loki had seldom experienced. Even though his experiences with magic so far had not been great, Stark didn’t treat it as a mortal (and moral) sin. He was wary, of course, like any sensible person in his position would be, but not disdainful. In fact, he seemed genuinely curious, even impressed. It was a nice change from Asgard’s usual thinking. However, Loki was loathe to tell him too much just yet, fearful of a negative reaction.

It was also refreshing not to have his ideas dismissed out of hand for not being straight-forwardly violent enough. Thor (and most everyone in Asgard) believed that a fight should be won with ‘glorious battle’, meeting one’s opponents head on to shed as much blood as one could. Loki had always been of the opinion that it made much more sense to be sneaky and undermine the enemy from the shadows. The tricks of a coward, he had been told again and again, unworthy of a true warrior.

Warriors, Loki believed, were idiots. Stark seemed to share that opinion, and was perfectly content to make plans that involved as little outright fighting as possible. Humans did not have the same sturdy constitution as the Aesir, of course, so that was a practical consideration as much as a dislike for needless violence. Stark’s armor, however, made him as strong as any Asgardian, and still the man preferred a more subtle and clever approach to handling Thanos. Though he seemed reluctant when Loki had brought it up, he did not discard the idea of using the same kind of weapon he had in the first invasion, the one that had decimated Thanos’s fleet in one fell swoop. Thor would have wanted to go up against Thanos himself – and likely ended up dead as a result – but Stark saw the sense in striking from a distance. Even Midgard’s world leaders would agree to that, Stark was certain. They only needed to get everyone sufficiently motivated to put their cultural and historical differences aside to come up with a decent plan.

Jarvis and Friday, Stark’s amazing creations, were also of great interest to Loki. He had never heard of such constructs, and was deeply intrigued by how Stark had managed this feat. What was more, Stark himself still seemed utterly unaware of the unprecedented nature of what he had accomplished. For a man who was purported to be egotistical and prone to bragging, he did not seem the least bit interested in taking any credit for that, or even of telling anyone what he’d done. SHIELD’s assessment of the man – the little Barton had told him of it anyway – was obviously not at all accurate. It was not surprising. The man was good at masks, at playing a part. He played at being brash, loud and Thor-like in basking in people’s adoration, but he wasn’t like that. Not really. He was much more shrewd and devious than Thor could ever hope to be. And much much smarter.

He seemed to embody all the qualities that Loki prized and that were so different from the Asgardian ideal. And he did it in such a way that people liked and respected him for it.

It really was no wonder that Loki was so taken with the man. He could only hope it wouldn’t end in heartache for him.

*****

“So, how are things going in Asgard?” Tony asked. Loki seemed tense and irritated, which was not a good combination.

“They are all idiots,” Loki replied. “I'm half-tempted to just leave them to fend for themselves. Let Thor take the damn throne he was so keen on.”

Tony chuckled. He could certainly understand the sentiment. “So why don’t you?”

Loki frowned and tilted his head slightly. “I had imagined that you would tell me to be patient and keep at it.”

“Me?” He was genuinely surprised. “Why would I say that? I don’t give a crap about Asgard.” But I do care about you, remained implied – or so he hoped. “Why is it your problem anyway? Believe me, I know all about having the weight of the world on your shoulders, and you know what? It sucks. It sucks being the one who has to do everything and not even get any thanks for it. I mean, if they at least appreciated your efforts, or you as a person, it would be different, but… Well, I wouldn’t blame you at all if you just said fuck it, and walked away. Let them deal with their own mess.”

Walking away from the Avengers for good was the best thing Tony could have done. It was really amazing how much better he felt now that he didn’t have to deal with their unreasonable expectations or demands, or the constant subtle – and not so subtle – putdowns.

For a while Loki didn’t say anything, watching Tony with an unreadable expression. “I don’t… Thor would be a terrible king.”

“So? That’s not your problem. Thor will have to stand on his own feet at some point. Enabling him all the time isn’t gonna make him a better king.” Tony should know, it was what he’d done with the Avengers, and look where that had gotten him.

“You really think I should just leave?”

“I think you should do whatever you want, whatever is best for you. If that’s leaving, then so be it.”

Loki looked like the very idea was crazy. Really, the more Tony heard about Asgard, the less he liked it.

“And what would I do with myself? Where would I go?”

“Whatever you want, wherever you want. I mean, you can do your fancy skywalking or whatever it’s called, and go anywhere. Take a vacation, see the sights… relax… whatever.” He hesitated for a moment before continuing. “You could hang out here.” He tried to sound nonchalant but wasn’t sure he pulled it off.

The truth was, he liked Loki. He liked talking to him. For once, Tony didn’t need to slow down in order to be understood. It was refreshing. (It had been that way with Bruce, but that hadn’t turned out so well. He hoped this time would be better.) Plus, Loki was kinda hot. Like, really really hot. It was hard not to take notice of that very obvious fact.

“I… I will think about it.” Loki paused, then quite deliberately changed the subject. “And how have the plans progressed here in Midgard?”

“It’s going. Slowly, but its going. You know how it is with bureaucracy.” It was a pain sometimes, but there was no escaping it.

“What about the Avengers?”

“Don’t know and don’t care,” Tony replied. Romanoff had tried to reach out a couple of times for upgraded tech, only for Tony to metaphorically slam the door in her face every time. She had nothing he wanted, and plenty of things he didn’t. Iron Man was better off as a solo hero. The Avengers had been nothing but a giant headache he certainly didn’t need anymore. He wasn’t even sure about funding them anymore.

“Has the witch,” Loki spat out the word with as much disdain as he could, “been killed yet?”

“No. I'm not sure she will be, really. Without her powers, she is pretty harmless. Well, not harmless, she’s still a crazy psycho, but easily dealt with.”

“Hmmm.”

“What about Thor?”

Loki sighed. “I don’t want to talk about that.”

“Ok. So, what do you want to do?” Clearly, Loki needed some distraction, and Tony was happy to provide. It wouldn’t be the kind of distraction he really wanted to provide, but one couldn’t have everything. And Tony really should stop thinking about having sex with Loki. That was not going to happen and, honestly, it was probably a bad idea anyway. Not that that had ever stopped him before, of course. Tony was the king of bad ideas. Still, sometimes some of those bad ideas turned out all right. Sometimes they turned out great, even.

Nope, just get your mind out of the gutter, he told himself.

Ever since his relationship with Pepper had fizzled out, he had wondered if he’d ever even have another one. It used to be easy having one-night stands or short dating ‘adventures’ not designed to go anywhere. Now… Afghanistan had changed all that. Perhaps it was for the better. As much fun as it had been, it had still been mostly meaningless and, sometimes, just a performance he had to put on for the world. Not that he really cared what people thought about him, but since the media was always going to say something, it was better if he controlled the narrative, at least to an extent.

Pepper, though, had been different. It had been real. For a while, Tony had even allowed himself to believe that she could be it, that she could be the one. Unfortunately, it hadn’t worked out. They wanted different things, needed things from each other that they were not able to give. It wasn’t anybody’s fault, though of course at the time Tony had blamed himself for their relationship crashing and burning. It had been awkward for a time, but they’d made it through. They had tried not to make a big deal of it publically, so most people were probably still under the impression that they were dating. For now, that worked in their favor; one less ‘battle’ to fight was always a good thing.

With everything that had happened since – Ultron, losing Jarvis (and getting him back), Wanda, and now the preparations for a new invasion – dating, or even sex, was the farthest thing from his mind.

Or it had been, until Loki had arrived with his sexy smirk, mischievous eyes and clever mind. Really, how could Tony not want to hit that?

Bad idea or not, though, it was probably not gonna happen. From things Thor had said, Tony got the impression that Asgard was very conservative in terms of gender roles and sexual orientation. Sure, Loki flirted a bit, but it was just for fun; he was known as a trickster, after all. It didn’t mean anything. It certainly didn’t mean he would actually be interested. It was a pity.

They ended up watching a movie together. Tony considered showing him Lord of the Rings since it seemed very much in line with Asgardian ideals of epic tales, then remembered how little Loki cared about the Asgard ideal. He went with Harry Potter instead. No doubt it would be amusing to listen to Loki explain just how silly the movie’s idea of magic was.

It was the most fun Tony had had in ages.

*****

It was surprisingly easy to talk to Stark, Loki remarked. Not just about plans and strategy but everything. Moreover, he did not feel as if their exchanges were unequal when it came to more personal things.

Though he had not planned to, he had eventually found himself telling Stark that he had spent the last year impersonating Odin. Instead of being suspicious or outraged by the deception, Stark simply laughed.

“Oh, man, that is gold. And no one has caught on?” When Loki shook his head, Stark just laughed harder. “Oh, god, that is the ultimate ‘fuck you’ to daddy dearest and everyone else. I mean, I knew you’d been doing stuff from behind the scenes, but I didn’t know you were just standing there hiding in plain sight. That is genius.”

Rarely had Loki been praised by his deviousness and subterfuge tactics, so he didn’t know whether to be elated or embarrassed. Both, probably. He also had to stifle the urge to kiss Stark senseless. How did the man continue to do things like that to him? Make his heart flutter and his whole body surge with desire? And, worse, the man seemed utterly oblivious to the effect he had on Loki.

“It is not as fun as it sounds,” he said once Stark had gotten his mirth under control.

Stark sobered up immediately, and Loki realized he much preferred the laughter. “No, I guess not. Shit, that is messed up. I’m sorry. I can’t imagine how much that must suck. To have to pretend to be someone else… and someone who is a huge douche, no less… yeah, not fun at all.”

Loki grimaced. It was nice to know that someone understood it. Thor would probably think Loki was loving it.

“So what happened to the real Odin? Did he die?”

“No, he is not dead. He is merely… sleeping.”

“Sleeping?” Stark frowning. “What, he just decided to take a nap and leave Asgard to fend for itself?”

“No, it wasn’t like that.” Loki explained what the Odinsleep was, and why it was necessary from time to time. Commanding all the magic of Asgard was quite strenuous, particularly for someone who did not have magical abilities of their own. Frigga had fared much better the few times she had acted as regent before Thor and Loki had come of age. And Loki himself did not find it as taxing. It was more tiresome to deal with the politics of the realm than its magic.

“So he’s going to wake up eventually?”

“Yes, though I can keep him at it longer than he normally would if I so choose.” Not that he wanted to, of course. More and more Loki realized that Stark was right and leaving Asgard for good would be the best thing for him.

“And that doesn’t harm him? I mean, he sounds like a dick, but…” He trailed off, looking slightly uncomfortable.

“It should have no lasting effects, no.” At this point, Loki wasn’t sure he would care if it did. He had once loved Odin and had wanted nothing more than to be worthy in his eyes. That desire had long since been extinguished. Odin had made it quite clear what he thought of the monster he had adopted, and Loki was not as much of a masochist as to keep wishing for something he would never have.

For that bit of confidence, Stark reciprocated with the fact that he was no longer in a relationship with the woman Loki had heard about.

“It just didn’t work out, you know? I still love her, but… We’re better as friends.”

Loki was not sure how to feel about that piece of news either. On the one hand, it was nice to know the man was unattached. On the other, it made no real difference except in making him hope foolishly for things that wouldn’t happen. Besides, a man like Stark was not likely to be single for long. He probably had dozens of women vying for his attention already.

When Loki voiced that thought, however, he was surprised by the response he got.

“Yeah, sure, lots of people will be lining the door when the news hits, but they’re all… people who want something. Money, mostly. I wouldn’t trust any of them.”

Of course. Loki should have thought of that. He himself had been sought out for his position much more than for who he actually was. Obviously he far too besotted with the man to be able to think rationally, though he did find it rather inconceivable that people would fail to see how extraordinary Stark was.

At a different occasion, Loki shared a bit more of the story behind his imprisonment and the Dark Elves’ attack. He talked about the suspicion he had been treated with by Thor’s friends – and Thor himself – and the fact that such had been a recurring theme throughout his life.

“I was never part of their circle, not really. They merely tolerated me because of Thor. Behind his back, they were disrespectful and mocking. Sometimes even in front of him.”

“Because you weren’t as gun ho about beating stuff up with a big hammer?”

“That, and because I can do magic. It is considered a female art.” It was, perhaps, not the best idea to mention that, but Loki was too tired of trying to be someone else, someone he could never be. Humans didn’t have the same prejudices, so maybe Stark wouldn’t see it as a mark against him.

“Wow, that is such bullshit. I mean, magic sounds a lot more impressive to me than wielding a hammer. Any idiot can do that. I bet not many people can teleport around and do… whatever it is do you.”

Loki smiled, a weight lifting from his shoulder at Stark’s words. “Skywalking is a rare talent, as is shapeshifting.”

“Shapeshifting? Like, actually turning into other people?”

“Animals as well. I told you I am impersonating Odin.”

“Yeah, but I thought you were doing some kind of illusion.”

“That is possible as well, but it is more easily detectable.”

“Cool. A bit worrying, but cool.”

“Worrying?”

“Well, from a security point of view.” He shrugged. “You could infiltrate anywhere you wanted pretty damn easily with that.”

“Ah, yes, I see. But doing so would not be honorable.”

Stark scoffed. “Being sexist dicks isn’t very honorable either. Or bullies. Seriously, it just sounds like most Asgardians are just butt-hurt that they can’t do magic. Anyone with brains can see that it’s much more useful than simple brute strength. Maybe it’s just a way to keep women subjugated. Or the men that don’t conform to their stupid macho ideals.”

Loki had never quite thought of it that way, yet the idea had some merit. It was intriguing. “Asgard does value strength over everything else.”

“Sure. I mean, if it’s all they have, they have to value it highly. How else are they going to feel superior?”

How indeed. It certainly wasn’t through diplomacy or art or innovation. Those had stagnated centuries ago.

“It is not so here? To value strength over other types of talent?”

“In some cases, yes.” So Stark spoke about his own experiences being mistreated as a child by peers who were markedly less intelligent, and therefore threatened by him. Stark stood apart from other humans in his own way – by his intellect, his money, his position – and such circumstances came with their own set of hardships. Not the same as Loki’s, but enough that they could relate to each other, could understand each other in a way Loki had rarely experienced.

Returning to Asgard at the end of each visit was becoming harder and harder.

*****

They had delayed enough, Steve thought. It was high time they went back out there, to show the people the Avengers were still strong despite the mishap with Wanda. And, more importantly, it was high time to resume the search for Bucky.

Nat’s contacts had come through and they had several new possibilities to explore of places Bucky might be.

They started closer to home, going to a couple of bases here in the US. It seemed that Hydra had kept secret labs and offices all over the world, disguised as research facilities and small companies. In order to maintain the element of surprise in case the enemy was still there, Steve, Nat and Sam were as stealthy as they could be in approaching the bases. While Steve would have liked to announce his presence – to make sure people saw then being heroes – it was simply not practical. Plus, he didn’t want to spook Bucky. He was pretty sure that his friend remembered him now, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still in a heightened state of fight or flight.

The first base was empty, and there had been nothing useful left behind.

The second was also empty, though this one at least still had some documents concealed behind a false wall. They spent a couple of hours going through them. Steve hated that part of the job, yet they could not afford to overlook something that might give them a clue about Bucky’s whereabouts. Unfortunately, all the papers were about shifting funds from one place to another, keeping Hydra’s money trail well hidden from both SHIELD and the world at large. It was boring work, and after a while, he left Natasha to do it and took a walk with Sam.

“We’ll find him, Steve,” Sam said, seeing Steve’s despondent expression.

“I just wish we had something concrete. I hate to think about what he might be going through. I failed him once, and I can’t help feel that I’m failing him again now.”

“You’re not failing him, Steve. You’re trying. The world is a big place, and it looks like Bucky knows how to fly under the radar.”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe… Maybe we should ask Stark for help.”

Steve had to fight the urge to snap out a ‘no’. Instead, he took a breath and tried to seem as if he was thinking about it. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Sam.”

“Why not? With his tech, it would probably be much easier.”

“We can’t trust Tony, Sam, you know that.”

“Why not? I don’t get it, Steve. I mean, even if he isn’t an Avenger anymore, surely he would help.”

Tony would never help Bucky, not if he knew the truth. It was best to keep him far away. “You don’t know Tony like Nat and I do. He’s not about helping. He doesn’t care about that, he just wants people to believe he does. He just wants attention, and that’s the last thing Bucky needs.”

Sam didn’t seem entirely convinced. “I know he was pretty pissed about the Wanda situation, but… Well, it’s not like he didn’t have good reason for that. You really think he wouldn’t help?”

“Tony isn’t a team player, Sam. He doesn’t know how to work with others. That’s how Ultron happened, you know. He decided that all by himself, and look at the results.” He shook his head. “No, we can’t trust Tony with something like this. We’re on our own here, Sam. That’s not a bad thing, though. We don’t need Tony or his tech. We are the real heroes.”

Natasha joined them a couple of minutes later. “There’s nothing more here. This was the last US spot we had.”

“What’s next on the list, then?” Sam asked.

“There are a couple of bases in Africa.”

“That’s where we’re heading then.” Hopefully they’d have better luck there. Something was bound to go their way soon, Steve thought. It had to.

Chapter Text

It was Jarvis who alerted him to the situation while Tony was in the middle of a meeting with several countries’ representatives in the UN building in New York about the proposed global defense idea.

He glanced at the notification on his phone, thinking it would keep until he’d wrapped things up here. Instead, his eyes widened and he cursed under his breath. How was it that every time he turned his back things went to hell?

“Something wrong, Dr Stark?” Someone asked.

“I’m sorry, I have to go. It’s an emergency.”

People stared at him but he paid no attention, rushing out of the room as he instructed Jarvis to send him the suit while checking the news on his phone.

What the hell were those idiots doing? he asked himself. What a fucking mess.

Information was still trickling in but it didn’t look good. The Avengers had caused a massive explosion in Lagos, Nigeria, resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries. Local teams were scrambling to assist the victims and evacuate the area.

As the suit enveloped him and Tony took flight, Jarvis began to give more details of the situation.

“They appeared to have been after a Hydra operative called Rumlow. He has been pronounced dead at the scene after setting off a bomb near Rogers, likely with the intent to kill him. According to witnesses, Rogers then attempted to get the bomb away from himself and, in doing so, sent it into a nearby building instead.”

“Shit,” Tony said. “Had the building been evacuated?”

“No.”

“No? What the hell! Rogers sent a bomb into a building with people inside? Has he lost his freaking mind? Where were the cops to keep the people away and secure the perimeter?”

“Local government and law enforcement claimed they were not aware that the Avengers were there, or what their mission was. It was only when the fighting broke out between Avengers and Hydra that they realized what was happening.”

“What? What do you mean, they didn’t know? How could they not know? Where is Hill? Why didn’t she do her fucking job?” Tony snarled.

Jesus Christ, what a disaster. First Wanda, now this… Was Steve trying to drive the Avengers into the ground? If so, he was doing a great job of it. The remaining Hydra people were probably laughing themselves sick over it and enjoying every second of this latest disaster.

“It appears that Rogers did not inform Ms Hill where he and the others were going or what they were doing.”

Well, this just gets better and better.

“How bad is it?” Dear freaking god.

“Quite bad, Sir. We don’t have official word on casualties yet, but it is likely to be a significant number. The Nigerian government is furious. Rogers, Romanoff and Wilson have been detained and are likely going to be criminally charged for this… incident.”

It was only because Tony was flying in the suit that he didn’t facepalm. Goddammit.

“And Sir, President Ellis is calling.”

Tony sighed. He should have known this was going to end up his mess to clean up. What would he have to do to get people to remember that he was no longer an Avenger, take out a billboard? ‘Cause he’d be happy to do it. “Put him through.” Might as well get this over with.

“Dr Stark, I’ve just heard about what happened in Lagos. What the hell is going on?” Ellis sounded frayed, and Tony could sympathize a little bit. He could only imagine the hell the international community was going to raise over this.

“I know as much as you do, Mr President. I’m not an Avenger anymore, remember?”

“Yes, I know, but… This is a mess.” Ellis sighed.

“Yeah, it is,” Tony agreed. Anyone with sense could see that, but Tony would bet Steve would completely miss that fact. “I’m en route to Nigeria now, though I’m not sure what I’ll be able to do about it.”

“Captain America has been arrested, I’ve heard. Is that true?”

“Apparently. Look, no offense, Mr President, but we have no jurisdiction there. I can offer to help with relief efforts, not to sort out the political mess. It’s not my job and, frankly, I’m not sure that would be such a good idea at this point.” The Avengers are beginning to seem like a lost cause, he wanted to say. He really hoped that Ellis would figure that out for himself without him having to spell it out, though. “I suggest you contact Maria Hill at the Avengers Compound to decide how to handle this. She might be able to tell you more about the situation.”

“I don’t like this, Stark. First that Hydra terrorist and now this…” You’re telling me… “We need to step up the negotiations for the Accords.” Once again, Steve being a moron might eventually end up helping Tony and his plans. The cost, however, was far too high.

“I’m almost finished going through the current draft, Sir. I’ll send my comments on it as soon as I can.”

“All right. Keep me posted.”

“Sure thing.”

Tony sighed when the line disconnected. “And here I thought I’d gotten rid of this problem, J. That I was done with the Avengers.”

“You are, Sir. You have no obligation to do anything for them.”

“True. But I should do something for the innocent people whose lives have been shattered by this. Get someone from the Foundation and have them send over whatever they can. Friday, you’ll be in charge of that.”

“Very good, Sir.”

“Got it, Boss.”

The rest of the flight was spent talking to various people in an effort to better understand the situation and coordinate with local forces and organizations the best way to help the victims. Despite his apprehension, his assistance (and that of the Foundation) was welcomed. And it seemed the Nigerian authorities had gotten the memo about him not having anything to do with the Avengers, because no one asked him any questions about what those morons had been doing or blamed him for anything. It was an interesting novelty – one he could certainly get used to.

When he finally touched down at the affected city block in Lagos, it was to find a scene of utter chaos, even though it had been several hours since the attack. First respondents were still trying to find survivors in the ruins of the buildings while city workers tried to restore electrical power to the area. After checking in, Tony went to help with the search and retrieval of victims, using the suit’s sensors to scan for life signs. It was slow going, as they needed to make sure the whole structure wouldn’t collapse whenever they went in to rescue someone.

Hours later, Tony was sitting in one of the hastily erected tents for relief workers, drinking really terrible coffee as he went over Jarvis’s and Friday’s reports on everything, the suit in standby mode beside him.

“Dr Stark, sir?”

“Hmm…?” Tony looked up from his phone to see a young man in military clothes standing at the entrance.

“Sorry to interrupt, Sir… I was just wondering… That is, if I could… take a picture with you? I mean, the circumstances are bad, but… it’s not every day you get to work with Iron Man. My kids are big fans.” The man smiled nervously, fidgeting with a phone.

“Yeah, sure.”

Neither or them smiled in the picture – this wasn’t much of an occasion for that.

“Thank you, Dr Stark. For everything.” He sounded sincere and Tony wondered idly when he’d started thinking that no one would ever see that Tony was actually trying to help. The Avengers had messed him up way more than he had realized. Their toxicity had been so insidious that he’d never noticed how he had begun to doubt himself and his intentions.

“No problem.”

After a few more minutes, the officer who was coordinating the rescue operation came into the tent.

“Dr Stark, thank you so much for waiting. I know you’re probably tired.”

Tony was tired, but there was too much to do, and he was quite used to pushing through his fatigue whenever it was necessary. Still, he appreciated the acknowledgement that he was only human. “It’s fine. I’ve been doing other things.” He put his phone back in this pocket and straightened. “Has everyone been evacuated?”

“Yes. The area has been cleared and the injured people have been sent to various hospitals. The power has been restored and the damaged areas cordoned off. The building that collapsed will have to be imploded, but that can wait – though we have people working on that already. We are now concerned about what to do with… the Avengers.” The man grimaced, and so did Tony. “I know that is not your responsibility, Dr Stark, but my superiors have asked me to speak to you. They are worried that there will be further bloodshed as long as they remain here relatively free. I’ve been told that they are complaining about being detained, and that they want to return to the US.”

Tony sighed. Even after walking away from them, it seemed he was still cleaning up their messes. “What do you want me to do?”

“Well, you know them better than we do. Do you think it’s likely that they will cause more problems if we keep them here? We don’t have the facilities to hold someone like Captain Rogers.”

Tony would have wanted to say that the Nigerians had nothing to worry about, but he really couldn’t. While he didn’t think Rogers would assault law enforcement officers, he wasn’t confident enough about it to put people’s lives at risk. Rogers seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision when dealing with a problem, and was perfectly willing to burn down the barn to kill a few rats – as demonstrated by the idiotic way he’d handled the Hydra-within-SHIELD situation. Since Tony didn’t know what he’d been trying to accomplish here, there was no guarantee that Rogers wouldn’t pursue whatever agenda he had regardless of the consequences to innocent bystanders.

“I honestly don’t know,” he said. “But this is bigger than just them. It’s a political landmine.”

“I understand. We’re just worried about the safety of our people.”

“Then I think the best thing to do would be to let them leave. You can always prosecute them later.”

The man didn’t seem happy about that, of course. However, he knew there wasn’t much of a choice. He nodded. “Thank you, Dr Stark. We really appreciate all your help.” The man saluted and left.

What a fucking mess.

He called Ellis to give him an update. The President was glad to hear Captain America would be released – because it was bad for his image (and that of the US as a whole) to have Captain America imprisoned in a foreign country, not necessarily because he thought the man was innocent. Still, it was going to be a bitch to spin this in any positive – or at least less negative – way.

By the time Tony exited the tent, it was dark outside. Tony idly checked his watch to find it was three in the morning. Emergency personnel were still working to clear debris and make sure the area was safe. It would probably be while until people were allowed to return to their homes, though. So much chaos, and for what? Tony still had no idea what Rogers and his minions had been thinking – and, in all truth, he wasn’t looking forward to finding out either, since he was sure it was going to be something idiotic and totally preventable.

He waved goodbye to some of the folks he had worked with throughout the day (and night) and took off. Instead of going back home, however, he headed for a hotel Jarvis had booked for him. There was still plenty of things to do here.

It was going to be a long few days.

*****

Loki arrived at the Tower, glad to escape Asgard for a few hours. And even gladder for the time he would be spending in Stark’s company.

“I’m afraid Sir is unavailable at the moment, Mr Loki,” Jarvis said, and Loki’s mood plummeted.

“Oh?” He tried to sound nonchalant. It wouldn’t do to appear too disappointed. Though he and Stark had made some strides towards what Loki hoped was an actual friendship, his innate suspicion of everyone and everything made him wary of showing his feelings too much. “Has something happened?” He really hoped the man wasn’t hurt – Loki would probably feel compelled to kill whoever had done it, and that might not be the best idea.

“There has been an… incident… in Nigeria. Sir is there assisting the local government with relief and reconstruction efforts.”

So he’s fine, that’s good. Aloud he asked “what sort of incident?” He didn’t particularly care about the minutia of human lives, but if it Stark was involved it merited some attention – if only because it interfered with Loki’s own plans to, as Stark liked to put it, hang out with the man.

“The Avengers were involved in a fight that resulted in several civilian casualties and property damage.”

“Hmm…” was all Loki said. Once again Rogers caused trouble. How typical. He really was just like Thor. Can’t leave him unsupervised for very long lest you come back to a disaster. “Any idea when Stark will be back?”

“I’m afraid not. From there he will likely go directly to the UN summit in Vienna to continue talks about the Accords. In light of this latest tragedy, there is increased urgency into getting it drafted as soon as possible.”

“I see.”

Well, that was annoying. Unless he went and joined Stark there, wherever he was. Would that be too much? Too presumptuous? Too intrusive? Loki had never quite known where to draw that line when it came to personal interactions.

“I can pass on a message for you, if you wish,” Jarvis said.

“Ah, yes… You can tell him that… I will return at a more opportune moment.” It was best not to push, Loki thought. He did not wish to undo the progress they had made so far.

“Hey, Lokes.” Stark’s voice startled him, and for a moment he looked around as if expecting the man to materialize out of thin air. (Stark’s technology was good, but he had not yet mastered teleportation.) But of course he was not there, he was speaking through the phone. “I’m kinda busy right now, sorry.”

“Yes, Jarvis told me.”

“Yeah. Anyway, I’ve got a few minutes to chat before some more meetings. What’s up?”

“Nothing in particular. I was merely checking in.”

“Well, things are stepping up. The idea is to have something of the Accords to present in a couple of weeks. And then we can start to get into the real plans. How are things going in your end? Any progress with the other realms?”

“Some.” Not enough for his taste, but Asgard was not that well liked these days – and Odin even less so. Sometimes he wondered if negotiations wouldn’t be easier if he could do it as himself. He might not be respected in Asgard, but the people of Alfheim and Vanaheim liked him well enough. They might be more inclined to listen to him than Odin, at any rate. They were suspicious of everything ‘Odin’ said, and rightly so. Odin had never done much for the other realms – except for subjugating them. Unfortunately, that was impossible at the moment.

“Ah, shit, I gotta go. Guess more talking will have to wait. Unless you want to come here? Jarvis can give you coordinates if you need it.”

Loki would deny that his heart jumped at that offer, though it would be a lie. “If you think my presence won’t be too distracting, I have to objection to joining you.” He would have no objection to providing all manner of distractions if Stark was willing. Sadly, that was unlikely.

“Not at all. We can have a joint rant about stupid people and the annoying necessity of politics.” Though Loki could not see him, he could imagine Stark’s rueful grin as he said the words.

“I shall be there shortly then.” He just needed a moment to get himself under control, so he wouldn’t do something dumb like kiss the man as soon as he saw him.

This infatuation is getting ridiculous, Loki thought. He could only hope it wouldn’t end up blowing up in his face, the way everything else had seemed to in the last few years.

*****

When they finally arrived back at the Compound, it was to have Hill yell at them. Steve was getting really tired of people who no had idea what they did thinking they had any right to reprimand them. Yes, it was terrible that people had been hurt, but casualties were inevitable in any war. Besides, who knew how many more people would have died if Rumlow and his cronies had been allowed to get away with the biological weapon they had stolen? Steve and his team had saved lives. Why couldn’t people see that?

Sam retreated to him room in silence after they were forced to endure Hill’s rant. Steve wanted to go after him, but Nat didn’t think it was a good idea.

“He’s upset, Steve. We all are. Tempers are running high. We should give everyone a chance to calm down, then we can tell our side of the story. In all the confusion, a lot of important information has probably been overlooked.”

“Like the fact that we stopped Rumlow’s plan?” He said, voice dripping with sarcasm. It really wasn’t fair that they were being blamed for trying to help people.

“Yes. Right now people are focusing on the lives lost, so we’ll have to remind them of the ones saved. But they won’t listen now. We have to give them time.”

That made sense. The hostility they had experienced from the Nigerian officials must have been a gut reaction. As soon as they had a chance to explain, it would be all right. Just like what had happened to Wanda. They could be understanding of people’s grief. Steve was sure they would get the thanks (and the apology) they deserved soon enough. For now, he could be the bigger man and let their insults and derision slide off of him.

The next day, he went to talk to Sam.

“How are you doing?”

Sam sighed. “Not great, to be honest. That was… it was not good, Steve.”

“Yeah, I know. But we did the best we could with what we had, Sam. You can’t save everyone, but if we just give up and don’t keep trying despite the problems, maybe next time no one gets saved.” They were heroes, and heroes continued to do the right thing no matter what.

“I understand that Steve, but… It doesn’t really make me feel any better right now. People are dead because of us.”

“Not because of us, Sam. Because of Rumlow. Because of Hydra. We were trying to stop them. We did stop them. Rumlow is dead so he won’t be threatening anybody anymore. That’s a good thing. And Hydra didn’t get whatever they wanted from that lab. That is also a good thing. Who knows what horrible thing they could have done with that kind of weapon? We prevented that. It’s sad that people died, but it’s not our fault. We did the right thing. The only possible thing. You have to remember that.”

Steve smiled and, after a while, Sam returned it. It was timid and a little tentative, but it was there.

“You’re right. We have to focus on the good things.”

Steve nodded. “Exactly. This will blow over. We just need to stay strong and keep our heads until then.”

“It’s just… what’s being said in the media…”

“Don’t listen to that Sam. People are just looking for someone to blame, and probably spreading lies about us, like with Wanda. We’ll tell them the truth and it will be okay.”

Sam looked a little dubious, but Steve knew it would be fine. He said it with as much conviction as he could, and it seemed to help Sam feel better.

After several days, however, things had yet to get any better. Whenever Steve turned on the television, all the news ever talked about was the number of deaths in Lagos. Even worse, Tony seemed to be using this tragedy to self-promote. He kept talking about how much the Maria Stark Foundation was doing to help the victims and what needed to be done to prevent further incidents like that, presenting himself as someone who was concerned about ‘doing things right’ (whatever he meant by that). And people seemed to be eating it up, as if they had forgotten how Tony had created a murderbot that had almost destroyed the world. Clips of Iron Man carrying people out of ruined buildings played on repeat every time Steve turned on the TV. It was infuriating the way people praised him and condemned Steve and his friends in the same breath. No one talked about the good they’d done, only the tragedy that had happened afterwards – the tragedy that had not been their fault.

Steve began to draft his statement then. If they delayed too much longer in putting it out there, Tony would continue to steal the spotlight to cater to his own ego while making snide comments about the real heroes that were actually fighting Hydra. And that was simply unacceptable.

So Steve and Nat got their heads together to prepare and record the video. Sam was still a little subdued, but they all did their best to convey their sincerity – and Steve thought they did very well.

Afterwards, Steve felt much better. The truth was out there, and people would see it. His not so subtle digs at Tony would also, hopefully, remind the public that Tony couldn’t really be trusted, and that being a hero wasn’t about fame and fortune, despite what the inventor seemed to think.

Once again, he left it to Nat to check the response to their video and went back to planning what to do about finding Bucky.

He had hoped that the base in Nigeria they had initially intended to raid would yield some results, but it hadn’t panned out. It was fortunate that Nat’s contacts had ended up giving them the info on Rumlow so they could prevent whatever he had been planning to do. Still, that meant they were no closer to Bucky than they had been before, and one more possibility had turned out to be a dead end. It was frustrating. Steve worried about how Bucky was doing out there all by himself with his mind all scrambled. He worried about how alone Bucky must feel, with nothing of the past to cling to, to help make sense of this strange future.

He could hardly wait to have Bucky by his side again. And this time he would be the one to look after his friend, to fight for him and keep him safe – at least until he was well enough again. He would be the one Bucky could rely on, the one to help him get acclimated into this new century. They would once again be best friends – brothers – and Steve would finally be able to breathe, to have a real connection to the world. Sure, he had Sam and Nat and Clint, but it wasn’t the same. They didn’t have the same history he and Bucky shared, hadn’t lived through the same hardships, didn’t have the same frame of reference. They were nice, but they weren’t Bucky. They weren’t what Steve wanted or needed.

It had been terrible waking up in the future, alone and unmoored. Discovering that Bucky was still alive – and was a super soldier like him – had made the whole thing more bearable. However, it had been beyond cruel of the universe to give him a glimpse of his friend – of that hope – only to snatch him away again. Steve had to find him. He had to. He would never be as effective a hero as he knew he could be with that part of his past missing. Losing Peggy when he had, for all intents and purposes, jumped forward in time had been bad enough, losing Bucky would be even worse. Even just thinking about it made him feel ill.

Nothing was more important than getting Bucky back. Nothing. He would do whatever it took, fight whomever he had to. Steve had already suffered enough, it was time for the universe to give him something back.

Chapter Text

Tony had not been to the Compound since Loki had de-powered Wanda. Even before that, he had spent as little time there as he could. In truth, he wasn’t thrilled to be going back now, but he knew he should be here for this. No doubt Rogers wouldn’t accept things calmly – not when he hadn’t been the one to come up with the plans.

His pathetic excuses about the mess in Lagos had managed to sway a good portion of the American public – the ones who had grown up with the legend of Captain America and were not yet ready to accept that their big iconic national hero had feet of clay – but it was a whole different matter with the rest of the world. Though Ellis had been able to smooth some of the tension internationally by agreeing to the Accords and greater supervision and restriction for the Avengers, Tony was pretty sure that was going to go up in flames unless Rogers himself could be persuaded that this was a necessary thing. Sadly, Tony would not bet on that being easily done.

He and Vision, who had decided to accompany him, found the Avengers – such as they were now, with only Rogers and his faithful puppies Romanoff and Wilson – in the conference room. Both Rogers and Romanoff gave him suspicious and borderline hostile looks which Tony ignored. He went to get himself some coffee and found that the kitchen sink was clogged with… he didn’t even want to know. “Jesus, is this a fucking frat house?” he asked, just loud enough to be heard by the others. “What a fucking mess.” There were dirty dishes all over the kitchen counter and the cupboards were mostly bare. Did no one ever go shopping around here? Or heard of cleaning up? Tony gave up, sharing an incredulous look with Vision.

After the disaster in Lagos, Tony had arranged to have the Avengers’ funding cut in half. He wasn’t even sure at this point why he was still funding them at all, but it hadn’t seem right to just stop altogether without talking to them first – which he didn’t want to, hence the middle ground. Many of the maintenance workers at the Compound had requested transfers to other SI facilities after Lagos, not wanting to be lumped in with Rogers and the others, probably. Clearly no one had picked up that slack, so apparently the Avengers were now living like pigs. Tony would despair more if he hadn’t already washed his hands of these morons.

“What are you doing here?” Rogers asked, not even trying to be nice anymore. Well, at least that’s more honest.

“I was asked to come.” By President Ellis. For some reason, the man thought he would be able to talk some sense into Rogers. Tony had tried, to no avail, to tell him it wouldn’t do any good. Regardless, he would do his best. No one could say he hadn’t tried.

“What’s this about then?” Wilson seemed less hostile, but not less suspicious. Tony wondered what Rogers and Romanoff had been telling the man about him, since Tony had had very little actual interaction with Wilson.

Before Tony could answer, someone else arrived and Tony sighed to himself.

“Good morning, gentlemen, ma’am,” Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross said with his usual smug condescending tone.

Great. This is going to go even better now. What the hell was Ellis thinking? He had to know Ross would ruffle Rogers’s feathers. Of course, Ross was enough of a bastard to just show on his own without approval from Ellis. What he was trying to accomplish, though, Tony didn’t know.

Ross opened his briefcase and took out three copies of the Accords document and set them on the table in front of the Avengers. “These, as I imagine you all know, are the newly written Global Defense Accords. From now on, the Avengers will follow the principles and guidelines found therein. Read them and present any suggestions you have as soon as possible. They will be ratified at the UN General Assembly in Vienna the day after tomorrow.”

“What?” Rogers looked like he had no idea what Ross was talking about, and Tony had to fight the urge to faceplam. For fuck’s sake.

Wilson seemed equally clueless, while Romanoff sat stiffly, eyes slightly narrowed.

“Dr Stark, if you would?” Ross produced a flashdrive from his pocket and extended it to him. Vision took it and plugged it into the computer on the table. The presentation seemed to contain nothing but images of chaos and destruction. “New York. DC. Johannesburg. Sokovia. Lagos. Each incident of your so-called superhero actions have resulted in death.” Rogers opened his mouth to protest but Ross continued before he could. “Granted, some of that was unavoidable. But not all. The Avengers have operated without oversight or supervision – we are certainly not counting Hydra, pardon SHIELD – for too long. This,” he indicated the images playing on loop “is a state of affairs the world is no longer willing to tolerate, not with the kinds of mistakes accumulated over the years. And that’s not counting the issue with Maximoff.” Rogers scowled. “One hundred and seventeen nations have already given their approval for the Accords. More are likely to do so after they’re ratified. This is the new world order.”

“And if we don’t accept this?” Rogers asked, jaw clenched.

“You can either sign, and continue on as Avengers under the UN, or you can retire. Think it over, but think it fast.” He looked over at Tony. “I’m sure Dr Stark can explain everything in more detail. Have a good day.” With a last disdainful glance at them all (and an unreadable one at Vision that Tony did not like at all), Ross walked out.

Asshole.

For a heartbeat, there was silence in the room. And then Rogers lost it.

“Tony, what the hell is this? What have you done?”

It would be funny if it wasn’t also terrifying. This is the guy who thinks he can lead the Avengers. This guy who doesn’t know shit about anything. Jesus Christ.

“I don’t know if I’m flattered or flabbergasted that you think I control the world. Did you not hear the part about the 117 countries? I’m starting to think you should check your hearing, ‘cause you continuously have problem processing auditory information.”

If looks could kill, Tony would be a corpse on the floor right then. Rogers seemed to be containing himself not to get up and punch Tony in the face. Good thing Vision is here, Tony thought, because this will likely escalate.

“What’s happening?” Sam asked, leafing through the massive tome in front of him dubiously.

“Have none of you watched the news in the last few weeks? Seriously? Because this should not be a surprise.” Rogers and Wilson he could understand, but shouldn’t Romanoff – the oh so brilliant spy – be on top of things like these? Tony turned to her. “Did you really know nothing about this?”

Both Rogers and Wilson looked at Romanoff as well, waiting for her response.

“I heard about it, yes.”

And didn’t see fit to inform her commander, apparently. Tony honestly had no idea how these guys ever got anything done with this level of incompetence and lack of communication.

“Well, then perhaps you can explain to your clueless teammates that something like this has been in the works since New York. It started out small, of course, but it’s been gaining traction ever since. DC and Sokovia – and Maximoff – proved beyond a doubt that the Avengers can’t be allowed to just do whatever they want.”

“What happened with Ultron was your fault. We did what we had to do to clean up your mess,” Rogers countered, as usual missing the point entirely.

Tony didn’t waste his breath to dignify that idiotic statement with a response, though the irony of it threatened to make him laugh. “And now this latest disaster has made people even more eager to do something about it. So, here it is. And before you start thinking that you’re all that special, this document isn’t just about the Avengers. It is, as the name implies, a way to formalize the protection of the planet. It goes much beyond your little group. If you want to be part of that protective force, however, you will need to sign and comply with the guidelines proposed.”

“So we do what you want or we’re out?”

“Again, not sure where you get that I did this all by my lonesome, but whatever. Yes. You do this or you’ll be outlaws.”

“You can’t be serious,” Sam interjected. “Ross is just trying to control us. It’s what he does.”

“Maybe, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t need to controlled. Right now, the world thinks so, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with Ross. It’s about the mistakes you’ve made.”

Wilson flinched a little. Good. Rogers, on the other hand, looked like a sulky child who had been sent to time out.

“Lagos was not our fault. We did the right thing. We can’t let governments with agendas tie us up in needless paperwork. The best hands are our own.”

Wow, that was a scary amount of entitlement. Tony didn’t even know where to begin to pick apart all the things wrong with that, so he didn’t bother. It would fall on deaf ears anyway. “The world begs to differ. Just read the damn thing.”

“Steve,” Natasha said. “We should consider this carefully.”

“You think we should do this?” Steve seemed utterly incredulous.

“I’m just reading the terrain. We have made some mistakes.” Well, at least she could admit it. That was something. “We need to win the public’s trust back. This way, we’ll have a hand on the wheel to help steer this into something better for us.”

Tony nodded. “Exactly.” What credibility she thought she had to be able to make any demands was a bit of a mystery, but at least she’d gotten the gist of the idea. “Glad to know at least one of you can still put two and two together and come up with four.” Rogers and Wilson both glared at the blatant insult but Tony ignored them. “So, as I said, read it and think it over. There’s a number there you can call if you need someone to explain the nitty-gritty to you.”

Rogers only crossed his arms in defiance, so Tony mentally threw his arms up. God, it’s like talking to a particularly dumb wall.

There was a ping and Rogers fished a phone out of his pocket. He read the message, got a pinched look and stood. “I have to go. We’ll continue this later.”

“Whatever.” Tony had done what he had been asked to do. It was not his problem anymore.

And thank all the gods for that.

*****

Natasha didn’t like this, not at all. These Accords would severely limit their actions and give power to people who shouldn’t have it. Governments, she knew well, were full of corrupt politicians and officials only waiting for an opportunity to further their own agendas and line their own pockets. All it took was a few words, some bribes and blackmail and all supposedly good intentions went out the window. Then the Avengers would be in the hands of god knew who, and that would be disastrous. She had already learned that lesson with SHIELD. The only way to make sure things didn’t go off the rails was to keep control themselves. Steve was right, the best hands were theirs.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to be easy now. Stark was right that the world was not on their side. Their video had, again, gone a long way into appeasing the American public, but it had not had the same success in the rest of the world. In order to reach that audience, they would need to at least be seen to be complying with this. At least until they could figure out how to twist it back to their own advantage. It would take time, but she was sure they could do it. Captain America was a charismatic figure, and Steve was good at selling earnest conviction and sincerity.

It would, of course, be a lot easier if Stark would just fall in line and actually help them instead of this passive aggressive posturing he had been indulging in. He could not possibly think that that would work long term. He was a good showman, Nat had to give him that, but he was too driven by ego to see when to back off and let others do the actual work. Still, the good-will he seemed to have gotten with the public would die down soon enough. If they gave him time, he would hang himself, just like he always did – the man simply didn’t know when to quit.

For now, though, they had to play along. It was annoying, but Natasha was used to the long game. The world needed them, after all. Despite whatever ‘global defense’ the Accords were proposing, it relied on them to be effective. The Avengers were the world’s defense. They had proven that once, and would do so again as soon as all this hype brought on by the incident in Lagos died down.

With that in mind, she went to find Steve, to get him on board with the plan. They would go to Vienna, smile and shake hands with the right people, and make sure the world knew they were willing to make the effort.

She found him sitting in his bed, head hung low.

“What’s wrong?”

He looked up, and she could see that his eyes were slightly red. “Peggy’s dead. She died last night. Her heart gave out.”

“I’m sorry,” she said with her best compassionate voice. Damn. This is bad timing. He needs his head in the game.

“The funeral will be in London the day after tomorrow.”

The same day as the UN Assembly. Damn again. “And you want to go, of course.”

“Yes. I… I have to.”

“All right.” She could work with that. Captain America had to pay his last respects to his lost love. Suitably romantic and tragic. “I’ll go to Vienna then.”

He smiled sadly. “Thanks, Nat.”

They all left as soon as they could. It was a bit of a hassle to access the Quinjet – Stark’s work, no doubt; damn the man for making everything so much harder than it had to be – but she managed it. She dropped Steve and Sam in London to attend the funeral and continued to Vienna on her own.

Stark was there, of course, as smug as usual. She thought he would be gloating, yet he ignored her completely. Typical childish move.

She made sure to explain Steve’s absence as she worked the room. It was more difficult than she expected, though. Most people regarded her with suspicion and barely veiled hostility. The Russian delegation in particular had practically spit in her face.

Then, of course, it all went to hell.

The explosion came out of nowhere and Natasha barely had time to duck under the table before glass was flying everywhere. There were people screaming and bleeding, and she couldn’t see anything through the dust.

She waited for a second blast to hit, but it never did. When she finally crawled out of her hiding place, her ears still ringing, Vision was checking on the injured. Stark was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Stark?” she asked once she was close enough to be heard over the cries and moans of pain.

“Securing the perimeter. Are you hurt?” He only looked at her for a second before returning his attention to the man he had been attending to.

“I’m fine.”

“Then help me.”

Natasha would have preferred to find out what had happened, but she knew staying would be a better choice for her image.

It was hours later when she was finally cleared by the medical personnel. From the ambulance where she was treated for small lacerations she had seen Stark talking to the press and local law enforcement – wearing the suit minus the helmet, clearly using this as yet another opportunity to self-promote.

She waited until he was done to approach him, which took considerably longer than her patience was willing to endure. “What do you know?”

He glanced at her and sighed. “Nothing yet. The police is investigating. I have to go.”

And he was off, leaving her behind as if she was a nobody.

Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, the news reported a picture from a surveillance video with a possible suspect. The Winter Soldier.

Damn it. Steve is definitely going to lose his head over this.

She called him, hoping to head off an even bigger disaster. “Don’t do anything stupid, Steve,” she told him, knowing the likelihood of him actually listening was next to zero.

“This is exactly what I’ve been afraid of, Nat. I have to be the one to bring him in. Otherwise more people are going to die.”

“You’re too close, Steve. You’re compromised. Let me see what I can do here. We’ll figure it out.”

“I won’t let him be killed, Nat. I can’t. You understand that, don’t you?”

“Just give me a few hours to find out what’s happening, Steve. That’s all I ask.”

“Okay, fine. Keep me posted.” He hung up before she could say anything else.

Damn. She had a feeling things were going to get worse before they could get better.

*****

The moment Steve saw Bucky’s face in the news, he knew the time had finally come. This was his chance to get Bucky back, and he would let nothing get in his way.

Discovering Sharon was related to Peggy had been a surprise, and he wasn’t sure yet what he thought of her deception. He hated being lied to, but for once he figured he could use this to his advantage and get her to help him find Bucky before the authorities did. It wasn’t something he liked to do, playing the ‘you owe me’ game. For Bucky, though, he’d use whatever means were necessary to ensure his friend’s safety.

Despite what he’d told Natasha, he had no intention of just waiting around while Bucky was in danger. People didn’t understand that Bucky wasn’t responsible for these horrible things, that it wasn’t his fault. Steve knew he couldn’t trust anyone with Bucky’s well-being, so he needed to act fast, before whoever was after him had the chance to.

Thankfully, Sharon came through with the information he needed, and he and Sam were off as soon as they could. They fact that the group sent for Bucky had orders to kill horrified him. These were the people acting for these stupid Accords, people who had no idea what was really going on and, worse, didn’t care. They didn’t care that Bucky was innocent, that he had been brainwashed by Hydra. All they thought about was eliminating the supposed threat, ignoring everything else – the injustice of the orders given, the lack of any real evidence, due process, all of it. It was just as he had thought; this was nothing but a ploy to control the Avengers, to take away their freedom to do what had to be done, and give power to corrupt governments that only wanted to further their own agendas. No, Steve would not stand for that.

They arrived before the officers, but only just. He exchanged barely five words with his friend – and, god, it was good to see him again after all that time searching – and then they had to fight for their lives. Steve had to fight to protect Bucky, there were no other options.

Then some crazy guy in a black body suit came into the mix. Steve had no idea who he was or why he was after Bucky. The man was a lot more powerful than a regular soldier, and that worried him. Who else were these Accords people hiding, and for what purpose? What had Tony been thinking helping this terrible thing happen? He’d probably had good intentions, but Tony’s good intentions always ended up blowing up in his – and everyone else’s – faces. Would the man never learn?

The chase through the city ended when Iron Man and Vision showed up. Of course Tony himself would have to get involved. When did he ever pass up the opportunity to show off?

They were all taken to a facility in Berlin, where Bucky was led away in cuffs like a common criminal and Steve was not allowed to follow. When he asked the paper-pusher about a lawyer, the man had the audacity to laugh in his face. It was exactly what Steve had feared, and he wished he could say he was surprised Tony was going along with this, but he really wasn’t. He already knew Tony couldn’t be trusted.

Natasha being there, however, was a surprise.

“What the hell, Steve,” she said, eyes flashing in anger. “I told you to stay put and let me handle it.”

“They were going to kill Bucky, Nat. I couldn’t let that happen. You know he’s innocent. You know what Hydra did to him.”

Her glare didn’t lessen in the least. “I do, and I was trying to work with that to help him. Now it’s all gone to hell.”

“I’m sorry. I know you were doing the best you could, but there was no time, Nat. Bucky would be dead if I hadn’t interfered.”

She sighed and turned away. “You need to get your head on straight, Steve. This is bigger than Bucky, bigger than you. You’re giving them the ammunition they need to make things much harder for us.”

Steve clenched his jaw. “I won’t allow the Avengers to be controlled by these Accords people, Nat.”

“I don’t want that any more than you do,” she replied, lowering her voice with a significant glance around. Right. They were likely being watched. “But we need to be smart about this. We need leverage to get people back on our side. Your one-man crusade isn’t helping.”

“It’s not a crusade.”

“Just stay put. I’m going to find out what’s going to happen now.”

A few minutes later, Tony finally deign to speak to him. He was out of the armor and in a business suit.

“Well, you’ve gone and done it now. I hope you’re happy.” Tony’s voice had that sarcastic ‘I’m better than you’ tone that Steve hated.

“What are you talking about?”

“You’ve just proven, once again, why the Accords are necessary, and why the Avengers are a disaster. Not that there was much doubt before, of course, but you… My god, it’s like you just can’t help making a mess of things.”

“Me? I make a mess of things? That’s rich. Ultron ring any bells?”

Tony only shook his head. “I can’t believe I ever thought you were in any way intelligent or capable. Dear lord, were you this much of a dick during the war and people just never noticed? Or did the time on the ice scramble your brains entirely? Do even hear the shit that comes out of your mouth? Do you actually believe this crap?”

Steve stood up to his full height to tower over the smaller man. “You are not better than me, Tony.”

“This isn’t about me, you moron.” Tony didn’t back down, didn’t show any sign of fear. “But you’ll never understand that, will you. You’re determined to make this a competition, a popularity contest. Well, I hate to tell you, but you’re gonna lose. I’m done playing nice with you.”

“How dare–”

“I was gonna try and give you an olive branch here. Don’t know why, though. Sentimentality, I guess. Now… you can go to hell, Rogers. You’re on your own.”

He walked out without another word, leaving Steve fuming silently.

Natasha came back a few minutes later with Sam in tow. “They’re getting a doctor to evaluate Barnes. Then they’ll start interrogating him.”

“He’s innocent, damn it! It’s not right.”

“It’s out of our hands,” Nat replied. She was calm now, and it grated on Steve. She didn’t understand how important this was. “Still, it doesn’t make sense. Why would Hydra want to bomb the Assembly? And the Winter Soldier has flown under everyone’s radar for decades, now he’s getting caught on surveillance tapes all of a sudden?”

Sam nodded. “Yeah, that’s odd.”

“Unless they wanted to smoke him out,” she continued.

The three of them looked at each other in dawning realization. Damn.

The lights went out just as they were heading towards the door, and then it was chaos.

Steve chased Bucky through the building, trying to get him back to his senses while also keeping the soldiers – and that damned guy in black – from killing him.

It was awful, fighting against Bucky. Knowing that it was his friend he was punching, hurting. Bucky didn’t deserve this. He tried to pull his punches as much as he could, dodging more than attacking and leading Bucky away from the people who wanted to imprison him for things he hadn’t done willingly. He tried to tell that to the man in black, but he refused to listen. Steve still didn’t even know who he was or why he was so keen on killing Bucky.

In the end, he managed to knock Bucky down (as gently as possible) and lose the other guy.

When Bucky woke up, he was himself again, and Steve nearly wept in relief.

“That doctor,” Bucky said. “He wanted to know about the other Winter Soldiers. We have to stop him, Steve. Those guys could do a lot of damage if someone wakes them up.”

“It’s okay, Bucky. We’ll take care of it. I’m here with you. It’s all gonna be all right now.”

He called Sam to go over their options.

“Steve, man… Maybe we should just tell Tony and the others.”

“No. We can’t do that, Sam. They’ll never listen. They’ll lock Bucky up, or worse. That doctor was one of them, we can’t trust any of them. We have to handle it ourselves.”

“Just the three of us? Against five Winter Soldiers? That does not seem like good odds to me.”

“We can get Clint to help. And Nat.”

Wanda’s abilities would really have come in handy now. It was a shame she had turned out to be an enemy. Steve hoped she was rotting in a cell now, that manipulative little liar.

Sam still didn’t look convinced. “I don’t know, Steve.”

“These Accords are not about protecting the people, Sam. They’re about control. This is our chance to show the world that the Avengers are here fighting for them. And that we can only do that if we have the freedom to act. We talk to Tony and it’s all over. He practically threatened me back in the facility. He’s not with us, Sam. He is, in fact, very much against us. Once again, it’s up to us to do what needs to be done. Come on, I know I can count on you.” He smiled trustingly and Sam began to cave, just like Steve knew he would.

“All right. Let’s do this.”

It was time to be heroes again.

Chapter Text

War Machine landed on the roof of the Berlin holding facility without fanfare; it wasn’t Rhodey’s style to be flashy. Still, Tony was glad to see him. Once again, Rogers had left a mess behind and it had somehow become Tony’s responsibility. At least he didn’t have to deal with it alone. Rhodey and Vision were there with him, and were just as fed up with this whole thing as he was.

God, he missed Loki. They could have shared a nice long rant about idiot blonde-haired people who make other people’s lives difficult. He hoped things weren’t as disastrous in Asgard.

“How are things going?” Rhodey asked.

“We haven’t found them yet, but it’s only a matter of time. They’re too dumb to evade us for long.”

“And Romanoff?”

“She took off in the confusion, of course. My guess is she’s gone to meet Rogers.”

“I would have thought she, at least, would recognize a sinking ship,” Rhodey remarked with a raised eyebrow.

Tony could only shrug. Clearly the Black Widow’s abilities had been severely oversold. She might like to believe she was a great spy, but she really wasn’t – and she seemed to have a massive blind spot when it came to Rogers. What she was trying to accomplish by sticking with him through yet another disaster Tony couldn’t begin to comprehend. And at this point, he honestly didn’t care. He just wanted them in jail so he could continue his plans in peace, without having to fix their messes every five minutes.

Thaddeus Ross was waiting for them inside looking like he’d choked on a lemon. It was not a good look on him.

“Where is Rogers?”

“How the hell should I know?” Tony replied.

“You had him right here and you let him get away. Under your very nose!”

“What did you expect me to do? Shoot him down in a building full of innocent bystanders?”

Prince T’Challa hadn’t helped matters either, getting into the fight again to put more people in harm’s way. The guy was obviously unhinged by grief. It was understandable, but he really needed to get a grip on himself before he made things worse. The only reason he wasn’t locked in a cell right now was because no one wanted that kind of diplomatic snafu.

“Why weren’t Rogers and Wilson in cell? Or at least restrained?”

“You know, I really love how people seem to think I’m king of the world. I’m not in charge here, Ross. And neither are you.” Tony stared Ross down until the man turned away with a huff.

“Rogers needs to be taken down. The sooner the better.”

There was a dangerous glint in Ross’s eye that Tony didn’t care for. The man wanted something, and it wasn’t hard to figure out what that might be. For years he had been obsessed with the super soldier serum and had gotten nowhere. Worse than that, his experiment with Blonsky had been an abysmal failure. And with Bruce now out of his reach (still missing despite Tony’s best efforts to find him), Rogers was his only hope of getting something out of the whole thing. If Rogers ended up in prison, Ross would likely gain the access he needed to, at the very least, get a sample of Rogers’s blood. Whether that would yield any results was anybody’s guess – and Tony would not bet on it. It was looking more and more as if Rogers hadn’t been the success story everyone had believed.

“The Task Force is handling that.”

Ross snorted. “They’ll get flattened and you know it.”

That was true, unfortunately, and something Tony had already considered – hence why he’d called Rhodey. Still, he couldn’t just waltz in there and take over the operation. If he was called in, sure, but the whole idea behind the Accords was cooperation and chain of command. He wasn’t the one calling the shots no matter what Rogers believed.

“It’s not my decision.”

“I’ll arrange for you to get called.” He indicated Vision and Rhodey standing behind him. “Just make sure he doesn’t escape again.”

“What an ass,” Rhodey said after Ross had left.

“An ass with an agenda. We can’t hand Rogers over to him.”

“We don’t have to. Ross has no jurisdiction here, despite what he likes to think. Just in case, though, I think you should call Ellis and give him a heads up about what that guy is up to.”

“Good idea.”

Tracking Rogers down was, as Tony suspected, not that difficult. He didn’t know enough about the modern world to fly under the radar, and Natasha – if she was with them – wasn’t as clever as she thought she was. However, it still took time to coordinate with all the necessary personnel and make sure all the t’s were crossed and the i’s dotted. Then they had to evacuate the airport the assholes were hiding in, because Rogers sure at shit didn’t care who he trampled on his path to protect his assassin buddy.

Somewhat against his better judgment, Tony decided to give them one more chance to come in peacefully. Not out of concern for them, exactly, but because bringing Captain America down with a big splash would be a PR nightmare. Ellis was at the end of his rope with Rogers, yet Cap remained a symbol of American justice and branding him a terrorist – as many had been doing since his rampage through the streets of Bucharest – was not good for his image, either domestically or internationally. Tony had, therefore, been asked to handle the matter with as much discretion as possible.

“All right, Rogers,” he said when he had the man in sight. As expected, he had his friend slash security blanket with him. “I’m sick to death of this song and dance. Just surrender and get this over with. You’re not getting away this time.”

“Just because you sold out doesn’t mean the rest of us have, Tony.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “I have no idea what that even means. You keep saying things that make no sense. I’m starting to think you live in a different world than the rest of us.”

“You’re destroying the Avengers, Tony.”

“Me?” Tony barked out a laugh. “Oh my god, you’re crazy. You’ve gone complete off your nut, way off in delusion-ville, because this is way too much. I’ve heard of mental patients who have a better grasp on reality than you.”

Rogers straightened and puffed out his chest. God, the man was pathetic.

“Sir, something is–”

Jarvis’s voice was cut off by an explosion that sent Tony crashing to the ground, momentarily scrambling the suit’s systems.

“What the hell…?”

“Concussive arrow, Sir. Pinpointing location.”

Arrow. Fuck it, Rogers got Barton.

Did no one have any brains anymore? What the hell was the archer thinking getting involved in this clusterfuck? Wasn’t he supposed to be retired, living it up on a farm with his wife and kids? Goddammit.

“Rhodey? Vision? You guys all right?”

“Yeah,” Rhodey replied. “Looks like Rogers got some reinforcement.”

“Sir, they seem to be heading for the jet.”

Did Rogers really think he was going to be able to steal his jet?

Another warning flashed on the hud, and this time they managed to dodge the arrow. Rogers and Barnes were almost at the hangar, but they were intercepted by a black shape that came out of nowhere and tackled Barnes to the ground.

T’Challa. Great. Another idiot who doesn’t know when to stay away. This just kept getting better and better.

What a fucking mess.

*****

Natasha was between a rock and a hard place. She had thought that they would be able to get away before a fight broke out, but that was a pipe dream now. There was no way this would end well for them, and she hated that she was caught in the middle with no safe place to go.

If she stuck with Steve and they took care of the Winter Soldiers, they might be able to regain public support. Unfortunately, that possibility was beginning to look less likely by the second. Steve had accumulated a lot of ill will over the last 48 hours since getting involved in the hunt for the Winter Soldier. If he’d let her have the time to build a story around poor Bucky the POW hero, their chances would have been much better. The man’s paranoia about anything Bucky related was coming back to bite them in the ass. She should have seen it – she had seen it – but somehow she thought she could still work with it. Damn him.

On the other hand, she wasn’t sure she could leave Steve and go to Stark. She wasn’t sure he would accept her, not anymore. Plus there was also the fact that she despised him and the last thing she wanted was to be under his thumb. She had once had the upper hand with him, able to use and manipulate him into giving them everything they wanted. That time was gone now. Loki’s reveal of Wanda’s treachery seemed to have awoken in him a rejection of the Avengers and his place in it. Worse, he had managed, over the last few months, to gather a lot more public support than she had anticipated. His abrasive and egocentric personality – not to mention his many public screw-ups – should have made the world a lot more wary of him. Yet somehow, it seemed to have gone the opposite way. He must be bribing a lot of people to have gotten this far. Whatever he was doing, it made things more difficult for her.

She needed to make a decision, and she needed to make it fast, before the choice was taken out of her hands.

From her hiding place near Clint, she saw Prince T’Challa attack Steve and Barnes with a great deal of savagery. The fact that Stark had brought him when he was clearly unstable and out for revenge did not bode well for their chances with the Accords people, she thought. Despite what Stark had said, they were here to take them down by any means necessary.

I can’t go back. None of us can. If we do, we’ll end up in prison and Stark will bury us out of spite.

Best to take her chances with Steve then. At least she knew he valued her, and would fight for her.

“We need to get to the jet now,” she told Clint, but he was already firing again, forcing Stark, Rhodes and Vision to scatter. “And we can’t let them come after us.” The jet was fast, but the suits were faster; they would never be able to outrun them if Stark and his team were capable of giving chase.

“Got it,” Clint replied, switching to more powerful arrows. “Still can’t believe Stark sold us out.”

I can, Nat thought. He was never one of us in the first place. And that had been their biggest problem.

Their current problem, however, was getting out of here.

Sam had joined Clint in keeping Stark, Rhodes and Vision busy while Natasha moved to help Steve and Barnes deal with T’Challa. The young prince was a good fighter, she could see even from a distance, but he was too compromised by his emotions to be as effective as he could be, and that would be his downfall.

Nat was able to sneak up on him and zap him with the highest setting of her widow bites; the suit would probably protect him from the worst of it. He dropped to the ground with a pained groan.

“Thank, Nat,” Steve said, a strained smile on his face. 

“We have to go now.”

He nodded. They reached the jet with no problem and it took a few moments for Natasha to disable the security lock Stark had placed on it.

“Clint, Sam, we’re leaving!” Steve yelled into the comms as the jet took flight. “Get ready.” He took the controls while Nat and Barnes waited by the back doors to get the others inside.

They made it past the hangar and were joined in the air by Sam, who was carrying Clint. Stark, Rhodes and Vision were on their tail and gaining rapidly. Clint shot and arrow just as Vision fired. Sam dodged Vision’s shot and Rhodes dodged Clint’s. This put Rhodes right on the path of Vision’s blast, which hit the arc reactor on his suit dead on. Rhodes dropped down in an uncontrolled spiral and Stark dove down after him. Vision put on a burst of speed and reached Sam and Clint, grabbing Clint before he had the chance to fire again and making him let go of his bow. Then he shot another blast at Sam’s jet pack, which hit the target and caused Sam’s flight to become erratic.

“Nat?” Steve called from the cockpit.

“Sam and Clint have been caught.”

“Shit.” He looked back at her and she shook her head. No, they couldn’t go back for them. He nodded.

There was no turning back now.

*****

The hospital lights were bright, and they were aggravating Tony’s headache. He paced up and down as he waited for news on Rhodey, mentally cursing Rogers and his minions for all he was worth.

He shouldn’t have held back so much. He should have blown their asses off as soon as he saw them and to hell with the political fallout. Maybe if he had, Rhodey wouldn’t be fighting for his life now, and he wouldn’t be feeling like shit for letting it happen. Of course he knew that it wasn’t really his fault, but Tony had never been entirely rational about what he considered himself responsible for.

I should never had enabled them so much. Rogers and Romanoff got as delusional as they did in part because of me, because I cleaned up their messes and led them to think they were invincible.

And now it had come back to bite him in the ass. Him and a whole bunch of other people – innocent people – who had the misfortune to stand between Rogers and his goal of saving his friend at all costs. It was yet more ammunition for Ross to push for harsher control over enhanced people. Even Captain America, supposed paragon of justice, could go off the rails, so other people could do much worse – that was the line he was selling, and some people were starting to buy it. Not the die-hard rabid Cap fans, but the people with brains and a decent grasp of international politics. Having a terrorist going around with the American flag on his ass was not doing the good ol’ US of A any good in the worldwide arena. Not to mention the Air Force people who were pretty pissed about what had happened to one of their own because of Roger’s utter refusal to listen to reason. Ellis was probably cursing Rogers as much as Tony now.

It was a mess, one that seemed to only be getting worse.

And now the criminals had escaped – well, Rogers, Barnes and Romanoff at least. Sam and Clint were in custody, but they were small potatoes. No one really cared about them all that much – though Laura was probably going to be livid when she found out her husband was in jail.

“Boss, I believe I have discovered an important piece of information,” Friday said.

“What is it, Fri?”

“A man identified as Dr Broussard has been found dead in a hotel room. He is the psychiatrist hired by the UN to assess Sgt Barnes. The man who showed up at the Berlin facility was an impostor.”

“Shit. Any idea who he really is? And why he was there?”

“His name is Helmut Zemo, a former member of the Sokovia Special Forces. As to what his intentions were, I don’t know.”

A Sokovian. Of course he was. Probably lost someone and wants revenge, Tony thought. Isn’t that always the story? Why go after the Winter Soldier, though? To make Rogers lose his mind? If so, mission accomplished. However, there had to be more.

“Any idea where this Zemo is now?”

“Jarvis and I are attempting to locate him, Boss.”

“Fine, let me know when you have something.”

A doctor was approaching, and from the look on his face, it was not good news.

Tony braced himself. “How is he, doctor?” Please, please, please, let him be okay.

It was not as bad as Tony had feared. Rhodey wasn’t dying, at least. Just possibly paralyzed. Fuck it all. It might not be permanent, the doctor said, which was something. They would need to wait a little longer to have a more accurate picture of his condition.

When the doctor was gone, Tony found Vision up on the roof of the hospital staring off into space with an expression Tony was very familiar with.

“It’s not your fault,” Tony said.

“I have been trying to convince myself of that. I have not been very successful so far.”

“Yeah, I understand that. It really isn’t, though, and I know Rhodey wouldn’t blame you. We should put the blame where it belongs, with Rogers and his buddies.”

“Has there been any news on the colonel’s condition?”

Tony told Vision everything the doctor had said. “We’ll figure something out. There are new discoveries and treatments every day. Hell, I’ll invent one myself if I have to. It will be okay.” He was trying to convince himself as much as Vision.

“I certainly hope so.”

“I may have a lead on the guy who let out the Winter Soldier.”

Vision listened with a frown as Tony told him what Friday had discovered. “I do not understand. Why would this man go to all this trouble?”

“That I don’t know yet, but you can bet it isn’t for anything good.”

“I… I do not believe I am capable of assisting you in apprehending him at the moment. I feel too… distracted.”

Tony put a hand on Vision’s shoulder. “It’s okay, I get it. Don’t worry, I can handle it. It’s probably best if you stay here to keep an eye on Rhodey anyway.”

“Thank you for your understanding. Nevertheless, I fear I am letting you down.”

“Hey, none of that. You’re not letting me down. What happened wasn’t your fault, but it still sucks. If you need some time to get your head together, it’s fine. You know you don’t have to do this at all, right?”

“I want to,” Vision assured him. “I want to help protect the world. I want to help you.”

“Then stay here and take your time. Don’t worry about anything else, all right? We’ll sort this out, go home and then we can talk about… I don’t know, whatever you want.”

“Thank you. I would like that.”

Jarvis and Friday eventually found Zemo exiting a plane in Moscow.

“There is an old Hydra base in Siberia, according to the leaked files. I believe that is where Zemo is heading. I have also been able to track the stolen quinjet, and it seems to be going in the same direction.”

“So is Rogers following Zemo or is Zemo following Rogers?”

“Unknown at this time, Sir.”

“Well, only one way to find out.”

As he was leaving the hospital, Prince T’Challa intercepted him.

“What do you want?” Tony wasn’t in the mood to be diplomatic, and the young prince had not made much of a favorable impression so far. Quite the opposite, in fact. Tony had half a mind to have him charged with obstruction of justice for showing up uninvited at the airport to mess things up.

“I want to help you catch the Winter Soldier,” T’Challa said with all the confidence of a guy who was used to getting everything he wanted. Well, not this time.

“You are not authorized for that. And, frankly, I doubt you’d be of much help. You don’t want the man caught, you want revenge. That’s not what the Accords are about. You should know that, since your father helped draft them.”

T’Challa’s eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched. “I am quite aware of what my father did.”

“I’m not really sure about that, but whatever. You’re still not coming. Go back to your people. I’m sure they need you.” And you need them, Tony thought, before you continue to blunder your way through international politics.

Without a backwards glance, Tony pushed past him and into the elevator. He didn’t have time for yet one more idiot who thought his needs were the only ones that mattered.

*****

The place looked deserted. They knew the doctor had already arrived because of the ground vehicle parked outside, but there was no sign of anyone else. It was odd that a Hydra operative was acting alone.

“This could be a trap,” Steve told Bucky and Nat, and they nodded in response, on high alert with weapons ready.

Whatever Hydra had had in here had long been abandoned. The machines they passed by looked old even to Steve’s untrained eye.

“I think I heard something,” Bucky said, pointing to a doorway.

Silently, they inched their way there, but there was no movement.

“Over there.” Nat indicated what seemed to be a giant tank.

Steve peered inside. There was man dressed in military fatigues, a bullet hole on his forehead. “He’s dead.”

“This one too,” Nat called from the tank she was examining.

They checked all the tanks and found the same thing in all of them. The frozen Winter Soldiers had been executed. It didn’t make any sense.

“Are you sure these are the other Winter Soldiers?” Nat asked Bucky.

“Yes, I remember them.” 

Nat glanced around warily. “I don’t like this.”

A clunky sound made them all turn around. Iron Man was standing at the entrance to the room they were in, eyes lit up. Steve’s heart started beating double-time. We’re three against one, he told himself. Tony doesn’t stand a chance. I can protect Bucky.

“Well well, if it isn’t the terrorists. Funny how you run into people in abandoned Hydra bases, isn’t it?” Tony’s sarcastic drawl got on Steve’s nerves and he tightened his hand on his shield, ready to throw it at any moment.

“Ah, the final guest is here. Now we can begin.”

The new voice came from behind them. Still keeping Tony is sight, Steve turned to see who was there.

“Helmut Zemo, I presume,” Tony said, the faceplate coming up. “You’re under arrest for the murder of Dr Broussard.”

Who? Steve thought.

“Ah, yes. Most unfortunate, that. You see, I needed to gain access to the Winter Soldier. I needed the location of this lovely place.” The man, Zemo, was sitting inside a missile silo, a smile on his face as if this was incredibly amusing. Steve did not like this at all.

“You killed the Soldiers,” Bucky said. “Why?”

“I don’t need them. What I needed was something else.” Outside the silo, a television came on. “An empire destroyed from the outside can be rebuilt, but one that topples from within… that’s gone forever. The Avengers must be destroyed.”

A video began playing on the TV.

“I know that road,” Tony said as he came closer.

Beside Steve, Bucky was staring at the screen with trepidation.

They all watched it. The moment Steve had been dreading since he had gotten a hint of this from Zola had finally come. Bucky – no, not Bucky, the Winter Soldier; it wasn’t Bucky’s fault – shot out the tire of a car and then killed its occupants. Steve recognized an older Howard Stark – and Howard clearly recognized Bucky as well – yet it made no difference. The Soldier had his orders, and he carried them out with cold detachment.

It’s not Bucky. It’s not Bucky. Bucky is my friend. He’s a good man. He would never do something like that.

As the woman’s gasps faded into silence, Steve tensed and braced himself.

“Did you know?” Tony asked, staring right at Steve with eyes that burned with pain and fury.

“I didn’t know it was him.”

“Don’t bullshit me, Rogers. Did you know?”

There was no use denying it, he realized. Tony wasn’t going to listen to him no matter what he said. He was completely irrational. This was exactly what Steve had been afraid of. “Yes.”

The punch took him by surprise, though it really shouldn’t have. He had known for some time that it would come down to this, he and Tony fighting. He’d delayed as much as he could, but the time had finally come. Steve couldn’t let Tony kill Bucky. And, if he was honest with himself, he had his own reasons to want to knock Tony down that had nothing whatsoever to do with Bucky.

All his life Steve had been looked down on, and Tony had continued that thread from day one of their meeting. Steve still remembered the dismissive way Tony had talked to him in the hellicarrier the day of the invasion. Everything special about you came out of a bottle. God, he’d wanted to hit Tony right then and there. How dare he? How dare he spit in the face of Steve’s sacrifice, his never-ending struggle to prove himself, to be seen as equal to everyone else? How dare he, when Tony had had everything handed to him from the moment he was born? He’d never known hunger, loss, fear, true hardship. How dare he make a mockery of everything Steve stood for? A mockery of Steve himself? Yes, Steve was fighting for Bucky, but also for himself. Steve had always hated bullies, and Tony was the worst kind of bully, the one who used his money and fame to throw his weight around and bury the little guy.

Years of fear and frustration, of pain and loss, fueled Steve’s anger and desperation. It was just like Tony to want to take yet one more thing from Steve. Bucky was his last link to the past now that Peggy was gone, the last thing he had of the past he’d been forced to leave behind. He would not let it go. Not now, not ever. He couldn’t.

He attacked Tony with everything he had, gratified to see that Bucky had fallen into step beside him the way he used to. They stood united in this, in fighting against the future that had taken everything from them. Nothing else mattered now. They had to win, and they would. After all they’d been through, they deserved to win.

Steve forgot Natasha, forgot Zemo, the dead Winter Soldiers, Howard’s dead body, he forgot everything and focused only on the fight. This was the one thing he could still do, the one thing that would never be taken from him. He was Captain America. He would show Tony and the rest of the world that Steve Rogers never surrendered, never backed down. With the two of them keeping a constant assault, Tony didn’t stand a chance.

Then Bucky got too close and was blasted back by the chest repulsor, which took his metal arm off at the shoulder. Bucky grunted in pain and Steve saw red. He re-doubled his efforts and soon had Tony on the ground, his helmet destroyed. Kneeling above Tony, Steve raised his shield. He almost went for the head, but changed course at the last second to hit the arc reactor instead. He was not a murderer. As angry as he was with Tony and his stubborn refusal to listen, to understand that Steve was right – had been right all along – he was better than that. He was better than Tony, and could show him mercy this time. Perhaps Tony would finally realize his mistakes now.

“You won’t get away with this,” Tony hissed, trying unsuccessfully to get up.

Steve ignored him and went to help Bucky up. With one arm supporting his friend, Steve picked up his shield.

“My father made that shield, you son of a bitch. You don’t deserve it.”

The shield had been his constant companion for a long time, but Steve didn’t need it. He would be Captain America with or without it. Let Tony be petty if he wanted to. Soon enough the world would see the truth, and he would get it back. It would be even more satisfying to take it then than now.

He dropped it and walked out with Bucky, not saying a word. He had always believed that actions spoke louder than words, and his actions had spoken quite eloquently. Steve had won. In time, Tony would see that. And if he didn’t, well… Steve didn’t need him.

When they returned to the room with the cryo chambers, they saw Natasha standing over Zemo’s corpse. The man in the black suit from before was there as well, eying the body with disgust.

“Sgt Barnes, I owe you an apology,” the man said. “You were not responsible for my father’s murder.” He pointed at Zemo. “That is the real culprit and he has been dealt with.”

“It’s good that you admitted your mistake,” Steve said. “We need to get out of here, get Bucky to safety.”

“I have a jet outside. It cannot be tracked.”

“Let’s go.”

“What about Stark?” Natasha asked.

“He’s back there. We’d better hurry. I don’t know how long it will take him to fix the suit.”

The man in black took Zemo’s body in a fireman carry and began moving. “We will take care of the body.”

Feeling lighter now that he worst had passed, Steve followed.

Chapter Text

Finally, Loki thought, watching the last person leave the throne room. He had spent the last few days hearing petitions from his so-called loyal subjects – the ones who would probably take arms against him if they ever found out he was not, in fact, Odin. Their concerns might have been legitimate, but after two days of it, he was more than fed up with the whole thing. All he wanted was to go back to his chambers, shed this Odin disguise (one that he was increasingly tired of having to maintain) and relax a while. Also, he was desperate to go Midgard and see Stark.

There was no use denying it anymore. Loki was very much infatuated with the mortal, and it didn’t seem as if those feelings were going to go away any time soon. These last few days away had shown him that quite clearly.

At first, he had thought it would be a good thing, a chance to get some distance and set his stupid heart back on track. There was a war on the horizon, and Loki could not afford to get distracted or compromised by sentimentality. Not to mention that the likelihood of a mortal such as Stark, who dove head first into danger without a care in the world, surviving Thanos was not good. Falling for the man would only lead to heartache, and Loki had had enough of that already. So, having some space between them would be a good thing. Or so he thought.

In reality, he had found himself utterly miserable instead. Everything seemed to remind him of the man, from the armor of the Einherjar to the books of magic on his desk that he wanted to share and even the blue of the sky. If it had been someone else, Loki would have thought the whole thing hilarious. But it was him, so it was just sad – and more than a little pathetic. Thor, the stupid oaf, would have teased Loki horribly – provided he could get past the fast that Stark was very much male, which was not at all a given.

Still, Loki did not run to Midgard the moment he was temporarily free of his kingly duties. He had a certain reputation to maintain – to himself, at least – and he was not ready to be so transparently clingy. Besides, Stark was a busy man. Like Loki, he had many responsibilities to his people. The difference being, of course, that the humans liked him and were, as far as Loki could tell, glad to have his leadership (even though Stark had no official position in the government). Stark had the respect and trust of the Midgardians, while Loki… most certainly did not.

He had begun to seriously consider just staying there permanently as Stark had suggested. What did he owe the people of Asgard anyway? If they wanted Thor so much, they could have him – and suffer the consequences. Why should Loki care? The Aesir sure didn’t care about him.

Perhaps after Thanos was dealt with – and providing they survived, of course – he would do just that. Abandon this accursed realm and try his fortune elsewhere. He would have at least one friend in Midgard anyway, which was more than he currently had in Asgard. And wasn’t that just depressing?

First, however, he needed to get a better grip on himself. Rest, recharge, center himself and his thoughts. Then, and only then, would he go.

The idea turned out to be easier said than done, though. It was nearly impossible to relax when he couldn’t keep still, thoughts miles away in a different realm altogether. After a couple of fruitless hours, he gave up. It was clear his resolution to be aloof and dignified was crumbling to dust. So, he made sure his absence in Asgard would not be missed, and departed.

He arrived at his usual spot and teleported to the Tower, hoping Stark would be available.

“Hello, Ja–”

He didn’t even get to finish his sentence before the AI spoke. “Loki, Sir requires your immediate assistance.” The fear in Jarvis’s voice was unmistakable, and Loki was instantly on alert.

“What has happened? Where is he? Is he hurt?”

“These are the coordinates.” A map appeared out of thin air in front of him. “The suit appears to be offline, so I cannot ascertain his well-being.” Beneath the fear there was also anger, Loki noted. That was a bad sign. Something terrible had happened.

He had a million questions, but they could wait. Getting to Stark and making sure he was all right was the priority.

It took only a few moments to teleport to the location given. He saw Stark right away and his heart stopped at the sight. The man was lying slumped against a pillar, the light that had always burned in the center of the suit’s chest completely gone. There was a crack running through the device that emitted that light – the arc reactor, it was called. Stark’s face was uncovered, his eyes closed and dried blood on his forehead.

No. No, please.

“Stark!” He yelled, running to his side, terrified that he was too late. “Stark! Can you hear me?” There was no response, and Loki was afraid of touching him and making his injuries worse, since he didn’t know how bad they were. “Jarvis? Are you there?” Once again there was only silence. Of course. If Jarvis had still been active, he would not have been so frantic at the Tower.

Loki tried to assess the damage, but with the suit in the way it was difficult to tell what had happened to the man underneath it. Healing magic had never been a particular talent of his, yet he did his best now, using a broad restorative spell until he had more information.

It worked. Stark moaned and slowly opened his eyes.

“Easy,” he told the man when he started to struggle in confusion.

“Loki?”

“Yes. It’s me. Are you all right? What can I do?”

“It’s cold,” Stark mumbled.

Loki had never been particularly affected by the cold – for reasons that had only recently become obvious to him – yet he knew humans were susceptible to it.

“I can teleport you back to the Tower, but first I need to know how badly you are hurt. I do not want to aggravate your injuries.”

“J? Fri? What’s the diagnosis?”

“I do not believe they can hear you.”

“Right. Suit’s dead.” Stark’s eyes drifted closed again and Loki slipped a hand behind the man’s head to help steady him.

“Yes. So you need to get out of it. How does it come off?”

“Emergency release.” His voice was getting fainter, which worried Loki.

“Where?”

“Hip.”

Loki had to grope for a while until the found it (this was not how he had imagined such an event to occur), and finally the suit began to disassemble. Some of it retreated back into other parts while other pieces simply clattered to the floor. All the while Loki kept hold of Stark.

“Come on, just hang on a little longer.”

“Can’t… can’t leave it here. Don’t want it to end up in the wrong hands.”

“I’ll come back for it after I take you to the Tower, I promise.”

“Okay.”

As carefully as he could, Loki lifted Stark up and stood. As he did, his eyes fell on the shield lying a few feet away. Red, white and blue, with a star at the center. It was not difficult to put two and two together and figure out what had made the crack in the suit. Rogers.

I will kill him, Loki thought, a wave of pure hatred coursing through him. I will obliterate him from the face of this planet.

Vengeance would have to wait, though. For now he needed to ensure Stark’s survival.

“Are you ready?” he asked, but Stark was no longer conscious. Loki wasted no more time.

Jarvis gave him instructions on where to take Stark, and assured him that help was on its way. Still, Loki found he couldn’t leave, not yet. He should go retrieve the suit as he’d promised, but fear and worry kept him rooted to the spot. What if something happened before the healer arrived? What if human technology wasn’t enough to save Stark?

“Jarvis, how bad is it?”

“Bad, but I do not believe the situation is critical at this point. It might have been.”

It might have been. The words echoed in Loki’s mind. It might have been if Loki hadn’t shown up at that precise moment. If he wasn’t able to teleport half way around the planet in a matter of seconds. It might have been if Stark had been left where he was, alone in a destroyed suit, with no way to call for help. It might have been because it might have taken too long for help to arrive even if he had been able to call. A few more hours and it might have been. It might have been if Loki had delayed coming any longer because of his stupid pride.

“Is there anything else I can do?”

“Not at this time. I have already contacted Ms Potts and the medical staff and notified Vision. Sir will be taken care of.”

“What about Rhodes? Where is he?” Loki had not yet met Stark’s friend, but he had heard quite a lot about the man. It seemed odd that he wasn’t on the list of people to be alerted to Stark’s condition.

“Col Rhodes is currently in a hospital in Berlin. I am unsure if he is conscious at the moment. I will leave it to Ms Potts to decide whether to attempt to reach him.”

The feeling that something had gone horribly wrong only grew. Rogers had attacked Stark and almost killed him, and possibly Rhodes as well. Why? He knew Stark was not fond of the man, but this seemed… excessive.

“What is Rhodes’s condition?” Stark would be devastated if something happened to his friend. Loki had already observed how much he cared about those closest to him, the lengths he would go to help them – such as asking Loki, at the time mostly a stranger, for assistance in restoring Jarvis.

“He is out of danger. However, there is still a possibility of long-term complications.”

So, bad but not terrible. It still didn’t make any sense to Loki. “What happened? Why did Rogers attack Stark?” Loki was going to kill him anyway, of course, but he would still like to know the details. That way he could decide whether to make it quick or torturously slow.

There was a sound similar to a sigh. “That is a rather lengthy tale. I believe Sir would prefer to tell it himself.”

Loki looked back at Stark, lying still on the bed with blood on his head, and clenched his fist. Rogers would pay. But first, he should fulfill the promise he’d made to Stark and get the suit. It would give him time to calm down a little, which would probably be a good thing. Right now he thought he could cheerfully rip someone’s head off with his bare hands.

“I must retrieve the armor. Are you certain Stark will be well while I am gone?”

“I am monitoring him closely and the medical team is only ten minutes away. In any case, it would be helpful if you took a phone, so I might contact you for any eventuality.”

Loki nodded. He should have thought of that before, keeping a phone of his own. “Do you have one I can use?”

Jarvis gave him directions to find a phone and quick instructions on how to use it, and Loki teleported back to where he had found Stark.

There had been no change in the time he was gone. The shield remained there, a murder weapon left behind. Loki would have destroyed it, but he was not sure that would be the best idea. It might be needed to ensure that the world knew exactly who had almost killed its most important hero. There was also a metal arm lying discarded nearby, which was odd. Who did it belong to? It had a red star on it. Did that have some significance he was unaware of? Regardless, he took both shield and arm and put them in a pocket dimension. Jarvis would tell him what to do with them later.

He then turned to the task of collecting all the pieces of the armor and storing them as well. Once that was done, he decided to have a look around and see what else he might find about what had happened here.

The place appeared to be deserted now, the walls scratched and scorched from energy weapons, probably from Iron Man. Stark could have easily killed Rogers, and possibly whoever the arm belong to, so why hadn’t he?

In another room, he discovered several pods with people inside. Upon closer inspection, he saw that they were dead, small wounds on their foreheads indicating they had likely been shot. Who were these people, and who had killed them? It didn’t seem like either Stark or Rogers’ work.

He noticed a small television and turned his attention to it. After a moment of inspecting it, he was able to turn it on and, with some more fiddling, watch what was on it.

The man with the metal arm was there, and he was shown murdering two people, a man and a woman. Loki didn’t know who they were, or why the man had killed them, but it was quite brutal. He watched it again, trying to figure out why this was important. On the third time, he paused on the murdered man’s face. There was something familiar about him. Loki stared at him for a while, until it came to him: there was a strong resemblance to Stark. His father? That would mean the woman was his mother.

Loki felt a chill go down his spine. If he was right, then Stark must have stood at this very spot, watching this video. He must have seen his parents murdered, and the murderer had to be here, because Loki had found the arm – the very same arm as the man in the video – on the other room.

By the Norns.

An inarticulate noise rose from his throat at the thought of how terrible that must have been. Loki remembered hearing that his mother had been killed, and how devastating that had been. He had not watched it happen, trapped in a cell as he was, but he could picture it in his head. And he had, many times, filled with anger and regret – guilt – at the part he had inadvertently played in it. Stark had seen it, had heard their pleas and cries of pain. It was… awful.

And what part had Rogers played in all of that? Did he have something to do with the murder of Stark’s parents? Or with their killer, the man with the metal arm?

Loki tried to remember what he knew of Stark’s family, if Barton had mentioned anything during the invasion. Barton had offered up a great deal of information on Stark, yet Loki had not paid much attention to it; at the time, he’d had other concerns. There was nothing specific he could recall now, nothing that would shed any light on this.

It was no use speculating. He would get the story later from Stark himself, as soon as he woke up and recovered from his injuries. Assuming, of course, that Jarvis was right and Stark was not in danger anymore. Loki didn’t know much about humans, but things had not looked good for Stark.

With a sigh and a last look around to make sure he hadn’t missed anything important, Loki got the tape and teleported back to the Tower.

Instead of going directly to the medical room where he’d left Stark, however, he appeared at the penthouse. It would not be a good idea to reveal himself right now. Stark’s friends did not know of their alliance – dare he say friendship? – and this was not the moment to spring it on them. As much as it pained him to keep a distance now, he knew he had no choice.

“Jarvis? How is Stark?”

“He is being taken care of now. I am monitoring everything and Ms Potts will arrive shortly.”

He waited, pacing up and down while Jarvis kept him updated. Stark would be fine.

Rogers, on the other hand, would not.

*****

Tony woke up slowly, wondering where he was and what had happened. He felt like crap, which wasn’t all that unusual, though it had been a while. Then it all came back to him: the bombing at the UN building, Rogers’s rampage through the streets of Bucharest, the fight at the airport, Siberia.

God, that fucking video…

Rogers had known. All the time he’d been berating Tony for supposedly keeping secrets about Ultron, and he’d been sitting on the knowledge that Tony’s parents had been murdered. Not killed in a car accident like everyone had thought, but murdered. By Hydra. By the Winter Soldier. Rogers’s good buddy Barnes.

Son of a fucking bitch.

God, mom, dad… Murdered…

Rogers knew. He fucking knew and he’d said nothing. Worse, he had the gall to act like he was better than Tony when he was a fucking liar and a hypocrite.

I should have blown his fucking head off.

God, my mom… Dad…

“Sir?”

“Boss?”

Tony took a deep breath and shoved all his anger and pain down into a box. He needed to keep his head in the game now and figure out what to do, where to go from here. There would be time for mourning later.

“What’s the situation, J? Fri? How long have I been out? How’s Rhodey?”

“Col Rhodes is still in Berlin, though the doctors believe he will be well enough to travel soon. Vision is staying with him, and handling things with the Accords Panel. Friday and I are assisting as necessary. Ms Potts is taking care of things from here.

“You arrived back at the Tower almost 24hs ago and was seen to by the medical staff. Luckily, the injuries were not life-threatening.”

Tony digested all that, and it didn’t add up. “How did I get from Siberia to here?”

“Loki. He arrived at the Tower approximately an hour after I lost connection to the suit, and went to assist you immediately. He brought you and the armor back.”

Yes, that made more sense. He remembered it now. That would also make it the second time Loki had saved his life. Tony would need to offer more than a drink as thank you this time.

“Where is he now?”

“He returned to Asgard a couple of hours ago. He seemed reluctant to leave, however, and only did so after I assured him repeatedly that you would be well. He said he would come back as soon as possible.”

“Okay.”

Tony took stock of himself and decided he was well enough to stand and get back to work. Rogers and Barnes escaping again was going to be another fucking mess.

Unfortunately, he might have overestimated his recovery. The moment his feet touched the ground and he put weight on them, a sharp pain made him double over and fall to a heap on the floor.

“Sir, you should remain abed. Your injuries are not yet fully healed,” Jarvis said, a note of reproach in his voice.”

“Yep,” Tony gritted out, already regretting his stupid decision.

With considerable effort, Tony managed to get himself back into bed, exhausted beyond belief.

This is what happens when you fight two super soldiers at once while holding back. I should have killed them both the second I saw the video and Rogers’s betrayal was revealed.

It was too late for that now, though. Just one more mistake, one more regret, to add to the pile Tony carried around. One more problem for him to fix. He really should have known better. He should have known, after Wanda, that Rogers only thought about himself and that he would destroy the Avengers. And boy, did he. When the press got a hold of this, of what had happened in Siberia, it would be all over for dear ol’ Cap.

There was absolutely no thought of not telling the world the truth. Maybe a few years ago, when he still believed in the idea of heroes to defend the Earth, he might have. He might have swallowed his hurt and anger for the good of the world. Now, he knew better. He knew that enabling Rogers and his minions (there was really no other word for them) to keep going as they were would just make them get worse and worse. Too many people had already suffered because of them. Too many lives lost and shattered by a villain disguised as a hero. Tony might not be perfect, but at least he was man enough to admit to being wrong, to trying to do better. Tony would bet good money that Rogers didn’t regret a single thing he had done, that he was still somehow convinced that he had done the right thing. The man was insane, and there was no reasoning with crazy people. Rogers needed to be put down. Perhaps not literally – not by killing him – but he needed to be stopped, to join Wilson and Barton in jail. Romanoff and Barnes too.

They had both known, Rogers and Romanoff. They had deliberately withheld information about a murder, and Tony intended to charge them with accessory after the fact or, at the very least, obstruction of justice. He would hunt them down and end them. No more Mr Nice Guy, no more going easy on them. The next time he saw them, it would be all over in seconds.

“Sir, Ms Potts is on her way and would like to see you.”

“Good. We have a lot of work to do. Tell her to bring me a tablet.”

Tony Stark wasn’t down yet, not by a long shot.

*****

It had been over a day since Loki had left Midgard, and he couldn’t stand it anymore. He would have returned already, but of course a new envoy from Alfheim had arrived that demanded his attention. By the Norns, he was so tired of this stupid charade. He hated being Odin. He hated having to deal with all these things in a way that wouldn’t give his identity away. If he could have been himself, it wouldn’t have been so bad. He honestly wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep this up.

When at last he was able to leave, he headed straight for the penthouse in the Tower. Even though Jarvis had sworn that Stark would be fine, Loki was still worried. Humans were distressingly fragile, and anything could have happened while the man lay incapacitated in a bed with only a couple of disembodied AIs to watch over him.

“How is Stark?” Loki asked as soon as he had materialized.

“He is sleeping,” Jarvis replied immediately. “He regained consciousness earlier and spoke to Ms Potts at length about how to handle the situation. He left instructions to be awaken when you returned, so if you would give me a moment, I will tell him that you are here.”

Loki should have said to let the man get the rest he needed, but he couldn’t. He needed to see Stark with his own eyes, to speak to him and ascertain his well-being for himself.

He did not have to wait long. Only a few minutes later, Jarvis informed him Stark was ready to see him. He took the elevator down to the medical level with a trepidation he should not feel.

“Loki!” Stark greeted him warmly from his bed, a smile firmly in place. “Looks like you’ve saved my life again. Not that I don’t appreciate it, but it is a rather worrying trend.”

“I quite agree.”

Stark looked better than the last time Loki had seen him, yet still a far cry from his normal state of health. There were dark circles under his eyes and he was far too pale for Loki’s liking. The cut on his forehead and been cleaned and bandaged, and the terrible wound on his chest was covered by his clothes, though.

“Have a seat.” Stark indicated a chair by his bed, and Loki sat on it, back ramrod straight. The image of Stark lying still and silent in that bunker remained in his mind. It had been far too close for comfort.

“I am gratified to see you are feeling better,” he said, hoping his relief and longing was not as apparent in his voice as he suspected.

“So I am. Thank you. Again.”

Loki waved a negligent hand. “It would have been very tiresome to begin this all over again with someone else.”

The look Stark gave him made it clear that he was not buying Loki’s aloof act in the slightest, but he didn’t call him on it either, for which Loki was grateful.

“Thanks for bringing the suit back too.”

Loki nodded, then reached into his pocket dimension and brought out the arm and shield. “I took these as well. I don’t know what you want to do with them.”

For a second, Loki saw fear in Stark’s eyes, but it was quickly gone, replaced by a look of fierce determination.

“Put them there,” he pointed to another bed. “I’ll need them as evidence.”

“Yes, I thought you might.” He did as instructed and returned to the chair. “I also have this.” He produced the tape and put it on the bed next to Stark.

Stark drew in a sharp breath, jaw clenching tightly. He made no move to touch it, however. Loki could not blame him.

“Did you see it?”

“Yes. I believe I worked out what it is.” He hesitated before continuing. “Your parents?”

Stark nodded, still tense. “I forget you’re not from around here, so you wouldn’t recognize them right away. How did you find out?”

“I noticed the family resemblance.”

This time Stark let out a harsh laugh. “Yeah. Everyone always said I looked like my father. I always hated that.” He looked away. “I thought they died in a car crash. I thought that my dad had crashed it because he was drunk. For years I blamed him – hated him – and it turned out it wasn’t his fault at all.”

“I’m sorry,” Loki said quietly. “I know what it’s like to lose a parent.”

Stark turned back to him, expression softening. “Yeah, Thor told us what happened with your mom. I’m sorry too.”

“She wasn’t really my mother, though,” Loki said without thinking. He loved her anyway, despite the lies and the sense of betrayal he’d felt that she would keep such a secret from him. He wished he had told her that, instead of the hurtful words he’d spewed – the ones that turned out to be their last.

“Thor mentioned you were adopted, but not a lot of details.”

Loki shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about that.”

“Fair enough.”

They shared a companionable silence for a while, each lost in their own thoughts.

“He knew,” Stark finally said. “Rogers.”

I will kill him slowly, Loki thought. Yet he was not truly surprised. “Who is the man with the metal arm?”

“Bucky Barnes, aka The Winter Soldier and Cap’s best friend.” The bitterness in Stark’s tone was unmistakable. “The man Rogers will clearly burn the world for.”

“If you tell me where they are, I can take care of them quickly and quietly. Or not too quickly, if you prefer it.”

For a moment, it seemed as if Stark was actually contemplating it. Then he shook his head. “No. They need to pay for what they did through our justice system. It’s not just me. There are hundreds of victims who deserve that closure. Besides, it’s not for me to decide who lives and who dies. If I do, I’m no better than them.”

“You are certainly a better man than me. I wouldn’t care about any of that.”

“If you truly didn’t, you wouldn’t have asked me. You would have just killed them. And you didn’t kill Wanda when you had the chance.”

“It was not so personal with her,” Loki replied, then cursed himself for how much that gave away.

Stark only smiled. “Don’t worry, though. I might not kill them, but they will not get away with it. I’m going to destroy them.” His smile turned savage, and Loki couldn’t help a shiver of lust at the sight. “I have one more question.”

“Yes?”

“According to Jarvis and the doctors, I was not at death’s door when I arrived here, yet I distinctly remember being in pretty bad shape back in that bunker. I took a fucking vibranium shield to the chest. There is no way that didn’t mess me up really badly. You did more than just give me a lift home.” It was not a question, yet the tone was not accusing, merely curious.

“I did a simple restorative spell. It’s meant for general healing. It is not particularly potent, but I could not risk something stronger without a more accurate idea of your injuries.” Even then it would have been too dangerous and Loki would never have attempted it unless there had been no other option.

“Well, either the spell is stronger than you realize or something else happened, ‘cause I should be dead.” He said it matter-of-factly, as if such a thing was of no importance. Loki felt his rage return full force and had to fight to keep his expression from showing it.

“I have no answer for that.”

“You’ll have to tell me more about your magic one of these days. Now that it has saved my life a few times, I have a burning desire to know more.”

“When you are better,” Loki replied. Knowing that Stark had almost died – again – made Loki acutely aware of just how breakable the mortal was, and he did not wish to be the cause of any more distress.

“Okay, it’s a date.”

Loki’s heart skipped a beat at the phrasing. It’s just an expression, he doesn’t mean it that way, he told himself. I should go before I betray myself.

“I will leave you to your rest.”

It was probably his imagination that Stark seemed disappointed by that. “Yes, okay. I know you’ve got stuff to do too. We’ll have a lot to talk about when you get back. I’ve got new plans.”

“I look forward to hearing them. Do try not to get attacked while I am gone.”

Stark laughed. “I’ll do my best.”

Chapter Text

The flight to Wakanda was made in utter silence. Steve spent the whole time with Barnes, hovering over the man as if looking away would make him disappear. Natasha wanted to bash his head in and scream. They were completely fucked now, and it was all Steve’s fault. She should have jumped ship when she’d had the chance, after the Wanda reveal. At that point there had still been a possibility to stick with Stark. That ship had definitely sailed now. It had sailed and sunk to the bottom of the ocean where it would never be found again.

Damn it.

She hadn’t wanted to admit it, but she was compromised. Her decisions had not been made as rationally as she’d previously thought. She had made them based on what she wanted, not reality. She liked Steve better, plain and simple, so she had convinced herself that he was the better ally, the one who should lead the Avengers. Stark was brash and unpredictable, had never accepted hers or SHIELD’s authority, and always did whatever he wanted regardless of what anyone else said. Natasha had not wanted to deal with him, had refused to believe he might be the best choice.

And look where that gotten her. If Stark had been less than inclined to help them before, now they had made an actual enemy out of him. A while ago, she might not have been concerned about that, still certain of her position. Now she knew better. She knew what happened to Stark’s enemies; Stane, Vanko, Hammer, Killian, none of them have come out on top – in fact, all but Hammer were dead (and Hammer was in prison).

Steve, the idiot, seemed totally oblivious to that fact. All he thought about was Barnes.

Prince T’Challa, the other occupant of the jet, appeared lost in thought. It was fortunate that he had followed them to Siberia and discovered that Barnes had not been responsible for his father’s death. He had offered to make amends to Barnes for wrongfully attacking him, and Natasha intended to milk that guilt for all it was worth. At the moment, it was all she had to protect herself from whatever Stark was planning to do.

They arrived in Wakanda and were given rooms in the palace. Steve, of course, insisted that Barnes should stay with him. There was no use talking to him just now, so she let him be and decided she might as well work on T’Challa.

A couple of days later, Steve had yet to get his head out of his ass to see the mess they were in and Natasha’s patience had run out.

She knocked on the door and entered his room. “Steve, we need to talk.”

He wasn’t there. Neither was Barnes. Where could they have gone?

Nat tried to ask the palace workers, but they were no help to her, claiming they could not understand English, which she did not entirely believe.

With nothing else to do until she could speak to him, Nat turned on the news.

When Steve finally showed up, Natasha was wondering how they were going to get out of the mess Steve had caused.

“Hey, Nat.” He seemed subdued. Had he seen the news already?

“Where have you been?”

“I was… with Bucky. He has asked to be put back into cryosleep until the triggers can be removed from his mind.”

Of course. It’s all about Bucky. Again.

“Well, perhaps you’d like to know what’s been going on in the world while you were gazing adoringly at your friend.” Her sarcastic delivery was clearly lost on him.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Rhodes is still in the hospital and might have permanent injuries. Stark spent a couple of days MIA with only Potts’s word that he was still alive. Needless to say, not everyone bought it. Now he has actually released a statement basically saying that he intends to bring us to justice. Sam and Clint are in jail. They’ve been denied bail, so they’ll wait their trial in prison. Germany and, in Sam’s case, Romania, are looking to throw every charge they can think of at them.” If Natasha hadn’t been on the jet with Steve, she would be incarcerated right alongside them. Small mercies, though she had no idea how long her luck would last.  

“We’ll get them out, Nat. It’s not fair that they are locked up for doing the right thing.”

It was the same song and dance he’d been spewing since this mess had begun, and it was only now that Nat realized how empty it sounded. The ‘right thing’ for Steve was getting his friend safe no matter the cost.

“The world doesn’t seem to see it that way.”

“They will once we explain. Just like what happened with Wanda and that incident in Lagos. They’ll see the truth soon enough.”

He really believes it, she thought. He actually thinks he’ll get away with this. My god, Stark was right, he is delusional.

If she stayed with him, she’d be painted with the same brush. All she had worked for, the respect and reputation she had earned, would go down the drain – if it hadn’t already.

“There is no explaining this one, Steve. Stark will make sure of it. We lost.”

It grated, knowing that. She’d lost because she’d chosen the wrong side. And she’d chosen the wrong side because she was too blinded by her own bias to see who Steve really was. It wouldn’t matter if T’Challa was on their side, he was only one man against the rest of the world – and, even more importantly, against Tony Stark. It would probably not take him long to find out where they were hiding, and she knew he would not hold back a third time. Siberia would have been the last straw for him.

They should have told him the truth about the Winter Soldier and the Starks’ assassination sooner. Yes, there was a chance he would have gone off the rails to seek revenge like Steve had worried, but with time to digest it and cool down, he might have seen that Barnes was a victim as well. They could have convinced him to use his resources to help them find Barnes, using the idea of robbing Hydra of their weapon if all else failed. It could have worked. But no. Steve had refused to even consider the possibility. And Natasha had liked the idea of having an ace up her sleeve for an eventuality. Keeping secrets was her specialty, after all, and one didn’t just give up an advantage like that without a guarantee of something in return.

Except it had blown up in their faces. She should have realized that the information would be uncovered by someone at some point. She had lost the chance to use it herself, and it had come back to bite them in the ass at the worst possible time. If the world found out about this – and they would, because she didn’t think Stark would keep it to himself – they would be crucified. Even Captain America’s heroic reputation would not be enough to salvage this. Howard Stark might not have been universally liked, but he was still considered by many as an American hero.

In short, she was screwed. Her only option right now was to flee, go to ground and wait for the worst of this to die down. She still had contacts that could help her do that, but only if she was on her own. Steve was too conspicuous to pass unnoticed, and he would never admit the need for it anyway.

“Nat?” he said. “It’s going to be okay.”

She wanted to hit him. He’d ruined everything and didn’t even have the decency to realize it on his own.

“Nothing is going to be okay, Steve. If you still think that…” She shook her head. “Then we have nothing left to talk about.”

Natasha was on her own. Nothing new there. She would survive. She always did.

*****

“I’ll see you when you arrive, Platypus,” Tony said, ending the call to Rhodey. His friend had finally been released from the hospital and would be flying home in a couple of hours. Tony wished he had been there with Rhodey when the doctors had given him the news that the paralysis might be permanent, but he was still stuck in bed at the Tower. One more thing Rogers would pay for.

Of course, Tony wasn’t going to just accept that diagnosis. He was already thinking of ways to help Rhodey walk again through technology.

“Sir, President Ellis is on the line.”

“Put him through.”

Tony had gotten a couple of days of uninterrupted rest while Pepper fielded demands for comments and an appearance from him. Now, however, that respite was over. The world didn’t stop turning just because Tony was out of commission, and with the Avengers going rogue, people were looking to Iron Man to step up. Business as usual, really.

“Mr President.”

“Dr Stark. I trust you are feeling better.”

“I am, thanks.”

“Good, because we have to do something about this disaster.”

“The criminals will be caught, Mr President.”

“Yes, but right now I’m more worried about the political repercussion. Is there no way we can… perhaps… keep things under wraps?” Though Tony understood why Ellis would make the request, there was no way he could honor it. 

“I’ve signed the Accords, Sir. In matters such as these, I answer to them. I don’t think they’ll be particularly concerned about anyone’s reputation.”

Ellis sighed. “I understand. If you could at least give me a heads-up, then, I can start preparing for the fallout.”

“Sure. I’ll let you know how things are going after I meet with the Council tomorrow. Rhodey and Vision are flying in later today.”

There were a few more calls that Tony could no longer put off – checking on the status of the victims of Zemo’s revenge and Rogers’s rampage – and then he spent a couple of hours with Jarvis and Friday monitoring social media and the news to gauge how the world was dealing with this mess. Not a lot of facts had been released yet, so what people were saying was mostly speculation. Tony was gratified to find, however, that most people seemed to be on his side, or at least withholding judgment until he made an official statement, which he finally did now that he was a bit better. He didn’t divulge all the details yet, just the bare bones. He was not going to cover for criminals and murderers, but he wanted to roast them a bit more slowly.

And official statements were something he needed to think about very carefully from now on. Tony had thought about it for a while and realized he had to tell his friends about Loki. He’d been vague in how he had gotten from Siberia to New York so far, but that wouldn’t fly forever. The only reason no one had called him out on it yet was because they had been too worried about his injuries and too glad that he was not in fact dying to pay much attention to the details. He should have mentioned that to Loki though. He really wasn’t at his best for it to have slipped his mind.

Still, he didn’t think it would be a problem, not now that Loki had saved his life twice. Plus Jarvis could vouch for the fact that the guy had been worried about Tony. After Rogers’s lies, Tony didn’t want to fall into the same rabbit hole of keeping secrets. No doubt Rogers had convinced himself he’d done the right thing keeping Tony in the dark. It wasn’t the same situation, of course, but it could be a slippery slope anyway.

So when Rhodey and Vision arrived (Pepper was already there), Tony told them everything. How Loki had shown up after dealing with Wanda, their alliance and various subsequent meetings, his role in getting Jarvis back, and his immediate assistance in Siberia.

“Are you sure he’s on your side, Tony?” Rhodey asked. Tony could understand the hesitation. They had, after all, just dealt with a betrayal of people who had supposedly been on their side.

“As much as anyone can be sure of anything.”

“I have observed their interaction, Colonel, and I believe Loki is genuine in his regard for Sir,” Jarvis said. Friday agreed that Loki seemed truthful.

“I think we should tell the Accords people about him and get him fully onboard with our plans,” Tony added. No more secrets. Not from his friends and not from the world either. If he wanted to have people’s trust, he needed to be honest. The Accords were about transparency and accountability, after all.

Plus, he would love to see the look on Rogers’s face when he realized Tony had welcomed Loki with open arms with the support of the people. It would not be easy, but when Tony set his mind on something, he usually managed to do it.

The meeting with the Council was incredibly tense, not surprisingly. The ink had barely dried on the document and already half the people involved in its conception were dead or injured. Certainly not an auspicious beginning. Nevertheless, Rogers had made it abundantly clear why the Accords were needed, and people were even more intent on making it succeed.

What little good will Captain America and the Black Widow still had went out the window when Tony told the Council everything that had happened in Siberia.

He had still not had the chance to process all that. He’d been operating on anger and adrenaline back in that bunker, no real thought about any of it. He had simply wanted them to hurt. And later, lying alone in a wrecked suit, Tony had been filled with grief and regret. Since then, there had been no time to really think. In truth, he was not looking forward to that, though he knew it was necessary.

For now, he did what he always did: put on his best mask and got on with the business at hand. He could not afford to fall apart just yet, not before he could put the wheels in motion to end Rogers once and for all.

With that out of the way, Tony talked about Loki. He needed to strike while the iron was hot, as it were; while he had people’s sympathy and faith. No more secrets was his new motto.

As expected, not everyone was quite happy with it. Tony, however, had come prepared with all the evidence he had to support his trust in Loki. Rhodey and Vision backed him up one hundred percent, no hint of their reservations present in their expressions or words. They were a united front on this, and that helped to persuade the Council.

Tony only hoped Loki wouldn’t be too pissed.

*****

Loki returned to Midgard as soon as he was able. What he really wanted was to just forget about Asgard entirely, but he knew he couldn’t. Not yet. He almost wished that Odin would wake up so Loki would have a compelling reason to leave for good.

“Jarvis, how is Stark?”

“He is recovering well. I have alerted him to your arrival and he will be with your presently.”

Less than ten minutes later, the elevator opened and Stark stepped out, Rhodes – in a wheel chair – and Vision at his side. Loki tensed, eying them suspiciously.

“Okay, don’t freak out,” Stark said. “I had to tell them. But they’re cool, right? We’re all cool.”

Rhodes rolled forward and held out a hand to Loki. “You stopped Maximoff and saved Tony’s life. I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. And work with you against this Thanos guy. Just don’t fuck us over.”

Still a bit wary, Loki nevertheless shook the man’s hand. Then he turned to Vision. The Mind Stone on his forehead was disconcerting, but Loki could detect no hostility from him.

“I agree with the Colonel.”

“See? We’re all good.” Stark came forward and patted Loki’s shoulder, a warm smile on his face. It made Loki relax. “We’ve got a lot to talk about, Lokes. Let’s have a seat.”

It appeared that Stark had been quite busy since Loki had left, advancing their plans considerably. Midgard was fully on board with the defense strategies they had come up with, and were, based on Stark’s word and the ‘proof’ he’d presented, willing to accept Loki’s assistance.

“I know you asked me not to tell anyone about you, but I had to.”

Loki understood his reasoning, so he did not object. In truth, it made him feel almost… glad. It meant his tentative plans to relocate to Midgard soon could actually be implemented, and in a way that would not require him to hide away behind any more disguises. He could be himself and still be valued. Stark was even trying to get Loki accepted into the new group he was putting together.

It might be a problem whenever Thor returned, however, which Loki had to point out. For the moment, Thor was busy with the tasks Loki had assigned him, yet that would not last forever. Even the dumb oaf would become suspicious if he was never given time or permission to come back to Midgard.

“If we can arrange for you to be an official Avenger – or whatever name we give ourselves – you don’t think Thor will respect that? If the governments of Earth are okay with it?”

The last time he and Loki had spoken truthfully (with Loki as Loki), they had sort of reconciled. Of course, Thor had believed that Loki was dying (for a while, Loki had believed it as well). Such circumstances were very propitious for forgiveness. If Thor realized that Loki wasn’t dead after all – that he had, in fact, deceived him quite thoroughly – he might not be so understanding. He would probably be angry, and an angry Thor was never a rational Thor (not that he was all that rational even at the best of times). Would he demand that Loki return to Asgard to answer for his supposed crimes? Or would he be able to see past all that and remember a time when they had been friends? Loki didn’t know. He honestly didn’t know if he could trust Thor, or if Thor could trust him. Too much had happened between them. Too many lies and betrayals, too much loss.

“I don’t know.”

“Perhaps we can convince him,” Vision said, head tilted slightly.

“You are welcome to try,” Loki replied. Thor had never been one to listen to anyone, not when they told him things he did not like. Still, he did seem to have some respect for his shield-brothers. He believed that Vision was ‘worthy’ because he was able to wield Mjolnir, so he might be more inclined to accept it if it came from him.

“If we tell him about Thanos, he’ll have to at least acknowledge the threat, and that we’ll need all hands on deck to fight him.”

“It is possible.” Loki would love to see the look on his face when he heard that the humans wanted Loki to help them fight, that they valued his magic and his strategic mind.

“Right. So, how are things in Viking land? And progress?”

Talking about Asgard was not something Loki enjoyed, though he understood the need for it. It was impossible to keep the annoyance out of his voice, which prompted Vision and Rhodes to ask a lot of questions. Neither had had much interaction with Thor, so their knowledge of the Golden Realm was limited. Loki was gratified to see that they, like Stark, were not very impressed.

After about an hour, Rhodes excused himself to go see his doctors, and Vision accompanied him.

“Will Rhodes recover?” Loki asked when they had departed.

Stark’s face darkened. “I don’t know. Too early to tell, the doctors said. Maybe, maybe not.”

“I am sorry to hear that.”

“I’ll find a way to fix it, one way or another. If not medically, then with tech. I have a few ideas already, I just hate that it’s even necessary.”

Since Loki still didn’t know the details of what had happened to precipitate the fight between Stark and Rogers, he figured this was a good opportunity to get more information.

“How did this all happen anyway?”

The last part, Stark seeing the video and the subsequent fight, he was already aware of, but the beginning was just as awful. As Stark had said, Rogers really was willing to burn the world for his friend.

“The thing is, having thought about it a bit more, I know that it wasn’t really Barnes’s fault. He was brainwashed into doing a lot of terrible things. It’s whoever gave the orders at Hydra that is really responsible. If Rogers had tried to argue his friend’s innocence in court, it might have done some good. Now… Now the world is gonna be against him – against both or them. He is a moron. A lying, hypocritical moron.”

“Any idea where Rogers is hiding?”

“No, not yet. They’ll turn up eventually. He won’t be able to keep his head down for long. He calls me egotistical, but he’s the one who is desperate to be a hero, to be better than everyone else. He makes everything into a competition.”

“Anyone with brains and eyes can see that you are the better man, Stark.”

“Aw, that’s sweet.” The smile he gave made Loki’s heart beat faster. “And you can call me Tony, you know. I mean, we’re friends, right?” There was a slight hint of worry and vulnerability in his eyes that Loki found both endearing and sad. This was a man who had known betrayal too, yet was still willing to put himself out there, to keep trying to make connections. It was really quite admirable. To offer friendship to someone like Loki, to offer his trust and his very valuable time… Not many people would have bothered. Not many had bothered.

There was no more denying it. Loki was definitely in love. And he was doing a very poor job of hiding it.

“Anyway, if you have time now, I was hoping we could have that talk about magic.”

“I… yes, of course.” The date.

Stark – no, Tony – smiled. “Awesome. You don’t mind if we get something to eat while we talk, do you? I’m kinda starving.”

“Not at all.”

The food was quite good, and the conversation even better. Loki could only hope that his infatuation was not as obvious as he suspected. It was a lovely novelty to speak of magic with someone who was actually interested and, despite having no magical talent, was able to understand the concepts Loki explained. Of course, a lot of the terminology Loki used was new to Tony, but once explained them, he grasped it quickly and related it to the scientific ideas he was familiar with.

Somehow the conversation went from magic to more personal subjects. It was, as Loki had already noted on multiple occasions, easy to talk to Tony. Loki found himself talking about his ‘adoption’ and all the pain and confusion that came with it.

It was not until he actually said the words aloud that he realized how much he had needed to talk about it, to work it out in his own mind. He had been pushing it away since he had discovered the truth, and it had festered inside him, a wound that had never healed or closed. At first, it was hard to describe the events that had shattered his life forever, but as he words flowed, it got easier. Though it wasn’t easy to articulate his feelings about any of it, Tony’s sympathy and understanding made him keep at it and try it anyway.

“Fuck, Loki, I’m so sorry. That really sucks. The whole thing is really fucked up.”

“I should have suspected something. I… it was so obvious that I never fit in.”

“There’s a world of difference between not fitting in and not being told you’re from a whole other species. They should have told you. That’s not the kind of thing one should learn in shitty circumstances.”

Yes, Tony could certainly understand that.

“I would expect it from Odin, but Frigga… She… She should have told me, regardless of what Odin said. I had a right to know.”

“Yeah, you did. I don’t get that reasoning, to be honest. They had to have known you’d find out eventually. It would have been so much better coming from them.”

“I don’t understand either.” Loki sighed. “And now I’ll never understand, because Frigga is dead and I… the last time we spoke, I was… I was angry.”

Tony grimaced. “Yeah, I know. Last time I talked to my dad, we argued. I thought… For a time, I thought he might have been drunk because of me, because of that fight.” He looked away, swallowing hard. “But he wasn’t drunk at all.”

They lapsed into silent, thinking about lies, things said and unsaid. It was a comfortable silence, one filled with understanding and shared experience of sorrow.

“So you don’t know anything about… your people?” Tony asked after a while.

Loki didn’t know what to say. Though the Frost Giants had invaded Midgard, it had been so long ago that the humans probably no longer remembered it. It had likely fallen into legend. Whatever Loki said about it, Tony would have no reason not to believe it. Or he could chose to say nothing, or even claim complete ignorance. He didn’t have to admit the truth.

He didn’t have to, yet he couldn’t lie. As much as he might want to, he knew it would be the wrong thing to do. They had established a relationship based on mutual trust and honesty. If Loki lied – and of course Tony would eventually find out; they both knew secrets couldn’t stay hidden forever – that would be shattered and Loki would lose all of this. That was unthinkable. He might not have Tony the way he wanted him, but friendship was better than nothing.

So Loki told the truth. He kept his gaze elsewhere, too afraid to see Tony’s reaction, and explained what he knew about the Frost Giants. Monsters. Savage beasts. Destroyers.

“Wow,” Tony said once Loki was done. “That is…” He trailed off and Loki tensed, bracing himself for what would come next. “That is the biggest pile of racist bullshit I have ever heard in my life. That’s slavery justification level of racism. Jesus fucking Christ.” He shook his head. “You don’t actually believe any of that, do you?”

“I…” Loki had no idea how to respond to that. It was definitely not what he had expected. He had hoped to convince Tony that Loki was not quite as bad as the rest of them, having been raised in Asgard, but… Tony’s objection was something else altogether. “I don’t…”

“Shit. You do believe it. Wow. That is way more fucked up that I thought. Jesus. They actually raised you to hate your own kind? That is beyond awful. That’s… I don’t even have a word for it.”

“What makes you think it isn’t true?” Loki asked just to give himself some time to think.

“What makes you think it is?” Tony countered. “Do you even know any Frost Giants? Have you ever actually met one? Talked to them?”

“I… No, not really.” His short conversations with Laufey and those few Giants he had led into the vaults didn’t really count, did they?

“So, what are the odds that a whole species – one that is apparently capable of interstellar travel, by the way – is completely bad? Because if you were to look at specific moments of human history – and Asgardian too, I bet – you would think we’re pretty monstrous too.”

Again, Loki had no answer for that. It made sense, though. Why had he never thought about that? Why had he never thought to question what he’d been taught? He knew Odin was a liar, that he would say whatever was more advantageous to him and to Asgard. There had been a war, a long bloody war. Of course the enemy would have been demonized, both during it and in the aftermath, when so many had been lost.

“You’re right. I… I never thought of it that way.” He wasn’t sure he wanted to, right now. It was… Too overwhelming.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make things worse.”

“No, no. Don’t be. I just…”

“It’s too much. I get it. It’s hard having to reexamine your whole life, see things in a new light. Confront some bad choices and all that.”

“Yes. How do you…?”

“Oh, I know all about having the carpet pulled out from under you.”

“What happened?”

Barton had given him the abridged version of Iron Man’s origins. The tale Tony told him now was much more terrible, and it involved yet another betrayal by someone he had believed he could trust – someone who was practically family.

“I never really thought much about what I was doing with my weapons, you know? It was the family business. I just continued what my father had started. It didn’t seem like a bad thing, making weapons for the military. It was patriotic, right? But… I lost control of it, where the weapons were going, what they were being used for. I never meant for innocent people to die because of me.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Loki said. What Loki had done, on the other hand, was his fault. It had all been his decision. To purposefully sabotage Thor’s coronation, to send the Destroyer after him in Midgard, to kill Laufey, to attempt to destroy Jotunheim. Those had been his actions. No one else’s. Odin’s lies and betrayal had played a part in them, yes, but ultimately the responsibility was his. At the time, he had truly believed he was doing the best thing – the only thing. He knew now that it was not true.

He should have just walked away. Perhaps if he’d had anywhere else to go, he might have.

It was too late for what-ifs, though. What was done was done, and he would have to live with it.

He looked at Tony, who still showed no signs of wanting to get rid of Loki, and felt better. He was not alone. Not any more.

That made all the difference.

*****

With Rhodey and Vision on board – and the world’s desperate need for more so-called superheroes – Tony didn’t have too much of a problem convincing the Council that Loki could be a valuable asset. Loki agreed to meet with them and sign the Accords, committing himself to help in the Earth’s defense in exchange for not being handed over to Asgard if Thor ever came calling again.

While all that was being negotiated, Loki continued to show up as often as he could. Tony could hardly blame him for wanting to get the hell away from Asgard. That place was really shitty.

Rhodey’s recovery was going as well as could be expected, and he began hanging out with Tony and Loki. Vision also joined them frequently. It was nice. Like what a real team should be like, Tony realized. Not that mess the Avengers had been. Loki had even offered Rhodey his help in healing his injuries. Unfortunately, it hadn’t really done much. It might have sped up the healing process a bit, but Rhodey would still need quite a lot of physical therapy before he could walk again. He would get back on his feet eventually, though, so they were all happy enough, and Rhodey was grateful to Loki for trying.

“You know he’s got the hots for you, right?” Rhodey said one day, a couple of weeks after the initial meeting.

“What?”

Tony was still developing the braces he’d come up with to help Rhodey walk. His friend might not need them after all, but there were no doubt many people who would benefit from something like that. Stark Industries might as well expand into medical technology. They were in the lab, and Loki had just gone back to Asgard.

“Loki. He’s got the hots for you,” Rhodey repeated.

“No, he doesn’t.”

Rhodey gave him that ‘are you being deliberately dense’ look he occasionally used when Tony was… well, being deliberately dense. It wasn’t the case this time, though.

“He totally does. He looks at you like a starving man eyes a buffet. It’s kind of cute, actually.”

Tony stared at his friend, mind going back through his interactions with the sorcerer. Sure, they flirted sometimes, but it wasn’t serious. Was it?

“Really?”

“Yes, Tony, really. You honestly hadn’t noticed?” When Tony shook his head, Rhodey let out an exaggerated sigh. “You are hopeless.”

“So… Do you think I should do something about it?” Tony was not used to being unsure about things like that. Usually, when he was attracted to someone, he just went for it. More often than not, he got what he wanted; most people were pretty happy at the chance to jump into bed with billionaire Tony Stark. It gave them bragging rights – or something to sell to the tabloids at least. This wasn’t just sex, though. This was… different. It wasn’t just a physical attraction. Tony actually liked Loki.

Rhodey just shook his head again.

Well, shit.

Chapter Text

Steve stared at the TV in disbelief. It could not be true. It made no sense.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Natasha was just as astonished as he was at this turn of events.

Tony Stark stood in front of a sea of journalists, talking casually about the dissolution of the Avengers. Beside him were Rhodes, Vision and… Loki.

“The Avengers Initiative is dead. It was a SHIELD project, and one that, while not entirely without merit, was problematic from the start. Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton have shown themselves utterly unsuited for the job. Barton is in prison awaiting trial on multiple charges. Rogers and Romanoff have been branded terrorists and, while they remain at large at the moment, they will not evade justice forever. Dr Bruce Banner has disappeared and Thor is off-world with no date of return. I am the only one left of the original group. It falls to me, then, to officially declare the Avengers Initiative defunct. The world will not be without protectors, however. I am here also to announce the new team: myself, Colonel James Rhodes – aka War machine –, Vision and Loki. We stand before you today to tell the world who we are and what we intend to do to defend this planet from future attacks both from outer space and from within. We believe in transparency, in honesty, in accountability and in serving the people, not our own interests. In protecting everyone, not just those who are close to us. We believe in the system the Global Defense Accords have set up to guide our actions. And we will do our best to live up to the faith the world has placed in us.”

There was a whole presentation after that, but Steve didn’t pay attention. This couldn’t be happening.

How could Tony do this?

In the weeks since their fight in Siberia, Steve had waited for Tony to come to his senses, to acknowledge the mistakes he had made – in supporting these stupid Accords, in going against the Avengers, in trying to kill Bucky for something he was not responsible for, the list went on – so they could put this all behind them. It hadn’t happened.

Steve had wanted to send Tony a letter, to open communications (because even though it was Tony who had been wrong, Steve could be the bigger man), but he hadn’t been able to. T’Challa had refused to deliver it, claiming that it would compromise their location. He had also refused to allow Steve to record and upload a video telling the truth about what had happened in what the media had dubbed the ‘Avengers’ Civil War’. Without any way to get a message out there, Steve had had to trust that people would be able to see the truth for themselves, and clearly that wouldn’t be easy, not with the way Tony was manipulating the media.

Not only did Tony not admit to any mistakes, he had publically condemned Steve for everything.

And now this. Spitting in the face of everything the Avengers stood for. Calling Steve a terrorist, putting god damned Loki up there, as if the man hadn’t tried to kill them all. How could he do that? Steve had known Tony couldn’t be trusted, but this was too much.

Worse, people seemed to be eating it up.

“Nat?”

Natasha had not really talked to him much since they had arrived in Wakanda. She was upset about how things had ended. It was understandable, of course; Steve was pretty damned upset himself, but they needed to stick together. They were the only ones left now.

It didn’t sit right with him that Clint and Sam were in prison. Steve had wanted to go break them out. He and Nat could have taken one of the Wakandan’s jets; they had stealth capabilities, apparently. T’Challa had, once again, refused to help them. No amount of pleading had been enough to persuade him, and Steve had been forced to give up. In truth, he had begun to worry that T’Challa would go back on his promise to help Bucky, so he didn’t push as much as he might have.

When Natasha didn’t respond, Steve turned so he could see her. “Nat? What are you thinking?”

The look she gave him was not a friendly one. It was, in fact, a very hostile one.

“I’m thinking that we are completely screwed.”

Well, he couldn’t quite disagree with that right at the moment, but surely things would get better. They just needed to keep fighting.

“We can’t give up, Nat. Once we tell our side of the story, it will–”

“What? Get better?” She snorted. “You don’t get it, Steve. It’s over. It’s all over and we lost. Do you understand? We lost. We’re fucked. How many times do I have to tell you? There is no way out of this one now. Fucking Loki, of all people, is there, right beside Stark, and we’re not. We are here, locked up.”

“We’re not locked up,” he protested.

“Really? Have you tried leaving? Because I did, and I got sent right back. This is a prison, Steve, and you’re a fool if you can’t see that.”

Nat had tried to leave? When? Why would she do that? “We haven’t lost,” he insisted. “We only lose when we stop fighting, and I won’t.”

“Then you’re an idiot. The fight is done.”

“Look, this is what they want, okay? To demoralize us, to discredit us. We’re better than that, Nat. I know it looks bad, but it’s not the end. It isn’t.”

Natasha shook her head. “I used to think your stubbornness was admirable, but now you just sound like a child clinging to delusions. I should have seen you for who you really are. Now it’s too late.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

She gave him one last disgusted look and walked out, leaving Steve sitting alone in the spacious room.

None of this should be happening. It didn’t make any sense. Steve had won, damn it.

Hadn’t he?

*****

Just when Natasha thought things couldn’t get any worse, the whole truth about Siberia came out.

Stark had certainly been smart in taking his time to fuck them up. First delaying making a public appearance, making it seem like he was at death’s door. Then, just when people were getting really worried, he’d resurfaced and carried on with his work with the Accords, claiming a determination to protect the world. And all the while SI had been working behind the scenes to gain political power by taking advantage of the situation.

He had remained tight-lipped on the details of his fight with the Avengers so far, allowing people to speculate and draw their own conclusions. The international media had jumped on the chance to condemn Captain America, and she had gotten lumped in with him in a lot of it.

Now suddenly the footage from Siberia was conveniently ‘leaked’, both the video of the Starks’ murder and the fight that followed it. The only saving grace was that T’Challa didn’t appear in the footage, as he had remained in the shadows most of the time.

Natasha had to admit that, seeing it from the outside, it did not look good for them. She had not seen the whole fight, just the beginning of it, so she’d had no idea how bad it had gotten. Steve came off as callous and cold, utterly unmoved by Howard and Maria Stark’s deaths. Worse, he had never tried to reach out to a clearly distraught Stark to de-escalate the fight. Quite the contrary; he was vicious. He honestly looked like he wanted to kill Stark – and, from the video, he seemed to have come close. At the point when the video ended, Stark laid slumped and unconscious, trapped in the disabled suit, Steve’s shield – the would-be murder weapon – visible in the corner of the frame.

Stark gave an official statement attesting the authenticity of the video and confirming what had happened. He said he would be pursuing all legal recourse against Steve and Natasha for concealing the truth about his parents’ death. Even the most ardent Captain America fans were silent in the face of such evidence.

Every article she read, every piece of news she saw were the same: the Avengers were terrorists who should be locked up. Some people were even going so far as to say they deserved the death penalty.

She couldn’t think of any way for her to get out of this, not trapped here in Wakanda with to access to any of her contacts or resources.

The day after the news broke, T’Challa called her and Steve to his office, four of his personal guards standing by at the door.

“In light of recent developments, I am afraid I can no longer allow you to stay in Wakanda,” he said.

Natasha stared him down coldly. “With all due respect, Your Majesty, what recent events? You were there in Siberia with us. You have know all along what happened there.” Natasha noticed that the women looked at each other warily, though they remained in position. “You knew all that when you invited us here.” If they were going down, Natasha would make sure he’d go down too. Perhaps he’d reconsider if he realized they could – and would – implicate him in quite a few crimes.

“You said you’d help us,” Steve said, almost as an accusation.

T’Challa was silent for a while, watching them in anger and resentment. “You are to be confined to the quarters you were given until further notice.” He gestured to the guards, and they stepped forward. Steve tried to protest, but Natasha put a hand on his arm and shook her head. Now was not the time to make a scene. He subsided, though his jaw was clenched tight and he looked ready to fight his way out. God, he was a complete idiot.

Back in their rooms, Steve paced restlessly, muttering under his breath.

She had bought them some breathing room, but it was only a matter of time before T’Challa figured out a way to send them off while covering his own ass.  

“We need to get out of here, Steve,” she said quietly.

Steve sighed. “We can’t. What about Bucky?”

It was all she could do not to punch him in the face. God, he would still not let go. How could she ever have thought that sticking with him was the better option? She dearly wished she had thrown herself at Stark’s mercy back at the airport. It would surely have been better than this.

“Listen to me, Steve. If we stay, we are all going to end up in jail. You, me and your precious Bucky.”

“T’Challa promised–”

“And he is about to go back on that promise to save his own skin. We either move now or lose our chance for good. The world is no longer on our side.”

“We just need to explain–”

“The time for that is long past, Steve. We can explain all we want and it won’t make a lick of difference. Stark has turned the world completely against us. Even President Ellis has denounced you and promised to prosecute us to the fullest extent of the law to appease the Accords Council.”

“If we could just talk to Tony, we can get him to see that these Accords are a bad idea.”

“Are you really that delusional? Stark will never listen to us, not in a million years. And even if we could somehow brainwash him into being on our side, the rest of the world won’t be. It’s over, Steve. How many times do I have to tell you that before you open your fucking eyes!?”

Natasha was at the end of her rope with him. It was like talking to a brick wall. He simply refused to see reality. God, Stark had been right all along. How she hated that. She absolutely hated that he, of all people, had been right and she’d been wrong. She was supposed to be better than this, she was supposed to be able to read people, to get the measure of them, and she’s failed. She’d failed spectacularly.

It had all started with Wanda, she thought. That fucking bitch must have messed with her mind, scrambled her brains. It had been one bad decision after another since then. She should have killed the woman the moment she had the chance. Why did she listen to Steve? Why give a Hydra agent another chance? Wanda had not been like her, not at all.

“I’m getting out of here,” she declared. “If you want to stay and end up sharing a cell with your friend, be my guest. I am not going to prison.”

Whatever she had to do, it would be worth it. She had tried to be a hero, and it had blown up in her face. Maybe it was time to go back to what she’d been trained to do. Clearly she was not hero material. Screw wiping the red off her ledger. She much preferred to be alive and free. The world had never done much for her, why should she care about anyone else?

*****

Loki arrived at the Tower and headed for Tony’s lab as Jarvis gave him the latest updates. It seemed that Tony had identified a potential new recruit for their little group.

“Nothing yet on Rogers and Romanoff?” he asked.

“I’m afraid not. Friday and I are still searching. They will surface eventually. The entire world is looking for them.”

Loki smiled. The ExVengers (as the media now called them) had fallen from grace quite irreversibly since Jarvis had leaked the footage from the Hydra base. It was delightful to see, really. If Asgard had had something like the internet, Loki might have been able to showcase Thor’s ineptitude to everyone and not just Odin. Things might have worked out differently if he’d had that option.

He no longer cared all that much about Asgard, though. As soon as Odin woke up, Loki would leave them to their fate. He still intended to do all he could to defeat Thanos for good, but he would do so beside Stark and his human allies. They might not be as physically strong as the Aesir, yet they were better in every other conceivable way.

It was a shame that Banner was still missing; the Hulk would have been a formidable foe against the Titan and his army. Tony was actually beginning to get worried that something had happened to his friend.

In the lab, the sight that greeted him was one Loki had become familiar with. Tony was sitting in one of his work stations, multiple screens opened and hovering in the air in front of him. He tweaked one here, another there, giving Jarvis and Friday instructions about five things at once. There were plans for his suit, new amendments to the Accords document, things for his company and several other Loki couldn’t identify at all. In was quite chaotic, yet Tony seemed perfectly at ease with it all, never faltering or getting confused. He was like a sorcerer working an intricate spell.

He was magnificent. There was simply no other word for it.

Tony turned in Loki’s direction and smiled warmly, making Loki want to rush over and kiss the life out of him – an urge that grew more and more constant with each passing day. Keep your head, Loki.

“Hey, Lokes. Come on in.”

“I understand we might have a new ally soon,” Loki said, in the hopes of distracting himself from his lustful thoughts.

“Yeah, maybe. There’s this kid in Queens. Seems to have some kind of spider powers or something. I’m thinking of going over to meet him, see what he’s about.”

Loki nodded, though if pressed he would probably not be able to say what he’d just heard. There was a small grease smudge in Tony’s forehead that Loki could not take his eye off of, fingers itching to reach over and… best not go there. Focus, Loki.

“Wow. I really have not been paying attention. I’m not usually this dumb.”

“What?” Now Loki was really confused. He’d obviously missed something while he was drooling over Tony. “Sorry, what did you say?”

“I said that I actually really did miss the fact that you are totally into me.”

Loki froze. Damn.

Before he could work himself into a panic, though, Tony continued. “Anyway, as it happens… I think you’re pretty hot too, so… Wanna make out?” His eyes twinkled and his smile turned mischievous and seductive.

How could Loki possibly resist?

Next thing he knew, he had Tony’s face between his hands and was, at long last, kissing the man senseless. It was even better than his fantasies.

Tony was not at all shy, and clawed at Loki’s clothes with wild abandon.

“Kids, hold my calls,” Tony said breathlessly as Loki mouthed his way down his jaw. “I’m not to be disturbed for anything short of the world ending.”

“The world had better not be peril for the next few hours,” Loki said. “I have a lot of plans for you.”

“Fuck, yeah.”

They moved to the couch in the workshop eventually, and from there – much later – to Tony’s bed in the penthouse.

It did not surprise Loki to find that Tony was an ardent and eager lover. Everything about the man was fierce and passionate; his brilliance, his determination, his courage. He was like an open flame, burning brightly and scorching everything around him. Loki had felt drawn to him from the very beginning, when Tony had stood, unarmored and unafraid, confident in himself in a way Loki himself had never quite managed to be. If he had been frightened at the time of the invasion, he had hidden it well enough that Loki had not seen it. All he’d seen was a fearless warrior ready to defend his world.

“Can you stay?” Tony asked as they laid tangled in each other, bodies still tingling with remembered pleasure.

He really shouldn’t. Being away for long periods of time made him more likely to be discovered. If someone were to try to reach Odin and couldn’t because he wasn’t there, it would arouse suspicion. However, he couldn’t bring himself to care at the moment. He was far too content to move – far more than he had been in longer than he could recall – and going back to Asgard was absolutely the last thing he would want to do. He hated it there, hated being Odin. For once, he would do something for himself and worry about the rest later.

“Yes, I’ll stay,” he said, and was rewarded with a wicked grin from his lover. Oh, he liked that word.

“Awesome. I have a few more ideas to try out.”

Loki gave him a dirty grin in response. “I might have a few of my own.”

At one time, he might be questioning everything about this, suspicious of every little thing. Now, he was just going to go with it and enjoy it while it lasted. He was due for something good for once, wasn’t he?

He could only hope the universe wasn’t about to fuck him over again.

*****

When Tony woke up in the morning, Loki was still there, wrapped around him like an octopus. Tony wasn’t usually the cuddly type, but he decided he quite liked this. It had been a long time since he had woken beside someone, and he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed it. Not just the sex – though that had been pretty amazing, of course – the sense of connection, of being seen and understood. That had always been a rare thing in his life, and he was determined to keep it now.

Several months ago, when he had first considered his attraction to Loki, it had been mostly that, an attraction. Somehow, over the course of their acquaintance, things had changed. His feelings had changed and grown. And now that he knew Loki better, he didn’t think pursuing this was a bad idea anymore. Loki was not the megalomaniac who had invaded Earth with an army at his back. He wasn’t the deceitful scheming criminal Asgard had thrown in a dungeon. It was not to say that he hadn’t done bad things, he certainly had (though, really, that seemed to have a lot to do with a pretty shitty upbringing and general awful atmosphere in crazy Viking land). Or that he wasn’t capable of causing a great deal of trouble if he so choose; he could, after all, teleport, shapeshift and a lot of other things Tony was only beginning to understand. Still, what one could do was vastly different from what one actually did. Fury and his buddies at SHIELD/Hydra would no doubt want to lock Loki up (Asgard sure had) out of fear. But Loki wasn’t necessarily a bad guy. He could be, just as Tony himself could – which was probably why Fury and Romanoff had tried so hard to manipulate him into being their sugar daddy. Given better options, however, Loki could be a great ally – and a great friend. Maybe more.

It was a chance Tony was one hundred percent willing to take. Not just for Earth’s defense, but for himself. Loki could be a partner, an equal, and that… that was something Tony really wanted. He was really damned tired of being alone. 

Loki stirred and began to nuzzle Tony’s neck.

“Morning,” Tony said.

“Hmm,” was the reply he got. Clearly Loki wasn’t much of a morning person. It was kind of adorable, Tony thought.

“You thinking of getting up any time soon?”

“Wasn’t planning on it, no. There are a lot of better things to do right here.”

Tony laughed. “Well, can’t argue with that.”

Loki let go just long enough to change position and straddle Tony. He then proceeded to kiss his way down Tony’s body, eliciting strangled moans from him.

I can definitely get used to this.

A while later, Tony stretched languidly and got up. Not because he wanted to, mind, but because the need to pee had gotten too strong to ignore. In the bathroom, he emptied his bladder, splashed some water on his face and considered the very obvious hickeys all over his neck. If he went out in public like that, the media would have a field day speculating on who his mystery lover could be. Now that his breakup with Pepper had been announced, it would be very juicy news indeed. People loved a good piece of gossip, after all.

Tony really didn’t feel like dealing with all that just now. “Jarvis, do I have to go somewhere today? Any meetings or whatever?”

“Nothing that cannot be postponed, Sir.”

“Great. Do that, then.”

“As you wish. And may I say, Sir, that I am gratified to see you happy.”

Tony actually blushed a bit at that. He was kinda happy, wasn’t he? Who would have thought? “Thanks, J.”

Loki was still in bed when he returned to the bedroom. He did not, however, look all that happy, and Tony’s heart plummeted.

“Something wrong?” he asked, trying for nonchalance and probably failing miserably.

“I have to go.” Loki sighed. “I don’t want to. I hate that damned place.”

Oh, Tony thought, relief flooding through him. “Then don’t. Stay.” He sat next to Loki and ran a hand through his soft hair. Stay with me.

“I wish I could. But… Thor is still not back. I can’t leave the realm completely defenseless, without a regent.”

“I see.” Yep, Tony knew all about falling on that sword of having to keep shit going even when he didn’t want to. “You can’t wake Odin up?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. If I do, though, he’ll know I’m not dead. He might come after me.”

“Let him try. I’ll kick his ass all the way back to Asgard, the racist bastard.”

Loki laughed and kissed him again. At this rate, neither of them was going to get out of this bed any time soon.

“You’re perfect,” Loki said.

For the second time that day, Tony found himself blushing. “You’re pretty wonderful yourself.” God, when did he turn into such a sap?

Eventually, though, Loki actually had to leave, no matter how little he wanted to. And Tony had things to do as well, like checking out this Spider-Kid.

Considering they had no idea when Thanos was going to turn up, it was important to get the new team up and running as soon as possible, so Tony headed to Queens that afternoon. He was not really very comfortable with the fact that the kid really was a kid; it was not a figure of speech or some condescending bullshit to make people less responsible for their actions (like Rogers had tried to do with Maximoff). If he was right about the guy’s identity – and of course he was – he was on his way to see Peter Parker, aged 15.

If it wasn’t for the very real threat they were facing, Tony would have left the kid alone. Unfortunately, there was a disturbing lack of superheroes lately, so he might as well see if the kid had potential.

The kid’s aunt clearly had no clue what the boy had been up to, and Tony wasn’t going to be the one to enlighten her. At least not before getting the measure of the kid. He gave Ms Parker the internship excuse and she bought it easily enough. Tony felt a bit guilty for lying to her, but it couldn’t be helped.

The way the kid’s eyes bugged out when he saw who was sitting on his couch was kinda funny though.

“Here he is,” Tony said. “The newest SI intern.”

“In- Intern?”

“Yes. For the program you applied for.” Tony gave him what he hoped was a significant look.

“Right, that program. I… I got in? Really? Wow.” Peter smiled tightly. Not the best actor in the world, clearly, but he was only 15. If he wanted to keep a secret identity for much longer, though, he was going to have to step up his game in matters of deception.

“So, I need to go over some things with you. For the internship.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure. I mean, yeah. Uhm. Great.” Kid definitely needed some coaching in the fine art of obfuscation.

Ms Parker beamed proudly and shooed them off to the kid’s bedroom.

“Hmm, Mr Stark… I don’t… I never actually applied for any internship. I mean, I would totally want to, really, that would be awesome, but… uhm…”

God, this kid was adorable. “I know that, kid. I’m here about something else.” He took out his phone and played the footage Friday had found of the kid swinging about and kicking a truck. “Those are some pretty nifty powers there.”

The boy froze like a deer in headlights. “That’s… uhm… That’s not me. Why would you think that’s me?” he squealed unconvincingly.

“Kid, you’ve really gotta learn to lie better. That was just sad.”

“I’m not… I’m not lying. I’m not… that’s not me.”

“Right. Of course.” As the boy squirmed, Tony looked around quickly and figured out where his little superhero get-up was probably hidden. Within seconds, he had the bundle of clothes out in the open. “Wanna try that again?” Peter opened and closed his mouth like a fish, and Tony felt a bit bad for freaking him out. “Relax, I’m not here to bust you up. As it happens, I’m in a recruiting mood today.”

“Re- Recruiting? For… like, the Avengers? I mean, the new team. What is that called anyway? For… for that? Me?”

“Yes, you. For the new, as yet unnamed, team. What do you say?”

For a moment, Peter just stared at him, then he let out a strangled sound and actually hugged Tony.

“Oh, my god! Mr Stark, that is… like, the best thing ever.”

Dear lord, he really is 15. What the hell am I supposed to do with him now?

“Okay, okay, settle down. First, you need to prove to me that you can do this, ‘cause right now I’m starting to have second thoughts.” And third and fourth and fifth too. This was such a bad idea.

Peter tried to sober up, as it were, and gave Tony what was probably his most serious grown-up look. “I… I’ve got these powers, Mr Stark. I didn’t ask for them, but… My uncle used to say that with great power comes great responsibility.” Oh, if Rogers could hear that, Tony thought. Out of the mouth of babes… “So, I… I’d like to do my part. For the world and… you know, everyone.” The kid look so earnest and honest that Tony’s heart melted.

They talked for over two hours about all sorts of things. Peter told him how he’d gotten his powers, his uncle’s death, how he’d developed the web fluid and shooters he used, all the things he’d done as Spider-Man (mainly stopping muggings in his neighborhood), and his plans for the future both as a superhero and not. The boy wanted to pursue a career in biochemistry, and Tony promised he’d help him. Tony also learned the kid was a huge geek (as well as an Iron Man fan, and, for the first time ever, Tony felt a little embarrassed by the boy’s obvious admiration), and decided that he was going to make the internship real after all because Peter seemed like a very talented kid. Also, he needed to make the kid a new suit asap; those pajamas he was wearing were a disaster and an offense to Tony’s sensibilities. In short, by the time Tony left, he almost wanted to take the kid home with him.

He told Rhodey and Vision all about his visit, and they debated how to help train the boy. He was to be a reserve member only, of course, but they all agreed that Peter needed supervision. They might as well be the ones to do it before the kid got himself in over his head and got hurt.

“So,” Rhodey said after they had exhausted the subject of Spider-Man. “Is there something you want to tell us, Tones? Maybe something related to that hickey on your neck?”

Shit, Tony had totally forgotten about that. He hoped it hadn’t been that obvious to Peter and his aunt – they certainly hadn’t mentioned it.

Vision leaned in and tilted his head, as if he hadn’t noticed it until now. Well, he probably hadn’t. It didn’t seem like the kind of thing he was used to analyzing.

“Well, it turns out you were right,” Tony told Rhodey. “About Loki.”

Rhodey laughed and clapped Tony on the shoulder. “Of course I was right. Did you doubt me? So, come on, tell us.” When Tony opened his mouth, Rhodey continued quickly. “Not the dirty details. I don’t need that. Just the general gist is fine.”

Tony pouted theatrically. “But you can’t get the full picture without the details. And besides, how is Vision going to learn?”

Vision actually looked a little horrified. “I don’t think I need to learn these things. It’s not as if… well. Anyway, I will be content with the… G-rated version, as it were.”

Tony laughed, then proceeded to tell his friends all about his new (he hoped) boyfriend. Sometimes it was good to be alive.

Chapter Text

Loki teleported to his quarters in Asgard and quickly felt his mood sour. Everything about the Golden Realm annoyed him now: the guards at their posts throughout the palace, the ostentatious decorations everywhere he looked that tried to proclaim Aesir’s superiority, the warriors doing their drills in the fighting grounds, the nobles with their obnoxious posturing, the High Council filled with stupid old men stuck in the glories of the past. Even the general population who showed up to petition this or that made him weary. Norns, how he hated this place.

Every time he returned, he wished it could be the last time. He had already begun to take some of his more important belongings to Midgard so he could be ready to depart for good when the time finally came. Really, it could not come soon enough.

Being in Asgard was an exercise in patience and self-control these days. It had always been so, it was true, but never to this extent. Now that Loki actually had somewhere better to be, it was sheer agony to have to endure the place he had lived in for centuries (centuries of bitterness, misery and self-doubt). Frigga had always managed to make it more bearable; with her gone, there was little to like about it anymore.

Midgard, on the other hand, was a balm to his soul. Tony in particular was a beacon of hope that Loki had desperately needed. Their relationship had given Loki a new appreciation for life – and a renewed determination to kill Thanos and abandon Asgard once and for all. It was everything Loki could have wanted and more. The more suspicious part of him occasionally worried that it was too good to be true and would eventually blow up in his face quite spectacularly, but for now he had decided to just enjoy it.

There had been many wonderful mornings spent lazing about in bed together, and many nights (and afternoons) of passionate lovemaking that made Loki’s whole body tingle in remembrance. There had also been invigorating discussions on all sorts of topics – including magic, which Loki was always happy to talk about –, his continuous forays into Midgardian ‘pop culture’ through movies and books, and shared meals with not just Tony but Rhodes and Vision as well. Despite his reservations, it seemed the people of Midgard had accepted Loki well enough.

All in all, it meant that Loki wanted to be there, not here. And the fact that he couldn’t – at least not yet – was very irritating.

There was a knock on the door and Loki sighed, putting on his Odin disguise. Norns, he hated that too.

“Allfather,” the servant said once ‘Odin’ had bid him enter. “Prince Thor and his companions have returned.”

“Very well. I will see them in the throne room.”

Loki really didn’t feel like dealing with his brother right now – and his idiot friends even less. Unfortunately, he did not have much choice.

They seemed perfectly fine, no injuries or even scratches to their armor; they must have been terribly disappointed about the absence of dangerous battles.

“Father,” Thor said as he knelt down. His friends followed suit and Loki idly remembered their distinct lack of respect when Loki had occupied the throne as himself. At the time, it had hurt; now, he couldn’t care less. They were nothing to him.

“What have you to report?” Loki asked. He hoped he could get this over with quickly, lest he lose his patience completely and end up revealing himself.

“We have ascertained that the Power Stone is protected with the Nova Corp in Xandar, and the Aether remains safe with the Collector. Of the others Stones I have no news.” He went on to detail his ‘adventures’ a bit more and Loki had to pretend interest. There was nothing useful in anything Thor had to say, and the whole thing felt like a giant waste of time. Time he could be spending in Midgard with Tony.

Later, Thor requested a private audience, and Loki couldn’t think of a decent excuse to deny him.

“I would like to go to Midgard, Father, to see how my shield brothers are faring.”

This was exactly what Loki had been dreading. Thor would ruin it all like he always did if he was allowed to go. So, he would not let him. It was only a temporary fix, but it would at least give Loki time to speak to Tony and come up with a plan of action.

“You have duties here, Thor,” Loki said, and came up with a few things Thor really should do – things that he had always neglected because they were not ‘fun’ or battle-related. If Thor was really serious about being a good king, it was high time he learned what ruling a kingdom actually entailed from a practical side instead of relying on his rather limited imagination.

Thor looked for a moment as if he was going to argue, but ‘Odin’ levelled him with a stern glare and he subsided. “Yes, Father.”

Although Loki rather hated Asgard right now, it did not mean he wanted the whole realm to fall into ruin. Perhaps this would be a good opportunity to set Thor on the right path. Since Odin had failed terribly at teaching Thor how to be a good king, it was up to Loki to do something. His one last act for Asgard before he left it for good.

In truth, a few days later Loki was surprised by Thor’s diligence in his new responsibilities. While the thunderer could not be said to be happy about it, he was, at least, doing everything he was asked with minimal complaint. It was almost enough to make Loki suspect Thor had been replaced by an impostor as well. A discreet spell proved that it was indeed Thor, and Loki couldn’t help remark on the change as they went over the next batch of petitions.

“I know I have been remiss in these matters before, Father. I… I want to do better.” Loki hummed noncommittally and waited for Thor to continue. “I have done some thinking while I was away, about the future. Mother and Loki both told me many times that I needed to think more and… it is time to do that. I… I miss them, Father. Especially Loki.”

Loki had no idea what to say to that. He excused himself as soon as possible and, later that night, went to Midgard.

Tony welcomed him with open arms, and for a while, Loki was able to forget all the conflicting emotions Thor had unleashed. Later, entwined in bed with his lover, he started to try to make sense of his feelings by speaking to Tony about them.

“Maybe he won’t go ballistic if he finds out you’re alive after all,” Tony said. “If he really is willing to turn over a new leaf, he could be an ally. To you personally and our cause.”

Loki pursed his lips, unsure if he believed that. It was hard to trust Thor these days. There had been too much conflict between them, too much hurt. Thor had never really understood Loki and, worse, had never actually seen him as an equal. Plus, Loki had heard this song and dance about being a changed person before, and it had turned out to be, if not an outright lie, at least a misrepresentation of the truth. Thor might not be quite as hotheaded as before, but he still had a long way to go to be considered sensible.

“And if he isn’t?”

“Then we’ll deal with it. Together.”

Together. That was such a nice word. Maybe it would be all right after all.

*****

Wanda Maximoff’s trial had come to an end; she had been found guilty of all charges. The Sokovian government had sentenced her to 30 years. They had wanted the death penalty, but human rights groups had protested against it. Her powers were gone for good, so she no longer represented a huge threat to the world, they argued. Tony honestly couldn’t care one way or another. As long as the psycho ex-witch was far away from him and prevented from being able to hurt anyone else, he was fine with it.

Her verdict prompted new public discussion on the fate of Clint Barton and Sam Wilson. Barton had, technically, fewer charges against him, yet with the SHIELD info dump, his past as an assassin was out there for the world to see, and it did not generate much sympathy towards him. He claimed he had no idea about the Hydra infestation within SHIELD, but that didn’t seem to carry much weight. After all, SHIELD and Hydra were not that different. They were both clandestine organizations operating without any kind of oversight with murky goals that no one could quite pin down – and that didn’t care a whit about such pesky things as human rights and due process.

Wilson had actively been involved in the disaster in Lagos and Bucharest, which had ignited a great deal of anti-American sentiment outside the US. Who did this guy think he was to invade a foreign country and blow shit up? people were asking. The US was not king of the world, and it was high time its citizens realized that.

Tony had not spoken to either of them, and he had no intention of doing so. He had turned over all pertinent evidence he possessed to the proper authorities and had washed his hands of the matter entirely. He was far too busy with his own work to give them much thought anyway.

He was also busy with his new relationship. Being with Loki was fantastic. Not only was the sex amazing, but he also truly enjoyed the man’s company. He really should have paid closer attention to things; they had wasted a lot of time pining unnecessarily. Still, he couldn’t complain. Sometimes thing just took their time, and that was fine. The important thing was that he was pretty damn happy with his life now.

He had gotten rid of the dead weight of the Avengers for good (though he wished it hadn’t come at the price it had). He was making strides in dealing with his grief and anger over what had happened to his parents with the full support of his friends. The Accords and their defense plans were going as well as could be expected, and the nightmares of another invasion no longer plagued him quite so much. He’d met with Peter Parker several times now and the boy was an absolute delight. The new Spider-suit and its AI had been finished so Peter had begun training with those – as well as the rest of the (still unnamed) group. Public support was at an all time high for him – and for Loki too. The fact that Loki had saved his life twice (and had stripped Wanda of her powers) had gone a long way towards endearing him to the public. There were still some people who hated all so-called superheroes and powered people, and Tony personally, but those seemed to be a small minority these days.

This time, Tony had insisted on a PR campaign for the new group, to make sure the public knew and trusted them, and everyone had readily agreed. No more Rogers looking down his nose at Tony, acting as if doing an interview was beneath him and Tony was a horrible person for even asking it. This time, they would do it right: interviews, public appearances, social media presence, the works. Tony got together a team to handle it all and was gratified that it was going smoothly so far.

Loki really was incredibly charming when he wanted to be, and he had gained a lot of fans quickly. Rhodey was a bit more reserved, but he knew how the game was played and he did it well. Vision was still a bit shy, though he was gaining more confidence with each passing day. He talked to Jarvis and Friday a lot, and the AIs seemed to be helping him.

Tony was, however, worried about Bruce. He should have found the man by now. Even the quinjet he had ‘borrowed’ after the fight in Sokovia remained unaccounted for, and that was… impossible. It was Stark tech, so tracking it should not have been difficult, even if Bruce had dismantled the transponder. It didn’t make any sense. The only explanation he could think of was that the jet (and Bruce) had somehow managed to get off the planet. A few years ago, Tony wouldn’t have considered the possibility, but now that he knew there was a whole lot of life out there in the universe, it wasn’t that far-fetched. Loki had agreed that it was possible. Unfortunately, they had no way of confirming it or discovering where Bruce might have ended up. Loki had promised to keep an eye out anyway.

Another worrying issue was Thor. Loki was stalling him in Asgard for the moment, but he wouldn’t be able to keep it up forever without arousing suspicion. Despite what he’d told Loki, Tony was far from sure that Thor could be trusted. He’d never been particularly close to Thor while the Avenger had been chasing the specter. Not because he hadn’t liked the guy, just because they didn’t seem to have much in common. After the Ultron debacle, though, Tony had felt a lot less charitable towards the Asgardian – his violent reaction to Tony’s supposed guilt over Ultron had been disproportional and alarming. It was easy to forget how much stronger Thor was, and how effortlessly he could kill a human if he so chose. Still, Tony hadn’t seen the man since, and perhaps Thor really had done some thinking and soul searching.

They would have to deal with it eventually, though. Tony would stand by Loki no matter what, and he was sure he would not be alone in that. As much as he dreaded it, it would be better to get it done soon. All this anxiety wasn’t good for him – or for Loki.

*****

It had taken a couple of weeks of careful observation and planning before they were able to put their escape plans in motion. Steve was still not convinced about leaving Bucky, but Natasha was done catering to his childish clinging. There was no way to unfreeze Bucky without alerting the whole of Wakanda to what they were planning, and no way to take him while frozen. Therefore, there was no choice except to let Bucky stay. If they didn’t take this chance now, they would not have another, she told Steve over and over until it sunk in. T’Challa had said nothing about handing Bucky over to anyone, and still seemed bound by his guilty feelings of misguided revenge. It was very likely, Natasha insisted, that he would keep his word to keep Bucky safe. (Also, handing Bucky over would mean admitting he had him in the first place, and T’Challa had to know that would put him in a very precarious position with the world. She did not say that to Steve, though. There was no point. He wouldn’t understand it.)

Wakanda seemed to have been designed to keep people out – to keep the world ignorant of the technological marvels they had been able to achieve – not to keep people in. As far as Natasha could tell, no one ever left the country unless they had a specific, government sanctioned, mission. Once they had learned the pattern of the guards and possible escape routes (and had hopefully fooled T’Challa into thinking they wouldn’t try anything), she was confident they could pull it off. The Dora Milaje – the king’s personal guards – were good, but they were not superhuman. Steve was, and Natasha still had a few of her widow bites. It would have to be enough.

The more difficult part would be after they crossed the border. Neither of them would be able to blend in very well in this part of Africa, and their faces had been plastered on the news in ‘most wanted’ posters all over the world. They would not be able to stay under the radar for long. On the plus side, local forces would not stand a chance against them, and it would take time for Stark and his new team to show up. Even if they were spotted, they’d be able to get away before the real enemy arrived.

When the time had finally come, Natasha had to wait for Steve to say goodbye to Bucky – and Nat hoped he wouldn’t be too obvious about it. In all honesty, she would have preferred to escape alone, but she knew it wouldn’t work. As much as it grated her admit it, right now she needed him. Afterward, however, she’d probably end up dumping him at the first opportunity. It would be much easier to stay hidden without him.

“Are you sure we should leave, Nat?” Steve asked, eyes gazing longingly in the direction of the lab where Bucky was.

“You heard T’Challa. He doesn’t want us here. We either go ourselves or get handed over.” She didn’t even know why she was bothering to answer. They had already been over it a dozen times. God, the man was infuriating.  “Let’s go.”

Natasha remembered where the hangar was from when they had arrived, so that was where they were heading; it would be foolish to escape on foot. Of course, they would then have to leave the jet behind quickly or risk being tracked. Nat didn’t think T’Challa would kick much of a fuss if they got out, as he wouldn’t want to call unwanted attention to himself. In fact, he would probably be glad to have them gone. At least that was what she was counting on; otherwise they’d end up right back where they’d started pretty fast.

Their first obstacle was the couple of guards stationed outside their ‘designated area’. Steve and Nat acted quickly and, with the element of surprise on their side, were able to knock them down and stuff them in a supply closet. The walk to the hangar was not a long one, and they encountered no problems. Getting into the jet, however, proved to be more of a challenge. The Wakandan systems were different from what she was used to, so it took her longer than she would have liked to bypass its security to allow them entrance. Fortunately, no one showed up, and eventually they took off. Flying it was also a bit more complicated than she’d anticipated, but they managed it.

Nat did not allow herself to relax just yet, though. They still needed to get out of the country without being shot down.

Barely five minutes into the air, they got an incoming transmission from what she assumed was the Wakandan flight control. As they were speaking Xhosa, neither Nat nor Steve could understand a word of it. They would not have replied anyway, but it bothered Nat that she didn’t know how bad things were about to get.

“This jet must have weapons,” she told Steve. “Find out how it works.”

Steve stared at the controls (which were also not in English) in confusion, and Nat cursed silently. Steve might be very good at fighting, but he was pretty useless with technology he was not familiar with (which was pretty much everything). This would have been a lot easier with Clint, she thought. Of course, if Clint was here, she wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place. While Clint might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, he was not the stubborn idiot Steve was, and knew when to retreat and cut his losses – and how to keep his head no matter the situation.

The person speaking repeated the same message several times, but nothing else happened, and they continued on their way unimpeded.

“Looks like we made it,” Steve said once they had left Wakanda behind. He smiled, looking proud of himself as if he’d had anything to do with their escape. Nat was pretty sure that T’Challa had let them leave, which worked just as well for her. Let him believe he was off the hook, she could still use that information at any time.

Natasha didn’t said anything, keeping her eyes on the screen. Now came the hard part.

*****

It had been two days since they’d left Wakanda. They had packed supplies, of course, but not that much as they had not wanted to attract suspicion and thus food was running low. Steve had grown unaccustomed to hunger after all this time in the future, where food was plentiful and readily available. Being on the run with very little money, however, meant that they couldn’t just get whatever they wanted when they needed it. Steve hated it. What the hated even more, though, was being away from Bucky. After all he’d done, all he’d sacrificed, Bucky had once again slipped through his fingers.

And it was all Tony’s fault. Once again Steve had lost something important – precious – because of Tony.

He knew now that Tony wasn’t going to apologize for trying to kill Bucky, for destroying the Avengers, or for anything else. Tony had not just abandoned everything they had fought to build, but had scorched the Earth behind him as well. Steve should have known it was going to come to this. The signs had all been there from the beginning. Tony simply couldn’t see beyond himself, he always had to make it about his ego, about his need to be the hero. And ever since they had discovered Wanda’s awful plans, Tony had been gunning for Steve, being openly hostile and insulting at every opportunity, as if it had been his fault that Wanda had manipulated him into letting her be an Avenger.

There were times when Steve wondered if Loki was somehow involved in Tony’s change of attitude towards the Avengers. In his more charitable moments, he thought that perhaps the inventor was being manipulated. He and Loki certainly looked cozy these days. It was sickening, really. Then Steve would remember that Bucky was gone – again – and it was hard not to be angry. It was hard not to believe that Tony had done all that – the Accords, the fight in Siberia – on purpose, to get back at Steve for whatever petty reason he had. It was not a nice thought, but sometimes Steve wished Tony hadn’t come back from that portal at all.

Steve sighed to himself and tried, in vain, to get comfortable. He was hidden in a dilapidated house, one that appeared to have been abandoned years ago. Natasha had told him that this area had been plagued by armed conflicts for a few years, so most of the people had fled to safer locations. It was ideal for a couple of fugitives, she’d said, and Steve had hated that that was what they were now.

She had been gone for several hours now, in search of food and some kind of transportation to make their journey easier. Steve had wanted to go with her, but she’d argued that he stood out far too much; a woman, even a white one, was not normally seen as a threat, whereas a man as big as him was bound to attract a lot of attention if he was spotted. Though he hated it, Steve had had to concede the point.

Still, she should have been back by now. Something must have happened. Perhaps she had been caught. Once again, Steve grumbled to himself about their situation. It should not have come to this; alone in hostile territory, no way to communicate with each other or anyone who could help them, lurking in the shadows forced to scavenge for food and basic items. Steve was sick to death of all this. Most of all, he missed Bucky. He’d barely had two days with his best friend before he was taken from him again.

After another couple of hours, Steve had to acknowledge that something was wrong. For a while, he pondered what to do. He had neither money nor food (god, how he missed the Compound), and no idea in which direction Nat had gone. If he left to go find her, he risked going the wrong way and missing her completely. On the other hand, if she was in trouble, she might need his help. Plus he couldn’t stay here indefinitely.

In the end, he decided to go. Inactivity had never sat well with him, even when he had been forced into it (especially then, as a matter of fact). It was always better to try to do something, however ineffective it turned out to be. He was Captain America, chosen for that honor because he was a good man. He would not cower in a corner while the world condemned him. No, he would fight. Plant himself like a tree and tell the world to move.

By dusk, he had no idea where he was (not that he’d known before, in truth). There was no sign of Nat. He had passed very few people on his way, but he hadn’t dared approach any of them. He should not have agreed to let Nat go. It had been a mistake to split up.

As he walked, he thought about Sam and Clint, wondering what was happening to them. From what the news had said, they were to be tried for several crimes. It made Steve’s blood boil to think his friends were being put through that when they had been doing the right thing. They had been fighting to keep the Avengers out of other people’s control, to be able to retain their independence so they could save the world. It still astonished him how blind people could be – and how ungrateful. Steve should have told Nat to use their borrowed jet to go free their teammates, but at the time he had been so preoccupied with escaping – and with the awful thought that Bucky was staying behind – that the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. He had been way off his game since discovering Wanda’s deception. More and more he wondered how much she might have tampered with his mind, and the idea scared him a lot.

When night fell completely, Steve was forced to take shelter in an old building. It was cold, and he lay shivering the whole night, barely getting any rest.

In the morning, he continued walking with no destination. He was in a more populated area now, but he kept going because there was nowhere else to go. Something would have to give, he thought. He would find a way out of this nightmare. He had always prevailed before no matter the odds, surely he would do so again. The alternative didn’t bear thinking about.

He was tired, hungry, thirsty and cold. He was also angry and despondent with the way things had gone. Then, of course, things got even worse.

A man bumped into him and the hood covering Steve’s face slipped off. A couple from across the street gasped and began shouting, and soon everyone was staring at him with wide fearful eyes. Steve couldn’t understand what they were saying, but it seemed obvious that he’d been recognized.

He took a step forward, hands up to show he meant no harm. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m not gonna hurt anyone. I just need some help.”

It was no good. People screamed and fled, getting into houses and buildings as if Steve had the plague. Damn Tony and his fear mongering campaign.

Steve had to leave the area quickly. He hoped he’d be able to get away before the Accords people showed up. He could take them down, of course, but what good would it do? He couldn’t spend the rest of his life running away like a criminal. He was not a criminal. He was a hero.

Barely an hour later, hiding in yet another abandoned building, Steve heard a familiar sound approaching.

Iron Man.

Damn it, how did he get here so fast? It wasn’t possible. Tony was all the way in the US, he could not be here now.

“I know you’re there, Rogers. Come out with your hands on your head. No one needs to get hurt here.”

Just hearing Tony’s voice made Steve want to punch him.

“I wouldn’t quite say that,” another voice said, sounding much too close.

Steve swirled around and found himself face to face with Loki.

“Hello, captain,” he spat out the title with contempt. “You are not going to get away this time.”

Steve attacked immediately, but his every punch was blocked with ease.

“Is that the best you can do?” Loki mocked, and Steve renewed his efforts. He dearly wished for his shield now. He shouldn’t have left it behind.

Steve finally managed to land a punch, only to be knocked down by a wave of green magic. When he regained his feet, there were five Lokis surrounding him, all with expressions of the utmost disdain, as if Steve was dirt under his boots.

The first one Steve tackled disappeared into nothing the second he touched the illusion, and Steve fell on his face. The second try yielded the same result. The rest of the Lokis laughed.

“How pathetic you are. Tell me, where is the little traitorous spider?”

“I won’t tell you anything,” Steve hissed, looking around for something that could give him an advantage.

Loki grinned wickedly. “That’s all right. We can find her without you easily enough. I just thought it was interesting that she abandoned you, although hardly surprising.”

Steve growled and attacked again, this time with a kick. It was another illusion. Damn him.

“Loki, that’s enough. Stop playing with him. As amusing as it is, we should really wrap this up.” Tony stood in the entrance to the room where Steve and Loki were, in full armor minus the helmet. He barely even looked at Steve, keeping his gaze on Loki.

“As you wish, dear,” Loki replied, and waved his hand again. Ropes formed around Steve’s body and, no matter how much he struggled, he couldn’t get free. He soon found himself on the ground, fighting ineffectively as Tony and Loki talked in low tones, completely ignoring him.

“You won’t get away with this, Tony,” Steve said.

Tony only rolled his eyes. He gestured to Loki. “Care to do the honors?”

“Of course.”

Steve was then unceremoniously hoisted up into Loki’s shoulder, fireman style, and carried out. It was very undignified. “You haven’t won, Tony. The world will see you for who you are soon enough.”

“You know, I am actually convinced now that the serum messed with your brain somehow. You can’t possibly actually be this stupid. This level of delusion and denial of reality is scary. Like, truly terrifying. Someone should do some tests or something.”

“There is nothing wrong with me,” Steve growled furiously, though from his position he could not see Tony, only the back of Loki’s knees, and Tony couldn’t see the glare directed at him. “I’m not the one driven my ego.”

“That! Right there. You actually believe that, and that’s… it’s freaking me out, to be honest.”

“Do not concern yourself, Tony,” Loki interjected. “We will deliver the criminal to the proper authorities and they will take care of him. It will no longer be your problem.”

“I know. It’s more like scientific curiosity as this point.”

Instead of being taken to a jet as he expected, Steve was passed over to Tony, who took flight. Steve let out a startled shriek and cursed loudly.

“Be quiet,” Tony said. “You don’t want to distract me enough that I drop you, do you?”

Since Steve wasn’t sure if that was a real threat, he stopped talking and kept still, his entire body tense. Fortunately, it was not a long trip. They descended on an airstrip, where a cargo plane was being prepped for takeoff.

Tony dumped Steve on his ass and fitted him with clamps on his hands and legs (the magic ropes disappeared) that made it really hard to move. He subtly tested their strength and found no give whatsoever.

“So, for the record. You’re under arrest. You are being transferred to a facility in London until the question of jurisdiction over you is settled. If you cooperate and tell me where Romanoff and Barnes are, it might help your case later on.”

“I won’t let you hurt Bucky, Tony. I won’t.”

Tony snorted. “How exactly are you going to stop me, trussed up like a Christmas turkey? Besides, who said I want to hurt your buddy?”

“You tried to kill him before.”

“Rogers, you complete moron, if I’d wanted either of you dead, you would be dead. You would be nothing but a smear in the wall. The suit has missiles, remember? Plus the unibeam, which could have cut you and your little friend in half without the slightest effort. Or I could have just blown up the whole bunker and buried you in it. There are dozens of ways I could have killed you.”

No, no that wasn’t true. Steve had won that fight. He had won because of his strength, his perseverance, his determination, his righteousness. He had won.

But now he was lost.

Chapter Text

Natasha saw it on television. The terrorist Captain America – that was how all the news stations were reporting it – had been arrested by Iron Man’s new team. There was a clip of Loki exiting a building with Steve slung over his shoulder, bright green ropes entwined all around the super soldier. Another clip showed Iron Man carrying a bound Steve (this time with metal cuffs) into an awaiting airplane.

An interview with Stark was also being played a lot.

Stark, with an insolent-looking Loki behind him, addressed a few reporters.

“Thanks to an anonymous tip, Rogers’s location was sent over to us. I am happy to say that, this time, no one was hurt in the operation to bring him in.”

“What was Rogers doing in Kenya?” a journalist asked.

“That I can’t tell you. The matter will be investigated, though. If anyone has any information, please contact the Anti-terrorist hotline in your area.”

“What about Natasha Romanoff and the Winter Soldier? Have they been apprehended as well?”

“Not yet, but I believe it is only a matter of time. Again, if anyone has any info, let the relevant authorities know.”

Leaving Steve behind had definitely been the right thing to do, Nat thought. She would be right there with him if she’d stayed. Of course, there was no telling how long she’d be able to evade Stark – and Loki.

It astonished her that Loki had been so easily accepted. There was no doubt that Stark’s PR campaign had been effective. It made her wonder how much better things could have been if Stark had remained on the Avengers’ side. Clearly keeping him at a distance after Ultron had been a mistake. They had wanted to avoid the backlash of that disaster, but it had come back to bite them. Stark hadn’t been nearly as vilified for that fiasco as Natasha had expected, and that was even before Wanda’s treachery and her role in the matter had come to light. The world had not blamed Stark as she had thought. They had blamed and vilified the Avengers, Steve in particular. Everything she had predicted had been wrong, and she hated that. She hated that she had messed up so badly.

Natasha had never been one for introspection. In her line of work, that was pretty much impossible, even if the Red Room hadn’t beaten it out of her. SHIELD had not encouraged much deep thinking either. She had devoted all her time and energy into carving a place for herself and being accepted – and safe. Though initially distrusted by her coworkers, she had proved herself eventually through her dedication, efficiency and ruthlessness. Now she had to wonder who was really behind her approval into the ranks. Clint had made the initial decision not to kill her, but someone higher up at SHIELD had agreed to give her a chance, and she didn’t know if that person had been SHIELD or Hydra. Maybe it didn’t matter, but she hated not knowing. She hated thinking that she might have been manipulated all along.

She had not sought out those answers, though she could have. Or tried, at least. The truth was that she had not wanted to know. It was better that way, she’d told herself. It would change nothing, after all, only make her doubt herself, and she couldn’t have that. Doubt was also one of the things that the Red Room had taken from her. The Black Widows were deadly because they were absolutely sure of themselves; anything else was not tolerated. SHIELD had fostered that same sentiment through different means. The Red Room had done it by fear, SHIELD had done it by encouraging her belief in the ‘cause’. They had allowed her – manipulated her? – to believe she was redeeming herself, protecting instead of harming. It had made her feel good, because being ‘good’ came with a different sort of validation, a type that made her into someone to be admired and looked up to – not envied and disliked like in the Red Room.

It was only now, after having lost everything, that she realized she had been deceived all along. She had never really been a hero. She had never really done the ‘right thing’ in the way people typically defined it. She had done what SHIELD (Hydra?) had deemed good for them. And in the Avengers, she had done what Steve had deemed good for him, regardless of what the world said. Not once had he thought of the team. She had been valuable to him only because she had gone along with him – unlike Stark, who had challenged Steve every step of the way and refused to give up his voice and opinions. Now Stark was the one free and clear, while she and Steve were hunted down as criminals.

Natasha didn’t know what to do now, didn’t know where to go, who to turn to. She had burned all her bridges by sticking with Steve for as long as she had. Stark knew she had kept the secret of his parents’ murder too, and he would not forgive that.

The news continued, now playing a clip from the fight at the airport focusing on her and Barnes specifically. Stills of their faces were shown prominently, with a hotline number running underneath.

If she was in Europe, Natasha might have been able to hole up somewhere and avoid the pitchforks no doubt coming her way. In Africa, she was at a severe disadvantage. She had been trained to blend in, to lose herself in the crowd, but that would be very difficult now. Hair and clothing style she could change easily; the color of her skin and her Caucasian features were another matter. At least not without access to SHIELD-issue disguise tech. Hell, she’d had enough trouble just to darken her hair.

She had tried to contact Fury while she’d still been in Wakanda, using their old channels, and had gotten no response. She had not expected any different, really. Fury was a pragmatist first and foremost, and he could see where the wind was blowing. The Avengers had gone up in flames, and helping her now would put him in Stark’s bad books – not something he could probably afford at the moment.

Stuck in her tiny room in some backwater motel in the middle of nowhere, she felt the walls closing in on her. If Stark and Loki went back to the US she might have a chance, but she didn’t think they’d give up that easily. Though Steve would not be able to tell them where she’d gone because he didn’t know, they would still know she was in the area. All they had to do was wait. Natasha could not stay inside forever.

When they came for her the next day, she was not surprised. There was no point in fighting them, so she didn’t try.

“Well, well…” Loki said with that amused smirk she had quickly come to hate. “Looks like we’ve caught ourselves a little spider.”

There was no hint of friendliness in his expression – not that she’s expected any – and Stark might as well have been a stranger from the cold way he regarded her.

“So, tell me, was it worth it?” Stark asked and she hated him for it. For winning, and rubbing her face in it.

“You’re keeping strange company these days,” she said, trying to shake him at least a little.

He laughed, smiling fondly at Loki. “Strange, maybe. But way better than before. Nothing like getting rid of some dead weight to show you what’s really important, wouldn’t you say? Maybe you’ll find that out too while you’re rotting in a jail cell.” He tilted his head, eyes drilling holes into her. “Or maybe not. Anyway, you lot are not my problem anymore. And thank god – and one specific god in particular” again he glanced at Loki with undisguised affection “for that.”

Loki inclined his head in acknowledgement with a smile of his own. “You are most welcomed, darling.”

“You can’t trust him,” Natasha said, disturbed by the familiarity between them.

“I think you have me confused with yourself and the Captain, little spider,” Loki replied. “I am quite loyal to those I care about. Unlike you, who care about no one and thus have no loyalty to speak of.”

Natasha looked at Stark, and noticed his relaxed pose and the sparkle in his eyes when Loki spoke. “He’s playing you,” she tried again, though she was no longer sure. Loki seemed equally fond of Stark, and Natasha’s confidence in her people-reading skills had taken a rather big hit by recent events.

Stark just shook his head. “Just because you play everyone you meet, doesn’t mean everybody else does the same. Some people are actually capable of telling the truth, though I can understand how the concept would be foreign to you.”

Another little dig at her, said so casually and easily, as if she was less than dirt beneath his feet. God, Natasha wanted to strangle him. But she knew, deep down, that she had dug her own grave with her poor choices and her unacknowledged biases.

She hated him – but also herself.

*****

Having delivered Rogers and Romanoff to the people in charge of their cases, Tony and Loki went back to New York the same way they had arrived in Kenya – via teleportation. It was a rather unsettling mode of transportation, but Tony couldn’t deny that it was effective. Rogers and Romanoff had likely been counting on the distance between them and New York to help them stay hidden, and it had been very satisfying to show up just an hour after the first reports of sightings had come through. The look on their faces when Loki appeared by his side had been pretty priceless too. Tony wondered if they realized the hypocrisy of berating him for allying himself with Loki given their history with Wanda. At least Loki had been mind-controlled during the invasion; Wanda was just a crazy psychopath. But then, it seemed more and more likely that Rogers and Romanoff had some sociopathic (or at least extremely narcissistic) traits as well; no wonder they had been duped by Wanda.

Tony would have wanted to say he was done with them for good, but he would probably have to see them again at their trials. The vindictive and gleeful part of him was rather looking forward to that, really.

One thing was nagging at him, though, and that was how they had ended up in Kenya of all places. In terms of hiding places, it was about the worst possible choice, so they could not have gone there deliberately. Even Rogers wouldn’t be that stupid. Also, it was pretty damn far from Siberia, not the kind of place they would have accidentally stumbled into. Tony could only think of one reason why they’d be there, and that would open up a huge political can of worms.

Tony had not seen Prince T’Challa – now King, he believed – since he had left for Siberia. According to Loki, Zemo had not been in that bunker – though there was enough blood to indicate someone had died there. That meant someone had removed his body before Loki had arrived, which had not been that long after the end of the fight. Rogers wouldn’t have given a crap about him, so someone else had made that decision. It could have been Natasha – or it could have been someone else. Someone who just happened to be obsessed with hunting down the Winter Soldier (and who could have followed Tony to Siberia unseen), and someone who would have returned to a certain country in Africa afterwards – coincidently right next to Kenya –, perhaps with a few fugitives along.

It was not a perfect theory, of course. Rationally, Tony couldn’t think of any reason why T’Challa would want to help Rogers and Romanoff, though if he had indeed been there, he would have learned that Barnes had not been responsible for the bombing in Vienna. The Avengers’ quinjet had not left Siberia, so Rogers, Romanoff and Barnes had left some other way. Since none of them could fly, and there was no sign of a ground vehicle having left, there was only one option remaining.

Tony had considered this idea before, but had eventually dismissed it because he had no proof, and he didn’t think it would be worth it to poke that hornet’s nest. Now, however, it was a different matter. The fact that the dumb duo had been found in Kenya, and the fact that Barnes had not been with them, seemed suspicious at the very least. Tony had not had a lot of interactions with T’Challa, but from what little he’d seen, the man was impulsive, hotheaded and not nearly as diplomatic as he should have been. In fact, Tony had been suspicious of Wakanda as a whole since the late King T’Chaka had inserted himself into the Accords talk after the tragedy in Lagos. All he’d known about the country was that it was in Africa, pretty isolated, and it was around where his father had acquired the vibranium he’d used to make Rogers’ shield. The suit T’Challa wore at Bucharest and at the fight at the airport had clearly been pretty high tech in both design and features – not exactly what one would expect from a poor African nation. 

“What is on your mind, darling?” Loki asked, draping himself around Tony and pulling him from his thoughts.

“Just wondering where Rogers and Romanoff have been all this time.”

“Hmm,” Loki said, planting kisses all down Tony’s neck. “Does that matter?”

“It might. Barnes is still out there.” Tony knew, rationally, that Barnes had not been responsible for what happened to his parents, but that didn’t mean he should just be given a free pass. The man was still dangerous, and no one would be safe until he had been caught.

“Perhaps we should interrogate them.” There was a wicked grin on Loki’s face now. Tony shouldn’t find it hot, but he did. He really did.

“It’s not our jurisdiction.”

“Isn’t it? Barnes is a wanted terrorist, and a super soldier.”

“It’s our jurisdiction to capture him, not interrogate his friends.”

Loki pouted adorably. “Are you sure? I think I would rather like to speak a bit more with them, maybe threatened them a little. They hurt you. I cannot let that stand.”

Tony laughed, though he liked knowing that Loki cared. They had not made overt declarations of love to each other – it was a bit soon for that, Tony thought – but the feeling was there nonetheless. At least, he hoped so and wasn’t just seeing what he wanted to see.

“I appreciate the thought, Lokes, but it’s better if we keep our distance and let someone else deal with them. We don’t want to be accused of abusing our position.”

“As you wish.” Loki inclined his head, then took Tony’s hand and started leading him to the bedroom. “I must return to Asgard soon and I would like to say goodbye properly.”

It had been very fortunate that Loki had been here when the call about Rogers’ whereabouts had come in, though it had interrupted their time together. “Sounds good to me.”

After some enthusiastic and incredibly satisfying sex, Loki departed, and Tony went – reluctantly – back to work.

“Jarvis, you there?”

“For you, Sir, always,” came the immediate answer.

“Good. See what you can find out about T’Challa and Wakanda. And if you can backtrack Rogers and Romanoff’s movements before their capture.”

“Of course, Sir.”

“Fri, send a message to Peter, will you? Ask him if he can come around later to do some training.”

“On it, Boss.” Barely a minute later, Friday had an answer. “He says he’ll come after school.” Kid was probably glued to the phone to respond so quickly. Teens.

Peter was a bundle of happy energy when he arrived, and Tony had a great time showing him some of the new features on the suit. Karen – as Peter had named the AI – was happy to show off too.

“There is more advanced stuff in there too, but we’ll start with the basics and work our way up,” he said.

“Awesome! That is so cool, Mr Stark. Thanks. You’re the best!”

“Have you given any thought to what I said, about telling your aunt?”

“Ahh… well… Do I have to? She’s going to worry.” Peter looked like a puppy being admonished for eating the carpet. It made Tony wonder if he was doing the right thing dragging him into this kind of life. It was an awfully heavy burden to put on a kid.

“Kid, she already worries. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned lately is that stuff doesn’t stay secret forever. It’s best to have her find out in a safe and calm environment, and give her the chance to process it with a more rational mind.”

Peter sighed. “Yeah, I guess you have a point. But what if she doesn’t let me do this anymore?”

“Then you’ll have to respect her decision. She is your guardian, after all. But I’ll talk to her, explain the situation. It might help.”

“Okay.”

“Right.” He clapped his hands and grinned. “Let’s see what this baby can do, shall we?”

Peter’s answering smile could have lit up a whole city. I hope I can keep him safe.

*****

It was getting harder and harder to stall Thor. Loki had made his brother attend council meetings, go all over Asgard to gather reports personally, and read over most of their current treaties. Thor had grumbled at some of it, but he’d done it. And then he’d asked again for permission to visit his friends in Midgard.

Loki wondered what Thor would think when he found out that his good buddies Rogers, Romanoff and Barton had become criminals and would likely end up in prison for a long time (at least by human standards). Would he believe them to have been unfairly treated? Would he attempt, once again, to attack Tony for something that hadn’t been the inventor’s fault simply because Thor was angry and needed a target for his rage? Loki would not allow Thor to lay a hand on his lover.

Most of all, he wondered what Thor would say when he discovered that Loki was now one of the defenders of Midgard.

There was a part of him that wanted to find out, once and for all, where he stood with Thor, whether there was anything left of the bond between them. It would be better to know, he thought, than to live with the uncertainly of not knowing if he still had any family. The other part, however, was terrified of losing Thor forever, of reaching out one last time and finding nothing on the other side.

He honestly had no idea which way Thor would go. There were times when he was convinced Thor would cast him out forever, and moments when he thought Thor would finally understand – or at least listen. Going back and forth on it constantly was quite exhausting.

“Father?” Thor said, and Loki focused back on the here and now.

“What?”

“Are you well? You seem… distracted.”

Yes, he was, wasn’t he? It was a miracle no one had noticed anything amiss with ‘Odin’ with how poorly Loki had been concentrating on maintaining the disguise lately. These days he spent most of his time with his mind elsewhere – on another realm, on one man in particular.

“I am… tired,” Loki said. It was true, sort of. He was tired of the charade, of being in a place he hated when he could be somewhere much better.

Thor looked at him sadly, and Loki was annoyed. Such concern for Odin, but there had been none for Loki when he had been exhausted trying to keep Thor from getting himself into trouble every other day.

He shook himself out of his maudlin thoughts and stood. “That is all for today.” He hoped Thor would understand the dismissal. He was not that lucky.

“You have not answered my question. May I have your leave to visit Midgard? I will not linger long, I only wish to check in with the Avengers.”

Loki had discussed the idea with Tony a few times, and they both knew it was inevitable. More time would not make any difference except to his nerves. Might as well get it over with – that had been Tony’s reasoning. His lover was not a man who shied away from challenges and difficult situations, but faced them head on with courage and confidence. Fake it ‘till you make it, he had said, and Loki had to admit it was an interesting philosophy. Not as easy to do as Tony made it seem, unfortunately, not when Loki’s confidence in himself had taken such a nosedive in recent years. It had gotten better, though. Being in Midgard around Tony had done wonders for his mind and sense of self, yet it was still a work in process.

“Very well,” he finally replied, hoping he wasn’t making a huge mistake. “You may go on the morrow.”

Thor inclined his head respectfully. “Thank you, Father.”

The moment Thor left, Loki made his way back to Midgard to warn Tony.

“Okay, we can handle Blondie. Don’t worry about it.”

That was easier said than done. Loki wasn’t just worried for himself, though. He worried for Tony as well. Thor had once attacked Tony, after all, and out of his suit, Tony was very vulnerable.

The expression on his face must have given his thoughts away, because Tony came closer and wrapped warm arms around Loki. Norns, that felt good. Would that he never had to leave that comforting embrace…

“I’ll have Viz around in case Thor’s violent tendencies get out of hand, all right? And have the suit on standby. I’ll be fine, I promise. And I’ll make sure Thor doesn’t do anything stupid like go after you. He won’t be able to, anyway, right? Not right away. He can’t just apparate to Asgard like you can, right?”

“No, he cannot. He will have to use the Bifrost.”

“Hmm… The Bifrost is a kind of portal, isn’t it? That would give me the chance to test my new anti-portal device.”

“You have finished it?” Loki asked. They had discussed it many times as one of the possible ways to keep a second invasion at bay. Of course, it would do nothing if Thanos came by ship, but it could be useful for other types of threats as well.

“Finished, yes. Don’t know if it works. It’s not like I can conjure up a portal to test it with.”

“The Bifrost works a little different from the Tessaract portal, but it should be similar enough to at least get some data on your device.” He paused, frowning a little. “Thor will not be happy if it works, though.”

“We can handle him, Lokes. But it would be better if you were not here when we tell him about all the stuff that’s happened lately. Give him a chance to think things through without a convenient target to take his frustration out on.”

It still astonished him how firmly Tony had been on his side when Loki had recounted some of his fights with Thor. Tony had not been impressed by Asgard as a whole – quite the contrary – but he had expected at least some level of camaraderie towards Thor, despite the choking incident, for their history together. Instead, Tony had shown little sympathy for Thor, and even some hostility. It could have had something to do with how much similar Thor was to Rogers, or it could just be that Tony didn’t suffer fools – and Thor was a fool, no question about it. To someone as clever and inventive as Tony, Thor really didn’t seem that great, Loki supposed.

“I think I’d feel better being nearby,” he said.

“Do you trust me?”

“Yes,” Loki answered immediately, no hesitation at all. He really did, and it was… a bit frightening, if he thought about it too much. How quickly and how thoroughly he had fallen in love with his mortal – and how utterly destroyed he’d be if it all fell to pieces.

“Then let me do this. Let me do this for you. You’ve saved my life several times now. I kinda feel like it’s time for a little reciprocation.”

But you’ve already done it, Loki thought. Listening, caring… that is reciprocation enough. He couldn’t quite say that, so he kissed Tony instead, hoping the sentiment got across anyway.

“Very well,” he said, as reluctant to part as he always was. It was a nice thought, to have someone fight for him for once. “Thank you.”

Chapter Text

Tony was waiting at the Compound when Thor arrived, Vision and Rhodey at his side. Rhodey had progressed to using the braces Tony had built, which allowed him to walk while he finished healing. He would never run as he once had, but he would be able to walk without assistance at some point. It was a much better prognosis than they had initially expected, so neither was complaining.

Thor frowned a little when he saw them, then broke into an easy smile. “My friends,” he boomed.

Tony inclined his head in greeting but did not return the smile. Everything he’d learned about Asgard made him much less willing to be overtly friendly. “Hello, Thor.”

The expression on Thor’s face changed to one of wary caution. “Is something the matter? Where are the others?”

“You’d better come in. We have a lot to talk about. There’s been quite a few changes since you left.”

There was a slight hesitation before Thor followed them into the Compound. It had not been used since Rogers, Romanoff and Wilson had left. Part of their personal possessions had been seized by the investigative team and the rest had been boxed up and stored somewhere by the staff. Tony hadn’t bothered to ask what would be done with any of it if their owners ended up in jail, as would likely be the case. He was perfectly content to let someone else handle that.

He led Thor into the same room he’d had the Accords discussion with the so-called ExVengers. He noticed that Thor was watching Rhodey in confusion, no doubt wondering about the blue dots of the braces visible through his clothes.

“The first thing you need to know,” Tony said once they were all sitting, “is that the Avengers have been dissolved.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“Shortly after you left, we discovered that Wanda Maximoff had not, in fact, switched sides at all, and was planning to kill us. Or, more specifically, me. She intended to use her mind control powers to make Rhodey do it for maximum revenge.”

Thor gasped. At least he seemed properly worried about a threat to Tony’s life. “That would be a despicable thing to do.”

“Yes, it would. Fortunately, it didn’t happen. She was caught and her powers were removed. She is now in prison.”

“That is good,” Thor nodded, then shook his head. “Steve was so certain she was reformed…”

Tony couldn’t help roll his eyes. “He saw what he wanted to see. Reality and Rogers don’t seem to be on speaking terms, unfortunately.”

“She must have use her powers to deceive him,” Thor replied.

“She could have, I suppose, but apparently it was not necessary. Rogers believed her all on his own. So did Romanoff. Though no doubt they’ll try to say that to avoid having to take responsibility for their own shitty choices. Anyway, after that… things got… complicated… for the Avengers. You see, people didn’t really like that they were willing to protect a terrorist just because she told them a stupid sob story. Then they made things even worse by causing a lot of collateral damage when they decided to invade a country to go after another Hydra operative. It was the last straw, and the Global Defense Accords was finally put into effect. That is a document signed by many of the Earth’s nations to organize a, as the name suggests, global defense against another possible invasion. It also regulates superhero activity and teams such as the Avengers.” He paused and waited a moment for Thor to digest all that and say something.

“That seems reasonable,” he said guardedly, as if sensing a trap somewhere. Maybe he was less of an idiot than Tony had thought after all.

“I agree, which is why I helped draft the document, and was one of the first to sign it. Rhodey and Vision did as well.” His friends nodded in confirmation.

“What of Steve and the Lady Natasha?”

“Romanoff seemed amenable to the idea, as did Wilson, but Rogers outright refused it.”

“For what reason?”

“Because he thinks he’s king of the world? Because he’s nuts? A psychopath? An idiot? Take your pick. Honestly, I don’t know and at this point, I don’t care. They’re all in prison as well, awaiting trial.”

This time Thor frowned. “For what crimes?”

“It’s a big list. Let’s see.” Tony held up his hands and started counting. “Crossing sovereign borders without authorization, felony murder, assault, aggravated assault, attempted murder,” he switched hands and continued “terrorism, theft, obstruction of justice, accessory to murder, reckless endangerment.” He had run out of fingers. “There are probably a few I’m forgetting, but you get the gist, I think.”

Thor looked like he had no idea what to say anymore. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, clearly lost. “I… I don’t understand. How…?”

“They were not the heroes they believed – or pretended – to be. Barton and Wilson are facing multiple charges as well, though not as many as Rogers and Romanoff. Anyway, all that means that the Avengers are done. There is a new team now. One that has been approved by the Accords Council to act as Earth’s defenders.” He gestured to himself, Rhodey and Vision. “For now, it’s us.” He waited a beat, as Thor took that in. “And Loki.”

“What?”

“Turns out Loki isn’t dead. He’s the one that unmasked Wanda and saved my life. We’ve gotten to know him over the last few months and now he’s officially part of the team.”

Thor seemed utterly gobsmacked. “Loki is dead. I… I saw him die.”

“You thought you did.”

“He tricked me,” Thor said in a low voice, almost as if talking to himself. The expected explosion of anger hadn’t made an appearance yet, so Tony allowed himself a little bit of optimism.

“Yes, he did. Can’t say I blame him. Who wants to go back to prison for a crime they didn’t commit?” Tony tried to sound as calm and casual as he could. There would be a time to tear Thor a new one for all the shit he’d pulled, but this was not it. Right now he needed Thor to listen and understand.

“Loki did commit crimes. You were there.” Was that a note of hope in his voice?

“If you mean the invasion, that was done under coercion and mental manipulation.”

“Loki told you that?”

“No. Well, he did, but I had already figured it out by myself. His eyes were the same bright blue as Barton’s while he was being controlled by the scepter.” Thor opened his mouth but Tony spoke before he could. “As for why he didn’t tell you, I will ask you a question of my own. Was he ever given the chance to do so?”

That made Thor’s mouth snap shut. He took a deep breath, jaw and fists clenched. “Where is Loki now?”

“Not here, not at the moment. If you promise not to drag him back to a dungeon in Asgard, we can arrange a meeting. And yes, he does know you’re here and that I’m telling you all this.”

Tony could see the wheels turning in Thor’s head now as the man wondered what to do with this new information. It was definitely a good sign that Thor had remained calm, and seemed to be taking it well so far. Maybe Loki had been worrying for nothing.

“I have missed my brother these past few years,” he said at last. “It pained me that we did not get the chance to… resolve things between us.”

“Well, perhaps you’ll be able to do it now.”

“Is Loki truly a member of your team? Your word leaders have accepted him?” The skepticism was hard to miss, and Tony wondered if that was because of Loki’s previous ‘crimes’ or because Thor didn’t see his brother as capable of it.

“Yes to both. Loki has proven himself trustworthy since he’s been hanging out here. Plus, we kinda need people. His skills have been be very useful to us.”

“Loki… He does not always work well with others.”

Tony snorted. “From what he said, it seemed more like your people didn’t work well with him. Me, I’ve had no problems. Quite the contrary. Loki and I get along great.” He and Loki had agreed not to tell Thor about their relationship just yet. Asgard was rather homophobic, apparently, and even though Thor was not quite as bad as some of the others, Loki was still wary. There were too many issues between the brothers already to invite more. One step at a time would be a better way to handle it.

Thor frowned again, then sighed. “Yes, I suppose I can see that. You are a bit like Loki.” Tony took it as a compliment, though he wasn’t sure if that was how Thor had intended it.

“It’s not just me, though. Rhodey and Viz like him too.”

“Yeah,” Rhodey jumped in. “I wasn’t sure of him at first, of course, but we’ve warmed up to each other. He’s pretty clever, and that’s always a plus in my book.”

The subtle dig seemed to be lost on Thor, who simply nodded absentmindedly. “I… I thank you, my friends. I’m sure Loki appreciates your friendship, and your efforts on his behalf.” Now he looked like a lost puppy, and it made Tony feel sorry for the guy.

“So, what’s been going on with you?” Tony asked, trying to change the subject. No need to keep harping on the issue when things were going so well. Better to give Thor a few moments to process everything.

Thor started talking like he had been dying to let the words out of his mouth. He talked about his travels in search of the Infinity Stones, he talked about Asgard and his duties, and he talked about missing his mother and brother. He even talked about ‘Odin’, and how different he seemed lately. He talked about his friends (the ones Loki detested, and who apparently detested him in return), and how awkward he felt in their presence sometimes. He talked like a man who had no one else to talk to, and who was desperate to be heard and understood. He talked like a lonely man who had found an audience at last and was going to grab the opportunity with both hands lest it slip through his fingers.

Asgard is a really awful place, Tony thought. But maybe that meant that things could actually work out between Thor and Loki. Maybe they’d be able to find some common ground after all.

For his lover’s sake, he really really hoped so.

*****

Loki paced anxiously in the confines of his quarters. It had been several hours since Thor had departed, and he was desperate to know what was going on in Midgard. He wanted to know if Tony was all right, and what Thor had done when he heard the news of Loki’s survival and alliance with the humans. He wanted to know if he would have to fight his brother once again, if he would have to leave Asgard in a hurry. Of course, leaving was exactly what he wanted, but there was a difference between leaving because he chose to and leaving because he was going to end up in the dungeons if he didn’t. Leaving was a given; the manner of that leaving, however, was not. He would much prefer not to have to run away like a cornered mouse.

Unfortunately, he didn’t know what was happening, didn’t know how things were going. He wished now that he hadn’t agreed to keep away. He could have traveled to Midgard and hidden in Tony’s lab while his lover talked to Thor. With Jarvis’s help, he would have been able to hear the conversation and know exactly how it was progressing. It would have been better than being here, worrying and fretting. Tony – kind, compassionate and caring Tony – hadn’t thought that was a good idea. Thor would need time to process, and Loki didn’t need to see or hear that. Because it could be bad, that was what Tony had been worried about. He didn’t want Loki to be around in case Thor didn’t take it well, because it would hurt and he didn’t want to see Loki hurt.

Waiting would hurt in its own way, but Loki had figured his lover had a point. It was such a novelty to have someone willing to protect him that Loki had decided to allow it. He wanted to be protected, to be considered worthy of it. Not because he was not capable of defending himself, but because it showed that Tony cared about him and his emotional well-being. The conversation with Thor would be a different kind of fight, one that could not really be won, and one in which Loki had far too much to lose.

So Loki paced and waited – and hoped. Despite everything, he wanted Thor back. He hadn’t thought it would even be possible anymore. Yet in the last few weeks since Thor’s return, he had seen a change in his brother. He had become quieter, more introspective. He had openly spoken of Loki to ‘Odin’, had outright stated he thought they had made mistakes with him. He had seemed truly remorseful.

Loki had not responded to any of those statements, because he didn’t trust himself not to give the game away – and because he had no idea what Odin would have said. He could predict Odin’s behavior in terms of what he’d do as king, as a ruler who wanted to secure his position and that of Asgard, and act accordingly while furthering his own goal. When it came to Odin as a father, though, Loki had no idea. Zero. None whatsoever. He had no idea if Odin had ever mourned him, if he’d ever regretted his decisions or actions. He had no idea whether Odin had actually ever loved Loki as a person or if he’d only ever seen him as a tool. He didn’t know, and he suspected that it was better that it remained that way. He didn’t know, but he would not bet on the answer being the one he wanted.

It would be nice if he had a way to communicate with Tony in Midgard without having to actually go there. Tony was frustrated that he hadn’t managed to invent an intergalactic phone yet. They had experimented with a few ideas, but none had been successful so far. So they had agreed that Loki would wait until tomorrow to show up, which would hopefully give Tony enough time to, as he put it, knock some sense into Thor.

The problem, of course, was that tomorrow was an eternity away, and Loki wasn’t sure his nerves would survive that long. What he needed, he realized, was something to distract himself with. Since he had nothing personal to do in Asgard, the only thing he could think of was work. Being King came with a lot of paperwork, after all. Normally, he hated it. It may be necessary, but that didn’t make it any less boring.

Might as well try it, he thought. It would be better than nothing. There were treaties he should go through, plans to set down in writing so that the Council could carry on even after he was gone (assuming Odin wouldn’t undo everything the moment he awoke).

It worked for a while, which was something. Then the anxiety started creeping in again, and Loki felt too restless to be able to sit still anymore. He made himself invisible and decided to go for a walk.

The air in the palace had always seemed oppressive to him. Loki had much preferred being outside; he liked the gardens, the forests, the fields and mountains. Those were places he could go to be alone – and to be himself. Away from the prying eyes of others, deep among the crops or trees, he didn’t have to pretend to be the perfect prince – which he had never ever been. He could practice his magic without being mocked or ridiculed for it. He could shapeshift without shame. He could be free.

The feeling had never lasted, of course, because he’d always had to go back. And sometimes being back in that stifling environment had been even worse after a few hours of bliss.

As he walked into the forest, he turned his mind away from those memories. He had better ones to call upon now. He could think of evenings sprawled out on the couch with Tony, watching some silly movie. He could think of animated discussions in the lab as he impressed Tony with the many things he could do with magic. He could think of passionate kisses and moans of pleasure. He could think of being known and accepted. And best of all, he could think that he would have all those things again in just a little while. He just had to get through these few hours.

The anxiety didn’t entirely go away, but it became bearable. No matter what happened with Thor, Loki would still have a place in Midgard with Tony. He wouldn’t lose everything, not this time. So he could wait. And maybe hope a little.

The next day, he made his way to Midgard with some trepidation. He teleported to the penthouse and had his arms full of deliciously warm human in less than a minute.

Tony kissed him, long and sweet, and smiled. “So, it’s okay. Thor didn’t go off the rails or anything. He’s fine with things. It’s gonna be okay, babe.”

Loki collapsed bonelessly on the couch, Tony still wrapped around him, and just breathed for a moment. He had not realized quite how tense he’d been until all that tension had melted away.

His lover continued to pepper kisses all over Loki’s face and murmur reassurances against his skin.

“What did he say? What happened?” Loki asked when he had finally found his voice again.

So Tony told him how the conversation had gone, and how well behaved Thor had been. There had been no threats of violence or loud outbursts.

“I kinda felt sorry for him a little,” Tony said. “He looked so lost and lonely… He wants to talk to you, or course.”

Thor being lost and lonely didn’t seem very likely to Loki. Those were not states Loki would ever associate with Thor. Still, Tony wouldn’t lie to him. The human was intimately acquainted with those emotions himself, so he would recognize them in others. Maybe his brother had finally grown as much as he had claimed he had. Maybe this time they would actually have a chance to talk to each other, to listen to each other.

“Where is he now?”

“In the Compound. I told him I’d ask you about talking to him and give him an answer today. According to Friday, he’s been moping about the place pestering the staff about how to use the internet to see for himself the stuff we told him about.”

“How did he take the news about the Avengers?”

“He was surprised, a little confused.” Tony shrugged. “He admitted that he really didn’t know them that well, so he couldn’t claim it was entirely out of character. I thought that showed quite a bit of maturity, actually. There was no angry disbelief, no accusations of lying.”

“Hmm,” Loki replied, still trying to wrap his head around a more thoughtful Thor. Perhaps he should give his brother a bit more credit.

“He looked like he really misses you.”

“Yes, he has said so.”

“You didn’t believe him?”

It was Loki’s turn to shrug. “I didn’t want to get my hopes up,” he confessed.

“Do you want to go see him?”

“Yes, but not now. Not yet.” He needed a bit more time to prepare himself, to relax.

“No problem. I’m sure we can think of something to do to while away the hours.” There was a spark in Tony’s eyes that promised Loki anything he wanted.

What did he want? Loki wondered. Right now, with the prospect of speaking to Thor again (as himself) for the first time in years, what did he want? What did he need?

“Can we just… stay here? For a little while?” He didn’t like how small his voice sounded, but Tony only smiled at him in return with love and understanding.

“Sure. For as long as you want.”

So they remained curdled up on the couch, doing nothing but existing in each other’s space. There were no demands, no questions, no second-guessing, no fear. Loki felt warm and safe. He didn’t think about Thanos or Odin, he didn’t think about Asgard and its prejudices. He didn’t think about all he’d lost, didn’t think about lies and betrayal. He didn’t think about Thor and the upcoming conversation. He thought of nothing but the moment. He thought about how he had finally found a place and how good that felt. He thought about being in control of his life for the first time in what seemed like ages. He thought about making peace with himself; he wasn’t quite there yet, but he was confident he could make it in time. He thought about who he was now (and who he had always been), about what he had done, both good and bad. He thought about the fact that he believed, actually believed, that he was going to be all right.

An undetermined amount of time later, Loki finally shifted and stood. “Thank you,” he said, pulling Tony up to kiss him.

It was supposed to be a chaste kiss, but it didn’t stay that way for long. Loki led them into the bedroom and spent a long time showing Tony just how much he appreciated his friendship and support. The actual words wouldn’t come, so he said I love you with every touch, every kiss, every caress. And though Tony didn’t say the words either, Loki heard them anyway.

Much later, he decided he was as ready as he would ever be.

Vision and Rhodey went with them back to the Compound – for moral support, they said – and distracted him with idly chatter during the drive.

Jarvis called ahead to let Thor know they were on their way, so he was waiting for them outside.

“Loki,” he said. “You’re alive.” Then he pulled Loki into a crushing hug. “I’ve missed you so much, brother,” he murmured against Loki’s ear.

Loki didn’t quite know how to react. Even with everything Tony had said about their meeting and his own interactions with Thor as Odin, Loki had still not expected his brother to be so… openly affectionate. He could not recall the last time Thor had hugged him like that, but it reminded him of when they were children, and the easy way Thor had always touched him.

It was only when Thor let go and held him as arm’s length, as if to check him over, that Loki realized his vision was blurry.

“I’ve missed you too, you big oaf,” he found himself saying.

Thor smiled his sunniest smile, and Loki couldn’t help return it.

“You look good.”

“Freedom does a great deal for one’s health.” It wasn’t just being out of prison – the actual physical prison –, it was being truly free.

“I… You’ll have to tell me about it, then. Everything.”

“You’re really not angry that I lied to you by letting you think I was dead?” He had thought Thor would have something to say about that, at least.

“Yes, I’m angry. But… I guess I hadn’t really given you much reason to trust me. I have been a fool, Loki.”

“Yes, you have.” If Thor expected him to deny it, he would be disappointed.

Thor only laughed. “I have missed your insults, brother. No one ever talks to me like you do.” No, they didn’t. No one ever dared to speak against Thor, to deny or reprimand him in anyway. And Thor (and Asgard) had suffered for it

“Why don’t we all go inside?” Tony suggested, getting their attention.

They adjourned to the living room, where Loki had found the witch watching television all those months ago. It was here that things had changed, he thought. It was here that he had decided to deal with her, and reveal himself in the process.

And it had turned out to be the absolutely best decision he could have made.

They talked for a long time, he and Thor. Not all of it was easy, and there was a fair bit of shouting at several points. Tempers flared from both sides, insults and accusations spat out in anger. There was also a fair bit of crying and exchange of apologies.

It was not a happily ever after in the way of Midgardian fairy tales. It was, however, a start.

Once they had gotten their personal stuff out of the way, Loki talked about Thanos and the plans he, Tony and the leaders of Midgard had made against the Titan. Thor promised to help, and Loki had to remind him that charging in headfirst was not the best idea. That led to a new round of shouting, but they worked it out.

“You are a King, Thor. You must be a King. Asgard needs you.”

That made Thor deflate. “I don’t know that I am ready.”

“You have no choice. You must make yourself ready.”

“Won’t you be there with me?” He looked like a scared child.

“No. I can’t. I’m sorry. I am leaving Asgard for good. I don’t belong there.” It still hurt a little to think that, so say it aloud. It was the truth, though, and the truth had to be faced. He did not belong in Asgard, yet that did not mean he didn’t belong anywhere. He would find his own place, his own home – on his own terms.

“How can you say that? Of course–”

Loki cut him off. “Don’t! Don’t you dare tell me that everything was fine.” His glare was sufficient to cower Thor into submission. “There is nothing for me there, and I will be leaving it as soon as I can.”

“Nothing for you?” What about me?, Thor’s eyes said.

“You can visit me, if you wish,” Loki replied, as if he was making a great concession. He wasn’t above being a little petty. “I will be here.” I will be with people who appreciate me.

Tony called for a break then and got them all some food, and it was only then that Loki realized how famished he was. Emotional conversations sure took a lot out of a person, he mused.

As they ate, Loki proposed that ‘Odin’ should crown Thor – really this time. Thor had not been happy at all to find that Loki had been impersonating Odin all that time – it was one of the points with the most shouting – but he had eventually calmed down to understand why Loki had done it. That way Loki would finally get to leave, and the realm would not be undefended. Plus, when Odin did wake up, he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it, since he would have been the one to pass on the throne. It was, as far as Loki was concerned, the perfect solution to a lot of problems.

“What happens if I fail?”

“If you don’t mind my butting in,” Tony said. “Failure is part of life. No one is ever right one hundred percent of the time. You, like everyone else, will get some things right and some things wrong. You’ll make mistakes and learn from them, then you’ll be better, and hopefully make fewer mistakes.”

Thor gave Tony a grateful look. “That is good counsel, my friend. Thank you for your wise words.”

“I’m sure you’ll do fine, Thor,” Loki said. ‘Fine’ was perhaps a slight exaggeration, but as of now Loki was a lot more confident in his brother than he had been in a long time.

There was still a lot to do in broad terms and in their personal relationship. He still needed to tell Thor about being with Tony, and that had the potential to be a difficult subject. Still, things were looking up, and for now that was good enough for him.

Chapter Text

Natasha was screwed. Utterly and completely screwed. And she was going to take everyone she could down with her. It was petty, maybe, but why should she care? She was not a hero – she might have deluded herself into thinking that at some point, but her eyes were wide open now. She was who she was, and that was a survivor. She would do what was best for herself and fuck the world.

She started with Steve, the one she blamed for this entire mess. If he hadn’t been such a complete idiot who couldn’t see an inch beyond his own nose, they might have mitigated things. Admitting Wanda into the team had been his idea, she told the investigators. Natasha had simply believed his conviction that the woman was reformed, and agreed to give her a chance. It was also possible, she added, that they had been manipulated by Wanda’s magic. After all, everyone had agreed to have her on the team.

“Not everyone,” Mr Ahmin, the lead investigator, replied. “Dr Stark was very much opposed to the idea.”

Natasha had nothing to say to that. She had actually forgotten that Stark had, in fact, argued against it – because, she now realized, she had never listened to him. She hadn’t cared what he thought because she didn’t like him – hated him, perhaps – and doing something he didn’t want had been part of the appeal. He had been getting too big for his britches, she’d thought then; too pushy, too confident, and that was not a state she had wanted him to be in as it undermined their hold on him. Making Wanda part of the team had the added benefit of putting him back in his place on the outside looking in. Too bad it had come back to bite her in the ass…

Lagos was explained as Steve’s obsession with Bucky. That was why they had gone there in the first place. Natasha knew there would be no point in saying differently, since she was sure Sam would have already told them that. Because Steve wanted the Bucky missions kept private, he hadn’t informed anyone and thus they didn’t have the regular contact with the locals.

“He wanted to keep Dr Stark from learning that the Winter Soldier had assassinated his parents,” Ahmin stated.

“Yes.”

“And you wanted the same thing.”

“Steve was worried that Stark would lose his head and kill Barnes if he knew the truth, so he begged me to say nothing. At least until we had found Barnes and gotten him somewhere safe.”

That was a lie, of course, but it would be her word against Steve’s, and his credibility was shot to hell at the moment. (Hers too, unfortunately.) Still, it created reasonable doubt, and that was the best thing she had to help herself now.

“I see. So you decided to obstruct justice because Mr Rogers batted his pretty blue eyes at you.”

“He can be very persuasive.” That one was true. Steve was charismatic, and sounded absolutely convinced of his every thought and action. It was easy to be swept up in that. Natasha had, after all, been trained to obey.

Ahmid didn’t seem very impressed. There was a time when Natasha would have been able to ingratiate herself to him regardless of the circumstances, but, sadly, that time was gone. One thing she had learned since being arrested was that everyone was on their guard against her, and viewed her every word with suspicion no matter how she tried to spin it.

When they got to the fight at the airport, even blaming Steve didn’t help her much.

“T’Challa was after blood,” she said. “He didn’t care about anything else. How were we supposed to trust the Accords when they were willing to put him there when he was clearly compromised?”

The look she got in return was one of pure contempt. “Prince T’Challa was not authorized to be there. The fact that he went anyway, despite being told not to interfere, has nothing to do with the Accords. Dr Stark filed an official complaint against him, as a matter of fact.”

Natasha had to resist the urge to curse. Once again, she had miscalculated badly.

“His presence compromised the mission and led not only to your escape, but to Col Rhodes’s injury. You can rest assured that the Accords Council is looking for ways to hold him accountable for that.”

So Natasha decided to throw T’Challa to the wolves as well. They were already after him, and if he hadn’t been there maybe the fight wouldn’t have escalated the way it had. It was his fault.

Since the footage from Siberia was already public, she went from there. She told Ahmid how Steve and Barnes had fought Stark while she and T’Challa had dealt with Zemo, who had been grinning like a loon watching the battle.

“T’Challa killed Zemo as revenge for his father,” Natasha said. “Then, when Steve and Barnes came back, he offered us all a ride out of there as amends for trying to kill Barnes. He never gave a thought to Stark, and took Steve’s word that the man was fine. We all went to Wakanda and stayed there until shortly before Steve and I were arrested as his guests. Barnes is still there, I believe. T’Challa promised Steve to keep his friend safe.” She could tell that Ahmid didn’t believe her, but she wasn’t worried. This time she was telling the truth and the investigation would no doubt reveal it, especially once Stark himself learned about it. “I am willing to testify against him if necessary.”

It wouldn’t get her out, she knew that, but it gave her some power – and right now she desperately needed it. Then she would have nothing but time to think about all her mistakes.

*****

The so-called justice system was a farce. Steve was read a list of charges that were completely ludicrous and then shipped off to prison to await his trial. Every time he opened his mouth to explain the situation, he was told to shut up. The young lawyer that had been assigned to him absolutely refused to listen to anything Steve said and kept telling him to accept a guilty plea. Guilty! As if he was a criminal. The stupid cuffs were on him 24/7 no matter how loudly he complained. He was a flight risk, they said, so it was procedure. It was utterly humiliating to have to twist himself into a pretzel whenever he needed to use the toilet. Not to mention the lack of privacy in his cell.

Steve had lost his faith in people. Everyone he tried to talk to had the same disdainful look in their eyes. When he reminded people of all the good he’d done for the world – stopping Hydra back in the 40s and then again a few years ago, defeating an alien fleet and Ultron – all he got were snorts of derision.

“You didn’t do any of that, Captain Ego. A whole lot of soldiers and non-combatants won the war together. What you did was just one small part of the whole. Hydra is still around, so you didn’t defeat them either. In fact, the last time you tried to fight them, hundreds of people died as a result. And, as I said, you didn’t even put them down for good. The aliens were stopped by Iron Man, and so was Ultron. You were the one that allowed the woman who helped that thing evade justice. The woman who was Hydra. You know, the guys you didn’t defeat,” one of the guards sneered with contempt.

“Wanda manipulated my mind!” Steve shot back angrily. He was constantly angry these days.

“Boo hoo. You’re still an idiot and you’re going to rot in jail where you belong.”

He wasn’t allowed to see Natasha, or Clint and Sam. He only saw the guards and the lawyer. He dared not say Bucky’s name, but he hoped his friend was still safe in Wakanda. It was the only thing he had left to cling to.

Every day he wondered how things could have gotten so wrong, how a hero could be treated with such indignity. Tony had really done a number on the world to make them all fall for his benevolent act. And Loki! Loki was walking around as a hero while Steve was stuck in a tiny cell. There was no justice in the world.

Before his trial started, he heard from his lawyer that Sam and Clint had been sentenced to 15 and 10 years, respectively. They had both said that defying the Accords had been Steve’s idea, and that they had been mistaken in how they went about doing it. It galled Steve to know that his supposed friends were so easily swayed against him. Worse, Natasha had sold him out to get a reduced sentence of 15 years. She, too, had said that everything had been his idea, and had revealed Bucky’s location as well. According to the lawyer, international authorities had demanded that T’Challa hand Bucky over and the young king had complied. T’Challa had been accused of murder and obstruction of justice, and had given Bucky up to save his own skin – though even that hadn’t been enough to save him from prosecution entirely. Yet one more person Steve had trusted that he shouldn’t have.

He had no friends left. They had all betrayed and abandoned him. He only had Bucky – the only true friend he had ever had. However, when he asked to speak to Bucky, he was also denied. It felt like the walls were closing in on him and he had nowhere to go. He tried to break out, to go look for Bucky himself – he was still worried his friend would be killed even though the lawyer had said Bucky would be getting a trial as well – and all he accomplished was to be put into a permanent cell.

He ranted and raged and screamed and it did nothing.

Somehow, despite being on the right side, despite doing the right thing every step of the way, he had lost anyway. The world had gone crazy and Steve hated everything about it. He almost wished he had stayed in the ice.

He’d had Bucky back for mere days. The one thing he needed, the one thing he deserved, and it had been taken from him again. He should never had trusted Tony or any of the others. One day, Steve would make them all pay.

*****

They were lounging around on opposite sides of the couch with legs entwined, Loki with a book and Tony on his phone, when the call came in.

“Sir, there seems to be an incident happening in Hong Kong. The local government is requesting assistance,” Jarvis announced.

Tony was immediately on his feet, Loki following suit. “What kind of incident?”

“There appears to be a – and I quote – ‘tear in the sky’, and people in odd clothes destroying things.”

“A portal?” Loki asked, and now they were both tense. Tony activated the wristbands to call the suit.

“Possibly. Satellites are picking up a strange energy signature, though it is not at all like that of the Tesseract-based portal.”

“Give us the coordinates and call Vision. Do you have any images?”

In answer, the television screen came to life, showing a scene of chaos. Then everything seemed to freeze for a moment and the camera went dark. “What happened?” Tony asked.

“I’m afraid I have lost the transmission, cause unknown. I have the coordinates.”

“Lokes? Can you get us there?”

“Yes.”

“Looks like I’ll get to test my anti-portal device after all.”

Vision met them at the lab, phasing up from the floor, as Tony got the machine ready. “Is it Thanos?”

“Don’t know yet,” Tony replied. “Be prepared for anything.”

They grabbed hold of Loki and were teleported to the other side of the planet in a matter of seconds. That was a really useful skill, Tony reflected. He really needed to start working on a teleportation device of his own so they wouldn’t have to always depend on Loki.

Yet where before there had been wrecked buildings and debris all over the streets, the place now looked perfectly fine, no sign of destruction or any tear in the sky. So that’s a no go on the testing. Oh well...

“What the hell…?”

There was, however, a group of people in strange robes standing around looking like they had definitely had something to do with whatever had happened.

“Hey, you!” Tony opened the faceplate and glared at a man with a weird flowy cape. He looked familiar, but Tony couldn’t quite put his finger on where he might have seen him before. “What’s going on?”

The man regarded him warily as they approached. An Asian guy stepped closer to him, though neither made any threatening moves.

“Mr Stark,” the Asian guy said. Sometimes it was nice to be known everywhere he went. There was never any need to introduce himself or explain what he was doing there. “Everything is under control now.”

“Is that so? What exactly is under control? And who the hell are you?”

Vision startled suddenly and pointed at a big weird necklace Cape Guy was wearing. “That contains an Infinity Stone.”

Tony and Loki were on full alert mode. “What?”

“We can explain,” Asian Dude said, putting his hands up in a gesture of calm. “Perhaps we can go somewhere a bit more private?”

Of course, now that the threat seemed to be past, people were hanging around staring and taking pictures. “Jarvis, contact the locals and give them an update.” Then he turned to the weirdoes. “Lead on.” It was a good thing the anti-portal device was easy to carry. He had not anticipated having to lug it around all over the place.

They ended up in a building nearby, and learned about the Order of the Mystic Arts, who had been entrusted with the safekeeping of the Time Stone for centuries. They had apparently just defeated a crazy guy who wanted to unleash a demon or something from the dark dimension into Earth. A few years ago, it would have sounded totally insane, but his life was such now that Tony could just roll with it. His major question was not about the absurdity of the situation, but how the hell he had never heard about these guys.

“If you deal with mystical threats or whatever, where the heck were you when aliens descended in New York a few years ago? Not mystic enough for you?”

“I was not yet a member of the Order, so I cannot say,” Cape Guy replied.

Asian Dude sighed. “We were told by our leader that out interference wasn’t necessary.”

Tony didn’t even know what to say to that nonsense, so he put it aside for now. “And where is this leader?” he said, an edge to his voice.

“She’s dead,” Cape Guy said. The grief and loss were unmistakable on his expression, even though he seemed to be trying to hide it.

“I’m sorry.” It was Tony’s turn to sigh. “Look, I don’t want to pick a fight here, but I imagine you guys have heard about what’s been going on in the world, right?” He really hoped he wasn’t dealing with yet more people who preferred to bury their heads in the sand and live in blissful ignorance.

“We do, yes,” Asian Dude said. “We were in the process of discussing what to do about it when… all this happened.” He gestured widely. “Now that the Sorceress Supreme is gone, we must elect a new leader before we can continue those discussions.”

“Right. Okay. I guess I can understand that. I’d like to keep in touch, if that’s all right with you, to see how that’s going.”

“Of course.”

“Cool. What’s your name, by the way?”

“I am Wong, and this is Stephen Strange.”

“Doctor,” Cape Guy – Strange – said.

Tony frowned. “Doctor Strange? I’ve heard that name before.”

“I was a neurosurgeon.”

“Ah, yes! I read some of your stuff. I think we might have met, actually, at some party…?” He trailed off. Tony used to be slightly inebriated at those types of events, so he didn’t always have the best recollection of the people he met, but he was pretty sure he had exchanged words with Strange at some point.

“I do not recall,” Strange replied in rather haughty tone, and Tony had to roll his eyes at the ridiculous display of superiority.

“Whatever.” He turned to Wong. “You got a phone number or something?”

While he and Wong exchanged contact information, Tony noticed Loki watching Strange guardedly. Strange, for his part, seemed unconcerned with the scrutiny he was under, his air of arrogance firmly in place. Despite that, however, Tony could see signs of exhaustion and weariness in the man, as well as the slight tremors in his hands that he tried to hide.

“All right, so I guess we’ll be going,” Tony said.

Wong nodded. “We will contact you soon.”

“Yes. I have a lot of questions about how mortals such as yourselves are able to wield such powers,” Loki said. He had his unimpressed face on, but Tony was willing to bet he was actually impressed. Loki loved to talk about magic, so he’d probably have a blast discussing it with someone who could really do it. Tony just hoped these turned out to be allies and not a new bunch of crazies for him to deal with. He’d had quite enough of those to last him several lifetimes.

They had to file a report with the locals and the Accords Council, which was annoying since they hadn’t actually done anything. Still, it meant the system was working, so he couldn’t complain much.

Though the Avengers had crashed and burned hard – long prison sentences and backstabbing amongst themselves – the world hadn’t given up on heroes. Tony and his new team were going strong, and if these Masters of the Mystic Arts proved themselves trustworthy, they would have more firepower for when the next invasion happened.

*****

Loki looked around the throne room and all the people gathered there and felt nothing but relief. This was it. He was finally leaving Asgard for good. Thank all the Norns.

Thor came striding down, his cape billowing behind him, to the deafening shouts and cheers of the people. This time, however, his demeanor was different from the first coronation attempt years ago, before their lives had all gone to hell. Then, Thor had been smiling broadly, soaking in the adoration of the people and drowning in arrogant pride. Now his expression was somber and dignified. He looked like a man who took the throne seriously, not a boy playing at being king. The masses might not have noticed the difference, but to Loki it was glaringly obvious. In truth, he was proud of Thor. His brother (and he could call him that with affection once again) had come a long way from the reckless fool he had been.

“Thor Odinson,” Loki said, standing when Thor had finally reached the throne. This would be the last time he wore his Odin disguise. “It is time for you to take the throne that is rightfully yours. Do you swear to serve your people selflessly, and to protect Asgard and the Nine Realms against all harm?”

“I do.”

“Do you swear to put aside your personal needs for those of the people?”

“I do.”

“Do you swear to do your best to rule fairly and wisely, keeping Asgard’s welfare as a priority at all times?”

“I do.”

Loki descended the steps until he was level with Thor. They had discussed the entire ritual before, while still in Midgard, yet Thor still seemed nervous. It was a huge responsibility he was taking on, and this time he truly understood what it meant. There would be doubts, sacrifices and likely plenty of mistakes. It would not be easy. It was, however, necessary. This was Thor’s place, not Loki’s. Loki had finally found his own place, and he was eager to be there.

“As King of Asgard, I pass that on to you now, Thor.” Loki knelt and offered Gungnir up.

Thor took it in his right hand and turned to the people crowding the room. He lifted the staff to wild applause.

Loki stood and shouted. “All hail Thor, King of Asgard.” Let’s hope he doesn’t fuck it up, he added mentally.

“All hail Thor!” the crowd answered.

There was, of course, a huge celebration afterwards. Thor’s friends were practically falling over themselves to remind everyone they were the king’s favorites. Loki was glad he wouldn’t have to see them anymore. He wouldn’t have to see any of these people except Thor anymore – and what a blessing that was. Tomorrow, Thor would announce that Odin had once again fallen into the Odinsleep and the charade would be over, though Loki would still come by from time to time to speak to Thor and combine their resources against the threat of Thanos. Thor would be unable to travel to Midgard for a while, since actually ruling Asgard would take up a lot of his time, yet he intended to send an envoy for official negotiations as soon as his position was more secure.

The problem was that, once someone other than Thor went to Midgard, they would inevitably learn of Loki being alive and well (and aiding the humans), so Thor would need to appease the people who might want to see Loki back in the dungeons. His ‘heroic’ death had gotten people’s blood thirst satiated for a while, but a return to life would mean a return of vengeful desires. As King, he could simply declare Loki pardoned, but that didn’t meant people would accept it. A new king was always tested, and Thor did not have the same reputation for ruthlessness that Odin did. In short, it could be a difficult issue, which was why they would put it off for a while. For now, Loki was content to leave Asgard behind.

At the end of the night’s celebration, Thor walked with ‘Odin’ back to the latter’s chambers, getting many congratulations and words of devotion from everyone they crossed paths with.

Only when the doors were firmly closed and barred behind them did Loki shed Odin’s form and stretched, glad to be himself again.

“You are really leaving now?” Thor asked.

“Yes.”

“When… When will I see you again?” Away from the crowd, Thor looked young and unsure.

“In a few days.” Thor opened his mouth but Loki continued before he could say anything. “I need to get away from here, Thor. I need… to be somewhere I can be myself.”

“Give me time. I’ll have you reinstated as Prince of Asgard and–”

“No. I don’t want to be Prince, Thor. I don’t want to be here. I don’t belong here, and you making grand proclamations will not change that. People didn’t like me before, and they have even less reason to like me now. And frankly, I am past caring what anyone here thinks. I am done with trying to be something I’m not just to be looked at as inferior no matter what.”

Thor pursed his lips and didn’t reply. “I’m sorry you feel that way.”

Loki shrugged. “It is what it is. I have accepted it. It’s time you did as well. Besides, I’ll be perfectly fine in Midgard, you know that. Tony is there,” Loki added with a smirk.

Thor looked a bit uncomfortable with that reminder. He had not been happy to learn about the intimate nature of Loki’s relationship with the human. He had, in fact, attempted to persuade Loki that it was a bad idea to continue it because it was “unnatural and unseemingly”. Loki had shifted into his Frost Giant skin (not something he was really all that keen on doing still - and not in front of Tony, he wasn't ready for that yet) and had given Thor a pointed look.

“’Natural’ is a rather relative term,” he’d said. “Besides, even if I was truly Aesir, it would still be none of your business who I choose to be with.”

Tony had also come in with his own vehement reprimand of Thor’s prejudiced views when Loki had told him what the oaf had said, and had actually shamed Thor into apologizing. If Loki hadn’t already been madly in love with the man, that speech would have certainly done the trick.

“I will miss you, brother,” Thor said, coming over to hug Loki.

“Don’t be so dramatic, Thor. It’s not as if I’m leaving forever. I just told you I’ll be back in a few days.” Nevertheless, he was touched. It had been a long time since he and Thor had been able to speak to each other with such honesty and affection.

“I know, but… We barely had the chance to talk and now…”

“We’ll have plenty of time later. And you’ll probably be too busy to miss me anyway.”

“On the contrary. I’ll miss you every second exactly because I’ll be doing all the stuff you… are so much better than me at.”

There was a time when Thor would never have admitted something like that, that Loki could possibly be better than him at something. “Perhaps you are growing after all,” he said aloud, smiling to take the sting out of the words a bit. “You’ll do fine, Thor. You’ve been listening and learning. And if you find yourself unsure, just ask for some time to think things over.”

“That is good advice, brother. Thank you.” Thor’s smile was genuine and heartfelt, and Loki began to feel a little too emotional.

“All right. It’s time to go. I shall see you shortly.”

“Take care, brother.”

“You too.”

Before he started doing something stupid like crying, Loki took his leave from Odin’s chambers. He stopped by his old room briefly to pick up a few more things, then headed to the gardens for a final farewell to Frigga.

“I think you would have liked Tony, mother,” he whispered to no one. “He’s quite extraordinary. And he makes me happy.”

Happiness had been such a foreign concept for so long, it was hard to believe he had it now. Who would have thought that an act of violence and revenge could have ended up bringing him such joy? The Norns worked in mysterious ways indeed.

When he arrived back in the Tower, Tony was waiting for him with a bright smile. “Welcome home,” he said.

Thanos was still out there, but Loki was now convinced they had a chance to defeat him. He had too much to live for to allow some mad man to destroy the universe. He had allies, friends and the might of Asgard standing behind him. He had the most exceptional mortal – the creator of souls – by his side. Together, they could win. They would win.

“It’s good to be home, darling.”