Spooky Action at a Distance | Frostiron

Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag

Tony couldn't begin to process his emotions, not that he wanted to anyway. He was confused, betrayed, sad, hurt, angry... he even felt stupid. He trusted the god of lies. What was he expecting? Why was he stupid enough to trust the god? He wanted to believe that Loki was just doing what he had to to survive, but he didn't have to give them a stone. No, that implied that he was on their side. Then again, he'd had clear access to the mind stone. Why not take that? Why not hand that over to them too? Unless he didn't want to be controlled. Tony grabbed another drink, wanting to get rid of his feelings, wanting to numb himself and the confusion that only grew.

He felt a hand on his shoulder making him jump in fright. He turned to look and saw Natasha standing there. He sighed and drank his drink in one before pouring another. He wasn't ready for the lectures. It was all his fault, but what could he do now? It was over. He'd fucked up. He had to pay the price.

"You didn't know he was going to do that," Natasha said softly.

Natasha wasn't stupid. She'd pieced together that the god and mechanic were involved romantically. She'd seen the way they looked at each other when they thought no one was looking, the way they'd spend so much time together, the way the god would cling to Tony. It was all too obvious.

"But I shouldn't have trusted him," Tony replied. "He does what he has to survive. That's why I shouldn't have trusted him. He only does what's good for himself, and obviously working with them means he'll survive."

Then why would he keep us alive?" Natasha asked, earning a look of confusion from the mechanic. "He said he wanted to watch us suffer. They were going to kill us and he made it clear he wanted us to survive. Whether or not the reasoning behind it was true, he kept us alive."

Tony didn't reply. He didn't know how to. He was beyond angry with the god, but more so at himself. What if he was just using Tony for information? To know how Earth would protect itself? Then again, why would he help if that was his plan?

The rest do the team accumulated in the living room, but Tony stayed by the bar, opting to keep drinking. He didn't want to be sober. He didn't want to be there. He heard the team start to talk, but he didn't pay any mind to it. He didn't want to talk about it.

"Tony? Are you even going to take this seriously?" Steve asked, Tony finally paying attention to them in return.

"Yeah, it's pretty serious, but there's not much we can do," Tony replied. "We just need to sit around and wait. We'll get the defences up as fast as we can and we work from there."

"You told us we could trust Loki. You were the one that brought him here. You need to take responsibility," Steve said, glaring daggers at the mechanic.

"What did he do that was so wrong? You were there. You saw and heard everything. He kept us alive. He gave them a stone, sure, but he had access to one here and he didn't take it. He's left us with a stone, and I don't know why, but we need to give him that," Tony explained as he poured another drink.

He wanted to give Loki the benefit of the doubt, that he was just doing it for information, to survive, anything justifiable. He just didn't know. The god hadn't even looked at him throughout the entire encounter. He didn't even know that he was awake.

"He took the Æther," Thor said. "It's the reality stone. It was locked in the vaults of Asgard. I wasn't even aware that he knew it was there. It was completely hidden."

"Right, so they've got the reality stone, we've got the mind, Strange has time, is the tesseract still on Asgard?" Tony asked, Thor nodding in reply. "Then that's four accounted for. We've just got to hope they don't have the other two."