Puzzle Of A Chosen Trickster

Tell Me Your Secrets

(Narrator POV)
Tony was sitting in his spinning chair which was in front of the desk that had the puzzle on it. He was staring at the rock intensely and had been for awhile. It wasn't just honesty. He'd tried that and the stone had seemed unmoved.

"Alright, just think. Thor was being more than honest, he was being vulnerable and telling a truth that nobody else knew about." Tony sighed heavily and swirled his whiskey around in its glass.

It was late by now. Completely dark outside, and he didn't know if it was just his imagination but the stars seemed a lot less bright. The moon had an orange tinge to it that was unsettling to anyone who had watched an apocalypse movie and then ended up in what was pretty much an actual apocalypse.

Steve, Natasha, and Thor were all at their residences. Safe and sound hopefully. Probably plagued by nightmares if they could even manage to fall asleep in the first place.

Tony couldn't even try to sleep though because this stupid rock was going to drive him even more mad than he already was. It was just like the God who gifted it, Tony supposed, overly complicated and frustrating.

"Just tell me your secrets da-." He was cut off by the rock flashing blue for a moment, making his breath catch. "Secrets, that's it."

Okay, he could think of secrets to tell this stupid magic stone to get it to go all light-show on him again. He could. Did he want to though?

He had no idea what would be done with this information. Where would it go? Who would have access to the secret? Was it just a means of unlocking the thing or was it actually stored? It's not like he could lie to an artifact made by the God of Lies.

Maybe if he just went with it and hoped for the best, this wouldn't come back to bite him later. Maybe if he was honest it wouldn't use anything against him.

"I-." He cut himself off again. Taking a deep breath, finishing off his glass of booze, and sitting up a bit straighter helped him steel himself for this.

"I- a part of me always thought that something was off with the whole invasion thing. That wasn't a new theory, and I regret not bringing it up during the fight because what if I was right? What if something wasn't right and we could have helped in a way we didn't?" Another deep breath.

"I blame myself for the events sometimes. Mainly because maybe we could have changed things if I had opened my bigmouth and less people would have died. Also, I spent a second in the Void which isn't a secret, but my thoughts regarding Loki after I was in there is." The blue light started up and began to pulse.

"Thor mentioned once that that was where Loki went and how he had never been there personally, but it was a place that was supposed to make even the greatest minds crumble. I didn't really believe him until I saw the Void myself. That haunted look in Loki's eyes suddenly made so much more sense, but I think there was more." He swallowed deeply as the humming started up.

"I'm hoping that this will only require one secret from now on because this is getting long-winded, but anyways I think someone might have hurt Loki. I don't know how bad or anything, but I know that if I was going to lead an invasion it wouldn't be while I looked like death warmed over. He looked tired and manic and just completely done. A part of me felt like we should be on his side instead of against him, but I kept quiet so they wouldn't think I'd lost my mind too."

As the humming got louder, Tony turned on two lights and positioned them so that they made the stone glow like before which was amplified by the blue glow.

"I've kind of felt like I was missing something ever since Thor took him back up to Asgard and I don't know what it was, but it was almost like a piece of me went with him. I know I found him attractive, but I'm pretty sure the main thing that's been bugging me is all the unanswered questions."