Come to Pass

Chapter 3: Revealing Eyes

The moment the trickster had apathetically walked his way off the roof made Steve gasp in shock and Tony to be plunged into being suddenly sober. He'd gotten on the suit in the blink of an eye, falling after the demigod until the suit wrapped around him so much like when he'd been tossed off back during the battle. He had shuddered thinking about it, and couldn't quite get the flashbacks to clear from his vision.

But he managed, he managed to wrap his metal arms around the demigod and swiftly swing them back up to the top of the tower.

Tony would be lying if he didn't admit that he was shaking like a leaf from head to toe.

They'd acted in a blur: Steve, somewhere, at some point, unlocking the doors and dragging in the god and the inventor, and then before he could really rationalize everything that had just happened, Tony was depositing the demigod onto a red comforter from one of the spare bedrooms in the tower.

It was as his suit was disentangling itself from him that a furrowed brow landed on his forehead; he was swiping his hand through his hair and exasperatedly sighing, "What the hell just happened?"

Brown eyes narrowed in an overwhelming sense of concern that he tried to fight back because of who it was they were dealing with, but he couldn't switch off the humanitarian side of him that was fighting to win. He didn't know why he was suddenly so invested in this case but he found that he was and he wanted answers-now.

He stared at the demigod, huffing slightly as the panic encircled him more and more. "You saw that too, right? He-he just walked off the roof. What in the fuck is happening tonight?" Tony slid still shaky fingers down the sides of his face and groaned a mewling sound of noise that wasn't exactly any language's detectable words.

He just managed to glance at Steve before interpreting the expression of bafflement, unease and confusion on his teammates face. Tony saw Steve's blue eyes searching the trickster up and down but they couldn't uncover what was wrong, what felt so….different this time.

"Earth to Steve?" Tony was muttering, flashing an open palm into Steve's line of vision.

The super soldier jerked away suddenly, eyes coming to land on the inventor almost as if he had forgotten that Tony was still there.

He smiled thinly before replying softly, "Something's wrong." It's all he could manage to say, the words appearing elusive even to his own mind and his subjective reality. He wanted to say more but the ideas of this died upon his lips before he could even properly form them.

"No shit, Sherlock," Tony snapped before he sighed heavily, trying to calm the jitteriness of his movements and remind himself that he was okay, that it was a year later, it wasn't happening all over again, he was going to be okay. It didn't completely help but it was Pepper's words of advice to him and he found himself slightly soothing the more he repeated it in his mind. Thank god for Pepper, he thought, imagining her and her warm embraces, juxtaposing those experiences with the one he'd just had with the alien who had started all of his anxiety in the first place.

Tony rubbed his hands together in front of himself, the friction and the warmth that emanated from such movements continuing to ground him and have him return to the present moment. He definitely wished he could curl into Pepper's body right about now, hear her words of comfort and feel relaxed by her presence.

But Pep wasn't here right now-Steve was and Loki was, out of all circumstances that didn't make sense, but it was where they were at so Tony had to make the most of it.

"This is weird, even for us." Tony extended as a peace offering to the super soldier. He couldn't quite take back the venom in his words earlier but he could offer Steve the realization that these were very, very strange circumstances.

Steve, still processing and buffering as it were, nodded mutely.

Tony wondered what the super soldier was thinking, eying him carefully with pursed lips but Steve wasn't a software he could tap into and figure out. He couldn't necessarily analyze Steve in the same way as he processed a machine or ran a test. Tony's gaze lowered slightly, that's the problem he had with human to human interaction: there was no clear indication of what another person was thinking and it bothered the shit out of the inventor because he just wanted to know. Why was that so hard to ask for?

But Steve was in his own world, processing through a dozen scenarios and which ones were the likeliest to be coming to fruition. If they were really dealing with Loki again, and this wasn't just some fever dream he had managed to concoct in his mind or some roofie that was slipped into his water from Tony, then Steve was going to have to be dealing with a much larger issue than the seemingly small one they were facing right now.

There would need to be debriefings, chains, jail, interrogations, trying to call upon Thor, somehow, dealing with Director Fury and what he would want to do (and Steve had a bad feeling about that, too) and then getting the rest of the Avengers back together (they'd lapsed into radio silence and being pulled apart to different countries as of late) and dealing with potential alien armies that might outnumber them-because it was true that he'd heard Loki right, right? That there was a war occurring on Asgard? Which meant, as even Loki had admitted-so strangely, Steve thought-that it may follow him here. What would that mean for the planet? The city? The heroes?

Steve wasn't sure and it was all too much to digest under a late night, a drunken friend and a shade of uncertainty so deeply penetrating that it made Steve shake in anger and confusion.

Had the life he had imagined for himself been crushed once more into powder and dust? What would this mean for himself, for his team, for his loved ones going forwards?

Steve felt a pang of guilt and grief when he thought back to his old friend, Bucky. Bucky would know what to say right now, what to do, what to think.

But Bucky wasn't here. And that made it all the worse.

As Steve tried to repair the gaping hole in his chest and the wounds that stung from salt, he heard almost as if the inventor was far away, Tony say, "No one finds out about this for a day. Not until we figure out what the hell we're supposed to be reporting to begin with. Just…just one day." Steve could tell the anxiety was dripping from the billionaire's lips and even Steve was confronted by this wavering doubt that a day would be if they were lucky-something told him that this wouldn't be figured out so soon after all. This dawning realization made him uncertain as to which part was worse.

Steve didn't like harboring secrets. He was very much against lying, deceit and not speaking and living in his truth. But lately he'd been starting to harbor a lot of secrets and this one felt too large, too important to properly be leaving in the shadows. But he didn't really have an intuition of what could be done otherwise.

Maybe, maybe the trickster was just passing through? Maybe he was even more injured than they could visibly visualize and that was coloring his interpretations of the world and what had happened on his home planet?

All Steve knew for sure was that something was very, very wrong and he had a sinking feeling about it all.

Steve noticed himself nodding to Tony, his vertebrae almost squeaking in turn to the motion, as he tried to add reassuringly, "It's our responsibility to determine the amount of threat present. Maybe he won't even be here long. A day gives us time and we need more time." The last of his words were barely said, more like in a hushed whisper and Tony found himself once again swept up into anxiety as he'd never seen or heard Steve like this before, and they'd been living together in the tower for a year now.

Tony had seen Steve through the good times, the bad times, the uncertain times and the battle times. None of these times were being mirrored in Steve's body or voice now and it made his heart beat faster with all the nervous energy bouncing around in his gut. If they were truly dealing with an uncommon experience, what would guide them through it necessarily?

Tony felt his alarm bells go off as he choked out, "Just a day." He started to sink himself slowly down into the nearest white cushioned chair. "And for now we wait, wait until he wakes up." Tony's eyes didn't dare leave the Asgardian's form again, the waves of sleepiness he had gotten from being buzzed having temporarily faded away.

Steve agreed, setting himself down upon the floor, knees bent, eyes never shifting again either.

"One day," Steve observed.

They were Avengers, after all. They had work to do. And wasn't this their job all along: to assess threats and dangers to mankind? Weren't they just being responsible superhero citizens of their realm? Steve would have liked to think so. He couldn't extend as much responsibility towards Tony but even then, it was because, he reasoned, that Tony hadn't been through as much war experience as Steve had. At least, that's how he made sense of it to himself. The fact that Tony would want to go on alcohol binges and party all night long, have reckless sex while stringing along Pepper, so it seemed to Steve, was all great indications that Tony wasn't the most responsible person on the team. But Steve knew that maybe these behaviors masked deeper issues beneath the surface. Steve tried not to judge so much and definitely didn't go about voicing these concerns. Steve just figured eventually Tony would grow up and get it all out of his system. Steve also figured he'd be waiting a long time for that to happen, so he took some resignation about the task into play.

So what did it matter if the potential second wave threat was from a returning supervillain?

It made it so that there was all the more reason to remain eyes locked on the demigod until he could awaken and provide them with the answers to soothe their souls.

And if he happened to be truthful in his previous words on the rooftop-if a war was coming back to Earth-then they had to be ready. They had to start preparing.

Or else, this time, they might not make it through.

{*!*!*}

Tony and Steve had settled into severely uncomfortable positions for their night long waiting game. Tony had started with both feet flat on the floor, back rigid against the spine of the chair, then to sitting cross legged, then to vegging out in a relaxed position, then to lying across the arms of the chair (which was quite uncomfortable) to now lying upside down in the soft cushion. His head was placed carefully upon the floor and his eyes continued to threaten to close until he would physically shake himself awake in an attempt to remain wide-eyed. It would help for a few seconds before he'd shut his lids together again and snored lightly. In which case, Steve elbowed him in the ribs and then Tony would sputter and try to fight off his wanting to punch Steve in the side for keeping him awake, until he remembered yet again why they both needed to remain on their toes.

But even in his sleepy mind, Tony muttered that one of them could stay awake to let the other sleep and just take turns like that. He just was so tired that he could hardly gather up the energy to make the suggestion. So, instead, he wandered in and out of proper consciousness.

Steve, legs falling asleep on more than one occasion, causing him to limp around the room and thanking Tony for not having creaky floorboards, paced nervously to let out some energy and also to keep himself alert and on the ready. Steve would accidentally trip over something on the bare floor, what he had no clue, before he would settle back onto the floor in his bare position.

They spent hours doing this, Tony mostly eyeing his cell phone and exploring social media, talking to Jarvis here and there to not send out information on who their new guest was in the tower, and Steve watched and watched and then eventually tore out some paper from the side bookshelf and jotted down some ideas he had roaming around in his mind, hopeful that it would get his thoughts more in order and the grogginess would ebb away. It sort of worked and sort of flopped.

By six AM, Steve was running on fumes and the early morning rays of sunshine were beginning to crawl across the floor from the nearest window. It wasn't the best view of the tower, not that that mattered for their guest, Steve internally reasoned, but a three foot by three foot window. It was a glimpse towards the outside world, tantalizing and brief, letting the viewer crave more but not providing it itself.

Steve did as best as he could to suppress the yawn that threatened to balloon out of his maw, and he was only half successful in retaining it. He nudged Tony in the ribs again, his eyes lingering on Loki's form as he began to realize through the fog of sleeplessness that Loki's body was twitching and the moment of truth was spawning in front of them faster than Tony could reasonably awaken and for Steve to be back in his mind and body.

"Tony," he hissed beneath his breath and he heard the continued snore from his teammate before he rolled his eyes and dug his elbow in a little deeper, the glow from the billionaire's arc reactor being swallowed up by the sun's cresting over the Earth.

"He's waking up," Steve implored just as quietly and under different circumstances he would have laughed when Tony wondered aloud, "What? Who?" Tony waved a hand dismissively. "Just one more minute."

Steve regarded him regally, "It's Loki; I think he's waking up."

Tony's eyes immediately snapped open like he'd just slammed a treasure chest ajar to see the gold coins hidden just beyond it.

Tony clambered to an upright position, all the blood having rushed to his head returning to pool at his feet as he stretched mildly in the chair, standing up too quickly and finding himself awkward and uncomfortable soon after.

"What do we do?" he asked Steve, seeing from the corner of his eye that Steve was as slow as a sloth to get up from the floor.

He must have a harder time getting up than I thought, Tony mused, settling on the notion that one, he'd check in with Steve about his modesty and aversion to seek help when he needed it; two, to place an extra order of chairs for the tower; and three, that he'd forgotten how old Steve was-and the thought of this consideration made him smirk-despite being frozen in time. He was still working with an aging body like the rest of them and he had to be more careful in the future.

Tony mildly scoffed at the notion: that a super soldier was still human and joints didn't care if you were a hero or not, they would still ache and become encapsulated with pain no matter how much they at one point didn't, was flabbergasting and a little more than mind-boggling and inconceivable.

Tony mentally ran a check-in for his own system: noting the way tiredness clung to the deepening angle of his shoulders, the way his eyes were scrunched up on the ends despite the waves of adrenaline trying to shoot through his body to make him alert. He felt the way his neck protested for the angle he'd fallen asleep in and the way his back screamed at him to rest and the headache of all headaches blew his skull backwards.

Well, shit, he thought to himself, taking in a big, deep breath and shaking his body out. He didn't miss the arch of a brow pulled up from Steve but he also didn't care to give the super soldier a reason for his particular madness.

Tony edged closer to the bed, somewhat marred with confusion, apprehension and intrigue, even ignoring the way Steve held up a hand until the frozen mortal clenched his palm around the billionaire's bicep, halting him in place-making it so that he froze as well.

"Careful," Steve warned in a low octave, this time more perceptible to the human ear.

Tony spared him a quick glance and as a quip began to form on his lip, or a snarl that Steve wasn't his father erupted from the pain deep in his chest, they both heard a distinct moan come from the bedspread.

He's giving birth to an alien, was Tony's original thought, despite how absurd that sounded to the rest of his brain.

"Focus," he breathed, noticing how Steve bristled at his tone and mentally slapping himself because this was their newest mission and they had to be on the same side, right? Wasn't that how team cohesion worked, after all? Or had he not been paying as much attention as he'd thought in that training than when they'd been completing team building exercises?

"Hrrrugh," came another low response from the bed.

Tony figured the demigod would be slow to come back to his senses and he was hoping for as much, until Loki swung an arm, a leg and a torso through the air, suddenly breathing fast and shouting, "Show yourself, heathen!"

Tony was immediately in a battle position as Steve was holding his shield in one arm and Jarvis was at the ready as their omnipotent guard.

That's odd, Tony thought, observing that Loki wasn't exactly looking at them. Instead the trickster was facing the non-threatening bookshelf, a dagger in one hand and eyes slapped shut in a remarkable feat for someone who'd just awakened.

Steve was noticing the way his own stomach dropped to his shoes and that a sense of pervasive unease had begun to hang across his shoulders once again.

This isn't good, he thought in passing, motioning for Tony to be quiet for another moment longer.

Tony, of course, couldn't read Steve's mind and naturally didn't get the memo.

"Settle down, Reindeer Games," Tony casually mocked in a tone that got Steve to glare at him momentarily.

Loki's back stiffened and somehow relaxed at the same time.

"Ah, yes, Midgard, isn't it?" Loki said, thoughtfully. He shifted in a whirl towards where he imagined the Man of Iron to be.

He flinched when he thought he heard someone moving in the opposite direction.

Right, there were two of them, Loki considered, heart sinking to the core of the cursed planet.

He shifted sideways in a way he hoped to be between the two mortals but he wasn't sure how well he executed such a manner.

To Tony, the trickster was behaving unnaturally and to Steve, it only caused his faith in the one day rule to break and fracture even more.

Where was this going? And was there any way to possibly stop it?

Loki breathed through his teeth.

"To what do I owe this encounter?" he asked in a voice that was far too controlled, instantaneously betraying the way he tried to make it appear relaxed and aloof.

"You first, Reindeer Games," Tony remarked, tossing a coin he found in his pocket towards the demigod, without Steve's consent, of course.

The dime bounced off Loki's armor and the trickster moved back in response, casting his face towards the ground.

Almost...hiding.

"What's wrong?" Tony asked softly, unsure why he'd invested so much into this once upon a year ago enemy.

"There's something you're not telling us," Steve ventured just as carefully.

"I do not owe you anything, mortals," Loki hissed, hatred entering his mind.

Defensiveness, that's what it was; Tony quirked his head to the side. There was no need to get defensive if a person-or alien as it were-wasn't feeling particularly vulnerable and making up in show for what they lacked internally.

Tony bit his lip as he watched the way Loki's hips shifted back and forth, placing his toes into the floor with extra pressure before falling back to his heel then over again.

"We can't help you if we don't know what's wrong." Steve offered: tone soft and childlike, brimming with hope and optimism so much so that Tony couldn't help but cringe.

Loki tried not to let the sentimentality of those words enter his heart but he felt the tears leak out of his eyes and fall to his chest anyways.

"I...I cannot..." Loki turned away, he thought, and let out a small whimper.

Another dime came into the air between the heroes and villain, Steve shooting a look to Tony, as Loki expressed horripilation after it clattered upon the wood flooring. Despite the dime lying a foot away from the demigod, after the trajectory of its descent seemed to come in slow motion, the bitter truth slapped the two superheroes in their frightened faces. If there weren't alarm bells going off before, they definitely were now.

"We have to know exactly what we're dealing with here," Steve said, wishing that what he feared wasn't the truth.

Loki sighed, his eyes parting open. He raised them up, seeing a bright white-red coloration, too bright he thought, before casting his eyes elsewhere, to where instead he only saw a blue-black background.

He pointed his eyes to where he thought the mortals lied and heard the gasp and the question that left him trembling:

"What happened to your eyes?"

Loki's gaze fell into sadness, his voice small as he whispered, "How bad is it?"

Steve shook slightly, mentioning in a slow state, "Your eyes are cloudy. Can you-?"

"The iris and everything," Tony clarified.

"-see?" Steve finished, already dreading the answer he knew was coming.

"My-my father has blinded me." Loki shuddered as the injustice and ill-timing of it all came festering to the surface. "My father has blinded me for how long I know not, there's a war on Asgard and the Mad Titan is out for blood, my blood, and he will not stop until every last one of his children have burned every planet under the sun to the ground. We, we are doomed." Loki added gravely.

Tony nodded quickly, almost upbeat in the hopes to contrast the way he felt his soul quaking, "Sounds about right for a Monday." He looked towards Steve. "Now what?"

Steve frowned.

"Just one day," Steve said, face ashen, falling back into shock.

Tony chuckled nervously and sighed, shrugging one shoulder as he commented, "Yeah, about that..."

A/N: Hi again! I'm soooo sorry it's been legitimately a YEAR since I updated this fic. I started the document in June, then titled it in August 2019 and started it a little but didn't like how it was going after 3 sentences and then buried it from my mind until March 2020. But, I'm back with an update and I will NOT be abandoning this story or any of my other ones!

I updated ALU about a week ago and am hoping to do the same for S, CeC, D&D and AUS (amazingly!) in the coming quarantine days ahead.

I hope that you enjoy this chapter and this story! I might edit some of it or try to get back into re-watching the characters again through clips and the like. Feel like I haven't done that in a long time. Any who, let me know what you think! Looking forward to your responses and please stay safe out there, readers! I appreciate and thank you for every view, fave, follow, review and anything else I'm forgetting. :D Stay healthy! xxx

Written: 8.9.19; 3.23.20, 3.24, 3.25.2020

Edited: 3.24, 3.25.2020

Music: "Everything I Wanted" by Billie Eilish; "Hymns with the Devil in Confessional" by The Dear Hunter (full album); "Rescue" by Lauren Daigle.