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So quiet. So dark. So scary.
Something icy entwined him with a fine cocoon he just couldn't set free from. He was overcame by cold and felt that in a while will not be able to resist it.
" He...lp me..."
Anthony...
He dreamt of falling. His body was drifting down inertly and he couldn't stop it. Somewhere in this heights he lost his armour. He lost Jarvis.
He was falling down among the stars.
Tottery, he rouse from a sleep. Sweaty clothes sticked to the body. How many nights in a row did he struggle? He had lost the track of time.
" What time is it, Jarvis?" he threw in out of habit, even though the moment of everyday's waking up was meaningless. He was falling asleep terrified and getting up tired – no matter how long did he sleep.
No voice, only the silence answered to that question. He trembled as soon as the cold, revolting shiver went through his back.
" Jarvis?" he murmured anxiously. The digital butler has actually never failed him. Unless it was Fury once again, searching for helpers in his clandestine wars. He decided that he definitely needs to recalibrate the whole Jarvis' system.
He stood up lead by unpleasant premonition. Something was wrong.
The first few steps he took convinced him that it was even worse than he prematurily assumed. Much more worse. Barefoot was he standing on a freezy-cold, stone floor in the middle of old, castle-ish chamber.
" Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore," he muttered under his voice.
" You are awake. Good," stated a very quiet, yet amused voice behind his back. He could swear that he heard it somewhere before. How dumbfounded had he became right after he turned around. What was HE doing here?! Ready to strike, he had strained his muscles, but the man in front of him didn't even bother to move. He just observed.
" I believe it will be better if you return to bed," added the visitor.
" And I should be listening to you because?" Tony grimaced. If he was forced to do so, he will escape. He knew, he could make it somehow, even without his armour.
" You were wounded," answered the other, didn't put off by Stark's angry face. " You have had an accident, do you not remember?"
" Accident..." Tony repeated after him feeling like something had tightened around his chest in attempt of squashing his heart.
Everything came back to him suddenly with a strike. Mandarin. The missile passing swiftly towards the villa. Glass splinters plunging into body under the layer of his armour. The house folding up over his head just as if it was built of cards. A cold depth of the ocean closing all the waves around, consuming him voraciously.
What happened next – he couldn't remember. How did he end up in here? Wherever 'here' was.
" Where am I?"he asked verbalizing words with difficulty, feeling that he can't catch a breath. He slipped.
" Welcome to Asgard, Anthony Stark."
The world around him started to collapse.
He had been sinking.
Unexpectedly the darkness caught him beneath its icicle teeth swallowing in one piece.
He wasn't aware how long did it pass, before he has been awaken. Taken out, by force, from the emptiness he has been drifting in.
He probably didn't fancy such state. In a sense of the whole situation, he had found himself in, he felt like if this darkness had vomited him a little chewed. He agreed with his mind that, right now, he would rather choose the pain lulling him to sleep than such a terrible feeling inside.
He dared to open his eyes, after all. He must have cover it to protect from the harsh light filling the room. It was much too gold, much too painful.
Every another attack was hard to take, but he was able to get the control back. Not this time, though. Hallucinations were too vivid and dreadful to manage.
Once again, he pulled himself up to the sitting position. Thick, golden glow was surrounding the bed. The world has been drowning in it entirely, as if around, there was nothing more than that.
Someone has dressed his hands. When he unwinded the bandage, he discovered that the same person had removed every, even minuscule, piece of glass from the wounds.
" You should not have done that." Slim, elegant fingers have taken away the dressing from his hands and wrapped it back around the Tony's arm.
" Where are your antlers, Bambi?" he jested, trying to conceal all the concern, so as irritation.
" You must have done something to your hair," he mocked this time to provoke the other man, while he didn't bother to respond.
The one standing by the bed smiled slightly and brushed hair aside.
He looked differently from the last time, in New York. Somebody has deprived him of this whole insolence. Loki's eyes neither shined with madness anymore, nor sparkled with previous malice. His look was empty and lacking of emotions.
" You won't say anything, will you?" he threw in nervously.
" Would you like to know anything concrete, Anthony Stark?" murmured Loki, sitting by his side on the bed. Just for a split second he seemed to be an angel surrounded by this golden halo. But, right before his fall, wasn't Lucifer also an angel?
" How did I end up in here, perhaps? How come that I'm in Asgard? I've been...somewhere else," he muttered , but he couldn't remind himself where exactly was the 'somewhere else'.
" Are you entirely sure that this is Asgard? It will not take long."
Tony squinted his eyes listening to such nonsense.
" What?! But you said..."
" Maybe it is hell? Maybe this is how the death looks like, Anthony Stark?" cut Asgardian in the middle of Stark's sentence.
Tony moved closer and grabbed Loki's arms, painfully clenching fingers on his skin. But the demi-god didn't move an inch.
" What are you doing here? Hadn't Thor taken you to punish for your acts?" Tony has been asking constantly shaking him in a very brutal way.
" Maybe this is my punishment. Just a little while more, Anthony," he responded flatly.
" Don't call me that, you asshole!"
Asgardian took a short look into his eyes.
" Is that not your name? Anthony Edward Stark...Genius. Billionaire. Playboy. Philantropist. Iron Man. Hero," he whispered in the same moment touching the other man's cheek. " The body has not been found yet."
Tony felt the darkness that was trying to reach him with its claws again.
" You are completely fucked up!" he snarled. Was he talking to Loki? Or perhaps to himself?
" Maybe this is our mutual hell, Tony. Have you ever thought of it? Do you want to go back?"
Cold fingers were sliding down on his skin.
" Hang on, it is pretty close now," continued demi-god, slowly reaching for the reactor that he removed right away without any resistance.
Tony tried to defend himself against it. Pushing back Loki's hands. Beating randomly and hitting but only the golden mirage. One spasm, after another he was losing his strenght. Eventually he had lost his fighting spirit too. In the very last, desperate act Tony pushed himself to grasp Asgardian's throat, but weakened arm only became numb so that he didn't manage to even slightly come near the other man.
Tender hands captured his ckeeks. Cool lips touched fleetingly his mouth.
" It may be...," whispered Loki kissing man briefly. " Farewell, Anthony Stark...Now..."
By the time he has spoken the very last word, Tony had already been consumed by the darkness, which he actually welcomed with a relief.
This time there were no stars in there.
He closed his eyes and has been waiting.
Sir. Sir! We're five miles outside of Rose Hills, Tennessee.