Chapter Text
The sky is too blue and too bright.
“What the hell?" Tony can’t hold back his words as he catches sight of three familiar faces peering down at him. “What just happened?” Steve looks young, and Thor’s beard is back to a light scruff, and- there’s the Hulk. Not Bruce, not the incongruous combination of both that called itself Professor Hulk, but the all-out-green, raging Hulk. Steve looks up in an expression of incredulity, and Tony follows, registering the crumbling skyscrapers, and it’s a scene that looks too familiar.
“We won,” Steve says, almost breathing out the words, and those words confirm Tony’s suspicion in a chilling wave.
What the hell?
New York.
2012?
Fuck. New York.
The attack that planted its roots in Tony’s mind and inconveniently sprouted itself in the form of nightmares and panic attacks. Therapy had helped, but being back to the scene of the crime, so to speak, isn’t really helping with the sudden twisting of his gut. Tony might puke. All over Rogers, preferably.
It takes him a good few minutes to stand up, his dead suit only making every movement a hundred times harder. He’s vaguely aware of the lack of pain running through the right side of his body as the Hulk hoists him up and Tony finds himself pressed against the Big Green as he scrambles to the top of Stark Tower. Or what was left of it.
It feels strangely surreal. He was dying. He had died. The image of Pepper’s face, her body enclosed in the suit he had built for her, teary-eyed as she consoled him - We’re gonna be okay. He remembered Peter, cheeks wet and eyes red, ‘We won, Mr. Stark. We won. You did it.’ F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s voice. ‘Life functions critical.’ His AI had never sounded so resigned, so absolutely devastated in confirming the news that he himself knew. There was the burn of the Infinity Stones stinging into his flesh and Tony had felt his life slipping away, barely able to muster the strength to keep his eyes open. The kid had - ‘ Tony-’ - he had called him Tony. Tony had wanted to smile, wanted to shift his lips ever so slightly, but his body remained unresponsive.
You can rest now, Pepper had said. Tony finally gave in.
The New York wind is slapping him in the face as the Hulk scaled the side of the building - and it feels too real. Is this the 'life flashing before his eyes' moment? Or did he visualize some sick, twisted dream in all of 10 seconds that he was up in space?
Loki had just started coming to his senses, crawling out of the hole that the Hulk had so graciously smashed him in, when Tony and the Hulk reached the roof. Steve had hitched a ride upstairs with Thor, and- Rogers, not Steve, his mind corrects in a sudden afterthought. They’re not friends, never had been.
"We’ll lose,” Tony had said, once upon a time, and Steve - Rogers - had responded in his All-American way, "Then we’ll do that together.”
The word is toxin in his brain, because when had that ever happened? There was no together during Ultron, when Rogers welcomed the Maximoffs into the team with open arms, there was no together during their fight in Germany, there was no together in Siberia when Tony was left for dead, no together when Thanos snapped and wiped out half the universe, no together when Tony was stranded in the black void of space, starving and on the verge of death. They only came together during the final battle with Thanos, but it was only Tony who lost. His daughter, his wife, his best friend, the kid... his life.
He’s pulled out of his thoughts when he makes eye-contact with Romanoff, who gives him a firm good-job nod. There’s respect in the small movement, and Tony suddenly feels his heart swell. Romanoff had sacrificed her life for the Soul Stone. The spy who had always been out to save her own skin had willingly fallen to her death, and Tony feels guilt wash over him because she didn’t even get a funeral. The team was her family, and they had spared her no second thought before the fight with Thanos.
Tony cracks a small smile in response to her, and the team heads inside to where Loki is still struggling to get himself upright. Tony remembers Bruce’s words - ‘He sent Loki. The attack on New York. That's him.’ - back when he saw his friend after ages and Strange had pulled him out of a nice morning stroll with Pepper. It suddenly seems so long ago. But - was it, though? Was it long ago? Or is it something yet to happen? He still can’t figure out how he’s ended up here, but there’s a small feeling inside him that shifts the blame to the Time Stone. Maybe it had done its job, and more. But most importantly-
The attack on New York was Thanos.
Thor had said Loki changed, that it was the first time in a long time that they had fought like brothers to save the people of Asgard. It was the first time Thor hoped for a new beginning with his brother. Loki had even given up an Infinity Stone to save Thor’s life, and there was heavy guilt within the God of Thunder when he had admitted that if Loki had refused, if Loki had let Thor die, Thanos would never have succeeded. That if Loki had let Thor die, Thanos wouldn’t have choked the life out of him.
In a moment of sudden revelation, Tony realizes that Loki has always been on their side - albeit misplaced priorities - and that he's had always been plotting against Thanos. Loki’s clever - insanely so - and with his magical abilities and knowledge of Thanos, he’s the strongest ally Tony could get. Tony needs to tell Loki, has to tell the god that Tony knows what’s happening. Or what will happen. (He hasn’t figured the past/future tense out yet)
He knows what Loki will say approximately one second before he says it.
“If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now,” There’s not a flicker of worry in the god’s face as the words drawl out of his mouth, and Tony really should have noticed that the first time around. He waits until Loki’s eyes land on Tony, and there’s that brief second of eye contact that Tony uses to mouth a word.
A single word was all Tony needed. The god’s eyes widened ever so slightly, barely visible if Tony hadn’t been looking for the slightest movement in Loki’s face.
Sharp green eyes are focused on Tony, who’s trying his best to keep his face impassive. And then, an all too familiar voice sounded inside his head:
'How do you know that name?'