Twisted in Ties (Loki x OC)

Chapter 12

Tony's POV

I heard Izetta tune in as I started to push the engine to get it working again. "We got a problem! Thor is in the cage spinning through the sky and Loki is on the lose!"

"What!?" Fury shouted.

"We got other problems over here!" Rogers stated.

"I have to get him out of there!" Izetta insisted.

"Izetta! Fall back, it's too dangerous!" I told her.

"You got any better lines?" I grumbled, but I knew there was nothing I could do. I kept pushing and soon it was up and running again. 

"Cap, hit the lever."

"Need a minute here!" I quickly grew nervous. 

"Lever, now!" It started spinning faster than I could go. I got hit by the one behind me. "Uh oh." I was sucked under in an instant. "Help!!" It suddenly jerked and opened long enough for me to fall through. I was able to steady myself. I quickly flew back in and took out the guy shooting at Rogers. I panted heavily, relieved that it had worked.

We had just gotten back on our feet when Izetta tuned in again. This call made me the most worried. "Loki's on my ass in his personal pick-up! I'm getting ready to engage!" WHAT!?

"NO! Izetta, retreat! We need you here, now!" I ordered.

"If she can take him down, then so be it!" Fury countered.

"I'm already working on it, Sir-" I heard a scream over the radio. 

"Izetta!!" 

"Do you copy!?" Fury asked.

"...My wing's hit!"

"Fall back!" I yelled at her, silently begging for her to listen to me. 

"Shit!" I heard her again.

"What's happening!?" Fury demanded.

"I lost my rockets!"

"Then I am forced to agree! Stark's right, fall back now!" 

"I'm not helpless!" I could hear gunshots.

"Izetta! Please!" I was getting desperate. Come on, Tailwind! Just listen to me! Get out of there!

"I have to go before I get a bullet in the back of my head!" 

"WHAT!?" I yelled, but there was no answer. 

"Sir, I'm afraid she's forced me to terminate communications," Jarvis told me. 

"Damn it!" 

"There's nothing we can do about it, Stark! Everybody get back to the bridge!"

"That's my dau-" I stopped. "sidekick out there! I can't just sit back!"

"Stark, we don't have a choice. We don't even know where she is now." Rogers told me. I punched the wall in anger, but I knew he was right. "She'll be alright," He told me as I looked over at him. "...You did raise her to be one tough kid." I calmed down, but my worry didn't go away. We headed back inside and Fury suddenly came over the radio again.

"Agent Coulson is down."

"A medical team is on its way to your location."

"They're here." We all stopped. "They called it." 

When we regrouped, I had a lot on my mind. Izetta hadn't come back, Coulson was...gone, and we'd failed. We lost. All because we couldn't get it together... I felt angry and guilty. This was too much. This guy was going to pay. 

Fury showed up not too long after Rogers and I had taken seats at the table. He had Coulson's cards in hand. He walked over to us. 

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket." He threw them onto the table. "Guess he never did get you to sign them." I knew that one was meant for Cap, but it still made my blood boil. "We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the location of the Cube, Banner, Thor...I got nothing for you," He told us. "I lost my one good eye...maybe I had that coming." 

He started walking as he began to come clean. "Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier." I knew what he meant. I knew what was coming, but it still got a reaction out of me. "There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, to see if they could become something more. And yes...Izetta was on that list. In fact, she was our first hope, before we found you in the ice. That kid had heart and power. She was special and she still is. That's why we kept everything we had...because one day we wanted to show her what she was going to be versus what she'd become. Stark knows this as well." I frowned. I should've told her... "We wanted her to keep her life and joy to inspire this group of remarkable people so that way...we could see if they could work together when we needed them to. To fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea," He told us. "In heroes." 

I stood up and left. I couldn't listen anymore. I had to think. I went to the cell room, wanting the silence. Of course, I didn't have it for long. Rogers came soon enough. I wasn't surprised.

"...Was he married?" 

"No," I replied. "There was a, uh...cellist, I think."

"...I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man." I laughed a bit.

"He was an idiot."

"Why? For believing?"

"For taking on Loki alone," I answered. 

"He was doing his job." I scoffed at that.

"He was out of his league. He should've waited!" I tried to think of what to say. "He should've..."

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony." 

"Right, I've heard that before." 

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" I turned around.

"We are not soldiers." My frustration was starting to show. "I'm not marching to Fury's fife." 

"Neither am I. He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does. But right now, we got to put that behind us and get this done." I looked over at the blood on the wall. "Now, Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list-" I realized something.

"He made it personal." It was finally starting to click with me.

"That's not the point."

"That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?" 

"To tear us apart," Rogers replied.

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us he wants to be seen doing it." I finally got it. "He wants an audience."

"Right. I caught his act in Stuttgart."

"Yeah, that's just previews. This is- This is opening night! And Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered on it-" I stopped. "Son of a bitch." We both hurried off, now knowing where we had to go. I somehow knew that Izetta had already figured it out. I knew where she was going, but she couldn't do it alone. We needed to get out of here, now. Rogers and I hurried off to gather the artillery and get our asses straight to New York City. Hang on, kid. Don't do something stupid...