fossilised | Jotunheimr

Jotunheimr

Thor Odinson was not ready to be King.

That much had become suddenly and sharply clear to Odin All-Father, a sharp pain that he would rather not have had. He had been blinded too long by love for his only heir, seeing only his affable way of gaining friends and his strength on the battlefield, but ignoring how he had become spoiled and arrogant. He had glossed over the reports from Thor's tutors that his son had not studied the other realms or the duties of a King as he should, and had instead spent much of his youth carousing with his favoured companions, hunting or getting into trouble together.

But this... this was beyond a childish scrape.

Egged on by his friends, or so it had come out since the act, Thor had decided to go to Jotunheim - a forbidden act - for the sole purpose of finding one of its inhabitants and slaying it. A proof of his mettle as a warrior, to kill one of the fearsome giants, the monsters of the icy realm. He felt ashamed, sick at heart that his only son could be so ignorant as to think that any race were just monsters. He might have hoped these were just rantings, but he saw preparations begin to take place and he knew that they meant to commit treason by disobeying his orders of no contact with Jotunheim and perhaps start another war.

Arrangements were hastily made, pushed through Frigga who had more goodwill remaining to her among the Giants, and when Thor arrived at the Bifrost, he would find Odin standing by the great sword rather than Heimdall, his one eye forbidding.

"Why are you so eager to seek out war, my son?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Tony approached with his hands in his pockets. He was slow, methodical. Considering the amount of blood and oil and whatever else he’d followed in from the stairs, he was already pretty sure that he knew what he’d find.

Half-dead, sure, but the guy was like Steve. They both were too stubborn to die.

“He’s going to be all right,” Tony said, not lying since Coulson had texted each and every update several times over. How the guy got his number— Fucking SHIELD. “You know that already. You didn’t shoot to kill. Just to shut him up. I’ll have to try that some time.”

He didn't have the strength to fight right now, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't do it anyway if he had to. He had been trained ruthlessly to keep fighting and keep moving even long after he should have stopped breathing. He doesn't, for now, he just glares up at Stark.

"I didn't mean to hurt him, but he wouldn't leave. I told him that I hated him and he still wouldn't leave."

If he sounded a bit broken, well... that's just what Steve Rogers did to him. Always had.

“You have met Steve Rogers, right?” The guy was on a different wavelength. You could punch him (or hate him or shoot him actually) and he’d just get right back up. What an asshole. How freaking infuriating.

Tony kind of wanted to punch him now too, mostly because he wasn’t here to handle this. And because he bled all over his car. Happy was less than happy to be forced into detailing duty.

“So what’s the plan now? You bleed out here, you send your bestie back into a spiraling depression, and then I have to deal with him even more— I helped you. And this is how you repay me?”

"You bugged me, and then you sent him to me, you didn't help me."

It would have been kinder to just refuse to fix him in the first place and send him out with a malfunctioning arm. At least he would still have had partial use of it, not been in danger of bleeding out, and not with Steve Rogers now knowing he was alive in the world.

"You need to get out of here, I'm not safe to be around."

He still had his gun, after all, and he wouldn't be so inclined to miss when it came to Stark.

“Anything I use is tagged,” Tony snorted. “I thought you did your research.” He wasn’t getting close to the mess and he was not even remotely a surgeon. But JARVIS was chirping in his ear that blood loss and sepsis was a genuine issue at the moment, though his scanning capability was much less refined here than at the Tower. “I have to protect what’s mine. And you knew Steve was my friend. You knew he’d figure it out. And I guess you knew that you’d have to shoot him?”

No. That had come after. But why? Pushing Steve away was ridiculous. The guy didn’t stay gone. And Tony should know. They’d actually become pretty good friends fairly quickly.

“When get wakes up, two things will happen. He’ll chase you down or he’ll lose his shit because you died.” And Tony really didn’t want that to happen. He was bad at consoling people. “Either will still happen whether you shoot me or not.” It was only Steve he really cared about.

"But I don't understand why!"

The words burst out of him all of a sudden in a kind of frustrated plea. Perhaps it was the bloodloss, or perhaps it was just the way his head was thudding with confusion, but he needed to vent this out just for now.

"I don't know why he'll follow me or why he wants to be my friend or why I couldn't kill him. I don't know why I remember his goddamn eyes staring at me as I fell and I don't know about any of it."

He wasn't the enemy here, he was just a confused as hell victim of HYDRA, not really understanding life on the outside.

“No one understands him,” Tony said, meandering around the blood pool as it This was a natural course of business. “That’s part of his charm.” And he did mean that. “You’d know better than anyone. He probably drove you crazy.”

And he totally agreed about those eyes. Damn. How was Steve not constantly dripping in pussy? Hell, tony himself would even spend the night with him. Pepper would understand. And probably want a turn too.

But that wasn’t the point of this conversation.

“It’s who he is. He cares about things most people wouldn’t get. Like me. And you. Fighting it is pointless. And so was cutting off your arm. I’m good at finding people. I’ve got this red head with me that probably knows about how to fake being a doctor enough to patch you up. Can I call her?”

"No, I wouldn't know that better than anyone, I don't remember anything about him other than those stupid eyes on that one day."

His head was like Swiss cheese and even though it felt really dangerous to be admitting that, it felt necessary in order to get Stark to understand just where he was coming from in all of this.

"All I wanted was the coolant fixing, that's it. I didn't want to remember your Mom, I didn't want to get tracked down, I just want to be left alone. Please."

“If I leave you alone, chances are that you’re going to die. And we went over exactly what will happen if you die. I’m one man, Barnes, and I can’t handle a weepy blond.” Thank God Pepper wasn’t weepy. He was already a pretty bad boyfriend but that would highlight just how bad he was.

Tony watched Bucky for a moment before he slipped his hands out of his pockets and pulled up the knees of his pants. He settled into a crouch, frowning.

“I don’t want you to shoot me. But I’m not going to leave you alone.” Bucky was sort of like a really expensive wine and Tony was going to put a bow on him and give him to Rogers. “You have answers. And we have protection.”

Stark wasn't listening or he'd understand that Bucky didn't have any answers. His memory was full of holes and he couldn't guarantee if the bits he had would be the bits that were useful to him. Nor did he even want to go with them and be useful, he just wanted to sink into obscurity and figure out who the hell he was.

Apparently the universe was a bitch and didn't want him to do that, though.

"I don't want to be near him. I'll let you take me, and I'll answer your questions, but Steve doesn't come near me. Understand?"

“That defeats the whole purpose,” Tony grumbled. “Listen, if it was as simple as giving you a phone and letting you run off to be a recovering Manchurian Candidate, I’d do that. But you have information we need and you’re the only person in the world that makes shooting Captain America seem like a lesser crime so... I can’t promise that I’ll keep him away from you. And you can’t shoot him again. But if you want to kick the puppy by ignoring him, that’s on you.”

Tony didn’t really think that Bucky had a choice so he actually wasn’t worried at all about him refusing. He’d probably be unconscious in a few more minutes anyway.

“After you’re done almost dying and you give us everything we need to know about HYDRA, you can run off to do whatever you want. Deal?”

"No. But you're not offering me a deal, you're telling me that you're gonna take me prisoner until I give you the information you want. If this was an exchange, I'd have the option to walk out of here or not talk to you."

Which, contrary to what it looked like with all that blood everywhere, he probably could still do. He could even fight his way out if that's what it came to, depending how many people other than this 'red haired woman' he had brought with him.

"At least have the courage to be honest about what you're doing, instead of pretending like I have a choice."

“Different kind of deal. That’s the easy way. The hard way is we take you in by force. Accommodations aren’t so 5-star.” It wasn’t a threat. Tony didn’t threaten. It was just the reality of the situation. “I’d rather do this the easy way. Get you some help, you help us, and then you can run away again. Think catch and release.”

Obviously they could track Bucky down whenever they wanted. Not so obvious was Tony’s ability to cage Bucky whenever he wanted, though.

The guy had shown him about his loopholes. For better or for worse, it meant that Tony could shut them down and use his tech to contain the Winter Soldier.

“No one really wants to hurt you. And who knows, whatever my mom did to your head…maybe we can undo it.”

He had promised himself that he wasn't going to be trapped again, and now it looked like that really wasn't his choice any more. The look he shot Stark was one of genuine loathing, but he didn't protest being taken out any more. He just walked, head down, like a prisoner out to where the Widow was waiting.

She glanced at him and then over at Tony, eyebrows raised.

"For someone not even involved in SHIELD, you cause a whole lot of paperwork, you know that? Come on, where are you even planning on taking him? Can't admit him to a hospital, I'm pretty sure he doesn't legally exist."

“It’s funny that you think money can’t buy everything,” Tony returned the quip, smirking. “If I used my real name for every time I blew myself up, stocks would plummet.” Giving away a secret that probably wasn’t a secret didn’t do anything to Tony’s ego. He was pretty sure that the whole world knew about his lax safety record by now anyway but people tended to look the other way for most of the stuff he did, except when writing conspiracy theory blogs.

The amount of blood in his car was getting utterly ridiculous at this point. Tony called ahead to his favorite surgeon (okay, no, he had JARVIS set the whole thing up) and when they arrived, there was a team waiting for them.

Did they happen to be at the same hospital Tony had taken Steve to? Of course. Did he probably not think about the danger Bucky might prove to be? Obviously.

Tony and ‘not think’ went together like peanut butter and jelly. Most of the time, it was a delicious lunch food.

But sometimes there was a kid with an allergy and disaster struck.

Tony really did need to start thinking things through, and the blood in the hospital might be said to be entirely on his hands if and when it got spilled. Because he had created a perfect storm putting someone that fragile in the hands of others, with someone that set his fuse going nearby.

The first sign something was going wrong was when the surgeon working on Barnes came flying out of the OR at top speed with a scalpel embedded in his chest. Thankfully not deep enough to have hit the heart, but he was still bleeding badly and looked terrified.

Bucky was the next to emerge. He shouldn't even be able to stand, the mechanics of what was left of his arm half pulled apart, and blood everywhere, not to mention the anaesthetic they had given him. It didn't stop him, it barely even slowed him down. He didn't look or move like Bucky Barnes any more, he moved like a pure predator, expression hard and blank.

At this point, Tony just gave up. There was only so much compassion to be had and to be fair, he had almost none of it left. Luckily, this time he came prepared.

He’d have to pay some medical bills. He’d have to donate a lot of money to the hospital. And that was fine, generally, and he’d have to deal with that—. But later.

First, he needed to scoop Bucky up, easily done in his armor, and take him through a window that would cost a few thousand in repairs. And after that, he could drop him off somewhere quiet. And unpopulated.

“Enough!” Tony bellowed once he had landed too, scuffing up dirt into the air. “Steve will never forgive me if I kill you but you’re being unreasonable here!”

It wasn't about reason or logic, it wasn't about choice. It had just been too much all in one go to let him hold onto the tenuous grasp of humanity that he had cultivated - being captured, being taken to a medical institution, and then a stranger with tools stood over him trying to sedate him. It had been when the anaesthetic flooded his system, not enough to fell someone with serum because they hadn't known to adjust for that, that everything had flipped.

He hadn't meant to kill anyone, but he was running on autopilot.

He had protocols for situations like this and those had taken first place, and maybe it wasn't anyone's fault but he was like any other sufferer of PTSD that couldn't always control what they did. It was just that he happened to be significantly deadlier.

There was no response for Stark, he just attempted to wriggle free of his grip, throwing an elbow at his head to try and get him to let go.

Having had let him go, let him fall (albeit from a safe height), the fact that Bucky was still struggling and growling like an animal caused him to tackle the guy again. That was surprisingly hard to do in his armor. It was meant for ranged fighting, blasters and repulsed and rockets at the go, not wrestling. Luckily, Tony was capable of locking in his joints. And it would do just fine until he could get JARVIS to unleash something he had been working on for the last few years.

Veronica.

Technically, the satellite was mainly just to track Bruce Banner and deploy a Hulkproof (untested) cage should it be needed. But hey. It would give Bucky a chance to calm down and talk.

Or for Steve to wake up. And if Bucky managed to punch through vibranium alloy— Well there was always act two. Killing him.

Tony managed to get out of the way of the falling cage just in time, rolling to the side as JARVIS gave him the go sign in his HUD.

The sound of a vibranium alloy arm hitting a vibranium alloy cage reverberated through the whole area with a deep boom that could be felt down to the bones. But as much as the Soldier raged against his cage, and he raged so hard that he drew blood multiple times from himself, he couldn't bust out.

Bucky was safely contained.

But Tony would be surrounded by a group of paparazzi who had got wind of the fight and managed to get there fast, cameras flashing to get the money shot of Tony Stark aka Iron Man in front of this new cage.

"Iron Man! Mr. Stark! Can you tell us what happened here?"

At least they were pretty remote. Tony had done his best to get Bucky out of the city before he dropped him but the falling cage from the satellite had been enough to draw the media. Tony didn’t mind talking to them, though he deflected as best he could. There was no reason to explain all of this to them when it would put HYDRA before SHIELD could infiltrate them.

Thankfully, the one armed man inside the cage quieted after a moment.

“This is an experimental prototype. As you can see, our volunteer can’t get out. We’re looking to continue testing— I’ll take questions?”

He even stepped out of the armor to do it.

Natasha and SHIELD arrived before too long, cordoning off the area and leading the gathered media away. It would take time, time enough for Tony to be pretty sure that Bucky had more or less bled out in there.

Honestly, Steve should really thank him for that.

Time that would also allow Bucky to try and take control of his mind back. It was hard, really hard, due to where he was and the precarious nature of his situation. He was terrified of being trapped again, especially since he could hear from the outside that SHIELD were involved and that meant HYDRA were involved.

He needed to get out of here, even if it meant making a deal with the devil.

"Sir," that was JARVIS trying to subtly interject while his master finished ushering the press away now that they had all of the answers and photographs they wanted, successfully hoodwinked by his charming lies. "My sensors inside Veronica detect that Mr. Barnes wants to speak with you alone."

The tone of the AI's voice probably spoke louder than any words about what a dumb idea he thought that was, but Tony made his own decisions, he always had.

“So pipe me in,” Tony said, not really willing to get back in there. Bucky was a lot more trouble than he was worth. Now that SHIELD was even more involved, and there was still no word at all about Steve, Tony really just wanted to go back to the hospital and pay for that surgeon’s new sports car or vacation with his family and be done with it. But no.

No, he still had to deal with the guy’s old BFF.

How, exactly, was this fair?

Tony stepped back into the armor so that JARVIS could initiate the conversation. Tony didn’t have a way to project how unimpressed he was visually but the tone of his voice could give it away.

“Still alive? Oh well.”

Poor Tony, life just wasn't fair, was it?

Bucky jumped when he heard the voice come through to him, but thankfully he couldn't be seen and so he didn't have to be embarrassed at how hard he startled. He paced back and forth as he spoke, voice husky and low even through JARVIS' excellent speakers.

"I'm sorry," that was the most important thing. "Is he-- is the doctor alive? I don't remember much."

He just remembered the scalpel coming for him and then everything fading into panic and terror. "Listen, I'll talk to you. I'll tell you what you want to know, just please... please let me out, please let me go."

“You’re sort of a menace to society right now,” Tony snorted. “And I can’t trust you to let you out. I can’t even trust you to get the stump of the arm you cut off looked at.” You know he makes a valid point, Buck! “The surgeon is fine. Startled and probably too mad to ever be my standby guy again but you know what works wonders? Throwing some cash at problems. Tends to clear them up right away.”

He knew how it sounded. He didn’t care.

“What’s going to happen is that you’re going to stay in there until your bestie recovers. He’ll probably let you go because he’s a good guy and I’m not. But what would be really helpful is if you told us where you escaped from so we can shut whatever branch of HYDRA is up and running down.”

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject