st_arkravinghazelnut (
st_arkravinghazelnut) wrote2018-09-16 10:02 pm
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Iron Will, Iron Heart
Destiny was swiftly approaching its apex.
The final Infinity Stone was his.
Every ounce of his sacrifices, his will, and his ideals had built up to this moment. The salvation of the universe was written in stone, with him as its savior. The power surged forth, and Thanos could only behold it.
Suddenly, he was struck down. Lightning. Odinson. Defiant of destiny until the end, all for what? Thanos lifted raised his gauntlet to meet the god head on--
A sickening crunch. A burst of light following the clash of the Infinity Gauntlet against the God of Thunder's newly forged weapon--and the Mad Titan was looking down at Stormbreaker embedded within his chest. Odinson landed before him, and for the first time in his life, Thanos knelt.
The final Infinity Stone was his.
Every ounce of his sacrifices, his will, and his ideals had built up to this moment. The salvation of the universe was written in stone, with him as its savior. The power surged forth, and Thanos could only behold it.
Suddenly, he was struck down. Lightning. Odinson. Defiant of destiny until the end, all for what? Thanos lifted raised his gauntlet to meet the god head on--
A sickening crunch. A burst of light following the clash of the Infinity Gauntlet against the God of Thunder's newly forged weapon--and the Mad Titan was looking down at Stormbreaker embedded within his chest. Odinson landed before him, and for the first time in his life, Thanos knelt.
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He closes the space between them with uneven steps, then presses his hand against the back of Thanos' head. In any other situation, the gesture might have been mistaken for one of affection. But there's no affection on Thor's face, just quiet, but palpable rage.
"I told you... you'd die for that."
Quiet rage gives way to fury, greater than Thor has ever experienced in his life. He braces himself against the back of Stormbreaker, pushing the sharp edge of the axe-hammer deeper into Thanos' chest.
Thanos starts screaming and there's some part of him, hidden deep in the heart of that righteous fury that takes pleasure in that scream. He's never felt this before in his life, even when he was young and foolish and excited by even the thought of battle.
Thor studies Thanos carefully. Thor wants to remember every second of this moment with absolute clarity. He wants to remember every line of his face, the way his fingers feel against his skin as they, like Stormbreaker, push deeper into his flesh.
Thanos doesn't stop screaming, and it just urges him on. Stormbreaker sinks further and further inside of Thanos' body.
For the first time in a long time, Thor feels real, true satisfaction.
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A weapon that overcame the Infinity Gauntlet wielded by a man whose heart was full of petty vengeance. If Thanos had the breath, he would have laughed. Even when the God was strong, he was utterly weak.
"You should have..." Thanos' voice was breathy, halting. Anyone observing the gruesome scene could have mistaken it for a sure sign of submission or defeat.
Nothing could have been further from the truth.
Thanos braced a hand on Odinson's shoulder. He wanted the arrogant God to have his next words burned into his very being.
"You should have gone for the head."
Every ounce of strength that remained lifted the Gauntlet he still bore, forgotten by Odinson in his lust for nothing more than Thanos' suffering. His fingers came together--generating a portal in space. Suddenly, in his grip was the haggard form of Tony Stark who bore a wound in his stomach nearly identical of Thanos' own.
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He feels utterly powerless. Thanos made him feel this way before, aboard the Statesman, and he has made him feel it again now. Thor tells himself that he can't show weakness -- that he can't show that he cares; both he and Loki made that mistake and Thanos had exploited that weakness.
But still, Thor's eyes flicker to Tony's limp body for the briefest of moments. He is choking on blood; he can hear it, same as he could hear himself when Thanos dragged him by the carapace. Thor lies to himself, tells himself that Tony will die anyway, that he needs to do something. His hands that had withdrawn so easily from Thanos' body before snap to Stormbreaker's grip. He attempts to dislodge the hammer from Thanos' body so he might strike him down, but finds that it is so firmly burrowed inside his body that it does not move, even when Thor pulls with all of his strength.
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Tony's breathing was less ragged to his own ears where he hovered on all fours. The shock remained but the pain was gone. He groped at his stomach, his chest, and all that remained were traces of armor but his wound was gone as if it had never been dealt in the first place. He turned his wide gaze to Thor's weapon where it laid on the ground beside him and up to Thor himself.
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He looks down at Tony uncomprehendingly. Was it the Reality Stone? he wonders. If so, what what was real? Was Thanos real? Was Tony? Was Tony's wound?
Thor's eyes stay on Tony, and after a long moment he extends a hand to lift him up.
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"You didn't kill him."
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You didn't kill him.
Thor opens his hand and Stormbreaker's handle snaps easily into his palm.
This is the work of the Reality Stone. He is being toyed with.
Thor spins around in a fury, eyes skyward, hammer-axe readied.
"Where are you?! Where are you?!"
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And then, Tony was being grounded in the worst way possible when a gentle touch to the top of his head came from behind. He froze on instinct--what little armor he had converging around his chest and back.
"Destiny has smiled upon you today, Stark." Thanos' very essence was perverse sincerity.
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He knows that doesn't mean anything; if Thanos is an illusion, surely he could manufacture a convincing facsimile whose gauntlet's stone were still dark. Thor's own brother had managed to convince him he was dead and Thanos was on an entirely different level when he used the stone.
Stone, or no stone, with Thor swings Stormbreaker towards the side of Thanos' head.
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Somehow, he manages to stop it just a hair short of Tony's face.
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Against the power of the Infinity Gauntlet, Tony summoned every ounce of strength to fight, to move. He barely managed to twitch his fingers to life, forcing his eyes to the side. The weight of Stormbreaker was heavy against his head, even it had stopped just short of contact.
"Stark. You who share my curse of knowledge. Stark. You, who sooner saw his own companions shackled like dogs while it meant fulfilling your ideals."
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"What are you talking about?"
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There was only dust left in the wake of the blast. Once again, the Titan had vanished. His arm remained raised, shaking futilely.
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Thor lets Stormbreaker settle at his side as he looks down at Tony.
"Stark, what is he talking about?"
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"I had to."
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Thor reaches down to lift Tony up by the collar of his shirt, but as he does, he turns to dust.
Then, Thor bolts awake, drenched in his own sweat. His eyes turn to the empty space in the bed next to him, then looks up.
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"Rise n' shine, Doll Face." He called, tilting his head this way and that. The creaking of the bed was always a decent tip off. Tony was consistently the first to rouse and get around.
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Thor tosses off the comforter, then shifts until he's sitting on the edge of the bed, facing away from where Tony still stands. For a moment, he doesn't say anything; he just looks down at his feet, planted firmly on the floor.
Anything he says is going to sound insane. Sometimes, his dreams were simply dreams; there was nothing to them. Other times, the dreams served as a warning. Thor was always trying to figure out which was which, just as he was trying to discern reality from not-reality in the dream, only to find out later that none of it was real.
He can't ask Tony directly. Not yet. Not without seeming mad.
"Tony," he begins, his voice low. "Is there something you're not telling me?"
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"Uh. I'm going jogging? Wasn't exactly a secret."
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Thor lets out a little scoffing laugh, then pushes himself off the edge of the bed. "I'm sure."
He pulls down his shirt by the hem, then heads for the bathroom, closing the door behind him.
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"I'm almost out of the bathroom, Big Guy," Tony made for the door, "Should be enough hot water left."
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He doesn't bother turning when Tony opens the door.
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Sighing, Tony rubbed his mouth and turned the knob. He didn't need to wait for a reply to know quips would go over cold. "You need me, I'll be hitting the dusty trail."
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Thor emerges from the bathroom and tosses the towel on top of their bed. He looks over at Tony.
"Why didn't you tell me you had our friends imprisoned?" The words come out casually, Thor's emotions failing to register fully in his voice.
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"Why didn't I what?"
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"Why didn't you tell me you locked them up?"
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"Because you didn't," Thor echoes. He lets out a noise that doesn't quite make it all the way to a laugh. "I don't know what to say. Here I was, stupidly thinking it was some disagreement that could someday be smoothed over because I stupidly took you at your word."
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"You think the breakup of the Avengers isn't a painful subject? The team--the thing I spent the last near decade of my life building? You think being asked to spare a mass murderer who was complicit in my ongoing mental issues because he's your brother didn't enact some kind of toll? No, I don't regret it, don't try and pull that card, but I don't know if you really digested that ask."
He was on a roll, and he wasn't about to stop. "The breakup--yeah, that's for me and Cap to hash out. He was there. It hasn't happened for him. He needs the preparation. You and me? We're facing the genocide of half the goddamn universe and you really want to pin me on something I didn't even ask for."
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"You want to stop Thanos?" he asks. "You start by making up with our friends. You start by not keeping secrets because we can't afford to keep any."
Thor takes a breath. He knows that he's calling Tony out on this, knowing all the while that he has his own secrets he's keeping from him. Secrets that Tony doesn't have the benefit of discovering through pre- or post-cognition.
But Thor forces himself not to think of that.
"I would go to war for you, Stark," Thor tells him. "But I can't do that if I don't have all the facts in front of me."
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"You remember the first thing I did upon seeing Loki again? Told him I chose you over revenge. And you come at me like you're the damn judge, jury, and executioner without asking me for my side." His jaw ground from side to side. "I don't pity myself. I've got plenty to answer for. It's the only reason I'm still breathing. But I thought I'd get a little benefit of the doubt from the man who I trust most."
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"Then tell me your side."
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"I'm sorry."
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"You push. And push. And push. And I let you. Because I know what's behind it all. But not this time." Tony looked at his partner like he didn't know the man. Without another word, Tony disappeared behind the door and slammed it shut.