Chapter Text
It was cold for an early summer morning. Tony’s skin pebbled with goosebumps, but he made no move to get up and go inside. His eyes were fixed stubbornly on the horizon, watching as the sun began to make an appearance. That, he had found, was the only thing that he could be sure of. No matter what happened during the night, the sun would always rise.
That was the one thing that Thanos hadn’t taken away from them.
He startled a bit when a blanket was suddenly draped around his shoulders, but a quick glance up revealed that it was only Thor. There was enough chair on the balcony, and Thor wasted no time in sitting down and making himself comfortable. He was wearing only a thin muscle shirt, but Tony knew from experience that Asgardians didn’t feel the cold the way that humans did.
“Thanks,” Tony said finally, breaking the silence. At one time, he would’ve shoved the blanket away with an insistence that it was unnecessary. Now, he pulled it a bit more closely around his shoulders.
“Can’t have Iron Man dying from a chill,” Thor said with a thin smile.
“It’s not that cold out here,” Tony said. “And it’ll get warmer as the sun comes up.” He returned his gaze to the horizon, where the sun was still just a faint golden line.
They sat in comfortable silence for a while, until the sun had crested the horizon and was ascending into the sky. It wasn’t as warm as Tony had hoped, so he kept the blanket tucked around him. He finally looked back at Thor, wondering if Thor had fallen asleep, but no – Thor was awake. He was staring out over the city, but, when he sensed Tony’s attention, he turned to look at Tony.
There was a seriousness about Thor’s expression that Tony hadn’t seen for a long time. Tony braced himself automatically. He was familiar with what bad news looked like, given how much of it he had received over the past couple of years, but there was something else here. A layer to Thor being here that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He waited.
Thor didn’t make him wait long.
“I have been thinking about the device,” Thor announced without preamble. “I believe that you should be the one to use it.”
“Okay… wow. Can’t say I was expecting that,” Tony said slowly, eyebrows furrowing. “And I’m also not sure that the others would agree with you.”
“It doesn’t matter what they think. All that matters is the facts, yes?” Thor said.
Tony frowned, not really liking it when his own words were thrown back in his face. “Yes…”
“The problem that we have right now is two-fold. A specific date and a specific location. We have the means to send someone back in time, but we can’t control where they’ll end up or even when,” said Thor. “That is still correct, is it not?”
“Yes…” Tony said again. It was one of the reasons why he had been up so late. He’d been trying in vain to reconfigure the device so that they would have more control. But every time he refined things even a little bit, the device lost some of its potency. It was a catch-22. Go back in time by a couple of weeks and end up exactly when and where they wanted to be or go back in time a couple of years but risk being way off.
And what was the point of going back in time if they ended up arriving after Thanos had destroyed half the universe?
“I believe there is a way to circumvent that problem,” Thor said. “But it can only be done by you.” He looked at Tony expectantly.
Tony stared back cluelessly.
He didn’t know what Thor wanted him to do, but there was no magical answer that Tony could pull out of his butt. He had researched every possible avenue, talked to every person that he could think of, and tried every scenario that came to mind no matter how out there.
Rather than speak, Thor leaned over and set a hand on Tony’s side, just above his left hip.
Tony froze.
“I know,” Thor said, very quietly.
The seconds ticked by in silence while Tony struggled to form an answer. He could pretend that he didn’t know what Thor was talking about, but he knew that Thor wasn’t going to let this go. It seemed less dignified to let Thor drag it out of him than for Tony to just be upfront about it – but he hated to acknowledge it out loud, after he had sworn to himself that no one would ever know…
At last, Tony sighed. “How did you know?”
“I saw it a few months ago. I think a better question is, how did you know?” Thor asked. His face was much closer to Tony now, and his blue eyes were very penetrating. Tony swallowed.
“I didn’t. Not for a long time,” he admitted in a low voice. “The Battle of New York was such a shitshow, Thor. You know that; you were there. I saw afterwards that my mark had changed color, but I legitimately had no idea when it had happened. It could’ve been on the helicarrier, or it could’ve been during the battle itself, or it could’ve been in the days after… I didn’t notice until about four days after everything was all said and done.”
Thor nodded. “But eventually, you figured it out?”
“I guessed. I didn’t know for sure. I still don’t,” Tony told him. It had been the process of elimination. Looking at video footage, figuring out who he’d met, who he’d touched – eventually it had led Tony to an answer that he hadn’t known what to do with. So he’d buried it and hoped that no one would ever know.
“You do now. Your mark is the same as Loki’s,” Thor said.
Tony sucked in a breath and closed his eyes.
He’d expected it, but hearing it –
“I’ve seen Loki’s soul mark many times. It’s in the same place and has the same design, and it changed color after the Battle of New York. I assumed that he had met his soulmate after he fell from the bridge. It never occurred to me that his soulmate was here on Earth until I saw your mark a few weeks ago,” Thor explained.
“Right. When I got hurt from that robot,” Tony muttered. Dazed with pain and shock from a deep cut to his shoulder, it hadn’t even occurred to him to protest someone stripping his shirt off until it was too late.
“Yes. I knew then, but I wasn’t sure how to approach you about it, or even if I should… until now.”
“I still don’t understand,” Tony said crossly. His heart was beating a bit faster.
Loki was his soulmate.
But what did that have to do with anything?
“Your bond would draw you to him if you went back in time,” Thor told him.
“Oh.” Tony exhaled. “I see what you mean. Okay. But that doesn’t explain why I have to be the one to go. Lots of people have soulmates. Hell, Cap had one. He could go.”
Thor caught Tony’s eye. “I think we both know that wouldn’t work.”
And honestly, Tony couldn’t really argue against that.
He had always known that Rogers had come out of the ice a little broken. A little cracked around the edges. But no one had really understood the extent of that until Rogers had gotten Barnes back only to lose him again. Rogers was like a different person. He never smiled. He rarely slept. He wandered around like a ghost haunting the place: a ghost searching for something out of its reach.
Sending Rogers back in time to Barnes would be an unmitigated disaster; Rogers had always been unreasonable when it came to Barnes, but now? That would be cranked up to eleven, and Tony found it hard to believe that Rogers would care about anything besides Barnes. Every decision that Rogers made would be based off of whether it was the best decision for Barnes, and to hell with anyone or anything else. That could have some pretty drastic consequences on the future.
“Okay. Not Cap. But there are others,” Tony said. “I didn’t even know Loki. Not really. Maybe our bond wouldn’t even be strong enough to guide me to him.”
“It would be,” Thor said simply. “Your soul mark… I saw the color.”
Tony pursed his lips. “That doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” he lied, and Thor rolled his eyes.
“I know I’m not the smartest Avenger, but I’m not that stupid,” he said. “I know what a gold soulmate mark means. Everyone knows. It’s the stuff of legends. It means that you and Loki are perfectly compatible. It means -”
“Okay, okay. I know what it’s supposed to mean. I don’t need the full rundown,” Tony grumbled.
Everyone started off with a white soul mark.
When your soulmate died, it turned black – which was what Tony’s looked like right now.
When you met your soulmate, the soul mark usually turned blue. It was a sign that you had met your soulmate, and that your souls were balanced.
But for some people, the color was a little different. A few turned red, which meant that the soulmates would be enemies. Fewer turned silver, which spoke of a deeper bond than blue. But even rare than that was gold. Gold was practically unheard of. Gold spoke of a bond so deep that most people couldn’t even fathom what that might mean. Tony sure didn’t, and he couldn’t decide if he wanted to or not.
“Then you know that your bond is deeper than most. You will be drawn to Loki’s side naturally,” Thor said doggedly. Tony wasn’t sure how to argue that, so he tried a different tactic.
“Let’s say that you’re right. That still doesn’t solve the problem of timing. Obviously it would happen sometime before your ship was attacked, but… I really don’t want to end up standing beside Loki when he’s attacking all of New York,” Tony said, grimacing at the mere thought.
Thor looked at him earnestly. “Loki has magic, remember?”
“How could I forget? But I still don’t see how that solves anything,” said Tony. Magic. It always came back to magic.
“Have you ever heard the stories about soul marks guiding soulmates to each other at the time of their greatest need?” Thor asked. His voice had dropped to a whisper, but Tony heard every word clearly. His skin prickled, this time for a reason that had nothing to do with the cool air.
“So you’re saying… Loki’s magic would do that. Guide me to him,” Tony said softly, unsure how he felt about that.
“Yes.”
“Even though Loki doesn’t know we’re soulmates.”
“He doesn’t need to know for it to work. You know that,” Thor said with a trace of impatience.
Tony bit his lip because he did know that. Those stories were just supposed to be urban legends, but everything seemed to be fair game when it came to magic.
“How do you know when Loki’s time of greatest need was?” he said finally.
“I can assure you, I know. It was when we faced Thanos. It’s the only time I have ever seen Loki that frightened. That means you would be taken to our ship.” Thor straightened up, his hand falling away from Tony’s side. “You don’t have to go if you’d rather not. I would understand. But… I do believe this is our best chance. Possibly our only chance.”
“To your ship,” Tony repeated slowly. “You think we could kill Thanos?”
“I think that you could with the element of surprise on your side,” Thor replied. “Thanos would not be expecting you on that ship. No one would. You would need to be fast, Tony. Faster than you’ve ever been in your life.”
Tony fell quiet for a moment, thinking. At least, he said, “This could kill me.”
“Yes,” Thor said again, his tone grave.
Thanos could kill him. Or Tony could be lost forever if he didn’t make it to Loki’s side on that ship – or he could end up five years too early. Or the machine could malfunction and just straight-up kill him on the spot. It was a risk. A huge risk.
He looked at Thor again, remembering how Thor used to look: young, happy, full of hope. The years had added a gravity and age to Thor’s face that shouldn’t have been there. It was the same thing Tony saw no matter who he looked at – even when he looked in a mirror. This could kill him… but what was the alternative? Staying here hoping that someday life might improve? Hoping that someday it wouldn’t hurt?
And since when had Tony Stark ever shied away from a risk?
“Okay,” he said, his heart starting to race. “Let’s do it.”