The Vision
After civil war, after losing so many friends, keeping a few, and saving one from a life of sitting on his ass. Tony was still the same. At least, to everyone else. He tried to hide his fear, his feelings. He knew something was coming. Something was out of place. He spent more time alone, pumping himself full of alcohol so he could just forget. Forget Steve, forget his parents, and shake this horrible feeling.
He either couldn’t sleep, or had a restless night full of wakings and the feeling as though he were drowning again. Was this how things would be now? Until whatever was coming came? Tony didn’t know.
It was now 134 days since civil war. Tony’s eyes fluttered open and gazed up at the still dark ceiling. He looked over at his alarm clock, 2:08.
“Shit.” Tony sighed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He tried to get out of bed but his whole body burned, he could almost hear his joints moaning and squeaking in disapproval of the sudden movement. “Come on, Tony,” He sighed. “You flew a fucking missile into space and survived that.” He pushed his legs over the side of the bed, cold hitting his feet like nails.
He forced himself to sit on the edge of the bed, he could hear his heartbeat in his ears. It drowned out all the other normal New York sounds, cars honking, angry people yelling, the screeching of tires. Then, he couldn’t hear anything at all. Tony’s eyes rolled back into his head and he fell backwards into the soft blankets.
“Tony.” He heard an eco in his head. “Tony I’m so sorry.” This time the echo was louder. Tony opened his eyes to see Steve.
“Steve? Where in the fucking world are we? What is this?” Is what he was trying to say. Instead he felt his mouth moving on its own, “Don’t bullshit me Rodgers, did you know?” The sound was cold and dreamlike.
Steve mouthed “yes.” After a few seconds, the sound was delayed. This wasn’t real.
The scene shifted in a blur, Tony was standing in the middle of a New York he barely recognized. It was completely empty. Everyone was gone. Tony stared around at the once-great city. His first thought was: Loki. But there’s had been people, was this the future?
The scene changed again. He was staring at the face of...was this guy purple? He was standing at the top of Stark Tower, with a huge metal fist. There were six gems, all glowing brightly, five placed on the knuckles, one at the center of his hand.
“Thanos.” A voice echoed in his head. “The war will start. The war is coming, Stark.”
Tony awoke, again, in the real world. He checked his surroundings, and his hands to make sure he wasn’t dreaming still. He looked over at the alarm clock. 4:45 it read. Had that really been two full hours? Tony rubbed his head, the words still fresh in his mind.
“The war is coming, Stark.” The voice has said. What war? Tony thought about it for a moment. He knew something like this would happen.
Tony’s strength was back, so he decided that he should get himself dressed and fed. Just a normal t-shirt and pair of black jeans today. “Nothing fancy, but it will do.” Tony thought to himself. He quickly grabbed some food to eat, he wasn’t paying much attention, he was still in shock from the vision he had just had. He wondered if the vision Wanda showed him had anything to do with this. He shuddered. No, he wasn’t going to think about that. Not right now.
“Friday, what’s the weather looking like today?” Tony asked.
“Mostly cloudy with a high of 66 and a low of 58.” The AI responded.
“Great.” Tony said
“Are you going out, sir?”
“I guess so,” Tony said, “And cancel any calls I get.”
The next moment, Tony was flying through New York, he was headed somewhere a little quieter, without all the hustle and bustle. Rockaway Inlet was an option.
“Friday, directions to Rockaway Inlet.”
“Go strait.”
After a few minutes Tony flew down to sit under a bridge. The sound of the water was calming, but he could do without the sound of cars over his head. Tony shut his eyes and for a flickering moment saw bright blue eyes staring back. Tony’s eyes flew open. Who was that? He had seen those eyes before. Somewhere, a long time ago. He tried to think but the damned noise only made it harder for him to focus.
Out of the corner of his eye, Tony saw what seemed like two men standing on the jagged cliff not so far from where he was. There was something wrong with it though. We’re they fighting? All of a sudden, the smaller figure stabbed the larger one and kicked it into the water below.
Tony flew out from under the bridge, he scanned the water below, nothing. The man at the top of the cliff saw him, and ran into the trees.
“Son of a- where the fuck did you go?” Tony said aloud as he landed on the cliff.
“Friday?”
“Yes sir?”
“Find any heat signatures?”
“One, sir.”
Tony’s hopes were lifted, at least the guy was still around. All he had to do was find him.
“Two, four-“ The AI said
“What’s going on, Friday?”
“There are no heat signatures, sir.”
Crap.
“We’ll keep searching.” Tony headed into the trees, searching for footprints on the ground.
“There.” Tony whispered to himself, looking at a line of perfect footprints leading deeper into the trees. Tony walked carefully, trying not to step on any twigs. But nevertheless, he was in a red-gold metal suit out in the middle of nowhere, he figured it would be pretty easy to spot him.
Tony froze. The footprints ended.
“Friday?”
“One heat signature sir.”
Tony could feel the gaze on him before he saw him. There was definitely someone around.
“I assume you’re looking for me, Stark.” Said a fimiliar voice from behind. Tony didn’t dare turn around. He already knew what he would see.
“You’re not going to put me back in a cage, are you?” Tony couldn’t bare the suspense any longer, he turned and saw exactly what he was expecting. Though he was without his usual green, gold, and black leather armor, Loki looked as if he hadn’t aged a day sunset he New York incident. His black hair, his twisted smile, all the same. Then Tony remembered.
“No, I’m not, if you tell me why you showed me that vision.” Tony said, prepared to fight. “And who that man you kicked off the clif was.”
“That was no man, Stark.”
“Who was it?”
“I believe you will have guests at your tower very shortly.” And with that, the fake Loki disintegrated leaving Tony nothing but wonder.
