Tony's brain has officially shut off.
He's hanging upside-down off of his spinning office chair, staring blankly at the wall as he pretends to be thinking. He's not sure who he thinks he's fooling – himself, maybe; he's the only one stupid enough to be in the lab at this hour – but it's not working.
He is so freaking tired, but he can't sleep when there's work to be done. Once Loki has his memory back, then he can take a 36-hour nap, but until then, he's committed to sticking it out in the lab for as long as physically possible.
He just wants Loki to be happy, even if it costs him his own sanity in the process.
At this point in the coffee-less night, he's just doing things. There isn't enough of a thought process behind them to call them experiments. He'd hardly even call it science. He's just doing whatever comes to mind and hoping nothing blows up in the process – and so far, he's managed to keep the explosions to a minimum.
He climbs off his chair and pulls out a battery. It's quite literally just a battery – a stupid store-bought battery that cannot and will not do anything. He grabs two wires, connects one to each end, and, holding the rubber coating, touches the stone within the scepter, because why the hell not? At this point, he is willing to try anything.
The scepter glows faintly – so faintly, he's not fully convinced it's not an insomnia-induced hallucination.
"JARVIS, kill the lights," Tony says.
The room goes dark, and still, the scepter glows. He takes one of the wires away, and the glowing continues, but just the slightest bit duller; its ordinary level of glowing. He connects the wire again, and it glows more. He disconnects it, and it glows less. He reconnects it, and it glows more.
"Hmm," he hums thoughtfully. "JARVIS, lights on."
The light comes back, and Tony hops to his feet. He needs a big battery. Where would he have a big battery...?
His gaze lowers to his chest, where the faint glow of the arc reactor shines through his shirt. This is a bad idea. It is an incredibly bad idea, and if he'd been any less sleep-deprived, he would be very cognizant of that. Fortunately for him – or unfortunately, as the case may be – he doesn't care right now.
He tosses the battery aside, ignoring the clatter of it smashing into things it definitely shouldn't be smashing into, and sits back down in his chair. He grabs the scepter and carefully positions it between his knees, letting his jeans do the work of holding it while he gets the wires ready. He pulls off his shirt, puts one end of the wires against the arc reactor, and, after not nearly enough hesitation, puts the other end against the stone.
The world goes black.
And then he's back on the hellicarier.
"A nuclear deterrent," Tony says, less than impressed with the idea, to say the least. "Because that always calms everything down."
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury shoots back.
Steve sounds as though he's trying to be the voice of reason, but it doesn't quite feel that way when he says, "I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep in–"
"Wait, hold on," Tony interrupts. "How is this now about me?"
"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"
Tony instinctively kicks the scepter across the room – perhaps not the right response to this, but in the shock of the moment, he's not necessarily thinking straight.
"Are you alright, sir?" JARVIS asks.
"I, uh..." Tony runs a hand down his face. "I'll get back to you on that."
He gazes at the scepter, now lying on the floor. That was... bizarre. Where did that even come from? He's already lived all that. That all happened months ago. He'd nearly forgotten that whole discussion happened with how long it's been and how little relevance it's held since then. So why...?
Tony gets up and grabs the scepter, then sits back down and prepares to repeat the experiment. That's what makes it science, right?
"Sir," JARVIS says warily, "are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Not at all," Tony replies. "If at any point I look like I am in dire need of medical assistance, go wake Pepper up, will you?"
"Sir, I don't think–"
"Work with me here, JARVIS," Tony interrupts.
He holds the two wires against the arc reactor, takes a deep breath, then brings them back to the stone.
"Stark, so help me god," Steve says, frustration growing steadily as the conversation progresses, "if you make one more wisecrack–"
Tony's never been one to shut up when the situation calls for it, so he says a sarcastic, "Verbal threat! I feel threatened."
"Show some respect," Steve snaps.
Tony scoffs. "Respect what?"
He pulls the wires away, cutting off the connection. This is some interesting progress – and it's repeatable, too; an important part of every experiment. This is a good start. This is a really good start.
"Is it about the arc reactor?" Tony wonders aloud. "'Cause I'm sure he'd go for that if that's what it takes, but..." He thinks for a few moments. Maybe it's not the arc reactor itself. Maybe it just needs a power source. "JARVIS, what's the strongest battery in the room that's not my arc reactor?"
JARVIS points him to one of the machines, and he carefully removes the battery from inside. He throws his shirt back on – because if he doesn't do it now, he's going to forget – then sticks the wires into the battery. He drops the scepter on the desk, plops himself in a chair, and connects the wires to the stone. It glows – far brighter than it did with the first battery – but he doesn't see anything.
He scowls and grabs the scepter–
"You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero," Steve snaps.
"A hero?" Tony repeats. "Like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."
Steve smirks, unbothered, as cocky and overconfident as Tony is. "Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds."
Tony drops the scepter, a grin slowly spreading across his face.
"I think I got it," he says quietly; then, louder, "JARVIS, I think I got it!"
"Well done, sir," JARVIS replies.
"I mean, I don't get it," Tony says, "but the scepter was in the room when that went down. Hell, Banner even grabbed it at one point – like he didn't even know what he was doing. Maybe it doesn't even need to touch you to work; maybe just being in the same room as it..." He leans back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling. "It's like it has memories of its own – and if it's storing my memories, then maybe..."
"That's a wonderful theory, sir," JARVIS says, "but perhaps you should wait until morning–"
Tony jumps to his feet. "I have to go tell Loki."
YOU ARE READING
Still Holding On
Fanfiction"I have built dozens of holes in this plan," Loki hisses. "Find them." When Loki tries to sabotage his own plan, the only reasonable explanation Tony can think of is that he wants to go back to Asgard, and that alone is more than enough reason to ke...
