Chapter Text
Of all the stupid suicidal things Tony had done in his life this had to be by far the worst.
Also quite possible the last, but then that wasn't new, was it?
And all because he had decided to ignore the alarms lightening up his suit’s helmet display , thinking it had to be an electromagnetic pulse or something similar. After all, when Thor talked about jotnar he used words like savage and brutal and almost killed my father , nothing of which lend itself to thinking that they might be able to even have electricity, much less ... this.
He hadn't come far after stumbling through the portal before he'd realized that he should have chosen another realm - any other realm, probably - for his first test. jotunheimr was so fucking cold that he could feel his feet getting numb even through the stealth suit and the specially isolated undersuit, reminding him forcefully that he was only human and not a guy who waltzed in here in nothing but the Norse God equivalent to a summer dress and complained about how chilly it was.
Thanks, Thor. Really.
Not that Tony wasn't also dumb for not listening to Jarvis' repeated advice to send a drone through first to check whether the portal worked and what awaited him on the other side. Which might have prepared him for the endless planes of snow leading in every direction as far as he could see, and the blizzard that made sure as far as he could see turned into as far as I can stretch with my hand within a matter of minutes once it had reached him. It was also what , along with the accompanying interference, forced him to wait until it died down before he could activate the portal again.
Which was how he had, stumbling half-blind through the white night and fucking fighting against the wind, found the entrance to what he had at first thought was just a natural cave. Might still think, actually, if not for the hope that going deeper into the cave would allow him to escape the worst of the wind's chill and safe his toes from frostbite (he was rather fond of them, thank you).
Just that the deeper he went into the cave, the less ... unused it seemed. The ground changed from packed snow to clear swept stone, strange signs popped up along the walls and a silvery shimmer had grown stronger the further he went, lightening the way until he could see almost as good as in broad daylight. Several hallways lead away from the main corridor, each of them marked with a different sign, and if not for the fear of losing himself within a strange maze he might have actually followed them.
And then he had reached the first door. Well, he assumed there had to be a door somewhere, what with it being a hallway here, and the glass - was it glass? Or just clear cut ice? - letting him see right into what could only be called a lab.
He hadn't recognized most of the equipment, yet the plain metal tables and shelves wouldn't have been out of place back on earth, and there were only so many ways to shape thinks like Petri dishes and microscopes before they lost their functionality so it wasn't too hard to recognize the room for what it was.
A lab.
Which was very much occupied.
Thor had called the jotnar Frost Giants sometimes but Tony hadn't actually understood what that meant until he stood there, staring at the ... alien leaning over the microscope, slowly and carefully changing slides. Maybe it was because Thor himself had never seemed too strange but he hadn't expected them to be so ... so .
His first impression – before even the blue skin, or the lab coat, or the horns – was big . And not only large, like a stretched human, but really massive, with muscles playing under the skin on his arms whenever he moved and wrists that were easily thicker than Tony’s thigh. Yet for all its impression the size of the jotun quickly faded when he became aware that what he had at first subconsciously classified as clothing was actually their skin, a light blue not unlike a pretty summer sky, with darker lines running over it like old battle scars. And while he wore clothing – a greenish thing that might be a lab coat – a lot of his skin lay free, showing off his huge potential to hurt someone.
The smart thing to do at this point would have been to turn around and escape back to the entrance of the cave, making for the portal as soon as the blizzard died down and hoping that whatever had caused them to overlook him for so long hid him again until he was safely back on earth.
Of course, people who knew him also knew that the smart thing to do and Tony Stark didn’t go together that well for a reason.
So Tony had crept further into the cave, relying on his stealth suit to keep him hidden. And it seemed to work, yeah? He watched jotnar standing together in labs, arguing over whatever they were working on. Other jotnar sitting down - still massive enough to impress even Hulk, yet closer to Tony's own size - and pouring over notes that were projected into the air in such clear a picture that even Tony could only dream of ding such. Fuck, some of them looked so realistic it took him watching the jotun researcher interacting with it to realize it was nothing but a projection.
Not all the labs were occupied and he found himself itching with the need to go inside when he found a darkened window, yet he had at least enough common sense left to realize that they probably alarmed their labs against intruders. Not that that stopped him from looking back a few times while going on, wishing he could be sure that the suit would protect him against discovery when he tried opening the door.
Maybe that was the reason for what happened next.
He had only managed two more labs when happened what he should have expected the whole time.
There was only one jotun in the room, this one maybe a bit smaller than the rest, his skin a far darker hue than the previous ones - though that might also come from the lights in the room; there were several boxes there, all the same clear material that formed the windows, and each of it filled with what seemed to be a small plant and lightened by a differently colored lamp. The jotun was busy watering the plants - or, well, whatever liquid plants needed that grew at temperatures well below freezing, and Tony just knew that Bruce would be salivating at the pure thought of getting one of these plants into his hands -, the light flickering over his skin and coat and face, forming strange and exotic patterns.
Maybe it was because so far none of the jotnar had seen him, or he was just too careless this time, pressing just too close to the window pane, but when this jotun looked up, instead of gliding right through him, his eyes deceived by the stealth suit's chameleon function, they suddenly narrowed.
Tony felt his own eyes widening. His breath stocked and it felt a bit like the ground was giving out under him when he realized that the other saw him.
The shock had him stumbling back, almost tripping over his own feet in his haste to get away. The jotun blinked, whatever spell he had been under broken by the movement, and then he opened his mouth.
Tony's survival instincts might not be the strongest but right now they were blaring an alarm loud enough even for him. He didn't stick around waiting to find out what they had in store for trespassers but instead turned and made for the entrance of the cave, jumping into the air two steps in and activating the suit's repulsors so he could fly out as far as possible.
Which brought him back to the present, and the fact that he was going to fucking die here.
Because whatever the jotun in that lab had done, it had alerted the other jotnar to the fact that they had an intruder. The light changed, turned from bright silver to such a dark, almost not visible anymore blue that Tony had to switch to sonar and night vision to find his way. Cursing all the while the fact that his pursuers wouldn't have a problem tracking him now - he could mask the suit itself (as imperfectly as it had turned out to be) but the bright blue of the repulsors was a different matter altogether, especially in the dark.
At least the hallway was build for the giants, making it easily high enough that he could comfortably fly through it without having to worry about knocking into any walls or the ceiling. And yet even that wasn't enough when a lab door opened in front of him and a jotun stepped out. There was room between the alien and the ceiling, and easily enough room around him, but he was still so massive that Tony felt his heart beat right up into his throat.
Trying to calm his fear - he had fucking done worse than that, drawing circles around Chitauri while simultaneously dodging the beams of their weapons, and yet it still seemed worse somehow to do this here, on a planet not his own, without backup or anyone knowing that he was here, not even Jarvis' calm voice in his ear which felt way too fucking much like being back through the portal, dying alone to the spectacular view of an enemy's army being blown up - he checked again how much room he had on both sides of the jotun, ran some calculations on how best to dodge, and then swerved.
The jotun was surprisingly quick on his feet, turning to apprehend him far faster than he had anticipated, and it was only months of exercising with the Hulk that had him turn around just in time to dodge the jumping figure and fly past.
His heart was galloping in his chest so hard it hurt, but he couldn't spare the time to think about it - think about anything, really, like whether a jotun without armor was even a problem for the suit - because his helm's sensors were telling him that the hallway in front of him was closing.
Fast .
His mouth curled around a curse but he didn't have time to spew it out. Not if he wanted to get out here, fucking alive, and back to his own world. Powering the suit to maximum speed - which was dangerous and he missed Jarvis' voice in his ear telling him so - he rushed towards the hole in the corridor, hoped that he could reach it, reach that one remaining exit to his freedom - and then he was through.
Relief flooded him, turned his limbs limbs weak with the endorphin rush. He had done it! They couldn't follow him through the ice behind him, not fast enough to catch him, and he only needed to -
He only needed to fucking pay attention right the fuck now or he was going to face-plant right into another ice wall.
Slowing his speed just enough he activated the repulsors. It was only ice, after all - he could see through it, in that vague way that you could see through glaciers and icicles - and a concentrated pulse of power should -
The suit stopped around him.
Not shut down, not leaving him in the dark, not disassembling, just - stopping .
"What the fuck ...?" He upped the power again, moving just enough that he could feel it, and then he stopped again, as if whatever held him floating in the air had strengthened their hold, too.
And Tony had thought he might die here before, but with the suit stopping around him - that had always been his nightmare, would always be, and he could feel his heart race again, could hear his breath coming in fast, jerky hitches. Stars within the endless black of the universe, beautifully swirling colors that seemed too peaceful against the dark bulks of an army ready to march onto earth. His suit going dark around him - dark like the space between the stars - and Jarvis' last sputtering dying in his ear. Dying as much as he did ...
Forcefully he reminded himself that he needed to be calm - yes, this had just taken a turn for the worse but that didn't mean he had to die here, he just had to calm the fuck down and stop running his thoughts in circles and think .
Looking down at himself he couldn't see anything that held him which meant, probably, a forcefield. Which should also mean that he wouldn't be able to move at all, if Thor's explanation was to be trusted, so he wasn't quite sure whether it really was one, but it probably was a machine and that meant ... he powered his thrusters up again and pointed them at the wall on his left. If he blew up everything around him he should be able to stop this whatever-it-was from working, and if he did it fast enough and got lucky when everything blew up around him that his suit wasn't damaged too much than he still had a chance to escape.
He had only just pointed his hand to the wall when suddenly someone said: "Whatever you are trying to do, don't . Or you will find out how it feels to die in flames."
The voice was deep, the English barely comprehensible, but the message was clear: they had some kind of weapon trained on him that they were sure would kill him. And even if he wasn't quite as sure of that as the jotun delivering this ultimatum he also wasn't sure they were wrong.
Not enough to risk his life when there was still a chance that they wouldn't kill him. Because why else threaten him instead of simply taking that killing shot?
Except if it was a bluff, but he could still feel the proof that they used superior technology keeping him stuck in the air.
And he did make a lot of stupid decisions but he knew when he was outnumbered and should surrender for the moment. He could always wait for his moment to escape, as long as he still lived.
Clenching his teeth he powered the repulsors down enough for a slow descending, then landed on the ground. Not sure whether they would understand it if he raised his hands he just kept them at his sides, well away from his body - as if he had a pistol he could pull out, or even a pocket to keep it in. This was his stealth suit, designed for sneaking around unnoticed, not carrying heavy weapons or thieving. And if he had known that he would run into a lab on this planet, or even just a number of jotnar, he would have taken a different one because he had problems taking on Steve in this thing here.
"Remove your armor", came another order, so at least they didn't seem to think his position threatening.
Yet a quick glance at the display in his helmet told him that he simply couldn't follow that order. Licking his lips and hoping that they wouldn't shoot him for his disobedience he activated the speakers. "When I come out I will freeze to death." It was way too fucking cold here. More than a few minutes and he would get frostbite, and more than half an hour and he would be as dead as if they had used their weapons on him.
A loud huff came from behind him. "You are not the first human we had to deal with. Remove your armor."
Hoping that the jotun meant that they knew how to keep a human from dying of exposure he took a deep breath, then ordered the suit to disengage.
The cold was as bad as he had imagined, hitting him worse than even a cold shower. Goosebumps rose all over his skin, and where his – ineffective anyway - undersuit ended at wrists and neck he could feel it biting with the force of thousands of years of uncontested winter. Shivering he tucked his hands under his armpits, hoping to protect them from the cold where he couldn't protect his nose and ears and face, while the suit collapsed into itself and refolded into a very heavy suitcase.
He caught the movement behind him with instinct more than eyes or ears, yet before he could do more than jerk away something heavy settled on his shoulders, falling down around him like a warm coat. Only when rough hands pulled a hood over his head, closing it in front by attaching it to the folds there did he realize that it was exactly that.
Blinking fast he looked down at himself, surprised to find himself even capable of doing so. But while he couldn't see well, his vision obscured by a veil of dull silver, he could see. And, more than that, he was quickly getting warm again; whatever this coat was made of was obviously much better isolation than his undersuit.
So they probably didn't want to kill him now that he was complying. That at least was good to know - though also a bit worrying because it wasn't at all what he had expected of the jotnar after what Thor had told him of them.
A shadow fell on him and he jerked up again, only to find one of the jotnar looking down at him. A hand reached for him and fingers far more nimble than their size let assume checked the clasps in front of the hood before looking up again and talking to someone behind him.
Tony turned around, unsurprised to find that more jotnar had joined them, making even the gigantic hallway seem crowded with their massive bodies. Yet what surprised him was the lack of hostility in their voices, the calm movements with which they walked around as if he hadn't just walked into their super-secret lab. As if they hadn't just threatened him with their weapons.
Weapons he wasn't even sure existed for he couldn't see any on the beings around him, but he wasn't willing to call a bluff that might not be one, not without his suit and surrounded on all sides by aliens much stronger and bigger than him.
Pulling the coat more securely around himself he listened to their voices as they debated ... probably about what to do with him. Which was way more intimidating than he wanted to admit. And it wasn't made better by their strange language, consonants like cracking ice and vowels straight from the howling of the winds.
Almost all jotnar around him wore lab coats, half-covering their hulking stature and muscles. Yet even those that went around wearing nothing but a strange kind of kilt and, in one case, a lose vest, didn't look like warriors. Massive, yes. Strong enough to rip him apart on accident, sure. Trained in combat? Probably, seeing how they had pursued him. But outright warriors?
With a sinking feeling in his stomach Tony realized that these people were scientists. Researchers assigned to this lab, whose work he had interrupted.
And he knew that people like Thor or Clint would prefer to be caught by some scientists than by warriors who might torture whatever secrets he had out of him. But then they also still thought the Hulk was more terrifying than Bruce Banner.
Tony knew better. He had seen enough lab mice and rats suffer to know that even the most inhuman torture could never compare to the indifference of scientists out to find a new medicine for cancer.
And he had fallen into the hands of a whole group of alien scientists.
Fear settled cold and heavy in his stomach, despite the coat doing its best to keep him warm and comfortable. You are not the first human we had to deal with. Just, were had they had contact to humans? And what kind of contact had it been?
A hand settled on his shoulder, almost making him jump, and he looked up at the jotun standing behind him. Knew that his eyes were too big, his breath coming too fast, but couldn't do anything against it.
It wasn't made better by the fact that this jotun seemed to be one of the larger ones, towering over him at almost twice his size, his eyes glowing bright red like freshly spilled blood.
Yet the hand on his shoulder wasn't doing anything but keeping him pinned and he tried to calm his racing heart by turning to logic. Freaking out now wouldn't end well for him.
"Come", the jotun said in a voice like rolling boulders. Tony wasn't sure but it seemed to be a different one than the jotun who had first spoken to him.
Not that he had long to contemplate this. The pressure on his shoulder increased, urging him forward, and with a last deep breath he complied.
They went back into the mace of hallways, though this time they left the main hallway very early on, his guide leading him through the ice without even the slightest hesitation. Two other jotnar followed them, putting a stop to any thought at escape, and Tony tried to focus on how best to set his feet on the cold floor instead of his dwindling hope to get back to his own planet.
They had gone quite a while before he looked up again. Which he immediately regretted for the labs that now lined the hallway were very obviously tech labs. Not many jotnar doing anything in them - those who where here were much too busy looking at him, two of them even stepping out of their labs and exchanging a few words with Tony's guards while making obvious gestures towards him. Probably asking whether all the trouble had really been caused by such a small creature. Yet what he saw had him wishing he had taken this corridor instead of the other with the same fervor that had him asking Thor for a visit to Asgard every time his friend brought up another impossible machine in some offhand comment, then had no idea what he was even talking about.
Clearly, whatever the aesir thought of jotunheimr, its inhabitants were quite obviously not the savage brutes Thor had told them about.
Well, at least not savage , Tony amended when the jotun behind him pushed him lightly when he had, again, almost stopped at the sight of a machine that was, if he saw this correctly, a much smaller particle accelerator than he had ever imagined possible. The thing with the brute had yet to be proven wrong or right.
Finally they reached a window leading into a dark room. Without light Tony couldn't make out much beyond their reflection - made more terrifying for the lack of details, like a human caught by winter demons, their eyes reflecting somehow brighter in the the ice than the rest of them. Then his guard stepped up next to him and put his free hand on something that might just be a panel within the window. A silvery light started to glow within the room and the door slid open just enough to let a jotun comfortable cross the threshold.
Not needing the slight push against his shoulder Tony stepped forward into the room, taking in whatever he could. Not that it was much - whatever this room served for it clearly wasn't a treasure trove of technological advancement. Instead there was a lone desk on the left side of the room and three chairs standing on both sides of it. Faint outlines betrayed where shelves hid along the walls, and to the right side he could see another clear pane, giving him an inkling what had the jotun bringing him here.
Yet against his assumptions he was lead over to the desk and the jotun even helped him up on one of the chairs - which were fucking high, making him feel far too much like a child sitting at the adult's table - before taking the other stool. Behind him he could hear one of the other jotnar step into the room as well and when he looked over his shoulder he found him leaning against the closed window, his arms crossed, while the last jotun looked in from the outside, before nodding to the one sitting opposite Tony and leaving.
A sound like moving glaciers – he might be clearing his throat or it may have been a word in a language he knew fuck all about - had him turn his head back to the jotun in front of him, only to find himself pinned by a look that was far too intense to promise anything good.
"Who are you? ", he - she? they? - asked.
Tony swallowed. Should he tell the truth? Or would that bring only more trouble? Depending on how much out of the loop they were they could very well have heard about Tony Stark, defeater of Thanos' army and Thor's friend, and he didn't think that being associated with Thor would endear him to the people here.
Carefully he put a hand on the table top - feeling, again, as if he had tripped into a nightmarish realm of giants; just that it wasn't a nightmare at all and wasn't that the worst of it - and answered: "I am Tony." Which would, hopefully, be enough.
The jotun huffed, obviously not satisfied, but thankfully moved on to another topic. "How did you come here, Tony?"
That was actually even more tricky. Should he dare tell them that he had build his own inter-dimensional portal? Would they even believe it, or just call him a liar and punish him for disobedience?
Yet when he hesitated too long he could see the jotun's patience wane, their eyes slitted in obvious displeasure, and he found himself blurting the truth: "I build a portal."
The jotun's reaction wasn't quite what he had anticipated. Instead of open disbelief he was met with cautious respect. "You build a portal to another realm? From Midgard?"
Tony swallowed, hoping that the burning curiosity in the other's eyes wouldn't precede him being dissected. Hesitantly he nodded.
His interrogator still looked impressed when he turned to the other jotun, exchanging some words with him in their own language. Tony wasn't sure, not without knowing at least a bit about it, but he had learned enough languages to find it sounded more thoughtful than scientific, so ... maybe he wouldn't end on someone's lab bench?
Which wasn't exactly a thought that he should have now, and he felt his heart start to race again. Dread shivered down his spine and he could only hope that the two jotnar wouldn’t see the coat shivering, or smell his fear. Pressing his eyes closed he tried to force it back, back down into the deepest recesses of his mind. He needed his wits right now - a panic attack could follow later, when he was safe or at least not bartering for his life anymore.
When he finally managed to wrestle the fear down and take in his surroundings again he found the jotun looking at him with a strange expression on his face - not that it was saying much; their faces might be more human than the Chitauri's but that didn't make them any easier to read. For all that he knew the jotun was looking at him hungrily and what he had thought curiosity was in truth appreciation for a good meal.
No! , he growled internally, cursing his own imagination not for the first time.
Thankfully, the jotun started his questioning again before his mind could come up with any other disturbing thoughts.
"Did you come here alone?"
This one was easy. Even if he had come with someone else he wouldn't have betrayed them, and bluffing that someone else had accompanied him to jotunheimr had too many possible ways to blow up into his face to be a viable option. "Yes."
By what he could - or thought he could - see on the jotun's face they didn't believe him. "You are aware that any friends of yours will not fare any better than you in the storm outside, and with us alerted to intruders they will also not be able to go unnoticed as you did within the labs. So are you really trying to tell me that you came onto a strange planet without anyone at your back, or ready to come after you should you fail to return?"
Tony ... felt the urge to laugh and just managed to suppress it. The jotun had clearly no idea who he was talking to - none of his friends - fuck, not even Fury - would be surprised by his action, too long resigned to him pulling stupid stunts like this without consulting anyone about it.
But there was no way he could - or would - tell his captor that so he just shrugged. "I do stupid shit sometimes."
The jotun looked at him for a long time before nodding. "As you wish", they said. "Take off the takki."
Tony felt his eyes widen, his hands clenching almost instinctively onto the warm folds of the coat. He didn't need to know the language to know what the jotun meant, but he still hoped he hadn't heard right. "I'm going to die from the cold", he said, hoping to persuade the other.
The look he received was so very alien again. "You will not", they said. "It is not on us to decide your destiny and you will stay alive until then."
Because that didn't sound ominous at all. But then Tony didn't really have any other option, what with the jotun behind him taking a step closer as if he thought that Tony would cause any trouble - if only he could! - and the one before him slowly standing up.
Taking a deep breath he reached for the clasps, fumbling a bit until he figured out how to open them from the inside, then braced himself for the cold before pulling the coat over his head.
If anything the cold was even worse than before, making him realize just how good a job the coat - the takki - had done at keeping it at bay. Yet before he could do more than feel himself shudder once the jotun had taken the coat from him and steered him towards the glass pane on the other side of the room, their hand on his shoulder surprisingly gentle. Opening it again with nothing but a touch he pushed Tony through, then closed it again behind him.
Turning around, a bit disbelieving - the jotun had said they didn't want him to die here! - he watched as they touched a small panel at the side of the window. And while he couldn't see what they did exactly he could feel the effect immediately when a wind started to blow against his side, quickly warming the inside of the glass cage.
Pressing his hand against the cool glass - it couldn't be ice, not with how warm it was getting in here, but after what he had seen here he was starting to consider some kind of plastic along with glass - he looked at the panel, then over to the jotun.
Who looked back at him with another unreadable gaze.
Licking his lips Tony asked: "What happens to me now?" Because they obviously hadn't read the villain handbook that made it mandatory for the captors to blurt out their plans.
Of course, Tony had been the one breaking into what could very well be a harmless, civilian lab complex, so he couldn't exactly call the jotnar villains .
Before the darkness of guilt rose again the jotun answered: "There is only one that might decide the fate of an intruder such as you: his majesty, King Loki."
The son of the king that had invaded Earth a few hundred years ago.
Shit.