The med bay was too bright, too clean. White light buzzed overhead, reflecting off polished steel and humming monitors. The air should have felt sterile, but instead it bit cold enough to sting the lungs.
Loki lay on the central table, unconscious. His skin, no longer Aesir-pale but Jotunn blue, was veined with glowing frost. His lips were nearly black, his chest shuddering with shallow, uneven breaths.
Tony hadn't let go of his hand since carrying him in. Loki's fingers were ice in his grip.
"Hang in there, Reindeer Games," Tony whispered, voice breaking. "You made it this far. Don't you dare check out on me now."
Dr. Helen Cho moved quickly, eyes flicking between monitors. "Core temp below sixty-eight Fahrenheit that's not survivable for a human." Her tone was tight. "Cardiac rhythm is chaotic. He shouldn't even be conscious."
"He isn't," Tony muttered. "That's the problem."
Dr. Hanamura entered with a tray of instruments, already loading an injector. "Thermal infusion. Nanite patches for internal bleeding. If we can stabilize..."
But they couldn't stabilize.
Warming blankets frosted over in seconds. IV lines froze solid before reaching his veins. Nanites stalled, their activity strangled by the invasive cold spreading through Loki's body.
Then his body jerked.
Alarms screamed. Loki convulsed violently, restraints barely holding. Frost blasted outward, splintering an overhead light and coating the floor in jagged white. The temperature dropped ten degrees in moments.
"Seizure onset!" Cho barked. "He's coding-pulse collapsing!"
The monitor flatlined.
"Defib!" Hanamura shouted. Cho slammed paddles to his chest and delivered a shock. Current snapped uselessly across frost-hardened skin.
"Again!" Tony barked.
Another shock. Nothing.
"His conduction pathways are frozen," Hanamura said, frustration seeping through. "The current can't penetrate."
"Then melt him!" Tony's voice cracked. His grip on Loki's hand tightened to desperation. "Do something!"
The convulsions stopped but only because Loki went still. His chest didn't rise. The line held flat.
Tony's knees buckled. He leaned over, forehead almost touching the icy hand. His voice was raw, breaking into jagged pieces."Don't take another person from me. Please… not again."
Cho and Hanamura kept working, recalibrating nanites, forcing warm fluid, but their gloves froze stiff, their breaths fogged heavy. The frost spread, veining up the walls, cracking instruments, smothering the room.
"Tony" Cho's voice wavered. "We can't stabilize him. He isn't responding. We're losing him."
Tony's throat closed. His chest hammered as he pressed closer, gripping that cold hand like an anchor. "No. You're not losing him. Not while I'm here."
Another convulsion shattered a wall monitor. The med bay became an icebox. Guards surged in, forcing Tony toward the airlock.
"Tony, you'll freeze with him!" Hanamura shouted.
He stumbled into the corridor, breath ragged. Behind glass, Loki was drowning in frost while the doctors failed.
Tony slammed a palm against the wall. "Science isn't cutting it. I need magic. I need Strange."
"Sir?" Friday's voice was calm, edged with static.
"Friday!" Tony's voice tore hoarse. "Get me Strange. Now."
A pause. "I've been monitoring under Doctor Watch protocols. He's in Kyoto. I can reach him."
"Then do it," Tony snapped. "Do it now."
Static. Then "Stark?"
Tony pressed close to the comm, trembling. All his walls were gone, no sarcasm, no bravado, only raw fear. "Stephen… help."
A golden portal flared open, sparks scattering across the frozen corridor. Strange stepped through, cloak snapping against the chill, eyes locking on Tony at once.
"Tony." His voice was steady, grounding.
Tony surged forward, clutching his sleeve. His words tumbled, broken. "Stephen—please—he's freezing from the inside out. Cho tried, Hanamura tried, and he's just, he doesn't deserve this, and I can't..." His breath hitched, ragged. "I can't lose him too."
"Tony. Breathe." Strange's hands gripped his shoulders, anchoring. "With me. Right now."
Wild, glassy eyes obeyed. Strange's calm was a lifeline.
He lifted his hands. Golden sigils spun and blazed. Frost slowed. Loki's convulsions eased. The monitor flickered weakly back into rhythm. Strange sealed a containment ring around the bed, locking the frost inside.
Tony sagged against the rail, sweat streaking his temple. "What's happening? Why can't we stop it?"
Strange's brow furrowed as glowing glyphs mapped Loki's body like a living x-ray. Blue veins pulsed dangerously with unstable power. "His Jotunn heritage is awakening. Odin's spells never protected him, they suppressed him. Now they're breaking. His own power is tearing him apart."
Tony's knuckles whitened on the rail. "So he's fighting himself."
"Exactly. Fimbulmark. Catastrophic awakening. Without training, his body treats the magic as invasion. Science won't fix this."
Tony's voice broke. "Then what can?"
Strange hesitated, spell humming. "Right now, all I can do is keep him alive."
Tony clasped Loki's frost-rimmed hand tighter, his own shaking. "Then do it. Whatever it takes. Don't let him go."
"I won't," Strange said firmly.
Tony swallowed, his voice low but true. "Thank you, Stephen."
The sorcerer nodded silently, weaving the spell steady. Gold light hummed against blue frost.
Tony hadn't moved from the bedside. His knees pressed cold steel, one hand clasped tight around frozen fingers. His other rubbed at his temple, but he didn't let go.
The med bay quieted, but uneasily. Monitors beeped unsteady, Loki's heart refusing rhythm. Every dip twisted Tony's gut.
"He's not stable," Strange finally said, quiet and sure. "But he's alive. That's more than he had a moment ago."
Tony nodded once, sharp. "I'm not leaving him."
"I know," Strange replied. "And I'll stay until he doesn't need me."
Tony's thumb brushed across bruised, frozen knuckles. His eyes burned, but he kept them open, fixed on Loki's face.
"Loki… whatever fight you've got left, use it. You hear me? You don't get to quit. Not now. Not here."
The only reply was the stuttering beat of the heart monitor.
Inside the shimmer of gold and frost, Tony Stark kept vigil, unwilling to go.