His soul shall taste the sadness of her might, And be among her cloudy trophies hung || Tony & Hela
There was pain. It was everywhere, slipping through Tony's nerves and hitting every single injury like a pinball lighting up a machine. There were just so many of them, too, from the crushing stab of breathing through at least one cracked rib to the multiple lacerations that caused blood to paint so many inches of revealed skin. Even with the fog of chemicals rushing though, trying their damnedest to actually motivate something beyond the stillness that was pretty much all he was capable of, he was sure that he was broken beyond quick repair - maybe even any repair.
He was also vaguely aware that he was flying, though he didn't know how since his eyes had somehow closed and couldn't be reopened. He thought of a red and gold suit, sitting back in the lab where it hadn't done a fuck of a lot of good in the carnage, as he struggled for just one more breath and was sucked down into something that wasn't - right.
Darkness. Cold. A feeling of abandonment stronger than any Tony had ever imagined, as though he'd been left behind by the whole damn world.
As though neither heaven or hell wanted such a broken toy.
Though, that couldn't be true. Not when he had his own personal goddess looking after him, right?
Then, there was pain again. Feeling again. A gasp of air, dragged into lungs that were fucking starving, followed by the need to see what it was that appeared to be draining away the aches and pains. Somewhere, he found the strength to open his eyes, and found himself looking up into a wonderfully welcome face.
"Hela," was what he tried to say, but words were much harder than the raspy groan that came out, followed by a chest-wrecking cough. Oh, well. It seemed he had time now to work up to talking again. Good.