“My descendant with two souls.”
Sunday, January 21
Tony was having the sexiest dream of his life—
Pepper, in a whipped cream bikini, lounging on a plush red rug.
Pepper’s surprise identical twin sister, grinding coffee beans by hand, completely naked.
Even better, Pepper’s surprise triplet was on her knees in front of Tony, filth pouring from her pink lips.
“You’re so smart,” she breathed up at him. Her hair was rumpled in a ‘I just had the best sex of my life and I need more’ kind of way and Tony just wanted to grab it.
“I can’t believe how smart you are,” she said. “And your body? Oooh, Tony. The things you can do with your co—”
Pepper’s triplet’s dirty talk was cut off by a scream.
Not a good ‘you’re rocking my world’ kind of scream, but a ‘my world is ending’ kind of scream.
Tony bolted upright when the scream continued and shattered his dream. Pepper was beside Tony, frowning and clenching her eyes, which meant the scream that Tony could hear echoing in his ears was from…
“Shit. Harry.”
Tony was out of bed in an instant and he had his gauntlet summoned with a tap of his arc reactor. It didn’t even register to him that he was dressed in just his boxers, he just knew Harry needed help.
Maybe it was a nightmare.
Maybe it was some sort of flashback.
Maybe it was—
“What the hell?” Tony burst in Harry’s room and found his kid huddled against his headboard and Reindeer Games of all people at the foot of Harry’s bed.
Tony aimed the gauntlet at him, carefully, and the God quickly snatched up the kitten off the bed and held it in front of his face.
“You wouldn’t kill your grand-kitten, would you, Stark?”
“Oi! No!” Harry lunged across the bed then and Tony hastily aimed the charged gauntlet up toward the ceiling when the kid started fighting Loki for the kitten.
Tony knew that ratty little kitten would be a pain in the ass the moment he found it.
“Hey, HEY!” Tony had to yell and went to grab Harry to keep him from getting eaten or mind-zapped or something completely insane. Harry grabbed Tri-Paw’d and rolled out of Tony’s grasp and away from Loki.
Pepper burst in the room with Tony’s 9mm aimed at Loki even while her eyes flicked toward Harry, checking he was okay.
If Tony wasn’t already head over heels for her, and she wasn’t already wearing his ring, he would have hit his knees and proposed right then.
Was there anything sexier than a woman in a lace nightgown, holding a Glock, and being all maternal at the same time?
“What the hell is going on?” Pepper demanded. She pulled back the hammer on the gun and kept it trained on Loki’s forehead even when he stood up with his palms held out.
“I woke up and he was in my bed!” Harry said accusingly.
“HE IS FIFTEEN!” Pepper screamed.
“I was doing nothing untoward!” Loki said quickly. Apparently even Gods of Mischief cringed beneath the glare of Pepper Potts.
“You were in my dreams!” Harry argued as he clutched the damn three-legged kitten to his chest.
“You were what?!” Tony snapped. He was actually less worried about his son being molested by Loki than he was having Harry’s head jacked up and hijacked.
“I came to visit my descendant,” Loki said, as if he were harmless. As if he weren’t hellbent on taking over the world and forcing all of mankind to worship him.
As if he hadn’t just been inside Harry’s mind.
“Wait!” Tony’s hand dropped a centimeter when he actually worked through what Loki just said. “Did you say descendant? As in…?”
“Great-great-great-so on and so forth-grandson seventy-nine times removed,” Loki said airily. He turned a dazzling smile toward Harry who only blinked at him with his mouth opened in a little ‘o’.
“Well? Aren’t you going to greet your grandfather?”
“You shot me,” Loki hissed venomously for the tenth time.
Pepper was kneeling on the floor beside the sofa, carefully cleaning up the bullet wound she left in Loki’s leg. Tony stood just behind her with his arms crossed, watching the God for the slightest bit of trickery. Harry was in the shower because the poor kid threw up when Pepper shot Loki and caused his room to ring with the echo of the gunshot.
“You were in my child’s bed, in his mind, and then tried to hug him,” Pepper said frostily. Loki grimaced when Pepper literally slapped a bandaid on his knee.
“I could have killed him,” Loki said as casually as if saying he could have went for a walk. “But I didn’t. He’s quite interesting.” Loki looked up at Tony and pulled his eyebrows together in confusion. “You’re certain he’s your spawn?”
Tony kept his face blank, not letting Loki know how close to home he was hitting with his interest in Harry. The last person to show up out of the mist and become inappropriately interested in Harry was currently sitting in a cell, awaiting a trial.
“99.95% certain,” Tony quipped.
“Ah.” Loki let out a sigh and adopted a sage expression. “That does leave a 0.05% possibility that there’s a better explanation then.”
Pepper glared at Loki while she moved to stand beside Tony.
“Quit making jokes and explain why you’re here,” she said. “Because I have half a mind to call Thor right now—”
“Oh, yes.” Loki stretched out on the sofa and laced his fingers behind his head. He stared up at Tony and Pepper with complete calm on his face. “I am shaking in my boots that my dearest brother will find time in his busy schedule to come scold me for getting to know family.” Loki smiled slyly right at Tony. “Because isn’t family truly the most important thing, Stark?”
Tony grit his teeth and tried to work out Loki’s master plan there. As far as Tony could tell, Harry wasn’t under his thumb or mental rule.
“Should I shoot him again?” Pepper asked Tony.
“Please don’t.” Loki grimaced and waved a hand over his leg, instantly healing the wound that Pepper just wasted ten minutes patching up. “We would hate to startle my grandson again.”
Harry chose then to open his door and slowly make his way around the couch and to Tony’s side. Tony hooked his arm around Harry’s shoulders, keeping him close, and Loki jumped up with a wide smile.
“So we meet at last!” Loki cried. There was a hungry look in his eyes that had Tony on edge when he stared at Harry. “Your godfather did not do you justice in his thoughts, Little One. A child of Magic learning to conquer Sorcery? You’ll be unstoppable,” he breathed.
“Okay, no.” Tony shifted so he stood partially in front of Harry, blocking him from Loki’s line of sight, as soon as he realized what his game was. Loki saw power in the Hulk before and wanted to control him, there was no way in hell that Tony was letting his son become a weapon of destruction in Loki’s hands.
“Calm yourself, Stark,” Loki said. He disappeared and reappeared behind Harry, causing Tony to spin around to block him again.
“I didn’t come to wield your son as a weapon, I merely came to investigate my descendant with two souls.”
Tony and Harry asked the same question at the same time as the elevator dinged.
“Two souls?”
“Fuck.”
Everyone looked to see Sirius had entered the flat and had an incredibly unhappy look on his face.
“Tony, mate, hey. Why don’t you and Loki,” Sirius glowered darkly at the innocently smiling God, “come chat?” His eyes flickered over Harry quickly. “In private, maybe?”
Tony rarely ever felt like he was the one person in a room that didn’t understand something, but he suddenly felt like Steve in a conversation with Tony and Bruce.
It wasn’t what he would call a pleasant feeling.
Tony sent Pepper and Harry off to find breakfast once he realized Sirius didn’t want Harry to hear whatever it was he had to say. Pepper gave Tony a very serious ‘you will fill me in later’ look and Harry had just seemed rather confused.
“It’s four am?” Harry said as he used some of his daily allotted hours with the prosthetic to follow Pepper to the elevator.
“Yeah, I know.” Pepper yawned. “You should drive.”
“Oh, okay.”
“He’s easy to please, isn’t he?” Sirius chuckled after Harry and Pepper left. Sirius might have been trying to sound casual, but there was some anxiety to his laugh and in the way he kept running his fingers through his hair.
Tony looked from Loki to Sirius and then sighed in defeat when he waved a hand for them both to sit.
“What’s happening?” Tony asked. “Why is Loki here? What do two souls mean? And why the hell do you look like you’ve killed Harry’s kitten?”
Sirius licked his lips and then fearlessly sank down on the sofa beside an entirely too comfortable looking Loki.
“You remember Albus explaining what horcruxes are?” Sirius asked slowly. “Right, so here’s what happened…”
It took Sirius twenty-six minutes to tell Tony that his son had the soul of a maniac inside of him, keeping the maniac alive.
It took an additional three minutes for Loki to offer to examine Harry.
It only took Tony two seconds to turn that down immediately.
“Get ahold of Gandalf,” Tony told Sirius. “And I’ll call Quahog. And Strange. Fuck, just call everyone who isn’t Reindeer Games. Oh! Thor! Hey, Thor!” Tony looked up at the ceiling frantically. “It’d be a great time for a thunderstorm!”
“My brother has no knowledge of the magical arts,” Loki drawled. He was inspecting his fingernails carelessly. “It requires a finesse that few brutes can manage.”
“And we really don’t want to tell Albus about this,” Sirius said. “I- I wouldn’t even trust Quahog.”
“Why the hell…” Tony trailed off when the shadow in Sirius’ eyes answered for him.
“You think they’ll kill Harry,” Tony said flatly. That was why Sirius didn’t tell Tony to start with, because every other soul piece had to have its container fully destroyed.
“YOU DON’T GET TO KILL MY SON, SIRIUS!” Tony jumped to his feet and his blood pressure was steadily rising until he felt the urge to either throttle Sirius, destroy Loki, and never tell another person about Harry or just… just grab his kid and run.
Harry always wanted to see Russia.
“No, just… get out,” Tony said. He feigned exhaustion and sat down heavily to bury his face in his hands. Tony could have a new passport and identity built for Harry and himself in minutes. Pepper would have to stay and wait for Tony to get Harry on the opposite side of the world.
They could stop in Lagos, Stark Industries had an operating headquarters there, and Tony could create another set of papers for them before going on to… Mumbai, maybe.
Anywhere.
Tony would take Harry anywhere in the world - and he wasn’t ruling Asgard out as an option as well - to keep the wizards from pro and conning Harry’s life against a maniac wizard from coming back to life.
Sirius seemed convinced by Tony’s weary act. He reached out and lightly touched Tony’s knee.
“Stephen has a plan,” Sirius said quietly. “I’m not going to let anyone hurt Harry, you know that.”
Tony nodded and thought that he’d fooled Sirius.
He forgot about Loki.
“You know he’s going to take the child and run the instant you’ve left, right?” Loki asked. Tony looked up enough to once again aim his gauntlet at Loki’s head.
Clearly his acting needed some work.
“Get out, now,” Tony said harshly, giving up the weary act and showing how pissed he was. He didn’t look away from Loki to address Sirius, but his words were for them both. “Harry is my son. My son. You don’t get to- to lobotomize him over something that might happen.”
They didn’t get to touch Harry even if it meant an entire army of Voldemorts rained from the sky like the Chitauri.
Nobody was making the sacrifice play this time. Not Tony and especially not Harry.
All Tony could imagine was the image that Wanda painted in his brain so long ago…
Harry, crying out for him. Tony only reaching him in time to hear his final rattling breath leave his body. Harry dying in Tony’s arms, leaving Tony alone and with a hole in his chest for the rest of his life.
Was that a dream or had it been some sort of sick foreshadowing?
“Tony,” Sirius stood up slowly with his hands raised in a universal sign of peace, “you know if I thought it was time to run, I’d tell you. Hell, I’d clear the way for you. Stephen swears he can remove the soul. I dunno how, but he’s going to do it soon.”
Tony swung the gauntlet to point it at Sirius’ chest. In that moment, Sirius wasn’t Harry’s godfather who sent Tony his son, but a threat to the most important person in Tony’s life.
“Is it going to hurt Harry?” Tony demanded. When Sirius wouldn’t - or couldn’t - answer, it was answer enough. “HE HAS BEEN THROUGH ENOUGH!” Tony yelled. “JUST LEAVE HIM THE HELL ALONE!”
“For the love of the Allfather,” Loki sighed. He rolled his eyes when Tony spared him a quick glance.
For the first time, Tony didn’t see Sirius as his friend and ally. Sirius was just another wizard who was a threat to Harry. Tony’s hand was torn as he continued to swing his weapon from side to side, indecisive on who the bigger threat was.
It took Tony entirely too long to think to summon his second gauntlet. Once he did, he had one trained on Loki and Sirius both.
“Allow me to examine the child,” Loki said calmly. “I have no reason to harm him, Stark.”
“Yeah? No reason to brainwash him to be your minion either?” Tony snarled.
“Harry hardly has the temperament to be a minion,” Loki said factually. “A willing minion is worth much more than a forced one.”
Hitler must have been shivering in a frozen hell because Tony stared in Loki’s eyes and actually considered it. Loki had been in Harry’s head already without doing any damage… He didn’t seem malevolent toward Harry, just… curious.
“What would you do?” Tony asked carefully, shocked at himself for even considering it.
“Reach inside him, feel the soul, see if I can untangle the intruder and release it,” Loki said in a voice that sounded like he wanted to add ‘duh’. “Soul magic is delicate work, even I may not have the power to manipulate them.”
It was hearing Loki be humble about something that had Tony dropping his weapons by half an inch. Loki was humble almost as often as Tony was.
“It’s worth a shot,” Sirius said quietly. “Stephen probably didn’t know Loki was going to show up.”
“Sorcery is many shades lighter than the true magic that burns through me,” Loki said with a smirk. “Imprecise sciences all around.”
Tony had calmed down some. He would still take Harry and run if he had to, but Tony also knew that Sirius would help him.
“We’re going to trust our kid’s soul to Reindeer Games?” Tony asked. When Sirius shrugged, Tony sighed. “Fine, but if Harry becomes a minion of Loki, I hope you’re ready to join the dark side.”
Because there was just no possibility in any universe where Tony would fight against his kid.
It felt like a bad joke, waiting for Pepper and Harry to return… a genius, a wizard, and a God entered a bar…
“I’m making coffee,” Tony decided when the silence lasted too long. When Tony pushed himself off the chair to go start coffee, Sirius followed.
“How long?” Tony asked casually while he started a cup. Sirius leaned against the fridge and hummed questioningly.
“How long have you known about that soul thing in Harry?” Tony clarified.
Because clearly Sirius had known for a while. Sirius knew, Strange knew, God damned Loki knew… Tony was one of two people left in the dark.
And even Tony didn’t know what to tell Harry. Tony had never lied to him before, ever, but the kid had a lot of shit weighing on him. His friend just died a few weeks ago, he had a court hearing approaching quickly, there were nights where Harry still woke up screaming from a mixture of nightmares.
‘Hey, son, you know the guy that killed your parents and orchestrated your kidnapping and torture? No, not Barnes, the first kidnapping. Anyway, you’ve got his soul inside of you, keeping him safe. Don’t worry, either we’ll remove it or we’ll move out of the country. Coincidentally, how’s your Greek?’
Somehow, Tony thought that might lead to more rooftops. Or Harry would just portal himself three hundred feet in the air before dropping to the pavement.
“A while,” Sirius admitted. “How was I supposed to tell you, Tony? I didn’t even want to think about it myself.”
“That’s cute, Sirius.” Tony finished his cup and took a sip of it while he studied Sirius over the brim. “No, really, I think you should keep more things about my son from me. Why be honest when we can live a cozy lie?”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Sirius said with a bite to his tone. “I thought about telling you but figured if knowing about it is ruining my life then maybe I’d keep it to myself.”
“You know the difference? The difference is you think Harry might die. I don’t.”
There was nothing that could convince Tony to sacrifice his kid. Darth Vader killed a million people? As long as none of them were Harry. Darth Vader was never going to rest until he killed Harry? Tony could keep Harry happy and hidden for eighty years.
Hell, Tony could hide Harry on the Island of Cats and Harry himself would refuse to ever leave.
Tony made a mental note to consider that as a distinct possibility for relocation. Sure, it would smell like a botched meth lab, but then Tony would have a photo of Harry in a cat pile to add to his album beside the puppy pile photo.
“You don’t get it,” Sirius said softly, interrupting Tony’s ideas on how to cat-piss proof a house. Sirius had his arms crossed lightly over his chest and genuinely looked miserable.
“Harry’s life keeping Voldemort alive is the sickest irony in the bloody world. If he comes back, Harry will never have a moment of peace. And if Harry thinks that dying would save even one person? He’d do it.” Sirius lifted his shoulders some.
“He’s too much like you, mate. I convinced him to run but only when I made it sound like it would help me. And what happened? Harry looked at himself like a coward, like not saving others meant he didn’t deserve to be your son. He won’t do it again, Tony. I know it’s sick, but you can’t tell him. Because if we can’t get it out? He will die.”
Well how was Tony supposed to be pissed off at Sirius when he was making the most sense that he ever had?
“I don’t lie to him,” Tony said.
“So don’t,” Sirius suggested. “I will. Just go in your office, let Loki take a look at souls, and I’ll make up some rubbish about Loki checking his magic.”
It was a rock and a hard place, Tony’s own Sophie’s choice. Would Tony stand back to avoid lying to Harry’s face or would he stand by Harry while Loki went digging around his soul and lie to the kid?
Which was more forgivable?
Tony hadn’t decided until Harry and Pepper returned and Tony actually looked at his son.
“I’ll stay,” Tony breathed to Sirius. “I’m not leaving him behind.”
Sometimes parents had to lie to their kids… good lies, like ‘Santa is coming tonight’ or ‘no the dentist isn’t going to hurt you’.
“At least he’ll have Pepper when he hates us,” Sirius whispered back brightly. “C’mon, let’s see some magic from a God.”
Ultimately, it wasn’t that interesting to witness. Tony and Sirius both assured Harry that Loki was interested in checking his magical health. Pepper gave Tony a skeptical look, but he just shook his head at her.
Tony couldn’t tell Pepper and bring her in on the lie, no need for Harry to hate all three of them.
“So you’re like a doctor?” Harry asked as he laid back on the couch at Loki’s command. As properly wary as Harry had been of Loki, he seemed incredibly comfortable as soon as Tony and Sirius vouched for him.
Something Tony would feel guilty over for quite some time, he was sure.
“Doctors wish they were me,” Loki said. He knelt down beside Harry’s head and raised a hand above his face. “Close your eyes, Little One. Relax, don’t fight me.”
Harry sent Tony one more trusting look past Loki before he closed his eyes and let out a slow and heavy breath.
A glowing light trickled down from Loki’s fingertips and connected him to Harry’s forehead. The two of them both shivered and it was the only physical reaction they gave.
“I don’t like this,” Pepper whispered in Tony’s ear. “What’s going on?”
Tony wrapped an arm around her waist and shook his head again.
“Pep, if I could tell you I would,” he said truthfully. “Trust me on this one, it’s better if you don’t know.”
The clock ticked ominously and Tony eventually shifted around to watch Loki’s face while he worked. While Harry looked peaceful enough to be sleeping, Loki had his face screwed up with concentration. His lips occasionally opened and closed, as if speaking silently, and Tony couldn’t help but think that he’d start the Church of Loki if the God could remove the soul piece from his son.
After nearly twelve minutes of Loki working on Harry, Loki’s face had a light sheen of sweat on it and Harry had his nose scrunched up.
At minute seventeen, the sizzling sound of a portal opened up beside Sirius. Tony looked over and saw Strange step through the portal, take one look at Loki, and then glare at Sirius with irritation.
“Can you not just trust me?” Strange demanded, not bothering to keep his voice down. Strange put his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes until they were just a little more than slits. “One future, Sirius, one. There is one path to do this and the Trickster God isn’t part of it.”
“Maybe if you’d tell me what this one path is, I wouldn’t have let Loki try,” Sirius hissed. “He’s a God, Stephen.”
“No, he’s an annoying legend that’s best left in Asgard. I’m practically a God.”
“Oh, really? You’re the most arrogant prat I have ever met.”
“Says Mister ‘I completed the animagus transformation at fifteen’.”
“I’d like to see you turn into a bloody animal!”
“I thought they were dating?” Pepper whispered while she and Tony listened to their dispute without looking away from their kid.
“It’s like their foreplay,” Tony murmured distractedly. Something was happening, Loki was breathing harshly and Harry had his hands fisted at his sides.
All at once, Harry’s eyes popped open, the mist connecting him to Loki disappeared, and Loki slid across the floor until he hit the far wall.
Tony didn’t need to see Loki shake his head to know he’d failed. And Tony especially didn’t need to hear Strange whisper ‘I told you so’ to Sirius.
The Island of Cats was actually called Aoshima Island, if Tony’s geography wasn’t failing him. Tony didn’t know Japanese, but he could probably invent an automatic language converter to use while learned.