Chapter 25
The moment that sentence came out of the laptop’s speakers, a shiver ran through everyone’s bodies, as Tony flinched and stared with wide eyes at the screen, his heart almost bursting from his chest from how strong it was beating.
“Holy Shit, it worked! It actually worked!” Tony exclaimed with a hysterical laugh, unable to believe how much he missed that sentence coming from his husband.
“Just because I am unable to thrust my Jar in your face, that I am not keeping score.”
Steve continued, amusement and affection evident in his words, despite the robotic monotone of his voice coming from the laptop right now.
“I know. I know. I will pay as much as you want. I promise.” Tony chuckled softly, unable to hold back his eyes from becoming watery. Overwhelmed from being finally able to hear those words from his husband again.
“Amazing work like always, Tony. No one could have done it better than you. You truly are the best of all of us.” Steve’s words were tinged with so much pride in him, that it made Tony want to curl on the floor and cry happily for the rest of the day.
“You made a miracle, Mr. Stark!” Alex exclaimed excitedly, her eyes glinting with awe, while Dr. Johnson stood next to her, eyes wide, looking overwhelmed.
“A miracle in scientific and medical fields!” Charles added with a huge grin, squeezing Tony’s shoulders, pride almost bursting from him. “You truly are a genius, Tony! You never stop proving it!”
Tony’s invention allowed their voices to be heard in the other three rooms, so Dean, Erik, and Castiel were also a part of this wonderful conversation with them right now.
“That’s my best buddy!” Dean announced, somehow managing to make his robotic, monotone voice excited and prideful. “I knew we could count on you, Shellhead!”
“Thank you, Tony. It was unbearable to be paralyzed like this without being heard all that time.” Castiel said next, also managing to channel his gratitude in his words. “I am sorry I left you in this mess alone, but I see you didn’t need me after all.”
“Charles? Charles! Are you alright? Did you get hurt? How are you doing?!” Erik somehow managed to sound worried about his husband, obviously heard when Tony mentioned that Charles was hurt when they were in his room earlier.
“I am fine, Erik. I am fine. Worry about yourself first.” Charles answered softly with a warm smile. His husband was worried about him, despite him being paralyzed and unable to even open his eyes. His husband always manages to be the sweetest person alive and also the scariest ever. There was no in-between.
Tony was still trailing his eyes between each box, overwhelmed by hearing his husband and friends again, after feeling so lost and alone earlier. He missed them so much that he felt physically relieved right now, just by hearing them again.
“I am so proud of you, Tony,” Steve said, and Tony could literally see the soft, warm, proud look Steve would be giving him right now if he was awake. Just imagining it made Tony feel warm all over and happy.
“We are all proud and very grateful for you, Tony, but we need to postpone these feelings for now, since we won’t be able to express them well enough in our current state,” Castiel stated, sounding like he was ready to get right into business. “Right now, we need to work first on defeating that fake alien.”
“Fake?” Tony blinked, exchanging a surprised look with Charles at that. “Why are you assuming he is a fake alien, Cas?”
Silence came from the laptop for a few seconds then, before Steve broke the silence again.
“I appreciate Dr. Roussou’s and Dr. Johnson’s efforts for us so far, but this is a private team meeting. So, I would appreciate some privacy, for your own safety.” Steve stated firmly, directing his words to the two doctors in the room.
“Of course, Captain,” Dr. Johnson didn’t even look offended, he just smiled at them.
“We will leave you to your work then and we will get back to ours!” Alex nodded with a smile as she and her boss made their way out of the room after Tony and Charles gave them a grateful smile for their understanding.
The room now was empty except for Tony and Charles, who were still sitting in front of the laptop. Tony announced that they were alone and everyone could speak freely now, starting the weirdest team meeting they ever had.
“Now, I want to know everything that happened from the moment I was hit until now,” Castiel announced in his current robotic monotonic voice, which was unnerving to no end.
“I expected that.” Tony nodded in understanding, momentarily forgetting that they couldn’t see him right now.
Then he started telling them what had happened so far. Every single detail and word that was uttered. He left nothing unsaid and undescribed.
“What about what’s happening in SHIELD right now?” Steve was the one to question this time.
“Oh right, about that.” Tony pursed his lips, hating that subject. He already knew what Rhodey was currently doing. It made him upset and frustrated that Rhodey was the one who had to deal with all this right now, while Tony and the Avengers were unable to help him in any way. He had to face that danger on his own right now. “I will tell you everything I know.”
That took some time. For the next fifteen minutes, Tony had reported everything he knew from SHIELD. Although he didn’t know many details or what was happening right now in the desert with Rhodey, but he knew enough.
“The others. What about the others? Sam? Nat? everyone else?” Dean hit the sore subject that everyone was too worried to ask about it.
“And the mutant children. And Raven.” Erik added, worried about his students and sister-in-law.
“I don’t know how much you heard from us talking around you, but I am afraid to say that the others are currently in the same state as you guys.” Tony sighed with a shake of his head, feeling a sharp pain in his chest every time he thought about the rest of their family. “Clint, Bucky, and Sam Wilson are down. Coulson had made sure to bring them back to the country. They are currently in a safe house, being protected by SHIELD. Thor is still out of the realm. As for Natasha and Sam, no one knows anything. Coulson didn’t find them in their second honeymoon spot. We can’t contact them in any way. Fury believes that Natasha probably understood what was happening and they were both in hiding right now. We hope anyway, but Coulson is still moving around trying to locate them.”
“As for the students, they are in a safe house with Raven at the moment,” Charles reported that part, clenching his fists at the thought of his terrified children, being forced to leave their home like that. “I sent Charlie to check on them.”
“God, what a mess.” Dean’s frustration and worry were evident to all of them. “Our family took a really hard hit this time. Being too scattered and incapacitated to even help each other.”
“Since I fell in this paralyzed state, my brain did nothing but think.” Steve started, pulling their attention back to the situation. “About how did that Fireball follow me like that? Since I can’t do anything but think, I remembered something. Once, I was with Coulson on a mission, and he talked about SHIELD starting a project of a targeted weapon, that follows the DNA of its target until it hits it. It was just a prototype according to his words. It worked on animals so far, but I am guessing it can be updated to be used on humans by time in the future.”
“Exactly.” Castiel agreed pointedly, finding his opening. “Everything can be improved in the future.”
“Even that robot with the living cells that attacked earlier?” Dean asked this time, obviously curious.
“There are experiments on the cyborg projects right now.” Tony pointed out with a furrowed brow, thinking about what Castiel was getting at. “But nothing succeeded in that area so far.”
“So, our enemy is really an alien from another more advanced planet,” Charles murmured with a frown, still feeling like something wasn’t adding up.
“Maybe the analyzation of his blood will reveal something else.” Castiel insisted.
“What something else, Cas?” Steve interjected this time. Tony couldn’t help but feel happy to watch his teammates all talk and argue like that again. He missed this so much. “It’s definitely an attempted alien invasion. Did you forget about the two unknown elements that did this to us?”
“How did you know about the two unknown elements, Steve?” Tony’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “You were the first to get hit, so you missed that part!”
“Did you forget that I was listening to you guys talk all that time?” Steve answered, and Tony could hear the tent of amusement in his words.
“Oh. Shit. I forgot.” Tony blushed at that, remembering a few desperate, heart-wrenching words he said to Steve when he thought he was in an actual coma. Now that he knows Steve heard all that, it just feels embarrassing now. Steve will tease him forever after all this.
“What about the analysis of that robot? Did you find anything?” Erik asked, unaware of Tony’s embarrassment. Or he didn’t care.
“I don’t know anything,” Tony muttered in annoyance, remembering getting kicked out of the morgue by Rumlow. “Rumlow took over the robot with his team. I didn’t get a chance to do anything. They took it all.”
“All but one piece,” Castiel announced confidently.
“You have a piece?!” Tony and Charles exclaimed together, eyes glinting excitedly.
“Nerds.” If Dean could snort and roll his eyes, he would have done it.
“In my pocket,” Castiel answered, ignoring Dean’s comment.
Tony rushed out of the room to go to Castiel’s. It took him less than a minute to get to the closet, pull out Castiel’s jacket, and look through the pockets.
Tony discovered that he should never do that ever again. Apparently, Castiel keeps in his pocket everything he finds interesting or shiny enough. It was like looking through a cat’s belongings. It was a whole other side of Castiel he didn’t think existed. It was actually quite adorable.
He rummaged through those treasures until he found a small screw. One look at it told him it came from that robot. He ran back to Steve’s room, where Charles and the others were waiting.
“Hey! Is it that screw?” Tony called out the moment he entered the room, waving the screw in his hand.
“Yes. That’s it. Can you check it?” Castiel confirmed it. Tony went to work immediately. He pulled out an advanced magnifying glass from his pocket that he keeps for emergencies like this. He started looking the screw all over with deep attention, as the others waited for him patiently.
“That’s weird.” Tony frowned in confusion, eyeing the screw with a raised eyebrow. “It looks like the screws I work with. Except a little more advanced.”
“Do you see any words engraved on it?” Castiel asked curiously, as Charles watched everything silently.
“Yeah, there is.” Tony checked again, finally noticing the very small writing in the corner. “It’s so small. I will magnify it, wait for a second.”
“Where would I go?” Castiel’s deadpan response, made Charles snort despite himself.
“Not a good time for sass, Cas.” Dean retorted pointedly
“You once told me there is always time for sass.”
“That one on you, Dean,” Steve interjected helpfully.
“God, I missed you, guys.” Tony shook his head with a chuckle, focusing back on trying to magnify the words enough to decipher them. The more he magnified it the clearer it got. Until he saw it clearly and let out a sharp gasp. “Shit, it’s in English!”
“English?!” Dean exclaimed indignantly.
“I think I know what’s written,” Erik announced grimly, even without seeing Tony’s suddenly very pale face.
“Wait, what is written?” Charles asked in concern, worried by Tony’s expression.
Before Tony could answer, Bruce crashed into the room, sweating and panting harshly, looking like he ran all the way here frantically.
“Tony! Charles! you will never believe what I discovered from the blood!” Bruce exclaimed the moment he laid eyes on both of them.
“Hello, Bruce. I think I know what you are about to say.” Castiel greeted him in his monotone robotic voice.
“Holy hell, Tony! You actually did it! Your program worked!” Bruce momentarily forgot why he came here, and stared with wide, awed eyes at the laptop, where the four boxes blinked back at him.
“What did you find in the blood, Bruce?” Tony made him focus back on his reason for being here, looking worried and unsettled.
Before Bruce answered, Castiel spoke first. “It is just a normal, human blood sample, isn’t it?”
“H-how did you know that?” Bruce’s eyes almost bulged out of his face, staring at the laptop in awe. “Ye-yeah! I was about to say that. It is a normal human blood sample, type A positive.”
“That’s impossible!” Charles exclaimed indignantly, still couldn’t figure out what was happening. “Can aliens have human blood?”
“You still don’t get it, Charles?” Erik said carefully, a grim tone to his words. “Castiel’s point is very obvious now.”
“Our enemy is not an alien,” Tony murmured, a drop of sweat trailing down the side of his face, as he got even paler.
“He is human. Just a human.” Steve confirmed what everyone was thinking now.
“What are you guys saying?” Charles trailed his eyes between Tony, Bruce, and the laptop. “That just doesn’t add up! If he is just a human, how can you explain his advanced weapons? The cyborg? The unknown elements? The-“
“There is another explanation for this, Charles.” Castiel cut him off, ready to answer all his questions if he just waited.
“And what is that explanation?” Charles murmured, getting a little nervous as his brain refused to understand what he was implying.
Castiel answered with his monotone, robotic, devoid-of-emotion voice, which made the announcement even more unsettling than it already was.
“He is from our future.”