Chapter 2
Tony woke slowly, his breathing labored in a way that he wasn't used to still? again? will be? He could feel air over his exposed chest and the sounds of movement around him said that he was in a smaller room. His clothes felt like one of his high end party suits instead of the normal and comfortable broken in band shirts and sweats or jeans. He could feel the heat from a second body laid out next to him and hear the hissed discussion of two women at the other end of the room.
What the hell had happened? Had he been kidnapped again? Didn't they know he was fucking Iron Man?! Okay, okay, lets just reassess. Last thing he remembered was dying on the battlefield after Snapping the giant purple dick and looking at the Doctor-Sorcerer to be sure it was the right call. He had been half dead from the fight anyway so that last act of defiance was just his way of keeping his family safe for the future. Pepper and Spiderling and Morgan and Rhodey and everyone else they had managed to get back.
"Christine? Did I collapse after a surgery again?" The voice of the Doctor-Sorcerer groaned next to him.
"No, Stephen, you collapsed at a gala. If you were feeling that badly you should have told me!" an unfamiliar voice, Christine, snapped. "We're both Doctors for God's sake! You know better than to push yourself this far!"
"Thanos?" Tony croaked. He was trying not to move but he had to check.
"Time travel, damnit Stark!" the Doctor-Sorcerer swore next to him.
Tony felt him move to sit up and at least look at him. He felt when the man froze at the sight of his exposed chest.
"Palladium poisoning is a killer. I'm gonna have to reinvent the replacement element," Tony chuckled dryly as he tiredly opened his eyes to meet the shocked gaze of a younger version of the Sorcerer who found the one way forwards and couldn't give him a fucking hint.
"What the hell?!" Dr. Strange spluttered. His hands started to glow as he set up some magic.
Tony made a sound of discomfort but didn't shy away from whatever the other man was going to do only to gasp in shock and pain as a tennis ball sized orb of liquid palladium was drawn out of his pores and from around the arc reactor. It solidified in the grip of the magic and Tony could glimpse inside the orb before it sealed. It wasn't just palladium, he realized, but also other poisons and impurities.
"That should give you more time for me to yell at you and get you properly checked. This is going to be a nightmare to sort out," Dr. Strange, Stephen, muttered as he set the now solid ball on the carpet next to them. "That reactor is coming out of your chest as soon as we can safely manage it. You can't die on us, you aren't allowed to."
"Gotta say the complete lack of poison affecting my mind is always nice," Tony joked as he too sat up. "As for dying... not really my plan. I just didn't see a solution the first time through until SHIELD had my honey pot spider PA stab me with an experimental treatment and actually gave me back my dad's research. God, they're still intertwined with Hydra at this point. That's going to be a fucking mess and a half to deal with."
Tony looked over the office or conference room they had been moved into when they collapsed and noted that they only had an audience consisting of their respective dates. Simple enough although probably terrifying for the two woman they would now have to answer too.
"Yes, well. It does help to work with a clear mind," Stephen drawled sarcastically. "We are going to have to reorient, check dates and such. Then we have to decide on what to change. You also aren't going near that PA or SHIELD until we at least have something to work things off of."
"You're the Time expert, not me," Tony snarked right back.
"Like you didn't actively invent more conventional time travel to help fix things while I was indisposed during the first Snap," Stephen snorted. "I'll have to contact the Ancient One if only to get a read on if we've screwed anything up just by arriving. Then we have work to do."
"Preaching to the choir, Merlin. Preaching to the choir," Tony agreed, still tired. "God, who knew that super hero work tended towards dying more than once and not just having a shorter life span? I want my deposit back."
"Sorry, the universe doesn't give refunds on the soul shattering events that forge heroes," Stephen smirked then his eyes landed on the openly terrified women and his face fell. "Aw hell. Neither of them are going to be satisfied with the short version of things."
"Yeah," Tony sighed as he too looked at their dates. "Better to do this somewhere secure and we did collapse so going home has a ready made excuse. I'll send someone back to fetch your car or whatever you used to get here but I think you both should come back with us to my place. I want another nap and it would be better to explain all this at once. Filling in my AI will probably help things and be simpler all around to explain with some stuff at home for what we even can use as proof."
"What city are we even in? What's the date?" Stephen sighed, scrubbing briefly at his face with his hand. "Shit, driving is out again even if the damage from the car wreck to my body clearly hasn't happened yet and I don't have a sling ring for portals either."
"Judging by how much palladium poisoning you just pulled out of me... Early to mid May 2010?" Tony guessed with a sigh. "God, I've been so erratic since getting back from Afghanistan and being forced to kill my Godfather in that stupid fight in and around my factory. At least giving Pepper here the company was the right call even after I fixed this mess the first time."
"You're dying?!" Pepper demanded in terror.
"Poisoned by the reactor, which I can't ditch until we've got something to boost my body enough to survive the surgery to remove the shrapnel," Tony corrected with a groan. "I now have a solution for the poisoning and just need to synthesize the new element for a new reactor. Doc, here did a sort of magic purge so I'm in way better condition than I have been for the last, I don't know three to six months?"
"Yeah, I'm clearing my schedule once I find where I put it and following you around to keep you from killing yourself if this is how you treat dying. You obviously need more support then you're getting and I bet you shut people out to try and avoid hurting them as you deteriorate, never mind what it's doing to you," Stephen groaned. "What treatment have you been on and who is your current doctor anyway. Have you met the spider kid yet?"
"Nope," Tony answered sadly. "Haven't met any of my emotionally adopted kids yet."
"How often has this idiot been kicking everyone out and locking himself away?" Stephen finally asked Pepper something directly.
"A lot, almost since he got back," Pepper answered faintly. Both women were clearly overwhelmed by everything but Stephen knew they would be fine.
"And the doctors? The treatment?" Stephen grilled Tony, not letting him get away with his earlier dodge.
"...No doctors. I'm literally the only person with the background needed to do anything safely with the reactor. I'm using a special detox smoothie to regulate the blood toxicity but that's basically it. I know it has to come out but if the reactor and magnet come out the shrapnel will kill me in under a week," Tony explained reluctantly. "The guy who did the initial surgery didn't... have the best resources and his jury-rigged set up kept me alive long enough for me to build the first miniaturized reactor to install. We were both still captives so... we worked with what we had. He died during our escape attempt."
"Fuck," Stephen groaned. "I had... no idea and from what I know of you from viewing the timelines that's no where near everything about this. You said you have a fix for the reactor at least?"
"Yeah," Tony huffed a laugh. "I just have to build the particle collider and make the damn thing which will be a hell of a lot easier now that I'm not fighting off as much heavy metal poisoning. I can get it done in under a week if I have to build it all myself so long as I can get the parts."
"Well that's something at least," Stephen snarked. "You still feeling a bit dizzy?"
"Yeah, you?" Tony asked casually.
"Yup. Knowing us its the only thing keeping us from moving and only because we're being overly cautious," Stephen sighed. "I really need to get us to one of the sanctums or the main temple in Nepal."
"We aren't fighting off things trying to kill us and we're fairly safe for the moment so I don't see the problem. Giving it a little time before trying to move could keep us out of the papers or at least less interesting than someone else screwing up," Tony pointed out reasonably. "I also don't think I'm up to running all over creation at least for a few hours."
"I'll call Happy to come pick us up," Pepper said with more than a little resignation. She was more familiar with Tony being erratic but right than with Dr. Strange in general. As a result she was coming to terms with the men actually knowing what they were talking about faster than Doctor Palmer was.
The four retreated to the car with Happy driving. Since Tony still didn't know what city they were in he let Pepper tell the man where they were going. It turned out they were actually in New York. Something which shouldn't have been a surprise since it was a geographic overlap shared between Stephen and Tony in their personal histories.
"Take us to 177a Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village," Stephen sighed and told Happy. "We might as well get some of the explanations out of the way from my mentor and we can get one of the Masters there to check us for less than benign leftovers."
"Sometimes I really hate magic," Tony muttered but waved Happy on to Stephen's address. He was insulted by the inquiring look sent to Pepper but she backed him up so he didn't say anything.
"Considering most of your exposure thus far has involved being attacked by it in some way I'm really not surprised," Stephen snorted. "I'll get you used to it enough to know when someone is doing something benign or helpful but we will have to work through your panic attacks on some of it. Not that some of your reactions are a bad thing considering the potential effects. However, I would like you to at least be able to recognize when its safe to relax around something magical such as defenses that will keep hostile effects out."
"That would be nice," Tony conceded a bit grumpily. "I'm also dragging you with us when we have to deal with Wanda and probably Loki again."
"We'll see. Changes to the timeline aren't exactly the safest option," Stephen sighed. "We got lucky to land in a relatively peaceful and safe time frame and location. There will be consequences just from our arrival in the past and obviously being inserted into our younger bodies. Mostly we can only carry on and hope for the best."
Tony muttered something about the time-space continuum being stupid but didn't argue the point. He knew the other man was right. To appease the inventor Stephen passed over the ball of metal and impurities that he had pulled from the man and pocketed when they actually got to their feet before leaving the gala venue. Tony gave him a look but accepted the ball and pocketed it himself.
Happy had some trouble spotting the sanctum. Stephen muttered something about wards before firmly restating the address which seemed to clear up the problem... somehow. Tony wasn't going to question it because if he had magic screwing with him he wanted it gone like yesterday. Give him unpleasant facts over magic fuckery any day. The way both women and Happy followed them into the building got an unimpressed look from Stephen and an eye roll from Tony but neither man argued. The three of them were going to have to get used to the weird at some point and this was a relatively tame and safe way to do that.
"Can I help you?" A man dressed in robes similar to what Stephen had worn the first time Tony met him asked cautiously as they entered the building. He had a book in his hands and appeared to have been just passing by the entryway when they had arrived and just walked in.
"Master Dunn, we are in need of a meeting with the Ancient One on grounds of being in the wrong time period of our lives. The other three were present at the event and our driver to get here respectively. Trying to avoid explaining won't work so I'm not even going to try to keep them out of this mess," Stephen explained with a sigh. "The only saving grace is that we landed in our younger bodies instead of having two of us present in the past. I was your successor here so I can play host if needed."
Master Dunn swore and gave them a terse nod before leaving them to presumably fetch the Ancient One. Stephen led them to an area with seats and couches but there was still a scattering of artifacts on display.
"Don't touch anything," Stephen huffed. "The magical order, as Tony would put it, doesn't get many normal visitors so what is safe for me to touch may not be safe for you. The seats are safe enough."
They heard a thud and a crash somewhere upstairs and watched as Stephen rolled his eyes before standing back up. He got tackled by a red blur for his troubles and wrapped up like a burrito as the fabric clearly scolded him with gestures about something. Stephen grunted and sat back down, looking very disgruntled until Master Dunn and the Ancient One walked in, then he was just mortified.
"Well, at least we now know that the Cloak of Levitation soul bonds with its partners," the Ancient One said bemusedly.
Stephen just groaned and quietly argued with the cloak until it let him go. The others watching the impromptu entertainment until things were sorted out and the cloak shifted its grip enough for him to move if needed. It was clear by the slightly sour yet slightly fond look that he wasn't getting out of the aggressive fabric hug entirely and thus wasn't fighting too hard to actually get fully free. The Ancient One smirked and settled back in her chosen chair, waiting for the story to start.
"So, what do you know about a guy aiming to collect all of the Infinity Stones and wipe out half of all life in the universe in an instant?" Tony asked bluntly, ending all levity with that simple statement.
"To clarify you were both dead by that point and I don't know if I have to repeat my stunt with fighting Dormammu and the time loops. If so I am not looking forwards to dying on repeat until the incident is dealt with, again," Stephen said with open displeasure. "If we aren't dealing with temporal ripples then we have some years before Thanos arrives to claim the Eye and the other pieces here on Earth."
"Shouldn't we try to get everything off planet?" Tony asked with a frown.
"No, in every timeline I viewed we either deal with it and successfully stop him ourselves or he gets the stones and succeeds. This, coincidentally, rips apart most of the defenses against outside attack or incursion the universe over. Dormammu becomes one of the least of our problems at that point," Stephen corrected with a shake of his head. "There was a reason I took the risk of surrendering the Time Stone the first time on Titan and getting his promise to spare you. We lose you and it doesn't matter what the fuck we throw at him. We lose."
"No pressure right?" Tony snarked tiredly. "God, at this rate Morgan will never be born."
"That's not entirely accurate, Daddy," the Ancient One said quietly. Tony's head snapped up and around to look at her in confusion and then dawning understanding.
"Morgan?!" Tony choked. Stephen looked poleaxed so he clearly had no idea about any of this.
"Love you 3000 and I'm not quite the same Morgan you remember. In a sense I'm a displaced echo but I'm still your daughter," the Ancient One answered with a sad smile. "There was an accident with some time magic and I am from a timeline where you died creating a third Snap in an attempt at emergency repair on the universe. I am well familiar with the various threats that manifested when the defenses were ripped to shreds as a result. I knew we would need Doctor Strange and I was also familiar with his origin story so I made certain to watch over him once he was born. I never did manage to track down the malicious magic that was cast to shatter his family but I was also unaware of it until now and, presumably, when he came for training despite my frequent but discreet check ins. I have been alive for a very long time, a side effect from the temporal displacement and from stupidly drawing from the Dark Dimension during an emergency in the early 1400's. I took the name Tao at the time and some of the transfer magics from the initial displacement changed my features a bit which is why I have a slightly more Asian bent then originally. The Ancient One title was a joke on the English spelling of that name but it stuck."
Master Dunn made a choking sound but didn't actually say anything.
"This is impossible," Pepper muttered.
"That depends on your definition of impossible, Mommy," the Ancient One sighed. "I already know that telling you about me means that younger me may not be born in this timeline and I'm okay with that. The time displacement alone would have likely done the same since you have a lower than necessary threshold for dealing with super hero madness and strange events. I can tell you right now that as much as Daddy loves you he can't give up Iron Man. Its an integral part of him now much like the Mystic Arts are for myself and Dr. Strange. Unfortunately, things are only going to get worse from here on out even if you forget everything that happened tonight. You will need to decide what you can handle and if you need to step back. Daddy is already so entwined with things that must happen that he will never escape this life no matter how hard he tried for you. It nearly killed him. I could see it when I was five, which is why I'm bringing it up now. I never want to realize that he just gave up on the battlefield again. Denying Iron Man is to kill him again."
Pepper lurched to her feet and fled deeper into the Sanctum, sobbing. Dr. Palmer got up and followed after her. Master Dunn followed after them, presumably to keep them out of magical trouble.
"And me?" Happy asked quietly.
"You did your absolute best Uncle Happy but you got badly hurt a couple of times and lost your temper over super hero stuff more than once. It didn't help that people didn't understand that your official job title might have been bodyguard for Iron Man but you were Daddy's sanity check around civilians. When he had to suit up you got the civilians out of the way and the security or law enforcement into position while he focused on ending the fight as quickly as possible. There was plenty of video for me to pour over trying to understand things at times when growing up," the Ancient One explained calmly. "You died after Daddy did but you only lasted a few extra years. You died protecting your girlfriend who was the Aunt for a teenage superhero Daddy mentored for a bit."
"Peter," Stephen said with regret.
"May," Tony choked out. "Oh, god what did that do to the Spiderling?!"
"Nothing good," the Ancient One answered with a grimace. "I got dumped back in time and echoed across realities like Data did with that one rift episode on Star Trek the Next Generation crossed with some of the time shenanigans scattered throughout all of the Stark Trek series in my mid twenties. I didn't have as much contact with Peter after you died because mom cut him off. I don't know why. I was too young."
Tony swore viciously at the situation but it was notable that he didn't curse out future Pepper for what this Morgan remembered had happened.
"Recommendations?" Stephen asked tiredly.
"Live?" the Ancient One offered with a shrug. "If it were up to me I would seriously consider magically bonding the two of you together to protect each other and perhaps teach Daddy the basics of the Mystic Arts. However, it wasn't me that was tossed back in time in this instance. As things stand now the magic of the world has already acknowledged you as Sorcerer Supreme. Giving Daddy access to the Mystic Arts will make reliving some things more bearable for him since it's a completely different type of scientific field to study. On the other hand you will have to stick with him if he does choose to learn since we Starks are often too curious and intelligent for our own good. Treat it as a form of cross training and you should be good."