Chapter 7
"You told them you weren't just reliving things in your dreams but also feeling some kind of relived pain from those dreams," Stephen said bluntly, after cornering Tony.
It was a few days after the mini Shield invasion and firing the Black Widow from being Tony's PA when Stephen successfully cornered him. The accidental reveal of the time travel to so many people at once had led to some very odd debates among the Mystic Masters and an emergency meeting at Kamar-Taj. Tao had needed to basically drag everyone at the temple back to their senses once they had freaked out over the situation as a whole and the implications of even one of the travelers happening in the first place.
Tony only knew about it because Tao had needed to kidnap Stephen briefly and share some of his memories of various things. The complaining from the man about accidentally incapacitating the entire temple because of some of his worse memories across various timelines was both amusing and disturbing. The new discreet rotation of bodyguards from the temple of very freaked out people was just a meh on his weirdness scale at this point. Breaking it to Happy and Pepper that some mystic order had decided he was important enough to need bodyguards only worked because he had forgotten they had been told about the time travel and thus didn't need to hide it.
"Yeah? What about my nightmares?" Tony asked with stubborn disinterest.
"Tony, I need to do a deep scan in case some nightmare realm entity is feeding off of you," Stephen said a bit more gently.
"Oh... you don't think I'm broken or insane?" Tony asked, caught completely off guard.
"What? No! Of course not," Stephen frowned, confused at the question. "Being tormented by demons of a literal variety is a very real thing. Most people simply can't see the dimensional axis or plane they're attacking from. They hate all humans and would break reality deliberately if it would basically torture every single human being in existence to death and probably just because they could and it would hurt us. Some people feel things clawing at them for all of their lives. I once walked down a simple hallway, nothing else, and felt myself gutted despite the lack of physical wounds. It took me days to put myself back together and I only learned later that what I had felt had actually happened but just on the spiritual and astral level rather than the physical. My astral form holds scars that never existed on my physical form."
"Yeah, let's check for that," Tony agreed quickly with a grimace. He didn't like the thought of that at all.
Stephen decided to pull Tony gently out of his physical body and proceeded to do so, joining him in astral form. Tony's flailing reaction was hilarious, the marks on Tony's astral form? Not so much.
"Oh God, the mauling your very soul has taken," Stephen said, quietly horrified as he quickly floated over to Tony and started giving him as thorough a check up as he could manage.
"Hey, uh yeah, is that supposed to happen?" Tony asked when he noticed that Stephen's touch in this state was healing parts of Tony's battered spirit.
"No, no its not," Stephen answered slowly as he watched missing astral skin start growing back into place at a deep burn mark starting where his fingers touched Tony on his forearm. There was a faint hint of green and gold sparking along the line of healing and Stephen decided not to question it.
"Should we, I don't know, stop then?" Tony asked nervously. He looked like he had been gutted, mauled, burned, blasted and basically tortured but the doctor still didn't look at him in disgust or pity. A major improvement over many people he had needed to deal with in his life.
"No, I think we need to increase contact rather than decrease it. Whatever this is seems to be healing you. Any side effects can be dealt with after you are no longer holding on by a thread," Stephen said firmly. He then immediately enveloped Tony's soul in a full body hug, curling his taller form around the other man protectively.
Tony didn't feel anything but shock at first. However, it didn't take long for the tingling to appear and for it to then shift into a light burning. It didn't exactly hurt. Even when it shifted upwards in intensity to the point that if he had been feeling it normally he knew he would have passed out it wasn't anything distressing or bad, just different. Tony somehow fell asleep while disembodied and wrapped in Stephen's arms.
The Time Stone made its self known to Stephen around the point that half of Tony's surface wounds were patched together by their souls and magic. It pressed an idea gently into Stephen's mind, being obviously careful not to harm nor intrude too deeply. Tao Morgan Stark had done things in the past to ensure that her father lived and had things waiting for him. There were mystical caches of varying types hidden all over the planet. Time presented knowledge in a list of names for people killed as a future threat to Tony or who had, alternately, been bound to a magical oath to give aid when the time came.
In the end it was clear that Time had basically given Tony into Stephen's care, permanently. A formal mystical bond was apparently heavily encouraged by the Infinity Stones as a whole from long past discussions when they were in close proximity. It wasn't required but Stephen could tell that if he left Tony without some form of bond to him for too long that the Infinity Stones would be very displeased. The mental memory clips of them being happy to be bonded in some form across various timelines were pushing it though.
"If you don't want me to get attached and possessive or overly protective you had best speak up now, Stark," Stephen murmured, knowing that the other man's spirit would answer if there was a rejection. When Tony just relaxed even further into his hold the doctor hummed a pleased note.
Three hours later a horrified gasp had Stephen looking up to see the expression on Tao's face as she got a good look at her father's spirit injuries. Kaecilius and Mordo were with her and just as visibly upset at the damage they were seeing but Stephen barely spared them a glance. Wong in fresh Mastery robes was given a double take as he turned aside and got sick over the visible injuries. Stephen refocused on his patient's family member, leaving Wong to his upset stomach.
"It was worse earlier," Stephen said gruffly. "My magic started healing him almost as soon as I started touching and examining his astral form. The Time Stone formally gave him into my charge about three hours ago. He fucking relaxed when I asked his sleeping form if I could keep him. I don't know how he's still sane, still fighting to protect, and still accepting the undeserved blame. I... don't know why he hasn't shattered yet."
"How long do you anticipate needing to maintain the soul healing you are performing?" Tao asked in concern. "Will we need to keep you separate in the aftermath or are you planning to accept the side effects without mitigation?"
"This isn't going to be a one and done. I'm going to need to do this on a regular basis for years even if the surface injuries heal without issue in the next week or less," Stephen sighed. "This method, however, frequently leads to some form of potentially permanent bond. I can already feel something trying to form but I want his consent before I let it get much further than it already is."
"Sensible," Tao agreed. "Daddy doesn't do well when things are chosen for him instead of being given the choice unless he already trusts the person. On the other hand, as his daughter, I give consent to perform what healing you feel is best if he can't give you an answer. I trust you not to abuse the blanket consent."
"Thank you," Stephen murmured. A dark little spot in his heart purred in pleasure at the thought of keeping Tony just for himself.