Chapter 8
Somewhere in an abandoned storage in New York, stood the four dark doppelgangers.
Dark Castiel supervised, as he watched the other two opening boxes of materials, that were transported to them from their world.
Their king, Dean, was staring at a beeping device in his hand for a long moment, before the beeping finally stopped.
He froze for a moment, then his eyes moved away from the device as he clutched it in his fist. A flash of pain crossed momentarily in his eyes.
“He is gone.” He announced emotionlessly, without bothering to turn to his companions.
The other three stopped and turned to look at him.
“Who? Prometheus?” Dark Tony questioned carefully.
“The biosensor in his suit indicates that his heart stopped.” The king explained in a cold voice.
“He always seemed kind of soft to me.” The black Iron Man scoffed carelessly, as he turned a stern look to the black Captain, who immediately got back to work without any trace of change in his frozen expression.
The king didn’t comment on his sentence, as he just stared straight ahead, frozen in place.
“Dean?” the dark angel called out to the king, when he remained silent for too long.
“He died for you.” Dark Dean interrupted as he turned to look at the angel, and they shared a deep meaningful look. “And we will make his death worthwhile.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that now we are down a man.” Dark Tony stated grimly, as he trailed cold eyes between them.
“Keep your focus where it belongs and get to work on locating that prism.” The king growled dangerously, as he turned to the genius.
“Watch your tone, your majesty.” The genius said coldly as he stared him down. “Or I will watch it for you.”
The king stepped towards him and they eyed each other icily for a second, before he slammed him against the wall and pulled a knife from his belt to place it at the genius’ throat.
“Dean.” Dark Castiel called out warningly, while Dark Steve stopped working and trailed his eyes between them carefully.
The genius coughed as the breath was pushed out of his lungs at the harsh shove and looked up at the cold eyes staring down at him.
“Did you just tell me to watch my tone?” Dark Dean demanded, his voice making a cold shiver run up the other’s spine.
“You are angry.” Dark Tony observed as he trailed his eyes on the other’s face, before grinning at him. “I like it.”
“Don’t you mock me!” The king snapped in rage, pushing the knife to the genius’ throat, grazing it.
“Don’t threaten me.” The Dark Iron Man’s face turned deathly serious suddenly. “Or have you forgotten?” he trailed his eyes towards the captain, who was watching the exchange tensely. “The captain is more loyal to me than he is to you. If he feels my life is being threatened, he can end you, before you birth your next thought.”
“I will not be threatened by your fucking Sex Toy.” Dark Dean growled harshly, giving the captain a disdainful look.
Dark Steve took a step forward, but was stopped by the angel’s hand slapping him on his chest.
“Try it, once I break every bone in your body.” He sneered, as the captain turned to him and they both stared each other down unflinchingly, tension rising in the room.
“Okay, we are all a little emotional.” Dark Tony’s voice cut through the tension with a slight smirk. “Here’s what I suggest. I will tell my Sex Toy to stand down. You tell your angel to not break my toy. And you be 10% less brooding. What do you think?”
Dark Dean stared at him icily for a few more seconds, before drawing his knife away and took a few steps back. The other two did the same.
“We accomplish nothing by arguing amongst ourselves.” Dark Castiel stated firmly.
“The accomplishing nothing that has me concerned.” Dark Tony argued with a grimace. “We came here to conquer this world! Or have you forgotten?”
“Locate the Prism.” Dark Dean ordered firmly, as he turned towards him. “Once we have identified the location of the target, I will devise a plan of attack.”
“Fine.” Dark Tony relented, before turning his eyes to Dark Steve. “Follow me. I need to relieve some stress. All this tension is not good for my libido.”
He walked out of the room, the captain dutifully following behind.
Dark Castiel stepped closer towards the king.
“I am sorry about your brother.” He said, with no real emotion in his voice.
“He should have died in the fight, before he allowed himself to be captured.” The king stated dismissively, before he turned his gaze towards the angel. “Cas, we need that Prism. We are running out of time.”
“You have to trust the new plan, Dean.” The angel whispered, as he stepped closer to him. “You should. It’s yours.”
“And do you trust me?” he asked, as he trailed his eyes over the angel’s face.
“Yes. I always do. My king.” The angel answered firmly, staring back at dark Dean.
The king looked back at the angel for a few seconds, before they leaned towards each other to let their lips meet in a deep kiss.
***
Tony was staring with unseeing eyes at the holoscreen in front of him.
He couldn’t bring himself to completely focus on his work. His mind was occupied with the death scene of their prisoner.
It was so sudden, that no one of them had time to do anything on time. Even Steve, who immediately understood what the doppelganger was about to do.
Doppelganger. Here they go again.
He thought that he had seen everything, with all that stuff that happened with the Mirror World. The World that was almost destroyed completely and their doppelgangers saved them from the same fate.
He always believed in the multi-verse. It was logical and there were so many proofs of it, so he wasn’t exactly shocked that an alternate universe’s doppelgangers managed to find their way to them.
What was actually shocking him was the fact that there was a world somewhere, that had a corrupt, cold bloodied, evil Winchesters. That’s something he would have never imagined in his wildest nightmares. Just imaging it was sending a cold shiver down his body.
He had an ongoing joke between him and Steve. That if the Winchesters and their angel ever decided to go dark and rule the world, they could do it with a rolled-up newspaper and a pocket knife.
What if in that world, this wasn’t just a joke? What if it was what exactly happened there?
The doppelganger seemed pretty loyal to the king, that he took his own life for him. Sam Winchester usually this loyal to one person only.
Could it be?
“Hey.” He looked up at the familiar voice greeting him, as the owner trudged into the room.
Speak of the devil.
“Hey, Ken Doll.” Tony gave Dean a distracted smile. Still not able to shake the devastated look in the older Winchester’s eyes when the doppelganger died. Sure, it wasn’t actually his brother, but the sight must have really shook him.
Hell, it even seemed to affect Natasha, who was constantly glued to her fiancé’s side since they regrouped with the others in the communal room.
Seeing a version of your loved one die right in front of you is a horrible thing to see, no matter how strong you are.
“Bruce and Hank are telling me you are trying to track down the AUer’s using some sort of dimensional thing?” Dean asked, raising an eyebrow at him as he made his way inside the workshop.
“Dimensional vibrations. I will explain to you later. It won’t be hard for you to figure it out. We can also use quantum field analysis.”
“I don’t know who gave you the idea that I have genius physicist tucked inside my brain.” Dean sighed with a shake of his head, as he turned his face towards a certain wall in the workshop.
Tony calls it Steve’s Wall Of Fame. Obviously, because it contains all Tony’s favorite Steve drawings. Every time his husband draws something so amazing like always, Tony would take it upon himself to hang it on that wall, so he would always be able to see it. It never failed to lift up his mood when he was at his lowest.
Because Steve puts all his love in his drawings and it shows so beautifully. Steve draws what he loves and feels. There was one that shows Tony, deep in his work, surrounded by hundreds of holoscreens. Another showed Dean and Castiel, grinning like idiots with their arms wrapped around each other. Another showed Charles and Erik smiling sweetly at each other. A drawing of Sam and Natasha supposedly on their wedding, with Natasha in her beautiful wedding dress. A drawing that showed their entire family, smiling and happy. One with Dean and Tony arguing like five-year olds. Another that showed Sydney, with all her brunette, freckled, green eyed beauty. And so on.
They were all Tony’s favorite, and they all took residence on that wall, surrounding a framed picture of himself and Steve on their wedding.
He watched as Dean trailed his eyes over the drawings, looking far away from here.
“I am sorry about what happened earlier.” Tony finally broke the silence as he finally approached the subject that was killing him. “It must have been hard to see that. Maybe if I had opened the cell faster we could have-“
“Don’t. Don’t you dare to feel guilty about this.” Dean interrupted, as he turned towards him with a raised eyebrow. “That wasn’t Sam. He never was. Sure, it shook me a little to see that, but in the end, it wasn’t him.”
“So, if it wasn’t the doppelganger, what is getting you to be brooding like that?” the genius asked curiously.
Dean blinked back at him for a second, before moving to take a seat next to him with a sigh.
“Do you think Sam and I capable of being that cold bloodied bastards?” Dean asked suddenly as he turned fully towards Tony.
“Okay, I understand where this is coming from, understandably from what you just saw, but why the hell would you include yourself? There is no proof that their Dean was anything like their Sam.” Tony objected with a frown directed at his friend.
“And there is no proof that says otherwise.” Dean retorted with pursed lips, as he looked at one of the holoscreens. “If their John Winchester was anything as bad as what that doppelganger described, then there is no way their Dean would be any different from that Sam. Maybe even worse than him.”
“You are thinking too hard on this.” The genius raised an eyebrow at him. “Even if it was true. Why would this affect you in any way? Our world is different. You and your brother here are different. Just because a version of the two of you is corrupted in another world, doesn’t mean there is a corrupt part inside you that is ready to make an appearance at some point. This doesn’t defy you. Sure, your John Winchester wasn’t exactly a trip to the park, but theirs is ten times worse.”
“I have my bad moments, Tony. Really bad moments.”
“Who doesn’t? everyone in this building had bad moments. You won’t be human if you didn’t.”
Dean blinked at him for a while, before he smiled softly and clapped his hand on Tony’s back.
“Thanks, man. Really.” He murmured, not really looking at Tony.
“Just trying to get your head straight. I am not doing all this work on my own.” Tony just rolled his eyes and nudged his shoulder against Dean playfully. “Come on, I will get that small physicist out of your brain.”
***
Erik groaned as he started to wake up slowly, his head feeling like it was hit by a truck.
For a moment there, he had no idea what happened and why was his head hurting him this badly.
“Look who is finally awake.” A voice said fondly beside him and he immediately latched onto it.
Charles.
He opened his eyes carefully, despite the bright light that immediately burned his eyes, he managed to land his gaze on Charles’ gentle face as he sat beside him on the small bed in Med Bay.
“Hello, darling.” Charles smiled softly at him, as he traced a hand on his head gently. “You had me worried there for a while.”
“Sorry.” He murmured, voice too dry and his throat scratchy like sandpaper.
Charles heard that thought and immediately poured water for him from the side table and helped him to drink it.
“Thank you.” Erik whispered gratefully, his eyes trailing over Charles’ tired, gentle face. He will never get tired of looking at that face. He lived to look at it over and over again.
“You are more sappy than usual.” Charles commented with a soft chuckle, obviously hearing Erik’s thoughts.
“I would blame the pain killers, but the pain in my head suggest that I am not on them.” He retorted with a slight wince as he moved his head a little.
“Would you like some? I know you hate them, but maybe just this time?”
“No, no. I will be fine.” Erik shook his head carefully with a sigh. “How are you? Are you hurt? Anyone got hurt? What did happen after I blacked out?”
“So, to deal with the pain, you think sprouting question after question will help you?” Charles raised an eyebrow at him in amusement, but when Erik just narrowed his eyes at him, he relented. “I am fine, I didn’t get hurt. Hank and Clint suffered minor injuries. As for what happened next, that’s a long, weird story.”
“I have time.”
***
Three hours later, Steve and Castiel had made their way to the workshop to check on Dean and Tony’s progress.
They finally managed to convince Bobby to go to a safe place with Jody, Pepper and Angel, after Steve talked some reason with him. Steve could be ruthless when he wants something to happen and Bobby didn’t stand a chance.
Clint, Natasha and Sam had left to take them to one of SHIELD’s safe houses. Everyone else were still waiting around for the AUers to make an appearance, but so far nothing.
Which was why Steve and Castiel were in the workshop, to see if there was any progress.
“Hey.” Steve greeted tiredly as he walked towards his husband. Castiel quiet beside him. He had been quiet since the attack, which was worrying. It means that there was something on the angel’s mind that he was still not ready to share.
“Hey, handsome.” Tony greeted back with a smile, accepting the kiss that Steve placed softly to his lips.
Dean smiled when Castiel made his way towards him and the angel returned his smile, as they leaned in for a kiss of their own.
“Any progress?” Steve asked curiously, as he looked down at Tony.
“No. it’s like they disappeared in thin ai-“ an alarm sounded in the room suddenly and the four of them tensed and straightened up immediately.
“What is it?” Castiel asked with a frown, not sure what that alarm means.
“A break in at an Optical Systems lab.” Tony announced as he frowned down at a screen.
“I know this sounds terrible, but I am pretty sure even the police could handle that.” Dean stated with a raised eyebrow. “We need to focus on the AUers right now.”
“This is the AUers.” Tony said hastily as he stood up frantically.
“How do you know?” Steve asked carefully.
Tony just showed them a holoscreen, that showed one of the security cameras in the attacked lab. On the screen, soldiers dressed in black, were attacking the scientists there.
“Let’s head out. Now.”
Steve ordered and the four of them rushed out of the room.