Chapter 10
“The Optical systems company calls it the Prism.”
Tony announced an hour later as the entire team gathered in the Med Bay, to update Erik and Charles on the new events that happened, since the latter was refusing to leave the former’s side, no matter how many times he assured him that he was fine.
“What on earth would they need a sub-light generator for?” Charles asked in confusion from his place on Erik’s bedside. “I mean it is basically a spectral emitter that-“
“-uses quantum entanglement.” Finished Hank, following his thoughts.
“You could also use it to create a stable fusion reaction.” Bruce added helpfully, from where he was leaning against the wall.
“Ok, what does this all mean?” Steve sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly. This day was starting to get on his nerves. “And please explain in English. I am not in the right state of mind for science talk at the moment.”
The four geniuses shared a hesitant look.
“Guys, come on, we would like to know what you are talking about.” Dean urged a little impatiently.
“Well, basically, the device they stole can be converted to a neutron bomb.” Tony explained with a slight wince.
“I take it back. I don’t want to know.” Dean sighed in exhaustion as he leaned against Castiel, too tired, physically and emotionally, to remain upright for too long.
“The bottom line is, we need to stop them, before they decide to do anything with what they stole.” Natasha stated, looking impatient and frustrated. Obviously, still mad about the whole thing.
“This might help?” Castiel asked as he pulled something out of his pocket, which turned out to be a bloody bullet.
“Is that an angel killing bullet?” Sam asked with wide eyes, as he immediately recognized the bullet, which was now held in Bruce’s hand. “Dean, I hate to ask this, but I need to ask it. Did you shoot Castiel?”
“Sort of.” Dean just shrugged with an overly careless look on his face. Probably he was too tired to care to explain at the moment.
“Oh, right, we forgot to mention that.” Tony laughed a little nervously, while scratching the back of his head. “The leader, the winged one, the one with the shield and the one in metal suit, are evil Dean, Cas, Steve and me, respectively, of the Bad World.”
The team blinked at them stupidly. Then blinked again as they obviously waited for the punch line that never came.
“Remember when you told me that other world was bad? You might have undersold it.” Erik commented as he gave a side eyed look at Charles, who was still blinking stupidly.
“You should have mentioned that in the beginning.” Natasha practically shouted at them.
“Sorry, a lot of things happening at the same time, that we barely had a moment to think about that.” Steve said apologetically, but seemed to be too distracted despite trying desperately to focus.
“I find it hard to believe that there are evil counterparts of you.” Thor murmured with wide eyes.
“Tell me about it! I mean I can’t imagine a version of Steve as evil. He is too boy scout type no matter how sassy he gets. It is just weird to even picture.” Bucky stated, looking really confused at that particular point. Wilson and Rhodey just pinched the bridge of their noses, while murmuring something about crazy fucking lives under their breaths.
Tony flinched at Bucky’s comment, which hit a little too close. Steve just placed a hand on his back to rub it reassuringly.
“What I find more terrifying right now is the thought of evil Castiel. I mean we are all obviously going to die.” Clint commented helpfully, as he stared at the ceiling like it held all the answers.
“Thanks, Clint. If I ever turn evil, I will be sure to start with you. You are too perspective to stay around.” Castiel said dryly with a deadpan look on his face.
“Wait, so the king is their Dean?” Sam murmured with wide eyes, while Dean winced at that. He was still trying to not think about it. “Oh, God, that explains everything that happened with my doppelganger.”
“Your life sucks.” Logan announced without bothering to sugarcoat it, completely ignoring Erik and Charles’ glares for his insensitivity.
“Sorry our shitty life is crapping all over your rainbow, unicorn filled life, Logan.” Dean snarked with a roll of his eyes.
“Ok, if that bullet carries not-so-nice Castiel’s blood on it, we could track it using quantum analysis.” Charles suggested quickly, before Logan and Dean decides to jump on each other.
“Hey, guys, I think I might have a quicker way.” Bruce interrupted, before Tony could answer Charles. They all turned to see him looking through a microscope at the bloody bullet. “These red blood cells are suffused with short wave radiation.”
“Solar radiation?” Tony asked in surprise.
“Yeah, incredibly high amounts. Like nothing I have ever seen.”
“Can you track it?” Steve asked as he looked over at Tony curiously.
“I can try.” He shrugged a little uncertainly.
“Let’s just do it. And fast.”
***
Charles and Erik made their way down to the workshop, the latter’s head was still wrapped tightly in bandages.
“I don’t think you are supposed to get out of the bed yet.” Dean frowned skeptically at the Metal Binder, who was still obviously in pain, but trying to hide it.
“I am not going to just stay in bed, while you all deal with this.” Erik just shrugged, as he took a seat next to Dean on the couch.
Like always, Tony just dragged Dean with him in the workshop to track the solar radiation from the blood. Like he was hating to be alone with his thoughts at the moment. Dean could understand that, so he didn’t object. He kind of needed the company too.
“How are you holding up?” Charles asked softly, trailing his eyes between the two of them.
“You saw it in our minds, didn’t you?” Tony raised an eyebrow at him, not really accusing, just tired.
“Yes, I am sorry. You were thinking about it too loudly, that I didn’t have a choice but to see it.” The telepath apologized quietly. Not that either men were really angry about it. They were aware that Charles couldn’t always block the thoughts, before entering his mind.
“Yeah, well, it saved me from having to tell you the whole thing. I would rather to just forget about what I found out.” Tony muttered as he kept his eyes firmly on his work.
The room went quiet for a few seconds, Charles looking at the both of them hesitantly, while Erik rested his head on the back on the couch with a sigh.
“Did I mention that I look hot like hell while I am an emotionless, evil bastard?” Dean announced suddenly with a slight smirk, successfully breaking the confining silence that fell on them.
Tony let out an involuntarily laugh, before he could help it, Charles grinned at Dean in amusement, while Erik moved his head to raise an unimpressed eyebrow at him.
“Fuck you for making me laugh, while I am miserable.” Tony let out from between his uncontrollable laughter.
“What? I deserve to brag about this! I mean, there is a version of me who is the king of a whole fucking world! With Cas by his side! That guy has everything awesome!”
“Except, I don’t know, a heart?” Erik rolled his eyes, as he tried to hide the smile pulling at his lips.
“Well, I have one. Do you see me ruling the world?” Dean pointed out, his smirk still obnoxiously on his face.
“What frustrates me more is the fact that my doppelganger is not one of them. I have all it takes to be an evil bastard that rules the world too.” Erik scowled in annoyance.
“Oh, you must be really heartbroken about this. You poor thing, you have been neglected from the ‘Evil Bastards Club’.” Charles gave him an unimpressed look.
“You must admit that if my doppelganger was one of them, we would have all died in the rehearsal dinner fight.”
“My God, Erik, whose side are you on?”
“I can’t believe you guys are taking this so openly.” Tony shook his head with a confused chuckle, eyes landing on Dean. “Even you. I thought you will be on full on Self-loathing Mode. Literally.”
“Well, you said it yourself only a few hours ago. Just because a version of us is corrupted in another world, doesn’t mean there is a corrupt part inside us that is ready to make an appearance at some point. This doesn’t defy anything.” Dean quoted Tony’s earlier words to him with a pointed look at the genius, even going as far as mimicking his voice. “I mean do you actually believe there is any part of you that will ever do that sick, twisted things to Steve? I once saw you panic when he cut his hand accidently with a knife while cooking, then decided to hide all the knives for an entire week after that! So, no Tony, there is no way in hell you have any part of that sick bastard in you.”
“I actually came here to tell you the exact same thing, but more eloquently of course.” Charles just smiled at the indignant look Dean gave him at that.
Tony just trailed his eyes between the two of them quietly, before he looked over at Erik. “And you?”
“I just came here to laugh internally at your miserable face.” Erik just shrugged with a smirk, ignoring Dean’s choked off laugh and Charles defeated sigh.
Tony shook his head with a small smile. “I am surrounded by idiots.”
A comfortable silence fell on them for a few minutes. The first silence that Tony enjoyed since they got back from the optical company.
“Do you imagine me as evil?” Charles asked curiously, taking a seat next to Erik. The three men stared at him strangely, like he just sprouted a second head or something. “What?”
“Charles, you are so fucking nice that in sixth grade, when a boy was bullying you and was taking your lunch, you told your cook to stop making you peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, because that boy got a nut allergy!” Tony said dryly, as he raised an eyebrow at the telepath.
Dean and Erik turned to stare at Charles with wide eyes, and he shrunk at their disbelieving looks.
“What? Just because he was bullying me, it didn’t mean I should give him health problems!” Charles defended weakly, looking away from their looks.
“Sometimes, I can’t believe you actually exists.” Erik murmured with a fond smile on his face, as he looked softly at Charles, whose face flushed a little at the praise and smiled back at his husband.
“Oh, God, they are so mushy and soft. My teeth are rotting from this amount of sweetness, please stop.” Dean muttered dryly with a smirk on his face.
“Oh look! A pot is calling the kittle black.” Erik retorted with a shark like smile sent Dean’s way, who immediately shut up with an awkward cough.
Tony was now grinning like an idiot at his close friends, who managed to make him feel much lighter than before.
He has a husband that loves him and a family that cares about him. He might not be ruling the world, but he really do have everything he ever wanted.
***
“Hey, Cas, are you-“ Steve stopped in the doorway of the kitchen, only to chuckle a little. “Here I thought I will find you miserable and hating everything.”
Castiel looked up from the piece of chocolate cake he was eating.
“What? I can’t be eating a cake while I am miserable and hating my life?” Castiel raised an eyebrow at the soldier, a slight smile pulling at his lips.
“No, Cas, I don’t think anyone could be miserable while eating a chocolate cake.” Steve just shook his head with chuckle as he grabbed a fork and joined the angel on the kitchen table to share his cake. “Where did you get this cake anyway? I thought everything was ruined from the rehearsal dinner, and what was not ruined was devoured by Thor.”
“Dean was hiding it in the fridge to eat it later.” Castiel answered with a shrug, as he continued to eat happily.
“Wouldn’t he be upset that his treasure was stolen?” Steve wondered, but never stopped eating anyway.
“He will think it was Thor who ate it. I will bring him a pie after we deal with all this.” The angel answered with a slight smile.
“I see you are holding up well.” The soldier observed curiously, looking the angel over.
“After the whole thing with the Mirror World, I am no longer affected by seeing a version of myself. I might have been taken aback a little from the cruelty and harshness on my doppelganger’s face, but still I half expected this when I saw his wings in our first fight, then Sam’s doppelganger.” Castiel explained seriously, as he glanced up at Steve. “You must be feeling good about yourself. Apparently, even in a world so cruel and dark, your doppelganger was still good, but was violated and forced to be this way.”
“Yeah, this makes me feel peachy. Top of the world.” Steve sighed as he dug into the cake more forcefully. “Anyway, I think Tony is shaken up about that particular detail more than me. I tried to reassure him earlier, but he won’t even look me in the eye. Why the hell would he feel guilty about this? That other Tony is no way even close to being him. He is too far gone. Tony will never be anything like him, then why is he feeling guilty?”
“That’s a high level of self-loathing.” Castiel commented with a snort. “Don’t worry about him. Dean probably is talking some sense to him as we speak. He is taking this better than I expected.”
“You know, when I rethink some of the words our doppelganger said, like ‘The Fatherland’, poison pills, ‘Meritocracy’. Sick experiments. It all sounded familiar to me, until it hit me. They are basically modern Nazis, but without being Germans.”
“You mean their Dean is basically the new Hitler?” Castiel questioned with a raised eyebrow. “Dean will love that. If he managed to kill him, he will brag forever about killing two Hitlers in his life.”
Steve blinked at him for a few seconds, speechless.
“I can’t believe you just said like it was the most normal thing ever.”
“I can’t believe you are still surprised by things like that.”
***
In the abandoned storage somewhere in New York, Dark Tony was working on the Prism they stole when Dark Castiel approached him.
“Will it work?” he asked, announcing his presence as he looked at the genius.
“It will with a few adjustments.” Dark Tony answered without bothering to look up. “And a significant source of power.”
“My husband’s is on his way to handle that as we speak.” The dark angel announced confidently.
“Your husband has a choice to make.” The genius muttered under his breath, venom coloring his voice.
“Me or the nation?” The dark angel clarified with a raised eyebrow.
“That’s right.” Dark Tony slammed the screw driver in his hand on the table, as he turned to the angel. “Because we have two goals, and my worry is if we can’t accomplish them both, he is gonna choose you over a second world flying under our banner.”
“Dean will not abandon our mission.” Dark Castiel stated firmly.
“This happened before. In 1945, Hitler and his men were equally shortsighted.”
“Hitler was driven by passion and childish need. Dean is ten times the man Hitler ever was.”
“Not when he is blinded by his love for you!” Dark Tony snapped in frustration.
Dark Castiel gave him a long, silent look, before looking away.
“If it comes to Dean choosing between me and the nation, I will make sure he chooses the Fatherland.” He said, as he eyed the genius coldly.
“How?”
“If it comes to it-“ he started in an cold, stern voice. “-by taking the choice out of his hands.”