Chapter 21
Dark Tony found himself being thrown across the room, to hit the wall and fell hard to the floor.
He looked up just in time to see the king turning in pure rage towards the source of the explosion.
Only to find himself staring at Erik and Steve, who were looking back at him with matching self-satisfied smirks on their faces.
“How did you get out of your cells?” Dark Dean demanded angrily, taking a careful step back.
“What? You thought we will sit on our asses, while you crack open our friend?” Steve raised an eyebrow at the man, as he looked at him defiantly.
“I don’t like it when someone tries to hurt my friends. There are already only few of them, it is very inconvenient.” Erik’s smirk got bigger, before suddenly throwing a huge device at the king, who was caught off guard by the sudden attack and got hit right in the face, while Steve threw his shield, knocking out the soldier keeping custody of Raven and Charlie, while Erik managed to bring down the rest of the soldiers before they had time to react.
Finally, when there was no one else standing in the room except them, the four of them rushed to Castiel.
“Cas! Hey! You alright?” Steve exclaimed frantically as he and Erik rushed to remove the restraints from around the too weak angel.
“Oh God, Cas, I am so sorry.” Charlie was apologizing over and over again, as her nerves were jumping all over the place.
Castiel’s unfocused eyes met Steve’s as he helped him up with Erik.
“Do you have any idea how happy I am to see you?” Castiel gave him a weak smile as he trailed his eyes between Steve and Erik, “Both of you are a sight for sour eyes.”
Steve chuckled as he gave Castiel a tight hug, while Erik just smiled in amusement and relief at the angel.
“Cas!” they all turned just in time, to see Sam’s huge frame rushing into the room frantically searching for the angel. “Oh God, Cas!”
The younger Winchester rushed towards Castiel, crushing him into a hug that made the other four in the room wince for Castiel’s sake. However, the angel just collapsed against Sam, as he finally felt like he was out of danger for now.
“I thought we were too late.” Sam murmured earnestly, as he pulled away to look the angel over in worry. “God, Cas, I thought we lost you.”
“Actually, if you were late for five seconds, I wouldn’t have been here right now.” Castiel murmured bluntly. Looks like his weakness and disorientation was making him even more blunt than usual.
“How is the situation?” Steve asked Sam seriously, as he looked over at him.
“Well, the rest of the team managed to bring down most of the soldiers in the Tower.” Sam reported, but there was slight hesitation in his voice.
“But?” Erik prompted with a raised eyebrow.
“They ran into Ultron in the pent house. They are engaging him now, but I needed to see if Cas was alright.” Sam murmured, looking like he was feeling guilty for leaving the others to deal with the murder robot, even though they all urged him to go.
“Fuck, they need our help.” Steve muttered with a deep frown.
“You owe your jar a dollar.” Erik and Castiel pointed out helpfully at the same time, earning a narrowed eyed look from Steve and a snort from the two women.
“Anyway,” Steve rolled his eyes at his friends, but could not admit that he deserved that one. “Erik and I will go to help the others. The rest of you, get Castiel as far away from here as possible. Got it?”
They nodded back at him, and with one last pat to Castiel’s shoulder from both men, Erik and Steve rushed their way out, leaving the rest to Sam and the two women.
***
Dark Dean woke up with a start, sitting upright as he ignored the raging pain in his head, growling in anger when his eyes landed on the empty hospital bed where Castiel was.
He got to his feet and moved towards the still drugged Dark Castiel, removing the mask from his face as he leaned towards him.
“We have a problem.” He whispered as he laid a hand against the dark angel’s cheek. “I need you to wake up, Castiel.”
He heard a ruckus and a curse from behind him, he looked over to see Dark Tony standing up from the floor, brushing his clothes in frustration.
“The general is no longer safe here and things are getting out of control back home.” The genius exclaimed in frustration.
“I am well aware.” Dark Dean said with a deep frown, turning to him fully. “Return home. Deal with whatever happening there as fast as possible, then come back to the carrier and prepare for the invasion.”
“Without you?” Dark Tony raised an eyebrow at him.
“I am staying.” The king hissed firmly; anger visible in every word. “Their Castiel is not leaving here alive.”
“Do not make it personal. It is not a good idea.” The genius argued in frustration.
“Says the man who got nervous when someone played with his toys back home.”
“That’s different! You know how important those toys are! Meanwhile, you are-“
“Are you questioning your king’s orders?” Came Dark Castiel’s firm voice from the hospital bed, making the two men turn to him.
“Of course not, general.” Dark Tony muttered, he gave Dark Dean one last look, before leaving the room to do his orders.
Dark Dean came closer to the dark angel, taking his hand gently.
“Stay here. Stay safe.” He murmured as he looked down at him. “And I will be back for you with his heart.”
***
In the dark world, just as they were about to get ready to get AU Charles out from inside the pod, they heard the sound of fighting from outside getting closer.
The door was pulled open, revealing Natasha, Clint and Bucky, as they rushed into the room with their guns.
“What took you guys so long?” Natasha shouted in frustration the moment she saw them. “AU Raven and Logan are still outside, keeping the soldiers at bay, what was keeping you guys from-“
“Oh crap! Why is there two Charles?” Clint exclaimed suddenly, when he noticed that Charles and Tony were trying to pull out another Charles from a weird looking cylinder.
“Wait, wait! Is that-“ Bucky started to question but was cut off.
“Yeah, yeah, this is this world’s Charles Xavier, he had been kept inside this pod as a battery, all this time we were trying to get him out.” Dean summarized as fast as he could, while taking a gun from a stunned Natasha.
“AU X-Men needs to know about this before their Erik explode this place!” Clint stated frantically as he eyed the unconscious telepath.
AU Steve let out a harsh gasp suddenly, then collapsed to his knees while gripping his head with wide panicked eyes.
“Steve?!” Tony exclaimed nervously, even though this wasn’t his Steve, his heart panged at seeing him in pain. “What is it? Are you okay?”
“He is coming.” AU Steve hissed in an utterly panicked voice, looking like he was trying desperately to curl into a tight ball. “Oh God, he is coming.”
“Who is coming?” Dean asked in worry, noticing how Charles’ face paled as well, probably hearing what’s happening in AU Steve’s mind. “Come on, man, tell us!”
“The gateway. It’s opening.” This came from AU Raven, who just got into the room at that moment, looking at the screen that showed what was happening in the hangar.
“Opening? Who opened it and why?” Tony asked in confusion.
“Someone is coming from the other side.” Charles whispered with a very pale face. “The last person we want here.”
At that moment, the gateway opened for exactly three seconds, which was enough for one man to step from it firmly.
Charles was right, this was the last person they want to be here at the moment.
Because it was Dark Tony himself, fully suited in his armor, looking as cruel as ever.
***
“Sir! We did not expect you to be here!”
Dark Bobby exclaimed in both nervousness and panic as he saw Dark Tony step out of the gateway.
The genius turned to look at him coldly, every inch of his face was tense in pent up anger.
“Well, I had to come here in person, since you are screwing everything up here!” He practically growled at the older man’s face, who took a careful step back.
“Everything is under control, sir. We are not letting those people come near the gateway.” Dark Bobby said as firmly as he could, he always freaked out around the genius, who was always unpredictable and violent.
“Oh, you mean the ones who you were supposed to execute?” Dark Tony asked in a too sweet voice, as he took a step towards the other man. “The group of the most dangerous, resourceful people of that other world?”
He suddenly grabbed Dark Bobby by the neck in an unrelenting grip, ignoring the choked off sounds he was letting out as he shouted: “You idiot! You let loose a version of me and the king, along with a genius telepath, two deadly spies and a former Winter soldier! Do you have any idea what kind of deep shit we are in?!”
Dark Bobby tried to say something, but his voice couldn’t get through the tight grip around his throat.
“What? There is more?” The genius released him, as he eyed him suspiciously.
Dark Bobby panted harshly as he avoided looking at the genius.
“They-they managed to get the Captain to their side as well, sir.” He muttered quietly, feeling fear spreading through him.
Dark Tony eyes widened, as his face changed into a perfect picture of pure rage.
“What?” he thundered, making every soldier in the room flinch, as his voice cut through the air like a whip. “You let them take him?! So, they took him and they are fiddling with my battery?! Do you have any idea what you did?! This could ruin everything! You idiot!”
“Sir, I-“ Dark Bobby never got the chance to finish the sentence, in the next second, Dark Tony blasted him in the chest with full, burning power, throwing him across the room, until he landed on the floor with a gaping hole in his chest.
The soldiers jumped at the sight of their commander’s dead body, as Dark Tony turned to them sharply.
“I will lead this attack.” He snapped firmly, getting the soldiers’ attention perfectly. “No one of them gets out of here alive, or the cost will be your lives!”
***
“Erik, we need more time!”
AU Logan shouted frantically through the comms to his commander, after AU Raven told him of the dark genius’ untimely appearance.
They both still have no idea of AU Charles’ appearance, both got busy at the sight of Dark Tony to notice anything else.
He was by the car AU Steve and Dean used to get inside the facility, trying to avoid the bullets raining down at him as he made his call.
“I already told you. I am not giving them any more time.” Came AU Erik’s firm voice, obviously not willing o negotiate.
“Things got complicated over here! It took us a little longer to get inside, and they didn’t even reach the hangar yet! There is a whole army there, and they could only open the gateway manually. We only have less than thirty minutes left, we need more time.” AU Logan argued frantically, getting more desperate.
“Logan, I am not wasting any more time! I was against this mission from the star-“
“Erik, Stark is here.” AU Logan cut him off with a careful voice.
“Yes, I know there is a Stark with them, why is this any news for me?”
“No, Erik. Our Stark is here. He is inside the facility guarding the gateway right now. He came back from the other world.”
There was an abnormal, long pause this time, so long that AU Logan started to get nervous.
“The facility will explode in less than five minutes.” Came AU Erik’s cold voice, making AU Logan’s body freeze in panic.
“What do you mean? What did you do?!” he exclaimed frantically.
“I sent a missile. It will be there in four minutes. Get out of there.”
“Call it back! You said we will have an hour! It isn’t a full hour yet!”
“I changed my mind.”
“The team hasn’t gone through the breach yet!”
“That team has nothing to do with us or saving our world!” AU Erik suddenly screamed in pure rage in AU Logan’s ears, making the mutant flinch. “Everyone who can threaten us is on the other side of that breach! One of them is there right now and he needs to die, before the others come back through!”
“Commander-“
“Logan, enough!” AU Erik growled, his rage and hatred leaking into his voice. “I don’t care how many Starks will die in that explosion. Tony Stark needs to die! Either you and Raven get out of there, or you will die along with them. I am not wasting anymore time; I am blowing it up!”
With that, the call ended, leaving AU Logan pale and terrified, not knowing what to do.
In the next second, he was running towards the facility, letting the bullets pierce through him, ignoring the pain as he shouted through the comms.
“Guys, we have a problem!”