Excelsior

There were three reasons why Tony Stark clicked on the email from the strange address.

1) He had the top of the line spam blocker and there was no way the message should have made it this far without being flagged.
2)The subject line was simply “Excelsior!”.
3)He was just too damn bored.

After spending the past week in litigation over the accords and the break up of the Avengers Pepper had suggested (inforced) that he take a break and “get some sleep” whatever that meant. He was unclear how this break was supposed to help when there was still so much to do but it meant that he’d been locked in his room with only his tablet to keep him company.

Tony eyed the subject line again. It seemed vaguely familiar, enough to keep him from just deleting the message altogether. Chances were that it was just another crazy stalker. There’d been more of them since the breakup. A group of them seemed to hover around the tower, ready to start shout at Tony about how Steve and the gang were gone because of him. It’s funny how some of the public saw the things considering Tony had been the one laid up in the hospital with broken ribs. It fit the narrative, he guessed. Already people were beginning to question him after the horrors of Ultron. Steve Rogers departure was just another drop in the bucket.

“Can’t be any worse than the last,” Tony said as he clicked on.

There was no text just a video. The thumbnail was an image of a man with rich brown skin and dark brown hair. Tony’s eyes widened. There was a touch of gray in the hair now but still looked as perfectly styled as he’d remembered it. Emotions that had long ago been forgotten came rushing forward as he looked at the image of his very handsome and very much dead classmate.

“Jar- Friday, video analyst! Tell me what I’m seeing.”

“It would appear that the video has an IP address connecting to somewhere in the southwest desert. I’m having a little trouble pinpointing the exact location sir,” Friday’s voice rang out for the ceiling of his room.

“Has the image been tampered with?”

“Not that I can tell, boss.”

Tony couldn’t take his eyes off of him. He remembered late nights in the college dorm staying up eating pizza and going over formulas. Being underage at MIT had put him in an interesting place so naturally, he’d gravitated towards the only other person there who was his age. Carlos Reyes was nothing he’d expected and everything he needed. They’d joked that Rhodey may have been his best friend but Carlos was more like his soulmate.

Their relationship had been platonic of course. Tony didn’t come out as bisexual until Junior year and by then Carlos was gone. He thought the pain of their separation had dulled over the years until one day he hears that Carlos had been pronounced dead after going missing. It was right after the first big alien battle. Still dealing with the trauma of the fall that should have ended it all and the existential crisis of a fucking real life alien invasion the news had hit him like a high-speed train.

“Tony why can’t you see that there’s more to it? I’m not asking for blind faith, I’m asking for you to trust me enough to try and see it.” The memory of their last conversation still hunted Tony. Carlos had always been...eccentric. When Tony asked him about declaring a major Carlos’s answer was, “I’m a scientist and I study science.”

“Yeah, but there’s no degree that says Bachelors of Science in Science,” Tony smiled.

Carlos had looked at him with those long eyelashes and dark eyes in a way that made the smile fall and heart race. The brown-skinned man could be so open and honest at times that it was shocking, but Carlos simply shrugged and adjusted his glasses. “I guess they’ll have to change that.”

Tony had always found Carlos’s quirkiness to be charming but that day he’d walked into the room and found article clippings everywhere he began to feel something else.
Tony lowered the tablet to his chest, trying to gather his thoughts without having Carlos’s face looking back up at him. He didn’t understand how this was happening or even why now after all this time but the thing he felt the most was relieved. No matter what the video said the world definitely had to be better with Carlos than without him.

Tony lifted up the tablet and pressed play.

“Hi Tony,” Carlos waved at him from the screen.

“Hi,” Tony whispered back though he knew no one would hear him.

“I hope this video makes it to you. Getting information to the outside isn’t exactly easy. But I hope that if I can get this you, you will listen. That,” he lets out a sigh and rubs his forehead, “that after how everything you will want to listen. I know the way we left things wasn’t… I was young and that’s not an excuse so much as a fact. I was young. We both were but I wasn’t all that great at expressing myself. Objectively I can look back and see how I might have gotten things wrong. I stand by the facts but my presentation was lacking.”

Something crashed behind Carlos and he turned his attention away from the camera. Now Tony could saw the beakers and lab equipment behind him. Tony wonders what experiments his old friend has gotten into over the years.

Carlos looked back at the camera and his eyes a full of urgency. “I don’t have much time Tony. I found it. I found it here inside of the town where time does not work as it should. Slowly I’ve been gathering data and getting wrapped in the science of it all. There’s still so much to understand. This town changes and changes me with it, but Tony...I found it.”

Tony held his breath. If this video had come to him ten years ago he would have probably felt the same worrying fear he felt when discovered the articles, but just like Carlos much has changed Tony.

The video glitches and Carlos’s image goes wonky before clearing up again. “Do you understand Tony? There’s a way to save our universe. Maybe even the multiverse. I just-” The video goes crazy again. “The blood space war, Tony, the stones are locked inside. You have to…” Another glitch. “Night Vale, Tony, you have to come to Ni-” Tony’s whole screen goes black. He taps it a few times before the video snaps back on, though the image is now darker around the corners. “Find Cecil, Tony, you have to.” Carlos looks into the camera with pleading eyes. “I know how everything must sound but even after all this time, you’re still my closest friend. You’re the only one on the outside I trust. Please, Tony, come see for yourself.”

There’s another crash in the background and Carlos winces. His face was twisted with pain and by the time whatever is happening in the video passes he is left panting and sweating. “There are some things that only break the more you try to fix them, but we can reset. Excelsior, Tony, excel-”

The screen cuts black flashing only coordinates before the video comes to an end. Tony watches the video again and again. He studies the video like he studies one of his new projects. After a few hours, he closes the email.

“Friday, call Pepper and Rhodey and tell them to come over as soon as possible.”

“Yes, sir.”

Tony stood from his bed and made his way over to the door. There’s still much that he doesn’t understand but he’s certain of one thing. He let Carlos go once but he’s not going to do it again.