Mystic

“You did this to yourself, Stephen. Stop sulking like Tony did you wrong,” Wong tells him. Stephen shakes his head at him and ignores his words. Instead he focuses on Tony’s- or at least his situation with him. It seemed frighteningly familiar to him before but he only just realized why. Trying to bond over something Stephen loved, pressing his points without really taking a moment to listen to what Tony had to say, getting annoyed when Tony didn’t react the way he wanted him to, telling him he was all but meaningless in his life… This was all the same thing as his relationship with Christine. Apparently over the last two years he’s learned absolutely nothing about relationships because he was in the same situation as he was before.

He wonders if Christine would be gracious enough to outline his flaws to him with potential solutions. She’d have a much clearer view than he would. “I’m not sulking because Tony did something wrong. I’m sulking because I did something wrong. How am I supposed to fix this, Wong?”

Wong, being the absolutely useful mentor that he is, shrugs. “I don’t know Stephen, and it isn’t my responsibility to fix this. He’s your soul mate and he’s clearly on someone’s map given his recent attack,” he says.

Stephen considers responding to the first half of that but decides not to in favor of filling Wong in on the rest of the story. In his haste of getting back to the Sanctum post snatching Mordo’s Sling Ring and kicking him into the middle of a desert he hadn’t told Wong who attacked Tony. “We might have bigger problems than my love life,” he says and Wong snorts.

“That’s an understatement,” he says and Stephen glares at him. “But go on,” Wong encourages.

He sits back in his seat and sighs. “The person who attacked Tony is someone we know. It was Mordo, Wong. He was on about the natural order of things and ridding the world of the people who mess those things up,” he says, shaking his head. “To be honest Tony made a good point about the natural order not being so black and white considering Thor’s version of the natural order is far different than our own but he passed out right after that and I was too busy trying to make sure neither of us got killed to get more information.”

Wong sits down, looking paler than he had a moment ago. “Jonathon Pangborn,” he says softly.

Stephen frowns, “okay?” he asks more than states thanks to his confusion.

“I had heard… I heard that his miraculous cure had failed him and not long after being re-paralyzed he died. I thought it was odd but I didn’t…” he trails off.

“You didn’t think someone intentionally did that to him,” Stephen finishes and Wong nods.

“Why Tony, though? He’s got no real connection to the mystic arts like Pangborn does,” Wong points out.

No, but he did have a habit of messing with things he shouldn’t, which is a theory Stephen shares with Wong. “Mordo, he’s intelligent and methodical. It probably occurred to him to go for people like Pangborn first- and he probably isn’t the only one- but he’s not stupid enough to think that messing with the natural order of things doesn’t just extend to mystic arts. Tony is high profile target who famously messes with all things natural as much as humanly possible, sometimes with disastrous affects. It makes sense that he’s on Mordo’s radar. I just don’t know why he went for Tony instead of me,” he says. Or Wong even- both of them would be easier targets considering they would trust Mordo at first, making them vulnerable to attack. Now that element of surprise was gone.

“We’ve all seen your soul mark Stephen- he went for Tony because he thought Tony knew who you were and must have been surprised when Tony didn’t know. Attacking him would lure you in- did lure you in- but he didn’t count on your cloak protecting Tony nor did he count on you lying to Tony about who you were. That might have saved his life,” Wong says, shaking his head.

It certainly would have bought Tony time, and the confusion over the cloak would have bought more time as well. Relics didn’t tend to like more than one user at a time- they only changed users when their previous user was dead or if they were no longer worthy of the relic. In theory Tony shouldn’t be able to use the cloak but multiple people have told Stephen that the cloak was fickle and it had far more sentience than the average relic. It wasn’t much of a surprise that it behaved differently towards Tony than the average relic would. Plus Wong did mention that being his soul mate could have an affect on how the relic behaved as well.

“He intended to kill us at the same time. He must have been counting on an actual soul bond to have formed both in the normal sense of the word and magically. Actually that way he would have only needed to kill one of us, the loss of a soul mate would destroy the other,” he says. The plan was… well it was brilliant actually. He wonders if Mordo planned it that way from the moment he must have started tracking Tony or if that came later. Either way it didn’t much matter, using one soul mate to destroy the other and taking out two large profile targets was impressive had it worked. That’s about when Stephen remembers a detail from Tony’s life he had forgotten about a long time ago. “Wong, doesn’t Tony have another soul mate?” he asks.

Wong frowns, “does he?”

“That best friend of his, the only one he allows to use his armors- isn’t that his soul mate?” he asks more urgently this time.

“If he has more than one soul mate are you the romantic one or the platonic one?” Wong asks and Stephen shakes his head and stands.

“Who cares what soul mate I am? We need to confirm with Tony that he has a second soul mate and go to him,” he says, all but running from the room. Wong catches up not long after.

*

Tony’s dreams are fitful and dark. He kept seeing orange-y yellow lights, and he could hear someone yelling as he moved further down the hallway. He couldn’t distinguish what anyone was saying though, and his movement was sluggish at least in his own mind. Lights flashed around him before someone lets out a loud yell and Tony wakes, sitting straight up and nearly head-butting Stephen as he does so. “What the hell?” he snaps, glaring a Stephen.

“Do you have another soul mate?” Stephen asks. Tony can feel the blood drain from his face and he tries, and mostly fails, to move quickly out of bed. Stephen catches him before he falls, “we’ve got time, relax. We just need to know where he is,” Stephen tells him.

“No, we don’t have time,” Tony tells him and Wong waves Stephen off when he goes to say something.

“Where is he?” Wong asks.

‘The Avengers Compound,” Tony tells them.

*

“Are you sure he’ll even know to look here?” Rhodey asks Hope. It was so weird looking at the world from this angle again. He was used to butts in his face all the time now and to be standing was… odd. Not that he was technically standing.

“Of course he will,” Hope tells him, “he’s not an idiot.”

Yeah, Rhodey had a lifetime of proof that suggested that despite being a genius Tony was hardly the smartest guy in the world but he keeps quiet about it. “So uh, what the hell was that?” Rhodey asks instead.

He can’t see Hope but he can guarantee she shrugged. She was currently hiding in the helmet of the Iron Man armor Rhodey was currently stashed in and the wings from her Wasp armor kept brushing against his cheek. It was really annoying but they didn’t have much choice but to hide here with Hope all shrink-y. The problem was that here was Tony’s Malibu house that was still mostly destroyed. Hope argued that whoever their attacker was wouldn’t think to go to a property of Tony’s that Tony wouldn’t go to and he figured that was decent logic. That left them three options.

They could have gone here- which they elected to do- they could have gone to his childhood home, or they could have gone to that vacation house in Italy his mom liked that he couldn’t bear to step foot in after she died. Hope nixed that one first in part because it wasn’t in the country and also because she didn’t really want to dredge up old memories of Tony’s. That was why the mansion went next, plus it was massive and not updated so the armor would stick out like a sore thumb. That left Malibu so off they went. Thankfully FRIDAY knew where it was and Rhodey let the AI autopilot them there. Tony told him to watch out for his AIs and letting FRIDAY learn things was a good way to do that. Plus if she got lost that only made them harder to track, which was how he got that past Hope, who didn’t care about Tony’s AIs learning so much as Rhodey’s safety.

“I have no idea but I hope Tony shows up soon, my legs are cramped in here,” she says.

“You do remember he’s in Nepal, right?” Rhodey asks. Hope lets out a long, deep sigh.

“Guess my legs are going to get more cramped,” she mumbles.

Rhodey snorts, “oh no, cramped legs, what ever will you do?” he says sarcastically.

“You know what, just because you’re paralyzed doesn’t mean I want cramped legs so shush,” Hope says and Rhodey laughs.

*

When they get to the compound its fucking destroyed but that isn’t what catches Tony’s attention. Stephen asks him something but Tony ignores it, looking around at what he was seeing. Stephen goes to ask his question again but Wong shoos him off, “what is it, Tony?” he asks. “Don’t think, just trust your gut,” he adds.

Tony turns to glare at him, “seriously? That’s what we’re doing right now?” he asks.

“You’ve obviously sensed something so-” Tony cuts Wong off.

“I’m not a damn prophet because I had a dream that was weirdly similar to what I’m seeing now. It’s a coincidence,” he says, shaking his head at this nonsense.

“Which direction did they go in?” Stephen asks, looking right confused.

“Down that hallway, towards my lab. There’s plenty of weapons there,” he says.

“Funny that you know that given that you have no evidence, but you’re right nevertheless. I can feel the magic in that direction,” Stephen says, looking pleased with himself as he walks in the direction Tony point out. He resents that Wong also looks impressed because it wasn’t impressive, it was just weird that he guessed right. He still follows Stephen down the hall though.

“So they came here and did what?” Stephen asks not that Tony was falling for that again.

“I don’t fucking- oh, looks like Rhodey took one of my suits,” he says, earning another satisfied smirk from Stephen but Tony smirks back.

“There’s one missing, counting isn’t magical,” he says. Wong snickers at them until he looks into the room Tony was talking about.

“How could you possibly know there was an armor missing from that mess?” he asks.

Funny thing was that his lab was actually pretty clean at the moment. But he still knew where he left everything and Rhodey took a suit- and he would have had to have been experimenting with Tony’s technology that calls the armor to him to do it. Clearly he built a successful sensor to one of Tony’s newer armors because that’s what was missing. He wondered how he worked out how to call the armor to him without his chair interfering with it. “I know everything in this room inside and out. Rhodey took a suit,” he says.

“And went where? This is where the magical trail all but ends,” Stephen tells him, waving a hand around in the air. He looked like a fool but Tony doesn’t tell him that.

Besides, he didn’t know where they went either. He could ask FRIDAY but that meant risking someone overhearing and he didn’t want to do that so he thinks for a minute. Rhodey was good at the tactical but given his current state of body he wasn’t abundantly equipped to defend himself. He’s been learning, but it was a process to figure out self defense in a wheel chair so Hope would want them both gone. Rhodey for safety reasons and herself to act as his guard. The problem was that they could have gone anywhere. Tony thinks for several more moments before his phone buzzes with an alert from FRIDAY that told him someone had broken in to the compound- and that it was a set response.

“Thanks for that, FRI. I know where they went,” Tony tells Wong and Stephen. He instructs FRIDAY to go dark to all but Rhodey and Hope and walks out of the room, down the hall, and out of the house.

*

“You could have shown up sooner,” Hope tells him, gently flexing her legs.

“I was as fast as I could be, relax about it,” Tony tells her.

“And he showed up hours before expected, which is great because I really gotta pee and I don’t trust you to have actually built in some way to pee despite that time at your birthday party,” Rhodey says. Tony winces and Stephen raises an eyebrow.

“That time at his birthday party?” he prompts.

“Never mind,” Tony tells Stephen. “Are you two okay?” he asks, looking between Hope and Rhodey. Hope had a cut under her left eye that had swollen some but looked otherwise fine, Rhodey didn’t look hurt at all.

“I’m fine,” Hope says, “and so is Rhodey.”

“He wet his tin can at his birthday party a couple years ago,” Rhodey says gleefully, obviously intent on embarrassing Tony.

“In my defense I was dying,” he says. “So what the hell happened?” he asks in an attempt to change the subject.

Rhodey shrugs, “we have no idea. Some dude just… appeared in this shower of sparks and asked who I was but Hope was already half in action. You kicked some serious ass, baby, good for you,” Rhodey tells Hope, smiling at her.

Hope smiles back before it falls away and she turns to Tony. “What the hell did you do this time?” she asks.

“Hey!” Rhodey and Stephen say in sync and then exchange a confused look, obviously not sure why they seemed to mirror each other’s objection.

“Don’t look at me like that Rhodes, you know how irresponsible Tony is on the best of days. And I went to school with him, I have some pretty insane stories myself,” she says. Well, she wasn’t wrong…

“It wasn’t Tony, it was me. Sort of. Technically it was the Ancient One, then me but I was still the straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak. Anyways this isn’t Tony’s fault,” Stephen interjects. Tony gives him a dirty look because he didn’t need Stephen to defend his honor. Rhodey’s brows draw together as he looks between Tony and Stephen but whatever he’s thinking he doesn’t say it.

“Mordo’s actions are his own doing,” Wong tells them. “But you are in danger thanks to Mordo’s preoccupation with Stephen and by extension Tony and the two of you. I assume you two are also soul mates?” Wong asks Rhodey and Hope.

“That’s none of your business,” Hope tells Wong in a prim tone and Rhodey makes a face.

“Where’d you get the walking fortune cookies? Couldn’t you have brought better muscle?” he asks and Tony bursts out laughing.

Stephen looks so offended by Rhodey’s comment, which honestly makes the whole thing better. Damn right he was some shitty magical muscle.

“First, really? The Asian guys are fortune cookies? Very creative. Second, considering I am the Sorcerer Supreme and Wong is well versed in magic and you were just attacked by a magic user I would say that we’re the only sufficient muscle you’re going to get. So are you soul mates or not?” Stephen snaps.

Guilt briefly crosses Rhodey’s face at the fortune cookie comment but it passes when Stephen says ‘Sorcerer Supreme’ because he knew what Tony’s soul marks said. His eyes practically bug out of his head and he looks at Tony, “it’s a long story that involves me only finding out who he was after I got attacked by the magic user that just attacked you because Stephen is an insufficient communicator apparently. Sorcerer Supreme my ass, more like Sorcerer Su-Sucks,” he mumbles.

“Oh ha ha, so clever,” Stephen says in a mocking tone, clapping at Tony.

“Eat shit,” Tony tells him and Wong throws his arms up in frustration.

“You two are impossible! Now both of you stop so more mature people can sort this out,” he snaps. “Is he always like this?” Wong asks Rhodey.

He shrugs, “pretty much. Bring up Justin Hammer and see what-”

“Justin Hammer is a total waste of skin and I should sue him for slander for even suggesting that he is even remotely in my league of intelligence or attractiveness,” Tony says, cutting Rhodey off.

“There you have it,” Rhodey says. “He’s petty as hell and he’s never going to let this mess with this sorcerer dude go so you’re going to have to just deal with it. Seriously though- what is going on?” he asks.

Wong sighs and gives them a rundown of recent events, including some details that Tony didn’t know about in regards to the soul mate thing. That made things a lot more complicated because it meant a lot more people could be used to get to Tony, and therefore to Stephen. Normal people didn’t usually have soul mate systems this wide either. Most only had one soul mate be it platonic, familial, romantic, or otherwise but Tony’s having two made that system a lot easier to attack. Its something he’s always known but Rhodey had military training and usually saved Tony’s ass from assassination attempts or stabbings or whatever, Hope was unheard of outside of science and business- which was a real shame but it gave her an extra level of protection outside her martial arts training. And Tony had people around him at all times- getting to him was hard.

Now though there was magic, and gods, and a bunch of other shit that wasn’t human to go and threaten them all and Tony’s suit could only do so much. Hope was obviously capable of defending herself and Rhodey but just leaving them in the open didn’t sit right with Tony and Stephen obviously looked uncomfortable with it too. Rhodey wanted nothing to do with any Sanctums or magic, but Hope was efficient.

“We’re going where its safe at least until I can learn what I’m dealing with,” she tells Rhodey.

“Hope-” he tries but she waves a hand at him and he stops talking.

“No. I’ve seen a lot of shit since New York, the whole world has, but I’ve never seen any of that and I am not taking my chances. Especially not with these two idiots,” she says, gesturing to Stephen and Tony.

“Okay in Tony’s defense he’s been dealing with a lot okay, give him a break. I agree about the other guy though, you seem shady as hell,” Rhodey tells him, giving Stephen a suspicious once over. Tony pretends to cough to cover his laugh.

Wong sighs, “shall we make a trip to the New York Sanctum, then?” he asks.