Mystic

Christine considers the latest email she has gotten from Stephen, wondering if he even knew the depth of his feelings for Tony Stark of all people. Stephen never did do things small though so she supposed Tony was a fitting soul mate. She wondered why he still emailed her given that she never emailed back though, even after their brief encounter almost a year ago when she saved Stephen. The updates were nice, and an easy way to gauge Stephen’s moods at any given moment, but without responses they seemed pointless on his end. She never knew what to say back, but Stephen still persisted in his updates.

It was unusual of him given that he typically only did something to get attention- something else he had in common with Tony she supposed- so she found it out of character to send her updates when he got no attention for them. Nonetheless she read his emails and smiled when he seemed happy at least. Still arrogant and high on himself, but happy. Stephen apparently found Tony annoyingly suspicious, didn’t get along much with his best friend, and was annoyed to learn that Tony liked cats. Stephen wasn’t a pet person and Christine guesses that Tony must have an actual desire to own a cat if Stephen felt concerned enough to actually have feelings on the subject.

She sits back in her chair and looks out the window, noting the red and orange across the sky. It was beautiful and something of a rare sight for her these days. Most of the time she was at the hospital before sunrise and left after the sun went down. Occasionally though she’d catch daylight of some kind and today happened to be a day off for her. Glancing at Stephen’s email she found it almost amusing that it happened to come in at his favorite time of day here, though she had to wonder why he was up so late where he was. In Nepal it would be early morning, which, she supposed, would technically result in the same sort of sky. Stephen wasn’t at all a morning person though, which had always made early morning shifts amusing to her at least. No one else liked spending any kind of time with Stephen when he was in a bad mood but he rarely treated her as badly as he treated everyone else bad mood or no.

Looking back to the sky she wonders if maybe she should answer Stephen’s emails. It’s been some time since their falling out and she could see that Stephen has changed at least somewhat. Maybe meeting Tony would help him too for all she knew, he used to be quite arrogant himself before he seemingly overhauled his personality. Stephen could certainly benefit from doing some of that.

Staring at the computer she considers her options when an orange light casts a glow over her surroundings. Frowning she turns, finding one of those spark things Stephen stepped through the last time except it wasn’t Stephen standing in the middle of it, it was someone she didn’t recognize.

*

Wong holds several books in his hands when he knocks on Tony’s door, waiting patiently for the man to open the door. When he does he immediately notices the books and sighs, “I already told Stephen I didn’t want to learn magic,” he says bluntly and Wong shakes his head.

“I know, and I’m not here to convince you that you should. These books are on prophecy and they’re more... to help you understand your natural magic. I thought maybe it would be beneficial if you understood the feelings you got so you could act on them better, or choose not to act on them at all,” he tells Tony. Stephen was… heavy handed in his approach to teaching Tony magic; mostly in the way he decided that Tony had to learn it. Thankfully Wong wasn’t emotionally obtuse and actually knew how to adjust his methods to different people so he thought this would be a good start.

Tony didn’t want to learn because he’s had terrible experiences with magic- every time something magical popped up in his life something terrible usually followed. It stood to reason that magic was the problem when the real problem was Tony’s lack of understanding. Stephen had already pointed this out but his method for doing that was yelling and insults, which no one responded well to. So Wong thought that maybe appealing to Tony’s sense of reason and responsibility would be the best way to convince him that maybe he had an interest in magic after all. Besides, if nothing else it would genuinely be useful to Tony to know what exactly his natural magic was doing at any given time.

He clearly thinks the same because he watches Tony consider taking Wong’s offer. “What exactly does this entail?” he asks and Wong silently cheers. Stephen needed teaching lessons because clearly Tony wasn’t even remotely as pig headed as Stephen thought he was. He just needed a real reason to learn and some assurance that he couldn’t possibly screw up so bad the whole world would die. But no, Stephen couldn’t be bothered to learn some basic common sense.

“Meditation mostly,” Wong says and Tony immediately wrinkles his nose. He was more a man of action, that they all knew about him, so Wong understood the reaction. But it also left the impression that there wasn’t anything… tangible to the magic, which made it seem less dangerous. It was an easy way to ease Tony into things.

“Meditation? How’s that supposed to do… whatever it’s supposed to do?” he asks. Full of questions as always.

“The introspection allows you to focus on what you see and feel, which should give you a better grasp of the knowledge that’s being sent your way. Sometimes you’ll get more context for what you’re seeing or feeling too, or that’s what the texts say. I’ve only ever met one prophet and she was secretive,” he says.

Tony raises an eyebrow, “this mysterious Ancient One I suppose? Fucking stupid name if you ask me,” he says.

Wong snorts and shakes his head, “yes that would be her. Truthfully I don’t even know how much she actually saw and what she learned to see through other magical means. Regardless most of being a prophet is essentially extrapolating some kind of conclusion from the data you’re given. Like reading numbers,” he says, drawing a connection to something Tony already knew well. Numbers were his life for a long time before he gave up being the CEO of Stark Industries. Stephen could learn a thing or two about that as well- drawing parallels between things people have already done and the knowledge they were about to take on. Sadly Stephen spent most of his time getting annoyed at his students because he was genuinely terrible at teaching. Wong thanks whatever deity or deities might be out there that no one let him teach when he was a doctor- god only knows how disastrous that would have been.

“And what am I supposed to do with the information after that?” he asks.

He shrugs, “most of what you’ll see are unavoidable events. So deal with the fallout.”

This has Tony raising his eyebrows, “no one tries to stop the things they see?” he asks.

Wong laughs, “of course they do, but you already know how that ends. The point of seeing the events isn’t to stop them; it’s to ensure that the least amount of damage possible happens afterwards. Or, if you’re very lucky, to prepare yourself for what is to come.” He suspected that the Ancient One knew about Dormammu and in teaching Stephen she left some kind of solution to the problem that had, by sheer chance, worked in her favor. And his own favor considering he had apparently died. He had no memory of that, just of material flying at him and then flying away as Stephen turned back time and turned back the destruction of Hong Kong in the mean time. Whatever doubts Wong had about Stephen as a person and as a sorcerer didn’t change his opinion that what Stephen did that day was the bravest thing Wong has ever seen a person do. He isn’t sure he’d have the sheer amount of courage and determination to die over and over and over again until he got what he wanted out of his attacker.

Tony sighs, “prophets are useless,” he mumbles.

“Prophets don’t have an excess of power,” Wong corrects. “And even then you’ll have far more power than most could ever achieve.” Seeing the future was no small feat not that he thought Tony would see it that way, not with his tendency to try and solve problems before they even happened.

“More power than Stephen?” he asks, grinning.

Wong shakes his head, letting out a soft laugh. “Always a pissing contest. But yes you have more raw power than Stephen. That doesn’t mean you’d make a better sorcerer though- that’s all in how much you’re willing to learn and how much effort you put into the magic. Though Stephen has quite a bit of raw power himself.” An impressive amount that had frustrated Wong when they first met thanks to Stephen’s incessant whining about his damn hands.

Tony nods, “so all I have to do is literally nothing?” he asks, looking amused.

“Well, you have to meditate focusing on whatever images you think were relevant and important and hopefully you’ll get something from it,” he says.

“And if what I’m focusing on is irrelevant?” Tony asks.

“Then you’ll get nothing. Simple as that as far as I can tell,” Wong says.

“Damn, and here I was hoping to channel the next time I was destined to get laid,” Tony says and Wong laughs.

“If you ask Stephen nicely I’m sure he’ll oblige,” Wong says, giving his arm a reassuring pat after he rearranges the books he’s carrying.

That seems to throw Tony for a loop for a moment and Wong shakes his head, wondering how Stephen got a soul mate who was as clueless as he was. For all his suspicion and anger Tony didn’t seem disinterested in Stephen. Annoyed by him sure but that was a natural reaction to anyone with Stephen’s personality. Tony seemed to be warming up to him more recently too, perhaps due to Stephen letting down his walls a little.

“Uh, I didn’t consider that,” he mumbles more to himself than Wong. His eyebrows draw together for a moment before he speaks again. “Doesn’t Stephen have another soul mate?” he asks.

“Yes, someone named Christine- they aren’t on speaking terms though,” he says, unsure of where Tony was going with this. Stephen still kept in contact with her via email he was pretty sure, but they didn’t actually talk.

“If Mordo went after me to get to Stephen, and then went after Rhodey to get to me to get to Stephen, why has no one thought to get Christine?” he asks and Wong swears, shoving the books he was holding at Tony and taking off to go find Stephen.

*

They find Christine easily enough, Tony ran facial recognition through FRIDAY and had her scan all the camera footage she could hack into on short notice in New York, but something wasn’t right. “Why is she just sitting there?” Tony asks, frowning.

“Who cares? She’s potentially in danger and-” Stephen goes to walk away but Tony holds him back, earning an irritated look from Stephen.

“FRIDAY, how long has she been sitting there?” he asks. No one was stupid enough to sit in Central Park this late at night, certainly not a woman. Tony knew approximately three things about women and one of them was that nighttime was not a time they deemed safe. And any idiot knows Central Park at night isn’t a place to frolic. So why was Christine there?

“Two hours, sir,” the AI responds and Stephen gives Tony’s phone a look.

“If you tell me my AI is creepy I’m going to shut you down right now because one- I specifically coded her to not want to take over the world and to enjoy kitten videos on YouTube. And two, you have a sentient cloak, you can’t judge creepy anymore,” Tony says. “Also this Christine thing is clearly a trap so is it possible to magic her out of there without having to have some kind of epic battle with your ex teacher?” Honestly he didn’t think anyone could be a worse teacher than Stephen but here they were.

“My cloak is not even comparable to your creepy AI. If you had to code it to not want to take over the world I think I’ve earned being suspicious of it. And the fact that it enjoys anything is disturbing. And I don’t care if it’s a trap, someone has to go save her and I’m better at magic than Mordo anyways,” Stephen tells him.

Thankfully Wong holds him back when Stephen goes to take off again. “Don’t be stupid Stephen, he clearly doesn’t want to hurt her. She has time for you to think this through,” he points out.

“And he knew we’d find her fast- she’s only sitting in the middle of a tourist location,” Tony adds. “Which raises my suspicions. Not that it matters I guess, he can do that thing where the world spins and all the people disappear.”

“The mirror dimension, yes,” Stephen says dismissively and Tony frowns, wondering what the fuck that was. Wong looks disappointed in Stephen when he notes Tony’s confusion. “I don’t see why he’s gotten picky with who he hurts now, we know he’s left a string of bodies in his wake.”

“Because she hasn’t done anything, duh,” Tony says and Stephen squints at him a little.

“Does that matter to a villain?” he asks.

“It does when your villain is obsessed with correcting the natural order and your current damsel hasn’t done anything to break it. He wants to lure you out, not go on a killing spree with no care to who he kills,” Tony says. Obviously.

“Oh what’s that matter?” Stephen snaps. “So its not okay to kill people if you don’t deem them guilty enough? Its not like Jonathan Pangborn did anything wrong.”

“He used magic to walk again, that was enough for Mordo,” Wong says and Tony is glad that Rhodey wasn’t around to hear that. Then he’d probably try and find magical solutions to his life’s problems and that was the last thing he needed.

“Well what did Tony do?” Stephen asks, irritated.

“Toyed with that infinity stone,” he says. “Now stop getting worked up and relax a little, you’re clearly good at problem solving if your face off with Dormumutt is any indication so think,” Tony tells him.

Wong snorts and coughs, trying to cover his laugh. “Dormammu,” he corrects when Stephen gives him a nasty look for laughing.

“Whatever, its irrelevant. So think Stephen, how can you get her out of there without causing a mess?” he asks. The quicker this was the easier it would be on everyone later, but especially the public and Christine. Tony feels bad for her for having gotten mixed up in all of this by doing little more than existing while connected to Stephen. Tony had at least earned his wrath; all Christine did was have the misfortune of being Stephen’s soul mate.

“There is little more to do than show up,” Stephen says, clearly frustrated.

“Why not just snatch her through one of those portal things? I mean theoretically you could open one right under her and have her fall through it to here, right?” he asks. That seemed like a better plan than potentially destroying Central Park. Tony so wasn’t going to pay for damages.

Wong considers this for a moment and nods, “its possible,” he says, “and not something Mordo would expect.”

“And if he follows her here?” Stephen asks, raising an eyebrow at Wong.

“Then we fight, obviously,” Wong replies. “But Tony’s more… evasive methods have merit. A rescue mission doesn’t need to be a disaster.”

*

Christine was cold and more than a little pissed though at Stephen or the guy who kidnapped her she wasn’t sure. All she has gathered in the last few hours was that Stephen was taking far too long to find her, her kidnapper obviously had no desire to actually harm her, and this was an open area so escape wouldn’t be likely. Smart on her attacker’s behalf. He was currently hiding behind a tree and had been kind enough to inform her that he was only after Stephen. At this point she didn’t give a damn because her fingers were numb and it was late- any idiot knows not to go through Central Park at night so she had little desire to sit around waiting for Stephen to save her. Whenever he did show up, and she had full faith he would, she was going to get him to teach her how to get rid of magic users because this was wildly inconvenient.

The last thing she expects is to fall through the bench she was sitting on, letting out a sharp yell as she does so. When she lands she has no idea where she is, just that she’s obviously not in New York anymore and Stephen is smiling over her. “Hello, Christine, this is Tony,” he says, gesturing to Tony Stark.

“I have eyes and I know who he is. What the hell just happened?” she snaps. Off to the side a pudgy Asian man laughs, shaking his head.

“A soul mate who is clearly unafraid to call you on your attitude, I already like her,” he says. “I’m Wong by the way, and you’re currently in Nepal.”

She sits up and looks around wildly for some kind of evidence that would disprove this but finds none. Even the sky looked different here, like it was mid morning instead of late at night. “Okay what is going on?” she asks.

Stephen explains with regular interjections from Tony that gave actual context to Stephen’s words about who Mordo was and what his goal was. When she asked what the hell she had to do with anything- it wasn’t like she used magic let alone messed with the natural order of things- Stephen explained that soul mates were an easy way to get to someone. She ends up rolling her eyes because she could have guessed that already but she leaves it.

“Well great, you saved me, can I go home now? I have to work in a few hours and I’d like to get some sleep before then,” she says in an irritated tone.

“Uh, no, you can’t go back home you’re in danger. Call in,” Stephen tells her and she balks at him.

“No,” she says, appalled that he’d even suggest such a thing. “You never would have told me to do that a year ago,” she adds.

“A year ago a psycho sorcerer wasn’t trying to kill you,” Stephen says, rolling his eyes.

“If he was trying to kill her she’d be dead,” Tony interrupts and Christine nods, thankful that someone here seemed to get it. “But Stephen’s right, we did kind of fuck up his plans and this guy is pretty tenacious. My guess is that he doesn’t want to hurt you, but will if he’s pressed. I’d say at this point he’s pressed.”

She shakes her head because this was absolutely out of the question. “I am not giving up my work because you got yourself into some mess! This isn’t my problem,” she tells him.

Stephen sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose, “I know that Christine and if I thought you could just return home with no problems I would have agreed but you can’t. Not unless you want this or worse to happen. You’re lucky he caught you at home instead of the hospital anyways,” he points out.

Christine frowns, “how do you know he didn’t grab me from the hospital?” she asks.

“New reports,” Tony says. “That would have drawn attention and it’s more than likely he’s been waiting for a good opportunity to grab you anyways. Home means no witnesses since you live on your own.”

“I suppose you should be grateful to your being a workaholic that he didn’t find you sooner,” Stephen says. “But for now you have little choice but to stay here.”

“The hell I do,” she says and stands up, fully prepared to find the nearest airport and fly back home immediately. Stephen could sort this mess out without her- she had things to do and she wasn’t about to give up her life for Stephen. She’s already given him enough in the past.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Tony says, stepping in front of her with his hands up in surrender. “Hold on a minute, lets not be hasty. You understandably want to get back to your life, but Stephen has a nutty sorcerer to catch. It’d be nice if we knew what happened exactly before you got here,” he says.

“I don’t even know what happened, it was all a blur,” she says dismissively.

Tony shrugs, “no problem, what I had in mind involves something that won’t require more than basic recall- BARF does most of the work for you,” he says.

Christine isn’t looking at Stephen but she knows they’re making the same face. “Barf?” Stephen asks, taking the bait.

“Yeah, Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing- BARF for short,” Tony explains. “Its basically a pair of glasses that temporarily highjacks the hippocampus to access traumatic memories and projects them onto the room around you. Its designed as a way to work through traumatic memories, but it works just as well to figure out what exactly happened when Christine got kidnapped,” he says.

Stephen looks absolutely dumbfounded. “I… you… found a way to access memories in a non invasive way?” He shakes his head in a combination of wonder and shock, “every time I find out something new about what you’ve done I am amazed- the sheer amount of medical knowledge you’d have to have to pull that off and I know you have no training. That’s… remarkable. I think I’m in love with you,” he says.

“Thanks,” Tony says without much thought and Christine is certain she hears the sound of poor Stephen’s heart breaking but Tony remains oblivious, probably under the impression that Stephen’s comment was a joke. “So uh, someone needs to make me a portal thing because the glasses aren’t with me,” he says to Stephen in particular but Stephen is too busy looking like a kicked puppy.

“He was serious,” Christine tells Tony, who frowns. “About loving you,” she adds given his obvious confusion. She regrets saying anything when Tony gets an awkward look on his face and he pats Stephen’s shoulder.

“That’s nice,” he says, probably making the whole thing worse. Christine exchanges a look with Wong, who rolls his eyes and shakes his head.

“Stephen, take Tony to get the glasses,” he says and Christine winces, unsure if that was a good call. Stephen never really has taken rejection well and his silence thus far was a blessing.

Instead of saying or doing something stupid though he just sighs, “alright, with me then,” he says and he makes one of those spark portals Christine has now seen three times. Once when Stephen ran back to that closet, once when that Mordo guy showed up in her apartment, and once again when he dragged her off to Central Park. Stephen and Tony step through and Christine turns to Wong.

“I don’t think that was a good idea,” she says.

“It was a fine idea,” he counters. “Just because Tony doesn’t feel the same way about Stephen as Stephen feels about him doesn’t mean they should be kept apart. All the more reason to throw them together if you ask me. Stephen has been growing on him anyways. Like mold.”

Christine lets out an almost hysterical laugh and shakes her head. “God I hope this doesn’t go badly.”