Mystic

Stephen’s head hurt but he knew he was going to be fine- he knew the results of Christine’s tests of his health before she did, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to take full advantage of Tony’s sudden attachment to his side. Rhodey saw through his act easily enough and was clearly annoyed with him for feigning being more injured than he was but Stephen left him to stew in it. And to stew in being outsmarted by Tony when he evacuated with everyone else- a genius move that made Stephen laugh pretty hard when Tony told him about his plan. Rhodey spent a full day whining about traitorous soul mates before he went back to his regularly scheduled sulking about Tony paying attention to Stephen.

He preens under the attention because he’s always liked being the center of someone’s affections and rarely was. The exception was when his medical practices were being praised, which was why he loved all those dinners Christine apparently hated. For now though he reveled in Tony curled into his side reading a book and looking increasingly annoyed.

“What is it that’s got you so upset?” he asks, pressing a kiss to the top of Tony’s head.

Tony shifts and looks up at him, giving him a lopsided smile. “Magic is stupid, as usual. This is about some kind of symbolism in prophetic dreams and honestly it sounds more like bullshit than astrology and regular dream interpretation,” he says.

Ah of course, Tony just had to get a daily dig in at magic. But Stephen had to agree with him there. “Sounds like Freudian methods of psychoanalysis where everything means something, including the lack of certain images too. That, at least to me, sounds like people trying to hard to find meaning where there very well isn’t one,” he says.

“Exactly. So this entire thing is basically garbage, but it did tell me that weird sex dream I had about you two nights ago meant that you’re going to get eaten by cannibals while I adventure the seas in search of a pelican so there’s that,” he says and Stephen frowns.

“How was the sex dream weird?” he asks, offended.

Tony rolls his eyes, “that was literally the least exciting thing I just said and if you must know there was too many medical instruments involved for that to be anything less than bizarre. If my brain could stick to normal sex dreams with no stirrups and clamps I’d be eternally grateful,” he says. Stephen wrinkles his nose, trying to figure out how the hell Tony’s brain came up with that and how sex factored in. “Don’t give me that look, you asked and I was the one who had to dream it. If anyone has the right to be creeped out its me,” he points out.

“Well I hope that pelican avenges my death at the hands of the cannibals at least. Did you know people have medical kinks? I didn’t and you don’t want the story of how I found out,” he says. As it turned out Tony very much did want that story for some reason. He refuses to tell Tony for a good forty-five minutes before he finally gives in and tells Tony the sordid tale because Tony was quite good at being the most irritating person on the planet. That and he figured if he had to live with that story someone else had to too. It was safe to say that by the end of it Tony regretted his decision, which makes Stephen feel better about losing forty five minutes of his life to listening to Tony whine Steeeeephhhheeeen over and over again until he got what he wanted. Be careful what you wish for was a lesson that came to mind in this situation, not that Tony seemed the type to ever heed that kind of warning.

*

To say Tony didn’t like that meditation thing was an understatement but it was a necessary evil if he wanted to figure out what was going on. The last time he had tried this all he got was a single phrase- to challenge them is to court death. Who ‘them’ was he wasn’t sure- but he was certain an alien was saying it so he presumed it was about the Avengers. This time though he can feel that it’s different. The air around him is cold and sterile almost, and it remains that way for a few moments before he hears a soft buzzing and the sound of air releasing.

It takes a few moments but the room he’s in gets brighter and he watches as bars pull away, and then another set pulls away, until finally the last set of bars goes. Light floods into the room and shines on a metal object in the center of what looked like a vault. Tony frowns and looks at the object- some kind of gold… gauntlet- and tries to figure out what was important about it but there wasn’t anything striking about the gauntlet aside from the material it was made of.

Its not until he hears the voice that he understands. “Fine,” a deep, commanding voice says and Tony watches a purple arm reach into the vault, hand slipping into the gauntlet. “I’ll do it myself.”

He sits up with a start; nearly smacking his head into Stephen’s along the way and he shudders. “Are you okay?” Stephen says, immediately concerned.

Tony leans forward and lets himself breathe for a few moments before he talks. He found this was helpful to recover a little bit before he relayed whatever it was he saw. “I… don’t know who he is, or what exactly he’s after, but I know he’s on his way here. With a gauntlet,” he adds. Put like that the information didn’t make sense but Tony knew bone deep that he was right and something big was about to happen. Something big already happened. It was just a matter of time before it got here.

“What do you mean?” Stephen asks softly. Stephen-Speak for ‘Tony, you’re not making sense’- anyone else would have gotten his usual response and with a snotty dismissive tone at that. But Stephen valued him more than he valued near everyone else so he got the benefit of patience.

“The… alien. He’s important, I know that, and I know he’s coming here but- look, its hard to describe the unshakable feeling of dread in my stomach. I don’t know what that gauntlet was but it must be some kind of weapon. And he’s sent people here before- he said this time he’d do it himself. Which leads me to believe it wasn’t Loki behind the Chitauri invasion, it was this guy. Which means we’re in deeper shit than we thought,” he says. Shit. It had only occurred to him as he said it that Loki couldn’t be behind the invasion if this guy was gung ho for fucking earth over himself but if that was true, and Tony could feel that it was, than they’ve been misinterpreting signs for years. This was so not good.

Stephen sits back on his heels, “I’ll tell Wong,” he says softly, “and he’ll inform the others.” He allows himself a few seconds of shock, looking pale, before he stands and walks off. Tony hoped that without Mordo killing off all the magic users they might actually be useful in defense of whatever was coming but he had his doubts. At least for a moment.

*

That Mordo is surprised to find Tony outside his cell is apparent immediately, but he doesn’t say anything. Stephen had made some kind of cell out of magic that Mordo couldn’t cross and thanks to some magical artifact Stephen had used to neutralize Mordo’s magic he also had the time to do some other spells to lock Mordo’s magic away from him in a more permanent way. According to Stephen he couldn’t strip him of it entirely without risking killing him and since Stephen erred on the side of pacifism he opted out of that option. Personally Tony saw no real loss should Mordo die but he doesn’t tell Stephen that because he didn’t want to start a fight.

“You have a mission to restore the natural order,” Tony states more than asks but Mordo takes it as a question anyways, giving Tony what technically counted as an answer.

“The world would be safer without people like you in it,” he says.

He shrugs, “I don’t disagree. Funny thing is that the world would be safer without you in it too. I find it a little hypocritical that a guy who’s obsessed with a natural order would choose to murder several people in cold blood- seems a bit contradictory but that’s me. Point is, how far are you willing to go, exactly?” he asks, squinting at him, head tilted to the side as he examines Mordo.

Mordo clearly takes this as a ridiculous question, “you’ve already seen how far I’m willing to go. I could give you another demonstration if you take down this magical barrier,” he says, offering Tony a cocky smile that seemed more like Stephen than him.

Tony rolls his eyes, deciding Mordo and villain banter didn’t go together. “You’re right, I know that when the time comes you’ll fight on the right side. You’ll die on it too,” he says with more certainty than he should have but by now he was beginning to sense when he was right about things. He was more right about this than he’s been right about most other things aside from aliens coming to earth. He turns to walk away but Mordo calls him back.

“The Berserker Staff- how did you hold it?” he asks.

“I don’t know what you mean,” he says. Just that Stephen and Wong were terrified of the staff- an Asguardian artifact apparently- and they made him go pick it up. Tony was sure Wong’s motivation for that was fear, but he could see the curiosity clear on Stephen’s features. He might be frightened of the staff, but he wasn’t so frightened he had lost curiosity about how it worked and who could wield it. Wong was certain that the object chose him somehow but advised him against using it much. He also refused to give Tony information on it, odd for the librarian, but his insistence on not using it was a good place to look for blame.

“That staff makes the user see their most unpleasant memories- it brings out the darkest in people, throwing it into the light. It gives the user an adrenaline rush and super strength fueled by your worst, usually hate filled, memories. Humans who use it go insane, and Asguardians who use it have gone through a lot of trouble hiding it from ever being used again. How is it possible that you held it with no apparent affects?” Mordo asks, frowning at Tony as he steps closer to the edge of his magical cell. The orange shimmer around his space lets out a few sparks, warning him away but he doesn’t go.

Tony thinks about it for a moment and shrugs, “the staff didn’t show me anything I didn’t already show myself every day. You say it makes people hateful, that it drives them insane? Well I noticed no difference except the adrenaline rush,” he says. He leaves Mordo with that, leaving the room and nearly running into Stephen on his way out. It’s clear he heard at least the last bit of that conversation.

“I don’t believe that, you’re not a hateful person. I’d know- I am one,” he says but Tony smiles cruelly.

“The hate wasn’t directed outward, Stephen.”

*

Standing on a box Tony is annoyed to find that he’s still three inches shorter than Stephen, who laughs at him. He flips him off because this was some kind of tall person magic and he was offended by it.

“Honestly standing side by side like that you two don’t even look like the same species,” Hope tells him and Tony makes an offended noise, flipping her off too.

“That is just rude!” he says in his own defense.

Rhodey throws his head back and laughs, a surprising reaction considering Stephen was involved but Tony would take this over his petty rivalry with Stephen. “He’s like a tea cup human!” he wheezes out and, much to Tony’s surprise and utmost betrayal, Stephen bursts out laughing.

“Oh you’re so right,” he says, doubling over. Tony hopes that they go back to hating each other immediately because this was unacceptable. He looks to Hope for some kind of help but she looks away, abandoning him in this short person oppression.

He steps off his box, prepared to tell Stephen exactly where he could stick his tallness when something in his gut twists and he knows something has changed. Whatever the look on his face was it must have been something to see because Rhodey and Stephen stop laughing immediately and Hope steps in closer. “Are you okay?” she asks but he shakes his head.

“Something just happened,” he says. “In New York.” As if on cue his phone starts buzzing in his back pocket and he takes it out, frowning at Peter’s number before answering it.

“Oh um hey, hi Mr. Stark. Uh… I don’t know where you are but you need to get back to New York because there’s um-” Peter stutters but Tony cuts him off.

“An alien ship,” he finishes and Peter lets out a nervous laugh.

“People are kind of freaking out. I’m kind of freaking out,” he adds and Tony feels a pang of pity for the child.

“Listen kid, just make sure you’re safe, and get people the hell away from that thing. I’ll be there soon,” he says and he hangs up, trusting that Peter could follow the instructions. Hope, Stephen, and Rhodey look at him in dead silence, all of them paler than normal. “Suit up, Thanos is here,” he tells them.

Rhodey frowns, “Thanos?” he asks but his guess was as good at Tony’s. All he knew was that unshakable feeling in his gut, the one that told him he was right.

“Hope, now isn’t the time to argue. Show Rhodey the modified suit and Stephen, you might want to tell everyone in that magical network of yours that some crazy shit is about to go down in America. Again,” he says.

“Modified suit?” Rhodey asks and Hope sighs.

“To work with your legs. Lets hope Tony worked out the problems and that you’re a fast enough learner to not die while you’re testing things out,” she says. “Come on.” With that they both leave and Stephen steps closer to Tony.

“Are you sure?” he asks but Tony doesn’t answer. Instead he leans up and kisses Stephen because he knew two things were about to happen for sure.

One, the world as they knew it was about to be irrevocably changed.

Two, he wasn’t going to make it out of this alive.