Sentinel

Rhodey couldn’t possibly be more proud of his best friend for what he did in that Council room. And he didn’t do it with any of his unusually strong compulsion even though he could have. But Tony was bright and strong when he argued, he could draw a lot of attention and a crowd and his time in the Council Chambers was no exception. Tony stood tall, his words and arguments were clear and it paid off for him in the end. People listened, actually listened and even if that was generally the group that had small amounts of power- non-Royals- it counted. His argument gave them hope where they had none before like Loki had with Pepper accidentally.

And the guardians, they all agreed at least in part. He doubted many agreed with sending Moroi into fights like Tony implied would happen but none of them wanted sixteen year old Dhampirs sent into the field. “Thank you,” he tells Tony when he finds him after the Council lets them out.

Tony frowns, “for what?” he asks and Rhodey can feel him trying to remember if he did something for Rhodey recently. Moments like this one were why he loved Tony so much. He was genuinely good and he didn’t expect anything in return for it.

“For giving those Council members something to think about and for complicating their arguments. You probably saved a lot of lives today Tony.” Council meetings didn’t happen unless they were close to a decision on an issue and Tony made sure that that decision wasn’t about to happen without a good discussion of all their options even if Rhodey didn’t agree with Tony’s assessment. Moroi weren’t meant to fight, magic or no. They just weren’t.

“Probably not, I can guarantee that they’re going to lower the guardian age regardless of the outrage it’ll cause. That’s the only viable option anyone here sees.” His tone is blunt, matter-of-fact.

“That is… there is no way they will do that because it’s insane. If they think what’s going on now is bad they haven’t seen anything yet, sending unprepared Dhampirs out into the field is going to result in way more lives lost. It’s a big mistake to make,” Rhodey says. He knew better than anyone and Tony suddenly perks up.

“Would you be willing to testify to that? Because you were the age that they’re planning on setting the new standard at and you didn’t just lose the fight, you died. My way worked and theirs didn’t all in one go, oh this is good!” he says, excitement rising but Rhodey is stunned.

“I’m sorry, what? I… I didn’t die Tony, I got thrown against a wall and passed out.” He says it like it’s a fact but Tony let that slip completely by accident and he could hear the truth to Tony’s words, feel the truth through the bond.

Tony’s mistake occurs to him too late and he can feel as well as see Tony blanch. “Oh. You… you’re going to want to sit,” Tony says softly.

Rhodey doesn’t want to fucking sit but he does because it meant he’d get what was going on here faster. “You didn’t get knocked unconscious when Howard tossed you into that wall,” Tony says softly, looking at his hands. “You’re used to being knocked around like that so it didn’t really phase you too much. You got back up but he was faster and you underestimated him so… so…” he stops and Rhodey can feel Tony’s emotions rise. He was scared, probably of how Rhodey would react and of Howard, conflicted because he’s managed to keep this secret so long, and guilty for keeping it. “He snapped your neck, Rhodey. You died that day and I brought you back,” Tony whispers.

He shakes his head even though he keeps getting snippets of Tony’s memories that confirm what Tony is telling him. “No, that’s not… you can’t bring the dead back to life,” he whispers.

“You can,” Tony says softly but firmly, “because I did. You’re head turned clean around like some fucked up owl. You were dead, I know you were, but I brought you back. I did it just before my mom showed up to light Howard on fire. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you but you were already so… fragile I guess, I just didn’t want to make it worse.”

Him, fragile? Compared to Tony that had to be some kind of bad joke. Tony was the one going off the rails all the time, he was the one with drug and alcohol problems, and he was the one Rhodey was always saving. He was the fragile one. Rhodey was around to protect him, mostly from himself, because he was the strong one and he always had been. Except he could see a kind of strength in Tony that hadn’t been there last year or even a couple months ago. Tony had grown like he had; also because of Howard’s actions, and he didn’t much resemble the party boy Rhodey used to pull out of the gutter semi frequently. Tony was… well even at his worst lately he wasn’t anything like he used to be. He might be out of control but not in the same way and it takes Rhodey a moment to realize he’s scared by that.

He knew how to handle Tony when he was being a drunk asshole chasing after sex, but he had no idea how to handle the Tony who drank to forget his problems and to dull his strange power. That was something new altogether and now he had a whole new scope for Tony’s power. He could bring the dead back to life. Jesus that was big.

“I don’t think it’s me you should be worried about. Tony, when you use that magic things happen to you. The more you use it the more that bad stuff happens, that’s probably why you were in a mood earlier,” he says even though when he checked that dark mood did what it did last time Rhodey found it and disappeared. Which had been more than a little frustrating. “You brought me back to life man, what the hell do you think that did to you?” No wonder he’s been drinking more, taking pills and other drugs in secret, and cutting himself off from people. Using compulsion sometimes drove him to do those things let alone bringing people back to life.

“I’m less worried about what it did to me and more worried about what it did to you. I’ve done research Rhodey and those guardians that had bonds to their Moroi? All of them have a history in which they were saved by the Moroi that they have a bond with. Whatever I did there I accidentally connected you to me for life and let me tell you those bonded guardians don’t have pleasant lives. Most of them commit suicide.” Rhodey can feel Tony’s worry and logically he knew he should be worried too but something occurs to him then.

“You’re not mentally stable, and it’s obviously linked to that magic. Didn’t you say Charles also had problems with substance abuse and stuff?” he asks and Tony nods. “Well… what if our connection runs deeper than we know. What if those guardians were like… I don’t know, absorbing that insanity. Don’t look at me like that, I can feel what you feel, see what you see, and hear what you hear even when I’m not directly in your head. It makes sense,” he says. And his moods have been as strange as Tony’s lately.

“That… we have no evidence for that,” Tony says, sounding disturbed.

“Maybe not, but it would explain why your moods have been better and mine have been worse.” Tony frowns at him then and Rhodey realizes he didn’t really tell Tony much about that. Looks like neither one of them were good at communicating with each other even with a bond. “Maybe that’s why my aura is so dark, you said that’s usually because of mental health issues.”

Tony shakes his head though, “no, I’ve seen those in your aura and if you’re right they’re my mental health issues that you’ve accidentally absorbed. But the rest of the shadows? I can’t heal those out like I can with the others. Your aura is just… dark. I think it’s because you died and would have stayed dead if it wasn’t for me. Resuscitation looks different,” he says, examining the air around Rhodey.

“How do you know what resuscitation looks like?” he asks. How many people did he know that could have died and been brought back?

“Bucky,” Tony tells him, shrugging.

Rhodey frowns, wondering what was going on with those two. Both of them might deny it but something was going on there, he just didn’t know what.

*

Loki meets the guy at the edge of the school’s property wearing dramatically large sunglasses. He loathed the sun and had no idea how the hell Tony could handle being out in it as much as he was but he had a job to do. “You better be prepared to do your part,” someone snaps from behind him. Loki turns and finds the annoyed human he was looking for and rolls his eyes not that he could see past the black tint on Loki’s glasses.

“You’re just annoyed that I have a better position than you and an even better one lined up,” he accuses, snatching the package from the human’s hand.

“No idea why, you’re a slimy bastard who will kill anyone who gets in his way,” the human snarls distastefully. Loki shrugs because he takes no offense to his ambition being guessed at. Besides, life with Strgioi had already been proven to be better than life with Moroi. They were more… cut throat and Loki could appreciate that.

“They know I’m a useful asset. You’re only useful because you’re human. Are things still running as expected?” he asks.

“Don’t fuck this up,” is all the human says and he stomps off, annoyed that Loki was better at being useful and productive than he was. That was hardly his fault though.

He walks back to the school wondering how he was going to get this done. He had rather hoped that Tony would help him out with his task given how intelligent he was but sadly he had hangups Loki hadn’t anticipated and that pesky guardian of his. Both pesky guardians of his actually. Though Barnes was something Loki really hadn’t anticipated. Perhaps he would use that to his advantage.

Regretfully though it looked like Tony was not going to be an ally as he hoped but he could still be a useful distraction in the meantime. He was trying to make Barnes jealous last Loki knew and Loki has always been fond of mischief and disrupting people’s lives. Tony too, which was why Loki attached himself to him, and his past of course. Tony had disappeared off to the Court though so for two days he had been stuck with Pepper Potts, who admittedly had a rather high power level for the commonwealth, and she was boring to him. There was nothing interesting for him to play around with, not like Tony. He had issues Loki had easily manipulated and that best friend of his that was easy to piss off, not to mention the guardian no one seemed to realize was in a relationship with a student. Tony was scandalous and Pepper was… driven but ultimately useless to him.

Of course Tony was a lot less fun when he came back from Court distant to him. It was almost amusing watching how people reacted to Tony’s newfound love of magic as a weapon, though. And Loki had to admit he was good at arguing his point. It didn’t help that the arguments against were mostly related to tradition and Tony had already sorted those. Someone had snidely pointed out that Tony would argue for something he couldn’t even participate in due to his lack of specialization, which had prompted him to roll his eyes and tell the student that he had other methods of being useful. Rhodey had looked horrified at the very suggestion and Loki had to wonder when Tony was going to stop being dense and figure out that he had specialized. He gave him those texts for a reason but he was reading all the wrong sections.

Loki has never met anyone like Tony before and he had been curious about his magic but Tony kept a tight control on it. Strange considering the texts that Loki read on Tony’s element suggested control wasn’t exactly their strong suit. They were empathetic, calibrated to help because that was how their magic worked though it wasn’t without a dark side. Loki was glad to know his own elemental control would not drive him insane though it wouldn’t matter soon even if it did.

Tony remains distant though and with some careful observation Loki notices why that is. Hmm, so it looked like him and Barnes kissed and made up- literally. Maybe he’d tell someone about that before he followed through on his plans with the school. But if he did he wouldn’t be around to see it and what was the point in causing mischief if he didn’t get to see the results of the mischief? It would be fun to leave more than one mess to clean up though… He’d consider it.