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Tony leaned back in his chair and let his mind wander. Unlike most people, he wasn’t limited to his own head. The vast internet opened up to him, granting him access to anything and everything except human contact. Tony had learned the hard way not to trust humans. He could never pull off the shaved head look with his scars. He could still remember the Doctor, could hear himself screaming as needles were sunk into his head and recall the tests to make sure the cure took. It took him much longer than it should have to realize that they, the Doctor and his father, would never stop until it took. If he went back in his memory banks even further, he could remember thinking his father was proud, thinking his father liked his powers. He was already enrolled at MIT before he realized that his father liked his powers the same way he likes finding new ways to make tanks go boom, as a scientist.

Tony focused on what he could control, which was a lot. He gathered information into secure files, making a one-stop shop for knowledge on a vast array of subjects, debunking myths using the existing files and expanding his knowledge banks. He found the repetition of the activity relaxing, an activity that took whole teams of human analysts months of in-depth research was Tony’s preferred way to unwind. As long as nobody found out, he would be fine.

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As a courtesy, ethical telepaths usually chose to stay the fuck out of other people's heads. Tony wouldn't say he exercised restraint due to ethics. Most people were so stupid that he felt it was bad for his own mental state to spend any time in another’s mind. However, like other telepaths, he couldn’t help picking up on projected thoughts so when he got an impression of "he can't know", curiosity got the best of him. As much as he regretted it, he was for once glad to be a telepath. Even though he had to flee to his Quiet Room- the walls, floor and ceiling of the secret chamber were made of the same metal as Magneto’s helmet for psychic shielding. Only JARVIS could open the door and the thickness of the walls made it soundproofed, hence the name quiet room.

Once he calmed down enough to be confident he wouldn't obliterate the mind of the first human he encountered, he got to work. First, he found Barnes and arranged his arrest through some of his trusty law enforcement contacts, sending them part of the Winter Soldier file and all of Sergeant Barnes' US Army file with the promise of more information pending. Then he contacted King T’Chaka to ask about Wakanda’s stance on mutants before getting involved with the Accords. Lastly, and maybe this should've been first, he went through his teammates' SHIELD files with a fine toothed comb. Gathering all of the information that Romanoff was considerate enough to dump on the web, he determined who was in on the betrayal and who wasn't. He responded accordingly, destroying the worst of the lot. Throughout all of it, he only slept in the Quiet Room and avoided people like the plague.

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God he hated Thor, Tony thought as he watched the man swing his hammer and screw up nature almost in its entirety. Too bad he couldn't do anything to help, not without outing himself and he did not want to be Indexed, thank you very much. Tony flew backwards, in his suit, and moved on autopilot- pun definitely intended. A petty part of him wanted to use the regular property damage caused by the Bifrost to justify kicking the man out on his ears just to get some peace, let nature return to the way it should be but he knew the others would invite him over enough that the eviction would mean nothing.

Hey, there's an idea. Evict them all, they all cause quite a bit of property damage and they don't fucking care. He'd have to check with Pepper but he was pretty sure he could do it. Finally, he could make his property his sanctuary once more. The fight was over soon and Tony did his fellow mutant Storm a favor by mitigating the damage Mjolnir did as subtly as he could. Then he went to check in with Pepper, dodging the debrief where they'd no doubt blame every mistake on him. He made sure to tell her that too when she asked why now. The overwhelming relief- that was relief, right?- that covered her face seemed a bit much but he didn't say anything, afraid if he said too much then he'd mention the real reason he wanted them gone was because he wanted Thor gone because the damn alien screwed with the weather patterns too much and that was not a conversation he was going to have if he could help it.

Pepper was efficient and ruthless, both excellent traits for a CEO. Within days of Tony's ah-ha moment and subsequent meeting with her, the Avengers had been stripped of everything Tony gave them and were homeless, banned from all Stark owned properties with restraining orders out on them in addition to several lawsuits and a few criminal charges pending against them. Why didn't Tony make Pepper CEO before Afghanistan? Oh, right, he needed to be dying to have that moment of clarity. There was a bit more turbulence on the flight home from Monaco than was normal but aside from that, he did an excellent job not screwing things up when it came to his powers. Anonymity is a mutant's first line of defense, an old mentor once told him. Unfortunately total anonymity is not in the cards for you, the Professor had continued, you must employ other tactics to ensure your safety. That reminded him, he donated a bunch of the stuff intended for the Avengers to the school with a note signed Zeus not Odin as a joke. He hoped Storm wasn't too pissed that he was no longer even monitoring Thor, he really felt bad for sticking her with most of the clean up but he couldn't risk the spy twins noticing. With the leeches gone, he could focus on more important matters, like the mutant rights cause he was supposed to be supporting. Go big or go home, that motto helped him hide a lot from the world. He jumped through many hoops to get in contact with the elusive King T'Chaka of Wakanda and offered him the shield as an olive branch to facilitate open communication between the Enhanced biggest advocate in the drafting of the Accords and the people they'd affect most, mutants. He set up the meeting then informed the Professor and asked he bring Storm, stating he'd only give Storm the shield to give the Wakandans and that the meeting depended on the X-Men having it. Then he made camp on the roof of the ex-Avengers Compound and began the long, tedious work of fixing the weather Thor screwed up.

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Tony screamed as the insurgents pulled hard on his wings. Screw it, he thought and swung himself up, kicking the nearest terrorists then carefully executed an aerial roll, mindful of the car battery keeping him alive, to break the chains holding his arms. Landing a little roughly, he wobbled for a moment before grabbing the battery and taking one of the insurgent's guns, shooting them all. His mutation made his upper body stronger, as his wings needed to be able to support him and they were attached to his back, so breaking out was relatively simple. He had to keep stopping to pick up guns because there was no way he was going to get close enough for them to damage his wings or worse, rip out the wires connecting the battery to the magnet. He found another captive, Ho Yinsen, the multilingual doctor. "C'mon, let's get out of here." He gave Dr. Yinsen the battery so he could shoot the gun more easily and managed to get outside, where he fired on his missiles.

They stole a vehicle. "What about your wings?"

"They're in no condition to fly, besides I've never shown another person, much less flown with another person. Just make sure the battery keeps working." They were in the middle of the desert when they ran out of gas and Tony started taking apart the radio to reset it, closing his eyes just before he gripped the sides and spoke into it. "Archangel to X-Men, I'm alive."

A few minutes later, Storm's voice came through. "Where are you?"

"Not sure. Uh, I just blew up an insurgent base in a bunch of mountains. Still in Afghanistan, I'd guess. Ask the Professor to look me up, my wings are jacked up and I'm not too confident about my chances of sustained flight in warzone."

"Right."

A few moments later, a shocked look crossed Yinsen's face- the Professor must've touched base with him- before the Afghani began directing him to a more secluded but equally deserted part of the area. "Your Professor-"

"He's not my Professor, I never attended his school. I spent a summer there but for everyone's safety, the Professor couldn't even offer me a scholarship. Dear old dad didn't like the wings, we didn't want to see what he'd do if he realized just how common my condition is. It's cool, I still made friends and I got the radio, which usually comes with a diploma but I'd already finished high school so there was no reason for me to be there that we could pitch to dad and a diploma would be suspicious."

"Fine, the Professor suggested that I, at least, try to examine your wings to make sure there's no life-threatening damage." Tony gave him a look then took the battery and turned his back on Yinsen. "Your mutation is incredible."

"I've heard that once or twice, I don't let many non-mutants see it."

"Oh, but you see, I am a mutant. My mutation is just much more subtle, I am a living cypher."

"Cypher, you mean-"

"I can understand any language, speech comes soon after but writing takes time."

"Wow. Must be what? Class One or Two?"

"I don't know."

"Three and up are supposed to be the best but subtle mutations, that's where it's at."

"If you say so. Your injuries are serious but I don't think you need any immediate medical attention, it can all wait for the Professor's people to come pick us up."

A few hours later, Tony groaned as Jean told him, once again, that he couldn't fold his wings up until they were healed. "Guess I'm gonna have to stay dead for a while. Alright, I'll call Happy, let him know I'm alive and free. He'll know when to tell the others, I don't want to risk- aw, crap. The insurgents made a video, my wings were on full display in it."

"Probably a ransom video," said Storm. "Otherwise, word would have gotten around by now that Tony Stark is a mutant."

"Right so someone betrayed me but my secret's not out yet. How's Yinsen?"

"He is doing well, I think the Professor is going to recruit him for the school."

"Good idea. The students need to see subtle mutations have value and this way you'll have someone here at the school in case something happens while the X-Men are out. Last thing we need is for someone to replicate Magneto's helmet and raid the school while you're dealing with Magneto himself."

"Quite true, although I believe our upper classmen would be more helpful in such a case."

"Fair point," he always got on well with Storm. They chatted for a bit longer, she caught him up on mutant affairs and asked how he could hide his wings and be a playboy. "Simple, I can move my wings and keep people from touching the join."

During his summer at the school, Tony had admitted to her that other mutants made him self-conscious. Mutants who saw their powers as gifts and those who saw them as curses alike would look at his and insist he had nothing to complain about, that he won the superpower lottery but having to spend his life pretending to be human, being forced to hide his wings and knowing why every time he thought about his father, that took away from any of the perks that came with his mutation. He refused to learn more than the basics during his summer, Storm tried to talk him into putting more effort into learning but he wouldn't hear it. Even now, he was more put off by the fact that he had to stay in the infirmary, leaving them out and risking word getting out that he had them than he was over the whole betrayal/kidnapping thing. Tony liked his wings, Storm knew, it was the rest of the world he hated and she believed that sometimes anger could help you survive better than hope, putting them on somewhat even ground.

Jean knew what to do when Tony had to spend any time in the infirmary, keep him busy or he'll rewire the medical equipment to work in a way only his sleep deprived brain understood. Technology helped this mission immensely since she could now just give him a tablet and let him go wild, sure that he'd replace it if he accidentally made it only Stark user-friendly. He'd probably donate a whole bunch of funding to updating the tech in New York schools while he was at it. Tony figured out who betrayed him and set the man to self-destruct from the safety of his hospital bed. His wings healed beautifully and quickly, much to Yinsen's fascination. Before the doctor knew it, the billionaire was boarding the jet to recreate his escape and this time get the US Air Force's attention, as it was time to rejoin the world.

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When he saw Rhodey fall, all bets were off. Tony vanished and reappeared behind him, grabbing the sides of the War Machine armor and reappearing on the ground. Letting him settle on the ground, Tony teleported behind Rogers and Barnes, grabbed them and moved into the air, high enough to hurt them but not kill the super soldiers. Then he jumped to just in front of Maximoff, swinging a leg out and backhanding her simultaneously to send her crashing to the ground. He only had to look and point at Wilson and the mystery man to get them to stand down. Sending a repulsor blast at each of the spy twins, he marched towards Black Panther. "You're gonna leave Barnes alone or we're gonna see just how far I can jump." The young king nodded seriously moving to join the rest of his team around War Machine.

Spider-Man was the one to break the tense silence as Iron Man and Vision gathered up Rogers' team for transport, "That was awesome. Have you always been able to do that?"

Tony grinned "Ever since I was your age, Underoos and that's all I'm saying for now."

Rogers' next statement shocked everyone "You're a mutant freak." He started spouting a bunch of bigoted bullshit but the shocking part wasn't anything he said, it was Barnes finding the strength after their fall to slug him unconscious.

Barnes turned to Tony "Howard's kid, right?"

With a sigh, Tony nodded "Yeah."

"I'm sorry."

"For?"

"I killed them."

A moment of dead silence preceded Tony suddenly vanishing and reappearing several hundred feet in the air. He let JARVIS control his fall, feeling too much all of a sudden. Rhodey got out of the suit, with a bit of help from Black Panther and looked up at the armor hovering a few feet off the air "You okay, Tones?"

"Not really. Kinda wanna kill Rogers."

"Why?"

"Barnes just admitted to killing my parents, I'm betting Romanoff and Rogers knew. I'll bet that's why they never asked my help in tracking him down. He said that in Lagos, Rumlow said Bucky's name and he was back in Brooklyn. First off, that's probably a lot mental issues coming to the surface, including PTSD. Second, I think it's more the implication that Barnes was back under HYDRA's control than Rumlow merely mentioning his name. I could've stopped Insight in my sleep, how long have they known?" Black Panther started to stalk towards Barnes but Tony fired a warning shot at him "Your kittyness, try to keep up. The Winter Soldier is the result of serious brainwashing, he has to be triggered to go from Barnes to the Soldier. Think about it, who gains from the bombing? I'm thinking the guy who triggered him in Bucharest gained more than anyone, he couldn't find Barnes so he made the world do it for him."

T'Challa stopped to consider his words "If I cannot kill Barnes then you cannot kill Rogers."

"Fine." Tony dropped to the ground and picked up Steve's fallen shield, bringing it over to the king. "Can I keep this? It's a Vibranium titanium alloy and Vibranium is almost exclusively found in Wakanda. If you let me keep it, I can find the Vibranium that was stolen by Klaue and any other bits and pieces lying around."

"We have a deal," they shook on it.

Tony walked back over to the Rogues with T'Challa and Rhodey flanking him, "Anyone want to tell me what this is really about? I know for a fact none of you have read the Accords in their entirety so don't try to pull that BS. You're going to prison, FYI, and not because of the Accords. You broke a lot of laws that predate World War II. You violated sovereign borders, you recklessly endangered and even killed people in the bridge collapse, the property damage alone is probably in the trillions so please, tell me, what the fuck was it all for?"

Sam said "I'll tell you but you gotta get Ant-Man out of here before the cops show up."

"Why would I do that?"

"You're gonna need him."

"Let's hear it then I'll decide."

"Zemo triggered Barnes to get the location of five other Winter Soldiers, it's in Siberia."

"Why do I care about Ant-Man?"

"You're a mutant and you're on the side of the Accords, clearly everything Steve said about them is bull. Ant-Man's on parole, we both got tricked into this but he had nothing to do with most of this mess."

"Just serious property damage. Yeah, alright." Tony turned to Ant-Man "Get up, follow me. Panther, Rhodey, watch them. The rest of us are gonna check out the base." Teleportation turned out to be a godsend as Tony was able to grab Zemo and throw him into a wall hard enough to cause amnesia while the rest of his team searched the base, finding the tape and securing it. Tony managed to spin it so Lang was a double agent, citing the theft from the Compound and Rogers' unorthodox recruitment of Wilson to deal with Project Insight as reason to believe they'd ask him. Taking Lang to Pym, he said "Split the bill and I'll ignore the theft from the compound," handing him the estimate the Germans gave him for Ant-Man's property damage.

"Fine."

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Tony could hear the echoes of Howard in his head, calling him a freak, telling him to at least try to be normal, to knock it off as he raced around in excitement but this was too important for any of that. He told JARVIS to let him out and was thankful at once that he'd designed himself a uniform to wear under the armor, even if that uniform amounted to a flight suit with the Avengers' A on the chest. He hit the ground running, shoving Romanoff out of the way just in the nick of time then ran literal circles around the seemingly endless army, barely touching them. Force equals mass times acceleration and if there's one thing he can do, it's accelerate so he had to be careful when touching people. Lucky for Nat, he was just getting started when he shoved her to safety but he was fast enough, she'd be dead if he wasn't.

When he ran into the enemy's big guns, he was going a few hundred miles per hour. JARVIS caught him in the suit after that and flew him away, leaving stunned Avengers in his wake. He had JARVIS disable their coms after advising them to return to the Tower for an explanation. JARVIS also advised him not to be in the lab if he did not wish for his sanctuary to be invaded, advice he took to heart. He waited for them in the hangar, sure that JARVIS would have kept them from outing him by any means necessary. "What was that?" asked Clint.

"What did it look like, Birdbrain?"

"It looked like you have super speed. If you could do that-"

Tony touched his chest to answer the inevitable question, "In case you forgot, the Arc Reactor wasn't the original power source for the electromagnet, a car battery was. I couldn't risk it. Besides, if you'd heard half the things dear old dad said to me when he saw my speed, you'd never be able to stop suppressing it."

"Tony," he couldn't take Steve's tone anymore. Especially not when he was the one most likely to out Tony to SHIELD, not when he would say he had to, that this secret was too dangerous to be kept.

Tony ran up to him and stopped short, the resulting wind was enough to knock the super soldier down "Let's get one thing straight, right here, right now. The Howard you knew died long before I was born and nobody has any business telling me who should and shouldn't know about my powers. If any of you tell SHIELD or anybody without my express consent, you will find yourselves stripped down to your boxers in the middle of Siberia faster than you can say comrade, capisce?" He glared at Romanoff in particular until they all nodded. "JARVIS will be monitoring you all from now on. His primary directive is to protect me and keeping me away from people who'd pick me apart to see how my organs don't get pureed when I run definitely fits that bill. Now, if you'll excuse me, I gotta recharge." He left them stunned speechless in his wake.

A few weeks later, Bruce invited him into his lab and asked very nicely if he could run some scans. "I didn't want to intrude on your space but," he shrugged self-consciously.

"Want me to run during the scans?"

"No. In fact, I'll be using scanners you designed." Tony designed a lot of medical tech and was relieved when Bruce walked him through it, verifying consent every step of the way. It was nothing invasive but it was revealing and Tony reveled in it, finally understanding his powers. "I'd need to do a DNA test but I'm not sure that you are a mutant, at least not the X-gene kind. Mutations typically manifest in puberty but you talk as though you've always had your powers."

"I looked into that once, there's a mutant subspecies called Changelings who are born with their powers active. Very rare and not all mutants who look like mutants are Changelings, it is a matter of powers. Blue skin isn't a power, shapeshifting and teleportation are."

"Ah, I see."

"I'm immune to g-LOC, part of how I figure my organs would be tempting to dissect."

"Make sure your will specifies cremation."

"I made sure of that the second I became an adult, I also made sure nobody could sneak a peek at my will."

"Good. That's real good, I think."

"You're amazing, Bruce."

"And you're engaged," that was true. "Is Pepper-"

"No, not X. Happy is, enhanced durability. Getting blown up was probably about the only thing that could hurt him. Rhodey's dad was, kinda meant he grew up paranoid but that's a good thing, I guess. There are worse things to be paranoid about." Slowly, one by one, they all showed their acceptance but Bruce's was by far the most important, he was the only Avenger whose opinion really mattered to Tony and he helped Happy find his limits without hurting himself, that was a huge bonus in Tony's book.

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Howard took one look at his son, whose anatomy seemed to confirm Darwin's theory, and decided he didn't like it but he and Maria were getting old, there was no guarantee that she could handle another pregnancy or that the next kid would be any more human so he was stuck with this monkey boy. Adoption was out the instant Anthony left Maria's womb, if not the minute she went into labor. Sighing to himself, Howard threw himself into his work as a distraction, one which never ended.

Tony Stark did not grow up in a loving household. Edwin Jarvis tried but even he was a little put off by the Young Sir's unique attributes. That was one change he made when he created JARVIS, his AI was a more accepting Edwin. Thankfully, his tail was easy to hide. Really, he didn't see what the big deal was. The tail was very versatile, he could use it as hand to grab things or in place of his feet when he was monkeying around. He always loved puns, they gave him a way to tease the whole world without getting in trouble. Still, he sometimes hated his tail, because other people made him feel like he should. Then it turned out to be a lifesaver.

In addition to the obvious, extra appendage Tony was also much more agile than normal people. Without the armor, he was able to race through the port and get to Killian with ease. Hiding his tail beneath his clothes with practiced ease, he smirked at Killian's confusion, the megalomaniac asked "How did you-?" Tony pulled out the gun Rhodey gave him, shot the man twice in the head and chest respectively then jumped onto the War Machine armor, hitting the catches he'd installed to repossess the armor if needed.

Hanging on the chains by his feet, he caught the president before he could fall too far and pulled him up onto the armor. "Hang on." He started undoing the chains on one of the arms.

"Are you crazy?"

"Little bit, probably. This paint job makes the armor too much of a target, we gotta hide before Killian's people, well, kill you."

"Oh."

"Don't worry. Once I get this arm free, I'll help you hold on." He did just that, swinging them both to relative safety then leading President Ellis on a run through the impound lot, getting them both out. "JARVIS, do me a favor, return Colonel Rhodes' suit."

"With pleasure, Sir." The AI spoke through the several incoming armors who were fighting Killian's men.

"And find Ms. Potts, I gotta save her." Once he got Ellis to the edge of the lot, he shoved a phone into the man's hand and kicked him out "We're gonna need some help with the clean up, preferably not SHIELD."

"I'll make some calls."

Tony nodded and made a run for it, back towards where JARVIS found Pepper. He resisted the urge to make a hot joke when he saw her Extremis enhanced form and just got to work directing the armors while leading her the way he'd come. His tail slipped out at one point but he quickly hid it again. Rhodey met them outside the impound lot/port after the last Extremis soldier was down. "Mr. President," he saluted the man before stepping out of the suit.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just- it's nothing."

"Don't worry, I'll make you a new one. You can even help design it this time." Tony turned to the President briefly, "No more outsourcing War Machine upgrades."

"I think that's a good idea."

"Glad we agree. Let's get out of here." Tony smirked at Rhodey "Unless you're looking forward to the paperwork."

"I'm not but someone's gotta stay with the President, Extremis is a healing serum first, I have to make sure none of the soldiers are playing possum."

"Good point." He turned to Pepper, "Shall we? I need to run some tests, make some calls. You want the Extremis gone, right?"

"Yes, Mr. Stark." They were being a bit formal, due to the President's presence. After he got some experts working to stabilize Extremis, Tony called an expert on mutants about his own condition.

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Magic, Tony couldn't hate something that was a part of him so he didn't think of his unnatural abilities as magic. They were a curse nonetheless but occasionally they were useful so he really couldn't hate them. Like with the Ten Rings, he screwed with their perception, made everything he and Yinsen tried work the first time. He still failed to save Yinsen but he understood, in the end, that Yinsen never intended to survive. While he assured him that there was a way out for Tony, he never made the same promise of his own fate.

What are the odds that all of those Hammer drones would detonate without a single loss of human life? Or that he would keep his mind about him enough to invent a new element to save himself? This was Tony Stark we're talking about, people might say. Beating the odds is what he does, they might think. Oh how right they are. Tony's flipflopped in his thinking between considering his strange abilities to be a collection of psychic powers and thinking of them as simple probability manipulation, it was always a coin toss.

New York proved what he said on the Helicarrier, SHIELD was an intelligence agency that feared intelligence. Lucky for him because they didn't see how he pulled himself out in the nick of time. Telekinesis or playing the odds, could be either or as usual. He couldn't stop his fall, not because he doesn't want the world to see what he is, he literally couldn't stop. Alright, maybe there was a psychological element to that. Hulk caught him, Thor was too slow and Tony couldn't tell if he was influencing either of them.

The Mandarin, situations like that made him lean more towards psychic powers and away from probability manipulation. If he could control the odds, how did he keep getting caught in such horrible situations? He mentally said fuck it once he was captured, he wouldn't let there be another Yinsen. He broke out and pulled the watch to himself, willing his guards to drop. Hansen was confused, Killian was pissed. He let Hansen off easy because he could tell she'd been played by Killian. Racing through the house, he found Pepper and Rhodey, freed them then got to a computer and shut down the War Machine armor after Savin was aboard Air Force One, Rhodey calling the President to inform him that he was not in the suit and advise an emergency landing before the man inside could detonate. All in all, not bad.

The Data Dump was a mess and Tony used the full extent of his powers, whatever they were, to protect the most civilians. He also pushed for Rogers and Romanoff's arrest since they orchestrated that mess while advocating leniency on Wilson, citing the power of the Captain America legend and the danger presented by the Black Widow to call his culpability into question, SHIELD's anonymity helped his cause. When he finally had a chance to rest, his mind was more crowded than usual, which kept him up.

Ultron was a bad idea but not his worst, somehow. Vision was great, he was glad he helped Bruce regain his freedom and invited him to stay. The Twins had to go and he had the power to do it, to end this problem before it got infinitely worse. "Sorry, not sorry." Having foreseen the legacy part of Ultron's mission, he advised Dr. Cho to keep a skeleton crew in conjunction with sending SI security under the pretense of securing their joint projects. Nobody died, miraculously. Something kept him from taking out Pietro, looking at Bruce, he knew what. "Mr. Maximoff, you have two choices, join your sister or surrender." Giving the illusion of red mist around his hand was child's play, the girl being a cheap knock off of him. The boy was smart enough to stand down at that, enabling Tony to arrest him. He had the authority to get all hostiles out of Korea so he took the kid back to the mansion and showed him his HYDRA file, showed him how he'd been manipulated and offered him a chance at redemption. "You'll have to confess to everything but I'll lend you some lawyers, see if we can get a plea deal going, maybe have you work off your sentence. We need to show the world that killing people with powers is wrong and Rogers isn't helping us there." The man escaped what he called 'wrongful imprisonment' and set out on a crusade, which is why Tony had the authority to help the kid walk the path. "If you're in, lemme know."

"I am in."

"Great. I'll call the lawyers." They were happy to help, Pietro could be a great counter to Romanoff but that was for the PR people to decide not Legal.

Barnes was easy to track down once Tony realized what Rogers' game really was. He used his telepathy to unlock the veteran's memories and place them behind a sort of window, letting him view them at his own pace and relieving him of the burden of not knowing. He also called his lawyer after swearing Barnes to secrecy when it came to his powers. His lawyer practically cheered, as great as Wilson and Maximoff were, Barnes was a legend. Plus the case was complicated and that made it fun, or maybe Tony totally misread the situation, or confused Legal with PR again. Regardless, the inevitable talks with King T'Chaka, the author of the Enhanced Accords, went well. Tony took a chance and swore the man to secrecy then demonstrated some of his power to put them on equal footing when the man told him about the Black Panther. "I'm not ready for the world to know but my team does and I hope we can consider Black Panther an honorary member of that team. Aside from your son, nobody else can know."

"Understood. This looks like the start of a great alliance."

"I hope so."

When it came down to it, Tony had lost all patience with the Rogues, as the media called them. He still didn't want to risk his powers getting out so he disguised his usage, as usual. He was definitely more comfortable with them by the time he had to confront Rogers, the man who ordered the portal closed, and Romanoff, the woman who closed it, and their brainless followers. He assumed most of the Rogues fell into the same trap as Wilson had or were being coerced so he let his team deal with them. Seeing Barnes threw Rogers off his game for a moment before he decided that Tony had done something to Barnes, who was clearly both unharmed and fully in control of himself. Tony didn't care, he fired a missile at the man, knowing he'd block it with his shield and go flying. While he was in the air, Tony fired several quick repulsor blasts at him, taking him out quite effectively and ignoring the desire to finish him off. He'd discovered that both Rogers and Romanoff knew the Winter Soldier killed his family, which made him want to kill them. They had expected him to provide for them while they sought out his parents' killer and then probably provide for Barnes. Luckily, he cared more about their Data Dump victims than he ever cared about them. He didn't get a chance to take out Romanoff, she took on Black Panther, who easily matched her. Instead of taking her down himself, he left that honor open for Barton, whose family was endangered by the Data Dump. For all their big talk, the Rogues were a joke and that joke was now dead- not literally but Tony would bet some wished they were with how badly beaten they were. Tony sapped Rogers' strength and clouded Romanoff's mind then stepped back to call for pick up.

With the Rogues out of the picture, all of the most prominent Enhanced were seen signing the Accords and speaking in favor of them. T'Chaka secured an anonymity clause using the Rogues to show why the Enhanced might not be willing to step out of the shadows and risk their necks. There was the risk that some people would generalize all Enhanced to be like Rogers but that risk was minimized by the public signing of the Accords. They had an army and the Hulk when Thanos came knocking. Tony never thought he'd be here, holding his baby girl and seeing the cosmos through her eyes. Maybe magic was accurate, maybe it wasn't. He'd never let Morgan feel like her gifts were bad, even if they went away. Tony wasn't a hundred percent sure he wasn't projecting images into her head but he was fairly certain that Howard couldn't do what he can, his mother was a coin toss. He realized days before her funeral that he didn't know much about her at all, maybe she was like him, maybe she wasn't.

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As Steve moved to decapitate Tony, instinct overtook the genius and flash froze the super-soldier. Frost covered the armor, making it easy to shatter, as Tony's whole body turned to ice. Barnes looked suitably terrified, probably flashing back to his time as the Soldier, being locked in cryo between missions. Tony merely jerked his head to indicate that Barnes should precede him as they left. They caught Black Panther lugging Zemo's unconscious form. "Mr. Stark."

"Doctor, technically." A small part of Tony relished the flinch from Barnes that caused. "What are you planning, your highness?" Robert 'Bobby' Drake was a true masterpiece, he survived a few years at the school while Tony Stark was globe trotting, getting drunk and just generally being an embarrassment in the wake of his parents' deaths. Tony sighed when the Panther only continued to stare at him. With a wave of his hand, he put the Panther in an icy cage, "I asked you a question." Zemo fell out of the cage and into an ice box of his own.

"I intended to offer Barnes asylum in Wakanda."

"And Zemo?"

"I was going to leave him with the local authorities."

"Better tell them about the Winter Corps," he pointed to the base, "Rogers is frozen in there, not sure how long that will last. If they ask, I enlisted the X-Men's help. Understood?"

"Yes, of course."

"What are you going to tell them? Let me hear you say it, just so I know we're on the same page."

"You enlisted the X-Men's aid in taking out the Winter Corps. I caught Zemo as he fled the base. What about Barnes?"

"The X-Men are better equipped than Wakanda to deal with his triggers, wouldn't you say?"

"Of course but I did not deal personally with them, only you."

"Good." Tony moved Zemo's box over to T'Challa. "Barnes, where's the Quinjet?"

The World War Two veteran led him to the stolen jet and took the seat he was directed to "Are you really taking me to these X-Men?"

"Yes. Technically, I am an X-Man, codename Iceman."

"Iceman," said Barnes. "You're not gonna kill me?"

"Nope, Rogers isn't dead either, 'case you were wondering." Tony explained "The X-Men are led by a telepath called Professor X, he should be able to numb the triggers and help you with your amnesia."

"Why are you helping me?"

"I don't want another Bucharest. As long as you can be triggered, everyone's in danger. I'm not helping you, I'm protecting them. I want nothing to do with you, understood?"

"Yes. Can I ask one more question?"

"You just did but go ahead."

"If you're not gonna kill me, why are you still in ice form?"

"I'm more comfortable like this and I'm hoping to stave off the damage you and Rogers did to me." Barnes fell silent and Tony flew under the radar, literally. When they got close, he projected his thoughts as loudly as he could, calling to the Professor for guidance because the Quinjet and Blackbird weren't both going to fit in the hangar and he didn't feel comfortable walking too far with Barnes. He set the jet down in an empty field and waited for the Blackbird, marching Barnes ahead of him to change planes when it arrived.

"Sup, Elsa," said Cyclops from the pilot's seat.

"Cyke." Tony gestured and Barnes took the seat indicated, Iceman sitting behind him. As they landed after a flight filled with tense silence, Iceman tapped Barnes' shoulder to indicate he should get up, making him disembark first. Professor Charles Xavier admonished Tony for his behavior. "Read my fucking mind, prof and then tell me I'm being unforgivably rude." The Professor put two fingers to his temple and focused while Tony recalled Zemo's grand climax.

"Apologies."

"Save it. He's your problem now." Ice formed under Tony's feet as he skated away to the infirmary, the ice receding behind him as a courtesy to the wheelchair bound telepath. He knocked on the wall beside the infirmary door, "Jean?"

"It's been a while, Bobby."

"I think the jig's up on that one."

"Agreed."

"Prof help you control your telepathy or are the barriers still up?"

"Barriers are still up." Tony's mind was hard to mess with, making erasing other people's memory of something a bit redundant if Tony was present for the event. Neither of them really believed the Professor suppressed Jean's memory of her out of control powers for her own good but they were willing to let it slide as long as he kept his promise to help her master her telepathy. "He's trying. Teaching keeps us both busy but we've made progress, the barriers are holding back less every year."

"Right. So you got Hank's old job on top of the teaching?"

"Unlike Hank, I actually did go to med school, Dr. Stark."

"Don't remind me. Rogers and Barnes beat the crap out of me, I'm afraid to unfrost without a doctor on hand, which is why I tagged along when Scott came to pick up Barnes."

"You brought one of the men who beat you to the school?"

"Barnes barely knows up from down after everything HYDRA did to him. He was running on an instinct to protect Rogers or maybe taking his cues from Rogers, I'm not sure but I am sure that Rogers had more control over his actions than his old war buddy so I blame him."

"Alright, hop up." He laid down on the bed before taking slow breaths and shifting from ice to human form.

Jean couldn't hold back her gasp. Tony's lips quirked into a cross between a grimace and a smirk "If it makes any difference, I flash froze Rogers and shattered the armor on instinct. I'm guessing it's a good thing I held my ice form for the whole flight."

"Uh, yeah. Tony, I'm not sure how you've stayed conscious-"

"Well, the cold never bothered me anyway so I guess it's a good thing we were in Siberia not the Sahara."

"But I need you to stay lucid. I think your powers may hold the key to keeping you alive. Do you trust me?"

"Always, Phoenix."

Jean smiled and rested her hands on the side of his head, needing to make contact to focus her powers properly. She fed him her ideas and he altered them as needed. The external injuries took the least work, he just slowly turned parts of his body to ice and evaporated the damaged tissue before changing back but his skeleton and internal organs were a bit trickier. Still, between the two of them, they managed to figure out how his ice form affected them and use the same basic principle on his insides as his outsides. Taking another deep breath, he pushed her hands out of the way and assumed his ice form once more, letting the changes settle and blend the new tissue with the old. Sitting up, he reluctantly unfrosted. "That should do it," said Jean.

"How are you?"

"Good."

"Glad. I hope that wasn't too much all at once, I know my mind's not exactly telepath friendly."

"It wasn't, I told you the Professor is keeping his word." She worried her bottom lip for a moment before coming to a decision, "You know where the spare clothes are kept. Change and meet me at the elevator."

"School or-"

"School. We'll be going up."

"Got it." He changed into the clothes bearing the school's name and logo, since his flight suit was wrecked, then met Jean by the elevator. She led him to a rec room where some teens were hanging out, playing foosball. "Rogue, there's someone I'd like you to meet."

"Tony Stark?"

"That's my name, although I went by Bobby Drake when I was a student here. Or Iceman, if you prefer mutant names." He held out his hand, turning it to ice then spread his fingers and extended the ice so there was a bit of a barrier, "Go ahead."

"I really shouldn't-"

Jean assured her "It's fine, Tony can always unfrost if you start absorbing his energy and I'll be right here in case he can't." Like most people, Rogue was surprised by how his hand was cool but not super cold, like he had just come in after a day spent building snowmen or something. Tony shot Jean a look when he started thinking in Elsa jokes but she merely raised a confused eyebrow.

Rogue removed her hand first, "That's nice but-"

Tony drew his attention back to the student "I prefer my ice form but unless I concentrate, the slightest touch can give someone frost bite. It took a lot of practice for me to resist the urge to shift to ice when threatened. Even Siberia can feel a bit warm to me, can you imagine what Malibu was like for me? I had an image to maintain so I lived there, I've done a lot to maintain appearances. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that every mutant hates their powers on some level, or feels they're a curse at some point. If you run away from them then you'll never be able to control them. Mind over matter, if you see your mutation as a curse then it is but if you let yourself truly consider the possibilities then they will become a reality. Check this out." He turned to ice then turned transparent and Rogue gasped before he turned back to human form, "If you think I could always do that, you're both right and wrong. You wanna hear the real downside to my mutation? The part I hated when I was your age?"

"Sure, I guess."

"I used to freeze my room. It's actually how my best friend, Rhodey, discovered I was a mutant. I'd been pulling a bender- not drinking, just not sleeping for several days- and he gave up on putting me to bed but then I fell asleep where I was. Next thing I know, there's this burning feeling on my shoulder, it was Rhodey's hand. After I started freezing our dorm room, my body responded to the change in environment by turning me to ice so I could handle the cold better, and then my powers made it colder and colder, making my body colder and colder in time until Rhodey had both our blankets wrapped around him and his teeth were still chattering. His hand not only felt like it was made of fire, it also got stuck to my shoulder. I had to spend ten minutes trying to force my powers back down and worrying the entire time that I just cost my best and only friend his hand. Wasn't the only time I froze our dorm and Rhodey still has both hands, thank god. He even covered for me, claimed he got burned when one of our projects blew up because I fell asleep, which is much more plausible to most people than Tony Stark is secretly a yeti." Rogue chuckled. "Can you imagine being me in that situation? I was afraid to go to sleep, which is probably why it kept happening, I was afraid to go to sleep so I kept having benders so when I did sleep, I was practically dead to the world. But I was afraid because I wasn't having a bad dream when it happened, I couldn't even remember the dream when I warmed back up. I was worried that if this happens when I'm just sleeping then what will happen when I have a nightmare? I'm still afraid of that, I'm afraid that I might have a bad enough dream that I turn into real life Elsa but I also believe in myself, I know I can control this and so I do. Mind over matter, key to everything mutant related." Rogue nodded. "I survived Afghanistan, that both worsened and lessened my worries about overheating or being exposed because I overheat easily. You have to have hope, what else is there?" He looked at her hand, recreated his ice gloves on both hands and took one of hers in his "Tell me when." He let the chill seep out until she yelped then unfrosted and took her hand in his human ones, "You're not draining me." As soon as he said that, made her aware of it, her powers kicked in "Now you are but when your hand was numb, when you couldn't feel it, your powers failed to respond. There is hope, it's probably gonna take some time, like it did for me and not freezing my room. Okay? You good?"

"Yeah."

"Great, I gotta make some phone calls but I'm probably gonna be stuck here for a couple months, liaising between the X-Men and the Accords, and hiding from the Accords Council and SI because I shattered my armor and can't explain how I survived my armor getting shattered like that without exposing my other side. I didn't create four separate identities for them to get blended together like this." He laughed and she laughed before going their separate ways.

Chapter Text

Tony wasn't human. Well, okay, that's not entirely true, he's not a mutant either. He was born human but now, he's not, or at least not entirely. It's hard to explain but here goes. Every generation has several people who could come to embody a fundament concept; in Tony's case, order. These potential avatars can live their whole lives unchanged. It only takes two things for an avatar to awaken: the death of their predecessor and a defining moment. There can be a time when there's no avatar if two opposing concepts lose theirs either together or close together. Usually, that doesn't happen. More often than not one avatar kills their counterpart but even then, it's not that simple. The universe hates them, Tony's sure of it, he suspects fate has an avatar and they're laughing at him from far away.

Take, for instance, the avatar of chaos. Wanda Maximoff. She recognized what he was when he did her the favor of making Ultron's drones attack her in sync, giving her the ability to destroy them and move on, which saved her brother's life as she was able to make the bullets go wild. She confronted him after the dust settled "What are you?"

"I'm guessing the Mind Stone never did you the courtesy of explaining what it made you. I am the avatar for order and you, Ms. Maximoff, are the avatar for chaos. There are fundamental concepts that are almost constantly embodied by avatars. Several people in each generation have the potential to be an avatar but you need to have a defining moment around the same time one of the current avatars dies. I had mine in Afghanistan when I realized that I had been betrayed. You can look it up, odds are you'll find closure you never expected if you look into my past. Trust me, avatar of order, I know."

"Order and chaos are opposites, yes?"

"Yeah. If you and I die together as Avengers, there may be a time when order and chaos have no avatars. I suppose you could say we balance each other out." That is how they went from enemies to friends. Tony taught her what he could about being an avatar. As the avatar of order, he knew a lot and he saw patterns in almost everything. She was the avatar of chaos, she existed as his opposite, she was the greatest threat to order but Tony wasn't a fan of killing and he hated the idea of fate, she wasn't predestined to destroy him any more than he was predestined to destroy her.

There is one thing he couldn't explain. He gets the enemies to friends but he's not sure how they went from friends to lovers. That's how it works, a voice inside his head he's come to associate with his avatar status whispers. So opposites really do attract but he was actually wondering when the shift from friends to lovers happened, not that it matters. He has work to do. Seeing the patterns in everything has huge downsides, he's actually been investigated more times than he can count for insider trading because he saw patterns in the stock market before they were clear to others and that was before he became an avatar. Seeing right through Obie's betrayal hurt worse than anything, his godfather was a witness to his parents' accident, that thought led Tony to wonder if it really was an accident. He sat with Aunt Peg and listened to her ramble, hoping against hope that he wouldn't hear her confession but he did. He also heard about how Steve visited her and how they should meet when Peggy was lucid enough to know who she was talking to. Steve knew something about his parents' deaths and it didn't take long to find out what.

Tony could admit, even if only to himself, that he took advantage of his current relationship with the avatar of chaos to make Steve's life Hell as he worked to beat the stupid man to the punch. After all, order only made things easier.

Chapter Text

Tony had to remind himself to breathe and resist the urge to throw the cars right back but then Rhodey was falling and if he died then the Brotherhood might get Magneto back, just not Erik Lehnsherr. With a scream of rage, he threw the smashed cars at Maximoff, pulled Rogers and Barnes back by their shield and arm respectively, caught Rhodey and threw Wilson, all at the same time. Pulling the wings off, he trapped Barton and picked up a part of a bumper to restrain the mystery man. Looking around, he shed his suit. "What the hell was that?" He screamed at Rogers "And don't give me any bullshit about the Accords." He turned to Black Panther "I wrote the Accords with your father, I know everything that went into them. Before Lagos," he turned back to where Rogers' lot were, "King T'Chaka was prepared to present them to us, not Ross. The US barred King T'Chaka entry as a power play. Coming out of centuries of isolation is no small feat," he again glanced at T'Challa when he said the last part before focusing on Rogers "What the hell do you think you're doing? What is all this really about? I know for a fact, it isn't about the Accords. Despite the name, the Sokovia Accords were intended to be the first step towards equality. Do you have a goddamn clue what that means?"

"Tony, you can't-"

"I'm a fucking mutant, Rogers! My people won't get their basic fucking rights if you fuck up the Accords! Don't tell me the Accords are evil when you didn't fucking read them! Millions of people, you are screwing over millions of children who can't help being mutants and even more humans who don't want to be fucking trampled by people like you and the Brotherhood. Stop the bullshit and tell me what is going on or so help me God, I will kill you to protect my people."

Sam Wilson spoke up "Zemo, the guy who triggered Barnes, he's going to Siberia to activate five more Winter Soldiers."

"Okay, thank you."

As he turned to walk away, the mystery man asked "Are the Accords really about mutant rights?"

"Yeah." Tony turned to him, "What'd you think they were?"

"A draft thing, like a mix between registration and Weapon X."

"You're a mutant?"

"Class Three, I think. My entire family was killed when our home got attacked and my brother panicked. I was the lone survivor, the attackers were government agents and they took me. I was lucky, the X-Men were already onto them and the base was raided before they could begin on me but I can still hear the screams, I can still see commandos carting bodies off God knows where. I- can you let me up? I'll show you my mark." Tony did and they all saw the brand seared into Scott Lang's skin. "I'm sorry, man. I should've known better."

"Yeah, you should've." Tony asked "Does the suit contain your power or-"

"No, the suit has nothing to do with my mutation." Scott pulled a couple things out of the belt, "Here, make sure this gets to Hope van Dyne."

"Sure thing. What's your name?"

"Scott Lang. I'm just gonna sit and wait." He sat down near the heap of defeated Avengers.

First, Tony called Everett Ross, the Deputy Task Force Commander of the Joint Counterterrorism Center to pick up the Rogue Avengers and Zemo. Then he called Hank McCoy to get to work on deals for Barton, Lang and Wilson but especially Lang, sharing the man's story. Lastly, he called Professor Charles Xavier and let him know he had to use his powers, giving him a heads up on the Accords and explaining them to his old mentor. As a young mutant, Tony helped reunite the Professor and Magneto, basically just by being an intelligent metal bender.

A month after the fight, Tony escorted two men into the cell block the Rogues were being held in. Instead of fresh prison uniforms, Lang and Barton had been issued street clothes that day since they were being released into the custody of the X-Men (SHIELD's Index was immensely helpful in securing their plea deals as it outlined the steps taken to gain control over certain key assets, namely Clint Barton and Laura Kinney). They were waiting patiently in their cells when the three men entered, or rather the three mutants. Erik had arrived in time to take the fall for Tony's handiwork and after most of his team turned on him for lying about the Accords, nobody was willing to believe Rogers when he claimed that it was Tony not Magneto who did the damage. Magneto also offered to repair as much as he could, a show of good faith towards the Accords. Tony pointed out he was authorized to recruit other Enhanced to bring the Rogues in. All in all, not a bad day's work but from Rogers' perspective, Magneto was unfairly biased against Wanda, even though most of his words in regards to her were thinly veiled threats about keeping her powers restrained through humane means. Amusingly, Rogers didn't recognize Magneto when he, Tony and some guy in a weird wheelchair entered the cellblock. Barnes had been transferred into the X-Men's custody after only a few days once he'd signed papers consenting to telepathic treatment. "Who are these people, Tony?"

Tony shot an amused look at the two older men, which was shared by everyone except Rogers and Maximoff. "Wow, how did I not notice how truly dense he is before now?"

"You were blinded by the same legend as many of his cohorts, Anthony," answered the man in the wheelchair.

"Right." Tony turned back to Rogers as the third man who entered with him removed his hat, "I believe you've all already met Magneto when he kicked your asses in Germany. With us today is Professor Charles Xavier, he runs a school for mutants and is one of the founders of the X-Men. We have some news for Wanda before the Professor signs Lang and Barton out of here."

Tony passed an envelope to a guard, who in turn passed it through the convoluted system that their meals and laundry went through. "Wanda Maximoff, legal daughter of Marya and Django Maximoff, biological daughter of Magda Maximoff and Erik Lehnsherr. Okay, well that's not entirely true, your mother knew your father as Henryk Gurzsky but still, genetically the same guy. Your mother barely survived an angry mob who came after her, your father and your sister. The last one didn't survive and your father's vindictive nature caused a schism. You and Pietro were born after that. Marya and Magda were sisters, your aunt and uncle died in that explosion, and your father spent most of your life regretting scaring your mother off. Now," Erik rolled up one sleeve, "How do you think he feels about two of his children joining a neo-Nazi organization and submitting to experimentation by said neo-Nazis in the name of revenge when acting in the name of revenge is what cost him said children and their mother? Fun fact: HYDRA's experiments didn't just awaken your mutations, they enhanced your mutations. Your brother has a healing factor that's, at most, a third as strong as Sabretooth or Wolverine's so he probably won't age slow but it did keep him on the edge of death when the drone used lethal force. Luckily the Professor went looking for mutant survivors of Sokovia in the hopes of saving them from what happened to Lang. Upon meeting your father, hearing the truth and doing a little bit of research on me, Pietro chose to let go of his hate and become an X-Man, even if he'll never be able to go into the field. He's alive but he's not fit for combat. Still, he might pay you a visit. Seeing as you're likely to get a life sentence out of all this, he's got all the time in the world." Wanda opened the envelope to find DNA test results, a letter from Pietro and an overview of her brother's condition along with a revised birth certificate, giving her US citizenship through her father. "I'm guessing Erik will want to have some words with you in private but the Professor and I have promised to keep an eye on him to keep him from killing any of you."

Tony turned back to Rogers one more time "Carter and Romanoff were arrested almost three weeks ago, when they teamed up to break you out like you asked in your letters. Stop trying to contact them, the more references you make to past actions, the more charges get added to their list. We've already got you and Romanoff on aiding and abetting a murder, knowing about a crime and saying nothing makes you complicit in the crime so shut up."

Then to Wilson, "The US Air Force has decided not to press charges since technically Romanoff stole the wings and you could, plausibly, have been under the impression that Captain America requisitioned them. Don't incriminate yourself, you're still on the hook for Romania and Germany but that's mostly aiding and abetting. Be glad you didn't know what it was really about, if you had then you'd also be complicit in my parents' murders." WIlson's mouth snapped shut from where he'd been about to protest the truth. "Yeah, Zemo had no intention of awakening the Soldiers, just showing me a video of Barnes killing my parents, thereby exposing Rogers' lies in the hopes we'd kill each other, thus destroying the Avengers from the inside out. All of your Avengers' status, if you had such status, have been revoked. You and Rogers have been dishonorably discharge. The walking flag over there never did formally retire or actively serve since waking up so there's some debate on whether he should have charges relating to military law brought against him or tax evasion. Did you know that Rogers has never paid a dime in taxes in his entire life? Personally, I think that's a moot point but it'll be a nice note on how important every law is and how nobody is above the law, I suppose. The announcement of your discharge came with a reminder that soldiers don't have to follow unethical orders, which wasn't the case in Rogers day. In fact, the Nazis are the reason that soldiers can refuse bad orders. There were some Nazis who honestly were just following orders, they weren't believers in the Third Reich, they were believers in continuing their own survival. If you don't believe me, ask the Auschwitz survivor who came with me."

Erik said "I believe you have said more than enough." Tony nodded. Erik started with Rogers, who was on one end of the semicircle of cells. "I sincerely wish you had never been defrosted. Perhaps if the Captain America legend had been allowed to die then my son would not have days where he cannot breathe unaided, perhaps my daughter would have been able to learn accountability, perhaps so many tragedies could have been avoided, perhaps millions would not have been endangered because you rediscovered HYDRA, perhaps my people would have gotten their basic rights years sooner instead of having to negotiate for them, even now. Most of all, I wish that people had been honest about your accomplishments and more than honest about your faults. Did you know the history books sometimes claim you led the liberation of Auschwitz? History books, not comic books, historians honestly believe that you liberated concentration camps. Looking at you now, I can tell you have no idea what a concentration camp is, much less what Auschwitz is. These numbers on my arms, they are all I have left of my parents. When the Nazis rose to power, my family fled to Poland. When the Nazis conquered Poland, we were rounded up and shipped to a place called Auschwitz, where these numbers were inked into my flesh and similar numbers were inked into the flesh of my parents. Everything we owned was seized. If someone bound for a camp had a gold tooth, it was pried out so the state could claim the gold. My mother was killed right in front of me when I was twelve, I have no idea what happened to my father, I know only that he did not survive. Many didn't, most estimates place the death toll in the millions. Despite numbering prisoners and keeping good records, there is no way of knowing how many died. You do not care. You demonstrated that when you placed one man above the world. Unfortunately, many mutants identify with you and many people view you as the poster child for the Enhanced, mutants are judged by your actions. Had you not taken the law into your own hands, had you simply refused to sign and left it at that then we would all be equal, we would be more than statistics but you did not and so we must continue to fight for our rights, a fight that should have ended over a month ago."

He skipped Wanda and looked at Barton, "I will not waste my breath lecturing you on your responsibilities as a father but I will say this, your father-in-law is not a man of words. He is the best there is at what he does and what he does is fight. You are about to walk a thin line between friend and foe in the eyes of the Wolverine. Did you know that men carry the X-gene and pass it down? Your children were nearly forcibly gene-tested before Dr. Stark informed us of their location. You, unintentionally, helped us and for that, I will ensure Wolverine does not kill you on sight when you meet."

Next was Lang, "Your daughter manifested, which is the only reason you will be able to see her. She is American and our school caters mostly to American mutant children. Do not expect your ex-wife or Dr. Pym to be pleased with you, nor should you expect them not to share their displeasure with you simply because you are not nearby."

When he looked at Wilson, he wondered if the man had asked to be housed away from Rogers. "You are very lucky, Mr. Wilson. You have no powers, no relations of interest, nothing for the likes of Ross and his ilk to take. You are simply a fool but you are a fool who is likely to spend most, if not all of his remaining days confined to a single room. The only reason you are not being remanded to solitary confinement is because nobody wishes to see what effects isolation has on mentally unstable Enhanced and nobody cares enough to differentiate between baseline and Enhanced Rogue Avengers."

Turning back to his daughter, he told her "I may wish many things on Rogers but when I look at you... You are my daughter, I will never see you as some helpless little girl and one who knows the likes of either Mystique or Miss Romanoff never should but Rogers has demonstrated time and again how dangerously naïve and ignorant he is. You may write letters to your brother, if or when the administration deems you safe enough to entrust with a writing utensil, but make no mistake, Pietro has no obligation to respond."

Charles took his turn last and it was just icing on the cake, he was too polite and proper to use insults, instead merely lecturing them on their behavior and the consequences of such before turning to the guard to ask that Lang and Barton be released. They were taken away to be processed out before Romanoff and Carter were placed in their cells. Tony asked Sharon "Did you know that HYDRA killed my parents and Aunt Peg covered it up to take SHIELD global? Did you know Rogers and Romanoff knew Barnes killed my parents and went searching for him using my resources with the intention of bringing him back to live off my money? Did you even know that Rogers completed only one week of a twelve week basic training course? No, well some intelligence agent you are. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. After all, you are SHIELD's answer to the Red Room." Then he turned and walked out. Erik expressed his displeasure in a dehumanized assassin being seen as a representative of mutantkind while Charles was more general with his disappointment in the two women, who had a chance to achieve legendary greatness, to be a beacon for the future but chose to tie themselves down to a facet of the past. Erik didn't really care about Carter but used her presence to justify a short rant about the evils of humanity's hubris, Charles didn't let him preach mutant superiority much at the school because it caused students undue stress when they were faced with the we-are-the-future view of mutants. Only senior X-Men trainees got that education, and that was only to teach them how to see things from the enemy's perspective.

In the wake of the so-called Civil War, Tony moved the Avengers operation to the school briefly while the compound was repaired and renovated to accommodate more people. With King T'Challa, Ambassador McCoy, Magneto, Professor X and several others who didn't need naming, he was able to take his warnings of an impending invasion straight to the top. The hardest part of that meeting was keeping them from 'temporarily' turning the Accords into a superhuman selective service. Basically, everyone on the side of the Enhanced threatened to dodge such a draft and focus on getting themselves off-world in case of another alien invasion, leaving the humans no choice but to keep the Accords as they were intended. Magneto warned mutants to be careful about how much trust they put in the arbitrator of the Accords but gave the treaty his support nonetheless, Professor X and his X-Men told people that change is the result of give-and-take relationships, King T'Challa shared the legacy of the Black Panther with the world as he signed as both a leader and Enhanced person, Tony Stark highlighted the anonymity clause and focused attention on the people who gave their lives to bring the Accords to the world's attention by letting men like Zemo know where they'd be at the first signing. With all of that, the Accords persevered and overcame the Rogues. Signers of the Accords outside the superhero community had their own reasons for signing. There were those who only wished to claim the protections granted by the Accords, others unwilling to go full superhero but willing to back up the superheroes as needed and others still who wished to escape their countries' oppressive laws by going above them. The Accords were designed in part to grant mutants their basic human rights around the world, they simply grew from that into a way to track those who would protect the planet in the coming war. There was even a clause in the Accords that allowed a representative to sign for a group of people, which tied in with the anonymity protections that both T'Chaka and Tony agreed were non-negotiable. When he took over as Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Stephen Strange signed on behalf of an ancient order of monks called the Masters of the Mystic Arts. Although many saw them as a cult, nobody could deny their abilities.

Tony invited Pepper over just before the Avengers were set to move back into the compound, which had been signed over to the UN as a training compound for Enhanced volunteers in addition to being the main base for America's primary protectors. Their UN status made it easier for foreign heroes to come coordinate with them since the property was technically exempt from sovereign border restrictions being jointly owned by all states equally. Talk about a tax write-off, Tony thought ruefully when he remembered how many superhero teams came out of the woodwork in the wake of that announcement. There was a set of standards that every base had to meet before the UN would take over ownership and pay off any outstanding taxes. Just before Tony moved the Avengers back (or at least those who wanted to move in, Vision was enjoying his time at the school where being non-human was normal) he invited Pepper over to meet and review what the facility's UN ownership status meant and how he could make up for lost time with the board, who sorta expected him to go on regular inventing benders that revolutionized the tech industry and made the company billions overnight but he hadn't had a chance to go on one of those in a while with the Professor remembering how he was as a student and having Magneto help him enforce a curfew. Man did he have a lot of memories at the X-Mansion, most of them better than his memories at his father's mansion but new information was making him look at those memories differently.

Suddenly Tony had to duck as Erik got tired of waiting for him to focus and threw the ball at his head to force his focus. Ball was perhaps too tame a word, it was a heap of metal that was originally smooth and round but after being used to help many mutants with kinetic abilities gain control, it more closely resembled a crumpled wad of paper than a ball. Only teachers with kinetic abilities, like magnokinesis (Magneto's power) were allowed to use it. Tony knew there was a much larger ball that was more like a bolder but still made of metal used to help students with super-strength, often simply serving as a punching bag and wondered if he should've given Rogers something similar instead of replacing his reinforced bags.

Regardless, Magneto began pulling the ball back towards him, again aiming to go through Tony, forcing his former student to focus. The game they were playing took a lot of skill and served as a team building exercise. If Tony or Erik failed to move in sync, they were liable to tear the ball apart instead of passing it between them and making it orbit around them. The ability to let go at the precise moment another takes control was a hard-earned skill. Without practice, the results of attempting such a feat were more like a game of mutant tug-of-war. As Pepper approached them on the commandeered basketball court (because the Danger Room was in use and, oh yeah, made of metal) Erik broke off the rims of the hoops and threw them at Tony, who caught them without a backwards glance and proceeded to throw the ball hard at the older man, letting go just as Erik caught it. "Hey, Pep." Tony made a T with his hands and let go of one of the hoops as Erik set the ball down, each metal bender fixing one hoop. He turned to his CEO and future fiance, fingers crossed, "Surprise."

"Rogers wasn't lying."

"No, he lied a lot but not about this. I'm sure you can think of at least ten reasons letting word get out that Tony Stark has Magneto's powers would be bad. Personally, I can think of a few million and I'm not talking about money."

"Of course. What were you two just doing?"

"Training exercise." Tony explained as he walked up to her "Passing a ball made of metal between us, letting go just as the other one catches it, takes a lot of work, y'know."

"The Board-"

Tony held out one hand and his phone flew to him, causing Pepper to blink. Unlocking his phone, he pressed one button before turning it off and pocketing it. "Plans for the next six generations of Stark Phones, three different video game ideas to prepare people for the impending invasion, a true VR console with built-in safety features to make sure people don't stay online too long and starve or something, several laptops, a few ideas for upgrading medical scanners, about a dozen different prosthetic designs that I based off Barnes' arm, a rough outline of psychic interfacing for psychiatry- basically a memory machine- and a few other odds and ends, like adapters and stuff. I haven't been able to build anything, which is why I sent all my work to my underlings in R&D with a more thorough rundown of what's what but we should be able to get something to present to the Board within the next two weeks if my VPs can delegate properly."

"Wow, okay then. The UN ownership of the compound basically means the Accords oversight committee are your landlords since they're the ones who technically own the base."

"I know, I just needed an excuse to get you out here to see how you'd handle the mutant thing."

"You were testing me?"

"Well, I figured this is the best place. The Professors are already working on educational briefings to debunk the myths that surround mutants. If you had a negative reaction, they could talk you through it."

"So I'd be their sounding board?"

"They're definitely looking for a sounding board, I think their students' parents are probably gonna get the talk first if they can't find someone more neutral. Do you want to hear what they have to say? If you have any questions, the headmaster here coined the term mutant."

"I'll be sure to talk to him."

Tony took a deep breath and nodded mutely, smiling at her. He was a little surprise when Erik didn't pick up the ball and throw it at his head after he simply watched Pepper walk inside but maybe he'd already been scolded for throwing the ball at Tony's head twice when he knew the younger mutant wasn't paying attention. Tony wouldn't put it past the Professor. "Care to call it a day?" asked Erik instead "After all, this was just an excuse to show Ms. Potts what you can do."

"And a chance for the younger students to see the level of control the X-Men strive towards but yeah. I gotta make a few calls, check in with some people."

Thanos' army came seeking the last two Stones, Mind and Time. They came and they were slaughtered by the combined might of Earth's trained Enhanced. Tony threw the Gauntlet at Pietro Maximoff and put all his might into holding Thanos down, the young mutant had insisted on joining the fight with his specially designed exoskeleton keeping him steady. As he let go of the Gauntlet, trusting it to land where he intended, he gritted his teeth with the strain of holding Thanos steady and said through the coms, "Make a wish, Speedy."

When he put the Gauntlet on, the Guardians yelled for someone to grab him. Their warnings of the Infinity Stones overpowering anyone who tried to hold them echoed in the minds of many and everyone made a mad dash to split the strain. With a snap of his fingers, Pietro healed himself, testing the waters a bit. A second snap eliminated all who were loyal to Thanos, freeing his allies to all crowd around him and share the strain. His third snap took care of Thanos himself, freeing Tony to join the crowd. The fourth snap repaired the damage done during the Infinity War; that time, he nearly wished to fix the damage done by superpowered battles but feared what Soul and Mind might do with that. Their game of ultimate keep away began the second Thanos claimed Vision's Stone, and now Pietro held the power of infinity in his hand or rather on his hand. His fifth snap restored the Stones containers, laying them out in front of him. His sixth snap used only half of the Stones and made the Gauntlet harder to use because he took the Soul Stone's sacrifice away when he restored Gamora. The seventh and final snap scattered the Stones anew, restoring them to their containers. Suddenly, he was exhausted. Their alien allies looked at him in amazement. "Seven snaps," said Rocket Raccoon, "You made seven snaps. What'd you do, humie?!"

"Fixed as much as I could." Pietro said between pants, waving to the repaired battlefield. "My last snap destroyed the Gauntlet, that was an accident."

"And your first?" asked Cyclops.

"Just healed myself." At the general looks of disbelief his answer earned, Quicksilver defended "I wanted to see how much using the Gauntlet hurt before I could accidentally kill myself for no reason."

"You wanted to make sure it worked for you so if you did kill yourself using it, whatever you willed to happen would still happen?" clarified Nebula.

"Exactly."

"That makes sense," said Gamora as she sat up, Peter 'call me Star-Lord' Quill hurrying to give her a hand up off the ground, "We wouldn't want you to die trying to take out Thanos' army only to wish away a few Outriders."

"Still, he managed seven snaps," said Rocket, expressing his amazement.

"Healed myself, wiped out the army, erased Thanos from existence, repaired the battlefields, restored the Stones' containers, restored Gamora- the Stones started fighting me after that- and scattered the Stones. I think that since I am not familiar with the wider galaxy and could not even think of a precise destination, the Stones should be harder to find now. The last snap destroyed the Gauntlet by accident." Pietro yawned, "Could we continue this tomorrow? Or in a week?"

"Yeah," Gamora said "You should get some sleep." His father supported him as Pietro trudged off to find some food before he went to bed. If his first snap worked as intended, his father should have no need to support him as such again, or at least not as much as he had to when Pietro first met the man.

Chapter Text

The dreams started up again after he found himself stranded with Nebula in space. Visions of medieval war, the kind that involves swords and shields and arrows. He can hear the loud, roaring battle cries; he can smell the putrid stench of death made worse by warriors who don't bathe except in the blood spilled around them. He can feel the very wind that carries the scent brush against him and taste what he hopes are just medieval rations, like he's a warrior in the dream not a mere spectator. He doesn't always dream of fighting, sometimes he dreams of fleeing. He imagines someone in leather not metal armor grabbing his arm and dragging him away, dreams of being thrown and sent away, sometimes in a ship, others in a portal. There are even times he dreams of running with a herd of people fleeing. Usually, though, it's war. The confusion the dreams cause was only made worse by his parents' habit of slipping into Italian or Yiddish or some other language that nobody around them seemed to understand but Tony understood as though they were still speaking English. It wasn't until Thor arrived that he started to feel like he might find answers to his burning question. When Tony remembered English isn't even universal on Earth, he tested his theory by flipping between languages in quiet conversation with him before outright asking how he knows English. Thor loudly told him how it was the All-Speak he spoke through, which sounded like a universal translator. Tony was never brave enough to ask if the All-Speak was a natural part of him or something Asgardian children learned the way human children learn their local language.

Now, when all seemed lost, Tony said to hell with it and asked Nebula to speak a few words of the different alien languages she knew. "Why?"

"Tell you the truth, I think I might have the All-Speak but I won't know for sure unless I hear alien words." Tony got the vague impression that she was not speaking English when she next spoke, even though it still sounded like English. He must've responded in kind because she was able to confirm that what he said wasn't in English. "Huh? No idea how I got it but clearly I do have the All-Speak or something like it. Am I speaking English right now?"

Nebula shook her head "You're speaking my native language but that's not the language I was speaking to you in. You said English in English, my people didn't have a word for your language but everything else-"

"Interesting, let me know when I switch back to English. Testing," she nodded. "Good. Is this power of mine gonna help us any?"

"What do you know?" At his raised eyebrow, Nebula elaborated "What do you know about your All-Speak power?"

"Just that everything sounds like English to me but I've learned to pick up on this, like, feeling when it's not English and the feeling's stronger when it's a new language I've never heard before but I have to focus just a bit to pick up on the impression." Tony figured the dreams might be connected so he shared them with her.

"Sounds like one of Asgard's many wars. Maybe you descend from a survivor or something."

"Maybe."

The ability did not come in handy, not directly. In fact, he nearly got decapitated when he accidentally slipped into Wakandan while offering aid. The Rogues were rounded up when it became obvious they'd do anything to undo the snap after a few years, consequences be damned along with the survivors who may be endangered if those who were dusted came back exactly where they vanished. Rogers couldn't handle losing Barnes, that was apparently a universal truth. The world moved on, Tony continued to cover up his non-human status until Morgan was born and she got the dreams then he demanded answers from Heimdall and Brunnhilde, knowing Asgardians could no longer pose a threat to him and hoping Thor wasn't around for the war he could never forget. Heimdall responded by holding a sword to his throat, which Brunnhilde ripped out of his hands. "What the fuck?"

"You were prophesized to save the universe yet half the universe is gone, you can see why that might upset a man who believes in the old ways, in the Norms and the inherent justness of Asgard's royal line."

"Divine Right of Kings, deity edition."

"Basically."

"I can't go back, even if I physically could travel back in time, I couldn't go back and fix this." Valkyrie looked unimpressed while the Gatekeeper openly glared. "Alright, say I invent time travel and go back, kill Thanos as a baby so that he never lives to get the Stones. Best case scenario, that leaves two of me. The adult me that went back and the baby me born into this universe where Thanos never lives to be a threat. Adult me would have to make sure kid me grew up to become adult me without revealing to kid me that adult me is me. Y'know what, that was confusing even to me so let's try a different approach. Best case scenario the adult me that goes back gets stuck in the past, we'll call this version of me Edward, and then there's a version of me born into this universe where Thanos never becomes a threat, we'll call that version Anthony. Edward would have to make sure Anthony grows up and invents time travel and uses it to go back in time and kill a random alien baby named Thanos. Is this making any more sense? That's the best case scenario, that's the ideal outcome. There is also a chance that Edward going back in time to kill Thanos means Anthony never becomes Edward and if Anthony never becomes Edward then Edward never exists and if Edward never exists then Thanos is never killed as a baby and grows up to be the threat we know him as, causing Edward to go back and kill him, trapping us all in a time loop that maybe none of us are aware of. Are you getting why it's a bad idea for me to try to fix this now?"

"Yes," admitted Heimdall.

"Great, now I need to know how to make the dreams stop. I won't have my daughter grow up being terrorized by visions of a war that happened long before I was born."

"You can't."

"What?"

"The visions, or dreams as you call them, they are your ancestral memories. You can't make them go away any more than you can change who your ancestors are."

"Great. Mind telling me what the war was about?"

"It does not matter. If it did, you would be able to find the answer in your memories."

"Great. Do I at least get some power beyond the All-Speak for being part alien?"

"Possibly but I do not know what. However, I believe there are some books in New Asgard's library saved by Loki that may shed some light on the matter."

"Loki's memorial library, alright. Am I allowed to check out these books or do I have to read them here?"

"The second one, the books from Loki's private collection cannot leave the library."

"Right."

Tony was supremely unimpressed when the answer to the Rogues' prayers appeared before him in Loki's books. He gathered the remnants of Earth's magic community along with some mutants and Inhumans who could convert/generate a lot of energy in New Asgard. Since Heimdall wasn't kidding about the books staying locked in the library, Tony had to show people in small groups what he found. A representative of the UN Accords Council was in one of the groups, the ritual required a lot more power than they could reasonably generate and they also needed living vessels. In a very unethical move, the UN asked for volunteers to risk their lives to restore the universe, pretending they only just found out that other planets were equally in disarray and struggling even more to cope. All volunteers were subjected to extensive testing while those who could absorb energy worked like mad to drain the condemned nuclear power plants and convert their energy into a form the sorcerers could use. The psychologists conducting the exams were of the understanding that they needed people who could handle a lot of power being temporarily foisted off on them as well as people who could handle dying for the cause but that they could not take people who were outright suicidal, who would kill themselves in either case (kill themselves to help the plan succeed or kill themselves if it failed), those people still needed to go on suicide watch if that was an option. Tony sent out word to Carol Danvers that they might have a fix, she came to Earth with a contingent of alien leaders to hear the plan and the leaders threw in their lot with the Terrans. Was Tony a Terran just because he was born on Earth or was he something else because he bore the burden of his ancestors, the genius wondered. With the added support, they had to move the operation off world but they also felt much better about their odds. They had plans and back up plans and back up plans to the back up plans, they went through the English alphabet several times trying to plan for every contingency. In the end, fate played a role as much as Tony was loathe to believe in such a thing. They sent people who could absorb energy all over the galaxy to handle the fallout from facilities (nuclear and the alien equivalents) to give them empty space to bring people back to. There were bureaucrats on hand to process everyone and get them back home as fast as possible because they weren't aiming to bring all humans back on Earth, just to fill the available spaces. Militaries set up blockades to keep designated areas empty. Some planets had fallen to ruin, their people were moved to slightly more stable worlds in order to clear out solar systems similar to Earth's (ones that had very few inhabited worlds and could be evacuated) so that their suns could be drained to ensure enough power was achieved. A desperate contingent of aliens fed Galactus the empty worlds in the newly dead space as payment for feeding their energy bearers his cosmic power. On the upside, Tony thought after receiving a briefing on that part of the plan, people were confident that Galactus would be sated for at least one Earth year and that they could use that year to find other uninhabited worlds that could be lost without throwing too much out of whack so they effectively neutralized another threat in their preparations, regardless of whether they succeed or fail. The universe was counting on Tony, they had all come together, helped each other separate the dusted from the dead and shared their findings. If this worked, they could find themselves in a Utopian era. If it failed, well, Tony found himself siding with the human sacrifices: what was failure at this point?

Chapter Text

Despite deplorable social skills, Tony was a terrific businessman, a real chess master. He only told two people how this was possible: Obie and Pepper. The trick was ignorance, if he didn't hold any prejudice towards someone then he could objectively tell if getting into bed with them would be good or bad. Ironically, the two people he told turned out to be one of each: Obie was bad, Pepper was great. It's not his fault that he never got a clean read on Obie, the man was his godfather. Pepper, Tony didn't like her merely because he didn't want to be bothered with the tedious part of business and she bombarded him with paperwork so he didn't get a clean read on her even though he had no basis for his feelings about her, it was her job that caused the prejudice but then again, prejudice is usually baseless, isn't it?

Anyway, he was lucky that he could hold a conversation without hearing a word of it because that's how he got a clean read on Coulson. Although it was clean, it was weird. He teetered on the edge, he could be great for Tony or terrible but only time would tell and in the meantime, he'd have to avoid developing an opinion, he had to keep his heart in check. That was no small feat but he'd managed it many times when testing the waters on someone. He never got such a strange, almost perfectly symmetric reading on someone but mixed readings weren't unheard of. Obie actually came up with the terms Tony thought of his powers in, readings, clean read. His admonishment of "Tony, you're clearly prejudiced," when Tony told him about a bad reading is how Tony discovered the weakness in his gift. You gotta take the good with the bad, that's how Tony saw mixed readings and he usually tried to figure out which side was winning but when he tried to read Coulson, the good and the bad shifted in perfect sync and made Tony wonder if Coulson could somehow control what he was picking up on. Given Tony could read people before he could talk and he started talking very early, it's not crazy to think someone else has some form of perception control. In the end Coulson read as good but strangely enough, Tony didn't feel the reading go dark, it lingered. Definitely worth investigating later, now he has another weird read to deal with.

Loki's reading was clouded, for lack of a better term. From dealing with Coulson a couple times, Tony was well versed in keeping his heart out of the equation. Even surrounded by terrorists who had every intention of killing him once his work was done, Tony had never gotten as bad a reading as he got from Ross and he made a note to ruin the man's career. Back to Loki, Tony had never had a clouded reading, something was interfering and he could bet what it was. After taking the suit off, Tony lunged at Loki and grabbed the staff, ignoring the way Loki counter-attacked. For a moment, he would bet his eyes turned blue before a combination of his extraordinary gift and his intelligence broke the connection, sending him and Loki flying backwards in opposite directions. The suit caught him as he flew dangerously close to dropping off the building then he and Loki raced to the scepter. Tony got it and threw it to the suit, which took it up to the device on the roof. JARVIS would either act or wait depending on what he found with new data from the scepter, his AI was smart like that. The reading cleared up, mixed leaning good so Tony decided to throw his lot in with the alien. "JARVIS, photograph his eyes and make the Tesseract vanish when you're done securing it."

"Will do, Sir."

"Do you really want to fight?" Tony asked Loki, "Or would you rather sit back and enjoy the show? Without the Cube, Thor can't drag you back to Asgard, right?"

"Right," drawled the Trickster.

Going down the list of Avengers in his head, Natashalie was definitely bad, not Ross bad or Ten Rings bad but bad. Bruce was good, Tony actually got two good readings off him, leading him to suspect the Hulk was sentient. Thor was mixed leaning bad. Over the years (decades, whatever), Tony has learned to isolate specific aspects of his reading, it's not a binary thing, he can usually identify what kind of bad he's picking up on. Thor's bad is more like a henchman than a villain, a goon not a boss. He was bad because of who he trusted not on his own merits. He hadn't gotten close enough to Clint but considering he thought Natasha was good, Tony wasn't holding his breath. He couldn't help a prejudice towards Steve, the same way he couldn't help being prejudiced towards Obie, they were both facets of his childhood. Fury's reading, way back when they first met, was mixed leading bad in a way that translates to good intentions, bad actions.

Tony cut ties with SHIELD when the dust settled and began destroying the people who gave him bad readings in earnest, leaving SHIELD simply to implode on itself. Loki and Bruce were welcomed, nobody else. Tony even went through the process of establishing a way for aliens to legally claim asylum on Earth using Loki. Having an alien sorcerer on his side made dealing with many threats laughingly easy.

Chapter Text

Seeing the Helicarrier blades had physically hurt, Tony had to physically force himself not to go around fixing everything. The Benatar, wrecked as it was, actually hurt less to see. Tony directed Nebula to assist him, used to working with people who might as well have been mannequins for how little they understood of engineering, which was quite literally in his blood. Turning missiles into a suit of armor was a rather simple thing for him but for others, it was beyond amazing. That just goes to show how far behind humanity was from mutantkind (mutanity?). Nebula was more advanced than most assistants and understood when he explained why he needed to trade pieces of the ship for some of her cybernetics. Still, he felt icky taking apart a person to fix a machine. He reminded himself to move up the timetable for their prosthetic lines, nobody should have to deal with subpar hardware when it was attached to them. Tony took apart every bit of machinery they didn't need to make sure there was no chance of power drain then put his trust in Nebula. For once, his trust in an assassin was not misplaced. They stumbled out of the ship in front of the Avengers Compound with Pepper running to embrace Tony and Nebula being left to inform Rocket of the other Guardians' fates.

"It's okay," Tony said "It's not over yet."

"What do you mean, Friend Stark?"

Tony grinned and waved Nebula back on board the ship, "Let's get you back in top form then we can show them."

"I don't understand," nonetheless Nebula followed him and he reversed the trades, restoring her to her previous form. "Alright, when we're done dealing with Thanos, I'm gonna give you an upgrade that puts comfort above whatever Thanos was prioritizing, what we here on Terra call quality-of-life." He led her back to where they put all the extra bits and pieces they removed to conserve energy, grabbing some odds and ends. They disembarked once more, Nebula looking just like she had when she gave him the bad news. Tony fashioned an adapter as he led the surviving heroes inside the Compound, "FRIDAY, set up a video-call with all surviving Enhanced teams." He turned to Nebula, holding the adapter, "Do you trust me?"

"Yes," answered the assassin, simply stating a fact.

"Good, because I need to copy your memory files and possibly some other files onto my computer to get a clean read on Thanos."

"Clean read?"

"I'm gonna unleash my AIs, sentient computer programs, on your files and let them analyze everything you know or remember about Thanos to determine what he did after he won. The sooner we get to him, the better our odds are of turning the tables and stealing the win."

"Tony," Steve spoke up in a disapproving voice.

"Thor, do me a favor and hold Steve's mouth shut, we don't have time for his self-righteousness." Turning to the faces of those on the conference call and trusting the Asgardian to do as he asked, Tony addressed the other team leaders "Did everyone hear the plan?" Receiving nods all around, Tony asked "Any objections?"

Shuri said "Not an objection per se but what are we going to do if we're too late?"

"Well, that is a good question." Tony acted like he was stumped before grinning "Luckily, we have a time traveler in our midst, or do we?"

The X-Men's rep, Cyclops nodded shakily "Cable survived but we don't know for how long he can with-"

"Let me explain something to you, bro. Cable exists outside of our timeline. When he came back, he erased his timeline from existence. Whether your wife ever gives birth or not, Cable will still be here. Y'know, unless he's time traveled away." Tony imagined Cyclops' eyes lit up with hope, although he couldn't actually see it. "Do you guys have a telepath among you who can operate Cerebro or should I ask Nebula," she offered him a port to plug in his adapter as he spoke, "If there are any species comprised of telepaths and see if we can recruit any of them?"

"Don't go running to aliens just yet. The Professor died before the Snap, my wife's gone but there are other telepaths, mutants outside our ranks that we might be able to call on. If you can reverse the Snap then it's all a moot point anyway."

"No, it's not. If a mutant child is riding in a car and the driver turns to dust, I imagine such an event would make a pretty good trigger for a mutation, especially if the car was moving when the parent vanished."

"Point taken, I'll see if I can find someone, fingers crossed Frost survived."

"She would be the ideal choice, not to mention she's got that school in Massachusetts so finding her shouldn't be too much of a problem, maybe you two could pool resources to deal with your sudden staffing issues."

"Maybe."

Tony finished copying the necessary files and ran a translation program before setting his AIs loose and turning his full attention to those in front of him. "Alright, let's do a general sitrep while the AIs work. Strange, Spidey and all of the Guardians except for Rocket are gone. Next." They went around giving a run down of their individual situations and offering aid to each other where they could. "Great." Tony ducked a moment before Carol Danvers came barreling in.

FRIDAY spoke up "Welcome Captain Marvel to the Avengers Compound."

"Avengers?"

"Yeah, Fury named us after your call sign," responded Tony. "FRI, how are you and your siblings faring?"

"Almost done, Boss, just settling on the numbers."

"Coordinates or odds?"

"Odds, Boss."

"Skip it, I assume you have a most likely scenario all figured out."

A holographic map appeared, "This is what we figure."

"The Garden," identified Nebula.

"Great, just what we needed. FRI, pull up a briefing on the Zemo debacle for Thor and revoke the Rogue Avengers' access when you update Marvel's file to give her full Avengers' access."

"Will do, Boss."

"The ship needs some work before we can fly out but I don't think we have time to waste." Tony said "I'm going to Strange's Sanctum, maybe some of his sorcerer friends can help us get there and avenge their fallen in the process." Tony turned to the Avengers present and Pepper, "Pep, move up the time table for our prosthetic lines. I imagine there are a lot of people who can't wait to get those implants and they'll still need them even if we manage to restore those who turned to dust." He glanced back at the people on the video call, "Rhodey will take over for me in this meeting. We need to figure out how to safely restore everyone. If someone was driving and we bring them back right where they were when they vanished then odds are, they'll get run over. By the time you have a plan, Rocket should be able to restore comms on the Benatar. Time is of the essence. Cyke, email me the number for your second so they can get started on finding a telepath to use Cerebro. That's our best chance at an accurate headcount, plus y'know the Snap was stressful and there's probably a bunch of newly minted mutant orphans out there right now. Let them know they'll be working with an AI. I gotta go."

The Masters of the Mystic Arts were in mourning but they threw in their lot with Tony anyway because, to quote Wong, "Knowing Strange, this is probably going to work." With the Masters' help, they got all of the world's heroes gathered at the Compound.

"Nightcrawler, Magneto, and Deadpool, perfect. You three are going to accompany two Masters of the Mystic Arts to the Garden. Deadpool will distract Thanos while Magneto will keep any weapons he might use, including the Gauntlet, out of play and hopefully Nightcrawler can steal the Gauntlet. The Masters have alternative holders in case Thanos destroyed the Gauntlet. You're only going after the Stones. With them, we can trade the lives of our dusted for Thanos and his lackeys." Before Rogers could object, several super strong people punched him, knocking him out. "Rocket, have you made contact with any alien authorities to coordinate this restoration project?"

"No because you took apart the com system. You and I will have to rebuild them before we can do anything."

"Sorry, I was trying to minimize possible power drains, make the ship more efficient because we only had enough fuel for forty eight hours. I took apart anything that was not crucial to our survival, which is why the ship is not even remotely close to being an option for this mission." Tony looked around "To be clear, we can't use the Gauntlet. No human can survive holding even a single Infinity Stone in their hand so we're gonna need aliens' help anyway, check any xenophobia you might have at the gate. Captain Marvel, can you spread the word of Thanos' location? I imagine every survivor wants a shot at him, that'll keep him distracted while we figure out how and who uses the Stones. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll die in that fight, maybe he won't and we'll get the satisfaction of dusting him." He looked at Magneto "Either way, we take the Gauntlet and leave the fighting to the aliens. Anyone have a legitimate problem with the plan?" Nobody did and so they set off. The aliens were immensely helpful with both fighting Thanos and using the Gauntlet, returning the dusted to life in clusters of open space. Sure, everyone had to be processed to get home but it was better than the alternative, which involved drivers getting run over and people falling out of the sky.

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From a young age, Tony was an anomaly. His father accepted that the baby was his son without really paying much mind to it. Maria knew the truth, mostly because she and Howard hadn't been intimate in years, but she didn't mind. She loved Tony anyway, even when he started mimicking other people. For milestones where mimicry was useful, he hit those early. He learned to walk and use tools because he saw others do it. When he started mimicking things he saw on TV then she got worried and tried to push him towards his stepfather but Howard never paid him any attention except to yell at him.

When Tony was eight, his true father found out about him and began teaching him in secret. He caught Tony skipping school and took the boy to his safehouse. Instead of trying to talk to him, Taskmaster (real name Tony Masters) merely began giving him a martial arts demonstration. Curious, his son began copying him. For an hour every few days, Tony learned from the master, from his father. Sometimes Taskmaster would be forced to go months without seeing his son for work but he always left a note in their meeting place. Would-be kidnappers quickly developed a seemingly irrational fear of Tony Stark, the boy not his billionaire weapons manufacturer of a father or any security the kid might find himself with. By the time he graduated from high school, early on account of his knack for finding hands-on learning opportunities, Taskmaster had gone from Skull-face to Tasky to TM. The man had once told him over a rare meal that he was Tony's real father but Tony had only shrugged and said "So what?" His father jokingly attacked him; well, to anyone but Tony or TM, the attack would've been serious but as the saying goes, like father, like son.

During his MIT days with James Rhodes, Tony learned to dial back his skills and blend in, mostly through sparring with the future Air Force Colonel. "Too bad you're Air Force, I imagine the army would love someone with your skills," said Tony after their agreed upon last match.

"Yeah. How do you do it?"

"We had a deal, you pin me for a half a minute and I'll tell you but you've never pinned me for more than a few seconds."

"C'mon, Tones."

"I've been sworn to secrecy, only someone better than me can make me break that oath." Which was true, early on in his lessons, Taskmaster instilled in Tony a need to not let anyone know about said lessons.

Over the coming years, his father only visited on occasion but when Taskmaster heard Howard and Maria Stark had been murdered, heard whispers they had joined the Winter Soldier's body count, all bets were off. Maria had never made him feel bad about being different. Even though she pushed their son towards a stepfather who wanted nothing to do with him, she was good to them. As good as Tony Masters can remember someone being to him, which made her off-limits and he thought that he made that clear. He hated to do it but he had to enlist his son's help. When the boy decided to disappear, his son truly dropped off the face of the earth. Eventually, he found Tony drinking heavily in a shithole of a bar. "That ain't gonna do nothin' but give you a headache."

Tony's head shot up and he looked over at his supposed father, had to be his father, nobody else was like them. "How'd you-"

"Called in a favor." He had to call in a favor owed to him by Sabretooth but his son didn't need to know those details. "Look, kid, it ain't safe to talk here so pay your tab and let's get to higher ground." Tony tossed a hundred on the counter and followed his father out. Once they were inside his safehouse, Taskmaster told his son "Howard didn't kill Maria, they were both killed by the Winter Soldier. I need your help to take him down."

"Okay but I want something in return."

"What's that?"

"I only got one friend, put him under your protection, it kept mom safe for almost twenty years."

"What's your friend's name and profession?"

"James Rhodes, he's in the Air Force. He, I taught him how to fight, he's not as good as me but he learns faster than most. Your protection will keep terrorists like Magneto off his back. If anyone finds out I'm your son, they'll know why I'm so hard to grab and they'll go after those I care about, right?"

"I'll do what I can."

"Fine. What do you need me to do?"

"Find the damn Soldier."

For a brief moment, he was confused then his mind cleared. "I don't know anything about him except his codename." Taskmaster gestured towards a new, still in the box, computer and watched his son set it up and establish a secure connection while he told Tony everything he knows about the Winter Soldier and the hit on his mother. HYDRA crumpled under the combined might of the father-son duo, taking their associates down with them. Tony was approached by the X-Men after his father disappeared, or rather, Finesse was offered a chance to escape Taskmaster by a furry blue man in a leather jacket. Thank God, his father had a suit ready for him. Tony turned him down, saying "Desperate times make strange bedfellows, my friend. Now that things have settled, he's nothing to me and I'm nothing to him. Capisce?"

Finding Rogers was anticlimactic, Tony called the Beast to enlist the X-Men in dealing with the man out of time, figuring they'd be able to defrost him and contain him as needed. Tony always kept an eye on rivals, which is how he thwarted several anti-mutant threats without outing himself as a mutant (of a sort). This habit of his caused him to accidentally link the Enhanced community, a network that started with the X-Men and included the Brotherhood. Using his considerable influence, he made great strides towards mutant rights by getting charters hammered out for superhero teams, providing poster children for the species and the cause. He was finally outed when an alien called Thanos sent assassins after a friend he was visiting, Stephen Strange. Tony was intelligent, there was no denying that, but what most people either didn't know or forgot was that little ten year old Tony Stark scared off his own kidnappers. He was dangerously intelligent, as most who did remember saw it. He created a suit of mechanized armor for his best friend because he was worried about terrorists stockpiling old SI weapons- they abandoned that industry when Obie's treachery was revealed- and made one of his own for fun. He had Captain America's shield, because it was an heirloom, and as a matter of fact, he knew how to use it better than Steve Rogers himself. When Cull Obsidian charged, Tony stood waiting and flipped the alien over him then used the suit to fly into the air before letting gravity bring him crashing down to Earth, shield in hand, decapitating the monster. The suit's helmet snapped shut a moment later and he charged the prick who dared tell them to rejoice over their imminent demise. Slicing his head off with ease, he waved to the mutants who arrived on the scene just in time to deal with the strange alien machine. Through his com, he was notified to a similar attack in Scotland. He raced back to the Sanctum "I need a portal to Edinburg."

"How did you- right." Strange opened a portal and Tony flew through it. Two more alien baddies were there, Tony threw the shield at the woman and crashed into the man. Pulling him up into the air, Tony used precise hits to make his enemy let go when it became clear his weapon could cut through the armor. As he spun around, he ejected from the suit and swung around to stand on it.

The alien man, assuming alien genders worked like humans, sneered "Pathetic."

"Really?" Tony had seen him fight when he first arrived, making him an instant match. He quickly hit the weak spots in the alien's armor, the arrogant prick letting go of his glaive with one hand to bat at Tony, who stepped on the weapon "Drop." The armor keeping them both aloft did just that, the momentary disorientation was enough for Tony to steal the glaive and stab him through the heart with it. Tony used his body to make sure his enemy took the brunt of the landing, jumping over the other alien when she tried to tackle him. Glaive still in hand, he simply ran her through.

"You," Uh-oh, Beast was there. "You're-" he laughed at his own ignorance. "It should've been obvious."

"Yeah but to be fair, I fooled millions of people, if you count all the people who think I'm just Howard Stark's brilliant son."

"True."

"I'm not even his son, I'm his stepson. My actual father helped me take down HYDRA to avenge the one person who didn't treat him like a freak, who treated him like a person, albeit probably not a decent one but not a monster or a weapon either. And you felt the need to save me from him, if you hadn't phrased it like that, I might've joined you but as it stands, I'll kill you if you explain half the things I just said to your friends. Even Rhodey doesn't know, I told him I'd tell him if he ever pinned me in a match but he deserves the full truth more than your colleagues."

"Agreed."

Tony simply asked the Masters of the Mystic Arts to open a portal to send Thanos' army to another dimension. After a bit of debate amongst themselves, they agreed. With only the Mad Titan left standing before all of his combined enemies, the Infinity War was reduced to a set of hopeless battles. In the aftermath, Tony told Pepper and Rhodey everything.

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"Did you know that fear of the dark is instinctive? We fear what we can't see because our ancestors believed that predators had night vision."

"What are you getting at?"

"I'll get to that. The world hasn't changed all that much if you think about it. Predators still prefer to attack at night, that's why we lock our doors and windows, keep a gun in the nightstand."

"I really don't see-"

"You will, give it time, let me set the scene. I don't feel anymore comfortable talking about my affliction than you do about yours."

"Okay?"

"Where was I?"

"Gun in the nightstand."

"Right. The thing people like to forget is that humans are animals, I mean scientifically speaking, we're not plants or bacteria and we're alive so that means we must be animals. Some of us more than others. I like the simplified version of Darwinism, the catchy survival of the fittest. What is fitness? It's the key to survival. You're fit if you have what it takes to survive and most people, most people have domesticated themselves. They wouldn't survive a night in the woods, much less any serious disaster. Now I'm not saying the end is nigh, maybe it is, maybe it isn't but humanity, humanity isn't prepared to do what it takes to survive. Now imagine, if you flip a switch and go back to basics, become just like your ancestors who first conquered the animal kingdom, who put humanity at the top of the food chain. Can you imagine that?"

"Uh, a little, I guess."

"Now imagine the other side, the primal side, is the one that controls that switch."

"I can definitely imagine that."

"Good. That's my problem in a nutshell, doc."

"Wait, what?"

"I have that switch and my civilized side isn't in control of it, the other side is."

"Okay, maybe give me an example of when this switch was flipped."

"Do you remember everything the Other Guy does? Cause if you do, you're a lot luckier than me. I just have blackouts and when I wake up, it's carnage. I didn't blow up the mountain to kill the Ten Rings, well, I did but mostly I was covering my tracks. I'm the real monster, not you and your big green alter ego." Tony's voice deepened as he spoke and he cleared his throat a few times before speaking again "Like I said, no control whatsoever. I'm not entirely clear what the trigger is, at least you know yours is anger."

"Right. Have you considered therapy? This sounds psychological."

"Dude, I ripped terrorists twice my size limb from limb with my bare hands while getting shot at and came out mostly unscathed. Does that sound psychological to you?"

"Oh, I guess not."

"Maybe we can get better together."

"Maybe."

When Maximoff tried to reach into his head, she flipped the switch. A strange roar was heard that had Hulk, who was part-Bruce, racing towards the castle. He jumped and smashed through the ceiling, wrapping Tony in a hug until his wild side subsided, backhanding Quicksilver when he tried to avenge his sister. Bruce changed back almost in sync with Tony. "Wow, you really are feral."

"Only sometimes. Let's get this wrapped up." Tony began setting the computers to explode, having already copied the data. Once he was done, he and Bruce ran out with warnings of a self-destruct in progress. Tony locked himself in his lab with Bruce to calm down from his latest freak out, which was how they stopped Ultron with none the wiser.

While they were waiting on the simulations, Bruce had an epiphany "Survival."

"What?"

"That's your trigger. The switch is flipped when you're in mortal danger. If your odds of survival are good, your civilized side keeps the switch locked down. If you don't know the odds but there's a chance you'll be killed, like today with Maximoff, then your primal side takes over."

"Huh, guess that works. Anger's not your trigger, by the way, it's danger. That's why you can stand to be slapped repeatedly without turning green but Ross fires a gas canister or orders soldiers to open fire and all bets are off. You send yourself into fight or flight when you need the Other Guy to come out, you simulate danger."

"That's, that's good to know."

In Romania, the Soldier set him off but for once, nobody died. He'd taken to meditation and yoga and a healthy, meaty died, among other tricks Bruce used on the Other Guy. Just like with the Hulk, it gave him greater control. Barnes surrendered himself the second he woke up and told them what the doctor wanted. Going to Siberia alone with Rogers was possibly the greatest and stupidest thing he'd ever done. The video set him off and he killed an American icon before using the shield to tear into one of the Soldier's cells and drag them out. For once, his primal side covered its own tracks and he remembered parts of his time as the animal.

Tony identified with Wolverine, trying to control the animal but he could also sympathize with Sabretooth, letting the animal loose. His civilized side was able to balance Magneto and Professor X. Finding out his other side was A, not a mutation, and B, evolving nonetheless, was incredible. He was right about it not being psychological because his primal side could actually fight someone like Wolverine to a freaking standstill. He was controlled by a survival instinct that affected his entire body, which enabled him to survive a helluvah lot. Both the Professor and Magneto were fascinated by it, and accidentally discovered his primal side could do more than kill when they offered him food and he ate without slipping back into civilized mode. Civil Tony gave Bruce the authority to say yes or no to tests on his behalf so they could get to the bottom of his primal side. They discovered that his primal side had preferences and only the most basic needs of food and water. He'll kill to protect himself and he has to be placed in mortal danger for his primal side to take over which is why all tests began with either Logan stabbing him or Magneto trying to. His primal side preferred raw meat, even preferred to hunt but would accept food given. They kept the tests away from the students, letting them know Tony Stark was a friend of the Professor's and nothing more. Magneto was hard pressed to hold Tony's primal form down and eventually they settled for collecting the blood that came out of stab wounds to see if the change in his body could be picked up on in his blood.

When Thanos' Black Order came, the Brotherhood destroyed them. When Thanos came, Logan stabbed Tony through the neck with all three claws in one hand, shocking those who didn't know about the animal within. The X-Men and Brotherhood both called for a tactical retreat since wild Tony was terrible at friend-foe recognition and great at killing everything in sight. Even with the Gauntlet, Thanos couldn't stop him. When the Guardians caught up with him, Drax frowned even as he removed Thanos' head from his dead body. The Infinity Gauntlet was dropped in front of them by Nightcrawler before he teleported away to join the others in Q&A with Tony and Bruce.

Chapter Text

Tony had a secret, he wasn't so much a smooth talker as a genuine stud. Literally, his ability to get people in his bed was more instinct than human attraction. There was something to be said for the effects on one's personality when you could make people dance to your tune like that. An encounter with a man named Logan offered invaluable insight into the workings of Tony's gift, apparently he had perfect control over his scent. Who knew?

When people tried to manipulate him, Tony tended to humiliate them. For instance, there was this gold digger who tried to embarrass him with a pregnancy scandal. All anyone at the party could talk about for weeks after was how slutty she'd acted. Honeypots steered clear of him after that, unless he wanted them to honey up. As he told that poor soldier in the caravan, there was a scheduling conflict with the models but he still went twelve for twelve.

Escaping Afghanistan would have been easy if not for Yinsen. He still managed to redirect most of the insurgents fear of their boss towards him, which is why they mostly left him and Yinsen alone. Coming out of that, the pain and loss took some of his light, made him a colder man. The chill helped him on his hike through the desert and he had to focus, to force what little light was left inside to the forefront so he wouldn't hurt Rhodey, one of three people he never wanted to use his power on; the other two were Pepper and Happy. Obie wasn't a friend, not anymore. He had a plan when his plane landed, cheeseburger and a change in direction. He already knew what he wanted SI to make from now on "Effective immediately, I am shutting down SI weapons. In favor! In favor of technology, we'll finish out our defense contracts by making armor and the like. We'll finish what dear old dad started with Arc Reactor and bring about a new age of clean energy, huh? How's that sound? No more bombs, being blown up is not fun." He played the room then used JARVIS to adapt the thing in his chest into a workable rough draft for R&D to tinker with before plotting Obie's downfall. The man had to fall on his sword and Tony was just the man to arrange such a dishonorable end. His I-Am-Iron-Man announcement was accompanied by the announcement that his best friend, Colonel James Rhodes would be rocking an updated version of the suit that got him out of that cave "Please welcome to the stage, War Machine." He made a show of telling Rhodey "This suit's proprietary, one of a kind, don't let anyone copy it, alright?" Inside, he was cold.

Enter SHIELD and their power plays. He read Romanoff's report and nowhere in it did it mention the night they shared after she was found out. He confronted her about it as she was returning from a mission "Oh, Natashalie."

"What do you want Stark?"

"Don't worry, I isolated this frequency." He played a clip from their night together "JARVIS has to monitor my vitals at all times, to give me warning before the Reactor core burns out, and he does that by listening. There's more where that came from, sweetie. Screw me again and everyone gets a copy."

On the Helicarrier, he was careful not to take it quite that far but still calmed everyone down and took the scepter while they were too lethargic to do anything. He marched right up to Loki's cell and waited, knocking out his flunkies with carefully selected scents as he ordered "JARVIS, take the wheel." Suddenly the Helicarrier went into lockdown as the Iron Man armor aboard moved to fix the broken turbine. "Where's your army?"

"I'll never-"

Tony beat his lackey over the head then woke him up with a jolt of fear before switching to what he called seduction "Open the door, let me in then close it. If you're really good, there might be a reward in it for you. Just make sure you only let me out and not the meanie Loki, okay darling?" The man acted as a thrall but he was Tony's thrall now. The first thing Tony did once he was inside was beat Loki with the staff until his eyes turned green "Now are you gonna tell me?"

"Your Tower in New York."

"You're gonna stay in here for your own good." Tony hefted the staff to illustrate his point then went back to the door and knocked.

The Avengers moved in because he asked them to. He still only cared not to manipulate three people, hadn't seen Logan since he went cold so he wasn't sure if he could or still couldn't control the man. Captain America really embodied his time, straight as an arrow. Tony had fun making blackmail videos for each of them, taming them. They used missions to avoid him but always came back because Fury thought the Avengers were being happily housed by Stark and they couldn't break the illusion without admitting their weakness. Tony wasn't pure evil, he could feel compassion for Barnes and even helped Rogers out once he got the man to confess one night to why he kept stealing the jet.

That's when Logan re-entered the picture. The mutant was disgusted by Tony, "You used to be better than this."

"No I wasn't. Sorry to give you flashbacks to your brother but this is simply me giving into my true nature. I still can't control Pepper, Rhodey or Happy. No, can't is the wrong word, I refuse to manipulate them. I'm not a monster, I'd never turn on my friends but true friends are hard to find. What do you want, Wolverine?" The old soldier didn't answer fast enough when Tony tacked on "Sabretooth is your brother or half-brother, according to genetic work ups done by Weapon X." Tony pulled a thumb drive out of a port, "Catch." Logan did. "That'll connect you to my servers but only as long as it's plugged in. On my servers are all of the Weapon X files and any other records I could find on you. Once you're done with those or once your friends have earned my trust, I'll expand your access to all mutant Index files and expand it again and again until you have access to the servers in their entirety. Lose my trust, you lose access to any files not about you. Understood?"

"Yeah and stop trying to manipulate me."

"I don't need pheromones to do that. Why are you here?"

"Professor wants to check in with Barnes but he's not comfortable inviting you to the school, given how you've mostly abandoned your ethics."

"Funny how pain, loss and betrayal can change a person. I still don't go around using my powers on just anyone, in fact I stopped doing that since I came back from Afghanistan. Now I limit my contact with others and for three of the few people I do maintain contact with, I refuse to use my powers on them. I have ethics, they're just not his. As for Barnes, you can take him and Rogers. SHIELD skipped reintegration so Rogers doesn't even know what email is. The Professor can see for himself that I am not keeping the Avengers enslaved or whatever. Bruce can't leave because General Ross is willing to open fire on a college campus with his daughter in the line of fire just to get at the Hulk but maybe, if the Professor has an opening, he could be a guest lecturer or something. You and the Prof will have to talk to each Avenger individually, far be from me to take away their right to make their own decisions."

"Alright."

"JARVIS, give Logan probationary Avengers' access, same with all of the X-Men and feel free to let Charles Xavier know when I'm not home if he calls and asks."

"Consider it done, Sir."

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Pain, that's the first thing Tony remembered. The pain his father inflicted on him to ensure a legacy of genius and later, the pain of everyone's knowledge flowing through his head, screaming for attention until he almost went insane. He learned to control this gift/curse/whatever just as he learned to hide the scars from the experiments, the lines drawn into his head by a man who understood technology more than people and attempted to program his son's brain accordingly. In controlling this thing that was forced upon him, Tony found he could earn degrees but the knowledge faded away after the exam. He made JARVIS to compensate and copied Rhodey's studying techniques to try to make things stick by making the knowledge his own. He could test through anything if the test's proctor had the know-how to do it themselves. He learned to live with the pain, which never quite faded even over thirty years later, he could still feel it. He feigned ignorance in that cave, understanding every word that was said because Yinsen understood every word. He was reborn, once again of pain, but this time, he embraced it instead of trying to make it go away.

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Tony saw his parents car crash but he could never bring himself, as a child, to look any further. Knowing they'd die together made him temper his words to his father, he didn't want his last words to his parents to be too harsh, didn't want them to die thinking he hated either of them because he knew his mother would feel bad about his relationship with his father falling apart like she failed them both somehow. They shouldn't feel that way when they die but Tony couldn't help fighting back every time he and his father set each other off. It was terrible. What's worse, Tony thought as he lay in a Siberian bunker, is how that habit of stopping when it hurt might very well be humanity's falling grace.

Next thing he knew, he was gasping awake in some kind of sci-fi hospital. "What the hell?"

A furry blue man walked over, "You were touch and go for a while but it seems we got to you just in time."

"Who? What? Where am I?"

"To answer your questions in order: I am Dr. Hank McCoy, the X-Men found you in the bunker after the Professor picked up on your distress through Cerebro- he'll probably show you during the tour- and you are in our infirmary, located in the X-Men's base beneath our school for mutants in Westchester, New York. Strangely enough, your mutation seems to have only recently awakened."

"I've always been able to see the future."

"Yes but your mutation only recently awakened."

A cultured British voice suddenly spoke, "Hank, you're confusing the poor man beyond belief." A bald man in a wheelchair rolled up to Tony and offered his hand, "Charles Xavier, welcome Dr. Stark."

"Call me Tony and I try not to shake hands if I can help it, I'd rather not know how you die." Tony cut to the chase, "Are you sure I'm a mutant? Don't mutant powers develop in childhood?"

"Puberty, usually but there have been cases where mutants are born with their powers and it is not unheard of for adults to manifest mutations. Follow me, I'll show you Cerebro and explain how we found you." Following that explanation, Charles said "When I was using Cerebro just before you awoke, you once again read as human. Hank and I had believed the changes your body was undergoing in response to the damage done by Mr. Rogers and Mr. Barnes was the result of your mutation being awoken but it seems as though you were only a mutant in your time of need."

"Or like I read as mutant because I was about to need help and you were my best bet? My foresight powers could've played a role, unconsciously or whatever but if I'm not a mutant, how am I able to see the future?"

"That is what I'd like to know."

"How am I okay?"

"You've been comatose for nearly a year, added to the fact that we employed some unorthodox methods to stabilize you and I wouldn't be surprised if there were no lingering after effects."

"Just the opposite, I feel better than I have in years, maybe even my whole life."

Charles faced him on the small platform, "Perhaps we should move upstairs so I can introduce you to those who saved your life and get a better read on your gifts."

"If there's nothing else to see down here-"

"Oh, there's plenty to see, in due time."

The unorthodox methods apparently involved transferring Wolverine's healing factor through a girl named Rogue into his body so he'd regenerate enough cells to stop coding, which only worked temporarily and led to other more scientific methods being employed to minimize the strain on the mutants. When they faced Thanos, Tony understood what he was and why he had to live. He extended his hand and the Infinity Stones left the Gauntlet to become one with him, if only for a moment as he set everything he could right then it was over and he could finally sleep peacefully.

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A black panther stalked right up to T'Challa before stretching and transforming into Tony Stark "Sup?"

"How?"

"Your barrier keeps humans out so I stopped being human."

"You are human now."

"I can go back to being a panther, I know you'd never harm your animal avatar. Look, I don't care about anything you guys are hiding. I just want to let you know what kind of people you've granted asylum to. I don't want anything to do with Barnes but I also don't want innocent people getting hurt because someone underestimated Rogers' crew. Can we talk? I promise I'll leave but let me tell you what you've gotten yourself into. Again, I don't care what you're hiding, I just want to keep people safe, nationality doesn't matter to me. Heh, species doesn't matter to me, this is about protecting the animals under your protection as much as it is the humans." T'Challa decided to hear him out, inviting his mother and sister to join the briefing, which began with Shuri providing video evidence that the barrier worked as intended and verifying Tony's claim that he simply stopped being human to get through. Once that was settled, Tony told them tales of his time as the Avengers' backer, told them about all of the unsanctioned missions, everything and anything he could think of that they might need to know. At the end of the meeting, he got their virtual contact information to send over the evidence that supported his claims. "You did the right thing, sorta, by offering Barnes asylum. Where you messed up was when you let Rogers extend that offer to himself and the others. Now you made you bed, better get comfy." Tony stood, stretched and jumped to all fours, transforming mid-jump into a panther. The Dora let him out, probably wondering how a panther got into the palace and he ran back to his jet to fly home.

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Not many people knew Tony was a werewolf for a very good reason. Tony wasn't, not entirely. He was turned as all Stark babies are but the transformation didn't take all of the way. Turns out, Maria was a descendants of a magical creature and her magic DNA partially negates Howard's lycanthrope genes. Who knew? So instead of runs through the woods on all fours, presenting and learning pack dynamics, and all that other sire-pup stuff, Tony got beaten by the short end of the stick. His father batted at his ears when they popped out, screaming at him to stick to being human and quit making a mockery of his ancestry. Letting his tail out was even worse and he quickly learned to hide it. By the time he went away to MIT, he had decided to heed his father’s words. Be human, because he sure as shit made a terrible werewolf.

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Mutants hated Tony Stark and with good reason, even the man himself could admit, as Tony had the power to hijack a mutant's gifts. Not copy, hijack. Take Cyclops for instance, Tony can control where he aims those peepers. He can't make Cyke fire silently since speech has nothing to do with his powers but he can make him fire where he wants the man to fire nonetheless. Since most mutations are in some way physical, attacking him is useless. By the time he matured, Tony already had a reputation among the mutant community.

When the world was in danger, he didn't care about his reputation. That's why local mutants often found themselves on crowd control wherever Iron Man fought the good fight. After New York, he started randomly hijacking mutants, just enough that they knew he was doing it without crossing any big lines. He wanted word to spread, for people to seek him out to tell him to stop or clue him in as to where he could get help for the war to come. Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr double-booked him so he changed the venue to accommodate their need for anonymity, unknowingly bringing the leaders of opposing factions together. Erik skipped the pleasantries and went straight to threatening him. Tony blinked at him a few times then used his power to make the man reduce his own utensils to a crumpled ball of metal before turning Charles "Do not try to enter my head without permission. I've hijacked enough telepaths in my youth to feel it."

"Hijacked is-"

"Dude, it's not mind control." Tony leaned forward across the table, "I can control your powers directly, hijack them if you will." He sat back "And before either of you start, I'm not a mutant. I'm Inhuman, my ancestors were experimented on by aliens and through a super secret ritual when I was a kid, I gained my own set of gifts. I dunno what my people think of what I've done with my gifts, I'm not even sure whether both of my parents or just one of them was Inhuman." He looked at Erik "If you want to know why I've been going around, using my gifts to get your attention, you'll have to let him use his gift to show you. Okay?"

Disoriented, Erik nodded once. Tony projected what he saw as Charles entered his mind and the vision was shared among them. Erik stood and Tony hijacked him to fix the utensils on his way out- to prepare, Charles assured him before tapping his temple for permission and continuing their conversation telepathically.

Chapter Text

As they were processed out, Barton and Lang were each given a shot in the shoulder. Lang guessed "That must be the tracker."

"What happened to anklets?"

"Too easy to tamper with, I guess." They were sat on a bench to wait for Magneto and Professor X to sign them out rather than trust them alone on a jet. With a sneer, Magneto waved his hand and all of their restraints fell away while the Professor signed the last documents needed to take charge of them. The two men preceded the trio out and Tony ran around them to board the plane first, taking the pilot's seat. Magneto bent the metal straps to indicate where the two ex-cons should sit before locking the Professor's wheelchair in place and taking the copilot's seat. The two metal benders closed their eyes and appeared to almost be meditating for a moment before they took off.

Clint was practically shaking during the entire flight and he had trouble standing straight when it was time to disembark. Wolverine was waiting for him in the hangar but none of his companions were sympathetic to his plight, Tony placing a hand on his arm and all but dragging him towards his father-in-law, giving him one great big shove towards the man before seizing Lang's arm and leading him away. Magneto hung back to make sure Wolverine didn't kill him as promised and Clint was too terrified to move or make a sound, he couldn't defend himself if Wolverine did attack. When he heard the snikt of Wolverine's claws coming out, he was too petrified to even flinch. Wolverine popped the claws on one hand only then looked at Magneto before slugging him with the other so hard that he went flying. "You stay away from Laura. If she doesn't want to see you, she won't."

"Yes, sir."

He didn't even cry out as three blades cut into his side, not deep enough to damage any organs but enough to get the point across. Without looking, he could imagine Wolverine was retracting his claws as he placed his fist on Clint's side because he felt knuckles against his skin and Wolverine definitely didn't sink his claws all the way in. Clint's pretty sure he'd be dead if the mutant had. "Same goes for the kids."

"Of course." Wolverine got up and pulled Clint to his feet, shoving him towards the door, leaving Magneto to show him to the infirmary. He had to look when he lifted up his shirt for the doctor and he was actually surprised by how shallow the cuts were, indicating how much restraint Wolverine showed. "Your doing?" He asked Magneto.

"No, Wolverine likely doesn't wish to rob his grandchildren of their father."

"Right." He deserved so much worse than this. What the fuck had he been thinking?

Chapter Text

Dropping off the nuke, Tony took a shuddering breath and hit the emergency eject, breaking his fall on Selvig's machine and flapping like a sail in the wind for a few minutes afterwards while he caught his breath. Once he had his bearings, he snapped back into his normal human shape and once again cursed Norman Osborn while thanking Howard. If Osborn hadn't been screwing around in the academy's lab using Tony's pass then there never would have been a lab accident to cover up. Okay, truth be told, their fighting in the lab over the stolen pass might have played a role in causing the accident but the point stood that they nearly died. How- Tony's dad stabilized his son within hours of getting the news. Like father, like son, Normie's old man refused the rare offer of aid given by Howard. Tony came close to melting, to becoming so much lab gunk. He had a feeling the delay made Norman's situation worse but he couldn't, for the life of him, remember what that situation was and hoped psychic powers were not involved.

Back to New York, Tony laid on top of his Tower, huffing as Romanoff and Selvig stared down at him, "Hey, guys. What's up?"

"How did you do that?"

"Well, I figured when the portal started closing that the suit wouldn't have time to get through so I improvised. Now, Natashalie, be a dear, drop the scepter and get off my property. I'm not trusting SHIELD with a box of matches after this, much less alien super-weapons." When Romanoff didn't immediately respond, three suits manhandled her to regroup with the other Avengers.

JARVIS' voice sounded through one of the suits to extend an invitation for Dr. Banner to stay at the Tower. Two more suits carried Loki's beaten form through the broken window and dropped it in front of Thor before the armors clarified that Dr. Banner was the only Avenger being granted access to the Tower, all others will have to go through the same hoops as ordinary citizens.

Ten minutes after the battle ended, Tony had JARVIS spam anything incoming from SHIELD and go through their files with a fine toothed comb, sending anything that flagged to the relevant public agencies. An hour later, Foster and Lewis had joined Selvig, although the former was disappointed to have missed Thor, and the ex-brainwashed scientist asked again "How did you do that thing where you caught the building?"

Looking around at his fellow scientists and friends, Tony sighed and said "That's a bit of a long story. Before I went to MIT, dad sent me to this special boarding school. They were more about skill level than age and I naturally breezed through their science courses so they gave me a pass to the lab. I was the only student allowed unsupervised access to the lab. As curfew still applied to me, that access was a privilege that could be revoked. Norman Osborn was a classmate of mine, our parents had a deal about not trying to recreate Captain America but in Norman's mind, that deal would die with them and he wanted a leg up on me before then. He stole my pass and snuck into the lab. I confronted him, no automated lock could stop a Stark after all. We fought, there was a lab accident. I'm not sure what happened to him, all I know is dad had me stable in a matter of hours and offered to help Osborn but he refused until it was almost too late. I know we had very different reactions, Norman can't do what I can do and I'm not totally clear on what he can do that humans can't do. Stabilized, I'm kinda rubbery. Before I was stabilized, I was kinda gooey. Disgusting I know but that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Anyway, doing that where the world could see was a calculated risk, sorta." JARVIS displayed samples of the Index files, "SHIELD tried to convince me to claim that Iron Man was piloted by a bodyguard back before I made my I-am-Iron-Man announcement, it doesn't take a genius to see why they'd want people to think some nameless bodyguard was Iron Man instead of me, the media darling that I am. Same principle applies here, they can't make me disappear. If the world sees me turn into a kite then people won't dismiss supers out of hand so easily. It's the beginning of a new age, ladies and gentlemen, let's enjoy it."

Chapter Text

Tony was wild, on that everyone could agree but they didn't know the half of it. When he woke up in a cave in Afghanistan, his chest hurt and wasn't that a strange feeling? He'd never gotten sick since he was little, way back when his claws grew in. He got really sick, his parents actually thought he was gonna die and that got them to focus their attention on him. All he could remember was flashes, when he thinks back to the first time he used his gifts. His father actually seemed proud, mildly disturbed (maybe more than mildly) but proud nonetheless. He was quite protective over him, not wanting a lot of tests done in case his quick healing had its limits or in case he lost control again. His mother was a different story, she became distant, putting up the façade of a caring and close mother-son relationship for the public, the kind of relationship they lost when he grew claws. Edwin Jarvis was the worst and the best, he wanted Tony to act normal for his own good but he didn't give the impression he hated Tony, just that he would probably never fully adjust to Young Sir being so wild. Which was fair, before he grew claws, he was pretty withdrawn, having almost given up on getting his father's attention, forget his approval. The craziest 'test' Howard ran on him was setting him loose on his liquor cabinet after Tony was unaffected by champagne at a party. If Tony went through the whole cabinet in one night trying to get and stay drunk, thus leaving Howard without an ounce of alcohol in the house, then that was just ironic.

Focusing, he asked Yinsen "What the hell did you do to me?" He couldn't get drunk so he couldn't really forget but he did like playing the drunk because it lowered people's expectations, letting him get away with a lot more. Thanks Jarvis for all those lessons on acting normal.

"What I did? What I did is to save your life. I removed all the shrapnel I could, but there's a lot left, and it's headed into your atrial septum." Tony ripped the magnet out and stuck his hand in, Yinsen said "You shouldn't do that."

Ignoring the doctor, Tony just started pulling pieces of metal out, his hand as bloody as the metal. When the shrapnel finally reached his heart, he groaned in pain but continued pulling pieces out before collapsing back on the bed, using his clean hand to cover the hole in his chest. Bloody hand at his side, he moved that arm to draw the doctor's attention to it then let his claws start to come out, just enough for Yinsen to see but not for the camera to catch it. Men rush in and Tony groaned, he was really hoping he could do this without a hole in his chest but needs must. He zipped up his jacket and kept one hand over his wound as he moved fast, slitting the throats of all the insurgents and slamming the door shut, "Let's barricade this, I need a minute." He shot the camera, flinching and wincing at the loud noise. He couldn't waste energy tempering his senses when there was a hole in his chest, he understood that. The shouting nearly sent him into a frenzy, he understood that too. Yinsen was helpful enough with the barricading; if he was a mutant, his mutation was probably in his head, not the useful kind for a situation like this. Tony carefully unzipped the jacket, hissing in pain as he had to tear some skin off that was starting to grow back. They sat there for a while. Tony propped against the barricaded door, waiting for the hole in his chest to heal. Yinsen, holding a gun, watching him, wondering who is this man because he is not the Tony Stark that the world knows. Finally, neither of them could take the heavy silence, Tony said "Ask what you're dying to ask."

"What are you? Sorry-"

"Mutant, if I had to guess. I never really looked into it but I almost died when I was like twelve and now," he waved to his chest, which was to the point of visibly healing. "My mother called it a miracle but she never liked the other part of it. If I hadn't killed those guys, if they kept yelling, I would've gone into a frenzy. Berserker rage, my father used to call it, that's the part nobody who knows what I can do likes. In such a state, I'm more likely to either hurt people who aren't the enemy or lose sight of those people, fail to protect them because I'm too focused on protecting me and taking out the threats to me. And I'm, y'know, pissed beyond reason, hence my father's name for it. Only happened once, when my claws first grew in, but once was enough. My father was mildly disturbed and he was the most accepting of the three people I considered family. Mom, like I said, she considered my survival a miracle but she didn't like the other part of the miracle. Jarvis, he was like a father to me before I got sick and my actual father stepped up, he could never accept it but that was the extent of his problem with it. He was the one who taught me to hide what I am, to pretend to be normal for my own good. Dad actually sat us down, me and Jarvis, and had us talk through it. He couldn't get mom to come to that talk but we cleared the air. I knew what her problem was anyway, she saw me in a berserker rage. I don't remember it, that's the part of a frenzy that scares me, but even my dad said I fought like I was possessed and he didn't believe in that stuff. She didn't hate me, none of them did, but acceptance was just not in the cards. It isn't for a lot of people. Jarvis helped me figure out what normal looked like, I can't get drunk but other people can and when they're drunk, you must lower your expectations of them. Little did he know how much I'd use the lowering expectations thing to my advantage. Dad wasn't one for tests, he didn't want me to think that anyone had any more rights to me because I'm not 100% human than they had a right to him or any other human but when something came up, like the drinking thing, sometimes neither of us could resist. I emptied his liquor cabinet after a few glasses of champagne did nothing to me because we wanted to see if I had a high tolerance or a total immunity, the answer is somewhere in the middle. It takes a lot to get me buzzed but I don't stay drunk for more than maybe a handful of minutes."

"Incredible. What all can you do? I mean, what is your mutation exactly?"

"I heal fast, I think my aging might be a bit fucked up but I doubt I'm immortal. Way dad and I figure it, my healing factor burns the alcohol out of my system, treats it sort of like poison. I'm fast, strong, like a super soldier. My senses are enhanced, that's why the yelling almost set me off. I can hear your heartbeat, smell the chemicals your brain releases when you lie and the chemical shifts, pheromones for lack of a better word, associated with different emotions. I could, in theory, use my senses to track someone down. With the hole in my chest," He held up a hand and reassured, "You didn't know the surgery was unnecessary," then continued "With the hole in my chest, I couldn't waste energy trying to regulate my hearing. If we think of mutations as adapt to survive, the reason for mutant senses becomes clear. I couldn't shut it off, I still can't. Technically, my powers never turn off but I won't even be able to think about filtering the noise down to normal levels until we're safe. Only my friends know what I am and I'm very careful about who I tell. When my dad took meetings at home, I told him what people weren't trustworthy. Sometimes he'd refuse to do business with them, sometimes he'd have to make do anyway. I don't tell colleagues what I am. My PA and my bodyguard know but they're also friends, the military definitely doesn't know but Colonel James Rhodes does because he's my best friend. We met in college, he was my roommate, a pretty obvious move by the military to get close to the Stark heir. Alright, those three people are the only ones who know. Well, them and now you. I usually avoid doctors for obvious reasons."

"I understand. Your chest seems almost healed."

Tony looked down, "Breathing definitely got easier and I can safely assume our captors don't know how I took out their comrades. They're scared and confused, it's permeable even if I can't understand what they're saying." Tony pushed himself to his feet and took an insurgent's shirt, "Best not let them get proof of what I am. Ready to go?" Yinsen stood and nodded. With one single shove, Tony cleared the barricade then he ripped the door off its hinges, "Grab another gun, a spare just to be safe, aim for the cameras not me." They cleared the base, if you could even call it that, before Tony set one of his bombs to self destruct and stole a vehicle. He'd caught sight of a map of some kind, likely a planning area, and had a pretty good idea of where he was going. They stopped several miles from the base and Tony took one of the radios, switching to a US military frequency "Hello? Anybody there?"

"Who is this?"

"This is Tony Stark, calling to let you know that mountain that just went boom was my doing and you're welcome."

There was silence, probably trying to figure out what the protocol was, before a new voice came over the radio "Do you know where you are?"

"Not really. We're about twenty miles away from the cave base. Hurry, in case this radio is bugged or something."

"Will do."

A convoy came to pick them up and after verifying they were US troops, Tony got Yinsen to trust them. They debriefed an officer on the way to base, perfecting their cover story. Tony decided now was as good a time as any to make some changes. JARVIS helped him nail his untrustworthy colleagues to the wall, sharing information with the authorities that prompted investigations that brought about painful revelations. Tony also shifted SI away from weapons towards technology, getting his scientists focused on perfecting the Arc Reactor and flooding the market with a bunch of his projects that Obie had said were a waste of time, driving home the point that they were a weapons company. Their stocks dipped before skyrocketing, people loved SI tech. Added to the press release showing that they did not have to let go of a single employee to get where they wanted to go, SI was better off now than it'd ever been.

Chapter Text

The first thing Tony remembers is the noise, everything was always so loud, light so bright. He remembers stumbling around in a metal room, the walls dented from his early stumbling. The room smelled of disinfectant, a half-hearted attempt at kindness by the man who made him, Howard must've thought clean didn't have much of a scent. There was usually a hint of something else and Tony's mind inserts the words knock-out gas when he looks back or more accurately poison, the potency was probably lethal to compensate for his metabolism. He remembers hunger but not food, understands Rogers better than his own parents. Tony was seven when he began training to be the next Captain America, a legacy Howard could not let die. He rarely saw his parents as his parents, they were more often Howard and Maria. After all, what kind of woman lets her only child be weaponized and what kind of man experiments on his toddler son? Records discovered later indicate Tony was approximately three years old when the experiments began. Unable to recreate Erskine's exact work, a series of experiments were instead employed and that's where the blinding flashes of pain in his memories most likely come from, pain he cannot place but knows is real. Tony was seven when they decided he had adapted enough. 

To start his training, they had to find his baseline stats. They made him run on a treadmill, running was new so they had to do that exercise several times, having him run until he was on the verge of collapse. He thought he was getting a break when they had him sit in a glass box, that this was a time-out (is that what it's called) but then the box began filling and he was told not to move a muscle. As the water made it to his neck, he was told to take deep breaths, be ready to hold it. Unlike the treadmill, he got this test right on the first try. Several more things, they put him in a freezer and lowered the temperature until he was hypothermic, they put him in another room that was so hot his clothes caught fire. Once they had the baselines, they began teaching him. His trainers were nice, they saw him more as a kid than a super soldier to be. He mastered many languages, many forms of martial arts, he was proficient with every weapon that existed at the time. Howard and a few other experts taught him science. He was rewarded for progress, given bedding for his chamber then moved into a slightly less durable chamber with more comforts.

Eventually, when he was fifteen, they sent him to MIT to socialize, to learn to blend in. His cover was drilled into him, that he had been homeschooled because he was a genius. He had been told many times throughout his life that under no circumstances was he to inform anyone of his super soldier status. If they needed to know, they would. The first time he saw his 'home' was when MIT closed the campus between semesters. Maria showed him around, seemingly pleased with how well he had adjusted. Tony remembered her from his Italian lessons, remembered she was one of his parents (unbeknownst to either elder Stark, genetic donor was the preferred term used around the younger). He messed up during that first break, slipped up and told Howard something he didn't know, something Tony thought he knew. He thought Howard was in charge of the program, took the strange word choice as early acclimation training. When he realized his mistake, sensing a shift in his father, Tony steadied his breathing and prepared to receive disciplinary action. The expected action was never taken, instead his mother hugged him. A moment later, he took the expected reciprocal action. Despite his training, Tony never returned to base.

When he was seventeen, he rode with his parents to secure the remaining samples of the serums used on him. The car crashed, Tony jumped into action to save his parents. He fought another super soldier, this one had a metal arm and long black hair. Upon subduing the man, he turned back to his parents and successfully extracted them. Taking the case with the serums in hand, he sat on the other soldier. The response time for emergency vehicles was disturbingly fast, given none of them had been able to call 9-1-1. During the fight with the soldier, a strange camera had been destroyed, prompting more desperation from the soldier. Tony considered taking the soldier's gun before he realized none of the paramedics were armed. He oversaw the handling of the soldier, holding onto the case that was most likely the soldier's target. Howard permitted him to tell his friend what he was and accept the invitation to the Rhodes family Thanksgiving, back when they were working to acclimate Tony and break some of the conditioning. He would never be truly well adjusted but his thought processes had changed in those two years since he lived in the base.

The other soldier turned out to be James Buchanan Barnes, better known as Bucky Barnes, long time friend of Steve 'Captain America' Rogers. Barnes fell off a train and was declared missing, presumed dead during the war. From the looks of things, it appears that Zola's experiments on Barnes prior to that made him a super soldier and that he had been captured after his fall. The most pressing question was what happened after that. When Barnes awoke, Tony had to physically restrain him and later steel restraints had to be employed. Aside from trying to escape and 'complete the mission', he was unresponsive. Tony had an idea. First, he cleared the room. Second, he made his voice as monotonous as possible and demanded Barnes identify himself. He identified as the Asset. In the same voice, Tony demanded a mission report. The Asset reported his failure of mission objectives, identifying his objectives in the process: secure the case, kill Howard and Maria Stark, subdue and return with the younger Stark. Leaving the room, Tony reported on what he found and quipped, "Three out of five ain't bad."

A moment later, Howard said "You are not-"

"Please don't." If Howard finished that sentence, he could never go back on his word, that was one of the lingering parts of Tony's conditioning. Howard thought he was creating a hero for the next generation when in reality, he was helping weaponize his own son. Still, looking back, that intention was lost in the action taken.

"Alright but I don't think you should do this. We don't know who we're dealing with."

"Actually," Colonel Phillips cut in- he was called in as soon as the hostile was identified as Barnes, back when there was hope of triggering the man's memories through familiar faces- and glared at the agent in charge "That star on his arm is pretty iconic, isn't that right?"

The agent stammered before admitting that they did know what Barnes had become. He told the Starks the legend of the Winter Soldier then said "Nobody knows who the Winter Soldier works for."

Tony returned to the room they were keeping Barnes in, donning an impassive mask and employing a monotone voice. He got some more answers, which were heard through the door that was left partially ajar, before Barnes broke out of his restraints to complete the mission. Tony played along, hitting his parents hard enough to seriously harm but not enough to kill, as he followed the Winter Soldier. HYDRA turned out to be the answer to the question of who did the Soldier serve. The base Barnes took him to was a treasure trove once he killed the Soldier's handler to keep him from interfering while he cleared the base. Tony reported to Phillips, not trusting anyone else he knew would be able to answer his call. Many of the agents assigned to Barnes either turned out to be HYDRA or died at the Asset's hands. Tony found himself bored and the fact he could feel boredom, not just fake it, sent a small thrill through him. While he waited for Phillips to gather some men and come take the base, Tony went through their files, searching for a cure to Barnes' Winter Soldier condition. As he searched the base for records, he started to recognize some of the men he'd killed and realized he was nearly a Winter Soldier himself. His grip on the case tightened as memories flooded his mind. Was it better to remember everything or remember nothing? He holed himself and Barnes up in an office after using the Soldier to clean up the mess he'd made, separating the dead from the injured and locking both up. He went through the files, analyzing the records and memorizing most of them. When Phillips' men showed up, he led the Soldier to the door and let them in before turning to Barnes "Sputnik." The man collapsed upon hearing the word and Tony informed the Colonel "That might not work twice." He handed the man a small red book "The Winter Soldier triggers, don't let anyone take that from you or I'll kill you." Then he gave them directions to the bodies of the agents and the office where all the records were. Waiting for the American soldiers to pass him, Tony hefted Barnes' body and followed Phillips to their transport.

Once they were alone, Phillips asked "How'd you do that?"

Tony flashed back to warnings that he should never tell anyone what he is, remembering how he was thrown into a tank and left there for nearly twice his recorded time as punishment when he bragged about it to one of his trainers (who knew! It's not like he was outing himself), then he remembered his father giving him permission to tell his friend and emphasizing that the secret was his to keep or share, recalling Howard sharing his intentions with Tony, the reason he did what he did and expressing regret for how those good intentions were twisted. Deciding to go with his father not his handlers' directives and deeming Chester Phillips a family friend, he said "The serums HYDRA was after? I am proof that they work. Dad wanted to revive Captain America so he made me a super soldier and got me all the training I could need. Seems HYDRA took part in that training, like they thought I would be a back up Winter Soldier instead a new Captain America, then dad decided my training was complete and that I should be allowed to make the same choice everyone else does when it comes to being a soldier or a civilian. I guess HYDRA didn't like that. Somehow they found out that there were more serums, found out I'd be with them, and decided to try again with me. This is all classified, of course, we don't know how far HYDRA's got their hooks in. I can't really think of anyone who knew both I and the serums would be in the car yet HYDRA knew. Mom decided at the last minute to bring me along on their trip but she didn't know the route, she didn't want us going down dark roads alone with something so valuable." Tony's mind was working despite him and he had an idea, "Make sure you get those serums back to dad, we want to stop HYDRA from building an army of Winter Soldiers not just delay them." He pulled out his phone and made a call, "Hey man."

"Tony, are you calling on your cell?"

"Yeah. Listen, I need you to do me a favor."

"I heard the news. Is this related to-"

"Yeah, it's related to that. Your mom's a lawyer, right?"

"Right."

"I need you to set a meeting. I'd call her firm directly but-"

"I get it. I'm on it."

After he hung up, Tony turned to Phillips, who asked "What's that about? What do you need a lawyer for?"

"I don't. Unless I'm gonna be arrested for this-"

"How could you take out a whole base full of armed terrorists?"

"By triggering the Winter Soldier?"

"Exactly."

"I need to meet with a lawyer outside the company because I'm worried about corruption within the company and that's all I'm gonna say right now." Needless to say, he was right. Roberta Rhodes' review of Stark Industries contracts, for which she was paid handsomely, uncovered major discrepancies in their financial records. Their income didn't match their invoices but embezzling was the least of their problems. Weapons set to be stripped for parts were disappearing, which is when they brought in the pros. The IRS was very helpful and private investigations were launched against the agencies that proved to be more of a hindrance than a help when Stane's ultimate betrayal was discovered.

Flash forward to 2012, a shadowy agency calling itself SHIELD (seen as a front for HYDRA) loses the Tesseract. SHIELDRA calls upon Tony Stark (Iron Man) among others to help, not knowing that Stark's bodyguard is actually the lost Winter Soldier (Howard had taken personal offense to the old red-star arm and replaced it long before the conditioning had been broken). In Germany, the Soldier makes Loki disappear while Tony distracts his teammates, only joining them on the Helicarrier to rescue Bruce Banner. His extensive childhood training made Tony intimately aware of his emotions and so, he immediately realizes what is happening when the yelling starts. Fury, Pierce, Carson, Stane, the list goes on, Tony does not like HYDRA and he hates two-faced people. Grabbing the scepter in both hands, he focuses his will on it and everyone settles. "What did you just do, Stark?"

"Do you know what the amygdala does?" Tony hummed, waiting a beat for a response. "The amygdala is the emotion center of the brain and our amygdalas were just firing on all cylinders, getting us worked up for no reason. I identified the cause and dealt with it. You're welcome." He turned to Rogers "Did Fury, or anyone, tell you about the Winter Soldier?"

"No. What does-"

"Barnes survived the fall, we believe that Zola's experiment turned him into a super soldier. He was weaponized by HYDRA, who dubbed him the Winter Soldier. They froze him between missions. When I was 17, the Winter Soldier tried to kill my parents, it was the beginning of the end really because their survival exposed HYDRA's continued existence. Fury didn't tell you because after the brainwashing was broken, Barnes dropped off SHIELDRA's radar. I say SHIELDRA because the investigation into the Winter Soldier revealed that a budding new intelligence agency that was rising from the ashes of the SSR was actually HYDRA's biggest foothold. Look where we are now."

"What attacked you wasn't the Winter Soldier?"

Glancing at a screen, he saw confirmation JARVIS had control of the carrier. Tony picked up the scepter and snapped it in half, "Yes it was." He threw the non-glowing end at Fury with deadly precision then turned to Romanoff and growled "Run." As she ran, he reached for the glowing part of the scepter and removed it, setting it on the worktable. Holding it still in one hand, he used the jagged part of the scepter in his hand to cut into the housing and removed a stone. Turning to Thor, he prompted "Care to explain?"

"I don't-"

"JARVIS?" Loki's words on the Infinity Stones played throughout the room and Tony closed his hand around the Stone, focusing. He had guessed, based on the fact that the scepter was a lot like the Tesseract, that it too contained a stone shaped core. "Yeah, hit 'em over the head hard enough to knock 'em out and suddenly they're free." He looked at Steve, "Captain America fights for truth and justice, right? If you don't want that perverted by HYDRA, you should come with me. Bonus, Barnes will be there." Then he turned back to Bruce "Double bonus, Betsy is one of our primary scientists. We don't have a name for our little collective, we're just trying to keep SHIELDRA from weaponizing people with powers. Her insight into you is the basis for her work with us. We had to hold off on approaching you after Culver because of SHIELD."

"Okay. I'm in," said Bruce.

"Me too," agreed Steve.

Tony told Thor, "We'll get the Cube to send you home but you're not taking it or Loki with you." Before he could object, Tony leaned in conspiratorially and said "If I were you, I'd ditch this place, head to Tromsø, spend some time off-the-grid with Jane Foster. We can rendezvous there, if you like."

"Very well, Man of Iron. We shall meet in the Midgardian state of Tromsø."

"It's a city but close enough." Tony led the other two off the Helicarrier, boarding a cloaked jet piloted by Clint Barton. James Barnes left the co-pilot's seat to grab a box for Tony to put the Stone in.

Steve breathed the name "Bucky."

"I prefer James, Steve. Take a seat before SHIELD decides to shoot us out of the sky."

"We need to scan him first, him and Bruce, never know what kind of stunt a Black Widow might pull."

Clint said "We can do that at any time when we're over the ocean."

"Right." With that, they were off.

Chapter Text

Tony knew his father loved him the same way he knew he was cursed. When Tony was a child, there was a kidnapping gone wrong. The exact circumstances are a little fuzzy, either rescue was too late or the abductors screwed up but the results were clear, Tony was going to die. Rather than accept this, Howard resorted to magic. The man wasn't a master of the dark arts by any stretch of the imagination but he knew some people who practiced, had heard their warnings when he made jokes at their expense. He was a man of science! He firmly believed that anything magic could achieve, science could do better but science had failed his son so he resorted to magic. Consulting his magic contacts, he found a man with a lot of skills and relatively loose morals to perform a ritual. The man warned Howard, and Maria, that Tony wouldn't be human after the ritual was complete but they'd heard that about every possible life-saving ritual. Howard merely asked if the ritual would keep his son from dying. When Tony asked about it later on, Howard told him "The man laughed in my face, said death would be a friend for as long as you lived. Wasn't until I got some of my more ethical friends to check you out that I learned what he meant. I'm sorry, Tony." Every time they talked about it, Howard apologized. Tony was living on borrowed time, had been as long as he could remember. The ritual was, after all, a success.

Each and every morning, without fail, Tony kept his eyes closed when he first woke up. To some it appeared petulant but there was a reason he always made sure to be gone before any of his bed partners awoke. The first thing he did every morning was focus on the fact that he didn't kill anyone, focus on reaffirming that he wasn't responsible for the previous day's deaths. Should he ever break the habit of doing this, his time would run out in a week. As a child, after the magic man saved him, his parents took him far away from people when the names of random strangers began appearing on his body in black letters. The explanation the ethical sorcerer gave was that Tony was now a Reaper, an agent of death, making him responsible for the deaths around him. Luckily for little Tony, guilt played a big role. If he didn't feel guilty, if he focused on the knowledge that he wasn't responsible then the names went away, he could put off his full transformation a little longer. It was kind of exhausting but the sorcerer, the ethical one, warned that should his body fill up with names then he would become a true, full fledged Reaper. Regular Reapers have no soul, they exist solely as agents of death, they are purpose driven and beyond the confines of morality or ethics.

The one upside, if there was an upside, was the powers that Tony could access without turning. Reapers are agents of death, the powers are geared towards serving that purpose. He can teleport because Reapers need to reach the dying/dead. He can walk through walls because nothing can stop death. He can kill with a touch or breathe poison for obvious reasons. The strangest power was his eyes, he could make them solid black but if someone looked him in the eye while they were black then that person would usually see him as a monster. When Tony was younger, he used that power a lot to ward off bullies and kidnappers alike because they could never say what exactly they saw that scared them so much. His dad's ethical sorcerer still caught wind of it somehow and sat him down to explain that those who fear death cannot look a Reaper in the eye. Tony didn't mind that until the sorcerer added that those contemplating death can be pushed over the edge by the same phenomenon. If someone was even a little bit suicidal, his eyes could push them to take that jump. Telling Tony that almost set his training back as he began to wonder how many people he killed that way and his body answered the question. He was once again isolated when that happened while he meditated and focused on letting go of that guilt.

Reapers, Tony learned after Afghanistan, were notoriously hard to kill. As the loosely moral sorcerer told his father, death was a friend to them. The ethical sorcerer sort of corrected that by saying that a Reaper was an agent of death, meaning they served death. Even though he could probably survive the procedure to remove the Reactor, Tony couldn't risk losing control and poisoning the surgical staff. Instead, he sought out his father's magic contacts and discovered the New York Sanctum. The Masters of the Mystic Arts were fascinated by him, a living Reaper. They also felt a bit bad about the Master who taught him what being a Reaper meant, he had kept Tony's secret at the cost of his membership in the order. The Ancient One told Tony that there would come a day in the future when he would be able to have the Reactor removed but that day was still years out. She also told him that "One day, your status as a Reaper may save the universe but only if you learn to accept all that you are today."

The title Merchant of Death always stung but the people who called him that didn't know what he was or why it stung. He became a Reaper because of a botched kidnapping, which involved ransom. The Ancient One was right, he couldn't hide from who or what he was. Luckily her former follower taught him the power of meditation. Tony decided to focus on his work, as usual, and looked at past projects both he and his father had never finished. Searching for a way to keep all of SI afloat, nobody should have to lose their job because Tony was blind to the real- no, the original Merchant of Death in his midst. Tony had to accept all that he was or the universe could die. He exposed SHIELD and recovered his father's property, playing a projector in an empty room so JARVIS could digitize the film. Tony quickly re-launched a whole slew of projects, trusting JARVIS to find the right people in their employ to work on them. The Arc Reactor, that he left for himself. He needed to find a middle ground between the factory one and the one in his chest that they could market as their entry into the clean energy game.

The Tesseract was returned to Tony along with Cap's shield and everything else of his father's that SHIELD had requisitioned. When JARVIS found a copy of the will in the mix, he notified the authorities on behalf of Sir, adding to the laundry list of charges. Tony also took on the job of sweeping SHIELD's records, as a programmer who could create an algorithm for that in his sleep. He put another AI on the job, JOCASTA was going to be part of a gift he was planning to give Rhodey- his own Iron Man armor, Tony was debating on the name and called legal to set up a special contract with the US Air Force to ensure they couldn't replicate or modify the suit if he gave Rhodey one. That spawned an incredible argument, "Colonel Rhodes and I attended MIT together. He is a rocket scientist, which makes it much easier for me to teach him basic maintenance. Do what you gotta do but make sure that only I can modify or upgrade the armor, I don't want them trying to improve it and have the system overload while he's several miles in the air. I also don't want an Iron Legion to contradict my claim that SI is out of the weapons game." They buckled after that, agreeing to write a contract for one suit of armor and asking him to get back to them with a name.

Tony invited Rhodey over for some drinks when his buddy was on shore leave "Tony, my bosses want me to talk to you about abandoning weapons."

"Before we get to that, let me show you something." They went down to the workshop, an unpainted suit of armor was standing in the center of the room. "This is yours, or it will be. I already have legal working on a contract for the Air Force to sign saying that they'll leave maintenance, alterations and upgrades up to us and they won't try to make an army of these bad boys without permission. But legal's hitting a bit of a roadblock and it's ridiculous, they need a name for the armor. I thought you might have some ideas."

"You serious, Tones?"

Tony looked between him and the suit then moved to stand next to his best friend before turning to face him, "We're not even the same height, you're a few inches taller than me but you know how much of a difference a few inches makes."

"Right, right." Rhodey asked "Ya mind?"

"It's not ready to take flight and I want to work on the controls with you before I switch out the AI."

"Switch out?"

"Oh, right. I'm also planning on giving you an AI for a co-pilot. JOCASTA, say hi."

"Hello, Colonel Rhodes."

"I had her sweep SHIELD's files but that's all she's done so far, didn't want to get her used to one thing then give her a totally different job. J, open the suit."

"So," Rhodey walked up to the now open suit of armor, "JARVIS is on board right now?"

"Yes but he's my co-pilot not yours."

"Alright." Rhodey climbed inside.

"Open and close is literally all you got right now and I wouldn't recommend closing until the life support system is fully integrated."

"Right." He stepped out, "This is awesome, Tony. What do you need me for, exactly?"

Tony went over to his desktop "You're smart, no denying that, but you're not on my level so we need to figure out what you need the armor to do, what you need JOCASTA to do and what kind of control you need to have over the two. There are also some bells and whistles you can choose from before we switch out the AIs and go for a test flight." They spent most of the night going over suit capabilities and controls.

Rhodey green lit a few of the bells and whistles (like the parachute in case the suit was somehow disabled) but shot down other features, both extra and already installed, stating "This is a war machine, Tony."

"War Machine, that the name you're going with. I'll totally take credit with the Air Force so you don't get in trouble for not calling to loop them in." When he said that, Rhodey started to pull out his phone. "If you call to loop them in, I'll put the suit on back order and you won't get it online until I'm on my deathbed." Rhodey put his phone away. "So War Machine, that its name or do you want to wait and try to think of something else?"

"It's a good name, right?"

"I am Iron Man."

"Shut up, Tones. Alright, let me try it out. I am War Machine, yeah I like it."

The next day was spent making the actual adjustments and letting legal get the contract ready. "Alright, Legal says we need to wait for your bosses to sign before taking it out on a test flight for various reasons. They're probably gonna kick it up the chain of command if they know what's good for them. Once they sign then you and I have to sign as pilot and inventor slash mechanic then Pepper signs- Did you hear I made her CEO? She was always better at dealing with business than me- and then once everyone's signed, we can go and test it out on an Air Force base. When tests are done, we'll have a joint SI-AF press conference for transparency- I'm sure your superiors will love the chance to flaunt having an Iron Man in their chain of command- and you're good to go. Got it?"

"So the suit's ready but we'll have to wait until a whole bunch of people sign the contract before I can fly?"

"You're technically still on shore leave." By the look on his face, Tony guessed Rhodey had forgotten that little tidbit in all the excitement. "But yeah. The tests will have to cover a lot of ground, make sure everything's operational and the controls work for you, so we'll probably also see how much paperwork goes into replacing spent ammunition and maintenance. We could probably even justify a War Machine versus Iron Man battle."

"No way, not happening."

"Alright then, it was just an idea."

"I'm only saying no because I don't want the Air Force to see the results. If you win then my bosses might try to skirt the contract and I don't want to lose this suit."

"And if you win then they'll probably broadcast that and that's trouble neither of us needs. Good thinking."

With SHIELD effectively shut down, Tony was notified when they found Cap. He dumped the man in the US Army's lap because they never technically discharged him, making them the obvious choice to deal with him. The Army, of course, knew Tony had the shield but when he dumped Capsicle in their lap, he did so with a remark about reintegration and the disaster that ensued when they tried to follow through with that... let's just say the shield didn't move an inch.

Thor was another incident that nearly got dumped in his lap. Tony handled the two matters in a similar fashion. He met with Doctors Foster and Selvig in their gas station turned lab after Thor escaped the hospital. "So you're not of this world?"

"Nay, I am from Asgard-"

"And he fell from the sky?" Tony asked the three humans.

"Yes," Dr. Foster answered "I believe Asgard may be another planet."

Tony turned back to Thor, "Are you using some kind of universal translator?"

"Aye, the All-Speak."

The back and forth was annoying but at least Thor picked up on it, Tony turned back to the slightly stunned doctors "Did you really think aliens spoke English?"

Jane blushed "Maybe a little."

"Alright here's what we're going to do. I'm going to offer you a contract to work with SI on extraterrestrial research, help us prepare for more visitors from other worlds. If you refuse, I'll connect you to other people working on alien research- actual researchers not conspiracy theorists- and you can collaborate on space travel theories." Turning to Thor, "What were you looking for when you came here? Is there something I can help you find?"

"Mjolnir."

"What does Mjolnir look like?"

"A hammer," answered Thor in a more subdued voice, a bit confused as to why this mortal kept interrupting him.

Looking at Dr. Foster's intern, Tony asked "What are the odds the hammer fell too?"

Stifling a laugh, Darcy answered "Pretty good."

"Alright." Tony pulled out his phone "Good news, bad news. Good news, I know where it is. Bad news, Army's already there." He reached out for Thor, "Let me make some calls, I can probably get you access in exchange for telling them what they're looking at. We mortals are a bit isolated, after all. They're probably a bit confused and helping with that confusion is a small price to pay to reclaim your property, right?" Thor agreed and Tony made his calls, promising the owner would be with him.

Things seemed to be dealt with when the Destroyer showed up. Noting how guns did nothing but the aliens who came for Thor weren't deterred, Tony stole one of their swords and stuck it between the plates, twisting it then stole another and set it opposite that one to weaken the structural integrity. He sent the video from his HUD to his government handler- he was working on legal protections for people with gifts, like Cap, Thor, the X-Men, etc. by proving they weren't monsters, that they weren't beyond reason and could be helpful- and went home.

When Loki came through the Tesseract, he found himself in an empty room. A moment later, he was beat over the head by his own scepter. He woke up in an empty room with just a mat and a tray of food. Someone had stripped him and dressed him in Midgardian garb, Loki didn't like any of this but at least he was free. An invalid entered the room, scanned his mind - mages learn to pick up on that as a matter of self-preservation - then left. Two hours later, not that Loki had any way of knowing, a brunette man entered "Loki, third son of King Laufey of Jotunheim, brother of Princes Helblindi and Byleistr of Jotunheim. Abducted, I mean adopted son of King Odin and Queen Frigga of Asgard, adopted brother of Prince Thor and Princess Hela of Asgard. Currently you have no royal status as Jotunheim and Asgard are kind of at odds over who can claim you. To be clear, you're here because Midgard is neutral in that battle. If you think you can manage to act human then you can leave this room any time but for your own safety, we don't want you to unnecessarily out yourself. Until either kingdom claims you, you're in double the danger any of your brothers are in."

"Who is Hela?"

"Odin and Frigga had a daughter, she tried to kill her father when he started shifting away from war and towards peace, she's been locked away ever since. All of Asgard and Jotunheim's secrets are coming to light as they fight over you."

"Who in Asgard would want me?"

"Queen Frigga, I think Odin wants to punish you and get you out of the way like he did to Hela when she tried to steal the throne. Jotunheim, that's a bit complicated. Apparently Odin stole you away from a rite of passage that you were undergoing early because of the war and you passed it. Neither of your brothers passed, meaning you are the rightful king. When they're not swearing to finish what you started, Asgard's trying to use that as leverage. Since you're on neither world, Asgard destroying Jotunheim would get them nowhere and vice versa. Is all of this coming through the All-Speak alright?"

"Yes. You do know I sent the Destroyer to your world?"

"I also know Odin lied to everyone including you about your origins and raised you to view your own people as monsters, that he made you hate yourself. You grew up hearing tales of how your supposed father heroically slaughtered your people, hearing your supposed brother swear to finish his good work. Then you find out, your father is actually your abductor and the monster is you." Tony slowly let out a breath of air, "I know something about being a monster."

"Oh, I doubt that."

"Do you fear death?"

"Strange question, not really."

"Not really a strange question or-"

"I don't really fear death. Why?"

"Look me in the eye and say that." Tony's eyes turned black and Loki only saw the void, a state of non-existence, not really death or life, the fate of all Reapers.

Blinking back these visions, he amended "I don't fear you."

"Aren't Reapers worse than Frost Giants?"

"So Jotunheim is winning the fight?"

"No idea."

"Who are you?"

"Whoops. I'm Tony Stark. Please keep the Reaper thing to yourself."

"Alright."

Tony stepped through the door and held it open, "Care for a tour?" Eventually Jotunheim did win the fight and crowned Loki the new king, he used his post to prepare the Nine for Thanos after repaying his Midgardian hosts' kindness by warning them of the coming of the Mad Titan.

The Masters of the Mystic Arts in Kamar-Taj notified Tony of the Ancient One's passing. He visited the New York Sanctum to pay his respects, as it was the only place he had ever seen her and going to Kamar-Taj felt wrong, like he would be trespassing and stomping on her memory. In the Sanctum, he met Stephen Strange, Dr. Stephen Strange and had to laugh despite himself. "The Ancient One told me that there would come a day when the Reactor could safely be removed and then she chose a doctor as her successor."

"I'm a neurosurgeon, or I was."

"I'm a Reaper, or I will be. Reapers are agents of death or embodiments of death, take your pick. I'm afraid that without my conscious control, my body will begin to shift to Reaper form, killing everyone in the OR."

"Ah so you need to maintain control despite the anesthesia that will have to be used for such an invasive procedure."

"Yeah."

"That's actually very simple magic but I'll have to do some research to verify and get back to you."

"Well, since I'm here, I might as well share Loki's warning." With that out of the way, Tony focused on making preparations to combat Thanos. Only stopping when Strange's research bore fruit, he had the Reactor removed and continued on with his work.

When Thanos came, he understood the Ancient One's warning and teleported to touch the Mad Titan, killing him after a few moments. Grabbing the Gauntlet, he teleported to Loki, who used it to slay Thanos' army. Tony collapsed to the ground after that, taking deep breaths and focusing on how that slaughter was not his fault. Strange hurried to his side but it was too little too late, he was responsible, it was his plan, his doing. Tony Stark was the last casualty of the Infinity War and Strange only managed to preserve his body for cremation.

Chapter Text

Tony stood at the edge of a lake in Alaska, Alkali Lake, waiting. This was usually werewolf territory but something had the wolves running and Tony, ever the curious vampire, wanted to know what. He was thankful for the overcast sky and northern chill. The clouds filtered the sun enough and although he didn't get cold, the climate gave him an excuse to cover up. Tony hated the daylight, he always begged off desert demos but Stane claimed he was busy dealing with investors when the Jericho demo rolled around, Tony should've seen the trap. Stane thought the desert would kill him if the insurgents failed, he should've known better than to fuck with a vampire. Obadiah Stane fed him for months, all the while begging for death. Tony usually chose suicidal people, snatching them off their bridges, their cliffs, anywhere they weren't expected to come back from or be found. A flash of fangs and they welcomed his interference. He often snapped their necks and staged their suicide by hanging, better than most vamps gave their victims.

A motorcycle pulled up on shore, Tony considered the rider before turning back to the water. The rider was sad but not suicidal, he'd fight back and Tony wasn't much of a hunter. "Who are you?"

The rider looked surprised "Scott. You're Tony Stark."

"To some."

"To others?"

"Iron Man, Merchant of Death, Friend Anthony, Son of Stark, Man of Iron, the last three are Thor's names for me. I don't think anyone just has one name these days."

"True, I guess. Scott Summers, Cyclops."

"We're even, I guess. What brings-" he saw a familiar red shape in the water. No, it couldn't be. He glanced at Scott, maybe he misjudged the man. Quickly, he bit into the man's neck and shoved him back.

"What the-" Then the water broke and a red-haired woman appeared.

"The Great Phoenix rises again," Tony bowed respectfully to her.

She landed in front of him, studying him in all his vampiric glory then looked at Scott, "Seriously?"

"You lured him here, you should've known someone would get curious about the wolves' escape."

"True." The world around her settled, "Got a name?"

Tony said "My name means little more than the name given to your host at birth. Humans are, after all, so short lived while we, my dear, we are forever."

"Fair enough."

Before she could kiss him, Tony shot back to stand over Scott. "Does your host hold any sway?"

The Phoenix's eyes filled with recognition from his mannerisms, "Yes, I suppose she does. Go ahead and turn him."

Tony smiled down at Scott before realizing the glasses weren't sunglasses, "You'll have to fix him first. Give this new host body a stretch." She nodded and Scott was pulled to her, his glasses disintegrated while his eyes were held open. Once the red energy subsided, Tony bit him then bit his own wrist and bled into the mortal wound. Convulsions marked the change and when they ceased, the Phoenix dropped him. "Let's go."

Tony led her to a nearby manor-style house, laying the turnblood on an altar/slab in the basement. They were guests in the house, the owners still raised their food. Some vampires considered that a kindness as the humans they fed from knew no other life but the dangers of inbreeding lay in the blood, making upkeep of human stock difficult for those who relied on the healthy blood. Scott was left alone with an adult man to feed from while his sire and the Phoenix celebrated the latter's return.

Night fell and Tony drank bagged blood stolen from a local hospital, he preferred it to the taste of feeder blood. Then he and the Phoenix paid their new toy a visit. Scott was huddled in one corner of the room, the feeder's body next to the door. "Oh, for God's sake, we gave him an adult man to avoid this. Nobody was around to clean up the body? Vampires aren't turned knowing how to do that."

"What the hell?"

Tony hopped up on the altar, "Okay, I'm gonna give you a play by play even though you were there. We're standing by the lake, I saw the Phoenix start to rise and mistook you for a gift from the Phoenix. I bit you and shoved you out of the way as the Phoenix rose from the lake. Upon realizing you and the Phoenix's host knew each other, I asked if the host held sway. The Phoenix said yes so I turned you, after the Phoenix fixed your eyes. Your powers should still- you should have conscious control now. As most do, you had a seizure and passed out during the transformation. Traditionally, you'd be turned here with a willing human on standby for you to feed from. Vampires must always drain their first victim. Nobody knows why but it's the reason that when two vampires have a baby, either someone who is terminally ill or recently dead, sometimes brain dead, are in the delivery room. The first thing that vampires do when the baby is born is guide its head to latch onto the human's neck so they can feed. Most vampire babies only feed once every few months and they only drain the first person they feed on, we learn self-control very easily." Tony looked at Scott, who still seemed horrified by his actions. "We're in the house of a very strange vampire. Y'see, he was born before abolition took hold of the world and as such, he often fed from slaves. The man you killed was always going to die that way. There are more where he came from, all of them know nothing but a vampire's bite and a very strict diet since we vampires can only get nutrients from human blood. Personally, I prefer a diet of expired blood bags and suicidal human blood. I get the humans just as they take that jump, flash my fangs and they offer their necks. I might take a quick bite but mostly I drain their blood the human way. Sometimes, I'll hook them up to an IV if depression led them to a terrible diet, get more nutrients in their blood then drain it if they still want to die. There's over a hundred vampires in the world, sometimes we're slain as fast as we can find suitable candidates to turn. Truth be told, I'm old for an immortal blood sucker and I'm not even a thousand years old. I made you immortal because the Phoenix is amortal and apparently housed in your lover's body despite your lover not having completely died. It happens, the Phoenix usually claims hosts on the brink of death. If someone's brought back from the brink by outside forces, like doctors, the Phoenix can get stuck. Once stuck, the Phoenix might get impatient and jump the freaking gun the next time the host does something extremely dangerous that should or could kill them."

"You mean Jean's still-"

"Right here, Scott." Unhappily, the Phoenix let its host take over. Tony's presence offered reassurance that it wouldn't get 'stuck' again. Scott stood up and crashed into the altar trying to run to his fiancé.

"That's why we do this in a room made of stone or a cave, a cave is actually the traditional place to turn a person. We avoid any environment that could be considered fragile. I've heard of vampires turning prisoners on death row right in their cells, back before diplomatic immunity was a thing, when being from the wrong country could get you executed if your leaders pissed each other off. It's less common nowadays." Scott ignored him, enjoying his reunion. "By the way, vampires can't feed on other supernaturals, which is where the idea that we're locked in an endless war with werewolves comes from. Bite a werewolf by mistake and you'll be sorry because their blood supposedly burns our mouth, like really spicy food does to humans and if you push past that then it's more like an allergic reaction or so I've been told."

"Forgetting something?" asked Jean/the Phoenix.

Tony thought about it, "Oh yeah. The Phoenix and I are eternal lovers. The Phoenix's host is all yours so who's with her sort of depends on who's in charge of that body. Theoretically, the Phoenix might make your girl immortal but if you want it then you have my word that I'll end you when she dies for good. That's if you want, give being a vampire a try before you make a decision. Oh and as your sire, I can make you do anything but I'm not interested in using that. That power's part of the reason slayers exist in the first place, vampires trying to build armies subject to their will made humans desperate and those desperate humans figured out how to kill us, some of them even got a taste for it. Bada bing bada boom, angry mob turned army of slayers. Don't worry, I'm old enough to know how to avoid them and I've never been dumb or greedy enough to get on their radar."

"Okay."

"I can't leave you two alone, not here. If you're ready, we can go back to my place and I can leave you two alone there but you're gonna need to feed again first. The change takes a lot out of you not me and while your body's settling, it's not going to handle the nutrients in blood very efficiently. Unfortunately, that also means you have feed from the source. Some nutrients is lost in bagged blood. I can go get another feeder but the Phoenix probably won't let Jean retain control while I'm gone. I don't imagine you want to see where a former slave owner keeps his human stock."

"No."

Tony patted the altar, "Hop up. We'll both be here to keep you from draining this one. If you drain, like, three humans consecutively then you're deemed dangerous to the species because that shows a lack of self-control which is what leads slayers to us." Tony left and Jean became instantly colder, although the Phoenix seemed to be looking him over with a bit more consideration instead of writing him off as she/it/they had at the lake. Tony brought two humans back, both full grown adults. "I tried to tell the owner I won't feed from any of his stock but he still sent two just in case. Take your pick but don't get off the altar, we haven't even begun power training and with it being night, you don't want the residents to scent blood because you accidentally tapped into your vampiric strength or accidentally kill a human and have it count as your second strike."

"Right." Scott shyly pointed and the human joined him on the slab, offering his wrist.

"The wrist is the best place to feed from, especially for a turnblood like you who associates certain body parts with intimacy. Drink up. We're right here to stop you if you start losing control."

There was no need to worry about that, Scott was still a bit too disgusted with himself to take more than absolutely necessary and had to be told when he could stop to make sure he took enough. Tony took him to the Stark Mansion where he sat at the desk in one room, present but not paying much attention to them so Scott could be properly reunited with his lost love. He paid just enough mind to catch the Phoenix trying to trick its host's lover. A week later, after the Phoenix began allowing Jean to take control without Tony supervising, Scott approached his sire about a threesome. "The Phoenix and Jean are one, right?"

"One body, two souls but not quite possession." Tony sighed "The Phoenix is tricky, this isn't the first time this has happened, me turning someone because the Phoenix possessed their lover. I've actually had the Phoenix beg me to end them a time or two because their host held enough sway for them to be heartbroken by their beloved's death after their host engaged in a death pact. Anyway, if you and our lovers are cool with it, I'm game but make sure you're not being influenced by the Phoenix. Go for a hunt."

"A hunt?"

"Run through the woods, test out your powers, see if animal blood does anything for you, that sort of thing?"

"Oh, okay."

"I'll distract your fiance and talk to my beloved."

"See you at sunrise."

"Think about a solitary hobby you could do. Vampires don't need as much sleep as humans and day is longer than night. You can't sleep all day and you have to avoid the sun, figure something out. I'll even pay for a TV but that'll get old fast."

Two months later, after Scott found something to do during the day, when both the Phoenix and the turnblood still wanted to be with Tony, the old vampire caved. He also let Scott and Jean visit their friends after testing the former by going to a nightclub where he'd be surrounded by live humans. The X-Men reunion was nice, if a bit short lived. Scott had begged for permission to tell his friends, Tony gave it after he passed the test on the condition that he not name him as his sire. Being deathly allergic to sunlight was kind of a deal breaker when it came to holding a human job. "Is vampirism why you did the whole playboy song and dance?"

"Crazy nightlife to lower people's expectations in the daylight? Sorta. The inventor thing helps me avoid people. Ask what you really want to know, I could see the question in your eyes when you realized I really live off human blood."

"How does the playboy thing work with the vampire thing?"

Tony grinned "I only sleep with other supernaturals and only when they're under chasity charms or celibacy oaths. Right now, only you can get our girl pregnant but if Jean ever dies out, ever leaves this world for the next then I'll be able to get the Phoenix pregnant. We've had children, before you ask, any child born of the Phoenix is powerful. You may have noticed how the Phoenix is, not loving but a capable lover nonetheless. Children was the name of this game originally, the Phoenix spawned quite a few monsters and was in danger from both hunters and other supernaturals. I was a child myself by modern human standards but I appeared to be full grown. I protected the Phoenix and was rewarded for it, the reward confused me because like I said, I was very young. A child resulted, prompting me to continue my protection through to birth. The child appeared normal and aside from not automatically releasing its first feeder, didn't seem monstrous. The general consensus was that I balanced her. Still, the age of terror, both intentional and accidental, left its mark. Most avoid the Phoenix rising, flee from it even. Anyway, to answer your question, supernaturals because I can't feed from them and I also make sure I can't conceive with them either." Scott left him alone once his question was fully answered. They had a pretty chill dynamic, even though Jean, the Phoenix and Tony all had the power to take Scott's free will any time they pleased.

Chapter Text

Antoine was bored of fairyland and decided to have some fun by crossing over into the human realm. He found a little girl being persecuted and chased by a mob of humans, the girl seemed different, he hair was white despite her youth and Antoine assumed that was why they were persecuting her. He popped in front of her, "I can get you to safety if you just take my hand."

Desperate, she did as asked and he teleported them to a far off tree. "This does not seem very safe."

"May I look into your mind?"

"What?"

Antoine slapped himself on his forehead for his own forgetfulness then let his wings shimmer into existence "You may touch them if you do not believe they are real." Carefully, the girl reached out and she giggled at the feel of his wings. "May I look into your mind? It has been a very long time since I visited your world, I would like to have a chance of blending in."

"Sure. What is your name?"

"Names have power you know?" Antoine gently touched the sides of her head and locked eyes with her, taking only what he needed before letting go and letting the spell break. "You may call me Tony, it is similar to my name, enough that I will recognize it but without the binding power of my actual name."

"I think we will be great friends, Tony. I'm Ororo."

It was Tony who would eventually suggest his friend's codename, Storm, less than a year before Charles Xavier recruited her for his school. When she was packing her few meager belongings for the trip, Tony gave her a gift, an exact replica of a lost family heirloom with a small enchantment that would enable him to always find her. He also cast a spell on her that would ensure her mind was always her own when he heard the Professor was a telepath, "You never can be too careful."

"True."

In America, Ororo was shocked when she saw Tony on TV bearing the name Stark, the elusive Stark heir. She thought to herself, I wonder if he set that up or if it was another of his happy coincidences. She believed in both because Tony clearly didn't understand people enough when they met to have set up that crazy chase but at the same time, he had admitted to setting other things up for her. Tony even set up their first state-side meeting, getting her alone before presenting her with a surprise, "What kind of trick is this?"

"No trick, this is a copy of your actual birth certificate. I can banish it to your room, if you like."

"Yes, please." He stayed with her until she calmed down, she was American born. "Why wasn't I-?"

"Your parents moved to Egypt when you were a baby, I don't know if you're entitled to citizenship or if your parents gave that up on your behalf."

"Right."

"Care to dance?"

The question brought her back to the present and she answered truthfully, "Not really."

"Want to ditch?"

"Yes." Tony led her away from the party and with a smirk, changed their clothes to blend in as they hit the streets running, like carefree kids.

Afghanistan made Ororo realize her true feelings for Tony, despite having been teased for dating the playboy. She knew he was fae and fae were bound by their word, that he was incapable of lying and thus had to answer questions honestly so she asked about the playboy thing. "Fertility for the fae is weird, we cannot have children by accident or rape, even Unseelie Fae consider the latter despicable. There's really no risk for me in meaningless sex and it's expected of Howard Stark's son, I'm just playing the role I've been cast."

"You set yourself up."

"True."

Although he could not lie, he could talk around the truth. Ororo wondered how long he'd play along. The answer was a week, she was surprised he waited that long. The weapons of terrorists around the world suddenly turned on them and at the same time, disabled veterans were suddenly healed. Tony appeared at the school the next day and took a seat in the back of her class, cloaking himself so as not to distract the students. The spell making her mind her own kept her from falling for such tricks. After class ended and he could drop the cloak, he sauntered up to her and smirked, "Miss me?"

"That was quite the spell yesterday."

"Spell? It was a bit more than that and you didn't answer my question. Did you miss me?"

"Yes, Antoine."

"When did I- I never told you my name."

She stared at him, "That is your name? I was making a joke, your alias is Anthony Stark."

"Oh, right. Yes, my name is technically Antoine. Let's table the rest of this conversation for later, your boss just noticed me." Tony spun around as the Professor entered.

"What brings you here?"

"Long story short, none of your business." Tony turned back "See ya 'Ro." He left the school and vanished but Storm knew he would be back to finish their conversation.

When the Professor raised an expectant eyebrow, Ororo said "It's not my story to tell. He is not a threat to the students, that is all you need to know, yes?"

"I would never consider Tony Stark a threat-"

"His father helped found SHIELD, try your lies on someone else."

With a sigh, Charles left but not before taking a parting shot "Your mind has never been so closed off before, I was worried."

"My mind is my own, you know that." She'd learned how wise it was of Tony to give her that gift while she was still a student, as such she did not trust him as much as the others.

In fact she worried for them. Pulling out her phone, she switched the language over to Arabic before texting Tony to ask him to check on her friends' minds. What he found was disturbing and instead of sharing his findings, he asked to meet her friends. Jean and Scott were not easily swayed but 'Ro insisted and they eventually caved into her cryptic demand, deciding a night out could be fun. They did not expect to find out the Professor had basically brainwashed them, possibly but unlikely on accident, or that Tony Stark was a fairy and not actually a Stark by birth. Compared to that, Storm befriending him as a child then realizing she was in love while he was missing and presumed dead was nothing. With their permission, Tony dealt with the Professor by binding his power the way a parent might bind a fairy child's magic to avoid overwhelming them. "I've had my power bound on several occasions, my father liked to do that to force me to be responsible. The binding will go away once the bound can be trusted to use their power responsibly, I only had to change the kind of power to make it work on mutant power instead of fae magic as my father intended. I can give you protection charms, they won't be as powerful as Storm's but that's because I don't know you so they'll have to be generic. Upside, they'll work for anyone. Downside, they'll work for anyone."

"Uh, that might be a good idea."

He sighed, "You can touch my wings if you want." Curiosity got the best of both of them and Tony played a little trick by making his wings pass through them at first touch before letting them actually feel his wings.

Storm was a wonderful woman, Tony decided on their anniversary a year later when she was asleep next to him. Storm had the idea six months into their official relationship to get engaged by human traditions because the fae couldn't ban a union they don't recognize. They were planning the ceremony for the anniversary of their engagement, which would be a year after one of them proposed. They didn't really move fast. Tony had all the time in the world and Ororo said she felt like she did when she was with him. Tony had finally explained fae fertility the morning after they were first, intimate (that was a good euphemism, right?). He couldn't accidentally have kids because he was infertile until he chose not to be. He told her he was willing to have hybrids, which was probably a bad way to phrase it. They overcame that, meaning they could overcome anything.

Chapter Text

"What?!" snapped the demon that'd been summoned to bond with the Black Widow graduate. The handlers made a show of presenting him with an offering so he made a show of their deaths before stepping out of the sad excuse for a summoning/containment circle. "Get up." She jumped to her feet, "Good, they haven't totally wiped you. Let's get out of here." Screams followed them out, the demon smirking at his handiwork. Once they are beyond the walls of the Red Room, he looks around "I suppose Andre will suffice for a name, what about you?"

"Natasha."

"Now that that's out of the way." He made his way to the nearest bratva boss and made a deal, which involved briefly turning all the guns in the room into poisonous snakes. The boss paid them in full before Andre turned their enemy's weapons into poisonous animals and disappeared once more with Natasha. The pattern continued, Natasha trailing along, not really sure what to do. The curses were different but everywhere they went, Tony made a deal with the local crime boss and got paid before taking them elsewhere.

When they finally stopped travelling, literally stopping for no apparent reason, Andre looked at her expectantly and Natasha asked "What are you doing?"

"Gathering riches and condemning already damned souls. The deaths of all these unrepentant sinners will serve to keep me in good standing for when I go back. Demons can only exist on Hell or Earth, angels only in Heaven."

"They can't come down to Earth?"

"Not since the original mortal sin." Andre asked "Why are you following me?"

"What?"

"You are free, you know. You have free will and your soul is not yet beyond saving. Even as you have stood by while I condemn all around us to Hell, you remain capable of redemption. Why not pursue it?"

"What's to say I even want it?"

"That is your choice."

"Do demons have free will?"

"Not as such. We are freer than most, especially upper class demons like myself, but there are some things we are incapable of. Our hearts are not good, therefore we cannot do anything out of the goodness of our hearts."

"Always working an angle."

"Always bettering ourselves. Lower class demons do what they must to survive while upper class do what we must to get ahead. I could rid the world of organized crime if I do it in such a way that benefits me directly. What do you think?"

"I think you're flaunting your power and that's dangerous."

"How about you advise me and I'll keep you away from any Red Room associates?"

"Am I selling my soul?"

"One, does it matter? Two, not as such. You are merely doing what you must to survive me. After all, you just told me I should try to maintain some anonymity. Survival is not a sin. If it were, you would be beyond saving."

"Then sure, you need a guide for Earth and I could use the protection."

Andre kept them moving, killing off the rest of the crime syndicates he had started to take out before calling it a night and checking into a fancy hotel. He charmed the receptionist into not asking for ID then led Natasha to a two room suite, "Sleeping with me, even if it's just sleep, will tick off God. I am not interested in your soul, do not give it to me." Andre handed her the room service menu. When she gave him a look, pointed to himself "Demon, human food doesn't exist in Hell so my kind lives off something else."

Stark Industries didn't even realize they'd been taken over, Andre was good at covering up his crimes and altering perceptions. Manipulating computers was more Natasha's thing until she showed him the basics and he blew past her in terms of skill. She went undercover for him in SHIELD when he told her the agency was full of damned souls, figuring she could do more there while he played billionaire inventor. She asked him what he fed on during her first break from SHIELD, "Sin."

"What?"

"I feed on sin. Hell is where unrepentant sinners go, that's the only constant food source for my kind, we feed off it. Lower class demons feed off more tangible things like pain but upper class can feed on all sins, feed without our feeders knowing."

"And the women you take to bed?"

"Sold themselves to get where they are, I don't bed anyone who could be redeemed. I prefer avenging to corrupting but I still enjoy adultery."

"You're married?"

"No. Marriage is a holy and sacred bond, those things don't mix with demons."

"Oh, right."

"Earth is like Hell but less cramped and there's hope. I see why demons like it here, even if we cannot stay forever."

"Why not?"

"Angels cannot exist on this world but they can exist on another plane adjacent to this one through which they communicate with humans. There are those who seek to rid your world of my kind and are even capable of doing it. Besides, I can return home whenever I like but once I return, I must be summoned back to Earth. The doors only open one way."

It wasn't until after New York that she realized her desire to be with him was too great to resist. He refused, telling her she could still be redeemed and that she was on her way to just that but she told him that she loved him since he first rolled his eyes at her handlers, asked if they slept together, if she would be able to stay with him in Hell. He rolled his eyes and sighed "Technically sex would have the side effect of giving me the ultimate claim on your soul. If you're sure, what the Hell?"

Love and monsters didn't mix...

                                                      Until they did.

Chapter Text

Steve saw his angel many times before the serum. The angel looked especially sad right before his mother died and Steve briefly came to believe the angel was one of death but he couldn't tie any deaths to the angel's other visits. Then he went in the ice, came out and got recruited for the Avengers, where he saw his angel again and said such horrible things to him. After the battle and sending Loki home, he asked Tony directly "Are you an angel?"

Tony looked at him for a long moment before simply answering "Yes." He looked away and added "Don't apologize because of that. Aside from ferrying the occasional soul, I don't have many angelic duties. Upside, fewer duties, less responsibility. Downside, less power and be honest, you’re a might makes right kind of guy."

"I, maybe. What about Afghanistan? Surely an angel-"

"They had an innocent man operate on me and their leader was a middle class demon. I could probably go to the Silver City and have my chest all fixed but I like being Tony Stark so it'll have to wait for human science to catch up."

"You- are you the same-" Tony sighed, stood and backed Steve against a wall before letting his wings become corporeal and visible. "Oh."

"I'm not a demon and despite what people of your era thought, homosexuality is not a sin. Do you want this? Your soul is safe either way."

"Yes," Steve admitted. Confessed, really, given who he was talking to.

Tony stepped back, "I'm telling you right know, touching my wings when we're being intimate will put an end to the night's activities." He held up his hand "We'll both be wrung out after you do that, it's an angelic erogenous zone. I'm not saying you can't use it but beware, that'll knock us both out." Tony sure made it worth his while until his hand slipped along the angel's wings, causing a huge climax that nearly knocked them both out.

Steve wondered aloud the next morning "Are angels like priests?"

"I'm such a minor angel, I might as well be human. If you're asking for confession, I don't think confessing to the person you had sex with that you had sex before marriage is a very good idea. I can take confessions that don't involve me but be careful throwing around the word angel with your priest, they might worry for your mental health. Got anything planned today or are you ready for another round?"

"Do angels not eat?"

"Food, right." Tony got up and used his magic to clean them both up. "I eat but no, angels and demons don't need to eat. We feed off of, well it's complicated, I'll tell you later. Now, you need food and I need to pretend to be human."

"Do you need to pretend right now?"

"I can't talk about heaven, divinity or most angel stuff. Aside from that, I'm an open book. You still need food so let's go."

Steve followed him to the kitchen, where he asked "Do a lot of angels live on Earth?"

Tony stifled a laugh, "Minor angel, hon. And to answer your question, yes and no. You have to remember that angels are God's army but at the moment, we're without a war to fight."

"Are there a lot of minor angels like you, pretending to be human?"

"Not that I know of, I got special permission to play human. We're usually sworn to non-interference because God doesn't want us starting the final war. And we're gonna have to cut this short, I'm being summoned." His wings came out and he vanished.

In the Silver City, Uriel sighed at his nephew's antics. "Welcome son of Castiel and Azreal."

"Hello, any idea why I'm being summoned?"

"One of your charges, most likely."

Tony, as he insisted on being called while he still held onto his human guise, sighed and went to see his parents and grandfather. It was incredibly rare for angels to conceive children. In fact, Tony was quite possibly God's only grandchild. His parents raised him on Earth so that he could be around other children and he wound up liking it there. His grandfather was a bit clueless when it came to 'what to do with this angel child I did not create' so he allowed his grandchild to be posted on Earth. The whole minor angel thing was true but the greater truth was that minor angels weren't common, he was an anomaly and he knew there weren't a lot of angels on Earth but misinformation was the best way to inform a human about his kind.

As usual, his father was singing. Tony spoke up "Hello, Father, Mother, Grandfather."

His father spun around, "You're here?"

Tony cut to the chase "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, it wasn't you." Azreal said, smiling at her son "That human soul you sent, he was revived and we had to send his soul back."

"But he was dead. Nothing good comes from resurrecting the dead and most humans don't know how." A fact angels took pride in as their spread of misinformation and warnings against necromancy nearly killed that terrible practice, seances were still a thing but nobody tried to resurrect people anymore. Except they did, apparently. Ah, so his father's singing was a nervous tick. Tony had only sent one soul recently, "Who brought back Phil Coulson?"

"Nick Fury ordered the procedure and used alien blood," intoned his grandfather. Fury was not coming to Heaven anyway, he had spilled too much innocent blood and lost his regard for his fellow humans. Acceptable losses? No loss of life was acceptable, especially when the people lost had no idea they were in danger in the first place, no chance to take action to ensure their survival.

Tony asked "What am I to do?"

"Guide Phil Coulson, watch Nick Fury and seize the alien before more rise against their will."

"Of course, Grandfather."

God gestured to his daughter who smiled at his son "You may tell your team of your true nature and origins."

"That's not what Grandfather was prompting of you." Azreal's smile grew and she zipped out of the room, returning with an ornate box. Tony suddenly knew what this was, "No. I will not take that unless I have to." Tony turned to his grandfather, "The war is not yet upon is."

"Oh but a war just as great is nearing us."

"Alien apocalypse, seriously?" His grandfather nodded seriously in response. "I'm still not taking it until I need it. I may be Azreal's son but neither of us enjoy death, such joy is for demons and the damned."

"Of course, my child." God had no idea what to call Tony, everyone who had seen them interact knew how clueless the Creator was.

"Is that all?"

"Yes."

Tony turned to his mother "We need to catch up." He did not like his father's singing, he tired of it before the end of his first year of life, and just like a Disney movie, he always wound up singing. The mother-son duo left the father-son pair alone, Azreal already briefing her son on all the angel gossip he had missed while Tony caught his mother up on how far humans had come.

In the end, they both went down to Earth. "Steve- Nat, Clint! Glad you could make it. And Bruce, how are ya big guy? Did I forget about a team meeting?"

Clint said "No, Steve was just trying to talk us into staying."

Bruce said "I don't mean to be rude, Tony but, uh."

Tony looked at his mother and they both revealed their wings. "Holy shit, you're an angel? No way. No, no, no, no way." Clint turned to Steve "You, I could believe but Tony?"

Tony cleared his throat, "Allow me to introduce my mother, Azreal the Angel of Death. My father Castiel is still up in the Silver City, probably singing."

"He's always singing," griped Azreal.

Steve asked "Aren't you two-? I mean with Tony- I mean."

"It looks like he's about to collapse and bow to you, that's just wrong." Tony explained "I am God's only grandchild, just as Jesus Christ was his only demigod child. To answer the question you're trying to ask, no my parents aren't married. The circumstances of my birth are complicated, partly because I was born not made, angels are usually made. Castiel annoys everyone with his singing. Sometimes I wonder if he influenced Disney to make movies where people randomly break into song. Although my mother is the angel of death, that's basically just her job. Only demons and the damned enjoy death, and I've heard even some demons don't enjoy it. As I told Steve earlier, I'm a minor angel. I have no such title like my mother and I've been granted special permission to live among humans. I was actually raised here on Earth, just not as the son of Howard and Maria Stark. Their son, Arno Stark died, I remember ferrying his soul to Heaven and then getting permission to take his place as a gift from God. Luckily, Maria was Catholic and accepted me as her son but losing a child tends to break people. Now, onto the reason I've been given permission to properly inform you of this stuff, Fury resurrected Coulson. Bringing people back from the dead is bad, it's easier for minor demons and other monsters to possess someone who has died. Anyone heard the story of Legion? Christ exorcising many demons from a lone man's body? Ringing any bells? Yeah, this is bad but luckily, I sent Phil to Heaven and they were able to properly restore his soul before the bad stuff happens. My Grandfather, God to you, has charged me with guiding Phil, watching Fury and seizing the items used in the resurrection. Fury's going to Hell, by the way, even without this, he was going to hell. The phrase acceptable losses shows a lack of regard for human life." Tony looked at Natasha, "Uriel who watches the gate and welcomes new souls came to Earth during the palladium incident, thoroughly questioned why I was letting myself get sick, then told me all about the damned men coming after me. Your name wasn't mentioned, I don't know if you got a chance at heaven or not. Choices determine where you go, attitude determines destiny. Fury has a lack of regard for the lives of his fellow humans, not a total disregard but a lack of regard, that's an attitude thing. His choices involve the spilling of innocent blood for no good reason but soldiers can find themselves in heaven, even though they kill because their commanders tell them to." Tony stretched his arms and wings, watching how Clint stared at them, "Questions?"

Clint asked "Can I-" pointing to the wings.

Tony thought about it then nodded, "Be gentle, the feathers are really feathers."

As he stroked the wings, Clint asked "So Uriel knows who's headed where before they die?"

"Those irredeemably damned, definitely. I assume it's the same with saints but I'm not sure. Since Uriel watches the gates and welcomes souls, that's his job, he would know who is in Heaven now. I occasionally ferry souls to the afterlife, much like my mother."

Azreal spoke up "That's my job as angel of death but technically all angels can ferry souls, I'm just the only one who can ferry bad souls. Usually those get where they're going on their own. After Castiel and I managed to make a baby, there was a lot of attempts by our brethren to have children of their own."

"Wait, so you and Castiel actually are siblings?"

"Angels are created by God not born, Tony being the exception, so it's not incest. Sister, brother, son, daughter, they're just words in regards to us. It's simpler to call Castiel and Uriel my brothers than fellow creations. Since God created humans as well, your kind are our fellow creations-"

Tony interrupted "They're descendants of your fellow creations. God's a pretty hands off kind of creator. He's also incredibly clueless in the grandfather department, which is as good an excuse as any to avoid the Silver City and all the awkwardness that comes with being the only angel ever born not made."

"Right, son, but I was making a point."

"Alright." Tony told Bruce "My wings are pretty big and I know your scientist brain wants to study them. Go ahead, Bruce Banner." He sing-songed the man's name, "Great, I am totally turning into my father." Tony's head swiveled over to Steve "As I said, the circumstances of my birth are complicated but the mechanics are basically the same as they are with humans." Steve blushed, wondering if the angels could read his mind.

Natasha's gaze was focused on the self-proclaimed angel of death, even as she asked Tony "How do you plan to do what your grandfather asked? You said God gave you the mission."

"Just when Steve was about to get comfortable with the whole angel thing, you went and said God given mission." Tony sighed dramatically then said, "Simple. My father can monitor Fury, I can arrange a meeting with Coulson and as for seizing the supplies, acquisitions are easy." He folded his wings up and his mother did the same, making them vanish. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I promised to show my mother around."

Chapter Text

Howard Stark felt a bit of his wide-eyed wonder die as he watched the Manhattan Project bear fruit. He walked the test site, examining the damage with some of his colleagues the next day when a feeling of dread filled him for a brief moment. The moment passed and he mimicked his colleagues, celebrating their success and taking in the damage with shock and awe. Only decades later would Howard understand the significance of those two feelings, when his son Anthony began welding without a torch. He was tempted to scold him, to yell at him and kick him out of the lab but the last remnants of that wide-eyed wonder that once pushed him to invent, to create, to discover what was possible then push past those barriers and make it 'Impossible until now'. The last of that inspiration stayed his hand and stole his voice as he began puzzling on how his son developed this gift, flashing back to the Trinity Test and those strange, terrible feelings. He understood a bit more about radiation now and realized the bomb had changed him, saw that change made visible. "Tony, whatcha doing?"

Tony grinned as he explained what he was trying to do, apparently seeing nothing wrong with how he was doing it. That was the deciding factor, Howard later determined, as he took his son to see the Tesseract, despite Peggy's protests. He wound up requisitioning the cube and withdrawing his support, passing on a warning to Henry Pym to do the same and focus on his daughter as Howard was planning to focus on his son. With Tony's help, Howard moved Stark Industries out of the weapons' game and into clean energy by perfecting the Arc Reactor. He also learned much more about energy than he would otherwise once Tony discovered for himself that what he could do was incredible.

Tony could absorb almost any kind of energy and store it within his body then let it out however he desired, through heat or concussive blasts, or even just as it had gone in, burning off excess power as mostly harmless solar power. Solar panels began as an exercise in recreating his power, or rather part of his power. Tony's interests diverged and SI grew from the Starks' ventures into other fields, such as robotics and through robotics, cybernetics. They revolutionized the world and the light that started it all returned to Howard, slowly as the regret and dread ebbed away.

2012, New York, many years after Howard and Maria Stark died peacefully within the same year. SHIELD survived, Pym staying on until he lost his wife and took his old rival's advice, focusing on Hope. Now, the world was about to pay the price for SHIELD's sins. Turns out, SHIELD scientists infiltrated SI to study the cube. Tony wasn't going to let that stand but he had bigger problems right now. SHIELD's oversight committee the World Security Council launched a nuke at New York to end the fighting caused by a device utilizing the Tesseract. Deciding to say FU to the world, Tony flew above the incoming nuke and ejected from the suit, which then flew directly in front of the missile, stopping it and causing a premature detonation. As a child, Tony learned he could generate a field of energy that enabled him to fly, assuming he had absorbed enough power. At the time, it had made him feel like a real-life Superman, solar powered, capable of flight and great feats of power. Now, he didn't know how to feel as the nuke blew up in his hands and his system was overwhelmed by the power.

Once awareness returned to him, he wished he had made his flight suit with his powers in mind. Kicking into high gear, he flew around vaporizing the Chitauri while Romanoff closed the portal. He landed on his roof, snatched the scepter and pulled out the cube, going inside the building to secure the former and re-secure the latter. JARVIS piloted Iron Man armors to escort Widow and Loki to the ground where the Avengers could deal with them. Selvig eventually came down and asked "How'd you do, whatever that was?"

"My dad was a part of the Manhattan Project. He was changed by it, not an obvious change like Bruce. Which reminds me, J? Make sure Banner knows my invitation stands, I just don't want would-be conquerors or assassins on my property. Jury's still out on Rogers but Thor's a definite no-go. Also, isn't the Captain America shield technically mine? If it is, requisition it and add that theft to the charges."

"Yes, Sir."

"Tell Bruce, try not to tell Fury but if it can't be helped then it can't be helped, tell Bruce he's welcome to join us for an explanation. Send Ross's file to the proper authorities, let's begin Project MA."

"MA?"

"Military Accountability or Mutant Affairs, take your pick, I like 'em both. J's gonna make sure guys like General Thaddeus Ross, who shot up Culver University because Bruce was there, go down for their crimes. Drink?" Unlike Loki, Selvig accepted the offered drink. Bruce ultimately joined them, although JARVIS reported he had to use the armor to get SHIELD to back off and would be having the armors patrol the building. "Want some tea?" Tony pointed to a kettle he'd put on when he, Selvig and JARVIS determined that was probably what the man preferred because tea was notoriously calming.

"Thank you. JARVIS said you'd explain."

"Right. Did you know my father advocated to have Project Rebirth renamed the Brooklyn Project as a snub to Oppenheimer before he went and joined the Manhattan Project?"

"I did not know any of that."

"Right, well something happened to dad when they were testing the first bomb. He changed, he never got around to telling me exactly how he changed but when I was four, I built my first circuit board almost solely by hand. Speaking of," he moved to stand by Bruce, "Ya mind? I wanna see if I can absorb gamma rays that are bonded to living tissue."

"What exactly does that entail?" Bruce put some space between them.

"A handshake should do it, I won't take much so you probably won't feel it even if this works."

"Okay," Bruce tentatively offer his hand and Tony successfully absorbed his gamma power.

"Yup, you, my friend, are radioactive."

"Huh, that's good to know I guess."

"It's bonded to your cells, the energy, it's definitely a part of you, which means Hulk is a part of you."

"Yeah but-"

"Did you not see me absorb the power of a nuke?"

"What? I mean, I did-"

"I absorbed a nuclear blast, I have nuclear power inside me right now. I have the power to absorb several nuclear blasts, to walk through the ashes of such a thing unscathed. You think that never scares me? Do you think it's easier for me to deal with this because I was born this way? I used my fingers in place of a welding torch for years before I realized how weird that was. People, normal people, will never make sense to me, I accept that and I always gotta be on alert because I can absorb thermal and solar energy just as well as nuclear, that's how we got solar panels figured out so fast. You gotta accept that on some level, Hulk is a person. It's okay if he makes no sense to you but you gotta accept he's there, he's a part of you and when you try to hold him back, you're locking him in a cage and that's not cool. Find ways to let him out, blow off a little steam on occasion. Let him be a man then try to communicate with him during the change or use meditation to talk to him. Alright, big guy? You're better than this fear."

"I'm really not."

Tony touched his shoulder and when Bruce looked at him, his eyes glowed, "Freaky, huh?" Tony let go and the glow left his eyes, "Just what I thought. You can absorb Gamma Rays, bet the exhaustion just got a bit easier to deal with, huh?"

Now that he mentioned it, "Yeah. You mean to tell me-"

"That you can absorb Gamma Rays and Hulk is gamma powered, I'm sure you can put it together yourself." He turned back to Selvig "Y'know, you legally work for me and I know SHIELD's shady so I'm not gonna fault you for falling for the spies' games, just remember who signs your paychecks." With that, he left the two physicists alone to catch up.

Chapter Text

When Tony was very young Maria was concerned as she felt Jarvis catered to him too much. Then Howard sheepishly admitted to a family secret "My ancestors believed in soulmates, with good reason."

"Howard, I-"

"Let me explain. My ancestors believed that the one person they could not control, outside their own family, was their soulmate. You're that person for me and as Tony's mother, you're also immune to him. Jarvis is neither a relative nor his soulmate, it's not his fault he cannot refuse Tony's commands."

"Howard! And you just now tell me this?"

"Tony will also develop a natural tolerance to my gift, which will make it easier for him to grow into a strong, independent young man. Right now, my power is stronger and I can override him."

"Then you need to teach him while you still can. Is there any limit to what you can do?"

"I can't affect you or blood relatives, eventually it will become much harder for me to control Tony with my gift."

"Is there a limit to what you can do to someone who is not related to you or your soulmate?"

"Not that I know of." Howard quickly added "I'll teach Tony. There are lines we don't cross, I have to teach him that."

"What sort of lines?"

"Murder, rape and slavery are hard nos. If we must use our power in self-defense, we make them go to sleep."

"Okay."

Once Howard taught him the rules, Tony was pretty good at sticking to them. He got a bit mad when Obie patronized him and asked his father why he didn't make the man stop lying. Howard seemed honestly surprised to hear such an accusation and took Tony into work the next day to see a master at work. Armed with this new trick, Howard went through his list of contacts, starting every interview with "You're going to be honest with me, okay? Tell the truth, the full truth and nothing but the truth." He also started recording them when the sheer amount of backstabbers became apparent.

As a practice, Tony flirted with almost everyone he came in contact with, using hidden commands to seek out his soulmate, small things like telling a girl where to put their hands when they danced and seeing how fast they obeyed. The One would be slow to obey as their free will wasn't overridden by his voice. He was shocked to find the One was a man when he accidentally gave his roommate a command and Rhodey laughed in his face, that complicated things. Until his father did some digging and found reason to believe Rhodey was a distant cousin, like really distant, their familial relation predated abolition distant. The really shocking part was the fact that the Rhodes only had an immunity to their power, they did not possess their brand of persuasion. Roberta and Terrance Rhodes were fascinated by the story Howard told them about their ancestors, Rhodey was more indulgently amused. Then the proof came, Howard and Tony agreed demos toed the line but with Edwin's informed consent, Howard demonstrated their ancestral power. "Usually an immunity to our power indicates a fated relationship. It seems when one fails to meet this standard, finding partners outside their soulmate, the power fades. For a long time, we've believed that we can only have children with our soulmates. I can't believe we missed the existence of people like your forefather."

Tony remarked, "It's amazing what people will miss when they refuse to look but then, that's how our family has survived. People don't want to believe in mind control so they don't, even when faced with proof. Luckily, we're not dealing with naïve idiots."

"Tony!"

Roberta said "It's fine, he's right. I imagine most people would think this was some kind of cruel, elaborate joke but I believe you."

"Thanks."

Rhodey turned to his roommate "When did you try to control me?"

"It was an accident. You just laughed and said no, I didn't realize I'd phrased it as an order until almost a week later then I panicked and called my dad."

"Are you talking about when you almost blew up our room?"

"Dude!" Instead of getting angry, their parents just laughed.

The second time made much more sense, or at least it did about two months after the command was given. Raven Darkholme, better known as Mystique, had been impersonating Senator Robert Kelly, who was dead for over a year by that point, when she met Tony Stark at a party. The charade ended when she had to help shut down William Stryker's Weapon X base hidden under Alkali Lake. Tony was there when she made her escape with Magneto and he told her long-time friend/boss "Hold the chopper and move the plane so your allies can get out of here." Surprisingly, Erik obeyed. Once he was aboard, Tony Stark said "Now let's go."

Pyro asked "Are you a mutant?"

"Geez, I didn't know you were hiring kids. And no, although my mind control powers are genetic, they predate the X-gene. Everyone in my family for over a thousand years has had this gift. Dad used it to make people take him seriously when he was starting out. Being from the Lower East Side meant nobody wanted to give him a chance, he didn't give them a choice. There are rules everyone in my family has to follow if we don't want someone else in the family coming after us, like a distant cousin. The rules amount to no keeping slaves, no killing, no rape. There was this guy who called himself Killgrave, had something similar to our power, three different branches of the family got ready to go after him but it turned out his scientist parents screwed up his natural pheromones and immunity to his power just depended on exposure. Guy was an idiot well on his way to self-destruction so we left him alone, no need to risk exposure in these trying times for a twat."

"Why are you here?" asked Magneto and Tony kept his mouth shut.

Mystique said "He asked you a question, you better answer it."

"How long were you impersonating Senator Kelly?"

After careful consideration, she answered, "Since the Staten Island summit. Why?"

"Every member of my family, historically, has had one person who is naturally immune to our powers, discounting blood relatives. I gave you an order two months ago, you laughed it off."

"What does that immunity means?"

"It means a lot of things. My ancestors viewed the immunity as destiny, thought that it was a way for us to identify our soulmate, another advantage we had on others. When I was in MIT, I gave my roommate an order and he laughed it off. Dad did some digging and discovered Rhodey is a distant cousin. I did some digging on you before I came here, no such connection. Rhodey's immunity comes from that familial connection, we think that our shared forefather had an affair and Rhodey descends from that affair not a fated relationship, which is why he doesn't have the power to control with his voice."

"You think we're soulmates?"

"My ancestors would say yes but as a proud agnostic, I don't believe in the higher power required for fate and destiny to exist. I just thought I'd let you know, even if we have to break a pattern that has persisted for thousands of years. I'm not joining the Brotherhood and I don't approve of child soldiers, not after all I've seen." It was widely known that Tony had been abducted by insurgents while working on a contract to bring clean water and power to the impoverished Middle East. It wasn't hard to believe he'd seen the kind of child soldiers that were forced to fight or die.

"Makes sense," conceded Mystique. "You couldn't afford to drop off the grid anyway. You're Tony Stark, pseudo-mutant or not, that doesn't change the fact that people would be looking and they'd sooner believe you have Stockholm Syndrome than you actually want to be with any of us."

"Heh, yeah. There's also that," Tony broke out laughing. Erik had never seen Mystique so happy, it made him reconsider a few things. Once he regained control of himself, Tony gave them directions to where his jet was waiting, careful not to issue any orders. Ultimately, Magneto told Mystique to stay with Stark and sent Pyro with them, implying he could help with Mystique's cover and see what it was like to be on top. He had no intention of returning to them and he was only mildly surprised when Stark brought about a new age of mutant rights in less than a year, freeing two children from Worthington Labs within a month of Mystique finding a place at his side. Ultimately, Magneto faded into obscurity, finding Charles more forgiving than he had any right to expect, although he supposed his old friend saw through his former foster sister's façade.

Chapter Text

He knew he should run for the hills, should stay away, but even when he ran, he always found himself back here, taking the pain and loving every minute. Clint Barton was not what he seemed, he had this ability to take all sorts of punishment and survive. From early age, he learned to love it, proudly considered himself a masochist. Now, he was in a relationship with Tony Stark, a man who was quite literally toxic but also genuine and loving, caring for Clint in a way he knew he didn't deserve. The reason for his playboy past was simple, most people couldn't survive more than one night with him, too much exposure and they were dead.

Clint remembered when he'd managed to push a drunk Tony too far, remembered the agony as the poison took hold. The worst part was the way Tony looked at him, totally apologetic. If he wasn't an atheist, he would've been praying to all that was holy to save Clint but slowly, Clint's little gift kicked in. It took forever but the poison left his system and like the masochist he so proudly was, he immediately asked for another round. Tony was shocked, he thought he had killed the only person who loved him, faults and unfortunate powers aside, but hey, who was he to complain. The cycle began anew but Tony was more aware, he drank less to avoid crippling Clint again. The pain mixed beautifully with the pleasure a seasoned playboy could bring. Tony also weened Clint off that, JARVIS informing them that Clint's mutation seemed to be giving him a tolerance to Sir's and likely would end up rendering him immune. Someday, the pain would cease to be there and for a lifelong masochist, Clint was okay with that. They built each other up while the world tore them down. Maybe Clint wasn't a masochist after all, come to think of it.

Chapter Text

Tony often felt invisible in his father's eyes, he was never enough, never stacked up, always a bother to be ignored. Then he became invisible and it was awesome, after an adjustment period. He was having dinner with Pepper, thankfully in private, when he found out the hard way that the fish had been of the Terrigen contaminated variety because he was suddenly wrapped in a cocoon. As with most, the cocoon fell away after moments and to be honest, Tony didn't feel any different until Pepper started calling out "Tony?" the way she did when he was in danger and she was worried. He frowned and looked at her, subsequently looking past her when he noticed she had a reflection and he didn't. What the hell? About a minute after the cocoon fell away, Tony regained visibility. "Tony!" Pepper hugged him but his feelings for her had changed, he didn't understand it but he felt that they would be better as friends. Pepper agreed when he got around to telling her as much about a week later, having spent the week in his workshop working on control.

Once he had control of his new power, Tony looked into what normally happened after someone underwent Terrigenesis, discovering all of the fun Inhuman terminology while he was at it. Seeing what the ATCU- and seriously, scared people are considered advanced threats, give him a break- was doing, he worked with Pepper to bring their actions out of the shadows of bureaucracy and into the light of day. People were being shot at and kidnapped off the streets then thrown in cryo, pointing out cryostasis involvement in the Winter Soldier program worked like a charm. The ATCU was shut down as outside scientists worked to safely defrost their victims, Tony converted the Avengers Compound into a training facility for Inhumans and kicked the backstabbers to the curb, sending all of their records to the proper authorities. They had no regard for innocent people in Rogers' search for Barnes. Wilson apologized once the truth came out and Tony had mercy on him, sending his defense attorney proof that Wilson hadn't personally stolen the wings and had tried to talk the others down after his discharge from the Air Force was used to keep his case out of military courts.

Being able to walk right up to people and still be sneaky was awesome. Finding out Coulson was only dead for a single week and Fury had played the Avengers was not awesome. Tony tracked down the new Director and confronted the man. "We're kind of dealing with a crisis, Mr. Stark."

"I know. JARVIS, do to Malick what you did to Rogers and apply trickle down theory." Tony leveled Coulson with a look, "Crisis averted."

"What do you want, Mr. Stark?"

"To bring SHIELD into the light."

That floored the usually unshakable Director, "What?"

"I'm not angry at you for your resurrection, I'm angry at Fury for using your death to manipulate me. I've seen what your New SHIELD has done, seen how you operate while I was tracking you down, I support it. But, I do have a few conditions."

"Such as?"

"No more Index, in any form. I don't want a register of supers who rely on anonymity to survive."

"Alright, I think I can work with that but we will have to track threats."

"Active threats not potential threats."

"Fine, deal."

"I also want you to be upfront about your support of the Enhanced to avoid another ATCU, assuming you do support the Enhanced. If you don't, I don't want you to lie."

"One of my best agents is Inhuman, I support them."

"And you have to change the name. Come up with something that's not SHIELD or you'll always be dealing with people who hear HYDRA whenever you say SHIELD."

"That might take some doing."

"It's hard to go legit with a rep like that. Lemme know what you come up with."

"Thank you, Mr. Stark."

"Call me Tony, Director."

"Then you should probably call me Phil." Tony got the strangest feeling that they were meant to be more than colleagues when Coulson said that but he ignored the feeling.

In the end, Coulson had a suggestion box placed in every SHIELD base where agents could suggest names. The boxes were emptied regularly then their contents were scanned, checked for doubles and put on a secure server set up by Tony. The rules were simple, suggestions could not use the SHIELD acronym and all entries should be anonymous. The boxes were in common rooms that only agents could access so there was no need to sign them. Tony's AI narrowed down the results, eliminating any that could be confused with another existing agency before sharing the final results with Sir and Director Coulson. Tony paid Coulson another visit and asked to meet his Inhuman agent or agents. His timing was perfect as the Secret Warriors were all on-site and Phil wanted to discuss the team's future. "This is our Inhuman response team."

Tony turned invisible to the shock of Coulson and the Warriors alike then reverted to his visible form "And that's why I shut down the ATCU."

"You're Inhuman?" clarified Daisy unnecessarily.

"Yup. I recently discovered I actually have two powers. The obvious invisibility and I can generate forcefields, around myself and other things. Haven't tried other people, I'm a bit worried about the air supply. Just because I can breathe inside the forcefield, that doesn't mean it's ventilated." Tony turned to Phil "So, got a name picked out?"

"Haven't you been getting the suggestions?"

"Right, you made it a drawing."

"I'm not very creative when it comes to naming."

"JARVIS has been narrowing down the results, eliminating any names or acronyms that already exist. What have you got J?" A hologram appeared in Coulson's office, displaying the final list. "Take your pick, Director and we'll finalize the charter."

"Charter?"

"Or whatever you call the document that legalizes an intelligence agency's authority. I've already started talks with the UN to put clean ex-SHIELD agents together as a sort of INTERPOL for superpowered threats. They seem to like the idea, I think they really like the idea of not risking their own military and law enforcement personnel to fight this fight while the mess that was the ATCU is still fresh on people's minds. You'll have basically the same job you had before with more transparency. There will probably be an announcement, similar to the ATCU's introduction to the US, but on a global scale, obviously. There will be clear cut oversight, probably an official website people can check and make sure your agents aren't running wild, that sort of thing. Plus, my lawyers are ready to legally resurrect you and any agents who need it. I think you should go public with your connection to Inhumans if you don't want people thinking you're no better than the Watchdogs. Just need a name and we can start finalizing the paperwork, making appointments to negotiate terms and plan the announcement. How's that sound?"

"Sounds great but as you said when you nixed the Index, anonymity is important to Inhumans."

"I know but if you got Inhuman agents then that's a good way to distance yourself from the ATCU, HYDRA and the Watchdogs. I'm not asking you to order anyone to out themselves, that should be an illegal order in my opinion but that's just an opinion. Just to be clear, once you get your charter and make the announcement then I'm out, my job will be done once you're legit, wouldn't want to make you start out as a corrupt agency. Alright? Great. Maybe get your high ranking agents in here to pick a name. Once you pick a name, just tell JARVIS to run with it. I'll remove him from your system once you're all set."

"Thank you, Tony."

"No problem and obviously, as far as you know, I'm the same man I was in 2010."

"Of course." Daisy teased him after Tony left and Coulson realized it wasn't unwarranted after they settled on SAFE (Strategic Action For Emergencies), he liked the acronym and it went well with their new policy of keeping people off the Index until they become a threat. He asked JARVIS to maybe dress it up if necessary or keep it simple as he saw fit, trusting the AI to know what was more appropriate. During the raffle, as the suggestion box thing was known, SHIELD's logo was removed from everything.

A year after they came out into the public eye, Director Coulson finally got a moment alone with Tony Stark. They'd had a few casual encounters, Coulson thanked Stark for his support in bringing the agency into existence to keep up the charade of Tony's privatized world peace thing being the basis of SHIELD agents becoming SAFE agents. SAFE wasn't like SHIELD. They had public offices around the world where people with powers could go to get help finding training programs, these offices were mostly staffed by academy cadets from SAFE and its more local sister agencies rather than actual agents. Having cadets staff public offices as part of their training was intended to help them develop much needed skills for dealing with superhumans. They wanted avoid an ATCU mentality where everyone with powers was a threat to be dealt with. So far, so good although SAFE hadn't been around long enough to have its own cadets reach that point in their training so the gaps were being filled by police and military academy cadets. Tony was always one to bask in the good press that his work with SAFE brought about.

Coulson got him alone purely by accident, he and Tony were consulting on new Inhuman rights legislation, along with the heads of various other agencies that dealt with superhumans and a whole slew of politicians. They wound up alone when Tony invited Phil to the Tower for a private discussion, not yet willing to out himself as Inhuman and needing to hear from someone else that he was making the right call, that he wasn't being selfish. Their mutual attraction had grown despite the lack of facetime and one thing led to another, they both admitted later that it was a somewhat natural progression of events.

Chapter Text

When Tony was 12, he learned of another world: Attilan. His mother had him dress up in strange clothes then go out to the woods where a giant bulldog was waiting with a blond haired girl in a yellow dress. His mother told him "Tony, this is Crystal and Lockjaw, they're going to take us to meet the rest of my family."

"I thought your family died in a car accident."

"All will be explained soon," Crystal said "Please, place your hand on Lockjaw, we don't want to be late." Tony followed his mother's lead and they were transported to a strange city. His mother took his hand and followed Crystal to a room where two groups of people were waiting. One group was all dressed alike and the way they were studying him made him uncomfortable. The other group was a lot less uniform and Crystal walked over to them, maybe they're the family his mother mentioned.

His mother led him up to a display case in the middle of the room and opened the door. "Please step inside."

"What-"

"Everything is going to be alright. It'll all make more sense if we do this first."

"Do what?"

"Please step inside and you'll see." Myrra didn't have permission to share Inhuman history with her son for fear he would accidentally expose them. Tony let go of her hand and got in the Terrigenesis Chamber. Myrra closed it then moved to join the rest of her family while a member of the Genetic Council came forward with a Terrigen Crystal and slid it through the slot. They all watched as the Mists surrounded him before being sucked out. Looking to Black Bolt, she received a nod permission to open the chamber.

Tony came out as soon as the door opened "What was that? What's going on? Where are we?" Stress, unfortunately, was a very good trigger so Myrra stayed silent until her son spontaneously combusted. "What the Hell?"

"Calm down, Tony."

"You said you'd explain."

"And I will. Centuries ago, aliens called the Kree came to Earth and experimented on primitive humans. The survivors of these experiments rose against the Kree, who intended to use them as weapons. After chasing the Kree away, they attempted to live in peace among humans but were forced to flee and isolate themselves. They created a kingdom all their own called Attilan and took to calling themselves Inhuman, these people were our ancestors. What just happened was you underwent Terrigenesis, a process which awakens your Inhuman nature."

"So we're in Attilan?" inferred Tony, finally calming down enough to snuff out the last few flames.

"Yes."

"You said something about family."

Before she could explain more, the head of the Genetic Council interrupted, wanting to test the new Inhuman. He quickly aggravated Tony to the point where the boy threw fire at him and Medusa was able to diplomatically suggest they hold off on the tests, hiding a smile. Black Bolt made a few gestures, which Medusa translated as a dismissal that the Council could not refuse. Seeing her son staring, Myrra said "That's the Genetic Council. They oversee Terrigenesis and evaluate the results. Attilan is a kingdom," she then introduced the Royal Family, ending with Gorgon "My brother, your uncle."

"What's your real name? 'Cause Maria doesn't seem very Inhuman."

"Myrra, and I'm still your mother so you're not going to use it."

"Right."

Myrra huffed fondly, "You can ask. I'm sure all of the kids from Earth are gonna wonder."

"All of the kids? I'm not the only one."

"A few people were approved to go down-"

"Down?"

"Attilan is located on the moon."

"Okay."

"A few people were approved to go down in order to expand the gene pool."

Seeing her hesitation, Tony smiled "I know how dangerous it is to have a small gene pool to draw from, I'm in AP classes, remember?"

"I remember, well on your way to MIT." At her son's look, Myrra laughed "Yes, we're still going to live on Earth after you finish training with your powers. We want to avoid detection by humans, can't do that if we make prominent people disappear but you're going to have to be careful not to have kids without the Council's approval. They'll determine what human genes are a threat to our Inhuman genes."

"Right. Isn't it weird living on Earth and following those rules?"

"After your father and I got married, I had almost no contact with Attilan until you were born and then only to set this up."

"Was it weird going from Attilan to America?"

"Yes, very and I had to pretend it wasn't to blend in."

"How'd you get your human identity set up?"

"Well, it's much easier than you might think. I lied and told the police that I'd been robbed, got all new paperwork issued."

Decades later, Tony found himself lying on the hood of a stolen convertible parked outside a barn in Hawaii. He'd just read two humans in on Attilan, focusing on the general history and Royal Family tree. Why was he lying on the hood of a car? He had a few calls to make and liked to have fun while adulting. JARVIS had tracked down the whole family, except for Maximus who had apparently staged a coup. Once he was done setting up Senator Ellen Nadeer to fall for her involvement with the Watchdogs and laid the groundwork for a more mutually beneficial legislature regarding Inhumans. He told JARVIS "Call Maximus, make it look like I just landed." He looked over at the phone, which was synced to his official wrist communicator. When the call went through, he spoke in a fake cheery voice "Hey Max. I noticed you made some charges on that account I set up for you. Mind telling me what you're doing in Hawaii?"

"I'm not in Hawaii, Ant. I'm sponsoring a scientist who is based there, Evan Declan, he's working with the new Inhumans."

"Y'know what? That makes more sense. Listen, I can't get through to Crys' or Lock'. I don't mean to be rude but you wouldn't happen to know what's up with that."

"Let's talk in person."

"But you're in Attilan. Isn't it illegal for people to leave Attilan without an official assignment? I thought that was why Uncle G never visited mom. Did you lie to me about that?"

"I never lied to you and I never told you that. Things are complicated. If you go to the lab, I can arrange transport to Attilan."

"Give me 3 hours. There's this thing here on Earth called traffic and it's horrible, it makes what should be a five minute trip take an hour and I need to find the lab before I can even start trying to figure out the fastest route, plus I wanna talk to your scientist. Three hours, sound good?"

"That will work. See you then."

"See ya, Max-i-mus."

"Goodbye, An-ton-y." Maximus hung up and Tony laughed.

Crystal asked "When did you two get so many jokes going?"

"When I was 12 and Maximus told me what Black Bolt was short for. He said he struggled to say his brother's full name when he was little and I laughed in his face because Black-a-gar Bolt-a-gon is very easy to sound out." To the humans, he said "You can see why he goes by Black Bolt." After a moment, they both agreed. "Anyway," turning to Karnak in particular and his fellow Inhumans in general, Tony said "I know it's a trap but I'm gonna spring it anyway and you're going to let me. I can't pretend I don't have a clue what's going on if you guys are with me. My clueless act is going to be my greatest asset going in." Karnak nodded slowly and Tony remembered he had a concussion. "Your ability is not gone, your brain is just bruised from the sudden drop when you fell. Your body wasn't expecting it so your skull and cranial fluid couldn't compensate. In short, you're concussed, it'll pass."

"As all things do," finished Karnak, more on memory than anything.

"The fact you're not amnesiac suggests a mild concussion not a severe one but I'm not a doctor so what would I know. JARVIS, what's the latest I can leave for Declan's lab and still arrive with time to spare?"

"Travel time in the suit, five to ten minutes."

"Five to ten?"

"Depending on stealth needs and showboating."

"Shut up. So I'll leave thirty minutes early, give myself time to talk to Declan and get everyone to calm down from Iron Man dropping in."

"That would be wise, Sir."

Crystal asked "What's your plan?"

"Talk to Maximus," Tony's gaze flicked to Medusa "I'm not gonna try to make him give up the throne, that would ruin my cover. I'll play along with whatever lies he spouts and only defend myself if he tries to kill me. If our roles were reversed, I was him and he was me, I'd paint him as Myrra's long lost son and use his presence to get more of Attilan's elite on my side by getting him to claim support, keep him ignorant to the fact I usurped the throne as long as possible. I'm not intending to let him keep the throne but I'm not gonna drag him down here so you can kill him or let you two tear Attilan apart in a civil war." He turned to Dave and Louise, "JARVIS is already on your phones. If this drags out, he'll give you directions on how to handle my cousins and uncle. There's only so long that a bunch of people can go unnoticed by the world, it's a lot longer than you might think but I'll try to keep this short." With his plan ironed out, he got them to play "Myth or reality, rumor or fact. C'mon, this is much safer than truth or dare and more fun than a board game."

"We can ask you about any tabloid story and you'll tell the truth?" clarified Dave.

"Exactly, you can also ask about the supposed Inhuman facts circulating the web or Avengers' business, Iron Man, Human Torch- it's the name I adopted when I was young and irresponsible and decided to be a superhero for the first time- anything."

"The playboy thing," began Louise.

"That's a bit complicated. True and false. It's um, it's a Stark thing, grandpa Reginar was a playboy in his day before World War One, dad obviously. Starks tend to go through a playboy phase and since everyone wanted to constantly compare me to my father, they started making a big deal out of everything. There was this one picture, I was clearly drunk and bumped into a random girl at a party, the picture was attached to a story about how I took the girl home and y'know the rest. I actually spent that night in a hallway, passed out and left the next day for class or a meeting or something. I wasn't even home."

"But there were-"

"Yeah, there were cases where I did take people home after a party but I was usually drunk inventing while they were sleeping it off in a guest room."

"So totally false with you?"

"Yeah but it is a Stark thing. Dad told me stories about his dad's youthful indiscretions and apparently, grandma Ainsley almost wanted nothing to do with grandpa Reginar. Dad was drunk when he told me about this, ranting and raving and at least a little bit depressed, going on about how he ruined everything. Mom entered his life too late, she tried when I was a kid to get him away from Peggy Carter but Aunt Peg had her hooks in too deep. She did scare Carter off Edwin Jarvis, even got her to leave me alone but dad didn't know about that and Peg often sorta threatened me, building a circuit board at age four is bound to get some of the wrong kind of attention."

"Right." Dave asked "So it's true the whole circuit board at age four."

"V8 engine at age six, almost seven. Dad could be so oblivious, he didn't realize he was still setting money aside for a nanny until I was fourteen, mom kept putting it back but that obliviousness is how I was able to disappear to Attilan for my Terrigenesis Ceremony and undergo training to control my powers without dad even realizing I was missing. Mom didn't even get a chance to spin a cover story, dad spent the whole time lost in his own head."

"How bad was he really?"

"It was no secret, really. Dad's absentmindedness when it came to me was kinda hard to miss when he'd take me into the office and I'd be in the R&D labs for hours before he noticed. But boy genius, none of the staff minded. I'd go into the lab and make a whole slew of jumps, speeding up a few timetables then dad would remember he'd brought me in that day and go looking for me. Now imagine if I was normal?"

"I can't imagine it," said Louise.

"Yeah, fair enough."

Almost two hours and a half blew by with a lot of laughs before JARVIS had to interrupt with a reminder for Sir to head to the lab. Donning the armor, Tony waved and took off. As predicted, Maximus wanted to use Anthony to better secure himself on the throne. "You still haven't told me what happened. I'm terrible with cue cards, I don't want to go out there and talk about how tragic it is that the rest of our family is dead, only for you to cut in and correct me. So, are they dead?"

"No, they have fled."

"Even Triton?"

"He was first."

"Dang. I always thought you would've been a good choice for the job they gave mom. You're smart, you coulda been like me and my dad and had women throwing themselves at you on Earth. I still don't get why you weren't chosen. You can't be totally, genetically human. Your closest human relative died over a thousand years ago. I mean, that's excluding my dad because he's only like you're cousin-in-law, which doesn't affect your genes. Being of royal blood implies strong genes, that's why they chose mom. Y'know it just never made sense to me but a lot things up here don't. If you have the means to transport people to Earth, why not set up a colony on a deserted island and send you're undesirables there?" Trap laid, he only had to wait a few days for Maximus to fall into it. During the exodus, Tony shoved Maximus through Eldrac right before the Living Door closed. "Thanks man."

"Not a problem, Anthony."

"Call me Tony. Now, I got a call to make." He used his watch to call his phone and let Crystal know Maximus was out of the picture, advising her to gather the family at the farm and all come back together.

"How'd you do it?" asked Crystal.

"I suggested he send the lower caste to a deserted island and shoved him through the portal during the exodus. He's out of the way and nobody but Auran died and she doesn't count because she doesn't stay dead."

"Incredible."

Medusa and Black Bolt shared a knowing look before Medusa suggested Crystal stay with Tony, just to be safe, in case Maximus got off the island, she could warn them. Tony and Crystal saw through it and didn't care. "What do you think about Ames?"

"Ames?"

"As a last name for your human identity? It's closer to your actual last name than Collins or Carbonell was to mom's."

"Sounds good."

"Crystal Ames, I'll have that ready in no time."

"Sounds great." They were relaxing in Attilan for a bit, giving Lockjaw a chance to rest and the healers a chance to examine Karnak, confirming what Tony had said before fixing the problem.

Chapter Text

After New York and everyone brushing him off, Tony sought out his real family. He had never seen them and had no idea how the Grey Robes got to him when they tried to give him the throne. From that encounter, he knew that he was Prince Ahura Boltagon, firstborn son of King Agon and Queen Rynda, first of three. Since he couldn't use the Grey Robes' route, he found his own. Disguising his request as concern for people like Bruce Banner- the only Avenger who was willing to hear him out- he had JARVIS locate supers and monitor them. One man was of particular interest, a man with no eyes who could cross the planet in a second. Through careful monitoring, Tony discovered a pattern and caught the man when he came to pull a blond man from a car crash. "Hello?" The man was blind so switching to his text-to-talk app's default setting was counterproductive, the man needed to hear his 'voice' so that he could identify Tony.

"Who are you?" The no-eyed man went on the defensive.

"A fellow Inhuman here to arrange transport for you to a nation of people like us. Meet me," he set the rendezvous and left the man to pull the blond and take him wherever he took the others, some hidden village in some mountains.

At the meeting place, Tony quickly explained "We need to get airborne and you need to tell me your name so we can get where we need to be."

"My name's Gordon. What's yours?"

"Depends on who you ask. It's a long story I'd rather not get into right now. For now, what you need to know is that I can't talk, that I'm using a text-to-talk app."

"Is that part of your gift?" Gordon took the last steps to board the jet which then took off.

"Yes. A single word from me could level a mountain or a city, which is why I don't talk and neither does my brother, the king of the Inhuman nation we're going to visit. I need you to trust me, teleportation is the only way into the kingdom and when we get there, we're probably going to be arrested."

"Arrested why?"

"Because to them, I'm human and you're a threat. They don't know that there are Inhumans outside their borders, they won't see you as one of them."

"Okay."

Tony timed his approach to be at night and gave Gordon instructions on how far to jump in what direction, purposefully neglecting to mention where they were going and foolishly hoping he wouldn't recognize the destination as off-world. When they arrived, the Royal Guard caught and cuffed them, bringing them before the King and Queen immediately, mistaking their arrival for the start of an invasion. King Black Bolt scrutinized the human intruder, who smiled back at him with an almost identical face. Queen Medusa caught the similarities and saw how the human refused to speak and his companion plead ignorance while insisting the human couldn't talk. The two monarchs came to the same conclusion almost simultaneously, "Release the human's hands."

The guards hesitated but obeyed nonetheless and their captive pulled a strange device out of his pocket, fiddling with it until a voice spoke from the box "Hello, brother." In that instant, the guards looked between their prisoner and their king before hurrying to release the other captive and bowing to the lot of them. King Black Bolt barely had a chance to dismiss them before they left in a hurry. "Gordon, stand up." Both Inhumans stood at the same time. Ahura continued to fiddle, or rather type. "I would like to meet our full family before I begin explaining why I am here, lest I have to explain many times. To answer the obvious, most immediate question, Gordon is Inhuman. It seems our ancestors missed a few of their brethren and a few Kree Diviners, if I had to guess. I enlisted him to get here because nobody ever told me how to get to Attilan, I am lucky Mira told me about this place before the Genetic Council tried to give me the throne following our parents' deaths."

Medusa said "They tried to give you the throne?"

"When I first underwent Terrigenesis, they tried to kill me. I was not going to rule beside people like that, people who would likely go around me to do whatever they pleased. I had no interest in being a puppet king, yet I still became one in a more figurative sense but that is a story for later. It is due to the Genetic Council's attempt to place me on the throne that I know I have two brothers. I will explain everything I can but only to the full family. I don't even know your names."

"I'm Medusa and this is your brother, Black Bolt."

"Am I correct to assume you're married, making you my sister in law?"

"Yes."

Gordon told Tony "You never did tell me your name."

"Ahura, technically but people on Earth know me as Tony Stark."

"Ah," that explained enough.

Medusa had someone take them to guest quarters and send some clothes for them to change into. Tony and Black Bolt were nearly identical, only Tony's hair was a bit lighter, not that Gordon could see it but Medusa could and she asked her husband "How old is Ahura?"

Black Bolt smiled and signed, confirming they were twins. Ahura was born first and exposed to the Mists as an infant, the results of his Terrigenesis prompted their parents and the Genetic Council to formally forbid premature Terrigenesis. The family was all gathered for dinner that night, Ahura and Gordon joining them as guests. Seeing a seat open beside his brother and another at the end of the table, Ahura mentally sighed. He took Gordon's hand and placed it on the back of the far seat before taking his seat between his apparent brothers. Everyone instantly looked between the king and their guests, especially Ahura, before Karnak said "Welcome home, Ahura."

"Not staying." Ahura sat his phone beside his plate after typing the statement.

Medusa introduced her brother-in-law to the rest of their family and the family to Gordon. "You said you'd explain why you're here once we were all together."

"Recently, Earth was invaded by aliens through a wormhole. I went through the wormhole with a bomb and saw the army on the other side but no one on Earth listens when I tell them more are coming so I thought that I would come up here and try warning Attilan. I found Gordon while I was looking for super powered people to help fight in the coming war, it's mostly ironic that he happens to be Inhuman."

Almost as though he could see everyone turn to look at him, Gordon said "I did not know this place existed before today. I knew I was Inhuman, obviously," he gestured to his missing eyes "But I didn't know there was a whole kingdom of Inhumans."

Ahura suggested "Maybe you should try telling your version of Inhuman history and then we can compare it to ours. There are two sides to every story and the truth is usually in the middle." Gordon told the version he had been taught, Crystal shared the Attilan version and they agreed that the overlapping parts must be true along with the provable parts (Attilan is obviously an Inhuman nation on the moon) while the validity of the rest was unknowable.

The time spent discussing Inhuman origins gave Karnak time to contemplate what he wanted to ask Ahura "How did you carry a bomb through a wormhole?"

"Um, bit of a story actually. So, first off, the invasion happened in the Earth year 2012. Back in 2008, I was demonstrating some defensive technology for the military, a bit of cutting edge bomb protection and I was in a convoy on my way back from the demo when it was attacked. There was a bomb with the words Stane Tech on them, their CEO worked for my foster father and when I took over the family company, I kicked him out because I knew he had manipulated my father, I saw him do it when I was young and Stane overlooked me because of my mutism. Anyway, Stane supplied the attackers, terrorists, with weapons from the company he took over after I kicked him out of mine and offered them more weapons and money if they killed me. Luckily, my armor held up. I would've just destroyed the base but they had another prisoner, a doctor and I got my dad's company out of the weapons business to stop killing lots of innocent people. He died anyway but when I had to find another way out, I created a weaponized suit of armor. After I got out, I started using the new armor to be a hero. I can fly in the suit, which is how I got a flying nuke- that is like the most dangerous weapon that humans have ever made- through a wormhole. On the other side, I saw the vast void of space practically filled with aliens just like the ones who were invading. Then I fell back to Earth, the wormhole was closing as I fell so I just barely made it through. The team I was fighting alongside has decided that we won and I'm disputing that simply to get attention. I'm not going to keep wasting my proverbial breath trying to convince them. Instead, I am going to prepare and let them be caught off guard when they see I'm right. Part of preparing for war is getting allies ready," Ahura looked at Black Bolt after typing "That's what I'm hoping Attilan will be."

Crystal summarized "You nearly died four years ago, built a super suit, became a super hero and within the past year, you fought an alien invasion that you're sure is just the beginning but none of the humans want to believe you."

"Basically. Part of the problem is that my team was put together by an agency called SHIELD and they say that the threat has been neutralized. The people who organized the response are saying the aliens could not overcome our preparations but I know that the nuke was aimed at the battlefield not the wormhole, millions of people would have died if their response was successful. Sometimes people not listening to me works to my advantage, Stane ignoring me led me to discover his treachery, but most of the time it is just annoying. Like I said, they don't want to believe me, their loss but I won't let the whole world pay the price." Ahura had a determined look on his face, even after he finished typing and returned some of his attention to his meal.

Black Bolt pointed to the phone and his brother nodded, consenting to him trying the app out. "You are sure?" Ahura nodded. "Why would they come back?"

Ahura took his phone back "No war ends in a single battle. Whatever they wanted, they didn't get it. The nuke I sent through, it would've decimated the battlefield almost as well as me saying the word nuke but against what I saw, it's nothing. Unless all they were after was the partial destruction of a part of a single Earth city, they didn't get what they wanted. Whatever their reason for invading, it's still valid. They'll be coming, if not for whatever they were after then for revenge. One of my team, primitive humans mistook him for a pagan God and apparently the universe still believes people on Earth think that way, they still look down on our planet which is both an advantage and disadvantage. It's an advantage because they don't see Earth as worth visiting, much less conquering but it's a disadvantage because that leaves us all alone when aliens do come to invade. I want to prepare for the coming invasion, the people of Earth are happy to think the invasion is over."

Medusa asked "What all do you know about Attilan?"

"Everything Crystal just told me, I know it's a kingdom that my birth parents once ruled. When I was almost 17, members of the Genetic Council came to offer me the throne, which is how I found out I have two younger brothers. I refused because one of the things the woman who brought me to Earth told me about Attilan was that our coming to Earth had been a compromise. She told me that when I was an infant, I was exposed to something called Terrigen Mists and underwent a process called Terrigenesis. She told me that usually, people undergo Terrigenesis as adolescents because that's the age when they're old enough to understand but young enough to adapt. I underwent the process as an infant with the belief being that I would never know any different and that was a good thing because I wouldn't need to adapt. After my Terrigenesis, my cries were very destructive and the Genetic Council basically advised my parents to have me killed for the good of Attilan. Exiling me to Earth was a compromise only attainable because Mira could get me to stop crying and see when I was about to cry to preemptively stop me. My entire childhood, Mira drilled mutism into me, told me never to speak. It wasn't until I was almost 14 that she told me why. Then three years later, I get a visit from the Genetic Council, they want me to return to Attilan, a place I was exiled from to avoid execution as a baby, and claim the throne as is apparently my birthright being first born. I barely managed to keep my temper enough to type a polite refusal but talking never occurred to me. Mira, the woman who brought me to Earth in case that wasn't clear, she only spoke of people other than Howard and Maria Stark being my parents once, when she told me about Attilan and what I am. I really don't know enough about the kingdom to rule even if I had wanted to all those years ago."

Medusa shared a look with Black Bolt before telling Ahura "You are the firstborn by less than an hour." She had discussed Black Bolt's long lost twin before dinner, Medusa getting as many details as her husband could offer for the brother he never met.

"So Black Bolt and I are twins?" Ahura looked as confused as most of them felt "Why was I the only one exposed as an infant? Did they think time would change the results?"

Triton spoke up "You're not the only one who was exposed as an infant, I was and my results similarly prompted hesitation when it came time for my brother to undergo Terrigenesis."

"I meant, why not expose both twins to the same Mists?"

"Everyone undergoes the process individually for safety reasons," answered Gorgon. "I guess your results are the reason they locked down the age for Terrigenesis, limiting it to adolescents."

"I got that, I mean I figured as much but we're twins, why go one at a time?"

"They probably wanted a chance to focus on your results before getting distracted by your brother's," answered Gordon.

"Makes sense, I guess. I'd ask why neither the Council or Mira told me I was a twin but the first one's obvious and the second one's a moot point. I haven't seen her since I was 14."

Gordon asked "Care to explain the first one?"

"The Genetic Council told me I have two younger brothers, they wanted me to claim the throne as the eldest so telling me one of those brothers is my twin would be counter productive to getting me to go with them. Unfortunately for them, I already knew that they tried to have me executed as an infant so I wasn't about to play their game." Ahura smiled "I do find it ironic that we wound up with the same power anyway." He turned to his youngest brother and asked "What's your power?"

"I don't have one, Terrigenesis rendered me human."

"I literally just told you that the Genetic Council tried to have me killed, I'm assuming they tried to do something to Black Bolt since he got the same power anyway and you're still gonna trust their test results. Come on, nothing strange has happened in all the years since you underwent Terrigenesis." Ahura frowned "What did they try to do to Black Bolt? I'm guessing they did more than try to place me on the throne when he was raised to rule."

"They tried to get our parents to sign off on brain surgery."

"So our power originates in our brains, good to know. Any strange occurrences that could be explained by mental powers? Maybe people obeying you without question when they wouldn't normally, or you being able to read emotions, detect people's approach when they're trying to be sneaky? Anything?"

Black Bolt was signing behind his twin and Medusa translated "Tried?"

"Oh, so you're a master manipulator anyway," concluded Ahura. "So am I and I don't have the excuse of possible psychic power." Looking between his brothers, he asked "What am I missing?"

"Unlike you, Black Bolt has said a word since his Terrigenesis, he asked our parents why when they appeared like they were going to give into the Council. One word and we had parents no more."

"How long did it take the Council after that to approach me?"

"A couple years."

Ahura mentally sighed and physically mimed the expression, "The Council told you that you're human, tried to tell our parents that Black Bolt should have his power surgically removed after telling them that it would be in the kingdom's best interest to have me killed lest I accidentally speak or cry a little too loud. Put that together and it looks to me like the Council wants the monarchy to serve them not the other way around." Looking around, he rolled his eyes "They tried to render all of us ineligible. Black Bolt messing up might have just saved both of your lives because they probably thought you'd be easier to manipulate, that they got themselves a puppet king, all the while knowing full well our parents would never let harm come to their children. I was sent to Earth to put me out of their reach when they became very insistent that I was too dangerous to live. Are you really going to keep playing into their hand?"

"Playing into their hand?"

"You're doing exactly what they want you to. The Council had to know that our parents wouldn't allow the surgery, no matter how much they insisted on it, just like they didn't allow their supposedly human son to suffer for a fluke of Terrigenesis or their eldest to be killed when there was no logical way that I could gain control before inflicting irreparable damage to the kingdom, possibly destroying it. You think they actually believe our parents signed off on the surgery after what they did to protect you and me? They know what you did but it worked out to their advantage so they let you get away with it." Ahura gave his brothers each a look. "From my perspective, it looks like they decided my death no longer served Attilan when it became apparent that Black Bolt would not be the puppet king they hoped for. Now, do me a favor." Ahura set his phone to accept new words, "Can you review everyone's names and add them to my phone's dictionary?" Maximus took his phone and whispered the names into it, typing them afterwards as prompted. When he was done, he handed it back, "I can say Gordon because it was one of the many names a friend of mine read into the original text-to-talk device, we just happened to skip names we thought I was unlikely to encounter and Karnak wasn't even on the list we were using."

"Back to what you were saying before," Crystal prompted "Do you really believe all of that?"

"About the Council? Yeah, kinda reminds me of Stane. He did his best to ignore me until my usefulness became apparent then he tried to nurture a relationship that would have made me view him as a father figure if he hadn't ignored me so well that I saw him manipulate my dad. I learned a lot from him, mostly how to get people to mistake my idea for their own to get what I want but I've decided not to bother with that when it comes to SHIELD." They had a very informative dinner and Maximus was sent back to Earth with Ahura and Gordon to help his oldest brother with preparations. Nobody would miss the prince, unfortunately, and Ahura would have a better chance of uncovering the truth of his brother's Terrigenesis than anyone else in the family. Overall, the meeting went well.

Mind control turned out to be Maximus' gift as he was able to get humans to do his bidding without recognizing him as Tony Stark's cousin Max Bolton, which was their cover story. JARVIS eventually got Sir to tell him the truth, after Maximus used his communicator to secure permission. Bruce Banner was the only Avenger that Tony tolerated in his home, the man had tentatively believed him and Tony rewarded his faith by nailing Ross to the freaking wall and getting a message from Bruce to Betty. The Inhumans on Earth used Maximus as a liaison with their brethren on the moon and Tony arranged for a private island where they could live in peace and isolation on Earth with no threat from the local government on the condition Lai Shi become a colony of Attilan, unifying the Inhuman race. Once things began to settle, Tony moved onto the big fish: SHIELD. He put JARVIS on taking them down, acquiring permission to white hat hack them then sharing his findings under the guise of Tony Stark doing all that work. Tony diverted SI resources to keep the people on the Index from being weaponized the way Ross tried to weaponize the Hulk. Soon enough, the world knew Tony had saved them from HYDRA, which had infiltrated the infrastructure of the world starting with SHIELD. When he warned of another invasion after SHIELDRA's fall, people listened and more or less followed his plans.

Thor came back in 2018 after six years without contact. He came back ranting about Thanos the Mad Titan and how he was coming, going so far as to demand to see the Son of Stark. Tony paid him a visit along with his cousin Max and they managed to get to the truth beneath the apparent crazy. Max shared their findings with the UN while Tony finalized preparations "An alien tyrant known as Thanos the Mad Titan is after six powerful alien artifacts known as the Infinity Stones. The Tesseract and Loki's scepter each contained one, the Tesseract is very likely in enemy hands and the Stone from Loki's scepter is currently housed in Vision's forehead. Thanos will come for us, regardless of what we do now. I propose we put the battle on our terms and send Vision somewhere as far away from civilization as possible, perhaps the middle of a desert. Only approved combatants will be allowed into this chosen battlefield, soldiers from the allied militaries should be posted around the site to hold the perimeter and nothing more. They should not be any closer to the fighting than any other unenhanced person." After some deliberation, the UN agreed and had a neutral cartographer determine where the middle of nowhere was geographically. Tony sent Vision ahead with most of the new Avengers, who had been rebranded as the Defenders because they set out to defend people not avenge their deaths. Max went back to Attilan to let them know where the fight would be and share with his family the results of Tony's tests.

While they were doing all of that, Tony visited a residence in Greenwich Village. He cut to the chase and asked after the Infinity Stone they kept, sharing Thor's warning and the UN's plan. Stephen Strange consulted a few of his fellow sorcerers before opening a portal to join Vision in the desert to wait. There was a part of the plan that Max and Tony failed to share with any of their allies. Once Thanos arrived, they planned to clear the battlefield, that much was known but the official plan was to concentrate forces around the keepers of the Infinity Stones on their side. The actual plan was for the Boltagon twins to talk to each other from opposite ends of the battlefield to properly clear it and hopefully harm Thanos enough for their allies to take him down.

The plan worked, more or less, and the Stones were secured in separate containers pending the Galactic Council and United Nations deciding what to do with them to avoid another Thanos. After the last remnants of Thanos' forces (mostly ships and other debris and the corpse of the tyrant himself) was cleared, the soldiers who kept the perimeter were invited to join the celebratory party which was held on the battlefield to accommodate the sheer number of people who fought for them. Tony joined his family after checking in on all the teams who fought with them. He had a few ideas about what their alien allies should not leave the planet without trying and he recruited a few soldiers to see to it that they got the full Terran experience. Gordon and Quake's Secret Warriors team was clustered around the Inhuman Royal Family, Gordon helped the locals expose their monarchs to the good side of humanity, partly through food but also music and other pop culture things. There were military trucks and jets and all sorts of vehicles parked throughout the desert space. Some of the teams used their transport to blast out some tunes, it was a party after all. Bruce carefully made his way through the crowd to find Tony with the Inhumans, "Hey."

Tony pulled out his phone and typed "Hi, Bruce."

"Max isn't your cousin, is he?"

"He's my little brother. The Starks adopted after four failed pregnancies, mom- I mean Maria took the timing of her running into a woman struggling to care for an infant soon after she lost the last kid as a sign from God. Maria and Howard didn't know, that I wasn't that woman's kid or that I was Inhuman."

"Oh."

"That's not what you came here to ask."

"How did you do that- what was that?"

"My twin brother and I share the same power. We can level cities with a single word. What you saw was us talking for the first time." Tony smirked "Those were actually my first words, ever."

"Wow, uh-"

"Still not what you set out to say."

"I guess not."

"Say what you wanna say, I won't get offended."

"I'm sure you won't. I'm just not sure how to phrase it."

"Not so different after all?" suggested Tony.

"Yeah. I guess we're not."

"Tony's not my real name, neither is Anthony. Anthony Edward Stark is what Maria and Howard planned to name the last kid they lost, again Mira had miraculous timing. My real name is Ahura Boltagon, Max Bolton is short for Maximus Boltagon and my twin brother is Blackagar Boltagon but everyone calls him Black Bolt or King Black Bolt, technically." He looked at his brother, who was shaking his head and interpreted his signs "He says you don't have to use his title."

"Thanks, I think." Then the words all sunk in "You're a prince."

"I was, I guess I am but Maximus is heir and I support that." Tony- Ahura gave his brother a questioning look and his twin nodded, confirming Maximus was heir. Ahura turned back to Bruce "You okay- Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just a little in shock."

"Yeah, I was too when I first found out. For most of my childhood, I was just told not to talk or it was assumed I couldn't talk, I didn't know why. It's a lot to take in but it doesn't change who I am. I still can't use a phone like a normal human being." Bruce broke out laughing at that, the mounting tension suddenly broken by a typical Tony joke. Things would be alright, decided the mute inventor, even though he was now formally forbidden from having kids. He had already planned to make Harley Keener or Peter Parker his heir, he wasn't sure which yet so it was no big loss.

Chapter Text

Jean, Storm, Logan, Mystique and Magneto were planning their attack on the base when Jean suddenly said "I don't think any of that will be necessary." A moment later everyone aboard the Blackbird heard the Professor's voice in their head. Jean told the others "Strap in, we need to move closer to their exit." Without hesitation, they all did and were flown around to a side entrance.

As they landed, a figure cloaked in darkness ran outside with the Professor, Cyclops and the kids, another stranger ran alongside them a little unsteadily. They all boarded the jet and the first figure set a boy in a hospital gown with scars on his head down in one of the seats before the shadows left him. "Uncle E!" He cheered at Magneto "You're coming with us, right? It's not like we're gonna risk a repeat of this by turning you over to the humans again. You can leave in DC but first let's show the President a united front. Okay?"

After a few minutes, during which Magneto looked at the Professor, the mutant leader nodded and sat down on a bench. Kitty was the first one to recognize the strange shadow man "You're Tony Stark!" Her exclamation accompanied them all taking seats for take off.

"Yes and no. I am not genetically Howard Stark's son, nor am I Magneto's nephew but mom was a Stark when she had me so I guess I'm still entitled to the name. Call me Nyx or Tony, I guess. And you are?"

"Kitty Pryde, uh Shadowcat."

"What's your power?"

"I can walk through walls."

"Then you should go by something like Ghost, shorter is better when someone needs to shout a warning without revealing your real name."

"I'll think about it."

Tony nodded then turned to her friends, "And you are?"

"Bobby Drake, Iceman."

"Name's fine as long as you don't mind being called Ice. And?"

"Rogue, just Rogue."

"John, Pyro."

"Family troubles, I get it. If not for the sheer amount of backlash, I'd proudly proclaim I am not Howard Stark's son or I am a mutant but I gotta think about other people. With the prejudice still rampant, if I went out tomorrow and told the world I am a mutant then a few things would happen, none of them good. Stark Industries stock would plummet, which would give the Board of Directors a reason to order massive lay offs and force me out of the company in a semi-hostile takeover, erasing all the little things I've done to get rid of workplace discrimination. It wouldn't surprise me if they shut down the Maria Stark Foundation and any other philanthropic endeavors to save money for themselves. Can't do that and believe it or not, revealing mom had an affair would make things even worse than revealing I have an X-gene so that's a no-go." Tony smiled sadly at John after delivering his lesson to all three, "I got shadow powers for a reason, kid, saved my life when all I could do was hide in a corner."

"Howard Stark-"

Tony flashed back to his drunk father yelling for him, telling him to stop being a coward and take his punishment like a man (punishment for what, Tony would never know). He stalked right past his son, who curled up smaller, unaware of the shadows wrapping around him. His wife tried grabbing his arm to get his attention, to soothe his anger but she grabbed the wrong one, the one with the bottle and Howard's arm jerked, knocking her back. Edwin Jarvis tried to tell his employer that was quite enough, tried to make him see that he had just hit his wife but he was too far gone and it only escalated. Howard never hit Tony but it was sometimes a near thing and when he came to his senses, well he didn't remember any of it but he didn't deny it either. Tony breathed through the memory, a recently mind-control free Scott talking him through it. "You okay?"

"Not really, I just friggin' triggered myself."

Kitty asked "Was it really that bad?"

"He never hit me, mostly because when he wanted to, he couldn't find me but he did hit mom a few times on accident, she grabbed his arm in her attempt to calm him down and his arm jerked because it was the one holding the bottle. I couldn't move, I was usually the one he was pissed at and if he could do that on accident, I didn't want to see what would happen when he acted with intent. Worst part is, he'd get so drunk that he never remembered any of it. Still, could be worse, I guess, at least he had to get drunk to lose all sense. A lot of DV cases involve people who are stone sober and he usually locked himself away after hearing about it, tried to detox a few times." Tony turned to the Professor "There was no alcohol in the house the night he died. Mom made him get rid of it while I was at MIT, she threatened to leave him and tell the world how he'd treated her, Jarvis wouldn't sneak him a bottle because he supported mom. He couldn't have been drunk driving, he had nothing to drink and mom wouldn't get a car with him if he was drunk because he was prone to blow up at the slightest provocation. I still have no idea what I did that made him want to kill me when he was drunk, he didn't know when he started to sober up. If he wasn't drunk driving but he was behind the wheel then that means something else caused the crash. I don't care much for Howard Stark, even though I have to call him my father, but I do care about mom and she died too so I gotta figure out what really happened. Any ideas?"

"There were witnesses, son."

"Obie, probably part of his plan to steal the company, and a few others, I'll look into it."

Pyro looked between them "Is the Professor actually your father?"

"Genetically, yes but I didn't meet him until I was an adult so genetics is where the father-son relationship starts and basically where it ends." Tony looked down at his chest and made the darkness vanish, revealing a band shirt and no glow. "My powers don't tire me out the way other powers might, darkness and shadows are natural things, I manipulate them, I don't generate them so there's not much loss of energy on my side." He looked at the teens "You understand?"

"Yeah," Pyro said, flicking his lighter "Like me and fire, I can manipulate the flame all day long. My power only starts tiring me out when I try to make more, make it grow," he demonstrated by making a dragon out of the small flame then making it grow until it was the size of his head then he closed his hand and snuffed the flame "It's like that, right?"

"Yeah. I didn't always know I was using my power or that I even had one, I just thought I found a good hiding place." Tony continued "I can black out an entire room, or even a whole base, but unless I have pre-existing shadows to draw on, darkness that's already there, doing that is exhausting because I'm forced to draw on small bits of shadow, like my own, and come up with the rest on my own. It's possible, exhausting but possible." The billionaire mutant smiled "I wouldn't have it any other way because people who have to generate their element are limited by how much they can generate. Imagine if Magneto over there could only move metal he organically created and that metal only lasted as long as he willed it to, he wouldn't be able to do jack because of the strain. Manipulating an element in its natural state is much better than generating it and manipulating that. Don't you think?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Great." Tony looked at Cyclops then his father "Is he alright?"

"He will be, son, in time."

"I meant, did you clear his mind of Stryker's sick drug?"

"Yes."

Tony turned to Magneto "Stryker used his own son's cranial fluid to control mutants, including the kid himself, and knowing you, that would be enough of an excuse to kill both of them because you're only self-aware to a point. The kid didn't ask to have a crazy father experiment and operate on him, kid had no more control over what happened then you did when you told him about the school."

"I am aware."

"Just keep that in mind for the next time a mutant kid is used against mutant kind because I can't see Stryker being either the first or the last." Magneto nodded and Tony turned back to his father "Figure out who Lady Deathstrike is?"

"Yuriko Oyama and that is all I can tell you, son."

"Alright."

The inventor relaxed into his seat a moment before Wolverine started passing out uniforms to the teens. Jean switched places with Scott once his mind was clear enough to fly, checking on the young Stryker, "Jason? Can you hear me?" He was unresponsive and with a heavy heart, Charles used Stryker's name for his son, garnering a response from both the boy and Magneto.

Tony sighed "Stryker called him that, said his son was dead along with the rest of us. I think he planned to make that a prophecy." He shrugged "Sorry, I got lost in the base, didn't get to Stryker in time."

"Your intervention was still timely, although I have to wonder how you got in the base."

"Oh, uh, I hid on the jet that flew away from the school. I was going to check on you but the school was under attack, I saw them dumping kids in the jet and made a judgement call, figuring that if push comes to shove, they'd cut their losses and pull out. I was right."

Scott said "Thanks for that."

"We were lucky. Yuriko couldn't see me well enough to attack me while I took apart the device Stryker was using to contain the Prof's power then you got the world's most powerful telepath working against you and that's never a fair fight." Scott actually chuckled at that. Tony turned to Logan, "I don't need a suit, I can cloak myself in shadows and say nothing."

Rogue asked "Do you mind if I ask about Afghanistan?"

"Not as long as the Prof doesn't mind running interference on my triggers."

"Why didn't you use your powers then?"

"Oh, that's not even a trigger. I have the power to control shadows, I do not have the power to survive a dozen men randomly firing machine guns at me. And, of course, there's the whole, don't want to be outed as a mutant because my company could be ruined if even whispers of that got out and I won't betray the people who rely on me for their livelihood but that didn't occur to me until later."

"Right."

Tony asked "What is your power? Iceman and Pyro are pretty self-explanatory and Kitty told me hers."

"When I touch people, I absorb their life-force."

"Sounds awful. Let me guess, you can't turn it off."

"No."

"Alright. I'll take time to come by the school next week, see how I can help the student body. To be clear, you can only absorb life-force, right?"

"Right."

"A field of harmless energy should be enough of a barrier for you to safely touch people, can't say you won't feel it but you and the people around you should be safe. I also can't promise I'll get it right on the first try, we're talking about force-field tech, that's new territory."

"Thank you." Tony shot his father a look before smiling at Rogue with a nod.

Tony and Storm's powers came in handy, as did Charles to freeze the room. They dumped a file from Alkali Lake on the President's desk, Charles politely warned the world leader not to start a war that nobody can win and they vanished. Yuriko went with Magneto and Mystique while Tony stayed with the X-Men. Before he left the school, he gave Scott his card, in case the X-Men ever need the Avengers or vice versa but of course, Tony has his father's number.

Chapter Text

The Arc Reactor screwed with Tony's powers and he knew it had to go so he swallowed his familial pride and went to see Charles Xavier about a mutant healer. The Professor was concerned and promised to see if he had anyone with the necessary power pass through his school but at the moment, there was nothing he could do. Tony still moved operations to New York after getting Stane arrested- the Professor did a sweep of Tony's close relations and discovered his godfather had arranged the hit- and switched to clean energy. Stark Tower was the first totally green building, utilizing the limitless power generated by the Arc Reactor in the basement. In fact, the Reactor generated so much power that SI was able to share it with the city's grid. They made the city sign a contract promising to pay it forward by charging less for power and set up a way for the people to keep both SI and the city in check when it came to their promise of cheaper electricity. The real reason Tony moved to New York was for his medical appointments, he went to the school for those appointments because they were best suited to monitor his condition.

When the Palladium Poisoning Incident happened, he informed Pepper, Rhodey and Happy of his declining health immediately on his doctor's advice. When Rushman tried to get close to him, she was caught by HR and when she tried again under a slightly different name, arrested for fraud. Fury's attempt at manipulation was similarly dealt with, this time the charges were more in line with embezzlement and theft, not to mention the threats Coulson was authorized to hurl on Fury's behalf. A man named Logan busted in about the time Tony was starting to feel claustrophobic. Had he been back in Malibu, he would have had a whole mansion and probably fewer visible guards but he was in New York and they wanted to make sure he knew how trapped he was. Logan was accompanied by a group of legitimate federal agents who took the so-called SHIELD agents into custody while Logan talked Tony down from a panic attack in progress. JARVIS was able to get the agents to leave Sir alone by sending them the surveillance footage and citing his obvious distress. "That's JARVIS, my AI, he runs everything for me. Good to have you back, J?"

"Good to be back, Sir."

Tony decided to get the statement out of the way, asking only that Logan stay with him. Triggering a man's PTSD was very frowned upon but not necessarily a crime in itself. Logan was surprised that Stark wanted him present. After the agents left, Tony had JARVIS download a set of files to a tablet for Logan. The files were almost all about him, giving Logan something to do while they waited to make sure SHIELD wouldn't retaliate. Logan also helped deal with Vanko and Hammer before taking Tony to the school, where the inventor shared the story of Maya Hansen and the Bern New Year's Eve party. "I don't know if she ever perfected Extremis but it's worth looking into, right?"

"Indeed," agreed the Professor. From there, they stumbled onto the Mandarin's operation. Tony did the responsible thing by contacting Rhodey to shut down Killian's operation. He made stabilizing Extremis and developing a counter agent a challenge for the scientific community. The counter agent was used to depower the soldiers, enabling them to be put on trial. The stabilizing agent was used to perfect Extremis as Dr. Hansen intended. Tony was one of the first recipients of the new serum, using it to safely remove the Arc Reactor.

The X-Men dealt with Loki, uncovering HYDRA in the process. This discovery prompted another Iron Man/Wolverine team-up, Tony had the connections while Logan was the muscle. They systematically took down HYDRA, SHIELD falling right alongside the Nazis due to their mutual blatant disregard for all sorts of laws as highlighted by the Palladium Poisoning Incident and Thor's time on Earth. When the dynamic duo found the Winter Soldier, thankfully still in cryo, they were stumped. Logan called the Professor, who called Hank McCoy and the Secretary of Mutant Affairs brought representatives of various agencies to the base to determine jurisdiction and clear out the HYDRA agents. It was a mess, Tony was glad he didn't have to deal with it beyond instructing one of the agents on how to defrost Barnes.

When everything came to a head and Earth was pulled into the Infinity War, Tony said "Fuck it." And flew at Thanos. Dropping out of the armor as he neared the Mad Titan, he unleashed his full power, blinding everyone- it was like looking at the sun or a nuclear explosion- but not incapacitating those who knew. Logan sliced Thanos hand off and Tony ran off with the Gauntlet, taking it to Loki since no human could handle its power. The Trickster and ex-brainwashed would-be conqueror put it on and used the Stones already collected to destroy Thanos and his forces. In the aftermath, Tony came out as a mutant and listed off his accomplishments to counter every anti-mutant prejudice he'd ever heard. He ended with "This one probably doesn't seem like a big deal but I'm also one of two people who can claim the title the Son of M. I, along with Pietro Maximoff, am a son of Magneto. Mom was still a Stark and Howard is still legally my father, even if he's not genetically so I still rightfully inherited Stark Industries. None of my accomplishments are voided by this revelation, nothing changes, I was a mutant son of Magneto when I did all those things but now you know I am a mutant son of Magneto, perception does not really alter reality. Let's all just be glad we survived, Thanos has wiped out entire worlds. Let's give it up for planet Earth, huh?" The crowd slowly began cheering, still in shock by all the revelations of the day.

Chapter Text

After New York, Tony was worn out and pissed, not a good mix for a technopath. With JARVIS covering his tracks, he tore through SHIELD's database. What he found nearly destroyed him but he kept going with JARVIS' assisting him, sorting their findings, exposing every dirty little secret SHIELDRA tried to hide. Rather than air their dirty laundry and risk innocents in a data dump, Tony carefully fed the real, legit, not HYDRA agents breadcrumbs. They worked as well and as fast as Tony expected, a controlled collapse. And because an empire toppled by its enemies can rise again, he made sure to sow the seeds of distrust on SHIELDRA, make sure it imploded while being torn apart to ensure it never rose back up. Near the end, Tony was commissioned to find certain key, high ranking agents after being informed that Coulson was not, in fact, dead and was one of the agents. He gave them the tracking data JARVIS came up with and decided he was done, Iron Man would be taking a much-needed well-deserved break.

Chapter Text

The truth is, famous last words often begin with those three. Tony Stark should know better than most. For his entire life, people have never been able to lie to him. Ask someone a direct question and the truth comes spilling out of their mouth, absolutely gushing and sometimes that leads to tangents as each piece of the truth is explored. Usually, they get this wide-eyed look like they can't believe what they just said but it's not a lie, it's exactly what people always say they want, the truth.

One of the most memorable instances Tony can remember, possibly the first time he realized how dangerous his gift was, happened when he was only four years old. His father was showing his business partner, Obadiah Stane the circuit board young Tony had built and Obie called Tony "Our little prodigy."

His youth made him tactless and he asked "How am I your prodigy?"

Obie said "Because you're gonna make me a lot of money, especially after your father passes on. As soon as he's no longer needed, you and I are going to do great things, you just have to listen to me."

His father was frozen following that confession but Tony was just confused, "What am I to you?"

"Why, you're my golden goose and you'll lay eggs for me. Even the cracked and broken ones will be useful to the," what he said next was a jumble of words in Tony's memories, being so young, but he later learned it was a list of terrorist organizations and other bad guys. Being in Howard's workshop, every word was recorded by the security cameras and Obie was dead before Tony hit puberty, having been marked a traitor by said terrorists after his arrest. The thing that made that incident stick out in Tony's mind was how it changed his father. He was devastated that his friend had betrayed him and planned to continue doing so but he was also proud of Tony. Obie's golden goose comment prompted him to pay more attention to his son and his remark about cracked and broken eggs- an obvious reference to faulty weapons- prompted him to move SI out of the weapons game and into regular technology, creating things everyday people use. The wider market meant equal or greater profits, as he told the shareholders.

When Tony heard Aunt Peg yelling at his father for pulling out of weapons, he asked "What's it matter to you?" Her confession, which cited a loss of funds as well as other resources, prompted Howard to cut ties but not before whispering more questions into Tony's ear, taking advantage of Peggy's disoriented state.

A year later, it finally hit the family what Tony could do. Jarvis was starting to feel under the weather and Tony asked why he didn't go to the doctor, his reasons amounted to a great sense of loyalty towards the family so Howard ordered him to see a doctor, citing "Now, if you don't do it then you're being disloyal and setting a bad example for Tony."

"Of course, sir."

After Jarvis left to schedule an appointment, Howard turned to Tony, sighed and took his hand, leading him into the other room where his mother was. "I think we need to have a family meeting."

"What about?"

"That right there. Tony, whenever you ask anyone a question, their answer is always entirely honest. In fact, people seem to overshare. I'll admit I took advantage of it with Peg but what you need to realize son is how dangerous this power is. People use lies of omission to protect other people's feelings." He went on to explain good lies in detail before sighing again "And it doesn't seem like you can turn it off so you need to learn how to talk around what you want to ask, be indirect to keep people from catching on in case you ever need to use this power."

"Okay."

Maria was more upset by the news than either father or son and spent some time clarifying what Howard was saying while Tony silently watched. "Are you okay, Tony?" she asked finally.

"It doesn't change anything for me. I have this power no matter what, it makes sense that I should learn to control it so I don't abuse it, right?"

"Right."

Howard smiled "I think you might've accidentally used it a bit there but we'll work on it."

"Okay."

Tony's habit of yammering on and talking in circles was born of a need to avoid asking direct questions to avoid robbing people of their access to good lies but when someone was being unreasonable, he cut straight to the chase. As long as whoever he was dealing with wasn't likely to lose everything, Tony used his gift to get the most out of business deals. Since Rhodey was his liaison with the US Armed Forces, they weren't often screwed over by him. Tony was screwing around when he invented Iron Man but Rhodey had already taught him the importance of having a wingman, someone to back you up, so he made another suit with Rhodey in mind and tried his hand at drafting a contract, questioning several people in legal to find the one least likely to gossip while still being qualified to check his work. Part of the contract specified that Colonel Rhodes alone could name the suit and once the name was approved by the suit's creator, it could not be changed. Rhodey said "This thing is a war machine."

Tony said "I like that, that's its name now, War Machine." Howard's guilt over all the death and destruction his work caused had lessened over the years since SI pulled out of weapons but it never totally went away. Tony made the mistake of asking "What's wrong?" or "Why are you sad?" too often to be ignorant to this fact and also included in the contract Rhodey signed that the armor was to be used at the pilot's discretion. He walked Rhodey through the contract after showing him the armor before taking their suits out for a test drive to make sure everything was user friendly.

Rhodey took the suit back to base with the contract and showed his superiors, outlining the suit's capabilities and informing them that Tony warned him of a remote shutdown should they violate the contract. "He's giving us the greatest weapon on Earth."

"No, he's giving you the greatest weapon on Earth. This contract says the suit is to be used at your discretion."

"That clause was included to ensure accountability. Anytime the War Machine armor is deployed, I am responsible for what happens with it. This suit was made by Tony Stark not commissioned by Stark Industries, there's a higher level of accountability tied to that."

It didn't take much to talk his superiors around, although one did ask "Are we sure we want to go with War Machine?"

"This model can't be renamed under the terms of the contract," another pointed to the clause, "The name has to be suggested by the pilot and approved by the creator. I assume Mr. Stark approved the name War Machine."

"I said this thing is a war machine and he declared War Machine its name, yes."

"Let's run a drill before we decide your new place in the Air Force. With only one of these, we can't exactly leave you where you are."

"Of course, sir. Mr. Stark would like to unveil the War Machine armor, to make it clear where he and his company stand on weapons."

"Understood. His PR people can contact ours. For now, let's have you join-" He joined a few training exercises that thoroughly impressed the brass, who began privately planning how to use War Machine to get more similar weapons.

SHIELD re-entered Tony's life shortly after he came out as Iron Man with Colonel Rhodes by his side as War Machine. Tony did not mess around, recognizing their tactics from his father's regretful musings on his relationship with Peggy. On the upside, his third memorable use of his power wound up saving Edwin Jarvis's life and the health scare spring boarded Tony's work on AIs, having decided at such a young age that he couldn't handle losing Jarvis. His first few designs were rudimentary but proved the theory, his masterpiece was named after his inspiration JARVIS.

Anyway, back to SHIELD. Director Fury broke into his house and with a few short questions, Tony held all the power in that relationship. He even heard Fury express regret that Carter screwed up their relationship with Howard, pushing too hard until he pushed back and tried to destroy SHIELD but failed. JARVIS waited until Tony was done asking questions to play back the more damning bits of the conversation and advise Fury to leave. Just A Really Very Intelligent System hacked SHIELD and dispersed their records to the relevant agencies in a cleverly disguised leak, arranging for more urgent responses when the lives of his patsies (the hackers credited for his work) were threatened.

Barnes was defrosted before Rogers and when Tony accidentally asked about his father's idol, he was grateful for it. Barnes helped him prepare a team of doctors to deal with Rogers' BS, bringing up his laundry list of ailments and how they never got a chance to check that all of them were gone as the reason they needed to be ready. Household exposure to TB was a big one, the serum may not have recognized dormant diseases. Private tutors were considered for reintegration but it was decided their medical concerns had to be addressed first. Tony gave Barnes the reins to deal with Rogers then went to New Mexico to investigate a spatial anomaly and interview one Dr. Jane Foster. He was impressed when, less than ten questions into their conversation, Jane declared, "You're superhuman."

"Yup."

Darcy Lewis, Foster's poli-sci intern, asked, "What?"

"Exactly. From a very young age, I've been able to get people to tell me the truth, the full truth and nothing but, often oversharing, simply by asking a question, direct works best but I can be indirect, ending a sentence with right and getting a deeper answer than yes or no. Trust me, I believe in a lot of strange things. Aside from my intelligence, I test in the normal range but I've never explicitly tested to see what causes my gift, I never cared to know." Tony turned to Thor and repeated the process, finding it amusing that his power worked on an alien and not stopping until he had the full story on what was going on, then he turned back to Jane. "I want to hire you to help me find at-risk enhanced, such as aliens." He spun around to Selvig. "And you? Ever hear of the Tesseract or Cosmic Cube?"

"Of course I've heard of it, it's at the core of my field."

"Whoops, my bad, I asked a rather direct question. What I actually meant to do was offer you a job on the team researching it."

"I accept."

Tony finally faced Darcy "Poli-sci, interesting friends, it's like a mishmash of scientific fields here but at least those two are both in the physics branch. I could probably use you but I'm not sure which department hires poli-sci. For now, finish your internship here and I'll have someone contact you, you might end up being a lab manager or something since you're apparently adept at wrangling genius scientists."

"Awesome!"

Jane clarified "Did you just offer each of us a job?"

"I've never met someone who could out me in under ten questions, Selvig started catching on in three and you called me out on it in seven. My father is the only other person who has ever outed me and he saw my power in action on three separate occasions before he called it what it was. To be fair, the first two exposed my godparents' betrayals and he chose both of them as my godparents because he thought they were good friends."

His talk with Thor led the man to contemplation. Sif and the Warriors Three seemed incapable of such deep thought, spewing rhetoric even under the influence of Tony's gift, which deepened Thor's reflection. Tony already had federal agents waiting to evacuate the town due to the possibly hazardous spatial anomaly they had detected and contracted Tony to investigate, thus Puente Antigo suffered only property damage. Loki was dealt with through truth telling compulsion that managed to break the brainwashing. Things often worked out in Tony's favor because nobody could lie to him.

Chapter Text

Tony Stark was his current name but he had many, a side effect that comes with living forever, he even lost count of the lifetimes. "As the normal life expectancy has grown, don't be so hard on yourself." He playfully glared at his telepathic boyfriend. "Could you focus on the present, mate?" The joke made him smile, mate was for friends and they hadn't been just friends since Charles became legal. "Y'know, I find it odd that you even care about that. What's the worst that could happen? Kurt kills you? Unlikely."

"I find it odd that Raven let her son be named Kurt and I'm half convinced she named him."

"Raven- you're distracting me."

"Isn't that my job?" Charles had no feeling below his waist, which made his needs unique. He needed a lover who would let him use his power to feel how they felt, otherwise he could not fully enjoy intimacy.

"Focus, Anthony, they're almost here."

"Right," Tony took his seat beside Charles' chair, leaving the ends of the table for Erik and Steve. Scott would likely sit between Raven and Jean on one side, glaring at Erik the entire time and ignoring Logan taking Storm's place on Jean's other side while the Avengers filled up the rest of the table, ending with Bruce beside Tony. He watched without amusement as his prediction came true.

"You're early," observed Natasha, taking her place flanking Steve, "You're never early."

"I was giving the Danger Room an upgrade, the seniors are testing it out right now."

Charles sighed at the excuse "Anthony!"

Tony huffed, "Fine." He looked at Natasha "Do me a favor and shoot me."

"I'm not going to-"

"Fine, be difficult. Charles?" The telepath briefly overtook the assassin and made her fire three shots at the inventor, all headshots. "Thank you for your cooperation." Tony grinned at Charles "And you for the consideration."

Clint broke the stunned silence "What the hell?"

Tony grinned even bigger, asking the room "Who has seen either Torchwood or Doctor Who?" A few hands went up "I'm like Jack Harkness, except not from the future. Charles and I still can't figure out how old I actually am but I definitely predate the mutant race and lack an X-gene so I'm not a mutant, least not that kind."

"You're immortal?" said Bruce.

"Yup."

"But the circuit board when you were four, can you alter your physical age?"

"No, I don't age, period. Okay, that's not strictly true, I've aged a few times but it's a very painful process that enables me to blend in as human lifespans grow. To say the least, I don't recommend it. I don't recommend immortality either but be glad you age the way you do and not all at once after centuries of stagnation." Tony locked eyes with Clint "We can do Q&A later but you will not shoot me, understood."

"Yes sir," the words slipped out, shocking Clint. "How'd you do that?"

"Again, I have been alive for over a thousand years. I have commanded armies, advised kings, lived through more than you can imagine. I suppose you could say I turned a thousand year stare on you or something like that." Glancing at Thor, he said "I've even seen humanity turn away from magic towards science, seen all kinds of evolution," looking between Thor and Sam, he finished with "And subjugation like you wouldn't believe. Now, shall we start this meeting as planned? We can only plead plausible deniability for so long." He turned to Charles, "If you wouldn't mind." The telepath, who already knew Tony's secret, got the meeting on track. They managed a successful conference between the two major mutant factions and the Avengers, Charles validating what Tony said he saw on the other side of the portal, assuring that he was not making it up, so they could prepare. Tony quipped "Attention is the last thing I seek, makes not aging all the more noticeable," when the others' reasons for disputing his claims came to light "And I know war better than any here, it never ends with a single battle. False surrenders are a spy's best friend so Stuttgart doesn't count, nor does the brotherly fight in the forest. The Helicarrier might, if it officially happened and SHIELD didn't try to nuke us, blurring the line on which side they supported."

Bruce couldn't resist asking "Would a nuclear explosion hurt you?"

"Hurt, yes. I'm like Jack Harkness, I feel the pain that comes with death but the usual release from life eludes me. I keep breathing, even with both lungs collapsed. I have been exposed to, succumbed to, and survived many terrible diseases that you have never heard of and most of the infectious diseases that you have. I would survive a nuclear blast the same way, being destroyed by it and living anyway. Shall we focus?"

After the meeting, Magneto and Mystique made their escape, Scott noticed Logan and Storm had switched seats and glared at the former while the latter tried not to laugh, and the Avengers acted like elementary schoolers, shouting questions at Tony. "Please, be respectful to our hosts. Wolverine, I know for a fact, has ultra-sensitive hearing." The calm way Tony spoke was borderline disturbing, like nothing mattered which might be close to the truth, he had lived through so much that things probably lost a lot of meaning. Sam was the first to raise his hand while his teammates debated who would go first. "Mr. Wilson."

"What's the worst part about being immortal?"

"Tough call, it really comes down to the kind of person you are, one man's Hell is another's Heaven. For me, and I suppose eventually most would feel this way, it's the lack of an end. You experience and bear witness to so much awfulness and it never ends. You can do nothing as humanity repeats its mistakes, do nothing as everything you care about is lost, everyone you love dies and you are left unchanged and unable to enact change because every time you tell someone you are immortal, you run the risk of losing them after they overcome their disbelief and that's a good outcome. I have had many near-death experiences brought about by trusting the wrong person, by giving someone my trust in order to gain theirs. The worst part of living forever is the forever part, that includes what I must do to keep my secret. I have been dissected several times, each in a different era which changes how they take me apart and whether they bother to put me back together. Abolition is terrible for that, not to-" He sighed and tried a different tact, "After I'd been dissected, I've had loyal slaves speed up my healing process by returning my internal organs to their proper places. I guess there are some benefits to the emptiness that can easily overtake an immortal. Things that bring others joy have lost their value to me. I distinctly remember, before abolition went into effect, buying slaves as part of blending in then letting them do whatever they wanted as long as my house was maintained. I didn't bother hiring a slave master, didn't bother with cabins. The estate was maintained, I couldn't starve to death if I tried and I didn't need anything. Freaked them out, both the slaves and the other slave owners, especially when I kicked a man out of my house for smacking one of the slaves but I didn't see a point in that abuse, there was no way out for either of us, why make each other miserable? It's how I had such loyal slaves to save me when someone realized my house had a master but no mistress. I did enjoy- well actually that's a bit of a long story. One time after I'd been taken, the man who arranged it bought up a bunch of my slaves but left the property to disarray. This kid got away when the collectors came to seize my assets and managed to make it on his own and find me. He got tough, evading the white men and negro dogs; and when he found me, he killed the guy who was working on me. I was alive enough to talk him through part of putting me back together, he had to figure a lot of it out on his own and probably took a few tries judging by the amount of dead men who were there when I was better. Anyway, getting to the story, I went to the estate of the man who arranged my capture and reclaimed a lot of my living, breathing assets; some had been killed by his harsh treatment. My savior got the house slaves out while I trapped the owner, his family, the slave drivers, their sons; and this guy actually had a few slave masters which was kind of weird if my memory serves and there's no guarantee it does; I trapped them all in the house. Once they were locked in, the slaves on the property turned the building into a pyre and burned it down. We moved back into my estate, taking their weapons with us, and life returned to normal, except people avoided my house like it was haunted because they kinda thought I was possessed or something but no one bothered us. I admit, I enjoyed burning that damn place down but even then, it was a fleeting thing."

"Wow." Sam said "You don't really feel anymore?"

"No, that's- life without end can cause a sense of detachment but I've learned to seek out things to care about for my own sanity." He turned his gaze on Clint, who slipped his weapon under the table like a teenager hiding his phone in class. "Y'know, I learned to shoot a bow when it was the only long-range weapon available, I think. Who else has a question?" They followed Sam's example and raised their hands.

Tony chose Bruce, who asked "Have you ever run tests on your power?"

"No but life has taught me enough. I can't die or be killed, I don't age often, but for the most part, I'm human. I still feel physical pain and emotions, no matter how much I wish I didn't, how much easier it would be if I didn't." He looked around "I've had children, they die like everyone else, it's not genetic. Although, I suppose I might be guilty of accidental incest, seeing as I could definitely be a lot of people's ancestor, I dunno. My power is not dying and rarely aging, how do you test that aside from surviving almost every murder method imaginable and a thousand or so plagues? Hmm?"

"Okay. Are vampires real?"

"I dunno, there's a bit of truth in every lie and what is fiction but an enjoyable, drawn out lie."

"Poetic."

"Next." They actually went around with questions, the X-Men asking a few before the Avengers left. To be honest, Tony figured he felt things but not as deeply as those who live normal lives. With his immortality secret out, he caught flak for cradle robbing Charles but simply pointing out that he was old enough to be anyone's ancestor put an end to those jokes.

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After Chinatown, Tony had to rethink his relationship with Happy and the secrets he kept. He took out his anger and frustration on Killian AKA the Mandarin then he sat at Happy's bedside from the start of visiting hours to the end, spending about half of that time breathing on his lover, hoping to help him heal. Once Happy was discharged, Tony handed him the HR paperwork for workplace relationships, having already filled out his parts and feeling thankful he was no longer Hap's immediate superior. When they got home, Tony transformed. Happy stared up at his red draconic form, mouth open in awe for a few seconds before the man's brain caught up and he smiled "This makes sense."

Tony huffed, changing back "Really?"

"Dragons hoard, right? Plus doctors said I was healing miraculously well, I'm guessing magic."

"Magic breath. Dragon fire is very versatile, it can be used for healing, warmth, destruction, and construction in my case, it's very handy and impossible to artificially recreate, I've tried, so did my father."

"Wow."

"There is one thing that might be a deal breaker but I need to level with you if we're gonna keep this up."

"Okay? Do you mind if we go inside?"

"Oh, right, of course."

After they were sitting down, Happy asked "What did you need to tell me?"

"Well, first off, I have never used any of my power on you aside from the healing breath thing but now that I have, you need to reconsider if you want to keep going with us."

"Tony, why would you breathing on me change our relationship?"

"Because I can't get a partner pregnant without involving my draconic side. It's how dad and I could be playboys without risking illegitimate kids."

"Are you telling me I can get pregnant now?"

"Only with my kids. Even if another dragon uses their magic breath on you, it wouldn't work, least not like that."

"Okay. I need time to think but that doesn't mean I'm breaking up with you. I just, how does that even work? On my end? How does a man give birth? Won't people notice if I get pregnant? I need to understand and think this through."

Tony said "There's a book," he left to get it, "Here, it's enchanted to always appear in the reader's preferred language and not degrade despite being older than this country."

"Okay, give me some time, Tony. I need-"

"Yeah, alright."

Ultimately, Happy was fine as long as Tony did his part to avoid accidental pregnancies with him. When they were ready to have a baby, Tony got a little obsessive, wanting to almost constantly have some kind of physical contact with Happy and stroking his stomach when he started showing. By then, he had perfected cloaking technology rather than try his hand at magic like the book suggested. Happy had nothing to complain about because the dragon's presence also settled his pregnancy hormones, enabling him to function normally. Morgan Stark was born to two daddies, although they used Pepper's year off (in space but the public didn't need to know that) to claim surrogacy. Happy was always happy with Tony and his baby.

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There was a mystery and Nick Fury was determined to solve it, the mystery of the Coffee Man, terrible name but the people who coined it were running on three hours sleep over the course of a week and coffee. What started as a strange, minor urban legend morphed into a global phenomenon when people started posting pictures of their Coffee Man coffee and trying to get pictures of the man himself but he was like bigfoot, except they had more tangible proof of his existence and there weren't people trying to disprove it. As Nick thought over the case, he sipped at a mug of coffee that never seemed to run out. Maybe he too was sleep deprived for how long it took him to realize the Coffee Man was in his office. "Can I help you?"

The Coffee Man wore a thoughtful expression, tapping his chin in mime thought before shrugging, setting a drink carrier on Fury's desk and walking out. Again, Fury was a little too slow to respond but this time, he blamed the Coffee Man. Being the man he was, he- Fury not the Coffee Man- called his top agents into his office after that encounter. Strangely, the drinks in the carrier were all suited to their preferences, which made Fury suspicious (correction: more suspicious). "You really don't see how this might be a problem? This Coffee Man waltzed into my office and our security system didn't even recognize his presence."

Clint asked "Did he give you a bad cup? He never does that but maybe-"

"No."

"So what's the problem? He's just a nice guy."

"Has anyone ever heard him speak?" asked Natasha.

"No, he's the Coffee Man."

"Since when did that become a thing?" asked Maria.

"And who named him the Coffee Man, seems a little on the nose?" asked Coulson before turning away from his fellow agents to face the Director "You can send your coffee to the lab but every time someone else has done that, it just comes back as coffee, whatever kind of coffee it appears as. Nobody knows how he does it but since all he does is give people free coffee, nobody cares. Except you, sir, you care."

Fury sat down "We still have to Index him."

Coulson resisted the urge to roll his eyes, "Sir, the Coffee Man has been on the Index for years, his file's on the verge of becoming a sort of bigfoot spotting app with the way his location keeps being updated to keep up with social media."

Fury quickly checked that, to the amusement of all four agents, "His file's incomplete."

"He's the Coffee Man, he appears when you're in need of a cup of joe and vanishes when his duty is done," Clint began to literally sing the man's praises before Natasha clapped a hand over his mouth.

"There are several songs written about him, Sir. Everyone loves him and as his only power is apparently conjuring coffee, his status is clear. Is it not?"

Fury sighed and agreed before turning suspicious "Is it just me or does everyone get along a lot better when they're drinking his coffee?"

Coulson and Hill laughed out loud, Barton probably would have too but Romanoff's hand was still over his mouth. When they all settled down, Coulson reminded him "Every test imaginable has been run on his coffee and they've all turned up normal coffee."

Hill said "The prevalent theory is that the mythos surrounding the Coffee Man, portraying him as a happy, harmless helper has had a psychological effect on those drinking his coffee, acting as a relaxant but not a depressant. It's all in his Index file."

Clint finally slapped Nat's hand away "He's a mysterious savior, our Coffee Man." Even Romanoff and Fury cracked part of a smile at that.

When Fury got home that night, the Coffee Man was there but after reading his file, Fury agreed with his agents, he wasn't a threat. Shockingly, there was no offer of coffee from the Coffee Man, who just smiled and watched him, kinda creepily. "What are you doing in my home?" Pointing at his mouth, the coffee man shook his head. "You literally can't talk, is that it?" Nod. "Making coffee, that's all you do?" Another nod. Taking a chance, the Coffee Man put his hands on Fury's chest, backing him up against a wall before taking a step back. "You want me?" Nod. Mentally shrugging, Fury gave into the temptation. What could the Coffee Man do to him?

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When Tony was pissed at them, it gave the Avengers nightmares for no apparent reason. When they got in his good books, they never had nightmares. It didn't matter much where Tony was or where the Avengers were, the pattern held even when they were thousands of miles apart. Of all the people to figure it out, it was Ant-Man's daughter, Cassie Lang. She was spending a week at the Compound with her dad (For the Langs, Tony had set aside a suite that had a couple of bedrooms connected through an attached bathroom, which had a tub) and on day three, she walked over to Tony at breakfast and said "Thank you, Mr. Bunny Man."

"What?" asked Clint.

"In my dream, he was a bunny man that chased away the monsters."

"Cassie," began Scott but Tony interrupted to say "You're welcome, Hopper." Natasha dropped her coffee when Cassie's face lit up, confirming Tony had somehow entered her dreams. The revelation caused several pieces to fall into place in the spy's mind, which added up to Tony actually giving them nightmares when he was mad.

Bruce asked "How does your power work? It is a power, right?"

"Ever since I was a kid, I could always escape my own dreams by entering other people's, where I had more control but it's not like I have full control." He smiled at Cassie "I appeared as a bunny because that's what you wanted me to be, you had bunnies on the brain, Hopper." Cassie giggled, totally oblivious to the tension filling the room and even more oblivious to the implications of Tony controlling dreams.

Scott, who had always been nice while making it clear his employer/mentor/predecessor hated Tony's guts, simply moved to dish out breakfast for himself and his daughter, ignoring the tension and implications as they had nothing to do with him. Bruce had been grateful but suspicious when he had first realized he never had nightmares since moving in with the Avengers, a revelation that came about due to his fellow Avengers comparing notes on their own nightmares after ticking Tony off- they realized they had more nightmares when the inventor was upset with them but never fully made the connection. Sam, like Scott, had never been nearly as disrespectful towards Tony as most of the original Avengers often had and his sleep was usually blissfully dreamless as a result- he didn't trust good dream after his trauma. Sam was the first one to say "Thanks man, for warding off the boogeyman."

Apparently the good side of Stark's power hadn't occurred to the others, almost all of whom were lightly glaring at him. Clint asked "Do you always remember the dreams you enter?"

"Um, yes and no. Not always, no but it's more like your dream hijacks my sleep than like I enter your mind. I remember the dreams pretty well but it's like it would be if they were my dreams. Give me a date and I can't give you a dream anymore than you could if I gave you a date to focus on."

"Ok, cool. And the nightmares?"

"My power depends on me being asleep, I have only slightly more control than you do. I guess, since I'm not actively steering you away from the monsters, you probably do have more nightmares, like your mind's making up for lost time."

"Oh," that calmed the others.

"Well, as much fun as this is, I gotta go." Ten minutes after he left, Sam pointed out to his gossiping team that Tony probably never told anyone about his power before and it was probably very awkward for him, effectively ending the discussion. Things were pretty chill after that, although sometimes Avengers would specifically ask Tony to watch over them at night following a particularly tough day.

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Tony was really tired of the man in red attacking him "You know I'm fucking blind, right?"

"What? You're Tony Stark."

"Oh, so you're blind too, cool. Why were you attacking me?"

"I thought you were with the Hand."

Tony sighed "I was going to make a deal with them, can we talk somewhere less open?" Daredevil nodded and parkoured his way to the roof while Tony lazily used his rocket boots to achieve the same thing, they were quiet enough that most people couldn't hear them. "I was going to see how they do the coming back from the dead thing so I can resurrect a friend but that's a pretty big secret so I figure I'm gonna have to work for it. Taking you in might help," he made the mild threat like it was nothing then realized what he'd done "But the only people they really resurrect are the bosses. It'll be too late before I can get in deep enough."

"Is your friend dead yet?"

"Uh, life support so yeah."

"That's actually a no, I got a better way to solve your problem. Follow me, without the rockets."

"Yes because acrobatics are much less noticeable than silent rocket boots." Tony complied anyway and Daredevil led him to the Iron Fist, who made a half-hearted attempt at disguising his voice "Dude, you were committed to an asylum for calling yourself the Iron Fist, everyone knows who you are."

"Right. What do you need?"

"DD thinks you can help me save a fellow Avenger, Quicksilver. He just barely survived long enough to be put on life support and doctors are not hopeful. I was considering stealing the Hand's resurrection ritual but if you can heal him then that's better."

"Are you blind?"

"Yes."

"How does no one-"

"I'm like DD. Dear old dad didn't appreciate having a weakling for a son so he hired Stick to train the weakness out of me. People think I wear dark tinted glasses to be eccentric but I've been taught from a young age not to let people see my eyes, see the perceived weakness. I even close my eyes whenever they're not covered, which is how nobody's ran to the tabloids to report it."

"Were you born-"

"Dunno, it's possible. It's also possible I was blinded when dad was experimenting with the Tesseract in front of toddler me. I can't exactly seek out a medical opinion after everything that's been done to keep this from coming out. Can you heal people or not?"

"I can but I can't promise it'll work if he's that close to death."

"Alright, Rand, I'll authorize you to come to the Tower tomorrow. Does 3 work for you?"

"Sure."

After that, the two blind men left the Iron Fist to his triads. They wound up sitting on a roof in Hell's Kitchen sharing a six pack and bitching about Stick. Matt was grateful that nobody tried to train the blindness out of him, especially when he heard how Howard treated Tony for small mistakes, if it resulted from his blindness then Howard treated it like a more serious crime. Tony admitted to wanting to kill his father many times while under Stick's tutelage and Matt was surprised to hear Stick talked him down until Tony recalled a remark about needing money to fight a war.

Danny kept his appointment, barely, and healed Quicksilver, remarking to Tony "That was a lot easier than I thought it'd be, seems he's got some special healing power of his own."

"Makes sense with the enhanced metabolism and whatnot. He should wake up on his own now, yeah?"

"Yes."

Donning a suit based on Daredevil's old black look, Tony became his partner Blindspot. It was inevitable they'd cross the line into more than friends, getting their public personas to do the same was the tricky part but Tony managed it by putting Nelson and Murdock on retainer for the Avengers' legal team (not SI's).

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Things got weird on the Helicarrier. One minute everyone in the lab is yelling and arguing, the next they're singing and dancing, even as the damn ship goes down. Even Bruce Banner and Nick Fury were affected, a lot of junior agents started recording the production for later use until the ship started going down then they scrambled to try to keep Icarus afloat. The singing quickly became annoying when the Avengers (and Fury) were unable to escape their trance until they finished. Luckily Coulson and Hill were absent from the lab and thus able to cover for the Director, although Maria couldn't hold in all of her laughter when she discovered how Director Fury was indisposed. And for Tony, it was sheer freaking luck that everyone blamed Loki. The way his Arc Reactor cancelled out the scepter explained away his immunity to the very strange effect it had on the others.

Nobody could for the life of themselves figure out why Loki would boobytrap the scepter to make the people around it perform a Broadway worthy musical, Thor wrote it off as his brother's love of mischief, hope filling his eyes as he realized just how much worse Loki could have made the trap. Later, after the battle but before the send off, Tony showed Clint a montage of cell phone footage from the Avengers Musical to cheer him up. The man actually choked on his shawarma laughing so hard but at least he wasn't brooding anymore. The first thing Fury did after the Battle of New York was re-instill the fear of God into his agents, the second was drink himself into a stupor trying to remember what he had seen himself doing on video and cursing alien princes. The Avengers split, more out of mutual embarrassment than shame or mistrust, and Tony accidentally outed himself when he told JARVIS about his latest power use, failing to notice Bruce standing in the doorway as he argued with his AI. Bruce found it funny that stress caused the people around Tony to put on impromptu musicals but then he found out any emotion could trigger it and saw how everyone bursting into song when you let yourself feel anything but calm could be annoying.

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After they got the Helicarrier up and running, Tony raced to the cell Loki had been kept in, nearly falling through the hole left by its drop- which would have been a relatively short fall as the ship had closed up after dumping the cell- and turning around to shove past medical personnel. He touched Coulson's neck and the man awoke with a gasp then Stark ran away before they could question him "Coulson's back, don't ask, just be glad."

"How?" asked Romanoff, whose partner was tied to a chair beside her at the conference table

"Didn't I just say don't ask?"

"You did," answered a voice from the doorway "I'll admit I'm curious but just this once, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth."

Fury looked shock and glanced at Tony before turning to Coulson "I told you you weren't gonna clock out on me."

Later, after the invasion and subsequent shawarma, the three of them- Fury, Coulson and Stark- discussed the terms of the agent's resurrection. "So you can resurrect the dead with a touch but a second touch undoes it?"

"Yeah, I should've looked up what was in shawarma before suggesting it."

"What?"

"I didn't know shawarma was meat based, I don't eat much meat because, well, I'm sure you can guess." That disgusting implication hadn't occurred to either spy.

Fury said "So there isn't a limit to how long someone or something can be dead before you resurrect them?"

"Not really but before you get too excited, gloves do a pretty good job blocking my powers and I chose to be an engineer not a miracle worker, I'm sticking with that choice."

"Alright."

Sokovia was a mess and Tony found himself rushing to the Helicarrier after Barton loaded the speedster. Carrying Pietro inside to a nice, isolated room- an office- Tony pressed the back of his hand to the young man's chin and watched the life return to his eyes. Then, before the Sokovian could get his bearings, Tony left. There was video of the miracle, of course, and Coulson decided to show it to the Maximoffs, of course, to get them to stop cursing him- although in Wanda's case, those curses might have been more than words- before signing off on their temporary visas as the Avengers' overseer. Steve smiled at the twins after they apologized for all they had done to the team, "Like I said, you get killed, walk it off." The fact that all Tony had to do was shoot them, heal them and shake their hand to kill him made the spy twins (Barton and Romanoff) overtly cautious around Stark, keeping secrets that could cause him to blow up on them was a no-go. This had the added effect of enabling them to bring Barnes in practically on the first try post-Data Dump. The Avengers were shaping up to be a great team.

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Tony knew what he was about to do was dangerous but he couldn't do nothing and it wasn't like he was going through, Vision was, the android had access to JARVIS's memory of his creator's powers and suggested he open a small controlled portal like the one over New York for a scouting mission. Tony had confirmed Vision was completely autonomous, he wouldn't shut down due to being out of range of the Tower. It was just a quick trip, they didn't know what the enemy wanted and they couldn't risk them reclaiming the stone from the scepter. Tony took deep breaths and focused, Vision went through and just looked around before popping back. As soon as the portal closed, Vision uploaded the data from his brief journey into outer space to the Tower's servers. They spent months going through them, FRIDAY skimming the old SHIELDRA Index files and interrupting to suggest possible allies/report serious human rights violations.

After pulling out, Tony stopped funding the Avengers and left them with only a trust, he signed away the Compound and its assets to the Avengers' entity with Hill at its head to keep their spending under control because he knew how wasteful they could be. Rogers repeatedly tried to force a meeting between Tony and himself but Tony wasn't having it. His talks with Vision and FRIDAY (both almost purely logical beings) made him realize how toxic his relationship with the Avengers (Rogers especially) had been. They also managed to track down Bruce, although recreating a portal was a new trick for Tony and bring him back to Earth. The Grandmaster identifying the stone in Vision's forehead as an Infinity Stone and trying to have Vision seized so he could be equal to his brother the Collector led to Tony opening a portal under the Grandmaster to send him to his doppelganger- he was learning all sorts of new tricks- assuming that would be his brother then opened a portal under the Hulk to Mars, thankful he'd had the foresight to wear his experimental space suit, to let the big guy blow off some steam from the rough journey before reverting to Banner. His last portal took them home.

Tony had a meeting in Greenwich Village, ironically, the next day. It was ironic because the people he was meeting with used portals and were aware of his, which apparently defied their understanding of how portals work. Being able to make people jump from planet to planet and never stop until they were dizzy enough to collapse proved to be the universe's saving grace. With Thanos having trouble telling up from down, it was easy for his collective enemies- gathered by the Masters of Kamar-Taj as Tony insisted on calling them because he did not believe in magic even after everything he had seen- to destroy him. Using the Gauntlet and taking advantage of his half-celestial status, Peter Quill snapped Thanos' forces out of existence and declared it party time.

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Tony could build something in his sleep then spend weeks trying to figure out what he made, it was a thing with him. He invented some of the greatest innovations of the modern world this way, made his first circuit board this way. It wasn't a problem, except it sort of was because he'd also made Weapons of Mass Destruction this way and his dreams weren't affected so he usually had no clue what he was looking at when he woke up to find the complete work sitting there. During his MIT days, Rhodey had a habit of pinning him to the bed when he started to sleep walk to avoid their dorm getting blown up or needing to be ventilated because sleepy Tony made something toxic. Half of the original Iron Man armor was built in Tony's sleep. When he said, "I could make that in my sleep", most of the time he was being literally. He was less likely to sleep invent when sleeping with someone else, which is the reason he slept around.

The Avengers were clueless about his affliction until they got captured and their captors, judging Tony as the greatest threat, kept him sedated. Bruce was similarly drugged but his shots seemed to be an IV version of laughing gas as he was reduced to a drunken state that kept the situation from fully sinking in. When Tony stood up from his place slumped over asleep, the guards were immediately on high alert as he began to tinker. They yelled at him to stop before noticing his eyes were still closed and calling for back up because tranqing him again might not work if he wasn't awake. Tony was unaware of all of this, only coming to on the jet ride home to the sounds of Clint yammering about how awesome it was to see the bad guys running scared from a sleepwalker. "What happened?" The revelation that he was unaware of his awesome actions sent the ship into silence.

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Cats loved Tony Stark, it was weird, the eccentric billionaire collecting strays was slightly less weird until those strays turned into wayward superheroes who decide to take a divide and conquer approach to feline care. Who needs dogs? There was a litter box and cat tree (of varying shape and condition) in almost every room within a month of the big move in. The weirdness returned with a vengeance when the Avengers discovered the cats racked in a collective paycheck. "What do cats need money for?" asked Sam Wilson, while petting one of said cats.

"Oh, the cats," Tony came into the room, a cat perched on either shoulder and several more running around his feet. "We don't pay for an exterminator and the cats are smarter than you might think, Happy has a few security guards who work with the cats since we don't have guard dogs and they've found all sorts of stuff, bombs, poison, toxic lab environments, even prevented those toxic lab accidents from sparking explosions. All sorts of stuff and the money SI pays the cats pays for their food and stuff."

"Oh, so that's how you budget," concluded Sam, who joined after SHIELD fell.

"Basically, yeah."

When the cats kept Ultron from escaping, Tony's remark about them working with security in place of guard dogs rang through some of his fellow Avengers' ears.

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When Tony saw the video, his world came crashing down. Without thinking about the implications for once, he had his gauntlets retract and grabbed the shield then he grabbed Barnes' arm, ignoring the man's screams as he broke into the chamber Zemo was in and said with a sadistic smile "Why don't you go join your family?" before grabbing the man's head. Everything he touched was instantly destroyed, it took a lot of effort for him to suppress that and he was done suppressing it, time for the world to see him for the monster he was, they always insisted he was a villain anyway. His gauntlets slid back over his hands and he found the video tape, "Rogers, Barnes, either come with me or join him." They followed him out and aboard the jet, doing everything he told them to out of fear as he took them to the Raft. Hijacking Zemo's upload of his parents' murders, he flooded the internet with video of his talk with Ross and video of a previous talk with King T'Chaka where they spoke hypothetically about accountability for superheroes, which would become the basis for the Accords. He was back at the Tower when he called Wakanda "Hello."

"Hello, Dr. Stark."

Queen Ramonda appeared shaken, must have heard about the bunker from her not-so-stealthy son. Tony bowed his head, "Queen Ramonda, I would like to apologize for spilling the beans about your husband's private chat with me but I felt it necessary to keep the Accords from being derailed. I plan on making public more of Thaddeus Ross's crimes, allowing him to execute the Accords is an insult to your husband's legacy, that's what I was going for with the videos. Is there any chance you and I could conduct a small press conference to educate people on the Accords and the intention behind them?"

Queen Ramonda smiled at him "You had me worried. Of course, that would be my pleasure. Do you have more video of my husband?"

"I could hack in and get security footage. I'll admit, King T'Chaka probably didn't know he was being recorded and we were only speaking hypothetically. I'd also like to inform you, since Wakanda may still hold great sway in these matters, that your husband was most likely the only Enhanced involved in the Accords drafting." Tony raised his hand to stave off questions, "I assume that T'Challa's titles are all inherited, including that of the Black Panther that went on rampage through Bucharest and some of the text your husband contributed, about protections for religious rites, seemed a bit too well informed for Wakanda to not have its own Enhanced."

"I see. I would appreciate the video, I believe my son could benefit from seeing his father employ diplomacy."

"I actually predicted that would be one of the challenges in coming out of isolation, I will send you all of the video I currently posses but video from outside sources may take a few days, up to two weeks depending on what other matters need to be addressed. Shall we shoot for a month from now for the conference?"

"That should work."

"Thank you again, for agreeing to this on such short notice."

"As I am sure you can guess, the Accords were supposed to be our grand entrance onto the world stage."

"And they were, just not as intended. I could have my PR people send you some tips for handling the press, diplomacy and publicity are very similar beasts. I expect to become quite busy with Ross but after the dust settles, I might be able to help with your son's training in foreign matters. First, let me recommend you begin vetting potential ambassadors. The presidency and ambassadorships are different jobs here in America."

"Sound advice. I have to let you go, Dr. Stark."

"We're friends, or I hope we will be, call me Tony and one last thing." She obviously didn't like it but she paused in ending the call "Your son should have been able to retrieve Captain Rogers' shield. I'd like the Titanium back, as SI property. Keep the Vibranium as a gift or peace offering or some such but if you could separate the alloy, I would appreciate a replica of the shield to use for evidence in the trial to come. Plus, you don't want America deciding you're the enemy for keeping Captain America's weapon. The Vibranium is too dangerous, I can't risk Rogers breaking out and reclaiming it and I don't want to see what any foreign governments might do with it."

"I will advise my son accordingly but first tell me, how did you know he was here?"

"Oh, I almost forgot. Is this connection secure on your end?"

"Of course."

Tony sent a file through the link, "Your husband and I briefly discussed Vibranium due to the shield and I made something to track Vibranium, it might need to be adjusted for the Titanium since I based it on the shield but that should help you track down any stolen ore. Sokovia, ironically, made it a priority. I have to request that, on behalf of Vision, you don't repossess all of it. Ultron used Klaue's stolen Vibranium to make Vision but Vision is sentient, you'd have to kill him to repossess the Vibranium."

"With the shield and the tracker, I think we will be even."

"Thank you. You said you have to go, apologies for keeping you." His next call was to Betty Ross, he couldn't think about Rhodey, not right then, not when he was still working on leashing his power. "Hello Dr. Ross."

"Dr. Stark."

"Can I assume you've seen the video?"

"And guessed what your goals were, yes. You need my help to take my father down?"

"He's Secretary of State so yeah."

"I need a safe place to hide out from him after that stunt."

"You can have Bruce's place and his lab. I have reason to believe that in running away, he got swept up in a wormhole and I haven't seen Thor to request an alien search party but I have to hope he's okay." Tony shook himself, glad this call was not a video call. "Sorry, just go to your nearest SI building, security will arrange transport here. Does that work?"

"It's better than I could hope for."

"I'll talk to the head of legal, odds are you'll need a lawyer for this."

"Of course. I'll see you when I get there."

"See you then." He went down the list, preparing to put an end to all the shit he's been dealing with for years, that his friends have been dealing with. There was more than one way to destroy and despite popular belief, Tony could be subtle when he wanted to.

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Tony liked water. After Afghanistan and the waterboarding, he was a little freaked. Apparently he only transformed when submerged, something his mother failed to mention when she explained siren plus human sometimes equals mermaid or merman. Liking water was in his nature and if he can endure an endless supply of fish jokes (endless because they repeat) from the few friends he lets see him transform then he can handle being dunked. Maybe it wasn't the partial submersion, maybe it was the desert heat drying him off so fast. Either way, Afghanistan was not going to stop this merman from enjoying his element.

Tony was pretty sure Rhodey was something not human but that was about all he could tell, the man was definitely immersed in the normal mortal culture. Most non-humans are rather long lived compared to humans, Tony was tempted to use the old term mortal but sometimes the difference was a decade before Alzheimer's kicked in or slower degeneration of the mind and body, not exactly immortality. Plus, half-human, he preferred not to tempt fate with the possible D word. Focusing, Tony knew his best friend was not human but he was not positive what Rhodey was that was not human. He could be an elf, some kind of magic-based creature like that or a werewolf, a supernatural being.

From a young age, with their vacations to coastal destinations, Tony had learned that sometimes people from two species tried to have kids but their blood didn't mix well. When he was little, this was used to explain how he was a miracle. Sirens didn't have the connection to humanity that werewolves and the like did, they could seduce mortals and be as promiscuous as they wanted because they were thought to be incompatible with non-aquatic life forms (anyone who wasn't a merman/maid, Atlanteans, fellow sirens, or the like). Howard was not a fan of water, probably associated water with ice and relived his failure with Rogers. Anyway, depending on what Rhodey was, he may be able to bear children or them getting together could destroy the both of them and/or the world. That was the reason Tony kept his distance, keeping them just friends.

Post-Afghanistan, Rhodey told Tony not to trust Obie, his eyes were blazing, further confusing Tony as to his species. Listening to his best friend and crush, Tony took it a step further and had JARVIS investigate the man, letting the authorities deal with his backstabbing business partner. He went to some woods that his mother had once told him were magic with Happy, who was a very small part pixie/fairy (the man himself wasn't sure) and a very big part werewolf (can't get more loyal than that). Tony pulled the vial of shrapnel that he had in his pocket when he suited up out and offered it. Offerings had to be personal and relevant objects were even preferred or so Tony had been taught, he could still hear Yinsen's voice calling the bits of metal a souvenir. The local magic sect (Tony had never learned how to differentiate pixies and fairies either) drew him to their lake (to his mother's endless disappointment, he couldn't differentiate types of water either- beyond salted and unsalted). Tony followed their guidance, even though being submerged with the Arc Reactor was kind of terrifying. When the little magic tricksters vanished, he came up to find his chest healed and whole. He even felt rejuvenated, a bit lighter and healthier than he had before Afghanistan.

And he had a soulmark, great, it looked like some kind of animal thing with a bird silhouette rising from it. Oh, Tony knew this one, phoenix. And the Phoenix reincarnates, which makes its hosts seem strange. Rhodey. Tony pulled himself out of the water and waited unhappily to dry off before racing home to call Rhodey over. "You're the Phoenix."

"Yes, Tones, I-" Tony showed him his arm, the new soulmark and Rhodey checked himself for one, finding a merman with a faded explosion in the background to fill the gap left by the Phoenix and make them even. "Oh, Tones."

"I had to get the Reactor out of my chest, changing the cores was dangerous."

"And you went the offering route, getting a soulmark in the deal."

"Yeah."

Chapter Text

There was a man who had a standing arrangement with all of the major tech companies. They laid out their current models for him and he touched each. If they were top of the line, they remained unchanged but if they were in anyway antiquated, they became top of the line. Many saw this as a sales' gimmick and sought him out to debunk him. The video of him looking at a truther's phone with disgust and snatching it away, upgrading it before a whole crowd of doubters, had gone viral. Stark tech tended to win out when the tech companies got together to see who was the best.

Unbeknownst to the world, Howard and Maria Stark actually had twins: Anthony Edward and Morgan Chester. The secrecy surrounding the latter was accidental, Tony was just more out there. They were both gifted, Tony's gift lie in bringing drawings to life while Morgan could upgrade tech with a touch. Howard valued both gifts and both children equally but decided Tony was better suited to running SI and leading them into the future. Morgan was fine with that, not liking to talk much and enjoying the quiet life. He dumpster dove for old tech and carefully picked them apart, experimenting with his gift to try to downplay it as repairing tech, a good way to stay out of the spotlight. When he had to do demos, he went by Arnold Morgan. He actually used the proceeds to pay for a repair shop where he taught trade skills to impoverished kids. Guns were covered by his most advanced apprentices and most never used the lessons.

When Afghanistan happened, as Tony would recall the events, Morgan went into SI's New York office, dressed in his nicest suit with his birth certificate in a briefcase and the newspaper clipping from the media covering his birth. As expected, these documents were authenticated several times before he was left alone in an office to await someone with seniority. Security could see him anyway, they were just being subtle. Obie was expected and not in the good way.

Morgan was glad his parents had decided that they would each pick a set of godparents for the twins. Tony got Howard's picks and Obie pretended his golden goose was an only child. Peggy had the exact opposite reaction, attempting many times to sow the seeds of distrust in her pseudo-nephew not-godson by bringing attention to Howard's favoritism. She wanted one twin even if she couldn't get the one she thought was hers, Morgan would do as a stand in for Tony. On one memorable occasion, the usually more polite twin asked "Are you drunk?" when she started rambling her usual Howard doesn't value you but I do rhetoric. Maria's chosen godparents were much better and Morgan was thankful that those two were his godparents. Jack was a bit of a tough guy but he did not try to change Morgan and he listened when Morgan told him what Peggy was doing, he even tried to talk to Morgan's parents about keeping Peg away from his godson but his father brushed his friend off just as he brushed his son off. Morgan wondered, on several occasions if Peg was like him and Tony, if she had a superpower.

Obie showed up with investors and predictably took advantage of Morgan's quiet nature. Within a week, they were holding a press conference to reassure people that SI was in good, Stark hands. Morgan went off script "I'd like to start by telling a story about my father. When I was little, as you all know, Tony built a circuit board at age four and our father couldn't wait to show off his genius son. Dad couldn't connect with people; he worried my entire life, which is also Tony's entire life, that we inherited that from him and he was right to worry, we did. At age four, Tony did an amazing thing and dad had a way to connect his son to the rest of the world, showing him off. Mom had to arrange play-dates between dad and his kids because he was clueless when it came to people. Tony wanted to be like him, he idolized dad and dad did what he could to connect to him, building an engine to put father-son time in terms he could understand. With me, things were not so simple. Dad connected to me just fine but the issue was, he tried to put fatherhood in terms he understood and that often made him feel like he wasn't connecting with me on the level he connected with Tony. I'm sure parents with multiple kids around the world deal with that but the thing is, dad chose to build an engine not a bomb all those years ago to bring his prodigious son into his world. In the spirit of that, I would like to announce that SI will be cutting back on weapons, just until we finish out our current contracts and that we will transfer all employees in the weapons division to new or existing divisions. Stark Industries is going to market to a wider audience as a general tech not weapons tech company. We'll rival Google not Hammer. Dear old dad had a list of regrets and most of them were things not people that he brought into the world. Rebirth was, for a long time, viewed as his greatest accomplishment. By the time I hit double digits, that misunderstanding was cleared up but I can still remember him telling Tony all about the vita-ray chamber while they were working on that engine. The Arc Reactor, the world's first superhero, two gifted sons, these are the things my father took the most pride in, creation not destruction. Nobody need lose their jobs over this, I've got a plan and I am a Stark, genius is in the genes." Morgan had called, Riri, one of his former apprentices, gave her a rundown and asked her to take over the shop/trade school while his brother was MIA. Now, he smiled brightly for the cameras and the press was eating out of his hand. Behind closed doors, Morgan turned Obie over to authorities along with his concerned investors, "Jarvis, Edwin Jarvis that is learned from my godfather the dangers of trusting Tony's godmother. Pity he was too kind to paint both of Tony's godparents with the same brush, might have saved my brother's life." Morgan turned over the records of Obie's dirty dealings with an urgency placed on the most recent ones in Afghanistan. He didn't look at any of the records, trusting his brother's AI which his bodyguard, Happy Hogan, had brought to New York via a small drive that connected the New York office with JARVIS' servers.

In almost no time, Rhodey had a strong lead on his best friend. Morgan sent a legitimate representative of SI with their most cutting edge search and rescue tech. The intel gathered by the prototype drone was greater and more accurate than most of the intel they regularly dealt with. Tony and Yinsen were both successfully extracted. They flew to New York because Tony wanted to see his badass brother and Rhodey was fearfully curious about two Tonys "Hey bro, have a seat." Tony sat down "Meet Riri Williams," he gestured to the young woman flanking him who laid down some schematics. "Now that you're back," Morgan handed his brother a folder "You can finish what dad always dreamed of and transition SI from weapons to tech. I think Riri could be very helpful in that endeavor, which is why I wanted to introduce you two. The plan for the transition and her resume are in there with talking points for both, I kept it simple." Morgan stood "Now give me a hug, I got responsibilities of my own, I can't keep dealing with yours." The Stark twins hugged and Riri stole Morgan's seat, reversing the usual interview arrangement with the applicant in the big chair.

Chapter Text

Tony faced Thanos without fear, he actually sought out the Mad Titan with the help of an old friend: Carol Danvers. Tony looked at the man who tortured Loki and terrorized the galaxy, he saw all Thanos of Titan was and he was not impressed. Looking at the tyrant with an impassive expression, Tony thought Showtime. In a burst of cosmic flames, creating the infamous visage of the Phoenix around Tony Stark, Thanos was no more. The Phoenix remained in control as Tony culled his enemy's forces with the help of Captain Marvel. Afterwards, they took Nebula prisoner aboard Carol's ship since the cyborg had a chance of overcoming her past, as her sister Gamora had, according to the Phoenix. Carol asked "You good?"

The Phoenix had just relinquished control, "Yeah." Tony got along with his immortal other half and they both recognized he was better suited to handle some things while the Phoenix was better suited for other things. They dropped Nebula off with the Nova, Captain Marvel handling the exchange and delivering the intel the Phoenix had recovered while Tony forwarded the latter to everyone on Carol's contact list, declaring open season on the tyrant's empire. When Carol returned, Tony asked "We done for the day?"

"Yes, I think we are. Let's get out of here." They flew to empty space away from inhabited worlds where nobody would bother them, AKA their usual haunts. Tony Stark and Carol Danvers, the Phoenix and Captain Marvel, a match made in heaven.

Chapter Text

• Never lose anything- objects don't roll away when he sets them down
• Tentacles
• Blue Beetle Scarab 
• Flight (like Superman), uses suit for cover
• Captain Marvel (Carol) powers
• Poison Ivy powers
• Use music/song to do whatever (like in LoTR)
• Quake powers
• Foresight
• Magic Tony
• Soup version of Coffee Man
• Matter manipulation/Alchemy
• Matchmaking - can foresee how well a relationship is going to work
• Mending- able to repair any object to a fixed state when broken as if it never happened
• Berserker- tick people off for strength
• Necromancy extending to the manipulation of bones
• The more he’s hurt, the faster he heals and the stronger he gets
• Body made of gems
• God of Technology. Gods are born out of Faith and Belief.
• Rat equivalent to Squirrel Girl power
• Tony is Jack Skellington: the Pumpkin King
• Amnesia Induction
• Tony is Naga: half snake, half man with the ability to go full snake or full man
• Fourth wall breaking, like Deadpool
• Any scary story Tony tells will scare you, no matter how ridiculous
• Garden Gnomes: upset Tony and they will legit stalk you
• Spider-Man powers
• Tony has a prehensile tail nobody sees even when they look right at it
• Living video game character - can up stats
• Living cartoon character (can transform for a joke)
• Visual/auditory illusions
• Attracts shiny objects
• Talks to horses and aquatic animals (like Percy Jackson)
• Conjure comfort food/perfect baking
• Always perfect spices even though he's a terrible cook
• Egyptian god (see comments below for details)
• Power Mimicry
• Sandman powers
• Phasing, he built JARVIS to remind him to use doors more than anything else.
• Shadowhunter
• Katekyo Hitman Reborn
• Siren Tony - puts people in a trance, default shows what they truly desire (Steve with Bucky)
• Alternatively, Tony is a Siren, if he so much as hums a few bars he can put anyone who hears him under his spell.
• Food magic - any food he makes has a random effect placed on it what it is no one knows could make the food shine could bring it alive or it could even poison the one eating or make them strong what it is you won't know till you take a bite if it affects the body (whether they gain control is entirely up to you)
• Magic craft - Any item made is enchanted with an effect whether its random is up to you or you can have them give specific enchants with strength depending on the quality of it
• Able to dumb down sound or damage making it practically nothing or other various forms of the word dumb can be used (see chapter 51 for a better summary)
• Fragility- able to make things weaker with just a touch to the point of just a touch being able to break it can affect anything including people can have the side effect of the user being fragile themselves
• Deal making- able to form a deal with anyone they shake hands with that both are bound to follow if one does not hold up their end of the deal their strength/energy/knowledge/skills/power is siphoned to the other (can work both ways) those in a contract under this power have a mark to prove its existence
• Any clock Tony passes instantly gets reset to the same time he has on his watch, which is really annoying for others when he passes over time zones and forgets to change to the proper hour
• Tony's baking skills can turn villains good and good guys into criminals if only so they can get another slice of his fresh baked pie
• Accidental AI programming: accidentally installs an AI into any tech he’s given to repair that he didn’t build
• In Afghanistan Tony's abilities awaken and he becomes a literal Iron Man. There is no armor, just him and all the upgrades he can give himself.
• Tony died in his escape from the Ten-Rings but the Arc Reactor had an unexpected side-effect and made him a Zombie, the trek through the desert dried him out/mummified him so he never even began to rot. He lives so long as he keeps the Reactor, and anyone he bites becomes a subservient Zombie. Making Tony the Queen Bee of his very own Zombie Hive.
• Tony always throws the best parties. If he's even tertiarily involved in the planning of any sort of party- from High Society Soirèes to casual get-togethers to full on raves- if Tony has any influence in it at all it will be the stuff of legends.
• Candy Man, he always has some candy in his pockets and it is always the exact type/piece/brand/flavor you were just craving but didn't really realize you wanted.
• Tony can turn himself into code and enter any computer. After a bit of an accident when he didn't use the proper firewalls JARVIS was born, Tony could never look at his old desktop the same way again.
• Any toy that Tony owns for more than a day comes to life like in Toy Story, but Tony tells them to only talk/interact with him after the tortures Howard put many of them through trying to figure out how they work.
  Tony's Captain America action figures- those that survived Howard, though Tony repaired all the toys he could save as best as a child genius could- are so NOT IMPRESSED with Steve Rogers and are quick to tell Tony to steer clear of the disgrace to the uniform.
  The Black Widow action figure tells him to do the same with Natasha, they know exactly how unreliable her loyalty is.
  The Iron Man figures help him out in the lab, when they're not hanging out with the Hulk figure.
• Tony's sock seams are always straight and he can always bless people he likes with the same thing and for people he doesn't like he can make their sock seams crooked.
• Tony is the personification of "comes out smelling like a rose" as no matter what happens he always smells nice. Working in the workshop for hours and still smells like he just got out of the shower. The whole time with the Ten Rings? Still smelled nice. Fall into a manure pile? Fresh as a daisy!
• Always knows the right comfort food to make at any given time for other people. And has everything needed to make the dish no matter where he is. Though this does not work when it is Tony who needs the comfort food.
• 'Sinbad Siren' basically Tony's body can turn into and move like water. Only in water form does singing lore in men and only men (extra points if this tony is a strait man or ace)
• Jack Jack - basically Tony is Jack Jack from the Incredibles, it can have his family dealing with it when he's young. demon tony bonding with hulk. oh and none of this is a secret tony once turned to metal in Howards arms whilst in public, tony doesn't flaunt his powers to the press however but he does do it to freak his friends out (which is why dumm-e is obsessed with the fire extinguisher tony burst into flames to freak Rhodey out)
• Cheshire cat- tony has ears and tail and can teleport with a smile, remove his head, all the weird things the Cheshire cat does in the Alice in wonderland cartoon. (extra points for it to be somehow t'challa/tony)
• Cardcaptor- Tony is basically cardcaptor Sakura
• Modern Witcher
• super saiyan- good luck everybody else. lol
• Ninja- Tony is a ninja from "Naruto", give him all the random ninja abilities your heart desires. Tony walking up walls with Peter could be interesting.
  subgroups for ninja that might be fun to explore
  -medical ninja- with the super strength and the healing
  -hunter ninja- the world of Naruto is hidden form the modern world tony's job is to hunt down all those who escape and might reveal the ninja worlds secrets.
  -born from Orochimaru and Howard's team up experiment
  -Part of root- what happened to barns a bit too close to home
  -jinjuriki- again good luck everybody else
  -part of any of the clans- cool powers and a support system behind him
• Magical girl- whether a howl new one or a sailor moon charter or others is up to you but male tony has to be being absolutely cool with skirts and frills and insults other men's fragile masculinity if they comment negatively on it
• Amount manipulation. Neverending coffee as long as you don't finish the mug, reducing the trash any time you don't want to take it out, increasing available space, materials or power, reducing the enemy's brain to quickly kill them or increasing the amount of salt in their blood to do it slower.
• Wikisight/wikisenses. When you encounter something or someone, you have like a HUD with information about the target in a Wikipedia page format or, mostly could be used for substances, exact ingredients, their amount, how it's created, how to create something with it etc. Useful for blackmail and detecting lies and poisons.
• Never getting drunk from alcohol - getting drunk from tea. Or pears. Or some other unexpected food.
• Always knowing your exact geographical location.
• Unmatched ability to match shades (like in fashion design). That could lead to finding out that Loki was mind-controlled because why would he wear so much green when he could match his beautiful blue eyes instead?
• Magical spells from fiction work for you - but only if you don't believe that they will (or if you do, but that wouldn't be as funny)..
• Anodite- a energy being from ben 10 I think it would look cool if he's arc reactor blue

Chapter Text

Tony Stark and Remy LeBeau were the perfect partners in crime, both charming ladies men and master poker players. Both were morally grey, Tony seeing no problem with taking a stroll through any and all nearby casinos to gather up their luck before a job and Remy, well, Gambit ain't no hero and dat's da truth if Gambit does say so himself (and he does). Tony sometimes shared his luck, usually when he passed a serious crime scene and saw the detectives on scene, he gave the boys in blue a bit of luck to help them along. Remy was his favorite recipient, he always split the luck before a job to ensure they both made it out. Sometimes, he called them the orphan version of Romeo and Juliet, they were adopted by different guilds but no ancient feud could keep them apart. Tony made it clear that he would back Remy if it came down to a duel and so he was banished along with his lover.

Rogue was a girl down on her luck when she wandered into that bar in Alberta and got very lucky. Remy sat beside his fellow mutant and smiled at her, reaching up to flip the lenses of his sunglasses up and let her see he means her no harm. "What's yer name, cher?"

"Rogue," she answered quietly.

"I am Gambit, me amour Lucky Charm is currently puttin' on a show wit' da Wolverine," he pointed to the cage where the slim luck mutant was indeed messing with the stocky fighter. "I t'ink we all gon' end up in da same place."

"What?" Rogue was suddenly scared.

Remy replayed his own words in his head and slapped himself then pointed to the TV where the news was covering the impending mutant summit, "Or did I miss my guess and yer just a normal runaway?"

"You didn't miss your guess."

Remy flipped the lenses down and called the bartender to order the only non-alcoholic drink they served, ordering three. Then he turned back to Rogue and counted down on one hand until Lucky Charm was taken down and tapped out. The slim mutant came over just as the drinks were set down, the bartender walking away without asking for payment. He glared playfully at his lover "Don't call me Lucky Charm."

"How did you-?"

"Remy's got a bad habit, a few but calling me Lucky Charm is the most troublesome. My name is Tony and Gambit is Remy, you?"

"Rogue, or I guess Marie."

"Rogue, unless you start talking in the third person like Rem', I think we'll get along fine." Tony pulled out a business card and handed it to her, "Tell me what you think." The card was for Charles Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters. On the back, Rogue saw as she examined it, the words Mutant High and X-Men Hotline were written in messy scrawl. "They give a lot of runaways like you scholarships."

"I'll give it a shot."

"Great, now we just have to wait for last call."

"Why?"

"Because Remy and I have a job to do." Tony tapped his friend on the shoulder and Remy went over to the cage, watching the fight. Tony turned to Rogue and tapped the school's logo "They might meet us if we time things right." He smiled "You'll be fine, one sec." He ducked a sucker punch and turned to face his attacker, skillfully taking the man down before popping back up "Sorry 'bout that. That guy lost to Wolverine earlier and apparently took offense to the ease with which I evaded the champion, strange but alright."

"What kind of freak are you?"

Tony raised an eyebrow as he explained "The kind that's not blind. I saw the bartender reach for his gun, dumbass." The bartender then used said gun to kick the rowdy drunk out, "Thanks for that."

"You didn't see me reach for it."

"Not until I dodged and his hand slammed down, no but truth is often stranger than fiction."

"Right," the old man said.

They left after last call, the bartender producing a six pack on the house for Wolverine. "What do you two want?"

Tony said "Just safe passage. Four mutants are safer together than three and a loner. We'll follow your lead, Remy's a bit of a precog. I just do what he says." Tony snapped his fingers "Oh, and uh, your name is James Howlett Junior or it was, you are the illegitimate son of Elizabeth Howlett and Thomas Logan, a man named Victor Creed is your paternal half-brother. Your amnesia is the result of an adamantium bullet to the brain, your claws are actually bone forcefully coated in adamantium by the same man who shot you, William Stryker, head of the Weapon X program. I could tell you more but we're running out of time."

"How do you know all of that?"

"Remy and I broke into Weapon X once, we also got involved with the late Emma Frost, a telepath who was killed by Weapon X agents. We need to go so are you in or are you out?"

"Guess I'm in."

"Plus I played cards with your brother once, just to freak his boss out. You'll see."

The attack was even less successful with three adult mutants trained in combat to support the two X-Men. Tony went down the list of things he knew about Logan, feeding him luck stolen from Sabretooth and pretty much every man in the bar to make the memories come easier, pausing when Logan said he was remembering. "Thanks, kid."

"No problem."

The two N'Awlins boys only stayed through the summit but they managed to teach a lot of students how to play poker.

Chapter Text

Tony was the only person Thor could really let go around, he could absorb the lightning the Thunderer generated and use it to heal. He even taught Thor how to channel his power without Mjolnir. His Lady Jane accepted the relationship as only natural and immediately turned her attention on Tony for better, more scientific explanations than Thor could give. Tony looked at Thor before asking Jane "Why do you assume our relationship is the end of yours?" Tony closed the distance between him and his fellow scientist, kissing her passionately before stepping back. "Science can wait 'til tomorrow, agreed?" She nodded dumbly. Tony's lab was very private, which they took full advantage of on a regular basis. Tony and Thor never made her feel slutty for being, shall we say, impatient. Together they were the perfect mix of brawn and brain.

One day, Tony got sheepish and asked her to be with him exclusively for a bit. "Why?"

"SI is a family business and the Board's about ready to stage a coup." He needed an heir. "We could get married. Clint and Tash are in a triad and they're legally married."

"That sounds great but I'd rather not go public with our triad status."

"Private three-way ceremony and a two way certificate on record?"

"Sounds perfect." Suddenly, it occurred to her that she was the youngest of their triad- and she definitely preferred triad to throuple- not that she minded, Thor was immortal so he really shouldn't count anyway when comparing ages.

It took Tony, Jane, Pepper and Darcy to talk Thor down from a very public announcement. They each reminded him why Jane wasn't legally married to him and had to go through the critical thinking steps tied to that several times to get him to understand. Remembering his own life, Tony did his best to keep Morgan out of the spotlight although his baby girl definitely inherited her parents' genius. When the threat of Thanos loomed close, Tony outed himself to get people evacuated before draining as much power as he could from the grid. The two lightning warriors went at the Mad Titan, Tony eventually grabbing Thanos' head in his hands and focusing hard while Thor kept the tyrant restrained, draining the natural electricity from the giant grape and the air, focusing it all on the monster's head. Thanos' head exploded and Tony called "Duck!" before expelling the remaining energy outward, his eyes closed as he tried not to hit his allies while he fried the outriders. Thor took the Gauntlet and kissed his husband, who got a slight jumpstart from the Asgardians' near limitless energy stores.

After the dust settled, Tony begged Pepper and Rhodey to do their godparent duties so he, Thor and Jane could go to Asgard for the formal scattering of the Stones. He barely had to beg before they laughed and agreed. Tony was in for a surprise when Queen Frigga recognized his and Jane's marriage to her son and used the Infinity Stones to render them immortal as the future queen and consort to Thor. The immortality meant Thor and Tony no longer had to hold back when making love to their Lady Jane.

Chapter Text

Crown Prince Thor of Asgard had a twin, a master matchmaker, betrothals were much easier to successfully arrange when he was around. Balder could fight as befitting a son of Odin but he much preferred to make a fool out of his challengers, something Odin found amusing until Balder took it too far and mockingly kissed his opponent. Arguments could often be heard when Loki began to study magic and Odin mocked him for it. Eventually, the All-Father formally condoned his youngest's chosen hobby, emphasizing Loki's place as the youngest and thus unlikely to inherit the throne. With his king's support, the mockery ended and people just ignored Loki instead. In secret, Balder taught his little brother how to make people fall madly in lust with anything, even objects and Loki taught Balder to time his tricks.

Over time, it became common practice for the nobility and royalty of the Nine to seek Balder's blessing for betrothals, as a form of good luck. Tiring of the routine, Balder had Loki cover for him while he sought out adventure as befitting an Odinson. He found himself enamored with Queen Aelsa, "Your tricks won't work on me."

"I know," Balder said, smiling, "Can you imagine how tiring it is to be set upon by feuding nobles whose only recourse to prevent or end their petty wars is to force two children, often raised to hate each other, into marriage? They force their children to visit me to bless the union as a means of ensuring their plans are not ruined by the children killing each other. Sometimes, I'm blessing six different unions because the nobles cannot control their subordinates and the feuds effectively persist. It isn't even a true blessing, most of the time I employ rather basic love spells."

"You are revered for it."

"Loki has been standing in for me on and off for years and nobody notices a difference in the magic, although many nobles get all huffy about having the youngest Odinson cast the spell and that probably makes the peace less successful than the marriage." Balder straightened, "I know this is improper but I also know Asgard's true history and I was wondering if you might request a betrothal for either myself or my younger brother."

"Why?"

"We're mages, Asgard calls sorcery woman's work even though the king himself is an accomplished sorcerer. Why would I want to escape that or at least help my younger brother, who could not be less interested in battle if the Nine depended on it, escape it? I suspect Father has designs involving Loki and Jotunheim but I am not sure."

"You mediate many betrothals but certainly, your own would be out of bounds."

"True. I suppose I should set my sights on saving my brother and let the Norns decide my fate on their own."

"I will seek a royal betrothal but temper your hopes to reality, Odin is not likely to grant a betrothal simply because one is requested."

"Of course, m'lady."

Odin was easily convinced and Balder was able to contribute to the announcement that Loki was fully prepared to succeed his place, blessing marriages. Thor's betrothal was put on hold to facilitate his place as king's champion (read: executioner) and Loki's youth was cited as reason for holding off on betrothing him. Queen Aelsa married Prince Balder in Asgard. They formally sought out Loki's blessing and the trickster focused his spell on his brother, knowing such magics would do nothing to the Elven queen. King Balder of Alfheim, Prince of Asgard, stood flanking his wife's throne for most royal matters, their roles reversing for Asgardian visitors as Balder had learned Loki's concealment trick and used it liberally to keep Heimdal from snooping. They were happy, even when Balder went away on expeditions to enjoy his freedom from the responsibilities tied to being God of Love and using the excuse of being God of Innocence and Rebirth as needed. He was a faithful husband and never pushed his wife, even lighting his brother on fire when Thor attempted to prank them by stealing a lock of her hair.

Chapter Text

When Tony was 17, an assassin broke into his family's house. The assassin was a man with long dark hair and a metal arm, Tony woke to see him standing over his bed staring at him through dark goggles. His sleep deprived brain didn't properly register the danger and instead regarded the incident as a dream. The teenage inventor moved over and wordlessly invited the stranger to sleep next to him, curling up against the man. In the morning, Howard's shouting woke him up after Jarvis caught him with a strangely dressed, heavily armed man in his bed and drew some false conclusions that led him to fetch Sir. "What?" Suddenly wide-awake, Tony realized he hadn't dreamt the assassin. "Oh."

"Oh?"

"In my defense, I thought I was dreaming."

"Why-?"

"Show him your arm." Seeing the dexterity in the metal arm shut his father up, Tony shrugged "Let's deal with this after breakfast."

"Good idea."

The assassin, and Tony knew it was an assassin because who else breaks into a secure private residence with that many guns, quickly assumed the role of Tony's bodyguard and by extension, Howard and Maria's. Uncovering the man's name proved difficult as he didn't seem to know, identifying only as the Asset or the Soldier. When Peggy Carter tried to seize him, the assassin killed her. SHIELD exposed itself shortly after trying to avenge their fallen director and HYDRA along with them trying to reacquire their asset. Tony's relationship with the Winter Soldier was purely platonic. Kidnappers met similar fates to Carter and Tony learned to coax his guardian into leaving enemies alive.

Decades later, the Red Room would send their own assassin after Tony in order to test Natalia Romanova against the Winter Soldier, who had regained much of his memory by this point and served as a precedent for brainwashing cases, confessing as memories of his crimes returned. She was similarly affected by the playboy, who could twist ladies' hearts, and eventually fell for her real target, James Barnes. Tony followed his father's example and negotiated a deal for the Black Widow like Howard had for the Winter Soldier, who was easily identified once he was cleaned up for court. Tony vaguely remembered his father had to testify as someone who knew Barnes during the war and could offer an explanation to how a missing, presumed dead man could be the world's deadliest assassin- short answer: HYDRA. Romanova saw the threat that Obadiah Stane posed and reported her suspicions to both Tony and the law enforcement agents she regularly met with, comparing his treatment of Tony to tactics she had been taught. Both believed her and opened internal and external investigations respectively. When confronted, he turned violent and was put down.

Chapter Text

When Tony saw the battle going sideways on Titan, he squeezed his eyes shut and tapped into a power he hadn't used since childhood, the ability to stop time. He learned at a young age that touching living things while time was stopped was dangerous. Thankfully, he learned this by touching insects not people but the principle seemed to transcend species a bit. Now, though, he wanted to hurt a living thing, he wanted to destroy Thanos but he didn't want to be too obvious so he just stripped the alien's armor off, starting with the glowing gauntlet and moved back to his original position. With a blink, time resumed but the sudden disappearance of his armor confused the Mad Titan enough to enable the Guardians to overcome him. Once Drax had his revenge, Tony held up the Gauntlet "This looks important."

"What just happened?" asked Spider-Man.

Looking around, Tony sighed and decided to take a chance "I stopped time and stole Thanos' armor."

"You can stop time? Awesome."

Strange said "Did not see that coming."

"What? None of your prophecies mentioned that?"

"To be fair, you stopped time, that may have shielded you from my sight."

"Yeah, I figured. I stopped practicing after I discovered how dangerous it was to touch another living thing when time was stopped."

"Did you kill someone?" asked Peter Quill.

"No, just bugs, mostly flies of all sorts."

"There are different kinds of flies?"

"Butter, dragon, fire,"

"Oh, right."

"None of that made sense," said Drax.

"Butterflies are known on my planet for their beautiful wings, dragonflies are similarly known for beauty, and fireflies glow like embers. There are also insects just called flies and they're known for being annoying."

"Ah."

"Is this gauntlet? Important? Useful? What?"

"Both," Strange said "But none of us can safely wield it."

"What if I used it and stopped time at the same time?"

"I don't know."

"Let me try," Tony put the gauntlet on over his glove, closed his hand and stopped time then focused on summoning someone to use the gauntlet for them before collapsing to the ground, gasping as time resumed normally "Look at that, still alive, not bad." Tony handed the Gauntlet, which had shrunk while he was using it, to the green woman he had summoned with it. "Even with the big guy dead, my planet is still in danger."

"You managed to use the Gauntlet."

"That was definitely a one-off. I used it to summon someone who could use it for us, you appeared so I'm guessing you can use it. I'm from Earth, by the way, not Missouri unlike this moron but y'know, same planet. Uh, can you focus on another Infinity Stone as a destination?"

"Most likely. The Stones are drawn to one another." The three on the Gauntlet glowed for a moment and a blue cyborg woman appeared beside the green one. "Which Stone are you looking for?"

"Oh, no. I have a pretty good idea of where it is. My son is the keeper of the Mind Stone. I figured it'd be easier to lock on him than explain Earth geography while we're on a time crunch."

"Right."

Tony waved Spider-Man forward, "Let's bring it in. They're probably in Wakanda and Wakandans don't really like outsiders as it is."

They teleported to Wakanda, where a battle for the Mind Stone was already in progress. Tony stopped time and ran around, touching Thanos' followers. Then he let time resume so the enemy could die as he searched for Vision, refreezing it when he realized Wanda was about to kill him. Tony never liked Wanda but never outright hated her, although he came close when he realized how she had used her power to scare him into creating Ultron and then torment him even more after becoming an Avenger. Rather than risk discovering the don't touch living things rule applied to Vision, Tony crashed into Wanda, knocking her down before her power could touch his son and resumed time as he jumped to his feet, strangely energized. "Hey, Viz. Thanos is dead, nobody's gonna try to take that from you. Let's go join the others." A bit overwhelmed and confused, the android followed his creator to where most of the battle had taken place.

Dora Milaje moved to seize Tony as soon as they saw him but Vision stood in their way "I believe you will get your answers much more easily if you do not make Mr. Stark feel threatened."

T'Challa said "He is right. Mr. Stark, if you would explain."

Tony scanned the crowd "Yeah, in a minute. First let them go," pointing to the Guardians "They killed Thanos for us, they're not the enemy." T'Challa nodded to his warriors, who all backed away. "Strange has the Time Stone, he was going to give it up for me but I grabbed it before Thanos could get it and stopped time, seems I can still stop time thanks to some residual energy. Stopping time and touching living things don't mix, as seen here," he indicated to the dead aliens. "Gamora over there took the Gauntlet and brought us here, apparently Infinity Stones are drawn to each other, making Viz a bit of a beacon. Oh and Thanos sent Loki in 2012 after torturing him, thinking he'd get two Infinity Stones- Mind and Space- for the price of one- Mind," Tony pointed at Vision. "That clearly didn't work. Thor's pissed because Thanos killed Loki for his betrayal or failure, not sure how the Mad Titan saw it. He's probably gonna get here in a few minutes or so with the other half of Gamora's team." Tony clapped his hands together "Anyway. With your permission, I'd like to send Strange and Spidey home. Our Sorcerer Supreme needs to get back before he can be replaced and the Spider needs to go home and let his family see he's alright. Like I said, Thor's probably going to bring the rest of Gamora's team here so it'd really be easier on everyone if they stuck around for that. The Rogues need to be contained, Maximoff's dead over that a way, caught her trying to kill my son even after the battle was presumably called."

"Your son?" Rogers interrupted.

"Vision, result of my work, Bruce's work, Helen Cho's work and Thor's lightning strike. Oh, and an Infinity Stone if we're being thorough. I'm betting Bruce and Thor will be alright with me claiming paternity, Helen might have something to say about being mother to an android but if it comes down to it, I don't think she'll mind."

"You killed Wanda!"

"Wow, you're slow. I froze time when I saw my son was in danger!" Tony turned to T'Challa, "You wouldn't happen to have super strong restraints I can permanently borrow to take the Rogues off your hands, would you? I'm fine leaving Barnes, assuming the triggers are still there."

"It's a slow process to remove them."

"Right. If you're okay with him being here, I'll leave him in your care but the rest need to answer for their crimes. Agreed?"

"Agreed. Pity Miss Maximoff will not be among them."

"Yeah, shame. If you can get them restrained, maybe Strange can just make one portal and Spidey can help march them through. I don't think we'll get anywhere with a debrief while Rogers is being his usual self."

"Agreed."

Tony looked over at Rogers and saw a web over his mouth, two Dora Milaje cuffing his hands behind his back while he fumed, "Nice work, Spidey." He turned to the sorcerer he came with "Strange, think you could open a portal to your Sanctum? It'd be easier to do the handoff in New York rather than mess with Wakandan border politics."

Stephen smiled and nodded, opening a portal "Right through here."

"Spider-Man?"

"On it." He flipped over to Strange's side and shot a line of webbing at Rogers, giving it a few good yanks to get him over to the pair and through the portal. The other surviving Rogues just marched themselves through.

Tony told his companions "Tell Pep I'm alive," a moment before both spider and sorcerer went through the portal. Glancing at the Guardians, Tony told T'Challa, "I assume you want them to wait out here so when Thor comes, they can leave with him and be out of your fur."

"Very astute."

"We need to debrief so you'll have to let one of them pass, I'd go with the human looking dude since I'm pretty sure he's at least half human and will get our human idioms. It's either the white guy or the outer space aliens." T'Challa nodded and Tony turned the Guardians "Peter can come with us. The rest of you, try not to antagonize the locals while you wait for your teammates." Tony stuck to his story about the Time Stone and Peter explained Thanos' history, T'Challa and Vision contributing their share of events regarding the Mind Stone. "That was easy. Now, to avoid something like this recurring, I say we plan on how to destroy all of the Stones but especially the Time Stone, since that one can be used to restore the others. I'll have to run some tests but if this freezing time thing is permanent then we might have that covered. Maximoff's dead so we need another Mind Stone contingency, think your scientists can figure something out, your highness?"

"I do believe they'll enjoy the challenge."

"Maximoff has no legal next of kin and I doubt Sokovia wants her body, maybe proof she's actually dead but your scientists should be able to hold onto her body without much fuss. Some people might even enjoy hearing she's being picked apart with the way she picked people's minds apart. I'll help you with the international red tape or I could forge paperwork saying she left all that up to the Avengers and authorize you to hold onto her body as an Avenger. We'll try the direct approach first, sound good?"

"Yes."

Before the young king could comment on Tony leading the meeting, the inventor said "Great. Seems Infinity Stones give you a boost of energy when you use them, I don't know how Strange stays so calm and still."

"A great mystery."

"Yeah. I'll have a written report ready in a week but I'll withhold filing mine until yours is ready, that way the Accords Council won't be hounding you while your people deal with today's losses."

"Thank you."

"Are we good to go now?"

"Yes, I must insist you not linger although my sister may want to meet you."

"Yeah." Tony said "If she's ever in New York, she should swing by the Tower."

"I will pass on the message."

"Viz, Missouri, let's go."

Chapter Text

When Tony was little, he helped his mother wrap gifts for Stark charity events, namely the Christmas event where they gave a bunch of orphans one gift each (the other kids could ask for anything as long as they narrowed it down to one thing). Maria also let him pass out the presents at the event. His mother bought and removed the price tags from the gifts, sometimes re-boxing them, then Tony wrapped them. His mom said he had a gift for wrapping gifts, they were always perfectly wrapped, sometimes better than Maria wrapped her share, and he never used too much tape.

His dad didn't care about the gift wrapping but to be fair, he didn't care about the event as a whole and only really did it for the good press on both Obie and his wife's advice. As Tony got older, his dad started to care a little. Howard could invent anything but ask him to neatly wrap a gift and he was beyond lost. Inspiration struck one year as he glared at the gift he got for Maria and he recruited his son to wrap it for him. Tony finagled for lab time together, working with his dad not just watching him, and Howard couldn't have been more proud of his little businessman. Suddenly, Maria's gifts stopped looking like they'd been through a tornado and after confirming Jarvis did not wrap the gifts- the man had an eye for detail- she was proud of both her boys. Seeing Tony all but race down to the workshop with Howard following and chuckling confirmed her suspicions and warmed her heart.

In a few short years, Howard had stopped yelling at his son altogether and cut ties with Peggy Carter. He actually went so far as to ask if they could have Tony re-baptized to change his godmother or if that would be taking things too far. Maria called that overkill and suggested he make public the existence of his will and the contents regarding Tony's guardianship instead, suggesting he change both godparents just to be safe. Obie and Peggy had often seemed very similar to Maria and she didn't want Tony subjected to either of them if he lost her and Howard. By making it public that he was changing who he wanted to care for Tony in his will without announcing who it was, he protected his son from a lifetime of manipulation and pain. After the announcement, he shared his new picks with a few people close to him, including his lawyer who made copies of the will after officially filing it, dispersing them to his closest confidants and telling each one it was the only copy to see who might take the bait. Obie did, taking offense to Tony having another godfather and advising Howard to change a few other things in ways that would benefit his partner. Howard took back the will and fired Obie on the spot "I won't have my son used or my legacy destroyed." An investigation, partly launched to avoid a wrongful termination suit, revealed Obie's dirty dealings and he was arrested in short order.

As an adult, Tony made a habit of giving unwrapped gifts since his wrapping was professional grade and he liked pretending to be as helpless as his father was when it came to that. Sometimes if he had to use gifts to schmooze, he'd wrap them since his wrapping was perfect but for people he didn't care for or real friends, he left the gifts unwrapped. Occasionally, he'd wrap a gift and start to unwrap it to make the wrapping job look terrible. Gift-wrapping wasn't a great superpower but it did sorta save his family.

Chapter Text

In gearing up for Thanos (even though he didn't know the enemy's name), Tony made new suits for everyone. It wasn't hard, just a wave of his hand at a manikin with his teammates' measurements. Thor was very grateful for his amazing armor, declaring the craftsmanship equal to the great dwarves. Bruce was just glad to have clothes that didn't get destroyed during the transformation, genuinely thanking Tony for that after his first fight because he hadn't been sure what to make of the suit until then. The others just accepted the new duds with a cool nod, at most.

The contrast was eye opening and Tony shifted his plans away from the Avengers towards the rest of the world. As he told Pepper back when he became Iron Man, he has to protect the people he put in harm's way. He reverse engineered some of the suits he made using his frankly strange power and made deals with the military to have the new Stark Armor replace their original orders at no additional cost. Next he altered the designs and began offering them to police as SWAT armor. Slowly but surely, everyone who might be on the front lines of the next invasion had Stark Armor. The people needed to be protected, Tony also sent R&D into overdrive designing medical tech to help the people who got hurt in the Avengers' battles and work on planetary defense projects in case of another invasion.

While he waited for responses from his offers, he used Bruce and Thor as examples of the Enhanced to get legislation in the works for Enhanced rights. SHIELD, they didn't believe him and they were perpetuating the lie that the threat had passed, they had to go. From Fury's little power play while he was dying of palladium poisoning, Tony had enough to burry them and that's just what he did, pressing charges for all the shit they've pulled with him over the years including the intimidation tactics they used to get sworn statements from guests of a party on his yacht that never happened when they wanted him to lie about Iron Man. With SHIELD- and HYDRA, that was a bit of a curveball but Tony handled it- out of the picture, more Enhanced came forward to join Bruce and Thor in representing the superpowered community. Tony connected them with lawyers to handle their cases against SHIELD and make sure other agencies didn't step in to fill SHIELD's place and screw them over.

Tony used his powers to make specialized suits for the Enhanced who came forward, further protecting them from SHIELDRA by giving them armor that looked like normal clothes. Spy agencies sought him out then and Tony sold them suits based off Romanoff's and the Index cases on two conditions: they had to let him vet their agents for SHIELDRA plants and their directors had to listen when he told them what he saw on the other side of the portal. Some saw his conditions as free aid and were happy to meet them, others were more cautious but almost all of them ultimately agreed to his terms. He briefed the heads of intelligence agencies, militaries, law enforcement and the heads of state within the UN all at once. He briefed the UN in person and streamed to the rest, using the prompter to monitor the chat for questions from those not physically present. The briefing went much better without SHIELD and more of his preparations were enacted.

Fury's Avengers sort of imploded without Tony's support, which he had to withdraw when he pulled out of SHIELD. The agents were arrested for their work with SHIELD, Steve lost his title on the basis that his training was not up to date (a euphemism for incomplete). After Tony's briefing, the Army called him back into service. The reports from SHIELD's files, the real one not the fake one that made him look good and drew mostly from propaganda (ie the one most of the other Avengers got), did not paint a pretty picture. Trained Enhanced already in the Army were transferred to the camp Rogers was called to, in case his propensity for violence became an issue. They were to assist Rogers' TO as needed, and he really needed it as Rogers took great offense to even the implication that he might, possibly be wrong about anything. Ultimately, the TO and his superpowered support staff had to report that Rogers was entirely unfit for duty and a potential danger to the public. "We should be grateful he was catered to like he was after he lost his captain title," one of the super soldiers, an indestructible mutant named Luke Cage, reported "Had he not been, I fear he may have killed someone in anger. Rogers has not shown even a basic level of control over his strength, he can't regulate it and he's stuck in a might makes right mindset. Apparently, in the time and place he's from, men literally settled disagreements with their fists. Rogers thinks that is still acceptable and refuses to hear any dissenting opinion on anything, even when we told him he was talking to a colonel, a man who shares the rank of his old CO, Rogers saw only an enemy."

After the individual interviews, they were gathered together. "What action would you recommend?"

"He must be detained until he either completes reintegration or at least anger management."

"You want us to have him committed?"

"I cannot, in good conscience," the Training Officer explained "Recommend a mere discharge, given his tendency to respond to any sort of dissent or disagreement with violence. He falsely enlisted five times because he was declared unfit to serve by multiple doctors, he has only become worse in time. The discharge could set him off, he is a danger to those around him and he refuses to see how this might be possible, even in the most general sense." Instead of blindly accepting the recommendation, the review board ordered an assessment and assigned two of the super soldiers to restrain Rogers as needed. Once the psychologist agreed with their recommendation, the Army ordered Rogers be detained until he was no longer a danger to the public. Records of the entire process were made public, ensuring Rogers could not use his legend status to his advantage.

With a world of Enhanced at his back, working together like a well-oiled machine after many exercises preparing for just this eventuality, Tony was able to defeat the Mad Titan who had terrorized the galaxy.

Chapter Text

Toni was fed up with Rogers' flirting but it was useful to see this duality. Romanoff's attempts at turning her against her other self (her 'cousin' Tony) had given her an idea so she went out with him, ONCE because that's all she could stand of the misogynistic ass. Armed with the knowledge she got out of him on that date, she went to work destroying the man. Tony had always found it was easier to understand people as Toni, not because he changed all that much when he switched genders but because people treated him/her totally different. First thing first, he dug up Rogers' real SHIELD file, not the garbage one SHIELD used to cater to his ego, as well as his real military records not the doctored ones used to support the propaganda. With the real records, he called on some of his military contacts and had Rogers slapped with the proper military charges. Rogers was so predictable, Tony just had to stand about ten feet away from Rhodes and his other military friends when Rogers stormed his lab to demand he fix things. The second he put his hands on Tony, three armors seized him and forced him to the ground "Thanks, J. Rogers, all I did was tell the truth. Did you forget my father was part of Project Rebirth? Did no one tell you that he kept your legacy alive? After that little stunt with my cousin, I looked into dad's records and I made sure to pass them along to the Army for posterity. That's all I did, I just told the truth. Aunt Peg had your official records doctored to say you liberated concentration camps. Do you even know what those are?" From the way he only got angrier and started spewing hate instead of the expected 'Of course, I did, those records weren't doctored' the right answer was obvious. "Also, there's a process to become an army officer that involves attending a special college and you didn't do that so you're not really a captain, again, just telling the truth. Bye, bye, soldier boy." Tony told the army officers he had been talking to "The armors are drones, programmed to act as guards to help you contain Rogers, he's all yours but don't try to reverse engineer my tech like Hammer, or should I say Vanko?"

"Of course." One of the soldiers led the detained captain out. Romanoff was taken down with gas and shipped back to Russia. SHIELD fell when the details of events surrounding the Stark Expo came to light, such as the return of stolen property (which was evidence of their involvement in the theft) and unlawful detainment of Tony Stark. The agency imploded as Tony shared their files with legitimate agencies. Rogers and Romanoff opened the door for Tony to white hat hack SHIELD, which led him to uncover HYDRA and make some of that information public. He was careful to remove a lot of files from SHIELD's database to protect the innocent before the cyber ops teams could get to work on the thinly veiled terrorists' computers. The Index was exposed, sparking an Enhanced Rights movement. The truth was a powerful thing and the world had Tony's cousin Toni Collins to thank for making the first move to expose the truth.

Chapter Text

As he lay freezing, possibly dying, in Siberia, Tony wondered where he went wrong. Replaying the day several times, literally restarting his day and making different choices, brought Tony to an unhappy conclusion: Rogers was never gonna be talked down, he was always gonna push a fight and fight without care.

Restarting the day one last time, he skipped Ross's briefing and arranged a meeting with King T’Chaka by hacking the man's phone and calling him King Kitty. He misunderstood the message as intended and believed Tony was blackmailing him. "What do you want?"

"To warn you of events to come." Just like Bill Murray, he shared his crazy looping day. He also had FRIDAY send Rhodey to help apprehend Barnes to prevent the bridge collapse. "Do you believe me?" He had shown T'Chaka the arrest report on Barnes when it went through.

"You have proven that what you say is true with Barnes' arrest."

"Right."

"We will request an extra bomb sweep be done."

"With what Maximoff did, you shouldn't have trouble with that."

"Agreed. Thank you for the warning."

"If it's all the same with you, I was thinking I'd have an Iron Legionnaire posted near you in case they miss the bomb. The Iron Legion are basically drones, it won't have weapons but I'll still need help getting it in place."

"I will do what I can to help."

Unfortunately the armor was needed because the sweep was done for show and thus half-assed. Tony had the Legion itself posted around the building to prevent any loss of life. Barnes asked to see Tony and confessed to the Stark murders when Tony paid him a visit. When they refused to sign, Team Cap was arrested for their various crimes. Maximoff for her work as a HYDRA agent and her part in the Bucky hunt and her illegal immigrant status. Romanoff for her work as the Black Widow, her work for SHIELD, the Data Dump, helping Rogers cover up Barnes' involvement in the Stark murders (Bucky hunt included) and violation of the Accords when she tried to be Rogers' inside woman. Rogers had his pre-serum crimes (namely fraudulently enlisting), his various military offenses (insubordination and deserting), his continued military offenses (didn't even finish boot camp yet insists he's a captain, thereby impersonating a superior officer), his work for SHIELD, his part in dropping the carriers on DC, crimes relating to his Bucky hunts, and tax evasion. Romanoff also got hit with tax evasion but got out of it by draining her personal emergency funds, thus paying off her debt. Wilson had his part in HYDRAGate (including receiving stolen property) and the Bucky hunts. Barton got a deal to dodge charges for his SHIELD and pre-SHIELD work, amounting to permanent house arrest conditional he sign the Accords as a reserve Avenger and fulfill his duties as such. Surprisingly, his wife also signed as the retired assassin X-23 with the same deal, negotiating to add protections for Enhanced kids and making sure they applied to hers.

Chapter Text

How Tony talked Bruce into coming to Stark Mansion, he may never quite know. When Tony started taking his shirt off, Bruce spoke up "I'm not sure what we're doing here but-"

"Relax. I told you that I understood your situation, I kinda meant that literally." Tony asked him "Do you mind if I show you?"

"Uh, sure." Tony stripped down to his shorts then transformed into a blue giant, beast. "Do we call you Blue Hulk?"

"I guess you could."

"You can control yourself in this form-"

"Only because I learned how. Hold on-" He changed back and removed the Arc Reactor mid-shift, digging the casing and everything out, then went back to Hulk size "That's gonna be hard to explain." He carefully set the Reactor down. "I honestly believe that the Hulk is just misunderstood by everyone." He looked down at Bruce "Do I need to punch you or can you will the transformation again?"

Bruce let all of his anger surface, focusing on it to turn into the Hulk, who immediately tried to punch Blue Hulk. The alternate form of Tony Stark caught the fist and just talked to the big guy, coaching him through staying in control while they had a conversation. The two Hulks turned back into their human forms at almost the exact same time. "That was interesting."

"You were semi-aware, weren't you?"

"Yeah."

"That'll make this next part easier, I need you to communicate with your other half." Tony talked him through calling on Hulk mentally not just emotionally then stayed quiet while Bruce 'talked' with the Other Guy. Lastly, Tony gave him a key to the property and permission to use it whenever Hulk wanted out before they went back to the Tower. Ross was there and Tony smirked at him "You're trespassing. Come back when you have an appointment or I'll have you arrested."

"You're harboring a fugitive-"

"You're still trespassing and this fugitive has no active warrants. Guess you want to be arrested, your choice."

Men in suits with bulletproof vests that had INTERPOL written on them surrounded the general, taking him into custody as Tony and Bruce continued on their way, "That was-"

"Yeah, I've been meaning to tell you I was planning to move on Ross but he beat me to it."

"Thank you."

"No problem, Smash Bro." Bruce actually chuckled at that, more at peace with the Other Guy than ever before.

Chapter Text

Young Tony stared at the glass of water, watching it morph into various kinds of booze before pouring the contents into a bottle and returning it to his father's study. He wondered sometimes why he could only turn water in alcohol and not vice versa, often when wondering why he could perform such alchemy in the first place. He knew one thing, it made skirting the drinking age a piece of cake.

Nearly four decades later, following his adventure in Afghanistan, he swore off alcohol. Easier said than done when one has the power to turn water into whiskey with barely a thought. Never before had he wished he could reverse the effects of his power as much as he did when he was trying to quit drinking, to be a better, healthier man. On his 40th birthday, he sorta did the beer into water trick with the suit's filtration system. God, he was stupid but to be fair, impaired judgement is on the symptom list for heavy metal poisoning and palladium is a heavy metal so it's not totally his fault.

The Avengers, Bruce was right about them being a time bomb. Look at how they responded to Tony saying no to housing the team that could not even pretend to like him, he only let Bruce stay with him because they treated him worse than they treated Tony and he was genuinely nice to Tony. The billionaire wouldn't buy SHIELD's BS anymore and actually took them to court for all the crap they pulled while he was dying. Apparently they didn't go through the returned property as well as they thought because Tony found a copy of his dad's will among other documents that exposed SHIELD for all the crap they pulled on Howard Stark.

An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again. But one which crumbles from within? That's dead. Forever.

SHIELD needed the Starks to stay afloat and their blatant history of abuse cost them that support. The reason Tony waited to take them down was that he knew they could not all be as bad as those he had interacted with or Aunt Peg. He knew some people had to be working there just for the paycheck so he took his time, he and JARVIS were meticulous in the charges they helped bring against SHIELD/HYDRA. The true believers who just trusted the system and could be counted on to trust another, legitimate system were offered that chance. Using SHIELD as a starting point, HYDRA's infiltration was rooted out, sometimes those seemingly innocent people overlapped with the inherent corruption, seems HYDRA had its hooks in deep but those hooks were methodically pulled out. Tony gave Bruce, Rhodey, Pepper, Happy and JARVIS all the same directive, "Do not let me drink alcohol," and let them in on the secret of his useless power.

Rhodey's reaction was priceless "That's how you did it!"

"What?" asked Bruce.

Rhodey explained "When we were in college, I always wondered how you had the best booze when you couldn't legally buy any."

"Yeah." Tony pushed the glass forward "Anyone want a beer?" Happy took it, looking a little wary but if Rhodey said it was the best then there probably wasn't anything to fear.

"That doesn't have many practical purposes," observed Bruce.

"I can turn water in whiskey but yeah, kinda useless from a pragmatic standpoint," said Tony. "I experimented with it when I was a kid, dumping dad's booze and replacing it with water turned into booze, he never caught on. I haven't had much luck giving up the bottle because of this."

"We'll help you out there, Boss." said Happy.

"I know you will."

The good people at SHIELD helped ease its descent, minimizing the shockwaves that might have otherwise killed innocent people, like those on the Index. A new piece of legislation was pushed through the UN as SHIELD had operated internationally and their downfall brought into question the issue of Enhanced rights. Activists- Tony swears that in itself is a job title- got to work before the dust had a chance to settle and argued, rather successfully, for Enhanced persons to have human rights. With the UN on board- it was in everyone's best interest to keep real life Supermen on the side of planet Earth- legislation was pushed through and ratified granting the Enhanced rights on the condition that those wishing to operate internationally, in an official capacity, had to register their abilities. Tony got two amendments added to the registration, one for relevance ("Who cares if you can breathe underwater if you're going to be working in a landlocked country?") and one for anonymity ("There is a reason comic book superheroes have secret identities and that is to protect those around them. I highly doubt there is a hundred people with the exact same power the way that there may be a hundred soldiers with the exact same training and resources, strength in numbers needs to be reinforced with anonymity to protect those who can't fight the kind of threats Enhanced protectors may face.") Countries were welcome to pass their own legislation so long as it did not violate the Enhanced Accords and any who registered with the UN was automatically in compliance with their home country. Tony shared what he saw on the other side after the dust settled and his fellow Enhanced had a chance to adjust to the brave new world. The response was resounding and positive, the world would be okay, they'd get through this together.

Chapter Text

Tony Stark was known for many things, he was a self-proclaimed genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. What he did not advertise was his frankly strange mutation. Stephen was a little miffed to discover said mutation the hard way. After the inventor started calling him Stranger Danger, everyone did. Wong looked apologetic as he explained there seemed to be a compulsion at work and asked who began the trend. "Stark."

"Tony."

Stephen portalled to the man, "Could you lift the compulsion you've placed on everyone I know?"

"No."

Rhodey, wait wasn't his name James Rhodes? Oh, Stephen's eyes widened in understanding as the airman laughed "You did it again, Tones? What'd you get stuck with, man?"

"Stranger Danger, how are you immune?"

"No idea, exposure maybe. Tony, start calling the man by his actual name."

"Stephen?" guessed the inventor. "Yeah, alright, fine. I didn't mean to do it. It's just, when I give people nicknames they tend to stick, I don't know why. Drove my godfather nuts when everyone started calling him Obie."

"I imagine it did." Stephen clarified "You didn't place a compulsion on everyone I know?"

"That's one way to look at it. Really, I just started calling you Stranger Danger. Crap. Sorry, Stephen. When I start calling someone by a nickname, I guess other people feel compelled to do the same."

"That's why everyone calls Rhodey Rhodey."

"Yeah," said the man himself.

It took a few days and regular visits with Tony but eventually everyone stopped with the nickname. Wong admitted to being curious, as did a few other sorcerers who thought they were immune to such compulsions, so Stephen told them what Tony had told him. "Stark says that when he starts calling someone by a nickname, it sticks. That's why everyone calls War Machine's pilot Rhodey and the CEO of Stark Industries, Pepper."

"He called you Stranger Danger?"

"Don't act like you've never met Stark, Wong." The stoic sorcerer nodded seriously but the others couldn't hide their amusement. "Apparently it works on anyone he meets and he didn't even know about the compulsion element, which makes me wonder what else he could compel someone to do if he tried." That got them to straighten up as they debated whether they should teach Stark some sorcery to control his ability better and prevent more accidental compulsions. Eventually they decided against it, deeming him too rooted in science for the lessons to take hold without a very unique, life-changing experience. He had more than enough traumas and still clung to science, calling his power a mutation without testing for an X-gene because he refused to admit that his power might be magic based.

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There were worse ways to discover his parents were murdered, Tony supposed. He had Coulson to thank for the assist in keeping honest agents safe, the Level 8 agent was more cooperative than Deputy Director Hill and more effective. The bland man had seen video of Stark healing him and even though he had no memory of the miracle or getting run through with an alien spear, he believed in it, believed he owed Stark his life. JARVIS appreciated Agent Coulson's help after the man thoroughly and genuinely apologized for SHIELD's hacks. To that end, he trusted Agent Coulson's judgement when he advised against letting Tony learn about the Winter Soldier without his support system on hand.

Definitely worse ways, apparently there was a video but Tony was satisfied with the legitimate report, he didn't need to watch it happen. Now, almost two months later, he was working with one of the Enhanced he had recruited from the Index to reform the Avengers as a legitimate UN sanctioned team. They were moving to take Barnes into custody, his partner could knock Barnes out and Iron Man could carry the brainwashed assassin if he resisted. They also had a secure hospital in Switzerland ready to take him to work on the triggers, all of the staff having been triple checked to ensure no HYDRA agents would tamper with the WWII veteran's treatment. Unsurprisingly, Barnes went without a fight. The surprise came when he was reading the first part of his reintegration packet- the part that his doctors had cleared him to read on the way to the hospital as nothing in it was liable to trigger him- and he physically flinched. Tony asked "What's wrong?"

"Steve."

Tony looked at what he had been reading and it was indeed about Steve Rogers' survival, "You can skip that part."

"No, he's gonna come after me."

Tony thought about what Steve had been doing since SHIELD fell and had to agree, if only in his head. "We can keep your location a secret from him. In fact, we were going to do that anyway. The doctors are going to ease you through the time you lost, just relax."

Stark talked the super soldier down and flicked past Steve's part of the packet, his partner sending a message ahead about Barnes' reaction to reading about Rogers. The woman was an empath, as Tony understood it, and by forcing a mood swing, she could knock anyone out. Very useful for taking down dangerous people but the question, as with any potentially combative power, was who decided how to define dangerous. Tony's healing power was potentially dangerous since those he healed lost their memories tied to the injury he healed but the power itself wasn't combative, he couldn't win a fight just by using his power but he could win a fight using the confusion caused by the subsequent memory loss. As he thought about it, he wondered if healing Barnes' arm was such a good idea after all and decided to look into improving his prosthetic instead.

Tony had a super strong Enhanced with him when he told Rogers in no uncertain terms to stop meting out vigilante justice and let them bring him back into the fold. Predictably he responded with violence. Spider-Man was also with him to restrain Rogers' baseline human cohorts. Their oversight committee had decided that with him being a Young Avenger, Spidey could come to assist but not directly fight the Rogue Avengers. The Young Avengers Initiative had been quite the uphill battle, arguing for a youth program under the Avengers to train future Avengers but eventually they convinced people they were not suggesting Enhanced child soldiers. One of the rules for membership in the Young Avengers was that the prospect's legal guardian had to sign off and everything was protected by an anonymity clause that allowed for the signees (the youth and their guardian) to selectively disclose their identities. In Spider-Man's case, Tony knew who he was and who his guardian was and had proof they were both on board but that proof was not accessible to the oversight committee, which included child development experts who only knew Spider-Man's age group not even his actual age. The whole system was designed to minimize the possibility of abuse. The fight with Steve was short and soon, he was being loaded into a prison transport with his cohorts, wearing suppression cuffs that made it possible for authorized LEOs to handle him the way they would a baseline prisoner.

Tony waited a couple years for the system to settle itself before disclosing his power. He had fellow Avenger, Spider-Man, slice his own arm open so he could give a demonstration to clearly explain the amnesia element.

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As Cap's shield flew towards him, Tony had enough and summoned a force field, the shield flying back at its master as Tony turned off the magnets that made sure it safely returned. The hit was less than he had been hoping for and Stark ignored Rogers' indignant response. Later, he trapped the Maximoff twins in one and let Quicksilver knock his sister out by slamming into the side, his momentum sending him flying back into the Witch. One repulsor blast later and they were both out. "You don't know me at all, do you?" Tony asked Ultron before the city began flying and he smashed the machine remotely to make sure it never lifted off. Shielding himself with his forcefield, he let Ultron open fire on him and watched impassively as the sentries destroyed themselves.

Tony and Vision left Sokovia the legal way, turning over most of their teammates for violating the country's sovereign borders, Bruce left with them. The other charges Tony had been protecting his team from were pressed once word got around the intelligence community that Sokovia had them in custody. Tony was just done with them all. Still, he needed help if his power was going to do any good against what was coming. Tony contacted Helen for a special project, mentioning a shield around the world. Along with Bruce and Vision, she studied him. They began making plans after he explained what the Ultron program the Stone misappropriated was meant for, noting how little the evil robot had to do with the project. Without the Avengers in their way, people were more willing to believe Tony and after he came out as Enhanced, other supers joined him. They ensured that the Avengers' sins would not blow back on them and got a fair deal with the UN. Their primary tactic involved emphasizing what Ross and SHIELDRA did, taking down the last remnants of the two in the process.

Finding out what Barnes did gave Tony pause. For most of his life, he had wished he had been there when the car crashed, he was so sure he could have saved his mom, maybe he could have stopped his dad from driving drunk. Come to find out, his not being there did save a life, his own. He could only imagine what HYDRA would have done to him and the nightmares that inspired prompted him to see a therapist. Vision had helped him restore JARVIS and FRIDAY was happy to work with her big brother to help Boss. Therapy helped, a lot, that was all Tony could say about it. He planned to publicly support it, once he figured out how to do that without his support being misconstrued.

In the end, it wasn't a shield around the world but a forcefield around every part of a Mad Titan except his left hand, which cut the hand off. Still, Nebula managed to use the Gauntlet to restore her sister who in turn used it to destroy their father and everything Thanos built. During the celebrations, Nebula found her way down to his workshop "You saved the universe."

"Pretty sure that was both of us and your sister. What are you doing down here?"

"You are a strange human."

"Technically, I think my power disqualifies me as a human. I'm not sure where it comes from, my father experimented on the Tesseract so it's possible my power is tied to that or I could just be a normal mutant. I dunno. Either way, what are you doing here?"

"Parties aren't really my thing."

"Same." Tony realized Nebula had caught him looking at her schematics when he followed her line of sight "My company is pretty big in prosthetics, I was thinking I could improve on your cybernetics to revolutionize human prosthesis."

"You think something good can come from this?" she gestured to herself.

"Sure. Once I figure out how Thanos made all of your cybernetics work then I can recreate them for humans. You can see through both eyes, right?"

"Yes. Why?"

"If I could recreate your cybernetic eye for humans, there would be no more blind humans. Just as an example." Nebula had never thought of that. "It would be easier if I understood what he did not just what he made. I'm sorry-"

"For what?"

"My mouth moved faster than my brain there. I was going to say, I assume he made you stay awake during the procedure but I realize that's probably not a good thing."

Nebula froze for a few minutes, thinking about what he was asking her to do and letting his babble wash over her, "What about an interface?"

"Interface?" Apparently, it was his turn to be confused.

"Thanos had a way to review what my cybernetic eye had seen. If you could make an interface with your Earth technology to download that footage, I could direct you to some of the procedures." Once she explained what she was thinking, they got to work on making it a reality.

Rocket came down to heckle them about hiding away and wound up helping them, "You really think this can be used to help people?"

"You've met James Barnes, correct?"

"Yeah."

"He was turned into a living weapon by a group called HYDRA. Most prosthetic arms my company makes are based on the one HYDRA forced on him. Since Nebula can see out of her cybernetic eye, it's not ridiculous to think that it could be the basis for a prosthetic eye."

"I guess not."

"Millions of people are disabled in some way, not just blind or missing an arm. I know it's terrible but Thanos might have done millions of humans a huge service. Of course, no doctor on Earth is going to implant any prosthetics we design without anesthesia, they wouldn't be allowed to stay doctors if they did so we're not actually copying him. If we can improve on Thanos' design, we should be able to replace some of your cybernetics to lessen the pain they cause. Quality of life is factored in when prosthetics go through the approval process to be released for public consumption. I assume Thanos did not care about that."

"No, he did not. Thank you," Nebula turned a confused frown on a smiling Tony.

"We still have to figure out his science before we can improve on it."

"Right."

That was easier said than done and it took months but they managed to do just that. Rocket stayed on Earth after the rest of the team left with a promise to try to return in a year, the alien raccoon choosing to continue working on the project. The Guardians set up a com system in Avengers Tower, enabling them to call Rocket with updates and vice versa. Once they cracked it, Rocket rushed to report it to his team. "Stark says there's an approval process that it's still gotta go through but that shouldn't take too long. The trick will be getting a doctor on board and getting other humies to sign on as test subjects before they can get it all the way through the approval process but Stark seems to think Nebula's as good as upgraded."

Gamora responded "That's great to hear." Nebula had explained to them what Stark's plan with her cybernetics was, helping Rocket explain why he was staying on Terra.

"We just cracked it, we still have a lot of bureaucracy to get through, probably won't have an answer until you guys get back in a few months."

"Can't wait," said Peter. The image shook "We gotta go, Rocket."

"See ya in a few months."

The upgrades were a success and the first round of human prosthesis testing went well. Pepper and the board decided to stagger the release of the prosthesis for testing, thereby staggering the release of the new cutting edge prosthesis. Nebula had grown extremely fond of Stark and after getting her quality of life upgrades, she told Gamora that she would not be returning to the Guardians. Her sister understood her desire to stay with her human and simply hugged her.

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Distantly, Tony was aware of how he should view his father, how Uncle Obie thought he did view Howard but how could he hate someone he understood so well? Actually, he knew the answer to that because he hated Aunt Peg and Uncle Obie for how they treated his dad. Getting fed up, he looked his father in the eye when he caught the man sober and said "Fennhoff."

"What do you know about that?" In response, Tony told his father how Aunt Peg, Mr. Jarvis and Howard himself remember Dr. Fennhoff, using the perspectives to reveal the truth. Letting that sink in silently, Tony waited until Howard asked his son "How do you know that?"

"I can see it when I look at you guys, I see a lot of things."

"What kinds of things?"

"The past, usually. Sometimes I see what actually happened, sometimes I see what you guys think happen."

"Do you know what happened to Steve?"

"He wanted to die."

"What?"

"He refused when Aunt Peg offered to have someone talk him through landing the plane. He chose to crash, to die." Upon hearing that, Howard finally mourned the loss of his friend not his greatest contribution to the world. "Mr. Jarvis gave Aunt Peg the vial of blood and she dumped it in a river." Seeing how his father reacted to that simple statement of fact, Tony said "Sorry."

"No, you didn't do anything wrong." For the first time that Tony can remember, his father hugged him of his own free will. "Thank you for telling me."

In the weeks to come, Howard pulled support from SHIELD and began the process of getting Obadiah out of the company.

"She's going to kill you. She wants your money and resources not you. She's already begun planning to remove you from the board. HYDRA is involved."

"HYDRA?"

"I saw how things actually are, HYDRA survived within SHIELD." That complicated things but then Tony shared good news, he told his father where to find Steve, explaining how he used Peggy's memories to figure out where he went down.

Howard took his son on his last expedition after arranging extra security for those close to him. In the arctic, they finally got him. Defrosting him was tricky but when he woke up, he was in a Stark Industries facility. "Hello, Captain." said Howard at the same time Tony said "Hi, Steve." The young boy turned to his father "Steve had household contact to a TB fatality and his mom even told him he was a carrier for it. He only completed a week of basic, he's not technically a captain because captains have to complete all of basic plus command school and then serve for a while to be promoted to the rank of captain."

"I know, Tony, I just thought we'd ease him into that."

"Who's the kid?" asked Steve.

"This is my son, Tony."

The boy but in "That's Howard Stark, you've been in a kind of coma for a few decades."

Howard lightly glared at the boy "He told me where to find you and we have some good news, Rogers. We believe that Sergeant Barnes may have survived his fall the same way you survived your crash but we need your help tracking him down. We're going to reunite you with Peggy but first, we need to catch you up on the decades you've missed. Do you think you can work with us?"

"Of course."

Tony helped Howard adapt their reintegration program to account for Steve's bullheadedness, letting him know when they finally drilled something into his head and when to quiz him to call him out on his lies. Steve eventually realized that he was getting nowhere by just going along with their tests and actually paid attention to lessons to get it all over with. Once he did that, he began to actually understand the future he woke up in. Howard began "You don't have to say yes but Peg dumped out the last sample of your blood we had so I need to ask you for another. I believe your blood may hold the key to a cure for the many ailments you suffered from." Steve agreed easily enough and Howard took two pints, "Thank you. I think you're ready to go in with Tony and myself to see Peggy."

"Why are we bringing Tony?"

"He found you, he's going to find Barnes for us. Trust me, my son can do this. Peggy probably believes both you and Barnes are dead. We've kept your recovery a secret. I paid the employees who helped us find you a bonus to declare the expedition a failure and go along with our cover story that I brought Tony along with me, knowing it would be my last trip to the arctic."

"Okay."

"Let's go reintroduce you to Peggy."

Tony was waiting in the car with eyes that Steve knew saw right through everyone. Tony wandered off and Howard used the excuse of going to find him to leave Steve and Peg alone. Steve tried to talk some sense into Peggy when she began talking about how they would have to put him on the Index but ultimately had to use the lab fire Tony started to cover his escape. Tony said "Found him." He whispered the location in his father's ear and Steve was too caught up in his most recent memories of Peg to use his super soldier hearing to eavesdrop.

Howard took them to a military base where a team was already assembled for the recovery mission, they got him out before moving on SHIELD as a whole. Bucky looked terrible, Tony watched Steve look at him through the window in the medical suite. Finding out Uncle Obie and Aunt Peg were in on the assassination plot actually helped Howard and hurt him at the same time. Tony needed new godparents, Howard decided, and he chose Steve for the godfather, having seen him adjust to the modern age. Tony watched Steve and drank his juice box before asking to be picked up, "What?"

"Pick me up so I can tell you a secret, Goliath. Whoops, wrong giant." Steve picked him up. Tony told him how he could see someone's past by looking at them. "I saw Aunt Peg talk about the Index, saw her talk about how dad was out of control, saw her give the go ahead to get rid of him. I saw where you were when you said goodbye, even though she wasn't paying attention to that. I used it to find you. I also saw HYDRA's involvement in trying to get rid of my parents. If HYDRA's still around and Bucky's body was never found, it's not hard to figure HYDRA got him back. We couldn't look into it alone so we got you out of the arctic and got you to help us."

"Thank you, for trusting me."

"Dad still has to tell mom, he said he'd tell her if I told you. He wants you to replace Obadiah as my godfather because Obie was going to help Peggy cover up mom and dad's murders. I think HYDRA was gonna use Bucky to kill them." They both looked at Bucky and Tony nearly burst into tears, "Hurts."

Thinking fast, Steve moved away from the window. Slowly but surely, Tony found out what they did to Bucky. Howard let Maria be the judge of when Tony was ready to try looking at the super soldier again. Getting the full picture helped doctors even if they didn't know how Howard knew until files surfaced. The millionaire never forged files, he just claimed to have gone through HYDRA's systems when passing along the information his son gathered. With that information, doctors made a lot more progress with his treatment than they would have without it. The Starks had suggestions for Barnes' treatment but they took a backseat to the wishes of James' family. Howard let Tony pick his therapist but insisted the boy see one and made his son's selection sign an ironclad NDA. Without Obie or Peggy in the picture, Howard and Tony were able to pull SI out of weapons and move into general technology, eventually shutting down weapons' production entirely.

The past was a powerful thing, Tony mused as he sat in the waiting room at the hospital. Normally the husband of the mother/father of the child would be in the birthing suite but he stressed his wife out too much so he had to wait with the rest of their family and friends. He almost hoped his child was wholly human and not a mutant like him. Almost.

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In a fit of anger, Tony had a habit of cutting people down right to the bone. He had invoked everything from Fennhoff to SHIELD before his father realized what he was doing. Then they taught SHIELD why you don't fuck with the Starks, almost scaring Peggy into an early grave. Tony made a list of the secrets he saw when he went on a walk through SHIELD HQ with his father and the man destroyed his worst mistake before it could hurt anyone else. Without Peggy draining him, Howard was able to see Obie for what the man really was, the manipulative bastard, and discovered what his partner was doing behind his back. Tony scared the military into accepting Howard's terms when he decided he didn't want to make weapons anymore after taking down SHIELD/HYDRA.

College was an experience in more ways than one. Tony was made more aware of his habit of using his gift to scare people into doing what he wanted when it didn't work on his professors. He enjoyed finally being challenged and realized that is all he wanted in a boyfriend or girlfriend, he wasn't picky and neither was Howard in his youth, although nobody talked about that side of the playboy lifestyle. After losing Jarvis and launching JARVIS, Tony discovered his own greatest fear, losing his loved ones. Nobody got away with abusing him, try as Ty might.

Elektra was interesting, the only thing she feared was being abandoned. Tony whispered some of her darkest secrets in her ear to make himself interesting and lured her away from her exploitative mentor but she wasn't the one. He tried many things to find the one, someone who would neither fear nor lose him, someone who would challenge him. Eventually he found that in a woman named Darcy Lewis who he discovered by looking into a strange occurrence involving a man and a hammer falling from the sky. "Dude, what are you doing?"

"None of this is scaring you."

"How do you know about any of that?"

"It's a gift and a curse. How do you think my father got the military to kowtow to his demands when he decided SI wasn't going to make weapons anymore? I found their darkest fears and he exploited them to force the big shots to sign the contract."

"I can't believe you just told me that."

"You're the first person I've ever met who I can't scare with this ability of mine. Am I scaring you off now?"

Darcy saw through him, admitting "I have the power to cancel out other mutants' powers, I'm guessing you're a mutant."

"Oh thank god, science to the rescue."

Darcy laughed "Most mutants hate my powers."

"Most mutants don't know what it's like to wonder whether people are nice to you because they hate you and don't want to incur your wrath or if they're nice to you because they genuinely like you, they don't have to wonder if people are agreeing with you out of fear or genuinely agree. Most mutants have about a decade before their powers kick in, right?"

"Yeah. Wait, how long have you had your powers?"

"For as long as I can remember and I have a great memory." They may have had a bad start but they became THE power couple.

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The serum must be failing, Steve thought as he broke into another coughing fit. The serum made it so he didn't get sick, now he was sick as a dog, ergo the serum was failing. His logic was simple and foolproof. Except it wasn't, Tony figured when he caught Steve badgering Bruce "Leave him alone," his irritation growing. Tony focused on his science bro "You can kick him out if you want." Bruce nodded and politely asked Steve to leave him to his work. The super soldier went back to his quarters after JARVIS politely but sternly scolded him for putting his fellow Tower inhabitants at risk, playing to Steve's erroneous assumption that something was screwing with the serum.

After that disaster was averted, Tony called up his old mentor, Charles Xavier "What happens if someone I'm irritated with pushes me even further after the virus sets in?" The geneticist was fascinated by the inventor's mutation and its singular trigger, only irritation caused Stark to infect someone with a cold.

"I don't know. Am I correct to assume that someone is Steve Rogers?"

"Yup," Tony popped the P, they were having this conversation via phone because Charles was too old fashioned to employ video chat. "I think it's time he was reunited with Lucky James. Speaking of, how's Barnes?"

"He is as well as can be expected. What did Mr. Rogers do that has you so upset?"

"He tried to get Bruce to fix the serum once the cold set in. I don't know if he has a regular cold or not but I'm sure he put a lot of my employees at risk either way. Some of them have families and I don't want to start a whole outbreak."

"I know, Anthony."

"Tony, I'll get you to use my preferred name one of these days. Speaking of, Logan, yay or nay?"

"I'll have to ask him. Getting back to your original question, I imagine you have only extended his symptoms. I will ask Logan to drop in, try not to get irritated with him, I have no desire to see how a healing factor interacts with your gift in terms of infection."

"Of course not. Usual time next week?"

"Yes, Tony. I cannot express how proud I am that you are seeking therapy."

"Imagine if I got irritated with a normal therapist? This is only way I can safely do it."

"I know. I will talk to you soon."

"Talk to you then."

Chapter Text

Pepper was not a fool but Tony had a lifetime of experience keeping his strange gift a secret from women close to him. His early masterpieces went to his mother who thought he bought them from no name boutiques. His Antonio identity came from his lame attempt at explaining away his gifts to his mother. Truth is, when he's stressed, he is the best in the fashion business. Maybe his inventor roots had something to do with it, he created accessories that simply put should not exist and yet they do. Point is, Pepper's not an idiot but Tony also isn't incompetent when it comes to keep his secret.

Romanoff should have known better, Tony activated a failsafe- the first of its kind- in the Widow Bites bracelets he and Antonio created for the Widow. After Maria Stark's death, Antonio became a real man by the name of Antonio Carbonell (his mother's maiden name). His alter ego was about half as rich as him, which is impressive considering he inherited millions whereas Antonio was a real self made man. Anyway, the Bites backfired, causing Romanoff to collapse when she tried to recruit T'Challa after she had called Barton and confirmed he was on his way to fight for Team Cap. Tony warned Vision and advised his pseudo-son to knock out Wanda before the archer got there. With a heavy heart, he turned both the former HYDRA agent and the two ex-assassins over to the authorities. Dropping in on T'Challa, he asked "Y’know nobody has been able to prove the Winter Soldier's existence for 70 years, the man's been a ghost invisibly killing for decades, and now he bombs a UN conference, kills a bunch of bystanders and gets his face on the news. How does that make sense? For that matter, what the hell is he doing in Vienna anyway? He was last seen in Washington, DC. How did he get across the Atlantic without anyone seeing him? Food for thought, oh and FYI, I got a bug put on Barnes' arm when he was brought in, the doctor did more than send him on a rampage, he also had our little friend brief him on an old mission." Tony tossed the king a flash drive with the recording "You want to know what I think happened?"

"Yes."

Tony landed and stepped out of the armor, which he had on in preparation for the imminent fight to come. "I think the doctor framed Barnes because he couldn't find the Winter Soldier and he needed him to get to the other Winter Soldiers, HYDRA made four more after Barnes if that briefing is anything to go by. I think the doctor is setting us up but I can't for the life of me think of what for. I guess it doesn’t matter. What matters is if we’re going to fall for it. I didn’t trust a self-styled super spy, sue me but because I didn’t trust Romanoff, I know exactly what she said to you."

"You’re the reason she collapsed?"

"I put a failsafe in the Widow Bites so she could never use them against me. An assassin turned self-styled super spy does not sound like a trustworthy person, even on paper. Don’t you agree?"

"I suppose. What are you proposing?"

"Same thing she was, help bring Rogers and Barnes in. Listen, she was pitching you revenge but there’s reason to believe Barnes didn’t kill your father. Even if he did, how many victims of the Winter Soldier are just missing, presumed dead? How many families have given up on knowing the truth because those cases have gone cold? Let’s bring him in so we can find out, so every victim's family can have the same justice. Rogers, I have an airtight case against him but it won’t mean squat if he runs off into the sunset with his one true brainwashed assassin. What do you say?"

"Your pitch is definitely better. I assume you have made preparations to avoid more collateral damage."

"How much is Romania charging you?"

"Only my share, less than I deserve."

"Good to hear. Yeah, Rogers is used to taking a Quinjet so I’ll have one parked at the far end of an evacuated airport and let word get to him via Romanoff before knocking her out again. Vision has already taken down Wanda Maximoff, his ability to access the internet by thinking has led him to some unpleasant truths about the girl he almost loved. Plus, Viz is basically my son and Maximoff has never tried to temper her rage against me, even on account of that. The feelings weren’t strong, more of a what could have been but the important thing is, we have the most powerful being on Earth on our side. I need you to respect sovereign borders and wait to get clearance to follow the doctor, assuming you’re willing to go that far."

"You said he had more Winter Soldiers he was going after?"

"Yeah, I think he’s going after them. I don’t assume I’m always right, not when I have no way to prove it at least. You with me on this? On bringing them in alive?"

"Yes."

"Alright. Leipzig-Halle Airport, that’s where we’re setting up. Rogers has one or two flunkies I can’t preemptively take out, partly because I only know of Wilson and I was too late to keep him in the States."

"That’s four on three?"

Tony shook his head "My friend James Rhodes has clearance to join us. Four on four and Rogers only has a week of boot camp under his belt, even I have more training."

"This will be an easy fight."

"Never assume unless you can prove. Your father actually said something like that, the tape's on that thumb drive."

"You knew my father?"

"He invited me to work on the Accords. He was the only one who sought an opinion from those affected, actually asked me to pass out drafts. Technically I was never an Avenger, only a consultant, SHIELD’s attempt at manipulating me, but because of that divide, I saw no reason to waste my time and breath trying to get them to work with me on that. None of them had a mind for politics. Your father would give me at least one copy of the most recent draft when there was a break in the drafting process and I’d disperse it among more politically minded Enhanced, they’d give me their opinions and I’d pass them on to your father who would present them to his fellow world leaders and reps as his own ideas or those of his people. He’s the reason the Accords aren't what Rogers thinks they are, a means of controlling the Enhanced. He made sure registration was not required of all Enhanced, only those who operate internationally. He tried to push for a supremacy clause that would enable the Accords to supercede any national document regarding the Enhanced but then Rogers' band of merry morons tore through a city and the goodwill needed to push that through was gone, individual nations wanted to be able to control their local Enhanced. I’d tell you more but we only have until the airport is almost clear so you need to suit up."

"I look forward to hearing more."

"You have the actual recordings. I had King T'Chaka's permission to record our conversations as a way to prove to the other Enhanced that we were actually talking about what they thought we were talking about. He refused the recordings, only listened to a handful, verifying that I didn’t twist his words after seeing how the world media does that."

"I will meet you-"

"Suit up and we’ll fly to the airport together."

"Very well." There was no Civil War. A war implies both sides stand an equal chance of winning and Rogers' side was outclassed.

Chapter Text

Tony knew most of his relationships weren't very healthy. He could take the form of a crush or lost love. Nobody ever exposed him, they just left him and often lied about the relationship. Drax was different, good different Tony thought.

The Guardians had crashed on Earth after hitting the incomplete defense grid and setting off every alarm. A brunette man in a red jacket disembarked first, telling his team "I didn't know there'd be a force field. It wasn't there when I was a kid!"

Tony cleared his throat as the rest of the crew came into view "The force field is new and thanks to you, it's already sustained serious damage."

"Who are you?"

"Tony Stark, can I assume you're from Earth?"

"I'm from Missouri."

"Missouri is a part of the United States of America, located on the North American continent on planet Earth. Now that we got that out of the way, I gotta ask what you're doing here. Do you regularly bust through the force-fields around planets you can't name? Is that a thing in the wider galaxy?"

"We're here to warn the people of this planet about Thanos-" the green skinned woman began.

"The Mad Titan, who seeks the six Infinity Stones to wipe out half of all life in the universe. Loki beat you to it, Gamora." Tony smiled at her shocked expression "Loki also used his sky-walking, I'll never get over that name, to help Earth set up communication with several alien empires in exchange for us mortals claiming jurisdiction in the case of him invading our planet at the behest of the Mad Titan. We know all about that." He tapped his glasses "I'll admit our tech is a little slow, facial recognition isn't quite synced up but given a little time, it does the job. Now, if you'll follow me."

"Where?" asked Peter.

A portal opened behind Tony, "I'm going to help you properly warn the planet, expect to be questioned about everything you know about Thanos and his forces." They all went through the portal and the agent on the other side closed it.

Gamora said "I didn't know humans could do that."

"It's magic. After Loki warned us, the planet began preparing. A centuries old, hidden group calling themselves the Masters of the Mystic Arts came out of hiding to offer their aid. That's all I can say before your debriefing. Afterwards, assuming you're given clearance, I will tell you why they chose to come out of hiding. These agents will be handling the debriefing."

The Guardians went through the process with few complaints, especially once Rocket and Groot were allowed to do their interviews together on the condition that Rocket translate for Groot. Tony asked "Do any of you know how to read English or do I need Loki to enchant your briefing packets?"

"Briefing packets?" asked Gamora, picking one up "I can read this."

"All relevant Earth details are in there, ask FRIDAY if you need any additional information."

As he turned to leave, Drax asked "Who is this FRIDAY?"

"Say hi, FRIDAY."

"Hello, Guardians. I am FRIDAY, an artificial intelligence responsible for the Avengers Compound in which you are currently standing."

"You been practicing diplomacy with Loki?"

With a simulated sigh, FRIDAY answered "Yes, Boss."

"The Guardians are like space Avengers, not government."

"Are you telling me not to be professional?"

"Of course, I'm telling you to be yourself, baby girl."

Drax asked "The artificial intelligence is your daughter?"

"I'm her creator so yeah."

Drax had, by far, the best response to seeing his powers in action when Tony decided to show him, "Impressive."

"Yeah, that's one word for it."

Their relationship developed during Thanos preparations, Drax's response to Tony asking him to describe his wife was "Why do you ask?"

"Sorry, habit. Usually people like my power for that, I can look like anyone, a lost love or crush."

"Sounds creepy."

"I guess. That's probably why my relationships never last."

"Most likely."

There was something about knowing full well how easily someone could crush him like a bug but would not that thrilled Tony, or maybe it was finally finding someone who wanted him for himself not to fulfill a fantasy. Drax even decided to stay with him after they beat Thanos.

Chapter Text

When the Avengers turned on him, Edward took over and blew them away then Maria stole control “Oh dear, seems we have a problem.” They felt her tendrils in their minds then nothing.

James Rhodes, the only person who knew about Iron Man’s mutant condition, said “Maria?”

“James,” her tone was cold.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know.”

“Need a hand? JARVIS-”

“Is dead, do try to keep up.” Edward was back.

“What about back ups?”

Stark was given control “Right.”

“Um, do you want to know?”

“Not particularly but go ahead anyway.”

“Edward sent the Avengers flying, Maria messed with their heads and then Edward came back to check on things before you, Stark.”

“You always excelled at telling us apart. It was annoying at first but has since become useful. What were you planning?”

“Either bring JARVIS back or bring another AI online to use the remaining Iron Legion to clean up this mess. Can I talk to Anthony?” Their core personality was only out around true friends and viewed the names of most alters as nicknames. From what James Rhodes understood, Maria filtered memories to keep up appearances, protecting her host body by hiding her own existence. Anthony remembered enough that nobody would know he had a split personality, Edward saw enough to know how to handle himself in a fight and so on. “Wait, are there more of you? I know Anthony, Tony, Tones, Edward, Maria and you.”

“There was always more than that but we’re still the only ones who can take full control.”

“Meaning the others are influencers.”

“Meaning Anthony’s power is much greater than the five of us combined. I cannot bring Anthony back. The five of us exist to ensure his safety. Until he is safe, he cannot have control.”

“You all are very aware of each other.”

“I see you have read about Anthony’s condition. Maria is a very effective filter and you must remember most people with DID do not have our power.”

“Is Edward going to kill me?”

“Not as such. You have a concussion.” His eyes glowed for a moment before resuming their conversation “Edward is hurt, I suppose. Neither he nor I are good with emotions. Now, we must focus.”

“Sorry. Wait, what were you doing when your eyes glowed? You’re the pattern recognition personality, your appearance doesn’t change when you use your power.”

“I was channeling another to heal you and finish healing Anthony. Unfortunately, it seems I am insufficient to solve this problem, even with your aid.” The brunet’s body relaxed a bit, intelligent eyes scanning the room in a different way before locking on James “Rhodey!”

“Uh, Tones?”

“Got it in one. Maria’s filtering a lot more through but Edward and Stark are still sticks in the mud. What do you need, buddy?”

“We need to find Ultron. I’m not sure who was in control when he first showed up.” A distant look filled his friend’s eyes before the younger man nodded. “Got an idea?”

“Yeah, Maria’s going to be busy. We cannot let Anthony out with that witch around. She’s actually mad Edward was channeling when Maximoff popped up.”

“What?”

“There’s Anthony, the human, then the five of us dominant personas and then a boatload of others that the five of us can sometimes channel. Finding the right one is really tricky and usually requires teamwork. Edward accidentally distracted Maria which is how Maximoff got her hooks in. We’re purging now but some of us were more affected than others and protecting Anthony is our first priority. JARVIS,” his voice became hollow and Rhodey was reminded of the age difference. Some of his best friend’s personalities were very young, others were born when his mutant power manifested. He shifted between personas so smoothly that if someone wasn’t outright told or extremely observant, they would never know that there was more than one person inhabiting the shorter man.

Rhodey asked “What do you want to do? Stark was in charge for a while, he’s the planner personality, right?”

“He sees patterns, yes but he gave up, too technical. Stark decided that he would be better put to use on the purge.” Tones sighed, “Let’s get to work. Stark thinks you should take over filling us in so Maria can focus.” James never realized how much went into balancing Anthony’s alters until he had to do the job. The first thing Tones did was get the security system up and running then he started looking for JARVIS and brought another AI, FRIDAY, online “How ya doing, baby girl?”

“I’m good, Boss, I think.” James stepped up before Tones could correct his new assistant. FRIDAY contained the most volatile of the Avengers, allowing Bruce to join them once he woke up.

“What happened?”

“The witch,” answered Rhodey. “Seems Ms. Maximoff fucked with Tony’s head to make him self-destruct. Not that it matters since you were only running diagnostics, Ultron is on neither of your heads.”

“That’s good to know but I meant-”

“I know what you meant. You wondered what happened to you while you were being a bystander.” James spun on him, “I had a concussion, what’s your excuse?”

“I, I didn’t, stress.”

“Stress. Yeah, I might buy that if you were on the way out the door but you were just watching. Unfortunately, desperate times call for desperate measures and you have the best track record with Tones, which is why you’re not being held pending someone finding a way to properly imprison you. Being a bystander is not illegal, using someone else’s money without their permission is.”

“What?”

“The others have been running secret missions on Tony’s dime. They’re going to prison, just as soon as there’s a prison that can hold Rogers. Don’t worry, Tony doesn’t hate you. He understands. Maria Stark and Edwin Jarvis would stop Howard from shoving Tony down the stairs but they didn’t bother stopping him from screaming at, shaking or slapping his son. They even supported the idea that Howard’s drinking was Tony’s fault. You all care to a point, Tony gets that. I won’t stand here and let my best friend suffer abuse again. You’re with us until this latest crisis is resolved then you can feel free to flee the man who did his damndest to help you and got exactly what he asked for in return: nothing. Am I understood?”

“Yes, Colonel Rhodes.”

Bruce was properly distracted and didn’t notice James whispering updates in Anthony’s ear as he shifted between personalities. Using his armors to replace the missing or broken drones, Tones sent the Iron Legion to trap the Maximoff twins then he let Edward and Hulk deal with Ultron and the stolen drones. They were just a little too late to stop Ultron from using Cho to start working on a new body. After talking their options over on the flight back, Bruce, James, and Tones finished the job, adding a copy of JARVIS. James picked up Thor’s hammer and used it to give them the boost needed to bring their vision for the future online. Bruce apologized but Tones brushed him off before Stark took over to finish dealing with the Avengers.

Chapter Text

Timing is everything, not just in comedy or what have you. The simple truth is that timing is everything.

Tony listened to the doctor's explanation and translations, let the terrorists think they had him right where they wanted him as they led him outside. The minute they were outside, Tony closed his eyes against the sunlight and reached out to all the guns in the area, turning them on the terrorists. Slinging an arm over Yinsen's shoulder, he shoved the car battery into the doctor's hands and threw them both to the ground to wait out the slaughter. Groaning, he slowly picked himself up, that was a lot harder than he expected. Looking down, he was struck by the reason. The electromagnet took up quite a bit of space in his chest- you didn't have to be an MD to know that a lot of vital organs were crammed inside a person's torso. Pulling Yinsen up beside him, Tony turned to him "We should get out of here."

"Yes, we should." The doctor was shaken and Tony found himself wondering how long it would take the other man to figure out what just happened. Would he correctly guess the inventor's gift or would he think it was more limited in scope? Tony led them over to vehicles on the edge of the camp and used his power to make the most of the lot, quickly swapping out parts and siphoning fuel.

A few guns floated over and came to rest in the back of the jeep as Tony climbed into the passenger's seat, "You'll have to drive so I can focus on keeping us safe." Once they were a safe distance away, the pins flew off all of the grenades in the terrorist camp. Tony changed the setting on a radio to call the American Air Force, finding a relatively safe place for them to hole up and await rescue.

Once they were out of immediate danger, Yinsen asked "Are you telekinetic?"

"Yeah. If I say something to you, could you translate?"

"Possibly." Tony told Yinsen what he heard the terrorists saying and Yinsen translated before summarizing "Seems you are in a great deal of trouble."

"Yeah but I'm pretty sure I have some people I can trust with my life," he looked at Yinsen. "I'm gonna focus on keeping watch for a bit, not sure I have the energy for much more than that."

Thankfully, it didn't take long for Rhodey's team to find them. Rhodey waved Yinsen aboard the transport and the two escaped captives gave their statements several times. Yinsen's translations led to an investigation into Stane, who had become bolder while Tony was gone and thus was easily caught. By the time they touched down in America, Tony had already mentally designed an undershirt to temporarily replace the car battery of the electromagnet, just until he could come up with something better. Pepper, being the super efficient goddess she was, arranged to keep him mostly out of sight until he was ready to face the people. With the undershirt, he was able to start taking care of business.

Seeing his logo all over that terrorist camp and learning about what Obie had done was an eye opener. With Yinsen's help, Tony remembered the connections he'd made in Bern with other doctors. They tracked down Maya Hansen, who slapped Tony in the face upon seeing him then looked at the strange contraption he was wearing underneath a hoodie (he had to have a few business suits tailored to fit around it without making him look like a terrorist), "So you tracked me down because you need something. Typical."

"Actually, I'm already developing an alternative power source that should work for a couple years." Tony looked her in the eyes "So you're only half-right. I came to ask if you'd be interested in partnering with SI for Extremis. I want to expand the company, try to help more than harm." In his ear, JARVIS assured him there were no cameras. Taking a deep breath, he said "As a sign of trust, I'd like to show you something." He nodded his head to her desk and then the papers on it began floating- straight up because he didn't want to anger her by messing with her organization- as Maya watched in awe.

Looking back at Tony, she said "You're doing that? How long-?"

"Since I was a little kid. You are now one of fewer than ten people who know, that's power. I want to get SI out of weapons but not at the cost of ruining more lives so I need to expand the company, phase weapons out instead of unilaterally shutting down our biggest money maker, which would prompt massive layoffs." Maya was a bit more amenable after that but she was firm on the point of keeping most of her employees, to which Tony shrugged "You're the expert and they're your experts."

"I also need your help with something sort of unrelated." That thing turned out to be reporting her boss Aldrich Killian for some very serious crimes. Maya couldn't do it without Stark's protection unless she wanted to be taken down with him.

Yinsen chose to stay on as Tony's doctor, helping him change out the batteries on the undershirt he had to wear almost constantly and monitoring his overall health. Along with the shirt, he made another waterproof battery pack that was fitted over the electromagnet so he could safely shower. Once the expansion of Stark Medical was well underway, Tony had JARVIS send some of his personal projects - possible inventions that had nothing to do with weapons - to his underlings for further development to shift SI R&D away from weapons. His battery packs for the electromagnet were reworked for consumer consumption. With all of that done, he had the breathing room he needed to begin work on a completely different power source "Where should I begin?"

"If I may make a suggestion," began JARVIS.

"Sure thing, J."

"Perhaps you should start with the Arc Reactor." Tony got to work on that, occasionally seeking Yinsen's input, which saved him the Hell that would have been heavy metal poisoning. The battery packs could work for a while, Tony had already made sure his batteries were rechargeable and had charging stations set up throughout his house with a discreet one in his office. Instead of putting one in his car, he just kept extra batteries in his briefcase. It was a hassle but it was better than the alternative of having his heart shredded.

Getting the Arc Reactor adapted to meet his needs was extremely difficult and he eventually resorted to having JARVIS design a molecule that fit the parameters for a power source then worked with his AI to find a way to synthesize this new element. With the element synthesized, he started building the miniature Arc Reactor with Yinsen. His health had been declining since the convoy was hit, the hole in his chest reducing lung function and the strain on his heart being an ever-present issue. The Arc Reactor improved his odds of surviving long enough to see a solution come into existence. Thankfully, Yinsen was able to do the surgery himself, as Tony wasn't sure he'd trust anyone else.

Now able to shift focus away from his personal health, Tony turned his attention to his company. He went on a designing binge, sending rough drafts to R&D, and set things in motion to formally shift SI away from weapons. With that taken care of, he resumed a long term personal project: putting an end to SHIELD and the Index. "J, do a deep dive. Let's end this." He didn't have time to keep playing the long game, great as the Arc Reactor was, Tony was still human with an ailing body. Over the years since he set JARVIS loose on the internet, he had created many protocols that allowed his creation to operate with greater autonomy than most people would believe a machine to be capable of. JARVIS chose a stealth approach, making the two factions within the organization aware of each other through a few computer errors. In the midst of the SHIELD Civil War, the Enhanced were able to slip their leashes and make a break for the safe havens Tony had set up over the years.

Well aware of his own mortality, Tony made arrangements for his friends to inherit his shares of SI stock and for Pepper to take over as CEO, the latter was set to take place once the company's transition away from weapons had reached the point of no return even if Tony was alive at that point. The inventor was almost surprised when Extremis passed the FDA approval process in time for the billionaire to use it to fix the damage to his heart and hole in his chest. He adapted his will to be more thoughtful with his friends' inheritance and mindful of the responsibility that came with each share of his estate. In Tony, who was already Enhanced (as SHIELDRA called superhumans), Extremis had the added benefit of turning back his biological clock, making him younger.

SI was in the final stages of ending weapons production (they just had a couple of contractual obligations to fulfill before the last factories could be converted) when Steve Rogers was finally defrosted. The SHIELD Civil War had toppled the organization and various federal agencies took over for the former clandestine international powerhouse. In Rogers' case, the DOD claimed jurisdiction because the man was never formally discharged. When the US government was sorting out that jurisdictional dispute, evidence was found suggesting Howard Stark had loaned the shield to Rogers, making it Tony's property. Tony found out where his father got the Vibranium and went with a couple of his fellow Enhanced to a Wakandan border, where he leaned against a tree to wait. "Why are you here?" asked a man dressed in blue.

Tony lifted the shield with his mind "I found out my father stole from you to make this. I don't need the Titanium so I thought I'd give you the whole thing, return what was taken and avoid a blood feud, if possible." The man eyed the shield warily and Tony set it down at his feet, "If it's all the same with you, we'll just leave that there." Slowly he and his team left the jungle, Tony sensed the shield being lifted before he stopped paying attention to the relic. As far as Tony was concerned, that's what the shield was: a relic. Some part of the past that had no place in the present. Who knows? Maybe returning it will have positive consequences. Tony didn't care. He wasn't attached to the shield and from what he'd found, Wakandans could be violently protective of their Vibranium, if legends of the Black Panther were to be believed.

Chapter Text

James Rhodes was sure he was dreaming, or hallucinating, as Tony seemed to be floating around their dorm. The next day, Rhodey couldn't help checking to make sure the teen's feet were on the floor. Yeah, he must've dreamt that.

Harold Hogan was stunned when his Boss responded to his use of the cliche 'float like a butterfly' by actually floating. The young man actually got a pretty good whack in and when Happy (as Boss insisted on calling him) looked at his feet again, they were on the matts, like they'd always been. Huh, weird, thought the ex-boxer.

Virginia Potts found herself easily overwhelmed by Mr. Stark being... Mr. Stark. When she saw him standing a couple of feet off the floor as he tinkered. Without thinking, she started to voice her confusion. Mr. Stark seemed to startled and spun around, feet dropping to the floor. "I need more sleep." He left his workshop to head to bed and Pepper (as the billionaire had taken to calling her) decided sleep was probably a good idea.

Natalie Rushman never caught Mr. Stark air walking but Natasha Romanoff did when she tailed him from the party. In the interest of not getting slapped with another psych eval or demoted or some other disciplinary action, she kept it to herself and went along with the idea that he used his armor to fly into the donut.

Nicholas Fury was aware that something was off with Tony Stark but the man quickly proved infuriating enough that the thought was pushed to the wayside.

Phillip Coulson was startled when a hole was blown into the mansion's floor and quickly went down to the workshop to investigate. Mr. Stark barely glanced up as he entered but he seemed just a touch shorter than he had when Coulson was making his way down the steps. Coulson wrote it off as an optical illusion and gladly returned Captain America's shield to SHIELD storage.

Steve Rogers quickly decided he did not like Tony Stark. The man was simply infuriating and made adjusting to the future exponentially more difficult. Sometimes, Rogers swore the man was walking on air but every time he gave him a second glance, Stark's feet were firmly on the ground, like always.

Bruce Banner was making tea one evening in the Tower when Tony silently trudged into the kitchen. After years on the run, Bruce had very sharp senses and was startled when Stark managed to sneak up on him. He must've startled the other scientist in turn because he heard a thud, that sounded like someone landing after jumping straight up.

Clint Barton did not have an opinion of Stark, other than that the man was brilliant and sometimes annoyingly so. Sometimes when Clint was in the vents, he'd sneak a peek at Stark's lab. When he did that, the man's height seemed to vary.

Thor, of all people, figured it out. "You are a skywalker."

"What?" asked Tony. They were having one of their celebratory team dinners, a tradition that started in a small shawarma restaurant.

"A skywalker, you walk on air with greater ease than that which many walk on solid ground."

"Oh, uh, yeah."

"Really?" asked Clint.

"Yeah. I was always told it was dangerous to let others see," his gaze locked on Natasha, "So I try not to do it but it is natural. Mom used to say my first steps gave them a heart attack because I had further to fall than most. Story goes, I was set down on a cupboard while Edwin Jarvis went to grab something and I got bored, as those with overactive minds do, so I walked away. Jarvis caught me but didn't believe what he'd seen so he didn't say anything until I did something similar in front of my parents."

"Huh." Clint shrugged "Makes sense. It's a pretty cool power, though."

"Yeah, well, having to wear extra socks or heavy shoes as a reminder to keep my feet on the floor isn't much fun." Tony then changed the subject and JARVIS took his honesty with the Avengers as permission to share the truth with Sir's Three List.

Chapter Text

As Tony woke up, he could feel the death all around him. Taking a moment to take stock of himself, he carefully picked himself and the car battery up and grabbed the other man in the room, pulling him back into the shadows. Before the man could say anything, they were gone, transported to a deserted building. Tony kept one hand on the mystery man and one on the battery as he caught his breath then he let out a shrill taxicab whistle to summon a Hellhound. After his mother's death, his father gifted him a Hellhound and gave him permission to visit his domain anytime. Most people looked at all kings of the dead as though they were some ultimate evil but his father was actually pretty decent. Bit absentee but overall, not bad. Pushing the mystery man towards Erebros (named after the Underworld itself), Tony collapsed against the giant dog, "Let's go home," before promptly passing out. Anthony knew this was not how he was supposed to die, it'd been impressed upon him that he had a great destiny and dying on the way home did not fit that bill.

When he woke up, he was in his room. His father always maintained a bedroom for each of his children, even though most didn't visit until they were dead. Tony noticed he was feeling fine and figured that his father had Hecate or one of her children work their magic. Standing up, he pulled a shirt on and left his room. Stopping a passing spirit, he asked "Where is the man I brought with me?"

"With your father in the throne room, my lord." Letting the servant continue on its way, Tony made his way there, moving quickly but without hurrying because his father tended to overact when it came to his safety and running would only make things worse.

The guards at the door announced his arrival as Tony glided to his father. Another thing the King of the Underworld did was keep a throne handy for his living children. Most chose not to join the Royal Family of Erebros after death, unless the alternative was Tartarus but those damned sons and daughters of Hades rarely had the option of being princes and princesses instead. Tony had long held the belief that none of his father's children stayed with him for eternity, that all of them opted for the afterlife sooner or later. "What are you doing?" he glanced at the mystery man as he asked this, hoping his father hadn't jumped to conclusions and begun torturing the mortal.

"He-" Seeing his father's enraged expression swiftly dashed those hopes.

"Father, I woke up in a makeshift cell with this man watching over me and decided to jump first, ask questions later. I don't know what he did or didn't do, he was just there and I wasn't going to take the chance he was innocent. He could be innocent, Father."

Hades had absolute control over everything in his domain, especially within his palace. Tony had to be healed by Hecate or one of her descendants because there was a chance his mixed blood might counteract his father's handiwork. A mortal healed by Hades in Erebros would remain healed after leaving the God's realm, unless Hades willed it otherwise. With a snap of his fingers, the mystery man was healed and standing up straight in fatigues. Hades gestured for Tony to take his seat and the father-son duo did so simultaneously, "Who are you? What have you done to my son?"

The man answered "My name is Ho Yinsen, I am a doctor, I operated on your son to save his life."

Hades looked at Tony, speaking mentally Wouldn't want you trapped down here too soon, son. Turning back to Yinsen, Hades decided "I'll give you a pass, this time."

Tony explained "If he didn't give you a pass, the guards would kill you to set right the living mortal inside the realm of the dead." Sitting up straight, he gestured between the two men "Dr. Ho Yinsen, allow me to introduce my father Hades, King of Erebros, God of the Dead and Riches, formerly known as Howard Stark."

Yinsen bowed, nerves clear to see, "King Hades?"

"Stand up straight," Yinsen did as told "And ask what you're going to ask."

"Do you know everyone who has died?"

Tony and Hades shared a look, "Are you asking me to verify the death of someone in particular or just asking in general?"

"My family, I believe them to be dead-"

"You said your surname is Ho?" Hades looked off into the distance, Tony wasn't sure how he identified the dead given the sheer number of people who died at any given time but somehow he was able to do that. When his eyes cleared, he nodded "They are indeed among my subjects. Would you rather join them than rejoin the living?"

"Yes, sir."

With a snap of his fingers, Yinsen's soul was separated from his body to join his family, leaving an empty husk that instantly became a corpse. Tony brought his father up to speed on recent events and his father told him of the vengeance he had exacted, taking his son's hand and transporting them to Olympus to hear of his destiny from Apollo himself.

Many years later, Tony died with a smile on his face, having seen to the Mad Titan's demise before his father's domain could be overrun by half the universe joining his subjects.

Chapter Text

Jormungandr is what his father named him before the All-Father cast him out for no reason. After centuries of struggling, of choking on his own tail, he was free but if he wanted to stay that way he couldn't use his true name. He was able to pass his magic off as intuitive science and called himself Tony. Getting adopted by Howard Stark was a stroke of good luck, meeting Steve Rogers was the other kind of luck. Seeing his father for the first time in centuries, hearing the disdain in his uncle's voice, it took everything he had not to unleash his true power. One day, Odin, you will pay for what you've done.

Chapter Text

Thanos tried to throw a moon at him, he threw it right back and charged the Titan, having filched one of the Guardians' weapons. Using his power to make gravity's pull on the Titan stronger, he jumped and drove the blade through the tyrant's neck. "Drax, you wanna finish it? Claim his head?" The Destroyer didn't need to be told twice and Tony managed to get his hand on (literally on) the Gauntlet, focusing his attention on willing the Reality Stone to dissolve Thanos' hand so he could take the Gauntlet. The most feared man in the universe lost his hand and his head at the same time. With the Gauntlet, he used the Space Stone to transport them all to someone who could safely use the full set before collapsing.

"Where are we?" asked Quill.

"You don't know," said Spider-Man.

"And Stark's in no condition to tell us," added Strange.

"Stark-" they all spun at the voice (familiar to all but Strange and Spider-Man).

"Gamora!" the Guardians surrounded the green woman.

Spider-Man asked "Is Mr. Stark going to be okay?"

Strange moved to check on him, "He's alive, that's about all I can say." Strange straightened from leaning over Stark's unconscious body.

Seeing the Gauntlet, Gamora came over, "Who are you?"

"I am Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme of Earth. This is Spider-Man." He gestured to the young man then pointed to the unconscious hero "And Iron Man, Tony Stark."

"Stark," she once again echoed the name before taking the Gauntlet, "Is Thanos dead?"

"He literally lost his head so probably," answered Spider-Man.

"Good." Gamora put the Gauntlet on and transported them to the remaining Stones before using the Reality Stone to erase Thanos' forces. Taking the Gauntlet off, she said "We need to find new places to hide the Infinity Stones."

Tony woke up in a Wakandan recovery room and had a very excited Spider-Man tell him about the Infinity War before a doctor came in to check on him and get him discharged, noting how Spider-Man refused to leave his side. Holding his baby girl in his arms, Tony knew he made the right call about using his powers and the Infinity Stones, consequences be damned.

Chapter Text

People only see what they want to see. That's why Tony's never bothered to hide his gift, people don't see his power at work no matter how much he uses it. For example:

When the Helicarrier started to go down, he threw his power at Bruce to keep the Hulk at bay.

When he went up against Loki, he used his power to escape his thrall.

When he went after the Mandarin, he used his power to even the playing field against his Extremis agents.

Sokovia was an eye-opener as it made Tony aware of just how much he used his power. When Wanda Maximoff gave him a vision, his panic triggered his power and enabled him to neutralize both twins. Swiping the spear, he had the armor drag the twins to the Quinjet. The whole flight back, he kept his power going to keep them contained but that wasn't going to work in the long run. "Bruce, we're gonna need the smash room. According to their files, they're Enhanced." For some godforsaken reason Tony wouldn't understand until much later, Steve adds them to the team. In response, Tony gives them their own compound and washes his hands of the Avengers.

The UN Enhanced Accords push everyone to their breaking point, although it's clear to Tony that none of his former teammates actually read the damn thing. It's all about Barnes. Tony is so sick and tired of everything related to Steve Rogers that he finally hits him full force with his power in Siberia, far away from any witnesses. With the serum's power negated, a reverse transformation takes place. The cold bunker environment proves to be too much for sickly Stevie to handle within minutes and he promptly perishes. Tony only has to look at Barnes to get him to drop to his knees in surrender. Pointing at the door, he ordered Barnes to "March." The super soldier leaps to obey, preceding Tony out and catching T'Challa dragging Zemo to his ship. "Halt," Barnes immediately froze while Tony marched over to T'Challa "Let's trade. I'll take the baseline human and you take the brainwashed super soldier. I'm sure Wakanda is much better equipped to treat him and much less likely to be infiltrated by HYDRA." The king saw the look of abject terror in Barnes eyes and quickly agreed, "Oh and maybe you could take Rogers' body with you." Tony roughly grabbed Zemo's shoulder and dragged him over to the Quinjet, dropping him off with Russian authorities and getting the Hell out of Dodge before having a breakdown in the safety of his workshop as he's overcome by renewed grief.

People only see what they want to see, story of Tony's life.

Chapter Text

The Arc Reactor wouldn't have been viable in the long run if Tony couldn't manipulate molecules at will. When he fought Obie, he threw acid at the man's Arc Reactor and made it fast acting. Neutralizing the Extremis soldiers was a piece of cake once he recognized they were powered by regular injections of chemicals, he just changed the composition to neutralize the active agents in the previous dose. Out of necessity, Tony was a master chemist. He just hadn't mastered the kind of chemistry that led to a happily ever after.

Chapter Text

When Tony was 6 years old, he gave his father a heart attack by playing with time. Once the shock of his son's power wore off, Howard was fascinated. He had no idea where his son's power came from and his fascination morphed into concern as the implications sunk in. Six year old Tony Stark was completely oblivious to his father's internal turmoil as he toyed with an apple, watching it rot then reversing time to turn it into a seed and back and forth. A hand on his shoulder startled him and he looked up to see his father standing over him, "How are you doing that?"

"I don't know." Tony returned the apple to its original ripe state, "It's just something I can do. It's kind of fun."

"Tony, you do know that most people can't do that, right?" Howard had to make sure.

"Of course I know that. If people could turn back time then they could deage other people and we'd all be immortal." Howard was shocked to hear such a well thought out answer, his son was right. Immortality would be at everyone's fingertips if they could turn back time. He was even more amazed as his son continued "But then if we were always de-aging each other then nobody would age, science wouldn't evolve because anyone trying to shake things up could just be turned into a baby." He looked at Howard curiously, "Where would we be if people could do that?"

"I don't know," Howard admitted. Where would science be if people could make themselves immortal? Howard knew about the dark ages, knew there was a time before humans put their trust in science and during that time, scientists were often made examples of. If humanity had this power, could turn back time or make it speed up, then science might never have overcome that persecution. It was a scary thought, especially to someone like Howard who believed in science almost like it was a religion itself. "I'd like to run some tests on your power."

"Tests?" Tony sounded scared and Howard suddenly wondered how much his son thought about the implications of his powers. He had been quick to undo what he did to that apple, to make it like he had never messed with it.

"I want to see how it works. I have no idea where your power comes from but," Howard knelt down to be at eye level with his son "Listen to me, Tony, what you have is an amazing gift."

Tony said "In that case, you might want to call Charles Xavier." They had both met the man when Howard was showing off his prodigious son. Did Tony have his power two years ago?

"Why's that? I'm not doubting you, I'm just curious."

"He'll explain, you should call him." Tony pulled the man's business card out of his pocket and Howard wondered when his son had started carrying that around.

"Ok, I'll call him but I want you on the call with me."

"Deal."

As it turned out, Charles Xavier's school for the gifted was actually a school catering to superhuman children, mostly mutants like the man himself. Howard toured the campus with Maria and Tony in a state of amazed shock. Taking an apple from a bowl of fruit in the kitchen shortly after they arrived, Howard told Tony "I want you to show your mom what you can do. Alright?" Tony nodded and waved a hand over the apple. When his hand moved towards the right, the apple quickly decayed but when he moved it to the left, the apple was restored to its previous state. Howard realized Tony's hand moved like the hands on a clock, reversing time when his hand moved counterclockwise. Maria's response to seeing their son's power was to hug him and Howard realized he probably should've done that too when he found out. He also realized he probably should've asked Tony to demonstrate his power before they got in the car. Awkwardly ruffling up his hair, Howard said "That's amazing, son."

"Thanks." He squirmed out of his mother's arms and looked up at his father excitedly "I can do that to anything."

Wait, Howard was sorely tempted to ask what else he had been practicing on but a glance at Xavier told him not to. The Professor continued the tour, showing them the school and with a conspiratorial smile, he showed them a secret elevator leading them down to a base. "Are you familiar with the X-Men?"

"No-" Maria began to say when Howard answered "Yes, they're a team of mutants who deal with mutant threats like Magneto and his Brotherhood. They've been around since the Cold War." Maria looked at him and Howard looked uncomfortable "In theory, the X-Men were the model for the Avengers. In practice, I don't think the two are very much alike." Howard asked Charles "Are there any mutants with shrinking powers?"

"Why do you ask?" came the coy answer.

"Two of the Avengers I've worked with used suits with shrinking technology for missions. One of them shrunk down to stop a missile and never returned, the other quit soon after. Ant-Man, the survivor, believed his partner was trapped in something he called the Quantum Realm. A mutant with similar powers would have a better chance of safely investigating that theory than anyone else."

"I do not believe your old colleague would take kindly to your interference but I will extend an offer of aid to him, if he is willing to work with mutants."

"Thank you." Since discovering his son's powers, Howard had done a lot of thinking, had taken a good hard look at his life and the people in it. He was coming to realize he had chosen terrible godparents for his son, among other things.

Charles showed them around the base and told them about the X-Men, noting "Given Anthony's gift, he could become an X-Man someday."

Howard swallowed hard "Is Tony a mutant?" Charles had explained how he found students using Cerebro, although for security reasons he did not let them into the room that held Cerebro, explaining that he rarely let anyone into that room.

"No."

"What?" asked Tony "But I thought," he stopped talking as it clicked "You caught me thinking about my powers and that's how you knew I had them."

"I will admit to being surprised when, upon doing my next sweep on Cerebro, I noticed you were not, in fact, a mutant."

"So you have no idea where his power comes from? Is that what you're saying?" Howard had been hoping, almost expecting, this trip to answer the question of how his son could bend time to his will.

"I have some theories but at the moment, I confess I do not know for sure where young Anthony's gifts originate."

Maria grabbed Howard's hand, getting his attention along with it, "I think this place might be good for Tony, even if he's not a mutant."

Charles told them "My school is a safe haven for those who need it. I would be happy to enroll young Anthony if that is what you all would like. His gifts, while not originating from an X-gene as near as I can tell, are still extraordinary."

Howard asked his son "What do you think?"

"This place is awesome."

Howard looked at Maria, she was worried for Tony and with good reason. With a decisive nod, Howard said "I think we should get started on the paperwork." He realized, as Charles led them back up and to his office, that Peggy can't touch Tony here. With a telepath running things, SHIELD would be hard pressed to sneak an agent on campus.

Charles told them "Ideally, I would suggest waiting until Anthony is closer to adolescence, the age when most mutants manifest. However, I do not think Anthony will struggle with a more advanced curriculum nor do I believe he will have difficulty making friends among older peers." He smiled at them as he gathered the enrollment papers, "I would still suggest waiting to enroll your son until he is ready to move in, given our status as a boarding school."

"Makes sense," agreed Howard because it did. Tony wasn't struggling with control, he didn't desperately need this place the way no doubt many mutants did. They could hold off for a little bit to give the whole family time to adjust to the idea of Tony being away for months. Even if the school was still in New York, frequent visits would be disruptive. Howard wrote down the contact information for Pym, as best he could remember it, "For Ant-Man," he said as he traded the numbers for the packet. The whole drive home, Tony went on and on about how awesome being a superhero was going to be. "Remember what Professor Xavier said, they have a minimum age rule in place to protect students."

"I know."

Maria was clearly nervous about sending their six year old to boarding school, Howard didn't know how to reassure her. After Tony went to bed that night, Maria voiced her concerns "Not only will he be the youngest kid there, some of those kids have very dangerous powers."

"And Tony's power isn't dangerous?" Howard winced at how harsh that sounded. "I'm going to be honest, Maria, I have no idea what I'm doing. All I know is that Tony has powers I can't even begin to fully understand and Charles has decades of experience helping kids with superpowers. I'd like to run tests, to try to understand his powers so I can help him but I know that will just make Tony feel like a freak, like there's something wrong with him. Charles can help him figure it out while making Tony feel like he's one of many." He didn't mention he knew how tests would make Tony feel because he saw the look on Tony's face when he suggested running tests. Howard swallowed "And Charles can keep him safe from SHIELD. In fact, I think the X-Men could help put an end to Carter's operation." He had done a sweep for bugs while Tony and Maria were talking about the school. He was unsurprised to find that there were many bugs throughout his home and had only cleared a few rooms, intending to do more when he got home from SI the next day. The room they were in was one of those few, which is why Howard felt comfortable telling Maria about the revelations he'd had in regards to Tony's godparents. He could just see them manipulating and abusing his son the way they had him, except it would be worse for Tony because he would have known and trusted them his whole life. Sharing his plans had, somehow (Howard didn't know, he wasn't good with people), calmed Maria down.

Howard didn't rush Tony's transition to the school but he also didn't waste a minute after his son was safely under the protection of powerful mutants. After his talk with Hank Pym, during which Charles revealed himself to be a mutant as a means of gaining the man's trust after mentioning Howard had nearly cut things short, the telepath resumed talks with Howard, ultimately offering the X-Men's help to shut SHIELD down. Howard did not need anyone's help to find evidence of Obadiah's backdoor dealings nor to alert the proper authorities and put a stop to it. During Tony's first trip home, the father-son duo went on an inventing binge. The results of said binge helped SI begin to claw its way out of weapons and into consumer technology (tech for the average Joe).

By the time Tony inherited the company, SI no longer made weapons and the X-Men were recognized as the world's first superhero team. Sure, people still hated them simply for being mutants but the X-Men being known allies of the Avengers helped their image. Both teams worked with a degree of transparency that garnered them the trust and support of human law enforcement. A decade after Tony took over the company, taking it international with much greater ease than he would have had they stuck to weapons for American troops, a bald woman paid him a visit. She had the answers the Starks had always wanted, she explained to Tony that he was an Infinity Stone's Chosen, specifically the Time Stone's Chosen One. Around her neck she wore what she called the Eye of Agamotto, "Agamotto was your predecessor, he was the Time Stone's Chosen One long before you or I were born. He founded an order called the Masters of the Mystic Arts to defend the Time Stone as well as to defend our part of the multiverse from other dimensions." She explained everything to the best of her ability before confiding her reason for dropping in (literally dropping in from a portal in the ceiling, which she probably did to keep him from writing her off as crazy). "I have led the order as Sorcerer Supreme for centuries but now, my time in this world grows short. I will perish within your lifetime, the Eye has shown me that much. If our world is going to survive the trials and tribulations to come, my successor will need the power of the Eye. Only an Infinity Stone's Chosen can grant others the gifts of their Stone."

"You want me to what? Bless your successor so the Time Stone will let him wield it?"

"Essentially but I cannot tell you who my successor will be, not yet. I believe you will know the same way you instinctively knew how to use your power, the Time Stone will guide you as it has guided you before."

"Yeah, okay." At her surprised look, Tony said "The Tesseract is another Infinity Stone, isn't it? I always felt a connection to it and I feel an even stronger one to your Eye. I was told at a very young age that the source of my power might not be easily understood by science, that it might be beyond the bounds of what we know of. Mind you, the guy who told me that was equating my situation to being the first mutant ever, since everything we might know about a species is discovered after the species has been around for a while, after it has been studied but all of that starts with one person who is different from the rest, one mutant."

The Ancient One nodded, "I see."

"If I have any more questions, I'm sure the Time Stone will help me find you." They parted, the Ancient One stepping through a portal.

After telling those he trusted, such as his fellow X-Men, Tony let the whole thing slip from his mind, more or less. He continued running SI, continued running missions as the X-Man Kronos and continued inventing. Life went on until he was at an event where he met Stephen Strange.

Tony was proudly bi, he advocated for the Enhanced and LGBTQ communities as a member of both, although he was only public about his membership in the latter. Sometimes he considered the possibility that he wasn't bi but rather gay, like many celebrities before him. He thought maybe the fact that he knew early on in life that he would need a child to inherit SI kept him from admitting that. In any case, Tony knew he liked men. His parents had taken that news pretty well, they didn't talk about it but the silence was comfortable. Tony knew his father was seriously lacking in the people skills department, his response to discovering Tony's power was a perfect example of that, so the teenager hadn't expected much of a response. His mother was Catholic, he had expected more of a response from her. Her quiet support was more surprising and eventually, he had to ask, had to broach the subject again. Maria had smiled sadly "I think I knew before you did, the way you look at Bobby sometimes." Iceman was also bi, possibly gay. Jean and Tony both suspected it was the latter, the telepath quietly diverting other young ladies' attentions away. While Tony did not have a crush on his roommate, nor had he ever, he did understand what his mother meant. Tony could picture himself looking envious of his friend who found a way to come out long before Tony himself did.

Back to the present, Tony felt an attraction to Stephen Strange that was a mix of the one he felt when he was romantically interested in someone and when he was near the Tesseract or Arc Reactor, which is to say both Tony and the Time Stone were interested in Stephen. For once in his life, Tony took things slow. He started talking to Stephen about medical technology, asking where there might be room for improvement and what kind of thing he would create if the surgeon could create a machine to do anything. At first the neurosurgeon was blatantly arrogant, giving snarky answers instead of serious ones but when Tony started talking through how Stephen would want his dream machines to be operated, the man started giving him legitimate suggestions. Stark Medical rolled out a new line of surgical technology within the next three years along with improvements to existing technology that was commonly used. Metro-General was on the shortlist of hospitals to test the surgical tech, leading many to correctly assume Dr. Strange had made an impression on Tony Stark.

After Strange's accident, Tony visited the man and levelled with him, explaining what the Ancient One had told him about his and Strange's connection to the Time Stone being the thing that saves the world. The man asked Tony to "Contact your Ancient One and tell him I'm not interested."

"First off, the Ancient One is a woman. Second, I can't contact her, I don't know how. And third, the Masters of the Mystic Arts are known to use their unique knowledge to work miracles, healing people."

"Miracles, really?"

"Why don't you pay Jonathan Pangborn a visit? He was one of your patients, sorta. Couldn't walk, something to do with the spine, why don't you see what the Ancient One's order did for him?"

Deciding he had nothing better to do, Stephen did what Tony suggested and found the man not only walking, he was actually playing basketball. When he got a chance to talk to Pangborn, he asked about the Ancient One's order and heard the man sing their praises, noting "They offered me a chance to be one of them, to be a wizard but I chose to take what I already had."

Following the other man's directions, Strange found his way to Kathmandu. He had just begun practicing with the Eye when Tony Stark and the Ancient One walked into the room "I thought you weren't interested."

"How'd you know about Pangborn?" Strange swapped out the apple for the Eye and nearly bit into a rotten apple before Tony waved his hand and reversed time to restore the fruit to its ripe state.

"I told you, I'm the Time Stone's Chosen. I've been able to do that my whole life. After meeting you, I was reminded of my visit with the Ancient One and started looking into the order a bit more, that's how I found out about Pangborn. Of course, being friends with a couple of telepaths never hurts the investigative process." Tony explained "The Infinity Stones have a degree of sentience within them, that's what enables them to choose people. The Time Stone has guided the Ancient One but it never grew to like her all that much. You, it already likes, you'll be able to do a lot more than she can using the Eye. It's possible the Time Stone was guiding her to you the whole time she's been Sorcerer Supreme. Of course, you have to choose that path. Please put down the apple and hold out your hands." Strange did, Tony's hands each hovered over Stephen's for a moment before they both moved in circular motions, moving counterclockwise until the damage from the crash and the many surgeries was gone. "There, now you're not being blackmailed by the universe. If you choose to be Sorcerer Supreme, it'll be your choice entirely."

"You could've done that the entire time?"

"When I was little, I was close to a man named Edwin Jarvis. One day, I was at school and my parents were on vacation, Edwin decided to take the opportunity to see a doctor. Had he gone to see the doctor earlier-" Tony bit his bottom lip "The cancer was too far along. I could have used my power, could have waved my hand over him and reversed the progression of the cancer. I could've done it slowly so the doctors would think the treatment was working, put him in remission and kept turning back the clock until the cancer was small enough to be removed. I didn't. What I did was speed up the clock when the cancer spread to give him a quick and peaceful death." Tony looked Stephen in the eye "Yes, I had the power to fix your hands long before you or I ever met but I also have a lifetime of experience telling me that just because I can turn back the clock doesn't mean I should. I hope you realize, Doctor, that by reversing time's effect on people, I could make everyone I care about effectively immortal but I don't. I was 6 years old when my father discovered my powers and even then I knew why turning back time like that was a bad idea. Consequences, Strange, they're a real thing everyone has to deal with."

"Right, I'm sorry."

"Never say something like that unless you mean it. I never could stand platitudes." Tony left the room, leaving Strange and the Ancient One to talk. Tony was happy, the day he realized his power did not render him immortal.

Chapter Text

Tony had a fair bit of self-loathing ingrained in him at an early age when his power first awoke. After all, his power made him a thing of nightmares. The hole in his chest kept him from using his power in Afghanistan or the following years until he submitted to that high risk operation to have the Arc Reactor removed. Thankfully, Cho's cradle was able to fill in the hole somewhat, that was part of the risk in having it removed. The first time he used his power afterwards, well, it made him rethink his stance on being a monster:

"Sentry mode," he instructed the armor, field testing the new software which would help the Iron Legion assist in defending the world.

Funny thing, psychic powers, they don't mix well with each other. The Arc Reactor had kept him from using his true power while at the same time, it offered some protection against mind control via the sceptre. Tony would have to look into that but first, he silently groaned as he began to shift forms. Both twins were surprised by what they saw: their parents took turns telling them how disappointed they were then there was Strucker talking about how easy it was to trick them with their irrational Stark hate and lastly Dr. List cooing about how perfect specimens they were. When he was done, the twins were crippled with regret. Wanda lashed out once again but this time, her attack was physical and the sentry armor acted, non-lethally neutralizing the threat that she had become.

Tony climbed back inside, firing another non-lethal blast at the boy and calling the Avengers. The team tried to get him to share what happened but all he'd say was that the armor detected their arrival and he boxed them in, "I mean, it was inevitable I'd win." He saw the sneers, heard his friends agree that he won... because he cheated. "All's fair in love and war, right?" For the first time, he realized the truth in those words. By the time they got back to the Tower, he had made a decision. A few decisions, actually, since the armor did record his power use.

First, he kicked the Avengers (with the exception of Bruce) out of his Tower and renamed it Stark Tower once more. Second, he pushed for the twins to gain US citizenship and shared some of the file he found in the base, which revealed how HYDRA had taken over the country and by extension, how the twins were groomed by HYDRA since they were 10. The fact that the twins had been rendered catatonic when faced with this fact had helped their case immensely. Just as he finished up getting the twins the psychiatric help they need, Thor decided enough was enough and that he was going to take the sceptre back to Asgard. Rather than risk him reenacting one of his war stories on SI Security, Tony had them let him up. Standing in what was the Avengers common room, Tony looked at Thor "You want your brother's sceptre back, why?"

"It is too dangerous-"

"When's the last time Asgard was invaded, huh? I seem to recall you mentioning that Asgard has never been invaded in your lifetime. Isn't that right?"

"Well, yes."

"Earth was invaded not ten years ago. We need the sceptre so we can defend ourselves against the next invasion. What was it you said on the Helicarrier? If I recall it was something like 'Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war.' Then you took the Tesseract, the thing that made us ready, and now you want to take this. If you'd chosen to take this instead of the Tesseract, right from the start, then we wouldn't have a problem because we'd have the Tesseract but oh, no, you want both the sceptre and the Tesseract. You said it yourself that Earth has sent up a signal to all the realms saying 'come and get us'. Now, you want us to be defenseless, you want this realm and all its inhabitants, including Jane, to fall so that Asgard can hoard all the dangerous artifacts. Is that what you're saying? Is that what this is? You're going to take the sceptre, which you were fine with leaving behind a few years ago, and leave us defenseless."

"Leaving the sceptre was an oversight."

"Taking it endangers my world, Jane's world. Let me put it in terms you can understand: I am going to protect my home."

"You would make yourself an enemy of me, of Asgard?"

"No, I would make myself and my world worthy allies. How long does it usually take your people to notice trouble in other realms and act? How many of my people's lives could be lost before Asgard sends aid if we rely on your people to keep us safe from all the bad aliens out there? These are innocent people, Thor, I won't sacrifice them if I don't have to."

"What will you do with the sceptre?"

"I will study it, I will try to find out why it didn't work with the Arc Reactor and I will do my level best to recreate that defense but on a larger scale, a suit of armor around the world so-to-speak."

"I will return to Asgard and plead your case."

"No, none of that. If there is a case to be made for me, for Earth, I'm going to make it. Just give me an hour to make arrangements for... how long do you think we'll be gone if this works?"

"Less than a fortnight."

"Alright then. That's two weeks. JARVIS?"

"Already on it, Sir."

An hour later, Tony was stepping off the Bifrost and coming face-to-face with Odin All-Father as he demanded, "Another one?"

Tony smirked and then shifted into the form of... a woman in black with horns, what is it with vikings and horned helmets? "Miss me, Father?" Hm, so Thor has a sister and judging by his reaction, he didn't even know it. Before Odin could smite him, Tony forcefully suppressed his power "I am so happy to see the family love. First, what was that lady's name? Doesn't matter. First you make an enemy of your daughter and erase her from your histories then you adopt, whatever Loki is, and drive him to suicide. And let's not forget how you treat your favorite child's consort, Jane said you called her a goat. Nice going, Odin All-Daddy." He smiled and mockingly bowed "Anthony Edward Stark, AKA Trauma, son and heir to King Nightmare of the Dream Dimension through Howard Stark." All anger and condescending left his expression the moment Tony invoked the name of his true sire.

The story of his conception was interesting, at least on his father's side. Howard didn't realize until his son's powers awoke that the ritual had worked, to a degree. He had attempted to make a deal with a demon to bring Steve Rogers back alive and well but Nightmare the dream demon took advantage of a few loopholes and oversights. Howard didn't do a proper summoning ritual with binding enchantments. As such, he and Nightmare never actually spoke to set terms verbally and there was no written contract to sign. If Howard had made a proper deal then Tony's birth would have been a means to an end, Howard would have been required to allow Nightmare use of his body for one night to conceive a child that would act as Nightmare's host and through his host, Nightmare could have been required to lead Howard to Steve Rogers, therefore achieving the summoner's goal. The problem with such a deal is that Nightmare would never allow for conditions that would limit his ability to use their son as his host. Howard half-assing the summoning was for the best. He was still partially possessed by Nightmare at the time of his son's conception, that much still occurred. However, without the binding enchantments found in a proper summoning ritual or a formal agreement to bind Nightmare, there was a limit to what the dream demon could do with this child he sired. As such, instead of being Nightmare's vessel, Tony was Nightmare's son. The first time his otherworldly sire spoke to him, Nightmare declared that Tony was too human a name and dubbed him Trauma.

Earth was a backwater primitive world, barely a blip on the radar for most of the universe. Unfortunately, it was also the nexus of the universe. Through Tony's homeworld, one with sufficient skill could reach any world in the multiverse. There was a reason primitives like the Aesir of old considered it the center of the world tree. For someone with sufficient power who was lacking in skill, opening a portal was a bit like rolling an infinite sided die if said dice had locations instead of numbers. You might find yourself in the Dark Dimension or New Jersey, there was no telling. That was the trouble with magic on Earth when someone who lacked proper training attempted it, which is the last piece in the puzzle of how Nightmare has a human son.

Focusing on Odin All-Father, he heard the king rush through apologies for slighting him. "What color were Loki's eyes when he was but a babe?"

"Green as emeralds."

"Interesting. When he unwittingly attempted to threaten me as you yourself have, I found myself staring at eyes of a pale blue shade, which means something must have been amiss."

Thor said "I do not understand."

Tony turned to him "At the time of my conception, Howard Stark was being possessed by King Nightmare, making me the son of two fathers. Might I presume you have been the victim of nightmares? Nearly everyone has."

"Yes."

"Nightmares are named for my father. Sowing the seeds of discontent and chaos in dreams are a beloved pastime of his. Your father intends to make up for insulting me in the hopes that my father might not exact revenge upon him. Is that clear enough?"

"Who was that woman I saw in your stead when we arrived?"

"I have no idea beyond the fact that she is a daughter of Odin. You see, as you were gifted with the power of thunder, I too was given a unique gift by my father. I can take the form of your greatest fear and in that form, I can play on your fears, make them worse." Tony smiled sharply "Would you like another demonstration?"

"No, you-"

"A no alone will suffice, Prince Thor." Turning back to Odin, "Have you once stopped to wonder where your adopted son got the sceptre? To wonder what he found in the Void or rather what found him? Hm? No? That is precisely why I will not be turning over the sceptre. Now, if you would excuse me, I would like to continue work on boosting my world's defenses in preparation for the next time someone seeks the sceptre's power or decides my mother's world is ripe for the taking." Odin ordered Heimdal to open the Bifrost and Tony was returned, never breaking stride as he went back into the penthouse.

"Sir, your return seems premature." Tony ran through the identity confirmation protocols before explaining what he did in Asgard, which in itself explained his early return.

Maybe he wasn't a monster or maybe he was just the sort of monster the world needed.

Chapter Text

Tony Stark was known to never wear shoes, he was also known to be a waterbender. In a world without many elementals, benders were exempt from most social norms. Non-benders held the belief that benders' quirks helped them stay more in tune with their element. Tony was unaware of this until he began school at Phillips Academy and one of his instructors asked why he was wearing shoes. Tony shrugged "Because I was told to wear the uniform. Normally I don't wear shoes but if I have to, I have to." In an effort to emulate the military, Phillips Academy had benders wear patches on their uniforms. Anyone could tell Stark was a waterbender by looking at his patch and the instructor who asked about his shoes explained to him that he was exempt from the rule if not wearing shoes brought him closer to his element. Tony decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and enjoyed being the only barefoot cadet.

Whoever sold him out was clever, Tony admitted to himself as he came to in Afghanistan. Have him taken in the desert, far away from his element. Only one name came to mind, the man who forced him to do the weapons' demo in the desert. Obadiah Stane. It was laughable how they tried to waterboard a waterbender. Tony wasted no time in drowning his captors with the water they foolishly gave him access to and took the doctor with him to keep him alive. He created a miniaturized Arc Reactor for Yinsen to implant to replace the original power source as soon as he was home. Tony had a special tap in his Malibu home that drew water from the ocean to give him free, unlimited access to his element. Turning that on when he got home, he left it on until Obadiah visited then he acted.

The thing most people, both benders of a different element and non-benders alike, didn't know about water bending is that water makes a very good improvised weapon. Pilots were among the select non-waterbenders who might have some idea of how that worked. Tony was able to pin Obadiah Stane to a wall with water of all things and interrogate him. Because Tony was a waterbender, the police took the interrogation tape as evidence and the judge allowed it into evidence. If he wasn't a bender then the tape would have been inadmissible.

As previously stated, benders got cut a lot of slack. Tony could show up nearly anywhere in jeans and a T-shirt and nobody would bat an eye. Other benders had to display their power to be granted the same slack. Firebenders were known for their hot tempers, airbenders were playful, Earthbenders were immovable and waterbenders were peaceful. Those were the traits non-benders assigned to benders. Steve Rogers was said to have had an Earthbender's stubbornness.

When a teacher noticed him firebending one day, Bruce Banner was asked "Why-" the instructor barely got the first word out before young Bruce was spouting apologies and looking terrified. While the teacher was pleased that the young prodigy didn't have his element's infamous temper, one couldn't get more obvious as far as warning signs went than a child responding to a perceived mistake with terrified apologies. Child Services was called, Bruce was placed in the care of his aunt and uncle for the duration of the investigation. For a firebender to behave that way... let's just say non-benders' preconceived notions worked in Bruce's favor. Being a bender also opened many doors, they were so rare that they could truly do anything they desired. Bruce was able to gain admission into a gifted school that served as an Ivy League feeder, moving on to attend Harvard.

Natasha Romanoff had seen some benders in her day, they didn't last long in the Red Room. Clint Barton was one strange bender, he hadn't used his power when confronting her. At least, not to fight her, he sidestepped and conjured a ball of air to float on in the middle of the fight then failed to take the shot that was made possible by her momentary shock. Actually, as an airbender, he could make an arrow go wherever he wished. Airbenders were famously the first long range warriors in human history. The simple fact that he could have killed her any time and didn't gave credence to his words. She decided to trust him.

The Avengers were, on the surface, all benders strangely enough. Sure, Thor was technically an alien but his alien powers were very nearly elemental in nature, which meant two thirds of the team truly were elementals if not benders, per se. Bruce Banner's big green alter ego, while embodying his rage, had thankfully never shown an inclination towards pyrokinesis. Bruce was known to weld with his hand, a common trait in firebending engineers throughout the centuries. They all met Tony Stark when the man was working on a water filtration system in a dam, after he sent a drone armor to act as his stand-in. He was dressed in a light blue polo and khaki shorts, no shoes as was his brand. He surprised most of their motley crew by practically flying towards them without any sort of armor. Even Clint was impressed if his whistle was anything to go by. Like many airbenders, he liked to toy with his element fairly often. Recently non-benders had started replacing the age old bender characteristics with possible mental health conditions, like ADHD for airbenders. Tony pointed out "There's water vapor in the air, which is how our ancient predecessors were able to end droughts. Airbenders and waterbenders worked together to make storm clouds."

"Why have you been dodging us?"

Natasha saw the assessing look he quickly shot her when she asked him that before he turned to face Steve "You're not a bender? Wonder why dad always talked like you were. I mean, I was never enough, being a waterbender had nothing on Captain America. He sent me to military school without fully reading the brochure, which clearly said benders were granted accommodations then he yelled at me when he came for a 'visit' because I wasn't wearing shoes. Never could measure up and now I find, you're not even a bender. It's infuriating really. I'm both a genius and a bender, I built a circuit board when I was friggin' four years old, and now I see the man my father preferred over me isn't all that great. How's the reintegration coming along? Have you even started work on catching up? What are you guys even doing here?"

"We're here to talk to you," said Bruce, as deceptively calm as always.

Tony told him "You know non-benders came up with the whole 'firebenders are hotheads' thing, right? Historically, the elements have no impact on bender personality. Take me for example, do I strike you as the peaceful type?"

"No."

"Listen, you can stay because you might actually be able to help me on my project. The rest of you, beat it, I don't know why anyone let you get this close." As if to prove his point, the dam containing the filtration system shuddered, "Seriously, I don't have time for you pack of morons." He jumped over the edge and as they hurried to watch, they saw him parkouring his way down. Bruce shrugged and simply jumped over the railing, knowing he'd survive the fall if for no other reason than the Other Guy didn't want him to die.

Benders were rare, Natasha mused, and they tended to be assholes about it.

Chapter Text

As a child, the firstborn of the Fire Lord was exposed to fire in infancy to test for aptitude towards firebending. Non-benders and children born out of wedlock (even if their parents married after their conception) were ineligible for the throne and often served their younger siblings. In the case of no eligible heirs, those born out of wedlock may be considered but not non-benders. Tetsip was the official firstborn of Fire Lord Hung, he developed firebending before his infancy trials and quickly grasped the basics on his own making him a prodigy.

There were downsides to being a prodigy, Tetsip had an accelerated education, which got him involved with Fire Nation politics much sooner than previous heirs. His father was not the original choice for Fire Lord but his brother Ichiro dishonored himself while Hung did just the opposite, molding himself into a war hero as soon as he was released from Ichiro's service by their father Heng. With the support of their military, Hung ascended the throne without issue, marrying Masa.

Marriage

At age 15, Tetsip was the subject of an arranged marriage to end the long war with the Earth Kingdom. Wen was beautiful and demure, the perfect bride according to all - except for Tetsip but he saw a fire in her eyes and knew he could get her out of her shell. Consummation was universal, heirs to kingdoms could lose their place in succession along with their virginity if they fooled around before their wedding. Once they were wed by all standards, Tetsip and Wen were allowed to retire to the privacy of Tetsip's private residence. The prince weedled and worked until Wen shared her opinions with him then he continued his work to ensure she would always do so. He did not want a blind follower, he wanted a trusted advisor, that was what the Fire Lady should be in Tetsip's opinion.

Accession

Throughout a Fire Heir's life, they face many trials and tests. The final test is referred to as "Walking through fire." Tetsip never saw this as much of a challenge since Fire Heirs develop an immunity to fire, a rare trait hardly found outside the Royal Family. In truth, "Walking through fire" was code for "Go sleep in a volcano." Tetsip still saw no point. In fact, he saw less of a point from before because his fire immunity apparently extended to lava and the volcano used had something of a shore for him to sleep on.

"All Hail Fire King Tetsip the Fire Born!" "All Hail the new Fire Lord." These chants greeted him when Tetsip left the volcano. Tetsip smiled slyly, thinking of how easy all the traditional tests were to him.

Chapter Text

Steve chose the perfect moment to turn his anger on Tony. The inventor sent him and everyone else, except for Bruce, flying into a wall then he knelt down and put his hands on the floor, focusing. The ship shook violently but Bruce, surprisingly, didn't lose his footing. Maria Hill and Phil Coulson quickly joined them "Avatar, so nice of you to join us. Would you mind?" Tony lifted one hand to gesture at the four on the wall. Maria slapped a hand on the wall and the metal warped to form chains around them, Thor was absolutely encased in the metal then ice shot over the lot of them with tiny holes forming over the mouths of Fury and Romanoff. When she was done, Tony stood and bowed properly to her. "I caught an arrow aimed at the engines and knocked the ship carrying the archer off course, stalling until my fellow airbenders could gain control. What are your orders, Avatar?"

He straightened and Maria returned the bow, "We're in the process of cleaning house. I would appreciate if JARVIS would send our people files on the traitors nearest them. Nobody dies today, make sure that order gets relayed. You should also put your people on alert anywhere there's an Arc Reactor."

"I did that the moment I realized that Selvig could use practically any reactor on the planet for his portal. Foster and Lewis on standby?"

"Yes," answered Coulson, "How do you think I convinced them to go to Tromso?"

"Good," said Hill. Three agents came in and arranged themselves in front of the ice wall, benders most likely.

Tony turned to Bruce, "Come on, you're gonna wanna see this." He was led back to the bridge, this time with fewer people.

Coulson reported, "All possible threats to the bending community within SHIELD have been detained along with known traitors."

"Didn't you guys just stage a coup?"

"Terrorists, Bruce. By traitors, they mean terrorists hidden among SHIELD's ranks." Tony led him to the center of the bridge and said "JARVIS, show him." Bruce watched as SHIELD agents arrested several people in prominent positions, including General Ross. "We have collected files on known threats to the superhuman community, we can provide proof to the proper authorities but first, we have to make a splash to keep the governments of the world from sweeping our cases under the rug. I guess you could say we're trolling the world."

"That's all great but what about the others?"

Tony explained "SHIELD might not survive our cleaning house but if that's the case then it's for the best. If you're asking about Thor and Rogers, they're both hotheads with superpowers that we don't need mucking things up. We'll send Thor home, maybe send Loki with him once Dr. Foster gets Dr. Selvig's portal calibrated for Asgard. The time for change is now, you're looking at the start of a nonlethal revolution. You and Rogers, you're both supers but Rogers isn't a bender. We need to draw attention to the fact that super humans exist and that they're not going anywhere." He snapped his fingers twice, once on either hand, then clapped "Let's make the world a better place for all involved, not just benders and non-benders, the world's more diverse than that."

"Laying it on a bit thick."

Tony corrected Maria, "Planning the speech you're gonna give when we move onto the public part of the plan. After all, the Avatar has always carried clout."

"Not always but you have a point. I think Lewis would be helpful in planning our PR campaign."

"Yup, agreed. That is what political science is, right?"

"Right." Maria turned to Bruce, "We're going to do what we're going to do, Dr. Banner. We just thought you might like to know our plans include ensuring your freedom."

"That was much clearer, thank you, uh-"

"Acting Director Hill or Avatar Maria," suggested Tony.

"Director, thank you."

"Master Anthony," addressed Maria.

"Avatar Maria," returned the airbender.

"Would you mind assisting with the capture of Barton? I believe he was in the jet you detained."

"Not a problem."

Tony went topside and dealt with the would be attackers, helping his fellow airbenders secure the jet. With that done, he led a few airbenders to the lab to assist in properly detaining the other Avengers and Fury. Air benders moved the prisoners as Earth and water benders removed the restraints. Most of the quartet recognized that the tac team backing the benders were not there for show and would kill them without hesitation. Thor, of course, was the exception to this and was kept imprisoned until the Avatar could personally deal with him. Steve tried to talk Tony around, invoking Howard's name which only served to piss the airbender off. Slamming the super soldier into the floor, Tony told him off "My father was NOT a bender, in fact he was very against my mother teaching me about my heritage. He tried to send me to military school but lucky for me, the academy didn't take benders. The second they saw me airbend, I was outta there and Howard was pissed." Romanoff was carefully searched while Fury had his jacket taken before the same was done to him, specialized cuffs were placed on Romanoff and Rogers after the trio was disarmed. Tony led the escort to the cells and oversaw their imprisonment before moving on to Loki. "Don't expect anyone to bust you out? We captured your jailbreak crew."

"Who is we?"

"Oh sorry. Allow me to properly introduce myself." Tony crossed his arms and held them out in front of himself before bowing so his arms were still in front of him "I am Airbending Master Anthony of House Collins." Straightening, he folded his hands behind his back "What do you call yourself again?"

"Loki of Asgard."

"Asgard is a place. Do you not have a title or family to lay claim to?"

"You're wasting your time."

"I'm getting to know you, there's a difference. I'm gonna take that answer as a no, unless you'd like to recant." He paused to give Loki a chance to change his answer. "Okay. No family, no title, only a place where you once lived. Am I getting the details right so far?"

"Yes. You are peculiar, Master Anthony of House Collins."

"More peculiar, Collins is the family name of my mother's birth parents. She was adopted into the Carbonell family as a teenager and then married my father, becoming a part of the Stark family. Yet I lay claim to a family I never met in honor of my heritage as an airbender. Still gonna call yourself Loki of Asgard?"

"Yes."

"We both know that Asgard lays no claim to you, correct?"

"I suppose I have been cast out."

"No."

"What?"

"You weren't cast out. You were dangling from the edge of the bridge, pleading with Odin All-Father to acknowledge your stellar achievement and instead he said 'no', so you let go."

"How do you-"

"How do I know that? I wish I could tell you but alas, that's not an option at the moment. Thor told a woman named Jane stories about you during his exile and while Jane lost interest due to his lack of understanding, her assistant Darcy was enamored. In his stories, he told of your serpentine eyes. Maybe serpentine means something different in Asgard but here, green is associated with snakes not blue." Coulson came in with the sceptre and another agent to open the cage, Tony immediately grabbed hold of Loki with his power while the spook in the suit tested a theory. Phil touched the tip of the sceptre to his chest. Nothing happened.

"Did you really think it was going to be so simple? I could've done that."

Maria came in "More like we hoped. No matter." She slammed her fists together, entering the Avatar State to cleanse the sceptre's influence from all aboard the Helicarrier. The glow left her eyes and she took the sceptre from Coulson, personally taking it to weapons lockup.

Tony asked "Feeling any better?"

"Much." His eyes were indeed naturally green, "What was that?"

"That was the Avatar, Guardian of the Balance, Master of All Elements, Bridge Between the Living and Spirit Worlds, you get the idea."

"She is immortal?"

"The Avatar reincarnates. Every bending culture has their own way of identifying the Avatar, some present young children with a ton of toys and hide the Avatar relics among them. One of the most obvious signs of someone being the Avatar is the speed at which they master their birth element, most benders spend our entire childhoods mastering our element but as the Avatar must master all the elements, they tend to be quite prodigious."

"Interesting."

"Do you remember where you were going to open your portal?"

"Atop your tower, of course, Stark."

Coulson forwarded that information before inviting Loki to a debrief. They were able to send Thor back to Asgard without giving up the Tesseract. Loki stayed on Earth to become a founding member of the Avengers along with Bruce Banner, James Rhodes and Tony Stark. The world was safe.

Chapter Text

When the convoy was hit, Tony jumped out against the soldiers' advice. Throwing his hands up, he made the road in front of them all rise up to form a wall, taking the brunt of the enemy fire. Stumbling over to the wall, he crouched down and pressed his hands against the stone, making sure any damage inflicted was quickly fixed. "Everyone okay? Relatively?" He looked around at the soldiers, "Anyone else a bender?" A couple of soldiers came forward and joined him at the wall, pulling off their gloves to press their own palms against the stones. Clothes could hinder bending because they created a barrier between a bender and their element, which is partly why Tony erecting the wall was so incredible. "Okay, we've only got one shot at this so we've got to do it right." Tony tapped the AF bender nearest him, jerking his head in the sign for come with me then inched forward, the benders left behind moved apart to better support the wall "Every nonbender needs to get between us. We're gonna make a gopher hole." Everyone understood the plan. Gopher holes were Earthbending tunnels that were formed underground by shifting dirt. The trouble with them is that the dirt had to go somewhere but that might not be such a problem in this case. Tony reached out as the non-benders clustered into the open space, he made the vehicles come towards him by shifting the dirt beneath them. "Once we're in, we need to make a strong wall behind us so we're not hurt when the transports explode." Their destruction would cover up the shifted Earth from their gopher hole by scattering the dirt beneath it.

Getting back to base via gopher hole was a slow process, which is why gopher holes had fallen out of style with the military. Foxholes, trenches and the Vietcong's tunnels are all examples of military use of gopher holes. Once they neared the base, and thank God one of the other Earthbenders knew how to navigate without light, the benders widened the hole so they could once again surround the others then they carefully pushed themselves up until the Earth opened around them to release them. Everyone who could stood up and the officers among them started barking orders. Everything was a bit of a blur after that and before long, Tony was on a flight back home.

Despite best efforts, the attack on the convoy still claimed lives. Tony couldn't forget that, couldn't forget watching those soldiers die. He was just glad that No Man Left Behind was in practice. When everyone was clustering between the Earthbenders, some brought the bodies of the dead so they could be honored properly. Airbenders took charge of carrying the dead as they slowly made their way back to base but the smell was something Tony was sure he would never forget, he had to do something about it. Better weapons weren't the only thing the military needed, clearly war isn't all offense. They need better defense, better protection, better armor and even more durable transports. They also needed better detection, scanners that could pick up on the enemy lying in wait or something to give them warning when an explosive was flying at their heads. Tony locked himself in his lab when he returned and got to work on protecting the people his weapons put in harm's way. The military needed people to shoot guns and SI made the best guns. He revolutionized the armor industry during his first binge and between binges, he announced SI would be expanding into that industry.

Obadiah claimed he was happy Tony was back, safe and sound, but the thing neither he or Howard had ever understood was the simple fact that benders are spiritual. Their power comes from the Spirit World, despite what non-benders like to think about biology. The more powerful the bender, the more connected they are to the Spirit World and the more connected, the more powerful, it works both ways. That is why children of benders aren't always benders, it's not because they lack a magic gene, it's because their connection to the Spirit World is too weak. In the case of Obadiah claiming he was happy when the opposite was true, Tony's spiritual connection made him see the truth. The simplest way to explain that would be through the Avatar. When the Avatar dies, they join their predecessors in the Spirit World to guide the Avatars who come after them. A powerful connection to the Spirit World makes for not only a powerful bender but also a wise one.

His Earthbending saved lives, Tony wasn't content to ignore the Spirit World's guidance any longer. He was heartbroken to discover what his spiritual power was telling him, to be faced with the simple truth that his godfather had betrayed him. Tony took swift action to ensure Stane couldn't take another shot at him then he began phasing out weapons, refusing to take any new contracts and forbidding his underlings from doing the same. As weapons were phased out, they were replaced by consumer technology to protect SI employees' livelihoods. Tony wanted to save everyone he could- no, he had to save everyone he could.

Chapter Text

On Titan, Tony ditched his suit and assumed the lotus position, "Nobody bother me until the enemy gets here."

Spider-Man started to speak but Strange shot him a look that shut him up, Peter Quill wasn't so smart "What's he doing, just sitting there?"

Strange said "I believe all we need is to give him time to focus and this fight will be as good as won."

"What?! What is he, the Avatar?"

"Actually, yes, he is."

"What is this Avatar?" asked Drax.

Quill explained, "A really old Earth legend, the Avatar is the master of all elements."

"And it is his destiny to protect the world."

Drax stared at Tony, "He is immortal?"

"No. Every time the Avatar dies, he is reborn. That guy is just the latest in a really long line of Avatars, apparently."

"If the Avatar is destined to protect the world, shouldn't you know what he looks like?" Drax asked Peter Quill.

"C'mon, Drax, I was a kid when the Ravagers took me. Maybe when I got older, I would've learned more."

"That guy," pointing at Spider-Man, "Seems just as clueless as you. I do not think age had anything to do with it."

Spider-Man said "Well, I'm not a bending master, those guys probably keep track. It takes years, sometimes a whole lifetime for someone with the bending gift to reach master level. One of the cool things about the Avatar is that he always masters all the elements."

"Enough talk, it's time." As Strange said that, Tony floated up from his sitting position and moved towards the approaching Titan.

The Avatar made the 'get up' gesture with one hand and the planet's surface shot up to trap the Titan then he made the gesture for settle down and the hand wearing the Gauntlet was cut off. Landing in front of the Mad Titan, he looked at Thanos with unsettling eyes then spun his arms in circles, drawing the air out of the alien's lungs, suffocating him. He picked up the Gauntlet and placed it in his lap as he resumed the lotus pose, focusing his spiritual power on the Soul Stone. As the Guardians, Spider-Man and Strange approached, he stood up and turned around. "A soul for a Soul Stone, works both ways or at least, it will for me. We can get Gamora back by returning the Stone but first, I suggest we purge Thanos' forces from the universe. My power combined with yours," nodding to Quill, "And the Stones already in the Gauntlet should be enough."

"What do you need me to do?"

"Well, first, I have to restore your power. How do you feel about being bound to your homeworld?"

"If that's what it takes to restore Gamora."

"You misunderstand, I can restore Gamora at any time but even with Thanos dead, his armies won't give up."

"Okay. Do what you gotta do."

Tony put the Gauntlet on and his eyes glowed momentarily before the Celestial glow returned to Quill's eyes then they moved in perfect sync. To those watching, it almost looked like a dance, as they used their combined power to channel the power of the Infinity Stones to wipe out the Mad Titan's armies. Once they were done, Tony shoved Quill over to the Guardians and told them "When I bound you to Earth, I bound your life force to the planet. You are no longer mortal, you will live as long as the Earth sustains life. If something destroys the Earth, you too will be destroyed. That is what I meant when I asked about binding you to your homeworld. I cannot untether you but I might be able to similarly bind your crew. This is not a decision to be taken lightly and if not for the very pressing threat posed by Thanos' forces, I would not have allowed you to rush the choice. Let us travel to Vormir and revive Gamora. The Soul Stone has decided that the souls of Thanos and his forces are more than adequate compensation for releasing her soul. It will not abandon us should we have need of it once Gamora has been restored." In a flash of blue light, they were gathered around Gamora's body. Tony took the orange stone out of the Gauntlet and held it over Gamora's body, an orange glow covered her before she awoke with a gasp as the stone was returned to the Gauntlet. The Guardians had a joyful reunion with their fallen and she was brought up to speed as the other Terrans watched. Thor joined them, likely tracking the Gauntlet, with two more missing Guardians who joined the reunion and were similarly brought up to speed. Strange and Spider-Man did their best to brief Thor while Tony said nothing.

Standing beside Quill, she asked "How does this binding thing work?"

"You will no longer be mortal. As long as the planet you are bound to exists, so shall you. Like Quill, you may be able to draw power from your planet but perhaps not in the same form, given Quill was half-Celestial already."

"Wait a minute. Are you saying that binding us to a planet is the same thing as making us Celestials?"

"Essentially but the powers of the Celestials as you know them took millennia of evolution to develop." Looking to the other Guardians, he explained "Whatever planet you choose would have to sustain life for a long time before your power would be anywhere near Ego's level." He glanced back at Quill "The Infinity Stones know much and it would seem I have gotten on their good side."

Gamora asked "Do you need the Gauntlet to do this?"

"Of course, mostly the Reality and Power Stones but Soul and Space also play their roles. Reality to alter you and the planet, Soul to bind your life force which is tied to your soul, Space to connect to the planets, and Power to fuel the change. I suppose we're lucky the Mad Titan gathered exactly the tools we need." He looked at Nebula, "I could also use Reality to replace your cybernetics with organics. Since Gamora was a temporary guest of the Soul Stone, her knowledge is now held within. There is very little chance I could mess up such a simple change. It's your choice, of course."

"Thanks," said Nebula, thinking about if she really wanted her old body back.

Tony reached out and rested his gauntleted hand on Rocket, who jolted as though zapped for a moment before relaxing with a slight sigh "Yeah, thanks, Avatar."

"Not a problem."

Quill asked "What'd he do?"

"I fixed the interfaces on his cybernetics to relieve him of the pain they caused. Another thing I could do for Nebula if she so chose. I will transport Spider-Man and Doctor Strange back to Earth then return Thor to his fellow survivors and transport them wherever they need to go before returning, think about my offer, talk it over. When I return, I will need to act and release the Stones from their prison. Hopefully the Space Stone will allow us to hitch a last minute ride. Actually, on second thought, I'll get your ship before I return." He did as he said he would and the Guardians asked him to give them each the power to remove the tether binding their teammates if they so desired, lest they turn into mini-Egos. "I can do that but since Peter was born with the power of a Celestial, it will take more than one of you to release his tether." He tilted his head as he looked at Peter then turned to Nebula, "Peter has the power to do what I offered but it will take time for him to develop the skill necessary to use it. Are you sure you want immortality first?"

"I want to stay with my sister as long as I can."

"Understood. You each need to pick a planet to be bound to, the Space Stone will lock on that planet so don't worry about my not knowing where your planet of choice is but be warned, there is always the possibility that someone will eventually find a way to link you to the planet and use it as leverage in the, hopefully, centuries to come." They took his words seriously and when he was done, the Gauntlet turned to ash in his hands after the Space Stone returned him home. Tony announced a week later that he was the current Avatar in order to avoid having the details of his deal with the Guardians made public knowledge for their safety.

The press had a field day with the revelation that the son of a metalbending inventor and a waterbending socialite was the Avatar, savior of the universe.

Chapter Text

Toni raced through the Helicarrier, touching every injured person she saw on her way through. She was glad she joined Rhodey on his exercise regimen as she raced towards Loki's cell, jumping over fallen pieces of machinery and downed agents (no dead, not yet, not if she could help it). Bursting through the doors, she practically jumped on Fury in her quest to reach Agent before he dies. Death is the one thing she can't heal and Goddamnit, a secret is not worth a man's life. Pepper likes Agent, calls him Phil, there might be something there or she might be imagining things, relationships aren't really her thing. Not that she was paying attention but the way she crashed into Fury made her arm touch his head, the one part of his body that wasn't covered. Although her power didn't technically require skin contact, it definitely helped. Coulson gasped at her touch, his whole body seizing as her power flowed through him. When she was done, she turned and ran, yelling through her coms "Anyone else critical?"

Seeing his figurative one good eye go from almost dead to good as new, not to mention what happened to his literal bad eye, Fury gave the order to reroute those calls to Stark. There was no time to question the good fortune that Ms. Stark brought as she cleared all the agents out of the infirmary, somehow breaking Loki's brainwashing on those coerced into attacking. In almost no time, they had an alien invasion to deal with.

Following each of the Avengers' battles, Toni Stark shared her gift for healing with those most affected and SI made moves to acquire the U-GIN Research Group. Dr. Helen Cho only allowed it once Toni made it clear that she would still be the boss, even though U-Gin would no longer be independent. "I don't want to crush your little company, I want to grow it. You've heard about what I've been doing after Avengers' missions, I'm sure. I've been told my gift is the talk of the medical world. I want you to help me replicate it for more widespread use. You're already lightyears ahead of your so-called competition."

Toni couldn't heal herself, that was her secret weakness. She made no secret of the fact that death was beyond her abilities but she did keep the fact that she was immune to her own power on the DL. Of course, all anyone had to do to figure that out would be to look at how she didn't just yank out the Arc Reactor and fix her chest. But then again, people were very good at being willfully ignorant of facts that might contradict their preconceived notions so instead of facing that uncomfortable fact, they deluded themselves into thinking there was evidence to show Toni healed faster than a normal human, so they could say they should've known about her healing powers. Over time, she came to terms with the fact that she wouldn't want to heal as fast as she heals others, mostly because that would make her almost immortal and she had no interest in living forever.

Sokovia was a mess. Luckily, Rhodey was right there by her side and although Toni can't heal herself, she can heal him. Seeing how he was hurt by that bitchy witch (or was it witchy bitch?) made Toni consider the possibility she might've been hurt too. So she had J lock down the lab and performed every scan imaginable to compare to the data from War Machine to see if Scarlet's power left a trace to start working on a treatment plan for herself. One touch is all it took once they tracked the twins down, healing their trauma sent the pair into shock as they got a clear look at what they'd done, at what they'd become in the name of, frankly stupid, vengeance. They were easily caught after that.

Chapter Text

Nobody knew what happened in Afghanistan, Tony never could bring himself to burden his friends with the truth and his enemies, well, they didn't stay enemies for long. Tony walked through the Helicarrier like he owned the place, walked right up to Loki's cell and shoved Fury out of the way before the two drama kings could start sniping at each other. Leaning against the see through door to the cell, he said "Look into my eyes." With an amused smirk, Loki complied and was met with the Penance Stare. His smirk turned to a look of terror followed, of course, by screaming as his soul began to burn. "Where is the Tesseract? Tell me and I'll make it stop. There's no other way out." Loki stuttered out the location and Tony closed his eyes, pushing the Rider back. When he looked up again, he frowned then spun around to ask Fury "Weren't his eyes blue a minute ago? I could've sworn they were blue but now they're clearly green."

Fury asked "What the hell did you-"

"Never mind." Bypassing Fury, he went to the bridge, "Agent, Deputy Director, one of you needs to send agents to check out that tip. We have the spear, there's no risk of mind control, only death." Stopping briefly at Fury's station, Tony dropped a bug in SHIELD's systems then continued moving, stopping in front of Thor "Think fast, point break. What color are Reindeer Games' eyes?"

"Loki's eyes are green like a serpent."

Turning, he asked Romanoff "Little Spider, what color were Loki's eyes when he came aboard?"

Frowning, she confirmed "They were blue."

"Huh, that's a new one." He stood up straight and froze, looking at nothing in particular as he consulted the Rider. "Okay then." He marched over to Bruce, "Dr. Banner, if you wouldn't mind, look me in the eye."

The nervous scientist steeled himself before doing as asked. Images of things he'd done wrong flashed through his mind briefly before he found himself looking at brown eyes that seemed to glow red. "What was that?"

"That's my superpower. Now, since SHIELD's got the Tesseract's location locked down, why don't you and I blow this popsicle stand? Unless you'd like to stay, see if they're really as good as their word." Bruce agreed to catch a ride with Tony, who had a remote controlled two-seater plane meet them atop the Helicarrier. In response to a raised eyebrow look, Tony said "Sorry but we are in the air and I didn't think you'd like holding onto the suit."

At the Tower, Bruce asked "What's that thing with your eyes?"

Tony put a few feet between them, "Watch this." Bruce jumped when he saw Tony's head become engulfed in flames as the other man transformed into the Ghost Rider. "I am the Spirit of Vengeance. Evildoers who look into my eyes shall be overcome with guilt as the Penance Stare forces them to feel their victims' pain."

Chapter Text

Howard was almost as much of a greedy bastard as his partner, Obadiah Stane, Tony mused from where he was trapped in his lamp waiting for someone to release him. Obadiah was smarter, though. Howard may have made him a djinn but Obadiah knew how to keep a firm hold on him. He must have done his research after Howard let him in on the Stark family secret, probably sometime after using his son to find his sacred Steve Rogers. Howard made his three wishes almost as soon as Tony's magic had developed. One- he wanted the Stark name to be held in high regard forever. That was a test, Tony thought, he was testing to see if his son's djinn magic really worked by using him to raise himself (as a Stark) up. From that came little Tony's many attention getting achievements. Two - he wanted Steve Rogers recovered safe and sound. On his next expedition, Howard found the great Steven Grant Rogers, encased in ice but alive. Three - Tony was to obey Obadiah as his master once Howard was gone. As much as Tony wanted to believe his godfather had manipulated his father into making that his third wish, he knew that the old businessman likely hadn't had to try too hard to get control over him.

Obadiah was like Aladdin, from what Tony could remember of the Disney movie. He didn't make wishes so much as trick Tony into doing him magical favors. Howard's first wish was still in effect, which allowed Tony just enough freedom to keep the Stark name alive and well. Obadiah was a cruel master. He would pull Tony from the lamp to make him watch as he destroyed Tony's creations then banish him back into the lamp by saying he didn't need him, acting like he hadn't summoned Tony in the first place. As a billionaire, Tony was supposed to have assistants but Stane had crafted a cover story to minimize Tony's contact with other people, keeping him well within Obadiah's control. Obadiah had seen it as a waste of a wish to personally bind Tony to him, before they discovered that Tony could be bound to whoever rubbed his lamp if they made a wish. His strategy of avoiding wish making to save his three could be his downfall if anyone discovered the truth about Tony and took hold of his lamp but that would never happen because Obadiah was too good at keeping a firm hold on him.

Ever since he was revived from the ice, Steve Rogers had wanted to meet Howard Stark's son. His old friend had mentioned that his son had helped him find Steve but never gave the super soldier a chance to meet him. Although he never voiced his thoughts, he found it suspicious how Howard always had an excuse for why Steve couldn't see Tony. What was more suspicious was Tony's absence from Howard and Maria's funerals. Howard's business partner, Obadiah Stane, had claimed that Tony wanted to mourn his loss away from prying eyes and Peggy had given anyone who pressed quite the tongue lashing. Something about SHIELD, the agency she and Howard created, made Steve uneasy. Discretion is the greater part of valor, Steve knew, and as such, he bided his time. Over the years, he noticed a pattern to Tony's sudden appearances and disappearances. He also noticed that despite Stane's claims that Tony was always working, the cutting edge Stark tech that Tony produced followed a similar pattern. Almost like he was only allowed to work or socialize to keep from fading into obscurity. Peggy, Howard and Obadiah all seemed to think that Steve was somehow theirs, he could only imagine how they treated Tony. However, Steve had resolved to meet Tony by any means necessary as soon as he noticed how hard Howard tried to avoid such a meeting.

His resolve kept him from acting rashly and allowed him to worm his way into a visit to Stark Mansion, to see Obadiah Stane. Why was Howard's business partner living in his deceased friend's house? He managed to keep up the facade he had built over the years long enough to get Obadiah to leave him alone in the house while he attended to other business. It didn't take long for him to find the workshop, the place where Tony allegedly spent all his time. The door was locked but Steve was at the end of his rope and couldn't be bothered to be subtle anymore. One body slam sent the door flying across the room. Huh, he thought to himself, guess it wasn't reinforced after all. He saw no sign of Tony, no sign the room had been used that much. In fact, the room appeared very bare, especially compared to his memory of Howard's workshop during the war. He heard Obadiah yelling for him, and realized he should've waited longer before breaking down the door, should've made sure Stane would be stuck in traffic before he breached the house's security. Still, the way Stane sounded made him suspicious. The room was bare, there was no Tony in sight and yet Stane's voice held a certain urgency.

Upon closer inspection, Steve noticed something very out of place. An old oil lamp, like in stories about genies. It couldn't be, Steve thought. Curious, he moved closer and ran a hand gently over the lamp just as Stane reached the doorway. "You-"

A voice from behind Steve startled him, "Hello, Master Rogers." Spinning around, he saw Tony Stark sitting on the table right where the lamp had been, "Please make a wish. Standard rules- can't make someone fall in love, can't kill, can't resurrect."

"I wish-" Stane began and that sparked something in him.

Steve blurted out the first thing he could think of "I wish Stane would disappear and never return."

Tony snapped his fingers and Stane was gone. Bowing his head, Tony asked "May I speak freely, Master Rogers?"

"Please do and call me Steve."

"As you say, Master Steve." Steve bit back the urge to tell him not to call him Master, realizing that would only hurt him. He took a few steps back. "Master Steve?"

"I thought you might like some space to gather your thoughts."

"No!" Tony's eyes snapped up to his before he remembered himself and bowed his head once more, averting his gaze, "If you leave, I'll be stuck in the lamp again, Master."

"Okay." Steve said "I have some questions, if you wouldn't mind. It's fine if you do mind, I don't want to force you."

"Ask away."

"How did you become a genie?"

"Master Howard was searching for you when he discovered a way to harness magic. He made me. Mother struggled with miscarriages, you see. Master Howard told her that he had found a way to ensure a successful pregnancy. He merely neglected to mention that his solution would turn the child into a magic slave through which he could gain nearly anything he wanted. He made three wishes shortly after my magic matured. One, he wanted the Stark name to be held in high regard forever. A previous master's wish cannot be overturned by their immediate successor, that is why I am able to leave my lamp whenever the Stark name is in jeopardy. Two, he wanted to recover you alive and well." Howard's offhand remark about how his son helped suddenly made a whole lot more sense. "Three, Master Stane was to be my master after Master Howard was gone. Master Stane has refrained from using his wishes in order to retain control of me. After some time passed, I became aware of the fact that another person rubbing my lamp could become my master if they make a wish before Master Stane, mostly because Master Stane did not make proper wishes. When Master Stane asked to know what I was hiding, I had no choice but to share my discovery. Master Stane has made sure to minimize my contact with real people because of this."

Steve said "If I understand this right, I have two more wishes and until I make them, you have to do whatever I say."

"That is correct, Master Ro- Steve, Master Steve."

"How do I do that? Make a wish without making a wish."

"What would you like?"

"I would like you to be able to live your life. To be free to be Tony Stark."

"As long as I obey you."

"I guess, technically. Can I grant you your freedom with a wish or-?"

"I do not know." Tony glanced at him before saying "Surely there is something else you desire. I apologize for making you waste your first wish."

"It wasn't a waste. I wished that Stane would disappear and never return. As long as my wish is in effect then Stane can't hurt you anymore, right? His ability to do harm is limited since he has to stay disappeared."

"I suppose."

"There is something but first I want to get you settled in your life as Tony Stark. I'd like to help you adjust to that life before using up my wishes. If I can't give you your freedom with a wish then maybe I could help you avoid getting stuck with another Stane or Howard."

"As you say."

Chapter Text

Throughout Tony's life, he had served a greater purpose. From an early age, he had a very unique gift. He could guide lost souls to the other side. Of all the adults in his life, his mother was the only one who believed his childhood claims about his power. She helped him research his gift, exposing and debunking frauds as they sought out other mediums to guide him. Tony discovered there were a lot of misconceptions regarding people like him and the souls he could see. For one thing, most lost souls were just that: lost. After death, a lot of people failed to make their way to the afterlife and were simply lost. Tony learned from other mediums that they were given this gift mostly so they could help those souls find their way into their respective afterlives. Part of being a medium was studying cultural beliefs about what happened after death. Tony wasn't sure why but all religions were apparently right if his work as a medium was any indication.

When Tony was 17, his father became a believer. When Tony Stark was 17, Howard and Maria Stark died. These two events were inextricably linked as his father's spirit became one of the few who were not simply lost yet needed him anyway. Not long after Uncle Obie and Aunt Peggy informed him that his parents died in a car accident, that it seemed like Howard had been drinking, he heard the man's angry muttering. Tony nearly burst into tears all over again at the unfairness of it all. Not only did he lose the only person who believed him but now he had to help the man who was constantly on his case to stop and focus on more important things, real things. When the voice went away, Tony remembered that being a spirit basically made someone psychic. His father now knew exactly what he thought of him and Tony wasn't sure how to feel about that.

Howard was horrified by the empty look in James Barnes' eyes as the man sporting a metal arm murdered him. Even death didn't spare him from the pain as he had to watch helplessly while Barnes staged his body and choked his wife. To see that they were murdered to cover up a theft was like adding insult to injury. As if that wasn't enough, he also watched people he trusted hide the fact that he and his wife were murdered. He could see right through them, he now knew what they thought of him. This was no big deal for most of his former colleagues, he wasn't really a person to them. Thanks to Tony, he was easily replaceable. His loss of life was their gain.

Thinking about Tony, Howard remembered his son could allegedly see spirits and realized that's what he was. Maybe Tony and Maria weren't so ridiculous in their insistence about Tony's abilities. Catching sight of Obie and Peggy on his way to Tony, he heard them discuss how to make the most of his death, plotting how to manipulate Tony. If he had blood, it would be boiling at this confirmation. Not only were people thinking about how to use his death to their advantage, the two people he trusted most were conspiring to take advantage of his grieving son. When he heard Tony's thoughts about him, he realized that he had been drawn to his son. "Tony?"

His son spun around to face him, looking him right in his eyes "I can't believe you can't figure out which way to the afterlife."

"What?" Howard shook his head, "Obie and Peggy lied to you."

"Oh yeah?"

"Think Tony! Do you really think I would risk your mother's neck," he faltered, the memory of watching that metal arm choke the life out of her flashed before his eyes, "like that?! If I wanted to drink, and yeah I did, I would wait until we're on the jet!" He noticed that Tony looked different to other people, must be the medium thing.

"Yeah, I know-" Howard looked at his son, surprise clear on his face, but Tony had averted his gaze, "About the medium thing, I happen to be a medium. We look a little different to spirits, guess that helps lost souls find us. In my experience, the difference varies by spirit. Sometimes culture plays a role, if their culture gives them an idea about what the guide to the afterlife looks like." He waved a dismissive hand, "By engaging me, you've tethered yourself to me. That'll keep your soul safe but it also means you can't leave me unless I send you somewhere." The teen was clearly not happy about that. "I'll be able to tell when you're ready to pass on." Taking a few deep breaths, he added "If you don't pass on when it's your time then you'll be stuck with me. I don't know what happens to souls tethered to mediums like that, if they pass on when the medium dies or what."

"Alright, Tony." Howard wished he had paid his son more attention. Like this, he could read his son like a book and it wasn't a very happy story.

"I, uh, as a medium and with your soul tethered to me, I can do the same- do the read you like a book thing."

Howard thought about all the betrayals he had discovered, about the reason he and Maria were killed. He focused on the empty look in Barnes' eyes and wondered how he could still be alive, looking like he had during the war, more or less. Tony hummed, processing all the new information.

If either of them believed in luck, they may have credited it with their success in avenging Maria's murder. Stane was selling under the table, SHIELD had started treating laws and human rights like things other people had to respect. Since Howard thought Tony was being ridiculous when he claimed to be a medium, neither Carter nor Stane had even heard about the boy's gift. Being bound to his son, Howard discovered, made him incapable of either lying or disobeying the boy. They both discovered that Tony could also summon him after sending him away to spy. They ultimately set Tony's godparents up to kill each other, allowing the young man to claim Stane's shares and throwing SHIELD into disarray. Tony enlisted the help of his fellow psychics to fan the flames from a distance, destroying SHIELD without sacrificing the lives of innocent people. Some lost souls were willing to help stop SHIELD before their guides took them to the other side.

Catching his son staring at his soul, Howard asked "What is it, Tony?"

"You're still not ready to pass on. What else do we need to do?"

"Stane and Carter covered up your mother's murder, they didn't kill her. Maybe we need to stop her killer."

"He's your killer too," his son reminded him before asking "How sure are you that you saw James Barnes?"

"Not very. He was a dead ringer for Barnes, though, with longer hair and a metal arm."

"Metal arm?"

"Tony-"

"I'm not saying you imagined it but that's very distinctive. It shouldn't be so hard to find him."

"If I may, sir?" interrupted JARVIS, Tony's pride and joy.

"Go ahead."

"SHIELD had an impressive habit of making people disappear, correct?"

"Yeah." Howard caught a flicker of Tony planning to make cameras more common to help JARVIS see. The plan was definitely a work in progress but his son was already figuring out pitches to get people outside Stark Industries to hop on the bandwagon.

"Perhaps that is what happened to Sergeant Barnes. Perhaps his captors have the means to make him disappear in addition to their apparent control methods." The empty look in his eyes were more haunting than Howard's continued presence in the living world. That along with the fact that he did not recognize his own name had led the Starks to believe he was brainwashed.

Finding Barnes, and by extension the people who used him to kill the Starks, turned out to be quite the challenge. Tony had already made headway on integrating cameras everywhere when they got a hit. SI was moving away from super weapons and expanding into other fields, something both Starks had wanted to do for a long time. Howard nearly broke down all over again when he realized just how much he had been used by his supposed friends. Once they found Barnes, catching him was the next challenge but Tony had no intention of interfering in his mission. He had put out feelers with his law enforcement contacts, claimed he found a strange file in the SHIELD records that had been returned to him along with his father's stuff, and discovered that Barnes was now known as the Winter Soldier.

Going off of the information he was given, Tony decided going for Barnes first would be suicide. Instead, he provided trackers to law enforcement and shared some suspicions about the Winter Soldier, namely that he wasn't so much a gun for hire as a living weapon held by a single organization. After SHIELD fell, he gave permission for his parents' bodies to be exhumed and examined to determine the extent of SHIELD's involvement. Anyone familiar with the cold case could guess that the Winter Soldier killed them. However, nobody in law enforcement was going to put up a fuss if Stark's desire to avenge his parents led him to focus some of his energies on helping them. The state-of-the-art trackers, listening devices and even miniaturized/disguised cameras were just some of the toys that had come out of Tony Stark's apparent desire to equip law enforcement with the means to bring his parents' killers to justice. Stark Industries dominated the tech industry the same way they had dominated the weapons industry. Their work on hidden mics had inspired them to try to make phones smaller as they worked to come up with ways for federal agents to subtly communicate.

With Stark's help, American law enforcement also found better ways to track fugitives, such as the Winter Soldier. Some agents supported Stark's theory that the Soldier was a weapon and the people they really wanted were the ones pointing him at his targets. Thus, they deployed the latest SI trackers instead of attempting to apprehend the infamous assassin. Thankfully, they didn't have to stand by and watch the man murder someone. At the time he was unwittingly caught on camera, his mission was to kidnap, not kill. Law enforcement agencies came together in record time to raid the base they tracked the Winter Soldier to. The Soldier's apparent handler used him to escape, only the handler and the Soldier were successful in their escape attempt. Paranoia born of the infamous Winter Soldier's reputation had all of the other agents thoroughly searched, leading to the removal of many suicide implements. The hostage abducted by the Winter Soldier was rescued mostly unharmed.

The first attempt to apprehend the Winter Soldier, with any real degree of success, had law enforcement around the world adopting Tony's theory about the Soldier being a living weapon aimed at high value targets rather than a high end assassin choosing to take contracts. A thorough search of the base where the raid took place uncovered more evidence to support Stark's theory, namely the place where the man was tortured into compliance, and a horrifying truth about the organization itself in the form of the infamous HYDRA logo. Proof that the Winter Soldier was real was enough to have law enforcement around the world coming together to take him in. Vetting those agents for ties to HYDRA was a challenge and a half that ultimately fell to Stark since he had seemingly known what was what, after Tony himself was cleared by several of the agencies involved.

Between SI, hunting HYDRA and his continued work as a medium, Tony had trouble finding time to sleep. Howard, surprisingly, would not stand for such behavior and managed to argue him into submission. JARVIS expressed concern for Tony's mental health as he continuously caught Sir talking to/arguing with empty air. Trying to convince his AI that he was able to see spirits was a Herculean task, the successful completion of which was cause for celebration, at least for Tony. Howard was startled by how much JARVIS' attempts to convince Tony he needed to cease his madness reminded the dead man of his own arguments with his son. Once Tony cleared enough agents for the task force to work, mostly independently, he took a break from hunting HYDRA to focus on his projects for SI. JARVIS helped Tony master the art of delegating and send much of his works-in-progress to subordinate scientists in R&D. Having networked with his fellow mediums, Tony tried to streamline the system through which they communicated so that they could help more future mediums and work together to assist the spirits they saw who were not of the lost soul variety.

As his life became much less hectic, Tony slowly started working more with law enforcement again. He connected them to experts who were cleared of all HYDRA ties to help them understand how HYDRA's Winter Soldier program worked and how they could possibly bring the Soldier in without catastrophic loss of life. The presence of a cryostasis tube inside the base where the Winter Soldier was nearly caught renewed interest in finding Captain America. The theory that scientists working the case had was that Barnes was experimented on during his original captivity prior to Captain America's famous first rescue and that said experiment(s) enhanced him enough that most of his body survived the fall. From there, it wasn't hard to figure that HYDRA has had him ever since. Despite HYDRA's best attempts to ignore the fact that their Asset was a person, the files left behind on the Soldier, that were scanned into a computer to be shared before being stolen, were enough to confirm eye witness accounts that the Winter Soldier was in fact James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes. Identifying him went a long way towards cooling the pursuing agents' desire to take out the Winter Soldier. He was, after all, the longest serving POW in history.

Tony managed to bring together all of the interested parties in the search for Steve Rogers. He waited until he was sure they were working well together, using Howard's spirit to ensure there was no schism on the horizon, before offering copies of his father's research and expedition notes. Instead of yearly expeditions with the express purpose of finding the super soldier, they took their time to think things through, studying the notes of those who had already made the trip and research from those studying the arctic, before seeking a grant from Stark Industries to fund an expedition. It took three tries but they found Steve alive and well, just in time to try to rescue his best friend from HYDRA, again.

Once Steve was found, James was safely detained and HYDRA had gone from predator to prey, Howard Stark was finally ready to pass on. "It's your choice," Tony reminded him "You could stay, be stuck with me forever or something. If you want to go join mom, I'll be happy to guide you." Funny how they only grew closer after Howard was dead. With the Winter Soldier's capture, the case of the Stark Murders was closed. Barnes confessed after seeing Tony and hearing his name triggered a flashback. Apparently, the brainwashing worked in a cycle and towards the end of the cycle, the heartless Winter Soldier started to give way to the tortured soul that is James Barnes. Signs of humanity were used to spot the end of a cycle since cryofreeze warped his perception of time.

"I love you, Tony and I am proud of the man you've become, I've always been proud of you."

"Even when you thought I was being ridiculous talking to non-existent ghosts?"

"Even then. I'll see you when it's your time, how about that?"

Smiling sadly, Tony said "See you then."

"One more thing," before his son could send him on his way, Howard wanted to help him out one last time "You and that Potts woman would be good together, try not to mess it up too bad."

"Bye dad, see you in a few decades."

"Hopefully. I'll see you when I see you." With that, Howard Stark's soul was finally put to rest.

Chapter Text

“And just where have you been, lover boy?” asked the man hunched over a workbench.

“Could ask you the same thing,” came the snappy response from a man with icy blue eyes who had just come in, without making a sound.

With a sigh, the man at the workbench spun around in his seat and smiled, “I’m pretty sure everyone and their grandmother knows where I spend the off season. Now, judging by your appearance, I’m going to guess you’ve been messing with the humans again, pretending to be one of them.” Looking the other man over from head to toe, the jolly man in red hummed. “A teenager? Why would you- Oh,” his smile turned into a smirk, “Playing the poor little mutant boy. What name are you using? Something with Jack in it? Maybe playing at being one of the Frosts from Massachusetts, that family has produced a number of mutants. It’s a shame what happened to- Oh no, you didn’t think of that and I suppose Emma would be hard pressed to adopt a child, knowing what you are and she would know, despite their similar social status, that woman is nothing like Xavier. Oh, you’re hanging with the X-Men then. What’s your codename? Are you using your real name as a codename? No.”

“Tony-”

“Ah, ah, ah, I’m not Tony here.”

“Nick.”

“Close enough. Although most kids call me Santa nowadays.”

“Bobby Drake, Iceman.”

“Bobby Drake. Bobby, short for Robert, I presume.” At the other man’s nod, Nick said “Robert means famously famous and Drake means dragon so you named yourself the famously famous dragon. And Iceman, really? Might as well call yourself Frosty, then again-” His rambling was cut off by his boyfriend closing the distance between them and kissing him. “I missed you too.”

“I-” He spun around, “We both have work to do, I just wanted to see you and, well-”

“It’s hard to do that in the off season with humans being, what do they call it nowadays, homophobic. Stupid word but humans never were as clever as they like to think they are.” Nick said “Maybe I could make up an excuse to drop by Xavier’s. Do you have fosters or are you relying on-”

“No fosters, that’s just asking for trouble.”

“True but when’s that ever stopped either of us?”

As he grabbed his shepherd’s crook off the wall, Jack’s hair changed from brown to white, his skin paled, his body slimmed down and he grew taller. Turning back to his lover, he said  “I will see you when I get back, Nick.”

With a bright smile, Father Christmas resumed his more iconic form as well, “I’ll be here, Jack.”

Chapter Text

“So you’re a god?” said Darcy slowly.

“Yeah,” answered Tony from where he had plopped down on the couch beside her in the common room of the Avengers residential area of Stark Tower. His hair was sticking up in all directions, his face was covered in a sooty substance and he was grinning like a loon. “Not totally sure how that happened.”

“How do you know you’re a god?” was Darcy's follow-up question.

“Well first Thor called me the God of Technology in that way he does when he is referring to someone in a way he assumes everyone will understand like when he refers to Natasha as a spider instead of using her actual codename or calls Bruce a berserker because that’s what the Asgardian equivalent of the Hulk is. I didn’t think much of it because he’s just as likely to call me that because of a cultural misunderstanding, again like calling Bruce a berserker because he doesn’t get that the Hulk and Bruce are not exactly the same. But then Natasha asked ‘do you mind explaining that one?’ and Thor said I have a spark of divinity within me. Thor himself doesn’t know how a mortal man can become a god and, again, his claim that I have some divinity within me was initially dismissed as Thor being Thor.”

“But then what happened? What convinced you that Thor was right?” asked Darcy. Across from her, on another couch, Jane had set aside her notes and was watching them.

“Well,” Tony drew out the one word. “Something I was working on kinda sorta blew up while I was working on it. I was literally bent over my workbench tinkering when it literally blew up in my face. I was barely knocked to the floor, I might have only been knocked down by my instinctive dive for cover actually, and JARVIS can’t find any sign of injury on me, which suggests that I am somehow, on some level, invulnerable.”

Darcy pulled out her suped up taser and asked, “Do you want me to test that?”

Tony’s grin returned in full force. “Yes, please.” Darcy tased him three times in a row and he had no reaction. A super soldier like Steve Rogers would have been flopping around like a fish by the end of the third charge.

“Huh,” was all Darcy had to say as she put her taser away. Then a thought occurred to her. “Thor called you the God of Technology, right? Maybe you’re only invulnerable to technological attacks.”

Jane mused, “You may even be able to connect to technology in some way that humans cannot, like a technopath of some kind.” She smiled eagerly. “This requires further study.”

Darcy stood up. “I’ll get Betty and Bruce. Tony, you get Pepper and Happy because this is something they will need to see to believe. Jane, grab Erik, he deserves to know if he's working for a god again. Which lab should we use?”

Tony and Jane briefly debated the matter before agreeing to use Tony’s workshop since the machines in the actual labs tended to be more fragile than the things in his private workshop. Then they split up to fetch their respective people. Once they were all together, Darcy recounted Tony’s discovery of his apparent divinity and explained that they were trying to determine what being a mortal turned god actually entailed.

After two days of non-stop SCIENCE!, Erik collapsed onto a couch and asked tiredly, “JARVIS, how long has Dr Stark been awake? And can we rule him immune to the effects of sleep deprivation yet?”

The pause before the AI answered was telling. “Sir has indeed shown no signs of sleep deprivation that had previously been observed during his binges since Mr Odinson identified a spark of divinity within him.”

“Given that increased irritability is a symptom of sleep deprivation…” began Darcy, trailing off when Bruce sent her an annoyed glare. Betty soon calmed him and convinced him to leave the workshop. Happy, who had ducked in and out to check on Tony around his own work and sleep schedule, helped Erik stand up and walk to the elevator, seeing the eldest scientist to his apartment within Stark Tower. Darcy only needed to give Jane a look and threaten Tony with Pepper to get them to clear out for some sleep.

Two weeks after the epic science binge, Tony invited Dr Stephen Strange to the Tower under a strict confidentiality contract to assist in utilizing his new apparent godhood to heal old injuries. Officially, he needed a neurologist to consult on new technology for treating PTSD and he did indeed pick Strange's brain on the BARF technology. The neurosurgeon's first suggestion was changing the name to be more palatable to doctors and patients alike. The thought of telling someone that they wanted to use barf on their brain drew a grimace and a chuckle from Tony. Yeah, bad idea. A friendship grew from their consultancy and when Stephen found himself faced with the daunting task of facing down Dormammu, he called his godly friend. “Your what friend?” asked Mordo.

“A man I have seen fire six missiles at himself, only to then whine about ruining his good jeans,” answered Stephen.

By the time they reached the Hong Kong Sanctum, the battle was over. Tony was having tea with Tina Minoru, Wong, and another gentleman dressed in a blue sweater and jeans. Tony immediately stood up to greet them. “Stranger Danger, Karly-”

Mordo sighed and shook his head. “I should have known.”

Stephen was confused. “You two know each other.”

“The Ancient One was the only person on Earth who knew how to use an Infinity Stone and Vision,” he pointed to the man in the blue sweater, “Is both the vessel and guardian for an Infinity Stone. Viz, scan Mordo. I have a sneaking suspicion that he’s ready to pull a rabbit and blame the Ancient One for his return to his murderous roots.”

“Murderous roots?” inquired Wong.

“Before Mordo was a sorcerer, he was a drug baron, a crime lord responsible for more than a few public drive-by shootings among other deadly activities beyond dealing deadly addictive substances,” explained Tony, projecting video to back up his words. “His girlfriend, the one whose death ultimately led to him seeking out healing or enlightenment or whatever at Kamar-Taj, died from an addiction to one of the very drugs Mordo dealt but never personally partook in and she got her drugs from one of the dealers working under him. He killed the dealer then fled the country, ultimately ending up at Kamar-Taj, most likely still consumed by grief and guilt because his girlfriend died from using drugs he was ultimately responsible for importing. I am sure the personality traits that allowed him to carve out a barony in the drug world have long since reasserted themselves and, though he may have been a good disciple of the Ancient One, I don’t believe he is capable of respecting anyone else enough to continue on the path of a sorcerer of Kamar-Taj.”

“You are correct,” said Vision. “He has already begun making plans to leave the order and track down everyone else who has left the order to use magic to deprive them of magic under the apparent belief that there are too many sorcerers in the world.”

“Take his Sling Ring now.” Vision did more than that, stripping Mordo of all the relics he held before holding him still using one hand. Tony asked Mordo, “Why do you really want to destroy the universe? Those people provide funding and resources that the Masters of the Mystic Arts rely on to survive, not to mention the fact that they also guide other people to Kamar-Taj, thereby ensuring that the order always has sufficient numbers to do its duty. If you deprive them of magic, some of them will die sooner or later and others will simply stop supporting the order, leading to the inevitable collapse of the order and without the order to defend it from other dimensional threats, this universe will be torn apart. Why do you wish this fate on our world? You’re not stupid, your previous career proved that.”

Mordo merely glared defiantly at Tony. Vision reported, “He has no answer to your question beyond reassuring himself that his chosen course of action is a righteous path.” Vision then swore a magical oath taught to him by the Ancient One that would deprive him of whatever he offered to the binder as collateral against his sincerity, in that particular case, he swore on the Infinity Stone he held, daring the higher power he swore to to have it burned out of him. Nothing happened and he even briefly assumed his better known appearance to prove he still held the stone in question.

Master Minoru stepped forward to do exactly as Mordo intended to do to others, permanently stripping him of his magical abilities. Tony promised to see him off to the legal authorities in his country of origin as he and Vision left the Sanctum.

Tony was stunned weeks later when Stephen portalled to him looking frazzled and almost panicky. He had a very strange request, no pun intended. “You want to sleep with me?”

“Just sleep.” Stephen explained, “According to Wong, my habit of astral projection while my body sleeps has left me vulnerable to the creatures that target sleeping people, even when I stay in my physical form. Wong assured me that a divine presence can provide ample protection.”

“Okay,” said Tony.

He asked JARVIS to inform anyone he was scheduled to meet with outside of his actual friends that he was sick. JARVIS had donated a copy of his base code to the creation of Vision when the scepter was recovered and found to contain a semi-conscious presence. The AI's base code was sufficient to overpower the semi-conscious presence in the scepter and become the predominant influence in Vision's development. As for Tony’s actual friends, they were told a version of the truth, that Stephen had all but collapsed on him after suddenly turning up and he felt the need to look after the man.

When Stephen woke up after sleeping for almost twelve hours, he was quite embarrassed by his earlier actions and quickly tried to pull himself out of Tony’s bed. The Cloak of Levitation, in turn, kept dragging him back over to Tony. “What’s this relic's name?” asked Tony conversationally. 

“The Cloak of Levitation,” answered Stephen, still struggling to get up.

“Levi, let Stephen get up and use the bathroom.” The Cloak complied with his request and, after watching Stephen walk into the en suite to ensure the Cloak did not change its mind and drag him back over to Tony, the young god got out of bed. “I’ll be in the kitchen if you want breakfast before you go back to the order.”

“Thank you,” called Stephen in response.

Stephen walked in on Tony trying to explain taste to Vision while they cooked breakfast together. “Dr Strange,” the android acknowledged him with a respectful nod.

“Vision.”

Looking over at the sorcerer, Tony said, “It just occurred to me that you probably didn’t get as much training in the use of the Time Stone as Vision received in the use of Infinity Stones in general. Am I wrong?”

“No,” answered Stephen.

Vision turned to the keeper of the Time Stone. “I will happily teach you what I was taught, Dr Strange.”

“I just might take you up on that.”

Stephen became a regular visitor to the Tower, even after he learned how to ward his mind and stopped astral projecting in his sleep and no longer needed Tony’s divine presence to sleep safely. Vision took some time off from the Avengers once Stephen had learned to protect his mind to give him lessons on using an Infinity Stone so Stephen couldn’t use the excuse of learning from Vision to justify his frequent visits.

It didn’t take long for other people who lived in the Tower to find out about Stephen's career change and visits to the Tower. Stephen and Tony were the subject of much gossip, teasing, and even a little match-making from those same people as well as Wong. The Asian Master of the Mystic Arts invited Tony over to the New York Sanctum fairly often for tea and even he could not use Tony’s divinity to truly justify his obvious efforts to set up casual meetings between Tony Stark and Stephen Strange.

However that excuse was not just an excuse. When a pair of aliens came after the Time Stone, Wong was easily able to call in Tony who turned the aliens’ own technology against them. “How?” asked Stephen when they were sitting in the New York Sanctum waiting for Thanos and/or his loyal lackeys to make another attempt. “How can you control alien technology? I understand how you can manipulate your own tech or other Earth tech but alien technology-”

“Well,” began Tony before Stephen could really get going. “Wong helped me research humans who ascended to godhood. It has happened before but it all comes down to belief and faith. People believe that Stark tech is the best and have faith that I will lead them into a new era of technological advancement, hence God of Technology. Without that faith and belief, I would not be a god. That’s why the other humans who ascended to godhood have since lost their godhood. I can do just about anything related to technology as long as I retain my status as God of Technology.”

“I see,” muttered Stephen.

They ultimately lucked out when Thanos finally did show up. It seemed that his gauntlet counted as a piece of technology and therefore fell under Tony’s power.

Chapter Text

It happened during his trek through the desert. As he ruminated on Yinsen's last words “Don’t waste your life”, a determination settled within him to live up to Yinsen's sacrifice, to honor his hope for a better future brought about by Tony Stark. Before he was found by Rhodey, he was found by a glowing blue ring that slid itself onto his finger. Rhodey, Pepper, and Happy were the only people he shared his new accessory with. He hid it from everyone else, including Obie, which proved fortuitous.

When his Arc Reactor began leaking palladium and killing him, JARVIS deduced that something was slowing the progression of the heavy metal poisoning. Tony guessed that it was his ring that he never took off because it just felt right on his finger. JARVIS and the (most likely alien) AI in the ring both strongly encouraged him to tell his friends about his ailing health and impending death. After his birthday bash, when the ring had to purge the concoction that Natashalie injected him with before it could react to his own attempts to treat his condition through conventional medical means, Tony decided to listen to their advice. JARVIS contacted local law enforcement to remove the agents Fury left to imprison him in his own home before inviting Pepper to the mansion and repossessing the armor James Rhodes had taken before anyone could tinker with it on behalf of the Air Force. Once all of Tony’s most trusted friends were gathered, Tony explained, “The palladium powering my Arc Reactor is leaking into my bloodstream and poisoning me. My, uh, Blue Lantern ring is slowing it down and JARVIS has got me trying more conventional means of treating the heavy metal poisoning but we haven’t found a workable alternative power source and there’s a limit to what can be done while I am still being exposed to the heavy metal.” JARVIS helpfully shared the symptoms of heavy metal poisoning with Sir's closest friends. As a consequence, Sir's support system weathered the storm well with him until he could rediscover Howard’s theoretical element and synthesize it. Pepper and Happy covered for him at the company. Rhodey told his superiors that Tony was going to adapt the armor to make it more user-friendly, customizing it for him, but warned that Tony had mentioned adding a self-destruct feature to the anti tampering measures in case Rhodey was captured, citing the Iron Monger as a precedent.

After he fixed his Arc Reactor problem, Tony’s Blue Lantern ring went to work purging much of the residual heavy metal from his body and healing his body. This made Tony curious about exactly what the ring could do. He actually took to meditation to communicate with the AI in the ring and learn from it. His meditation made him more mindful of his emotions and the emotions of those around him. Consequently, he noticed the sudden spike in negative emotions when the Avengers were assembled in the lab he and Bruce were given on the Helicarrier. “Take away the armor, what are you?”

Taking a few steps back away from the man attempting to tower over him, Tony answered, “I am the man who made the armor when I was surrounded by terrorists who were threatening to kill me if I didn’t build them a missile that could take out a mountain. I am the man who shut down weapons production in my company within an hour of returning to the United States because I saw that our enemies had stockpiles of weapons I made to protect our troops, continuing the work my father started in the 40s. I am the man who refused to hide behind a bodyguard, to let the enemies I made as Iron Man go after other people, who stood up and told the world I am Iron Man so that the world could hold me accountable.” 

He curled his right hand into a fist and held it up. “In fearful day, in raging night, with strong hearts full, our souls ignite, when all seems lost in the War of Light, look to the stars, for hope burns bright,” he declared proudly. A wave of blue light washed over the room as the Blue Lantern uniform formed over Tony’s body.

Steve stared at him in slack jawed amazement. He had heard stories, legends of people who glowed with the power of their hearts. “What-?”

“Without the Iron Man armor, I am still a Blue Lantern,” was Tony’s response.

Steve was confused. “Why would you hide that?”

Natasha explained, “Blue is the color of hope. Blue Lanterns are generally pacifists.”

“And regarded as being useless without a Green Lantern,” added Tony. He turned his attention to the scepter, the likely source of the irrational hostility, and scanned it with his ring. “Huh,” he said in a mild voice. “This thing is a three way-” He picked it up in his left hand and flew out of the room.

“Where do you-?”

Before Fury could finish yelling out his question, Stark was out of earshot. Tony used the scepter and his ring to track down those who were being controlled near the Helicarrier and end the mind control. He hesitated outside of Loki's cell, perplexed by how he could be both puppet and puppeteer. This gave Romanoff, Fury, Thor, and Rogers a chance to catch up with him. “What do you think you are doing?” asked Rogers, much less hostile than before Tony revealed himself as a Blue Lantern.

Tony ignored him and turned to Thor. “Can I borrow your hammer?”

Thor smiled and held it out to him, expecting him to fail to lift it but Tony was nothing if not clever and he used a light construct to pick up the hammer. The hammer could be moved by things like cars and elevators but people were subject to the hammer's character judgment, the Blue Lantern ring was a thing not a person. That was the theory at least and it seemed to work. Tony used the hammer to shatter the casing around the stone that gave the scepter its power. Loki immediately collapsed under the backlash of the connection between him and the scepter being violently broken.

Ten minutes later, he woke up and slowly stood. Tony and Thor spent those ten minutes debating where the Mind Stone belonged, Fury and Romanoff trying to get them to agree that it belonged in SHIELD's custody and being ignored while Steve just stood around like a spare end. Steve was the first to notice Loki was awake and alerted the others, ending the debate for the time being. “Loki Friggarson, can you tell me where the people you conscripted using the scepter are? We really need the Tesseract back so that we can send Thor Odinson home.”

Loki began to nod, then stopped with a grimace and gave the location of his base along with Stark Tower as his destination once he escaped from the Helicarrier. Romanoff smirked and Fury scoffed. “Like that'll ever happen?”

“It almost did. I used my ring to cut the connection between the scepter and the men who were about to attack the Helicarrier, which included Barton. You’re welcome,” said Tony as he brushed past them all. 

He stopped by the lab to pick up Bruce on his way out. He had JARVIS fly his armor out while he used his ring to transport himself and Bruce to Stark Tower. Then he called the proper authorities to pick up the trespassers and other people Loki recruited, advising them to have all of the people they picked up evaluated for mental damage caused by whatever knocked them all out simultaneously. He also set up a time to brief his contacts within the American government about his latest encounter with SHIELD. Bruce was invited to stay the night and offered the services of SI's lawyers to take Ross down for his habit of bringing tanks into civilian areas in pursuit of a man who never harmed anyone unless provoked, usually by Ross using deadly ammunition on him. When the situation with Ross was put that way, Bruce realized that Ross really should have been locked up years ago and accepted both of Tony’s offers.

As for Thor, Tony gave him the Tesseract but claimed that they needed Loki to help prepare them for more serious alien invaders since the Tesseract apparently painted a huge target on their backs and they probably would not be getting it back from Asgard even after the Bifrost was restored. Thor agreed with his reasoning and Loki happily accepted the integration program he was required to complete before he could start working on Earth. He ended up working in SI's R&D department when he wasn’t briefing government officials from the alphabet soup and beyond on other aliens.

Finding out Tony was a Blue Lantern seemed to have triggered an obsession within Steve that SHIELD happily exploited. Tony quickly grew fed up with his stalker and gave him a public dressing down where he reminded Steve that Tony had outed himself in response to Steve's bullying tactics. “Back off, Rogers. Why don’t you focus on catching up on the decades you missed instead of hounding me?”

Steve did not back off and so Tony used his ring, focusing on his hope that Steve would be better off for his intervention to pick Steve up and carry him to the US Army base he had been publicly ordered to report to after his public confrontation with Tony revealed he was alive but none of his contact information. He gently set Steve down and landed. He explained to the man out of time, “Steve, you have been officially classified as AWOL, that’s away without leave, for failing to report here when you were ordered to. If you ever want to be recognized as a real captain, you will have to earn your rank the way every other captain in the United States armed forces does, by following orders and working your way up the ranks. But first you need to complete officer training and learn about the military tactics in the modern age. The Army is willing to give you a little bit of assistance by having you taught things that were added to the standard curriculum after you finished school before you go to command school. If you don’t do what you need to do, if you go AWOL again, then you will forever be known as a fraudster. You fraudulently enlisted five times and when told what you had to do to be a real captain, you refused to do it.”

Two MPs were standing by to escort Rogers through the base to wherever he needed to go. A thought occurred to one of them, a tall brunette man with blue eyes. “Do you even have a TV or have access to a current news source, Rogers?”

“I-” Steve couldn’t think of a response. “I don’t really have a steady income. I’ve been staying in SHIELD issued lodgings.”

The blond MP, who hadn’t spoken, rolled his eyes. SHIELD, that explained it. He clarified, “So you didn’t know that the Army had called upon you to report here so that you can finish out your contract and receive proper veteran benefits afterwards?”

“No,” answered Steve.

Tony told him, “They’re gonna take you to see someone about dropping that AWOL charge and get you started on lessons in things every high school graduate knows before you get shipped off to command school. The Secretary of Defense actually arranged a special exemption to the usual admissions policies to get you into officer school.”

“Exemption?” echoed Steve.

“In this country, command schools have very stringent admissions standards. Your poor health before you were injected would disqualify you due to your medical history. You missed so much school being sick that I imagine your grades would not be good enough to meet the GPA requirement. Your date of birth would make you appear far too old for the rigors of command school. Need I go on?”

“No,” said Steve, bowing his head.

“Instead of digging into your life in Brooklyn before you were injected and judging you based on that, you will be judged based on your performance in supplementary lessons and here on an Army base. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Then I will leave you to it.”

Being a Blue Lantern did not mean much to Tony. He was not like the stereotypical Lantern ring bearer whose entire personality seemed to center around being a Lantern ring bearer. From the Red Lantern rage machines to the intimidating Yellow Lanterns to the cocky Green Lanterns to the useless pacifist Blue Lanterns and beyond, it was a very common phenomena among ring bearers but Tony was always the exception to the rule.

Chapter Text

If asked, Tony would insist that he didn’t remember when he acquired the ring and explain that he didn’t use it much because he didn’t need it.

The first time he was forced to use the full power set was during the climactic battle against Killian. “In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight! Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power - Green Lantern's light!” He muttered the oath under his breath and got to work, using the ring to identify and exploit weaknesses in the Extremis soldiers, to free the President and carry him over to Rhodey where he would be safe, to contain Killian and let him blow himself up, to get Pepper safely out of there. He was a one man army but he believed wholeheartedly in the principle of self sufficiency, he believed that “If you need the suit, you don’t deserve it.” He didn’t need the Iron Man armor or the Green Lantern ring but he still worked hard to prove he deserved both.

The Avengers discovered that he had the ring during the Ultron debacle. “In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight! Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power - Green Lantern's light!” He quickly muttered the oath, caught the shield Rogers threw at him with a hastily conjured construct and beat the Maximoff twins with it. Thor entered while he was holding Rogers with green chains. He ignored the obvious stand-off and created a power surge centered around the cradle. Tony scanned Steve with his ring then said, “Thor, Steve just brought the twins who attacked us in Johannesburg here without calling ahead, threw his shield at me when I was out of the armor because the woman told him I was trying to destroy the world or something, and yet I can find no sign of the wannabe witch's fake magic on him. Could you hold him while I scan her to confirm that her fake magic is not on Steve?”

“Aye,” answered Thor.

Tony scanned the twins and reported, “Her power reads as unstable. Parts of her brain are being overloaded by excess energy and her brother isn’t much better.” He was twisting the truth somewhat, their brains did have excess energy in them but their bodies seemed to have adapted well to their powers, meaning the powers were stable as far as Tony's scans could tell but the twins evidently were not.

After Vision identified himself and lifted Thor's hammer, thereby convincing most of the Avengers that he is a good guy, Tony asked if he could strip the unstable twins of their powers. Vision understood his true meaning even as Bruce had to remind Steve that Tony told them the twins’ powers were overloading parts of their brains, meaning their powers might be killing them. Vision was able to reclaim the Mind Stone's power. Steve's adamant defense of them and their right to keep their powers, despite having used those powers against the Avengers more than once, turned the other Avengers against him. Tony called in Rhodey and suggested that, “Since he's a colonel and colonels outrank captains in the army, maybe we should let him lead us. This battle is gonna be bigger than almost anything we have ever faced, maybe not bigger than New York but bigger than everything since, definitely.” Even Steve couldn’t argue with his logic, recalling Colonel Phillips, his superior officer during the War.

Tony used a combination of his ring and his armor to keep the city grounded during the battle. Rhodey called ahead to have the city evacuated before they arrived. For all that Sokovians hated Iron Man, they would still rather have him deal with the genocidal robot than face Ultron themselves.

Afterwards, Steve was put on trial for aiding the twin terrorists in gaining access to Avengers Tower, which had over a hundred floors dedicated to Stark Industries where civilian employees had been working unaware of the mortal peril they had been placed in by Captain America. He was also charged with the attempted murder of Tony Stark and all the other charges he had racked up during the War that were not levied against him at the time to avoid lowering morale, in the DC disaster where he crashed three Helicarriers on a city after recklessly endangering the lives of everyone in the Triskellion by encouraging them to shoot each other because anyone could be a secret HYDRA agent and a plethora of smaller incidents and infractions, such as tax evasion and driving without a license. Some people who were directly affected by Rogers’ disregard for civilian lives during the DC disaster even tracked down evidence of him jaywalking and littering just to make sure that he didn’t get away with anything. The Maximoff twins had operated internationally on behalf of HYDRA and Ultron so their case was a jurisdictional nightmare. Ironically, Wanda was easier to deal with because she was more mentally unstable and had a complete mental breakdown upon waking up without her powers. She was remanded to a psychiatric facility in Switzerland indefinitely. Even HYDRA couldn’t get a foothold in the neutral nation, not that anyone really thought HYDRA would care enough about her to bust her out but it was still a possibility. Pietro was more difficult because he was not unfit to stand trial, which brought up the question of what court to try him in. He committed crimes in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa but he joined HYDRA with the intention of killing an American industrialist so who had jurisdiction and what exactly can he be charged with were tricky questions. Intent mattered but intent alone was not enough to justify criminal charges. A person may mime strangling someone, may even say “I could kill that guy” or “I am going to kill that guy” but none of those things were actually illegal.

None of Tony’s Green Lantern power usages were highly publicized. The President called him Tony Stark or Iron Man when he spoke about his rescue from the Mandarin, as an example of how his power usage was hidden without any concentrated effort on his part to hide it. Due to the stakes, Tony decided to whip out his Green Lantern ring on Titan. “In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight! Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power - Green Lantern's light!” He even pulled his power battery from the pocket dimension where it stayed between charges to recharge his ring for the battle to come.

“I did not see this in any of the possible futures I looked at.”

Tony shrugged. “Probably because the Green Lantern ring is not native to this universe.” He scanned the Guardians and raised an eyebrow at Peter Quill. “According to my ring, you are genetically half human but the non-human half is insanely powerful.”

“That’s right,” said the self-styled Star Lord.

“Okay. Here's what we're going to do. You and Spider-Man are going to stick close to Strange. If he loses the Time Stone then you need to focus on your non-human half, take the Time Stone and give us a do over.” He turned to the other Peter. “Spider-Man, your job is to make sure that if Strange loses the Time Stone, Quill gets it. You may help him defend it but stay close to him. Don’t let him or the magic green rock get too far away for you to stage a rescue with your webs.” Parker nodded seriously and Tony turned back to Quill. “I am going to try to give you one of Thanos’ Infinity Stones. If I succeed then you need to focus on your non-human half and getting Gamora back. Your non-human half, according to my scans, can handle the strain of wielding an Infinity Stone but if you’re not focused on that half then that ability may be unconsciously suppressed and just touching an Infinity Stone could kill you. Understand?”

“Yeah, I understand.”

Tony briefly turned his attention to Strange to say, “Stay back and let Spider-Man and Quill protect you and the Stone.” Strange sighed and nodded in acquiescence. Turning to the other Guardians, he started with Mantis. “My scans indicate that you are an empath.”

“Oh, yes,” confirmed Mantis.

“We need you to use that to let us know if Thanos has backup incoming at any time during the fight. As an empath, you should be able to sense a sneak attack… Maybe you should stay close to Strange so you can share that warning without yelling across the battlefield and giving away the advantage. Quill might also need help focusing on his part. If he doubts himself, his ability to harness the power of his non-human half, he could sabotage himself.”

Mantis turned to look at Drax who nodded seriously. As she joined the others close to Doctor Strange, Drax asked, “What do you need me to do?”

“Stay out of my way, for starters. My ring runs on will power, if I can’t concentrate then I can’t use it. I also need you to give me a chance to get an Infinity Stone to Quill so that he can rescue Gamora before you go in for the kill.”

“That I can do.”

When Thanos arrived, Quill and Spider-Man closed ranks around Strange. Tony looked over at Mantis, who gave a thumbs up, letting him know that there was nobody backing Thanos up. Tony took a deep breath and let it out slowly then he went to town on Thanos. He was darting around in the sky, conjuring multiple constructs and dispelling them with ease. Some constructs were used as distractions to split Thanos’ focus, others were genuine attacks, and others still were used as shields. The Guardians were visibly stunned. Tony was barely visible as a streak of green light in the sky, not giving Thanos a chance to lock onto him long enough to attack, and it was clear that he was actually doing a fair amount of damage. When they were able to see Thanos through the green light constructs, they noticed he was bleeding. Tony only slowed down after Thanos began wearing down under the onslaught and only long enough to drop the stolen Space Stone into Quill's hand. Mantis quietly reminded Quill of what he had to do, “Focus on our father’s power and focus on Gamora.”

A moment later, Tony made some kind of spinning construct high above Thanos’ head that sent two projectiles flying into the sand far away from Thanos. He slowed down enough to give Thanos a target and flew away from Strange, Spider-Man, the Guardians, and the places where those two projectiles landed. An enraged Thanos gave chase and Drax followed after with a delighted laugh. Mantis remained focused on helping Peter Quill summon Gamora's body. Shortly after the body was successfully summoned, Drax led the race back towards the others with his swords out. Tony stole the last Infinity Stone from the gauntlet and pressed it against Thanos’ cheek before dragging the Mad Titan by the head towards Drax. Peter Quill's rage boiled over and he summoned Thanos’ heart just as Drax decapitated the Mad Titan.

Tony made a slingshot construct and fired the Soul Stone at Gamora's body then pressed his arms to his sides and darted over to the body like a missile. He placed his ringed hand over the Soul Stone on her body and made Thanos’ death a sacrifice for the restoration of Gamora's soul. He took back the Soul Stone and flew up high in the sky to search for the two Stones he had thrown away. Quill dropped the Space Stone in his hurry to be reunited with Gamora, prompting Tony to retrieve that Stone as well. He landed beside Strange and asked, “After we get Quill to scatter the Stones and send us home, what's next?”

“Actually, since Quill can use the Infinity Stones, perhaps he could help undo some of the damage Thanos did before he scatters the stones.”

“Actually, Quill can’t use the Infinity Stones, plural, he can only wield one and only while focusing on his non-human half so that his human mortality doesn’t get in the way. I get the sense focusing on his non-human half could be very dangerous, that there’s a reason his sister Mantis doesn’t tap into her full potential.”

“What?” asked Drax who had left Quill and Gamora to their reunion. “What was that about Mantis?”

“She has the potential to be much more than an empath but that potential is untapped. Actually her empathy is a result of her, uh- what is the proper term for Quill's non-human half? What was his non-human parent?”

“Our father was a Celestial,” answered Mantis.

“You get your empathic power from your mother then.” Tony explained to her, “Your Celestial heritage merely enhances the empathic potential within your other half. I guess it’s possible that you just need to unlock your Celestial potential like Quill did at some point. I can’t really say for sure.” He shrugged and revealed, “Even Quill hasn’t fully unlocked his Celestial potential but he has unlocked enough to safely handle the Space Stone and use the Time Stone but he would have needed to give it back as soon as he finished using it. As for Reality and Power, I wouldn’t try either of them if I were him.”

“And the Soul Stone?” asked Drax.

“That one is complicated. Technically anyone who sacrifices a soul to it can wield it if they have the fortitude not to be absorbed into it themselves.” Tony theorized, “If Quill removed Thanos’ heart with the intention of reviving Gamora before your swords were far enough through his neck to kill him then that could be construed as Quill sacrificing a soul for the Soul Stone but it's a stretch. As for the Mind Stone… We really need to hurry back to Earth because that one is housed within a synthezoid, which is basically a person that is made not born. If the Mind Stone is ripped out, the synthezoid will most likely die.” Tony lassoed Peter and Gamora with a construct and pulled them over to the others. He also retrieved Thanos’ head and passed it on to Drax, explaining that it was “For proof of death.” He asked Gamora, “Are you alright? Something tells me you weren’t a willing sacrifice for the Soul Stone so how did Thanos get you in position to sacrifice you for it?”

“He used my sister Nebula to force my compliance, not only did he sacrifice me for the stone, he also got me to give up its location,” answered Gamora.

Tony, who was keeping the Infinity Stones in a forcefield bubble, plucked one stone from the bubble and shoved it into Quill's hands. “Just like before, focus on your Celestial half and summon who you want.” Quill did as asked in moments and Tony quickly fixed Nebula's partially disassembled cybernetics. “Now focus on the Mind Stone and on getting us all close enough to protect it.” That one took Quill a minute to achieve. “Oh, by the way, in your current state, Space is the only Infinity Stone you can actually hold onto without being destroyed. You might be able to wield one of the others but not safely or for more than one task.” Tony fired an energy blast over Princess Shuri's shoulder as a warning. “Vision is alive and Thanos, the lunatic who wants to steal the Mind Stone, is dead. Drax is holding his decapitated head.” He nodded to Drax who lifted the head and Shuri gave a disgusted look. “Could you please point us towards Thanos’ lackeys so that Drax can show them the proof that their master is dead while I help you fix the damage you have done to Vision?”

Shuri summoned a palace guard to escort the Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, and Spider-Man to the battlefield so that they could hopefully end the pointless invasion. She and Tony made short work of restoring Vision, even though Tony had to split his focus somewhat to maintain the forcefield around the three stolen Infinity Stones. Then they joined the battle that seemed to have gotten worse since Vision had left. Tony flew over to Peter Quill and whispered in his ear, “You have the Space Stone. You can teleport them all into a black hole or remove vital organs like you did to Thanos.”

Quill dug the stone out of his pocket, never realizing that his pocket should not have been able to contain the powerful object, and held it aloft. Focusing on his Celestial half to safely wield the Infinity Stone was becoming second nature. He removed vital organs from his enemies, merely transporting them into the space above their heads, then transported the remains to the ruins of Xandar. After a moment’s thought, he rounded up the alien weapons and debris, putting it all around a downed alien ship. With that done, he lowered his arm.

“Typical, Quill. You forgot you could use the Infinity Stone that you used to bring us here, didn’t you?” asked Gamora.

“Maybe,” admitted Peter. “I’m not used to being able to use an Infinity Stone, I’m used to relying on other stuff.”

“And that’s a good thing,” said Tony. “I personally think that if you need something like an Infinity Stone or my Green Lantern ring-” He waved his right hand as though to show off the ring. “-then you don’t deserve it. Being dependent on things, even awesome things, can be dangerous. That said, hiding Infinity Stones in objects like the Tesseract and then hiding those objects in the hopes that nobody will ever find them has proven to be a bad idea. Maybe Quill should keep the Space Stone so he can act as a warning system for the other Infinity Stones. He knows how to use the stone to transport himself and others, how to defend himself against an army or a superior opponent with it. As long as he doesn’t become dependent upon it, letting everyone in the galaxy know he has it, he could make a great guardian for it. However, that still leaves these…” He made the forcefield holding the stones bounce. “To deal with. Strange suggested that as long as we have someone who can wield an Infinity Stone, we should try to undo some of the damage Thanos did when he was closing in on the Stones. Also, there's a slight possibility that you killed Thanos, not Drax, and that the Soul Stone interpreted that as you sacrificing Thanos’ soul to the Soul Stone, meaning you might be able to use that one, maybe, just maybe.”

Peter shook his head. “Give the Soul Stone to Gamora. I have the strangest feeling that Thanos screwed up the sacrifice and that the Soul Stone is rightfully hers as a result.”

“Vision?” Tony turned around to face the host of the Mind Stone who had followed him over to Quill.

“Mr Quill is correct. Due to a technicality, Gamora gained the Soul Stone's allegiance, not Thanos who claimed the Soul Stone's physical form. The Soul Stone will allow her to wield it since Thanos, the thief, has been given to the Soul Stone.”

Tony explained to the gobsmacked Guardians, “The Mind Stone contributed to the development of Vision's consciousness. He has an inherent understanding of Infinity Stones as a result.”

“The Space Stone has taken a liking to Mr Quill,” declared Vision. “Given time, it may even bond to him in a way. Due to the nature of space and the Space Stone, such a bond would allow Mr Quill to summon the stone, should he need it.”

Nebula reasoned, “Quill and Gamora can’t both hold onto an Infinity Stone. Their ship isn’t big enough to hide two of them the way you could hide two Infinity Stones on a planet.”

Vision nodded sagely. “The nature of the Soul Stone is such that it can find its own hiding place if necessary, using the powers of the souls it has absorbed.”

“Okay but even if Gamora does use the Soul Stone and I use the Space Stone, that still leaves two stones that we can’t use to restore Xandar because we don’t have anyone to wield them and I gotta say, Reality is probably the one we need the most for this job.”

Vision floated away and came back with three men, one of whom was Doctor Strange. “Thor of Asgard has a history with the Reality Stone and understands its nature. Dr Banner is willing to attempt to wield the Power Stone.” Tony made a life size construct of the Hulk that surrounded Bruce, which cleared up the confusion over why he was chosen over any other human.

Tony reminded Thor, “You cannot use the Reality Stone to revive Asgard… unless you can convince the other Infinity Stones’ users to help you.”

Thor nodded seriously. “Could I perhaps use the Stone to recreate some of the priceless objects we lost when Asgard was destroyed, just copies that I would slip into the cargo hold of our ship?”

“Just focus on restoring the people and places that Thanos destroyed when he was closing in on the Infinity Stones then you can talk to the others about recreating lost Asgardian relics.” Tony advised, “You all need to focus on restoring the same thing at the same time.” He distributed the stolen Infinity Stones then mediated the discussion on how to carry out the restorations and in what order.

Thor took a little convincing not to start with the Asgardian refugees and eventually they agreed to go in order of destruction. They also agreed not to fix things like they were never destroyed because people from other planets knew about the destruction of the planet Xandar and the survivors of the purge of Asgardian refugees would remember the others’ deaths and things like that made it pointless and dangerous to deny the people they hoped to bring back memories of what had been done to them by Thanos. The planning and execution of the restorations took over an hour. Once they were done, Thor got to make his case for recreating priceless Asgardian artifacts. They debated each and every suggested item, recreating some as requested but choosing not to do the same for most of them. After that, Peter and Gamora joined hands and used their respective stones to forge a warning system that would either alert the keeper of an Infinity Stone that the stone was in danger or cause an Infinity Stone without a guardian to randomly transport itself to an uninhabited world far away from its previous resting place. The presence of all six Infinity Stones in close proximity to each other triggered the system, scattering the Reality and Power Stones among the stars since the men who held them did not qualify as guardians for the Infinity Stones.

With that done, Peter transported the Guardians of the Galaxy to their ship, the Milano. “I think we should head to Earth using the ship so that we can explain the whole Thanos thing. If they don’t know why the invasion on the Wakandan border happened, they might think that some alien race is trying to conquer the planet or something.”

“I agree,” said Gamora. “The people of Xandar and Knowhere can wait for an explanation of what happened to them. They at least know it was Thanos. Terra is too far out of the way for the people there to have heard of Thanos.”

Nebula rolled her shoulder. “If you were just gonna take the long way back, you could have left me there. Whatever Stark did when he put me back together seems to have improved my cybernetics, make them work a little more like my actual body parts and hurt less. I would like to see if he can do that for all of me.”

Rocket admitted, “I wouldn’t mind seeing what kind of tech that Stark guy has if he can do that on the fly.”

“So we are all on the same page here, right? We are all interested in going back to my home planet?” asked Peter, receiving nods and other affirmatives.

It felt like it started as soon as he stepped through Strange's portal and returned to New York with Stephen and Peter. Tony was almost immediately forced to sit through a ton of debriefings on the subject of what happened while he was in space. He made sure that Strange was right beside him, answering all of those repetitive questions and dealing with their infuriating criticisms wherein the pompous bureaucrats or politicians say “I don’t think you should have done that because of X, Y, or Z but I can’t really say what you should have done instead.” Tony was only able to keep Peter out of the meetings because he turned over the recording of the fight against Thanos from the Iron Spider armor, carefully editing Peter's voice to make him sound more like a college student than a high schooler, and Strange confirmed that Spider-Man had not contributed anything significant, that he was kept on standby in case Thanos bested Tony and the alien Drax who were positioned as frontline fighters. Tony joked about recording a video of them answering frequently asked questions from the debriefs and posting it on YouTube. After a week of back to back pointless meetings, Stephen was tempted to take him up on the offer.

Luckily Pepper Potts intervened after about a week and a half because the constant meetings with government officials was making shareholders nervous and Tony Stark needed time to do his job as Head of R&D and hopefully calm the anxious shareholders in the process. She crashed a debriefing with a line of Iron Legion armors following carrying tall piles of printed records from their previous debriefings that the people in charge of their current debriefing had access to. Better still, after the armors set down the piles of paper and she explained what they were, she said, “You have five minutes to ask a question that Dr Stark and Dr Strange have not answered already. The Iron Legionnaires have had the transcripts of your previous debriefings with Dr Stark and Dr Strange uploaded to their systems and will recite the answer to any question you have already asked as well as cite the source.” Three minutes and twenty three seconds later, Stephen and Tony were dismissed from the debriefing pending a review of the records from their previous debriefings.

Tony went public with his status as a Green Lantern and explained what he knew about the ring, which was limited since the ring seemed to originate from outside of their universe. By going public with this information, he got ahead of any bureaucrats or politicians who may try to make it seem like Tony built a secret weapon more powerful than the Iron Man armor. Some of the highlights of the press conference began with Tony saying, “When I die, y’know eventually because I’m human and humans die-” He cleared his throat and tried again. “When I die, the ring will find someone else to wear it. It’s possible that there was a Green Lantern before me and SHIELDRA kept anyone from finding out, that one of the dead Enhanced they dissected really wasn’t Enhanced but rather just had one of these. This thing is preloaded with a lot of information but not all of it is accurate by Earth standards, hence why I think this came from another world.” He leaned against the podium and looked down at his ring, striking a pose similar to the famous image of Hamlet talking to a skull. “After years and years of carefully wading through the database within this ring, I have discovered a lot of very useless information, information that just does not ring true here on Earth.” He flashed a joking smile and held up a hand to forestall any questions from the crowd. “But, but I have also discovered a lot of interesting things that might be true, both here on Earth and wherever this ring came from. One of those interesting things was the theoretical existence of an emotional spectrum. According to the computer within the ring, this ring is green because green is the color that represents will power on the emotional spectrum. Whatever allows the ring to choose people to wear and wield it seeks people out based on how strong their connection is to the emotion that it calls Will Power. I don’t remember precisely when I was chosen by the ring but I remember exactly what it said when it slid itself on my finger. It said Anthony Stark, you have the power to overcome great fear, welcome to the Green Lantern Corps. All these years later, I have yet to meet another member of this supposed Corps. I vaguely recall not believing the whole ‘overcome great fear’ bit because overcoming great fear is, like, the definition of courage and being courageous means that you are a hero and-” He grinned at the cameras. “I don’t really think of myself as some great superhero straight out of a comic book, I’m not Captain America, come on now.” His expression turned serious. “But mostly, I felt worried and concerned and honestly a little afraid, as I recall. What was this ring? How did it get to me? Why me? I was afraid that someone somewhere made this thing and sent it after me for some unknown reason. I didn’t have answers to the most basic questions: who, how, what, where, and why. In the end, I didn’t really want it but without knowing what it was, I couldn’t think of a surefire way to safely dispose of it. That’s partly why I am doing this press conference. My understanding is that when I die, it will pick someone else to become the Green Lantern and I want that person to have the answers that eluded me for a long time. Now lemme see…” He checked his cue cards, making sure he covered everything he planned to cover, then looked up and smiled. “I will take questions now.”

Chapter Text

Nobody could remain calm or emotionally detached when faced with certain death at the hands of enemies, who had many of the weapons he created to stop his nation's enemies and who wanted more, who was trying to force him to build a weapon that destroyed a mountain when he demonstrated it shortly before his capture. Tony’s blood boiled even as he smiled and shook hands with Bakaar. In that moment, he felt overwhelming rage but he had been raised in the spotlight, he knew how to play a role. He had been forced to smile and play nice with business partners and investors while he was grieving his parents' deaths. Smiling through anger was an old trick for him.

Just as he opened his mouth to say something to Yinsen, he choked. He barely noticed the ring slide itself on his finger through the absolute agony of his blood turning into something molten. He doubled over and Yinsen, wise old man that he was, scrambled back away from him as he was bathed in a red glow. Tony’s eyes burned red as he looked up at Bakaar and then, when two of his men grabbed Tony by the shoulders, he smiled a slasher smile. Overcome by rage, he lashed out. He tore through most of the men around him but left Bakaar alive, albeit severely injured since the man was hit when he coughed up a bit of blood, for reasons he himself did not fully comprehend yet. He followed the slaughter up by wrecking their stockpile of weapons and throwing the explosive material down into the cave system. He spun around, wrapped a whip of red energy around Bakaar and took to the skies. As suddenly as he took off, he stopped. He came to hover low enough for Bakaar to keep breathing but high enough that he would be dead before he hit the ground if Tony dropped him. Bakaar was blubbering, begging and bargaining, and Tony could understand every word without Yinsen to interpret. His interest was piqued when Bakaar said, “I can tell you who hired us to kill you,” amidst his futile attempts to elicit mercy from the newly initiated Red Lantern. The red band around Bakaar's body, keeping him aloft at eye level with Tony, tightened in response to Tony’s anger flaring at the new information and Bakaar screamed in pain, satisfying Tony’s thirst for vengeance ever so slightly. He dropped like a stone, bringing Bakaar with him but staying mindful of things like G-force and oxygen levels. It wouldn’t do if Bakaar died too soon. 

“Tell me everything you know,” he growled out. Bakaar spilled his guts, first figuratively and then literally.

Tony’s thirst for vengeance was still not sated. He barely noticed that Yinsen had killed himself while he was in the air with Bakaar, even though he had intentionally spared Yinsen during his initial slaughter. Tony went on a rampage through Afghanistan, going from village to village hunting down those like Bakaar and his men, the terrorists who killed innocent people because they could, who ran wild because military forces could not keep up with them, could not risk innocent lives by hunting them down like the monsters masquerading as humans that they were. He also took any SI weapons he found in the hands of people who were not official military personnel and therefore were not supposed to have those weapons. He made a sport of following the paths of the terrorists’ vehicles, using his ring to recreate the trails whenever they were covered up by the wind moving sand across the desert floor, and when he found their bases, their hidey holes, he threw the illegally acquired weapons into those places, slashing into the casings to make sure that the missiles exploded on impact. His crusade lasted the better part of three months, the fire of his rage burning anew every time he witnessed the atrocities committed by those monsters who somehow got their hands on whole stockpiles of the weapons he created to stop them. When he was finally done, he collapsed in the desert, mere miles away from an American base.

The United States Armed Forces and their allies had tracked the actions of the new Red Lantern. Scientists who studied the emotional spectrum and its manifestation as a power source for the, in most cases highly coveted, power rings were called upon. They studied the records made by the military when they arrived in a village that the mysterious Red Lantern had recently left and found themselves faced with an enigma. On the one hand, the Red Lantern exhibited a degree of control associated with those who have lived with the ring stuck on their finger for a long time, in that he could focus his rage instead of being consumed by it. On the other hand, the rampage had all the signs of being carried out by a new recruit. Unlike the other Lantern Corps, Red Lanterns are physically incapable of rejecting the ring because as soon as it slips onto their fingers, it replaces their blood with a corrosive plasma and removing it will remove this blood substitute, draining their heart and veins dry. Red Lanterns rarely, if ever, have the presence of mind when their blood is being replaced to try to remove the ring and nobody on record has ever succeeded. Once the ring is on and their blood has been replaced, the wearer is consumed by a blinding rage that drives them to commit mass murder. The avenging Red Lantern in Afghanistan seemed to be driven solely by a blinding murderous rage, showing no obvious signs of lucidity, of being able to think, and yet he must have had some degree of lucidity, of coherent thought, that allowed him to refrain from razing the villages or even just killing everyone within them. The new Red Lantern presented quite the conundrum. Red Lanterns usually needed other Lanterns to contain them and guide them away from people, to watch over them until their burning rage is reduced to a simmer and their senses return to them. The Lanterns watching over them then had to try to help them process the reality of what they did in their rampage before the Red Lanterns could start learning to control the ever present anger that the rings forced upon them. From the looks of things, the avenging Red Lantern in Afghanistan would not need the intervention of other Lanterns to help them learn to control themselves.

Tony was found by a patrol who immediately called in their discovery of the mysterious Red Lantern: Tony Stark. James Rhodes was dispatched to assist in loading Tony onto a transport. If he woke up, Rhodes would have to calm him down before he killed another soldier. “Oh, Tones, what happened to you?”

Red Lanterns, like Green Lanterns, did not get the lantern insignia on their chests as soon as the ring slid onto their finger. Green Lanterns had a rookie phase wherein they learned to use the rings and upon mastering the rings, the lantern symbol covered the white circle on their chests. As with everything, the way it worked with Reds was more horrific. Apparently, according to the experts on the emotional spectrum and its manifestations, the murderous rage that Red Lanterns fell into upon their blood being replaced was caused by the rings trying to make them bathe in blood. Red Lanterns gained their lantern insignia only after the placeholder was covered in the blood of their victims. Since Red Lanterns no longer had blood within moments of becoming Red Lanterns, naturally they could not use their own blood. According to an urban legend, a Lantern enlisted to deal with a new Red Lantern tried to pour a pint of the Red Lantern's own blood, that they had previously donated, onto the Red Lantern's chest, hoping to end the murderous rampage by tricking the ring into generating the lantern insignia… to no effect.

Tony Stark must have covered his chest in somebody's blood because he had the insignia. Whether he had it before in any of the villages he liberated during his three month long rampage was a mystery. One that James was sure the scientists called in for their expertise on the Red Lantern Corps were going to be eager to solve. Luckily those people knew better than anyone that the Red Lantern rings kept their wearers in a constant state of simmering rage and would know better than to push too hard. When Tony woke up, he bolted upright and looked around, fists clenching unconsciously as his return to full consciousness was also the return of his rage, his new natural state. James quickly walked over to his friend's hospital bed from where he had been standing in the doorway talking with a brunette woman in a professional dark blue pantsuit. “It’s okay, Tones. You are okay. You killed them all, all the terrorists you hunted down are dead.” Admittedly, terrorist was merely an assumption in a number of cases but if they had merely fired a gun at a raging Red Lantern… that was legally considered assisted suicide in most places. Nodding along, Tony pushed himself back into a seated position and leaned back against the headboard. “You know,” James reminded him, “As a Red Lantern, you are legally allowed to tell anyone who is questioning you in an official capacity, even paparazzi, to stop talking if they are irritating you enough that you fear you may lose control.” Since Red Lanterns lived in a constant state of simmering rage, it was generally accepted that they had short fuses and so nobody was stupid enough to try to call out a Red Lantern for lying when they said they were about to lose control of their temper.

“I remember,” replied Tony.

“This is Dr Nicole Steinbeck.” He waved the woman he had been talking to over to Tony’s bedside. “She’s one of the people the military pulled in to try to understand the Red Lantern rampaging through Afghanistan and leaving innocent people alive in his wake. She would like to ask you some questions.”

Tony said, “Uh, sure, we can do that-” He glanced at Rhodey. “-but first, Dr Steinbeck, could you give us a minute? I doubt you are cleared to hear sensitive military information.”

“I’ll be just outside,” was her response. She closed the door behind her when she left and stood against the opposite wall. If Dr Stark started to give into the influence of the ring, after a three month long rampage, he wouldn’t do so quietly.

“What’s up, Tones?”

“Obie is double dealing. After the attack on the convoy, I was captured by a terrorist cell and they had a lot of SI weapons and wanted me to build the Jericho for them. One of them survived the initial slaughter when the ring chose me, he tried to bargain with me by telling me that Stane hired them. I fought the influence enough to interrogate him… Rhodey, there were too many SI weapons in the hands of terrorists for it to not be someone very high up, someone like Obie. If I see him, I am going to kill him. It’s obvious looking back that he called me just after the demo so that he could say he had spoken to me just before I was killed so he could cast himself in the role of my aggrieved godfather.” Tony groaned, fighting against the surge of rage to share his suspicions with someone who could do something about it. “He gave witness testimony for my parents’ accident, what if it wasn’t an accident? Ob- Stane was the one forcing me to attend parties, to reassure my father’s business partners and investors and everyone that SI was in good hands while I was still grieving. If I see him, I will kill him and then I will never know how far his treachery goes.”

“I understand,” said James. “Do you want me to stay with you until you calm down?” Tony nodded. Five minutes later, Rhodes was briefing his superiors and Steinbeck was interviewing Tony.

By the time Tony returned to the States, Stane was in custody and the FBI was leading the investigation into how far the corruption went and who all his backdoor customers were. It was customary when any Lantern brought someone to the attention of law enforcement to inform that person, when it was time to make an arrest, of the fact that a Lantern had tipped them off. The Lantern in question was only identified by the color of their ring, not by name, when this custom was carried out. This custom was often ignored when the victim reporting a crime happened to be a Lantern but since Tony got the information as a direct result of becoming a Red Lantern, the agents who arrested Obadiah Stane followed the custom. There was always the unspoken understanding that if a Red Lantern reported someone for a crime, swift action against the criminal could save their life. With that in mind, Stane did not resist arrest, instead he went quietly.

The first thing Tony did was organize a press conference. He had Pepper and Happy help him figure out what to say to the press at the conference over a bucket of fried chicken and a large pizza. Pepper and Happy also helped prepare him for how the press might treat him now that he was a known Red Lantern. If they were not suicidally stupid, they would softball their questions, tiptoeing around what they really wanted to ask for fear of provoking him. At the conference, he reassured the public that the FBI investigation had his full support and announced plans to transition from weapons to technology for the everyday person and armor for the military and police. “Getting blown up, not fun. Getting blown up by a Stark Industries missile that was sold under the table, doubly not fun. Plus, there are a lot more civilians than soldiers, at least here in America and most places that don’t have compulsory military service, so it’s a wider market that should help us recover financially from Stane's double dealing. Y’know, my dad tried to create a flying car when Stark Industries was in its infancy so I doubt he intended for the company to only sell weapons.” Having reporters too scared to verbally attack him with their questions was kind of nice.

After the press conference, he met with the members of the Board of Directors who were not under arrest for partaking in Obie's dirty dealing and planned out the promised transition. The board members were scared too, not just because he was a Red Lantern but also because they knew he instigated the investigation that led to their colleagues being arrested and there was no way that he could be controlled the way Stane had controlled him for so long, practically since childhood.

Once the company was dealt with, Tony enlisted the services of a surgeon JARVIS had screened who was known to be a Lantern and a pioneer in the use of surgical hard light constructs. The surgeon was also known to take doctor confidentiality so seriously that he had actually been sued a few times by parents of patients who believed they had a right to know the details of the operations. Tony paid him to remove the long dead electromagnet and extract the shrapnel with his ring then do something about the hole in the middle of his chest so that he could finally let his ring go dormant instead of using the Red Lantern uniform to fill in the hole and hold the magnet still. The doctor was a Blue Lantern who used his ring to jump start the Red Lantern ring's healing properties that allowed wearers to survive having their hearts torn out. Shortly after the doctor began healing Tony’s chest wound, the corrosive plasma that replaced the patient's blood was expelled through the hole at the doctor to force him to stop and then the Red Lantern ring finished the job. The ring promptly fell into a dormant state, the uniform disappeared and the ring stopped glowing, giving it an innocuous appearance, almost like it was fake but since the world had seen him in uniform at the press conference, nobody would mistake it for a fake.

Tony stunned the whole world, first by taking the place of his driver in the Monaco Historic Grand Prix and then by harnessing the power of his rage to shove other cars out of the way of the lunatic who somehow got onto the track with two sizzling whips. Vanko had a moment to ponder his folly before his whips were ripped off of his body and destroyed by the red light of Stark's ring as the man himself stalked towards him with a predatory gleam in his eyes. “In case anyone has forgotten,” the announcers for the race added insult to injury by reminding Stark's prey, “Tony Stark spent the first three months of his life as a Red Lantern hunting down terrorists in the Afghani desert and yet not a single innocent civilian died during his initial rampage. He was even nicknamed the Avenging Red Lantern of Afghanistan. He’s no longer in Afghanistan but I'd say the rest of that name still fits.”

“If anyone does not wish to witness a Red Lantern at work, this is your last chance to look away and cover your ears or change the channel. Stark is closing in on his target.”

Tony Stark demanded in a low voice to know, “What is your problem?” Making the logical assumption that he was going to die - no nearby Lanterns were going to intercede on his behalf after he nearly killed those innocent race car drivers -, Vanko took the opportunity he was given to vent his hatred for the Stark family before the whole world. Stark chuckled darkly when he finished. “For such an apparently brilliant inventor, you are a stupid human being. Red Lanterns draw power not only from the rage and hatred within us but also the rage and hatred of those around us. That’s why, on occasions when the rings choose serial killers and the like, only foreign born Lanterns who have no personal connection to the serial killer's hunting grounds may be deployed to deal with them. Any local Lanterns would only feed the already out of control Red Lantern more power with their anger and hatred aimed at the Red Lantern in question. You came here to kill me because you hate me because you believe my father, who has been dead for over a decade, betrayed your father and ruined your life. Your hatred makes me stronger, irrational though it may be since your grudge is with my dead father.” Tony actually stopped less than a foot away from Vanko, who had backed up against the wall and fence around the track. “I could kill you but that wouldn’t really be right since, as far as I know, you have yet to kill anyone and so there's no deaths for me to seek vengeance for. Besides, I have a better idea.” He grabbed the fence above Vanko's shoulder with his left hand and used his ring to slash open his left forearm, effectively pouring his corrosive plasma over the man's shoulder and listening to him scream as the plasma ate away at his shoulder until his arm was hanging limply at his side. Tony grabbed his wound and took a step to the side then repeated the process of burning the shoulder until the arm was totally useless. Then his arm healed itself and his uniform repaired itself and he turned and walked away, hearing Vanko fall to his knees with a heavy thud.

One of the official commentators once again added insult to injury by reminding everyone of what just happened. “In a shocking turn of events, Red Lantern Tony Stark did not kill his target. It looked like he used his ring to cut into his left forearm then bled on his target's shoulders, watching the corrosive plasma that replaces a Red Lantern's blood when the ring appears on their finger burn through his target until both arms were rendered completely useless.”

The other commentator said, “As Stark's ability to create constructs proves, he is a very special Red Lantern.”

As Tony passed his car on the track, his ring returned to its dormant state. Unbeknownst to him, his attack on Vanko saved him from a few aggravating nuisances, like Justin Hammer, who were reminded that provoking a Red Lantern was never a good idea. When people had a chance to discover what he had said to Vanko and process his words, others like Vanko would reconsider their own quests for revenge against him.

No good deed goes unpunished, Tony mused. SHIELD decided that his attack on Vanko showed a degree of control that made him a perfect fit for the Avengers Initiative. “Oh, look, there's the other rage monster they roped into this disaster,” said Tony as he walked over to Bruce Banner. “What do you say? Shall we blow this popsicle stand before someone gets a little trigger happy?”

“I don’t know,” said Bruce in an almost halting manner.

“Oh well, worth a shot. Listen, I heard a rumor that you were a Lantern before you became the Hulk? Now obviously you were not a Red Lantern, otherwise the ring breaking when you transform would have killed you but I know most other Lanterns don’t always wear their rings and I’m curious about what color you were. Indigo? Violet?” Bruce cracked a smile and shook his head, looking down in a vain attempt to hide his amusement. Tony sighed dramatically. “Of course. You must have been an Orange Lantern.” Bruce's head shot up and Tony smirked. “Or should I say you were the Orange Lantern? There can only be one, right?”

“N-no, I mean yes there's rarely more than one but no, I was never that one,” Bruce was quick to stutter out, looking alarmed by the mere suggestion.

“Well red and yellow are out so that just leaves blue and green. It’s always so hard to guess between those two. Which was it?”

“Blue. I was a Blue Lantern.” Bruce asked Tony, “You ever notice how Blue Lanterns always have someone they love die before they get the ring? For me it was my mother and I could never get over the fact that it seems like Blue Lantern rings are some kind of cosmic consolation prize.”

Tony shrugged then asked Bruce, “On a mostly unrelated note, were you one of those Lanterns who keep their power battery in a personal pocket dimension? If you were, you should be able to summon your ring the same way you would summon the battery.”

Bruce gaped at him for a moment before doing as suggested and getting his Blue Lantern ring back. He put it on and summoned the battery for a quick charge, muttering the oath under his breath as he always did. Feeling the warm light of hope wash over him felt good. Tony ruined the moment by snapping a photo. “I am going to send this to my CEO so that our lawyers can look into having you recognized as a member of the Blue Lantern Corps. Once you are legally recognized as a Blue Lantern, you will get all the perks that come with that, including legal protection against military persecution.”

“What?” said Bruce, stunned.

“All Lanterns, except maybe Orange, enjoy protection from military persecution for two primary reasons. First, no country wants another country to build up a Lantern Corps within their established military forces so most countries agree to take a live and let live approach to Lanterns. The United States Armed Forces actually forbids Lantern members from using their rings in training whenever they are learning a new skill or in basic training or attending command school. Once they complete basic or command school, soldiers can use their rings in training exercises. That rule officially exists to prevent dependence on Lantern rings in carrying out their official duties but unofficially, there's a bit of paranoia about rings being repossessed by the enemy. The other reason we enjoy protection from military persecution is because every Lantern is a part of a Lantern Corps and Lanterns are better suited than the military to deal with other Lanterns. In other words, forbidding military persecution frees up resources to be used on other things.”

“Wow. Somehow, I never knew that despite working for the military and being a Blue Lantern when I-” Bruce rubbed his hands together in a self-soothing gesture as he spoke.

Tony smiled. “Ross can actually face charges for failure to inform you of your rights and any other official policies or procedures for Blue Lanterns if what you just said can be proven. He was required to brief any Lanterns working for him on those things, it is literally a law, albeit the law was probably not aimed at Blue Lanterns. Not a lot of laws have been made because of or for you guys.”

“That’s also good to know.” Bruce's ring returned to its dormant state as he spoke.

Later, when Rogers invaded their lab, Tony easily noticed his Yellow Lantern ring as did Bruce who activated his ring with his hope that the Helicarrier would survive those two clashing. Evidently he was not the only one concerned as Fury ran in. “Rogers, stand down now. Do not provoke Red Lantern Stark. Stand down now.”

“Or what?” challenged Steve, activating his ring and scowling when he did so.

Tony snorted. “Did anyone actually explain what the colors mean to you or did they just give you the basic Blue is Hope, Red is Rage, explanation?”

It seemed Fury hadn’t truly understood why the ring activating made Steve scowl until Tony said that. “It appears to be the latter case, Red Lantern Stark. Yellow Lantern Rogers, allow me to explain what Stark is getting at. Yellow is the color of fear and Yellow Lanterns are chosen for their ability to inspire fear. Even if you only inspire a ton of fear in your enemies, you may still qualify. Saying Yellow Lanterns embody fear is the same as saying they tend to be very intimidating. Nobody thinks that Yellow Lanterns become Yellow Lanterns by being afraid all the time.” Steve's stance relaxed. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to an expert on the emotional spectrum and the different Lantern Corps.” Steve left with Fury easily, the promise of a more thorough explanation for why people looked at him the way they did when they noticed his ring was the perfect lure.

Tony spun around and told Bruce, “Try to maintain your protective energy field. Something feels off. I’m used to my ring causing my temper to flare up easily and so I know what it feels like when an outside force tries to manipulate my emotions and I think I felt that with Rogers, like some outside force was egging us on. Blue Lantern rings are supposed to be good focus points for meditation. Who knows, it might protect you if there is an outside force messing with our emotions.”

Bruce agreed and they got back to work. When the Helicarrier was attacked, Bruce naturally fell back on the powers of his Blue Lantern ring instead of hulking out. Tony flew through the corridors towards Loki's cell just in time to tackle Coulson when he came in too hot, incidentally saving his life from Loki who promptly disappeared. “Who was in the cage when it fell?”

“Thor,” came Coulson's prompt answer, straightening his jacket and walking over to the console. “I assume you wish to follow?”

“Yup.” As soon as the floor opened up, Tony shot outside. Thor was working himself into quite a frenzy when he reached him, giving Tony the necessary power boost to help him break out. “Let’s get back up there to help keep the flying fortress in the air.”

“Excellent suggestion.”

“And please, stay angry. Your emotions are naturally stronger than human emotions are and my ring runs on rage.”

Thor chuckled, happy to comply. Getting angry was a great way to prepare for battle, it was what made berserkers such fierce warriors. Together they flew back to the Helicarrier. JARVIS in an earpiece in his ear told Tony where the damaged turbine was and they found Steve there. Thor asked, “How can we help, Friend Stark?”

“Steve's the best for this job. I just need you to cover our backs in case one of the people responsible for the sabotage shows up but remember, humans are a lot more fragile than you and your people are.”

“Aye.”

“Steve, I need you to get in the turbine and push while I work on getting it going under its own power. I’d do it but if I lose my temper-”

“There won’t be enough of a turbine to save,” finished Rogers.

“Yeah,” confirmed Tony.

They got into position and worked together well. Steve almost gave himself a concussion when the turbine was back to spinning itself at full speed but as a super soldier, he had the reflexes to conjure a helmet construct in time. He did so moments before Tony flipped a switch to give him a brief opening to escape the turbines. By then, the siege was over and Loki had truly escaped. Bruce flew past them in the corridor, cursing Romanoff under his breath. He managed to reach Barton in time to repair the damage from Romanoff's decision to bash his head against a metal railing to break the mind control. When the Avengers regrouped, Bruce declared, “If Romanoff stays on the team, I quit.”

Steve asked, “What did she do?”

“She bashed Barton's head against a metal railing. If I hadn’t gotten to him in time, he would have brain damage and might have even ended up wishing he was dead, depending upon what part of his brain she permanently damaged. I’m a Blue Lantern, we’re renowned for our healing powers, and even that almost wasn’t enough. By the time he would have gotten to the infirmary, the damage would have been irreversible, even by the power of a Blue Lantern. And she did that to someone she's known for years, who has watched her back for years. I don’t want to even think about what she might do to us. Will she throw me out a goddamn window if I refuse to Hulk out when she wants me to? Will she provoke Tony and use the resulting deadly rampage as a distraction? What will she do? What won’t she do if bashing the head of her longtime friend and work partner and leaving him to suffer permanent, preventable brain damage is totally fine?”

Steve turned to Fury. “If what Dr Banner says is true then I agree that Agent Romanoff is clearly unfit for this team. I may be the Yellow Lantern here but it’s clear that she inspires more fear from the members of this team.”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Fury agreed. “Romanoff, you’re off the team. Report to Commander Hill for your next assignment. Barton-”

“I’m staying, just to see this through, then I will accept medical leave,” the agent told the director.

“That is acceptable. Any ideas what Loki's next target might be?”

“No,” answered Tony. “I know that it’s Stark Tower. JARVIS just identified the Tesseract in a machine on the roof. Selvig is likely using the experimental streamlined Arc Reactor in the basement as a power source.” He asked Clint, “Are you a Lantern?”

“Yeah but I lost my ring.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “As long as you are not an Orange Lantern, you should be able to summon your ring the same way you summon your power battery.”

Clint looked briefly surprised before a look of concentration covered his face as he did what Tony suggested. A green ring appeared and Clint quickly slid it on his finger. Almost immediately, he grabbed his head with a quiet, “Ah!” The Green Lantern ring's power flowed over him in waves, attempting to set its wearer's mind to rights. A few minutes later, Clint dropped his hands and blinked rapidly then he fumbled his power battery which was pulled from his pocket dimension. A few failed attempts led him to give up on trying to hold it and charge his ring. Setting the battery on the conference room table, he braced his right wrist in his left hand and pressed his fist into the middle of the battery. “In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight! Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power - Green Lantern's light!” He recited the oath in a steady voice then groaned as the charge gave his ring the power to forcefully scrub his mind clear of the residual effects from the mind control. “I’m fine, my ring is responding to the after effects of Loki's mind control, removing the residue.”

“Well then, since we can all fly, let’s go,” said Tony. He appeared so calm that Steve was a little bit amazed by how easily he activated his ring.

When the portal opened up as they neared, Tony declared, “Thor and I have this. Cap, crowd control, try to keep the civilians from getting crushed by debris and have them evacuate through the subways. Banner, Barton, focus on Selvig and the machine, find a way to close the portal and try to find a safe way to break the mind control.” Without waiting for a response, Tony rocketed towards the portal, tearing through the first aliens who got through. As soon as Thor caught up, he told the Asgardian, “Keep them close by, do not let them loose on the city,” then he completely gave into his rage, letting it consume him anew. When he came back to himself, Thor was staring at him in awe, the portal was closed, and the other Avengers were waiting for Thor and him on the roof. He landed first. “Barton, I think you should stop by Mercy General, let them scan your brain to make sure that there are no lasting effects from what Romanoff did. Bruce isn’t that kind of doctor so his healing job might have overlooked something.”

“Alright, good idea.”

Selvig said, “I’ll join you. I have no idea who Romanoff is or what she did but a brain scan sounds like a good idea.”

Tony nodded and strolled inside the Tower, calling out to JARVIS to make the arrangements then moving into the penthouse kitchen to make some food for himself and his guests. Overall the Avengers assembling was rather anticlimactic for Tony.

The Mandarin was a special kind of stupid, not that it was really Tony’s problem. Aldrich Killian hired a stoner actor to be the face of his evil terrorist agenda then threw a fit when a Yellow Lantern ring bypassed him to choose the face of his evil terrorist organization. His fit triggered the ring's defenses and the ring killed him while Trevor remained passed out, either from the drugs or the alcohol he consumed in excess. Then, to top it off, Trevor the actor who played the Mandarin on TV called the cops to report a rogue Lantern killed his boss, never noticing the ring on his finger and forgetting that he was the face of an infamous terrorist organization. The funniest part of the whole thing was the look on Dr Maya Hansen's face when, after it came up at her trial that a Blue Lantern ring chose her, she learned that Blue Lantern rings have healing powers similar to what she claimed she was attempting to create with Extremis. She had been a bit self-righteous up until that point, insisting that she was only trying to help people and blaming Killian for jumping right into human trials. When she learned that she had rejected the very thing that could have been the key to everything, her face fell and it almost seemed like the horrors she aided in had finally gotten through her thick skull.

The Mandarin's reign of terror helped boost the visibility of SI's armor division as everyone wanted some kind of defense for themselves or their things against an attack by the Mandarin. Maya's publicized trial led to questions from Steve for Tony. It seemed that Steve thought being a Red Lantern forced Tony to be celibate. “I, personally, can control my temper and I know my berserker buttons so I can warn my partners about what not to do… or I could if Pepper and I hadn’t gotten together within a year of my return from Afghanistan so I’ve only had her as a bed partner since I became a Red Lantern.” He patted Steve's arm. “If you are worried about yourself, don’t be. There are plenty of ladies who see the yellow ring as a sign you’re a bad boy, which is just the type of guy they are attracted to. There are even more people who do their utmost best not to judge a person by their Lantern Corps ring.” Steve appeared thoughtful and after several long moments of silence, Tony asked, “How is your reintegration coming along?”

“It’s going fine. Clint insists on weekly movie nights to get me caught up on pop culture. It’s fun.”

Once the hoopla from the Mandarin settled down, the news media moved on to the downfall of General Thaddeus Ross and the truth about the Hulk. Bruce received a lot of public support after it was revealed that he didn’t know that being a Blue Lantern entitled him to protection from military persecution and that he wouldn’t have gone on the run if he did. Tony’s involvement in bringing Ross down was hardly a secret and a certain faction decided that his being a Red Lantern was no longer reason enough to tolerate his continued existence and potential interference. Their timing could not have been worse.

The Asset was soon facing off against four Lanterns. “Why did Bucky Barnes try to kill me?” asked Tony Stark through gritted teeth. Steve Rogers was startled by Tony’s identification of his would-be assassin.

“Better question is how did Bucky Barnes, who was killed in action seventy years ago, try to kill you today,” countered Clint. He lashed out with his ring to restrain the assassin who had the face of a dead man.

“And if this is Bucky Barnes, how does he still look so young?” reasoned Bruce, adding his Blue Lantern powers to Clint's Green Lantern restraints.

Tony landed on the roof in front of them, anger fading but not enough to send his ring into full dormancy. “All good questions. Let’s take him to the Tower, lock him in the Smash Room, and call the authorities to see what they want to do with him.”

“Alright,” agreed Clint easily and that was what they did.

HYDRA came toppling down like a house of cards once the Asset's identity as both James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes and the Winter Soldier was discovered. They really should have remembered what Stark did when he first became a Red Lantern and when he returned home. Not all was lost, only their hold in the United States and other, similarly strong stable countries. In unstable countries and weak countries, HYDRA retained a presence, if not control for a while. However they had become the face of terrorism and foolishness, making enemies of the various Lantern Corps. People tend to forget that Lantern Corps rings can be used to communicate with other Lanterns of the same color. Every time a Lantern learned of HYDRA in their home country, they passed on their discovery through their rings and HYDRA was then hunted down. It was amusing to Barnes, as he regained his sense of self, to see the news reporting on confirmed HYDRA sightings. He imagined HYDRA being chased around like the monsters in Scooby-Doo.

Chapter Text

Lying on his bunk in his cell, Tony Stark's mind whirred endlessly as he thought about what he had seen that first day when the terrorists took him outside, he thought about what Bakaar called him, he thought about the implications of it all. The things he made to protect American troops were being used by the very people they were made to protect against. Yinsen said they had met in Bern and though Tony didn’t remember him, he believed him. That meant he must have been a fairly prominent doctor yet here he was, trapped in a cave, forced to help Tony and to watch the dead man walking die, one way or another. The insurgents had his weapons, they had enough of his weapons that they were unafraid of showing him, unafraid to use them. How much destruction had they wrought with their stockpile of Stark Industries weapons? How many lives were ruined like Yinsen's? Tony didn’t see the glowing ring until he lifted his hand to rub his face and the ring slid onto his finger. “Anthony Stark, you have a great deal of compassion in your heart. Welcome to the Indigo Tribe.”

Tony cried out in pain as the ring's power got to work ejecting the shrapnel and electromagnet from his chest before healing the hole as well as the damage that was done by his reckless, eccentric lifestyle. Yinsen woke upon hearing Stark cry out and watched as the faint indigo light worked its magic. When it was done, Stark was inexplicably sound asleep and Yinsen knew Stark hardly slept at all. Stark had confessed that he suffered from insomnia throughout most of his life because his mind was never good at turning itself off.

Upon waking, much later than usual, Tony stared at the ring on his finger with a contemplative look. Then he sat up and assumed the lotus position, instinctively knowing how to meditate and that meditation would allow him greater understanding of the gift that he had received the previous night. By the time he had woken up, Yinsen had long since disposed of the evidence of the miracle healing where their captors would never find it. Tony did not have long to meditate before his captors became fed up by the lack of work and stormed in with machine guns raised but he had learned enough. He calmly stood up, eyes still closed, and waved a hand, sending a wave of indigo light through the cave system and out into the camp. Everyone the light touched was exposed to the pain they inflicted, being thus overwhelmed by compassion. Tony opened his eyes, grabbed Yinsen by the arm and made a break for the exit. Just outside of the cave system, he turned and led Yinsen to a hidden alcove before summoning the staff that normally would have been summoned by the ring sliding onto his finger. "Tor lorek san, bor nakka mur, Natromo, faan tornek wot ur, Ter Lantern ker lo Abin Sur, Taan lek lek nok - Formorrow Sur!” He had only a vague idea of what the strange words he was saying meant but he was certain that they were an oath he needed to recite to charge his ring. As he did, a bodysuit in shades of indigo covered him and a glowing sigil in indigo light appeared over his forehead. He barely glanced down at himself before he grabbed Yinsen once again, holding the staff in his other hand, and teleported them to the American Air Force base Rhodey was stationed at. He almost collapsed to the floor, suffering an adrenaline crash in the aftermath of his mad dash out of the insurgent base but luckily he was able to catch himself with the staff. His ring returned to dormancy and the staff disappeared along with his uniform after he regained his balance and no longer needed either.

Tony spoke up for Yinsen, informing them that the doctor had saved his life before he got his ring and that he had previously met the man at a conference in Bern. Yinsen was subsequently taken for a thorough interview and debriefing rather than an interrogation. James Rhodes used a series of security questions to verify Tony’s identity since nobody on Earth had ever been chosen by an Indigo Lantern ring before. There had been Red Lanterns, a handful of Orange Lanterns but never more than one at a time for obvious reasons, Yellow Lanterns, Green Lanterns, and even Blue Lanterns. A young soldier joked that all they needed now was a Violet Lantern and they would have a full rainbow, most who saw or heard about Tony Stark's arrival on base were thinking something along those lines.

After confirming his identity and getting checked out by doctors, Tony was allowed to make a few phone calls to let people back home know he was alive and safe before he himself was the subject of a thorough debriefing that focused as much on his time in captivity as his Indigo ring. The meeting ended just as evening turned to night when a doctor tracked Tony down to remind him that he needed to eat to recover his strength. The three men leading the debriefing interview all adopted expressions of shame as they were reminded sharply of the malnutrition Stark had suffered. That night, Stark took a shower and laid down in a room that had two bunks, one that he was sharing with his best friend. By the time he woke up, Pepper and Happy had arranged for a bodyguard to join him on base. The bodyguard in question was a Green Lantern and volunteered to represent Tony’s interests as a Lantern without a fully recognized Corps.

On Earth, Lanterns were organized into Corps by color with Corps providing legal services and lobbying for legal rights, tracking down and training new members, and supporting and educating family and friends of Lanterns on what wearing the ring meant for their loved ones. The Green Lantern Corps was the oldest and often took to policing or assisting other Lanterns, especially when a new Lantern color popped up since one Lantern generally does not constitute a whole Lantern Corps… with the obvious exception of the Orange Lantern of Avarice because in rare cases where more than one person wears an Orange Lantern ring, they usually killed each other until only one remained alive because greedy people could never be happy to share their power. Green Lanterns are usually tasked with making sure whoever wears the Orange Lantern ring will be satisfied with material wealth and knows that killing is not an acceptable way to acquire it, usually by threatening their claim on the Orange Lantern ring to scare them into behaving within acceptable standards for those consumed by the orange light of avarice. It was not unheard of for a Green Lantern to stand by and wait until a proper representative from another Corps showed up to deal with one of their own who was in trouble, the Green Lantern would generally stonewall anyone attempting to talk to the Lantern who was in trouble until their back up arrived. Green Lanterns did so much for the Lanterns of Earth that they were easily viewed as the hero Lantern Corps.

Tony's second debriefing went much better than the first attempt at a debriefing as well as being much longer since Tony wanted to explore his new ring's power and its effects on insurgents. The military was happy to let him explore his ring's powers by working with them on counterterrorism efforts, his bodyguard less so. His bodyguard took his duties as Tony’s Green Lantern first contact very seriously and insisted on training him to use the basic ring functions that all Corps seemed to have. When he saw how activating his ring summoned a staff, he amended his plans to include the use of the staff. Upon closer inspection, he made a mental note to focus on defensive uses for the staff that was apparently the Indigo Tribe equivalent of a power battery.

Their training began in the sand near the base where they drew a crowd. Like most rich kids, Tony Stark had self-defense training. His training was augmented by both Peggy Carter and Happy Hogan so he was not as bad at fighting as most would expect but his bodyguard was still better and more experienced with his ring. Rumors often circulated that Green Lanterns took the Corps part of Green Lantern Corps very seriously. Tony got knocked down many times and one of his first lessons was on how to fall without losing his staff. Within the first few lessons, Tony discovered that his ring had a second uniform setting that amounted to swim shorts and an insignia that looked like it was painted on. He felt more comfortable in the second uniform setting and its appearance which reinforced the idea, for spectators, that the Indigo Lanterns were not a Corps but rather an Indigo Tribe.

Once they finished with the basics on the ground, they checked to make sure that the base was safe for Lantern aerial training. This was not a given due to the fact that aerial fights between Lanterns were known to generate enough light to be seen from a distance even during the day and if the military didn’t want the base’s location given away, they would not allow the Lanterns to conduct their aerial training too close. The base commander gave the all clear and aerial training commenced swiftly. With a solid foundation of training on the ground, aerial training was less overwhelming. The training was used to smooth out rough edges, build awareness of one's surroundings, and further develop speed skills since Lanterns can all fly much faster than humans can run. They were halfway through aerial training, Tony having recently discovered he can copy the powers of other Lanterns in close proximity, when his bodyguard received a message on his ring and ended a training session early. “Obadiah Stane just received the Orange Lantern ring and was immediately released from his contract with Stark Industries upon choosing to accept it as per protocol for Orange Lanterns in the company.”

“How did you get that protocol past the equal employment laws?” asked an airman who had slightly Asian features.

Tony explained, “When my father heard about Orange Lanterns, he successfully argued that if they wanted something, they would be incapable of accepting someone else saying “No, it’s too dangerous.” Since Stark Industries makes military grade weapons, nobody could argue that an Orange Lantern throwing a temper tantrum at being told no was an acceptable risk. SI protocol is to call upon the nearest chapter of the Green Lanterns to have a couple on hand to back up the poor schmuck handing the Orange Lantern his pink slip.” Turning to the Green Lantern, he asked, “Did he go quietly?”

“Yes, which is slightly suspicious seeing as SI should be his main source of wealth.” The Green Lantern led Tony to the base commander's office to put the military on alert in case Stane was an Orange Lantern rather than the current Orange Lantern and share his suspicions that SI's legitimate business may not be the primary source of Stane's wealth. “As long as you have another Lantern at your back, I think you are ready to start using your new abilities outside of training,” he told Tony whilst in the base commander's office.

The next month was a bit of a blur. Tony kept up his training, not just in the use of his ring but also a rigorous exercise routine to keep in shape, working around missions and business calls and other responsibilities. On more than one occasion, he was recorded doing normal things on the base like running and lifting weights with his bodyguard spotting him. During some missions, he was recorded by aircraft escorts, giving him plenty of data to work with when studying his new powers.

His signature move was to shoot down from the sky to the ground at high speed and project a wave of indigo light around him to instill compassion into his targets by forcing them to feel the pain they have caused. This was highly effective in most cases and made sweeps by regular soldiers much easier. Tony usually spent some of his time, while soldiers were investigating the area, talking to the locals and helping where he could, such as by digging deep holes for wells. On a handful of occasions, he applied his signature move to aid in interrogation but his ring evidently viewed this as a misuse of its power and the action usually made him unable to do much else afterwards for hours. He dare not take off the ring, not knowing if that would be viewed as a rejection the way it was for Orange Lantern rings.

Tony's work with the US Armed Forces ended after a close encounter with an insurgent leader wearing a Yellow Lantern ring. It took both Tony and his bodyguard everything they had to take him down. Over the course of the battle, he discovered that insurgents were still being provided with new SI weapons despite him ordering production to halt until they found and patched the leak, which they evidently hadn’t done. Tony stopped and recharged his ring, being reminded of his thoughts the night he had first earned the ring. When he told the officers responsible for his work with the military as a Lantern that he was returning home and explained why, they supported his decision wholeheartedly. Tony then asked, “What happened to Yinsen? The doctor I brought here?”

“We have hired him to work with us as a civilian consultant. His linguistic skills are invaluable, as is his experience in treating shrapnel victims.”

Tony nodded his head. Remembering what Yinsen had done for him before he was chosen by the indigo ring made him inclined to believe the military man. The decision was easily made to send James Rhodes, in his capacity as the Air Force liaison with Stark Industries, back stateside with Tony Stark.

Putting on a suit after over a month of wearing only fatigues and his Indigo Lantern uniforms felt strange, Tony mused. He visited Yinsen once before he hitched a ride with soldiers who were going home. “You are looking much better but I guess that makes sense. How are you doing?”

“I am doing much better,” answered Yinsen. “I have more to live for than I did before.”

“Not to be rude but it occurred to me when I was told that you were hired as a consultant for the military that your family must be dead if you have not gone back to Gulmira to be with them. Am I wrong?” asked Tony, feeling awkward.

“You are correct. That is indeed why I accepted a job with your military,” confirmed Yinsen. “So, you are finally going home?”

“I was thinking about all the innocent people my weapons hurt after they fell into the hands of insurgents when the ring came to me. I had thought that I had arranged for weapons production to be shut down until the leak was found but my company's weapons are still falling into the hands of insurgents so I need to deal with that.”

“I see. I wish you the best of luck.”

Tony was happy to see Pepper waiting for him when he walked off the aircraft. He wasted no time making arrangements for a more thorough investigation than the one his board of directors had organized that came up with inconclusive results, which was apparently enough for the board to decide that there was no leak. Tony also held a press conference where he announced his intention to expand Stark Industries into general technology and transition from weapons to defensive technology for the military.

For the rest of his life, Tony gained a reputation as a hands-on philanthropist due to his tendency to split his time between business and volunteer work. When problems arose that normal law enforcement or military forces could not handle, such as the alien Loki of Asgard making a grand stand in Stuttgart, Green Lanterns, Yellow Lanterns, and sometimes Red Lanterns responded. In spite of how Tony mastered his ring's powers, Indigo was not very useful for combat situations, as evidenced by his struggle to handle a singular Yellow Lantern even with a Green Lantern backing him.

Chapter Text

James Rhodes could not really be too angry nor was he surprised that his best friend skipped out on an award ceremony to go gambling. Tony Stark was many things and one of them was an Orange Lantern. He actually had incredible self control for an Orange Lantern. His ability to handle losing money when he goes gambling without throwing a fit was evidence of that but he was still an Orange Lantern.

When Christine Everhart confronted Tony over his moniker the Da Vinci of Our Time, he gave a flippant response and when she pressed him, bringing up his moniker the Merchant of Death, he was more snappish. “I find it hilarious that my father is called a true American patriot and I am called the Merchant of Death when what he did and what I do is the same thing. Why is that? Is it because of the ring?”

“Speaking of the ring, what do you say about your other name: Agent Orange?”

Tony smirked. “You don’t really care about that but if you want to know, why don’t you join me?” When she opened her mouth, he cut her off. “Either get in the car or get out of the way.” Everhart chose the first option. They were practically surrounded by beautiful women who were desperately trying to throw themselves at Tony Stark. He was known to be very creative with his ring, whereas most Lanterns would be disgusted by the mere suggestion of using their rings for sex.

Pepper was exasperated by the discovery of a half-naked woman who tried to belittle her for picking up the dry cleaning, even as she maintained her professionalism and showed her the door once she had a chance to change clothes. None of Tony’s bed warmers were allowed to keep a souvenir, not after the first one auctioned his shirt off, pissing off the Orange Lantern. Pepper went down to the workshop and told Tony, “Rhodey is waiting for you on the tarmac. You need to be on time for the demo if you want to be able to sell the Jericho and your new high tech cooler.”

“It is not a cooler,” grumbled Tony but he did start getting ready to leave.

Tony tried to save the soldiers in his humvee but he was too slow. When Bakaar showed off his collection of Stark Industries weapons, he didn’t get to say another word as Tony slaughtered the insurgents in a jealous rage then took off to hunt down other insurgents who somehow got their hands on his weapons. It didn’t take long for the military to notice the Orange Lantern tearing through the Afghani desert on a mission. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they received visual confirmation that it was Tony Stark. When he was done with his crusade, he returned to the Air Force base he had been en route to at the time of the ambush. There, he was asked to and agreed to show the personnel stationed on base where he had found different insurgent bases. Computers were picked up at these bases when the military conducted sweeps for useful information and Tony was reassured that there was a chance that they could identify the source of the insurgents’ supply of SI weapons using the confiscated computers. Tony was a strange Orange Lantern. Instead of hoarding the repossessed weapons from the insurgents, he piled them together and blew up the mountain he had been taken prisoner in, enjoying the glorious destruction.

Tony returned to the United States a conquering hero, his decimation of insurgents had been well publicized. Sitting in the backseat of a car driven by his personal head of security, Tony turned to his PA in the seat beside him. “I think my little misadventure in the desert should give me the perfect opportunity to expand Stark Industries into other fields and phase out weapons. What do you think?” Another thing that made him strange by Orange Lantern standards was the fact that he did not surround himself with yes men.

The US Army had once tried to appeal to his greed to get more from him and his company than they were originally offering. Tony pulled the offer in response to the blatant attempt at manipulation and the Army scrambled to appease him, paying more to get exactly as much as he and his company had offered them. Tony became the envy of the weapons industry for that move.

“I think it’s about time,” answered Pepper. She was one of the few who got to see the real Tony Stark.

At home, Tony worked on building a miniature Arc Reactor while Pepper worked on preparing for the expansion that her boss would soon announce. His ring was struggling to provide power in a form the electromagnet in his chest could use. Although Tony refused to be ashamed of his Orange Lantern status, he was not a fan of the uniform and preferred to keep the ring in its dormant state on his finger.

Once he finished building the miniature Arc Reactor, he had JARVIS look for someone to install it in his chest. A suitably discreet surgical team was assembled in short order. Tony came out of a long surgery with less shrapnel and an Arc Reactor powered electromagnet to deal with the fewer remaining pieces. That was when he made the announcement of the expansion, using his improvements upon the Arc Reactor as a starting point for Stark Industries to join the clean energy race in addition to other fields. Obadiah gave himself away in the time between Tony's return and the announcement by attempting to sneak a number of important documents out of his office just before the investigation team could search it but Tony didn’t really care about his godfather, who he had often thought was envious that the Orange Lantern ring chose Tony over Obadiah himself.

After the operation, Tony had JARVIS looking into anything that could potentially be used to fill in the hole in his chest, knowing that a Lantern from almost any Corps could take care of the remaining shrapnel and that there were a few Lanterns who were also doctors. JARVIS found the answer just in time as Tony was starting to suffer from heavy metal poisoning. Extremis sounded familiar and JARVIS was able to tell him why. New Year's Eve, Bern, 1999, that was a busy night for him apparently. Tony and JARVIS did a deep dive on Extremis and AIM and determined that they didn’t need Dr Maya Hansen, that she could burn with the rest of her domestic terrorist buddies. They dropped a line to the relevant authorities and waited for AIM's stocks to go on sale for pennies on the dollar so that Tony could legally acquire the company and its patents. His second operation was much higher risk but took less time than the one to install the Arc Reactor. Just as before, he used the innovation he perfected for his operation to announce Stark Industries was expanding into a new field, this time the innovation was Extremis and the field was medicine. Stark Industries was already involved in medical technology, such as portable scanning technology for medics and doctors working in remote areas, but the Extremis serum was not really technology as much as it was advanced medicine. JARVIS’ search for a solution to Sir's health problem revealed that Howard had started working on a lot of non-weapons technology and that his research into those things had been stolen. Tony tore through SHIELD to reclaim everything they had that had belonged to his father and thus belonged to him, exposing the clandestine agency to the world in the process.

In Puente Antiguo, Tony came down hard on the giant killer robot attempting to level the town his daughter was doing her internship in. Darcy Lewis was busy using her Blue Lantern ring to protect the people in the town, projecting force fields and holding up buildings long enough for people to evacuate. He slowly floated down to the ground once the robot was thoroughly wrecked. “Is everyone okay?”

Some people brushed themselves off and nodded. Darcy did her best to scan everyone anyway, reporting, “No serious injuries.”

The big muscled blonde who had been about to sacrifice himself to the robot asked, “How did you overcome the power of the destroyer?” His tone of voice was a mixture of confused and demanding.

“I am the Orange Lantern. My ring has a capacity of 100,000% and I have years of experience using it,” was Tony’s response before he turned away from the unknown man, silently dismissing him as unimportant. “Dr. Foster, Dr. Selvig, I would like to discuss bringing your research under the Stark Industries banner.”

“Let’s take this talk back to our lab,” suggested Selvig.

Tony and Darcy maintained a professional distance, neither sure if they could trust Selvig or Foster not to bring up their relationship at a bad time if they were told about their relationship. When the talks became technical, Darcy moved aside and began explaining the emotional spectrum and the various Lantern Corps to their visitors from Asgard. Apparently, the Lantern Corps were not a universal phenomena.

Sitting up in bed with a cold drink and a hot woman, all Tony could think was: “Life is good.”

Chapter Text

One minute, he was trapped in a vision of the Avengers dead on the ground around him, the Chitauri freely invading Earth, Cap telling him he should have done more. The next, a voice was saying, “Anthony Stark, you have the power to inspire great fear. Welcome to the Sinestro Corps,” as a ring slid itself onto his right ring finger.

“What? The what?” he asked nobody in particular.

The voice spoke up again and that time he recognized the voice was in his head. “Outside mental interference detected. Purging… Purge complete. Source of mental interference detected. Recommend elimination.”

“Subdue, do not kill,” Tony screamed in his head. “There's a speedster around here too, best do the same with them.”

“Understood,” the ring said. Five energy blasts later, the Maximoff twins were unconscious and awaiting pickup.

“Okay,” Tony said slowly. He looked down at himself to find himself in a black and yellow bodysuit. “Okay. How do I change back?” The ring responded by absorbing the uniform, leaving him in his flight suit. He climbed into the armor, grabbed the scepter and left the bunker. He had JARVIS steer the suit while his mind was focused on his new ring. Information flowed into his head as though his mind was directly plugged into the ring's AI.

On a whim, he dropped out of the suit and sent it back to the jet, using the ring to fly and project constructs of things for Hulk to smash. “Good job, big guy. You smashed it all to bits,” he cheered. Hulk smiled and roared while pounding his chest before turning back into Banner who got a lift back to the jet courtesy of Tony with his new power ring.

On the flight back to Avengers Tower, Steve took a go at Tony for keeping his powers secret. “I don’t have superpowers, Steve. I have advanced technology.” Tony stood up from the pilot's seat and told the captain, “I will give you and Romanoff two weeks to vacate the Tower, taking only what legally belongs to you. I am done listening to you two try to tear me down at every turn, claiming the moral high ground after you killed millions of people by crashing three Helicarriers on Washington DC and she killed millions more by exposing the locations of people under SHIELDRA's protection to their enemies along with the locations of agents on active covert missions and the families of agents who are lucky enough to have families, among others. You are both horrible human beings and I am done listening to you talk to me like I am worse.” He spoke calmly and clearly, making sure that Thor and Barton and Bruce could all hear him explain why he was kicking the two Rs out, lest they try to play the victim card or claim Tony was throwing a tantrum. “I’ll be taking your charge cards back when we get back to the Tower along with the Widow Bites and the shield my father loaned to you, Rogers.” Thor swiftly moved to pull Rogers back when he moved to reach for Tony. He had experience with people pretending to be his friend because he was the Crown Prince of Asgard and from hearing Stark talk, he realized that Rogers and Romanoff had already made a habit of treating Friend Stark very poorly indeed. He remembered how Rogers had grabbed Friend Stark to prevent him from walking away when they first came together on the Helicarrier.

“If the shield truly was only lent to you by Sir Stark then it is Friend Stark's prerogative to reclaim his father’s property in repayment for your poor treatment of him. And if you truly murdered millions of people in cold blood then you do not deserve the title of hero.”

Tony took the opportunity to return to the cockpit. Upon landing, Tony accepted the Captain America shield from Thor who had evidently disarmed Rogers. Tony checked with Thor and Bruce, and Barton as he was rolled away to Cho's cradle. “You heard me give me my reasons for cutting Rogers and Romanoff off and kicking them out? If they try to make it look like I did it for no reason, like I’m just throwing a tantrum, you can all correct them and tell the truth, right?”

“Yes,” said Bruce while Barton said, “Gladly,” and Thor said, “It would be my honor to defend yours.”

Bruce and Tony both looked at Barton oddly. “I was one of the agents Romanoff burned with the Data Dump and she didn’t know hitting me really hard in the head would break Loki's mind control yet she did it anyway. Clearly, she doesn’t care about me.” That was the last thing he said to them before Cho insisted that they leave her to her work.

Tony went back to the jet to retrieve the scepter, which he promptly shoved into Thor's hands and sent him back to Asgard. “That thing already showed it could mess with people's heads without anyone touching it when we were on the Helicarrier. I want it as far away from me and my planet as possible.”

In Asgard, Thor reported on Friend Stark's latest piece of advanced technology. Odin was most insistent that Thor bring his Friend Stark to Asgard for a demonstration. Thor suggested, “Perhaps I should wait two Midgardian weeks before returning to ask Friend Stark to accompany me to Asgard. He still has to deal with Rogers and Romanoff, making sure they leave and do not take his property when they go and two weeks was the deadline he gave them.”

Odin countered, “One week. Your friend may require your assistance in dealing with Rogers.”

“Aye, indeed.”

While he was on Earth for the week, Thor took part in a press conference where Tony very diplomatically explained why Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff were being evicted and having the access to Stark resources they had been given as Avengers restricted. Thor, Clint, and Bruce were present to back up Tony's statements for the press. At the end of the conference, Tony revealed that he would soon be visiting Asgard, possibly with Bruce, most certainly with Thor as an escort, and the Avengers would therefore be unavailable for a time except in case of emergency. Since Asgard had someone blessed with incredible senses that had honed those senses to the point where he could watch over Thor while Thor was on Earth, Tony was confident that Heimdall could keep an eye out for an Avengers level emergency. Thor was impressed by Stark's skill in leading the curious masses to listen to him and understand what he wishes to convey even as they tried to poke holes in his statements or distract him with irrelevant questions.

The visit to Asgard itself was just as educational for Tony. “I find I am only surprised by the color of your ring, Sir Stark, not its presence, though I wish it was not so. There will be six others found throughout the known universe. These rings only appear when the universe is in grave danger. They are among the greatest weapons in the universe and thus, they form the greatest defense.”

Tony rolled his eyes, scanned Odin with his ring and dispelled the illusion around Loki in the process. “Speak normally, Reindeer Games, please.” Thor could only sigh, shake his head and roll his eyes at his brother.

“Could you tell us how you knew?” asked Bruce.

“He was trying too hard to sound old and wise and talk around the issue,” answered Tony with amusement twinkling in his eyes.

Loki was befuddled by Thor's nonchalant acceptance of his ruse and when he voiced his confusion, Thor merely said, “I recognize that Father would not allow me to spend so much time on Earth. Is Father… dead?”

“No. I used a spell to make him forget himself and placed him in a Midgardian nursing home.”

“Which one?” asked Tony. Upon hearing the name, Tony memorized it and made a mental note to keep an eye on it when they returned to Earth. “What were you saying about the ring?”

“There is an emotional spectrum and each emotion on the spectrum is represented by a color. Red is rage, orange is avarice, yellow is fear, green is will power, blue is hope, indigo is compassion, and violet is love. When the universe is in grave danger, seven rings of power, each with a strong connection to an emotion on the spectrum, will seek out wearers to use them to prevent the end of everything. This usually occurs when the six Infinity Stones are in danger of being collected. There is an Infinity Stone for each of the following: time, space, reality, mind, soul, and power. When combined, they can be used to manipulate the fabric of the universe on a whim.”

Tony decided that they should tell the world about the rings and their purpose when they returned to Earth but in the meantime, he focused on learning as much as he could about the universe's natural defense system.

Road to Infinity War

“With blood and rage of crimson red, ripped from a corpse so freshly dead, together with our hellish hate, we’ll burn you all, that is your fate!” Drax screamed the oath moments after the ring slid onto his finger and replaced his blood with corrosive plasma. He lashed out at Ronan, tearing through the monster that killed his family and unconsciously bathing in his blood to complete his initiation into the Red Lantern Corps before he allowed his new friends to calm him down, bring his rage down to a simmering level, and prevent him from slaughtering the people of Xandar. Legends of the Lanterns had long spread throughout the galaxy, their purpose was well known and more terrifying than Ronan could ever be. The people of Xandar resolved themselves to preparing to evacuate if the universal threat came to them.

The Collector hummed as he took in his collection then gasped upon seeing an Orange Lantern ring floating in front of him. “I have been chosen,” he whispered to himself. He knew full well what the color meant and only someone living under a rock wouldn’t know what the ring itself represented. Taneleer Tivian held out his hand, allowing the ring to slide itself onto his finger. “What’s mine is mine and mine and mine and mine and mine and mine not yours,” he recited the oath with a little chuckle.

“In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight! Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power - Green Lantern's light!” Loki skillfully covered the escape of Asgard's civilian population from Hela. As soon as he and Thor were able to escape Sakaar, they hurried to Asgard to save her people. He could hear Fandral wondering how Loki of all people had earned a Green Lantern ring and Thor bemoaning the fact that Loki could have used the ring at any time while they were on Sakaar. “I didn’t want to let the Grandmaster see me with something shiny, brother.”

“In fearful day, in raging night, with strong hearts full, our souls ignite, when all seems lost in the War of Light, look to the stars, for hope burns bright,” Peter recited the oath as soon as the ring slid onto his finger and broke free from Ego's hold on him. Even Ego was given pause when faced with the prospect of two hostile Lanterns but he dismissed the idea that they could truly be a threat to him. After all, he had a powerful Lantern of his own under his thrall.

“Tor lorek san, bor nakka mur, Natromo faan tornek wot ur, Ter Lantern ker lo Abin Sur, Taan lek lek nok - Formorrow Sur!” Mantis recited the oath with a giggle that quickly faded as the ring enhanced her natural empathy. Ego's plan to use the Indigo Lantern quickly fell apart before his eyes.

“For Hearts Long Lost And Full of Fright, For Those Alone In Blackest Night, Accept Our Ring and Join Our Fight -- Love Conquers All -- With Violet Light!” The Skrull murmured the well known oath while staring at the ring, both hands clenched into fists to keep the ring from slipping itself on as the prospect carefully considered the offer that the ring's presence represented. Looking around at his people, he sighed and opened his hands, spreading his fingers in invitation to the ring.

Infinity War

Loki died fighting to give his people time to escape Thanos the Mad Titan. He could only hope that they arrived in time to help the people of Earth, that his sacrifice may save his fellow Lanterns and allow them to fulfill their purpose. When he died, his ring flew away, finding a new wearer in the isolated nation of Wakanda.

Peter Quill was thankful that Doctor Strange warned him that Gamora was most likely sacrificed for the Soul Stone. Knowing in advance gave him a chance to process his feelings, to reconcile his grief with his need to keep hope alive as a Blue Lantern. The battle went sideways, there was no other way to describe it. While the four Lanterns and Spider-Man fought to keep Thanos from getting to Doctor Strange, the doctor inexplicably disappeared. For a moment, after Spider-Man yelled “Dr Strange is gone,” everyone froze then slowly turned to look at the Infinity Gauntlet. Drax, Quill, and Stark all lashed out at the same time, making a mad grab for the gauntlet with their rings while Mantis projected a forcefield around herself and Spider-Man to protect him from the inevitable backlash caused by disturbing the Infinity Stones. The backlash created a new crater and sent a huge cloud of dirt into the air. Mantis’ forcefield left herself and Spider-Man floating in the air. “Thank you,” said Spider-Man, peering down in the direction of the new crater.

Mantis wondered if he could see through the thick cloud of dirt and so she asked, “Can you see anything?”

“Um, sorta. My mask has an infrared setting so I can see that Thanos is gone now too but the rest of our, uh, team is still here. There’s something else but I am not sure what exactly I am seeing.” He turned his head towards her. “I am also not sure how much my suit would have absorbed the force of that explosion and how much of the force I would have felt but I am sure it would have sent me flying and whatever I hit when I landed would have really hurt so thank you again.”

“You are welcome,” said Mantis. “I forgot to say that the first time you thanked me, didn’t I?”

“Uh, yeah but that’s not why I said it again. I am just really thankful to you.” Spider-Man looked around and said, “I think I can see where the edge of the hole is. If you set me down on the edge then you can use your ring to check on the other Lanterns and maybe pull them out of the hole.”

“That’s a good idea. Where's the edge?”

Spider-Man pointed. “The closest one is over there.”

Mantis slowly floated in the direction Spider-Man pointed to and then carefully set Spider-Man down on the edge of the crater before dropping down, using her ring to feel the crater wall as a point of reference. She roused Drax easily enough from his unconscious state. “Thanos is gone, Drax and he did not get the Time Stone. We need to find the others and make sure they are okay.” Drax nodded, calming his rage as much as was possible for a Red Lantern and using his ring to seek out the others. He found Stark and Mantis found Quill and then they both flew up in the direction of the ledge Spider-Man was left on. Stark and Quill both woke up shortly after being set down on the ground outside of the crater. “Thanos is gone,” Mantis repeated for the two Earth born men's benefit.

Quill suddenly started smiling. Drax spoke up, eying his friend with concern. “Quill?”

“I got the Space Stone off of him before everything went boom. He came here to collect an Infinity Stone and left here with one less stone than he brought.”

Spider-Man, looking at the stone in Quill's hand, pointed out the obvious. “The stone is blue like your ring.”

“Yeah,” said Quill. Looking at the stone and his ring side by side, he remarked, “They do match. Maybe we’re supposed to wield the stone that matches our rings. Maybe that's how this universal defense thing works.”

Tony said, “Only one way to find out. Quill, use the stone to bring us and the other guardians, I mean Lanterns, to wherever Thanos is going to go after the Time Stone next. Let’s try to get ahead of him.”

The Blue Lantern nodded seriously and said, “I’ll try for both, bring us, the rest of my crew, and the other Lanterns to Thanos’ next target.”

“Okay.”

In a blink, they were transported to a battlefield on the edge of a jungle. Moments later, a tall man with white hair sticking up every which way joined them and a moment after that, a green skinned man did as well. The former wore an orange uniform and the latter wore a violet uniform. “Anyone else find it weird that all of the Lanterns with one exception are men?” asked Tony.

“Loki was a shapeshifter,” Thor reported. He had been brought along when Quill summoned the missing half of his crew. “He could assume the form of a woman.”

“As can I,” reported the Violet Lantern. “Now does anyone want to explain what is going on?”

Quill pointed to the invading aliens. “Those are followers of Thanos-”

“Say no more,” the Violet and Orange Lanterns said in unison. Then the six Lanterns joined the fight against Thanos.

“Hey, wait a minute. Where's the Green Lantern?” asked Tony as he flew up high and created a giant hard light killer robot to cull Thanos’ forces.

“I am right here,” called out Black Panther. “I simply haven’t had a chance to train with the ring.”

“Then you better learn on the job and practice on these foot soldiers.”

“Very well.” T'Challa retreated to the tree line to summon his power battery and charge his ring then took to the sky to join most of the other Lanterns.

Between the seven of them, they took out most of the invading force. Their allies dealt with the rest, mopping up the foot soldiers when Thanos’ arrival demanded the seven Lanterns’ attention. Quill took a minute to dart between his fellow Lanterns and share the revelation he had had about the connection between Infinity Stones and Lantern rings of the same color.

The Collector was happy enough to claim the Soul Stone as compensation for the destruction of his collection. T'Challa did not want the Time Stone, believing that he had enough on his plate as a crown prince and future king, Black Panther, and now Green Lantern. He was actually relieved to discover that Thanos still did not have the green Time Stone. Drax similarly considered the Reality Stone a burden he would have to bear. Tony hoped that he was strong enough to handle the Mind Stone, recognizing that it was the source of power for Loki's mind control scepter. Seeing as they didn’t know whether Talos or Mantis was supposed to seize the Power Stone, they could only hope that taking the others away would give them the power to overcome that particular stone.

The final battle of the Infinity War was fiercely fought and won by the combined might of the seven Lanterns and their allies. The Infinity Stones in the gauntlet were easily removed by the Lanterns who were chosen by the universe to be their guardians against the likes of Thanos. Doctor Strange reappeared to help Green Lantern T'Challa do his part. Even with the Power Stone in play, Thanos was no match for seven extremely powerful and creative people wielding the greatest weapons in the universe. 

Immediately after the battle, Drax used the Reality Stone to clear the battlefield of Thanos’ army and restore it to its undamaged state. Quill raced over to the Collector to ask him to use his stone to restore Gamora to life. With a sigh, Taneleer Tivian said, “I suppose that one soul will not reduce the value of the stone too greatly.” Quill used the Space Stone to summon her body, Drax healed her with a mere thought, and Tivian returned her soul to her body.

Tony cleared his throat a minute later, interrupting Peter and Gamora's reunion. “Hate to ruin the moment but Quill, might I suggest that you use the Space Stone to scatter the rest of the Stones? No single planet should have more than one and by my count, half of the Lanterns are from Earth, yourself included.”

“Yeah, you’re right. The rings will disappear on their own when we die but there’s nothing to say the Stones will take care of themselves that way. Do you want-”

Tony held out the Mind Stone, offering it to Quill to send away. “The Time Stone will stay on Earth since it obviously has a capable guardian outside of us Lanterns.”

Quill held up the Space Stone and stared at the Mind Stone. “Hide,” he said and the Mind Stone vanished. Then he went around asking each of his fellow stone guardians if they wanted to keep their stone or send it elsewhere.

Drax decided to talk to the Collector about possibly restoring Xandar and/or Knowhere using their combined Stones. The Collector agreed to assist in restoring Xandar and its people, if possible, in exchange for Drax helping restore his home and collection. “Quill, you can send the Reality Stone far away after we finish restoring Xandar and Knowhere.” Drax then had to convince the Collector that taking the Reality Stone off his hands when he was done with it was not a good idea.

Chapter Text

There were many times when Tony Stark could have earned the sapphire power of love but the love in his heart was entwined with darker emotions, bitterness towards his father (“He never even told me he liked me”) and his mother (Why did you let him drive drunk), the stab of betrayal mixed with remembered love for his godfather (the golden goose, that’s all I ever was) and his godmother (SHIELD was all that really mattered to you, wasn’t it?), conflicting feelings towards those closest to him who accepted his self-destructive behavior and didn’t see that he was dying. To truly earn the power of the Star Sapphire, his love needed to be pure, he needed to embrace the feeling of love above all others. Even when love was his most dominant emotion, when it drove him, there was always something else.

As he lay dying in an abandoned HYDRA bunker in Siberia, he found closure for his parents’ deaths. The love he felt for his godparents flickered away as he realized that they never loved him or his family, they both played a role in covering up his parents’ murders. Forgiveness purged the darkness from his mixed feelings towards those closest to his heart, leaving only love in its various forms. He could have sworn he was hallucinating when he saw a glowing pink ring appear from nowhere and heard a voice say, “Anthony Stark, you have great love in your heart. Welcome to the Star Sapphire Corps.” He thought ‘what have I got to lose?’ and hit the emergency release for his right gauntlet, allowing the ring to slide onto his finger. Immediately warmth spread through his body and he could breathe easy. He was able to lift the suit with the power of the ring. He flexed his newfound power to collect the shield Rogers left behind, Barnes’ arm, his helmet and right gauntlet, then left Siberia, flying towards the nearest city. The ring provided real time translations, allowing Tony to organize a meeting with someone in authority to explain what had happened to the Winter Soldiers and the fugitives in the bunker. He was sure that it would all be classified up the wazoo soon enough as he departed from Russia to the hospital in Germany where Rhodey was receiving treatment for his fall. Tony stopped at a nearby SI office to shed his armor and put it back in the travel case that it was brought to Germany in, locking up the shield and prosthetic arm while he was at it, before he went to visit his best friend.

Seeing his brother in all but blood lying so still was like seeing him fall all over again. What did Barton say? Some crack about breaking backs? What does he know? He came to the fight because Captain America called. He set up Vision, Tony’s son for all intents and purposes, to be thrown through several stories of concrete by someone he thought cared about him. Why? Because Captain America called. 

When Tony heard about the breakout from the Raft, he snapped. He could not allow those backstabbing loose cannons to continue… to continue pulling their crap, he decided then, anger flaring. Tony returned home as soon as he was sure that Rhodey would be okay. He was willing to simply wash his hands of Steve Rogers and his loyal fanatics. But then some delivery man knocked on the door to the recently refurbished Compound, called him Tony Stank, and handed him a box containing a letter and a flip phone. The self-righteous bastard's apology letter only reminded Tony of his own righteous fury. He immediately set to hacking into Wakanda's systems because he was not a complete moron. The only way Steve got out of that Siberian bunker and out of the public eye was if he hitched a ride with the super suit-wearing prince of an isolated African nation. Tony hacked in with some help from FRIDAY and some help from Vision, who was understandably still sore about being thrown through several stories by his crush. Once he was in their systems, he repurposed every screen in Wakanda to play footage of the Rogue Avengers’ various battles that did not involve Tony. The footage from Siberia played at the start and end of the average workday, footage of the Stark Murders and the brief exchange between Steve and Tony included for context. At nine o'clock every night, the screens showed tracking data from the gear Tony made that the ‘rogue’ Avengers decided to keep which showed they were in Wakanda with an artificial voice over reading Steve's ‘apology’ letter in Steve's voice. Within a week of this onslaught, the entire nation had turned on not only the ‘rogue’ Avengers but also on Prince T'Challa for bringing them into Wakanda. T'Challa made a call in the council chambers to Tony Stark. “Please stop this madness.” He belatedly heard his voice projected over every speaker connected to a screen.

“You abandoned me to die in Siberia. It’s almost funny how fast Rogers went from your enemy to your ally or how fast I went from being on your side to not being your concern.”

“What do you want?” asked Queen Ramonda.

“I don’t really know. I was prepared to wash my hands of the so-called rogue Avengers but then I got that letter and that just tore open old wounds.” Tony uploaded the audio from his visit to the Raft and played it over highlights from the airport battle. “When I was your son's age, I only had two people I could trust. One was Obadiah Stane and the other was James Rhodes. The whole world knows what a mistake trusting Stane was for me. James Rhodes has stuck by me through thick and thin since I was a teenager. I would burn the world down for my brother in all but blood. By allowing the so-called rogue Avengers to live freely enough to send that horrendous letter… well, your son might as well have lit the match, I suppose. Now I am going to do to Wakanda what Romanoff did to SHIELD. Why on Earth your son allowed her in after settling the rest of the rogues, I will never know.” Tony hung up to focus on doing what he promised.

Just as he was about to drop the entirety of the information on Wakanda's systems, helpfully translated to English, Rhodey stopped him. “Remember what happened when Romanoff did that?” he asked when Tony told him what he was doing. “Remember how many innocent people were horribly murdered? Don’t be Romanoff 2.0, Tones, please don't.” Rhodey's logic penetrated Tony’s emotional haze and instead of dropping the entirety of the information on Wakanda's systems, he simply sent the tracking data from the Avengers’ gear to the Accords Council with a note about the treachery of T'Challa and assurances that Wakanda was fully primed to turn the rogues over and accept punitive action. When Tony collapsed back into his chair and ran a hand over his face, Rhodey noticed something. “You’re still wearing your mystery ring. Didn’t you say you heard a mysterious voice in your head when you got that?”

“I’m not crazy!”

“I’m not saying you are. I’m saying that thing could be messing with your head,” argued Rhodey.

Tony sighed and pried the ring off of his finger, finding the simple task surprisingly difficult. “Vision, could you take this and hold onto it for me? I am not giving it up permanently, not yet, but I will need to study it before I do anything else with it.”

“Understood,” said the android, dutifully accepting the ring.

A few weeks later when the first photographs of the rogue Avengers after their time in Wakanda were published, they looked rough. They would have been better off living in the jungle than living surrounded by people who were being tormented by video footage of the rogues’ crimes. Tony felt some satisfaction at the images. The torment of Wakanda ended two days prior to the rogues’ arrest, in accordance with a deal negotiated by Princess Shuri that required T'Challa to turn himself in with the rogues for his violation of the Accords when he abandoned an ally and fellow signee. Tony had a funny feeling that Shuri was being set up to succeed their father in place of T'Challa. Mostly, he didn’t feel anything for the Avengers. Rhodey and Pepper and Happy and even Vision helped him talk out his emotions to find closure, to reach a place where he could honestly say that they did not matter to him. He sent the videos he used to torment Wakanda to the Accords Council to use as evidence along with files on each rogue from the original roster and HYDRA records recovered from the Data Dump then called it a day.

Tony’s time was taken up by studying the pink ring and helping prepare for another invasion. Between the Battle of New York, the Battle of Greenwich, the destruction of Puente Antiguo, and a collection of files scavenged from the Data Dump, another invasion seemed almost guaranteed. With the rogues in custody, Tony was able to argue for the Accords to be heavily modified to achieve their stated goal of accountability for the enhanced and to grant the enhanced their basic human rights. Then he had Ross arrested for violation of different people's human rights and for bringing military resources, such as tanks, into foreign civilian population areas in acts of aggression that could be construed as acts of war. With Thaddeus Ross out of the way, he was able to expand the Accords to be more friendly and palatable to the enhanced, adding amendments for anonymity and underage enhanced persons. The Accords were in their most workable form and lifting a great burden off his shoulders, freeing him up to study the pink ring.

Outside of his study of the ring, he was inspired by the ring… or more specifically, by what it had said to him, that he had great love in his heart. Pepper was not impressed when he told her about that but she was touched by his assertion that she was the one he felt great love in his heart for. They decided to give dating another go.

A year after he wrestled the Accords into a workable form, he and Pepper were still going strong. He had worked his way up from studying the pink ring that found him in Siberia to using its power under the supervision of those who loved and knew him well enough to intervene in case he began to lose himself to the power of the ring. Happy had even jokingly called it the Ring of Power, leading the pink ring to be officially classified as a power ring of unknown origins. For the first test of his ability to safely handle the power ring unsupervised, he used the ring to transport space probes into predetermined locations as the first step to establish defenses against alien invasions.

Under the Accords, members of the Enhanced community who were well established could provide support and guidance for newer members in the hopes of preventing unnecessary casualties caused by untrained or poorly trained superhumans. This allowed Tony to mentor the spider kid and take responsibility for Vision who lacked the life experience necessary to mature. This also allowed the X-Men to claim jurisdiction over underage mutants and direct the relevant legal authorities to send the children to the Xavier School. They also accepted Inhumans and other underage Enhanced at the school, giving superhuman kids peers who understood their unique struggles. The school received a lot of good press for that and even a fair amount of donations to cover the costs of caring for children who didn’t have family to care for them during the summer. Tony had only been thinking about Underoos when he pushed for provisions for anonymity and underage Enhanced but he was extremely pleased by the wider results of his work.

Returning to Earth once the final probe was in position, he gave mission control the go ahead to take over dealing with the probes. “How are we looking?” he asked as he stopped just outside of Earth orbit. “Need me to go back and do any hands-on troubleshooting?”

“Everything is looking good. No troubleshooting necessary,” was the response from mission control.

“Good.” Tony finished making his way back to the base he had launched off from. Letting the Accords Council know about the power ring was another way of ensuring that there were people watching out for him in case the ring began to unduly influence him. He didn’t tell the Accords Council that a voice in his head told him he had great love in his heart when the ring appeared to him in Siberia, that would be crazy. If other power rings showed up then he might consider revealing that little bit of weirdness but not until then.

As soon as he entered the base, he slipped the ring off his finger and placed it in a pocket sized box that he promptly locked. Pepper met him on the inside. “I think that went well.”

“I agree,” said Tony with a smile.

Life was good.

All good things must come to an end. The Infinity War brought an end to the good peaceful life enjoyed by many of Earth's Enhanced population, who were called upon to defend the planet from Thanos the Mad Titan and his forces. Tony and Vision had been dispatched to intercept the first ships that were picked up by the deep space probes. What they discovered were Asgardian refugees and the self-styled Guardians of the Galaxy. They guided the two ships through space to Earth, navigating through the asteroid belt with greater ease than an outsider could expect to. Not long after they settled their alien visitors into temporary housing on Earth, the probes picked up more ships. The Guardians were quick to tell them not to go after those ships. “Why?” asked Tony, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Because it’s probably Thanos,” answered Peter Quill. “And your Vision has an Infinity Stone in his forehead, which is exactly what Thanos wants.”

“Okay.” Dropping his arms, Tony said, “We’ll initiate invasion protocols.”

Bruce asked, “What are those?”

“Without SHIELDRA or the Avengers interfering, people have realized that alien invasions are a thing that happens with increasing frequency and as such, we have developed protocols for dealing with them.”

“Increasing frequency- what?”

“Thor crashed down in the desert in New Mexico. Less than two weeks later, an Asgardian killer robot leveled a small town in the same area. A couple years later, the Chitauri invaded New York. Then there was that Convergence thing in London. Sure, Thor was on Earth for all three incidents but it’s been decided that we cannot just ban Thor from Earth and expect that to prevent another invasion. Hence, creating protocols to deal with alien invasions.”

Bruce nodded his head slowly. “That makes sense.”

Rhodey took over from there to brief the Guardians and the Asgardian representatives on invasion protocols while Tony left to alert the Accords Council to an impending invasion.

Humans are more fragile than many alien races. Earth technology is less advanced than many alien civilizations. These are simply facts. Invasion protocols rely heavily on the support of the Enhanced community to deal with the invaders who would likely be physically stronger and more technologically advanced than the majority of Earth.

Instead of Thanos, the invasion protocols were first tested on members of his Black Order who were sent to retrieve the stone from Vision's head and the Eye of Agamotto that was protected by the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj. They shocked the Guardians of the Galaxy by dispatching the Black Order with relative ease. Of course, they had a major number advantage.

Thanos did not follow immediately after his Black Order was slaughtered. No, he sent his foot soldiers to wear down the planet's defenders to give himself an easy victory. Most of his legions never touched the ground. The X-Man Storm created tornadoes to send the troop carriers crashing into each other. Magneto sent troop carriers flying into the path of the tornadoes or into each other, with assistance from the X-Man Phoenix and others with similar abilities. The troops who successfully made it to the planet's surface had to take care to avoid being crushed by the ships or swept up in the twisters. As Storm and the others who targeted the troop carriers withdrew, Pyro and other elementals moved in to mop up the survivors.

The Guardians watched, dumbstruck, as the mutants of Earth decimated Thanos’ forces with relative ease. The information and stories they had shared about Thanos had him classified as a Destroyer of Worlds, the highest possible threat level for an alien or alien force. As such, there was no quarter given, surrender was not an option for either Earth's defenders or its enemies. The defenders would fight with the knowledge that if they were not victorious, their world would be destroyed. Failure was not an option. If Thanos had been classified as any other kind of threat, the response would not have been so extreme.

Thanos believed that culling half of all life in the universe was his destiny, that his success was a forgone conclusion. Thus, he did not respond to the obliteration of his forces with the caution that he would have if he was not a fanatic himself. When he eventually took the field, his arrogance prevented him from seeing his own destruction coming. Fire, ice, lightning, missiles, repulsor blasts, hard light energy blasts, Cyclops’ optic blasts, assorted debris, and many other things hit him all at once the moment that the Guardians identified him as “Thanos.”

“I think that might have been overkill,” said Tony in the immediate aftermath.

“You said he was a Destroyer of Worlds,” said Cyclops, looking at the crater where Thanos had stood.

“No, I didn’t. The Accords Council classified him as that based on what the Guardians said about him.”

It didn’t take long for the Guardians to figure out the problem. “You thought he would literally destroy the world, like destroy the planet? That-”

“Makes sense. Even if he only indiscriminately kills half of the people, the fallout from those deaths will have catastrophic consequences,” reasoned Vision. As everyone turned to him, he reasoned, “To start with, there would be nuclear meltdowns caused by the men and women tasked with maintaining nuclear reactors dropping dead. Add to that plane crashes and other vehicular accidents, and you may find yourself looking at the start of the end of days.”

“Okay. So we all agree that the overkill was justified,” clarified Pyro, covering their bases for the mutant combatants.

Chapter Text

Waterboarding someone whose life depended upon an electromagnet attached to a car battery was a bad idea but the Ten Rings evidently didn’t know that. Tony Stark died in that Afghani mountain range but the world didn’t need to know that.

Steve Rogers would have killed Tony Stark if he wasn’t already dead long before they went head to head in that Siberian bunker but- oh wait, he did need to know that. When his actions turned deadly, Tony used the little black ring on his finger that everyone helpfully ignored. He cut through Steve's mouth to silence the self-righteous bastard once and for all. Then he turned to Barnes. “You and Rogers just tried to kill me. That may not be an unforgivable offense but it is intolerable.” He drilled into the man's chest, slicing a neat hole through his heart. With his two primary threats dealt with, he went outside to deal with the primary aggressor. Helmut Zemo wished for death and Black Lantern Tony Stark granted his wish. “You will speak of this to no one. The battles he instigated caused incalculable deaths, your father was not his only victim. I will leave you with a choice. Do the right thing and report the deaths of Steve Rogers, James Barnes, and Helmut Zemo so that their bodies along with those of the Winter Soldiers can be properly dealt with. Or simply flee back to Wakanda like a coward. Your choice. I have to leave now because Barnes and Rogers used lethal force on me and I do not know how to safely explain my survival. All security footage will show me leaving in a hurry in the suit and Zemo being killed by a malfunction. Time to stop living for your father’s approval and find out who you are.” With those words of wisdom, Tony flew away.

Tony always did his best to hide what he was. Not even his closest friends had been told that he was dead, even though he knew that they saw the ring. He let them assume that it had something to do with the one death he regretted: Ho Yinsen. He knew that the truth would come out eventually but he was happy to put it off until then.

Tony really, truly, honestly tried not to use the ring and look where that got him: lost in space. Tony executed the squidward looking guy and waited to see where the ship was taking them. His secret was not going to survive this.

When Thanos showed up without Gamora, Tony knew that their plan was toast. He disengaged the armor and walked up to Thanos without fear, ignoring yells from his allies asking “What are you doing?” and telling him “He’s going to kill you.” Upon reaching Thanos, who was watching him curiously, he placed one hand on the Infinity Gauntlet and used the ring to decapitate the genocidal maniac before he could try to kill him.

Without turning around, he said, “You cannot kill what is already dead.” The steady illusion of decent health that the ring projected to protect its host fell, revealing deathly pale skin and haunted eyes. “I died years ago. The ring allows me to continue to exist among the living.” He pulled the Space Stone out and summoned Gamora then touched the Reality Stone and healed her body then he turned around and asked Peter Quill, “Are you fully human or half human or what?”

“I’m half human. What-”

“Is the other half powerful?” asked Tony as a follow-up question.

Drax answered, “His father was a living planet until-”

Tony told Quill, “Then you should be powerful enough to touch the Soul Stone without being absorbed by it and to push Gamora's soul out of the stone into her body.”

Quill tripped over himself in his rush to do just that. Tony watched impassively for a moment to ensure that the stone did not absorb Quill then used the Space Stone to scatter the other Stones held by the Gauntlet throughout the universe. He sent Strange and the Spiderling back to the Sanctum that he presumed Strange called home before sending himself to the battlefield where Thanos’ forces were trying to kill Vision to secure the Mind Stone. Tony slaughtered them all with one sweeping motion, demonstrating his mastery over the power within the ring by avoiding the Wakandan warriors. He turned around and asked, “Where is Vision?”

“What did you do?” asked the Black Panther. Even through the mask, his horror at witnessing such a slaughter was evident.

“I killed all of the invaders that were sent to kill my son. Now I will ask again: where is he? Where is Vision?”

“He’s in my sister’s lab,” answered T'Challa.

“Where?” Tony gritted out.

T'Challa decided to lead the way, lest the other man turn the power he used to slaughter the invasion force on Wakanda. He had admired Tony Stark, ever since he had a chance to meditate on his words of wisdom in Siberia. He was careful not to fall into the trap of going from asking himself what would baba do to asking what would Tony Stark do when faced with a challenge or dilemma but he instead drew upon the wisdom that he had gained from them and dealt with problems in his own way.

Tony helped Shuri safely remove the Mind Stone from Vision's head without killing his son. He promptly used the Space Stone to send both the Mind Stone and the Space Stone far away from Earth. When scattering the Infinity Stones, both on Titan and in Wakanda, he focused on sending them far away from himself and the other Stones to prevent anyone from finding them again. He made sure that he could honestly say that he had no idea where they went. T'Challa insisted that Tony stay and explain his actions within Wakanda to the Wakandan Council. Tony would have ignored him if Vision hadn’t also asked him to do the same thing. “Fine but Princess Shuri and Vision will both be included in this meeting.”

Once everyone was settled into the meeting chamber, T'Challa simply asked Tony to “Start at the beginning of your tale.”

Tony waved his hand and conjured a construct of a chair using his ring. “I guess a good starting point would be 2008, Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, after the insurgents found me and took me back to the cave system they used as a base, they forced another hostage, Dr Ho Yinsen to perform a life-saving operation on me, intending to keep me alive long enough to force me to build them a Jericho missile. There was no anesthesia involved in the operation so I do have some memory of waking up during the open heart surgery. In the end, Yinsen couldn’t remove all of the shrapnel so he implanted an electromagnet into my chest and used a car battery to power it. When I refused to build weapons for my country's enemies or maybe I was just working too slow for their liking, I was waterboarded multiple times and I can’t quite remember which time the water shorted out the electromagnet, freeing the remaining shrapnel inside my chest to tear apart my heart. Naturally I died. Not just legal death, no. Because it happened while they were holding me over a barrel of water, pushing my head down to make me feel like I was drowning, the insurgents didn’t notice the problem until it was too late. Luckily, I got this ring when I died.” He held up his hand. “This thing allows me to continue to exist among the living, allows me to pass myself off as being alive. It’s called a Black Lantern ring.” The Black Lantern uniform appeared over his body. “Yeah. Apparently black is the color of death. Someone who worships death could also qualify for this ring, you don’t have to die to qualify. When I escaped from Afghanistan, every death caused by my escape gave the ring a little more power, 0.1% or 0.01% or something like that. To get to a hundred percent would take way too many deaths. I got the ring by being dead not worshiping death as only an extremely genocidal maniac could. Anyway, the ring is how I overpowered two super soldiers who were trying to kill me for the crime of lashing out after watching a video tape of my parents’ murder with the murderer standing mere feet away from me and someone I thought was a friend defending the killer, revealing he knew that they were murdered in cold blood and said nothing. Killing Zemo, I don’t really remember why I did that. I theorize that using the ring enhances my connection to death, making me a little more trigger happy than I would otherwise be.” Then he recounted the lead up to and the battle in New York with Dr Strange, noting how he sent Vision to Wakanda just before the spaceship moved out of range of the communication satellites. He told them about meeting the Guardians, explaining what happened on Titan and how he got to Wakanda. “As I already said, the ring makes me more murderous. I meant what I said about Vision being my son. Since I am dead, I cannot sire children and so Vision is probably as close as I can come to a child outside of adoption.”

One of the council members requested permission to examine Tony to confirm that he is, in fact, dead. Tony easily consented. The cursory exam proved that he had no heartbeat and his skin was cool to the touch. “How-”

“How does nobody realize that I am a walking, talking corpse? The lack of decomposition mostly,” answered Tony as he stood up, dispelling the conjured chair. “And this.” He had the ring project the illusion of decent health once again and let the council member, who was apparently a doctor, examine him again. The ring simulated a pulse as well as making him warm to the touch and giving him a healthy skin tone.

“Incredible,” said the council member, confirming that Tony now showed the expected signs of life before retaking his seat.

Shuri asked, “If the ring is keeping you alive, for a definition of the word, does that mean that removing it would make you fully dead?”

“I presume so. I don’t intend to live forever, for a definition of life, at any rate,” was Tony’s answer.

The Wakandan Council was more easily satisfied than any American governing body would be and they agreed to keep the details of his status as a Black Lantern a secret. As soon as they were allowed to, Tony and Vision hurried out of Wakanda to New York. Tony engaged the suit as he neared the Sanctum to keep his power ring from becoming public knowledge and hoped against hope that Peter would still be there. “Mr Stark!” The teen greeted him warmly.

“Peter, does your aunt know where you are?” Tony had forced the teen to tell his aunt the truth, reasoning that keeping his superhero identity a secret from his family put them in more danger in case his enemies deduced his secret identity and went after his unsuspecting loved ones. Now he felt like a hypocrite for that. Stephen, Peter, and Tony talked about what happened on Titan and on the ship that took them to Titan then discussed a cover story to hide the weakness that was Tony’s dependence upon his Black Lantern ring. He did not want to risk anyone trying to take it from him to study it in an effort to unlock the secret to immortality. Losing the Arc Reactor to Obie was bad enough, and he had known the electromagnet was not really what was keeping him alive back then. Once he explained why they needed a cover story, Stephen and Peter were happy to help create one. Stephen was equally happy to hear that Tony had used the Space Stone to send it and the Mind Stone far away from Earth, leaving only the Time Stone to worry about instead of having two or three Infinity Stones making their planet a target.

After the dust settled from the attacks by Thanos’ Black Order, Tony arranged a little get together with his closest friends who didn’t know the truth about his ring. With the support of Vision, he told them what he had told the Wakandan Council as well as revealing the truth about the few instances where he used the ring, like when he killed Rogers and Barnes and Zemo in Siberia. Tony was afraid of how they might react to finding out that he had died in Afghanistan and he didn’t want to see how Pepper might react to finding out that they could never have children together. He simply closed his eyes and waited for a rejection that never came. Instead Pepper hugged him and Rhodey said, “Somehow you being dead is not the weirdest thing I have ever heard about you, it’s not even in the top three things on that list. As for the things I know about you, still not the weirdest. What even is your life, man? How is being dead for years not the weirdest thing about you?”

Happy asked, “How did JARVIS never find out the truth? I mean, if JARVIS knew then Vision would know before you told him, right?”

“Yeah, maybe. We put JARVIS’ remains in Vision, not his complete code so it’s possible Vision doesn’t know everything JARVIS knew. The ring does a really good job making me look alive, in answer to your first question.”

“Wait a minute,” said Rhodey. “Does being dead already and being kept alive by the ring mean that when you want to die for good, you just take off the ring but until then, you can’t die?”

“Uh, yeah, I think so.” Pepper slapped him upside the head for making them worry about him dying when he knew that he couldn’t die. “I’m sorry but this is hard enough to do now. I wasn’t really ready to try explaining any of this before.”

“I guess I can understand that.”

Life was good, even for a dead man.

Chapter Text

They lost. Thanos won. The end… or was it? Carol Danvers told Earth’s Mightiest Heroes about a legend, a prophecy. “In Blackest Night, when all seems lost, one shall rise to restore order and life. At least, that’s one version. The wording varies between planets and species but the sentiment is the same.” She went on to explain, “There is something called the emotional spectrum that can be harnessed by any sentient being with a strong enough connection to the emotions on the spectrum. Each emotion is represented by a color. Red for Rage, Orange for Avarice, Yellow for Fear, Green for Will Power, Blue for Hope, Indigo for Compassion, and Violet for Love. Most people believe the one prophesied to rise in Blackest Night will master them all and become the White Lantern of Life. To date, nobody has mastered more than one emotion to the standards of a ring bearer.”

“Ring bearer?” echoed Steve.

Tony understood the implication. “A person who forms a strong enough connection to be considered a master over one of those emotions gets a ring that lets them tap into the power of the spectrum and those people are either called lanterns, hence White Lantern, or ring bearers. Does a person just need to feel the emotion on the spectrum strongly to get the power ring?”

“In most cases, Lanterns embody the emotion that the color of their ring represents. Red Lanterns are rage monsters, Blue Lanterns are bursting with hope, etcetera. There are some exceptions. There’s only ever one Orange Lantern and I highly doubt that’s a reflection on how many greedy people there are in the universe. The Yellow Lanterns are people who inspire great fear. The Indigo Lanterns actually call themselves a tribe, they take people who either embody or lack compassion.” Carol noticed some of the Avengers giving Tony the stink eye as she explained the exceptions and could tell they thought the exceptions described the man perfectly but chose not to say anything. “In the latter case, the power of the indigo light overwhelms the new tribe member with compassion. All Lanterns have the same baseline abilities. They can fly, conjure hard light constructs, and their rings act as universal translators, among other things. But each emotion has unique attributes that influence the capabilities of the Lantern rings, such as the Indigo Tribe being able to impose compassion on those who do not naturally feel the emotion. In theory, if a White Lantern embodies life and all seven emotions then death and the absence of emotion would be embodied by a Black Lantern.”

“Okay.” Tony suggested, “How about we all try to strengthen our connection to one of the seven emotions, see if we can attract a Lantern ring and go from there? Maybe there is no White Lantern, maybe all that is needed is an alliance between the other Lanterns.”

Clint argued, “Someone who loves only themself and scares everyone around them with their carelessness could qualify for all seven rings.”

“Sure, that’s the theory behind the White Lantern but Carol said nobody has ever mastered two rings, let alone all seven, and if we are going to restore the lives lost in the Snap, we need to act fast so that the people who were dusted still have lives to return to. If the alliance idea fails then we can look for a White Lantern.” Tony reasoned, “I don’t think loving yourself would get you anything other than maybe the Orange Lantern ring and the White Lantern needs to master all seven Lantern rings.”

Grief is a funny thing. It both is and is not an emotion. It is not one of the seven on the spectrum but its presence can certainly be felt on the spectrum. Rage, fear, hope, compassion, love, even will power and selfishness have a connection to grief.

The Avengers agreed to each try for a different ring. Tony called Green, Thor claimed Red, Clint offered to try for Violet, and Steve similarly suggested Blue for himself. They were in for a surprise. Their grief messed with their emotions. Thor attracted an Indigo ring with his feelings of regret, Steve drew a Red ring to him with his anger over the loss of Bucky while Clint drew a Green ring with his determination to set things right. Steve tried to give Thor his ring after Thor rejected the Indigo ring, cursing himself a failure, but the Red ring was repelled by this.

As for Tony, he had left the Avengers Compound after the plan was made and went home. He shared the plan with Pepper who, along with Rhodey, watched over him as he attempted to summon one of the seven possible rings. Tony got much more than he bargained for. He closed his hands to keep the rings off his fingers when he saw two rings headed his way. Pepper used FRIDAY to summon Carol from the Compound and Carol blasted off to collect a few surviving officials from alien governments to witness the rise of the White Lantern. Stephen sacrificed the Time Stone for him. This must have been what Stephen saw in the one future where they won.

“In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight! Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power - Green Lantern's light!” Tony had felt the strongest connection to Will Power, he had chosen to try for a Green Lantern ring. It was no surprise that when he extended one finger, the Green Lantern ring was the first to complete its journey to him. It was a surprise to feel those words reverberate through him.

“In fearful day, in raging night, with strong hearts full, our souls ignite, when all seems lost in the War of Light, look to the stars, for hope burns bright!” Hope, that was what this was all about, right? It was the reason he even thought about trying to use the rings to reverse the Snap.

“For Hearts Long Lost And Full of Fright, For Those Alone In Blackest Night, Accept Our Ring and Join Our Fight -- Love Conquers All -- With Violet Light!” If he didn’t feel love then he wouldn’t put himself on the line, he wouldn’t be the man he is today, he wouldn’t feel like he needed to reverse the snap.

“With blood and rage of crimson red, ripped from a corpse so freshly dead, together with our hellish hate, we’ll burn you all, that is your fate!” He was furious with himself and with Thanos for the loss that they had all suffered. He knew that New York was just the beginning, why did he let himself get caught up in the Avengers mess?!

“In blackest day, in brightest night, Beware your fears made into light, Let those who try to stop what's right, Burn like his power... Sinestro's might!” Maybe it was better to be feared than loved.

“What's mine is mine, And mine and mine, And mine and mine and mine, Not yours!” He almost wanted to laugh as the Orange Lantern oath spilled from his lips. Thanos didn’t deserve to win. Tony’s interests in stealing that undeserved win were certainly selfish. He didn’t care about Barnes or the Guardians or the infinite other people he didn’t even know about who were dusted. No, he was doing this for Stephen Strange and Peter Parker, for His people who were dusted.

“Tor lorek san, bor nakka mur, Natromo faan tornek wot ur, Ter Lantern ker lo Abin Sur, Taan lek lek nok - Formorrow Sur!” He had no idea what he had just said. What he did know was that all of his fingers except for his thumbs and one pinky had a Lantern ring on them. The oaths for each Lantern ring had passed through his lips. He could feel the burning plasma that replaced his blood when the red ring slid onto his finger as well as the power of the emotions felt by every sentient being in the universe.

Each ring, with one glaring exception, pushed him to act on the emotion it represents. The Blue Lantern ring urged him to have hope. The Violet Lantern ring filled him with love. The Red Lantern ring made him burn with rage. The Yellow Lantern ring complimented the red ring nicely, telling him without words that fear was the only way people learned. The Orange Lantern ring added that everything the eye could see belonged to him. The Indigo ring countered the wickedness of the three previous rings with its unspoken message of sympathy and empathy.

The emotions were all very powerful and could easily be overwhelming but Tony was not overwhelmed, he was empowered. Now he just needed a plan… perhaps, he should have made a plan before he let the rings slide onto his fingers and amplify his emotions. Oh well, too late to turn back now. If he took off the rings, he might not get them back and he was fairly sure that the red ring had turned his blood into something else that he now needed the ring to keep producing to keep him alive. He did not want to turn into the theoretical Black Lantern.

“What now?” asked Tony, looking over the official witnesses to his ascension. Ascension? Ah, it’s as good a word as any for what just happened.

Unbeknownst to Tony, he spat up some corrosive plasma when he spoke the Red Lantern oath and his nonchalant attitude about it was freaking his closest friends out.

With a little prodding from Carol, the alien representatives snapped to attention and started making plans to spread the word about the Blackest Night prophecy coming into play to inspire the other Lanterns to begin searching for a way to gather the fragments of the Infinity Stones. Theoretically, Tony would be able to channel the power of life, once he mastered all seven rings. Using that power, he could restore the Stones and then use the Stones to undo what Thanos did. The aliens promised to request a representative from all six of the Lantern Corps be sent to train Tony.

“Wait. Aren’t we on a time crunch to restore the lives of those who were dusted before the universe adapts to having so many fewer people?” asked Tony.

“We are,” answered Carol. “The Lantern Corps need to know that they can stop searching for a White Lantern among their ranks and that they need to start helping the one that has been chosen by all seven power rings. You need to master all seven rings. We need to act quickly. I hope you weren’t expecting to be able to do this all alone.” Carol adopted a teasing smile, though the expression was understandably strained, given the grave situation they were dealing with.

“Expecting to be able to? Not really. Expecting to be expected to? Yeah, I really was.”

Carol's smile faded into something more akin to a scowl. “Well, that’s too bad. We don’t have time for you to figure the rings out by yourself,” she declared. This time, Tony was the one wearing the strained smile.

Tony’s lessons took place at the Avengers Compound, or rather outside of it. Carol ended up acting as an informal ambassador for Earth by running interference on the aliens who came looking for the White Lantern. The Red Lantern Corps were the first to select a representative to train the White Lantern in the use of their ring. Their representative, Typhor, encountered the Orange Lantern who was drawn to Earth in search of the second Orange Lantern ring.

Typhor told Agent Orange how half of all life in the universe had been reduced to dust, bringing about the Blackest Night from the prophecy. This calmed Agent Orange who decided to help Typhor with his training of the future White Lantern. Every Orange Lantern was known as Agent Orange. It started as a way to avoid aggravating the powerful jealous Lanterns by not bringing up their predecessors.

To the shock of the watching Avengers, even when he was not really expecting the Red Lantern representative to attack him, Tony still fended off the attack with ease. He lashed out in anger and smacked the giant alien around, using only the power of the red ring since Typhor had only a red ring himself. Tony pulled himself back, flying through the air as he withdrew moments before he could lose himself to his rage and kill Typhor by ripping off his ring hand.

The Avengers were not impressed later that night when, over dinner, they saw Tony had seven rings on his hands. “You’re the White Lantern? No way,” said Clint in shock.

“Which emotion do I lack, Clint?” asked Tony, knowing that the Avengers saw him as a textbook narcissist. Thanks Nat.

Clint scoffed instead of answering and glared wordlessly at Tony. Typhor used his ring to bitch slap him. “Show some respect. You may be angry, you may always be angry, but you must also have another emotion mixed in that makes your anger worthless. Your emotions must all be too jumbled to be selected for the honor of wearing a Lantern ring.”

“That is surprisingly wise for a Red,” said an orange fish-looking bipedal alien wearing a Green Lantern ring. “I am Green Lantern Karpa-” Clint snorted at a fish looking dude being called Karpa and was summarily ignored. “-which of you is my student?”

Typhor and Agent Orange immediately pointed at Tony. Typhor introduced himself, “I am called Typhor. Our student has great control over his rage but struggles with letting it out all the way and cannot tap into the special powers that the Red Lantern ring blesses us with.”

Agent Orange added, “He received the Green Lantern ring first. The Orange ring found his finger just before the Indigo Tribe claimed him.”

“And how do you know that, Agent Orange?” asked Karpa, leaning against the nearby wall.

“I spoke with two witnesses while Typhor was getting beat by the rookie.”

Typhor grumbled but did not disagree with Agent Orange's words.

Tony’s training was intense. Within two days of receiving the rings, he had a mentor from all six Lantern Corps and Agent Orange collaborating on his training. The next month was Hell. Every waking moment was spent training until he learned to truly harness his emotions, to give in to them without losing himself entirely the way Bruce lost himself entirely when the Hulk took over. He was lucky to get one sit down meal a day after that first night. The Blue Lantern training was by far the worst. How did Brother Narla expect him to meditate properly with the red ring inducing a constant state of simmering rage in him? The Indigo Tribe woman was just weird, Indigo-Seven was her designation and she was even more preachy than Brother Narla. In the end, it was worth it. He had to spend three days in deep space with Agent Orange learning the secrets of the Orange Lantern ring but upon his return to Earth, his seven rings merged into one amazing White Lantern ring. His mentors all cheered, even Agent Orange was happy to once again be the only Orange Lantern of Avarice ring bearer in the universe.

Once he became the White Lantern, all he could do was wait. Of course, the Avengers just had to make that harder by being entitled little brats. “What are you doing? You got the ring now-”

Tony rolled his eyes at Steve. “I know that you and Thor rejected the rings that chose you because they weren’t the colors you wanted so you really have no room to talk. All six Lantern Corps are scouring the universe to find the smallest remnants of the Infinity Stones. Once they do, then I can get to work. But since I’m now the only member of a new Lantern Corps, I can’t even try to tap into the other Corps’ comms so I have to wait for my new friends to keep me apprised of their people's progress.” Rather than risk losing his mastery over his rage, Tony simply flew away.

That night, he had a long talk with Pepper where he made her a promise. “After I do my duty and fix what Thanos broke, I am done. I will give up being Iron Man and I will lock up the White Lantern ring. I know that me being Iron Man, putting myself in the line of fire, it’s too much for you. And I know that there will always be something else, some new threat or problem to deal with but I also understand that Iron Man won’t always be the answer and if I use the White Lantern ring too much then I will never be able to retire from being the sole member of the White Lantern Corps. We’re living in the prophesied Blackest Night and as the White Lantern, it is my duty to end the Blackest Night and bring about Brightest Day. I will do that and then I will be done, I will retire so that we can have a life together.”

It was everything Pepper had wanted from him but she recognized that it wasn’t fair to ask him to give up so much of himself. “Maybe you don’t need to totally give it all up. I don’t know how losing the White Lantern of Life will bring the world into the Brightest Day but you should definitely try not to be consumed by White Lantern work.”

“Alright. I’ll try that.”

A spark of inspiration the next day led Tony to the New York Sanctum with Green Lantern Karpa at his back. Karpa briefed the Master of the New York Sanctum on the Blackest Night prophecy and Tony shared his belief that some small part of the Time Stone might remain wherever the Masters of the Mystic Arts kept the Eye of Agamotto. Even if it was only residue, it could help those searching for the smallest remnants of the Infinity Stones. The Master of the New York Sanctum asked, “What did Strange say?”

“He looked at over 14 million futures and claimed he only saw one in which we won. I am trying to steal Thanos’ victory back, to end this Blackest Night.”

The Master of the New York Sanctum agreed to support Tony’s crazy plan and sent him through a portal to Kamar-Taj where Wong, who was serving as the Sorcerer Supreme, led them to the place where they had stored the Eye of Agamotto for centuries. Tony experimentally channeled the power of the six Lantern Corps, one at a time, to scan the space. He intended to try to pass on the results of the scans to each Lantern Corps in an attempt to see if he could communicate with the Corps using his new ring. Instead, he found something incredible. “There seems to be more than residue here. Let’s see if I can make something out of the particles.”

Under the watchful eyes of Master Wong and Green Lantern Karpa, Tony used his unique White Lantern ring to combine the Time Stone particles into a Time Stone shard. A feat that was more exciting than it looked as the Time Stone particles pulled Tony into the timestream, showing him flashes of what has been, what is, what could be, and what could have been. Only through strong force of will was Tony able to avoid drowning in the timestream. Once he had the shard, he focused on it and used its power to make it so that all of the Time Stone particles made their way to the same place after Thanos reduced the Time Stone to mere particles. “I can’t restore the Eye of Agamotto, not yet,” said Tony as he turned around to face Wong and Karpa, holding out the restored Time Stone. “But it looks like I might be able to restore Strange and the Eye and everything else that Thanos dusted, someday soon.” Tony smiled at the expression of hope and relief that was clear to see on the normally stoic men's faces.

With the Time Stone, they only needed to find one cluster of Infinity Stone particles to restore that Infinity Stone, as opposed to tracking down all of the nearly undetectable particles and trying to gather them in one place for the restoration. As this knowledge spread, plans were made for what exactly would be done after the Infinity Stones were restored. Some of the remaining members of the United Nations took part in these strategy meetings. Surprisingly, the solution to the practical problem of simply restoring those who were dusted where they were dusted came from Earth. They suggested selecting an uninhabited but habitable planet to perform the restorations on, then use the Space Stone or hard light constructs made by members of the various Lantern Corps to take the resurrected people to newly established immigration centers. Earth would have one on each continent to process people back into their home countries and arrange transport back to their homelands. Since some humans turned to dust while driving cars on busy streets, the surviving humans understood as well as anyone the dangers of restoring those dusted to life right where they had been when they had turned to dust. Their solution to this problem was near perfect, especially when they specified that they would repurpose existing buildings as immigration centers to expedite the process for implementing their plan. The Lantern Corps were consulted and most agreed to facilitate the necessary transportation. Agent Orange tutored White Lantern Tony Stark on what he would need to know to restore those who were dusted to life in the most efficient manner possible. He really just needed to know what aliens lived where so that he could restore people to life in an orderly fashion and everyone could be taken home as soon as possible. Titan was chosen as the uninhabited world for the restoration.

Tony braced himself before each restoration of an Infinity Stone. Just like the Time Stone particles had, the other Infinity Stones all tried to overwhelm him. With his compassion and greed enhanced by his ring, and assuming that all six Infinity Stones had some sort of consciousness, he understood that the Infinity Stones did not want to be restored to their more usable form because they did not want to give their power to another being. How ironic is it then that they filled him with their power to try to stop him from restoring them to their more usable form. A lesser man would be consumed or destroyed or driven mad or otherwise rendered incapable of completing the task of merging the particles and restoring the Infinity Stones.

Time showed him many different timelines: different pasts, presents, and futures. Space showed him the vastness of the universe, the best and worst that the endless galaxies had to offer. Power made him feel all powerful like a God and also like he was being obliterated by the universe itself, the influence of the orange light of avarice pushed him to accept his godhood but he refused and focused on his mission. Mind tried to appeal to his genius, promising him ultimate knowledge if he just gave up his mission but he could not do that. Reality did not bother trying to trick him, it simply tried to consume him as though he were nothing more than a convenient host for the Aether but with the power of the entire emotional spectrum at his command, he was too strong for the Aether to consume. Soul was by far the greatest challenge because Soul promised paradise while threatening to consume him, to bring his soul into a perfect world made just for him. Perfection is overrated, in Tony’s opinion. With the six stones restored and, in a manner of speaking, mastered, Tony was ready to take the next step.

Returning to Titan, the planet where he lost to Thanos, was hard but he understood why Titan was chosen. The world’s population was decimated long before Thanos ever laid eyes on a single Infinity Stone. It was a habitable lifeless rock that would not be subject to the restoration of half of all life in the universe. The Green Lanterns told him what species to restore in what order, ensuring that he did not restore the inhabitants of a world that was not yet ready to welcome them home. With the aid of the Time Stone, Tony was able to create a small bubble in the timestream on Titan. He warned the various Lanterns about his plan. “I am going to use the Time Stone to alter the flow of time for us here on Titan. There is just too much work to be done on this restoration for me to finish my task within a human lifetime. I will give us more time to do what needs to be done here on Titan.” Tony assumed that the Infinity Stones had some sort of consciousness and so he silently shared his goals and let the Infinity Stones guide him towards his goals. He didn’t know whether he should slow the flow of time on Titan or create a few time loops or try something else to give himself time to do what needed to be done to end the Blackest Night but he trusted the Time Stone to guide him down the right path.

On Earth, months passed. On Titan, time lost all meaning and not just because the Time Stone was being used to manipulate the flow of time. Thanos’ ultimate defeat was nowhere near as quick as his death but it was just as complete. When Tony returned to Earth with the North Americans who were restored to life, he received a hero's welcome. The knowledge that those who were turned to dust could be restored to life had been enough to keep hope alive, to keep the people on millions of planets from saying “They’re gone and not coming back, we need to move on,” and Earth was no exception. Many were surprised that Tony came back with his White Lantern ring and the North Americans that had been restored to life but no Infinity Stones. The presence of the Time Stone inside of the Eye of Agamotto was kept secret from the general public, leading to everyone believing that Tony had gotten rid of all six stones before returning to Earth.

As promised, upon completing the task that he became the White Lantern to perform, Tony retired from superhero life to build a life with Pepper. He became an advocate for the Enhanced, working to ensure that nobody who happened to have superpowers could be compelled to use them and to create a workable framework to ensure fair treatment for those who chose to use their superpowers, either in a professional capacity like an engineer who could manipulate metal with his mind or in a volunteer capacity like as a superhero. The Sokovia Accords were just the beginning, Tony would often be quoted saying.

Chapter Text

When Loki hoisted him up by the neck, Tony didn’t think, he just acted. He grabbed hold of Loki’s sleeve, hastily charged it, and let go just as he was thrown to the floor by the resulting explosion. “Gah,” he groaned. Slowly, he pushed himself up to his feet. Stumbling to pick up the spear, he said, “JARVIS, keep an eye on our guest.” Then he went up to the roof to see if he could somehow stop the portal.

Upon seeing him, Selvig started to say something, “Stark-” but did not get beyond saying his name before Tony played a hunch and touched the tip of the spear to Erik's chest.

“Selvig, are you with me? I mean, not in a mind control sense-”

Selvig let out a brief burst of hysterical laughter. “Touch the spear to the Tesseract, they cancel out.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “I need a drink.”

“Hold on a second.” Erik looked at him expectantly, waiting to hear what else he might need from the physicist, and Tony explained, “Loki is out cold in my penthouse. I just don’t want you going down there for a drink.” He gripped the spear in both hands and pushed it through the energy field around the cube, following Erik’s directions. Above their heads, the portal closed moments after it had opened. “There, that’s done,” said Tony. It was all rather anticlimactic. If not for Tony’s mutation, New York would have been in serious trouble. “Now, what do we do with the spear and the cube?”

“Sir, if I may make a suggestion?” inquired JARVIS.

Tony glanced over at Erik and then said, “Yeah, J. What’s your suggestion?”

“You should lock them in a secure laboratory,” answered JARVIS.

“Will do,” replied Tony. He turned to Erik and asked, “How did you get the cube in the machine without touching it?” Instead of answering verbally, Erik demonstrated his technique by removing the cube and returning it to its case. “Thank you.” They rode an elevator down to a lab that was specially designed to handle highly volatile experiments and secured the alien artifacts inside for the time being then rode back up to the penthouse.

“How did you-”

Tony cut Dr Selvig off. “I’ll explain after SHIELD picks up its lost prisoner and leaves.” He used a computer console to contact the Professor and update him on the situation as well as let SHIELD know that Loki was down along with the portal.

Tony demonstrated his skills as a businessman by making himself seem open and helpful without actually helping the agents sent to recover Loki and claim the two alien artifacts much at all. He let them take the machine on the roof after Selvig watched them disconnect it from the building's Arc Reactor but that was as far as he was willing to budge. Watching him deal with Thor was even more amusing to Dr Selvig, at least at first. Tony had JARVIS play back Thor's own words to use them against him, including a clip that revealed his concern for Jane that SHIELD had foreseen, and Tony kept circling back to how the “higher form of war” Thor claimed that SHIELD's “work with the Tesseract” told the universe they were prepared for put Jane in grave danger. Thor eventually relented on his attempts to claim both the Tesseract and the scepter. Then Tony began negotiating with him. In the end, he convinced Thor that somebody else gave the spear to Loki, and that somebody else likely sent Loki to Earth, Loki most likely did not come to Earth of his own volition nor was he responsible for the Chitauri that Thor believes were meant to “win him the Earth”. He also agreed to allow Thor to take the spear to Asgard to get the mind control device far away from humans who might try to use it on other humans as well as the victims Loki used it on. Thor gave Tony plenty of information on the Tesseract on the understanding that Tony would use it to send Thor and Loki home, eventually. Without the Tesseract, the Bifrost would still take a long time to repair and Thor did care deeply for Jane and Erik suggested that Darcy could help Thor prepare his arguments to defend Loki at his trial in Asgard. The scepter would be used in the last test for the Tesseract harnessing device Tony and Erik would build before they used it to send the two Asgardian princes back to their home planet.

Once Thor left the penthouse, Tony held up a finger to silence any questions from Selvig and loudly declared, “If you don’t show yourself now, I’ll do to you what I did to Loki.”

Natasha Romanoff slunk out of the shadows near the door to the stairwell and tried to manipulate Tony but got nowhere. “JARVIS, how much of my conversation with Thor did Double Agent hear?”

“All of it, she arrived mere moments after you began conversing.”

Tony proceeded to use the same playback trick to turn Natasha's own words against her, ignoring her jabs at his ego without even acknowledging them. He eventually tired of her stubborn refusal to see reason and, with a smirk, had a remotely piloted Iron Man armor fly her to the nearest police station. “JARVIS initiated the Clean House Protocol and Starbright Protocol. I am washing my hands of the eagle scouts. Oh and see if you can reclaim the shield my dad loaned to his good friend Steve Rogers that they stole when they were letting the Capsicle thaw out.”

“Anything else, Sir?”

“Blackout the room. I owe Dr Selvig an explanation. Doctor, what's your poison? I got a little bit of everything,” Tony said as he moved to stand behind the bar.

Selvig found a seat at the bar and asked for a beer. Tony served the drink and Selvig asked, “How did you subdue Loki all by yourself?”

Tony pulled a pack of playing cards out of a drawer in the bar and drew a random card. Holding the card up between two fingers, he waited until Erik focused his attention solely on the card before charging the laminated rectangle and tossing it in the air to explode harmlessly. “I can do that to anything. I did it to Loki’s sleeve,” Tony said in answer to Selvig's question. “The bigger the object, the bigger the boom.”

“Fascinating. What are you exactly?”

Tony smiled. “That is both simple and complicated. The simple answer is a mutant.”

“And the complicated answer?”

“Let’s take our drinks to the couch and I’ll tell you the true origins of Tony Stark.” Erik followed Tony to the couch and sat down with him. “There’s a lot I don’t know. My mother explained things to me once after Howard went off on a drunken tangent about how I was not his son and after that night, we never spoke of it again because she refused to acknowledge the truth she had told me. Here's what I do know, my mother had trouble conceiving and when she did get pregnant, she always eventually miscarried: Always. Howard was stubborn and sought a solution, with no regard for the law in his quest to give his wife the child she so desperately desired. Her last miscarriage occurred late enough in the pregnancy to make my alleged birth plausible. It-” Tony stopped speaking and stared into his drink for a while. “The last miscarriage was bad and afterwards, doctors said if she got pregnant again, not only would she lose the baby again but she would also die. She wasn't a young woman anymore and her many attempts to have a baby wreaked Hell on her body. For some reason I have never truly understood, Howard and Maria Stark ended up in a hospital in New Orleans when I was born, like I was literally born while they were there. They were close enough to hear my birth parents-” Tony stopped, sighed, sat back and scrubbed a hand over his face. “The one and only time my mother cursed in my presence was when she spoke of my birth parents rejecting me. I was born with a visible mutation, my eyes were red on black. I think that means I had red irises and black sclera but I don’t know for sure. My birth parents took one look at that and vehemently rejected me, calling me all sorts of nasty things while screaming at the hospital staff to discharge my birth mother so they could get away from me. Maria didn’t care about my eyes and neither did Howard, not really. He only had them fixed to protect me from people like my birth parents and to try to enhance my natural resemblance to him and Maria but I’m getting ahead of myself. Maria decided that it was unacceptable for me to be treated so atrociously as a newborn. The hospital staff only told my birth parents to quiet down for the sake of the other infants they were waking up with their screaming and nobody was doing anything for me, the staff were ignoring the open door to the room where newborn me was screaming his lungs out, crying for attention. Apparently, I quieted right down as soon as Maria picked me up. Howard saw Maria had already fallen in love and threw money at the problem. Instead of having my birth parents sign me over to the Starks, he made all records of my New Orleans birth disappear to ensure my birth parents couldn’t try to sue for more money later or go to the press to cash in on creating a scandal for the Starks. My birthday actually changed along with my place of birth but my mother never told me what my actual date of birth was. I know they delayed in having my new birth certificate made until Howard could have my eyes fixed or at least partially fixed. I don’t know how he got my eyes to change colors. I only know mom said something about it making me really sick and implied that people don’t change their eye color all the time because it was done through less than legal means. Since eye color is genetic, I suspect that whoever or whatever Howard used to fix my eyes also tweaked my DNA to ensure I would look like the Starks and not develop some condition or trait that would give away the adoption. I also suspect my parents’ trouble having biological children may have been partially caused by Howard being involved in the Manhattan Project and messing around with other dangerous things before proper safety lab protocols were invented. Who really knows?”

“Wow, that is- wow. So you don’t know anything about your birth parents?” Erik mused aloud.

“My mother was Catholic so I can’t be sure if she was, uh, ah Hell, I can’t think of the word right now. According to her, the nasty things they called me were along the lines of demon or Devil,” answered Tony. He took a swig of his beer. “And why would I want to know anything about people who decided they hated me the same day I was born? I couldn’t control my eye color. I couldn’t control anything. I was a-” He stopped himself and took a deep breath. “I was a newborn, I was their newborn, and they hated me because my eyes weren’t the right color. They threw a tantrum, screaming and hollering in the middle of a maternity ward, trying to make sure everyone would hate me too. There are enough people who hate me for being Tony Stark, why would I go looking for more haters?”

“I suppose that's a good point but why are you telling me all of this? It seems like a big secret to share with someone you just met.”

“Big secrets build trust,” Tony remarked, setting his beer aside. “When my powers developed, at first, Howard responded pretty well. He was great actually. He stayed sober for a while and helped me start to figure them out but then he got busy and my powers continued being insanely destructive and he started drinking again and things went downhill fast. Then mom met this guy, er, well, maybe met is a strong word. I don’t actually know how they first got in contact because I don’t care but she got dad to sober up again by telling him about this guy she, uh, met. He came over, talked to my parents, then Howard had Jarvis bring me into the room. At that point, my nerves were so frayed from struggling to control my powers that I could barely touch anything without it going boom so if I wanted to leave my room, even to go to the bathroom, I had to get someone else to open the door.”

“Yeesh,” said Erik, looking disturbed by the thought of needing help not to blow up a bathroom.

“Yeah. Mom and dad let me talk to this guy, mom kept dad from interrupting with his own questions, and then the guy asked me to demonstrate my powers. Dad was a bit restless and mom was anxious so they both left the room to find something for me to blow up with minimal potential for collateral damage. Dad gave me an old pack of playing cards and I remember that I smiled because it was the exact same thing we were using before he got busy and started drinking again.” Tony stopped, replayed everything he had said about his father in his mind, then rubbed a hand over his face. “By the way, Howard had mental health issues and he never would have touched therapy with a ten foot pole. I'm not going to guess what his issues were but alcohol was a coping mechanism. He was never truly an alcoholic and while he was a loud drunk, he never got physical. I call him Howard sometimes because of my own issues, which have more to do with how people see me as his son instead of seeing me than they have to do with my father himself. Alright?”

“Alright. Your father gave you a pack of playing cards you two had experimented with,” Erik prompted him.

“Right. I rubbed my finger and thumb together instead of taking the box because I didn’t want to blow up the whole thing and dad gave me a card. I blew it up just like I did when I showed you my power but, uh, much faster of course. The guy then offered me a place in his school and dad pointed out that having me there could draw undue attention for a school that catered to mutants. They quickly figured out a way to mislead people into thinking that I was attending a military boarding school while I went to the mutant boarding school and arranged for me to be put into an accelerated program for subjects like science to keep me from potentially getting up to mischief out of boredom. I actually took two exams sometimes, one for Philips Academy and one for the school I actually attended, but it all worked out.”

“Alright and what does any of this have to do with me? I mean I presume-”

“The guy who visited my home after my powers got out of control is named Charles Xavier. He’s a telepath. I would like to take you to meet him so that he can check you over for any lingering damage to your mind and to make sure my gambit with the scepter paid off.”

“Alright. I understand now why you felt the need to tell me your story to convince me to trust you on this,” said Erik. One beer was hardly enough to get the Swede even buzzed. “You have to take me to him because he’s got a boarding school to take care of, I presume.”

“That and he’s in a wheelchair.” Erik was visibly surprised. Tony chuckled and explained, “He had to visit my family in person because of the administrative complications involved in taking on the Stark Heir as a student without exposing the school to a ton of press and scrutiny. Plus, you know, he had to convince my parents that his school was not some kind of scam. The way the school recruits depends on the prospective student's circumstances. Some students run away after their powers develop and they find their way to the schools thanks to word of mouth, which is a pretty safe way for a mutant school to advertise.”

“I see,” said Erik. “Do you have the school's number? I’d rather set up a meeting than drop in on Professor Xavier unannounced.”

“Uh, sure. I can- actually, the easiest way to do this would be through JARVIS or a computer. I attended the school under an alias to prevent my classmates from running to the tabloids and cashing in so calling the school as Tony Stark-”

“Might not be the best idea. If it's all the same to you, I would prefer to talk on the computer instead of talking over your PA system.”

“That’s fine,” answered Tony. “JARVIS, lift the blackout, at least enough for the call.” He quickly arranged and initiated the video call then left the room. He had JARVIS help him locate and contact Bruce Banner to reiterate his invitation to join him at the tower and explain that he had a plan for Ross. People like Ross were a threat to everyone who was not a normal human and a lot of normal humans as well. He had to be taken down before he set his sights on mutantkind, Tony thought to himself. Bruce agreed to come to the tower and Tony had JARVIS keep an eye on his new friend’s journey to ensure he could rescue him if he ran into trouble.

Erik’s talk with Professor Xavier was brief but it went well and plans were made for Erik to go to the school the next day. Charles strongly encouraged him to stay with Tony until then just to be safe. After Tony returned from making a few calls of his own and giving Erik his privacy, Erik asked him, “What's your mutant name and what was your alias?”

“My mutant name is Gambit. My alias in school was Edward Collins. My mother was Maria Collins Carbonell Stark and Edward is my middle name and I had to use the full thing because Eddie and Tony are a little too close or so I was told. I often went by Gambit because I didn’t like being called Edward.”

A few hours later, Bruce arrived at the tower unscathed. He was given the same background information as Erik before being asked if he would like to join them in visiting the mutant school the next day. “If anyone can help you with Big Green, it’s a telepath with decades of experience helping hormonal teenagers gain control over their very scary superpowers that came out of nowhere. What do you say?”

“I guess it’s worth a shot… What are your plans for Ross?”

“I’m going to turn the public against him by sharing his greatest hits with a few reporters I know love to bring big men down low. The people who have been protecting him will undoubtedly cut him loose, sacrificing him to save their own skin. While the media is dealing with him, I hope you will be at the school getting to understand the big guy better. Oh and, of course, I will have JARVIS monitor both Ross and the reporters in case Ross's protector contacts or makes a move against either of them.”

“Of course. That sounds like a plan,” said Bruce, unwilling to get his hopes up.

The next day, Tony drove his two new friends to the Xavier School. At the door, they were greeted by a mildly suspicious redhead. “May I help you?”

“Aw, don’t tell me you don’t recognize me, red bird,” Tony cried in an over dramatic manner as he pulled out his deck of playing cards he had used for his two demonstrations the previous day. Grinning as he noticed a flicker of recognition in Jean's eyes, he showed his new friends a new trick by pulling out the almost complete deck and making them almost float in the air in an ostentatious display of shuffling wizardry, as Tony himself thought of it.

“Edward?” Jean gasped.

“I am Anthony Edward Stark, son of Maria Collins Carbonell Stark. I am also known as Iron Man or-”

“Gambit,” Jean finished for him with a smile before pulling him into a hug. “Come on in,” she said as she led them into the mansion.

“Quit mothering me, Jean. Erik actually made an appointment with the Professor and Bruce agreed to meet with him about possibly staying for night school if you know what I mean.”

Jean rolled her eyes, stepped aside and let them continue on their way but not before wrangling a promise from Tony to spend time with herself and two of his other former classmates who had joined the school's staff.

“She seems nice,” said Bruce awkwardly as he and Erik followed Tony through the halls.

“Dr Jean Grey is telekinetic and telepathic. It was a close thing for a while but ultimately her telekinesis ended up being a lot stronger than her telepathy. She was one of my friends when I was here. She and my other friends thought I’d stay on as a science teacher or something. This place was a haven for us, it is a haven for a lot of mutants, and they could never imagine leaving it for good. I knew staying here forever just wasn’t in the cards but I just stopped correcting them when they included me in their plans after a while,” Tony explained. He stopped in front of a door and waited a moment before opening it and leading them inside. “Dr Bruce Banner agreed to think about staying here for help with the Hulk and you know why Dr Selvig is here. Oh, and I have a little bit of news to share. I got JARVIS cleaning out the eagle infestation in Stark Industries. We can easily divert the funds SHIELD is stealing to the school and maybe a few other mutant, uh, outreach facilities. If you’re interested, I’ll keep you updated and once we know how much money SHIELD has been making disappear, we can plan accordingly.”

“An excellent idea that we shall discuss further later. In the meantime, I would like you to take Dr Banner on a tour while I examine Dr Selvig's mind… if that is agreeable to our two guests.”

“That’s fine,” said Dr Selvig.

“That sounds… fine,” replied Bruce.

Tony agreed and led Bruce out of the office. He showed his fellow scientist the school facilities and a few of the common areas before leading him to the hidden elevator to show him the sublevels. “Most of the special mutant stuff is underground. Now I must warn you, you might see some of the school's secrets down here. You can ask me about anything but keep in mind, I attended school here before I went to MIT when I was fifteen and a lot can change in twenty years or so.”

“I understand.”

When Bruce realized that they were in the X-Men's base, he felt much better about living at the school. The X-Men could probably handle the Other Guy better than anyone else, especially if their telepathic leader was as powerful and skilled as Tony made him out to be. “So you’ll stay here to learn about your powers and maybe give teaching physics a try?” asked Tony as they almost collided with another of his former classmates. “Hey, Scott. Still seeing red?”

“Edward? Yeah. I can’t believe I never made the connection.”

“Your telepathic girlfriend had a similar reaction and please, you guys should probably start calling me Tony unless you’re talking about our school days. The alias was meant to protect the school from a swarm of tabloid reporters hunting the next Stark scoop. As far as the world needs to know, I attended Phillips Academy before I went to MIT.”

“Right. Gotcha. I’ll see you later?”

“Yup. Jean already made me promise to hang out before I leave.”

“See you then,” said Scott as he walked away.

“Why did you call Jean ‘red bird’ earlier?”

“Her codename is Phoenix and she has red hair.” Tony shrugged and led Bruce back to the elevator.

Before he left, he laid down on a couch in the teacher's lounge and allowed Jean to move the shrapnel in his chest closer to the electromagnet to make the eventual removal of both easier. Tony was just waiting for science to find a way to fill in the hole in his chest. He had a very mild healing factor that prevented him from sustaining brain damage when he was thrown back by the force of explosions, both accidental ones he caused in his regular experiments and intentional ones he had caused while experimenting with his powers. Once the hole in his chest could be filled in, he would get the operation to remove the reactor and the shrapnel. His healing factor would take care of the rest, given time. He planned to visit the school after his eventual operation and ask Jean to help him figure out how long he had to wait for his mutation to heal as much as it could before he could start exercising normally again. But that was all in the future, he thought as he left the Xavier School campus with Erik Selvig in the passenger seat and Bruce Banner somewhere in the school behind him.

Chapter Text

Tony absolutely hated time zones and he was not a fan of the international date line, naturally, but he loathed daylight savings time. Really the time on a clock should be the time on a clock. Why couldn’t the world follow China's example and just be one time zone? What was really wrong with Beijing Time? One time to unite them all, it was great.

Instead, they had 24 time zones and Tony got chewed out because he didn’t always remember to reset his watch to local time when his private jet came in for a landing. It’s not his fault that even clocks liked to copy him. Really, it was just so unfair! If he was going to have a superpower, why couldn’t it be something cool?