This was meant to be a one-shot. Then I somehow wrote a good 15k words (40 pages) in the course of a week, so I split it up into three chapters. I've never written so fast in my life. The rest of the story will be posted throughout this week.
The original prompt and bingo squares this fills are spoilers for the fic and will be revealed in the last chapter. For the purposes of this AU, Thanos has not started his rock collection yet.
Stephen found him in Sokovia.
It wasn't challenging to find him, once he had the tools to do so; despite their differences, they thought very similarly. That similarity painted a clear path to his current hideaway, though the speed at which he discovered him boggled the others (so few others).
"Stephen," said Wong after a pregnant pause. "You must realize that if you pursue him, you pursue him alone. We do not have the numbers or the strength to challenge him, and we have other duties to this world that we must remain alive for."
He pursed his lips together, then nodded once sharply. "No, I— I would not ask that of you. Not after all you've done for me. But it seems fitting that I am here to challenge him."
Wong studied him. "Do you think you can beat him?"
He owed him the truth. "I don't know."
Stephen staggered out of the Sanctum, dust all over his robes and cobwebs in his hair. He coughed and looked at the building in growing horror.
It was in complete shambles. Several holes punctured the windows and the facade was crumbling. Its concealment spells still seemed to be at work for absolutely no one paid it any attention— but for the Cauldron of the Cosmos to have caused such damage was unfathomable! At least it seemed to only damage the building itself and no one outside. And he was relatively unharmed, even if he was filthy (and where had all this dust come from? Honestly, he thought he kept a better job at keeping the place clean).
A couple people on the street gave him odd looks. He ignored them as he considered the problem before him.
Well, he would do his best to repair the damage before any of the other masters showed up. Stephen was not entirely sure if the Cauldron's little fit (seriously, what the hell was that?) shook the proverbial mystical webs about the world enough to alert them immediately, but if not, he'd do his best to clean things up inside before someone came visiting. He'd work on repairing the building's facade later.
With that tedious task in mind, Stephen sighed and crossed the street to go back inside. He was on the steps of the Sanctum when a bright red streak flew across the sky.
He quickly stepped up to the door and, now fully within the concealing shields of the Sanctum, watched as the red streak circled around and then hovered about thirty feet above the street. Stephen squinted; was that… a metal suit?
Several people took out their phones and began to film the suit, and he heard a couple people whoop and shout, "Yeah, Iron Man!"
The armored man landed in the street to a few cheers. He turned to the crowd across the street and removed his helmet; Stephen saw a crown of brown, wavy hair and little else. "Hey— any of you see anything weird in the last few minutes? Got an unusual energy spike near this spot." The voice sounded oddly familiar, but he couldn't place it.
The answers weren't helpful. "Nothing weirder than usual for this city!" "Can I get a photo with you?" "The Village always has weird things!" "I love you, Tony!"
As Stephen's brow furrowed in confusion, the armored man turned around to look at where the magically concealed Sanctum stood. Even he was not so isolated from the world that he would not recognize the visage of Tony Stark.
He staggered against the door in a mixture of surprise, horror, and confusion. His mind spiraled even as the spell did its magic and Tony Stark eventually flew off.
What the hell was going on?
Sokovia's capital city of Novi Grad had been devastated in some sort of robot attack a few years ago. It was rebuilt about twenty or so miles away, but very few came to the site of all the destruction and death surrounding the torn earth, for the largely unstable ground combined with the memories kept all but the most daring— or most stupid— away from the gaping abyss of what was once a sprawling Eastern European metropolis.
It was a perfect place for a fugitive of the world to rest in his downtime, Stephen supposed. It did mean that there was very little chance of any innocents being pulled into the conflict, for which he was very thankful.
He did not take much with him; a Sling Ring, nonperishable food, plenty of water, basic first aid items, phone, a coat, and a handful of euros made up his supplies.
"Do not use any magic within the borders of Sokovia until you are ready to face him," Wong warned as he gathered the last of his supplies. "He will detect the presence of magic and he will use that to his advantage."
"Noted," Stephen answered. "I remember you saying something of the like, but I did not realize his range was so large. I was planning on portalling into Brno; it's the closest major city to Sokovia's borders. I can take a bus from there to the new capital."
Wong watched as he pulled on the overcoat, more or less covering up his sorcerer's garb. "Stephen." The doctor turned to look at the man— a man he considered a friend. "This is not your fault."
He could not help the dry, humorless laugh that escaped him. "If anyone is at fault, it's most certainly me."
His comment was ignored. "We could continue to use your help here. This plan of yours— it is rash. You're more good to us alive than dead."
Stephen swallowed heavily and looked away. "I have to try. I can't— I can't remain in the shadows any longer, Wong. I have to try." He made to speak further, but his words failed him. Eventually he managed, "Thank you. For everything." With that, he shouldered his small knapsack and made his way to the exit. He did not look back.
The interior of the Sanctum was in complete shambles and likely did not have the information he needed. So he went somewhere that he knew would. A few blocks west later found Stephen at the Hudson Park Branch of the New York City Library.
It was easy to find a computer that had a user session still logged in. Ignoring all the looks his outfit garnered him (he was immune to them at this point), he opened up a new browser, then brought his shaking hands to the keyboard and carefully typed 'Tony Stark' into the search box.
His hand shook more as he eyed the images and clicked on the Wikipedia link.
'Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark (born May 29, 1970), also known by the moniker "Iron Man", is a billionaire industrialist, a founding member of the Avengers, and the former CEO of Stark Industries, a company originally started by his father, Howard Stark.[4][5][6] In 2008 he was named Time magazine's "Person of the Year".[7] In December 2015, he was ranked 7th on the Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People.[8] As of April 2018, he has a net worth of $12.4 billion and is listed by Forbes as the 110th-richest person in the world.[9]'
He took a moment to steady his breathing before reading further.
2008: kidnapping and news-shaking press conferences, one after the other. 2010: Senate hearing, new CEO. 2012: the attack on New York. The Avengers.
Stephen took another shaky breath as he stopped reading and eyed the images accompanying the article. Anyone could edit Wikipedia, but this was entirely too much. Furthermore, the resource links led to The New York Times, Time Magazine, and the official Stark Industries website (and a couple clicks confirmed the stated information).
On top of all that, he'd seen the damn suit not twenty minutes ago.
He leaned back in his chair and placed a hand over his mouth as he stared at the screen. The Cauldron of the Cosmos didn't just trash the Sanctum; it trashed the Sanctum and threw him into an alternate universe.
Shit.
He sat there for a few minutes, considering his next move. The Sanctum, while looking rather worse for wear, was still in full working condition and protecting the world; it was not an immediate concern. What he needed, however, was information; only he knew the differences between this world and his own and he could not waste time bothering the Masters of the Mystic Arts here on information easily obtained from Google.
Speaking of…
Stephen typed in his own name (with accolades, naturally) and quickly found the article about the accident dated February 3, 2016. He skimmed it over, found no information contradicting his own history, and moved on. He spent more time trying to see what happened after, searching through death certificates and small articles dated after 2016.
He found nothing. Assuming his other self wasn't dead (and wasn't that a depressing thought), it was likely that he held a similar position as he had in his own reality. It was strange (hah) to consider that, but together they probably could work something out.
In the meantime, the library was open for another few hours and he might be stuck here for a bit. He had a lot of catching up to do; if Tony Stark was like that, there was no telling what other things might be going on.
So he opened up several news sites and began to read.
Google Maps gave him a reference image to a quiet, dark alley in Brno. After a quick exchange of a few euros to the Czech koruna at one of the many currency exchange stops in the tourist-heavy town, Stephen bought a bus ticket to Novi Grad.
It was a couple hours until his bus left, so he took to wandering around the historical center of the city. He'd never been to the Czech Republic before; even with the ability to travel anywhere in the world in just a few steps, he found himself more often than not enclosed within the Sanctum or Kamar-Taj, working. When he did travel, it was to combat some sort of threat or pick up a stray relic or magical artifact.
He honestly couldn't remember the last time he traveled simply to enjoy himself.
It wasn't very easy to enjoy himself now, either; even as he appreciated the aesthetics around him, a small timer counted down in the back of his mind the hours that may very well be the final ones of his life.
It didn't matter; as he told Wong, he could not remain in the shadows any longer. In his opinion, he had already wasted too much time. But as he was refraining from using magic at this moment, a few more hours were available to waste until he met whatever came to pass.
And so Stephen let his feet stray aimlessly along old cobbled roads and he admired the scenery.
The news was concerning. Half the Avengers being fugitives of the US government was not optimal in any sense of the word. He was used to them being on hand to deal with Earth's more mundane threats (and the occasional alien). Even if they hadn't looked at Tony Stark yet…
But that was his reality. This reality was so different with many changes between their events within the last ten years, and he imagined that the further he looked, the more he would find.
The library, however, was only open for so many hours, and he did eventually have to speak to the sorcerers within this universe. He focused his research efforts on not just Tony Stark and the happenings surrounding the Avengers, but what sort of threats this world had dealt with within the last couple years that could potentially be something he could assist with before getting back home (if assistance was needed).
The last heavily publicised alien invasion matched his own reality's with Thor's troubles in Greenwich in 2013. From there, all the troubles turned to more earthly matters that completely differentiated from his own history: the destruction of Sokovia's capital, the disaster in Lagos, the Accords, the split of the Avengers. After 2016, however, news slowed down to a trickle regarding those issues beyond smaller events and the political pressures that were starting to gain traction.
The only other major piece of news different from his own world was a trend that he dismissed at first. Over the last year several major institutions, public and private, had whatever devices were powering their facilities stolen. Everything from raw uranium in power plants to the rare, small bit of vibranium used to make the Hadron Collider more power efficient had been taken. One of the biggest news stories was a theft at Stark Industries' headquarters in Los Angeles four months ago; one person was killed and several were severely injured when several arc reactors were stolen.
Stephen wasn't entirely sure what an arc reactor was, but he could take a guess as to its purpose without looking further into it.
He would have dismissed the issue as wholly within the Avengers' purview, but within this period three active volcanoes went completely dormant without warning throughout the course of three months. By the time it happened to a third volcano, it was a big news story throughout this reality's world. Such unusual activity was more within his specialty, and the amount of energy within volcanoes followed a troubling thread.
It was time to go back to the Sanctum and see if they could help him and if he, potentially, could aid them.
The bus ride was completely uneventful. Its route had one stop in Zlin before crossing the border into Sokovia, and during the stop nothing untoward happened.
The worst thing about the whole experience was that it was entirely too hot for his overcoat, but he did not want any of his fellow passengers getting too curious about him. As the bus was mostly filled with twenty-somethings adventuring around Europe, Stephen was not willing to tempt fate and draw the attention of one of those twenty-somethings who had nothing better to do than follow a strangely-dressed man into the heart of Sokovia.
So. Mild discomfort it was.
(Perhaps more than 'mild' in the fact that he was in a moving vehicle once more, but the bus had seatbelts and he was potentially going to be dead in a few hours, anyway. That cold truth helped stem the bouts of rising anxiety remarkably well. There were no unfortunate spells of severe nausea that led to vomiting, either, which overall made the bus ride land in the 'positive' column of what had been his life since the accident).
Two hours after first stepping onto the bus in Brno, Stephen walked into a very new bus depot in the new capital of the small country. Unlike every town and village he passed on the way, nearly every building within Novi Grad was a couple years old at the most. It was obvious that large international aid had been poured into the country to help their affected citizens build new lives for themselves.
(A lot of it was from Tony Stark's personal fortune to the point that Stark saw a decrease rather than increase in his net worth at the end of both 2015 and 2016. Despite how long he had been in this specific reality, this Tony Stark still managed to completely boggle Stephen).
Euros were accepted in Sokovia. With the few he had left, he bought himself a bus ticket to one of those tiny villages only the locals knew about. Said tiny village was the closest point of civilization to what had once been the capital.
From the village it was a bit over six miles— or ten kilometers, as all the old maps said— to the edge of what was once Novi Grad. From his research he discovered that while a significant portion of the city had been lifted into the sky (and once upon a time he would have called that absurd, but, well, that was before), about twenty percent of the buildings within city limits were outside of the section of the earth torn away. But due to the damage from falling debris as well as the now-unstable ground, the entire area was condemned and fully evacuated. A few aerial shots he found online showed that the crater had since filled with water from the river that used to run on the outskirts of Novi Grad. Photos taken by urban explorers of what remained of the old city reminded him of the pictures he saw of Chernobyl back in the '90s.
He wasn't exactly looking forward to going there. Granted, unstable ground and creepy, abandoned homes were the least of his worries.
It took Stephen six weeks to find Wong.
To be fair, he wasn't expecting to find him in Sedona, Arizona.
It may have taken a good deal longer to find him, but through sheer luck (fate? Ugh, fate) his tour around the world of slightly-more-mystical-than-usual places landed him that day in the new age resort town. Using photos saved on a cheap cell phone for reference, he discretely portalled about the town to search for signs of anything looking or feeling a bit off.
While many of the more 'magical' places in Sedona were the typical tourist spots with great views, its magical center that fed all these branches was in the earth just below a McDonald's. That, and the fact that McDonald's was one of the only places open late in the night, made the fast food joint his last stop on his journey about the town.
It was about 10 PM locally and Stephen was halfway through his artery-clogging meal when Wong walked in.
They stared at each other.
So that answered that question; Wong clearly knew him (or, well, the other him), but Wong's poker face was set and he could not read the man to save his life. It was rather weird to see him in Western clothing for the first time (though he could tell it was glamour, just like his own current outfit).
Stephen eventually got tired of staring and he instead raised his brows and looked pointedly at the uncomfortable bench across his table, then looked back at Wong. Surely the other sorcerer didn't want to hold a conversation across the restaurant, and judging by that still-present poker face, he clearly had something to say. He knew him well enough for that.
Before he lost his patience and made to approach him instead (it had been six weeks!), Wong finally moved away from the doorway and slowly lowered himself onto the bench across the table, not once moving his eyes away from him as he sat.
His brow furrowed as Wong settled but said nothing immediately. So he held up the container of fries and tried to break this unexpected ice. "Fry?"
"You're not Strange," was his answer.
He set the fries back down and clasped his slightly trembling hands together. "Well, I am," he answered, "but not the one you're familiar with."
Wong's eyes darted down to look at Stephen's hands, then they narrowed imperceptibly as he raised his gaze. "How?"
"Cauldron of the Cosmos. The feeling of a growing potential of a universal threat is something many of us— including you, well, your other you— have felt. I was trying to narrow down the cause when I must have stumbled upon— something. I have no idea. Whatever the case may be, I'm here now."
His colleague (sort of) remained expressionless. "I have felt it here, this potential universal threat. It is an unknown to me, but I have more immediate concerns at this time."
Stephen leaned forward, brow furrowing in concern. "What has happened with the Sanctums? To Kamar-Taj? I went to all three and while they remained at full power, they were completely abandoned— and I could find no way into Kamar-Taj. It seems it has been completely sealed from this physical plane!"
Wong studied him for a wordless moment before seeming to come to a decision. "Come with me," he answered. Stephen didn't need to be asked twice and rose to follow him.
The major highway that ran through Sokovia had several exits that went to various parts of the old Novi Grad. After its destruction, one of major first tasks for both the Sokovian government and the EU was rerouting the road to more easily bring much-needed supplies and aid to the rebuilding country over the next several years.
It was about a mile from the small village bus stop to the point where the new road began and the old highway was closed. A low metal fence with bright signs signaling the road's new curvature made passage by vehicle impossible now. The barrier did nothing, however, to impede foot traffic.
Stephen kept to the high brush and trees several feet from the roadway to keep out of sight of passing vehicles. As he came to the old highway juncture, he listened for a moment to verify that there was no traffic before he sprinted across the highway and jumped over the low barrier. He made it to the weeds and high bushes growing on the side of the old road and slowed again to a walk.
One mile down, five to go. He was in no particular hurry and so kept his pace at a walk as he continued onward. Eventually, the new highway fell out of sight, but he kept his path on the side of the road. He did not feel any sort of watchful presence upon him, but there was no need to make himself wholly obvious.
About thirty minutes later he felt his stomach complain, so he drew out an apple and ate as he walked. His original plan was to eat on one of the bus rides but, well, he was not entirely anticipating the nausea from being in a moving vehicle again. It had been a good three years, at least. And buses weren't cars.
The medical side of his mind reminded him that that was not how traumatic experiences worked and another part of his mind told the first part of his mind to kindly shut up.
He sighed quietly. There was no reason to get riled up, not when he really needed to be at his calmest and his most prepared if he wanted to have any hope of surviving this encounter. With that thought in mind, he drew himself out of his head and instead paid more scrutiny to his surroundings.
Without any care for the last few years, nature was already gaining a strong hold on the old highway. At its edges cracks were beginning to become more plentiful as dandelions and crabgrass broke through the weakest points. He had no idea how long it would take for nature to reclaim the road, but he did not doubt that eventually it would happen.
The trees that surrounded him were largely some sort of pine tree. He couldn't say more than that, though he supposed they were the type that survived the cold winters this part of the world went through. It was fall now, so while winter was still a whiles away, the nights here were beginning to turn rather cold. Above, the sky was mostly clear with only a few white dots of wispy clouds; the late afternoon sun was not visible beyond the mountains that surrounded him, but he knew that by the time he reached the edge of the old Novi Grad, it would be about sunset.
He turned his eyes away from the trees and back to the miles that stretched before him.
According to the MCU, Sokovia is a small country between the Czech Republic and Slovakia. I decided its size and location, and made it about 100 kilometers across and 60 kilometers wide (a bit smaller than Montenegro, for comparison). For a further visual on a map, the borders of my Sokovia are between Valašské Meziříčí, CR; Zlin, CR; Trenčín, Slovakia; Martin, Slovakia; and Žilina, Slovakia. The old Novi Grad I imagine in the more mountainous regions of what is the border between the two real countries. The newly built capital is further west, closer to Zlin.
The fake Wikipedia summary on Tony Stark was taken with information from the MCU Wiki (including his net worth) and his ranking on Forbes was drawn from information provided by the Bloomberg Billionaire Index (though that info is a year ahead).
CERN's Hadron Collider does not have vibranium in it in real life. :P