The Means by Which All is Revealed

Chapter 1:

Tony Stark, though he is a verifiable genius, could be a real idiot when it came to his health. Most often his transgressions would include not eating or sleeping and the occasional antagonizing of a certain deadly female assassin. For the former, the team, who had all moved into the newly named Avengers Tower post Battle of Manhattan, would take turns dragging Tony out of the lab (the later was a lost cause). Since half the time Tony would end up being dragged kicking and screaming *cough*Natasha&Clint*cough*, Bruce eventually became the go to guy for coaxing Tony out of his sanctuary of science for basic human needs. This was one of those times. Hey, at least he's toilet trained.

"Tony, when was the last time you ate?" Bruce announced as he made as dramatic an entrance as a mild mannered scientist such as himself could, glaring down at his fellow genius, who was currently bent over his suit tinkering with one of the hand repulsors.

"Uhhh…It doesn't matter?" Bruce glared harder, "It couldn't have been more than a couple hours ago"

"Jarvis?"

"Sir has not eaten since this morning"

"See, a couple hours ag–"

"18 hours ago," Jarvis couldn't help but interrupt with as much disapproval as an AI could express.

"Oh…wow" Tony trailed off, suddenly sheepish. "Time flies when you're saving the world one super special awesome suit at a time"

"Tony"

"Oh alright I'll be up in a sec, just let me finish this" Tony indicated a free hand towards a rolling chair, similar to his own, situated along the wall of his lab, "Take a seat, make yourself comfortable"

Rather than accepting Tony's gracious offer, ("Why is there foam on the chair?" "Dummy, fire extinguisher, don't ask") Bruce decided to browse through Tony's work. This had become the norm after Bruce had finally accepted that, no, he would not be kicked out of the tower for any stupid reason his paranoid mind could think up. "Hey what's this?" Bruce asked indicating the neat deck of cards next to one of his many empty coffee cups. Colored in various shades of blue with a picture of an abstract styled face on the back and a little too long for regular playing cards…"Tony, are these tarot cards?" Bruce asked in surprise.

"Hey, no jokes. I was just cleaning some old stuff. Seriously forget about 'em they're just some old toys." Tony protested indignantly.

"It's just I wouldn't have pegged you for the magic fortune telling type given your devotion to all things science."

"Disregarding the fact that Thor and the lovely Miss Foster have collaborated on numerous occasions that magic is merely an advanced form of science, I am not into that kind of stuff. I told you they're just old toys." With that, the conversation tapered off, Tony continued his work in silence, and Bruce resumed his pacing until he was leaning against the wall of his own personal workspace, sequestered in a different corner of the spacious lab.

"So…do you read any fortunes?" Bruce inquired with a casually raised eyebrow, trying to hide his amusement.

"Bruce!" Tony glared at the his fellow Science Bro who was currently in hysterics and replied, "No, I don't." Suddenly Tony's previously annoyed expression was replaced with a more mischievous look; the look of a prankster, "But I do know one trick" Tony casually rolled his chair back over to where Bruce stood only moments before to pick up the deck. Then he rolled right in front of Bruce to offer his little piece of fun. "Go, on take it," he demanded before rolling back to his workspace. "Now shuffle them," he ordered without looking up. Once Bruce began to carefully rearrange the well cared for cards, Tony chimed in, "C'mon you can do better than that. I imagine during you're world tour you picked up some wicked blackjack dealing skills."

"That would be you," Bruce retorted with all the seriousness he could muster because, c'mon, it's Tony; it's already hard enough to be serious with him during a life or death situation.

"Oh yeah… Okay, now pick a card" Tony instructed once he noticed Bruce had completed his task.

"Just pick a card?"

"Yeah, it doesn't have to be from the top it can be from anywhere in the deck and I'll tell you what it is.

"Uh, here," Bruce begins uncertainly, holding a card chosen from the middle of the deck. The card had a blue border, similar to the blue on the front, a light blue and white background with a small sun in the top right, the silhouette of a woman taming lion, and number in roman numerals. "Number…eleven"

"The Strength Arcana, cool, now do it again." Tony orders, shifting paying full attention to Bruce.

"How is this –?"

"Just do it"

Bruce slowly placed the card in the middle of the deck and reshuffled, this time choosing from the top. Strength. "That's just a coincidence…" Again, with faster movements, the same outcome. "Wait how is this…?" And again. The 'XI' is still staring back. "That's impossible…" After trying seven more times, with the same results, Bruce finally asks with suspicion, "What are you doing?"

Tony only grinned, "Neat trick, huh?" Tony hefted himself out of his comfortable chair to join Bruce in examining the card. "That's your card, 'Strength,' not physical strength, mind you, but more of an internal strength like self control. Perfect for you, right?"

"Yeah…very dead on," Bruce trailed off, placing the deck on a nearby table. "So, what's your card?"

Seemingly excited about the question, Tony leaned over towards the table to quickly pluck a card off the top of the deck and brandish it for Bruce to see. "The Fool, number zero, full of endless possibilities, spontaneous, creative, a little mad, and a 'jack of all trades'"

"Proud aren't we?"

"Immensely."

Suddenly, Bruce's expression had changed to one of intense concentration. "Let me see those cards again." Bruce turned the deck over and fanned them out to stare at each individually, "No repeats… hmm… how come this one has the same number as Strength?" Bruce inquired, tilting his head to get a better view of the upside down card.

"Oh, that's the Hunger Arcana, it has the same number cause it's the other side of strength; strength through dominance over others. Not true strength, but the illusion of it." Tony explained hurriedly, as if it pained him to talk about it

"Why does it have it's own card?"

"Because it's like …" Tony trailed off frustrated and finished in a slightly raised voice, "an entirely different person!"

Hoping to ease the tension and end the awkward silence caused by Tony's sudden outburst, Bruce tried to change the subject. "…You're pretty knowledgeable for someone who doesn't believe in 'hocus pocus'"

Thankful for the turn in conversation, Tony replied in his usual arrogant manner. "I can't help it, it's in my nature to be vastly knowledgeable in all subjects"

"Careful there, you're ego is showing" Suddenly a loud crash echoed in the tower, followed by the raised voices of Thor cursing out some metal contraption and Clint, Natasha, and Steve trying to placate him. "I'm going to make sure the kids don't destroy the kitchen" Bruce declared with a weary look.

"My kitchen thanks you Dr. Banner; babysitter extraordinaire," Tony replied in mock sympathy

"Yeah, yeah, just be at the dinner table in ten minutes or you're grounded from the lab"

"Hahaha…you're not serious, right? Bruce?" Tony yelled worriedly, as Bruce's laughter echoed in the lab until the automatic doors sealed shut. "That went well," He declared to the empty room

"At least Doctor Banner failed to notice how some of the cards were always upside down no matter how many times they were turned" Jarvis responded in his vaguely sarcastic sounding British accent.

"Thank goodness for small miracles"

Little Tony Stark was and always would be a genius far ahead of his peers. Even at age 6 he was trying to prove just how good he could be to anyone who would listen.

The only problem was getting someone to listen.

Sure, Jarvis and Maria would congratulate him on his achievements, no matter how small, but the one he would always try to impress at that age, his father Howard Stark, would only give a passing glance, full of indifference, and maybe arrange a small sneak peek for the press.

Tony would try and figure out why his father wouldn't react to anything he did, eventually resorting to asking Jarvis and his mother, who would just say that he was proud, but that just wasn't good enough. The one who finally gave him useful advice was Obie, who suggested that Tony take an interest in his father's work.

So Tony decided to investigate Howard's latest project: an unusual energy source referred to as the Tesseract in all the hidden files (cause Tony is just that good at finding secret info). Of course, Tony had no way of finding the real thing since it was apparently some where in the ocean with Captain America, but he could still examine the fragments recovered from Hydra weapons in his father's private lab.

Breaking into the secluded basement lab was a cinch, since Howard was on one of his Captain America expeditions in the arctic that weekend. The inside of the lab was cluttered; papers on every surface, even the floor, and many pieces of potentially dangerous equipment lined the walls, but Tony's goal was behind a glass window inside an observation room. Being only 6, the window was a little too high for him, but he could still see the unnatural blue light the small fragment emitted. If only he could get a little closer…but Tony was in luck since his father had accidentally left the door unlocked, allowing the young genius to enter undeterred and pick up the fragment (with safety gloves, of course, he's not stupid). However, once the coarse surface of the gloves gripped the shard, it began to glow. Brighter, and brighter until it reached blinding proportions and Tony lost consciousness.

Tony later awoke in his room, the shard nowhere in sight, to find his world tinted green and bright yellow eyes staring back at him.

A/N: So, this is my Avenger/Persona Crossover that has been nagging at me for so long that it spurred my entrance into the world of fanfiction. Fueled by a love for the Avengers and my recent juggling between P3P and P4G on my shiny new PSVita (which I actually got after I preordered and received P4G to get the fancy vita skin bonus) and this is what you get. BTW I already know the basic stories of both games since I played both Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 for the PS2 roughly two years ago, so I've experienced a lot of the series already (still working on the other games in the Shin Megami Tensei series, but my older sis has first dibs on those since I kinda dominated the persona series). A word of warning, I'm not planning on making up some murder mystery for Tony like Persona 4, but I'm going to focus on his social links, his shadow, and some other surprises for later. I've already got the social links mostly assigned except for Steve, who I'm kinda on the fence about, so I will ask the readers! For Steve I was considering either Star (hope, altruism, optimism) or Hermit (kind of isolated since he's the 'man out of time' and focus on his assimilation to modern times). Input is well appreciated, so review! This is my first time writing fanfiction, so I hope there aren't too many mistakes.

P.S. Props to anyone who recognizes the title