"What exactly are you and what did you do?"
Bucky pinned the creature with a cold look that he had perfected during his time as the Winter Soldier.
It was no secret that he and Stark had tried to at least be civil with each other recently ("We are going to be working with each other. I need to know you have my back out there.")
Over the last three months that Bucky had been psychologically cleared to work with the Avengers, Stark agreed to be civil towards both Bucky and the Winter Soldier who was now a controllable HYDRA free side of Bucky thanks to Stark's guidance and the BARF technology. They both saw during that time that Stark was a dedicated, caring, and a quite funny man beneath the mask full of snark. Sadly, Bucky noted that Stark ("I'm fixing your arm. Call me Tony") still seemed a bit frigid around him. But that was to be expected, after all that had happened. The Winter Soldier had observed that Bucky and Stark -Tony - had highly compatible personalities and that they could be friends. But Bucky highly doubted this.
However, he couldn't deny that these three identical Starks reminded him way too much of himself and the Winter Soldier. He was becoming deeply concerned for the "Pincushion" Stark. Pincushion, unlike the other Starks, was pale and covered in scars that swirled around his hands with several darker, jagged ones going down his arms and up his neck, resembling scars from some sort of painful poisoning. Additionally, Pincushion was the only one of the trio carrying not only an arc reactor in his chest but one that looked like it was broken with blunt force, as well as being run through with a large knife. One side had looked like it had almost been yanked out, causing it to be moderately elevated out of his chest.
Bucky had felt sick looking at him.
The Being sighed heavily before moving in front of them all and freezing the three Tonys where they were. Sparkles had the nerve to snort as all the Avengers tensed in a defensive stance as all three versions of the least liked Avenger froze.
Exasperated, the Being leveled them with a flat glare.
"My species are called the Illuminates. You know what we do and so I'm not going to bother wasting my breath explaining."
"The Illuminates?" Thor questioned, narrowing his eyes, suspicious of the Being.
"We exist beyond the nine realms, God of Thunder. In fact we came before all those realms…" The Illuminate trailed off before shaking it's head.
"That is not of importance now. You wished to know what I did."
Everyone nodded lowering their weapons slightly.
"I transported us into Mr Stark's head."
Everyone froze in shock and Thor almost dropped Mjolnir.
"What?!" Peter squeaked.
Peter felt a weird combination of excitement, fear, and guilt at the prospect of being inside his mentor's mind. He really did not want to meet the bloody rage that was Tony on the other side of the room. What the hell had happened to his friend to make part of him turn out like that? And what was with the right corner of the room being filled with swirling dark clouds, sand, water, and was that blood?
Insanely grateful for the huge pellucid sphere which obscured the red raw data swirling in and out of the smoke covering that area, Peter moved forward slightly towards the Illuminate as he continued to explain.
"The three Starks are the Merchant of Death," Wanda stiffened "the Mask or the outside persona Stark, and Tony, or as you so named him, Pincushion," Sparkles the Illuminate sneered at Clint before continuing. "All are real, all are one. Once you see his story, you will not be the same."
Everyone looked either bemused, amused or fearful at its words.
"You will see it from either here, through Mr Stark's eyes or as if you are a ghost where he is. You will be experiencing ghost feelings and ghost pain." Sparkles took great pleasure in the blanching of some of Tony's teammate's faces. Good. "I hope you are prepared." It murmured darkly before disappearing.
The Tonys unfroze and the world swirled around the Avengers once more.