Born Of The Same Impulse

Summary: Barely five minutes into the past and Tony has already taken care of Ultron, thus prevented Sokovia, thus – hopefully – made sure that the Civil War would never happen. All things considered, he was doing pretty well!

Then he just had to look up his fellow superhero turned time traveller on the internet.

Star Surgeon Involved In Car Crash, Condition Unknown


Chapter 9

"Alright, now close your fist. Slowly. Yeah, like that." Tony looked to the side and adjusted the camera that was attached to DUM-E's arm. "Bit higher, buddy. You aren't much use here if you're recording the table."

"How's this?" Bruce curled his fingers in the way he'd been instructed, moving along the delicate, skeletal metal rods of Tony's invention. It was pulled over his hand like an additional bone structure and served the purpose of either supporting and strengthening the wearer's movement, or to aid during physiotherapy through repetitive, assisted motions.

Tony hummed, narrowing his eyes as the second digit locked for a split second, then jerked along with the others. He'd have to recalibrate its joint. "How does it feel?" he asked, his fingers flying over his keyboard to put down his observations.

"Odd," Bruce said, flexing and curling his fingers a few more times. His brows knit into a frown and his mouth moved soundlessly in the way it always did when Bruce concentrated. "Can you control the setting? You need quite a lot of strength to move it."

Tony hummed. "I'm working on it. I'm not quite done with the voice controls, until then I can only do it remotely."

"It's still impressive. Especially for a first test version." Bruce pulled his hand out of the construction carefully. "When are you going to have your friend test it?"

"Soon, hopefully." He only needed to hammer some sense into Stephen first. He'd proven annoyingly tongue-tied about everything that concerned the non-magical part of his recovery.

Tony didn't even know how his physiotherapy was going – a glance at his watch showed that theoretically, that was where Stephen was currently headed.

"I also wanted to invite Dr. Cho over for a chat," Tony added, saving his notes on the prototype and dismissing the file.

"Dr. Cho?" Bruce's head perked up in interest. "As in Helen Cho? Her work on tissue regeneration and reconstruction is unparalleled." He paused. "Do you think she'll be able to heal Dr. Strange's hands?"

"I don't know," Tony admitted with a small, helpless shrug. "I'm not sure how much her Cradle is able to do about nerve damage. It's not about regrowing tissue, but about reconnecting nerve endings." He nodded towards his invention. "Hence me trying to come up with alternatives."

Tony wasn't going to tell Stephen about his efforts until he could be sure that there was an actual chance for them to succeed. It seemed needlessly cruel to get his hopes up, only to realize that there wasn't anything they could do to help, after all.

"Hey, Vision. You doing alright with those questions?"

Vision looked up from where JARVIS was directly uploading questions into his processor. They didn't need to bother with verbal communication when this was far more efficient.

"We have completed 129 out of 308 questions, Sir," JARVIS said.

Vision paused, then added, "However, I am uncertain why it is necessary for me to answer an extensive personality quiz."

Tony snorted. "Don't call it that. You're making it sound like we hooked you up with some Buzzfeed quizzes."

"Buzzfeed–?"

"Nevermind. It's a pop culture thing."

Vision paused in a way that made Tony suspect he was saving the word in his memory banks to look up on the internet, later. "You have not answered my question."

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. This is our way of testing how your development is going along," Tony said. "It's standard for each of my AIs. I'm making sure there aren't any errors or… misunderstandings stunting your personality from developing." Like, say, a minor bout of genocidal intentions.

"I… see." Vision clearly didn't.

"Alright, look at it like this," Tony threw a glance around his workshop and landed on his most recent version of the Iron Man armor. "I need to test the functionality of each of my inventions, right? So I'm testing things like how smooth the joints of my armor move, how much power the repulsors can channel, how well the automatic weapon control works and so on and so on."

"That's standard procedure for every scientist," Bruce went on. "We make tests, we improve our work, we test again. It's an ongoing process that basically never stops."

"In your case, we don't have any hardware to check through. Hence the questions."

"I understand," Vision said, sounding far more confident about it than before.

"I'd also like to take a look at your code, if you're alright with it. Just in case."

Vision tilted his head to answer. JARVIS interrupted him before he could.

"Sir. It would appear that my sensors in guest suite 14 have failed. I no longer have visuals or audio surveillance of the room."

"Isn't that Strange's room?" Bruce asked.

It was. Tony hesitated, not quite ready to start worrying. Stephen's magic didn't agree with his technology, and it wouldn't be the first time something of Tony's creation stopped working in his presence. Usually Tony took it as a challenge to improve whatever it was Stephen had caused to short-circuit.

It would, however, be the first time since going back to the past. Last time Tony had checked, Stephen hadn't been able to conjure as much as a portal yet.

Besides, Stephen should have left for physiotherapy a while ago.

"I'm gonna check up on him," Tony said, throwing a distracted glance at Bruce. "It's probably nothing. I was having some trouble with that suite before. Kind of forgot about it, I meant to take care of it ages ago."

"Maybe I should come with you," Bruce offered.

"Nah, it's fine. I'll let JARVIS know if I need someone, don't worry about it." Tony waited until he was out of earshot to ask, "Did Stephen go to his appointment?"

"Dr. Strange has not left the tower all morning," JARVIS said. "I have made sure to remind him of the scheduled appointment several times."

Tony frowned. He reached for his wrist automatically – checking for his weaponized watch, even though he knew that one of his armors would be able to reach him within seconds if need be.

The lack of fighting noises made him proceed with caution, rather than burst in with charged repulsors. The door opened for him normally, which had to be a good sign. Whatever caused the minor blackout hadn't managed to put the entire tower on lockdown.

Tony was able to make out a muffled conversation as he got closer. He didn't hear raised voices, so it didn't seem like a fight.

"–not have thought to set foot in the infamous Avengers tower in my lifetime," a soft, feminine sounding voice said. Tony didn't recognize it. "What a curious turn. It does look nicer than your apartment. A lot less," she paused, "confined."

"You could say that," Stephen said, drily. Tony had no trouble to make out his voice. "I'm looking forward to inviting Christine to the place."

The woman's voice took on an amused note. "Her reaction will be interesting, I'm sure."

The conversation sounded pleasant enough for Tony to feel bad about intruding. Then again, even if Stephen knew her, it didn't change the fact that a stranger was in Tony's tower. Uninvited at that, under the dubious circumstances of having fried JARVIS' sensors to be undetected. Tony felt that it more than justified his intent to investigate.

Tony rounded the last corner and paused. A middle-aged lady in monk robes was sitting on his designer couch. A glance at Stephen proved that he was, in fact, talking to her, and that he didn't seem to notice the oddity of the situation.

Was this what the other people at that Sanctum of his wore? It would explain where the woman had come from. And also why his tech wasn't working. It did not, however, explain in the slightest what she was doing here – or rather, what she was doing here without Tony knowing about it.

He cleared his throat to announce his presence. "Um. Hello, I guess."

The woman looked up calmly in a way that made Tony wonder if she'd known about him the second he'd stepped into the room.

Stephen, less so. His head snapped up even as he lowered his hands. A few last, rapidly dimming sparks danced around his fingers, which made Tony assume they'd practiced magic while talking. It made sense, Tony supposed. Who better to help him recover than someone from his old order?

Except Tony hadn't known that Stephen had been in contact with her at all. She couldn't have even known Stephen, seeing as the events that had lead to their first meeting hadn't happened yet. How had Stephen contacted her, much less gained her trust?

"Tony," Stephen said, surprise lingering in his voice. He stole a glance towards the woman and winced. "Right. I'm sorry, I should have warned you. May I introduce the Ancient One – the current Sorceress Supreme." Losing the pompous quality of his tone, he added, "I hadn't expected her to visit quite this soon."

"My apologies," the Ancient One said, a smile around her lips that made Tony feel humored.

"Tony Stark," he said, curtly. "I suppose you're the reason my sensors aren't working?"

"Ah." The Ancient One tilted her head in acknowledgement. "An unfortunate habit, I'm afraid. I cannot allow recordings of myself to be taken. My order operates best in secrecy."

Tony swallowed down the half dozen impolite remarks he had lined up in response in the attempt not to antagonize someone who clearly meant a lot to Stephen. Even so, he'd have words with him once the Ancient One had gone – Tony's paranoia was built on experience, and a stranger being able to enter his tower like it was nothing didn't sit well with him.

"Shouldn't you be at physiotherapy?" he asked instead, going for the least sensitive of the many questions he had.

Or so he thought. He was greeted by silence as Stephen and the Ancient One shared a glance. Tony failed to decipher it before the Ancient One rose gracefully, dusting off non-existent dust from her robes.

"My presence is needed at the Sanctum." She gave Tony one last of her fake-looking, infuriating smiles. She turned to Stephen. "You know how to contact me, should you think of anything else. I will see you again, soon."

A wave of her hand and a red-sparking portal later, Tony and Stephen were alone.

"So," Tony said after a pause. "Physiotherapy?"

Stephen winced. "I... lost track of time."

Tony found that rather hard to believe, seeing as JARVIS could be rather insistent when he wanted to be.

"Besides," Stephen went on before Tony could protest, "we've been working on restoring my abilities. In the long run, it will be far more useful to us."

There were several things about that statement that didn't sit well with Tony. He let them slide, just for now. "What was that last bit about? Something about you remembering anything else?"

"Oh." Stephen blinked. "Uh, yeah. You know, things that I know, things that I've lived through. That we've lived through. I've been trying to tell her as much from the other timeline as I could, but there's a lot. Things keep slipping my mind."

Tony felt his brain short-circuiting.

"I was going to ask you to fill in the blanks eventually," Stephen went on, misinterpreting Tony's silence, "but I think I got most of it. It's how she took care of Kaecilius. And, as a result, Dormammu."

"You told her," Tony said, his brain rebooting and finally finding the words he'd been missing.

"Of course," Stephen said, slowly. "Why, did you want to do it together?"

"You told her," Tony repeated, because he hadn't quite managed to put as much disbelief into the sentence as he wanted the first time.

"Of course I told her. Why shouldn't I have?"

Tony leaped to his feet, the urge to burn off nervous energy tingling in his limbs. "You can't just– You can't– Stephen. How much did you tell her? How much exactly?"

Stephen still hadn't grasped the gravity of the situation, although he seemed at least mildly alarmed at Tony's reaction.

"Everything. About us. About what happened. What will happen, if we can't stop it." His brows knit together in a stubborn, mildly defensive frown. "Her visions had already told her that something was wrong. Our presence went against everything that she's seen. She sought me out, not the other way around."

"And instead of coming up with an excuse, you just told her everything?!"

"Yes," Stephen said, and Tony almost wanted to laugh at the simplicity of it. "Besides, aren't you being a hypocrite? What have you told the Avengers?"

"Nothing about the time travel, for once."

Stephen pinned him with a deep, disbelieving stare. "So nothing. You haven't told them anything?"

"I kind of thought that was something we'd silently agreed on. Weren't you the one who asked to lie about how we met?"

Stephen laughed. It wasn't a happy sound. "Yes. Because I wasn't feeling up to answering questions about my accident, the order, or my currently non-existent powers. I thought it was obvious that my request was meant to be temporary."

"Well, obviously it wasn't. I just," Tony paused, gesturing wildly with his hand as he searched for the right words, "I just don't get how calm you are about this. You act like this isn't a big deal."

"Well, maybe it shouldn't be. At least not the way you make it out to be."

Tony bristled at Stephen's tone. He made it sound like Tony was being irrationally paranoid. "It is a big deal. It's huge. Right now, we're the ones in control. Do you really want to give that up by giving away too much?"

"Control?" Stephen shook his head with narrowed, disbelieving eyes. "What are you talking about, Tony? You can't possibly think we can handle all of this on our own."

"I'm not saying we have to!" Tony pursed his lips, forcing himself to keep his voice calm. "But we should be careful. You can't expect us to make this public knowledge. Do you? Let everybody know what's going to happen, give everybody the chance to meddle with it?"

"Hold on a second," Stephen said, raising one hand. "Is this what you meant when you were complaining about your teammates' nosiness? Them trying to figure out what you've been hiding from them?"

Tony stiffened. "I'm not about to trust just anyone with the fate of the universe."

"Just yourself then? They're your teammates, Tony."

Tony felt the customary bitter spark at the use of that word. 'Team'. "Yeah, just look how well that worked out the first time."

Stephen scoffed. "Are you even listening to yourself? Since when did you start holding grudges?"

Stephen could talk easily. He hadn't been involved in any of the Civil War, hadn't witnessed anything of what had happened between them. Of what had caused them to split up by the time Thanos had come around.

"You don't know what you're talking about," Tony said, because Stephen really, really didn't. He didn't have a clue. "Besides, I'm not the one laying my life in the hands of someone I'd barely known before they died." Maybe it was a low blow, but Tony hadn't yet gotten over a stranger being invited to his tower like his sanctuary meant nothing. This was the place he was supposed to feel safe in.

Stephen's lips thinned as his expression hardened. "What do you suggest I do instead? Push away every single person who could make this a bit easier for me? Like you?"

Tony's frown deepened. "That's not what I said, and you know it."

"Then what?"

He couldn't meet Stephen's accusing glance any longer. He made an effort to calm his nerves, to dial down the accusation in his tone. "Telling them everything, it's... it's risky." How couldn't Stephen see that? How could he stand there, looking at Tony like all of his concerns were pointless? Like his paranoia was only that, rather than based on real, actual risks?

"And keeping them in the dark when Thanos is coming isn't?" Stephen shook his head, frowning. "I don't get why you suddenly changed your mind. You didn't think people could be trusted with great power. You wanted them to bow to whatever government would be holding their leash. But now that you have all the knowledge, now it's fine to keep everything close to your chest?"

"That's rich, coming from you. How long had you been Sorcerer Supreme without outing yourself? It literally took until the world was ending until we found out about your super secret Sanctum at all. Talk about an attitude shift."

"Unlike you, I learn from my mistakes."

The silence between them was icy and jagged. Stephen might as well have punched Tony in the gut.

More quietly, Stephen said, "I'm not taking it back."

"Didn't expect you to." Why would he, when Stephen was right? Perhaps Tony was doomed to repeat his same mistakes over and over again. Feeling like his throat would constrict on him with every other word he forced out, Tony said, "You're not changing my mind."

Stephen's lips narrowed to a thin line. Tony didn't let him get in a word. If he stopped talking now, the drumbeat in his chest would swallow his voice and drown him with his own heartbeat. "You're changing things, Stephen. What if they change too much? What if we lose the one thing that puts us ahead of Thanos, if we can't predict his actions anymore?"

"And what do you call what you did with Vision?"

"I know. God, I know! It's not– I'm not– Shit." Tony felt his pulse rate spike. More than before, more than only a minute ago, it wouldn't– He couldn't– Tony tugged at his collar as his breath got stuck in his throat.

He wanted to be annoyed, but by the way the conversation had been going it had only been a matter of time.

Stephen was in front of him immediately, close but not touching. "Tony? What's wrong?"

He reached out with one hand and Tony couldn't stop himself from shoving him away. He saw hurt flash through Stephen's eyes, but couldn't bring himself to linger on the thought. He certainly wouldn't blame Stephen for how he'd deal with his panic attacks, if it were the other way around.

"It's nothing," he pressed out from between clenched teeth, stumbling another step back so he could let himself sink onto the couch. His fingers clawed at the metal of his watch, tracing its pattern again and again in a frantic, convulsive motion. "Just. Just wait, I'll– Give me a moment, so I can–"

To Stephen's credit, he didn't say another word. He simply waited, letting Tony gain control over his breathing and his almost painful heartbeat.

"We can't screw this up," he said, finally. His eyes were clenched shut and he pronounced each word carefully, talking over the shaky quality of his voice. His chest felt like it was brimming with nervous energy. "We can't. If we do, we– Everyone will–"

"I know," Stephen said, his voice almost unbearably soft.

"I can't. I can't do it. Not again. Not– I can't–" The words were boiling over in Tony's chest, bubbling out as a nervous ramble that he was unable to stop. He kept his eyes shut and his hand clenched around his watch. "We have one go at this. Just one. We can't lose. Not again."

"I know," Stephen said, again. He hesitated. "Which is why I think we should get as many people on our side as we can. Keeping secrets from them will push them away."

"Yeah, well. Telling the truth can achieve the same." Tony bit his lip, trying not to choke on his own heartbeat. "If I told them about the future, I'd have to tell them about Ultron. I'd have to tell them about Sokovia, and the Winter Soldier and the Civil War… Stephen, I'd have to tell them that we broke up. That our team didn't work out. It would seed distrust between us, again. What if it leads to the same result, only quicker?"

He'd been the cause of so many conflicts already. Not alone, not by a far stretch, but it was enough. How could he possibly tell his team about all of that, and expect them to come out of it trusting him?

"Lies could achieve the same thing," Stephen said, still in that gentle, infuriating tone that made Tony wish he would shout instead. "You know that better than anyone."

"... Yeah, I do," Tony admitted, quietly. He paused. "I can't risk it, Stephen. I can't. This way, it's… I can steer us in the right direction. I have control over it. If I tell them, I… I'd be giving that up. I won't know where we're headed afterwards."

If there was even a shred of control Tony could cling to, he would. He couldn't stand the thought of floating aimlessly in a past just as uncertain and dim as the future had been. He needed that control, needed it to feel like he had a purpose, like he actually had a chance of changing things for the better.

Clearly, Stephen's approach to their mission was entirely different. "I don't think it's worth the risk," he said, his brows furrowed in clear – but muffled – disapproval. "But be that as it may, I will respect your choice. As long as you respect mine."

In other words, Stephen wouldn't spill their secrets in front of the Avengers, as long as Tony didn't object to Stephen staying in contact with his order.

Tony managed a stiff nod. His heart was racing, but he managed to keep his voice level. "Fine. Just tell me everything you've talked about with the Ancient One so far."

This time, Stephen didn't object.


A/N: Beta'd by the wonderful Igornerd, To Mockingbird and PyrothTenka!

Please take a moment to let me know what you thought!

~Gwen