HOA

I've had this chapter prewritten for a while, so I'm very excited to finally post it.

Enjoy!

Elsewhere

The poor excuse of reality that Sirius currently called home was swept away by a whirlwind of color and sound. He was falling, but he wasn't sure if he had ever been standing in the first place. There was no world to spin or air to breath, yet he gasped and fought the urge to vomit all the same. He didn't know where he was or where he was going, but the ritual had obviously done something.

Sirius only hoped that this something would end up being something helpful, and not something that would kill him.

The colors that flashed before his eyes were ones he didn't have names for, he had never seen before, and would never see again. He had no idea how long he had been here, as time meant nothing. But he was almost certain that he was going somewhere. Was this how the ritual was supposed to work? He thought he was supposed to be revealing Truth, not a bunch of psychedelic colors. Sirius was almost completely certain that he had performed it correctly.

So what was going on? What was this never ending swirling sea of colors that he couldn't even imagine, much less name?

It could've been hours, it could've been centuries. Eventually the tide of colors began to slow and shapes began taking form. He saw a young boy with curly hair and dark eyes huddled in a corner in one stretch of color, a teen staggering drunk towards a bed in another. The colors calmed more, and Sirius saw the same teen, the same boy, older. Flashes bounced around him as he waved from a stage, and machines clattered as some kind of metal claw waved to an even older version of the boy. He saw explosions, and one night stands, muggle military men, and a woman with long wavy hair and a kind smile, followed by another, a pale woman with long strawberry blonde hair in high heels.

Sirius was enthralled, and yet confused. While he wasn't entire sure what the results of the ritual were supposed to look like, the Truth was supposed to be Revealed. And right now the truth he needed to reveal was what the Immortal of Fate was doing to his goddaughter, not some man's life story.

Ok, some man who gave him the strongest sense of déjà vu ever, but still. How was this helpful? How was this going to save his goddaughter?

As if responding to his thoughts, the whirlpool slowed even more. A thin teen with copper curls drifted into few talking to the now familiar, if much older man. He saw them silently snickering, and then sitting quietly in a dirty, dark cave. He caught a glimpse of a large metal suit, and endless sand. He saw two versions of the same glowing blue contraption; one in the man's chest and the other in the girl's. Sirius watched with slow building awe as he saw them fight strange men and odd beings, watched as they struggled through trial and horror, and a slightly absurd amount of death.

He only saw flashes, but it was enough to put the story together. Like tiny little puzzle pieces slowly building a picture or making a movie. The sensation of déjà vu only grew as the brief glimpses continued. Then he saw the barest image of Mortem, looking more otherworldly than he had ever seen him, standing in the corner of a short scene, and understanding finally dawned.

He was seeing E're's last life, the one where he was her father, or at least the rest of his soul was.

With that realization, the images sped up again. Through the colors that seemed to swell, he managed to see a giant green troll creature, a man in an eye patch, a shapely redhead, and many others who seemed to have strange abilities. Two things remained constant, the gleaming Gryffindor themed armor in its many forms, and the copper haired teen, who suddenly had extremely familiar eyes.

The images began flashing past so quickly he didn't have time to register what he was seeing. A glimpse of black, a flash of red, a flare of bright blue was all he could make out and he suddenly wished for more. Surely this was somehow important? How was he supposed to understand any of this if he couldn't see it?

As if in response, the colors and images slowed once more, but this time the colors were dull, and Sirius swore that if he was breathing he would be choking on the ooze that seemed to drip off of them.

There, in the suddenly dull colors, was his soul-twin, this Anthony Stark. He was frozen, eyes wide with horror, suspended in the air with the woman with strawberry blonde hair unconscious at his side. Who he now recognized as E're lay on the ground in front of the two, surrounded by some kind of black energy, twitching in pain with her eyes squeezed shut. By her head stood a small female figure, which he didn't dare call a child, with purple eyes and a twisted, unnarually wide smile.

A strangled, horrible sound erupted from Sirius' throat as he realized with horror that the child thing was Fati, and that she was torturing, killing, his goddaughter. The scene vanished before he could analyze it further, and more followed, a smidgen faster, but the colors remained dull.

In one image that formed from the colors, Anthony was slumped in front of an overly cluttered desk, staring into nothing. In another, he was tossing things across what appeared to be a garage as he blasted them with the armor's gauntlet weapons. Sirius saw him sobbing, building in a frenzy, and spinning dangerously in the sky. He watched as the worried strawberry blonde flickered into view holding the grieving man. Then he saw her talking, the worried look still present on her face, to others with equally worried faces. So many others, so many people worried, but obviously unable to help. Sirius watched, his heart slowly breaking, without sound, without much context, as his soul-twin deteriorated as E're was glaringly absent from the images.

Then the colors shifted again. They faded until they were barely more than tinted whitewash, almost even monochrome. Before the first image ever formed, Sirius knew that this wasn't the past, this was what could happen. What would, if E're never returned. He didn't know how he knew this, maybe it was the magic of the ritual, maybe it was something else. But he did.

He gasped without sound or air as the first image formed, and it was of the gleaming white mansion on the cliff exploding and crumbling into the sea below. That image bled into the next one, the strawberry blonde beauty – who Sirius really wished he knew the name of – restrained and screaming. Then there was dozens of suits flying through the sky, fighting strange men. In the next flash, Sirius caught the first glimpse of Anthony, and paled rapidly. His eyes were lifeless, glazed in an all too familiar way, even as they narrowed in an angry glare as he fought unseen enemies. Less than a moment later the image shifted, and those very same eyes were unfocused, empty, and staring unseeingly as the man's chest stilled for the last time.

"No!" Sirius shouted in protest, refusing to believe it, refusing to accept it. This couldn't be the truth, this couldn't be the revelation he needed. He wanted to save his goddaughter, he wanted to bring her home to his other self. He wanted to save E're and Mortem. He didn't want this other him to die, alone and broken!

"This will not happen, I won't let it!" He screamed as the image faded back into the pale colors, rage pouring through his veins. "Tell me how to stop this! You're supposed to show me how to fix this, not that I'm doomed to fail! There has to be a way!"

His magic flared, and the colors slowly began brightening to their original hues. They began spinning once more, faster and faster, until Sirius had to look away from the glare that was created. His heart lightened at the reaction, but the worry remained.

There had to be a way.

The colors shined brighter than the sun, flaring into a dazzling brilliance, before completely vanishing, dissolving into thin air. Suddenly, Sirius found himself in the very garage he had caught glimpses of in the whirlwind. Except this was a projection, an image floating on colors. One real yet fake, there but not. The entire scene was contradictory, but at the same time, absolutely right.

Sirius found himself standing in the middle of the large room, with a body more transparent than any ghost he had ever seen. At least here he had a body, some form of self, some physical aspect to ground him. As he turned, the room didn't dissolve into color. As he examined it closer, it didn't fade away. With a start, he found that he wasn't watching this moment, he was in it.

The animagus glanced around, the lights dull and the sound as absent as always. The vintage cars gleamed in the dark, and the small floating images above the desk for which Sirius had no name, illuminated Anthony's collapsed form on the floor.

Concerned, and finding himself able to move for the first time since he had arrived in this place, Sirius darted over. Sliding to his knees at Anthony's side, he was relieved to see the other him was still breathing.

"Hey Anthony, Anthony?" He called, but as the man reached out to touch his other self, his transparent hand descended right through the man. Cursing his ghost like state, Sirius barely had time to gasp as something gripped his magical core tight and pulled him forward. The world swirled, and he blinked, but there was nothing there.

He blinked again, but the dark nothingness remained. Sirius did not remember landing, or anything else happening after he had tried to touch Anthony. But now he was here, and he couldn't see anything in this black, inky expanse.

There was no light; he could see no floor or ceiling. It was just black. Not a suffocating shade either, but the comforting black that greeted you every time you closed your eyes and pulled a blanket over your head to sleep. It was a calming darkness, and Sirius instantly knew he was not alone.

The animagus truly had no idea how he knew this, or how he knew which direction to walk in. But he followed the urging of his feet anyway. Maybe it was the magic of the ritual, the very old, possibly botched ritual. Maybe it was his tiny fragment of a soul calling to its larger half. Maybe he was going crazy and he was imagining all of these sensations and none of this actually existed.

He wasn't sure, but he definitely hoped it wasn't the last one.

The scenery of the place never changed, but eventually, after infinity had passed in a span of a heartbeat, Sirius realized that he could hear someone breathing, and it wasn't him.

"Hello?" He called, hoping that none of the hesitation could be heard in his voice. What was he going to find here, a monster or a nightmare? His soul-twin or Fati? The last thought terrified him, and he shoved it away with as much force as he could.

A surprised gasp echoed through the air, interrupting the sporadic breathing, and the darkness slowly began to lighten. Not from a specific spot, or from a light source. The black just began fading to grey, in every direction at once.

"Who's there?" a rasping voice asked. It was a voice not used to talking, reminiscent of his own after his escape from Azkaban. Turning to his left, Sirius was finally able to spot the other in this endless, slowly lightening space, and was relieved to see that it was Anthony. He was thin, obviously exhausted, and glaring at him, but it was his soul-twin nonetheless.

"Anthony Stark?" Sirius called hesitantly, this hadn't been part of the plan. He hadn't been expecting to actually interact with his other self, to speak to him. Hell, he hadn't been expecting any of this! Much less see the highlights of his other half's life. As such, he wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to do.

The exhausted looking man snorted, crossing his arms over the covered but raised luminescent circle in his chest. Sirius' other self rolled his eyes before answering in the same raspy voice as before, "The name's Tony, if I'm going to be talking to some stranger in my dreams there's no way in hell I'm letting you call me Anthony."

Sirius shrugged but nodded anyway, slowly to a stop about five feet from the tense, brown haired man. He gave an awkward little wave due to the lack of any other idea, and then tried to smile reassuringly.

"Name's Sirius Black, and what makes you think you're dreaming?"

The brown haired inventor scoffed before unfolding his arms and gesturing around them.

"I find myself standing in the middle of what is basically an endless expanse of darkness, completely calm. I'm not worried, frightened, or freaked out. This entire thing being a dream is the most likely scenario. The other options have such low probability rates they weren't even worth considering," Tony explained, and Sirius had to admit that it was a logical conclusion. Not that wizards were too great with logic, as Hermione loved pointing out. Blinking a few times to get back on track, Sirius tried to think of something to say next.

Before he could, Tony continued, now rambling in his painful sounding voice.

"Not that I have any idea why I'm dreaming of standing in the middle of a dark, slowly brightening expanse with a random stranger I've never seen before in my life. Normally my dreams are about Penny, usually her dying, sometimes being tortured, while I can do nothing. Or its replays of all of my failures. Or that damned cave. Not that I'd admit that to anyone, or just about anyone. But considering I'm dreaming, you're most likely simply an odd manifestation of my rather fractured psyche, probably some attempt of my subconscious to try and get me to process my trauma before I completely lose my mind. Or I already reached that point and this is all some manifestation of my psychosis …"

Sirius, blinking rapidly as he tried to keep up with Tony's ramblings, finally decided that the man was not going to stop, and cut in.

"I don't know about any of that, but I'm pretty sure I'm me and you're you and that we're both as sane as we were before we got here." Not that he believed either of them were good examples of mental health, but as Sirius watched Tony's eyes narrow in suspicion and his eyes actually brighten at the prospect of an unknown situation, he definitely wasn't going to say that out loud.

"Sirius Black, right?" Tony said, voice a totally different tone, if still raspy, as his eyes flickered across Sirius' frame. His shoulders were tight now, his spine straight. The inventor was an overly taunt spring just waiting to snap.

"Yeah, and look, I have no idea how much time I have, so I need you to listen,"

It had dawned on Sirius slowly, but he suddenly knew exactly what he needed to do. He had been given a chance, a chance to make a difference, to change what he had seen. Because maybe if the ritual had shown him all of this, had brought him to Tony, maybe it could do the same for E're.

And maybe, just maybe, that would be enough to break Fati's hold on her mind.

"Excuse me?" Tony asked suspiciously, taking a step back as his eyes narrowed even further.

Sirius fought the urge to roll his eyes as he took a step forward. He didn't know how much time he had. He had to act quickly.

"Look, I'm not going to hurt you. I don't even think that's possible…wherever we are. I ended up here on accident, but now that I'm here there's something you need to hear. Please, you've got to listen to me."

Sirius pleaded with the man, who simply glared defensively at him and crossed his arms over his chest. The action made Sirius want to scream. Was he this stubborn?

"First you tell me who you are and how we got here, if this isn't a dream," Tony demanded, and this time Sirius did roll his eyes, and huff in exasperation.

Ok, maybe he knew that he was just as stubborn as Tony. But that wasn't helping right now!

"I never said you weren't dreaming, just that I got here on accident. Look, I'm a wizard and… don't look at me like that I already said I'm not going to hurt you!"

Tony's glare lessened just a tad but didn't vanish. Sirius decided to take it as the victory that it was and continued. "Please, I'm from another dimension, a dimension that died a long time ago…sorta…kinda…ok, that bit doesn't matter. Look, I'm not here to judge you, or hurt you, because I am you. Or rather, you used to be me."

Sirius realized this time he was the one rambling and cut himself off. Merlin, why did it have to be so hard to explain this? Tony wasn't buying any of it, judging from his skeptical expression and his scrunched up nose.

"Ok, sure. Now I know why you're here, you're the reassurance from my subconscious that I haven't completely lost it yet…"

"For merlin's sake!" Sirius yelled as the entire expanse jerked, causing them to stumble and Tony to jump back. He glanced around before looking at Sirius with wide eyes. Sirius knew that his time was running out. He could feel his magic swirling and began to see slips of color creeping back into existence. "My godson, goddaughter – whichever version you prefer – is your daughter Penny! My dimension was E're's original one and when Fati tried to tear her to pieces she ended up there! Mortem's here too, and this is it, the final stand against Fati."

He paused, took a deep breath, and said with every ounce of conviction he had, "and we're going to beat her."

Tony's eyes widened, and his lips split a part in shock. Before Sirius even had time to blink, Tony had darted forward, just a bit. Just enough that Sirius knew the man finally believed him. For the first time in what must've been a long time, Tony's eyes gained a spark of life, just a smidgen of hope within them.

"How…?" Tony began to ask, stepping forward once again but he was stopped by an invisible shield that erupted between them. Sirius' magic pulled on him as more wisps of color faded into view, although Tony didn't seem to notice them. Perhaps he couldn't see them.

The older man kicked the invisible shield, sending them both to the nearly white ground, clutching their heads as if someone had taken a jack hammer to their frontal lobes.

"Look," Sirius gasped from the ground as more and more wisps appeared, slowly building the whirlpool of color that had brought him here in the first place. "I'm out of time. Now I can't promise you when, and I can't promise you how just yet, but we're going to get your daughter home to you, alright? Please, if you can't trust me, trust yourself with this! We're going to bring our girl home. You just gotta hang on, alright? Hang on for her sake."

Tony and the expanse were completely blocked from sight by the swirling colors, as to Tony, Sirius faded from sight.

"Wait!" Tony's voice echoed through the whirl of color as Sirius' focus began wavering. His world was calling him back, he could feel it. "This is real, right? This wasn't a dream!? Please, I have to know!"

Hoping that his other self could hear him, Sirius laughed as the colors flared one final time.

"In the world we live in? Why can't it be both?"

Then the colors surged, the stars burned, his magic screamed, and he passed out.

September 2nd

Grimmauld Place, 12:01am

Sirius groaned in pain as he came to, his head throbbing and his eyes burning. But he couldn't help but smile. While the ritual hadn't worked exactly has he had expected it to, it hadn't failed either. This…this was exactly what they needed. This would work, Sirius just knew it.

He just hoped that, in the process, he had managed to give his other self the hope he needed.

Sirius tried to pull himself up off the chalk covered library floor, but his head instantly protested. His vision swam, his stomach heaved, and before he could focus on anything else, he passed out again.

Malibu Workshop, 12/3/2012
7:53am
a little over a month after Penny's disappearance

"Tony? Tony!"

I shot up with a gasp, my eyes flying open only to be met with a headache inducing blur of color. With a groan, I pressed a shaking hand to my throbbing temple and tried to shove the pain away. I wasn't very successful. My thoughts swam as I tried to piece together what had happened. I faintly heard Pepper and Jarvis' worried voices echoing beyond the pounding in my head, and I was pretty sure that Pepper was shaking my shoulder.

"Tony! What's wrong? Tony!"

But that wasn't important right now. There was something….something just on the edge of my mind…

The memories of the latest weird, supernatural even in my life surged to the front of my mind; and suddenly, everything could wait. I suddenly didn't care that I was seriously freaking Jarvis and Pepper out. I didn't care about the migraine. The war my stomach was having with my intestines could wait, and the improbability of what just happened could be calculated later. I didn't care about any of it.

Because for the first time in a month, hope was crawling back into my battered and bruised heart. Oh, how it burned. It seared through my being, and I suddenly felt more alive than I had in a long time. I couldn't believe it. I almost didn't dare believe it. But how could I not? It certainly followed along the same pattern of craziness as the rest of my life!

Therefore, it was real. Whatever the hell had just happened had actually happened. I had just met my previous self. I knew were Penny was. I didn't know how safe she was, and I didn't know if she was ok. But she was with him…with me. The other me. And he was going to bring her home.

A choked sob crawled its way up my throat and it wasn't until Pepper's trembling hands gently wiped my cheeks that I realized the reason why everything was blurry. It was because tears were rolling down my face in waves, I was completely sobbing.

But that was ok. I didn't care about that either. Because Penny was alive. And I didn't know when, or how, or why, but my baby girl was coming home.

She wasn't dead, or lost, or alone. She was coming home.

My Penny was coming home.

And that's all that mattered.

And Tony's back!

I'm so excited I finally get to post this chapter. I've been imaging the scene between Sirius and Tony for years, and I hope I did it justice.

*Cracks knuckles* Now things are really going to get interesting. I'll update more soon.

Thank you so much for reading!

Cp