Heart of Iron
Summary: Stephen is really proud of how fast he's learning after he makes his first portal but then comes the astral projection that changes his life forever as he comes face to face with a force from a universe not his own and an ancient relic that will change the fate of his world.
"You never did tell us how you trapped Thanos," Stephen pointed out one day when they were meditating, once again like they had two years ago, on the magical protection seal underneath Kamar-Taj, in their astral forms. It had been exactly five months since the fight with Thanos and the world had moved on surprisingly well despite the alien invasion that had happened in New York and half of the universe nearly being decimated by a mad warlord. Toni had done exactly as she said she would. She continued inventing for SI, helped all the Young Avengers and Young X-Men in their training and missions, assisted when the adult versions of both groups required help, kept on being involved in politics regarding heroes and helping Stephen run Kamar-Taj. She would occasionally slip through dimensions or go to Asgard, but she was usually back within the day, so there was no worries. She and Fury continued to run things through SHIELD and the world loved Iron Maiden more than ever after she had saved them from certain death. In fact, from what the occasional chats with the Guardians of the Galaxy told them, as well as Carol when she went up into space for this and that, the whole universe was chanting Toni's name like the hero she is.
Stephen often wondered if this grateful universe was enough for all that Toni had done. For all that she has lost and sacrificed over practically numerous cycles. She was finally getting the recognition she deserved but no one but her really knew just how much she had done. No one but Toni and Thanos, that is, but Stephen rather doubted that purple nut-sack would acknowledge all the good Toni has done. The man was too obsessed with his goal that he, according to Toni, had no qualms about sacrificing his 'children' whom he 'loved' to get things he wants.
One of the reasons Toni had risked it to make sure Vormir takes no guardian for the Soul Stone and just ... left it lying there. Left it for Thanos to take it. Either way, she had done it to, apparently, save Gamora and Nebula and whoever else was unfortunate enough to be 'loved' by that monster.
"Well, no one really asked," Toni pointed out, eyes still closed and smirking when she heard him huff. Though, she did have a point. No one had asked. They had just ... accepted it that she did.
"Well, I'm asking now. Will you answer?"
"Have I ever not answered one of your questions?" She did open her eyes this time, the light in them warm and fond and inviting. Stephen gave up on meditation and floated over to her, not resisting the urge to peck her cheeks before sitting down beside her. They both ignored the little shiver that ran through them both at the intimate contact. Apparently PDA in the Astral Plane is way more intense, though he figured that made sense. It was like their souls were touching, after all. It was an entwining of energies that can only happen through familiarity and acceptance on both sides. It was amazing that they were at that point now. It felt wonderful.
"Well, I'm all ears."
Stark just shook her head at him but started explaining. "For many cycles, I've thought I can make a prison for him using technology only. I've teamed up with all the best minds on Earth, went to other planets entirely to seek help, joined forces with the dwarves of Nivadelir and even studied under the Beyonder - who's a bit obsessed with me, now that I think about it - in hopes of making a prison strong enough to hold him. I managed more than a few times, but the problem isn't in creating a prison, it's in making it impenetrable by even time and existence. That, unfortunately, is out of the scopes of what science and technology can do. Magic, however ... " Her eyes became distant, lost in some memory even as she easily manipulated some energy into her hands and started playing with it.
Stephen often wondered what her lives were like in detail. How fast did she master magic? Why was she so against it in the first place? What made her like or tolerate it? He never quite dared ask for more than she was willing to tell him. Toni might no longer be affected by the lives she's led and the cycles she has witnessed, but everyone else was still looking at her and seeing a normal human, thinking she should be traumatized. Even Stephen sometimes makes that mistake, though he does it a lot less commonly than the others. He, at least, understands. Dormammu had killed him so many times that he had almost become used to it by the time the demon gave in. Toni had thousand times that experience. Death and PTSD are a thing of the past for her.
Doesn't mean that lets them stop worrying, though.
"Well, for all I knew, magic could do anything," Toni continued when she snapped herself partially out of her thoughts, going back to her explanation. "I didn't know much about it, but I always saw you and Loki and whatever other random sorcerer doing all these incredible things with magic, imprisoning enemies and creatures alike. I figured magic might be the answer. When I approached a Stephen Strange in this one weird cycle about it, he immediately took me in as his apprentice, only to one day just ... disappear and leave me with his Sorcerer Supreme duties. I learned later on, of course, that he had disappeared to die in peace from some illness and that he had just been ... waiting for me. To, you know, pass on his title to someone he considered capable and worthy so he can die knowing Earth would be protected? I remember being pissed off, honored and humbled by it, but also immensely terrified. But I guess I grew used to the role and the duties. I studied and practiced and trained and when Thanos came, he was facing me as both the lovable armored hero that I am and the Sorcerer Supreme in one strange mix."
Stephen rolled his eyes and Toni laughed. Now that sounded strange given how serious the story was. How fitting.
"Anyway, I managed to trap him that cycle in a prison very similar to the one I have him in now, only without the tech part. I lived the rest of that cycle protecting the Earth and the multiverse with magic. In the next cycle, though, when I tried the same trick but with stronger spells, I hadn't realized Thanos had taken note of how useful knowing some magic is so he had learned some himself. Though he wasn't compatible to become a sorcerer of any kind, Ebony Maw still managed to teach him how to break out of the prison I had him in the last time. Several cycles later with all sort of trail and error, I realized combining magic and technology was the answer. But I just left him to die in his prison, which won't be happening this time. Thanos may be removed from all of existence in that little sphere I made, but he still exists and the scales of universal balance are set. The prison will travel trough cycles like Thanos has been doing so far, undisturbed, but he will never be able to escape or have any influence on anything ever again."
"How many cycles of trail and error did it actually take for you to figure all of this out?" The impressed and disturbed sorcerer asked with a worried frown on his face. Toni just pecked his cheek to get rid of his concern, which always managed to get a blush out of Stephen and the shiver through both their astral forms.
"I didn't count."
"Oh, yes you did."
But Toni just smiles and shakes her head. "Does it really matter?"
Stephen paused to really think about it, considering all the things Toni had told him so far for his answer. In the months since they reconciled, the woman had been telling him bits and pieces of her former lives, where and when she learned, mastered or read some things, how she invented this or that or what caused certain ideas to aspire. Even if she was telling him enough to fill up only one normal human lifetime, it was still quite impressive, making Strange wonder just how many more wondrous or horrifying stories hid behind every one she told him. Fourteen million six hundred and five cycles was a lot already and Toni often pointed out she had stopped counting a long time ago, as it was getting pointless and blurry. Maybe she did it to save her own sanity? It wouldn't surprise him. Toni had spent a lot of time alone. Counting would only drive that home harder than it already was.
"No, I guess not," he conceded, letting the matter go. There was no use pondering questions not even Toni could answer in confidence. It would be an exercise in futility and would only strain their interactions for the rest of the day. "I guess I just worry about you."
And there was that beautiful smile again that Stephen had long ago realized he'd do anything to see it again. Honestly, the past five months have only made him even more of a lovesick fool. Wong immensely enjoyed these endless opportunities to tease him. "You really don't have to. This is far from the first time I've lived through or talked about these things. I've spent a small eternity waiting for living organisms to be born going through all of my memories to try and figure out what was safe for me to interfere with and what could end in disaster. For all that I'm currently training with you in magic and meditating with you, Stephen, I'm still a scientist at heart." His eyes automatically slid down to where her chest glowed the brightest. Her astral form still retained that same Arc Reactor blue hue she had since Stephen met her. The only new thing about her astral form was the six pinpricks of color that stuck to her right hand like glue. The Infinity Stones were always with her one way or another. It was a lesson hard learned, by many individuals. By himself many times over, when he wants to indulge with his girlfriend, and many times by the Avengers when they wanted to spend time with her - either productively or to waste it - but the Stones wished for her to meditate with them or pay attention to them. For all that they were artifacts of infinity power, they sure as hell acted like jealous, needy children. He wasn't sure if that was disturbing or amusing. At least the Time Stone was more ... reasonable about it, most often staying within the Eye of Agamotto as it has for the past millions of years. "I know experiments and tests are a necessary part of the process of learning and discovering new things. It wasn't easy, but it was worth it in the end."
Stephen just deposited another kiss to her, this time on the lips, feeling her smile against him. Oh yes, happiness looked good on Toni Stark. "I guess it's just the doctor side of me that never quite died."
Iron Maiden actually snickers at that like a naughty little girl, obviously delighted and amused. "Oh, don't worry. Yinsen is the same. I think it's cute. Although, I have to say, Doc, you make it hot."
Right, Yinsen. Focusing on the other most important doctor in Toni's life helped him keep a blush from crawling up his neck to color his entire face. Stephen had met the man, and Dr Wu and Dr Cho, not a week after Toni wiped the floor with Thanos. With his nice, calm smile, steady and kind voice and earnest eyes behind thin glasses, one would never assume he helped Iron Maiden escape from the Ten Rings in Afghanistan. Sure, Toni had magic and her actual armor all the time, but she needed Yinsen close so the two made friends and Toni got them out. She returned the man to his family and the two practically became family. Ho Yinsen was up there, right next to Rhodes, Ms Potts and Mr Hogan, though maybe even more so. Toni had told him, like, fifteen different versions of how Yinsen sacrificed himself for her to make sure she survives in past cycles and not all were in Afghanistan. Yinsen knew this, too, knew how guilty she felt regardless of how many times she'd lived through it or that he was alive now. As such, in turn, he was very protective of her. Stephen had gotten many different shovel talks and threats to his life or manhood, ranging from Pepper Potts' promise of erasing him from the face of the Earth to Peter Parker's and Harley Keener's Kill Mode, but not even JARVIS threat of destroying Kamar-Taj should he hurt Toni or break her heart could match how afraid it made him when Yinsen just smiled at him and told him a simple 'Don't'. As a doctor himself, he knew a doctor could cause the biggest amount of damage to make you suffer. Not a master spy, not the Winter Soldier, not the Hulk, not a bunch of Asgardians - well, at least not if you knew magic, anyway - but a doctor. And this doctor had helped blow up a terrorist cell. The worst the rest could do was kill you. A doctor could unmake you in ways people can't even imagine. It's why they swore the Hippocratic Oath.
"Thinking about the scare he gave you?" Toni teased, breaking him out of his dark thoughts, laughing at his offended face. "Don't worry, Strange. I like you enough that he won't do anything to you."
"That's not what he promised," he muttered darkly to himself but couldn't really sulk properly with Toni laughing beside him. It was hopeless. He was utterly hopeless against her. They lapsed into a comfortable silence and just enjoyed each other's presence and the humming of magic around them. Even with Thanos gone, they still had a lot of things to worry about, so calm days like these were exceptionally rare. Stephen was still Sorcerer Supreme and the Master of the New York Sanctum. Toni was still Toni Stark. They had so many responsibilities on a good day that it was a miracle they could set aside some time for simple meditation and for each other. Stephen had many dimensions to worry about, Mordo and Kaecilius' bunch were hardly the only rogue sorcerers and then there's Avengers' business. Toni had SI to worry about, her seemingly numerous charities, Asgard and Kamar-Taj and also Avengers' business, not to mention a bunch of kids she had taken under her wing, two supersoldiers from the 40s still getting used to the brave new world they lived in, a spy organization to keep in check, relations with Wakanda, the UN and the Accords Council to maintain and, as expected, the rebuilding of Xandar and Knowhere with the help of the Infinity Stones. Not to mention that she and Cho had built another body for an android - or synthezoid, as Toni insisted on calling him - named Vision, who now housed the Mind Stone in his forehead. He was like a child in a grown man's body and rational thinking but he was so innocent and naive to the harsher truths of the world that Stephen still didn't know what to really think of him or how to treat him. And on top of mothering said Mind Stone totting android, Toni was still going randomly off planet to do stuff. She always told him what but Stephen always feared she'll just not come back one day. A reasonable fear, in his opinion. It had happened once already and he would rather not like a repeat of it.
He shifted a bit when Toni started getting up, frowning as she stretched unnecessarily. "Going somewhere?"
She shrugged her shoulders, rolling her head as though to get rid of muscular tension she can't get cramps from in her astral projection. "Yeah. Agreed to a game of chess and tea and biscuits with Eternity. I gotta head out soon if I don't want to be late."
"You've been spending a lot of time with her as of late," he observed, standing also and deciding to be a brat by hugging Toni close and not letting go. As though that would actually keep her in place if she didn't want to be there. "I'm starting to get curious what two ancient ladies like you could be talking about all the time." He pressed a kiss behind her ear and they, once again, both enjoyed the shudder that ran through him. Such light, intimate touches caused such a bold reaction ... Stephen couldn't help but let his mind go straight to the gutter, contemplating how intense intercourse would be in the Astral Plane.
"Okay, intercourse, really?" Damn, had he said that out loud? At least Toni just sounded amused instead of insulted or something. "What century are you from? And this is coming from a girl who's seen them all, so don't even. And you do know you could come with, right? Eternity's met a few of your counterparts in past cycles. She'd love to meet you."
"Don't blame me for being a gentleman. And don't even start with me on that, either. I've had Rogers ask me one too many times do we fondue." As expected, Toni cackled. He wondered if it was some sort of inside joke he wasn't aware of. He didn't see what bread and cheese had to do with sex. He'll have to get Toni to explain that to him once. Or Rogers. Or Barnes. "As for meeting Eternity, I guess I wouldn't mind? But I've been meaning to ask you something regarding that, actually. You said only you and Thanos had any knowledge of what's been going on in previous cycles. I mean, not even a demon removed from time itself knows anything about it. But here you come and tell me Eternity wants to meet this version of me. How can she remember my other iterations if only Thanos and you get to keep your memories."
"It's elementary, dear doctor," she says in her best British accents that's perhaps too hot for his or her own good. "Eternity, Infinity and the One Above All aren't beings made from the same energies as the multiverse is. They get to exist outside of it. They are immortal. Different dimensions get destroyed and recreated all the time but these guys aren't bound to any dimension or even the multiverse. The Beyonder and sometimes Galactus, depending on how a universe goes, get caught up in the multiverse so they get reborn with us but with no memories. Thanos and I were an exception made by the Infinity Stones and perhaps fate and destiny themselves. They wanted a better ending, I guess. They judged one of us can get that."
"Or they're just assholes who wanted to see you struggle." The Time Stone pulsed in displeasure at that, somehow offended, but neither genius spared it a glance.
"I think it was more of an experiment," Toni shrugs, nonplussed and unimpressed. "Thanos and I were polar opposites yet so similar. They probably wanted to see how a confrontation would end between us. Who would win and who would lose. But they had to fix things when Thanos went and screwed them over by Snapping the Stones away with their own power. That upset the balance Thanos loved so much, as well as the sudden whipping out of half of the whole universe. The people got brought back but the Stones stayed gone for good. That universe collapsed in on itself and so the cycle of cycles began."
"That's just messed up."
Toni nodded in agreement but seemed content to drop the matter. Stephen was more than glad to indulge her. He'd rather not get a headache while trying to figure out the motives and agendas of eternal beings. "So, you up to meeting Eternity? You don't have to ... "
Stephen paused only long enough for them to return to their bodies back up in his rooms in Kamar-Taj before replying. "I guess it couldn't hurt. And I am kind of bored. It's been really quiet around here since Thanos."
And, as if he had just jinxed them, the great bell that Kamar-Taj used to issue a warning about mystical and interdimensional threats rang three times, loudly enough for everyone to hear, even the Sanctum Masters through the gateways that led to their Sanctums. At the same time, the phone Toni carried around so as not to freak out people when she seemed to do a search on random things with Extremis and JARVIS lit up and a hologram popped up, projecting the image of New York being overrun by some strange burning skeletons on motorbikes.
"You just had to open your big mouth," Toni was only half joking, already suiting up even as Stephen opened a portal as she called for the Avengers to assemble and take care of the threat.
"I guess you'll be late for tea after all."
She just smiled and took his hand, more gentle than one would think her capable of in those powerful hydraulic gloves and the super strength she herself had. "We have time."
And for the first time, as they walked through the portal together, Stephen decided that was enough.
THE END