Tony POV

Looking down at the pained face of his brother, even in slumber, caused him to frown.

"This definitely will not do. "

He placed a hand on the man's forehead, gently laying his hands on his brothers head, the heat warming him and chasing away thoughts of snow and drowning on iron, for now.

He raised his other hand above his chest and closed his eyes. Seeing through the layers as his hand moved down his chest, eventually resting his hand on his stomach. Grimacing at the damage. He opened his eyes and centred himself, it had been a while since he had done a healing like this, and it was not as simple as summoning a weapon that is as fundamental to him as his arm.

He can't help a little excitement. Most humans will explain away changes, like his eyes for example, humans are very good at seeing normal. Especially in this modern day and age, where humans had practically taught themselves to ignore that feeling in the back of their minds. Something humanity ran a gauntlet of pain and suffering to acquire. He somehow suspects his platypus won't, he's not like most humans, he'll notice. He smirks as his eyes blanch again, turning completely white as Black Flames lick at his fingers before sinking into Rhodey's skin. Searching for the damage and knitting it back together.

He is still for around 5 minutes, even the rustle of feathers at the window doesn't cause him to move a muscle, although he smiles in his mind at her presence. Rhodey's features slowly smooth out from the grimace of a pained sleep, smoothing as the pain slips into him, black lines that follow the same twisting, turning pathways as the blue on his arms.

He slowly pulled back when the damage was healed, blinking a few times as the white swims from his eyes, returning them to gold as he looks down at his brother, just to ensure he has missed nothing. He had not gotten so attached to a human in a long time. Mother will most definitely wish to meet him. When his eyes land on his face however, they widen and he cursed silently.

"It's been a while since I healed a human..."

He cringed slightly, looking at Rhodey, completely healed but also considerably younger than he had been a moment ago. He looks deeper and his eyes widen again when he sees that the Black Flame was still active. That… that was not possible. This didn't happen anymore, a Reaper had not been called for so long, but there it was. It explained why he survived that fall. Even dormant and bound, the Fire increased certain attributes. His Fire was strong. It chose well.

Times are changing.

He summoned his Fire to his fingers, moving it closer to Rhodey's chest, just to double-check. Sure enough, his Black Fire reached up. His magic, like others of his kin with certain jobs, had their magic seeded in humanity. Where it hunted out potentials. Humans that could help them. For him, that Black Flame showed him potentials for the group known as The Reapers. As much as humans thought so, their jobs had less to do with taking souls and more to do with protection. They were a battle-ready unit. Unlike others, he was always more invested, he fought with his Reapers rather than have them fight for him, but it had been a very, very long time.

Rhodey's Fire wasn't unlocked yet, wouldn't be until he made the choice and began the process, but it had the potential. Yup. Mother was going to be meeting him. How he hadn't noticed it before he started healing him, he had no idea. Concern had blanketed his senses, but that was a pretty serious thing to miss.

"Well, at least you look my age now Sourpatch."

He dropped down into the chair next to the bed, suddenly extremely drained, healing magic was very taxing. He relaxed for a little while, set to wait for Rhodey to wake up. The crow watching him from the window, looking highly amused with the situation whilst he looked anywhere else. He scratched his goatee, that was back to its immaculate state he noticed. He hadn't even felt his mother do it. Yes. He was definitely rusty.

"I'm just a bit rusty, I'll get back up to speed soon."

He swears she is laughing at him in her shifted form and it makes him smile. Really smile, he hadn't had much cause to lately in his human skin, and it feels good to laugh. Plus, he's seen others healing humans make much more of a mess than reversing age a little bit.

A shining blue light caught his eye from the dark beneath Rhodey's bed, he opened his arms and in a flash of pale white fur and bright Blue Fire, a bundle all but crashes into him. Leaving flickering patches of Blue Fire where large paws had skimmed across the floor, with more grace than would be expected for a beast of his size. His paws hooked over Tony's shoulders, mouth opening, teeth that were long, sharp and lethal on display and the same Blue Flame shone from his mouth too. He smiled, running his hand over the perfect white coat as Caratacos nuzzled his head under his chin. He was thin for so large a canine, his face was shaped closer to a wolf than a dog, his powerful legs articulated closer to a panther than a canine. Sharp retractable claws, there was no mistaking what he was capable of.

"I missed you too boy, where is Drest?"

The shadows pulled together beneath the bed, forming into what looked like a slightly larger looking house cat. Her fur was sleek and Black as pitch, barring a shining white blaze at her chest. Her eyes, one a bright vivid green, the other golden like his, telegraphed irritation as clear as her very long Black tail that whipped out behind her, lashing through the air. In a fluid leap, she landed perfectly on his shoulder. Her size-shifting down slightly, allowing her to get comfortable. He was surprised not to feel teeth when his fingers slipped into her fur, but he wasn't fooled into thinking she wasn't still mad at him.

He felt a tug inside him, pulling his attention back to Rhodey and oh that Fire was strong! The pair turned to Rhodey at the same time he did, assessing the newest Flame carrier. Caratacos nuzzled him one last time before heading back into the darkness, slipping into the in-between. It was probably best not to overwhelm Rhodey as he woke up. Drest, however, showed zero intention of leaving, she disliked spending large amounts of time away from him and he'd really spent a lot of time as a mortal this go around. She occasionally turned up as a cat in his mortal life, but Howard had been very against pets. She curled up, looking for all the world a bored, younger cat. Her eyes mostly closed but he knew otherwise, despite looking asleep, she was alert.

He grins, a little giddy as Rhodey wakes up. He can see the moment he realises his legs can move and the stunned shock makes him thankful that his mother pulled him free from the restrictions of the mortal cycle. Even though staying in this land could be complicated, luckily he had friends here. Not that mother overly approved of Coyote, they got each other involved in trouble more often than not. It would earn him safe passage and dwelling rights, especially given the cosmic threat and all that.

The Blue Fire felt slightly different here too, compared to the first entrances to his home. Not much, but whilst the Blue Fire flowed through the veins of this world, different locations tended to present in different ways and he had only visited this side of the ocean a couple of times.

As he had been out of touch during this cycle, he would need to look into the health and strength of the Fire sooner rather than later. Unlike others of his kin, he was tied more directly to the Firelands, born from complications in his childhood. Meaning it wasn't something he could afford to be complacent about. He drummed his fingers where the arc reactor once sat, where a different blue glow rested even now. His connection to the Fire was quite literal.

That's why he spent so many trips in the mortal cycle, even after many others retreated with the exodus. He remained, nudging here and there. The Fire that ran in the veins of this land was tied to his heart, tying him closer to this side of the mists than his kin. But then, he was closer to the fabulous beasts than some of his people too.

That closer connection could either complicate matters or help, occasionally it did both at the same time.

Strangely, he's sure that he can feel a connection to home much, much closer than it should be. Times are changing indeed. That, and the Blue Fire is much stronger too, it still needed strengthening for what's to come. It is promising however, the industrial revolution had not been kind to the realm nor the Fire. That would be high up on his priorities.

Either way, it was Tomorrow Tony's problem.

Right now he could just relish in this, he'd be busy soon enough. He always was. Drest's claws flexed, keeping him from getting too lost in his thoughts as Rhodey spoke.

"Fuck, am I dead? Because when I went to sleep you were missing and I was paralysed. Also, you have suddenly gotten a lot younger and why do you have a cat?"

Tony summoned a mirror from Black Flame, earning himself little more than a shocked, raised an eyebrow as he offered it to Rhodey from his chair. Leaning forward slightly, which of course earned him another taste of claws as she held her place. Rhodey took it and simply assessed his features, with more calm and grace than most mortals could even dream of mustering. He couldn't help the fierce spike of pride at that. He was closer to mortals than some of his people, but sometimes they were painfully annoying, even to him.

"Tony. You just made a mirror appear from Black Fire. You just did magic! You hate magic!"

"Well yes, I always implant that when I hop into a cycle. Humans are disasters at magic Rhodey. I mean, abject disasters, there are some who aren't bad, but as a whole, just no.

'Ooo I found this mystical, ancient book! Let's read it!'

'Oh look, a malevolent space stone that can subjugate someone's will! Let's use it to give people magic!'

"Dis-as-ters. If I went and prattled around with something, being human, it could carry over to me and then I'd have to deal with human magic."

He shuddered at the thought.

Rhodey POV

The grimace on Tony's face gave the impression that it was the most disgusting thing he'd ever considered. It was actually quite hilarious and he would definitely get amusement out of this when there were answers to his questions. He kept his voice measured as Tony finally calmed down from the grossed out theatrics at the mere idea of humans and magic.

However, fair play. From what he'd experienced since becoming an Avenger, he wasn't wrong.

Although Rhodey was pretty sure the cat had rolled its strange, odd coloured eyes at Tony's rant and that was a realm of strange he did not know what to do with yet.

"Tony, why are you saying humans like you aren't one? Am I really not dead?"

Tony… He was definitely pretty sure this was still Tony, he looked like Tony, just back in the peak of his health, but there was something else there too. There were differences.

His hair was different, the soft brown seemed darker in the muted light of the hospital room, but where the sun hit it, the auburn stood out. It mostly looked to be a deep red, the colour was quite striking with sun-streaked highlights showing off an array of reds in the curls. His hair was also much fuller and thicker too, more so than it had even been before the palladium poisoning. A little longer, letting him see the curls he hadn't known Tony was hiding.

His face was smooth of the signs of age, his olive tanned skin seemed more vibrant, edging closer to golden now, just not so much as to be glaringly obvious. A perfect balance of strange, but not.

That seemed to be a theme to these changes, they were just that little bit shy of looking completely unnatural.

The slight kink in his nose from where it had set badly as a kid was gone too. It was lots of little things, individually, there was nothing huge that screamed different, but the more he looked, the more he noticed.

Like how… for lack of a better word. Perfect. (He would never say that to Tony.) How perfect his face was now, almost to a degree of unsettling, uncanny valley, but not. Because it was still Tony. It was strange how he looked so similar yet he could see all these changes at the same time.

His eyes were possibly the biggest change, the iris seemed bigger maybe? Or maybe it was a trick of the light, he honestly wasn't sure. They were no longer that familiar whisky brown with flecks of gold, it was like a light had been turned on behind them. Now they were more gold with flashes of brown. But again, the harder he looked… the more it changed until they were just gold, pure molten gold, like the metal was shimmering and moving in his eyes somehow.

Strangely, even though the more he looked, the more differences became apparent, he had a feeling that nothing was actually changing. Just him looking harder meant he noticed more.

That if he hadn't looked as intently as he did, would they just look brown with flecks of gold?

Overall, it's a strange feeling with an overlying feeling of familiarity. Also, Tony carried a degree of confidence and strength that was several orders of magnitude higher than what he was accustomed to. His easy smile spoke volumes and eased a tightness in his chest. It had been far too long since Tony had smiled with such ease.

Tony just raised an eyebrow before scooting himself, and the chair, closer to his bed as seemed content to wait for Rhodey to assess the changes in his brother. The passenger perched atop his shoulders opened a single, vivid green eye of irritation. Closing its eye when it seemed Tony was finished moving.

Tony's shoulders were minutely tensed up as if he was looking for Rhodey to flee or react badly to this whole situation, which told him this was his Tones clearer than anything else could. It would take much more than Tony getting a freaky deeky magical makeover to make him budge. The slight tightness faded as Tony seemed to realise this and Tony flashed him a bright smile for allaying his fears.

"You're not dead, but I, potentially, nearly did die, kind of died, and that triggered… something that brought me back to my original self, so to speak. So, I immediately came here to heal you! I'm a little out of practice from being human for so long and might have been a little overzealous.."

He noted how Tony didn't really answer his first question, but he decided it would be later Rhodey's problem.

"A little overzealous?! You fountain of youth'ed me!"

"Want me to make you old again?"

"Fuck no. With your current track record, you'd make me 90!"

Tony barks out a laugh and it lights up his entire face and Rhodey can't take his eyes off of him. He's not attracted to his brother. Because ew, but damn. Tony had always had a presence, the ability to enter a room and just draw attention. That when he spoke with intent, people tended to listen, like they were drawn in. It had helped him ruthlessly dominate multiple markets in the business world, manage military personnel with a practised ease and always left people feeling like they won as he walked away, secure that he had actually won.

It had been a skill he had not used as often after Afghanistan. First, Stane. The betrayal had him off-kilter. Then… then it was the Avengers. Who had controlled him to a terrifying degree. However, looking at this Tony, he had a feeling this Tony wouldn't be holding back. Not with that bright, sharp smile, flashing what looked like small goddamned fangs! Oh, Gods, he hoped they weren't vampires. He liked the beaches. If he was a vampire then he wouldn't be able to sit in the sun.

That was when a strange sound drew his attention from the window.

"Tony… is that huge bird laughing at us?"

Tony glanced and smiled a warm smile at the creature, that was much, much larger than a crow ought to be! The pale white eyes landed upon him and he got the feeling that whatever it was, it just saw him. Saw everything. His past, present and future. His life drawn out and analysed. Then the feeling went away and he released the breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Yup."

"Tony…"

"Yes, Platypus?"

"Are… Are you a vampire?"

Tony actually fell out of his seat cackling, so he was guessing the answer was no. The cat deftly leapt to the bed just as Tony fell to the floor laughing, immediately making itself comfortable on his legs, because why the hell not.

Well, how was he meant to know?! He promptly lobbed one of his pillows at Tony's head.