Show Yourself Into The Unknown
Summary: The one where Thanos is dead, Tony has weird dreams instead of nightmares, the Avengers watch dubious Disney movies and mystical creatures are more than real. Oh, and the Cloak totally ships it.
"Hey, Merlin. Wong finally let you out of your magical mystery lair?" Was the first thing that greeted Stephen when he stepped out of the portal from the New York Sanctum and into Tony Stark's personal lab slash workshop a whole week after they returned from Norway and Wong had dragged his ass off for some proper rest and had made him stay there, taking it easy, until the librarian deemed him rested enough to let him out into the world and back to his duties as both Sorcerer Supreme and an Avenger, even a part time one. The first thing he did, of course, was come to check up on Tony and this time he even had a more viable excuse to do so, which should lessen some of Wong's usual teasing about his crush on the man. Not completely stop it, but lessen it. Stephen had long since learned to pick his victories where Wong was involved, so it didn't bother him that this was a very small one.
Still, excuses aside, it is rather important for the Sorcerers of Kamar-Taj, and especially the Sorcerer Supreme, to check in on the first dragon and her summoner in ages while their bond was still young and mostly unexplored. Elsa's powers, as shown thus far, suggest she is indeed worthy and strong enough for the position of warden of all magic and all of existence but she was still young. She may be a dragon, but not even the magical protectors of Earth or the Asgardians they now housed really knew what that really meant and all that it entailed.
They would have to be careful and considerate of her.
Tony, when Stephen eventually found him, was hunched over a work table with some piece of technology in front of him that seemed to be related to the StarkPhone beside him, deft, cleaver fingers going through what must by now be routine, ingrained moves and gestures as he did this or that with it. He was obviously aware of company but he was also obviously on a work or inventing binge, which meant Stephen will be staring at the top of his head for the foreseeable future. Unless he sits down at the right angle so he can see Tony's profile and admire the way concentration sharpened his features and displayed the true intensity of his eyes.
Not too far away, Elsa was lying on the back of the couch, a huge, fluffy pillow balanced precariously on the top as she lounged, she and Tony's bots seemingly infinitely curious about each other as Dum-E persistently, clumsily tried to pet her like a house cat and U was offering her a wrench, as though it were a chew toy. It was endearing and so very much an atmosphere and a scene one might expect of Tony if they knew him well enough, making the sorcerer smile. Butterfingers was the first to see him and waved his metal arm in greeting, which he returned before deciding to do as he'd thought previously and take a seat so he can admire Tony in his element.
He took note of how easier and how much more eager Tony was working now that his arm was oh so miraculously healed.
Stephen had no doubt it was Elsa's work. He had searched for a magical cure himself after it was clear science and medicine would not be enough. He had come up empty, no matter how much time he spent searching, how many books he read or random magical beings from other dimensions he consulted. The amount and type of damage done by the Infinity Stones was completely out of league of everything else in the multiverse except, apparently, dragons. He had to admire the power and control such a healing had to have required and he wondered if it was an art Elsa could and would be willing to teach him. Kamar-Taj may be the new home and the second chance, whatever it may be, for all that 'broken' people in the world but not everyone wanted to become a sorcerer. In order not to risk another disciple going off the rails like Mordo had and deciding everyone who was using dimensional energy to solve their own problems instead of fighting for a higher cause, it would perhaps be best to heal wounds with that technique and let people go back to their normal lives.
Though he knew his intentions were good, he also knew that doing as such would dwindle the number of current and future sorcerers until it was nonexistent. People found themselves in the Mystic Arts by studying them and it is through said studying that they decided their life after they learn all that is necessary to channel magic into countering whatever damage had been done to their body. Perhaps it could be applied more to the people already firmly within the Sorcerers of Earth's midst? Surely they, who sacrifice so much, deserve to have their ailments healed? It may not be the way that the Ancient One had done things but she hadn't had a dragon on her side to make such things available.
It was something worth discussing with both the other Masters as well as Elsa herself. No doubt Tony would get involved as well at some point. The billionaire was too kind not to.
"Yes, he finally decided I've rested and recovered enough to let me out of his sight, the secret mother hen. He's been insufferable. I had to get the Cloak to bring me books from our library since Wong seems to be under the impression that I'd try whatever spells I found in there against his orders of rest and no magic. It's like he thinks I'm not a grown ass manor something."
"Well, you do tend to leap without looking at times," Tony teased and Stephen had to concede a point. Despite the fact that he had once almost summoned Dormammu because he hadn't researched everything about the spell he was doing and swearing he'd never repeat such a mistake, he still had a habit of getting overly excited by a new find in any of the many spell books that the order kept. "Not that I can talk much. My life motto is 'Sometimes you gotta run before you walk', so I really have no space to talk or criticize."
"That doesn't even make any sense," Stephen said absently as he felt the Cloak unclip itself from his shoulders and wander over to the three bots and one dragon. It seemed as curious about Elsa as Dum-E, U and Butterfingers were despite already having 'seen' and met her. Perhaps it was the magic Stephen felt coming from her, despite how natural it felt with the rest of the magic flowing through the earth and the air. She was masking herself or truly, dragon magic was indeed the purest form for it to feel so natural. But if it was indeed so pure, it made sense that something made it stand out against the magic of the rest of the world. It was subtle, but it was there. "Where would you even apply such a phrase, anyway?"
"Testing out a new suit's flight capabilities moments after the first ever assembly without even running the first round of diagnostics to check how all of the systems were taking to their new environment and flying into freezing heights when the world's most advanced AI clearly advised against it?" Tony actually looked up to give him a sheepish smile as he replied and Stephen was sure a migraine was threatening to start pulsing within his skull.
"I'm so glad that you have to give up such recklessness. Truly, the universe has done us all a favor. It has finally proven that miracles exist, for it has provided us with a means to keep Tony Stark alive and a little more cautious. Honestly, Tony, only you would do something like that."
The man in question just shrugged at his exasperation, definitely used to it not just from their year as friends but also from years of Pepper, Happy and especially Rhodey expressing it in various forms to show their worry for his lack of self-preservation instincts. "I'm not going to deny it," the genius says as he turns his attention half back to his work, half of it seeming to focus in on the funny interactions going on between three robots, one magical, sentient outerwear and one creature of myth and legend. "But you gotta understand, Doc, that's how some of my most amazing work came into being. If I didn't run before I could walk, I'd have died countless times over by now. In fact, if that wasn't my motto in life, I would have never made it out of that Afghani cave. Iron Man would have never been born." Stephen tries very hard not to think about that, about a world without Tony Stark in it. It seemed incredibly bleak. Not to mention that the universe would have been permanently cut in half, thus doomed to imbalance and eventual collapse back in 2012. "Even now that I have Elsa, that's not going to change. I'll just be more careful."
"I think at this point, I can't ask for more," he concedes with a sigh but a fond smile tugging at his lips. "So, how are you and Elsa settling in? Anything in particular that I missed?"
"Pretty good. Peter met her and you can imagine just how excited that got him." They both chuckled fondly, well aware of the teen's character and energy. His excitement must have been off the roof, Stephen thinks warmly. It was far too easy to care for Peter. "The Avengers are still trying to be 'subtle' about their hints that they should be in on 'training' her, but Fury seems to agree with me, Barnes, Rhodey, Carol and Hope that it's none of their business unless Elsa suddenly starts eating people. Lang, Ross, Nebula and Vision decided not to interfere in the meetings, though I'm pretty sure that's because Nebula fears she might kill someone if they try arguing with her at this point. You missed the grand argument we had over which movie was better, Frozen or Brave. I think that's the first time Barton's been civil towards me since after the whole Ultron debacle."
Okay, that's actually quite a few interesting things.
He'd heard from Peter, who had been in on the meeting when Director Fury finally met Elsa, all about how that went. Apparently, Fury has a thing for cuddly, deadly things, which, now that he thinks about it, is probably why he was so fond of Tony, too. Oh, the man hid it well but Stephen had seen fourteen million six hundred and five potential futures and not in all of them was the eye patch wearing man turned into dust in the Snap. And Tony was nothing but cuddly and deadly, people just seem to forget that under the hero status and the gold and red armor of Iron Man was still the man widely acknowledged as the Merchant of Death. While he didn't agree with the moniker, it was partially true, just probably not in a way most people realized.
Regardless, if Peter is to be believed, Fury took one glance at Elsa on Stark's left shoulder, saw his uninjured arm and the way the billionaire was actually drinking water instead of coffee and he was already in her corner. When Elsa hissed at Rogers and later Hope because of something they were saying, he had decided that as soon as she was old enough, she would be the new leader of the Avengers because apparently while, yes, she was indeed in favor of Tony in everything, she was also reasonable and fair, preferring balance over simple prejudices. Though, from what the spider teen said, Hope had given reasonable arguments until she realized her suggestion might not be for the best and expressed her appreciation regarding Elsa pointing out whatever flaws in whatever topic they were having. Rogers had been snapped at because he kept oh so subtly insisting Tony couldn't be trusted.
Stephen wondered if that man had half a functioning brain cell in his head and whether he should call an intervention in case it could end up being contagious and passed on to others (besides the already infected former rouges). The last thing they needed is a 1940s prejudicial stupidity spreading into an epidemic.
Still, Fury seemed mostly on board with Elsa's current situation, which was all fairly good. Ross had agreed to keep it on the down low for now that there was a magical, seemingly all-powerful being of legend living in the Avengers Compound, not that anyone could actually do anything about the location bit, given that it was still actually Tony's property for all that the Avengers as a whole lived there.
"Which one won? I personally like Frozen better, but that might just be the sorcerer in me talking."
"We both put up some good points and then ended up watching both movies again and still haven't made the final judgement. That was also the first time Barton and I agreed on anything since Ultron because Rogers suggested Sleeping Beauty and Little Mermaid were the true winners of Disney movies, which neither Barton nor I agreed with. We then proceeded to point out all the subtle, hidden messages that most psychologist question these days regarding all the previous Disney movies. We also agreed on the fact that Mickey Mouse is bullshit and that the voices are annoying as fuck. In those exact words. Rogers gave us his mighty glare of disapproval. Barton and I flipped him the bird. Loki appeared out of thin air just to add a third one for the sheer levels of indignity pouring off of Rogers. It was a good day."
"Oh, wow. I was not expecting that." Especially when Barton was the most vocal about his displeasure at Tony and anything Tony related. Maybe his incoming visit with his family had taken the edge off. Or they could have been drunk. Then again, Barton had a daughter who wanted to be an archer like him, meaning she wouldn't exactly be fond of the many messages in Disney movies stating that women needed big, strong, muscly men to save them or some other horseshit. And the man was best friends with the Black Widow. He rather doubted he supported any of those hidden messages if he'd stayed alive for this long.
"Yeah, neither was I nor Rogers, but it happened. I honestly thought I was hallucinating but FRI has video evidence."
"Indeed I do, Boss," the AI stated, sounding proud of the fact. Stephen just shook his head at the absurdity of it all.
"Did Loki say anything about Elsa or dragons in general when he was here or had he com just because he had sensed an opening for mischief?"
"He's still looking into it. Apparently there are plenty of texts that had been hidden or impossible to read until Elsa's was born." They both grimaced at what that implied regarding the potential state of dragons everywhere. If there even were any. "So he's mostly still reading up on it. There are many scripts that he needs to fully decipher and there is little clue as to how to do it in their library. He's struggling even if he let some of the older Asgardians help. Almost none of them are sorcerers, as Asgardians prefer an occupation like Thor's-"
"What? All muscle and no brain who hits things with a magical hammer, is the god of lightning and still manages to get electrocuted?"
Tony snorted, finally setting aside his project so they can talk properly. Please do excuse Stephen if he feels a bit smug for managing that. And a little bit flattered, too. "Pretty much. You know they're a warriors people. Anyway, that aside, they don't have all that many sorcerers and the people that came forward certainly aren't. But they are scholars, so that's helping, and some of them are old enough to talk about when humans first started forging metals. He's optimistic about finding more about dragons in the near future. Meanwhile, Thor said he'd pay a visit to Eitri to see if dwarves knew more about dragons than simply how to make weapons that combat them. How about your baby wizards? They find anything?"
"A pretty much similar situation. A dozen new texts appeared in books we have already scanned from page to page for any such information and they're all in incomprehensible languages we have little to no hope deciphering. We hit a gold mine with an Egyptian text but we can make very little sense of it as it is." Which was frustrating in all the worst ways possible. They had the information and yet it was still out of their reach.
"But of course, Stephen Strange," Elsa surprised them both when she spoke up, drawing their attention to her where she had left the bots and the Cloak to play by themselves, instead focusing her attention to their conversation. "There is little to no reason why any of your fellow sorcerers should be able to read any of the texts you might have found. They are meant for my Ib's eyes only, after all."
"For Tony?" Stephen asked, sharing a glance with the engineer and trying to figure out if he should ask why the dragon was calling him her heart in ancient Egyptian. He wondered if Tony already knew, given he wasn't surprised by the term at all.
"For dragon summoners in general, I figure," the man suggested with a shrug and Elsa nodded.
"So, what, is it written in some sort of dragon-speak?" He asked, wondering if he should call for Wong and have him write down whatever information Elsa was willing to share with them.
"In a sense, yes. Dragons are the true origin of the Asgardian 'Allspeak', but we do have a language of our own. Not other creature in the world can emulate the sounds required for it and many of said sounds are beyond hearing of most other species but the written word can indeed be read and understood by a dragon summoner, as you call them. Dragon summoners can also understand what their dragon is saying in 'dragon'speak', but they would not be able to understand other dragons. It is a complicated matter that I care little to explain when it will mean nothing to you in the long run. The point is, dragons hid their knowledge for only their and other summoners to find and read. Had you given Tony any of your books, he would have been able to read them from the start. You are wasting time translating the languages. The true depth and meaning of the texts will always escape you."
They stayed quiet for a while, just staring at her and reeling from this little bombshell she had dropped on them. Then Stephen turned around and opened a portal to the Sanctum, straight in the library and ignoring Wong's cursing at him for breaking this 'strict rule', as if the librarian wasn't used to it by now.
"I'll get the books real quick."
