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.

Their arrival to the site of the unnatural blizzard was, all in all, unmemorable, even when they eventually ran into what must be patrols of the snow demons they were supposed to send back to their home dimension. Tony was of the humble opinion that the gigantic creatures were even uglier when their image wasn't obscured and was up close. Both his girls agreed when he voiced his opinion and even the ever professional Wong had to concede to his point. Those things looked nasty.

The patrols weren't initially aggressive when the snow demons caught sight of them, simply watching them from afar. But then they had noticed that none of them were being frozen in the unnatural temperatures and they charged. Tony, Stephen and half the sorcerers immediately became distraction and defense while Wong led the other sorcerers in setting up whatever was needed to get these creatures and their eternal winter out of the Amazon rain-forest. However, he couldn't properly fight - even if it was mostly evasive maneuvers and hit and retreat strategies - with Elsa in his arms so he had told her to watch over Wong and the others and not interfere unless absolutely necessary.

The snow demons, thought, caught sight of her in the air near the circle of working sorcerers, let out a piercing whistle that vibrated throughout the frozen wasteland that had once been green and full of life, only hours ago, and the rest of the big uglies' palls appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

Their goal, their target - Elsa.

"Oh, hell to the no!" Tony exclaimed as soon as he caught on, forgetting all about these creatures being near extinct at the same time as the snow demons got serious and started using deadly force against the defensive/distraction team. He swooped in, letting lasers and his repulsors collide with the snow demons and evading when they tried to smack him out of the sky. The heat of his attacks bothered them, he was quick to realize and berated himself for not having come to that logical conclusion on his own sooner. It was right there in their name, after all.

And they certainly lived up to it, spitting out snow and ice like cliche video game characters, but it seemed to be rather troublesome for the sorcerers, who were struggling to maintain fire spells or whatever else generated enough heat to ward them off but not seriously harm them. The snow made them sluggish if it hit them, though Tony had no doubt it would be rather deadly for them if they hadn't been wearing spelled clothing to protect them from exactly this kind of attacks.

Tony, on the other hand, didn't so much as pause or feel it when ice hit him. Yes, his breath hitched, but more out of instinct and habit than it having any effect. The cold indeed didn't bother him. Feeling himself in a strange sort of mood, feeling free, Tony found himself humming Let It Go as he fought, mostly keeping an eye out for anyone who needed backup.

Out of everyone present, only Tony and Stephen could take to the air, Elsa not counting as she is still a none-combatant, no matter how powerful she might be, and she had only recently started flying. For all that her scales seemed to be made of ice or some crystals or whatever, the patagia on her wings had only matured and strengthened enough for flight about ten to fifteen days ago. Yes, her wings were more than strong enough to sustain long-term flight and yes, she did know instinctively, more so than any bird or fish, how to use the muscles in said wings. It hadn't taken her an hour to take flight, though she worked on her landing for the rest of the day. Regardless of that, she was too small and too young to go into battle, especially against something that seemed to be so intent on hunting her.

Didn't people know by now that a dragon won't do anything they say if they're not that dragon's summoner? It'd make more sense to try and capture Tony, though he rather doubted these dull creatures knew he was the summoner. Something he'd very much like to keep secret. Hatchers were dragons' weaknesses. Tony will have to be incredibly careful to never get himself caught again. Elsa would be at anyone's mercy with him in their hands.

Though the snow demons were called demons, they essentially weren't evil, or so Strange had said. Tony was tempted to believe him if not for the fact they were trying to get to Elsa with little regard to everyone else around them. At least they weren't trying to kill her, though that wasn't at all comforting. Sometimes, some fates are worse than death.

'Elsa, you think you can help us a bit? Or would your help be more useful to the whole opening a portal and sending these satanic big boots - big feet? - back to their dimension?' He thought to Elsa, one of the perks to having what is essentially a soulmate. They shared a deep connection, one they had to work on at times, be it setting boundaries or testing them. It was extremely useful and even funnier when they used it to mess with people. Now, it worked as the best possible communicator. 'Getting rid of all of this snow might be nice.'

'If I were to get rid of it now, it might damage the life it has encased. My mere presence near the sorcerers will help them stabilize the portal faster. So helping you it is, though I cannot go to your heights- Watch out!'

Tony moved out of the way just in time for a big icicle, sharp as all hell, flew past him. Had he not jerked away at Elsa's cry, the thing would have pierced his heart. He whirled around to see what could have possibly nearly killed him, only to blink at what was obviously the boss snow demon. All the creatures looked similar, near identical, except this one. This one had some sort of white chest guard from collarbones to hips and there was an emblem on them that Tony could not quite make out but something about that armor just felt off and set off alarm bells in his mind.

"Hand over the dragon, human, and we will let you live," the chief snow demon demanded and Tony felt his metaphorical hackles raise up.

"How about you get the fuck off of my lawn before I melt your face off instead," he called, proving his point with a powerful photon blast that very nearly did hit the demon in the face. He dodged with a growl but the blast still hit one of his minions behind him that had not seen or not been fast enough to avoid it.

"You cannot claim an entire useless forest your 'lawn', human."

"Newsflash, asshole, I'm Tony Stark. I've claimed the entire planet as my fucking lawn so get the fuck off of it." Another blast, but the chief snow demon used the staff he was carting around to deflect it and lunged at Iron Man, who flew out of range of a physical attack but this dude apparently knew some magic, as he started shooting random snow and icicles at the armored hero. Tony had FRIDAY help him maneuver out of the way of each one while all the while shooting back, making the boss dance around the shots down on the ground. The genius snorted and activated his mini missiles, leaving the targeting system to use facial recognition instead of heat seeking. Their opponents were much too cold to in any way be targets for that method.

"Then you shall die, Tony Stark!" And then he made the surrounding snow and ice fucking rise from the ground, whirling around like a tornado and heading straight for the red and gold armor. Tony cursed his luck as the howling winds tried to draw him in, kicking the boosters and repulsors to higher power as the damned thing chased him. He cursed even more when he saw two more rise from the ground and join the chase, nearly managing to corner him a few times. When a fourth and a fifth started rising and Tony started worrying about his ability to play dodge-ball with huge forces of nature, golden Eldritch magic flashed around one and the other seemed to be disintegrated by some lava-red chains that looked similar to the ones Strange had used on Titan against Thanos but not quite. A quick glance told him it was indeed the Sorcerer Supreme that had come to his aid and a suspicion had him FRIDAY zooming in on the man's face.

" ... Did you just fucking wink at me, Stephen!?"

"Head in the game, douchebag, we still have three more to deal with," the former world renown neurosurgeon called, amusement clear in his voice. Before Tony could flip him off or throw back a rude or sarcastic comment, he found himself having to flee again lest he get caught in the three existing tornadoes. Stephen seemed to be tackling the boss snow demon now, so at least no more will be rising from the ground. A situation better than the one moments before.

" ... I really need to stop jinxing myself."

"I'll make a note of it, Boss," FRIDAY chirped in sarcastically as they both tried to wrap their brilliant minds around the fact that apparently the chief snow demon had had enough time to direct the three tornadoes to mash together. And while the initial result had been terrifying enough, being a freakishly huge ice and snow tornado, the end result was even more horrific and Tony had no idea how to fight it as it was now a dragon of snow, tornadoes and rocks that had been ripped from the ground or who knows where. The thing was nowhere near solid but the wind currents were too strong and the debris and ice it carried was too fast.

"I wish we had Thor. Or Carol. Why hadn't we brought Carol along? I bet she could sucker-punch this shit."

"Boss, I suggest you move. It's coming straight for us!"

"And fuck my life!" And you know what was even worse than a snow, ice, tornadoes, rock dragon made of foreign magic? A sow, ice, tornadoes, rock dragon who breathed freezing air and icicles when it opened its mouth and roared supersonic sounds that actually left half of the armor's systems flashing alarm reports. "And fuck my life hard! FRIDAY, we have any bombs strong and hot enough to disrupt that thing from the inside?"

"We'd need to get inside for it to have any effect and this is not one of those Chitauri space wales for you to reenact the tale of Jonas with. Not to mention that my calculations suggest we'd have to spend more than half of our arsenal to generate enough energy and heat to have any effect on that thing. It's minus thirty degrees Fahrenheit in there, Boss!"

"Damn, new plan. Elsa!" He shouted for his baby girl's benefit even though he knew Elsa heard him in the shared portion of their souls. 'If I carried you, would you be able to burn through this mockery of a dragon?'

'You doubt me?' The young dragon shot in return and he could see her already preparing to leave the sorcerers still trying to open up the snow demons' dimension and jump into his arms when he's nearby.

'You'll need to fly higher, I'm afraid. The thing is right on my tail and I can't risk our allies by flying so low.'

'Worry not, my Ib. I can handle myself.' And Tony would have to trust her as he had to dodge another attack from the damned construct chasing him. A near hit had him dropping in the air for a couple of seconds before he got his bearings back and the dragon near;y swallowed him. 'Oh, that thing is going down,' Elsa promised and he looked up to see her holding herself fairly steady in the air and he dived for her. She was in his arms in seconds and he had FRIDAY revert most of the power into the flight systems so they can get enough ground to made a U turn and take their turn to attack.

"May it be noted that I strongly disagreed and discouraged this idea? For when Doctor Strange freaks out," FRIDAY said just as they made the turn and charged at the construct, Tony, against all instincts, holding Elsa headfirst in front of himself so she has a free path for her attack.

"Noted," both dragon and her summoner said in the same deadpan voice before they let out battle cries that resembled more the roar of a dragon and Elsa took a deep, long breath only for her to breathe out scorching fire as they entered the snow, ice, tornadoes, rock dragon's jaws. The effect was instantaneous. Apparently, dragon fire was way too much for the construct and it fell apart as Tony flew himself and Elsa through it, his little dragon continuing to breathe fire until they got back to clear skies and the last of the debris, now melted and fused together from the heat, fell to the ground. He dearly hoped none of that ice or debris had been people or animals. "Huh. That actually worked."

"I'm telling Doctor Strange."

"Don't be a tattletale, FRIDAY~!" He almost giggled when he remembered JARVIS' favorite saying on the matter, one he'd regularly used whenever he didn't approve of Pepper or Rhodey telling Obidiah things, back in the day. "Snitches end up in ditches~!" Tony all but singsonged.

"It seems the sorcerers have managed to open the portal to their dimension," Elsa noted and Tony turned back around to check on their allies to see that she was, in fact, right. There was a huge rift leading seemingly into a complete disaster of a dimension with melting snow and molten snow, as though it is lava but freezing instead of scorching hot. Perhaps the most worrying thing Tony can see through the rift, though, is a bunch of people dressed in some sort of uniforms/armor similar to the chest plate that the chief snow demon was wearing. He doesn't like what they're doing over there, though, because it looked like they were tearing the world asunder by waging chaos, attacking more of the snow demon people who were running around seemingly like headless chickens - well, as far as Tony could tell with no insider knowledge and a bad view point. What truly distressed him, though, was not just the meaningless deaths - there were children there, for crying out loud! - but the machines that stuck in the ground and seemed to be gathering energy in big condensed balls and then breaking it apart with huge lasers.

A sharp prickle of fear and a near deafening buzz of anger through the bond had him looking to Elsa even before her voice reached his ears. "Close the gate. Now! Before they see and come through!"

"But they need to get the snow demons through!" Tony exclaimed back, surprised and worried as he had yet to feel such ... desperation in Elsa's voice or feel it echoed down their link. Yes, their bond was young and they have only been exposed to peaceful days so far but this sounded almost disproportionate in comparison to it all. He'd never thought he'd hear Elsa panic like this.

"Please, Tony, please!" The dragon rounded up and pleaded with him. Pleaded, eyes desperate and wide with fear, her heart skipping beats under his hand when he retracted a gauntlet to try and calm her down with skin on skin contact. "Just close that gate."

Tony hesitated but had FRIDAY patch him through to Wong. He was so glad he had made the sorcerers take the comm units he'd made for them otherwise he'd have to fly down to 'ground zero' to deliver the message and Elsa obviously wouldn't have been comfortable with that. "Wong, I don't have the time to explain, but you need to close the portal, now!"

"Are you mad, Stark?" Came the incredulous and enraged response from the other side of the line, breaking Wong's usual resting bitch composure. A zoom in on the Asian man's face shows that the emotions were so strong they had even broken through his resting bitch face, leaving his expression to match the growing rage and offense at the instruction. "We just got it open and this is the only way to get rid of all of this ice and snow as well! We can't just close it!"

"Well, you'll have to. Elsa is insisting that there's something on the other side that's apparently dangerous and- Oh shit!" The warning had apparently come too late and too much time had been wasted. One of the white soldiers on the other side had seen them and had apparently reported the rift between worlds because there was suddenly a surge of more of them going straight for it. The sorcerers had no time to prepare themselves before an entire battalion made its way through and shot them all where they stand. Only Wong and some old dude managed to get out of the way because they had been standing on the other side of the circle, out of immediate sight, and they fell back into portals to avoid their comrades' fates.

The strange, white dressed people poured out of the portal on foot or on some flying contraptions that looked more advanced than the things the Chitauri had flown on and was equipped with weapons. They didn't hesitate to start shooting at both sorcerers and the snow demons indiscriminately, not shooting at Tony for some reason. There were dying or pained cries everywhere as several dozen of the soldiers started laying waste to the battlefield. Tony panicked when he saw a huge warship heading for the portal.

No, he thought, determined and scared. No. This will not be a second Thanos, damn it!

Stephen, while busy fighting off the new enemies, must have caught sight of the same thing because he activated his comm and hailed Tony. "I need backup and a distraction so I can close the portal. Think you and Elsa can help with that?"

"Of course, Doc- Watch out!" Stephen had just enough time to duck before he could get mauled by a huge, ugly looking wolf-thing that seemed to be snarling and salivating more than any creature Tony had seen so far. "What the fuck is that?! What the hell is going on here!?"

"Explanation time later, my Ib. The Sorcerer Supreme needs our assistance to close the gate." Right. Trust Elsa to keep relatively calm in such a situation even though she had been the first to panic.

Tony let the nanites cover his previously exposed hand back up before he surged forward like earlier, keeping Elsa in front of himself as the dragon started spewing scorching and freezing fire at once, drawing attention to themselves as they both fired all that they've got at the new enemies. Between his weaponry and Elsa's powers, they'd managed to rid themselves of a good portion of the white soldiers that had initially come through when the huge warship on the other side started entering this side. Stephen had apparently been held up with killing the rabid wold thing that had been trying to snap him in half with its jaws and had then proceeded to fight the rest of its pack with copies of himself still at it while the man himself was making rapid hand gestures at the bottom of the gate. Wong was keeping his back safe from the left but one of the wolves had managed to stray close enough to kill the only other remaining sorcerer, that old guy that had survived the initial attack, and the wolf had made quite a gory scene before Wong had seen, too late, and blasted the thing off of him.

It took Tony a bit too long for his liking to figure out that he wasn't being targeted at all. And it took him only a few seconds longer to figure out why.

"Stephen, hurry the fuck up! These things are attracted to your magic and are killing you for it!"

"I'm trying!" The taller man snapped back as his magic enveloped the rift and seemed to forcefully be knitting it back together when one of those strange white soldiers somehow broke through the defensive circle and made a lunge for the sorcerer, only for the snow demon boss to appear seemingly out of nowhere and to protect his defenseless back. Stephen jerked at the action happening behind him but he seemed to calm after the boss said something to him that Tony had no way of making out before he returned to his task and the snow demon boss started making some really complicated maneuvers with his staff, which was glowing really brightly at this point. Tony tried not to panic when the snow and ice suddenly lifted, only for it not to attack him but the white soldiers and to start pushing back against the big space ship that had been trying to get through the magical gates. "He's an ally! Watch his back!"

"On it!" Tony responded, flying a bit closer but keeping a cautious eye on everything. The Amazon rain-forest seemed to be slowly returning to life around them as the last of the cold left the flora and fauna it had imprisoned beforehand. At least that part of the mission seems to have gone right, no matter how quickly everything turned crazy. He sent a quick notice to Fury that things were under control-ish before turning his attention back to the matter at hand, just in time to see a figure emerge from the front of the big ship, protected from the chaos trying to push the thing back by what must have been an impressive force field. He was decked out in some type of metal-plated armor from head to toe and Stark couldn't tell if it was actually part of his 'skin' or an actual armor like his Iron Man suit was. All he knew was that the dude had a huge green orb as a power source of some sort and that an even bigger gun seemed to be connected by it, powering the gun up with an almost sickly green energy. "Guys, there's some freaky martian person coming out of the ship with a really big ass gun! He might try to shoot at you so some shields would be nice!"

"It is not us that is in danger, Star Born!" A gravely, rumbling, almost snarling rough voice snapped from the other end. A quick glance confirmed Tony's suspicion that it was the boss snow demon who was speaking, apparently having overheard his communication with Stephen and yelling in the former doctor's general direction in hopes of getting his own message across. Though the title the dude gave him was weird as fuck and that's saying something, considering how weird Tony's life in general was. "Get away! The targets are you both!"

But the warning seems to have come too late. The gun was charged and by the time both Elsa and Tony realized it was aimed at them, the white dude was already aiming at them. The shot rang powerful, thunderous, fast as lightning, making it through the swiftly closing rift just in time and heading straight towards them. FRIDAY already had shields forming but neither she nor Tony were optimistic about the barely formed nanites holding up under the blast with no time to strengthen the bonds between them at the inevitable and swiftly approaching impact. Tony closed his eyes, apologized to all of his friends and held on tight to Elsa. He tried to ignore her panic as he shoved his soul into her care so that when his body died, she'd have that which really mattered and hopefully that would be enough to keep her alive.

Apparently, Elsa had no intention of allowing this to happen and didn't allow his soul to cross the threshold into her own. Instead, as he would later learn, she made a big burst of her magic and formed a magical ice shield in the shape of a thick sphere all around them in a last ditch effort to protect them from the brunt of the attack's impact.

Tony didn't know this.

All he knew was a piercing pain ripping through his chest and his world going dark and cold, as though he was falling once again into the depths of the Well of Ahtohallan. Only there was no Elsa waiting for him on the other side. There was no light, no hope, ho relief. There was no sound, no nothing. All there was ... was pain.

He was lost.