Rise of the Champions - Chapter Thirty-Nine
Author: Milady Dragon
Ianto arrived in Pepper's casting chamber, answering her rather panicked call.
When Pepper Potts panicked, he was always going to listen., even if it meant leaving the recovering James Barnes alone for the time it took to see what had his former Novice so worked up.
It had been something about the magical stone that had been implanted in Baron Tony's chest. From what she'd told him, the Baron was using it in a way that was very concerning, and she'd wanted him to come and examine it. Honestly, Ianto had wished she'd called years before, after Tony had escaped his kidnappers and had shown back up at Castle Ferrous, an Artifact the only thing keeping his heart beating. He'd long wanted to see just what that gemstone was, but he hadn't been asked, and if he'd attempted to throw his weight around and use his position to force his way in, he just knew that Tony would have kicked up a fuss with the Council and that would have been the quick way to cause friction between the Council and the Guild.
"Ianto." Pepper looked frazzled, another sign that it was serious. Happy was in his place on her shoulder, and he was doing something Ianto had never seen him do: he had his tail clutched in his front claws and was worrying it. Happy was usually such a…well, a happy little dragon, so to see him like that, mirroring his companion's anxiety, made him want to reach out and cuddle the little thing to him and promise him things were going to be alright.
"What changed?" he inquired softly, not wanting to sound confrontational or anything.
Pepper took in a deep breath. "Tony and Bruce have managed to create a suit of magical armor that uses that gemstone as a power source."
He couldn't stop his jaw from dropping in surprise. "He did what?" he blurted, not quite sure he'd heard correctly.
Tony Stark had always been on the cutting edge of creating items that would mimic their magical counterparts, like the lights he'd invented that ran on a generator instead of being enchanted by a Wizard. So, for him to fall back on using magic for something seemed a bit out of character.
Pepper laughed a little, only it had a worried tinge to it. "He was out in the garden, flying around in that damned suit, setting our apple trees on fire! At least I got him to agree to let you look at the stone before he did anymore aerial acrobatics."
Ianto felt his eyebrows escape toward his hairline. "He did what?" he repeated, at a complete loss for words at this point.
"My reaction precisely. At least there were witnesses, or else I would have thought I was losing my mind."
"Does he understand just how dangerous that was?" Ianto had learned from painful experience that messing around with unknown Artifacts wasn't a very good idea at all. People had died because they touched the wrong thing at the wrong time. Hells, Ianto had made his own fair share of mistakes, when he'd first started out as Head Archivist back at Torchwood Castle in Barony Cardiff. He not only had the physical scars from those mistakes, but the emotional ones as well.
He followed Pepper up into the main castle, as she said, "He says he had Bruce run the main equations. But, Ianto…Bruce isn't a Wizard. He's very talented, but he's a theorist, and has never worked with real magic in his life."
Ianto was well aware of Dr. Bruce Banner's reputation and had, on occasion, used the scientist's theories in his own spell work. They always held up in practical trials, and the Wizard had been genuinely impressed by the thought that had gone into Dr. Banner's equations and rune making, believing it a shame that he hadn't been born a Wizard. In his opinion, it had been a loss to the Guild that Bruce Banner hadn't ever gained his dragon.
"Still," he tried to look on the bright side, if there was one in this situation, "Tony at least attempted to follow proper procedures in his experimentation." That wasn't always the case, as Pepper had complained often enough.
She was very proud of her husband and his work, but there were times when the Baron's antics wanted to make her pull out her hair in sheer frustration. And, it had been much worse before the kidnapping that had caused him to be bound to a magical Artifact in the first place.
"The proper procedure," she answered waspishly, "would have been not to let him convince me not to call you in in the first place."
She had a point.
Still, Ianto had been around Tony many times over the years, and that gemstone hadn't really pinged his magical senses all that much. He'd assumed it was fairly neutral, and not very powerful, but now they had proof that wasn't exactly the case. If it had enough energy in it to make a man fly and cause the sort of destruction, then Ianto had seriously underestimated its enchantments.
"What makes this worse," she sighed, "is that I saw that armor in his workshop and didn't question it. There was even a hole in the breastplate that corresponded to the place on his chest where the stone is. I saw it, and it concerned me, but I didn't think anything about it after that. I should have said something immediately but, at the time, we were in a bit of a crisis with Pierce and the Barons and I never thought about it again."
She was wringing her hands, and Ianto reassured her that it wasn't her fault. It wasn't; how was she supposed to know what Tony's plans were? That it would actually work?
Daisy was waiting for them outside the casting chamber entrance into the main castle area, leaning against the wall with Skye on her shoulders as usual, trying to look nonchalant and failing miserably. "Are you one of the witnesses?" he inquired.
The young Wizard nodded. "It was amazing…" then her eyes darted toward Pepper, "and incredibly dangerous," she added hastily. "I can't believe he did it, Ianto. I mean, I've been with Baron Tony in his workshop and all that, and I never picked up on anything from that stone…"
"None of us did," Pepper admitted. "It's been fairly inert for years. How Tony got the bee in his hat to even try something like this…"
"Did he ever explain to you how the stone came to be bound to him in the first place?" Ianto walked with the two ladies toward the Baron's workshop.
"He says he doesn't know," Pepper replied. "He knows there was some sort of explosion – that we know happened, because Rhodey was there and witnessed the actual kidnapping – and then he remembered waking up in the cave the terrorists were hiding in, the stone melded to his chest and being told it was the only thing keeping him alive."
"By the Wizard, Yinsen."
Ianto knew about Master Yinsen; after all, the Wizard had been one of his own Order, and while he'd never met the man, he'd been informed of his death after the fact. It looked as if they would never know how the Wizard had done what he'd done in order to save Tony's life.
There was still a lot of mystery surrounding Tony Stark's kidnapping and subsequent escape. The only thing they knew for certain was that Obadiah Stane, who'd been Baron Ferrous at the time, had been responsible for arranging it, because he'd been afraid that Tony would want to take over the Barony and would discover Stane's double-dealings. As the son of the former Baron, Tony would have been perfectly within his rights to do so, but it had been Stane tipping his hand that had led to the very thing Stane had wished to stop.
It had also led to Stane's death, but that was the price paid for the sort of treachery Stane had been willingly involved in.
They were also aware of the fact that the kidnappers had betrayed Stane; they'd been supposed to kill Tony outright. However, they'd held him and demanded that he create a weapon that would be immune to all magic, in an effort to destroy the Guild, and that Tony had refused. Instead, he and Yinsen had played along until Tony could escape, taking the stone with him.
"How's James?" Daisy's voice broke into his thoughts.
"I managed to get the rest of the curses removed this morning." Ianto smiled; after yesterday, the other curses had been very simple to unpick. "He was sleeping it off when I got the call. I left a note."
What he didn't add was that the so-called 'note' was a three-page letter explaining where everything was, that James was to help himself to the bath – he even explained the plumbing, since he very much doubted that his house guest even remembered that magic didn't really exist back in his time, and to be safe – and to anything he wanted to eat – once again telling him about the cold box so he wouldn't be startled by the large metal and wood monstrosity in the kitchen – and that Ianto had left coffee in the carafe if James was so inclined. The Wizard had also told him where to find spare clothes – he and Jack were of a size, if not height, and would do until they could get the former Winter Knight some things of his own – and mentioning that his daughter, Eirlys, would be coming to check on him if Ianto's business took him away for a lengthy period of time. Ianto had also rather thoughtfully included a hand-drawn diagram of the house, in case James wanted to find the library, or anything else he might need.
Oh, and an explanation of how the speaking stone Ianto had provided worked, in case James needed anything he might not have been able to find on his own or found himself in some form of distress.
"And how's your Dad?" Ianto asked in return.
"Clint called me just after all the excitement ended to let me know he was awake."
That…was a surprise. Ianto had expected him to be out most of the day, after yesterday's events, and said so.
"That was my response, but Clint also said that Dad hadn't been able to sleep anymore, and had already expelled the bad Void. Oh," she sounded worried, "and we got a call from Stephen, saying that Prince Thor wanted to meet with Dad. We're all certain it's about Loki."
Yes, it would have had to have been about Loki. But, how the Prince of Asgard had known about Phil…
"Yeah," she answered when he said as much, "both Clint and I were wondering if he understood that Dad used to be the Dark One, if he somehow put it all together…or was told."
"I doubt Master Erik broke that much of the vow we all took." At least, he hoped that was the case.
"Pretty sure Stephen was going to talk to him about it."
Stephen would have been just as concerned about that sort of thing, and would have taken care of it himself, as Master Erik Selvig was in his Order. There would need to be some sort of punishment if that were true. Master Erik had assured them that he hadn't broken much of the rules, and the ones he had done had been in order to try and convince the Asgardian Queen that the Wizards of her kingdom would benefit in membership in the Guild, but Ianto wasn't so sure that sort of even minimal transparency was a good thing.
As they had been talking, the three of them and dragons had made their way toward the Baron's workshop. It was in an area of Castle Ferrous that had been abandoned until Tony had taken over the Barony, when he'd remodeled this section of the castle for his own, personal use, in order to avoid any sort of damage to the main living areas from the explosions that sometimes occurred when Tony would be creating things.
Ianto had only been in Tony's workshop once, and it hadn't been for long as he'd been looking for Pepper at the time and had just stuck his head in to inquire as to her whereabouts. The room was large and well-lit by both windows and the lightning powered bulbs that the Baron had invented, casting a bright glow over every inch of the shop. Workbenches and tables were spread around the area, cluttered with all sorts of mechanical paraphernalia, most of it Ianto didn't know the use for and was convinced that Tony had been responsible for inventing just because he needed it all to create other things.
The suit of armor standing up by one of the workbenches immediately caught his attention.
It wasn't a traditional design, more streamlined and articulated than what Ianto was familiar with. It was also a rather gaudy red and gold, not at all like his own Myfanwy's scales; in fact, his dragon sniffed in disdain in both his mind and out loud. There was a hole cut out in the breastplate, from which the Artifact would be visible, and Ianto was very curious indeed how Tony had managed to hook up the stone in such a way as to power the armor.
Tony and Dr. Banner were at the bench next to the armor, the Baron leaning over something with his back to the door that the Wizard couldn't make out, the theorist hovering nearby with a sheaf of papers in his hand, glasses perched on his nose. The remaining curses that had been cast upon the doctor shifted just under the man's skin, visible to Ianto's magical sight now that he was aware they were there, and he made a mental note to make time to get them all broken as soon as he possibly could.
Sir Rhodey, Tony's Knights' Commander, was standing guard not too far away, and Ianto had the distinct impression that his presence was the only thing keeping Tony from putting the armor back on and experimenting some more. The Knight nodded to Ianto in greeting, rolling his eyes in an excellent display of irritation and frustration.
For now, he had to worry about a potentially dangerous Artifact that had been grafted to a person who was bound and determined to use it to power an invention that also had the potential to be dangerous. Thank the Gods it wasn't in the wrong hands. Like those terrorists that had originally found the stone in the first place.
"Tony," Pepper called to get her husband's attention.
The Baron spun around on the stool he'd been seated on, a wry grin sliding over his face but then replaced so quickly by an almost blinding smile of welcome that Ianto almost believed he'd imagined it. The smile reminded him of one of Jack's more effusive expressions, one that his husband used when he wanted to hide how he was really feeling.
"Welcome to my humble abode!" he exclaimed, getting up and spreading his arms wide as if he was about to embrace them all.
"Tony," Ianto returned, giving the man his own version of a welcoming smile, which was much smaller and lighter, but no less sincere for it. "I understand you've created some sort of new wonder."
"I have," the Baron agreed. "Come on, let me explain it to you."
He proceeded to tell Ianto all about the armor, pointing out things as he explained. Truth to tell, the Wizard only understood about one word in four, but he thought he got the gist of the wiring and tubing that was used to syphon off the magic from the stone in order to power the armor. It really was amazing how he and Dr. Banner had managed to come up with a non-magical system that relied on magic to run, and Ianto couldn't help but be impressed with it all.
"I've been working on it for a while now," Tony said, "but it wasn't until Bruce came along that I could work out the logistics of it. And, when Fury had announced his idea for this Avengers Initiative thingy, I knew the armor would be perfect."
"I'm sorry," Ianto interrupted, "but the what?"
"Oh yeah, you're not up on the Council of Barons and their business. Fury's come up with this idea of a team of unique individuals who would be a rapid response force answering to the Council. They'd be sent where they were needed, when quick action was required. It's really pretty brilliant, actually."
It…was. The closest the United Kingdom came to that was Jack's team, but Ianto doubted that was what Baron Nick meant by 'unique'. He had to wonder just who the Baron had in mind for this team, and what sort of Wizard would fit. Because there would need to be at least one onboard with this idea. Knowing that Baron Nick was best friends with Phil, he could see the man approaching the Void Wizard for referrals.
Although, if Baron Nick wanted 'unique' to mean 'powerful', he should really consider Phil as a part of that team. Ianto wondered if Phil would accept. Probably not, since he had enough on his plate at the moment.
"And this is why you decided to test the armor?" Ianto asked. "Because of this so-called Avengers team?"
"Well, yeah." Tony met Ianto's eyes squarely. "I've always been about making the world better for people…well, since I got kidnapped, that is. But, to do that, there have to actually be people to make things better for. The way to make that happen is to have something that can be used to protect the ones who can't protect themselves. We're living in a world of miracles now, what with Wizards coming back, but that also means that the threats could possibly get more powerful as well. Just look at Loki. He managed to kick Phil's ass, and we all know Daisy's Dad is up there on par with you."
Those…were well-thought out sentiments, and Ianto could understand where Tony had come up with them. Still, to use an untested magical Artifact… "I can agree with what you're saying. But, Tony, we don't know exactly what that stone in your chest is. Can you remember anything about it from your time as a prisoner?"
The Baron shrugged. "Only what Yinsen told me – that the gang that Obie hired to kidnap me had it, and had given it to Yinsen so he could figure out what it was and if they could use it in whatever the hells crusade they were running, even though they were dead-set against magic in the first place. And don't ask me what that crusade was…they never shared their ideology with me before I managed to escape." He looked a little shifty in that moment. "I don't remember the actual escape, although I'm pretty convinced the stone had something to do with it." He absently rubbed the area of his chest where the Artifact sat, imbedded into his skin. "They'd killed Yinsen, you see, and suddenly I wasn't in the cave anymore. I have no other way to explain it except that it was magic. Of course, it could have been Yinsen, but since he was dead at that time…" He shrugged.
"May I see?"
For a second, Ianto thought he was going to deny the request. However, after a moment Tony shrugged, unbuttoning his stained work tunic and revealing the softly glowing blue of the gemstone that had saved his life.
It sat just above Tony's heart, surrounded by scarred and puckered skin that had seemingly grown up around it, holding the Artifact in place. Ianto could immediately see that it would take nothing less than full-on surgery in order to remove it, not that it would ever be removed unless someone could work out a way of doing it without killing Tony.
"Have you had a healer or physician come in and see exactly had happened to cause the original damage?"
"Yeah, Pepper insisted. I recall an explosion of some sort –"
"Which I can confirm," Sir Rhodey put in.
"—and then I work up in that cave, Yinsen leaning over me, and feeling this weight on my chest. I looked and…" he gestured toward the Artifact.
"How heavy is it?" Ianto wanted to get as much information he could before he brought his Catalyst abilities to bear on it.
"It depends." The Baron shrugged. "At first, it was like someone had stuck a lead weight to the center of my chest. But, as time went on, it's gotten lighter. Now there are times I can almost forget it's there. Well, except for the glowing part. That I notice."
"I'm going to probe it a little. Perhaps it would be best if you sat down for this part?"
"Try not to kill me, alright? Pepper and I still don't have an heir, and I'd kinda like to keep the Barony in the family."
His flippant words covered a whole world of meaning.
"I'll do my best." Ianto wouldn't do anything that even seemed like it would endanger Tony's life. Despite the man's irreverent nature, the Wizard quite liked him, and didn't want to see either him or Pepper hurt.
Which made the examination of the Artifact more important than ever. If it was somehow harming Tony, then it would have to be removed, and they would need all the information they could get on its structure and enchantments.
After Tony took a seat in one of the very few chairs in the workshop, Ianto took a deep breath and blinked, bringing his magical sight into play.
"It's amazing how magic presents itself in different people," Dr. Banner mused just loud enough to be heard in the silence that had descended. "Grand Master, I understand yours is quite unique among Wizards."
"It is," Ianto confirmed, but he did it absently, as he stared at the glowing stone in awe.
That magical signature was vaguely familiar…
Ah.
If Stephen hadn't pointed it out already, Ianto never would have realized that this Artifact had been created by the same Wizard that had enchanted the Pendant of Souls and the stone in Loki's spear.
He was shaken by that realization. How had the terrorists gotten their hands on such an ancient Artifact? And what had they wanted Master Yinsen to actually do with it? After all, everyone knew that Tony had been kidnapped at the behest of Obadiah Stane, and that the kidnappers hadn't gone according to Stane's plan: that Tony had been meant to be murdered, but that they'd decided he would be of more use to create an anti-magic weapon of some sort. Had they thought to test whatever weapon the Baron would have built on the stone?
But what about before they'd taken Tony?
He supposed they would never know. However Tony had managed to escape, it had left everyone else in the cave system where he'd been held dead, and Master Yinsen had been flat-up murdered by the terrorists just before the escape.
"What is it?" Pepper murmured.
His expression must have told her something. Damn, his ability to hide his emotions behind a bland mask must have been fading away with age.
"It's…incredibly ancient," he reported. "And it contains the magical signature of the same Wizard who created one of the most dangerous Artifacts in the Archives…and Loki's spear."
"Shit." Tony sounded both stunned and disgusted.
"Master Yinsen didn't say how the kidnappers got their hands on it?" Any clue would have been helpful.
"If he knew, he never told me. He just said they'd found it, but I think there's more to the story than that."
He'd been afraid of that. "I'm going to touch it. Please let me know if you feel anything out of the ordinary."
"This whole situation is fucking out of the ordinary."
Ianto couldn't help snorting, because Tony was pretty much correct. "Would someone mind bringing me a chair as well?"
"I've got it." Sir Rhodey pulled one of the other chairs, this one straight-backed, over to where Ianto indicated.
Thanking him, the Wizard sat, leaning toward Tony, his hand stretching out toward the Artifact. He knew he didn't need to explain what he was about to do; everyone in the room knew his history, about how he'd started out as Master Archivist at Torchwood Castle, the youngest to ever be so simply because he'd had a magical ability. At the time, he hadn't known he was actually a full-blown Wizard, that wouldn't come until later, but he'd been able to discover just what an Artifact could do – and be able to use it – simply by touching it.
Oh, it hadn't always been a good thing, being what had been called at the time a Catalyst. He'd had his share of failures, and at least one person had paid the price. However, he'd had far more successes, and it had made him invaluable to the Baroness Cardiff at the time, who had only cared that she had a true magic-user working for her, for the prestige that had brought.
Now, he still used his ability when an unknown Artifact showed up. However, he was always more cautious about it, usually working in isolation in order to avoid any sort of injury to an innocent bystander. This time he didn't have that option, and would have to pray that his taking a peek inside the workings of the stone wouldn't do any damage to the person it was melded to.
Even before he could touch it physically, his fingers began to tingle as the magic reacted to its presence. He glanced up, and Tony didn't seem to be showing any discomfort, so Ianto continued until his fingertips rested directly onto the surface of the gemstone.
It was like touching something Godly.
In that moment, Ianto's magical senses expanded. He could see everyone around him even though he wasn't physically looking at anyone. Then, they expanded again, and he found himself seeing Ferrous-town and its environs, able to watch as Wizards and non-magical folk alike interacted, a web as light as silk yet as strong as steel connecting them all together and with the world itself.
Expanding again, the Wizard could now see how the world connected to the warp and weft of the universe. His consciousness was everywhere, seeing everything, and it was awe-inspiring and terrifying all at the same time.
He was seeing space. The space within, and the space without.
Ianto had no idea how long he'd been touching the Artifact – the Space Stone, it told him, with the power to control all those spaces he'd been able to see – but he pulled away, not wanting to see anything else. It had already been too much, and he felt like weeping at the immenseness of it all.
"Ianto?" Pepper asked worriedly, hers the first voice he heard after coming back to himself.
He glanced up at her, unable to put into words what he'd seen. This sort of thing shouldn't exist, it was an object that should have been impossible, and yet, there it was, bonded to a normal human being and keeping his heart beating because it wanted to. It didn't have a consciousness per se, but somehow it knew, it knew who and what Tony Stark was and wanted him protected. It was beyond consciousness, and now Ianto had wished he'd Touched the gem within the hilt of Loki's spear, to examine it much closer, to see what made it the way it was.
Because, while the gemstone in the spear and the Soul Stone and the Space Stone had all been created by the same Wizard, they each seemed to have different intentions behind their enchantments. Oh, how powerful had that Wizard been! What magicks the ancient Wizards had had at their beck and call.
Dafydd had explained a lot to him, about that alternate universe he'd been a part of, where magic had never been locked away from the world by Master John Smith. Of the wonders that the Wizards had been able to perform. Ianto had a sudden notion that Dafydd's world had only been a pale imitation of the past, now that he'd seen what the Space Stone had shown him.
Now, everyone in the room was staring at him, at his silence, and he knew he had to say something or else at least Daisy would be calling Jack and telling him to get his ass to Ferrous and take his husband home or something equally damaging to his dignity.
"It…it's amazing," he finally managed to force out. "Whoever created it was a genius." Tony looked as if he was going to argue with the use of that particular word, and so Ianto clarified, "A magical genius."
The Baron looked mollified by that qualification.
"That Artifact," he waved generally toward the area of Tony's chest, "literally connects to the warp and weft of space. When I touched it," he struggled for words, "it was like…like I was touching infinity. I suddenly saw everything. The human mind simply isn't able to comprehend that, or seeing infinite space, so I can't even describe it."
"No," Daisy said, "I think you just described it enough for us all to get it."
"But is it dangerous?" Pepper demanded, thinking only of her husband's safety.
Ianto could completely understand her priorities. "I honestly can't say. Tony isn't magical, so he won't be able to actually touch the magic within the stone itself, and he also won't be able to tap into what I just did."
"Well, that sucks," Tony drawled, very obviously disappointed. "After that build-up I really wanted to see it for myself."
"But is it safe?" Pepper pressed, her face pale.
Ianto had to be honest. "Not in the slightest. However, it's not going to hurt Tony, and I wouldn't even begin to know how to remove it anyway." He didn't add the part where the stone wanted to be where it was. He didn't think that would go over too well.
"And what about using it to power the armor?" Dr. Banner inquired.
The Wizard considered that. "Did you feel any ill effects from the stone at all?"
Tony shrugged. "Nope. The only thing I felt was the adrenaline rush of being able to fly and blow shit up."
"I can't honestly say that won't change. But the Artifact itself doesn't seem to mind. If anything, it's horrifically overpowered so there's only a slight danger that it will give out while being used, and it's not corrupted that I can tell." Not even the other Artifacts with the same magical signature were technically corrupt; they'd been used for evil purposes, even if the Pendant of Souls was inherently bad because of its nature to steal souls.
But he couldn't understand why the Wizard who'd done all that hard work in enchanting the stones would create such a wonder as the Space Stone, and then the horror of the Soul Stone? And what exactly was the stone in Loki's spear?
Ianto needed to see that spear again, to determine what that Artifact actually was.
His next stop…the Secure Archives. Ianto needed to do a more complete scan of the spear. One he should have done a long time ago.
