Rise of the Champions - Chapter Forty-Three
Author: Milady Dragon
Okay, to say Tony was a little freaked out by what Ianto had discovered about the gemstone stuck in his chest would have been an understatement.
He'd had that stone stuck to him for years, and had never even considered the power that thing had.
Well, that wasn't exactly true.
When he'd somehow escaped from the terrorists, after Yinsen had been fucking murdered right in front of him, Tony had believed that the gem had somehow gotten him out. He honestly couldn't recall leaving the cave under his own power; one moment, he'd been screaming. The next, he'd been on the mountainside, stumbling down toward the town he could just make out in the distance, terrified and blindingly angry at the same time. A part of him had wanted to go back into that cave and destroy every single person there, for himself and for Yinsen and because of the pain that knowing Obie had betrayed him so badly. But he'd known that would have only gotten him killed as well, and had run away, getting to town and reporting to the magistrate that they'd had a mucking huge band of terrorists hiding out in their mountains and no one had even known about it.
That was before he'd come to learn that the terrorists had somehow ended up dead…and no, he didn't want to think about that.
Damnit, he missed Yinsen. They'd only known each other a few days, but Tony had been able to tell that the Wizard would have been one of the few people the Baron would have been able to trust back then.
There was that whole, 'saving his life' thing as well. Even if Yinsen had somehow convinced an Artifact to take up residence on Tony's sternum.
He rubbed his chest absently, the stone a familiar weight now. He'd told Ianto the truth – that the gem had been heavy at first, but had grown considerably lighter as time went on, as if it truly had become a part of him. Maybe it had. Maybe it was now as integral a piece of him as his heart.
Ianto had called it the Space Stone. And what he'd seen in it…Gods, Tony wished he could experience that at least once, even if it terrified him more than a little.
Bruce was looking at him in concern, so he flashed a bright smile toward his newest friend, although he got the feeling that Bruce wasn't buying it.
"At least it isn't a bunch of curses that would have turned you into a mindless monster," he commented, putting his spectacles down on the journal he'd been making notes in.
"Wow, what a way to bring something into perspective." Bruce did have a point. Tony was just a little shocked that he was mentioning it. He really hadn't talked about what Ross had done to him, not since Ianto had taken care of the worst of the curses.
Bruce gave him a raised eyebrow. "I aim to please."
Tony waggled his own eyebrows at him. "Well, if you really wanted to please…"
"One of these days someone's going to take you up on that, and you're going to have to explain to Pepper why you have a stalker."
"It hasn't happened yet." Tony waved a hand in dismissal. Besides, he only did that sort of shit to people he knew would never accept the overture. He might have had a past that was more drinking and sex than most people's, but he'd given that up when he'd chosen to woo Pepper. It had been the best decision he'd ever made.
"That's because," Rhodey piped up from the corner he'd seemed to move into, "you only flirt with taken people anymore."
Bruce huffed. "The last time I checked, I wasn't taken."
Tony's best friend – although Bruce had moved into the same friend tier that Rhodey had occupied all by himself for years – rolled his eyes. "If you believe that, then you're not as smart as Tony says you are."
"He's right, you know." Tony picked up a screwdriver, in order to have something to keep his hands busy. "You're still gone on Betty, and even more so now that you know she hasn't been staying away from you because she wanted to."
Bruce had a considering expression on this face. "Huh. You might be right."
"I usually am."
"And…there's the ego." Rhodey was laughing, taking any possible sting out of his words.
Because Rhodey understood. He'd known Tony since they were children, the brilliant scion of the Baronial family, and the boy who'd wanted to be a Knight more than anything in the world. He'd seen Tony at his worst, had protected him when the bullies had decided that Tony would make an excellent target, had taught him self-defense in case Rhodey happened to be somewhere else when they'd come around to push the smaller boy around. Tony had kicked ass the first time using a move that Rhodey had shown him; it had also got him into trouble with his jerk of a father who'd only wanted to hear one side of the story, but Rhodey had been the one to tell Tony that he was proud of how he'd managed to put the older kid face-down in the dirt.
Rhodey was the brother Tony never had. He understood that a lot of what Tony said and did was just another form or self-defense, this one learned at his father's knee in an effort to bring Howard's attention to his only son. Now, it was ingrained, something he did without thinking about it, and Rhodey never judged.
Tony was certain that others had also seen behind the flippant exterior he showed to the world. Pepper certainly did, but then he'd never had to hide from her, not since he'd come back from being kidnapped. Afterward, the asshole he showed to the rest of the world had faded a little, and he'd settled into becoming the best Baron Ferrous he could.
Those he counted as friends knew. Ianto, and Jack, Phil, and Daisy, and now Bruce…and there were others, people he'd known for a long time, and even some of the Barons on the Council. Hells, chances were there were many more, but the majority of people he'd ever been acquainted with only saw the front he chose to put up in public.
"I'm a genius," Tony snarked back, "of course I'm gonna be right."
Bruce chuckled. "Of course you are."
He was laughing, so Tony considered that a serious win. Bruce could be way too solemn, but then who could blame him? After what Ross had done? Causing him to lose the woman he loved because the asshat hadn't agreed with Bruce courting his only daughter, just because he wasn't a Wizard.
Of course, the more he'd heard about Thaddeus Ross, the more he'd come to realize that he was an equal opportunity asshat. Backing Stern's play about mini-Pepper…that had been just plain wrong. Even Bruce had commented that it made what Ross had done to him look like a child's temper tantrum in retrospect, because anyone could see that Daisy belonged with the man who'd taken care of her, who'd pulled her out of a warzone, and who had completely turned his life around the moment he'd met her.
Yeah, Tony was still trying to reconcile the fact that the man who'd been such an awesome dad to Daisy had been one of the most hated Dark Wizards in the world. It just didn't make any sense, but then if Tony himself could change, anyone could.
"Honestly," Rhodey's face turned serious, "Tone…are you alright?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" Tony shrugged, hating to talk about feelings and hoping his friend would just drop the subject.
But this was James Rhodes. Tony should have known he wouldn't let it go.
"You just found out you have a super-powerful magical Artifact attached to you. I'd be freaking out if it was me."
Well, Rhodey did know him, after all.
The thing was, Tony had always wondered if the gem – the Space Stone, he may as well get used to calling it that in his head – wasn't more powerful than everything believed it was. Sure, no one had done any sort of magical scanning on it, because Tony liked his privacy and hadn't wanted anyone to get that close to it – and there were all the trust issues inherent on letting anyone get that close – but he'd thought about it. Where the terrorists had gotten it from, how Yinsen had managed to get it to connect to Tony despite the fact that he didn't have a magical bone in his body. They'd never really know the answers to those questions, because the terrorists were dead, and Yinsen had been killed by those selfsame terrorists.
So, there was no way of knowing anything about the gem's origins.
He'd also thought about asking Ianto to check it out, but he'd never done it. Mainly because, as curious as he was about it, Tony had also been a little afraid to find out.
And, hello…trust issues again.
Well, he knew now.
And it was both better and worse than what he'd ever imagined.
"There's nothing I can do about it," he answered. "It's stuck to me for good." He tapped the stone through his work shirt. "It's a part of me now. Besides, the alternative for it being gone…well, the world would miss my particular brand of genius."
That answer had Rhodey rolling his eyes, but there was a grin on his face. "Gods forbid the world not have you in it, Tony."
He could tell his friend was completely serious under all that teasing, and it warmed something in Tony's chest that didn't have anything to do with the gemstone embedded in it. He really had the best friends ever.
"Well," he cleared his throat a little, not wanting to show how touched he was by what Rhodey had said, but failing miserably, "I need to get back to work on those actuators. They were a bit unsteady in flight when I have to use one of the hand repulsors…"
Rhodey huffed. "That's me told. I think I'll go and drill the rest of the Knights. They've been getting lazy."
Tony knew that was a bald-faced lie; Rhodey kept his cadre of Knights on their toes. There was no way in any of the hells that they'd be getting lazy. Still, he recognized the excuse when he heard it, so he flapped his hands toward the door. "We can't have that, can we? It makes the Barony look bad and the rivals think they have a chance at me."
"Not gonna happen on my watch." With that oath, Rhodey left the workshop.
Gods, the day Tony had appointed him as his Knights' Commander should have been made a Baronial holiday. Maybe he'd see about that.
"You've got a good bunch of people," Bruce observed, going to back to his notes.
Tony had to agree with that.
He turned back to his workbench, where the armor's left actuator was laying in pieces. Anyone else would have seen a mess, but Tony knew exactly what each piece did, and had set them down in the order of assemblage. He'd always had method to his particular brand of madness, it wasn't his fault that no one else could see that.
Well, Bruce apparently could. But Bruce was awesome that way.
He lost track of time amidst the little fiddly bits of metal and other materials. The parts practically sang to him, serenading him with their unity even though they were currently separated, sharing their secrets with him as he worked. Tony would never be able to explain exactly what this sort of work meant to him, how it talked to him. It was his own brand of magic, one that wasn't based in universal forces but his own mind and heart, and the closest person who ever came to truly understanding it was Bruce. But then, Bruce had his own brand of genius, one that wasn't rooted in magic, and it took an amazing mind to theorize about magic when he didn't have any himself.
A soft hand on his shoulder brought him out of his work zone; he'd managed to get the actuator put back together better than before. He glanced up at Pepper, who was looking at him worriedly, Happy on her shoulders and her face a little paler than usual. Gods, Tony felt like such a shit when she had that sort of expression on his face, because it just hit home to him that he really didn't deserve her. That she was so much better than he was, that whatever he'd done to have her fall in love with him would never be enough.
Bruce had vanished. He hadn't even noticed him leave.
"Hey, Pep," he greeted her softly.
"Tony." Her fingers tightened slightly, then relaxed. "I've heard from Ianto, and he wanted me to ask you to still keep the existence of that," her free hand stroked down his shirt, just over the gemstone sealed to his skin, "a secret even if you're going to use it to power the armor."
Alright, he could see the sense in that. If the stone really was as powerful as Ianto had claimed, then putting it out there that his life currently depended on it would be a really bad idea. There were Wizards out there who wouldn't have minded getting their hands on it, and it wouldn't matter that removing it would kill him in the process.
See, for example: Hydra.
"He suggested you claim you invented a special power source," she continued, "and that I can claim to have helped if people notice the magical signature of the Space Stone. After all, every Wizard we meet would already assume that, because I would want to put all sorts of wards on you after the kidnapping. So it would only make sense that you'd have magic around you."
"Yeah, okay," he agreed. It was an easy thing to do. "I should probably get on that anyway. Something that small would be a boon to people who can't afford magical power generating shit anyway." He'd been working on smaller versions of the electrical generator that was currently taking up a lot of space down in what used to be the Castle dungeons, to make it available to the poorer areas of the country, but hadn't managed to get something that small working yet. Hells, he already had several Baronies lined up volunteering to test the generators when he had more working prototypes, which still amazed him. He'd believed he'd have a much harder time selling that to anyone.
The smile she gave him was small, but it was so full of love and trust that it made his damaged heart cramp. Gods, what had he done to deserve her? He really wished someone would let him know, so he wouldn't ever risk losing her by messing it all up.
He reached up and grasped the hand that was resting over the gemstone, squeezing gently. "Tell me to stop. If you tell me to stop, I'll put the armor away into the deepest storage area we have and never pull it out again."
Tony meant every word. He didn't want to worry or scare her; he'd already done enough of that. Which he would do if he put on that armor and fought whatever battles were coming up. Her happiness was too important to him than for him to risk his life by joining Fury's Avengers thing.
"I would never ask you that." Her expression was grateful, though. "You need to be able to protect people, and this is a way you can do that."
"I can find other ways."
"You could," she allowed, "and you have. Just look at everything you've accomplished. But, Tony… this is important to you. I can see that."
"Not as important as you." And he wasn't just saying that, either. Tony meant every word. He would give it all up in a heartbeat if Pepper asked.
And she knew it, too. "You have to do this. You would never be able to just sit back and let others go out there and fight for your people."
Gods, Pepper was incredible. The day he died and ended up standing before the Gods to be judged for the acts of his life, he was going to admit that he couldn't have been the man he'd become without her.
Because she understood. She knew him, inside and out. Knew just what this meant to him, and was willing to support him and encourage him, even when she was terrified for his safety.
Tony pulled her toward him and into a hug, and she accepted it, even though he was wearing ratty and oily work clothes and she hated getting dirty. Happy, who wasn't about to be let out of the loving, cooed and tucked himself around Tony's shoulders, his little face rubbing against his cheek.
"You know," he murmured into her stomach, "we really should get working on getting an heir to the Barony. If just to protect you or Rhodey from having to take over some day." He wanted nothing more than to have at least one child with her, one with his brilliance and her common sense.
She shook a little in laughter. "It's the middle of the day, Tony."
"So?" he craned his neck upward to look at her. "Tell Mini-Pepper that lessons are done for the day, and let's both shirk our responsibilities for a couple of hours."
Pepper's grey eyes were oh-so fond. "I've already sent her home. There wasn't getting anything done today after your little demonstration out in the garden."
"Sorry about that."
"No, you aren't."
He really wasn't. Pepper was right about that.
"No, I'm not," he admitted out loud. He rested his hands on her hips. "Wanna fool around, Mistress Pepper?"
"I don't know, Your Grace," she teased. "My husband is the jealous sort."
Yeah, that was true too. "He'll never find out. I'm really good at sneaking."
Pepper laughed. "You are the least sneaky person I have ever met, Tony Stark."
Well, she wasn't wrong about that, either.
"It's like you know me."
She laughed again, and Tony once again offered the usual prayer of thanks that she'd fallen in love with him, and accepted him, warts and all.
He just had to kiss her.
So he stood and did just that.
