Chapter 2

"This was worse than I expected," Stephen said out loud, although Tony was out cold. He knelt over the unconscious Stark and checked his vitals. The tachycardia was slowly diminishing but his breathing was still a bit off.

Stark's eyelids had fluttered shut the moment Stephen directed the sleeping spell on him. It was a last resort to knock him out, but Stephen didn't have much choice. In his panic, Tony had reached for the iron man housing and if he would have managed to employed it, things would have escalated. Fortunately, Tony didn't remember his artificial arm, which was a danger itself in situations like this. Stephen had known it was a risk to not ask him to remove both before they started but decided that Tony feeling safe had a higher priority. Not the wisest decision in hindsight.

Stephen made sure he wouldn't wake anytime soon. The man needed rest after his ordeal.

Wanda's chaotic untrained magic had done a lot of damage and drilled deep into unconscious thought processes. Judging by how Stark behaved, he wasn't aware of it. She utilized his PTSD and hooked into it, connected Tony's fears with something dark to amplify them; not only on a psychological level but also on a physiological one. During his panic attack Stark not only thought he couldn't breathe, his muscles and diaphragm had seized up and actually hindered his breathing. Stephen realized it in time and used a spell to force the muscles to relax, one by one. He had been able to do so only because he knew every single muscle that was involved in breathing and could manipulate them one by one. His knowledge of anatomy once more proved helpful.

Stephen had seen Tony's eyes start to glow in a dark red shade when the foreign magic kicked in, which was unsettling. The magic was still very active and it was potent. What was equally unsettling was what Stephen perceived of Tony's state of mind. His state of mind could only be described as a deep depression; although - on the outside he mostly managed to maintain his brave persona. It was even worse than Stephen had feared. Before they started, Stephen had decided not to mentally touch anything that had nothing to do with their immediate aim, to give the man as much privacy as possible. Nevertheless, Tony's melancholy rushed into him and dragged him into darkness with little chance to fight it off. How useless and bleak Tony felt was only the tip of the iceberg, the dismalness coated his entire being.

Stark seemed disillusioned about existence in the whole. Knew that once he had solved one crisis there would always be another one and another one and another one. These days, Tony seemed to experience life only as hardship, loss and endless suffering. Things would never be good. The endless string of trauma and threats seemed to have left him with the understanding that whatever was in the future, it would only be worse. The engineer would probably never admit it but something had broken inside him and he was sure he would never get it back. His fear of losing anyone he held dear was so strong it prevented him from enjoying that they were still there - or back. The knowledge that at some point something awful will happen to them paralyzed him. This hopelessness left Tony in a bone deep exhaustion.

Apparently, Tony had been in a constant crisis mode for years, trying to compensate by preparing for every possible thread he could imagine. The problem was, there were no solutions to his problems and he had finally understood that. Greediness and hunger for power were present in the entire universe. It could not be eradicated. Death and suffering will always be present in one form or another.

Thanos and Ultron both sought what Stark did, but their approaches were flawed because there just was no good solution. Strange was hit hard by Tony's bitterness because he understood it so well, he struggled with it himself often enough. They were both basically facing the same problems and he, too, had no solution. Before his accident Stephen had somehow ignored it by focusing on stupid things like his reputation or all the useless status symbols he had collected. Somehow he had been able to believe that saving a life here and there while climbing the ladder of success gave his existence meaning. Nowadays, he was no longer able of this level of oblivion, he had lost it. On one hand that was good because it enabled him to work on more important things, on the other he wished his life was still that easy. Stephen realized he had to be careful, because Tony's dark thoughts threatened to pull him down with him if he wasn't careful. Their mutual understanding of the problems of this world compromised his own fragile balance to not fall down the same rabbit hole.

In the past, seeing a therapist who's aim was to change the perspective on things but who couldn't offer solutions to the problems itself hadn't helped Tony much. Tony deemed to stop caring about things that are not his responsibility part of the problem. He considered not helping when he had the means to do so negligence. For a lot of people just caring about their personal lives was top priority and they didn't bother with much else. Tony on the other hand tried to protect everyone and the planet. Beings that didn't care and just focused on their own needs and desires were the actual cause of the problem. Tony couldn't stop caring, it would be easier for him to stop living. He was more afraid for others than for his own life. Additionally, he also he can't change the world. Stephen feared that for Tony surviving the stones and keep going turned out harder than leaving life behind.

Removing Wanda's magic from the equation would not be easy. There seemed to be a blockade of some sort and Stephen couldn't push past to inspect the deeper layers of Stark's mind. It was unclear if his sub consciousness had walled something in to protect himself or if Wanda had created it to keep her magic safe from manipulation. Whatever the origin of the mental wall was, it was strong. Stephen had barely probed it when Tony lost control over his panic, despite Stephen's careful tries to help him staunch the anxiety.

"Let's bring him to… my bed," Stephen addressed the cloak and carefully rolled Tony's slack body onto his side. The cloak understood immediately and wiggled in behind Tony's back, Stephen then rolled him onto it. The red fabric gently pushed its collar beneath Tony's neck to support his head and then slowly lifted the engineer off the ground.

Tony hung flaccid in its embrace, his arm and one leg dangling. Stephen stood up and opened a portal from the library to his own bedroom. The guest rooms were out of the question. They were upstairs and furthest away from the centre of the house. So Stephen opened a portal from the library to his own bedroom.

They positioned Stark on the bed in a recovery position and Stephen made sure he could breathe easily before he removed Tony's shoes and the suit housing. He placed the latter on a drawer on the opposite side of the room so Tony could see it but had to cross the room to get it.
For a moment he was indecisive if he should disable the prosthesis, too. Tony was not fond of people touching both items, that much he had learned in the past months. On the other hand, it could push him into more panic when he woke up and found his arm a dead weight pinning him down. He decided against it.

"Stay with him, I need to fetch some things," Stephen addressed the cloak and hurried back to the library.

The cloak draped one of its flaps over Tony's upper arm and snuggled into his back.

.

Tony felt cozy and warm when awareness returned. It was a slow process.

His senses came back online one at a time and he drifted in half awareness for quite some time. Oddly enough, a vaguely familiar smell seemed to be the thing that finally urged him to open his eyes.

He was in an unfamiliar room and a subtle scent of sandalwood surrounded him.

Someone was spooning him, he realized when he moved slightly.

Oh god, what had he done?

He blinked to focus on his surroundings and found Stephen Strange sitting in a corner of the room, reading. Tony jerked up the moment his memories returned and whatever was behind him suddenly retreated.

Strange was up and next to the bed a moment later. Alarmed, Tony tried to get off the bed.

"Stay put, don't try to…" Strange said in an oddly soothing tone and raised his hands to demonstrate he had no ill intentions.

But the warning came too late, Tony was already next to the bed. He would have made a pathetic nosedive if something hadn't wrapped around him from behind and steadied him.

"…walk," Strange finished in a lame tone.

It took Tony a moment to understand what was happening.

That godforsaken cloak…

Tony had used the relic once in the past and was familiar how it felt to be levitated. Fighting the dizziness and the dark spots in his vision, he blinked.

The damn cloak had cuddled him.

"You slept for fourteen hours," Stephen said carefully, completely ignoring the cloak. Tony noticed the wizard was wearing his usual colors, though not his usual attire. His trainers and sweater were well worn and baggy and he was wearing cotton sole shoes.

"What the hell happened?" Tony muttered and tried to free himself from the fabric but it had none of it and sat him back on the bed.

Stephen frowned. "You had a severe panic attack and didn't respond. I used a spell to… calm you down when your tachycardia became a bit of an issue. "

"Eh, spare me the diplomatic doctor BS. You knocked me out!" Tony grouched, then added a careful, "Thank you."

"You should feel rested but the lingering effects of the spell will make you dizzy for at least another hour. Don't lie to me about it, I know how it feels. Wong used it on me."

Tony raised his eyebrows, not used to this level of soul baring information.

"I encountered some unexpected… things," Stephen changed the topic. "But before I explain them to you I need some coffee." With that he left the room.

Was he just imagining it, or did the wizard seem quite exhausted himself?

Tony carefully stood up and only then noticed the absence of the familiar weight on his chest. His hand went up and found his shirt unbuttoned and his tie missing. The housing's absence brought back a sharp sting of fear - until he spotted it on a dresser across the room. He made a careful step forward, only to be pushed back again by the cloak.

"Shit, don't do that. I'm fine," he addressed the obnoxious fabric and tried again. The cloak seemed to scrutinize him for a long moment before it allowed him to shuffle over to the drawer. He fastened the housing to his chest and buttoned the shirt over it, then slipped into his dress shoes which he found next to the door.

It was cold but couldn't spot his jacket. When his gaze went through the room he realized this was not some guest quarter. A book with a bookmark was on the nightstand, together with a broken watch, an antique looking stethoscope engraved with magical runes and some prescription scar cream.

Wow. This was Strange's bedroom.

He couldn't stifle his curiosity. The man had been in his head, he surely was allowed a peek. Tony stepped over to the bedside cabinet and reached for the grasp to pull it open. But the cloak was on him in an instant and blocked the drawers with one of its flaps.

Tony lifted his hands in surrender when another wave of dizziness rushed over him, "Alright, I get it."

"Stark?" Stephen yelled from downstairs. "Milk? Sugar?"

"Yeah. On my way," Tony yelled back and shuffled towards the door.

.

Half an hour later they were still in the kitchen and in the middle of discussing what Stephen had found. Tony relished the caffeine and how it revived his spirits.

"Before I can delve deeper into how to treat this, I need to know how Wanda's magic affected your teammates," Strange announced.

"Well, we didn't really talk about this, although Nat was quite shaken up by the whole affair," Tony explained.

"I need more than that."

"Yeah, tough luck, Merlin. All I know is that Cap dreamt about dancing with his sweetheart and Thor had some kind of hallucination about Asgard he later explored on some weird quest in some spirit realm. Nat said something about her training and the Hulked completely freaked out and leveled half a city. Real mess."

"I need to talk to them."

"Talk?"

"Explore their minds," Stephen clarified.

"Eh, shit." Tony buried his face in his real hand.

"Why would that be a problem?"

"I can't ask them to go through - whatever it was we did yesterday."

"Well, I can. And I will." Strange stood up and left Tony alone in the kitchen.

.

It took Strange almost a week to meet the other Avengers and all of them readily agreed to have their minds examined. None of them still suffered the consequences of whatever Wanda had done. Strange also met with her but it brought little new information. They were unable to retrieve anything about how she had done it, it had been an act of anger and grief, combined with misguided HYDRA science. When Stephen explored her mind, he felt her regret and helplessness paired with unfathomable grief about Vision's demise that left her magic even more chaotic than usual. The meeting made Stephen realize though, that her actions had in a way led to the creation of Ultron. The implanted and aggravated fear pushed Tony further than he might have gone under normal circumstances and the stone in the scepter had done the rest. As far as Stephen understood, the creation of Ultron had not really been Tony's fault, it was a cumulation of unfortunate circumstances.

At first, Tony was reluctant to meet again to talk about Strange's findings but in the end the sorcerer called him and informed him no nonsense to move his ass over to the Sanctum before he came and dragged him there.

When Tony arrived in the early evening, Stephen was prepared.

"None of the other Avengers suffer the same aftereffects of Wanda's mind control," Strange summarized without much introduction. He led Tony to the library.

"Guess I was her main target. She hated me the most. It was my name on the weapons that killed her family. No big surprise," Tony retorted but Stephen doubted it was just that.

They sat down near a row of bookshelves and Stephen offered tea, which Tony declined. Judging by Tony's casual clothing and pale complexion, he was nervous about the meeting.

"Nevertheless, you were the one who brushed the episode off without much trouble," Stephen replied. "The others were caught up in theirs way longer than you were. The experience itself effected them more than you."

Tony gave the sorcerer a mirthless smile.

"Had my fair share of flashbacks and… episodes of dissociation," Tony shared, clearly uncomfortable. "Means, I am used to the shit my mind throws at me…"

"And you realized what had happened almost immediately and warned your team that their minds were manipulated," Strange continued. "That requires quite some insight."

"Helped me nothing in the long run, did it?"

"That's a really interesting point, because I encountered something strange in there," he pointed at Tony's head. "A mental blockade of some sort. I was unable to determine if it was made by you or by her."

Tony stared at the sorcerer.

"We might need to tear it down before we can try to address this. It will be unpleasant."

One thing Tony had learned was that when a doctor said something was unpleasant it meant it will hurt a lot, whereas when a patient describes something as unpleasant it is interpreted as 'no pain, just an inconvenience'. He had more than a fair share of pain in his life and he couldn't hold back to put the doctor into perspective.

"No shit. Unpleasant as in open heart surgery without anesthetic or as in having to drink warm beer because the fridge is broken?"

"I will do my best to keep the stress low, but I might need help," Stephen addressed the next topic he wanted to elaborate.

"Who?" Tony tensed up.

"I'd like to ask Wong for assistance if it becomes necessary," Stephen said carefully.

Tony was clearly uncomfortable with the idea of more people witnessing his struggles, but he nodded silently. He had been unusually brief in his answers since he arrived, another indication about how much this whole thing was getting to him.

"Okay, let's do this," Stephen stood up.

"What? Like now?"

"Decided you were better off without a sleepless night that would only built up more tension," Stephen raised his eyebrows.

"Gee, thanks, Dumbledore," Tony rolled his eyes. But Strange was right. The whole affair had already raised his anxiety level during the past days and he would certainly have had a far worse night knowing what was coming. Unfortunately, it took his body only half a minute to catch up with what was about to happen. His heart started to beat like mad and his entire body seemed to have turned to jello. He was bathed in sweat all of a sudden.

"Let's do this in the study," Stephen said and walked away.

Whereas Tony usually cursed about this particular behavior, this time he was glad to be left behind because it gave him time to slowly rise and wait until he could trust his shaky legs to follow the sorcerer.