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.

"So," Tony asked as he stirred his vegetable and rabbit stew, voice low and facing forward even as his eyes stayed on Aidna. "The Northuldra, huh? You do realize Disney has a group of fictional people in one of its latest movies called that, right? You could sue."

"We are aware," the woman replied with obvious amusement, stealing her own glances at him much like the rest of her people. Though the more appropriate term might be staring at this point since they looked his way every five seconds or so. Usually, he would be either unnerved or annoyed or maybe even both, but he knew what they must have recognized or figured out or whatever. They knew who and what he was and what or whom visited his dreams. "Disney has never kept it hidden that they have asked the Sami Council to counsel for Frozen 2. We just asked to be the people that teaches them whatever it is they wanted to know to make their movie as accurate and as relatable as they could."

"But why?" He couldn't help but ask, confused. Why would these people, who were actively reclusive from the rest of society so they could guard a long thought lost dragon egg for the right person - for him - to come to hatch it, all but reach out to Disney just to volunteer to spend hours on end with their representatives and script writers, talking about their culture?

"Because dragons are peculiar beings," she began cryptically, chuckling at his disgusted face at the thought of a roundabout answer. "Relax, Mr Stark. I only jest. But it does, indeed, have a lot to do with the unborn dragon. And its mother." Tony sat up straighter, his curiosity peeked and attention fully focused on the woman. He could feel Elsa was rather attentive as well instead of humming along the song the Sami had greeted him with earlier. "There are different kinds of dragons with different powers. We can never predict what powers a dragon will have, not even their hatchers. Nevertheless, the little one's mother had some power of foresight and she saw and she told us - or rather, our ancestors - that her young will come to the world only after half of it dies and is reborn again. We have thought several occasions were the triggers but it is not until this year that we realized the hatcher has been born years earlier and that they must be back, if they had been dusted, as the egg started affecting our magical forest. We'd known this will happen sooner or later and we had been thinking of ways to draw the hatcher's attention to our region, but when Disney offered, it was a stroke of luck and convenience. The names are slightly different and the mythology is all botched up legends of old other Sami groups tell, but all the important ones have been dropped and they stuck in your head. It created a connection for you and your dragon."

"Yeah, she really likes the Frozen saga or whatever you wanna call it." He could practically feel Elsa pouting at his remark but she doesn't even try refuting it. Likely because she realizes that would be an outright lie. "So all of this was meant to happen? Why only now?"

"I imagine it had much to do with the Snap. Imagine if there are more dragons somewhere out there, even if it was just one more. Either your dragon or that one would be snapped out of existence, halving their population, but they are the ones keeping the true balance intact. No matter how many dragons exist, halving their presence in reality so suddenly would all but destroy the multiverse. As it is, a dragon before it hatches is immune to the rest of the world. If there are more dragons and they get halved, the eggs won't count."

"Meaning there will be at least one dragon more than that half to maintain the balance. Clever."

"When their very existence is the condition for the continued existence of everything else, they had to be. Dragons are unlike anything else you have or will ever come across, Anthony Stark. Remember that," and with that, she was called over by one of her people to the side and Tony found her seat soon enough taken by Strange. When he looked up from where he had been staring at his food, he was immediately grateful, as he saw Rogers looking ready to come take it himself had Stephen not been fast enough. "Thanks," he whispered to the man with a small smile which only widened when Stephen returned it.

"What? The food not good enough for you, Stark?" Barton commented from a little ways behind him as he passed and Tony rolled his eyes. He'd never been picky about his food and that was especially true ever since Afghanistan. He wouldn't have been alive if it were otherwise. Still, he ignored Hawkeye and continued contemplating the new information he got every day regarding his soon to be companion. Clint must not have cared for his reaction or just got bored because he left without saying anything, leaving the two Awesome Facial Hair Bros - no, Tony didn't care how much Stephen protested the idea, it was staying - alone once again.

"You could have told me about the arm, you know," the Sorcerer Supreme said mildly after a minute or two of just watching the proceedings around them. Their hots didn't have a community hall or cafeteria or a dinning hall or whatever, they were used to the cold so they just ate outside, maybe putting up a few magical barriers to keep most of the harsher winds out, so the Avengers found themselves sitting on various logs and the rare few chairs people bothered to bring out, trying to keep themselves warm through their breakfast or their hot beverages. Tony couldn't help but wonder why he didn't need either and was as comfortable in the weather as though he were in Malibu. "I wouldn't have told anyone if you wanted it kept secret."

"I kind of didn't tell anyone precisely for the reason that everyone is staring at me right now," he grumbled around his spoonful of stew. It was really good. He wondered whether it would be too much to ask for more. "I didn't even want to tell Rhodey but he saw for himself before I even realized- it worked." He rushed out the last part so as not to appear suspicious about not knowing how his arm healed. He didn't want to bring up what he is until he has Elsa by his side, safe and sound. "I kind of didn't have a choice with that. Or with the lot of you finding out. I like to think I would have told you next had this whole mess not started. I know you at least wouldn't judge me."

The Sorcerer Supreme hummed quietly under his breath. "Rogers wants you to use whatever healed your arm on Barnes. He seems to be under the impression that whatever it is you used can apparently regrow limbs - which should be, mind you, impossible and would be a medical miracle if it were - or reduce Gama radiation in Dr Banner until he could be healed from his ... condition. Or my hands." Tony cursed the supersoldier with all of his might. Everyone knew Strange was very touchy about his hands. "He thinks you're keeping some sort of miraculous cure-all all to yourself and that I will be able to convince you to 'share your miracle with the world.' As though you wouldn't fix Colonel Rhodes' legs first if you did," the man scuffed and Tony ran a hand through his hair.

"That asshole," he grumbled under his breath. "He's talking about Extremis. I mentioned it once back in 2012 or 2013, while the Avengers were still pretending to be a good, healthy team. It's a sort of serum that rewrites the way the brain heals the body - you understand, at least, that everything comes from the brain and not just conscious actions, be they mental or physical - and it can indeed help you regrow limbs or heal from deadly or permanent injuries. I used a much weaker solution version of it to survive my removal of the Arc Reactor surgery but that amount is simply not enough to do anything other than keep someone alive for something that intrusive or dangerous. The problem with it that Rogers doesn't understand or refuses to get through his thick skull is that the serum is volatilely unstable, to the point that fire burns through your veins and you could explode."

"Ouch."

"Yeah," he sighed, looking at his friend with a bittersweet smile. "I'm sorry if that got your hopes up, Stephen."

"It's fine," the sorcerer waved him off. "There are ways with magic to heal my hands if that were ever a thing I wanted to venture into. I just realized long ago that that was not a price I would ever pay." Tony made a confused noise, to which the other gave him a wane smile. "Magic has a price. Always. The bill comes due eventually, inevitably. If I were to heal my hands with magic, I would lose something. Most likely the ability to do magic, as any other who had chosen to heal themselves instead of pursuing the Mystic Arts further have. I figured I will save more lives this way than with a scalpel once again in my hand."

"Oh," was all Tony could say and he looked away, thinking. He couldn't help but dread that Elsa might be paying a price for healing his arm. And just how harsh that price might be.

"Yeah, but it's no big deal, really. I've learned to live with it. The pain is the worst during rainy or cold days." And that just made Tony guiltily wonder if Elsa could do anything about that without facing any serious consequences. Stephen used to be a surgeon. He must have always taken great care of his hands therefore he never did anything with them that could cause damage. Despite no doubt getting used to it, the pain must still be unbearable. Tony could only guess based on his own experience with the pain caused by his Arc Reactor. Even now, it sometimes hurt as though it were still lodged in his chest, a phantom pain that will never go away. And that was even without mentioning the accursed shield-shaped scar throbbing in pain every time a cold breeze hit him or when he saw snow. How he wasn't freaking out or suffering through some serious pain right now was a downright miracle he was tempted to attribute to Elsa. Seriously, anything miracle-worthy was definitely a byproduct of her existing at all, Tony was sure if it. "But never mind that. I've been meaning to talk to you since last night. How are you feeling?"

The genius, of course, knew what Stephen was referring to and was both touched and annoyed at the doctor for bringing it up. Stephen knew what this should be doing to him but Tony found himself too focused on Elsa to worry about anything else, least of all himself. "I'm doing surprisingly well, all things considered. Then again, I always did work best under enough pressure to break Vibranium."

Despite his best efforts not to, the taller man snorted, amused. "Figures only you can survive that amount of force." They grinned at each other before the sorcerer looked pointedly at Tony's still mostly full plate and the genius rolled his eyes.

"Mother hen."

"A long day awaits us and I figured you'd have the toughest time of it of us all."

Tony did his best not to react beyond arching an eyebrow at the sorcerer. "Oh?" Because there was no way Strange could have figured out Tony was the one meant to hatch the dragon, right?

Stephen glared in the direction of Rogers and his little group. Tony took notice of how both of the supersoldiers seemed to be rather affected by this much cold despite the serum running through their bodies. "Only a fool would believe Rogers would leave the matter well alone regarding your miraculously healed arm. Something tells me he will be more annoying than usual."

"And to think," Tony drawled in a tone both resigned and mocking. "We thought that to be impossible."

Both men with awesome facial hair snorted with Elsa's echoing in Tony's mind as well. "Indeed."

00000

Trekking through the snow was a difficult enough pastime but having to avoid Rogers as well while doing it was a nightmare Tony would rather not be a part of. Not when the pull of his heart - his very soul - was distracting him enough that he sometimes made missteps and nearly stumbled or indeed tumbled into the snow. Despite his best efforts, to mostly stay between Carol and Rhodey or Stephen and Wong, Rogers somehow managed to catch him on his own and was pestering him about 'not being so selfish' as to keep his 'treatment' from the 'rest of the world' that might need his technology to recover from grievous wounds. As though they were complete strangers who'd only now met and they both didn't know he was talking about Barnes in particular.

Well, even if it was some form of technology Tony had developed, he sure as hell wouldn't be obliged, as Rogers was implicating, to help his parents' murderer and the supersoldier really ought to remember that. Not to mention the man was once again exercising his special brand of hypocrisy. He sure as hell didn't have anything against Wakanda keeping all of their special treatments to themselves even though they were now -open to the world', saying something along the lines about how of course they were going to keep their secrets to themselves, it's their technology, Tony, they don't owe it to anyone, it's their choice to make, why are you being so petty about this? Really, the man should be given a medal for his delusions. It would be fascinating if it wasn't so outright terrifying that someone like Rogers was considered a legally capable adult.

'Maybe I can stay with Elsa at the bottom of this Well of Ahtohallan?' He wondered to himself, finding that he was very tempted by the idea. It would at least keep him away from Rogers and his bullshit. If he could bring all of his important people along, they'd all be fine.

"How much longer?" Loki asked as he, out of the blue, started walking next to Tony on his other side, shooting the good Captain an all too friendly smile as they passed close to one of the extremely snow-laden trees. Rogers only had enough time to frown suspiciously at the black haired Asgardian before he yelped and was buried in half the snow from the tree, Loki only dragging Tony a bit away so as not to be caught in the mini avalanche.

Tony watched in amusement as the former rouges and Thor immediately came to the aid of their 'shield brother', answering without much thought. "Not all that much further now, I think." The pull and pulse of the strange bond he shared with Elsa was more intense now, suggesting as much.

"How can you tell?" Bruce asked even as the rest of them continued walking ignoring how Carol blasted a photon blast to melt the snow and proceeded to scold the Avengers for messing around. Instead they followed after the five Northuldra warriors that were to take up the new shift from their colleagues at the Temple and that were acting as their guides at the moment.

Tony was very glad that his suit was covering him from head to toe and thus hiding his reactions because he felt his whole body twitch as he realized he had answered a question he should rightfully not be able to. And he was also immensely grateful fir FRIDAY and his own genius as an alert lit up his screen. "Uh, because my suit is sensing vast amounts of unidentified energy coming from not far up ahead?" He nearly tripped over his own feet when something started to be visible through the still dense tree-line. "Not to mention that there is a big-ass stone building right in front of us."

"I guess you still have better sensors in your suit than me," Rhodes could be heard grumbling but Tony paid him no heed, finding himself half-stunned to be standing in front of the building he had seen in his own dreams so many times. It looked exactly the same, only now he could see it clearly and marvel at the fact that a glacier had settled all around it, hiding it from easy sight. The sun reflecting off of the ice nearly blinded them but in places where it did not reach, it acted like a mirror. Slightly distorted, but still perfectly reflective. "Okay, wow. This place would be perfect for a selfie."

Tony outright laughed at the words barely breathed out past his best friend's lips. Not that he didn't agree, per se. At the entrance alone you could get all the angles in a single picture.

"Welcome to the Temple of Ahtohallan," Aidna said and Tony knew the words were probably mostly meant for himself and possible all three of their sorcerer friend rather than everyone else. "The resting place of what is possibly the last dragon egg, the last dragon. I do hope you will be respectful." That one, though, was literally meant for everyone else but Tony, judging from the looks the Sami sent his companions. "Do not touch anything, do not wander off and do not come close to the Well of Ahtohallan. Its frigid temperatures will not be survivable to any who do not possess a dragon's heat coursing through their soul. Only the hatcher may enter."

"Then why bother guarding this place?" Barnes asked curiously, eyeing the entrance with ten Northuldra soldiers watching them approach with vigilance, faintly glowing spears tightly held in a hand and at the ready for a possible confrontation. "I mean no offense, but isn't it a bit pointless to guard this place if only one person can reach the egg?"

"And what is to stop the undead from retrieving the egg? Necromancers are a nasty sort and vampires are not to be underestimated. A shade could easily enter the Well and destroy the egg. None of them could last long enough to take it out, as the egg is heavily protected by defensive dragon wards, but anything even remotely fast enough to reach it for just one second could destroy it and there is too big of a risk that this might indeed be the last dragon in existence to gamble like so." The young man that had accompanied Aidna last night as well, a promising Northuldra warrior by the name Migil, said with a sneer. He was one of the few that was not so eager to accept that an outsider has been the one chosen by destiny and even less so that even more outsiders will be going into their most sacred of places without earning it while he had struggled to do so by serving as its protector for a better part of his life. Aidna had told Tony he was quite possibly their best but he was not suited to be any sort of leader. At least not until he proves himself capable of putting aside his pride. Tony hoped the young man could do so, as well as his anger, for he had quite some potential and it was clear he cared about his people. Arrogance and pride were indeed not things he ought to weight himself down with.

"Is that why the entire place if frozen over?" Hope asked, even as they all stared at the imposing structure of man and nature's creation with awe as they came closer, but her voice sounded wary as well. "Will the ice caps melt if the dragon leaves this place and all of these protections fall?"

"The dragon only has influence in this area," Aidna answered, even as she motioned for them to walk faster. "It is the most natural creature in the entirety of existence. Unless it wants to, it won't disturb nature itself. Now come, quickly. Something does not feel right."

"Tony?" Elsa's voice sounded small and worried, almost scared or maybe even panicked. It made Tony go stiff as a rod and immediately put him on edge and battle ready. Elsa had never sounded anything but overjoyed to be conversing with him, no matter the topic. "I think someone's breaking into the temple."

'What?'

"There's someone here," Stephen said almost at the same time, mandala shields springing up and he shared a look with Aidna that had the woman gritting her teeth with the implications but nodding back nonetheless, especially when she cast a glance in Tony's direction.

"We must hurry to the Well, then. No intruder is to make it to the innermost sanctuary!" She ordered her people even as she started marching inside, the rest of them but two guards quick to follow. Tony faltered when a spike of panic surged from Elsa's side but it was already too late.

Tony was only aware of Nebula tackling him to the ground before the world shook with an explosion.