When Tony entered Latveria, he already saw smoke rising from the town square below Castle Doom. Battle in full swing then. He frowned, hoping that he wasn't too late…

Suddenly, the warning systems on his hud went off. Missile approaching. So apparently Doom had a nice welcome program in place for unexpected visitors. Hardly surprising.

Tony simply continued on his course, the missile tracking him getting closer by the second. When it was about to hit him, he did a full stop up in the air and veered off his track by centimetres; the missile narrowly missed him and Tony hit it from behind with a repulsor blast that made short work of it. He grinned. The system was obviously designed for planes or other bigger and slower means of travel. Sometimes, being the pilot of the most advanced and flexible battle suit in the world was simply a joy.

Tony engaged the stealth mode of his suit, effectively blocking most tricks Doom could have cooked up, and a few seconds later, he was already close enough to the square to get a general idea of the goings-on. And what he saw wasn't good.

First, he saw Sue Storm, off to the side, apparently knocked out, smoke rising from the debris around her. The suit had knocked out Sue Storm? Damn it, that woman was as tough as they got…

Behind her, he saw into a ruined mansion, where Carol was lying on the ground, still as death. Oh no, Carol. From what he knew from her file, she was one of the absolute powerhouses of the Avengers, and the suit had downed her, just like that… Was she unconscious, or worse? Please, don't let it be worse. In the short time that he had known this Carol, he had already become very fond of her (granted, he had a weakness for her in his own universe too, and couldn't help but think that if only his Carol were a bit more like her, they might still be together).

Tony activated his med scans (good that other-Tony's tech was so similar to his own in many ways) and checked Sue and Carol for vital signs, noting with a sigh of relief that they were both alive, if badly hurt. They needed to get medical attention as soon as possible. Tony activated the Avengers emergency frequency, even though he didn't exactly have high hopes that he would get any reaction, as Steve would probably have taken all the Avengers available at the time with him. Still, it couldn't do any damage…

Speaking of Steve: Tony saw the man lying in the wreckage to the side, and his heart skipped a beat. No. He couldn't have gotten Steve killed in this universe as well. Please no. But a millisecond later he realised that his scanners indicated that Steve was okay (his broken arm was already in the process of healing, all hail the super soldier serum), and sure enough, he saw the man move with clenched teeth, trying to get to his shield that stuck in the debris some metres from his location. What a tough old dog, Tony thought with a wry smile.

All of that dealt with in a matter of seconds, Tony focused on the main part of the fight. And what he saw made him freeze.

He saw Richards, fist raised, morphed into a deadly Morningstar, towering above the Iron Man Suit. He was getting ready to strike other-Tony down. He was really going to do it.

Tony tried to move, but he seemed to be stuck. His own breathing sounded unnaturally loud in his ears. He had to do something. So this Richards had lost it too. No, Stark, get a grip, this isn't your Richards, he told himself, but his body didn't seem to obey his command.

And suddenly, he realised that Richards had tears streaming down his face. He wasn't moving.

He heard other-Tony's voice (really identical to his) coming from the voice modulator:

"Reed! The unibeam – strike now!"

Other-Tony sounded ragged, as if he were in extreme pain and desperation. But Reed grimaced, and yelled: "I can't!"

And then everything happened very fast. The suit discharged its unibeam right into Reed's chest, and he fell backwards. The suit got up, and he heard other-Tony taking wheezing breaths, almost sobs, obviously close to absolutely losing it. Between intakes, he heard him murmur "nononono, please, Doom, nono..."

So this was it. This was the moment when he had to intervene. But Tony still found himself rooted in place. Too much had the scene he had just witnessed reminded him of his own horrible experiences with Reed Richards. Maybe I should just let other-Tony finish this one. Maybe that would keep him from also losing it, trying to take over the world and killing the people I cared about (Anthony).

Suddenly, he heard a clanking noise and realised that Cap, still half-lying in the dirt, had thrown his shield at the suit. The suit turned its glowing eyes on him while aiming a repulsored hand on Reed. And again, he heard other-Tony's voice: "NOOO, please, Doom, please don't kill my friends…"

And that was what was needed to spring Tony into action. No, he would not let that asshole Doom take the people he cared about from other-Tony, the way he himself had lost most people close to him. He could not let that happen, his own issues with Richards notwithstanding.

Tony clenched his teeth and aimed a repulsor at the suit. The suit was thrown backwards by the impact, obviously having been caught completely unaware of another potential antagonist in the square. Tony smiled grimly. Bless his cloaking techniques – the ones other-Tony employed seemed to be just as advanced as his own.

However, the suit quickly got up again – he heard other-Tony groan in pain – and fired directly at him. Okay, that was the disadvantage – it being fitted with the exact same stealth techniques that he was employing, it was of course able to decode them. Tony dodged the blast and fired back. He had to be careful there – the whole point of his mission had been not to kill other-Tony, so he had better refrain from more destructive tactics.

The two suits were caught in some sort of deadly dance, battle protocol fighting battle protocol, when the other suit suddenly put up its shield. Tony was momentarily distracted and searched the environment; he only realised that he had fallen for a ruse when a powerful blast of the chest beam hit him. While the suit was still searing with superfluous energy, Tony suddenly noticed that an attack of another kind was in full swing.

Columns of numbers started flickering across his screen. Damn it. With a start Tony realised that what he was fighting against must be the AI of other-Tony's suit, an AI that Doom had taken over, an AI that knew the system of the suit he was wearing better than he himself did, only having used other-Tony's gear for a few days. Tony immediately engaged in counter-measures, putting up firewalls, fixing security leaks while the program was attacking them.

His attention divided, the suit got another hit in (he heard other-Tony try to scream murder at Doom, his voice weak and laced with pain). And slowly, he felt the system of his own suit crash. No. If it succumbed to Doom's meddling, Doom would have two Iron Man armours (and two Tony Starks) at his disposal and kill everyone in the square. He had to shut the other suit down to stop the cyber-attack.

Tony turned to the suit, and when he noticed the security core of his AI-system being targeted, he made a decision. He didn't really have a choice.

Tony felt tears in his eyes as he activated a code he had prepared while travelling to Latveria, thinking of the worst that could happen. He himself had always had kill switches in all of his tech, and as he had suspected, other-Tony had one too. Only his kill switch had a downside: As not only his suit was powered by his tech, but his body as well, by the reactor in his chest (crazy bastard), the kill switch not only shut down the suit – it would effectively also shut down its wearer.

He approached other-Tony, his shield up against the perpetual fire of repulsor blasts and the code he would use in a matter of seconds. When he was within hearing distance, he opened his helmet, still protected by the shield, and said: "I'm sorry." Then he launched the code.

The suit fell down, felled like a tree. Its eyes went dark, as did the circle of light in its chest. Tony felt wetness on his cheeks.

Before he had time to do anything else, though, he heard a primal scream of rage behind him.

Somehow Tony had expected to see Cap when he turned slowly around, but to his utter horror it was Reed Richards who lunged towards him. His face was distorted in a mask of anger. Even when his Psycho-Richards was slowly killing him while performing a brain surgery on him, he was completely controlled and coherent. The sight of this berserk Richards made him freeze once again, he barely managed to shut his helmet before Reed reached him. The other man wrapped his elastic body around Tony's armour, a current should've taken care of the angered Reed, but Tony was frozen in space.

"You're not him! YOU KILLED TONY! YOU KILLED THE REAL TONY, YOU BASTARD!" screamed Reed on the top of his lungs while he pounded on the man in the iron suit with all his strength. Of course Tony didn't feel the force of the attack since his shock absorbers were active, but the display in his helmet showed him that nonetheless a considerable amount of force was being applied to his armour – Reed was really using every ounce of his power to hurt him. The thought triggered rather unpleasant memories… and Tony forced himself to say…But no words left his mouth. You have to say something! SOMETHING TO MAKE HIM STOP!... Calm down, he told himself, you're safe – your armour will protect you! CALM THE FUCK DOWN!

But another glance at Reed's distorted face caused him to act out of sheer self-preservation. Tony charged his repulsors and aimed them at Reed, he heard how somebody shouted, but he had to get rid of Richards, he couldn't take it anymore.

But despite his state of mind Richards realised what Tony was about to do and to Tony's terror he heard something he never thought possible: He heard how Reed said something that took away his last barrier: "Armour override code Reed Richards, 456-4090-10275-444".

No – NO, that wasn't possible… how could Richards know this code?! But despite his desperate counter-commands the armour simply shut down and released all locks.

Richards literally ripped every piece of armour away, and as soon as he had stripped Tony of his suit Reed's fist rose once again, absurdly enlarged. Tony lifted his arm to fend off the undoubtedly lethal strike and squinted.

But instead of hearing his own bones break under the savage attack of a crazy Mr. Fantastic, Tony only heard soft sobs and he felt how warm drops fell on his naked torso. He opened his eyes slowly and was stunned by the sight of a crying Reed, his fist was no longer threatening to crush him. Reed held his head with both his hands.

"Do you know what you did? You've killed him…" Reed sobbed.

Tony could only stare as a strange mixture of guilt and pleasure overcame him. A certain perverse satisfaction took hold of him – if only for a fraction of a second – yes, he had made him pay! After what had happened to him he had felt a rage never felt before. The very sight of his or this Reed Richards had made him wish to hurt them! Let Reed suffer like he suffered!

His sentiments changed within mere moments, though, he of course knew that this Reed wasn't responsible for the crimes of his counterpart… and the initial satisfaction was replaced by an overwhelming sense of guilt about the fate of other-Tony. I did it again! I've ruined everything, not only in my universe, but also in this!

"I'm… I'm sorry… Rich… Reed, I had to stop him…" stammered Tony, a sickening headache caused him to scrunch up his forehead. Christ, I need a drink! Or several bottles!

The man sitting on top of him calmed visibly down and finally looked at Tony. His face was no longer distorted with anger, but rather with grief.

"I… I know, I just couldn't stand the thought of losing Tony."

Reed seemed so lost and the sight of this cold man falling apart moved Tony in a fashion he never thought possible. He sat up and hugged Reed. To his surprise Reed hugged him back. They stayed that way for a few moments, the sun had begun to set behind the latverian mountains and illuminated the two men in a warm orange light.

"Ah, for fuck's sake, why oh why didn't I stop the transmission a few minutes ago?" cursed Doom. Tony jerked his head up, DOOM? It sounded like he stood right next to them. But a quick look confirmed that the voice came from a lonely Doombot standing about 20 meters away.

Before Tony or Reed could answer or for that matter do anything at all they heard someone coughing and to their surprise they heard other-Tony say in a weak voice: "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

Tony stared. Reed literally leaped off him (he felt strangely bereft of the man's closeness and warmth, what the hell was going on with him) and ran, or rather stumbled towards where other-Tony lay.

"Tony, oh my God, you are alive!" he heard the man exclaim enthusiastically, bending down.

Tony slowly got up – his legs felt damn shaky, he was going to need a holiday from his holiday – and when he approached the two, he saw that Reed was tentatively stretching out a hand towards other-Tony's cheek. Other-Tony had opened the helmet, but apart from that, he was still fully in the armour and he flinched back a little when Reed touched what looked like a very ugly gash on his cheek.

"Well, barely, to… be quite honest." His voice indeed sounded wrecked and he looked unnaturally pale, probably from the blood loss.

"TONY!" he heard behind him. Cap was approaching, leaning on Carol's shoulder (thankfully she seems to have recovered a bit). Carol stared at the Tony on the ground, then at him.

"And I thought this day couldn't get any worse. There's two of you?!"

Tony gave her a lopsided grin. "Well, twice the fun, right?"

Carol just shook her head at him disbelievingly, gaping. Meanwhile, Cap had also bent down by other-Tony's side and had taken his hand.

"Tony, what happened?"

"Well, from that I assume… this handsome devil over there… didn't really tell you… about the interdimensional rift that caused me to end up… in his universe, and him here, correct?" Other-Tony didn't look very pleased, he looked angry in a very… sober and grown-up way that made Tony cringe. Suddenly, though, his face scrunched up in pain and he was shaken by a coughing fit. When he removed his hand from his mouth it was glistening red.

Reed turned around to Carol. "Right. We need to get him to a hospital. Now. He obviously has internal injuries."

Carol nodded. "Reed, get him to the Quinjet, without jostling him, if you are able to. I am going to collect the others, and then we're out of here."

"Not so fast."

They all turned around at the sound of Doom's voice. The Doombot was standing behind them, eyes alight.

Carol rolled her eyes. "What now?"

"Well, Miss Danvers, or should I say… Captain Danvers" – he basically spit out her title, voice full of disdain – "you don't honestly think that I would just let this business rest? Two Tony Starks? Twice the Starktech? Oh yes, I can see a very bright future ahead."

"Victor." Reed had gotten up and approached the bot. "Please, be reasonable. Tony is dying, we need to get him medical attention immediately."

"Well, Reed, I don't know why I should care, but you have always had a weakness for the preservation of life, even life as worthless as Stark's. However, I might be gracious and let you get him the medical attention he so urgently needs." His tone was mocking. "However, I do seem to see that you have a certain abundance of Tony Starks on you. How about you leave me the other one? The impostor?"

Everyone turned towards Tony, who raised his hands in defence. "Hey, I know I lied to you and kind of killed you" – he pointed at other-Tony – "−why are you alive anyways?−, but let's not overreact, everyone makes mistakes!"

He heard something like a pained little laugh coming from other-Tony, who muttered under his breath: "Oh yeah? Good thing you were apparently too… drunk to use the codes that would effectively shut down my RT… instead of the old set of… Extremis-codes for the... armor."

Tony frowned. "So you aren't updating your database all the time? I mean, the entry clearly said…"

"Guys" Carol interjected, "not the issue."

Other-Tony, who had opened his mouth to retort, closed it again. And was promptly shaken by another coughing fit. Cap crouched down beside him, holding his shoulders.

"Well, as I assume you won't cooperate…" The Doombot had raised his arm.

And then it fizzed. The lights in its eyes flickered and went out. With a loud clank, it landed on the floor.

Everyone stared as Janet, looking a little the worse for wear, suddenly appeared before them, enlarging herself after having evidently messed something up in the circuitry of the bot. She smiled grimly.

"I don't know what's going on here, and I'm not sure I want to know" – she made a sweeping motion with her arm that included the two Tonys – "but I never liked Doombots much."

Tony beamed. "Jan, Darling, I could hug you!"

She looked at him with a vaguely disgusted face. "Not when you're dirty and sweaty like that. Also, I have no idea if I even know you. But I reckon we had better settle that matter someplace not swarming with Doombots. Let's go!"

Reed took a knee beside Tony and carefully lifted him. Tony winced a little.

"I'm sorry, Tony, I will do my utmost to let no other harm come to you," said Reed, his arms tightly wrapped around his friend.

"It's alright, Reed, I'm just happy that I'm back home… you wouldn't believe where I have been."

"Really? How fascinating! I'm assuming that you were in several alternative universes – may I…"

"Reed?"

"Yes?"

"Shut up and hold me."

Tony walked closely by Reed and other-Tony and felt a twinge of jealousy as he watched how close Richards and his alternate self were. He gritted his teeth and thought how he felt back then – before his Richards had tortured and killed him (bastard!) – there were these brief, almost happy moments when he worked with the Fantastic Four. His Reed Richards was considerably younger and still… he had enjoyed talking to a peer who actually understood what he was talking about. A man who was as driven as Tony himself, damn it, they even both had fathers who made them miserable! Tony sat down in the rear end of the jet.

Oh man, I need a drink… he thought once again as the Quinjet took off. If I'm wallowing in self-pity I need at least a bottle of Laphroaig Islay Single Malt.

"Are you alright?" Tony's musings were interrupted and as he looked up he to his surprise saw Steve standing in front of him. Captain America had his arms crossed and although he had asked the question in a pleasant voice his whole posture screamed that he wanted to rip Tony's head off.

"You keep asking the same question, sweetheart. My answer stays the same: I'm just peachy." Tony didn't want to talk to Steve right now, all he wanted was some peace and quiet until they would send him back – back to a universe where almost all his friends were dead or had tried to kill him.

"Don't give me that attitude, Tony – or whatever your name is!"

"Or what? Are you going to beat me up, toots?"

Before they could continue their discussion Carol appeared out of nowhere and slapped them both on the backs of their heads. "We will talk about everything that has led to this, gentlemen, but I'm really tired of all this cockfighting, so keep it down!" Steve looked rather agitated but he silently went to his seat and sat down, Tony continued to brood and looked out of the window.