Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

(K plus, Tony Stark)

"History has a habit of changing the people who think they are changing it."

- Terry Pratchett

A month after Ultron and leaving the team, and Tony was still having nightmares about the death of the Avengers being on his hands. Pepper noticed, obviously, but she didn't say anything until she woke up one night and he was gone, his side of the bed empty and cool.

"You can't let this start again," she said once she had found him, sat in the rooftop garden of their penthouse apartment they were living in, their California home not yet fully rebuilt. He was fumbling with some car parts, tearing them apart and reassembling them in an attempt to distract himself. "You know that, don't you?"

"It's just- I don't like not being in control of my own future, Pep," he confessed, dropping the parts into his lap. "And I'm paranoid that the nightmare the witch kid gave me wasn't just a nightmare, that it was some kind of... whatever it was." He couldn't bring himself to say it, it would have sounded so ridiculous. Prophecy.

She sat down next to him. "Is that even possible?" she asked him, and he shrugged. "Maybe you should ask Fury. He's most likely to know. You wouldn't even have to tell him why, just say you were curious about the type of enhancements we're having to deal with now."

Tony kissed her forehead. "You're a genius, you know that?" he told her, and she blushed.

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm just capable of thinking straight, since I get a decent amount of sleep."

"Don't lecture me."

"Promise you'll talk to Nick in the morning?" she asked, slipping her hand into his.

"I dunno, I'm kinda busy being the most famous man in the world."

"Tony," she chastised him.

"Fine, fine. But I doubt he'll give me a straight answer," he said, "everything that guy says is cryptic, you noticed that? He's been a spy for so long he's forgotten how to talk like a normal human being."

She laughed.

%

It turned out there was already a short list of freaks- enhanced, rather- which was the good news Tony received from Fury. The bad news, however, was that visions of the future- or precognition, as the former Director called it- was a very real thing that completely normal people experienced all the time, so much so that most of the time it wasn't even considered an enhancement.

"You're still messed up by what the Maximoff girl put in your head," Nick observed over his surprisingly white-girl Starbucks frappe, "aren't you?"

Tony didn't answer.

He snorted. "Well, I'm sure everyone else would find that bit of news very entertaining."

"I didn't come here to be insulted," Tony said, glaring at him from behind his designer sunglasses, "so have you got anything useful to tell me, or should I just leave you to go and buy some Ugg boots to try and complete your image?"

He chuckled. "Okay then. Precognition isn't an all-or-nothing thing, Stark, different people experience it in different ways, to different extents. Hell, even déjà vu comes under that bracket- people experience extraordinary things all the time, and brush it off as just another fact of life. But you want to know your future? I can sort that out for you, if you really wanna go down that rabbit hole."

"I'm Tony Stark," he said confidently, "self-doubt is not a part of my repertoire."

"I noticed," Fury muttered. "Well, get your hiking boots on, because where we're going there's no red carpet."

"Wonderful," Tony trilled, "brilliant."

"Having second thoughts?"

"I don't like you," he snapped. "Just take me wherever the hell I need to go on whatever the hell magic carpet you use to travel."

%

Tony didn't like forests; he enjoyed nature of course, so long as it was a safe distance from him and preferably on the other side of a television screen. But in forests nature was immediate, and loud, and smelt weird. Last time he was in a forest, he had been beating up HYDRA agents. Time before that, he had supposedly been dead. And the previous time round to that, he got KO'd by a god. Forests did not equal a happy experience, in his book.

They were way off the beaten track in Toyabe National Forest, so far off it in fact that it was easy to pretend that civilisation, that humankind itself, was a thing of the distant future. Despite the common knowledge that SHIELD was supposedly dead, Fury had conjured up two agents who were following them with stun guns and real guns, which did not make Tony feel any better about the expedition as he stumbled and slipped his way after Fury, who was weaving his way through the trees on some invisible path that only he must have known.

"Are we nearly there yet?" Tony asked for the fourteenth time, and for the first time Fury actually answered.

"Through here." They had come up to a fissure in a rock face that blocked their path and completely hid the way ahead, but sunlight was still managing to filter through the narrow crack. They had to turn sideways to get through it and even then it was a tight fit, nature once more getting entirely too into Tony's personal space as the damp stone pressed into his front and back.

"You ever considered using some dynamite, making this place a little more accessible?" he asked grumpily as they headed towards the light bouncing round the corners of the dark and dripping cave, his brand-new walking shoes splashing in clear black puddles.

"That would defeat the point," Fury replied.

"Why do you have to be so cryptic all the time? It's not good for our relationship."

"Do you have any idea how hard it was to find a secluded spot like this in the US?" Fury asked over his shoulder.

"I'm going to hazard a guess at not actually that hard," Tony volunteered.

Fury ignored him. "When we find 'em, try to keep your mouth shut until I say otherwise. Don't want to make the wrong impression."

"Well that doesn't sound good," Tony said under his breath, and swore as he tripped up on a loose stone. "Is this really necessary? Couldn't we just meet whoever this is in the middle, at an Olive Garden or something?"

"Stop complaining," Fury said shortly, as they turned a nook in the passageway that opened up into a wide and lofty cavern that even Tony could grudgingly admit was beautiful.

What would have been the far wall opened out into mossy-floored forest, more deciduous than the predominantly-pine one they had been walking through, with half of that exit taken up by a glossy pool filled by the trickle of something too gentle to be a waterfall coming down from the ceiling. The pool was half-in, half-out of the cave and fringed with mats that had been woven out of long grasses that soaked up the spray, leaving the smooth, level stone floor beyond it completely dry. The other wall showed yet more signs of habitation; another, thicker mat with a heavy woollen blanket folded neatly at one end of it, a few ceramic pots and jars filled with unidentifiable substances stacked in a natural alcove, and a goat tethered to the wall, which looked at them with a mildly disdainful expression as it chewed on a mouthful of grass.

Outside, in a small clearing that edged the forest, there was a beehive surrounded by a swarm of buzzing. A figure emerged from the dark, thrumming cloud and made its way slowly towards them, and Fury pressed his finger to his lips as it- or rather, she- re-entered the cave.

"Hello, Nicholas," she said in a melodious voice, not looking at them as she crossed to the alcove with a jar of honey, "I hope the journey wasn't too much for your urbane friend."

Fury smirked. "It was fun to watch him struggle," he said, and Tony scowled. "I brought you a gift."

"You shouldn't have," the woman replied, still with her back to them. "But thank you." She turned around and made her way towards them, which gave Tony the chance to examine her properly. She was albino - hair and skin completely white and somehow unburnt by the sun, with a young, soft-featured face and the marbled white eyes of the blind. That explained why her gaze was fixed slightly beyond them as she approached, but she never once stumbled or wavered.

One of the guards stepped forward and held a box out to her, which she took with long, fragile-looking fingers and opened. Tony, who had been expecting some sort of artefact, was surprised and somewhat disappointed to see half a dozen Oreos inside.

"Delicious," she said with a wide smile, and set the box down. "Aren't you going to introduce us, Nicholas? I'm sure Mr Stark is intrigued as to who I am."

Fury grinned at Tony's stunned face. "Stark, meet the Pythia."

"Gesundheit," he said automatically, and the Pythia laughed softly.

"It's lovely to meet you at last, Tony," she said, turning her unseeing gaze in his direction, "I've heard so much about you. You were right to listen to the advice of Pepper."

"Let me guess," he said, finding his tongue at last, "you read my mind."

"No," she said, "I knew it anyway. Can I offer you a drink? I only have water, I'm afraid."

"We're fine," Fury said before Tony could open his mouth. "We won't intrude on your hospitality for too long."

"If you insist." She clasped her hands behind her and gave him an unnervingly penetrating look, cloudy eyes now focusing directly onto him. "Tony, would you like to ask me something?"

He nodded, then realised she wouldn't have seen the reaction- or maybe she had, he didn't know. God, this was weird. "I…"

"Don't try to hide behind your words," she advised him, "you will fool neither of us. Tell me what you fear, Tony." When he still didn't reply, she looked down. "Nicholas, would you and your soldiers give us a few minutes? The bees won't bother you outside, I promise."

Fury nodded. "Play nice," he warned them, and gestured for the two agents to follow him outside. When he was gone, the Pythia looked back at Tony.

"Come sit at the pool with me," she said, "I often find it helps to clear my mind."

He obediently tailed her to the water, and they sat down on the mats. "I'm scared my friends are gonna die because of me," he blurted out, "and I need someone to tell me I'm being paranoid or something, but…"

The Pythia leant forward and dragged her fingertips across the surface of the water, creating ripples that distorted their reflections. "That took a lot of courage to say," she murmured.

"Thanks."

"Tony, there are terrible things on the horizon, events that have been set in motion by actions years, decades, millennia ago. This infinite universe is beginning to converge on a small blue planet barely out of its infancy, and our guardians are expected to bear the weight of wars that prove infinity is a lot smaller than we believe."

"The Infinity Stones," he said, voicing his thoughts aloud.

She nodded. "You have awakened very old, very powerful beings with them, beings which will most likely underestimate the ability of humanity to defend themselves. But that does not mean a lack of fatalities. The walls you built for yourself are about to come tumbling down, you will encounter people like you who traverse starlight instead of stratosphere, and everything you know will change, become flux. So flux, in fact, that not even I know the true outcome of the wars that approach us."

"You're not helping," he mumbled, flicking at the pool himself and sending droplets flying.

"I wish I could offer consolation, Tony, but instead I can only bring you truth. Before the wars of the infinite there will be another event that will change everything, and I am afraid that what you are paranoid about will, in part, come to be."

Dread seeped through him like rot. "How?"

She shook her head. "I cannot tell you that, for fear of the ramifications. I cannot tell you what deaths, if any, will happen, or if the loss of your friends will occur in a more metaphorical way. But there will be a schism in the heart of the Avengers and you, my friend, will be a cause of it. Not its entire cause, of course, but in part." She shifted so that she was facing him instead of the pool. "Listen to me, Anthony Edward Stark. You cannot allow what I have told you to affect your actions."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" he demanded. "I'm supposed to just, what, embrace that I'll ruin everything I created?"

"Don't you see? Don't you understand, Tony, that the more actively you try to avoid your fate the more you cement its happening? All you can do is prepare yourself for the oncoming storm, and think how you can amend the fallout you help to create. I have given you warning of inevitable events, now heed it. Protect those you love as best you can, and accept that some things are beyond even your control."

"No," he said, standing up, "you do not get to get away with some half-assed 'warning' and a vague prediction that could mean anything. You're supposed to be an oracle, for hell's sake! You know, some specifics would be nice!"

She arose too, shafts of ivory hair curtaining her narrow face. "I have learnt from the mistakes of my forebears," she said, coldness creeping into my tone, "but if you want specifics, Stark, who am I to deny them to you? The image the red witch planted in your mind was no purposeful prediction, but because of the paranoia it planted in you it will transpire into truth, because of you. Isn't that ironic? If you had never seen the cold corpses of your friends lying dead at your feet, then none of these recent events would have happened."

Shadows crept in, welcomed by the sudden darkness of her voice and Tony shivered, his expensive jacket suddenly doing nothing to keep him warm.

The Pythia pressed a forefinger against the center of his forehead. "But the witch planted the first foul seed of doubt in your mind and now it consumes you, corrupts you, affects your every decision. I see it in your eyes, though mine own are clouded. You are scared, man of metal, and your fear will be your undoing."

He staggered back from her, newly fixed heart pounding in his chest with panic as the cavern seemed to grow darker, more primeval around him. "Please," he said, "there must be a way to stop it happening."

"Will you not listen to me?"

"I'm begging you!"

The Pythia sagged; light flooded the corners of the cave again as the rage fled her body. "I am sorry," she said gently, "there is nothing you or I can do. The only advice I can give you is this; forget everything I have told you, and perhaps you will rest a little easier. Pepper was right, you know- sleep does clear your mind."

"How," he said, "how do you know these things?"

Her smile was sad. "The gift of second sight comes at the price of your first," she told him, misted eyes now settled somewhere over his shoulder again. "I wish I didn't have this innate knowledge of so many things, from the past and present as well as the future. It's muddled and confusing and gives me one hell of a migraine, not to mention I have no idea where this information comes from. You aren't the only one terrified of what is to come, and you don't know half of what I do. But someone has to bear the knowledge, I suppose."

"It must be terrible," he said, and she lifted a delicate shoulder.

"The most difficult part, I think, is the struggle to remain neutral. Oracles are bound to serve both friend and foe indiscriminately, the right of knowledge belonging to everyone. Can you imagine how dangerous a weapon foresight can be?" She pursed her chapped lips together. "If your HYDRA were to come to me, or Ultron, or even the Titan yet to be known to this soil, I would have no choice but to assist them as I do you. That is why I must be so secluded; better nobody knows of me, than everyone. A sort of loophole, if you will." She straightened a little. "But I forget myself; we are here for your problems. Tell me what you think, Tony."

He looked down. "You're right. I need to forget… this."

"You cannot fight knowing the outcome. As I just said, such a level of omniscience requires neutrality, to stay out of the battle and maintain a peaceful, civilian identity as best one can. When you leave my home, Tony, Nicholas will offer you the chance to have this journey wiped from your mind, just as he does to everyone who comes here. Usually it is to ensure my own safety, but I believe that under these circumstances it will be of some benefit to you, as well. Ask him to erase all memories of me, instead of just my location."

He shook his head. "Then I'll be back where I started."

"No, you won't. Some part of your subconscious will be unable to forget this encounter, I assure you, and that knowledge, though you are unable to access it, will bring you peace without the fear your active mind creates. You will be able to sleep a little better, I swear."

"You sure?"

"Stupid question," she said with a crooked smile. "You are a brave man, Tony, I can see that even without my gift. Your capacity to endure hardship is stronger than even you, with your astronomical ego, know."

That made his lip twitch upwards in amusement. "Thanks," he said, "I'm sorry I won't remember you helped me."

"Don't be, my friend. The knowledge I helped you is payment enough," she consoled him, and screwed her face up in disgust. "That sounded horribly pretentious, didn't it?"

He laughed properly. "Nice knowing you for a while, Pythia- what is your name, anyway?"

She hesitated.

"Aw, c'mon. It's not like I'll remember."

"No," she said, "it's just that nobody's ever asked me before… Katharine. My name's Katharine."

"Pretty normal name for a chick who lives in a cave," he joked.

"I had a family, once. Years ago, now, all long dead. So I understand a little of your fear, because back when I was Katharine I felt it too. May the grace of the fates be with you, Tony," she said as Fury and his men re-entered the room.

"I'm sorry about your family."

"Don't be. They had good lives, and I am lucky to be alive myself to remember them. Remember that you are never completely without something to fight for, when the world is dark and seemingly without hope. Hope itself cannot be seen without darkness to throw it into relief."

"Am I interrupting something?" Fury asked, breaking the serious tone, and the Pythia chuckled.

"I believe Tony would like to ask something of you," she said to him, as they clasped hands in farewell. "And avoid the interstate for the first fifty miles or so on your way back, there's about to be an accident. Oh, and thank you again for the Oreos."

"Not a problem. Look after yourself, lady."

"And you, Nicholas, or your second 'death' might actually be permanent this time."

As Tony hurried after the other men back towards the fissure, he glanced over his shoulder one last time to see the Pythia watching them with a mournful expression. It vanished as soon as he saw it and she waved at him, before turning away to tend to her strange little home.

The procedure to make him forget only hurt a little; Fury told him beforehand that the technology was originally an old HYDRA invention from the time of the cold war, which SHIELD had taken and refined so it was practically painless and a lot more precise. SHIELD were apparently a big thing again too, but like everything else he was going to forget that anyway.

"Feel like getting anything off your chest?" Tony asked Fury, just before he went under.

"You should be so lucky."

That night, on the plane back to Pepper from what he thought was just a forgettable meeting with Fury, Tony slept soundly for twelve hours solid, the first time he had done so in years.

He never could figure out why that was, or why from that point on some of his nightmares sometimes featured an all-white woman who spoke in a soothing, melodious voice in words he couldn't quite make out, words that quelled the fear into calmness. He never mentioned her to another living soul, but whenever he was on the verge of a panic attack the thought of the woman helped slow his breathing. It was just another thing he never quite understood, right on the fringe of memory.

That, and a distant paranoia about self-fulfilling prophecies.

A/N I reckon Stark is simultaneously the hardest and the easiest Avenger to write, because while his sort of humour seems to come easy 90% of the jokes tend to fall flat. Hope that my success ratio was slightly better than that... this oneshot was also an experiment in how specific I think I can guess about the upcoming MCU plots to be without completely going against canon. Kevin Feige don't screw me over on this okay?

I also want to forewarn that the next fic is a lot darker than anything I've written before, and especially grimmer than any other Civilian Chronicles. It's definitely going to come with an M-rating, and since I'm gonna start putting the first sentence of each File at the end of the previous chapter as a preview-type thing, this is a tiny glimpse of why -

NEXT: "There were no two ways about it. Irene was a Nazi, a HYDRA, and an utterly irredeemable human being."