Author's Note: I'm a very frustrating 15 minutes late... I'M SORRY, I HAD HOMEWORK! Regardless, here is chapter 4! Get comfortable; it's a long one. :)
"Never mind that!" Tony cried in an annoyed tone. "You need to be more careful, you could've gotten us caught!"
"You left the radio in the way!" the man retorted. "Besides, I already warned you the invisibility spell was still under practice."
"Whatever, Dumbledore, let's just get back to where we were." Stephen gave Tony an incredulous look.
"That was the plan."
"I believe you were telling me about the Dark Arts?" Tony asked, ignoring the sorcerer's previous comment.
"Tampering with the Dark Arts is risky," Stephen warned, "but it may be useful with what we're dealing with in this terrible future."
"So you're saying there could be a way to fix all this? We could actually go back and undo this mess of humanity?"
"I don't know about 'going back,' but there could be a solution moving forward."
"Mhm… Elaborate."
Stephen huffed in annoyance, giving Tony a fairly unamused look. "There may be a way to heal the infected in our current timeline and rescue the world from the virus's impending domination using the magic of the Dark Arts."
It was silent for a moment before Stark spoke. "Wow… You made that sound so dramatic. Did you do movie trailer voice overs as a side job when you lost your surgeon career? 'The Virus,'" Tony mocked in an exaggerated voice, "'in theaters November 26th-'"
Strange's cape whacked the former billionaire as if to tell him it wasn't amused, while Strange himself practically death stared him in all seriousness.
"Sorry, sorry, I'll focus," Tony promised, clearing his head of off-topic thoughts. "As you were saying?"
"The Dark Arts hold a lot of potential in saving humanity, but it's all or nothing. It'll either work, or it won't and it'll destroy the world in the process, there's no in between."
"Yet, if we don't do something now, the world will fall to destruction anyway." There was an intense silence, a threateningly risky decision weighing between the thoughts of both men.
"Why didn't you tell them anything?"
"What?" Tony gave the sorcerer a confused look.
"Steve and the others, why didn't you let them in on our plans?"
"You heard them." Stephen's eyes followed Tony's movements as he paced around to the other side of the desk. "They were set on our world's new motto, 'every man for themselves.' They want nothing to do with the purposes of the Avengers anymore, they don't believe in saving the world anymore. Besides, how would we know we can trust them?"
"We can't, but we also can't save the world by ourselves."
"Who says? We got two big brains and a bunch of powerful magic on our side, I think we can do it."
"Maybe, but who's to say the world isn't gonna need their Avengers once everything is back to normal? The Avengers aren't a pair, they're a group."
"Since when were you so pro-Avengers?"
Stephen went silent. Tony knew the answer.
"Since Peter, right?" he hesitated at the name, feeling instant guilt.
"We'll get him back."
"He's long gone, Stephen."
"We don't know that-"
"It's been three years!" It was quiet again. "Three years without him, three years lost in that mess, three years alone among the infected. He's gone, I thought we've accepted that." It was quiet for another long moment.
"Tony," Stephen began stubbornly, "we'll get him back."
"What makes you think he's still alive?" Tony spat in rising anger at his friend. "There's nothing that proves that-"
"Nothing but the infinity stones." Silence once more. Strange took this as an invitation to continue. "If we can find the time stone and get it back, we can do something about Peter."
"I thought you said we shouldn't mess with time like that?"
"We won't, not yet at least. Not until we know what's happened to him. With the time stone in my possession, I can look through all of Peter's possible decisions, where he could've gone, what he could've done, until we find which one is part of our reality."
"Can it do all that? It doesn't sound as straightforward as the possible outcomes you saw when we fought Thanos."
"I guess we'll see."
"How do we get it back?"
"You have to crack time travel again."
"I'm sorry, what?" Tony put a hand on his ear dramatically, a signal asking if he had heard that right.
"It's the only way. There's no time stone to take us where we need to go, so we need the time travel device."
"That thing was destroyed years ago, Stephen, and I don't have the blueprints to reinvent it."
"Not here, no, but at the location of the former Avengers Compound?" Tony was temporarily silenced. "We can look there, get what we can find, bring it back here, and work on it. What was it you said? 'Two big brains and a bunch of magic'? That's all we need."
"Alright, Strange," Tony met the other's lighter eyes with his own darker ones, "let's do it."
As Stephen waved his hands in the air, a golden-outlined portal began to spark to life.
"Oh, no, no, no," Pepper's voice stopped the two from the stairs, her steps getting closer as she came down. "Where do you two think you're going?"
"We're looking for blue…berries." Tony lied last second, trying to lead the woman off their trail. Pepper gave her husband an incredulous look. "Strawberries. Raspberries?" Pepper sighed.
"You're not actually thinking of tampering around with all this unstable magic to fix the world, are you?" Her blue eyes bounced from Stark to Strange to Stark and back to Strange.
"There's no other way," Stephen finally answered, his hands dropping to his sides. "I'm supposed to be the protector of our universe, I can't leave it to die. My job is to make sure this world lasts in the way that it's supposed to, I can't fail."
"Yeah!" Stark added spontaneously in hopes of convincing his wife the deed had to be done. "What a shame it would be if you kept the Sorcerer Supreme from protecting the universe from such endless threats." Pepper's glare didn't falter. Tony relented. "Look, there's also a chance we could get Peter back. He may still be here, and we might actually have a chance at getting him back."
Pepper, subtle but evident shock written on her face, turned to Stephen. "He's still alive?"
"There's only one way to find out," Strange said, motioning to the open space where his portal had just faded away.
"Okay," Pepper yielded, "but be careful."
The 'Awesome Facial Hair Bros', as Stark once liked to call them, stepped through the sparkling portal and entered a much more desolate piece of land. Ahead of them was the abandoned Avengers Compound, looking fairly the same, only more worn down and covered in vines. The sky was darkened by clouds and the trees towered threateningly above the two.
Both glanced around, analyzing the empty and unsettling area. Stark was the first to speak.
"Are you kidding me? All that money and hard work to manufacture and fund this place, and they didn't even bother at least turning it into a government facility? They just raided it for my advanced technology and left it in ruins. Ridiculous!"
"Quiet."
"Excuse me-"
"Shh!" Strange put his hand up to silence the man behind him. "This place is probably crawling with infected, we need to cleanse it."
"Ugh, this is my least favorite part." Tony was dramatically silent for a second. "Well, let's get it done already."
His repulsors whirred as he prepared them for action. One big blast into the sky and it attracted the attention of approximately 43 infected, according to FRIDAY's sensors. Doctor Strange summoned a weapon of his own, offering Stark a few side glares.
"Maybe a warning next time?" he hissed.
"Where's the fun in that?"
Five blasts from the former billionaire's hands and a few infected were down. Tony then launched a missile toward another approaching group and took them all out in one blow. He unleashed an electric blade from his suit after that, spinning to fry the infected that made their way directly in front of him.
Every rare chance Stark had to use his Iron Man suit he was reminded of how lucky he was to have Strange of all people by his side. Tony was forced to give up the high-tech suit in the early years of the apocalypse, but Strange easily retrieved it from one of the government facilities' underground storage compartments with nothing more than a portal.
Stephen conjured up a magic weapon. He wrapped both groups of infected heading toward him in thick bands of sparking gold. It tightened around them until they were successfully subdued. He then created an illusion, a copy of himself, to distract and destroy the remaining few while he scanned the area for a way to sneak into the building.
Meanwhile, Stark kept blasting until he no longer had anyone to aim at. He snuck away, following Strange's direction into the building. By the time they made it inside, the sorcerer's clone had taken out the last of the infected. Just to double check, Stark addressed his built-in AI.
"FRIDAY?"
"All clear, sir."
"Alright, Stephen, where to?"
The man in question turned to glare at Iron Man with an incredulous expression. "You're asking me? You built this place!"
"Basement. That's usually where the storage and archive rooms for every single establishment I've built is. It's probably a mess down there, worse than the outside," he claimed sourly as the two walked side-by-side to the stairwell. The place truly was barren of most of its high-tech gadgets and machinery. "They just took what they wanted and left the place a wreck. Not surprising. Do they forget we're people, too?"
"Enhanced people."
"I'm not enhanced," Stark clarified. "Everything I have is human, it's tech. Tech doesn't make you any less human. Romanoff had nothing special, just training. Same with Barton and Wilson. Rogers, Barnes, Wanda, and Banner were experiments, Scott and Hope are just people in high-tech 'shrink suits', Quill's a hybrid with a couple of blasters, you were a regular guy lost out of a job-"
"If regular guys could manipulate the space-time continuum." Strange stopped walking and looked at his friend. "We aren't just normal people, not to them. To them, we're their lifeline, we're the only ones standing between their safety and imminent danger. We were put on a pedestal above all others with only one goal of protecting the people. Some of us may not have chosen this life, but we're living it. Everyone else expects us to save them from threats. We already failed them once, we can't let this attempt fail too."
"But behind the suit," Stark motioned to himself, "behind the magic shields," then he motioned to Strange, "we're just people. People who make mistakes, who feel the same powerful emotions, who crumble under pressure. Just because we can fly around in high-powered suits or a magic levitation cloak doesn't mean we're any less human."
"Maybe, but we have something else to prove right now."
"More important than our humanity?"
Strange never spoke any of his words quite as venomously as Stark. In fact, he kept his tone firm yet understanding.
"Just as important as our humanity, cause we're trying to save it. For everyone." Stephen left it at that, proceeding down the stairs.
"Makes me want to regret everything we're doing here for them. They look at us with so much disdain, they hate us. They hate us for 'abandoning' them, for backing down from a fight we couldn't yet understand. Now that at least the two of us do, we don't have a team. The Avengers don't exist anymore because the rest of the world started thinking so little of them."
"The Avengers don't exist anymore because we split up and sought safety over protection."
"Until we figured out how to end this madness!"
"We're still working on it."
Stark was the one to stop this time. He stepped in front of Strange, slight rage but more hurt in his eyes.
"Did you see the way Steve spoke? He was our key leader and he said himself 'We're not Avengers anymore.' He spoke the title like it was a curse, and it was. It was because look where we are? You know I'm just as stubborn as you are, you know the only reason we're doing this is out of an unhinged sense of ambition. It's because of an unhealthy savior complex that was forced upon us because we were pressured with the job of saving the whole god damn world from things we can barely even understand!" Stephen was silent, studying the evident anger in Tony's brown eyes. "You know I'm right."
"I do," Stephen finally answered, "but do you remember the way Peter spoke about the Avengers?" The rage left Tony's eyes and all Stephen could see was the hurt. "He thought the world of us." Stephen's firm voice hitched ever so slightly. "He did everything he could to become an Avenger. He thought it was the greatest thing to ever exist. And you're right, maybe it isn't, but it was to him. There's one reason why you're doing this, for Peter."
Tony blinked away invisible tears. Then he smiled half-heartedly at his friend, who returned the expression, thankful for the reminder of what he was here for. "For Peter," he repeated.
A few more minutes of walking on the basement level brought them to a door that read 'Archive Room' in platinum letters.
"Oh look, we're here," Stark announced the obvious. He approached the door and pushed it open.
The two men glanced around the huge room, specifically at the looming rows of boxes and files at every corner. Stark was low key scowling at the mess in the back, probably from the government's 'clearing out' of the place. Meanwhile, Strange was internally annoyed at the fact that they'd have to search through all of these. Tony wasn't exactly the neatest person, so there was a higher chance that things were out of order.
"Please tell me your archived files are in alphabetical order," Stephen practically begged.
"They would've been in order by most important, but FRIDAY made me organize them by the alphabet," Tony rolled his eyes.
"Oh, thank god."
Giving Stephen a quick glare, Tony led the way to the 'B' section.
"I keep all the blueprints in the same spot so it's easier to find them."
"Are they also organized alphabetically?"
"No," Tony scoffed, "that's a waste of time! Why would I organize the files within the organized files? That doesn't make any sense!"
Stephen gave him a silent glare that was a mix of irritation and incredulity. It was the kind of look that screamed 'Are you fucking kidding me?'
"So you're telling me it's a complete mess in there?" Stephen feared the worst.
"Yeah, probably." Tony's nonchalant response only infuriated Stephen more. They were going to be searching for a long time. Tony motioned to the left of them with his arms. "Here's the 'Bs', now we just have to look for the 'BLs'."
Just as the two went to turn the corner into the correct row, an explosion sounded above the shelves. Part of the roof came crumbling down, knocking at least two tall shelves out of place. Boxes of files dropped to the ground, creating a mess of papers and notes. Instinctively, Tony and Stephen hid up against the set of shelves directly across the 'Bs', occasionally peeking for any more dangers.
"What the hell was that?!" Tony whisper-yelled.
"No idea."
"You think the government caught us sneaking into the establishment that they stole from me to call their own even when they just took my machinery and left the place in ruins?"
"Give it a rest." Stephen shot Tony a quick glare, probably his 30th one of the day. "Besides, there's no way they could've known. There's nothing here that could alert them."
"So then who's attacking us?"
Suddenly, another explosion sounded by the 'A' section, and then another by the 'Ls'. The two heroes remained where they hid, covering their heads on instinct. When the explosions got too close to their hiding spot, they ducked and ran for the 'S' section further away.
The back wall shattered as the door was blown to pieces. The light breeze from outside can be felt indoors now that there was nothing closing the two in. They could only partially see the group of people standing in the way of the destroyed wall. A dark figure, that looked as though they could be the group's leader, walked in ahead of the others.
Neither Stark nor Strange could see through the dust very well, but it seemed as though the figure used some kind of grappling hook to sling themselves between every row. They seemed to be in search of something. Tony and Stephen had a strong feeling they were looking for the same thing. Regardless, nothing here was good in the hands of whoever this person was.
When Tony noticed the figure enter the very row he and Stephen needed to be in, he fired a blast from his repulsors at the shelf directly behind the figure. As expected, the figure revealed themselves from the row the same time Tony did.
"FRIDAY?"
"Scanning… It's the Renegades, sir," the AI confirmed, analyzing the circular symbol on the figure's jacket.
"Great."
The small group started attacking Stark, the figure didn't move from his spot. Tony wasn't sure why, but he was too distracted to think anymore about it. While he was trying to fight off all these people with their stolen military equipment, Stephen was nowhere to be found. At least Tony was managing to lead them away from the 'Bs'. When he turned back to the leader of the Renegades, they were no longer in their fixed spot.
From the 'S' section, Stephen assessed his situation. He could join Tony in fighting off the rebellious group, or he could take this chance to steal the blueprint. His cloak seemed to choose for him. With a light jerk, the levitating piece of outerwear unattached itself from the sorcerer and quickly floated to the row directly across from him. It was trying to get Stephen to loop around the empty rows until he got back to the 'BLs'. Stephen followed.
Once he turned the corner of the new row, he was met with the leader of the Renegades. The figure didn't attack, didn't flinch, didn't even move. Stephen reacted quickly, coming to the conclusion that the only way to get by was to trap the person standing in his way. The first thing he thought of was the mirror dimension. Spinning his hands, he formed the spell and made sure that he only captured the one person in front of him outside of reality.
After successfully doing so, he passed by the next few rows. Then, the cloak of levitation pointed to the boxes that held the blueprints. Some had fallen to the floor when the Renegades launched their attack, but the rest were still on the shelves. Stephen hurriedly began searching the shelves first, scowling a little at the lack of organization.
"Time machine, time machine, time machine," he kept muttering to himself in hopes that he'll find the right one. That was until he was interrupted again. Somehow, the leader managed to escape the mirror dimension. It was impossible for someone who isn't trained in the mystic arts.
Tony was actually taking care of these guys just fine on his own. They weren't too threatening when you look at the fact that they are just a bunch of normal people with guns and military armor. He assumed the group came a little less prepared. The Renegades were way more than just the 6 people he was blasting at; they must not have expected anyone else to be here. The Renegades were most damaging when their attacks were planned, not unexpected.
Tony's real issue was with Stephen. Where the hell was the jerk? Tony was torn between being pissed at his friend for not helping, and being worried for him.
It was true that part of the modifications he made to his mirror dimension spell had it going on a timer, but Stephen set that time for at least five minutes, not one! While it did confuse and frankly trouble Stephen, he knew he couldn't waste time trying to get to the bottom of that. The figure stood before him, but he didn't make any moves. In fact, neither of them did. The cape was the one who broke the silence. It pointed to a blueprint sitting on the floor. Stephen's eyes followed the direction and read the title. 'Time Machine Blueprint.'
Quickly glancing between the rolled up blueprint and the leader of the Renegades, he snagged the poster and fled the scene. The leader tried to use whatever his grappling hook thing was to grab the blueprint, but they missed by an inch. The cloak of levitation reattached itself to a sprinting Stephen. By the time the sorcerer made it to Tony, the six Renegades members were down.
"Where the hell have you been?!" Tony hissed, his arms up in annoyance.
"No time, we gotta go." Tony watched as Stephen put the blueprint under his arm so he could freely use his hands to portal them out of there. Seeing as Strange managed to get what they were looking for, Stark let off on his irritated feelings.
The moment the portal began to spark to life, the Renegades leader showed up a few feet in front of them. They didn't attack or run towards the two, they just slowly walked. Seconds before the portal opened, one of the members regained consciousness and charged at the two heroes. The portal now revealed the living room of their home. They stepped through at the exact second Tony blasted the Renegades member, who ended up entering the portal with the two as they fell to the ground. The portal shut behind them, leaving the leader alone in the archives.
"Aw, no! Come on!" Tony cried, motioning to the dead body on his living room floor. He lightly nudged the body with his foot. "Ugh! Get it out of here! Get it out!"
Stephen grimaced a little at the sight, creating another portal back to the archive room and directing it to the dead body. It faded back into nothingness as the body disappeared.
"Stephen, the blood!" Tony complained dramatically. "There's blood on my floor!"
"It's not that serious!"
"Hey, you have no place to talk! You left me to fight them off on my own! Like, what the hell was that all about?!"
Pepper heard the commotion from her room upstairs. She rolled her eyes, knowing the two men were back and the loud arguing was clearly them. She went to investigate.
"I had a window of opportunity! If I didn't take it, we wouldn't have this!" Stephen practically shoved the blueprint in Tony's face, causing the latter to stumble backwards.
"AW, NO! YOU MADE ME STEP IN THE BLOOD!"
"YOU HAD BLOOD ON YOU ANYWAY!"
"REALLY? 'CAUSE YOU'RE ABOUT TO LOSE SOME!"
"I'm sorry?"
"Tony, cut it out!" Both men met the new voice. Tony gave his wife an exasperated look.
"He was arguing, too!" Tony pointed at Stephen when he said this, the latter putting his arms up as if to say, 'Seriously?'
"Really?" Pepper wasn't amused with either of them, even as the argument died down. "Did you get what you were looking for?" She asked with a direct and firm tone. As a response, Strange shook the hand that held the blueprint. "Then what are you here standing around arguing over nothing for?"
Both Stark and Strange flinched in realization. There wasn't a single thing keeping them from progress but themselves.
"Go find Peter!"
-next chapter-