Prompt# 336- Stranded- Room for Improvement- Tekia - Exalted/Iron Man

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: Room for Improvement
Fandom: Exalted/Iron Man
Prompt: Stranded
Warnings: none
Rating: PG
Summary: After falling into a trap, the first order of business it to find out where you are. But, if where you are makes no sense, then what are you supposed to do? Traveling to the future is easy, just fall asleep, right? Waking up to a whole different world is harder. Luckily, Tony Stark can adapt to any environment.

Yensin’s head tilted to one side as he stared at Tony with eyes as dark as always, only now, Tony could see how they weren’t brown, but a deep yellow. The quickly fading sunlight nearly made them glow. Goose flesh pimpled his skin as he stared at the man he had killed years ago, that was apparently immortal.
“I don’t know who Yensin is.” He turned to the Hunt that had surrounded them. “Relax, these people are here to talk.” He waved a hand. “Leave us.” The three servants drifted off, but the Dragon Blooded narrowed his eyes before moving away, his stare on Tony the whole while.
Iron Dust touched a hand to Tony’s elbow. “Let us speak in privacy.” Tony willingly followed him up the ladder; fully conscious of Yensin’s every move. As soon as they boarded the ship, Tony found himself at White Song’s side and couldn’t tear his eyes away from Yensin. “Who are you?”
Yensin arched a brow and glanced at Iron Dust. “You’ve heard my proposal, and you agree, it is the wisest course of action.”
Iron Dust shook his head, moving toward a table. He leaned on his knuckles on the table and gazed out at the sky outside the window. “As much as I agree that it would be a benefit to us, I can’t help you with it.” He glanced at Tony. “It is the will of Luna, who is the guardian of all of Creation, that he return to his own world.”
Tony glanced from one man to the other. “Wait, what’s going on?”
They both looked at him as if they both had forgotten that he was there. Then Iron Dust smiled. “It’s nothing, as we’ve already agreed that you’re returning home.” Tony nodded, agreeing, before he shot Yensin another glance.
“So what are we talking about here?”
Yensin finally turned fully toward him and spoke to him directly. “We are losing this war.” One hand dug into his cloak’s pocket and emerged clutched around the clock Tony had made for Lord Wana, crushed and disassembled. “If we had someone of your caliber on our side, we will have a chance to win. Build us weapons, and you will become the next emperor.”
Tony’s brows went up. This wasn’t Yensin. This wasn’t the man that had helped the man at fault for his family’s deaths, who had taught Tony how to change. Tony’s eyes went back to Iron Dust. “Weapons?”
Iron Dust’s lips went thin, but before he could say anything, Yensin gestured with the clock. “You built this. You understand machines far better than any of your brethren. You, Chosen of the Sun, could understand our cousins far better than any of us. This clock you built proves it all.”
Iron Dust turned away sharply, and Tony stepped forward, one hand reaching out. “Was all of this a test for me? The clock, to see what I could do? To test my talents?”
Iron Dust glared at him. “I have not lied to you.”
“That’s what your people do, isn’t it? Lie to everybody?”
Iron Dust’s back went rigid, and his eyes went cold. “But of course.”
Tony rolled his eyes. “Right.” He looked at Yensin. “I’m not building weapons for you. I will never build weapons ever again.”
Yensin stepped closer, dark eyes steady as he stared at Tony in that familiar way that had always cut Tony to the core. The emotion behind them were far off from before, but it was ingrained in Tony to trust Yensin. The man had changed his life, saved his life.
White Song had mentioned that saving a man’s life meant that he was owed something, a life, in return. Tony had not only been saved by Yensin, but had gotten his family and him killed. It took nearly all he had to shake his head.
Yensin smiled in a way that was far unfamiliar. “Weapons? We have weapons built by the Primordials. We have weapons from the First Age. We need no more weapons, for our very bodies are the greatest weapons we have. No, what we need is someone who understands the machines that we are fighting against. We can get one of them and have you reverse engineer it. Learn about it so that we can learn their weaknesses. With you, we may have a chance to win this war.”
At a loss for words, Tony stared at Yensin, then at Iron Dust, who had turned his face away. White Song had sat herself at the table, her finger etching something in the wood.
It wasn’t weapons, Tony thought. That was something wasn’t it? Still, it didn’t feel like the old Yensin. New Yensin? Not dead Yensin? Tony shook his head. “I want to go home.”
Iron Dust nodded, turning back to the group. “And that’s how it should be.”
Yensin turned on Iron Dust. “No, the stars have said we need him.”
Iron Dust waved aside the idea. “Be that as it may, Luna has made her command.”
Yensin huffed. “Since when did you follow the command of Luna?” White Song growled softly under her breath, and Iron Dust rested his hand on her shoulder. She shuddered under his touch, but calmed. “The Faction has deliberated and made its decision.”
Iron Dust’s eyes went wide. “And the Faction will ignore the will of Luna? Are they stupid?”
“How dare you?”
“It is one thing to change fate of a person on our own,” Iron Dust hissed. “But to go against the will of one of the most powerful gods in Creation to change the path of Creation as a whole? We have seen the future already. We have seen the choices we are allowed to make, and this is not one of them.”
Tony felt that sensation of being a ping pong ball again. He shook his head and raised his hands. “Woah, woah, what’s going on here? Are you two bitter rivals? Old lovers that never got over each other? Calm down and use your words to explain what you’re talking about to us lesser mortals. White Song is so lost.”
He couldn’t see her, but knew that White Song was rolling her eyes at him as her hand thumped to the table. She sighed and pushed herself up. “The Factions are what the Brotherhood of the Sidereals have divided themselves.”
Yensin gave her an odd look. “Why do you know that?”
White Song gave him a crooked smile. “Why do you think?”
Yensin slanted a look at Iron Dust, who shook his head.
“Anyway,” White Song went on, facing Tony. “The Factions work to resettle the fate of Creation after they messed up in the First Age.”
“How’d you mess up?”
Both men suddenly looked very sullen and refused to make eye contact. It was Iron Dust that answered with his arms folded over his chest. “I wouldn’t call it messed up so much as things didn’t happen quite the way we planned.”
White Song leaned conspiringly close to Tony. “They messed up and ruined the world. We once lived in a world that was near perfect if you could ignore the arrogance and snobbishness of your people. I hated my soul mate.”
“Wait, soul mate?”
White Song leaned heavily on Tony’s arm. “Yes.”
“Spill.”
“I think we have more important matters to tend to than her past lovers.”
Tony studied Yensin a moment before he opened his mouth. “What was your name again? Guardian of Kindled Fires? So, Kindle, you want me to dissect a, what? Enemy machine? So you can build weapons to use against them. No offence, but if your people can’t do it on your own, then how are you going to use them? How will the information I get help you at all?”
Yensin opened his mouth, and Tony held up a finger to stall him. “I will not build weapons.”
Iron Dust brushed his hair off his shoulder. “Enemy machines? Those we fight against are not quite the same as living beings. They are alive, but they’re built by the machine god.”
“Auto-“
“Yes, that god. Now, you understand how we need someone that can understand how machines work. You were brought here for a reason, and you were meant to be here to help us.”
“Luna demans-“
“Iron Dust, listen to yourself. Who is your Maiden? Mercury or Luna?” He approached Iron Dust and rested a hand on his shoulder. “How can you be so blind to what the stars are saying? He was brought a great distance to us.”
He could see the wheels in Iron Dust’s head turning as his eyes studied the ground intently. Something cold had settled in Tony’s gut and he glanced at White Song. Her lips were thin and her eyes hard on Iron Dust.
Tony shook himself into motion, jerking away from White Song so that she lost her balance from where she had been leaning against him. She caught herself before she fell, graceful like the cat she was. Tony wrapped a hand around Iron Dust’s neck, tipping his chin up so that he could catch Iron Dust’s yellow eyes. “Hey, you don’t mean to leave me stranded here in this world after you promised to get me home. You promised me, and you never lied to me, Iron Dust! I trust you in this, don’t break your word.”
He knew he was putting Iron Dust on the spot, but, dammit, he had promised! Finally, Iron Dust made a face and nodded. “Of course I’ll get you home. It is what I have been commissioned to do.” He looked over at Yensin. “Help us find the manse that we need, and in the meantime, you can pick Lost Path’s mind and learn what you can. We all can. We can learn what we can and have a few cards up our sleeves to use against the Alchemicals.”
Yensin nodded. “If that’s the best I’m going to get.” He turned back to the ladder that lead to the ground and swung his leg over. He glared at the three of them. “Iron Dust, you’re far too familiar with them. The Brotherhood will not approve.”
Iron Dust nodded once and Yensin was gone. For a moment, they all gazed at the empty space before Tony and White Song both turned to Iron Dust. “What was that about?”
Iron Dust arched his brows and begun to turn away. Both of them reached for him, an arm each, and held him in place.
“No, no, no,” White Song said, a smile curving her lips.
“Are you breaking the rules for us,” Tony asked, finishing her thought.
With the two of them on each side of him, Iron Dust quickly gave up and let them lead him to the table. He sat without a fight and folded his hands before him.
“Maybe I am.”
They sat on either side of him and stared with rapt attention.
“Will you get into a lot of trouble because of this?”
Iron Dust wrinkled his nose. “Maybe.”
Tony rubbed a pair of fingers over his brow. He was beginning to understand Pepper better, dealing with Iron Dust’s evasive answers. “Iron Dust,” he started. “Why are you helping me and not your brothers? And don’t give me that Luna’s command bullshit.”
Iron Dust sighed and leaned back in the chair. “While it is true that Luna commanded me to see you back, it is also true that I have my own reasons for seeing you away from our world.”
“Because of the threads of fate and all that? Me being able to unravel the threads with my knowledge?”
“That, and.” Iron Dust stretched out the word, as if he were buying time, picking his words carefully. “Because Luna wasn’t the only goddess to come to me.”
White Song’s head whipped around, and her eyes narrowed. “Mercury?”
Iron Dust nodded. “She said to me that my path lead to the manse that brought you here.” He met Tony’s stare. “I need to get to that manse.”
Tony could see in his mind’s eye Iron Dust’s body resting in the coffin, so still and silent. He could see White Song hidden behind a glass case, her arms crossed so elegantly over her chest like an Egyptian Queen. That cold lump in his gut clenched.
With all this talk of fate and destiny, Tony felt very small. He felt that whatever choice he made was going to lead to that moment in the manse where these two, his circle, were dead. He reached out and covered Iron Dust’s hand with his own.