Prompt#338 –Double Down - Room for Improvement - Tekia – Exalted/the Avengers

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: Room for Improvement
Fandom: Iron Man/ Exalted
Prompt: Double Down
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.

The man inside the coffin was as fair as Tony was dark. His skin was a very similar copper to White Song’s, and his hair was as blond as Steve’s. His lashes were barely visible, they were so pale a yellow on his cheeks. He had no facial hair, and a strong chin that Tony bet his bottom dollar on that meant he had been as stubborn an ass as Tony was today.
His clothes were by far the finest clothes Tony had seen to date. They reminded him of period movies from Asia, all thick furs and heavy embroidery. Gold literally dripped off the dead man, from his pierced ears, to bangles around his wrists, fingers, and waist. He clutched a naked sword in his hands not unlike an old knight’s tomb.
Even dead for who knows how long, Tony felt something pull inside him, reaching out for his old host. As if his Essence, his soul, recognized the body lying there and wanted to return. He bit his lips and tore his eyes away. He pressed a fisted hand to his arc reactor, as if to physically hold his Essence shard in place.
Iron Dust had drifted to a wall, head tilted back as he read the runes, his lips moving faintly, his finger pointing to each rune in turn. Tony shoved himself away from the coffin despite the nearly overwhelming need to kneel beside it forever, and walked to stand next to Iron Dust.
“Do you have any idea about how to send me back?”
Iron Dust jerked his head toward him, eyes wide, as if he had forgotten all about Tony in the short silence. “Yes, no.” He shook his head. “Not as such.” He looked back at the wall and pointed. “There is a spell here, but it may not be enough.”
Tony took in a deep breath. “The Most Gifted Artist created it, didn’t he?”
Iron Dust nodded. “He was clever in many fields. He built this from plans he drew up himself. He was a powerful sorcerer, and an inventor. He had many talents not seen for a very long time on Creation.”
Tony gazed longingly at the casket. “I was a better man, back then,” he murmured, low enough to be meant for himself only, but Iron Dust finally pulled his attention away from the wall and focused it all on Tony. Tony found he couldn’t look into those eyes, and thus kept them on the glass casket.
“You are different people. Just because you share the same Essence shard, does not make you the same man. He may have been heralded as a hero to his people, but you must never forget that he used his power without a thought to those that were under his rule.” Iron Dust flung out a hand toward a far wall. “He used slaves to build this temple to honor him. He killed those that didn’t obey his word. He stepped on lesser people to get himself into a higher plane.” He ducked down so that he could catch Tony’s gaze, his own eyes intense. “Just because he went down in legend as a magnanimous master, doesn’t mean he was. History is written by those that win the wars, but Heaven knows the truth.” He rested a hand on Tony’s arm. “I’ve seen you, and I’ve seen him. Don’t compare yourself to his talents, for what I have seen here,” he tapped a finger to the right of the arc reactor, “far outweighs what he has left behind.”
Tony nodded his head and bit his lips. He covered Iron Dust’s hand with his on his chest. “Are you a shaman?”
The corners of his eyes wrinkled with his smile. “My eyes are not blue.”
Tony didn’t understand that reference, but he smiled anyway and wrapped his arm around Iron Dust’s shoulders, hugging him close. “You always know what to say.” He released him after ruffling his hair and turned toward the wall. The text was impossible for Tony to ready without Iron Dust’s help in that regard. He was going to have to learn that spell that let him read whatever texts were laid out before him, but now wasn’t the time. “What do we need to make this spell work?”
Iron Dust took a moment to put his hair back into a semblance of order before he came to stand next to Tony. “A full circle.”
“We have a circle; you, me, and White Song.”
Iron Dust shook his head. “A full circle means five of the same race. Five Solars in this case.”
Something twisted in Tony’s chest. “In all the time I’ve been here, I’ve only seen the one besides myself. How am I supposed to find a full circle?”
“Wisp of Shadows counts.”
Tony shot him a disbelieving look. “Because he’s a brother of the Solars.” Iron Dust nodded. “So that makes three, just need two more.”
The look Iron Dust didn’t direct at him made Tony pause. “What?”
“Your rival on the other side, in your world. The Hour at Hand.”
“No.”
“Yes, he can count as well.” Iron Dust pointed to another rune. “And it is what the spell calls for. One on the other side to pull the others through.”
“How do-“ Tony made a frustrated sound. “How am I supposed to make him work with us, when A, he’s in some distant future, and B, he’s my enemy! He wanted me to come here in the first place.”
Iron Dust’s eyes lit up at that, and he smiled a wolfish grin. Tony gaped at him a moment before his thoughts caught up with him. “Oh. He’s in the distant future. He’s a brother to the Solars, meaning, at one time or another, he was a Solar.”
Iron Dust was nodding his head, telling Tony that he was on the right path, so he went on. “And he wanted me to come here, because of reasons I don’t yet understand, but he knew about this place, he knew about the spell. He knew that I would be stuck here. He would have followed me into the manse, to make sure that I wouldn’t be able to return.” Tony’s eyes went wide. “He’ll try to destroy the manse in the future!”
“He will, but to do that, he’ll have to be inside it. And he won’t risk the spell pulling him back, so he’ll avoid it until the time is right.”
“When I’m already gone.”
“He’ll be in the manse, and we can use that.”
Tony clapped his hands together and rubbed them vigorously. “Okay, then. That’s four down, so that just leaves one more Solar to find. Where do we start?” Tony’s eyes drifted to the body resting only a few feet away. Iron Dust shook his head.
“No, he’s the same caste as you, he won’t complete the circle.”
“Do I have to go on a quest to find a fifth Solar.”
Iron Dust didn’t answer for a moment, lost in thought. Then he straightened his back and firmed his chin. “No, we don’t have time for that.”
As if in premonition, a loud explosion rocked the walls. Tony threw out his hand to catch Iron Dust as he stumbled with the vibrations that made the floor tremble under their feet. Iron Dust turned his eyes toward the double doors that led into the room. He licked his lips and turned those eerie eyes onto Tony.
“You must go find the hearthstone before the Dragon Blooded gets to it. You must lure the others into this room.” He shoved lightly at Tony shoulder, urging him into motion. “I will rework this spell to accept a substitute.”
“A substitute?”
Iron Dust nodded. “Hurry!” With a strength that belied his small frame, Iron Dust shoved him out of the chamber and back into the hallway. Tony nodded to himself.
Okay, find the hearthstone, first. He could do that. He had no clue what a hearthstone was, much less what it looked like or where it was likely to be hidden, but he remembered where Kazuya had been headed.
He raced down the hall, his feet taking him much faster than he had thought possible, and he quickly caught up with the two men. Yinsen had a pair of fan like blades raised in defense at Tony’s abrupt arrival, but he lowered them when Tony held up his bare hands in surrender.
“Did you find the path home?”
Tony shook his head. “Not yet. I need the hearthstone.”
Yinsen’s lips went thin. “You’re going to have to fight him for it.” He nodded into the room they stood on the outskirts of. Tony glanced in and the breath caught in his throat.
This room was by far the most aesthetically pleasing room Tony had ever laid eyes on. And the magic in the room was nearly thick enough to cut with a knife. He shivered when he stepped into the room, and felt his Essence flow in him like hot water had been poured in his veins. Whatever aches and pains he hadn’t noticed before due to other things being more important were suddenly gone. The pounding ache of his heart was gone, and the constant pressure of the heavy metal of the arc reactor casing on his chest was absent. Without looking down, he put his hand to his chest, to make sure the thing was still there.
It was like a waterfall, the magic that poured down from the walls into a central point in the room. The floor curved up to meet the ceiling, and the ceiling curved down into a point at the ground. In the bare space between the two points, a stone glowed as bright as a star, minutely vibration with the influx of magic.
“That’s it?”
Beside him, Yinsen nodded. “You must attune your Essence to the manse, before you can remove it. Be careful, if you fail, the stone will explode, for there is a wealth of Essence in that stone. The resulting explosion can take out this whole manse.”
Tony nodded once and marched up slopped ramp. He slipped, but caught himself and continued until he was within reach of the stone. As he reached out, he heard a curse, and then another hand landed on his, holding him back.
“What in the name of Mela do you think you’re doing, human?”
Quickly making a choice, Tony let himself slid back down the ramp, and took Kazuya with him. The Dragon Blooded cursed again and caught himself before he tumbled head over heels after Tony.
Tony landed on his feet and called his gauntlets to cover his hands. “That is mine.”
Kazuya snorted. “I think not.”
Tony assumed a fighting stance that seemed as natural as breathing. “All right, time to double down. My life’s on the line now,” he said, letting his Essence control his moves.
A nearly invisible white wind began to pick up around Kazuya as he launched himself down at Tony. He didn’t actually touch the ground when he landed, and leaped up, knee raised to connect with Tony’s chest.
The Essence inside him moved him before he thought about it, and Tony danced out of the way like a string, moving out of the range of the attack and ready to make an attack of his own.
They danced around each other, each attacking when an opening appeared, but neither landing blows until Tony made the mistake of thinking about his attacks too much and held out his hand, palm out or a repluser blast and left himself wide open.
Kazuya grabbed his wrist and flipped him up and over his shoulder as if he weighed nothing, armor and all. Tony crashed into the ground and struggled to his feet. Before he could gather them fully under him, Kazuya landed on him, both feet on his back, shoving him back down. He crouched on Tony’s back and cupped the chin of the helmet in the palm of his hand, cranking back Tony’s neck.
“What makes you think you can challenge me, human?”
Behind the faceplate, Tony smiled. “You forget.” He slammed his hands down against the ground and shoved, his new super strength let him jump to his feet, flinging Kazuya off him. He spun on his foot to face him, once more assuming the stance of a martial arts he couldn’t remember learning. “I’m not human.”
Surprise, then anger, flashed over Kazuya’s face before he rushed forward, his fists swinging with full force, putting dents in the armor’s arms as Tony did his best to block the flurry of blows. He finally slipped free from the attack, ducking under his arm and spinning around to shove Kazuya off balance with his hands flat on his undefended back.
Kazuya flipped rather than fall to the ground, and spat a curse at Tony before he launched himself into the air. Tony’s eyes went wide and he thought, ‘That’s not fair.’ He retreated a few steps before Kazuya came down toward him, hands so white they glowed blue as he reached for Tony.
Tony caught his fists in his own hands, thankful that the gauntlets protected him from the icy chill he could feel radiating off the Dragon Blooded. The force of the blow made Tony’s boots skid of the ground a few inches before Tony threw Kazuya away from him.
As Kazuya resumed his stance, his hands, the Essence around his hands, began to spark with electricity, lighting. Helpfully, JARVIS brought up a video of the zombie Kazuya would become surrounded by lighting, attacking Thor. Tony dismissed the video. He watched Kazuya’s hands, thinking, maybe if he could learn to control his Essence like that, he could use the lighting against Kazuya.
“JARVIS, you’ve had time to study both my Essence and his. What do you got for me?”
“After seeing Essence in action, I believe I can highlight it before it becomes apparent to the naked eye.”
“That’s what I want to hear. Show me how he’s using his Essence.”
Kazuya’s body in the HUD display changed suddenly from visible light to a blue white form. Like the subway system, the Essence in Kazuya flowed through him from his head, heart, gut, and loins. Temperance, compassion, conviction, and valor. The four virtues that made up Essence. Quickly, as fast as Kazuya summoned his lighting, Tony learned the spell and made his Essence copy it. He held up his hands the same time Kazuya did and let the Essence attack.
He saw a flash of blue light, as cold as the artic, arc through the air toward him. Before the lighting reached him, his own Essence exploded from his hands, channeled through the jade gauntlets, and out toward Kazuya.
Shock crossed his face only moments before the blast of sun yellow Essence slammed into him, picked him up off his feet, and threw him into a wall hard enough that the jade cracked. Tony sucked in his breath, stilling as he waited for the temple to react to the desecration. When nothing happened, Tony breathed a sigh of relief and held his hand up before the HUD. “I did that, huh?”
“It would appear so, Sir.”
Tony grinned. “Looks like I won’t have to rebuild my repulsors after all.”
Kazuya groaned, but didn’t move from where he had collapsed on the ground. Yinsen stepped over to the fallen man and knelt to check him over. Satisfied that he would live, he turned to Tony. “Get the stone. Commit your Essence to it, and take it from the manse.”
“How.”
“You know how.”
Nodding, Tony once more climbed up slope of the floor and reached for the stone.
The stone was no larger than the palm of his hand, smooth and rounded. It shimmered in the supernatural light of the manse, at first a deep purple, and then a rich brown as it rotated inches above the ground. With his fingers only inches away from the stone, Tony could feel the power flowing off it like waves of water, and it made him want to curl his fingers away from touching it. At the same time, he wanted to wrap his hands around it and hold it close to his chest and claim that power for himself.
His Essence felt like tiny threads on his skin, pulling him toward the stone, tying them together, but he somehow knew it wasn’t enough. He closed his eyes and took a deep calming breath. He had to be careful. Iron Dust had warned him that putting his Essence into something of power, if not done right could erupt into dire results. The least of which could be death.
Breathing through his nose, Tony tried to relax and let his Essence do the work. He did so much better when he didn’t think about it all, and, as annoying as that was to his scientist heart, he trusted his Essence to not lead him astray.
He imagined his Essence like a cloud of dye in water, the stone the water. With fingers only just touching the stone, he let his own Essence bleed into the stone’s Essence until they were blended together, uniform in the new color of his own vibrant red Essence and the stone’s muted brown. Blood red. His.
When the two Essences were fully combined, Tony’s eyes snapped open and a wealth of new sensations flooded him. He gasped and felt his lungs expand and felt his walls hold firm. He felt the cold rush of air against the stone of the manse, and he felt each person inside the manse through their pulses. Yinsen was still standing over Kazuya’s prone body. Kazuya’s heart was fast still, despite being unconscious. White Song and Iron Dust were there, although he couldn’t tell them apart at this distance. And there were two more that Tony couldn’t put names to, but he knew who they had to be.
He pulled the stone free of the shower of Essence and clutched it close to his chest as he turned back to Yinsen. Yinsen nodded once at him before turning to kneel beside Kazuya. Tony escaped the room before the Dragon Blooded could wake. He raced down the hall, knowing that the sooner he got back to Iron Dust, the sooner he could go home.
A sixth sense told him to duck just before the black blade screamed through the air where his head had been only seconds before. He summoned his armor to shield him before he began running away from the reach of Wisp of Shadow’s blade.
“I thought you wanted me alive to build you weapons,” Tony protested as he flinched from a shadow that was not acting at all how shadows should. Wisp appeared from the shadow and held the blade of his sword with one hand near his own face. Once more, Tony noticed the faces in the metal of the blade and armor he wore, and it turned his stomach to know that if he saw them, then it wasn’t because of decoration, but probably had something to do with people being forged into metal. He wouldn’t put it past these people to have figured out how to make metal out of living flesh.
“You don’t need to be alive to work for the Death Lord.”