InsaneJournal

Who: Steve, Tony
What: face to face meeting
When: backdated Aug 27th, after Nat/Tony.
Where: Stark Industries building
Rating: Green

Tony was in the lab at Stark Industries, tackling quantum mechanics. If ever there was something to keep him focused on not diving face first into a vat of angst, that would be it. In all of its many mind bendy glory.

There was a freshly poured cup of coffee in his hand as he waited for Friday to finish running the latest calculations and test results. The coffee has been spiked lately, of course. Being awake and maintaining a buzz had become common place since Pepper was gone.

Steve had been informed to contact Tony. He really wasn’t in any mood for that...or anything, really. But he’d given his word, and no matter how pissed off at the world he was, no matter how grief stricken, Steve never went back on his word. He knew better than to try to reach out to Tony via the net, however, since he was avoiding it himself. There was only one place Tony would be so Steve went there.

He watched Tony from the doorway for a few moments. He looked like hell. Steve knew he looked about the same. Both leaders down. Both hit exactly where it hurts. This couldn’t keep happening to them. His head lowered as he blew a breath out through his nose then walked further into the lab with his hands in his pockets.

“Can we skip over the part where we tell each other we look like hell and get right to the point?” Steve lifted his brows as he looked at Tony.

Tony's goatee was a borderline beard. So yes, the billionaire had seen better days. This wasn't one of them, and he didn't look like he was in the mood to be poked with a stick, or much of anything else, either.

"Ok, so we look like hell," Tony said, bluntly, as though it was a statement of fact. He was pouring something into his coffee and by the smell of it? It wasn't non-dairy creamer.

"Help yourself to some coffee. I got a sitrep and data dump," he said, motioning over to a nearby table so they can sit down. "I wanted to see you. Face to face. I know you're busted up too. And I know what's out there. I've seen it, Steve. More than once. Half the universe gone? Gut feeling says there's still more at risk here than that. I keep thinking to what Loki was saying when he got to the penthouse. Crazy ass with a purple nutsack for a chin doesn't know it's all been halved. This guy's a super powerful titan. He's probably still gunning for his precious-esss. We've still gotta stop it from happening. Sure, I'd like to sit here and...just..."

'...drink myself into oblivion' was the first thing that came to Tony's mind, but he could almost imagine Pepper's voice with her disappointed sounding, 'Oh Tony.' The thought of that, the memory of it had him looking away, feeling like he'd received a swift punch in the gut that made it hard to breathe. He quickly took a drink of coffee to hide that he was trying to steady his nerves with some liquid courage.

Tony was bad. Steve could tell by how he was talking. Stark had lost a lot more than any of them. Steve couldn’t even imagine what it was like to lose your kid, let alone your girl and kid at the same time. Any other time he might have pushed Tony back on track. Not this time. And not because Steve didn’t feel up to it. Steve just felt as if Tony had earned the right for a little self-destruction.

“I’ll pass on the coffee, thanks,” Steve said as he sat down at the indicated table. “To be honest, I wasn’t paying attention to anything anyone was saying then.” I didn’t care. “So indulge me. How do we know this guy’s gonna show up, and if he’s that bad how do we stop him?”

Steve was bad. Tony could tell when Steve hadn't paid attention to anything anyone was saying, due to shellshock. He was going to have to contact Nat to keep an eye on him. Not that Tony didn't expect the same? He just also...didn't care either. Steve lost two people. He lost his one person with a second person in them. Thanos needed stopped. If anyone was going to lay down on the wire and take the hit for everyone, then Tony had zero problems with jumping on it first, even if he had to jockey for position against Steve. Who just might want to do that, himself.

"He's bad," Tony confirmed, staring at Steve with pin-point focused intensity. "Hear me out on all this. Genocidal. We all had a chat with him on Titan. His entire thing was from watching his planet running out of resources. Overpopulation. His solution? Systematically wiping out half the pop, right down the middle, no regard for rich or poor. They didn't take it. Shunned him. Their world died out. He felt vindicated. Now he feels like he's doing the universe a solid."

Tony paused to take a sip of coffee, index finger held up to let Steve know he needed one more minute.

"Loki said the guy's obsessed. I think Rock of Ages was giving us a tip off. I'm having Bobbi Morse of SHIELD look at Loki, because I've been told he's an Asgardian teenager. Take a sec to let that scary thought sink in, before I dive into the stopping him part."

The more Steve heard the more he wanted to get this over with. The sooner they could put Thanos down the sooner he could...whatever. Disappear. The world didn’t need him. They had the new SHIELD, what was left of the Avengers. Yes, they needed all hands on deck for this one, but when it was over...Steve could quit.

The information was Loki was interesting if unexpected. “Makes sense,” Steve said. “Explains the attention seeking behavior.”

"Sure does," agreed Tony. There were several things that Tony wanted to get to the bottom of. Things he would doggedly pursue. Thanos, Infinity Stones, the quantum problem, whatever Loki knew...these were things that were on his agenda. In that order of importance. The sooner they did get this stuff over with, the sooner they could all get back to having some snowball's chance in Hell of normalcy.

"He'll show up if we lure him to Wakanda," Tony offered. "We don't have Wanda to break the Mind Stone, if Shuri can get it out of Vision. If not, we have to take him offline to do it. Scott, Jane, and I have been working. Shuri's already been contacted to start removal. We might be able to use quantum particles. With a vibrational frequency match, break it down at a quantum level. Because if this is a perfect copy of the other universe, enough that there's this sort of bleedover? Our Thanos is still gonna be gunning for some bling.

"He's gonna want to make sure half of everything really is wiped out. We can stop it all by destroying just one of those stones. If we don't, he's gonna rub his magic genie gauntlet and wish half of everything here out of existence. What are we left with? One fourth. Because some Grape Ape jackass from outer space is fucking obsessed with making halfsies."

“Why does it have to be the stone in Vision?” Steve asked. For once he and Tony weren’t arguing. It made him sad that it took them losing the people who meant the most to them for them to come to terms, but maybe once this was all over it would stick. Maybe once this was all over Tony could help Steve disappear.

“Aren’t there others we can get our hands on?” He tilted his head with that thoughtful frown on his face. “I don’t like the idea of doing that to Wanda. She’s not over losing Pietro no matter what she says.”

When this all over, Tony was planning not on taking some time to putter around his mansion like Howard Hughes. If he made it through the coming storm, his life plan was drinking copious amounts and being a genius recluse. Maybe he wouldn't wake up someday.

But his intentions so far? Team effort. Move together, work together, find solutions. Die trying if necessary.

The only final solution was to render Thanos unable to gather the stones together. To kill him if they could, send him running with his tail tucked between his leg if they couldn't. This time, saving everyone else they could, and changing the fate of this universe from a repeat performance of the other one.

That meant getting along with Steve, and not picking a fight. The losses hurt them on both sides. Deeply.

"Strange told me on this flip side the only other one is that time one," Tony explained. "I'm guessing it's at Hogwarts. They aren't gonna give it up or hand it over, just like Strange wouldn't. Vision's our only available option, without killing anyone or risking anyone's life. I discussed it with him and he said it was worth a shot. He's volunteered to try it. And since Wanda isn't here, I'm hopeful we can do this on our own. Break it down at a quantum level. We've all got the tech. And I'm hopeful Shuri can remove it safely without having to keep him offline."

Since Wanda isn’t here… Steve looked stunned for a moment before self-loathing replaced the expression. He got up to pace away. God how could he have been so detached? Even Tony knew more than he did. He was failing them. Steve felt like punching something.

“Won’t it kill him if it’s destroyed?” His tone was flat. “Is he aware of that possibility?”

Tony's dark eyes were more than a little haunted, but - as ever - he was focused. He was focused after his escape from that cave, after his mentor tried to kill him, when angry Russians and shadow corporation terrorists came after him. When aliens attacked. Whatever came at him, Tony honed in and prepared to headbutt it. If he had to.

"In his words, the risks are worth it," he said. There were no shrug of a shoulder, and there wasn't a trace of his usual sarcasm. It was vaguely bitter, but it was resigned that this was an option. "Shuri's a genius too. They have tech that puts ours to shame. If anyone, anywhere, can do this? It's going to happen over there in Wakanda. That's the best place to fend off an attack, to draw focus on, and to get this all done. You know it. I know it."

“I know, Tony.” Steve got a little exasperated as he walked back toward Stark. “But there’s got to be a way to do what we need to do with that stone without Vision being killed. You made Jarvis and Friday.” He made a vague gesture at Tony as he sat back down. “You designed and redesigned your suit I don’t know how many times. Can’t you and Shuri upload him into something that could replace the stone?”

"We can download a copy," replied Tony, drumming the fingers of one hand on the table top. He was thinking out loud for the most part. "But that's just it. He's interwoven in with that stone. Shuri's almost convinced she can remove it. If we give her time. Taking him offline would be the temporary and humane option until we could fix it. But his powers, everything linked to it? He's never gonna ever be the same, without it.

"Everything hinges on make sure he doesn't get access to these rocks. They're all scary, but anything that can control minds or controls who lives or dies? Yeah. We definitely want to keep those out of the hands of a genocidal maniac from outer space."

Steve was just trying to understand. Hence all the questions. He didn’t want to lose anyone else if it could be avoided. Unfortunately, it sounded like they had already examined all of the possibilities. Damn it! There just wasn’t going to be any clear cut way for them to come out of this.

“I agree,” Steve said. “What’s to stop him from just taking it from us even if we get the stone out of Vision?”

"I know Scott and I will be sucker punching baddies," replied Tony, "but if we can use a loose stone as a lure? They were on Strange like glue. From everything I've heard, they were on Wakanda like glue. They'll come running. Then we destroy it. I figure we'll have Jane and Shuri to use the quantum particles. We'll do it on our turf and our terms. We can take care of him."

There were never any clear cut ways. But Tony was convinced that if anyone could arrange them on a battlefield and call out countermeasures, it was Cap.