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In New York, Wanda Maximoff suddenly doubled over in pain.
She was standing in a kitchen within the walls of Karma Taj, making tea to calm her nerves.
The situation had everyone on edge. Tony was missing, and no one knew if he was alive or dead or something worse.
If not for the Ancient One holding her back she would have rushed off by now.
But she currently has some 'Mystical' problems of her own to deal with.
She was worried about her brother but is aware of Tony's protective measures.
But much more than she ever thought she'd feel, she is deeply afraid for Tony's sake.
Suddenly, she was hit with a pain in her head.
But this pain was different. It hit her like a lightning bolt, straight through her chest and into her heart. Images flashed through her mind—Storm screaming as darkness consumed her, Magneto fighting chains of alien light, and something terrible wearing her old ally's face.
"No," she whispered. Red energy began to leak from her fingers. "Not him too."
The teacup in her hand exploded into dust. The windows in the kitchen cracked. Somewhere in the distance, alarms went off in Karma Taj.
A Portal opened up and the ancient one alongside side Doctor Strange appeared.
The Ancient One looked calm but Strange had his brows furrowed.
"Again?" He asked.
"No, something is different this time."
---
At Stark Industries, Pepper Potts stood in the living room of one of Stark's Mansions.
Multiple large screens surrounded her as she communicated with J.A.R.V.I.S
"I want to see a satellite imagery of the battle, now," she told JARVIS at the main console. "And get me a line to the Avengers. Tony just wouldn't tell me anything."
She sounded annoyed but any sensitive person could hear how worried she was.
"Master Tony didn't want you to worry too much. But I assure you that he is doing fine," JARVIS promptly replied.
Pepper rolled her eyes, "Since when did you learn to lie."
"I am not lying Miss Pepper."
"Whatever..."
-----
Reports flooded in from around the world. Unnatural storms over Egypt. Magnetic disturbances across Egypt. And now recently new attacks on other places in Africa. On tv, a broadcast live by news drones that had been following a paleontology expedition.
Pepper watched the footage of Magneto's transformation with a shaking heart. But considering the battle of New York encounter where Tony literally battled a living breathing God, she regained calmness only that things felt off.
And Tony was still missing.
"Miss Pepper," Jarvis called out, "I am getting energy readings from the Infinity Chamber site. Massive power fluctuations."
Pepper turned to the screen showing the underground facility where Tony had vanished. He had created a base that housed the chamber when he isn't carrying it with him.
The readings were off the charts, but they weren't destructive. They were... searching. Like something was feeling around in the dark, looking for a way out.
"He's alive," she said quietly. She didn't know how she knew, but she was certain. "He's alive, and he's fighting something."
---
Back in the void, Tony pulled his hand away from the ghostly Stone.
The spectral figure tilted its head. "You refuse power freely offered?"
"I refuse power I don't understand." Tony's voice grew stronger. "I've made that mistake before." He went silent.
He could still feel the instability in his DNA. Although this strange space brought a semblance of unity it was but a temporary solution.
"I won't do it again." He said.
The Stones shadows pulsed with frustrated energy, but they didn't attack. They couldn't force him to choose. That wasn't how this worked.
Tony looked around the impossible space, his engineer's mind finally clicking into gear. "This isn't real, is it? Not entirely. It's... it's a test. A choice point."
"Everything is real, Anthony Stark. The question is what you will make real."
Understanding began to dawn. The Infinity Chamber hadn't malfunctioned. It had worked exactly as designed—but Tony's design had been influenced by something deeper. His desperate need to protect people. His fear that he wasn't enough.
The Chamber had reached across dimensions and found the echo of that need. The ghostly Stones, the temptation of ultimate power—it was all a reflection of his own desires and fears.
Tony massaged his temple's while thinking to himself.
'Why does this feel like when Ultron was created?'
'My creation going beyond what I initially planned. Is this a curse of being Tony Stark?'
Then he brought his attention back to where he was, "The real Stones exist," Tony said slowly. "Somewhere out there. And something is calling to them."
"Apocalypse rises," the spectral figure confirmed. "The Horsemen gather. Your world faces extinction."
Tony looked at his hands. A strange power pulsed in his heart, steady and reliable. Not cosmic power, but his own creation. His own will made manifest.
Something powerful from his most recent evolution.
"Then I need to get back," he said. "But not as something else. As myself."
The void began to shift around him. Stars wheeled closer. The fragments of the Chamber started to coalesce. Tony could feel reality pulling at him, calling him home.
But as the spectral figure began to fade, it spoke one last time:
"The Stones remember you now, Stark. When the final battle comes, they will answer your call. The question is whether you will be strong enough to wield them without losing yourself."
The darkness collapsed inward, and Tony fell toward light and noise and the familiar feeling of gravity pulling him down. But even as reality reasserted itself, he could feel something new in his mind. A quantum awareness, a sense of connections that stretched across space and time.
A war was coming to Earth maybe even the whole universe. And somehow, Tony Stark would be at the center of it all.
Only that by the time Tony opened his eyes again he was shocked.
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