Lucius Fox turned the page. Then the next. Then the one after that. His fingers slowed. Stopped. He looked up at Bruce over the rims of his reading glasses.
"You want me to build this."
"Yes."
"In a week."
"If possible."
Lucius set the blueprints flat on his workshop table. The schematics were dense. Arc reactor specifications. Flight stabilizers. Repulsor node arrays. Neural interface mapping. The handwriting wasn't Bruce's. The design language wasn't WayneTech.
"Where did you get this?"
"Tony Stark's armor. I copied it."
Lucius blinked once. "You stole Iron Man's suit design."
"I borrowed it while he was unconscious and dying. I also saved his life, so I'm calling it even."
Lucius stared at the pages. Laid his palms flat on either side of them. His shoulders rose and fell with a slow breath.
"Give me ten days."
"You have seven."
"That's not how engineering works."
"Uncle Lucas. Please."
Lucius took off his glasses. Polished them on his sleeve. Put them back on.
"Eight days. And I need the metallurgy lab cleared. And the micro-welding array. And coffee. A lot of coffee."
Bruce nodded. "Done."
---
Tony Stark's private elevator opened into the Wayne Tower executive floor. Pepper Potts stepped out first, tablet in hand, expression sharp. Tony followed, sunglasses on, walking with the careful stiffness of a man whose ribs still ached.
Bruce was waiting.
"Tony. Pepper. Welcome."
Pepper shook his hand. Professional. Warm enough. Her eyes were scanning the room, cataloguing exits, faces, details. She missed nothing.
Tony didn't shake. Just took off his glasses. Folded them. Tucked them into his jacket pocket.
"So," he said. "What's the work you want me to do? I know it was you. The black suit. The rescue. And I know you took the blueprint."
Bruce met his eyes. No denial.
"Yes. I took it. And yes. I saved you. Those two things are connected."
Tony's jaw tightened. "You saved my life. I'm grateful. But you also hacked my suit and stole my designs. So let's not pretend we're friends yet."
"I'm not pretending."
Pepper touched Tony's arm. A small gesture. A reminder. Tony exhaled.
"Fine. What's this project?"
Bruce didn't answer immediately. He walked to the window. Gotham sprawled beneath them, towers catching the afternoon light.
"Tony. Do you think ghosts exist?"
Tony snorted. "Ghosts. Seriously? Don't tell me the threat you mentioned involves ghosts."
"Not ghosts."
"Then what?"
Bruce turned. "Demons."
Silence.
Tony looked at Pepper. Pepper looked at Bruce. Neither laughed.
"Demons," Tony repeated. "Actual demons. Hellfire and brimstone. That kind of demon."
"Yes."
"You're serious."
"I'm asking you again," Bruce said. "Do you really want to know the world's mystery? Because if I show you, it changes everything. For both of you. For Pepper too. There's no going back."
Pepper's expression was unreadable. Tony's was skeptical. Almost amused. Almost.
"You expect me to believe—"
Bruce pressed a button on the console. The wall screen flickered to life.
Security footage. Wayne Manor. South garden. Nighttime. Thomas Wayne stood beside Bruce. Both held pages. Both were speaking. Before them, two men stood frozen inside a circle of white paint. Their eyes were black. Solid. No white. No pupil. Their mouths opened and black smoke poured out, twisting upward, shrieking soundlessly through the silent footage. Then the bodies collapsed. Unconscious. Human.
The video ended.
"This is from two weeks ago," Bruce said. "Those two men were possessed by demons. My father exorcised them on our property."
Tony's face had gone pale. Pepper's hand was now gripping his arm.
"Demons," Tony said quietly. Not a question anymore.
"Yes."
"That footage could be fabricated."
"It's not. If you want, I can take you to meet the hosts. Both are alive. Both remember nothing. Both had black eyes on camera."
Pepper spoke for the first time. Her voice was steady but quieter than before. "Why are you showing us this?"
"Because you're not just here for demons." Bruce pulled up a new display. Images. Cosmic. A cube. Glowing blue. "This is the Tesseract. SHIELD has it. They call it a power source. They're wrong."
Tony stepped closer to the screen. The skepticism flickered. Something else was replacing it. The engineer's curiosity. The scientist's hunger.
"What is it?"
"An Infinity Stone. The Space Stone. One of six objects created at the beginning of the universe. Each one controls a fundamental aspect of existence. Power. Reality. Time. Mind. Soul. Space."
"Infinity Stones." Tony shook his head slowly. "You sound insane."
"You sound like someone who's never seen a demon."
Tony was quiet.
Bruce continued. "The Space Stone can open doors. Gates. Portals to anywhere in the universe. Or anywhere outside it. Other dimensions. Other realities." He turned to face Tony directly. "My team is building a machine. A dimensional gateway. Fusion reactor core. Membrane physics. The math is solid. But we need an energy source that doesn't exist on Earth. The Space Stone is that source."
"You want to open a door to another universe."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Bruce didn't answer with words. Instead, he let the silence stretch. Let Tony's mind fill in the gaps.
Finally, Tony spoke. "You think something's coming. Something worse than demons."
"I know something is coming. And when it arrives, we need to be ready. We need power. We need knowledge. We need to be able to go where it can't follow, or follow it where it retreats."
Pepper looked at the screen. The blue cube. The schematics. The demon footage. Her world had been arc reactors and quarterly earnings an hour ago.
"You're building an army," she said.
"I'm building a chance."
Tony walked to the screen. Stared at the Tesseract. His reflection floated in the blue light.
"You helped me with the element. You saved my life. You stole my suit. You're telling me demons are real and infinity stones exist and SHIELD has one under their nose." He turned. "You are either the most dangerous person I've ever met, or the most insane."
"Both can be true."
A beat. Then Tony laughed. Short. Sharp. Not entirely humorless.
"Okay, Wayne. I'm in. But I want full access to the research. The fusion reactor. The dimensional math. Everything. If we're building a door to another universe, I'm not standing on the sidelines."
"That's what I was hoping you'd say."
Pepper looked between them. "I'm calling Happy. If Tony's going to be working late, someone needs to arrange security."
"Wayne Tower is the most secure building in Gotham," Bruce said.
"With respect, Mr. Wayne, your building doesn't have demons and a glowing cube. I'm calling Happy."
Tony looked at her with something close to pride. "She's always right. It's exhausting."
Bruce smiled. Small. Real.
"Welcome to the team, Tony."