Chapter Text
James Rhodes hung up his phone call with his superiors and looked over at his brother who was watching him. Tony knew the look that was probably in his eye and nodded slowly. James smirked and settled back into his seat, satisfaction at a job well done.
"So?" Tony asked.
"They wanted you to stay here since you already had the Doc's agreement because they moved on Stane, working with the FBI," James smirked. "Not a single one of the board got away and you are technically under Protective Custody. Your permission for Potts to run things in your place went through and the extra shares she and Jarvis set up to snatch up for you went down like a charm. Your scary Lawyers have talked to the Hospital and made it very clear that Strange is yours but you are willing to share. You own his work contract with a little help from JAG stepping in to talk to some of the Veterans on staff. The deal your guys struck was a full payout from you to them if Stephen has to break contract in trade for not making a fuss if he needs to call in and tells them he has an emergency to deal with. To sweeten the deal they put in a clause that if you or Strange call them for help you can call on the entire hospital for who and what you need in trade for a nice bonus and a few replaced pieces of expensive equipment."
"Good," Tony said with a wolfish smirk. "The team I hired to guard him on the job is still getting hired on their own merits so Stephen is well guarded. He is also aware of who they are and which ones he has shown magic to. If the trial period works out I'll think about giving the hospital extra funding. I just want Stephen covered in case he has to Voodoo something or we need to call him for a Mystic problem. I also don't want him vulnerable to anyone going after me. I started the ball rolling on what we agreed to for our own version of the Avengers under Military oversight. No more of this it's only okay if I do it crap from Rogers when they inevitably try to get him on the team. Reasonable understanding with actually effective mission specs. Mind control and mind manipulation need not apply."
"The oversight brass want an update or at least a possible time table on setting up your unit," James explained. "I told them that the formal proposal might take a bit because you had to sort out the fallout of all this first. They are still on board but they plan to go ahead and start head hunting people to work with this project for their part of starting it up. I told them to focus on support staff until we get closer to hunting down specialists and that we would be happy to take discharged Veterans with me just playing additional liaison."
"Perfect," Tony smirked. "I can pay for an entire set up if I have to out of pocket. Getting people who won't flinch at the weird has always been part of the problem but discharged Veterans are a good start. We can build up from there."
"After what I saw yesterday I was kind of surprised you let that Doctor go to work today," James remarked cautiously.
"He knows he's mine," Tony smirked with cat like satisfaction. "I'm waiting until I can take my time to make sure he knows that letting himself get hurt because it might please me is off the table."
"Careful with him," James warned. "He looks at you like anything you ask of him personally is something he will try to give you."
"Honestly? I'm trying to avoid him thinking that I am demanding he be my slave by sending him to work today," Tony grimaced. "He was absolutely serious when he told me how to get that result if I wanted it. I was the one to reject the idea and it shifted the magic. I'm going to probably be overbearing and dominant but I don't think I can afford to let him consider me his owner even with the bond now acknowledged as a marriage bond. He is.... Well I remember what I was feeling after being held and tortured by the Ten Rings in the first go around. His look forward to the other timelines? I would not be surprised if he didn't just have hard deaths but was also tortured more than what I interrupted Squidward doing to him on the ship. My Merchant side won't ever let him go, we both know this. I want him to be himself and submitting so deeply that he acts as a doormat isn't helpful."
"Why? What did he do?" James asked curiously.
"He... How do I put this?" Tony mused thoughtfully. "He apologized for not knowing his place and promised to not forget it again but he addressed me specifically as Lord Merchant. It definitely cooled off my temper but at the same time my Merchant side zeroed in on him as an acceptable permanent addition. The thought was approval for the submission but also something along the lines of an obedient pet or valued trophy to keep. When I focused on him being worth more than that later it shifted the leash he warned us about into a marriage bond, one of equals."
"Tony, he hides it well but he is really hurt," James warned softly. "He has also latched onto you, hard. So, I want a clear answer with no bullshit. Are you going to be there for him? Treat him like an actual spouse? Respect and care for him? Because if you're not then this needs to stop right now before more damage is done."
"That is exactly the plan," Tony said softly. "I knew it right before the leash shifted. The thought of treating him less than that made me feel sick, literally."
"Okay then," James accepted Tony's choice with the knowledge that his brother was serious. As far as the inventor was concerned he was married to Stephen and would honor that commitment.
James mentally shifted things around and decided that Tony was probably going to hover over Stephen remotely. Considering Jarvis that was likely already in place on top of the back up team. Honestly, reporting that Strange was the other traveler, which he had already done with permission, was the best thing he could do to help keep them both safe. No one was expecting the proposed team to be ready for immediate deployment anyway, not with needing to find the team and get them trained just to start.
"What do you need from me?" James asked quietly. "I get handling the military side and everything, playing babysitter with you so that they let you do your shit. What else do you need? Do I need to sort things out for your hubby? Are you going to set up stuff for him to draw from? Aside from talking to this team you got him, which I am doing anyway to make sure they get that he's someone to take care of, what else?"
"Come when I call?" Tony asked quietly. "I know we are going to get in trouble with what we have to stop. Even if it isn't as a teammate on the field I don't think I can deal with losing you again. Granted, last run through that was my fault and I was dealing with seriously nasty PTSD while dying from heavy metal poisoning... It still hurt to watch you be done with me even though that was the entire point of pushing you and Pepper and everyone away."
"You know that was a dumb move, right?" James said, unimpressed with his little brother. "You know I won't let you do that this time?"
"I know," Tony agreed. "I just need you to know that Stephen has gone all in on this and twisted himself around what he thinks is me in his head. He's going to be stupid about stuff. I recognize the self-destructive through protecting others thing. I pulled that myself in the last run through. I will absolutely jerk him up short and I think he knows that. What I need in that area is for you to watch that I'm not abusing that thinking with either of us. I don't want this turning bad, not with it already being permanent."
"Yeah, Tony," James agreed, his protective big brother instincts suddenly going full bore. "I'll watch your back."
Tony relaxed and James just watched his brother go through setting up things meant to take care of the Doctor. James didn't think that Strange was necessarily going to appreciate that Tony was trying to let him stand solid while also hovering over him. Then again it sounded like the Doctor had to deal with Tony in those other timelines while going flat out. It was going to be interesting watching Tony corral the good Doctor no matter what happened.
~~~
Stephen quietly sighed as one of Tony's special team deliberately hovered nearby again while he checked over a patient. He understood Tony's reasons especially since Stephen had been the one to request the back up but they were hovering closer than he liked. Unfortunately, he knew this was probably a good thing since he had no way to explain his concerns or his fresh battle instincts to the normal hospital staff and administration.
Stephen was firmly distracted by the spike of malicious Mystic energies. He didn't bother to hide his reaction as he snapped around to face the threat, hands slightly raised and ready to cast. He ignored the call of a startled nurse to focus on the threat that set off all of his magic oriented instincts. Ignoring the team members that Tony had hired for him Stephen stepped forwards, putting himself between the doorway and everyone else in the room. The low menacing laugh that silenced the floor told him that whoever was causing this wasn't going to stay low profile.
"Doctor?" Mendez asked shortly.
"Sparks override if you please, Nurse Mendez. Text Tony that we have a developing situation and I am probably going to need back up," Stephen said shortly.
"I believe you called it Avengers level?" Mendez asked levelly.
"No, Hogwarts remix," Stephen corrected. "The rest of you focus on the civilians. Don't assume conventional tactics will do anything except amuse this one."
"That's sweet," the voice chuckled. "You want to give the ants a chance to run."
"I may not know you but this is a place of healing. Unless you are here for a consult or treatment I'm going to have to ask you to leave," Stephen scowled.
"Leave? Leave?! Why would I ignore such a banquet of mortals?! Ha Ha HA HA!" The voice laughed with evil menace, freaking out more of the staff and patients.
"Are you done with your theatrics?" Stephen asked with a sigh, promptly dismissing the attempted menacing effect and short circuiting the attempt to build the fear of everyone present.
"What would you know of it, mage?" The voice demanded petulantly.
"I know that I would class what you are currently doing as something closer to a prank," Stephen said bluntly. "I also know that deliberately riling up my patients is putting me in a less than charitable mood."
"He didn't deny being a mage!" A kid sitting with his parents hissed excitedly into the quiet.
"You insist that I do this the hard way?" The voice asked in clear displeasure.
"Since I don't know what you are trying to accomplish I can't answer that. What I can tell you is that if you harm one of my patients then I will ensure you pay dearly for it," Stephen said with flat menace. He was already fed up with this idiot and it hadn't even been five minutes yet.
"You are a healer. What could you do?" The voice mocked.
"I am also a Master of the Mystic Arts," Stephen said quietly. "What I can do and what I will do, however, are two vastly different things. As it is just because you showed up my mother is going to insist on giving me assistants which is going to be incredibly annoying. My partner has already convinced me to let him give me helpers for different, more mundane threats. They won't interfere with this though. They don't have the training."
The furious hiss almost distracted Stephen enough to miss the moving shadows inching towards a sick child. Stephen spun on the ball of his foot and used a spell whip to grab the creature inching along in the moving shadows and dragged it to him before killing it. The imp lay dead at his feet as he turned to face the doorway again in the shocked silence from the other humans.
"Not bluffing then," the voice said sourly.
"Imps for minions, a bit low level wouldn't you say?" Stephen asked dryly.
"You wouldn't last five minutes against my Master," the voice bragged. "You would never survive the Dark Dimension."
"Dormammu sent you to spy on me then? Is he truly that interested in our past confrontation being repeated?" Stephen asked with mild surprise. "Or did he give you different instructions?"
The shocked silence from the voice and the visibly retreating animated shadows had Stephen nodding in satisfaction.
"Mother did say he would remember the incident despite Time rewinding," Stephen said pointedly. "Please inform him that more normal methods to actually talk to me would get a real response when I have the time. This? This is an insult to an apprentice nevermind a Master of the Mystic Arts. You aren't even trying.... Which, in retrospect, is probably a good thing for my patients. Was there anything else? Or can I get back to my day job?"
"Why would a healer ever fight the Dark Lord Dormammu?" The voice growled grumpily. "Don't you humans have that stupid oath thing for your healers?"
"I have found that I need to treat most attackers as having exempted themselves from that oath. I only apply it when I am healing someone. If I didn't I never would have survived meeting Dormammu," Stephen said conversationally. "Then again it is called the Hypocratic Oath for a reason. To heal one must often cause harm as well to prevent a greater harm. I simply apply that to any combat I find myself involved in."
Something metal clattered across the floor to slide to a stop at Stephen's feet. The doctor glanced down at it long enough to identify it wasn't a threat before returning his attention to the shadowy intruder.
"A gift, from the Dread Lord. Lord Dormammu expects you to have grown since your original... Meeting. If you had failed to meet a basic standard as instructed by Lord Dormammu the city would have made a nice snack," the voice said grumpily. "Your protection of this territory is formally acknowledged. However, Lord Dormammu has deemed your forced deal invalid. As a token acknowledgement of your victory you may bargain to protect this world a second time. There will be no time loops involved or Lord Dormammu will take that as an unconditional surrender."
"Noted, now get out," Stephen snapped grumpily.
The creature of malice and shadows withdrew, taking the corpse of the imp with it but leaving the artifact behind at Stephen's feet.
"Time loop?" Nurse Mendez asked very carefully.
"I locked us both inside it when he decided to use Earth as a snack. As long as I kept it closed he wasn't a threat to Earth. I had to willingly release it at the time," Stephen sighed as he picked up and pocketed the artifact. "That was not a fun experience but once I extracted the original promise to leave Earth alone there was no point in keeping it up. His skill level is far above mine even now. At the time I had barely passed my Mastery tests. I didn't have the practical experience of using the Mystic Arts on a regular basis yet to work with. It was the only move I could think of and everyone else was already giving up because he had traitors take down the shield protecting the planet from this sort of thing from the inside. I just happened to be one of the defenders and had a crazy idea. It worked."
"Not without a cost," Mendez observed.
"Not without a cost," Stephen acknowledged. "Tony knows about the original incident. It isn't like anyone who didn't already know about some of this stuff would believe me if I tried to explain why I need special help when treating a patient in certain situations. This? Is going to get ignored or someone is going to claim a gas leak or a mass hallucinations or some other equally ridiculous thing to cover it up. Too many resources and years have been poured into hiding anything like this by the rich and powerful. They don't want people aware that magic and spirits and demons are real and able to hurt them. They want everyone as blind sheep to be hunted and played with at their leisure. Unfortunately for everyone that veil of lies is about to be ripped apart in the next several years and most humans aren't going to be able to do much about the consequences from that. The cultural and institutional knowledge for dealing with it has been lost or deliberately erased."
"Doctor, what would you tell anyone who wants a way to defend against... that?" One woman asked bravely.
"The Mystic side of things in general? Or dealing with the normally unbelievable?" Stephen asked curiously.
"Either? Both," the woman asked cautiously.
"Try not to get caught up in it in the first place but if you have to get involved... Listen to the old stories and fairy tales, the warnings inside them. If you identify the cause wrongly then do your best to correctly identify it the next time, assuming you survive in the first place. There are those groups that are still trained to handle this sort of thing. I was trained at one such place," Stephen answered honestly. "The old tales hold more truth than anyone ever likes to admit. It isn't a perfect system but stories are one of the ways humans have always passed on knowledge and warnings. The catch is that in this day and age we have also been taught to ignore the truths hidden within them. Striking deals with creatures and spirits is also more likely to see bad things happen then to help you."
"Why keep it a secret?" A different kid asked, obviously fascinated.
"Sometimes keeping secrets acts as a protection. In this case if those who wanted to destroy any way to fight back found out that people kept the knowledge safe and passed it down so that it could one day help their children or grandchildren those story keepers would have been hunted. Just like those who passed on the lessons of Jesus The Christ when Christians were hunted in Ancient Rome. That is also partly what the Catholic Inquisition and the Witch Hunts were about," Stephen explained patiently. "It won't matter for much longer but don't go trying to learn magic or how to fight something like that without a very good reason. Even just looking can get you killed before you start to learn. The danger only increases as you actually learn and grow more in being able to defend against something like what happened here. This isn't a game or a prank but a very real danger. That's why you must keep quiet about this when you leave. There will be no NDAs or spells to stop you from sharing. There isn't a need considering you would either be considered crazy or killed by someone strictly supporting the secrecy."
"Doctor, are you sure this is wise?" Mendez asked carefully.
"There is no other way to do this without calling in a clean up team and having at least one death," Stephen said, shaking his head no. "I knew that my side of things would probably come out sooner rather than later. I had just hoped Dormammu wouldn't get involved for a few years. He's eight years too early and that is potentially a very large problem."
By the time Stephen's shift was over most of the Hospital staff had heard about his defense of the invaded floor. The team that Tony had hired were hovering protectively around him, much to the consternation of various staff members. Tony's text about being brought home safely by Stephen's back up team told him they had sent the inventor a report on the incident.
Stephen wasn't looking forward to the promised talk with Tony when he got home.