Chapter Text
Tony blasted through the wall of the room Stephen was supposed to be in, sparks from his repulsor dancing like fireworks in the dark room.
The Iron Man flew in and his scanner searched for any sign of the sorcerer. Eventually, he heard a groan and could see a faint light underneath some debris.
“Stephen!” Tony called, rushing over and seeing his love trapped underneath the rubble. His eyes were closed, but he was breathing deeply, much to Tony’s relief. He crouched down to pull some of the fallen rubble off of him, but stopped when Stephen gasped in pain. The man opened his eyes and looked at Tony, his gaze swelling with love as he realized who it was
“Tony…”
“Hey there Princess Fiona,” Tony greeted, trying not to break down crying right there from the relief of seeing he was alright.
Stephen chuckled weakly, “you’re the worst, Stark.”
“Yep, we’ll talk about it over dinner,” Tony grunted, reaching out and grabbing onto Stephen's arm gently. He slowly and carefully helped him out from under the rubble, wincing at Stephen’s muffled cries of pain. Eventually he was able to pull him out from under and held his weakened body gently in his armored embrace. Tony had to use all his will power to not squeeze him and never let go again.
The glowing bands still restrained the sorcerer's scarred hands, making it impossible for him to use his magic- that is if he still had any left. Tony quickly used the laser beam embedded in his gauntlet to cut through them, releasing Stephen's wrists which had burn marks on them from the rope.
“Your magic… is it-” Tony broke off his question when an arm suddenly shot through the floor, it's hot grasp grabbing onto the suit's arc reactor and crushing it. Killian burned through the floor and knocked Tony to the ground with a grunt, his suit now unable to function.
“Tony!” Stephen coughed out weakly, powerless to stop him.
“Thought you could leave the party without saying hello?” Killian put a foot on Tony's chest, before setting his hand it. His fingers glowed a bright orange and Tony felt the intense heat from them increase painfully as seconds went by. He winced, glancing at Stephen who was feebly trying to get up to help him, but collapsed again from being so drained.
“We could've changed the world Stark. You could've healed your husband,” Killian chose his words carefully, wanting to dig them in deep, “Now you're going to die in front of him,” The Mandarin raised his arm, and it began glowing as brightly as his fingers, ready to finish the job. Tony glared up at him, and when he brought his hand down, he unsheathed a blade from the end of his gauntlet, slashing the arm clean off.
Killian let out a yell of pain and fell back, “Yeah you take a minute,” Tony said, his suit opening up and releasing him from inside since it was practically useless now.
He looked at Stephen and was about to go towards him, before an explosion hit where he lay, breaking the last few support systems holding up the already breaking hull.
Tony's eyes widened in alarm as the floor underneath Stephen collapsed and he fell down through the open hull, landing on the gantry below with a yelp. The platform underneath him began moving and Stark rushed down the stairs, heading to the other side of the tanker. He glanced back when quick footsteps could be heard and saw Killian. The man's arm had healed completely, and fury filled his gaze.
Tony ran, hopping quickly onto the railway at the end of the platform and jumping across to the next. He looked back, and saw that when Killian leaped after Tony, one of his suits had grabbed onto him. Mark 42 to be specific.
In a quick motion, the genius gestured his arm to Killian. This ordered the suit to open up and engulf the man inside, containing him in metal despite his struggles.
“JARVIS, Blow Mark 42 for me would ya?” He ordered the AI.
Killian let out a yell of protest, before the suit formed completely around him and flew upwards to get Tony out of the blast radius. Moments later, the sky lit up with a bright explosion, the EXTREMIS virus plus the suit making for one hell of a light show. He couldn't help but feel a little remorse for his suit, it had helped him so much.
But there was no time. He had to get to Stephen…
Tony ran to where the platform had finally stopped, going down the stairs below it. Stephen was hanging on desperately, and with the cloak nowhere to be found and his magic weakened, there was no way he'd be able to get himself out of it.
Tony climbed as high as he could on the railway to get to Stephen, reaching his arm out to his husband, but being just out of reach. The sorcerer looked at him with genuine fear in his face and it broke Tony's heart.
“Stephen, I need you to let go okay?” Tony said in a comforting, but urgent tone, trying his best to keep the fear of losing Stephen out of his face. The boat shook suddenly and Tony had to crouch and grip the railing in order to not fall off.
“Honey, I can’t reach any further and you can’t stay there. I need you to let go,” Tony pleaded, his outstretched arm trembling slightly, “You gotta let go, I’ll catch you, I promise.”
Stephen looked into Tony’s gaze, his face full of confidence in his husband despite his fear.
“I trust you,” Stephen nodded shakily, doing his best to muster a reassuring smile for him.
He was shifting and ready to let go; however, the boat once again shuddered, this time more violently. In a moment that seemed to stretch for infinity, Stephen’s grip faltered on the shaking gantry. Tony’s breath caught in his throat. The platform shook outwards away from where Tony was standing, and he watched in horror as the love of his life fell, his fingers brushing against his just out of reach.
Down, down, down below he plummeted with a cry.
“NO!” Tony screamed, watching with anguish as Stephen reached up to him and disappeared into the flames below.
No no no no.
I trust you… Stephen’s words rung loudly in Tony’s head and he felt sick to his stomach. He promised he’d catch him, he trusted him with all his heart. Tony let the best thing that had ever happened to him fall to his death. He felt as though his arc reactor had been ripped out of his chest.
He wobbled off of the railway and had to force his legs not to buckle underneath him.
The man didn't turn towards the approaching footsteps for a while, just staring down with a grief stricken face at where Stephen fell. Tony’s fists clenched as he turned and saw Mordo.
“It’s a shame it had to turn out this way Tony,” The sorcerer sighed.
Anger boiled inside Tony’s chest, and he was too filled with sorrow and fury to say anything back to him.
The two began approaching each other, a walk at first that turned to a dash. Mordo jumped, forming the familiar amber weapons that Stephen used. Tony then dropped into a slide underneath him, dodging his attack and running into his suit Mark 19, or “Tiger”, that landed and opened up for him.
He turned once he was completely in the suit and began fighting with Mordo. Magical aldrich shields clashed with bright repulsors and metal.
At one point they were against the top of the stairway and a glowing whip grabbed Tony's leg. Mordo formed a sharp, amber blade and Tony grasped his wrist to stop it from coming down.
“Eject!” Tony quickly ordered when his grip was loosening, his suit immediately releasing him out. The moment he was ejected, Mordo slashed the leg of the armor clean off.
Tony fell backwards down the stairs, a short distance, but it still knocked the wind out of him. He coughed and looked up at Mordo, who stood above him from the top of the stairway.
“You didn’t deserve him, Tony. I could’ve had him perfect,” Mordo said, jumping down in front of Tony who scrambled to his feet before Mordo could trap him.
The anger in his face faded to grief, “You’re right. I didn't deserve him,” Tony huffed, the guilt from losing Stephen heavy in his voice, “Here’s where you’re wrong. He was already perfect.”
Mordo scowled down at Tony and began attacking once again. He evaded another slash of his conjured weapons, and watched as Mordo tried to summon a portal, a dumfounded expression coming over his face when he realized something.
His sling ring was missing.
“The perks of having a magician as your husband,” Tony began, holding up a sling ring, “is that they tell you all of their secrets.”
He held Mordo's sling ring in his hand, having stolen it when Tony was trying to stop the sorcerer from cutting his leg off.
Mordo, outraged, ran towards him, and tried to snatch the ring away.
“JARVIS, I need a suit!” Tony yelled into his earpiece, barely evading Mordo’s attacks.
Mark 20, his golden and dark gray suit “Python” came soaring through the air towards him, and Tony hopped onto the railway, letting himself fall down a few feet into the suit’s protective embrace.
Mordo formed a crimson, thick whip and used it to grasp onto Tony. It wrapped around from his side up to his shoulder, searing through the metal plates like styrofoam. It managed to damage the core reactor, and a few of the pipe engines inside and cut off power to his left palm jet and right foot.
Stark faltered in air, but yanked backwards, increasing the power on the two remaining jets to try and pull Mordo off of him. This ended up knocking the sorcerer off the railway, but he pulled Tony down in the process.
Mordo kept his grip on Tony’s suit despite how they both were falling rather quickly to the bottom of the oil tanker. Tony gasped in pain as the burning whip reached his skin and shot a desperate repulsor blast at Mordo.
The lucky shot managed to hit the sorcerer’s arm, and knocked them both away from the other, momentum smacking them both hard on the Norco ship deck.
Tony’s suit smashed harshly against the deck and he let out a pained cry. The Python suit was basically destroyed, an arm and both legs being all that remained completely intact.
Mordo had been knocked into remains of the burning tanker, out of sight for Tony to see and no noise coming from the impact area. Without a sling ring or any armor to cushion the fall, it was likely he didn’t survive, Tony thought.
Tony lay on the ground of the boat, letting out a small groan. His rib cage hurt tremendously, most likely cracked from the hard fall and his leg was sprained, if not broken. He coughed, holding his arm up and looking at Mordo's sling ring in his remaining armored hand. It was different than Stephen’s, having three bronze bands wrapping around them, and missing the two circular symbols; however, it still reminded Tony deeply of him.
An abrupt crash made the billionaire jump, and dread filled his body as Mordo came out of the rubble, a shield conjured around him to protect his body from the fire.
Tony's eyes widened and he weakly tried to pull his body away from him. There weren't any more tricks up his sleeve he could pull last minute.
“You're clever, Stark I'll give you that,” Mordo huffed, his voice strained, “But your wits will only get you so far against a Master of the Mystic Arts,” Mordo formed a blade in his palm, but before man could finish Tony off and a flash of red appeared in his vision.
Stephen's cloak.
It wrapped around Mordo's arms and yanked him backwards so he'd fall down, before it retreated back to where it had appeared from.
Tony could hear his heart beating in his ears and the world stopped in its tracks.
There, floating a few feet off the ground, was Stephen.
“S-Stephen!?” Tony's voice cracked and he smiled so wide despite still being in imminent danger. He didn't even try holding back the hot tears of relief that formed the moment he came into view.
“Tony! The sling ring!” Stephen called, snapping Tony out of his thoughts and dodging an attack from Mordo.
Tony hurriedly nodded and tossed it to him, the cloak snatching the ring midair and giving it to Stephen. He slipped it on his fore and middle finger, and began doing his “Spinny-hand thing” (As Peter calls it) and amber sparks shaped into a portal.
Mordo formed a glowing spear and let out a yell, jumping to slash at Stephen. He then used the sling ring to move the portal in Mordo’s trajectory, closing and trapping the dark sorcerer inside and closing it immediately afterwards.
Stephen breathed heavily, still weakened significantly from the previous hardships he’d endured that day, and looked over at Tony tiredly.
Tony blinked, still not believing this was true, that his husband was actually alive.
“Stephen, I thought I- I thought you,” he couldn’t even muster the strength to say it out loud before his voice got choked up.
“I know, Tony...I know,” Stephen said softly with no bitterness or spite anywhere in his voice.
The sorcerer drifted over to where Tony was on the ground and when Stephen could stand on his own, the cloak left his shoulders. It moved to Tony's and lifted him on his feet, remaining on him to help take the pressure off his broken leg. It rubbed against his cheek affectionately, wiping the tears off his face that had begun dripping; it missed him as well.
A small smile formed on Tony's cheeks at it.
“The cloak had escaped from the barrier Mordo trapped it in, and it got me last second before I hit the ground,” he explained, closing his eyes when Tony gently grabbed his cheeks, “I'm sorry I couldn't come to you sooner…”
“You're apologizing to me?” The smile faded and a look of guilt came across Tony's face, “Stephen, I let you fall. I promised I'd catch you, and I let you fall,” he protested, the image of Stephen falling flashing in his head.
“Yeah Tony, I'm gonna blame you for not leaping 20 feet like the Hulk, sprouting wings and then flying me off to safety,” Stephen snorted sarcastically.
“But-”
“Hey, no buts,” Stephen pressed his forehead against Tony's, “No buts, no apologies, nothing.”
Tony couldn't help but huff in amusement. He loved Stephen so much.
“You're unbearable sometimes, wizard.”
“You know you love it,” Stephen winked.
“I do,” Tony murmured, pulling him into a tight embrace and holding him close, “I really do.”
The two relaxed in each other's arms for a few moments before Tony slowly pulled away.
“Stephen,” Tony looked at him with worry, “Your magic…” he trailed off hesitantly.
“It's.. weakened,” Stephen sighed, looking at his shaking, scarred palms, “But I can still feel its warmth... I know it's not gone completely. It will take a while, but I think eventually it will be back to its normal state. You saved me before Mordo could sap all of it permanently,” he smiled at Tony with so much pride and love it made more hot tears start streaming down his cheeks.
He hugged him so tightly then, being careful not to hurt him but not letting him go.
“Merry Christmas, Merlin.”
Stephen laughed, giving Tony a kiss, “Merry Christmas, Tony.”