Chapter Text
Tony Stark was a demon. A lot of reporters and rival companies would agree with that sentiment, but he was literally a demon. Not in any metaphorical way. He was a certified, bona fide monster from the pits of hell. He didn’t sell his soul for his genius or anything. He’s just always been a denizen of Hell.
Now, that wasn’t a necessarily a bad thing. Not anymore, at least. Before, Hell was a downright nasty place. Most demons actually were the incarnation of evil they were often portrayed to be. That was a thousand years ago, though. The universe moves on. Things change slowly.
Or things change all at once when a lesser ‘good’ demon named Abraxas decides to help another demon named Valafor stage a coup and overthrow Satan himself with the help of the millions of innocent souls dragged to Hell by actually evil demons and also maybe even a little divine intervention as well. Hell went through a complete overhaul with Valafor at the helm, and she quickly became the new Devil. She goes by Virginia now, but Abraxas affectionately calls her Pepper. He’s the only one allowed to, with him being her right hand man, and all.
As a reward for doing in a week what the lazy bums up in Heaven couldn’t do in thousands upon thousands of years, the ‘good’ demons that survived the overhaul were granted free will under the rule of Pepper. There weren’t nearly as many demons left over, but that was fine. Abraxas didn’t miss them. They were all grade A assholes. Besides, having tons of demons at the Devil’s beck and call wasn’t necessary anymore. Pepper didn’t want innocent souls dragged to hell. She had enough work with just the ones from all over the galaxy who had done unspeakable horrors. So, she decreed that demons were no longer allowed to ask for a person’s soul during a deal. Not that they made many deals anymore, anyway. Most people nowadays didn’t know how to summon demons, and now with free will, demons could refuse a deal. It happened often, considering the few people who knew or found out how to summon a demon never had good intentions.
After working diligently under Pepper for around a thousand years, Abraxas decided to take a vacation for a few decades. He chose a planet, and lived the life of the dominant species that resided there. It just so happens that he’d chosen Earth, and the family he wanted to become a part of so happened to be Howard and Maria Stark. He thought being rich might be fun. Plus, he was a demon who specialized in engineering, so obviously he wanted to at least be influential on earth through Stark Industries.
With Pepper’s approval, Abraxas was reborn as darling baby Tony Stark. It was nice to grow up. Yeah, turns out Howard Stark was a shit father, but Abraxas had been created, he never had the chance to have a childhood until now. Not that he knew that, of course. Part of Pepper’s deal in allowing the vacation was that he wouldn’t remember being a demon until he was mature. She didn’t want him to accidentally cause the apocalypse at 13 for shits and giggles.
Unfortunately for him, the Powers That Be (AKA: Pepper) decided that he wasn’t mature enough until after Afghanistan. Tony could admit that he was a total immature asshole before that point in his life, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t still be pissed about it. Luckily, he had a great outlet in personally dragging Obadiah Stane to the pits of Hell where Pepper would wipe him from existence. It’s what he deserved after everything he did and threatening Rhodey. Nobody touched his Platypus.
He and Pepper had a long talk after that. She asked him if he would like to come back from ‘vacation’, and he nearly said yes. His life as a human was in turmoil. Everything he knew previously was torn to shreds by Stane. It would be so easy to just go back to being Abraxas, to let Tony Stark stay dead from the explosion that killed Obadiah. But then he remembered that Rhodey was waiting for him, probably worried out of his mind. And JARVIS still needed him, and so did the ‘bots. Nobody else understood that they were alive, that they had souls. He couldn’t just abandon his friends like this.
In the end, he and Pepper came to an agreement. She needed someone up top to keep an eye on the state of the Earth, since she herself could not interfere directly, in fear of becoming just as corrupted as her predecessor, and also because humans were batshit crazy and if Tony wanted to take charge of them, then she’d let him. Tony wanted to continue his human life, to see the world grow and change, and be a part of that. So, they decided that Tony would oversee the safety and balance of Earth through his political sway and Iron Man, while occasionally reporting to Pepper to help stop the galaxy from imploding or other such nasty mishaps.
He was a very busy man. Demon. Whatever.
Which is why, when he felt the pull of a demonic summons while working on a very important Avenger’s project that SHIELD asked him to do a month ago, he decided ‘what the hell’ and answered the call for shits and giggles.
Summonings were always hilarious. He hadn’t been summoned in more than half a century, since he could have swore that he’d tracked down and burned every physical copy of his summoning ritual on the mortal plane, but since gaining free will, and the subsequent option of outright refusing a deal, he always had a blast with them. Usually it was some wannabe villain trying to get some demonic clout over his enemies, or take over the world. He always loved to scare the ever loving shit out of them and then tell them to fuck off. The last time he was summoned, about a 69 (heh) years ago, it was some group of Nazi fucks who thought that they could use the forces of hell to fuck up the earth some more. As if using an infinity stone wasn’t bad enough. That one wasn’t so fun. It was why he burned everything that detailed how to summon him since then.
But now, somehow, in the year 2013, some whackjob figured out how to summon the actual Devil’s right hand man to their dank underground lair. Tony just had to answer the call. If only to figure out how they were able to do it. Not because he missed terrorizing terrible mortals.
Definitely not.
So, donning his full demonic form of a ten foot tall draconic behemoth, because he was a dramatic little shit, Tony let himself be pulled away by the ritual magic. His wonderful AI, Jarvis, who was basically Stark Industries’ real CEO at this point, could yell at him later about his deadline. He could have his fun just this once.
“Who dares call upon the Prince of Hell?!” Tony bellowed in a deep, gravelly voice befitting his form. He formed in a dramatic cloud of swirling smoke and sparks over what he assumed was his summoning circle in the lair of the villain of the week. “Do you have a death wish? You are foolish mortals, and I am a demon of the highest caliber, you cannot comprehend my- uh wh-” Tony abruptly choked on a lung full of sparks and ash as the smoke caused by his summoning cleared and he got a good look around.
He was in what appeared to be... an apartment. A small one, at that. He could barely fit, with his tails and wings pressed against adjacent walls. The walls were a warm brown, and they were covered in photos and decorations, giving the place a well-lived, homely feel. The worn living room furniture was all pushed to the side to make room for the candles and circle he could see under his claws on the dusty hardwood floor. All in all, not what Tony was expecting to see upon being summoned. He was expecting the cold concrete walls of a dank subterranean lair, or an abandoned warehouse, or even some cultist mansion.
The most unexpected thing, however, was the small, terrified child cowering and sobbing at Tony’s feet.
“Oh, shit.”