Chapter Text
Tony was annoyed.
He had done all he could that day to keep the annoyance secluded in the back of his mind. To help in this endeavor, the speakers in his workshop in the basement of the Avengers Compound were set to his favorite rock songs of the 80s. They were currently blasting Guns N' Roses.
Said "woman take it slow, and it'll work itself out fine"
All we need is just a little patience
The lyrics didn't help lighten Tony's current mood in the slightest.
This annoyance had been ticking steadily upward the past couple days. He did what he could to distract himself from the thoughts that spurred the irritation further by throwing himself into all of his projects. The study of vibranium alone was still keeping him occupied as he considered the best way to use the precious amount he had. Then there were updates to his suit and Peter's suit that usually worked to keep him busy.
At the moment he was working on the kid's new suit, the one that could survive in space. When Tony had started it over a year ago, he had thought the possibility of Peter getting caught up in a war in space was, admittedly, pretty unlikely. But after Wong had given him a lesson in Infinity Stones, the unconscious fears of something terrible coming had only grown greater, and if anyone would somehow catch themselves going into space for some noble, dumbass reason, it was the kid.
Thinking about the kid made him the least irritated at the moment, which really spoke volumes about how the rest of the week was going.
"Boss." FRIDAY's voice interrupted Guns N' Roses' mid-chorus croons of a little patience. "You have a call—"
"Unless it's Stephen saying he's on his way to pick me up for another session with Pepper, I don't want to hear it," he interrupted.
"It's Colonel Rhodes, boss. The Compound staff have arrived."
"So?"
"He wants you to come up to greet them."
"I'm good, thanks."
FRIDAY paused for a moment, certainly to hear Rhodey's reply. "Doctor Nnadi is among those arriving."
Tony froze at the news; why the fuck was the Wakandan neuroscientist here? She hadn't left New York City at all while in the States, not to his knowledge. Not while treating Pepper. "Any idea why?" If Pepper's coma had changed in any way, she'd call him first, surely.
"Colonel Rhodes seems uncertain, sir."
Great. Just another thing to add to the list. "I'm coming up."
His thoughts wandered as he made his way through the Compound. It was only seven days into January and already the month was bringing disappointment after disappointment. (Sometimes his head brought up the thought that it would be a trend for 2019. He banished those thoughts with any and all distractions he could find. He couldn't think like that.)
First there was the discovery that, after two weeks of testing, it seemed that vibranium would not be a viable alternative to Californium for the sensors made to find Strange. It looked like Californium's radioactivity was a significant factor in being able to detect it, and vibranium was not radioactive.
Then there was just how long it was taking for Stephen to map Pepper's brain, which he had to finish before he could begin treating her. Stephen had estimated being nearly done in his mapping by now so he could start actual removal of the malignant magic keeping her unconscious. But his estimate had been off—way off—for one major reason: he wasn't mapping it with the daily frequency and session lengths that he said he would.
To give Stephen credit, the man wasn't fucking around with trivial things in the meanwhile; the last time he saw him three days ago, the sorcerer looked like he had been working without pause the entire day (and Tony was very familiar with that look). From what he told Tony, the amount of "mystical anomalies" around the world were popping up "more frequently than usual," whatever the hell that meant. Part of Tony was curious, but honestly, if those "anomalies" were along the lines of Baby Cthulhu from last month, he knew there was not much he could do about that.
Maybe once this was all over and he had some time for another project, but not yet.
These "anomalies" meant that Stephen had to help out his order as part of his job of "protecting reality," which meant he had less time and energy to spare for Pepper. He had spent the first five days after Christmas working with her for several hours. But then he had been called by his order for an emergency and didn't come back for over a day. Then in the first week of January Stephen was sporadic in his attendance, and some nights that he said he'd come back to treat Pepper he didn't come back at all.
The current three-day gap between sessions was the longest gap yet. And the time Stephen spent with Pepper last week was much shorter than it had been in the beginning, so he definitely hadn't used his daily allotment of magic (or whatever) all on her.
Stephen seemed to regret the delay, but that didn't mean that Tony wasn't irritated by the circumstances. Stephen's double had caused the issue in the first place. His order should be able to handle those things without him. He needed Stephen to treat Pepper. Pepper deserved it.
Tony slowly exhaled as he turned a corner and spotted the small convoy of staff members unloading luggage from big black SUVs and getting settled back into the Compound after the holiday break. It didn't take him long to spot Rhodey; with him were Vision and three women. As he made his way towards them, he was able to make them out as Maria Hill, Doctor Helen Cho, and Doctor Azuka Nnadi.
He offered a couple nods and throwaway greetings at the staff members he passed on his way to the group. He wasn't exactly a nondescript arrival, so the group saw him coming before he got into speaking range.
Didn't stop Tony, though. "Having a party out here, I see," he said, plastering on a pleasant facade for the crowd. "Rhodey, Vision, about time you got back to work. Doctor Cho, Ms Hill, welcome back. Doctor Nnadi, welcome. I hope your time in the States has been treating you well."
"I have had a wonderful time working with Stark Industries," Doctor Nnadi said. "It is good to see you once more, Mr Stark."
To Tony's knowledge, the United States government still had no idea about the technology that Wakanda had. If they did know anything, they were keeping a very tight lid on that knowledge. But he and T'Challa had made their plans under the assumption that Wakanda's secret was still safe. They got Doctor Nnadi into the United States a year ago through a fictitious Stark Industries project partnering with Wakanda to "educate and give opportunities to gifted individuals who worked in the poorest regions of Wakanda on behalf of their government". Hah.
The only others who knew her actual purpose in New York were Happy, Rhodey, and Doctor Cho. But none of them had the bargaining power to get what would seem to be a random doctor from a poor country in Africa to what was essentially a national military and research facility.
Doctor Cho, the good woman, answered his unspoken question that Tony could not say aloud with Maria Hill, Vision, and other potential eavesdroppers nearby. "The Wakandan government was able to secure visitation for Doctor Nnadi so that I can demonstrate some of the more advanced medical technology here, as well as discuss some cost-effective solutions that have been developed over the last few years by some of our research efforts."
Ah, a potential sales pitch to the supposed Wakandan government representative. That worked well as a cover story. But it didn't explain the real reason she was here, which was just irritating and nerve-wracking.
"You're very welcome here," Vision said. Rhodey hummed in agreement, though he shot a brief look at Tony. Tony ignored it, having no answers for him.
"It's a pleasure to have you, Doctor Nnadi," Maria said. "I'll be happy to get someone to give you a tour of the Compound."
Thank you, Maria, for that opening. "No need," Tony spoke up. "I'll give her a tour myself. I wanted to ask more about your time with S.I. as well," he said as an aside. "You all should get settled in," he added to the rest of them. "Can someone take care of Doctor Nnadi's luggage?"
"I'll see it's taken to her room," said Maria.
Tony wasn't sure if he liked that analytical look on her face. As he had never quite trusted Nick Fury (who seemed to have disappeared completely after SHIELD disintegrated, but he didn't believe the man dead), he didn't quite trust his former second-in-command. But Maria Hill's skills couldn't be denied when it came to serving as both part of S.I.'s global security team and as a liaison between S.I., government bureaucrats, and the Avengers. More importantly, Pepper had vouched for her. And, well. Pepper knew people, better than he ever could. So even if he didn't quite trust Maria Hill (and possibly never could), Pepper did in some capacity. Does. Despite his reservations, he kept her on.
"Thanks," Tony said, then gestured to Doctor Nnadi. "Follow me. I'll show you around the main building."
They left the others with the convoy, still in the process of grabbing all the luggage of returning staff members. While staffing was limited at the Compound with such a limited group of Avengers, the research facility was still going pretty strong and had enough people to keep that group busy for a while. Tony didn't expect to be interrupted anytime soon.
Instead of giving her a tour, he led Doctor Nnadi straight into his basement workshop where no person or agency got past FRIDAY's defenses. He knew he should probably offer a drink or something hospitable, but an offer wasn't what came out of Tony's mouth. "I wasn't expecting to see you all the way up here." He didn't say it, but perhaps she could hear the unspoken question: what the hell are you doing at the Compound?
If she noticed any of the lowkey agitation in his tone, she didn't react. Tony was almost certain at this point that complete unflappability was a trait natural to all Wakandans—or required of those who travelled abroad. Maybe one day he'd have the opportunity to go to Wakanda and find people that weren't so pokerfaced. Or go drinking with a group of them. Did Doctor Nnadi drink? Surely she did.
(He knew why his thoughts were spiraling all over the place. It was a defense mechanism against the unexpected, to stave off panic as long as he could until he learned why the hell she wasn't still in New York with Pepper. Nothing had happened to Pepper. He just saw her three days ago. She was fine—well, stable. She was the same. She had to be the same.)
"It has been a long time since we spoke in person, Mr Stark," Doctor Nnadi said pleasantly in return. "I thought it best to do so once more. I did not want to force the travel upon you, and my king was able to secure clearance for my arrival here without hassle."
He frowned. "So, what is this? A social call?"
"Not exactly," she answered. "It is about Ms Potts. Nothing has changed in her condition," the doctor quickly reassured before Tony could ask. She then paused, as if deciding her words. Tony didn't like it. "Would it be incorrect for me to say that, no matter where Ms Potts is treated, it would not be an inconvenience for you to visit her?"
The frown on his face deepened. "I mean, New York is convenient, but if needs must, I could travel anywhere."
"Have you seen her recently?"
"Yeah. Christmas." What the doctor didn't know was that Tony had seen his fiance over half a dozen times since as well. As his trepidation concerning portals diminished, Tony could not but admire their efficiency. It made getting around ridiculously easy.
She nodded. "I spoke with my king earlier this week and he made a proposition that he wanted me to offer you."
"What'd he say?" T'Challa was someone Tony could not predict, not for the life of him.
"We are nearing a year since she went into a coma. After my next set of tests, I do not think there is anything I can do further with the equipment I have. But Wakanda has facilities found nowhere else on Earth that may see something we have missed."
Tony blinked. "You want to move her to Wakanda?"
Doctor Nnadi inclined her head. "I understand it is far from New York, but I believe that is the best option at this point. We can have transportation ready by the end of the week."
She didn't, of course, know that Pepper was already being treated in another way, and Tony was pretty certain that telling T'Challa would break the whole secrecy thing he had going with the sorcerers. And so he did what he did best: evaded. "Yeah, I think that's a good idea, but I'd just like to have her here for a little longer. Can we revisit this early next month? Would that work?"
Doctor Nnadi nodded. "I don't think that will be an issue. I still have a set of tests I would like to perform that I can do here."
"Yeah, sounds great." He'd ask Stephen about it tomorrow—that is, if Stephen even showed up and didn't push it off another day. Another twitch of annoyance ran through his body at the thought, but his face remained blank of his emotions. Instead, he offered Pepper's doctor a winning smile. "Let me show you around properly, now."
When Stephen woke up early that morning, it was from the sound of another voice in Wong's apartment. It didn't take him long to get up and hear that there were five more large rifts discovered that would need the work of a master to deal with.
"I'll handle them," Stephen told Wong as the apprentice disappeared. Wong already had lost some sleep in dealing with another scattering of them last night across South America.
Wong frowned at him. "You look like you've barely slept."
"I was a surgeon, remember? I can live off coffee."
"I can see to these."
Stephen shook his head. "You literally just got back; don't try and lie about it, either."
Wong was still frowning. "Don't you need to see Tony and Ms Potts in about an hour?"
Shit. "I'll just let him know I have another delay." Unfortunate, but his help was needed here.
Wong's frown deepened. "Have you told him what's been delaying your visits?"
"He knows it's to do with my duties to the Order. But I didn't want to bother him with the details; he has a lot on his plate as it is." Honestly, Stephen hadn't wanted to worry Tony unduly. But after rescheduling this last session of Ms Potts' treatment twice, he was starting to regret not being completely upfront with how bad the breaches were getting.
The breaches were slow at first, with the one Tony, Vision, and Rhodey joined being one of the first large ones that had come out of the blue. But now, not even a month later, they were appearing with an alarming frequency and exponential growth. It was to the point that apprentices were pairing with novices to scour the world with what tools they had without the Sanctums and Kamar-Taj before sending apprentices and the newest levels of adepts to seal some of the more minor of these breaches. Stephen had taken some time just after the New Year to teach the entire order the interrupted vertical mattress suture to more efficiently close the rifts, for efficiency was very much needed. And for better or worse, Stephen was one of the fastest and most efficient of all sorcerers with sealing the rifts, especially the large ones that only the more experienced could wrangle.
Because of this, he had to be on call at all times now—even if that meant completely reworking his treatment schedule with Pepper and delaying her recovery. It jarred him and he hated himself for the necessity. But the rifts weren't getting better, which meant that he could no longer keep Tony in the dark about the details regarding his hectic schedule.
Wong mirrored his thoughts into spoken words. "It may be prudent that he has further details. These rifts will not stop coming until the Sanctums are upkept once more."
Which meant at some point they would potentially need to go and try to capture one, which was yet another problem on their plate. Stephen just exhaled at the thought. "I'll tell Tony more when I see him." He picked up his phone. "I'm still going to close these rifts, though."
Wong rolled his eyes. "May the Vishanti help me if I try to stop you when you're being unreasonably stubborn."
Stephen slightly smirked. "You can catch up on some sleep in the meantime." He then sent a very short text to Tony explaining that he'd be late, but expected to be there a couple hours after their scheduled time. He slipped the phone back into his pocket and ignored the buzzing reply. At Wong's knowing look, Stephen huffed. "I will tell him. He deserves an explanation. But later." First, he had some rifts waiting for him. He looked at the information the apprentice had dropped off, then made a portal to the cold, snowy reaches of the Yukon tundra.
Stephen said he was going to be late, and while he wasn't exactly past his postponed time, it was getting closer to when he said he would come. So the fact that he wasn't early was making Tony a bit antsy. On top of that, Stephen definitely had to renew his tracking spells on the sensors, so he really couldn't not show up tonight. (Not that they had actually paid off in any way. That purchase of Californium was looking to be a waste of $38 million, the more glum part of his mind couldn't help but think.)
So when Rhodey showed up in the basement lab, it was a welcome distraction.
"Rhodey-Bear!" Tony greeted nonchalantly, as if he wasn't a large ball of anxious energy. "Thought you'd never visit."
"Yeah, well, some of us have government work to catch up on after a three week break," Rhodey said dryly. "You should try it sometime. A break. Does wonders for you."
"Mmm, sleeping and eating are breaks," Tony, ever the workaholic, said with a flippant wave of his hand.
"Did you even do that? I haven't seen you since you came up yesterday—at my insistence, mind you." Rhodey's chiding frown lightened. "Speaking of which, what did Doctor Nnadi actually need? Did she notice something different in Pepper with all of Stephen's sessions?"
Tony shook his head. "Nah, Stephen's still mapping the brain out. Pre-procedure, as it were. She recommended that I bring her to Wakanda, actually, to try some of their more advanced tech that isn't quite as portable." He half-shrugged. "I bought myself a few more weeks."
"They're gonna wonder about her recovery, you know," Rhodey pointed out. "What're you going to tell them?"
He hadn't thought that far ahead. In truth, he hoped to avoid the entire conversation. "Well, don't think the wizards want to be outed to Wakanda, so." He shrugged again, then changed the subject so he didn't have to think about Pepper's recovery—or rather, his continued anxiety at how long the process was taking. "So, government work? Ross being a pain in the ass for the new year?"
Rhodey shot him a knowing look, but let the obvious change in subject slide without comment. "Oh, he has bigger worries at the moment; the Supreme Court heard the oral argument for a case dealing with the application of the Accords in New York today."
Tony's eyebrows rose. "That was today, huh?" He thought he had taken note of the date back in the fall—but, well, other things had taken precedence. Obviously.
"You can probably find the recording on C-Span—or YouTube. Good lawyer."
"One of mine, I bet."
Rhodey rolled his eyes. "You must've funded half the lawyers in the country with your anonymous donations. That doesn't make them 'yours'."
Tony smirked, then said, "Could be someone I have on retainer, though." He had some excellent personal lawyers on retainer.
"Don't think so. It's a Matt Murdock. He was good today—though the opposing side was no slouch, either." He ran a hand over his head. "Hard to say what the Court will decide. I could see it go all three ways."
Tony frowned. "Three ways?"
Rhodey ticked them off as he said, "As nationally constitutional, nationally unconstitutional, or a matter of each state to determine their own laws like, say, the death penalty."
Tony wrinkled his nose. "So unnecessarily complicated."
"Welcome to American law. Didn't you take classes on national versus state law?"
"Like thirty years ago." And he didn't bother remembering most of it; that's what he had lawyers for, after all.
But before Rhodey could lecture him more on everything he had purposefully forgotten, FRIDAY saved him. "Incoming portal," she said from above, and about fucking time.
Tony waved away the holographic displays surrounding him with the inner workings of the Mark LII and said, "You're late," before turning around to meet Stephen. He raised his eyebrows at the snow that covered the top of the sorcerer's hair. "Having a snow day?"
"The Yukon wouldn't be my first choice," he said in return, and honestly, it wouldn't be Tony's, either. The cold weather had left its mark on Stephen, leaving his nose and cheeks a ruddy red and the sorcerer sounding a bit out of breath. Stephen nodded to Rhodey in greeting, then asked Tony, "Is the apartment still clear?"
"Yeah," Tony said, then exhaled a sigh for the last necessary delay. "But you need to put the tracking spell back on the sensors."
"Oh, right," Stephen said, and it was definitely not good that Tony had remembered more than Stephen (well, FRIDAY remembered for him, but the point still stood). "I'll do that now. Won't take a minute. Is the computer muted?"
"Of course." And Tony planned to keep it muted; with the Compound staff back on-site, there was the chance that some may come to visit him for one reason or another. It happened infrequently and FRIDAY was always able to warn him, but she wouldn't be able to mute the alarm before it went off. And he couldn't have anyone remotely curious about its purpose. Knowing his luck, there'd be a government official snooping around when it happened.
Besides, FRIDAY could alert him anytime, anywhere if—when the damn thing got a hit.
As Stephen started opening small portals to each of the fourteen sensors, Rhodey said, "Actually, I have a question about this tracking stuff that I've been meaning to ask." Stephen paused as he closed the second portal to look at Rhodey, and God damn it all Rhodey, didn't he realize Pepper was waiting? Tony pushed down the instinctive urge to glare at him as Rhodey continued, "I've been wondering for a while—if Wong was able to track you down when you were with us back in October, why is this all needed? Couldn't you do the same with Strange?"
"It's not so simple," Stephen replied while he, thank God, started applying the tracking spells again. "Powerful sorcerers can block themselves from being tracked through the usual means, and he certainly upped his game after I spent weeks tracking him down the first time. That you two were also there would certainly mean that he would have doubled down on his inability to be found in every way possible. That is why I am trying to track the portal spell itself rather than him." He yawned as he opened up the third-to-last portal. "Besides, Wong heard rumor of me from someone familiar with the cuffs project, not magic."
Tony and Rhodey stared at Stephen. It took another two seconds before the tension reached Stephen and he closed the second-to-last portal. "Oh. Um."
Rhodey crossed his arms. "So when were you planning to tell us you had sorcerers embedded within the US government?"
"Or Stark Industries?" Tony added.
"Probably never," Stephen admitted, to his credit. Before either of them could protest, he held up his hands. "Look, I have no idea how it works in this universe. I know in mine that the Order just makes sure that no government finds some book of all evil or something to bring ruin and damnation upon the Earth, but we absolutely do not interfere in earthly political or military affairs. That's still a pretty big cause of debate when it comes to our lack of intervention in anything non-magical," he added. "So if we didn't intervene then, we're not intervening in anything that doesn't involve magic now."
Rhodey didn't look completely appeased, but he didn't look like he was going to chew Stephen's head off anymore. His arms were still folded but his shoulders had relaxed a touch. "Then what are you doing?"
Stephen shrugged and opened up the last portal to a sensor. "I imagine Wong wanted to keep an eye out on Strange's movements. He found out about Tony's project, learned they were being used after I disappeared, and there you go. It's nothing nefarious."
"Pshh," Tony said. "Not sure I agree there." Before Stephen could argue, he waved him off. "I'll corner Wong later; if there's a sorcerer in Stark Industries, I want to know." And he'd spend some time digging into the hires in the R&D department after the theft last March, that was for damn sure. "But right now Pepper's waiting."
Rhodey looked like he still had several more questions, but he nodded once in terse understanding. "May I come with you? It's been a while since I've seen her—and I'm a bit curious about what you two are doing."
"I'm not doing anything but looking pretty," Tony said, "but yeah, I don't care." He gestured at Stephen impatiently.
Stephen thankfully delayed no longer, and he made a portal to Pepper's bedside. As Tony and Rhodey stepped after him and the portal closed, Stephen sat down at his usual chair and pulled out the magical brain map. Rhodey carefully circled it as much as he was able while Stephen laid his left hand on Pepper's brow. The brain image zoomed into what Tony knew as the reticular activating system. "I need to concentrate while I do this, so ask your questions now if you have them."
"Do you need to leave immediately once you're done here?" Tony asked, as another niggling thought came to mind. Pepper was about to be seen to, which appeased a part of him, but that didn't account for what happened throughout this last week—and what the future entailed.
"I don't have time to socialize," Stephen said, voice even and strangely unreadable.
That—well, that, plus his delays and lateness and news of spies—all caused Tony to frown at him. "So you're doing this postponing and being late thing and you can't stick around for updates? Is this going to be the norm now?" Okay, maybe some of his irritation leaked into his tone, but he felt he had every right to be peeved. On top of everything else, Stephen was probably the only one who could cure Pepper's coma—and after the news from the Christmas party a few weeks ago, their time was limited.
Had he told Stephen about the deadline the S.I. board had imposed on Pepper's position?
Before he could think more on that, Stephen's slow exhale drew him out of his thoughts, and then he watched as Stephen's stiff frame that had been there since he first showed up melted away into a slumped exhaustion. Tony wasn't exactly expecting that; he had assumed that his bad look was mostly from his trip to the Yukon, but it appeared there was more behind it. He knew Stephen was busy, but this looked like a "binged three weeks on a new project" sort of busy.
Rhodey was still frowning, but it wasn't quite as severe as it was a moment ago. "What else is going on?" he asked.
Stephen shook his head. "It's strictly Order business, but—well, it's affected my schedule quite a bit. I was hoping it wouldn't get as bad as it has, but—"
"Hoping what wouldn't get this bad?" Tony interrupted.
Stephen removed his hand from Pepper's forehead and the brain map disappeared, allowing Tony and Rhodey to see him unimpeded. He cleared his throat. "You remember that rift you helped us with?"
"Not gonna forget that anytime soon." Tony crossed his arms and leaned against the dresser across from the bed. Rhodey huffed in agreement.
"Well, that wasn't the last of them. We saw an uptick in rifts throughout the solstice which kept me busy then, but at the time, I attributed the unusual number of them to the time of year. Except they didn't slow down."
Stephen didn't outright blame Strange for them, but… "Think Strange has a hand in this?" Tony asked.
His brow furrowed. "We already knew, back when you helped us with the breach from the Chaos Dimension, that Strange wasn't able to keep up with maintenance on all three of the Sanctums anymore. That, along with our headquarters being cut off from this plane, doesn't help in decreasing the amount of rifts we deal with. But…" He trailed off and shook his head. "There's something weirder—"
"Strange-r?"
Tony smirked at Stephen's dry look. "—weirder going on, I think. The amount of rifts dramatically increased after the New Year. I can't really blame the solstice anymore. I don't know if this is Strange's doing, but if it is, I'm not sure what his end goal is. The rifts go against his mantra of protecting this reality and only make it less stable."
Rhodey scoffed. "I dunno. From what I know of the man, this sounds exactly like something Strange would do. He certainly hasn't made the world more stable by stealing uranium from several countries."
"Political stability is not the same as reality stability," Stephen argued. "It just doesn't fit what he told me and I don't think his goal has changed."
Tony wasn't so sure. Maybe Strange's goal hadn't changed, but he wouldn't be surprised if Strange had something to do with the issue. Bastard. "So that's what you've been doing? Upholding reality's stability?"
Stephen huffed a soft breath that could have been a chuckle in a less serious conversation. "Nothing as grand as that. I've needed to teach my methods of quick rift closings to the others, help supervise a few, and then deal with those that are too large for anyone but myself. Some rifts need teams of us, depending on which dimension the rift is from." He gave Tony a regretful look. "Unfortunately I'm always on call until this situation is remedied."
"Seems like you're on call to the point of exhaustion," Rhodey, ever to the point, said. "You look beat."
"We sleep in shifts and I am getting enough, but thank you for your concern," was Stephen's polite, distant remark that Rhodey didn't look convinced by at all.
"How long is it gonna take to remedy all of that, then?" Tony asked.
"I wish I could say."
Sincerity was dripping off of Stephen, in both his expression and in his every word, and Tony's annoyance dissipated for the time being. But in its place came more worry. "What does that mean for Pepper?" He forced himself to take a deep breath and listen to the answer, though anxiety was doing its best to build its way back up into his chest.
"Every spare moment I have that I am not working with the Order or resting to recover my energy reserves, I will be here," Stephen promised. "Because I need to keep as much power as possible for my work in closing these rifts, by nature my time with her must be shorter—but I still want to try to meet daily, if at all possible. I don't want to repeat what happened this week."
Would that still be enough time? "What sort of delay are we looking at?"
Stephen shook his head. "I'm not certain. It depends on these rifts. I would like to say no longer than a three or four week delay, but…" Again he shook his head, his frown increasing. "I cannot predict what will happen."
Tony pursed his lips. "Look, I know this is—important. Pretty fucking important. But Pepper's got a deadline." Rhodey shot Tony a sharp look—right, he didn't know either. "The board at Stark Industries is ready to remove Pepper as CEO if she's not awake by the end of March." And he knew she would be devastated to lose that; she was just as much a workaholic as he was, and she had outright bloomed as CEO over the last eight years. "She can't lose that."
Stephen inclined his head. "I can meet that—and I will work with that schedule unless it's a matter of the world ending without my involvement." He frowned. "Part of the issue is that much of our time is spent scouting and re-scouting locations with a frequency that is not usually required. If the apprentices did not need to spend as much time scouting, they could do more closing and I would have a little more time for Ms Potts."
Hmm. "Well, with the sensors for Strange working, I can see if I could cobble something up. I still have my suit's data from the Baby Cthulhu incident."
Stephen scrunched his nose at Tony's nickname. "It's worth a shot, I suppose."
Tony took out his phone to start looking into the data and jotting down some preliminary thoughts. It would certainly keep him occupied while Stephen did his thing. As the magical brain map was brought back up again, though, Tony realized he didn't tell Stephen everything. "Oh, one more thing—T'Challa extended an invitation to bring Pepper to Wakanda for further treatment. I managed to push it off to revisit early next month, but if you could really make some progress, that'd help me in not needing to make up more excuses to keep Pep here."
"By the end of the month, I will definitely be done with the mapping," Stephen replied as he seemed to zoom into a part of his brain map. "And I think by then I'll know just how much help I will be able to provide, and have an estimate for how long it will take."
"I'm gonna hold you to that," Tony replied. And by God, he would. The sooner he saw Pepper open her eyes, the better.
And if Strange's bullshit got in the way of that, it'd just make his eventual defeat all the more sweeter.