The flight from New York to Malibu was a three hour fugue state in the back of a Gulfstream G650, its fuselage marked with the elegant logo of the Umbrella Corporation. Tony had refused the suit for the journey home. After hours of being encased in gold titanium alloy, feeling the hum of a nuclear battery against his sternum, he needed to feel human. He needed the imperfection of leather seats and the vibration of a turbine engine.
He stared at his reflection in the darkened window. The man staring back looked like a stranger… his eyes too bright, his mind moving at a velocity that made the clouds outside appear to be standing still. He was processing the telemetry of the jet, the encrypted chatter of the pilots, and the data streams of the Umbrella satellite network above him.
When the jet landed and he transferred to his Audi R8, the drive up the coast was a blur. The tires screeched to a halt in the driveway of 10880 Malibu Point, kicking up a spray of white gravel. The air was thick with the brine of the Pacific and the scent of jasmine, but Tony's attention was instantly drawn to the perimeter.
Four U.S.S. operatives were positioned with surgical precision around his estate. They stood like obsidian statues, their black and silver tactical gear absorbing the moonlight, rendering them almost invisible to the naked eye. But to Tony's Eye Boy vision, they were blazing heat signatures of disciplined lethality.
As Tony stepped out of the car, the lead operative… stepped forward from the shadows. He offered a disciplined nod of respect.
"Mr. Stark," the operative's voice was professional. "Our orders were to ensure Miss Potts' safety until your arrival. The perimeter has been secure since the Triskelion fell."
He signaled to his team with a subtle hand gesture. With liquid fluidity, they began to melt away toward their transport vehicle waiting down the road. "Our mission here is over. We will be heading back to Umbrella HQ now. Good night, sir."
Tony watched them go, realizing with a pang of profound gratitude that while the world outside was burning in chaos, Aryan's reach was efficient and for those he called friends, singularly protective.
He walked toward the front door. It slid open immediately… his home system recognized the bio electric signature of its master before he even touched the scanner.
"Tony?"
The voice was a tremor in the dark.
Pepper Potts stood on the balcony, silhouetted against the moonlight and the vast ocean. She looked fragile, her arms wrapped around herself. Seeing him, she broke. She ran down the stairs, her bare feet slapping against the cold stone, and collided with him at the base.
It was a desperate hug. Pepper clung to him as if he were a ghost who might dissipate if she let go. Tony buried his face in her hair, the scent of her strawberry shampoo, something so mundane, so wonderfully normal, nearly breaking his composure.
"I saw the news," she sobbed into his chest, her tears soaking his shirt. "The Triskelion... the data... Tony, those men outside, those Umbrella soldiers… they said they were sent by a friend. They wouldn't let me leave."
"It's okay, Pep. It's okay," Tony rasped, his hand cradling the back of her head. "Aryan... he's making sure the fallout doesn't hit you. He knew. He knew before I did."
He led her into the living room. The vast glass walls overlooked the ocean, the waves crashing in a rhythm that usually calmed him. With a mere thought, he suppressed the bioluminescent glow in his irises and quieted the digital noise in his head, willing himself to be just Tony for her.
"I did things today, Pepper," he whispered, looking at his hands. "I wasn't Tony Stark today. I was... something more. Something I chose to become."
Pepper sat tucked into his side on the sofa, her fingers interlaced with his, but her touch was cautious, as if she were afraid he might shatter like glass. She noticed he seemed fundamentally different and carried a presence that felt more calmer than the manic man who had left for D.C. that morning.
"Tony," she whispered, her eyes searching his face for the man she loved. "Who did this to you? I saw the footage of the battle... you were moving things without touching them. Where did you get this power? Was it a project? Something you never told me about?"
Tony squeezed her hand, grounding himself. "It wasn't a project, Pep. It was... fate. There is a place… called Sefirah Castle. It's a space outside our reality, outside of time. A place of ancient power that somehow chooses people to represent the pillars of this world. It chose me."
Pepper pulled back slightly, her brow furrowed in confusion and fear. "A castle outside reality? Tony, that sounds... it sounds like a hallucination. Like PTSD. How does a place just 'choose' someone?"
"I don't know how it works, but it's real," Tony explained, his voice steady and full of a terrifying awe. "Aryan was the first one to be chosen."
"Aryan?" Pepper asked, her voice trembling. "Aryan Spencer? I knew Umbrella's tech is decades ahead of everyone but to be involved in something that feels like... destiny? He's always seemed so generous. The world practically worships him for the hospitals and the charity."
"He's the one who understands it," Tony said, leaning his head back against the cushions. "The Castle pulls in those it deems worthy, but Aryan is the one who helps us make sense of the burden. He's the most selfless man I've ever met, Pep."
Pepper looked down at their joined hands. "It's terrifying, Tony," she whispered.
"It is," Tony agreed softly. "But if anyone was going to be chosen alongside me, I'm glad it's someone with his heart. He's the only one I trust to lead us into whatever comes next. And right now, what comes next is getting Bucky fixed."
He took a deep breath, the air shuddering in his lungs. "Tomorrow is the first Monday of the month. At 2:00 PM, my consciousness has to go back to that place… the Sefirah Castle. It's the only time the members gather under the gaze of The Fool."
Pepper gasped, her grip tightening. "You're leaving again?"
"Only in spirit. My body will be here. But there's a reason I have to go," Tony's voice broke, the crack in his armor finally showing. "In that place, there is a one time power called Mediumship. I will buy it from the System. Aryan... he's the one who told me about it. He saw how destroyed I was when I found out the truth about my parents' murder. He pointed out the option in the Castle's records… a way to talk to them. One last time."
Tony began to shake. The billionaire hero facade the Iron Man… it all crumbled. He turned into her lap, burying his face in her stomach, his broad shoulders heaving with racking sobs. He was just a son who had finally found out his parents were murdered by a ghost from the past, and the grief was a physical weight he could no longer carry alone.
Pepper held him, rocking him gently as the moonlight bathed the room in silver. She let him break, knowing she was the only one who could put him back together.
As the hours ticked toward midnight, the storm inside Tony settled into a melancholy calm.
"I can't go back to how it was, Pep," Tony said quietly, sitting up and wiping his eyes. "The world is becoming an Earth Federation, led by that man 'The Leader.' Aryan is steering Umbrella toward a new age. But I realized something today."
He looked at her. "It means I'm not doing it alone."
Tony reached out with his mind. Using his Alpha Level Magnetism, he focused on a small spool of silver wire sitting on a side table, leftover scrap from a prototype.
Under Pepper's amazed gaze, the wire levitated. It began to twist and braid itself in mid air, obeying an invisible command. It glowed faintly as the friction heated it, then cooled instantly as Tony manipulated the atomic lattice. It floated toward them, a perfect ring of woven silver.
He took her hand, his touch warm.
"I have the power of a god now, but I'm nothing without you. I need you to be the person I come home to when the fog of that Castle gets too thick. I need you to be my constant variable."
The ring slipped onto her finger, a perfect fit.
Pepper smiled through her fresh tears, looking from the ring to the man who had forged it with his mind. "I've been doing that for years, Tony. You might as well make it official."
They spent the rest of the night talking, their voices low whispers in the dark, planning a future that was no longer written by the sins of the past.