#not dead Tony au

[star-stuckwithgay]

Need an AU where after everyone forgets Peter in NWH, instead of him staying a superhero, he doesn’t really have any reason to 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓎 a superhero, so he becomes a villain and fights hero’s as a coping mechanism and to let all his anger out. Everyone is confused as to why Spiderman decided to switch with no reason behind it to their knowledge. But instead of Tony just dying, he was in a coma this whole time and because he was in the coma the spell didn’t effect him, and Tony is beyond confused as to why the news is saying Spiderman is fighting other avengers.

[holysheithyall]

i made. an au.

newly graduated journalist tony becker spends most of his time trying to solve the infamous serial disappearances case. after running into multiple dead ends, he finally has a promising lead. unfortunately this ends up with him becoming a cult’s target. oh well.

[spookythesillyfella]

@thecultoflove SINCE YOU JUST LOOVE MIZU5 . HOW BOUT YOU HAVE YOUR FLY MIZU5-ED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! .... Uhh .. MizuFly -ed .. erm ...... amirite folks ? haha ... ?

[yourbustedkneecaps]

age swap au fic where everything is the same except that peter/spidey’s group switches with tony/iron man’s.

peter takes tony’s place. mj takes pepper’s. ned takes rhodey’s etc etc. “i am spider-man” press conference, tony sneaking out as iron man/becoming peter’s intern, may helping run the company, howard being a dick/owning a small business or smth — you get the gist

iron son and spider-dad i guess? tony (not lacking in intelligence) wanting to be as kind as peter and terrified of losing another good father figure in his life. peter “oh my fucking god kid if you’re not gonna stop at least let me show you the ropes” parker meeting tony during an expo/tour.

i want to see teen tony in high school desperately trying to be normal with his dad on his back about MIT and his tiny business or something. i want to see adult peter running a company with his besties and being loved as spider-man and trying so hard to help out some traumatized and angry kid in a rocket powered tin can.

this has tv show vibes to me in the best way

[starker-sorbet]

Sim Tony deciding to try and court the new superhero swinging around New York. Only he thinks that the best way to do this is to gift him the corpse of the man who killed his uncle. Hand wrapped of course.

Tony Stark this or that 2023: Villain au @tstot card below

[pompoison]

TRIGUN WILD SEED AU

I’m cooking trigun fancomic [plantcest] plans. Here’s one sketch page from the five I shared on my behind-the-scenes art p!treon for supporters.

I’m going to have so much fun with this but there’s also going to be. A LOT of angst. Also, canon divergence, because it’s an AU based on a book.

[aenbyveryverygayperson]

News Au time!

🪲

“ANNNND ACTION!”

The camera started to record live.

“Ah- Alright well here on the grand line news today we’ll be talking about my other idiot brother! Portgas D. Ace the stubborn second devision commander of the White beard pirates! my dear stubborn brother is also somehow the oldest out of the three of us-“

“Sorry to interrupt but Lu, Marines!”

“Of course.”

Luffy turned around to see there was indeed a marine ship.

“Well. The show must go on!”

“ARE YOU SURE??”

“That’s our captain alright. Fufufu~”

A flash of pink hair was visible and tried to punch Luffy only to miss.

Luffy smashed the marine’s head into the ship and sat on the marine’s back

“Shishishi! Trying to catch me off guard eh, Koby?”

“Hmph! Wait… Please don’t tell me you’re still recording… Your brothers are gonna kill me…”

“You alwaaaays say that! And here you are risking it. Like you always do!”

Koby gave an annoyed groan at Luffy while Luffy laughs.

“You still need to pay us for that therapy lesson!”

“No way in hell Nami.”

Luffy gets up and back onto the screen as Koby and Nami bicker

“And now we have Nami and Koby bickering. And to let everyone know, Koby’s never paying for it. Why? Because he doesn’t want to. And as they’re doing that let’s-“

“NO!”

“YES YOU WILL!”

“IT WASN’T EVEN THERAPY! WE WERE LITERALLY JUST HANGING OUT-“

“THEN PAY ME 20% MORE!”

“You know what? At this point I should just make a show where I post about the dumb fights and arguments everyone I know does, This is the first episode Koby VS Nami who pays and who doesn’t get paid.”

Luffy looked at the camera unsurprised.

Usopp laughed a bit and turned the camera to the two fighting

“Wait Lu.”

“What’s up?”

Luffy looked at Zoro

“Isn’t Sabo going to visit?”

“They don’t have good history…”

“Shit.”

“You forgot didn’t you?”

“Yep- I forgot. Shiiiit-“

“You didn’t know Koby was coming around today.”

“That’s true.”

“But we’re all dead either way.”

Luffy looked at the water seeing blue fire

“Well. Looks like he’s definitely here.”

🪲

To be continued! next week- I hope you like waiting!

[abyssmalice]

💔 BROKEN HEART — is there anyone in your life you wish you had a better relationship with? if so, how come? what makes this person important to you?

in-character chara dev questions!!

"Whoever I care - or don't care - about isn't any of your business though? Heck off."

"...Besides, it's not just a single person. It's my whole family. If I could just... if I wasn't so..." A frustrated pause. "Whatever. Forget it. Being a Harbinger should already disqualify me from being a 'good' or 'good enough' person anyway - that means if I've ruined my relationships with my family, that's only to be expected.

"And if my family still cares about me anyway—they really shouldn't. What sort of "loving" daughter am I if I don't actually try my best to see them? It's been more than seven years now and I haven't even replied to a single letter of theirs. I'm the one ruining any relationships I have and you know what, it's fine, perfectly fine! This is just fine! That's just how I am and I guess that's just how it will be—!"

.

(And for a world just a little to the side, a branch split away but not too far—)

.

"Though, if I could have a better relationship with anyone... I guess... my brother. One of them. That one.

"Now don't misunderstand me! Me and my big brother get along just fine if you ask me, all things considered. But I still don't like him compared to the rest of our family - and it's not because he's a bad person or anything! He's just, well. He's an—okay person, you know? He's fine! But... for the most part, his personality...

"No, it's not even that actually. It's his... attitude. That's right, his stupid attitude to everything! To fighting, specifically. Like why does he want to fight everything, and so much? What the hell is he trying to prove? What does he need to prove? Like, what the hell! What's wrong with him! There shouldn't be any need to go to all the deranged lengths that he does for so many difficult fights and like—argh!"

A frustrated foot stomp. "Why? Why! We were literally fighting for our lives down in that stupid place and we barely managed to get back home in one piece, much less together! And then he goes around pitching fights at whatever like, what broke in his stupid little brain, huh? Why won't he just sit down and eat some god damn bread and go fishing and not fight everything like a normal person?! Ughhh!!

"If he just weren't so—so stupid!! Dummy head! Idiot! He's so stupid dummy idiot head that I can only chase after him and make sure he isn't tripping back into hell because he's just that much of a dummy! And then, he has the gall to say I should stay at home with Mama and everyone else, spouting my arguments against me! Dummy! Fuck that!

"If he's going to keep being this way, I'm not going home until he goes home, and if one of us has to stay in this stupid job, it's not going to be him! And if he wants to complain about it, then he should have listened to me the first time and become a fisherman instead!"

[shevaults]

i haven't put a lot of serious thought into nora's modern au's, but i definitely think not having nate die in one of them and instead having nora and nate get divorced only for nate to find out his favourite video game streamer (hancock) is streaming from his old living room is pretty funny

[hearts401]

Ayo if you wanna ramble about your AU lore I am all ears :] (I can message you if you don’t wanna post spoilers or smth, but personally I sometimes just have to Get Out the thoughts to get things done!! Plus I just love listening to people talk about their ideas!!)

no worries abt spoilers since its just a silly thing lol

uhh basically Gregory, who goes by GGY, is a known hacker. since their government runs with robots and tech, he's good at causing trouble. he's like a 10x wanted criminal and ive considered aging the kids up to 15/16 for convenience but im not 100% on that idea!! he lives in a broken down falling apart house and builds robots with pieces he steals from security bots in the city. he made freddy, bonnie, monty, and chica (Roxy+foxy will come later u'll see) but they all got messed up, monty, while glitched, killed bonnie, so gregory kinda hid them away? he put them in a room basically. he continued trying to find out what was going on, and decided to shut freddy down until he knew what this glitch was.

boots, or ellis, is a kid who used to live with his close friend tony, who went missing under mysterious circumstances, and now hes on his own with his own animatronic that he and tony built together, foxy. he wants to figure out what happened to tony and connected the dots to ggy and his hacking. (He doesnt know gregory is ggy) he goes by Boots to hide because him and tony have done some kinda sorta illegal stuff while investigating the robots n shit

Cassie is a girl who lives with an animatronic her dad made for her named roxy. herfather also went missing similar to tony, and shes trying to find him + her friend gregory who also went missing. she goes by One because she thinks the robots took her dad and will come for her next.

they meet when One and Boots run into each other while running from security bots and they seek out GGY for help. GGY points them towards gregory's address and gregory offers his help, but Boots is hesitant to trust him (because he doesnt trust GGY) and One is suspicious of gregory's disappearance. when they have a rough run in with the security bots and get captured, Gregory comes to save them with freddy.

vanessa+vanny are in this, glitchtrap and the mimic are, there's a ton of stuff and there's more kinks im workin out but thats it overall

[the-faultofdaedalus]

it’s about

robot iron man post-tony death semi-unintentionally pretending to be a human person because it doesn’t know how to do anything else and doesn’t want the people it cares about to know it isn’t anything at all 🤝 tony stark iron man pretending to be a robot so he doesn’t have to let his teammates know he’s just a flawed and fragile human who could die at literally any time because of his heart

[cowboyhorsegirl]

But does robot iron man’s voice still sound like Tony’s through a modulator???

[hershelwidget]

I’m gonna be honest I forgot what I was going for three times through the making of this

Uh!! In the 3 of Everyone AU, two of the clocks get like. Attached to Neutral Colin. Like. VERY attached. We’re talking seeing all three of them in the same room at the same time but two of them are following the third.

I’m not sure what I wanna do for the other two Colin’s, maybe I’ll whip up something for one of them with Dusty Tony and leave the outlier for any other fun dynamics.

[tofuingho]

I'm loving the angst, but I've spent way too much of my life reading Avengers soulmate fanfiction. I want to see fuck-you-and-the-horse-you-rode-in-on!Danny. I-can-do-bad-all-by-myself! Danny.

The whole messing around and stealing shit was Tim's second chance. It's not like Danny had any other way to get his attention. As a civilian, it would be practically impossible for him to get within 20 feet of Tim.

So Danny started stealing things (and other nonviolent criminal behavior) in Gotham. It was a bit difficult to get Red Robin's attention specifically. Sometimes he'd set up an elaborate heist, only for Orphan or Robin to show up instead.

But when Red Robin did show up, Danny would banter and flirt and compliment as much as he possibly could. Eventually, he started hinting about taking Tim out on a date. The things they could do and see.

One day, Tim has enough and asks Danny why he's doing this, what does he get out of stealing things and fighting with them all the time. And Danny tells him that all he really wants is Tim's attention. To get to know him and ask him out on a date.

Tim l o s e s his mind. He screams and rants about how he could never date a person like Danny. He's annoying and creepy and Tim wants him to go away!

Danny just says okay and disappears.

Danny's got no one to turn to (or at least, that's how he feels). So he takes off to a place where he can be alone. And then?

He breaks down. He cries his lungs out. He wails so hard it destroys everything around him. He spends days and weeks letting his despair out until he's empty.

(If this is a same universe situation, Tim can feel the pain of the bond breaking, but doesn't know what it is. He ends up going to the doctor and finding out it's his soulmate bond being destroyed. He doesn't know why it's happening. Sure he rejected his soulmate years ago, so why is this happening now?)

Now that the bond is broken, Danny realizes that he's free to choose to love who he wants. It won't be easy. Many people won't date people that aren't their soulmate, especially people that have been rejected by their own soulmate.

But, eventually he finds someone. Someone who loves him just as much as he loves them. Maybe the person doesn't have a soulmate or their soulmate died/is platonic, but whoever it is wants to be loved as badly as Danny wants to be loved. (Probably Conner or Raven)

Danny reconnects with Jazz and Dani (who have been worried out of their minds), and maybe Sam and Tucker (who apologize profusely for making Danny feel abandoned). He's not 100% better, but he's well enough.

Eventually, he decides to take up the crown. He becomes a beloved king to the GZ. And sees his S.O. as often as he can.

And then one day the Justice League summons the Ghost King. Of course, they don't trust him, but they need his help. He helps them out, no tricks, no trouble.

When all's said and done, someone asks why he helped them, isn't he a villain?

And that's when he tells them that he's actually been a hero since his teens. He just did all of that stuff to get his soulmates attention.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out who he's talking about. Tim's pissed because he had no idea that Danny was his soulmate. Now that Tim's older, he's more interested in romance and his soulmate had been another hero.

He offers to give Danny another chance, but Danny tells him he's already given Tim his second chance and he rejected Danny again. It's too late.

Maybe Tim feels regret. Maybe he tries chasing after Danny. Maybe their severed bond can be healed.

But, maybe, in this universe, there's a slight chance that a bond that's been severed can attach itself to a new person and now Danny's S.O. is his soulmate.

@gilbirda Ok, so you made a snippet of on of your AUs a while back (braindead rejected! soulmate i think) and I haven't been able to think of much else since. So my brain made a little thingy for you!

------------

1. Tim takes a risk one day by writing back to whoever was doodling on his body, with a glittery purple gel pen, asking them to stop trying to contacting him.

All the person asked was, "Why?"

Tim never answers.

2. Danny faces constant rejection from his peers, authority figures, his parents and sister neglect him and now his own soulmate doesn't want him. They hadn't even met before he was rejected. Jazz finds out about Dannys powers and tries to reach out but Danny rejects her pretty violently due to his own pain. Then the episode where Sam and Tucker ditch him for Gregor happens and he gives up.

The two people in his life that has had pretty much complete control over his life and trajectory just abandoned him and he does not take it well. He ripped the symbol off his chest, disappeared and never came back.

3. Danny zooms into a new dimension/universe/whatever to avoid his former friends and family from being able to track him only to land in a place called Central City and immediately getting roped into helping Captain Cold who gives him a normal domino mask and they end up working together for a while.

4. Danny somehow overhears one of the speedster talking on the phone about his friends brothers soulmate issue at some point and they perfectly describe the interaction that happened between Danny and his soulmate all those years ago, down to the glittery purple gel pen and the types of doodles Danny had made as a kid and the things he said.

Danny learned one of his soulmates belonged to a group of detective vigilantes in a place called Gotham. Unfortunately he was spotted by the speedster and Danny had to bounce.

5. The Flash made reports to the Justice League about a meta teen who hes been having trouble with for a while and can't seem to pin down. He only asked for tips though as he "could handle it himself."

6. Danny leaves for Gotham and learned about Catwoman and Batmans weird Master Thief and Greatest Detective dynamic and decided that's what he wants to do. He was going to make his soulmate chase after him one way or another. Someone was going to want him even if they were wanting him behind bars.

He begins robbing bank vaults and museums, leaving no trace or clue as to what happened until he starts leaving a calling card of sorts.

7. Jason, who's been on the outs with his family lately meets this spunky white haired meta kid running around with a sci-fi mask/visor thing and giving supplies to homeless encampments and keeping the less fortunate alive and befriends him. He learns that this is the guy everyone has been searching for and just...tells no one. Jason is all for a Robin Hood vigilante, and really, its kinda funny to see his family squirm.

8. Phantom and Catwoman rob the same museum at the same time but for different things. They stare at eachother from where they're both still crouched from thier respective landings until Danny breaks the tension with "I didn't see you if you didn't see me?"

Catwoman laughs, amused. "Sure."

9. Danny finally narrowed down which of the batfam is his soulmate and introduced himself to them as Phantom.

The first thing Danny did was hit on Tim. Tim is flustered but otherwise doesn't really respond to it and tries to fight Phantom into submission, so of course Danny ghosts him by disappearing through a roof mid fight. Danny made a big show of his intangibility in that fight and made it seem like it was the only power he had but he was very skilled with it and he wanted to impress him.

10. Phantom becomes well known to the underbelly of Gotham. Mostly the homeless and nightworkers. But Danny was open and friendly. Never judging and always ready to lend a helping hand. Even better. He never came to collect on favors.

Over time, they became loyal to him.

11. Danny gets framed for a series of murders and the whole gang (minus Hood) are trying to capture him, thus, motorcycle chase scene. They use the white of his tires to tell when he's gone intangible due to all the dirt falling off the wheels. Nightwing jumps onto the bike and shocks Danny with his encrizma sticks right before Danny grits out "bye bye birdy~" and makes a big show of taking in a deep breath and holding it.

Nightwing is forced to jump off the bike as Danny runs through the concrete abutment of the overpass and coming out the other side

12. Danny meets Tim and Duke in his civilian form while he was at a Wayne tech conference. Danny had been asked about one of his inventions and was trying to show off the blueprints and explain things and thats why he was there in the first place. Duke of course, was internally screaming because that's the guy thats the guy they've been hunting for nearly a year but can find nothing on.

Red Robin confronts Phantom that night on a rooftop and Phantom laughs at him, "Thats why I was avoiding Signal for so long. He'd see my magical girl form and know instantly."

RR holds out a pair of handcuffs and says "Its over Danny." Phantom smirks and says, "I don't think it is, Tim" before jumping off onto a different roof and disappearing into the night. Tim is shook.

13. Danny over hears Robin berating RR at an old clocktower and intervenes, "Little Wayne, you do realize you were the first person I figured out, right?"

Damian proceeds to lose his mind.

14. Tim accidentally finds a material that Phantom can't phase through and quickly gets to work making things he can use against Danny. What he doesn't know is that Danny can phase through it he just pretended he couldn't because he wanted to see what would happen/what Tim would do.

Danny can sense the material and it feels really wierd to him, but doesn't harm him at all.

15. RR manages to knock Phantoms visor off his face and realizing it was made of tech he swipes it and brings it back to the cave for study.

He wasn't ready for all the information on the computer. Not only was his nemesis(?) from another plain of reality (he thinks Danny is from the ghost zone) but he was once a superhero with his own Rogues Gallery and human city to protect. Which begs the question, why did he become a Phantom thief?

16. The Joker hears about Phantom giving the bats the run around and comes to a misunderstanding about which bat he's been messing with which ultimately ends with Joker saying that he is Batmans ultimate nemesis and Phantom asking what that had to do with him? The misunderstanding is cleared up when Phantom complained about Joker even thinking that he was flirting with Batman because "Ew! He's an old man!"

Joker still got a few shots in for the heck of it but so did our ghost boy but they were no longer enemies.

17. The whole batfam had been freaking out about finally capturing Phantom and celebrating and plotting on how they were gonna get him to keep his mouth shut about thier identities until Jason came in,

Jason: Need help?

Phantom: Please?

Jason: *escapes with Danny*

Batfam: What?! No!!! Why?!

18. The batfam have only a vague idea of the Robin Hood thing going on. They know he's doing it just not to the extent its gone to. They find out later on that Phantom had been working with RH and his gang to sell off the items and most of the profits go to helping people. Other times he strait up gives jewelry and whatnot to children and working girls because "Everyone deserves something pretty, and even if its not your style you can keep it for a rainy day"

Phantom quickly gains a following and Danny doesn't even know about it. Clueless indeed.

19. Dannys main motivation in this is essentially just playing Cops and Robbers with Red Robin. Nothing else really matters to him. Not the robberies, not the fact he's working with a crime lord, not even his own safety matters much to him anymore. Hes readily zooming down the path of self destruction and Hood starts telling his family stuff, but only because he was genuinely worried about "Casper" crashing and burning.

20. No one knows why Phantom is fixated on Red Robin. He refuses to tell them. Red thinks its just because he's the smartest of the bats and he's not entirely wrong.

21. Danny legit started scheduling his heists with Tim to ensure they're both free after one couldn't make it too many times which blew the birds mind. Phantom must have been just that confident that he would always win. The bats eventually think Danny will stop stealing if RR isn't in the city for a long period of time. Danny more or less followed him and stole stuff from whatever city Tim was in. If there wasn't any museums or banks then Danny would steal a local landmark. Tim still wasn't sure how Phantom stole an entire building that one time but it had never been seen since.

22. Hood grows to be very protective of our favorite ghost boy. They bond and are actually really close. Danny admits he always wanted an older brother.

23. Tim goes off world for a while to see how Danny would react and Danny just...drops off the radar. No one knows where he is and after a week or two they start getting worried.

Tim returns after three months and Danny reappears two weeks after him with a tan and keepsakes from the places he visited on his vacation. Tim later screams into his pillow.

24. Tim has made it his personal mission to figure out who Danny really is, why he's fixated on him, where he came from, ect. Hes trying so hard but can't find anything. Its almost like he didn't exist before. Tim suddenly got an idea after Phantom accidentally got hit in the face and got a nosebleed. Tim saw green blood and immediately realized Danny might not even be human. Fortunately for our little ghost, he thinks he's an alien. A Martian specifically. Tim manages to snag a good sample from treating Phantoms wounds. Ghostboy was so focus on his core thrumming and mentally comparing it to his heart racing that he didn't even notice.

25. Tim later freaks out because the meta is freaking made out of Lazarus water.

The entire batfam was not happy to discover this and decided to work together to pressure Phantom into telling them what he was and what exactly he wanted.

[starker-sorbet]

After one too many missions with avoidable casualties under Roger's 'skillful' leadership with the ever annoying placation of 'You can't save everybody Tony' cause Tony and Peter to finally decide it's time for a change in the Avenger's roster. A permanent one.

And so the pair put their plan into motion to destroy their fellow Avengers. With Peter in place to monitor the Avengers as they go about their day while Tony spends his time taking over the compounds defences in preparation for them to make their move, all that's needed is for the Avengers to be in one place together so that Peter can lock any doors behind them and let then to the compromised defences and newly reprogrammed iron legion eliminate the lot of them.

Without Tony and Peter having to even lift a finger against the Avengers themselves. Simple and easy to write off their deaths as collateral damage due to a new villain in town. Such a same Tony and Peter weren't there but were on a date at the time, but as Rogers says 'You can't save everybody'.

[darthbloodorange]

Change Your Mind

Rating: Mature Universe: Marvel Cinematic Universe Pairings: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark Characters: Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, (Mentioned), Bucky Barnes (Mentioned), Obadiah Stane, (Mentioned), Thaddeus Ross (Mentioned) Warnings: Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Implied/Referenced Character Death (Not Major), Violence, Assassination Attempt(s), Murder, Swearing, Threats, Blood, Injury Major Tags: Dark AU, Canon Divergence AU, Secret Identity, Identity Reveal, Unreliable Narrator Tony Stark (Somewhat?), Villain Tony Stark, Dark Tony Stark, Dark Steve Rogers, Dark Avengers, Resistance Movement Avengers, Nomad Steve Rogers, Tony isn't HYDRA but he Allies with them, POV Tony Stark Word count: 1500 Code Name: Nomad

Summery: Tony is captured by the Resistance. Embarrassing. But he can make this work for him.

For the: ✦ @capim-tinybang - Amnesty Inspired by Hunter and Hunted by moon_language (fohatic)

Read below or on AO3 >HERE<

Tony strains against the men holding him in place as he is marched through the caves. Feinting stumbling on the uneven surface to try to pull himself free.

It stung. He was better than this. Better than to lose to these backward 'freedom fighters'.

He should have been the one to beat them. Not the other way around. Fuck them.

Though it mightn't be for naught. Up close, he can catch details. Identify them. 

Barton was not much of a shock. Figures that when SHIELD went down, he'd look for new employment. Why not sign up with the group that took down your previous employer. It was a sign of strength and intelligence, as his mentor Stane would say.

The other guy was more of a shock.

The Asset. HYDRA was looking for their favorite tool. Worried it had gotten damaged and was left somewhere rotting. There would be only so much they could do to reverse the damage of decay if they found him too late. HYDRA was spending a lot of resources looking for their Winter Soldier, even reaching out to Tony, not wanting it to fall into others' hands.

It had apparently. 

One final bend in the cave takes them to the resistance leader. There, the man sits, leaning back on his throne. Unbothered. Running his fingers of his right hand through the fur of his open collar. His bare chest was exposed to the cold damp air of the cave.

The throne he sat on was made of bone, antlers, and broken bits of tree. It was a little naturalistic for his tastes, but he could appreciate that the man had a theme.

While several theories were floating around on the various identities of the pseudo-military resistance band. Nothing was known about 'the Nomad'. No voting history. No medical records to be found. No SAT scores. Nothing. To all intents and purposes, the Nomad had just walked out of a forest and into their world.

Barton and HYDRA's stolen toy shoved him to his knees in front of the Nomad. His knees cry out at the sudden shock. Tony bites back a groan of pain, not wanting to give the bastard in front of him the satisfaction.

The Nomad stares him down with a hard expression, meeting Tony's eyes unflinchingly. Almost unblinkingly. Making something deep within Tony squirm.

There was something off about the man. Something deeply wrong and unnatural... despite his outward aesthetic.

Uncomfortable, Tony draws his attention elsewhere. To the feeling of warm blood, pooling around his knees. Focusing on the shame that this man and his lackeys had made him bleed. Turning it into anger.

Tony looks around the space, looking for something that might allow him to escape or gain an advantage.

He then notices the skulls. Thousands of them piled up around and behind the throne. Not the odd misshapen rocks and bits of debris he'd thought them to be initially.

Looking at them, he notices that carved into each of the skulls is the organization they had belonged to. 

The Nomad shifts, grabbing the skull that rested under his right elbow and from his belt a knife. He starts carving. 

The skull is fresh, Tony realizes. The bone hadn't fully dried nor been in contact with the air for long. 

"General Ross' head of security is dead." The Nomad states, curt and sudden. Causing Tony to jump slightly. 

Tony snarls. 

"He's currently vetting their replacement, who will kill him," Nomad continues, matter of fact.

"And? Do you think I can't stop you? That I can't work out who your plant is?" Tony says, "Telling me was a mistake. I'll get out of here and flush your rat out of the system."

Nomad gives a sharp grin that quickly disappears. "It didn't matter if I told you or not. It will happen."

"Your overconfidence..."

"Certainty."

"Oh, fuck off."

"There is no 'rat' for you to flush, Mr Stark. There is no fault in the system that you can fix. It doesn't matter who is chosen. They will kill General Ross when they take the job."

Tony stills. Trying to work out how that fuck that could be possible. Coming up empty.

Nomad blows on the skull, throwing dust into the air. Rubbing the carving with his thumb as he inspects it. 

He turns the skull around to face Tony. On its forehead is written "SHRAAVC"

"I would have thought, given your reputation, that you'd have come up with a better acronym." The man grabs one of the two skulls sitting on the throne beside his left knee. 

Tony scoffs. "Yeah, well. It was shorter. But then, people were stupid and wouldn't obey. So, a new section was added to bring order to the world."

"I thought that was the excuse you gave for the original," Nomad says, focused on his carving. 

Tony glares... to the man's complete disregard.

"I suppose I shouldn't be all too surprised. HYDRA was never that original," Nomad flicks away a chip from the bone as he talks. Not even looking up at Tony. As if his creepy little work of art was more important.

"No, they're not," Tony says, "But they're useful if you need to move a piano or a dead body or slip something through the parliament."

The skull is turned around. Carved into its forehead is the logo for Stark Industries. 

Cold floods through Tony. 

"I doubt I need to explain," Nomad says.

"So, I'll supposedly be dead soon?" Tony scoffs. More angry at the spark of fear ignited within his chest than at Nomad, but directing the anger at the man anyway.

The man picks up the last skull. Chunks of flesh are still hung from the bottom. Giggling slightly as begins carving away at it.

"You think that you'd be able to get somebody past my system-"

"Already did, pal," Nomad says, sounding bored.

Tony ignores him. "And then you'd, what? Somehow manage to kill me? Why not try to kill me now, while you have me? You'll stand a better chance here. But then, I'd love to see you fail. 'Never interrupt as your enemies make a mistake' and all that."

The Nomad gives a non-committal hum. Unbothered and unconcerned. "I've already succeeded. You, Mr Stark, were not our target. We already got what we wanted from your inner circle."

Tony's world freezes. For a short moment, all he can hear is a high-pitched buzzing in his head. Everything feels like it is tilting left. Slipping out of alignment. Wrong. Nothing making any sense.

'What?'

That can't be true. It had to be a lie. A trick or something.  Or a fortuitous stroke of fucking luck on their part.

There's no way...

"What?" he says. The word feeling thick and heavy in his mouth.

Nomad turns the skull around. Book-ending the engraved Stark Industries logo is two stars.

"Obediah Stane. Your mentor. The man who has the ear of Iron Man."

"Fuck you!" Tony shouts. He pulls himself back quickly. "I was going to kill him anyway." True. But he had wanted to see the look of pride in the man's eyes as he killed him.

"I don't doubt it. But who will you confide in now? Who will give you direction now?"

Nomad gets up from the throne and walks over to a shelf carved into the wall. Nearly a dozen heads sit there proudly, all engraved with the insignia of the organization they led. Stane is placed beside Pierce. 

"We're not looking to kill you if you could help us... how'd you put it; move a piano? Shift dead bodies," Nomad says.

"Why'd you think I'd help you?"

"I believe that, deep down, you are better than what you've become."

"Oh, great. Good-ie!" Who the hell does he believe he is? Some bloody saint? Tony rolls his eyes. The man is gorgeous, but nobody is pretty enough to pull this bullshit. "Look, I bill by the minute. You don't look like you have cash, and I'm not taking payment in skulls. But I'll settle for blood. Yours, preferably." 

He'll be the one who brings the world the Nomad's head on a platter. He'll get the credit for unmasking him, as it were.

The Nomad states at him over his shoulder, then laughs. 

Slowly, the man begins making his way over. 

"You may not believe. But I do." Nomad says. "My faith's always been in people. And I choose to believe in you. Underneath the rot, there's good in there." Nomad crouches in front of Tony.

Tony scoffs. Then meets his eyes.

His body freezes in place.

'Those eyes.'

'No.'

Tony frantically searches the man's face. Things snapping into place... making sense suddenly.

'Oh, God.'

The beard does a lot to hide him.

"Those I choose to trust never let me down," the man says. "Don't worry. You won't wonder the path of recovery and redemption alone."

Captain fucking America then holds his hand out for Tony to take.

THE END