𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐘'𝐒 𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐋 

𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐗𝐓𝐎𝐍, 𝐎𝐊𝐋𝐀𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐀

ELEANOR

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It was an exhausting twenty-four hours. 

Tony's final recording was when hope started to build in my chest once again. His words were certain as if he had worked out computations and logic to solve this predicament. I knew Tony's genius had no end but so was his will to the last manifestation. I began to intensify faith in the ultimatum that he had put across. Everything was clearcut and in the end, it was true what he said. We—everyone present in this lonely motel—were the bits and pieces who would make Tony whole again. 

The first step was to, apparently, surgically mod back my Stark-Rand repulsor unit into Tony's chest. His legacy coming back to him. It was the key to the operation. The electromagnetic repulsor was going to fuel his entire physiological biology henceforth. Adam and strangely, Stephen had gotten down to the procedure at a separated room in the motel. No one was allowed in other that Steve and I knew there was brewing between the trio. Something big.

In the meantime, Tony's body had seemingly forgotten how to operate. To work on its own. To fix that, we needed, as he put it, the courage and willingness to go through all this and all the cool machines. Maria Hill was tasked with collecting the Stark drive from Austin, Texas and he had another wave of terror waiting for us. 

Tony Stark had backed himself up.

The only thing that drive could plug into was the repulsor terminals' port at the back of his head. Once that was on, it will act as a reboot plate and install itself into his mind. Once the installation and modding processes were over, the triggering part was yet to come.

Rhodey and I had used his newly retrieved War Machine armour to break it down to the bolts and extract every inch of cables that were attached to the repulsor core to carry loads. Take them out, braid them together and use mounting clips to attach it to the undersheath of his repulsor disc. But the cable links had to connect to something. An electric terminal or more repulsor units. Things got a tad bit twisted from thereon.

He had requested us to take him to the terrace of the motel as soon as the first set of procedures were complete. It sounded counter-intuitive but if were to follow the instructions exactly, he was positive it won't completely lobotomize him. So to activate the repulsor disc in his chest—

'It's like like having a car but at a loss for keys. We'll have to hotwire it.'

'That's mental,' I hissed to Stephen. 

The sorcerer drew around the examination table Tony's unconscious form was sprawled upon. He was using a special chalk material to scrawl symbols in the form of perfect annular circles around the counter. In spite of the tremble in his fingers, his angles were accurate. Everyone was suited up except Steve, having no reason to.

'So was Tony,' Stephen shrugged. 'But if he says this going to work, no matter how crazy it seems, it usually does,' he looked at me with indecisive eyes, 'usually.'

'Helpful.'

Just as he spoke the pink-orange evening sky above us darkened to murky bleakness when the winds picking up speed. Lightning came like a split in the inky evening, zig-zagging in an obscure path and greyer than the colour my skin had turned. The thunder that always followed a beat too late arrived and so did the god. He came in a sharp whip of strokes, exploding into the cemented rooftop around him.

I lifted my arm that shielded my eyes to view the god who stood tall and mighty. Instead of the proud grin the god usually wore, there was a gnarly grimace and pointed to slowly reviving Tony. His shingled blond hair stood ramrod straight, searing cuts trespassing into his hairline.

Thor Odinson was, indeed, a fine specimen for a god.

'I caught the foul scent of insane off Stark before I arrived,' Thor boomed to Steve. The silver of his guard danced off wth electricity and I felt the need to prod a finger over the heat.

'This will kill him,' Adam retorted with a grumble as he stood the farthest away from us. Something about the antimatter in his body reacting with the energy that Stephen was going to siphon. 'Or electrocute him. Set his heart on fire. Blow him up, even.'

'Come on, Adam,' Nat mused under her breath before winking at him. 'Think resilient.'

Steve was helping Nat fix the cables around the shield in a clock-like pattern. The terminals connected to the repulsors on his chest and the vibranium for Captain's shield was going to, well, hotwire him awake.

'Lady Eleanor,' he thundered again, nodding with a hand over his chest and bowing a little. 'Always a pleasure despite the dour circumstances.'

'By dour you mean, declining,' I tried, scratching the back of my head. He raised his brows in offence and I sighed. 'Sorry. All this tension has acted on my positivity.'

He laughed, deep and guttural in character. The hair on my neck stood up at the tone. 'Positivity is the entirety you should be believing. I heard the great news, my lady. All my well-wishings for you and the little one.'

'Oh,' I breathed out, smiling lightly. 'Thank you.'

'I hear that it is a girl,' his grin widened. 'Always fun to have a girl around.'

'Uh. Sure.'

'Not in the creepy sense,' he responded quickly, laying a hand over my shoulder. I tilted to a side, amazed by the sheer weight. 'I just love little girls. Having them about, laughing and braiding your hair—'

'Thor,' I evaded with a nervous smile as he was sounding borderline pedophilic. 'I understand. Specifics are getting frightening.'

'Didn't anyone hear what I said?' Adam called out with a twinge of fury to his voice. Thor and I broke apart, watching Adam in sudden curiosity. He marched to Steve looking him in the eye, his dark skin tightening with a scowl. 

'You don't understand the dangers of using raw power—'

'Stark is Stark, doctor,' Thor stated strongly. 'If this is how he wants to be resurrected then so be it. I'm only concerned about the shield...'

'The shield can take it, trust me,' Steve nodded to Thor. 'Just hit it in the dead centre to make sure. Doctor Strange,' he then nodded to Stephen, 'is the forecasts ready?'

Stephen snapped back to his original position, responding to him. 'They are, now.'

It was as artistic as it was beautiful. About twelve feet in radius, four concentric circles scrawled close by in distances and a large pentagram around Tony's unconscious form. At the twelve edges of the star-shape sat twelve distinctive ancient symbols in twelve different colours of gold. A more miniature pentagram was drawn inside the larger one, more unusual symbols scratched around the edges. White wax candles of diverse shapes and dimensions stood ignited around the sphere, unextinguished and glowing. 

'Elle,' I turned to Stephen, 'you might not want to stay here once I convoke the Sorcerer's sphere via the Pentagrams of Farallah.'

'Wha—why?'

'The sphere has the ability to absorb all sorts of energies around us. Including the good ones. And you being,' he gulped, 'conceived are believed to be emitting the most amount of emphatic energy. It could... act against the life form. As in the child itself.'

I wanted to call it bullshit. I really did. But for the sake of the child and the seriousness of the situation, I complied in hesitance. 

'Alright,' I agreed. 'I will leave you to it.'

On instincts, my hands reached to Tony's hair and pressing a soft kiss to his cheek. He was so cold and almost felt like he was gone, the mere thought frightening me. I pulled back, turning on my heels without another glance their way, knowing it would bring up unending tears. I side-stepped the drawings and scrawls in a blind movement and stumbling to the door.

'Count me in,' said Nat, cruising to my side as I got to the lonely terrace door. 'Hill?'

'Oh, I'm staying for the show,' she grinned, obviously excited. 'See what mumbo-jumbo Strange is on about.'

'Call it mumbo-jumbo one more time and I'll blast you to a dimension by blood magic,' Stephen threatened, a frown evident in his face.

'Pfft, wizard.'

∞

[ a short chapter because the next one is.... pretty cool actually. ]

edited!