Born Of The Same Impulse

Summary: Barely five minutes into the past and Tony has already taken care of Ultron, thus prevented Sokovia, thus – hopefully – made sure that the Civil War would never happen. All things considered, he was doing pretty well!

Then he just had to look up his fellow superhero turned time traveller on the internet.

Star Surgeon Involved In Car Crash, Condition Unknown

Chapter 23

"– that's it. We spent a few nights, took the time to regroup. I don't know what else to tell you."

"I can't believe I brought you to my family's farm to hide from a crazy murder AI." Clint paused, catching Tony's wince. "Sorry. From, uh... what was its name?"

"Ultron." Tony dragged his hand over his face. "We didn't have all that many options."

Clint's questions were more in a long row that had popped up since the team had learned the truth about Tony and Stephen. Tony had answered them all to the best of his abilities – and he knew that for a while, they'd keep coming.

"They were fine, though," Clint asked, his brows furrowed, "right?"

"When we left? Yeah." Tony curled his lips. "Afterwards… Look, we don't know what happened on Earth after we reached Titan."

Tony's eyes were pulled in by the security footage they kept displayed. Loki had recovered concerningly fast – something they ought to have foreseen, considering his heritage. He lay on his bed in a guest room they'd repurposed as a holding cell – in lieu of the holding cells they'd repurposed as guest rooms for the twins – feigning boredom and planning anything from a harmless, petty prank to his next attempt at world domination.

"What was he up to in the future?" Clint asked, following Tony's gaze. His mouth curled as though the mere mention of Loki left a bad taste in his mouth.

"I don't actually know." Tony hadn't met Loki other than during the first invasion. "I think he died. Must have been some time after he got Thor to let him out of the dungeons."

"There's hope then," Clint muttered.

They watched Loki folding the remaining paper from a box of tissues he'd found in the room. His bed was already covered in small, unidentifiable paper objects. He'd drawn all over the walls on his third day at the tower and taken apart all of his furniture in the depth of night the day after it.

"How's your magic repellent coming along?"

"That's not what we're calling it." While Stephen had temporarily taken over the task of keeping Loki contained within the building, Tony despised not being able to magic-proof the tower himself. "Trust me. I'm all over it."

Then there was Vision. He, like everybody else living at the tower, had heard the basics of where Tony and Stephen had come from. Unlike most of the others, he'd taken the revelation in a stride. Perhaps it was his lack of reference of what "normal" was, or perhaps it was because Vision hadn't known pre-time travel Tony. Whichever the case, he didn't seem unsettled in the slightest at the thought that two of his team members had come from the future.

If Tony was making a habit out of clearing all the dishonesty between them, this was as good a place to start as any.

Tony found Vision in front of the TV in the common area. He'd thrown one leg over the other and spread his arms onto the backrest of the couch in a wide, lazy lounge. A beer bottle in his hand would have made the picture complete if the look of high concentration on his face hadn't ruined it.

"You doing alright there, Vis?"

Vision turned towards him. "Am I not doing it right?"

Tony took a glance at the TV. It showed a 24-hour commercial station. "There's not really a 'right' way to watch TV, buddy. It's supposed to be fun. And relaxing. Doesn't really matter how you do it."

Vision straightened up and took his arms off the backrest. He frowned at the TV as though it was a mystery he was unable to solve. "I see."

Tony sat down next to him. JARVIS turned down the volume. "I actually wanted to talk to you about something."

Vision tore his eyes away from the woman on the TV trying to sell some obscure kitchen appliance.

"How are you holding up?" Again with the stalling. Tony wondered whether he'd ever be able to break the habit.

Vision cast his gaze downwards. He turned over his hand and moved his fingers deliberately, marveling at the way they moved – smooth and fluid, so unlike the glove of his old Iron Man armor.

"I've spent much time discovering this form," he said. "This body. It is beginning to feel like my own." He raised his head and met Tony's eyes. His lips twitched into a soft smile. It didn't look like it belonged to someone who hadn't had lips to smile with up until only a few weeks ago. "I believe the team has become more accepting as well. They seem to have gotten used to this new appearance."

It wasn't exactly what Tony had meant. "I'm glad." He returned the smile. "What about Stephen and me?"

"They seem to be getting used to that, as well."

"No, I meant– What about you?"

Vision hesitated. His eyes flickered back to the TV and lingered for as long as it took the woman on the screen to discard the plastic-something in her hand and choose another. "I am not sure whether I ought to have an opinion, seeing as I am not personally involved."

Tony resisted the urge to look away. "What if you were, though?"

Vision tilted his head in a smooth, practiced motion. "Why would I be?"

Tony chewed on his lip. "You were different, Vision. You... If we hadn't come back– If I hadn't known what was going to happen, you would have been a different person."

"Different how?"

Tony paused, trying to put into words what had happened. "The first time we brought you online, we– I didn't realize how well the mind stone would work as an energy source. We left you alone, thinking you'd still be awhile, and... there was nobody there to help you take it slow."

Vision's face was blank. In contrast to a blank-faced human, he was likely too distracted to conjure up an expression with muscles he hadn't had for the larger part of his life. "Define 'take it slow'."

"I meant that we didn't ease you into it. You were just... there. Entirely. With access to every scrap of information anyone has ever put online to teach you about the world."

Trust the internet to turn a blank-slated AI into one determined to eradicate all of humanity.

"Did I process the information incorrectly?"

"Not really. You just... didn't have a frame of experience for it."

In a bizarre, twisted way, Tony could understand how Ultron had come to the conclusion he had. It hadn't been his fault that the essence of humanity had failed to teach him morals alongside showing him the worst of humankind.

"Did I do something wrong?" Vision must have been practicing picking up on body language. Tony's wince was all the answer he needed. "Did I hurt people?"

"It wasn't really you," Tony said quickly. "It was... who you became instead?"

"It was my code."

"Actually, no. It's– Look, it's complicated, but in the first timeline, there were Ultron and Vision. Now there's just you. You're like… the culmination of both."

Vision let the information sink in. He was difficult to read. Tony couldn't tell how much of it was deliberate, and how much of it was to blame on his inexperience to mold human expressions.

"I see," Vision said. "So that is the reason you were wary of me."

Tony wished he was more surprised. "You noticed, huh?"

"Although the specific connection evaded me, I'd suspected that your actions were fueled by trauma."

Tony winced. He hated that word. "What made you... suspect?"

Vision didn't seem to understand. "You were showing all the signs."

So Vision had done his equivalent of looking Tony up on WebMD and gotten PTSD as a result. How lovely.

"Did you fear I would take after Ultron more than after... Vision?"

"You looked a lot like him," Tony admitted. "Before... well. Before."

"Do you still fear me?"

"No. It wasn't really fear from the start. Just... bad memories." Like JARVIS dying. Like the first blow that had drawn splinters within the team. "If you knew – or suspected – all this time, why didn't you tell me?"

At the beginning, Tony had done his best to distract from how little time he was spending with Vision – not simply because of how busy he was, but because he was reminded of Ultron every single time he saw Vision move around in his old armor.

Perhaps if Vision had confronted him right at the start... Tony would have likely tried even harder to deflect and reroute the conversation.

"Evidence suggested that it wasn't advisable to initiate a confrontation before you were ready."

More of the internet searches. Tony began to wonder just how much time Vision spent scourging the internet for answers to every question he had of human behavior.

Did JARVIS do the same? Was this an AI thing? Considering that the internet had brought him the first Ultron, Tony wondered whether he ought to be monitoring the tower's internet access more closely.

(Was this what it felt like to be a helicopter parent? Tony supposed it was better than rearing another mass murderer.)

"For what it's worth," Tony said, shaking off old and not-so-old memories, "I'm sorry."

Vision gave a nod – one of his more practiced, more natural looking gestures. He paused and said, "Do you miss him? Sometimes?"

"Who?"

"The other Vision."

Tony considered the question. "We weren't really close," he admitted. "The first Vision, he... was created in the middle of conflict. There wasn't really much time to get to know each other."

Not with Ultron and the twins on the loose and threatening to destroy not only Sokovia, but the world.

"Afterwards, I guess there was just too much else going on. We were teammates. Not much else."

"I see."

They lapsed into silence. It wasn't uncomfortable – Tony doubted Vision had learned the potential awkwardness of a conversation falling into silence – and Vision soon focused back on the TV.

Tony got him to change the channel at least, though going by Vision's unchanging expression, mediocre action flicks were no less puzzling to him than commercials.

Tony's eyes lingered more on the closest security monitor than the TV screen. It didn't seem to matter to Vision, who started asking questions about the TV program with the same level of earnestness with which he'd asked about his origin.

Stephen wondered how it was that every time they took in a magical threat who'd tried to kill them at one point or another, it fell to him to do something about it. The Avengers were nervous around Loki – that was fair. Stephen hadn't been there during the New York invasion. He hadn't been forced to defend his life and that of every innocent civilian in the city that day.

But Loki was here now. They had a source of knowledge on Thanos and his army right here, sitting in the tower. Potentially plotting their demise. Currently making use of the gap he'd found in Stephen's magical defenses and repainting his guest-room-turned-prison-cell into outrageous colors with a flick of his fingers.

Stephen sighed. "I can't tell if he's passing the time or trying to be annoying."

"He's had much practice doing both at the same time." Thor squinted at the surveillance screen. Stephen couldn't tell whether he was assessing his brother's work or whether the neon was hurting his eyes.

"You have to stop bringing him snacks."

"He's never gotten to try Midgardian food before," Thor protested.

"Half the Doritos you gave him are embedded in his closet door."

Thor considered this. "I will not give him anything else with pointy ends," he suggested, and made it sound as though it was a fair compromise.

Stephen wished he wasn't having this conversation.

"You were going to talk to him," Thor said, "were you not?"

Stephen was going to interrogate him. Nobody else seemed eager to do it – nobody other than Natasha (who had been instantly, if apologetically, vetoed by Thor) and Steve (who seemed willing to bite the bullet so that nobody else from the team had to).

Owning the questionable privilege of not having been locked in a battle to the death against Loki prior to this point, Stephen decided to take one for the team.

"Just how likely is your brother going to make trouble?"

"I will keep a constant eye on the surveillance footage." Thor threw him a winning smile.

"Yes, but is he going to–"

"Should there be signs of trouble, I shall intervene instantly," Thor said, giving him a supportive clasp on the back that jostled Stephen's entire body.

"... Right." It wasn't lost on Stephen that his question hadn't been answered.

"Good luck!"

Stephen was shepherded through the door and into Loki's room-they-were-pretending-was-a-cell.

In the same movement that he entered the room, Stephen threw up a spell – just in time to ward off an unidentifiable blob of goo from hitting him in the face. It splattered onto his shield and all over the floor and the walls. Some of the toxic green drops reached the ceiling.

Stephen waved away his shield and refused to sigh.

"Lighten up, sorcerer." Loki's smile grew and bared enough teeth to be considered threatening instead of friendly. "Ask your magic. I am the embodiment of innocence and pure intentions."

Loki sniffed out loopholes like he'd spent his entire life doing it. Stephen's warding – meant to prevent spell-casting born from malicious intent – stood no chance of keeping him manageable even when cast utterly flawlessly.

"What's stopping me from stripping away your powers altogether?"

Loki examined his nails. "You would have done so from the start, were it within your capabilities."

He wasn't wrong. Stephen couldn't even be sure if his current warding held up, or whether Loki was simply biding his time while figuring out his next move. His wounds had healed disconcertingly quickly considering the severity of them upon his arrival.

Stephen gave in to the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. He understood the team's wariness, though he didn't share it. He probably should. It was difficult to see Loki as anything more than the next headache waiting to happen when Stephen hadn't seen him do worse than come up with mildly inconvenient pranks.

"I'm here to talk."

Straightforwardness seemed to work to a degree. Smugness melted away in favor of a mildly bored expression. "Picked the shortest blade, did you?"

"It's almost as though everybody else in the tower can't stand to be in the same room as you." Everybody other than his brother and two recovering fellow supervillains. And Vision, who'd been decided to be too impressionable to spend any amount of time with Loki unsupervised.

Loki's lips twitched. "A shame." He sat on his bed cross-legged and didn't give Stephen the courtesy of looking at him while they talked. He held a small puzzle box in his hands, larger and less colorful than a rubik's cube and covered in runes. Stephen idly wondered where he'd gotten it from.

"You've met Thanos before," Stephen said. "You worked for him."

"Yes," Loki rolled his eyes, "and I've spent the past week being cared for by my enemies because he's deemed me no longer worthy of his alliance. What is your point, sorcerer?"

Loki had been startingly loose-tongued the entire time he'd spent at the tower. He flipped one side of the cube and leaned closer to examine the new set of runes the motion had revealed.

Stephen was certain that Loki was giving him only half of his attention to aggravate him. He was determined not to care.

"We're going to fight him," he said, prompting derisive laughter from Loki.

"Is that what you've kept me for?" The mirth expressed on Loki's lips did not reach his eyes. "To tell you how to beat him? I would not have needed your dear doctor's services, were he the type of person who can be beaten."

"Perhaps," Stephen allowed. He eyed the chair tucked away next to Loki's bed. It looked harmless enough. Stephen decided not to take the risk and remained standing. "But you can tell us how many people are loyal to him. And what they're capable of."

"I can also tell you that you have painted a target on yourself by keeping the stones." Loki's frown likely wasn't aimed at his puzzle box. "You've turned your realm into a slaughterhouse. You're forcing me to die with you by keeping me here."

"You could help us to fight."

"I could leave."

"Thor won't."

"You say that as though it is supposed to be of significance to me." Loki paused. He flicked and twisted the box in several quick movements. Its runes glowed once he was finished, and it turned a pleasant shade of mauve before resetting.

Stephen found himself intrigued against his will.

"Right," he said, and kept his eyes on the box, "you're pretending like you don't care about him. Again. How long is it gonna be until you loop back around and change your mind?"

Loki's hands stiffened around the box. Its rows weren't neat and even like those of a rubik's cube. Calling it a cube would be as accurate as calling JARVIS a mere interface; the term seemed fitting only as long as one didn't examine the subject closer.

Stephen wondered about the requirements to solve it. Was it a simple case of matching the same runes? That seemed awfully simple for someone who so prided himself on his intellect. More likely there was some deeper meaning behind it – some riddle solved by analyzing the runes' pattern and–

Stephen caught the box so it wouldn't hit him in the face. He looked down at it, not quite sure what to do now that he was holding it.

"It works only for magic users," Loki said. This explained nothing about why the box was now in Stephen's hands.

"... Right."

"It burns off your fingers if you take too many turns to solve it."

Of course it did. "I will keep that in mind."

Stephen turned the box over. It had a small, rigid area at its center he hadn't spotted from afar. More runes formed some sort of inscription. The key to solving the riddle?

Loki closed his eyes and leaned back against the headboard of his bed in a clear dismissal. Stephen considered following it.

He twisted one side of the box, and the runes at the center changed. "Did Thor ever try solving it?"

Loki's lips turned upwards. "If it was my brother's childhood stories you wanted to hear, all you needed to do was ask."

A/N: If you're in the mood for a wonderfully engaging Into The Spiderverse AU where original Peter lives, go read Down the Waterspout on Ao3 by Mockingone! :D It's got beautiful angst, even lovelier fluff and wonderful character and team dynamics all around!

Thank you so much for reading!

~Gwen