Crossfire, Day 4 [Cap/Iron Man Big Bang 2012]
Title: Crossfire
Artists: angelicfoodcake and makowe-pola
Author: ashei
Rating (both art/fic): G for art, PG-13 for fic (cursing and mild violence)
Universe: Iron Man Noir
Word Count: 27,191
Warnings: Animal transformation, big cats, questionable magic
Beta: eschatologies
Art Thumbnail:
Fic Summary: Though both the war and his days of adventuring for Marvels are over, Tony Stark is still looking for a cure to his failing heart. When Nick Fury asks him and Captain America to investigate a newly discovered world dubbed the Savage Land, Tony jumps at the chance, hoping to find something - anything - that'll fix him. But once Tony finds that something, he discovers that it comes at the cost of Steve's humanity - leaving Tony to struggle to turn him back before it's too late.
Link to Art: angelicfoodcake's art and makowe-pola's art
Link to Fic: AO3 | LiveJournal
Prologue-Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6-Epilogue
Day Four
“I was starting to wonder if you’d ever wake up.”
Tony frowned and blinked a few times, Rogers’ face swimming into view as his gaze focused. “Oh,” he said intelligently in response, because talking was hard right now. Geez, what had happened? He was hurting and tired and sluggish and he didn’t like any of it one bit.
Oh, right. He’d gotten into a fight with a damned sabretooth.
“Shit,” he said. “How long was I out?”
Rogers shrugged. It looked like he’d started a fire and was heating… something. “I stayed up for several hours after you passed out,” he told him. “Then I slept for a while, and then I woke up again and you were still sleeping. I was seriously considering just lugging you out of here myself.”
Tony frowned again. He’d been out that long? What a waste of time. They’d have to make up for it somehow. “Well, I’m up now. So what’s for breakfast?”
A bowl of something was pushed into his face; Tony managed to sit up on one elbow and take it, peering into it doubtfully. “Chicken and rice,” Rogers said. “And I’m heating water for instant coffee.”
“Right… ‘chicken’,” Tony said, poking at it with a fork before reluctantly beginning to eat. God, he really hated army food sometimes. Once they got back, he was going to crash the first diner they saw and order a hamburger and a milkshake.
Rogers poured a mug of hot water, then added the instant coffee mix, stirring before sliding it to Tony’s side. “I like it,” he offered.
Tony snorted, picking up the coffee and taking a deep swig. “You’re Captain America. You like everything.”
“And you’re very hard to please,” Rogers replied. “But don’t worry. We should be back on the airship by tomorrow, and then you can eat whatever you want.”
“Wait, what?” Tony sputtered, nearly spitting out his coffee. “What do you mean, tomorrow? It’s only the fourth day, isn’t it? We have three more days before the airship stops coming for us.”
Rogers raised an eyebrow at him, taking a sip from his own mug. “You have gashes on your chest and at least one fractured rib, Tony. That sort of thing warrants medical attention, and last I checked, neither of us are doctors.”
“No,” Tony said fiercely, setting down his mug. “I want to keep going. We’re in this deep, and so help me God, we are going to stay down here.”
Rogers sighed and tilted his head back, leaning against the wall. “I didn’t want to bring this up,” he began, and somehow Tony knew what was coming back. “But I looked at your… metal chest plate thing. While I was bandaging you. And the display said 22%. I’m assuming something bad happens if it gets to zero, right?”
Eyes widening, Tony reached up, placing his hand over his chest. “You-you had no right!” he said. “This is private!”
“You were hurt and it was right out in the open,” Rogers countered. “Anyone could see.”
Tony groaned. Honestly, Rogers did have a point, even if Tony didn’t want to admit it. 22%... it could last them until noon tomorrow, maybe. But if they spent too long hanging out down here and missed tomorrow’s pickup, then he’d be in big trouble.
And yet… this place was his last, best hope. There was something to be found down here, he was sure of it. And though he knew rationally that yeah, he could likely always come back later, they were already deep inside. Besides, who knew how much time he had left? Would there even be a later?
He had to look now, while he still could.
“This is none of your business,” Tony said. He quickly scarfed down the last of the chicken and rice, polishing it off with a final gulp of coffee. This stuff was truly awful. “And I want to keep going, so we’re going to keep going. End of story.”
“I don’t want to be responsible for your death!” Rogers replied, throwing up his hands. “How can you do this?”
Tony rolled his eyes, reaching into his pack to pull out a fresh shirt and stuffing the remains of the torn one from yesterday into it. “No one’s going to die. You don’t even know what the percentage means-”
“I’m not an idiot, Tony-”
“-And you’re no doctor, either, so quit it.” He pulled his shirt on a little too forcibly, grunting softly in pain afterward. Right. It would be good to keep in mind that he kind of had fractured ribs right now. “Onward.”
Rogers pursed his lips, looking thoroughly annoyed. “I don’t like this,” he said, to which Tony had to consciously stop himself from saying duh to. “…Promise me, then.”
“Promise you what?”
The other man’s gaze dropped down to his chest, though his metal plate was now covered by the shirt. “Promise me that if we continue, you’re not going to drop dead on me.”
Tony hesitated. Great. Was he really going to have to lie to Captain America? Sure seemed like it. Well, fine. He’d lie. And if he ended up breaking it, well, what the hell was Rogers going to do about that? “Yeah, sure.”
“You swear?”
“Jesus, Rogers, do you want me to make a damned pinky promise or something?” He stuck his hand out, extending his pinky. “I solemnly swear I will not drop dead on you.”
Rogers blinked at him for a few seconds, then, to Tony’s surprise, reached out, entwining their pinkies. “Alright,” he said, blue eyes fixed on Tony. “I’m counting on you.”
“Good.” Tony withdrew his hand quickly, focusing on packing his stuff and being absolutely sure to not meet Rogers’ gaze. Damn the man. Why did he have to look so impossibly earnest all the time?
Once he was done, Tony turned back to the other man, who appeared to have finished some time ago. “Ready?” Rogers asked. Tony nodded, and so Rogers turned on the flashlight and put out the fire, then ducked out of the igloo, Tony following. “Smell that?” Rogers said, his nose wrinkling in the dim light.
Tony sniffed the air, grimacing afterward. “Rotting sabretooth carcass. Lovely. Let’s move fast.”
“Not too fast.” Before he knew it, Rogers was by his side, slipping an arm around him. Tony tried to shimmy away, and his confusion must have showed on his face, because Rogers continued, “You’re injured. Don’t you need help walking?”
“No,” Tony said automatically, even though he had to admit it felt kind of nice. But he couldn’t accept this help from Rogers, not after he’d lied to him during a pinky promise. That was just bad. “Thanks, really, but no thanks.”
Rogers sighed but let go, allowing Tony to straighten and take another deep breath. How long did fractured ribs take to heal? It would be nice when breathing stopped hurting. “Fine,” Rogers said. “So do you know where we’re going?”
“Of course I do.” Of course he didn’t. What did Rogers think, that he had a map of this place tucked away somewhere? Not that he wanted Rogers to think otherwise, really. If he knew just how clueless Tony was, no doubt he’d bodily haul him up and take him back to the airship, and that was the last thing Tony needed, regardless of how mentally pleasing the image was. Best to fake confidence. “Just follow me.” At the very least, he knew they had to go in deeper, which was marginally better than not knowing anything at all.
From beside him, Rogers gave a reluctant little nod and fell quiet.
And so they walked. Though Tony tried not to think about it, he had to admit that he almost wished they were turning around to go back home, because by now they’d been down here for well over a full day and Tony was kind of missing sunlight. The fact that his chest and ribs were still throbbing didn’t help. At some point, Rogers produced another pill of aspirin, which Tony downed gratefully, even if it wasn’t enough to get rid of the pain completely. But he could live with that.
After a few hours, something in his pack made a beeping sound, and he stopped in his tracks, quickly rummaging through the pack to find the offending item.
“Tony?” Rogers asked, shining the flashlight at him. “What’s going on?”
Tony brought out the power detector, blinking at it in surprise. Huh. It was working again. He made it stop beeping, then peered down at the display. “I’m… picking up something,” he said, a bubble of hope welling up inside of him. Was this it? Was this what he’d been looking for?
“And?” Rogers pressed. “What is it?”
“I don’t know,” Tony admitted, tongue loose at the discovery. But it didn’t matter. It was something. “Whatever it is, it’s big. Come on.” He took off, ignoring the wheeze in his lungs as they pressed up against his ribcage, far too excited to care about the pain.
“Tony, wait,” Rogers protested, following after him, but Tony paid him no heed. He turned this way and that, going forward when the readings got stronger, turning away when they got weaker.
And then Tony found what he was looking for. Before him stood the biggest igloo-thing he’d seen down here yet, the entire wall covered with more drawings. “Look at this,” he breathed, circling it slowly as he shone his light against its surface, Rogers right behind him. The drawings had fewer sabretooths, but more glowing circles that Tony suspected weren’t supposed to represent the sun. In one sketch, the stick figures hovered over one of their fallen, the glowing circle held above its body. In the next, the fallen stick figure was standing again, apparently well. Another set of drawings showed the glowing circle being used to carve something that looked suspiciously like one of the many igloo-things Tony had seen down here, and still another showed the stick figures prostrating themselves before a mountain, the glowing thing at the top accompanied by what looked like a giant hand. Okay, so he didn’t really understand that last one, but the others he got readily enough. Whatever this glowing thing was, it seemed to be pretty damn powerful, acting according to the will of its holder.
He found himself at the entrance of the giant igloo-thing again, and with a deep breath, he peered into the opening, which led to a vast dome of blackness-except for one tiny thing he could see shining from within.
And that was when he knew without a reasonable doubt this was it, that this was the cure he’d been searching for. His power detector was going haywire, so he just shut it off, stuffing it back into his pack. “I hope you brought champagne, Rogers, because now would be an excellent time to bring it out.”
To his surprise, Rogers didn’t look nearly as enthused as Tony felt. “I have a bad feeling about this,” he said.
Tony turned around, glaring at him. “What? How can you have a bad feeling? Just look at it.” It was potential life. Potential salvation.
“It’s a glowing dot in the back of a room,” Rogers said. “It’s magic, isn’t it? I don’t trust magic.”
Huh. He hadn’t expected Rogers to have any experience with magic, much less be able to identify it-but then again, he’d heard of some weird stuff happening during the war. Well, it didn’t matter. Tony rolled his eyes, waving one hand. “You probably don’t trust anything that wasn’t made in America. I’m going to pick it up.”
He stepped into the igloo, but was promptly stopped when Rogers reached out, grabbing his arm. “Don’t do this, Tony,” he said. “It could be dangerous.”
Though it hurt like hell, Tony wrenched his arm free, gasping as his body shifted painfully while pulling away. Still, it was worth it for the guilt-stricken expression he caught on Rogers’ face afterward. That would teach the other man to get all hands-on with him. “You’re not my boss or my superior officer or anyone I have to take orders from,” Tony snapped, glaring at Rogers. Tony was so close now, and he wasn’t about to let some Boy Scout stop him-so with that, he spun on his heel and headed in, making his way toward the glowing light.
“Tony,” Rogers began, but otherwise didn’t make any move to follow him, if the absence of footsteps was saying anything. Well, good. Tony didn’t need him. He didn’t need anyone. If this thing-this piece of magic-was for real, if it did what he needed it to do and fixed his dying heart, then that was it. He wouldn’t need anything or anyone anymore, much less Steve goddamned Rogers.
He shone his flashlight onto the glowing object once he got closer, seeing now that it was sitting on top of a small pedestal, decorated with more of those sabretooth drawings. In the daylight, he suspected that this would all look quite unremarkable-it was just a rock sitting on a more shapely piece of rock. But in the darkness, it shone a bright yellow, facets glistening the same color as the sun. If this wasn’t the glowing circle from the paintings on the wall, he didn’t know what it was.
There were so many things he could do with something like this. First things first, though-he’d fix his heart, and then Rogers would never have to be annoying again.
Tony reached out, picked the gem up, and closed his fingers around it-
-Then watched as the glow suddenly vanished, leaving nothing in his hand but a distinctly unmagical-looking stone.
What the hell had just happened?
Even though he knew it was a completely irrational thing to do, he shook the stone in his hand like he would a pair of dice, as though some kinetic energy might be enough to make it glow again. Rather predictably, though, it stayed dark, and if it weren’t for the fact that he and Rogers had argued over this less than five minutes ago, Tony would have thought that he’d just imagined it all.
Right, Rogers. Great, now he’d have to deal with him again. Well, nothing for it, he supposed, and so he stuck the stone into his pocket, trying to keep the bitter disappointment off his face as he turned back toward the entrance. “You can relax now,” he said, resigned. He’d been sure this was the answer to the problem of his heart somehow, even though he’d had no direct proof that this gem was the powerful glowing circle from the drawings. But like everything else, it was nothing more than a false hope.
Rogers took a few steps in, his frown evident in the glow of their flashlights. “What happened?” he asked. “Where’s the glowing thing?”
“It was nothing,” Tony replied. Keeping the bitterness off his face he could do. Keeping it out of his voice, apparently, was much harder. “Let’s go.” He’d risked hours he didn’t have in order to pursue this, and now it was all for nothing.
Rogers opened his mouth, like he wanted to ask some more questions, but thankfully he seemed to eventually decide that keeping quiet would be best, instead just nodding and turning around. “We should be able to find our way back to the entrance,” he said. “I’ve been keeping track, but it’ll probably take us all day to get out, if not longer.” Tony just shrugged, and Rogers turned to face him, frowning again. “You’re going to be okay, right?”
Tony rolled his eyes and held up his hand. “We pinky promised, remember?”
“Right.” Looking slightly mollified, Rogers turned his attention back to the roads, working off of… whatever map he had managed to build in his head. Did he have a photographic memory? Tony wondered if he’d always been like that, or if it was yet another effect of the serum. “You know, it’s weird…”
“What’s weird?”
Rogers shone his light against a wall. “I feel like the drawings are different.”
Tony’s brow furrowed, not sure what to make of this. “Well, we didn’t look at all the drawings,” he said at last. And after being so let down by the ones on the wall of the giant igloo, he didn’t want to look at any of them now. “I’m sure there’s some we missed.”
Rogers made a soft sound in the back of his throat, lips pursing. “I guess,” he said after a moment before continuing on, though he didn’t sound convinced. Tony suspected he’d like to stay and check them out more, but was too concerned about the time it would take to actually do it. Maybe next time. Well, next time for Rogers, anyway. Tony was becoming increasingly convinced that there’d be no next time for himself.
And that was when Tony started to feel ill.
“Hold on,” he gasped, reaching out to steady himself against the wall. “I need… ow… I need a moment.” His heart seemed to be… throbbing, somehow. But how was this possible? The charge was low, sure, but his heart wasn’t supposed to give out until it actually reached zero. Oh, this could be bad.
Rogers’ eyes widened, and he went over to Tony, placing a hand against his shoulder. “Tony?” he asked. “Are you alright?”
“Fine, fine,” Tony replied, waving one arm. “Don’t-ah-don’t mind me.” God, his chest felt awful, like a weight was pressing down upon it, squeezing the air out of his lungs. In an attempt to hopefully clear up whatever the hell it was, he took several deep breaths, preferring the pain from his fractured ribs to… this. Not that he knew what this was. “Just a moment. Really.”
“I think you should lie down,” Rogers replied, looking concerned. “Come on, I-oh.” Tony turned fast enough to see Rogers sinking to his knees, looking dazed.
“Rogers?”
Rogers groaned and fell flat on his face, sending up a tiny cloud of dust as he did, and then he was out like a light. And Tony-well, Tony would have been more concerned, but his body chose that moment to completely give out as well, and the next thing he knew, he was lying down, the world going black around him.
*
Tony opened his eyes, blinking slowly at the darkness all around. In front of him was a little pool of light, and it took a few minutes for his brain to process it as coming from one of the flashlights they’d been holding earlier, lying somewhere on the ground now.
Right. He and Rogers had been walking, heading toward the entrance again, when they’d both collapsed for no reason…
Tony groaned, eyes shutting again. He needed to check on Rogers, but he’d do that in a bit. For now, though, he was realizing that the crushing pain in his chest was gone. Sure, there were the wounds left from the sabretooth battle earlier, but that was practically nothing in comparison. What had changed? He reached up, touching his chest… and then he realized something was different. His eyes flying open, he blindly grabbed for the flashlight, picking it up and shining it on himself as he fumbled one-handedly with the buttons of his shirt.
The metal plate was different now. It had shrunk considerably, just a fraction of its original size, and took the shape of a small circle placed directly over his heart. Embedded in it was the gem from earlier, glowing yellow the way it had been before Tony had touched it.
He stared at it. What had happened? How was this even possible? Curiously, he dug the gem out of the socket to see what would happen, then promptly convulsed and gasped for breath, hurriedly jamming it back a moment later as he tried not to panic. Jesus, that was painful. Alright, fine, now he knew. No matter what, he’d have to make sure this thing didn’t fall out, because it was going to hurt like hell otherwise.
Once he was done panting, though, the realization of what this meant dawned on him. His heart was better, it seemed. There was no more battery, no more danger of running out of power. Just the gem, which needed no charge. Whether it had actually cured his affliction was a different story entirely, but… it was magic. It could do anything.
Tony laughed then. It was just a quiet, breathless chuckle at first, but then it got louder, longer, and before he knew it, he was laying back on the floor, eyes squeezed shut in mirth. For years he’d been traveling the world, searching for something, anything that would fix him. And for years he’d been slowly losing hope. When he made the decision to fight in the war, he did so believing that it wouldn’t even matter if he was gunned down, because he was going to drop dead soon anyway. But he’d lived, and he’d come to the Savage Land, and now… now he’d found it. Now he’d found what he’d been looking for.
He had to tell Rogers. “Rogers,” he said, shining his flashlight around. Where had he gone? “Hey, come on, don’t tell me you left-”
And that was when his beam of light landed on one very large cat.
“Oh, shit,” he breathed, scrambling to his feet and grabbing one of his gauntlets from his pack. “Rogers?” he tried again, lowering his voice to a whisper-not that it really mattered, since he’d just spent the past five minutes laughing loudly, which, come to think of it, was not the greatest of ideas when he had at least one fractured rib.
The sabretooth stirred, and Tony swallowed, wondering if he should just run for it. But what if Rogers was nearby? He couldn’t abandon him. Rogers would have done the same, right?
Then he saw the tattered remains of Rogers’ clothes spread out on the floor, and suddenly he feared the worst.
This was bad. This was really, really bad. He could vaguely recall seeing Rogers passing out seconds before he himself had hit the floor-so what had happened after that? Had another sabretooth come down and-God forbid-eaten him? Because Rogers wasn’t here anymore, just his clothes and his shield and oh God what was he going to do.
Well, okay, he knew what to do, sort of. At the very least, he had to get Rogers’ shield-from what he’d heard, it was a miracle of modern engineering, and no way was he going to leave it down here at the mercy of stray giant cats, indestructible or not.
The only problem was getting close enough to the stray giant cat to actually retrieve it.
By now, it was slowly sitting up; was it just him, or did it seem rather lethargic and weak? Rogers must have put up a hell of a fight, and God, was that painful to think about. Maybe-maybe he was still alive. Maybe he’d just run off somewhere to tend to his wounds. Either way, though… forget just retrieving the shield, he decided. Tony needed to avenge the hell out of him.
“Hey, you big ugly brute,” he called, bringing up his gauntlet and firing. The sabretooth yelped-yelped?-and dodged clumsily out of the way, so Tony just fired at it again. Funny. The other one they’d fought was much more aggressive. This one just seemed confused. “After what you did, are you not going to put up a fight?” he asked it, adjusting his angle. If he could get it to open its mouth somehow, then he’d be in the clear-
To Tony’s surprise, the sabretooth shook its head.
Completely taken aback, Tony lowered his hand, staring at it. Had it just-had it just communicated with him? “What?” he said dumbly.
The sabretooth looked at him and whined, paws skittish as it attempted to find steady footing. It seemed to be trying to say something, but considering that giant cats weren’t exactly equipped to speak any human language, it was no surprise that nothing came out. “I don’t understand,” Tony told it. “What are you doing?”
Another whine. With a wary glance at the gauntlet, the sabretooth took a few steps forward, then placed its paw against Rogers’ shield. Its body seemed to be shaking.
Tony frowned, looking at the cat, then the shield, then back at the cat again. And that was when he realized what was going on.
“Oh, my God,” he gasped. “Rogers?”
The sabretooth nodded quickly. Breath hitching, Tony stepped forward and shone his flashlight at it-sure enough, those blue eyes were the same as Rogers’, even if they looked more panicked than normal. As for the rest of him… well. There wasn’t much of Rogers there, unless he counted the golden fur or the fact that even with the short legs sabretooths apparently had, there was something about his build, massive though it was, that exuded grace and power. Okay, so maybe there was more of Rogers here than he’d thought-shame his patriotism hadn’t carried through, though, because no doubt Tony would have laughed himself into a coma if Rogers had had a star marking on his ass. Still… “I don’t understand,” he said again. “How did this happen?”
It-Rogers-leveled a glare at him, as if to say how should I know? Tony sighed, plopping down onto the ground. Fixed heart or not, he really needed to be seated right now. “Wow,” he said, rubbing his forehead. “Okay. Wow. So you’re a sabretooth now, huh?” He paused, expecting an answer, then remembered that Rogers couldn’t talk. “Right. Well. First things first… we have to figure out how this happened. And then we have to figure out how to undo it.”
Rogers let out what sounded like a very put-upon sigh, sitting down next to his shield and looking at Tony expectantly.
“What?” Tony asked. “Oh, come on, you want me to figure this out? I need help.” When Rogers didn’t make any sort of useful response, Tony just let out his breath in an annoyed huff, tapping his fingers on the ground. “Okay. Well, obviously, something magical happened. Do you remember that gem? It affected me. My metal plate is mostly gone now.” He pointed at his chest, since his shirt was still open. “And I guess…” Oh. Oh, shit. Was this his fault? Did he somehow turn Rogers into a giant prehistoric cat?
Rogers seemed to raise one eyebrow at him-how he could still do that, Tony didn’t know-and Tony sighed, running a hand through his hair. He was many things, but dishonest wasn’t one of them.
“Fine. Full disclosure. I was thinking about my metal plate when I reached out to touch the gem. I also may have been thinking about how annoying you were. So, assuming that this is some kind of wishing stone, maybe it was kind enough to grant two of my wishes and turned you into a less annoying form.” After all, Rogers couldn’t talk anymore, even if he was now a hundred times more terrifying-he growled dangerously in response, and Tony quickly held up his hands. “Hey, I never actually wanted this to happen,” he said quickly. “I’d much rather have you as a human.” He was a lot easier on the eyes as a human. “But anyway, don’t worry. I’m sure there’s a way to fix this. I’m Tony Stark, remember?”
Rogers didn’t seem very impressed by this, waving one paw dismissively. “Hey,” Tony protested. “I’m a genius. We’ll fix you and then you can tell me how it was and we’ll sit around a campfire and laugh about it later. Anyway…” He looked down at his chest. “Maybe this will be easy. If it grants wishes, maybe I can just wish it back, right? Dear glowing gem embedded in my body, please turn Steve Rogers back into a human.”
Somewhat unsurprisingly, nothing happened.
Tony pursed his lips, buttoning his shirt up. “Why does everything have to be so complicated all the time?” he groused. “Okay, Rogers, just relax. We’ll figure something out. So tell me, what do you want to do? Do you want to look for stuff down here, or get out of here?”
Rogers jerked his head upward, which Tony took to mean that he wanted to be aboveground again. “Alright,” Tony said. Before he could continue, though, Rogers’ eyes went wide, and he went over to the wall, clawing at it.
“What is it?” Tony asked, frowning. God, he hoped this wasn’t his way of letting him know he had to do his business, though he supposed it would be better than just letting loose without warning. Rogers pawed at the wall again, looking back at him. Tony sighed, shining the flashlight against him, trying to figure out what he was getting so worked up over.
And then he saw it. The wall was still covered in crude drawings, just like before… but as Rogers had mentioned earlier, they seemed different now. Gone were the depictions of hunting and gathering, replaced by something else entirely.
He shifted the light to the left, following the progression of drawings. First two human-looking stick figures, then a human and a sabretooth. Then a sunrise, an arrow, and a sunset, repeated three times. Then a tall mountain, then the human and the sabretooth standing at the top, and then two humans standing on the top.
“Very strange,” he said. “Okay. So what, the human is me and this awful depiction of a cat is you? Then… three sunrises and three sunsets. And a mountain. So by sunset of the third day, we should be at the top of some sort of mountain. Does this sound good? Because I think I’m talking out of my ass.” Rogers didn’t seem to be complaining, though, so Tony continued. “Once we’re on top of the mountain, you change back. Somehow.”
Magic was weird, but Tony would take what he could get. “See? There’s a way to fix you. We just have to do it within a timeframe. That’s all.”
Rogers sighed and made a shrugging motion, as though he didn’t really like what he was hearing but couldn’t do anything about it. Well, two could play at that game. Honestly, Tony had to wonder what would happen if they failed to make it in time, but they’d cross that bridge once they got there. Everything was going to be fine.
“Okay, then,” Tony said after a moment of silence. “Chop chop. We have a mountain to climb. Let’s go.” He was about to start walking again, but Rogers made a whining sound, going over to his pack and shield. Oh. Right. They probably shouldn’t just leave this here. He went over to pick everything up, though he left the tattered remains of Rogers’ clothing behind. Once they got Rogers turned back-because they would get him turned back, no doubt about it-it wasn’t as though he’d be able to wear these scraps of fabric anymore. “Don’t eat me if the answer is no, but can I make you carry these things?”
To his surprise, Rogers nodded, and so Tony went about attaching both of their packs and the shield to Rogers’ back. It was awkward, but with some clever use of twine, they were able to manage. Jesus, Rogers was huge. Thank God he was on Tony’s side. “Alright. Ready to go?”
Rogers nodded again, and so they set off, with Rogers leading because Tony honestly had no clue where they were going. Multiple times along the way, though, he had to call out to Rogers, telling him to slow down because he was going far too fast, which was honestly getting to be supremely annoying. After an hour of this, Rogers evidently felt the same way, turning at his shout and glaring at him.
“Hey, I’m just a slow human,” Tony told him, jogging to catch up and trying not to wheeze. He’d downed some more of Rogers’ aspirin earlier, but things would be much easier if he wasn’t hurting at all. “You know, I’d shout at you less if you just walked at a manageable speed.”
Rogers seemed to think about it, then sat down on his hind legs, looking at him expectantly. “What?” Tony asked. Rogers just stared at him some more. Tony really wished he could speak.
Eventually, though, he realized what Rogers was getting at. “No,” he said. “I am not riding you.”
He received a whine in response, which he had to roll his eyes at. “Rogers. You are a cat. I’m not putting my legs around you. You realize I’ve never even ridden a horse before, right?”
But Rogers, damn him, was still looking at him expectantly, and Tony groaned, rubbing his forehead. He… he supposed they might be able to go faster if Rogers didn’t have to wait for him. But he had no idea how to ride, much less ride bareback on a goddamn sabretooth. What if he fell off? What was he supposed to grab at? But Rogers was being stubborn and somehow, he pulled off puppy-dog eyes really well.
“This is crazy,” Tony muttered, swinging one leg over Rogers’ body. “Whatever you do, don’t ride like the wind.” God, it was a good thing he had plenty of aspirin, because he didn’t want to think of how much this would hurt if he hadn’t been drugged. Gingerly leaning forward, he awkwardly clutched at fistfuls of Rogers’ fur, which was coarse and bristly in his hands. “Okay. Giddyup, boy.”
If Rogers rolled his eyes at him, well, Tony couldn’t see, so it might as well have not happened! But then he took off, and Tony had to wonder if maybe he shouldn’t have goaded him, because-well. It wasn’t very comfortable. Then again, could riding a sabretooth bareback ever be comfortable? He supposed it could be worse, really. Rogers was surprisingly graceful and smooth in his movements, and thankfully for Tony’s stomach, he didn’t bound down the road like a crazy thing. At some point, Tony had to admit that this was a good idea, despite the growing soreness in his legs.
They stopped a few hours later, with Tony declaring that he was starving and needed to eat. Rogers allowed him to awkwardly dismount, at which point Tony flopped down onto the ground, rubbing his legs. “God,” he said. “I’m going to be feeling this in the morning.”
Rogers made a sound that might have been a laugh, if only Tony knew what sabretooth laughs sounded like. “Was that a laugh?” he asked. “Does Captain America really laugh at things?” Rogers just looked at him impassively, and so Tony sighed, pulling one of the packs off Rogers’ back. “Fine, don’t tell me,” he said. He reached in, bringing out one of their packaged meals, then blinked and turned back to Rogers. “Uh. You wouldn’t happen to still want to eat…” He glanced at the package, continuing, “…pinto beans, would you?”
The face Rogers made in response was priceless, and Tony couldn’t help but snort. “Not surprised. Okay, seriously, I don’t know what you can eat.” He dug through his pack, coming up with another sealed package. “Meatballs. Better?”
Rogers sighed and shrugged, which Tony took to mean yes fine completely alright. So he opened the package, then dumped the meatballs into a bowl and set them in front of Rogers, looking at them doubtfully. Sure, he knew they were calorically dense and designed to be consumed by active men in the army, but… they seemed so small compared to Rogers’ massive size. How could they ever fill him up?
Apparently, Rogers was thinking the same thing, staring down at the bowl contemplatively. Or maybe he was just figuring out how he was going to eat them. Tony really hoped Rogers didn’t expect to be fed, mostly because that would be as awkward as hell, but also because if given a choice, Tony would choose to not be within striking distance of that gaping maw. Which was ridiculous, because it was Rogers, and not a wild sabretooth. But still.
Fortunately, though, Rogers eventually lowered his head, starting to lap up his food. He looked kind of like a dog with a food bowl, though Tony wasn’t sure if this was something he should bring up. It was kind of cute, he guessed, but also unsettling. This was wrong. Captain America was a human.
Realizing he was staring, Tony quickly looked back down at his own sad pack of beans before Rogers could catch him, picking up a fork and beginning to chow down. Aside from the sound of Rogers’ chewing, which Tony had to admit was kind of obscenely loud, they ate in silence-Rogers, obviously, was in no state to talk, and Tony didn’t really have anything to say. When they were done, he packed up all their things, frowning disapprovingly at Rogers’ bowl. “Ew,” he said. “Sabretooth slobber.”
Rogers snorted, giving him an unperturbed look, like he was saying this is all your fault anyway so deal with it. Well, fine. Tony could deal with it. He nudged it toward the wall with his foot, straightening. “We don’t need that bowl anymore, anyway.” He received another eye roll for his efforts, but he ignored it, instead securing everything against Rogers’ back again. “Alright. Ready to go?” Rogers nodded, so Tony climbed on, clutching at his fur and leaning in close as they took off.
An hour or two later, they finally reached the edge of the city, and Tony sighed in relief as he laid eyes on the long tunnel from what seemed like ages ago, even though really, it had been what, two days? Rogers headed down the hall at remarkable speed-it seemed like he had extraordinary night vision; Tony would have to ask about it later. Then they were back at the entrance, and Tony found himself promptly cursing.
He’d forgotten. They’d lowered themselves down here on a piece of rope.
Looking dubious, he dismounted and peered up the hole, from which the rope was still dangling, thankfully. Still, that wasn’t exactly going to help Rogers much, unless his ability to climb up long dangly strings was somehow intact. Somehow Tony doubted that was the case.
“So,” he said, turning to look back at Rogers. “Got any ideas?”
Rogers stepped into the little beam of light shining down from above-it wasn’t very bright, but given that there had been so much canopy overhead, it wasn’t indicative of what time of day it was. After a moment, he stood up on his hind legs, pawing at the wall.
Tony blinked. “That’s your plan?” he asked. “Climb up the wall? Can you even do that?”
Rogers snorted at him, getting back onto the floor and nudging him toward the rope. Tony frowned, confused. “What are you doing?” he said. “You want me to climb up first?” Rogers moved and crouched down beneath the rope, so Tony took that as a yes, using him as a stepping stool as he grabbed on. “Thanks,” he told him. Even as a sabretooth, he was still very much Captain America, apparently.
With that, he started climbing up, back toward the light. Thankfully, the drop hadn’t been deep, but they’d been traveling all day and Tony’s limbs were sore from straddling Rogers at awkward angles, and not in a fun way. Finally, though, he made it up, flopping onto the ground afterward before managing to gather the strength to look back down into the opening, where Rogers still was. “Alright,” he said. “Work your magic.”
Rogers nodded, assessing the wall before catching his eye and jerking his head. Taking that to mean he wanted Tony to move, he scooted away from the opening, listening to the sound of Rogers clawing his way up.
He grimaced. Whatever was going on down there, it didn’t sound very good. In fact, based on the loud thumps, it seemed more like Rogers was scaling the wall, sliding down, and falling. Over and over and over again.
After a few minutes of this, Tony ventured back to the hole, hoping that a paw wasn’t going to appear from within and claw his face off. Nope-it seemed like Rogers was just standing, glaring at the wall. “You’re still down there,” Tony said helpfully.
Rogers growled.
Tony let out a sigh, running his fingers through his hair. This wasn’t working. He glanced at the sky for the first time-he’d been too busy listening to Rogers to pay attention to the light-and frowned. He couldn’t see the sun because of all the trees, but he suspected it was late afternoon. The first sunset of their deadline was approaching. “I’m coming back down,” he announced. Rogers’ eyes widened at that, and he shook his head wildly, but Tony ignored him, taking hold of the rope and sliding downward as Rogers whined uselessly. “We have to find another way out,” he said. “And I can’t let you wander off on your own. So let’s go-if we follow the perimeter, we should be able to find another exit.” He hopped on and held on tight, and with a bit of goading, Rogers finally took off.
It took another hour, but eventually they found another tunnel leading outward, and Rogers picked up the pace as Tony squeezed his eyes shut and gripped at him harder. “Easy, big guy,” he managed, though he might as well have said nothing for all Rogers paid attention to him. But then they stopped abruptly, and Tony opened his eyes to see what the problem was.
Oh.
In front of them stretched a large, deep ravine, one he couldn’t see the bottom of and seemed to go on in both ways in front of him. Could they just follow the edge and hope they’d come to a part where it’d end eventually? How much time would that take? And what if it ended at somewhere like a cliff? Frowning, Tony got off of Rogers, then carefully dropped a rock into the pit.
He couldn’t hear the sound of it hitting the ground.
“Well, this is great,” Tony sighed, looking around. Hmm. Maybe this wasn’t entirely a crapshoot. There were a few conveniently-placed vines hanging from the trees on either side of the ravine, which made him wonder if whatever ancient civilization that had once occupied this place had grown them here for the express purpose of swinging across. Tony had swung across using his fair share of vines, so it wouldn’t be new, just terrifying-then again, that was part of the thrill. Rogers, though…
He looked to the edge of the ravine, then at Rogers, then back to the ravine. It was too far for Tony to jump, but maybe Rogers could make it…? “What do you think?” Tony asked. “Is this a jump you can make?”
Rogers stared down into the pit for a moment, then looked back at him and shrugged. It kind of seemed like he was saying it doesn’t matter, because we don’t have any other choice. Which, unfortunately, was completely true.
“Right,” Tony said, biting his lip. He didn’t like this. He didn’t like this one bit. But what could they do? The other exit was a pit Rogers couldn’t get out of. Here, he had a chance… it was just that if Rogers messed up, he’d end up dying as a result. And Tony really didn’t want him to die.
He sighed, rubbing his forehead. S.H.I.E.L.D. owed him big time for all of this. “So,” he said after a moment. “Me or you first?”
Rogers stepped forward and nosed against him, which he took to mean as Tony first. “Alright,” he said, reaching out to grab a vine, testing its strength. Seemed sturdy enough. He wondered if there was a way he could manage to swing Rogers across, too, but there just wasn’t enough he could work with. It didn’t matter, he supposed. Rogers would jump, and he’d make it, and then they could continue and everything would be fine. “Off I go.”
With that, he took a running start, then leapt across the ravine, gripping on for dear life. As always, there was that terrible feeling in his gut halfway through that oh God, the vine would break and drop him in and then he’d be in really big trouble, but it held, and in seconds he was safely on the other side, turning to look back at Rogers, who looked mildly impressed. Huh. How about that?
“Your turn,” Tony said, clapping his hands. “Hup-hup.” If he didn’t show any doubt, then Rogers would surely succeed, right?
Rogers nodded slowly, turning around and heading partway back into the tunnel. Then he faced Tony again, and Tony couldn’t help but feel a little stab of guilt. Bad enough that whatever he’d done had caused Rogers to change… but to know it may very well lead to something awful like falling into a deep ravine?
He really didn’t want to dwell on it for too long.
Rogers was still standing there, like he was steeling himself, limbs stretching and flexing. Did he even have any jumping experience? Tony was pretty sure he didn’t, since he’d been with him the whole time. Well, that was just great. Rogers was going to attempt a horizontal jump for the first time and it was going to happen over a bottomless pit.
“Come on,” Tony urged softly.
Then Rogers was moving, his strides clunky at first but getting more graceful as he continued to run, and then he was leaping and Christ, Tony was almost too afraid to look-
Shit. Oh, shit.
Rogers had made it. Almost. He was dangling from the edge now, claws buried into the ground as he struggled to pull himself up. And Tony-Tony was goddamn useless, hovering around him anxiously, unable to help out at all. What could he do? He wasn’t strong enough to pull someone as massive as Rogers up, and he didn’t have any tools to make this easier. “Rogers,” he said, trying to sound encouraging, not sure how else to react. “Come on. Get up. You can do this.”
Rogers whined and dug his claws into the ground again, trying to gain some leverage. It was hard for Tony to see Rogers’ lower half, but he could hear his legs scrambling for purchase against the vertical wall.
“You can do this,” Tony said again, terrified. “Rogers. Steve. Fuck. Get your ass up here because I’m not doing this for you. Come on.” There had to be something he could do. Maybe-maybe he could swing back and somehow kick Rogers up? No, that was no good; he’d probably dislodge him. Could he just try grabbing onto one of his paws anyway? No, then they’d probably both fall. God, he hated this. He hated being useless.
Rogers looked at him, and for an instant, Tony feared that he was just going to let go. But then-then he growled, and then he grit his teeth, and then he managed to get one paw firmly onto solid, horizontal ground. A few seconds of ragged breathing later, he managed to hoist the upper half of his body out of the ravine, looking pained. Some of the rock gave way underneath him, and he scrabbled again, slipping before regaining his lost ground and then finally, finally pulling himself up all the way to wind up in a sprawled heap.
“My God,” Tony breathed, running over and wrapping his arms around Rogers’ neck. He couldn’t help it. No matter how much Rogers had grated on his nerves in the past, he’d almost died today. And not even in some heroic way, like by protecting Tony from a pack of sabretooths-which Tony dearly hoped would never happen-but by almost falling into a hole in the ground. Jesus. “Alright. No more absurdly wide, deep pits of doom, okay? I think we’ve had enough of that.”
Rogers awkwardly brought one paw up, thumping at Tony’s back, causing him to blanch and pull away. “I appreciate the gesture,” he told him quickly. “But super soldier strength and sabretooth paws aren’t a good combination.” Rogers just sighed and stood up, looking around, Tony looking with him. He lifted one hand and pointed at a mountain peak, the highest of any of the nearby ones. “That’s got to be it,” he said. “What do you think, Rogers?”
To his surprise, Rogers shook his head. Tony frowned. “What?” he asked. “That’s a mountain. The tallest one. So we should go there.” Rogers nodded at this; Tony’s frown deepened. “So what’s your problem?” Of course, since Rogers couldn’t say anything, he couldn’t answer, so Tony sighed, rubbing his forehead. And then it came to him. “Oh. Oh. What, you don’t want to be called Rogers?”
Rogers nodded.
Huh. “So what do you want? Captain America? Cap? Steve?” Rogers nodded enthusiastically at that last one, and Tony laughed. Apparently, almost dying while in his presence put them on a first-name basis with each other now. “Okay,” Tony said. “Steve. What now?”
Rogers-no, Steve, he needed to start thinking of him as Steve now-looked toward the mountain, contemplating it. Then he started to walk, and Tony followed after him, looking up at the mountain as well. It wasn’t that far, he supposed. Just tall. Could they make it to the top in time?
He gazed up into the sky, searching for the sun, but it was somewhere behind the trees. From the looks of it, though, it was nearly dusk. If they’d interpreted those cave drawings right, then they still had two more sunsets… forty-eight hours.
They’d make it, he told himself. They’d get to the top and things would happen and Steve would be back to normal, and then they could go back home and laugh about what had happened and everything would be fine.
It had to be.
Prologue-Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6-Epilogue
Artists: angelicfoodcake and makowe-pola
Author: ashei
Rating (both art/fic): G for art, PG-13 for fic (cursing and mild violence)
Universe: Iron Man Noir
Word Count: 27,191
Warnings: Animal transformation, big cats, questionable magic
Beta: eschatologies
Art Thumbnail:
Fic Summary: Though both the war and his days of adventuring for Marvels are over, Tony Stark is still looking for a cure to his failing heart. When Nick Fury asks him and Captain America to investigate a newly discovered world dubbed the Savage Land, Tony jumps at the chance, hoping to find something - anything - that'll fix him. But once Tony finds that something, he discovers that it comes at the cost of Steve's humanity - leaving Tony to struggle to turn him back before it's too late.
Link to Art: angelicfoodcake's art and makowe-pola's art
Link to Fic: AO3 | LiveJournal
Prologue-Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6-Epilogue
Day Four
“I was starting to wonder if you’d ever wake up.”
Tony frowned and blinked a few times, Rogers’ face swimming into view as his gaze focused. “Oh,” he said intelligently in response, because talking was hard right now. Geez, what had happened? He was hurting and tired and sluggish and he didn’t like any of it one bit.
Oh, right. He’d gotten into a fight with a damned sabretooth.
“Shit,” he said. “How long was I out?”
Rogers shrugged. It looked like he’d started a fire and was heating… something. “I stayed up for several hours after you passed out,” he told him. “Then I slept for a while, and then I woke up again and you were still sleeping. I was seriously considering just lugging you out of here myself.”
Tony frowned again. He’d been out that long? What a waste of time. They’d have to make up for it somehow. “Well, I’m up now. So what’s for breakfast?”
A bowl of something was pushed into his face; Tony managed to sit up on one elbow and take it, peering into it doubtfully. “Chicken and rice,” Rogers said. “And I’m heating water for instant coffee.”
“Right… ‘chicken’,” Tony said, poking at it with a fork before reluctantly beginning to eat. God, he really hated army food sometimes. Once they got back, he was going to crash the first diner they saw and order a hamburger and a milkshake.
Rogers poured a mug of hot water, then added the instant coffee mix, stirring before sliding it to Tony’s side. “I like it,” he offered.
Tony snorted, picking up the coffee and taking a deep swig. “You’re Captain America. You like everything.”
“And you’re very hard to please,” Rogers replied. “But don’t worry. We should be back on the airship by tomorrow, and then you can eat whatever you want.”
“Wait, what?” Tony sputtered, nearly spitting out his coffee. “What do you mean, tomorrow? It’s only the fourth day, isn’t it? We have three more days before the airship stops coming for us.”
Rogers raised an eyebrow at him, taking a sip from his own mug. “You have gashes on your chest and at least one fractured rib, Tony. That sort of thing warrants medical attention, and last I checked, neither of us are doctors.”
“No,” Tony said fiercely, setting down his mug. “I want to keep going. We’re in this deep, and so help me God, we are going to stay down here.”
Rogers sighed and tilted his head back, leaning against the wall. “I didn’t want to bring this up,” he began, and somehow Tony knew what was coming back. “But I looked at your… metal chest plate thing. While I was bandaging you. And the display said 22%. I’m assuming something bad happens if it gets to zero, right?”
Eyes widening, Tony reached up, placing his hand over his chest. “You-you had no right!” he said. “This is private!”
“You were hurt and it was right out in the open,” Rogers countered. “Anyone could see.”
Tony groaned. Honestly, Rogers did have a point, even if Tony didn’t want to admit it. 22%... it could last them until noon tomorrow, maybe. But if they spent too long hanging out down here and missed tomorrow’s pickup, then he’d be in big trouble.
And yet… this place was his last, best hope. There was something to be found down here, he was sure of it. And though he knew rationally that yeah, he could likely always come back later, they were already deep inside. Besides, who knew how much time he had left? Would there even be a later?
He had to look now, while he still could.
“This is none of your business,” Tony said. He quickly scarfed down the last of the chicken and rice, polishing it off with a final gulp of coffee. This stuff was truly awful. “And I want to keep going, so we’re going to keep going. End of story.”
“I don’t want to be responsible for your death!” Rogers replied, throwing up his hands. “How can you do this?”
Tony rolled his eyes, reaching into his pack to pull out a fresh shirt and stuffing the remains of the torn one from yesterday into it. “No one’s going to die. You don’t even know what the percentage means-”
“I’m not an idiot, Tony-”
“-And you’re no doctor, either, so quit it.” He pulled his shirt on a little too forcibly, grunting softly in pain afterward. Right. It would be good to keep in mind that he kind of had fractured ribs right now. “Onward.”
Rogers pursed his lips, looking thoroughly annoyed. “I don’t like this,” he said, to which Tony had to consciously stop himself from saying duh to. “…Promise me, then.”
“Promise you what?”
The other man’s gaze dropped down to his chest, though his metal plate was now covered by the shirt. “Promise me that if we continue, you’re not going to drop dead on me.”
Tony hesitated. Great. Was he really going to have to lie to Captain America? Sure seemed like it. Well, fine. He’d lie. And if he ended up breaking it, well, what the hell was Rogers going to do about that? “Yeah, sure.”
“You swear?”
“Jesus, Rogers, do you want me to make a damned pinky promise or something?” He stuck his hand out, extending his pinky. “I solemnly swear I will not drop dead on you.”
Rogers blinked at him for a few seconds, then, to Tony’s surprise, reached out, entwining their pinkies. “Alright,” he said, blue eyes fixed on Tony. “I’m counting on you.”
“Good.” Tony withdrew his hand quickly, focusing on packing his stuff and being absolutely sure to not meet Rogers’ gaze. Damn the man. Why did he have to look so impossibly earnest all the time?
Once he was done, Tony turned back to the other man, who appeared to have finished some time ago. “Ready?” Rogers asked. Tony nodded, and so Rogers turned on the flashlight and put out the fire, then ducked out of the igloo, Tony following. “Smell that?” Rogers said, his nose wrinkling in the dim light.
Tony sniffed the air, grimacing afterward. “Rotting sabretooth carcass. Lovely. Let’s move fast.”
“Not too fast.” Before he knew it, Rogers was by his side, slipping an arm around him. Tony tried to shimmy away, and his confusion must have showed on his face, because Rogers continued, “You’re injured. Don’t you need help walking?”
“No,” Tony said automatically, even though he had to admit it felt kind of nice. But he couldn’t accept this help from Rogers, not after he’d lied to him during a pinky promise. That was just bad. “Thanks, really, but no thanks.”
Rogers sighed but let go, allowing Tony to straighten and take another deep breath. How long did fractured ribs take to heal? It would be nice when breathing stopped hurting. “Fine,” Rogers said. “So do you know where we’re going?”
“Of course I do.” Of course he didn’t. What did Rogers think, that he had a map of this place tucked away somewhere? Not that he wanted Rogers to think otherwise, really. If he knew just how clueless Tony was, no doubt he’d bodily haul him up and take him back to the airship, and that was the last thing Tony needed, regardless of how mentally pleasing the image was. Best to fake confidence. “Just follow me.” At the very least, he knew they had to go in deeper, which was marginally better than not knowing anything at all.
From beside him, Rogers gave a reluctant little nod and fell quiet.
And so they walked. Though Tony tried not to think about it, he had to admit that he almost wished they were turning around to go back home, because by now they’d been down here for well over a full day and Tony was kind of missing sunlight. The fact that his chest and ribs were still throbbing didn’t help. At some point, Rogers produced another pill of aspirin, which Tony downed gratefully, even if it wasn’t enough to get rid of the pain completely. But he could live with that.
After a few hours, something in his pack made a beeping sound, and he stopped in his tracks, quickly rummaging through the pack to find the offending item.
“Tony?” Rogers asked, shining the flashlight at him. “What’s going on?”
Tony brought out the power detector, blinking at it in surprise. Huh. It was working again. He made it stop beeping, then peered down at the display. “I’m… picking up something,” he said, a bubble of hope welling up inside of him. Was this it? Was this what he’d been looking for?
“And?” Rogers pressed. “What is it?”
“I don’t know,” Tony admitted, tongue loose at the discovery. But it didn’t matter. It was something. “Whatever it is, it’s big. Come on.” He took off, ignoring the wheeze in his lungs as they pressed up against his ribcage, far too excited to care about the pain.
“Tony, wait,” Rogers protested, following after him, but Tony paid him no heed. He turned this way and that, going forward when the readings got stronger, turning away when they got weaker.
And then Tony found what he was looking for. Before him stood the biggest igloo-thing he’d seen down here yet, the entire wall covered with more drawings. “Look at this,” he breathed, circling it slowly as he shone his light against its surface, Rogers right behind him. The drawings had fewer sabretooths, but more glowing circles that Tony suspected weren’t supposed to represent the sun. In one sketch, the stick figures hovered over one of their fallen, the glowing circle held above its body. In the next, the fallen stick figure was standing again, apparently well. Another set of drawings showed the glowing circle being used to carve something that looked suspiciously like one of the many igloo-things Tony had seen down here, and still another showed the stick figures prostrating themselves before a mountain, the glowing thing at the top accompanied by what looked like a giant hand. Okay, so he didn’t really understand that last one, but the others he got readily enough. Whatever this glowing thing was, it seemed to be pretty damn powerful, acting according to the will of its holder.
He found himself at the entrance of the giant igloo-thing again, and with a deep breath, he peered into the opening, which led to a vast dome of blackness-except for one tiny thing he could see shining from within.
And that was when he knew without a reasonable doubt this was it, that this was the cure he’d been searching for. His power detector was going haywire, so he just shut it off, stuffing it back into his pack. “I hope you brought champagne, Rogers, because now would be an excellent time to bring it out.”
To his surprise, Rogers didn’t look nearly as enthused as Tony felt. “I have a bad feeling about this,” he said.
Tony turned around, glaring at him. “What? How can you have a bad feeling? Just look at it.” It was potential life. Potential salvation.
“It’s a glowing dot in the back of a room,” Rogers said. “It’s magic, isn’t it? I don’t trust magic.”
Huh. He hadn’t expected Rogers to have any experience with magic, much less be able to identify it-but then again, he’d heard of some weird stuff happening during the war. Well, it didn’t matter. Tony rolled his eyes, waving one hand. “You probably don’t trust anything that wasn’t made in America. I’m going to pick it up.”
He stepped into the igloo, but was promptly stopped when Rogers reached out, grabbing his arm. “Don’t do this, Tony,” he said. “It could be dangerous.”
Though it hurt like hell, Tony wrenched his arm free, gasping as his body shifted painfully while pulling away. Still, it was worth it for the guilt-stricken expression he caught on Rogers’ face afterward. That would teach the other man to get all hands-on with him. “You’re not my boss or my superior officer or anyone I have to take orders from,” Tony snapped, glaring at Rogers. Tony was so close now, and he wasn’t about to let some Boy Scout stop him-so with that, he spun on his heel and headed in, making his way toward the glowing light.
“Tony,” Rogers began, but otherwise didn’t make any move to follow him, if the absence of footsteps was saying anything. Well, good. Tony didn’t need him. He didn’t need anyone. If this thing-this piece of magic-was for real, if it did what he needed it to do and fixed his dying heart, then that was it. He wouldn’t need anything or anyone anymore, much less Steve goddamned Rogers.
He shone his flashlight onto the glowing object once he got closer, seeing now that it was sitting on top of a small pedestal, decorated with more of those sabretooth drawings. In the daylight, he suspected that this would all look quite unremarkable-it was just a rock sitting on a more shapely piece of rock. But in the darkness, it shone a bright yellow, facets glistening the same color as the sun. If this wasn’t the glowing circle from the paintings on the wall, he didn’t know what it was.
There were so many things he could do with something like this. First things first, though-he’d fix his heart, and then Rogers would never have to be annoying again.
Tony reached out, picked the gem up, and closed his fingers around it-
-Then watched as the glow suddenly vanished, leaving nothing in his hand but a distinctly unmagical-looking stone.
What the hell had just happened?
Even though he knew it was a completely irrational thing to do, he shook the stone in his hand like he would a pair of dice, as though some kinetic energy might be enough to make it glow again. Rather predictably, though, it stayed dark, and if it weren’t for the fact that he and Rogers had argued over this less than five minutes ago, Tony would have thought that he’d just imagined it all.
Right, Rogers. Great, now he’d have to deal with him again. Well, nothing for it, he supposed, and so he stuck the stone into his pocket, trying to keep the bitter disappointment off his face as he turned back toward the entrance. “You can relax now,” he said, resigned. He’d been sure this was the answer to the problem of his heart somehow, even though he’d had no direct proof that this gem was the powerful glowing circle from the drawings. But like everything else, it was nothing more than a false hope.
Rogers took a few steps in, his frown evident in the glow of their flashlights. “What happened?” he asked. “Where’s the glowing thing?”
“It was nothing,” Tony replied. Keeping the bitterness off his face he could do. Keeping it out of his voice, apparently, was much harder. “Let’s go.” He’d risked hours he didn’t have in order to pursue this, and now it was all for nothing.
Rogers opened his mouth, like he wanted to ask some more questions, but thankfully he seemed to eventually decide that keeping quiet would be best, instead just nodding and turning around. “We should be able to find our way back to the entrance,” he said. “I’ve been keeping track, but it’ll probably take us all day to get out, if not longer.” Tony just shrugged, and Rogers turned to face him, frowning again. “You’re going to be okay, right?”
Tony rolled his eyes and held up his hand. “We pinky promised, remember?”
“Right.” Looking slightly mollified, Rogers turned his attention back to the roads, working off of… whatever map he had managed to build in his head. Did he have a photographic memory? Tony wondered if he’d always been like that, or if it was yet another effect of the serum. “You know, it’s weird…”
“What’s weird?”
Rogers shone his light against a wall. “I feel like the drawings are different.”
Tony’s brow furrowed, not sure what to make of this. “Well, we didn’t look at all the drawings,” he said at last. And after being so let down by the ones on the wall of the giant igloo, he didn’t want to look at any of them now. “I’m sure there’s some we missed.”
Rogers made a soft sound in the back of his throat, lips pursing. “I guess,” he said after a moment before continuing on, though he didn’t sound convinced. Tony suspected he’d like to stay and check them out more, but was too concerned about the time it would take to actually do it. Maybe next time. Well, next time for Rogers, anyway. Tony was becoming increasingly convinced that there’d be no next time for himself.
And that was when Tony started to feel ill.
“Hold on,” he gasped, reaching out to steady himself against the wall. “I need… ow… I need a moment.” His heart seemed to be… throbbing, somehow. But how was this possible? The charge was low, sure, but his heart wasn’t supposed to give out until it actually reached zero. Oh, this could be bad.
Rogers’ eyes widened, and he went over to Tony, placing a hand against his shoulder. “Tony?” he asked. “Are you alright?”
“Fine, fine,” Tony replied, waving one arm. “Don’t-ah-don’t mind me.” God, his chest felt awful, like a weight was pressing down upon it, squeezing the air out of his lungs. In an attempt to hopefully clear up whatever the hell it was, he took several deep breaths, preferring the pain from his fractured ribs to… this. Not that he knew what this was. “Just a moment. Really.”
“I think you should lie down,” Rogers replied, looking concerned. “Come on, I-oh.” Tony turned fast enough to see Rogers sinking to his knees, looking dazed.
“Rogers?”
Rogers groaned and fell flat on his face, sending up a tiny cloud of dust as he did, and then he was out like a light. And Tony-well, Tony would have been more concerned, but his body chose that moment to completely give out as well, and the next thing he knew, he was lying down, the world going black around him.
*
Tony opened his eyes, blinking slowly at the darkness all around. In front of him was a little pool of light, and it took a few minutes for his brain to process it as coming from one of the flashlights they’d been holding earlier, lying somewhere on the ground now.
Right. He and Rogers had been walking, heading toward the entrance again, when they’d both collapsed for no reason…
Tony groaned, eyes shutting again. He needed to check on Rogers, but he’d do that in a bit. For now, though, he was realizing that the crushing pain in his chest was gone. Sure, there were the wounds left from the sabretooth battle earlier, but that was practically nothing in comparison. What had changed? He reached up, touching his chest… and then he realized something was different. His eyes flying open, he blindly grabbed for the flashlight, picking it up and shining it on himself as he fumbled one-handedly with the buttons of his shirt.
The metal plate was different now. It had shrunk considerably, just a fraction of its original size, and took the shape of a small circle placed directly over his heart. Embedded in it was the gem from earlier, glowing yellow the way it had been before Tony had touched it.
He stared at it. What had happened? How was this even possible? Curiously, he dug the gem out of the socket to see what would happen, then promptly convulsed and gasped for breath, hurriedly jamming it back a moment later as he tried not to panic. Jesus, that was painful. Alright, fine, now he knew. No matter what, he’d have to make sure this thing didn’t fall out, because it was going to hurt like hell otherwise.
Once he was done panting, though, the realization of what this meant dawned on him. His heart was better, it seemed. There was no more battery, no more danger of running out of power. Just the gem, which needed no charge. Whether it had actually cured his affliction was a different story entirely, but… it was magic. It could do anything.
Tony laughed then. It was just a quiet, breathless chuckle at first, but then it got louder, longer, and before he knew it, he was laying back on the floor, eyes squeezed shut in mirth. For years he’d been traveling the world, searching for something, anything that would fix him. And for years he’d been slowly losing hope. When he made the decision to fight in the war, he did so believing that it wouldn’t even matter if he was gunned down, because he was going to drop dead soon anyway. But he’d lived, and he’d come to the Savage Land, and now… now he’d found it. Now he’d found what he’d been looking for.
He had to tell Rogers. “Rogers,” he said, shining his flashlight around. Where had he gone? “Hey, come on, don’t tell me you left-”
And that was when his beam of light landed on one very large cat.
“Oh, shit,” he breathed, scrambling to his feet and grabbing one of his gauntlets from his pack. “Rogers?” he tried again, lowering his voice to a whisper-not that it really mattered, since he’d just spent the past five minutes laughing loudly, which, come to think of it, was not the greatest of ideas when he had at least one fractured rib.
The sabretooth stirred, and Tony swallowed, wondering if he should just run for it. But what if Rogers was nearby? He couldn’t abandon him. Rogers would have done the same, right?
Then he saw the tattered remains of Rogers’ clothes spread out on the floor, and suddenly he feared the worst.
This was bad. This was really, really bad. He could vaguely recall seeing Rogers passing out seconds before he himself had hit the floor-so what had happened after that? Had another sabretooth come down and-God forbid-eaten him? Because Rogers wasn’t here anymore, just his clothes and his shield and oh God what was he going to do.
Well, okay, he knew what to do, sort of. At the very least, he had to get Rogers’ shield-from what he’d heard, it was a miracle of modern engineering, and no way was he going to leave it down here at the mercy of stray giant cats, indestructible or not.
The only problem was getting close enough to the stray giant cat to actually retrieve it.
By now, it was slowly sitting up; was it just him, or did it seem rather lethargic and weak? Rogers must have put up a hell of a fight, and God, was that painful to think about. Maybe-maybe he was still alive. Maybe he’d just run off somewhere to tend to his wounds. Either way, though… forget just retrieving the shield, he decided. Tony needed to avenge the hell out of him.
“Hey, you big ugly brute,” he called, bringing up his gauntlet and firing. The sabretooth yelped-yelped?-and dodged clumsily out of the way, so Tony just fired at it again. Funny. The other one they’d fought was much more aggressive. This one just seemed confused. “After what you did, are you not going to put up a fight?” he asked it, adjusting his angle. If he could get it to open its mouth somehow, then he’d be in the clear-
To Tony’s surprise, the sabretooth shook its head.
Completely taken aback, Tony lowered his hand, staring at it. Had it just-had it just communicated with him? “What?” he said dumbly.
The sabretooth looked at him and whined, paws skittish as it attempted to find steady footing. It seemed to be trying to say something, but considering that giant cats weren’t exactly equipped to speak any human language, it was no surprise that nothing came out. “I don’t understand,” Tony told it. “What are you doing?”
Another whine. With a wary glance at the gauntlet, the sabretooth took a few steps forward, then placed its paw against Rogers’ shield. Its body seemed to be shaking.
Tony frowned, looking at the cat, then the shield, then back at the cat again. And that was when he realized what was going on.
“Oh, my God,” he gasped. “Rogers?”
The sabretooth nodded quickly. Breath hitching, Tony stepped forward and shone his flashlight at it-sure enough, those blue eyes were the same as Rogers’, even if they looked more panicked than normal. As for the rest of him… well. There wasn’t much of Rogers there, unless he counted the golden fur or the fact that even with the short legs sabretooths apparently had, there was something about his build, massive though it was, that exuded grace and power. Okay, so maybe there was more of Rogers here than he’d thought-shame his patriotism hadn’t carried through, though, because no doubt Tony would have laughed himself into a coma if Rogers had had a star marking on his ass. Still… “I don’t understand,” he said again. “How did this happen?”
It-Rogers-leveled a glare at him, as if to say how should I know? Tony sighed, plopping down onto the ground. Fixed heart or not, he really needed to be seated right now. “Wow,” he said, rubbing his forehead. “Okay. Wow. So you’re a sabretooth now, huh?” He paused, expecting an answer, then remembered that Rogers couldn’t talk. “Right. Well. First things first… we have to figure out how this happened. And then we have to figure out how to undo it.”
Rogers let out what sounded like a very put-upon sigh, sitting down next to his shield and looking at Tony expectantly.
“What?” Tony asked. “Oh, come on, you want me to figure this out? I need help.” When Rogers didn’t make any sort of useful response, Tony just let out his breath in an annoyed huff, tapping his fingers on the ground. “Okay. Well, obviously, something magical happened. Do you remember that gem? It affected me. My metal plate is mostly gone now.” He pointed at his chest, since his shirt was still open. “And I guess…” Oh. Oh, shit. Was this his fault? Did he somehow turn Rogers into a giant prehistoric cat?
Rogers seemed to raise one eyebrow at him-how he could still do that, Tony didn’t know-and Tony sighed, running a hand through his hair. He was many things, but dishonest wasn’t one of them.
“Fine. Full disclosure. I was thinking about my metal plate when I reached out to touch the gem. I also may have been thinking about how annoying you were. So, assuming that this is some kind of wishing stone, maybe it was kind enough to grant two of my wishes and turned you into a less annoying form.” After all, Rogers couldn’t talk anymore, even if he was now a hundred times more terrifying-he growled dangerously in response, and Tony quickly held up his hands. “Hey, I never actually wanted this to happen,” he said quickly. “I’d much rather have you as a human.” He was a lot easier on the eyes as a human. “But anyway, don’t worry. I’m sure there’s a way to fix this. I’m Tony Stark, remember?”
Rogers didn’t seem very impressed by this, waving one paw dismissively. “Hey,” Tony protested. “I’m a genius. We’ll fix you and then you can tell me how it was and we’ll sit around a campfire and laugh about it later. Anyway…” He looked down at his chest. “Maybe this will be easy. If it grants wishes, maybe I can just wish it back, right? Dear glowing gem embedded in my body, please turn Steve Rogers back into a human.”
Somewhat unsurprisingly, nothing happened.
Tony pursed his lips, buttoning his shirt up. “Why does everything have to be so complicated all the time?” he groused. “Okay, Rogers, just relax. We’ll figure something out. So tell me, what do you want to do? Do you want to look for stuff down here, or get out of here?”
Rogers jerked his head upward, which Tony took to mean that he wanted to be aboveground again. “Alright,” Tony said. Before he could continue, though, Rogers’ eyes went wide, and he went over to the wall, clawing at it.
“What is it?” Tony asked, frowning. God, he hoped this wasn’t his way of letting him know he had to do his business, though he supposed it would be better than just letting loose without warning. Rogers pawed at the wall again, looking back at him. Tony sighed, shining the flashlight against him, trying to figure out what he was getting so worked up over.
And then he saw it. The wall was still covered in crude drawings, just like before… but as Rogers had mentioned earlier, they seemed different now. Gone were the depictions of hunting and gathering, replaced by something else entirely.
He shifted the light to the left, following the progression of drawings. First two human-looking stick figures, then a human and a sabretooth. Then a sunrise, an arrow, and a sunset, repeated three times. Then a tall mountain, then the human and the sabretooth standing at the top, and then two humans standing on the top.
“Very strange,” he said. “Okay. So what, the human is me and this awful depiction of a cat is you? Then… three sunrises and three sunsets. And a mountain. So by sunset of the third day, we should be at the top of some sort of mountain. Does this sound good? Because I think I’m talking out of my ass.” Rogers didn’t seem to be complaining, though, so Tony continued. “Once we’re on top of the mountain, you change back. Somehow.”
Magic was weird, but Tony would take what he could get. “See? There’s a way to fix you. We just have to do it within a timeframe. That’s all.”
Rogers sighed and made a shrugging motion, as though he didn’t really like what he was hearing but couldn’t do anything about it. Well, two could play at that game. Honestly, Tony had to wonder what would happen if they failed to make it in time, but they’d cross that bridge once they got there. Everything was going to be fine.
“Okay, then,” Tony said after a moment of silence. “Chop chop. We have a mountain to climb. Let’s go.” He was about to start walking again, but Rogers made a whining sound, going over to his pack and shield. Oh. Right. They probably shouldn’t just leave this here. He went over to pick everything up, though he left the tattered remains of Rogers’ clothing behind. Once they got Rogers turned back-because they would get him turned back, no doubt about it-it wasn’t as though he’d be able to wear these scraps of fabric anymore. “Don’t eat me if the answer is no, but can I make you carry these things?”
To his surprise, Rogers nodded, and so Tony went about attaching both of their packs and the shield to Rogers’ back. It was awkward, but with some clever use of twine, they were able to manage. Jesus, Rogers was huge. Thank God he was on Tony’s side. “Alright. Ready to go?”
Rogers nodded again, and so they set off, with Rogers leading because Tony honestly had no clue where they were going. Multiple times along the way, though, he had to call out to Rogers, telling him to slow down because he was going far too fast, which was honestly getting to be supremely annoying. After an hour of this, Rogers evidently felt the same way, turning at his shout and glaring at him.
“Hey, I’m just a slow human,” Tony told him, jogging to catch up and trying not to wheeze. He’d downed some more of Rogers’ aspirin earlier, but things would be much easier if he wasn’t hurting at all. “You know, I’d shout at you less if you just walked at a manageable speed.”
Rogers seemed to think about it, then sat down on his hind legs, looking at him expectantly. “What?” Tony asked. Rogers just stared at him some more. Tony really wished he could speak.
Eventually, though, he realized what Rogers was getting at. “No,” he said. “I am not riding you.”
He received a whine in response, which he had to roll his eyes at. “Rogers. You are a cat. I’m not putting my legs around you. You realize I’ve never even ridden a horse before, right?”
But Rogers, damn him, was still looking at him expectantly, and Tony groaned, rubbing his forehead. He… he supposed they might be able to go faster if Rogers didn’t have to wait for him. But he had no idea how to ride, much less ride bareback on a goddamn sabretooth. What if he fell off? What was he supposed to grab at? But Rogers was being stubborn and somehow, he pulled off puppy-dog eyes really well.
“This is crazy,” Tony muttered, swinging one leg over Rogers’ body. “Whatever you do, don’t ride like the wind.” God, it was a good thing he had plenty of aspirin, because he didn’t want to think of how much this would hurt if he hadn’t been drugged. Gingerly leaning forward, he awkwardly clutched at fistfuls of Rogers’ fur, which was coarse and bristly in his hands. “Okay. Giddyup, boy.”
If Rogers rolled his eyes at him, well, Tony couldn’t see, so it might as well have not happened! But then he took off, and Tony had to wonder if maybe he shouldn’t have goaded him, because-well. It wasn’t very comfortable. Then again, could riding a sabretooth bareback ever be comfortable? He supposed it could be worse, really. Rogers was surprisingly graceful and smooth in his movements, and thankfully for Tony’s stomach, he didn’t bound down the road like a crazy thing. At some point, Tony had to admit that this was a good idea, despite the growing soreness in his legs.
They stopped a few hours later, with Tony declaring that he was starving and needed to eat. Rogers allowed him to awkwardly dismount, at which point Tony flopped down onto the ground, rubbing his legs. “God,” he said. “I’m going to be feeling this in the morning.”
Rogers made a sound that might have been a laugh, if only Tony knew what sabretooth laughs sounded like. “Was that a laugh?” he asked. “Does Captain America really laugh at things?” Rogers just looked at him impassively, and so Tony sighed, pulling one of the packs off Rogers’ back. “Fine, don’t tell me,” he said. He reached in, bringing out one of their packaged meals, then blinked and turned back to Rogers. “Uh. You wouldn’t happen to still want to eat…” He glanced at the package, continuing, “…pinto beans, would you?”
The face Rogers made in response was priceless, and Tony couldn’t help but snort. “Not surprised. Okay, seriously, I don’t know what you can eat.” He dug through his pack, coming up with another sealed package. “Meatballs. Better?”
Rogers sighed and shrugged, which Tony took to mean yes fine completely alright. So he opened the package, then dumped the meatballs into a bowl and set them in front of Rogers, looking at them doubtfully. Sure, he knew they were calorically dense and designed to be consumed by active men in the army, but… they seemed so small compared to Rogers’ massive size. How could they ever fill him up?
Apparently, Rogers was thinking the same thing, staring down at the bowl contemplatively. Or maybe he was just figuring out how he was going to eat them. Tony really hoped Rogers didn’t expect to be fed, mostly because that would be as awkward as hell, but also because if given a choice, Tony would choose to not be within striking distance of that gaping maw. Which was ridiculous, because it was Rogers, and not a wild sabretooth. But still.
Fortunately, though, Rogers eventually lowered his head, starting to lap up his food. He looked kind of like a dog with a food bowl, though Tony wasn’t sure if this was something he should bring up. It was kind of cute, he guessed, but also unsettling. This was wrong. Captain America was a human.
Realizing he was staring, Tony quickly looked back down at his own sad pack of beans before Rogers could catch him, picking up a fork and beginning to chow down. Aside from the sound of Rogers’ chewing, which Tony had to admit was kind of obscenely loud, they ate in silence-Rogers, obviously, was in no state to talk, and Tony didn’t really have anything to say. When they were done, he packed up all their things, frowning disapprovingly at Rogers’ bowl. “Ew,” he said. “Sabretooth slobber.”
Rogers snorted, giving him an unperturbed look, like he was saying this is all your fault anyway so deal with it. Well, fine. Tony could deal with it. He nudged it toward the wall with his foot, straightening. “We don’t need that bowl anymore, anyway.” He received another eye roll for his efforts, but he ignored it, instead securing everything against Rogers’ back again. “Alright. Ready to go?” Rogers nodded, so Tony climbed on, clutching at his fur and leaning in close as they took off.
An hour or two later, they finally reached the edge of the city, and Tony sighed in relief as he laid eyes on the long tunnel from what seemed like ages ago, even though really, it had been what, two days? Rogers headed down the hall at remarkable speed-it seemed like he had extraordinary night vision; Tony would have to ask about it later. Then they were back at the entrance, and Tony found himself promptly cursing.
He’d forgotten. They’d lowered themselves down here on a piece of rope.
Looking dubious, he dismounted and peered up the hole, from which the rope was still dangling, thankfully. Still, that wasn’t exactly going to help Rogers much, unless his ability to climb up long dangly strings was somehow intact. Somehow Tony doubted that was the case.
“So,” he said, turning to look back at Rogers. “Got any ideas?”
Rogers stepped into the little beam of light shining down from above-it wasn’t very bright, but given that there had been so much canopy overhead, it wasn’t indicative of what time of day it was. After a moment, he stood up on his hind legs, pawing at the wall.
Tony blinked. “That’s your plan?” he asked. “Climb up the wall? Can you even do that?”
Rogers snorted at him, getting back onto the floor and nudging him toward the rope. Tony frowned, confused. “What are you doing?” he said. “You want me to climb up first?” Rogers moved and crouched down beneath the rope, so Tony took that as a yes, using him as a stepping stool as he grabbed on. “Thanks,” he told him. Even as a sabretooth, he was still very much Captain America, apparently.
With that, he started climbing up, back toward the light. Thankfully, the drop hadn’t been deep, but they’d been traveling all day and Tony’s limbs were sore from straddling Rogers at awkward angles, and not in a fun way. Finally, though, he made it up, flopping onto the ground afterward before managing to gather the strength to look back down into the opening, where Rogers still was. “Alright,” he said. “Work your magic.”
Rogers nodded, assessing the wall before catching his eye and jerking his head. Taking that to mean he wanted Tony to move, he scooted away from the opening, listening to the sound of Rogers clawing his way up.
He grimaced. Whatever was going on down there, it didn’t sound very good. In fact, based on the loud thumps, it seemed more like Rogers was scaling the wall, sliding down, and falling. Over and over and over again.
After a few minutes of this, Tony ventured back to the hole, hoping that a paw wasn’t going to appear from within and claw his face off. Nope-it seemed like Rogers was just standing, glaring at the wall. “You’re still down there,” Tony said helpfully.
Rogers growled.
Tony let out a sigh, running his fingers through his hair. This wasn’t working. He glanced at the sky for the first time-he’d been too busy listening to Rogers to pay attention to the light-and frowned. He couldn’t see the sun because of all the trees, but he suspected it was late afternoon. The first sunset of their deadline was approaching. “I’m coming back down,” he announced. Rogers’ eyes widened at that, and he shook his head wildly, but Tony ignored him, taking hold of the rope and sliding downward as Rogers whined uselessly. “We have to find another way out,” he said. “And I can’t let you wander off on your own. So let’s go-if we follow the perimeter, we should be able to find another exit.” He hopped on and held on tight, and with a bit of goading, Rogers finally took off.
It took another hour, but eventually they found another tunnel leading outward, and Rogers picked up the pace as Tony squeezed his eyes shut and gripped at him harder. “Easy, big guy,” he managed, though he might as well have said nothing for all Rogers paid attention to him. But then they stopped abruptly, and Tony opened his eyes to see what the problem was.
Oh.
In front of them stretched a large, deep ravine, one he couldn’t see the bottom of and seemed to go on in both ways in front of him. Could they just follow the edge and hope they’d come to a part where it’d end eventually? How much time would that take? And what if it ended at somewhere like a cliff? Frowning, Tony got off of Rogers, then carefully dropped a rock into the pit.
He couldn’t hear the sound of it hitting the ground.
“Well, this is great,” Tony sighed, looking around. Hmm. Maybe this wasn’t entirely a crapshoot. There were a few conveniently-placed vines hanging from the trees on either side of the ravine, which made him wonder if whatever ancient civilization that had once occupied this place had grown them here for the express purpose of swinging across. Tony had swung across using his fair share of vines, so it wouldn’t be new, just terrifying-then again, that was part of the thrill. Rogers, though…
He looked to the edge of the ravine, then at Rogers, then back to the ravine. It was too far for Tony to jump, but maybe Rogers could make it…? “What do you think?” Tony asked. “Is this a jump you can make?”
Rogers stared down into the pit for a moment, then looked back at him and shrugged. It kind of seemed like he was saying it doesn’t matter, because we don’t have any other choice. Which, unfortunately, was completely true.
“Right,” Tony said, biting his lip. He didn’t like this. He didn’t like this one bit. But what could they do? The other exit was a pit Rogers couldn’t get out of. Here, he had a chance… it was just that if Rogers messed up, he’d end up dying as a result. And Tony really didn’t want him to die.
He sighed, rubbing his forehead. S.H.I.E.L.D. owed him big time for all of this. “So,” he said after a moment. “Me or you first?”
Rogers stepped forward and nosed against him, which he took to mean as Tony first. “Alright,” he said, reaching out to grab a vine, testing its strength. Seemed sturdy enough. He wondered if there was a way he could manage to swing Rogers across, too, but there just wasn’t enough he could work with. It didn’t matter, he supposed. Rogers would jump, and he’d make it, and then they could continue and everything would be fine. “Off I go.”
With that, he took a running start, then leapt across the ravine, gripping on for dear life. As always, there was that terrible feeling in his gut halfway through that oh God, the vine would break and drop him in and then he’d be in really big trouble, but it held, and in seconds he was safely on the other side, turning to look back at Rogers, who looked mildly impressed. Huh. How about that?
“Your turn,” Tony said, clapping his hands. “Hup-hup.” If he didn’t show any doubt, then Rogers would surely succeed, right?
Rogers nodded slowly, turning around and heading partway back into the tunnel. Then he faced Tony again, and Tony couldn’t help but feel a little stab of guilt. Bad enough that whatever he’d done had caused Rogers to change… but to know it may very well lead to something awful like falling into a deep ravine?
He really didn’t want to dwell on it for too long.
Rogers was still standing there, like he was steeling himself, limbs stretching and flexing. Did he even have any jumping experience? Tony was pretty sure he didn’t, since he’d been with him the whole time. Well, that was just great. Rogers was going to attempt a horizontal jump for the first time and it was going to happen over a bottomless pit.
“Come on,” Tony urged softly.
Then Rogers was moving, his strides clunky at first but getting more graceful as he continued to run, and then he was leaping and Christ, Tony was almost too afraid to look-
Shit. Oh, shit.
Rogers had made it. Almost. He was dangling from the edge now, claws buried into the ground as he struggled to pull himself up. And Tony-Tony was goddamn useless, hovering around him anxiously, unable to help out at all. What could he do? He wasn’t strong enough to pull someone as massive as Rogers up, and he didn’t have any tools to make this easier. “Rogers,” he said, trying to sound encouraging, not sure how else to react. “Come on. Get up. You can do this.”
Rogers whined and dug his claws into the ground again, trying to gain some leverage. It was hard for Tony to see Rogers’ lower half, but he could hear his legs scrambling for purchase against the vertical wall.
“You can do this,” Tony said again, terrified. “Rogers. Steve. Fuck. Get your ass up here because I’m not doing this for you. Come on.” There had to be something he could do. Maybe-maybe he could swing back and somehow kick Rogers up? No, that was no good; he’d probably dislodge him. Could he just try grabbing onto one of his paws anyway? No, then they’d probably both fall. God, he hated this. He hated being useless.
Rogers looked at him, and for an instant, Tony feared that he was just going to let go. But then-then he growled, and then he grit his teeth, and then he managed to get one paw firmly onto solid, horizontal ground. A few seconds of ragged breathing later, he managed to hoist the upper half of his body out of the ravine, looking pained. Some of the rock gave way underneath him, and he scrabbled again, slipping before regaining his lost ground and then finally, finally pulling himself up all the way to wind up in a sprawled heap.
“My God,” Tony breathed, running over and wrapping his arms around Rogers’ neck. He couldn’t help it. No matter how much Rogers had grated on his nerves in the past, he’d almost died today. And not even in some heroic way, like by protecting Tony from a pack of sabretooths-which Tony dearly hoped would never happen-but by almost falling into a hole in the ground. Jesus. “Alright. No more absurdly wide, deep pits of doom, okay? I think we’ve had enough of that.”
Rogers awkwardly brought one paw up, thumping at Tony’s back, causing him to blanch and pull away. “I appreciate the gesture,” he told him quickly. “But super soldier strength and sabretooth paws aren’t a good combination.” Rogers just sighed and stood up, looking around, Tony looking with him. He lifted one hand and pointed at a mountain peak, the highest of any of the nearby ones. “That’s got to be it,” he said. “What do you think, Rogers?”
To his surprise, Rogers shook his head. Tony frowned. “What?” he asked. “That’s a mountain. The tallest one. So we should go there.” Rogers nodded at this; Tony’s frown deepened. “So what’s your problem?” Of course, since Rogers couldn’t say anything, he couldn’t answer, so Tony sighed, rubbing his forehead. And then it came to him. “Oh. Oh. What, you don’t want to be called Rogers?”
Rogers nodded.
Huh. “So what do you want? Captain America? Cap? Steve?” Rogers nodded enthusiastically at that last one, and Tony laughed. Apparently, almost dying while in his presence put them on a first-name basis with each other now. “Okay,” Tony said. “Steve. What now?”
Rogers-no, Steve, he needed to start thinking of him as Steve now-looked toward the mountain, contemplating it. Then he started to walk, and Tony followed after him, looking up at the mountain as well. It wasn’t that far, he supposed. Just tall. Could they make it to the top in time?
He gazed up into the sky, searching for the sun, but it was somewhere behind the trees. From the looks of it, though, it was nearly dusk. If they’d interpreted those cave drawings right, then they still had two more sunsets… forty-eight hours.
They’d make it, he told himself. They’d get to the top and things would happen and Steve would be back to normal, and then they could go back home and laugh about what had happened and everything would be fine.
It had to be.
Prologue-Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6-Epilogue