tushanshu_logs | ENDPLOT | ROLL THE BONES, PART 1

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ENDPLOT | ROLL THE BONES, PART 1

Characters: ALL!
Date: Early/Mid November
Location: Under the shell
Situation: It's either Malicant or the Foreigners... and their worlds.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.

The Foreigners had begun their counterattack by trying to possess the Great Turtle whom Malicant had taken, and although the movement had failed, some vital information had been uncovered. Under the shell lay Malicant's weakness, and inside the Dreaming was where he could be fought.

Any help from the kedan is uncommon. They're wary, watching, as a group beginning to lose sight of the community. Their family groups are more tightly-knit than ever, and any approach from the Foreigners is answered by suspicion at best and violence at worst. That makes daily life difficult, when the majority of the city refuses to have much to do with them. Why aren't you doing anything? they seem to say. What good are any of you? All you've done is make things worse. We'd be better if you'd never come.

The Foreigners are unwelcome in Keeliai. The cultists are becoming a majority. Now is the time.

There aren't many left of the Foreigners left, but inside the Dreaming the limitations of the waking world no longer exist. For every Foreigner and their worlds, their loved ones, this is the chance to make themselves safe for good. And all of them will be needed.

LINKS
Beneath The Shell/Midnight Hotel | Malicant’s Tools/The Vilii Stone | OOC Plot Post

OOC
There are two main headers, one for preparation at the Hotel where Milyn and Eva will be available to speak with The second section where they will be able to search the caves beneath the Shell inside the Dreaming to find the Vilii Stone, and where the boon'd characters will be affected. If you are threading something that doesn't fit one of those categories, just add it to the bottom of the post. Questions go to the plotting post, please! Once the Stone has been acquired the second half of the plot will go live in the logs comm.

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Oh, thank God. Yes, it's a lie - and Gene's a little bit terrified because it is in fact a lie, because he feels something for Tony and he's not quite sure what to call it and it kills him that 'love' might seem to fit the bill after all - but the fact that Tony calls Malicant out on it gives him strength and resolve to keep fighting.

The unibeam slamming into him knocks him ass over teakettle, which gives him more of an opportunity to reclaim himself from the possession. Malicant reaches out with the blue ring, trying to encase Tony in water and drown him, and for a half-second the field of water is stable before completely collapsing.

Gene's regained enough control to intermittently shut down the power of the rings, but it's a slippery foothold, and one that isn't likely to last.

"Enough of this charade," he sneers. "Let's try something a little more stringent--!" And the black ring begins to glow.

Gene fights it, trying to disrupt the power building in the black ring to summon creatures from the Negative Zone, and he's successful enough to slow the process down before Malicant batters him back. He's still trying to fight it, but it's almost too difficult to even bother.

Please, Tony. Please. Please stop me.

Tony's heart leaps when the water bubble Malicant had summoned collapses, and for a second he dares to think that Gene might have broken free.

And then Malicant sneers with Gene's voice, and activates the black ring.

This is what Tony had been most afraid of. Most of the rings' powers he can at least put up a fight against, but the black ring is out of his league, and way too dangerous to allow Malicant to use. Tony had hoped to stall long enough to give Gene time to beat Malicant back, but if he uses the black ring, Tony will have no choice.

The Makluan dampener is all-or-nothing. Once he fires it, Malicant will know he has it, he won't give Tony the chance to try it again. Once he fires it, there's no going back.

Like Gene said: If Tony puts Gene down, and he's still under Malicant's control, Tony has to make sure he doesn't get up.

The air around them is rippling with power, the very fabric of reality distorting as the black ring starts to tear it open to release whatever horrors lie in wait on the other side.

"Gene, please," Tony begs. "Please don't make me do this. Don't give up. I know you can still beat it." He fires the unibeam again, at full power, in a desperate attempt to keep Malicant from opening the Negative Zone, and to give Gene one last chance.

And at the same time, he raises his hand and prepares to fire the dampener.

Edited 2014-11-17 01:39 (UTC)

"There's nothing left to save," Malicant sneers, "You will be destr--"

And that's when the unibeam hits. Apparently, Malicant has started to adopt some of the traits of its host. The unibeam does knock Gene back again, stumbling several paces, but this time Malicant is prepared for it, and it's not as effective as it was the first time. It's like fighting the Borg - you have to switch up your tactics or they adapt to you. It does do enough to stop the buildup of power from the black ring, and the reality distortions waver and shrink, some of the smaller ones sealing.

And Gene continues to fight like hell. He'd seen the light at the end of the tunnel, cracked Malicant's hold on him for just a moment, and the second unibeam blast gives him another opening. His willpower surges, and with a violent yell that actually halfway makes it out of his mouth, he tries to break himself out of the possession.

He can't let Malicant use the black ring. He can't! It'll doom all of them!

It looks, to an outside observer, like he's frozen in place, trying to move through molasses, as the black ring flickers on and off, the reality distortions growing and shrinking depending on who has control at any given second, almost seeming to breathe. The effect is uniquely creepy.

"Tony," Gene manages to snarl out, his voice choked and slurred as he fights for control. "Do it! Do it now!" It's a long shot, but since Malicant's possession of him and interest in him is tied to the rings, maybe the dampener will tip the scale in his favor.

If it doesn't...he has a lot he wants to say to Tony, and resigns himself to the fact that he probably never will.

Tony's unibeam, as it has so many times before, interrupts a monologue. It's almost funny, Malicant falling prey to his victim's foibles like that. (Then again, maybe Malicant is just that hammy all on his own. He definitely does seem fond of the "demoralization through melodrama" tactic.)

And the unibeam blast was not wasted. Tony can see Gene struggling against Malicant's influence. He's frozen, the black ring flickering on his finger, and the distortions created by it are pulsing eerily. He may not be winning, but he's making headway.

Tony watches the silent battle, agonized, torn by indecision. Now or never. But he still doesn't want to do it. He can't give up on Gene, not yet.

Gene gains the upper hand long enough to tell Tony to "do it! Do it now!" and Tony still hesitates. It's tearing him apart, the knowledge of what he needs to do and what the consequences will be when he does it, and he nearly howls, "no, no, no, I can't, Gene, I can't!"

But he can. And he does.

He'd installed the dampening device in his gauntlets, reformulating his father's rifle designs to integrate the necessary hardware into his armor. The beam looks almost like a repulsor, except when it hits, instead of knocking Gene back, the armor goes dead and Gene collapses under its weight.

Tony runs over, yanks the gauntlets off the de-powered armor, and flings them away - he doesn't have time to pull the rings off one by one, and the boon would make that pointless anyway. All he needs is for Gene to be unarmored long enough to get off one shot.

As soon as the gauntlets and rings are gone, the Mandarin armor vanishes, leaving Gene defenseless, unarmed, and at Tony's mercy.

And Tony levels his repulsors at Gene.

Stark's moment of hesitation is long and painful and for one brief, gut-twisting second, Gene thinks that Tony hadn't been able to go through with it after all, that his gambit had failed, that Tony hadn't recreated the dampening technology because he wanted to believe in spite of everything that Gene could be saved.

Then the dampener blast hits and he nearly howls in triumph, falling backwards. It's sweet, it's so sweet to be able to count on someone like that, after everything. As Tony rips his gauntlets off and the armor disappears, Malicant's influence fades; he can feel it disappearing, like a pressure on his head has suddenly let up.

Once he's in control of himself again, once he's whole, he tries to prop himself up on his elbows, grinning at Tony. Then he sees the repulsors aimed at him, and his smile fades.

Oh. Right. Who was to say that Malicant wouldn't be able to reassert control of him at a more convenient time? Killing him - taking him out, permanently - is the only way to be sure.

He'd always known this moment would come, in some way, and his face settles into a mask of calm. He doesn't want the final words Tony hears from him to be his struggle or Malicant's lies.

"I understand what you have to do," he says calmly, looking the armor in the eyes. "Please look after Kalliel. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. And especially for this." His throat sticks on I love you, but he hopes that's been obvious anyway, that Tony hadn't believed Malicant's lie.

His eyes are dry; no time for tears, no use. A true Mandarin faces death with his eyes open. A Khan faces his foe to the very end.

Gene pushes himself up and smiles at Tony, and it's like a knife straight to Tony's heart. It's one of Gene's rare, precious, truly genuine smiles, giddy and full of elation and relief, and worst of all, trust. And it's Gene, just Gene, no hint of Malicant's malice in his expression. Tony doesn't lower his hands.

He has never in his life hated himself more.

There's no way to be sure that Malicant's hold is truly broken, no way to be certain that he won't take Gene over again, and eliminate Tony, and go on to wreak destruction on the rest of the foreigners. Gene has been proven susceptible, and he's too dangerous, too difficult to subdue, to risk him falling under Malicant's influence again. Tony knows what he has to do.

Gene realizes it too, and his smile fades. Tony had thought nothing could hurt more than that smile, but he's wrong, because the calm acceptance that follows it is a thousand times worse.

Tony doesn't know what to say. He doesn't even know how much he could say: his throat is tight and his eyes are burning with unshed tears, and he thinks if he tries to speak he'll just choke on the words. What does one say, to their enemy, their friend, the person they might love and are about to kill?

All Tony can manage is his name, in an anguished whisper.

"Gene..."

Stark isn't firing. Come on, there's only so long Gene can maintain this calm front, and every second wasted is a second that Malicant could seize control of hm again! Doesn't Tony know that?!

That's not how Gene likes to hear Tony say his name - but he's glad he gets to hear it one more time, before the end.

Slowly - and he means slowly, he doesn't want to spook Tony and if he's going to die, then dammit, he's dying on his own terms - he gets to his feet, hands open and visible, and slowly takes a few steps towards Tony.

He stands right before one of the primed repulsors, the armored hand practically touching his chest. He wants this done at close range, and - while he doesn't quite realize it - this wound would mimic the one he'd given to Tony, long ago, through his stupidity and negligence...the difference being that this one would be immediately fatal.

His eyes are beginning to sting, but any tears that might threaten to spill are obscured by his glasses and stubbornness. He will not plead for his life, no matter how much he actually actively wants to live for the first time he can remember. Not when there's so much on the line. He refuses.

It's never been about what he wants before. Nothing in his life has ever broken that way. He fails to see why that would change now.

He looks at the gauntlet, looks back at Tony (he'd rather see Tony's face than the cold golden faceplate he'd grown to hate, but again, it's not about what he wants, it never has been), and nods once, almost imperceptibly. Do it.

Gene gets up and walks over and stands in front of Tony's repulsor, like he's trying to make it easier on Tony; like he doesn't know that he's only making this harder, and there's nothing he can do to make this easier or make it okay.

From the outside, Tony looks still and impassive. Inside the armor, his chest is heaving with the sobs he's trying to hold back, and he's muted the external speakers so Gene can't hear him breaking down.

He has to fire now, or he'll never do it. He can feel his resolve weakening with every second that passes. He almost wishes Gene had been possessed until the end; it would have hurt, but at least there would have been no room for doubt or hesitation.

He'd promised himself that if he had to fire the dampener, he'd follow through. He'd decided that if Gene couldn't fight Malicant off on his own, and Tony had to use his silver bullet, he would make sure it ended there. He couldn't let Gene live once Malicant knew that Tony, and only Tony, had a guaranteed method of stopping Gene. It's too much of a risk. It would be strategic suicide, to let Gene walk around still vulnerable to Malicant when Malicant had that information.

But...

Well. Tony's never been very good at strategy. And he's not all that great at keeping his promises.

He takes a step back, and a moment later, the light of the charged repulsors fades. For a few more agonized seconds, he keeps his arms up, and then, slowly, they drop to his sides.

"I... No. I can't, Gene."

Gene's blood runs cold when Tony powers down the repulsors and lowers his hands, and he knows all is lost. They'd gotten too close; Tony's ruthlessness has failed to materialize at the crucial moment, failed him, failed them all.

He should have faked possession once he was free, faked it long enough for Stark to do what needed to be done. In reveling in his freedom, he'd doomed them all.

"You have to," Gene says, quietly, desperately, pleading for Tony not to spare his life but to end it. "It's the only way to be sure. Please. Please!"

If Malicant was going to take him over again, now that the ace up Tony's sleeve has been spent, then...why hasn't it, by now? Is it just biding its time?

"No." Tony shakes his head. "No. You're fine. You're okay. You beat it," he says, his voice still unsteady. He's trying to hide it, but he sounds uncertain - he's trying to convince himself as much as Gene.

Maybe Gene will be okay. Maybe the footholds Malicant has in the foreigners are a one-shot deal, and if they beat him once they're in the clear. Dante had been fine after he'd been freed, right? So far, anyway. (And, of course, while Dante is powerful and would be an asset to Malicant, he has nothing even close to the kind of power Gene wields. If there's any foreigner their enemy will focus his attentions on, it's Gene.)

For better or worse, though, Tony's made his decision. He'd say he hopes he doesn't regret it, but, if he's made the wrong call, it's unlikely he'll have time to feel regret.

Gene's flabbergasted. He can't believe Tony would be so selfish! "You don't know that! I'm dangerous, I'm not worth it," he says urgently, "I'm not worth it, damn you! You need to take me out, now!"

For one moment of desperation, of madness, he thinks that if he could get to the rings he could make Tony do it. The thought immediately makes him sick to his stomach, and he sways on his feet. No. No. Tony would never forgive him for that. For using the ring again on him, and for making him kill Gene.

"Skul will do it, if I ask him," Gene says quietly. Though he'd really prefer if it was Tony carrying out his sentence. It would be almost poetic; it would give his death meaning, if not his life. "I can't live with myself if I'm worried I might be turned at a moment's notice and hurt those I care about. I told you, killing me would be a kindness, if it would prevent that."

"Yes you are!" Tony says desperately. "Stop— stop saying that! Stop giving excuses for trying to get yourself killed! If you care about people, fight for them. Don't just lay down in front of the nearest bus like that's going to make anything better!"

He opens the armor's faceplate. Immediately, he can feel the throbbing, muffled psychic force beating outside the cavern, but he tries to ignore it. He wants to talk to Gene face to face, instead of being locked behind the armor's dispassionate mask.

"You don't have any chance of stopping it if you just give up. I said... I wouldn't give up on you. You just have to hold up your end of the deal. Please, Gene. We can still win this." It doesn't have to end this way. Please show me that it doesn't have to end this way.

When the faceplate opens, Gene sinks to his knees, his fingernails digging into his scalp as he covers his face with his forearms. He doesn't want Tony to look at him.

Damn him, but he's making good sense.

"I don't want to hurt you," he says at length, sounding broken. He has to make Tony understand. Why won't he understand?! "I don't want to hurt you anymore. I don't want it to make me hurt you again. I'd rather die."

Tony does understand, better than Gene knows. He's just not as willing as Gene is to accept Gene's death as a solution.

"Then don't give up," Tony says firmly.

And then, bracing himself with a deep breath, he takes another huge risk, and dismisses the armor.

When it's folded away into the backpack again, he holds out his hand, offering it to Gene.

"Come on. Let's kick this thing's ass together."

If Gene had been holding onto any doubts that Tony really did want to save him, they'd have been totally dispelled by his dismissal of the armor.

He looks up, sees Tony's hand extended to him, and after a long minute, takes it and gets to his feet. "Together," he says, resolve in his voice matching what had been present in what he thought would be his last confession.

His chest hurts with all the crying he's not doing, and there's a thousand things he wants to say to Tony, but none of it is the right time. Maybe, if they both survive, it'll be time for that. Maybe.

He does want to clear up one thing, first. "You know it was lying, right?" He doesn't want to say about what. If pressed, right now, he'll give the non-answer 'everything'.

Gene takes his hand and Tony pulls him to his feet, then wraps him in an almost frantic hug, squeezing Gene as tight as Extremis will allow without actually hurting him.

"Yeah. I know," Tony mumbles into Gene's hair. He's shaking. "And I don't want you to die, okay? So... don't."

Gene practically chokes when Tony pulls him into a hug. He's never going to get over how freakishly strong his dumb nerd boyfriend is. Weakly, he hugs Tony tightly, too, trying to give as good as he's getting and trying to blink back the tears threatening to form in his eyes.

"Same to you," he says for lack of something better, noticing just how much Tony is shaking.

"Well, okay," Tony says, and through the tears that are dangerously close to spilling out of his own eyes, he laughs a little. "But only because you asked." His voice hitches, and he stifles a sob.

He clings to Gene for what feels like both a very long time, and not nearly long enough. Then he steps back, sniffling and wiping his eyes.

"We should keep moving. You ready to do this?"

Gene nods, choking back the tears that Tony's emotional outburst had threatened to trigger. He's not used to people being concerned about him. Hell, he's not used to people caring if he lives or dies. So this is new, but not entirely unpleasant.

He bares his teeth in what might be a smile and might be a gesture of threat. "Ready when you are."

"Yeah." Tony nods, a little too quickly, like he's still trying to convince himself that this is the right thing to do. "Yeah. I'm ready."

He walks to where he'd flung the gauntlets, and pulls the rings off. The gauntlets vanish. Tony stares at the rings piled in his hand, both hating and fearing them, and for a moment, he's gripped by the wild impulse to hurl the rings away. But it would be pointless, and Gene would only be mad at him, so he doesn't.

Instead, he turns back to Gene, and, with only the slightest hesitation, holds the rings out.

"I guess you'll probably need these."

Gene sees that hesitation, and he doesn't blame Tony for it. He's hesitant to put the rings back on, himself, even though he knows they're his best hope for being able to combat Malicant down the line.

He reaches out for them, slowly, trepidation in the motion. Here comes the moment of truth. Will Malicant seize control of him again once the rings touch his skin?

"If it happens again...you know what to do," Gene says, looking Tony in the eyes, before taking the rings.

He's braced for the worst, but...nothing happens. It's almost anticlimactic.

Tony quickly drops his gaze when Gene meets his eyes. He doesn't know what he's going to do if Gene loses himself to Malicant again. Will it be easier to do what he needs to do the second time around, or harder? He hopes he won't have to find out.

He's tense as Gene takes the rings, but several seconds pass, and nothing happens. Gene puts the rings back on, and— still nothing. Tony relaxes slightly, and gives Gene a tentative smile.

Maybe they'll be okay after all.

Gene braces himself for another fight when he slips the rings onto his fingers. But there's nothing.

Sweet, blissful nothing from the outside trying to force its way into his head, or the inside out, and he feels balanced as he hasn't for quite some time. The rings are his again. He's free.

He smiles back at Tony, and takes them off again just to prove that he can, as a signal to Tony that he's not Malicant faking control. Malicant desires power, and the rings are power itself. It wouldn't dare remove them.

Just a few short months ago, Gene wouldn't have dared remove them, either. He's not certain how he feels about that, but he's glad that he's changed. He's different.

And he has to thank, in part, the man standing in front of him.

Gene puts the rings on, pauses, then smiles and takes them off again, to prove that he's free of Malicant's influence. Tony lets out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. The exhale turns into a relieved laugh, and Tony's own smile steadies. He cuffs Gene affectionately on the shoulder and says, "See? Told you so."

Not too long ago, Tony would have been more than happy to have an excuse to take Gene out once and for all. And now he's just risked his life to save him. Tony's not entirely sure what to make of this new person he's become in the past few months, but... he thinks he likes him.

Gene cuffs him right back, grinning broadly. "For once, I'm glad you're right."

The thing he'd been worried most about is over now, and it's hard not to think this might be smooth sailing from here on out. It's folly to think that, of course...but things seem to be a lot easier to deal with now that he's weathered this storm. "Come on, yīngxióng," he says, and kisses Tony on the cheek briefly. "We've got work to do."

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ENDPLOT | ROLL THE BONES, PART 1

#callbacks

always

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I'm having to use normal icons because he doesn't make enough sad faces inside the armor

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excuse, stark, you're not his supervisor

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