tushanshu_logs | there will be time to murder and create; closed

Entry tags:

there will be time to murder and create; closed

Characters: Gene Khan, Tony Stark; Milyn, possibly, later.
Date: February 4th
Location: Midnight Hotel; later, Milyn's clinic
Situation: Time to return home and face FULL-LIFE CONSEQUENCES. But first...
Warnings/Rating: Talk of long-since-committed murder. Definite sappy gay bullshit. Probably boys yelling. I don't know?

And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

When Tony returns to their shared room, he will find all of Gene's meager belongings carefully packed into a bag - as though he's preparing to leave, or is ready for being told to leave - and Gene himself sitting at the table, the rings on their string sitting before him, his head bowed in an attitude of contemplation.

"I need to talk to you," he says, looking up when Tony enters, his voice slightly hoarse, his face carefully blank.

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Milyn looks distressed when Tony holds out the bag towards her and says the juulan is all he has, and she shakes her head, thinking about it for a moment without taking the money.

"I don't have anything here that needs construction," she says. "But Raine Sage, she might. I gave her the Healer's Guild, and it's in a sorry state if I do say so myself! Of course I can't help but feel just a tiny bit selfishly pleased about, they may have taught me but they were just so backward, those healers. I'm sure Raine will make it a much better place, what a nice girl that she is. Would you like to go help her, Tony? I'm certain she could put your talents to use over there."

And then to Gene, she nods. "It is Gha'nal venom," she answered. "I've been able to fully synthesize it, so the genetic version is no longer required. Honestly, those things were just awfully ill-tempered, right from the first day, and even when I tried to make them as comfortable as I did. If you wouldn't mind, there are some longer term effects I wouldn't mind having on record, I promise it won't take but a few hours, but I could really learn so much!"

It's not all his juulan, Milyn, stop looking at him like that! It's only all his disposable income. He still has enough for food!

Tony lowers his hand a little when Milyn doesn't take the bag, but doesn't put it away. He feels weird not paying anything, and he's not sure if she's refusing the cash payment outright, or just the quantity. Her request is easy enough, though. "Okay. Sure, I can help Raine out."

Gene's offer startles him and worries him just a little bit. But Gene knows what he's getting himself into, and Milyn knows what she's doing, so he doesn't say anything.

Well...the other two Foreigners who tested the Gha'nal serum's first iteration both disappeared shortly after the tests, but that's just got to be one of those wacky coincidences...

"That sounds like more than a fair trade to me," Gene says. He knows his experience is valuable, and he likes Milyn and wants to help her out.

Milyn shakes a playful finger at Tony. "And don't you think about slacking off either, I'm absolutely going to ask Raine how it went! If she's not happy with your contribution, I'll be very disappointed, and I really like all of you far too much to want to be disappointed."

It was hard to take her warning seriously however, with the fact that she was still smiling merrily at them both. Then she addressed Gene again.

"Excellent! Oh, you're really going to help me out, I promise you that. Whenever works best for you, for both of you, though you look so serious coming in here that I can't help but think you want to go through with it now. No second guessing, that's always the way to do it."

Tony is taking everything seriously right now, Milyn. But he wouldn't have slacked off anyway. Aside from working off his debt to Milyn, Tony has personal debts to Raine that he doesn't intend to neglect.

"I'm ready to do it now, if Gene is," Tony confirms. He looks over at Gene again, giving him one last chance to back out.

Gene looks coolly back at Tony, his gaze steely. As if he'd back out now. Tony must really think little of him.

"Right now," he says, answering Milyn, but still looking at Tony. "That would be best. Let's get it done."

Milyn gives a quiet, fond little sigh, like she'd known their answers before she'd asked (she had) and stands, motioning them to follow her towards the back of the apothecary. Past the main counter and down the hall, and she pushes open open the Examination room door, where there are some padded reclining chairs.

"Go ahead and make yourselves comfortable," she said, letting them get settle while she unlocked her workshop door and left it open; they would be able to see its dimmer interior, with boxes and shelves and workbenches everywhere. "I'll be just a moment across the hall here, I have to get the serum."

Tony doesn't know what to make of that cold look that Gene gives him; he breaks eye contact and looks down at the floor, not sure if he feels angry or hurt or ashamed.

He acknowledges Milyn with a wordless nod, and steps into the examination room. The padded chair squeaks and crinkles when he sits in it. He fidgets uncomfortably, which only makes the chair complain more. Clearing his throat, he forces himself to sit still, and glances over at Gene again.

"Are you doing okay?" he asks, in a quiet, neutral voice.

He wonders if maybe he shouldn't have told Gene, and just gone and done this by himself.

Gene sits down in the chair he's directed to - in contrast to Tony's fidgeting, he sits rigidly, looking at nothing.

When Tony speaks, he glances at him, still a little annoyed and hurt and worried and even angry, but he tamps it all down to answer.

"I've had better days," he admits. What he's not going to say is that the uncertainty of how Tony will decide what to do about his confession is eating him up inside, and he's not quite sure what's worse - that, or the prospect of going home. He knows he did the right thing by speaking up, delayed as it was, but God, did it need to hurt so much?

Unaware of the reason for the heavy atmosphere between the two, Milyn returns a couple moments later with two vials and syringes and sees the looks on their faces.

"Don't worry," she says, sounding motherly all at once. "I've been working on this for quite a while, I'm sure of what it'll do. You'll never actually leave this room, and I'll be right here the whole time."

Now Tony's having second thoughts: Gene obviously isn't happy about this, and Tony wonders if it was a mistake to push it so soon, and so abruptly. The sullen anger burning in his chest says, why does it matter how Gene feels? this is all his fault. he doesn't get a say in how I try to fix it. Tony clenches his teeth and tries to ignore that voice.

Milyn returns before he can think of anything encouraging or comforting to Gene.

"I'm not worried," Tony says stiffly, not wanting to let on that he is worried - just not about Milyn's competence or the procedure itself. "How long will this take?"

Edited 2015-02-13 22:17 (UTC)

Gene's not happy about the situation, no, but he's resigned himself to this procedure. Besides, it wouldn't make sense for Tony to go find out if Gene would still be kept in the dark, then, would it?

"I have complete confidence in you," he says to Milyn, and it's not a lie. The healer is as competent as she is cheerful - and that's very, on both counts.

"You'll start to feel the effects of the serum within a few minutes of my administering it," Milyn answers Tony. "As for how long it will take, I'm afraid it's rather case by case. It could be minutes or hours."

Or days, she thinks, although she doesn't say it aloud. If that's the case, of course she'll keep an eye on them, and make sure that their physical needs are met while their minds -- or is it souls? -- are elsewhere.

She expertly withdraws the serum into the two syringes, tapping them to make sure all the air is removed in the manner of doctors everywhere, and rolls up their sleeves. "Who wants to go first?"

"I'll go first," Tony says. It was his idea, after all. He forces his breathing to stay slow and measured. Now that they're actually about to go through with it, he realizes he's more nervous than he'd thought. But he's not going to turn back now.

He looks over at Gene, and then reaches out, almost hesitantly, to take his hand. He's a little bit worried that Gene will pull his hand away.

Gene's about to volunteer when Tony steps up, and he opts to let Tony have that dubious honor. He's done this before - he's a veritable venom veteran - but this application of the stuff, the new formula, is a little unnerving. Coward, his mind whispers to him. He ignores it.

Tony's movement draws his eye, and the outreach both surprises and heartens him. Maybe Tony doesn't hate him. After a long second, he takes Tony's hand.

So cute, Milyn thinks, and takes a seat next to Tony's bedside. She takes the arm not occupied with Gene's hold and taps it a few times, locating a vein. Then she inserts the tip of the needle smoothly, with barely a pinch at all -- she's good at her craft.

The first thing that Tony will feel is the room around him softening around the edges, like everything is being wrapped in cotton. Edges are blunted, details start to blur. The serum doesn't hurt as it travels through him, although it may feel like his body is gently drawing in everything around him: air, light, sound, sense. It's a little like the world's slowest descent into a dream, and eventually there will be a little sensation of flip, and then his consciousness simply won't be in Keeliai any longer.

Once she's sure that he's out, Milyn begins preparing a second syringe for Gene.

It's a little unnerving, to see Tony slip away like that, like the world's most unnatural descent into a nap. But Gene's come too far to turn back now, so he looks at Milyn as she prepares the syringe, still holding on to Tony's hand.

He's ready. Or at least, as ready as he's going to be.

The Healer drapes a blanket lightly over Tony, because even though the clinic is heated, it's still cold outside, and he might not be moving for a little while. Then she pulls her seat up next to Gene.

"Round two," she said cheerfully. "Or, I suppose this is really a bit higher number than that for you, isn't it? Just a little pinch on the arm, here we go..."

The world seems to slow and dim and desaturate, and Gene's head feels a little floaty. He feels entirely like he's becoming insubstantial, falling out of Keeliai while lying still, and he has no time to panic or change his mind about the entire exercise. For good or ill, he's being sent back.

Only when his consciousness has departed does his hand finally drop away from Tony's.

Edited 2015-02-22 13:31 (UTC)

Tony's grip on Gene's hand tightens as the needle slides under his skin - and then slowly starts to loosen again as the venom takes effect. It's like going under anesthesia, except slower, and Tony finds the sensation quite interesting and unsettling, for the brief period that he's lucid enough to appreciate it.

Then his eyes drift closed, and all his muscles go slack, and he's asleep.

Or, more accurately, he's... elsewhere.

---

The Makluan ship explodes, and Tony blacks out for a few seconds. When he comes to, he's lying in a crater in the street. Oh, good. Not dead.

A crowd is gathering around him, and he groans and heaves himself up off the ground. He's still woozy: everything seems foggy and distant, almost dreamlike. Which isn't terribly surprising, given that he just got exploded. He tries to ignore the feeling, because he still has work to do as Iron Man, and he can't let some minor head trauma slow him down. He feels like he's forgetting something, something about the explosion...? No, he's just imagining things. Must be the head trauma.

"Everyone can relax," he assures the crowd. "The alien menace has ended."

Surprised murmurs of "Tony Stark?" run through the crowd, and suddenly they're cheering him, not Iron Man but Tony, and Tony reaches up to touch his face and realizes that his helmet is gone.

"Oh, man." Shit. Oh, crap. So much for his secret identity.

"Well, the more, the merrier," Pepper says as she and Rhodey land - thank god, they're both okay - and before Tony can stop them, they've opened their own helmets to stand unmasked beside him.

Then Roberta and Mr. Potts are there, followed almost immediately by his dad and Fury and the rest of Team A: Black Widow, Hawkeye, and T'Challa. Everyone is safe. Everyone made it out okay.

Accolades start going around - most of them for Tony - and everyone is smiling and cheering and bursting with joyful relief. They saved the world. Not in secret, not in disguise: not anymore. Tony Stark and Patricia Potts and James Rhodes saved the world, and now everyone knows it. It's the most amazing feeling that Tony's ever experienced.

Everyone is telling him what a hero he is, thanking him for everything he's done, and Tony is giddy with the tidal wave of praise. Soon enough there are reporters, and he says a few things (he doesn't even remember what, but he's sure they were brilliant and inspiring) before Roberta and Howard and Fury get them corralled. As the adults take control of the media situation, Tony and Rhodey and Pepper take the opportunity to take to the skies again. Tony wants to do a flyover of the city, to make sure there aren't any wayward Makluan scout ships still terrorizing the streets.

Tony's high on the thrill of victory, and as they soar over the skyscrapers of New York, he feels, for the first time in a long time, like everything is going to be all right.

Then the clean-up begins.

The euphoria doesn't last long, once they get back on the ground and the scope of the destruction starts to become clear. The accolades keep coming, and Tony takes them with grace, but it leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. There's not much glory or satisfaction in pulling mangled corpses out from under spaceship wreckage.

People want to interview him and get him medical attention and take him to see military and government officials, but Tony doesn't have time for any of that - not when there are still people who need help.

It's thirty hours before Tony feels like the disaster relief is organized enough for him to be able to take a break. He'd probably have kept going anyway, if it weren't for his dad threatening to, quote, 'get a presidential order' to make him go home and rest.

All the emotions he'd felt over the last two days, both good and bad, are gone by the time he shucks his armor. He's too exhausted to feel anything at all. He brain is already shutting down as he stumbles towards his bed, and as soon as his head hits the pillow, he's asleep.

---

And then he's awake.

Tony jerks, and his eyes snap open. The disorientation is intense, but brief, and the vivid immediacy of his life back home fades as his awareness returns fully to Keeliai.

The first thing he notices is that he's lying next to Gene - not on separate beds, like before, but in the same bed, tucked under the same blanket. What...?

He blinks to focus his vision and looks around the room for Milyn, but doesn't try to get up. With Gene still unconscious beside him, he's afraid to move. He doesn't know if disturbing him will disrupt the venom-induced trance and hurt Gene. And he doesn't want to hurt Gene.

He doesn't, right?

With Gene's betrayal so suddenly, painfully fresh in his mind again, he's not completely sure.

There is no ticker-tape parade for Gene, no cheers, no accolades - and no tribunal.

He'd disappeared, and erased all record of himself, already making plans to lie low and live off the grid entirely. And he could do that now, with the power, the power, the power, the cursed power that rested on his fingers and thrummed in his veins.

But even that wasn't enough for him to undo what he'd done. He tried, over and over he tried, he tried until his head was full of piercing pain and his eyes stung and his bones hurt, the power crackling through him like a live wire.

He'd hidden himself, hidden the house that used to be his mother's, hidden it all and sat there with the enormity of what he'd done and the knowledge that if he returned to acknowledge his fault he'd be locked up for the rest of his life. Locked up, again, after such precious little time free. He'd rather die. He'd rather die.

He is the loneliest and emptiest he's ever been, and he knows he can never go back.

Earth could be his charge, but it could no longer be his home. Not again. Never again.

He lies down hopelessly, ten rings on his fingers, his head heavy and his heart aching and his eyes red and raw from his bitter weeping. He'd lost so much, caused so much pain and strife solely by existing. He wishes he'd never been born, never had those visions, never mentioned them, kept his mouth shut and kept the world safe from the Makluans. Safe from him.

It wasn't worth it.

It wasn't worth it.

It wasn't worth it.

----

Gene awakens suddenly, his breath catching, and he lies very still. He'd been moved while he was asleep, and now he's sharing a bed and a blanket with someone. With Tony.

The thought is like a knife in his heart; his head's swimming, and he stops breathing for a moment, trying to remain as still as possible. It had been a terrible outcome - the best possible for everyone else, but still terrible for him.

How could Tony do anything but hate him now? He'd lost the one good thing he had going for him through his own madness and stupidity, and there's no turning back.

His eyes are closed, but he can feel tears welling up in them. He'll never be able to atone for his sins. He knows that. And Tony's well within his rights to hate and abjure him and cast him away.

While Tony's still getting his bearings, beside him, Gene stiffens and his breath catches. Is he awake now too? The tension in his body implies that he is, but his eyes are still closed. Maybe he's not moving for the same reason Tony isn't. Or maybe he doesn't want Tony to know he's awake. Maybe he doesn't want to face him, after what they've seen. Tony doesn't blame him. Not for that, anyway.

But what's done is done. There was no avoiding it, and now that it's over, they'll have to deal with the fallout.

Slowly, Tony pushes himself up on his elbows, and whispers, "Gene? Are you awake?"

For a moment - for half a moment - Gene is honestly tempted to mutter 'no'.

By way of responding, he says quietly, hoarsely, "Well, at least you survived. Small favors." And he tries so hard not to make it sound bitter. He might even be succeeding. His eyes are still closed, and he's remaining immobile, because he doesn't want to see Tony looking at him with the expression of distaste he fears. Maybe if he holds still and quiet enough he'll slip back into the space between Keeliai and his world and disappear into the void entirely.

That'd be nice, he thinks.

"Congratulations on cleaning up my mess." The words are without inflection - a simple statement of fact, without judgment. Tony had cleaned up the mess Gene had made.

There comes a gentle knock at the door, and Milyn gives them a full fifteen seconds following that before she pushes it open. "Welcome back," she says warmly.

Tony's silent. He doesn't know what to say to that. But after a long hesitation, he reaches out and takes Gene's hand.

The knock on the door makes him jump, and he looks up.

"Umm... Come in...?"

Edited 2015-03-04 02:04 (UTC)

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