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Storytime

"Wait, which beginning do you mean? Life-beginning, Iron Man-beginning, Avengers-beginning or the half-the-people-are-dead-beginning?"

The tense frown on Strange's face got even sourer with every suggestion Tony listed, so he grumbled: "I know the basics of your life from this Tony, there's no need for your warped perspective of your previous life to soil the mind of my friend. I don't know who Iron Man is, so start from there."

The other, who had been sitting on the side, trying to comprehend and analyze the situation, piped up: "I once built a suit to escape captivity and take down Obadiah Stane. The public called me Iron Man, but I haven't even touched the suit in years, much less worn it."

Tony clapped his hands together to get the attention back to him and to show that he was ready to talk. It worked, but his motions were sluggish and the enthusiasm usually seen in the other was gone.

"Alright, Iron Man it is. Unlike you, I kept saving the world in a flying suit of armor, almost died a couple of times, got traumatized, joined the Avengers." he hesitated for a moment and then asked, "Wait, do you even have Avengers here?"

"Don't worry, even we have an elite superhero team saving the world. I occasionally make their equipment and I gave them a building they could use as a base but I'm not connected to them in any other way," answered the other.

His voice was neutral, perhaps even friendly, but his eyes were drilling into Tony, judging him, trying to learn about him and the alternate world he was from.

"I do that AND I'm an active member. Well, used to do and used to be. There was a misunderstanding and boom, no Avengers. I stayed as a solo hero, helping people until one day Thanos came for the Infinity Stones. We lost, half of everything alive is gone and when I was on my way home from the battle we had on another planet, my borrowed ship started breaking down and I guess I either hallucinated you to existence or I just dropped into your world."

Both of his listeners had odd, almost disapproving expressions.

Tony should have expected something similar to that, after all, he was from the world where Thanos won. His world was obviously worse, the choices he had made led the world to defeat and destruction.

Stephen cleared his throat and stated: "You gave us the bare minimum of what we asked of you."

"Sorry, I didn't know how much you wanted. If I had known you don't like it, I would have found a way to make it even shorter," he interrupted, his tone lacking any indication that his apology was sincere. It sounded more mocking than anything else.

The sorcerer's initial aggressiveness had dimmed, yet the continuous aggravation from Tony had started to rile him up once again, so he snapped at him: "Stop interrupting me," then he noticed the grayish face of the man and the short-lived grimaces of pain, so he softened a bit and continued: "You aren't looking too well right now, we can postpone the more in-depth conversation for later. You need medical attention."

His eyes widened in shock for a moment but he composed himself and said: "I'm fine, Mr. Strange or whatever your name is. Leave me alone or get me out of this goddamn universe where everyone wants to play 20 questions with me."

Despite the fact that he felt and knew that he was not at the top of his game at the moment, he quickly hopped out of the seat he had been in to prove how very Okay he really was.

As he did that, he was fully reminded of his injuries and the lack of sleep, food, and water he had been getting on the ship. He felt dizziness overtake him and his legs gave out from below him, leaving him tumbling onto the ground before either one of the men in the room arrived to his aid.

After he had been materialized, there was only some time he would seem okay before his ailments would truly take effect. He had been in some pain and felt weak since he became real in this world, but now he felt almost exactly how he did before he got here.

The only things that were different from the cold and dead spaceship were that there was plenty of oxygen to breathe, the sunlight was closer than a lightyear and there were people around him.

Tony tried to get off the ground but all he was capable of was a weak twitch.

He was very tired for some reason, his eyes closing against his will and consciousness leaving him even through the loud shouting coming from somewhere far away.