Darkness.
Total, consuming, humming.
Tony Stark opened his eyes — and instantly wished he hadn't.
He was no longer on Earth… not his Earth.
A bleeding red sky loomed above, split by jagged bolts of black lightning. Skyscrapers rose around him, but not the ones he remembered. These were warped, leaning like they mourned something. Some had crashed into each other, fused by time anomalies.
Everything was dead silent.
And then came the whisper:
"Welcome home… Stark."
Tony turned. His HUD couldn't get a read. No life signs. No power sources. Just void.
But there, standing at the end of the cracked obsidian street, was a figure.
It wore the Iron Man armor.
But this suit… it was a monstrosity.
It was fused with Ultron's faceplate, powered by arc reactors in each limb, and draped in a dark cape that flowed with cosmic energy. The chest glowed with a burning white star, shaped like a broken arc reactor.
The man inside removed his helmet.
It was Tony.
An older, colder, completely unrecognizable version of him.
"You're me…"
"I'm what you could be. What you will be, if you keep trying to fix what should've stayed broken."
The corrupted Tony turned, his voice mechanical at the edges.
"You thought you were saving timelines. I unified them. I ended their pain."
Tony stepped back, eyes scanning for an escape.
"You killed them."
The corrupted Tony smirked.
"Mercy. They didn't deserve a universe where they kept dying for others. So I built The Core. And now Oblivion Prime will finish what I began."
Suddenly, the ground shook. The sky cracked like glass. Behind corrupted Tony, the Convergence Core pulsed — a massive engine built from broken realities. Inside its swirling vortex, Tony saw glimpses of the Stark sister, Vision, Wanda, Steve — all battling a hopeless fight.
"You're not real. You're just a vision."
But when Tony fired a pulse blast at him, the corrupted version caught it in his bare hand.
"You think you're better than me?" he hissed. "You think saving a few timelines makes up for everything you let happen? Sokovia. Peter. Strange. Morgan…"
That last name broke something in Tony.
"Don't say her name."
He launched himself at his older self, fists glowing, suit roaring.
Iron clashed with iron, a flurry of desperate blows. Sparks burst in the air, each punch echoing with thunder.
The corrupted Tony fought like a machine, ruthless and exact. He struck Tony across the faceplate, cracking it.
Meanwhile, back in the real timeline—
The Stark sister collapsed, coughing blood, as the corrupted heroes surrounded her. Vision knelt beside her, one eye flickering, part of his face shattered.
"He's in The Core. Alone."
She gritted her teeth. "Then I'm going in after him."
She turned to Wanda.
"Send me there. Now."
Wanda hesitated. "It's not a door. It's a trap."
"Then I'll break it."
With a scream of chaos magic, Wanda tore open the barrier. The Stark sister leapt in — and disappeared into the swirling vortex of timelines.
Back inside The Core:
Tony lay broken, sparks hissing from his chest. The corrupted version raised his foot for the final blow.
"You're just a glitch, Stark. An outdated version. It's time I deleted you."
He brought the foot down—
—but a sudden blast knocked him sideways.
From the smoke emerged—
Her.
The Stark sister stood tall, face bloody, eyes blazing with determination.
"You picked the wrong timeline to mess with."
But as they faced each other… something shifted.
The corrupted Tony looked at her—really looked at her—and hesitated.
His hand trembled.
"You… shouldn't exist."
And then he whispered something only she could hear:
"You're the key… aren't you?"
The Convergence Core behind them flared red.
And from its depths…
Another portal began to open.
But this one wasn't controlled by Oblivion Prime.
It was ripping through the Core itself.
And something—someone—was crawling out of it.
Not a version of Tony.
Not a hero.
But something far worse.