Grasping onto the source of the light Tony felt a wave of energy pierce his flesh. The entire space exploded in multi-coloured light as a dark pyramid exposed itself to his vision, a distant wall flaring with glyphs as a mural of three figures suddenly became coloured.
His entire perspective was blasted outwards and past himself as the very feeling of his body was wrenched away. Thoughts were impossible to carry in this brief moment of time, the only thing he could experience being the cold and oppressive draw of power.
~Will you, survive, I wonder~
The wispy voice ignited once more before fading into the recesses of colour that now kaleidoscoped around him in a spiralling pattern.
Before he could grasp what it was speaking about his head began pounding as he stood on a ruined battlefield. Before him was a force of aliens that sprinted towards his position. At their head was a singular alien, his purple skin gleaming a touch as he held a double bladed sword within his hand. His pulse quickened as the entire scene zoomed through time, his own figure standing in the middle of the field with six glowing stones attached to a vaguely familiar suit of armour.
"I...am... Iron Man." His future-self's hand snapped before everything faded to black.
He could hear his heart beat in his ears as the darkness instantly peeled back to reveal Pepper, his secretary, kissing him and crying over his newly made corpse. His body was crispy and burnt, veins of pitch black carving their way up his neck.
"I love you, pepper..." His dying words clung to the air as several shadowy figures knelt down in reverence. Tears slowly slid down his actual face as he watched his 'death'.
All he had wanted was to be loved. Wiping tears from his cheeks, he looked around, noting the presence of Bruce in the background along with a man dressed in an 'S'. Finally, taking a final glance at Pepper he watched as the vacant eyes of himself, laying up against rubble before him, stared him down.
~Ensure that this doesn't happen!~ The voice was not wispy this time, instead sounding like a harrowed version of his own, in his own opinion, masculine voice.
Water met his face as he looked over and watched a black pyramid hover in the not so distant space. 'A Holocron... W-what was that...?' His mind mired as it was, he slowly pulled himself out of the slurry he was currently submerged in, the entire chamber aglow and awash with hundreds of thousands of light strands.
~HE SURVIVED!~
The whispers crashed out in a scream as it reverberated off of the metallic walls of the chamber. Violent waves of force power crashed into him whilst he rose to his knees. Right before his eyes was one of the very things that he had set himself to collecting... Yet, he could not feel the urge to grasp onto it in this moment. Something felt wrong to him and more so, he was left impotent after witnessing his own death.
~he is not moving~
~No bother, he will soon~
Whispers continued, but, he ignored them. Water trickled off his armour and helm as it glimmered in crimson light. His senses were practically roaring at him that if he took that Holocron that it would lead to a fight. That sensation did nothing to prevent him from grasping it however, it merely warned him of the trial that would lay ahead should he take up its mantle.
"I-how do i change that?" Rhetorical in nature, his question was received by the nothingness around him with disdain, the whispers heightening and lowering in response. He didn't care for any of it however.
'There, must be something I can do to save myself... To accomplish whatever I did without my own death. To stop Pepper feeling so much pain at my death!' His eyes, having been blue previously, shone bright red and yellow in this moment as his connection to the Dark Side and Light billowed outwards.
He stepped up from his kneeling position, his lightsaber flinging to his open right hand. Kyber met electrical relays and soon a beam of concentrated and controlled plasma ushered out of the hilt of his blade.
Striding forwards his left hand reached out and touched the Holocron, his skin buzzing in the presence of the ancient relic. Blankness returned to him, but this time... A single figure stood in front of him.
"So you wish to learn the ways of Sith Alchemy?" Knowledge surged into his mind as the entire blank space evaporated, the chamber reaching back into the pits of his ocular receptors as hundreds of holes opened in the walls.
Undead tumbled out of ducts and began running towards him as a massive hulking Rakghoul tore through hundreds of undead, it's white bulging muscles flexing as it raked its claws through a pillar. Needless to say, the pillar was turned into debris as it's hawkish yellow eyes glared hatefully at Tony.
'W-wait, it was made by Sith Alchemy!?'
He didn't have even a moment to process the information as the massive fifteen foot abomination charged at him. Pillars one after another exploded out, stone shooting out like shrapnel from a gun as elongated and rending claws whistled through the air.
Using the force he pushed himself backwards, celerity kicking in, as the monster dive bombed into the water that smothered the floor with puddles.
*GRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!!!!*
His ears seemed to pop as blood oozed down his lobes, the hair matting with the liquid and somewhat cooling him. Ringing echoed within his head as all sense of hearing was revoked from him. "OUCH! Shitty, white, Grinch!"
Lightsaber swirling he ran forwards and slashed down at the slowly recovering form of the Rakghoul. Plasma arced through the air. Hissing water sounded aloud despite his inability to hear. Blade clashed with sickly white musculature and skin... Only for the attempt to wound his foe to fail horribly as the lightsaber bounced backwards and left only the smallest of burn marks over the exterior of the creature.
'Alchemy...!' Tony had a flash of inspiration, but it was too late currently as the chunky arm whipped out and blasted him towards the distant wall. Skidding like a flat stone over the thin layer of water in the room he eventually came to an abrupt stop, his mask pressing into the fleshy remnants of an undead Roadian.
As he attempted to stand, some of his body aching in the effort, he was scratched twice. Blood splashed against the muddy floor. Looking up he watched the white Rakghoul lick its claws with a spindly tongue, measuring almost as long as his arm. Breathing heavily, he watched on in horror as the creature seemed to relish the taste of his blood.
'I need to alter its genetic makeup to ensure that it is weak to lightsabers. That or use the force to subdue it.' Standing laboriously upright he spun the blade in his hand and put the other one forwards, his psyche reaching for the recently collected knowledge that slowly burrowed its way into his consciousness.
It was elusive, running whenever he tried to grasp onto it. The Rakghoul wasn't waiting for him however as it growled gutturally and ran at him, the claws slicing into the garbage on the floor and raking upwards as it closed the distance.
Evading the creature by firing off a spurt of celerity he attempted to reach once more for that power. He grasped it, for a second. It dipped down under the hands of his mind as it wove in-between memories of his recent vision and death, all within a second of feeling relieved at having grasped it.
The boss monster slid along the floor, turning in his direction before lifting up a column of pillar that it had already sent through the air before and thrusting it in his path. Dropping concentration he dropped to the ground and rolled, his cape and clothing being soiled in the meantime. Khem was no where to be seen and currently he could only truly see the boss monster.
"This, if you're listening you little bastards, is what is known as a DICK MOVE!" The Rakghoul ignored his taunting and bounded over like a massive ape, its fingers caking in the disgusting sludge that blessed this chamber with its' smells.
*GGGGRRRRROAR!!!*
A vicious and viscous toxic cloud spewed from spines embedded in its back, the re-breather crackling out in effort as the environmental systems of his armour kicked in. He reached out for the knowledge once again, the insidious power splashing over his hand as he clasped his fist hard over the top of it.
His mask glowed as he held both hands out towards the creature, the smallest of details revealing themselves to him as he just started to pluck random cords of DNA out from the Rakghoul.
*GggggRR-AHHHGRAH*
Pained gurgles and roars followed but was soon cut out by the grunting of his own self as he was pummelled into the roof and dropped. His eyes widened immensely as he felt his consciousness fumbling through the sporadic pain and sensations of a real body that had been beaten to shit.
Slumping onto his chest on the ground, he wheezed out several breaths as a shadow loomed above him. He reached out and tore several dozen threads once more.
*AHHHRGGHGRHHHHAGGHAHAAA*
Pained screeches and what sounded like laughs echoed out before a sharp pain took the back of his head. Blood pooled in his vision whilst the Hud of the game flickered.
[You Have Died ]
[Mission will continue Indefinitely. Please Continue at your discretion]
He awoke in his penthouse, his eyes boring into the ceiling as a red-haired woman lightly walked over. She wore the kindest smile and held the most stunning green eyes... He didn't know why he hadn't noticed before, was he really such a fool?
"Are you okay Mr. Stark?" A single tear leaked from his right eye as he remembered that same woman crying over his corpse.
'I have to get back to that area, kill that beast, and then figure out what was behind that!'
"Mr. Stark?"
Sighing he matched her gaze and looked around, noting the presence of a certain eye-patch wielding man.
"I'm fine Pepper, I'll just need some time... Freya's game has much more to it than I thought it did."
She blinked in consternation and concern whilst the spy master frowned. It was obvious that he wouldn't ask questions now but in the near future he would wish to know what he was speaking about.
'I need to speak to Freya.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have a Patreon where you can get exclusive Discord roles, vote on Fan fiction decisions, and even suggest Extra Chapters for me to write. Join here: patreon.com/user?u=111976696.
If you'd like to further support my work, here's my PayPal: paypal.me/RBSMFF.
Feel free to join my Discord community here: https://discord.gg/wVZXpPpUQn.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------