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*****
Fini had no idea how furious Alexander Pierce was; he was currently busy inventorying the spoils he'd liberated from Whitehall.
With Whitehall dead, his entire estate had fallen to Fini. There wasn't much to say about the experimental bases—Fini had them all shut down or destroyed, liquidating as many assets as possible into cold, hard cash.
This suddenly made his pockets very deep. While he still couldn't compare to Tony, he could finally—if modestly—claim that any problem solvable with money was no longer a problem.
The bulk of the remaining assets consisted of weapons and fighter jets. Since these couldn't be easily sold, Fini kept them for his own personal "collection." Among them were a few mysterious items Whitehall had gathered for unknown purposes. These were small in number but piqued Fini's interest the most.
However, when Fini actually saw them, he was profoundly disappointed. Whitehall's taste was atrocious.
"What kind of junk is this!?"
Fini stared speechlessly at an object Whitehall had recently acquired, one Fini recognized all too well: a Chitauri soldier's helmet.
The sight of it instantly killed his hopes for Whitehall's so-called "collection." He had hoped to scavenge something powerful to accelerate the evolution of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, but it turned out Whitehall's hobbies included collecting alien headgear.
Unsurprisingly, a thorough check revealed no high-energy artifacts. While some items were bizarre or esoteric, they were functionally useless to him.
Leaving the vault in disappointment, Fini eventually sought out Tony. Having left Vormir, he could no longer use the "Golden Ars Magna" to manufacture energy spheres. To speed up Blue-Eyes' evolution, he had to rely on Tony's miniature Arc Reactors.
Malibu, Los Angeles.
When Fini arrived at the villa, he found Tony asleep on his workbench. The suit gallery—which previously had eight slots for the Mark I through the Hulkbuster—had somehow doubled in size, though many of the new displays remained empty.
"Jarvis, how long has he been working?" Fini didn't wake Tony, choosing instead to ask Jarvis in the living room.
"Good day, Mr. Halsaz. Sir has worked for eleven consecutive hours today, following a rest period of four hours and twenty-three minutes," Jarvis reported.
Fini blinked. "Has he been like this lately?"
"Yes. On the longest occasion, Sir worked for twenty-three hours straight, followed by only two hours of rest before returning to work."
"Didn't Pepper stop him?" Fini's jaw dropped. This was more grueling than his own skill-grinding. It was a suicidal pace.
"Miss Potts was away on business during those days."
"You should have stopped him, Jarvis!" Fini said with concern. He felt a bit confused; the Battle of New York hadn't been nearly as catastrophic as in the original timeline. Fini had minimized the danger—only a fraction of the aliens had slipped through, the politicians hadn't launched a nuke, and Tony hadn't nearly died carrying one into a portal.
So why was he pushing himself even harder than in the original story?
"I attempted to, but Sir did not heed my counsel."
"You need to be smarter about it, Jarvis. For instance, if this happens again, call Pepper directly." Fini offered the suggestion, genuinely worried Tony might drop dead from overwork.
"What kind of bad ideas are you feeding my AI?"
Tony's raspy, exhausted voice rang out from the stairs. He walked toward Fini, rubbing his eyes, and addressed the AI: "Jarvis, ignore his nonsense. Without my express permission, you are not to call Pepper on your own."
"But, Sir, I find Mr. Halsaz's logic quite sound," Jarvis replied, his level of intelligence surprising Fini.
"You should choose to follow my orders instead!" Tony grumbled.
"Yes, Sir." No matter how smart he was, Jarvis was still bound by his programming and could not resist Tony's direct commands.
Tony walked to the bar, poured a drink, and downed it in one go. Sporting heavy dark circles under his eyes, he sat down next to Fini and complained, "Don't teach Jarvis to tattle. You're an adult; don't act like a child."
"I'm afraid you're going to have a heart attack!" Fini shot back, looking at him with a frown. "What's going on with you? What set you off?"
Tony sipped his drink, falling into a slight silence.
"You can't even tell me?" Fini stood up to leave, deciding not to ask for the reactors after all.
Seeing Fini move, Tony finally spoke: "Will they come back?"
"The Chitauri?" Fini paused and turned back. "Barring any surprises, yes, they probably will."
Tony didn't look surprised or alarmed; he was eerily calm. He nodded. "Yes. They definitely will. And our strength is too meager."
Fini started to speak, but Tony cut him off quickly. "I know you're powerful. You have many abilities. But can you really protect the whole world alone? In the last battle, 1,341 people died. Some of them were children."
Tony's expression was agitated. Fini fell silent. He hadn't known the exact death toll, though he knew it was significantly lower than the original timeline. Consequently, Fini didn't feel a heavy burden of guilt, but Tony was different. Even if only one person died, he would find a way to blame himself.
"When they come back, they'll bring a stronger force. I feel I must be prepared."
"So your 'preparation' is to frantically build suits? Do you plan to build one for every person on Earth?" Fini looked at him calmly.
He knew this wasn't Tony's ultimate plan. Tony likely hadn't figured out how to solve the problem yet; the idea for Ultron hadn't been born. Frantically building suits was just his way of venting—only the safety of the armor could soothe his inner anxiety.
Tony remained silent, his weary face full of uncertainty.
Looking at him, Fini sighed. After a long silence, he finally spoke: "Let's build a spaceship. Since you want to protect the Earth so badly, you should probably get to know the enemy first."
"I'll go with you. Let's take a tour of the universe."
Fini hoped to steer Tony away from the idea of creating Ultron by pointing him toward a different method of planetary defense. Besides, the universe was vast, and Fini wanted to see it for himself—though he'd happily skip barren rocks like Vormir.
He did have some concerns; with his current power, wandering the cosmos might be dangerous, especially if he had to ensure Tony's safety. But building a spaceship wasn't something that happened overnight. By the time it was ready, he'd likely have pulled his eighth skill.
If all else failed, they could stick to the Nine Realms first. Getting to know the neighbors was a good start.
(End of Chapter)