A Revelation of Rain

Into the Body

They arrived at the Sanctum in the pitch black. Stephen did not bother to re-enter his body. Holly was asleep in a chair nearby, keeping watch, but she wouldn't initiate any sort of destruction of his mortal vessel until more than a week had gone by. 

Stephen gestured to the door for Tony to follow. But the other man paused, looking at the still form on the bed. 

"That's you. That's your body."

"Yes. You're seeing me in my Astral Form, same as you are right now."

"Can I touch it?"

"My body? I told you, you can't Manifest. You won't be able to touch anything. I need you down in my lab. I have a fragment of your suit that I kept as a memento, it has some of your charred flesh inside it. We need to get that sample into a tank and grow you a new body."

"Who's the girl? Your wife?"

"She's my servant."

"That's kind of sexy. So she kneels at your feet and sucks your..."

"Tony. My lab is this way. If you don't mind following?" 

Stephen remembered why he found Tony so exasperating before. Was this whole plan a good idea? But as the two incorporeal forms moved down the hallway and then up another flight of stairs, Tony touched his back to keep himself from taking the wrong turn. And Stephen was sure, then, at the warmth of those astral fingers on his spine, that he made the right decision.  

In the laboratory, Stephen Manifested long enough to take the sample he brought with him from the battlefield and bring it over to a petri dish of pink organic gel. Tony looked on from a slight way off, his eyebrows raised. 

"Is that part of me?"

"Yes. A part of your shoulder, to be exact. I collected it after the battle."

"You mean you stole it. You stole a piece of my corpse."

"Call it what you will. We all took a little something to remember you by."

"You're all vultures. What did Captain Marvel take?"

"A portion of your groin armor. Now hush, I need to concentrate."

To his credit, Tony fell silent, hovering over Stephen's right shoulder as he inserted the sample of burned flesh into the dish. He covered it, then turned to look at the Astral form behind him. 

"There."

"There what? All you did was stick a little piece of me into strawberry jelly! What the hell is that supposed to do?!"

"Regrow you, in the next six months to be exact. A body for you to inhabit."

"What the hell am I supposed to do until then?!"

Stephen waved his arm vaguely at the entirety of the Sanctum.

"Read books, and rest your essence, meditate, and focus on the day when you will return to your corporeal form."

"English?"

"Just....dick around in my home until I am done. Happy?"

Tony ws not happy. Not even remotely. But something about the tall sorcerer intrigued him. This was the first time anyone has spoken to him, and been able to hear him, since his death. He hovered closer, watching the wizard's scarred hands as they carefully moved the petri dish to a domed glass container. 

"What happens next?"

"Your body grows. You can't remain a spirit forever. Your Astral Form will fade, in time, and become one with the Universe." 

"I'd rather not do that, if it's all the same."

"Then let me work."

So Tony did. 

For the next week. For the next three weeks. For the next six weeks....he simply hovered. Watching everything the Doctor did. Watching him restlessly guard the sample as it sprouted human-like appendages, and grew larger. Watching him bathe. Watching him eat. Watching him read. Watching him sleep. 

Watching him. Because there was nothing else to do. And because he was fascinating. How could Tony not have noticed before?