Ch3. A new beginning

And the next he knew, he woke up in this boring and unending orange mist, capable of going indefinitely without food and water, just waiting and waiting and waiting for something to happen whereas thinking about his life was the only bearable activity to pass the time.

Tony recognized he was changing. The more he reflected on his life, the more things got into a perspective he would have never imagined before. Some for the better and some for the worse, but it did change.

Things he previously cherished seemed almost worthless now and things he never put much emphasis on became invaluable for him.

And while he would still rate himself as a special type of charming gentlemanly genius... secretly meaning asshole... his personality did change a bit too.

It was inevitable.

Unfortunately, reviewing his life and reflecting upon it didn't mean all his regrets were resolved. That couldn't be further from the truth. A lot of them actually deepened while some simply became 'different' as he put things into perspective.

In truth, Tony felt as if his regrets multiplied but he also learned to accept himself.

He learned to accept that he was a weapon manufacturer. He might have shut down the weapon department of the Stark Industries but what he did never changed. He made weapons. Plain and simple. He never really strayed from that direction no matter what he was telling himself. His suit was a weapon. He was just too stubborn to admit it to himself during his life, always finding some convenient excuse like, 'It is for my own protection', or, 'It is just an armor! Not a weapon!'.

Meh, here he understood it didn't matter one bit.

He also learned he was an inventor for he loved creating new things more than fighting. He found out he cherished the time in his lab more than the thrill of the battle. He just never really thought about his feelings when it came to these things, preferring to rush ahead and ask questions never.

He saw and accepted his faults because they were a part of him. He is arrogant but damn he would not change that part of himself because it was who he is. He didn't regret sleeping around when he was younger. Not one bit. But he wouldn't have a repeat experience. He also didn't regret being an asshole to people. Not in the slightest. They deserved it.

That's what made him Tony Stark.

But he also rejected some of his faults. Things he didn't like about himself. But his ego wouldn't let him think about them so let's pretend they do not exist...

"Now if only I finally found a way out." Tony murmured as he sat down on the ground and tiredly gazed at the unchanging scenery of orange mist spreading far and wide. "Orange is not one of my favorite colors. Didn't they have a crimson variety? I wanna complain to the manager."

As expected, he didn't get any sort of answer back.

Deeply sighing, Tony laid down. He was done with reflecting on his past life. It was a high time for the gates of heaven, because naturally, that's where he belonged to after saving half of the universe, opened for him.

As he thought a few more blasphemous thoughts, the mist started to shake, something that never happened and without even registering when, Tony got excited. He also promptly winced, thinking about how little was needed to get him excited nowadays. Oh, how mighty have fallen...

The shaking started to slowly intensify and after some time, Tony stopped liking what he felt. He was all for a little shake in his boring schedule of doing nothing but when he became unable to even stand on his feet, enough was enough.

Unfortunately, the orange realm didn't listen...

...

Tony abruptly opened his eyes, and instantly closed them again while taking a deep hitched breath...

'Wait, what?' Tony's mind suddenly stopped. He didn't take a breath in... who knows how long! Something was clearly going on. Tony didn't remember falling asleep or fainting last he was aware but clearly, he just woke up. Somehow.

Yeah, he was as confused as the next guy. Not a good feeling. He was not a fan.

Opening his eyes again, this time slowly, he was met with a blurry image of something black as he squinted.

"Cola-flavored gummy bear?" Tony blurted out the first thing that came to his mind only to hear a few chuckles in the background. "That's weird. Last I remember, purgatory didn't have people paid to laugh at my jokes. Am I in heaven, yet?"

The chuckles changed into a stifled laugher and Tony furrowed his eyebrows, starting to feel his body, and damn his skin stung like hell. He must have been sunburnt or something. Sunburnt in heaven? He suddenly didn't know if he wanted to go there. Wasn't there some vacation-resort-like afterlife or something?

"Tony... should I call you a medic? You are clearly delirious." A worried yet exasperated voice, one that was vaguely familiar for Tony, resounded close to him.

Tony tried to squint some more to see the speaker but his head throbbed, his skin burned with every small shift of his body, his eyes stung, and he was clearly lying on something hard. After a few tries, he was finally able to make his sight clear up a bit. It was still blurry for the most part but at least he now recognized shapes.

"Rhodey became a gummy bear?" Tony exclaimed in surprise. "Huh? When I thought I've seen enough weird shit. Man~, afterlife sucks." He rasped, only now realizing how dry his throat was. "Do you at least have water here or are you on the dry spell?"

The laughter in the background became not so stifled and the gummy bear Rhodey turned away from Tony, most likely towards the direction from where the laughter was coming from judging by how quickly it ceased before the younger Rhodey look-alike turned back.

"You are not in the afterlife yet, Tony." He said with a hint of amusement in his tone. "You proved it will take much more than some terrorists to do you in."

Tony wanted to quip something witty again because the situation was simply ridiculous but when his mind registered what was said, his mouth shut and refused to let out a sound as thoughts started whirling through his head at a quick pace. He suddenly got a nasty feeling something was not quite right.

"Terrorists?" Tony whispered in an unsure and confused manner before seemingly regaining some of his usual confidence, "I know this might sound weird but what's today's date?"

Before he got the answer, Tony felt someone place a flask to his lips and heavenly cold water started pouring into his mouth. Suddenly, he could care less about the answer. Who would have thought water could taste so delightful...

"Today is February 2nd, 2010, Sir." An overly eager voice answered from somewhere nearby and Tony almost did a spit-take. Instead, he just started to choke on the water for a while because it flowed into his nose. He could feel and hear the people around him fussing about his state but he couldn't bring himself to care.

As surprised as he was, Tony felt numb and probably a little in denial. He could take sorcerers, aliens, universe-wiping stones, sorcerers, super agents, witches, ice cubes, sorcerers, and time travel but dying and waking up in the past was a bit too much even for him.

Wordlessly putting his head back down, he decided to go back to sleep, and just maybe he would wake up in a place that won't inflict a heart attack upon him.