AN: I began this after seeing Infinity War on opening weekend and this chapter would have been out sooner if I hadn't also caught the cold from heck the same day!

This contains lots of spoilers and is speculation fic based off one of my worst fears from what Avengers 4 might bring next year.

Red-orange.

Pink.

Violet.

Golden yellow against dark blue.

The sunset of the tropical paradise they were currently hiding away from the world, would have been one of the most beautiful sunsets Pepper had ever seen in her life. Would have been if… if she wasn't in a constant state of fear and worry for the man dozing in her arms.

After the battle for the universe was done, after everyone had went their separate ways to return to the people they had fought so hard for because they loved them, Pepper had found herself sitting beside Tony, jetting their way halfway across the world to South Korea.

To see Helen Cho.

It was a dire emergency, more so than Pepper had been led to believe. Even after Tony had collapsed during the victory celebration they held before the Guardians had left Earth, she still didn't have any idea how serious Tony's condition really was. Because he had minimized everything when he came to,had laughed it off.

She had had only started to realize how serious it was when he had consented to go to South Korea to see Helen.

Helen's eyes were dark, infinite orbs of regretful sadness when she had across from them in her office with the results of Tony's extensive tests.

"Tony, Pepper, I'm so very sorry I have to say this. I wish I had some other news I could give you than what I have to say but-"

Tony swallowed then said, "How long do I have left, Helen?"

The bio-geneticist shrugged, her eyes dropping, "I am only guesstimating here... but given all the damage that most of your vital organs including your heart, lungs, and kidneys sustained... I would guess you have about a month left. Maybe two if you take it easy, and try to not exert yourself too much."

He nodded, accepting the price he would pay for standing up to and helping to defeat the greatest threat the universe had even known.

Pepper stared at her, trying to process that Helen had just told them Tony only had two months left to live. Left to be with her. Tony pressing his lips to the back of her hand is what brought her out of her stupor.

"What? You're saying that Tony is dying?"

"Yes, Pepper, I am. I am sorry."

"You can't do anything to help him? At all?"

"No, I'm sorry."

"You said there's extensive damage to his heart, lungs, and kidneys right? Well why not just do transplants for all of those?"

"Because someone... maybe a lot of someones would have to die so I could live, honey. That's only after I've been waiting on the list for a long time. And I would have to wait like everyone else, Pep. I won't use my... our money or influence to move to the top of the list."

"But-"

He kissed her hand again, "It's okay, honey. I knew what could happen when I followed Strange that day at the park."

"No! I am not giving up! You can't die!" Pepper all but shouted then she looked at Helen, "What about that machine you made? The... what was it called again? The Crib?"

"The Cradle."

"Yes, that! Can't you use the Cradle to repair the damage to Tony's organs?"

"I..."

"Helen, please! I can't lose him! Not now!"

Pepper wiped away a tear at the memory of Helen spending several minutes explaining to her that in Tony's case the Cradle couldn't save him. The explanation had been long and she hadn't understood everything the other woman had said but she understood enough at the end.

Tony was going to die, and there was no stopping his death this time.

It had been weeks ago that Helen had given them the news. She had suggested that he stay there in South Korea so she could do everything possible to help easy his passage from the world. But they had refused her suggestion because Tony had wanted to die at home. Helen had understood and put them in contact with a doctor who would be able to keep Tony out of pain when he reached the end of his life.

They had returned briefly to New York to invite their friends to their small yet perfect, and very intimate wedding. It had been so under the wire and low key that by the time the New York paparazzi found out they had tied the knot, they'd had already left for what the world believed to be their honeymoon on a private island in the Caribbean.

The most surprising thing for people regarding the wedding of Tony Stark to Pepper Potts was the fact it wasn't the big event of the century. Everyone had expected for it to be the kind of event that everyone who was anyone in the circles of the rich and celebrity to be invited to witness Tony actually forever tied himself down to one woman for all time. Instead, what happened was the only people who were invited to the ceremony itself were those who were in on the couple's innermost circle of family and friends.

However the reception afterwards was another story. It was held at what was still being called the Avengers compound, and indeed would be for years to come as new heroes came forward to continue defending the Earth. The invited guests included everyone who had been at the ceremony, a few of the company's most important business partners or associates, and finally anyone who was an employee at Stark Industries.

Food and drinks of every kind had been provided for most of the guests in the form of a several buffet tables spread over the grounds. Most of everyone could help themselves whenever or whatever they wanted to eat with the reception was going on but for the wedding party things were a little different. For them, they'd be sitting down to dinner underneath a white pavilion that had been erected by the caterers Pepper had hired to handle the reception, at a tables that had been set up for that very purpose. They'd have dinner, and afterwards there would no doubt toasts, cutting of their cake, and even some dancing on the floor the caterers had set up for them.

They were finished with dinner and Rhodey had just finished giving a long heartfelt, surprisingly only mildly embarrassing speech as Tony's Best Man when while still chuckling at what his best friend had said Tony's eyes found those of Stephen Strange.

"Tony?"

He looked down, down at his bride (When exactly did he stand up?), and taking the hand she held out towards him, kissed it, then said, "I'm okay. I need to run to the little groom's room is all."

Pepper looked at him for a long second then, nodded, "Alright. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yep, right as rain."

"Don't be too long."

"I won't," he promised, kissing her softly before straightening up and letting go of her hand.

"Hey, where's he going?"

He heard Rhodey's question as he started walked away from the table, and towards the bathroom, trusting Strange to head in the same direction as well. Half a minute later, he had reached the sorcerer.

"Follow me," Strange said simply and without explanation.

What Tony could only describe as a crack in the fabric of reality appeared, and as he watched the other man stepped into it, disappearing. He took a quick look around to see if anyone, especially Pepper had noticed the magic Strange was performing in their midst. Once he saw no one noticed, and that Pepper was busy talking to Natasha, he shrugged, then stepped through the crack himself.

"Expecting to go somewhere?" Stephen Strange asked after he had watched Tony look around for a moment.

"You could say that. The first I met you and you opened... what was it, a portal?"

"Yes."

"Okay, you opened a portal and we stepped through to your place. This..." Tony gestured around them where people were talking or walking by them as though they couldn't see them, "Looks like we were before stepping into the crack you made out of thin air."

"It's because we are where we were before stepped into the crack, as you called it."

"How come they can't see or hear us?" Tony asked waving his hand in front of a man's face while shouting the last part of what he had been saying.

The man went on chewing his food like nothing else was going on.

"They can't see or hear us because while we've not changed our location, we have changed the dimension we were in."

"Come again?"

"We're currently in a different dimension than the one you know as reality. Surely as someone who is familiar with the various fields of scientific studies, you've heard the about theories of multiverses or dimensions existing simultaneously alongside our own."

"Not really a field I usually subscribe too but yes, I've read some of the theories about there being multiple dimensions but I wasn't sure I bought the theories."

"Not even with all you've seen and been through to another one?"

"Nope, although I'd say this is tipping the scales in favor of me believing they exist." Looking back at the sorcerer, he got serious, "So what did you want to talk to me about that you didn't want everyone else overhearing? I mean I know you didn't bring me here just to make me a believer in other dimensions, as cool as this one is."

Shaking his head, Strange confirmed his suspicions with blunt words as well, "You're dying." It wasn't a question but a statement of fact.

Tony gave him a look, then quipped, "You know taking me to cool dimensions aside, Doc, you've really got to stop with the magic mumbo jumbo!"

"It's not magic," came the soft response, "The doctor in front of my name is there for a reason. I was there when Thanos stabbed you. I admit I had hoped what my medically trained was telling me when that happened was wrong. But I know it wasn't wrong. I saw the trajectory when Thanos stabbed you, and I know very well the damage it must have caused to several of your major organs."

"You're very observant. Are you weren't Sherlock Holmes in a former life?"

"I think Doctor Watson would be a much better and probably more accurate analogy."

"I thought Watson wasn't too bright."

"Have you read at of the original stories by Conan Doyle?"

"No, never could find the time."

"If you had, you'd see that Doctor Watson isn't quite the total idiot that some movie versions have portrayed him as. But we're getting way off the subject at hand here."

"Yes, my pending death. Tell me did you bring me here so you can offer your condolences or whatever? Because if that's it then-"

"Then you rather I end this conversation now and let you get back to your wife's side."

"Yeah, I'd really prefer you save it if that's where this is headed because if I wanted to hear heartfelt but in the end useless platitudes or see everyone's pitying looks, I'd-"

"You would have told everyone what your prognosis is."

"Uh huh, exactly."

"Well, you can relax. I'm not here to offer useless platitudes but my... aid."

"Your aid?"

Strange nodded.

Tony laughed, "No offense, but unless you know some kind of magic that can stop what Thanos did to me from killing me, I don't see how you can give me any kind of aid."

"I'm sorry but magic cannot save your life."

"Well, thanks for coming to the wedding. Could you tell Wong I said thanks too because that'd be great? Now if you'll let me out of this dimension, I'd really like to get back before Pepper starts thinking I've passed out in the men's room."

"Tony."

It was something about the way the sorcerer said his name made the billionaire stop to listen.

"I am very sorry there is nothing I can do for you with either magic or by medical means. But because I cannot change the ultimate outcome... and the price you paid to help defeat Thanos, it doesn't mean I cannot help you. Take this."

A green stone on a simple metal chain appeared, and floated in the air in front of Tony. He reached out to take it then stopped, "What is it?"

"A way to ease your pain when the time comes. I know they told you that there will be pain when your body begins to shut down."

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Tony gave a nod, "Yeah, they did tell me that. I'll be seeing a pain management specialist in a few weeks for when..."

"Take this amulet, and you won't have the need to use their services."

"Why?"

"Because when the time comes, you will have my services, and I promise you, you won't one minute shred of pain."

"Uh-"

"Take it. Take the amulet, Tony."

Swallowing again, he finally take hold of the amulet, and slipped it around his neck.

"Wear it at all times, so when you need me, I will know it."

"What about Pepper?"

"What about her?"

"She's going to see it," Tony countered, and looked at the other people, "So will they."

"They won't be able to see it."

"They won't?"

"No."

"Good because I don't want to have to deal with any awkward questions."

"No, I wouldn't think so."

"Well I think I probably should be getting back to Pepper now. So thank you for-" His voice trailed off when he realized he was no longer in the Mirror dimension but was in fact standing in a stall in the men's room.

"Commentary on when we first met, Doc?" he muttered with a smile.

Of course there was no reply, and he hadn't expected one. With a shake of his head, he washed his hands before he exited the bathroom.

He wouldn't see Stephen Strange again until almost three months later.

EN: I am completely in love with the snarktastic interactions we got between Tony and Doctor Strange in IW. Their meeting was all I dreamed it would be and more! I really wish there would have been more scenes/moments with them!