Chapter Text
Earths Mightiest Heroes Universe.
Everything was burning. The sky, the air, the whole world was in ashes.
The Avengers had fought to very end, all the heroes had. Laying down their lives side by side with the military to try and defeat Thanos and his overwhelming forces.
Thor was already gone. He had fallen when Asgard had fallen, shortly before Thanos had come to earth.
Miss Marvel had given her all against him in the first wave, falling, along with Yellow Jacket, Wasp, and Spider Man.
Tony had been heart broken when Peter had died, it had taken Steve over an hour to pry Tony’s arms from Peter’s body, the Billionaire just hadn’t been able to let him go.
Thing had just gotten worse from there.
Wolverine had died next, then Rhodey with the air force, T’Challa fell soon after, as Wakanda was overwhelmed. Black Widow and Hawkeye had taken after that, and Hulk had died trying to avenge his friend.
Steve and Tony had tried to rally the forces that were left. The Fantastic four were now down to just Reed and Sue. Luke Cage was still standing, just, as was Vision. They allied with the remained X-Men and threw themselves into the final battle. The one that took Tony from Steve’s side.
Tony had died trying to shield civilians from a falling building, that Thanos’ forces had destroyed. With his armour badly compromised from battle, it didn’t stand up to the force of the falling rubble and Tony was crushed beneath the debris.
It had taken Steve, and Vision over three hours to dig his body out. Reed hadn’t been able to help them, he’d been sobbing over Sue’s broken body. Steve had carried Tony’s body from the devastated remains of Long Island. Carrying him, with Vision following silently, and Reed carrying Sue’s body.
They went to the Backster Building. The Tower and The Mansion were already gone.
Pepper was there, with little Lily in her arms. She had broken down in tears when she’d seen Tony in Steve’s arms, his body limp and bloody. Happy Hogan was there, in the medical floor, his legs gone, and slowly dying of internal bleeding that just wouldn’t stop.
They all grieved for Tony together, cremating his body along with Sue’s and scattering their ashes to the winds.
It was from the Backster Building they saw Thanos’ army swam the earth, sweeping through the defences like a relentless tsunami.
Vision, having spent days locked up with Reed in the lab, went and gave his last stand against Thanos, getting ripped apart by the mad Titan as he tried to defend one of the few remaining emergency shelters. His sacrifice was noble, but it afforded nothing, the shelter was slaughtered along with the Android.
Steve braced himself, preparing for the end, when Reed dragged him into his lab, talking ten to the dozen as he pulled Steve along, babbling about a portal and somewhere for Steve to go.
“It has to be you,” Reed said, “I have to man the controls, Pepper doesn’t want to go, not without Happy, and he’s too injured to leave the bed. Someone has to survive, after all, you have Lily to think about,” Steve looked down at the seven month old in his arms, the little girl was sleeping contentedly, completely unaware of what was happening around her. Steve envied her that, wished he could be so innocent.
“There are other worlds Steve,” Reed said, “Ones you can go to, in fact there is one that his practically a mirror to ours. You can warn them of what’s coming, of Thanos. Prevent this happening in that world, and give Lily a chance to grow up,”
Steve looked up from his daughter, gazing into Reed’s tired eyes, “I don’t know if I can survive,” he said, “I’ve lost everything Reed! My Husband, my friends, my home, I’ll be all alone again, in a world I don’t belong in!”
Reed rested a hand on Steve’s shoulder, “I know,” he said, gently, “But there is no other choice, and, you won’t be alone, you have your daughter, she is counting on you to survive, she needs you Steve, you have to live. For her.”
Steve felt tired, so very tired. He wanted to say no, to go and join Pepper in the infirmary by Happy’s bedside and wait for the end. But he couldn’t do that, he couldn’t condemn Lily. It was bad enough she’d lost her Daddy, would soon loose her Mother, she didn’t need to loose her Papa and her life.
“Alright,” he said, “Lets do it.”
*****
MCU
Tony had finally finished clearing up the last of the debris left by Ultron.
It had taken him the better part of a week to do that, and another ten days to make the floors habitable again. But at least the work had kept him from thinking, from dwelling on his fucked up life.
He was finished with the Avengers. No longer fit to be Iron Man. He had proven to the courts that he was not directly responsible for Ultron, that the intelligence had already been present in the sceptre before he and Bruce had done anything. The scans they had on it had triggered something “Magical” for want of a better term and it had latched onto the Ultron programme that Bruce and Tony had been developing, attacked Jarvis and stolen one of the Iron Legion suites to create itself a body.
This didn’t stop Tony from feeling guilty, or Bruce it seemed, since he’d disappeared. Though Tony suspected part of that was because of Steve’s “Brilliant” idea of adding Wanda to the team.
“She’s lost everything Tony, she needs us, she deserves a chance,”
Yeah, a chance. A mind rapist, a Hydra volunteer. Steve had let a wolf into his home and didn’t realize that sooner or later it would turn around and rip his throat out.
That vicious little bitch hated him, Tony knew that. She blamed him for her parents deaths. A Stark Bomb. He’d never sold to anyone but the US Military. But Stane had. Tony suspected it was one that he’d sold and was looking into it, along with all the Shield files he’d amassed after the data dump.
There was an endless amount to go through, and with him not being an Avenger anymore he had more time to spare on them, especially on the Winter Soldier, whom he was still trying to search for.
If he found Bucky, then perhaps it would be an olive branch between himself and Steve.
Well, he could hope so anyway.
Finishing the last of the security updates, Tony rose from his seat, taking his cup to go and get a coffee, not trusting Dumm-E, Butterfingers, or YOU to get him one, he wanted to drink it, not use it to grease engine parts!
“Jar…, Friday, are there any messages?” he asked, nearly calling her Jarvis again, God he missed Jarvis. He didn’t resent Vision, was proud of what the last of Jarvis had become, but he still missed his AI.
“One from Boss Lady, a reminder about the Stark Phone mark seven needing to be completed by the end of the week,” Friday replied. Tony winced. Pepper was still keeping a distance from him since their break up. Was only being professional with him. He hoped that one day they’d get their friendship back, but for now, professionalism was all he could hope for.
Sighing, he poured a cup of coffee and lifted it to his lips to take a sip, only to drop the cup, shattering it on the floor, as a blinding white light exploded in the lab, a swirling vortex appeared in the centre of the light, spreading out until it was six foot by six foot.
“Friday, Suit!” Tony yelled, recognizing it as a portal,
“On it Boss,” Friday replied, moments later the gauntlets were on his hands, the chest plate was closing around his torso and the boots were enclosing his feet. The helmet had just come down over his head when a figure came through the portal, shocking Tony into freezing on the spot.
The Portal sputtered and flared for a moment, then faded away leaving the figure standing in Tony’s lab.
Tony stared at the man, hardly able to believe what he was seeing, it didn’t make any sense, yet there was no denying the person before him, the man who had walked through a portal into his lab. Steven Grant Rogers.
Wetting his lips Tony retracted the face plate, ordering Friday to remove the suit and stand down.
Steve, this Steve swallowed hard and managed a weak smile, “Hi Tony,” he greeted, “I, well, uh, it’s a long story,” Tony nodded his head then startled as the bundle in Steve’s arms gave a cry, he realized, belatedly that it wasn’t a bundle but a baby!
“Hey Lily, it’s alright, we’re safe now,” Steve cooed to her, he became impossibly tender and gentle that he completely belied his size. He was bigger than the Steve that Tony knew. His shoulders were easily a foot wider than the Steve from this reality, he was a couple of inches taller too, his eyes were darker a more brilliant and vivid blue than the pale baby blues that this reality’s Steve had, and he was older.
Where in physical terms the Steve Rogers native to this reality was in his late twenties. This new Steve looked to be in the late thirties by Tony’s reckoning, he also held an air of maturity and worldliness that the younger Steve did not.
Tony was broken out of his staring when this new Steve looked up at him, his face creased with worry, “She’s hungry, I don’t have any food for her,”
“Oh!” Tony’s eyes widened, “Uh, Fri, order baby food and whatever else is needed for babies, nappies and cots and clothes, and Clothes for…, Steve? it is Steve I take it?”
“It is, Captain Steven Grant Rogers of the US Army, and Captain America of the Avengers,” he sagged, his face falling, “Or I was,” There was a story there, a terrible explanation for why he was here, and Tony would ask him, but right now, the baby needed feeding.
“Come on,” he said, giving this new Steve a friendly smile, “Let’s go and see if I’ve anything we can give her until the baby foods delivered,” blinking back the tears that were shining in his brilliant blue eyes, Steve nodded his head, following Tony out of the lab and up into the common area.
****
The only food that Tony had suitable for the baby was a banana, which he mashed down with a fork and some milk that he heated in the microwave.
He sat at the kitchen counter, watching as Steve carefully fed the little girl tiny pieces of banana and little drops of milk from a tea spoon.
“Is she your daughter?” he asked, curiously,
“Yeah,” Steve said, “Well, adopted, biologically she’s Tony and Pepper’s…,” he paused, “I mean, my reality’s Tony and Pepper. She acted as surrogate for us, me and Tony I mean. I couldn’t be sure what effect the serum would have on a baby, so Tony donated… what was needed,”
Tony’s eyes widened. He and Steve had a baby together? He and Steve had been together?
“I take it you and your Steve aren’t…,”
“No, God no!” Tony said, letting out a little laugh, “He’s straight, and even if he wasn’t I’d be the last person he’d want to be with,” He tried to say it as a joke, as thought it didn’t sting, but in truth, Steve Rogers holier than thou disapproving attitude towards him did hurt. Tony had never been ashamed of his sexuality before, but Steve had a way of making him feel that way when it came to his liking men and women. Really it was just another thing that Steve disapproved of, along with the drinking, the sass, the sarcasm, the way he threw his money around. Iron Man was probably the only thing that Steve didn’t disapprove of and he’d gone and fucked that right up as well hadn’t he?
“Where is he?” Steve asked, “Your Steve I mean, and the other Avengers?”
“Oh they’re up state, in the compound,” At Steve’s frown Tony explained, “There was a bad fight recently, an AI called Ultron, my fault, and I’ve left the Avengers.”
“Your fault? You built him?” Steve seemed surprised by this, though he still knew of Ultron,
“It didn’t go that way in your world?”
“No, Hank Pym created Ultron. When we tangled with an Alien called Kang, the system got corrupted and he turned evil. We eventually managed to defeat him, but Hank left the Avengers, gave up being Antman, though he did become an unofficial Avenger again, Yellow Jacket,” Steve smiled fondly, “He and Tony had some cracking arguments. I think they went out of their way to annoy each other, and Reed? God him and Tony were always at each others throats!” The fond smile turned wistful, “Their gone now,” he murmured, looking down at Lily, focusing on feeding her the banana, “Everyone is, but me and Lily,”
Tony felt a painful lump build in his throat, before he even knew what he was doing he had reached out and placed his hand on Steve’s arm, gently squeezing the impressive bicep, “You’re welcome to stay here, as long as you want,”
“I wouldn’t want to impose,” Steve said, sniffing a bit, and shifting Lily in his arms, Tony’s eyes were drawn to her. His daughter, or that Tony’s daughter. She was beautiful, truly perfect.
“You aren’t imposing,” he said, looking back up to Steve, “I’ll be happy to have you both,”
The smile Steve gave him was more generous and heart felt than ever the Steve from this reality had given him, and the gratitude far more genuine, “Thank you Tony, I’m very grateful for this,”
“Boss Man, the deliveries are here,” Friday chirped,
“Thanks,” Tony said, getting to his feet, he waved off Steve saying he’d help bring the stuff in, telling him to concentrate on feeding Lily. As he headed down in the lift, he thought about the look of loss and grief on this new Steve’s face. The poor man had clearly lost everything. Tony didn’t know what had happened in his reality, but he could guess it was nothing good, the least he could do for this poor man was to offer him a home for himself and his daughter, their daughter.
Now that really was mind boggling.
How he was going to explain all this to Pepper and Rhodey, never mind the Avengers, Tony had no idea, but for tonight at least he would concentrate on getting Steve and Lily settled, then face the rest of the world tomorrow.