Chapter Text
May 18, 2028
Tony didn’t know why he looked at the schematics of the long-lost time machine he made five years ago. He seriously didn’t, because he had promised Pepper, his beloved wife, that he would just throw that little thing into the trash and never go after it again.
He had promised and had kept his promise for five years, because he had no reason to go after it. Why would someone mess with the time? But right now, as he looked at the schematics, he wouldn’t be able to answer, other than saying that he had a hunch that something was about to go down, in a very bad way.
Especially when his right arm aches ferociously.
Maybe he should go and call the sorcerers or something. He could ask them to look at the energy levels of the surrounding area of the compound maybe. But there was no way that he could pass it through the council, and Tony knew that. He helped them create the parameters of such requests years ago after all.
But maybe… he could ask Strange to look around when they meet, which wasn’t anytime soon. The man had plenty of things to do, being the Leader of the Sorcerers. Tony could respect that. After all, the man barely had time to come to their monthly Accords Meetings to give reports, so most of the time he had sent Wong, who, surprisingly, was a pretty good diplomat. Maybe he could go to Sanctum himself after he had his usual bit of exercise... but he didn’t want to.
That place gave him the creeps, alright? Not everyone liked to be in the presence of ancient or demonic energies or entities for that matter.
He let out a frustrated sigh, closing his eyes for a few moments as he leaned back to his chair. This thing was giving him a headache, which was slowly but surely evolving into a migraine. His chest heaved with the heavy feeling that he couldn’t exactly explain.
“FRIDAY,” he started as he opened his eyes, which soon enough turned towards the holo table where the schematics of the time machine stayed open, glaring at him pointedly, reminding him things he didn’t need to be reminded of. “Don’t tell this to Pepper, alright?”
He could feel the AI hesitate, making him sigh heavily.
FRIDAY was brilliant, don’t get him wrong, but she was so very young. He hated to compare his baby girl to JARVIS, but at times like this he couldn’t help but do that.
“As long as it doesn’t affect your health, Boss, I won’t,” she finally answered him with her soft Irish lilt that made Tony smile a little bit. He didn’t say thank you, but he knew that FRIDAY understood what he meant, nonetheless. But that gratitude didn’t erase the fact that he felt that something was extremely wrong with him and energies around him. His right shoulder was aching. “Your blueberry muffins were delivered to the kitchen by the way, Boss,” she added in a more cheerful tone, making Tony let out a gentle chuckle. “And the coffee is freshly made by the staff.”
“Hmm, really?” he questioned, his eyes still on the schematics of the time machine. “Love me some blueberry muffins and coffee. Good thing you told me,” he said as he got up from the chair to leave his workshop, making his way towards the elevator. He knew that his baby girl was trying to get his attention to something else, she knew this was not normal for him to suddenly drop everything and go back to that. He appreciated that.
Once the elevator stopped and the doors opened, Tony stepped into the big empty hall, making his way towards the cafeteria to get his coffee and blueberry muffin. Maybe he would talk with a few people that weren't Rhodey or Pepper… Maybe. He wasn’t feeling like a social butterfly today at all, but he knew that it would do him some good. At least he hoped it would.
“Good morning Mr. Stark.”
He came to himself when someone greeted him. He gave a gentle smile and nod towards the staff who poured him his usual coffee and gave two blueberry muffins that he really liked.
After picking them up, he made his way towards the empty tables and sipped his coffee with a relaxed sigh. He loved times like this when no one was around. Don’t get him wrong though, he really liked being around his teammates and he loved being around his family. He loved spending time with his kids. But sometimes… Silence was the best thing in the whole world.
He shuddered a little when a soft breeze brushed against his skin, making him frown. From his knowledge, the windows were closed and the air conditioning turned off.. And they never smelled sweet and grass-
“Hello, Anthony.”
Time stopped and his breath hitched when he looked towards the woman sitting in front of him with all her elegance and softness. Her long green hair was adored with various types of flowers and butterflies were flying around her like she was the focus of the universe. Her soft green eyes were solely focused on him.
Tony didn’t know how to speak for a few moments as he looked into those eyes, forgetting where he was for a few moments. At the end he managed to take a breath, sat right on his chair, his jaw locking while his eyes hardened. If a soft orange glow went through them, nobody had to know.
“Hello, Gaia,” he greeted the goddess of life, his tone completely neutral. “Why are you here?” he questioned the entity, not even forcing himself to go through the process of greeting her. Both of them knew that Tony never enjoyed meeting with any of the entities that existed, especially her.
“Aren’t you going to greet me properly like a gentleman, Anthony?” she asked; her head tilted to the side as her green eyes shined with interest as her little smile grew into a properly teasing one. Tony didn’t even try to hold his snort at her question and took a sip of his coffee. He made sure that she could see how much he didn’t care for her comment. He knew she could be a bitch under the guise of politeness.
She was a lot like Phil Coulson in that department.
“I think we can pass the pleasantries, Gaia,” he said with an eyebrow raise. He leaned back onto his chair, his legs crossed under the table as he reached to pick up one of his blueberry muffins and took a bite. His eyes followed every move the deity made as he chewed the delicious pastry.
They sat in silence as he finished one of the muffins while continuing their intense staring match.
“How is your arm?” she asked, her green eyes falling from his face to his right arm, making him frown. He turned to look at his right arm, remembering how it ached for months now. Like a warning for something. Maybe that something was Gaia. Maybe not. She could be responsible for the uneasiness he was feeling for a long time now.
He sighed and pressed his lips into a thin line before he answered her.“It is fine,” he answered curtly and put his coffee back onto the table, maybe a little more roughly than he intended. “Why are you here? You wouldn’t have come here if there wasn’t something important. So, mother nature, please spill the beans,” he said with a frown and witnessed the entity’s smile diminish, dread pooling inside his belly. The entity pursed her lips before getting up from the chair she was sitting on.
“Please, come with me Anthony,” she spoke and Tony raised up from his seat, following the entity towards the stairs that took them down to the basement where his workshop resided. He didn’t like where this was going, especially after seeing the entity approach the holo table that showed the time machine schematics with a head tilt, her eyes focusing on the simulation he had set up moving around. After a few moments of silence, she made her way towards to the reinforced drawer where he stored his armor nanites. He witnesses in dread how she didn’t even turn to look at him as the reinforced vibranium drawer opening and her picking every last of the nanite containers without much issue alongside a watch that he was working on for FRIDAY’s hologram form.
“Did you feel the disturbance, Anthony?” she asked casually, leaving the nanite containers onto the hologram table, pushing them towards him alongside the holo watch. He frowned as he looked at the little containers before looking at the entity, understanding what she meant immediately in dread. “Of course, you did,” she said with a soft yet serious tone, her eyes looking through the continued simulation that Friday ran. “You are our Chosen One for a reason after all,” she added with a sigh.
“What are you talking about Gaia?” he questioned as he picked the containers one by one, putting them inside his pockets, thankfully all of them fit. Then he put the holo watch around his left arm. If she brought these to him, there must be a reason. He didn’t like Gaia, the mother nature of all the universe, but she was an entity and knew what she was doing.
“You humans know not the consequences of messing with time,” she started, circling the holo table to come and stand near Tony, her voice serious. A tone that the inventor didn’t hear from the entity in any form before. She continued in a grim voice, “When you and your team travelled back in time to retrieve the Infinity Stones to stop Thanos, you caused countless paradoxes in space and time, time can heal itself, but space could not, which creates a conflict between them.” She turned her gaze towards Tony. “This universe is going into the backlash stage. There were signs for that since the moment you made the first trip with this machine. This universe doesn’t have much time left. Everyone in this universe is going to cease to exist.”
Tony gulped in horror.
His head filled with panic, mind immediately going back to his family. He leaned forward to hold on to the holo table to prevent his form from shaking, but sadly it didn’t help much. Fuck. Fuck!
“But you will not,” his head snapped towards the entity, who was looking at him with soft eyes. There were hints of sympathy in them, which irritated Tony in the worst possible way. “Because you held the Infinity Stones, and they left an imprint on you, Tony. It is a failsafe to protect their Chosen wielders against catastrophes like this.” Tony gulped down and tried to take a deep breath to even his breathing, trying to stop the shaking of his hands.
“What… what does that even mean?” He spluttered,, a frown etched onto his face while his whole body shook from the rising panic. “What’s going to happen to me if I am not going to fucking die?” he hissed, his brown eyes glowing orange, alongside his vines.
“I… I don’t really know,” she answered, making him let out a distressed breath, his body now shaking. “You have to understand, Anthony, something like this never happened before and thus I don’t know what will happen to you. I just know that you will not die.” Tony felt his chest getting tighter and tighter, his energy deliberately leaving his whole body.
“It is close,” the entity said as she put a warm hand on his right shoulder and Tony felt a warmth engulfing him. “When I feel you awake again, I will come to you,” she said in a gentle whisper. “I hope you and your baby girl can find your way into life again.”
After that Tony didn’t even have time to say anything before everything had gone completely white, his body crumbling under the pressure, a scream could be heard as he saw the five familiar colors that whispered in his mind.
“You will be safe, our Chosen.”
ΩΩΩΩ
“Boss! Boss, wake up!”
The only reason Tony woke up was FRIDAY, who was shouting at him with panic in her voice. He let out a painful groan when he tried to move his head. Every little muscle in his body was aching and he could swear that his brain could burst like a volcano from his ears. Plus, he was sweating. Why the hell was he sweating?
“I woke up FRI, stop shouting…” he mumbled, gulping down the non-existent saliva to soften his throat; he could swear that the AI took a relaxed breath after hearing his voice. “What happened FRIDAY?” he muttered after a few minutes, before opening his eyes only to see the familiar interface of the Iron Man HUD, but it was darkened in an unusual way.
Why was he in his suit? He didn’t recall that there was a danger for him to wear his suit. He was alone in the compound while everyone was away on missions…
“You don’t remember?” FRIDAY asked cautiously which made Tony frown slightly. Did he need to remember? The only thing he remembered was an intense pain all over his body and it felt like every nerve in his body was on fire right now.
“Do I need to?” he muttered with the same tired caution. “By the way, please retract the armor. I am dying here,” he muttered; his mind still jumbled due to... due to something.
“I don’t recommend you do that, Boss,” FRIDAY said, leaving his first question unanswered, though her answer made him frown a little bit.
“Why not? Is there something dangerous?”
His question went unanswered again, though after a few seconds his helmet retracted back, leaving him alone with the dry, hot wind and sun shining strong enough to blind his unprotected eyes.
“Friday… W-what happened?” he asked silently when the helmet engulfed his head once again, protecting his eyes from the murderous sun and the dry air. Even with his jumbled brain he could tell that the young AI was not sure what to tell him. It didn’t happen a lot to her, considering she was one of his best creations.
“I- I am not sure at all, Boss,” she answered. “Gaia was there.She… told you that our universe was going to... explode? The term she used was backlash, but I am not exactly sure what that means. Also.. I am not sure where we are exactly. I have to recalibrate.”
Tony sighed and he knew for her to recalibrate he had to call the nanites back into the housing unit inside his chest. That meant that he had to be under the sun, as long as it took for her to recalibrate. He didn’t look forward to being under the scorching sun if he was going to be honest. That shit was old fashioned by now like.. for 20 years or something.
“Okay,” he mumbled to himself and raised up to sit, and a painful hiss, his whole body protesting the action. “Just give me a few more seconds,” he said through his teeth and attempted to get up from the sandy ground. It took a few attempts before he could manage to get up and mentally call the nanites back into the housing unit. Thankfully that little thing didn’t take a lot of time for him to do. But the moment he felt the sun, he gulped down once again. “You can start, FRIDAY” he spoke to the air before he started to walk and try to see something while escaping from the sun.
Thankfully it only took FRIDAY twenty minutes to recalibrate, which allowed him to be inside his armor once again. But it took her even longer to speak to him, Tony wasn’t sure why. Maybe she was trying to integrate herself into whatever network was available.
“Boss…” she started, her voice a little bit panicked.He continued to walk, every steplike he was carrying thousands of kilograms on his legs. “Boss, I am on the internet,” she spoke and Tony took a deep somewhat relaxed breath. So.. they were on Earth. Good. That was good.
“That’s good. Call Rhodey or the Accords Council, tell them what happe-“
“Boss, I can’t do that,” Friday cut off his sentence, making him frown as he continued to walk on the sandy ground.
“Why?” he questioned the AI with a frown on his face, gulping down a little bit to moisten his throat. “Why can’t you do that?” He could almost hear his baby girl let out a sigh before she started to talk and give him the grave news.
“The date, Boss,” she started, making him frown. “It is July 18, 2008.”
Tony froze in his place.
“What?” he whispered. His throat felt even drier than before as he tried to process what she had said. It couldn’t be- It couldn’t be 2008. They were in fucking 2028. He gulped down, his knees finally giving out under him due to excessive pain he felt alongside the shock his brain went through. It- It couldn’t be!
What- what happened to everyone then?!
Were.. were they dead?
His wife.. his little Morgan… Rhodey and Carol... Happy and May...?
Peter?
“Boss, Boss please calm down!” He could hear FRIDAY calling out to him, her voice desperate, but Tony couldn’t focus on her right now. He.. he just fucking couldn’t! Everyone was fucking gone! Dead! Why the fuck was he alive here? WHY?!
Why was he alive..?
Why..
“Boss… Boss please! You are scaring me…” FRIDAY whispered at the end, her voice showing how vulnerable she felt, unable to help the only person that mattered to her right now. That tone she took was strong enough to calm him down, at least bring him back to listen to her. “Boss? I am here for you. I will always be here for you.”
Tony didn’t say anything back, he didn’t trust his voice to not crack or tears to spill.
He stayed in his position as he calmed down, the both of them silent as they tried to understand the situation they were in.
“Where are we FRIDAY?” He questioned the young AI, his voice strained as he mourned the people he would never see. He knew that this wouldn’t end right here, he would mourn everyone and have his violent breakdown later on when he wasn’t busy being roasted under the heavy heat.
“Afghanistan, Boss. We are.. close to the caves your counterpart is being held in right now,” she added after a few seconds of silence.
Counterpart?
What counterpart-
Oh.
Well fuck. Look at his chance.
“Let’s save him, baby girl.”