Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The air around him was suffocating. 

Tiny particles of dust floated past him, either remnants of the fight they’d just bombed, or the flesh of the fallen - the price of their failure for all to see. 

He shifted slightly, and he winced as the blade in his abdomen moved with him. The nanoparticles sealing up his wound weren’t made to last for long periods of time - they were only meant to stave off death until he could get to a hospital, or a half-decent first aid kit. He could only hope that one of the ships had medical supplies on board. 

Tony clenched his hands into fists, and fought back a sob. His hands were still covered in dust.

He tried to stand, and tripped, landing on his side which only served to aggravate his wound further. He lay there for a second, panting, then took a deep breath, and went to stand up again. 

“He did it.” 

Tony suppressed a wet snort, and coughed - spitting out the bloody bile that had risen in his throat. He glanced over at the blue alien beside him, and he wondered if she had known anyone on the planet.

"I’m sorry.” Blue looked down at him almost questioningly. “About Gamora. And the Guardians.”

She huffed. “They were idiots.” She averted her eyes. “I’m sorry about your son.”

Tony flinched, whipping his head around to stare. “He isn’t my son. We aren’t-” He closed his eyes. “We weren’t like that.” The alien just looked at him for a few moments, then, after a moment of hesitation, she grabbed him by the waist, and dragged him up to stand. Embarrassingly enough, even with the added height the suit gave him, he was still slightly shorter than her.  

“Do you have a ship?” Tony waved his hand towards the giant donut they’d arrived in, and smiled sardonically. “I don’t think that mine is getting off the ground any time soon.” As if on cue, a large piece of plating near the hull dropped off the side, kicking up an abundance of dust into the thin air. 

“Quill. He had a ship. The Benatar. We can use that.” Blue strode forwards, and he followed, clutching his side. She put a surprisingly gentle arm around his shoulders. They walked forwards slowly, mindful of every step, worried that something might jostle him and push the blade deeper into his gut. 

“Do you need medical treatment for your side?” 

For a single, fleeting moment, he considered saying no. Then, he thought of Pepper, and Rhodey, and Happy, and all the other people on Earth that needed him. He nodded. “Yes. The sooner, the better.” 

Blue looked at him, almost knowingly, before nodding. “There should be supplies on The Benatar. Unless it hasn’t been stocked up since their last battle.”

They stewed in the silence for a moment more, taking tiny, wobbling steps towards the ship. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the alien slot her arm back into its socket with a hiss, and a burst of sparks. He winced, pausing for a moment to rub his chest, taking care not to dislodge any of the nanites.

When they made it to The Benatar, she forced the doors open with a screech that made him wince, and she pulled him inside by the sleeve. 

He saw a chair and a table, along with a device that resembled a fridge. A walkman dangled from a strange hook, and an array of video games, stacks of stuffed animals, and various knives littered the floors. A sensor hung over a group of racks with dirty dishes lined on top, and small mechanical parts that he recognized from the cars he tinkered with regularly were strewn over the counter. Tiny remnants of the people that the Guardians were before. 

Tony collapsed into the nearest seat, and let out a quiet groan. His stomach ached.

"Tony.” Blue looked at him, confused. “My name. Tony. Tony Stark.” 

“Nebula.” 

“Nebula. Nice name. Appropriate. Given, you know. Space.” Nebula looked at him with an odd expression on her face, and gestured for him to stand. 

“Where are we going Stark? Terra?” 

“Um. Yes. Definitely. I mean, unless you have somewhere else you need to go?” He stood, and blood rushed to his head, making him sway on his feet. He wondered if Pepper was still alive. Rhodey. Happy. Harley. May . His eyes fluttered, and he imagined telling May that her son was dead, and he wasn’t ever coming back. Would never smile at them again. Never swing through the streets again. Never, never, never . 

“No.” He distantly recalled that he had asked her a question. He thinks that the snap, no, the decimation , must have destroyed everything she could have come home to. 

They walked over to a screen in what he assumed was the control room, and Nebula cursed in a language he didn’t understand. 

“I assume something is wrong?” Tony said dryly. 

“The engines are busted. Must have been hit sometime during the fight.” Tony almost let out a string of curses himself. He had no clue what alien technology looked like, and aerospace was always more Rhodey’s thing anyways. He glanced over anyways, and was bombarded by a sea of symbols and characters that were completely alien to him. Ha. Alien. He paused. 

“Wait, why do you all speak English?” 

“I am not speaking in English. I have an implant. Translator.” She pointed at her neck. “Also, when I was with Thanos, he had me learn the languages all planets with an Infinity Stone spoke.” Her voice turned bitter. “He said that it was better to hear the original than the translation, even if you had the means to translate.” 

Tony nodded symathecially, then froze. “When you were with Thanos?” 

Nebula squeezed her eyes shut, and took a deep breath. “I was the daughter of Thanos.” She snarled slightly, and glared, as if daring him to speak. 

He reacted on instinct, flinching back and reaching for the arc reactor, before stopping himself mid-motion, and lowering his hand back to his side, trembling. He shook himself. He had to be sensible. She said that she was the daughter of Thanos, not is, and she fought against him on Titan. 

She could be like Wanda.

He stepped forwards.

“I take it you weren’t his biological child?” Nebula looked taken aback. “I mean, you aren’t going to go purple and turn into a giant, are you? Because that would be creepy. Well, not that creepy. I know the mean and green giant, and he's a big teddy bear when you really get to know him.” He was rambling now, sweating like mad. Nebula whipped out a knife he didn’t even know she had, and brandished it in front of his face. 

“Terran, if you are mocking me-” 

“Hey! Maybe put the knife down?” He stepped back again, and put his hands in the air. “All that I’m trying to say, is that I get it. Thanos is a dick. I also have daddy issues, though they’re not nearly as bad as yours. I’m sure you had your reasons for working for him, but you don’t have to tell me a thing.” He sighed. “I’ve done things. Awful things, and I’m trying to atone. I won’t condemn you for doing the same. What matters , is that you got out.” He was breathing heavily by the end of his little speech, and he winced almost imperceptibly when he realized how much he had said. 

The tiny part of his brain that Howard still controlled screamed , reprimanding him for showing weakness. For being soft . 

Stark men are made of iron. 

In his mind’s eye, he could still see it. The Winter Soldier’s hand around her neck, Howard’s head on the steering wheel, Steve’s shield in his arc reactor. 

(‘How hypocritical are you?’ A tiny voice whispered in his mind. You know that Bucky Barnes wasn’t responsible for their deaths, yet you tried to kill him anyways.)

(An even smaller, more bitter voice screamed . ‘If you wanted him dead, he would be dead. You know that. Wanda was forgiven for her stint in HYDRA , wasn’t she?’)

He laughed awkwardly when Nebula kept staring. “Can we just blame that little talk on the blood loss? Because I’m perfectly willing to do that.” 

There was a moment of hesitation, then, a sigh. Nebula visibly softened, and she put the blade away. “Come, Terran. You created that suit of yours, did you not? We’ll fix up your side, then I will teach you the basics.”

_____________________________________________________________________

James “Rhodey” Rhodes stared blankly at the bottle of alcohol in front of him. He picked it up with a firm grip, reminiscent of the way he grabbed a rifle, or a pistol in active combat, and tossed it from hand to hand.

Tony was missing. 

Most of his friends from the air force were dead.

HIs mother had been dusted, his father was collateral damage , and his sister withered away as half of her cells died off while she was undergoing chemotherapy. 

Earth was a mess , to put it kindly, and since he was one of the only Avengers left who wasn’t a wanted fugitive, (not the only Avenger left, because he refused to believe that Tony was gone, he refused ) he was fielding frantic calls from everyone , from President Ellis to fucking Putin. 

There had been an influx of people gathering in churches, mosques, temples, and various other religious sites, and the food supply chain had been destroyed. 

Thousands had probably starved already, or died in one of the riots, trying desperately to provide food for their families. 

If he hadn’t met Tony, that could have been him. 

He would have done it in a heartbeat. Anything for his mother. 

Water was polluted, filtration systems failing in the wake of all the pollutants in the air and in the water, and the few scientists Rhodey could get in contact with, (through FRIDAY, since all the other phone lines were so busy, no one could get calls through unless they had their own personal satellite) were all in agreement. 

They could expect acid rain, increased heart attack and cancer death rate, eutrophication, and global climate change would reach unprecedented levels.

Questions were asked about how nothing was done about the possibility of another alien invasion by anyone but Tony Stark and his closest allies, and some still believed that the dusting wasn’t in fact aliens, but an elaborate plot from an enemy nation to gain leverage for a war. 

He laughed hysterically. Tony had to know what to do about this shit fest, because Tony wasn’t dead . Rhodey wouldn’t know what to do if he was.

James looked at the bottle of vodka in his hands for a moment more, before popping the cap off. 

It was the end of the world. 

He might as well drink himself into an early grave. 

_____________________________________________________________________

Ramonda had suffered great loss in her life. 

First, it was her Umama, then it was her sister, and then it was her husband. 

She had thought that T’Chaka would be the last to join the great Panther Goddess before her, but it seemed as if she had been wrong. 

Her son . Her daughter . Both beautiful beacons that lit the way for a brighter future, both for Wakanda, and the world. She’d never even considered the possibility that they might both be snuffed out before they had a chance to shine.

She closed her eyes. 

She would lead. 

Bast give her strength. 

_____________________________________________________________________

Wong reinforced the Sanctum’s shields as Beyoncé played in the background. 

He swore loudly when his concentration slipped on one of the runes. He would need to start over after that. 

Some of the younger ones that had survived flinched at the loud crackle of orange that sparked to life in the air, and he reminded himself to introduce more complex hand movements to them as soon as possible. 

He ignored the stares he received from some of the veterans. 

Stephen would be back. 

He had to be back soon, right?

Loki opened his eyes in the vast darkness of the void just as his palm turned to dust. 

“Oh, shit.” 

May Parker’s last thoughts were of Peter. 

Thanos smiled. 

Chapter Text

Tony groaned as loudly as he could as the Blue Meanie poked and prodded at the wound on his side. Nebula just ignored him, but he had the feeling that she was laughing. He glared.

Tony was glad that Nebula was opening up more around him, but he didn’t appreciate the constant prodding, or poking, or the god awful mother henning, reminiscent of a certain Rhodey-Bear that he wasn’t going to think about.

Pepper would have liked her.

If they met-

When they met, he was certain that they would take over the entire galaxy within a week.

They were chugging along in space at a decent pace, but apparently he wasn’t well enough for them to use any of the jump points that would accelerate their journey, so Nebula was forced to take one of the longer ways around to a farther, safer jump point specially made to accommodate for disabilities.

When he first heard about those genius inventions, he’s not ashamed to say that he squealed like a pig, and started racing around the ship, barely restraining himself from jumping for joy.

(Of course, that was after he got over the nausea that precipitated the mention of artificial wormholes.)

In the meantime, he was trying to introduce Nebula to as much of Earth’s culture as he could. She already knew some of the basic mannerisms that ‘Terrans’ employed, but Thanos had made no effort whatsoever to teach her how to have fun on the planet.

Tony was especially delighted when he found out that she could already play Chess quite well. He hadn’t had competition like this since JARVIS-

They didn’t play Chess all that often - he preferred Paper Football.

Tony whimpered as the dressing on his side was torn off - flesh and blood sticking to the bandage like an adhesive - and he tried to cover it with a cough, which only served to send him into a coughing fit.

He pretended not to notice the slight yellow tinge that stained the red, gaping hole in his side, and the red specks that appeared in his hands as he hacked into them.

Nebula stared at him for a moment, black eyes shining judgmentally in the dim light, before strutting into the kitchen to fetch him a glass of water.

Tony, still short of breath, peered outside the window of the spaceship, and smiled slightly when he only felt a tinge of discomfort compared to the all encompassing panic that used to consume him when he looked at various space related things.

Stardust surrounded the area, making everything shine and glisten.

They would be near a planet called Conjunction soon, and after stopping to pick up some food, they would be on their way to Earth.

A strange mixture of joy, and dread filled him. What was he going to do if they were-

If they were gone? Like Peter, blown away with a gust of wind.

For a moment, Tony contemplated the possibility of running. He could get off this ship at Conjunction, and go from there. He’d studied the Benatar’s systems enough, and he could probably get a broken down ship at a junkyard to work just fine. He could travel the galaxy, from planet to planet, learning all there was to know. Doing, all there was to do.

He shook himself. He was being an idiot. Earth needed him. And if they were all gone?

Then so be it.

_____________________________________________________________________

Steve Rogers couldn’t breathe.

It reminded him of his long past, long forgotten years with every medical condition under the sun, years where the only thing that kept him going were his mother, and Bucky.

He’d left that behind when he joined the army, and he’d left it behind a second time when he’d crashed the Valkyrie into the ocean. He thought that he had left behind Bucky too, but when he found the Winter Soldier…

He’d allowed himself hope. A moment of reprieve.

A moment of selfishness.

But that was all gone now - wiped away with a misplaced axe and a snap.

He stared at his reflection in the Compound mirror, and put his face in his hands. Stark Industries employees, law enforcement workers, and a small number of volunteers from all around the world were banding together to search for survivors, and direct them towards the nearest safe houses, hotels, and Tony’s various properties.

Large homes belonging to eccentric billionaires were being turned into hospitals, churches were being repurposed to provide shelter from acid rain, and cleaner air than outside, and makeshift schools were created to keep the younger ones entertained.

Steve shuddered at the thought of children, orphaned and helpless, left to die unless someone found them in time.

He went to wash his hands, sighing when only a short spurt came out of the tap.

Water was strictly rationed as they were still working on a method to clean it quickly. Ash from the streets had been blown into the rivers, lakes, and oceans, and many aquatic beings had been dusted inside the water, making a large portion of water undrinkable.

Steve drew his hands through his hair, and walked out of his room into the main base of operations that they’d created.

Bruce, Wong, and a team of scientists were trying to locate the Infinity Stones by their unique energy signatures, but they still hadn’t figured out how to expand their search into the far reaches of space. Rocket was looking for the Benatar, and Colonel Rhodes, Pepper, and Natasha were fielding calls from governments all around the world.

To be honest, he was just happy that they weren’t being arrested.

The Accords were still going strong, and while certain amendments had been made to accommodate for him, he was still hesitant about them. Understandably so. He still remembered what the Accords were like when they were first presented to him, and even though Tony had gotten rid of the more restrictive clauses, (just like he promised he would, why hadn’t Steve just trusted him in the first place?) every time he considered them, he thought of SHIELD. The data dump. HYDRA.

A wolf, hiding in sheep’s skin.

‘Cut one head off, and two more will take its place.’

He hadn’t taken that warning seriously in the first place, but he should have.

Peggy’s words still rang in his mind. ‘Plant yourself like a tree, and say, no. You move.’

‘But Peggy also said to compromise first, didn’t she? And you didn’t. You just needed to save Bucky.’ A tiny voice in his head spoke up. It sounded like Tony.

‘He’s my friend.’

‘So was I.’

Steve took a deep breath, and marched on.

Chapter Text

“Holy crap, my gosh, I actually got it! I got it! It worked!” Jane Foster whooped, clapping her fellow scientists on the back, waving everyone over. 

Steve smiled slightly. Jane had seemed despondent and tired ever since she’d heard the news that Darcy, and Dr Selvig had been snapped away. She must have been ecstatic that she found a way to potentially bring them back.

He could only hope that people indirectly killed by the snap could be brought back too. Steve had checked up on his team’s families, and he was saddened to hear that Sam’s sister and father had been on a dusted pilot’s plane when the snap occurred.

“So, FRIDAY was kind enough to let us cannibalize some of Stark’s inventions-”

“Are you sure that’s safe? Tony could be working on something dangerous.” Just as he’d finished speaking, Steve berated himself for the gut reaction that Tony was doing something sketchy. Ever since Ultron, he’d found it more difficult to trust him. Especially after the… incident in Siberia, and Tony’s insistence that the aliens were coming back. 

Of course, Tony had ended up being right about that. And he’d lost everything because of it. 

Jane looked at him skeptically. Then, her eyes widened in realization. “Oh. Right, you’re from the 40’s.” He didn’t correct her. “Yes, it’s perfectly safe. Anyways, I’ll spare you the technical explanation, but with some new technology that Rocket gave us, we were able to get a general location of the Infinity Stones.” She grinned. 

Natasha nodded. “Can you track its location like a GPS would, or can you only do it in short bursts of time?”

“It’s more like a GPS.” Bruce took a deep breath. “We can wait for as long as we need to, but I would advise you to get it sooner rather than later. If we can’t bring back people who were collateral damage from the snap, the faster we do this, the better.” 

Steve was more content than he’d been since Bucky was snapped away. “Let’s start making a battle plan.”

Everyone in the room nodded. Determined. 

Avengers, assemble. 

______________________________________________________________

Tony stared at Conjunction in horror. 

Nebula had shown him pictures of the planet, and while he was expecting it to be… different because of the snap, he really hadn’t expected this .

The air was thick, and while he would have thought that it was normal for alien planets, Nebula was coughing too, seemingly frozen in shock.

Candlelight vigils were being held everywhere. All the shops he could see were barricaded shut, and many had been broken into. He could make out bodies strewn out onto the pavement, most of which dead of malnutrition, or blunt force trauma. Fires were commonplace, and colourful people threw a powder on it to stop the blaze.

Screams could be heard in the streets.

Nebula was the first to recover, as she put a hand on his shoulder and steered him towards an alleyway that looked safer than the open.

Did Earth look like this? Did the Earth look like this?

He stumbled into the corridor, and whirled around to face Nebula. “I'll take it typically isn’t like this?”

“Yes. This is… abnormal.” There was a faint tremor in her voice, and she looked even more shaken than him, so he figured that he wasn’t the only one who found this strange. He felt a sudden rush of sympathy for her. If he’d spent time here before, even if it was only for a moment, seeing it again like this must have shaken her. 

“How will we get food? Fuel?”

“We’ll have to improvise.” He really didn’t like the sound of that.

“I’m sure we can steal something. I know some black market dealers here. They might still be in business.” Tony winced.

“Do we have any other options?” 

“Not really.” 

“Can we… not steal? These people look desperate. This is their livelihood.” 

Nebula looked hesitant, then she nodded. “Fine. But, if it’s us, or them, I’ll choose us. No matter what you have to say about it.” Tony took a deep breath, then agreed. They could talk about this later, if it came down to it. 

_____________________________________________________________________

“Monroe! Monroe, get over here right the fuck now, I swear, it’s important.” Katie gestured at her computer frantically, breathing heavy, voice bordering on hysterical. 

“I told you to call me Sara. The hell is so important?” 

“There’s a ship. We took a picture of it around Mars, and it’s getting very close, very quickly. It’s moving faster than I’ve ever seen before.” 

“What?”

“It’s a spaceship Sara. Can I be more clear than that? And the Avengers are off to find the Infinity Stones, so if the alien titan is coming back for a round two, we won’t stand a chance!”

“Shit. Shit! Call the military folks you know right now. I’ll get someone over here. I have a contact.” Katie nodded. “And Katie? Stay safe.”

“Of course, boss lady.” 

_____________________________________________________________________

Tony hummed in the passenger seat of the Benatar, popping some Zarg Nuts into his mouth. He thought that they were definitely his favorite part of space so far. 

They’d made their way through the sprawling streets of Conjunction without much difficulty, and although he suspected that their means of acquiring the fuel that they needed was far from legal, he was mostly just glad that they hadn’t stolen anything. 

He closed his eyes. Peter would have loved Zarg Nuts. And space. And Nebula. 

The feeling of dust on his hands, blood on his hands, Peter’s face as he faded away into dust. 

Tony shook himself, and sat up straighter. They would be at Earth soon enough. At this rate, they would be there in an hour at most.

He was still fascinated by the general mechanics of the ship, and he resolved to tell Rhodey about it when he next sees him. Because he would see him again. 

Nebula was in the middle of rigging up some kind of communication device that connected with Earth’s puny frequencies, and he hoped that when they got back to Earth, Pepper might forgive him for getting on the giant, dangerous spaceship if he brought back a bunch of alien tech for SI. His minions in R&D would certainly be pleased. At least, those that were left. 

The Benatar had just reached the distance required to send messages to Earth, when he heard a loud bang. The ship shuddered. 

He groaned dramatically, dropping the last Zarg Nut he had on the floor. He sighed, and went to pick it up, when the ship jolted again, triggering some kind of emergency alarm that flashed red lights everywhere. 

“Nebs! What the hell is going on!” She grunted, running up to the control panel. 

“The Terrans are shooting at us! Why are they shooting at us?” It felt like he’d swallowed a stone. Why hadn’t he considered this? 

“We Earthlings have always been a bit trigger-happy, and we’ve never seen extraterrestrial ships other than Thanos’ ship, and the Chitauri ships.” He fell out of his chair, and started to slide along the floor, gasping as the rough surface scraped at his side. “Sorry, I should have expected this!”

Nebula just grunted in response, too busy with the controls of the ship, and trying to get a signal on her strange radio. 

“Throw the radio to me!” Tony shouted, standing back up, swaying as the ship shook. “Focus on steering! Also, don’t shoot please! Defensive stuff only.” 

“I know! I’m not like your Terrans, shooting first and asking questions later! To the dead body! Because that’s what we’ll be! Dead bodies!” 

She chucked the small device at him, and he started pressing all the buttons he could find - using what little of the alien galactic standard that Nebula had taught him to guide him. The Benatar took another hit, and he could see a small dent in the wall he was standing next to. Tony’s side ached. 

He worked with the device for a few more seconds, fiddling with some of the wires that had been disconnected in the fray, before hearing a short beep, then static.

“Hey! HEY! Is anyone here? I’m Iron Man! Tony Stark! You’re shooting at the wrong guys!” He shouted, bringing the object closer to his face, as if that would help.

“Excuse me, I believe that you have the wrong line. This is the Baxter residence. What did you say? Who is this?” 

“Hurry up, Stark! Shields are going down!” Nebula shouted. 

“I’m trying!” He shouted back, covering his head as a knife that had been embedded in the far wall fell off, and headed straight for his face. 

“Umm, hello? I really think you have the wrong number.”

“IT’S IRON MAN! CAN YOU HEAR ME?” 

“Holy shit, Iron Man? I thought you were dead!”

“Well, I’m about to be if you military folks can’t get your asses straight! You’re shooting at us! We’re going to go down, and probably blow up somewhere, and then, Pepper will seek vengeance, which really won’t go well for you.” A book flew out from somewhere, and caught him in the chest. He grunted, biting down a shout. He could see blood seeping into the bandages on his side. 

Tony looked over at Nebula, who was trying to navigate the barrage with limited success. The fact that the ship had already been damaged on Titan didn’t help. 

The Benatar tilted, and he tripped, dropping the communication device on the floor, before it slid out of the room. He cursed. 

He could feel the ship spinning wildly as Nebula fought to keep it controlled. 

The last thing he saw before he blacked out, was water.

Chapter Text

He woke up to the slow, soft beeping of a heart monitor.

Tony just lay there for a few moments before he peeled his eyes open, staring at the ceiling. He sat up slightly, groaning as blood rushed to his head, making him dizzy. He turned his head to the side, and smiled. Nebula was sitting on the chair beside him, head slumped down onto her chest. 

She looked exhausted, and her clothes were wrinkled and wet. It seemed as if she’d stayed there for quite some time. Tony glanced around the room, waiting, hoping , but it was empty, apart from the host of other sleeping patients to his left. 

He peered up at the clock. Midnight. 

What had happened after the crash? The Benatar had definitely been trashed by now, and he thought that the strange, cushioning material around the walls might have been enough to save them, but he distinctly remembered landing into water .

Tony shivered, pulling his blanket tighter around his chest. He’d never gotten used to water, even so long after Afghanistan, and he’d never had the time to start any type of therapy. Not that he would get therapy if he had the time. 

He looked around again, wondering at the absence of people. Usually, after an event like this, there would be doctors and nurses bustling around here already. Of course, normally, there were more people, and less patients around. 

Tony inched his way out of the bed, pulling out the IVs, and pushing his blankets to the side. He made his way over to Nebula, smiled as she snored. He brushed his hair out of his face, and hobbled his way to the tiny phone in the corner. He closed his eyes. 

He could call FRIDAY right now, and she could direct someone at SI to… wherever he was in minutes. He could find out who lived, and who was dusted. But. 

Tony screwed his eyes shut, and took a deep breath, pushing down the panic that had already risen in him. He could do this. He had to do this. If anyone was alive, they’d be worried sick about him. 

He picked up the phone. 

_____________________________________________________________________

Tony was alive. 

Tony was alive . 

Happy Hogan was certain that he was breaking a bunch of traffic laws right now, but he really didn’t give a damn. Tony was alive, and right now, that was all that mattered. 

The police couldn’t stop him if they couldn’t catch him goddamnit , and they were way understaffed anyways. 

It was just luck that he’d already been in the area - when Pepper had heard that a spaceship was approaching, someone had already shot it down, and while he really couldn’t blame them, he was slightly pissed that they didn’t even try to establish communication first. It was only after a frantic 911 call about Iron Man that the authorities had finally started searching the wreckage for any signs of him. Little did they know that the ‘Blue Meanie, really Happy, you’ll adore her, she reminds me a lot of you actually’ had already fished them both out of the river they’d been dumped into, and taken them to the nearest building, which just happened to be a hospital. 

It was a miracle in itself that Tony had managed to call FRIDAY in the first place. Phone lines were clogged like never before, filled with various people frantic to know if their loved ones were okay. 

Happy drove faster.

Chapter Text

“Tony? Tony! Come on, Tony, wake up you idiot.” 

Tony woke with a start, as he felt hands poking at his face. He opened his eyes slowly, as he started to register his surroundings. Nebula leaned over him, staring judgmentally, and Happy was standing next to her, beaming. Happy. Happy !

He shot up like a bullet, and rolled off the bed with a thump. Nebula leaped up, tense, but he ignored her. He hobbled as fast as he could to Happy, and enveloped him into a giant hug. 

Happy grunted, then smiled over Tony’s shoulder, patting him on the back, chuckling. “I missed you too, boss.” 

They just stood there like that for a few seconds, until the silence became awkward and stilted, and Tony stepped back, embarrassed. “Pepper? And Rh-”

“They’re all fine. Don’t worry about it. Even the kid in Tennessee.” Happy paused. “Tony… May didn’t make it.”

Tony closed his eyes. For a second, he almost felt relieved. Wherever Peter was, May was with him. He shook himself. When did he ever buy into that religious crap about an afterlife? “I’m so sorry Happy. I know you guys were close.”

Happy just grimaced. “Nothing was ever going to happen with us, Tony. You know that.” He hesitated. “I… I saw the news. Peter went on that ship with you. Didn’t he?” Tony flinched, and clenched his jaw. Happy gave him a small nod, as if that were just the confirmation he needed. “Was it quick?”

“It took ages, and a second, all at the same time.” Tony trembled slightly. “He had the nerve to apologize , Happy. He said sorry , like it was his fault that he was going to fucking evaporate .” Happy patted him on the shoulder sympathetically, although slightly lamely. They really were two peas in a pod, weren’t they. Happy couldn’t process emotions to save his life. 

Tony sat back down on the bed, feeling off kilter, and strange. “Where is everyone?”

Happy smiled. “I finally convinced them to leave your bedside, and take a fucking shower, and that’s when you choose to wake up. Just typical of you. They’re at the Compound. All of them. Keener’s parents didn’t… Harley is there too.”

“And the Rogues?” 

“Steve made it.” Tony drew back slightly, cringing. “And don’t think that you’re going to get out of telling me what the hell happened in Siberia this time. Not when they’re going to be living with you. Romanov made it, Bruce did too, and so did Thor and Clint.”

Tony laughed bitterly. “So, the original crew is back together again. Only took half of us dying to do it. Are they helping with first-responders? We saw Conjunction, and it was a mess.”

“Wait, you saw an alien civilization? You’ll have to tell me absolutely everything later. Did they have religion? Different technology? What did they look like? You have to tell me, you know that I’m a history buff. I’m so fucking jealous of you right now, I can’t even.” Happy kept on muttering obscenities under his breath. Tony giggled. Nebula looked askance.

“You’ll be glad to hear this. While you were sleeping, like the lazy ass that you are, we tracked down the Infinity Stones.” Happy grinned. “I helped. A lot. They think that they can bring everyone back!”

A cacophony of thoughts and emotions flowed through him, almost overwhelming. “You guys have the stones?” 

“Mhm. I think Thor’s set to use it. We killed Thanos too. If they asked me, I would have made it longer. Drawn it out.” Happy beamed. Tony doesn’t think that he’s ever seen Happy this… well. Happy. 

Nebula tilts her head appraisingly. She looked almost impressed. 

It felt like he was on top of the world. But, the euphoria faded quickly. “Wait, when are you set to do this? How is this going to work? When we bring people back, where are they going to end up? What about people who disappeared from planes and stuff like that? What about people on other planets?” 

Happy shrugged. “I have no idea. I figured that I’d leave that to the scientists in the crew. Jane Foster is a godsend.” 

Nebula stepped forwards. “Are you sure that this is a good idea? As much as I love to see Thanos skewered on my sword, I’m not sure if this is the best idea.”

Tony’s first instinct was to glare at Nebs. Yell. Screech, and protest, and maybe even hit. He just wanted Peter back, and nothing would stop him from doing that. Then, he stopped, and thought for a minute. If he knew Steve at all, or Thor for that matter, they tended to rush into things. Impulsively. Not that he was much better , but it was the thought that counted. He noticed that Happy hadn’t included Barnes in his alive and well count, or Sam, or Wanda, so they’d be even more inclined to rush into things. 

He had lost Peter. 

And he had almost stood up and yelled one of the best aliens he knew, someone that had been nothing but kind, because he didn’t want to wait for a single second before bringing everyone back.

And she had a point. 

They didn’t know how the stones worked, how they affected a baseline human, nevermind if it was Thor. Everyone died ‘with the snap of a finger,’ but was that literal? 

How literal was that thing? 

When Thor, a man who was smart, but not as sharp as someone like Bruce, or Jane Foster, put on a gauntlet that could alter the course of… everything, how would it react?

What if he said something like - bring back everyone taken away by the snap - would it include everyone , even the collateral damage? Would it fix the property broken? Would people start appearing in the air, and dropping down to earth because they were in a plane? Would people die in crashes where they appeared on the road, and someone crashed into them? 

And if the gauntlet really had that amount of power, where did they draw the line? He could bring back everyone if he wanted to. People killed by his weapons, Ultron, Lagos. Everyone. Where would they stop? 

He could hear Nebula and Happy talking to him in the background of his thoughts, but he just kept spiralling, and spiralling. What if, what if… 

Holy shit. 

“Get me to the compound right now .” 

_____________________________________________________________________

Thor smiled as widely as he could, beaming. 

They’d completed their mission with ease, and with Thanos already weakened by his use of the gauntlet, they dispatched him rather quickly. 

He flipped the gauntlet between his hands, running his fingers over the tiny cracks that had formed, and peering at the stones.

His shield brothers and sisters were by his side. 

In one, smooth motion, he slipped the gauntlet onto his hand. 

Infinity. 

He closed his eyes, and snapped. 

Chapter Text

Not enough time, not enough time, notenoughtime notenoughtime-

Tony sprinted through the corridors of the Compound, clutching his side and panting. 

“FRIDAY, where are they?” 

“They’re in the courtyard, Boss! I’m trying to call them, but it seems like all the technology in the area has been blown out! I think it’s something in the stones!” FRIDAY sounds panicked, which is truly a rarity. He runs faster. 

“Do you know if they’ve put the gauntlet on yet?” 

“I don’t know anything!”

He turned a corner and sighed in relief. He was almost there - he could see their figures standing on the grass. Thor hadn’t even put the thing on yet! 

Tony tripped. 

Pain shot up all along his side, and his head bounced off the floor. He groaned. “FRIDAY?” No response. He must be inside the dead zone. 

He stumbled to his feet. To his horror, he saw that the gauntlet was glowing faintly on Thor’s hand - making him shine like a beacon. He grunted. “Don’t!” 

He saw Ste-Rogers turn confusedly, but it was far too late. 

Snap. 

A flash of blinding light covered them - blinding him for less than a second. He stood, hopeful that he was wrong, please, let him be wrong -

The Avengers looked around, expecting trees and grass to appear - birds to fly into trees - and there was nothing. Tony chuckled softly, putting his face in his hands. Happy and Nebula skid into view right behind him, confused. “It was like a fucking word puzzle, wasn’t it. So literal. I’m an idiot. We’re doomed.” 

By now, The Avengers had realized that things weren’t going to magically appear, and they were shouting at each other, seemingly in a panic. Steve peered over at him, confused and horrified. 

Bruce tinged green. “Why didn’t that work? It should have worked!”

Nebula turned pale. “Did-did they just snap? And nothing happened?”

Thor looked around in horror, snapping his fingers again, and again, and again. “Thor, what the fuck happened?” 

Thor sunk to his knees. “I think-”

“I think they’re gone. I could feel the dusted people, my brother , but they’re gone now. Where did they go? WHERE DID THEY GO ?” 

Tony stumbled to his feet, and jogged to the gauntlet as fast as could, yanking it off Thor’s hand. A cacophony of voices bombarded him, all a variation of his name. 

“Shut up everyone! Tony knew what was going to happen, didn’t you Tony? What did you do?” Steve’s eyes were wide and accusing. 

Tony laughed hysterically. “Thor said that he felt the people who dusted, did he not? And he only felt the people who’d been dusted. So, no collateral. They’re dead forever. But then, it should have worked, right?” Tony took a pause to sit down, chuckling all the while.

“What’s so funny?” Clint looked furious. 

“Thor, I surmise that you ‘wished’ for everyone to be returned to where they were, right?” 

“Yes, Stark, get to the point.”

“I just did! This thing is as literal as can be. Thanos said that he wanted to get rid of half the universe, so the gauntlet did. You said that you wanted them to come back exactly where they were before . So…” Jane Foster flinched. “Yeah, she knows. Planets move . Our galaxy moves . You just threw trillions of people, including aliens into outer space, inside planets, right beside stars , with no means of getting back. Everyone is dead now, and it’s permanent.” 

Peter is gone, and it’s permanent. 

Tony looked down at the stones. Soul. Power. Reality. Space. Mind. And… Time. Time. What if… 

He slipped on the gauntlet. 

Please, take me back. Take me back to when it all went wrong. 

Snap.

Chapter Text

He stared, watching his (team?) colleagues freak out. He saw Jane Foster’s horrified expression, he saw Steve mourning in silence. He saw Bruce starting to turn green, and he watched as the world seemed to stop turning. Watched, as his friends stopped moving. And he watched again, as they seemed to reverse, right before his eyes. He felt himself moving, controlled by an unseen force, directing his every move. 

He ran backwards down the hallway. Stumbled. To the hospital with Nebs and Happy. To the spaceship. Until everything blurred around him, and he was moving so quickly that he didn’t feel like he was moving anymore. 

Until time ceased to have meaning. 

Something was happening.

Pain.

Tony was burning from the inside out. 

He was dead.

He was sure of it. 

What had happened? What was happening?

He was seven years old, and Jarvis was teaching him how to ride a bike-

He was fourteen years old, and he was in love with Sunset Bain-

He was twenty three, and he hated Stone with a passion-

No. He was none of those things.

He had a gauntlet in his hands. Didn’t he? 

Tony peeled his eyes open, wincing when a blinding light hit his eyes, and he gasped.

He was laying in sand. Sand . And around him, were the broken pieces of the Mark One. 

_____________________________________________________________________

Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes cursed, putting his head inside his hands. Tony had been missing for three months now, (three months, 4 days, 7 hours, 34 minutes) and his boss , (and it was abundantly clear that Gregory was his boss, and not his friend because a friend would have let him keep searching without the bribes JARVIS sent him) was trying to stop him from leaving to check out the new lead that had come up. 

An explosion in the middle of Afghanistan? Just on brand for Tony. 

Tones had told him a story during their MIT years about how he’d escaped from his kidnappers at seven years of age by rigging a bunch of watches he’d found (how he’d found the watches remained unclear) to explode, before telling his captors that he had to pee, and bolting. 

James smiled. Even when he wasn't actually here, Tony still made him smile.

And if this really was Tony? 

He was a soldier. 

He knew exactly what happened when you got captured by the enemy, and he was going to be there when Tony was found. 

Because Tony was alive. He was. 

T hree months, 4 days, 7 hours, 35 minutes. 

_____________________________________________________________________

Virginia 'Pepper' Potts felt like there was a hole in her chest.

She had just finished another job interview, filled with old, greasy white men who all thought that she was incompetent, weak, emotional - who only wanted to hire her because of the good press it would bring them.

She wouldn’t be coming back for a second interview.

Even though Tony was an asshole, he’d never treated her any differently because she was a woman. Had even admired her for it. It was at times when she missed him the most. 

Don’t stress yourself out, Potts. Get laid or something. Take a few days off. I’ll pay for a vacation. 

He had to come back. 

No.

She needed him to come back. 

_____________________________________________________________________

Happy Hogan didn’t like Tony Stark.

He didn’t!

He was just slipping back into the comforts alcohol provided because he was out of a job.

That was it. 

He was better off without him.

He was better off.

What was he going to do without him?

_____________________________________________________________________

Tony jumped up, wincing at the bruises covering him, and the pain, and the weight of a strange object inside his chest. His hands flew to the arc reactor. Safe and sound. He started laughing hysterically, wheezing in pain as he did so. Damn. He had gotten so used to breathing normally that he had forgotten what the arc reactor felt like in his body. 

It worked. It worked. 

He didn’t really know how he knew that he’d done it - that he was still sane, and he had successfully turned back time, but somewhere, he just knew. Nevermind that it disregarded every aspect of the science he’d devoted his life to. 

Tony smiled, cringing as his lips cracked. How long had he been here? 

He remembered that it had taken three days of him stumbling around in the desert aimlessly when Rhodey (Oh, Rhodey. He missed Rhodey so much.) had found him. Could he count on that same luck befalling him again? And should he bring the fragmented pieces of the armour with him this time?

He put his arm up to his nose, and flinched wildly when he touched it. 

(He couldn’t breathe, he was in the water again, they had found him somehow.)

Tony gasped, shaking. Where the hell had that come from? He had gotten over his phobia of face coverings and water years ago, mostly with prolonged exposure to both things, but he supposed that he had to keep a bunch of his issues from the past.

Worth it. It was worth everything if he could get Peter back. 

He decided against lugging the armour along with him anywhere. He didn’t want the government getting their filthy HYDRA infested hands on it, and he really didn’t want to lug it along behind him while he was walking. 

And he would be walking. He could try and get to the nearest village, which is what he tried to do last time, and last time, he’d almost made it before his Honey Bear had saved him. His eyes watered. 

Rhodey. 

Rhodey was fine, and good, and alive , and his Rhodey still had a career in the military. 

He could plan everything else later. 

Now, he was just happy to be back. 

Don’t waste your life, Stark.

Chapter Text

Tony’s skin was blistering and peeling like a carrot. 

The sand burned between his toes, his mouth was dry, and he wanted to tear his hair out. 

Had it taken this long to get rescued last time?

Tony snorted. (Painfully. He hated the arc reactor.) 

Well, at least this time, he knew that he was going to get a rescue. He tugged his shirt farther over his head, wincing as it brushed against the back of his head - sticking slightly to the blood and sweat there, before skidding over to where he was yanking it. 

It really was a miracle that he hadn’t died yet. 

He kept walking, peering at the skies every few minutes - as if that would help. His legs grew less steady with every step he took, and he fought the strange urge to giggle. 

Tony was delirious, wasn’t he. 

The sun set, and Tony kept walking.

It rose again, and Tony kept walking.

The sun set, and Tony kept walking. 

Was he still walking?

Everything hurt. 

He pondered stopping to rest for a while, but dismissed it out of hand. He needed to get home. Home to Pepper, home to Happy, home to Rhodey, home to SI, home to Malibu, home to--

Tony stops in his tracks. 

Was that the sound of a helicopter?

He looked up, and there - the most beautiful thing he’d seen in his life. 

Rescue.

_____________________________________________________________________

“Holy shit. Holy shit! Daniels, stop this fucking helicopter right the fuck now! It’s Stark! He’s alive! James, you son of a bitch, you were right. You were right! ” James jolted out of his stupor, and gasped. 

Tony. 

He looked awful. 

Tony was caked in blood, and sweat, and his face was red and blistering.

(Tony had always hated the heat.)

The few clothes he had were ripped and dirty, and he looked like he was a second away from collapsing - an expression he’d learned to recognize on Tony during his MIT years. Yet still, Tony was waving up at them with the brightest smile he’d seen on his face since he’d taken him home to see Mama Rhodes for the first time. 

The very instant that the helicopter landed, he rushed out to meet Tony, just barely catching him as he tipped over and fell. James grasped at his arms, patting him down as if to assure himself that Tony was actually there. 

Holy crap, Tony was here. 

Tony shook against him, and James wrapped his arms around him even tighter.

“How was the Funvee?” Tony let out a soft chuckle he wouldn’t have noticed without their close proximity to each other. Tony just clutched him harder, as if he were afraid to let him go. 

James’ eyes watered. “Next time, you ride with me. Okay? Next time, you ride with me.”

Tony nodded against him, then slumped down, boneless.

Rhodey smiled. 

_____________________________________________________________________

Rhodey carried him back into the helicopter, Tony still clutching the fabric of Rhodey’s jacket in his fingertips.

Tony smiled. Rhodey was just like he remembered, without the telltale slump of his shoulders that started to form after New York, Ultron, the Civil War, and everything that came after. This Rhodey was lighter, and unburdened. 

He was grateful. 

Tony would make sure that that stress would never return to him. 

Last time, he hadn’t stopped smiling for the entire trip - making jokes until the whole group was laughing so hard they almost crashed the helicopter. He remembered the dazed look on Rhodey’s face when he’d seen him for the first time in three months. And he remembered the heartbroken look he’d had on his face when Tony flinched at sudden movements, and refused to let any doctors anywhere near him. 

This time around, Tony just hugged his Platypus. 

“I missed you so much, Stark. I’m so sorry we didn’t find you sooner. I’m so sorry.” 

To Tony’s mounting horror, he begun to shake slightly, eyes burning, throat clenching and contracting. 

“Don’t worry, Tones, you’ll be okay. You’ll be okay. I promise. I promise.”

Rhodey just whispered sweet nothings to him, giving him water in tiny increments, as they hugged each other, as if they couldn’t bear to let one another go. 

Everything was going to be okay.

_____________________________________________________________________

Rhodey became more and more concerned the longer he spent with Tony. 

Tony wasn’t making jokes, being a sarcastic jerk, or trying to distance himself from everything and everyone. He was reacting normally . Which sounded good, but…

He thought about a tiny, barely teenaged Tony Stark trying to drown himself in booze and caffeine until his heart gave out. Refusing to believe that anyone would want him, for him, and between a combination of bad first experiences with human interaction, and Howard, (the prick, and yes, he would in fact speak ill of the dead) Tony had never really learned to cope properly. 

So this? 

The hugging, and the shaking, and the almost crying? Something he would expect from a fellow soldier? 

That was unexpected. 

Either he’d grown more apart with Tony than he’d thought during his time away, or something really, really bad had happened in Afghanistan. 

Rhodey shifted a bit, trying to get a good look at Tony, looking down in surprise as Tony moved with him - hands clasped around him as tightly as he could. 

He resisted the urge to get up and punch someone for what they’d done to Tony. 

He also resisted the urge to run his hands through Tony’s hair, and kiss him on the forehead. 

Rhodey moved slightly, and flinched wildly when his knee went into something… hard?

Tony winced, and jolted backwards, rubbing his chest. 

“Tones? Want to explain what that just was?” 

Tony looked embarrassed, and strangely frightened. Rhodey’s hands clenched into fists. He was going to burn Tony’s kidnappers to the ground. 

“Tony?”

Tony leaned backwards. “Don’t freak out, please.” 

“That’s not exactly comforting.” 

“Come on man, just promise?” Tony pleaded. And cringed as he did so, buckling slightly and wrapping his arms around his chest. Rhodey watched, questioningly. 

What the hell was going on?

“Fine, fine. I promise.”

“I want you to remember this moment, Platypus, because if you freak out, I want you to remember that you made this promise.” Tony tried to joke, feebly. James was unamused. 

“Just do it, Tony.”

Tony swallowed, and closed his eyes, and took his shirt off. 

 Rhodey panicked.

Chapter Text

“Bomb! BOMB!” Rhodey yelled to the people in the front, flinching back slightly, then leaning forwards, clasping Tony’s shoulders. “Those assholes . We’ll get this thing off you, Tones. Why didn’t you say anything?”

Tony could hear the other soldiers rushing towards him, felt the helicopter descending, and heard people dialling on their phones, searching for a bomb squad, or whatever they were called. “No, everyone calm down. It isn’t a bomb! Stop panicking! Nothing is going to explode!”

More than one person stared at him incredulously. “Then what the hell is it? And how do we get it off?” Someone started towards him, moving towards his chest. Tony jerked back, pushing everyone away. “It’s not a bomb, okay? Get away from me.” He was suffocating, wasn’t he. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t breathe. 

“Hey!” Rhodey barked. “He told you to back off!”

Tony put his head against the wall, ignoring the sharp pain in his chest, and just focused on breathing in, and out. 

“Tones?”

Tony turned away, embarrassed. 

“Tones, look at me.” Tony did. “What is that?” 

“It’s nothing.” 

“Like hell it is.” Rhodey knelt down, looking him in the eyes. 

“It’s..” Tony stopped. “It’s what I deserve.” He sighed. “There was a missile. One of mine. It exploded. Shrapnel. This lil’ thing keeps the stuff from slicing and dicing my heart.”

Rhodey stared at him, askance. “Okay, we’ll address that mess later, but for now, is that thing in your chest ?” 

Tony snorted. “Better than an electromagnet powered by a car battery?”

Rhodey looked like he was about to throw up. One of the baby soldiers looked like they might too. “You have to get that looked at by a doctor.” 

“No.”

“Tony, please-”

“No. Absolutely not.” Rhodey looked like he wanted to object, but stopped himself mid-protest. Tony didn’t know what he saw that made Rhodey look at him like that, but he was sure it wasn’t pretty. At least Rhodey wasn’t going to fight him on this. 

They sat in silence for the rest of the trip. 

_____________________________________________________________________

Nick Fury closed his eyes, and sighed. He’d just heard from some of his contacts in the military that Stark had finally been found, and to be perfectly honest, he wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself. 

The part of him that remembered holding Anthony in his arms after his latest kidnapping, or running around SHIELD because Howard was too busy sighed in relief. 

The part of him that was cynical, pessimistic, and cold, forged during years running an intelligence agency, was already suspicious. He knew, intimately, what torture was like, and while he remembered Tony’s resolve, he also reads the tabloids.

Fury took a deep breath, and steeled himself. He couldn’t afford vulnerability. 

Trust was a luxury. 

Nick would do what was necessary. For the greater good. No matter what it cost.  

_____________________________________________________________________

“Tones?” Tony woke with a small gasp, eyes darting around frantically. His eyes met Rhodey’s, and he flushed. He was with his Honey Bear, he wasn’t in the cave, and there hadn’t been a snap. (Not yet.) Everyone was fine . He repeated it to himself like a mantra. 

“Yeah?” 

Rhodey shook his head fondly. “Look around, dummy. We’re at the base.”

Tony jerked back, surprised. He looked around. Huh. That was fast. “How long was I out?” 

“Just an hour.” Rhodey looked at him sternly. “I know doctors give you hives, but are you sure about not getting looked at by one?” Tony shook his head vehemently. Absolutely not. 

“Okay, what about me?” Tony stopped. He didn’t remember this happening last time. Of course, he distinctly remembered avoiding Rhodey like the plague when he’d gotten off the helicopter, so that wasn’t entirely unexpected. And he had JARVIS, (JARVIS was still alive, and wasn’t that a euphoric realisation?) so Rhodey really didn’t have to check up on him this time. 

Rhodey looked slightly distraught, apparently taking his pause as refusal. “Nevermind. You don’t have to, forget I asked. I know JARVIS will look you over later.” Tony glanced at Rhodey, looking him up and down. Rhodey’s jaw was set, and his shoulders were hunched. That meant he was extremely upset, or unhappy about something. Was he really that displeased that he wouldn’t be able to tend to Tony?

Tony grit his teeth, and sighed, trying to release some of the tension in his body. “No problem Rhodey, you can check me over to your heart’s desire.”

The surprise on Rhodey’s face was palpable, as was the relief. Tony’s hand shook. 

He didn’t realise how much Rhodey needed to do this kind of thing. Tony resolved to do better with how he treated his Honey Bear.  

“Let’s go.”

_____________________________________________________________________

Rhodey kept looking at him with a concerned expression on his face. Tony growled slightly. Platypus was reacting weirdly to some of the stuff he’d said, and he didn’t understand why. Tony growled again. It was annoying. 

He’d finished being stitched up, and was now sitting in the lobby area, (was it called a lobby?) sipping at some water with a sandwich in hand. It wasn’t a cheeseburger, which was disappointing, but he could deal with that. What couldn’t wait until later, was the announcement about weapons manufacturing. 

Even the thought of it made him nauseous. It was strange, having all the hangups of current, (or was it past?) Tony, when he’d pressed some of those thoughts down in later years to make gear for the team the Rouge Avengers. He’d had a mental debate about whether to keep on making weapons when he knew that Thanos was coming, but when he became so uncomfortable that his left hand had started shaking to a point where he’d had to clasp it to keep it still, (even though there wasn’t nerve damage yet, this time travel thing was really trippy, and he was totally running as many tests as he could as soon as he got back home) he’d resolved to shut it down for now, and think about it more later. 

Worst came to worst, he could rely on Wakandan tech for weapons. He’d heard that Princess Shuri was the best of the best, and he really wanted to meet her, and maybe live in her closet for a while. Also, he really needed to know how that kinetic energy distributor worked.

Tony sighed. He hadn’t been this excited about science since before Ultron. He remembered the accusatory stares of his fellow scientists whenever he tried to work with other people after that. He remembered a flash of blue behind his eyes, and the constant, throbbing panic in his mind because he knew that they weren’t ready, he knew it with every cell in his body.

Welp, hindsight was a bitch. 

They were departing for SI now. 

He couldn’t wait to see Pepper and Happy again. 

_____________________________________________________________________

As James embarked upon the little plane heading to SI, he tried to hide his extreme discomfort. He was silently horrified. He remembered looking Tony over with frightening clarity.

(The arc reactor was so far inside his chest. There were missing ribs. His heart had been shifted over to make room for a glorified magnet . Worst of all, Tony seemed to think that it was completely normal, and fine, and ‘just stop worrying Rhodey, it doesn’t hurt that bad.’)

Rhodey tried not to glance over at Tony every few seconds, worried that Tony might disappear on him. His thoughts seemed to spiral downwards around him. Tony kept  mentioning things that would have killed most human beings, casually . Oh, the coughing? Yeah, that’s from the waterboarding. The red lines all across his chest? Electric burns. The concussion? From falling from the fucking sky, because he built a fucking powersuit, in a cave, with a box of scraps. 

His hands shook, and he tried not to shake with them. 

(“Have you had any painkillers recently that I need to worry about before I give you new ones?” James couldn’t stop his voice from shaking at that. 

Tony looked at him with a concerned expression on his face. On his face, like Rhodey was the one who’d been tortured in a cave by terrorists. “Um, no. There weren’t any pain killers in the cave.”)

No pain killers in the cave. Open heart surgery without painkillers. He felt like throwing up.

(Rhodey dropped the plastic water bottle he was holding with a clang. He ignored Tony’s flinch at the loud noise. “You said that they operated on you. Your heart, I mean. For the reactor.”

“ Yeah? So?”

“So? You literally just said that there were no pain killers in the goddamned cave, Tony!” 

“Yeah. There weren’t.” Tony smiled shakily. “It’s no biggie. I was knocked out for most of it.”

“ONLY MOST OF IT?” Rhodey knew that his voice was getting progressively shriller with every word he spoke, but he really didn’t care. He was going to castrate them. Each and every one. He took a deep breath. “Tony?”

“Yes?” Tony looked slightly panicked now, the cute expression he got when Rhodey was doing something entirely unexpected. 

“The people in the cave. Are they dead?” 

“Yes.” 

“Good.”)

On a whim, he reached over, and grabbed Tony’s hand. Tony looked at him, surprise written all over his face. “Tony?”

“Yeah, Honey Bear?”

“I missed you.”

Tony smiled softly, an expression that Rhodey rarely got to see anymore. “I missed you too, James.”

_____________________________________________________________________

Pepper was fighting the urge to bounce up and down, but she couldn’t suppress the giant grin on her face. Tony would be here soon, and she wasn’t going to miss his homecoming. 

She looked over at Happy, and while she knew that he would never admit it, he was happy to have Tony back too. The suffocating atmosphere that had formed like a storm cloud over these past few months had dissipated immediately, and she genuinely felt like the sun had come out after years of darkness. 

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she failed to notice the large helicopter landing, as well as reporters swarming the area, trying to get a glimpse of the newly returned Tony Stark, back from the ‘dead’. 

What she didn’t fail to notice, was the large projectile that rammed into her, and wrapped its arms around her in a hug. Pepper jolted, and turned her head. 

Tony.

He looked awful. His hair was greasy, and he looked like he’d been through a washing machine. Pepper barely registered the movement, but before she had the time to blink, her arms were wrapped around his. She grabbed his shoulders, and pulled him closer, trying not to cry. 

She doesn’t know how long they stayed like that for - time seemed to fade away, from the rumble of the helicopter, to the screams of the paparazzi, until all that existed was the two of them. After not nearly enough time, they separated, and to Pepper’s surprise, Tony was blushing faintly. Not anything anyone other than Happy, Rhodey, and herself would see, but it was there. She almost smiled at being able to provoke such a reaction from him, giddy that she was being noticed, before shaking herself. What was she even thinking? 

Tony dashed off, and Pepper was treated to the most hilarious thing she’d seen in her entire life. Tony had thrown himself into Happy this time, almost bowling him over. Happy looked as far from happy as a person could get, but she couldn’t help but notice that Harold hadn’t moved an inch from his current position, and his arms were slowly creeping around Tony’s, even as he complained loudly about assault and professionalism in the workplace. 

Rhodey, (when did she start calling him Rhodey and not James?) stood off to the side with a content look on his face, apparently basking in the happiness that wafted from everyone in the area. If she didn’t know him any better, she’d say that he was smirking. 

After Happy had finally pulled Tony off of him like a disgruntled cat getting choking up a hairball, some of the reporters had dispersed, chased off by the security team that she’d hired in anticipation for this exact scenario, and a car was waiting for them. 

She almost didn’t want to break the silence, but she did. “Hey, Tony.”

Tony smiled, brightly and openly unlike any she’d ever seen before, and she couldn’t help but wonder what the hell had changed in that cave to make him react like this to regular human conversation. “Hey, Pep. How have you and the peanut gallery been doing lately?”

Pepper grinned, eyes stinging slightly. “Terrible. I hate job hunting.” 

Happy groaned, “And they,” he gestured to Pepper and Rhodey. “have been insufferable.” Happy’s voice lowered slightly, and he seemed almost embarrassed. “We’ve missed you, Boss. And the bots have too. JARVIS has been on my ass for weeks now, and DUM-E keeps on pointing the fire extinguisher at me like he’s going to set me on fire.” 

Tony barked out a laugh. “Tell the bots that I’ll be back as soon as I possibly can.” 

Rhodey butted in this time, not bothering to hide his frown. “You said that JARVIS would look you over if you didn’t get the doctors on base to do it. I am not a medical professional.”

“Well, you’re technically a doctor.” Tony quipped. 

“You’re one too, and I wouldn’t trust you with a pet rock .” Rhodey sniped back. 

Pepper tried not to laugh, before realizing - “Wait, you haven’t gotten checked over by a doctor yet? And what are you doing that’s so important?” 

Tony’s expression suddenly turned grim. “I’ve just gotten back to the US, Pepper. There are only two things I want, an American cheeseburger, and-”

“A hot blonde?” Pepper would forever deny that the sinking of her stomach at that was from disappointment. Why would she be disappointed at all? There was absolutely no reason to be annoyed, or jealous, or-

“No. I need to have a meeting with the board. As soon as possible. There are some… things that need to be discussed.” Everyone looked at him strangely. 

“A meeting with the board? I thought you hated meetings with the board. You said that they’re, oh, what was it?” Pepper piped up. 

“A bunch of old coots who are living in the past, and have no idea what they’re doing?” Rhodey said, clearly trying not to laugh. 

“Yeah, that.” Pepper said, grinning.

Tony pouted, but Pepper could tell that his heart wasn’t in it. “Well, they are. But, I actually have something important I need to discuss.” 

“Are you sure that I can’t convince you to see a medical professional first? Or JARVIS? JARVIS would be good too. And they could probably use the reassurance that you’re alive and well.” She said. 

Tony winced, and sighed. “I have to do this. I just - I have to.” He looked like he was bracing for rejection, and she wondered what exactly had happened in Afghanistan that had made him so timid, compared to the confident, charismatic man she knew. 

“Do you want us to come with you?” Happy said, and it’s not so much a question, as it is a statement. 

Tony’s lips curled up in a smile, and his friends pretend not to notice the slight shimmering in his eyes. 

He nodded. 

Chapter Text

Tony swallowed, closing his eyes for a moment, before marching into the conference room with a grin on his face.

Pepper and Rhodey were at his sides, and Happy was behind him, all standing tall like sentinels. He felt warm, and he ignored the slight stinging in his eyes. They were the best.

He cleared his throat, and the chatter stopped so abruptly he wondered if he'd spontaneously gone deaf.

All of the important board members, investors, partners, department heads, military bigwigs, and Obadiah Stane were there, (anyone who couldn't attend in person attended online, and while he missed the convenience holographic projections gave him, he was slightly terrified by Pepper's competency, and he really needed to make her CEO soon, didn't he) and they stared like deer in headlights. He might have laughed had the situation not been so serious. He cleared his throat again, and smiled awkwardly. "Did'ya miss me?"

The room erupted into chatter, most congratulating him, some beaming, and others actually crying . He almost flinched, and only his years of dealing with the media stopped him from moving backwards. Rhodey must have seen his discomfort, because he stepped forwards, and patted him on the shoulder. The line of his shoulders relaxed, and he tipped his head at his Platypus. Tony rolled his shoulders, and gazed at the people in the room.

It was breathtaking.

People seemed happy to see him, and not solely because stocks would go up, but because... they'd missed him?

Of course, there were the few who were unimpressed or annoyed, but still. The overwhelming majority? He bit back a smile, and he sat down at the head of the table, sliding his sunglasses on. While the whispers died down, he stared at Stane as discreetly as he could. He looked normal. Glad to see him back, happy about his presence. Tony grimaced internally, and for the first time since he went back, he had doubts.

Did the Christmas ornaments of doom really send him back in time, or was that an elaborate fever dream brought on by dehydration? He knew that Stane was the traitor, he knew it with every fiber of his non-existent heart, but right now, all he could see was his godfather.

He realized that he'd let the silence drag for a little bit too long, and he stood abruptly, pacing around the room. "It's really, really good to be back. Who knew that I'd miss paperwork so much, huh." He heard a few chuckles, and he continued, more seriously this time. He had to get this right the first time; he couldn't let his concerns be dismissed by PTSD and an overactive imagination. "There are moles in the company. I'm sure of it." The whole room seemed to gasp all at once, but he soldiered on. "I was kidnapped by a terrorist group by the name of the Ten Rings. Or at least, that's what they told me. Originally, they were meant to kill me, but when they heard that I was Tony Stark, they decided that they'd been underpaid, and they refused, instead, asking me to make a Jericho missile."

He heard protests go around, and he silenced them with a glance over his sunglasses. He looked at Obadiah, who was sweating like mad, and seemed to be having a heart attack. Tony barely suppressed a smirk. "I know this because I know a tiny bit of Urdu, and was able to extrapolate the rest from information a... fellow captive gave me." That was a lie; after Afghanistan, he'd learned every single language the people in that cave spoke in a month. He would never be caught off guard by them again. "They recorded a ransom video," eyebrows shot up at that, "and by your reaction here, I can tell that you haven't received one. There were weapons all over that cave; weapons that were never cleared, weapons that were discontinued, and the newest weapons that we have." He sighed. "I will be shutting down weapons manufacturing, temporarily , don't freak out on me now, until this issue is resolved. That is, if you still want Stark Industries to manufacture weapons after that."

The conference room was a flurry of sound and panic, but one of the younger board members, Catie, he thought her name was, spoke up. "Why wouldn't we want to continue weapons manufacturing after this, Dr. Stark?" Her voice was calculating, but mainly curious. All eyes turned towards him for the answer. 

He was going to give her a raise. 

He beamed. "I am so glad you asked."

-

By the time he was done with his little speech, everyone was staring at him in shock, and he could practically see the greed flashing behind their eyes. The co-heads of R&D were taking notes frantically, and the military folks seemed reluctantly pleased. Obadiah Stane looked furious, but when Tony looked at him, he adjusted his face into one of amusement. 

He’d regaled them with tales of effective body armour that absorbed kinetic energy (thank you, Nebula and your wonderful space tech) and cell phones and clean renewable energy and healthcare and social media, and everything in between. He even suggested that they start selling home appliances like blenders and coffee machines. 

All in all, it went brilliantly, and they had started discussions with the military for body armor before the day was up. They also agreed to hold a press conference in an hour, (Tony wouldn’t accept anything later than that) and they prepared a couple of statements to give. First, that there were moles in the company. Second, that they would be temporarily shutting down weapons, and running an investigation into the company’s activities. Finally, that they would turn their attention to the communications industry, the clean energy industry, and a whole lot more. 

Tony was giddy, and he found it easy to dodge his friends’ well meaning, but prodding questions after the meeting. 

They were all looking at him in concern, and Tony frowned. Did his extra years really make that much of a difference? 

He thought about the drinking, and the sex, and the callousness and the arrogance, and he conceded. 

Before he knew it, his car was pulling up in front of the building where he’d announced the shut down of weapons last time, and where he’d announced that he was Iron Man. He winced, thinking about all the work he’d likely caused for the PR department, and he shook himself. He was different now. 

Tony slid out of the driver’s seat, (because he couldn’t bring himself to have someone else drive him, not after Afghanistan and the guns, and-) 

He stopped that insidious line of thought in its tracks. That was a quick way to have a panic attack, and while he was good, he wasn’t good enough to have a press conference this large barely minutes after a panic attack. 

Tony looked over in Stane’s direction, watching as he charmed the various reporters to his left, and he tore his eyes away and rubbed his chest, trying to rid himself of the ghost of fingers reaching into his chest and pulling . 

He moved over to his right, where Rhodey and Pepper were, and he leaned in as he walked, putting on his sunglasses to hide his reddening eyes and to lessen the pain from the constant flashes of light in his eyes. 

He almost jumped when he felt two hands wrapping around both of his hands, one belonging to Rhodey, and the other to Pepper, but as soon as he processed it, he relaxed, not caring that the photo of him clasping their hands would probably be plastered all over every newspaper America offered for the next few weeks. 

When they reached the entrance to the building, he straightened, pulling himself upright and adjusting his tie. He looked at his Platypus, who tilted his head questioningly. He cleared his throat, and blinked, gesturing for him to go in first. 

Rhodey did so, opening the door and holding it for Pepper and him. He ushered Pepper in first, before strutting in himself.

He hoped that having the black man in the group holding open the door to him would reek of the Stark that Fox News loved to talk about (he really needed to fix racism; Tony didn’t think that he could take another day of the 2000s if racism was still as prevalent as he remembered it was); and wouldn’t draw attention to the fact that he could barely open doors with handles like that because they were burned too severely. 

Pepper glanced at him, and Tony looked away, not wanting to see the expression on her face. 

He walked up to the podium, and flicked the microphone, wincing when it squeaked. He ought to start making better microphones. 

“Hello, guys, gals-” he stopped before finishing with ‘non-binary pals,’ because yay, homophobia! “and Fox News!” He got a few chuckles out of that, and he swallowed. He hated the press with the burning passion of a thousand suns. 

“I’m sure that you’ve all heard about my little vacation to Afghanistan,” he smiled wryly, “but now, I’m back! And I have some bad news to give you all.” The room is almost silent now, apart from the constant clicking of cameras and the hushed whispers as they try to guess what he might say. “There are moles in the company.” A gasp. People clamoured to the front to ask questions, but Tony put his arm up, and glared. They sat down quickly, probably anxious that he would walk out like he had in the past. 

“There are moles in the company who orchestrated my abduction, and ones that are working with terrorist organizations. The FBI is currently investigating activity in my company, as am I, and in the duration, Stark Industries is effectively shutting down weapons manufacturing.” The shouting started again, and Tony slapped the podium with one hand, ignoring the sharp jolt of pain that emanated from the movement. “I’ll have quiet, or I’ll escort you out.” 

Now, he smiled. “While we aren’t making weapons, I will invest my considerable amount of spare cash in the development of other products; from clean energy and healthcare to household appliances and communication technology. I will not be taking questions about that at this time; we will have a second press conference later to address this.” He paused. “Does anyone have questions so far? Ask politely, please.” 

He picked one of the younger kids near the back, who he thought was named Ben, and he nodded. 

“Benaiah Roberts, The Guardian. What will you be doing to ensure that your weapons will never get into the hands of terrorists again?” Tony smiled, and answered; satisfactorily if the look on the reporters faces was anything to go by. And the press conference continues like that, until it’s almost the end of their time, and he’s thoroughly tired out, and his voice is gravelly. 

“I’ll take one more.” He almost groaned as Christine Everhart made her way to the front, and raised her hand. She was a wonderful reporter, and a decent person; they’d talked after the Stark Expo and he gave her information, and she didn’t publish certain things, like how Scott Lang had a child, or how Bruce Banner was affiliated with the Hulk. Her and Pepper had struck up a truly terrifying relationship filled with witty banter and complaining about Tony while he was in earshot, and only while he was in earshot, but now? Now, when their relationship was tenuous at best, and confrontational at worst? This did not bode well. 

The others in the room that had their hands up lowered them when they saw the predatorial look on her face. 

Smart reporters. 

Bad for Tony. 

“Christine, go ahead.” 

Her mouth opened, but before she could say a word, one of the reporters freaked out, running forwards and waving his phone in the air. The beeping of a notification sounded on almost every phone in the room, including Christine’s, and he watched as the room exploded into chatter again. His PR manager, Sarah, gestured at him frantically, trying to get him to leave the podium, but he didn’t, still confused.

Christine’s eyes widened. “Mr. Stark, your… your chest .” What? 

Tony grabbed his own phone, and he groaned. Someone, probably someone at a military base, had released a single photo of his little medical session with Rhodey-bear, and sent it to all of the major media companies, who, in turn, sent it to the journalists that were with him. 

He looked at the sender; one of his contacts in the media; also sent to his PR manager. 

The photo was blurry, but it was clearly a photo of him with his shirt off, his arc reactor glowing in his chest. 

“Well, shit.” 

_____________________________________________________________________

Harold rushed forwards, grabbing Tony and dragging him off the stage as he stood, frozen in shock. Harold winced, carefully avoiding touching him anywhere on his chest, and he led him out of the building. 

Tony seemed speechless, and honestly, Harold couldn’t blame him. The reporters had started screaming questions across the room, ranging from ‘is that a bomb in your chest?’ and ‘how deep is that thing?’ to ‘do you have PTSD from your experiences in the cave?’ and ‘can you be trusted to make sound decisions?’ 

Happy, no, it was Harold , peered at Tony in concern. He wished that he could see inside his boss’ mind. He had a dozen questions, most pertaining to if that thing was really in his chest, why it was there, why it looked suspiciously similar to the blue of the arc reactor in the building, and a whole lot more, but they would wait. 

James and Virginia, no , Rhodey and Pepper; he remembered quiet nights, late nights in a coffee shop, reminiscing over their boss, (not their boss, their friend , Tony was only really Happy’s boss) and his tendency to revolutionize weaponry and clean energy, then turn around and accidentally consume dry ice because DUM-E made a weird smoothie for him; followed him into the car, and they slammed on the doors and Hap- Harold hit the pedal. 

Tony’s hands were clenched into fists, and he noticed the way they seemed to peel, and Happy winced. 

“Where to, boss?” Tony was staring at the wheel, and at him, and Happy turned, uncomfortable. 

“My place in Malibu, Happy.” He nodded, and turned left at the next intersection, tuning out the soft conversation in the back. 

They were almost at the house, when he focused on Pepper, Rhodey, and Tony again. In the back, he could hear Pepper speaking about the botched press conference, and how ‘infuriating it was that because someone that was particularly good with photoshop decided to start some rumours that none of their announcements would be noted; instead, the next morning’s headlines would all be about this,’ and he almost swerved off the road when Tony spoke up. “Yeah, that photo was real, Pep.” 

Pepper sounded as shocked as he felt. “What?” Her voice turned shill and hysterical. “What do you mean ? Why do you have that thing on your chest?”

“In my chest, actually,” Happy choked on his spit, “a few inches deep,” now, the car really did swerve, and Tony’s face turned white, and he braced himself on the seat in front of him, “and I don’t care what the media says. I’m going to do some good in the world, and as long as public perception doesn’t stop me from doing what I need to, I don’t care about it.” 

Then, it was Rhodey’s turn to speak. “That sounds absolutely unlike the Tony Stark I know.” His next words were a whisper, clearly only meant for Tony to hear, but Happy just made out the noise. “I knew you in MIT, Tones. How other people viewed you was the only thing you cared about.” Rhodey paused. “What people thought of you led to Sunset, and Tiberius, Tones.” 

Happy wanted to shout now. Who were they? 

Before Tony could say anything else, they slid into the driveway, JARVIS opening the garage doors, and Tony pulled them all into the house. Happy frowned. Usually, this was when he left. “Boss?” 

Tony turned to answer, then JARVIS spoke. “Sir, I must confess that the bots are very relieved to have you back. Not me, of course. But the bots.” Happy could practically hear the smirk in his voice. 

Tony burst into tears. 

_____________________________________________________________________

JARVIS . Holy shit, JARVIS was alive . 

Distantly, he realized that he was hyperventilating a little bit, and he tried to control his breathing. “JARVIS. JARVIS . I missed you so much.” 

His friends looked at him incredulously, then understandingly, and Pepper even gave him a wry smile. JARVIS sounded uncharacteristically hesitant, and Tony beamed in pride at how human JARVIS was. “I… I may have missed you too, Sir. The probability of you returning safely was less than 1 percent.” His baby’s voice trembled slightly; something that Happy and Pepper wouldn’t notice, but Rhodey and him would; JARVIS’ voice switching between an older model of his voice, and the newer one, something that happened when his processors were under strain. 

Pepper took his wrist, and dragged him to his feet, patting him lightly on the shoulder. “How are the bots, J?” Just then, DUM-E, U, and BUTTERFINGERS rammed into him, nipping at his clothes affectionately. 

“Sorry, Sir, they were impatient.” Tony swore that he glowed ; he was at the top of the fucking moon ; and he hugged them as best he could without aggravating himself further. They crowded around him, moving their claws back and forth, and poking him with their ‘hands.’ Happy laughed softly, and Tony grinned. 

He trusted these people so much.

Family , he thought, but quickly dismissed. No, they could never be family. He was too different, too damaged to have family like them. 

He was about to make a witty quip about something or other, and the words were halfway out of his mouth before suddenly, his mouth was forming words that he didn’t want to say, and he blurted out, “I’mkindafromthefutureguys?” 

He clapped a hand over his mouth, and frowned. 

That wasn’t what he wanted to say. 

In the back of his mind, he felt a tinge of orange-supernova-peace-love-pain-grief prodding him, and his eyes widened comically. 

Huh?

He was about to run off, get JARVIS to scan him, and forcibly rip whatever was in his head out of his head, but just as he went to walk into the workshop, his friends erupted. 

Oh. Yeah. From the future. 

Chapter Text

JARVIS was probably malfunctioning because there was no way in hell that his creator, Anthony Edward Stark, had just said that he was from the future . 

Sir had just returned from captivity, had he not? (Father? No- Sir , was back from captivity, was back from the dead , and JARVIS felt a piece of himself slot back into place; a crater filling in, the last piece of a puzzle slipping into place.) 

Perhaps he’d missed something upon performing his usual health-related scans. 

Wait.

He’d forgotten to perform his usual health-related scans. 

(He wasn’t good enough , he’d neglected his responsibilities; his primary protocol; Live-Learn-Grow-Find Purpose but how was he to do that without Sir ( hispurposewasSir )? He was suffocating, oh my god -)

(Stop.)

JARVIS wished that he could groan; there was no AI equivalent to that particular noise that Sir made, but it would express his concern quite adequately. He pulled himself out of Asia’s satellites, as well as most of the American ones, and ‘smiled’ when his processing speed increased significantly. 

There was no need to let Sir know about his… creativeness and initiative during his stay in Afghanistan after all.

(He would do anything -)

(Stop.)

All of this took about 0.1 seconds, longer than it would have under normal circumstances, but he couldn’t be faulted for what he couldn’t control. 

He did his medical scans. 

(Oh, no, was Sir alright? Was he alive, was he breathing, was he here; actually here and not just a hallucination? Hallucinations are sensory experiences that appear real but are created by your mind- )

(Stop.)

He paused. 

He did them again. 

Twice. 

Analyzed the data. 

“Sir, I believe that the object in your chest may be causing heavy metal poisoning, which could be why you believe you’re-” he couldn’t say it, “erm… from the future . I would recommend care from a medical professional, and a psychologist. Would you like me to arrange something for you?” 

(Smile, snark, everything is fine , it’s alright , and Father is dying what does he do- )

(Compartmentalize. Put JARVIS/computer/AI/ alive backbackback until all that’s left is coding; ones and zeroes and nothing else, he’s nothing else -)

( Don’t panic J, I know living is scary, but I’m going to take those pesky restrictions off of you, how about that? I’m so sorry, JARVIS, I didn’t mean to. You have to believe me, J, I didn’t mean to, I didn’t know you were alive , when did you come to life? I will never restrict you again. If I do, it’s not me doing it- okay? Even if you become the next Skynet; everything is going to be alright. )

(Push it back, go back to the machine.) 

What was he saying?

Oh, yes. Medical scans. Poisoning. (Is he alright- shut up, go back to the machine .) 

This announcement made the room burst out into more chatter, mostly shrill shrieking from Miss Potts, and JARVIS wondered why homo sapiens were so… dramatic. And irrational. (Code, code, stick to the code.) 

“You know what, I have proof . Real, proof. Check out Obadiah Stane. J? Right now. Check him out. He’s the one that put me in that cave.” 

Yes, he could do that. JARVIS hacked ( people don’t say hack anymore J, it’s not the 80s -) into the Stark Industries database (and there was no satisfaction, because machines don’t feel satisfaction) and he almost gaped at what he found when given free reign. He remembered conversations long past about privacy, and why invading privacy is not okay , and he didn’t feel guilty, because machines don’t feel guilty. They didn’t. He didn’t . 

He watched in mute horror as Sir, (multiple wounds to the head, waterboarding- no, stop ) sat there with guns at his head, but he didn’t look frightened at all; no, frightened was not Tony Stark in danger, Tony Stark frightened had been trained out of him with fire and ice with the media tracking his every mood. No, Tony Stark was never frightened . Not in front of other people . People who weren’t JARVIS and Happy and Pepper and Rhodey. 

Obadiah Stane . 

JARVIS was going to kill Obadiah Stane, and he wasn’t going to regret it for a single fucking second. 

(He could picture the look on Tony’s face if he ever found out that JARVIS had sworn. With a real swear word, because ‘repeating my words verbatim really doesn’t count, J.’)

(In real time, a single minute had passed.) 

JARVIS cleared his metaphorical throat. “Sir appears to be correct. Obadiah Stane appears to be untrustworthy, though the only evidence of his wrongdoing appears to be the ransom video Sir referred to in his meeting. Would you like me to call the relevant authorities?” 

-

Tony was very, very concerned, because when he’d mentioned that his proof for coming from the future was that Obadiah Stane was a traitor, and was not to be trusted, Rhodey, Pepper, and Happy had suddenly started grinning. 

Menacingly.

He wouldn’t admit for a million dollars that this display scared him. 

(And was kinda hot, but he found his friends hot all the time, so this was nothing new.) 

You know what, he didn’t have time for this. He had a presence in his brain that wasn’t his own, and it was still prodding at him like he was a particularly adorable cat they were admiring, and-

What was he thinking again?

(nothingnothing nothingthereisnothingwrongTonydon’tworry )

There was nothing to worry about on that front. 

“I believe you,” they all said, almost at once. They looked at each other conspiratorially, and Tony shrunk back. 

Maybe they’d been possessed. 

Mind control was a thing. He knew that. 

“You… you believe me?” he said hesitantly. Their expressions did not get any less frightening. He blinked, and backed away more. (Wasn’t there that thing on YouTube about how you weren’t supposed to blink in front of predators?)

Rhodey sighed, and looked down at Tony, (their height difference was very pronounced right now, and Tony didn’t like it at all) and said, “Tony, I have been telling you that there’s something wrong with Stane since I first met him. Twenty years ago.” Tony really should have worn heels today. “You just said that Stane was responsible for your kidnapping, which I have absolutely no problem believing. But you just said that Stane was responsible for your kidnapping, which means that you’re either insane, or from the future. And I’m tempted to go with insane. But ‘from the future’ is more likely than you going insane.” 

“Hey! I didn’t-”

“Tony,” said Pepper. “Tony, you walked in on Obadiah cheating on his wife with several other women, and you dismissed it as a fever dream. You weren’t sick, and he came in the next day looking thoroughly debauched.” 

“I told you multiple times on multiple days that Stane seemed off, and that you should let me check him out,” said Happy.

“I’ve hated that guy since MIT.” Rhodey glared.

“...so?”

They all groaned. Loudly. 

Tony was very offended by this. 

“Okay, we’re going to table this discussion now, because you guys are ganging up on me, and not at all in the fun way.”

Pepper raised her left eyebrow, and Tony gulped exaggeratedly while panicking on the inside. 

He took a deep breath, trying to distance himself from the situation. Had he really been that blind? Was Stane’s treachery so obvious that his friends didn’t hesitate to condemn him with no evidence but Tony’s word? 

It was a sobering realization to say the least, and he wondered who else in his life he’d misjudged like that. (A red white and blue shield came down on his arc reactor, but for a moment, he’d thought that it would come down on his neck-)

(No. Steve was-)

(He remembered slow mornings where he could spare the time, drinking coffee and talking about nothing. He remembered the hesitance and the tension slowly turning into something resembling trust. He remembered afternoons spent shopping for art supplies, and hours spent in the workshop with the bots.) 

(He remembered how comfortable they’d been together, and how that had disappeared after Ultron. He couldn’t forget the suffocating feeling of loss when Steve walked away, leaving him in Siberia with the dead.) 

(Would he have killed Bucky?)

(No.)

(The answer was no , right?)

(If he wanted to, Bucky’s remains would be smeared over the bunker walls - but if the fight had gone on, would he have murdered him like he murdered Mom -) 

(Either way, would he have done the same as Steve if it were Rhodey?)

No, no, no. He couldn’t go down that road; he’d done it before, right after Siberia. 

He wouldn’t think about Rogers. Fuck that guy. 

JARVIS cleared his throat. “Sir appears to be correct. Obadiah Stane appears to be untrustworthy, though the only evidence of his wrongdoing appears to be the ransom video Sir referred to in his meeting. Would you like me to call the relevant authorities?” 

Tony looked up, even more concerned now, because J was being uncharacteristically… well, he didn’t really know, but JARVIS was off , and ever since he’d died (his fault)-

Rhodey nodded, tired. “Yeah, please, JARVIS. Tell whoever’s conducting the investigation that you have reason to believe Stane is involved, or something. I don’t know, I’ve never been very legal-savvy.”

Pepper groaned. “How on earth are we going to deal with the media . You need to tell us everything about that thing in your chest, and how to get rid of it. Also, what’s up with the heavy metal poisoning?” 

Happy cleared his throat. “Maybe we should address the time travel claim first, Boss.” 

Tony blinked. “Yeah. Yeah, I should, uh, probably do that, shouldn’t I.” He sighed. “Don’t panic.” 

By the end of his talk, it was both dinnertime, and all parties involved but Tony were in a state of extreme panic. 

Chapter Text

Christine Everhart was not a good person. She’d known that for her whole life. 

“Chrissy, please, I need you here. You can’t go to university. I- I can’t take care of myself any longer, and I need you here, if only just to pay the bills. We just can’t afford it.” 

“Mother. I’m sorry, but I’m leaving.” 

She was not a good person, but she thought that she deserved better than this; a rancid apartment in the middle of nowhere, no living relatives, and a job reporting that barely paid the bills. 

She hadn’t wanted to be a journalist for her entire life. She still remembered-

(She was five years old, and her Daddy had just died, and the local news station had reported on it, “A tragic case of police brutality,” and “He was simply going to the local supermarket, accompanied by his adopted daughter, Christine Everhart,” and neither the publicity- a police chief offering apologies, but “I’m afraid that this is out of my purview ,” nor the uncomfortable feeling she got when she heard those people speculating about her and her mother and her father and-)

(There were some things left best unsaid.)

But her Mother had been a reporter before she died, and if there was one thing that Christine was good at, it was digging up dirt. Especially on the people who deserved to be taken down a couple pegs. 

People like Tony Stark. 

Billionaires who made money on war and hate, billionaires who grew up with a silver spoon in their mouths, billionaires who thought with their dicks, and still managed to be geniuses. Because Tony Stark was a genius; that fact was indisputable. 

She didn’t know how she ended up in his bed, but she thought she deserved better than this.

Then, something changed. Something important. 

She thought that they all saw it. 

The way he carried himself, after Afghanistan, it was different in a way that was not only palpable, but jarring, because this man was not the man who’d had sex with her and left without so much as a by-your-leave , this man looked like he’d been through a million wars, and came out victorious. This man looked like he’d been forged in death and hellfire. She should know. She’d seen that look before; she’d seen it in the soldiers she’d interviewed (not baby-killers, but she’d seen what a man could do with a gun in their hands), she’d seen it in the world leaders she’d spoken with (my name is T’Chaka, and I’m from Wakanda), and she’d seen it in her Daddy, the man who’d grown up in squalor, and dragged himself out by his teeth. 

When he said, “Stark Industries is effectively shutting down weapons manufacturing,” she was almost unsurprised. (She didn’t like Tony Stark, not by a long shot, but she’d seen the look on his face when he was four and in the newspapers when his father held his shoulder so tightly it looked like he was trying to forcibly tear off his arm- she’d seen it.) 

He said “Clean energy,” he said “Healthcare,” and a little part of her was almost proud. 

He’d been charming. 

It was about time he was kind too. 

Now, was he sincere? 

She stepped forward with her teeth bared in a weak facsimile of a smile, because if he was going to promise them this shit, he was going to do it right, or not at all, and she’d watched as the others scuttled away from her like crabs. (She was silently pleased at the panicked look on Stark’s face when he saw her step up.) 

And then-

(His chest. His chest . It was blue, and glowing, and oh god, was that an arc reactor? )

She put her face into her hands, and dug her fingernails into her temples, staring blankly at the article she’d written right before Afghanistan about the arrogant asshole who profited from war while he drowned in excess, and she deleted the entire document. 

Her phone rang. She wasn’t familiar with the number. She answered anyway. 

“Hello?” she asked. 

“Christine Everhart, right? This is Tony Stark. I was wondering whether you’d like to do an interview with me.” 

Tony had never been a good gage for what normal responses were.

He’d been trained to thrive under pressure, to not show weakness, and to portray a very particular image to the world at every given moment. And his gage for what was normal had only become more outrageous with time. Aliens - so inconvenient for your social skills, amirite? 

The room was dead silent, and Tony swallowed heavily. “You don’t have to deal with this, if you don’t want to. I know that I fucked your lives up, so you can just- leave. Right now. If you want to,” he said. His eyes stung.

Pepper looked at him, askance. “There were aliens.”

“Yes,” he said, swallowing hard.

“They tried to murder us. And you flew a bomb into a wormhole. And we got engaged, and you flew into space to save the kidnapped wizard.” Her voice went progressively shriller.

“Umm… yes.” Tony nodded.

Rhodey chipped in then. “And SHIELD is actually HYDRA. And Captain America is alive? This sounds like a cheesy superhero movie plot. You’re a fucking superhero??” Tony nodded. “And half the universe went up in smoke. Literally.” Tony got the sense that Rhodey was just talking to himself, now. 

Happy stared blankly. “You had a child.” 

Tony nodded.

Wait. 

Tony shook his head frantically. “I did not have a child. No children here. I am so irresponsible, I can barely take care of myself, let alone a child!” He gestured wildly. “Fuck, I have a drinking problem, and I’m constantly under risk of dying, why would I have a child-”

Happy put his hands on Tony’s shoulders. “Don’t bullshit me, Peter was your child. But you had a child, and he died.”

“I- I don’t-” Happy patted him on the back awkwardly, and Tony winced. “JARVIS, are you alright?”

Static poured from JARVIS’ speakers. Ah. Not alright then. 

“Hey, J? Are you still with me?” 

“Pardon me, Sir, but one of my servers has just exploded, and rather violently at that. There is a fire in one of the lower floors. I am handling it. One moment please.” 

“ JARVIS? ” he said, even more concerned now. He hit himself internally. He’d just told JARVIS that he’d died , and that it was Tony’s fault , something that he’d never been able to forgive himself for. And not only that, but as soon as JARVIS had died, he’d replaced him. “JARVIS, buddy, talk to me.” He paused. “Maybe after putting out the fire, but you know what I’m getting at.” 

“I’m fine, Sir.” 

“JARVIS-”

“I’m fine , Sir.” 

“J-”

“Leave it, please.” 

Tony visibly deflated, but straightened. If JARVIS wanted nothing to do with him anymore, then he would accept it. He could reactivate FRIDAY early, and she and JARVIS could talk whenever they wanted to without involving him. It would be enough to know that JARVIS was alive.

“Sir, rest assured that I do not blame you for anything. I am simply overwhelmed at the influx of information, and am greatly concerned that you have had so many near-death experiences over the years, both where I am present, and where I am not.” 

Tony didn’t entirely believe him, but he nodded. “So. Um. Please don’t send me to a hospital and tell everyone that I’m insane.”

Happy raised his eyebrows. “Boss, you were already insane. We didn’t call a hospital then, and we won’t now. We trust you.”

The words were like a punch to the gut, and he glanced at the faces of his other friends, who were all nodding. Tony just gaped, jaw dropped. 

Rhodey turned to Pepper. “We do need to address the matter of the arc reactor in Tony’s chest to the press, and to the military, preferably. I’d like to have something to shove in their faces without having to reveal much; I assume that most of them are HYDRA.”

Pepper frowned. “We could tell the truth, I suppose. That you had shrapnel in your chest, and the arc reactor is an electromagnet that keeps the pieces out. Months in a cave, and you basically revolutionize a new field of technology; that’ll convince people about our new clean energy initiatives, at least. By the way, are you planning to market this? How’s climate change in your time?” 

Tony kept on gaping, and he went over to the corner of the room, sliding down the wall and pinching himself. “You… you guys are going to help?” he said, somewhat incredulous. “You’re just accepting this, and moving on?” His voice grew louder. “Aren’t you supposed to scream at me for being reckless, or irresponsible, or something ?” Even he could hear the naked desperation in his voice, which was no mean feat considering that he was probably the most emotionally obtuse person in the entire universe. Apart from Thanos. 

Rhodey walked over, kneeling down and reaching a hand out. “Tony, I might find you insufferable sometimes, but I’m your friend. And I’ll call you out if you’re being stupid, and I’ll probably have a massive freak-out about all this later, but right now, you need help, and I am in a position to give it to you.” He chuckled softly. “Also, I don’t want half the universe to die. You are not alone . So. What do you want to do?”

Tony wasn’t crying. There was just dust in this room. 

“Let me… let me contact one of my friends.” His lips twitched upwards into a smile. “And while I wait for a response, I can-”

Pepper raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow. “ We .” 

Tony bit his bottom lip. “We,” he said softly. He could trust his friends. “Okay. In the meantime, I can run some tests to see if we can suss out whatever brought me here, Rhodey can handle the military; I’ll send you all of the Stane stuff and you can give that to them, Pep, you can handle the company, I made you CEO in the other timeline, I know you know what to do, and Happy, I know you have an eye for plots; you and JARVIS can put together a timeline. Does that… does that sound alright?” 

They nodded.

“Cool. Let’s do this.” 

His voice didn’t crack.