He woke suddenly,
adrenaline flooding his system, chest thrumming, eyes wide he waited, barely
breathing.
The sound came again
from below, faint but discernable. Forgetting where and when he was, he
automatically fell into battle mode.
Up out of bed, he
moved without thought, following lessons learned long ago. Grabbing only his
Kevlar, he was out of the room, covering the glow in his chest as he went. On
silent feet he moved down the stair, pausing when a crash came again. Taking a
deep breath, he soundlessly rounded the corner, spotting the dark hulking
figure rearing out of the blackness.
In three steps, he
was on him. Bringing his metal arm around quickly, he landed a solid blow,
sending the unknown assailant into the far wall. With a roar, the figure
un-phased from the hit, turned on him delivering his own punch, tossing Stark
clear through the far wall.
The battle was on.
The ensuing ruckus
woke the others in short order. Everyone grabbing weapons as they hurried below
stairs readying for an attack.
“What is going on?”
Steve asked, raising his shield at the sound of glass shattering.
Showing immense
foresight, Bruce called out to JARVIS, “Lights!”
The sudden flare of
illumination threw the scene into sharp relief. It was utter chaos. Large holes
and dents in the plaster, ruined furniture, broken fixtures littering the
ground. A very epic struggle had taken place and the two combatants where still
standing toe to toe with one another. One in nothing, save Kevlar and underwear,
the other in his Asgardian robes.
The lights brought
Stark back.
With sudden horrible
clarity, he recalled this was not his own, hostile time; and he was looking at
a very angry demi-God.
“Oh…” he managed
weakly. Thor delivered a hard blow to the side of his head, knocking him dazed
to the floor.
“Friends, I have
defeated the intruder!” he bellowed victoriously.
“Not on your life,
Hanson,” Stark grunted, swinging his legs to drop the God beside him on the
floor. Cracking him in the chest with his metal forearm. The big blond wheezing,
clutched himself rolling to the side.
“Ok, we need to break
this up,” Tony said, moving towards his future self, the man already rising
slowly his knees. Pausing, he watched carefully as a shaggy dark head shook
wearily, a palm gently tapping his temple.
“You ok?” Tony
asked, kneeling before him, concerned.
“Yeah, had worse,” he
mumbled, blinking at his younger self, trying to focus his mechanical eye. The
picture phasing in and out. “Damn eye.”
Bruce and Clint were
helping Thor up, Stark gratified to see the man looking rather dazed. Both
trying to explain the presence of the other man but neither sure it was
penetrating.
Standing wearily,
Stark turned his attention to his metal hand flexing the fingers, turning it
over to make sure there was no damage.
“Nice
fight, love,” a familiar voice teased. He glanced at the dead man out of
corner of his eye, sending him a smile.
“That’s not part of
your suit,” Steve blurted, looking horrified he’d said the words aloud. Stark
looked up at him, wincing as blue eyes almost recoiled in horror. No doubt he
was seeing the glowing red under the drooping scarred lid.
“Oh, right,” he
muttered dully, panning around for something, anything to cover up with. It was
too late at that point though; the others having heard Steve’s declaration were
taking note of the barely dressed man. Uncomfortable, he tried to tuck his
mechanics into the vest, but Bruce was at his side, gripping the limb
fascinated.
Around the same time,
Thor finally understanding what had happening, lit up. “Future friend Anthony!”
he bellowed.
Just as Bruce
was asking, “How did you get it to connect-”
Clint tying to butt
in, “What’s going on with your eye?”
Thor not missing a
beat, plowed on, “Most glorious fight, you are a worthy opponent.”
Tasha was telling
Clint to shut up, Tony and Bruce were arguing over his arm. As his past self
tugged the vest to the side, showing where the arch connected to the limb
powering it.
For a man who’d spent
the last decade all but alone, the attention was overwhelming.
Beginning to panic,
he looked up seeing Steve, two Steves. One beautiful and healthy, the other
watching with dead eyes and hideous wounds dripping red. The cry for help stuck
in his throat.
Steve saw that
panicked dark eye lock on his, so familiar yet so foreign. It was and wasn’t
his Tony. “Help
him,” the whispered voice came from nowhere. He frowned, it seemed
vaguely familiar…he acted on the advice.
“Enough!” he said
firmly, the voice of Captain America commanding the room instantly. They all
quieted, and the relief on Stark’s face was palpable. Without a word, he gently
set big hands on the scarred silent man’s shoulders.
“What do you need?”
the blond asked softly, watching the red eye flicker.
“Umm…if I could use
the lab,” he managed dazedly.
Tony nodding
instantly, “Yeah for sure, come on.” The billionaire turned, and his future
followed.
Bruce tried to as
well, Steve stopping him with a firm but gentle grip, “Let them go.”
The others knew
better than to argue. “Thor, you ok?” Steve asked rounded on him, the big man
grinning jubilantly.
“Most invigorated
Steven, shall we celebrate with a meal?” Nodding, Steve scratched the back of
his head, still hearing the echo of that voice in his mind.
“Might as well, don’t
think I can sleep anymore tonight.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Down in the lab, Tony
was carefully trying to extract the small glowing device that served as Stark’s
eye. Eventually, with a wet sounding sort of pop it came free. Grossed out,
Tony let go, stepping back, horrified as it dangling from the dark socket by a
cord.
“Think I’m going to
be sick…”
Chuckling, the older
man reached up gently, tugging the orb free of the cord before moving to plug
it into to the computer.
“I don’t know how you
do it,” the younger man muttered, curious to see exactly what he had done to
make himself an eye. Lines of complex evolving code quickly moved across the
screen. Stark manipulating it with ease, hampered only by the fact he had to
turn his head to see.
“I have everything on
the right in my lab,” he joked. Chuckling, Tony watched the programming unpack,
as his older self delicately opened the device holding it up to his good eye,
“Just knocked a wire loose. Good thing have such a hard head.”
Tony snorted, “Very
true.”
With the precision of
a surgeon, Stark reattached the wire. “So, how did it go last night?” the man
from the future asked causally, a dark brow arched.
Tony Stark was having
an incredibly surreal moment, sitting in his lab, talking to himself…from the
future…wearing nothing but Kevlar and boxer briefs. It was up there with insane
moments in the life of Iron Man.
“Well you definitely
got the ball rolling, we kissed…”
Stark grinned,
“Awesome got further then I ever did. Only kissed him once, and I’m pretty sure
he was already dead.”
Tony flinched, silent
a long moment. “I’ve been thinking, about this whole changing the course of
history thing,” He finally said, hesitantly, unsure of himself. If you’re here
changing the past, trying to prevent the future that results in this,” he
gestured vaguely at Stark.
“Then, what happens
to you if you succeed?”
Stark shrugged, “My
best guess is that once we prevent the invasion…I cease to exist. The past
changes, the future changes, and what I am will never be.”
It was enough to make
the Tony’s analytical brain spin wildly out of control.
“I know,
right?” Stark chuckled, snapping the eye together again before deftly he
reattached it to the wire hanging from the empty socket. Popping it back in
Stark blinked, shaking his head settling it into place.
Satisfied, he turned
to his other self, pausing when he saw the dark haunted look on the face so
similar to his own.
“Why didn’t you…after
he died?” Tony asked voice soft, refusing to meet his gaze, “Why hang on so
long, suffer so much?”
Stark knew exactly
what he was asking, why hadn’t he ended it all…“Believe me, I thought about it.
So easy, right? Just pull that arc out and let the inevitable happen.”
Slowly he looked to
his ever-present ghost, the haunted eyes staring at him steadily. He smiled at
his Steve, “He wouldn’t have liked that…wouldn’t have wanted me to do that. So
I waited. For old age or some ill-fated attempt at saving the world. When I
learned about the side effects of the arc it was like some terrible cosmic
joke. So I just waited for that one last fight, that final battle.”
Stark sighed wearily,
“Too damn stubborn to die, I guess.”
Tony returned the
fragile smile, “I think I can understand why you’re doing what you are….It’s
nice to know that I have that sort of inner strength.”
Slowly, they made
their way out of the lab, a thick anticipation settling on Stark, “I just hope
you’re never going to have to use it.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“It
looks like its going well, doesn’t it?”
Stark nodded in
agreement, a soft expression on his face as he watched Iron Man laugh and joke
with the bright patriotic coloured figure of Captain America.
“I
always thought our colours complemented one another.”
“Bit of a fanciful
though, love, but they do. Iron Man all flash and modern, while you’re the old
traditional.”
“Sometimes
the world needs a little traditional.”
“They always will,”
Stark returned, settling back. Together they sat on a park bench, watching the
Avengers move around the park expectantly, waiting for the envoy to come.
Despite the wariness of everyone, it was a beautiful day. Sighing, he turned
his face towards the sun, closing his eyes in bliss, mind drifting.
The past week had
flown by for the man from the future. Being back in this time again, there was
so much Stark wanted to see and do. Things he’d never found the time to do.
Taking for granted, it would always be there waiting.
He’d gone to museums,
the tourists spots, wandered streets for hours, just taking it all in. The
noise, the people, all things he had once hated so much. Laughably recalling a
time when he would have killed for some peace. Now New York in all it’s over
the top bustle was a little slice of heaven. And while he’d been finding
himself once more…a romance had been taking place.
“You
jealous, love?” the teasing tone brought a grin to his scarred lips.
“If I am, is it
weird?” they both chuckled, the dark headed man tucking his arms in his vest.
The others were in their suits, ready for any eventuality. His own armor a
comforting weight in his pocket, but he knew he wouldn’t need it today. Instead
he wore his usual black combat suit, without any weapons.
“I
think you enjoyed the pat down from me a little too much.”
Captain America had
strip-searched him before they’d headed out, blushing furiously the whole time.
“Highlight of my
century.” Laughing, he checked the time. “Here we go…3, 2, 1…Showtime.”
The ground began to
tremble, the Avengers shifting around worriedly. Unconcerned Stark sat back on
the bench, eyes fastened on the space no more the fifty yards from him. A
ripped formed in the air, making everything around it hazy and distorted.
Colours flashed Earth’s defenders assembled.
“Easy
love,” Steve soothed as Eva appeared looking regal, and detached. Stark
ground his teeth, barely managing to hold his emotions in check.
Fury was entering the
scene then to cordially ass kiss. “I could just save us a lot of trouble, and
just kill the bitch now,” he muttered, watching as they escorted her and her
alien henchman towards the waiting vehicles.
They would keep her
at SHIELD for the time being. “Well, at least that went a lot smoother than
last time,” future Stark sighed, running a hand through shaggy locks.
“How
could it not? Last time you flew into a building. Caused thousands of dollars
of damage.”
He shifted
uncomfortable, “Don’t suppose you could give me a mulligan on that one, could
you? I did just lose you and I didn’t deal well with the grief.”
Excitement over, the
others approached his bench. “Well, you were right, Stark, down to the second,”
Clint said, seemingly impressed.
“You doubted the
great and powerful OZ?” he teased, holding his arms out with a shrug.
“I got that one! I
got it,” Steve announced looked pleased, Stark tossed him a wink.
“So, what did the
bitch say?”
“Pretty much what you
already told us. Came to Earth as a peace envoy, wanting good relations between
people. Talk of a potential alliance,” Bruce answered, cleaning his glasses.
“I do not know of her
people. They are not of a realm I am familiar with.” Thor looked apprehensive,
“Friend Stark, you say she will bring with her an attempt to end this Earth?”
Stark nodded, “That
about sums it up big guy.”
Steve spoke up then
looking firm, “That’s not going to happen, we have the advantage, we know what
she’s planning, and we’ll be ready to stop it.”
They all muttered
agreements, Stark caught dead blue eyes, “And this time we have Captain
America.”
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