Bear with me on the mistakes, guys.
Atros prowled the camp and its surrounding forest alone that night, having lost both his brothers and along with them, any hope of peace for the rest of his days. They, along with his dead mate, were all he'd had left. They were his anchors in a world that would otherwise chew him up and spit him back out like it had done so many times before. Gods, he missed Peoria.
What are your orders?
And Howard… having seen how he would go, Atros fought the urge to lock the younger wolf in a giant plastic bubble that he could never find his way out of for the rest of his days. Maybe he'd add Maria when she came around. The she-wolf would understand perfectly fine just how much of a migraine his Charge gave him on the best of days. Never mind that every single one was worth it…
But he had priorities, and those mostly included ending the war. The likes of which Howard Stark needed to be alive and have access to dangerous objects on a regular basis. This was exactly what he didn't want.
"We'll find him." They stood on a ship at the edge of the world, three months into the fifth set of Searches, when Howard turned to his friend.
"I have no doubt you will." Came the response, muttered bitterly.
"Tony?" Howard shook the man out of his thoughts and he spoke louder when he realized Howard hadn't heard him.
"I have no doubt that my brother will be found, Howard." The man, Tony, informed his friend tiredly. "But we shall not be the ones to find him. Not for many seasons."
"Well we have to start somewhere, pal. How is anyone going to find him if they don't look?"
The man, Tony, shook his head.
"Your optimism is refreshing." He grumbled, sound muffled by his hands covering his face.
"The crew has an update." The man warned. Howard nodded and clapped his friend's shoulder.
"You can't give up yet." The engineer insisted.
"You are no longer my superior, and this is no longer war. As such, I may do as I wish. You really should see about that update. We don't need this thing to crash into a glacier or something."
"This ain't the Titanic."
"You're right."
Howard smirked at his friend's affirmation.
"We'd be obliterated. Now go."
Howard frowned, nodded and walked away.
"How is it that I've managed to lose both of you in less than a year?"
He took Howard's name when it was offered, years down the line, well after Howard and Maria were married and he couldn't afford to be Tony the orphan. Anthony Robinson had to die because humans don't live forever.
Tony Stark rose from the ashes of who Atros had always been, living with his new Pack that consisted of a happy couple and what basically amounted to a grieving widow, even though they hadn't gotten the chance to marry. The Commandos stopped by the mansion throughout years to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries and to make sure no one had gone completely insane. They were brothers, after all.
He didn't pay as much attention to his friend as he should have, and after what had to be the tenth time the other man fell asleep in his shop, pouring over maps of the Arctic, Tony had enough.
"Do you even know what you're doing?" Tony snapped.
"I'm trying to find your brother! You deserve more than what you got. It shouldn't have ended like this, damnit!" Howard snarled.
"No, Howie. That's not… let's go."
"What?"
"This ends now. You need to wake up, Howard. Your science experiment isn't coming back. My brothers are dead, and there's nothing to be done about it. We've spent too long trying to capture the past and now your future is about to walk right out the front door! You can't let that happen. Not when you've got so much to gain."
And his friend had been getting better, according to Maria. Seeming more like the man she first stepped out with. It didn't last.
They were in the car, driving up a sliver of road that led into a deep ravine. Tony, Howard, Maria, and Jarvis were heading to MIT for Tony's graduation ceremony. It would be the first time he got an education of any sort past the pitiful schooling he'd briefly attended before it closed down in the 30's, and the group had every right to celebrate.
Howard saw the glint of sunlight off metal, and slammed on the gas, jerking the wheel at the last minute.
(If anyone was going to try and end things, it would be him.)
Maria yanked the seat's strap away and threw open the door, letting gravity do the rest.
(Atros would have nightmares about it for decades after, and how he managed to fail both his Packs was completely beyond him.)
