SSR BASE, DEBRIEFING ROOM - AUGUST 1, 1991 3:05PM
It didn't escape Steve's notice when Natasha re-entered the briefing room with a sense of urgency in her posture as Fury was wrapping up the exhausting debriefing. She looked over at him and he knew she had news. Clutching Peggy's hand, he looked her in the eye with a confidence he didn't feel and nodded to the door to let her know that he needed to slip out of the room. He was surprised when she didn't let his hand go, but instead stood up to follow him.
Together, they exited into the hallway, Natasha quietly following them.
"How are things back at the mansion? Any progress?" Steve asked, checking to see that they were alone.
Natasha seemed weary of having Peggy present to overhear their conversation, but she decided to leave it alone for the moment.
"Some," Natasha replied. "Bruce said that they've got a working machine ready, however they've run into a problem. In order for what they've built to have any chance at actually getting us home to the right time and place, somebody needs to open a portal on the other side. Otherwise, we're taking a pretty big risk of ending up someplace worse."
"Well, there must be a way around that, right?" asked Steve. "Maybe we, I don't know, leave the machine somewhere when we're done with it and try and leave word for Clint or Thor somehow? Is that even possible?"
"Leaving word for Clint or Thor may be a possibility, but it's not a certainty," said Natasha, "And I don't know about you, but I'd rather bet on a sure thing if I'm going to hurl myself into a inter-dimensional portal. Besides, there's still the matter of the Red Skull to deal with."
"You're right about that," said Steve. "We definitely can't leave the SSR to deal with him alone. Who knows what could happen. Especially given that I'm a part of this now. This me, I mean." Steve shivered slightly as he thought of himself lying on a surgical table at the Red Skull's mercy.
"Right," said Natasha. "So we need to go with what we know. We need to stop the Red Skull. And we need to get home. Preferably we need to do both at once. Bruce assures me that if we can get out to the Arctic, they can transport the machine and open the portal there. The way I see it, there's only one person who can help us."
"Who?" asked Steve.
"Me," replied a deep voice from the other end of the hallway. Turning, they realized that Nick Fury had been listening to their conversation, the debriefing session having wrapped up.
"And me," said Peggy, with a fierce look in her eyes.
"No," said Steve, shaking his head and staring the elderly woman down. "I don't want you involved in this, Peggy. It's bad enough that you're having to deal with all of this again, I won't put you in more danger than I have to. And as for you, Nick," he said, turning to face the man, "we've had this conversation. There's more at stake than just the SSR or the Red Skull here."
"But those are our priorities right now," said Natasha. "And he's the only one who we can count on for help."
"Damn right!" said Fury. "I'm not about to send my agents off to be slaughtered by that madman, and if you tell me you can do something about that, then I'll give you whatever you need. And if you deliver, then getting you home will be the least I can do to pay you back, even if losing Captain America again is the price."
"I'm in this too," Peggy said. "Don't shut me out, Steve. The SSR has been my entire life's work. I can handle myself. I don't need you to protect me and I want to help."
As the two SSR veterans stared at Steve, determined, he realized that he and the other Avengers didn't exactly have a lot of options. They needed to get home and put all of this behind them, and they needed to do it with as little impact to this time period as possible. He knew Peggy well enough to know that if he left her out of this, she'd find a way to stay involved. Her stubbornness was one of the things he loved about her, and he wouldn't change it for the world. He also knew that Nick Fury was a better ally than enemy.
"Alright then," Steve finally said. "It looks like we've got a lot to fill you both in on." He hoped he wouldn't regret this.
STARK MANSION, NYC - AUGUST 1, 1991 3:30PM
The workshop was eerily silent. The blue light of the Tesseract pulsed gently, illuminating the room and casting strange shadows as Bruce and Howard again triggered the gamma radiation into the smaller chamber that they had built to house the alien artifact. Smaller being relative. It certainly still wasn't portable enough to be easily transported to the Arctic or used in the middle of a battlefield. The pair had been hard at work, and had settled into a quiet but comfortable rhythm as they triggered the bursts, calculated the data once more, and then broke the machine down to attempt to improve it. There was a restless energy in the room. Both knew that they had to work quickly. The stakes were higher now.
Given that, it came as a physical shock to the pair when they heard the loud bell, followed by heavy breathing indicating that the intercom was on.
"Sir, you asked me to advise you when Mr. Hammer arrived back. He's currently at the front door with company. Should I let them both in?" the voice asked, which even Howard couldn't put a name to.
Bruce and Howard looked at each other in surprise. Howard stalked over to the intercom system in the wall and jabbed the button. "No, actually. We're going to come out and meet him."
Howard turned to Bruce. "Company?" he asked.
"Don't look at me. I don't know where he went or who it could be," Bruce said.
"Well let's find out," Howard said, gesturing towards the door. "I could use a little light that's not creepy and blue anyway."
The pair walked out through the study and headed to the front door, curious. As they finally came within sight of Tony and his new friend who, Bruce noted, was clearly ill and in a wheelchair, Bruce continued walking but Howard stopped suddenly. As Bruce turned to see what was wrong, he could tell that something about the mystery man had shocked Howard. The man had gone pale, as though seeing a ghost. "Edwin," he said.
The man turned his head towards Howard. "Mr. Stark," he said. "I wish I could say it was a pleasure to see you again."
Bruce startled at the voice, which was so instantly recognizable to him, although not capable of being that venemous. Howard walked over to the man, and Bruce was surprised to see that he did so with none of his usual swagger or confidence. Tony caught Bruce's eye and waved to him with an apology in his eyes, both of them distracted by the reunion happening in front of them.
"Edwin..." Howard said, struggling to find the words he needed. "What... what happened to you?" He gestured towards the man's obvious weakened condition, upset.
"I'd rather not talk about it, actually," Jarvis said firmly. "I'm only here because your son asked me to be. He seemed to think I could be of some assistance. I can't see how, but he's always been ten steps ahead of me so I'm willing to trust him. You must be Dr. Banner," he said, looking at Bruce.
"I am," said Bruce, approaching and extending his hand. Jarvis didn't shake it, but instead looked at Bruce as though he was odd for having offered it. "And you are?" Bruce looked at Tony for an explanation.
"Bruce, this is Jarvis," said Tony.
"Jarvis?" asked Bruce, confused.
"Yep," said Tony.
"Like, actual Jarvis?" Bruce questioned. "He's not..."
"An android of some kind? Seriously? Yes, Bruce, I somehow managed to time travel back to the future, retrieve my AI's coding, build a cybernetic body that's clearly ill, get back to the past and then somehow transfer my AI's consciousness into it in the last few hours. I respect that you think that's something I could do, but you're nuts. This Jarvis is the very human man who raised me, and who I used to form the fundamental personality of the JARVIS you know."
"Right," said Bruce, taking off his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose. "Because that makes just as much sense."
"Not at all," Jarvis said in a teasing tone, "But of course this is Tony we're talking about. I stopped expecting him to make sense from almost the moment he started forming words."
"Which," Tony said, "I would just like to point out was at only four months. That's how early I started being awesome."
"Yes," said Howard, looking from Jarvis to Tony with affection in his eyes, "It was."
Bruce couldn't help but shake his head and smile at that. However, Tony looked uncomfortable and the tension increased when Howard locked eyes with his son.
"Dr. Banner," asked Jarvis, "I'm thinking that I could use a bite to eat. How about you?"
Bruce appreciated that the man wanted to give the two Stark's a moment alone to talk in private. "I'd like that."
"Good," said Jarvis, wheeling towards him. "While we're at it I can tell you a few rather embarrassing stories about exactly how awesome Tony was when he was too young to even go to the bathroom on his own and was still terrified of the Easter Bunny."
"Oh, Jarvis that's not fair!" Tony yelled at the pair as they left the room. "Don't you dare humanize me to my friend! He'll start to think we're equals!"
Finally, father and son were alone.
They stood together in silence for a moment, awkward. Tony shuffled from one foot to the next. Finally, Howard spoke. "I have a few things that I feel like I need to say to you."
"Good," said Tony. "Me too."