A/N: Omo, hello guys! Its been so long since I last used this site, AO3 has affected me very deeply XD... I'm kinda sorry, if anyone cares, but anyway. I wrote another story for you guys and if you would like to see it on Archive of Our Own, please feel free. My username is Stark_Raving_Hazlenuts, and the story is under the same name. Here:
/works/30635543/chapters/75580940
Hope you enjoy!
October 17th, 2023
It started as a normal day for the world, and ended in chaos.
October 17th, the day the Blip was undone. The day all the Avengers, both old and new, assembled for the greatest battle of their lives. The final battle against Thanos.
It was also a day of mourning. On this day, two years ago, one of the greatest heroes of this universe died to save the world.
October 17th was the day on which Tony Stark sacrificed his life for the greater good.
Tony Stark…
Tony Stark…
Tony Stark…
Tony Stark…
'OCTOBER 17th!'
Anthony Levesque woke with a start, breathing heavily. His pale blue shirt was soaked with sweat, and his eyes felt heavy. He closed them and took a few deep breathes, in and out. When he opened them, a sigh escaped his mouth.
All his colleagues were seated around the round table. A blue hologram was showing a picture of Tony Stark. Stark Industries was written in fancy font on the wall. Anthony could feel all of their eyes on him, some giving him the stink eye while others looked at him with a concerned gaze.
Anthony saw his reflection on the table, and noted that he should probably shave his goatee. It didn't go with his style. Nor did the gelled hairstyle, but that was necessary for his sleek black hair to stay in place. He saw his shaky-ness from the dream reflecting in his chocolate brown eyes. Anthony hastily hid that deep inside and put on an apologetic mask.
Ivan cleared his throat, and started talking again.
'As I was saying before being rudely interrupted,' He scowled at Anthony, 'October 17th, is the day Tony Stark, son of Howard Stark and Iron Man, died to help us live. Today is September 4th, and Stark Industries is hosting an event to pay tribute to our fallen hero and owner. Well, mostly Pepper Potts but Stark Industries collectively.' Ivan continued, and Anthony used his moment of silence to gather himself.
October 17th was the day he'd woken up in a hospital bed, the nurses claiming he'd been in a car accident which had caused him to get amnesia. His right arm had been broken in three different places, and for some reason the first thing he'd asked after regaining consciousness was:
'Could you tell me who Iron Man is?'
The confused nurses had then gave him a short summary on the armored Avenger, and then continued to give him a basic gist of who he himself is and more information about some specific things. Like what the fuck an Avenger was.
When the nurse had told him the date of the accident was the same date on which Iron Man had died, it started. The feelings.
17th October, 2023. Something had happened to Anthony that day before the crash.
After being discharged with a slightly shaking left hand and a burning right hand, he'd gone to what he was told was his house and immediately went to Google.
Iron Man.
Infinity stones.
These words meant something to him, something far beyond just caring for the Avengers and being curious about the infinity stones.
It felt personal.
When he'd seen the ruins of the Avengers Compound on the news, and many of the superheroes being interviewed by reporters, he'd felt something again.
For each of the heroes, he felt something different. Each of the heroes triggered a different emotion, and some specific words came to mind.
Clint Barton: fun. Happiness. Goofing around. Glow stick of destiny, whatever that meant. Legolas, pranks, drinks, Thor's magic hammer. It didn't make any sense why those things would come to mind.
Natasha Romanov: scary. Spy. Undercover agent. Russia, Natalie Rushman. Accords, betrayal. And finally, sadness. There was the over-powering urge to grieve, to cry until he could cry no more. And something about the Soul stone. When she'd explained how she was still alive, Anthony felt extremely happy. Again, it didn't make sense.
Why would he care about Black Widow enough to celebrate when she was brought back from the dead because of Captain America returning the stones?
Captain America: mixed feelings. Siberia. Capsicle. 'Language'. Trust and betrayal. Bucky? Who the hell is Bucky? Anthony decided not to think further.
And finally, Spider-Man: kid. Underoos. Love. Pride. So much happiness he thought his face would split in two from smiling. Titan. Dust.
There were also two more people: Pepper Potts, basically his boss in the long shot, and Morgan Stark.
These last three people held so much meaning in his heart that Tony had actually gone to a Spider-Man fan sign. He had to excuse himself to the bathroom because he felt like he would break from all the emotions he was feeling at the same time.
Whenever Anthony looked at a picture of Morgan, he would feel bitter regret and crushing loss. Same for his boss, Pepper.
For the last time: it didn't make sense.
Also, Tony Stark. Whenever he thought of that man his head would start pounding, right hand would start burning and stinging with pain and left hand would shake.
Finally came Thanos. Anthony had suffered from a severe anxiety attack when he'd seen the purple alien, and from then on stopped looking.
Anthony's dream had been about Tony Stark dying. Why, why did that mean so much, especially to him? It couldn't be the fact that he felt sad for the death of his hero who he'd seen for years since Anthony had amnesia, but it meant something.
It's been almost a year, he thought as he exited the meeting room. I'm gonna take a small leave from work, and figure this out. This can't continue. Anthony was determined to get to the bottom of this, so he started going towards the office of his boss.
He'd never actually met his boss, just knew a bit about him. His boss was apparently extremely close with the Avengers and was actually the personal intern of Tony Stark and his family (Stark Industries, but no one cared about that).
'Welcome. Please state your name and status.' The robotic voice of FRIDAY asked smoothly, and Anthony couldn't help but smile.
'Hey, FRIDAY! When did they add you to SI? I could've sworn you were an only-Avengers AI but-' Anthony cut himself off. What the fuck? Why was he saying that? And why did he feel a sense of pride when hearing FRIDAY's voice, it's like he had never created an AI before-
Holy fuck.
It's only getting worse, Anthony realized, I have to fix whatever this is. But how do I fix something like this?
He shook his head. That could be dealt with later. Right now he needed permission for his leave.
'Anthony E. Levesque, Assistant Director of the Robotics Department.' Anthony said calmly, shoving his internal panic deep inside for later. He was a generally quiet person, never talking unless absolutely necessary.
'Verifying…' FRIDAY said, 'Access granted.'
Anthony opened the doors, already taking in a breath and starting to talk.
'Good evening, Mr. Parker, hope you're not too busy-' Anthony trailed off, and no one in the world could blame him.
Staring right back at him was Pepper Potts and Peter Parker carrying a whining Morgan Stark. Anthony could feel his eyes widening. He stuttered for a moment before collecting himself once more and closing the door behind him with a small thud.
'Good afternoon, Mrs. Potts, it is an honor to meet you. Hello, Ms. Stark, I see you're doing well.' Anthony smiled kindly at Morgan, who just continued to gape at him. 'Mr. Parker, hope I'm not interrupting anything?' He continued, but none of them answered.
All of them were looking at him, mouths hanging open. Blue, hazel and chocolate brown eyes respectively were staring at him like they were seeing a ghost.
He started getting worried. Waving his hands infront of their faces, he said-
'Um, hello? Earth to Iron Fam?' That, apparently, got their attention. Peter frowned.
'What's the Iron Fam?'
'Iron Family.'
'What's that?'
'Um, you know, the closest beings to Tony Stark? You, Mrs. Potts, Ms. Stark and Col. Rhodes?' The three of them took 20 seconds processing that, still staring at Anthony. Morgan looked down at the ground. Then, Pepper spoke up.
'And you are?'
'Oh…' Anthony was starting to feel uncomfortable with all the staring and the softness and sadness and confusion in their eyes, but he gathered himself up again, 'I'm Anthony,' Morgan looked up again, her eyes widening even more, 'Edward,' Peter gasped, 'Stark-' Pepper pursed her lips but Anthony cut himself off so fast he thinks no one heard him, 'Levesque.'
Oh my god, I almost said I'm Anthony Stark infront of the actual Starks. Holy shit, ohmygod ohmygod ohmy-
'Well hello there!' Morgan said with forced cheerfulness, even adding a fake smile. 'Nice to meet you, Mr. Levesque.' The young girl said the last word in such a forced way Anthony thinks he should have actually said Stark.
'Not to be rude, but could you elaborate on the 'who you are'?' Peter asked, still staring (albeit less obviously).
'Well, I'm the Assistant Director of the Robotics Department. Live pretty near the new Avengers Compound, actually. I'm an engineer,' He searched for interesting things to say about himself, 'I was in a car crash on 17th October last year and I got amnesia, so I can't really say much else. According to the Tony Stark-made IQ test, mine is 270.' Anthony bit his lip, because he hadn't meant to say that-
'Oh!' Pepper cried, 'Well, you sure are- you look like someone I knew. You may just be what we're looking for, Mr. Levesque.' There it was again, the disappointed tony when she said "Levesque". And who did Anthony look like?
'Um, ma'am, not to be rude but you said I look like someone you knew. May I know who that is?' Anthony asked as softly as he could, but Pepper flinched anyways. He could tell from the look on Peter's face that he was just about to change the subject when Morgan chided in.
'You look like Dad.' She said, and time froze. Nobody moved, and nobody made a single sound.
Before, Anthony had never thought about his similarities to Tony Stark. He had never even thought that much about the billionaire, to be honest. But the moment Morgan said that, he suddenly realized it with a snap (A/N: I was trying to be clever with the snap thing, but I know it's not funny at all. I'm sorry.).
Tony Stark's IQ was 270. Tony Stark's real name was Anthony Edward Stark. Tony Stark had chocolate brown eyes. Tony Stark had the trademark goatee that Anthony was currently sporting, without even knowing that looked exactly like the fallen hero.
He again pushed the thoughts to the back of his head, swallowing his shock. Not the time, Anthony. He steeled up and threw an extremely fake smile towards the frozen family.
'Thanks I guess.' Anthony added a bit of uncertainty, to make sure they didn't think he'd brushed the comment off. He cleared his throat. 'I was actually here to hand in my leave application. A year, if you're wondering.'
Anthony is horrible at changing the subject. But the three other occupants of the room jumped at the chance.
'Well, okay. Leave it here, I'll sign it later. Now, Pepper, you were about to say something.' Peter said quickly, and Pepper nodded.
'Like I said, we need people like you right now, and that much talent shouldn't rot in the Robotics Department. Would you like to see what we have to offer?' Pepper started quickly, and Anthony felt confused because they'd just met and she was already offering him better jobs? It didn't make any sense. Nothing in his new life ever did.
'Uh, sure!'
'Well, would you like to work in the Avengers Compound as the Head of the Defense Tech Functions?' Pepper asked, and Anthony could see her crossed fingers.
And who was he to deny an offer like that?
'When do I start?'
'Well, if you'd follow me, I could give you a small debriefing and take your interview just for the files and you could get started as soon as you want.' Pepper smiled, and Anthony's breath caught in his throat. She looked beautiful when she did that, the haunted grief disappearing from her features for a moment. She looked like an entirely different person.
Anthony had already decided that his new job is to make Pepper smile more. Fuck his vacation to figure things out, he felt things for the Avengers. What better place to figure stuff out than the New Avengers Facility itself?
Usually, Anthony would be annoyed when people stared at him for no good reason. He didn't blame the family he just met for staring, though, and right now he didn't blame any of the workers either. It's not every day you see Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries, walk confidently through waves upon waves of employees with a Tony Stark-replica following close behind.
Pepper had a quick conversation with her kids before gesturing towards Anthony to follow her. Anthony really wanted to eavesdrop on the conversation, but that was kinda difficult considering the fact that they were talking in a different language; Anthony recognized said "different language" as the one the Avengers used a lot during missions.
First task when you get home: learn new language by heart.
Should be pretty easy, considering he's Tony Stark how dedicated Anthony can be.
He shook his head again.
Anthony had been so deep in thought that he hadn't even realized that they were already in Pepper's office. She had closed the door, and was gesturing for him to sit on the chair.
He sat, and so did she.
'Interview starts… now.' Pepper said, clicking a small button on her StarkWatch to record or start a timer. Anthony couldn't be sure, that watch could probably do both of that while also firing every available nuke in the world.
But suddenly, he had no time to think. Pepper talked really fast, only leaving a few milli-seconds for him to answer before moving to the next question.
'Graduation?'
'MIT.'
'Age at that time?'
'17.'
If Pepper was surprised by that, she didn't show it.
'Age now?'
'54 last May.'
To that, Pepper's eyes widened. She tilted her neck in a creepy, curious fashion.
'When's your date of birth?
'May 29th, 1970.'
Pepper gasped, knuckles turning white because of the piece of wood she'd been grasping tightly in her hands. She pursed her lip before muttering a quick excuse and making a dash for the washroom.
Anthony sat uncomfortably, not knowing what he'd said wrong. I mean, sure, graduating from MIT at age 17 is pretty uncommon, and still being in a job at age 54 is also rare, but not rare enough for that kind of reaction. Anthony started diving into his thoughts once more but again, before he could do that, Pepper returned.
She continued interviewing him like nothing happened, and Anthony was more than happy to comply. She started asking super normal questions, and Anthony tried to give super normal answers until-
'Parents?'
'Eh, both dead. Howard and Maria Levesque, died in a car crash on December 16, 1991. Car crashes are common in the family. Don't know why.'
Pepper tried to hide her emotions by replying to his answers. 'Magic curse?'
'Nope. Not having that. Magic is bullshit. Fuck it.' Anthony said irritably, a sudden annoyance creeping up. Pepper looked surprised, and she raised her eyebrows saying 'How many encounters did you have with magic to hate it?' It was almost scary how much she could say with just a raised eyebrow.
'A couple, not very fun. Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange both suck, big time.' He said, and before he knew it he started rambling slightly.
'I mean, come on! Wanda Maximoff threw a shit-ton of fucking cars at Tony Stark! That is not cool!'
Again with the raised eyebrows. 'How do you know that?' Pepper said carefully, and Anthony cursed.
'Reasons.' He said quickly, and let his uncomfortableness shine through. Pepper, thankfully, changed the topic.
'Well, I think that's enough for today!' Pepper said, clapping her hands together, 'Please go to Peter's office tomorrow and he will take you to the Facility training center.'
'Wait a minute,' Anthony held up his hands, 'Training center?'
Pepper scoffed. 'Well, you're working with the Avengers, so you have a 200% chance of being kidnapped, held hostage and attacked every second of your life. Even if you're not an Avenger, you gotta have the basics. Natasha will train you tomorrow, Steve the next, and a couple more. You officially start two weeks from now, 18th September. Have a great day.'
Anthony pursed his lips again, questions and complaints on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed them down and bowed slight before exiting the room.
An evil smile spread on his face. He pressed a button on his watch, stopping the recording.
Now for the decoding.
Anthony said he'd figure things out. And something told him he was on the right path.
This is so not fun, Anthony thought, literally feeling the smugness rolling off Natasha.
That bitch.
Anthony sat on his chair, eyes slightly closed because of the light from the computer. 12th cup of coffee, and he still wants to sleep. Well, sleep has to wait. He clicked the record button.
'Okay. Hi,' Anthony started awkwardly, 'This is log #4125. The date's 6th September, 2024. Yesterday, I had an interview with Pepper Potts. Says she wants to recruit me for the Avengers wait, scratch that. She doesn't wanna recruit me for the Avengers, she wants me to be a part of the Defense system of the Avengers Facility. And yeah...
Anthony went quiet for a minute, head in his hands. He sighed.
He'd found out about the bigger, more specific triggers in his dreams. Mostly.
Sometimes Anthony got dreams, nightmares about things he hadn't experienced. They were memories. Flashbacks. Visions that left Anthony shaking in bed.
All of them had Tony Stark in them, and Anthony was getting grey hair trying to figure out the why.
Something had happened on 17th October, and Anthony could not stress it enough.
You know, magic is starting to seem less insane now, Anthony thought bitterly.
So, he'd done alot of research on visions from another life. Apparently, if it was really really important, some words could trigger flashbacks and visions to allow the person to properly see what they were being shown. In the dreams, Anthony only saw snapshots of the memories. Nothing was clear enough to make sense, but not unclear enough to make him think it's a normal dream.
Suddenly, Anthony heard a laugh echo around his room. He immediately tried to stand up, but found that he couldn't move. What the fu-
'Now now, Mr. Levesque,' A voice said, seemingly from nowhere and everywhere, 'Let's not get nasty, shall we?'
Who are you! Anthony wanted to shout, but he couldn't talk. He felt himself slide down his chair and fall to the floor. The voice laughed again.
Even the Sorcerer Supreme respects you to infinite ends. And yet,' The voice seemed pitiful, talking with sympathy in his voice, 'here we are. So, since you shall eventually get what you want, let's not make this too difficult. After all, your life has been a hard one.' And with that, the voice stopped talking and Anthony saw closed his eyes to darkness.
When Anthony opened them again, he was surrounded by a dark terrain. Everything was dark, yet there were little squares of light showing different memories.
Memories which were definitely not the ones of Anthony Levesque, but that of another Anthony.
'Welcome,' the voice from before said, and Anthony turned to see a hooded figure floating a few inches above him, 'To the world of memories. Well, the memories of one Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark.' Anthony gasped.
'Yes. Right now, you are surprised, but if you would kindly wait and see I assure you that your confusion shall waver.'
The voice stopped talking for a bit, and Anthony started to deduct who was doing this. The voice sounded feminine, and Anthony got the feeling that she was extremely powerful, yet dead. Anthony was certain.
As soon as he wondered where he was, "Valhalla" popped into his head. Just for a test, he asked himself 'What's going on?' The answer again popped up, this time from the female.
'You are in Valhalla, beyond the gates of reincarnation. It wasn't a choice, yet I felt that this is what you truly deserved. We are here now, in your memories. Let's see which ones your soul feels the most drawn to.'
Anthony didn't feel it before, but right as she said it he felt himself being pulled towards something. He let himself be pulled, and a flash of light filled his vision.
Suddenly, Anthony was inside a dark cave, staring at an old man wearing glasses. The man was laying on some sacks, bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. Anthony looked around, and saw TONY FREAKING STARK, wearing the first Iron Man suit with the faceplate lifted upwards.
Anthony's blood ran cold when he recognized everything. The dying man infront of his was Ho Yinsen, and Anthony was watching Tony's memories from 2008.
Yinsen was wheezing, struggling to breathe and to keep his eyes open.
'Don't waste it,' He said, wheezing slowly coming to a stop, 'don't waste your life, son.'
His eyes closed for the last time, and the hand on Tony fell to the floor with a thud.
'I am Iron Man.'
Then, everything flashed once more, and a static-filled voice was heard saying-
'If you can make God bleed, then people will cease to believe in him.'
Anthony got the feeling that these words held a huge impact on Tony, but he couldn't process what he was hearing and seeing before suddenly, the pale blue eyes of Steve Rogers came into focus. It didn't stay long, however, only showing up just for the soldier to growl-
'You know, you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero.'
Everything was hazy and unfocused, various memories flashing infront of him like a tornado that couldn't decide where to go.
A broken image of Iron Man flying into the portal while carrying the nuke was seen, but it disappeared as soon as it came. Someone whispered-
'How did you get out of the wormhole?' But even that was not clear.
'You don't deserve Pepper.'
'Ultron killed JARVIS.'
'You could've saved us. Why didn't you do more?' Anthony felt like he was drowning, too many emotion churning inside him, making his head spin and his eyesight blur. Anger, fear, paranoia, determination, exasperation, hope, depression, worry, the whole package.
'How are you planning on beating him?'
'Together.'
'And we'll do that together too.'
'He's my friend.'
'So was I.'
'He killed my mom.'
'When you can do the things I can, but you don't, and then the bad things happen... They happen because of you.'
'I just wanted to be like you.'
'And I wanted you to be better.'
'Thanos is coming.'
'The infinity stones.'
'I will not hesitate to let either of you die.'
'One.'
'We're in the Endgame now.'
'I don't wanna go, please. I'm sorry.'
'I lost the kid.'
'You're a liar. "We'll do that together too". Well, guess what Cap? We lost. And you weren't there.'
'I now pronounce you husband and wife.'
'Hey Mrs. Potts.'
'Morgan... She's beautiful.'
'I love you 3000.'
'This is the fight of our lives. And we'll win. Whatever it takes.'
'Thanks, Howard. For everything.'
'Do you trust me?'
'I do.'
'I am inevitable.'
Whatever it takes, Anthony found himself thinking right before-
'And I. Am. Iron Man.'
Anthony was screaming, the pain was too much, his right hand was absolutely BURNING. His head hurt, the memories were too much, he didn't know what was going on- A whirlwind of emotions, pain, memories were twirling around him, and he was trapped. Drowning-
Steve showed up once again, but this time it seemed as if Tony couldn't properly process anything. As if Tony was dying.
'I was wrong. You are a hero.'
'Mr. Stark, we won. We did it. You did it.' Peter.
'It's okay. We'll be okay. You can rest now.' Pepper.
The Avengers, kneeling all around him.
Everything stopped abruptly. Anthony fell to the ground, tears forming in his eyes. He looked over at the hooded female.
'Why are you showing me all this?'
The woman sighed sadly. She came over and patted Tony's Anthony's head. Anthony resisted the urge to shove her away.
'My dear child...' She said with sorrow, 'You have suffered so much, sacrificed everything for those around you, yet the Elders saw it fit to punish you with this?' She spat. 'I'm sorry, my boy. I will make sure you get what you deserve, but for now you must forget this.
Subconsciously, you'll definitely remember and if you don't, you'll remember eventually when I finally allow you your life. But for now...' She whispered, 'you must again earn the trust of those whom you love. Go back to Reality, and face those brave Avengers. Find your love and your life, and in the end you may go home to your children. Go. Peter and Morgan are waiting, and they'd love to see you again.'
Another blinding flash of light, and mind-bending pain.
Anthony opened his eyes and lifted his head so hard he banged it against a wall.
'Ow, fuck!' He cursed, and for some reason Anthony felt tears slide down his cheek. He rubbed absently at his eyes while destroying his entire house trying to find his phone. When he did, he looked at the time and cursed again.
'Fuck! 3:20?' He exclaimed, 'What the absolute fuck, why did I wake up? I have to be late, why did I wake up 40 minutes BEFORE THE SESSION!'
He took 10 minutes to finish getting dressed, grabbing all his necessary accessories and yeet himself down the stairs.
The Facility was only an hour away, and Anthony was a slow runner but even he could cross that distance before 4:30. The session was supposed to start at 4:00, but why would Anthony be on time? It wasn't his style.
He reached the place at 4:20, entering the training center within a few seconds. It was eerily quiet, but Anthony suddenly found himself saying in a low voice with a smirk-
'Agent Romanoff, you miss me?'
All rights belong to their rightful owners. I only own the storyline.