I've wanted to delve into a Tony Time Travel fic for a while now but I didn't know where to begin. I still don't have much of an idea but I'm forging ahead anyway. I've got a few ideas for the whole arc of the story but the finer details will probably be an improvisation. Nevertheless I'm still excited and hope to have some fun with this one.
In this world Tony and Pepper don't get back together they just remain good friends. So that means no Morgan. That's because I did not want Tony to lose someone else when he gets stuck in 2012.
Also I'm rather anti-Cap but I'm trying not to let it colour his character too harshly. Yet I'm still very angry with the guy. It's probably because he used to be my favourite before he fucked up big time and never apologised for it
The sun was shining down from above. Not quite midday yet but it was close enough. It made the water of the river sparkle and made you forget that it was an unfortunate colour usually. Not quite the clear, almost blue of an undisturbed forest stream. This one was too large and too silty. Which made it a sad shade of brown. But at least it was clean. He would never allow any of his facilities to be built on polluted lands.
There were a few birds overhead. They trilled and sang, circling each other in some strange dance. It would have been pretty if you weren't keenly aware of how few of them there were. Even this far away from the city, he rarely saw more than a handful of the creatures flying around. He remembered when the skies had been filled with flocks of them. Great murmurations that could sometimes blot out light. Now however…
Now the sky was quite empty. Just like the rest of the city. The world. The universe!
Tony took a deep breath. He needed to chill. He was getting himself worked up again. Over the damn birds for crying out loud. But it wasn't anything new really. There would always be a grim reminder of what happened. Usually in places you never expected. That's what made it so much harder to just carry on with your life.
Like when you would wander past a broken storefront and realise that it used to be Korma Chameleon. That they used to make some pretty decent saag paneer and the owner would always give you extra naan bread. Then you realise that they must have been caught up in the snap and then you will never taste it again-
Dammit I'm going melancholy again. He needed a switch in his brain where whenever he would drift into sad territory it would send an impulse to his hand and make him slap himself. Actually he could probably create one of those. People had gotten some quite good research into Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. With a simple electromagnetic pulse they could make your arms twitch and move without you consciously doing it.
However they could also temporarily blind you and make you forget how to speak. It came back like instantly but that wasn't the point really. Maybe he should give that one a miss. He should probably steer clear of brains all together. Make it a rule not to mess with the wet, squishy stuff. He was much more comfortable with cold metal anyway. It would probably make less of a mess.
Actually considering the sheer amount of motor oil he was covered in on a regular basis that probably wasn't true either.
Tony shook his head. He was getting off track. Again. He was here for a reason wasn't he.
The Avengers compound lay in the distance. All squares and straight lines. Rather different than his other buildings. Which tended to curve organically into odd but unique shapes. But this one hadn't been for him really so he gave in to the people asking for it to be more 'normal' looking. It was still nice though even if it was more boring. It gleamed starkly white against the deep green of the surrounding fields. Ha, Starkly.
Tony sat back in his seat. His car had been stationary as soon as the facility came into view. Just far enough away so the cameras wouldn't have seen him yet. He flexed his fingers and tapped them against the steering wheel rapidly.
Tony wouldn't say he was stalling per say. He was just...delaying slightly. Not wanting to quite interact with certain people yet. Fuck, that is the definition of stalling isn't it. God dammit.
Air left him, in what was most definitely not a deep sigh or a huff. He should be better than this. It had been five years since he had really seen everyone. Seven since the whole thing went down.
A muscle in his chest twinged and Tony rubbed it absentmindedly. It always did that when his mind drifted to that day. To the shield that had slammed through his suit, broke his arc reactor and carved a line into his chest.
The same shield that was currently burning a hole in his trunk. He could sense it even now. It was there mocking him, finally returning to its master. After he had picked it up in Siberia he had locked it into a safe and never glanced at it again. Now he would have to curb his unease and hand it back to the man.
Because it had been five years and now there was a possibility they could solve everything. He needed to buck up because the world-hell the universe-needed all of them together. There would be no conveniently leaving the facility when he knew Cap would be there. Or having Bruce and Nebula come to his place instead. No, all of them had to be here.
And five years was a long time wasn't it. Long enough for that whole ordeal to be shoved under the rug and never thought of again, right? It was the way Tony dealt with everything. Which was probably a perfectly healthy response.
You only needed to look at him to see how much had changed. He'd become old. Well not old, he refused to link that word in any way shape or form to him. He was the personification of new afterall. Always having the newest, the brightest, the best.
No, he wasn't old. But he was gray. It started at the sides. Only a few stray hairs here and there. He quite liked the salt and pepper look. But then it inevitably spread to uncharted land until his whole head was covered.
He liked to think he looked like a distinguished gentleman rather than some crazy old coot.
Tony shook himself out of his reverie once more. This was stupid, him sitting here twirling his thumbs, they had a mission to do.
So he grabbed the steering wheel with one hand and pushed the ignition with the other. The car came to life around him and the music that had shut off earlier returned at full blast. He flinched at the sudden assault but left it at the volume it was. It was just enough of a shock to break him out of his funk.
"Hey FRIDAY would you break into their security for me?" Tony asked nonchalantly.
"Already done, Boss. I was in there as soon as we arrived" FRIDAY's voice came from the earpiece he was wearing. Technically she was everywhere but if her voice came from every place at once it would be creepy.
"That's my girl FRI" He said with a smile.
In reality FRIDAY didn't need to break in. This was one of his facilities. But he didn't want the others to feel like he was imposing on them. Or spying even. So he mostly left them to themselves with their own security system. A system that was still no match for FRIDAY.
"Okay FRIDAY patch me through. I am not arriving without at least a welcoming committee."
There were a few beeps and then he knew that he was through to their tannoy system. He smirked and let his music continue blaring for a few more seconds before he shut it off and said. "Would any of you beautiful people like to welcome their saviour with open arms? While a hug would be nice, a several second long french kiss is always preferable. Especially if your green or your name rhymes with toady."
They couldn't reply to him but he could just feel the eye rolls and long suffering sighs. It made him grin wider. And a few seconds later he did hear the whur of the electric gate opening.
He wasted no time to speed through the gate and down the long driveway. By the time he'd made it to the front of the building he saw that there was already somebody there. A somebody he would have preferred to have greeted later. But there was no time like the present.
His window wound down to the serious face of Steve Rogers.
"How's it going Mr. Blond Bombshell?" Tony quipped.
The corners of Rogers' mouth downturned but Tony persevered anyway. "I know you're not big and green but if you still want your welcome kiss I guess I can oblige."
Rogers sighed in that long suffering fashion of his. The one that let you know he was disappointed in you and left you feeling teeny tiny. Tony swallowed his discomfort. Being around the magnanimous captain brought up a whole load of crap. He would rather never have to witness the pitying disappointment in that guy's eyes again. Yet it seemed that no matter what he did there was always something that Roger's could find fault with.
Not like he just saved their sorry asses and invented Time Travel for them.
Rogers then shoved his hands into his pockets and eventually his lips quirked into some semblance of a smile. "It's good to see you Tony."
His tone wasn't mocking and he did genuinely sound pleased to see Tony.
Tony mentally shook his head. He was getting ahead of himself, reading into things that weren't actually there. So what if the Captain looked kinda disappointed with his flirting. Many people in his life had shown him the same. That didn't mean that they hated him.
Tony put on as bright a smile as he could muster and finally extricated the car. Rogers took a half step back as he got a bit close to him and he felt his smile tighten ever so slightly.
"I heard your first attempts at time travel didn't go too smoothly," Tony said.
Steve took a deep breath "You can say that again. It probably would have worked better if you had been here."
A frown threatened to tug at his mouth at the backhanded compliment but Tony resisted.
"Well I didn't need to be here because I already solved it." Tony held up a prototype model of the time GPS. Rogers glanced at it, reluctantly impressed. "I told you Cap I work better on my own these days."
A couple of weeks ago a big group of them had invaded his self appointed bachelor pad, waxing lyrical about time travel of all things. At first he hadn't taken them seriously because the notion was laughable. Especially when one Scott Lang had likened real time travel to back to the future. But his mind wouldn't leave it be. The idea bounced around his head like a ricocheting bullet. Refused to be ignored.
Tony had called up Pepper to bring her up to speed and ask for her advice. They may not be together anymore but she was still one of his best friends. He had told her how ridiculous it sounded but she had been able to detect the hope in his voice.
"If anyone could do this it's you, Tony," she had said "If there's any way that the lost could come back you will find a way."
The idea that he could reverse any of this was almost too much.
He could get the kid back.
It was that thought that cemented his resolve. He would do anything, even invent the impossible, if it meant he could bring back those that were lost.
They all wanted him to come to the compound but Tony had refused. He needed space to solve this. After all he did tend to lone wolf a lot of his projects. The only person he had ever been able to share his lab space with was Bruce ...and Peter but let's not go down that road. But Bruce had been the one to go to New Asgard. According to him he was the one most likely to get through to Thor.
With him gone, Tony decided to do his research at home. Which had paid off handsomely.
Bruce and the rest of the gang had arrived back a few days ago but Tony didn't want to show up until he was 100% sure he'd gotten it right. He couldn't adequately gloat if some of his calculations were off.
Now they had viable time travel and they had gotten the crew back together. They actually had a chance. This was their time to finally solve the single worst disaster in the fucking universe. Old grudges and resentment didn't matter anymore. Not when they could finally win!
Tony took a step back and put a hand to his chest. He finally looked Rogers in the eye and resigned himself to forgiveness. "Resentment is corrosive Cap and I hate it. We finally have a chance to fix this. Focusing on bad blood isn't going to help anybody."
Rogers gave him an appeasing nod and a small smile. "I couldn't have said it better myself."
Rogers took his hands out of his pockets and he looked marginally more relaxed. That's a good sign right? Tony asked himself.
Tony gave him another smile and walked back a few steps until he was near the trunk of the car. FRIDAY was intuitive enough to open it for him without him needing to say.
"I also come with a peace offering," Tony said.
He looked down and could still spot the circular shield despite the amount of crap he had piled on it. It was covered in bits of piping, a few springs and a collection of oil covered rags. Perhaps he shouldn't have placed the shield under all that. But he'd had to cover up the thing or he would have ended up changing his mind. It's not his fault that this was all he'd had in his trunk.
He casually tossed everything to the side. One of the rags got a bit stuck to it but he gave it a gentle tug and it came away. There was now a dark smudge maring its perfect surface. Tony diligently covered it with his thumb and acted like it wasn't there.
There was a longing in Rogers eyes as Tony flipped the shield to show him the obnoxious red, white and blue side. Yet he was also hesitant and uncertain.
"Are you sure Tony?" he asked, with puppy dog eyes.
"Of course I am Cap, it was made for you." Also if he didn't take it Tony was 10 seconds away from frisbeeing it into the river. He wanted it out of his hair either way.
Rogers didn't say anything else but he didn't object when Tony moved towards him and slid the shield onto his left arm. He looked down at his shielded arm purposefully and held it up to his chest. It really was an extension of him at this point
"Thank you, Tony. Truly."
"Can you keep it down a little bit? I didn't bring one for the whole team."