I'll be honest. I was THIS close to abandoning this story after the events of Endgame because it made me not even want to TOUCH the concept of time travel. But now I think I've come up with a way for this to work (I won't intentionally be following the Russo's rules on the subject, however. Because seeing as how THEY hardly understand what their actual rules are THEMSELVES, and made a giant fluster-cluck out of the whole deal, I decided I'm not really gonna worry about it.) ANYWAY- what I've come up with should be even better than what I had originally imagined for this story, and I hope you like it, too.
Anyway- THANK YOU, my sweet readers, for sticking with me. Your continued support means the WORLD!
Happy reading.
Tony stood on the stoop, in the pouring rain, accompanied only by the intermittent lightning crashes and thunder claps over head, and knocked hard on the front door of the doctor's private residence- a secluded chateau in Montreux, Switzerland.
It had been two days since Jarvis had found the old scientist's address, but determined the man had no listed phone number. So Tony and Marilynn had decided it would be best if he left straight away, while she subsequently flew to LA with her grandson, so that H.A. could be close to his home hospital if his health deteriorated further while Tony was away, and more comfortable at home in her and Rhodey's care in the mean time.
Tony frowned, detecting no sign of anyone coming to the door, though it was hard to hear anything in the current weather conditions. He was about to knock again when he heard the deadbolt slide back, and saw the door handle turn. A tall, matronly, bird-like woman with gray hair braided into a bun at the nape of her neck appeared from behind the door. She had hard, steely blue-colored eyes, wide and marble like, that were not so much as staring at him, but more like through him, and she was wearing what looked like a permanent frown chiseled across her thin, down-turned lips.
"Can I help you, monsieur?" she asked sternly, in a curt German accent. "What is it that you want?"
Tony held his tongue against whipping out any of his usual snarky comebacks he would have replied with to try to lighten the mood, and tried to smile politely instead. "Yes. My name is Tony Stark, and I'm looking for the man that goes by the name of Sven Mueller. Is he in?" he asked her intently.
The woman gave him an annoyed look. "He is not seeing any visitors now. So, good evening!" she informed him sharply, waving him away in dismissal, and swiftly closing the door.
But Tony blocked it with the toe of his shoe. "Please," he insisted. "I know he goes by Sven Mueller, now. But his name is actually Phillipe Guerre. Doctor Phillipe Guerre. And he and my father, Howard Stark? They worked together. Many years ago. If I could only talk him for just a minute. I've come along way..."
"Howard Stark?! That is a name I haven't heard spoken in decades!" Tony heard a deep, male voice call out with a thick French accent from somewhere inside the house. He could hear someone coming closer to the door, with heavy, tromping footsteps, and he craned his neck to see if he could spot who had spoken. When he appeared, Tony noticed him to be a very tall, brutish man with shoulder length, silver hair, and round glasses. He came up beside his housekeeper, who was still standing at the door, and sized Tony up for a moment before he spoke again. "If you are who you say you are, you bare a close resemblance to your father," he said cautiously. He looked past Tony to survey the street behind him in both directions, then he turned his anxious eyes back to his caller. "So, then! Answer me this! Why are you here? How have you found me? Who's sent you?" he asked Tony in rapid succession.
Tony shook his head, and held his hands up in surrender. "No one's followed me. I'm on my own," he explained. "Look, I know I'm here unannounced, and I'm sorry. But it's urgent that I speak to you about an experiment that you and my dad began all those years ago. I need to know..."
"No. I'm sorry. You can't stay. You must go," the man said, interrupting. "Frankly, I'm surprised I'm still standing here! That someone hasn't shot me dead on my own doorstep as I've been talking to you!"
Tony frowned, narrowing his eyes. "Are you talking about...Hydra?" he cautiously asked.
Dr. Guierre's eyes widened and he lunged forward, giving Tony an intense, questioning glare. "Sssshhhh!" he hissed. "Yes! Of course! Who else?" he scolded under his breath, just millimeters from Tony's face.
Tony startled when he did this, and he raised his hands up in defense, as he had thought for a moment that the man was going to attack him. A "Hey! Whoa, there, Buddy!" escaped his lips simultaneously, but soon he realized this wasn't the case, so he put them down again, and softened his stance to a more at ease position. "You need to know something, then, Doc! Hydra is no more! The whole shooting match, in fact! The cover ups. The secret operations. The political involvement. It's all been exposed."
Tony heard the Doctor let out a skeptical grunt in reply, and then he shifted his eyes over Tony's shoulder to scan the street behind him again. "You're quite sure you've gone unnoticed? No one saw you come here?" the man asked him.
Tony shook his head. "No one," he repeated. Then he shrugged. "Well there was the car service from the airport, but..."
The doctor grimaced and wave a hand in dismissal before he swiftly grasped Tony by the upper arm. "Come, come," he said, leading him inside, then hurriedly closing the door behind them. "Hanna, take our guest's coat. And then tea, if you please," he requested, and the woman nodded firmly. She stepped away from the door to allow Tony to shed his outer jacket. He then handed it to her, and the woman grabbed it from him, clicked her heels, and spun around, bustling away in the direction of what Tony assumed was the kitchen. The doctor quickly pointed the way toward a room that appeared to be a study, with many bookshelves and a very ornately-carved wood fireplace, with a roaring fire in the hearth. Tony followed him as they briskly walked inside, each man then taking a seat in the wing-backed chairs sitting adjacent from each other in front of the fire. Tony was secretly very thankful for the eventual warm welcome out of the rain, as odd as the initial greeting had been.
A car could suddenly be heard loudly racing up the street outside. The doctor's eyes widened, and he briskly rose from his seat to march to a nearby window. He yanked up the shade and Tony watched as his eyes darted around to survey the street once more. Once he was satisfied that the peril he'd suspected hadn't been proven, he marched back over to the chairs, and sat down again.
Tony raised his eyebrows to the man questioningly. "Are we...good?" he asked cautiously. "Because I assure you, Doc. There's nothing to be worried about any more."
The doctor nodded in assurance. "Yes,yes" he answered. "We shall see."
Tony frowned. He very much wanted the man to believe that he was no longer in danger. But he supposed that living in a constant state of paranoia for so many years would be a hard thing to overcome.
The doctor slowly eased back again in his chair. Tony followed suite, cautiously watching the man for his next move. "So, then? If you are familiar with Hydra's work, then you must know the truth about your father! Your parents! What they did to them, I mean?" he said regretfully, removing his eyeglasses and using the sweater he was wearing to clean the lenses of raindrops.
Tony shrugged. "Well, if you're talking about the uh, 'accident'..." he said, making one fingered air quotes for emphasis, "...then, yeah. I know all about it."
Dr. Guierre gave Tony a sympathetic look and clucked his tongue. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Such a shame. Your father was a brilliant man! And your mother was a dear woman. But as soon as I heard about what happened, I knew it was no accident."
"So that's why you've been hiding out here," Tony replied knowingly.
"It was the only thing I could do!" the man explained desperately, replacing the glasses on his face. "It was too hard to discern friend from foe at that point! SHIELD had been completely infiltrated! And I knew that it wouldn't be long before I was next! So I packed what little I could take with me, pooled every cent I had to buy a plane ticket out of the country, and I've been here ever since! Hoping upon hope that they'd never find me! And always watching. Always." A silent moment passed between them, as the Doctor seemed to fall into a sullen reminiscence, his eyes falling on the dancing flames in the fireplace. Then he focused again on Tony, shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry, my boy. But I'm afraid I can't help you. The risk is too great. For all parties involved." He stood up in a gesture to usher Tony toward the door, and Tony stood up, searching the doctor's face for any sign he'd relent.
"Please," he begged. "Just hear me out! It's important."
"So was our work! But we were fooled! Taken advantage of in the highest order," Dr. Guierre explained. "Especially your poor parents! Our work cost them their lives!"
"That may be so," Tony argued. "But as I said! Hydra is no longer a threat, so..."
"They are always a threat!" the doctor countered sternly. "That is the meaning of their name! A Hydra has many heads! Cut off one and two more grow in its place! So how can you know they are truly no more?!"
"Well, for starters," Tony began. "Their assassin? The Winter Soldier? He's been de-programmed. I saw it myself."
The doctor frowned, and then shook his head in disbelief. "And what about Pierce, then?! Alexander Pierce?! As long as there is breath in his body, he won't stop until..." he went on to say, but Tony interrupted him.
"That's just it, Dr. Guierre. He's dead," he informed him. He paused for a moment, letting those words sink in. The doctor just stared at Tony, obviously trying to comprehend this news.
"Dead," the Doctor finally gasped. "You're sure?"
Tony nodded slowly. "As the day is long," he replied. "And not only that, but I work closely with those that helped to take Hydra down. Perhaps you've heard of Captain America? Or...Black Widow? The Avengers?"
The doctor's eyes narrowed. "The...Avengers," he repeated slowly. "So you are?..."
"Iron Man. Sir," Tony explained, looking the man in the eye with an air of personal pride.
Dr. Guierre kept staring at his guest, bewildered by the news. He didn't speak, and Tony began to feel a bit unnerved by it. After a moment, he gave the Doctor an apprehensive look. "Uh...Doc?" he said.
The doctor's shoulders began to shake, and a soft chuckle came from his lips. It grew gradually louder until it became a belly laugh, and then the doctor threw his head back and cackled gleefully, clapping his hands together. Tony just looked at him in wonder, eyes wide, and he couldn't help but wonder if the man had suddenly decided to believe him, or if he was laughing at him in mockery.
Just then, Hanna came rushing in from the kitchen at the sound of all the comotion. "Heir Doctor?!" she cried in surprise at his outburst of emotion. She flicked her eyes to Tony and glared at him. "What have you done to him! What is the meaning of this?!" she demanded.
The doctor clasped his hands together. "Ahhh, Hanna, my dear! Forget the tea! This calls for champagne!" he declared loudly, as he raised one of his arms in the air and twisted his hand in a flourish.
"Champagne, heir doctor?! What are you talking about?!" she asked.
"Mist'ere Stark has brought us some wonderful news, my dear woman! We are free at last! Nous sommes libres!" the doctor bellowed, and Tony eyed the doctor cautiously once more, still wondering if he was being facetious.
"Free?" the woman parroted, before shooting Tony another suspicious look over her shoulder, to which Tony replied with a shrug and a sheepish smile.
"Yes, yes! I have managed to outlast Hydra! And I am now a free man! No more hiding!" Dr. Guierre explained. He cackled loudly again, and jumped up out of his chair, yanking Hanna into his arms and proceeding to dance with her in a sweeping circle around the room, humming a waltz loudly and laughing. The poor old bird just stared at her employer as she was being jostled about, completely gobsmacked at this sudden display.
The doctor spun her around once in a dramatic finish, and then shooed her away. "Now, go. Go, my beloved Hanna! Champagne! We must celebrate!" he cried.
Hanna staggered on her feet for a moment, trying to regain her composure, while pressing a hand to her chest, her marble-y eyes flicking around the room. "Yes. Of course. Right away, Heir Doctor!" she replied breathlessly, as she bustled back down the hall toward the kitchen. But not before Tony detected a slightly delighted smile that ghosted across her lips in response as she passed by him.
The Doctor then clapped his hand on Tony's shoulder, and squeezed it. For a brief moment, Tony thought his suspicions were right- that the Doctor's joviality had all been a ruse, and now he was in for it with the man. His eyes moved from where Hanna had disappeared again down the hallway to the Doctor's hand on his shoulder to his face, and his apprehension was eased, as the expression the Doctor was wearing was one of pure relief. Tony exhaled and smiled back at the man, relieved to find he had at least earn some trust with his new acquaintance.
"Now, then!" the Doctor hooted as he collapsed back into the seat across from Tony's by the fire. "Since the great Tony Stark- nay, Iron Man- has paid me a visit with such glorious news, tell me, my boy! What can I do for you?" he offered.
Tony pursed his lips, squared his shoulders and nodded, taking his seat once again, and leaning forward intently in the chair. "I want to know about the time travel experiment you and my dad started," he began. "I need your help to finish it."
"Time travel?" the doctor said, leaning forward as well. "That is no small feat! Why, may I ask, would you accept such an undertaking?"
"Because," Tony said, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a photo from his wallet of he and Pepper with H.A. and Virginia Maria, smiling happily. All alive and well. All together. And so happy. The sight of it always pulled at Tony's heartstrings, and even then he felt a lump grow in his throat as he gazed at it momentarily before he handed the picture to the Doctor, who graciously accepted it and scanned his eyes over it as Tony continued to speak. "I need to save my family," Tony finished, unable to keep his voice from faltering with emotion. "And that is the only way I know how."