Chapter 105
Toni Stark-Rogers fell to the ground with a groan. The pain of using the Infinity Stones surged through her like a bad burn, as she winced out in pain.
She had snapped her fingers and she'd survived.
She'd brought down Thanos and she'd survived.
She was sure the only thing keeping her from her death was the fact that the Suit had been able to absorb most of the radiation from the Stones, and the added advantage that she hadn't been wielding all six Stones. Perhaps it was the fact that she didn't have the Soul Stone that worked to her advantage.
Perhaps it was the only thing that had kept her alive.
"We have you surrounded," she heard a familiar female voice say, and she froze in confusion, "Do not try anything, or we'll shoot you before you even get to any of your weapons."
She heard the familiar voice of her Aunt Peggy, but it was not the Aunt Peggy's voice she'd known growing up. The mature Aunt figure who'd always known right from wrong and was ever the adult presence in her life.
This was the voice she'd heard from the tapes she'd watched often enough. The tapes of her Aunt and father when they were younger and training in the war.
This was the voice of her twenty-year-old Aunt.
"Aunt Peggy?" she groaned.
Did she have a concussion? Perhaps using the Stones had messed with her head. Maybe the Reality Stone had some adverse effects on her mind.
She sat up carefully, as she saw the guns trained on her. But it was where they were that drew her attention more than anything.
She was no longer on the battleground that had once been the Compound.
Instead, she was in Camp Lehigh. And not the abandoned one that Steve had shown her a few years ago after the fall of SHIELD. No, this was the one she'd seen in the footage.
And given the age of her Aunt standing above her, with her lips painted bright red and hair in pin curls, well, it wasn't that hard to put two and two together to get four.
Shit.
"I have no idea how you managed to get into our camp without any of our scouts seeing you," Aunt Peggy said, as two men hauled her to her feet, "But I can assure you that we'll get the truth out of you one way or another."
She was unable to say a word, as her mind raced to put together what had happened.
One second, she was in the present, fighting against Thanos, and managed to secure their victory.
And the next, she was in the 1940s.
It didn't make any sense to her. Had the Stones sent her back? Why? She knew the Time Stone had the power to alter time, but even with what Strange said, it never worked like this. Was it the fact that the other stones had also been working in conjecture?
She glanced down at the ruins of her suit on her hand and saw the Stones had vanished. They were no longer attached to her, and she felt her heart race.
No matter how it was that she'd gotten here, going back the same way would not be an option.
She was stuck here, with people who seemed to believe her to be some sort of spy.
Shit.
She was marched straight through the camp and she could see the soldiers around her assessing her, trying to figure out if she was some sort of threat.
She was placed in a chair in what looked to be an interrogation room, as she was left alone for a few moments. She knew it wouldn't be long before someone came in, so she quickly pressed the reactor and the nanobots retracted into it. She couldn't turn it off completely, but she knew it was better than having the suit visible for all to see.
She saw a gruff looking older man come in. She knew his face as well. While Captain Phillips hadn't been the founding member of SHIELD in the way that her father and Aunt Peggy had been, she knew the man had been pretty damn important. He was a no-nonsense kind of man, and she knew that it would be difficult to convince him of anything close to the truth.
But how else was she going to explain what she was doing in the middle of a US Army Training Facility with a futuristic suit and no possible reasoning of why she was even there?
She knew the golden rule of time travel was never to mess with the past. But then again, she'd also just gone on a mission to do just that. However that was a matter of changing a few months. In particular the result of one fight. She was seventy something years in the past, and who knew what would happen? She could change the outcome of World War Two if she wasn't careful. And no one wanted the Nazis to win that war.
But she also knew that she wouldn't be able to get home without some allies. And there was only one person in this time whom she trusted completely.
"Let's start with a name," Phillips said, as he stood across from her. She could see him sizing her up, and the strict, no-nonsense man from her father's stories held true to the legends. She wondered if he'd throw her in a holding cell if she said something he didn't quite believe in.
She knew she had one hope of making it through this, and she needed to lay her cards on the table.
Just not with him.
She didn't respond, as she insisted on leaning back and crossing her arms instead. She was the one who had something he wanted. And she wasn't just going to roll over and give it to him. She knew that Phillips was a good man.
But it wasn't until later in his timeline where he trusted women and their capabilities more. He still didn't fully believe in Aunt Peggy. And she refused to be seen as a weak-willed woman to a man who didn't see her for what she was.
She'd fought against men who didn't believe in her, her entire life, but she'd survived this far. She would survive this too.
"Okay," he glared at her, "Who do you work for? The Germans? The Russians?"
She wanted to laugh.
Perhaps all of this was just sort of concussed dream.
"I'm not telling you anything," she told him simply, "I'm not a spy. I promise you that. But I will not talk to anyone other than Peggy Carter."
"You cannot just come in here and demand who interrogates you," Phillips snorted, "What do you think this is? Just because she's a woman doesn't mean she'll go easier on you, if that's what you're hoping for. I've seen her make grown men cry."
"It's not," she said simply, not wanting to reveal any more than she had to, especially with so many other soldiers in the room. "I trust her."
"Why would you trust any of us?" Philips asked her suspiciously. "Look, like it or not, I'm the one in charge here. Now you are currently in the possession of a highly advanced suit, and one way or another we are going to find out just what kind of technology it is that the Germans have come to possess. I have half a mind to get Stark in here and have him poke around at that glowing circle attached to your chest to see if he can get some answers out of it."
She froze just then.
In all the time she'd been here, as she tried to make sense of the fact that somehow she'd been transported into the past, it never once crossed her mind that her father was here as well.
Her father whom she hadn't seen in years was in the same place as her. Her father whom the last time she actually saw in person, she'd had a less than pleasant conversation with. Her father who'd hated her. Her father who'd abused her.
Her father who'd been murdered by HYDRA. Her father, whom if she told what would happen, then she had a chance of saving. And the added fact that she'd be able to save her mother. Because if Maria Stark had never been in that car then she'd have lived. And she'd have remained in Toni's life.
She swallowed at the implications. She had a chance to save her father, and in turn her mother, and she had no idea what to do with that information.
Shit.
"I gave you my demands," she said firmly, as she sat back and crossed her arms, "I'll tell her the full truth, you have my word of that. But I will only talk to her and no one else. So unless you plan on bringing on her in here, you better prepare for a lot of uncomfortable silence."
Phillips looked at her carefully as he seemed to be debating whether to give into her demands or not.
Finally, he exhaled as he pointed to one of his men in the room. "You, get Carter in here now."
She smirked up at him, and he glared in response.
"Just because I'm asking her in here doesn't mean that I don't think that you're up to something," Phillips warned her, as Aunt Peggy stepped into the room. "I'll be right outside this door so don't think that you'll be getting out of here any easier."
He looked over at her aunt, "See what you can get out of her, will you? She refuses to talk to anyone else."
Aunt Peggy looked baffled by that, as she glanced over at Toni, "I'll do my best, Sir," she said, as Phillips and his men left the room, leaving the two of them alone.
"Did you think I'll be easier on you?" Aunt Peggy asked her in a calculating voice, and she knew she was measuring up whether Toni thought she would be easier to trick or not.
"No," she told her aunt honestly, knowing she'd be able to tell if she's lying or not, "But I trust you."
"Why?" Aunt Peggy asked her, baffled, "Does it have anything to do with the fact that you were referring to me as your 'Aunt'?"
"It does," Toni admitted freely. "Look, I'll tell you the truth, but you're not going to believe me."
"Try me," Aunt Peggy countered, and she smiled, knowing her Aunt was every bit the badass woman she was when Toni had known her later in life.
"The truth is, my name is Antonia," Toni told her, "But I go by Toni. I called you Aunt Peggy, because the truth is, I've known you my entire life."
"Do you have a last name, Toni?" Peggy looked at her.
"Stark," she told her, and Peggy laughed.
"Did you just pick the first surname you heard and attach it to yourself?" Peggy asked her incredulously.
"I wish," she said with a sardonic laugh. "No. Howard Stark is my father."
"Right," Peggy said sarcastically, "I suppose he fathered you when he was no more than a child then?"
"No," she said, knowing her Aunt didn't believe her, "Because I haven't been born yet. I won't be born until 1970."
"Are you honestly trying to get me to believe-" Peggy started quickly, as she interrupted her.
"That I'm from the future?" Toni finished, "Yes. The truth is, I was born in 1970, and I come from the year 2018. I was fighting in a battle against an alien Titan that made World War Two look like child's play. It was a war not just for the fate of the world, but the fate of the Universe. One second I was there, and the next I was here, lying on the ground in the middle of Camp Lehigh in what, 1941?"
"43," Peggy corrected. "How naïve do you think I am? Time Travel? That's the story you're going with?"
"It is," Toni said with a sardonic smile. It would take a lot more than a history lesson to get her to believe Toni.
"Then tell me something that would make be believe you," Peggy said, "Because there's nothing in your story that has be inclined to believe a word you're saying."
"You have a brother named Michael," she said, knowing her Aunt wouldn't have told anyone about him.
"Nice try," Peggy said, trying not to look rattled, "I had a brother. He's gone."
"He's not," Toni replied, "He inspired you to join the fight when you thought he died. But he's alive. You'll find him in a few years. He faked his death."
"Look, I don't know what twisted game you think you're playing-" Peggy started angrily.
"I'm telling the truth," Toni said. "You wear red lipstick because you think it's an armour against the world. Your middle name is Elizabeth, but you hate it. You claim not to care for desserts but I know that chocolate chip cookies are your favourite, especially the ones my butler Jarvis makes, and you secretly love to dance. I know that you've fought your entire life to be seen as an equal to the men around you, and your own personal statement to get you through life is to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye, and say, 'No, you move' when the entire world tells you you're wrong. I know that because you told me that yourself."
Peggy looked at her shakenly.
"Look me in the eyes and tell me I'm lying," Toni told her, "I know you can tell whenever someone is lying to you."
Peggy studied her face, before finally saying, "Look, just because you believe something is the truth doesn't actually make it true."
"I'm telling the truth," she said, frustratedly. "Please, I know you don't believe me, but the truth is, I have no idea what I'm doing here or how to get home. And trust me, I want to go home more than anything. I want to be back with my husband and my kids and my robot family. You're my Aunt Peggy and I've know you since I was eight years old. You've been there for me my entire life."
Peggy looked at her distrustfully, and she continued, "You've always been in my corner, and I can't bear it if you look at me like that. With so much distrust in your eyes. You call me Ducky because the first time we met I was wearing duck pyjamas. You gave me my first red lipstick and told me to use it as my own armour against the world. You were there when I went to university when I was a young teenager, and when I adopted my son and the birth of my daughter. You encouraged me to fall in love when I was so terrified of getting hurt."
Peggy took a deep breath, "I think this is all insane," she told Toni point blank. "But you're telling the truth. And your suit is far beyond anything we could make, and our spies would have told us if the Germans were able to make anything like that either. Which leaves me with two options: one, you're delusional, or two, you're telling the truth. And I'm inclined to believe you're telling the truth."
She exhaled, and Toni smiled brightly, "So you'll help me get back home?"
"I'm not her, you know," Peggy told her gently, "The brave woman you knew in the future. I'm not her. I haven't done any of the things she has. I don't even fully have the respect of half the men here."
"You may not be her yet," Toni told the younger woman gently, "But you will be. One day in the future. I can already see traces of her in you. And I've heard the war stories, Aunt Peg. You were a badass. If there's anyone I trust here, it's you."
"We need to tell Colonel Philips," Peggy warned her. "He's in charge of this base, and no way is he going to believe any story we come up with."
"Okay," she admitted, "But no one else. There are people here who cannot know about the future. It would change everything."
"Including your father?" Peggy pressed, and she looked away. "Fine. Let me go get him and we'll fill him in on the truth.
Peggy stood up as she beckoned the Colonel back into the room.
"Well?" Philips asked Peggy. "What did you find out."
Peggy looked at Toni, then back at Philips. "I don't think you're going to believe what she has to say."
"Which is?" Phillips asked impatiently.
"She's my niece from the future," Peggy said finally. "Stark's daughter. From the year 2018."
"And you believe that?" Phillips asked Peggy with a look. "I know you're better than that, Peggy."
"Colonel Chester Phillips," Toni said his name, "We never actually met, you were long gone in my time but I heard stories. You fought in the first world war, and again in the second. You have a wife and a daughter, though you wouldn't tell anyone here about that. In fact, you've gone out of your way to keep it out of your military file. You don't want anyone to think less of you for being a family man. You daughter sees you for the occasional holiday and sometimes her birthday if she's really lucky. But she doesn't resent you for that. She told my father that once when they met. He used to tell me that she understood duty and honour when I was young and still got upset when he wouldn't be there for a big event in my life."
"How do you know that?" the man asked, looking visibly startled that she knew about his family.
Peggy, in turn, looked at Phillips in surprise about his family.
"I told you," she told him, "Future."
"She's serious, isn't she?" Phillips asked Peggy, confused.
"She is," Peggy confirmed.
"I am," Toni said with a smile.
"I should get Stark to come down here at once," Phillips told her, "Get him to confirm the story. Maybe he can still take a crack at that suit."
"No!" she said quickly. "Look. I just want to get home, okay? I don't want to bring him into this."
"Not close with your father then, I take it," Phillips sighed. "Do you have a plan to get home?"
"Not in the slightest," she admitted, "But coincidentally I also invented time travel in the future. To help us win a war. I have a good memory, so I'm sure I can replicate my results. It might just take me some time to do so, especially given the technology available in the forties."
"You're going to need a cover if you're here," Phillips warned, "A woman showing up is going to raise questions."
"I was trained by Aunt Peggy in the future," she said, "I can fight. I'm also well versed in Military affairs. My best friend was high up in the ranks and I've had more military contracts in my life than any other company."
"Okay," Phillips sighed. "You need a name to give the others though. I'm assuming you don't want to go by Stark."
"Rhodes," Toni told him, "I'll go by Toni Rhodes."
"Husband?" Phillips asked, gesturing at the ring on her finger.
"Best friend," she corrected, as her heart ached at the thought of Steve.
Wait.
Nineteen Forty-Three.
Her father and Peggy weren't the only one in Camp Lehigh that year.
There was someone else.
Her husband.
Peggy and Colonel Phillips watched over her like hawks. So much so that she was rather inclined to believe that they didn't fully trust her.
She wasn't really surprised. Her story was ludicrous, and even if their somewhat fragile trust that she was telling the truth about being a Time Traveller, they needed to make sure she didn't interfere too much with how the base was being run. Because it could have disastrous results if she accidentally got involved with the wrong battle or let slip something that would change the course of natural events.
The two of them went to the cafeteria for lunch, and she really wasn't looking forward to wartime military food. Her meal was spaghetti and tomato sauce, which all things considered, wasn't quite bad. But it was nothing in comparison to the Italian food that she was used to. Still, she didn't complain as it was dumped on her plate.
She looked around the room, and there, at the very back she spotted her future husband eating all alone, and she smiled for the first time.
"Where do you think you're going?" Peggy asked her as she started walking toward Steve's table.
"To eat with a friend," she said vaguely, and Peggy looked at her in confusion as she saw which way Toni was headed.
"Fine," Her future aunt sighed, sensing that not much harm could come from eating with Steve. As opposed to some of the other men at the base, he was most definitely the least likely to start a riot over her presence.
She placed her tray down at his table, as Peggy followed suit, and he looked up at them in surprise.
"Hello," she smiled at him. He looked a lot younger than the man she'd left behind, and this Steve was pre-serum. She'd seen photos of him of course, so it wasn't a surprise to see him look far more fragile than the man she'd known. But despite it all, she could see the same man she'd married. "My name is Toni. Toni Rhodes."
"It's a pleasure to meet you," he said, voice heavy with a Brooklyn accent, while he still looked unsure of their presence. "I'm Steve Rogers. Ma-am," he finished, as he nodded at Peggy.
"It's wonderful to meet you, Steve," she grinned. "I've heard many things about you."
"Oh?" Steve asked, sounding a bit unsure of himself.
It was strange to see him like this. The man she'd married hadn't been overconfident, or extremely sure of himself, however this man was far less confident than her Steve. She supposed his lack of luck with women had been the reason for it, so she was unsurprised. But he was a good man, serum or no serum, and she may not want to tell him her secret, given the consequences if she did, but she trusted him to be a friend when she was stuck in this time where she wasn't from.
"Perhaps the two of you beautiful ladies should consider seeing better company," a tall man leered over at them, and she read the name Hodge on his uniform. "I'm sure that I can show you a much better time than this shrimp over here."
She assessed him, and with the way Steve stiffened, she knew the two had history.
"Why would I want to do that when I'm enjoying the company of this gentleman over here?" she asked him, snidely.
"Now listen here, Darling," Hodge said, as he reached out to grab her arm. The minute his arm touched hers, she stood and in one solid movement, she flipped him onto his back. She heard him wince in pain, as laugher filled the halls at the way he'd been dropped.
"Not your Darling," she told the man. There were very few people who were allowed to call her that. In fact, two of them were sitting at her very table. But he certainly was not. "Do not put a hand on me again or I promise, you'll be in far more pain than you are now."
Peggy looked at her impressed, and if she wasn't convinced yet that Toni was telling the truth, that move seemed to convince her that she'd either been watching Peggy's fighting technique or had learned it directly from the woman herself.
"Ms Rhodes spoke eloquently enough for the both of us," Peggy said, and Hodge glowered at the group before stalking off.
"Are you sure want to be sitting with me?" he asked her after a moment, "I'm not the most popular person at this camp. And well, I'm sure there's better company for you ladies."
"I'm rather fine where I am," Peggy said, as she glanced over at Toni, trying to figure out how the two knew each other in the future. Especially given what would have been their natural age differences if Steve hadn't gone in the ice. And then there was the fact that a high life expectancy wasn't expected for a man with his health conditions.
"I meant what I said," she confirmed, "I rather like you Steve Rogers. And I'd like to be your friend, if that's alright with you."
He blushed slightly at that, as he nodded, "It would be my pleasure."
She grinned, "Now tell me about you, Steve. What was it that inspired you to join the military?"
His eyes shone brightly at that, "Well my father was in the last war," Steve started, "Died before I was born. I wanted to make him proud and do my duty to serve this country. It's truly an honour to be able to serve in this fight."
She smiled. There he was. The man who was passionate about fighting for what he believed in and wouldn't back down.
"Sounds like a brave answer," she said, leaning forward.
"Just doing what's right," he said, meeting her eyes, before looking away.
She listened to him talk more, as he told her about his best friend Bucky, and she listened to him raptly. She knew getting back to the future was the highest priority, but at the same time, she was currently stuck in the past with a younger version of her Aunt and husband. And she very much was going to take advantage of that fact and get to know the Steve before the Serum.
A/N: First of all, I know the ending of the last chapter was rough, but I did mean it when I said I wouldn't be following the Endgame storyline, and would be taking my own liberties with. I know the word choice indicated death of Toni Stark-Rogers, which was done purposefully, but I know it was a bit distressing.
Toni time travelling back to the forties was something I very much wanted to put in this story, and pre-Endgame, I didn't really know how to properly fit it into the story. I didn't want to follow Endgame completely, especially because I wasn't a big fan of the five years later, especially given the amount of pain it would have put the characters through. And obviously, Toni's death in that way is something I refuse to let happen. I'm sure channeling five infinity stones would have been damaging as well, but let's just go with the fact that her suit absorbed most of the radiation and due to the missing stone, we had a formula for a different outcome.
Please note I took some liberties with Peggy's birth year to make it fit more with a reasonable timeline of having two kids. I know pregnancies are a lot harder the older you get, but well, let's just say she's extremely healthy and things worked out nicely for her.
