Brief message from the author;
Hello! My goodness, I have just logged into my account for the first time in SIX years! It's so refreshing to see that people are still using this site as a creative outlet. I'm currently quarantined at my home as I await the results of my COVID test, so what better time than now to revive an old passion? Anyway, forgive me if I'm a bit rusty. Constructive criticism is always welcome!
It had been a long time since Tony had visited those dark corners of his mind. The filing cabinets tucked away in the basement of his psyche, filled with memories and data that he didn't care to mull over anymore.
After the fight with Thanos, the 'snap', and half of everything he had ever loved just turning to ash - he realized one thing; that this had been inevitable. You can't invite God into the octagon and expect to have a fighting chance, they had always been in over their heads. Just too prideful to admit it. So Tony had slipped away, continued funneling money into the right places, but much more focused on his immediate world than anything else, and that was how it needed to be.
Five years had passed between then and now. Then, trapped in space, just about starving to death - and now. A sleeping five year old upstairs that eyes remind him so much of Pepper it hurts; and this, this question in front of him. Time travel? Free diving in the Quantum Realm? Only a fool would think they could attempt something like that and not be ripped apart at the molecule, but something about the urgency in the way his defeated comrades had spoken stuck with Tony.
Maybe it wasn't as far fetched as he thought.
So here he was, tinkering with the mechanics of the universe, and wondering just what had happened in the last fifteen years that had brought him here.
Some days, although remiss to admit, the scientist just wanted to be as he once was. Everything would be so much easier without a conscience, without a 25 pound metal suit weighing on his soul, and a hunk of metal stuck into his chest. If Afghanistan had never happened, where would he be right now?
Tony shook his head violently, trying to dispel the thoughts of dissent. Reaching up to rub a hand over his tired eyes, he glanced at the time. 11:30 pm, Pepper would be coming to see where he is soon. It's unlike him to spend so much time down in the basement that is his lab anymore.
"Are you wanting me to inform Mrs. Stark that you will be up shortly?" FRIDAY's 'disembodied voice chimed in from the ceiling, ever vigilant to Tony's stresses.
A rough sigh left his throat as he peered over his work, cogs turning slowly in his mind, trying to find that piece of the puzzle that he knew was there somewhere.
"No, there's no need Ms. Nanny. I'll head up now."
With a flick of his hand he closed the blueprints and data he had been scouring over, mentally promising to crack the code sometime tomorrow. For now, he had a wife waiting upstairs - and if the snap had taught him anything, it was to not take that for granted.