TS POV
How did they mess this up so bad? Personally he blamed 2012 Hulk, and maybe 2012 him. Of course with all there planning he would forget the part where Hulk burst out of the stairwell. In their timeline this gave them the opportunity to prove they knew what they were doing enough to get Pierce off their back about the Tesseract and Loki. And here it gave the perfect opportunity to give Loki the Tesseract!
I don't wanna go. Please, sir, I don't wanna go.
He's failed Peter again.
"Cap..." Tony called out as Steve arrived in the alley, where he and Scott waited. "Sorry, buddy we got a problem."
"Huh. Yeah, we do." Scott said bitterly.
"Well, what are we gonna do now?" He sighed annoyed seeing Steve's lecture face. "You know what, give me a break, Steve. I just got hit in the head with a Hulk."
"You said that we had one shot!" Scott said frustrated, "This, this was our shot. We shot it. It's shot. Six stones or nothing. Six stones or nothing."
I know that! He wanted to yell. But one of them had to be the calm one.
"You're repeating yourself, you know that? You're repeating yourself."
"You're repeating yourself. You're repeating yourself." Of course he has a kid response. "No! Come on! You never wanted a time heist, you went on board with the time heist."
What more did he want him to say. "I dropped the ball."
"You ruined the time heist."
"Is that what I did?"
"Yeah!"
"Are there any other options with the Tesseract?" Steve asked.
"No, no, no." Scott said. "There's no other options. There's no do-overs. We're not going anywhere else. We have one particle left. Each. That's it, alright? We use that... Bye, bye. You're not going home."
"Yeah," Steve said. "Well if we don't try, then no one else is going home, either."
Home. He remembered Steve once calling the Avengers and Compound his home, but then he traded it all for the past with Bucky Barnes, as if everything would go back to normal, like Peggy and- And Howard!
Howard always talked about how Cap was made at Camp Lehigh, where SHEILD was based, and where Pym worked on the particles!
"I got it." Tony said. "There's another way. To retake the Tesseract and acquire new particles. We'll stroll down memory lane. Military installation, Garden State."
"When were they both there?" Steve asked clearly following his train of thought for once.
"They were there at a..." He knew they were there when his Dad and Pym both worked there. "I've a vaguely exact idea."
"How vague?"
"What are you talking about?" Scott asked. "Where are we going?"
"I know for a fact they were there..."
"Who's they? What are we doing? Guys, what's up? What is it?"
"Well, it looks like we're improvising." That was his go to. Go to work, and improvise.
"Right. - What are we improvising?"
"Scott, get this back to the compound." Tony said handing him the scepter. "Suit up."
"What's in New Jersey?"
"0-4, 0-4..." He was pretty sure this day would work."Uhh, 0-7."
"0-7." Steve repeated as he punched in the coordinates.
"1-9-7-0."
"Are you sure?"
"Cap. Captain. Steve, sorry, America. Rogers. Look, if you do this, and this doesn't work, you're not coming back."
"Thanks for the pep talk, pissant." Tony ignored Scott, looking to Steve. "You trust me?"
Please trust me.
"I do." Steve nodded.
"Your call."
"Here we go." Steve said before they pushed their watches.
N POV
Why hadn't she thought of her past self interfering with her present self? She should've anticipated this?
When discussing plans with her and Rocket, Piper always said they tended to rush things, over looking simple, but basic things.
Like how her current programming could mesh with her past.
You disgust me. Her past self had told her. That wasn't entirely false. She had spent years hating everyone, including herself for pretty much everything.
Thanos for what he did to her. Gamora for being perfect. Maw for being an annoying little suck up. Corvus and Proxima for being able to find love with each other. Cull for being an idiot. And most of all, she hated herself for being none of those things.
And now that hatred is coming back to haunt her.
Worst, it's going to mess everything up for the future.
She thought back to when she had met Morgan. She was on Earth, trying to get some information from Thor who was starting to put on weight.
Tony and his wife Pepper were at the compound, introducing the baby to Natasha who would be her godmother, whatever that meant.
"Hey," Tony said as he and Pepper walked side by side. "How's it going?"
"Fine." Nebula said shortly as she looked over her weapon. It had been glitching recently.
"You got a minute?" Tony said a strange tone in his voice.
She looked up to see Tony was holding a small bundle of red, the same shade as his armor.
"What's that?" Nebula asked turning to them.
"Nebula, this is my daughter, Morgan." Tony said proudly as Nebula ignored the ice in her chest. "Morgan this is Nebula, one of the best warriors you'll ever meet."
Nebula blinked up to him. He couldn't have meant that. Could he?
"Would you like to hold her?" Pepper asked sweetly.
Nebula hesitated. She was a cold blooded killer. She used these hands to strangle, maim, murder. And they trusted her to hold an infant?
Not noticing her discomfort, Tony deposited the infant into her arms. Nebula tensed as the kid moved slightly. Had she done something wrong? Was she going to cry? Would Tony punish her or-
Her thoughts screeched to a halt as the baby blinked large brown eyes at her. The baby giggled grabbing onto one of Nebula's metallic fingers.
She wished she had accepted Gamora's offer to stay with them after the battle with Ego. Thanos wouldn't have used her to force Gamora to Vormir, Gamora would still be alive, and so would half the universe. She wouldn't fail to protect Morgan.
Only now she had. Nebula clenched her fist. She would find a way to fix this.
I'll help them by killing Thanos, she had told her sister. And she would.
TS POV
Where was it? he thought to himself as he raced through the empty lab under Camp Lehigh.
He almost leap with joy finding the stupid cube. He used his glove to open the protective case.
He stared at the cube for a moment. "Gotcha." He said before stuffing it into a random briefcase someone left lying around. "Back in the game."
"Arnim, you in there?" Tony tensed at the voice even as he tried to walk away. "Arnim? Hey!" The child in him forced him to freeze as he turned ever slightly to see him. "The door's this way, pal." Howard Stark said gesturing the way they came.
"Oh, yeah." Tony turned around trying to get away from the man.
"I'm looking for Dr. Zola. Have you seen him?"
"Yeah, no, Dr. Zola. No, I haven't seen a soul."
"Pardon me. Do I know you?"
" No, sir. I'm, a... visitor from MIT." He fiddled with the name badge, moving it before Howard could get a good look at it.
"Huh. MIT. Got a name?"
"Uh..." He's a genius in almost every field and he can't think of a single name. "Howard."
"Well, that'll be easy to remember."
"Howard...Potts."
"Well," Howard held out a hand. "I'm Howard Stark."
"Hi." Tony said putting down the briefcase to accept the hand, only to pull back a little too quickly.
"Shit." Howard joked letting go. "Now, don't pull it."
"Yeah..."
"You look a little green around the gills there, Potts."
"I'm fine. Just, long hours." He couldn't remember Howard ever caring for him in the slightest.
"Wanna get some air?"
"Yeah. That would be swell." Tony said as he began to walk away.
"Need your briefcase?" Howard reminded him.
Tony stuttered as he grabbed the case. Leave it to his father to make him feel like an insecure kid again. Was this how Peter and Piper felt when he met them all those years ago.
As they entered the elevator, Tony finally took note of what Howard was holding.
"So, flowers and sauerkraut." Tony noted. "You got a big date tonight?"
Howard sighed tiredly. "My wife's expecting. And, uh Too much time in the office."
"Congratulations." Tony said realizing he was talking to his father before he was ever born.
"Thanks. Hold this, will you?" Howard said handing the items to Tony.
"Yeah, sure." Tony said fighting every urge to explain his thoughts on being handed things. "How far along is she?"
"I don't know... uh..." Howard moved his hand forward, away from his chest to signify her belly, at what would have to be around the eight month mark. "She's at the point where she can't stand the sound of my chewing. I guess I'll be eating dinner in the pantry again."
Tony smiled to himself as he remembered the nights where Pepper would kick him out of the room for breathing too loud. And other days, Piper's natural agility gave her the quietness to be the only person to get within a hundred feet of Pepper.
"I have two girls." That you'll never be able to meet.
"Girls would be nice." Howard said tiredly. "Less of a chance she'd turn out exactly like me."
Didn't Howard want him to be like him? "What'd be so awful about that?"
"Let's just say that the greater good has rarely outweighed my own self-interests." He thought back to Obadiah. How everything with him was always about the profit, no matter who they were selling to, and going on like they hadn't caused the deaths of millions.
SR POV
Was Hank Pym always so rude? Steve thought as he saw the younger Hank run down the hall. If so, no matter he and Howard always bumped heads.
He walked into the lab, seeing ant farms that Hank must've been studying near a strange looking helmet. There in a glass case were rows of red Pym particles. He reached out, stuffing a handful in his pocket before quickly walking out-
Freezing when he saw the woman from the elevator side by side with two security guards.
"And you've never seen these two men before?" One of the guards asked.
"No, I've got an eye for this." The woman said confidently. "The two of them looked fishy."
"Can you describe them?"
"Well, one of them had a hippie beard." Crap, she meant Tony.
"Hippie? Like Bee Gees or Mungo Jerry?"
"Definitely Mungo Jerry." He ducked into the closest room just before they passed him.
"Yeah, this is Chesler. I need every available MPs on sub-level 6. We have a potential breach."
Steve let out a sigh of relief as they passed him. Now Tony had to just not get caught and they'd be good to go.
He looked around the dark office and turned to leave not seeing any cameras, only to freeze as he saw a familiar image.
There on the desk, was a picture of him pre serum. Who would have a picture of him? He wondered looking at the door to read 'Margret Carter Director'. Oh.
He looked back to the office to see a window, and Peggy on the other side. He walked closer to it, being careful not to be seen.
This was the Peggy he remembered, and the Peggy that remembered him. Here she was. Alive again. Feet away.
We can go home now. He remembered the vision of her once telling him.
Stay, a part of him begged. Stay with her, redo the last 70 years. You still have that dance you need to-
His thoughts were cut off as her assistant spoke. "Your husband called."
She was already married. He remembered watching her interview at the Smithsonian.
A blizzard had trapped half our battalion behind the German line. Steve...Captain Rogers, he fought his way through a Hydra blockade that had pinned down our allies for months. He saved over a thousand men, including the man who would become my husband, as it turned out. Even after he died, Steve was still changing my life.
He thinks Sharon said his name was Daniel Sousa?
"Is Daniel alright?" She asked turning to her assistant. "The children-"
They would have two kids.
"-Are fine." Her assistant assured. "Just wanted me to tell you he was picking them up from school, so you don't have to worry about that."
Peggy checked her watch before sighing in relief. "That's good. Now where are the files from.." She walked away.
He pulled the old locket with Peggy's picture out of his pocket. She was so similar to how he knew her in the '40's. And yet she had grown without him. And he grew without her. She would be fine. They all would.
He put the locket down on the desk behind his own picture. "Goodbye Peggy."
TS POV
"So, where are you at with names?" Tony asked as they walked outside the building.
"Well, if it's a boy, my wife likes Almanzo."
Almanzo Edward Stark?
"Might wanna let that stew. You got time."
"Let me ask you a question." Howard turned to him an uncharacteristic vulnerability to him. "When your kids were born...were you nervous?"
"Wildly. Yeah. I actually adopted my oldest, and somehow that was more nerve wrecking than the birth of my younger daughter."
Piper already had a father. Two in fact, plus her aunt, brother and mother. She had already had a family. He didn't want to replace them. But at the same time she needed him, and as much as it terrified him, he needed her just as much as he needed Pepper.
"Did you feel qualified? For either of them? Like you had any idea how to successfully operate those things?"
"I literally pieced it together as I went along, I thought about what my Dad did, and..."
And I did things better.
"My old man, he never met a problem he couldn't solve with a belt." Howard lamented.
"I thought my dad was tough on me. And now, looking back, I just remember the good stuff, you know. He did drop the odd pearl."
"Yeah? Like what?"
"No amount of money ever bought a second of time."
"Smart guy."
"He did his best." Tony realized.
"Let me tell you. That kid's not even here yet, and there's nothing I wouldn't do for him. Good to meet you, Potts."
"Yeah, Howard...Everything's gonna be all right. Thank you" He hugged Howard like he should've years ago. "-For everything you've done for this country." He tried correcting as he separated.
He walked away from Howard spotting Steve standing near the building they had entered. Steve sent him a questioning look, Tony held up the case indicating that's where the Tesseract was. Steve shared a thumbs up.
Good. Now he could get back to his girls.
NR POV
She stumbled forward as they landed back in the garage, nausea rising in her as tears pricked her eyes.
She looked around seeing the others had returned safely, although Steve wore a green military outfit, Tony wore a suit and Thor now held his smaller hammer. They were all smiling happily, minus Nebula who never smiled, and Clint who looked like he was going to be sick.
"Did we get them all?" Bruce asked.
And they didn't even have the stone.
"You telling me this actually work?" Rhodey asked excitedly.
"Where's Piper?" Tony asked sharply looking to her and Clint, fear in his eyes. "Where's Piper?!"
Natasha swallowed the lump in her throat. This would destroy him.
"Piper's-" She was cut off as a loud crunch sounded throughout the room.
They looked over to see Piper in her standard Arachne outfit, sitting at the desk, her feet propped up as she ate from a big bag of chips, Salem the cat curled on her lap.
Natasha stared dumbfounded. How was this possible? The man had said...
"About time y'all got here." Piper said putting the bag on the desk as Salem sat off. "Turns out I accidentally set my watch an hour too early for re-entry." She said standing up as she tossed an orange rock in the air. "I got the soul stone though."
Tony sighed in relief walking over to her, enveloping her in a hug as the others got off the platform. "Don't scare me like that."
"Sorry." She said sheepishly, catching Nat's eye over his shoulder, before discretely putting a finger over her mouth.
They were definitely talking about this later.
AN:
Piper's alive!
Sorry, I know this was a comp out but I know what I'm doing here (I hope.) I have an idea for the future of this story.
But of course, I made y'all wait until the last moment to show her alive, and not that anyone cares, I brought Salem the cat back into the spotlight (trust me he's important).
Now with the addition of Piper, I wanted to change Tony and Howard's reunion. I know it isn't a major change from the film I know, but it was one of my favorite movies of the film.
And with Steve, I know the writer's said Steve was always her husband, but it didn't make all that much sense to me(timeline wise). I don't hate what Marvel decided to do, but I don't love it. So this was my solution. Fan fiction.
Daniel Sousa is a reference to a Peggy Carter the TV show character, I have no idea if that was Peggy's original husband. And I got the idea for Steve's alternative approach from various Tumblr and Pinterest posts.
I can't thank y'all enough for all the reviews I got this week. It's the most I've gotten for one chapter so quickly!
MoonLightSkies16: I literally laughed out loud when I saw your comment. I wasn't expecting anyone to have a strong reaction.
Driller63: Sorry..? Like I said, I have an idea in mind for what I'm doing going forward, hopefully things go well. And I'm glad you're enjoying this.
otherworlder81: Can't argue that is a correct reaction. But I also like Batman, specifically Bat- family.
AlchemyWriter: I don't think anyone was expecting me to do that. But since she's back for now, you may just get what you want this time.
19vanelkc: I had to suppress my laughter for this.
Guest: I see you were thinking ahead. I wanted to show Clint and Natasha not actually getting the stone to put a seed of doubt in my reader's minds. So this is how they got the stone.
ashleyag: I'm glad you loved it. I hope you don't hate that I brought her back. But please enjoy.
Grazi: Eu não sei portugues. (Esta é a língua em que você estava escrevendo?) Então eu não escrevo nele, estou usando o Google Tradutor para isso, desculpe por erros, mas eu ainda estou feliz que você esteja lendo. E espero que esteja traduzindo isso corretamente. Aqui está a próxima parte! E estou feliz que você ama essa história.
HeavenlyMonster: I'm glad you like this. And aww thank you, I was afraid people would find this super chessy.
Thank all of y'all so much! As always please enjoy and review. Until next time.
Bye.