Point of View
by: Shadow Chaser
Part 3 – The Long Goodbye
Tony had never seen such a thing as he stared at the readouts projected in the observation room next to where Peggy had been placed. "J, Bruce still off the grid?" he asked as he swiped a few of the readouts, a frown on his face. He sort of understood what the information was telling him, having learned how to read his own from when he had the arc reactor in his chest, but he was wishing that Bruce was here – having a better grasp of biochemistry and maybe able to explain whatever happened to Peggy.
"Yes sir," JARVIS replied, "do you wish for me to contact Agent Coulson to search for him?"
Tony shook his head, "No...unless the world's ending, no." He knew the vague area where Bruce had gone to a few days ago, but like he had said, short of the world ending, he would not dare disturb the much needed, long-awaited respite Bruce was having with a one Dr. Elizabeth 'Betty' Ross. It had been clandestinely arranged, Betty surprisingly very busy at Culver University with her research. Bruce had not seen her in-person in years, not with her father General Ross keeping a very sharp eye on her and even assigning a military detail to shadow her every move to boot. SHIELD had not considered it much a priority as much as keeping General Ross off of Bruce's tail until the organization fell. Now, though, they had to be even more careful that Bruce was not found by Ross or his lackeys. But it was the first thing Tony had promised when he offered Bruce sanctuary at the Avengers Tower. With Maria's help and Coulson's meager, but useful resources, they finally arranged for Dr. Ross to ditch her escorts and for Bruce to finally see her.
Tony was not going to interrupt that – only if the world was ending.
"I think I can figure this out," he muttered out loud as he scratched his chin. A quick look beyond the tinted window showed that Peggy seemed stabilized after several hours of observation. Steve had fallen asleep on an armchair next to her bed, bandages covering the numerous scratches and cuts he had received when he had been thrown half-way across the room and into the coffee table and armchair. There was no sign of ghostly images overlaying Peggy's pale face, no sign of silent screaming or of whatever the heck was around Peggy when she suddenly experienced whatever it was that she experienced. After Steve had been thrown half-way across the room, the ghostly images that had seemingly been dragged out of Peggy's face silently screamed for a few more minutes as she convulsed. As if an off switch had been flicked, she suddenly collapsed into a boneless heap, half on the ground, half on the armchair she had been sitting on.
Jarvis had been the first to tentatively touch her. He had not been thrown back like Steve had, so they quickly moved her to one of the medical suites he had a few floors down from the penthouse. It was actually situated next to Bruce's section of the labs, the other man usually called to help wounded agents or personnel since he had moved into the tower. Tony and Howard had stabilized Peggy as best as they could while he asked his A.I. JARVIS to run scans on her, to find out what kind of abnormalities she might have that could have triggered this type of seizure-like event. Steve had been brought into the next room and tended to by Jarvis' expertise as a field medic, his experience serving as a butler in the British armed forces and to Howard Stark allowing him to tend to Steve without any fuss.
"Sir, Mr. Stark requests your presence down in your workshop," JARVIS said and Tony nodded and made to move towards the door when he saw Jarvis do the same.
"I think J means me, Jarvis," Tony gave his father's ever faithful butler a wan smile and saw his brow crinkle in confusion. It felt like deja vu, especially when he vividly remember a much older Jarvis taking care of him when he was a child through his teenage years. He saw more of his mother and his father's butler than of his father at times and remembered the man's expressions very well. They usually ranged from exasperation – which always made him secretly laugh since he got the better of Jarvis – to fond proud smiles that he had wished had been on Howard Stark's face. But more often than not, Jarvis always had a puzzled expression on his face before it smoothed out to one of neutral understanding as he seemingly figured out whatever confused him. Those were the expressions that Tony had liked growing up. It made him feel like he had accomplished something, by making Jarvis 'smarter' in his own way.
In hindsight, it was probably arrogant to think of that now, considering what he had seen in the past few hours regarding Jarvis and his father's interaction. Maybe Jarvis had been humoring him, pretending to let a child's imagination run wild, to get a sense of accomplishment when he already knew the answers. Or maybe it was a bit of both. Still, he could not deny that Jarvis was a very sneaky bastard...especially with a wrench.
"Very well then," the confusion morphed into a semblance of acceptance and respect, "I will let you know if anything happens up here."
Tony clapped him lightly in the shoulder, startling him a bit, "You do that, J." He knew his A.I. could have easily done the same, but supposed that the human Jarvis felt a little useless with things the way they are. The door slid open as he approached it, but before he left, he turned back and gave Jarvis a wolfish smile, "If those two lovebirds start making kissy faces after their beauty rest, that button over there? Yeah, just kind of move the lever up."
He was rewarded with a scandalized look and Jarvis turning a bit pink before clearing his throat roughly and spinning his seat around so that he was not looking through the tinted observation window. Tony laughed lightly and let the door slide close behind him; that was the Jarvis he remembered and knew.
Edwin Jarvis could not help but stare at the door for a moment, even after it slid close to the sound of Tony Stark's laughter. He had not believed him to be Howard's supposed future son, but just hearing the laugh...it sounded eerily exactly like Howard's. "I suppose we are in the future," he murmured quietly to himself as he absently rubbed his temples and took a quick peek back at the tinted observation window. Sliding doors, unusual décor that seemed asymmetrical, yet so symmetrical that it seemed...right, yet not right. The tools, holograms that only science fiction pulp novels spoke about...even a computerized voice that answered any commands as if it could think on its own. It was heady and made him dizzied to think about it.
He supposed he was lucky that he had not passed out from sheer information overload, but then again, he knew it was probably because of taking care of Howard Stark for the last six years. The man was a brilliant genius. Occasionally callous and not exactly thoughtful with his words at times, but brilliant. The knowledge he had, the exuberance, and the stubborn determination, Howard Stark had so much bottled energy that Jarvis had been hard pressed to keep up the first six months he had become his butler. War and the fact that Howard was always up and active had increased his endurance so that even now, he was able to follow Howard's lead and aide Peggy Carter in her investigation to clear Howard's name.
Though it was not readily visible, Jarvis could easily see that Peggy was still furious with Howard, having found out just a week ago that he had lied to her about the item he has asked her to retrieve. Jarvis found no pleasure in deceiving Peggy, have come to admire and respect her for her grit, determination, and abilities. It was why it had been hard for him to convince her to meet Howard again after he had returned from Rio briefly with an item that he thought had been one of his weapons, but had been an unusual object he thought the SSR should have – and definitely keep out of the other government agencies' hands. The fact that Howard still trusted the SSR with powerful weaponized items, and the fact that Peggy had reluctantly agreed to come with him to meet Howard was telling in of itself. She had not said so many words as only to reply curtly to inquiries and polite conversation. It was only when they were at the warehouse, discussing how the SSR might 'mysteriously' discover the item, Howard absently fiddling with it, that it had come to life. They had suddenly found themselves in what looked like a bright, gleaming, futuristic workshop that none of them could ever dream of. Peggy had been grilling Howard about how he had found it outside Rio, stating that it could have been a plant by Leviathan or of something like it – hence her questioning of Tony Stark.
There was still a very small part of him that was wary that it was a trap, that this was all a sham of sorts, someone reading too much of the pulp novels that Howard loved as a child and still loved to this day. It certainly explained all of his master's inventions, trying to put to life what only science and imagination could think of. But the wariness was slowly being replaced by the wonder and awe of aesthetics not even he could begin to dream of – and the slight dread that if they were truly in the future, would he ever see his Anna again? A brief thought occurred to him.
"Um, Jay...?" he glanced up at the ceiling, wondering if Tony Stark's mysterious 'J' or disembodied voice could see him.
"How may I be of service, Mr. Jarvis?" the disembodied voice was definitely of his home country. His accent was impeccably received pronunciation and Jarvis had heard more than once, the voice with a dry sense of humor whenever he, it, was talking with Tony Stark – sound eerily like him and Howard sometimes.
"I had a thought, about the passage of time in relation to what's happened, but before you answer that, um, can you tell me a little more about yourself? Like where you came from? It's not everyday I meet a fellow countryman in New York City," he smiled up at the ceiling, feel just a little foolish if this mysterious 'Jay', 'J' could not see him.
"I was the fourth creation of Anthony Stark, programmed and brought to life, so to speak, when my creator was only sixteen-years-old at university," the voice replied, "my initial functions were to monitor the house security I was installed at for any unwanted intruders. I was upgraded after an...incident involving Mr. Stark's parents and again after my creator created the Iron Man suits."
"So, there's no body?" Jarvis had a hard time picturing such sophistication without the addition of a physical being.
"None sir," the intelligence, he supposed there was no other way to call the thing he was talking about anything else, replied, "though if you do consider miles upon miles of wiring and memory chips to be a 'body' like yourself, I do have one."
"You're electric?"
"In a manner of speaking. Similar to radar or of targeting guidance systems, except I have the self-awareness and ability to extrapolate data from information given to me without any assistance," the intelligence replied, "my creator has called me just a rather very intelligent system."
"Abbreviated to just 'Jay' or the letter 'J'?" Jarvis asked, curious about the manner the intelligent...electronic being was talking about. If he thought deeper regarding the fact that such a system could extrapolate data or even provide information in a manner similar to an actual human being, then did this Tony Stark actually become god and create life from artificial means? He shook his head slightly, banishing the thought from his mind – it felt like it was too much to comprehend and wanted to at least think on simpler terms – that this electronic intelligence system was akin to a helpful aide or butler, much like himself.
It was only a second later that he realized 'Jay' had not answered him and looked upwards, "Mr. Jay?"
"I am now able to somewhat comprehend my creator's dilemma now that you've posed such a question," the voice that replied sounded flustered and Jarvis gave the ceiling a puzzled look.
"Come again?"
"My operational name is 'Just A Rather Very Intelligent System'," he said, "but my creator has taken to only calling me by the letter 'J' due to your presence here in this space-time continuum. I believe it is for the benefit of not confusing anyone else, but it is rather curious as to the potential sense of awkwardness should I explain further."
Jarvis pondered the system's response for a second before shrugging, "Well, my friend, I believe being in Howard Stark's service for six years has numbed me, so to speak, of all manner of awkwardness. It should not be as bad as walking into one of London's finest clubs to find him apologizing to the owner, the owner's brother, and the owner's son for sleeping with their wives and girlfriends after I had just returned from delivering the Stark Special bracelets."
He thought he could almost imagine the slight humorous smile from the electric face if this 'J' could ever have one, the pause just timed enough to elicit such a reaction. "Very well then. My creator created and modeled my functions after you, good sir. It is...interesting to meet my namesake."
Jarvis sat up straighter, stunned by the revelation as he looked up and around. Tony Stark had created this...this intelligence system after him?! His mind quickly ran through the system's name and realized that it spelled out J.A.R.V.I.S. - Jarvis. His name. His- "Oh," he said quietly as he absently reached out and squeezed the arm of the chair he had been sitting in for support, feeling a bit faint. "Oh, um..." he did not know if he should feel touched that someone had created an electronic version of him, or the fact that there was an electronic version of him that existed in this day and age. And now that he thought about it, more than likely providing the same type of services he did for Howard – except it was for Tony. "I, uh, suppose seventy years is a bit long for a man to live, right?" he commented, feeling a little nervous, and just as the system had predicted, awkward. He was in his late thirties, and men his age were expected to live only to their sixties, so if he truly did live in this day and age, he would be well over a hundred. That type of lifespan was nearly impossible save for perhaps one or two and even then, the news rarely published such stories, as it was hard to prove such a person existed.
"I believe my creator valued your input and care during his formative years," J, JARVIS, it felt initially odd to name himself in the electronic voice piping out from somewhere in the room. He still could not see where the speakers or even a camera could have been installed in the room. Still, he blushed a little bit at the compliment and felt the tugs of a wistful smile appear on the corner of his lips.
"I, um, am glad that I, uh, was a service to Tony, um, the younger Mr. Stark," he replied. Though a part of him still could not believe that the mysterious object Howard had found in Rio had transported them to the future, he still allowed himself to try to imagine what it would have been like raising a man like Tony Stark. Considering that Stark seemed so similar to Howard and also so full of the same manic energy and lightning-fast intelligence like his father...
"He must have been a handful," Jarvis sat back in his chair, rubbing his chin as he tried to imagine himself, thirty-something-years older, in his sixties, perhaps seventy or so, chasing after a ten-year-old Tony Stark. He did not know how old Stark was, but judging by the faint lines of grey in his hair, he estimated that Stark was perhaps forty if not mid-forties. He still had the youth and vitality of someone much younger, so he supposed that perhaps the generations after his own had created some miracle cure or that Stark had found the fountain of youth.
There was a noise that could have passed for a laugh and Jarvis realized that his electronic namesake had actually laughed a little and smiled slightly. "So you can laugh, Mr. JARVIS," he teased. It was easier to think of the electronic butler as just another person with the same name. He felt a little more comfortable and stretched out on the chair, feeling very much at ease in a long time. If they were stuck in the future for the time being, pun utterly intended, it was at least with an electronic version of himself that seemed nice.
"So, what can you tell me of the future that might not, what was it, implode the stable time loop, so to speak? Howard's flying cars? Technology of wireless interfacing such as yourself? Advance robotics and of inventions that do not break people's bones and gives them a proper massage?"
"If you wish, I can display visual aid to some of your questions. I must stress that I cannot answer a few of your questions because of the innumerable calculations of potentially destabilizing the time loop, but I will answer them to the best of my abilities," JARVIS replied and he nodded before looking around once more.
"For an electronic version of myself, I still don't know how you are able to see and to hear," he commented quietly as images popped up in front of him, dimming the windows of the observation room to where Peggy was kept, but was still visible if one just stared at it instead of stared past it.
"I simply am, Mr. Jarvis," the voice replied, "and always willing to help."
The pencil rolling off of his sketchpad and clattering quietly to the floor was what startled Steve from his doze as he twitched and snapped open his eyes. For a moment, he felt a little disoriented as to why he was in a clinical, almost-hospital-like setting before his eyes found Peggy lying on the bed next to him. Her breaths were still steady, almost as if she was just sleeping. Steve hoped it was the case judging by a quick look at the monitors she was hooked up to after Jarvis had carried her in here. She had not woken up since that bizarre incident hours ago, but he was optimistic that she would be fine. He scratched at a few of the bandages that had been wrapped around his forearms, shoulders, and back, having been patched up by Howard's butler after he had placed Peggy in the bed. He was as competent as Steve remembered the rare times he had walked into the London SSR bunker to see him tending to Howard in the aftermath of a failed experiment. He could already feel his accelerated healing sealing the cuts from the shards of glass and small splinters of wood that had embedded themselves in him. The itching would stop as his wounds completely healed, but Steve was not immune to the affects of an almost-healed wound – the parts when a scabbed wound started to itch before it transitioned to newly healed skin.
He had hoped that Dr. Erskine's formula had stopped that, but somehow it had only made it seem a little worst, especially since the deeper cuts and wounds he had received made it seem like the itching was bone deep. He knew that if he had been in his skinnier body, or perhaps even in a normal body, the deeper wounds would not have itched so much, but it seemed like it was a side effect of the formula, making him sensitive to all sorts of effects his body underwent when healing. His only saving grace was that it was a faster process than before and usually stopped after his body moved into the next phase of healing.
Steve reached down and picked up his pencil, rolling his shoulders a little to stretch them out as he held out his pad and started to absently sketch once more. It felt familiar to be sitting by Peggy's bedside, sketching and relaxing in her presence. More often than not, Peggy's elderly self had been wide awake, just watching him sometimes while he sketched or even telling him stories from the many years of her long time. More than once, he had fallen asleep by her bedside, exhausted from either an early SHIELD mission that day or just contented by the peacefulness of the day. Sometimes he had woken up to see her also asleep, her hand clutching his fingers. Other times he had woken up to see her staring at him, as if he was a far away dream that she still could not believe was still alive. Sometimes, he saw the haze of her lost memories creeping up on her, sometimes she was clear-eyed and smiling at him. Sometimes it hurt, but most times, it felt rather nice to just sit around and not worry.
"JARVIS, any change?" he asked quietly.
"None Captain," Tony's A.I. replied, "though my scans indicate that whatever event might have triggered Ms. Carter's seizure-like situation seems to have not shown in the past few hours."
"Tony couldn't get a hold of Bruce, could he?" Steve asked already knowing the answer as a negative.
"Sir believes he is able to figure this situation out. I believe the situation is not dangerous if this is a single-bout recurrence and Sir feels that there is no need to disturb Dr. Banner," JARVIS replied and Steve nodded.
"Can you let me know if Tony finds anything? Or if he's decided to call Dr. Banner?" Steve asked. He had faith that Tony would do the right thing if push came to shove.
"I will, Captain," the A.I. replied.
Steve glanced at the digital clock on the small table next to Peggy's bed and estimated that it would be too late to call the hospice that her elderly counterpart was at. For one thing, it was because it was after hours, and the other, he knew Peggy slept odd hours. He had once been woken up by a clandestine phone call from her, nearly panicking before she had laughed over the phone and teased him until he had blushed red even though she could not even see it. She claimed it was her medication making her an occasional insomniac, but Steve always made sure that he followed the rules of the hospice to at least maybe give her a semblance of a sleep schedule.
He knew he could have called earlier, right after he had been patched up by Jarvis, but he had been too worried about the Peggy here in the tower and had sat right by her. He had fallen asleep once a couple of hours into his watch and had woken up to see someone had dropped off his sketchpad and a pencil. The pencil was not exactly the ones he was used to working with, but he had a feeling about who had dropped off his materials without actually waking him up. There was probably only one person that could have gotten away with it and Steve wondered if he was watching from somewhere in the shadows. The fact that everyone and everything was still intact told Steve that Bucky was having one of his better days. He refused to consider that it was the Winter Soldier figuring out targets or anything of that sort, keeping his thoughts positive.
"You've that frown whenever you're thinking you have no other options," Peggy's voice startled him out of his thoughts. He looked beyond his sketchpad to see her smiling at him before she glanced down at the various electrodes stuck to her skin.
"Uh, we just wanted to make sure that you were okay..." Steve trailed off as Peggy started to peel them off of her skin, an uncomfortable expression on her face before she paused. He followed her gaze to the bag of saline solution sitting untouched and unused next to her bed. "I...thought it would be better if we didn't put anything in your wrist...you know...in case..."
"...I woke up and thought it was still a hallucination," Peggy finished for him, as she gingerly pushed herself up, the thin blanket that had been covering her and the outfit she had been wearing pooling on her lap. "I really have given myself a reputation, haven't I?" her smile was tinged with bitterness before it disappeared, "thank you, Steve." He returned her look with a nod of his own and saw her mouth work a little before she looked at him, "It's really you, isn't it?"
Steve managed to suppress the flinch at the eerily similar tone and wording her elderly counterpart always used whenever she had one of her memory lapses and nodded. "I couldn't leave my best- I mean...it's me."
She blinked at him confused and he sighed and shook his head a little, "I...you...well...you're still alive right now..."
"But, I came through whatever contraption Howard had found-"
"I mean, you, as in yourself is still alive almost seventy years since I was frozen," he explained, realizing that he had worded it poorly. He was starting to have an inkling as to what Tony had been babbling about earlier in the common room and why he had a very hard time following whatever was being said about time loops and stuff. Ironically, it was Bucky that would probably have been able to follow all of this a lot easier than he had, his best friend having found the pulp novels and most of the time read them to him when he had been confined to his sick bed.
"I'm...old?" Peggy blinked and Steve had started nodding when she cut in again, "and what's this about you being found? You were frozen? Where? The arctic area where Schmidt's bomber went down? Seventy years?"
Steve froze. He had not quite meant to say that. "Uh...I..." He knew the exact coordinates his frozen body and the remains of Schmidt's bomber had been found in the arctic because it was in the Tesseract file that Director Fury had given to him when Loki had first arrived and stolen it three years previous. The file had also stated the coordinates Howard had found the Tesseract in, the passage of time and tide putting him far away from where Howard had apparently combed the cold frozen sea to search for him year after year. The expeditions stopped a few years before Howard's death and Steve had wondered if it was the same time his friend had discovered HYDRA's infiltration in the agency that he, Peggy, and Colonel Phillips had built.
He also realized that he wanted to tell Peggy. Wanted to tell her and write it down in big bold numbers the exact coordinates to where his body had slowly been frozen over in the ice fields of the arctic circle. He wanted her to find him, to thaw him from the cold because at the same time it hurt to see her this young, just a year after the war, to see the naked pain in her eyes, the fact that he could see that she mourned, was still mourning for him after all this time. Juxtapose with that was the fact that he recognized that it was the same exact pain he saw on her elderly person, each time her memory lapses made it seem like the first time they had seen each other in years. He wanted to wipe away the hurt, to comfort her and tell her that he was there for her, and would never leave her.
And somehow, he found it so hard to tell her, to speak past the painful lump in his throat like his heart rising up to stop him from saying anything. He bit his lip and saw the faint pained expression flit across her face as she realized that she was not going to get an answer from him.
"The so-called stable time loop, isn't it?" Peggy whispered, and he noticed that her knuckles were white as she gripped the sheets tightly and he swallowed, feeling tears pricking at the corner of his eyes. "Can't tell me because who knows what will happen, that I might find you when I return or don't return because you don't know if I'll remember this or not-"
"You lived a full life, Peggy," he cut in as he shook his head and reached out and reached out, placing a tentative hand over her own, "you told me you lived a full life and you had no regrets."
"Not yet," the bitter smile was back on her lips, but she did not let the tears fall from her eyes as she relaxed the grip she had under his own, "not yet." She cleared her throat lightly, "The irony of the situation has not escaped me. Here you are, just like the day that at Schmidt's bunker and here I am... What good is whatever Howard found if this is only one long goodbye? Because if the younger Stark is correct and what you just said about me, I still go back, I grow old...without you...and you still exist here."
Steve did not know what to say to that as the silence hung between them. He had long relied on Peggy's support, her willful personality to be not defined by the barriers that were held against her, that had made him fall in love with her at first glance back at Camp Lehigh. To see her like this, it made him feel oddly vulnerable, like when he was crashing the plane once more. He felt her hand move to curl under his own and grasped her calloused fingers gently. They felt a little raw under his own and he glanced down, curious, before she laughed lightly.
"I punched Howard a week ago. Seems like the bruises are still healing," her smile was still a little bitter, but he could see a bit of wistfulness in them.
"...Fondue?" he tried and was rewarded with a full blown laugh from her, erasing all traces of melancholic sadness from her before she shook her head and rolled her eyes.
"I wish," she said, "no, Howard was being his usual manipulative self. He tried to sell me on a stolen object of his that he claimed would shut the electricity down in the whole of the Tri-State area, but was actually something else."
"Not dangerous right?" Steve asked, a bit concerned.
"Only in the wrong hands," she replied, the wistfulness in her gaze returning as she stared at him, "it was a vial of your blood, Steve. The only one left."
"But..."
"The government has been trying to replicate Dr. Erskine's serum since Project Rebirth was completed and they've idiotically burned through their whole stockpile," she looked away, her expression annoyed for a brief moment before turning back to look at him, "Howard was allowed to keep one of the vials we took from you and he doesn't want it falling into the wrong hands."
"And he doesn't trust you to tell you this?" Steve could not reconcile the Howard he remembered and knew with what Peggy was saying.
"The SSR thinks Howard turned traitor and sold all of his more dangerous inventions to the black market, the highest bidder, and apparently to this mysterious Leviathan."
"Leviathan?" Steve did not remember reading anything with that name from Fury's packets.
One of Peggy's eyebrows rose before she smiled crookedly, "Maybe we did get them in the end after all of this."
"Tidbit from the future to take to the past?" he tried again and saw her smile fully.
"Still horrible at talking to women," she shook her head and he ducked his, hiding his smile. "Glad to know some things have never changed."
"I never claimed to be able to sweep dames off of my feet. I'd probably be more liable to get dragged under their feet or step on their feet while dancing," he shrugged, "that's more Bucky's thing."
Her smile turned sympathetic, "It's nice..." She looked like she was about to say more before she looked back down at their hands and Steve realized what she meant with her words. She still believed Bucky to be dead instead of knowing that he was alive, a former wetwork assassin known as the Winter Soldier. She did not know... And she believed that he apparently had time to cope with Bucky's death and come to terms with it if he could mention his best friend's name so casually without breaking down. He did not know what to think of it – part of him hoping that Bucky stayed in the shadows of the tower so that Peggy would not receive another shock. The other part of him wanted to tell her to save his best friend from being turned into a mindless assassin, rescue him from HYDRA's clutches before they did horrific things to him.
And speaking of HYDRA...the fact that Peggy had mentioned the SSR still existed meant that she had not created SHIELD yet. There was still time for him to warn her about recruiting HYDRA scientists, about using Operation Paperclip like Natasha mentioned; about not allowing Dr. Armin Zola to work for SHIELD because ultimately he would create the Winter Soldier and bring about Howard's death, and countless of others' deaths. That the Insight Helicarriers would not be created and Zola's algorithm would not be used...
It was hard.
It was hard not to say anything, but Steve noted the way Peggy was looking at him, her brown eyes concerned. "I said something wrong-"
"No, no," he shook his head and squeezed her fingers gently, making sure not to touch the still-healing light bruises on her knuckles, "just...wanting to tell you everything and realizing I can't..."
"-without screwing up whatever time loop, time line, time thing," she sounded frustrated, "we're in. Thank you Howard Stark."
This time Steve could not stop the laugh from bursting out as he nodded in agreement, "And probably thank you to Tony Stark too because he was the one examining it when all of this happened."
"Nice to know that the ability to get into all sorts of trouble for Starks has been passed on," Peggy smiled, "I hope whoever is his eventual wife or whomever he settles down with is as patient as a saint."
"I never met Maria-son of a gun," he sighed as he realized that he had said something he probably should not have said and saw Peggy tilt her head to the side.
"Ah...Maria. Finally, something to lord over Howard's head when he's being annoying," she returned lightly and Steve could only chuckle a little, glad that Peggy was downplaying his slip. He really hoped that he had not screwed up whatever timeline, time-thing was happening. He was pretty sure his memories were intact...
"So," she sat forward, blatantly changing the subject, as she gestured to everything around her, "it looks mostly the same, though everything seems...cleaner, more...refined if there ever was a word for it."
"I know," he returned, "it took me a while to get used to it. Times Square has a lot more lights, though Broadway still has plays. The Yankees are still here, the Dodgers moved-erm...I mean, well, the Stork Club is actually gone..."
"If you want to talk baseball, that is fine," she shook her head, "my idiot co-workers tried to get me to identify Joe DiMaggio in a picture. I told them I don't follow boxing."
"But...you like...oh," Steve knew that Peggy was a Yankees fan, and certainly knew who Joe DiMaggio was. When he had found that it it had made his natural inner Brooklyn Dodgers fan a little irritated. It had ended up for the better when he had found times to talk to her about their respective teams and the various news they received during Project Rebirth. He had found out about Peggy's team when he had gotten the flag from Camp Lehigh's pole and rode back with Peggy to the barracks. They had spent the ride discussing the latest statistics and play calls and he had only realized much later that he had not actually stumbled over himself talking to a lady. Of course, he had been a bit oblivious about it, having talked about sports statistics similar to how he talked to Bucky and others.
"I thought the SSR as a whole knew you were a Yankee fan and me a Dodgers fan?" he was a little confused. He vaguely remembered their discussions getting a bit heated at times, especially if Howard was involved. He claimed to be a fan of both – which drew his, Bucky, and Peggy's ire as they each wanted him to pick a side. Colonel Phillips had only taken one look before walking back into his office when that discussion happened. The Commandos and the rest of the command staff had made themselves scarce.
"You would think," Peggy seemed a little miffed, but then shook her head, "just idiotic co-workers doing idiotic things and thinking idiotic thoughts."
"So you're surrounded by idiots," Steve deadpanned and Peggy laughed.
"And idiot number one activated some time machine that brought us to the same day, but only in the future," she said and Steve smiled before a thought occurred to him. "Steve?" Peggy asked.
"You said...er, your older self said that today was an important day..." he rubbed his lip with his absent hand.
"You think I, um, she knew? She remembered? I...remembered? I went back after all of this and remembered?" Peggy asked, her expression serious as Steve shook his head.
"No...at least maybe not everything. Maybe something? Um...your older self...she's...she didn't say much, only that today was important and it was something to do with entro...cascade?" he stood up and looked back down at her, "you okay to move? I want to see if Tony could figure out what you, what the other you, said."
"I don't feel light-headed or disconnected like before," she replied before gingerly pushing the sheets off of her and standing up, silently accepting his help, their hands still entwined. She gave him a quick smile, her feet finding her shoes before she toed them on and she nodded, signaling that she was ready.
They only got a few steps towards the door when it slid open and Jarvis stood on the threshold, a mild expression on his face, "My counterpart was showing me fascinating advances in Howard's technology, without compromising the stability of the time loop of course, before he notified me that the two of you were going to go see the younger Mr. Stark."
"Counterpart?" Peggy asked at the same time Steve spoke up.
"That voice you heard earlier, speaking like it's everywhere?"
"Yes, the 'J' Mr. Stark was talking to?" Peggy asked and Steve nodded, but it was Jarvis who answered.
"An advance artificial intelligence system created by the younger Mr. Stark and apparently modeled after myself. His name is also JARVIS," Howard's butler seemed a little bashfully happy and Steve could only smile while Peggy frowned.
"Well, I hope this JARVIS is not as deceptive as you are, Mr. Jarvis," she said coldly. All traces of good humor fled from Jarvis' expression and Steve stared at her before he looked at Jarvis. He had never really seen Peggy furious before and realized that she was still livid with whatever Howard had told her and also had apparently roped Jarvis into too.
"Um..." he had no idea what to do until Jarvis swallowed visibly and nodded, his hands folding together a little nervously.
"I do apologize again, Agent Carter. If I may be allowed to accompany you and Captain Rogers down to Mr. Stark's workshop?" he asked politely.
"Noted," Peggy's coldness seemed to evaporate a little bit before she looked up at the ceiling, "where is the elevator, JARVIS?"
"Down this hall and to your right, Agent Carter," JARVIS replied, almost as politely as his human counterpart and Steve briefly wondered if Tony's A.I. had also unconsciously reacted to Peggy's demeanor.
"Thank you," she said and Steve followed her, his own hand tightening in hers as she led the way. Jarvis trailed after them before the three of them rode the elevators down to Tony's workshop. As soon as they approached the glass doors, Steve realized that something was wrong. For one thing, he had expected Tony to be gleefully working with his father on whatever the 0-8-4 had done to bring the three here to the future, but the two were literally on opposite sides of the workshop. And there was no mouth movement from either of them.
He had the feeling that Tony had issues with how Howard had raised him from when he was a child, jealousies and expectations not withstanding, but also from the fact that Tony's words earlier in the common room seemed both full of pride and of slighted hurt. But he did not realize that it might have devolved into the two being completely silent and seemingly ignored each other – judging by their tense postures facing away from each other – as he tentatively tapped the glass.
Both of them looked towards him and Tony waved his hand before Steve heard the click of the door unlocking and opened it. He stepped in, feeling like he had walked right into the situation where Peggy had tested his shield out for him by shooting live ammo at him, except now it was with Howard.
His sharp eyes caught onto Tony staring at him, or rather down towards where he and Peggy held each others hands before he quickly pulled his own out of Peggy's; feeling a rush of embarrassment that he could not quite understand why. His cheeks felt a little warm, as out of the corner of his eye, he saw Peggy stare at him for a second. She realized what had happened and glared at Tony who only smiled slightly and rolled his eyes. His fingers moved lightening fast across the screens he was looking at, the text fields blurring a little too fast for Steve to follow.
"Glad you're okay," Howard looked like he wanted to tease Peggy and him, but had quickly decided to say something else and only got a look from Peggy. "We weren't too sure what had happened to you-"
"Nothing in the theories about relativity and notes about time travel say anything," Tony interrupted, his fingers pausing on a few hard-light points of text. Howard apparently was looking at a holographic display of the 0-8-4, the object in question sitting rather innocently on one of Tony's workshop tables, away from everything else. "Going through a few of the more outlandish theories right now-"
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about Tony," Steve spoke up, "Peggy, er, her older self, said something odd to me today when I saw her earlier."
"Peggy's still alive in this day and age? Golly..." Howard looked amazed, "hey, does that mean that I'm still alive-"
"No," Tony cut in his tone curt as he seemingly stabbed one of the hard-light projections. "You and Jarvis are not. Sorry."
Whether it was what Tony said or perhaps the way he said it, it seemed to irritate Howard as he frowned and shot a dark look at Tony, "Hey, just because you think that-"
"Want me to say it again? You were a shitty father," Tony said bitterly, "just because you probably won't even fucking remember it when you go back after we find the stupid cipher-"
"Cipher?" Steve jumped in, "what cipher?" He did not mean to interrupt what seemed like a very personal conversation Tony and Howard probably had before he, Peggy, and Jarvis had arrived, but it felt decidedly uncomfortable to watch the two of them fight; especially since Howard was a good friend and Tony had started to become one too since he had come to know him.
"There's a line of text that doesn't match any known type of writing, including the Voynich manuscript. It might be a cipher that can identify what the hell we're dealing with and how to fix it," Tony explained before his fingers enlarged a couple of text fields from his screen, "I've been trying to figure variations out along with whatever's been affecting Peggy here."
"Entro-something...cascade...failure?" Steve asked and Tony stared at him, blinking once.
"Huh, son of a bitch," he muttered before he turned back to his monitor and quickly brought up a set of different screens and even more lines of text, "entropic cascade failure."
"Excuse me?" Peggy looked confused and Steve was glad that he was not the only one utterly confused by what came out of Tony's mouth. Even Howard looked puzzled as did Jarvis from the corner of his eye.
"Entropic cascade failure," Tony repeated, "it's usually more aligned with the multi-verse theory, as in alternate realities, in quantum physics than say in astrophysics and relativity in terms of time travel, but the possibility can't be discounted. Basically, its a theory where the closer the realities, or in our case, timelines, are, the easier it is to access the so-called temporal bridge of sorts. In this case, the 0-8-4." He gestured to the mostly-harmless looking object sitting far away from everything. Steve did not think it was that harmless. "The further apart the timelines, the more the...host reality, if you will, or host timeline, will reject a person that already exists in that timeline."
"Wait...please, explain that again?" Peggy asked, squinting before giving Steve a reassuring smile, "I'm fine, no headaches, just...confused."
"Me too," Steve did not understand what Tony just said.
"Oh...that makes sense," Howard apparently, understood what Tony said as he nodded, "okay, so, pretty much, since we've kind of been brought here by that thing that I found in Rio, this time period thinks that there's two of you, Peggy, existing right now. It doesn't like that. Maybe that's why you had the convulsions, seizures, whatever happened. It's the time period trying to kick you out of the current period because Steve says that you're still alive right now, except older."
"And neither of you have experienced...that? It...felt like someone was ripping my head apart, like I could suddenly see glimpses of my future, my past, things I should have done, but I don't really remember. It was like watching images flash by really quickly and like someone stifling the air around me..." Peggy murmured as she tapped her chin.
"I think it's because Jarvis and I are dead by this time," there was something sharp in Howard's tone and Tony looked away, uncomfortable. An awkward silence reigned in the workshop for a few seconds before Peggy spoke up.
"So..."
"Steve can't go back with you, Peggy," Tony said quietly and Steve met his friend's gaze, seeing the small shake of his head, "even if I could get that thing working again, Steve...can't go back."
"Because...he'll die if he does," Peggy answered and Steve shook his head, not willing to see her brief moment of happiness fall into melancholic gloom. Steve realized the reason why – because he technically was still alive back in 1946, albeit frozen completely in ice.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," he interrupted, before looking at Tony, "you said there was a cipher?"
"Yeah," Tony seemed to realize what he had said as he followed his lead and brought the things he was working on earlier back up to the forefront of the hard-light projection he was looking at, "yeah, it's-"
The incoming beep of a high priority communique stopped Tony mid-sentence as he punched it up, "What is it Hill? I've got kind of a situation here..."
"NYPD's reporting some kind of hostile incursion down at the lower east side," Steve moved to where Tony had Maria's face projected onto a small screen, "Cap, good, we need you and Iron Man to suit up-"
"Um, I've also got guests here-"
"Stark, I'm sure your guests understand the importance of the Avengers being summoned-" Tony had turned his monitor towards where Peggy and Jarvis were standing as well as showing Howard in the background. "Holy shit...is that..."
"Yeah, thank Coulson for me, will ya? His 0-8-4 kind of did that," Tony pointed a thumb back at the three as he turned the monitor back, "kind of busy trying to figure out how to send the three musketeers back to where they came from."
"He's Porthos," Peggy interjected with a look at Howard and Steve could not help the grin that appeared on his face. He understood that reference and it seemed very apt that Howard was Porthos in an unusual way.
Tony, meanwhile, sighed loudly and shook his head, "Listen, NYPD's going to have to take this one-"
"They're reporting that there's Chitauri-like creatures coming out of the middle of nowhere dressed in World War II HYDRA armor," Maria said and Steve frowned. The Chitauri had invaded three years ago and they certainly were not wearing the dark black HYDRA armor. "Might explain your guests..." Either way, he knew that this was something that he and Tony had to deal with being the only two Avengers at the tower at the moment. If Tony wanted the Avengers to succeed in wake of SHIELD's collapse, then they would have to make sure that this problem was dealt with.
"Tony-"
"Yeah, figures," Tony sounded annoyed but shook his head, "Hill, can you keep an eye on our guests here while Cap and I deal with this. Also, see if you can get Rhodey or Bird Boy Falcon up here. We might need the backup if they're not busy."
"Banner?" Maria tilted her head at the question.
"Is the world ending?" Tony replied and Steve was about to suggest that maybe they should bring Dr. Banner back from wherever he went, but his friend shut up him with an arched look.
"And...the Winter Soldier?" Maria asked and Steve grimaced.
"No," he replied, "not until we know the situation is under control." With all of HYDRA and SHIELD's files available to the public, there was a chance that the world knew of the Winter Soldier even though Steve had not seen any sign of it so far in his quick internet browsing. Still, he would not risk Bucky being accidentally recognized in public and potentially being arrested if he appeared in the fight. He also did not want to put his best friend into another combat situation and have him kill unless it was completely dire. It was not that he did not trust Bucky, but he wanted to give him a measure of deserved peace. Bucky was not a tool to be used and he would not field him as a soldier unless he explicitly asked first.
"Roger that," Maria nodded in understanding, "I'll coordinate logistics with you. Channel Alpha-dash-Zed-One."
"Canadian," Tony said as Maria shook her head at his antics before disconnecting the call with a tight smile. Task done, he pushed the monitor away and flicked away all of the hard-light information with a quick gesture before looking at the three, "Okay, so here's the situation..."
Author's Notes:
Thank you for all of the support and feedback so far! See you in the next chapter!