A/N: Hi! It's only been two days, but I figured since I already have this ready, I would go ahead and give it to you. Please, don't expect updates anywhere near this frequently in the future though. This is a complete fluke.
In other news, I'm considering whether or not to get a beta reader to help me edit this fic. I don't typically have issues with grammatic editing, but I've recently noticed I have issues properly fleshing out chapters that I feel less than enthusiastic about.
Like, if I see a chapter as a filler or a transitionary scene that's only really necessary in order to get to the really interesting stuff, I have a bad habit of kind of skipping through it to get it over with.
The problem comes in when you consider that as readers, no one else knows there's a 'good part' coming later that I'm trying to get to and then it just ends up reading as a rushed chapter for no reason.
To readers, every chapter is equally important to help a story flow properly, no matter how I might feel towards it as a creator, and each chapter needs to have the same amount of attention and care and thought put into it.
The biggest issue I'm having is that even though I realize I have this problem, I find myself struggling to recognize when I've done it without someone pointing it out to me, likely because I have so much background knowledge on where the story's going and on what is or isn't going to be important that my mind just kind of fills in the blanks until the chapter doesn't seem rushed at all from my perspective.
Anyway, if anyone is interested in becoming my beta for this fic, please let me know. You can tell me in the comments, a private message, or find me over on Tumblr at www. tumblr / thatthoughtatthebackofyourmind
(Also, I feel I should warn you that I've only just recently made my Tumblr account and have only made one actual post (a long rambling rant about how Dumbledore is treated by the Harry Potter fan community) as I haven't completely figured out how to use it. I've really never had any kind of social media at all and I only started Tumblr because I just recently reassessed my life and realized I'm going to be 30 in September and I have absolutely zero friends outside of my mother and 1 cousin, and I have absolutely no interest in having to leave my house in order to meet anyone new, but I definitely need some type of socialization.)
"Okay. That doesn't explain anything about the other stones. It also doesn't prove that you really know us at all." Maria argued looking put out. Natasha raised her eyebrows in silent agreement. A quick survey of the others told Tony that they were all of the same mindset.
"Oh, so we've reached the personal information to prove it portion of the conversation now." Tony huffed a laugh.
Happy rolled his eyes. "No offense boss, but I'm pretty sure there's nothing you can say to prove this story to me. Or Rhodes and Miss Potts for that matter."
"That's because I know you all too well already. You guys are just going to have to learn to believe me over time as other things come true." Tony said with a smirk. "Alright, let's start with the people I know the least about and move forward from there." He suggested, standing up to pace the room again.
"Maria Hill. I'll be honest. I know the least about you. You've never really given me the time of day. Plus, you're a pretty reserved person when it comes to personal information, and our paths don't cross very often. Even for the short amount of time you were working for me, though maybe that's because you were really just a plant for Fury so he could keep better eyes on us. You were invited to our powwow because you are one agent that I know for sure isn't HYDRA, and you're highly trusted by your boss." Maria nodded in agreement while rolling her eyes. This was easily dismissible vague information he could have gathered over the course of the day, and she said as much under her breath before he moved on.
"Coulson, you have a set of vintage Captain America trading cards. I know this because when Loki broke out of the Helicarrier, you tried to stop him. He killed you, but not before you shot that motherfucker in the chest. Later, Fury showed us your bloodstained trading cards. I guess you had been carrying them around in an effort to get Steve to sign them. He was very upset by that. I sent flowers to your cellist after the battle was over, and I offered to get her in to the Philharmonic, but she sent back a card and told me no thank you, and that she would be taking some time off from playing." Coulson's face was whiter than snow. This knowledge was much less easily dismissed.
"Fury. The only things I really know about you come from things Danvers told me in space. You were born in Huntsville, Alabama. Apparently you once had a pet called Mr. Snoofers. You were a soldier before you were a spy. You don't let anyone call you Nick, you can't eat diagonally cut toast, and you reportedly love cats. Like really love them. Even when they're really something called a Flerken? in disguise. And even after they claw your eye out."
Tony ignored the way Fury's face went blank in alarmed surprise. He seemed ready to attack, so Tony quickly moved on. He turned to Natasha. "Natasha Romanoff. You were raised as a Russian spy in the Red Room. You worked as their brainwashed operative until Clint was sent to neutralize you. He bashed his way through your programming and gave you a second chance with SHIELD. You're a talented spy, a Black Widow, a paranoid untrusting individual, a cheater at all card games, and an accomplished ballerina. And you were a good friend of mine. You once sacrificed yourself to save the entire world and your best friend, and I will never forget that. And I will make damn sure there's never a reason for you to need to do that again." Natasha narrowed her eyes in confused suspicion but didn't try to deny anything Tony had said.
He noticed that Rhodey, Happy, and Pepper were exchanging concerned glances with each other now. They likely thought that Tony had started spying on or hacking people in an effort to gain attention. He hoped he could prove himself as truthful soon otherwise he was sure there would be an intervention in his near future.
Tony cleared the sadness from his throat and turned to Clint. "Clint Barton, you are my favorite idiot. You insist that the reason you can shoot any mark with your bow and arrow better than any sniper has ever dreamed is simply because you and your brother ran away and joined the circus when you were a kid. I can never tell if you're lying about that or not. Regardless, you keep me busy thinking of new trick arrows to design for you and finding ways to widen the vents in my buildings so that you can hide inside of them. You saved Natasha from a lifetime of abuse and mental manipulation because you're a very good man who truly believes in redemption. You have a farm in the middle of nowhere as well as a wife and three- I mean, two kids. The wife's name is Laura; the kids are Cooper and Lila. Eventually, you guys are gonna have a third. You'll name him after Nat. I know this because when something bad happened to the Avengers home base, you and your family graciously opened your home to us, and the only repayment you asked for was for Cap to chop some wood, and for me to fix your broken tractor. Laura was pregnant at the time. The reason you volunteered to test the first trip with the time travel I invented is because in 2018 Thanos collected all 6 Infinity Stones and snapped half of all life in the universe out of existence. Half of all life included your wife and all three of your kids. That's why Nat gave her life in the end. You were going to, but she knew that if the plan paid off, your family would need you alive." Tony could tell by the gutted look Clint gave him, that he at least was starting to believe him, even if the others weren't at all convinced yet.
"I'll be honest guys. I'm not going to sit here and tell you every single thing that happens over the next 13 years. I may get the entire story out to you all eventually. I may not. So much shit happened, I'm not even sure I can still remember the correct order of everything. The main thing you need to know is this. Thanos is coming." Tony stressed, leaning in closer to show them he was serious.
"He is coming soon and he is hunting things that will either end up on our planet or are already here. The Time Stone is in New York right this second. The Space Stone has been setting off a beacon to Earth for years. The Reality Stone slips in quietly for a while in 2013 without anyone on Earth even seeking it out. If he gets these stones, he will enact his plan. I have seen what that looks like. I lived in that world for 5 years." He gulped back the memory of Peter turning to dust in his hands. "I will not do that again. It cannot happen."
Tony took a steadying breath. "In the next few days, you'll see that I'm not lying about Cap. I understand that you'll all probably suspect that I just somehow managed to find his landing site without telling anyone, and that most of you, especially my people, will assume this is just some sort of elaborate prank. It's not. Hopefully, once Thor gets here you'll know I was telling the truth. For now, though, I just wanted to warn you that SHIELD has been compromised and that Thanos is coming."
"Wait. There's still some things you forgot to explain. Namely, how the hell did you wind up with the Stones and then use them to travel back in time?" Rhodey asked. It was clear from his tone that he was extremely skeptical of all of this and was now growing annoyed that he was still having to listen to it.
Tony sighed. "Fine. After Thanos wiped out half of literally everyone, he left. Those of us who were still alive went looking for him. When we found him, he had already destroyed the stones. So, we went home and tried to recover. But it was the entire planet. Things were awful. We lived like that for five years and then this dude we thought had been snapped showed back up. His name is Scott Lang. Eventually, he'll meet a man named Hank Pym. Pym gives him a special suit and some particles he created that can make him shrink. Apparently while everyone else was fighting Thanos, Scott, Pym, and some other people were conducting an experiment involving the quantum verse. Not his fault he wasn't there to help, it's not like we had time to send out a memo and gather our forces. Clint wasn't there either. He was under house arrest at the time because of a stupid choice I'd made and was in the middle of a family cook out. Anyway. Pym's particles could make you shrink so small that you could transverse through it. While the Scott was in the quantum verse, Thanos snapped his fingers. Pym and the others involved turned to dust, and Scott got stuck. Their stuff was put in a storage locker and it stayed there for five years until a rat walked over a button that made Scott big again. The quantum verse is different though. What was 5 years outside felt like five minutes to Scott. He affectively hopped straight to the future."
Tony paused for a minute to think. "He went straight to the closest Avengers he could find as soon as he figured out what had happened to him. Later, they came to me and we used the Pym particles and a machine I built to travel back in time to retrieve the stones from places we knew they would be. The others suggested just going back and killing Thanos before he came to Earth, but Pepper explained earlier why that wouldn't work as, although we were traveling to the past, they were technically at that point alternate timelines due to how our presence affected things." Tony raised his eyebrows and checked the faces for confusion. There was some, but hopefully he could get this out and then answer more questions at the end. It was hard enough without having to stop a shit ton of times.
"Hulk used the stones to bring back the people Thanos had dusted, and it worked, but while we were collecting the stones the Thanos from 2014 found out we were there and followed us back using a wormhole like the one he had made in 2012. He brought his alien army with him and was trying to steal the stones from us. During the battle he eventually got the stones."
Tony ran a hand through his hair wishing he were already finished with this stupid story he was telling. Almost 3 hours had now passed since he first started talking. He could feel that he was beginning to go hoarse from overusing his voice. "In the future I had made a lot of upgrades to my Iron Man suit. It was made of nanobots and could respond to the smallest thought. I grabbed his glove during a scuffle just before he could snap again and my glove stole the stones and integrated them into the suit. He said, "I am inevitable." thinking he still had the stones and then snapped his fingers, but nothing happened. So, I told him "I am Iron Man." and snapped my own fingers." Tony cracked a wry grin and shook his head.
"I expected that Thanos and his army would all just turn to dust like half of us had 5 years before that, but instead I found myself transported back to the first time I had ever said that phrase." Tony paused for a second to think. "The only thing I can guess is that it must have had something to do with the nanobots responding to my subconscious thought. The power of the stones was supposed to kill me. And that press conference was the most significant instance of my life. I think because it was the last thing that crossed my mind when I snapped, the Time Stone took over and turned time back to that moment. I really don't know how it worked. Questions?"
"Tony. Man. Why would you do something like that if you knew it was going to kill you?" Rhodey asked in a hesitant voice. He, Happy, and Pepper were again trading concerned looks. "You know your life is worth more than just a sacrifice play, right?"
"What the fuck do you not understand about half of all life, Rhodes? You think I'm supposed to value myself over half of all existing life?" Tony demanded angrily. This was exhausting enough to explain without the peanut gallery debating his motives. Then he realized his mistake.
He sighed as his anger abruptly deflated. "Of course, you don't, Rhodey. I get it. You don't believe me, so you all think this is all just a story I made up where I've painted myself as an ultimate hero in order to feel important. I promise you man, this is not that. And if you guys don't believe me because you think I wouldn't have enough personal motivation in this story I'll tell you this. You, Pepper, and Happy weren't dusted. Everyone I cared about in 2010 was alive. But man. It wasn't 2010 anymore. It was 2023. We lost so many friends when Thanos snapped his fingers. Close friends, Rhodey. The Avengers were like a big, slightly dysfunctional family." Tony sighed again and rubbed at his tired eyes.
"We didn't even know Thanos was going to do that. They all just turned to dust around us. There were so many man. And there- There's this kid, ya know. A real smart kid. His name is Peter. One day he's gonna be a superhero. He's so fucking special Rhodes. He's got these powers, and he wouldn't stop dressing up in these flimsy-ass pajamas and trying to fight real criminals, so I gave him a suit. Just to keep him safe, ya know. And when Thanos came, he was on a field trip on his way out of Manhattan and he just put on his suit and climbed out his bus window to come and help. He was on a fucking field trip Rhodey. That's how young this kid is. And he put on the stupid goddamn suit I gave him and he left his fucking school bus to come help grown adults fight literal fucking aliens from fucking space. And then, this fucking 16-year-old kid followed me onto a spaceship headed God knows where all because he was afraid that I would need his help. This literal child went to space and tried to help me fight a fucking alien, and we lost. And Thanos took the Time Stone from the wizard that was with us and he fucking disappeared, and I thought that was it. We lost, but we were all alive. Time to regroup and try again." Tony stood up and started pacing again with his head in his hands.
"And then." Tony said, pulling at his hair until it hurt enough to ground himself in this moment as he tried to stave off crying. "Everyone started turning to dust around us. Even the fucking wizard. And Pete. Pete had these powers. These extra senses. Almost like precognition. Everyone else was there one second and then gone before they even knew what was happening, but Pete. Peter Parker felt it. He could feel it happening. And he was scared. And I couldn't do anything. Fucking nothing. I couldn't help him in any way. He just turned to dust in my hands. And do you know what the last fucking thing that fucking kid said to me was, Rhodey? The last thing the kid did was tell me that he was sorry. He fucking apologized to me, Rhodes." Tony could distantly feel that he had lost the battle with his tears. Rhodey stood up and walked over to try and comfort him in apology. Tony let him for second but then pulled back and sat back down.
He wiped absently at his face and coughed a bit to clear the thickness from his throat before he continued speaking. "Anyway. Half of our friends. Half of the fucking world. And then Nat died getting the Soul Stone so that we could bring everyone else back. I couldn't just let that motherfucker undo everything we had done to save everyone. It didn't matter that it would mean death. Peter was back. Our friends were back. Everyone but Natasha and Vis were alive again. I couldn't just let Thanos waste that because I was worth more than the fucking sacrifice play. So was Natasha. So was Vis. So were all of us. But sacrifice was the only fucking option left. Any one of us would have done it."
Tony could tell that this part of his story had everyone disturbed. He doubted any of them truly believed his story, but he could tell that at least his own friends now understood that he believed it. It would have been impossible for Tony to fake that kind of emotion.
"Now," Tony continued, holding out his long-forgotten tablet and bringing up satellite images from the arctic. "Coulson, Fury, if you two can spare a few days, I think I can pinpoint where exactly we should dig for the Capsicle. I can go with you to get him as long as you guys agree not to bring any SHIELD agents with you. We can't afford to involve any of them until we've completely cleared out HYDRA. Or at least identified who all the double agents are and slowly corrupted their information clearance to lull them into a false sense of security. Or I can hire an unaffiliated team to go and dig him up and make them all sign gags, whatever you think would be best." He said, zooming in and handing the device to Coulson so that he could see the general area in which Tony thought they should start looking.
Tony did his best not to be too insulted that they all looked grateful that Tony seemed to be finished telling his long and convoluted story. They'd have to believe him eventually. Even if that wouldn't be for a long while. Tony would just have to be patient and ignore their disbelief until then.
"We'll go with you if you think you've found him, Stark, but that doesn't mean we believe your story. I think I'll hold out until that Thor guy shows up before I start buying into the time travel shit you're pedaling. For now, I'm just going to assume you came across Carol Danvers some other time, and that your motives for alerting us about the HYDRA leak and Cap's location are likely self-serving in some way." Fury agreed, rising from the couch with a severe expression.
"One more thing." Tony interrupted before Fury could start heading for the door. "There's a HYDRA operative known as The Winter Soldier. He was used to kill my parents in 91. He's been around a long time. He's a super soldier and they keep him on ice when he isn't in the field. He's been through years of torture and brainwashing. We need to find him and get him here. I'll work on preparing a suitable cryotube that he can nap in until we can deprogram him, but we need to get him here as soon as we can. I'll do my best to find him, but I'm likely to need some help with actually recovering him from wherever they have him stashed."
"Tony, if that's true why on Earth would you want him here?" Pepper asked sounding appalled. "He murdered your parents."
Tony shook his head and spoke before Clint could. He could see the man was offended on Natasha's behalf, but Natasha looked like she ready to agree with Pepper. "Did you miss the part where I said he was put through years of torture and brain washing, Pep?" She looked down slightly ashamed. Tony shrugged. "Besides, the guy's originally one of ours. He was taken captive by the Russians in 1945. He's the longest captured P.O.W. of World War II. We need to bring him in from the cold. People born the year he was captured are now eligible to collect social security. I think they've had him long enough."
Fury sighed and shook his head in annoyance. Natasha had looked slightly ill since Tony had said the words 'Winter Soldier'. "Fine Stark. I'll bite. Who is he, and why do you care if we find him?"
"I'm sorry. I guess I'm not speaking loudly enough when I say the words torture and brainwashing. For 65 years people. God, why would anyone not care about that? Anyway. Like I said, he's a World War II war hero. He was captured by an opposing force before the war was ended. Which, technically, means he should still be considered a P.O.W., and we need to find him ASAP because once we find Cap he's gonna shit a brick if he finds out and we haven't even started looking for him yet." Tony sighed at the looks of confusion this earned him. Time to drop another unbelievable truth bomb. He would be lucky if his friends didn't try to have him committed before any of this shit could be proved.
"The Winter Soldier is actually named James Buchanan Barnes. The Russians stole him when he fell from the train. He only survived the fall because earlier in the war Zola, a HYDRA scientist, had experimented on him with a version of the super soldier serum while his entire company was held captive. Steve went behind enemy lines and saved them all before Zola could finish the experiment, but once the Russians captured him and Zola was released at the end of the war, he joined them and figured out how to wipe Barnes's personality out of his head to turn him into a killing machine. Because of the serum though, the longer he was out of cryo the more his mind would heal, so they mostly kept him on ice when they didn't have a mission for him."
A/N: I hope you people enjoyed the chapter. Let me know if I've missed any typos or if I did the rushing thing I mentioned in the top note with the chapter.
Also, thank you to everyone who has commented, I know I don't really reply, but I really do appreciate every bit of feedback I get. I promise I read it all. I just have a lot of trouble talking to people on a one on one level behind a computer screen. Most likely because I never joined the social media train, so I'm completely out of practice. But really, every comment makes me so, so happy to read, so thank you!