So here I am again with (another!) MCU story.

This one is actually an idea which I had the other day which originally differed from this (the original idea had Darcy actually be a time travelling robot...but that changed and shifted quickly into her being a female-Tony from another earth)

Timeline wise, it starts around a year before the first Thor movie.

Now, this is a Team Iron Man story, that is the direction this story will lean, much like my other MCU works, but not as heavily as my other stories.

Unlike those, it's not going to be bashing all of Team Cap (aside from Scott who always gets of easier when I write Team Iron Man stuff)...I can't promise you'll all like how I present some of them. But this won't be the same as my other more critical/bashing content in my other stories...I don't think.

Look, unlike those other stories, this one won't be heavily revolving around the team vs team clashes anytime soon, mostly due to it starting about 5 years before 'civil war', things will be different in some of these chapters which deal with the films, and thus the fate of certain characters will be different too, you might like this or you might hate my guts for it.

So yeah, even if you don't like my other MCU stories (or hate Team Iron Man stories), and are super fans of Steve and Wanda, when it gets to the parts of the story you don't like, feel free to stop reading :)

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this (relatively short prologue, I don't like posting short chapters, but being a prologue, I hope you can forgive me)

And if you'd like to support me, I recently started a Ko-Fi account (I was considering a , but idk, some of their policies make me hesitant)

Any tips or support I will be grateful for, and appreciate anything you send my way:

w w w dot ko-fi dot c o m / iamgoku


Nevada

The desert landscape was blanketed in moonlight as the gentle breeze blew against the sand, a peaceful atmosphere for miles void of any human life.

However this peace was suddenly broken by the emergence of a sphere of bright blue light appearing on the ground, for several seconds it crackles and sparked with energy before expanding outward and becoming larger until it was ten feet in diameter, all the while more energy was crackling and sparking around it before in a burst of light the sphere disappeared.

All that was left was a half dome crater that it cut into the ground and scorched earth surrounding it, the ring left in the earth was red hot and smoldering as a few lingering sparks dissipated in the air.

In the centre of the crater, steam wafted off a lone figure who was still for almost a minute before awakening with a loud gasp.

She was a young woman with dark brown hair and was on the short side, her eyes darting around as she was still taking in heaving breaths, her body writhing as she seemed to be in a state of shock.

Her body was decked out in a damaged suit of red and gold armor, lacking a helmet and showcasing a large bruise on the side of her face and one on her lower jaw, small cuts were seen upon her lip and left brow.

After several seconds she sat up quickly, her eyes still looking around as if expecting something else to happen.

Leaning forward to push herself up, she let out a groan at the effort, her free arm coming up to clutch her armor-covered stomach, this action causing the shoulder piece of that arm to fall off along with several other bits of plating.

Wincing as she reached towards the edge of the crater before she slowly started to pull herself out, standing up afterwards only for several more pieces of the armor to unceremoniously drop off from her body, showing off a black bodysuit underneath.

After taking a few steps, she fell to her knees, her breathing once again becoming labored as she clenched her hands into fists, squeezing her eyes shut as she finally regained her bearings and senses, only for everything to come crashing back.

"There's no other way Toni! We're out of time, you have to use the machine!"

"You can stop this, you can save everyone!"

"Peter!"

"I'm sorry…"

"Rhodey-"

"I'm gonna buy you some time!"

Antoinette 'Toni' Stark dragged her fists across the dirt in front of her, clenched eyes doing nothing to stop the tears that were flowing down her face and onto the dirt as she felt a lump fill up her throat before she let out a choked sob.

More memories flashed through her mind, her clenched fists hitting the ground as her sobs shook her body.

"You have my respect Stark"

"I'm not going to kill you, no you won't share the fate of the rest of this world, your's will be to live. To live knowing you failed them all, that your last attempt to stop me didn't succeed"

"I don't know where you'll wind up, but trying to return would be fruitless, what would be left for you here other than the reminder of your failure"

"I'm sorry!" she choked out, her hands curling up around herself as she couldn't hold anything back, crying openly in her solitude.

"I'm so sorry!"

~0~

Toni didn't know how long she'd spent there huddled on the ground crying, it could have been hours. Her throat was now raw and horse, and her eyes had long since ran out of tears to shed.

She didn't know why she'd decided to start walking, most of her body was on autopilot as she stripped down the armor and threw it into the torn and worn duffel bag that was lying in the bottom of the crater, the only thing that had been brought through with her.

She found a road after walking for sometime and began following it aimlessly, she had no idea where it led nor did she care, her body continuing to move with what little energy it could muster.

As she finally saw a sign up ahead on the roadside, her dimmed eyes made out the words Las Vegas beside the many miles it would take to get there, again Toni barely registered it as she continued along, the cold wind which blew against her body not even phasing her nor was the prospect of walking alone at night in the middle of nowhere, It felt like nothing could hurt her right now.

She'd truly lost it all and was now numb to everything around her. If she was killed on the roadside that night, it wouldn't matter.

What was the point anymore…


There you go, the prologue all wrapped up.

Sorry for the shortness (and bleakness of the end there)

I hope I hooked some of you!

I am currently working on 3 more chapters for my various MCU-crossover stories, but this second chapter will be thrown into that mix to be worked on, especially since my Marvel writing mood is back.

For those of you wondering who Toni (Darcy) will be shipped with, idk yet. I have a few ideas, but nothing concrete, there will be time to ponder these questions going forward.

I hope you all enjoyed this, and if so please leave a comment and favorite/follow down below, and if you are feeling extra generous and are able, a tip to my Ko-Fi account will be forever appreciated.

(You can even comment there if you want to see a particular story updated before another, and I will give it extra-consideration. As I said in the top note, I decided to start Ko-Fi instead of , and may even offer commissions there in future if I get enough interest)