Hey!

I — you know, I'm not entirely sure where this came from. I just . . . had the random thought that Thanos and Steve Rogers were horrifying alike, personality-wise, and . . . well, this happened, literally overnight. So: please let me know what you think, because this is the first piece I've written that didn't have a least a base idea prior to conception.

Also, I want to once again express my thanks and appreciation to everyone who is reading, bookmarking, commenting, and giving kudos to this story. You're awesome and I cannot express my gratitude. Thank you.

Twin (from Another Mother, Father, Planet, Galaxy)

Tony Stark had been given many names since his birth. Some were good, some ambivalent, and some bad.

But his overall favorite was The Futurist.

Therefore, when SHIELD and the Avengers 'team' rejected and refuted his warnings about the incoming alien invasion after he'd near-single-handedly defeated Loki's scouting party, he wasn't surprised. He wasn't even all that irritated, because despite Fury and Company's obvious disregard of his intelligence — hello, genius! Did they really think that was a lie or did they consider it one of those 'convenient for them' traits, like people who turned into Casanova when they were drunk, but couldn't get a first look when sober? — he was fully expecting them to stonewall him. After all, if SHIELD let it slip that they didn't have Tony Stark under their control, why, anarchy would reign! Riots in the streets, total government collapse, uprisings, economic disaster . . . basically, several things that both he and SI helped mitigate simply by being who and what they were.

So being ignored by Fury and gas-lighted by Romanova didn't remotely surprise him. He was caught by surprise when he realized that SHIELD had branched out and were actively trying to sabotage his efforts in the non-shady-spy-agency world, but once he got over the magnitude of effort they were willing to exert to keep him under their thumb, he was grateful. Thanks to their work, he had a much better idea of which groups and people to make the effort for and which ones were established wastes of time.

And since Fury and his band of egotistical drones actually thought that he, Anthony Edward Stark, was simply going to shrug and say, "Sorry, I guess I don't know anything about war, weapons, battles, and invasion plans, and was clearly just trying to get more attention from . . . someone, though no one knows who, because I haven't informed the public so as not to alarm them," then he wasn't going to waste his valuable time trying to convince them. The only real problem with that was his lack of certainty regarding SHIELD's stance on said imminent invasion: he knew that Romanova genuinely believed he was looking for an ego boost, but he didn't think Fury wasn't that stupid or that shortsighted, at least as a general rule.

So he played SHIELD when he felt like making the effort while subtly sending out his own feelers, trying to gauge how much support he could realistically garner to prepare for the next alien invasion/battle.

He walked away completely from that dumpster fire and the Avengers who kept feeding it after the Ultron incident, with the exception of funding, and that was solely because there was no way on God's green earth that Steve Rogers could or would get a job that didn't involve beating people up, and he refused to put his PR department through that headache. So while Rogers and Company were wandering the globe (searching for Barnes, he would later discover) and causing an impressive amount of damage, Tony was quietly networking on a worldwide scale. More importantly, he was successful.

Why was that significant?

Well, when he ended up on a different planet, along with his adopted superhero son and a wizard with enviable facial hair and a personality that completely negated the aforementioned envy, a ragtag team of misfits who utterly encapsulated just how bad the Avengers were, both as individuals and as a team, and a giant purple grape (raisin, if you were the sorcerer, ball-sack if you were his disgusted son, and 'I am Groot' from the ragtag team), he wasn't particularly worried about the army that was nearing Earth. His Rhodey-bear was in command of Tony's genius defense system and the two of them had built and nurtured a global network of protectors, both normal and enhanced, who took said threat seriously and were well-trained and willing to cooperate with each other to defend their planet.

So Tony was able to put his complete attention on stopping Thanos, and for the first time since his interactions with Loki in 2012, he was looking forward to unleashing the full scope of his sarcasm, intelligence, and witty bantering skills against an opponent, only to be sorely disappointed. It seemed that old saying was true: there was nothing new under the sun, regardless of where that sun was located. So he got the sob story about Thanos' home planet . . . which was at least useful, because that directly led into his reason for rampaging across several galaxies and leaving unimaginable swaths of death and destruction behind him.

"With all six stones, I could simply snap my fingers. They would all cease to exist. I call that mercy," Thanos breathed, sounding horrifyingly sincere.

Tony stilled, jarred out of the vague sense of boredom he often experienced when listening to a villain monologue when he realized that this was different. Something had changed, something in Thanos, and danger was suddenly much closer than he was comfortable with. But he needed to keep the bastard talking, so he nodded and forced himself to say, "And then what?"

For the first time in his entire life, someone made a statement that literally stopped him in his tracks.

He and Thanos had been going back and forth, with Tony successfully coaxing the underlying reason for all the alien's madness and destruction and the purple raisin oblivious to the dull predictability of his own actions, when Thanos stated his raison d'étre . . . and completely, utterly, boggled Tony Stark's genius mind.

"I finally rest," he decreed, looking at Tony with eyes burning from the fires of his own self-righteousness. "And watch the sun rise on a grateful universe." Utterly unable to stop himself, Tony simply gaped at Thanos in disbelief at his hubris . . . and promptly had his mind boggled again. "The hardest choices require the strongest wills."

Time just . . . stopped.

Because suddenly, Tony wasn't looking at a giant purple alien with ugly armor and truly abysmal taste in fashion accessories.

He was looking at Steve Rogers.

It took him probably three minutes to really recover from the sudden realization, but when he was finally able to shut his gaping mouth and think again, Tony did something else he hadn't done in probably thirty years.

He doubled over with laughter, actually crying from the force of his emotions, unaware of the concerned gazes of his son and allies, as well as the affronted glare of their opponent, who was not remotely used to being laughed at. But there was no mitigating this hysterical truth and Tony . . . well, he'd been under near-constant stress and pressure just from this stupid impending invasion for close to a decade. So it stood to reason that breaking through that stress would cause an overload — in this case, humor. But even then, Tony was still Tony Fucking Stark and he regained control before anyone could gather the wit to speak.

(It should at this point be mentioned that an unnoticed Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme (possessed of awesome facial, a more awesome sentient cloak, and a personality so abrasive, even Tony Stark was impressed), had opened a portal to the Earth — the Sanctum, to be precise — where Wong rolled his eyes but obligingly did the magic version of livestream and projected the confrontation across the world.

No, literally, across the world. So it wasn't just the United States who saw and heard The Futurist going toe to toe with the Mad Titan who trying to justify the destruction of not just half the life on Earth, where he was currently headed, but also the decimation of the universe. The UK, Russia, China, Wakanda, Spain, France, Japan, Egypt, India, Brazil, countries who changed names every other week . . . everyone saw and heard the ugly truth.)

"Which one of you was adopted out?" Tony demanded, voice still full of mirth, as he pointed first to Thanos and then off in a random direction meant to indicate Earth. "Were you born on Earth, twin to a weedy, walking health catastrophe and get launched off the planet a la Superman, or did your parents kick Rogers off Titan for being a disgrace to the family?"

It took everyone several seconds to understand what he was implying, but once they did, it was epic. Thanos was so grievously offended, he couldn't talk. Peter was curled up on the ground, tears streaming down his face as he howled with laughter, while Quill, Rocket, and Drax were using their ship to hold them upright, unable to breathe from laughing, and Mantis giggled into her hands. Nebula and Strange were the only two who weren't amused, though Strange could be excused, since he was holding open a portal across God knows how much distance and trying to keep Thanos from noticing.

Tony, having already experienced the emotions of his revelation, didn't even notice the other reactions. He simply pointed to Thanos again and said, "I mean it! You are literally identical: you both genuinely believe that you and only you are right about everything; you both think that every single decision you make is the right one, regardless of reality, evidence, proof, objections, or a live-action demonstration. You have decreed it, so it is right. And both of you destroy anything that has the bad luck to get caught between you and what you want — and neither of you ever looks back or has a moment of regret, because they were trying to stop you, so they had it coming. God, no wonder Rogers tried so hard to convince himself I was making this up — he was waiting for the family reunion so he could show off his own achievements!"

The alien in question gasped in sheer affront and snapped, "How dare you?! I would never behave as dishonorably as that asdofijtoi."

Everyone paused at that, trying to parse the fact that Thanos had apparently just spoken a keyboard smash. Well, that or his word for Rogers didn't exist in the English language. Either way, Tony had to agree with the sentiment. But he made no effort to express that, not that he had the chance. Thanos was on a roll — and he was seriously offended.

"I freely admit that I destroy my enemies, but I would never stab them in the back the way your supposed 'team' did," he sneered at Tony, waving his arms wildly. The gauntlet passed in front of Peter's face and the young hero took instant advantage. Thanos was completely unaware of the small strand of spider-web the boy wrapped around his forearm. "Did you know that I sent a few agents to Earth after Loki failed me so I could assess your planet's level of preparation and interfere if necessary, only to discover that your gallant 'captain' and that foolish woman who thinks she's a spy and the organization they serve had already done the work for me?" he demanded, looming over Tony (just like Steve liked to) and still oblivious to Peter's stealthy movements as he continued to web the gauntlet up.

Unfortunately for Thanos, he knew about Tony, but in no way did he actually understand who and what Tony Stark was, so he was visibly startled when the man in question simply shrugged and said, "Of course I knew. That's why I recruited quietly and kept everything a secret. I knew before I tried to warn them the first time that they'd refuse to listen to me, but I still had to try. And then I went and built protections and defenses anyway, because I am Tony Fucking Stark and I don't let piddly-faced idiots with delusions of grandeur defeat me, I don't care who you are."

While Thanos gawked at Tony, the vast majority of the Earth's population was outraged. The people SHIELD and Rogers (albeit to a lesser extent) had gone to so much trouble to turn against Tony were horrified, enraged, and baying for blood. The people who had supported him from the beginning were smug, but also pissed off, because the team of 'Avengers' had gone out of their way to let the planet be destroyed for no reason other than satisfying their own hubris.

And all of the Rogue Avengers were in Wakanda.

(spoiler: they were delivered to the UN headquarters two days later . . . mostly undamaged. T'Challa and Shuri lacked both the experience and the political acumen needed, but their mother, the Widow Queen, had no such scruples)

That made Thanos pause again and he tilted his head, studying Tony with an intensely penetrating gaze. After a minute or so, he blinked and then smiled, looking pleased.

"You think you can defeat my army?" he asked in delight, laughing softly at the very notion . . . laughter that tapered off when Tony gave him a razor-sharp grin of his own.

"I know we can," he replied. "You see, your followers don't share your ideology. Some of them joined you because it was the only way to stay alive, and the rest follow because you give them the chance to destroy anyone they want, under the guise of 'salvation'. But not one of them believes that bullshit about 'balance', because it's bullshit."

Silence fell in the small clearing as everyone stared at Tony, who didn't blink as he stared Thanos down.

However, the alien had become acclimated to Tony's personality and sneered, "How little you know, Earther."

"Oh, I know a lot," Tony shot back, cutting him off effortlessly. "I know numbers and my math is never wrong. So I know it is mathematically impossible for every single populated planet to be over-populated and under-resourced at the exact same time. I know that eliminating half of each planet's population will not miraculously restore 'balance', whatever the hell that means, since I don't think there are Jedi and Sith running around the galaxy . . . though I suppose it's possible," he added to himself before visibly shaking off the thought. "I know that even if you somehow kill half the population 'without bias', you're still going to screw them over, because among the dead will be the people who know how to grow food, process it, prepare and package it, and plan for the next year. So your 'solution' of killing half of every sentient population not only doesn't solve any problems, it actually creates more. LITERALLY everything is worse after you're done, but that doesn't matter. You've decided your way is it and despite having these exact facts pointed out to you more than once, you ignore them and plow ahead, because nobody is going to tell you that you're wrong, or that you made the wrong decision for the right reason."

Tony stopped there and took several deep breaths before taking two deliberate steps forward. "So tell me again, Thanos, how you and Rogers are different. Or you and any other dictator and tyrant who's come to power?"

Silence.

"Actually, don't," Tony said dismissively as he stepped back and to the side, keeping the Titan's attention on him. "It doesn't matter. What matters is you're done. Your army does not stand a chance against Earth, and once you're gone, I highly doubt it will stay together anyway, so it's a moot point."

That finally got a response and Thanos scowled again. "What do you mean, 'once I'm gone'?" he demanded — and flexed his arms in absentminded preparation to grab a weapon.

It happened in flashes.

** Peter rolled forward and came to his feet, pulling with all his strength and yanking the gauntlet free

** Strange conjured a second portal directly in front of Peter, who chucked the gaudy monstrosity through it like he was throwing a baseball for the Yankees

** Drax bellowed his fury as he threw his daggers and Quill fired a blaster with deadly precision, splitting the Titan's attention for a few precious seconds

** Tony transformed his gauntlet to a sword and stepped forward, plunging the blade into Thanos' heart

** Nebula gave a single cry of fury and spun, her blade effortlessly slicing through her tormentor's neck

** The universe held its breath as the enormous head bounced through the dust of Titan, eyes wide with shock

And in a flash, it was over.

After a massive crying jag, comprised of joy, shock, disbelief, and utter relief — followed by considerable amounts of squabbling — Strange was able to get everyone and their ship portalled safely to Earth, hideous gauntlet in one hand and the three stones it had held safely stored in other dimensions. That had been the only immediate consensus among everyone: the stones needed to be kept out of reach of everyone, but not destroyed unless it became necessary.

Finding out that the Rogues had finally been captured, tried, convicted, and sentenced was unexpected, but such a relief that Tony actually passed out from the relief of knowing they were finally gone and he never had to worry about them again — especially since Wilson and Lang (it took him entirely too long to remember who the man was) were the only ones who hadn't gotten a death sentence.

Recordings of Tony's confrontation with Thanos were played so much, people finally quit watching TV (which Tony privately found hilarious, even as he avoided watching it like the plague . . . actually, no, he'd have rather dealt with the plague than the fawning masses, many of whom had hated him twenty minutes before they watched him fight for their lives).

And the Earth? She went on. She prospered, and grew, and, with Peter Parker-Stark at the helm, eventually took her place among the intellectual giants of the galaxy.

Thanks to Tony Stark, the Futurist, the Earth and her people would never again face the danger of a twin threat of the magnitude of the one he had been instrumental in defeating.

But it was only possible because Tony looked back. He learned from history and did everything possible to keep from repeating it.

And the Futurist watched with pride as his son and heir took his place and led their planet proudly into the future.

~~~
fin