Chapter Text
There are a lot of paths in life that you end up taking just because there are no other options, you know? One day you're fine with being a carefree playboy inventor and then the next day you're a super hero. Well the next day you're being kidnapped, thrown in a damp cave and forced to Jerry rig an armored suit and alternative energy device to both power said suit and postpone your own death long enough to get you and your fellow prisoner out of aforementioned damp cave.
Then your fellow prisoner dies and you become a super hero.
You might not have wanted to, but you do. Tony had, so it's a good bet that anyone else in the same position would have as well. He wasn't a saint or anything, he just did what needed to be done.
And years down the line when you're fighting a big bad guy with the super powered spider themed kid you somehow adopted and said kid and a third of the fucking population just disappear with no way of getting them back. You spiral into depression and self destruction.
Tony had and it's safe to say everyone else would too. He had promised to watch the kid. Had made him a suit that was designed to keep him safe even with the kids penchant to self sacrifice and a self preservation streak that was basically an inch long.
And then he'd had tell Peter's aunt he was gone and wasn't coming back.
Tony hadn't left the tower for three months after that.
These weren't paths he chose.
He had chosen Pepper. At first. Then his fear of getting the surgery coupled with a miscarriage and Tony's deepening sense of doom and defeat had crushed that. There had really been only one logical path for Pepper to take after that and Tony hadn't begrudged her when she left. She still checked on him. Often. Annoyingly often. But they were no longer trying to make it work.
It was for the best.
Then, assuming that you, hypothetical Tony Stark stand in, made if through the five years where everyone was just gone, one day your workplace frenemy situationship was going to show up at your door with the hairbrainiest of schemes claiming he knew how to get everyone back.
And if you were anything like Tony you would have told him to, 'shove it up his star-spangled ass, you fucking bastard'. Because he was an idiot and you didn't like having to see how hopeful and sad he was when he mentioned his brainwashed best friend. Or the worry in his eyes when he looked down at the powerpuff girls sleep pants and black sabbath shirt combo you had been rocking for the last three days straight.
Which was none of his business!
Then he would be gone in a disgruntled and let down flash of golden hair too much shoulder, and you'd spend the next 48 hours driving yourself crazy as your hyper intelligent audhd brain would not let the concept go and instead thought through all the ways you could modify the plan to make it actually work.
This was not a path he had chosen. There were literally no other paths in his way. Except one big one, and he wasn't quite there yet. And he figured, hey, if he's going to go out, he might as try to save the kid while doing it.
And so he went back to New York. He joined the team once more. His suit was a little roomier than he remembered. Everyone was at the end of their own ropes. But they showed up, they put in the work. They got it done. It was a stupid, stupid plan. But it had worked.
Hugging the kid again had been the single best moment of his life. Suddenly every path he had ever taken had led to this moment. And it had all been worth it.
Then Thanos had gotten the stones again, Bruce was out of commission, and Tony had seen an opening.
It wasn't a good path. It wasn't even the only path. He could have possibly run and handed off the stones to Thor who was much less likely to die using them. But there was no guarantee he wouldn't have been intercepted. Boom opportunity lost, bad guys win. He could have done nothing...except no he couldn't have. You wouldn't have been able to either, don't judge.
With a snap of his fingers Tony had made sure the world was safe. For his kid, for his friends. For the rest of the universe, really. He knew there was going to be exactly one out come.
In a flash of searing hot agony he fell into darkness, never expected to see the light again.
~~~
It was so bright! He was gonna be sick. Oh no, he was going to be sick because he head was spinning and his bones were on fire. He took exactly one step and he fell to knees, retching up everything he had ever eaten in his life.
What had been the last thing he'd eaten....
"Spinach shake and gummy bears," no, not bears. It had been those protein gummies Cap had forced on him. "Protein gummies," he corrected himself aloud and promptly hissed through is teeth. His arm. Fuck, it was on fire!
He managed to press the button to deactivate the suit, though it took two tries to get the thing to work. It hissed and popped but eventually folded back up into his watch, sighing deeply as cool air caressed his heated skin. Some of the suit's circuits were definitely fried, and so was his arm. Deep, zigzagging burns raced from the back of his hand all the way to his shoulder. It hurt, bone deep, flacks of burned skin fell in worrying rivulets to the ground at his brushed it with his other hand. He could hardly flex his fingers. Hardly, but he could. He was going to be fine. He needed to assess.
He was in some sort of alley. Tall buildings of tan stone and brick surrounded him, along with a dumpster, trash bins and simply bags of trash. And the stench, now that he wasn't actively throwing his guts up, the stench was definitely there too. Arms and legs shaking he managed to pull himself up a grime covered wall and his one good arm. Tony preferred to wear light clothing under the suit when possible. When he had a heads up before putting it on. Though he was now kicking himself as he made his slow progress down the alley in what was essentially very thin sleep clothes. At the least the pants and tank were black and not see through.
Would have been nice if he'd worn shoes, but he hadn't wanted any extra weight to slow him down during the most important fight in all of creation. Thank you very much. Barefoot, burned, disoriented, he rounded a corner into another grimy alley and froze, heart jumping to his throat as Steve Rogers loomed over him.
The poster was obscenely large. It took up the entire side of the building. Here and there rents and tears had picked away at it, the words at the bottom were faded and illegible but that was definitely Captain America in all his splendor looking down onto humanity. Or well, onto this little stretch of alleyway. Tony couldn't remember ever running a promotion like this before. Cap was the head of the Avengers, he did have his own posters apart from everyone else. They were just far more tasteful than whatever this was.
"When the hell did he have time to do this?"
Oh right.
"Hey, Friday. Friday?" He poked at the comm in his ear only to be zapped. The comm screeched and shocked his ear, he quickly pulled it out where it fizzed sadly in his hand. "Motherfucker!"
"Language."
Tony jerked around sharply, a kid was perched on a ledge of the next building, legs dangling, torn jeans and dirty pink converse. She looked to be about 14 maybe 15, straggly blond hair and an oversized pink hoodie with some cartoon bunny on it.
"Sometimes it's okay for adults to say things like that," Tony said, lying through his teeth. He'd been cussing much worse than that when he was her age. Weridass kid, lurking in alleyways, telling strange men not to cuss. Where the hell was he?
"Not according to him," she pointed to the large poster of Cap.
Tony laughed so hard his side hurt, it jerked his arm unpleasantly and turned into another wheezing hiss, "Yeah, kid. He would say that."
"...who are you?"
"Hey, kid," Tony dodged the question with his own, "what do you say you lend me that hoodie for a bit?" The wind had picked up and he was shivering, it was especially awful on his raw arm which he held as close to his ribs as he could.
"What happened to your arm?" The kid asked, she propped a leg up on the ledge and leaned over to get a better look.
"Nothing, what happened to your manners? It's rude to stare."
"Why is your chest glowing?"
Tony quickly folded his arms over the arc reactor, wincing he growled, "The hoodie."
She leaned back on her palms, letting her legs dangle over the edge once more, "whatcha gonna give me for it?"
Fuck. What did he have? "Hold on." Tony quickly dipped his unburned hand into his pocket. "I have, four, five protein gummies." He fished around in his right pocket, it was a bit a stretch, "and....three nano wires and a multi tool."
"What about your watch?"
"No."
"Fine, how about the ring?"
He'd forgotten about the ring. It was the result of too many late nights and too much loneliness. He had taken his and Pepper's wedding bands and turned them into a sad little memento of a spoiled relationship. Gold and platinum swirled together in a pattern that mimicked the arc reactor energy, he used a YAG ruby as the setting.
"Fine," he slipped it off his finger and held it up out of her reach, "but when I give you your hoodie back I want the ring back. Deal."
"Sure, deal." She jumped off the ledge and shed her hoodie.
He was never gonna see his ring again. Fuck. But he needed something clean on his arm now. He handed her the ring and took her hoodie, popping one of the protein gummies in his mouth now that his stomach was settling. They were fine, tough but fruity enough. Gummy bears would have been better.
"You an omega?"
Tony popped his head through the neck hole, "what now?"
"Its just you're little. Figured you were an O. But you don't smell like one, and you're alone so..." The kid said distractedly as she looked the ring over. "This thing real?"
Tony scoffed, the hoodie was actually much larger than he expected. As was the child. She was nearly taller than him! "Don't worry kid you got the better end of this deal. You could buy a thousand dumb hoodies for the price of that ring."
"It's not dumb, it's Bunny-O." When Tony just looked at her blankly she huffed in offense and elaborated, "Bunny-O, from the Alpha Cat cartoon. Alpha Cat's mate." She said like he should know it and he was dumb if he didn't.
He looked down at the rabbit, it was very Lola Bunny esc, if Lola Bunny wore a frilly Lolita dress. But it range exactly zero bells. He shrugged. "Yeah, sorry kid, I have no idea what you're talking about. But thanks for the hoodie." It drew unpleasant attention to just how hot his arm was, but it was a relief from the wind all the same.
"Whatever," the kid drew a skateboard down from the ledge and got on, muttering something about, 'uppity betas'.
"Stupidly tall ungrateful children. That's where I am. The dimension of stupidly tall ungrateful children." He wasn't certain it was a different dimension, mind. He couldn't rule it out. He was very far from Wakanda, from the battle, from his people. But Cap existed here. That was something.
"Hey, Kid!" Tony called after her as she skated away, "Hey, what borough is this!?" But she didn't answer. He was 85% sure this was New York. The buildings. The scents, hot asphalt, exhaust, old grease. The warm humid scent of a nearby laundromat. There was a fresh green scent, like daisies, that took him a moment to realize was coming from the hoodie. Some perfume the girl had been wearing. But it all meshed together to declare, this is New York. This is home.
His theory was confirmed when he finally made it out of the warren of alleyways and out onto the street. There, some fifteen blocks distance, was the Avenger's tower.
The day was overcast, there was a bite to the wind as though it were winter, but it had been the tail end of summer before Tony's big snap. Time travel maybe? It would explain the poster he'd never seen before. He really needed to contact the wizard, but that was going to have to wait until he was back in the tower.
Tony didn't relished having to slog through the streets of New York without shoes on, ardently refused to think about it, in fact. But he was so close. It would be fine. The few people he passed only gave him passing glances. Perhaps mistaking him for a child. Thank you past Tony for deciding to shave off your depression beard before the fight, it had been a little too unruly to just trim down. Now that was working in his favor. A+ foresight for having to be in disguise.
It also didn't hurt that everyone he passed was massive! A point towards alternate universe. It wasn't his fault he was on the shorter side. Shorter side, not tiny. When most kids were hitting growth spurts, eating healthy home cooked meals he had been a college student living off coffee, alcohol, and whichever party drug was going to give him enough energy to make it through the day. Sure he had mostly cleaned up his act by his early twenties but the damage had been done.
But again, he has simply on the short side. He was not this short!
But now it was playing in his favor with this giant hoodie. He didn't want to create any kind of disturbance. He had his hood up and his arms hugged to his chest, partly because he felt better on his wounded arm and partly to make sure his chest reactor wasn't visible through the hoodie. The sleeves were long enough to cover all the new wounds, and other than his bare feet, he didn't really stand out. No reason to look. Nothing to see here.
He was across the street from the tower when the second and third biggest shocks to his system occurred. First was that the tower was black. Black bricks, black glass, black chrome, black logo. Black! So starkly black and looming against the grey and roiling clouds. How fucking long was he gone that they were able to redo the whole ass tower?
That was one point toward alternate universe, damn it.
The second, and somehow more disturbing image though was the giant poster covering the building next to the tower. This time the Winter Soldier stood behind Captain America. Both wore very serious, severe, expressions. There was no fading or tearing here. Cap's suite was noticeably darker, still patriotic, but like someone had dunked him in a vat of black dye to mute the colors. Writing at the bottom of the poster read, "Avengers. Because Alphas Protect!"
Alpha, again. Alpha, beta...the kid had asked if he were an omega. What the hell was this world?
Tony did not cross the street and simply barge into the lobby of the Avenger's tower. The way he saw it there were two possibilities. One, this was the future and he had been missing for a long time. Just popping up again would cause a riot. He wanted to avoid that, his arm hurt, his head was still spinning and he was going from cold to hot so quickly he felt very much like barfing again. No, no riot.
The second possibility was that this was a different reality, universe, dimension, and if so there was a very real possibility that another version of himself was in the tower at this very moment. That was another barrel of monkeys he did not want to release in the near public space of the lobby.
He circled around the tower and headed one block over. Now if this wasn't his universe he really hoped that the Tony here had the same contingency plans in place. There was a news stand in front of an alley, he snagged a paper from the unguarded stand and slipped behind it into the dark. Going mainly by feel he found the little panel he had attached back when the tower was first being built. It responded to his touch, opening up to a scanner and code lock.
Luckily he'd had the foresight to make the scanner ambidextrous, he placed his left thumb on the screen and then quickly typed in the code when the keypad popped up. With a satisfying chime the panel closed and the sewer grate under his feet began to lower.
The tunnel hadn't been used in some time. There was dust on the polished tile floor and a few of the lights flickered. A pipe must have burst somewhere and pools of water had collected throughout the passage reflecting the white cinder block walls and the green tinted light like random portals into other worlds. But it was clear and whole. Tony stepped off the grate and it quickly rose to cover the hole once more. Secure and in a safe place he took a moment to lean against the nearest wall and turned the paper over to read the front.
Daily Bugle: December 4th, 2026.
He read the date again, and then again. Seven years! This was seven years in the future! Okay, that was at least one point towards time travel. He tried to glimpse the headline but his vision was going swimmy. Probably he had a concussion. He didn't remember hitting his head, but well, he couldn't be sure. Placing the paper down on the switch box that would lower the grate from this side, having gotten what he could from it, he set off down the path to his lab.
Now that the freezing wind was not nipping at him Tony was warm. Even as he splashed through the various puddles of stagnate cold water, he burned. The hoodie was doing more than its job now, but it was going to hurt taking it off, especially on his own. So on it stayed. But man did the heat make him dizzier. And the weird scent of...chocolate and fried circuitry. It was hard to tell, it faded in and out, only made him feel worse. It somehow made him feel sad and more hurt when he could scent it. He thanked past Tony once more to putting his hair up in his depression man-bun, Natasha's words not his, before the fight as well. The light breeze on his heated neck was his saving grace. Thank you, past Tony for all your amazing insight.
And okay, he was perhaps running a fever.
About halfway through the tunnel there should be a scanner, a second line of defense in case someone managed to break in. It would undoubtedly alert someone in the tower that Tony was on his way. Which was fine. It was going to be fine. Because he was Tony. He had every right to use his own things. He was just either a different Tony or one that had been missing for seven years. No big.
Less than a minute later the sound of running filled the tunnel. That was a lot quickly than he expected. He thought maybe someone would meet him in the lab. God they must have already been down there to get to the tunnel so quickly. The tunnel felt so long. So much longer than he remembered. He was thirsty and hot and everything was starting to spin. He walked with his good arm pressed against the wall for balance. At some point it had become an effort to keep his head up. One second he was in the tunnel alone, then he blinked and suddenly there they were, filling the entire tunnel before him, Steve, Natasha, Clint, Bruce, even Bucky. Shocked expressions priceless.
Points for MIA future, situation!
Tony pushed off of the wall waved. Or he tried to, the damn sleeves were so long he just kinda wiggled his floppy pink cuff at them. "Hey." He said weakly. Really was so tired.
"Tony?" Steve took a step forward, but held himself back, Bucky grabbed hold of his arm in a tight grip. It must hurt being squeezed with a metal arm...
"Tony are you-" Steve began again but a frantic voice from behind cut him off.
"Tones!" Rhodey pushed his way through to the front, out of breath as though he had raced down there. "Tony!"
Tony smiled, "hey, Platypus." He tried to take a step forward but everything spun around him, and suddenly Tony was falling.
There was a commotion and an agonizing shock that ripped a shout from him as something very large collided with his body and crushed his wounded arm to his chest.
Something that smelled like panicked iron washed over him. Then for the second time that day, everything went peacefully black.