Afghanistan Again
Tony Stark didn't expect much when he felt himself slip away into the dark depths and crevasses of death, but he sure as hell didn’t expect this. After the burning pain and agony and noiseof everything in all of the galaxy, this one and all the others, all barging into his head at the same time, dying was relatively painless, peaceful, and reminded him of going to sleep. He had many regrets, but in those final moments, all he thought of and wished for was that his family remained safe.
Then, to wake up in agony because there was something in his chest, and he couldn't breathe, why couldn't he breathe, was definitely a surprise.
Was this some sort of Underworld? Was he supposed to relive Afghanistan over and over, relive the torture and the pain and Yinsen again and again because of his various sins?
Hadn't he done enough already to end up in whatever Heaven or Valhalla there was?
Did he waste his life?
No, if this were Hell, he wasn't going to take it lying down. He was going to change everything, from Yinsen's death to Thanos's fucking snap, and everything after that.
But this wasn’t Hell, was it. This was time travel. Definitely time travel.
Wait, what? How did he know that this was time travel? That sounded absolutely ridiculous, and it shouldn’t be possible either. He didn’t technically invent time travel, because their presence in the past created an alternate timeline. Plus, he definitely wasn’t himself from 2023.
But the Stones could have sent you back, a tiny voice seemed to whisper in his head.
What the fuck does he mean by that? He barely knew anything about the stones, other than the Scepter, and the Tesseract. He supposed that he knew a bit about Reality, or The Aether because of Jane Foster, but how would-
Space, to transport him to where he needs to be. Time to rewind the clock. Mind, so Tony remembers what has occured - he'll add some of his own memories too, just so he knows why he's back in time, Soul, to bring him back from the dead, Reality, to make his dream a reality, to make sure that reality doesn't collapse around him, only goes back, doesn't shatter, and finally, Power, to give him the Power he'll need to do this.
What?
Where did that come from? (Mind, so Tony remembers what has occurred - he’ll add some of his own memories too, just so he knows why he’s back in time.)
Well. That made a certain amount of sense. If someone sent him back and implanted an explanation as to why and how - but he still doesn’t know why he’s back. He used the Stones to destroy Thanos and his army. There should be no reason whatsoever that he should be back in time.
Something could have gone wrong. Maybe he’d done something horrible by accident.
No, that’s not it.
He didn’t.
He knows it somehow.
Okay, that’s fucking creepy. Almost Maximoff levels of crazy shit to be honest. He doesn’t like people planting things in his brain, okay? Is that too much to ask?
He giggles, slightly hysterically, but it comes out as a choked cough, and how did he forget how painful the electromagnet was?
Tony devolves into a coughing fit, and the feeling of something on his lungs and jabbing into his ribs is as horrifying as it is painful.
He hears someone come over and put a hand on his shoulder in a manner that’s meant to be comforting, and he almost puts his fist through the person’s face when he realizes-
“Stark, breathe. Come on, with me, three seconds in, three seconds out. Count with me,” says Yinsen, his soothing voice mellowing the pure panic he’s feeling right now, a timbre he’s never forgotten, no matter how much he may try to.
Yinsen, my gods, Yinsen . He almost starts crying. He never thought, never even considered the thought that he might see him again.
Yinsen doesn’t know him. Yinsen doesn’t know he knows about him.
He’s going to save him if it’s the last thing he does.
He lays his head back onto the pillow, if that ratty abomination can even be referred to as a pillow, and starts to breathe again.
Yinsen smiles a bit, and nods. “There you go. How are you feeling?”
“Well, would you believe me if I said ‘good’?” Tony snarks a bit, because he has absolutely no impulse control, and what impulse control he does have is currently working overtime trying to resist the urge to jump up and hug him.
Yinsen chuckles softly, and smiles. “I see your sense of humor has recovered already. Do you know what has happened?”
Tony grimaces, and thinks for a bit. He can’t give away too much, but he doesn’t know where in the timeline he is. This could be his first night in captivity, and therefore he would say that he doesn’t know, but it could also be down the line, and he could be feeling like this because of the waterboarding.
Wait, when did he accept the fact that this was time travel?
He tried to start speaking, not that he knew what he was going to say, but his throat had apparently decided to stage a mutiny since his voice didn’t seem to work. Yinsen leaned over, and gave him a glass of water.
“I’m sorry about that, we didn’t have any morphine or painkillers of any kind when we operated on you. Your voice must be hoarse,” Yinsen said, grimacing.
Ah. No arc reactor in his chest yet, so this must be right after the first operation. What did he say the first time around?
“What the hell did you do?” There. That sounds satisfactory.
“What I did was save your life.” He tuned out the rest of Yinsen’s speech since he already knew how it went. So, how is he going to get out of this? He doesn’t want to get tortured again, but would it be best to preserve the timeline or some magic bullshit like that? Would Rhodey even be able to find him if he escaped at a different time?
“-underneath that gauze, there’s an electromagnet connected to a car battery to keep the shrapnel out of your heart. I’m shocked that you didn’t rip it off the second you woke up.” Heh. If only he knew.
“We’ve met before you know. At a technical conference in-”
“Bern. Yinsen, right? I was an ass.”
“I’m surprised. And impressed. If I were that drunk, I wouldn’t have been able to stand, let alone give a lecture on integrated circuits.”
Tony shook his head and sighed. ”Eh, my skills were inherited. Booze comes with the name. And I aim to surprise.” Yinsen glances over, and for a second, Tony thinks he sees pity flash through his eyes. Tony averts his eyes, and glances up at the security camera in the corner of the cave.
“That’s right, smile!” Yinsen sounds almost peppy as he grins into the camera with him like he’s taking a selfie. Wait, did selfies exist yet?
The Ten Rings storm into the cave like last time, and he goes through their conversation on auto-pilot, pretending to look at Yinsen for translations even though he learned the languages spoken by the terrorist group right after the infamous press conference. The first one, he means. What is his life?
Should he change things? What if he changes things too much, and everything changes, like the butterfly effect? What if things turn out worse, and it’s his fault? He doesn’t think that he could live with that, if it happened.
No. He’s meant to change things. He must change things, otherwise, his timeline is doomed to destruction at the hands of the Infinity Stones.
Well, shit.
“He wants you to build the Jericho missile. The one you demonstrated. This one.” Yinsen hands him the picture of his missile.
He thinks.
“Uh... Sure. Why not."