In the Past
Tony stared at the shield resting near him. He had been for few hours now. He had tried to repair the helmet to send some kind of signal to anyone, but it had all been proven useless since he didn't have any tools necessary for it. After that, he tried to get up into a sitting position. He somehow managed to do it, but it was fucking hard with a dead metal suit of armor around you.
The first thing that came to his mind after that was the betrayal he suffered from his supposed teammate and friend. Ste-Rogers had always told him that there were no secrets between teammates. But he had kept something that was important to Tony a secret. Now Tony had time to think he was not angry at Barnes, no. He was angry at Rogers, and the team. If Rogers can fucking listen for five minutes, then Tony could have explained about the accords to them. But no, he had go and assume that they were from governments with agendas. Tony can accept that they were not the best, but he could have changed them if they had agreed to work with them. Tony let out a frustrated sigh and looked towards the shield again.
After the initial hurt that made his heart ache from the betrayal came the anger, blinding rage that filled him. It was towards not only Rogers but all his teammates. He went through all the times he had been with them. All the movie nights they had without him, all the team bonding time that he was not invited to, but overall, when they needed new tech or weapons, they all came to him. They always demanded that he made them gadgets. Even when he was busy with making new inventions for SI, he had to make their weapons, armors and all the other tech-involved things. And then, with a startling realization came and hit him like a bus. He was only their sugar daddy. He gave them everything they wanted, but they never showed any gratitude towards him, not even a simple thanks. And at that moment, he swore that he would never ever again be like that. He was Tony Fucking Stark, he's not going to cry over some people who didn't even acknowledge his presence. He was going to make everything right. But he's not going to be the one to take all the responsibility to things that his ex-team mates did. He was going to make everything he did wrong right.
But first, he had to get out of there. He couldn't do anything if he die in a abandoned HYDRA bunker. That was when Tony felt that he was shivering. He tried to lift his arm but it felt like a dead weight was attached to it. His ribs and chest also hurt like hell. He looked up and saw that it was getting late. Tony thought about all of his options. But he wasn't able to come up with anything. He slowly felt darkness bleeding in to the edge of his vision. Tony closed his eyes in resignation and let the cold and the darkness consume him. His only regret was not being able to right his wrongs doings.
ooOOoo
“Sir? Are you alright?” JARVIS asked worried. His creator, father had lost consciousness without warning and his scans showed that while this is indeed his creator, his biology had changed drastically. It was closer to a Asgardian but at the same time it was not. It worried JARVIS, so he continued to run scan after scan to see what had happened. All the age lines had disappeared leaving only a twenty years looking Tony Stark. All the scars he had collected from Afghanistan and Avengers battles had vanished.
Tony’s eyes snapped opened hearing that voice. The voice he had missed so much. The voice he had cried over. But before he could do anything memories started to flash before his eyes.
It was nowhere, but it was everywhere at the same time. Death sighed as she made her way through the glistening hallways of Castle of Eternity. It has been only 2 hundred thousand years since the creation of universe. And now all the effort that had been put in to creating the universe by all the entities are close to being destroyed because of the Fate, the final entity that came to existence. Fate had been jealous the moment she came to the Castle of Eternity because she was the youngest in a sense of them all. Death had been the second eldest with Life as the eldest of them all. Magic was the third eldest with Mischief and Chaos being the fourth and fifth but they had equal standing since they were created at the same time hence being the only twins in their circle of entities. Fate was created after Magic had a argument with Life about the beings having powers. Life had argued that they already was strong enough with their strength and long life time while Magic wanted to give them powers. Hence Fate came to be. Fate was created to create a some sort of control within the universe. It had started innocently enough. Fate would weave the path of every being but the beings would have the freedom to choose their path as they live their life. But Entities would make sure the beings were in a controlled path that would not cause any harm to the universe as a whole. Time was the entity that was silent and observed. He didn’t get involved in the process but would give advice when it was needed as he was only a little younger than Life herself.
But now Time had seen the future of the universe. Sure it will be long time-billions of years later- until the future he saw become reality. But still he had seen it clearly without any glitches or obstacle. That only meant one thing. Fate had set the path to the universe without a choice to the living. Sure she had done that before but only on individuals and not to the universe as a whole. And the path she had made was disturbing to say the least.
Death was brought out of her musings when she realized that she was in front of the doors to the council room as they liked to call it. She entered the room and found all of the other entities were already present and quickly took a seat next to Life.
“Death glad you made it.” Life said with a soft smile. Life was a beautiful entity. She had long honey brown hair with flowers woven in and out of its intricately braided hair with soft tan skin. He was wearing a white dress that flowed freely. Death nodded with a smile and looked around the table at the other entities. Mischief and Chaos looked the same with bright blue hair and purple eyes with pale skin. They were wearing a white tunic top and leather pants. Clothes they found fascinating from the Asgardian culture. Magic had Golden hair and fair skin with golden eyes and she wore a blue dress with diamonds adorning the gold embroidery that weaved through out her dress. Time liked to wear like a gentlemen from the future Midgard and wore black slacks with a emerald shirt that matched his black hair and emerald eyes. Death herself preferred much more simpler outfits and wore a black dress with her black hair down and her black eyes were outlined with mascara brought to her by time from the future Midgard.
“Now as Time had informed us Fate has plans for future of universe. Time can you inform our brothers and sisters with what you had seen?”
“Of course Life. Fate plan on making a Titan that will be born in near future fall in love with Death. And as a courting gift he will sort out the Infinity Stones and kill half of the universe with a snap of his fingers. There will be protectors to try and stop him, but they will not be enough. They are powerful but this Titan will be much more powerful than them. And Fate plan on breaking the trust of the one powerful enough to stop the Titan by his closest friends so he will be disheartened in his attempts to take precautions stop the Titan before he comes.” Time explain the amount of information he could giveaway about the future and everyone fell into a deep silence as they processed the information and thought of ways to stop this cruel Fate.
Death looked up as she got a idea and cleared her throat to get the others attention.
“I have an idea.”
“What is it?” Magic asked eagerly as Death had the best ideas out of them.
“We could give life to a protector for the universe. We do what we can. But it’s not enough as we can see. We need someone who can protect the universe without looking for something to gain. Someone who will know the price of sacrifice and the value of life.”
“But how can we give life to something like that?” Time questioned Death even though he saw the appeal of having someone powerful enough to protect the universe.
“That person who’s to be born to fight the Titan. Will he be pure enough to not succumb to the power and stop the Titan?”
“As you know Death I can’t give you a lot of information. But he will go through pain betrayal of loved ones. But he would have people standing behind him to catch him if he ever fall. He would receive love, hate, resentment and jealousy throughout his life. He have power the moment he is born and will use it to him gain but after he learns the hardship of life he use that power to protect his world. And in the end he will be the one to sacrifice their life to save the universe from the Titan.” Time said and a pleased smile made its way through to Death’s face.
“He would be perfect then. I will need your help though. All of your help.” Death said while looking at each and every entity gathered. They all gave a smile in return and gave their assurance that they will help Death in her endeavor.
Death closed her eyes and called forth the six Infinity stones to her. As a creator she had the power to call them to her in any moment. There was a bright light before the six stones appeared before them and Death opened her eyes.
“What are we going to do with them Death?” Magic asked curiously looking at the stone.
“We create a Seventh stone.” Death said with confidence as others looked shocked.
“Seventh stone?”
“Yes Magic, a Seventh stone. A stone that will be more powerful than the all the Infinity stones combined. A stone with a conscious mind that we can merge with that mortal when the time comes.” Death said with conviction and others thought for a moment and after awhile one by one nodded their head in agreement.
Magic stood without word and went to one of the crystal walls of the Castle of Eternity and placed her hand on it. When she extracted the her hand, a crystal stone was held in her hand and she came back to the table. At that moment they knew without a doubt that this Infinity stone will be the more powerful than any of the others and any cosmic entity to be ever exist since the stone itself was made out of the walls of Castle of Eternity.
As Magic placed the crystal in the middle of the table each of the entities took a infinity stone in their hand. Death took the Soul stone while Life took the Space stone. Magic herself took the Power stone and Time took the stone that was dedicated to him. Mischief and Chaos took the Mind and Reality stones respectively. They all started to channel their power and own types of magic in to the stones held in their hands. All the infinity stones started to glow and started to pour their respective powers to the crystal they were directed. Crystal started to glow a whitish blue colour as it was fed with unadulterated power. After what felt like eternity the power feed to the crystal stopped as all the powers were transferred to the Crystal. After that Magic started to chant in an ancient language that was lost to all but the entities and the crystal shot strings of power to each of the entities present and started to feed on their knowledge. Knowledge that was cultivated throughout the eternity and was lost to the universe and powerful. After that was over they all looked down at the Crystal that was now the most powerful thing it the whole universe.
“It’s done. Now let us await for the time.” Life declared as they smiled at each other satisfied with their work.
ooOOoo
As the time went they learned that the Seventh stone- which they had named the Eternity stone- is self aware. It projected feelings and seemed to learn anything that was found it the universe the moment it was discovered no matter where in the universe it was. Sometimes it was multiverse and/or another dimension. And with that beings all over the universe started to learn about the Eternity stone. It was rumors mostly since no one had seen it. But still tried to search for it. One of those who sought the unending power of the Eternity stone is Odin All father. The ruler of Asgard.
After billions of years later the day all of the Cosmic entities had been waiting came. Time had stormed the halls of the Castle to gather the others as it was time to merge the Eternity stone with the mortal beings soul.
They all gathered to say their farewell to the stone they had created. Death took hold of the stone and the soul that was created by Death. It was a pure soul that was not tainted by any past life. Death merged the stone and the soul together and the bright blue soul turned a light electric blue color as the stone merged as gave the soul all it knew. Once it was done stone and the soul was not two but one. After that Death handed the soul to Life who sent the soul away to the life that was created inside the womb of a mortal mother. As soon as the soul entered the fetus it gave a bright light as it settle down.
After 9 months in Midgardian time Eternity stone was born in to the world. But not as a stone but as a human baby. Anthony Edward Stark came to life with his heritage hidden until the right time for it to be awaken or until he unlock his heritage while Life, Death, Time, Magic, Mischief and Chaos watched over with proud smiles.
He gasped as he came out of that memory with billions years of knowledge. He let his mind process everything that had happened and through it all, a voice reached him.
“-ir? Sir?”
“J?” Tony finally asked barely containing tears that gathered after hearing JARVIS’ voice.
“Yes Sir? Are you okay?” Tony had to smile hearing the worry in his baby boy’s voice. He let out a sob and completely broke down. Something he had not been able to do before. It didn’t matter to him that he had become one of the most powerful beings in the universe, hearing the voice of his son’s is enough to fill the hole that had been left open after JARVIS was sacrificed to make Vision. Suddenly he felt a connection. It was trying to reach out to him. Another presence in his mind. It felt familiar. JARVIS. He sent all the memories of what had happened during the years without JARVIS through the link. He was still crying as he leaned against his work bench.
“Oh god JARVIS.” He said as he tried to wipe away the tears that continued to flow down.
“I’m here, sir. And I’m never going to leave you again.” JARVIS said with such strong conviction. He would never let his father suffer the way he had again. He didn’t know when those had happened. But if he had to guess, His father had traveled back in time. That would explain some of the memories there.
“I know J, I know.” Tony said and shakily got up and sat down on the bench.
“So J? How are you here? I thought you died, dear god! I thought that I lost you forever.” He said as he ran a hand over his face.
“I think that you may have time traveled sir. It is the only conclusion I could come up with at the moment.” JARVIS said and Tony’s whole mind came to a screeching halt. Time travel? But that would make some kind of paradox if he was to meet his past self. But since JARVIS sounded so worried when he talked to him, his body had not traveled to the past. Since there was no other Tony around him. It was like his soul? Mind? had traveled back. It would explain why he had his memories but not the pain of injures he had suffered from the fights.
In fact he felt so good. After years of living with constant pain, it felt good to have no pain what so ever. He felt powerful too. He could feel the magic- he somehow knew it was his magic- thrumming through his veins and he knew that he could do anything he wanted. He concentrated hard and conjured a mirror. He felt his magic flowing through his arm down towards his hand and out to the air and collect air particles and compress together and make a mirror out of nothing.
Tony stared at his twenty year old face in shock. He had expected to lose some wrinkles and age lines but to revert back to his twenty year old appearance was not something he had expected. He removed the t-shirt he was wearing to reveal unmarred and scar free skin. He had a nicely toned body with muscles. He was sure that he had a body to rival Captain America. Thor was sure to have more muscles than him. Thor was impressive for a young godling. Tony stopped short at that and let a surprised laugh out. Now that he thought about it, he was older than Thor. Heck he was older than Earth, even the nine realms were younger than him. He would have been shocked by that but as his memories as a Infinity stone had merged with his mortal life and after everything he had been through, it didn’t faze him as much. Hell it didn’t even surprise him.
He returned his attention back to the mirror and saw that his hair had gone a shade darker and flashed a plethora of colours when they caught light. His eyes was the same Amber brown but his pupil looked like a night sky with stars if looked closely. His goatee was thankfully there and it was also gone a shade darker.
He suddenly felt a weight on his back and looked towards the mirror again and was two beautiful wings sprouting from his back. They looked like they were trying to catch every beam of light that was passing by them. Feathers looked like they were made out of glass. And by the look of it Tony instantly knew that it was similar to the Bi-frost. He flexed them and realized how easy it was to manure them. Like any other limb he had. He wished for them to disappear and with a slight shimmer they disappeared from the view but Tony could feel the comforting weight of them in the back. He turned around and looked over his shoulder at the mirror and saw a tattoo that was like glass branded to his skin forming a replica of his wings.
I think you have been spending a lot of time admiring yourself sir. Came the amused voice through his mind. Tony smiled hearing the voice and looked at one of the computers that gave off a soft golden glow. JARVIS aura. It matched him. Gold aura meant he was being watched over by angels and is being mentored and guided. It matched him very well, because Tony would always watch over him and guide him and mentor him.
Oh come on J! I look totally hot right now. Look at those abs
Yes well, I cannot exactly not see them sir.
Ah, such sass. Tony stood with smile happy to talk with JARVIS again and left the lab after grabbing his t-shirt and throwing it on. Tony sat down on the couch as he thought about what to do now he was back in time with the knowledge of what was going happen in the future. If he was in the past, that means he could do something about the events that is going to happen. Now that he knew about how his so called teammates loyalty and had realized the way they treated him, he could actually do something about. He could make things right.
“J? Is Fury dead yet?”
“Yes sir, we had gotten the notice just few hours ago before you lost consciousness.” Tony smirked at that as he knew Fury was in fact not dead. He waved his hand and a cup of coffee floated to him and he took a sip before leaning back on his couch in the living room.
“Good, we got work to do. Go through the memories so you could get a idea about what we got to do. Then start the fabrication of Iron Legion and be on alert. The moment Natashalie bump the data in to the internet, send the Iron Legion to extract agents in missions. Make it sure that its’ covert and start encoding the files minus HYDRA ones while extracting the agents. Have all SI employees from the nearest SI offices to get the families of compromised agents to safe houses.”
“of course sir” And as soon as Tony had given instruction JARVIS started the fabrication machines and started the mass production of Iron Legion. He also sent emails to SI department heads to let them know about the situation. It was a good thing Tony made sure that all the SI workers were trustworthy and loyal. Well anyone who work in SI for more than two weeks are loyal. It’s a fact. All the SI staff knew the real Tony Stark and was very loyal to Tony. And Tony knew it, how? Magic. No like seriously, magic.
As JARVIS worked on that Tony hacked into the communication line of the agents on undercover missions and sent them messages ordering them to back out from the missions and giving them extraction points.
Next few hours were tense. JARVIS and Tony were full on alert and the moment they got the news about how the helicarriers had fallen out of the sky, they got ready. JARVIS detected the first massive file and they both got to work on encoding the data. JARVIS deployed the finished Iron Legionnaires and piloted them to get the compromised agents and agents who had been able to escape to the extraction points. Tony continues to encode all the data while leaving the HYDRA files alone. It would have been a hard task but between Tony and JARVIS, it was like taking a walk through the park.