Why you should not mess with the timeline, a guide by Tony Stark

Why you should not mess with the timeline, a guide by Tony Stark

“ And I'm ... Iron Man!”

“Anthony!”

“No, Dad, please no!”

Tony ignored the desperate cries of his husband and son and threw his fingers in, a deep white appeared from the tips of his fingers as he primed them and spread through his vision. If Tony was honest with himself, he knew he would die by the time he got the jewelry. He knew he would not see Morgan grow up, that he would not see Peter graduate and that he would not take her husband, Stephen, to the date he'd promised nearly six years ago. But he was okay with it, even if he died, even if he lost all this, he knew it was for a good cause and that his family would have a future because of it.

Then, as he closed his eyes and let the white unconsciousness and the heat take over his battered body, he just went with the flow.

Tony was ok to die for the universe.

What he did not see were the six sparkles of the jewels of infinity in his hand, shining brighter than the white of his snap of fingers.

By contrast, Tony should know better than to mess with the timeline as they had without expecting any consequence.

.......

Tony was floating. His body did not hurt and he was at peace. He had a vague recollection of snapping his fingers, listening to the desperate screams of his family, remembering the flash of light and disappearing. He remembered all this, but he was strangely at peace. When the thoughts wanted to manifest in his mind, overwhelming peace overwhelmed them.

Nothing else mattered, his mind was at peace, and he was floating in the immensity of emptiness.

Alone.

........

Until he was not.

Tony was warm and comfortable. He was lying on soft sheets, a fluffy pillow beneath his head. Tony did not remember being so comfortable in a long time.

He moaned softly and rolled over, looking for the warmth of his husband's body, stretching his arm and groping across the bed. Side that was very cold. Had not Stephen come home last night? Tony yawned and stretched, before he dropped to his knees and sat up, scratching his eyes, trying to clear his clouded sleep. He registered a soft pain in his chest, but ignored.

He always had phantom pains after the reactor, to feel pain was his normal, after all.

“F.R.I., where is Stephen? Did he have any problems at the sanctuary?” Tony yawned, waiting for an answer from his A.I., but the answer never came. Tony blinked “F.R.I.?” He tried again. (Tony always went slowly in the morning when he woke up and did not have his daily dose of coffee, so process him.)

Tony yawned again, trying to make his brain work, trying to think of a reason for the lack of response from F.R.I.D.A.Y., when a knock on his door caught his eye.

“Young master?” A familiar voice called before the door was opened and Jarvis entered. Tony blinked, uh, Jarvis should not be older? "Young master, time to get up," Tony blinked. Why was Jarvis calling him a young master? He was 57 years old and had not been young for at least 30 years. “Remember that your father wants to analyze the palladium core of your reactor and try to substitute the element.”

OK wait. Dad? Reactor? What the hell... ?

"Jarvis, I-" Tony paused, now more awake, feeling the panic grow. Where was his sexy, charismatic adult voice (Stephen likes to speak that he had a cute voice. He was not cute, he was sexy and charismatic!)?? Tony looked quickly into his hands and saw small hands, smaller than Peter's hands. Soft hands, small and soft in the place where his tortured, scarred, and rough hands were.

He looked down and saw the familiar brightness of his reactor. On his chest. His small chest. Again.

What the fuck ...?

"Young master?" Tony jumped when he felt a big hand on his shoulder and Jarvis's worried expression in front of him. Jarvis was younger. Jarvis was much younger than he remembered! "Shall I call your father?"

His father? Hes alive? No! No fucking way! He could not face his father! Nonononono-

“I-I'm fine.” Tony jerked his panic down, swallowing. Okay, getting rid of Jarvis first, freaking out in the security and comfort of his room (oh my god, it was the room he had when he was fifteen!) After. “ Sorry, huh, nightmares. Sorry to bother you.” He coughed. Jarvis stared at him, his concern turned to comprehension.

“I understand.” He squeezed Tony's shoulder, trying to provide comfort. “Do you want me to call your mother?”

Oh God, his mother is alive?

"N-no, I'm coming down, just ..." Tony did not finish, lowering his head. Jarvis nodded and gave the teenager a last squeeze and walked away.

"Very well, young master, I will tell to your parents that you will take a while." and with that, Jarvis sighed and left the room, closing the door with a soft click.

Tony lay in bed, sitting with his head down in the same position for five minutes (he knows, he counted), before running off to the bathroom in his room (oh my god, the bathroom was in the same place where he remember. Just in the fucking same place!) He opened the door at once and ran to the sink, staring at his reflection in the mirror.

Big, brown, innocent and in panic eyes.

Fluffy brown hair tousled and large, in the same style he wore when he was sixteen.

Infant face with baby fat and soft skin without scars.

A fucking reactor arc on his chest shining blue with hints of orange.

Tony took a shaky step back, all the way back to his mind. Thanos. The snap ... What the hell was going on? The last thing he remembers is to snap his fingers and everything went white. Where was Stephen? Where were his children?

Tony felt his legs go weak and leaned back in the sink. His breath was racing, he felt his heart beat faster and faster against his fragile chest and tears began to appear in the corner of his eyes.

Okay, he was panicking. Panic did not help at all, Natasha had told him on a mission when he has panic once (Oh god, Natasha ...).

Okay. He could do that. He was Tony Stark, the owner of Stark International. He was the Iron Man. He escaped from the death several times. He was married to the greatest neurosurgery in the country and was the father of the two most incredible and clever children he knew (Shuri did not count, he had not know her in all of Thanos's disgrace).

And he seemed to be damn fifteen.

Tony felt his breath hitch again and took a deep breath. Okay. He could do that.

He walked away from the bathroom, returning to the room to look for a calendar to try to locate in when he was, when he saw, lying comfortably on his bedside table, a cell phone. A small black starkphone standing quietly on the nightstand.

A starkphone that should not have existed in 1977.

Tony went to the phone and, with his trembling hands, he took the innocent device and unlocked it with his digital. Should not exist this system in 1977 Tony's mind whispered but he ignored it.

He ignored it because the phone reported that it was August 28, 2008.

That was wrong. It was wrong because he was forty-six in 2008. Not fifteen.

Tony felt the panic rise up his throat again. Okay, okay. No panic. Come on, you can, Stark, you died for the universe. You can not panic, Tony thought, before taking a deep breath. Okay. He needs to be cool and calm in this situation.

He can be cool and calm. He has to be.

When he resolved this whole situation, when he was sure that his children were well, when he was sure that all was well, he could freak out in Stephen's arms.

OK.

Tony swallowed, picked up his cell phone and researched his name on google. Several results came out but what most caught his attention was his description in wikipedia.

Tony Stark (Anthony Edward Stark), born in 1993, son of Howard and Maria Stark.

OK.

He really was fifteen.

Tony sat on the bed and began to search for news about his family and friends. After a while, he sighed, laying back on the bed and sighing loudly, trying to organize his thoughts.

According to what he had read, his father had not been a ruthless warlord as he had been, who had been, it was his grandfather. His father was only 10 years old at the time of World War II, but he had still met the infamous Captain American and was still searching for him.

His paternal grandparents that had died in 1993 in a suspicious and terribly familiar car accident.

His parents were alive. His mother was alive.

Edwin and Anna Jarvis were much younger and alive.

He was still kidnapped and still spent six months in captivity. The difference was that he had been kidnapped from MIT, not the Afghanistan.

He helps his father with the inventions for they company and he was already considered a genius.

He was creating his first artificial intelligence, it was ready, but it had not yet been linked (JARVIS, his mind whispered).

Obadiah Stane still tried to kill him, but eventually died, his father had been shot Stane, when he picked it up after he had removed the reactor from Tony's chest and was strangling him.

Rhodey was still his best friend and he was still the one who found him when he was kidnapped, but he was accompanied by his father (the fact that here, now, his father really loves him and cares about him already was almost the enough for his mind to go into overdrive again).

Pepper was still a SI employee and was Rhodey's girlfriend (he really see it coming. Before in his time, the sexual tension between them was almost palpable.).

Pepper and Rhodey were the same age in this time as in the other, he was the only one who became a midge until now.

He did not find anything about Stephen. Maybe he's still in college? (He has to exist in this new world, please, without him Tony will not be able to continue)

He did not find anything about Peter or Morgan. (He imagines that they may not have been born yet, but it still hurts a lot to think of a world without his children)

He was still in his third year in MIT mechanics and wanted to die.

And, the most important thing of all:

Died. He was supposed to have died! What the hell was going on ??

Tony sighed, swallowing the panic (Again. Stephen was going to be proud of him when he saw that Tony was managing to deal with his panic attacks.Yay!) And getting out of bed.

He looked at his cell phone and saw that it was nine-thirty in the morning. Huh, it only took him an hour to panic, swallow his panic and put his shit together. A record.

“All right.” Tony grunted, getting out of bed and grabbing a red shirt that was lying on a chair. He dressed her, his brain noticing the fact that she had a hole for the reactor, but he ignored it. “ I can do this. I'll find out how to solve. I always find out. It's not the worst thing you've ever done. Remember the giant squid that you had to get in and out of the worst possible way? Come on.”

Tony sighed before leaving the room and throwing the door. He can. He's Tony fucking Stark. He will be able to talk to his parents and solve all this shitty situation, even if it is to be able to rest in peace.

It will not be so difficult.

....
....
....

Tony takes everything he says. It was horrible! His damned me fifteen years old can not control his emotions when he saw his parents alive, breathing and well and oh my god, his mother is alive-

The first thing he did when he saw her was to run to her and hold her tightly and bury her face in his lap and cry. (He would have cried in her neck, being honest, but he was damn small when he was fifteen.) His mother just smiled sadly at her son and held his head, stroking her hair, humming a soft song in Italian to he. Tony lost track of time, but he was surprised when he felt a bigger hand on his back, making smooth movements. He was horrified when he saw that it was his father. He had tried to wipe his tears and hide, but his father did not.

"Come on, I'm your dad, you can cry in front of me, you know. You do not have to suffer alone."

It was enough for him to cry again.

In short, it was a very difficult morning for Tony, and one of the most embarrassing ones too, but he could not deny that this was what he had always wanted for a long time. His parents getting along, the approval, the love and the affection of his father. It was as if all his dreams as a child were being realized.

After the embarrassing crying, he and his parents had a pleasant cafe of the late morning, they talked, his parents thought that his break was due to the kidnapping and betrayal of Stane. (It was better this way, the only person he wants to tell about all this shit was Stephen and he did not know if he remember him.)

After breakfast, Tony and his father went to the laboratories, the two of them spent all day analyzing options for the palladium core of their reactor. When Tony suggested creating a new one, his mother appeared at the door of the lab and called them to dinner. Not even the interruption prevented Howard from smiling proudly at his son and messing his hair as he passed by.

Tony really did not know how to react to this, so he just looked down at the floor, trying to hide his blush.

Then, after another pleasant dinner with his parents (he never thought he would use that phrase without being sarcastic or ironic one day, who would say!), He went to the silence and peace of his room, where he would finally have peace and time to try to reason and understand his situation.

Ok, first and foremost, why was he alive? He clearly remembers to die. He remembers the pain, remembers feeling his own heart stop.

For a moment, he thought this was the realm of the soul, but it did not strike what Peter had briefly described to him. Maybe he gets a special version because he died using all the stones?

No, that did not make the least sense, even for magic.

Why can not I have peace? Tony grunted, throwing himself on the bed with a sigh. He missed Stephen. He was betting that Stephen had at least some idea of what to do in this situation, given that it was clearly magical.

Tony turned and rolled onto the bed. He needed a plan. Clearly, getting on with your current life was out of the question.

"Okay, first of all, I have to find Stephen. He is the supreme sorcerer, if anyone knows how to solve it, is him.” Tony murmured, determined. Okay, it was not perfect, but it was a beginning. "And if he does not remember me, then ..." Tony swallowed, the thought causing him pain. "I'll see in Karmar Taj. If they belive in me”

Tony felt sadness and solitude as he lay down on the enormous bed alone. He wanted Stephen to hug him. He wanted to curl up against Stephen's warm chest and feel his presence. He wanted his soothing kisses.

He wanted his husband here, now with him.

Tony felt the tears burn in his eyes. He did not want to be alone. No longer. Not after five years, he wanted Stephen with him. He wanted to wake up with soft kisses, wanted to go down and see his children, sleepy after having turned the night playing video games, no matter how they said no, want to have the kisses of good morning of his daughter, Morgan, happy to see their parents.

He wants his family.

Feeling the whole situation fall on him, Tony let out a sore sigh and cringed against the side of the bed.

He is not ashamed to admit that he cried until he slept.

…..
…..
…..

Meanwhile, in Nebraska, in a distant farm town, a seventeen year old Stephen Strange also cry, but this time for another reason. The supreme sorcerer, soon after making sure he was not in an illusion or anything like that, after he was sure that this was all real, cried with joy.

A second chance. He had a second chance to save his husband. His Anthony.

And he was going to save him and nothing was going to stop him. Not Steve Rogers, not even Thanos.

Stephen was going to save him even if he had to end them himself.