Epilogue - In the End
“Dad, Uncle Steve is here!”
“Show him the new shield you designed for him, bambina,” Tony called back, keying in the last of his notes before closing his current project. He leaned back in his chair, content to relax for a moment, when he was suddenly being embraced from behind and a soft kiss was pressed to his cheek.
“She’s going to be as bad as you one day,” Pepper said, her eyes sparkling warmly as she moved to sit on Tony’s work table. Tony smiled, taking one of her hands and tracing the fingers.
“Bad? I think you mean awesome. I am Iron Man, after all,” he responded, doing his best to sound affronted, but Pepper only rolled her eyes.
“As if I could forget it, after your overly dramatic declaration that got played over every news channel ever for years,” she teased.
“Which one?” Tony asked, grinning cheekily.
But it was true – someone had gotten footage of his snap, the one that vanished Thanos’s army - the one that sent him to over 14 million worlds, though nobody else knew that - and that footage had quickly become popularized. Peter had been thrilled, memeing the shit out of it, as Tony had expected – of course, that was after Tony had gotten the scolding of a lifetime from him after waking up in a hospital, exhausted but alive, to the shock of his friends and family.
It had been six days, they told him.
It had been over 50 million years, he stopped himself from correcting them.
It had taken him over 50 million years of loss, of heartbreak and pain, of happiness, of growth, of love to fix the timelines, but he’d done it. Thanos was finished in every world, and his family was together. The stones had been pleased but also seemed sad to say goodbye, though they’d promised they would appear to him when he was ready for his wish. He was glad they hadn’t asked him to make it right then, because 50 million years and 14,000,604 lifetimes hadn’t quite been enough to reveal to him what it should be. They had only smiled when he said that, the Soul stone reassuring him that it would come to him when it was time.
And then they’d sent him back, and he’d woken up in a hospital bed with his beautiful Pepper sleeping in a chair beside him, worry written into every gorgeous line of her face even in sleep. Morgan was dozing against her neck, but she opened her eyes when Tony’s heart monitor sped up.
“Daddy, you’re back,” she’d said softly, picking her head up to give him a sleepy smile. “I missed you.”
“Aw, it hasn’t been that long, has it, bambino? Surely not more than a couple of days,” Tony had teased, smiling fondly at her. And she had looked at him contemplatively, eyes serious and far too intelligent.
“Okay,” she’d responded simply, and he’d blinked at her, uncertain as to what to make of that strange acquiescence.
And he hadn’t had a chance to ask, either; Pepper had woken up at the sound of her daughter’s voice, blinking the sleep out of her eyes.
“Morgan, honey, are you – “
“Daddy’s awake,” Morgan had said, and Pepper’s head had whipped around so fast Tony was surprised she hadn’t gotten whiplash.
“Tony?” she’d breathed, eyes wide like she was afraid if she closed them, she’d find out she was dreaming. “Tony.” And then Morgan was crawling onto his bed as Pepper hugged him, pressing a desperate, emotion-filled kiss to his lips that Tony had returned, feeling the weight of millennia without her, without his Pepper, start to drip away.
“I thought I lost you,” she’d said, voice breaking when she finally pulled back, eyes darting over his face like she was trying to memorize every piece of it.
“Me, too,” Tony had answered honestly, and she let out a wet laugh, pressing a kiss to his forehead.
“Don’t you ever do that again,” she’d commanded, and he’d smiled at her.
“I won’t,” he’d promised.
And he hadn’t – hadn’t needed to, in fact, since Thanos was gone. The stones had mysteriously disappeared after Tony had snapped his fingers, and Tony told people he’d scattered them throughout the universe when he’d snapped, though in truth he wasn’t sure what had happened to them.
And sure, he’d continued to act as Iron Man – but Pepper had been at his side this time around, and they’d never faced anything the two of them couldn’t beat. Nobody even got close, especially once the Avengers Initiative got up and running again, far more functional than the first time around. They were united, now, bonded in a way that only seeing some of their worst fears come to life and be powerless to stop it could make them.
Tony and his family had moved back to New York to his old Tower less than a year after Thanos’s defeat, ostensibly to be closer to the Avengers Compound and SI headquarters, but also because there was a certain spider Tony wanted to keep an eye on. Peter quickly became a fixture around the Tower, swinging in at strange hours, corrupting his otherwise innocent (ha!) Morgan with Vine references and every Iron Man meme he could find. When the kid moved off and went to Stanford for his science degree, Tony had promised there would be a job waiting for him at SI when he graduated if he wanted it. And, a year later, he’d been thrilled to be able to offer the same thing to Harley.
He and Harley had gotten back into contact after Thanos was defeated, and Harley had proven himself to be as much of a brilliant engineer as he’d been in every other timeline. The kid was currently in his junior year at MIT, and, though Tony hadn’t yet told him this, he’d been working on a surprise present for Harley’s graduation – a special black-and-gold suit that he’d called Bumblebee, in part because he knew it would irritate his kid. Nebula had sure gotten a kick out of it when he’d told her – he’d gotten an actual smile from her, which was as good as a ten-minute laugh from anyone else.
Nebula had opted to go with the Guardians when it was all finished, and Tony had only requested that she keep in contact. He’d been a little surprised by how readily she’d agreed, and how she’d stuck to calling at least once every three days unless something urgent came up. It always made him a little nervous when she missed one of her calls, and he knew she was aware of that and called as quickly as she could when she finished whatever was holding her up – he knew because she’d video-called him while wiping blood off her hands more than once. It would make him feel like a silly, sentimental old man, but she seemed to appreciate the calls as much as he did and worried when he didn’t pick up, which happened only when he was in a meeting he couldn’t leave or in the middle of a battle. He always called her as quickly as possible after, too.
The life he’d gotten back had him feeling content in a way he’d never truly dreamed possible for himself. The only real unresolved factor was Steve.
It wasn’t quite as…painful as he’d feared it would be, to be around Steve and know what they’d been to each other in millions of the timelines he’d lived; his love for Pepper was too consuming, too brilliant in this timeline. It was more that there was a sense of something being unfinished, a slight niggling in the back of his mind that there could be something more but that it just wasn’t the right time.
But for now, they were friends, and that was more than enough for him; his life was perfect and full and brilliant - he and his family were happy, and that was everything to him.
“Daaaaad, Uncle Steve says my shield design isn’t cool enough for him! Tell him he’s being mean!” Morgan called, voice petulant as Steve’s laughter echoed enough for Tony to hear. He rolled his eyes, grinning at Pepper.
“Guess I better go mediate before the children get into it,” he said, standing, and Pepper raised an eyebrow at him.
“Sure, honey,” she said placatingly, patting him on the cheek, and he narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously.
“And just what’s that supposed to mean?” he demanded, and Pepper couldn’t hide her smile.
“Nothing, darling, nothing at all,” she assured him, eyes twinkling. “You’re an excellent mediator, you never make the argument worse just for the sake of riling Steve or Morgan up.” Tony let out an affronted gasp, clutching his chest.
“That’s slander, Mrs. Stark,” he said, pointing an accusatory finger at her. She stood, moving closer and wrapping her arms around his waist.
“Mmm, is it, Mr. Stark? Guess you’ll just have to punish me for it later.” And with that particularly unfair comment, she kissed his cheek and sashayed away smugly, knowing her husband was staring after her.
“Daaaaad!” Morgan’s call jolted him out of it, and he sent a half-hearted glare in the direction of his entirely-too-tempting wife before following his daughter’s voice.
“You tell that old man he has no sense of style!” he called as he walked. “Two words for him: Spangly. Outfit.”
Hmm, maybe Pepper had a point.
The years passed, shorter and longer than they’d ever been before; shorter because a year was such a tiny fraction of his life now, and yet longer because he’d never gotten to spend this long in one life before. It was enthralling, getting to watch Morgan grow up and be there to see all the major milestones – to see her graduate high school, then college, then grad school. To see her get married and have children of her own, and to get to be a grandfather for those children. To see her blossom, take over first as head of R&D and CEO of SI – her mother’s genes, he always insisted when he saw her ruthlessly cut down any business associate who dared to cross her – then eventually taking up her parents’ mantle in the armor when Pepper and Tony got old enough to retire.
Harley and Peter had been there to welcome her to the Avengers when it was time, the two of them having done a lot of the recruiting for the newest generation of superheroes. The seemingly eternally youthful Carol and Steve had ended up as co-leaders for the Avengers after the others had retired, though Carol started passing on a lot of the duties to Harley when Rhodey got older. To keep her husband entertained post-retirement so he didn’t go getting himself into trouble, she’d joked at their Christmas party, but Tony had seen the way her eyes followed Rhodey that night, had seen the look on her face. It was the same one he often saw on Steve’s when the realization that he was going to outlive the people he considered family hit him especially hard.
The feeling of impermanence, of the transience of a life, never got easier to bear, as Tony had discovered during his years; he wished he could wipe that pain away for them, but he had to admit that the renewed feelings of loss he’d experienced when one of his loved ones was dead in any universe he’d visited were part of what reminded him that he was human.
And yet there was a part of him that wished he’d grown numb to the pain the day that they buried Pepper.
He’d known it was coming; she’d been growing steadily sicker and weaker for months, though her eyes remained as bright and fiery as they’d been the moment he met her. He’d had ample time to prepare himself, and yet watching the flame in her eyes fade until it was extinguished could only be described as a shock to the system, a thousand volts coursing through him and dragging him to his knees as he clutched her hand, limp in his own, not even trying to hold back the tears.
The funeral was worse, no words that he could say holding a candle to nearly 30 years of marriage – in this lifetime, at least – and much longer of dancing around each other before finally getting their heads out of the sand. Morgan was by his side the whole time, hand gripping his wrinkled, wizened one with her mother’s strength, keeping him afloat. And after, she and the boys had visited him more often at the Tower that he and Pepper had never quite gotten around to moving out of. Nebula even stopped by for a visit, regaling him with tales of her space adventures, which seemed to be far more numerous and perilous than they should be – but then again, she was traveling with a guy who called himself Starlord, so honestly they were probably doing about as well as could be hoped for.
Steve visited more often, too, becoming somewhat of a fixture around the Tower. He’d been present often enough when Pepper was still around, but now it was almost as though he’d moved in, offering his help or company almost every time Tony turned around. Tony would have been offended, protested that he may be 78 but he was not an invalid thank you very much, if he hadn’t known that was just how Cap was – stubborn and helpful to a fault.
And it helped, to have the company. It helped to remind him that Pepper may be gone, but he still had so many people that he loved dearly and cared for intimately. And as the years passed, he healed; it took longer than he’d thought it might – but then again, he’d known and loved Pepper for more years than any human had a right to be alive, and this loss was permanent. He wouldn’t snap his fingers and have the chance to her in another universe this time.
But he recovered, he smiled more, he became used to life with only her memory, and he moved forward. He got older, and the next great sadness of his true lifetime came from the looks he caught on Steve’s face when Steve thought he wasn’t looking. Tony was one of the last living Avengers, one of Steve’s oldest friends, and Steve had become his family over the years; every ache, every doctor’s visit, every limitation to his movements reminded Steve that Tony probably had only a few good years left. Truly, it was a miracle he’d even lasted this long, what with all he’d put his body through over the years.
And so every night when Tony closed his eyes to go to sleep, he had to remember the look of what could only be described as fear on Steve’s face that Tony wouldn’t wake up.
When the swirl of colors overtook his dream, Tony couldn’t find it in himself to feel surprised. He’d felt it when he’d laid down to rest: that this was it for him, that he had reached the end of his life. His daughters and sons had come by, had said their good-byes, seeing in their dad what they’d seen in Pepper right before the end. He’d closed his eyes, and he’d been ready.
But still, the sight of the stones standing before him was somehow…expected. They were in their original forms from the first time he’d seen them, and they were smiling at him fondly, proudly, as though he was their prodigal son returning to them.
“Well met, Tony Stark,” Harley said, nodding to him, a bright grin on his face. “You have lived a full life, as we knew you would.”
“Thank you for letting me go back,” Tony responded, gratefulness awash in his tone.
“You more than earned it,” Pepper said, smiling her brilliant smile.
“And now we are here to grant you the other gift you’ve earned,” Peter added, and Tony blinked before their words from so many lifetimes ago came back to mind.
“Oh,” he said, stunned. “Oh, I’d forgotten about that.”
“Yes, we thought you might have,” Morgan said, eyes twinkling. “So, Tony Stark – what is it you would have from us?”
Tony just stared at them, mind racing and yet somehow simultaneously blank. “I – I don’t know. You’ve already given me more than enough. You’ve given me everything I could’ve ever wanted – a lifetime with my family, a chance to raise my daughter, and a world free of Thanos. I don’t know what else I could want or need,” he said honestly, and the stones exchanged knowing looks.
“You have had everything you could’ve ever wanted?” Steve asked, Soul’s golden eyes piercing him, and Tony was suddenly seeing that same face as it had been right before Tony had fallen asleep for what he knew to be the last time, gentle and loving but infinitely sad.
“Oh,” he said again, for the second time, eyes widening.
“Indeed, Tony Stark,” Steve said, a soft smile on his face. “So we ask again – what is it you would have from us?”
When he opened his eyes, it was with the delighted awareness that things had changed. He sat up slowly, but the aches and pains of old age were gone, and he held up his smooth, unwrinkled hands to the light, marveling when they didn’t shake as they had once he’d hit 80.
His wish had been simple – more time, he’d requested, entirely aware of the irony considering just how much time he’d been given – but he hadn’t been sure what form the stones would give that wish. Now, he was marveling at his restored self, a body that he would swear was no older than his early 30s, accompanied by the innate knowledge that this body would age at the same rate as a super soldier’s, that he would not wither and die on Steve as he had before.
Tony had barely had a moment to explore this newfound knowledge when the door was swinging open, Morgan sweeping into the room with a tray. “Dad, I brought – ,” Coming to a sudden halt, she stopped and stared at him, wide-eyed. “ – breakfast,” she finished. She stared at him, and he stayed silent, giving her a chance to take him in. Carefully, wordlessly, she sat the tray down on a dresser, then came to sit on the bed.
He waited patiently for her to speak. “I knew you were different when you came back from fighting Thanos when I was a little girl,” she said finally, and he nodded, unsurprised. She looked at him searchingly for a moment, and he wondered what she saw. “Are you going to tell me about it?”
He eyed her contemplatively, then slowly nodded. “When I took the infinity stones in that battle, a lot more happened than what everyone saw. I lived over 14 million lives before the stones brought me back here to this one. And now they’ve granted me another,” he said simply.
He was expecting questions; his Morgan was brilliant, as curious as he was, and, if he’d been in her place, he’d have bombarded himself with any and every inquiry he could think of. But Morgan just nodded. “Okay,” she said.
“Okay?” he repeated, shocked, and a small smile quirked at her lips.
“Oh, I’ll have a lot of questions for you to answer later – but for now, I think there’s a special someone you want to talk to.”
And then he was gaping at her, and she snickered at his expression. “Oh, come on, Dad, like I didn’t see the way he’s looked at you, and the way you’ve been looking at him since you moved on from Mom,” she said, eyes dancing. “You’ve been pining.”
“I – I’ve been doing no such thing!” Tony sputtered, feeling his cheeks get hot.
“Sure you haven’t,” Morgan said with a dramatic roll of her eyes that was so like Tony’s own. His daughter leaned forward, pressing a kiss to Tony’s forehead, then stood up, sashaying out of the room before turning back to look at him from the doorway. “Go get him, tiger,” she ordered, smirking at him, and Tony contemplated dying of embarrassment.
He muttered to himself as he pushed himself out of the bed, stumbling over to his dresser and pulling out some of his more age-neutral clothes and making a mental note to have FRIDAY order him some new t-shirts and such when he got a moment. He’d just pulled the shirt over his head when he heard a creak behind him, and he whirled around – to see Steve standing in the doorway, staring at him, eyes wide and face white, looking as though he’d seen a ghost. Or rather, was seeing a ghost.
“Tony?” Steve asked, shell-shocked. With practiced ease (and a small flare of delight lighting up his belly, though no one needed to know that), Tony grinned.
“Hey, Cap.”
Steve stared at him, frozen for a moment, before he seemed to come back to himself and walked towards Tony, reaching out a hand as if to touch him, to confirm that Tony was real and not just a figment of his imagination. But that hand hesitated in midair, as though afraid of having his hopes dashed, and Tony’s smile softened as he reached out winding his fingers through Steve’s outstretched ones and pulling him closer so their arms could lower.
Steve stared at where their hands were intertwined as though mesmerized. “How?” he asked finally, dragging his eyes back up to meet Tony’s searchingly.
Tony smiled, eyes shining with joy and delight. “It’s a long story, Steve – but we’ve got lots of time.”