Forward to the Past [Steggy] ✔

Chapter Four

Howard's POV

Present time

"Uh, sorry, what?" I say, a bit perplexed. "I think I misheard you?"

The man standing in front of me continues to gape at me, looking slightly lost. "Howard Stark," he mumbles at last. "I... well."

"People know about me here?" I say, smirking. Beside me, Peggy rolls her eyes. "That's cool. But... your name is Stark too?"

"Yeah....." The man frowns, running a hand through his hair. "Uh. One second." He presses something on an earpiece and mumbles something into it, then looks back up at me after a moment of silence. "Well, FRIDAY says nothing I say here can affect the past, so you might as well know. My name is Tony. I'm your son."

"You're my what?" I exclaim, having heard him perfectly well but even so not really understanding.

"Your son," Tony repeats. "I'm your son. You married Maria Carbonell and had a child. So here I am."

"Hold up a moment," I say, waving a hand to shut Tony up for a second. "Why are you telling me this? Won't it affect what happens when Peggy and I go back?"

Tony shakes his head. "FRIDAY tells me that the chemical and mental stress of time travel will cause you to forget whatever you learn here. While you stay here, your past selves are.... frozen, you could say. In time. When you go back, you won't have aged a bit, and the chemical changes that accompany that huge time wrinkle are too much for the mind to keep up with. Nothing we do here can affect the past- unless, of course, I decide to kill you, which I assure you will not happen."

"Who's FRIDAY?" I ask, and Tony gives me an unimpressed stare.

"All that, and the only thing you get out of it is 'who's FRIDAY?'" He rolls his eyes. "For your information, FRIDAY is a program. The old one was JARVIS."

"JARVIS.... why'd you pick that?" I ask curiously, watching something flare up in Tony's eyes when he says the name.

"Named it after a butler you and mom had," Tony says, smiling a little. "Edwin Jarvis. Although after I put it into a program, the name became an acronym: Just A Rather Very Intelligent System."

"This is all very strange," I admit. It's interesting to think about; all the things that I haven't experienced, yet have happened. Learning about the future of my own life.

"I agree," Peggy says from beside me, speaking for the first time. "I must say, it is coincidental that we came here."

"That's not what I meant, but yeah, it is kind of weird. What are the odds?" I grin at Tony, who raises his eyebrows and shrugs.

"I'm sure we could figure it out, but I don't think it was coincidence. That Tesseract has got a mind of it's own."

"You know about the Tesseract?" I say in surprise, and Tony nods.

"All too well. We had a bit of an issue with it involving a couple of angry gods and a race of aliens from space. I wouldn't recommend using it anymore. But hey, if you find a shawarma place anywhere, go to it."

"What does that have to do with aliens and gods?" I exclaim. "And how did you get involved with aliens and gods in the first place? What do you even do for a living?"

Tony shrugs, picking up a couple of pieces of metal from a table near him and beginning to assemble them. "I save the world," he says simply. "We used to be called the Avengers. Still are, I suppose, but that all went to shit last year. S.H.I.E.L.D. went down a year before that, and from there, everything crumbled to dust. Now we're just a group of rogue superheroes." He pauses, frowning and still fiddling with the metal in his hands. "If he'd have just listened," he mutters under his breath, barely audibly.

"Superheroes...." Peggy murmurs, and I know she's thinking of Steve. Which isn't atypical; that woman loved him. "Like who?"

"Well, there's a lot. We've got Thor, the Norse god of thunder, Bruce Banner, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanoff, Wanda Maximoff, James Rhodes, and....." he trails off, looking at Peggy and I oddly. "And a couple other guys." He looks like he's about to say something, then, shakes his head.

"I'm still stuck on that first one," I say. "Thor? The actual Thor? Isn't he a myth?"

Tony shakes his head, looking amused. "No. The guy is fifteen hundred years old or something, but still tosses his hammer around. His brother is what almost caused the destruction of New York. Jeez, that guy is a pain in the ass."

"Okay...." I say, deciding not to stray back into the topic of aliens. "So what can you do?"

"I'm Iron Man," Tony replies, looking smug. "I have a suit made of armor. It allows me to fly and shoot things. Quite handy at times, actually."

"And are there any of you with actual superpowers?" Peggy questions desperately, and I send her a sideways glance, which she returns as a glare.

"Yeah. A few." Tony pauses again, still looking like he's biting back words. "You'd know a couple of them," he says finally, which makes me frown.

"Know them? You do realize we're from 1950, right?" I shake my head in confusion.

"Yeah. I know. But you'd still know them." Tony is quiet for a moment, then he begins to look angry. "They're both enormous asses. Maybe you'd disagree. But they're getting better."

"Who are they?" Peggy asks forcefully.

"It couldn't be Steve, Peg," I murmur to her, making sure Tony can't hear. "It couldn't be."

"I know that," Peggy snaps, seeming defensive. "Just let him talk."

Tony looks uncomfortable, but shakes it off. "Just a couple of guys. I- they're....." he trails off, then turns as we hear footsteps outside of the room. Someone walks in, his face not visible as he stares down at something in his hands.

"Tony, I got this from Bruce, he says-" He breaks off, looking up and seeing us. The three of us freeze, and Peggy emits a quiet shriek as we recognize the face; someone that could not possibly be alive. It couldn't be.

This man cannot be Steve Rogers.