On the way back

Location: Afghanistan

Date: May 1 2008

I grabbed a backpack from the backseat and dropped it on Stark's legs.

"Food and water," I said, switching from neural gear and speeding up.

He immediately pulled out a water bottle and drank it all.

"Why are you here, T-800?" He asked as soon as he finished drinking.

"You invented time travel to fix Snap in the future. Multiple teams went to the past to retrieve important objects that were destroyed. They were required to undo Snap."

We jumped on a bump, and I had to keep my mouth shut for a second while trying to keep the car on the road.

"I was on one of the teams and I had to sacrifice myself to retrieve one of the objects. Then I woke up back in time, in my younger body, five days ago."

"Snap?" He quirked his eyebrow.

"Big purple aliens used powerful objects to erase sentients over the half universe. Then he destroyed them so that no one can undo it." I gave the bare minimum explanation.

Stark was silent for a minute after that. Then he laughed without real heat in it and said:

"I wish you were crazy."

I looked at him a bit worried and asked, "But?"

"But you showed up out of nowhere and contacted J through a channel I did not know about. You know too much - it's not just a lucky guess. You make too much sense, well, except for the purple alien," Stark explained.

He pulled another bottle of water and asked nonchalantly:

"Fine, I might as well bite a bullet. What is your plan?"

"I don't have any," I replied.

"You don't?" He asked with clear surprise in his voice.

"It's not like I planned to wake up in the past." I rolled my eyes.

"Well, you do act like you have a plan," Stark replied.

"I just roll with punches, and I am over my head," I admitted.

"Why me then?" Stark asked with interest and continued:

"Don't take me wrong, I am glad that you are helping me right now, but why do you choose to find me over anybody else?"

I thought a bit about that. There are too many reasons to list. But in the end, he was right about the danger lurking in the distance. We ignored, laughed him off or ridiculed his behaviour. I personally just saw an eccentric rich man who likes to play Iron Man and get attention. Somehow, we collectively ignored that Stark was the one to shoulder WMD and carried it through the portal without any guarantee to come back. Nobody paid attention to his words about the armada on another side of the portal. Nobody was ready for Thanos when he came.

It all boiled down to:

"Because I believe in you."

🕷

"How did my escape go originally?" Stark asked some time later.

"I never knew for sure. You were tight-lipped about it." I shrugged my shoulders and continued, "My best guess is that you were found by the military after they were investigating that firework in the mountains."

I looked at him and said:

"I found your crash site and blew up your armour. Last time around, it ended up in the wrong hands."

"Who?" he asked, with an edge in his voice.

"Stane." I paused and continued: "Stane is behind selling Stark weapons to terrorists and your abduction."

Stark went all stiff and rigid. I continued:

"He used your prototype to build armour and tried to kill you again. I am not sure about the details - I was on a different assignment back then"

I saw the moment when Stark decided to suppress the pain of betrayal and change the topic:

"Funny. I just realised that I know nothing about you"

"Sure." I shrugged and continued: "I've been raised as a spy and assassin under the Black Widow program created by Red Room. It's a secret program made by the Russian government. It was brutal, and out of twenty girls, only one survived training. As a graduation gift - they sterilise you.

Around this time, I was already fed up and just wanted to be done with it. I planned to kill Dreykov, the Red Room leader. Ready to die in the process.

Instead, I was recruited by SHIELD. It's an international spy network that works for the World Security Council.

One of the first missions from SHIELD was to kill Dreykov, and I thought I had succeeded back then. But Dreykov survived, and the Red Room program continued in another location.

After that I was a SHIELD spy and assassin. No kids, obviously, no lover or partner, no family."

I picked up a water bottle and drank it all. It was my turn to deflect:

"Anyway. You returned to the US, made a press conference and closed weapon manufacturing. Weeks later, you and Stane had a fight at Stark Industries HQ. As a result, he died. The next day, you announce yourself as Iron Man".

"Iron Man?" Stark asked.

"Well, you built a flying armour suit and went on a rampage over Afghanistan, blowing up Ten Rings and any other terrorist group that you could find. The press got wind of the flying robot and called it Iron Man."

When I said nothing more, he prompted:

"What happened next?"

"SHIELD sent me undercover to spy on you. I was able to manipulate events so that you made me your PA."

"What happened to Pepper?" Stark interrupted me abruptly.

"You assigned her as a CEO" I shrugged and continued when he asked for more details:

"I found out that you were dying from palladium poison. Reported it and was reassigned. SHIELD was able to make a lithium-based solution, but that was a short term. Coulson got assigned to babysit you while you were coming up with a better solution.

Somehow, you made a new element to replace the palladium core in the ARC reactor. No clue how you did it. Coulson didn't stay too long with you. We had an alien prince in exile to land in New Mexico, and Colson was reassigned to deal with that.

That was another clusterfuck, I don't know the details, but the small city was almost levelled up in the process.

Anyhow. Back to you.

Ivan Vanko, was able to build his own ARC reactor and used it to try to kill you. Apparently, his father worked with yours and was behind the ARC reactor idea. He was deported back to the USSR after some scandal, allegedly for spying.

So Vanko came after you to avenge his father.

Then, the New York Invasion happened where the first time was introduced the Super Hero team - Avengers.

Then we have Killian from AIM. They were able to make some sort of super soldier serum that had the side effect of blowing people up. He tried to kill you as well.

After that, there was some weird cosmic alignment, during which portals opened over many planets, and some other aliens tried to change the universe.

Then Captain America and I found out that SHIELD was infiltrated by HYDRA. Yes, that Captain America. SHIELD found him somewhere frozen in ice but still alive. He was revived before the New York Invasion.

Anyway, we did not have too many options, and HYDRA was launching a project that would eliminate any potential threats to them all over the globe. So we had to leak all SHIELD intelligence and screw up the launch. It was a big fallout.

Avengers after that was mostly afloat, thanks to your financial support. It was a shit show. The short story, we screwed up big times, and the UN was trying to come up with a way to gain control over Super Heroes. Some went rogue, some not. We were not united, and it showed.

Sometime later, another alien was trying to collect those powerful objects I spoke about, and you ended up on their ship on its way to a planet called Titan.

You, with a bunch of other aliens, a sorcerer and Spider-Man from Earth, tried to save the day, but something went wrong, and the purple alien won. He could come to Earth after that to collect the last object and do the Snap.

Everything went to shit. You eventually were able to return back to Earth.

Stark International was one of the key factors that helped to survive people all over the world.

You got married to Miss Potts, and you had a child - Morgana.

Everyone was trying to move on and deal with that shit.

Then one guy randomly traveled through time with pym particles or something like that and we came to you to build a time machine.

As I said before, I went on a mission to the past and chose to sacrifice myself to retrieve one of the objects.

Then I woke up here."

I drank more water and let Stark process what I said so far.

"I got Pepper pregnant," Stark eventually said with some wonder on his beaten-up face.

I just rolled my eyes at his reaction.

🕷

The next six hours were spent mostly in silence. Stark was on the phone all the time, doing who knows what.

I was driving and paying attention to our surroundings. It would be nothing good if we got caught in any unexpected trap.

"We're almost there. I think it will be better if I stay under the radar for now. You take the car and drive back to the US base. I will go back to the US by myself."

Stark looked down on the phone, which beeps with a new incoming message.

He screwed his face and then said:

"I need some time anyway."

"I will write down anything that I remember, and we can come up with a plan?" I proposed.

"I must deal with Stane and weapon manufacturing as soon as possible," Stark replied.

"So you're all set on closing it this time too?" I asked for clarification.

When he looked at his hands and said nothing, I got it. I have my own share of innocent blood on my hands - I, too, sometimes, just stare at them with dread in my soul.

We did not talk too much anymore. I didn't push it. I have my thinking to do.

I jumped out when we got closer to the US military base and watched him go through the checkpoints. Then I walked away. I have to make my own way to the US, hopefully without surprises and SHIELD getting in the way.

It's time to do some thinking and planning.

🕷