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Language:
English
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Published:
2017-09-20
Completed:
2025-07-25
Words:
989
Chapters:
2/2
Comments:
87
Kudos:
685
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73
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Once a Collins, Always a Collins

Summary:

Blood will tell, as Maria Collins Carbonell Stark always said. Of course it was a little difficult to speak when the Winter Soldier was squeezing her throat.

 

The camera stopped recording too soon on that dark, deserted road Dec. 16, 1991. This is what happened afterward.

Maybe. (2nd chapter takes place in Siberia)

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Maria Collins Carbonell Stark heard her husband Howard cry out. She wanted to go to him, but she was too broken up. She needed a little time, that's all. Just a moment to rest. The pain would go. She would be able to get up, any moment now.

A hand reached in to the car, which surprised her because they hadn't seen any other cars on the road. It had been years since she'd visited Collinsport, and the town had become smaller and quieter in the intervening years. The graveyard expanded, though.

She realized the cold hard hand at her throat wasn't checking for a pulse, which was a momentary relief, before it tightened. She struggled, but the hand was freakishly strong. It was easier to give in, to die, to rest.

 

"Howard." Maria limped over to her husband, who was irritably picking bits of bone out of his thinning hair. "Howard," she said again when he didn't respond.

"Yes. What is it, Maria?" Howard said grumpily. His suit was filthy. He took out his handkerchief, and in a belated show of gallantry, offered it to her.

"I'm hungry." Maria delicately pushed her neck bones back in place, and blotted at her smeared make-up with the handkerchief.

"So am I." Howard made a half-hearted attempt to polish his shoes. "But we couldn't eat Barnes. He smelled... off."

Maria nodded. "He smelled like... oh, Howard! The trunk is open!"

Howard leaped to his feet and went to the back of the smashed car. "Damn. He took the super soldier serum."

"I told you we should have just poured it down the sink!" Maria said. "That was a bad batch!"

"Yes, yes, but would you really want homicidal super soldier sewer rats?" Howard shrugged. "It's a self-correcting situation. Any moron that uses it will be killed by the subjects."

"I suppose." Maria stretched and then turned to look at the car. "I liked that car," she said sadly.

"Well, we were going to have to move on soon," Howard said pragmatically. He turned into a bat and flapped over to Maria, chittering at her in bat-speak. "We can come back the first time Tony dies."

Maria turned bat and joined him. "All right. Oh! We can visit cousin Barnabas!"

Howard rolled his little bat-eyes. Barnabas was an annoying wimp. "Fine. But only for a few years. Then we should visit my cousin Morticia."

"That sounds good. We'll need time to find a good hostess gift for her. If I recall rightly, she prefers an aged AB negative."

Chapter 2

Notes:

Sometimes when people comment on a story I reread it. And sometimes I get a ‘hook’ that could continue it. And sometimes the ‘hook’ actually grows up and lets me write it. It’s rare these days, so I rejoice when it happens. Even if it’s only a tiny tag.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

“Wake up dear, and say hello to your father.”

As dying hallucinations go, hearing his mother’s voice was one of the better options, Tony thought. And then he changed his mind because he heard his father’s voice, too. He must be in hell.

“Are you going to go through with it this time, Tony?” Howard sounded irritated.

“Hush, Howard,” Maria said. “It’s not his fault. You were the one who insisted Starks are made of iron.”

“I didn’t mean it to the point of absurdity,” Howard huffed. “Ten years, Maria! Ten years of rushing to catch the moment only it was never The Moment.”

Tony opened his eyes. He’s pretty sure he opened his eyes. His parents were standing in front of him. They were both dressed in black, but Maria wore a red flowered kerchief tied over her hair, the way she’d always done when Howard took her for a ride in a convertible with the top down, and Howard had a scarlet power tie neatly pinned down by a ruby tie clip.

They also had matching scarlet eyes.

Tony blinked. Behind his parents Barnes and Rogers and Zemo stood, blank eyed and motionless.

“What?” Tony asked. He didn’t even know what he was asking.

Maria tisked. “We have been following your adventures, Tony.” She sighed. “We were so close, but of course you couldn’t see us until you passed over.”

“What.” Tony said flatly.

“Use your brains, boy!” Howard snapped.

Maria put her hand lightly on Howard’s arm. “It’s cold, Howard. Tony must be starving, no wonder he’s not thinking clearly.”

Howard nodded grudgingly. “I never liked the Arctic, but hey! I finally found Rogers!” Howard gestured, and Rogers stepped forward. “He’s good as new! Not like Barnes.”

“Barnes was thawed and refrozen too many times,” Maria agreed. “He’d be dry and tasteless.” She looked at Rogers, “Take off that silly helmet.”

Still blank-eyed, Rogers took off his helmet.

Tony stared up at him. His mouth watered. He felt a shifting in his jaws, making room for hollow fangs. The air was cold in his teeth. He got up suddenly, effortlessly, and leaped to pull Rogers down to a convenient height for his mouth to reach Rogers’ throat.

The blood was so good, so hot, so strong. Tony didn’t need much. He released Rogers, and licked at his lips. He blinked away the red haze over his vision and turned to his parents.

Maria clapped her hands. “Now we can go to the family reunion in Collinsport!”

Howard said, “I thought we were going to visit the Addams’ branch. Fester has some interesting experiments in mind.”

Tony said, “I can’t just now. There’s aliens planning to invade.”

Maria sighed. “Oh, all right. But once that’s done, you promise?”

“I promise.” Tony kissed his mother. Then he turned his newfound powers of hypnotism on Rogers, Barnes and Zemo. “You left me, still alive and awaiting rescue. I’ll be going back to the compound. You can go run off and do your own thing.” The three of them turned and headed out of the bunker.

Tony and his parents turned into bats. “Let’s go with the Brazilian Free-Tailed bat this time,” Howard said.

Tony followed their shift. “Why that species?” he squeaked in bat.

“It’s the fastest, nearly a hundred miles per hour,” Howard squeaked back.

“Race you!” Tony squeaked and spread his wings.

Notes:

https://www.tastingtable.com/1239494/never-refreeze-frozen-meat/

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/549644-fastest-bat

Notes:

Inspired by a comment SpaceAnJL posted on Not Worth the Paper it's Written On