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When Tony used the Gauntlet, he expected to die.
He didn’t. The snap was reversed and nothing happened to Tony. It was a mystery. Nobody could answer it. But, the Infinity Stones were returned and Rogers took the chance to detour and go back to live out the rest of his life with Peggy. That brought a lot of questions to Tony’s mind though.
Then they got home, and the found a surprise.
‘Sharee!’ Pepper walked over.
The brunette archaeologist had been a wedding guest. She’d grown up about a 20-minute drive away from Pepper and her family had frequented the same cafe where Pep had taken her first job. In fact, it was Sharee’s father who’d helped get Pep into Yale where she’d gotten her training for the business world. He was a professor there (although, obviously, in a different department) and he’d put in a good word for her.
In the Snap, Sharee had lost her sister, her father, and several other friends and family members. She’d taken it like a trooper though. Now, she was waiting with a man a couple of decades older than her with greying pale red hair. Sharee smiled and walked over. After the two of them greeted, Sharee introduced her friend – Reuben Magnussen – and they got down to the purpose of their visit.
They used to be Transcendent Souls.
‘So your job was to keep the Infinity Stones from ending up in a single person’s hands?’ Tony asked.
Reuben nodded, an annoyed twist to his lips. ‘Which would have been made a darn sight simpler if the information wasn’t being suppressed.’
Everyone in the room turned and looked at Fury.
Fury looked irritated. ‘We had security reasons.’
‘You had “security reasons” for the Index too,’ Reuben sniped. ‘It doesn’t justify it.’
Fury looked at him quizzically. ‘How did you—?’ he cut himself off.
Reuben smirked.
‘Suppressed,’ Sharee cut in before anyone else could say anything, ‘to the point that it was only recently we found out how much noise Tony was trying to make about it.’
The long and short of it, they wanted to know what’d happened up there.
Tony, nor anyone else, saw any problem telling them. There was even a high chance that they’d be able to explain why Tony had survived using the Gauntlet. So they told the story. The two former Transcendent Souls listened to the whole thing, only interjecting to ask for clarification on certain points.
‘So,’ Reuben said at the end, ‘you put on the Infinity Gauntlet, and used it?’
‘Yeah, we’re just a little unclear on how I’m still alive,’ Tony said. ‘Cause Bruce used it in Hulk form and it busted up his arm. I use it, and...’ He gestured to his unharmed body save for a few healing scrapes as Bruce glanced down at the sling his arm was still in.
Sharee and Reuben looked at each other.
‘Okay.’ Reuben leaned forward. ‘This question’s for everyone else: When Tony used the Gauntlet, was everybody completely focused on the Gauntlet or was somebody focused on his face?’
Pepper raised a hand.
Sharee looked at her. ‘Did anything happen to Tony’s eyes when he used the Gauntlet? Even if just for a second, did you see anything?’
Pepper hesitated. ‘I thought I saw his eyes flash orange.’
Sharee nodded. ‘They probably did.’
‘You know how I survived?’ Tony asked.
‘We do,’ Reuben said. ‘With the old defence gone – that’s us – the Soul Stone has decided it needs a new one.’
Tony groaned.
Sharee shrugged. ‘Sorry. That’s the only way a human being could use even one of the Infinity Stones with no repercussions – never mind all six.’
Reuben nodded. ‘You were probably picked as the first one due to the fact that you had the absolute power of the universe in the palm of your hand. You could do literally anything you wanted – and you knew it. But you still didn’t deviate from your plan.’
‘But the Hulk used the Gauntlet too,’ Scott said.
‘Yeah,’ Sharee said, ‘but Bruce was doing something significantly different and, more importantly,’ she looked at him, ‘no offence, but you’re a bit too flighty for the Soul Stone’s taste.’
Bruce pressed his lips together contritely. ‘None taken.’
‘What does that mean?’ Hill asked. ‘That Stark’s a Transcendent Soul now?’
‘Just that he’ll be reborn when he dies and he now has the job to ensure the Infinity Stones never again all fall into a single person’s hands.’ She looked at Tony. ‘I shouldn’t worry. The Infinity Stones are scattered again, and people like Thanos only show up once every few centuries or so.’
***
Sharee and Reuben waited until that evening to go into more detail.
Tony had just put Morgan to bed and he walked downstairs to where the two of them and Pepper were still sitting at the dining room table. ‘So?’ he asked. ‘Got the feeling you guys were keeping a lot to yourselves.’
‘You figured right,’ Reuben said.
‘You’re gonna get powers now,’ Sharee said. She winced at Tony’s cringe. ‘Although, judging by what you’re capable of without them, it’s probably gonna be something to compensate for any weaknesses you have.’
‘Like what?’ Tony asked.
‘Don’t know yet,’ Sharee told him. ‘Transcendents are unscannable. No one and nothing can get a read on your powers. You have to find out through trial and error. It’s also why only responsible people are allowed to keep their powers.’
‘So I’m stuck here for the foreseeable future then?’ Tony asked. ‘Being reborn over and over again?’
Sharee winced. ‘Unfortunately, you get used to it.’
‘The Soul Stone’s probably going to extend a bit further than it did last time,’ Reuben pointed out. ‘If we’d had Transcendents out in the wider galaxy then we’d have had the prior warning. The Soul Stone does nothing if not improve its tactics. I think, from now on, there’ll also be Transcendents on other planets too.’
***
A week later, Rogers was recalled – as an old man.
The other former Transcendents had gathered by that time. They were all telling Tony about their own experiences and training. In the meantime, they were trying to work out just what kind of power the Soul Stone had given him. All 12 of them had viewed Rogers with slightly narrowed eyes and whispers amongst themselves. The former Transcendent, Ethne, had gone and spoken to him.
Tony waited until they were back at the Cabin. He was going to wait until Morgan went to bed before asking, but they didn’t see a need. They waited until she went to play in her tent.
‘So, what’d you pick up on?’ Sharee asked Ethne.
‘I don’t think that’s the same one,’ she said.
‘Really?’ Tony asked. ‘Why not?’
‘Because, even accounting for mellowing with age, that Steve Rogers seems a bit too different. He’s more...’ She waved her hand. ‘Callous, I suppose the word is. This one I can very easily believe kept his mouth shut when HYDRA infested S.H.I.E.L.D., when Howard was on a slow, but sure, march to his death. The one that you saw go to the past was just too...impulsive and brawn-before-brains to think of that.’
‘You knew him in a past life?’ Pepper asked.
Ethne nodded. ‘I was one of his schoolteachers.’ She sat back. ‘I spoke to Barnes. Even he agrees that there’s something different about Rogers, but he can’t put his finger on what. So, as a test, I asked him who the original Avengers were. Tony?’
‘Me, him, Bruce, Thor, Nat, and Clint.’
‘You know what he said?’ Ethne waited a beat. ‘You, him, Thor, Hercules, Mockingbird, and Sentry.’
Tony jerked his head back. ‘Who, who, and who?’
‘I’m not surprised you don’t know them,’ Sharee said. ‘After Ethne gave me their names, I had my sister look into them. The only one still around was appropriated by SHIELDRA while still a teenager. Bobbi Morse, and Mockingbird is her codename. Sentry was a man called Robert Reynolds, who was said to have “the power of a million exploding suns”. When they couldn’t enlist him, they simply killed him while he was in his depowered, human form – an overweight middle-aged man.’
Tony pulled a face. ‘And Hercules?’
‘Exactly what it says on the box.’ Sharee shrugged. ‘The Greek demigod, Hercules – or Heracles, as he was originally called – as in half-human son of Zeus, granted immortality. When S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn’t enlist him, they also found they couldn’t kill him. So they locked him in the Darkforce dimension.’
The Russian former Transcendent Soul, Kolya, turned to her. ‘Isn’t that the dimension full of nothing but unstable matter?’
‘Yes.’ Sharee sighed. ‘The point is that all of this indicates he’s from an alternate timeline, which would mean that our Steve Rogers, when he went back, created yet another alternate timeline.’
Tony worked out the rest. ‘And that version’s Rogers is still in ice. He’d thaw out, end up doing the same, and create another alternate timeline.’ He paused. ‘Is that bad?’
‘Well, that depends,’ another of the Transcendents said, an Englishman called Joel, ‘on the answer to two questions: Is this Steve an alternate one? If the answer is “no”, we’re safe. If the answer is yes, we have another question to answer.’
The Vietnamese woman asked this question. ‘Is this creation of alternate realities in a loop, or is it indefinite?’
‘Meaning?’ Pepper asked.
‘If it’s in a loop,’ Sharee explained, ‘then it only goes so far. The Steve from the last alternate timeline goes back in time and creates the first in the cycle. It’s ongoing, yes, but it’s also contained and stable. If it’s in a loop, we’re fine.’
Pepper frowned. ‘So an indefinite timeline would mean that each version of Steve Rogers creates a new timeline.’
Rhodey spoke up for the first time since the conversation started. ‘And since each alternate timeline starts when there are two versions of Steve Rogers in the world, it would go on and on in a never-ending cycle.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘Is it possible for too many alternate universes to be created?’
‘Oh, yes,’ Ethne said. ‘When that happens, the collection of alternate realities becomes the equivalent of a cancerous tumour to the multiverse.’
‘And how do we answer these questions?’ Tony asked.
‘No idea,’ Zhen, the one who’d once been a Technopath, said. ‘As far as I know, the technology to measure such a thing does not exist. I don’t even know if it can be measured.’
Sharee looked at him. ‘I’d prefer to know before Tony gets his first visit from any members of The Powers That Be.’
‘The what?’ Tony asked.
‘There’s a bunch of immortal entities that run the Universe,’ Reuben explained. ‘They’ll be the ones that know for sure but they won’t let you know unless they need you to actually do something – and that’ll be at the last possible moment. Odds are, also, that it won’t be any of the entities themselves – just one of their representatives.’
‘Yeah,’ Tony said. ‘Let’s try and find out before that potentially happens.’ He stood up. ‘Also, what’s the Darkforce dimension, and if this is a different Steve, how did he arrive when we hit the recall?’
Zhen stood up too. ‘Most likely his was the closest available compatible signature for the device to hone in on.’
‘Right.’