Chapter Text
It had been one year since the defeat of Thanos. Many thought that bringing back the dusted would solve everything, that the world would be able to bounce back on its feet the way it did after the battle of New York.
Humanity couldn't have been more wrong.
A lot had changed. Some came back to learn their house and belongings had been sold; others learned they had been replaced at their job, that their other-half had found happiness in the arms of another. Kids came back orphans, parents came back to children who were now adults and had moved on. Some died as soon as they came back, being trapped in a plane that crashed five years ago.
A month after all of that happened, Tony decided something had to be done. The world was still on fire, a type of fire the Avengers couldn’t fight against. No shield could bring back the ones they’d lost, no Asgardian miracle could make sure there was food for everyone; superheroes couldn’t make a difference this time. Tony did the only thing he could think of, he switched from being Iron man to being Tony Stark, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist but, most of all, genius. He called everyone he considered his intellectual equals and started searching for a solution. This group of genius was made of Bruce Banner, Hank Pym, T’Challa and his sister Shuri, Peter Parker, Nebula, Stephen Strange, and himself.
Tony was sitting in the common room of the newly rebuilt compound, watching them all at work. The room was full of research papers and books on agriculture, politics, architecture, and more. He was tired, he had barely survived his own snap, losing his arm in the process, yet here he was, trying to save the world once again. None of the ideas they had come up with in the last two months were good enough, either the solution wouldn’t work in a long-term situation or a problem of inequality between those who’d been dusted and those who hadn’t would happen.
Quickly getting up, he looked around the room, his abrupt movement catching the attention of some of his science siblings. Looking at each of them, a smile crept on his face. He started laughing softly as he made eye contact with Strange.
“Are you alright, Tony?”
He was looking at him with concern, but Tony could bet that, in the space of a second, he could see the glint of hope in those crystal eyes, as if Strange knew Tony had found a solution. Tony turned around, clapping his hands to make sure he had everyone’s attention.
“Let’s be honest, here. We might be the greatest genius of the Earth—or space for some—, but there’s no way we can solve this mess.”
A smirk made its way up to his face as he saw all of them looking at him as if he’d just gone crazy. Bruce took a step toward him, facing him with all the confidence he built himself while being Doctor Hulk.
“What do you suggest? That we give up? That we let the world we fought so hard and lost so much for, just destroy itself?”
“No, Brucy bear, what I am trying to say is that we can’t solve it, but what if it never happened in the first place? What if we make sure this universe is ready to face the threat before it even shows its face?”
“You are suggesting time travel again. You know we can’t change what already happened without the universe collapsing on itself, don’t you?” Pym asked, already looking back at his paper, considering the discussion was over with.
“That’d be the case if we only used the Pym particles, but come on, guys! We’re in a room full of scientists, add to that an alien and a wizard who was able to see millions of future, don’t tell me we can’t find a way to make a stable jump in the past possible!”
There was an awkward silence, looking at each other as if asking: can it really happen? After that first hesitation, everyone starts working again with a new purpose, making calculations and trying to understand how to combine tech and magic to time jump.
It took them two months to come to the conclusion that their idea was actually possible, but they could not risk sending everyone back; they had to choose who would go and how far back they needed to go.
All of them sat in a circle with their names written on a whiteboard, ready to discuss the matter at hand. Tony, having the pen in his hand decided to start with the easiest choice, turning to the board and ruled a name out.
“Sorry, Peter, but your aunt would kill me if I let you get into trouble so soon after coming back and, let’s be honest, there is only so much a teenager can change.”
“Not fair, Mr.Stark! My age shouldn’t be a vector to take into consideration!”
The room seems to take life at that moment, all of the occupants making Peter know that they agreed with Stark. Once the quiet came back, T’challa looked at Tony, in that simple eye contact, he made him know he understood Tony’s concern about the youngest member.
“I suggest we don’t let any minor time travel, so you can also take my sister's name out.” Shuri looked at him, slowly raising her middle finger to make her opinion known. “I can’t either since I have to take care of Wakanda, being here instead of at home is already causing enough trouble.”
“Well if they are too young, I am too old. I could not properly defend myself if anything was to happen,” Pym added. “ Since the obvious has been ruled out, let's start thinking of what we really need. We need someone who would actually have contact with important people, we need to make sure the technology makes a jump forward; I say Stark is a good choice for both of those reasons.”
Tony wouldn’t say that it was unexpected, it wasn’t, but it didn’t mean he had to be happy about it. Why was he always the one who had to do the job?
“If everyone is alright with that choice I will do it. How many should we send back? More than one augments the risk, but if I go alone and something happens to me it would all have been for nothing.”
“There’s only four of you left, maybe we could send all of you?” Peter suggests. “If we find a way to send two of you back in time, why not four?”
“Four people appearing in the middle of New York and trying to change things might be a little obnoxious. I’m not sure how my expertise in gamma radiation could change anything in the past and my other half would probably only be seen as a monster if we jump before the Chitauri invasion, so I’m out,” Bruce calmly added, before Nebula took her turn.
“Thanos already used me once to learn our plan, I can’t let that happen again. I don’t have any important contact either until much later, so take me out.”
All eyes turned toward Strange, not knowing if he would also find some reasons to leave that duty to Tony alone or if he would step up and stand by Iron man side.
“I can do it. Someone would have to explain all of that to the Sorcerer Supreme anyway. I can also help Tony with all the technological stuff if needed.”
“I’m pretty sure a Ph.D. doesn’t qualify you as an engineering, doc. No pun intended.” Tony knew that saying that would bring out that competitive side he learned Strange had during the last months. Where Tony’s desire for knowledge was always for science and engineering, the good doctor seemed to be ready to learn about anything as long as the one who taught him was passionate and actually knew what they were talking about. Tony saw him during the last month learn some cooking from Bruce, advanced chemistry with Peter and his web and also some computer programming with Shuri. Tony had to give it to the guy, he was a fast learner. The genius couldn’t wait to teach him what he knew and work with him.
They might not have been the ones who worked the most together during the last month, but between their time on the space donut and the quick interactions they had together, Tony knew Strange could potentially dig his way through his heart and find his place next to Pepper, Rodhey and Peter. He had a charming personality, He was one of the few who could tolerate Tony’s sarcasm and jokes and actually answer back to them.
“Well, I’m pretty sure we have a few months before our vacation, should be enough to speed through a new Ph.D. Sorry to tell you you won’t get rid of me for such a simple reason.”
Tony couldn’t believe it, the man had winked at him while saying that...again. What was it with this guy and winks?
“Alright, then it’s settled.”
They then turned the conversation to the choice of a date. They quickly came to the decision that they needed to go before Tony could be recognized as himself. A twin appearing out of nowhere would be hard to explain to the public. They also decided that it would be easier to go after Tony had stolen the Tesseract so at least his father would already have had an interaction with him. Their final decision was on the first of May, 1970.