Chapter Text
Tony barely had time to absorb the carnage that surrounded him…the Avengers dead all around him…
‘Just so you know, this isn’t real.’
Tony spun around. There was a woman standing behind him. She was perfectly average looking with long brown hair and hazel eyes. She was dressed in regular Adidas sweats and trainers. There was really nothing jumping out about her, apart from the fact that she was here. She walked around.
‘And it’s not from the sceptre,’ she added. ‘Rather, a woman called Wanda Maximoff did this to you.’ She gestured around. ‘She dredged up your biggest fear for the express purpose of pushing you onto a self-destructive path.’
‘How do you know that?’ Tony asked.
‘I’m a seer,’ she answered. ‘My name’s Lennie Alice.’ She clicked and the image faded, leaving Tony and Lennie standing in a void. ‘I can not only see the future and use a form of retrocognition to aid in my prophecising, but I can travel into other peoples’ visions too. That’s how I’m here. I knew she was going to do this. I’m physically too far away to stop it, but I didn’t see why I shouldn’t be able to take advantage of her attempt.’
Tony studied her for a long moment. ‘Why?’
Lennie cocked her head. ‘Mr. Stark, I’m a seer. I’m not omnipotent. Do you mean why did she want you to self-destruct or why did I decide to come in here?’
Tony shrugged. ‘Both is good. But let’s start with why she wants me to self-destruct.’
‘Certainly,’ Lennie said. ‘As you know, this country is embroiled in a civil war. When Wanda and her twin brother, Pietro, were ten, a bomb hit their apartment building and collapsed it. Among the fatalities were both of their parents. They believe they were trapped under the rubble for two days, staring at one of your company’s warheads.’
‘Believe?’ Tony asked. Obviously not, because if it’d been one of his it wouldn’t have sat there for two days.
‘I spoke to some friends of mine and I backtracked that one,’ Lennie explained. ‘Not only was it pitch black under the rubble, but the twins were extracted, unconscious and separated, on the same day the apartment building was hit. Both had sustained head trauma. They then took about a week to wake up.’
‘So they filled in the blanks with their imaginations and convinced themselves it was what happened?’ Tony guessed.
‘Tragic,’ Lennie agreed, ‘but I wouldn’t consider it your fault. They were never diagnosed with any traumatic brain injuries or mental disorders, but they were also never evaluated for them. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had them. Story of your life, from what I hear. The problem is that Rogers had already decided that they’re “misguided kids”.’
Tony blinked. ‘Uh…why?’
‘That ties into why I’m here,’ Lennie said. ‘It happened last year, during the lead-up to Rogers and Romanoff’s decision to dump SHIELD’s files all over the web and drop three helicarriers on Washington?’
‘Yeah. I never understood why they didn’t call me,’ Tony said. All his and Rhodey’s questions on the matter were met with Rogers insisting “we didn’t know who we could trust” and Natasha making cracks about Tony’s ego.
‘Well, I’m about to tell you.’ Lennie folded her arms behind her back. ‘During the lead-up to that, Rogers and Romanoff found a computer interface left behind by Arnim Zola. It wasn’t a true AI, only programmed to follow his agenda when he died with his personality and outlook. It wasn’t adaptable at all and used Arnim’s face to communicate. But it did answer questions, during which it insinuated that the accident that killed your parents was no accident at all.’
Tony froze.
Lennie lowered her eyes, at least showing respect as she told him something he should’ve been told a year ago. ‘The insinuation was that it was an assassination carried out by the Winter Soldier.’
Tony’s mind raced. He remembered his last conversation – argument – with his father. His dad always drank more after arguments. For the last near quarter of a century, Tony had believed he was the reason his father was drunk; the real reason his father had crashed the car and killed both of them. But if what Lennie was saying was true…
It wouldn’t have mattered if Tony argued with Howard or not.
Tony struggled to get his churning emotions under control. Lennie patiently stood back and waited. Eventually, Tony swallowed and looked at her.
‘Rogers and Romanoff know this?’ he asked tightly.
‘And have been using your money and resources to search for Barnes for the past year,’ Lennie agreed. ‘Rogers intends to bring him back and look after him on your dime too.’
Tony’s face tightened. He could check this all when he woke up. But that sounded about right. And it made all the impromptu trips suddenly make a lot more sense. As well as why neither Tony nor Rhodey had been involved. Rogers would be afraid Tony would take away all the toys if he knew and he figured if Rhodey knew, he’d tell Tony.
‘And you came here to tell me, even though you don’t know me?’ Tony asked Lennie.
‘Also, like I said, I’m a seer,’ Lennie answered. ‘Because of the nature of foresight, I had to fuse with something beyond human. Let’s call it a celestial entity for simplicity’s sake. As a result, it slowed my ageing. I was raised in the same time period Rogers is, and I’ve seen some of his excuses for his blockhead behaviour.’
‘And you’re about to completely destroy them,’ Tony remarked with a smile.
‘Of course I am.’ Lennie smirked. ‘I’m actually a few years older than him and I can tell you that the world of our youth would consider him disrespectful. Well…my youth. Being frozen for 70 years means he’s actually still young. Hell, you’re older and wiser than him – especially comparing your 20s to his.’
Tony had to smirk. ‘Isn’t he still in his 20s?’
‘Isn’t that funny?’ Lennie remarked. ‘Anyway, as I said, I’m a seer. That invasion you’re afraid of…’
‘You can see it coming?’ Tony guessed.
‘And I’ve told everybody I know,’ Lennie agreed. ‘The problem is most of us are still hiding from SHIELD and HYDRA.’
Tony cursed. ‘That’s right. They had that power for half a century. It won’t just disappear overnight!’
Lennie nodded. ‘Not everyone’s completely confident about me approaching you, given your association with the Avengers. But the way I see it, they’re using and abusing you. Rogers is about to try to use Wanda and shuffle you out – obviously the less you’re around, the less likely it is you find out his dirty little secret.’
‘And this girl is the same one who just made me have this vision?’ Tony checked.
‘Yup.’ Lennie rolled her eyes. ‘My main two theories are this. One: he wants to set a precedent for Bucky. All the visions I have are just Rogers repeating that the twins were tricked and manipulated. I’ve seen no evidence for it, just Rogers insisting on that interpretation of events.’
‘Two?’ Tony asked. He was already afraid of what Lennie was gonna say.
‘He wants her to mind-whammy him back into being the Bucky he remembers again,’ Lennie said. ‘Barnes was tortured and conditioned until he forgot who he was. Cults that brainwash use many of the same tactics. The hippocampus shrinks and memory suffers.’
‘So, yeah, let’s fix mind-fuckery with more mind-fuckery,’ Tony grumbled.
‘My thoughts exactly,’ Lennie agreed. She looked up. ‘All right. Time’s just about up. If you’re in this vision any longer, you’ll be in trouble. I’d recommend getting rid of the sceptre ASAP. There is a malicious entity in it who’s going to appropriate the name of your Ultron program if it gets near it.’
‘Thanks for the warning,’ Tony said.
‘Also, I’m going to request you don’t tell Rogers, Romanoff, Barton, or Hill about me.’
Tony looked at her curiously. ‘Why them and not the others?’
‘Banner and Thor won’t say anything about me unless directly asked,’ Lennie answered. ‘Banner will be very…circumspect with what he does say. Thor will put it in terms that only someone who talks like him would understand. And Asgardian warriors consider seers amongst society’s elite because of their powers, so any suggestion of threat towards me will be met with hostility from him.’
Tony cracked a smile.
‘Rhodey, of course, is a military man,’ Lennie said. ‘So he’s clear. Oh, and by the way. Keep an eye on him. There’s a race of shapeshifters called the Skrulls. They can entirely mimic another race’s genetic patterns and impersonate them neatly. They’re technically looking for a new home, but they do it by replacing big players. They haven’t tried to replace you because they aren’t confident they could pull off your big brain and engineering chops. But they have been eyeing Col. Rhodes off to replace. They just haven’t managed to find an opportunity yet.’
Tony frowned. ‘Am I going to have to rely on knowing Rhodey enough to tell the difference? That won’t do a lot to convince anyone else.’
‘If it helps, Fury did actually die before the Data Dump incident,’ Lennie said, ‘he was just immediately replaced by a Skrull.’
Tony blinked. ‘So the Fury walking around now is a Skrull.’ That opened all sorts of possibilities.
Lennie smirked. ‘I’m sure if anyone can develop a scan that can pick up the Skrulls, it’ll be you.’
‘Thank you,’ Tony said.
‘Well, I better go,’ Lennie said. ‘I’ll catch you around. Remember, not a word to those four. I’ve dodged SHIELD and HYDRA this long. I’d like to continue doing so.’
‘You got it.’
Lennie turned and walked off, fading as she went.
Tony woke up.
Westchaster, NY
Logan had been sitting back while Lennie “dozed” in the hammock on the back porch of X Mansion. He looked over as she sat up. ‘Message delivered?’
‘Delivered,’ Lennie’s eyes glazed over, ‘and now we wait. Anyone notice?’
‘Don’t think so.’ Logan chuckled. ‘Like to see Scooter’s face when he finds out you can just stroll into people’s visions too.’
Hank suddenly leaned out the window above them. ‘You can?’