3490 AU fic part 5

[mozzarellaroses.livejournal.com]

This is becoming as convoluted and hard to understand as an actual Marvel storyline. Yay.

Also, who else other than me is tickled when Steve calls femme!Tony 'doll'? 8D

Title: Bridged Gaps (a 3490 fanfiction)
Author: Mozzarellaroses
Rating: For now, PG-13
Warning/Spoilers: Alternate Universe, Original Characters and Stark-Rogers kids. And partial canon Pym-bashing and character death. And soon to come, incest and rape mentioned. Yeah, like Oedipus didn't already give it away.
Pairing: For now, seemingly one-sided Steve/Tony
Word Count:
Beta: None. Mistakes are all mine, though I pride myself in making as few as possible.
A/N: Just to be clear, this is post-Civil war, post-Invasion, post-Dark Reign and such, and Hank's already Scientist Supreme to a degree that isn't all that important, near the Heroic age, although let's slap continuity in the face and pretend Steve's still Cap. Also, Clint's back to being Hawkeye, although the mighty comics haven't told me what'll happen with two Hawkeyes.  A little Steve/Tony here, though I'm terrible at that xP Also, Hank.

Summary: A hero codenamed Super Soldier appears out of nowhere from another universe to stop her world's Hank Pym. Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one who took the bridge. Now the super computer, "Oedipus REX" is causing trouble in the multi-verses, as well as the one called Nathaniel, the ultimate weapon.



Enjoy!
Part 5: "Chill from his rippling rest."  --Hart Crane, "To Brooklyn Bridge"

Steve didn’t say anything while he sat beside Tony’s bed. It had been a night prior that he had learned the truth behind Maria and James and their mother.

 

Tony. It was like the universe, whichever one, was trying to be cruel. It wasn’t just… just gender barriers keeping him back. Steve liked to believe that such a trivial thing wouldn’t matter to him. It didn’t. It wasn’t what this was about. It was their friendship, and the Civil War and the toll it took on whatever they had. Everything was just wrong.

 

Yet, somehow, another Steve Rogers, in another place, was able to make it work. Steve argued with himself that that person had not had the same problems and experiences, could not have gone through the trials he had, but that was no excuse.

 

He could lose Tony. He could lose him, and still he put off everything he wanted to say, wanted to do.

 

“He’ll be fine, Mister Rogers.” one of the medics assured. Previously, he had been working on breaking through the living metal, but as far as Steve observed, they had no progress. “Wouldn’t you like to rest now?” he asked kindly. Steve shook his head. “It’s all right.” he murmured. It was late, he knew, but he wouldn’t leave now. He had only been allowed to visit Tony that afternoon, and he didn’t feel like he’d been there long enough yet.

 

“Any progress?” he asked the medic. The man shook his head. “We’ve run scans. She’s all right in there, healthy, even, but Reed Richards wanted to make sure she’s stable without the material.” was his reply. He nodded to Steve, then left, leaving the blond alone with the unconscious patients in the medical bay.

 

Steve stood up, approaching the bed of… of Natasha S.R., as Reed had labeled the bedside. It looked oddly like a full body cast, the living metal. It reminded Steve of the Silver Surfer, but without a face. Steve remembered the face he’d seen in the files Reed had downloaded, had shown him. He reached out, running his fingertips over the smooth mask of metal.

 

Steve Rogers identified. Authorization acquired.

 

Steve stood as the solid coat suddenly began to reallocate, melting away from the face, hands and feet, revealing the all too human flesh beneath. Steve’s eyes widened when the form began convulsing, seizing up, hands clenching and back arching painfully.

 

“Medic!” Steve called frantically, trying to restrain the thrashing body. As soon as he spoke, a hand grabbed his arm and the body stopped shaking.

 

“Steve?”

 

Unmistakable blue eyes blinked up at him, a confused look in the Stark eyes.

 

“Thank God, Steve!” Natasha Stark said, grabbing him by the back of his neck and pulling him down into a deep kiss.

 

God, this was—Steve realized then, selfishly, that this was what Tony tasted like. Traces of metal and the artificial scent of an engineer, with what could only be Tony.

 

Steve blinked, gently taking hold of the arms resting on his shoulders, pushing Natasha away. “Wha—”

 

“It’s not what you think.” Steve said automatically.

 

He sighed, trying again. “I mean… Natasha… this isn’t your universe. And I’m not your Steve Rogers.” he explained. The woman looked at him thoughtfully. “I know this might be hard to believe—” Steve began. “No, I believe you.” she replied.

 

“You do?”

 

“Yes.”

 

She sounded just like Tony sounded, such a smug bastard.

 

“How?”

 

“Well, my Steve would never call me Natasha. Toni. Toni Stark.” she said, extending a hand in greeting as though she hadn’t just shoved a tongue down his throat.

 

Steve nodded, smiling slightly. She was, at least, as comfortable (or uncomfortable) to be around as his Tony. The familiarity comforted him.

 

“Oh shit, where are my clothes?”

 

Steve staved off from laughing, but definitely, this woman was another Tony.

 

As she pulled the sheets over her body, Steve fetched a set of clothing that had been readied in the cabinet under the side table and handed them to her. “Thank you, sweetheart. Um, Steve.” she took the bundle from his hands and looked, for the first time, at her surroundings, noting the three others in the hospital beds near her.

 

“Huh. I feel like I’m looking into a cloning facility. Who…” Toni gestured vaguely to the sleeping figures. Steve paused. “…. The two of those there are from your universe, I suppose, and he’s mine—I mean, from mine.” he said, pointing out Maria and James, and Tony respectively.

 

Toni got up, unmindful of the weakness the time trapped had instilled in her, wrapping the blanket around her body as she looked at the three. “Hey.” she murmured in awe. “That’s me, isn’t it?”

 

She gestured to Tony. “God. Wow. A man…. a male version of me.” she said, not waiting for confirmation from Steve. “Are you two--?” she asked.

 

“Are we—no! I mean, what—” Steve stuttered.

 

Toni smiled. Leered, even. “You love him.” she said. It wasn’t a question.

 

Steve looked to the unconscious Tony, then at Toni, who was waiting for an answer. “Yes. I think… I think I do. Well, actually, I know I do. But he doesn’t.” Steve said. There was no point in lying to her. Toni closed her eyes and smiled.

 

“That’s just so you. Always insecure about how you feel, when it comes down to it. I mean, not that I’m one to talk.” she said vaguely.

 

She then turned her attention to the other two, looking thoughtful. “And these two? I don’t know them, but I sort of recognize them. I think.” Steve was thankful for the change of subject, but wondered if he should be honest about this as well.

 

He didn’t have to be, though. Reed had labeled those beds as well. Toni spotted the signs, under ‘Maria R.’ and ‘James R.’ “Maria? My Maria? And James? Is this… I mean, has this got to do with magic or time travel or are these not—You said they’re from my world.”

 

“They—it’s a time travel thing.” Steve said uncertainly.

 

“Well damn, Steve. I think you have a lot of explaining to do.” Toni said. Steve had no intention of going to sleep now, and Toni didn’t seem to want to rest at all. They had time to kill.

 

 

 ~~~

 

Tony woke up abruptly, feeling something weigh on his chest. The weight shifted, and he found himself peering into tiny blue eyes identical to his. “Mama!”

 

The toddler fell back when Tony got up abruptly, noticing immediately that something was wrong. His hands were smaller, his chest felt heavier, and things were just…

 

“Junior! You woke her up!” a shrill child’s voice scolded. Tony looked at the foot of the bed and saw a little girl picking the toddler up. “Sorry, Mama, Junior escaped from his crib again.” the little girl said, keeping a steady grip on her little brother. Tony found himself responding, but not of his own accord.

 

“It’s all right, Maria. Is he okay?”

 

He heard the voice coming out of his mouth, but it was not his voice, just as these were not his words, this was not his body. What weren’t his arms moved over and gathered the toddler up softly.

 

“What is it?” a voice at Tony’s right questioned groggily. Tony’s heart might have skipped a beat, had it been his. Steve. It was Steve, right beside him, in a… bed?

 

“Your son escaped from the crib. Again.” Tony heard the-body-that-wasn’t-his reply.

 

Steve laughed at the comment, and then promptly leaned over and kissed Tony (no, not him, but he could feel it) deeply on the mouth. The kiss was returned as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Tony could feel it. Steve hummed lightly in small laughter. “I thought we established that James was your son and Maria is my daughter.” he said in good humor.

 

“No fair. Maria never gets in trouble.”

 

“Well, you called it.” Steve responded, allowing Maria to nestle in the space between them. “I think Junior could be a SHIELD agent.” Maria whispered conspiratorially.

 

Tony saw it. It was the Maria he knew, only… five years old? And the child in his arms… James. Junior. He was hanging tightly to his—his mother’s neck, gurgling happily.

 

Tony was in their mother’s body. Natasha. The question was, what was he doing there in the first place? How did this happen?

 

He wasn’t likely to get answers since he couldn’t even communicate. All that was happening was that he could generally feel, see, hear and smell everything Natasha could, but things were beyond his control.

 

He felt the familiar stirring in his mind of communications opening up as Extremis had allowed him to do… but… how was that possible? Natasha wasn’t—

 

A memo from Pepper emerged in the deeper recesses, where he was used to accessing messages.

 

Toni, I sent you the schedule of meetings for the next four days. Don’t be late, if that’s possible.

 

A message from Pepper? To ‘Toni’?

 

“Oh, Pep’s going to kill me again. Tell me you want me to stay, and I can use you and the kids as an excuse.” Natasha—no, Toni said with an all too familiar groan.

 

“Sorry. You’re on your own on this one, doll.” Steve responded, allowing Toni to hand him James. The younger child didn’t seem to want to let go of his mother, but Toni let go and Steve held the child as she got up.

 

“You’re not getting any tonight, mister.” Toni shouted from the bathroom. Tony caught a glimpse of the face and body he was housed in in the bathroom mirror. Like Maria, like him… the face was unmistakable.

 

Natasha ‘Toni’ Rogers was another Tony Stark. Their world’s Tony Stark. Their—Maria and James’—mother. And even more…

 

Steve loved her. Had children with her. Tony might have been weak in the knees at the revelation, but all he had was the consciousness, something which he noted began ebbing away-----

 

 ~~~

 

“Tony? Tony?” James murmured, his hand on Tony’s. The younger male had awoken alone, with only the unconscious forms of his sister and his… well whatever Tony was to him, in the hospital beds. Neither of them was waking, and Maria’s suit was still active.

 

James had gotten up and deactivated it with his override codes. Maybe the medical staff could get some work done on her now. For good measure, he fluffed her pillow, then made his way to Tony’s bed.

 

He was disoriented, to say the least. He had gone under before Tony and Maria had, but the last thing he saw was a third host, other than Hank Pym, or his mother.

 

His mother. James looked around, but they were the only ones there.

 

That meant that she was awake. Now, he had to decide whether that was a good thing or a bad one.

 

“James.”

 

He turned to Maria. Her eyes were closed, but she spoke.

 

“Oedipus’ third host.” she murmured. James approached her. “What is it, Maria? What did he do to you?” he demanded urgently. Maria was crying. The silent flow of tears startled James. “I think Oedipus’ third host might be my son.” she said. James balked. Her son. THAT boy.

 

“There is no way… SHIELD… he should only be…”

 

“Five years old. But time is different here.” Maria said. She opened her eyes. “He told me. He called me Mama, and told me. He’s going to kill them, James. That was the final order SHIELD had given him. He’s going to kill the Avengers.”

 

 ~~~

 

It was a strange world, but he’d seen stranger. He would adapt quickly, get his job done. His mother’s presence would only ever slow the inevitable.

 

The Oedipus AI had shown him the records of this Earth. A civil war had occurred, a division of the super humans. A takeover by the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn. The Fall of Asgard.

 

Still, the ones he was seeking were alive. Accessible. Oedipus had prevented him from doing anything the first time; it needed to plant its seeds into live subjects, and he knew the plan would miscarry if he tried anything too soon.

 

For now, he’d start away from them. They had his mother. He had to keep her safe for now. He had a trip to make.

 

To Westchester.

 

 ~~~

 

The scene was different now. Toni was working on the armor (It was just like Tony’s armor, exactly), with enough familiarity for Tony to believe he was the one in control. In the very least, their thoughts were so in tune that when he realized he needed something, Toni would act on it. It was predictable, something Tony could handle.

 

Then, from the armor, Natasha’s attention switched to something else. Schematics of Extremis flashed in her head, too quickly for anyone but herself (and by extension, Tony in her head) to read. Tony recognized some parts of it, but there were additions, modifications he needed time to review. Unfortunately, Toni knew what Tony did not.

 

All Tony knew was that this was probably where it started.

 

REX. Oedipus.

 

The Tower’s alarm system went off.

 

“Shit.” Toni muttered. She accessed surveillance to the rest of the tower.

 

Tony could see what she saw.

 

“No…”

 

“Maria!”

 

Toni was suited up before another second passed. There was no time to waste.

 

Arriving at the right floor took out a few ceilings, but she couldn’t worry about that. Little Maria was unconscious underneath parts of the roof, but she looked fine. Some men were unconscious near her; it seems that she put up a fight. At least she was all right.

 

Toni removed the offending pieces. “Maria?”

 

They must have been after her. No one knew she had another child. It had been for James to have a normal childhood for a while, at least, so they’d kept him under wraps. They wouldn’t have known—

 

“James!? Junior? Where are you?” Toni shouted desperately, clutching her daughter as she searched the surveillance footage.

 

Nowhere. He was nowhere.

 

No.

 

“James!!!”

 

 ~~~

 

Everyone had gathered to the medical bay. A new problem, when the old one hadn’t even been resolved yet, had come to light. “Oedipus had three hosts, before we took away one. One of the hosts is named Nathaniel. He’s from farther in the future than me or James, and he’s using Oedipus to try and kill all of you.” Maria said slowly.

 

“Why? Why would this Nathaniel person want to kill us?”

 

Steve stood at the door, listening to the conversation closely. Toni was in the upper rooms, resting supposedly, but obviously tapping into the surveillance.

 

“There was this… this project SHIELD funded a while back. ARISE. It was meant to storage the genetic material of every Avenger in a living subject. If something happened to the Avengers, then the subject would be powered up, used as the ultimate weapon. Later, it was shut down because of some complications with the one successful test subject.”

 

Maria breathed in. “The Avengers found out about it. They knew that all that power in the wrong hands would cause damage. They hunted down the subject, but she… the power had been passed down. She gave birth. The power of every Avenger SHIELD was able to extract material from was housed inside a baby.”

 

“What does this have to do with this Nathaniel?” Hank asked.

 

“Nathaniel is the baby. Was. From what I gather, his evolution into a super weapon was completed some time ago, and since the Avengers meant to kill him, SHIELD gave him the order to—to destroy them.” Maria said.

 

“And now he’s out to destroy us?” Clint clarified.

 

“Yes. But he told me he wasn’t going to make his move just yet.” Maria said.

 

“He told you?”

 

“During the attack. He informed me. He wanted me to know. I have no idea what his plan is, but he told me he would start with the first source of genetic material and work his way through the list.” Maria continued wearily. “If I remember right, the first ‘donor’ in the ARISE project was Spiderman.”

 

“Wait, wait, so he’s going after me first?” Peter said, almost startled off his perch on the ceiling. “Of course, it could have been Wolverine. From what I know about Nate, the greatest amount of genetic material present in his body is Wolverine’s.” Maria said vaguely.

 

“Nate?” Clint said curiously. “Nathaniel. Uh.” Maria said, hanging her head in irritation.

 

“All right, so what aren’t you telling us?” Steve said. Maria glared at him, and he returned the look. “I know him. As a child. Not that it matters now.”

 

“Is there anything else?”

 

“Yes.” James cut in. Maria allowed him to speak. “From what we’ve found out, Nathaniel is going to part with Oedipus, leaving one host. Our world’s Pym.” he said, nodding meaningfully to Hank. “Oedipus can be stopped if we take away the final host.”

 

“But how will we pull that off? The last time, we were let in. This time, Oedipus is actually going to make the effort to stop us. How will we be able to get past that?” Peter asked.

 

“I can help.”

 

It was too late; everyone was already looking at her when Steve realized that he had yet to tell them of the ‘other Tony’. Natasha—Toni—stood with the look of a woman with a mission. Everyone seemed to be taking a bit long to process what exactly they were seeing. “Let me guess…. Tony has a sister in your world, Maria? James?” Peter said.

 

“Uh. No.” Maria breathed. She got up from her bed, James along with her. “Mom.”

 

Toni accepted their embraces when they came to her, still looking unsure no matter what Steve had explained. Over their shoulders, she nodded to the rest. “Hey everyone. I’m Toni Stark. But maybe you already know me.”

 

“Holy shit.”

 

That pretty much summed up the collective reaction.