the truth is... I am Iron Man | Glowfic Constellation

Previously - or, perhaps, much, much later:

"Yeah, we got one advantage," says Stark, "he's coming to us. We'll use it."

"All right, I have a plan." He turns to the others. "Or at least the beginnings of one. It's pretty simple. We draw him in, pin him down, get what we need. Definitely don't want to dance with this guy, we just want the gauntlet." And - "Are you yawning?" he snaps at Drax. "In the middle of this, while I'm breaking it down? Huh? Did you hear what I said?"

"I stopped listening after you said that we need a plan," replies Drax.

"Okay, Mr. Clean is on his own page," Stark says.

"See, not winging it isn't really what they... do," Quill replies.

"Uh... what exactly is it that they do?" asks Parker.

"Kick names," replies Mantis, confidently. "Take ass."

"That's right," affirms Drax.

Stark stares for a moment.

And starts to realize that this really might be the end.

Dr. Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, defender of the cosmos, isn't paying much attention to any of this debate. His eyes aren't open, but he's rapidly looking back and forth anyway, because he's seeing through the view of the Time Stone.

The Time Stone can't actually see exactly what will happen in the future, but it can view each of the limitless possibilities that might come from this, and that's what Strange needs, if he wants to formulate a plan that will defeat Thanos.

The problem is... none of them seem to involve defeating Thanos.

He has looked through millions, literally millions of futures, and in each and every one of them, Thanos wins. In the vast majority, he simply crushes them all in battle, regardless of what plans they come up with. In a few, they at least get closer - maybe by briefly wounding him, or grabbing his Infinity Gauntlet, in a few rare ones - but even in those, he manages to get it back within a few moments. Strange eventually found a few hundred timelines in which Thanos was defeated on Earth by blowing up the planet and killing everyone there, and he is seriously considering doing that because there is nothing better. Except that even in most of those, someone else eventually finds the scattered stones and causes more chaos, and if all of the superheroes are dead, they can't stop them.

A little after twelve million, he starts looking for timelines in which Thanos wins at first, but the surviving Avengers reunite and manage to defeat him later. But the problem with those is that not only are they vastly outnumbered, but Thanos usually destroys the Infinity Stones after a week or so, meaning that even if they do manage to defeat him, they won't have anything they can use to bring back all of the people Thanos will inevitably kill.

But he's still looking, and looking, and -

He's crossed fourteen million.

Fourteen million timelines, and not a single one has presented him with anything that doesn't involve the murders of at best many billions of people.

Why didn't he do this before now? He had heard of Thanos! He was on the list of possible threats to the universe - not anywhere near the top of the list, which in retrospect was a big mistake, but still, he should have tried to find out what would have threatened Earth, and fix it then. But now it's too late, and he can't change -

Well.

He could change things...

The Time Stone can't rewrite history on a scale of more than a few minutes, not on its own. But maybe in conjunction with other Infinity Stones... hmm. The Mind Stone's still on Earth. Maybe he could use it, and the Time Stone, to send his mind back into that of his younger self?

He looks through a few more timelines. Nope, looks like that doesn't work. First, because it would be tricky to do with his own mind instead of someone else's, and second, because - oh.

He needs the Soul Stone, too.

The problem is, Thanos already has the Soul Stone.

Okay. Are there any timelines in which they can steal the Soul Stone from Thanos, and then get both it and the Time Stone back to Earth, and get the Mind Stone out of Vision in time to send somebody back in time?

Well, he'll keep looking.

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Raza

assemble-my-missile

Just as last time, Raza will notice they are up to something and send a few soldiers to investigate!

I-am-Iron-Man

Damn it, Tony thought they would be less suspicious this time because he hid the parts better. Well the claymores will take care of the first wave and the boot up sequence will go MUCH faster on these computers he requisitioned to code the ‘Jericho’.

Tony glares pointedly at Yinsen just in case. “When the soldiers get here, you let me take care of it. We will be having no courageous last stands out of you, If there are bullets flying you hide behind the bulletproof robot, not in front of it. Understand?”

”You won’t be going to see your family just yet this time…” He mutters under his breath.

Yinsen had to be saved this time, Tony would change things, he would never again let a single friend die, not ever.

the-legend

Soldiers run into the room with guns! And shoot at the armored Tony!

I-am-Iron-Man

The claymore mines will have blown up the first wave! Same as last time, but this time it buys Tony enough time to fully boot up the suit.

“I’ll go ahead.” His voice comes out very mechanized from under the helmet and through the speakers.

Stomp stomp stomp, Tony marches through the tunnels to the exit, clearing out any terrorists dumb enough to move towards the sound of explosions and stomping.

the-legend

There are many who do exactly that! There are also a few who find missile launchers and shoot at him with those!

I-am-Iron-Man

Tony has to waste some of his micro missiles to act as point defence against the rpgs, and one precious railgun dart to shoot through one terrorists cover to stop him firing. This version of the mark 1 was more advanced, but the Ten Rings soldiers did seem a little more prepared? He only remembers the severe looking baldy having an rpg last time. Did the absence of Yinsen’s last stand really make that much of a difference?

He fights his way through to the cave entrance, where his weapons were stockpiled.

”Yinsen get ready to hop on so we can fly out of here once I've blown up the stockpiles.” Tony blasts through his speakers. He was pretty sure none of these guys spoke english so even with it blasted out so loudly it was a relatively secure communication.

Tony is actually wondering where severe looking baldy got to? He was the leader of these guys, and last time baldy was the only one who got close to hitting him.

Raza

assemble-my-missile

He's right here with the RPG!

I-am-Iron-Man

Point defence missile! The rpg rocket gets shot out of the air close enough to the shooter that it launches him into a wall. He’s probably dead right? Tony Isn’t going to bother making sure every single terrorist is dead and double tap them. Most of the dead is good enough, he’s not bloodthirsty just vengeful.

Raza

assemble-my-missile

He's dead. Or at least will be very soon.

the-legend

Most of the nearby soldiers have decided to flee, although a few will still keep shooting at him.

see-my-family

"We might want to leave," says Yinsen. "You're sure that thing can fly? And that it can support me?"

I-am-Iron-Man

“I’m pretty sure we are near the exit, and oh it can fly alright, it can even land!” Well… it should be able to land. Unlike when he made the original mark 1, now Tony has a decade of suit flight system experience. It probably wont fall apart mid flight like the last one.

“And the seat I bolted on should be very sturdy, just make sure to wear your welding googles and seatbelt.”

Almost to the cave entrance now! Where he remembers he got most of the resistance from the terrorists last time, though seeing as they were fleeing already it might be slightly less resistance outside this time. Outside is also where the stark weapons stockpile that needs blowing up is!

“Stay in cover until you stop hearing screaming, and when I yell for you to get on, you get on the passenger seat fast. I’ll ignite the weapons caches as the boosters start up.” Tony yells behind him to Yinsen.

Tony pokes his head out of the cave entrance just to check how much resistance there might be before exiting.

the-legend

There are ten or so soldiers shooting at him!

I-am-Iron-Man

Well then, some micro missiles for those not near any weapons stockpiles, and then 3 of the remaining railgun darts for those near anything too explosive (the last dart doesn't fire because the right arms railgun finally burnt out). And a blast of napalm at anyone still moving.

That should take care of all of them.

Tony starts the ignition sequence for the flight rockets. ”Yinsen! All aboard the Stark express!”

He should have more than enough missiles and nalpam left to set this whole stark weapons cache to blow as he takes off.

see-my-family

Yinsen climbs aboard the Stark express. And does not scream in terror.

"Where are we going?" he asks, after he's finished screaming in terror.

I-am-Iron-Man

This time the suit does not in fact fall apart in mid air, and it even gives him enough control for a controlled-ish landing.

“Just far enough so they can’t find us quickly! The military should pick us up long before they do.” In fact Tony knows the military will find them in just over a day. Rhodey is still out searching for him, even after it being months since he was taken, he probably doesn’t deserve a friend like that, he never really thought about how long they kept searching for him the first time around. He misses Rhodey, even if its not his Rhodey it will be nice to see him again. Just don't think about him being split apart by Thors axe.

Tony remembers roughly in what direction he went last time, so Rhodey shouldn't have too much trouble finding him. He just needs to walk in the desert wearing hot metal armor for a while. He's not just gonna leave it here for some asshole like Obadiah to copy it again.

boom-you-looking-for-this

And soon enough, Rhodey finds him.

"Hey," he says. "How was the fun-vee?" And hugs him. "Next time, you ride with me, okay?"

I-am-Iron-Man

Tony hugs back, as much as he can while still strapped into the suit. He isn’t usually such an enthusiastic hugger, but seeing Rhodey alive again really got to him. “I’m so glad you are alive Rhodey…”

He knew intellectually that Rhodey was alive in this timeline, but it took until seeing him again for it to feel truly real.

Tony doesn’t want to be seen as too sappy so when he breaks the hug he tries to break the mood with a joke. ”You uhhh…. Wouldn't happen to have a power drill and a wrench in that chopper would you? This isn’t easy to take off and It is SO unbelievably hot in this thing.”

boom-you-looking-for-this

"Yeah, we can probably find that somewhere. What even is this? You built your own bulletproof armor, or something?"

I-am-Iron-Man

Tony smiles. “Something like that. It even flew us out of there.” He knew that would get a pilot like Rhodes’ attention.

Tony stares seriously at him. “You keep this armor as classified as you can Rhodey. The terrorists had MY advanced tech that only the military was supposed to have, we have to assume someone is compromised somewhere along the chain. We can’t let our enemies start getting information about powered suits.”

It was a bit mean for Tony to imply it was the militaries failure that lead to the Ten Rings getting his weapons. But the military was infested with HYDRA moles, so making them paranoid about security would only be a good thing.

boom-you-looking-for-this

"Holy shit, Tony, you made a flying - how did you even - right, classified, I guess." He turns to the other soldiers. "Nobody mention this until further notice."

"Oh, and you are?" he asks Yinsen.

see-my-family

"Ho Yinsen," he replies. "I'm a surgeon from Gulmira. I was imprisoned by the Ten Rings and helped Tony with his suit."

boom-you-looking-for-this

"All right. We'll need to take you in for questioning, but hopefully we can get you back to - Gulmira?"

see-my-family

Yinsen shakes his head. "The Ten Rings control it now. They killed my family and many of my closest friends. I of course hope you can free Gulmira, but even then, I have nowhere to go."

boom-you-looking-for-this