2012, New York

"Gotta hustle, Cap," Tony called as he's hovering outside the Stark Tower. He could see the team surrounding the unconscious form of Loki inside the tower, "Things look like they're just about wrapped up here."

"Got it. I'm approaching the elevator now."

Tony flew in through a broken window and hid behind a wall as he deactivated his nanotech suit; he swallowed the lump in his throat as peered through the gaps, trying to get the best view.

"If it's all the same to you...I'll have that drink now." Loki tells the Avengers as they stand over him.

"Okay, get him up." Tony's past self says. "We can all stand around posing up a storm later." He continues on. "And feel free to clean up while you're at it."

"Ugh, Mr. Rogers." Tony says in his mockery tone. "I almost forgot that that suit did nothing for your ass."

"No one asked you to look, Tony." Steve states.

Tony scoffed at it, "It's ridiculous."

"I think you look great, Cap." Scott defended; he was in the Ant-Man suit and had shrunk down to perch on Tony's shoulder, so it was easy to miss him, "As far as I'm concerned, that's America's ass."

"Who gets the magic wand?" Natasha's counterpart asked, walking forward holding Loki's scepter.

"Strike team's coming to secure it." Steve assures then as the elevator door behind Tony beeped, he scurried away light on his feet as he hid opposite the bar, a group of agents stepped into the room, Tony felt a shiver up his spine, knowing that they were HYDRA, not S.H.I.E.L.D.

Being lead by the man who...about ten years by this point has murdered the Parker's and sent Peter down the path he's on. Luckily, Peter's still on the Helicarrier grieving over Coulson's death, so they won't see him or need to deal with his abilities.

"Who are these guys?" Scott asked.

"They are S.H.I.E.L.D..." Tony narrowed his eyes, "Well, actually HYDRA. But, we didn't know that yet."

"Seriously, you didn't?" Scott mocked, "I mean...they look like bad guys."

"Your small but you're talking loud." Tony looked up to see Thor drag Loki toward the elevator.

Past Tony turned away, he secured the Tesseract in a coded box and headed over the open elevator doors.

"All right, you're up, little buddy." Tony whispered to Scott, "There's our stone."

"Alright." Scott crouched down, "Flick me." Tony sent Scott flying across the room with a tap to the back.

Tony waited until Scott landed before turning back, and jumping out the window; he scanned the building, "All right, Cap. I got our scepter in the elevator just passing the 80th floor."

-

Inside the tower, Steve is at the elevator and is waiting for it.

"On it. Head to the lobby, I'll meet you there.." Steve tells him.

"Rodger that." Tony says.

Steve hears them talking and the doors open and he steps in.

"Captain Rodgers. Thought you were coordinating search and rescue." Sitwell says confused and worried.

"Change of plans." Steve says as the doors close.

"Hey, Cap." Rumlow greets him.

"Rumlow." Steve greets and looks to the case holding the scepter. "Just got a call from the secretary. I'm gonna be running point on the scepter." He starts and they all look confused.

"Sir? I don't understand." Sitwell says.

"We got word there may be an attempt to steal it." Steve explains to him.

"Sorry, Cap. We can't give you the scepter." Rumlow says.

"I'm gonna have to call the director." Sitwell says and raises a phone to his ear.

"That's okay. Not necessary." Steve says and leans in close. "Hail HYDRA." He whispers and they're all shocked.

A few floors later, Steve leaves the elevator with the scepter inhand.

-

Tony knew he needed a disguise because he would be standing in the entrance lobby of the Stark Tower surrounded by agents and the team. He had quite a recognizable face and he could potentially start World War Three if someone noticed two Tony Starks in one room.

He had to steal an outfit from an agent but when it came to it, he made sure the man he knocked out and proceeded to shove into a closet, was a member of Hydra. So, it was worth it.

He turned aside as his past self walked past, with Thor, Loki, and a handful of agents, "Thumbelina, do you copy? I've got eyes on the prize. It's go-time."

"Bombs away," Scott replied.

Tony stifled a laugh as he came to the realisation that Scott was only a few years younger than him; he was also incredibly intelligent, but in the centre of a high state situation, he acted and spoke the same way Peter did as Spider-Man. Which in this point in time, his younger self would mock himself for that.

"Is...is that Axe body spray?" Scott sounded rightly disgusted, Tony couldn't blame him.

"Yeah, I had a can on the desk for emergencies. Relax." He said through gritted teeth, "Can we focus, please?"

"I'm going inside you." There was easily better ways to say that. "Now."

Tony watched as his past-self collided with the infamous Alexander Pierce, one of the many heads of HYDRA, it didn't take long for that conversation to turn sour.

"All right, move it, Stuart Little. Things are getting dicey up here." Tony warned, "Let's go."

"You promise me you won't die?"

"You're only giving me a mild cardiac dysrhythmia." Tony knew that Scott was essentially about to kickstart a heart attack but that pain would be worth it in the long run.

"That doesn't sound mild." Scott said, genuinely concerned.

Tony watched as his counterpart was savagely manhandled by a group of agents in their attempt to steal back the Tesseract. HYDRA might have kept themselves hidden for over fifty years but it didn't stop them from being stupid, Tony couldn't believe they thought they take an Infinity Stone away from the God of Thunder himself.

"Do it, Lang!" Tony barked, "Windows closing. Pull my pin!"

"Here it goes!"

Past him then suddenly Tony gasped for air before collapsing down onto his knees as the agents dispersed as they started to panic. Thor, being the gentle giant he'd always had been, bent down beside him, trying to diagnose the problem.

Pierce turned, and screeched, "Medic!"

"Medic." Tony chorused back, half-heartedly, "These guys need some help."

Tony waited until the box was sent hurdling in his direction, he bent down and grabbed it, he turned on his heel, away from the commotion, trying to act as nonchalant as possible as he headed towards the exit.

"Good job. Meet me in the alley. I'm gonna grab a quick slice-" Before he could finish that though, the Hulk smashed through the door, throwing Tony across the room. He didn't even have the chance to catch himself as he landed headfirst on the lament floor. His grip around the case fell away, and it slid out of his reach.

He was winded and unable to reach out for it, as he tried to force air back into his shocked lungs.

"No stairs!" Hulk screamed as he wreaked havoc on the lobby.

Tony leaned his head back and pressed one hand against his chest as he slowed his breathing.

He came around when Thor was frantically calling out Loki's name, he tore his mask off as reality dawned on him. He'd messed up.

The team had forgotten about the risk and threat of the Hulk, they hadn't considered his past aggression, now that Bruce had reached a level of tranquillity. That neglect cost them the Tesseract, it was in the hands of an unhinged god.

"That wasn't supposed to happen, was it?" Scott asked a sense of sarcasm in his tone as he landed on Tony's chest.

"Oh, we blew it." Tony sighed as he sat up and placed a hand on the back of his head, he could hear people from afar asking if he was alright, he jumped to his feet and shuffled over to the, now, broken door. He hurried away until he could no longer hear the crowds of people or the echoing roars of the Hulk.

-

Upstairs, Steve is walking with the scepter as the alarms are blaring.

"Tony, why are their alarms? Tell me you found that cube." He keeps walking and stops. "Oh, you gotta be shitting me." He complains as he sees his 2012 counterpart staring at him.

"I've got eyes on Loki. 14th floor." 2012 Steve says to the others.

"I'm not Loki." Steve says as he puts the suitcase down. "And I don't want to hurt you." He promises.

2012 Steve runs at him with his shield raised the two start starts fighting themselves. He turns his blocks the attack and the two keep fighting when 2012 Steve kicks his older self.

"I can do this all day." 2012 Steve informs him.

"Yeah, I know. I know." Steve states, getting sick of himself.

They keep fighting when the suitcase with the scepter falls. Steve leaps after it and the other him follows and they fall. As they crash near the case, the compass with Peggy's picture in it falls from his pocket and his younger self sees it.

"Where did you get this?" He asks and Steve just take a grab for the scepter and gets tackled by his 2012 self.

Steve needs to think of something fast and just says the first thing that came to mind. "Bucky...is...alive." He says and his younger self let's him go.

"What did you say?" He asks confused. Steve takes the opportunity to punch him and grabs the case and uses it on himself, knocking him unconscious.

Steve gets up and grabs his compass and looks at himself.

"That is America's ass." Steve agrees with Scott and leaves.

-

Back at the sanctum, Bruce can't convince the Ancient One to give the stone up and resorts to begging.

"Please. Please." Bruce begins to beg.

"I'm sorry, I can't help you, Bruce. If I give up the stone to save your reality, I'll be dooming my one." She explains.

"With all due respect, I'm not sure the science supports that." Bruce says as the Ancient One makes a line and creates the stones on a line. "The stones create what you experience as the flow of time. Remove one of the stones and that flow splits. This may benefit your reality. But my new one not so much. Tell me, doctor, can your science fix that?" She asks.

"No, but we can erase it, since after we use the stones, we return them in the moment they were taken. So in realty, they never left." Bruce says.

"Yes, but you're leaving out the most important part. In order to do that, you just survive." She says.

"We will. I will. I promise." He says.

"I can't risk my reality on a promise." She replies to that.

"Let him have it." A third voice says and they turn to the door and see some woman wearing red tinted glasses and has red flowing hair, and is wearing a full body suit with a white spot in the middle with lines flying off of it.

"Madame Web." Ancient One greets her and Bruce remembers Ava mentioning her years ago.

"There was a 97% chance that you would disagree to hand the stone to dr. Banner and I needed to make sure it happened." Madame Web explains before anyone could even ask the question why was she there? "He needs the stone to save his world. And if he doesn't...the world will be in a bigger threat than ever before."

"You're referring to the Crisis?" Ancient One guesses.

"The one we need to save everyone was wiped out. If he doesn't return, everything will end. There is a bigger plan at play here." Madame Web tells the Ancient One, trying to convince her.

"I'm sorry, you know it's the duty of the Sorcerer Supreme to protect the Time stone." Ancient One tells her.

"Then why the hell Strange give it up?" Bruce asks, butting in on the two.

"What?" Ancient One asks, not understanding.

"Strange. He gave the stone to Thanos." He explains.

"Willingly?" She asks.

"Yeah."

"Why would he do that?" She asks Madame Web and realizes that they have something planned since the Time Stone only allows her to see up to her death, and Madame Web can see all of the possible timelines, including after the ones she dies in.

"I don't know maybe he made a mistake." Bruce guesses.

"Or maybe I did." Ancient One whispers before she calls back Bruce's Hulk body and opens the Eye and she holds the stone to him. "Strange is meant to be the best of us."

"So he must've done it for a reason." Bruce guesses.

"I fear you might be right." She says and Bruce takes the stone.

"Thank you." He says sincerely.

"I'm counting on you, Bruce." She says. "We all are." She says and Bruce looks to Madame Web.

"What are the odds of this working?" Bruce wonders.

"If I tell you what happens, it's not going to happen." Madam Web tells him and that doesn't help Bruce as he activates his Quantum suit and returns to the compound.

-

2013, Asgard

Rocket sneaks into Jane's room as she starts to wake up and starts to sneak up behind her with the machine ready to extract the stone.

Before Jane realizes anything, Rocket stabs the machine into her back and starts extracting the stone and she screams and then faints.

Rocket sees the guards coming for him and he runs on all fours runs as the guards continue to chase him.

"Thor, I got it!" He shouts for him.

"Get that Rabbit!" One of the guards shout as they continue to chase him.

Rocket runs into a room and sees Thor with his mother.

"Hi. You must be Mom." Rocket comments. "I got the thing. Come on. We gotta move." He tells Thor.

"I wish we had more time." Thor tells his mother.

"No, this was a gift." She tells him. "Now you go and be the man you're meant to be." She tells him and they activate their suits. "And eat a salad."

"Okay, let's go." Rocket says.

"No, wait!" Thor tells him as he holds his hand out and Rocket is confused to what's happening.

"What...What am I looking at?" Rocket asks.

"Sometimes it takes a minute." She informs him as Thor's hammer comes flying in.

Thor laughs as he wields his original weapon. "I'm still worthy." Thor states as Rocket activated their suits and they vanish.

-

2014, Morag

Inside Temple of The Power Stone, the three watch Peter Quill dance and singing Come and get your love and they're seriously confused.

"This is the man that got half the universe killed?" Luke asks.

"Yeah." Nebula says.

"So, he's an idiot?" Rhodey asks.

"...yeah." Nebula agrees.

Luke waits for Quill to come up to him and he knocks him out with a punch in the face.

"That was for Peter, my friends, and the rest of the universe." Luke states, happy to finally punch the man responsible for everything that's happened.

They walk up to the doors with the power stone on the other end and Luke breaks the doors open with his super strength.

They see the power stone in an orb and we're about to step in when Rhodey stops them.

"Wait. This is the part where spikes come out with skeletons on the end of them and everything." Rhodey tells them.

"What are you talking about?" Nebula asks.

"When you break into a place called The Temple of the Power Stone, there's gonna be a bunch of booby traps." Rhodey states.

"Buddy, invulnerable skin." Luke reminds him and takes a few steps and nothing happens. "See, Indiana Jones? We're safe."

"Okay." Rhodey says as he follows him and Nebula reaches through the shield and takes the Orb out with her hand, causing it to shut down the shield and burn her hand.

"I wasn't always like this." She tells the men.

"Neither was I." Luke tells her.

"But we work with what we've got, right?" Rhodes says.

"Okay, back to the compound." Luke says as they synced up and shoot back when Nebula falls as she's getting her memory hacked.

-

2012, New York

"Scott, can you stop pacing?" Tony asks of him.

They were hiding in an empty alleyway, it was far from where civilians were being evacuated; Tony had concealed himself in the passenger seat of an abandoned trashed car, but he left the door open so he could swing his legs out. Scott was pacing back and forth outside, muttering expletives under his breath and on occasion, kicking a piece of rumble across the ground.

Tony brought two fingers to the brim of his nose, and bowed his chin down to this chest, "You're distracting me."

Scott skidded to a halt, "From what?"

"I'm trying..." Tony let out an exasperated sigh, as he looked up, "..To work this out."

Scott's face burnt red, "You said that we had one shot." He held out his arm, "This, this was our shot. We shot it. It's shot." He blurted, on the edge of a breakdown; in all fairness, it had barely been a week for Scott since this whole thing started, it was enough to drive anyone crazy, "Six stones or nothing. Six stones or NOTHING!"

Tony jumped out of the car, "You're repeating yourself." He pointed out as he walked over to him, "You know that?"

Scott fell back onto his heel, defeat etched across his face, "Tony, there's nothing we can do." He somehow spoke gently, even though he was talking through gritted teeth, "I know you just...We can't go back...We're out of Pym particles."

"Pym particles..." Tony clicked his fingers and poked Scott in the chest, "Pym..." He flinched at a loud thud from ahead, he looked to see Steve, holding onto Loki's scepter, "Hey, Cap...."

"What's going on?" Steve asked as he strode forward.

"We didn't get it," Scott told him.

Steve grimaced, "What happened?"

"I got hit in the head with the Hulk and well..." Tony trailed off, "Loki got the stone."

"Well, what are we gonna do now?" Steve asks.

"I have an idea." Tony closed the distance between him and Steve, until they were almost toe-to-toe, "There's another way. To retake the Tesseract and acquire new particles." He nudged Steve's chest playfully, "We'll stroll down memory lane. Military installation, Garden State."

Steve's eyes widened when he realised what Tony was saying, "When were they both there?"

"They were there at a..." He stuttered, "...I've got a vaguely exact idea."

"How vague?" Steve wonders.

Scott started to bombard the two with questions but they just ignore him/ "I know for a fact they were there...And I know how I know."

"Guys, what's up?" Scott asked, louder to gain their attention, "What is it?"

"Well, it looks like we're improvising." Steve answered.

"Great." Tony muttered as Steve marched to Scott.

"Scott, get this back to the compound," Steve ordered, holding out Loki's scepter as Scott cautiously took hold of it.

"Suit up." Tony held out his wrist, and started tapping in the new coordinates, "0-4..."

"0-4." Steve chorused.

Tony closed his eyes, trying to drown at Scott, "Uhh, 0-7."

"0-7."

Tony cleared his throat, "1-9-7-0."

Steve stared at him, "Are you sure?"

"Cap. Captain." Scott called and they both turned to him. "Steve, sorry, America. Rogers. Look, if you do this, and this doesn't work, you're not coming back."

Tony inhaled sharply, "Thanks for the pep talk, pissant." He looked up at Steve, "You trust me?"

"I do."

"Your call?"

"Here we go." They activated their suit and clicked down, travelling back through the quantum realm, all the way to the 1990s.

-

2000, Military installation, Garden State.

Tony and Steve split to find clothes to use to blend in; they had to knock two unexpecting fellas out, and then lock them in an empty hanger before regrouping.

"Clearly, you weren't actually born here, right?" Tony teased as the walked past the tenth sign that read 'The Birthplace of Captain America.'

"The idea of me was." Steve explains.

Tony just rolled his eyes and gets back on track. "Right. Well, imagine you're S.H.I.E.L.D., running a quasi-fascistic intelligence organization. Where do you hide it?"

Steve stopped and nodded his head forward towards a bunker, "In plain sight." Tony looked over to see two men peering over their shoulders as they quickly sneaked through the door. He tapped the side of his glasses and scanned for an entrance. And there was one.

-

After an awkward ride in the elevator with an agent, Tony separated from Steve, as he followed the signal for the Tesseract.

To his luck, the card from the guy he'd knocked out, worked on the door and to his relief, the room was empty. He hurried down the aisle, scanning each containment unit as he mumbled intangible sentences under his breath.

He almost did a jump for joy when he located it, almost. He grabbed a briefcase, he opened it before placing it down. He activated his gauntlet and used it to slice open the locks.

The Tesseract sat securely inside, welcoming him with its bright hue, "Gotcha." He pulled it out, as a smile crawled over his face, "We're back in the game." He skipped away after sealing up the volt, he placed the Tesseract down into the briefcase and secured the locks.

"Dr. Zola?" A somewhat familiar voice echoed into the room, "Are you down here?"

Tony looked up, with wide-eyes. It...he looked like Peter, but he was older. Or considering Peter won't be born for a while, Peter looked like this young scientist. "Hey." He greets Tony. "You haven't seen a Dr. Zola anywhere, have you?" He asks.

"No." Tony walked over, he bumped into a chair, but kept going, "Dr. Zola, no, I haven't seen a soul."

"I didn't expect to find him." He admitted, "Well, thank you anyway."

"No problem."

He kept up his warm smile, even as his forehead creased, "If you don't mind me saying, you seem lost." He pointed to the door, "I'm happy to be of assistance."

"Yeah, that'd be great..." Tony sighed, "Thank you."

"I'm sorry, I never forget a face. Have I seen you around here before?" He wonders.

"No, sir." Tony took off his badge, "I'm, a visitor from MIT."

"Oh, MIT, I went there myself. One of their youngest graduates. Well, it's a pleasure to meet you." He extended his hand, "I'm Richard Parker."

And now everything makes sense! This was Peter's father, sometime during his time on the super soldier project.

"I'm..." It's just a name, Tony, you know loads of names. "Howard." How original, "Howard Potts."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Howard." Richard says and turned towards the door, "Where are you heading?"

"Out." Tony says

"Right this way then." Richard leads the way.

-

Steve distracted Hank Pym and stole some Pym Particles to get back and hoped Tony got the tesseract.

In the elevator, Tony noticed that Richard was holding a box of chocolates. "So, flowers and sauerkraut. You got a big date tonight?"

"Ah.." Richard held them up, "me and my wife are expecting and she is having some strange cravings. They are not what you would call normal cravings. But thankfully it's just chocolate and not...you won't believe it."

Tony guesses there were some strange side effects with Peter's mother's pregnancy when she pregnant with one of the most powerful children.

"How far along is she?" Tony wonders.

"This will be our eighth month." Richard tells him and Tony knows that means in about nine months, Richard and Mary are going to die. He was told Peter was only eight months old when they were killed by Rumlow and their plane crashed and Coulson adopted him.

"I have a little girl." Tony tells him, trying to have a conversation with the man.

"That's nice. We're expecting a boy." Richard says, not knowing that the man he's speaking to has watched his son grow up over the years.

When they got outside, Tony knew their time was short, and he had so much he needed to say, but couldn't find the right way to say it.

"Here we are then." Richard stopped, "It's been a pleasure, Potts." He held out his hand, "Perhaps, one day we'll run into each other again."

"Maybe, yeah." Tony didn't care how awkward it was, he shook Richards hand and saw Cap in the distance. "Um, Good luck with your son."

"Thank you." Richard said, when Tony stopped him for a second.

"Listen, I wanna say I can see great things are going to happen to your son. He's going to do a lot of great things in his life. And everyone he meets are going to love him." Tony promises, trying to tell him everything will work out in time.

"Thanks." Richard says when he looks and sees Coulson is ready to go. "And you're right. But for me, he's not even here, and I'm already willing to die for him." He admits and Tony finds that a bit cliche, but it holds more power when he literally does die to keep his son safe.

"See you around." Tony beelined for where Steve was stood, waiting.

They had the Tesseract, and they were going home.

Richard watches as he leaves and wonders where he's seen him before and turns to Coulson who has his hair standing up.

"Hey, C, have we met that guy before?" Richard asks Coulson, looking to Tony.

"No, I can't say we have." Coulson says. "He does look like Stark, doesn't he?"

"Yeah. He kinda does." Richard agrees. "You know, a poor old man Tony Stark." He says as he gets in the car.