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Morgan seemed to be mad at him, and Tony couldn’t for the life of him figure out why. He was about to ask when he heard a car coming up the driveway, and got up to look- only to feel a sting in his wrist. He started to get dizzy, and then blacked out.
Morgan sighed in relief when Tony collapsed. She’d already done the same to her mother, and went outside as she heard footsteps on the porch.
Morgan wasn’t actually from this timeline. She didn’t know why she in particular had been sent back after Steve Rogers destroyed the universe, but if she could prevent the end of everything, and the death of everyone she cared about as well as her own death, she’d be happy.
Rogers, Romanov, and Lang looked startled when they saw her, and she said bluntly, “I know why you’re here. Dad’s not going to help you monsters if I have anything to say about it.”
“What makes you think you know why we’re here?” Romanov asked.
“Lang came up with the idea to travel back in time, and then you all realized that to do that, you needed someone who was smart enough to actually invent time travel,” Morgan said flatly. “Don’t bother trying to lie. I know what happened, and I won’t let it happen again.”
“Uh… what did happen?” Lang asked.
“Snapping everyone back to life created the biggest refugee crisis in recorded history, and Thanos found out about your little plan and attacked again,” Morgan said bitterly. “Also, getting the Soul Stone required a sacrifice, so Romanov died, and then Dad died using the gauntlet he’d made to snap Thanos and his army out of existence. As if that wasn’t enough, though, Rogers decided- after being explicitly told not to do this- to go back to the 1940s and live out his dream with some lady. He created so many new timelines that it literally destroyed the universe. Of course, he was dead by the time things got really bad, but I’m not letting Dad create time travel twice. You all should go to hell, and leave my family alone.”
“Kid, I don’t think you get it,” Rogers said.
“You’re the one who doesn’t get it, Captain Asshole,” Morgan snarled. “You literally destroyed the universe to get your idea of a happy ending. Get this through your thick head- your precious Bucky is dead. Gone. Not coming back. Instead of moping around feeling sorry for yourself, you should be helping the people who are left. I know Lang is in denial ‘cause he just got back, but you and Romanov have lived five years with the knowledge that you lost. Get over it. Or shoot yourselves in the head, you’d be doing the world a favor. Either way, you need to leave. This is private property, and I can just call the police.”
“Where are your parents?” Romanov asked suspiciously.
“I tranquilized them so they wouldn’t interfere, and I have no issue blaming that on you and telling the police you came here to kidnap me so Dad would work for you,” Morgan said. “Who do you think they’ll believe? The cute little four-year-old, or the bunch of known criminals who have a history of abusing my dad?”
She saw the looks they gave each other, and then Romanov dragged Rogers and Lang off without another word. Morgan waited until their car had left to go back inside.
She found her parents still out cold, and asked, “FRIDAY?”
“They’re fine, just unconscious,” FRIDAY said. “You could try poking them.”
Morgan went to Pepper first, and poked her until she let out a groan and opened her eyes. “...Morgan?” she asked, confused. “Why am I sleeping on the floor?”
“We should wake Dad up first,” Morgan said. “He’s in the kitchen.”
“Uh… okay,” Pepper said, still very confused. She followed Morgan downstairs and to the kitchen, where they found Tony waking up. He slowly pushed himself up, spotted them, and asked in confusion, “Pepper? Morgan? What’s going on?”
“We need to talk,” Morgan said.
“This have anything to do with why you keep giving me death glares?” Tony asked. “Or the car that I heard earlier?”
“Both,” Morgan said, and headed for the living room. Pepper and Tony followed, and they sat down. Morgan sighed and said, “Dad’s ex-teammates came by earlier- that was the car you heard.”
“Are you okay? They didn’t hurt you, did they?” Tony asked immediately.
“I’m fine, and they didn’t lay a finger on me,” Morgan said. “Lang came up with a plan to travel back in time and get the Infinity Stones from different points in time, and then use them to snap everyone you guys lost back to life.”
Tony and Pepper looked baffled. “How would that even work?” Pepper asked. “I didn’t think time travel was a thing yet.”
“It isn’t, and it won’t become a thing if I have anything to say about it,” Morgan said darkly, looking at Tony.
“What happened?” Tony asked.
“Originally, they came to you for help, you initially told them no, and then after a talk with Mom, you changed your mind and created time travel for those idiots,” Morgan said grouchily. “The plan ended with you and Romanov dead, the Avengers Compound destroyed when Thanos caught wind of your time travel shenanigans in 2014, and the worst refugee crisis in the history of the universe. And it only got worse from there, because Rogers used your time travel device to go back to 1948 and live out his dream with some lady, along with saving his precious Bucky. He created so many new timelines, both with time traveling for the Infinity Stones and with going back to live, that the universe was completely destroyed. Wakanda’s vibranium was the first thing to go- the entire country and most of the surrounding countries were completely obliterated, and things only got worse from there. I died when I was seven, not long after Mom got blown up, and woke up here about a day ago. Once I realized what had happened, I got FRIDAY on board, and she helped me find a bunch of tranq darts so you two wouldn’t interfere while I told the idiots exactly what was going to happen and that they’re screwed if they come near us again. After all, you two were unconscious and they were clearly trespassing, so I could have convinced the police that they were the ones who tranq darted you and that they were going to kidnap me as leverage so you’d do their bidding.”
Tony and Pepper stared at her in horror, speechless. Finally Tony asked, “Why did I even agree to that plan?”
“Peter,” Morgan said bitterly. “I don’t know why a teenager who you’d barely known for two years was more important than your family, but you left us anyway. I hated him, honestly. I don’t care that he was probably a good person- he was the reason you left us, and I never could get past that. I was mad at you, but I don’t hate you. Uncle Rhodey was very informative after I got him drunk about how you felt guilty that he died and thought it was your fault, not to mention how you have a massive guilt complex and seem to think everything that goes wrong is your fault. I just don’t get why you had to get Peter back at the expense of our family and happiness. Everyone in his life was dusted besides you, so it’s not like his aunt or his friends were out there mourning him. You were the only one, and you had people to lean on. You had me, you had Mom, you had Uncle Rhodey, FRIDAY, the bots, Uncle Happy… I don’t think Peter was worth throwing us all away.”
Tony had started out a bit angry, but then Morgan’s “But you left us,” knocked the wind out of him. And the more she talked, the more horrified and guilty he became. Because she was right. In her timeline, he clearly had thought Peter was worth trying to create time travel to get him back. And he clearly hadn’t been thinking about how much he had to lose.
Tony realized that holding onto the idea that Peter would come back or could be brought back was unrealistic. That had always been his mindset anyway, hadn’t it? Once someone was dead, that was it. They would be remembered, but they weren’t coming back to life.
He finally decided, in that moment, to let Peter go. The kid had been good for him, but he had to move on now. He had a family who needed him here, not off trying to bring people back to life. And Morgan was completely correct in saying that bringing everyone back would create the worst refugee crisis in the history of the universe. Just thinking about the logistics of 3.5 billion people suddenly appearing and needing everything from housing to food to jobs made him cringe.
He looked at Morgan, and said, “You’re right. I’m sorry, and I swear I’m not going to create time travel or even go anywhere.”
“You promise?” Morgan asked.
“I promise,” Tony said. “No time travel, and we’ll have all the family time we can handle, okay?”
“Okay,” Morgan said, then came over and hugged him. Tony picked her up and hugged her tightly, feeling tears running down his face, and Morgan’s tears soaking into his shirt. Pepper joined the hug, wrapping her arms around both of them, and they stayed like that, just taking comfort in each others’ presence.
Finally Morgan pulled back a bit, and asked, “Can we have lunch? I’m hungry.”
Pepper laughed a bit and said, “Yeah. Let’s have lunch.”
“We need to call Rhodey at some point, too,” Tony said. “I absolutely would not put it past Rogers and his groupies to try to create time travel themselves and destroy the universe anyway.”
“Good idea, let’s call him after lunch,” Pepper said.
“I already let PLATO know to shut off the power if they start building anything,” FRIDAY reported.
“Good work, Fri,” Tony told her.
“Thanks Boss!” FRIDAY chirped.
After lunch, Tony video-called Rhodey with Morgan in his lap. Rhodey picked up, and said, “Hey Tones, what’s going on? Rogers took Romanov and Lang somewhere, but they came back looking disgruntled and wouldn’t tell me anything.”
“They came to ask me to create time travel for them, so they can reverse the Snap and be the big heroes again- and so Rogers can have his security blanket back,” Tony said in disgust. “Never mind that that’ll create the biggest refugee crisis in recorded history- those idiots don’t have a brain cell between them.”
“Ugh,” Rhodey sighed. “I’ll go deal with them, and maybe call the Accords Council.”
“FRIDAY has already told PLATO to shut the power off if they start building anything,” Tony commented.
“Good to know, thanks,” Rhodey said. “We still on for dinner tomorrow night?”
“Yeah,” Tony said with a smile. “See you then; good luck with the idiots.”
“Thanks, I’ll need it,” Rhodey said gloomily. “Bye Morgan, see you tomorrow.”
“Bye Uncle Rhodey,” Morgan said. Rhodey smiled and signed off, and Morgan looked up at Tony. “Are we telling him?”
“When he gets here, yeah, but not while he’s at the Compound,” Tony said. “What do you want to do now?”
“Play-Doh?” Morgan asked hopefully.
Tony smiled. “Sure,” he said. Deciding to let Rhodey and the Accords Council handle Rogers and his groupies, he put those thoughts behind him and decided to focus on his family.