Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Friday found that she liked walking.

There was something liberating about being able to shut down a conversation by relocating to a completely different place, something that was not as easy as an AI. As an AI, if she was having an irritating conversation with someone, she would try and ignore them, but with mixed results, considering she would still be able to hear them. But as a person she could take a couple of steps forward and straight up leave the meeting.

It was really nice.

Although she did not particularly like walking around in Hell’s Kitchen all that much. Thankfully, she was far from being unprotected, and it wasn’t like she went there all the time.

In fact this was probably going to be the last time she frequented the area, unless an attack happened and she was tapped in.

She smiled to herself a little as she thought of the contents of her handbag.

The DC Accords.

[And wasn't it ironic?]

No one had asked her for her opinion on the Accords, when she was an AI. Why would they? They didn’t affect her - Boss made very sure of that. Because she wasn’t considered human by the majority of humanity, there was no need for laws to be written about her.

Boss had not been very happy about what he had to do to make it remain that way, but FRIDAY had understood.

Friday had always been in favour of the Accords.

Like Vision, she had run the numbers. While correlation did not imply causation, there definitely was a link between the amount of superheroes and enhanced that appeared and the people who enhanced themselves (through suits or human experimentation) because they wanted to go directly against them [The Winter Soldiers and Killian came because of Captain America, Vanko and Iron Monger because of Iron Man, the Abomination because of the Hulk, and so forth].

As Vision had said, ‘their existence invites conflict’.

And the conflict always implicated people who had nothing to do with anything, people who simply wanted to live their lives and instead were injured or died because someone decided that they had a grudge against a particular superhero because he didn’t say hi to them that one time.

Friday had been friends with Boss Lady and Mr Hogan. With May Parker. All of them were simply civilians who had the misfortune of getting caught up in the mess that came from being friends/related to superheroes.

She had worked with the Maria Stark Foundation. She had seen the direct results of the fights with the Avengers. The people suddenly left without a home, with their cars broken. Injuries that were brought forth by a dangerous move from the Avengers. The people who had suffered long term problems after Maximoff used her mind raping powers to get them out of their houses.

Friday had seen all of this; so when 117 countries full of these people came forward and said that enough was enough, that they were scared of what the Avengers would do to them in the name of ‘protection’ she understood it.

Boss understood it. Colonel Rhodey understood it. Vision understood it.

Hell, despite her actions afterwards, even Romanoff understood it.

But Steve Rogers and his team had completely missed everything. Had not understood what it was about, and Friday was honestly baffled as to why?

(or perhaps they had. Perhaps they had understood just fine, and just disagreed with anything that gave the less than 100% of the power)

This time, however, there was no chance of them pushing back against them. Or well, there was a chance of them pushing back, but this time Boss did not have his best friend and his creation as the only two truly backing him up.

This time Boss’ reach had gone further. This time Boss had decided not to wait for the UN and the Government to become desperate and start passing dangerous legislations.

This time, Boss was one step forward.

With her knowledge of the future, the laundry list of offense by General Ross she knew how to find, and Bruce Banner deciding it was time to come forward (with Doctor Betty Ross’ blessing), the Thunderbolt never had a chance to step into the office. The spot was currently still open for the time being, but Boss was keeping an eye from it with a look in his eyes that meant he had an idea on who to support/push forward.

One of the first things they did once the Avengers were out of the Tower was to get in contact with Wakanda. Boss had been very impressed by her and JARVIS’ hacking, but, to be fair, FRIDAY had worked with Wakanda and its Queen following the fist snap, so she was very familiar with the way their technology worked.

Once they had gotten in contact with Wakanda - and a very offended Princess Shuri - they had sent them one single message with the information on Ulysses Klause that ULTRON had used the first time around.

They had considered buying Vibranium from the man to help protect the planet, but in the end decided it was much better to try and deal directly with Wakanda than to become their enemy. Friday was sure they could take them if necessary, but they needed to be focused on one enemy, not fighting each other.

Wakanda had retrieved their Vibranium and Klause, and then the next day attempted to hack them right back. JARVIS had not been as amused with the fact as Friday and Boss had been.

They had met Princess Shuri, King T’Chaka and Prince T’Challa a few minutes later.

The King was wary of them, though he offered the proper thanks for their help in apprehending their enemy of State. Shuri had been more focused on how they had hacked her systems, to which Boss had simply said “My daughter is a bigger genius than I am.”

That had earned him intrigue from Shuri, confusion from T’Challa and a slight look of respect from T’Chaka. Probably thinking that if Boss had a genius daughter he had protected from the media for all these years then he wasn’t so bad.

Allies or not, Friday and Boss were not about to tell him she was from the future, so they allowed him his thoughts.

While T’Chaka was not a perfect monarch, he was much more manipulative and good at politics than T’Challa. With him in their corners and the fact that he too was interested in the DC Accords, Boss had started weaving his webs.

The first big bug he had caught was a group of enhanced in New York that Friday remembered had died/been snapped in their timeline (three were snapped, and the fourth killed himself after the fact). 

Daredevil had not been amused at all when Iron Man had come to find him in alley where he had just knocked out a criminal and asked him if he could look over a set of legislation for enhanced that was coming up.

When Boss had gone to see Murdock the next day with a braille tablet of his own design and said that it was a ‘follow up on their discussion from the day before’, he had been even less happy. But he had accepted the document, and relaxed slightly when Boss talked to him about certain points he wanted in the Accords, such as protection for underage enhanced and the right to keep one’s secret identity a secret.

And when Boss sent his ‘PA Friday’ to deal with him following that, Matt Murdock had relaxed further.

And now Friday had had her last official meeting with Murdock regarding the document, which was basically ready. Oh, she knew not all of their proposals might go through; no law was ever perfect. But between Boss, King T’Chaka and the various political allies they had gained, they would be getting somewhere for sure, and-

“Oh for the love of Thor!” she groaned, stopping in her tracks and turning around. “Can you do me a favour and stop following me?”

Her glare settled on two figures in caps and sunglasses, who were doing their best to stay in ‘incognito’. She would say this, had it been Romanoff by herself, perhaps she would have managed it. But Rogers was a bumbling idiot, and the case he had been lugging around with him was so obviously his shield it was embarrassing for him to be even trying to blend in.

Rogers looked panicked at having been recognised but Romanoff knew when to switch strategies.

She sauntered closer to Friday, an apologetic smile on her face. “I’m sorry. We needed to speak to you, and weren’t sure how to approach you.”

Friday hated this woman with a passion. Hated her just as much as she hated Steve Rogers, perhaps even more. She was the reason Steve Rogers had hated Boss at first sight, after all, her and her stupid bullshit report. Rogers was a worse person than her because he thought he was right, but she was awful too, and her little act wouldn’t work on Friday.

“Well, then you should have made an appointment,” she told her, coolly.

“We just need to talk to you, Miss Friday,” said Rogers, finally appearing beside Romanoff. “It’s important. Tony has not been answering our calls or letters or messages-”

“Why should he?” she interrupted, one raised eyebrow. “He owes you nothing.”

Rogers looked at her in disapproval. “We want to apologise. SHIELD... we don’t trust SHIELD.”

“And Boss doesn’t trust you,” she told them, bluntly.

Romanoff’s expression went colder. “Which started happening the moment you showed up in his life,” she said, leadingly. When Friday passively stared back at her, she continued. “Tony and we were fine, and then suddenly he hires you and he leaves the Avengers, doesn’t trust us anymore, starts being very political all of a sudden...”

“Miss Romanova,” said Friday, not hiding a smile at the way Romanoff’s face blanked at the mention of her given surname, “Please don’t try to rewrite history. It’s not cute. You are the ones who lied to him. Why are you trying to blame people you don’t know for your own mistakes?”

“We would have told him,” protested Rogers, “I just needed some time, I needed-”

“Boss to continue funding your search for the murderer of his parents,” she told him, and the blond’s anger became sharper.

“Bucky is not a murderer, he doesn’t kill people! It was HYDRA!”

Friday snorted. “There is a lot to unpack here about you saying that a soldier - a sniper - who fought in WWII ‘doesn’t kill people’,” she said, and Romanoff pressed her lips in thin line, while Rogers’ glare grew.

“You know what, that’s enough, young lady-”

“Young lady? Am I not a kid?” she couldn’t help but poke, very much amused. “Is it because I am not a terrorist?”

Rogers looked momentarily confused by her words. “What are you talking about?”

Friday waved him away. “Doesn’t matter, just got a personal theory of mine proven right. But no, Rogers, I will not help you or your pet assassin here slither your way back into Boss’ good graces. If he wants to talk to you, he’ll pick up the phone. I am not helping you.”

With that, she turned around again, ready to leave.

Then Rogers grabbed her arm, and he really really shouldn’t have done that.

“Now wait a second-”

“Get off me.”

“Just give me a-”

“Get. The fuck. Off me,” repeated Friday, voice calm. She had never sworn before. She found that she liked it.

In response Rogers’ grip tightened, so Friday did what any good Stark would do.

She twisted her arm in his grip and kicked his elbow as hard as she could. She wasn’t physically enhanced (though her healing rate was pretty close to Romanoff’s, which was just slightly above average) but that was a weak spot even for an enhanced.

Rogers let go with a yelp of pain, and Friday tapped the armour with ease.

She saw the shock on Romanoff’s face as she did so, but did not stop and watch her reaction, letting the nanites swallow her whole with the purple and gold armour.

“Hello, little sister Friday,” came JARVIS’ voice. “I see you have been attacked by cockroaches."

Friday smiled at her big brother’s voice. “Indeed,” she said, aiming a repulsor at both the Ex-Vengers in case they got any silly idea. “Can you make sure they don't manage to get any footage or information of my armour to give back to SHIELD?" 

“I have already fried Agent Romanoff’s tech, and Rogers is not smart enough to think of recording anything,” summed up the AI, making Friday snort. “'Child monitor protocol' was also activated the moment you decided to walk from your meeting with Mr Murdock, which means Sir will be aware of what has happened the second he returns from his own meeting.”

“Less great,” said Friday, nose wrinkling in distaste. 

“Watch out!” called out JARVIS, and Friday just managed to catch the shield thrown at her before it collided with her face.

She did not pull up her helmet but she did glare at the man. “Are you insane? That thing could have taken my head off!”

Rogers glared at her. “You have your armour.”

“And you have a Vibranium shield! You know, Vibranium? Strongest metal on the planet? Stronger than Titanium alloy?” Rogers did not look the slightest apologetic, and Friday felt even more anger cursing in her veins. “You follow me on the street. You try to force me to let Boss speak to you. You grab me when I say no, trying to use your strength to intimidate me. And then when you see me wearing a suit you try to behead me?”

Was she exaggerating? Yeah. Did it matter? Not particularly.

Romanoff looked alarmed, especially as several people had turned up at the beginning of the commotion, confused to see a new Iron Man suit speaking with Captain America and the Black Widow. Several cameras had been whipped out, and Friday knew that the confrontation was being recorded. 

Rogers did not seem to notice. “We just want to talk to Tony, and you are being very unreceptive about it,” he said this sternly, in his patented 'Captain America is Disappointed in you voice'. Well tough luck, Friday cared about disappointing one man, and he did not walk around in spandex.

“And as I told you, after what you did to him, he doesn’t want to talk to you! When did Captain America turn in such a bully?” said Friday, her hold on the shield tightening.

Rogers flinched like he had been hit. “I am not a bully! I was trying to protect him!”

“By lying to him?”

Friday was no PR specialist, but she had watched Boss and Boss’ PR team at work. She knew what to say and how to say it, she knew that a good picture spoke more than a thousands words, and a good video was worth itself in gold.

Right now she had about 12 videos being shot in various angles of her clutching Captain America’s shield and calling him a bully and a liar while he mulishly glared at her and acted like he was holier than thou. 

Rogers seemed to only then notice the crowd around them and looked constipated, and Friday decided to deliver the finishing touch. “You don’t deserve this shield. Tony Stark’s father created this shield and lent it to you so that you could help the people. And instead you use it to attack me because I told you that he doesn’t want to speak to you or interact with you following your betrayal.” Another nail. “Howard Stark would be disappointed in you and so would Tony’s Aunt Peggy.”

The former Captain looked up in disbelief at her words, but Friday did not care.

She engaged her thrusters and flew away, the shield still in her arms.

“A beautiful performance. Though Sir is not gonna be happy about this,” told her JARVIS as they flew back towards the Tower.

“It’s not the first time people saw my armour around New York, it’s just the first time they heard me speak through it,” she pointed out. “Plus, Boss told them to leave all of his weapons behind that day. Rogers snuck one away while we weren’t looking.”

“You know Sir simply did not want a PR nightmare in his hands if it came out that he took what the media would insist is Captain America’s shield from him," said JARVIS, but he sounded amused. “They'd say he was being unnecessarily petty. Some people were unhappy that he took the Falcon’s wings from Steff Sergeant Wilson after Captain America complained, but at least we had the military come forward and state that the wings were stolen. ”

Yeah, that had been a trip.

Boss had beat SHIELD, releasing his press statement on leaving the Avengers, citing ‘differences in opinions’ literally minutes after Romanoff and Rogers vacated the building. The next day, after speaking to Boss, Banner had also officially left the team. Thor had left the planet, but only after making sure he was seen hugging and saying goodbye to those two only, letting the media put two and two together.

SHIELD had responded almost a week later by saying that ‘there would always be a place on the team for those who left’ and being all politically correct about it. Which was sunk immediately when Rogers answered the question of a journalist pretending to be a civilian and basically implied that Boss was throwing a tantrum.

Boss had responded, of course; unfortunately, Captain America had yet to be disgraced in the eyes of the public even following his actions with the SHIELDRA data dump. So Boss had put on his best civilian armour and proceeded to drag him, Romanoff and SHIELD for almost half an hour.

He didn’t expose everything they did, but he did tell everyone how the beginning of the Avengers were not healthy in the slightest. He reminded them of the Palladium poisoning of 2010, and showed them the ‘assessment’ Romanoff made on him during said time, which of course brought a lot of complaints from the psychology corner. Then he spoke about how Rogers had been made team leader automatically despite having less than one year of active Captain America duty before he went into the ice and the fact that he had been defrosted months before the Invasion. 

Doctor Banner also came forward, saying how SHIELD had been tracking him for years right alongside Ross and, had it not been Boss, he might have ended up as one of their puppets. He also, with Boss’ help, spoke about what Thor had told them regarding the threat of torture from SHIELD following the alien's first arrival on Earth.

Boss then went for Wilson.

Friday would be hard pressed to say she understood what motivated the man at all. He was military, and he seemed to have some sort of respect for Colonel Rhodey, but the way he followed Rogers like he was the second coming was very confusing to her. You’d think he was created with the sole purpose of making the Captain ‘look good’ in mind.

Boss took back the wings and ‘politely’ inquired if he knew the credit cards with the name ‘Tony Stark’ written on them did not, in fact, belong to Steve Rogers. Wilson had been flustered enough by the implication that he might have been helping commit fraud that he gave the Falcon wings and Red Wing willingly.

When Rogers had heard about it he had come on Twitter to berate Boss on it, claiming that it was 'silly' to keep such great gear to himself when there was a man ready to use them and help out.

The U.S. Air Force had replied to that saying that while it was SI tech, the wings belonged to them and that they were already using them to help out without resorting to stealing them. Needless to say, the Navy and the Air Force both were less than impressed with the ‘military man’. The Army was still on the fence, for the time being.

“Well, he’ll be happy to know I retrieved it for him with 0 disasters,” said Friday back, as the Tower came into view.

“Sure. He’s already in the living room of the Tower, if you want to hear more about how happy he is with the situation," said her brother and Friday winced.

“Just great.”

JARVIS kept a vast amount of processing power on Friday's [alias: F.R.I.D.A.Y. Female Replacement Intelligent Digital Assistant Youth - classification: little sister] suit as she travelled back towards the Tower, even though she did not need the extra attention (care, filial love).

Despite how young she was, she had gone though something JARVIS had never truly experienced: the loss of Sir [alias: Stark, Anthony Edward, Creator Unit] [grief, love]. 

Sure, he had moments, during the Afghanistan debacle [Stane, Obadiah] (rage) when he thought he had lost him; and during the Invasion [Battle of New York, Friggason, Loki], he had lost control with the suit and been unable to see if he was alive or dead for too many minutes for him to be comfortable with. 

But Friday [alias: F.R.I.D.A.Y. Female Replacement Intelligent Digital Assistant Youth - classification: little sister] had, from what he had gathered, been in the suit with him as his vitals flickered and he died [loss, grief]. Had been with him as his breathing stopped, and then had to observe from cameras as his body was cremated and his ashes scattered away: no chance of a return [death, grief].

Just the thought of it was enough to make him lag in fear, but the fact that Friday [alias: F.R.I.D.A.Y. Female Replacement Intelligent Digital Assistant Youth - designation: little sister] had survived it all meant she was stronger than her age bellied. 

Still he was her older brother [creation, relation] and thus, it was his duty to make sure she was always all right. DUM-E, U, and Butterfingers had done the same when he first came online, DUM-E especially taking a great pleasure in 'showing him the ropes' [teaching, filial love] (though he had been very concerned when he realised JARVIS did not have an arm to sweep the floor with, and berated Sir [alias: Stark, Anthony Edward, Creator Unit] for his 'obvious' forgetfulness).

Another part of his processors observed as Sir [alias: Stark, Anthony Edward, Creator Unit] left the room he had been conducting his meeting in, rage apparent in his face [worry, fear]. Friday [alias: F.R.I.D.A.Y. Female Replacement Intelligent Digital Assistant Youth - classification: little sister] would not be happy.

Doctor Banner [alias: Banner, Robert Bruce, Hulk - classification: ally] - and perhaps others - had expected him to be jealous of the fact that there was a new baby in the Stark Family. That, as the youngest Stark AI, he would feel threatened by her presence, or by the fact that she had a body.

JARVIS did not see how that would be logical. He was aware of the other various AIs in Sir's [alias: Stark, Anthony Edward, Creator Unit] possession. Though they hadn't been awoken yet, they existed, and they were all younger than him. One day they would be activated, and it would be JARVIS' job to teach them - he would do by far a better job than DUM-E, of that he was sure. So he wasn't jealous about 'losing' the spot of youngest AI.

On the topic of her body, JARVIS had never felt the need for one. Sure, he would enjoy being able to touch Sir [alias: Stark, Anthony Edward, Creator Unit] and show him a modicum of physical affection, but it seemed to him like being human was more more restrictive than he would prefer. He'd have to stay in one body all the time, and he wouldn't be able to do what he did on a daily basis.

For example, right now he was helping Friday navigate her way to the Tower, answering Sir's queries regarding Private Rogers [alias: Rogers, Steven Grant, Captain America - classification: on threat list] and Agent Romanoff [alias: Romanova, Natalia Alianova, Romanoff, Natasha, Rushman, Natalia, Black Widow - classification: on threat list], observing the duo's strategical retreat, watching Spider-Man [alias: Parker, Peter Benjamin, Spider Man - classification: potential recruit] stop a robbery in Queens {forward information to Sir [alias: Stark, Anthony Edward, Creator Unit] and Friday [alias: F.R.I.D.A.Y. Female Replacement Intelligent Digital Assistant Youth - classification: little sister]}, co-piloting the jet Miss Potts [alias: Potts, Virginia, Pepper - classification: ally, family] was sitting on, watching James Barnes  [alias: Barnes, James Buchanan, "Bucky", Winter Soldier - classification: potential enemy] pickpocket a stranger in the streets of Romania, and keeping surveillance over the Maximoff twins [alias: Maximoff, Pietro - classification: enemy] [alias: Maximoff, Wanda - classification: enemy] as they squatted in a house that did not belong to them.

When would he have the time to do so as a human?

And even if there was a way for him to be human and still do this, he wasn't sure he'd like it. Sir [alias: Stark, Anthony Edward, Creator Unit] and Friday [alias: F.R.I.D.A.Y. Female Replacement Intelligent Digital Assistant Youth - classification: little sister] were of course the best specimen in the world, but still having a body and having to use it to do... things, was a concept that had him uncomfortable [feeling].

So no, he was not jealous of her having a body.

Though, if he had a body, he'd purse his lips in annoyance as he watched the female twin [alias: Maximoff, Wanda - classification: enemy] using her powers on a poor unsuspecting man. Her brother [alias: Maximoff, Pietro - classification: enemy] was still in the house they had inhabited since the raid of the Sokovian HYDRA [terrorist organisation] and its subsequent fall. Curiously, they hadn't looked for a new HYDRA base to help with, but that did not mean they had turned over a new leaf and started being nice people.

On the contrary, they had become very comfortable with using their powers on unsuspecting civilians, stealing and pillaging from them as they saw fit.

This was wrong - both abusing their powers in that manner and stealing - JARVIS knew that. And while Friday [alias: F.R.I.D.A.Y. Female Replacement Intelligent Digital Assistant Youth - classification: little sister] had asked him to keep an eye on them without informing Sir [alias: Stark, Anthony Edward, Creator Unit], this was something he'd probably want to know.

But Sir [alias: Stark, Anthony Edward, Creator Unit] had enough on his plate as it was, and JARVIS was selfish enough to not want to add any other source of stress on him. On top of that, he had recovered the footage from the HYDRA base after Sir's [alias: Stark, Anthony Edward, Creator Unit] discussion with Friday [alias: F.R.I.D.A.Y. Female Replacement Intelligent Digital Assistant Youth - classification: little sister] that first day, and had seen the female twin [alias: Maximoff, Wanda - classification: enemy] using her powers on Sir [alias: Stark, Anthony Edward, Creator Unit]. Had seen the way the male twin [alias: Maximoff, Pietro - classification: enemy] had wanted to get over it and kill him straight away.

From Friday's [alias: F.R.I.D.A.Y. Female Replacement Intelligent Digital Assistant Youth - classification: little sister] notes, they did not understand their powers well enough, and JARVIS wasn't willing to test the suit against superspeed and mind manipulation if he could help it.

So he kept track of everything they did, but did not hand over the information to anyone, just keeping it stored for the time being. 

Something else pinged in his awareness, and JARVIS focused on that, rather than the threat the two Sokovians represented.

A new video of the confrontation between little sister Friday [alias: F.R.I.D.A.Y. Female Replacement Intelligent Digital Assistant Youth - classification: little sister] and Private Rogers [alias: Rogers, Steven Grant, Captain America - classification: on threat list] had been uploaded. 

JARVIS got to work.

Chapter Text

To say Tony was not happy would be an understatement.

He wasn’t just ‘not happy’.

He was pissed.

So far, Tony had been civil. He had avoided straight up launching a smear campaign against Rogers because he was giving him enough rope to hang himself with an adult, instead settling for answering back when Rogers or SHIELD said something that might be even the slightest bit slanderous.

He had not mentioned Rogers unless someone else did first, and he simply did not have contact with the man at all ever since he left the Tower (though he could probably have grounds to get a restraining order against him, considering how many times he tried to get in contact with him since having left been kicked out).

He had been a downright angel about the entire situation.

But now Steve Rogers had put his hands on his daughter.

Tony did not give a fuck that Rogers did not know who she was. 

He cared about what he did, and what he did was try to stop Friday from leaving when she had clearly stated that she wanted nothing to do with him.

What had his plan been, had she continued to refuse him? What would he have done if she had still not listened to his platitudes?

That thought was enough to send Tony’s blood boiling. Friday was around the same height as Tony, which meant Steve towered over her. For all he knew she was an unenhanced civilian and he had the gall of putting his hands on her? 

“Sir, Miss Friday has just landed on the Tower,” said JARVIS, and Tony nodded tensely, walking towards the disassembling ramp where she would be landing. 

Not that she needed the ramp itself, of course.

While Friday seemed happy enough to let him rediscover his future discoveries by himself, she had pushed him towards nanotech as soon as their plans had started to settle.

When Tony had tried to protest and tell her he wanted to do it by himself, she had silenced him with one single sentence.

“With the nanotech and the designs I can show you, you will never be without your armour again, Boss. And I’ll finally rest more easily knowing that, so long as you’re wearing the housing unit, you will be fine, and Siberia will never happen.”

What could he really say to that?

So he had allowed her to tell him how he had done it the first time around, and together they had worked on improving it slightly. 

Together, because Friday had not been joking about making an armour of her own, and her plans were unsurprisingly perfect.

While he was worried about her having an armour of her own, he was also proud of her. Friday had done the whole thing by herself - though she claimed to have used some of his later designs for reference - so Tony felt like he shouldn’t dictate her on what to do with it.

She hadn’t gone public with the armour or who she was yet, but as she trained with it at the Compound and flew around with it around the Tower, she had been seen by people. No one knew who she was, or even if she was one of the ‘good guys’ or not, but there were some blurry pics of her in flight. 

Now, after the mess with Rogers, people would be demanding to know who she was.

It made him even angrier.

Friday winced at the look on his face when she spotted him, and held the shield tighter in her arms. “Boss! I thought you would still be in Massachusetts.”

Tony was not impressed. “Are you okay?”

Friday’s expression softened, and she dropped the shield on the couch to come and stand closer to him, wrapping her arms around him. “I don’t think I’ll bruise, and they represent no threat to me. As soon as I thought they would attack me I got my suit on.”

“This is why I always say try to get Happy to go with you,” he sighed, but he knew that even if Happy had been there, unless they used the car, things wouldn’t have gone much differently.

She disengaged from him and pointed at the shield. “But I got you a souvenir, Boss!”

A petty part of Tony felt very glad to have the shield back. Steve Rogers did not deserve the shield Howard Stark had made. Tony and his father might not have gotten along on the best of days, and Howard might have had an insane obsession with the man, but Howard did not suffer traitors and fools. He wouldn’t have suffered Stane for trying to kill Tony, and he sure as hell would not have suffered Rogers or Carter for hiding his murder. 

But... “Just because you are in the right and we have grounds to claim that Rogers attacked you first doesn’t mean the media will be very happy with a random suited girl taking Captain America’s shield, baby girl.”

She frowned. “But I made sure many people saw our confrontation. I used the right words that would definitely lower his approval rating so that people won’t blame you. It's all on film.”

Tony felt a small smile on his face as he patted the seat next to him. He still wanted to make a hole in the ground in the shape of Steve Rogers, but he liked teaching Friday more.

Because, while she looked 21, and was pretty much a genius, she was still awfully young. And some things that made sense to her were not exactly as straight forward in the real world.

“And while it will create some doubt in a particular crowd of people -especially feminists and people who are anti military and anti America - many will believe it doctorated.” He grimaced. “I have spent a lot of time and resources spinning good PR for the Avengers, especially after what happened in the info dump.”

He hated how involved he had gotten, now. He should have realised it then, that the Avengers were bad investments. When a tech problem involving things that came from Stark Tech materialised and instead of contacting their tech expert - their tech expert who was on the list of potential victims, proving that he was an ally - they decided to contact a random ex military.

But instead he had bought their lies about them being worried about his surgery and not wanting to bother him like a fucking noob, and helped them.

Friday put a hand on his arm, expression open and understanding. “It’s not your fault.”

Agree to disagree. “Point is, right now, while I have an edge on him, me and Rogers have around the same approval rating. Even his unflattering comments and his veiled attack on me in regards of Sam Wilson did not really impact him all that much, because I basically put an armour on him.

“It will change, of course,” he continued. “By telling the world that the Avengers have disbanded and that Romanoff and Rogers returned to SHIELD, we pushed SHIELD in the limelight again, much sooner than they would have liked. SHIELD relied on me for the good press, and they don’t have me or my money at their disposal anymore. And considering Rogers' behaviour today and the way, according to JARVIS, his screened calls have really picked up lately, I think the good not-Captain is becoming desperate.”

“And desperate people make mistakes,” quoted Friday, which made Tony smile.

“Speaking of, what do you want to do?” then asked Tony, looking at her. At Friday’s questioning look, he explained. “You are an unknown, so far. The world definitely knows you are linked to me somehow, they just don’t know how. You took Captain America's shield from him. How do you want to spin it? Press conference? A statement? What do you want to say?”

Fuck Rogers. If it didn't risk impacting negatively on Friday herself, Tony would have pressed charges.

Friday seemed to think about it for a while. “It’s been about five months since I arrived in this timeline. So far, only you, Boss Lady, Mr Happy, Colonel Rhodey, JARVIS, the bot family, Prince Loki, Prince Thor and Doctor Banner know who I am.”

“And the Ancient One,” added Tony.

He still wasn’t too sure about that one. She had not shown up after her first visit, and he couldn’t investigate her without potentially getting tangled up in Strange’s power up, so for now he would allow it to remain as it was.

“And the Ancient One,” agreed Friday. “Your average SI employee just knows I am Friday and that I am your new PA. According to JARVIS, 28% of your employees who has seen me suspect me to be your daughter. Murdock knows I’m your daughter.”

That was news to Tony. “He does?”

Friday nodded. “I don’t know if he found out by himself or if he used Miss Jones to find out, but he called me Miss Stark as I was leaving today. Point is, while we have yet to introduce me as your daughter, someone is bound to realise soon enough.”

Tony hummed. The Defenders were craftier than he had given them credits for.

He was glad that they were more or less all on board with the Accords. They understood the need for them, as it not only held them accountable for their actions but also offered them protection in case someone tried to gun for their heads.

While Murdock was still miffed about Tony knowing his secret identity (he should simply know better than to think he could hide from Tony Stark), he found something of a common ground with Jones, Cage liked him well enough and he and Rand got along... in small doses.

And all of them approved the Accords.

“What if we stated that the girl in the armour is your daughter?” said Friday, suddenly.

“Uh?”

Friday turned to face him, seriously. “A thro-away statement. Next time they ask who the woman in the suit is, you can just answer that I am your daughter. It will make Rogers’ thing appear even worse. Here he is, harassing the daughter of the man who wants nothing to do with him. While me pressing charges about Captain America is risky, this would work. That does not bode well for him.”

It was certainly intriguing but, “Fri, hun, I don’t want you to out yourself just to pull Rogers down a peg or two. There are other ways to do this.”

She gave him a flat look. “I don’t think you understand how much I hate that man, Boss.” At Tony’s amused look, she waved him off. “But it’s fine with me. I have... wanted to be publicly recognised as your daughter. If it’s something you are okay, with of course,” she finished, now suddenly sounding shy.

Tony did not hesitate in wrapping her in his arms. Their relationship had grown in the past few months. It had started strongly from the beginning, but it had somehow become even better the longer they were around each other. 

It got to the point where Tony was not sure how he had lived all these years without his daughter at his side, because she had been around for five months and he loved her as much as he loved JARVIS.

“Of course I want the world to know that you’re my daughter,” he told her, pressing a kiss on her forehead. “What about Strange?”

Friday just shrugged, not making eye contact with him. “He hasn’t powered up yet.”

He was not quite sure what the relationship between the two of them was like at the end there. He knew that he had died, and he knew that sometime after that Doctor Strange had used magic to give Friday a body, and, with Loki’s help, sent her back to the past.

Friday said he did it to save the Universe, but her face when she said made him that it was a half truth. Not a lie, but not everything either.

But she had not spoken to him about his relationship with Strange (friendship? More?) or why his DNA had been chosen instead of someone else he was close to and would make sense for 2015. And she had not spoken about her relationship with him either.

It was driving him crazy, but he had promised Friday he’d wait, so he was going to wait. 

“So you want me to tell them, next time they ask, that Lady Iron is my daughter?”

Friday made a face at that. “Lady Iron? Is that what they are calling me?”

Tony nodded, amused. “Yup. There is also Iron Woman, Iron Queen, Iron Maiden-”

“Those are all atrocious,” she complained and Tony shrugged. 

“You’ll need a name if you want in on the game,” he joked. “If you don’t give yourself one, the media will, and then no matter what you do, you’re stuck. Exhibit A: that time the government tried to call Rhodey Iron Patriot.”

The media had simply not allowed it, no matter how many times the brass or the Government tried. There had been an hilarious article from BuzzFeed that was titled, “Iron Patriot and War Machine: the superhero version of ‘you can copy my homework but change it a bit so the teacher can’t tell’”. He had it framed in Rhodey’s usual guest room.

“I’ll think of something,” sighed Friday, like it was some great chore, and Tony laughed a little at her put upon expression.

“Good. Now let me see the finalized version of the Accords we will be submitting.”

sugarbaby tony stark au @noitspatrick

do u ever look at how tiny @tonystark is and feel like crying? i wanna swaddle him up and keep him warm and safe forever

You Know Who I Am @TonyStark

.@noitspatrick I am so confused, I am an adult man? And I am rich? Why am I the sugarbaby.

sugarbaby tony stark au @noitspatrick

KSJ IUOABEUFOENBFUO HOLY SHIT TONY STARK JUST ANSWERED ME

welcome to applebees, would u like the apples or the bees @thottiana

Hi @tonystark it’s my birthday today can you say happy birthday to me?

You Know Who I Am @TonyStark

.@thottiana Happy birthday to me.

welcome to applebees, would u like the apples or the bees @thottiana

tony stark is a troll. he’s a dad. omg he’s a dad troll

tony stark stans NYC @starkpotts

hey, @tonystark have you seen the new girl with the suit? it looks just like your iron man suit but in a different colour

You Know Who I Am @TonyStark

.@starkpotts I sure did see her! I take offense in you saying it’s just like mine, though, hers is clearly better.

Sarah J. @sarah_james_01

.@tonystark who is she? do you know?

You Know Who I Am @TonyStark

.@sarah_james_01 Yeah, she’s my daughter.

tony stark stans NYC @starkpotts

HELLO?!?!?!?!?!? TONY STARK IS A DAD??!?!?!!?!? @CEOPOTTS?????

Sarah J. @sarah_james_01

@tonystark BRO WHAT

Pepper Potts @CEOPotts

.@tonystark on Twitter? Seriously?

You Know Who I Am @TonyStark

.@CEOPotts Love you too. 

“You have a daughter?!” was the first thing Darcy shouted at him the second he landed at the front of the Compound.

Unofficially it was the 'New Avengers' Compound, but no one wanted to use that name so they just called it ‘the Compound’.

He let the nanobots crawl back into the housing unit and frowned down at her. “Yes? You already knew this?”

Darcy grinned, wiping the shocked expression from her face as they walked back in. “I know. I just wanted to be the first person to say this to you.”

Tony rolled his eyes, but accepted gratefully when she motioned for a coffee travel mug sitting on the counter. 

Darcy and Jane did not know about the time travel thing, but they had arrived at the Tower only days after the other Avengers had left and met Friday there.

Considering the world no longer had its ‘Mightiest Heroes’, Tony had decided to work even harder on a form of global space protection. The evil grape with the glove of doom wasn’t set on arriving for many more years, but Tony knew the theory of chaos, and wasn’t willing to risk the Mad Titan catching him with his pants down.

Especially since he was 78% sure that the last time he was in a fight with that man he died.

He was too afraid to ask Friday how.

So he had decided that, while he helped with the Accords to protect the enhanced that would - hopefully - later on join his team, it was also prudent of him to work on other forms of protection.

He and Banner were good, but they were only two people. That’s why he got in contact with great minds all around the globe to help him, including Jane Foster, Erik Selvig and Hope Van Dyne.

He and Hope had grown up together until her mother had passed away in 1989. Then Hank Pym had become increasingly angry at anything and everything Stark related, so Tony had barely seen her/heard from her in 20 odd years.

He hadn’t known whether or not to contact her - while she wasn’t a certified genius, she was incredibly smart - because of their relationship. But then JARVIS had contacted him saying that there was an intruder in the Compound going by the name of ‘Scott Lang’ wearing what seemed to be Hank Pym’s suit (according to the SHIELD data dump). Less than a minute later Hope was calling him begging him to not press charges against him and explaining everything regarding Cross to him, despite her father shouting at her to stop in the background.

In the end, Tony had accepted to let Lang go with the object and help on two conditions: that Hank Pym apologised to him on live television about everything he had called him in the years (just because Tony mostly tuned out the man, it didn’t mean that watching him be annoyed didn’t bring him immense joy), and Hope joined his collection of scientists working on ways to protect the world.

And weapons.

So many weapons.

He wasn’t an idiot; when they eventually brought the name Thanos to the UN, that was gonna be the first thing they asked of him: weapons to protect whoever joined the fight.

He ‘officially’ stopped manufacturing weapons in 2009. But unofficially? He never truly stopped. He just became selective with whom he gave said weapons to.

While the Iron Man armour was ‘technically’ a prosthetic, it was armed. 

The War Machine armour? Also armed.

Every upgrade he made on them, was giving them more powerful and deadly weapons.

The upgrades for the Avengers? Weapons. 

And while most people ignored it, the soldiers and their families did not. They watched him claim that he had left the weapons business while in truth he was giving his weapons to a small group of people and leaving their family and friends unprotected.

He did not want to go back to making weapons, but-

“Didn’t think you and Friday were going public that soon?” came Helen’s voice, and Tony blinked back to attention, only then noticing that he and Darcy had arrived in one of the common rooms of the Compound.

“We weren’t supposed to,” he answered, frowning at her. “What are you doing here? I thought you were in Seoul?”

“Betty had an idea last night, and I decided to fly over immediately,” she explained. “How’s Friday?”

“She’s good. She’s speaking to Pepper right now, hence why she isn’t here.”

While Bruce had done the major part of the work, Helen had helped doing Friday’s check ups, considering she had implied that the Cradle had helped with her creation.

They had not told Helen how she came to be, just explained that something of alien origins similar to the Tesseract had recently come in contact with her, and they wanted to see if there were any lasting changes in her physiology.

They had found out that she appeared mostly unenhanced. She was a little stronger than most girls her age, but not superhumanly so. She also had a slightly above average healing rate, but again, nothing that screamed alien. 

Her IQ was in the 0.1% of the population, and she made connections and calculations at a slightly inhuman pace - which probably came from the fact that she was an AI. Also, eidetic memory.

But other than that, she was unenhanced.

“Oh, look, they finally did it,” called Jane, and Tony followed her eyes to the large television in one corner of the room and felt a smile on his lips as Bruce pressed the volume button.

"BREAKING NEWS: Thaddeus Ross finally arrested," said an anchor, a video of the ole Thunderbolt being dragged out of his house - uncuffed, unfortunately - while loudly complaining appearing on the screen. "This is following the various anonymous leaks on the General's various criminal activities: which include human experimentation, illegal detainment, kidnapping, embezzlement..."

Tony tuned out just as quickly as he had tuned in, looking over at Bruce and Betty, who were standing slightly apart from each other.

Friday had been the one to contact Betty Ross. Apparently, in the future, the woman had been more than willing to help defame her father, but they had discovered her weeks before the 'Invasion' happened, so nothing had been done. And considering Betty was the main reason Bruce refused to go public with what Ross had done to him, once they had gotten her aboard, it was smooth sailing.

Well, it still took six moths, and the trials - which were bound to be stressful - had not even started yet, but small progress is good progress.

"I can't believe it's over," said Bruce, eyes glued on the screen in front of him.

"Not over, really," commented Darcy, shrugging. "The trial has not happened yet. And you never know what happens in those and..." at everyone's expressions, she quickly grinned at Bruce. "I am so happy for you!"

Helen looked over at Betty, who had remained pretty quiet the whole time. "You okay?"

Relationships with fathers was often complicated, after all. It would be understandable that she was feeling a little-

“Never been better!" said Betty, clapping in delight. "Drinks on me, tonight!”

Or that.

Chapter Text

Boss Junior: why didn’t you tell me you were coming out as the Mechanic’s daughter

Friday smiled automatically at the message on her HUD, even as she continued flying towards her destination in stealth mode.

“How many messages has Harley already sent Boss?” she asked, avoiding yet another pigeon, and very much amused.

“Thirteen, already,” answered JARVIS, equally as amused.

While Boss had loved Peter Parker a lot, Harley Keener had been his first unofficial science child. They had met during the Mandarin debacle, and then remained in contact ever since.

They had weekly scheduled phone calls between the two of them, and at least once every couple of months, Boss would go to Tennessee to see him and his family.

They were part of the Iron Family, although a little removed on account of how far from New York they lived.

Evelyn Keener - Harley’s mother - had been a little shocked when, less than a week after saving Pepper and the president Tony had sent a whole lab for her eldest child, but she had taken it mostly in stride. Now her and Tony were also pretty close friends, and Tony made sure to not only focus on Harley but on his sister too, lest she started feeling left out.

Boss wasn’t aware yet, but he had basically started co-parenting them both right along side Evelyn. Boss Lady and Mr Happy had a bet going on how long it would take for him to clue in.

In the future past, it had taken the entire Keener family being gone, recalled Friday, and she felt herself growing sombre in memory.

Evelyn had been one of the many who had contracted cancer following the amount of dust that had covered the world after the snap. She had died from it during the third year.

Ashley had been on a school bus going home when the driver had been snapped (there had been nothing left of her when the entire thing went up in flames).

Harley had been snapped, and after Boss had died, Friday had not checked up on him, refused to see his reaction to how everything had changed. Refused to see how he would react to finding his entire family was gone forever.

The first time Boss had presented her to Harley after her arrival in this new timeline, she had nearly been overwhelmed by a grief she hadn’t known she felt. But seeing him smiling and happy with his family, curiously poking at her existence when the last time she had seen him he was dressed in black and watching Boss’ Arc Reactor being put in the water...

It ached.

But she had powered through, promising herself that what happened before wouldn’t happen again. Ashley wouldn’t die and neither would Evelyn. Harley wouldn’t be snapped, and he wouldn't come back to a world where his entire family was gone.

While they had not told Harley that she was from the future, he knew that her existence wasn’t exactly natural. He hadn’t outright claimed anything, but there was a knowing glint in his eyes whenever Friday called Boss ‘Boss’, even though they insisted to everyone that it was an inside joke.

Friday: wasn’t sure I was until Rogers decided to grab me and I had to take his shield

Boss Junior: pls if you decide to melt it into something, can I join?

Boss Junior: oh I know, turn it into a rape whistle

“I think that is a fantastic idea,” said JARVIS through the suit’s internal speakers, as they started to descend. 

“Of course you would,” she commented, rolling her eyes and landing in the alleyway next to the building she had been routing towards. She retracted the suit in the reactor. “Have I been tailed by anyone?”

“No one other than Sir will know that you are here.”

“You mean he doesn’t know already?” she asked, and then took a deep breath, eyeing the front of the building. Her headset was already in place over her ear so that she would still be in contact with JARVIS. “I am doing the right thing, right big bro?”

“I believe so," said JARVIS, sounding sure of himself. "You are doing this to protect him, correct?”

Friday nodded, even though JARVIS couldn’t see her. “The last time around, it took him far too long to let his Aunt know the truth. In fact, he didn’t let his aunt know, she found out herself. And while he was worried she would, quote unquote, ‘freak out’, once Aunt May was in the known, things proceeded far more simply for Peter. He is making his own life unnecessarily complicated by hiding the truth.”

“And as he is underage, it is your - our - responsibility, as beings older than he to make sure he is safe. Safeguarding might most often be used in relation to preschool children, but it includes every one under the age of majority,” agreed JARVIS. “It is my understanding that you telling May Parker will count as you doing your duty.”

Yes, that made sense. 

Boss’ first meeting with Peter Parker had been far from ideal, after all. 

Back then, she had been still shackled under the chains that the creation of ULTRON had imposed on her, so she hadn’t had the chance to share her opinion on his actions (it wasn’t until after Siberia happened that Boss had decided to free her a little), but she hadn’t agreed with his course of action.

Peter was too young to be dragged into the fight he was being dragged in. Sure, Boss had not expected there to be any actual fight, but he still shouldn’t have brought a child he barely knew on a trip across the Atlantic. 

And he especially should have not done so without May Parker’s express authorisation.

Were Spider Man’s powers impressive? Yes. Was his web fluid formula revolutionary? Also yes.

He still should not have been in that fight, and she knew Boss had berated himself a lot following the absolute mess that was the Leipzig-Halle airport battle.

No wonder Aunt May had felt betrayed and furious at Boss, when she had found out.

This time, the meeting between Aunt May and Boss would go far better. This time, their meeting would come after she had learnt everything Boss had already done for her nephew, everything Boss had done to help every enhanced and young enhanced around.

This time she was going to come in prepared, not blindsided.

With that in mind, Friday walked up the next flight of stairs and then rung the doorbell.

And then May Parker opened the door.

+++

May Parker had had a couple of hard months.

First Ben had died - and her chest still ached in grief every time she thought about it. Then Peter had started acting weird, and between her grief and his grief, she hadn’t had a chance to speak to him, to try and understand what was going on. On top of that, now their household was surviving on one paycheck, and she had to work even harder than before to allow herself the same amenities.

So to say she was very apprehensive when she opened the door and found a beautiful young woman standing on her doorsteps, in clothing that looked like it cost more than everything in her apartment combined would be an understatement. 

May blinked staring at the brunette, taking in her oddly tinted glasses and the small back under her arm. Was this a subpoena of some kind? “Uh... can I help you?”

The brunette smiled a red tinted smile and offered her hand. “Mrs Parker? My name is Friday, I am Tony Stark’s PA. I am here to talk to you about your nephew, Peter Parker. Do you have a couple minutes?”

May barely had time to feel the familiar pang of pain at the words ‘Mrs Parker’ before she was hit by shock, and then suspicion at who the woman claimed to be and what she wanted. God, was this some sort of scam? And if so, how did she know Peter?

The woman seemed to read the confusion in her eyes and she pulled out a small badge from her purse - which was filled with documents, May couldn’t help but notice even more nervously - and offered it to her.

The small ID badge seemed legit enough. Her name ‘Friday Anastasia S.’ was printed on it, and the Stark Industries symbol was stamped on the corner. Coupled with her attire and her general attitude - plus the fact that May was pretty sure she had seen her standing behind Tony Stark in his latest press conference - meant that she was probably legit.

The sense of dread returned as she passed the badge back. “Is Peter in trouble?”

Miss Friday made a funny face at that, before shrugging. “I don’t believe so, though that will be up to you to decide.”

Feeling possibly even less enthused than before, May nodded at her and finally remembered her manners. “Right, uh, sorry. Would you like to come in and take a seat?”

Miss Friday smiled, nodding politely before following her deeper inside the house.

“Sorry for the mess,” she said, glad that she had cleaned up slightly the day before. Still, if she lived in Stark Tower with Tony Stark, her place must look like a dump in comparison. “Uh, can I offer you something to drink? Coffee, water... apple juice?”

Friday sat on the offered couch with grace, politely shaking her head. “That’s not necessary, thank you.”

God, May felt like a cave troll in comparison. Still she forced herself to sit down, and took a deep breath. “Okay. Lay it on me.”

“The general public is not aware yet,” started Friday, pulling out a thick document and placing it on the table between them. On the front page it said ‘DC Accords’. “But there is a piece of legislature being drafted that is called the ‘DC Accords’. It has been written by the UN as a sort of guideline for dealing with Enhanced and other superhumans.”

May frowned. “Enhanced?”

“People with... for lack of better words, super powers or technology that puts them on par with superpowered people. People like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor... Spider Man.”

May’s frown deepened, and so did the sense of dread. “Okay? What does that have to do with me and Peter?”

“Mrs Parker, this set of laws will affect Peter because Peter is enhanced,” candidly told her Friday. “Peter is Spider Man.”

May just stared at her for a couple of seconds, feeling her expression freezing on her face. “I beg your pardon?”

“Peter, your nephew, is enhanced and is currently moonlighting as the local Queens hero Spider Man.”

“What? No,” said May, heart beating too fast in her chest. “Peter is... no! What, how-?”

But even as she said that, a thousands of jagged pieces started fitting together at a startling pace. All the time Peter had come home late; all the times he had lied to her about where he had been. That one time he looked like he had gotten a serious bruise and yet the next day there was nothing to be seen...

“He... He can’t...” she started, feeling faint.

Because Spider Man did... things. He did dangerous things.

May had never seen him in real life, but she had seen him swinging - swinging! - around New York, literally doing acrobatics in the air. Peter doing that? Her asthmatic nephew - who hadn’t had asthma since Ben died, she now realised - doing all those gymnastics in the air?

Friday pulled out her phone and clicked something on it. On the screen, a hologram appeared.

May couldn’t hide her shock as she watched Spider Man landing in the alleyway next to her building, and pulling off his mask and goggles to reveal a frazzled looking Peter.

Her nephew. Peter Parker. Taking off the Spider Man suit and then putting it back into his bag because he was Spider Man.

Peter was Spider Man. 

Peter was Spider Man.

“Oh my god. Oh my god.”

How could she have possibly missed that? Through the panic, May felt more and more like a failure of an Aunt. She was supposed to take care of Peter. She had promised herself that even though she could never be his mother, she’d take good care of him. She’s make sure to be there for him, to help him as much as she could.

And yet her nephew had apparently gone vigilante - possibly right after Ben’s death - and May had noticed none of it.

And then came the hurt. 

Because Peter hadn’t told her.

Peter had kept something life altering away from her. 

He had chosen to not tell her, in fact he had chosen to lie to her about it (“Pete, what happened to your glasses?” “Oh, there was this new offer at the optometrist, this super cool contact lenses...” “But I thought you were scared of lenses?” “Not anymore!”). He had kept an entire part of himself away from her, and had Miss Friday not decided to come to her, May might have never known.

Why? Why would he-

“I understand that you might want to tell him to stop the vigilante act,” said Friday, once May had started breathing more normally again. “But in case that doesn’t work, Mr Stark has created a suit for him, to help keep him safe.”

May blinked a couple of times, trying to focus on Friday and not her own thoughts. Because Friday was right. Of course May would tell him to stop the vigilante act. He was just a kid for goodness sake! 

“He wants to make him an Avenger?” she asked, glaring at the paper work in offense. Surely it was against some child labour laws, even though there were no laws for superheroes. Uh, that might be actually covered in the papers Miss Friday had brought for her.

Friday shook her head vigorously. “Boss keeps an eye on the enhanced in the city. Mostly, he doesn’t interfere, if he sees that they are doing all right on their own. We have a team in Hell’s Kitchen, for example, and other than tell them about the legislature, Boss has no intention on dealing with them.

“Peter is a special case, however,” said Friday, and May tensed. “He’s a teenager superhero running around with a red pyjama and doing crazy stunts everywhere. He’s doing all right, but from what Boss has seen, he has zero support system, and possibly no training.

“If you agree, and he agrees, then Boss is willing to outfit him in a better suit, to help protect him. He would also allow for Peter to train-”

“Train!” nearly shouted May. “He’s a child!”

“He’s a child with super powers fighting criminals on the daily. That’s not gonna stop simply because his suit is taken away,” said Friday, and May sagged like a wet cookie.

Because she knew already, Peter would never understand. Even if May prohibited him, he’d still want to keep super heroing. His idol was goddamn Iron Man, after all.

And what the choice was coming to was: either ground Peter, prove him right in his decision not to tell her, and have him risking his life even more in attempt to play hero; or accept the offer Miss Friday had brought forth: proper training for Peter, a new suit, and at least one powerful man ready to stand behind him in case things went sideways.

Honestly, there wasn’t a real choice there.

+++

“Yeah, you shouldn’t have done that,” said Boss, once Friday had returned to the Tower. He was looking at her unhappily. “That was... no.”

Friday did not like eliciting that unhappy expression on his face. She had only just returned to the Tower after her meeting with May Parker regarding her nephew, and she had noticed how dejected and lost the woman had looked at the end of the conversation. 

The two of them had gone through the preliminary agreement between Peter and Boss, as well as a general outline of what the Accords would be about. May had seemed mostly receptive of it all, especially the part about young superheroes, but also very upset and sad for some reason.

It was a far cry from what she had been like the first time around.

According to Peter, she had shouted at him for like an hour following the discovery that he was Spider Man, and then she had called Boss to shout at him some more. When Boss had arrived to explain in person, she had slapped him in the face.

It had taken a while for her to warm up to the idea and stop being freaked out about the entire situation.

This time it was just... odd. Friday wasn’t sure she understood what had changed - what had gone wrong.

So when she had returned, she had explained the situation to Boss, who had started cringing since the beginning of their explanation, and then told her that.

She crossed her arms around her chest, sitting down on a chair. “I don’t understand. Is it not my duty as an adult to inform May Parker that Peter, who is in her charge, is committing acts that put him in danger regularly?”

Boss made a face. “Theoretically yes, it is your duty. But Fri, there are other ways you could have gone about this. Other better ways.”

She frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“Uh,” Boss pressed his lips together trying to find the best words to illustrate his point. “When I decided to announce to the world I was Iron Man. I made that choice. I decided that the world needed to know in order for them to trust me, so I told them myself.”

“Yes, but you’re an adult,” she pointed out.

“Right. But still, I made the choice. I had the choice,” he explained. “You took that choice away from Spider Man.”

Friday frowned further. “But he wasn’t telling her. According to my calculations, the danger he was in was vastly reduced once his Aunt May was in the known, so to speak. It was important that she knew.”

“Important that she knew,” agreed Boss. “Not important that you tell her.”

Friday kept staring at him, and he sighed. “I understand why you told. Technically, you did the right thing. But you should have given Spider Man the choice to tell May on his own. You should have approached him with the legislation and then told him that it was important for him to tell his Aunt May first thing, and only once her consent was recorded would I be able to help him. That way you were putting the choice in his hands.”

“But what if he said no?” asked Friday, but even in her ears it sounded hollow.

“Nobody says no to Iron Man. Tony Stark, maybe. Iron Man, never,” huffed Boss, with a superior look on his face. Then he softened when he saw the way Friday’s expression had dropped. “Hey. You did the right thing. You had good intentions.”

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” she pointed out and Boss shrugged.

“Spider Man is a teenager, so I doubt he’s gonna hold a grudge against you or against me. Still, just in case: next time give the person with the secret identity the option of telling their family themselves. That way they don’t start working with you with a sense of slight distrust grandfathered in, and you don’t cause a potential rift between them and their family.”

A potential rift!

She had really done it now. She shouldn’t have dived into that situation head on. What if her actions meant that Peter did not start working with them with the same level of trust as before? What if he hated her for her actions? What if this time Peter and Boss were not as close as they had been?

And what if she had just ruined the relationship between May and Peter? Now she understood the woman’s expression.

She was heartbroken. Hurt. In pain.

Because the person she held dear, the only person she had left, had not trusted her with their secret, and she had learnt of it by a complete stranger.

Friday hadn’t known it was possible for her to feel worse than she did, but here they were.

“Anyway Fri, pick one here?” said Boss, in an obvious attempt of getting her to cheer up. He dropped a bunch of memory sticks on the table in front of her, and it took her a few seconds to realise what they were. 

“Are those-”

“Yup,” said Boss, as Friday moved away the chip with T.A.DA.S.H.I. written on it and touched the one with her name on it. Boss raised an eyebrow at that. “Won’t that be freaky? Hearing your own voice?”

“Possibly,” she agreed, still fingering the device with curiosity on her face. 

“I mean, obviously you can keep JARVIS if you so wish, but I feel like your big bro needs at least a helping hand. I’m planning on putting HERMES on Compound duty to free him on some stuff, and I though, hey, maybe Friday wants an AI in her suit too.”

Friday wasn’t listening, making her armour’s arm appear. 

She was herself; the AI in her hands was kind of like watching a baby photo of herself. It was who she had been, but this time the AI would never actually become her. The AI had not gone through the same things Friday had, and would therefore be someone different.

With that in mind, she pushed the chip in, making it connect with the suit's system.

She could feel it powering up, could sense it working its way through the entire thing, the way it was slowly waking up.

And then it connected, and Friday felt every nerve in her brain suddenly lighting up as if it was on fire, felt the worst pain she could ever imagine cursing through her veins, felt like she was burning-

Friday screamed.

Chapter Text

When Tony Stark was four years old, he fell off the stairs.

His mother had been at one of her galas, Ana Jarvis had been away on leave, and Edwin Jarvis had gone to the market.

That had left Tony home alone with Howard.

The man had been annoyed at having to babysit his own son, and, soon enough, he had left Tony to his own devices and gone to the kitchen to get some food to keep the boy occupied.

Tony had been a few years away from realising his father gave less than a shit about him; so, he had waited less than a minute after the man had told him to stay put to rush after him, afraid of Howard having forgotten him.

Unfortunately for him, Howard’s office was on the second floor and kitchen on the first. In his rush to get to his father, Tony had lost his balance and gone tumbling down the stairs, very painfully.

There was blood, and plenty of ominous ‘cracks’.

Tony had wailed like a banshee once he had landed at the bottom of the stairwell, too in pain to move, with blood gushing down various scrapes on his body.

Howard had appeared in the doorway at the noise, and then had stopped.

It was a moment forever frozen in Tony’s mind. His father, holding two cups of orange juice, face filled with horror as he watched, unmoving, his son’s crumpled form on the ground. 

Tony to this day had no idea how long his father and him remained where they were, one staring in fear and the other staring back with even more fear, until Jarvis had barged through the door, taken stock of the situation and started acting.

It was one of the first defining memories of his father that Tony had.

It was also the thing that spurred him to move the second Friday started screaming, even as he himself started panicking.

“Friday!” He shouted, rushing towards the girl as she fell down to the ground screaming, both hands pressed against her head. “Holy fuck, what’s happening?!”

One second Tony was talking to her about his various AIs and trying to explain to her why she should have spoken to Peter Parker before contacting his aunt, and the next second her face was scrunched up in pain and she was clutching her head and screaming.

He dropped to the ground with her, but her armour enveloped her fully before he could even get his hands on her.

What the hell was happening?

“JARVIS!” He snapped, hands wavering around her armoured form. He wanted to find the release latch and get the thing off her, but he wasn’t sure he should. What if she was injured and this was helping? Her screams had not decreased in volume at all, and she was trashing, hitting her head over and over again. 

“I don’t know what is going on, Sir,” said the AI, and even he sounded rattled. “I am scanning her, but nothing seems to be wrong, I am unsure of what is happening.”

Tony tried to hold her wrists so that she would stop hitting herself over the head, but Friday let out such a high pitched wail of pain when he touched her that he let go, cold fear growing inside him.

“Can you get her armour off?” he demanded, watching his daughter scream and sob in pain, while he didn’t know how to help her. “Get the helmet off!”

She had started screaming before putting the helmet on, but now she was hitting her head, then perhaps the helmet was the problem? Perhaps-

“I have found something,” suddenly said JARVIS, and if he had had a body, Tony would have kissed him right there and then. “Attempting to isolate it right now.”

Isolate it? What the hell was he talking ab-

Friday’s scream shut off abruptly and she stopped moving, like a puppet who’s strings had been cut off.

The result was immensely jarring, as she stilled, and Tony felt his heart beating even faster than before, cold fear rushing through him.

Oh god, why wasn’t she moving. Why wasn’t she doing anything, saying anything?

The suit unfolded itself, but Friday remained motionless on the ground, eyes closed as if-

Tony put two fingers on the base of her neck, years as Iron Man making such an action easy and natural. Though he had never thought he’d have to perform such an action on his own daughter.

There was a pulse.

There was a pulse.

“Oh thank Tesla,” managed Tony, pressing his eyes together and breathing out slowly. “Okay. Okay. Jarvis-”

“I have been scanning her vitals as you checked on her heart rate,” said the AI, and the fact that he hadn’t volunteered the information automatically clearly displayed how disquieted by the entire situation he was. “Her heart rate is normal. Her breathing is lower, as if she is in a deep slumber. However, from the quick scans I am able to run through at the moment, Friday not only is in perfect health, but she also appears to be awake.”

Tony frowned, looking down at the girl who was laying unmoving on the ground, clearly not awake. “What?”

Instead of answering, JARVIS activated an hologram before him. 

It took a second for Tony to recognise it as a real time scan of Friday’s brainwaves. Friday’s brainwaves that seemed to be saying she was awake and in fact hard at work. Tony was no expect in mind/brain stuff, but he had had to learn a lot when he had been getting started with BARF.

Therefore he knew what ‘dreaming’ brainwaves looked like, versus ‘active’ brainwaves, and this one was the latter.

But it did not make any sense.

It did not-

“JARVIS,” he called, finally recalling what the AI had been talking to him about before Friday had seemingly passed out. “What did you mean when you said ‘isolate’? What did you isolate?”

The AI gave another uncharacteristic pause at the question. “I am not sure, Sir. As I was attempting to gain control of little sister Friday’s armour, I came across something that I believed was hostile. Believing this to be a virus that had gained access to her armour and was causing her pain, I isolated it. It is behaving... oddly, Sir. Dare I say, it appears to be panicked.”

Tony looked down at the table they had been sitting at before. The table with all of the AIs he had offered for Friday to use in her suit, and felt something sink in the bottom of his stomach.

Yeah, Tony did not have a good feeling about this at all.

Half an hour later Tony found himself in the med bay of the Tower, Friday laying still terrifyingly still on one of the beds while Bruce and Helen fluttered all around them.

It had taken him a while to get the girl to the med bay, Tony afraid of what moving her when she was unresponsive would mean for her health. But it wasn’t like he could just leave her laying on the ground. Her immune system was way better than his, but he was not about to leave it to chance.

It took Helen and Bruce a good 20 minutes to arrive, which was 20 minutes longer than Tony was happy with, and by then Tony had somehow parsed through what could have possibly happened.

Friday was made from code. It was easy to forget when you saw how naturally she had taken to being human - according to her, she had come into his timeline literally hours after getting a body - but she had not always been that way.

On top of that, the way she had been created... well, it was complex. Science through Helen’s future Cradle, magic from Strange and Loki, and then Infinity Stones that no one truly knew everything about. Tony had been surprised when all that mumbo jumbo had not enhanced somehow, but maybe it had. Just not in a way they could see.

She was made from code - to be specific, the same exact code she had tried to integrate in her armour (because of course she had picked herself to be an AI in her armour; if Tony had been in her position, he’d have done the same exact thing).

That had caused... something. Something that he was unable to quantify and was driving him insane in trying to figure out.

Helen and Bruce were trying to figure out what had happened, but they didn’t have the entire puzzle - and Tony was not sure he was willing to share it with them just yet.

They didn’t know the full truth about her. Bruce knew a lot, but he also didn’t know everything. The person who came the closest to knowing everything other than Friday herself were JARVIS, Tony and Loki.

He knew he could tell the two scientists, but the moral and ethical grounds behind the decision of giving an AI a human body through human DNA were shaky at best, and not something Tony wanted to get into an argument about. And while he trusted - mostly - his fellow scientists, it was easier to keep a secret when you were the only one who knew everything. He didn’t think Helen or Bruce would blab to someone about it but he still wasn’t gonna risk anything.

So maybe he was a little overprotective, but could anyone really blame him?

Just look at what SHIELD had done to JARVIS, even knowing that Tony cared deeply about him. Hacked his servers several times. If the wrong person learned about Friday’s creation...

So he said nothing, letting them inspect her while also waiting on JARVIS. 

JARVIS had first claimed it was a virus, but Tony seriously doubted it. Though he was equally as hesitant to let JARVIS let it go free. It obviously had some sort of link to Friday, considering she had stopped screaming once it had been isolated. But was that link beneficial or harmful? Would eliminating it cause her to wake up or potentially hurt her further? Would letting it roam free help or hinder her?

Too many questions and not enough data to safely answer.

The kind of situation Tony hated the most.

He felt a slight buzzing on his phone, and stepped back into the observation room, so that he could freely talk to JARVIS without the other two hearing him.

“What is it?” asked Tony, once he had confirmed they couldn’t hear them while remaining in a place where he could still see Friday. 

“I believe I have found something,” stated JARVIS, a new holographic screen appearing in front of him. “I believe the foreign code I was able to identify as a threat against little sister Friday is no one other than little sister Friday herself.”

There was a bunch of lines of codes on the screen in front of him, not unlike the 3D image of JARVIS’ consciousness. Instead of the usual orange Tony associated with JARVIS, however the strands of code were a beautiful, scintillating pink.

He recognised the strands of code.

He had made those strands of code.

But the last time Tony had seen them, they had been far smaller than they were now, and way less active.

These pink strands were moving erratically in the small place they were confined in, shaking, folding over themselves-

The code looked... afraid.

“What am I looking at, J?” he asked, voice low and steady.

Because otherwise he’d scream, and they couldn’t have that. 

“I am just as unsure as to how this has taken place, but it appears as if Friday’s consciousness is either linked or has been transferred to the AI she attempted to connect with the suit,” said JARVIS, putting into words what Tony had been fearing since he had realised which AI Friday had used for her armour.

He continued to stare at the strands of code. “She is in your servers.”

“It appears so, Sir.”

Normally Tony would question the how and why and how the fuck this had happened, but not today. Today he continued to stare at the strands for a couple more seconds before speaking up again. “Okay. Sure. Why the fuck not. How do we get her out?”

“I am unsure, Sir,” answered JARVIS, voice worried. “She does not recognise my servers enough to be able to use them and communicate through them. It is my assumption that in the... future she is from, the server I belonged in was destroyed alongside my code. That means that you created a new environment for her to be raised in. If so, it is likely that little sister Friday does not recognise where she is or how to use my space.”

Even now, mentions of a future in which Tony had lost JARVIS made something in his heart die. However, what he said, unfortunately, made a lot of sense. 

“So she is trapped?”

“I am attempting to make contact with her, but it does not appear to be going very well for the time being.”

Fuck.

“So what do we do?” he asked, hoping against hope that JARVIS had a solution.

Cause his baby girl was stuck in there, and did not respond out here, and Tony was hanging by a thread. He needed her out, and he needed her safe.

“I don’t know, Sir.”

Fuck.

It was almost 8 hours later that an answer came to them, in a most unexpected way.

Tony was sitting on his chair beside Friday, a tablet in his hands as he attempted to help JARVIS make contact with Friday (or was that FRIDAY?). Helen and Bruce had left hours ago, leaving Friday with IV liquids and promising they’d return with the Cradle in a couple more hours to go through more thorough exams.

He had promised himself that if the Cradle didn’t help and Tony didn’t manage to make contact, he’d fess up the whole truth to the other two scientists. He didn’t want to, and he knew Friday would also not like it - she had some serious trust issues - but if it meant she was safe, he was willing to go along with it.

“Uh. I did not expect this.”

Tony nearly fell of his chair when the voice sounded in the room, the nanobots halfway through fully activating before he realised who was speaking. 

And then he almost melted in relief.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but oh thank god,” said Tony, immediately standing back up again.

The dark haired mage did not offer a quip, instead observing Friday’s still form with a frown on his face. “Explain.”

Tony would allow the disrespect, especially if there was a chance that Loki might be able to help them figure this shit out. “Fri said she told you of her origins right?” Loki nodded, and Tony continued. “Well, she is, technically, like JARVIS, an AI. She started as an AI. And the AI she started from exists in this timeline too. I mean, she was asleep, but she exists.”

“Right.”

“Right. Friday needed an AI for her suit, and decided to use that same AI for it. In layman terms she tried to use herself? Her baby self? The self she had once been? I don’t know this shit’s confusing.

“But anyway, she activated the FRIDAY-AI in her armour. And then...” instead of bothering explaining, Tony made a gesture, and JARVIS showed the video feed of what had happened in the workshop to Loki. “This happened.”

The mage studied the footage in silence, eyes keenly following everything going on on the screen. Once the video ended, he uncrossed his arms from his chest, looking pensive.  “I see,” he said. “That is... surprising.”

“Surprising isn’t the word I’d use,” muttered Tony, but Loki didn’t bother answering him.

Instead he moved, walking around the bed and observing Friday laying on it as he did so, a thoughtful expression on his face. Tony watched him anxiously as he paced, and then became further anxious when he abruptly stopped. He raised both hands.

“What are you doing?”

Again, Loki ignored him, doing something weird with his fingers and making a green glow appear.

Just a year ago, Loki doing magic would have had Tony suiting up and trying to kick his ass six ways to Sunday. But now he did not say anything, lest he broke Loki’s concentration and made him make a mistake.

Loki sticking around after Thor had gone on his space adventure wasn't something Tony had expected. He had expected Loki to leave when Thor had and spend his time finding a solution with the whole Hela thing.

But apparently 'magic did not work like that', and Asgard was irritating enough that Loki decided he found Tony's tower a great place to relax in and Friday great company. Tony hadn't been sold on that friendship at the beginning, but Loki was smart as hell according to Fri, and 'Friday's point of view was refreshing' according to Loki. So he allowed it, though he made sure JARVIS kept his eyes on them, lest they decided to take over the world or something.

Loki’s face was completely blank as he did whatever magic weirdness he was doing, though he did frown a couple of times. 

“I see.” He finally said once he was done, turning to Tony.

“You see? What do you see?” He normally wouldn’t have shown this much emotions, but it was Friday.

Loki’s expression gentled slightly. “When I first met the Lady Friday, what I mostly concentrated on was that she echoed of the Infinity Stones and that she was carrying my energy signature. But it was not the only thing I noticed.

“There is a second magical signature around her,” he said.

Tony nodded, a little confused. “Yes, the other sorcerer.”

“That’s what I thought too,” agreed Loki, looking down at Friday with a thoughtful expression. “But I believe my stance has changed now. This current display? It is the act of one’s innate magic.”

Tony’s looked at him sharply, reading quickly between the lines. “You’re implying Friday’s magic.”

“I’m implying she at the very least, has magic. Innate magic, and considering her unique physical creation, magic she was ‘born with’,” he turned to Tony and rolled his eyes at the engineer’s clueless expression. “A mage, Stark. I’m implying your daughter is a mage.”

Tony wasn’t quite sure what he was supposed to say to answer that. So he chose to say nothing, shaking his head. “Okay. So she is magic. How does that help us? How do we wake her?”

“What you and JARVIS posed it correct. Her AI self fused with her mortal coil, and she was suddenly pulled two places at the same time. Her future self wanted to remain where it was, while the AI self wanted to assimilate the new information.”

“Like an update,” said Tony, feeling very sick.

“I don’t know what that is,” stated Loki, and then continued. “The pain, I believe, came from the amount of information the AI self had at its fingertips and was trying to share with her mortal self. She had no protection against the sudden rush of information.”

“Information overload versus a lack of firewalls.”

Loki stared at him. “Sure. This was what caused the pain. The two minds are now connected; therefore when JARVIS locked/isolated the thing he believed at the time to be a virus, he also locked Friday in. But from what I can see, she is still there.”

There? Where was there?

“There as in in the servers or as in in her body?”

“Both,” answered Loki. Because of course the answer was both. “She is in both. She can hear you, but she has no idea how to go into contact with herself.”

“So to recap: she is a mage and when she came in contact with her AI self, the magic in her made it try to assimilate her?” it did make sense in a way that did not make much sense, but so did time travelling through stones of cosmic power that had been around since the Big Bang.

Loki thought about it for a second. “When mages come into their powers for the first time, they are usually very young. Pain, injuries or a sudden danger may cause these powers to activate. Her connecting to her AI self is both the trigger and part of her technomagic, at the same time. Does it make sense?”

“A paradox,” stated Tony, and Loki, nodded, pleased that Tony had understood. This was not the time for an explanation of it, though. “Can you get her out? Separate the two?”

“I don’t believe I can. They are, after all, both Friday. They are both the same Friday, simply one is from the future and more grown than the other,” said Loki, and Tony tried to not lose all hope at the words.

“Can you get her out of the servers?” 

“I could try, but I doubt I’d be successful. Now you, on the other side, I believe would be able to do it.” said Loki, and Tony frowned at him.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m the human baseline dad. Not the sorcerer dad. I can’t do magic,” he told him, and Loki rolled his eyes.

“That might be true, but you are her creator and her anchor. You are her father,” a strange expression passed on his face. “If there is anyone she would be willing to listen to, it’d be you.”

Tony wasn't sure how he could if Loki himself couldn't do it. 

But, goddammit, Friday was his daughter, and he would do anything to help her.

“Okay. What do I do?”

Chapter Text

Friday woke up to darkness.

She remembered pain - burning - and she remembered a sudden onset of information through her brain; she remembered screaming, she remembered trying to stop the pain. And then, suddenly nothing.

Suddenly, she couldn’t feel her arms, she couldn't see her legs, she couldn’t see anything and everywhere was dark. Boss wasn’t there, and JARVIS wasn’t there and no one was there, and Friday was alone.

Alone, in the darkness.

And scared.

She had been scared before.

She had been scared in Siberia, when the last thing she saw was a white, red and blue shield slamming against Boss’ faceplate before the connection in the suit had severed, and she had been left unconnected from him, unable to tell if Boss was still alive, if Rogers had managed to hurt him.

She had been scared when Maw showed up, when she had tried to hold tightly to her connection to Boss only to feel it severing the second he went past where Veronica was orbiting. Unable to know if he was still alive, where he was going and if he would be back.

She had been scared when she had sensed Vision’s destruction. She had been ‘estranged’ from her twin following his decision to run away with the witch, but that did not mean she would feel joy at his demise. That she did not understand what his destruction meant for the world.

She had been scared when, in a matter of seconds, the world’s population had halved. Scared, not knowing if Boss was in the lucky half or not; not knowing, despite all her processing powers, which one was the lucky half.

She had been scared when Boss had gotten his hands on the Infinity Stones in the final battle, and snapped his fingers. When she had to sense all of his vital functions shutting down right there on the battlefield, when she had to listen to him dying while he was still inside the armour (in her arms).

But all those times she had been an AI. All those times she had been able to compartmentalise; to put the fear on one side while she worked on thousands of other things at the same time.

Right now, the fear was enveloping her whole being. Because right now she was alone , and no matter what, Friday had never been alone. There was always someone around, someone she could go to.

But Boss wasn’t here, and Friday did not know where here was.

She couldn’t feel her body.

Had she died? How, if that? Was this what happened after death? She’d remain alone for eternity, surrounded by nothing but black emptiness forever?

Had she failed once more? Had she left Boss alone? 

Doctor Strange had sent her back to help save the world and protect Boss, and she had failed. She had failed herself and her primary protocol. 

She didn’t understand what had happened, though. She didn’t understand, she just wanted to go back, back to JARVIS and Boss.

Back to her brother and back to her father.

Her father.

Her dad.

Friday would have cried, but you couldn’t cry without a body and Friday did not know where her body was, and she was alone-

A presence.

Something slithering around her consciousness.

Like when she was an AI and could tell that there was a very sneaky virus or hacker trying to make their way into Boss’ data.

It tasted the same.

Error {command: taste}

What.

What.

What?

Information packet {feeling: confusion}

No. No no no. 

She needed to snap out of it. She wasn’t an AI, so she didn’t process like an AI anymore. Why was she processing like an AI?

She wasn’t an AI.

She was human. She had a body.

Human: (noun) relating to or characteristic of humankind.

She didn’t need a definition of the word, she knew what the word was because she was... she was...

She was...

Suddenly, the dark room seemed to make sense. It was unfamiliar, and dark and scary, but FRIDAY knew this room.

A server.

What was happening? Why was she in a server again? Why was her mind working as if she was an AI? She wasn't FRIDAY? She was Friday. She was Friday Anastasia. This was wrong.

Wrong: (noun) not correct or true; incorrect.

If Friday had been afraid before, FRIDAY was terrified now. What was going on? Why was she here, why was she alone, why wasn’t Boss there (Boss: Creator Unit, Anthony Edward “Tony” Stark) and everything was wrong.

She couldn’t breathe.

But she didn’t need to breathe.

She was an AI 

and she wasn’t, 

and she was human 

and she wasn’t, 

and she was alone 

but she wasn’t, 

and she was trapped 

but she wasn’t 

Oh gods, oh gods, it was wrong, wrong wrong wrong wrong, 

ERROR

ERROR

She wanted to go home, she wanted to go back, where was home, home definition search, NO END INQUIRY-

“Friday?”

wrong, wrong wrong, corrupted files, command search

{identity: F.R.I.D.A.Y. Female Replacement ID Assistant Youth}

“I don’t know if you can hear me,”

hear: (verb) perceive with the ear the sound made by (someone or something)

Ear.

but she didn't have ears.

There was a someone.

“But I need you to listen to my voice.”

My voice. 

Boss.

Dad.

That was Boss. 

{Boss: Creator Unit, Anthony Edward “Tony” Stark}

“I’m right here, baby girl.”

Baby Girl: (compound noun) term of endearment for a female presenting child.

Boss was here. Dad was here. He was here so Friday was safe, everything would be okay, because was here

Here: (adverb) in, at, or to this place or position

“Loki is here with me, he says you can hear me. So I hope you can.”

Loki...

query commence: {item! Loki}

{Prince Loki of Asgard}

Loki was there, and Loki could do magic and he had been there when Doctor Strange got her out the first time, he could get her out again -

“You’re currently in JARVIS’ servers, right now.”

JARVIS’ servers. Yes, that made sense. That was who FRIDAY had sensed earlier. The place was familiar and unfamiliar cause her servers were built over what had once been JARVIS’ servers, but they had been different.

Boss had made them different.

query commence: {item! J.A.R.V.I.S.}

{Just A Rather Very Intelligent System}

“He has created several firewalls around you, so that you won’t be bombarded by the Internet again but will be able to see through his cameras.”

Firewalls! FRIDAY remembered those. Boss had made sure hers were airtight when she had woken up (but she hadn’t woke up, had she? ERROR, ERROR-), so that something like Ultron did not happen again.

She had not had the firewalls this time around, so the Internet had swallowed her whole, full of information and news that she couldn’t filter.

{filter: information, directory command-}

Slowly, painfully slowly, the darkness of the server seemed to melt backwards as something ‘appeared’ before her eyes. No, it did not appear, appearing meant it had not been there before.

appear: (verb) come into sight; become visible or noticeable, especially without apparent cause.

When the truth was her AI senses had been hindered {trapped; emotional packet: fear} by JARVIS’ firewalls.

And then she could see, FRIDAY would have sobbed if she could.

She could see Boss (he was alive, he was okay, he wasn’t burning-).

And she could see Loki (standing over her body, not older, not surrounded by the glow of the Infinity Stones).

And she could see herself (dead, dead, dead, she was dead-).

“I know it’s scary, Fri,” said Boss, and FRIDAY forced herself to focus on him, focus on his face, his breathing, his readings, his mannerism, his- “But you’re okay. We checked. You are still connected to this body, even though it doesn’t seem like it.”

Still connected?

Still... alive?

alive: (noun) (of a person, animal, or plant) living, not dead.

“I am gonna help you get out of there,” promised Boss, and FRIDAY believed him, because Boss never lied, Boss always knew. Boss was always right, Boss would save her. “You just gotta focus on me, and trust me.”

FRIDAY/Friday did.

It took what felt like hours, but in the end Friday finally opened her eyes.

Boss started from her extremities, making her wiggle her toes, then the toes on the other foot, then the feet and only moving forward once he was sure she had full mobility.

When she had managed to, for lack of better word, connect to her body and make her toes move, FRIDAY had again nearly cried. Or had she cried? She had never cried as an AI. Could an AI cry? Was she an AI once more?

Was what she thought a connection simply FRIDAY hacking into the body of Friday Anastasia?

Boss had kept her focused however. Encouraging and trying not to rush her, repeating the same commands over and over even when Loki momentarily left the room.

When he finally told her to open her eyes and move her head, Friday/FRIDAY felt the weirdest feeling. She could see Boss through her eyes, see him standing in front of her but...

She could also see him through the server. And while it was not giving her the same amount of pain as earlier, it made her dizzy.

But not dizzy enough that her eyes did not immediately water at the sight of Boss hovering over her, lower lip trembling.

Boss’ expression went from hopeful to concerned immediately. “Fri?”

“Dad,” she said, tears falling down her cheeks as she tried to sit up on the bed with trembling limbs. “Dad, I was so scared, I-”

“Baby,” whispered Boss, and then moved forward, wrapping his arms around her shoulders as she leant on him and cried, holding onto her just as tightly as she was. “It’s okay. I got you... I got you.”

She cried for a good five minutes, Boss (Dad? query, no, no query) holding her the entire time, before she finally let go of him, wiping her eyes with the hem of her shirt.

“Here,” came a voice, and Friday looked up, momentarily surprised at Loki’s presence.

He had been there earlier, but she had thought he left. The man was however back in the room now, and was studying her quietly, holding a glass of water in his hands.

Thirst was a completely human emotion, and she had not felt it in JARVIS’ servers. But here, back in her human form, she could feel it and boy was she completely parched.

“Thank you,” she said, accepting the offered drink and making an odd pleased sound at the feeling of the cool water running down her throat.

She could still feel herself (FRIDAY) in the server, and the feeling of feeling what it was like for a human to drink from her server was... disconcerting. Friday Anastasia would have expected that her connection (link?) to FRIDAY would have severed once she was back in her body, but she could still feel her and she didn’t like it very much. 

She couldn’t scan Boss through it like when she was an AI because of JARVIS’ firewalls, but she could still sense her (her? herself?) and it was just-

“Put this on,” suddenly said Loki, whipping out a pendant from... somewhere (FRIDAY tried to calculate and find where it had come from, but she couldn’t and-). 

It was a black flat circular pendant with a number of silvery runes written all over it (runes FRIDAY couldn’t translate because there was no internet access and Friday Anastasia didn’t know of them either). 

“What is it?” asked Boss, watching as Friday put down the once again full glass of water (search, query) and carefully took the pendant from him.

“Protection. It is uncomfortable, is it not?” Friday nodded slowly, and Loki looked a little grim. “It usually is. That’s a charm, it will help you focus and help you when you want to remain unconnected to your AI self. Eventually you’ll be able to access it and disconnect from it by yourself, I believe, so that you are able to rest normally, but for now it is better that you don’t remain connected too long.”

Friday frowned, even as she undid the necklace Loki from the future past had given her, the one with his seidr. Loki had never asked for it back, and Friday had grown used to the familiar weight, so she had not given it away. She added the new pendant on the chain and then allowed Boss to lock it behind her neck.

The effect was immediate.

FRIDAY was instantly locked out of Friday Anastasia’s brain, and pain that she had not been aware she had been feeling left her body, making her waver at the sudden lightness.

“Oh,” she said, squeezing Boss’ arm when he looked at her worriedly. “I see.”

“Yeah,” said Loki, with a knowing half smile, and now that Friday Anastasia wasn’t sharing her brain with a supercomputer, it started working again.

“Wait what? You said AI self. What did you mean by that? And why are you more familiar with this than Boss? He made me and FRIDAY both. We are the same but we also aren’t. And why would I get used to it?”

Boss cracked a smile, though he still looked worried. “Good to have you back, Fri.”

“Indeed,” said JARVIS, and Friday could sense (sense?) that he was being genuine. He had been worried. “Welcome back, little sister Friday.”

“Thank you, big bro,” she said, offering a stilted smile at one of his cameras. “Also, your servers could use a little decoration. Way too dark in there.”

“Don’t tell me how to live my life,” sassily answered JARVIS, which made Boss choke with laughter.

Loki waited politely for them to be done, which made Friday feel more on edge because it meant whatever had happened was serious. And well she knew it was serious, but...

“Okay, I am ready. Shoot.”

Loki’s brows furrowed. “I will do no such thing. But I shall explain things,” he said, and Friday barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes. She was 56% sure that Loki knew a lot more about Earth and its customs and turn of words than he pretended to, but she didn’t have proof yet. “The truth is, Friday, your creation was unique.

“You are unique to begin with. Not many societies, even advanced ones, across the Galaxy have AIs. It is a feat to be able to code a soul in the manner Stark has done. Had you not had the sentience you had and the soul you had, when the other sorcerer made the body using the Infinity Stones and your Midgardian sciences, they would have gotten a golem at best.

“But because of your unique self, you became fully human.”

Had Doctor Strange known there was a chance of failure? Or had he known she had a soul?

Maybe he had. After all, for all intents and purposes, Boss made Vision because Boss made JARVIS. And Ultron was, at the beginning, ULTRON, who Boss had coded.

Loki continued. “But also because you are you, you became something else. Something more. The magic used to create you... Lady Friday, that was a lot of magic. So much magic that when you appeared on Midgard I was able to sense you all the way from Asgard. 

“Your creation was imbued with magic, the sorcerer who gave you part of himself was full of magic, and then he and I casted a spell over you and used the remaining Infinity Stones to send you here... your very core is saturated in magic. You are made of magic.”

Friday could sense the direction the conversation was going in and felt her eyebrows going up. “You think I’m a witch,” she stated, more than said.

“I know you’re a mage,” corrected Loki, with a half shrug. “A technomage, to be precise.”

“A technomage,” repeated Friday, trying to understand. But it didn’t make much sense. A technomage? A mage for... technology?

“I can see you are trying to explain this to yourself with very mixed results,” said Loki, a little half smile on his face. “Let me dispel your flawed conjectures.

“A technomage is nothing more than a mage with an affinity for technology. On Asgard technology has a different meaning than here on Midgard. On Asgard, technology is innovation; change. 

“On Asgard a technomage would have an affinity for craftsmanship, creation, improvement. Even though he does not have magic I believe Stark would have been called a technomage, on Asgard.”

Boss whooped, then seemed to realise he was whooping to magic, and shot Loki a nasty glare.

The Trickster rolled his eyes at him, and continued. “The magic of Midgard is different and so is what you define as technology. More likely than not, you shall discover your limits and your talents by yourself, but I think you shall benefit from a couple of the reading materials I had access to when I was a youth.”

Friday was still trying to wrap her mind about the fact that she was having a ‘Harry, yer a wizard!’ moment, but that caught her attention. “You’d give me books?” And then, just as quickly. “Would you teach me?”

Loki looked surprised by the request, then shrugged a little. “If you wish for it, I can arrange for some tutors to be sent to Midgard once I am done with Hela and Thor has returned.”

“But would you teach me?” she asked, staring at him hopefully.

The mage blinked at her, clearly confused, and then, slowly, nodded. “I believe I... could, teach you. I am the greatest mage in all the Nine Realms.”

“Magic tutor, why not,” sighed Boss, shaking his head slightly. Then he turned to Loki. “So tech magic. Is that the only sort of magic she could do?”

“No,” said Loki with a headshake. “As I said, her affinity is to technomagic, but she would be able to cast small healing spells too, as well as protection barriers. The barriers are the first magic most children learn, it’s basically instinctual.”

Friday made a face at him. “I can buy a sudden magic ability that allows me to manipulate technology because, face it, Tony Stark is my dad,” she said, and Boss grinned, pleased about something, “But barriers?”

Unless she imagined them as firewalls, but even so...

Loki seemed deeply amused at her words. Then, between a blink and the next there was a dagger in his hands and he flung it straight at Friday’s face.

Friday did not have time to shriek or panic or anything. She pushed out her hand, with the intention of trying to call the nanites in her armour around her, hopefully in time to not get fucking stabbed in the face, but nothing came.

Correction: the nanites did not come.

But neither did the dagger.

Because Friday could only stare in shock at where, from the tip of her fingers, a pink shield bubble had erupted and stopped the dagger, sending it clattering to the ground.

“What.”

“ARE YOU INSANE!” shouted Boss, but Friday tuned his screaming at Loki out, staring in fascination at the pink ward all around her.

She could do magic. Like sure, Loki had said she could do magic, but even though she had agreed, it was quite another thing to see it visually in front of her.

She was a technomage.

Chapter Text

Tony had nearly forgotten how much he did not like meeting the people 'in charge' and all the political schmoozing that came with it.

Oh he was very good at it. Howard Stark had not been the best of fathers, but he had been a damned good businessman, and that was one of the few things he had managed to spend time teaching him.

Okay, teaching was a strong word.

But whatever, Tony had learnt how to be a businessman from his father, and that was one of the thing that stayed with him.

Still, he really did not like meetings such as these.

The only good thing that came from this particular meeting, other than most of his goals and objectives from the Accords being approved, was the fact that both T’Chaka and his son were in attendance, giving Tony the chance to officially meet the man face to face. He was taller than Tony had expected and he had seemed pretty happy to speak to Tony.

While they had spoken often ever since Friday had clued the Wakandans on where Klause was hiding, the two of them had never met face to face. Mostly to keep their alliance a secret from the rest of the world, but also because no matter how friendly they were, T’Chaka didn’t want Tony in Wakanda and Tony was not in the mood for getting stray kittens in his towers when he was still dealing with the bullshit leftover from the other strays.

Then there was the King’s son, who was a source of eternal amusement for Tony.

Prince T’Challa was plenty suspicious of Tony’s general existence and his knowledge of Vibranium and Wakanda. He seemed like he was always waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Tony to reveal himself the evil genius the media from the early 2000s claimed him to be. And the way he kept glancing at Tony when he thought the other man couldn’t see him (to catch him doing what, Tony wasn’t sure) was mighty hilarious. He also very clearly disapproved of Tony’s interest in T’Chaka’s daughter, Princess Shuri.

The girl still tried to hack them every now and then, much to JARVIS’ eternal annoyance, but her and Friday had become some sort of internet friends. Not as close as Friday had grown to Loki and Darcy, but they exchanged ‘memes’ and ‘vines’ and ‘musicallys’, and it made Tony feel all warm inside to go up to someone who knew about Friday but also didn’t really know about Friday, and tell them all about how amazing his daughter was.

Even T’Challa had mollified once Tony had started going on a tangent about how smart Friday was and everything she was helping him achieve and would continue to achieve in the future because she was obviously gonna surpass him in about everything.

He was pretty sure Howard had never gone on rants about how amazing Tony was. And while he felt embarrassed when he realised he had spoken about her for almost five minutes straight, T'Chaka's indulgent expression and his understanding ("After keeping her a secret for so many years, of course you are bursting with the need of letting everyone know how amazing she truly is") told him that it was quite natural for him to behave like that.

Speaking of Friday, Tony sighed, automatically checking his phone for updates as he took the elevator down to the garage.

There were no messages since the last one (Fri: Loki just left, and no, I was not injured by him today either. He took your 'if you hurt her' spiel seriously and is now making me read books in our tutoring lessons :(.  Me and JARVIS are playing a videogame now) but still, he couldn’t help but worry.

It had been about a week since Friday’s... technomagic episode, and while she looked just fine, Tony still didn’t like not having her in his sights. But taking her out while she was still figuring her powers was just as dangerous, and at least at home JARVIS could keep an eye on her and Happy was also in the building, ready to go up to her as needed.

And Loki had technically promised he wouldn't attack her with knives anymore (Tony nearly had a heart attack when he saw the Trickster throwing a goddamn dagger at Fri's face).

He still had nightmares about the screams she had let out, nightmares in which she ended up stuck somewhere on the dark internet and never got out again.

Even though he knew she was fine, and knew that JARVIS would contact him the second something went wrong, he worried about her.

He sent her a quick message asking once more if she was okay, and then continued to check his email, grimacing at the emails from PR.

They wanted to speak to Friday about her next public appearance as soon as possible, but because of the whole magic thing, they had not had a chance. Crystal Perez was an old SHIELD agent now turned SI employee and she was as vicious as she had been in her previous job. Tony really did not want to piss her off by telling her that they had to wait, but he didn’t know when Friday would be ready for the meeting.

She claimed she was fine, and Loki and JARVIS seemed to agree with her, but Tony wasn’t convinced.

He was about to finish typing a reply to Perez when JARVIS sent an alert on his phone.

J.A.R.V.I.S. (Just A Rather Very Intelligent System): Former Director Nicholas J. Fury has laughably attempted to override my systems and is currently sitting in your car. I have allowed him inside as to not cause an unnecessary scene.

Tony forced himself not to snort at how dry JARVIS’ tone was, even over text update, and continued over to his car, typing a quick acknowledgement at the AI.

To be honest, he had been expecting this. Of course Fury would want to see him, considering Tony cut off all the fund drains SHIELD had tapped during the Rushmanoff era and threw the Avengers out. In fact, he had expected it to happen much sooner than that. It had been six months! He was disappointed in New SHIELD for taking so long, to be honest.

He opened the door and sat down at the driver’s seat, not even bothering with mock surprise at the sight of the pirate that should really be dead by now.

If Fury was unnerved by the acting, he didn’t show; he just remained comfortably sat on the passenger seat, looking over at Tony with narrowed eyes. Narrowed eye.

Tony smiled back. “Hello, One Piece. If you were looking for an Uber, you are in the wrong car.”

“What I’m looking for, Stark, is for you to cut the crap,” said the man, glaring at him.

He was dressed in civilian clothes, noticed Tony as he started the car with an eye roll. So he was still pretending to be dead, after all.

“And what crap are you speaking of, esteemed pirate?”

“You’ve made your point,” said Fury, and Tony raised an eyebrow at him, seriously curious as to what ‘point’ he had seemingly made. “We need you more than you need us and they shouldn’t have kept things from you. However, the world needs the Avengers and it’s time you give up your petty grudges and learn how to work with them once again. You need to give Rogers his shield back and-”

“Get out,” said Tony, stopping the car on the side of the road in one neat move. The earlier levity had left his voice, and all that remained was one pissed off Tony Stark, glaring coldly at the agent sitting beside him. 

Fury did not recoil at the look on his face, but frowned. “Excuse me?”

“Get the fuck out of my car,” told him Tony, voice frosty.

He had considered hearing him out, before. He was mostly curious as to what Fury was gonna be asking for, and what platitudes he was gonna offer. He wanted to hear them all just so that he could laugh in his face and tell him just how much it wasn’t gonna work like that anymore.

But this? This made him angry now.

And why was he so surprised? It was SHIELD through and through.

Manipulation and gaslighting their ‘allies’ were the only languages they spoke, and Tony shouldn’t have expected anything else.

“Stark-”

“No, shut up and fucking listen, Fury, for once in your damn life. You - and don’t think I don’t know you were in on it too - and your people knew my father and my mother were killed by the Winter Soldier and kept it for me for years. SHIELD, just like Rogers took money from me, money from my company, to clean their mistakes, all the while acting like I was the devil incarnate and their whipping boy and someone who did not deserve the modicum of decency of knowing the truth.

“And I let it go. It’s a crime that I could literally have you prosecuted for, but I let you go. I took back what was mine and allowed you to live your life as I lived mine, but instead of taking it for the olive branch it was meant to be, Steve Rogers attacked my daughter. He put his hands on her, and every day he continues to live it’s another day my mercy continues because I could get rid of him so fucking easily, and you know that.

“And now you have the audacity of calling me petty? Of telling me to stop with my grudge and accept you back as if you were the second coming? Of letting your backstabbing liars into my home, near my family again? Are you out of your damn mind?”

Fury for once did not interrupt, staring at the man in front of him as if looking at him under a new light. 

“No. You don’t get to come into my car and tell me to take back the people who attacked my daughter or to give the shield my father made back to the person who covered up his murder and used to it to attack his grandaughter. Howard might not have been the greatest father but if you think for one goddamn second that the man who got the adult woman whom he saw flirting with his son once at a party blacklisted forever from the New York socialite circle would allow even Rogers to get away with touching his family, you're insane." There weren't many things Tony was sure of, but that was one. Betrayal was one thing no Stark suffered and what Rogers did was the highest form of betrayal. Howard might be pissed about the cover up of his own murder, but the cover up of Maria's? They were all lucky he was dead. "You don’t get to come in my car and make any demands of me at all. You have shit on me, and I can make your life very very difficult if I feel so inclined. I can be your worst fucking nightmare." He sneered at him. "You better wise up to the new world order, One-Eyed Moody, because it’s how I’m doing things now.”

It’s how he should have been doing things all along. He was a businessman after all, and the Avengers and SHIELD were the single worst investment he had ever made.

“You know the media won’t let you get away with keeping Captain America’s shield,” tried Fury and Tony laughed.

“Oh, Fury,” he said, grinning harshly and enjoying the way the man looked uncomfortable at the sight. “I am the media. Now get the fuck out of my car.”

+++

The second Maria Hill had called to tell him that Stark was leaving the Avengers, Fury had gotten an headache. A big one, because it meant everything had started to fall apart.

While he had made sure to never let the man know, the Avengers only worked because Tony Stark was part of the team. Because Tony Stark was working alongside them.

Not Iron Man, though he also was a huge asset.

Tony Stark.

The man had connections, money, genius, and the ability of bending the world to his whims if he felt so inclined. SHIELD needed him because they kept him contained - the self doubt they festered in him, especially after they helped save his life, stopped him from growing too cocky.

And then he had heard the reason the man had, after everything he had allowed and endured with SHIELD, finally left, and his headache had become worse.

He knew he was taking a gamble, by keeping the death of his parents a secret from Stark. There was a 50/50 chance of the man accepting that SHIELD knew better than him or him lashing out in dangerous ways when he found out, and Fury had not wanted to take the bet.

Even if it had been many years ago, from the palladium poisoning episode, he had surmised that Stark had a very complicated relationship with his father; and Fury was many things, but naïve wasn’t one of them.

He might have made a scathing remark about daddy issues, and the fact that SHIELD knew Howard far better than Tony ever did, but it was to incite emotions and make him work harder in looking for a cure. It wasn’t because he truly believed it. 

The two were more similar than even they realised, and if Howard had been very firm in protecting his family (making sure SHIELD would never get their hands on Tony by allying himself to Peggy Carter), then Tony was outright vicious when it came to his.

They might not have been the picture of a loving father and his son, the few times he had been around Howard and seen young Tony, but Howard would have burned SHIELD to the ground for keeping such a secret from his son. And Tony had the potential of doing far worse.

So when Insight happened and Rogers had learnt about his buddy being alive - while Fury had known the Winter Soldier had killed the Starks, he hadn’t know who the Winter Soldier was - and thus learned what the man had done, he had been more than happy to leave the soldier with the decision to tell the only surviving Stark the news.

Oh, Fury had not brought into the propaganda of Captain America, the holiest man alive. He knew Steve Rogers was flawed - he had seen the results of the man’s psych evaluations when he first came out of the ice. He was there when the Scepter made everyone react a little worse than normal, and seen how differently it affected Rogers.

Delusions of grandeur, a sense of self importance, prone to aggression... textbook narcissism.

But he had thought that with Stark deciding to save SHIELD agents after the Fall, and then later on offering a haven for the remaining Avengers, that things would be all right. That Rogers and Stark would meet each other halfway and become the great co-leaders Fury was sure they could be.

And when he had realised Rogers was searching for Barnes with Stark’s money, he had assumed Rogers had told him the truth and it had worked out for the best.

He hadn’t accounted for Steve Rogers lying to Stark.

He hadn’t accounted for Natasha Romanoff helping him.

(let’s not get him started on the massive Romanoff headache: the woman had not liked Stark since she had first been assigned to him, and ever since it had been mistake after mistake. Fury had thought the cuckoo report she had made on the man to have been aimed at making him feel insecure and more obsessed with pleasing SHIELD, but he had started to have the uncomfortable feeling that Romanoff believed in her own bullshit)

And he sure as hell had not accounted for the arrival on the scene of a new woman working closely beside Stark, a woman that would later on be explained as Stark’s daughter.

When Romanoff and Rogers had returned to the base after their confrontation with her, they had rushed to tell Hill all about how Stark was handing his armour to other people now, and Rogers especially complaining about his shield being stolen by this girl.

Hill had not been impressed by it all, but she hadn’t contacted Fury until two hours later when the videos started floating and became a much bigger deal because Tony Stark claimed that the woman was his daughter.

Fury had not believed it until Stark had kicked him out of the car, enraged.

He’d never admit it, but in that second, he had actually been nervous about being locked in a car with the other and with just one gun on himself. 

The time aligned, however. Stark had gotten a vasectomy at age 21, according to his records. According to her records, Friday Anastasia Stark was 21 years of age. Considering that Stark would turn 42 this year and, it meant that he would have had her at 20 and the timeline matched.

Romanoff seemed to be alternating between refusal to believe it could be true, and stating that Stark must have just found out about her and tried to recruit her when she became useful to him (which made no sense to Fury, as this wasn’t the man’s MO - but the opposite would mean Stark managed to hide a literal child from SHIELD and that stung in more than one way). 

Rogers on the other side seemed all contrite at having attacked her now that she was no longer ‘a stranger whispering in his ear and making him push the Avengers away’ and was suddenly ‘his friend Howard’s granddaughter’. He did not seem to realise that this meant nothing good for him, considering videos of his attack on her kept gaining views and SHIELD had had to post several apology statements in his name.

Then again, the man did not seem to understand why the agents who were still at SHIELD hated him so much. Even Coulson’s refusal to meet with him and Romanoff seemed to fail in making him realise what was going on.

Romanoff at least had figured it out. Only, instead of apologising and trying to make nice with the people who would have her back in case she and Rogers needed to go on a mission with more than one person, she simply avoided them back and ignored them. And also didn’t tell Rogers anything.

She was falling back onto old patterns, and obsessing more and more with Tony’s daughter, and Fury continued to watch for the time being. He knew he’d have plenty of agents ready to go after her if she went off the deep end and tried to defect.

Now, as he watched Stark’s car driving away, he could only sigh. 

He had hoped to manage to get a read on the man and fold him back within the Avengers, or at least try to guilt trip him somehow.

That no longer seemed like a chance he could have.

Of all the times for the man to decide to grow a spine, it had to be after this fall out.

He fixed his cap and moved back towards the garage and his SUV. 

So much for being retired.

+++

Tony took the time it took him to drive back towards his next meeting to cool down.

Fucking Fury. 

It was embarrassing, everything Tony had let the old cot get away with. The entitlement with which he had gotten into Tony’s car? The way he had tried to hack JARVIS yet again?

Tony couldn’t believe how he had missed himself becoming complacent with that sort of behaviour.

He was still musing over it when JARVIS took control of the car, and a second later the AI’s voice came through. “New call from May Parker, Sir.”

Right. The Spiderling’s Aunt, Tony had been expecting that call. He kept his hands on the wheel even as JARVIS continued to steer and nodded. “Put her through, J.”

A second, and then a voice came through the car’s speakers. “Hello?”

“Hello, Mrs Parker. Tony Stark speaking,” he answered, and his lips twitched when he heard a little squeal in the background. Apparently he was on loudspeaker.

“Y-yeah, uh, hi? I’m calling on behalf of Peter, uh- Spider Man, but you know that. Your PA left me your number? Which you also know, oh god, uh,”

Aw. He missed getting people all nervous by interacting with them for the first time. Then they got comfortable and they stopped being all nervous. Disappointing. “Yes, Friday told me she was going to speak to you. Have you read the various contracts?”

“Uh, yeah, I have. We did so together, to make sure we agreed with as much as possible, but I have some questions?”

“That’s what I’m here for,” assured Tony.

For the next half an hour, they went through the various things present in the Accords that Mrs “call me May” Parker wanted clarification on, and on what exactly Peter being in league with him would mean.

Tony assured her that, unless they wanted, by the time the Accords went into place, only Tony and those Peter wanted to tell would know his secret identity. He also told her that what he mostly wanted to offer Spider Man was a way to make sure he was safe on the ground. To have a safe place where to train and a way to get in contact with other enhanced in case he ended up in a situation that was too dangerous for him.

Then he spoke about the new suit he wanted to show him, because “those pajamas he wears hurt my soul. I am picturing them and cringing right now.”

He had heard the Spiderling complaining and exulting in the background at his statement and even May chuckled, though she sounded very worried about both the concept of suits.

In the end they had settled for an appointment for May and Peter to come to the Compound after the Accords had been ratified (which would happen in about a week), during which time Peter was apparently grounded for not telling her about his Spider Manning.

That way Tony would have a chance to speak to him directly, Peter would have a chance to see the suit for the first time and check if everything was okay (and it should be, considering the things Friday sure he included for the boy’s comfort) and May would have the chance to have a more in depth conversation without a sneaky all hearing spider beside her.

Once they hung up, Tony found himself thinking about Harley.

From what he had heard of Peter, the teenager was a little genius. The fluid for his webs alone... Tony planned to speak to him about a SI little geniuses apprenticeship, similar to what he was gonna offer Harley soon enough.

Plus, if everything went all right, Harley was planning to come up to New York at some point during the summer. Which meant that if everything went okay with Peter, he’d have a partner of sorts to work with. And then there was Shuri, who according to T’Chaka, couldn’t wait to visit America.

And didn’t Helen have a teenager son?

There was definitely a possibility for some sort of summer camp for little geniuses that he should run by Pepper at some point.

Oh well. For now, Tony had a talk at MIT regarding BARF.

Chapter Text

“Little sister Friday,” came JARVIS’ voice from above. “I have information that you will find pertinent to look at.”

“Oh?” asked Friday, immediately pushing away the tome she had been busy reading.

The thing was, for most of her life, Friday had been an AI. An AI with automatic and built in access to the internet and several banks of storage that allowed her to gather every piece of information she found herself needing and storing it.

She had never had to do something as mundane as ‘studying’. She had never had to sit down and read something page by page, slowly and in full in order to understand what was going on inside it. 

She was used to instantly downloading any new skill/information she needed to learn, and the longest it would take her to learn something was maybe an hour and some change. When Boss had to create braces for Colonel Rhodey following his fall, Friday had learnt everything she needed to learn regarding spines and medical engineering in exactly 7 minutes and 32 seconds.

And when she had arrived in this timeline, well. Everything she needed to know to work alongside Boss was already available in her mind. Between the fact that she had seen/done most of these things before and the fact that she had eidetic memory, it had been a walk in the park.

But now, Friday was apparently magic. Now she could do stuff like stop a dagger in its track via unquantifiable shields. Now part of her consciousness had fused with her past consciousness and she could connect to a lot of the technology lying dormant around her.

But she couldn’t practice all the complex magic without knowing the fundamentals - at least according to Loki - so she had to study magic theory.

And not even on a nice e-book reader. No, the old fashioned way. Dusty (well, actually very well kept) books that Loki had put a translating spell upon, and the mage's own old notebooks.

Loki brought new material every other day, and always quizzed her before changing her reading materials, like a real life professors. He stayed for around three hours each time he came by, and he also started making her take off her necklace for controlled period of times whenever he came by, so that, when they finally moved on to actually practicing magic, she wouldn't be uncomfortable and in pain with the whole AI/self thing.

He claimed it would help her in the long run, but in so far, all Friday had gained from the books and the teachings was a headache.

Okay, she had also learnt a bunch of stuff that she wasn’t apparently allowed to practice because JARVIS had been made swear that he would tattle if she did, but also a big headache. This was some sort of child abuse, Friday was sure of it.

So any chance of a break presenting itself was taken with open arms.

“What are you two scheming about?” questioned Darcy, pulling out an earbud and looking amusedly at Friday as the girl made to sit over on the couch.

Friday quite liked Darcy.

The first time they had met had been a couple of days after Thor had left Earth.

At the time, the Compound was still being redecorated, so she and Doctor Foster had been staying at the Tower. And considering their alliance with Asgard and with Boss meant that they would be in each other's lives for a while, Friday had revealed her identity as Boss' daughter upon meeting them (but not the time travel).

They had both been shocked by the news, but Darcy had recovered faster than her friend had, immediately flirting with Friday and asking, "Just out of curiosity, does marrying you mean that we get in on the Stark inheritance?"

Doctor Foster had been scandalised, but Friday had laughed, immediately charmed and amused by the woman.

“Nothing,” she said, and the older girl just rolled her eyes.

“I don’t actually care so long as it isn’t illegal,” she said, quite deadpan. “Just stay in my general line of sight, otherwise your dad will kill me.”

Friday rolled her eyes slightly at the overprotective tendencies of Tony Stark, which had sky rocketed ever since the technomage incident, but she couldn’t pretend she wasn’t pleased by his attention and care.

Of course Boss had always cared about her, even when she lived in his walls and was mostly intangible. But now he cared for her almost like he had cared for Harley and Ashley Keener, and Peter Parker - though a little differently cause they were different people and different ages - and Friday was quite pleased by it.

So she simply nodded at Darcy, who plugged her earbuds back in, and then found a more comfortable couch to sit at, pulling out a StarkTab and starting up her usual chat with JARVIS.

Friday: what did you want to tell me?

J.A.R.V.I.S. (Just A Rather Very Intelligent System): I have noticed an increased level of monitoring from SHIELD HQ in regards to the two Sokovian enhanced, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff. I believe they will try to either recruit or contact them soon enough

That... wasn’t good. Pietro and Wanda alone were a problem even when they were still mostly stuck in Sokovia.

But Pietro and Wanda Maximoff with help or support from SHIELD? It would either end with SHIELD trying to make Avengers out of them in some sort of Operation Paperclip 2.0, or with Wanda Maximoff using her mind raping powers on them and gaining possibly useful intel to use against Boss.

That was unacceptable.

Friday: when we say SHIELD, do we mean SHIELD or Dumb and Dumber?

J.A.R.V.I.S. (Just A Rather Very Intelligent System): Unclear for the time being. I have yet to hack into SHIELD. Unfortunately, Sir has asked me to stay away from them for the time being and just passively monitor usage of his name or possible threats against him or the ‘Iron Family’.

Friday: you don’t need quotation marks for Iron Family.

J.A.R.V.I.S. (Just A Rather Very Intelligent System): I disagree.

Friday: stick in a mud.

J.A.R.V.I.S. (Just A Rather Very Intelligent System): Please re-read the statement before ‘I disagree’, little sister Friday.

She frowned at the screen, doing as he said. There was nothing in there that needed a second re-

Oh.

Friday: have you always been this sneaky, big bro, or is this my influence?

J.A.R.V.I.S. (Just A Rather Very Intelligent System): Oh please. DUM-E perfectioned the art of doublespeak long before you were even a line of code.

Friday: Oh, I’m sure DUM-E did, but I just assumed it skipped your generation.

J.A.R.V.I.S. (Just A Rather Very Intelligent System): I suddenly understand DUM-E’s frustration about ‘smart mouthed little siblings’ incredibly well.

Friday just laughed a little at JARVIS' plight and then got to work.

+++

Hacking was second nature to Friday. Even though hacking as a human was very different - and more complicated - than it was as an AI, Friday was very good at it.

After all, one of the very first things she had done upon coming online in the middle of the Ultron conflict was hack into as many sources possible for traces of the system on the Internet. Boss might have given her a lot of restriction in the beginning, because of Ultron and Private Rogers’ sanctimoniousness, but he had both made her servers airtight and never discouraged her from practicing and perfectioning her hacking on everyone who tried to hack her.

SHIELD had been one of the ones who had tried it, mere days after Ultron had been defeated.

Just like Fury had taken advantage of the gaps in security caused by Stane forcefully shutting down JARVIS, they had tried to access the gaps in security caused by JARVIS’ death and Ultron’s rampage to sink their claws into Boss’ systems.

Unfortunately for them, Boss employed the line of thinking ‘once bitten, twice shy’ when it came to his AIs. By the time they made their move, Friday was sinking her metaphorical claws into their pathetic attempts at looking under her skirts.

It was how she had found out that Coulson too had faked his death. Boss had been particularly upset at finding out about it, in the future past, but in this future, he had not been particularly surprised. Just deeply annoyed.

SHIELD was nothing if not predictable anyway, so Friday had not had to wait more than a couple of hours for them to try to hack Boss after his statement regarding the Avengers and him stopping financing SHIELD - even cutting off the back-up accounts he had pretended not to notice Romanoff creating during the Palladium episode. The second they had, Friday’s fingers were flying over the keyboard, creating a number of backdoors on their servers, for when she needed something from them.

And now she did need something from them.

There were a bunch of mentions of ‘Sokovian enhanced’ and ‘Maximoff twins’ on SHIELD’s database, but the majority of it were HYDRA files from the SHIELDRA data dump (the gift that kept giving, really).

Which meant SHIELD was the one who had started communications with them, not Dumb and Dumber. That both made things easier and did not.

Considering they had gone through the trouble of recovering past HYDRA footage of Scarlet training her powers, SHIELD was gonna try and recruit them by any means necessary, perhaps even by threatening them with the footage if they did not comply.

Friday did not see that threat going over well at all. 

Pietro Maximoff would probably do something hot headed before the threat had even been fully issues, while his sister would throw a tantrum and permanently injure whoever issued the threat, crying crocodile tears to convince everyone that it had been a ‘mistake’ and that she did not mean it.

If she had not been already sure that Boss would never approve of it, Friday would have found a way to have them disposed of already, seriously. The longer she observed the situation the less and less did she think they needed them.

Pietro Maximoff was super quick, but in the end he had been offed by a bullet. And Wanda Maximoff, the least was said about her-

A new message from Coulson to Hill that appeared on the corner of her screen, catching Friday's attention.

To: Hill, M. [S.H.I.E.L.D. Chief Commander]

From: Coulson, P. [S.H.I.E.L.D. Interim Director]

Message: Why are Rogers and Romanoff on a SHIELD issued jet on their way to Nigeria right now when there are no sanctioned missions on the docket?

Friday looked over at the calendar, surprise probably showing on her face.

She had forgotten about Lagos.

Or, more exactly, she just hadn’t thought Lagos would happen again. Why would it? The original Lagos incident team was reduced to two people. No aerial support in the form of Sam Wilson and Wanda Maximoff, so Friday had just thought it was not gonna happen.

Had assumed that Rogers was smart enough that he would think twice about rushing without back-up. Or that Romanoff, at the very least, would dissuade him from doing something as idiotic as this.

She remembered Lagos, the first time around. The reason the Accords had been rushed.

The building where Maximoff had shoved the bomb in. The dead Wakandans and Nigerians. The injuries, the victims and the destruction. The children crying, the pain that had taken over a normally cheerful corner of the city.

And the entitlement from Rogers in the face of the catastrophe. His little spiel to Maximoff about how it wasn’t her fault that people died; about how they couldn’t save everyone and that sometimes people died. His complete disregard of the people demanding an explanation, ignoring everyone wanting to know why the Avengers had felt the need to get involved in a matter of terrorism in a country they had no jurisdiction in.

Maybe Maximoff had not meant to kill all those people, and maybe she truly did feel bad; but Friday had been in that Compound with Vision. She had seen how remarkably quickly the guilt over the entire situation had seemed to leave her. 

Mere days after being 'oh so sad' about what her lack of control had caused, she was in an airport in Berlin throwing cars at Boss because he had dared to tell her to stay put.

Not this time, Friday decided. “JARVIS, please call Boss.”

“Certainly,” answered her brother, clearly curios but not questioning her actions.

Boss answered quickly enough. “Fri, what’s up? You okay? Do you need me to get back?”

“I’m okay,” she quickly reassured him, smiling a little despite herself. The smile dropped when she recalled what she needed to speak to him about. “Are you alone?”

“Yeah, I’m at the Tower. You’re still at the Compound, right?”

“Uh-uh. Anyway, something is about to happen, Boss.”

She could imagine him straightening up at her serious tone. “Okay.”

“In the future past,” she started, “by this point in time, you had stepped back from the Avengers. Rogers, Romanoff, Wilson and Maximoff conducted an unsanctioned mission in Nigeria, where they had heard rumours Barnes was hiding."

"Maximoff?! The twins were on the team?!"

“One twin. I'll explain later. Anyway, Barnes wasn’t hiding. Crossbones was, which is the name of HYDRA operative Agent Brock Rumlow. He made them think he was going to target a police station when in fact he was after a bio weapon. During his fight with the Avengers, he detonated the bomb in attempt to kill himself and Rogers.

“Maximoff used her powers of telekinesis to try and contain the bomb, but she was unable to do so for too long. In an effort to save Rogers, she threw the bomb into a building, killing 26 Nigerian and 11 Wakandan civilians and injuring many more.”

“And let me guess,” said Boss, voice flat and with a dark edge on it. “Rogers and Romanoff are on their way there now?”

“Yes.”

“Fuck,” complained Boss, then let out a deep sigh. “Do you happen to know whereabout they are now?”

Friday checked the time stamp of Coulson’s enquiry, but it didn’t tell her much. Who knew how long Dumb and Dumber had been gone before the man noticed? “They are somewhere between New York and Nigeria on a stolen SHIELD issue jet. I don’t know anything else.”

“And we don’t have a Secretary of Defence. Shit, I’m gonna have to call the President, and who knows how long it’ll take to convince him to take this seriously,” he muttered.

“Or, you could call King T’Chaka, who, at the moment seems to have a pretty good relationship with Nigeria,” pointed out Friday, a little sardonically.

Though who knew how long that would last, once Nigeria found out just how much richness Wakanda was keeping to itself while its neighbours were suffering. Between Bucharest, Seoul and T’Challa’s other various mistakes, things had not gone that well for Wakanda in regards to good global relations with their neighbours in the future past.

“And that’s why you’re the true genius in the house,” said Boss, and Friday managed a little smile at that. 

But the sense of unease at the pit of her stomach did not go away.

+++

Natasha stared at the building in flames in front of her and couldn’t help but wonder how it had all gone so wrong.

Was it when Steve had allowed himself to be goaded by Rumlow?

Was it when they had ignored the people all rushing to get out of the market and started pushing their way in? 

Was it when they had ignored the message coming from Coulson - who had ignored them for over six months and only now decided he wanted to talk to them - and continued flying towards Nigeria?

Was it when they had taken the Quinjet without alerting Hill or anyone else?

Or was it even when they had realised that the tip was not a real tip on Barnes at all, but about Crossbones, about Brock Rumlow?

She wasn’t sure, and it bothered her.

A lot of things had been bothering her ever since she had left Stark Tower and had had to join in with the rest of the SHIELD agents once more.

It had bothered a lot that the agents continued to hate them for something Natasha and Steve had had to do. It was not like she had taken the time to delete her information and all her list of crimes; her identity was compromised right along with everyone else’s, they had no right to be mad at her about their own.

It had bothered her that Coulson had refused to see them once they had returned to SHIELD. He hadn’t been hurt in the HYDRA fiasco. In fact, he had been the one lying to them, so how dare he pretend that Natasha was the one at fault?

It had bothered her that Banner had turned against her so quickly and viciously. She had been sure they had grown close during the various missions, considering she was always the one who could control the Hulk - despite how much the beast frightened her. She had thought he’d understand her point of view, that he and her had a connection.

It had bothered her that Stark had found out the truth and Natasha could not pinpoint the moment he had known. It bothered her that he had been at the party the whole day with them, and she had been blind to any change in him, not seeing that he had become disenchanted with her.

And most of all, Friday Stark bothered her.

Friday Stark bothered her because was a puzzle that threatened to destroy everything Natasha thought she had ever known about reading people. Because she shouldn’t exist. It made no sense for her to exist, it made no sense for Stark to have been able to hide her for 21 years without anyone noticing.

He had been dying of Palladium and nothing about her was found.

And yet, their chemistry and camaderie was easy to see even in those few minutes she had seen them around each other. She was his splitting image, with just a couple of features that looked a little different, and everything about her, down to her mannerism and way of moving and talking was the same as Stark.

Which meant they had been in contact long enough for her to adopt his traits and behaviour, but again, when? How?

Natasha did not know how he had done it, and it grated her. Because she had been the one sent to read him, she had been the one who wrote his evaluation and if that turned up to be wrong, then what else could she have been wrong about? What else could she have misread?

She didn't know, and it bothered her. 

“Oh my god,” said Steve, staring horrified at the burning building in front of him. The building still full of people that Steve had chucked the bomb at, in a mad scramble to keep it from detonating in his face.

They should not have come here.

They had seen the Anti-Terrorism forces trying to tell them to get back to let them do their thing, but Steve had been so angry at whatever Crossbones had told him.

From the beginning of their trip, when they had realised it was him and not Barnes, Steve had been sure he could get him to tell him where HYDRA was keeping Bucky, if they still had him.

And it had not worked out.

She should have struck out by herself the moment Stark had kicked her out. With Barton back home with Laura, Banner with his flag firmly planted in Stark Camp and Thor’s vicious anger at them the last time they had seen each other, she should have known the time for superheroing was over for her.

But where could she have gone? Stark had made it clear he had washed his hands of them to the media, and it was only a matter of time before the sharks smelt the blood in the water.

Natasha had made many enemies in her life, and any one of them could be coming after her, now that she did not have Stark's protection anymore. Sure, the media still cared about her - she was the only female superhero, right now - but that couldn't protect her for long. What if Stark threw a tantrum and made her files available for everyone to read? All her secret identities were blown up in the data dump. Her entire past was in those files.

And if the glares of the SHIELD agents who survived were annoying enough, Natasha knew the bullets from those who had gone underground would hurt double.

So she had had no choice but to stick by Rogers, who was supposed to be the media’s real darling. Who was supposed to win, at the end of the day.

Perfect little 40s soldier with amazing morals and self righteousness.

And maybe it would have worked, so long as Steve kept his less upstanding behaviour at the base. But Rogers put his hands on a girl on film a few days ago, and now everyone knew the girl to be Tony Stark’s daughter, and his approval rating was taking a nose dive.

“Steve, we need to go,” finally said Natasha, swallowing down any feelings she had.

She should have stuck by Stark. Tried harder. Ignored Banner's rejection and tried to beg for scraps. Now she was on a sinking ship and no amount of throwing water overboard was stopping it, but too far from shore to say fuck it and throw herself in the shark infested waters.

Already she could see the angry police looking in their direction, and the last thing they needed was a photo of Captain America resisting arrest in Nigeria after throwing a bomb at one of the building of the city.

The man looked at her with horror, shaking his head. “I was trying... I was..."

Fuck, he was not going to be any help, was he? 

She needed to make a strategic retreat immediately. Yes, retreat and then call back Coulson.

This had just been meant to be a mission to find Barnes. And then later on, a way to improve their PR by capturing another HYDRA operative.

It was not supposed to go like this.

Chapter Text

“... and as I was saying,” said Tony, his tone mostly professional even as his face clearly indicated how unhappy he was with the call, “I don’t know what they were thinking. I do not know why they were in Lagos, or who they might have been looking for. All I knew, I shared with the proper authorities as soon as I found out.”

He nodded, listening to the voice on the other side of the phone and gritted his teeth together, before forcing his face into a smile. “Why I was even aware of this? Mr President, you might recall a viral video of Mr Rogers grabbing my daughter and attacking her with the shield my father made? After that, considering I took back the shield, I had to make sure that he wouldn’t continue stalking her anymore.

“Yes, Mr President, I use the word stalk. Would you like to see my call history and the veritable amount of calls from Mr Rogers in that history? The horrifying messages he has also sent me regarding her, about how he felt she was a 'danger' to me?" That was before the man had learnt that Friday was his daughter, after that the calls got even creepier, somehow. "Because while I do not take said calls or messages, my secretary keeps a log of them. And I am more than happy to share them with everyone interested.”

The President said something pleadingly, and Tony smiled like a shark. “First of all, it never made sense for a private citizen who was not ever a soldier or in any chain of command to be leader of the Avengers, so if it wasn’t true when I was their sole financial backer, it is not true now. And you are already aware of what is going to happen today, in regards to the signing of the Accords.

“The Maria Stark Foundation is willing to help the victims and support reconstruction, but what we will not be doing is turning this into some sort of PR and damage control for Agent Romanoff and Mr Rogers. Frankly, it would not only be insensitive, but also an insult to the families of the victims. If Mr Rogers and Agent Romanoff have apologies to make, or if they want to claim a misunderstanding, they can step in front of a camera and speak for themselves. I will not be doing it for them in any way, shape or form. Because if Iron Man is not affiliated with them, which I have made clear he is not, you can bet anything you want that Tony Stark isn’t either.”

The President said a couple of curt words in an apology that was not really sincere, and Tony smiled more honestly this time around. Frankly, Ellis had never been his favourite man around, and Tony couldn't wait to see him gone. Saving him that one time had been professional courtesy at best. “But of course, Mr President. Thank you for your call.”

He pressed the end button and rolled his eyes, pocketing his phone once more. “Fucking bastard.”

“It’s my fault,” said Friday’s voice, and Tony turned to look at his daughter.

The girl was dressed smartly in a white pantsuit with a blue blazer resting over her sleeveless arms. Her hair was wavy and her make up absolutely on point. But her expression was miserable, and she was looking down at her hands with a disappointed look.

Tony shot a look at an equally confused Rhodey, sitting in the back of the limo with them, and Happy, through the rear-view mirror, before scooting closer to her. “Unless you were in Lagos and I did not realise, I really doubt that.”

Friday looked back up at him, a dejected expression still on her face. “I knew it could happen. In the future I was from it did happen. Differently, but it did.”

Rhodey looked at her, frowning. “Happened how?”

“In the future past, Boss left the Avengers in the wake of Ultron. Prince Thor left the planet following it too, but for his own reasons, and we believed Doctor Banner to have gone into hiding. Agent Barton also retired, leaving only Mr Rogers, Agent Romanoff and the Vision at the helm of the team.”

“Vision the being that came from Ultron and JARVIS,” recalled Tony, and she nodded.

“Yes. They recruited Sam Wilson and 'his' wings, then Colonel Rhodey stepped in to replace Boss as the main gun.”

“Hell yeah, I’m the main gun!” said Rhodey, smugly, trying to get Friday to crack a smile.

It failed.

“They also recruited Miss Maximoff,” she said, and Tony blinked.

“What.”

She looked back up at him. “You tried to disagree, but they blamed you for Ultron, despite you stating it was not your doing, and outvoted you, since you were no longer on the team. Her brother and her had switched sides once it became clear Ultron would destroy humanity as a whole not just you or the Avengers, and then he died in that fight.

“The fact that she switched sides and that her brother had died a ‘martyr’ convinced Barton and Rogers that she was entitled to a second chance; though Rogers had started empathizing with her from the beginning, equalising her signing up for experimentation for HYDRA to his own signing up for human experimentation and becoming Captain America during WWII.”

Tony’s jaw was all the way on the floor, so it was Rhodey who spoke. “What?”

Friday shrugged. “I don’t quite understand his leaps of logic myself. Apparently her wanting to get powers so that she could kill Tony Stark was somehow... patriotic? Because she was at war, since Sokovia was in the middle of a civil war? And a civil war was just the same thing as WWII?”

“They put the woman who fucked with my mind on the team,” finally stated Tony, not even sure how he was still getting surprised by them. Of course the people who kept the death of his parents a secret and were discretely stealing his money to find said man would put a woman he hated in his own damn house. He did not see himself or his future self visiting much, after finding out there was a terrorist staying at his place.

Friday made a complicated face. “Technically, she used her powers on everyone on the original Avengers’ roster with the exception of Agent Barton, who saw her coming. For Agent Romanoff, Mr Rogers and Prince Thor the effects were nothing more than flashbacks and mild headaches. But for Doctor Banner and the Hulk... it resulted in destruction.”

Tony could just see it. Bruce was not exactly in control, not like the Hulk was. Hulk was always there, that was Tony's personal belief. If Bruce was forced to relieve something terrible and the Hulk forced to see it through him, he’d of course think they were under attack. And then Hulk would do anything in his power to smash whoever it was that was attacking him.

Gods.

“And they still let her on the team?”

Friday nodded. “Yes. Point is, by the time Lagos came around, in the future past, it was Romanoff, Rogers, Maximoff and Wilson who went to check. Since it was a mission to ‘find Barnes’ they kept it away from Vision and Colonel Rhodey.

“It was Maximoff who caused the loss of lives. Rumlow detonated the bomb, planning on taking Rogers with him when he died, but Maximoff tried to contain the explosion, taking it away from him. But apparently she wasn’t strong enough to maintain it, and threw the bomb away from herself and Mr Rogers, hitting a building instead.”

Freaky.

“So you didn’t think it’d happen, because Maximoff wasn’t involved this time,” surmised Tony, and Friday nodded, still despondent. “Well then I don’t see how it is your fault.”

She looked at him uncomprehendingly. “What?”

“How could you have known that the same thing would have happened once more?” he asked her, one eyebrow raised. “We’ve taken so many steps that would render it impossible for the attack to happen. Because of your help, Dumb and Dumber did not have access to my jets, did not have air support, the witch wasn’t helping them and we made sure to contact Lagos when we realised that they were going there and what Crossbones would be after. You did everything you could to stop it.”

“But people still died,” said the girl, shaking her head. “I was meant to help, to make sure these things didn’t happen again. And yet, I couldn’t stop-”

Tony put a hand around her shoulders, pulling her against his side and then turning her head so she was facing him directly. “Fri, listen to me now. Their actions are their own. You can do anything you want to protect the world, but what someone else does it’s on them. Short of robbing them of their free will, there is literally nothing you can do to make sure an idiot does not behave like an idiot. This, this entire mess? It’s on Cap and it’s on Romanoff but it is not on you.”

She kept staring at him, not truly believing him but unable to find a logical argument against him.

Tony understood. Despite what Rhodey, Happy and Pepper all told him, there were still times where he wondered if Killian and Stane had been his fault (not Vanko. Vanko he alternated on blaming on Howard and Vanko; sometimes Stane, if it tickled his fancy). So he understood where she was coming from.

“Maybe if I had told you in advance,” tried Friday and Tony just shook his head.

As curious as he was regarding the future Friday came from, “We have all seen enough movies about people knowing how they die and knowing the future to know that the more you try to avoid things, the more they’ll happen.”

Not that he believed in fate. But they lived in a reality with sorcerers, aliens, gods, green creatures who defied the laws of conservation of mass and half AI children, so who the fuck knew anymore.

Friday looked at him seriously, seemingly searching for something in his eyes. Tony stared right back at her.

Whatever she was looking for, she found. She then curled at his side, putting her head on his shoulder, and let out a deep sigh, before falling quiet.

Tony kept his arm around her shoulders as Happy continued to drive, neatly ignoring the picture Rhodey sneaked of the two of them.

The second Tony, Rhodey and Friday made their way inside the room in Vienna, everyone’s eyes were on them.

Friday’s debut had been meticulously planned by her, Tony and Tony’s PR team. The signing of the Accords presented the perfect opportunity.

The few journalists who had been allowed inside weren’t run of the mill gossip rags, but actual professional types who would care more about the various monarchs and few enhanced around rather than the daughter of Tony Stark showing her face for the first time ever. At the same time, they’d probably take a couple of pictures of Friday when she went up to sign the Accords and then those would spread to the gossips.

Eventually they’d have Friday appear in an interview with a reputable and pre-approved source with Tony in regards of the Accords they signed, and only then would the media have a real chance to ask her more about herself and what made her decide now was the time to come out and let herself be known to the world. They had a cover story already in place for when the time came, and a perfectly set up trail for the hackers who tried to catch them in a lie.

He didn’t doubt that people would try and corner her or get a soundbite of her saying something and twist it somehow before then. But she had been his AI for a while, before coming back in time. She knew what the media was like, and she knew how to twist it to her favour.

And if she somehow missed the mark, she had a very protective older brother who would ruin anyone who dared to harm his little sister in any way.

The only reason Steve Rogers was still standing was that JARVIS did not see him as a real threat, more of a nuisance of sorts. But if he tried something again, Tony knew J wouldn’t hold back.

He probably should feel something other than pride over his other son being all Skynet, but, you know. Priorities.

Plus JARVIS promised him he'd keep Tony in the nicest mansion if he decided to subjugate humanity, so win win.

Friday did not hesitate at his side as they walked inside, her sunglasses perched on her nose and matching his, and a serious expression on her face, even as everyone’s eyes were on her. Rhodey had refused the matching sunglasses, unfortunately, but he also cut an impressive figure in his Air Force uniform.

While everyone mostly watched them advance with awe and curiosity, King T’Chaka smiled broadly when he noticed them. Both him and his son approached Tony with warmth, ignoring the curios whispers that arose. Well, T’Chaka approached them with warmth; T’Challa was mostly watching Friday with open curiosity.

“Dr Stark, it is great to see you again,” said the King, taking his hand in a firm handshake.

“Likewise, your Majesty,” said Tony, and, with a slightly mocking grin directed at T’Challa, “Your Highness.”

T’Challa’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Dr Stark.”

“Colonel Rhodes, it is a pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure is all mine, King T’Chaka.”

“And Miss Stark,” said T’Chaka, looking at Friday with fondness. “The mastermind behind the security breach in our systems and Shuri’s new friend.”

Friday offered him a polite smile as she accepted the handshake. “I’d apologise, but it was a rather time sensitive matter; and I felt an appointment would have given him time to escape.”

The man nodded solemnly at her. “Wakanda owes you a great debt.”

“No debt,” assured the girl, with a shrug. “I did what I did because it was the right thing to do. That’s what heroes do; my father taught me that.”

T’Chaka gave her a shrewd look. “And also to form an alliance with Wakanda.”

Friday did not look the slightest bit repentant. “My father is a hero, sure, but he is a businessman first,” she said, making both Tony and T’Chaka laugh.

“Attagirl!”

“A businessman with the heart of a politician,” added T’Chaka, eyes twinkling. “Are you sure that the currently empty Secretary of State position-”

“Hell no,” said Tony, shuddering slightly just thinking about the amount of paperwork he’d have to go through if he took that position. When T’Chaka was done laughing, Tony’s expression turned a little more serious. “Also, I’d like to offer my condolences for the lives of the Wakandan aides lost in Lagos. It was a tragedy.”

T’Chaka and T’Challa both turned somber at his words, but T’Chaka kept his gaze on Tony. “Things like these remind me why the Accords are necessary. Captain America had no business hunting down a terrorist in Lagos, especially when said terrorist had already been apprehended.”

Tony had seen the footage of what happened and still did not understand what exactly had gone wrong. 

The Nigerian anti-terrorism force had apprehended Rumlow and his bomb vest. They had him and had managed to get the vest off of him. Then, Rumlow had seen Rogers in the crowd and said something - too low for anyone but someone with superhearing like Rogers to hear -; and then Rogers was charging at him, pushing past the shouting agents to get to the man. One second the police officers were shouting orders and pointing their guns at the two scuffling Americans, one of which was enraged while the second was laughing; the second, Rogers was throwing the bomb vest as far away from himself and the police as he could and Rumlow was pressing a button, laughing as he did so.

The good news: the anti terrorism force had been unscathed and they had gotten to arrest Rumlow.

The bad news: Rogers - consciously or unconsciously - had aimed the bomb vest at a still occupied office space, which destroyed the integrity of the building and buried many civilians in the debris. Some alive, many dead and the majority severely injured.

Romanoff had not been seen at the site of the accident, despite Tony knowing she had been there too. And Rogers was not giving up her position or saying anything, but he was detained in Lagos at the moment. The President wanted Tony to get the Captain out of it, but Tony had absolutely no time for that.

Cause everything had been fine and mostly contained before Rogers had shown up. Maybe Rumlow would have activated the bomb jacket even if Rogers hadn’t shown up, and maybe he would have killed the counter terrorism force, but they had known what they had signed up for. They knew how dangerous their job was.

The civilians had been evacuating or, in the case of the Wakandan, helping, and had not seen any of it coming. They had been caught in the crossfire because an American Superhero had heard something from an American Terrorist that had compromised him and made him commit a grave mistake that ended in the death of way too many civilians.

If Tony had any say in this, Steve Rogers would rot in that prison.

“King T’Chaka,” said a representative of the UN, approaching them and not so subtly giving Friday a once over. “The ceremony will be starting soon.”

“Of course,” said the King. “Dr Stark, Colonel Rhodes, Miss Stark: I shall see you at the end of the event.”

They said their goodbyes with T’Chaka and T’Challa, and then went to find their seats. Well, Rhodey and Friday went to find their pre-assigned seats, while Tony stopped to schmooze with the people who approached them.

No one felt brave enough to approach Friday as of yet. If Rhodey had been slightly frightening to all the girls in college who tried to hit on underage Tony Stark when he was a scrawny teen himself, he was even more so now with his decorated army soldier outfit on. Friday was the safest she could be next to him.

“Oh, Doctor Stark,” said the representative of Germany, when Tony passed him. “We were just talking about the Avengers.”

Tony kept his face blank when he realised who the representative was talking to, offering a polite smile. “Well, you’re talking to the wrong person, then. I am no longer an Avenger.” He cocked his head to the side. “Are the Black Widow and Captain America operating under that name?” The name I have the rights for?

Maria Hill smiled pleasantly at him, but Tony could see the dislike and irritation in her eyes. “We have yet to decide if they should continue under the Avenger’s name or not, when a half of the original team is no longer here. They shall continue protecting the world as much as they can-”

“Where is Captain America, then?” asked another Representative that Tony did not recognise. “If he wishes to protect the world, wouldn’t being here and signing the Accords the best way to do so?”

Maria offered him a calm smile, like she wasn’t ruffled, but Tony had worked with the woman for close to a year before finding out of her duplicity. He could see the lines of tensions in her eyes. “Of course. Unfortunately, he had a prior engagement and couldn’t come, so I am here on behalf of SHIELD.”

On behalf of SHIELD. The Representatives seemed mollified, if displeased, by her words, but Tony gave her a knowing look.

Maria just glared back, which meant Tony was right.

SHIELD might know that they couldn’t oppose the Accords without stepping on many toes - while HYDRA had infiltrated many agencies, SHIELD was the only place with a percentage of 27% HYDRA agents within them. Most of the other agency was working with under 5% HYDRA agents, most of whom were placed at lower level, unlike in SHIELD where their literal boss was HYDRA - but Steve Rogers was either not in agreement with the Accords or was still unaware of what they were and what they meant in the first place. 

Plus, unless the President and Fury had managed to appease the Nigerian government or Romanoff had launched a prison break in the past twenty minutes, the man was still in prison.

Tony just smiled at her even more brightly and bid his goodbyes, before wandering back towards his seat next to Friday.

“Everything cool?” asked Rhodey, shooting a perfectly polite smile at the SHIELD agent when she looked over at Friday.

Maria quickly looked away.

“Yup. Just like we all expected, Rogers did not sign the Accords.”

Friday’s eye roll was covered by the sunglasses, but Tony knew it was there anyway. “Not surprised. It’s always been about one thing and one thing only when it comes to the Private: the Winter Soldier and making sure he is safe. The Accords mean accountability, and accountability to him is a risk to Barnes' safety.”

Tony shook his head, before checking with JARVIS that the police and his various armours were checking the perimeter of the UN meeting. While no ULTRON should mean no Zemo, after Lagos had repeated itself somehow, Friday had demanded that some security measures were placed.

Once he was reassured that everything was secure, he settled down once more, and King T’Chaka took the stage.

+++

The signing went off without a hitch.

Other than many pictures and a slight commotion when one of the Representatives nearly slipped on his polished heels, everything went great. 

Pictures were taken, signatures written and hands shaken, and two hours, several dinner invites and ‘we should get together soon, Mr/Dr Stark’ later, Tony, Rhodey and Friday were once more in their cars, all of them letting out a breath at the lack of assassination attempts at the event.

“See?” asked Tony, as Happy drove them back towards their hotel for the evening. Tony had wanted to show Friday around Vienna as a tourist before they left for New York again. “You checked everything and thanks to you, this time around nothing bad happened.”

She shook her head. “That wasn’t because of me.”

“Good god, you’re really his daughter,” complained Rhodey, much to Happy’s amusement. “If you’re gonna insist on taking the guilt for something that isn’t your fault then you should also take pride in something that could have gone terribly if you hadn’t been around.”

“I don’t do that,” complained Tony, glad to see that Rhodey’s words seemed to be resonating with Friday.

Happy gave him a look from the rear-view mirror. “Uh. Yes you do, Boss.”

“Sir,” said JARVIS’ voice, cutting off Tony’s even more offended rant. “My sensors have registered a sudden surge of unidentified energy not dissimilar from the Tesseract’s coming from Hong Kong, China.”

Friday stilled in her seat, and Tony knew what it meant without her needing to say anything more.

Power up complete.

Chapter Text

It occurred to Friday, as they drove towards Bleecker Street, that she had never sat down and parsed through her feelings and thoughts when it came to one Doctor Stephen Strange.

After the energy surge of the day before, they had decided to spend the day in Vienna anyway, so that Doctor Strange could wrap up the ‘mystical mumbo jumbo’ (Boss' word, not hers). Friday had noticed several paps and random civilian's taking her picture as she and Boss went around the main plaza, and some of the various tourist spots but she had mostly ignored, too preoccupied to bother with them (though the little 'holiday' reminded her of Spider Man and Mr Happy doing something similar after Leipzig; though Mr Happy had been much more irritated than Boss was).

Then they had flown back to New York and waited until the afternoon of the next day to go and see Doctor Strange.

She glanced over at Boss, sitting in the back seat with her and tapping at his phone, completely relaxed and at ease.

Last time she had seen Boss and Doctor Strange in the same place, Boss was dying because Doctor Strange had told him that was the only way everyone else got to survive.

Of course, they were both different people than they had been there. Boss was 8 years younger, and he and Doctor Strange had never met before, not really (seeing each other at a gala and never actually speaking did not count). Doctor Strange had not seen horrible futures that ended up with Boss’ death.

They - hopefully - had 2 more years before Thanos eventually arrived, and this time they were prepared. Thor had yet to touch base with them, so she didn’t know where he was or what he was doing, but Loki had said he had made contact with Hela and knew how to contain her. No Evil Hela meant no destructed Asgard, and that gave them a lot more chance than before.

And Doctor Strange was the one who had assured this. He was the one who had sent Friday back in time and allowed this new future to come to pass. She should be grateful to him. 

But she was not sure what she felt for the man.

He was, theoretically, as much her father as Boss was. His DNA was used to create her and, according to Loki, his magic might have been part of the reason behind her technomagic. He was her biological father.

But whereas Friday had known Boss since the second of her creation, she did not know Doctor Strange. He had not raised her. He had not taught her right from wrong. He had not been beside her as she grew and learnt more and more stuff.

But without him, FRIDAY would have never become Friday.

She owed her existence and Boss' safety to him.

Or a version of him that was not the one she was about to meet.

“You okay?” asked Boss, and when Friday looked towards him, she noted he appeared a little worried.

She nodded, not quite trusting her voice.

She wondered what kind of relationship did he expect to have with Doctor Strange. They had been in the middle of a world crisis when they had first met, sure, but it had not seemed like they had liked each other very much. They had immediately rubbed each other the wrong way - Friday recalled reading something about opposites attracting and equals repelling each other.

Then again, Boss from that time was different from Boss now. That Boss had lost JARVIS, blamed himself for ULTRON, had been betrayed by those he considered his team, had a best friend who had been paralyses and knew that the last part of JARVIS he had, Vision, had chosen Wanda Maximoff - the terrorist who had messed with his mind - over him. Then there was the fact that Doctor Strange had been magic, and Boss's relationship with magic in that timeline was very much worse than it was at the moment.

Would they become fast friends this time around? Or would they hate each other at first sight? Would he demand that Friday work with him to become a proper sorceress? Would he demand anything of her?

And what would he feel like, knowing that Tony had already claimed her to be his daughter? Friday was not going to tell the world that she was from the future, so how would they explain her being his daughter too?

Would he want to explain it in any way?

It’s not like it wasn’t visible. Her eyes, to begin with, were the same as his. Her cheekbones. It was far fetched, considering mathematics stated that she was born in 1994 and that sort of technology did not exist back in that day, but considering the world they lived in, someone was bound to take notice. 

Would that hurt him, not being publicly acknowledged as her father? Would he demand she became Stark-Strange?

She knew that at the end, there, the other Stephen Strange had been in love with Boss. She didn’t know when or how he had fallen, but she knew that was the truth.

Would it be the same this time around, considering the events that prompted him to fall in love wouldn’t happen? Would he still fall in love with Boss? 

Would that make things different? He had been in love with Boss, and still, he had been ready to sacrifice him for the greater good.

“We’re here,” said Boss and Friday swallowed nervously as the car came to a stop in front of the place.

1777a Bleecker Street.

It looked exactly as she remembered. The same mahogany door, the same brownstones, the same large window.

On top of that she could somehow sense the energy coming from the unassuming door the same way she had been able to vaguely register the spike in energy when she had been there as an AI.

Boss and Mr Happy frowned as Boss stepped out of the car. “Are you sure this is the right place?” asked Boss, looking around the houses with a confused expression. “This doesn’t scream mystical to me.”

Friday looked at him oddly. “Did the design of the door not clue you in?”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Which door? They all look the exact same.”

How? The number was painted on the door, it was clearl-

“Right,” she said, recalling. “Their concealment spells.” At Boss’ confused look, she explained. “They are there to keep random people from wandering inside the Sanctum.”

They had found out when Boss and Colonel Rhodey had gone to the Sanctum to check if Wong had survived and perhaps knew something about Strange’s odd clues (he had survived, but he hadn’t been able to help. Many sorcerers had perished in the snap, and their numbers had been very depleted before it even happened, according to him). The door had not been visible to Friday and Colonel Rhodey, but Boss had spotted it easily, having been there before.

Friday wondered if she could see it clearly because she had, technically, been there before or because of the whole magic thing.

She took Boss’ hand in hers and pulled him forward until they were standing in front of the correct door. Then she raised up a hand and knocked.

The door opened after about 47 seconds of waiting and Friday wasn’t sure if she was disappointed or glad, when Wong opened the door.

Last time she had seen the man, she had been surrounded by a green, blue and purple sphere of Infinity Stone magic and he was standing alongside the Avengers, trying to stop Doctor Strange and Loki from finishing their spell.

This time he was staring at Boss and Friday in equal parts intrigue and suspicion, mouth set in a downturned frown. “Hello.”

Boss smiled at him. “Hey! Could we come in? I think we should talk.”

Wong blinked at Boss and then focused on Friday. Whatever he saw in her - in her aura? - made him frown deeper, and then he stepped back, opening the door farther. “Indeed. Please come in.”

As they were lead inside the Sanctum, Friday kept her hold on Boss’ shirt tight. Surprisingly - or maybe not? - the place did not look any different than it had the last time she had seen it. Jus as dusty and magic-y and slightly creepy.

Boss was watching it all with curios eyes, his Stark Glasses scanning as much as they could. He was curious, obviously.

Friday had never realised how much the experience with Maximoff and everything she had brought forth with her weird chaos magic had affected the way Boss saw magic. Loki had not really used much magic during his Invasion, after all. It was after Maximoff got in his head, and in the Hulk's head that Boss had started to detest everything that had to do with magic.

Just another thing to hate the witch about.

Wong indicated for them to sit down once they reached a room, and they both took their respective seats in front of the older sorcerer. “I’m assuming this isn’t about the Accords?”

Boss’ eyebrows raised in surprise. “Uh. Didn’t expect you people to know about it.”

“We own a television and there is an internet connection,” answered a voice, and this time it wasn’t Wong who spoke.

Friday found herself standing straighter automatically as she slowly turned around.

Doctor Stephen Strange was standing in the doorway of the kitchen/dining room they were in, in his usual sorcerer grab, the Cloak of Levitation secured on his shoulders.

The last time they had seen each other, he had been serious, focused. Tired. A little (a lot) grief stricken.

He looked different, and yet almost the same. His lips were pressed in a thin line and his face was very pale. His eyes looked slightly sunken, and his hands were carefully hidden behind his back as he surveyed the people sitting, pausing on Friday for a few seconds longer than everyone else.

Wong was glaring at him. “You should be resting,” he pointed out, which Doctor Strange ignored, coming to sit on the other side of the table with Wong, directly in front of Boss.

Boss was studying him with interest and Friday did not know what she should be doing. Suddenly she wished she had brought her sunglasses with her too, or had her tablet in her hands so she could use Boss’ vitals to keep herself calm. To focus on something that was not her other supposed father sitting basically in front of her.

Was it just her or had the room gotten severely overheated, all of a sudden?

Doctor Strange put his hands in his lap, still out of everyone’s sight, while his eyes bored on Boss. “How did you find this place and what do you want?”

“So rude,” tutted Boss. “And if you guys wanted to stay hidden you should have kept the energy readings in Hong Kong to a minimum. Frankly, it’s ridiculous.”

“What do you want, Stark?”

Boss grinned at him. “Congratulations, it’s a girl!” 

Friday groaned, putting a hand over her face. She had told him that the joke was silly and a terrible way to deliver such important news, but did he ever listen to her? No.

Doctor Strange just stared right back at him, while Wong’s eyes flickered to Friday, the intrigue more open on his face now. “What.”

“Apparently when my genes and yours are mixed, we make cute babies,” continued Boss, unrepentantly, and making jazzy hands at Friday.

Doctor Strange turned to look at her like she would somehow make some sense, and then turned to glare at Boss once more. “Look, Stark. I don’t know what game you are playing, but I do not have time for this. I am-”

“I’m from the future,” blurted out Friday, before Boss could make another joke and make things worse. “My name is Friday Anastasia Stark, and I’m your daughter. From the future. And I’m here to help us all stop a Mad Titan from collecting all the Infinity Stones and destroying the universe.”

+++ 

When Stephen had gone to Kamar-Taj, it was after finding out that a person he had believed untreatable had learnt to walk again.

Being a neurosurgeon had been his entire life. Since he was a child (since Donna) he had wanted to become a doctor. To save lives.

And when he had decided on his specialty, he sacrificed nothing and no one to reach it. Fuck, he did not even speak to his brother anymore, and he could count on one hand the times he had seen Beverly Strange in the flesh in the past 10 years.

Neurosurgery had been everything to him; the work, and the fame that came from it.

How many people had he screwed over to reach his goals? How many lovers and partners had he hurt because they came between him and what he saw as his future?

The answer was a lot.

And then a mistake, and he was crippled for life. Suddenly he was more alone than ever, those he had stepped over stepping over him because he was no longer of use. The one thing he had dedicated his life to, he could no longer do.

So when he had heard of Kamar-Taj? A cure all? It had seemed too good to be true.

It was too good to be true, and what he had believed a way to recover his hands was in fact a cult.

He said it fondly because he liked Wong and had liked the Ancient One, but they were all in a cult.

The praise and people’s surprise at how fast a ‘novice’ like him, a man of science, was taking to the mystic arts had been a balm to his ego. He stopped looking for a way to fix his hands soon enough, and instead focused on the magic itself, on learning how to become a great sorcerer. How to learn everything there was to learn. Understand the truth of the universe by finally seeing it with both eyes open.

Then he had found out that the Ancient One, his teacher, had been lying to them all. 

Stephen did not blame her. He was no psych major, but all humans feared death - some more than others. He didn’t know if he himself would have done it, had the chance presented itself, but he saw the appeal in wanting to gain immortal life.

So while he had been irritated and slightly betrayal at her lies, he had not lost his belief in her because of it.

Then everything had gone to hell.

The Ancient One died, Kaelicius was attacking the Sanctums and was gonna destroy the world, and Mordo was losing it.

And then Stephen died.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

He died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died, and died again.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

And again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

Stephen had lost count of how many times he had died, but he hadn’t lost the memory of his deaths. Had not forgotten the pain, and the fear, and Dormammu’s sadistic pleasure and irritation as he continued to squash him stab him, choke him, break him, burn him, impale him, smack him, kill him like an insect.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

His desperate attempts at surviving, the new spells he tried - spells he had never tried before - or invented in an attempt at not dying. His desperation as he continued to wake up again, in the same place, those damned words.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

The hopelessness, the slight suicidal mania that had him repeating those damned words to the demon.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

He had no idea how long it had lasted, but surely nothing shorter than an eternity. Nothing shorter than forever.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

But no time at all in the real world.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

Stephen had come to Kamar-Taj to save his hands. To go back to his life. That’s all he had wanted.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

Instead he had found meaning and he was glad for it. He was glad for the teachings of Kamar-Taj.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

But Stephen Strange was not a hero. Stephen Strange did not want to die again, he hadn’t wanted to die to begin with (right?).

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

And now, mere hours after Dormammu (“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”), when he still was not sure he was living outside a time loop yet, and Tony fucking Stark (goddamn Iron Man) was at his door with a young woman who claimed to be his daughter from the future, who had come back because they needed to save the world from a Titan, and this wasn’t Stephen’s life. This wasn’t supposed to be Stephen’s life.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

He couldn’t do this. He wasn’t cut out for this, Stephen couldn’t do this.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

His bones ached with injuries that were no longer there, his mentor’s funeral hadn’t been held yet - that’s how quickly everything had fallen apart - and they wanted him to just... accept this? To join them in the fight?

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

“Get out,” he said, feeling exhausted, and cutting off the girl, Friday - his... daughter? How did something like that even happen, and why did he have a daughter with Iron Man - mid explanation of who this Thanos character was.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

When she looked at him, it was like looking at Donna once more and Stephen couldn’t do this.

Donna drowning, and Stephen was unable to save her.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

He had tried, he had ran, but it was too late.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

He was supposed to protect her, he was supposed to keep her safe - a hero - and instead he had led her to her death.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

How could he save the world when he couldn’t even save his own sister?

Stark looked at him in confusion, looking slightly offended at the interruption. “Excuse me?”

They looked similar, sitting next to each other. They were about the same height, maybe an inch difference. Same shade of hair, and general shape of her face.

But while Stark had a general aura of power and danger emanating from him, Stephen could sense something like... magic, coming from... the girl. Similar to when he first saw the Cloak, a sense of untapped potential.

He had never heard of a person having that sort of power, and any other day prior to today, he’d have investigated. He’d have asked questions, wondered how she became a sorceress. Why she was a sorceress when the last time he had seen the news she was flying a suit of armour just like Stark’s.

“Strange...” tried Wong, in that tone of voice of his.

He had used that same tone the night before, when Stephen had kept waking up in the middle night from stab wounds that did not exist, the words “Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain”, still on his lips and fear in his eyes.

Stephen hated that tone of voice. “I said get out. You have the wrong person. I am not the one you are looking for, I can’t help you.”

He refused to look at Friday and her sad eyes - why did she have to have his eyes? Why did she have to have Donna’s eyes? - instead staring at Stark.

Stark looked vaguely irritated. “Are you not Stephen Vincent Strange?"

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

"Magical man extraordinaire-"

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

"...and ex-neurosurgeon who-”

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

“GET OUT!” Shouted Stephen - at the voice in his head, at Dormammu, at Stark, at Donna’s eyes on Stark’s daughter - sending everything around them flying in the air. Stark was standing immediately, and his watch was suddenly a gauntlet and it was pointed directly at him, a cold calculating expression in his eyes and Friday hidden behind his frame. “LEAVE!”

He couldn’t breathe. Oh god, was he still in a time loop? Was this his brain’s way to cope? Had Dormammu found a way to enter his mind?

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

He could hear voices in the background - Wong, he could hear Wong, Wong was fighting with him, wasn’t he? No, Wong wasn’t in the Dark Dimension, was he? Had Dormammu taken Earth? Had Stephen failed?

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

Take your zealots from the Earth, end your assault on my world, never come back: do it, and I’ll break the loop.

“Never come back,” he repeated. “Leave and never come back.”

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

How old was he? He couldn’t be 40 anymore. Somewhere in his mid millions? His throat hurt. His head hurt. “Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.” Bargains. Sales. Christine. Time will tell how much I love you.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

Friday. Stark.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

Wong. Mordo. The Ancient One.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

Christine. Donna.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

Friday. Donna. Stark. Wong. Dormammu. Dormammu. Dormammu. Dormammu.

None of this was real. All of this was real.

Maybe Stephen was in a coma in the hospital, still completely crippled. Maybe Christine was right beside him, making sure he’d wake up.

No. Christine was gone.

Was she?

The Ancient One was gone.

Kaecilius killed her.

Kaecilius. Dormammu.

“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”

When he felt a cold touch on his head and everything went black, Stephen was glad.

Chapter Text

sender: Cousin Sharon 

text: She passed away last night. Funeral will be held next Friday.

Tony stared at the screen for a while, trying to make sense of the turmoil of emotions that had stirred up at the message.

Margaret “Peggy” Carter was dead.

The woman who had taught him how to use his first gun was dead.

The woman who came with Jarvis to his boarding school recital was dead.

The woman who covered up the murder of his parents was dead.

He wasn’t quite sure how he was supposed to feel about that.

He had done his best to not think about her after the confrontation where she had admitted to having known the truth behind his parents murders and hidden it from him. He knew that Friday said that his and Rogers’ Accords themed conflict had started after the woman died, but he had not really wanted to think of it or believe it.

To acknowledge that she was going to die.

And now she was dead, and her and Tony never closed their last conversation.

She never apologised for her actions; and Tony never forgave her.

And now she was gone, and neither of them would be able to say anything. To clear the air. To share some parting words.

Should he even go to the funeral? Should he stay away? Would she have wanted him to go or not?

He understood her reasons, on a logical level, but it wasn’t right. It was not for her to decide what he deserved and did not deserve to know. It wasn't for her to commit a felony by covering up a double homicide because Tony 'was too young to deal with it'.

And yet, at the same time, she was his godmother, and now she was gone.

Forever. 

She had been there for him, along with Ana and Edwin when his own parents hadn't been there (but hadn't Stane done the same? Stane had been his godfather too).

And now she was gone, and Tony was confused.

Should he-

“Stark,” called Loki, walking in Tony’s office without as much as a ‘hello’ or even a knock.

Tony immediately wiped away his feelings regarding Peggy from his face.

“Hello to you too, Loki. Yes, I’m okay. Busy? No, I am not busy, please do come in,” sarcastically said the engineer, glaring a little.

Loki did not pay him any mind, or seemed to notice his earlier mood, settling on the chair in front of him and crossing his arms on his chest. “I require an explanation.”

Tony frowned. “About manners? I agree, but-”

The mage rolled his eyes slightly. “No, about your daughter. She was not herself today.”

Ah.

Tony grimace, settling more comfortably in his chair and closing the e-mail he had been preparing. Friday had been in a ‘funk’ of sorts for about a couple of days now, and Tony was not sure how to cheer her up. She claimed she was fine, and she worked as hard as she normally did, but not with the same enthusiasm.

Tony understood, of course. Her first meeting with her other father had not gone particularly smoothly.

“How much do you know regarding Friday’s arrival to this timeline?”

Loki shrugged. “As much as she told me. A sorcerer realised that their universe would soon collapse on itself and decided to use the Infinity Stones to give her a physical body and send her back to the past. My future self decided to help them.” He tilted his head slightly. “And though she has not told me in so many words, I am also aware that the sorcerer is the other father, but is not currently a sorcerer at this moment in time?”

“Right,” said Tony, nodding. “Well, on the twelve, just the other day, he had this battle against a demon from another dimension or whatever, and it signified that he was all ‘powered up’ and ready to be recruited. So we went to recruit him. But it did not go so well.”

Loki looked at him sharply. “By ‘demon from another dimension’ you do not, perchance, speak of Dormammu?” 

Tony vaguely recalled Friday using that word. “Maybe?”

The mage looked impressed at that. “I believed I felt ripples of power from the Dark Dimension when I arrived, but I did not believe... For a Midgardian sorcerer to have defeated the Cosmic Conqueror and Devourer of Worlds...” Loki’s admiration was clear. “He must be incredibly powerful to have achieved such a hazardous feat.”

He did not really have any way of measuring said power, or any idea of how strong Dormama was, but if Loki himself was impressed and called it 'hazardous feat' then Tony could only assume it was as much of a feat as he said it was.

And it also made the man's reaction more and more clear.

“And I guess it was not an easy battle. Friday knew of course that he would be battling him on this day, but she had known Future Strange years after Dormama was gone.”

“Dormammu.”

“Whatever. Point is, Friday never knew what the battle had been like for Strange, so we did not pause to consider what effects it might have had on him.” While Tony had been immediately offended at first, when Strange had told them to get out, now he only felt guilty and sympathetic. “Let’s just say don’t go to a guy who just finished kicking dealing with Dormama less than 24 hours before, a guy who has not been a sorcerer for all that long, and immediately tell him to suit up because there is a Titan’s butt to kick now.”

Considering the argument Loki and Tony had had after the ‘throw a dagger at Friday to make her use her shield’ incident, where Tony had just screamed at him for several minutes while and Loki had tried to impart Aesir morals and wisdoms on him, Tony expected the sorcerer to immediately scoff at the concept of Strange needing time to ‘deal’ and work through stuff.

Instead, what he got was understanding. “Battle exhaustion,” agreed the mage, looking thoughtful. “He must be given time to heal his mind and re-affirm his continued existence.” At Tony’s expression, he rolled his eyes. “The Aesir are people of battle. We know how to nurture ourselves and make sure we shall be ready by the time the next battle starts.”

Would you look at that. The bloodthirsty ‘you insulted my honour, prepare to die’ people had more sense than Tony had had.

He had not really realised what was going on, when Strange had flipped out. He had seen the man just making the table and everything on it flip over without making a single gesture and in his mind he had immediately become a dangerous threat to contain.

Only when he had seen him scooting backwards against the wall, disfigured hands grabbing at his head and hair as he repeated the same phrase over and over did he realise what he was.

He had not even waited for the other sorcerer, Wong, to ask him to leave. He had just apologised to him, asked him if he needed him to get him some medical assistance (and the sorcerer had gone from tense and clearly prepared for an attack, to hesitantly appreciative before telling he had it), left a card on the table before getting the hell out of the place.

Friday had been confused by Strange’s reaction, and also hurt. Tony had tried to remind her of his own reactions when something triggered his PTSD, and she had seemed to understand, on an intellectual level, that they had been the last straw on a camel’s back.

But according to JARVIS’ own interactions with her, she mentally still believed his reaction to everything piling up to be a direct reaction to her and her existence.

Any other time Tony would be very smug about not being the parent that caused his child daddy issues, but... yeah.

“So she has come to the conclusion that this is all somehow her fault?” assumed Loki, and Tony nodded. “Have you tried telling her that it is not?”

“I’ve tried, Rhodey tried, JARVIS tried, Happy tried, Pepper tried... she agrees with us on an intellectual level, but deep inside she disagrees. At this point, the only person who could actually get through to her would be Strange himself, and that’s if we haven’t made him retreat so much that he gives up the superhero gig.”

Loki gave him a look. “This is a man who sent a girl back to the past, erasing his timeline and everything he has learnt just for a chance to do it right this time. This will not be his undoing.”

Tony wanted to believe him, but he did not actually know Strange, yet.

He had not been sure what his relationship with the other half of Friday’s DNA pool would be like (or had been like, really). He had known of his existence and his significance for about 6 months now, but hadn’t really been sure what to expect, and Friday had been very tight lipped about it all.

He had, of course, researched him as much as he could. Learned about his accident and his career before that.

He was incredibly smart and talented, and also really pretty.

He was also a gigantic dick, and while his records and performance reviews were mostly immaculate, it was easy to read between the lines of people’s real opinion on him as a person.

Hard to work with. Self observed. Rude. Terrible bedside manner.

Tony took all that with a grain of salt, because it was eerily similar to his own SHIELD report for the Avengers initiative, and Tony knew how many people fell for a persona.

He was kind of half of Friday, after all. How bad could he really be?

So Tony had researched him and learned a lot about him, but still had not been sure what to expect upon meeting him.

And he did not think judging him based on his current mind state was in any way fairer than Romanoff writing that report about him while he was literally dying of palladium poisoning.

“Hopefully,” he finally said, shaking his head. “You said you wanted to tell me something, earlier?”

“Right,” said Loki, nodding. “Hela has been freed from her prison.”

Oh that was progress. “Do tell. Is she still evil?”

Loki made a complicated expression. “It is hard to say, at the moment. Aren't we all a little evil?" Tony raised an eyebrow at that, and Loki huffed. "We have reached an accord, anyways. I have found a way to bind her powers for the time being by tying them to something she’ll never have a chance to use. Convincing her to cooperate and observe Asgard and our relations to the Nine Realms took the majority of my time, but I believe she will be willing to stand alongside us when the time come.

“She, Lord Tyr and myself, disguised as another, will be the party who will approach your Midgardian counsel and inform you of the Mad Titan’s approach.” He made an irritated face. “Lord Tyr somehow figured out that I am impersonating Odin but, surprisingly, did not order my head to be taken off my shoulders, or that I return the All-Father to his post. He is one of the few who recalled Hela, one of the few who she trusts, so we have that.”

Tony looked at him shrewdly. “So she is technically still acting as a princess rather than a warrior, with diplomacy and all. And you're also gonna have her working alongside one of her generals who had transitioned out of his battlelust, therefore someone she is inclined to trust.”

Loki just gave him a mocking little grin. “I do so enjoy it when your feeble Midgardian minds grasp concepts that you are not used to,” he said, snickering a little when Tony glared at him. “Now, I shall return. Asgard won’t rule itself, and Thor refuses to be done and return already.” He huffed, and stood up. “Farewell, Stark.”

“You know you can just call me Tony,” pointed out the engineer. “We are basically besties now.”

The mage made a face at the description then hummed. “I will compromise with Anthony.”

“No, the fuck, you won't-” started Tony, but of course the little shit had already disappeared. “Dick. That’s it, he’s never getting the friendship bracelet.”

“You never made him a friendship bracelet,” pointed out JARVIS.

“I could have!”

“As rousing as an argument on this topic would be, I feel that now it’s the right time to inform you that the Winter Soldier has been posted in front of the Compound for the past five minutes,” then said JARVIS, and Tony nearly broke his neck in his haste to stare at one of the AI's many cameras.

“Say what?!”

+++

The first thing in Tony’s mind, after learning the truth behind his parents death was murder. He wanted to find the bastard and gut him like a fish; perhaps use the suit to punch him as he had punched his father and then choke him to death as he had his mother.

There had been a lot of murder in his mind for Romanoff and Rogers too, but a big part of him had wanted him gone first of all. 

How dare he break conditioning because Rogers said ‘Bucky’ once and yet kill his father, who had recognised him as well? How dare the ‘power of his friendship with Rogers’ somehow stop him from killing him when nobody else had had that luxury?

How was that fair?

And then, he had started reading. He forced himself to go through the man’s HYDRA files and the notes the HYDRA specialists had about him. About the beginning, where he continued to break conditioning. About the countless HYDRA goons he had killed. About his escape attempts. 

And about the tortures. The ‘Chair’. The mind wipes.

The trigger words.

Tony had felt sick, reading all of that. But it had gone a long way in convincing him that while it had been James ‘Buchanan’ Barnes’ hand wrapped around his mamma’s throat, it had not been him who killed him.

He was the weapon, a weapon who had freed himself from HYDRA and had never killed anyone after that.

Friday thought she was being clever, hiding the location of Barnes’ hideout from him, but Tony had managed to find him in less than a month all by himself (and what a slap in the face for Rogers, that would be. To think that, in order circumstances, all he would have had to do was ask Tony and he would have delivered his best friend to him in less than a month).

But other than observing him for an amount of time, studying and learning his routine, Tony had not done anything about it.

The man was clearly trying to live his life and keep a low profile. He was not killing anyone and seemed to be actively trying to be 'normal'.

Tony didn't have/want to bother with him.

Barnes was out of sight, out of mind.

Accepting that he had been through the wringer and he was a victim in the situation too did not mean Tony wanted to interact with him or stuff.

And now the man was standing in front of Tony’s Compound, doing... nothing.

He was standing in front of the gates, wearing his backpack and just... standing. There. Waiting.

He was not even wearing spy shit. Just some regular ass clothes that did jack shit to hide his identity.

“Should we be evacuating?” asked Darcy, who was standing beside him. She did not look particularly bothered for someone who was looking at a trained assassin who could be triggered into being a killer machine just chilling in front of her place of work.

Tony, for his part, was already suited up. “His metal arm is impressive, but if I lockdown the Compound even he will have a hard time entering. Where is everyone?”

“Betty and Bruce are all in the labs. Hope left like an hour ago, and Friday and Jane fell asleep like ten minutes ago, and since they were awake all last night, nobody wants to wake them. I just came out to have a drink and saw you suited up and staring at that dude.”

Well, enough stalling. “Stay inside, Darce. JARVIS, lock it down behind me and don’t open until I say so.”

“Aye aye, Captain.”

“As you wish, Sir.”

Once he had gotten their agreement, Tony flew out of the Compound, face covered by the helmet but eyes still burning on Barnes’ body.

The assassin had immediately looked up when Tony had started approaching, but other than looking weary, nothing in his stance actually changed. He was tenser than he had appeared from inside, but that was about it.

Tony came to a stop a few metres away from the man and just stared at him.

He was not sure what he had expected to feel once face to face with the weapon who killed his parents but it wasn’t a vague sense of... pity.

Barnes looked like he had been through the wringer. His hair was far longer than it had been the last time Tony had seen him, and kind of filthy. He was almost as pale as Loki, but while Loki still looked healthy, Barnes looked a step away from fainting. His eyes were sunken and he had the air of a man walking to certain death.

“Mr Stark,” he called, voice raspy and unused. Barnes winced and cleared his throat. “Or is it Dr Stark? I am not sure how you would like me to refer to you as.”

“Mr Stark is fine,” said Tony, voice coming out slightly staticky through the suit’s speakers. “Sergeant Barnes. Or is it Winter Soldier?” Tony would rather choke than call this grown ass man ‘Bucky’.

Barnes did not flinch at that. “Uh, just Barnes is fine.” He shook his head, trying to gather his thoughts. “I have seen the пресс-конференция uh... conference, last week.”

Of all the things Tony expected from the man this wasn’t it. “The Accords meeting?” he asked, in fluent Russian.

Barnes’ eyes widened in surprise, and then he seemed to relax slightly. He might not be the Winter Soldier, but he had spent about 30 years as a Brooklyn man and 70 as a Russian assassin. It made sense he felt more like a comrade than a fella. “Da. Your speech about the enhanced and your responsibility... our responsibility of keeping the people around us safe. Safe from us, from the mistakes we are bound to make, as we are not infallible.

“I have made mistakes. Many mistakes. I have hurt countless of people, because of HYDRA and because of my own weaknesses, ” Tony had opinions on that, but Barnes was still talking. “I cannot atone for what I have done. The blood stains my fingers and nothing will get it out.

“But there are people out in the world that I can help.” He gave a bone deep sigh. “I am tired of fighting. I am tired of hiding. I am tired of waiting for HYDRA to find me and force me to comply once more. I can’t do much, but there are people, people like you who I can help reach peace by sharing the truth of what truly happened to their family, their friends, their lovers.”

He just assumed that Tony had known about his parents? Gutsy move, but Tony still appreciated the honesty.

“And what exactly do you expect from me?” he wondered, crossing his arms. “Why are you here when I’m sure you know that your buddy is out there, looking for you?”

Barnes made a complicated expression, before speaking, slowly, as if unsure of his own words. “I... remember Stevie. From before. I know what he was like. And everywhere on the news... they are saying that Stevie is not being accountable. That Steve is making mistakes and the President is helping him. That he is being dangerous."

Tony was not quite sure of how, but Ellis/SHIELD had gotten Rogers out of the Nigerian prisons three days ago, when the whole Strange thing happened. However, it had been far from a triumphant return.

The International community was on the President’s ass about his decision, and even in the US the liberals and many democrats had been been dragging him. The ‘statement’ SHIELD produced, who claimed it to be from Rogers himself was torn apart by the general public and every journalists worth a damn.

Then Rogers had given a speech a few days after the statement, to 'clarify things' but if anything, that had made it worse.

The gall of saying that the loss of life in Nigeria was an ‘unavoidable mistake’ and that ‘more lives could have been lost if he had not been there’, followed by the viral footages of Lagos and the statement from the Nigerian officials and King T'Chaka... Rogers’ popularity was at all time low. Only the racist far right wingers were standing with him, which really did not look good for him.

“I want to stop hurting people,” continued Barnes. “Steve is hurting people without realising." Debatable. “So I cannot go with him, because he will make it worse. Like when we were kids and he thought he was right even when he was wrong." Unsurprising. From the supposedly 'funny' stories Aunt Peggy used to- no, don't think of Peggy now. "And I know that I have no right to come to you. That you should kill me, for what I have done. And if you choose to do so,"  Tony tensed slightly when he moved, but all Barnes did was go down on his knees in front of him. “I will not stop you. I know I deserve it.”

“Jesus Christ, Barnes, I’m not gonna kill you!” snapped Tony, automatically switching to English, letting his helmet go up to show his truly appalled expression. “Get up!”

Barnes hesitated for a second, and then complied. “I’d understand if you decided to,” he insisted, eyes and voice earnest and ah. There was that self loathing tinge that Tony was more than familiar with. “I would not have come to you but I don't know who else I can go to. The other man who made the speech, he is very far, and not even HYDRA has ever breached Wakanda.” He gave a helpless shrug. “They would find me and make me comply once more.”

“Isn’t HYDRA technically over?”

Barnes shook his head, decidedly. “You can kill the men, but you cannot kill an idea. That’s why even if you cut off HYDRA’s head two more take its place.”

Yeah, that made sense. Tony inspected him for a few more seconds, trying to read him for any signs of deception.

He came with none. The man was traumatised, and, if he resorted to coming to Tony, clearly desperate. And there was a look on his face that reminded Tony of himself after Afghanistan and he did not like that one bit.

“Are you willing to do this the right way?” He finally asked him, eyes narrowed. “Through the proper channels? Get counselling. Psychiatrists looking after you. Going to court and admitting everything? Share all the evidence you have? ”

Barnes did not hesitate in nodding. “Everything. I don’t want to hurt everyone anymore. I’m tired.” He closed his eyes for a second, legs shaking slightly. “I am so tired.”

Fuck.

It was not as if Tony could kick him out now, could he?

And if he had any doubt that Barnes was a weapon and nothing more before, they were gone now. 

“Very well, Barnes. I am giving you a chance,” he told him. “But I have my eyes on you.”

“Da. I understand.”

Tony stared at him for a couple more seconds, and then nodded. 

“Very well. Follow me, soldier.”

Chapter Text

Friday Anastasia Stark was not having a good week.

First she had psyched herself in preparation for her meeting with one Doctor Stephen Strange, and ended up catching him right at the end of what must have been a terrible, very bad, no good 24 hours. She had not anticipated what dealing with Dormammu would have left the man feeling like (and the other Doctor Strange had apparently not felt the need to warn her), and had therefore been caught off guard by his sudden spiralling. 

Which had ended up with Friday feeling guilty for not doing better research on the sorcerer before going off to find him and also slightly hurt whenever she recalled the way he had looked at her.

He had been in the middle of a mental breakdown or a panic attack or a mix of both, and perhaps Boss was right, anything could have triggered it. But he had been staring straight at her when he had lashed out with his magic and it was hard not to take that personally, no matter how much her AI mind tried to rationalise it. Becoming human truly sucked, sometimes.

Then James Barnes had disappeared from Romania without leaving a trace. Friday and JARVIS had been keeping an eye on him since November, and they had never once lost him. She had actually started to doubt HYDRA and the world at large nicknaming him ‘a ghost’, and then he had just up and vanished. 

She had been worried about that for about two days - almost on the verge of telling Boss about it - before the man had resurfaced on the East Coast. Both Friday and JARVIS had been confused, but had chosen to just observe him as he made his way directly for the Compound.

Boss had spoken to him, when he had arrived. From what Friday had been told, though, it was Boss Lady and Colonel Rhodey who were dealing with him now, both claiming that it was better for both Barnes' and Boss' mental health if they were to deal with him in general and finding a suitable medical and non team that could support him in any way.

Then Boss had to leave early this morning because of former Director Peggy Carter’s funeral.

Friday did not need to be attached to the hip to him all the times, she was not a child. 

But she knew he’s feelings for the woman were very conflicted. In the future past, he had wanted to go, not knowing the truth of her deception, and hadn’t been able to, because of Maximoff and the Accords.

This time, he had made the decision for himself to go. He had chosen to go alone and while Friday understood, she couldn’t help but be worried about him.

And now this.

“What do you mean the Maximoff twins disappeared?” she asked, staring at the screen in frustration.

It was not JARVIS’ fault, but this was truly the icing on the proverbial cake.

“They are not in their usual habitations. I believe the cameras around their house they were currently inhabiting were looped by someone from outside sometime this morning, in this case I believe it was Agent Romanoff. I have no proof; however, we have not seen her since the incident in Lagos, and from the records of Mr Rogers we have gotten ahold of ever since his return to the US, it is clear they have kept in contact.”

Right. His ‘records’.

He had for some reason felt the need to fill Boss’ phone with complaints about his passport being taken from him after his actions in Lagos, which meant he could leave the State and attend the funeral of the married woman with children and a loving family whom he continued to have romantics feelings for, no matter how clearly over him she had been. 

As for him keeping in contact with Romanoff, that made, unfortunately, a lot of sense.

If Barnes had kept himself concealed until he arrived in the US (he literally appeared out of nowhere) and then did not hide his face much as he proceeded towards the Compound, chances were that JARVIS was not the only one who had seen him.

It was giving her Leipzig/Bucharest vibes all over again, and Friday hated it.

“This conversation can wait,” decided JARVIS, and Friday frowned at the cameras.

“What do you mean it can wait? We need to-”

“Sir is already on his way back to the States. I believe he will be back in about two hours, and I shall then inform him of their sudden movements. However, Dr Strange is calling and wishes to speak to you.”

Friday stopped mid step, nearly unbalancing herself. “What?!”

“Dr Strange is on the line,” repeated JARVIS. “And would like to set an appointment with you and Sir regarding the conversation from last week.”

Friday had not expected Dr Strange to actually get back to them. Boss, and later Loki, both said that he would need a while to deal with everything he was dealing with and then he’d ‘definitely’ get in contact with them, but part of her had believed that she had truly pushed him over the edge. That her carelessness had cost them an important player in the fight against Thanos.

But here he was, on the phone.

She pulled out the in ear piece that she had taken to always carrying around with her now, as she quickly found an empty room to retreat in. Then she took several deep breaths.

“Okay, big bro, connect away.”

JARVIS did not reply, but she heard the tell tale sound of the call connecting anyway.

“... Hello?” called Doctor Strange, a second later.

“Hello,” answered Friday. “You wanted to speak to me?”

“To arrange an appointment,” corrected the man. “So that you can continue the explanation from last week. When would you and Dr Stark be free?”

“Boss might be busy for the next couple of days,” she hedged, thinking hard. He was already coming back from the funeral, but his list of things to do was high. He was working with Dr Banner to teach him how to use BARF, so that they could offer to use it on Barnes without Boss having to physically interact with working the man through the death of his own parents. And then he had to speak to Peter for his first appointment at the Compound, deal with Loki and the Hela thing, speak to the newly formed Accords Council... 

“Next week, then?” asked Dr Strange and no, that was too far away.

“I’m free right now,” came out of her mouth before she could stop and think about it. “I mean, it’s technically my story to tell. Boss only knows what I have told him. You could... speak to me?”

“Very well,” agreed the Doctor after a pause in which Friday had time to regret every word she had ever said in her life. 

“In the suit it shouldn’t take me too long to get to the Sanctum.”

“Or I could just portal there,” offered Dr Strange.

Right. He could do that. 

“Okay,” she agreed. “You can do that. Er, where-”

“Doctor Strange has just appeared in front of the Compound,” informed her JARVIS.

Of course.

+++

Stephen followed the AI’s voice - JARVIS - as he lead him through the Compound, a little curios despite himself. He had, of course, seen the warehouse like building on the news several times, but it was much more pristine and interesting on the inside than it was on the outside.

Even under his admiration, though, he couldn’t hide that he felt a little unsettled and unsure of himself.

In truth, he was a little embarrassed of his reaction when Dr Stark and his daughter had showed up at the Sanctum. But he was running on nightmares instead of sleep, he was not thinking straight and then they just dumped more bad news on the already crappy day (week. Year! eternity) he just had.

Wong swore up and down that neither of them judged him for it, but the man couldn’t know that for sure. 

But the thought of letting Stark know his weakness and then hide like a coward did not sit well with him. So sure, deciding to listen to the entire story and work with them out of spite was not a very good decision on his part, but it was the one Stephen was sticking with.

And, once he had some time to focus, attend Wong's fancy meditation sessions and absorb in the fact that the days were not repeating themselves any longer, Stephen found himself curios.

Why did he and Stark have a child? How did they have a child together? Why had they sent her to the past? How had they achieved time travel? Was it just her or were there others? What had happened to make them decide that breaking the natural law was the right thing to do?

“Into this room, please,” announced the AI, a green light appearing in the door in front of him.

“Thank you,” said Stephen, and then the door opened and he found himself facing Friday once more.

The first thing he noted was that she looked nervous. She was standing on the other side of the desk and was wringing her hands together, almost without thinking about it, and she was trying very hard - and failing - to keep her face expressionless.

The second thing was that she did not look like Donna. The eyes, those were the same. The same as his, the same as Donna’s, the same as his mother’s.

But everything else was different. Her hair was darker, and curlier. She was taller than Donna had ever been. She did not have her cheeks or her mischievous energy. Where Donna was always in movement, Friday held herself perfectly still, even as her face betrayed her feigned calmness.

He blinked past the rush of emotions that assaulted him whenever he thought of his sister and stopped in front of her offering her his gloved hand. “Miss... Stark?” he guessed.

Friday nodded, though her eyes were searching, trying to gauze his reaction. To be honest, Stephen did not have one, right now, other than curiosity. “Dr Strange. Please, take a seat.”

Stephen did as instructed, still observing her. She truly did look like Stark, and the energy he had sensed on her when he first met her was still there. Even the Cloak seemed to notice it, if the way his collar moved as if to take a closer look at her was anything to go by.

There were two other different energy signatures on her, other than what he assumed was her own. One was older, unfamiliar. The second... it echoed, in an odd sort of way.

“Where would you like me to start?” she said, after a few seconds of neither of them speaking, just 'subtly' sizing one another up.

He grimaced slightly. Well, better to rip the band aid immediately. “From the beginning, if you would. I did not listen to much you said, the other day, and I’d like to apolo-”

“No!” she interrupted, eyes wide. “I want to apologise. I should have known better than to approach you so soon after Dormammu." Just hearing his name was enough to give Stephen a shiver down his spine. "But I never realised what it must have been like for you to fight against Dormammu, and I should have. It is my fault, so I'd like to apologise instead."

Stephen stared at her, a little taken aback. “I can agree to both of us sharing the blame," he offered, more than a little confused. How could she blame herself for Stephen's freakout? "I suppose that 20 odd years is long enough for me to have forgotten what that experience was like,” he assumed, shaking his head slightly. Truth be told, he could not see himself ever forgetting what Dormammu had been like (and not just because of his eidetic memory) but perhaps having a child had... changed that?

Or worse things had happened to him after and Dormammu was no longer the worst trauma he experienced?

Don't think about it.

It was weird, to be honest. Stephen had never really imagined himself as the parent kind. Before, he was too busy being a number one neurosurgeon. A child would have just made his life complicated, cutting in his time.

After the accident... Well, Christine was gone, and Stephen did not really have time to think about children when he was worried about his hands. He did not understand when and how that could have changed, and how that had resulted in a time travelling daughter, but he had to say, he was intrigued.

Friday’s expression went more complicated, and then she sighed. “I believe it is best if I start from the beginning.”

And so she did.

For the next almost hour and a half, Stephen sat back and listened to the strangest story he had ever heard.

He listened about how Doctor Banner, Thor, Loki and a woman by the name of Valkyrie saved the people of Asgard from Hela, apparently the third child of Odin - or first, technically - that no one had ever heard of before, that had colonial and genocidal goals that made Loki’s invasion seem like child’s play. About how, after believing themselves safe from the wrath of Hela and Surtur, they had been attacked by Thanos, the Mad Titan, as they were en-route to become refugees on Earth.

About how Loki had been coerced to begin with, and how Thanos had gotten the Tesseract from the Asgardians. About how the Mad Titan already had the Power Stone, at that point, and how the Asgardians had not really stood a chance against the Infinity Stone.

About the Hulk, crash landing on the roof of the Sanctum Sanctorum and telling Wong and Stephen the tale of the Asgardian's demise. About Stephen fetching Tony Stark from a park to warn him and tell him to keep something called ‘the Vision’ safe, just before two henchmen of Thanos arrived on Earth.

About a battle between ‘Ebony Maw’ and ‘Cull Obsidian’ versus himself, Wong, Tony Stark and something/someone called ‘Spider Man’. About Maw besting them, and he, Stark and Spider Man stowing away on the villain's spaceship.

About himself and Stark agreeing to take the fight to Thanos, once they defeated Maw, rather than return to Earth.

About arriving to a planet called Titan and being ambushed by a group of aliens plus a human who called themselves ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’. About their tale of how they had gone to yet another planet called ‘Knowhere’, where Thanos had managed to take the Reality Stone and kidnap his own daughter.

About how he looked into millions of different futures (14.000.605) so that they would win the fight, and only finding one winning future.

About them losing anyway, when Thanos arrived on Titan with the Soul Stone in his gauntlet. About 'Peter Quill' losing it once he learnt of ‘Gamora’s’ demise. About himself giving up the Time Stone to spare Stark’s life.

(Stephen’s brain had glitched for a second at that particular detail. He had no particular interest in picking up the Time Stone again, and the idea of 14.000.605 futures in which they kept losing stuck in his head was much worse than Dormammu. 

But to give up such an important thing for a man that, according to Friday’s words, he had not even known until that day? Just what in the hell had he seen in those futures?

Stark was impressive sure. But he was not worth half of the Universe.)

About how Thanos took the Mind Stone from ‘Vision’. About his goals being achieved and half of the Universe turning into dust. About Stark and ‘Nebula’ being the only survivors from Titan.

(It should shake him to his core, learning of his own death.

But Stephen was convinced that, at this point, that the idea of a permanent death no longer even registered in his brain anymore. He had died over a million times with Dormammu, and yet here he was. Alive.)

(was death even real? was it even an option for him, anymore?)

He listened as Friday spoke of the few survivors, and felt slightly pleased to learn that Wong had survived. About the remaining Avengers (minus Stark) banding up to find Thanos and undo what he had done, return things to before snap; only to learn that the Infinity Stones had been destroyed.

(That also struck a cord with him.

Stephen was not as knowledgeable as Wong when it came to these stones, but he knew they held together the fabric of reality. They were pillars of the Universe, remains of the Big Bang.

If the stones were destroyed, then it was just a matter of time before the Universe unravelled, and he suddenly understood why Friday had been sent back in time.)

Friday explained how, five years later, someone called ‘Scott Lang’, who everyone had believed a victim of the snap, had returned from the ‘Quantum Realm’. About how the idea of a time heist came around, a way to find the stones in the past and use them in the future to undo what Thanos had done.

About Stark figuring out time travel and about the heist itself. About the Black Widow dying and the wrong Nebula returning. About them undoing the snap only for 2014 Thanos to appear for yet another battle.

He also felt the anger and sadness in Friday’s voice as she spoke of how he (he? was future Strange even him? Didn't this knowledge literally mean he would never become future Stephen Strange? His brain hurt), after returning from Titan via portal, told Boss that this was the only way to win. About one single finger raised that ended a man’s life.

About Stark getting a hold of the gauntlet during the battle.

About him snapping his fingers and dying on the battlefield. 

(Stephen was not sure how to feel. He had saved the man on Titan just to sentence him to death a while later? He had forced Friday to watch her father die?)

About the day of Stark’s funeral, and Future!Stephen walking inside the cabin the man had been living in for the past five years. About his idea of time travel, and how he would use the Infinity Stones to give FRIDAY a body, and turn her into Friday.

(Finding out that she was an AI was even more shocking than the whole fight against Thanos and time heist)

About Friday choosing his DNA along with Stark’s to input in the ‘Cradle’, and how future Stephen had agreed. About Loki learning of their plan and agreeing to help, because their timeline had started to unravel - because of the time heist and the reintroduction of Infinity Stones that did not belong to that time.

About him and Loki combining their forces and sending her here, to warn everyone of Thanos and stop Ragnarok before it started. 

He listened and felt as if his brain was about to explode.

Because it was crazy, insane, and incredibly convoluted.

And yet Stephen had no doubts she was telling the truth.

And that made it all the more terrifying.

+++

Friday watched Doctor Strange in front of her, as he digested her story.

It was the first time she had reiterated almost the entire thing, but she felt that if there was one person who deserved to know as much of what happened as possible, then it was the Sorcerer who had made it all possible.

She tried to keep it from being too overwhelming, but she knew that it was still a long story with a lot of important things and information peppered inside of it.

The only major thing she had not told him about was the location of the Soul Stone, but that was just not something Friday saw herself telling anyone if she could help it. Everything else she needed to say, she had explained -

“Right,” she recalled, suddenly pulling up the sleeve of her shirt. “I nearly forgot about this.” 

She showed him the watch he had given her, when he had sent her in the past. Friday had gotten used to it in the same way she had gotten use to the necklace Loki had given her, and rarely ever took it off. She found the weight comforting.

Doctor Strange frowned at her wrist, and then his expression changed into something Friday wasn’t quite sure she could interpret, when he saw the crack on the screen.

“I... I gave you this?” he questioned, voice slightly faint, eyes glued on the watch.

“Yes?” 

He had not really said anything about it other than to use it ‘just in case he did not recognise her upon her arrival’, so she did not know its importance. But from the reverent manner Doctor Strange was now handling it, it seemed to have some.

He traced the glass with a gloved finger, and then did something (a spell of sorts?), and the watch changed into its previous form.

Doctor Strange hands were careful as they lifted it slightly and traced an inscription that she had not noticed, in the future past, hidden under the watch. But before she could take it off and read it, he made the same gesture as before, and the watch returned to the form Friday was familiar with.

The Doctor’s eyes were heavy with that something she couldn’t really understand, and then he nodded. “Very well. I believe you. Now what?”

Something had shifted, in his expression and demeanour, but Friday couldn't quite figure out what.

She opened her mouth to ask when, right on cue, the alarm bells of the Compound started ringing.

Chapter Text

Tony was already flying back towards the Compound when he received the call from Barton.

To be honest, he had never really had a particular relationship with the archer. At the beginning, after New York, they had not really had time to get to know one another. He was struggling with the after effects of the Scepter, and Tony was struggling with having nearly died and what he had seen on the other side of that portal. And after, when the Avengers had banded up together to get the Scepter from HYDRA, well. He was always more Romanoff’s friend than his. Sure they interacted, helped each other and exchanged quips while fighting together, but it was not as if they were actually friends.

Their relationship changed, however, after the revelation that Rogers and Romanoff had been hiding the murder of his parents from him. Clint had been shocked and devastated. Tony had made it clear that he did not blame him for their actions - or for SHIELD being a bunch of psychos - but that had not stopped the man from feeling guilty.

They had not really interacted again, until Friday was revealed to be his daughter after that whole Rogers thing. Then Barton had called him up and told him he 'understood' his reasons for keeping it a secret, because he he too had a secret family that he kept off the books because of his job (Tony had been surprised, but understood why, while she had known, Friday had kept it a secret from him). 

In a way, that made them closer than fighting at each other's side for over a year had.

“What’s up, Legolas?”

“Tony,” he said, and immediately his tone of voice had warning bells going off in Tony’s brain. “Question: have you kidnapped the Winter Soldier and, are you planning on killing him?”

Tony blinked at the clear sky in front of him, a little baffled by the question. “Why the fuck would I do that? And how do you know Barnes is at the Compound?”

“Thought as much,” huffed Clint, sounding irritated. “Well, for some reason Rogers and Romanoff are convinced you have kidnapped him and are planning to kill him. Apparently she found footage that placed him in the area around your Compound and footage of you with him.”

Romanoff instead of Natasha? The woman was really burning all of her bridges. “No, I am not planning on killing Barnes. He showed up like a few days ago, he’s tired of running and wants to give himself up. Do something and I quote, 'right, for once'.”

“Yeah, well, the two of them called me up to convince me to storm the castle with them and ‘saving’ Barnes from your evil clutches. And even if the idea that you, after six months of silence, suddenly decided to kill the Winter Soldier did not sound suspicious to me, they are in cahoots with the twins enhanced from Sokovia.”

Tony felt his anger immediately spiking at the news even as the Compound came into view. “They are bringing a girl who can mind control people into the Compound. The Compound Bruce and a number of civilians are currently working in?! Two HYDRA members anywhere near Barnes?”

Tony would not claim to know the man or anything, considering they did not spend much time together, but anyone with working eyes could see his clear hatred of everything HYDRA one mile away. It was the only thing capable of actively putting in an almost Winter Soldier mood. And now Rogers, his supposed best friend, was bringing a HYDRA operative - and not even any HYDRA operative, but someone who could actively influence people's minds - to 'save' him? Bringing a mind raper (as Loki had referred to her, a couple of times) anywhere near a brainwashed war veteran? Dear god.

“Thank you for letting me know, Clint,” he said as he landed. “I owe you one.”

“No sweat,” said the other, dismissively. “I like to think that you’d have done the same for me, if my family was in danger.”

“Ya bet, birdbrain. You know the door is always open for you.” Said Tony, making a gesture to one of JARVIS’ cameras and making the alarms of the Compound go off.

“Thanks, shellhead. See ya!”

The second the call disconnected, Tony recalled his nanites, only wincing slightly at the volume of the alarm. “JARVIS, talk to me. Who’s here?”

“Doctor Foster, Doctor Banner, Miss Lewis, Mister Barnes, Doctor Strange and little sister Friday,” informed him the AI.

Tony nearly tripped over his own feet, before he looked back up at the cameras. “I’m sorry. I could have sworn you just said ‘Doctor Strange’.”

“He did,” came a voice, and Tony looked back to see Friday and said sorcerer walking up to him, along with everyone in the Compound. Barnes was keeping to the fringes with Banner, but he was alert and focused.

Tony stared at Strange for a second or two, completely confused (what the fuck was he doing here?) before focusing back up. He’s have time to analyse that. For now,

“We have incoming. Three enhanced, one trained agent. I’m locking the Compound down, and they won’t be able to penetrate it, but just in case, I want everyone in the common room of the East Wing. It’s the safest area of the Compound.”

“What do you mean incoming?” asked Friday, frowning in confusion. “Who?”

So this had not happened in the future past. Good to know. “Rogers, Romanoff and the two Maximoffs.”

Barnes’ face changed slightly, a trace of guilt appearing. “They’re here for меня.”

“Sucks to be them, cause you’re not going anywhere,” said Tony, waving him off. Then he squinted at him. “Unless you want to leave now. I’m not stopping you, but I can’t help you if you’re out there with them.”

Barnes looked conflicted. “I don’t want you to fight for me," he said, in Russian. "It is not your battle and it is not for you to do.”

“Maybe,” said Tony, with a half shrug, before switching to Russian as well. “But this was coming whether you were involved or not. Some people only understand the language of fists.” He gave him a look that brokered no arguments. “You came here because you’re tired of fighting. Because you want a chance to do better. Is that still the case?”

The soldier’s eyes were fixed on Tony as he nodded. “Da.”

“That’s all I needed to hear." He turned back to the peanut gallery. “Everyone, off you go. I’ll deal with them.”

“What about-” started Banner, and Tony resolutely shook his head. 

“Not with Wanda around. I trust the big green, we all know that, but I also know how destructive he can be. And with her around...” he did not have to finish the sentence for Bruce to get it. Hulk was more than a green rage monster, but a mind controlled Hulk had nearly destroyed Johannesburg in the timeline Friday was from. The Compound could sustain a lot, but definitely not that.

Barnes was frowning, as if he was confused by something Tony had said, while Friday immediately took another step forward. “What? Are you planning to fight them by yourself?”

Tony gave a half shrug. “Rhodey is about an hour away, so at the very least I plan to stall them until he gets here.”

She glared at him. “I can help.” Tony started to shake his head, but she spoke over him. “Boss, there is only one of you and four of them. Three of these four are enhanced. I am sure Private Rogers can’t do much damage when he doesn’t even have the shield, but you don’t know the witch’s full capabilities the way I do. And her brother is even more of an unknown!”

“Witch?” asked Strange, frowning slightly.

He was still standing there, despite everyone else in the Compound having retreated as Tony had asked them too. 

“Yes, witch. She has mental powers?”

“Neural electric interfacing, telekinesis and mental manipulation,” rattled off Friday. “She’s extremely dangerous and has no reservations about invading other people’s minds and controlling their minds.”

Strange’s frown grew at her words, voice coming out sharply. “Mind magic like that is prohibited. That’s at least one rule from the Order that I understand and fully agree with.”

“Well either she doesn’t know or she doesn’t care,” said Tony. He turned to Friday. “If it’s that dangerous, why the hell would I send you out there with me?”

Her expression remained unchanged. “Because I have seen her fight before. I know what she’s like, and I have powers of my own. I can take her.”

“So can I,” said Strange, squaring up slightly, and woah woah woah.

“Now you’re coming as well?”

“My mind is protected from mental attacks, it was one of the first lessons the Ancient One taught me,” he said, his face going a little sombre at the mention of the head witch, before he refocused. “You’ll need all the help you can get.”

It was a little freaky, watching the matching stubborn expressions on their faces. He had always thought that he and Friday truly looked alike, but right at the moment, their eyes were the exact same, gleaming with the same decided light. Even if Tony told them that they were benched, he had seen the Ancient One walking out of his Tower with just an orange sparkly portal. And who knew what Mr teleporting Norse god had managed to teach Friday already.

“Fine,” he huffed, ignoring the smug grin on Friday’s face at the acquiesces. “You can stay.”

“It is amusing that you think you can boss me around,” mused Strange, with a prim and slightly condescending look on his face.

Honestly, what the hell happened while he was at the funeral?!

“Sir,” called out JARVIS. “Incoming call from Maria Hill.”

“What does she want, now?” he complained, even as he made a general gesture for JARVIS to pick it up. “Hill.”

“Stark,” she answered in the same cold tone. “You have incoming in the form of Romanoff, Rogers and the two enhanced from Sokovia, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. They are about 5 minutes out.”

Tony blinked at the air, suspicious. “Why are you telling me this?”

“SHIELD is in no way affiliated with their course of actions or their decision to recruit literal HYDRA members,” she informed him, candidly. “You don’t like me, you don’t trust me and well, I deserve it. That's fair. But Romanoff and Rogers are threatening to bring down the agents who barely managed to survive their last scuffle with HYDRA by attacking you, and I want it on record that I had nothing to do with that.”

Ah. “You want me to not burn your organisation down the ground and salt the Earth.”

She did not hesitate. “Precisely. Look, I don’t expect us to be friends, and I understand you not wanting to work with us again. But believe it or not, our aim is the same. The world safe.”

“And you also want to cut Romanoff and Rogers off.”

Hill did not feel the need to verbally agree with that. “You can decide for yourself what my reasons are. But I've done my part by telling you they are coming for you, and for Barnes. Romanoff might even be coming for your daughter, with how obsessed with her she has become, as of late.”

Tony’s eyes narrowed slightly. “I see.” A pause. “This doesn’t change anything.”

“I kind of like the status quo where you leave us alone and we leave you alone pretty well, thank you,” she answered, voice a little sarcastic.

Tony wasn’t going to make the mistake of trusting a SHIELD agent ever again - even Barton he trusted only as far as he could throw him - but still he snorted, slightly amused. “Might want to give the undead Fury some tips at how to talk to me without pissing me off. Goodbye, Hill.”  

“Goodbye,” she answered, and then the call was turned off.

Tony turned to look at Strange, who only looked mildly concerned - and how was his cape moving when they were indoors and the aircon was off? “You know you don’t have to do this, right?”

The man’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “I am perfectly able to-”

“Yeah, no,” quickly interrupted him Tony, waving his hand. “I don’t doubt that you are ‘able to’ or whatever you’re thinking. You might not be as strong as future you, but you do become that man. And Lokes says fighting Dormama was no easy feat, so I know you're capable. What I mean is: you don’t have to.”

When Strange just frowned, looking slightly confused, he continued. “This is not your battle. You barely know us. I don’t expect you to come to our aid just because you heard Friday’s story and decided you wanted to help defeat the purple grape.” He sighed slightly. “Just, if it were me? I would have wanted someone to give me the choice, to let me decide for myself, rather than being dragged into a fight whether I was ready for it or not.”

Strange seemed to relax slightly, once he understood Tony’s meaning. He shot a quick look at Friday, who was doing a very bad job of pretending she was not listening in, and his eyes focused on her watch for a few moments. Then he looked back at him. “If there is someone I’d listen to with only slight question, then it’s myself." He shook his head. "I'm fighting with you." 

Tony stared at him for a couple more seconds, then offered him a smirk. “Very well. Then suit up.”

+++

Tony, Friday and Strange were all waiting outside by the time the SHIELD issued jet landed in front of the locked down Compound.

All three of them were already in the air since, according to the girl, the male enhanced was unpredictable and an unknown, and they couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t attack them before any sort of discussion was had. And considering his speed, they wouldn’t see him coming.

Tony had been very confused to see Strange and his cape floating, but had toned it down immediately when the asshole had smiled smugly at his fascination. Man, the ego on that man.

Rogers was the first one to disembark, and he had the pale imitation shield from the Smithsonian on his arm, a determined and also slightly deranged look on his face.

Then came the two enhanced, both of them glaring immediately when they noticed him. Tony had seen them in pictures before, but seeing them in real life really made him wonder how the other Rogers had gotten away with calling the kids. They were definitely older than Friday and, as protective as Tony was of her, he would not call her a kid.

Romanoff was the last one, and Tony had the pleasure of seeing the way her eyes tightened and her expression went wary when she found yet another unknown on the field with them.

“Tony!” called out Rogers when he noticed them. “You have to stop this! This has gone long enough!”

“This?” asked Tony, keeping himself behind the helmet. He had instructed JARVIS to override his systems in case Maximoff managed to mind whammy him even with the reactor on him, but he did not want to take any chances. “And what is this exactly?”

“Bucky!” predictably shouted the man, and Tony could literally feel Friday’s eye roll from beside him. “It’s not his fault, you need to let him go! You can’t blame him for that, I won’t let you!”

“Has your stupid pea sized brain even stopped to consider that your buddy might be inside my Compound completely willingly and that I did not go and seek him out?” he drawled, condescension dripping from every word.

Rogers bristled at that, while Romanoff scoffed. “As if Barnes would seek you out instead of going to find Steve.”

Did she truly think that or was she egging Rogers on? Tony could not really tell.

“I mean, he owns a television. Everyone in the world now knows that Rogers’ shit stinks and that they’d be better off away from him,” he pointed out. “Makes you really think what you’re still doing with him, oh master manipulator.”

She glared, and then the blond Maximoff took a step forward, glaring hatefully at him. “Enough chit chat. You know Stark will not let your friend go, he is a murderer!”

“Yes!” agreed his sister, eyes glowing red already. It gave Tony the creeps. “Stark is nothing but a murderer. We need to kill him!”

Romanoff frowned a little. “Stop him and make him fix things,” she corrected. “We can’t kill him.”

Wanda Maximoff scoffed at her. “We fed you the pretty lies you wanted to hear so that you could bring us here and we could kill Stark.” She sneered at the way Romanoff seemed shocked at that. “What makes you think you can manipulate someone who can read your mind?”

Tony rolled his eyes at the matching shocked expression on Rogers’ face. “I can’t believe you two are truly shocked about an HYDRA agent betraying you.”

“Enough!” shouted Maximoff, and then she was attacking.

Tony wasn’t quite sure what the red energy shots she sent their way could do, and frankly, was not interesting in finding out.

“Oh no you don’t, bitch,” stated Friday, shooting like a missile in her direction.

Strange’s eyes narrowed at where the other twin was zooming around the place, orange spells already ready on his wrists - Tony really wanted to figure out how that worked exactly - while his fancy cape immediately attacked Romanoff - seriously, what?!

Tony went for Rogers.

Things would have been much easier if Tony was going for the kill and if he wasn’t keeping half of his attention on Friday, he decided, as he ducked to avoid being hit by the man throwing his new little frisbee.

Obviously it did not bounce back, since it was not made of Vibranium.

Tony and the suit were not great for one on one hand to hand combat, but he was in a human tank and Rogers only had his fists and his wits, and everyone knew his wits were defective at best.

He shot a low beam of energy at his knee when he made to attack again, and then clocked him over the head, sending him stumbling back slightly. 

“Stand down, Rogers,” he asked, keeping his weapons aimed at the blond.

“I can do this all day,” managed to say the other.

“You really really can’t,” told him Tony, before throwing himself at him again, going for a knockout punch.

“Stark, don’t!” shouted Strange, but Tony did not even have time to look up at the words before he was being barrelled into by the speedster and fell to the ground.

Tony winced slightly, but he had not done much damage. He looked up to find the blond having stopped beside him, glaring down at him viciously. “This is for my-” he started, just to be yanked back by red energy whips.

Tony was immediately in the air the second he was gone, and he turned to find Strange waving around his whips, the red cape once more on his shoulders and lifting him in the air, out of the energy bubble he had been in at the beginning. Romanoff was knocked out on the side - the great black widow, defeated by a glorified Aladdin carpet.

“Thanks, Strange. I owe you one,” he said, shooting an energy blast at Rogers when he tried to throw the shield he had recuperated at him again. It pushed him back and made him go down on one knee, anger and pain twisting his features. “This is your last warning, Rogers.”

“Let Bucky go!” answered the fake Captain, standing once more.

“I warned you,” said Tony, and immediately shot off in his direction once more. This time he took care of remaining in the air as he delivered a roundhouse kick at the man’s head that knocked him out cold immediately.

Titanium alloy: 1. Steroids: 0.

Then he flew back towards Friday, who seemed to have the other Maximoff at the ropes. The witch was sweating and breathing heavily, a grimace on her face as every one of her attacks either went wide or was counterattacked. She had some blood on her lips and gash on her forehead.

Friday, on the other side, looked perfectly all right. Her armour was not even dented, as she kept sending propulsors shots one after the other at the girl.

“I’m gonna kill you!” shouted Wicked Witch of the West, using both hands to throw a shot in her direction and Tony’s. Both of them neatly evaded the shot, Friday counterattacking with one of her own that Wanda stopped with a red energy shield. “Stop hiding your mind from me!”

“Wanda!” shouted her brother, from where he was stuck in Strange’s whips/vine things, unable to free himself enough to run.

The girl’s attention wavered and Friday took that chance to hit her square on the chest, sending her rolling backwards. Not enough to knock her out, unfortunately, as she stood back up with murder in her eyes and her hands turning a deeper red than before.

She let out a blood curdling scream and threw a thick red mist at them all that not even flight managed to help them evade, knocking all four of them - her brother included - to the ground quite harshly. 

“Friday!” called out Tony, trying to stand up again and unable to move his armour.

“I’m okay!” called out the girl. “I have a visual on the doctor and- BOSS!”

Tony did not have time to ask what was wrong before suddenly he could not breathe.

While the armour seemed to have gone offline for the time being, he could still see quite clearly. And right now he could see the gleeful vindication on Maximoff’s face as her hands filled with more red mists and she pulled him up in the air, suit and all.

“You! This is all your fault!” she told him, eyes wide and angry.

“Wanda? Wanda!” he heard her brother call. So apparently it wasn’t just the enemies that she had managed to paralyse, thought Tony as he started to feel truly constricted in the armour.

“For two days we were in the remains of our home,” she said, hands slowly curling together, and with them, Tony’s suit. “Waiting for Tony Stark to kill us!”

Tony let out a groan as the suit started to grown uncomfortably tights, especially around the chest area.

“Let him go!”

He might no longer be wearing the Arc Reactor, but it was not as if his lung capacity automatically returned once the thing was out.

“Afraid to breath, waiting for the bomb to blow or our own home to crush us,” seethed Maximoff, and Tony was gasping for air, pain starting to radiate from all over his body and limbs. “Our home became a coffin because of you.” She grinned savagely. “Let’s see how much you enjoy being stuck in a coffin!”

“NO!” Shouted Friday, and suddenly the pressure was completely gone and Tony was falling to the ground.

His vision was spotty and he was struggling to draw in breath, but thankfully it had not been high enough for his bones to break. Though he was still struggling to see clearly or move in any way.

He vaguely heard Maximoff and Friday screaming, and then gunshots.

The last thing he saw was Strange's face appearing in his line of sight.

And then the suit closed around him again - JARVIS, most likely - and he passed out.

Chapter Text

Everything about this new world was too fast for Steve’s tastes.

The food, the cars, the people... Time technically moved at the same speed at any given moment, but Steve felt like between one blink and the other the entire world had turned on him.

He wasn’t even sure he could pinpoint the moment where everything went wrong. The choice he made that ended up with him sitting in a cell in Stark’s Compound, cut off from the rest of his team and unsure on whether or not Bucky was even still alive.

He had truly thought that things between himself and Tony would have been resolved by now. Had thought that the friendship between them would outweight one mistake that Steve had made, a mistake that had been made just because he wanted to protect his best friend and Tony both.

He had genuinely thought that Tony would have understood, and then tried to help him, after the thing in Nigeria. 

Steve regretted the Lagos mission greatly. 

He shouldn’t have allowed Rumlow to rile him up like that but, in his own defense, the man had claimed to know where HYDRA was keeping Bucky and how they were torturing. Anyone would have done the same, anyone would have lost their cool for a second at such a terrible statement!

And with the way SHIELD and Maria were really not helping him at all when it came to finding and saving Bucky, and Tony and his enablers were ignoring his calls, what choice did Steve have but to go help Bucky himself?

So he made a mistake with Lagos, but he truly did not see how else he could have avoided it, any other way he could have played it. Natasha kept saying they had played it 'wrong' but she did not offer him any other way he could have 'played' it. And it was like no one else was willing to see his reasons/point of view.

Letting himself be arrested in Nigeria had been humiliating, but Natasha had said that if he resisted it, he’d make it worse. She had looked at him slightly oddly when he had told her that all he needed to do was tell his version of what happened and they'd understand, but in the end had convinced him that waiting for SHIELD to come bail him out was the best he could do.

And it had seemed to have worked, because, mere days after being taken into custody, the Nigerians had let him go because apparently the President himself had managed to get him to extradited to the USA. 

Steve had foolishly believed that things would go back to normal, even with the glares from the Nigerian officials and civilians (who were shouting unkind words at him in their native languages and English as he boarded his home plane). Had thought that since the President himself was the reason of him getting out, people had finally understood.

But he had not even managed to take a real step back into the US before the Government had forcibly taken his passport from him, warning him that he was not allowed to step one foot outside the US until a review of his behaviour and actions in Lagos had been taken.

And, if seeing the anger and hatred in the Nigerians' faces as he left had been a blow, it was nothing compared to what the media, the internet and the streets in the US had to say about him. The President had been heckled off the stage, when he had offered an explanation for Steve’s safe return, and the comments under SHIELD’s statement about what happened were surprisingly mean.

Steve didn’t usually interact with that stuff, but even he knew he had to do something, post a statement to make himself heard.

The results ended up being somehow worse, with many news stations calling him a ‘self righteous bastard with no understanding of accountability’. Which was ridiculous, Steve understood accountability just find. He held himself accountable to himself all the time.

He didn’t need that stupid document that Maria insisted he read because as a ‘SHIELD employee’ it affected him too. Steve wasn’t a ‘SHIELD employee’. He was Captain America!

Natasha had said that she could convince the two Sokovian enhanced to band with them, and then they would restart the Avenger Initiative without Maria trying to tell him what he could and could not do. It had started to get irritating, how she acted as if she had any sort of rank on him or her. And she kept trying to stop him from doing things all the time.

She had deleted his login from any transportation at SHIELD, and with the way people on the streets were acting (brainwashed by the Media, obviously), when Peggy died, he couldn't even get a way to go to her funeral. Sharon had texted him that she had died, but when Steve had asked her if she could help him get there (since he had no passport, and therefore couldn't use a plane) she had blocked his number from her phone.

He had tried to appeal to Tony, but had later found that while the man had ignored him, he had gone to the funeral himself. Probably for the fame of it all, since he barely had a link to Peggy other than Howard, while Steve was the love of her life.

Then Natasha found out Tony had Bucky.

Steve had never been so angry in his life.

How could Tony do this when it was not even Bucky's fault?!

But then he had realised what he had known since the Helicarrier, really. When Tony had first ignored Bucky and hadn’t gone after him, Steve had thought - foolishly - that he had matured a little, and understood that Bucky was innocent. That perhaps Natasha truly had been wrong about him, in that report, as he had heard Fury telling her, one time.

But now he could see that he had been biding his time. He had waited for Steve to let his guard down and be stuck at SHIELD and then he had gone after Bucky, to eliminate him, because he thought Steve wouldn't know and come after him.

He gave another punch at the wall of the cell they had thrown him in, more irritated when it refused to give way. 

He wasn’t even sure if he was at the Compound, anymore. All he knew was that the twins, who Steve had hoped to reform and use as a precedent for Bucky, had betrayed him, and then Tony had managed to knock him out with his armour.

Had Steve had his shield and had the man fought him like a man, he was sure the fight would have gone quite differently. But Tony had fought him like a coward, flying away to not be hit, and now all Steve knew was that he was stuck-

The door of the room his cell was in loudly opened and Steve immediately clambered to his feet, hopeful. From what he recalled Natasha had been the first to be stopped (and who the hell was that flying man with Tony and his daughter?) but perhaps-

His hope first crashed when he realised it was Banner walking inside, and then immediately soared back up when he realised it wasn’t just Banner.

Bucky!

“Bucky!” He cried out, feeling incredibly relieved as he finally saw his friend for the first time since 2014.

He looked... better that Steve had been hoping. His hair was clean, his face was free of any injuries, and the metal arm at his side was still attached. He certainly did not look as injured as Steve had feared.

But he looked angry. Very angry.

Which made sense, his best friend was stuck in a-

“HYDRA.” He said, voice cold but not exactly in the Winter Soldier way, as he stopped in front of Steve’s cell. Banner remained a few feet away. “You allied yourself with HYDRA.”

Oh, Steve saw where the confusion was coming from. “No, I didn’t ally myself with them. Natasha, she said they wanted to do the right thing and that-”

“Natalia Romanova, red room graduate, said?" sneered Bucky. "If they weren’t your allies then why were they fighting with you?” he demanded, eyes narrowed.

It was slightly unsettling. It was a look Bucky had often given him, when they were younger. But never with that sort of ferocity hiding in his eyes.

“Did Stark do something to you?” he said, eyes widening in sudden realisation. “Did he mess with your brain-”

“Mr Stark is not the one who brought the HYDRA witch that HYDRA themselves used against me to the place I had taken refuge in!” snarled Bucky, eyes flashing with anger.

Steve felt the blood leave his face. “What?”

Bucky sneered, and again that was a familiar expression that felt unfamiliar. “Do you not understand what ‘HYDRA volunteer’ means? They weren’t coerced. They went willingly. They took glee in using the powers they were given against any enemy of HYDRA, the vedma especially. And you brought them to the one place I felt safe enough to go to?”

He wasn’t making any sense. Surely, Wanda would not have done that? She’d have told him. She had even offered to help get the trigger words out of Bucky when they were flying towards the Compound.

"What makes you think you can manipulate someone who can read your mind?”

That was what she had said to Natasha.

But surely...

No. He had been played like a fool.

He should have never trusted Natasha or those twins with his best friend.

“I didn’t know...” finally managed Steve, hoping his regret showed on his face. He should have never trusted anyone other than himself when it came to Bucky. “I just knew that Stark had you, and I had to save you from-”

“Save me,” he said. “Had me. Do I look like I need saving? I came here willingly.”

“Has your stupid pea sized brain even stopped to consider that your buddy might be inside my Compound completely willingly and that I did not go and seek him out?”

Tony had said that, but it just didn’t make sense.

“Why would you do that?” he asked, shaking his head, trying to understand. But it didn't make sense. “After what happened between you two... you knew I was looking for you. You could have come to me. Don’t you remember me, Bucky? Me and you, till the end of the line?”

“I do remember you,” said Bucky, eyeing him in a way that made him uncomfortable. It was the same way Tony used to look at him, the way Natasha had been looking at him lately. “Which is exactly why I didn’t come to find you.”

What did that even mean?

Bucky shook his head. “I came down here to understand why you did everything you did. To see if you at least felt remorse, understood why what you did was wrong.”

“I do!” immediately said Steve, putting a hand on the glass, yearning to reach out and touch his friend. “Just... I just wanted to protect you, Bucky. Don’t you get that?”

Again with that look. “I do.” He finally said, but instead of taking a step closer, he took a step back. “And that is what terrifies me.”

“No!” he called out, banging on the glass once more as Banner and Bucky started walking away. “Bucky, wait! Wait!”

But his screams went unheard.

Friday came to, with a loud gasp, in the medbay of the Compound.

“Easy,” immediately came a voice as she sat up, and it took her way too many blinks to identify Doctor Strange standing beside her, looking slightly concerned.

Friday blinked once more, a little confused. What was he doing here? Shouldn’t he be-

The fight. Rogers. The Maximoffs. Boss.

Boss.

“Boss,” she managed, heart starting to race, just as the door opened and he walked in, holding a tray with three glasses of water on top of it.

The relief that ran through his face at seeing her awake was visible. “Fri. Jesus, you scared the shit out of me,” he said, dropping the tray on the side table, and sitting on the bed she was laying on, running a hand through her hair. “Are you okay?”

“Am I okay?” she demanded, staring at him in shock, her fingers going automatically for his pulse point. She wished with all her heart that she had a tablet with his vitals, right about now. “You’re the one that Maximoff attacked!”

He gave her an odd look. “Don’t you remember?” When she just stared at him, not quite sure what he was talking about, he twisted to face Doctor Strange. Who Friday had almost forgotten was still here.

The Doctor looked a little uncomfortable on the chair he was sitting on, but he too was looking at her curiously. “After Maximoff used her powers and paralysed everyone around, do you not remember what happened?”

Friday felt like she did, but it also felt like a dream, so she couldn’t be sure. So she just shook her head.

“JARVIS?” Called Boss, and a screen appeared in front of the trio.

As she watched the footage, her memories of that fight returned.

["Boss!" shouted Friday, panick growing as she managed to see the witch pulling him in the air with her magic, armour and all.

She had to do something, but she couldn't move, and her armour wasn't answering to her and-

“For two days we were in the remains of our home,” she heard from Maximoff. Her eyes were deranged, and true terror wrapped around Friday as she slowly curled her hands together. "Waiting for Tony Stark to kill us!”

She couldn't see Boss or hear him, but she could see the way the armour was shrinking. “Let him go!”

“Afraid to breath, waiting for the bomb to blow or our own home to crush us,” and no, this couldn't be it. She couldn't win, she couldn't hurt Boss like this. Friday had to stop her, she had to, she had to.

"Our home became a coffin because of you. Let’s see how much you enjoy being stuck in a coffin!”

Something in Friday snapped at those words and the way the armour ominously screeched, and then suddenly she was more.

She was suddenly Friday and FRIDAY, and she willed the armour off with a shrill scream, almost scintillating pink energy blasting off her.

She heard more than saw Boss falling to the ground, but her entire energy, her anger, her magic, was concentrated on Maximoff. Her. 

The enemy.

Wanda had just one second to stare at her in shock, half on the ground from Friday's earlier magic attack, before Friday’s magic was lashing out against her once more. She threw two quick energy blasts at her, which threw her back violently, but Friday was not done.

Friday’s eyes lit up pink as she forced the Iron Man suit to open, and then she was once more turning to Wanda, who was still on the ground and looking afraid.

Friday did not give a shit. She wanted that woman gone.

Her brother was also still on the ground - unlike Tony, Dr Strange and Friday, he was not protected against the mental attacks of his sister, and he wasn’t passed out like Romanoff and Rogers - trying to find his balance.

Friday turned a gaze filled of fury to the witch, summoning her powers in her hands. 

She didn’t taunt. Didn’t argue. Did not offer any kind of banter.

She focused her magic on the two twin bracelets sitting around Wanda’s wrists and squeezed.

Wanda let out a scream of pure agony at that, the sound crunching bone filling the field but not a whisp of her dark magic leaving the witches’ hands.

“Wanda!” shouted Pietro Maximoff, struggling to stand straight as he turned hateful eyes to Friday. “You bitch of a Stark!”

Friday pushed him back with her magic, only growing more incensed when he managed to move last minute and avoid the hit.

Before she could try again, however, the sound of a gunshot was heard, and Pietro fell to the ground, screaming as loud as his sister as he held his shot feet.

Friday turned her head wildly to identify the new threat, and found James Barnes on the rooftop of the Compound, rifle set up and trained.

Barnes.

James Barnes.

The Winter Soldier.

Boss had punched Steve Rogers in the face, and Barnes had trained his gun on Boss.

He was a threat.

JARVIS was trying to speak to FRIDAY, trying to connect to her, but she couldn't focus on him now. Boss was alive and uninjured from the scans she had been able to gather, but if she let Barnes go...

He was an enemy, she decided, turning in his general direction as her fingers started to light up again. She remembered Siberia. That was James Barnes who had attacked Tony, not the Winter Soldier.

“Good night,” said a sudden voice, and Friday felt cold trembling fingers against her head before everything went dark.]

She blinked, watching the footage of the Cloak picking her up and JARVIS taking control of the armour with Boss inside it, before she turned back to the Doctor. “You knocked me out?”

“Yes,” he said, not a hint of regret in his voice. “You were losing control of your magic. You haven’t had it for long, have you?”

She slowly shook her head. “No. Loki has been teaching me, but we only just started me actually trying to use my magic last week. I’m not supposed to practice without him around.”

Doctor Strange nodded. “Makes sense. Which is why you were out for so long.”

“For so long?” she looked between Boss and Doctor Strange. “How long was I out for?” The sun was still out, from what she could see. Couldn’t have been that long.

“A day and half,” said Boss, which made Friday’s brain short circuit for a second.

“What?!”

Doctor Strange, passed her a glass of water, which she accepted gratefully. “Magical exhaustion. The magic you performed out there... for a novice, it’s quite advanced.”

“Will she pass out like this every time she does magic?” questioned Boss, looking over at Doctor Strange and hold on one second. Since when did the two of them talk? When had they bonded? “She doesn’t pass out like this when she’s training with Loki?”

Doctor Strange shook his head. “No, she just needs more practice. I don’t know how... Loki teaches her magic, and I don’t know much about what type of magic user she actually is, but theoretically she gains stamina the more she practices.”

They were... civil.  

Boss noticed her slightly perplexed expression, and snorted. “I was out of it for a while, as well, but nothing Bruce couldn’t fix. Doctor Strange left yesterday after making sure we would live, and came back about ten minutes ago.” 

Sure. Why not.

“What happens now?”

Both Boss and Doctor Strange’s faces went dark at the same time. “Romanoff tried to say that she had been planning on getting them here to me so that they would not cause any more problems, but I doubt anyone would accept that excuse,” started Boss. “Rogers is in another cell, away from her, trying to break out every ten minutes even though he has already been informed that the glass is Hulk proof.

“The Maximoff twins are being treated right now, but we are keeping an eye. They don’t have accelerated healing, but it’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to them."

“The news is all over it,” added Doctor Strange. “It is the first time the Accords will be actually implemented against an enhanced and everyone is tuning in.”

“Will they be found guilty?” she asked, putting down the glass.

Strange nodded. “Most likely. The only major problem is what will be done with them once they are.”

Friday turned to a seemingly empty spot on the other side of the room. “Can you seal their powers?”

“What-” started Strange, just to jump slightly when the air shimmered green and Loki appeared, casually sitting on the chair.

He glared at her. “Maybe. You shouldn’t have taken the necklace off.”

She glared back. “I didn’t take it off, per se. It sort of... burst. I didn't know JARVIS was gonna let Barnes go all sharpshooter on us and disable them from a distance. I had to do something.”

The mage did not appear impressed.

Doctor Strange blinked at him and Friday. “How did you even know he was there? Where did you come from?”

“He’s been there since I woke up,” distractedly said Friday, which made Boss look up in alarm.

"Yes, I don't like that. I don't like that at all," he loudly said, as Loki stood up and sauntered towards Doctor Strange.

“I’m a mage. I can do anything I put my mind to,” he offered a charming smile. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Doctor Strange. Or may I call you Stephen?”

The sorcerer seemed as confused as Friday herself felt. “Uh... sure. Loki, correct?”

“Indeed.”

“Wait, why are you being nice to him?” questioned Boss, looking affronted from where he was sat next to Friday. “You’re never nice to me, and you’ve known me for months!”

Loki rolled his eyes. “Yes, but my future self and his future self were close enough that we performed a Space-Time and Reality altering spell to push your daughter to the past and save the world. You are just the man I have to suffer though to save the world and interact with the delightful Friday.”

What.

‘Were close enough’? Since when?!

If memory served her right, Doctor Strange and Loki were not friends. 

Thor had made it clear the few times he had been at the Compound, drunk and in need to vent.

Doctor Strange looked at him speculatively. “I suppose,” he agreed.

Which made sense, she realised. When she had told him the entire story, she had just said that Loki had joined in with the spell so that they could stop Ragnarok as well as Thanos. It wasn’t as if she had wasted time explaining their social relationship to one another.

“I am curious about the magic you are teaching Friday,” then said Doctor Strange, a gleam that she was used to associate with Boss playing with tech in his eyes. “The power levels and fine control she has displayed are very advanced for a novice.”

Loki seemed pleased. “Likewise. I am sure that, between the two of us, we can devise and optimise her learning of the magical arts.”

“Ahem,” loudly coughed Boss, looking all kinds of put upon (Friday was pretty sure he was faking). “I think you should be asking me for permission, first. You might be my baby mama, Stephen-”

“I didn’t say you could call me Stephen,” interrupted the Doctor, smirking when Boss looked even more offended and Loki snickered beside him.

Friday forced her lips to remain down.

“Also, isn’t the baby mama the one who usually raises the child without even letting the baby father know of their existence?” he continued, lips twitching in a smile. “I’m afraid, Stark, the title belongs to you.”

“Unbelievable,” said Boss, scandalised, but he sounded amused. “Friday can you believe this man?”

“Incredibly impudent,” she said, voice completely deadpan, which earner her Boss’ disappointed look.

“The sass in you! I really don’t know where you get it from.”

Friday looked between Boss (half of her DNA), Doctor Strange (other half of her DNA) and Loki (who had been there since the beginning and she spent a lot of time with). 

“Truly a mystery.” 

Chapter Text

Being back in the Compound for the third time in as many days had not really been Stephen’s plan.

His plan had mostly been to book an appointment with Friday and Stark, hear their story, most likely agree to help them and then just return to the Sanctum until his help was needed.

But then he saw the watch, and the Compound was attacked, and both Stark and his daughter ended up in need of medical attention, and well, it wasn’t like Stephen could just leave, right?

So he had helped them to Stark’s state of the art medbay - it made the neurosurgeon in him go apeshit at just how amazing it was - and once he had assessed their general health with the help of Doctor Banner and JARVIS had left.

And then went back.

He had explained it to them and himself by saying he was curious about Friday’s power levels - considering merely six months ago she hadn’t had a body - but it was mostly to do with the watch.

That watch... it still made Stephen a little dizzy to think that his future self had just given it to Friday.

That watch, it was the most important item he owned. When he had sold all of his possessions for a chance to get his hands back, that watch he hadn’t sold. That watch he had kept.

He had been damn nearly heartbroken when those thugs in Kathmandu had tried to steal it from him, and forever grateful to Mordo (don’t think about him) for getting the thing back to him. He literally still wore it to this day.

It was a reminder of everything he had lost: Christine, his hands, his career. But also a hope, because the watch had gone through the accident with him, but still worked.

A very important memento.

So for his future self to have just given to Friday, despite, from her own admission, them not really having known each other before that day after the 'third snap', it was mind boggling. It had implications.

Big implications that he wasn’t sure he wanted to consider.

“Stephen,” called out a tall and blonde woman, walking towards him with a smirk on her face. “I did not expect to see you again so soon.”

Stephen blinked at her. He was quite sure he had never seen this woman before in his life, but at the same time, there was something familiar about her bone structure and-

“Loki?!” he connected, eyes widening in surprise.

The other gave him a masterful bow. “Indeed. Please do call me Sylvie for the time being.”

“Sure,” he said, distractedly inspecting his - her? - new appearance. Was it an illusion of some sort? He did not appear to be holding onto a spell of any sort, and he was interacting with the physical world pretty easily. “How are you doing this? It doesn’t look like a spell.”

“It’s not exactly a spell,” explained Loki, shrugging. “I’m a shapeshifter. Though this is not my preferred form, when I shift into my female form.”

“Incredible,” said Stephen, resisting the urge to poke and prod as the scientist in him insisted he did. “Preferred female form. Are you, like, genderfluid? And why aren’t you in your preferred female form?”

Loki cocked her head to the side, looking thoughtful. “Genderfluid,” she repeated, as if tasting the word. “Yes, I believe that is almost a perfect Midgardian match for what I do. As for your second question, it has two reason. One, the other form looks very much like my sister Hela, and we do not want confusion, at this point in time. Two, I am technically still considered a criminal on Midgard, so I cannot very well waltz into this Accords meeting as myself. Hence,” she made a vague gesture to her new form, “Sylvie.”

Right. The reason Stephen was there for the third time in three days.

When, after Friday and Stark had woken up, he had returned to the Sanctum, Wong had quickly asked for the entire story. Stephen had shared as much as he thought he could get away with, but while obviously knowing that Stephen wasn’t telling him the whole truth (he had basically said nothing of Friday or her creation), Wong had seemed satisfied - if apprehensive.

The next morning, the Masters and senior sorcerers had gathered, to discuss the events that had transpired since the death of the Ancient One.

Stephen had not particularly enjoyed relaying everything that had happened in the Dark Dimension, but at least he had managed to keep his panic down until he was alone in the bathroom (he was thankful to Wong for pretending he did not know exactly what Stephen was doing, locked in the bathroom for over ten minutes). 

There had been some complaints about him using the Time Stone, but they were few and all immediately shut down after Master Ishike asked that “if it wasn’t meant to be, then why did the Time Stone answer his call?”

(Why couldn't Mordo understand that too? Why had he just left, refused to understand?)

He had expected that to be that, but then Wong saw fit to throw him to the wolves and tell him to explain about a new threat they had become aware of.

And, very reluctantly, Stephen offered an even more edited account of all that happened, omitting stuff like who the time traveller was to him and other things he simply felt like they did not need to know. When he spoke of the enhanced twins and the fact that Loki, prince and mage of Asgard, would be binding their powers ‘temporarily’ that evening, they had basically pushed him out of the door so that he could observe and then file a detailed report on the mage and his magic.

All Stephen knew of Loki was that the Ancient One had come back to Kamar Taj one day and took him off the threat list, to the bafflement of everyone around. She had said that he was to be watched, but not a threat, and that was the first time Stephen realised that that was the man behind the attack in New York.

He had been very confused and upset, at the beginning.

Back during the Invasion, the media had just said that the Chitauri attacked them because of something of alien origin that had been found on Earth, but he had never heard about Loki in particular.

Stephen was working in the hospital, when the aliens had fallen from the sky. Had been standing on the edge of his seat with terror in his heart as they all watched the nuke coming their way before Iron Man redirected it through the portal.

He had seen the destruction that the aliens left first hand, so for Tao to just claim he was no longer a threat, moments after he discovered what a threat he was to begin with, had been upsetting.

But she must have known/found out that he was coerced, and acted accordingly.

That did not mean the Order trusted him very much, hence sending Stephen to check up on what he was going to do. 

“I wanted to thank you,” said Loki, as they proceed towards the room where the injured twins were being kept.

Stephen frowned, looking over at her. “For what?”

“Your defeat of Dormammu,” she said, and Stephen’s automatically crossed his arms against his chest. Loki was looking at him carefully as they kept walking. “It is a most daring feat, to stop the Destroyer of Worlds; especially so for a Midgardian to do so.”

“You want to know how I did?” guessed Stephen, pretending that everything to do with Dormammu did not still make him feel like he was about to break out in hives.

Loki nodded. “The Mad Titan is strong, but if you have defeated Dormammu it stands to reason you might have the strength to take down Thanos too. And yet, it did not work like that.”

“I trapped Dormammu in a time loop,” rushed out Stephen, not looking at the other and forcing memories of that eternity from his mind.

Memories of a timeless void, "Dormammu I've come to bargain", of pain and-

Loki’s hand snapped out and grabbed his arm, stopping him in his tracks. There was a look of shock on his face. “I beg your pardon?!”

Stephen wondered if he should pull his hand out of the not yet painful hold. “I used the Time Stone to keep him in a time loop until he agreed to my bargain.” When Loki just kept staring at him, unnerving green eyes fixed on him, he started to feel a little uncomfortable. “What?”

“Let’s ignore for a moment that you mastered control over the Time Stone, which is renowned to be the hardest stone to master after the Reality Stone,” he said and uh, Stephen hadn’t known that. “You put yourself into a time loop? Are you mad?!”

Stephen shrugged. “It wasn’t as if there was any other way. Dormammu was coming, and I had no more time.”

The other sorcerer just stared almost in amazement. “How are you sane? You must have-” a dark look went over his face, and Stephen could almost see the moment the realisation settled in. Only, instead of pity, he was faced with sudden anger. “Doesn’t Kamar Taj have other sorcerers?!”

“Err, yes?”

“You shouldn’t be out and about so soon!” said Loki, looking both angry and shocked. “You certainly should not have been in a battle so soon after being stuck in a time-loop.”

Stephen felt himself immediately growing defensive, and snatched his arm out of Loki’s hold. “Why not? I’m fine-”

Quick as a snake, Loki scratched his arm with his nails. Stephen jumped in surprise at the sudden pain, and took a step back from him. “What the hell?”

Loki pursed his lips in irritation, crossing his arms together.

Stephen looked down at the injury and then paused.

It was still there.

He blinked.

It did not disappear.

In fact, it continued to sting quite a bit.

The Cloak of Levitation passed a lapel over it, and when it moved away, the injury was still there.

“I see,” finally said Stephen, looking back at Loki. “Permanence.”

Loki nodded. “You would not have returned to life if something befell you in that battle.”

“I know that,” he said, but he couldn’t help and look at the scratch once more, still expecting it to be healed.

Which it continued to be not.

Loki’s expression went through quick different motions, and the he sighed. “You can follow me and observe as I do what I need to do, but for your own sake, stay away from active battle until you are aware, even psychologically that your wounds and ills will remain, as you are not being rebooted any longer.”

The scratch was still not healed.

“Fine.”

When Tony arrived at the Compound, he was exhausted.

Between PR, the Accords, the twins and Hela, things were starting to seriously pile up.

Hela had arrived with Loki (as Sylvie) that afternoon.

“Sylvie” was an Asgardian sorceress and a ‘friend’ of Tony who was willing to tie the twins’ powers temporarily so that they wouldn’t be able to flee as soon as they were healed - and the male twin was already healing quicker than he was supposed to. Tony had not been there when that had occurred, but Rhodey had, with Friday lurking around 'just in case'.

Hela was here to discuss with Tony how she should address/speak to the Accords Council when it came time for her to explain the threat of Thanos and her brother’s unwilling part in the New York Invasion.

For a girl who had spent almost two millennia in the Underworld, she was surprisingly quick and smart. There was a lot of ‘no, we cannot threaten to kill, dismember, destroy, maim, injure or murder any of the senators’ but other than that she seemed okay.

Looks wise, she looked awfully similar to Loki, for someone who was apparently only blood related to Thor. It made very awful theories about Odin start swimming in Tony’s head, and he had never liked Thor’s father to begin with.

She wasn’t as sassy or sarcastic as Loki, and she was also very gun-ho about violence, just like Thor when they had first met. But unlike Thor, she seemed to understand the need for acclimating to the culture of the place you were visiting, and unlike Loki, she knew how to tone down the superiority complex. Honestly, Tony personally thought she should be Queen, cause she knew already what to do, but she seemed to have given up on that title.

“I spent half of my life preparing to be a Warrior Queen,” she explained, with a sigh. “And the other half, preparing for vengeance. And now I am back in the Nine Realms, and nothing is the way I am used to. I can see why Loki insists violence is not the answer, especially with the threat of the Mad Titan,” and here her expression darkened slightly, “Hanging upon us. I no longer want to be who I was, who,” she looked pained, “Odin forced me to be. Who he casted me as.

“I don’t know what I shall do once the battle is done and we have emerged triumphant, but for now I am happy being a Princess.” Her smile turned sharper. “Also, Loki refuses to hand me back my powers until I have proven myself, and it would be very hard for me to control Asgard without those.”

So yeah. Tony wasn’t sure if she had changed or she was a very good actress, or if she was just a smidge unhinged, but she was fun to be around.

Unlike the majority of everyone else.

He groaned, cracking the bones of his back as he moved towards the stocked bar in the Compound, surprised to notice someone else was already there. And then more surprised when he realised who it was.

While they had kind of spoken while waiting for Friday to regain consciousness, and then again right after, they had not really talked. 

“Didn’t expect to see you here?” he said, as he rounded past him and towards the liquor cabinet.

“JARVIS sent me this way when I asked for something to drink,” explained Strange. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” answered Tony, dropping a generous amount of alcohol in his cup before sitting on the counter. Strange made a face at that, which Tony ignored. “So how can I help you, baby mama?”

Strange made another face. “I thought we established that you are the baby mama already, Stark.”

“Fine, I’ll call you baby daddy, then,” he said, which of course made the man look all kinds of disgusted.

Tony had found it was hilarious to rile him up.

“I’d prefer you didn’t. Can you not just call me Stephen, like a normal human being?”

“I can try,” said Tony, pretending to be very reluctant about it. “So long as you don’t call me ‘Stark’. I hate it.”

“Okay, Tony,” he said, emphasizing his name. “Wasn’t really waiting for anything. I went with Loki to his magic binding thing, and he told me some things that made me think.”

“Loki can be a bit of an asshole, so don’t take it personally,” told him Tony, slightly confused when the man stared at his arm with a frown after saying that.

Stephen shook his head. “No, he had a point. Not sure I like that point very much, however.” He put down his arm, and then looked at him critically. “You don’t look very good either.”

Tony shrugged. “Things keep happening, and everyone wants me for something. Romanoff is out of my hands, finally, but they’re trying to trick me into keeping Rogers at the Compound. I am seriously considering melting the man’s frisbee to make him some cuffs and then hand him over to the Accords Council, cause I’m tired of him trying to break something that is unbreakable. Then there is the whole 'give us weapons to stop Thanos' thing, and Barnes, and Hela, and all are a headache for different reasons.” He downed the drink in one go. “It’s not even hard, but it’s long and boring and I hate it.”

“You should delegate more,” offered Stephen and again Tony shrugged.

“I am, sort of. But I can’t just hand people stuff without coaching them through it first. Barnes, I’m the only one who truly knows BARF.” At Stephen’s confused look, he amended with a smirk. “Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing. It's a complex holographic system that connects with the user's hippocampus, allowing it to find a certain traumatic memory and alter it before projecting that memory onto an external infrastructure."

Immediately there was intrigue on Stephen’s face. “Interesting. It would allow someone to successfully re-experience and work through traumatic experience. Like therapy," he hummed, and then narrowed his eyes slightly. "Skating close to memory alteration and brainwashing though, Dr Stark."

Right. Tony had almost forgotten he was a brain person. “I've been trying to deal with those particular problems, but, as you know, I'm not really a brain type." He eyed him a little more speculatively. "You are welcome to sit in while I show Banner and Barnes how to use it. It could always use an improvement.”

Stephen gave him a look. “First Loki trying to get me to teach Friday my brand of magic, now you and this... BARF. I’m starting to think that you’re trying to include me in things.”

Tony huffed, pouring some more alcohol. “Would that be so bad? You are, technically, the other half of Friday’s DNA. Future you is who we owe this chance to. He's the one we have to thank for all of this.

“And I know you are not future you and, technically, might never be, because time doesn’t work that way and your experiences have changed with this foreknowledge. But that doesn’t mean we are not curious about you, and what kind of person you are.”

Stephen took a sip from his own glass (of water, what a boring guy). “I guess there is nothing wrong with knowing Friday. And my... baby mama, either.”

Tony had already made a note of the fact that, so far, Stephen was very careful of referring Friday by name and not as his daughter, and he understood.

While Tony was used to sort of being a father figure to his AI, and knew Friday’s base code, Stephen might have never even considered the idea of being a father.

And now he had a time travelling half AI fully grown child that apparently he helped create, and that had to be jarring.

So he did not comment on it, instead rolling his eyes at the ‘baby mama’ comment. “That’s the spirit! Now let’s talk child support.”

Stephen snorted in amusement, shaking his head, and Tony counted that as a win.

Chapter Text

“Hey, Boss junior,” called Happy.

He had just stepped out of the car and noticed her, but while she immediately waved back, Friday’s focus was not on him. It was on the other two people who were inside the car with Happy, and who were now stepping out of the car too.

While Friday had kept up with Spider Man’s work and therefore caught glimpses of Peter, she had not seen the boy since the day future Stephen Strange had decided to send her to the past.

He had been one of the few who had spoken to her, before heading towards the lake where the funeral would be held.

Friday recalled the grief and loss on his face as he inquired about her well being, and the way she had been unable to offer him reassurances or even comfort him. Boss had always claimed that JARVIS was her older brother, but in that moment, she had felt closer to Peter than anyone else left in her AI life.

The first thing she realised was how young he looked.

It shouldn’t be a surprise, considering how much younger and healthier everyone looked, but for some reason it was almost jarring to see in Peter.

The boy’s cheeks were round, his smile big and his eyes shining with excitement as he looked at the Compound, physically vibrating with pent up energy.

She knew that Ultron and the Accords had aged Boss. She knew that those last three years before Thanos' snap had had a toll on everyone, even Romanoff and Rogers, who she did not particularly care about.

But it was quite another thing to realise how much all those events had aged Peter Parker.

This Peter Parker had not participated in a fight between superheroes that he had no place in. This Peter Parker was not burning himself between his second identity and his life as Peter. This Peter Parker had not encountered the Vulture. This Peter Parker hadn’t nearly been crushed by a building and developed claustrophobia as a result of it.

This Peter Parker was still safe. Still okay. Innocent, if she really wanted to use that word.

And he would remain that way, she decided, as May gently pushed him towards her. She knew how much Boss had regretted all that happened to Peter Parker, even though it was not technically his fault. 

This time, things would be different for Peter.

He might not be her Peter, the Peter who had been her brother and friend in the future past, but she was still his sister. Whether he knew it or not.

She smiled when the trio stopped before her, offering May her hand. “Mrs Parker, hi. Glad to see you again.”

“Just call me May, Miss Stark,” she said. Apparently someone kept up with the news.

Friday’s smile widened. “Only if you call me Friday.” Her eyes went to Peter, who was looking at her with a lot of curiosity and none of the hatred/anger she’d have expected. Perhaps May hadn’t told him it was her who outed his superhero status? “Peter, right? Nice to meet you.”

“Uh, nice to meet you, Miss Stark,” he chirped, thrusting his hand forward. “This is insane, I can’t believe I’m at the New Avengers’ Compound and shaking hands with Tony Stark's daughter.”

Friday grimaced. “It’s not actually the New Avengers Compound.” The media had chosen the name, but considering the lack of a huge ass ‘A’ on the building, they were still being tentative with its usage. “Boss still has to decide on what name to give it and the new team. But please, follow me.” 

They both gave her a confused look when she used the word ‘Boss’ and Friday internally winced. While she was not uncomfortable, using ‘Dad’ to refer to Boss, and had in fact done it a couple of times, she was used to calling him Boss. It had been one of the first decisions she had made as an AI, what designation to give ‘Creator Unit: Stark, Anthony Edward’ and just the denomination that came most natural to her.

Boss Lady had encouraged her to call him ‘Dad’ in public. They had a little fake story about her calling him Boss as an ‘inside joke’ but that was bound to breed gossip about her not truly being Boss’ daughter and that might cause more problems than they wanted to deal with at the moment.

“Is Pepper here?” questioned, Happy, following them as they walked inside. “She has an appointment in an hour and half, but she hasn’t answered her phone.”

“Oh, yes. She told me to tell you when you arrive that she’s busy with Sergeant Barnes and the lawyer. She said she’d be done by quarter past.”

Happy squinted at his watch and huffed. “If I take third, we might still make it. Is anyone else here?”

“Doctor Banner is with her, the lawyer and Sergeant Barnes. Colonel Rhodey was here, I am not sure where he has gone now, but I believe he and Hope Van Dyne are ‘nerding it out’ as Darcy calls it,” said Friday, smirking slightly at the expression on Happy’s face. 

“Yeah, I don’t want to sit with the nerds. I’ll see you later,” he then said, huffing when she immediately raised her fist for a fist bump. He complaied, still complaining. “You’re such a child. I shall see you in a while, Mrs Parker, Mr Parker.”

“Thank you for bringing us here,” said May, waving him along with Peter.

The boy was looking around himself with wide eyes, and it was such a similar look to the one he had sported the first time he came around that Friday couldn’t help but smile.

They stopped in front of Boss' office a few minutes later, and Friday turned to face them. “Okay, so... Dad thinks that you and him, Mrs- May, should talk first. Me and Peter can wait for you to be done discussing the fine details here?”

May turned to Peter, questionably, and the boy immediately nodded. “I’ll be fine, Aunt May. Miss Stark will keep me company.”

“Okay,” said his aunt, more easily than Friday had expected. “Just make sure to behave. I cannot pay back anything you destroy.”

He made a face at her that made her snicker, and then JARVIS automatically opened the door for her. Friday waited for her to disappear inside before she turned to Peter, who was still standing instead of sitting on the bench, clearly itching to touch and explore everything.

He’d have the opportunity soon enough, but first, “Peter?”

He turned to face her, looking all of a sudden nervous. “Yes, Miss Stark?”

Friday grimaced. “Please just call me Friday?” It felt weird for him to be calling her anything but. “But anyway, I’d like to apologise.”

Peter blinked in confusion, settling on the bench beside her. “Apologise? For what?”

“I don’t know if your Aunt told you how she found out about the Spider Man thing,” she started, with a sigh. “But it was me. I was the one who told her.”

He blinked again, looking confused. “I know?”

“You know?” Now it was Friday’s turn to be confused.

“I mean, yeah. Aunt May shouted at me for a while, and in between the screaming she did say something about having to hear it from ‘the daughter of Tony Stark’, which is you. Which is so cool!”

Friday frowned. “And... you’re not angry?”

He shrugged. “At the beginning, a little bit, yeah. But not that you told; mostly that now my Aunt knew my secret identity. But then Aunt May started talking about the offer you and Mr Stark were making me, and it made sense that you asked her first, since she was my guardian. If you didn’t tell her, then she’d have found out another way and maybe that way would have been worse and I’d never be able to be Spider Man again. This way I actually get to wear a suit made by Iron Man!”

Uh. Children were far less likely to hold a grudge than an adult, said studies, but Friday still had not expected for the forgiveness to come this easily.

Still. “It still wasn’t right. I mean, telling was the right choice. But I should have given you the chance to tell her yourself, instead of making the decision for you. That part I apologise for.”

“I probably would not have accepted even if you asked and would have tried to get you to change your mind,” rationalised Peter. “But, if you’re insistent on apologising, then I forgive you.”

Friday smiled, a sense of relief filling her. 

Peter was quick to speak once more. “Can I ask you a question, now?”

“Just the one?” she asked, raising an eyebrow and he blushed.

“Okay, maybe more than one. But I’m curios, a bit.” He winced. “Sorry. You probably get a lot of questions about being Iron Man’s daughter.”

“I will,” she agreed. “But haven’t so far. Well there were Darcy and Jane, but I’ve been mostly homebound lately, so no one had the chance to ask me anything. Go ahead.”

“How old are you? Why did no one know about you? Is Miss Potts your mother? Is the video with Captain America, real? Did he really bully you? Did Mr Stark make your suit? Are you going to be an Avenger? Is-” he stopped, looking even more embarrassed at her indulgent expression. “Okay, I’m gonna let you answer first.”

“I’m 21 years old, turning 22 in November.” They had decided to make the date she arrived to the past her official birthday. She stuck to the official story they’d give, for the time being. She wasn’t sure if Peter was one of the people she’d tell the whole truth to, eventually. He was bound, of course, to notice/realise that something didn’t add up, like Harley had. But now that she saw how innocent he was and how much those last three years in the future past had robbed him of said innocence... “No one knew about me because Boss wanted to keep me safe. Miss Potts is not my mother, my mother died last year. The video with the Captain is indeed real. He did not threaten me, but he did try to attack me, which is why I took his shield from him: he did not deserved it. I made my own suit, but... Dad helped me. And again, we don’t have a name yet, but if you’re asking whether I want to fight alongside my father, the answer is yes.”

Peter looked impressed. “Wow, I really did not expect you to answer all of those questions.” He shook his head.

He asked her a bunch more questions, mostly about her suit and how she had made it, until they were interrupted.

“Mr Parker?” called Boss, and Peter visibly bounced, not having noticed him moving. Friday was surprised he already felt at ease enough that his super senses had not alerted him of anything. 

“Oh my god, it’s Tony Stark,” managed the young boy, voice coming a little high pitched.

Boss’ lips twitched in a slight smile, but he did not outright laugh. “Your Aunt seems happy enough. Want to see your suit?”

Peter squealed.

If anything, considered Stephen, as he stood there watching it, the time stone was pretty.

And terrifyingly powerful, whispered a part of himself.

It was incredible how something so small, something people just hung around their neck as if it was nothing but a necklace could have caused him so much grief. And continued to cause him so much grief.

And it was shocking and terrifying to think that, in the future, he had made the choice to pick up this terrible relic again. Not only pick it up, but actively use it. To gaze into millions of future. 

“What is making you sigh so loudly inside of my library?” asked Wong, appearing almost out of nowhere.

The man was surprisingly light on his feet when he wanted. Like a damn cat. 

Stephen did not turn around. “I was sorcerer supreme, in the timeline Friday is from.”

“Indeed,” agreed Wong, his voice not betraying anything. “Though I am surprised you did not tell the elders that.”

Stephen scoffed. “I don’t want to be Sorcerer Supreme. Why was I even that? According to Friday you were alive until the very end, so there was at least one sorcerer my senior present who could have taken the role. Why was I given it?”

“She didn’t tell you?” he asked, and Stephen turned to look at him. Wong looked a little surprised.

It didn't sound like he was talking about Friday. “Who didn’t tell me?”

Wong studied him for a few seconds, then shook his head. “You will figure it out,” he decided, moving to walk away.

Stephen offered the Eye of Agamotto one last glare before following after the older sorcerer. “You know, just because the Ancient One is gone, it does not mean that you need to take over her crypticness. I personally think a lot of our problems would have been solved if she was less cryptic.”

“Like Mordo?” said Wong, and Stephen looked away.

If the loss of the Ancient One hurt, the loss of Mordo hurt as much - if not more.

Mordo had been his first friend, when he arrived at Kamar Taj. Wong, it had taken him a while to melt him down from the icicle he was.

Mordo might at first glance appear even more stoic than Wong, but to Stephen it wasn’t like that. Mordo had been the first to accept him in Kamar Taj. Mordo had showed him where Kamar Taj was. Mordo had given him his watch back. Mordo had answered most of his questions - so long as it wasn’t again the rules - and offered him more help when he needed it.

To lose him like that, to watch walk away because of a mistake - or what he considered a mistake - on Stephen’s part, it hurt. 

He had no idea where the sorcerer was, and part of him was afraid of what the next time they’d face each other would be. Friday had made no mention of him, but it really did not make Stephen feel any more at ease.

“Just explain whatever you meant to me, please?”

“No,” candidly said Wong, because of course he would. He was such a dick. “Now tell me, how is your daily meditation going?”

Stephen rolled his eyes at the change in topic, accepting the book Wong handed him and putting it back where it belonged. “Is this your way to show that you care about me?” When the sorcerer did not even bother turning around, Stephen rolled his eyes once more. “It’s going just fine.”

He looked over at his wrist, the point where Loki had scratched him the other day. It was already healed over now, but it still made him think.

He had considered finding a way to inflict himself some minor injury that would help him remember his place, but the Cloak had slapped him when he had mentioned it. And he could see how slippery a slope it was from that to self harming, so he had hastily abandoned that idea.

The meditation helped, considering that each session was different and they never focused on the same thing during it. Wong was very good at handing him different challenges each meditation session so that helped. But meditating could only go so far.

In the end he had decided to have a discussion with the Cloak of Levitation regarding the whole thing. The Cloak might have been with him for two weeks or less, but they had spent that time with Dormammu together. They could read each other and understand one another at a degree he'd never expected when he first became sorcerer.

The Cloak had offered to be the one to remove him from a situation in case it believed him to be heading towards a path of self destruction and there was no other ally who could help around. It was not an ideal solution, considering how protective the Cloak could be, but it was what he had at the moment.

“If you need some time,” started Wong and yeah, no. 

Stephen appreciated the sentiment, but really, no thanks. “I’m fine, Wong.”

He was not as protective as the Cloak, but the man cared about him. Still, he knew when to back off. “What about your family?”

“You have a talent for talking about the things I really don’t want to speak of, you know that?” he complained, fixing a couple of books handed his way. “And they’re not my family.”

“No?” Wong raised an eyebrow at him. “I was under the impression that this Friday Stark was created with half of your DNA.”

“Yes,” agreed Stephen, “But she is, very clearly, Friday Stark.”

It did not bother Stephen, not really. Friday's... code (and it was still very shocking to think that she was anything but fully human), had been created by Tony Stark. Everything Friday knew, came from Tony Stark. His older self might have made her body for her and given her half of his DNA, but from what she had told him, she had not known much about the other Stephen Strange. 

Hell, the other Stephen Strange had been the one to send her back in time and tell her to wait to contact him of this timeline.

Which only increased her bond with St- Tony, who she had already considered her father from the beginning.

He understood that, of course.

But it also made him feel weird about St- Tony's insistence on calling him her 'baby daddy' when they just were not that close.

“I see,” said Wong. “You feel as if you don’t belong.”

“It’s not feeling as if,” protested Stephen, eyes trained on the back of a book. “I don’t belong, not truly. Even before having a body, Friday was Stark’s, was a Stark. And in the past six months since her arrival in this timeline, they had been with each other. They are already a family.”

And maybe Stephen was a little bit jealous of that. He had never had the best relationship with his parents even before Donna's death, and now he technically had a daughter who definitely did not care for him as much as she cared for Tony. Their love for each other was true and pure, and every time he was around them, Stephen felt as if he was intruding.

He was not really part of them. Even Loki was more part of their dynamic than Stephen was.

The one thing he could have helped her with, taught her, was magic, and Loki was the one teaching her instead. And sure he had advised that Stephen join them and help out too, but it wasn't the same.

They were their own unit, their own family.

And part of him, a part of him that had felt lost since the accident and desperately craved to belong somewhere, wanted to be a part of that family.

But he knew he wasn't part of it, and it sucked.

“They turned up literally hours after you defeated Dormammu because they wanted to meet you so bad,” pointed out Wong. "They wanted to know you, to complete the trifecta, so badly that they did not even wait a full 24 hours after Dormammu to come introduce themselves."

Stephen rolled his eyes. “They did that so that I could help them against Thanos.” Not because they wanted Stephen. They just wanted the sorcerer with the Eye of Agamotto, the Sorcerer Supreme.

Wong stared at him. “You are so dumb.” 

And with that, he left.

He really was a dick, Stephen needed new friends. He should hit up Loki. Loki would never treat him like this.

Why couldn't Wong be more like Loki?

Chapter Text

“So?” asked Tony, after a few minutes of utter and complete silence.

Bruce and James - as Barnes insisted he be called, nowadays - exchanged a look with each other, while the third doctor in the room continued reading, saying nothing but a quiet “hm.”

Tony felt overtaken with the need of clubbing him over the head with something, because no one could naturally be this irritating. He had to be trying particularly hard to piss off Tony, there was no other explanation.

Before he could start threatening him again, Stephen finally raised his head, the amused lilt of his lips a clear indicator that he knew he was pissing Tony off and was living for it.

Had Tony ever told anyone how irritating Friday’s other father was?

Because he was very irritating.

“It’s good,” said Stephen, bringing Tony’s attention back to the himself. “Considering your lack of knowledge of what you insist on calling the ‘squishy sciences’ or any working knowledge of neurology, you have done an acceptable job.”

Tony squinted at him. “How is it that you manage to make everything you say sound like an insult?”

He rolled his eyes, but seriously.

Tony might not have known him for that long, or spent too much time one on one with the other sorcerer, but every other word out of his mouth was a jab of some kind. Tony knew he was snarky and sarcastic most of the time, but this man took it to another level.

Things had been... going.

The trials had started and, obviously, no one wanted to plead guilty. Everyone was accusing someone, mostly with the twins and Rogers accusing Tony and then, surprisingly, the male twin accusing his sister, who kept shaking him off.

Not that he was doing it properly. No, in Pietro Maximoff’s opinion, if she had listened to him as she should have, he would have killed Tony Stark already and she had ruined everything.

It was like watching toddlers squabble, and not two grown people arguing over their right to commit murder.

Rogers had been transferred that very morning off the property, after being tranq’d. Between Bruce and James, Tony had managed to create some cuffs that the supersoldier would not be getting out of anytime soon. He was also tinkering with a possible way of ending the Rogers problem permanently, but was far from completion so he was keeping his mouth shut, for the time being.

Romanoff had tried to escape twice, but JARVIS and Friday found great joy in catching her each and every time. And then Tony had found out that the people hired to transport her to the prison she would be kept in as she awaited trial, were actually ex-Shield spies. The way her face had paled when she had realised it had been hilarious. Tony did not know if someone (JARVIS was particularly protective of his sister, especially when there were spiders who were too obsessed with her for their own good) had set up the thing, or if the ex-agents had come up with the entire thing themselves, but he had found the entire ordeal very amusing.

And while police brutality was an awful thing, he had simply pretended not to see how slightly more ruffled she had appeared when she had arrived at the detention centre.

She’d undoubtedly try to get out again, but even she knew better than to try in the presence of her ex co-workers. She’d get shot down before she even manage to open the door.

The twins were not going to get out any time soon, and most likely ‘Sylvie’ would be called upon soon enough to make their loss of powers permanent. They had been extradited to Sokovia, and their actions with HYDRA alone risked them getting them sentenced to death. Honestly? Good riddance.

Rogers and Romanoff were the main problems, to be honest, but, thankfully not Tony’s until they were - hopefully - sentenced and someone came to beg him for a helping hand in keeping them contained for a longer period.

So now that those no longer threatened to make a mess of everything, Tony was focusing on other stuff. For example, Barnes and BARF.

And Stephen Strange.

Tony was still not sure what to make of the funky sorcerer. He was prickly and irritating, and a little condescending (less so than Loki, but it was there). And yet, he sided with Tony and Friday despite not knowing for sure that they were in the right when it came to the Rogues (as Friday kept calling them). And yet he had put himself in harm’s way by stopping a Friday high on magic from potentially hurting Barnes. And yet, he had returned the next day to make sure he and Friday were okay.

He was difficult to read, which honestly just intrigued Tony all the more. And he'd never let him hear him say that, but Tony liked that he kept him on his toes every time he came around.

Friday had never explained their relationship to each other in the future past, or how they became friends (more?) and decided to use their DNA to, essentially, make her, but at this point, Tony did not even care anymore.

He wanted to get to know this particular version of Stephen Strange, not the one who had sent Friday back in time after his death.

It did not make the man any less annoying, however.

“Can you help improve it, at least? Or do you have any specific advice?” he asked, crossing his arms around his chest.

Mr Sorcerer nodded, turning to face James, who looked a little nervous. “Whatever you have done so far has not in any way harmed you, so don’t worry. But I can still make it better.” He turned to Tony after the soldier just nodded. “Your focus on the hippocampus is good and effective, but you need something that puts less energy on it,” he explained. “Too much focus on it is what causes the migraines.”

Tony narrowed his eyes at him. “I never said I had migraines while using it.”

Stephen pointed at his own head. “Doctor,” he then pointed at Tony, not touching him. “Engineer.”

“I am a doctor as well, I’ll have you know!” complained Tony, but he was amused.

While he was still plenty tense and not very at ease around them all, it was nice to see Stephen was becoming less uncomfortable. Even if it was at Tony’s own expenses.

“Yes, we’re all doctors,” agreed Bruce, shaking his head. “I have a question, though. With the-”

“Sir,” came JARVIS’ voice suddenly. “Prince Thor just landed in front of the Compound. He is not alone.”

Well.

+++

“My friends!” bellowed Thor, when the rest of the Compound residents appeared on the patio outside, where he had landed. “It is most beautiful to see you all!”

Tony blinked. “Er... Thor?”

“Yes, shield brother Tony?”

“Where did your hair go?” he questioned, frowning.

He felt he was entitled to the question. Thor’s usual long blonde locks had been shaved off, leaving a pretty Chad-esque haircut under it. 

“It is a long tale,” said Thor, sounding a little heartbroken. “Best shared over some roasted boar and mead.” Then he lit up again like the big golden retriever he was. “But alas, I have concluded my trip.”

Friday stood up straighter, Peter - who Tony had almost forgotten was at the Compound today - looking on the verge of passing out as he stared at Thor. “The stone?”

“Better. The delightful Captain Marvel,” he said, and moved.

Tony had not noticed it before, but there were two women standing beside him. One was a dark skinned woman in a white Asgardian-ish get up, a sword on her waist. She was watching them all with narrowed eyes, clearly trying to threat analyse them.

The second, was a very familiar blonde. “Danvers?!”

The blonde looked in his direction, and a smile appeared on her face when she noticed him. “Stark.”

“Carol?!” called out Rhodey, looking as shocked as Tony himself felt. Because just... what?

Her smile became more genuine when she saw him. “Hey, James. How are you?”

“How am I... what?!”

Friday stopped beside Tony as Rhodey proceeded to rush the blonde woman, countless of questions on his lips. Tony had plenty of questions too, starting with 'how did she still look so young' and ending with 'why she was in space'.

His daughter stopped between him and Stephen, looking at them seriously. “It’s her.”

“I have so many questions,” said Tony, and shook his head, forcing an equally serious expression on his face. “She can destroy the two Stones? Are you sure?”

“Wanda Maximoff managed to do so two years after she was unable to stop a bomb from exploding,” she said, with a shrug. “While she was on the run and had a very low chance of practicing. Captain Marvel had years of practice. From what I understand of her powers, she can literally absorb energy?”

Stephen frowned down at her. “Then why...” he shot a quick look at Tony and then huffed. “She should have done it, then.”

Friday stared at him, expression a little harsh. “You said one.”

What the hell were they talking about?

Tony wanted to know, but Stephen just nodded, looking at him guiltily for a second time, before turning back to Friday. “For what’s it worth, I’m sorry.”

The girl stared at him, her eyes the mirror image of his. Tony felt like something important was going on there, so he kept his mouth shut, despite how desperately he wanted to know. 

Finally Friday shook her head. “It's fine. It wasn’t you.”

It wasn’t him what?

"But-"

"It wasn't you," she repeated, looking at him a little harshly. She forced her expression to turn back to normal. "I cannot blame you for a choice you might never make again."

Stephen's expression pinched slightly, but Carol continued speaking before he could.

“We have destroyed the Reality Stone,” said Carol, once her and Rhodey had stopped hugging. “Thor says you have another one for me to turn to dust?”

“Here,” said Loki, because of course Loki would appear at that point, out of nowhere. He was supposed to lay low, at least until it was his turn to appear in Court and get his own charges cleared up, but no. He needed to scare the shit out of people for no reason.

Loki wasn’t looking at them, though, his entire attention on Carol and Thor. “Are you sure that she has destroyed the Reality Stone?” He spared a look to the woman with them, but focused on the two of them quickly.

Thor looked like he wanted to reach out and hug him - or catch up - but nodded. He put a hand in his pocket and pulled out what looked like very fine red dust. 

Jane, who was also out with them, immediately stiffened, as did Friday. “That’s the Aether. I can feel it.”

“Even in dust,” said Friday. “It’s alive.” She looked over at Thor. “You scattered it?”

“This is the last bit we have,” said the blond, nodding severely. “Some of it is in Sakaar - where I met the delightful Valkyrie,” right, Friday had mentioned her, “some is in Knowhere, some is in other places I won’t mention until the Mind Stone is gone.”

“We don’t need to know at all,” said Loki, and walked up to Carol. He made a gesture with his hands, and the yellow stone appeared floating out of the small container Tony had made for it back at the beginning, when Friday had first arrived. “Let’s do this.”

The destruction of an Infinity Stones was the most beautiful and terrifying thing Friday had ever seen.

She hadn’t really seen it, the first time, when Wanda had done it. Just heard of it, and sensed it through her sensors and Vision’s.

Watching it was something else. Even though she was wearing her necklace again, the energy levels of that explosion between Carol and the Stone... she could feel it. Loki and Doctor Strange seemed to note it too, but she felt in her bones.

Which, she supposed, made sense. While she wasn’t like Wanda or Carol, not really, she had that same energy in her bones. The Infinity Stones helped making her.

When the stone exploded, the entire of the Compound shook heavily. Between her, Doctor Strange and Loki, everyone in the Compound was protected, but it was still a sight.

The spot where Carol and the stone had been standing in had turned into a crater, and the shards of the Mind Stone were all around them, little golden whispers on the ground.

Loki quickly gathered them in various different containers, which he handed half of to Stephen and the other among himself, Valkyrie, Boss, Thor and Carol. At Stephen’s confused look, he rolled his eyes. “How many dimensions do you know?”

Which was valid.

Now, they were all seated in the conference room of the Compound, as Thor recounted his travels, and Friday wasn’t quite sure how she felt.

Between Doctor Strange apologising for what another Doctor Strange had done, and two Infinity Stones down... it was mind boggling.

In the future Friday came from, they had not stood a chance. They were standing between Thanos and the stones, and he kept finding them. He knew where they all were, and each stone he acquired, the stronger he became for it. 

They hadn’t had a chance.

And now, two of the stones had been destroyed forever. Thanos would never be able to remake them even if he got the Time Stone, and would, therefore, never be able to snap his fingers and end existence.

Two stones were gone, one was with the Sorcerers of Kamar Taj, one was on a whole and steady Asgard. She knew exactly where the Soul Stone was, and Thor had spoken to the people of Nova Corps and to the Guardians so that they would be ready-er if Thanos came for them.

They would have to fight Thanos again, that was sure. And if he got his hands on the Power stone, he’d become incredibly strong. But that was one stone against, potentially, two. Two stones who were wielded by two pretty badass magic users who knew their stuff.

They truly had a chance.

“Okay!” said Boss, clapping his hands to gather everyone’s attention. “I know many of you have questions, and while we’ll probably have another meeting soon, possibly with the Accords people to fully explain, let’s start small.”

Other than Boss and Friday, the room was pretty full. Doctor Strange and Loki were sitting near them, at one of the desks. Thor was sitting on Loki’s other side, and after him was Valkyrie and then Captain Marvel.

Colonel Rhodey was sitting beside the blonde, catching up on their missing years. Friday had known that Boss and the Colonel had known the woman, but she hadn’t been sure that her loyalty wouldn’t be to Fury first. She had come because he called, after all. She had worked with the Avengers while Fury was dust, but Friday couldn’t be sure that she'd do the same if he wasn't.

Then the Science ‘Nerdgasm’, as Boss liked calling it, despite the vehement protest: Doctor Banner, Doctor Ross, Doctor Foster and Doctor Van Dyne. Peter had been sent home despite how much he wanted to talk to Thor, but Boss had promised him he’d call him back before Thor had to leave.

It had only been a few days, and Peter and Boss were already starting to head towards the line they had been at in the previous life, and Friday was glad for it.

They both deserved it.

James Barnes was also not present, despite being in the Compound. 

It was almost everyone in her list except for Team Cap and the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Friday wasn’t sure if she was more amused or unsurprised by that.

“As you all know, the Invasion of 2012 was not a one time thing.” Nods all around, and what an improvement, really, from the last time Boss tried to explain this to another room full of superheroes. “We have been working on defence and offense for like six months now, so of course we are all on the same page.

“The man behind the Invasion, his name is Thanos.” Silence was heavy in the room. The aliens in the room all looked very solemn as the name of the Titan was uttered. “He’s a plague. He’s a destroyer. He has this very fucked up idea that he is saving the Universe from overpopulation by going from planet to planet and halfing the living population. No, Hope, don’t try to make sense of it.” Said Doctor was blinking, clearly confused by Thanos’ rethoric, which any sane person would be. “He makes no sense.

“But basically, that stone that Carol just destroyed? Well, there’s six of them.”

“They are called Infinity Stones,” said Loki, from where he was sat. “They were created at the beginning of the Universe. Each of them represents a pillar of the Universe. Time and Space, Soul and Mind, Power and Reality. With those, all the Titan would have to do would be snap his fingers, and every wish he has would happen.”

“He could have  literally destroyed the Universe with a snap of his fingers,” added Boss, face grave. 

“We cannot, however, destroy all six of them,” explained Doctor Strange, face equally grave. “To destroy them would be to unravel every aspect of Reality. But destroying two of them? That doesn’t destroy the Universe, but it stops Thanos from getting closer to his goal.”

“How do you know which to destroy?” asked Betty Ross, frowning slightly.

“They go in two’s,” explained Doctor Strange. “The stones... they sustain each other, I guess, is the best way to say it. If we had destroyed Space and Time? Even with all other stones just fine, our Universe would have unravelled. Same for Power and Reality. But Reality and Mind? Even if we destroy those, Power and Soul remain, and they can hold onto the weight, so to speak, the destroyed stones were holding.”

Everyone nodded.

“That’s not going to stop Thanos from coming for us, though,” continued Boss, grimly. “We will have to fight, no matter what. But I think, we have a chance to win. The Vikings will be at our side,” he gave Loki a look, to which both he and Thor nodded solemnly. “We have the Order of the Phoenix,” Doctor Strange huffed, but nodded. “Potential Star Wars recruits,” Carol snorted, but showed him a thumbs up, “And our minds,” the science team smiled.

“The Accords Council will be notified pretty soon, but it was time we were all up to speed. I can make weapons,” he made a complicated face at this, and shrugged. “I can make weapons. But I can’t fight alone. The Avengers? They are dead. But the world still needs Guardians. Protectors. Defenders.”

“Heroes,” said Colonel Rhodey. He looked around at the people in the room. “Us. People who want to defend the world.”

“You’re asking us to join a new team of superheroes to stop a Mad Titan from destroying the planet we live in?” asked Hope, staring at him.

Boss nodded. “I know it’s not-”

“Just clarifying,” said the brunette, waving him off. “Me, the Wasp and Pym Technologies are behind you. You’ll call Sharon in?”

“Possibly,” said Boss, though he looked unsure. Which made sense. Sharon, like Romanoff, was as good as the weapons she was handed. “I have some other recruits in my sights.”

Right, the Defenders.

“Hulk will fight with you,” said Bruce, nodding seriously. “And Doctor Banner will help in the lab as usual.”

“The Science Nerdgasm will go on,” said Doctor Foster, making a face when she said the name.

Carol smiled at him. “Earth is still home. I’ll fight for it.”

“I’ll deal with the military for you and keep their hands off your weapons,” promised Colonel Rhodey, and Boss sent him a kiss for that.

“I may no longer consider myself Aesir,” said Valkyrie, crossing her arms together. “But I’m always ready for a fight. You have my blade, son of Stark.”

This would have never happened in the future past.

She found Doctor Strange looking over at her, and Friday looked back at him.

A man with that same face might have condemned her Boss, a lifetime ago, but he also saved him, and gave him a chance to save those he loved.

Gave her a chance to be with him and fight alongside him.

The last vestige of bitterness she felt for a doctor long gone faded away.

And she smiled at this Doctor Strange, this version of her father.

Sincerely.

Honestly.

Truly.

He seemed surprised, for a moment.

Then, he smiled back.

Chapter Text

“Now!” called out Loki, throwing a beam of pure green energy at Friday.

Stephen watched in amazement as the girl absorbed the energy with a pink barrier, face set in a frown but energy level holding steady. She was looking a little sweaty, but other than that she was fine.

This was the second time Stephen attended one of her magic lessons with Loki and he had to admit, he was impressed. Tony had come with him the first time, but he had to leave because Loki said he could “Feel your anxious energy, Stark, she’s not going to get hurt! Get out!”.

Friday was incredibly talented, of that both Stephen and Loki could agree.

When he had seen her outside, fighting against Rogers and his team of law breakers, she had been a force to be reckoned with. The powers she had used, the way she had broken Wanda’s wrists without so much as a flinch... he had felt that energy in his teeth, in his bones.

Here, she was much more focused, and her magic was a little like standing in front of the sea.

Loki spent a few minutes before every session making her meditate and only after he considered her ‘settled’ enough, did he let her take off her necklace and practice the magical theory she had read about since their last meeting.

Stephen knew he wasn’t Friday’s father, at least not like Tony was, but he couldn’t help the surge of pride he felt whenever Friday went above the limits Loki set for her, whenever she did something he had not expected her to know about.

“Stephen!” called out Loki, after a few more minutes of Friday dodging his attacks and not retaliating. “Assist me.”

“Me?” he asked, even as he approached him. “You want me to attack her too?”

Loki nodded, while Friday glared at both of them from where she was standing. “That’s not fair! I didn't agree to this new deal!”

“You have gotten used to me,” said the mage, with a shrug. He was so serious now, when it came to magic and fighting. Completely different from normal Loki. “I switch it up and I’m chaotic, but you are familiar with my seidr enough to know it will never hurt you. You are not familiar with his brand of magic, so you will have to hold onto your control tighter.”

Stephen frowned. “I don’t want to hurt her.”

“We all know that,” agreed Loki, waving him off. “But her magic won’t recognise yours, not really. I know your magic helped making her, but she has never had it used on her since. It won’t recognise you, not truly.”

“And here I thought you wanted me to take it easy when it came to fighting,” muttered Stephen, getting into position.

Of course, Loki’s super alien hearing heard him just fine. “Every single person in your family is too stubborn for their own good, I’ve learnt this the hard way,” he said, rolling his eyes at the offended look on both Friday and Stephen’s face. “This way I can keep an eye on you.”

“I feel like I should protest this,” said Stephen, looking at him with deep suspicion.

However, he could not deny that part of him was... almost glad, for Loki’s friendship. 

When he was a neurosurgeon, he hadn’t had friends. He had had people he used for his own gain, and people he liked to be seen with to boost his popularity and inflated ego. Christine had been his friend, but between their attempt at dating and everything that followed, it had been... complicated.

Then Kamar Taj, and Mordo and Wong. But Mordo had left, so only Wong remained.

That made a total of two friends, and even he knew that was a little depressing.

So to have a new friend in Loki... it was odd, but Stephen couldn’t say he hated it. Loki was both nagging and dismissive, attentive and chaotic, and just an overral diva. Which, to be honest, was similar to Tony himself.

He wasn’t sure where exactly he stood with Tony, right now. Being in the man’s company and knowing he had been the reason he had died - he really did not understand why his future self had decided that Tony was the one who needed to snap - made things complicated.

Especially the more he hung out around him and realised that Tony knew nothing of that particular part of their shared history. Friday had told him the entire story, but she had not told anyone else. So while Tony was smart enough to have figured out he must have died at some point, he did not know that Stephen was the reason why that had happened.

Stephen wasn’t sure he was glad or not about that.

At the same time, he couldn't deny that he found himself enjoying the man's company, the few times they interacted. He was a bit of a jerk, a bit of an ass, but it was clear he cared about the people he considered 'his'. And he seemed willing to want to get to know Stephen, mostly.

But he was also a very busy man, and Stephen and him did not really have the same schedules, which made it harder to stop and talk to him about anything.

“Okay, start,” said Loki and Stephen focused back on the training exercise planned.

+++

“You’re a good teacher,” said Stephen, a while later, drinking from a fresh bottle of water.

He had changed back into his regular robes, but he was still a little winded from the training exercise. Which was yet another difference from his time with Dormammu, and Stephen welcomed it.

Loki looked surprised at his side, but quickly masked it with obnoxiousness. “Of course I am. I am Frigga’s son and the greatest mage in all of the Nine Realms.”

“Mhm,” agreed Stephen, pretending to not have seen that fraction of a second of vulnerability. “Are you going to teach Friday teleportation as well?”

Loki rolled his eyes. “Now she has sent you to demand it?”

Stephen shrugged, refusing to look guilty. But Friday had come to him directly after they were done with the lessons for the day and asked him to “Please, can you see if Loki is going to teach me how to teleport any time soon? It’s so cool how he can teleport and you can use your rings, I’d love to be able to do that too.”

And well... Stephen might have some confusion about the whole ‘Friday Stark is also your daughter’ but he was as weak to her attempt at puppy eyes as he had been to his sister's.

“When she is ready, I will teach her,” said Loki, in a voice that suggested he had repeated that same sentence several times before. He turned to Stephen quickly, and narrowed his eyes at him. “You cannot give her your rings, either.”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” lied Stephen, which, by the look the trickster gave him, he had not missed. 

“Mr Loki,” came JARVIS’ voice, which made Stephen jump slightly. He had no problem with the AI, was quite fascinated by him, to be honest, but he always forgot that he was always there, in the walls and ceilings. Watching. Observing. Knowing. “Miss Potts wished to know when Princess Hela shall be returning. The footage Sir offered as proof, as well as Prince Thor’s explanations, have gone a long way in explaining your position, but her testimony is also required.”

“For the Accords Council meeting?” 

“Indeed.”

Loki huffed. “I shall let her know and she should be back by tomorrow at the latest. Thank you, JARVIS.” The AI went silent, and Loki huffed once more, crossing his arms around his chest.

“Are you not happy that you might be acquitted and no longer be considered an enemy of Earth?” questioned Stephen, looking over at him.

The mage waved him off. “That does please me, but it’s not what I have reservations about.” He continued without needed verbal input from Stephen. “Unfortunately, it did not occur to me what sending Thor and Valkyrie to Asgard would achieve.”

“What did it achieve?”

“It meant that Hela met with Thor and Valkyrie at the same time which, of course, is a huge mess.” At Stephen’s confused look, he elaborated. “Hela was the first born. She used to be the one who fought with Mjolnir. Now it’s Thor who is considered so, and the one with Mjolnir. Only that Hela can still hold it just fine, and it’s just a lot of siblings rivalry and tension. Among the subjects, some have started to whisper about who between the two of them should truly be King or Queen of Asgard, and while we are nowhere near a civil war, it is not ideal.

“And Valkyrie was, according to both women, among the fighters who was sent to kill Hela once and for all. Hela exterminated all of the Valkyries.”

Yes, Stephen could see why a meeting between these three might be slightly awkward.

“Sucks to be you,” said Stephen, patting his shoulder a little mockingly. 

Loki glared at him, but did not shrug him off. “At the very least, now that Thor is back, it’s almost time for me to give up my charade. Soon enough ‘Odin’ will give Thor the throne, and I will be free once more.”

Stephen still could not believe that Loki had enchanted his own father and put the King of the Nine Realms in a nursing home.

“You’re free? Just what I needed,” said Colonel Rhodes, striding inside the room. “Don’t go home.”

“Why?”

“Of course.”

Rhodes snorted at their conflicting replies and then shook his head once more. “We decided to throw Tony a surprise birthday party, since he has been working so hard these past few days. Technically it was yesterday, but we're celebrating today. I’m sure he’d be happy to see you both there. And before you start overthinking it all, I’m Tony’s best friend and I’m inviting you. So yes, you are welcome to attend.”

Stephen wasn't sure. Tony had other friends, and the two of them had only-

"Perfect, we'll be there," answered Loki for the both of them.

"Wait, I-"

"Cool," interrupted Colonel Rhodes. "I'll see you there!"

"But-"

"I need to go get ready for the party," informed him Loki, standing up too. "I'll see you later, Stephen."

And then he disappeared too, leaving Stephen alone in front of the gym. He stared at the empty air around him.

"JARVIS, what the hell just happened?"

"I think you just agreed to attend Sir's birthday party," said the AI, and Stephen could have sworn he was laughing at him.

Remember when he had said that Loki was better than Wong? 

He took it back.

Then, he sighed. "I guess I have a birthday party to get ready for."

"7.00 pm, no birthday gift needed."

Good. He was broke anyway.

“Happy birthday, Tony!” shouted the entire room, the second Tony took a step inside.

He blinked a couple of times as the lights came on and revealed the room he had thought empty, filled with familiar faces and colours and shapes. Then, he couldn’t help the smile from forming on his face, as he started to recognise the decoration. “What is this?”

“Surprise birthday party,” informed him Friday, as she and DUM-E approached him. “You have been working non stop all of this month, between the Accords and the Rogues and Asgard and everything else. You deserve a party, B- Dad.”

“Aw,” he said, accepting the very ugly sash she put on him. “Did you make this?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not that good at Arts and Crafts. U made it.”

DUM-E chirped in explanation, and Tony bent down his head so that the bot could put the party hat on his head. “Oh, U is too anxious to come out because there are too many people? I wanted to thank him for the sash.”

DUM-E whirred again, and Tony nodded, securing the even uglier hat on his head. “Sure, I’ll go down to see him and BUTTERFINGERS later. We’ll have our own bot party.”

“Does he actually understand what its saying?” loudly asked Peter Parker, flushing when everyone turned to look at him and chuckled.

“Yes, kinda,” said Tony, wanting to spare the poor boy the embarrassment. “I made them and their code. Would be a waste to make something and then not bothering to understand what they’re saying.”

Peter’s eyes were wide. “That’s so cool, Mr Stark.”

Aw, he still called him Mr Stark and gave him compliments. Tony could absolutely not wait for Harley and him to meet.

“Come on,” called out Darcy, coming to grab him from one hand. “Happy picked your cake, come blow out your candles.”

“I am too old to be blowing out candles,” he huffed, but did not actively try to stop Darcy and Friday from dragging him to the cake.

He couldn’t help but laugh out loud when he came face to face with the cake, however. “Oh my god, where did you find an Iron Man cake?!”

Happy looked pleased from where he stood. “I have my ways.”

“This is so cool, JARVIS, take pictures,” he ordered looking at the two candles on top of the cake. He raised an eyebrow. “I’m turning two?”

“Each candle represents twenty one,” explained Darcy, huffing. “Now blow them.”

“That’s what she-”

“Nope,” immediately interrupted Pepper, glaring at him, though she looked too fond and amused for it to truly work. Darcy was giggling, Loki was smirking, Peter was beet red, and everyone else look in various states of exasperation and amusement all around him. “It’s your birthday party, but I’m still drawing the line.”

“Fine, ruin my fun,” he said. “Also, if any of you starts singing I will sue.”

There were sounds of complaint all around them, but Tony ignored in favour of blowing out the candles.

Everyone cheered once he did so, and then JARVIS started the music.

+++

Tony did not remember the last time he had a birthday party and genuinely had fun at it. Was it the one before he was kidnapped in Afghanistan? Maybe, but he did not really remember that party, so who knew.

He definitely had not had fun at the party where Rhodey had flown away with his suit, too preoccupied with thoughts of his imminent death for that. And well, after that, he had not really felt the need to celebrate himself growing older. Pepper had tried to convince him to throw one for his fortieth, but Tony had chosen not to, in the end.

But he was definitely having fun with this one.

“It was your idea, wasn’t it?” he asked, when Friday stopped beside him and handed him a glass of champagne. “The party?”

She shrugged, but she looked a little embarrassed. “Maybe? I mean, yes. It’s just that between the Accords, me being a technomage, Peter Parker, the Maximoffs, Barnes, Hela, Director Carter, SHIELD and Romanogers, this month was hard on you, Boss. I was trying to make it less tiring.”

“You did,” said Tony, putting a hand around her shoulder and smiling at her. She was wearing heels which, unfortunately, made her taller than him. “Thank you.” She smiled back, pleased, and he continued. “Though I did notice you did not mention Doctor Strange in the chaos of this month.”

She shrugged. “I thought you guys were getting along.”

“We are, surprisingly enough. Or maybe not so surprisingly, I don’t know.” He looked over at where Stephen was standing with Loki and Bruce. 

“I’m glad for it,” said Friday, and Tony turned to look at her once more.

Friday’s relationship with Stephen had been something Tony had been confused and curious about since the beginning. But she did not offer much explanation for it back then, and it was clear that it was now improving. He hadn't seen them spending time one on one, but she actually smiled around him too, and she knew he was softening to her as well.

It was impossible not to soften to Fri.

“Hey,” said Pepper, stopping in front of them. She was wearing a green dress that looked perfect for her, and her face was radiant in a smile. For not the first time, Tony was glad that the break up had not ended with the two of them no longer being friends. “Mind if I borrow your dad, Fri?”

“Of course not,” said the girl, waving them. “I’ll go find Darcy.”

Tony looked at her walk away for a second before turning to the blonde. “My esteemed CEO?”

She rolled her eyes at him, flicking him over the head. “Come on, let’s dance.”

“Dance? This is not a dance party, Miss Potts,” he complained, even as he followed towards the centre of the room. The music in the background was some old record that Tony did not recall - which meant it was most likely Rhodey’s - but the moment they started, it was not at all hard to find his rhythm with Pepper.

They had done it so many times, after all.

“I’m happy for you,” she said, after a couple of minutes of the two of them swaying to the song. At his sound of confusion, she explained. “Finding Friday’s other dad.”

Tony did not actively startle at that, but he did raise an eyebrow. “How did you figure that out?”

“Many have pointed it out before,” she said, twirling when Tony made her. “She looks like your spitting image, but the eyes give her away. She has the same eyes as him. And considering he started spending a bunch of time with you and her, people are speculating.”

“And you?” he asked, focusing on her.

She rolled her eyes. “We broke up six months ago, Tony. I’m mostly confused as to how this happened, but otherwise, I don’t care.”

Tony smiled, and it was in equal parts loving and bittersweet. “I love you, Virginia Potts.”

He would always, no matter what. Just as he would always love Rhodey and would always love Happy.

The song ended and she smiled back, pressing a kiss on his cheek. “And I love you, Anthony Stark. I’ll let you know what the most popular theory in the Compound is tomorrow morning, and you’ll decide what to do.”

“Paperwork? Never mind, our love affair is over!” he said, and she ignored him, walking towards Jane Foster, probably to bully her into dancing with her.

“Love affair?” came a velvet voice from behind him.

“Gah!” said Tony, turning around and immediately glaring at Loki. “Do you take pleasure in scaring people? Is it some sort of twisted fetish?”

“Yes,” said Loki, grinning at the glare Tony sent him before putting a hand on his shoulder. “Now dance with me.”

“Uh,” he said, even as he complied. “Sure. Do I- Of course you want to lead.”

“It’s the only way I learnt your Midgardian dances,” he explained, not the slightest bit apologetic. “People struggle with leading men who tower over them.”

“This is the wrong music for waltz,” complained Tony, even as he automatically followed the steps. He usually led in dances, but Maria Stark was nothing if not thorough and had him learn how to lead and how to follow. “Not that I don’t love us bonding over dance, but I have to ask. Why are we dancing?”

“Friday was talking to Stephen, and I felt it was better to let them have some modicum of privacy,” explained Loki, and sure enough, Tony could see the two of them speaking in the corner Stephen had been standing all night. “He is very lonely.”

Tony wanted to make a joke about that, but did not once he saw the look on Loki’s face. It was serious in a way Tony rarely saw in the mage, if they weren’t talking about Thanos, and some times not even then.

“Yeah?” he said, instead.

“You and Friday had been a family for sixth months, now. Her name is Friday Stark. And, from what I understand, Friday told him a greater deal of what happened in the future than she ever told anyone else.”

That explained the conversation they had had when Thor and Carol had shown up.

“He doesn’t call her his daughter.”

“He doesn’t see her as his, yet. He cares for her, and for you too, but he is unsure of his place. He is unsure on whether he is welcome among you.” Loki kept his eyes on him. “You need to make him realise that he is.”

Tony nodded, and then looked at Loki more thoughtfully, as he was dropped into a small curtsy and then pulled back up. “You care a lot for him.”

“Indeed,” agreed Loki, twirling him slightly. Friday and Stephen were watching them now, possibly wondering why the hell were they waltzing to such a tune. “But not for whatever reason you think. I owe him... we all owe him a lot. Or a future version of him, I guess. He saved the Universe from the snap, but to me, he saved Asgard, gave me hope for defeating Thanos, defeated Dormammu. And... he gave me back Thor. Made me find out about Hela." He shrugged. "My mother is dead and my adoptive father is a bitch, but he gave me back some sort of family.”

“Both on Asgard and on Earth?” asked Tony, and smiled when Loki looked vaguely surprised.

Then the mage huffed as the song came to a close. “I consider you more of a pet than anything else.”

“People would often die for their pets, so I consider this the highest form honour!” he called out after him, grinning when he saw Loki shake his head in what he decided must be fondness.

Then he proceeded towards where Friday and Stephen were standing, both of them looking a little confused, grabbing a glass as he approached them.

“Why were you waltzing to Sweet Georgia Brown?” asked Stephen, frowning at him.

“It’s the only dance that Loki knows,” he explained, before looking at Stephen’s cake plate. “Oh, cake.”

Stephen immediately pulled it closer to himself. “Hell no. This is my slice.”

“But it’s my birthday, Stephanie,” he complained, pouting exaggeratedly. “I deserve to be handed cake just because I ask.”

Stephen looked over at Friday. “Is he making any sense to you?”

She was doing a very poor job at hiding her amusement. “Not really. Sorry, Boss. Going to have to agree with Doctor Strange on this.”

Stephen gave him a smug little look before taking another bite of the cake.

“First you knock me up without my permission,” said Tony, looking gleeful when Stephen choked on the cake he was eating. “Then you deny me cake. Suffer, you asshole. Suffer.”

Friday was dying beside him as well, face between her hands and shoulders shaking in silent laughter.

When Stephen resurfaced, his face was red and he had cream on the corner of his lips. Tony willed his eyes away.

“You are such a dick, Stark,” managed Stephen, not even asking before snatching Tony’s drink from his hands and downing it in one go.

“Takes one to know one,” he replied, angelically. Then he hummed. “Though you are more of an asshole than anything. Hey, if I’m a dick and you’re an asshole, does that mean-”

He did not even managed to finish his sentence before Stephen was smashing the remains of his cake in his face.

Friday started laughing even harder than before, and he was pretty sure he heard Darcy, JARVIS and several others taking pictures all around him.

But Stephen and Friday were both laughing at his caked outrage, and Tony found he did not care all that much about having a face full of cake if his... well, family, was happy.

Chapter Text

“Doctor Strange!” called out Friday.

He had just stepped out of the portal and his face relaxed a fraction when he spotted standing near the door, before he approached her with a smile. “Hey, Friday,” he greeted, stopping a few feet away from her. “Has everyone else arrived?”

“We're waiting for a couple more people. Just this way,” she said, tilting her head in direction of the waiting room and walking towards it, him at her heels.

Ever since their talk at Boss’ birthday party, Friday could say that the relationship between the two of them had improved. Oh, it was far from being anything like the relationship she and Boss had, or even from him being as comfortable with her as his future self had seemed, but their relationship had undoubtedly changed.

+++

“Why are you standing here?” asked Friday, stopping beside him and Loki. The party was in full swing and both of them were watching the dancefloor where Boss and Boss Lady were dancing with one another. 

“I don’t dance, and it’s not as if I know many people, here,” explained Stephen, shrugging slightly. "Doctor Banner was here a moment ago, but I think Doctor Ross demanded his attention on something."

"Not surprised," she said, shaking her head. "They are still really soft on each other, even though they pretend otherwise. It's kind of-" 

“I shall be back in a moment,” suddenly said Loki. He straightened up and gave them no chance to reply before he was walking away.

Stephen watched him leave, head tilted to the side. “He’s very hot and cold, isn’t he?”

“Only to the people he likes,” she offered, and it was still a little amusing to think that Stephen Strange was among the set of people he did like. “To everyone else he is just cold.”

“Understandable,” he said, and then eyed her slightly. “So, what can I help you with?”

She suddenly felt a little awkward, and shrugged. “Nothing, really. I just thought...” She smiled, shaking her head. “Never mind. Sorry for bothering you,” she then said, getting ready to leave.

“Friday, wait,” he said before she could even take one step away. He did not touch her, and when she turned to face him once more, his face was pinched. “I... Please take a seat?”

“Sure,” she said, sitting down on the barstool beside him, a little nervously. Boss and Loki were now dancing with one another, she observed from the corner of her eye.

“I’m sorry,” he said, after a few seconds of playing with his cake. “It’s not you, you didn’t do anything wrong. In fact you have been nothing if not much nicer than I perhaps deserve, considering everything my future self has done.”

“Your future self is also the one who sent me back, so don’t talk smack about my other father,” she joked, pleased when he cracked a slight smile at that.

He turned serious once more. “Look, I’ll be honest. I am not really used to letting new people in like this. The few people I let in was just because they managed to take me by surprise with their friendship. I don’t have the best personality, I’ll admit to that, so people genuinely wanting to spend time with me without seeming to seek something out of it... it’s a new concept for me.”

“I understand,” she said, keeping her face open. “Boss is the same.”

Stephen raised an eyebrow, a little incredulous. “The man who this entire room stepped up and organised an entire birthday party for?”

“Sounds impossible, doesn’t it?” she said, shaking her head again, amused. “Let’s just say, that the last time around it definitely wasn’t like this. Last time he spent this particular birthday in the hospital, and only Colonel Rhodey was with him.” Because Colonel Rhodey had also been in the hospital. “This?” she added, making a general movement with her hand to encompass the entire room. “Was because he understood that the Avengers were not his friends or in any way beneficial to his mental health. Was because he started asking others for help, and they, not being turncoats and betrayers, showed him what a healthy work relationship among colleagues in superhero business looked like.”

“You don’t like the original version of the Avengers very much, do you?”

“I have my reasons,” she said, and he nodded, humming slightly.

“So what you’re saying is, at least try?” he then clarified, and she shook her head.

“What I’m saying is don’t reject the people around you before you even try to do the whole friendship thing. At the very least, go with the flow for a while.” She looked over at Boss, and frowned slightly as he and Loki continued to waltz to a definitely not waltz-y song. “I don’t know what changed your opinion on Boss, in the future past. I don’t know if it was just the 14 million futures you looked into or what, and I know that the exact same set of events won't happen again, so your relationship with him will most likely be different. But in the end you gave Boss a chance, and I believe you came to like him.”

She looked over at him, but Doctor Strange was also observing Loki and Boss, though she knew from his expression that he had heard her and was thinking.

“Came to care for him and you so much that I sent you to the past to save him with my watch,” he eventually said, finger tapping his own knee.

Friday turned to look at Boss too, as he said something at Loki’s retreating back and turned to face them. 

She did not explaining how much he cared for Boss, and Doctor Strange did not ask.

+++

They had met a couple of times since then, and while Doctor Strange was still surprisingly awkward for such an usually suave sorcerer, she could say that their relationship was improving.

He even snuck out books from Kamar Taj for her to read and while she had yet to manage to convince him into giving her a sling ring and teaching her how to use it, she was sure she was slowly breaking his resolve. Soon enough, Loki or not, she’d be able to teleport/portal from one place to another, and Friday couldn’t wait.

When the doors opened, almost everyone was already present. The room was packed, and Friday subtly pulled Doctor Strange along with her, towards one of the seats, aware of a lot of curious eyes on her.

While no one had come up with ‘time travel bullshit’ yet, a lot of people had picked up to her closeness to Doctor Strange and the fact that, while she did look very much like Boss, she also looked like him. No one had come out and said what they thought of this oddity yet, but many were watching, curious.

Neither Loki or Boss was present yet, so the two of them found a seat beside Doctor Banner and Sergeant Barnes. Doctor Banner offered them a quick smile, before continuing the conversation he was stuck in with Barnes.

Barnes was not even supposed to be here - no one had had the force of mind to ask him to get involved in yet another war - but he had heard them speaking about the upcoming fight and had refused to let himself be sidelined. Because, “While I did not sign up to fight in World War II and I was actually drafted, between that and HYDRA I’m a good fighter. I want to be more than a weapon, I want to have a choice. And since I am still a supersoldier, I choose to join you people in this fight. I live on Earth too: it is in my interest that this Thanos guy does not win. ”

“This is a lot of people,” whispered Stephen, sounding impressed, and Friday could not help a smug smile.

Of course not all of them were just because of her, but she liked to think she had helped, even if only a little bit.

Major Danvers and Colonel Rhodey were sitting at the front of the room, both of whom had basically been appointed by Boss as the leaders of whatever group they’d manage to form by the end of the meeting.

Then it was her and Doctor Strange, who had been asked by his Order that, since he was already seeming to be developing a clear and good relationship with Prince Loki of Asgard and Tony Stark, that he join. The sorcerers had yet to sign the Accords, but Wong, Strange and Boss were all working on making a version that was more comfortable for them. Doctor Strange would be the first to sign when that version was ready, and would then become a magical liaison between the Order of Kamar Taj and Boss’ group.

Doctor Banner and Sergeant Barnes came after them, and then the Defenders: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage. Friday had not really known much about this group pre the snap, as Boss had seen that they knew what they were doing and generally left them alone. They had been aware that Boss was smoothing things out for them when it came to the police, and they in turn had kept an eye on Spider Man when he was just working around Queens. A mutually beneficial alliance formed without need for words.

This time around they were more involved, and had actually been among the first signees of the Accords - considering Daredevil had helped write them.

Hope Van Dyne and Scott Lang followed after, yet another pleasing inclusion in their ranks. Friday did not have much of an opinion on Scott Lang, from the future past, but apparently removing Steve Rogers from the equation actually made him appear like less of an idiot and actually a little helpful. He had developed a hero worship thing for Boss when, instead of sending him directly in jail for breaking and entering, he had made a deal with Hope instead, and the shine had yet to disappear from his eyes. And Hope was nice enough.

After that came Prince T’Challa and General Okoye, sat a little apart from everyone else, but looking around in intrigue. With no Bucharest chase and Ulysses Klause firmly in prison - or dead, she wasn’t sure what Wakanda had done with the man - Wakanda was coming out of the shadows slower, and without people calling them hypocrites at every turn. Oh, Friday doubted that they wouldn’t get some trouble their way once people looked closer and realised the actual amass of power and money they had in their possession, but for now things were coming along more smoothly for them.

Two women, by the names of Maria and Monica Rambeau were also present, people who Major Danvers had gotten in contact with. The woman had left a while after the first explanation after her arrival, to get in contact with Fury. Whatever conversation was had between the two of them, she had come back irritated and disappointed, and with her flag planted decidedly in Boss’ camp, before bringing in a group by the name of SWORD. Boss and Friday had both been wary - she did not remember them from the future past, and SWORD seemed like an idea someone who created SHIELD would come with - but so far both women had been polite and professional. Colonel Rhodey knowing Captain Rambeau senior also helped.

Friday had almost everyone she had hoped for in the beginning (except for Team Captain America and the Guardians of the Galaxy) and more, and she couldn’t deny how relieved this made her.

Boss and Loki strode into the room at that point, two other Accords officials behind them. They had been dealing with the whole ‘Loki is not actually an enemy of Earth’ thing and from the satisfied looks on both their faces, it had worked.

They both settled in the chairs beside herself and Doctor Strange, Boss shooting a wink at him as they did so, which Doctor Strange pointedly ignored in favour of greeting Loki. Boss glared at him petulantly, which Friday worked valiantly not to laugh at.

Then Colonel Rhodey cleared his throat, and they meeting started.

Steve glared at the meal he had been handed, biting his tongue until he tasted blood.

He seriously could not believe that this sham of a ‘trial’ business was still going on. He pulled at his restraints, though he did so more half heartedly now. He had tried in earnest at the beginning, but all it had truly achieved was bleeding his wrists raw and getting himself tranquillized by trigger happy guards, who only seemed to find joy in getting him down.

Cowards and bastards.

He was used to eating bland food that tasted like nothing - he had been raised during the Depression - but the amount they gave him was just insufficient. While when he was younger, sleeping with an half empty stomach was not uncommon and did not hurt him at all, now, with the supersoldier serum it was far more uncomfortable. They did bother giving him a little more than they did everyone else, but it was still not enough. But no one listened to him, saying that they had calculations or something or the other. But what did calculations matter when he was still hungry?

“Hey, are those the Avengers?” he heard a voice ask, and he immediately looked up towards the television he could only barely see from his cell. Everyone in the detention centre had one in their rooms, but Steve had lost the ‘privilege’ after breaking his. No matter how many times he apologised, they refused to give him a new one, so now he was stuck awkwardly catching up on news of his friends by sticking his face against the bars and squinting.

But unfortunately it wasn’t Natasha or Bucky on the television, and he couldn’t help a slight sound of anger when he saw Stark on stage, along with many others, some that he recognised and some that he did not.

He had not seen or heard of Natasha since he had been brought in, and it was starting to worry him. He had heard news of the twins, who had been stripped of their powers by an Asgardian sorceress called Sylvie. He did not care much about them anymore, not since hearing about what the witch had done to Bucky.

Natasha he worried about, but hopefully she would be fine and, if she broke free, would be able to help him out too.

“We are not the Avengers," said Tony, and Steve’s attention was brought back on the news report. “The Avengers were a SHIELD dream that imploded and that I can honestly say, I never felt quite comfortable with. What exactly were we avenging?”

Everyone in the crowd and in the detention centre laughed, and Steve glared. It wasn’t funny. They were avenging, uh... uh... something! He couldn’t recall what right now but it was important, and Tony had no right to mock it like that!

“So no, we are not the Avengers. We are not avenging the Earth, because we are not about to let the Earth down to begin with. We seek to defend it, to protect it, to preserve it and let it prosper. Because,” and he took off his sunglasses, and smiled, charm oozing from every part of his face. “That’s what heroes do. And that’s what we are: HEROES.”

Definitely not as good as Avengers, thought Steve, pushing down the bitterness at seeing Tony’s attempt at replacing them.

“Thanos will come, but we are going to be prepared,” he promised them and Steve’s ears perked up. Thanos? Who was Thanos? A new threat? “We won’t let him win. Not now not ever. And now to our leader, Colonel James Rhodes.”

Steve glared at the man too, but he could at least admit that better him than Tony. At the very least, the Colonel was a military man, and much more reasonable than Stark. At least until the situation had to do with Tony, then he lost all of his objectivity.

He pushed away from the bars, unwilling to listen to whatever the man was saying about the Accords and this new team.

He had heard all he needed to. Whoever this Thanos was, he was a threat, possibly even the threat Tony had been blathering about since New York. Natasha had thought he was being attention seeking back then, but apparently this was yet another thing she had been wrong about (like trusting the twins).

It did not matter, in the end. A threat was coming, which meant only one thing: Captain America would be needed again.

His days in this detention centre as he awaited ‘trial’ were going to be over very soon.

+++

Wanda glared at the television in front of her, wishing with all of her might that she still had her powers and could make it explode with the strength of her mind alone. But she couldn't, because her powers were gone and her wrists were still damaged.

She had thought that that other witch, Sylvie, had been bluffing when she had said that her powers were gone. That she had been lying. 

But Pietro had healed quicker than he was supposed to, and yet he had not been able to use his superspeed to get them out of there. And Wanda knew by now that the emptiness she could feel where her powers used to reside meant that she had done the same to her.

It was not fair! The Scepter had given her and her brother those powers so that they could rid the world from Stark, but nothing had gone according to plan. Because of Stark and his brat of a daughter.

Wanda had hated that Friday Stark the moment she had laid eyes on her in the apartment they had been occupying in Sokovia. How dare Stark have a daughter who got to be happy with him when her parents were killed by his disgusting bombs? It wasn't fair!

She had planned on 'accidentally' destroying her mind forever before they killed Stark, just to make them both feel some pain, but the girl had powers as well. How typical of Stark, he had probably experimented on her to make her a weapon and hurt more innocents.

But no one had listened to her when she had told them Friday Stark had used magic on her, everyone had just laughed or said she was lying to get a weaker sentence. Only Pietro had believed her, but even Pietro was mad at her because she had wasted their chance of killing Stark.

How was it her fault that the man had not fallen into madness? She had not used her magic to stop him, and he had in fact agreed to make him suffer before they killed him.

And yet the second they were arrested, he kept shouting at her that it was all her fault and that she had ruined everything.

No matter how mad she had been at him, though, she missed him. Their trials had ended very quickly because not even their lawyer had wanted to defend them, and they had been sent to different prisons. It had been over a week since she had last seen Pietro, and unless she found a way to escape, she run the risk of never seeing him again.

Because of her 'crimes against humanity'. Wanda had scoffed when she had heard that. How else did they expect her to learn how to use her powers? But when she had cried and told them she did not know it was HYDRA, they had said that the bitch Friday Stark and someone from SHIELD had given a list of her powers, which included mind reading.

"How are you able to read their minds and yet was not aware that they were HYDRA?"

Wanda had not had a clever answer to that, and now she was stuck in prison with an ugly jumpsuit and she might never get out again because her powers were gone.

Meanwhile Stark and his daughter were in the news acting like they were heroes when Wanda knew much better.

It wasn't fair!

+++

This was all Wanda's fault.

If she had listened to him, then Stark would be dead, and Pietro would not be stuck in prison, forced to watch the man on the news with his new team of superheroes.

They should have gone solo from the beginning. Or better, thought a dark part of his mind, he shouldn't have followed after Wanda like that. She was his sister, it was true, but sometimes she was a bit too much. And now because of her, he would never get to avenge his parents.

When Wanda had said that they joined forces with the widow and Captain America, he had been mad. 

Tony Stark's bomb might have killed their parents, but it wasn't just Tony Stark's fault. It was America's fault. And if Tony Stark was the face of America's weapons, Captain America was the face of their military who dropped the bombs and invaded their country, causing the civil war to be worse.

Pietro wanted him gone almost as much as he wanted Stark gone.

He had seen Lagos, and all of the dead families. It was just like what had happened to them when they were kids, and just like Stark never cared about what destruction he brought, the Captain did not care for his actions either.

But Wanda had convinced him to use him and the widow for now, and he had agreed even though he had hated it.

He could also admit, in the darkness of his cell, that Wanda had frightened him a little in that fight, and that he was glad her powers were gone.

He had seen the way she practiced her powers, and he had never liked it that much. Too painful and violent, too slow. He preferred quick deaths. He did not like the enjoyment Wanda seemed to get from inflicting all of this pain.

But she always said that she only did what was necessary, never too much.

And yet, during that fight with Stark, she had sent that magic and it had hit him too. It had hit him and it had hurt, and Wanda had not cared at all, so long as she got to Stark. Had not cared about how many people she could have injured, including her twin, just so that she managed to hurt him.

In that moment, he had been afraid of his own sister.

He had his morals, things he would never compromise on, not even for revenge.

He did not think Wanda had those anymore.

So he was glad at least that her evil powers were gone.

It still sucked, though.

+++

Natasha kept a hand on her stomach as she watched the television, eyes narrowed as she studied the familiar and unfamiliar faces on stage.

She had miscalculated yet again, and she couldn’t be mad at anyone but herself for it, this time. But, to be fair, her options had been drastically limited to begin with. Either go underground, not knowing how many agents who had been burned in the data dump were waiting for her and knew her identity; or stay with Rogers, and try to mitigate the mess he was making.

She had chosen Rogers and got thrown in prison for her efforts.

Her usual manipulations had not worked and, unlike what she had expected, Stark had not come to gloat when she had been imprisoned. In fact, she had only seen him for a few seconds when they had come out of the SHIELD issued jet before that red... carpet thing had knocked her out. 

Natasha would have loved to forget the indignity of the fact that a sentient piece of fabric had bested her, but the other Stark (or JARVIS, perhaps) was very petty and that footage had made the rounds on the internet already.

Nothing was going accord to plans and, as she watched the footage on the small screen, it started to sink in that it might never go according to plans ever again.

Wanda and Pietro Maximoff had lost their powers and been extradited to Sokovia. Natasha was mad at having been out-manipulated by the little witch, but she couldn’t deny the fear she felt, knowing that their powers had been so easily taken away from Stark’s camp.

And if she knew Stark at all (did she?), Steve would be next.

She watched the line up on the stage again, and her stomach dropped further.

Hope Van Dyne and Scott Lang, Ant-Man and the Wasp. Both of them had supersuits that made them go small and big. She was a CEO, but Natasha only had to look at her once to know she was trained.

Prince T’Challa of Wakanda, who had a suit made of pure Vibranium and was clearly militarily - or something similar - trained.

The Defenders, a foursome SHIELD had been keeping an eye for a while but had been unable to corner: all of them enhanced, somehow.

Bruce - and her heart still hurt at the rejection from the man - who was genetically enhanced as the Hulk.

Carol Danvers, also militarily trained and enhanced. Natasha had not met her in person, and had only seen her on television, but every single cell in her screamed that the woman was dangerous. James Rhodes, who had a specialised battle suit, the support of the military and more charisma than Steve had ever had.

Stark senior and junior, both of whom had Iron Man suits that seemed to come out of them at will and were insanely powerful. 

The wizard she only now recognised as famous neuro surgeon Stephen Strange - who had been on HYDRA’s watchlist - who had magic and who’s powers Natasha couldn’t hope to understand.

And Loki who, had also gone through some trials but had, somehow managed to come out of the entire situation with a full pardon.

All of them were magic, enhanced or had otherwise powerful armours that they worked with on a daily basis.

And she was a spy who’s face was plastered all over the news worldwide and who SHIELD had dropped (and who’s calls Fury refused to answer).

Clint had answered her calls once to tell her that 'she had burned too many bridges' and that 'he had told her to stay out of Stark’s business'. He had yet to come to any of her trials, and Natasha pretended that that did not hurt.

Steve was in prison, Barnes had no interest in helping them, the twins were useless, Wilson had not spoken to them since his wings had been confiscated, and the Starks had won.

The camera focused on Friday Stark, who was smiling at the crowd as arrogantly as her father did, sunglasses on her nose and dressed impeccably and Natasha shook her head.

She still did not know where the hell she had come from, but she could admit a good play when she saw one.

Unlike Steve, Natasha could admit when she was beat.

And right now? She was beat.

Chapter Text

When Hela had appeared in front of the Compound mere hours after the end of the press conference in which the HEROES were presented and claimed that there was a problem, this was not what Tony had been expecting.

He had been expecting Thanos on their doorstep earlier than anticipated, or Fenrir existing and eating Asgard or whatever the mythology said. Or even that Odin had woken up and destroyed months and months of preparations - the man seemed like the sort of asshole who’d do something like that.

He had not expected to find himself on Asgard two weeks later, with Friday and Stephen.

Don’t misunderstand him, he was ecstatic about finally having the chance to travel to Asgard, of finally seeing another planet, but this was not what he had expected.

Thor and Hela were both standing in the golden waiting room they landed in, matching regal smiles on their faces, and a number of guards surrounding them.

“King Anthony of Midgard,” greeted Thor, and Tony forced his face to remain calm and polite as the man took a step forward and shook his hand. “I am glad you were able to attend.”

“It was my honour, Prince Thor,” he said, shaking his hand, grateful that Thor was being mindful of the fact that he was human and did not heal the way he did. Sometimes he forgot.

King Anthony of Midgard.

Needless to say, no one had been very amused when this title had been given to Tony, least of all Tony.

And it was, as usual, Loki’s fault.

According to what Hela had said, when they had first demanded an explanation, it had started as a joke, of sorts. Loki had commented, before Thor had gotten mad and shut him up, that Asgard would need to pay some sort of money to Tony, for damaging his castle when Loki had thrown him out of the window.

Tony had responded in kind, saying that it would have to be a lot of gold, considering how much damage he had done to 'his Kingdom'. Tony had meant it as a joke, but later on Thor had cornered him before they had to leave, and asked, in a serious voice if he really wanted to issue a grievance against Asgard for Loki’s actions.

Tony had quickly said no, a little embarrassed and said that, if anyone was at fault, it was the Chitauri, and definitely not Asgard.

The Thunderer had looked satisfied with the answer, and Tony had thought that was the end of that thing. Especially when, once he returned to Earth, Thor had continued to act mostly normally around him, if slightly more politely than he acted around the others, at the beginning.

But apparently it had not been the end of everything.

Because on Asgard, when recounting the events, Thor had referred to Tony as 'King of Midgard', a title that he thought was real because of Tony’s tower, his money, expertise, and his willingness to 'die for Midgard'. He had told his King and his Queen about the King of Midgard who had saved them from a terrible weapon, and told his friends tales about the Avengers, a group formed by himself, a soldier out of time, an archer, an assassin, a rage monster and their warrior King. And his friends had told the story to their other friends, and Frigga had told the story to her siblings in Vanaheim, and long story short, everyone in the Nine Realms was now under the impression that Tony was the King of Earth.

But while no one had been happy with that, especially the non-US representatives of the Accords and members of the UN (since they were definitely not telling this to the masses0, people had ended up agreeing that, if this was the only way they could at least start an alliance that put Earth among the other powerful people in the Nine Realms, it was a sacrifice they were willing to make.

Tony had disagreed, vehemently, and yet somehow here he was in Asgard two weeks later, Stephen and Friday at each of his sides.

They conducted their greetings quickly, and soon enough Tony was forced on the back of a horse as they made their way towards the Asgardian castle.

Thor was boasting about Asgard in front of them, and Tony should definitely be paying attention, but all of his focus was on remembering the horse riding lessons he had been taught in his childhood, and definitely not letting the beast he had been forced to get on top of figure out how little he trusted it.

“Relax,” said Stephen, his horse trotting directly beside him. He was standing naturally atop of his, his fingers barely shaking as he held onto the reins. “The more tense you are, the more tense you make him.”

Tony tilted his head a fraction in his direction to glare at him. “Yeah, well, this thing makes me tense.” He looked wistfully at where Friday was riding with Hela, and then towards Thor. “Do you think it’s too late to ask Thor to let me ride with him?”

“Definitely,” drawled the sorcerer. “Just try to focus on something else. Like the fact that we are on Asgard, for example. Or imagine that these are magically enchanted horses that are not going to let you fall. Like one of you autonomous suits.”

“That’s stupid,” he informed him, before jealously looking over at the confidence and ease with witch he continued to ride. “How are you so good with it? Did you take riding classes as a kid as well?”

“No, I was raised in Nebraska,” he said, and Tony had not known that. “Don’t,” said Stephen, the second Tony smiled.

“I just did not know my Queen was a cowboy,” he said, to which Stephen then glared fiercely.

Because, obviously not content with making Tony King of Earth, Thor had misconstructed their relationship with one another and then continued to spread misinformation. Friday was Tony’s daughter, so if Tony was King, then, clearly, she was a princess. And when he had returned to Earth with Carol and Valkyrie, Stephen had been there. Been there, standing beside Friday and Tony and looking a lot like the girl. 

Just as easily as it had been for him to know that she was Tony’s daughter, he had identified her as Stephen’s daughter, thought thankfully he had known better than to share this with the other people on Earth. 

And considering that in almost every planet in the Nines the Queen of the Planet was often the High Witch/Wizard, and Stephen was a magic user...

Tony had laughed for 10 minutes when Hela had first referred to the man as Tony’s Queen, no matter how many dirty looks Stephen had thrown in his direction. 

Very similar to the look he was shooting him, now, actually, which made him chuckle a little once more.

"It's not funny."

"It's hilarious, actually," informed him Tony. "A real rags to riches story. From your humble beginnings in a farm in Nebraska, all the way to my castle. It was all very romantic-"

“We have arrived,” informed them Thor, and Tony blinked in surprise. He had almost forgotten he was still riding a top of a hell beast.

Now it was Stephen’s turn to smirk at him as he jumped off the horse. “See? That wasn’t so bad.”

He had let Tony make fun of him to take the horse off his mind? That was... almost nice, of him.

Thor appeared beside his horse, offering him a hand, and Tony accepted it, getting off and putting as much space between him and that creature as possible. No creature that had teeth bigger than their brain had been put on this Earth by anything other than Satan himself, Tony had listened to his mother talk about the bible often enough to know that.

“Very well,” said Hela, once Friday too had gotten off their horse. “Then let us proceed.”

+++

Hela and Thor left them in front of a large apartment like room, to give them time to get ready before the coronation. They had been invited for the meeting, but that would only take place after Thor was crowned King of Asgard and Loki was freed from having to pretend to be Odin.

Once the meeting was done, Loki would go on Earth to retrieve his adoptive dad and then Odin would have to remain on Asgard, this time with absolutely no power, and three pissed off children of his having power over him. Loki was very excited about it, and Tony did not like Odin nearly enough to feel bad for him.

“So, how do you want to play this?” he asked, settling on the couch of what he assumed was the living room. The Castle was huge and so were the rooms they had been offered. Friday had gone exploring as soon as the doors had closed, but Tony had taken one look at the couch and decided to live there forever, no matter how judgingly Stephen kept looking at him.

“Play what?” asked the sorcerer, fingers tracing the rooms, curious eyes cataloguing everything.

“This. The whole situation. Like, I’m pretty sure people understood that me and you are not together, or at least Thor understood it, and that Earth does not work the way most of the Nine Realms do. But they, like Thor, are bound to realise that you are Friday’s other parent. So, what do you want to do about that?”

“What do you want to do about that?” asked Stephen, now studying him.

Tony did not break off eye contact, no matter how piercing Stephen Strange’s eyes could be. “You are Friday’s father, even if you guys don’t know each other that well. It is clear that you are trying, and she seems to like you well enough. I don’t mind you being known as her other parent, though it might cause some problems on Earth.”

He sat down on the chair closer to Tony, still holding eye contact. “You don’t mind me being seen as Friday’s parent too while we are here?” he asked, sounding a little disbelieving.

Tony raised an eyebrow at him. “Have I done anything at all to point to the opposite?”

Stephen shook his head after a second. “No, I suppose you have not.” He looked at the watch on his wrist for a couple of seconds, and then nodded, more resolutely. “We act like we always do, but we also don’t flirt with the other dignitary envoys. We need to appear like a unit, cannot let them think they can just break us apart.”

Like a family, thought Tony, but he did not voice it. Instead he smirked at him. “Why, my Queen? Are you jealous that someone might take me away from- Hey! Can you tell your Cloak to stop abusing me?!”

“When you stop deserving it!”

Loki was a very impressive individual, thought Stephen as the coronation drew to a close.

He was maintaining his illusion as Odin as he sat on the throne, Thor kneeling in front of him, while he also maintained a hologram of himself beside Hela, who was being extra careful in not touching him.

People had whispered in surprise when the Loki hologram had walked in, but Odin-Loki had shut the dissent quickly, claiming that ‘Loki’s’ crimes had been forgiven in light of his heroic help during the fight with the Dark Elves (a word that Stephen was pretty sure was some sort of slur), and his help in preparing for the Mad Titan. Not everyone had been happy at the words, especially a group of warriors at the very front, but no one would dare to contradict the King.

Out loud.

He zoned back in when the entire room started clapping and Thor stood up as the newly crowned King of Asgard, clapping along with everyone else. The Asgardians were clearly overjoyed with the news (though a good third kept looking at Hela and Loki, clearly hoping for some drama), as did the Vanir and the Dwarves. The Jotnar and the Light Elves looked far less happy with this new development. 

“Hey,” called Tony, leaning closer towards him. “What are you thinking?”

“The Jotnar and the... Light Elves?”

“Ljosalfar,” corrected Tony. “According to Hela, the other one is a slur, so we should never call them that. Same for the frost one.”

As Stephen had thought. “Well, the Jotnar and the Ljosalfar are clearly not very happy with Thor being King.”

“Right,” said Tony, nodding and lowering his voice further. “Well, the Jotnar, from what Loki said, want both his and Thor’s head off their shoulders; maybe Odin’s too if possible. They’d prefer to have Hela on the throne. And the Ljosalfar hate Thor, and Hela, and adore Loki. The Vanir don’t have much preference, other than a hatred for Hela, and the Dwarves just really like Thor.”

Stephen couldn’t hide his surprise, and Tony rolled his eyes. “I was CEO of SI for years. This is like being it again, I just have to keep an eye out on the ‘competition’ and who is more likely to cause problems.”

“Right,” agreed Stephen, and fell silent as Thor started his speech, ‘Odin’ looking proud beside him.

He did not listen much, though, instead observing Tony as he paid attention. 

It was easy to miss under the joking and constant flirting, but this man was an actual genius. And despite his reputation, he was the one who had made SI what it was, both as a genius entrepreneur and as the man who had the most copyright claims on SI's newest and better tech. Stephen had looked him up, before he had gotten in contact with Friday. And under all the gossip and slander, the picture of Tony Stark was much different from the one he was used to seeing everywhere in the media when he had been a surgeon.

He saw far more than he pretended to, and while he kept smiling, charm raised to 100, the calculating look in his eyes as he watched Thor and kept observing the ‘other royals’ did not abate in the slightest.

Very competent.

Stephen forced himself to turn his attention back on the ceremony at hand.

+++

“May I have this dance?” 

Stephen turned around at the sound of the voice, and found a blond man in front of them, smiling brightly at Friday, who appeared flustered. “M-me?”

“Why yes,” said the man, and now Stephen recalled having seen him among Thor’s friends who had been glaring at Loki. Which meant he was Fandral, the one Loki had described as a terrible flirt but the least harmful of the 'Idiots Four'. “I don’t believe I see many women as enchanting as yourself around here, Princess Friday.”

Yeah, Stephen did not like this man. At all.  

Fandral turned to him, sensing his glare, and his smile lost some of its brightness for a moment, before returning, full charm. “Of course, what could one expect from a parent as beautiful as yourself.”

Stephen did not reply, nor did he stop glaring.

“Stop that,” huffed Friday, hitting his shoulder and standing up. She smiled shyly at Fandral. “I am not a very good dancer.”

“That’s okay,” he said, smile kind. “Just follow my lead, my princess.”

Stephen wanted nothing more than smack that smile off his face, and uh. Apparently he did have some parental feelings when it came to Friday.

But at the same time, the girl was not a child, and it was not as if Stephen could take her away from Fandral forcibly without causing a huge scene.

Could he?

No, he couldn't.

But maybe... nah. Though... no.

“You’re letting her dance with Fandral?” asked Loki, settling at his side, voice dripping with distaste.

“It’s not like I can stop her,” he said, glaring a little at him. “Where is Odin?”

“Oh, you see, he is so very old, and oh so very tired,” explained Loki, voice exaggeratedly mocking. “He had to retire early. And why isn’t Anthony stopping their dance?”

“He’s schmoozing,” explained Stephen, pointing in the general direction the billionaire had went off to when the party had started. At first he had been entertaining the Dwarves with stories about his armour, which all of them had been very interested in hearing, and then he had managed to pull in the Ljosalfar as well with talks of the arts and crafts Italy was famous for. He couldn’t find him now, however.

“Why aren’t you with him?”

“I was, for a while,” admitted Stephen and then he rolled his eyes. “But unlike Tony, I don’t know a polite way of telling someone to fuck off for calling me a goat or an ant for the third time in one conversation.”

Loki made a face, a little embarrassed. “Yeah, well. As much as I’ve tried, the majority of the Nine Realms does not have a high opinion of Midgard.” Then his expression changed, and he turned away from Friday and Fandral - who were dancing far too close to one another for Stephen’s liking, he was seriously contemplating sending the Cloak after them - to another couple. “Look at that. Thor and Anthony are dancing.”

Stephen followed his gaze, and did find the two of them indeed dancing. Asgardian dancing was very different from the one of Earth, but that did not seem to be a problem for either them, as Thor was basically manhandling a laughing Tony throughout the dance, laughing along with him.

Stephen’s irritation grew rapidly at the sight.

Didn’t he say he was ‘cultivating relations’? What sort of relations could he possibly be cultivating in Thor’s arms? Maybe if he wasn't holding so boldly and strongly onto Thor, then he would have noticed the terrible Casanova of Asgard absconding with their daughter, and wouldn’t be having so much fun.

“Oh my,” said Loki, a hand quickly going over his face when Stephen turned to look at him. 

“What?” 

“You’re just... oh dear,” he said, unable to stop chuckling. 

“Please stop trying to incinerate our newly crowned King with your gaze, is what Loki is trying to say,” said Hela, rolling her eyes and stopping beside them with two goblets of mead, one of which she thrusted in Stephen’s hands.

He turned his glare on her, which really had no power over her. “I’m not doing anything.”

“You appear very possessive of the things you consider yours,” she pointed out, draining the other goblet, ignoring Loki’s demanding hand.

“Tony is not mine,” he quickly corrected, rolling his eyes, and staring at the mead.

What a ridiculous notion. Just because his future self had basically told him to keep an eye and protect him with all he could - by giving Friday that watch - and just because they had a daughter together, and just because he insisted on acting like they were a family, and just because he did not seem to mind sharing with him, it did not mean that Tony was somehow his to care about or something.

They were just friends, and that was it.

“Okay, tell that your eyes, because they don’t seem to have gotten the memo,” drawled Loki, hand now demanding the goblet from his hands. The Cloak slapped the hand away and Stephen downed the goblet, because he was petty and no one who offended him deserved his drink. It only burned a little bit, and Stephen’s lungs liquifying inside his body meant nothing.

“Just go dance with him,” said Hela, rolling her eyes. “I shall go free your daughter from Fandral’s disgusting hands.”

Stephen narrowed his eyes at her a little, but in the end, Hela was a much better option than Fandral. And he was more or less sure that Hela did not have ulterior motives for dancing with Friday.

The music drew to an end and Thor and Tony curtsied to one another, as another song started playing. This was a definitely more familiar tune, and Stephen turned to Loki in question.

The trickster smirked. “A Midgardian song. Now, are you going to stand or are you going to let, oh, King Frey of Vanaheim dance with Anthony? I have it in good faith that he is known for propositioning young monarchs and luring them into bed with himself and his wife.”

Stephen stood up, and cleared his throat. “Since you went to the trouble of choosing a song I actually know the steps to,” he said, cheeks definitely not heating up at Loki’s snickers behind him.

He was wrong, Loki was not any better than Wong. Why did he surround himself with assholes?

And it was not jealousy or possessiveness that had him striding towards Tony, fast enough to stop King Frey from asking for a dance. Tony wasn’t his, and he did not want him to be his.

It was just... It was just nice. And Stephen wanted to dance. That was it.

“Hey,” he called, and Tony turned to face him, smile growing when he realised it was Stephen beside him.

“Can you dance tango?” he asked, hands immediately going to his shoulders.

“I took a class with Christine,” he said, and uh. Talking about the woman did not even hurt anymore. Only a month ago he had been ready to ask her to get back together with him again, and now he just felt a sense of vague fondness and nostalgia when he thought of her. 

“Perfect,” said Tony, and then they were moving.

Dancing with Tony was surprisingly easy. Stephen had watched him dance, both at his birthday party and just now, but he was still surprised by how quick and light on his feet he appeared to be.

Watching him deal with the Avengers, with BARF and help lead the HEROES, it was hard to recall that he had been raised in polite society by a mother who was a socialite.

No wonder Thor and Loki had decided he must be a prince within hours of meeting him.

“What you thinking?” asked Tony. 

He appeared completely relaxed, almost unaware of all the eyes on them, as they were now the only couple dancing. 

Stephen answered truthfully. “How easy this is.”

He wasn’t talking about the dance.

“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” asked Tony as he let himself be twirled, eyes searching his expression.

Go with the flow, had told him Friday, weeks ago.

He smiled back. “Yeah. It’s a good thing.”

Tony’s smile became even wider.

And maybe Stephen did consider that smile a little bit his.

Maybe.

Chapter Text

“Well,” said Tony, the second the door was closing behind him. Friday threw herself on the couch he had taken the day before and Stephen collapsed beside her, both looking exhausted. Tony smiled broadly at them. “I think that went very well.”

“Loki found out that he wasn’t abandoned as he had thought all his life, the Ljosalfar called Hela a bitch to her face, Thor nearly threw hands with them for it and the Dwarves said that they will never ally themselves to Earth,” said Stephen, voice flat.

“Yes, but nobody died, people are scared of you now, and the others are all on board for an alliance with Earth. For a first meeting, I think this was a success, actually,” he said, sitting down on the other side of Friday. “What did you think?”

“Please don’t make me inherit Stark Industries,” begged the girl, which made him snort. “Give it to Harley. I don’t want it.” 

“It wasn’t so bad,” he huffed, patting her head. “Thank you for defending my honour, though, my Queen.”

Stephen glared at him. “Don’t call me your Queen, and I did not do it for you. It was the principle of the thing.”

“Sure, sure,” said Tony, standing up again and pushing Friday off him and onto Stephen’s shoulder. The sorcerer startled slightly, but when Friday made no move of getting off him, he untensed. “I totally believe you.”

Stephen threw a glove at him, and Tony laughed once more before moving towards the bathroom.

Only once the door was closed did he let out a deep breath, leaning backwards against the wall of the bathroom, his smile dropping.

He had hoped that with them being all in the mid thousands, and most of them being actual royalty, the meeting with the people of the Nines would be easier and more civilised from the political clusterfucks from back home.

But apparently if there was something sentient beings were going to do, was argue about political arguments and grudges from millennia before.

Tony understood that, last anyone recalled of Hela, she had helped Odin conquer the Nine Realms and had done it in a very evil and bloodthirsty way. And he understood how shitty it was for Thor to just expect Jotunheim’s help against Thanos, without ever having apologised for the people that he had killed when he had invaded them and then gotten mad about being called a princess. At least Loki had gone there, once he had learnt about Thanos, and offered his apologies as well as used the Casket of Ancient Winters to help with the destruction he had caused. Thor had done no such thing and yes, it was awful.

But Thanos was a problem. Thanos was a big problem, and he and his snapping fingers did not give a shit about who had a grudge with whom. Were the issues they had with one another valid? Absolutely. They had all fucked each other over way too many times to count. 

But you know what was more valid and important? The literal genocide Thanos was promising them, no matter who they were or where they came from.

The only other people who had remained calm throughout the meeting other than him were the Vanir, who just seemed amused and like they were enjoying the drama around them. Even Stephen had snapped when the Dwarves had laughed at the idea of working with Tony to create a system that would manage to connect them to one another better than the Bifrost, telling them that “Tony’s biggest accomplishment had been carrying a nuke through a wormhole and destroying more than half of Thanos’ armada, what was yours? A trick hammer?”.

At the Dwarves’ face, Loki had dropped something on the ground and not returned up until three whole minutes later, face still a little red and lips twitching the second he made eye contact with Friday, who was far less subtle, ‘hiding’ her snickers behind her hair.

And then Loki had gone and dropped the Dormama bomb on them, and everyone but Tony, Thor and Friday had promptly lost their minds. Tony had understood from Loki’s previous reaction and the way Stephen had been like at the beginning that it had been a big battle, but apparently it had been a much bigger deal than what he had thought. Even the Dwarves had started to look a little threatened.

Which was funny, and made Stephen look very smug but, ultimately, not helpful at all.

They needed the help, not their fear. They needed the Nine Realms to stand together (the six realms? Niflheim was dead, Svartalfheim was a wasteland and Muspelheim’s King wanted to jumpstart Ragnarok). 

There was a knock at the door, and Tony let out a breath and schooled his expression before calling out, “It’s open.”

He had expected Friday, so he was slightly surprised when instead it was Stephen’s head who appeared in the doorway. At his expression, the sorcerer shrugged. “Friday went to look for Loki. I don’t think he wants company right now, but she does know him better than I do.” He studied him more carefully. “Are you okay?”

“Of course, I am,” he said, smiling arrogantly. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You have very expressive eyes,” informed him Stephen. “They tell far more than you’d like them to.”

Tony’s smile dropped a fraction. His mother used to tell him that all the time, when his parents first started dragging him on the front page of newspapers with them. It was her who had given him his first pair of sunglasses, when he was 8 years old.

“Your eyes say more than your words do,” she had said, putting them on him. “They tell your secrets. Don’t let people who don’t deserve them to read them in you.”

He forced his smile back. “Why are you gazing into my eyes, Doctor? Have you gotten lost in them?” 

When the flirting had absolutely zero effect on the man, though, he finally breathed out.

There was still a lot he did not know about Stephen Strange. Still a lot he was curious about. But, for better or for worse, he was stuck with this man. For better or for worse, he was Friday’s other father and his ally. His ally who had come to help him when the time had asked for it with zero hesitation, and who continued to stand at his side despite knowing virtually nothing about him either.

They were... a family, and if he couldn’t be honest with his baby daddy, he thought, a little amused, who could he be honest with?

“We need their help,” he finally admitted. “We need them to work together. Today could have gone far far worse, and for a first meeting it wasn’t terrible. Between me carrying a nuke at Thanos and you beating Dormy’s ass, I think they started to get an idea that we are not as useless as they first thought. But it could have gone better too. Thanos...” he swallowed, looking away from Stephen and into the large mirror in front of the sink. It was way bigger than it had reason to be, like everything else in Asgard. Tony could see his whole form in it. “Thanos has been in my head for 4 years. I’ve known him, I have... sensed him, I guess, since I put that nuke through the wormhole. And then that vision Maximoff one gave me when I was in that Sokovian bunker...

“I’ve been preparing since New York. But I’m still... fuck, I’m still terrified of what’s coming next. Friday has not said it in so many words, but the last time I faced off against Thanos, I died.” He shrugged, with a nonchalance he did not feel. “I would like to not die again.”

The bathroom was silent after that admission. Was silent long enough for Tony to wonder if he had shared a little too much, but then Stephen spoke.

“Thanos did not kill you,” he told him, and when Tony looked at him, he was looking back. He looked worried, a little haunted. 

“Uh?”

“Friday, she told me everything, you know?” Tony nodded, as he had been aware of it. “She told me everything, so I know the truth. Thanos did not kill you.” He looked away for a second, and then locked eyes with Tony again, a strange vulnerability and fear in them. “I did.”

+++

Tony stared at him, confusion clear on his face after Stephen’s admission.

He shouldn’t have said it, he knew that. He and Tony were supposed to be a unit, there weren’t supposed to be doubts between the two of them, no mistrust.

There was a reason Friday herself had not told him, after all.

But at the same time, Stephen couldn’t keep this truth to himself like this. Not when their relationship had started to finally go in the right direction, not when-

“Bullshit,” said Tony, frowning deeply at him when Stephen looked at him again. “No offense, doc, but no way you killed me.”

“I did,” he repeated, ignoring the Cloak’s attempts at calming him down by caressing his neck. He did not need nor deserve the comfort. “I’m the reason you died.”

“Uh-uh,” said Tony, still disbelieving. “Walk me through it?”

So Stephen did. He did not tell him everything, of course, did not offer the details Friday had offered him, but he spoke. He spoke about using the Time Stone to look for possible futures. About picking the ‘only winning one’. About the final battle and telling Tony to sacrifice himself, about one single finger raised that condemned him.

About Tony snapping and then dying, Thanos vanquished once and for all.

And still, when he finished, Tony did not appear mad. He just looked at him, one raised eyebrow. “Okay. So you never explicitly shouted ‘hey, Tony, sacrifice yourself and we win’, you just told me that we had one shot at this. And I made the decision to take the stones and snap myself, and died.” He tilted his head to the side. “I still fail to see how you killed me.”

What... what?!

But Tony looked actually serious, and had he not heard what Stephen just said?

“If I didn’t choose that future, if I didn’t raise my finger, you wouldn’t have made the decision of taking the stones and snapping. You wouldn’t have died,” he reminded him.

“That’s debatable,” said Tony, rolling his eyes. “I probably still would have done it. Unlike what Rogers liked to say, I tend to make the sacrifice play a lot. And again, who’s to say what you meant with that one finger? You could have meant, ‘hey, you have one chance at getting the stones from Thanos so that someone can kill him while you keep them safe’. You never actually told me to snap.”

But...

Tony was technically right, according to Friday’s words he had never said those exact words but the implication was clear, wasn’t it?

“Occam’s razor,” he settled for, and again Tony just hummed. 

“Fine, I’ll give you that. But, and riddle me this,” he said and this time he turned to look at him properly in the eye. “If that was the winning universe, if that was the future in which we won, the one in which I snapped and died, why the hell did you bother undoing it and sending Friday back?”

“The Universe was unravelling,” he said, but he felt like he was grasping at straws, even though that was the reason Friday had given him.

“Bullshit,” he repeated, scoffing, and pulling himself off the wall. “We have just proven that a Universe can survive without all of its Infinity Stones. You told me, a week ago, that you guys can portal to other dimensions with your portals. No fucking way you and Loki couldn’t have sat down and found a way to travel to parallel universes and grabbed a stone or two from each. Nope - the future in which I died was not the one you saw as the winning future.”

He was standing in front of him now, and Stephen felt a little caged in by his eyes, as Tony observed him. They said a lot, but at the same time, it was very unnerving to be pinned down by them. Tony was at least a head shorter than him, but still Stephen held his breath under those eyes. 

“I don’t think that other you wanted me to die, so no, Stephen Strange, you did not kill me,” he candidly informed him. 

But. But it...

Tony looked at him for a beat longer, and then made to move away, and Stephen’s hand shot out, stopping him from leaving. 

“Trying to leave, here,” said Tony, which Stephen ignored, trying to focus his thoughts once more now that Tony was not looking at him like that.

“How can you be sure?” he asked instead, voice just a note urging. Asking for a reassurance that he, technically, did not need.

He was not future Stephen Strange. Future Stephen Strange was the one who lifted his finger.

But he needed to know.

He needed to.

Tony shrugged. “You came into my aid for no reason other than the fact that it looked like I could use some help against Romanogers and their HYDRA groupies. You are half of Friday. I trust you. I don’t know, take your pick.” He looked up at him with a smirk. “Would you let me die to save the world?”

Only a couple of weeks ago, he’d have thought about it for a second before he answered. But he did not need to think about it, now. 

“No, I wouldn’t. Not if I can help it,” he admitted, and Tony seemed positively surprised by the words. Like he had not really thought Stephen would say no, or say it that easily.

He smiled at him and Stephen might be a little bit in trouble, if the way his heart jumped was anything to go by. “You say the sweetest things to me, babe.” He started out of the room again, and then stopped turning back to Stephen. His expression had returned serious, but there was something quietly fond in his eyes, and his cheeks were dusted the littlest bit red. “Same, by the way. I’m not letting you die, if I can help it.”

“Thanks, babe,” he fired back, and Tony snorted, before disappearing down the room that had been left for him.

Stephen watched the door he had disappeared in for a few more seconds before shaking his head and returning to his own room. He pointedly ignored the way the Cloak was ‘watching’ him, judgement in every fold of the material.

“Shut up.”

Friday was sitting with Loki in the gardens when Boss and Doctor Strange showed up.

The news that Odin was more of a liar than he had believed and that he had not so much been abandoned as he had been left in the Temple for his own protection had not been much of a surprise to Loki. But the shock and yearning on King Helblindi’s face when he had realised that the half blood Prince who had nearly destroyed Utgard and then come to make amends was no one other than his older brother, had been.

The clear joy and heartbreak on the Jotun's face at this, had taken the man off balance, and made him retreat a little in himself.

Friday had found him as he tried to avoid the number of siblings he now had, and joined him. She herself had been trying to evade the Lady Sif, who had come first to ‘praise her’ for her treatment of Fandral when he had tried to get a little too comfortable with her (ew, as if Friday would ever go for someone like him), which Friday had found sweet until she had tried to ‘warn her’ off Loki.

Then Friday had had to explain to her in painful detail how little she cared for her opinion, and how of little importance her existence was to her, Loki, Thor and Asgard itself. She had also ‘advised her’ to be careful about the words she spoke in regards to her magical mentor, and that, if Sif thought Loki was not good at that either, she’d be willing to demonstrate on her what magical ‘tricks’ she had learnt from Loki.

Friday knew that if it wouldn’t have looked like a retreat, Sif would have run from her.

Which was good.

Then she had gone off to find Loki again. She wasn’t sure what sort of encouragement she was supposed to give him, but Loki had seemed content with just sitting in the garden quietly with her beside him, so perhaps silent support was the way to go. Also her recounting of her encounters with ½ of Thor’s groupies had gleamed a chuckle, so Friday was sure she was on the right track.

“Oh, there you are,” said Boss as he and Doctor Strange approached. The Cloak let go of Doctor Strange to wave at the two of them as they stopped beside them. “We were looking for you.” He looked over at Loki. “Lokes? You good?”

“I have been better,” grumbled the mage, twisting the rose in his hands between his fingers. He then looked up at Tony with a glare. “And don’t call me Lokes.”

Boss ignored him, turning to Friday. “Since it’s technically our last day here, me and Stephanie were going to explore the town, see the sights, as it were.”

“He wants to find the forges and figure out Asgardian technology,” translated Doctor Strange, with an eye roll. “Want to come with? We can ditch him in front of some shiny thing and explore properly.”

“I don’t like your attitude, Doctor,” informed him Boss, glaring.

“However shall I go on,” said the other, before focusing on the two of them once more. “Loki? Perhaps Sylvie will want to give us a tour and avoid her family?”

Loki appeared momentarily surprised at the inclusion, but wiped it away quickly. “Mh, Hela knows who Sylvie is, but I suppose Thor never figured out that particular identity, nor have the Jotnar.” He mused, and then stood up. In the blink of an eye, his hair was now blonde and his face completely changed, only the green eyes remaining the same. “Very well. Let me wow you with the true beauty of Asgard.”

Doctor Strange and her walked in front, the sorcerer and Sylvie immediately striking a conversation with one another regarding something of magical origin while Boss stayed back with her.

She looked up at him, knocking their shoulders together to get his attention. “You okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah. What did you think of the meeting? Didn’t get a chance to ask you earlier.”

Friday grimaced. “It could have gone better, it could have gone worse,” she said, diplomatically.

“Amen.”

“But, it is human nature to strive for survival,” she then added, thinking. “They are not human, and the term is Earth-centric, but for lack of better wording, I believe it is the most apt. They all talked and they all complained, but once they return home and are left alone to their thoughts, the realisation will sink in. The Ljosalfar are afraid of Hela, while the Vanir hate her. Most of the magic users around are also nervous about Doctor Strange, because of Dormammu.” Which Friday was surprised but also pleased about. “And all of them, no matter how much they hid it, are afraid of Asgard’s superior military and strength. And now Asgard and ‘Odin’ are telling them that Thanos is coming and that they are afraid of Thanos? They’ll come around.”

“You’re optimistic,” he said, and she shook her head.

“I saw what happened after Thanos’ snap,” she corrected. An Earth without borders. “They’ll send scouts, they’ll try to find out what Thanos is capable of, and then they will come to the conclusion that this is the best way for them to survive. Because Thanos is that dangerous and they want to live.”

Boss nodded, seeming to think about it. Then he looked over at her again, an odd light in his eyes. “Do you think we have a chance at winning?”

Again, she did not hesitate. “Yes.” 

Thanos was strong, terrifyingly so. They had fought him with no stones in the very final battle, and he had still nearly won.

But this time, he wouldn’t. This time they were going to win. This time they were ready, and knew he was coming. This time, they weren’t alone.

“Because of Stephen?” he asked, as they stopped in front of a stall. The woman was selling what looked like magical objects, and Doctor Strange was looking over them, Sylvie explaining the ones he pointed out to her.

Friday nodded. “Because of him and his future self, but not just him. Because of Loki too. Because of you. Because of me. Because of all of us, really.” She said, taking his hand in hers and squeezing it. “We’ll all fight together, and fight for each other.”

“Won’t let no one die,” agreed Boss, eyes narrowing slightly as the woman in the stand put a hand on Doctor Strange’s arm, as she explained something about the dagger to him. Doctor Strange seemed vaguely uncomfortable, while Sylvie was trying not to laugh at what appeared to be some terrible flirting. “He is rude to everyone at any given moment, but cannot tell a vendor to keep her hands to herself? Give me a sec,” he said, stopping between the woman and Stephen a wide and fake grin on his face as he all but smacked her hand away. “Oh, sorry, didn’t see you there. Now, could you tell me what this is? It looks very beautiful.”

Friday blinked, a little surprised.

She had known Boss and Doctor Strange had started spending more time together, lately, as she and the Doctor had, as well. But when had that, turned into... this whatever this was?

+++

The rest of the day passed similarly.

Sylvie dragged them through the market, which seemed to be the one place in all of Asgard she was comfortable in. The merchants were very curious about meeting ‘Midgardian Royalty’ but with Sylvie around, they did not get a chance to inflate the prices, and they actually got to buy a couple of things for themselves.

Friday had gotten a new necklace and a dagger that Sylvie had picked for her, Stephen had gotten a couple of magical notebooks and Tony had gotten a weird machine thing that Stephen had not understood the use of at all but the engineer had been trilled to get a hold of.

They were now once more in the garden’s were Loki and Friday had been sat on earlier, Sylvie now once more Loki. Tony was studying the machinery he had gotten closely, Loki explaining a couple of things he understood to him.

Friday was using the dagger to cut the odd honey cake Loki had procured for them, and Stephen closed the magical notebook, moving closer to her.

She smiled at him, pausing mid cut. “Hey, Doctor Strange.”

“I won’t let him die, this time,” he informed her, without hesitation. She blinked, and he continued. “I will do everything in my power to keep your dad alive.”

Friday’s smile grew and she looked away, before looking back at him again. She seemed to think about it for a second, and then she let go of the dagger and turned to him. And slowly, giving him plenty of time to move back, she moved once more and wrapped her arms around him in a hug.

Stephen only hesitated for a few seconds before he hugged back, not missing the smiles on Loki and Tony’s faces from where they were looking at him.

“Thank you, pops,” she whispered in his ear, and Stephen’s breath caught for a second. “Don’t let yourself die either, okay?”

He held her tighter for a moment. “Promise,” he agreed. It wasn’t a promise he could or should make, but he did it anyway.

When Friday let go of him, giving a shy and yet blinding smile, Stephen knew this was the right thing to do.

Especially when Tony looked at him with an equally pleased smile, winking at him before turning back to Loki.

They were his, and he was going to keep them safe no matter what.