Chapter Text
The second the front door shut, Rhodey sighed heavily, slumping into the couch.
Part of him was glad Tony had to leave - though he wished it wasn't because of something happening with his great nephews - because he could see how badly telling the story of his life, of their lives, of the world that he had helped save was affecting him. How badly having time travelers around was affecting him. It wasn't obvious, just little things he had picked up over the last few years, but they were things his past self wouldn't have noticed. Things he wouldn't have known to look out for. He would never have noticed the slight shake in Tony's hand before he curled it into a fist. Rhodes wouldn't see that faraway look in his eyes his best friend - their best friend - kept getting. He wouldn't see every time Tony had to drag himself back to the present to keep from slipping back in time.
Rhodes had forgotten that Tony had a million masks - had stopped trying to look years after college, when they both got so busy and the party version of Tony was almost all he ever saw. He would let Obadiah manipulate situations and events to keep them separated without batting an eye because that was Tony's godfather, his guardian, his uncle, who he thought would never dare hurt him.
He didn't know what it was like to feel like a failure of a brother, to know that he had missed when Tony was hurting for so long, to know that he had not been the older brother he had been back in MIT, when he swore to himself to protect that scrawny, ambitious, bull headed teenager with his life.
That past version of him didn't know the pain of losing Tony over and over again.
Footsteps caught his attention and Rhodey sat up, turning to see the younger version of himself standing at the edge of the hall, dressed in borrowed jeans and a t-shirt from Rhodey's guest room closet. "Where's Tony?" He asked, glancing around.
Rhodey so badly wanted to punch him. There had been so many times where he laid awake at night, wishing he could go back in time and smack some sense into himself.
Except he couldn't do that. No one would approve except for Rhodey himself - just like with the baby Thanos plan - and the time traveling version of him wouldn't remember it anyway.
"He had to go get his grandsons from school," he said, somehow keeping his voice even, if flat. "He'll be back later. I'll finish telling you all what happened between now and after the Avengers reformed once Pepper and Happy are here."
"Oh." He cleared his throat, rounding the couch cautiously to sit furthest from him. "Alright."
Silence fell. Rhodey could feel he was being watched by his younger self. He didn't pay him any mind, instead pulling out his phone to ask Tony if Billy and Tommy were okay. He'd just sent the text when Rhodes broke the silence: "What's going on with the blue light coming from your legs?"
He glanced at him, then at his legs. Wearing black jeans, the light of his braces was hard to see, but there. "They're leg braces," he answered. "I can't walk without them."
"What?" He sounded a mix of shocked and terrified. As much as he didn't like his past self, he didn't want him to be scared.
"I'm fine now." He reassured, meeting his eyes. "Tony made them."
"How... How did it happen?" He was looking at him with wide eyes.
"Avengers business." He decided to say. "I'll get into more details with the story. I really don't want to tell it twice." He really didn't want to tell it at all, but he wanted Tony to tell it less. "Any other questions unrelated to the past?"
"Why are you mad at me?"
Of course he would ask the one thing Rhodey didn't want him to. What had he expected? He put his phone to the side, forcing himself to breathe evenly. "I'm mad at this whole situation."
"Cut the bull crap." He said, speaking quieter than Rhodey expected. "Don't think I didn't notice you staying near me whenever I got close to Tony. Why?"
He had done that, slipped into the same space Rhodes was in if he got near Tony. It had been instinct. Protectiveness. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes, you do, and I don't get it. I'm his friend as much as you are."
No, you're not, he thought. Somehow, he kept from saying that. His nails dug into the couch. "I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at what's happening."
"It isn't my fault we got sent forward in time!" He argued. "And we both know that's not true. Not completely. I can tell you're mad at me. We're the same person."
That was it. It was all he could take. Rhodey snapped. "We are not the same!" He shot to his feet, whirling on him. "We are far from the same."
Rhodes got up, meeting him eye to eye. "Yes, we are. At least toward Tony. We're his friend."
"I'm trying to protect him from you!"
His younger self stopped, staring at him in bewilderment. "What?" He asked faintly.
"I'm trying to protect Tony from you." He repeated. "I have to protect him from you. It's what my job is as his brother. I protect him from those that could hurt him." He'd failed way too many times at that.
"How did I ever hurt Tony? How could I ever hurt him?"
He laughed, so hollow and angry he didn't recognize himself in it. "It's hard to believe, but you did. Tony didn't tell you because he thought it was reasonable." There was no stopping the anger in him - it bubbled and burned, rising in his throat and pouring out with his words. "You spend three months looking for him in an Afghan desert. Then you find him, bring him home, and then when he shuts down the weapons division of his company, you tell him that he needs to get his head on straight. When he was dying, he showed you what was wrong without saying it, and you didn't bother to ask more questions because he's Tony, he's always okay. It was only when he went through a wormhole with a nuke on his back to save New York that you fully started seeing him for who he'd become, and even then you didn't take his fear of what was out there seriously."
He finally stepped back, squeezing the bridge of his nose as his younger self looked at him with quiet horror, stunned into silence.
"All I want to do," he whispered when he dropped his hand, "is protect him. I don't want him getting hurt again. He's been through too much as it is."
"I won't hurt him." Rhodes promised. "I swear I won't. I don't want him hurting."
"Yeah," he replied, "that's what I would have thought then, too, not realizing I was doing it."
Rhodes went to respond, but FRIDAY cut him off. "Colonel Rhodes, Miss Potts and Mr. Hogan are approaching."
Rhodey nodded, more to himself than the AI as he tried to get a handle on his emotions. "Thanks, FRI." He replied before meeting the eyes of his younger self. "I want you to know that if you do hurt him, there won't be a power in this universe except for God that'll stop me from punching you."
"And I would let you." There was truth in his eyes, an honesty Rhodey could believe, and he allowed himself to relax. Barely.
"I'll hold you to that."
Soon, the other two time travelers arrived, and Rhodey had them sit on the couch. He took a minute to gather his thoughts, pacing while they watched. "I will admit," he finally said, pausing in the middle of the room where he faced them, "that this is surreal."
"You said it," Happy muttered, and Rhodey cracked a brief smile. His friend's dry humor was one thing that had never changed.
Rhodey finally settled into Tony's favorite chair. "Yeah, and it's about to get way more insane." When they all looked at him, expressions a mix of dread and curiosity, he jumped into the story before he could back out. He started where Tony left off with the re-formation of the Avengers and how they started fighting off HYDRA together. Most of what he knew was second hand, and FRIDAY co-oberated and added details to the story, bringing up news footage and video from the suit to match his words. "Eventually, they found the HYDRA base that hid a scepter with the Mind Stone in it. Loki had used it to open the portal during the Battle of New York." While he wanted to graze over as many details as he could, Rhodey knew he had to stall here, as painful as it was. "Tony came into contact with it. He had a vision, a horrible vision," he clenched his hands against his knees, forcing himself to calm down, "and the idea of a suit of armor around the world was born."
"What kind of vision?" Pepper asked quietly.
Rhodey shook his head. "Tony never told me fully what it was. I didn't find out until well later that it even happened." He hesitated. "He told me... that it was his worst fear come to life, and that he had to do something." He could only imagine what Wanda showed him, back when she thought he was enemy, but he had a hunch. She had brought up his deepest fears, afterall. "When they got back from the mission, he convinced Bruce to help him with a new program called Ultron. He was AI, like JARVIS, and meant to defend the world from outside threats."
"Like the alien invasion," Rhodes concluded.
"Exactly that." He ran his hand over his head. "He and Bruce started working, and then there was an Avengers party. They left Ultron alone and with the scepter nearby... and he came online. He was nowhere near ready, but he woke up. He saw too much too fast. JARVIS tried to calm him down, but Ultron... turned." He shut his eyes for a breath. It was still painful to think about. Painful to remember. "He destroyed JARVIS."
Pepper gasped. Happy bowed his head. Rhodes's face was grim.
Rhodey continued. "It was chaos after that. Ultron was bent on destroying humankind. Wanda and her brother, Pietro, were part of HYDRA, and teamed up with him." He explained the next few events quickly, not wanting to linger too long. He explained about the Barton family, building Vision, the twins joining the side of the Avengers, and the Battle of Sokovia. "Ultron was destroyed by Wanda after Pietro was killed saving Clint and a little boy." He said, voice solemn. "From there, Wanda and Vision officially joined the Avengers, the Avengers Compound was created, and Tony tried to settle down. It didn't work."
He leaned back in the chair. "What happened with Sokovia, with the Battle of New York, and other Avengers missions led to the creation of the Sokovia Accords, which were meant to put the Avengers in check. Tony signed them. Steve didn't. From there, the Avengers split down the middle." He explained the bombing, the killing of the Wakandan king, Bucky Barnes's brainwashing, the building of two sides, and the airport fight. "Tony recruited Peter as an outlier. Someone to work on the edge with his super strength and agility. The kid's way too much like Tony and got into the thick of it until Tony forced him to stay out. He regrets pulling him into it to this day."
"During the fight, I got shot down. It wasn't anyone's fault." Vision had been trying to hit Sam, he dodged, and it got him. He pulled up his right pant leg, showing the brace. "I was paralyzed and in the hospital for the rest of the fight, but I know what happened."
"Rhodey, I am so sorry," Pepper said, hand hovering at her mouth and eyes on his braces. Rhodey let his pant leg fall, concealing Tony's invention from view.
"It's in the past. I'm okay now." He cleared his throat. "In short, Clint, Sam, Scott, and Wanda were put in the Raft, a heinous super max prison. Tony figured out from Sam where Steve and Bucky went. He wanted to help them, with whatever they were doing, and followed them to Siberia despite his dislocated arm." He took in a steadying breath before speaking again. "It was a trap. Not by Steve or Bucky, but Zemo, who lured them there to break them from the inside. I'm not going to say what exactly happened, what was revealed, just know it was bad and that Steve hid it from Tony. They fought, hurt each other, and that was the end of the Avengers as the world had known them." He paused. "And yet when Ross called about a break in at the Raft, Tony ignored him, because he knew what was happening. Steve and Bucky broke the others out and retreated to Wakanda."
He let all of that sink in before forging ahead. "The next year or so was okay. Not perfect, but okay. Good things happened even with the Avengers separated. I got to walk again. Pepper and Tony got engaged. Peter and Vision officially became Tony's kids and met their siblings. I thought Tony might actually call Steve with this ancient phone he sent him." He stopped and met each set of eyes. "Then the aliens came back."
He flicked his hands and FRIDAY brought up the videos. Tony, Peter, and Stephen Strange in New York, ending with the report that Tony was gone, out in space. The attack on Wakanda. Clips from the suit as Tony, Peter, and the Guardians fought Thanos. "Thanos was the threat Tony saw in the wormhole. The threat we didn't believe him on. He was collecting the Infinity Stones, and all six had unimaginable power individually, and more when wielded together in his gauntlet. We did everything we could stop him from getting his hands on them, but it wasn't enough. He took the last one from Vision's head, killing him, and Thor's last effort didn't work. He snapped his fingers - and wished away half of all life in the universe."
"No-"
"What-"
"Why?" Pepper asked, almost demanded. There were tears in her eyes. "Why would he do that?"
"He wanted to stop overpopulation. He thought everything needed to be perfectly balanced and was freaking crazy. Really crazy. In his twisted way, he thought he was helping by taking away half of life." He curled his hands into fists. "What he did was hurt. He hurt everyone, those who were dusted, or Blipped as it became to be called, and those who survived. Society nearly collapsed. He took friends, family - he took Peter, Harley, Abigail, Bucky, Sam, Wanda, Clint's entire family... and so many more." He had to keep blinking to stop himself from crying. His mother, Mama Rhodes, had been Blipped. His niece and nephews were gone in an instant. He'd lost friends. He hadn't been there when Sam went. He'd been so close.
He hadn't known if Tony or Peter were alive for a month. He'd hoped they were both out there, still alive - and then his best friend came back without him and an empty look in his eyes.
"But they all came back," Rhodes said, and Rhodey could see his own tears - all of their tears. "They're here, they're alive, the... the dates on the certificates, the pictures." He breathed, realization filling his face. "That's why five years are gone."
Rhodey nodded. "Five years. Nebula became Tony's daughter. Pepper and Tony married. Morgan was born. The Avengers rebuilt what they could and tried to help the world move on even when we couldn't..." He swallowed. It was so hard to talk about that time. No matter what they did, no matter what good they tried to do, it all felt wrong. The Earth still turned despite losing half its population. Despite the devastation. Despite the loss that everyone felt so deeply across the universe. United in grief. That was the only way they made it through.
He knew he had to keep pushing through, had to tell the rest of the story, yet it felt impossible. Even if it had a happy ending, it was hard to talk about how they got there. What they nearly lost. Who they nearly lost.
"Uncle Rhodey," Nebula said, startling him. She was calling him that more and more, something he was happy about. She had slipped in at some point, leaned against the wall by the stairs, "I think it would be better to let the documentary tell the story. FRIDAY?"
The AI's reply was to turn on the TV, the other videos falling away as Tony's voice filled the room.
"Dr. Strange told me there were 14,000,605 futures. Out of all of them, all the possibilities, there was only one where we won..."