Morgan's words caught Ian off guard.
He hadn't expected the clue to Tony Stark's return to be in the hands of Tony's daughter.
"Isn't it to maintain the stability of the timeline?"
Ian asked, somewhat surprised.
"That's the surface reason," Ironheart said, her voice dropping. "The real reason is to bring my father back."
Ian's hand stilled on the armrest. He looked at Ironheart's young face. There was a glint in her brown eyes—not tears, but something firmer, like something that had burned for a long, long time and never gone out.
"Your father," Ian said. "Tony Stark."
"Yes."
Morgan gave a definite answer.
"No one remembers him. My mom doesn't remember him, his friends don't remember him, the media all over the world has no record of him, and the history of Stark Industries has produced a paradox."
It was clear Morgan had learned a great deal recently. "Who could have imagined it? My father became a person who didn't exist. Only I remember. Because I was holding him the moment he disappeared, and when his existence faded, part of it remained on me."
Ian fell silent. He looked at Ironheart, at the freshly scabbed wound on her face, at those red eyes that still shed no tears.
"You looked for a way to bring him back."
Ian gradually pieced things together.
Morgan nodded.
"The Time Variance Authority is the only method I found. Its principle is this: as long as there's still one node on the timeline that records a person's existence, that person won't be completely erased. I built the Time Variance Authority and carved my father's name onto every timeline. Not to maintain the stability of the timeline, but to make sure my father was remembered. As long as the timeline still exists, he still exists."