"Will I be able to come back?" As if sensing what lay ahead, Tony gazed fondly at the furnishings. His eyes seemed to pierce the walls and find his wife and daughter.
Seeing him like this, Ryan remembered how this world's story had originally ended.
He was a traveler from another world. He knew the plot and the future more clearly than Strange had seen them with the Time Stone.
In the original future, Tony had sacrificed himself after saying, "I am Iron Man."
When it was all over, the Avengers had dressed in black and laid flowers before Tony's gravestone.
It was a bleak, heartbreaking future, and Ryan did not want to see it happen.
He could have made a joke about taking care of Tony's wife for him, but here, that would have been downright distasteful.
Only after Tony had taken one last look around did Ryan reassure him. "You'll be fine. I'm here."
"Ryan." Tony was touched, but he was not one to show his feelings or rely on others. "Let's get one thing straight. I built the Time Machine. You did a decent job helping out."
"I know." Ryan nodded helplessly. He had never wanted the credit.
They talked a little longer in the house. Tony picked up a shield and said it was a gift.
Then Ryan opened a Portal, and they stepped through.
As he left, Tony walked with the resolve of a man leaving his final words behind.
Tony and Ryan emerged from the Portal into a vast, brightly lit space like an assembly hall. The Time Machine stood inside, still undergoing tests.
Their arrival drew everyone's attention. Meeting those familiar gazes, Tony felt as though he had gone back to the old days.
When the Avengers had first formed, these same people