Chapter Text
Everything hurt.
That was the first thing Rhodey registered when he opened his eyes, squinting against the sun as it cut though the trees. He raised up a hand to shield his face, sucking in a breath of cool air as a breeze blew over him. He took stock of his body - his back ached something fierce, his head was throbbing, and his thoughts were slow.
The last thing he remembered was walking toward the building where he was supposed to present Tony his Apogee award - if he showed up. It was always up in the air if Tony remembered without Pepper chasing him down.
So why was he laying in grass?
He pulled himself up to sit, blinking until his eyes adjusted to the sun. Immediately, he scanned the area - thick trees with leaves beginning to turn orange, lush grass, and what sounded like running water nearby. The position of the sun said it was around four o'clock.
A groan from behind had him twisting. A man clothed in black sat up, rubbing at his eyes with a palm. He immediately recognized Happy Hogan, Tony's personal bodyguard, the lead of a security detail that could rival the secret service. "Happy," Rhodey called, voice surprisingly strong, "are you alright?"
"Yeah," he croaked, blinking at him. His mind seemed to snap to focus right then, looking around with surprise. "Where are we? How... how'd we get here?"
"That's what I'm trying to figure out." He rubbed his temple. The pain was gradually fading and he managed to pull himself up to stand. He held out a hand and pulled Happy to his feet. "What do you remember last?"
"I was with Tony, in Vegas. He was gambling."
Rhodey couldn't hold back a sigh. "So he was planning to miss his awards ceremony. Figures." He rubbed the bridge of his nose, only to jerk up. "Wait, if we're here, where's Tony?" No matter his feelings toward his best friend right now, he did not like the idea of him being without his main security man, even if the rest were capable. He was the main arms dealer for the US military, a billionaire, and a Stark. He had been a target his whole life.
A sound, like the crack of a tree limb, came from his right. Both of them turned, falling into defensive positions. "Tony?" Happy asked hesitantly.
"No, definitely not," a female voice responded. A few seconds later, Pepper Potts appeared, picking her way around the trees with her high heels in her hand. She swiped a twig from her hair, grimacing. "How did we get in the woods, exactly?"
Rhodey shrugged, biting down the panic that was steadily beginning to build inside. "No clue. You were at home, weren't you?"
"Mr. Stark's house." She replied, falling back on formality. The woman tended to flip flop between that and informality, depending on the situation. Times of stress brought back the 'Mr. Stark.' "There was some last minute paperwork to get set up for him tomorrow morning before he gets on the plane."
"This has to be connected to Tony, somehow. He's the only reason we're all connected." Rhodey pondered, kicking at a stray twig. "Some invention of his gone wrong sent us somewhere else. It's the only way we could all get here."
"I don't know if even Tony is advanced enough for teleportation. That's comic book science." Happy stated. "If he had, he would have rambled about it at some point."
"As he told me in college, nothing is impossible for him. This could be time travel, for all we know."
"He better not have sent us to the past." Pepper said, a tinge of hysteria bleeding into her voice.
"There's a chance he could be around." Rhodey turned, doing a full circle to analyze what he could beyond the immediate trees. He took a few minutes to look around the area, asking Pepper if she heard anything when walking over, and searched a few yards around their section with Happy, calling their friend's name. When he didn't catch sight of the genius, he and the bodyguard returned to where Pepper was trying to get phone signal with no luck. "Let's walk. We'll either find him or someone else who can tell us where in the world we are."
"Which way?"
"Best to follow the sun rather than get turned around." He said, already walking ahead. "Pepper, behind me. Happy, take up the rear." When he glanced over his shoulder, he saw they followed his orders without question. Pepper seemed to calm down a little with them watching her back. It made Rhodey feel a little better, too. Even if this was his fault, Tony would kill them if something happened to Pepper.
'And then he would die from not knowing how to do anything without her,' he thought, suppressing a laugh despite the admittedly dire situation. Pepper was the only person who managed to keep Tony somewhat in line. It was a feat he thought impossible before she came along.
Without a watch, Rhodey kept an eye on the sun's position to keep track of time. Pepper probably had one, considering she had to keep up with Tony's hectic schedule and Tony himself, but doing this kept him focused. Almost an hour passed of walking, occasionally calling Tony's name, when he heard something. He held up a hand, stopping their human train, and listened.
"Good hit, Morgan!" A young, male voice called, followed by a whoop.
"I got it, I got it-" Another boy yelled. Mere seconds later came the dejected, "I don't got it."
"Home run! Home run!"
"Hey, no fair! You can't carry her!" Despite his words, the boy was laughing.
"All's fair in love and baseball, Harley!" The first boy said, an obvious smile in his voice, and Rhodey was reminded distinctly of Tony. Among the banter was the joyous laughter of a little girl, who must have been Morgan. "Your turn. Morg, do you want to throw it?"
"Yes!"
Rhodey didn't exactly want to intrude on what sounded like siblings having a great time, but they needed a working phone and directions. He walked the last few yards to the edge of the woods cautiously, a gap in the trees soon becoming big enough for him to see a large cabin, the edge of a lake, and three kids - two teenagers and a little girl, maybe five years old - in the yard. The blonde kid had a blue plastic bat, practicing his swing as the girl, Morgan, seemed to weigh the ball in her hand, ready to pitch. The tallest boy, a lanky brunette, watched with a smile - but then he tensed. His smile dropped. His eyes narrowed.
And he looked straight back at Rhodey.
They stared at each other for a few seconds, Pepper and Happy stepping up on either side of him. Rhodey raised his hand higher in an awkward wave and that seemed to snap him out of it. He lurched forward, scooping up the girl in a blur, tucking her against his chest without ever taking his eyes off of them. The laughter stopped as the blonde boy questioned the taller, who pointed, and then they were all looking at the trio.
Rhodey understood. They had a cabin in the woods, probably isolated from everyone else, and three adults dressed in obviously not hiking gear - his military dress, Happy's security suit, Pepper's pencil skirt - appeared in their yard. It would freak out anyone, kid or not, and he raised his other hand to create the universal gesture of surrender.
"Hey," he called, trying to sound non-threatening which probably made him sound more threatening, "sorry, we're lost. Are your parents around? We could really use a phone, or directions?"
The boys stared. The taller one took a step forward, freeing one arm to put it out in front of the shorter boy. The blonde pushed it down, shooting a brief glare at the brunette as annoyance took over fear, and it was such a Tony move that Rhodey had to reboot his brain.
Morgan was peering at them, confused yet curious. Her head tilted to the side, hands fisted in Peter's shirt, and her brown hair and equally brown eyes were so familiar. It didn't take him but a half second to place why.
She was an echo of Tony.
He mentally shook himself out of it. His worry for his friend was bleeding into his perception and that wasn't good. 'Focus, Rhodes.' The sooner they got back, the sooner he could check on Tony - and if this was his fault, kick his butt all the way to Florida.
The boys were still staring. The blonde boy - his gut said he was Harley - had the baseball bat hefted over his shoulder, and his eyes said he was ready to swing at something other than a ball. The girl said something, too quiet for Rhodey to pick up on, and the older kids shared a look. In sync, without breaking eye contact, they yelled:
"Dad!"
It didn't take ten seconds. The front door to the cabin flew open and a man ran out, vaulting over the porch railing and sprinting toward them. His right hand was covered in what looked like red armor, the center glowing blue - and it was leveled at Rhodey. When he was close enough to pick out facial details, Rhodey had to grab onto Happy's frozen form to stop himself from fainting. Pepper gasped beside him, hands flying to her mouth.
The man - it couldn't be, it couldn't be, oh Lord it was - skid to a stop in front of his kids, the blue pulsing in his palm and promising death if Rhodey moved an inch. Rhodey barely paid it any mind, too focused on the man's face. His hair was lighter with age, face lined with stresses that Rhodey couldn't imagine plaguing him, eyes full of determination, confusion, anger, and calculation in a way he'd never seen.
His mind refused to process, but his eyes were seeing it. There was no mistaking him.
"Tony?" He breathed.
The man - his best friend, his brother, over a decade older and a father - didn't respond to him. Instead, he spoke, voice directed at the kids: "Peter, take Harley and Morgan inside. Call Dr. Stange. Tell him to get his butt over here. Now."
The eldest - Peter, he'd been right on who was who - looked like he wanted to protest, but held his tongue. He hoisted Morgan higher on his hip and started to walk back to the house, grabbing Harley by the shirt collar when he tried to remain and dragging him with them until he cooperated. Only when they were in the house, door shut firmly behind them, did Tony respond.
"Who are you and how do I know you?"
"What?" Rhodey choked. "Tony-"
"Look," he cut him off, "you've either time traveled or are poorly made clones. Things will go a lot smoother if you answer my questions. If not..." He wiggled the red fingers of what appeared to be some sort of robot glove, "...I'm not afraid to use this. I'll feel really guilty later if you're time travelers, so save us all the hassle, and let's get this figured out, alright?" His mouth quirked up in a smile that was anything but friendly. Rhodey could recognize it. It was the smile he gave when a reporter got too close to a sore spot, or when someone made a bad comment about Pepper, or when a teacher at MIT mocked Rhodey.
"James Rhodes." He answered, somehow keeping his voice even. "My mom calls me Jim. You call me Rhodey, and a lot of other things. I'm a colonel, Stark Industries liaison, and your best friend since you were a scrawny, smart mouthed fourteen year old at MIT. We shared a dorm. Random assignment. Room 310. Best assignment I ever got."
Tony regarded him silently, then shifted the gauntlet to Happy. "You now."
Happy gulped audibly. "Harold Hogan. You call me Happy. Anyone else would call me Harry, but you've always been unconventional." Something in Tony's face eased for a half second before steeling. "I'm your bodyguard. I'm supposed to be your chauffeur, but usually you drive, or we race, and you always win."
He shifted the gauntlet again, though he aimed a bit down rather than at Pepper. "You last." He said. For the first time since he came running out, he seemed to hesitate. The gauntlet was still on, but he didn't dare aim it at Pepper Potts.
"Virginia-" Pepper broke off to drag in a breath. "Virginia Potts, but everyone calls me Pepper because of you, even on the news. I threatened Happy with pepper spray to see you and you heard. Hired me to be your PA because I had the guts to come tell you that there was an error in the numbers. You said you needed someone like me to keep you in check."
The genius swept his eyes over them all, then lowered his hand to point at the ground at an angle. He didn't trust them, but he wasn't about to blow them to kingdom come either. (A distant thought flew across Rhodey's mind, wondering if everyone had gloves like that these days, if Tony had revolutionized daily weapons, but he waved it away. This wasn't the time to wonder about that.)
"I'm not completely convinced," he said, "but that's better than nothing. We'll wait for the magician to confirm it." He tilted his head and Rhodey was reminded of that little girl. Tony was a dad. A dad. He never thought he'd see the day. "Let me guess, 2008? January?"
"Close." It was Pepper who replied. "February 18th."
Tony flinched. Not just a little, either. It was a full body flinch, his jaw tightening as the date appeared to hit him like the kids' baseball.
Rhodey immediately reached for him, but Tony held up the gauntlet. "Nope, nope, you stay over there until Harry Potter gets here. I am not getting killed by clones. That would be a new level of stupid for me." With his free hand, he adjusted his jacket, pushing the sleeve further up his right arm when it tried to slip. "I could never live it down."
"I find it hard to believe that. You level up every year."
Tony snorted out a laugh. It was hollow. Old. "You don't know how true that is, sourpatch."
Rhodey's heart twisted. "Tony-"
He wasn't able to get out more than that because a golden circle swirled to life a few feet away. A man stepped through, red cape waving unnaturally, and immediately asked, "Stark, what did you do?"
"I didn't do anything. I'm retired from this junk." He threw his hands up in the air as the circle disappeared in a swirl of sparkles. "Why can't this kind of stuff happen to Steve?"
"Because you can't stay out of trouble for more than three days."
"This was not my fault!"
"Says the man who invented time travel in the first place."
"Sounds like your fault, Tones." Rhodey quipped automatically, his mouth somehow working even as his brain was short circuiting. Was this man magic? Tony shot him a familiar glare before turning back to the guy - Warlock? Sorcerer? Space alien? Tony called him a magician, but that seemed like too small a word for him. And what did he mean by Tony inventing time travel?
This had to be entirely his fault.
"Hey, aren't you supposed to warn me about messing with the past? You can't tell them that."
The man - Dr. Strange, it had to be - took the yelling with a blank face. "I've already analyzed the spell used on them. I will talk to you more later, in private, but it will not alter the timeline. They should forget anything consequential as soon as they return." He raised a brow. "And who are you to talk about creating separate timelines?"
Tony huffed. "Whatever. When will they go back?" He gestured toward them. Rhodey felt hurt for a moment, then remembered all the trashy time travel movies they'd watched and the theories he and Tony had thrown around about it. Them being here couldn't be good.
"One week."
"A week?!" Rhodey exclaimed, along with Pepper and Happy. Tony groaned.
Dr. Strange's attention shifted to them. "Yes, one week. You will reappear in the same second you were taken from. Upon your return, you may briefly keep impressions of what you felt here for a time, but no matter what you learn, you will not be able to change what will happen. If you do somehow manage to remember anything concrete for any amount of time, I hope you all understand how dangerous it would be to say or do anything to try and change the course of events. It would be catastrophic."
With that rather ominous message, he waved a hand, forming a new golden circle that seemed to lead into a living room. "Good luck, Tony. We'll be in touch later." He waved and stepped through, shutting what could only be a portal behind him.
"Jerk." Tony muttered. He wiggled his fingers again and his armor started folding back from his hand. He quickly stuffed that hand in his pocket before they could see it, which Rhodey found odd. "Well, I guess you're welcome in. You probably have questions, but I'm starving, and the kids are probably spying on us. We've got lasagna."
With that, he turned on his heel and walked back to the house. Rhodey was first to follow, Pepper and Happy quickly catching up. His head was spinning with questions that he was afraid to ask. How far in the future were they? Why create time travel in the first place? What was Tony retired from? How did Tony know how to cook?
What had changed Tony Stark?