When 2012 Tony hit the floor gasping for air, present Sue slipped out of the elevator in her invisible form. The lobby was in chaos with Bruce emerging from the stairs and the Stark suddenly going into cardiac arrest. It was the ideal distraction and present Sue watched as her old self ran out of the elevator and joined the huddled around 2012 Tony. She heard herself frantically call the man's name while crouching beside him, Thor being the one to take the chance and lightly tapping his arc reactor with his hammer. Whatever had been pulled loose was recharged by the slight electric shock and Tony breathed normally, easing everyone's nerves. But the briefcase that held the Tesseract was gone, Loki teleporting away with it during the commotion.

'That wasn't supposed to happen, was it?' Scott said in his miniature form. Present Tony was laid spread out on the floor dressed in a SWAT team disguise, his body aching from being thrown across the room.

'Oh, we blew it,' he sighed and let his head fall back, deflated from their failure of securing the Space Stone.

'How?! What happened?'

'Jesus Christ, Sue!' he jumped at the sound of her voice in his ear. 'Where are you?!'

'Here!' she replied in a hushed tone and Tony looked to where he thought she was.

'Where the hell were you, huh?!'

'Tony? Susan? What's going on? Tell me you found that cube,' Steve's said into their earpieces, unaware of the events that had unfolded.

---

Steve was able to secure Loki's scepter after a battle with his past self. He left the Stark tower and slipped towards the backstreets, where he would call to regroup. The Rogers ran along a rooftop before leaping down to the street below, the scepter in hand and his shield on his arm.

'Cap,' he turned his head at the voice and spotted his team sat in a destroyed car. With its roof caved in and paint job scratched from the attempted Chitauri invasion, the insides were intact enough to sit inside. Tony was in the driver's seat, Sue in the passenger's and Scott in the back, all with glum expressions. The car's windows had been smashed in and allowed the three to hang their heads out pitifully. Sue held her head up with her elbow on the windowpane and her hand against her cheek. The mission was a failure and they had lost their one chance to secure the Space Stone.

'Sorry, buddy,' Tony spoke first. 'We got a problem.'

'Huh,' Scott laughed humourlessly. 'Yeah, we do.'

'No Tesseract and no Stone,' Sue finished. 'We're done for.'

'Well, what are we gonna do now?' Steve inquired, the most hopeful of the bunch. Tony looked from the side mirror that showed him the destroyed street behind. His stare was tired and his lips pulled into a deep frown.

'You know what? Give me a break, Steve. I just got hit in the head by The Hulk.'

'You said that we had one shot. This-' Scott pointed a finger downwards. '-this was our shot. We shot it. It's shot. Six Stones or nothing. Six Stones or nothing-'

'Alright, Scott. We get it,' Sue threw over her shoulder at the man's babbling and rolled her eyes.

'You're repeating yourself, you know that? You're repeating yourself,' Tony turned his head out the windowpane and looked at the Lang in the backseat.

Sue blanked out the argument that ensued. Everyone was annoyed from the mission that went off the rails. But it was never a fool proof plan in the first place. There was too much at risk and there was always the likelihood that they would fumble their one chance. It was a hopeful man's dream that they would gather all the Stones and snap their fingers to fix the universe that Thanos left in disarray. The team had one dose each of Pym Particles left to take them back to their time, and they were one Stone short.

'I got it,' Tony stopped the pathetic arguing and Sue forced her concentration back into the conversation. 'There's another way. To retake the Tesseract and acquire new particles. We'll stroll down memory lane. Military installation, Garden State.'

'Why is that significant?' Sue questioned but Tony stayed staring the other way.

'When were they both there?' Steve tried.

'They were there at a-I've a vaguely exact idea.'

'How vague?'

'What are you talking about?' Scott whipped his gaze between the three of his teammates. 'Where are we going?'

'I know for a fact they were there-'

'Who's they? What are we doing?'

'And I know how I know.'

The conversation jumped around and Scott and Sue did their best to keep up. Scott was lost as Tony opened the car door and stepped out, while Steve latched on to the sound of another way to secure the Space Stone. Sue stumbled out of her side of the car and ran around the bonnet to stand with the three men. Tony and Steve deliberated between themselves before Scott was handed the scepter, the Lang wide-eyed and confused.

'Scott, get this back to the compound,' Tony stated before he turned his head to Sue. 'You good for another trip?'

'I guess so...'

'Alright, suit up, honey.'

'What's in New Jersey?' Scott tried to make sense of the mess again. Their Quantum Suits appeared over their current attire and the white with grey and red accents grouped the team together. Steve and Sue brought their arms up to type in the next destination on their keypads, which Tony read out as he did his own.

'0-4-0-7-1-9-7-0,' he read out and Scott tried to intervene again.

'Cap. Captain. Steve, sorry, America. Rogers, Susan. Look, if you do this, and this doesn't work, you're not coming back.'

'Thanks for the pep talk, pissant,' Tony glanced to the Lang before looking between Steve and Sue. 'Do you trust me?'

'I do,' Steve replied.

'With everything,' Sue added, and the edge of Tony's lip hitched up into a smile.

'Your call,' Steve took a deep breath.

'Here we go.'

---

The year 1970 smelt different to Sue. She had never been to New Jersey in the present time, but she was sure that it didn't smell like this. The hint of dirt that kicked up from cars that barrelled through the military base hit her nose, was mixed with a stale, dry stench that she couldn't place. She had to squint in order to see through the sun that was setting over the east. Officers in green military gear marched past and orders were called across the field.

Sue wasn't able to steal a uniform to blend into the other people who stalked around the base, as it was mostly men that walked by. The women that were dotted around walked with other men, which made it difficult to ambush and undress in the moment. Tony stole a suit with a badge hung from its pocket, his face unknown to the people in the 70s and could be passed off as just another doctor. Steve wore a green cap and sunglasses, his face idolised due to the fact he was the sole reason for the ending of World War Two. And Sue was left to do what she did best; disappear. 

Sue was careful to stick to Tony and Steve's sides, who walked briskly through the base with feign confidence. She prayed that no one who passed looked down to see the footsteps that appeared in the dirt and was relieved when they stepped inside a building that had tiled floors.

The three piled into an elevator and the two men stood shoulder to shoulder, Sue behind them in her transparent state. Another woman stood by them, unaware of the Storm that held in a cough that inconveniently decided to build in her throat. The silence was thick, and Sue couldn't help but let a small choke. The other woman turned slightly at the noise and Steve brought his fist to his lips, pretending to recover from the cough that wasn't his.

'Excuse me,' he muttered, and the woman turned away. Tony rolled his eyes and rejoiced at the opening of the elevator doors.

'Good luck on your mission, Captain,' Tony threw over his shoulder as he exited the elevator.

'Good luck on your project, doctor,' Steve called to him as Sue slipped by to follow the Stark out onto his floor.

The doors closed and Tony walked the length of the hallway. People walked by and greeted him with a nod, to which he returned as friendly as he could.

'You couldn't have held that in for a second more?' he hissed through the corner of his mouth.

'I'm sorry! It just slipped out!' Sue said back in an equally as hushed tone. She stepped to the right to allow a man to walk between them, before stepping back to be beside Tony. 

'Well, let's not screw this one up,' a woman looked at him strangely at the sight of him talking to himself. He caught her odd stare and went to make an excuse but ultimately didn't bother.

'So, you met your 2012 self? How did that go? You didn't say about the Stones or anything, did you?' Tony continued to speak out of the corner of his mouth and looked ahead.

'Of course not. I had to say about... some things to make her believe me, though...'

'What did you tell her? Or you? Or whatever?'

'I said about Morgan and Booker.'

'You what?!'

Two men who were heading their way stopped in their pursuit and looked at Tony with wide eyes. They eyed the man who tried to explain that he had voices in his head, and the men cautiously walked around him in fear. One stepped too close to Sue and tripped over her heel, which he looked down for once he recovered. But when he saw nothing, he assumed he had tripped over the floor in his attempts to slip past the Stark that they thought was crazy.

'You told your past self about our children?! That's gotta mess something up,' Tony continued his panic in his quietest scolding.

'I had to say something! But I didn't say specifically what was going to happen in the future. I didn't say about anything what would happen with Thanos. Nothing about Johnny or...'

Sue stopped as they made it to the lab they were in search for. The thought of Johnny made Sue remember why they were in 1970 frantically searching for the Tesseract. When she saw the 2012 version of her brother at the Stark tower, she had to resist from revealing herself to have one more moment with him. But she knew it would cause confusion and chaos, so she shoved her emotions down to focus on the mission. It still ended with an unsuccessful outcome and Sue was still affected by the sight of her currently blipped brother, but she couldn't let her grief crawl in now.

'I never told you about what happened on Titan, did I?'

Sue turned to Tony at the sudden topic. The lab was quiet, and they were the only two people in there. With Steve on the earpiece and the Tesseract somewhere nearby, Tony took the time to talk to Sue about what had caused all the mayhem. It was not the time nor the environment, but Tony felt like she should know what went down on the planet that was lightyears away.

'We met these galaxy guys. They were cool. Helped us out with trying to get the gauntlet off the purple grape's hand,' Tony explained, slipping his hands into the pockets of his pants. 'When I say us, by the way, I mean Strange and Peter and I. Uh, oh... the kid... he really shouldn't have been there...'

'We don't have to talk about this, Tony-'

'The surfer turned up first,' he continued as if he hadn't heard her. 'He was still as shiny as ever. The bastard beat us into the ground before Thanos even showed up. That board, man, I would give everything to take that board off him.

But anyway, Strange gave up the Time Stone. He said he wouldn't, but he did. And I thought, shit, we lost. We lost and we're thousands of miles away from the last Stone. I really thought we could do it. But here we are... oh!'

Sue watched Tony walk to the table that faced the furthest wall of the lab. The Tesseract was sat on a stand and gleamed brightly in its electric blue glory. He grabbed the briefcase that was beside it and put the Tesseract inside, Sue still deep in the story Tony was telling about the battle on Titan.

'Gotcha. Back in the game,' he chimed and turned around to Sue. 'As I was saying, we-'

'Arnim, you in there? Arnim?'

A man opened the door to the lab and the two froze. Sue was still unseen, but Tony was in plain sight and eyed the man who was too familiar for his liking. Howard Stark stopped on his search for the person named Arnim and looked at Tony, unaware that he was staring at his own son.

'Hey! Door's this way, pal,' Howard Stark motioned to the hallway and Tony tried not to panic.

'O-Oh yeah...'

'I'm looking for Dr. Zola. Have you seen him?'

'Yeah, no. Dr. Zol – No, I haven't seen a soul,' Tony bumped into the chair behind him. 'Pardon me.'

Sue knew who Howard Stark was. There weren't many people who didn't. His hair was slicked back, and a moustache sat on his top lip. There wasn't much about him that reminded her of Tony, but she hadn't heard his quick wit and sarcastic answers yet. Most of Tony's physical genes came from his mother, Maria, who was currently pregnant with the Stark who would grow up to stand in the same room as his father. 

When Sue was in university, she saw the news report of the tragic death of the billionaire and his wife in the supposed car accident. But her lack of relativity to the man had made the event unimportant to her. But now that she was stood in the same room as him years before his tragic fate, she felt like she should have cared.

'Do I know you?' Howard questioned with narrowed eyes, the familiarity strange and absurd.

'No, sir,' Tony rushed. 'I'm a-a visitor from MIT.'

'Huh. MIT. Got a name?'

'Uh – Howard.'

'Well, that'll be easy to remember.'

'Howard Storm.'

Sue put her face into her hands. Tony was jittery and wished that he too had the ability to disappear. The last time he saw his father was when he was twenty-one and was sure that his own parent resented him. His life was filled with money and fame, but it was empty without the approval of the man he admired the most in the world. Howard and Maria Stark were then ripped from his life, and he suffered from it ever since. But he would have never become the person he was today without them. Howard was in front of him, and he couldn't even tell him that he was his son, and that he knew that he did in fact like him. He knew that he wanted to be a good father to his son and that he regretted ever treating him any differently.

'Well, I'm Howard Stark, he put out his hand and Tony grabbed his finger instead.

'Shake it, don't pull it.'

'Yeah-'

'You look a little green around the gills there, Storm,' Howard pointed to the pale face of his son.

'I'm fine. Just... long hours.'

'Wanna get some air?'

'Yeah. That would be swell.'

'That way.'

'Okay...'

'Need your briefcase?'

Tony hurriedly grabbed the case that contained the Tesseract and headed out of the lab, aware of Susan's eyes that followed him and his father into the hall.