Interval: The Lazarus Experiment
So...I know it's been just about forever since I've updated. And I am SO sorry about that. I lost my muse and what with the Marvel movies having sequels, it plays on with the story line a bit, doesn't it? But still...I have my own ideas and they will be played out.
But a lot of people have commented on Howard's age and though I'm content with a simple "Because Timey Whimey and I said so" I decided to do something...else.
Then I remembered...this is a Doctor Who crossover! So I found a way for Howard to be young in body but still mentally aged. As the title states, this is inspired by the Doctor Who Episode, " The Lazarus Experiment."
*TLE*
Tick...tick...tick...tick...
There was no alarm. He didn't sleep so there wasn't any need. Every time he closed his eyes all he would see is the frightened eyes of Tony as he fell to his brutal death.
Tick...tick...tick...tick...
-TLE-
After the bodyguards managed to pull him away and he had a moment to briefly register what had just happened...he snapped. He collapsed and buried his face into his knees and covered his head with his arms and sobbed. Someone called his name and he looked up, eyes wide and panicked, tears streaming down without stopping. His whole self just screamed hysteria. He screamed in...grief? Pain? Panic? He didn't know but he screamed until someone came up to him and injected him with a sedative.
He woke up hours later at the hospital.
'Where's Tony?' he thought but no one answered him. He looked around the room. It was big enough for the both of them. They should have found him, he should be resting.
When the nurse came in and checked his vitals he grabbed her arm and forced his eyes to open all the way, "Where's he?"
She cocked her head to the side, "Who hon?"
"Tony...my son...where's my son?" Howard demanded as he stood up.
"You shouldn't force yourself. You're vitals are quite alarming, hon." she pleaded and tried to get him to lay back down but he swattered her away.
"Where's Tony!?" He demanded angrily.
"Ms. Bleu, that's enough...you're dismissed." the nurse turned to look at the doctor who had just entered and nodded towards him, and left. The doctor, Howard's personal physician, turned to him and smiled sadly, "Mr. Stark...how are you feeling? You've had quite the episode."
"Where's my son?" he demanded and his voice didn't leave room for argument.
The doctor sighed, "He fell, Howard...I'm sorry."
Howard ripped away whatever was attached to him and got up and looked around for his clothes but didn't find them. He whirled around, angry and close to losing it again, "Where the hell are my shoes!?"
"Howard...the authorities are sweeping the river as we speak. They have yet to call with any news. You need to relax as much as you can..."
"Relax? Relax? RELAX!? MY SON PLUMMETED TO HIS DEATH AND YOU WANT ME TO RELAX!?"
"It's too late...he's gone Howard. You need to think about yourself and Maria." the doctor said quietly, "She'll need you now more than ever."
"Ma-Maria?" Howard echoed and the grief assaulted him freshly once more at the thought of telling his beloved that their son was gone...that he couldn't save their boy? A sob broke through him and he just couldn't control his weeping for a good ten minutes.
-TLE-
Tick...tick...tick...tick...
Howard forced himself out of bed where he didn't bother sleeping and went to the bathroom. He stood in front of the mirror and just stared. Wrinkles. Grey/white hair. Dark shadows. Hollow cheeks.
He looked haunted. He was haunted. By his decisions, by his actions, by his failures.
Tick...tick...tick...tick...
-TLE-
He went home...or should he say, to his house? Home was a place where people came together and loved one another and cared. His place was cold and seemingly empty.
Maria rushed to him when he entered, a frightened look on her face, "Howard! Thank god! Tony, Howard! He's gone! And he hasn't returned! I know he goes out from time to time, but never this late! I've called the police but they say they can't do anything until he's been missing for 48 hours. Howard, you must do something! I...I've got a bad feeling...Something's happened...something's happened to our baby..."
Numb. He had been numb the whole drive to the house but now he just felt sick. Looking into his wife's scared, worried face made his eyes glisten, his lips tremble, and his resolve break.
He tentatively reached out and brushed his wife's hair back and he choked out, "I...I'm sorry...I'm so...so...sorry..."
"H-Howard?" Maria echoed.
"He's gone..." Howard whispered, he tried to continue but he couldn't, he just couldn't.
"G-gone?...who?" she asked thought she had a horrible sensation about what Howard was talking about.
"Tony...he...I...I couldn't save him...I'm so sorry, Maria...Tony's...he's gone."
Maria stared at Howard for a moment before she moved her mouth to cover her mouth, her breath coming out in a shaking motion. She took a step back and shook her head slowly, "N-no...I...I saw him! I...just this morning! I saw him this morning!" she cried.
"Maria...I..." Howard took a step towards her and she took a step back.
"Where's my boy!? Where's my Tony?!" she demanded, voice reaching hysterics.
A lone tear escaped his eye and he choked back a sob, "He's gone, Maria...I'm sorry."
-TCE-
Tick...tick...tick...tick...
The place was incredibly quiet with both Tony and Maria gone. It was all his fault. Their absence, the silence, his despair.
The military and the labs were all in an uproar at the news that Captain America had been found. He felt the slightest bit of happiness until he remembered that it was his continuous and relentless search for his dear friend that caused so much strife for his dearly departed son. He'd gotten what he wanted...he'd gotten Steve back...all that it cost him were his son and his wife. He had forsaken them long ago but it wasn't until they were both gone that he realized the deal he had made.
Tick...tick...tick...tick...
He forced himself to continue to go to work and overlook Steve's defrosting. If he had given up everything that could ever mean anything in his life for this...project, he might as well see it through to the end.
Tick...tick...tick...tick...
He scoffed as one thought came to mind, "Steve's vitals are better than mine."
-TLE-
It was...funny. How many years had he waited to see Steve again? How many wasted years trying in vain to find a man who statistically speaking should have died on impact? How many anniversaries forgotten, birthdays ignored, and time away from his family had he spent looking for Steve?
Now that he was completely...free, of obligations he thinks darkly and bitterly, and his friend had been found and was completely off ice...for all that he was worth, and it was a lot, he couldn't bare to look at the blonde soldier that was once his top priority.
So he jumped head first into his work and inventions and everything he could to avoid Steve and thinking about his wife and son.
Which is what led him to his current business meeting with someone from overseas.
"Ah, Mr. Stark...It's such a pleasure to finally meet one of the greatest engineers of all time. I am Richard Lazarus." Mr. Lazarus reached out for a handshake.
Howard shook the mans hand and gave a nod, "Yes, my three o'clock. I've heard you've got ideas what are worth my time. I don't mean to sound so crass but I don't wish to waste my time. What can you offer me that others in Europe haven't already?"
Mr. Lazarus smiled and gave a bit of a chuckle, "Also a businessman as well as genius. Well Mr. Stark. My invention I have in mind is a bit of a leap of hope for those who don't have the technology. But you...you're not just any scientist. So...what do you say Mr. Stark," he took out some blueprints from his pocket and handed them over, "About helping me device a prototype...for the first step toward the fountain of youth."
Howard looked over the blueprints and raised an eyebrow in interest. His mind buzzed with the equations and science behind it all that he's never seen before but down on paper made sense but where still so complex and like nothing he's ever read about.
He took a step back and blinked, his mind catching up with him, "Whoa...how...who...who designed this!?" he demanded. He had to meet this fellow. This was just...genius!
"I'm afraid that the creator behind this wishes to remain anonymous. Though he can put his theories and thoughts down on paper, he's entrusted it upon me to see if I can bring his thoughts to life. I've been searching fore people who can but many lack...something. Sure there is imagination and determination but...there's a certain drive that we're looking for and well, we haven't found just yet. That is...until you, Mr. Stark. You worked on the Super Soldier Serum and the machinery used in it, did you not?" Mr. Lazarus asked.
A flash of Dr. Erskine flashed before his eyes briefly. He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind and nodded, "Yes, yes I worked on that project."
"Among others that make you the best candidate in our opinion." Mr. Lazarus commented, "So, what do you think Mr. Stark? Will you be interested in working with us?
"I...Yes. I believe I am interested," Howard nodded.
"Then I will leave these blueprints with you and send you more of the notes my employer has drawn up. We expect big things from you Mr. Stark, big things!" Mr. Lazarus said as he turned and began to walk away.
Howard watched him go for a moment before he went back to studying the blueprints and began making his own notes.
-TLE-
Tick...tick...tick...tick...
Howard's sleep consisted of passing out after his body couldn't take anymore these days. Before, the projects he had to work on were simple and didn't take him long to finish. This one however, this one gave him something to continuously work on and it challenge and awakened his mind like other things never have.
Tick...tick...tick...tick...
In his lab he had a picture of Tony where he could always see him. It was torture but he needed it. He needed to look at his son and remember him. So many years wasted and he studies the picture like a text book. It's all he has left. Moments captured in seconds when Tony feigned happiness. How did Howard know he feigned it? Because in all the memories he does have of Tony...he was scorning and chiding him.
Tick...tick...tick...tick...
Still no body. He's searched the river up and down and just about everywhere and still no trace of Tony. It's as if he disappeared. It drives him insane. He never understood why people cared so much about a burial place or the families of soldiers who's bodies never came back. But now he did. There wasn't closure...their bodies, his son's body, was god knows where. After all the torment and pain loved ones went through during their lives, they should have gotten peace in their burial.
Tears fell freely as he thought that finding his son's body and putting him to rest would have been like tucking him into bed, one last time...he never did, and he never will.
Or so people told him. He'd find his son! He would! He just...he just needed time.
Tick...tick...tick...tick...
He looked in the mirror. His habits, his drinking, his insomnia, all added together he knew that time wasn't on his side.
But he looked down at the blueprints. It would be years before an operational device would up and running, but he didn't have years. So he worked double time, replacing whiskey with coffee and before long, and without anyone's knowledge, he stepped into the prototype. If it killed him...then so be it. He had nothing to live for. If he survived, then he knew what he'd do for the renewed time given to him.
Tick...tick...tick..tick...
-TLE-
Steve sighed as he was given another file to help him catch up on the new world he had awoken to. He had about four decades to catch up on and a lot to read up on apparently. When the door opened to his 'cozy apartment' he rolled his eyes, "I'm not going anywhere and I'm reading."
"That sleep really mellowed you out, huh? The Rogers I know wouldn't be so idle."
Steve stood up abruptly, causing the chair he was sitting in to fall over, immediately recognizing the voice as none other than Howard's. Turning around he stared at the man before him. His blue eyes were wide, "Howard!"
"Steve." Howard nodded as he stepped closer and shed off his hat and coat.
"You look...you look...like you." Steve stated dumbly.
"Thanks...I think." Howard commented as he lay his things on the desk Steve had been using to read his reports.
"It's been over 40 years...you should be...old." the blonde finished lamely.
"Science, my friend. Science...it made you and it's continued to go even farther." Howard said.
"But I've been told there weren't any more super soldiers," Steve commented.
"No. Since Erskine's death, no one has been able to recreate the serum correctly. People have tried but still...you are the only perfected result of the serum." Howard replied.
Steve looked at Howard carefully. He may still look similar to the time he knew him in the 40's but something has changed. Forty years of his life and being in the world have changed him, it was easy to tell. "What's happened?" Steve asked.
"Hm? Well...a lot. I'm sure those files cover the basics. But the biggest thing you should probably know is that we won." he said and tried to give his infamous 'Stark' smile but Howard knew that since Tony's death it's been impossible.
"No, I mean with you. What's happened with you?" Steve said and when Howard was about to reply Steve interrupted, "And no offense Mr. Stark, but please spare me the lies and tall tales."
Seeing the old face, the reason he had been away from his family, the reason his son resented him and died thinking so, the only place he could find any form of solace. Before he could have any say in it, a sob made it's way up his throat, "My son...my son is dead...and...and I killed him...it's my fault he's dead."
The next few hours were spent on Howard pouring out his soul to his last friend on earth.
Like I mentioned, my muse for this story is a bit lax for various reasons. I'm having trouble writing the stepping stone that would get the Doctor to the point in time where the Avengers are...so I decided to tackle an issue that's been big for some readers; Howard's age.
Now...I'm a fanfiction writer, not a mathematician so I'm not positive on the math. But hey, I found a Doctor Who way for Howard to be young and be able to manage the Iron Man armor and still be old-old. Though as you noticed this is still AU because Steve was found earlier.
Now, I haven't updated in forever so I will look over this later, for now, please enjoy and ignore any obvious mistakes there may be.