Fenris looked over the gift box in his hand with obvious interest, then cheerfully teased Tony beside him. "That little thief really seems to like you."
"What thief?"
Tony lifted his head out of the box. Once he saw what Fenris was holding, he waved it off without much concern. "There are only a handful of people who can even get in here. No way they'd be thieves."
"Pepper probably brought it back in again."
"All right."
Fenris shrugged and put the box back exactly where it had been.
"A videotape, so notes, blueprints..."
Tony lowered his head and got back to work, sorting through the contents of the box one item at a ti.
"The key to the future?"
Fenris's reminder passed like a brief little aside, and Tony quickly shoved it to the back of his mind.
He dug out an old-fashioned projector from the side, and soon Howard's recording was cast onto the screen.
"A better life, a healthier body, and the first real possibility in human history of maintaining world peace all co from technology."
The mont he heard his father's younger voice, Tony's hand froze over the notes.
"Dad?"
Tony looked up, and his gaze imdiately turned distant.
Just a short while ago, he had seen Howard already grown old.
Back then, his father's hair had been white, and only traces of his younger self could still be seen in him.
But the Howard in the video was in the pri of his life, carrying that familiar face Tony had long forgotten, buried deep beneath the dust of mory.
That face had blurred over the course of Tony's youth, warped by stubborn resentnt, silent rivalry, and all the grievances he had carried in his heart. Yet now, twenty years later, after reaching the age his father had once been, it had beco clear again.
"Not bad."
The video kept playing. When Tony saw footage of his younger self running wild in his father's workshop, a smile tugged at his lips before he could stop it.
"Tony!"
When all the speeches were over, Howard leaned against an enormous model and softly called his na.
"Hm?"
Hearing his father call to him, Tony instinctively raised his head, just in ti to et Howard's deep gaze aid straight at the cara.
In that instant, their eyes seed to cross decades of ti and et in complete silence.
"Tony, you're still too young now. You don't understand any of this yet, so I recorded this for you in advance."
Howard's voice was calm and unhurried. His hand brushed lightly across the model behind him as he spoke with quiet aning.
"All of this was built for you. One day, you'll realize it represents more than just human invention. It is also the key to the future, and the greatest achievent of my life."
"Everything you want from the future, you'll find here."
As the image flickered, the cara swept past several unusual structures in the model of the Stark Expo.
"This is...?"
Sothing shifted in Tony's eyes as he stared at the recording. He sat up straight at once.
"I'm limited by my era, but one day you'll understand all of this. And when that day cos, you'll have the power to change the world."
"Tony, no matter when it is, there has only ever been one greatest creation of mine."
"That is you."
Howard stared directly into the cara. The light above cast a shadow across his face, covering the brilliance in his eyes.
When the final sentence fell, Howard Stark smiled faintly.
The next second, the recording ended, and every image faded into darkness.
"You are my greatest invention."
Tony rembered hearing those words from Howard with his own ears after taking the heart-shaped herb. One father had been young, the other already old.
The aged voice and the younger one echoed over and over in Tony's ears, but the heavy love overflowing from both of them left him standing there in a daze.
"Fenris?"
After standing there for a long while, Tony finally sniffed, quietly wiped the moisture from the corner of his eye, and called to the side.
"Mmhmm?"
Fenris answered at once. "So? Have you figured out what kind of gift Mr. Stark actually left you?"
"More or less."
The heart-shaped herb did not seem to have made his brain any smarter, but Howard's hint had not been particularly obscure. For Tony, it was easy enough to work out.
Tony let out a quiet sigh. After steadying his emotions, he moved over to Fenris's side. "What are you looking at?"
"How you're planning to deal with ."
Without changing expression, Fenris handed over the file in front of him.
The screen clearly displayed a huge string of ssy data. Among the folders, the entry labeled "Fenris Series" was especially eye-catching.
"From video files to written records, from the Liberty Island battle to the Arctic base. Pretty comprehensive, huh?"
Fenris's voice drifted past Tony's ear, low and chilly enough to send a shiver down his spine. "Tony, I treated you like a friend, and this is how you do ?"
"Fenris, this is a misunderstanding..."
"I never planned to hide it from you in the first place."
eting Fenris's complicated gaze, Tony's neck shrank back on instinct. "Look, didn't I tell you from the start? You said researching you was pointless, so I wasn't planning to keep going with it anyway..."
"Mm."
Fenris nodded lightly.
"That's it?"
Tony blinked, completely caught off guard that Fenris had let the subject go that easily.
"But..."
Fenris suddenly changed tone, and the deliberately stiff expression on his face instantly lted away. "Since you've already nad a suit after , it's not too much to ask for one for myself to play around with, right?"
If nothing else, Fenris had been standing right there when Tony created the new folder.
"You?"
Tony blinked again. With Fenris's level of strength, would he even need one of Tony's suits?
Fenris's playful mood imdiately flared up, and he sat forward with excitent. "Think about it. Soday, when those enemies finally manage to break my armor, they'll discover that..."
"Ohhh."
"That's vicious."
Tony instantly understood what he ant, and a sly grin spread across his face. "No problem. Leave it to ."
"I'll make an extra set for you with every new generation of armor from now on. But you've got to help too. Deal?"
A burst of strange laughter rang out. The two of them looked at each other and saw the sa satisfaction in each other's eyes.
"Deal. Very deal."
Stark Industries. R&D Departnt.
Standing in front of the towering steel beast, Obadiah ran his hands over the Iron Monger armor again and again, unable to put it down.
As he spoke, he pulled out a glowing arc reactor and gently fitted it into Iron Monger's chest.
The mont Iron Monger's eyes lit up, a vicious smile spread across Obadiah's face.
"Tony, if you want to shut down the weapons division, if you want to destroy the work of my last thirty years, then prepare yourself to face the wrath of a steel monster."
(End of Chapter)
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