The Woman in the Red Dress (Howard and Maria Stark One-Shot-- AU)

Chapter Eleven

"Admit it," Agent Carter said when she came in to check on him. Howard had everything sprawled out on the tables. She didn't mean to be rude, yet if Howard didn't want help and dug his heels in, there was a good chance they were all going to die.

With defeat on his face, Howard said, "I have no idea what I'm doing." While the designs were mediocre at best, it was hard to imagine to get them up to the standards of making an Infinity Stone. Even Iron Man was at a loss on how to make an Infinity Stone out of the arc reactor.

That was good enough for Agent Carter, who left the room. A few minutes later, she came back inside the room with the scientists leading first, followed by the rest of the Avengers, who gathered around carefully. While the scientists took a look at the design, there was a component missing. Even Tony Stark-- Iron Man-- studied the designs and had a hard time piecing it together. While the arc reactor had been in his chest for a number of years as well as powering some of his factories, to make an Infinity Stone seemed impossible.

Howard held up Maria's engagement ring to the ceiling. "I have the designs of how I created this, and this is just the beginning."

Walking over, Thor took the stone from Howard's hand and investigated. "It makes sense, but it does not have the power of an Infinity Stone."

"Where do Infinity Stones come from?" T'Challa asked, having chosen to wait back and listen for most of the time here. Here, he had learned too much, perhaps; the information was useful but dangerous.

"When the universe was created, each Infinity Stone was born, coming from the Cosmic Entities," Vision explained.

Thor interrupted, "I do not understand how it is possible for this Infinity Stone to have powered down, and I do not understand how you think created it." His blue eyes rested on Howard, who had started to squirm.

"I was given the stone," Howard stated.

"By who?" Thor demanded to know.

Howard remained tight lipped.

"Howard, we need to know," Steve begged. "Whoever this person is, they might have known it was danger. They might have done this on purpose. This could be all be because of them."

"It isn't, and I'm not going to tell you because they do need to be known. The stone was handed over to me by them in a sort of... deal," Howard reassured. "The stone was given to me as a gift; they said it represented power and beauty, what the soul is made out of. I didn't realize they meant it literally."

"You gave it to Maria," Bruce whispered.

"She represents power and beauty, among many things, and if I have a soul, it belongs to her." Howard sighed and looked at his designs. "The stone, I didn't create; the faint glow, I did. When I got it, it was nothing than a shiny rock."

"You experimented on it?"

"Of course. They said power-- I wanted to know what it had. All I ever got it to do was glow slightly. Maria managed to get it to glow more, especially when she is in her... god form."

Agent Carter paused, and everyone straightened.

"Where is Maria now?" Steve asked.

"With Chief Sousa and Colonel Phillips," Agent Carter said. "He just arrived from Moscow."

"What was he doing there?" Steve asked, remembering Colonel Phillips from when he had transformed into Captain America. Colonel Phillips didn't think he could do it, yet here Steve was. He hadn't realized the man was still alive.

"Colonel Phillips wanted to rehabilitate some of Hydra scientists into SHIELD as a think tank," Howard said annoyed. "I know it sounds wonderful, like nothing could possibly go wrong with that." Sarcasm rippled off his tongue. "As long as he keeps them on a leash, we should be fine."

"Howard, can I get you anything?" Peggy asked kindly.

"Space and time. Scientists stay, and we'll work on this. We're going to need a plan-- or at least the Avengers will-- to get Thanos back to their time. We'll get the Soul Stone going."

"How long do you think it will take?"

"Please, Pegs. I'm a genius." Howard gave a confident smirk. "Now get out."

Slowly, the Avengers filed out of the room, assigned to either the scientist side or the fighting side. It was mostly the fighting. Howard stayed with Iron Man, Peter and Bruce. Howard sighed.

"Okay, you're from the future, Iron Man. You have an arc reactor. How does it work?" Howard asked.

Iron Man bit his bottom lip and lied, "I don't know. I got the designs and skills from you. I used your work to create this. It was all you."

Howard laughed. "Then we're screwed. I'm out of ideas." His tan fingers gripped his black hair, eyes bulging under the immense weight of understanding his own scribbles, his own math. What created the arc reactor? How did Iron Man perfect it? "How did you get my designs?" Howard asked Iron Man.

"What?"

"For the arc reactor-- how did you get my designs? If they're important, I assume I made sure they didn't fall into the wrong hands. Maria seems to trust you. How did you get my designs?"

Iron Man looked at Bruce, who swallowed and kept his eyes on the blueprints. Peter, on the other hand, eyed Howard Stark curiously. His nerves were strong, but he said nothing about the whole situation. Howard looked at Iron Man expectedly, yet the younger Stark couldn't find a lie to get out of it.

"Like you said, Maria trusts me. Isn't that enough?"

"For now because I need your answers, but later, I will get my answers."