Venus | James B. Barnes✔️

xvi. 𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚢𝚘𝚛𝚔

EVELYN HATED the new world. Everything was too loud. Too bright. Too much. She had accepted the fact that she was almost seventy years into the future. She had accepted the fact that Howard Stark was dead. She had accepted the fact that Bucky Barnes was dead. No one had mentioned Steve or Peggy, but she had accepted the worst. As Howa–Tony went through a drive-through for his favorite meal, which was cheeseburgers, he sipped on a soda while music played on the radio of the car. Evelyn could never imagine living in a world like this, yet she had no choice. Everything had evolved. Cars. Fast Food. Radio. Music. Cell Phones. It was a lot to take in.

"Where are we going?" Evelyn finally asked to break the awkward silence of Tony eating while driving. Evelyn had taken a few fries, but she was feeling sick again.

Tony glanced at her before saying, "Well, it was called Stark Towers, but after aliens attacked New York, I'm upgrading it to be called Avengers Tower. Avengers, we're a group of enhanced individuals who helped save the world," he answered her unasked question after he said Avengers. "There are six of us."

"Aliens?" Evelyn asked. "Actual aliens? What the hell happened to the world?"

Tony snorted a laugh as he drove. He smiled as Evelyn finally began to eat her cheeseburger, grinning at the taste. He could certainly say she was a Stark.

"Yeah. A God from another planet named Thor was on our little avenging team. His adopted brother went crazy and brought the aliens. We saved the world."

"And you? Do you have abilities?" she asked carefully, wondering if Howard or someone else had experimented on Tony. How else would he have abilities?

"Meet Mark 35," Tony said, gesturing to the back seat with his thumb. Evelyn turned, jumping at the large red and gold suit staring at her. It looked like a man. "Woah, don't be scared. It's an Iron Man suit. I'm Iron Man."

"Is someone in it?" Evelyn whispered.

"I normally am," he said with a laugh. "He's empty at the moment. Just here for precaution. After the aliens, I don't trust we're all that safe," Tony admitted.

Evelyn reached for her necklace, holding onto the rings. "I never trusted we were safe. Not after the war."

"Ah, right," Tony said quietly. "Yeah, Dad spoke a lot of you. Told me all about your genius ideas."

Evelyn smiled, thinking of Howard. "He was the real genius," she whispered, "I always aspired to be half the person he was."

Tony hummed in response before saying, "Funny. He said the same thing about you."

New York was different than the last time she had been there. Manhattan, New York was loud, but she tried to look at the positives instead of being negative. As they appeared in front of a large tower with an A on the top, she took a deep breath. Tony stepped out of the car, gesturing for his aunt to follow him.

Evelyn faked her confidence as she walked inside the tower. She met everyone's gaze without fail as they gushed at Tony's appearance. Of course, Tony was just like his father. Evelyn could remember the pair walking the streets of Brooklyn and having the world stare at him as if he was a celebrity. Hell, he was a celebrity. Evelyn could point out over a dozen similarities between Howard and Tony by just a few hours of being with him.

Tony extended his hand for Evelyn as they reached the elevator. There was still rubble being picked up, and he did not want her to trip. She took his hand as she stepped into the elevator, both dropping contact immediately as the elevator began to go up to the penthouse floor.

"Why did you leave?" Tony asked in the awkward silence. "Dad always blamed himself for your death. Said he should have left with you when you asked. Why did you want to leave?"

"James Barnes, my husband," she said, deciding he was her husband no matter that they never got it official, "had fallen from a moving train during a mission. Steve and I tried to reach him before he fell, but I couldn't grab his hand in time," she whispered. "There was this feeling... I knew he was alive still. Everyone wanted to finish Schmidt. Finish the war. No one wanted to come with me to just search... If he was dead, I wanted to see it for myself. Howie told me to wait, but all I could picture was Bucky freezing to death, so... I went. Didn't realize I took a bogus jet. Didn't realize I would be stuck there for seventy years."

Tony nodded as the elevator opened. He sighed, walking out and going straight to the bar. "Want anything?" he asked. She nodded. "Listen, I-I don't know what to do here."

"It's weird. I feel like I'm talking to Howard," she admitted to which Tony cringed.

"Wanna know what's weird? The fact that I'm older than my aunt. Isn't that a bit weird?" he asked as he took a shot almost as fast as his father. Evelyn smirked.

"You don't have to call me that. Just call me Evelyn," Evelyn said as she grabbed a glass from his extended hand. "It doesn't have to be weird. You go about your life... I can get by on my own."

Tony shook his head. "I'm not going to let you be alone," he said quickly. "You're family. God, family... haven't said that in years. Anyway," he added, "you own the rights to anything and everything Stark-related. I'll have Jarvis set you up with a connection to the Stark funds, and you can stay here or get your own place wherever you want. I do have to say that I made Pepper the CEO when I thought I was dying, so you'll have to share the company with her."

Evelyn furrowed her brows at all of the information he just spewed out. "Okay, one, who the hell is Jarvis? Two, Pepper... she is the one you called earlier. Is she your wife? Three, dying? And four, I don't need to share the company... it's your company."

"Jarvis," Tony called as if he was calling a person.

Suddenly, a voice answered, "Yes, sir?"

"Meet my aunt. Evelyn Stark," he said. "Add her to have access to everything and anything Stark-related, including your commands."

"Right away, sir."

Evelyn looked around, trying to find the source of the voice, but there was no one there. "Artificial Intelligence. He's a computer program designed to help you with anything. This reminds me—I have to leave tomorrow back to Malibu. I am going to leave you here with Jarvis to get you adapted to the world by allowing him to give you a crash course of seventy years worth of knowledge."

"Okay," she agreed, knowing no matter how much she wanted Tony to stay, she could not disrupt his life more than she already had.

Tony nodded. "Two, Pepper is my girlfriend. I made her CEO two years ago when the arc reactor in my chest was killing me." He unbuttoned the top of his shirt to show a metal machine hooked into his chest. "Hi, yes, number three. Dying. I have shrapnel near my heart. This keeps it from killing me. A few years ago, the metal was killing me—Palladium, toxic. My father left me some notes, and I rediscovered a new element, which is now keeping me safe."

"You're a very interesting man, Tony," she said with a teasing grin as she sipped her glass. "You've told me only a few things about your life, and most include you being close to death."

Tony shrugged. "Welcome to my life."

"Continue," she said.

"And four, you're a Stark. Pepper can get you a job in the company if that's what you want. If you don't want anything to do with the company, also fine. The main thing is you being happy. I can't imagine being a popsicle that was defrosted in a new century," he quipped.

"I feel like Frankenstein meets Dracula," Evelyn said as she remembered using the same characters to describe the German idiot who tried to threaten her in 1942.

Tony snorted a laugh. "What?"

"The only reason I'm alive is that I am a science experiment. I should be dead."

"But you're not," Tony said quickly. "You're alive for some reason. Make the most of it."