❝The only people who don't know Erik and Toni love each other, are Erik and Toni.❞
x-men x avengers crossover, au timeline
fem!tony stark x erik lehnsherr
slow burn, strangers to lovers
book [ 1 / 3 ] in 'heroes assembled' trilogy
cover by @saturns...
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The room was quiet. Too quiet for anyone's liking. The air was heavy with the tension. Merely hours ago they nearly died to the Titans, a high—tech weapons created by HYDRA to target and kill people.
The death of their close friend Steve Rogers — Captain America — which happened barely two hours ago, his sacrifice so that they could do this in hopes of making things better.
Maria was sitting in one of the chairs, fingers wrapped around the locket hanging from her neck. The young girl anxiously looked at her mother who was circling around the machine, a dark look on her face while she examined everything.
Someone touched the girl's shoulder, instantly causing her to turn around. She looked up at her bigger half brother and let out a long sigh. "Do you think," she stopped for a second to swallow, "do you think it will work?"
The older boy — now a man — sat in the empty chair next to hers. "Of course it will. Mom is a certified genius after all, isn't she." He smiled at her, "It will work — it has to."
On the other side of the room the certified genius was leaning against one of, if not her most complex, creations. The time machine.
She turned to her husband, twisting the wedding band on her finger. "I'm scared — I'm so fucking scared. That something is gonna go wrong, that I'm gonna fuck something up. But worst of all, I'm scared that the future is unchangeable. That this is . . . inevitable."
"It's not." A third voice interrupted their conversation. "Every single choice we ever made had some influence on our future. The things we did are the things that lead us here. If only one thing changes everything will too."
"Go away, Charles."
"Erik, be nice." His wife scolded him. "Hello, baldy."
"Antonia be nice." Erik said, mimicking her voice.
She turned to look at him, ready to argue and she would have had it not been for the remaining Avengers and X-Men approaching them.
Toni looked at the faces of her friends. There weren't as many as she would have liked to be. Nearly half of them were dead. So obviously something was missing — they were missing.
Bucky, Bruce and Clint were last that was left from the Avengers. Thor was dealing with his own realm falling apart so they couldn't count him in.
Raven and Peter were the last from the X-Men.
And then there was her, Erik and Charles.
As well as Maria, but with her only being 11 and barely being able to control her mutation they couldn't count her as someone old enough to fight. She was more than capable but with the possibility of her not being able to trust her own mutation they kept her sheltered most of the time.
"Well, friends and family . . . are we ready to do this?" Toni asked, running her fingers gently over the buttons on the machine.
Bruce moved to stand next to her. The two of them spent countless hours working on that machine together, they did everything they could do in order to make sure it does what it was made for. "As ready as I'll ever be."
"We overlooked something," Raven said. "The Avengers and the X-Men need to unite in order to stop this. Which means that we can't send any of us back —"
" — because it would mean that our present self would need to interact with our younger self. Which, even considering the current situation, is not something that we should risk." Toni filled in. She did something that became her nervous habit over the time, she snapped her fingers.
"Fuck!" She yelled watching one of the empty chairs rise and hit the wall. "Fuck fuck fuck. How did we not think about this — how did we forget this. Goddammit! Changing the machine is going too take too much of the time we don't have."
"I'll do it," Maria said.
Her statement was immediately met with a 'no' from everyone present, making the young girl scoff. "Like it or not I am our last chance. I am the only one who wasn't there in that time period because I wasn't born — therefore I'm the only one who can go back."
"Absolutely not." Erik told her, "I'd rather keep fighting this fight for as long as I can than allow you to go back. You'd be completely alone Mar — and not only that but you would need to convince two rather stubborn people," he looked over at Charles and Toni who both glared at him, "to unite their teams and work together. And the only reason they would have to believe you is what they would be able to see in your mind. But even that is no guarantee that you can convince them without giving away things they aren't supposed to know."
"Guys!" Clint called out. "I know it's not the time but there's four Titans marching towards our doorstep."
Maria looked at Erik with panic in her eyes. "Dad, I know you're scared. I am too — we all are. But if I don't do this, the only option remaining is to fight until we die which might be sooner than you think."
Erik grimaced, looking over at Toni. He titled his head to the side, silently asking her for her opinion.
Toni ran her hand trough her hair. "I don't like this," she said. "I don't like this at all. But Erik, our daughter is right. She is our last and only chance of creating a better future. So it doesn't matter if I don't like it — we need to have faith in her and her decision."
After a couple of long tense seconds Erik nodded. He knelled down next to his daughter and put both of his hands on her shoulders, "Maria Eddie Lehnsherr, you are the bravest and smartest child I've ever met. This journey isn't going to be easy, but I believe you can do this. Because you can do anything you put your mind to."
He got up and gave his wife an encouraging nod. Maria quickly stepped on the platform, putting on the bracelet that would ensure her return.
"How long is it going to take?" Raven asked, trying not to show her own nervousness about everything happening.
"For us, just a minute." Bruce replied.
"For her, however long she needs." Toni finished.
"Aw, have fun meeting younger me, little sister." Peter told her, waving at her from where he was sitting.
"Ready?" Toni and Bruce asked together.
"Yes," Maria replied without a hint of hesitation. "Don't worry guys. I'll see you in a minute." And then with a quick press of a button and a little flash — she was gone.
