The Surface of the Moon
"I've realized something—I must be completely crazy. Instead of spending the first day of 2012 with my girlfriend Wanda, I'm spending it on the moon with another man."
Wearing combat armor, Linen stood on the lunar surface, looking at Tony Stark, who was hopping around under low gravity, and complained helplessly.
After adjusting the gravity settings of his armor and confirming that it could walk and fly just like on Earth, Tony turned around with a grin.
"Come on, buddy. Spending the first day of the new year together on the moon—this is the ultimate romance for men, okay?"
"Romance?" Linen scoffed. "Then why don't you go be romantic with Steve?"
Walking over to Tony, Linen smiled.
"You know Steve was worried and wanted to come with us."
"In the end, you rejected him without mercy."
Hearing this, Tony shrugged.
"I was planning to let Steve come along at first."
"But since he postponed visiting Peggy Carter two days ago just to come to the moon with us, I decided not to let him join."
Tony looked at Linen seriously.
"You need to understand—Peggy has been waiting for that day for more than seventy years."
"Steve too. Especially in the past two years—Peggy's health hasn't been good. She's developed Alzheimer's. Sometimes she doesn't even recognize me."
"I'm really afraid that if they miss this chance, they'll regret it for the rest of their lives."
Looking into Tony's unusually sincere eyes, Linen fell silent for a few seconds before nodding.
At Tony's funeral in the original timeline, the words Pepper engraved on the Arc Reactor had been absolutely correct.
Tony Stark might be arrogant and sharp-tongued, but deep down, he had an incredibly warm heart.
"By the way, Linen," Tony said casually, "do you think we'll have a chance to build a time machine in the future?"
As the two of them flew side by side across the moon's surface, Tony scanned the terrain, searching for any unusual structures or traces.
Though his tone sounded casual, Tony genuinely wanted to know how his future self and the Avengers might manage to invent time travel.
He had absolutely no idea.
He'd asked the other Avengers, but none of them had a clue either.
He had even asked Rhodey while drunk, only to be told to watch two sci-fi movies—Back to the Future and Groundhog Day.
God help him.
If inspiration could really come from sci-fi movies, then screenwriters should all be scientists by now.
Besides, Groundhog Day was about a time loop—what did that have to do with a time machine?
After asking around and getting no useful answers, Tony guessed that maybe the Avengers of the future managed to invent time travel because of Linen.
Perhaps Linen had been the key inspiration.
Tsk… If a time machine could be built now, then no matter what happened in the future, there would always be a way to fix it.
Facing Tony's question, Linen knew exactly what he was thinking.
He glanced at the countless craters on the moon's surface, then shook his head.
"Time machines probably only belong in science fiction novels and movies."
"And even if we could really build one, it might not be a good thing."
"Huh?" Tony asked in surprise. "Why's that?"
"Tony, every one of us has regrets—things we wish we could fix. We've all imagined going back to the past and making different choices, haven't we?"
"That's true," Tony nodded.
"But once we truly gain the ability to return to the past and change events, that's equivalent to altering the entire direction of the future."
"Even the smallest change in the past could cause earth-shaking consequences down the line."
"For example, seventy years ago—if we went back and saved Steve from the plane crash…"
"There might not even be a Captain America in the Avengers today."
Hearing this, Tony fell silent for several seconds, thinking about those who now possessed the spoiler system and how their lives had already begun to deviate from the original timeline.
Finally, he nodded.
"You're right. Anyone who cheats time will eventually be punished by time."
Tony glanced at the monotonous lunar landscape.
"We won't find anything on the surface. Let's go, buddy—let's head to the far side of the moon."
"If my parents are still here, they'd most likely have set up camp on the dark side."
"Alright."
Nodding, Linen and Tony accelerated and flew toward the mysterious far side of the moon.
The Core of the Moon
On the moon's hidden side, two suits of armor flew low across the terrain.
Maria Stark's eyes were slightly red as she turned to her silent husband.
"Honey… are we really not going to meet our Tony?"
"Tony hasn't seen us for over twenty years. Even though we can watch him occasionally using the Frog Map equipment…"
"I can't imagine how lonely our little Tony must have been all these years…"
Seeing his wife's reddened eyes and trembling emotions, Howard Stark gently wrapped his arms around her.
"I miss our son too, Maria. But you know our responsibility."
"For the past twenty years, I've watched Tony go from curling up alone in his room and crying in regret… to becoming a drifter… and even being kidnapped in the Middle East."
"There were countless times when I wanted to appear before him."
"For Tony's future, I'd be willing to do anything."
"But, Maria… we can't."
As he spoke, Howard gently patted her back and looked toward the distant figures of Tony and Linen approaching the far side of the moon.
"They're almost here. Just wait a little longer."
"Once we find the next successor and the next Wall Keeper, we can return to Tony."
With that, Howard stood up and walked to a metal container. Opening it, he took out two syringes filled with green liquid.
For more than twenty years, he and Maria had relied on this to remain young and physically strong.
After all, no matter how powerful the Ultimate Eraser was, it was meaningless without a strong body to wield it.
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