IRON RESOLVE

Thankfully, for the sake of Tony's ego, getting Helen Cho and Maya Hansen working together under the Stark Industries umbrella is surprisingly easy—easier than he had even expected. He has his suspicions about why this is, though he knows better than to voice them aloud.

Put bluntly, while Killian had likely faced obstacles in the form of the U.S. and South Korean governments, there was also the simple fact that Dr. Cho had no reason to fight for it on her end. She had been busy with her own research at U-GIN, with no desire to split her focus between that and whatever AIM had wanted from her.

Stark Industries, on the other hand, was a worldwide brand—a household name even in South Korea. Tony's dramatic return from captivity, coupled with his speech about expanding his company into new fields, had been more than enough to catch Helen Cho's attention.

It also helped that he had sent her a few breadcrumbs in the form of Extremis scans. That wasn't something Aldrich Killian would have ever done—mainly because the man was paranoid and assumed everyone was as cutthroat and selfish as he was. But Tony knew Helen from the future, and he knew exactly what kind of woman she was. The worst-case scenario was that she used what he had sent to jumpstart the Regeneration Cradle years ahead of schedule—without him. But that was precisely what Tony wanted from her anyway.

In the end, it worked out even better than expected. Once she had learned about Extremis, Dr. Cho had practically fallen over herself to get on board. And while U-GIN wasn't owned by Stark Industries the way AIM now was, Tony had gone ahead and bought ten percent of their research group as a show of good faith.

As he had told Maya, he had brought Helen and U-GIN onboard without seducing the South Korean scientist. At least for now, it was probably best to keep things professional. After all, he and Pepper already had their hands full with Maya—who, as it turned out, was a rather needy lover. Not that either of them were complaining.

Indeed, as long as work on Extremis and the Regeneration Cradle continued, Tony had no complaints whatsoever. With the combined genius of Maya, Helen, and himself—plus his future knowledge—they were making steady progress.

However, that wasn't to say everything was smooth sailing. There was one minor issue with this stage of Tony's plan… he had never actually perfected Extremis in the future.

After Maya's death, all Tony had done was figure out how to remove it from Pepper. And then, after the disastrous battle in Siberia, he had used Extremis—combined with the Regeneration Cradle—to survive the surgery that removed the shards of metal from his chest and repaired the massive hole in his sternum.

But that was it.

He had never perfected it, never made it safe. It had been a temporary surgical aid—nothing more. Once the procedure was done, he had purged it from his system to avoid the risk of spontaneous combustion.

That wasn't good enough this time.

Tony wanted permanence.

Extremis was too good to let languish, even if they only managed to stabilize it at the level he had achieved in the future. But he wanted more than that.

Unfortunately, they were hitting a wall. Helen and her team were making steady progress on the Regeneration Cradle and would likely finish it in a few months, but Maya had stalled out on Extremis. After the initial wave of breakthroughs, she was clearly frustrated.

That was when Tony had an idea.

It came to him while thinking about that ill-advised battle in Siberia. As furious as he had been, taking on two Super Soldiers by himself—even in the Iron Man armor—had been a terrible idea.

Still… Super Soldiers.

Tony knew exactly how valuable Super Soldier blood was. Valuable enough to kill his parents for.

He hadn't made any moves toward Bucky Barnes yet. Doing so would draw too much attention. And he hadn't tried to retrieve Steve Rogers either. That was a different problem.

The issue with finding Steve was that the Valkyrie was still shifting beneath the ice. Tony knew where SHIELD would find it in a few years, but if he went to that location now, it wouldn't be there. And since SHIELD wasn't set to find Steve for some time yet, knowing the future location didn't exactly help—especially given the sheer size of the search area.

So, for now, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes were off the table.

But they weren't the only Super Soldiers on the planet, were they?

Tony had five other options—all he had to do was confront one of the worst moments of his past life.

Coming in for a landing at the abandoned Soviet facility in Siberia, Tony barely made a sound—clad in Sneaky as he was. The Mark XV armor was designed for this kind of mission, thankfully. Still, as he looked around, he couldn't help but be a little amazed.

"J? Any signs of activity?"

JARVIS's voice came through his speakers, a comforting presence—especially in this place. Tony wished he had had JARVIS the first time around.

"No, sir. The facility is completely dormant. There are no signs of life."

Tony slowly nodded, glancing out at the frozen wasteland behind him.

"And our friends back home?"

"None the wiser, sir. I am monitoring SHIELD and HYDRA communications as we speak. Neither seem aware of your absence from America nor your presence at this facility."

Crazy.

He had half-expected to find this place crawling with activity—or at the very least a skeleton crew. In the original timeline, by the time Zemo had led them all here, the Avengers had already dismantled HYDRA, leaving its survivors scattered and in hiding. So it made sense that the facility had been abandoned then.

But now?

HYDRA was practically thriving at this point in history. And yet, hilariously enough, they had lost track of their five extra Winter Soldiers.

Tony had eventually uncovered what probably happened.

It was honestly… insane.

On December 16th, 1991—the day he had last seen his parents—Howard and Maria Stark had been assassinated by Barnes. The stolen Super Soldier serum, created from Steve Rogers' blood, had been smuggled across the world to this facility. HYDRA's best hit squad had been flown in to receive it.

The new Winter Soldiers had been injected almost immediately, after which they were pitted against Barnes to see if they could surpass him.

And they had.

But they had also gone rogue—displaying sociopathic tendencies and killing some of their handlers. The situation had escalated so quickly that they had been stuffed into cryostasis until higher-ups could be contacted.

But no one had ever been contacted.

Barnes had been flown out for his next mission. And just a few days later, on December 26th, 1991… the Soviet Union had collapsed. The facility's remaining staff had decided to cut their losses and run.

HYDRA had lost track of five Super Soldiers just ten days after making them.

And now, Tony Stark was about to fix their mistake.

The room housing the cryostasis pods was exactly as he remembered it. Five frozen killers lay within, faces locked in an eerie stillness.

In the original timeline, Zemo had put a bullet in each of their heads, eliminating them before they could ever be used.

Tony wasn't that merciful.

He found the kill switch—buried deep in the control panel—and activated it. Gas flooded each pod. One by one, their vitals flatlined.

"The kill switch worked, sir. Life signs have ceased."

"Good."

One by one, Tony opened the pods. Then, nodding, he gave JARVIS the command.

Five stealth armors swooped in, retrieving the lifeless bodies. Super Soldier DNA, ready for extraction.

Now all that was left was to make sure no one knew they had ever been here.

"Let's get out of here, J."

This time, he would be the one using the Super Soldiers.

And Extremis would finally be perfected.