Stark exhaled through his nose, one hand lying flat on the edge of the desk, his fingers tapping lightly on the surface.
"We all feel regret about this," Natasha, propping her head with her hand, said, "but everyone has misfortunes in their past. In order not to affect the future, we absolutely cannot use time travel to compensate for those regrets."
Stark suddenly looked up, Natasha had already stood up from the chair and began pacing behind the desk, while Stark's eyes moved back and forth following her.
"All employees of the Time Management Bureau follow this principle: we can only be spectators of time, never influencing the characters within the timeline, because once someone's destiny is altered, everything in the future related to them will change," she said.
"Such changes may not necessarily be for the better, and often they can lead to even greater disasters. It's merely the difference between a lingering pain and a brief one, a moment of soft-heartedness only creates more tragedies..."
Natasha was never one to talk this much, alarm bells were going off in Stark's mind.
Previously, Stark's genius brain filled with wisdom had never veered in this direction; he did not use his intellect to unravel those complicated social interaction puzzles. He let them pass by, like water flowing before his eyes, even if the torrent of background noise completely engulfed him, he could still find joy in his brain's brilliant inventions, unconcerned by it all.
That is the kind of person he was, outwardly very concerned about how others saw him, basking in their praise, but in reality, he did not care at all, treating it with indifference, as if it didn't exist.
But now, at this moment, a certain area of his brain was illuminated, and the answers to those social codes, which to him were more complex than any mathematical formula, were laid bare.
"Yes," Stark said, staring at Natasha, "interfering with the past too easily brews temporal catastrophes, but if essentially the outcome isn't changed, isn't that equivalent to not having interfered?"
"That's purely sophistry," Natasha said. "As long as you've participated in the past, it's impossible not to have an influence."
"You said we are alike."
Natasha turned to look at Stark, who crossed his hands in front of him and said, "Especially our childhoods and adolescent years, the most similar aspect being that both the Hamiltons and the Starks died at Hydra's hands."
"If that's the case..." Stark also stood up, flipping the tail of his suit coat, hands in pockets, leaning forward as he stared at Natasha, "does it make a difference whether he was adopted by the Hamiltons or by the Starks?"
Natasha revealed a broad smile and said, "I can't be sure, after all, I'm not the genius Stark who possesses a brilliant intellect, I'm just a minor SHIELD agent."
Stark also smiled, extending his hand as if holding a glass and said, "A toast to this minor agent, ma'am, farewell."
After Stark turned around, his eyelids drooped, and numerous keywords began to echo in his mind, finally one keyword caught his eye.
"Helen!! Helen!!!"
Standing on the roof of Stark Building, Stark removed his mask and yelled toward Helen; soon, a small shadow descended from the sky and crashed into Stark's embrace.
"What's the matter?"
"What are you up to?" Stark pushed her a little away and said, "Sneaking off for some pastries again?"
"No, just had a bit of Solar Wind for afternoon tea," Helen jumped down to the ground, looking up at Stark said, "Why are you still here at this hour? Shouldn't you be accompanying Pepper for her check-up?"
"She went shopping," Stark holding Helen's hand and walking toward the doorway of the rooftop said, "I have a favor to ask you."
"What is it?"
"Where is Loki?"
"Her? She's been quite busy lately," Helen scratched her head and said, "And very secretive, not taking me with her, and won't say what she's doing."
"Do you know when she has some free time?"
Helen shook her head, looking up at Stark inquired, "Is there something very important you need her for? If you really need to find her, it's not impossible, but you'd have to write a letter to Thor. Only he has Loki's emergency contact."
Stark pondered for a moment, then said, "I heard she's quite familiar with the employees of Time Management Bureau, and that she also practices magic."
"What's so special about that?" Helen, beating her chest said, "I'm also very familiar with the employees of Time Management Bureau, and I too can perform magic."
"You can do magic? Since when?"
With a sigh of resignation, Helen said, "You forgot? I have the bloodline of the Aesir, I have divine power! Plus, don't you also practice magic?"
That was when Stark realized, having spent so much time on Earth, he had almost forgotten he was a Demon God himself.
However, many within the cosmos still paid attention to the Iron Demon God; he'd better not show himself too easily, to prevent causing panic. So he said to Helen, "Can you take me to the Time Management Bureau?"
"I can do that, but what are you going to do there?"
"Of course, I'm going there to take care of some serious business, let's go."
The two quickly arrived at the Time Management Bureau, and, as expected, Nick wasn't there. They were received by Mobius instead.
Helen was indeed very familiar with Mobius, and while they chatted, Stark took a stroll in the corridor and, sure enough, saw an office for managing temporal affairs.
His eyes focused on the time machines hanging from the employees' waists. If he remembered correctly, this device was what could traverse time.
Soon, Stark, using the pretext of wanting to tour the Time Management Bureau, handed over Helen. Pulling at his sleeve, Helen asked, "Why are you acting so sneaky? What are you really up to?"
"I want to travel through time, but I don't want anyone to know. Do you think their time management machines are useful?"
"That thing? They all have locks on them, useless." Seeing Stark's slightly disappointed expression, Helen giggled and said, "But I have a useful one here."
Helen produced a time machine, obviously the one she had swallowed the first time she came to the Time Management Bureau with Loki. She handed it to Stark, then said, "The lock on this has been broken by me; you can travel through time freely now."
"However, you should know about the Time Management Regulations, right? If you rashly alter the past, it could lead to the future…"
"Don't worry, I have a plan." Stark happily took the machine but still said to Helen, "There's one more thing, though. I need to change my appearance to go back to my childhood. Can you use magic to help?"
"I can do that, but you need to remember what you looked like as a child, otherwise it's easy to turn out very weird," Helen said.
"Let's do it." Stark clenched his fist, clearly filled with some sort of resolve.
Stark successfully returned to his teenage years, around the age of 13. At this stage, his parents were still alive, but even after Howard and Maria were revived later on, Stark wasn't too excited, at most feeling a bit sentimental looking at their youthful faces.
Howard was still quite sober at that time, not yet in the state of a drunken stupor that he would be in later; he could fully be considered a good father and a great hero in Stark's eyes.
However, these good times didn't last long. Stark remembered that around when he was 15, just as he had started at Harvard, things began to change. According to the current timeline, that would be in about two years.
If he waited until then, it would probably be too late to change anything, so Stark needed to act immediately.
Finding Shiller was difficult since he was just an ordinary orphan then, but reaching out to the Hamilton couple was much easier because they were well-known scientists. Stark could simply contact them under the guise of a related project team.
Stark didn't plan to involve his parents in this stage of the plan, as it would be too weird to rashly tell them to adopt a certain orphan. It was better to let them come to the realization and suggest it themselves.
Stark quickly contacted the Hamilton couple, of course in the name of Stark Group, and using technical means he verified their movements and learned that they were in close communication with the head of a certain orphanage.
It seemed that this orphanage was likely the one Shiller was in, but now a problem arose: if the Hamiltons were already set on adopting, what reason did the Starks have to swoop in? Stark realized he would have to find a way himself.
After several days of observation, Stark noticed that he truly had been naive in his youth, failing to perceive the changes in his parents. The signs were there two years prior.
Howard's work started to get very busy, and he spent less and less time with him. Maria was also busy with other affairs, uncertain when she would be home, often leaving Stark in Obadiah's care. Then Obadiah, too, became busy, and the Stark Mansion was left with him and the old butler.
The butler, Jarvis, was quite old by then and taking care of a child was beginning to be a strain. This was the main reason for Stark's subsequent rebelliousness – during his most sensitive teenage years, everyone was neglecting him.
While Stark was fond of the time spent with the old butler, he hadn't forgotten there were serious matters to attend to. He chose a day when Obadiah was free to set him up with a computer, then began tinkering in his room.
Stark figured that if Shiller couldn't attract his parents' attention, then he would have to do it himself. The best way was to create the image of a young genius.
Stark knew Shiller's level of scientific research all too well; at this age, he probably couldn't even screw in a lightbulb properly, but that didn't matter — wasn't it just about creating a god? Couldn't Stark come up with something to astonish Howard with his own genius?
Howard was indeed astonished, but not by anything Stark had made; rather, it was because his hovercar had found a software system that matched perfectly, as if tailor-made for Stark Industries.
Following some investigation, Howard discovered the software was the work of a little boy in an orphanage using an old computer. He was immediately astounded and sent Obadiah to investigate what was going on with this boy.
The results of the investigation surprised him; the boy named Shiller showed a jaw-dropping talent in computer engineering.
Howard, being a pure businessman, wouldn't hesitate when it came to gain; he immediately contacted the orphanage staff, wanting to know more about the boy.
Upon learning that he might be adopted by the Hamiltons, Howard quickly discussed it with Maria and Tony, ultimately deciding to adopt him.