Mark Ellis had always thought reincarnation would come with some sort of ceremony. Trumpets, a glowing tunnel, a cloaked figure offering cryptic wisdom. But instead, he'd woken up in a New York City apartment that wasn't his, with a headache the size of Manhattan and a mirror that showed his face—only slightly younger.
The strange part? No one questioned it. Not his neighbors, not his landlord, not even the coffee shop barista who greeted him like an old regular.
Same name. Same face. But a different world.
At first, Mark chalked it up to a vivid lucid dream or a mental break. That was, until the date on the paper caught his eye: March 7, 2013.
"What the hell?" he muttered, rereading the headline:
Stark Industries Rebuilds: CEO Tony Stark Declares End to Weapons Contracts
That couldn't be right. He was from 2025. And Tony Stark had been dead for years. But here Stark was—alive, making headlines.
Mark froze.
His mind scrambled, flipping through Marvel movie timelines like a cinematic Rolodex.
Battle of New York happened in 2012... so this must be after Avengers 1... Iron Man 3 takes place in 2013, right?
He turned on the television. Just in time to catch the tail end of a news report.
"...and in other news, rumors continue about a mysterious explosion in Tennessee linked to Stark. Details remain unclear."
Boom. Tennessee. The Iron Man 3 storyline. Mark's pulse quickened. "No way. No freaking way."
He ran to the bookshelf, pulled out a city guide, flipped to the map. His fingers traced the East Coast down to Florida. That's where the final confrontation with Killian happened.
This wasn't a simulation. It wasn't a coma dream.
This was the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
And it was 2013.
Mark sank into the worn leather couch. "Okay. Think. What do I know that no one else does?"
A lot, actually. Extremis. The Mandarin twist. The true HYDRA infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D. that wouldn't be exposed until Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The fact that Thanos was out there, biding his time.
But first things first. If this really was the MCU, he needed to confirm it with something indisputable. Something only this universe could show him.
He grabbed his coat and stepped out into the chilly March air, heading straight for the heart of Manhattan.
Three Hours Later — Midtown, NYC
He stopped outside a towering, high-tech building. It gleamed in the sun like a monument to the future. Letters at the top read:
STARK TOWER
Still intact. Not the Avengers compound yet. That wouldn't come until Age of Ultron. But here it was. The center of it all.
He spotted a small crowd gathered across the street, phones out, whispering excitedly. Something was happening. A blur of red and gold shot across the sky.
Iron Man.
Mark's mouth went dry. This was real. He was here. In the MCU. In 2013. Pre-HYDRA exposure. Pre-Ultron. Pre-snap.
And unlike everyone else, he knew the timeline. He knew what was coming. The problem?
He didn't know if he was supposed to change it.
Was he here to stop Thanos before it began? To warn the Avengers about HYDRA, or to somehow steer events in a better direction?
Or—God forbid—was this some multiversal test? Something Kang or the TVA might be watching?
He took a shaky breath.
One thing was certain. The clock had started ticking. The first domino had already fallen.
And Mark Ellis had thirteen years of MCU knowledge in his head—and no idea what to do with it.