Summary: Every villain in the galaxy wants to get their hands on the time travel technology. The remaining Avengers led by Tony, Steve, Bruce, and Clint must protect the tech, its inventors, and all of Earth from alien invaders. POST-ENDGAME. TONY'S ALIVE & STEVE STAYED. Whump, friendship, drama, bromance. Ch 1: The Redemption of Bucky Barnes.

The 3000 Era
PenPatronus
Chapter 1
The Redemption of Bucky Barnes

The decimated red gauntlet lay harmless on the dark ground. Infinity Stones glittered in the returning sunlight. The last flakes of dust disintegrated. Tony Stark's eyes were open, but unseeing.

The Wakandans and Asgardians were all shouting, chanting a single word over and over in their native tongues. Steve didn't need to translate either language to know they were yelling "VICTORY!" The racket crescendoed as if they were playing that childhood game where whoever makes the most noise wins. One side clanged swords together, causing a jingle to echo across the battlefield, while the other banged staffs and boots against the ground. Thor turned and marched away towards his brothers while T'Challa approached the crowd gathering around Tony Stark's body. Swords stopped clanging. Thor must have told them what Tony did, and what it cost. A second later, after seeing Pepper weeping over Tony's body, T'Challa yelled and his people went quiet. The news spread across the battlefield of human and alien warriors. Silence settled. One by one every survivor saluted, knelt on one knee, or held their fists against their chests and bowed their heads in respect.

Thor returned with Clint and a human Bruce. The four surviving Avengers stood side by side, creating a semi-circle around Tony's body. Thor put his hand on Banner's shoulder. Bruce, who was crying unashamedly, reached behind Steve's back and grasped Clint's elbow. Then he put his other hand on Steve's right shoulder while Barton did the same with Steve's left. The foursome folded together, clinging to one another in grief. Pepper rose, then. She turned, eyes and nose red and lips trembling, and fell into Rhodey's open arms with a wail. Steve waited for a moment to see if she would return to her husband but when she didn't, it was he who leaned over and gently closed Tony's eyes. That, somehow more than anything else, made Tony's death real. Steve's tears fell onto his cheeks and his chin fell to his chest.

"Dr. Banner."

Bruce wiped his eyes with his undamaged hand and turned to find Dr. Strange. The Parker kid stood beside him, sniffling. Strange removed his cloak and Bruce watched, stunned, as the cloak floated over to the dropped Iron Man gauntlet and wrapped itself tight around the Infinity Stones. Wong and a half dozen other wizards stood guard above it. Strange shifted to reveal a small crowd behind him that included Rocket and Nebula. The tree was there. Bruce remembered it. The others were foreign. One woman was green.

"Dr. Banner, this is Peter Quill," Strange introduced. "Mr. Quill and his friends are…Allies."

"They're cool," said Parker with a strained voice. He sniffed hard. His eyes kept bouncing back and forth between Bruce and Tony.

Thor joined them. "They are cool, indeed," he said, vouching for the Guardians. Thor nodded at them in greeting.

Quill stepped forward. He stood leaning a bit to the left with his fists in his pockets. "He, um, he was a good man," Quill said, glancing at Tony.

"He was the best of us," Bruce said with what sounded like a head cold.

Quill cleared his throat. "There, uh, there are Morelians here. Came through one of the portals. Nice folk. Smart types. Pink."

"Exceptionally intelligent," the green woman interjected. "Morelians are known across the galaxy for their inventions. It's rumored that they can even bring back people from the dead."

"What?" Bruce whispered.

The Guardians parted and a short, elderly, pink woman approached dragging an assault rifle. Her lengthy hair was a darker shade of pink and her eyes were a shade lighter. She smiled at a Bruce with an empathetic expression. When she held her hand out, Bruce took it, and squeezed back. The old woman spoke then in a language that sounded like a hybrid of Polish and Swahili with an Australian accent. "She wants to know if it's true," Quill translated. "If it's true that Stark sacrificed himself to destroy Thanos."

"Thanos declared that he was going to destroy everything," Thor explained. "Tony Stark sacrificed himself to save the entire universe."

The pink woman's eyebrows closed ranks in sorrow. She said something else, and Quill translated her words precisely: "Our voices will tell every star in the galaxy about Tony Stark. A thousand generations will know his name."

"Thank you," said Bruce.

The woman cocked her head to one side, and then the other. Quill hesitated after she spoke once more. "I—I don't know that word," he admitted. "Gamora?"

"She asked if you have resurrection technology," said the green woman. The pink woman said some more things—several sentences followed several sentences. "It's true," Gamora sighed, sharing surprised looks with the Guardians. "The Morelians can resurrect mortals, but…"

"But what?" Clint appeared between Bruce and Thor. Like everyone else he was sweaty, bloody, and coated with fine dirt. His eyes shone with fresh grief.

Gamora hesitated, then explained, "The Morelians never, ever allow anyone but their own to use that technology. Their government forbids them from sharing any of their inventions with us 'lower' mortals. Never in the history of their civilization have they made an exception."

The pink woman smiled up at the three Avengers. She spoke two words. "Until now," Quill and Gamora translated simultaneously.

Banner and Thor grasped each other's shoulders in joy, in relief. Clint remained expressionless. There was no hope in his eyes. "What will it cost?" he whispered.

Instantly the woman lowered her eyes to the ground. She shifted her feet, causing her ankle-length gown to sway. She spoke without looking up. Quill translated without looking up. "The Morelians know that you used time travel. They want the technology. If you give it to them, they'll save Stark's life."

"NO." Bruce, Thor, and Clint stepped aside when Cap spoke. Steve entered the crowd with Mjolnir and his shield back in his hands. Tears had washed away some of the dirt on his fierce, pale face. The pink woman's height, frailty, and anxious expression didn't stop him from leaning forward into her personal space and repeating, "No."

"Adore," the pink woman said.

"Adore," said Gamora. "That is her name in Terran."

"Adore," Steve acknowledged. His posture didn't change. "Return to your government, Adore, and tell them they will never, ever get that technology. Nobody will. That tech stays with us."

Bruce grabbed Cap's sleeve. "Steve, if they can help, don't we owe this to Tony? Steve, don't you want him back?"

The look on Cap's face when he stared back at Bruce made the doctor backpedal several paces. Bruce, Thor, and Clint saw raw grief there that multiplied their own. "Imagine what could happen if time travel got into the wrong hands!" Steve hissed. "We can't let what happened here today be undone."

"But—" Thor began.

Steve turned his full attention to Bruce. "You know this is what Tony would want. He destroyed his weapons when he saw them in the hands of terrorists. He'd rather see the time travel tech destroyed than used against us. I'm sorry." Steve's voice broke. "I'm sorry, but I know this is what he would want."

Silence. Lingering. It was broken by a new voice. "He's right," Pepper Potts declared, joining the large group with Rhodes. "Steve is right," she sniffled.

Adore suddenly smiled, broadly, showing off coral-colored teeth. The alien woman spread her arms wide, looked at Clint, Thor, Bruce, Steve, and Pepper, and then declared something loudly. Quill exchanged an excited look with Gamora. "She says this was a test! She—She needed to know for sure that you wouldn't let the tech get into the wrong hands! She says it must be protected as carefully as the Infinity Stones, and she trusts you to take care of both. And for your reward… As a reward she WILL help Stark. She'll save him!"

Pepper fell to her knees before Adore and took her hands. Eyes shining, face desperate, trembling, Pepper said, "Thank you" and "Please, hurry." Adore pressed a kiss against Pep's forehead.

Scott Lang, T'Challa, Bucky, and Wanda were standing around the body, giving their respects to Stark, when Adore approached with a crowd behind her. At her instruction, Steve gently picked Tony up into his arms, carried him to a flat bit of ground, and laid him down there, flat on his back. He gestured for everyone to give them some room.

Adore reached into a pocket and took out what looked like a hybrid of a potato peeler and a pair of pliers. She held the device in the air above Tony's body and circled him like a cop outlining a murder victim in chalk. When she finished she flicked the device, and a holographic image of the inside of Tony's body floated above the corpse like a ghost. Steve stepped forward and stared down at 3D bones, organs, and muscle. The hologram was transparent except for serrated lines of black that stretched from Tony's right hand to every quadrant of his body. Nearly every bone in his rib cage was cracked. His spine was twisted. The bones that made up his right hand were just confetti. His liver was in three pieces.

The alien sighed. "Damage," Quill interpreted. "Extensive. His organs are…" Quill cleared his throat. "Cooked." Adore nodded. Her face drooped. "Human anatomy is... foreign. Uncanny? That might be the wrong word—sorry, guys." The alien pointed her device at Tony's heart and spoke again. "Yes!" Quill said, eyes wide. "Yes, that organ is important!"

Adore turned to Pepper. In broken English she said, "Dead body needs new dead body or dead body is dead."

"What?" Pepper sniffed. "I d-don't understand."

The alien pointed at Tony, then at Pepper. Then he pointed at Tony's closed eyes, then at Pepper's working eyes. Repeating the gesture, she pointed at Tony's twisted ankle and then at Steve's whole one. Quill had to listen to the alien repeat herself twice before he understood. "I think she's talking about transplants. She's saying that we need to replace Tony's organs."

"He can have my kidney," Steve, Clint, and Rhodey all said at once.

Quill wrinkled his nose. "It's more complicated than that. Stark needs new lungs, new bones, new skin… A new heart. And he needs it soon—he needs it NOW."

Pepper swayed a bit and grasped Rhodey's elbow. "Got my hopes up," she whispered.

"We don't trade lives," Steve whispered to himself. He knelt at Tony's side. He touched the dead reactor in the center of Tony's chest, and then cupped his burned cheek. "But I'll happily trade mine, for you," he told Tony. Steve stood. "I'll do it," he announced. Cap held his arms out as if surrendering. "Take anything you want from me. Take everything from me. If my life can save his, then take it."

"No!" voices cried.

"You can't be serious," Rhodes said, a bit reluctantly.

"Cap, no," said Scott. "I'm sorry about Stark but… No!"

"Steve…" Bruce shifted from side to side. He toed a bit of debris and then kicked it away. "This isn't what Tony would want."

"This is my choice," Cap said. "This is how I… I want to thank him. I owe him this. We all owe him. He saved the universe." Steve took a long, lingering inhale. "I volunteer. Do it, Adore. Do it now."

Every witness jumped when a figure slammed the butt of his rifle into the back of Cap's head. Steve collapsed to one knee, then the other and then, after swaying for a solid five seconds, ended up face down in the dirt. "Thanks for being with me," Bucky Barnes told his unconscious friend, "until the end of the line." Barnes set his weapon down, shrugged towards the crowd, then said, "I volunteer."

To Be Continued

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