A few things.
This takes place about a week before IW.
I am writing this because there are literally only 2 fanfics of this I can find.
And if I owned any of this, Peter and Loki would not be dead.
There is language.
Tony Stark groaned and rolled onto his back and sat up. He felt nauseous, like he was going to throw up. What did he eat?
"Where am I?" he muttered. "Where's the lab?"
"Tony?" a familiar voice said. Tony's eyes immediately snapped to the goddamn star spangled-man-with-a-plan Rogers. He narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" he growled. Steve glared back.
"I don't know. Did you do something?" he accused.
"Oh sure, blame me," Tony says.
"Mr. Stark?" Tony looked behind him. Peter was staggering to his feet, looking confused. "Where are we?"
"I don't know kid," he looked around. All the Avengers, except for Bruce and Thor, were groaning and staggering to their feet. There was also a teenage black girl that looked similar to T'challa. They were in a fairly large room with a large screen TV in front of them. A lot of couches sat behind them.
"Who are you?" Natasha pointed at Peter. She reached for her gun or a knife, only to find nothing. "What the- Where are my weapons?"
"Relax, he's-" out of the corner of his eye, he could see Peter mouthing 'don't tell them' behind Natasha's back. "-my intern."
"Thought you said interns were a waste, Tones," Rhodey looked at him weirdly.
"Peter's different. Who are you?" he pointed at the teenage girl.
"Princess Shuri of Wakanda," Shuri replied coolly.
Tony suddenly noticed Bucky was sitting behind Steve, looking like he wanted to disappear. He was about to open his mouth to say something about it when a voice suddenly called out.
"Ok, I'm gonna intervene here before a brawl starts. There will be absolutely NO FIGHTING. I just got that TV and I do not need it to be broken a week after I bought it thank you very much."
"Who's that," Bucky calls sharply. "Where's the voice coming from?"
"I already removed all weapons from you people," the voice continues, ignoring Bucky, "But seeing that some of you have super strength and powers and stuff I'm not taking any chances."
"Who are you," Tony demanded, looking up at the ceiling. "Some kind of AI?"
"No. And I don't feel comfortable sharing my name. Anyways, I brought-"
"Kidnapped," Wanda muttered.
"-you here to my theater to watch this movie of your near future."
"How'd you get a movie of our future?" asked Peter. "Actually, no. How do you even know our future? Are you some sort of seer maybe? Like Trelawney in Harry Potter?"
"No, I just walked into a library, checked out 'Avengers: Infinity War' and decided to throw all of you into a theater and force you to watch it."
The voice sounded so serious only Scott laughed (yes Scott was there).
"Really?" Natasha asked, doubtful.
"Sure. Anyway, any other stupid questions?"
"Yeah," Sam raised his hand. "How long is this movie, and what if we need to go to the bathroom."
"Two hours and forty minutes, and you won't have to. I placed my own sort of magic in here to make sure you don't miss a second of this movie. You won't have to go to the bathroom."
"Snacks?" Peter asked hopefully.
The voice laughed. "I like the way you think kid. Here you go."
"WOAH!" Scott, Clint, Shuri, and Peter yelled as a coffee table full of food materialized out of thin air.
"Sweet," Peter says, grabbing a sandwich. "AND IT'S FROM DELMAR'S! YES! Look Mr. Stark!" He waved it in Tony's face.
"Enjoy. Feel free to make comments. Oh, and the people in this room are Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, James 'Bucky' Barnes, James Rhodes, Peter Parker, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, T'Challa, Shuri, Sam Wilson, Wanda Maximoff, Scott Lang, and Vision. Bruce Banner and Thor are occupied at the moment, so that's why they're not here."
"That was… weird," Steve says.
"Whatever, let's just watch the movie, I have a country to run," T'Challa says, plopping on a couch next to Shuri and grabbing a handful of her popcorn.
When they all settled, (Vision, Wanda, Natasha, and Clint on one; Tony and Peter on another; T'Challa and Shuri on another; Sam, Bucky, and Steve on another; and Rhodey and Scott in their own little chairs) the TV turned on. Ominous music started to play.
"This is the Asgardian refugee vessel."
Everyone gasped.
"WHAT!" Tony yelled.
"Refugee?" Steve paled.
"What happened to Asgard?" Wanda murmured.
"We are under assault, I repeat- we are under assault! Engines are dead, life support failing! Requesting aid from any vessel within range… we are 22 jump points out of Asgard... Our crew is made up of Asgardian families, we have very few soldiers here."
"I thought Asgard had a huge army?" Shuri asked.
"There are innocent people on that ship…" Peter breathed.
This is not a warcraft, I repeat, this is not a warcraft…"
The screen faded to show a ship being shot at. The screen rotated to reveal a much larger ship looming behind the smaller one. Inside the vessel, there was fire and bodies lying everywhere. Heimdall was struggling on the ground, not quite dead yet. Someone walks by him while reciting a monologue.
"Hear me, and rejoice. You have had the privilege of being saved by the Great Titan."
"Saved! They were slaughtered!" Tony exclaimed while the others made noises of outrage.
"You may think this is suffering. No... It is salvation. Universal scales tip toward balance because of your sacrifice."
"Sacrifice," Wanda scoffs. She was shaking. Vision moved closer to her.
The screen shifts to show Ebony Maw, still reciting his monologue, back to the camera, as another alien stabs an Asgardian. "Smile."
The camera shows his face, pale and sneering. He didn't have a nose.
Everyone recoiled.
"He looks like Voldemort," Peter grimaced.
"Who's that?" Steve asked. Beside him, Bucky looked confused.
"Nevermind," he says.
"For even in death, you have become Children of Thanos."
"So he's not the leader, this, 'Thanos' is," Vision said.
He looks at Loki, who watches Maw walk by. Then he looks past him at a giant figure staring out of the window.
This sparked shouts of outrage.
"Asshole!" Clint hollered at the screen.
"He's there?!" Tony says in disgust.
"Is that Loki?" Peter asked. "The guy that took over New York?"
"Yeah and I bet Loki is kissing up to his buddy Thanos," Clint sneered.
"Wait… but isn't he dead?" Natasha asked, thinking back to what Thor had told them the last time he was on Earth.
Thanos turns from the window and begins to speak, "I know what it's like to lose. To feel so desperately that you're right, yet to fail nonetheless." He grabs a figure on the ground that's groaning and gasping for breath.
"Is that Thor?" Clint asks with horror.
"Yup," Steve says.
"What happened to his hair?" Scott asked.
"And that must be Thanos," Natasha says.
"He looks like a giant wrinkly grape," Peter cocked his head.
"Really Peter?" Tony looked at him in disbelief.
"No no, he has a point," Shuri says, also cocking her head. T'Challa rolled his eyes.
The camera changed as Thanos continued his speech, revealing the Black Order standing around Loki. Proxima Midnight had her weapon pointed at Loki.
"Guys," Natasha says, "Don't think he's with Thanos."
Thanos walks toward Loki, dragging Thor. "It's frightening. Turns the legs to jelly. I ask you, to what end? Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same. And now, it's here. Or should I say... I am." Thanos holds up his fist, smirking. The Infinity Gauntlet already sports the Power stone.
"What's that?" Shuri asks.
"An infinity stone." Everyone turns to look at Vision, who is rubbing the stone in his forehead. "Thor spoke of them when he was last on Earth, remember? When I was born. This is one of them." He pointed to his forehead. "And so is that." He pointed back to the screen. Everyone but Scott, Peter, and Shuri nod in understanding.
"What?" Scott says blankly.
"You talk too much," Thor says in a gruff voice. Loki's gaze flicks to him.
"What happened to his eye?" Sam said.
"The Tesseract, or your brother's head. I assume you have a preference?" Thanos held the power stone close to Thor's head.
"Oh I do," Loki says. "Kill away."
A string of profanities came out of everyone's mouth, causing Steve to say "Language!", but cursing him anyways.
"ASSHOLE!" Clint roared.
Thanos frowns, then presses the power stone into Thor's temple. Thor roars in pain as the stone glowed.
Peter whimpered and Tony put his arm around him. This did not go unnoticed by Natasha, who narrowed her eyes at them. Wanda was clutching at her face and everyone who knew Thor personally were paralyzed with horror, while the others were in discomfort.
Loki watches Thor with a look of panic and worry creeping over his face. He started to breathe heavily. Thanos presses the stone harder into the side of his head and Thor screams in pain.
"ALRIGHT STOP!" Loki screamed.
Thanos removed the stone from Thor's head.
"Thank god," Tony breathed a sigh of relief.
"I thought Loki hates Thor or something," asked Sam in confusion.
"Something must have happened. I thought Thor said Loki was dead the last time he was on Earth anyway," Natasha says.
"Still an asshole," Clint muttered.
"We don't have the Tesseract it was destroyed on Asgard," Thor gasped.
"Asgard was destroyed?" Shuri says.
Everyone was shocked and worried. Asgard was supposed to be a powerful empire, so whoever destroyed Asgard must have been extremely powerful.
Loki glanced at Thor, then lifted his hand and the Tesseract appears out of thin air. Thanos smiles.
"And of course he has it," Tony says.
You really are the worst, brother." Thor groans.
"I assure you brother, the Sun will shine on us again." Loki walks forward.
"What does that mean?" Wanda asks. Vision shrugs.
"Your optimism is misplaced Asgardian," Thanos says.
"Well, for one thing, I'm not Asgardian. And for another," Loki smirks. "We have a Hulk."
Loki drops the Tesseract and dives out of the way, grabbing Thor in the process as the Hulk smashes into Thanos with a roar.
Everyone just stared at the screen for a second, then they started to cheer.
"WHAT'S HE DOING IN SPACE?" Sam yells.
"WE THOUGHT HE WAS DEAD!" Steve screamed.
"He used my line!" Tony grinned.
"Really Mr. Stark?" Peter said, mocking what Tony told him earlier. Tony hit him over the head with a pillow. Everyone was too distracted to notice this exchange.
"Bruce…" breathed Natasha, staring at the Hulk like she saw a ghost(to be fair she kinda did).
Thanos hit the ground and got up facing the Hulk, who roared again. He started to punch Thanos backward, grabbing his shoulder and slamming him into the wall. He wrapped his meaty hands around Thano's neck and pressed him against the wall, making a dent in the metal.
Everyone cheered.
The biggest alien(I don't know names except for Maw) starts forward to fight, but Maw raises a hand. "Let him have his fun."
Everyone almost immediately stopped cheering.
"Oh no."
Thanos grabbed the Hulk's wrists and pushes them away. He stands up, his neck free from the Hulk's hands, and the Hulk, still growling, looks at him in confusion and worry.
"WHAT THE FUCK!?" almost everyone yells, the volume making Steve and Peter wince.
"Owww… Mr. Stark, sensitive hearing remember…"
Thanos smiles, pushing Hulk backward. He released one arm to punch the Hulk in the jaw. Hulk moans in pain and stumbles back, holding his jaw. He lunged again but gets punched again and again by Thanos. Hulk continues to try to punch, but Thanos dodged and punched him in the back. They continue to fight, but Thanos quickly grabbed the Hulk's head and slams it on his knee. Thanos lifts the Hulk and throws him back down, where he lay unmoving.
Everyone gasped. The Hulkbuster took so much longer last time, and it had almost been torn apart in the process. Here was this giant grapefruit, throwing the Hulk on the ground without breaking a sweat.
"We're so screwed," Scott says.
Thor runs up and hits him with a pipe. Thanos didn't even flinch. Thanos looks at Thor, frown on his face.
"GET OUT OF THERE HE'S GONNA KILL YOU!" Peter screamed.
Thor backed up but raised the pipe again. Thanos promptly kicked him in the chest, sending Thor flying across the ship. Thor struggled to get up, but Maw waves his hand and metal scraps flew towards Thor and trapped Thor.
Heimdall grimaced. "Allfathers, let the dark magic flow through me one last time…" His palm glowed.
"What's he doing," Wanda asked.
The Bifrost opened around the Hulk, lifting him into the bridge and shooting him away into space, startling the Black Order.
Everyone sighed in relief.
"Oh thank god please come back to Earth," Steve begs.
Thanos takes a spear from one of the aliens. He approached Heimdall. "That was a mistake." He stabbed Heimdall through the heart. Heimdall gave a short groan of pain but continued to stare back at Thanos without fear.
"NOOOOOOOOO!" Thor yells.
"NO!" everyone else in the room screamed. None of them met Heimdall, but Thor always spoke fondly of him.
Wanda and Peter were already in tears, Wanda crying into Vision's chest. Peter was curled up into a ball and rocking back and forth. Tony, still in shock, put an arm around him and ran his hand through Peter's curls.
Thanos pushed the spear deeper into him, and Heimdall's eyes became glassy.
Thor panted heavily. "You're going to die, for that!" he gasped.
Maw waved his hand and a piece of metal flew over to him and covered his mouth. He brought his hand to his lips and shushed him.
Maw came up to Thanos with the Tesseract and kneeled before him, holding it out. Thanos starts to take off his armor as Maw starts to speak. "My humble personage bows to your grandeur."
"Why do they want the Tesseract in the first place?" Bucky suddenly says, startling all of them. "I get that it's a really powerful artifact, but he's got an infinity stone, surely that's more powerful."
"Maybe," Vision realized something, "I think that's an infinity stone."
"No other being has ever had the might, nay the nobility to wield not one, but two, Infinity Stones."
"You were right Vis," Wanda whispered.
Thanos takes the Tesseract from Maw, gazing at it for a few seconds as Maw finishes his speech. "The universe lies within your grasp."
Thanos smirked slightly and crushed the cube, a blue burst coming out of it.
Everyone gasped at such a powerful thing being crushed like a grape.
Thanos fished out a tiny glowing stone in amongst the chips of the Tesseract.
"The space stone…" Vision whispered.
"It was inside…" Steve says. "Like the mind stone was inside Loki's scepter…"
"Speaking of which, where is that son of a bitch," Clint says scowling.
Thanos brought the Space stone to the gauntlet, where the stone began pulling towards it. He let go, and the stone snapped into the gauntlet, and another burst of blue light filled the room. Thanos groaned with the power. He looked at the gauntlet, admiring the two stones.
Thor watches with wide eyes.
"This is bad this is bad this is bad… " Peter kept repeating to himself.
"There are two more stones on Earth. Find them my children, and bring them to me on Titan."
"Those are his kids?" Shuri says, sipping her Starbucks. "Not seeing much of a resemblance."
"There's another stone?" Tony asks. "We got Vision over here, but where's the other one?"
"Let's just watch and see," Vision states calmly. "This is why we're here isn't it?"
Everyone calmed down and continued to watch.
The Black Order bowed, arms on their chests. "Father we will not fail you," Proxima Midnight says.
"If I might interject," Loki walks forward with a charming smile. "If you're going to Earth, you might want a guide."
"Ass-" Clint is cut off by Natasha.
"Asshole, yes Clint we know, you hate the guy. But he is a coward," she mumbles as an afterthought.
"I do have a bit of experience, in that arena!"
"If you consider failure experience." Thanos taunts him.
Loki's smile falls. "I consider experience, experience."
"Roasted," Peter and Shuri said at the same time, turning to look at each other and grinning. T'Challa and Tony exchanged looks.
Loki walks towards Thanos. "I, Loki, Prince of Asgard,"
He stops and looks at Thor with a meaningful expression. "Odinson..."
"Really? He's betraying Thor and joining Thanos because the Hulk isn't around anymore, and then he goes saying he is accepting Thor as his brother now? Really?" Tony said in disbelief. Everyone shrugged.
"The rightful king of Jotunheim. God of Mischief."
A dagger suddenly materializes in Loki's hand, hidden behind his back. Thor's eyes widen, and he looks at Loki with worry.
Everyone was silent for a moment.
"No way…" Clint said, still wanting to believe Loki's the bad guy.
"Stab him, stab him, stab him," Peter, Scott, and Shuri chanted.
"Hereby pledge my undying, fidelity..." Loki kneeled before Thanos.
He takes a deep breath. He lunges up with his dagger, aiming for Thano's neck.
Everyone leaned forward in their seat.
The dagger stopped an inch from Thano's throat, his arm surrounded by a blue glow. Thanos has his fist held up, the Space Stone glowing.
"NO!" everyone screams. Everyone started to curse Thanos.
"It. Was. So. CLOSE!" Wanda screamed, tearing at her hair.
Thanos smirks at Loki. "Undying." Thanos shoves the dagger out of Loki's hand. "You should choose your words more carefully." Then he grabbed Loki by the neck and lifted him up. Loki started to choke, making gagging noises and thrashing around, grabbing at Thano's arm.
"He's gonna die…" Peter whispered.
Natasha had killed people in far worse ways without feeling, yet she couldn't help but feel that this was brutal.
Thor watched them helplessly, horror written all over his face. Loki stared up at Thanos, veins popping out all over his face. "You… will never be… a god…" Loki choked out. Thanos smirked, then squeezed his fist, snapping his neck. He went limp, mouth open and dripping blood, his eyes staring forward but seeing nothing. Thor tried to break out of his bonds as tears formed in his eyes. Thanos walked over to Thor and dropped Loki nearby.
Everyone looked sadly at the screen. True, none of them liked him very much, but everyone couldn't help but feel bad.
"Press f to pay respects…" Shuri couldn't help but mumble. Peter snickered slightly and T'Challa glared at her.
"No resurrections this time," Thanos said.
The Black Order gathered behind him. Thanos closed his fist, raising the gauntlet in the air. The Power Stone glowed. The ship began to break apart, purple lines streaming through the walls. Purple flames licked through the ship, the ceiling falling in.
Thanos put his fist over his chest and the Space stone glowed. A blue portal opened up behind them and teleporting them away.
Thor freed himself from the metal prison and crawled over to Loki, sobbing into his chest. The screen switched to show the ship exploding with pieces flying everywhere and a purple burst of light.
"He's gone," Steve says sadly.
"Let's hope Bruce made it to Earth," Natasha said.
The scene changed to show the Bifrost whisking towards Earth.
The screen shifts to show the New York sanctum window, then to inside it, where Wong and Dr. Strange were walking down the grand staircase.
"Who's that?" Sam asks.
"The man in the goatee is Dr. Stephen Strange, a neurosurgeon that went missing two years ago," Vision says. "I don't know who the other one is. He does not seem to be in my databases."
"Seriously? You don't have any money?" Strange asks.
"Attachment to material is detachment from the spiritual," Wong says.
"Monk?" Rhodey suggests.
"I'll tell the guys at the deli. Maybe they'll make you a metaphysical ham on rye." Strange says sarcastically.
Wong stops to dig around in his pockets. "Oh, wait, wait, wait, I think I have 200."
"Dollars?" Strange turns around.
"Rupees."
"Which is?"
"Um, a buck and a half," Wong admits.
"Wow, even I have more money than that," Peter comments.
Strange sighed. "What do you want?" Strange asks reluctantly.
"I wouldn't say no to a Tuna Melt."
The suddenly Bifrost crashes through the roof, raining wood onto the grand staircase. Strange and Wong stumble forward, placing their hands above their heads. They whip around and see at the Bifrost. They share a look and nod before rushing towards it. Wong whipped out two shields and the Cloak of Levitation flies towards Strange and clasps itself around his neck.
"Magic! Cool!" Peter says, still recovering from the deaths early on in the movie.
"I can do magic too, look!" Scott made a card appear in his hand.
"No, I mean real magic," Peter told him.
"It is real magic," he whined, and Shuri shushed him by tossing an empty Starbucks cup at him.
They both cautiously peer into the hole.
Hulk, slowly turning back into Banner, was lying there gasping like he had run a mile. "Thanos is coming. He's coming." He had terror and shock written all over his face.
Strange and Wong look at each in confusion. Strange turns back to Bruce. "Who?"
This book is dedicated to the loving memory of Stan Lee, 1922-2018. I wanted to dedicate a chapter from my other fanfic to him, but it felt right to dedicate an entire book about the universe he created to him.
As Albus Dumbledore said, "To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure." Stan's mind was a whirlwind of imagination, but I think we can all say that he will have another amazing adventure.
May he rest in peace in a universe where gods are real, surgeons become sorcerers, science and magic are one and the same, and adventure is found in every corner.
Excelsior!