The snap affected everyone in some way; it was impossible not to. Society hadn't quite collapsed, but it was close and wasn't showing signs of improving three years later. That being said, some definitely had it better than others. Take Dash Baxter for example- his immediate family was fine, his aunts and uncles and cousins were fine… hell, even his dog survived! Fenton luck never really worked that way.

Parents and sibling gone, Sam and Tucker gone, and suddenly Vlad was the best ally available. He wasn't too thrilled either, not with Maddie dead, or dusted, or whatever parallel world they were in. Hopefully it was another reality and they were all fine, if irritated by the situation. That was probably too much to hope for.

Three years. Three years of nonstop training, of practicing with the Soul Shredder (getting that was another story entirely), until finally the Avengers (or what was left of them) noticed and decided they needed anyone and everyone who could help for their little plan to go back in time and fix things.

It was probably doomed to fail and the Soul Shredder was their last resort. It cut through metal like butter and not even Stark could make a shield to stop it. If worse came to worse and they ended up in the same place in 2018 the second time around, the sword would do the trick.

None of them were keen on it, obviously. No one wanted a teenager- I'm twenty. Yesterday was my birthday- to be their backup plan.

For all the ways the snap had supposedly brought the team together, it had just as well torn them apart. There were still hard feelings about the Accords that had effectively been torn up with instructions from every government agency on the planet to please for the love of God fix this, and those didn't go away just because things were bad. The gaslighting on both sides was off the charts.

The offshoot teams barely made sense either, based more on how easy it would be to get two or more people together to stop a fight that had originally just been one of them in the hope that… what? It would fix the trust issues they all had? That arresting Pierce instead of killing him would somehow stop Thanos? They'd tried to connect all the strings with the butterfly effect, and some of them just didn't fit.

Stark noticed the doubt. Don't worry, kid, if it comes down to it, we go to Titan and you do your thing. He won't know what hit him.

And all the people who die before then?

He didn't have an answer to that one. None of them did. Their plan wasn't a plan; it was a goal. One micromanaged and overloaded with actions in the hopes of changing something. Anything.

The only real plan was to use the Soul Shredder as an "in case of fire, break glass" contingency.

But that was okay. Fentons knew how to make plans all on their own, and Thanos was never going to make it past the first attack on New York all those years ago.

Jazz would make sure of that.