Hi everyone. Sorry for the long wait; things have been a bit crazy between school and a school break, and then realizing I had some slight story re-structuring to do. But I'm finally happy with this chapter, and I hope you will be, too.
Title Reference: "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."-Proverbs 13:12
Chapter Seven: A Longing Fulfilled
2022, Three Years Post-Snap
"I think my dad is alive."
It was late, nearly midnight. All the lights in her room were off. Jamie was asleep one room over, and so was Sharon. Christy blinked slowly, trying to process the bombshell that Cassie had just dropped on her.
She had been intending to head to bed when her phone had started pulsing with a Messenger call. Evidently that wasn't going to happen any time soon.
"You think…y-you think your dad is alive?" she repeated.
Cassie nodded, with eyes wide and frantic. "I know it sounds crazy, but I think there's a chance!"
There was no way Cassie would be talking like this unless she thought there was a chance, a real chance. Christy knew it. They had shared too many late-night calls and messages for Cassie to try to give any false hope. Neither of them had been especially close before the Snap, but they now shared the unbreakable bond that only mutual loss can build.
Cassie sighed, flipping her long hair behind her. "Last night I was deleting old messages on my phone, and I went back super far. I-I started reading ones from Dad. I haven't been able to, since…"
Christy nodded. "I can't watch any old videos for too long. Or look at old messages. But then sometimes all I want to do is look at old things…pretend they're still here."
Cassie sighed. "I know, same. B-but I found this old text. Dad sent it on the day of the Snap. We were gonna go bowling…"
She positioned her phone against the laptop camera and adjusted the brightness. It showed a series of messages.
Hi Peanut I might be a little late for bowling. Took a while to get the Quantum Tunnel up and running today.
Okay, Dad. Let me know when you're coming. Where are you guys, anyway?
That deserted parking area over by Mister Frosty's. Same place you saw before. Gotta run. Love you!
Love you.
Both girls sat quietly for a moment, letting the reality of the messages sink in.
"T-this was just before the Snap." Cassie whispered. "I went to make a sandwich and then five minutes later, it happened."
Christy frowned. "I don't understand. What's the Quantum Tunnel?"
"It takes you to the Quantum Realm."
"Okay…so what's the Quantum Realm?"
"It's this place. It's where Dad goes…went, when he would shrink small in the suit. It's where Hope's mom disappeared to when she was gone for a long time. It's like…a place for only small things. Atoms and molecules. They were studying it, and they had a machine they used to go into it. If this was five minutes before the Snap…he would still be there. He was going for longer and longer times. And if I could find where they were…"
"S-so you think…you think maybe…"
"I-I guess the van they used is still there. In the parking lot. With the Quantum Tunnel and all the stuff they used."
"They used a van to go to another dimension?!"
"You've met my dad, of course they did!"
Christy gripped the edge of her blanket. "Do you know how to get to the place he's talking about?"
Cassie swallowed hard. "I-I think so. I remember it was next to Mr. Frosty's. T-that's this ice-cream place…Dad got me ice cream after I came with him one time." Tears welled up in her eyes.
"Hey, okay…so go there tomorrow. Or now!"
"Are you kidding? Mom and Paxton barely let me out of their sight! I can't sneak out!"
"Okay, tomorrow, then. And see-see if he is there."
Cassie was visibly shaking. "I don't know if I'm right…but I have to try. Otherwise I'm gonna go crazy!"
"I get it! If I thought Dad was maybe alive, I'd try anything!"
"Okay…I'll message you when I'm there tomorrow. I'll go after lunch. Around 2."
"Gotcha…I'll be on then. Good luck."
In hindsight, there was one drawback to their brilliant plan.
Cassie had watched Hank Pym operate the Quantum Tunnel once before. But she couldn't remember exactly what had happened.
"He pushed...some lever thing." she muttered, staring at the complicated control board attached to the van's dashboard.
The van had long since been impounded, but Cassie had luckily found it in the nearest storage facility for unclaimed vehicles. It had been set up not long after the Snap, to get all the cars and other vehicles off the street. She had charmed her way past the obviously-bored security guard with a sob story about tracking down her dad's car-which wasn't even truly a lie. He was absorbed in a book and clearly didn't think her suspicious enough to warrant close watching.
"Or maybe it was just a button?" she continued, feeling rising panic and disappointment start to claw at her. Was this all for nothing?
Her phone beeped, causing her to jump. It was Christy.
Are you there?
Cassie sighed.
Yeah but not sure what to do. There's a lot of buttons.
Keep trying!
Okay.
She rubbed her finger across the tiny screen of the control panel, thinking that maybe it was touch-activated. Dr. Pym had been pretty high-tech.
Had.
Cassie took a deep breath.
No more crying. You've cried enough. Maybe you can fix this, now, so no cry-
The screen came to life, beeping several times in quick succession.
And then, the van began to whir.
Cassie screamed and looked around wildly at the back, which was lit up with blue and orange light.
No, no way, it cannot be this easy, no way…
Almost before she could process what was happening, there came the sound of a soft, very human groan, and a thump, as someone landed on the garbage bags behind the van.
Trembling, Cassie peeked around the side.
"D-dad?" she whispered.
But there was no mistaking the dark-haired figure for anyone but her dad. No one else had that suit.
"D-daddy?"
Scott blinked up in confusion. "Peanut? Is that you? H-How did you get so big? Where are we? How long was I gone?"
Cassie swallowed, hard, and then threw herself into her dad's arms.
Scott hugged back instantly. "Hey, hey, it's okay, Peanut...we'll figure it out, whatever happened. Where's Dr. Pym and Hope and Janet…?"
Cassie shook her head against his chest. "N-No...Dad, I-I'm so glad this worked!"
In the midst of his daughter's hysterical sobbing, Scott was starting to get the gut feeling that something had gone horribly wrong.
"Cassie." he whispered firmly. "You gotta tell me what happened. When I went into the Tunnel, you were eleven years old and we were going to get Mr. Frosty and go bowling."
Cassie gave a violent sniff. "N-now I'm fourteen, almost fifteen, and the whole world got messed up by an alien from space."
Scot could feel his jaw go slack with horror. "I-I was gone for three years? Aliens? What happened?"
"I-It's kind of a long story…"
Pietro was not strictly supposed to be manning the 'control room' at Avengers' HQ. But Natasha was making lunch and no one stood between Natasha and food.
He lay back in the padded leather chair and gave it an experimental spin.
"You know, that's a good way t' bust your head open."
Pietro jerked to an ungainly stop, rolling his eyes on impulse.
"Brate, don't you know that nothing can kill me? I have survived Ultron, Thanos, and meddling government men. I am a cat with nine lives."
Bucky shook his head and ruffled Pietro's hair. "A tomcat, that's right. You bein' 'guy in the chair' today?"
"Da, I watch for Natasha. She went to make lunch, for the kids, too."
"Speaking of kids, where are they all? It's too quiet for anyone's good."
"All outside. It's warm-I don't know what they do. Read, play pretend, listen to music…"
"Play pretend? They're all getting a little big for that. I mean, Christy's seventeen now, which strikes terror into my soul, and Anish is fifteen and Shanta's what, twelve?"
"Nate is seven. A good age for pretend. And they do whatever he says."
"...that is absolutely true. So Clint's here?"
"No." A small shadow raced across Pietro's face. "He went off for the weekend. Again. 'Solitary camping trip.'"
Bucky snorted, but his eyes were sad. "He's not over it, still."
"And you are?"
"No, an' I never will be. But I don't run from my kids."
Pietro refrained from pointing out that, technically, Bucky didn't have kids.
"He always comes back." Natasha's voice sounded from the far end of the room. "Come to eat all our food, Bucky?"
"Well, if ya don' mind sharing…"
Natasha placed a plate of peanut-butter sandwiches on the table, and then quickly grabbed her own. "This works for children and adults."
The two 'grown men' quickly dug in.
"He needs space to cope." Natasha added, looping back to the conversation. "But he comes back and Nate doesn't feel abandoned."
"I know that, it's just...I hope he's takin' care of himself."
Natasha sighed. "Grief is weird. And it shows up in all sorts of weird ways. I got choked up in the grocery store the other week when I saw the aftershave Bruce always bought."
Both men nodded.
"I still buy the same milk type Steve did." Bucky muttered. "And Jamie called me dad last week."
Pietro winced. "He know?"
"Of course he knows. But he knows a picture, not a person. It's hard…"
"I think Steve would not mind."
"Nah, he wouldn't. Still…"
A blinking message suddenly appeared on the invisible screen before them. Pietro swiped at it mindlessly to open it. Messages came in all the time; it was nothing new.
"Oh, hi, hi! Is anyone home? This is Scott Lang! We fought together at the airport in Germany a few years ago? I'm Ant-Man?"
That snapped everyone to attention.
"Is this an old message?" Bucky asked, frowning. They hadn't heard from Scott since before the Snap. Everyone had assumed he was gone, including his family.
Natasha was already rising to her feet.
"It's the front gate…" she breathed.
Pietro dashed to the front gate of the Base, where a disheveled Lang stood by his equally beat-up van.
"Oh, hey, Speed-Kid!"
"It's Pietro, actually. And where the hell have you been, Lang? Your daughter thought you were dead!"
"I was tiny! Shrunk, in the...oh, I'll explain it all in a second. Just please let me in! You guys got anything to eat?"
By the time Scott had devoured his third sandwich, Bucky had sent Sam and Clint texts updating them on the situation, and Wanda had joined them in the control room.
Scott was currently pacing back and forth, as though his body couldn't keep up with the speed of his mind.
"Have any of you ever studied Quantum Physics?"
Pietro mouthed 'what?'. Wanda smacked him.
"Only to make conversation." Natasha replied.
Bucky made a mental note to ask her about that later.
"Alright, so three years ago, right before Thanos, I was in a place called Quantum Realm. The Quantum Realm is like its own microscopic universe. To get in there, you have to be incredibly small. Hope, she is my ah... she was my ah... she was supposed to pull me out and then Thanos happened and I got stuck in there."
"That must have been a very long three years." Wanda said.
"That's the thing: it wasn't. Not to me. It felt like a few hours. That's how time works in the Quantum Realm. And now, I can't stop thinking about-about what if we could control the chaos and navigate it? What if there was a way we could enter the Quantum Realm at a certain point in time, but then exit the Quantum Realm at another point in time, like before Thanos?"
"...are you talking about a time machine?" Bucky asked. "Like...sci-fi stuff?"
"No, of course not, not a time machine. This is more like a…" Scott deflated slowly. "Yeah, like a time machine. I know it's crazy, it's crazy but I can't stop thinking about it. There is got to be some... it's crazy."
"Scott." Natasha intoned. "I get emails from a talking raccoon. We have a very low bar for crazy around here."
Scott nodded, encouraged by the fact that no one seemed to be laughing him out of the room-or worse, getting angry.
"So who do we talk to about this?" he asked.
Natasha and Bucky shared a look.
"Well, obviously…"
"Yeah, but will he go for it? He's basically retired…"
"Tony can't really retire. It's like he's hardwired to keep trying until he physically can't."
"Call Shuri also." Wanda added. "She will be angry if you try anything like this without her input."
Bucky smirked. "You just want to see her and Tony duking it out."
Wanda tossed her hair. "Bucky, you think so little of me…"
"Nah, doll, I think way too highly of your devious brain, is the thing."
Scott glanced at the pair. "Are they a thing?"
"No, they flirt for fun." Pietro deadpanned.
Scott still looked confused. Natasha took pity on him.
"They're dating. C'mon, let's go pay the lakehouse a visit."
They didn't end up leaving for Tony's lakehouse right away. Sam was highly insistent on being present for the conversation, as was Sharon. This meant a three-hour wait as the two of them hurriedly drove down from the city. By that point, it was late and Scott was already exhausted, so they agreed to talk with Tony the next day.
This also gave Sharon the chance to warn Pepper that they were all coming.
Tony-as Natasha had said-was not really capable of retiring. But he had more or less hung up the identity of Iron Man in the past three years, focusing fully on his company and his family. As far as he was concerned, he was not in the mood to risk anything more. He had already lost too much.
Thankfully, they framed the visit in the context of a lunch date. No one was fooled, but it eased the tension.
"Do you think they can really do it?" Shanta whispered, from the back seat of Steve's (now Bucky's) minivan.
Anish shrugged. "It doesn't sound completely crazy. There's a lot of good science in what he says. But also a lot of risk." he sighed. "I wish Baba was here to explain it all. What if Uncle Tony doesn't want to help? Baba could always make him help."
"Aunt Tasha's pretty good at that." Christy said. "Besides, the best person to convince Uncle Tony is Uncle Tony. And he always does the right thing in the end."
"You think this thing is right?"
Christy glanced out the window, at the rolling green fields.
"I don't know enough to know. But anything is better than killing hope."
They arrived at the lakehouse shortly before noon. Morgan was extremely happy to see all of her 'cousins', especially Jamie. The two of them had a hilarious bond, that everyone joked was Steve and Tony 2.0.
"Jamie! Look at the mask I found!"
Jamie peered at the blue and silver mask skeptically. "You s'posed t' play with that?"
"Ah, no, actually not." Tony clarified, slipping the mask off her face. "This is a special anniversary gift for Mommy remember, Morg?"
Morgan pouted. "Can I have a mask, Daddy?"
"When you're older, kid." Much, much older. "Now, who's ready for lunch? I think Pepper made quiche."
Lunch was devoured, as only a crew of superheroes could. They sent the 'kids' outside-at least, they sent Jamie, Morgan, and Nate outside with Shanta. Anish and Christy never budged from their seats.
No one moved to make them.
Tony leaned back in the chair. "Alright, I'll bite. Lang is apparently back from the dead. And all of you haven't come around since Christmas. What's going on?"
With a deep, shuddering breath, Scott spilled out his story. Tony's face remained a stoic mask throughout, but Pepper took his shaking hand about halfway through.
"W-we know how it sounds…" Scott ended tremulously.
"After everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" Sam added. "We could do this. But we'd need you."
"Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck's scale, which then triggers the Doidge proposition. Can we agree on that?" Tony said, voice hard. "In layman's terms, it means, you are not coming home."
"I did." Scott replied.
"No, you got lucky with a billion-in-one cosmic fluke. Now you want to pull out...what you call it?"
"...a time heist."
Tony let out a bark of laughter. "Right. A time heist! Why didn't we think of it before? Oh, right, because it's laughable! It's a pipe dream!"
"The Stones are in the past." Wanda said. "We could go to the past and get them back. Snap our own fingers, bring back everyone."
"Or screw things up even worse."
"I don't think we would." Natasha murmured.
Tony sighed. "When did you get so optimistic, Nat?"
"When Steve wasn't around to provide it."
"Tony, you've gotta see there's at least a little chance." Bucky argued.
"Look, Barnes, I get it. I lost my best friend, too. But high hopes won't help if there is no logical, rational way to execute said...time heist. I believe, if we tried this, the most likely outcome would be our collective demise."
"Not if we follow the rules of time travel." Scott cut in. "I mean, no talking to our past-selves, no betting on sporting events…"
Bucky tried to send him a signal that now would be a good time to change tactics, but Tony butted in first.
"I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott. Is your plan to save the world seriously just based on Back to the Future?"
"No, no!" Scott assured hurriedly, belatedly catching Bucky's death glare.
"Good, because that's not how Quantum Physics works."
"We have to take a stand, Tony." Natasha said.
"We did. Three years ago. And yet here we are." Tony crossed his arms. "I'm not risking my wife and daughter on a maybe."
"Tony…" Sharon's voice was strong and only the slightest bit wavering. "You're not the only one with someone to lose. But what if we could? You're the only one who could pull it off!"
"Unless you count Shuri." Pietro drawled.
Tony rolled his eyes. "Shuri's got a country to run, she doesn't have time for a time heist with terrible odds."
Wanda bit her lip to refrain from saying that a time heist with 'terrible odds' was absolutely something Shuri had time for.
"Uncle Tony…" Christy started. Tony cut her off.
"I know, kid. I know you want your dad back. If I thought this could work, I'd do it. But there's no way. None." he sighed. "You guys are welcome to stay the night, I'm sure we can find beds for everyone."
"Not necessary." Sam said, a sad, knowing smile on his face. "We'll head out."
The return atmosphere in the minivan was quiet and defeated. Sam was driving.
"Wilson? What's your call?" Bucky asked quietly.
"My call?" Sam repeated.
"Yeah, yours. Tony says no dice. So what do we do now? Call Shuri?"
"You think she could do it?"
"I know she could at least get started, long enough for Tony to figure out that he needs to do this."
Sharon frowned. "He seemed pretty set against it."
Bucky shook his head. "I'm no expert on Tony, but I've watched him for a long time. He'll deny that something can work, but that just means he'll sit and think about it until it does work. The man's a problem solver. He doesn't rest until things are fixed."
"I hope you're right…"
That night, Tony was doing dishes.
Despite having rarely needed to do housework in his life, he had discovered during the past three years that chores could be incredibly soothing and repetitive-a perfect chance to relax his whirling mind.
He accidently sprayed water on the small, decoration-filled shelf next to the sink, and was in the process of wiping things down, when something caught his eye.
Carefully, he picked up the photo frame to look at the image, and was transported back in time.
Alright, kid? Smile for the camera, now. Okay, crazy picture!
Peter's happy face beamed out at him. They were giving each other rabbit ears.
"We could snap our own fingers. Bring everyone back."
Bring Peter back. Bring Rhodey back.
Tony sighed.
It's impossible. A time heist! There's no way…
Still, it was like the idea had possessed his brain. He made his way to his work table and started to test possibilities.
As he had suspected, nothing panned out. But just as he was about to call it a night, something crossed his mind.
"I've had a mild inspiration, I'd like to test it before we pack it in for the night." Tony said. "This time in the shape of a Mobius strip, inverted, please."
"Processing…" Jarvis said.
The image on the table shifted to match his specifications.
"Right, now gimme the eigenvalue of that particle, factoring in spectral decomp-that'll take a minute.
"Just a moment, sir." Jarvis said, as the image once more changed.
"And don't worry if it doesn't pan out, Jarvis." Tony added, throwing blueberries into his mouth. "I'm just kinda…"
"Model rendered." Jarvis said. "And if I may say so, sir...it's worth a look."
Tony gasped softly as he beheld the image before him, before falling backwards and literally clasping his hand to his mouth.
Well, I'll be damned...it worked!
"Shit!" he cried.
"Shit." a tiny voice echoed behind him.
Tony spun around instantly to find his daughter sitting on the stairs, grinning way too much like him for his own comfort. He put a finger to his lips.
"What are you doing up, little miss?!"
"Shit." Morgan repeated, clearly happy to be awake late with Daddy.
"No, we don't say that. Only mommy says that. She coined it, it belongs to her." Tony sputtered quickly. Pepper would kill him if Morgan chose to use that little pearl in her hearing.
"What are you doing up?" Morgan asked innocently.
"C-Cause I've got important sh-I-I've got something on my mind. Yeah, something on my mind."
"Was it juice pops? Or hot chocolate. Christy says you drink hot chocolate at night if you can't sleep. But I like juice pops better."
Tony breathed out a quiet laugh. "Sure it was. That's extortion, that's the word. What kind do you want? Great minds think alike. Juice pops, exactly what was on my mind."
He escorted Morgan to the kitchen, and then her room, where they ate their juice pops in the quiet stillness that only night can provide.
"Daddy? How come Jamie doesn't have a daddy?"
Tony huffed. Of all the questions to ask.
"He does. Or, at least, he did. His daddy died."
"What's died?"
"Like, uh...like your goldfish. They stop breathing and their heart stops working and they go away."
"Oh." Morgan licked her juice pop thoughtfully. "I don't want you to go away ever."
Tony blinked back the rush of tears.
"I'll have to go away someday."
"Yeah, but not until I'm old, like you and Mommy! Then you can go away."
Tony smirked. "Hear that, world? I'm not allowed to die. Not 'til Maguna's old. You hear?"
Morgan giggled, before giving Tony a sticky, juice-pop kiss. "You're the best dad in the world."
"Well you are the best daughter! You done? Okay, wipe." he moved his sweater sleeve across her tiny mouth. "Okay, that face," he pushed gently at her head, "goes there, on the pillow…"
"Tell me a story!" Morgan urged.
"A story...okay, once upon a time, Maguna went to bed. The end."
"That is a horrible story."
"C'mon, it's your favorite story!" Tony leaned in and kissed her forehead. "Love you tons."
"I love you 3000."
Tony pretended to gasp. "3000, huh? That's a lot of love."
"Uh-huh. 'Cause I love you lots an' lots. 3000."
Tony smiled, exiting the bedroom. "Good night. Go to sleep, or I'll sell all your toys!"
He went downstairs and found Pepper on the living room sofa, reading by lamplight.
"You know, not to brag." he said, sitting down. "But she loves me 3000."
"Oh, does she?" Pepper replied, smirking.
"You were somewhere in the low...6 to 900 range."
Pepper laughed. Tony let his gaze be dragged to the glowing work table on the other side of the couch.
"What'cha readin'?" he asked, distracted.
"Book on composting."
"What's new with composting?"
"Interesting science…"
"I've figured it out." Tony cut in abruptly.
Pepper marked her place and closed the book. "And, you know, just so we're talking about the same thing…?"
"Time travel."
Pepper nodded slowly. "What Scott was saying. You figured out how to do it? That's...wow. That's amazing, and...terrifying."
"Yeah." Tony said, shifting forward.
They were silent for a moment, processing the implications of the discovery.
"You know, we got really lucky." Pepper said softly. "A lot of people didn't."
"I can't help everybody."
"It sorta seems like you can."
"Not if I stop." Tony wriggled, anxious. "I can put a pin in it right now...and stop."
Pepper shook her head. "Tony, trying to get you to stop has been one of the few failures of my entire life."
"Something tells me I should just...put this in a lockbox and drop it to the bottom of the lake. And go to bed."
Tony's eyes were that same deep-dark-coffee shade they always got when he was anxious or afraid or passionate. Pepper could see the battle lurking within him, toying with his mind.
It mirrored her own battle. She half wanted to tell Tony to throw the idea in the lake and go to bed.
But she was married to a superhero, whether he admitted he was still one or not, and superheroes did not have the luxury of believing that anything was impossible, when it came to saving the world.
"But would you be able to rest?" she asked.
Tony shut his eyes and ducked his head. They both knew the answer.
Late that night, Bucky's phone beeped. He rolled over blearily and blinked several times before both the sender and the message were fully comprehended.
The sender? Tony. The message?
I'm in. When do we start?
Working with Shuri had ended up better than Tony had been expecting. The now-queen of Wakanda had gleefully jumped at the chance to come work on tech that would possibly bring her brother back. And since Shuri knew, it meant that Loki was not far behind.
The king of Asgard himself swept in just as they were putting the finishing touches on their creation.
"Tell me the truth." he said, smoothly but desperate. "Can we get my brother back?"
"We are about to find out." Shuri replied, handing a white and red suit to Clint. The archer had volunteered to go on the first test run.
The Avengers stood around in small clumps. Drax, Rocket, and Nebula had returned to Earth, with hope battling fear in their eyes. Everyone was on edge.
Five minutes later, Clint was dressed and ready to go. He stood in the middle of a raised, circular platform, breathing in and out.
If all went well, he would soon have his wife and two other kids back.
Nate was frowning, buried in Pietro's chest. "Will Dad come back?"
Pietro nodded and soothingly brushed the boy's hair. "Da, don't worry. It will work."
It had better…
"Okay, Barton." Tony said. "Get ready. Three, two, one…"
Clint felt a flash, and suddenly seemed to be flying at top speed down a long, blue tunnel. He yelled slightly as he felt his body swell in size. He was dropped in something soft and smelling of the outdoors.
Hay...dirt...the barn!
It was his house. But not his house as it currently was-immaculately clean but far too quiet. This was his house of almost four years ago.
He walked across the yard like a man in a dream. Cooper's black baseball glove lay on the porch, instead of tucked away like it had been recently. He bent down and picked it up with reverence.
"Cooper!" a girl's voice called. "Where are my headphones?"
Clint breathed in sharply. "Lila?"
He could hear his children's voices raised in standard bickering, but it sounded like the sweetest music in the world. He had to see them, just once. As his watch began to beep, signaling his return, he lunged for the screen door.
"Lila? Lila!"
But it was too late.
He felt the cold metal beneath his knees and caught the soft understanding in Natasha's eyes as he croaked, "It worked."
Tony's mouth twisted in a grimace of triumph. "Okay, now we have work to do."
The last time Sam could remember like this was finals week in college. Everyone spent every waking moment plotting the Time Heist.
Even the kids were allowed input-with the caveat that none of them were coming.
Christy had started to put up a fuss, but a look from Sharon had quieted her, and she was now putting all her energy into planning.
"Okay." Sam said, on their first day. "Almost everyone here has had an encounter with one of the six Infinity Stones."
"Or, substitute the word encounter with 'damn near been killed by' one of the six Infinity Stones." Tony muttered.
Scott raised his hand. "Uh, yeah, still not really sure what the heck you guys are talking about."
Sam pinched his nose. "Someone explain the Stones concisely."
"They are powerful gems that possess unique powers." Loki said smoothly. "Well, one is more of an energy force…"
"That's enough." Sam cut in. "Anyway. We only have so much of the Pym particles, right?"
Shuri nodded. "Enough for one round trip each, for twelve people."
"Okay, so limited resources. These stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history. Not a lot of convenient drop-in spots."
"So we have to pick our targets." Clint said.
"Correct. So, the Aether...Loki, what do we know?"
"The Aether is a sort of...sludge." Loki replied. "It would need to be caught in something. The last time I saw it was that business with the Dark Elves several years ago."
"Okay, so you an' one other space person to go sneak around. We'll figure out who when we get there. Next, Power Stone. Rocket? Drax? Nebula?"
Rocket nodded. "Quill said he stole the Power Stone way back when from Morag."
"Who's Morag?" Scott asked.
Rocket rolled his eyes. "Morag's a planet."
"Wait, like in space?"
"Aww, how cute. It's like a little puppy! Do you wanna go to space, puppy? I'll take you to space."
"Rocket, can it or I'll bring in Morgan." Tony said, giving Sam, Bucky, and Natasha a look. The four of them collectively sighed.
This was going to be a long planning meeting.
In the end, they made their decisions.
The Aether would be collected by Loki and Rocket, since Rocket was small and good at sneaking around.
The Power Stone would be retrieved by Nebula, Sam, and Drax; since two of these people had extensive knowledge of the time in question.
Natasha, Tony, and Scott volunteered to retrieve the Mind Stone and Space Stone from 2012, since it would be easy for Tony and Natasha to sneak around as their past selves. Bucky and Clint volunteered to talk to the Ancient One, to see about getting the Time Stone back, in the same year.
Bucky was quietly feeling uncomfortable about talking to anyone called 'The Ancient One', but he shoved down the discomfort.
Anything was worth it, if it got Steve back.
Last, was the Soul Stone.
"What is Vormir?" Natasha asked, scribbling notes.
"A dominion of death." Nebula rasped. "It's where Thanos killed my sister."
Pietro gave Wanda a long, searching look, and then both of them looked at Clint.
Clint nodded. Nate, who wasn't quite sure what was going on, but always seemed to understand anyway, nodded along with him.
"Then what better thing than a pair of siblings to get the Soul Stone?" Pietro said, crossing his arms.
Nebula looked them over and gave a nod of cool approval.
Sam surveyed the crowd. "Okay, so is that it? Everyone know their mission?"
Everyone nodded.
Sam smirked. "Then let's go steal some Stones."
I sense a disturbance in the Force...as though many readers are now shrieking in horror.
Don't worry, just remember: No one is dead 'til there's a body, and even then, it's suspect. (My always-logic for the MCU.)
Tune in next time for Loki and Frigga having a moment, Tony dealing with Daddy issues, Bucky and Clint being traumatized by the Ancient One, and a very different meeting with Red Skull. Until then...
Reviews are juice pops.